The Week In Ink: April 7, 2010

Jeez, a guy takes the night off after a hard day at work and you guys act like I abandoned you at the mall or something.

 

 

The kick to the face is like the chiming of the clock: it’s Thursday night in a week where Batman and Robin came out, so it looks like it’s time for another round of the Internet’s Most Negligent Comics Reviews! Here’s what I thought of some of this week’s titles!

 


 

Batman and Robin #11: Hey, what a surprise: Chris loves Batman and Robin! Yeah, I know you’re all well aware of this fact by now, but as the last couple weeks’ worth of ComicsAlliance content will show, I will never get tired of going on and on and on about Batman. Seriously though: I read Batman and Robin and Jack Staff back-to-back this week and once I was finished, I had a hard time remembering why anyone would bother to make other comics.

I think what sets them both apart from other books is just how much economy of storytelling there is going on there. I’ve said before about Jack Staff that one of its greatest strengths is that it’s got such an incredible cast beyond the title hero (something that Paul Grist realized himself when he retitled the book as The Weird World of Jack Staff to explain why so much space was devoted to Tom Tom the Robot Man, Unit D, Zipper Nolan, DI Maveryk, The Claw, Charlie Raven, Bramble & Son, my beloved Becky Burdock: Vampire Reporter ad more). When you’ve got a rich cast of characters, like Grist does, or like Walt Simonson was working with in his absolutely essential run on Thor, splitting scenes up is the perfect way to build tension and develop strong characters. It’s something that makes ensemble books really work well (like in Walt Simonson’s and plays a long game with storytelling that, despite being the best way to drive sequential fiction, has fallen out of vogue in favor of self-contained stories that try to encapsulate a hero’s best moments rather than letting them flow organically.

Which brings us back around to Batman and Robin, because this issue plays with that same kind of back-and-forth storytelling with multiple plot threads spinning together to make something that’s pure fun to read. There’s El Penitente (who may be the Black Glove), Oberon Sexton and Robin in the graveyard, Talia and this week’s awesome Mystery Villain remote controlling Damian, Alfred researching the Waynes and providing running commentary to link the stories, and–my personal favorite–Batman’s D&D adventure in the Secret Wayne Manor Catacombs.

There’s a thrilling tension to it, not just because of the last page reveal, but because of the way Morrison chooses his breaks. We don’t see what happens to Batman in the catacombs, but we know it was something big because the visual cues are there. And in the meantime we’re getting something equally important in the question of Sexton’s identity, the Domino Killer’s designs on Bruce Wayne, and Talia’s plan to kill Batman. It’s just exciting Clarke’s art compliments it beautifully.

Also, if for some reason you’re reading this and don’t have it yet, the first story is out in hardcover this week, and brother, that thing is a master class on how it’s done.

 

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1: I think we covered SHIELD pretty thoroughly in this week’s ComicsAlliance Roundtable Review, but just to make it official: This thing is off the chain.

It’s easily my favorite thing Hickman’s done since he started at Marvel, and considering how much I’ve been enjoying his work on Fantastic Four and Secret Warriors, that’s saying something. This, though, feels like the book that’s going to bridge what Hickman’s been working towards with each, and it’s got a love of the universe that comes through in every one of Dustin Weaver and Christina Strain’s beautiful pages. And not just a love of the stories, either–the paraphernalia and characters of which are easy to drop into any story with a wink and a nod–but a love of how those stories are told and what they mean to readers. Which is what I love about Hickman’s work in general: The understanding of the process and the trust in the reader to make connections and put things together that comes with his willingness to experiment with form.

But again, that’s pretty well-traveled territory by now. Just give it a read already, if you haven’t yet. It’s awesome.

 

Thor and the Warriors Four #1: I’ve been looking forward to Alex Zalben and Gurihiru’s Power Pack/Thor team-up since it was originally announced, mostly because the second issue has what might be the best cover of the year.

Really though, I’ve absolutely loved pretty much every bit of Marvel’s kid-friendly Power Pack relaunch, and getting a team-up with Thor that promises to also involve Beta Ray Bill and Volstagg the Lion of Asgard himself is about the only thing that could make them better. But the last thing I was expecting was for this one to take on a plot as serious as the death of a relative.

Stuff like this is incredibly tricky to pull off in comics. Well, to be honest, emotional content is often pretty tough to pull off in super-hero comics in general, but if someone makes a misstep in something that’s geared to adults or adolescents (or adults who still think like adolescents, as the case may be), it’s a lot more forgivable than if it looks like they’re pandering to–or worse yet, emotionally manipulating–kids. So when an issue opens with the Power Pack sitting in a hospital with a dying grandma, it immediately sets off a warning sign.

Fortunately, Zalben and Gurihiru are able to use that to build a story that does feel like it has some weight to it without being so heavy that it’s at odds with the silliness of stuff like a bunch of kids teaming up with the Thunder Frog. It’s extremely enjoyable, but I’m curious as to how Zalben’s going to be able to pull it off, because I’m pretty sure of what lesson the Power kids are going to be learning here, and it’s not a very happy one. It can go off the rails in a hundred different ways in the course of four issues, but if this one is an indication of how the rest of the story’s going to work, it’s going to end up being well worth a read.

Plus, there’s a backup story written and drawn by the imitable Colleen Coover that features Hercules wrestling a lion, and that’s pretty much just four things coming together at once. It’s a miracle, doggs.

 


 

And that’s the week! As always, any other questions or concerns about this week’s titles, like the return of Invincible’s original costume or Chris Roberson and Shawn McManus’s dynamite, clever wrap-up for Cinderella can be left in the comments section below!

15 thoughts on “The Week In Ink: April 7, 2010

  1. One last thing about Power Pack:

    Based on the title page in this issue, it looks they’ve started borrowing Mega Man’s logo.

    Something about that seems so right to me.

  2. I don’t get why Chris doesn’t just move This Week in Ink to Comics Alliance. Everybody loves it, why not get paid to write it?

    Also, people need to stop acting like people that give them free entertainment, owe them something.

  3. And that Mystery Men shout out just goes to show why Comics Alliance is Eisner Nominated.

  4. I liked the choice for MYSTERY VILLAIN in the new B&R. Makes sense, he’s a badass, a great character and threat and he has a history with Dick.

    I wonder how many nanoseconds he took to consider ‘remote control a child to kill Nightwing’

  5. Despite your recommendation, I just can’t see myself picking up SHIELD…my tastes have changed to the point where that kind of fanwanky navel-gazing makes my ears bleed. I want stories, not filling in the blanks on Marvel trivia questions. :)

  6. Did you see the cover for the third issue of the Thor/Power Pack?

    Here is the Solicit

    Oh noes! All of Asgard has been turned into tiny little babies! Volstagg? Baby! Sif? Baby! Odin? Teeny, tiny wittle baby. Now, it’s up to Power Pack and Thor, Tot of Thunder to set things right. Meanwhile, Julie makes a fateful decision that may just play into Loki’s evil plans, and Alex reaches his breaking point. Will this be the end of Power Pack? All this, plus Ratatosk, Squirrel of Mischief: the second most dangerous squirrel in the Marvel Universe! PLUS: Hercules continues the tale of his twelve labors!

  7. Despite your recommendation, I just can’t see myself picking up SHIELD…my tastes have changed to the point where that kind of fanwanky navel-gazing makes my ears bleed. I want stories, not filling in the blanks on Marvel trivia questions. :)

    Oh, so you completely missed the part where I said this?

    And not just a love of the stories, either–the paraphernalia and characters of which are easy to drop into any story with a wink and a nod–but a love of how those stories are told and what they mean to readers. Which is what I love about Hickman’s work in general: The understanding of the process and the trust in the reader to make connections and put things together that comes with his willingness to experiment with form.

    You know, basically saying that anyone can drop in trivia and minutiae but that Hickman understands storytelling? Because if you don’t want to read it, that’s fine, but you seem to have read a review saying the exact opposite of what I wrote, which would be “This comic does not have a good story but it does have a lot of Marvel Universe trivia.”

  8. Have you been following Doom Patrol at all Chris? Because this week’s issue had practically everything you could ever want from a Doom Patrol story.

    Except for uh, Grant Morrison I guess.

  9. When it deigned to come out I quite liked Planetary, and if you liked that and Marvel fanwankery with a dash of modern Dr Who, Shield is probably the thing you should be investing time in.

    “I’m pretty sure of what lesson the Power kids are going to be learning here, and it’s not a very happy one.”

    I know where you’re coming from, but that would suggests Zalban is writing in a straight line rather than setting up a more complex or rewarding denouement, and while I don’t actually disagree with your guess, I wouldn’t be surprised at (or begrudge) a happier ending that veered less into snuff-drama territory and more towards the romanticism that some of the best superhero comics have pulled off (I’m looking at YOU, Animal Man’s dead family), if only because the Power Pack minis have already covered the kids dealing with death and/or growing up and a revisit to that territory would be largely redundant.

  10. There must be some mistake, Chris. Becky Burdock: Vampire Reporter is MY beloved.

    Don’t think that just because you’re a big-deal American comic-book blogger you can come over here and steal away our undead pale-faced Celtic reporter-lasses like that.

    Oh, no, no, no.

  11. I grabbed the B&R hardcover this week based on your tip and then immediately grabbed all the floppies of 7-11. Been obsessing over trains/dominoes/Sexton’s identity for the past five days. Given that Morrison likes to operate in his own little bubble universe (ignoring that Hush has been posing as Bruce, having Jason say he was resurrected in a Lazarus Pit, etc) I’m seriously hoping that Sexton turns out to be FRANKENSTEIN!