Comic Picks By The Glick

I look at several recent releases, and one old one, to determine what makes a comic scary.

That I’m writing up this volume by itself shouldn’t be taken as a sign that there’s anything wrong with latest volume of Kaguya-sama.  In fact, the latest volume of that series is up to its usual standard with quality gags involving Kaguya putting herself on trial (in her own mind) and Kaguya and Shirogane confessing their feelings to each other (about cats and dogs).  The reason “Silver Spoon” gets a solo writeup here is because it has finally reached a point I’ve been looking forward to (re)reading once the series was set to receive a proper English release.

It’s not the equestrian competition that Hachiken takes part of, even though it occupies the majority of this volume.  Even so, the competition still manages to be good fun due to how it showcases the character’s growth since coming to Ezo Ag.  He actually winds up doing much better than expected in the events he competes in, with the second delivering a real nail-biter of a finish.  While the skill he demonstrates is impressive, it’s seeing his irritation at not doing better that lets you know he’s actually starting to enjoy what he’s doing… even if he still needs to get over himself.

After that the story dives headfirst into preparation for Ezo Ag’s annual school festival.  You know, the one that Hachiken seriously overcommitted himself to in the previous volume. While we see him struggle with his commitments here, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel after Aki accepts his request to go out on a date after everything is over.  (Except she doesn’t realize that he was asking her out, and seeing Aki’s friends call her denseness out is good for a couple laughs.) The problem is that Hachiken does wind up paying for trying to do everything in a shocking and surprising way. Worse still is that instead of receiving comfort in his time of need, he’s visited by the very reason he decided to attend a school so far from home at the end of the volume.  All this may seem like a jarring infusion of drama, but it winds up working because it makes perfect sense within the context of the story.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

While I enjoyed Jason Aaron’s run on this title well enough, it was missing the sense of purpose that Kieron Gillen has brought to his.  Aaron told several mostly entertaining stories that stood on their own with little interconnectedness. Gillen’s previous two volumes told their own stories as well, but also communicated a larger picture of a Rebellion that was ascendant and preparing to go toe-to-toe with the Empire.  That storyline reaches its arguable climax with this volume, whose title is essentially a spoiler for the fact that things definitely do not go according to plan.  Then again, the existence of “The Empire Strikes Back” is also a spoiler for that as well as something that kind of undercuts what Gillen is attempting to do here.

Way back when I reviewed the first volume of this series I said that we’d likely have to wait until vol. 2 to find out if it had more to offer than quality references (to Grant Morrison’s signature run), weirdness, and great art.  The answer to that is no, except it doesn’t turn out to be a real deal-break for enjoying this volume. Gerard Way’s “Doom Patrol” is still very much an experience than a coherent narrative, but it’s such a strange singular experience that I wound up enjoying myself in spite of this.

The story, such as it is, can basically be boiled down to the Doom Patrol having to deal with the appearance of a new wonder food additive known as $#!+ which turns out to be part of a plan to hijack reality by their old nemesis Mister Nobody.  Coincidentally, Nobody’s daughter Terry None is in a relationship with DP member Casey and things have become quite serious between the two. While this is going on, the removed-from-continuity character known as The Disappointment is using the extra-dimensional powers he has as head of Retconn to try and find his wife as played by actress and former Doom Patrol member Rita Farr.

It’s all kind of crazy and nonsensical, but the humor and irreverence Way invests in the material makes it more endearing than irritating, and Nick Derington’s art is a joy to behold as he makes all of this madness look like great fun on the page.   The main story of “Nada” is bookended by two one-offs, one of which is a fantasy D&D riff with gnarly art from Dan McDaid which furthers the story of the Reynolds family in an imaginative way. Better still is the opening story with expectedly awesome art from Mike Allred which shows former team leader Niles Caulder trying to regain that position and why it’s a very bad idea for all involved.  Though this incarnation of “Doom Patrol” was *ahem* doomed by frequent delays, “Nada” makes a good case for its brand of weirdness. To the point that I’m probably going to have to go pick up the “Milk Wars” crossover with the DCU just to get a little bit more of it.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Here’s another title from Donny Cates’ pre-fame days.  Not only does it fall into the same “Cancelled Early by Dark Horse” category that “The Paybacks” found itself in, but it’s also an early showcase for the talents of “Extremity’s” Daniel Warren Johnson.  It’s got a great setup too:  After establishing that the Ghost Fleet is our nation’s extra-secret way of transporting things whose existence needs to be kept from the world at large, the series wastes no time introducing protagonists Trace and Ward.  They’re both seasoned veterans of escorting the fleet’s shipments, but this latest one has come under attack from parties unknown. Things go very badly for them in the fight, to the point where one of them is left minus an eye and with a major score to settle against those who set him up.

What follows from there is something that combines the excess of 80’s action movies with the supernatural conspiracy intrigue of “The X-Files.”  If that sounds like your gig, then go get it now. For those of you who need more convincing, Cates gives us plenty of entertaining dialogue and if the story seems kind of dumb and over-the-top at points, that’s tempered with a welcome amount of self-awareness.  Amidst the chaos, he manages to give us characters who actually have some depth to them, which in turn allows the dire circumstances they find themselves in to fuel the story to its fate-of-the-world conclusion.

There’s also Johnson’s spectacular art which is great at selling all of the explosions and the supernatural stuff that shows up in the back half.  His character work is pretty spot-on too and it’s easy to see how he was able to deliver something like “Extremity” with this as his starting point.  The catch here is that “The Ghost Fleet” was originally planned to be a twelve issue miniseries that was cancelled with issue #8. Under those circumstances Cates and Johnson serve up a perfectly serviceable conclusion, which they elaborate further on in the very welcome exit interview at the back of the volume.  Even with its abrupt ending, this series is still a good example of of why Cates and Johnson went on to bigger and better things afterwards.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Above-the-Board Recommendation:

Usagi Yojimbo vol. 33:  The Hidden: Though this is numbered as a proper volume of the series, it was originally released as a seven-issue miniseries.  While the official reason for this was never mentioned, my gut feeling is that age is finally catching up with creator Stan Sakai and future “Usagi” releases will follow the series-of-miniseries format to give him the time he needs to complete them.  That said, volume-length “Usagi” stories are rare but are among the most satisfying reads of the series. This is a tradition that goes all the way back to “The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy” in vol. 4, both “Grasscutter” stories in vol. 12 (which won the Eisner for best serialized story) and vol. 15, “The Mother of Mountains”  in vol. 21, and… “Return of the Black Soul” in vol. 24.  That last one stands as the exception which proves the rule, even though it had a killer two-part story to preface the title one.

So I’m expecting a little more from this volume of “Usagi” than the ones which have preceded it in recent years.  Adding to my interest is that “The Hidden” is essentially a mystery which features Usagi teaming up once again with Inspector Ishida.  The solicitations don’t give much away, save for the fact that it involves a foreign book. It’s still enough to get me excited about picking up this volume from Stan himself at Comic-Con later this year.

Much of the focus of this volume’s first half is on Karluk as he goes off to live with Amir’s brother Azel and his friends on the plains for a while.  Why’s he doing this? Well, any twelve-year-old boy with a twenty-year-old wife is bound to feel some insecurity about his masculinity. Now he’s learning the ropes of how to be a decent hunter with a bow and his own hawk.  This is all interesting in the way much of the series’ depiction of late-19th-century life around the Silk Road has been with mangaka Kaoru Mori’s art contributing detail that’s both intricate and subtle in regards to both the drawing and characterization.  Karluk makes for a good point-of-view character in this section as we get to see his struggles with this new lifestyle firsthand and get some more insight into the current life situation of Azel and his friends. Amir shows up too, both to liven things up and remind us that the dynamic between her and Karluk isn’t going to change anytime soon.  No matter how much the latter may want it to.

The volume’s second half is a bit more interesting since it sets up an interesting new status quo for one of its regular characters.  That would be Mr. Smith, the English anthropologist who has occasionally been the focus of this series but has spent the majority of it hanging out on its fringes along with his indispensably savvy guide Ali.  Here, the two of them find themselves part of a caravan heading to Ankara amidst bad weather and the specter of nearby Russian forces. Along the way we learn a thing or two about how vengeance is handled in these parts and how to deal with boredom while waiting for the weather to clear.  Camel shearing is involved in that last bit. It’s all interesting in the same way the first half of this volume was, but Smith’s exploits get an added kick when a character we haven’t seen in a VERY long time (like, not since vol. 3) shows up in the last chapter. This character’s reappearance promises some happy complications for the man, so it’ll be interesting to see how they’re addressed in the next volume.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Above-the-Board Recommendation:

War of the Realms #’s 1&2 (of 6):  I’d say that Marvel’s big event series of the year has arrived, but the way they’re running things these days you can bet it’s just the first of them.  The odds are even that they’ll launch the next one before this wraps up. Cynicism aside, there’s good reason to be excited for this one. Mainly because it’s the first event series since “Secret Wars” to emerge organically from one of Marvel’s ongoing titles.  Or rather “runs” in this case since Jason Aaron has been building to this ever since he brought back Malekith in the pages of “Thor: God of Thunder” during his first run on a monthly “Thor” title. (He’s currently on his fourth.) The crafty dark elf has been racking up win after win in Aaron’s “Thor” books to the point where nine of the ten realms are already under his control.  There’s only one left for him to conquer: Midgard, home of nearly all of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Expect Malekith to steamroll over the competition at first before their superhero resourcefulness turns the tide along with some timely last-minute intervention by Thor himself. I’m not complaining, that’s been the general structure of pretty much every superhero event ever.  All I really want from this event is to see Malekith’s gnashing and wailing as his plans are ruined by Thor. Hell, I’ll settle for seeing the dark elf escape at the end only for Loki to stab him in the back afterwards. I just want to see Malekith LOSE after enduring his smug winning streak for so long!