Comic Book Reviews 11/3/21
Here’s what I picked up this week…
Single Issues:
“Newburn” #1 by Chip Zdarksky and Jacob Phillips (Image)
”Primordial” #2 by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino (Image)
”DC Horror Presents: Soul Plumber” #2 by Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Ben Kissel (DC)
”The Human Target” #1 by Tom King and Greg Smallwood (DC Black Label)
”The Good Asian” #6 by Pornsak Pichetshote (Image)
”The Rush” #1 by Si Spurrier and Nathan Gooden (Vault)
”Batman” #116 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez (DC)
Trades:
”Friday, Book One: The First Day of Christmas” by Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martín (Image)
”Hawkeye, The Saga of Barton and Bishop” by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel)
”Proctor Valley Road” by Grant Morrison and Alex Child (Boom! Studios)
Older Trades:
”Afterlift” by Jason Loo and Chip Zdarsky (Dark Horse Books)
”Cross Over” Vol. 1 by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw (Image)
”4 Kids Walk Into A Bank” by Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss (Black Mask)
First of all, I’m a slow reader and looking at the above list gives me anxiety in wondering how long it will take me to read all of this. I’m good at spending money on collecting comics, and again slow as hell at reading them.
This week, I’m just going to review the single issues that I got at my local comic shop, Cape & Cowl Comics in Oakland, CA.
“Newburn” #1 by Chip Zdarksky and Jacob Phillips (Image)
This was the book that I was the most excited to see/read this week. These are two of my favorite comic creators (Zdarsky, Phillips) coming together for a crime series through Image, and I think all of those elements add up to a really exciting book. The hype around this book was pretty great, and in reading the first issue I think it was justified.
I won’t try to recycle the premise of the book here, but basically Easton Newburn is a private detective and ex-cop who works for rivaling crime families in this city. You can tell that he’s getting old, but is still a bad-ass, and from the looks of his apartment in the first scene, that he’s doing very well for himself. Zdarsky gives him some clever lines throughout the first issue (“…but my guess is a guy in a bright jacket with a number on it isn’t that smart.”), but the real pleasant surprise is the neighbor of the murder victim who turns out to have had her own part to play in the crime. She is not only impressive to the reader, but also to Newburn himself who offers her a job at the end of issue. If they do end up as some sort of team in future issues, that will be super cool.
All in all, it’s a great start to the series with typically sharp writing from Zdarsky and first class art from Jacob Phillips who must have inherited something of a crime art gene from his father, Sean. I’m looking forward to future issues.
Rating: Fuckin-A (go get it)
”Primordial” #2 by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino (Image)
Dogs. Even Russian dogs make me sad. My own dog died last year, so anything having to do with dogs makes me sad.
The first issue of this series focused more on the monkeys in space. In the second issue we get the dog’s perspective and it’s pretty beautiful. I honestly don’t really follow what’s happening with this story, but it’s so beautiful to look at that I don’t care. Andrea Sorrentino’s art is truly amazing and breathtaking to look at. Jeff Lemire is really smart in not putting in too many words to interfere with some of the gorgeous scenes involving the dog in space. And the scenes with the dog with the white background and the words “alone” are pretty powerful.
When the dialog returns, we’re back to earth, where things are dark and shitty. Looks like we’re learning more about what’s coming next. Don’t want to spoil it any more, though.
Rating: A (for Andrea)
”DC Horror Presents: Soul Plumber” #2 by Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Ben Kissel (DC)
The first issue of this was disgusting, funny, stupid and entertaining. The second issue was no different. “I am Blorp.” It’s psychedelic - as in, a bad trip. There’s lots of vomiting. There’s a poster on the wall of the protagonist’s wall that says “Bust a nut for God!” A lot of disgusting things happen again. Reading issue #2 has me wondering why I bought this in the first place. I think I’m done with this series.
Rating: D (for disgusting)
”The Human Target” #1 by Tom King and Greg Smallwood (DC Black Label)
I’m not that up on the DC Universe so I don’t know any of the back story on this character, but the cover looks cool as hell and definitely gives off a James Bond sort of vibe. I like the contrast of the main character being calm and cool on the outside, but experiencing a terrifying realization that his life is coming to an end, internally. The artwork is fantastic and the writing is sharp and smart. I haven’t really been too impressed by the last couple of Tom King books, but I wanted to check this one out. There’s not quite enough here for me to continuing to buy single issues, but I’ll keep an open when it comes to buying the first trade.
Rating: C (for classy)
”The Good Asian” #6 by Pornsak Pichetshote (Image)
With issue #6 of 10, The Good Asian continues its great run with some interesting reveals here, which I won’t spoil for those of you who haven’t yet read the series. There aren’t too many monthly crime novels on the racks these days (mostly because there aren’t any racks), but this book stands out for obvious reasons. The main character, detective Edison Hark, is easy to root for because he’s a total badass, and I think part of the point of this story is that he doesn’t play into any Asian-American stereotypes that befall other characters in fiction and in Hollywood. This issue explores Edison’s relationship with Victoria Carroway, the daughter of the rich family who he grew up with. What seems to be pretty straightforward about their relationship is actually turned on its head in the final sequence. I remain impressed by what Pichetshote is doing with this series and I’ll be a reader until the end.
Rating: B (for betrayal)
”The Rush” #1 (Simmonds Variant), by Si Spurrier and Nathan Gooden (Vault)
To be honest, I bought this one just because of the cover art. Like many people I’ve been going crazy for The Department Of Truth and it’s also introduced me to the artwork of Walter Simmonds. The other connection was that Cape & Cowl, my already mentioned local comic book shop, had a few exclusive variants that they did here.
But onto the book… I’m not a big fan of the Gold Rush era, so I tried to put that to the side and just read it. It’s written in an old language, which may or may not be historically accurate, but this was also slightly annoying. Once I got past those two things, the story developing in this issue is fairly interesting. The narration is in the writing of a mother to her son, in the form of letters. She’s trying to track him down across a few different towns and terrains. There’s also a horror element in the form of a mysterious, finely dressed man(?) who seems to bring death along with him wherever he goes. The more minor characters don’t have much time to develop but seem at least fairly interesting when they’re not dying. All in all, a moderately interesting story in the first issue, but I’m not going to continue reading the series.
Rating: G (for gold)
”Batman” #116 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez (DC)
The Batman Fear State event is almost over and this is the second to last issue of the James Tynion IV run on the book. I remember when Tom King’s run on Batman ended I was very skeptical of the next writer and did not know much about him at all. I never would have guessed two years later that he would have become one of my favorite writers in all of comics.
Getting to this actual issue, Batman and Miracle Molly confront (are confronted by?) the Scarecrow, where they find Peacekeeper-01, as well. Batman ends up having a pretty epic battle with Peacekeeper-01, while Molly tries to get Scarecrow to turn off some of the evil that he has set in motion. In one of the better scenes of the issue, we see Scarecrow unmasked and we see the battered, lunatic human that he has become, underneath the mask. The scenes with the Scarecrow (unmasked) and the battle between Batman and Peacekeeper-01 highlight how brilliant of an artist that Jorge Jimenez has become. I felt like I was watching a Hollywood blockbuster film with a unique horror twist, which is the world that Tynion has built for Batman and this family of characters that he and Jimenez have designed.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Joshua Williamson and Jorge Molina will bring when they start their ride on issue #118. For now, I’m just enjoying the way that Tynion and Jimenez are wrapping up their story, and it really does feel like both are going out at the top of their game. In closing, this issue is highly recommended.
Rating: A (almost bye bye)
”Friday, Book One: The First Day of Christmas” by Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martín (Image)
I’m a huge Ed Brubaker fan. That being said it’s very hard for me to separate Brubaker’s writing from Sean Phillips’ artwork, since they’ve been working together creatively for more than 20 years(?). I know that Brubaker has worked with other artists before Phillips and will likely work with other artists in the future, but it’s hard to separate the two in my mind. That’s also to say that I’d never heard of Marcos Martín.
When I read that Brubaker had announced this digital comic that was going to be more of a young adult story than a Criminal-type crime story, I was a bit skeptical. However, Brubaker’s track record of excellent comics convinced me to check out this new project. The fact that it was digital and only available from a company called Panel Syndicate was interesting. I would find out later that Martín was also the owner of Panel Syndicate. I ended up downloading the first two chapters on the site, and I read the first one. I was impressed but a little underwhelmed, to be honest. I did buy chapters 2 and more recently 4, but didn’t read them right away. When I heard that Image would be releasing Friday in paperback I decided I would wait to read it until then.
I’ve got two young kids (7 and 9) and I’ve been looking for more books, comics, graphic novels I can read with them. Luckily we’ve gotten past the stage of “bad words” being a thing, so I’m allowed a much wider world of literature to present to them. I thought Friday might be a good one to try with them, maybe because the genre was billed as “young adult”. Also, Friday is easily digestible in three chapters. The three-quarter size of the book also makes it feel accessible for some reason. I realize I’m rambling here…
I sat down with my son (the younger child) over the course of a few nights and we read Friday. The first chapter was intriguing with a quick introduction to the main characters: Friday and Lance. The scene with “Friday’s classic ice-ball” and how it’s constructed was awesome. The description of the “villain” of the chapter, Weasel Wadsworth, was also pretty funny, especially the history of his various capers that they had caught him doing. My son also appreciated the few curse words that he could read out loud: “Think fast, shithead!” “Well… shit…” “Where the fuck had she heard that?”
The event before Friday had gone off to college, of some kind of affair between her and Lance, was mentioned but not detailed until the second chapter. Chapter 2 pretty perfectly captures the awkwardness of the state between friendship and “more than friends” for many teenagers. It’s also got a scene that showcases how badass of a character Friday is when she sticks up for Lance, wearing ice skates and with a hockey stick and puck.
This is probably a good place to talk about the amazing job that Marcos Martín does with the artwork in this book. He perfectly captures the mood of these characters and the era they’re in (late 70’s?) and what it might be like in this fictional North Eastern town (King’s Hill). Where he really shines though is when he illustrates some local lore from King’s Hill, like Crescent Rock and the Storms, the book covers that show the various mysteries and adventures that Friday and Lance take on, and the psychedelic sequence where Friday runs into the White Lady in the woods. Truthfully, by the end of this book, I was looking up Martin’s name to try and find which other comics he has worked on, because the artwork here is truly stunning.
Chapter 3 was pretty epic and ends in tragedy. I won’t reveal any more here, because I want new readers to experience the surprise for themselves. I will talk about how great this whole collection of stories was and how surprisingly it was to see Brubaker writing in this whole different style. He succeeds in making you love these characters in just a few short chapters. By the end of the book, my son and I were looking at each other in shock, and shared a moment of sadness for the aforementioned tragic ending.
We were lucky enough to have gotten Chapter 4 through Panel Syndicate previously and were able to pick up the story where it leaves off in the book. I won’t reveal anything from that chapter, other than to recommend that you go pick it up. You can pay whatever you like and can received the chapter in any format you want to download it in.
Further reading:
Friday on Image Comics
Panel Syndicate
I’d also recommend that you sign up for Brubaker’s email newsletters that go out about once a month. If you are interested in knowing how to do that, just message me.
Rating: M (for mystery)
I will read the rest of the trades soon and publish the reviews in separate posts here. I would love to hear anything you have to say about the comics mentioned here or anything reaction you have to my writing, in the comments.
Thanks for reading!
Mike