Comic Picks By The Glick

The second adventure of creator Andrew MacLean’s Head Lopper -- Norgal if you’re one of his friends -- couldn’t have come at a better time.  We’re in the dry period between the end of Dark Horse publishing new comics and Marvel starting up their own take on the adventures of “Conan” that there’s a distinct lack of barbarian-based action comics out there right now.  “The Crimson Tower” fills that void as it has Head Lopper following two warriors of the Kota, Zhaania the master and Xho the disciple, to the titular tower on a mission of mercy that’s going to involve the slaying of an undead wizard.  Ulrich the Twice-Damned is the master of the Tower and Head Lopper and his companions are only a few of the warriors he has welcomed inside on the pretense that if they slay him, everything he has will be theirs. In actuality, Ulrich is just waiting until these warriors fall victim to the Tower’s many traps and defenses so he can use their leftover parts in his experiments.

“Head Lopper & the Crimson Tower’s” biggest fault is that it doesn’t offer anything to change the mind of people who would pass it by because of its resemblance to “Conan” or that it’s a sword-and-sorcery title.  If you’re like me, however, and you did get a kick out of the first volume then vol. 2 will still offer a satisfying experience.  MacLean’s style continues to be impeccable and he makes the many regions of the Tower memorably distinct and displays the action in a clear and engaging manner.  There’s also a surprising amount of heart to the story to keep you involved with it as well. From Zhaania’s mentorship of Xho to her own personal reasons for coming to the Tower, to the tiny Twerpal of the Fonga people who only winds up in this conflict because he was looking out for his little brother Bik and now has to contend with a situation that’s far bigger than he is, literally and figuratively.  As for Head Lopper, he remains the same as he ever was, with his banter between the head of the Blue Witch providing an effective means of comic relief throughout. So even if what MacLean has to offer here isn’t exactly new, it’s still done with a freshness that keeps the story engaging throughout.

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I get why “Lazarus X+66” is being released as a miniseries rather than an official volume of the main title.  Series artist Michael Lark is only providing the covers to each issue while writer Greg Rucka is just co-writing the issues collected here.  As both creators have been fully involved with the previous five volumes of “Lazarus” it’s easy to see why they wanted to brand “X+66” under its own title in order to manage expectations.  The problem is that it does the miniseries a disservice because this really does feel like a proper volume of “Lazarus” and is therefore something that fans of the series should definitely not ignore.

After my experience with the previous volume I can now say that my biggest issue with this series has now been resolved:  Erin is the “new girl,” Tiffany is the gamer girl, KJ is the lesbian with a hockey stick, and Mackenzie is (as always) the bitchy redhead.  Now that I’m finally able to keep the cast straight in my head, what does vol. 4 have to offer us? How about a version of New Year’s Day 2000 where Y2K panic was in full swing.  If that doesn’t sound thrilling enough for you, then it’s good that creators Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang thought to bring in some invisible giant robots duking it out across the town.  Only Tiffany can see them, but that’s not the biggest shock she encounters in this era after she finds out that she’s dating a vampire-y goth guy she met at business school. As for the other three girls, they’re following a lead from the time travellers they met back in vol. 1 to track down the artist of a comic strip that’s been passing them knowledge through the years.

Being able to finally keep the cast straight in my head goes a long way towards making this volume easier to enjoy than vol. 3.  What it can’t fix is the nagging sensation that I’m not going to be able to determine if this series will have been worth my time until the very end.  That’s mainly because all of the action here still feels like setup towards the title’s ultimate goal. From everything the comic strip artist has to say, to what the Grand Father experiences here, to KJ’s realization about her sexuality and Mackenzie’s reaction to it, they all feel like the next part of a story rather than something that can be enjoyed on its own terms.  The increasingly complicated time-travel aspects of the story don’t do it any favors either, along with Vaughan’s increasingly frustrating decision to have the future teens speak in their own symbolic language. Yes, you can Google up a translation for it, but if that’s possible then why bother doing it in the first place? I still have no complaints about the stellar art from Chiang, though it’s not enough to make me hope that the series will be reaching its conclusion sooner rather than later.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

For a miniseries that effectively heralded the end of the Ultimate Universe, the original “Spider-Men” was still pretty fun.  The plot, involving Peter Parker and Miles Morales teaming up to fight a dimension-hopping Mysterio, was pretty inconsequential, but it was still a great demonstration for how Bendis could write Spider-Man in any universe and the considerable talents of its artist, Sara Pichelli.  It featured an ending that teased a sequel, yet managed to do it in the most eye-rolling way possible as Peter Parker, back in his own universe, Googled Miles Morales’ name and was shocked (SHOCKED!) by what he found.

That was a better set up for a meme than it was an actual cliffhanger.  All we know is that Peter was shocked by what he found and that could’ve been anything.  The smart thing to do would’ve been a one-page follow-up that had Peter finding out that, “My god!  Miles Morales is a more common name than I had any right to suspect! Why would I even think that Googling his name would get me any kind of answers,” and resolve things that way.  Bendis didn’t see it that way and now we’re “blessed” with this follow-up that seeks to answer a question that no longer has any relevance, “Who is the Miles Morales of the Marvel Universe?”

I thought that the first two volumes of this series were fun, but a little slight in the storytelling department.  The good news is that things get a lot more interesting with these two volumes.  After the demonic threat, and affectingly tragic backstory, of the previous volume is taken care of, Johanna and Marion head towards Athens to see a specialist about getting Nico’s body repaired.  Said specialist turns out to be Sarah, an old friend of Johanna’s, who is followed around by As, a demon who is clearly lovesick for the girl even as he refuses to admit it. Things are going well for everyone until Ino, the demon responsible for the bad business of the previous volume, makes a sudden reappearance.

How did Ino manage to make such a quick return?  Unfortunately it’s all because of the church and their determined efforts to capture Johanna and make sure that Mephistopheles stays dismembered.  The head of their inquisition office, Olga, has her own thoughts about how humans and demons should relate to each other, and that winds up spelling bad news for a girl named Anastasia.  She’s a ward of the church and sister to Lorenzo, the semi-hooded swordsman who is pursuing Johanna. When he learns about what Olga has planned for his sister, will that be enough to get Lorenzo to work with the person he’s been hunting all this time?

In case the summary above wasn’t clear enough, there’s a lot more going on in these two volumes compared to the first two.  We also get lots of interesting bits of worldbuilding from more background on the church and how it operates, to Sarah’s elaborate doll construction skills.  There’s plenty of backstory to be had as well, all of it interesting and not exclusively focused on Johanna as you’d expect. Which is nice. Olga also makes for an interesting antagonist as her actions here are quite hateable, but not to the level of out-and-out villainy yet.  All this stokes my anticipation for the next volume -- currently set to arrive in November -- as mangaka Kore Yamazaki notes that the story is set to approach its climax.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Kieron Gillen takes over writing duties with this volume and reunites with his “Darth Vader” collaborator Salvador Larroca.  Does this mean the main title finally has a chance at approaching the greatness of the now-concluded series that launched alongside it?  Despite picking up from where “Rogue One” left off, it’s not quite there yet. Though the planet Jedha is slowly crumbling away into space it still possesses a hoard of mineral resources waiting to be strip-mined from its remains.  That’s the plan Imperial Commander Kanchar is looking to execute along with Queen Trios from the mining planet of Shu-Torun. At the same time, Luke, Leia, and Han have arrived on Jedha looking to ally with the remnants of the partisans led by the deceased Saw Gerrera.  The problem is that the remaining partisans are very loyal to their former leader’s ideals, particularly when it comes to working with the Alliance.

It should surprise no one that Gillen has a good handle on all of the established characters featured here, or that he can deliver dialogue that’s witty and fun when it comes from the good guys and witty and sinister when coming from the villains.  Furthermore, he ably picks up from the status quo “Rogue One” left Jedha in, and even fits in some nice additions to the “Star Wars” canon -- like Bail and Leia’s last conversation together. Where he lets us down is in a narrative that becomes more familiar as it comes along.  It starts out as one involving two forces learning to work together despite their differences before turning into your usual “Rebels have to take down a big piece of Imperial tech” kind of deal. Luke’s “I wanna be a Jedi” subplot also feels kind of half-baked here as well. The end result is still fine for what it is, but I expect better from Gillen.

The same goes for Larroca as well, though I’m still not sure if the photo-realistic faces that all of his characters have now are his doing or the work of the colorist crew at GURU-eFX.  While the overall art is solid, the photo-realism of the characters’ faces is incredibly distracting at this point. Most of the time the faces look fine, but there are those moments where the coloring just makes them look “off” and their realistic look clashes with the simplicity of the art in the rest of the volume.  Larroca does capture the current hellish look of Jedha quite well, which is about the best I can say of his art in this volume. Until this issue with the faces gets fixed then the art will just be weighing down this otherwise enjoyable series.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

The smartest thing about Tim Drake’s “death” from the first arc of James Tynion IV’s run on this title was its immediate reveal that it wasn’t a death at all.  Tim had been spirited away from certain death at the last second by an unknown player leaving everyone around him to believe that he was dead and deal with it in their own way.  It was an excellent use of dramatic irony as most readers were never likely to believe that Tim was dead in the first place (or at least cynical enough to believe that he’d come back sooner or later), but it felt real to the core cast and that’s what matters most here.

I bring this up because in case you hadn’t guessed from the title or seen the cover to this volume, Tim Drake is back.  Spirited away from outside time by Mr. Oz, who no longer has need of his captives, he comes face-to-face with an older, bitterer, meaner version of himself who eventually became a Batman that sees no problem with shooting people dead.  Just as this older version of Tim looks to be the kind of time traveller who exists only to pass on cryptic warnings about the future, they both make it back to present-day Gotham and Bat-Tim finds out that his awful future can still be averted.  How does he plan to do it? By killing off the person who brought it about: Kate “Batwoman” Kane.

As has been the case for the majority of Tynion’s run, what’s here isn’t bad.  The problem is that it’s as predictable as you’d expect. From the way Bat-Tim tears through the entire Bat-Family to his final conversation with Tim before he winks out of existence.  Same goes for the story that follows as Spoiler learns that while Anarky’s ends are just fine and dandy, his means leave a lot to be desired. “A Lonely Place of Living” never quite dips to the irritating level of “The Victim Syndicate,” but it does leave me wondering why Tynion is apparently determined to follow and not subvert convention in his run.  I’m also wondering whether or not I should stick around for his final two volumes given that it’s pretty obvious how things are going to end at this point.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

It’s a brand new era for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, and not just in a creative sense.  With the defeat of the Ogdru Jahad the Ogdru Hem terrorizing Earth have suddenly died off, ushering in an age of relative peace.  At least, that’s what everyone was expecting to happen. There are still plenty of smaller monsters for the B.P.R.D. to take on as well as a noticeable uptick in cult activity.  Though the organization isn’t aware of this yet, one cult is being headed up by none other than Varvara the demon who wears a proper little girl’s body when he’s on Earth. With Hell in ruins following Hellboy’s exploits there, Varvara plans to build a new kingdom in our world.  Though exorcist Ashley Strode is on the demon’s trail, the B.P.R.D. is riven with internal conflicts following the return of the transformed Abe Sapien.

Speaking of Abe, I’ll admit that my expectations for this new “B.P.R.D.” series were not that high as Mike Mignola’s new co-writer for the title is Scott Allie, with whom he co-wrote the never-really-lived-up-to-its-potential “Abe Sapien” series.  The good news is that this first volume of “The Devil You Know” is much more lively than that series was. There’s a lot going on from issue-to-issue and I was never bored with what was going on. That was also because I was trying to get a handle on the incredibly scattershot narrative presented here.  Not only does “Messiah” bring in a lot of plot points from other Mignolaverse projects, it keeps jumping between them and the new threats that arise here in a haphazard fashion. It doesn’t help matters either that Allie lacks previous co-writer John Arcudi’s facility for offbeat humor and distinctive characterization when it comes to the supporting cast.

On the plus side, Laurence Campbell is back as the artist for this series.  While the gritty approach that he’s employed in previous volumes has been fine, I like the cleaned-up approach he’s sporting here.  There’s also a major development at the end of the volume that has the potential to not just upend everything set up in this volume, but the Mignolaverse itself.  I doubt it’s a trick -- Mignola doesn’t go in for the kind of fakery this development sets up -- so even with my reservations about this volume I’m very much onboard to see where they’re going with this.  Cynics could argue that it’s just restoring a very, very old “B.P.R.D.” status quo, but at this point the pieces involved are just too different to fit together properly again.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com