May 29th, 2013

Another Memorial Day has come and gone. Hopefully everyone had the chance to thank a veteran for their service to our country, heat up some food over open fire, or imbibe a refreshing beverage. We have a bit extra to celebrate, for even though Monday was a major holiday, we’re still getting new comics on Wednesday!

The only downside to this is that we at Comic Carnival are going to need an extra hour in the morning Wednesday to set everything up. It also means this little blog writer won’t be able to score the time with new releases in order to produce the usual blog entry. So this week, we’ll have us an unconventional blog entry!

Remember a few months back when I judged a bunch of books by their covers? I had fun, therefore it was a complete success! We’re doing it again!

The Shadow Year One 3 (Wagner/ Torres)
 Is this that long-awaited crossover issue with Calvin Klein cologne? Man, I can’t wait for the third-act twist when Lamont Cranston is confronted with a wardrobe full of svelt male torsos!

Adventures of Superman 1 (Parker/ Samnee)
The image of Superman breaking chains is iconic, but it’s always baffled me. Most chains have about as much restraining power against Superman as Red Vines, only with more minerals when eaten. But with the New 52, now there’s a rational context behind this behavior - he’s dating Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman loses her powers when bound, no powers means no super-makeouts, and thus Superman changes arch-nemeses from Lex Luthor to inanimate chains. Finally, that’s been bugging me forever!

Venom 35 (Bunn/ Shalvey)
Venom and Carnage teaming up on the cover is about as natural as McDonalds and the Keebler Elves fighting tooth decay - something ain’t right, there. Not only that, when did Carnage start making himself out of snakes? Maybe the big bad in this arc is a certain fedora-wearing archeologist? Those surrounding coils do look like they could be a whip, and the current host for Venom, Flash Thompson, never was one for dat dere book lernin'.

Clone 7 (Schulner, Ginsburg, & McIntyre/ Ryp & Serrano)

Ben Kinsley’s character from Ender’s Game hooks up with Mary Jane Watson and have a baby? That’s what this series is about, the wackiest pop culture shippings?
…
Why the hell haven’t I been reading this series?!?!?

Atomic Robo Real Science Adventures 8 (Clevenger/ Various)
If my science classes in high school had involved more ancient martial arts masters and red-headed, gun-toting ladies, my life would have turned out differently. VERY differently. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s doing wonders at making science more awesome, but he could use a black-belt or two is all I’m saying.

Lost Vegas 3 of 4 (McCann/ Lee)
My first thought was that someone else is riding the battle elk from the Hobbit in this cover, but considering that this is a title set in the the Neon City, now I’m wondering if this is some kind of furry comic. And now that image cannot leave our minds.

Westwood Witches 1 (Torres/ Garcia)

Westwood Witches wear red rouge, regressing without worry while whispering wily whims to worn-out writers.

No, that’s more or less what the comic’s about. Wild, eh?

X-Men 1 (Wood/ Coipel): This title has a lot of covers to judge, so I hope no one minds if I limit myself a bit here.
The main cover does a good job of nodding to outdated stereotypes while recognizing the current way of life. In this case, you have the old notion that a group of women cannot gather in one place without fighting over, say, a sale item. On this cover, you’ve got destruction, smoke and debris, and they’re either sitting down or leaning on one another. At the same time, this group of women dismantled a five-story-tall death machine and, now that it’s a ruin, seem perfectly capable of co-existing peacefully. Or maybe I’m just making art nouveau out of pin-ups, as I’m known to do.
Kevin Wada is obviously targeting that elusive Downton Abbey market to get some of that massive PBS money. Having watched some of the show, I don’t know which gathering of women is more vicious in a fight. The Dowager Countess clearly has the mutant power to freeze blood with a stare.
And it wouldn’t be any kind of Marvel event if there wasn’t a Deadpool variant cover that had nothing to do with the actual book. Why does Ghost Rider not show that non-face of his? Is he ashamed to show his face with... How can that second guy keep rhythm if without a head and all the sensory organs that go with it? Is this the zombie Beatles? Since when does Deadpool have nunchucks? Why? Where? Hah bah duh! I just, I... ughhghgh.

That’s it. I’m done. Check back in with us next week!

May 23rd, 2013

As we head closer to Memorial Day, the evidence mounts up that we’re getting closer to summer. That can mean yard work, shedding pets, and lots more time outside. I feel exhausted just typing about it, so this week is devoted to fresh comics to kick back with.

Half Past Danger 1 (Stephen Mooney): There are reads that challenge the mind and really encourage the reader to think. When the mind thinks too much, the absolute best thing for it is a dose of Nazis or dinosaurs. Half Past Danger is one of each, and is medicine for the mind.
Tommy Flynn is an Irish-born soldier in WWII, one of the best scouts around. He’s led platoons through minefields, he’s just evaded a Nazi encampment, but his luck ran out when he led his charges into a thunder-lizard den. Barely escaping with his life, he goes on a one-man expedition to the bottom of a bottle, but before he finishes his trip, another group looking for a fight pull him back in by the skin of his eyeballs.

There’s an air of LOEG about this. You’ve got an incredible tracker, an Ayran-looking supersoldier, a tiny martial arts powerhouse, and a young woman with a look that doesn’t smolder so much as cremate. While none of the names are from historic literature, the setting and cast of archetypes couldn’t be plainer. Pack that along with some stormtroopers and velociraptors, and ALL audiences are interested. It makes for instant familiarity. Such a story is an effective trap for cliches and gimmicks. In stories like these, execution is absolutely everything, and this executes.

This is freshly-served comfort food. Stephen Mooney may not be a big name in comics now, but that won't last.

The Bounce 1 (Casey/ Messina): No, this is not a comic sponsored by the popular dryer sheets. The Bounce is a mature-audiences superhero book taking place just when society is experiencing the rise of superhumans. It’s not a smooth introduction.
The title character is a mashup between Spider-Man and Captain America - he’s introduced over a batch of drugs, and he likes to jump around when he pummels his foes. There are other plots floating around, other parties attempting to get a jump on the competition, though who’s opposing whom isn’t wholly clear. The question of this series would seem to be thus: What if drugs unlocked superhuman physical potential, instead of the mental potential so many promise?

Like life during drug use, it’s difficult to see how things connect in this story. There’s a police force that’s in way over their heads, and underground drug cartel with some unconventional product and distribution, and a deeper-underground government project with a limitless budget and a mysterious purpose. What any of these things have to do with each other is beyond me right now, but hopefully it’ll become clear in future issues.

The look of the book is nice, if a bit standard. The content doesn’t stand out much either, but groundwork is laid that may help it rise above later.

Occupy Comics (Too Many to List): Anthologies are tricky beasts. Creators coming together to support and promote a common cause sounds great and starts well, but reality can interfere, putting the total work back past the time when it could do its job. This anthology explores the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has fizzled out of the media cycle almost completely. The stories within, as well as what’s in the news today, may demonstrate that some delays happen for a purpose, and that some causes deserve a bit more life.
Most of the content is sequential art, with a single character or narrator going through the history of the movement and movements like it throughout history. Others are full-text with the occasional illustrations. Alan Moore contributed an essay about comics’ role in political struggles. Many of the works suggest that the OWS movement is just the latest in a cycle of haves struggling against have-nots, with people changing roles as their fortunes change.

The level of inbalance is an interesting factor to look at in the different histories. Things that we would call atrocities were once common practice. Assuming society survives past this, it’s going to be fascinating to see what future generations consider monstrous what we today consider monotonous.

“The eye of the beholder” is the what ultimately decides whether I think any reader will like a book, but this book covers so many perspectives - even using perspective as a subject - that anyone could pick this up and find something that would interest them. Pick it up!

Accelerators 1 (Porto/ Smith): I despise time travel on principle. “On principle” means that I will not enjoy it just on face value - it has to prove to me that it has merit before I’ll deem it worth anyone’s notice. Such stories suffer, because I can’t talk to the creator and find out what drove them into the forbidden zones. That’s not the case here, and I got the chance to talk with the artist, Gavin Smith, about the project.
For instance, regarding time travel, he explained, “We haven’t used it as a crutch. It’s a character driven story that happens to have time travel involved.” Anyone sick of comics using time travel to write themselves out of their own corners won’t have much to complain about here. A high-ranking physicist is on the run from a gun-toting military captain that’s gone through the rest of her scientific team already, and a young kid gets drawn in over his head trying to do the right thing.

As if that didn’t sound fantastic enough, there’re other twists. The starting date for this drama is in the mid-1960’s, when NASA was but a twinkle in the USA’s eye. The evasive physicist is a young woman and the gun-toting captain is her racially-diverse husband. A brief look in the history books (or a really awkward conversation with the residents at a retirement home) will tell you how unlikely either case would be in the 60’s, yet both happen in a story where time travel is made possible by a glowing donut. How? “Those things WILL be addressed, especially in parts two and four,” explains Smith.

Gavin’s not new to the comic industry. His original property Human City is still alive, and he’s got other projects to work on inbetween that and his current work with Ronny Porto. Accelerators is slated to be a six-issue series, but there’s room for more according to Smith. Give it a look.

That’s all the time for this week. Thanks for reading!

Looking for older Variant Coverage Blogs by Ryan Walsh for Comic Carnival?  They're here:

Variant Coverage Blog Back Issues

May 15, 2013

Alright, readers, here’s the deal. The collective publishing industry is playing coy this week, perhaps in deference to some media event that none of us would know about or condone at all. A few people have noted that this week is “slow” or “light” as far as new books is. Do you know what I would say to that? Fooey.

Even on weeks when absolutely nothing new comes out, there’s always something in our shop that you haven’t seen before, that you’ll like, and that someone else will harass you for liking, just not us. Not to your face, anyway. Of course, none of THAT matters because we’ve got a few new titles out this week, any of which could inspire a new itch that you’ll just have to scratch.

First up is Doomsday.1 1 (Byrne): There are few people in the comics industry that can claim the amount of experience and influence that John Byrne has. Of these, fewer still are able to take that experience and create something new and worthy of that reputation. I was anxious picking this title up because I was skeptical, but I picked it up anyway, and I’m actually glad I did.

The premise is fairly simple. An extinction-level-event occurs that threatens to burn the world. The people with the best chance of surviving are the seven people that’re already off the planet, watching events unfold on their space station. The best and worst of humanity is put on display in response to this tragedy, but the event doesn’t really care.

This could easily be considered a remake of Doomsday+1, a 70’s-era comic by Byrne and Joe Gill, but not having read that series, I couldn’t say for sure. What impresses me the most about this issue is that there’s no one thing that stands out. There’s a bit of political bickering, a smidge of romantic tension, some class struggle, plenty of fireworks, and even a taste of hard science-fiction. Nothing overpowers the narrative to make it a story about any one thing, and that give it a sense that it’s about everything. By leaving itself open, it assures that anything can happen, which is exactly what a doomsday story should be about. I’m also thrilled to say that as far as artwork is concerned, John Byrne hasn’t missed a beat.

The story may be bleak, but the book itself makes a good first impression. Definitely give this one a look.

Fatale 14 (Brubaker/ Phillips): Pancakes and syrup. Cake and ice cream. Brubaker and Phillips. What these three pairings have in common is that they’ve collaborated successfully so many times throughout the years that society just doesn’t want to contemplate the idea that they’ll ever be apart. With titles like Incognito and Criminal, B&P have covered the superhero genre quite fully already. Fatale is their step into fantasy while maintaining their noir roots, and it’s proven to be another winning mash-up.

Josephine had immortality thrust upon her, along with a few other attributes that make her attractive to a lot of people, some of whom aren’t nice or local. She’s confused herself about what her circumstances are - what little she knows disturbs her, and the ones who know the rest aren’t interested in sharing. Confusion brings other players into the mix that are more willing to side with the pretty brunette than a Nazi resident of R’yleh.

This is another infamous “I’m getting into this series late, let’s see how much I can catch on” review. There’s nothing in the way of recap and little context. What’s available is a showcase of fresh meetings, and they reveal a lot. Some people just happen to be able to see another aspect of the world, and while it doesn’t do them much good, it gives them some interesting options. Jo is someone that can be scared and vulnerable and strong at the same time - she doesn’t let anything stop her once she decides she needs to do something. I have no idea what’s going on, but I’d very much like to.

This isn’t a great jumping-on point, but it gives a great taste for the tone and style of the book. Anyone who reads this will want to go back and read the series from the beginning. I call dibs!

Regular Show 1 (Green/ Strejlau): As I was reaching for a copy of this to read, I was stopped. A warning came in the monotone voice that normally used by soothsayers foretelling doom. “Are you down with cool things?” the voice asked. Being a retailer for a comic book shop, I doubted I qualified, but I lied and said I was. If I wasn’t down with cool things before, perhaps I am now.

Cartoon Network broadcasts Regular Show, in which nothing is regular, and no amount of fiber could make it so. The comic continues this tradition with a tale of interdimension hijinks instigated by a mosh pit. (I wonder if the team at the LHC have investigated mosh pit technology.) Who’s to blame is tabled in favor of sealing the rift for all of reality is torn apart. Rope is required.

With so many cases where everything looks odd and the story sounds like a Mad Libs game, it’s easy to say “just turn your brain off and enjoy the show”. I won’t. Instead, I ask you what “regular” is. Does anyone know anyone and can say with complete confidence that they’re regular? Average? Normal? They don’t exist. Here’s a world where everyone is plainly, almost violently different from one another, and with such obvious evidence, no one has a choice but to accept that everybody’s different. And what’s the result? People more or less move on with their lives and try to have fun where they can find it.

No wonder governments hated comics for so long. With messages like that all over the place, the menace they pose to society’s children is clear.

(CC Note: Did you pull something with all that stretching you just did?) (Shut up, it’s good schmultz.)

The Dream Merchant 1 (Edmondson/ Novosadov): When it comes down right to it, we don’t know much about the brain. It can regulate millions of physical processes, collate and sort all kinds of data and memories, and rather than just stop if damaged or misaligned in any way, sometimes it kicks into some form of overdrive. It’s unpredictable, it’s dangerous, and it’s potential is limitless. All these factors are brought into play with The Dream Merchant.

Winslow gets lost in dreams so often and completely that he lives in a psychiatric hospital. It’s not that he’s hurt anyone or can’t function, he actually comes across as nice, he just can’t always tell when he’s awake or asleep, and no one outside a hospital environment can give him the attention such a state requires. Because it’s hard to say whether anything’s wrong with him, finding a suitable treatment that can give him independence without taking away his uniqueness is difficult. The latest experimental treatment succeeds in finding a possible cause for his condition, but there’s no pill on the market for a cabal of wraiths secreting into the waking world. A specialist comes by that seems to know plenty about this kind of condition, but he doesn’t exactly have credentials.

This issue follows every beat of what a first issue should accomplish. It shows characters in their usual environments, it disrupts that environment, and it sets up a new path for the lead characters to follow. The creative team has demonstrated that they know the basics of putting a comic book together. In future issues, I’d like to see the team try experimenting with the medium. It’d be a waste not to, with the endless scope of dreams to play around with, but they’re off to a solid start anyway.

It’s difficult to say how this series will develop as it goes on, but they’re off to a competent start.

There, you see? Four very readable new publications on what’s supposed to be a slow week. No such thing in our house! Come on by and see for yourself!

May 8th, 2013

Stores like ours love regular visits. We enjoy getting to know people, understanding why they see us, and being able to give them a reason to come back. Comic try, and many succeed in maintaining predictable schedules, but some don’t. They can’t come in every four weeks, but they pop in as often as they’re able and go for the biggest impression they can manage. And these are fine too.

This week we pop in on three titles that’ve been reviewed in the past, yet haven’t gotten much attention lately. There’s one more title that hasn’t been reviewed before, but should have.

Astonishing X-Men 62 (Liu/ Walta): Bobby Drake doesn’t get a whole lot of attention on the scale of “Characters that’ve been through five kinds of hell and back”, but he should. He was raised by an abusive father, one of his ex-girlfriends misled him into thinking she had his kid, he was mind-controlled by a coma patient until his body nearly imploded under the strain, he’s been shot, chipped, and shattered, and he lost his powers thanks to another mutant’s mental breakdown. Through everything, he’s come back joking. With this new storyline, he may have run out of jokes.

Bobby just got back from a working vacation in the Age of Apocalypse and he didn’t even get a t-shirt. He got some weird tech shoved into his chest. Now he’s having trouble sleeping, tense psychiatric sessions, and is being haunted by his mostly-not-evil ex-girlfriends. The evilest of them, Mystique, thinks something is very wrong with him, and when a master thief/ assassin says something’s wrong, something is very, very wrong. At the same time, winter storms are moving in so fast and powerful that even Ned Stark would be surprised. Every character hopes it’s just coincidence, but every reader should know better.

Iceman consistently puts on a happy face to hide his anxieties, but rarely do we as readers get to see both sides of his persona. It opens the character up by putting his back to the wall on a number of fronts he’s never been comfortable with, and like the reader, other characters love watching him suffer. The effect is something that has both weight and humor. There are a couple of moments in this issue that border on the disturbing, and while they’re supposed to be in the context of the story, it’s still a bit much to read in a mainstream action series.

I’m kind of impressed with the directness this series has kept for so long. It’s the kind of storytelling that throws the stereotypes to the wayside and pushes limits a bit to see what they can do. This is a pretty good jumping on point as well, with a lot of characters explaining recent history.

The Fearless Defenders 4 (Bunn/ Sliney): Identity issues have been one of the biggest factors in comics since the medium first established itself. Most heroes and villains agonize to make sure no one knows who they really are, and the reasons for this behavior are all over the map. Occasionally,  this habit penetrates so deeply that a superpower forgets who or what they are themselves. Such is the case of Valkyrie in the latest issue of Fearless Defenders.

When Odin first came up with the idea of having shield maidens guide fallen mortals to the afterlife, his first attempt didn’t work out so well. These Doom Maidens (Norse, not Latverian) revolted and nearly burned Asgard to the ground before the All-Father shut it down. Caroline le Fay, who I don’t think anyone knows, dug this old project up and is giving it some air, and with a drive any comic collector understands, she wants the complete set.

I wanted to avoid the theme of the all-female superteam with this review. They’re popping up more and more, they keep getting better, and personally I think the best sign of gender equality in comics will be when people stop talking about women's-only superteams and start talking about superteams that happen to be only women. But because it's a growing trend that should grow more, I have to bring it up and say that this reads like a step backwards. The covers of the series have consistently featured women as objects. That’s not helping. “What about content?” you ask? It’s just not good. Characters flip opinions on how much they trust each other within a single page, history is rewritten, reasons aren’t given, and the artwork is boring. I counted three different expressions in the entire issue.

Publishing is a hideous monster-made-real, but the core principle isn’t complicated. If a good book is printed, people will buy it. This isn’t one of them.

Deadpool 9 (Poshen & Duggen/ Hawthorne): Deadpool’s been in touch with his feminine side. He’s cross-dressed, he likes flowers and make-up. He’s even worked with a female version of himself. But having another woman in his head is a whole different kind of trouble, even if that woman happens to be one of the very few he’s ever met that’s come close to appreciating him.

Deadpool got hired by SHIELD to do some dirty work a while back by Agent Preston. She was mostly satisfied with the job and got killed for it, but instead of just dying, she went into Wade Wilson’s mind, which against all logic isn’t a chaotic hellscape. Deadpool and his team want to transplant her into another body, but in order to get the time to pull that off, Deadpool has to kill a few people for a minor demon. They’re not fun gigs.

Deadpool’s a tricky character, mostly because readers want so much from him. He’s a mercenary, so he’s got to be tough, capable, and smart. He’s got superpowers, so his look has to be more form than function. He’s supposed to be funny and insane, so everything he says has to come from a drug-addict’s rectum. He’s trying to be a hero, so he has to have a moral code. These are personality traits that usually contradict each other. They don’t only find a balance here, but they find a balance along with a cast of supporting characters that are about as messed up. And the artwork carries everything greatly. Terrible in parts, but great nonetheless.

Deadpool’s hit-and-miss with a lot of people, but this series is proof as to why the character has endured for so long. A look will confuse, but a read will reward.

Archer & Armstrong 0 (Van Lente/ Henry): This is a title I haven’t read, even after the much-vaunted relaunch of Valiant some time ago. Everyone told me this was the best of the line and I should read it - I think the words “you’re a stupid idiot” were used. So of course I resisted as long as I could, but even someone of my fortitude can only hold out so long.

Armstrong is a hulking immortal always looking for quality of life to go with his abundant quantity. Obadiah Archer is an overly capable young man raised under questionable conditions and born with an unbendable rod up his butt. When they take a break in Las Vegas, they have very different ideas how to spend their time but compromise with Armstrong relating his origin story. It is a tale millennia old and of some fame, though the details are new.

I dig it. In twenty-two pages, not only does the reader learn how an immortal came to be, but they also understand how a person could live through the life and death of civilizations and not go insane or detached or otherwise stop considering themselves a person. Clayton Henry’s artwork captures the nuance and expression that makes such a story work. Words alone would take volumes to accomplish what this does in a single issue. It’s also entertaining.

If someone’s been telling you to pick up Archer & Armstrong, it’s time to listen to them. If someone’s been telling you to invest in their start-up, you can stay on the fence for a while.

So the people I hang out with have good ideas sometimes. I suppose that’s why I grant them my presence on occasion. Hang out with everyone at the Comic Carnival this weekend! We’re not giving away free comics, but we’re worth it.

Looking for older Variant Coverage Blogs by Ryan Walsh for Comic Carnival?  They're here:

Variant Coverage Blog Back Issues

May 1st, 2013

So today is May 1st. In two days, Iron Man 3 opens in theaters. May the Fourth (be with you) is Free Comic Book Day, and after that is Cinco de Mayo. That’s six tons of awesome in 48 hours. Even seven days would be stressed to hold that much. I hope everyone ate a big meal, because you’ll need the energy. This week’s reviews are going the whole nine yards. Yes, I did just spend the whole paragraph making counting puns, and I think that’s a perfect ten. Let’s just get started!

47 Ronin 4 (Stan Sakai): Forty-seven Ro-Nine Four? 47R9-4? Is that some new droid designation? Eighteen inch pan pizza... Seven-fifty an hour... Thirty-yard gain.. numbers numbers too many numbers I’m lost in the numbers whathaveidone ARHGHAHGHGHGH!!!!!!

(CC Note: <smack!>)



47 Ronin is an ancient tale about the loyal army of a Japanese lord who’s brought to disgrace for not being disgraceful himself. Lord Asano commands a prosperous area that is distant from the capital city, and is called in to visit with the supreme ruler, the Shogun. He signs up for a class to learn proper etiquette, but refuses to bribe the teacher when prompted, and is thus sabotaged. The teacher traps him in one of those awkward social technicalities that result in death - we’ve all been there before, right? Only the rest of us don’t have a band of trained warriors willing to live as outcasts waiting for the perfect time to stage a tiny uprising and take revenge. (CC Note: Well, I know YOU don’t...)

This issue highlights sacrifice and payoff. The samurai forsake all their former relationships and are successful in convincing all that they are disheartened, pathetic wretches that are not worth thinking about. Hearts are broken and families are torn apart. Their target’s spies have spent months dutifully taking note of everything these apparent good-for-nothings have done and faithfully report it all back to their master. The spies get paid off and told their jobs no longer exist for all their efforts. For the “broken” warriors, their payoff is that their target has let down his guard, and soon they will have their revenge.

Sakai, known best for his long-running Usagi Yojimbo series, proves he can draw humans as effectively as anthropomorphic animals, so long as it’s in feudal Japan. The narrative as it comes off the page is cohesive, but it feels light, like there are some details being left out. The basis for this story is a series of events that actually occurred, and has been adapted as many times as some Shakespeare plays. The [spoiler alert!] Wikipedia article helps illuminate things, not so much what’s missing from the page, but rather what’s on the page that the reader might miss. The more you know about the original story, the more you can catch on the page, which makes the whole project an ambitious tome, but a challenge for the reader.

There’s one issue left in this series, and it’s pretty easy to find spoilers as to how it’ll end. Trade-waiters will have an easier read in the long run, but the notes in the back of each issue may be worth it to students of Japanese culture. Either way, this is an intense revenge tale that’s worth a look.

Worlds' Finest 12 (Levitz/ Macguire, Borges, Rocha): I could have sworn I reviewed Worlds' Finest before, but I couldn’t find anything in my (brief) look at the archives. So if I’m repeating myself here, just keep in mind it’s new to me. A bit. But it feels old.



In the rush to streamline the universe and get everything in great shape for New 52, a couple of people missed the last bus to their home reality: Helena Wayne and Karen Starr, aka Huntress and Power Girl. They were friends before world-hopping, but now they’re inseparable partners as they struggle to find their place in a world not made for them while trying to get back to the one that is. The blonde owns a company and is featured on magazines regularly while the brunette is on government watch lists the world over. Way to play to stereotype, DC.

Karen Starr has attracted the attention of a power player, and at first she was delighted to accept it, but it was revealed that the man’s also a big name in other places, like Apokalips. Karen and Helena leave before things get too serious, but some people just can’t let go. Desaad, Karen’s almost-date, comes calling and leaves a charred ruin behind, inspiring the need for closure.

There are jumps in the narrative that, while they sync with the jumps between artists, don’t sync with each other well. It’s difficult in places to tell how parts of the story relate, or even if they’re in sequence or not. There’s not a lot of depth to be found, which is good, because if the basic story can’t be told well, then anything else would be hopelessly lost.

I’ve seen some books with questionable titles before, but this sets a new standard. I do not recommend it.

As some readers may know, there’s a movie coming out Friday called Iron Man 3. It may come as a shock, but that’s actually based off of a comic book of some popularity. To commemorate this, Marvel is putting out two comics featuring the Man in the Iron-Actually-a-Titanium-Alloy-but-People-Insist-on-Calling-it-That Suit, Tony Stark.

First up is Iron Man 9 (Gillen/ Eaglesham): This title follows Stark between stints on Earth and, as is this issue’s case, in space. Tony’s looking for an intergalactic mass murderer, and he’s rich. Cue the mercenary - Death’s Head. We learn a bit about Tony’s range of bigotry toward artificial intelligences, as well as a hint that his dad may have had shadier dealings than Tony ever suspected.

Tony’s out in space because he wanted to find new challenges, and in that he’s very successful. One of those challenges has been looking for him as well, and while a personal vendetta suddenly appearing in the infinite void of space would sound fishy to most people, for a narcissist like Tony Stark it makes the normal amount of sense. There aren’t many speaking roles, yet the writing is clear and pretty clever.

Readers looking for something that ties into the movie won’t find much to connect with here. For that demographic, I recommend Iron Man 258.1 (Michelinie, Ross, Layton), a story spun off from the classic Armor Wars storyline created by, well, the creators of Armor Wars.

Tony Stark’s not as recovered from the violent near-takeover of his company from Justin Hammer as he’d hoped. He’d like to recover, but his equipment and staff are being targeted by a new threat, which unbeknownst to Stark is an old threat that refuses to lay down.

There’s a tiny bit of recap at the very beginning to give readers a sense of where and when in comic continuity this takes place. It’s been about two decades since Armor Wars was first published and a lot has changed in the world of technology, but the world of Stark Industries still comes off as state-of-the-art without trying to force any upgrades into the setting. This is fresh material, but it reads just like classic comics.

If all you’ve seen is the movies, some things may seem out of place, but most will fit right in.

When my manager asked me what I wanted, I asked for ten grand. I was hoping to get a hundred Benjamins, but instead he gave me Ten Grand 1 (Straczynski/ Templesmith). Better than the slap in the face he gives me as my Christmas bonus. 



Joe freelances. He doesn’t do it for a living, because he’s not interested in living, but if he doesn’t, he won’t get an afterlife with his wife, the only soul to think he was worth something on either side of the mortal coil. He charges $10,000 a job, again not because he needs the money, but to make sure anyone that approaches him is serious. The kind of jobs he does aren’t for the faint of heart, or the closed minded, or the law-abiding, but he’s motivated. The latest job hits him close to home because it was supposed to have been done a while back, so he’s doing this one pro bono.

Nobody really likes Joe. He’ll only meet his informants in seedy establishments, his clients unanimously wish people like him didn’t need to exist, and his victims haunt him. He’s also been dead a few times. Everything about his existence seems miserable, but there’s a reason he suffers through it. That reason looks out of place with Templesmith’s style, but the overall result works. The reader gets why someone would go through all this. The reader wants to know more about Joe and his work, even if they wouldn’t like to be there.

This has all the trappings of a great tragedy, and I’m fascinated to see if it follows through. I recommend this for anyone looking for something more substantial in their reading lists.

While I’d love to see readers pile into the shop as soon as possible to pick up their books, I’ll understand if you wait until Saturday, that is Free Comic Book Day!, to pick up everything at once. See you later!