Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 10/12

Darth Vader #25

Story: Kieron Gillen

Art: Salvador Larroca & Edgar Delgado and Max Fiumara & Dave Stewart 

Darth Vader has been a consistent high point of Marvel's new Star Wars line. It's been a slow burn of a series, where all twenty-four issues and an annual have built towards this final issue. Dr. Cylo, the mad scientist who has been Vader's adversary throughout the series, first attempting to replace Vader in Emperor Palpatine's eyes and then to take over the Empire itself, faces his final battle with Vader this issue, and its a testament to artist Salvador Larroca. Vader is a force of nature, silent and terrifying. I went through and counted, and Vader has no more than fifteen word balloons throughout not just the battle, but the entire issue, many of which are one or two words. And Vader's face is covered the entire time, so an artist can't even fall back on facial expressions. So Larroca uses body language to show the readers what is going through Vader's mind, much of which is, well, pretty much murder. Beyond the battle with Cylo, we get a scene between Vader and the Emperor which is one of my favorite scenes between the two in a long time. It shows the twisted relationship between the Sith, how manipulation and betrayal are so central to everything they represent, and makes the reader feel for Vader in a way, as the one mentor figure he has left applauds him for betrayal. The final scenes of the main story show Vader dealing with his underling Dr. Aphra, and shows that while Palpatine has embraced the ideal of betrayal as strength and rewards it, Vader most assuredly has not, and we see Vader deal, quite harshly, with his other Imperial nemesis, this one a political foe, Grand General Tagge, and while I don't want to give too much away there, well, if you've seen the original Star Wars trilogy, you know what happens when you screw up in front of Vader, something Admiral Ozzel, who stood there and watched maybe should have learned from before the events of The Empire Strikes Back. But the final two pages take Vader in a different direction, as we get a silent view into his mind, and see him considering a much less violent confrontation with his son, Luke. This issue shows all manner of aspects of Vader: warrior enforcer, apprentice, leader, and father, and through that shows just what an incredibly nuanced character he is, no matter what words he speaks. The two epilogues to the issue are interesting in their own right. One is a brief scene that sets up Dr. Aphra's upcoming series, and helps establish her new trajectory and her supporting cast (the Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan and the evil droids Triple Zero and Beetee-One ). The other is a silent piece, set on Tatooine, as we see the results of what Vader has done to the Tusken Raiders, the Sand People. It's a chilling little story, and is hard to write about without laying it out point by point, but needs to be seen. I'm going to miss the Darth Vader ongoing series, it's powerful narrative and dark turns, but I'm looking forward to see where Gillen takes the Doctor Aphra series.

The Fix #6

Story: Nick Spencer

Art: Steve Lieber & Ryan Hill

In most cases, I have a hard time with stories where there are no redeeming characters, Even stories starring anti-heroes or downright villains show a nuanced portrayal of those characters, like Darth Vader in the previous review or Walter White in Breaking Bad. However, The Fix, Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber, is the exception to this rule, as there is not a single character in this book who has a redeeming characteristic. When the principal character who is the least morally reprehensible is the crooked internal affairs cop (with the exception of Pretzels the dog. Pretzels is the best), you know you're in for a ride. This issue gives us a new one of lead character Roy's crooked side businesses, trafficking in stolen celebrity personal items. And frankly, this is far from the worst thing we've seen Roy do, but it's the fact that he's actively employing meth addicts to do it that makes it even more reprehensible. The story of how Roy met Matty, the chief meth addict, is one of the darkly comedic things that makes The Fix work so well. I mean, I honestly laughed out loud so hard I doubled over and got a very strange look from my wife, and when I tried to explain why it was funny, the look just got stranger. In theory, bum fight shouldn't be funny, and in real life practice they aren't, but in the twisted world that Spencer and Lieber have created, the whole sequence is utterly hilarious. And as we understand exactly what Roy has been up to, and exactly where this has gone, and exactly what Roy has planned for Matty's friends who he assumed are responsible for the death of the starlet he had them rob and he assumed killed, well the hole he dug just keeps getting bigger. And the big reveal of what this has all been about, what the killers were looking for, well, I don't know if it would work in any other comic, but it sure as heck works here. If all of that wasn't enough, we get two scenes away from Roy, and if you were hoping for characters you could empathize with and see as light in a corrupt world, you are in the wrong place. We get a scene that further develops the mayor of L.A., who has a... unique habit during press conferences, and one with Donovan, the movie producer, and his really interesting fantasy life. The thing that keeps me coming back to this book, aside from the twisty plot, the comedy, and the excellent Steve Lieber art, is the fact that these characters have to get their comeuppance sooner or later, and I just can't wait to see how big a hole they can dig before they fall into it. And after this issue, I can't wait to see them all get what's coming to them more than ever, in the best possible way.

Hard Case Crime: Peepland #1

Story: Christa Faust & Gary Phillips

Art: Andrea Camerini & Marco Lesko

The Hard Case Crime label is an impressive publishing initiative that has presented both reissues of classic noirs and new stories in the best noir and crime fiction styles, and I became familiar with their novels by the publication of two original works by Stephen King, The Colorado Kid and Joyland. And when I heard they were going to partner with Titan Comics to produce new crime comics, I was excited, and I'm pleased to say that Peepland, one of their inaugural offerings, is an excellent crime comic. I chose to try this series for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the writers. I'm familiar with Christa Faust only by reputation, but Gary Phillips has written some amazing crime comics over his career, most notably to me the Vertigo mini-series Angeltown and from Boom Studios The Rinse. The setting also appeals to me. The comic is set in New York City in the mid-80s, back before the city was sanitized. I was a kid back then, so it's not like I spent any time wandering those red light districts, but I know people who did, people who tell stories of Time Square before Disney rolled in, and so I get a sense of the city I love from bygone days. And this comic is set deep in those red light districts. Starring Roxy, a peepshow performer, the comic starts with a man running for his life from two thugs before hiding a video cassette (remember those?) in Roxy's booth. Pretty soon, the police are involved as the man, the producer of a Girls Gone Wild-esque series of pornographic videos, is dead and more than one group is looking for the tape. Roxy is a sympathetic protagonist, and presented in a real way: she's not the sex worker who's just doing it to pay her way through law school or some similar trope, but is someone who does what she does and has a life outside it, an uncle slowly dying of AIDS when AIDS was a short-term death sentence, an ex-boyfriend, and curiosity about that tape that is going to get her in trouble before the series is out, I have no doubt, especially when we see what's on the tape. Aside from our lead, we get plenty of other characters, all fitting into a classic crime/noir mold: other dancers and performers at Peepland, thugs and toughs, hardnose cops; this might be set in the 80s, and the events might only work in that particular era, but it's got a gritty feel right out of the best 40s noirs. In case the title didn't make it clear, by the way, this is a comic for mature audiences, with nudity and lots of bad language, but it's also for mature audiences because it's smart and complex, with characters and a mystery that will appeal to readers who are looking for something to really dig their teeth into.

And Dan Grote's back with a very special issue of Deadpool...

Deadpool #20

Story by Gerry Duggan

Art by Matteo Lolli and Guru-eFX

In which Deadpool stops someone from committing suicide through violence.

Let that sink in for a second.

We’ve all seen superheroes talk ordinary folks off the ledge, literally and figuratively. Superman arguably did it best in All-Star Superman.

Deadpool is not Superman. Hell, he’s barely a superhero. He’s a guy who often wants to be good but doesn’t know how because he’s lived a life of violence and insanity. Which is why he gloms onto other superheroes – Spider-Man, Captain America, etc. – and demands to become their new best friend whether they like it or not.

On this night, a young woman named Danielle is staring down at the street from the roof of the Schafer Theatre, formerly the home of the Avengers’ Unity Team, the Mercs for Money, and Deadpool. Wade leads with “Don’t jump!” and follows with “Parker Industries is just a few blocks down.”

Now, things have been pretty crappy – well, crappier, I guess – for Wade lately. His wife has been cheating on him, his team has abandoned him, his base was destroyed. Frankly, if this were the Joe Kelly era, he’d be in the depths of a sadomasochistic pity party and probably push her off the building himself.

Instead, Wade takes her to see Hamilton and lets her go on a ridealong while he beats up deadbeats as part of his pro bono work. Along the way, Danielle learns useful things like the best way to get bad guys to come to the door (Yell “Sexy maids!”) and when to kick or blow down said door and begin delivering beatings. Danielle even picks up a bat at one point and joins in the fun.

“Violence solves everything if you’re good at it,” Wade insists.

Their magical smashy-smashy tour ends at the emergency room, where Wade drops her off for pre-arranged help.

“I’m smart enough to know I’m dumb enough that I can’t help you,” he says. “But they can.”

This isn’t Wade doing the right thing to impress Spider-Man or Agent Preston or Cable or any of his usual over-the-shoulder angels. Nobody’s watching. This is Wade doing genuine good the best way he knows how, while remaining completely in character and recognizing his own flaws. This is Gerry Duggan once again teaching a master class on how to develop a chaotic-neutral quasihero.

After Danielle walks into the ER, Wade finally finds the perfect thing to say: “You gotta remember: No matter how bad things get … that life is fluid. There’s always the chance that something great is waiting around the next corner. (Steps in dog poop) You just have to find a way to keep rounding corners.”

In other words, “You’re much stronger than you think you are.”

Deadpool’s been teasing a showdown with Madcap for months now, but recent issues have had next to nothing to do with that. This issue is no exception, but it’s also probably one of the best standalone ‘Pool issues ever.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 5/11

4001 A.D.: X-O Manowar #1
Story: Robert Venditti
Art: Clayton Henry

There are many comic with deep messages that make you think. And then there are comics that are just plain action from wall-to-wall and have giant robots. Take a guess which one this is? The first one-shot tying into Valiant's new event mini-series, 4001 A.D., features a story from regular X-O Manowar writer Robert Venditti and original Archer and Armstrong artist Clayton Henry, and provides the backstory for the giant robot from the first issue of the event series, and how it ties into X-O Manowar's armor. The issue provides a lot of backstory for those of us unfamiliar with the future status quo of the Valiant Universe, like why Japan is an island floating in space, and how the rest of the world reacted when that happened; it's not essential for the main series at all, but it makes for an interesting story. I don't think it's spoiling too much to say that the world governments design giant robots to send after New Japan and its controlling artificial intelligence, Father. We follow the American pilot, as he prepares to take his Manowar up into space to fight Father. He's a hero, with a family, and he's doing what he thinks is best. And things go horribly wrong. Venditti provides a platform for Clayton Henry to go to town, drawing giant robots in a Charge of the Light Brigade style suicide mission against Father. Henry is able to not just draw that extremely well, but the reactions from the American pilot, stuck in his hanger, and the American control room as one of Father's agents, the former Armor Hunter known as Helix, makes short work of them, are intense and heart breaking. This is how a crossover issue should be done. It stands alone on its own, inform a bit about the characters and backstory (or fate, in the case of a crossover set in the future) of its native book, and gives nuggets of information that informs the main event. If you're a fan of X-O Manowar and haven't tried this issue because you were worried you'd be lost if you're not reading the main event, have no fear. And if you just like comics about big robots fighting, you should also give this a chance, and really, who doesn't like that?

Batman #52
Story: James Tynion IV
Art: Riley Rossmo, Brian Level, Ivan Plascencia, & Jordan Boyd

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo wrapped their run on Batman with issue fifty-one, so the final issue of this volume comes from James Tynion IV and Riley Rossmo, who provide a nice companion to the series.The issue follows Batman as he chases a new villain, Crypsis, who has stolen something from a safe deposit box, while we see a series of flashbacks to Bruce's youngest days after the death of his parents, followed by some others of his training across the world. The narrative device that ties it all together is a journal that Bruce is given at the beginning by Leslie Thompkins, a character I have sorely missed since the reboot; she pops up infrequently and with oddly divergent backstory/characterization. Nonetheless, here she gives a journal to Bruce where he can write ideas on "How to Move On,"and we see how he takes those ideas and uses them to forge his training, and how he uses them in his hunt for Crypsis. And while the battle is very cool, and it's really exciting to see Riley Rossmo, one of my favorite artists in comics right now, doing a full issue of Batman, and him hitting it out of the park with a spectacular design for the villain and a great, dynamic Batman, it's the scenes between Bruce and Alfred that are the spine of the comic, as it has been throughout so much of this volume of Batman. Bruce and Alfred are in radio contact the entire time, as we figure out that the safe deposit box is Bruce's, and we see a flashback to Alfred trying to help Bruce along on his grieving, and that while the young Bruce doesn't take kindly to it, the grown Bruce has learned enough to take the words to heart. Alfred has always been more than just Jiminey Cricket to Bruce's Pinocchio, he's been a father figure, confidant, and friend, and this issue's ending ties that aspect of their relationship together nicely. It gives Batman's mission a warm spin,makes it a crusade and not just a dark mission of vengeance. It's a message that Batman is more than what so many think of him as, more the Knight than the Dark, something this series has been exploring since its inception. I'm going to miss this version of Batman, but I'm curious to see what comes next, and hopeful it can keep up this message.

Southern Bastards #14
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Jason Latour

After a bit of a delay, the final part of the third arc of Southern Bastards arrives, giving readers their first real exposure to Roberta Tubb, daughter of Earl Tubb, the protagonist of the first arc, who was brutally murdered by Coach Boss. Roberta gets back to Afghanistan, and immediately heads to Earl's house, despite having been estranged from her father before his death. And as she gets into the deep South of Alabama, things almost immediately go wrong for her, because while Earl might have been white, it seems Roberta's mother was not, so all the locals near Earl's old house just see her as an uppity black girl in their neighborhood. The police are called when she walks into her own father's house. The neighbor advises her to leave, that there are plenty of houses in other places where she would be better off. And when she finds that her father's riding lawnmower has been stolen and retrieves it? Well, it ends with people on the ground in a lot of pain, and a rude lesson that not even the children in the town can escape the racism that runs through it. As we get to learn more about Roberta, we can absolutely see Earl in her; she stands up to those she sees as wrong without thinking about the ramifications, or probably more accurately not caring about them. She's tough, savvy, and nothing is going to stand in her way. It's clear her mother doesn't like the idea of her looking into her father's death, but that isn't stopping Roberta in the least. I want to go back and reread all of the "Homecoming" arc now, to be ready for the next arc. It feels like Roberta is the last puzzle piece this book needed to move forward, the person out to avenge Earl, as things close in around Coach Boss, and her being a deep and nuanced character makes me all the more interested to see what her next move will be.

Star Wars: Darth Vader #20
Story: Kieron Gillen
Art: Salvador Larroca & Edgar Delgado, Mike Norton & David Curiel

I was talking to my friend and former Dewey's co-worker John Bush not too long ago, and he commented how Darth Vader was his favorite of the current Star Wars series, as it treated Vader as a force of nature, moving silently through the book, spotlighting those around him and how they react to him, sort of like what Garth Ennis did in his MAX run on The Punisher. It's an apt comparison, and as the series begins its final arc, Vader as an unstoppable force seems to be the perfect way to describe him. With the Imperial scientist Cylo, who had been designing cyborgs to replace Vader, on the run, Vader is called before Emperor Palpatine, where Palpatine explains how all of this had been part of his plan to break Cylo and strengthen Vader, which Vader knows is only half the story, as Vader observes Palpatine would be making a version of this speech to Cylo had his cyborgs bested Vader. Vader knows that Palpatine is always playing every side. With that taken care of, Vader goes to meet Inspector Thanoth, the Imperial agent sent to investigate a crime Vader perpetrated through his agent, Dr. Aphra, who has seemingly finally discovered the truth. And it's more than seeing, as Thanoth tells Vader he knows the truth, and knows where Aphra is. But he also tells Vader he has not and will not tell the Emperor, as he serves the Empire, and not the Emperor, and he sees the Empire's future in Vader. The power and manipulations are everywhere in this book, with everyone having their own agenda, Vader included, but it's Vader's agenda that is ventral, Vader who will stop at nothing, even killing the man who has provided him the information (a man who goes willingly, since he believes it is for the best). And as Vader heads off to face Cylo, he sends his droids, Triple-Zero and BeeTee to find and remove Aphra, the last evidence of his treachery against the Empire. We get a fun little back-up story of the two of them visiting a droid maker to repair Triple Zero's arm and get them back in proper torturing shape after the events of the "Vader Down" crossover, and we see again that the two droids are as clever and ruthless as their masters. With five issues left, I can only imagine the swath of destruction that Vader will reap across the galaxy.

Greetings from Battleworld: Week 37

Hey, look, it's Secret Wars! Yes, three months after its original ending date (and with one issue added), Marvel's universe changing crossover has ended, and we're here to talk about the last issue and some issues we skipped earlier on. First, Dan Grote gives a review of that big final issue...

Secret Wars #9

Story by Jonathan Hickman

Art by Esad Ribic and Ive Svorcina

Wait, so are the Richards clan effectively the Beyonders now?

Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s eight-month, nine-issue summer 2015 crossover ends with the Molecule Man and Reed and Franklin Richards re-creating the Marvel multiverse, one sphere of energy at a time. Reed, Sue, Valeria, Franklin and the rest of the Future Foundation then set off to explore all those universes, explaining away their absence from all Marvel books in perpetuity. Super-Scientist Heaven is real, you guys!

But seriously, if the FF are creating whole universes, then that effectively makes them the gods of the new multiverse, which is what the Beyonders were prior to Secret Wars. And if all things are cyclical, what’s to say the Beyonders from the previous multiverse weren’t actually Reed Richards and his brood, and that eventually, after billions of years, they will get bored and collapse their creation? Doesn’t that mean Doom really was a hero all along? Maybe that’s why Reed let Doom live again on the new Earth, restoring his face in the process, in case Reed et al get too carried away in their new role as gods.

But that’s just the end. The book opens with a Battleworld-rattling fight between God Emperor Doom and Black Panther, armed with the Infinity Gauntlet. Meanwhile, the two Reed Richardses – 616 and 1610 – pay a visit to the Molecule Man, the source of Doom’s power. 1610 Reed - aka Ultimate Reed, aka the Maker, aka Evil Reed, aka Big Baby Jesus - doublecrosses his doppelganger, surrounding him in a makeshift temporal bubble in an attempt to devolve him, but the Molecule Man slices Evil Reed apart like so many pizza toppings.

Doom realizes the Panther fight is a distraction and finds Richards with the Molecule Man, who strips Doom of his omnipotence, allowing for a fair fight with Richards, because, c’mon, like Doom’s last fight wasn’t going to be with his mortal enemy?

As the two bump egos, MM lets Battleworld blow up, leaving the be-Gauntlet-ed Panther to restore reality. After a flash of white light, he finds himself in a restored Wakanda on what is now Earth Prime, celebrating the launch of the African nation’s space program.

“And this is our very first one,” Panther tells his pupils as they watch the first rocket lift off. “Our Alpha Flight.” WINK!

Before we leave, a final question: Why did the Molecule Man help our heroes? In the end, it may have been because Miles Morales gave him a hamburger in issue #6. That either makes Molecule Man the Jughead of the Marvel multiverse or Miles Morales the Neville Longbottom of Secret Wars, the background character who actually saves the day.

As finales go, and considering how sprawling and complex Secret Wars was to begin with, I’d say issue #9 is the perfect combination of a satisfying ending and a generator of new questions that won’t be answered anytime soon, if ever, considering Hickman is now done at Marvel. If nothing else, this issue serves as a love letter to Reed and Doom and puts a bow on everything Hickman has written for the House of ideas dating to the start of his FF run in 2009.

And for more on my feelings on Neville Longbottom as the true hero of the Harry Potter franchise, let me corner you at a party sometime.

And with all that extra time, I was able to read one of the more important tie-in mini-series, and it turned out to be one of my favorites...

Siege

Story: Kieron Gillen

Art: Filipe Andrade & Rachelle Rosenberg, plus various artists on double page spreads

Many of the Secret Wars tie-ins were just fun what if sort of stories revisiting classic eras and storylines throughout Marvel history. Some of these turned out to be about as relevant to the main series as Countdown was to Infinite Crisis (see Age of Apocalypse and Future Imperfect, both which ended with their primary antagonist, Apocalypse and the Maestro, dead and caught in a permanent Black Mercy-esque fugue state respectively, despite showing up in the main series towards the end leading their armies at God Emperor Doom's request). Siege, though, interestingly enough, has no relation to the crossover for which it is named, and instead fills in some important gaps in the main series.

When I wrote about series that ended too soon, one of the series I included was S.W.O.R.D. Kieron Gillen's book starring Abigail Brand, the half alien head of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s alien threat response team. Siege is Gillen's return to Abigail Brand, who he also spent time with while he was writing Uncanny X-Men which picked up some of the plot threads from S.W.O.R.D., and I gotta tell you, he writes Brand like no one else. He took that snarky, Whedon creation, mixed in some Warren Ellis type drunkenness, and his own flair, and made Brand sing like no one else. This series's Brand in the leader of the troops guarding The Shield, the big wall that keeps out zombies, Ultron robots, and Annihilation Wave bugs from the rest of Battleworld, and she actually wanted the job, because her family was slaughtered the last time there was a breach in The Shield, and she has sworn never again. 

The rest of Gillen's cast includes Leah, an Asgardian Shield-Maiden, who serves as Brand's second at the beginning of the series; A Leonardo Da Vinci right out of Jonathan Hickman's Shield series; Miss America from A-Force and Lady Kate Bishop from Secret Wars Journal, who were banished to the Shield in their respective titles and whose story picks up here, Kang the Conqueror, who is as much a jerk as ever; Ben Grimm, the Thing, who is a physical manifestation of the wall; and not surprisingly, my favorite character in the book aside from Brand, Major Summers, the leader of a massive group of Cyclops clones called the Endless Summers that Mr. Sinister was done experimenting on so he sent them to The Shield.

There's a lot to love in this series. It reflects more connectivity across Battleworld than pretty much any book except for Secret Wars itself, which makes sense, due to the clever plot device where Doom says you can't cross domains, thus keeping people from asking, "Why are there are dozens of Wolverines?"and raising eyebrows. It's got some amazing visuals from Filipe Andrade, whose art I was unsure of early on and who really grew on me. But mostly, it's that Gillen packs a ton of character into four issues, all while working under a clock. The Guardians of the Shield find out at the end of issue one that the Shield will fall in twenty days when Thanos comes. It could have been easy to spend the next two issues having the cast make journeys beyond the wall to find Thanos, and just cram in action scene after action scene. Instead, we see Abigail deal with the possible inevitability of her failure. We see Kate and Miss America grow closer. We see Kang angle for control of the Should so he can win this battle that Brand could not. You care about these characters so that when Thanos appears, you feel bad that you know they have to lose,

Each issue also has two to three gorgeous double page spreads by different artists. These not only serve to give us Abigail Brand's War Journal narrating major battles in the history of the wall, but they allow some phenomenal artists to go to town. My favorites included James Stokoe, known for drawing Godzilla and other monsters, showing Pym-Phalanx, giant techno-organic ants, attacking the wall, and the legendary Michael Wm. Kaluta drawing Leah's triumphant return from beyond the wall with her lady love, Magik, riding a giant Colossus and temporarily breaking the momentum of the final push against The Shield. Sadly, a great two pager from Juan Jose Ryp of the Infinite Summers fighting Ultron drones and another big bad is interrupted by one of those gatefold adds that Marvel put into their books for All-New All-Different numbers ones, so it didn't have the impact I would have liked it to have in singles. It will probably look great in trade though,

In the end, if you read Secret Wars, you know The Shield fell, and Ben Grimm, now using much of its mass, went to fight Doom. But this series not only gives us more of an understanding of what Thanos did and said to make Ben choose this, and we also see a group of valiant heroes make a classic last stand. It's the Alamo with monsters, robots, and bugs, basically, which is as awesome as it sounds. Oh, and if you ever wondered why no one ever connected Nick Fury (Brand's predecessor as commander of The Shield before being lost beyond it) and Alan Moore's superhero killing monster The Fury from Captain Britain, well, your wait is over.

After a crossover has ended, especially one that takes place in a reality that no longer exists, there are often the question from readers about why they should care about those stories because they "don't matter." Well, the reason when it comes to a story like Siege is that all stories matter because they are full of rich character and great art, that they allow a creator to return to a favorite character and get in a new story of that character in a new setting, and because it's fun and exciting. And if that doesn't make a story matter, I don't know what does.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 12/10

Batman #47
Story: Scott Snyder
Art: Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, & FCO Plascencia

Jim Gordon's fight with Mr. Bloom continues as the countdown to Bruce Wayne's memory returning kicks into high gear. The end of last issues looked pretty grim for Gordon, as Mr. Bloom has taken over Gordon's Bat-armor and set it against him. Jim once again proves that he's more clever than people have given him credit for, by not only having the blocker that he was prepared to use on Bloom, but another handy device or two. And when thrown through the roof by his now villain-possessed armor, Jim uses his Bat tools and his smarts to avoid a particularly gory death in an action beat that Capullo handles beautifully; it's only two pages, but it shows exactly how talented Capullo is when it comes to motion and to faces, as the smile on Gordon's is priceless. Meanwhile, the two other character plots for the previous couple issues intersect, as Duke Thomas, still trying to make his way out of the Penguin's Iceberg Casino with Penguin and his fellow freak mobsters on his tail. But when it looks like two of Penguin's men have the drop on him, it turns out that it's Bruce Wayne who has the drop on them, having figured out where Duke was going. And it's Duke who is finally the person who pushes Bruce, who tells him who he is without flat out saying it. He points out that Bruce is the best in the world at deduction, and gives him the clues he needs. And standing in front of an oncoming subway train, as Bruce sees the lights bearing down on them, just before he pushes Duke out of the way, he sees the shape of what he was. If I haven't said it before, between here, We Are Robin, and his appearances in this week's "Robin War" issues, sign me up for the official Duke Thomas should be Batman's new partner club. He is my favorite new character launching out of the Bat books in years (Sorry, Harper Row. I like you too, but Duke is awesome). Meanwhile, things aren't quite as easy for Jim as it would seem, as we learn the one thing that is more creepy than one flower masked, gangly monster villain.And I don't want to say anything about the last page, even though it's been spoiled by various articles on-line, but it FINALLY begins answering a question I've been asking since we saw Bruce up and about again in issue forty-two, one that I'm surprised no one on the context of the comic has been asking, Whether we get payoff on it next issue, or it's going to be a long term plot, well, we'll have to see, but I'm excited to see where it goes.

Harrow County #8
Story: Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
Art: Tyler Crook and Simon Roy

The second arc of Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook's exemplary horror coming, Harrow County, comes to an end with a war of ghosts and witches. The war between the series protagonist, Emmy, and her twin sister, the wicked witch Kammi, allows both of the series creators to show their strengths. Emmy's fight through the woods from the army of "haints" that have allied with her sister is full of some of Crook's painstakingly designed monsters, with things like harpies, swamp monsters, mud monsters, along with the ghost bears and flaming skeletons that remain loyal to Emmy. The woods themselves have an air of creepiness that Crook brings out in the long shadowed dark corners and the scrubby grass, and when you add in the monsters, it is a place you would not want to go in day or night. It's also impressive to see how, with an identical protagonist and antagonist, it's never hard to tell the two apart, even when Kammi is glamoured to have the same hair and clothes as Emmy. Expressions and body language are perfectly suited to each. The final confrontation between the sisters is Bunn's shining moment, letting everything the two have been feeling for the past arc come to the surface. And the final twist, as Emmy is able to dispose of Kammi, is a terrifying moment, one that makes perfect sense in the world, and ends in a heartbreaking splash of Emmy, once again alone. And while the end of the story seems a country idyll, as the narration points out, the things are still out there, waiting, which is the cornerstone of good horror. Throw in the one page back-up written by Crook and drawn by Simon Roy, a horror tied to something any homeowner knows and fears for mundane reasons, and you have a top notch issue. Two arcs in and Harrow County is one of the best horror comics on the racks right now.

Star Wars Annual #1
Story: Kieron Gillen
Art: Angel Unzueto & Paul Mounts

After Friday's post about Star Wars comics I'd like to see featured two espionage titles, I found it oddly fitting that this week's Star Wars Annual would be a story of the Rebel spy embedded in the Empire. Eneb Ray is a new character, working as a tax collector under the name Tharius Demo. I like the idea that the Rebellion is exploiting the colossal bureaucracy of the Empire to get its people in places where they can effect change, and that through taxes and tariffs they are able to impact change. But Ray isn't just a number cruncher, and he receives a mission more fitting a comic book, as he must go and liberate a group of senators who have spoken against the Empire from prison before they are executed. Ray's entrance to the prison, drawn beautifully by Angel Unzueto, is right out of Mission: Impossible or the James Bond series, with Ray diving off a pseeding transport, using magnetic gloves to stick to the side of the prison, and enter through the vents with the aid of a magnetic grapple gun. But the mission changes when Ray finds out that the Emperor himself is coming to have one last interview with the senators, and Ray decides it's time to make a play at assassinating Palpatine. Calling in all of the Rebellion's assets on Coruscant, Ray mounts what seems to be a very successful assassination of the Emperor. Too successful if you know anything about Star Wars, and I can't resist quoting everyone's favorite Mon Cal by simply pointing out, "It's a trap!" In the end, as good a spy as Ray is, he's nothing compared to the master of manipulation that is Palpatine, and things don't turn out too well for the Rebels. The issue is narrated by Ray, who thinks of himself as a man who makes the hard choices and not a hero. The journey that he makes throughout the issue is well written and is a great character arc. This is a new character who I hope gets to come back in future issues of this title, or in Darth Vader, which is written by this annual's writer, Kieron Gillen,


And Dan Grote is coming at you with two reviews this week...

Deadpool #3

Story: Gerry Duggan

Art: Mike Hawthorne, Terry Pallot, & Guru eFX.

It’s payday at Deadpool’s Mercs for Money ... or it would be if their checks hadn’t all bounced.

That means Solo can't pay alimony to his ex-wife, Terror can’t afford organ transplants from Morbius the Living Vampire, Slapstick can’t afford the prostitutes he pays to pretend to be his family, and Foolkiller can’t afford more guns.

Meanwhile, original-recipe Deadpool is being interrogated by the police about the killing of the zoning commissioner in issue 1. Turns out the cops don’t think he did it, even though whoever did left loud evidence to the contrary. As part of a crazy-like-a-fox plan, Wade has the cops formally arrest him. While being transported to jail, his bus is attacked by the fake DP who’s been causing all the trouble. The two fight, and we get a brief glimpse under the mask. Whoever’s under there has jaundiced, scaly skin and black eyes.

(Hey, you guys remember Slayback? Just a thought.)

Fake DP gets away, but he leaves Wade a present – a well-beaten, possibly actually still alive Scott Adsit, last seen stabbed in issue 2.

Now for the two Deadpools we haven’t talked about yet. Turns out Stingray has been working as a mole for Steve Rogers, Wade’s Uncanny Avengers boss. Stingray has some concerns about fellow faux-Pool Madcap, who apparently wasn’t so much invited to join DP’s M4M as he just showed up one day. And so the two go to confront him.

Madcap’s hotel room, in a word, is great. A bubble machine blows nonstop, and there are lava lamps and welcome mats everywhere. Told to straighten up and fly right, Madcap boops Stingray on the nose and tried to do the same to Old Man Rogers, who grabs his finger and threatens to do World War II things to him. In response, Madcap cuts off his own finger and jumps out a window. “He needs to go,” Rogers declares. I disagree.

Last week I declared Doctor Strange my favorite of the All-New, All-Different Marvel titles so far. That ranking holds, but Deadpool is a close second. The book has taken such a sharp turn from the previous volume, with a nearly entirely new supporting cast, yet still feels solid. The creative team clearly has a plan for each of the Mercs for Money and refuses to allow them to become one bland mass of red-and-black-clad lunatic killers. A-game stuff.

Gwenpool Holiday Special

Stories: Charles Soule (She-Hulk), Margaret Stohl (Ms. Marvel), Gerry Duggan (Hawkeye & Deadpool), and Christopher Hastings (Gwenpool)

Art: Langdon Foss (She-Hulk), Juan Gedeon (Ms. Marvel), Danilo S. Beyruth (Hawkeye & Deadpool), and Gurihiru (Gwenpool)

What if I told you there was a place where all your favorite canceled but beloved Marvel series characters gathered in one place to warm your heart and make you smile?

What if I told you Deadpool was there, too? And his alternate-Earth Gwen Stacy counterpart that started life as a variant-cover gimmick?

Welcome to Marvel’s 2015 holiday special, billed as a Gwenpool one-shot but actually mostly a She-Hulk story reuniting the Atomic Age attorney with writer Charles Soule.

A holiday happening at the Brooklyn building that houses Shulkie’s law office (and Howard the Duck’s PI agency) acts as the framing device for the book, as Jen and the gang party the night away to ward off insectlike Realtors who use magic to convince people to give up on their dreams and turn over their property so it can be flipped at higher values. In other words, Charles Soule wrote a Charles Soule She-Hulk story, you guys!

A series of interludes shows other heroes making their way to Jen’s party, stopping only to bust a skull or two.

In the first one, Ms. Marvel battles her conflicted feelings about the holidays as a practicing Muslim, a Secret Santa exchange with her platonic-but-not-really bestie Bruno and a store-robbing Santa. Though not handled by her normal creative team, Kamala is as delightful as ever, even when she’s being a Christmas crank. (Even her brother, the most devout Muslim in her family, can find the joy in Rudolph.) After toppling bad Santa, K exchanges gifts with her mentor, Captain Marvel, and the two head off to She-Hulk’s place.

Next up, fellow Avengers Deadpool and Hawkeye (Clint Barton) team up to catch a pickpocket who stole money from Simone, one of the residents of Clint’s apartment building from the Fraction/Aja series. Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) catches the crook, who says he was just trying to get money to buy presents for his son. Wade opens his heart and his wallet, and the three deliver the boy gifts before whisking his dad off to the police. Then it’s off to Jen’s party … and just as quickly away from it, as she has a strict no-Deadpool policy.

Finally, we come to Gwenpool, who combines all the cutesiness of a superconfident fictional teenage girl with the murderiness and colored speech balloons of Deadpool. Gwen is hired to take out a sword-swinging snake-man who looks like the genie from Aladdin, requiring her to watch hours of sword-training videos on YouTube till she gives up and decides to just blow him up with a bomb. Because she’s been a supporting player in Howard the Duck, she too ends up at She-Hulk’s party, where she bonds with Ms. Marvel over karaoke, but not so much over murdering dudes.

Quick shoutout to Langdon Foss, who drew the She-Hulk bits. His splash pages are like a superhero Where’s Waldo, with many more Marvel characters drawn into them than I’ve mentioned.