weekly loot: june 6

This was a pretty rockin' comic week:

LONE RANGER #6
(w. Bret Matthews, a. Sergio Cariello)
After a little delay in the last two parts, Dynamite’s excellent re-imagining of the title character comes to an end. And it is a satisfying one, for sure. After facing down the henchman from the first arc, all the pieces are complete as our hero now IS the Lone Ranger, complete with mask, horse, and catch phrase. A little odd, but it appears that Tonto was faking being captured and beaten all along so that Lone Ranger can face his destiny. A little disappointing, mainly because I wanted to see Tonto whup some ass, but it makes sense for the character, and frankly I’m glad, because he saves face with me since he was taken care of (or so we thought) rather easily. With that being said, the man behind the man Cavendish is still out there and our heroes are off to find him. Should be fun, and I’m in for the ride.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #4
(w. Joss Whedon, a. Georges Jeanty)
So the last issue of the first arc is over, and the verdict is? That it’s nice to get Buffy in my comics once a month, that’s for sure. I love the Whedon-y character moments, and I love the unlimited budget, and to be honest I don’t care one bit that it’s not on TV. After we are reunited with our old favorites from the TV show, with some nifty fight scenes, we settle down to the for the reveal of the Season 8 villains: humans. Humans that are scared of the army that Ms. Summers has put together since Season 7 ended. I can deal with that. For now. Though something tells me the reveal of the REAL “Big Bad” is yet to come. Or rather, maybe there will be a “Bigger Bad” that makes the Humans idiots for turning on the girls. Good comic.

SCALPED #6
(w. Jason Aaron, a. R.M. Guera)
Fuck yeah! I want more. Now. Aside from some minor “what the fuck just happened?” art in a gun battle, pretty much everything in this issue was spot on. There is officially TOO MUCH bad assery going on for me to properly express, but the two highlights in this issue were the reveals of yet another FBI Agent (what the hell?) and the Catcher’s mysterious little conversation with Bad Horse. Leaving Catcher firmly in the GREAT column with most of the other characters on the reservation. Seeing the larger mystery of how these characters are connected has been rad, and the present-day mysteries are getting more involved, which is even better. Jump on now, folks.

UNCANNY X-MEN #487
(w. Ed Brubaker, Salvador Larroca)
Back on Earth, and its kind of a ho-hum start to another Morlock story. And I say that because I’m not that interested in the Morlocks. But really, I suppose it’s a major part of the X-Universe, and post-House of M, is worth checking into. Brubaker’s banked love from me on other series, and he still has it here, but I’m keeping a close eye on how story #2 plays out. As it turns out, I really like the inclusion of Hepzibah, even though the romantic hints with Warpath seem a little soon. Still, she’s visually interesting, and she very much comes from a place outside the X-Men’s world, so her point of view should be unique in mutant affairs. I’m also glad to see Storm back in an X-Book, even though she still name-dropped Black Panther (ugh), and for some reason she and her lips looked ridiculous in a couple of panels. What the hell, Larroca? Still, other than that the rest of the issue looked pretty great.

BLACK SUMMER #0
(w. Warren Ellis, Juan Jose Ryp)
Based on everything I read about the series from Ellis’ columns and preview pages, this issue was exactly what I expected. What I didn’t expect was that I was going to like this as much as I did. It obviously screams of some Warren Ellis past, but it floored me like Ellis’ Authority once did, and that’s a good thing. The design of our main character is a step forward in thinking for superheroes in only a way that Warren Ellis can deliver: A man surrounded by eyes is fucking awesome, there is no denying that. Ultimately, it's superheroes done dark with political overtones, but it's Warren Ellis style, and good at that. At this point in the Ellis game you either like this stuff or not, but for those of us in, this looks to be another book to watch. (Especially with Desolation Jones M.I.A.) Ryp’s art continues to grow and is pretty amazing in its detail here, but it is becoming what I expect from him and his Avatar books. Looking forward to a full issue.

DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER BORN #5: Waiting until #7 to talk about this again I think.

PUNISHER #48: Okay, maybe THIS was the birth of Punisherette. Last issue was just the origin.

INVINCIBLE #42: The comprehensive recap just reminds me how much has happened in 41 issues. Shit. Good stuff. Jump on, people.

NEW WARRIORS #1
(w. Kevin Grevioux, a. Paco Medina)
My reading of the New Warriors has been spotty over the years. Off and on for the first 50 issues during their first run (I think my biggest uninterrupted run is #21-38 or something). Then I didn’t touch it again until #1 of the most recent reality show mini, which was unique, but didn’t get me to keep reading. Still, I always have fond memories of the characters, and I’m glad that they keep getting a chance. Hopefully this one sticks around a bit longer, because it was a hell of a good start. My reading of New Mutants was spotty as well, but I liked Sofia and I’m always glad when characters like this (in her case, depowered mutant) are used and not forgotten. Her character seems to be a little more confident and sassy than I remember, but that doesn’t bug me. Time has passed for her and the Marvel Universe. Her trek through New York showed us an everyday person’s view of the new Marvel status quo, with Thunderbolts toys, Iron man registration posters and even everyday pro and con Stark people. As for the new concept, I love the idea of the New Warriors being an underground youth movement. Really gives this its own identity, and very cleverly spins the name based on the connotation it has in the Marvel Universe as pariahs. The New Warriors tag was a really nice touch too, since graffiti art is all the rage with the kids these days. Why isn’t it the logo though, huh? Marvel not thaaaat daring? Another nice gag was the “It’s a Mutant Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand” T-Shirt which I expect to see at least one of at Comic-Con. Other characters: I'm really happy that Beak has been brought back from limbo, even though I’m not too sure about his “hottie” look. I could care less that it appears Night Thrasher didn’t die in Civil War #1, because I always thought the character had more potential than has been exploited. His inclusion in the reality show always seemed at odds with his character, so maybe we’ll find out that that wasn’t him all along. All this AND there is a mysterious girl that is shrinking super villains. Good stuff. The Paco Medina art was awesome but unfortunately, it's not long for this level of book, because he will soon be gobbled up into A-Level status never to look back again. A really clean art style, with nice storytelling, good “acting” and topped off with a touch of J. Scott Campbell in the faces. I didn’t know Grevioux from anything but a big Werewolf in Underworld, but this was real good. Is it obvious yet? My BOOK OF THE WEEK.

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #3: An odd issue yet again. Good art, and I like the inclusion of the Iron Spider suits.

COUNTDOWN #47
(w. Sean McKeever w./Paul Dini, a. Al Barrionuevo)
So this is my last issue. I’m trying to give DC my money, I really am. But I said after five issues that I will make the call, and really, it has to be dropped. It suffered, to my admittedly Marvel reading butt, in the most important way: It wasn’t that interesting. Sucks, too, because in the last couple of issues I had finally been intrigued by the Jimmy Olson arc, but I got this issue and it got pretty much a one-page lip service. Kind of lame. I don’t want to be waiting for 2-3 issues to get back to the one storyline that is worth a damn. It should be said that everyone seems to hate the Monitor back-ups, but for someone that was jumping into this series almost completely blind, I almost kept getting them just for the history lesson. Might sneak a read in at the stores if I remember. Good luck Jimmy. DROPPED.

EXTERMINATORS #18

WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY #7

G.I. JOE: AMERICA’S ELITE #24
(w. Mark Powers, Mike Bear)
First, two things: A) I’ve really really enjoyed this storyline so far, and B) I really kind of like the status quo at the end of the arc as well (even if Cobra Commander appears to be a bit too powerful), but JESUS, I kind of really hated the sloppy ass writing to get there. First we have a gunfight with automatic weapons in a small room and NO ONE dies? These are the best of the best, hell, MOST of them would have died if this was handled COMPLETELY realistically. It just took me out of it, and I felt like Powers was working for 3 issues to build up some serious realism that was tossed out the window. What a horrible action sequence. But nevermind that, because that was the lesser of two sins here. Destro fucking AGREES to give up MARS and HIS OLDER SON for the price of his younger son? Um, excuse me, WHAT?! I mean, not that any of that is enforceable, right? And all of this under the threat of a gun? Suddenly Destro thinks someone can actually hit something in this room? Whatever. And the Joes basically got played by the characters and the writer, which was a bit sad. Snake Eyes must be getting old. Bad ending. I’m still a bit excited for World War III, but Powers and Co. have shown some kinks now. Still really enjoying the feel Mike Bear’s art brings to the series, even if it’s a bit clunky at times

MIDNIGHTER #8: Some silly but fun stuff, which I think is a perfect way to be handling a Midnighter series.

IRON MAN #18: Dammit, I wanted more Mandarin.

FEAR AGENT: THE LAST GOODBYE #1
(w. Rick Remender, Tony Moore)
Fear Agent starts over with a new publisher and a new format with a series of mini-series. This first one comes at us as mostly a flashback to when aliens first invaded Earth and Heath started on his way to being the surliest last Fear Agent there ever was. So basically, this story doesn’t resemble anything at all that we’ve seen from this series in its previous incarnation, and that's a-okay with me. Fun little action book that is just starting to heat up as the last page splash reveals. A good old fashioned war comic. IN a sci-fi comic. Awesome. Nice to see some of Heath’s skeletons, and I’m sure we’ll get more. As always, it's nice to have T-Moore back on art duties. Good job here.

JACK OF FABLES #11

LONERS #3: Not doing it for me. The covers really are the best thing.

STRANGE EMBRACE #1
(w/a. David Hine)
Richard Starkings opened up the book with an introduction that basically said: who knew that Hine was so bad ass? And you know what? Yeah, he was right. I’ve read and enjoyed District X, X-Men: 198, Son of M (my favorite) and the currently running Silent War, but none of those are anything like this. Strange Embrace lives up to the hype I’ve seen, and really stands out as a nice piece of comic book work. Sukumar is one of those kids-- you know the ones: bored, dreamy and destined for something great, while all he does is deliver food for his dad. One day while delivering to an eccentric patron (or so we believe), he is interrupted by a mysterious man who leads him to an even more mysterious place, where he shows him odd mushrooms, his ghostly mother and starts to tell the story of his upbringing. I assume we will catch up to present day and, as promised, get how Sukumar is connected to it all. So far, it appears like it will take its time getting there, and that’s fine with me. Hine has paced this slow, and it allows him to be rich with the art (yeah, Hine can draw too! Who the fuck knew THAT?) and creative panel transitions. The story of Quesada hiring Hine on the spot might have sounded far-fetched before, but after reading this, I believe it. The best is yet to come from Hine, and Quesada would be wise to get him an Icon title before he creates a hit over at Vertigo. Nicely done. (and it was the last book I read too!)