Comic Picks By The Glick

The title of this volume seems like good advice.  After all, what good ever came to Marcus and the rest of his friends while they were at King’s Dominion?  That’s exactly what winds up happening, however, and the results may not be what you were expecting. Unless you were expecting to see Marcus and Maria become the most popular people at the assassin’s school and on the valedictorian track after Master Lin gives them credits from “life experience.”  While there are still plenty of people who’d like to see them put in the ground, the vibe of vol. 8 is surprisingly upbeat considering the title’s history and that it comes to us from Rick Remender. Still, the new tone of this volume is refreshing and promising in that if you squint a bit you can see the end of the series being set up from here.

While the return to King’s Dominion is the main part of this volume, it’s surrounded by a couple one-offs that are entertaining on their own terms as well.  Vol. 8 opens with a peyote-fueled freakout that seeks to catch the reader up on what has happened in the trippiest way possible. It’s a great summation of the series so far and a phenomenal showcase for artist Wes Craig’s talents.  Then we get to see how Saya is still suffering in Japan and that her only hope for rescue lies in Quan. That setup may not sound like much, but it leads to an escape that’s thrilling even by this title’s high standards. Vol. 8 closes out with the “Free Comic Book Day” story which goes back to a time when most of Marcus’ friends at Kings’ Dominion were still alive.  Though the story is ostensibly about the time they all got stoned and saw Fishbone, it’s really about Viktor and how he responds to his shot at revenge. It’s a good story that I’m glad was added to this volume, because -- along with the other stories here -- it was certainly worth paying for.

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Gillen made magic happen on "Darth Vader."  Does he do it again here, with and without Salvador Larroca?

This has been a penultimate-y year for volumes, it feels like.  “Black Science,” “Paper Girls,” “The Wicked + The Divine,” “Curse Words,” “Prison School,” “East of West,” and “Happiness” are all series that have seen their next-to-last volume released this year.  You can now add “I Am A Hero” to that list and it’s one of the better ones, even after vol. 9’s ill-advised sexual hook-up.  Speaking of the quasi-happy couple, Hideo and Hiromi are now safely at sea thanks to the mercy of the fisherman who picked them up.  They want to head to Tokyo to see what has become of Hiromi’s mom, and the fisherman is okay with taking them. He just wants Hiromi to go down below deck and see if his ZQN-infected son can be saved.

That turns out to be the catalyst for arguably the most dramatic twist in the volume.  We get a new perspective on one of the most shocking scenes in the series and then on the ZQNs as a whole.  Mangaka Kengo Hanazawa finds a compelling way to render their communal mind which leads to some striking visuals high above the city, and the unexpected return of a character we haven’t seen since the first omnibus.  Meanwhile, Hideo has a final chat with his mental illness and prepares to save the girl he… Loves? Cares for? Stuck it in? Whatever the case may be, he’s set up to either make like the title of this series or die trying.

A sizeable portion of this volume is also given over to Korori, his crew and the other inhabitants of the office building as things go straight to hell for them.  The Kurusu Bakufu has arrived and they’re taking the absolute minimum number of prisoners. This leads to some of the most intense action of the series as the ZQNs storm the building, its defenders try to fight them off, and Korori and friends try to get in and get to the helicopter at the top.  It’s thrilling stuff that serves to send us into the final volume with the series firing on all cylinders (hopefully with at least one going right into Asada’s stupid head).

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Above-the-Board Recommendation

Undiscovered Country #1

What if The Wall got built?  What if it wasn’t just between the U.S. and Mexico?  What if it was built to encompass the entire United States?  That’s the premise of this new series from co-writers Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, and co-artists Giuseppe Camuncoli and Daniele Orlandini.  The fun begins when a global pandemic sends a group of researchers over the wall into a country no-one outside of it has seen for over thirty years.

If the premise for this series is anything to go by, I’m expecting that most of the team will be clubbed to death by political allegory within the first issue.  Were I a betting man, I’d say that “Undiscovered Country” represents the creators’ efforts to take a topic that’s as racist as it is divisive and try to turn it into a positive.  Camuncoli and Orlandini are an easy sell after their work together on “Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith.” It’s harder to picture how Snyder and Soule will work together, though I’m betting that the latter will be able to run with any over-the-top ideas the former throws his way.

I’m also assuming that the two writers teaming up in the first place is an effort on their part to make sure that the series actually comes out on a regular basis.  The setup sure sounds more like Snyder than Soule, though I doubt he could deliver a monthly series what with his DC commitments and all. Soule, on the other hand, has shown himself to be prolific as hell over the years.  As well as being a writer who can deliver a certain level of quality to whatever project he delivers. So yeah, I think this sounds like a country worth being discovered in November.

Above-the-Board Recommendation:

Pearl vol. 2

The first volume of “Pearl” wasn’t the best of the creator-owned bunch of titles that Bendis delivered when he set up shop at DC.  If I’m being honest, it was just ahead of “Scarlet.”  Yet it’s the only one which is being followed-up on by its creators after that initial batch.  So yeah, I’m kind of curious to see where Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos are going to take the story of Pearl Tanaka and her kinda boyfriend Rick Araki now that she knows her mom used to run the local Yakuza outfit from the shadows.  Figuratively speaking, of course. The solicitation text tells me that the story is actually heading to Tokyo, which I’m sure is going to work out GREAT for her and Rick.

Still, I’ll be happy if story gives over a decent amount of its time to the Endo Twins.  The sibling pair of failed smut peddlers turned money launderers were the best part of the first volume because of their interesting backstory and wannabe thug antics.  If they’re headed to Tokyo as well, then I’ve really got something to look forward to.

Above-the-Board Recommendation

What’s Michael?  Fatcat Collection vol. 1

Wow.  I had just about forgotten that Dark Horse had published this series.  This series, about the wacky adventures of a cat named Michael, was just a bit ahead of its time.  It wasn’t published in pamphlet form, but in slim 60-100-page graphic novels for around $7 IIRC. This was back in the late 90’s before the manga revolution and the series apparently did well enough to get to 11 volumes in the U.S., but not before being folded into the “Super Manga Blast” anthology.  No knock against “SMB,” except the stated purpose of that anthology was to provide a home for oddball series that wouldn’t have survived on their own like “Seraphic Feather,” “Shadow Star,” and another series from “What’s Michael?” creator Makoto Kobayashi, the delightfully quirky “Club 9.”

Despite being a cat person, I never picked up a volume of “What’s Michael?”  I think it was because my younger, less open, more value-driven mind couldn’t wrap its head around the way it was being presented.  “You call this a volume! It’s too thin! Even if it is $7 I’m gonna go put my money towards this new volume of ‘Gunsmith Cats’” is something that I probably would’ve said about it at the time.  However, because I am no longer the person I once was I’ll be picking up this volume when it drops early next year. Because hey: who doesn’t like wacky cat antics?

Above-the-Board Recommendation:

Punisher:  Soviet #1 (of 6)

This is a pick that, on the surface, was incredibly easy to make.  After all it’s Garth Ennis writing “The Punisher” again with his “Crossed” and “303” collaborator Jacen Burrows.  It even has a premise that makes it sound like it’ll fit right in alongside the other “Punisher MAX” stories the writer has done.  It involves lots of dead Russian mobsters. Only the catch is that Frank Castle didn’t kill any of them. Someone out there is taking a page from his playbook and things are going to be bad for everyone once the Punisher catches up with whoever did this.

While “Punisher:  The Platoon” was amazing, I didn’t think we’d be seeing Ennis return to the character again so soon.  In fact, he even has another “Punisher” miniseries lined up with artist Goran Parlov, “Get Fury” for sometime next year?  Getting one new Ennis-written “Punisher” miniseries is cause for celebration. Getting two makes me think that something’s up.

Now, while the writer has always been one of my favorites, even I have to admit that his non-Castle-centric output of late hasn’t been that great.  The “Section Eight” minis at DC had him retelling the same tired anti-superhero jokes, “Dastardly and Muttley” wasn’t much better, “Jimmy’s Bastards” was maybe a little better than the lame James Bond parody it presented it as, and there’s always hope that “A Walk Through Hell” could turn out to be great when its second half is collected.

What I’m getting at here is that Ennis’ return to “The Punisher” feels like an act of necessity rather than triumph.  There’s no other character at DC I can see him having the stomach to write (though I could be wrong) and with his latest creator-owned efforts fizzling giving the adventures of Frank Castle another go seems like the only way for him to raise his profile and get some other projects off the ground.  This sounds like backwards logic for a creator who currently has TWO TV series based on comics he’s written -- “Preacher” and “The Boys” -- airing right now, but that appears to be the world we live in at the moment.  

The upside here that Ennis isn’t the kind of creator who’s simply going to repeat himself on this kind of project.  He may have written a lot of “Punisher” stories over the years, but each of them is distinct in its own way. So even if he isn’t coming back to the character in triumph, I don’t think he’s here to play the hits.  Which is exactly what we should all be wanting.

I don’t know how I wound up with two volumes of manga from different series by mangaka Shuzo Oshimi in my “To Review” pile.  I wasn’t planning on reviewing both of them in one go either. Except some of the manga titles in my “To Review” pile are coming up on a month old and I just got a new batch of volumes to read last week.  So in a transparent effort to make my backlog go down quicker, here are my thoughts on the latest volumes of “Inside Mari” and “Happiness.”