The holiday season, the major companies' recent emphasis on trade paperbacks, and a devilish sale at one of the local stores have left me inundated with comics, including the O'Neil/Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow collections, the second Kirby Jimmy Olsen volume, the first "season" of Sleeper, and a heap of back issues.
That's a lot of material for a regular monthly comic to cut through, but the past couple of weeks have seen some surprisingly good releases. Here are a few of the comics that have consistently been rising to the top of the pile...
Sleeper: I am absolutely the last person in the comics blogosphere to jump on this bandwagon so I doubt my plug will have any effect, but you never know.
Last September my pull list seemed unusually low, so I picked up the third issue of the second series. It was the worst possible starting point for a new reader, but something in the protagonist's dilemma hooked me - former undercover agent Holden Carver is a savvy guy, but he's being used as a pawn by two master manipulators, and he's looking for ways to change the rules of the game. Ed Brubaker is willing to let his characters be smart, but he never makes any of them infallible (with the possible exception of Tao, and therein lies a lot of the comic's suspense). This series is a great reminder that compelling writing (and easy availability of trades and back issues) will lead readers to seek out earlier chapters and piece the story together as they go along. You're probably better off beginning with the first trade and proceeding from there, though.
The Question: No bandwagons here! The only correct stance for the self-conscious comics pundit is to bemoan the betrayal of Steve Ditko, whose artistic-vision-cum-political-lunacy must be respected at all costs, but such public handwringing over whether this is the "real" Question overlooks the fact that this miniseries is actually pretty interesting.
The Question's narration is completely over-the-top, of course, and I could easily do without it. (Isn't it interesting, though, that bad Allen Ginsberg imitations tend to sound like bad Alan Moore imitations and vice versa? I noticed the same thing with Morrison's Adam Strange story last summer.) His new ability to perceive or enter some kind of spirit-plane seemed similarly egregious at first, but the latest issue's exposition about chi suggests this will be an integral part of the plot.
I have to admit, I very nearly bailed on this one after the overwrought first issue, but I'm glad I stuck around. The art by Tommy Lee Edwards is gorgeous, and Rick Veitch offers an unusual worm's-eye (or lower) view of Metropolis, the best Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in years, and a fun gang of criminals in the Subterraneans, who avoid Superman's panoptic gaze by sticking to the city's subways, sewer pipes, and bathrooms. The conceit plays well to Veitch's longstanding obsession with the scatological; while it could overwhelm his stories back in the Maximortal days, Veitch has recently learned to restrain it and make it work for him. Now I actually kind of like seeing this theme return in his work, like spotting an old friend who's lost weight. And then tells you about it in precise gastronomic detail.
Deadshot: This is the kind of comic everybody thinks Brian Michael Bendis writes: you know, a good one. Comics newcomer (and TV writer, apparently) Christos N. Gage spins a genuinely noirish yarn, one in which all of the characters are implicated in the general moral decay. (I hope the hotel manager turns out to have some sort of hidden vice or betrayal, as he otherwise threatens to become too sidekicky.)
My only qualm is that the art by Steven Cummings doesn't seem quite right: too bright for a moody crime story, not polished enough for something set in a superhero universe. The Zeck/Ordway team doing the covers would be perfect for the latter, but this series probably needs the former. I doubt a five-issue miniseries about a former Suicide Squad villain is going anywhere in this market, but I'd love to see this continue.
Adam Strange: This one too. Once again, last guy on the bandwagon, but Andy Diggle and Pascal Ferry are doing a terrific job with this miniseries. Adam Strange has always been one of my favorite characters, but he only seems to work in small doses; Alan Moore wrung about the maximum amount pathos out of him in that two-parter back in '86, and what do you do after that? Diggle's great idea is to combine the heart of a '40s serial with ultramodern art and surface trappings. The story has now shifted into a mode where it's frantically incorporating all of DC's other science fiction properties (the Thanagarians, the LEGION, the Omega Men), at such a pace that I wish he'd save something for the sequel - but mostly, I hope there'll be a sequel.
The Human Target: I usually enjoy the Cliff Chiang issues a lot more than the Javier Pulido ones; the latest issue is a terrific little standalone story with Cameron Stewart art. Just when Christopher Chance was in danger of settling into some kind of healthy life, Peter Milligan pulls him back into the psychologically murky territory of the miniseries and the earlier issues of this run - and his paramour is right there with him. Good stuff.
The Losers: Andy Diggle scores again with his action-caper series. The Losers just wrapped up an excellent arc that explained the characters' origins, and while none of the final twists or revelations were that surprising, they've been so carefully hinted at from the beginning of the series that everything clicks into place with a comforting precision; it's time to go read some back issues now. This is also the first arc that doesn't end in a disappointing, prolonged, and sloppy Bruckheimer-esque finale, so bonus points for that.
Captain America: Let's face it, we all know there's no way Ed Brubaker's brazen demolition of the status quo is going to last - Morrison's X-Men taught us that - but it's probably going to be fun while it lasts. The second issue doesn't push quite as far into new territory as the first, as it's mostly concerned with all the characters wrapped up in that old status quo and how they react when a key piece, perhaps the critical piece, is taken out. I suppose this series could settle into a new rut that's essentially identical to the old - a Captain America villain with a Cosmic Cube is not exactly novel - but for now I have faith in Brubaker and I'd like to see where he takes this.
So there you have it. Seven intriguing series, mostly featuring minor characters or marginal genres. For all that the Big Two are turning incredibly cautious and boring with their major properties, there's some great storytelling happening on the fringes.
Posted by Marc at January 6, 2005 11:47 PM