Hooboy true believers, do we have a great batch of reviews for y’all this week. Shooting right from the hip we’re gonna take a gander at Morning Glories #3, Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #4, X-23 #2 and The Walking Dead #78! Check out the rating scale and then hit hit hit that jump!
0: Uwe Boll will direct the adaptation of this comic
0.1 – 1: Burn upon touching
1- 1.9: Abysmal
2.0 – 2.9: Art. Writing. Editing. All bad.
3.0 – 3.9: You’d be a masochist to pick this up.
4.0 – 4.9: “I’ll give it another month…but that was not good.”
5.0 – 5.9: “Really? The Watcher? In the face? I guess it was fun.”
6.0 – 6.9: “Hmm. That was decent.”
7.0 – 7.9: Well made but a few problems
8.0 – 8.9: Nearly flawless
9.0 – 9.9: Outstanding
10: Perfection. Issue of the year contender
Morning Glories #3
Words by Nick Spencer
Arting by Joe Eisma
Four printings of issue #1, two printings of issue #2, more positive press than any series has seen in a good long while and first printings shooting up into the hundreds of dollars on eBay. No, its not a new X-Book, or the death of a popular character…it’s Morning Glories, Image Comics’ newest smash hit…and let me add a bit of fuel to the fire when I say all of the hype is 100% deserved.
This book is fantastic, and I will fully admit I almost missed it. Issue #1 landed three months ago and the Multiversity staff collectively pooed its pants for it…except me. I was stuck in a “no new ongoings” rut AND had missed all the pre-release hype. And as per usual, EiC Matt began insulting my manhood because I didn’t read it (this happens more often than needs to be admitted.) So, on a whim, I picked up his copy of #1 and 22 pages later I committed to the long haul of this book. As long as it is being published, I will be there no questions asked. The concept of the book is familiar but at the same time remarkably fresh: six teenagers essentially kidnapped by a shadowy organization masquerading as a prestigious high school. A relatively simple concept weaved into intriguing gold by current comic Vunderkind Nick Spencer. The fact that I had to settle for a second printing of the first issue (which is apparently ALSO pretty rare at this point) is a mark of serious failure on my part.
But enough home-cooked hype, you probably wanna know how THIS issue played out.
I think once this series gets a few years (yes, years) under its belt, people will look back at #3 as a bit of a flashpoint. This is the issue where Spencer continues to mess with our minds with twist after twist as the first two issues have, but also begins to pull back a little bit of the curtain concealing the true nature of this book and these characters. In fact, this book was MOSTLY about these little reveals and had comparatively little to do with the kids themselves. Flashing back to the 1400s, we learn just how long these shenanigans have been going on. This organization has been gathering special teenagers for years…though the exact nature of this specialty and the purpose of gathering potential specials are yet to be revealed. We also know that the hour of someone or something’s release draws near…Spencer you crafty bastard…you really are living up to that Runaways meets Lost description, huh?
Of course, we do see half of the core cast this issue, as Casey tries valiantly to learn the whereabouts of Jade after her suicide attempt last issue. After achieving no success on that particular crusade, Ike offers his services to her in order to show the staff of Morning Glory Academy that they are not the only ones with power. Where that thread goes remains to be seen, as the rest of the issue is devoted to Jade, who is shown waking up in the office of the deadly Nurse Nine only to end up eavesdropping on said Nurse’s conversation with another, as yet un-established, faculty member. Apparently said Nurse doesn’t think too highly of Jade’s potential, calling her just another useless “birthday girl.” Hey! Another new term to add to this mystery!
Continued belowOf course then Nine decides the best course of action to deal with Jade is to cut her head open, which leads to Jade running right into a mysteriously empowered character for a moment before getting captured again and injected with a mysterious liquid. The exact nature of this character and of the liquid remain a mystery…a nailbiting, unfair mystery.
On the art side of things, Joe Eisma manages to structure all the panels in this issue for maximum suspense. Meanwhile, his Ryan Ottley meets Gred Land meets Leinil Yu penciling style is just as expressive and to the point as in issues past. I can only hope this trend not only continues, but that Spencer brings him over to the big two with him, because the world needs a lot more Joe Eisma art out there.
This would be the point of the review where talk about whether I’m going to pick this book up and either recommend it or don’t. Hence: DUH! And if you aren’t reading this comic there is something deeply and profoundly wrong with you.
Final Verdict: 9.4 — BUY (see?? All caps! That means serious business!)
Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #4 (of 4)
Words by Ed Brubaker
Arting by Dale Eaglesham
I’m going to be honest; I’ve liked this mini series a LOT more than both the main Captain America book AND Secret Avengers. Maybe it’s Brubaker doing his best to channel Stan the Man with his very classically tuned pacing and structure, maybe he and I are just glad to have Steve Rogers back, maybe it’s the phenomenal Dale Eaglesham pencils (that one isn’t even a maybe…that’s the reason I read this one in the first place), but whatever the reason, this book has been a crazy fun read from start to finish.
With this issue, the story is wrapped up and weaved back into the main Steve Rogers/Secret Avengers mythos pretty succinctly. When the issue opens, we find an already dire situation escalate even more over the last issue: the villainous Machinesmith is attempting to sell the re-processed super soldier serum to some surprisingly stereotypically looking dictators. As per traditional comic book tropes, Steve breaks up this sale and proceeds to get all up in Machinesmith’s grill and be a total boss about it (as the kids would say.) In all seriousness though, the action in the Machinesmith take-down scene was impeccably laid out to not only illustrate the former Cap’s physical dexterity, but his only the fly calculation. There’s a reason this guy is one of the most impressive hand-to-hand fighters in the Marvel Universe, and with this issue Bru finally decided to prove it. The twist ending is a really rather brilliant take on the “villain trying to replicate Captain America” plot that we’ve seen over and over again for sixty years, and it very much is a “man I can’t believe no one ever thought to do that before” situation. Hiding that much ingenuity inside of a played out plot point takes writing chops few can stand up to, and reminds me why I fell in love with Brubaker’s writing in the first place.
On the art end, I have loved Dale Eaglesham since his JSA relaunch with Geoff Johns a few years back. Truth to tell I was very sad to see him leave Hickman’s Fantastic Four behind in favor of a four issue mini series, but his pencil work holds up just as well here. His clean lines combined very angular and proportional character designs make for some great, hyper real action sequences as well as some painfully stoic lost love scenes. I’m not sure what he’ll be working on now that Steve Epting has taken over art chores on the FF, but the chances of me picking it up are high if he’s drawing it. Even if it’s a Stacy X/Rocket Racer team-up written by Chuck Austen.
So all in all, I can strong recommend picking up this brief slice of classic, pulpy comics goodness in trade. As of now, a Steve Rogers ongoing has not been confirmed (although a one shot annual has), but if it includes this team and stories this good and to the point, you can count me in.
Continued belowFinal Verdict: 8.8 – Buy
X-23 #2
Words by Majorie Liu
Arting by Will Conrad
I’m going to be honest, when I first heard Marvel’s plan to coalesce Wolverine and all of his various spawn into a coherent, interconnected sub-universe (or “claw corps”, as it were), I was pretty skeptical. Giving Logan, Daken AND X-23 their own ongoing series seemed like pandering more than anything else. Much to my surprise, all three claw books, now all with their second issues on the stands, ended up being fairly entertaining. However, if I had to point out a weak link, it would definitely be this book. The main Wolverine title is the hectic, widescreen chaotic epic, whereas Daken is the more subtle, sultry shadow ops book…which leaves X-23 with a big ol’ dose of teen angst.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with teen angst and X-23, more than any other young mutant, certainly deserves to be a little angsty, but baseless angst without a clear purpose makes for the very worst kind of throwaway storytelling and frankly I fail to see where exactly this series is going with her. This issue starts off with a bit of a clarification flashback showing once and for all that Wolverine did, in fact, pull a Bruce Wayne and adopt X. Frankly, while the scene was definitely trying at being meaningful it failed for two very big reasons: one, it was hokey as all hell and two, Logan and Laura’s relationship was so much more compelling when they had the estranged clone/DNA template, weird daddy issues thing going on…by turning that into a conventional relationship, mostly (I assume) to increase the impact of what was to come when Wolverine went to hell, it just comes across as banal and disrespectful to the history of both characters. Wolverine has been a great father figure WITHOUT taking this hokey plot turn before, and it saddens me they chose to go that route.
Following that we cut back to the burning depowered mutant halfway house that caught on fire last issue. Apparently set ablaze by some demon or other as a means to royally mess with X’s head, said demon then proceeds to taunt her with the same “you’ll never be anything but a killer” mantra that’s been thrown at her since she was introduced into the Marvel Universe proper (after her often forgotten true first appearance on the fantastic X-Men Evolution series from the early 2000s.) Following this was a VERY hard to follow (due mostly to the very odd panel placement and internal continuity) post-fire scene where a shaken X is picked up by a worried Gambit…despite Gambit never fully appearing in the scene. The structure for this one was just ALL off, the perspectives made no sense and it took me right out of the issue. I almost would have preferred a splash reveal of the Ragin’ Cajun as opposed to this subtle, faux symbolic appearance.
After that is a scene that makes absolutely ZERO sense wherein the demon possessed Wolverine saunters right onto Utopia, right past not one but SIX omega level telepaths and a former RULER OF HELL, to torture, taunt and otherwise defame X-23 and stab Hellion a few times before offering X a quid-pro-quo to save his life. And just like that, Wolverine is not the only one in Hell…X-23 is now down there too. Yet another unnecessarily symbolic image of X preparing for battle brings the issue to a close.
Now, I’ve listed a lot of issues with the issue and this series on the whole (and I haven’t even mentioned Will Conrad’s sloppy, clearly-trying-to-rip-off-mike-choi-and-mike-deodato pencil work), I think my biggest problem is that the book lacks its own central focus. So far, despite claiming a desire to establish Laura as more than just a Wolverine clone, they certainly haven’t given her, or by association her book, and identity of its own yet. All they’ve done is play out the same recurring issues that have come up with her as a member of the X-Men and play her directly off the storyline happening in Wolverine. I can’t help but wonder if the absence of Daniel Way on this book makes Liu’s faults that much more glaring…since frankly, Daken, which she writes along with Way, is much more entertaining and has a far more compelling identity and hooks than this book. Now, the word is that X will be starting out on her own journey of personal discovery (along with Gambit) in a few issues, so maybe then my thoughts will change, but for now this book just seems redundant given the other books on the shelves. It simply has not given me a reason to take it seriously yet…which is sad since from her first appearance on X-Men Evolution to her time with the New X-Men and X-Force, X-23 has steadily become a vastly compelling character. I just hope they actualize some of her potential in this book before I become too bored to keep reading.
Continued belowFinal Verdict: 5.0 – Browse
The Walking Dead #78
Words by Robert Kirkman
Arting by Charlie Adlard
While I’m usually not very open to admitting any kind of emotional connection to the comics I read, The Walking Dead is one that holds a very strong place in my heart. When I discovered it around this time this year, I had bought the first trade on a whim (with a coupon, no less.) Within about a week I had gone out and bought and fully digested the other ten trades that followed it at full price…to say the least, I was hooked. Kirkman’s human drama set to a zombie apocalypse came across as one of the most engaging, unabashedly REAL comic books I had read in quite some time. Focusing far more on the basic, very humanistic story of survival as opposed to gore (but oh…was the gore plentiful), it set itself far above and beyond other zombie-centric comic books and other media. This book sought to show the deepest depths the human soul can plunge to when left with nothing to lose, succeeded with flying colors and nearly 80 issues later continues to do so.
That said, this issue is very hard to review given the very simple fact that it is not even close to being a complete story. One of the greatest parts of this series is the fact that each issue feeds into the next so well that despite the fact that 78 issues have come out it still feels like we’re reading the same story that we started with in issue one. To be brutally honest, this was almost disconcerting to me as someone who read the overwhelming majority of these stories in the trade format when I finally caught myself up and switched to single issues…we’re left wanting more simply based on virtue of the fact that the story didn’t END.
Of course, that isn’t to say that nothing happened. In this issue we see the new, decidedly more hard edged group of survivors introduced at the end of the last issue, attempt to force their way into the gated community our motley band of survivors has made their home in. And as you might guess, they all end up with holes in their faces. The implications of this scene, besides having it function as a set-up for the upcoming “No Way Out” storyline starting in issue 80, were absolutely monumental. It showed the actual GROWTH of these characters. Obviously, given everything they’ve gone through and all the people they’ve had to deal with, there was NO conceivable way this group would pose any threat to them…and Kirkman didn’t even bother trying to deus ex machina these new survivors into something more powerful than they were…he sacrificed them to the finely tuned might of the established cast. They lived through hell and came out better and stronger for it and this scene, above anything we’ve seen in a while, proved it.
Though to be blunt, this has me worried. For a lot of these characters (namely Andrea, Glenn, Abraham and Rick), this whole chapter is reading like a traditional end of the road, post-growth and enlightenment track…which in this universe usually means that we won’t be reading them for long. Especially with the implications of the upcoming storyline, I suspect Kirkman is about to remind us why it’s never a good idea to get attached to any character in this book. That said, I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens next.
Final Verdict: 8.9 – Buy
Spins O’ the Week!
Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys – Steam Ship Killers
This artsy Boston collective hits all the right moody notes with their macabre, almost hulking full length debut. If you like slow, acoustic, multi-instrumental indie rock fare set to some of the most warped fairy tale lyrics heard in years, you can do no better.
None More Black – Icons
The first new full length from these scrappy Philadelphia punks since 2006 provides all the catchy, biting, lyrically driven pop-hardcore jams you’ll need for the next decade or so. The inclusion of more than a few country-style elements (slide guitar and cowbell, to cite two examples) are also a nice touch.
Forgetters – Self Titled
What? A new Blake Schwarzenbach project that sounds remarkably like a less moody Jawbreaker? With Kevin Mahon, the original drummer of Against Me!? Count me SO crazily in.
