Comic shop comics: January 2

Daredevil #21 (Marvel Comics) This actually came out last week. Or the week before, maybe. I don't know. Whenever it came out, it didn't make it into my pull-file at the shop, and since Marvel's scheduling is apparently the product of diseased mind, I never know when to expect their books, or how many issues of them should come out in a particular month.

This is the conclusion to The Coyote arc, and is packed with some pretty scary imagery by Chris Samnee depicted The Coyote and his animal-like jaws, and a rather messed-up Spot, whose coming and going through is own portals opened in himself and...GAH! A lot of nice drawings of cool shit in this issue, basically.

As or Mark Waid's story, it concludes the conflict, but leaves a lot unresolved, including what exactly the villain's deal is, what become of Spot and who was actually behind all of this, but then, it's left unresolved to be addressed later. There seem to be some pretty big events in Waid's ongoing portrayal of the Foggy/Matt relationship and Matt's way of deal with his mental problems as well. Nice, funny last-page teaser for next issue's team-up (or throw-down?) with (or against?) the new Spider-Man, who I'm going to just keep referring to as Doctor Spider-Man, because I like the sound of that better than Superior Spider-Man.

Joe Kubert Presents #3 (DC Comics) Damn man, look at that chair! That's the Infernal One's chair from Kubert's "The Redeemer" which continues...and, I thought, was to conclude this issue, but maybe it goes on into the next issue...? There's a teaser at the end for another chapter of it, anyway. Everything I said about the previous chapter of "The Redeemer" remains true.

There's more of Kubert's story of Spit, the orphan on a whaling ship, a one-page gag strip and some more of Sam Glanzman's "U.S.S. Stevens" stories and some more of Brian Buniak's "Angel and The Ape."

Multiple Warheads: Alphabet to Infinity #3 (Image Comics) I suppose it says something about the leisurely pace of Brandon Graham's story that this is the third issue and it suddenly feels like a conflict is about to be introduced—Sexica gets hired for a job, and the mysterious swordwoman who looks like a swordman draws closer, but her storyline hasn't intersected with that of Nik and Sex yet.

I say that by way of observation rather than criticism. The exceptionally leisurely pace is one of the virtues of the series, in which Graham heavily concentrates on his world-building, which grows increasingly intricate and imaginative (and, as Sarah Horrocks noted in ComicsAlliance's Stephanie Brown Memorial Awards, puns-based).

Superman Family Adventures # (DC) I know Jor-El is supposed to be a visionary super-scientist and all, but I think Art Baltazar and Franco might actually be smarter. After all, when Krypton was being destroyed, Jor-El didn't think to escape with his wife into the Phantom Zone, and hope that one day their infant son and his puppy would be able to free them. But Baltazar and Franco did! And, uh, spoiler warning, in this issue, Superman's birth mom is rescued from the Phantom Zone, where Jor-El put her for safe-keeping.

That's pretty clever, making for a rather dramatic departure from the various "grown-up" versions of the Superman story, and giving Superman access to his Kryptonian mom in the present (his dad, Jor-El, is represented by his holographic self, programmed into the crystal computers of the Fortress of Solitude, as he has been throughout this series and Tiny Titans, as well as in various movies and comics stories over the years.

In this issue, the Superman Family meets what appears to be an insect associate of Brainiac's, fight some villains which I think are Balatazar-ized versions of New 52 characters from Superman (although I could be totally wrong about that; I haven't read New 52 Superman, and probably won't, as it looks singularly unappealing). And Brainiac's ship heads towards earth, as you can see in the above image.

Oh! And there's also a Kryptonian alphabet key, so, if one so desires, one could translate Kryptonian dialogue and/or write notes to one's friends in Kryptonian. That's pretty cool.