Comic Picks By The Glick

So, how about that Frank Cho walking of his job of providing variant covers for Greg Rucka’s “Wonder Woman” run?  I was tempted to take the artist’s side at first since I feel he gets a lot of flack for having a style where all the women default to “sexy” and the various “Outrage!” sketch variants he does at conventions (whose trolling I find deeply amusing).  Then it was pointed out to me that this “Wonder Woman” job he had was a paid gig and therefore subject to DC’s, and Rucka’s as well in this case, approval.  Now, he just looks like a whiner throwing a hissyfit because he couldn’t draw Wonder Woman’s panties.  The smart thing for him to do would’ve been to acquiesce to the publisher’s demands and alter his art as they saw fit.  Then he could’ve sold the original “uncensored” art for an exorbitantly marked up price, satisfied in the knowledge this is what his fans really wanted.  He’s out of a job now, but you shouldn’t feel sorry for him.  He’ll be back either at Marvel, or doing his own thing through Image drawing all the sexy women he can any way he wants.

As I write this, Comic-Con is almost upon us.  That means there are all sorts of announcements, official and otherwise, about upcoming titles from the major publishers hitting the internet.  In the case of Dark Horse, that includes “Ether” a five-issue miniseries from writer Matt Kindt and artist David Rubin about an inter-dimensional explorer whose scientific mind is challenged when his help is requested in a realm of fantasy.  Kindt says that fantasy has never been a genre he’s a fan of, so the main character is acting as his surrogate as he interrogates its tropes.  “Neil Gaiman’s Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire” is another in the company’s semi-ongoing adaptation of short stories from the author.  This time, Shane Oakley adapts a short that satirizes gothic literature while also prefiguring some of the stuff that Gaiman would touch on when he went on to write “Sandman” (he wrote the story four years before starting work on that seminal comic).  There’s also “Spell on Wheels” from writer Kate Leth and artist Megan Levens, another five-issue miniseries about a group of witches who go on a road trip to retrieve their objects of power.  All of these sound promising and will be out either later this year or very early next.

Now if we can get some good manga news coming from the company out of the con I’ll be even more pleased…

Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo (with his loyal army of inkers) are ideally suited to tackling the adventures of Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme.  The writer, through his runs on “Wolverine and the X-Men” and “Thor,” has shown that he knows how to handle the strangest parts of this shared universe, tossing off the most over-the-top details about it with ease.  As for the artist, he’s shown over the years, between his work at Vertigo and Marvel that there isn’t really anything he can’t draw.  Now this is going to sound more than a little self-congratulatory as I say that this first volume bears out my thoughts in grand fashion.  Within the five issues collected here, Strange has to deal with the everyday magical creepy-crawlers that infest Manhattan, a possession by nomadic soul-eaters, Zelda Staunton -- a librarian with an infestation of mind maggots, and an astral projection gone awry that requires him to cleave his way back to his body.  Oh, and an organization known as the Empirikul who are set on wiping out the plague on reality they call “magic” from the multiverse.

The two creators deliver an experience with this first volume that’s as gloriously weird as you’d expect from them.  Bachalo rises to the challenge of rendering all of these magical creatures -- as well as Strange’s otherworldly townhouse -- in vivid detail without the jarring shifts in style that marked his (clearly rushed) work on the latter half of Bendis’ “Uncanny X-Men” run.  Aaron delivers an eccentrically heroic protagonist in Strange, as he (both the writer and the character) clearly relish the chance to prove their skills when dealing with the fantastically bizarre.

My only concern with the series so far is in the broad strokes of the plot:  It has the main character going about his business only to be confronted by an enemy that is out to destroy him and everything he stands for.  This is basically the same setup for the “God Butcher” arc from Aaron’s (really great) first couple of volumes of “Thor:  God of Thunder.”  Some may cry foul here, but the writer does a great job of making this plot specific to Strange as he broadens the Sorcerer’s world and finds a great subplot for his manservant Wong.  Said subplot is also directly relevant to the ongoing problem of establishing the rules for how Strange can use magic without coming off as impossibly powerful.  It’s a winning debut for Aaron and Bachalo and worth picking up for anyone who has an interest in the character (assuming they can find this hardcover as cheap as I did).

If you were expecting Inio Asano’s story of adolescent love, loss, and ANGST to get any happier with this second volume, then I’d bet this is the first of his manga you’ve read.  In that case, congratulations on taking the plunge!  Much like real life, however, vol. 2 shows that this series is going to be long road of ups and downs where the valleys can get wrist-slittingly depressing and the peaks always have some kind of nasty catch waiting for you at the top.

If this is what the series has to offer, then why read it at all?  That’s because Asano is really good at making Punpun’s experience feel relatable.  Part of that is through the ongoing gimmick of drawing the character in a crude, cartoonish fashion, but the mangaka also nails the feelings of awkwardness, anxiety, and fear that we all felt at that age.  In Punpun’s case, his arc in this volume involves dealing with his feelings for Aiko in middle school as she (apparently) becomes close with the star of the badminton team.  The onslaught of drama that ensues would be unbearable in lesser hands, yet Asano knows when to keep the story grounded and when to let it soar to fantastic heights of whimsy.

It’s not all about Punpun in this volume, as we learn just why his Uncle Yuichi is such a sad sack.  After meeting a nice girl at a coffee shop and subsequently doing his best to sabotage their potential relationship, he confesses to an almost-affair that ruined him professionally and personally.  The level of self-loathing on display here with Yuichi is palpable to an impressive extent.  Even so, if his arc had a conventional “healed by the love of a good woman” ending it’d still feel pretty satisfying.  Except that nothing is ever easy in this series as the quasi-cliffhanger ending to this volume makes clear.  “Goodnight Punpun” isn’t the kind of series you read to take your mind off of a hard day, but it offers up enough emotional truth and connection to fully invest me in the struggles of its characters.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Comics lost a great talent earlier this year with the passing of Darwyn Cooke.  He was an impeccable storyteller with an art style that may have appeared to be rooted in another era, yet effortlessly tapped into the iconic nature of whatever he was drawing.  For a lot of people, “The New Frontier” is his masterwork.  A re-imagining of the dawn of the Silver Age for DC’s superheroes, it’s a sprawling epic featuring every major and minor hero of the era.  It starts off with the last mission of The Losers on Monster Island and culminates with a battle against a giant alien monster.  In between, there’s the story of Korean War veteran and failed pacifist Hal Jordan trying to make it work as a test pilot, the martian who was accidentally brought to Earth and now tries to fit in as Detective J’onn J’onzz, and forensic scientist Barry Allen who is having the time of his life after an accident gave him super-speed.  This is their story as well as those of the Challengers of the Unknown, an African-American superhero going by the name of John Henry and fighting for his people, intelligence operative and master gamesman Faraday, and a few others by the names of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  All of this is cast against the turbulent political times of the late 50’s and early 60’s as our heroes find that the only things tougher than taking down a supervillain are dealing with public opinion and a government that doesn’t quite trust them.

I said a lot of people consider this story to be Cooke’s masterwork, but I’m not one of them.  For me, his best work would be his adaptations of Richard Stark’s “Parker” novels and it still depresses me to think that we’ll never see another one of them.  “The New Frontier” is still pretty good as it’s hard not to find yourself drawn in by page after page of Cooke’s spectacular art (with colors from the exemplary Dave Stewart) as he gets to draw everything from dinosaur attacks, to Batman taking down a cult with J’onzz and Slam Bradley, to a psychedelic assault on an alien consciousness.  Where it loses me is in the sheer sprawl of characters and plotlines throughout its 500-plus pages.  Most of the focus is on B and C-tier characters, and there’s not enough development devoted to those in the latter group to make me feel that the time devoted to them was worth it.  Except for Faraday who has a nice little “doing the right thing the wrong way” arc to his character.  I also don’t have the overwhelming nostalgia for DC’s Silver Age that Cooke clearly does, so your mileage may vary here depending on how you feel about the era.  It’s still easy to appreciate the level of craft and story being told in “The New Frontier,” but I’m left not feeling too bad that I waited this long to pick it up in this handy one-volume edition.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

One night while walking home from a dinner date, Paul Dini was mugged and beaten within an inch of his life.  Twenty-three years later, he decided to turn the story of the attack, his life at the time, and eventual recovery into a graphic novel with art from someone who is no stranger to Batman’s adventures (or worthwhile collaborations with Brian Azzarello), Eduadro Risso.  The end result is alternately frightening, funny, indulgent, and life-affirming.  It’s a bizarre mix of tones and styles that shouldn’t work when combined in one volume.  I think the reason Dini and Risso are able to get away with it is because they know how to modulate them.

Does Nagisa go a little crazy after the setup from the cliffhanger in the previous volume?  Yup.  Does he manage to rein himself in and deliver some satisfying comeuppance to the main antagonist from this arc?  You better believe it.  “Assassination Classroom” isn’t a series that will be remembered for its unpredictability, but rather its ability to deliver on the setups it promises.  It’s also one where things won’t get too dark as Shonen Jump titles will never go that far.  If it looks like they are, then that just means we’re in “final arc” territory.  The rest of vol. 8 is a mix of amusing diversions (Koro-sensei tries to play matchmaker for the class) and setup for future storylines.  After all, whatever happened to the person who taught Class E before Koro-sensei showed up?  It finishes with a well-delivered bit of filler as nerdy otaku Takebayashi is tempted with being able to rejoin the rest of Kunugigaoka’s students so long as he badmouths his former classmates.  The power of friendship trumps all in the end, as is Jumps remit, but does allow for some quality villainy from Principal Gakushu and his son.

Vol. 10 opens on a story that spotlights another of Koro-sensei’s weaknesses.  His weakness for pudding!  Then it segues into a mini-arc that has Karasuma teaching Class E about the virtues of parkour while their teacher reveals another weakness -- for trope-y sob stories!  No time is wasted as we move into another arc that first has Koro-sensei trying to prove that he’s not a (complete) pervert before Shiro and Itona show up to take out the alien.  Only… things don’t go as planned and Itona is left at the mercy of his tentacles and Class E.  Does the power of friendship triumph here?  Only as much as Koro-sensei loves his nudie magazines.  I know I’m simplifying things here, but mangaka Yusei Matsui actually does a pretty good job of fleshing out Itona’s backstory and character here to make his motivations up to this point believable.  He also gets bonus points for having Terasaka and his fellow numbskulls be the ones to bring Itona over to the side of Class E.  In a way that actually feels credible and not a manipulation to make us like them more.  It’s quality work all around in these volumes that makes me look forward to their adventures in babysitting for vol. 11.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

It's a run that has its moments, but no real plan or satisfying follow-through.