Comic Shop Comics: August 31

Afterlife With Archie #10 (Archie Comics) Well this wasn't at all what I was expecting, even after more closely studying Francesco Francavilla's awesome cover and seeing all the bats on it. This $5, 33-page issue is a departure from the ongoing story arc, somewhat reminiscent of the sixth issue, which similarly shifted focus from the main cast's battle against the hordes of zombies to devote an issue to another Archie Comics character (Sabrina) and other supernatural elements (witchcraft, Cthulu,other Lovecraftian stuff). The difference between the sixth issue and the tenth, however, is that Sabrina was already an integral part of the narrative, as it was one of her spells that initiated the zombie apocalypse, and, based on the ninth issue, she would play a future role as well.

This issue, which is essentially just writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's riff on Anne Rice's Interview With a Vampire (with bits of her later Lestat books and a detour into The Great Gatsby thrown in), barely connects to the ongoing plot at all. On the final page, Josie and The Pussycats' plane is set to land in Riverdale, where they were to be playing a show on Halloween, the same night as the big dance that "Jugdead" interrupted.

The other connections are merely in the way that Aguirre-Sacasa and Francavilla include another Archie Comics property into a sort of alternate horror universe.

On that fateful Halloween, a reporter is interviewing the notoriously reclusive Josie McCoy of the band Josie and The Pussycats, who, we are told are the biggest thing in music at the moment, but about who almost nothing is known. She tells him her entire life story, starting with her birth in 1906 and continuing on to her being turned into a vampire and turning her fellow vaudeville performers Melody and Valerie as well. Each decade or so they would disappear and reinvent themselves as a new band with a new name, keeping up with the changing style of music. Josie and The Pussycats is only their current incarnation; a Riverdale-based garage band six years ago whose songs went viral on YouTube and they became what they are today.

I like the idea of story, particularly the idea of an immortal pop band that's been popular since vaudeville. There's something to that immortality aspect that fits with the idea of these characters, like the other stars of various Archie Comics, as teenagers who never age a day as decades upon decades pass, although Aguirre-Sacasa doesn't really do anything with it.

I can't say I found much to like in the execution, however. Because the bulk of the book is osie narrating her life to a reporter, and because this is a 33-page comic book and not a first-person novel, it doesn't read quite so much like a story as it reads like someone summarizing a story.

Additionally, Josie and The Pussycats doesn't really seem like a 2010-2016 act, and it's weird that they took on their 1960s identity in 2010 or so, rather than in the 1960s (during that time, they were The Velvettes, with Valerie as the lead singer and Josie and Melody back-up. The other characters are basically non-entities. Josie isn't exactly a deeply fleshed out character or anything, but she's on-panel most of the time. Melody and Valerie, by contrast, barely get any dialogue; the former is just a drawing in the background, the latter only really comes up a few times when race is an issue, reducing her (unintentionally) to role of "the black one."

Granted, there are still things in here I would never have expected to see in an Archie comic, as is, ironically, now to be expected from Afterlife With Archie. Here, that would be a cameo from Charles Manson. Aguirre-Sacasa has some neat ideas about vampires, and I suppose there's still the promise that this will connect to the main narrative in the future. There were, after all, a trio of 110-year-old vampires on the ground in Riverdale when the zombie outbreak first occurred, but unlike the previous nine issues, I found this one merely interesting, as opposed to compelling.

Black Panther Vol. 1: A Nation Under Our Feet (Marvel Entertainment) I bought this today, but didn't read it. I look forward to doing so though, and I'm sure I'll tell you all about my thoughts and feelings about it after I do. So far my only comment is that Ta-Nehisi Coates' name is really, really big on the cover, and placed in a way that is unusual for the writers of most Marvel comics. Much bigger than that of his collaborator Brian Stelfreeze, who gets an "Illustrated by" credit, rather than an "and." Which seems wrong, since Coates doesn't get a "written by."

DC Comics Bombshells Annual #1 (DC Comics) Regular Bombshells writer Marguerite Bennett teams with artist Elsa Charretier for this rather excellent side-story of her ongoing "What If A Bunch of Scantily-Clad DC Superhero Women Fought World War II?" story.

The honestly rather unfortunate cover by Terry Dodson shows Bombshell Batgirl (borrowing Hawkeye's mask, apparently), and nothing else, not giving readers a very good idea of what to expect from the interior. What should you expect? A lot. Bennett's story starts in the "present" of 1941, in which Lieutenant Francine Charles, codenamed "Oracle," is given an assignment by Amanda Waller: Find the long-missing Batgirl and bring her back.

Who is Batgirl Barbara Gordoun? Her origin is explained during an 11-page sequence presented as visuals to a song that the Bombshells play for Charles. It's the sort of sequence that would appear in Bennett's monthly series, in which the backstories of various characters are generally presented in interesting ways that ape particular media and/or styles, but here in the annual she and artist Charreteir get plenty of room to make the sequence breathe.

Gordoun was a pilot who fought for the Allies in World War I, and fell in love with a German pilot, Luc "The Flying Fox" Fuchs. It took me a while to realize who he was supposed to be–his red Fokker triplane made me think of Enemy Ace and The Red Baron, in that order–but this is the Bombshells-iverse's Luke Fox, aka Batwing II, who briefly dated Barbara Gordon during the "Burnside" era of the character's solo series (Where Frankie Charles played such a big role< as well; it's interesting that Bennett looked to such recent Babs stories to inform her alternate universe take on the character). When she lost him, she traveled the world, looking for the means to restore the dead to life, and ended up a vampire (Yes, that makes two books about red-headed vampire ladies in this little stack of comics I brought home from the shop tonight). She's forms a coven with the Bombshells versions of Ravager and The Enchantress in a Belle Reeve Manor House in a Louisiana Bayou, which is frequented by Killer Croc.

It's up to the dashing Charles to find, defeat and recruit them all. Spoiler alert, she does, and, in the process, forms the Bomshells-iverse's answer to a particular DC Comics super-team, which is known to be based in a place called Belle Reeve and to include the likes of Enchantress and Croc in its ranks.

The annual was a particular delight, mainly because of how goddam charming Bennetts' fast, flirty, swashbuckling Frankie Charles is and because of how charming Charretier's artwork is. Bombshells generally has pretty great art, but because of the nature of the book, it usually has more than one artist per issue. So it's nice to see Charretier getting a whole 38-pages to herself.

There is so much to like here that I'm tempted to just scan a bunch of panels and say, "Look at this!" over and over, but perhaps I'll just say that I'd highly recommend the book, particularly as an introduction to the Bombshells ongoing, which has to my great surprise turned out to be a consistently high-quality series (And maybe, just maybe, the gayest comic book on the stands...certainly among the mainstream super-books, anyway).

Before moving on to the next book, I would like to point out two things of special note. First, I think this is the first time that Bennett has made it explicit that this alternate history is quite so alternate. In addition to all the superheroes running around, she is apparently not repeating the All-Star Squadron formula of Real WWII History + Superheroes.

There's a scene where Waller asks if Frankie uses a cane because of polio, and she responds "If it's good enough for the president, it's good enough for me." Waller replies, "I'll let her know you feel that way...Eleanor is more dangerous on two wheels than half the German army crawling along on the spiked treads of their panzers."

So apparently it is Eleanor rather than Franklin D. who is the President Roosevelt of the Bombshells-iverse...and she had polio and was confined to a wheelchair instead of him. That firs part may make some sort of sense given how diverse and cosmopolitan the WWII era of this book is compared to that of the real world...and even 2016, if we're being honest.

Second, The Ravager in this book is a prophetess, who speaks her prophecies in snippets of backwards dialogue, all smooshed together with no break between words. There's one point at which she refers to Frankie as "the new Oracle," which was apparently where Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart were going with her in their Batgirl, which spent it's last half-dozen or so issues apparently assembling an awesome new Birds of Prey line-up...only to have it dashed by DC's "Rebirth" plans.

At any rate, I found it interesting that while the Earth-0 Frankie Charles never got to officially be dubbed "Oracle," the Earth-Bombshell Frankie Charles gets called "the new Oracle" here.

Gotham Academy Annual #1 (DC) Like the Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy crossover, this annual should help tide fans over until the new series launches. Regular writers Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher reunite with Adam Archer and two other pencil artists, three inkers and three colorists for an oversized adventure that demonstrates just how weird this series can be.

There's a mystery afoot at the Academy, with many students falling to a mysterious illness. The clues? A caped figure seen from afar, apparently carrying something large, rectangular and wooden. An increase in the rat population. The disappearance of all garlic from the kitchen. Sketchy guest-lecturer Derek Powers.

With Olive sidelined by the sickness, Colton and Pomeline come up wit their own theories, and Detective Club splits into two factions, each operating on their own theory. Colton thinks Powers is somehow poisoning the studnet body, while Pomeline thinks there's a vampire on the scene.

Turns out, they're both right! Powers is a supervillain (Blight from Batman Beyond, here to destroy Terry McGinnis' ancestor, who goes to school with our heroes), but there's also a vampire on campus, Gustav DeCobra (from Detective Comics #455). So yeah, Gotham Academy Annual #1 has as its villains an extremely minor vampire character from a one-off appearance in 1976 and a time-travelling super-villain from a 1999-2001 Batman cartoon. That's just the kind of book this is.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I have many of the individual issues, in large part because the extra page-count allowed for the complete story to be told all at once. One of the problems with Gotham Academy, I've found, is that it doesn't read terribly well serially. The annual, obviously, doesn't have to, as it's a nice, big, done-in-one.

Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear Vol. 1 (One Peace Books) I bought this today too, but haven't yet read it. I plan to as soon as I hit "publish" on this post. I just really liked the cover. And the back cover. And the promise of the solicitation copy saying it is the story of a girl raised with a talking bear trying to come to grips with modern society.

The Legend of Wonder Woman #9 (DC) This is the last issue of the series as originally announced, but apparently Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon's series has done well enough that DC has decided to continue it. As a last issue, then, this seems to reflect that a bit, as there are a few passages that seem promise events in the future.

I was pretty surprised that The Titan, the big, world-ending giant monster that Wonder Woman faces at the end of this, is apparently a sort of Manhunter android. De Liz doesn't hit a reader over the head with the allusion to Green Lantern comics, but it's there to recognize is you're familiar with that bit of lore. It's an awfully interesting bit of world-building, actually.

More delightful still is the bit at the end, where Etta manages to track down Wonder Woman after she has saved the world, but fled from her life with Steve, Etta and the Holliday Girls so as not to endanger them. When Wonder Woman, hanging out on an island, is shocked to see Etta sail up and wants to know how she found her, Etta replies:

I triangulated your location from word of your heroics. You know, "Wonder Woman Seen Punching The Lights Out of Thugs In Brazil" or "Nutty Woman Wearing American Flag Saves Kitten From Tree In Africa"...

...Not to mention your team-up with the Justice Society at the end of the war!

Get Hourman's signature for my brother, Mint, okay?

For the most part, this Wonder Woman's existence in the a DC Universe has been confined to the occasional unexpected cameo, like young reporter Perry White or Dickensian street urchin Alfred Pennyworth, but here's a pretty explicit mention of a team full of super-heroes, which should hearten the JSA-starved DC fans of the post-Flashpoint era.

I do hope we get to see that team-up, and, of course, plenty more of Wonder Woman's adventures of this era.

Now that this series...or at least this opening arc is finished, I can say with certitude that De Liz's The Legend of Wonder Woman is a pretty great Wonder Woman comic and is, as I suspected it may beafter the first few issues, finally the sort of standalone, origin story comic starring the character that can be serve as her equivalent to, say, Batman: Year One.

Saga #37 (Image Comics) Hey, ever wonder what goes on in the head of Prince Sir Robot while he masturbates? Well, thanks to his monitor face, all you need to do is look at it while he's masturbating to see, and guess what? This issue contains just such a scene!

It also contains a group of aliens that are essentially just meerkats in clothes, which of course it does.

Suicde Squad Special: War Crimes #1 (DC) This unusual one-shot raises an interesting question: Why didn't DC just invite John Ostrander back to write Suicide Squad when they relaunched it in 2011? The three Suicide Squad series that DC has published since 2011–Suicide Squad, New Suicide Squad and Suicide Squad–have had seven writers, none of whom were John Ostrander (They were, instead, Adam Glass, Dwayne Swierczynski, Ales Kot, Matt Kindt, Sean Ryan, Tim Seeley and Rob Williams.) It's curious to me that somewhere around the fourth writer or the second relaunch in a few years they didn't think to see if Ostrander wanted to come back for a while.

This $5, 38-page special is a curious comic, as it is simply a single and straightforward classic-style Suicide Squad mission with no subplots or dalliance with the inner lives of the characters. It's too short to be a graphic novel, although it's not hard to imagine Ostrander having fleshed it out into being an original graphic novel, or even a miniseries. I...don't really know why this book exists, to be frank, other than to give the guy most responsible for the current incarnation of the Suicide Squad a chance to make a little more money off of it than he's already getting in royalties form the collections...which DC is just now finally getting serious about releasing (Hopefully the less-than-warm reception of the film doesn't torpedo efforts to collect the whole series in trade!).

As Chris Sims said at Comics Alliance today, it does function quite well as a sample of what one could expect from the classic Suicide Squad collections; starring a team of characters from the movies but reflective of the original Ostrander (and, later, Ostrander/Kim Yale) run, this is a pretty good gateway comic...even if at $5, it's like one-fourth the cost of a trade.

You've got the shockingly hardcore Amanda Waller, you've got Deadshot and Captain Boomerang, you've got foreign metahumans adversaries which can only properly be met by some of America's, you've got geo-politics and international intrigue with the flimsiest veneer of fictionalization. There's even the return of the theater-style briefing room that was central to the original run of the series.

The plot here is that a group of European metahumans have kidnapped a fictional composite of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and delivered him to the Hague to be tried for war crimes, and it's up to the Squad to return him safely to the states or die trying.

The Squad, as I said, is movie-viewer friendly: Deadshot, Boomerang, Rick Flag, Harley Quinn, El Diablo and Mad Dog (Guess which one gets killed in action!). The artwork is by Gus Vazquez and Carlos Rodriguez, colored by Gabe Eltaeb, and its among the best Suicide Squad art I've seen of the post-Flashpoint period. The character designs are mostly composites of their original looks, New 52 looks and movie looks, so that pretty much all of them are easily identifiable, no matter where you know them from. The art is overall bright, clear and easy to read: Unlike just all of the Suicide Squad comics I've read in the last five years, it wasn't an unpleasant chore making my way through this.

It is perhaps unfortunate that this is such a standalone book, though, as those are the kinds of books a lot of super-comics readers tend to ignore, or at least not prioritize in the way they do the "main" books. This isn't the current Suicide Squad book, after all, nor does it appear to have anything in it that will impact that book.

It is a pretty damn good, 1980s-style action comic, though, with fine characterization from the guy who re-invented so many of these characters.

These are some of the Marvel collections I've read lately:

All-New Wolverine Vol. 1: The Four Sisters: Thor is a white woman now. Captain America is a black man. The Hulk is a still a big green guy, but now he's a Korean-American teenager when he's de-Hulked. Spider-Man is still a white guy, but there's also a second Spider-Man, who is a half-black, half-Latino teenager (and there are, like, three female Spider-People, each starring in their own comic book series). Pretty soon, Iron Man is going to be a black teenage girl.

While one could argue the merits of the particular method for increasing the diversity of Marvel's heroes–I've personally never thought that simply handing the codenames and costumes of middle-aged white guys to black characters, for example, was the best way to go about creating compelling superheroes of color–but Marvel Comics has clearly been devoted to creating a line-up of heroes far more reflective of the world we live in today, rather than the world of 1960s pop culture, from which all these characters originally sprang (or re-sprang, in Cap's case). As far as I've been able to tell, it's all worked pretty well so far, in large part because so many of those comics have been so good.

The one example of this diversification-through-legacy trend I personally was the most ambivalent about, however, was that of turning Wolverine into a teenage girl.

Marvel killed/"killed" Wolverine quite a while ago, in a sort of temporary death that seems way too easy to come back from to create even the illusion of semi-permanence (He lost his healing factor, and then was encased in molten adamantium, which cooled around him, not unlike a fly in amber. It doesn't take much imagination to think of ways to get him out of that situation and back into circulation when it becomes desirable to do so).

Wolverine may have been popular, but he wasn't the sort of hero who played a big, symbolic role within the Marvel Universe (like Captain America), nor did he have a particular job that couldn't be left vacant (like Doctor Strange, The Sorcerer Supreme), nor did he have a particular turf that needed the protection of a particular superhero (like Daredevil or Spider-Man). In other words, Wolverine is not a character that anyone would need to replace for any reason upon his death.

Marvel replaced him with two Wolverines, though. The first is an alternate universe version of himself from the pages of Old Man Logan, who, given the fact that Wolverine is already an immortal character, is basically just Wolverine with different hair. And then they made Laura Kinney, Wolverine's clone with the always lame codename X-23, Wolverine, giving her Wolvie's blue-and-yellow X-Men costume.

In the broadest sense, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense in-universe, and I don't think there was a very convincing rationale ever offered in-story, although in terms of marketing it makes perfect sense. It gives Marvel a literally "all-new" Wolverine to star in All-New Wolverine, it finally gives Laura a superhero name rather than a number (Sorry anyone who was hoping she would eventually take the name Wolverine Girl or Wolverina) and it makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the time-lost, teenage X-Men that Brian Michael Bendis introduced to the modern Marvel Universe during his All-New X-Men/Uncanny X-Men run (Laura appears alongside most of them in the pages of the rebooted second volume of All-New X-Men).

All that said, and given my general apathy towards Marvel's mutants (surpassed only by my apathy for its Inhumans), I was prepared to skip this series entirely–until my friend pretty much insisted that I read it, as it was such a great comic book and, in her words, maybe her favorite comic book of the moment (Of course, she doesn't read Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe, the actual greatest comic book of the moment*).

So writer Tom Taylor is teamed with artists David Lopez and David Navarrot (with Nathan Fairbain on colors) and tasked with turning X-teen X-23 into the new legacy version of Wolverine. The first six issues comprise a rather tidy single story arc, with just the last two pages of cliffhanger providing any kind of loose end. Tear that page out of the trade, and this reads like a complete graphic novel.

Taylor wisely makes this story more about Laura's past than Logan's, and our first, issue-length adventure features her attempts to take down an assassin in Paris, debuting her new Wolverine costume and getting an assist from fellow All-New X-Men and boyfriend Angel (the teenage one from the past, now with fire wings, not the grown-up version who...actually, I lost track of him again. Sorry).

It's a pretty great issue–although it would have annoyed the fuck out of me if I paid $4 for an action scene and had to wait a month for the next scene–detailing Laura's common powers with all-old Wolverine and a major thing that will separate them. This Wolverine, though built to be a weapon just like the original, won't kill. As a hallucination of her clone-daddy tells her, "You're the best there is at what you do...but that doesn't mean you have to do it." It also illustrates the thing that makes the book a worthwhile read: Its sense of humor (The scene where Angel expresses his relief that Laura did not die was pretty priceless, and the point at which I felt the book hook me).

The assassin, it turns out, is a clone of Laura...of sorts. She was part of a series of Laura clones, all of whom look like her, and all of whom were trained to be killers like her, but none of whom have the claws and healing factor. They've also got a fast-approaching expiration date, and they've formed a sort of terrorist cell to lash out at the world before they go.

Meanwhile, the shady company that created them, Alchemax, wants them back, and they want Laura's help in doing so. Naturally, she's torn, but agrees to help, seeing as how her clone sisters are a terrorist cell assassinating folks now.

The rest of the volume then is concerned with Laura's attempts to find and save her sisters, and her trying to figure out who the worse of the two groups of bad guys are, and which she should throw in with. Spoiler alert: She sides with the clones, who have been through the same horrible stuff she has but want to fight back in a proportion greater than that which Laura does at this point in her life.

In a sense, it's almost a cliche sort of Wolverine story, despite the fact that this Wolverine isn't the old one, but Laura's struggles to be better than the weapon she was made to be, than the weapon she's been and than the weapon Wolverine himself all-too willingly was, gives this a somewhat different spin. As does its sense of humor, much of which comes from the very welcome (if early) guest-star appearance of first Dr. Strange and then The Wasp. And the near-constant presence of Gabby, the youngest and most innocent of Laura's clone sisters, who is to this book as Molly was to Runaways. (Taskmaster also makes an appearance, and I've gotta call bullshit on how thoroughly and how quickly Laura kicks his ass. I'll buy his inability to see the foot-claw coming, but the rest? I guess we'll just put that down to Laura having home-book advantage...as well as being a hero fighting a villain).

On the subject of foot-claws, one of the many things I never really liked about the character was that in what seemed to be a rather random differentiation from Logan, she had two rather than three hand claws, and one claw in each of her feet (Similarly, Wolverine's biological son Daken, who I have also lost track of, had two claws in each of his hands, and one in each of his wrists.)

Taylor and company rather consistently make good use of those foot claws throughout, essentially retroactively justifying the character's original design. If you have a super-power, however weird it might seem, than you have to use that super-power pretty regularly, and it has to make sense within that story. In fact, I'm pretty sure Anton Chekov wrote something about foot-claws once...

Captain America: Sam Wilson–Not My Captain America: Remember the last collection Marvel released featuring the newer, Sam Wilson version of the character? The entire six-issue, 2015 run by Rick Remender, Stuart Immonen and company? (Sure you do; we talked about it right here fairly recently.)

Well, you can go ahead and forget about it. That "ongoing" was canceled with the rest of Marvel's line for a few months last year as part of Secret Wars, and then came back with a new number #1 issue–and, in this case, a new creative team, new title and new direction–and is all but ignoring the last comic featuring this character with a big "1" on the spine.

It's not that writer Nick Spencer is contradicting or ignoring the events of Remender's run miniseries All-New Captain America, exactly. Former Falcon Sam Wilson is still the new Captain America. His avian partner Redwing is still ambiguously vampiric (just like Jubilee!). Sam is still working with Misty Knight. Rather, Spencer is ignoring the cliffhangers that Remender's All-New ended with.

Those cliffhangers? First, that Hydra had so thoroughly infiltrated the world that there was now a Hydra agent on every single superhero team. That's a fun idea, and could have had the makings of a fun crossover story, leaving fans to wonder which member of The X-Men, The New Avengers, The Pet Avengers, etc were secretly bad guys working for the Nazi analogues. The other? SHIELD told Sam that Misty Knight, who had claimed to be working for them throughout the entire story arc, was not an agent of SHIELD, implying that OMG she too might be Hydra!

It takes Spencer and Daniel Acuna, who draws the first three issues of the new series, all of two issues to set-up the new status quo which, to be fair, does have Wilson quitting his formal affiliation with SHIELD after they tied up all the Hydra business (Whatever Remender had been planning then seems to either happened off-panel in the months that passed between the end of All-New Captain America and the launch of Captain America: Sam Wilson, or Remender plans to go forward with it somewhere else at some point).

None of that is necessarily a bad thing, just a rather odd thing, and it further makes reading (certain) Marvel comics difficult. Like, Marvel's frequency of reboots have gotten to the point that it's quite possible for a book to leave an interested reader before the reader can even consider dropping the book.

All that said, I really rather liked Spencer's take on the character, which involves not only writing Sam Wilson as a very, very different Captain America, but one who doesn't really struggle with the legacy in a way that too few comics starring (let's face it, temporary) legacy characters ever do.

Spencer also rather boldly has his Captain America, and his Captain America comic book, wade into politics. At least, that seems like a pretty bold move considering Marvel's general reticence when it comes to publishing anything that can be seen as political, and thus offensive to some (I'm thinking especially of the scene in the first issue of Fear Itself in which writer Matt Fraction seemed to be discussing the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" nonsense without actually using any details, just enough to imply that he was writing about it).

Sure, Spencer is still somewhat coy about Sam's specific politics–he never uses the words liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican–but it's not too difficult to see where Wilson stands on many issues, and to figure out what those positions are in contrast to the people who are opposed to him, be they passersby, TV talking heads or villains.

There's a pretty great passage in which Sam narrates the hell out of the dawning realization that America was just as divided as ever, and that even though Steve Rogers may have stayed above the fray, that doesn't mean he has to: "If I really believed I could make a difference–If I really believed I could change some minds, do some good–then wasn't I obligated to try?"

And then there's this great transition from the last panel on one page to the first on another. In one panel, Sam is calling a press conference, and stands at a podium, saying "Good evening, I'm gonna read from a statement–"

And in the next, we see a bunch of headlines reacting to that statement, like "Cap Versus The Constitution?," "Sam Wilson: Captain Anti-America" and so on.

Of course, in other places, it's much more clear exactly what Sam might think about certain issues. His first case is busting The Serpent Society (The Marvel Universe's KKK stand-ins), who are attacking illegal immigrants trying to cross the southern border (although, this being a superhero comic, it's a little more complicated and weird than it at first seems). Later, the major villain of this first volume, a ruthless businessman literally dressed like a snake, expresses a bunch of Randian/Republican economic philosophy, culminating with "someone has to make America marvelous again–"

So yeah, not too subtle. And all the better for the (relative) lack of subtlety.

These six-issues basically constitute one big story arc, establishing the still new-ish Cap's new status quo.

Without SHIELD funding, he's set up shop with a small team that includes Misty Knight, former D-Man Dennis Dunphy (in a new, "cooler" costume with no mask, but a sweet beard; I liked the old look better, and with Wolverine dead and Wolverine II rocking the yellow and gold, this is the perfect time for Dunphy to bring back his Wolverine mask!), what appears to be another comic book analogue to the hacker group Anonymous (here it's The Whisperer**) and...Redwing, sometimes ("Redwing Approval Still Sky High At 93 Perecent" a headline shortly after the panel revealing all Cap's bad press assures us).

Not unlike what he was doing with Luke Cage's Mighty Avengers, this Cap is trying to be a little more of the people, and is fighting crime and injustice via hotline tips. The first takes him to Arizona, where he encounters the Sons of the Serpent.

Turns out they are working with a minor Marvel mad scientist who is splicing people with animal DNA, which will gradually bring about the new Falcon...and, awesomely enough, brings about the return of Capwolf. Even more awesomely, Sam Wilson temporarily being a werewolf is here treated like little more than if he had a head cold. It's nothing to angst about, it's nothing to even worry about, Sam Wilson is just randomly going to finish off the story arc as a giant werewolf, giving Misty something to make fun of him about for the remaining four issues of the book.

And it turns out the mad scientist is working for Serpent Solutions, snake-themed supervillain Viper's reconstitution of The Serpent Society as a slightly-more-evil-than-average corporate entity with a finger in everything, leading to plenty of fun visuals like Viper on the golf course, cartoon golf clothes on over his snake suit, and the line about how America needs someone to make it great marvelous again, "and I say I'm just the super villain in a snake suit to do it."

It is fantastic.

Spencer's script is funny, to the point that I would be tempted to call the book an outright comedy, but when compared to some of the other books Marvel is currently publishing (i.e. most of the rest of those in this post), it has more in common with their traditional fare. Rather, this is a superhero comic book with a sense of humor...as well as a rather unique point of view. It's Spencer's take on the Marvel Universe (previously seen in books like The Superior Foes of Spider-Man and Ant-Man/Astonishing Ant-Man), only here applied to one of the characters at the center of that universe.

The artwork is a bit of a step down from what Stuart Immonen was bringing to Sam Wilson's adventures in the previous Captain America comic. It takes four-to-five artists to draw just six issues; Acuna handling the first three (with a "with" credit on #3 going to Mike Choi), Paul Renaud draws #4 and #5 and Joe Bennett and Belardino Brabo pencil and ink the sixth issue.

Based on their past work, I'm not a huge fan of either Acuna or Bennett, but in both cases this is by far the best work I've seen from either. Surprisingly, it all kind of flows together remarkably well, too. I prefer a comic like this to have a single artist, with a strong "voice" that allows the artist to make the book as much theirs visually as the writer might make it theirs verbally. That's gotten harder and harder to find these days, and sometimes the best we can hope for is a single artist per arc. We don't really get that here either, but, like I said, everyone involved in drawing or coloring this book does a pretty remarkable job, and they all blend together better than expected.

I'd highly recommend this volume...to anyone who likes fun and/or funny superhero comics, regardless of how they might normally feel about Captain American and/or Sam Wilson.

Howard The Duck Vol. 1: Duck Hunt: Because Marvel just can't help but relaunch their books at an alarming frequency, the second collection of writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Joe Quinones' Howard The Duck comic is labeled "Volume 1." Whatever happened to Howard The Duck #1-#5, the first Howard The Duck #1-#5 of the Zdarsky/Quinones run, not the second Howard The Duck #1-#5, which also exist? They are in Howard The Duck Vol. 0: What the Duck. Wouldn't it be easier to label the first volume with "Vol. 1" and the second volume "Vol. 2"? Yes!

But if there's one thing that Marvel, as a publisher, is opposed to, it is the logical use of numbers. If there are two things they are opposed to, the other is making it easy for readers to find and enjoy their comic books.

And so welcome to the second collection of the Zdarsky/Quinones Howard The Duck comic, Howard The Duck Vol. 1.

I'm going to go lie down for a few minutes.

...

Okay, I'm back.

So it's eight months after the events of Secret Wars, and there are several changes in Howard's life, although Zdarsky and Quinones will explain those in the course of this volume. It opens "three months" ago, at the conclusion of the Howard The Duck/Unbeatable Squirrel Girl crossover, which is the last story in this collection.

Not feeling as fulfilled in his new life as a private investigator, even with the help of "Aunt" May Parker as his administrative assistant or Skrull-shape-shifted into a tattoo artist Tara as his friend, Howard decides to try and return to his own dimension. To do this, he consults with Doctor Strange (who really gets around, it seems) and then takes The Abundant Glove to The Nexus of All Realities in Man-Thing's Citrusville swamp.

Things...don't go well, as Howard and Tara encounter first The Wizard and Titania, and then female clones of Howard and Rocket Raccoon (made to be breeding partners for them by The Collector when he briefly had the pair of them in the previous collection) and then they all get involved in a big, weird, epic space adventure that ultimately includes The Silver Surfer, a would-be Herald of Galactus named Scout, Galactus himself, The Guardians of The Galaxy (now up one Thing and down one Peter Quill) and, of course, a fight with The Collector.

It's all as weird and wild as one might expect, especially since all of that takes only about four issues. As he proved so able of doing last issue, Zdarsky manages to fill just about every panel of every page with a joke, deeply embedding Howard in the Marvel Universe without ever really resorting to parody of the characters and the setting as the source of the humor. The Marvel Universe, particularly after so many decades of existence, is such a weird place that one need not make fun of it to find the humor in it. One need only have its characters observe that strangeness as they wander around in it.

Zdarsky also does a fine job of nailing Howard's particularly jaded voice, which makes the character a particularly good guide to the universe (And, as annoying as Marvel's renumbering practices are, Howard, like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, at least observes that as well; Quinones' variant cover for the first issue replaces the new tag-line "Trapped In A World He's Grown Accustomed To", itself a riff on the original tag-line, with "Trapped In A Renumbering He Never Asked For!" A tiny little "Again" appears beneath the "#1").

Howard's attempt to get home, which takes he and Tara and their allies to a high-stakes battle in outer-space, is interrupted by a one-issue origin story of the new humanoid duck and raccoon characters, drawn by Vernoica Fish. Quinones draws the rest of the book...except for the Erica Henderson-drawn Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #6, which is included herein, as it is one half of the "Animal House" crossover between the two.

It should perhaps prove unsurprising that a crossover between two of Marvel's three best comics at the moment (Patsy Walker, obviously), is pretty great.

Howard is hired to find a missing cat, and since all cats look the same to him, he tries to abduct Nancy Whitehead's cat...but Nancy is the roommate of Doreen Green, AKA Squirrel Girl. Then Kraven the Hunter rolls up in the Kra-Van, tosses Howard in a sack and takes him to the estate of an eccentric, superhero memorabilia-collecting lady who would like to hunt "the most dangerous game."

But since hunting people is illegal, she's decided to hunt potentially-dangerous game that falls into a legal gray area, like people-ish animals or animal-ish people. So when Squirrel Girl goes to rescue Howard, she finds him imprisoned alongside Rocket Raccoon, Beast of the X-Men, a not-even-disguised version of the cat from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's We3 and Weapon II, which is basically Wolverine, if Wolverine were a talking squirrel rather than a mutant (He's got the little Barry Windsor-Smith eye-piece and wires and everything).

Squirrel Girl and Kraven find themselves in the hunt as well, and it is awesome. There's so many great things in this, but probably my favorite part is the gag on the last page, which comes after Kraven has decided to re-think his life, and becomes a hunter-of-hunters. It sure seems easier than hunting Spider-Man!

The crossover spans an issue of each of the titles, and they are each done by their respective creative teams. It's pretty damn weird to see someone other than Henderson drawing Squirrel Girl these days, since her version of the character is so incredibly distinct (especially compared to the Barbie doll figured-version of the older Great Lakes Avengers comics), but I enjoyed seeing the characters in the hands of the other creative teams and, especially, seeing Zdarsky trying to do those weird "alt-text" style jokes that Unbeatable Squirrel Girl writer Ryan North does in his book.

As I read both Howard and Squirrel Girl in trade, I guess that means I'll be paying for the same content twice, but heck, at least the content is good content.

Ms. Marvel Vol. 5: Super Famous: Good news! While Marvel may have idiotically rebooted the Ms. Marvel ongoing after Secret Wars despite the fact that nothing at all about the creative team, the cast or direction of the book had changed, when it came time to collect the second issues of Ms. Marvel numbered 1-6, they kept the number of the collections, meaning that Ms. Marvel's sizable collection-reading audience need not do the mental gymnastic required of readers of, say, Mark Waid's run on Daredevil. Huzzah!

This volume picks up months after the end of Secret Wars, as each of the post-Secret Wars books did. There were two big changes in Kamala Khan's life during that time, one of which took up so much of her time and mental energy that she barely noticed the other. That first is that she joined the Avengers (the All-New, All-Different squad, which was and still is the flagship team at the moment), while the other is that her best friend-with-an-unrequited crush on her went ahead and fell in love with a classmate. That Bruno now had a girlfriend is something that Kamala was literally the last person to know about, which is a neat, somewhat sly way to handle the time-jump Marvel's books were all forced to incorporate, and of illustrating the confused world of teenage relationships (Despite having rebuffed him and all but encouraged him to find someone else, Kamala is nevertheless hurt, annoyed and confused that Bruno actually went ahead and did just that).

These six issues, drawn by regular artists Takeshi Miyazawa and Adrian Alphona, plus Nico Leon, roughly divide into two storylines. In the first, drawn by Miyazawa and Alphona, we are introduced to Kamala's new, Avenging status quo (Tony drops her off at her house after missions, and gives her advice on her physics homework) and her slow-dawning realization that Bruno has a new girlfriend. Meanwhile, she fights the forces of gentrification–quite literally, since this particular case of gentrification includes mind-control and is being carried out by a villainous organization (G. Willow Wilson does a pretty great job on this story, making the driving conflict that is at once both a real-world concern and a silly supervillain plot, in the best tradition of old-school "relevant" comics).

In the second, Kamala gets still more obligations when her older brother seeks to marry, and she decides the best way to try and be in several places at once is to 3D printer clones of herself. It obviously goes completely wrong, but in a rather amusing fashion that can only be sorted out by the intervention of her hero Carol Danvers and a hug from Iron Man. In this story, Wilson gets to simultaneously work Kamala's family dramedy with superhero shenanigans about as hard as she has yet during her run on the title (Er, including the previous volume, not just the first six issues of the new volume).

The artwork is a little more all over the place than I'd like, but all three artists are really great ones. And color artist Ian Herring, who handles all six issues, does as good a job as possible of making it look as if all of the pages herein belong together. I most enjoyed Miyazawa's contributions. Not only do we get to see him draw the whole All-New, All-Different Avengers line-up in his particular style, but he does a fine job of presenting a frazzled Kamala visually; her hair is a mess throughout the first issue, and she looks delightfully out of it.

Leon, however, probably gets the most fun bits, as it's that second half of the book devoted to Kamala's ever-increasing number of dim-witted, barely functioning clones, all of which are drawn with an emoticon-simple expression, gifted with a word or two of vocabulary, and subject to horrifyingly melt at the most inopportune times.

Marvel's got so many high-quality funny books these days, but Wilson and company's is perhaps the best of those that keeps one foot in the serious supehero genre. Ms. Marvel is the Spider-Man of the 21st Century. Which I'm fairly certain I've said about at least one other super-character before, but unlike that character, Ms. Marvel is a Marvel character. So maybe I should say instead that "Ms. Marvel is the publisher's Spider-Man for the 21st Century."

Whatever. It's fun, it's funny, it's melodramatic, it takes superheroics more seriously than the publisher's outright comedic titles, it's always well-drawn–it's pretty much exactly what one would want from a superhero comic book.

Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat! Vol.1: Hooked on a Feline: I think a great deal of the delight I took in this comic book came from the fact that unlike every other book on this list, I had no idea what to suspect from it. I wasn't familiar with the work of either writer Kate Leth or artist Brittney Williams, and while I liked Hellcat because of her weird, real-world origin and her association with various Marvel characters I've liked over the years (Son of Satan, The Defenders and She-Hulk, whose last title she was featured in), the last Hellcat comic I read was the baffling Kathryn Immonen miniseries.

As it turns out, Leth is a hilarious writer, who packs the book with jokes broad and subtle, and takes the same approach to Marvel Univers humor that Chip Zdarsky takes in Howard The Duck. As I said above, the setting is so weird that it's pretty much inherently hilarious; one need only frame it correctly to mine it for comedy. And mine Leth does.

And as for Williams, she is an amazing artist, her style looking akin to a compromise between those of Erica Henderson and Gurihiru, retaining flexibility to be tweaked in either direction as needed, so that the characters can occasionally become even more cute than they are usually designed, or even slip into super-deformity.

And as for Hellcat? Leth incorporates her real-world origin as the star of a pre-Marvel, Archie-like teen gag comic into the present storyline, incorporating characters from those comics into this one (Her rival Hedy Wolfe has control of those comics, and is re-publishing them to great financial success, which Patsy is unable to share in; in a perfect world, Marvel too would be doing so, or at least publishing a story per issue as a back-up, just as Archie Comics has been doing in their rebooted line). The story picks up right where we last saw her, working as a freelance P.I. for She-Hulk's firm...until she's not.

She has a business plan, though, a sort of staffing agency for super-powered people who don't want to use their powers to either fight or commit crime, but, in the meantime, she takes a series of low-paying jobs that she is terribly suited for. Meanwhile, an obscure Asgardian villain is in town, and it's up to Patsy to take her down.

While she reconnects with old friends and makes new ones, She-Hulk, Valkyrie, Doctor Strange (him again!), Howard The Duck and Tara all guest-star, and a bunch of supeheroines put in cameos when Patsy invites them to lunch.

That accounts for the first five issues. The sixth and final one collected here is a done-in-one drawn and colored by Natasha Allegri, who has a perfectly darling, manga-inspired style that makes everyone look simultaneously completely adorable and like they are from modern fan art from some lost 1970s children's cartoon from Japan no one's ever heard of.

In that story, Patsy and her new friends cajole She-Hulk into joining them for a day off at Coney Island, where they run afoul of Arcade, and must best him in various deadly amusement games or forfeit their lives. As darling as Allegri's Pasty and company might be, it's her Arcade and her Jessica Jones that are really mind-bending, given the fact that those aren't characters anyone ever sees in a style anything like this. Also, She-Hulk reverts to her Jen form, which...I can't actually remember the last time I saw her not Hulked out.

The only thing wrong with these first six issues? Williams' cover for the sixth showed Hercules on a float in The Mermaid Parade, and yet Herc is nowhere to be found in the interiors. Something to work into future issues, ladies.

And speaking of covers, the variants filling up the final pages of this collection include variants by some of my favorite artists: Sophe Campbell, Erica Henderson, George Perez, Marguerite Sauvage and Kevin Wada.

If you're a fan of any of the books covered in this post and haven't read Patsy Walker yet, please do so. You'll love it.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now: Despite the cover of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 (Vol. 2), which Marvel also used for the cover of this particular collection of the series, The Avengers team that dominates so much of it don't really appear within the book much.

Squirrel Girl may (rather incongruously) be part of Robert Da Costa's A.I.M./Avengers merger team (the one appearing in New Avengers at the moment), but that is really only acknowledged at the end of the first issue herein, in which Dorreen takes her friends Nancy, Chipmunk Hunk and Koi Boy with her to Avengers Island's food court, which is full of restaurants with Avengers pun names (Soup Thor Salad, for example, or Foods That Are Rich In Iron, Man). So if you were hoping to see artist Erica Henderson draw the hell out of all those new New Avengers, sorry. (Speaking of the cover for the second Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1, it bears the words "Only Our Second #1 This Year So Far" on it; again, at least they have a sense of humor about it...and at least Marvel put the numeral "3" on the spine rather than "1," making this an easy book to read in trade.)

The first issue finds Doreen Green getting a new, Nancy-designed costume and a visit from her mom. The last 40-pages are devoted to the "Animal House" crossover with Howard The Duck, which I mentioned above. In between them is a fantastically convoluted time travel story involving Squirrel Girl's first and perhaps greatest enemy: Doctor Doom. Through a series of weird circumstances, Squirrel Girl finds herself marooned in the 1960s. She quickly discovers that she's not the only person from her time period there, and not only must she find away to return to her own era, but she must save the time stream itself from Doom, who is armed with Doomipedia, which tells him exactly how he conquered the world...and, of course, proceeded to name everything after himself.

It's...complicated. But Ryan North sure writes a hell of a Doctor Doom, his arrogance both perfectly, hilariously demonstrated and, here, the key to his defeat. It's buried in one of those computer programming jokes I don't really get, because I am dumb, but unlike every other computer-smart person, Doom never learned a traditional programming language, but rather invented his own, where all of the components are variations of "Doom," meaning a bunch of computer programming students speak a language he can't comprehend.

It is awesome, and there is so much good stuff in the Squirrel Girl Vs. Doctor Doom story arc that it rewards multiple reading. The first time is, after all ,full of some very weird, very unexpected surprises.

I remain convinced that the "Unbeatable" in the title doesn't refer to the character Squirrel Girl herself, but the comic book Squirrel Girl itself, which really can't be beat.


While I'm at it, I suppose I should link to reviews of other recent-ish releases I recently read (and reviewed) that are also Marvel collections. I covered Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Vol. 1: BFF and All-New, All-Different Avengers Vol. 1: Magnificent Seven for School Library Journal's Good Comics For Kids blog. They're both pretty good, the former more so than the latter, as the Avengers book has some slight structural problems. All in all though, Marvel seems to be in a pretty good place creatively these days, at least with books for younger readers and lower-tier characters (Other parts of the line are, of course, a mess).



*Please note that Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe was still being published both at the time my friend said that and at the time I wrote this review, which has been sitting around in a draft for a while now. I suppose that I could change that now that Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe has ended, but why pass up an opportunity to remind everyone that Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe was pretty much the best thing ever?

**Whose true identity was revealed during the "Standoff" crossover story, which I read after I wrote the Captain America review above, but before I posted this post.

Marvel's November previews reviewed

Marvel also intends to publish a bunch of comics in November of this year. Do I have thoughts, feelings or snarky remarks about any of them. Why yes, yes I do!

I think that's the All-New X-Men Annual #1 cover; I like the photo strip in which Iceman buries someone--Cyclops, I imagine--in snow.

AVENGERS #1
MARK WAID (W) • MIKE DEL MUNDO (A)
Cover by ALEX ROSS
...
The time has come! Their ranks shattered by Civil War, their spirits weighted down bya toll both personal and spiritual, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes must find the resolve to stand united one final time against their greatest foe! Captain America! Thor! The Vision! The Wasp! Spider-Man! Hercules! When the dust settles, not a one of these valiant heroes will make it to the final page alive! This is KANG WAR ONE!
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

Well, that's a pretty different line-up than that of Mark Waid's All-New, All-Different Avengers. I hate when they change titles and numbering on books that contain what are presumably continuing stories, as it makes it so difficult to follow them in trade.

I liked All-New, All-Different Avengers Vol. 1; hopefully I'll be able to continue to follow Waid's Avengers storyline, wherever it appears and however it is presented and sold.

I really like Chris Samnee's Black Widow cover.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: SAM WILSON #15
NICK SPENCER (W) • PAUL RENAUD (A/C)
• Because you (okay, a very small percentage of you) demanded it — D-Man gets his moment in the sun!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

Well I didn't demand it, but I'll be happy to take it.

The cover image is one instance in which D-Man's old costume would definitely look better and more appropriate than his new one.

Wwwwwwaaaiiiiiit a minuted...Is that the new Champions logo? Because that "C" looks kind of familiar. Where have I seen it before...?

Oh yeah, fucking everywhere, constantly, all year long. (I live about a half-hour east of Cleveland at the moment.)


CIVIL WAR II #8 (OF 8)
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • DAVID MARQUEZ (A)
VARIANT COVER A BY TBA
VARIANT COVER B BY TBA
VARIANT COVER C BY TBA
VARIANT COVER D BY TBA
classified
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

Sounds great!

Tradd Moore made a great cover for Deadpool #22, huh?

GHOST RIDER #1
FELIPE SMITH (W) • DANILO BEYRUTH & TRADD MOORE (A)
COVER BY MARCO CHECCHETTO
ROBBIE REYES IS BACK!
It’s hell on wheels as the Spirit of Vengeance makes his roaring return! A mysterious object from space crash-lands in southern California, drawing some of the brightest minds in the Marvel Universe to Ghost Rider’s backyard – including Amadeus Cho, the Totally Awesome Hulk! What mayhem will be unleashed as the High-octane Hothead comes face-to-face with the Jade Genius? And with Robbie still possessed by the ghost of his evil uncle Eli…who’s really in the driver’s seat? Then, meet the newest speed trap in Ghost Rider’s life as his original creators Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore reunite for a special backup story and the debut of an all-new villain. Strap in and start your engines, True Believer, this one’s gonna be a scorcher!
40 PGS./Rated T …$4.99

I'm not familiar with Beyruth, so I hope the art remains of as high-quality as in the last volume of Smith's new Ghost Rider, a title I ended up really enjoying. I'm glad it's coming back. I suppose we have that Hayley Atwell-less Shield show (i.e. the one I don't watch) to thank for this, indirectly...?

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • STEFANO CASELLI (A/C)
Variant Cover by JEFF DEKAL
...
From the violent streets of Chicago, a new armored hero rises! Clad in her very own Iron Man armor, Riri Williams is ready to show the Marvel Universe what she can do as the self-made hero of tomorrow. But is she ready for all the problems that come with stepping into Iron Man’s jet boots? Where’s a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist when you need one?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

This is one of those things that people were mad about, right? I don't see why. Everyone in Iron Man's immediate orbit who isn't his butler gets an Iron Man suit eventually, right? The only thing that seemed off to me upon the announcement was that there would be a teenage girl going by the name "Iron Man," but that turns out to not be the case--she's apparently going to be going by the name Ironheart, which is actually a pretty cool name (Cooler than War Machine or Rescue...or Iron Woman or Iron Girl).

Based on the variant cover by Dekal, which is th eone I put up there because I like it better, it looks like Tony Stark will be appearing in the series via an A.I. operating system, akin to Friday in the previous volume of Invincible Iron Man by Brian Michael Bendis (goddam rassin' frassin' renumberings making it all hard to follow Marvel's stupid series in stupid trades grumble grumble).

And, based on the solicitation copy, Stark is missing? That sucks. I will miss his social media interactions with Squirrel Girl in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

IVX #0
CHARLES SOULE (W) • KENNETH ROCAFORT (A/C)
...
This issue sets the stage for the upcoming Inhumans vs. X-Men mega-event! Learn who the major players will be, plus the seeds of the incredible plan that will unfold in IVX #1. Beast and Iso travel the world to learn a desperate truth, the X-Men assemble their ranks and the Inhumans prepare for the war to come. It all begins with one choice — see it here.
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

Based on the cover above, I thought maybe this was a Pet Avengers Civil War II tie-in. I guess it is actually one of the three different covers for a IVX comic, which is probably like Avengers Vs. X-Men, only much more boring, because The Inhumans are much more boring.

(Except for Lockjaw, of course.)

OLD MAN LOGAN #14
JEFF LEMIRE (W) • FILIPE ANDRADE (A)
Cover by ANDREA SORRENTINO
JUBILEE IS MISSING! ALL-NEW ARC “MONSTER WAR” STARTS HERE!
LOGAN will have to team up with the supernatural HOWLING COMMANDOS to unravel the mystery of why Jubilee has disappeared…but is he prepared for what this investigation will uncover? Follow the old man to ROMANIA and find out!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

It looks like Lemire may have forgotten what book he was writing and accidentally turned in a script for his New 52 Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE book, the first collection of which was subtitled "War of the Monsters." Huh.

PATSY WALKER, A.K.A. HELLCAT! #12
KATE LETH (W) • BRITTNEY L. WILLIAMS (A/C)
• No cat puns here, I promise: Hellcat and Black Cat face off as our heroine and friends fight to save the city from cat-astrophe!
• They — oh, wait. I did it, didn’t I? I cat-punned. Dangit! Okay, okay, hear me out: Patsy puts Felicia’s schemes on paws when she — WAIT, I SWEAR I CAN DO THIS. DON’T PRINT.
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

This cover is a pretty good example of why Patsy Walker is one the two best Marvel comics on the stands.

UNCANNY AVENGERS #16
GERRY DUGGAN (W) • PEPE LARRAZ (A)
COVER BY STEVE MCNIVEN
CIVIL WAR II AFTERMATH!
• The Hand has resurrected the Hulk, and the only ones standing in the way of the undead rampaging brute are the former Avengers of the Unity Squad.
• The first bullet point of this solicit is so damn compelling that a second selling point is completely superfluous.
• Steve Rogers gave an order that the Avengers did not follow. We’ll find out how that works out for everyone!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

I was excited about this issue when I saw the cover and that it would be a comic book about a mummy who is also The Hulk. I'm less excited after having read the solicitation, as I'm not really sure how The Hulk can actually die in order to come back to life (Oh, and spoilers for Civil War II, I imagine?).

DC's November previews reviewed

DC Comics plans to publish a bunch of comics this November. Are any of them worthy of comment? Yes.

One man pulling open his shirt to reveal his superhero costume beneath it is cool. Two guys standing side-by-side doing it just look like a stripper act. (This is Clay Mann's cover for Action Comics, BTW).


BATGIRL #5
Written by HOPE LARSON
Art and cover by RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE
...
“BEYOND BURNSIDE” conclusion! Batgirl faces down Teacher in the streets of Shanghai, but will fists be enough against the intelligence—enhanced foe? Babs will have to conquer the pathways of her own mind in order to defeat this vicious predator once and for all!
On sale NOVEMBER 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

As I mentioned the other day, after the first two issues, I've realized I am more of a Babs Tarr fan (and a Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher fan) than a Batgirl Barbara Gordon fan. Larson and Albuquerque are doing an okay job here, but it just doesn't have the same vibe as the previous run.


BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #4
Written by JULIE BENSON and SHAWNA BENSON
Art by CLAIRE ROE
Cover by YANICK PAQUETTE
...
“Who Is Oracle” part five! Batgirl, Black Canary, and Huntress come face-to-face at last with the new Oracle…and unlock a mystery they never saw coming!
On sale NOVEMBER 9 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

I'm afraid I couldn't keep this on my pull-list long enough to find out who the new Oracle is. I hope it is either the pre-Flashpoint Barbara Gordon running some kind of big, elaborate scam in which she's only pretending to be helping the bad guys, or that she's the Earth-3 Barbara Gordon.

BATMAN #10
Written by TOM KING
Art and cover by MIKEL JANIN
...
“I am Suicide” part two! Batman now has his team, but are they ready for the most dangerous mission of their lives? As the Dark Knight prepares his squad to infiltrate Santa Prisca, he may find that it’s up to him alone to face Bane.
On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Other than Catwoman, I don't recognize anyone on Batman's Suicide Squad. I suppose glasses could be Hugo Strange, although I can't imagine he'd be terribly useful to have around, and the masked characters? New 52 Punch and Jewlee? Is that lady perhaps Duela Dent, or The Joker's Daughter wearing a new mask? No idea.

Batman running his own, temporary Suicide Squad for this mission seems like an all-around weird move, too, based simply on the fact that between the Justice League, his sidekicks and allies and Batman Inc., Batman has a veritable army on his friends list. Well, there's that, and the fact that Batman's respect for human life means he can't really consider anyone expendable, which is kind of the point of Suicide Squads.

Anyway, I'm interested in this upcoming story arc to see how King navigates all of that, and to see him paired with Mikel Janin again rather than David Finch (boo!), who drew the first story arc of the new Batman, which has read good and looked like garbage.

BATMAN ANNUAL #1
Written by TOM KING, SCOTT SNYDER, PAUL DINI, STEVE ORLANDO and SCOTT WILSON
Art by DAVID FINCH, RILEY ROSSMO, NEAL ADAMS and others
Cover by DAVID FINCH
“SILENT NIGHT”! A hush of winter snowfall has fallen over Gotham City…but a quiet night in this place is never truly quiet. Batman and his allies—and his many foes—stalk the streets in this icy showcase of top talent.
On sale NOVEMBER 30 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T

Oh hey, speaking of Finch, why on earth is he drawing a cover when there are so many good Batman artists available, some of them even contributing to this very annual!

Maybe it's just the presence of Paul Dini, Batman and snow, but this reminded me of the 1995 Batman Adventures Holiday Special, one of the Batman Adventures issues that was so good, every Batman fan should have read it.

CATWOMAN: ELECTION NIGHT #1
Written by MEREDITH FINCH and MARK RUSSELL
Art and cover by SHANE DAVIS and BEN CALDWELL
...
It’s mayoral election time in Gotham City, and while the city is up in arms, Catwoman couldn’t care less! But when the candidates get personal, the Feline Fatale decides to get involved—much to the detriment of...well, everyone! This issue contains a special bonus story featuring the return of President Beth Ross from the critically acclaimed PREZ miniseries.
ONE-SHOT • On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T

Well this is a pretty weird little book, which looks to be shoving two almost completely unrelated books into a special because they both have something to do with American electoral politics, I guess...? That, and I guess it keeps the now book-less Catwoman around, and gives Russell and Caldwell at least a few more pages of their DOA Prez reboot.

You know, if DC did decide to do another Legends of Tomorrow anthology series, that might be the place for the rest of Prez...and maybe a place for the further adventures of Catwoman, too.

CYBORG #4
Written by JOHN SEMPER JR.
Art by WILL CONRAD
Cover by PAUL PELLETIER and TONY KORDOS
Variant cover by CARLOS D’ANDA
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
“THE IMITATION OF LIFE” part five! Cyborg loses control of his robotic form when it begins attacking his friends and family at S.T.A.R. Labs. Trapped in a virtual maze of ominous visions and forgotten memories, can Vic Stone hack his way through the cybernetic gauntlet that is his own mind?
On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

I am currently watching Teen Titans Go! Season 3, Part 1: Eat. Dance. Punch!. It is pretty much the best thing ever. For some reason I am perfectly able to compartmentalize the various versions of some DC comic book characters who appear in various media incarnations, but I just can't seem to accept a Cyborg who doesn't have telescoping limbs like Marvel's Machine Man, excitedly shout all of his dialogue, have a meatball gun and The Old Shablammo in his arsenal and is obsessed with "The Night Begins To Shine." The "real" Cyborg just seems hella boring these days.

It likely doesn't help that in the post-Flashpoint DCU he's basically been reduced to the League's switchboard operator and teleportation device, and divorced from his original friends and relationships, there's not much too him, aside from metal parts and the old, dull "Am I man, or am I machine?" conflict that The Vison and The Red Tornado have made so tiresome over the decades.

DETECTIVE COMICS #945
Written by JAMES TYNION IV
Art by EDDY BARROWS and EBER FERREIRA
Cover by ALVARO MARTINEZ and RAUL FERNANDEZ
...
“The Victim Syndicate” part three! Batman is trying his best to hold his team together, but Spoiler might have every reason to walk out the door…and others might follow!
On sale NOVEMBER 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

So, what do you think Steph's cussing out Batman for on this cover? Did she just find out that he never built her a display case after she died in the old continuity? Is she yelling at him for not insisting that her boyfriend Red Robin get a non-dumb costume to wear? Is she yelling at him for not letting Cassandra Cain have her bat-ears, cape and one of her old codenames back? If they can't call her Batgirl and don't want to use Black Bat any more, perhaps for legal reasons, can't they just call her "Cassandra" or "Ms. Cain," similar to the way they're just calling Duke Thomas "Mr. Thomas" over in Batman and All-Star Batman now...?

Whatever the issue is, you tell him, Steph!

DOOM PATROL #3
Written by GERARD WAY
Art and cover by NICK DERINGTON
...
Casey Brinke has stepped through to the other side—but where exactly is that? Given all the bizarre, unexplainable things that have come into her life over the last couple of days—robot men and talking ambulances and a guy who literally thrives on negative energy—surely this new and surprising world she has uncovered can’t be any weirder. Right?
On sale NOVEMBER 9 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS

Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that Marvel's Captain Marvel is apparently on the new Doom Patrol roster...?


FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MAN – UNITED WE FALL TP
Written by GERRY CONWAY
Art by EDUARDO PANSICA and ROB HUNTER
Cover by CARY NORD
Split from his other half, Jason Rusch, Ronnie Raymond will need to retrieve Professor Stein’s stolen research from Danton Black. But if Jason can’t fuse with Ronnie by the Firestorm Protocol…who can? The answer: his old friend, Professor Martin Stein! Collects the Firestorm stories from LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #1-6.
On sale DECEMBER 7 • 144 pg, FC, $14.99 US

So it looks like the other three features from Legends of Tomorrow--Firestorm, The Metal Men and Metamorpho--are all getting their own trade collections as well. I'm not sure why these three are coming the month after the Sugar & Spike trade, but here they are.

I'm a little curious why the Firestorm isn't numbered, as it seems to follow the New 52 Firestorm story in a way that it's more of a straight continuation, whereas the other three Legends features were all standalone stories.

Anyway, I've been curious if they were going to collect these features and, if so, how, so now I need wonder no longer. If DC did lose money on that bargain format, perhaps they can make up enough of it to at least break even with the trades. (Again, I definitely recommend Sugar & Spike: Metahuman Investigatipons, and maybe the Metal Men collection, if you're a fan of those characters at all. The other two features did nothing for me, and I can't imagine they will make for compelling reads once collected, which will divorce them from both their bargain-pricing and the promise of more and more interesting stories around them.

THE FLASH #10
Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
Art by FELIPE WATANABE and OCLAIR ALBERT
Cover by CARMINE DI GIANDOMENICO
...
“THE SPEED OF DARKNESS” part one! A villain from The Flash’s history returns for the first time in years when The Shade visits Central City. But what does Opal City’s master of shadow want with Barry Allen and the newly christened Kid Flash?
On sale NOVEMBER 9 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Okay, so James Robinson didn't create The Shade, although he did re-create him. James Robinson doesn't own The Shade, and DC Comics and their employees have every right in the world to use that character. Still, it does seem a little funny to see The Shade popping up in a comic book that James Robinson has nothing at all to do with, doesn't it...?

But then, if the publisher is so gung-ho about making Watchmen prequels and building up a Watchmen vs. The Justice League event, it's hardly surprising to see a character so closely associated with one particular writer being used in very retrograde way by an entirely different creator.


GREEN ARROW #10
Written by BENJAMIN PERCY
Art and cover by JUAN FERREYRA
...
“MURDER ON THE EMPIRE EXPRESS” part one! Queen Industries’ new Trans-Pacific Railway is an undersea vehicle that symbolizes world peace—which makes its maiden voyage the perfect place for the Ninth Circle to stage a high-profile assassination. Luckily, Green Arrow, Black Canary and John Diggle are on board as outlaw stowaways!
On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+

"Trans-Pacific Railway"...? That's never going to work, Ollie. If there's one thing I've learned from this election cycle, it's that American's hate things that start with the word "Trans-Pacific"...

GREEN LANTERNS #10
Written by SAM HUMPHRIES
Art by EDUARDO PANSICA and JULIO FERREIRA
Cover by ED BENES
...
“THE PHANTOM RING” part two! The Phantom Ring was never supposed to return from the place where the Guardians of the Universe hid it. Can Jessica and Baz control and contain its ancient power before it falls into the waiting hands of an unexpected new foe?
On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

I don't know about the rest of you, but I like all the rainbow ring business Geoff Johns brought into the Green Lantern franchise, much of which I feel has achieved the perfect balance between "awesome" and "stupid" that is Geoff Johns' exact wheelhouse, when he's doing his best work.


JUSTICE LEAGUE #8
Written by BRYAN HITCH
Art by NEIL EDWARDS and DANIEL HENRIQUES
Cover by FERNANDO PASARIN and MATT RYAN
...
“OUTBREAK” part one! Someone is hacking into the Justice League’s computers, causing the Batcave’s weapons and security systems to turn against the Dark Knight and the Watchtower satellite to plummet to Earth—with Cyborg trapped on board.
On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

This is why I liked Grant Morrison's lunar Watchtower base so much. The problem with a satellite HQ is that is constantly falling out of orbit, or at least in danger of falling out of orbit. If someone wants to attack the League's base, then they should have to commit to going all the way to the moon.

I wonder who the mysterious villain could be..?

JUSTICE LEAGUE #9
Written by BRYAN HITCH
Art by NEIL EDWARDS and DANIEL HENRIQUES
Cover by FERNANDO PASARIN and MATT RYAN
Variant cover by YANICK PAQUETTE
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
“OUTBREAK” part two! The Justice League is under attack from an unseen foe with a vendetta against Earth’s greatest heroes—someone with the power to reprogram Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz’s Green Lantern rings to kill any member of the Justice League.
On sale NOVEMBER 16 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Oh, nevermind. It must be Weapons Master.


MIDNIGHTER/APOLLO #2
Written by STEVE ORLANDO • Art by FERNANDO BLANCO • Cover by ACO
Midnighter’s got Henry Bendix in his hands at last-but will he have to let him go in order to join Apollo’s battle against the deadly Mawzir?
On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 32 pg, FC, 2 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED T+

"The deadly Mawzir"...? Like, this guy?

That's...unexpected.

MOTHER PANIC #1
Written by JODY HOUSER
Art and cover by TOMMY LEE EDWARDS
...
Meet Violet Paige, a celebutante with a bad attitude and a temper to match, who no one suspects of having anything lying beneath the surface of her outrageous exploits. But Violet isn’t just another bored heiress in the upper echelons of Gotham City’s elite. Motivated by her traumatic youth, Violet seeks to exact vengeance on her privileged peers as the terrifying new vigilante known only as Mother Panic.
On sale NOVEMBER 9 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS

Oh good, a Gotham City vigilante motivated by a traumatic past. DC certainly doesn't publish enough comics about such characters. This is part of the new Veritgo-esque Young Animal imprint though, and it's rated "Mature Readers," so maybe Mother Panic will be different from Batwoman, Batman, Batgirl, The Huntress, Black Canary and the other dozen or so male and female vigilantes because her adventures will feature on-panel nudity and f-words.

NEW TALENT SHOWCASE #1
Written by VITA AYALA, EMMA BEEBY, JOELLE JONES, HENA KHAN, MICHAL MCMILLIAN, MICHAEL MORECI, ERICA SCHULTZ, CHRIS SEBELA and ADAM SMITH
Art by BARNABY BAGENDA, JUAN FERREYRA, SONNY LIEW, DAVID MESSINA, KHARY RANDOLPH and more
Cover by KLAUS JANSON
In this new one-shot, Wonder Woman unleashes her true god of war against a parade of monsters! Superman discovers a new threat that might be bigger and badder than the joker himself! Hawkgirl solves crimes in the weird weapons unit for the GCPD! Carol Ferris and Kyle Rayner fight about ice cream in space! You’ll find all of this and so much more in NEW TALENT SHOWCASE #1, where recent graduate writers from the inaugural DC Talent Development workshop showcase some of their strongest work yet! See what they’ve learned from masters of the craft Scott Snyder, Jim Lee and Klaus Janson.
ONE-SHOT • On sale NOVEMBER 30 • 80 pg, FC, $7.99 US • RATED T

Oh snap, is this the result of that outreach DC did to try and find new writers? I...thought about looking into it, and never did, figuring the best way to get a gig at this point in my life is to publish my prose book/s and try to transition to comics from there (That said, now that the DCU is unmoored from history, I lost a lot of interest in so many of its characters; like, the books I used to dream about writing as a teenager and 20-something can't even exist at this juncture.

Sigh.

Anyway, I'm a little surprised to see the name "Joelle Jones" among the writers, if only because it is a name I recognize. As for the artists, I recognize all of them except for Bagenda, so I'm assuming these stories are by new writers paired with experienced artists...?

Well, at $8 this looks like a big-ass purchase, but then, it is 80 pages, so I guess this is about the price-point of Legends of Tomorrow, which felt like a steal to me.

Personally, I might have just called this book Showcase, since that's a DC word the publisher probably needs to entitle comics on a semi-regular basis, but no one asked me. No one ever asks me anything!

SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP #20
Written by SHOLLY FISCH
Art and cover by DARIO BRIZUELA
“Gulp! Space WHAAAAT??” A threatening specter from outer space? That’s the call that gets Scooby and the gang on the case. But they don’t suspect that the “specter” is really Space Ghost, or that setting Mystery Inc. against him is a trick to keep the spacefaring hero busy while some of his most formidable villains invade the Earth!
On sale NOVEMBER 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E

Well it's nice to see Scooby-Doo Team-Up venturing beyond the DC stable of superheroes to explore some of the Hanna-Barbera heroes, all of whom have recently gotten a new lease on life, thanks to DC's Future Quest, the least weird book in their new Hanna-Barbereboot line. I'm still waiting on Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt, but Space Ghost will certainly tide me over.

Sixpack and Dogwelder: Hard-Travelin' Heroz #4
Written by GARTH ENNIS
Art by RUSS BRAUN
Cover by Steve Dillon
Sixpack and the team are under attack by mummies! Only the flame of Dogwelder can save them, but will he light his torch in time? And what great mystery will his torch reveal beneath the mighty pyramids of the Egyptian desert? Could Dogwelder be the greatest hero the world has ever known, his welding of dogs the noblest of pursuits?
On sale NOVEMBER 23 • 32 pg, FC, 4 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED T+

Ennis already made Dogwelder into a legacy character in All-Star Section Eight, but I must admit to some fascination with this cover's intimation that not unlike Ghost Rider, there has always been a Dogwelder, going back through the generations to a time when welding equipment had not yet been invented, and if you wanted to weld a dog's corpse to someone's face, you had to sear it there using a torch...? I guess...?

Yeah, comic book Enchantress looks pretty dumb compared to scary-ass movie Enchantress.

As for comic book Harley vs. movie Harley, I see Jim Lee has been giving her tight T shirts not unlike the one Margot Robbie rocked in the movie, but he's also been letting her wear pants. I'm still not 100% sure why movie Harley Quinn wasn't given any pants.

SUPERMAN #10
Written by PETER J. TOMASI and PATRICK GLEASON
Art and cover by PATRICK GLEASON and MICK GRAY
...
“IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER” part one! For the first time, the Man of Tomorrow and the Boy of Steel team up with the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder in a father-son adventure you won’t want to miss! Damian Wayne has been hearing a lot about this mysterious new Superboy, and now’s his chance to find out who he is...
On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Okay, I kind of love this cover. Batman and Damian look like they're totally ready to fight, Superboy looks confident and incredulous that Damian could fight him and Superman looks...like he's about to softly kiss Batman...? I feel like that may not be the right emotion and pose for this cover.

SUPER POWERS #1
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Art and cover by ART BALTAZAR
...
Aw yeah, the World’s Greatest Heroes are back in a new, all-ages miniseries—except for Batman! Superman helps out by cleaning up in Gotham City, where he discovers a clue that sends Wonder Woman into space to find the Caped Crusader. Her journey brings her a step closer to Batman, but can she uncover the truth behind his disappearance? From the award-winning creative team that brought you TINY TITANS and SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES!
On sale NOVEMBER 23 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED E

Weird. I assumed that a Justice League comic would be Art Baltazar and Franco's next series from DC, as the Justice League featured rather prominently in their last efforts towards the end, and it felt as if they might be transitioning from the Superman Family to the League.

I guess I was right, but I'm not sure why there was such a long delay. I also wonder if maybe this wasn't completely way back then and just never published, as that cover looks already dated. Note Wonder Woman's pants, which were teased and then abandoned back in the summer of 2011 as part of her New 52 redesign.


TRINITY #3
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL
Art and cover by CLAY MANN
...
“BETTER TOGETHER” part three! The deadly White Mercy has Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman in its terrifying grasp! But who would dare to orchestrate this attack—and why? All will be revealed as the three most powerful heroes in the DC Universe fight for their very souls!
On sale NOVEMBER 16 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

The White Mercy...? Let me guess, that's a flower that does stuff to people's minds. Post-DC Universe: Rebirth, it becomes all the more hilarious every time DC uses one of Alan Moore's decades old concepts. Here Manapul seems to be riffing on the Black Mercy from "For The Man Who Has Everything," which has been done so often in the comics (let alone in multi-media adaptations) that I've actually lost count.

Anyway, the irony of DC's steadfast refusal to just quit fucking around with Watchmen because to hell with Alan Moore while simultaneously continuing to sequeeze every drop of story potential from minor detritus from the comics he wrote for them forever ago is at this point as hilarious as it is incredibly depressing.