Comic shop comics: March 28

Sadly, my shop did not get any copies of Corey S. Lewis' new Sharknife ZZ, the long-awaited sequel to his fantastic Sharknife Vol. 1, which is actually so old it pre-dates my blog (I did review it for the alternative weekly newspaper I used to write and edit for, but when we were bought out by an evil media conglomeration, they took down are archives, so I can't link to a review of it.)

Knowing Sharknife ZZ is out there and not in my hands at the moment kinda bums me out, but I suppose it's just as well: It's been so long since I've read the original that I barely remember it, so I wouldn't mind re-reading that first. I'd definitely recommend that volume, which Oni Press re-released as Sharknife Vol. 1: Stage First this week. I do remember how much I liked it, even if some of the exact plot details escape me, so I'd highly recommend that volume, and can't imagine the second one isn't equally awesome, if not even more awesome, than the original. ComicsAlliance has a rather generous preview of it up, emceed by Chris Sims; check it out.

In other sad new comics news, I still haven't gotten a copy of Tiny Titans #50.

These are the comics I did get at the shop this week:

Aquaman #7 (DC Comics) Black Manta is introduced to the New 52iverse, and it's the knife-y, stabby version from Brightest Day.

He's a little more evil than I like my supervillians, telling a fallen foe, "After I kill you, I will go to Tehran and I will kill your family. Your husband. Your children. I will clean them like a fish." I may just be old fashioned, but I prefer villains who think they're actually the good guys, as opposed to the out-and-out, evil and proud, Joker-wannabe types.

This issue kicks off a new story arc (and the regular art team Ivan Reis and Joe Prado are back for it after an issue off) dealing with a group of super-types Aquaman used to hang-out with, each of whom was armed with a shiny golden Atlantean artifact. Black Manta wants to get his hands on those artifacts, and is apparently going to hunt down and kill Aquaman's old running crew to get them...unless our hero can stop him in time!

My favorite guy so far is the one on the far right of the cover—"The Operative"—who is holding aloft the ancient Atlantean golden dildo of power.This issue also introduces a brand-new Iranian female superhero...who is killed seven pages after her first appearance.

Diversity!


Captain America and Bucky #628 (Marvel Entertainment) This is the concluding chapter of the book's second story arc, the last one dealing with Captain America and Bucky (well, a Bucky). Captain America, the android Human Torch and an old man who used to be Bucky II thwart a plot to take over America by the new version of an old evil android, and his android helpers. And that's it.

It's a pretty light read, and the book is likely to get even lighter, as next issue it turns into a Captain America team-up title, with "Hawkeye" replacing "Bucky" in the title and a new creative team. The art component of this creative team was pretty strong, and helped make an otherwise forgettable story interesting to read. That is Franceco Francavilla, apparently coloring his own art, and it's some of the best coloring I've seen on a Marvel comic. Very little of it is natural lighting—an early scene is set outside a bar at night, the last scene is set outside during sunset, the rest of the comic takes place in dark military bases lit by the Human Torch and explosions, bathing everything in reds, blues and yellow.

It's a fine-looking comic book.


Daredevil #10 (Marvel) Holy smokes, look at that cover! I can't think of the last time I've seen a comic book cover—certainly a superhero comic book cover—that I could honestly describe as beautiful, but there you have it. That is one beautiful comic book cover.

The interior art, by pencil artist Paolo Rivera and Joe Rivera, is almost equally lovely.

This issue concludes the previous one's arc, in which The Mole Man had his moleoids, never creepier than they are as rendered by the Riveras, empty an entire graveyard of coffins, as he was looking for one particular corpse for...what turns out to be a rather disturbing reason, but not as disturbing as I worried it might be at one point (Maybe if this was a DC comic...).

Rivera does his usual amazing job capturing action and conjuring tricks to illustrate DD's radar senses and/or blindness, and the exotic underground setting allows for some particularly interesting images. I was pretty surprised by Mole Man's fighting prowess—something Waid does have DD himself comment on, acknowledging that something that seems off does indeed seem off—but liked the resolutions to the conflicts Waid came up with.

After this issue, Marvel will kick up their testing of Daredevil readers' patience and goodwill with an issue "#10.1" by an artist who is not Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera or Chris Samnee (and who Christopher Butcher and C.B. Cebuski didn't really get me very excited about in this pretty fascinating discussion ), and then there's a three-part crossover story which would require Dardevil readers to first purchase issues Avenging Spider-Man #6 and The Punisher in order to read teh complete story that climaxes in the next whole number issue of the series. I'm not sure why Daredevil needs a jumping-on point ".1" issue given that the new series hasn't even been around an entire year yet, but I know Marvel's done ".1" books even earlier in the runs of new books, so whatever.