The Week In Ink: June 10, 2009

Ahhhhhh romance!

 

 

Kinda gets you right here, doesn’t it?

But enough! It’s another Thursday evening in monsooning South Carolina, which means that it’s time for another round of the Internet’s Most Heartfelt Comics Reviews!

Here’s what I picked up this week…

 

 

…and here’s what I thought about ’em!

 


 

ISB BEST OF THE WEEK

 

 

 

Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #1: When the Green of Eden one-shot came out, I mentioned that Kieron Gillen–of Phonogram fame–really got Beta Ray Bill, and now that it’s spun off into ia three-issue mini-series, I’m pretty sure that was the right way to go.

The plot of this thing is that everyone’s favorite Asgardian Space-Horse has decided that it’s time to take out Galactus once and for all, both in revenge for his destruction of Bill’s own people and to keep him from doing it to anyone else. As the title implies, this is sort of like taking on God, which makes this the Cosmic Marvel equivalent of Preacher. And even though the bar was set pretty high with Green of Eden‘s villain–a Super-Skrull with the powers of the Warriors Three–it’s even more awesome than I was expecting.

There’s a lot to like here, but I think the best thing about it is how fast Gillen keeps things moving. The plot of Beta Ray Bill hunting and throwing down on Galactus would be enough to sustain an ongoing (or at least, a series longer than three issues), and the events of this one could easily be drawn out to fill more pages. In 22 pages, Bill stops a tsunami with Thor, recaps why he’s going off on his own rather than with his oath-brother, gets flirty with Agent Brand (who seems to really, really like dudes that look like animals), fights Stardust, smack-talks Big G, blows up a friggin’ planet, and still has time to deal with what might be the greatest, craziest throwaway villain of all time, an intergalactic arms dealer/cult leader who plays a space-pipe organ that can generate black holes. It is quite simply everything I want in a Cosmic Marvel Comic, and then some.

Plus, for those of you who have never read it, there’s a reprint of the first issue of Walt Simonson’s Thor–BRB’s first appearance–and while I’ve owned that comic three or four times, I never mind reading it again. So seriously, jump on this one. It’s worth it.

 

Booster Gold #21: It’s been a while since I mentioned Booster Gold here on the ISB, for the same reason that I don’t mention a lot of stuff: While they don’t have the zing (or Wild Dog appearances) of the Johns/Katz run, Dan Jurgens’ issues as writer/artist have been reliably enjoyable super-hero comics that just don’t leave a whole lot unsaid. Though to be fair, I will admit that the big Fantastic Four joke a few months back got a genuine chuckle out of me.

This issue however is a little different, as it’s the first of DC’s wave of books that, while carrying a $3.99 cover price, put that extra buck into giving you an eight-page backup. For Booster, the co-feature is, of course, Blue Beetle, and much like Manhunter–who makes her return in the upcoming and otherwise sketchy-sounding Batman: Streets of Gotham–I’m glad to have him back. By which I mean I’m glad to have both Blue Beetle and Manhunter back, not that Manhunter and I are both glad–you know what? You can puzzle through my poor grammar on your own. It builds character.

Anyway, with as visible as Jaime Reyes has been on the Brave and the Bold TV show–which, unsurprisingly, I love–back in a story that’s pure fun. I’m a fan of Matt Sturges and, well, this story is about the Blue Beetle fighting a giant robot named THINKO!, so I’m pretty much in the tank for it already. As to its placement in the back eight pages of Booster, the fact is that while I would’ve prefered Blue Beetle to keep on as an ongoing series, DC could’ve done a lot worse with placement. Putting the “Blue and Gold” history aside, it might seem counterintuitive to put a book designed to hook new, young readers in the back of a comic that revels in the intricacies of DC continuity and their goofy-ass multiverse, but to be honest, those hints at a larger, more complex universe are the same things that got me and a bunch of readers of a certain age hooked on comics in the first place.

So I say have at it, and hopefully there are enough people who feel the same way to keep the Blue Beetle stories coming for a long time. Especially if they involve THINKO!.

 

GI Joe Origins #4: With as much as I praised the first issue of Origins and then the drop-off that immediately followed with #2, I’ve been a little antsy to see how this one was going to turn out. Fortunately, for the last two issues, my comments about it being Larry Hama at his best have turned out to be pretty accurate, as this one’s got everything you want to see from a GI Joe origin story: a ridiculous psychopathic villain with an even more ridiculous mask, Scarlett using her crossbow, liberal handfuls of military jargon and of course, Snake-Eyes jumping out of a plane with no parachute in a World War I flying ace costume. Okay, so maybe that last one is just something I wanted, and it might be worth noting that that is a list that definitely does not include the Delta-6 Accelerator Suit, but those are both topics for another time.

What matters here is that while the main title is bogged down in the slowest, most boring story in GI Joe history, this is the one that’s got the action and adventure that I want from these characters. It’s a lot of fun, and while it definitely suffers from a lack of Destro, it’s well worth picking up.

 

JSA vs. Kobra: Engines of Faith #1: And speaking of fanatical paramilitary organizations named after snakes, we’ve got this one. Long-time ISB readers might recall that I’m a huge fan of Greg Rucka’s Checkmate–the spiritual successor to John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad, still uncollected despite the promise of a Showcase. What I didn’t realize until this one was solicited, however, was that some of my favorite issues of that run–the Mademoiselle Marie story and the “Castling” arc that closed out the book before Bruce Jones came on and everyone stopped reading it–were co-written by Eric Trautmann.

It’s no surprise then that this one–which pits perennial DC Universe bad guy Kobra against the Justice Society by way of Mr. Terrific, who pulls double-duty as Checkmate’s White King–fits right in with those. More than anything else, I really enjoy the way that Checkmate and Suicide Squad set up espionage adventures with all the trappings of a super-hero universe, and Trautmann continues that here with genetically modified suicide bombers with Nth-metal explosives, and it works out very well.

Still, there’s a part of me that wishes that this story just involved the characters from Checkmate rather than bringing the JSA into it, but that might just be because I haven’t read an issue of JSA in years and was unprepared for the fact that “Citizen Steel” is actually still on the team. And man, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t drinking at work today, but I could’ve sworn I was hallucinating and saw Magog on the cover.

Surely that guy’s not still around, is he?

 

Captain Britain and MI-13 v.2: Hell Comes to Birmingham: Last week, I mentioned the cancellation of Captain Britain, and honestly, the fact that one of Marvel’s best comics is getting the axe has got to be one of the biggest downers of the year for me as a fan. Of course, the bright side to that is that we did get over a year of amazingly fun comics, and this story is a definite high point. Mostly because it involves the Mindless Ones rampaging through the Midlands, and as we all know, the Mindless Ones make everything better.

Seriously, I read this one again today, and beyond the pure fun of it, what really struck me was just how clever Paul Cornell’s scripts are. That’s always been his major strength in his work for Marvel–Wisdom, for all the roughness that was later smoothed out for CB&MI13, is worth it for the plots alone–and here, it’s all on display, from Blade fighting demons with a papier-mache sword made of magic books to Pete Wisdom’s romantic three-way on the moon, guest-starring the Skrull John Lennon. It’s a hoot, and the best thing about it is that as good as it is, the story after actually tops it.

So long story short, it’s a great book, and if you haven’t already read it, don’t let the fact that it got the axe stop you from enjoying some of the year’s best comics.

 

Final Crisis HC: Still lovin’ it.

 

The Flash: The Human Race: Speaking of Grant Morrison comics that I love, the second collection of his work (with co-writer Mark Millar) on Flash came out this week, and while this might just be my experience, this is one of those runs that I just never hear people talking about. It might be because it came as a fill-in year in what was otherwise a hundred issues of Mark Waid’s defining run, or because it’s overshadowed by Morrison’s own better-known work on JLA, but there aren’t a lot of people talking about it. And that’s a shame, because it–and “Human Race” specifically–is one of my favorite runs in comics.

“Human Race” definitely plays up to Morrison’s strengths. The idea of a race of alien gamblers that show up to make the Flash race a radio-creature across the universe under penalty of planetary destruction is one that could’ve come from Cary Bates or Otto Binder; it’s a Silver Age story through and through, but done for the Modern Age. And yet, there’s no wink to the reader, no acknowledgement of how goofy everything is. Instead, it’s presented with the sort of earnestness that’s reflected in the climax of the story itself–almost exactly the same sort of thing that G-Mo would later use in the climax of JLA’s “World War III,” another favorite of mine–and that somehow manages to be (for lack of a better word) wholesome without crossing over into cloying.

It’s the kind of story that gets me in the gut every time, and if you’ve never read it, it’s well worth picking up.

 


 

And that’s the week! As always, any questions or concerns can be left in the comments section below. As fo rme, I’m going to be going back through my copies of Suicide Squad and seeing if I can’t replace all of Tom Tresser’s dialogue with quotes from Patrick McGoohan.

40 thoughts on “The Week In Ink: June 10, 2009

  1. I note you didn’t buy the Alan Davis Excalibur trade as I commanded you.

    I’m making a note in my ledger.

  2. Chad was actually at the store when I was putting books out on the shelf this week, and he asked me if I was getting it and said it was really good.

    MAYBE YOU TWO CAN BE BEST FRIENDS NOW.

  3. If Tom Tresser is turned into Patrick McGoohan….what terrible meaning is there in Secret Six that we should look for?

  4. I always imagine Stalker picking up women by walking up and saying “Je m’appelle Lorenzo, baby!” or “Lorenzo, Capricorn!” and then making a little tiger growly noise. Maybe I’m just projecting. Stalker is awesome. I bet he could have been an Arashikage ninja, but he was having too much fun fighting the Vietnam War.

  5. The Human Race has been basically my favorite Flash story of all time since I realized Geoff Johns was Trying Too Hard, but I didn’t know that it was written by Morrison instead of Waid until now. Go figure.

  6. I notice that the three-word review of the Final Crisis HC hasn’t started a vicious debate in the comments yet. I am liking this restraint.

  7. Being able to kick someone in the face while your other knee’s planted on the ground is a superpower of its own, unless your opponent’s a midget.

  8. NOBODY talks about that run on the Flash as a pretty big Morrison fan I was surprised to only find out about it recently. I will have to buy it now.

  9. I don’t know why you’re so down on ASM, Chris – fanfic writers gotta eat just like the rest of us.

  10. A “radio creature”?? It’s Sonic the Hedgehog, man! The Flash! Versus Sonic the Hedgehog! THE FATE OF TWO WORLDS HANGS IN THE BALANCE!

    Still can’t warm up to Final Crisis though.

  11. I hate the fact that I always seem to have negative things to say, but man, Fables is making me snore. I actually think I’ll pass on the last two parts of this crossover, and just consider buying the trade later.

    Also, oh my god did you see that ginormous 48-issue Walking Dead trade? I just got it. Thank you Image for saving me from kicking myself for my failure to pick up the collections.

  12. Also, hey Chris have you read that Color of Earth (translated Korean manhwa) book that First Second put out several months ago? I just mention it because the second volume comes out next week I believe and I’m crazy excited for it. I don’t know if cultural books are your thing, but man, it’s a touching and universal story that’s easily one of the best of its kind.

  13. Morrison’s Flash RULES! I’ve been looking for Secret Origins #50 for years now… is it worth the hunt or should I just sneakily flip open the trade and read it in the store?

    I’m not the type to buy a trade of something I already own (unless it’s the Metabarons, Hellboy, or something drawn by Jack Kirby)

  14. Brian said:
    “Being able to kick someone in the face while your other knee’s planted on the ground is a superpower of its own, unless your opponent’s a midget.”

    Looks to me like Scarlett was crouching when she took that boot to the chin.

  15. I just finished re-reading the Moore/Davis Captain Britain run, and while it wasn’t quite as mind-blowing as I remembered it being, it made me want to pick up this new series. I’ll probably give it a shot when the trade pops out.

    Oh and Chris: I meant to thank you for continually hyping All Star Superman last year. I finally read it over the last month and WOW. Wowie wow wow. Thanks for the tip.

    Every time I go to the store I try to remember what you said was good that week, but either I can only remember Spiderman or Hercules and won’t buy it or I remember some small-press thing and they don’t have it. All Star Supes was super, though, and I thank you for it.

  16. Captain Britain & the MI-13 is… sigh… was one of the few Marvel books I looked forward to every month if only for the chance of a cameo by Union Jack.

  17. Surprised no word from the Lockjaw Pet Avengers front considering that issue 2 has Zabu joining up followed by an encounter with Devil Dinosaur

  18. DW question . . . no [i]Autopia[/i]? The issue was simple than the last one-shot, and it includes Donna Noble making her US comic debut. Her hair’s colored weird, but she’s still pretty fun to watch.

  19. Why no love for Uncanny X-Men First Class? I thought it was quite funny, specially the origins part (Wolverine Agent of Snikt was the best part and I would love that as a canon origin).

  20. If you haven’t heard enough hyperbole about The Flash vs. Sonic the Hedgehog storyline from The Flash: Human Race, then you clearly never visited The V, which was spun off of the Warren Ellis Forum. It’s also home to Rich Johnston and Kieron Gillen, or at least when Johnston isn’t doing his thing and Gillen’s not hanging out with the tough PC gaming crowd.

  21. What FF joke?Have I missed an issue?

    Booster stops a rocket crewed by four people who look a lot like Reed, Johnny, Sue and Ben in order to preserve the DCU timeline. I laughed.

    I notice that the three-word review of the Final Crisis HC hasn’t started a vicious debate in the comments yet.

    I guess maybe three words are easier to understand than two?

    A “radio creature”?? It’s Sonic the Hedgehog, man!

    You know, I never made the connection before, but now that’s all I can see!

    Also, hey Chris have you read that Color of Earth (translated Korean manhwa) book that First Second put out several months ago?

    I did not! I take it from your comment that it’s good stuff?

    Morrison’s Flash RULES! I’ve been looking for Secret Origins #50 for years now… is it worth the hunt or should I just sneakily flip open the trade and read it in the store?

    SECRET ORIGINS #50 is one of the all-time greats, right up there with the one about the origins of all the super-teams’ headquarters (which also has a Morrison story, I think). The trade only reprints the Flash story from it, though, for obvious reasons.

    Oh and Chris: I meant to thank you for continually hyping All Star Superman last year.

    You’re certainly welcome, but why won’t you read Herc? That book’s awesome!

    Glad you liked JSA v Kobra; thanks for the kind words.

    Thank YOU for stopping by, Eric! And great job, both on JSA vs. Kobra and on your Checkmate work!

    DW question . . . no Autopia?

    Despite being a fan of a lot of Ostrander’s work, I’ve never read any of his licensed stuff. If I get a chance, I’ll read it this weekend.

  22. I see you dropped Pet Avengers, didn’t care for it?

    also its too bad we couldn’t get 2 weeks in a row of you bashing Joe Kelly,

  23. D’oh, I totally did buy and read Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, but for some reason I left it at the office and forgot about it.

    It’s a comic where the Thunder Frog fights Devil Dinosaur! How could I NOT love it!

  24. “It’s a comic where the Thunder Frog fights Devil Dinosaur! How could I NOT love it!”

    I’ll be honest but you were the first person I thought of when I read it

  25. Hey, CS, did you check out the Faces of Evil: Kobra one-shot? it sets up the JSA vs Kobra mini and directly picks up from where “Castling” left off. It’s not by Trautmann though

    “I’ll be honest but you were the first person I thought of when I read it”

    yeah, I’ll be surprised if they weren’t writing it just for CS

  26. I noticed you didn’t get Buck Rogers #1, which features a talking armored bear toting a laser cannon. I’m surprised Scott Beatty didn’t alert you to that fact beforehand.

  27. It seems Magog has been given a backstory and JSA membership to boot, because it was very inappropriate to leave him ambiguous in Kingdom Come.

    Also, teaser images have been made for his upcoming monthly title.

  28. Appearances of Devil Dinosaur don’t work for me any more… unless he’s wearing a smoking jacket.

  29. …those hints at a larger, more complex universe are the same things that got me and a bunch of readers of a certain age hooked on comics in the first place.

    Me too! I got into the DC Universe because of Crisis, when I first learned that they had this incredibly cool concept called “multiple earths.” Man, I was hooked and never looked back.

    I don’t think total linear simplicity of storytelling is always and necessarily the best way to hook adventurous young minds.

  30. The Blue Beetle backup did not disappoint!! I was completely devastated when Blue Beetle was canceled. I hope that it–and the Manhunter co-feature–live long, healthy, eight-page-a-month lives.