There’s a lot to cover on Wednesdays. We should know, as collectively, we read an insane amount of comics. Even with a large review staff, it’s hard to get to everything. With that in mind, we’re back with Wrapping Wednesday, where we look at some of the books we missed in what was another great week of comics.
Let’s get this party started.
Snelson #1
Written by Paul Constant
Illustrated by Fred Harper
Colored by Lee Loughridge
Lettered by Rob Steen
Reviewed by Brian Salvatore
There is an episode of The Simpsons called “The Last Temptation of Krust.” Do yourself a favor and fire up Disney+ to watch it, because it this comic owes so much to it that you may be lost without it. To Snelson’s physical appearance, to his ‘edgy’ comedy at the end of the issue, it’s straight out of Krusty the Clown’s playbook.
Aside from its Simpsons pastiche, “Snelson” #1 attempts to have it both ways. The titular character is shown as a formerly successful standup who got ‘cancelled’ retroactively for dating a 17-year old when he was 25. The way that is presented is in a “Well, we know that’s not good, but is it really that bad?” kind of way, which is problematic. If the point of the issue is to show what a bad guy Snelson is, the book’s tone isn’t doing that hard work. If the point is to show that he’s a victim of ‘cancel culture,’ it doesn’t do that, either.
Instead, Paul Constant wants us to recognize the problems with Snelson, but forgive him for them as well. Forgiveness needs to be earned, and in this issue, Snelson doesn’t earn shit. He is shown as an adept stand up, an opportunist, a lonely horn dog, and a bit of a fool. All off that amounts to a character that has layers, but not one that deserves a pass for statutory rape, if such a pass exists in the abstract.
The art, by Fred Harper, does a nice job capturing the comedy scenes, both in terms of the monotony of comedy clubs looking the same and nailing the little details of the spaces. His character work is solid as well, with lots of expressive faces and good use of body language to tell us a lot about these characters in a short amount of time. There are a couple of panels where Harper is able to get surreal, and play with the art in ways that are impressively unique. If the book had more room for those, it would be better off.
The whole book is dragged down by a scene of Snelson having a one-night stand in a car, as the scene exists just to make Snelson seem sadder and to, for no reason, perpetuate a ‘women who want sex are crazy’ stereotype, and lazily at that. And therein lies the problem for this book: there’s a good story in here, somewhere, and there are aspects of this issue that pose interesting questions, but they almost always take the easiest, most clichéd way out.
Final Verdict: 5.2 – Not ready to headline a club just yet.
Spirits of Vengeance: Spirit Rider #1
Written by Taboo & B. Earl
Illustrated by Paul Davidson
Colored by Dan Brown
Lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna
Reviewed by Alexander Manzo
“Spirits of Vengeance: Spirit Rider” is a story about Kushala, a sorcerer supreme from the 1800s and stuck in the modern-day with the help of Dr. Strange. Despite this story mostly taking place inside Johnny Blaze’s mind Inception-style, it’s a character-driven story about her. Taboo and B. Earl make substantial use of her narration of the story to get to the personal journey she struggles with. Her spirit of vengeance is driven from the slaughter of her entire tribe, and once inside of Johnny’s mind, she realizes it wants her to lose control to get stronger.
It’s a solid one-shot because whether the reader has any knowledge of Ghost Rider or not, there’s a ton of exposition that makes it easy for the audience to understand the story’s stakes. While the actual dialogue of Kushala is pretty surface-level to what is going during their adventure, the true heart of the story is in the narration blocks. Her dry-wit and Johnny’s playful banter meshes well, but at times he does seem a little more childish than what would be appropriate given that they are trying to find a demon inside of his mind.
Continued belowPaul Davidson does a fantastic job with the art in this issue. Davidson uses fire as the flaming head of the spirits and as a tool during moments when Kushala and Johnny’s past is presented to the reader. He uses the fire as a tool to show the trials they both faced in their pasts and how the flames of the spirits of vengeance have engulfed their entire beings. Davidson also makes use of all the space in the panels with very little negative space. His attention to detail is shown prominently with Kushala’s costume to show the intricacy of her traditional native American clothes and the known patterns within the cultures.
There is also plenty of fight scenes using both the brute force of fire and the mystical power of magic. The battle scenes paired with Dan Brown’s colors help distinguish all the detailed linework of Davidson and entertain the reader rather than cause confusion. Despite this story being in a spiritual world fighting a demon, Brown’s color choices make the story bright and vivid.
Final Verdict8.9 This is a great one-shot that anyone can pick up that doesn’t confuse the reader and definitely piques the interest in checking related material.
The Me You Love in the Dark #1
Written by Skottie Young
Illustrated by Jorge Corona
Colored by Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Lettered by Nate Piekos
Reviewed by Gregory Ellner
The story of “The Me You Love in the Dark” #1 seems rather simple, but Skottie Young dies not let the fact that such a tale might be already known hinder his efforts. Instead, the haunted house and its seemingly temporary resident painter work together as a unit, two characters (after a fashion) who each feel relatable, in spite of esoteric circumstances. The way in which the haunting that takes up the plot is played out, Young makes an effort to characterize the invisible, making for amusing, even heartwarming situations in spite of the initial terror.
Jorge Corona does an excellent job helping to showcase the environment as much as the people within it when illustrating “The Me You Love in the Dark” #1. On the side of the visible people, Corona emphasizes various facial expressions, from annoyance or anger in calmer situations to wild, manic terror when the supernatural becomes more evident. When it comes to those who are invisible or otherwise tied more to the general setting, there is a focus on certain visual angles, such as focusing in on items that are moved, or pulling back a bit to give the perspective of the apparent protagonist seeing the results of an otherworldly action.
Jean-Francois Beaulieu, through s variety of bright or dark colors, helps to emphasize both the eerie nature of a haunted locale and the unknowing interactions of a living person with said haunting. Deep shadows help to examine the terror of the unknown, but bright lights illuminate more comedic moments as much as other surprising revelations.
Final Verdict: 7.0– An interesting haunting story begins with just enough character and relatability to keep it fun.
X-Men #2
Written By Gerry Duggan
Illustrated By Pepe Larraz
Colored By Marte Garcia
Lettered By VC’s Clayton Cowles
Reviewed By Henry Finn
“X-Men” #2 continues the new adventures of the X-Men in a way that is familiar and also distinctive to the canon. The fact the X-Men are now living on their own sovereign nation-island fully protected and operating their own corporation to boot. That is the distinctive part, while the relationship dynamics provide us the familiar guffaws and smack-down brawls made popular in the 90s.
Writer Gerry Duggan helps the X-Men settle into their new identity as world saviors operating on a more stable platform, we get a chance to let some humor breathe a little fun into the franchise that has been missing for a long time. For instance, the opening page itself serves zero importance to the plot but allows us to have a guffaw at the married couple dynamic of Rogue and Gambit as she scolds him for inviting random guests over to play poker without following security protocol. (By the way, the Thing, Blackcat, and Rhino? When has Gambit ever had meaningful interactions with Rhino?) While in the past the X-Men series has felt gloomy because of the constant dire straits they find themselves in, the Hickman-led era has brought back the bombastic adventure, quippy one-liners, and casual guest-appearances galore while not giving up on mass-scale destruction.
Continued belowIllustrator Pepe Larraz continues his rock-solid work on X-Men, grounding his art in realistic figures and contrast-filled panels. He is not afraid to make his blacks fully black and tends to illustrate each panel with a single, strong light-source. The feeling of modern nostalgia is further installed with colorist Marte Garcia’s constant use of lens flare and glowing light sources.
The combination of Duggan’s thoughtful prose with Larraz’s grounded figures with dynamic action poses strikes a balance that allows new and old readers to find something to enjoy. There is a particular sequence that showcases this, as we are provided a sweeping back-story of Sunspot’s character arc to date, all on a single splash page broken into panels nestled within wisps of smoke. I did find it funny that Sunspot would stop to explain said character arc to a random civilian, but such is the way of exposition. Might as well be the shotgun-wielding small townsman who invites you to his personal barbeque after you barbeque the Annihilation scourge. You just incinerated an entire town that is going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild, haven’t even checked for survivors or people you might have missed (and incinerated), and yet it’s immediately party/Barbeque time?
What about all the people who lost their homes, businesses, and pets? I imagine if you wipe an entire off the face of the planet it’s going to be a pretty shocking disaster to the local inhabitants. I don’t know, maybe I need to suspend my disbelief more, but it did make me pause. It seems that the book is going more for vibes than logic in any meaningful manner and that is why I rate it a 6.0
Final Verdict 6.0 “X-Men” #2 is a decent book with the potential to grow on you.
