Comic Picks By The Glick

This miniseries effectively represents the end of Marvel’s big “Inhumans” push of the last few years.  The reason for such a thing was rumored to be down to how Marvel owned the film and TV rights to these characters, but didn’t have them for the X-Men, and was looking to push the Inhumans as a replacement for mutants.  Whether or not that was actually true, the end result was that we got a lousy “Inhumans” TV series and a bunch of comics that didn’t inspire anything more than a collective shrug in the comics-reading audience. Now it’s up to Donny Cates and Ariel Olivetti to bring an end to this particular era of these characters.

How successful was Donny Cates’ run on “Thanos?”  So successful that Marvel looked to find some way, ANY way to capitalize on it.  This is in spite of the fact that the nature of the story, about Thanos teaming up with his older self to murder the last things in the galaxy, made that a little difficult.  Difficult, but not impossible. Which is how, after his death in “Thanos Wins,” we’ve come to this miniseries featuring the Cosmic Ghost Rider and his efforts to make the galaxy a better place.  By snuffing Thanos when he was still in his crib.

In which I find lots of ways to say, "It's good, but not as good as 'The Ancient Magus' Bride'" about Kore Yamazaki's latest series.

When I originally wrote that this series would appeal to people who like weird and interesting manga, provided they had the patience for it, I didn’t think that patience would also have to extend to the wait between volumes.  The first omnibus volume of “Die Wergelder” arrived on our shores back in December of 2015 and this second one finally showed up in January. That kind of wait between volumes is usually only something established series can get away with (lookin’ in your direction “Berserk” and “Vagabond”) and is usually fatal to the momentum of a series that’s just getting started.  I’ll have more to say about this in a week or two, but the lengthy wait between volumes turns out to not be that much of a dealbreaker here.

My traditional experience with the works of Matt Kindt is that the first volume of his creator-owned series disappoints, only for subsequent volumes to improve.  Vol. 2 of “Ether” sets up a dispiriting exception to that rule as the first volume was fantastic, with this new one being a letdown.  It starts off with a decent enough hook: Portals between Earth and the Ether have opened up and if they remain open long enough then bad things are going to happen to our world.  So it’s up to interdimensional adventurer and loquacious know-it-all Boone Dias to seal these portals along with the help of his burly gorilla-esque comrade Glum, and grumpy fairy and spell-writer Violet Belle.  They’re going to need some help, and that’s where spell-hacker Grandor comes in. They’ll just have to bust him out of fantasy jail first.

It’s not that there isn’t stuff to like about this volume.  Chief among its virtues is the superlative art from David Rubin, who clearly relished the freedom offered by the Ether’s fantasy setting.  From the fantasy jail and the over-dragon which guards it, to the intricate interiors of the copper golems, to a desolate and likely haunted fairy forest, Rubin delivers memorable visuals which never fail to impress on every page.  It’s also still fun to see Kindt apply logic and reason to this fantasy setting as Boone knows that even a magical setting such as this has rules underpinning how everything functions. I still see how his personality could be exasperating to some readers, but he still comes off as “annoying, but endearing” to me.

Where vol. 2 loses me is in the quest to stop the portals generated by the titular golems.  We’re simply told that these portals mean bad news for Earth and are not given any further evidence of exactly what that means.  So the emotional connection to Boone’s quest comes off as lacking in that regard. I was also hoping for more than we got from his family situation after the first volume indicated that he almost completely neglected them to go off and explore the Ether.  That’s touched upon here, but only in a perfunctory way that serves to drive the plot while also bumming the reader out at the same time. Vol. 2’s flaws aren’t enough to give up on the series, though I’m now thinking that it’d be for the best if the promised third volume winds up being the last.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

It took a while, but Coates has shown that he can deliver a thrilling comic with this latest volume of “Black Panther.”  Now he looks to replicate that success as the new writer on “Captain America.” It’s a good sign that Coates shows he really gets how to balance action and speechifying here, effortlessly blending the title character’s many internal monologues with lots of scenes of beating up bad guys set to Lenil Yu’s dynamic art.  The problem is that his approach, in both theme and story, looks to borrow a lot from a “Cap” run that did a lot to disappoint me by its end.

I’ve made no secret that I think Ta-Nehisi Coates’ run on “Black Panther” so far hasn’t lived up to my expectations.  His run has mostly emphasized talk over action and that wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if the talk was actually interesting.  There’s been some improvement as the series has gone on, which I believe is due to the writer getting a better handle on how to write for comics, but the series has never reached must-read status with me.  Going into this volume I was looking at it as the last chance for the writer, and new artist Daniel Acuna, to convince me to stick around for the long run.

I’m glad I did because this volume easily delivers the best read of Coates’ run so far!  There may be a certain amount of familiarity to the story it’s telling, but it’s done with such excitement and style that I really want to see where he’s going with this.

Well, here we are.  After *goes to check* thirty previous “B.P.R.D.” volumes, plus a volume or two of spinoffs, we’re at what looks to be the penultimate one for the series as a whole.  It even begins with a surprise: Three pages of Mike Mignola illustrating how Hellboy came back out of hell after the end of his story. That’s right, the big red guy’s appearance at the end of vol. 1 wasn’t any kind of misdirection or fake-out.  After a decade-plus away from the organization, he’s finally back with Abe, Liz, and the few who have managed to survive to this point.  You’d think a party would be in order, but the team is facing its biggest threat yet in the form of Varvara. Not only is she gathering followers by appearing in the dreams of ordinary humans, she’s also going around and freeing imprisoned demons on Earth to add to her army.  The B.P.R.D. has its own heavy-hitters to fight back with, though they’ve got their own suspicions and misgivings to work past first before they can begin.

Considering the utterly dire straits this series started its protagonists off in, the return of Hellboy should’ve come across as a more hopeful experience than it does here.  I get that he’s got his own issues after the events of “Hellboy in Hell,” but it just feels wrong to see him as morose as he is here. “Morose” is actually a good way to describe this volume as a whole.  While it’s clear that writers Scott Allie and Mignola want to sell the idea that things are really bad for everyone before the big finale, they did a pretty good job doing that in the previous volume. Doing it here just feels redundant and that’s where an actually joyful Hellboy reunion could’ve added some needed balance to the story.  While the art from Sebastian Fiumara and Laurence Campbell is good as always, the story doesn’t really kick into gear until the very final pages. It’s a development that goes a long way towards explaining why Varvara has been such a big deal and brings one of the series’ central conflicts full circle just in time for the finale.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com