Comic Picks By The Glick

After five volumes I’m starting to get a little fuzzy on the details of the main plot for the series.  It’s supposed to be about how wandering ronin and surrogate father to Daigoro, Togo Shigekata, is delivering a message as the dying wish of a last man.  Upon delivering it, all sorts of behind-the-scenes machinations of the shogunate will come to fruition.  Or something like that.  It’s hard to care about that stuff now, even if the opening part of this volume -- focusing on one Ushiku Tenzen and his naked blonde amazoness subordinate Nina as they try to complete their mission.  While Nina’s presentation and actions further cement writer Kazuo Koike’s status as the dirtiest old man of manga, the latter half of this section shows that he can still craft a badass action sequence as Ushiku takes on a castle using his wits as skillfully as his sword.  Artist Hideki Mori continues to show, in sequences like these, that his old-school style has plenty of life and energy to it.

Where this series doesn’t let me down is in the ongoing relationship between Daigoro and Shigekata.  Though the ronin may be a surrogate father to the orphaned boy in the sense that he’s responsible for the kid’s welfare, in every other respect their relationship is that of teacher/student.  Shigekata knows this boy’s heritage and as a samurai of Satsuma, he clearly feels obligated to see it realized.  The training he puts Daigoro through is harsh -- throwing padded rods at the boy to teach him about dodging, having the boy wield the sword until his hands bleed -- but never cruel or without the child expressing some understanding of what’s being asked of him.  We also see the results of this training in impressive fashion.  Not every five-year-old is capable of bear cub, or frightening a foolhardy young swordsman to the point that he pisses himself.

It’s hard to fully embrace what Shigekata is doing here since (as I’ve mentioned before) it’s separated from child abuse by only the thinnest of margins.  That margin being that the world of “Lone Wolf & Cub” is one where only the strongest and manliest of men can hope to survive.  Without this training, there would be no hope that Daigoro could survive in it.  Not as the son of legendary assassin Itto Ogami.  If you can buy into that, then you can also buy into the parts that make this manga worth reading.

Six printings of the first issue.  Sales that remain consistent (and even go up).  Near-universal acclaim across the internet.  These are the things that can be used to describe “Ms. Marvel,” one of the most successful new characters that has come out of Marvel in quite some time.  With Carol Danvers now “Captain Marvel,” the newest character to hold the “Ms. Marvel” moniker is Pakistani-American Muslim Kamala Kahn and in the hands of writer G. Willow Wilson she proves to be utterly winning in the role.  Add in some stellar art from returning Marvel superhero veteran Adrian Alphona and you wind up with a title whose hype is justified.

“Wounded Man” managed it for nine volumes.  “High School of the Dead” gave us seven volumes that trended downward in quality before it just stopped.  “Terra Formars” gave us one hilariously awful volume before improving just enough to be boring.  “Tenjo Tenge” was… Well, that was mostly good and never less than “readable” for the majority of its run.  So it’s a few notches above “trash” in my estimation.  Yet it’s far harder than it looks to find a series that has the right balance of ridiculousness, ineptitude, sex, and violence to make for an enjoyable read that manages to also be absent of just about any socially redeeming qualities.  I picked up two series in the past month to see if they’d fit the bill.  However, while “Prison School” shows promise, “Freezing” is utter crap.

“All-New Marvel NOW!” begins here!

...Wait, that’s not it.  They already used that one about a year into “Marvel NOW!”  Let me see…

Ah, “All-New, All-Different Marvel NOW!” begins here!

You know the drill, with the wrap-up of “Secret Wars” -- assuming that the final issue does arrive in October -- Marvel serves up its latest batch of creative reshuffling and new #1 issues.  Cynicism aside, some of these sound pretty good and there’s an increased commitment to diversity in terms of the characters being featured in these titles.  That’s only half the problem as there’s been an increasingly louder call for diversity in the creators who are bringing us these titles as well.  As long as the volume there keeps increasing, it’s likely we’ll see results there sooner rather than later.  After all, conventional wisdom these days states that you have to have a successful run at Marvel or DC before ditching them to start making real money with your creator-owned title at Image.  Though there’s always an exception to that rule...

This year’s Image Expo was held the week before Comic-Con and, as you’d expect, featured a ton of new title announcements from creators who have worked with the publisher before and some new ones.  These announcements include:  Mark Millar and Rafael Albuquerque holding up new issues of “American Vampire”  ordinary person who happens to be extraordinary series “Huck,”  Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay’s supernatural coming-home series “Heartless,” Si Spurrier and Ryan Kelly’s multi-era magical hipster story “Cry Havoc,” and “Scalped’s” Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera re-teaming for their take on the Bible in “The Goddamned.”  Also of note is Bryan Lee O’Malley (of “Scott Pilgrim” fame) and Leslie Hung’s “Snotgirl” which was described as “Sex and the City” meets “American Psycho” featuring a fashion blogger with allergies, hence the title.  Said to get really dark really quick, it’s going to have to be excellent in order to get me past that title.  Also, in a deal that was surely finalized before they announced it onstage, Robert Kirkman will be letting Brian Vaughan write “The Walking Dead” for his online imprint The Panel Syndicate in exchange for a print version of “The Private Eye.”  It’s one of those deals where everybody wins!

Also, instead of last year’s trend of announcing stuff that hasn’t even come out yet, some of the titles that came out of this year’s con are being solicited here:

Kieron Gillen wraps up his tenure as chronicler of the adventures of Anthony Stark by smashing up two, two, TWO stories in one volume.  The first, which was set up at the end of vol. 4, involves Stark going head-to-head with Malekith, Lord of the Dark Elves, for control of the Mandarin Rings that he has.  It’s a great “science vs. magic” setup that also has the novelty of pitting the title character against a villain he’s never fought before.  The pairing works as we see Malekith get under Stark’s skin in a way that few bad guys have in recent memory, and while the bad guys do have magic at their disposal we get to see our hero counter their attacks in some pretty clever ways.  Gillen’s wit is also on fine form here, whether it’s with the banter between Stark and his magical tech support girl Shevaun, or the put-downs he’s issuing to Malekith’s lackeys.  This is a fun romp while it lasts, let down only by some rough art from Luke Ross which makes it look like he was running up against all deadlines for the issues he illustrated.

Halfway through, the story changes as the wielders of the other Mandarin Rings come into play.  Ranging from obscure nobodies like French Nazi Alec Eiffel (a.k.a. “The Fascist Man Alive”) to genuine threats like the Mole Man, this group of ring-wielders teams up to advance their own agenda and bring down Stark and his friends in the process.  Between the two stories, this is the one that feels like it got the short shrift as its “bunch of bad guys teaming up to take out the title character” is end-of-a-run level plotting.  Unfortunately they don’t get much to do beyond team up and then get beat down.  There’s also a few different artists working on these issues and they’re all working in the same basic superhero style, which means everything looks fine but big money shot moments like Arno Stark’s “IRON METROPOLITAN SMASH!” don’t pay off as well as they should.  On the plus side, it is fun seeing the Stark Brothers work together with their friends to take out the badguys, Stark’s resolution to Liar’s hostage situation with Pepper Potts was genuinely surprising, and the writer wraps up his run with a decent amount of closure.  Not a complete loss, just not all it could’ve been.

Gillen’s tenure on “Iron Man” has been fun even if it hasn’t been on the level of his other Marvel work -- I’m looking in the direction of “Journey Into Mystery,” “Uncanny X-Men,” and “S.W.O.R.D.” for reference.  He at least deserves credit for trying to do new things with the character, even if they didn’t always pan out.  The retcons to his origin that got us Arno worked, though the plans for Iron Metropolitan did not.  Bendis is the incoming writer here and he’s never been one to directly pick up on what other writers have done before.  So, regardless of what you thought of Gillen’s run, it likely won’t have any bearing on the new “Invincible Iron Man” title.  It’s a disappointing thought, but not a particularly heartbreaking one in this case.

Brian Wood's creator-owned follow-up to "DMZ" has its moments, but never fully realizes its potential.

The main problem I’ve had with the past few volumes of this title is that Bendis has been putting Miles Morales through situations that defined Peter Parker rather than building up the history and character of this latest Spider-Man.  Miles is a great character and seeing him put through the same paces as his predecessor feels lazy and uninspired.  With this last volume before the character is shuttled off to the Marvel Universe proper, Bendis finally gets back to telling stories about him.  It’s not a perfect send-off -- It has a genuine “Red Skies” crossover ending! --but it at least gives me hope that we’ll see better stories about Miles with the forthcoming relaunch of his title as (adjectiveless, dig it) “Spider-Man.”