Comic Picks By The Glick

Dark Horse has partnered up with Nintendo to release several of their gaming art and sourcebooks, including the mega-selling “Hyrule Historia.”  One has to wonder when they’re going to take their relationship to the next level and start giving us comics based on these properties.  We have an answer now and it is “Fall 2018” as Dark Horse has announced that they’ll be doing a series of graphic novels based on “ARMS,” the fighting game about characters with springs for arms which debuted on the Switch earlier this year.

Now, it’s not the “Metroid” miniseries that retcons “Other M” that I was hoping for, but it’s a start.  It’s also telling that “ARMS” is the first property Nintendo is letting Dark Horse take a crack at too.  This is a brand new IP that the company clearly hopes it can build up into a major franchise -- maybe not into a “Mario” or “Zelda,” but “Splatoon” is the clearest analogue here -- and there’s more room for them to experiment here as a result.  Plus, if the graphic novel is terrible then it’ll just be weighing down a less important franchise as opposed to a big one.  However, if the graphic novel is successful, something that’s more likely considering Dark Horse’s track record with licensed work, then it may just be that first stepping stone to getting that “Metroid” miniseries.  Or, more likely, “Zelda” and “Mario” miniseries.

I have a confession to make:  I’ve never read any of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories.  It’s a major failing of mine considering how his work has influenced a lot of what I read, play, and listen to.  One of these days I figure to finally sit down and start reading my way through his canon, but that day isn’t today.  With that said, I didn’t pick up this manga adaptation of three of Lovecraft’s stories in the hope that it would help balance the scales of my karma.  My purchase of this collection mainly came down to my ongoing desire to support the kind of manga I’d like to see from Dark Horse.  As far as providing a worthwhile reading experience, however, this collection left me with the feeling that the real appeal of Lovecraft’s stories must lie within his actual prose.

I really enjoyed the first volume of this series which had the creators of “Deadpool’s” first solo series, Joe Kelly and Ed Mcguinness, teaming up again to see if they could recapture some of that magic.  It was a very funny romp with fantastic art from McGuinness and acknowledged continuity in a way that most current Marvel comics fail to do these days (some might see that as a negative -- me, not so much).  Now, Kelly and McGuinness aren’t the fastest creators out there so vol. 2 wound up consisting of uneven but amusing filler and we’re only now getting back to the main plot with vol. 3.  Was it worth the wait?

That all depends on whether or not you wanted this story to turn into a drama with some comedic bits.  While the volume starts off as funny as you’d expect with Spidey and Deady taking on a group of hapless animal-themed villains, things quickly take a turn for the serious with the appearance of the title character.  Itsy-Bitsy is a woman who has been spliced with the genes of these two heroes and is determined to take after them in a more extreme fashion:  By killing ALL bad guys.  This doesn’t sit well with Spidey and the newly-reformed Deadpool so they make plans to stop her, with the former declaring that they do so BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

Now, if you just went, “Hey, that doesn’t sound like something Spider-Man would say” then you’ve recognized the biggest problem with this volume.  While having the character get worked up over taking on a particularly aggravating villain isn’t anything new, Kelly pushes here to the point where it really starts to feel out of character for him.  Admittedly, this leads to some good material for Deadpool to work through, but it doesn’t feel worth it.  The grim, depressing tone established by Spidey’s actions as the comic goes on works against all the worthwhile stuff in it.  Yes, even McGuinness’ amazing art.  I’d say this is still worth picking up to all of the people who bought the first volume so they can see how the story ends.  Yet it’s hard to imagine them, or myself, going back to re-read it anytime in the future.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Cullen Bunn is one of those writers who has written a lot of comics that I’ve liked, but nothing I’ve been truly passionate about.  (Yet, anyway.)  “Darth Maul” doesn’t really move the needle regarding my opinion of him as it’s a capable, competent comic that you could buy or skip entirely without any repercussions.  There is at least a decent idea at the heart of Bunn’s take on Maul as we’re introduced to the apprentice Sith trying to control the bloodlust his master Darth Sidious has stoked in him.  Whether it’s taking on a pack of alien monsters or silently brooding at Jedi at Coruscant, he’s chomping at the bit to get on with his master’s plan to take down the Jedi order.  Sidious realizes this and sends his apprentice on a mission to bail out some of his allies in the Trade Federation, which Maul does without question or much of a hassle.  This mission isn’t without its benefits as Maul learns about a crimelord’s plan to auction off a Jedi Padawan.

In order to secure this padawan for himself and temporarily quench his bloodlust, Maul is going to need two things:  Restraint, and some allies.  The rest of the volume shows us how he deals with both of these things in ways both good and bad.  While the group of bounty hunters Maul hires at least have amusing one-note personalities, the decent idea of having this bloodthirsty Sith learn restraint starts to get old after a while.  This is mainly because Bunn won’t stop hammering this idea home in the character’s internal monologue which eventually transitions from overwrought to self-parody.  Even in the face of good scenes, like the one where Maul sneaks in to get a look at the padawan, but has to restrain himself once he’s caught.

Luke Ross handles the art here and he’s been an uneven presence in the time that I’ve seen his work.  This, however, is one of his better efforts as he produces some impressively detailed work that captures the “Star Wars” feel in its familiar and new elements.  If the writing was as good as the art, then this would be an easy recommendation.  Combining the two, the final product that is this “Darth Maul” comic is ultimately “not bad.”

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

One of the things I was expecting to see from Scott Snyder’s run on “All-Star Batman” was more single-issue stories after the first arc.  While the writer did a handful of shorter tales over the course of his run on “Batman,” the majority of his time on that title was spent on blockbuster stories that (successfully) kept getting bigger with each one.  We don’t quite get that here.  “Ends of the Earth” collects four issues that initially seem like they stand alone only to come together to form a proper arc.  It’s pretty entertaining for what it is, so long as you’re already onboard with Snyder’s established style.

The writer does the (not hard) job of delivering the best take on "Old Man Logan" yet, and his new creator-owned title is worth a look as well.

Why yes, part of my plan for burning through all those titles last week was so that I could talk up the latest volume of this excellent series some more.  With the New York Times having divested itself of reporting bestseller lists for manga (and graphic novels in general), there’s no way to tell whether or not this series has taken our shores by storm.  At least, not until the (inevitable, I hope) anime adaptation arrives.  Until then, expect regular reviews from my end as I follow the scanlations and then re-read them by picking up the print editions.

Re-reading the series in print form also illustrates how well the series holds up after spending several months away from it.  The culinary dungeon dishes are just as creative this second time around as we learn about breadmaking with Orcs, how golems can be used as portable fields, find out just how filling the food in magic paintings can be, and how to spot treasure bugs.  Most amusing in this volume is Senshi’s preparation of interfaith holy water to ward off some chilly wraiths.  While his method for concocting it is rightly described as “slapdash,” the results are unexpected and as delicious as you’d expect.

There’s also a greater emphasis on character development and worldbuilding in this volume as well.  Marcille emerges as a more well-rounded character as she actually has good reasons for the arguments she strikes up against the Orcs in the second chapter and with Senshi’s anti-magic sensibilities in the final one.  Mangaka Ryoko Kui sets up some long-running subplots here with the introduction of another group of treasure hunters and some history of the dungeon that’s snuck into Laios’ adventure in the painting which also features a potential encounter with the series’ big bad.  While the series could sustain itself on Kui’s imaginative dungeon dishes, the setup here shows that she has more ambitious plans for the series.  Plans which will eventually pay off in addition to providing even more inspired deliciousness along the way.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

While the title may be there to conjure the same kind of specific nostalgia as “X-Men:  Gold,” this is basically the latest iteration of “All-New X-Men” featuring the time-displaced version of the team.  Dennis Hopeless’ take on them may have been the most pleasant surprise of the last “X-Men” relaunch, but this new direction from Cullen Bunn isn’t quite there yet.  It’s not that he’s lacking for decent story ideas as this volume has the team mixing it up with Black Tom and the Juggernaut as a shakedown mission, encountering a batch of Sentinels that want to protect mutants under orders from their new master, throwing down with a batch of castaways from the Ultimate Universe, and finding out that Madripoor has its own brand of vigilante heroes.

There’s plenty going on here and that’s even before I get to the fact that Magneto is now overseeing this team.  I’m always up for having Bunn write the character but his work on the last iteration of “Uncanny” and now this haven’t hit the same heights that his “Magneto” solo series did.  A bigger issue is that while Magneto is a relatively small part of this volume, his actions are the most interesting thing about it as we quickly find out that he has his own plans.  As for the rest of the cast, much of Bunn’s dialogue and characterization comes off as perfunctory and uninspired.  The easy camaraderie that drove previous iterations of “All-New” is in short supply here and a lot of the dialogue feels pretty generic too.

Then you’ve got the art in this volume which features work from six different artists.  I wouldn’t have minded seeing an entire volume, or even just an arc from one of them -- Jorge Molina in particular.  Yet the mishmash of styles over the six issues collected here is as distracting as you’d expect.  Still, getting a more consistent art team feels like the most fixable of the problems this series has at this point.  I didn’t think this first volume of “X-Men:  Blue” was outright bad, but at this point it’s a definite step down compared to what we’ve had before from these characters.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com