Comic Picks By The Glick

The first volume of this series represents what I thought was the best work from Tom King over the course of a very prolific and successful 2016 for him.  It was a look at the incredibly screwed-up state of post-invasion Iraq through the perspective of three characters:  Chris, a cop turned military consultant tasked with training the new Iraqi police force, Nasir, a former Baghdad cop with close ties to Saddam’s old regime, and Sofia, a politician who is helping to facilitate the transfer of power through means both legal and not.  What brings them together is the investigation of the death of one of Chris’ trainees and how it ties into the ambitious plans of local warlord Abu Rahim.

If that sounds bad, then the actual details are worse as this volume picks up in the aftermath of the death of Nasir’s wife after his attempted pickup by CIA agent Bob and his team went bad in short order.  Now Nasir is being interrogated to find out what he knows while Sofia makes her own negotiations to save him and track down Abu Rahim in the process.  As for Chris?  He’s ready to help Nasir (his friend) and Sofia (his lover) do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this mess.  Even if it means helping to mete out something resembling justice once all the dust has cleared.

It’s a credit to the reality that King and artist Mitch Gerads have created here that they can take the execution of a minor character introduced in this volume and make it seem like a rational response to the events of this story.  The tragedy here is that while everyone involved understands the world they’re living in they’re either unable or unwilling to change it.  Naturally, this doesn’t make for the most uplifting read.  It won’t ruin your day, however, as the story being told delivers enough tension and unfolds in way surprising enough to keep you engaged no matter how horrible things become for its characters.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Why was the original anime film being talked up so much in advance of the live-action version?  Because the source manga is highly overrated.

This volume actually starts out leading to a moment of triumph for Makoto.  After surviving the attack by an unfriendly vampire at the end of vol. 2, he uses his newfound instincts to track down the missing Yuuki and brings him back to the hospital.  Which is all well and good, until it’s revealed that Yuuki has been turned into a vampire as well.  He doesn’t handle the transition as well as Makoto and now our protagonist has to deal with knowing exactly what’s going on but not being able to do anything about it.  Maybe Nora, the vampire who turned him, could help.  Or maybe the guys who come for Makoto in the middle of the night and seem to know exactly how to handle someone like him have some insights they wouldn’t mind sharing.

It’s actually pretty impressive how much tension and sympathy mangaka Shuzo Oshimi manages to get from this volume even though it’s pretty clear how everything’s going to play out.  We know that Makoto isn’t going to be able to hold onto his normal life -- Nora spells it out for him before sharing blood in a queasily mothering way -- but you still feel for him because of the connections he’s established.  While Makoto’s breakdown in front of his family is a heartbreaker, greater emotional weight comes from his relationship with Gosho after he tells her everything.  You realize he cares enough for her to be this honest, but that’s just going to make staying together more difficult once the bodies start piling up.

That starts here as we see that Yuuki doesn’t have the same kind of self-control that Makoto is blessed with.  It’s a stark contrast between the two as Yuuki’s actions make it so that he can’t go back to his old life and must strike out on his own.  Except he’s not about to leave his only friend who has saved his life twice, for which he returns the favor once here, and is the only person he knows who’s able to relate to his situation.  There’s a lot of personal drama that could be coming to a head with the next volume.  Of course, if Oshimi just decides to turn the screws even tighter I think she may be able to get away with that for now.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

I was honestly expecting this to be the last volume of the series, given the way vol. 3 ended and along with the summary provided on the back cover.  That’s not the case here.  We’ve got at least two more volumes to go, with one of them being a collection of one-off stories that were sprinkled throughout its run.  With the end clearly in sight I’ll be sticking around to see how things end even if this volume isn’t one of the title’s stronger efforts.  The good news is that with his surprise reappearance at the end of the previous volume Major Gabriel Drumm has brought with him both horror and hope.  We learn that the majority of humanity will die, but six hundred and sixty-six survivors will be able to carry on our legacy.  Now it’s up to President Blades to decide who will be saved.  Though the scenes on Earth may be lacking the crazy plot twists and full-on soap opera that drove the previous volumes, this new development does bring out the best in the current president and makes the struggles involved recognizably human.  Of course, former President Carroll is still scheming behind the scenes to keep the drama coming here.

Unfortunately, with his reappearance on Earth, Maj. Drum has brought back some of the poor and ridiculous decision-making that has undermined the space-set portions of the series.  We learn about the early days of the Clarke’s journey and how the inter-crew relationships threatened to derail it.  Also, that NASA foresaw the romance and sexual interaction that would develop between the cast, but didn’t make any plans for how to handle it which could’ve saved us a lot of headaches.  Or maybe they should’ve picked a better crew to begin with.  One that wasn’t so beholden to acting on their emotional impulses.  That NASA didn’t leads to humanity getting screwed over, and possibly the rest of the universe as well.  I can’t say for sure since the volume ends with the fate of all members of the Clarke up in the air.  I’m betting that most of them will probably survive, but if they’re all dead then I’m perfectly fine with that outcome.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

The long-running thread of just what Detective Ralph Dietrich is doing on the Fuse finally reaches its conclusion with this volume.  Yet vol. 4 takes a roundabout, though not unappreciated, way of getting to that as it kicks off with one of the station’s inhabitants making a suspicious call at night before transitioning to the high-spirited retirement party for Ralph’s partner, Klem.  Those high spirits are subsequently quashed when an attempt to get a late-night ballgame going has Kelm and her crew turning up a corpse instead.  Subsequent investigation of this corpse reveals that he was a member of the Fuse Liberation Front, a known terrorist organization and that he was likely involved in a plot to assassinate the station’s mayor.  While assassination plots are a dime a dozen on the Fuse, rumors of the involvement of Viking -- a top F.L.F. official -- and the implication of Klem’s son in the conspiracy give the case even more urgency.  That’s even before Ralph’s romantic involvement with a F.L.F. member threatens to send him to jail for the rest of his life.

Writer Antony Johnston and artist Justin Greenwood weave another compelling tale that, for the most part, plays effortlessly to the title’s strengths.  There’s solid worldbuilding as we learn more about the culture of the Fuse and the history of its characters, great character work as the cast’s personalities clash over the course of the investigation, and the delivery of an efficient procedural plot as the details of the case are slowly revealed.  It’s all the more effective because the creators have done a great job in developing their two leads into people we care about over the past three volumes so we’re thoroughly invested in their fate here.  Particularly Ralph’s as there’s some great “How’s he going to get out of this?” tension to be had here.  All of this is good because the volume nearly throws it all away in a climax where the intricacies of the plot are explained while everyone patiently waits with guns out and one of the core cast threatens to bleed out.  It’s fairly ridiculous, even by the standards of the “talking killer” scenes in the first two volumes.  Still, such a scene can’t derail the entire experience and while things end with a certain amount of closure I wouldn’t be averse to seeing Johnston and Greenwood pick things up again at a later date.

Lots of interesting new title announcements from Image coming out of the Emerald City Comic-Con a few weeks back:  Joe Casey and Ulises Farinas are bringing us “The New Lieutenants of Metal” which is aiming to be as gloriously incomprehensible as early Image comics were.  That sounds like a threat to me, even with art from Farinas.  Justin Jordan is writing “Death of Love” about cupids and chainsaws and an “ocean punk” series called “The Family Trade.”  He’s been more about style than substance in his work, so my “wait and see” approach is in effect here.  Prolific colorist Jordie Bellaire is writing her first series, “Redlands,” with artist Vanessa Del Rey about a fictionalized version of a real place that contains everything the writer is most upset about with our country.  Jeff Lemire is teaming up with artist Phil Hester for “The Family Tree,” a horror road comic about the journey to cure a young girl.  Ales Kot also has two new series in the pipeline with “Generation Gone,” featuring a couple in a toxic relationship that gets superpowers after they rob a bank, and “The New World” which is about California after the second civil war.  While these sound like straightforward premises, Kot tends to go to some really strange places for his creator-owned work which may render them irrelevant after the first volume.

However, the best news is that Matt Wagner will finally be delivering the final chapter of his “Mage” series.  “The Hero Denied” is set to debut this August with a zero issue and run for fifteen issues.  It arrives eighteen years after the end of “The Hero Defined” and promises an end to the saga of Kevin Matchstick.  New editions of the previous two volumes are set to be reissued during the run of this series, so if you’ve only heard about “Mage” through its reputation this is your best chance to get on board.

The word around town is that Marvel’s latest revamp is not a revamp.  Confused?  Well, the idea is that the company wants to get back-to-basics with a lot of their characters much in the same way that DC did to much success with “Rebirth.”  Not only can you expect to see more classic iterations of characters -- working alongside their “legacy” counterparts, which Marvel is turning into its own thing with the “Generations” one-offs -- but a lot of titles will be resuming their original numbering as well.  After reaching an anniversary issue so that they can capitalize on that particular sales boost, of course.

Before that, the company has to get through “Secret Empire.”  Its latest event lumbers through these solicitations with two more issues in the core miniseries solicited alongside a host of tie-in issues and miniseries.  With the zero issue due to hit stands soon, previews have been making their way to news sites and what they’ve revealed about the story has been… disturbing.  Apparently WWII didn’t end the way we thought it did thanks to the use of a Cosmic Cube.  However, the actual truth is really goddamn depressing and throws a giant wrench into the concept of the Marvel Universe being “the world outside your window.”  I’d be more upset about this if it weren’t for the fact that this also reads like a giant swerve designed to get the reader to think the worst about the story before doubling back to reveal that actual inspiring, reassuring truth by the end.  Which, now that I think about it, does kind of line up perfectly with the company’s “not a revamp” revamp.

Here’s a new title from Seven Seas that I feel owes its existence on these shores due to the success of “The Ancient Magus’ Bride.”  That’s mainly due to the number of superficial similarities the two titles share.  Like that other great title, “The Girl From the Other Side” is about the relationship between a human girl and an otherworldly being, the danger in interactions between the human and spirit realms, a focus on European culture and myth, and an art style that’s somewhat out of the mainstream.  However, this “Girl” is no mere clone.  Mangaka Nagabe is telling a more unsettling tale that goes further into the realms of fairy tale.