Comics Candy: December 2009

Some really nice ‘off-the-beaten-track’ offerings this month: Stumptown #1 (Oni Press) proves that it’s not only Ed Brubaker who can write solid, hard-boiled, noir fiction in comics form. Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth and Lee Loughridge have crafted a neat and attractively dislocated crime story here as P.I. Dexedrine “Dex” C. Parios attempts to track down the missing granddaughter of the casino boss she’s heavily indebted to.

Lots of nice stuff here, with characters converging from all sides to hamper or maybe help (but for their own reasons) Dex’s search. Sparse dialogue, believable, multi-levelled characters, a timeline that jumps back and forth without becoming confusing or irritating, and dark, moody artwork combine to great effect here.

A class act this one, and a first issue that succeeds on all levels, including that oh-so-important hook. Highly recommended.

Also pretty smart and savvy is Tracker #1 (Top Cow), which mixes its crime/serial killer brew with a dash of supernatural and even superhero.

Here, Federal Agent Alex O’Roark is left for dead by a spree killer known as Herod, but doesn’t die. In fact, despite appalling injuries, he gets better – very quickly. It seems O’Roark has some lycanthrope in him, though whether that’s as a result of the attack or something latent isn’t yet clear.

Anyway, a really solid start, the concept well realised and, most importantly for me, ticking all the right boxes for a first issue. Main character established? Check. Supporting cast introduced? Check. Bones of conflict/contention introduced? Check. Enough story meat to pull you to issue #2? Check.

Sadly, I was unable to check a single one of those boxes for Deathlok #1 (Marvel). I was looking forward to this too, having been a big fan of the original series. But, oh dear me, no! A few pages in I seriously started to suspect that someone had fraudulently stapled the guts of a Starship Troopers comic into my Deathlok cover and made off with the real interiors (the costumes even evoke the body armour from Starship Troopers).

For a start, and most unforgivably, Deathlok himself doesn’t make a single, solitary appearance in the entire issue. Neither of the front and centre characters have anything in them you can remotely empathise with, so you quickly lose interest, and the ‘war as a televised sport’ scenario feels like something 2000AD has been doing for years and much better.

Sorry to be so down on this, but I’m getting tired of first issues that arrogantly (because of the eventual trade paperback collection) forget the basic requirements of what a first issue should be or have. Such as the title character! Avoid.

Much, much, much better (though I freely admit a degree of bias) is Sword #1 (Marvel). There’s a cheerful anarchy to the storytelling, and characters that doggedly don’t conform to any kind of norm that give the whole thing great appeal and even warmth.

I really like how Kieron Gillen presents his misfit team and their/his nonchalant, light-hearted attitude to the alien threats (however grave) they face. Comics can be a bit po-faced sometimes, and Sword is a refreshing bit of much ado about nothing.

Why the bias? Well, a certain bounty-hunter of my career acquaintance – Death’s Head – makes an appearance. How could I not like it? Oh, and there’s a neat bonus back-up feature that reunites Gillen with his Phonogram co-collaborator Jamie McKelvie. Value-for-money, too.

Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #1 (IDW) felt less like a first issue and more like the next bit of an unfolding saga (which, of course, it is).

I’m a big fan of Joe Hill’s writing, which doesn’t mean to say that it necessarily translates to the comic book page, but I’m glad to report that Locke & Key is odd, intriguing and unsettling, all the things I hoped for from Joe Hill.

Lovely complementary art by Gabriel Rodriguez too. Let’s put it this way: I don’t think anyone who picked up the first two Locke & Key series will be disappointed, and maybe if you’re new to the unfolding saga, there’s just enough to intrigue and pull you in.

X-Men Forever #11 (Marvel) wins this month’s ‘story so far’ award. Brilliant! Everything you need to know about what’s gone before and even some nice, Avengers-style, vignettes of the main characters.

Oh, and the comic itself was pretty good too. I rate maybe ninety per cent of Claremont’s original run very highly indeed, and this is a solid, back-to-form continuation (which takes the very bold step of killing off Wolverine).

Maybe it’s the nostalgia factor, but I really enjoyed this. And thought bubbles… Yes! I’ve missed them!

If you like your super-heroics on the grand scale, then The Authority #16 (DC/Wildstorm) is for you. Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning appreciate the scale on which the Authority works best and keep the threat level at citywide and/or global throughout, making the best of its unconventional heroes.

This post-Armageddon Wildstorm Universe suits the Authority to a tee, and if you fondly remember the Warren Ellis original series and haven’t bothered since, now might be a good time.

My only criticism is the use of three artists on 22-pages. That’s never a good thing!

Superman/Batman #66 (DC) is a curious beast, largely because it features neither title character. Instead, we get Bizarro and Man-Bat (flip-sides of both), plus Solomon Grundy, as the Blackest Night ‘event’ crossover rumbles on.

No, wait, this isn’t building up to a rant about crossovers, because, actually, it’s a quite nice, self-contained (well, in a two-part, to be continued sort of way) story with a good internal dynamic. And Blackest Night overall has been good, dumb fun. So there! I do love to confound expectations.

On the subject of which, Blackest Night #5 (DC) continues what has been a fun, old-fashioned, and pleasantly easy to follow (Final Crisis anyone?) all-hands-to-the-pump DC epic/extravaganza. Sure, it’s a little light on actual content, and the villain feels somewhat B-list, but it does give the seriously gorgeous artwork by Ivan Reis room to breathe.

Check out the dramatic DPS of zombie-Batman. It’d make a great poster. So, a general thumbs up, but really it’s crossover storytelling one-oh-one.

And lastly, if not leastly, The Invincible Iron Man #20 (Marvel) had me going “hmmmm” a whole lot. It’s such a blatant prelude to other upcoming stuff, one of which I assume is the next big Marvel crossover, Siege (“seven years in the making,” so the publicity blurb screams… Well then, it’d better be a darn sight better than this), that there’s no real tangible kernel of a story to get to grips with.

Not bad, just "hmmmm…”