Comic Picks By The Glick

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the exploits of Hachiken and company.  That hasn’t been because of any decline in the overall quality of this series, just that there have been other titles that have demanded my attention.  Vol. 12 marks the start of the title’s march towards its end (vol. 15 will be its last) with the start of the “Tale of Four Seasons” arc and Hachiken’s plans for the future.  He finally knows what he wants to do with the rest of his time at Ezo Ag: Start a business. Not just any business, one focused around growing (delicious) pigs to sell. The good news is that he’s got a starter pig and Mikage’s family is willing to rent him the land and give him the necessary materials to help raise it and others.  The bad news is that because he’s a student with limited resources, he needs to convince his dad to invest in his plan. While Hachiken’s dad is open to the idea, he’s rejected every plan his son has sent him so far. The ugly news is that the only person Hachiken has been able to bring on as a business partner is Ookawa, whose handiness and skills at hard work are balanced by his generally lazy and selfish personality.

These are only the parts of vol. 12 that are centric to its protagonist.  Mangaka Hiromu Arakawa also finds time to talk about Mikage’s academic struggles, the ongoing trials of Komaba and his family, and even Yoshino’s two-week study abroad in France.  There is A LOT going on in this volume and at times it can feel like the mangaka is simply rushing through things to get to the end. Most of the time it feels like she’s just cutting out the boring filler stuff and focusing on all of the actions that are central to “Silver Spoon’s” main story.  That being Hachiken’s struggles to grow as a person and become someone capable of standing on his own. In showing that, vol. 12 is a success. At the same time, it makes it clear that he’s got a lot more work ahead of him in the three volumes to come.

comicpicksbytheglick@gmail.com

It has an art style that owes a deep debt to Hayao Miyazaki’s work on “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.”  There’s also the fact that it makes a big deal out of making meals from fantasy creatures like “Delicious in Dungeon” does.  Which means that “Drifting Dragons” is kind of a mash-up of two of my favorite manga. Given that, I can’t help but feel that I should’ve enjoyed this first volume more than I actually did.

It's a vampire story with two protagonists.  One of whom is clearly more interesting than the other.

Man, I’d forgotten that vol. 5 was published at the end of 2017.  I thought it had only been a year since it came out and “Drifters” was actually managing something resembling an annual schedule.  Silly me. Anyways, the latest battle in the war against the Black King is getting underway at the start of this volume as Nobunaga attends to its final preparations and Toyohisa  beams with excitement at the fighting to come. Which is pretty impressive as the Black King’s army musters armored giants, dragons, and a ton of orcs to attack the Drifters’ fortified hillside position.  Fortunately they’ve got Nobunaga’s smarts on their side to help counter this numerically superior force. Problem is that the Black King’s team has someone in their ranks who is veeeeeeery familiar with these tactics and is looking to take him out once again.

It’s a good thing that mangaka Kohta Hirano delivers on the action here as it’s the only thing this volume has to offer.  Things like watching the golems get taken down, or seeing Toyohisa commandeer a dragon and turn it on the Black King’s army are pretty awesome.  Problem is that it’s all for naught because this is the part of the story where the protagonists have to lose before they can win again. Seeing that happen is about as much fun as it sounds, especially since it feels like the Ends didn’t really have to do any actual work to succeed here.  I’ll give credit to Hirano for delivering a slam-bang finale as Toyohisa leads some dwarves on a final rampage while Hijikata’s supernatural PTSD looks to get the better of him in the end. Vol. 6 of “Drifters” is a pretty decent read overall, but I expect more from a series when I know that its next volume isn't likely to be out for another two years.

comicpicksbytheglick@gmail.com

“Critical Role” is a hugely popular web series where voice actors roleplay their Dungeons & Dragons characters over the course of an evolving storyline that has spawned its own fandom, a ton of merchandise, and the most-funded TV & Film Kickstarter in history.  Because it’s always easier for me to find an entry point into things I’m unfamiliar with through comics, I decided to make my first experience with it through the comic-book miniseries it spawned. As the “Origins” in the title would imply, it shows what the cast was up to before the series started.  What they were up to involves mucking about (literally and figuratively) around the swamp town of Stilben. Half-elf rogue and ranger siblings Vax’ildan and Vexahlia are investigating a potential curse on the town, gnomish bard Scanlan and goliath barbarian Grog are adventuring with a party that has just raided a nearby cult stronghold, and dragonborn sorceror Tiberius and half-elven druid Keyleth have found themselves with some very unsavory people who are also trying to figure out what’s going on with the town.

I’m not giving away anything to say that all of them team up to eventually get to the bottom of the happenings in Stilben.  What matters is that series creator Matthew Mercer with writer Matthew Colville and artist Olivia Samson make it an engaging and generally amusing journey to get there.  While the characters are likeable and the dialogue and art frequently filled with funny bits, this first volume of “Critical Role” could’ve used some judicious editing. While I generally liked the dialogue, there’s honestly too much of it in this particular story.  Were I to hazard a guess, the main appeal of the web series is from having the actors act out and ad-lib with their characters as much as they can. I’m assuming this because it’s the only explanation as to why Mercer and Colville would have their characters ramble on as long as they do here.

Still, what’s here isn’t bad and it makes for a decent fantasy adventure with some good comedy along the way and appealing art from Samson.  This wouldn’t normally be enough to get me excited about the next “Critical Role” comic, but this one will have a seasoned veteran of licensed comics at the helm:  “Star Wars: Thrawn & X-Wing” writer Jody Houser. Based on her work with those titles, I’m optimistic about vol. 2 being a substantial improvement over this one.

comicpicksbytheglick@gmail.com

It only took them a little over 13 years, but DC finally has their “Marvel Zombies.”  You know, the kind of story that shows what happens when their universe succumbs to a zombie outbreak.  What happens isn’t quite as inventive or darkly amusing as that series was, but it still offers a propulsive superhero action/horror story that offers up some fun character moments and interesting twists as the DCU marches to oblivion.

Things start with the Justice League handing Darkseid his ass and getting the New God to promise that he’ll never come back to Earth.  Darkseid has no problem agreeing to this because he already has what he came for: Vic Stone, Cyborg. It turns out that the Apokoliptian technology that made him also houses the other half of the Anti-Life equation that Darkseid has been searching for.  Unfortunately for everyone in this story, his attempt to remove that equation unleashes a plague that spreads through biological contact and visual media. By the end of the first issue, over 600 million people have been infected and it’s only going to get worse from here.

I liked the first volume of “Miles Morales” well enough, even if its stories didn’t really break out from the established “Spider-Man” story mold.  Vol. 2, however, is a big step in the right direction. The first issue is essentially four-stories-in-one as Ron Ackins, Alitha Martinez, and Vanessa Del Ray join regular artist Javier Garron for stories about Miles and his Uncle Aaron (a.k.a. The Prowler), Bombshell, his parents dropping a bombshell, and a tease for the intense two-issue story that follows.

It’s intense because some bad stuff happens to Miles in it.  He’s captured by an unknown party and put through some brutal tests to determine his capabilities.  The story is cold and clinical as Miles is subjected to some awful stuff, while Garron makes some good use of black borders around the art to emphasize the hopeless situation the title character is in.  Yet it’s the second issue, when Aaron teams up with Miles’ parents to rescue him, that got me to see what helps set the character apart. Miles, unlike other Spider-People, actually has a functional family unit around him.  One that supports him in his superhero endeavors and has his back when things get rough. That’s not something we see a whole lot in Spider-stories, and it could be the key to finally getting Miles’ to stand out. (Aside from that one time he entered the Spider-Verse, that is.)

So kudos to writer Saladin Ahmed for bringing that aspect to the fore and for continuing to write a solid take on the title character.  Even down to making his recovery in the final issue feel natural, with some welcome birthday cheer and guests. It’s all enough to make me willing to see where he’s going to go with the character who shows up at the end of the final issue, even if I really didn’t want to see him again.  So even if there’s only four issues -- and a cute pizza-centric Free Comic Book Day story from Tom Taylor and Cory Smith -- in this volume, that’s not a problem here because they’re all pretty great.

comicpicksbytheglick@gmail.com

Back in the first volume of this series, we got to meet someone who had a big influence on Aphra’s life:  Her father, Korin. Seeing him in action was a real “This explains a lot” moment for her character.  Korin was only half of the parenting equation for Aphra, as we haven’t heard a whole lot about her mom (besides the fact that she’s dead).  Writer Simon Spurrier, and a whole lot of artists, look to fix that here as we finally get to know Aphra’s mom. Which is only part of a story that includes Imperial Public Relations, an emotionally fraught reunion, ancient Jedi artifacts, “LORD,” and of course an unspeakable Rebel superweapon.