Lower Decks

It seems a little late now, because it’s a week later, but last Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, which is like the yearly holiday for comics fans. It was the start of a new month, too, which must mean it’s time to see all the wonderful thoughts about my favorite comics from April 2010!

Since March, I’ve been dabbling at the message boards of Comic Book Resources, which would count as the first time I participate in some honest-to-Jebus comics conversation. Or rather, whatever I can squeeze in, because those guys don’t seem to jibe any better with my comics experience than I could have expected, given what I know about the sales charts. As you know by now, I’ve had my own ideas about the best comics being published for the last few years, represented in the annual QB50 awards, as well as the monthly recaps I’ve been doing throughout 2010, first within my regular weekly column HYGOTS, and then as of last month with this reconstituted column originally begun by one of Lower Decks’ friends, forst.

Anyway, let’s get on with April’s twenty-five (plus stragglers), in alphabetical order:

1. Air #20 (Vertigo)
Though its sales are not so great and few people consider it when thinking just of the best Vertigo books being put out, ‘Air’ has been one of my favorites since it debuted at the back-end of 2008. The thing about it is that unlike a lot of non-superhero books out there, ‘Air’ doesn’t have an obvious gimmick that you can just say with one phrase. There isn’t even an obvious genre to it, so much as an explanation that it’s intended to be the kind of comic that ‘Lost’ has been on television. When it first came out, the author Salman Rushdie was referenced as precedence, and since at the time I was reading ‘The Satanic Verses,’ I understood pretty easily what that was supposed to mean. Like ‘Lost,’ ‘Satanic Verses’ begins with a central event, from which all kinds of unexpected things develop. With ‘Air,’ things got kicked off with flight attendant Blythe stumbling into what appeared to be some kind of international conspiracy, but in fairly short order (imagine ‘Lost’ jumping a little more quickly into the Dharma Initiative history) revealed that the truth of the matter was that she had just discovered her connection to a new form of flight, using a technology that turned out to be old rather than new. Anyway, like ‘Lost,’ it’s a good bet that this kind of storytelling is going to become increasingly expansive, and writer G. Willow Wilson opened 2009 with the introduction of Amelia Earhart into the mythology. This year’s contribution has been Jules Verne, and this issue includes another revelatory literary connection, Antoine de St. Exupery, author of ‘The Little Prince’ (which happens to be one of the many connections ‘Lost’ has made over the years, too), in a sequence that works on a number of levels, the most of which being how it helps Blythe in her training as a hyperpract. Long story short, if you’ve found ‘Lost’ compelling, there’s every reason to believe that you’d enjoy ‘Air,’ too.

2. The Amazing Spider-Man: Origin of the Hunter (Marvel)
April seemed to be a good month for comics that weren’t strictly speaking new material so much as repackaged. Much of this one is vintage reprints of Kraven from the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run (and wouldn’t you know it, these pages are still quite amusing, if still dated in style on both writing and art accounts), but the reason this was released was because Spider-Man has been going through a “Gauntlet” for the past few months thanks to Kraven’s daughter (you can refresh yourself on the convoluted Kraven family history in the free ‘Grim Hunt: The Kraven Saga,’ released the same week), a story that’s been spearheaded by Marc Guggenheim, who provides a modern-style framing sequence that suggests what the same Lee/Ditko story would look like today. Anyway, it’s good stuff whether you’re concerned with what comics are doing now, or what they’ve done in the past.

3. The Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot #3 (Marvel)
I haven’t read ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ itself since “Gauntlet” began (because it seems to have been mostly an excuse to revisit every single one of Spidey’s old foes, a nostalgia trip that kind of ignores all the benefits of Brand New Day), but I’ve been able to maintain my kick with spin-off books like this one. Marc Guggenheim (there’s that name again) was responsible not only for the new Kraven saga, but for the introduction of Jackpot, who at the time was supposed to make readers believe Mary Jane was back, but instead of that (MJ returned right before “Gauntlet,” and we’ll be getting back to her soon), Jackpot turned out to be someone else entirely, before she was killed off. This mini-series has been about the unexpected legacy of the Jackpot character, which comes appropriately full circle with this concluding issue. As far as my experience goes, this is one of the few instances where Marvel has bothered to revisit in some significant way the Superhero Registration Act, the end result of ‘Civil War.’

4. American Vampire #2 (Vertigo)
Until I started reading ‘Air,’ I had never really been a reader of Vertigo comics, even with its distinguished history that has included ‘Sandman’ and ‘Y: The Last Man.’ From ‘Air,’ it became easy to start reading ‘Scalped’ on a regular basis, and recently the limited series ‘Daytripper’ and ‘Joe the Barbarian.’ Now there’s ‘American Vampire.’ This isn’t so much because I was so consumed reading superhero comics to bother with anything else, but I seem to have stumbled into an era with an abundance of material I want to read. As the title of this one suggests, it involves vampires, which as a general inclination I don’t follow around all that much (the name Bram Stoker is pretty much as far as I go, and the story therewith), but the whole idea behind it is that Scott Snyder and literary giant Stephan King are exploring something beyond the ordinary. They are taking great pains to make it distinctly, well, American. This issue helps work out some of the origins behind the central characters (to this point), 1800s outlaw Skinner Sweet and 1920s actress Pearl, who both manage to stumble into Old World-style, conspiratorial vampires. One of the best things about the series is the art of Rafael Albuquerque, which I became familiar with in books like ‘Blue Beetle.’ This would be one of the few instances where a cartoon-ish artist has been able to successfully branch out past superhero work and find material that perfectly suits him.

5. The Anchor #7 (Boom!)
I guess I feel increasingly embarrassed to admit my initial awareness of Phil Hester came about from his art with DC from last decade, because he’s been working on the independent scene as a writer for a fair bit longer. Still, I feel better knowing that I’m not wasting this new opportunity, which may be one of his best works yet. The title character is a holy warrior in a pretty literal sense, an agent of Heaven who battles the demons of Hell, both in the infernal regions and on Earth, who he’s had quite a troubled history, which has been unfolding for the last few issues, but only becomes more complicated this one when he learns the girl who just died, the one who’s been so kind to him in the early issues of this book, who was his descendent, was also the final demon of five who has been sent after him. This is what Hellboy would be like if he weren’t more concerned with BPRD matters, but rather all the mucky things from his own backstory.

6. Atomic Robo (Volume 4) and the Revenge of the Vampire Dimension #2 (Red 5)
I had to include the volume, because the cover excluded the name of this latest mini-series, and the issue doesn’t involve the vampire dimension angle, either, but rather a trip to Japan, which in itself is a perfectly natural thing for this comic science character, who would be another natural descendent of Hellboy. I guess it doesn’t really matter what the issue does in relation to what it was “supposed” to be doing, because the real hook is the clever writing of Brian Clevinger and the complementary art of Scott Wegener (at this point, it’s hard to expect the one without the other). Red 5 made Robo the centerpiece of its Free Comic Book Day release for the second year in a row, which is both perfectly natural and completely awesome. Hopefully at some point this book is going to become a known property.

7. Batman and Robin #11 (DC)
Grant Morrison is unquestionably a master of the comic book storytelling art, and his pet project for the past few years has been Batman. The problem is, he’s not your typical writer, so the same work that gets him attention also splits comics fans between two camps: those who think he’s brilliant and those who think he’s overrated. He doesn’t write like anyone else (Warren Ellis would be someone who writes in a similar fashion, but to my mind isn’t really comparable), so when he writes Batman, he doesn’t do it just to write Batman, but as one of the few people capable of doing so in a fashion that drives the whole story forward, in a way that has only typically been done outside of regular continuity (‘Dark Knight Returns,’ ‘The Long Halloween’), at least since the end of “Knightfall,” which was like a culmination of the 1980s arcs “A Death in the Family” and “A Lonely Place of Dying.” Anyway, so this time, rather than focusing all the development on Robin, Grant’s done it with, well, everyone, starting with Bruce Wayne and working his way outward from there. Everyone knows that Grant planned Bruce’s return from the moment “R.I.P.” and ‘Final Crisis’ ended, which culminates with ‘The Return of Bruce Wayne,’ but in the meantime he’s been doing this book, with the first Robin, Dick Grayson, as the new Batman, and Wayne’s son Damian (via the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, Talia), as the newest Robin. Dick’s been occupied exploring clues about Bruce’s return within Wayne Manor, allowing Damian enough unsupervised time to fall prey to his mother’s continued machinations. There’s a bunch more going on, too, but with Grant, it’s always a good thing to just read it for yourself.

8. Blackest Night: Director’s Cut (DC)
Oftentimes, when a book like this is released, it deals only with one issue, but this one covers the entire eight issues of the recently completed Green Lantern epic, making it a treasure trove for fans. Think of this one as the comics equivalent of the best DVD/Blu-ray bonus material, as essential as any of the original issues for true fans.

9. Brightest Day #0 (DC)
This is the follow-up to ‘Blackest Night’ (only Geoff Johns would ever have mined the Green Lantern mythos this thoroughly; both phrases are part of the oath that has been a part of it from the beginning), which was purposefully as vague as possible for the longest time, right up until ‘Blackest Night #8,’ when twelve characters were resurrected as the final act of the event. As it turns out, Johns and ‘Green Lantern Corps’ writer Peter Tomasi are doing their best to work the magic ‘52’ mojo, which Geoff was a part of, working these twelve into a format that will explore, biweekly, their separate arcs. The biggest twist is Deadman, Boston Brand, the one character who was perfectly happy to be dead all these years (because, hey, that was his gimmick!), who now finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being anything but, as well as the one person still under the direct influence of the white power that brought them all back. This is probably going to be one of my favorite books for the next year, just so you know…

10. The Flash: Secret Files and Origins 2010 (DC)
Ten years ago maybe this wouldn’t have been so special, because DC was putting a book like this together for just about everyone, but these days they’re more scarce. Skeptics about the relevance of Barry Allen in the modern age (assuming only old readers are reading comics these days, which is not necessarily the case, but certainly possible when those readers do everything they can to alienate new ones, which is the very thing they accuse comics themselves of doing) will want to pay attention, because this book does a fair job of setting up the working reality of it.

11. The Flash #1 (DC)
Johns continues his magic mojo here, which is all the more astonishing, because no one’s bothered to write a Flash comic like this since Mark Waid, and even Waid didn’t want to do it the last time he was doing one (which was so baffling he alienated his fans, despite the fact that the stuff he was doing instead was pretty good in an of itself, as was the Marc Guggenheim material that immediately preceded it). Johns makes it look effortless to write the character into the comic, which ought to be exactly what every, or at least most, story, comic book or otherwise, should do. Even if you have a problem with Barry Allen supplanting his successor, Wally West, after all these years, reading this, you really won’t care (unless you really, really still want to, in which case that’s your problem). The last time Geoff wrote a Flash comic, his obsession wasn’t so much writing The Flash as the Rogues, and he plays around with that here, to a clever degree. This is going to be good, too…

12. G.I. Joe: Cobra II #4 (IDW)
This has been one of my favorite books since the original mini-series last year. It turns all the expectations about a G.I. Joe story on their head, turning the adventure squarely into psychological territory courtesy of Christos Gage and Mike Costa, tracking the efforts of Chuckles to expose the secrets of the mysterious Cobra terrorist organization from a pre-Year One perspective. This is the conclusion of the second mini-series, technically, but the good news is that IDW will be continuing the book as an ongoing series.

13. The Great Ten #6 (DC)
Poor sales have apparently convinced DC that this book can be cancelled after nine issues, when it’s scheduled for ten, one for every member of the Chinese superhero team. What makes it all the more incredible is that this is without a doubt one of the best superhero books being published today. If DC had any sense (or its readers could appreciate quality when it didn’t come with the name “Geoff Johns”), it would be following the lead of IDW with ‘G.I. Joe: Cobra’ and instead of incomprehensibly cutting the book short by one issue, expanding it into an ongoing title. Anyway, this issue spotlights Ghost Fox Killer, and how her story expands the greater arc of the book. ‘Great Ten’ is everything that Geoff Johns has been doing so right elsewhere within DC, and it is without a doubt the breakout work of Tony Bedard’s career, and does for artist Scott McDaniel what ‘American Vampire’ has done for Rafael Albuquerque. I simply cannot fathom why this book doesn’t have more readers.

14. Green Lantern Corps #47 (DC)
For regular readers of this book, from well before ‘Blackest Night,’ which helped make it a top ten selling title, this is a huge payoff issue, gathering all the regular characters and letting them take a breath after the harrowing experiences of the biggest Green Lantern story, well, ever.

15. Justice Society of America #38 (DC)
While cruising the Comic Book Resources boards the other day, I heard the “Fourth Reich” arc in this book referenced as irrelevant because of the fact that it’s set in the future and therefore doesn’t and probably won’t reflect present continuity. For reasoning like that, you might as well say the brilliant “Old Man Logan” arc in ‘Wolverine’ can be ignored (which would be ridiculous), or ‘Dark Knight Returns’ for that matter. This is prime material from Bill Willingham, regardless of how it affects the present, and this is another fine installment of it, with some startling revelations and shocking executions.

16. Kill Shakespeare #1 (IDW)
This is probably the most notable launch since, well, ‘American Vampire,’ a bit controversial (Frank Miller’s girl apparently hate it), trying to do an original comic with the characters in Shakespeare’s plays, with a starting point of ‘Hamlet,’ specifically right after the prince has killed Polonius and has been banished by his wicked, opportunistic (at best) uncle, Claudius. I hate to reference ‘Lost’ again, but at least as far as the final season goes, ‘Kill Shakespeare’ would be another comparable experience. It’s a big concept that doesn’t end with the assumption that it’s just a clever attempt to tell some metafiction involving one of the most famous storytellers in history. This will probably be one of the most interesting, at the very least, books in the market.

17. The Marvelous Land of Oz #5 (Marvel)
Knocked off a strictly monthly schedule, it felt like ages since the last issue, but that doesn’t diminish the appeal of Eric Shanower’s adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s clever storytelling, with the perfect art of Skottie Young to accompany it. For any number of reasons, one of the most entertaining books out there.

18. The Mice Templar: Destiny #8 (Image)
This is the second book of this incredible book that explores the hero’s journey in a new yet resonating way, and that journey is coming to its conclusion. ‘Mice Templar’ is everything ‘Mouse Guard,’ a book with wider public recognition, should have been, and has been on a constant, harrowing journey to prove it. We’ll probably talk more next issue.

19. Red Robin #11 (DC)
This is another book reaching a culmination point, with writer Chris Yost completing his run by bringing Tim Drake, finally, into the crosshairs of the new Batman and Robin, and that much closer to his inevitable confrontation with Ra’s al Ghul, with whom he’s been collaborating since he found he was the only one convinced that Bruce Wayne was still alive. As the only writer besides Grant Morrison to get to play with this, Yost has had Drake neck-deep in problems for the past year, making a good character all the more compelling.

20. Scalped #37 (Vertigo)
Even though this is one of my undisputed favorite books now, when it debuted ‘Scalped’ apparently couldn’t convince me that I should read it regularly. I’d sample it and feel fairly good about it, because I recognized that it was noteworthy, but I didn’t want to get caught up in it, partly because I just couldn’t see where it was going. But the whole point of it, as I would learn, is to explore how complicated life can be, not just on an Indian reservation run by a ruthless visionary like Red Crow, pursued by FBI agent Bad Horse, but in general. Red Crow’s muscle, Shunka, has been in the spotlight. Turns out he’s a homosexual, and it’s a secret these issues make plain is a necessary, painful one to carry, one that can be used against him if he isn’t careful. This issue in particular makes it clear just how complicated life can be.

21. Star Trek – Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor #1 (IDW)
John Byrne is a comics legend, but recently he’s been doing things other than the superhero work for which he’s known, and among the most prominent of his recent work has been for IDW, for their Star Trek comics. He’s been all over the map, from Romulans to Gary Seven. Here, he’s obviously working with Bones, from the period just before ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture.’ I don’t generally reads the comics (or books) that don’t have a lot of character or screen relevance (which admittedly, as far as the books and most of the comics before IDW got the property, were small pickings indeed), but Byrne seems to be worth it. Who knew he was such a fan of Star Trek, anyway?

22. Stephen King’s N. #2 (Marvel)
Based on a story from the ‘Just After Sunset’ collection, this is another Marc Guggenheim book, which helps to further demonstrate the range of this comics/television writer, who has become one of my favorites. This is a story of psychological/supernatural proportions, and is, after The Stand comics also being produced by Marvel, the best comics being made based on Stephen King material. But then, King is doing comics himself, too, now. Can you imagine a better time to be a fan of both King and comics?

23. Superman: Secret Origin #5 (DC)
This issue of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s new version of comics’ classic stories is particularly relevant to the material that directly resulted from Geoff’s tenure writing the Man of Steel in continuity, which hasn’t been quite as good as what Johns himself was doing. Anyway, it mostly revolves around the creation of Metallo, who here is an early weapon of Lex Luthor’s budding war against Superman.

24. Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #3 (DC)
The last chapter in the penultimate arc of the New Krypton story probably helps make all of it better than it really was, finally bringing all the relevant pieces back together as General Zod confronts Brainiac and then declares war on Earth, now that he realizes how much humans have been meddling in his affairs. General Lane has been such a bogeyman for the past year it’s no surprise he’s not really all that important here so much as, once again, Lex Luthor, and finally allowing Kal-El to be Superman again has not only been inevitable but quite welcome. What I’m really excited about is May’s ‘War of the Supermen,’ kicked off by Free Comic Book Day (if you didn’t catch it in stores you can still catch up at websites like Midtown Comics).

25. Wasteland #28 (Oni)
Writer Antony Johnston is currently getting some mainstream exposure with Marvel’s ‘Daredevil,’ but you really want to do yourself a favor and familiarize yourself with this book, a post-apocalyptic adventure that, like ‘Mice Templar,’ is in thorough command of its mythology. The publishing schedule for the book has been somewhat erratic for the past year, but the advantage in recent issues has been the innovative approach that looks at the story from the perspective of individual characters, watching progress over a given period of time as their decisions have wide-ranging consequences. This makes more of an impact, because each of these characters has previously been well-established, so it’s entirely welcome to spend more concentrated time with them, a bit like what ‘Fringe’ has been doing lately on TV, allowing experience to have its full benefit. Still, for new readers, following a given character is also an immediate entrance point, so it works all the way around.

Also: ‘Green Lantern #53’ (DC), featuring Hal Jordan, complicated past love interest and current prominent Star Sapphire, and Sinestro, Geoff Johns exploring post-‘Blackest Night’ material; ‘Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #2’ (Marvel), Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente concluding another leg of their journey; ‘Joe the Barbarian #4’ (Vertigo), which sees Grant Morrison dig all the deeper into Joe’s adventure; ‘The Last Unicorn #1’ (IDW), an adaptation of Peter S. Beagle’s novel featuring the art of Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon, whom I met at Digital Webbing’s message boards; ‘Power Girl #11’ (DC), featuring the penultimate issue featuring Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, & Amanda Conner, plus PG helping free Terra from Ultra-Humanite’s control, and the Humanite from his screwed-up body; and ‘Star Trek: The Official Motion Picture Adaptation #3’ (IDW), which features the Starfleet Academy sequence, introducing Bones, Sulu, and Chekov. As always, there was more, but that’s all I’m going to talk about this month.