Comic Picks By The Glick

There are merits to this volume.  Bendis’ dialogue, now that he’s back to having real people talk to each other, feels more energized and believable than it has in a while.  Maleev’s art perfectly captures the grimness of the story while taking periodic stylistic departures to remind you of his range.  There’s also a certain appeal in seeing the series tap into current events and letting the rage in them boil over into a full-on riot.  None of this matters in my final consideration of this volume.  The simple fact is that Bendis and Maleev’s failure to get the issues in this volume out in a timely fashion has left me convinced that they don’t care as much about this series as its incendiary subject matter would indicate.

Why yes, this did originally come out back in July.  It’s been sitting on my “to review” stack for that long too.  I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get around to actually getting out my thoughts about this particular title.  Probably because this first volume of “Monstress” is a very ambitious one with the story it’s trying to tell and the world it’s trying to create and it’s not entirely successful in these areas.  Yet it’s still an amazingly beautiful comic with an unusual and intriguing dynamic between its protagonist and the monster sealed inside her.

My initial thoughts were that it was terrible.  Now I'm giving it a second try with the "Anthology" and first "Colossal Edition."

What would it take for me to drop this series?  At this point it would have to be some truly offensive storytelling or for it to become truly boring.  We get neither in this volume as mangaka Gamon Sakurai simply has the opposing factions here continue their battle inside a massive office building.  There are some impressive scenes of gunplay strewn throughout the volume, but we don’t get the same level of bravura action seen in previous volumes.  Instead, we get to see Kei and Sato show off some different uses of their powers.  I was going to say “creative” but only Sato’s qualifies as Kei’s basically amounts to a demi-human-specific smokescreen.  Sato’s are also creatively gruesome, as it’s not everyday you see a man feed himself into a wood chipper.  How effective the reader finds this demonstration to be will require them to overlook some ropey plotting, however.  I’m not saying that it’d be impossible for people to fail to tell the difference between fried chicken and a deep-fried human hand.  It’s just that you’d have to assume the people doing the inspecting at all levels were idiots.

Admittedly, that helps when Sato finds his way into the building and starts murdering pretty much everyone in his way.  In my review of vol. 7, I wrote about how the events of that volume effectively stripped away the appealing moral ambiguity surrounding his actions and revealed him to be nothing more than a thrill killer.  Nothing in this volume changes that, except I’m reminded that I’m not really inclined to root for the people opposing him.  I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing him take out the corporate suits who are exploiting the demi-humans for their own ends.  Kei remains an unlikeable little jerk while his fellow demi-human, Ko, appears to only be useful as someone who our protagonist can spout exposition at for the reader in this volume.  So if Sato does manage to kill off any of these people I’m really not going to be too bothered by it.  Now that I think about it, I guess I can actually start to root for his success in this regard.  Maybe the characters he kills will be replaced by more interesting ones later on.  Then again, if Sato gets killed off himself I guess I’ll have my reason to finally stop reading this series.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

We all knew it wouldn’t last, but I think we were at least hoping it would last longer than this.  What am I talking about?  Well, word is that a certain Ol’ Canucklehead will be making his way back to the land of the living early next year.  Just in time for his latest movie, in fact.  There’s no specific evidence to this theory as of yet.  It’s all rumor and hearsay based on how Marvel likes to time things like these to big events -- remember how Peter Parker finally took back his body from Doctor Octopus right around the time “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” came out?  Also, there’s also a number of “Wolverine”-related issues being solicited for a dollar and word that the final issue of “Old Man Logan” may be in the offing as well.  Maybe his return will tie into the “Inhumans vs. X-Men” series as well.  But why would Marvel do that when they can probably get bigger numbers publishing a “Return of Wolverine” miniseries instead?

Still, this is all just speculation at this point.  I’m hoping it all turns out to be wrong and Logan stays in the ground for at least another year.  That would help to further entrench Laura Kinney in the role and maybe give Jeff Lemire time to wrap up the story he’s telling with “Old Man Logan.”  Plus, there’s the fact that he just hasn’t been gone all that long.  There’s no doubt that the Wolverine we all know and love will be back at some point.  It just doesn’t seem like March 2017 is the right time for that to happen.

It’s Image Comics’ 25th Anniversary next year and Robert Kirkman is all ready to celebrate.  By that I mean the latest issues of the three titles he writes, “The Walking Dead,” “Invincible,” and “Outcast,” will be priced at twenty-five cents each.  In addition to being a cute way to celebrate the occasion, it’s also a canny marketing move.  All three titles are kicking off new arcs with the issues being solicited here (and in the case of “Invincible,” its final arc) so this is a very good way to hook as many readers as possible for the immediate future.  Kirkman also gets bragging rights as the first of the Image partners to do something to mark the founding of the company.  Which is amusing in a certain way because he’s the only partner who isn’t also a founding member.  It’s probably also worth noting that of the original Image founders, only Todd McFarlane and Erik Larsen are still putting out comics regularly for the company.

Also, in Jonathan Hickman-related news, issue #4 of his sci-fi series “Frontier” was featured in these solicitations but don’t expect to read it next February.  Apparently he wasn’t satisfied with how issue #1 was turning out and revising it meant that he would have to delay the subsequent issues.  Rather than wreck the scheduling of the series, he’s opting to delay the title indefinitely until he can get everything just right.  Which is a good thing and shows that he’s learned something from the mess that he and Ryan Bodenheim found themselves in with “The Dead and the Dying.”

One of the key components from DC’s “Rebirth” initiative has seen them publish fewer individual titles, but double-ship their biggest ones.  This is because it’s a far safer commercial bet to publish two issues of “Batman” or “Justice League” than to take a risk on a lesser-known or all-new property.  To be fair, DC is still taking risks like that with the likes of “New Super Man” and Gerard Way’s “Young Animal” imprint.  There are a few other advantages, for the publisher and for the reader (me) to this approach.  For the publisher they’re likely thinking that this approach helps with reader engagement.  After all, a reader will be less likely to drop a series when they’ve read six issues over three months than three issues over the same period of time because they’re invested in the title.  Sales in the coming months will likely reveal if this approach is successful.  As for me, more issues of a particular title each month means a shorter wait for new volumes of a series.  This is especially great news since it appears DC is eschewing the hardcover first mentality for most of the “Rebirth” series.

Why am I mentioning this?  Well, the double-shipping approach has worked so well for DC that they’re going to continue it through next year.  I’m all for this approach, even if it means I’ll have to be a bit more discerning when it comes to what series I follow.  My wallet isn’t bottomless after all.

It’s official:  The anime adaptation of Kohta Hirano’s “Drifters” manga is a hit according to Crunchyroll.  It’s the most streamed anime on the site in twenty states, which is a good thing for the manga as well.  While the series is currently up to vol. 5 in Japan, we haven’t seen a new volume since the third one was published out here by Dark Horse in April 2014.  Fortunately, the publisher has seen fit to confirm that the two most recent volumes of “Drifters” will be published sometime after April in 2017 (as they’re not mentioned in these solicitations).  I’ll be picking them up as soon as they’re published because I was entertained by the action and worldbuilding Hirano was demonstrating in this series.

While seeing any Dark Horse manga series come off of hiatus is a good thing, there’s still cause for concern here.  I’m a little disappointed that the company didn’t seize the initiative and get vols. 4 & 5 out while the anime is being streamed.  This is the time when the series has peak awareness and it appears foolish of them to not take advantage of that.  Particularly when it was the anime of Hirano’s previous series, “Hellsing,” that drove sales of the manga for the company.  Also, Dark Horse’s announcement that the subsequent volumes of “Drifters” will be coming out in the wake of the anime’s success further underscores their apparent inability to sell a manga without a successful anime or other media (see also, “Vocaloid”) tie-in.  I might as well just give up waiting for them to finish “Eden” until it gets an anime at this rate…