Thirsty Thursdays: A Look at Today’s Hottest Superhero Art

September 27, 2018 by Allison Senecal in Comics

By Allison Senecal — Superhero comic art has evolved at a really impressive rate in recent years...so much so that sometimes it can be a lot to handle. First there’s excitement, obviously, but then that excitement turns into something else...which is why today we’re introducing a new feature, a different way to look at our favorite comic art. Welcome to Thirsty Thursdays, a sporadic examination of (as the kids say) the month’s thirstiest comics.

Enjoy!

The Thirstiest Comics of September 2018

Captain America #3 – A Steve and T’challa team-up? *Eyebrow waggle* What do you mean “not like that”? Thanks a lot, Marvel. Still a 💦💦💦💦 out of 5 especially with Yu’s excellent Sad Steve.

*Eyebrow waggle* (art by Leinil Francis Yu from Captain America #3). — *Eyebrow waggle* (art by Leinil Francis Yu from **Captain America #3**).

Catwoman #3 – The saying is madder than a wet cat, but this month nothing is hotter than a wet cat, and any given month nothing is sexier than Joëlle Jones’s Catwoman. A perfect 💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5.

Me-owwww (art by Joelle Jones from Catwoman #3). — Me-*owwww* (art by Joelle Jones from **Catwoman #3**).

Sleepless #7 – SLEEPLESS IS BACK AND SO ARE ALL THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. Easy decision. 💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5.

The beautiful people (art by Leila Del Duca from Sleepless #7). — The beautiful people (art by Leila Del Duca from **Sleepless #7**).

Wonder Woman #54 & #55 – Atalanta has freckles. Diana, Artemis, and all the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall are drawn thick, muscled, and GORGEOUS. The art was juicy in September and this is a peak example. Everyone looks alive and beautiful, and also like they could kick my ass. 💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5.

Did someone say manipulate the innocent?! (art by Patricia Martin and Raul Allen from Wonder Woman #54 & #55). — Did someone say manipulate the innocent?! (art by Patricia Martin and Raul Allen from **Wonder Woman #54** & **#55**).

Thor #5 – Christian Ward drawing the Goddesses of Thunder. Christian. Ward. Drawing. The. Goddesses. Of. Thunder. If you don’t know what that means GO BUY AARON’S WHOLE RUN. NOW. 💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5.

Feel the thunder and lightning (art by Christian Ward from Thor #5). — Feel the thunder and lightning (art by Christian Ward from **Thor #5**).

West Coast Avengers #2 – Another juicy one. Bless Caselli and Farrell for making the whole team magnetic. Only content we’re getting for either America or Clint so go write letters to these creators and tell them you love it. 💦💦💦💦 out of 5.

Ouch, indeed (art by Stefano Caselli in West Coast Avengers #2). — Ouch, indeed (art by Stefano Caselli in **West Coast Avengers #2**).

Justice League Odyssey #1 -- Sejic doing Jessica Cruz and Starfire equals the most breathtaking comic book experience this month. And if you don’t ship them, don’t speak to me. 💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5.

The panels that launched a thousand ships (art by Stjepan Stejic from Justice League Odyssey #1). — The panels that launched a thousand ships (art by Stjepan Stejic from **Justice League Odyssey #1**).

Extermination #3 – Extermination has ended up being my sleeper thirst comic every month. Both Jeans. Both Warrens. Classic X-Force. Brisson remembered Cannonball’s Kentucky accent. We’re truly blessed. Larraz and Gracia make everything pop. Hot and dynamic. eXXXtermination. Don’t @ me. 💦💦💦💦💦 out of 5.

Blast off (art by Pepe Larraz from Extermination #3).

Oh and I guess there was Bat-Penis or something this month. Call me when we’re back to full frontal Constantine.

Prep yourselves for October, when I become a walking, talking “Un-Follow Me Now” meme over Shatterstar.

Allison buys books professionally and comics unprofessionally. You can find her chaotic neutral Twitter feed at @maliciousglee.

The Saga Re-Read: Saga #7

September 21, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance & Cory Webber — Saga #7 is an issue that’s heavy on this book’s dual interests: family dynamics, and a state of infinite galactic war. For my money, it’s also the issue in which those two throughlines begin to seamlessly blend, as writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples seem to discover here the formula that best serves their story.

Look, for example, at the first five pages, an anecdotal lead that indoctrinates us to young Marko’s earliest experiences with the war. This little bit, short as it is, does wonders to indoctrinate readers to the effect prolonged generational hostilities have on society through the lives of one family, while simultaneously seeding the tense dynamic between Alana and her new in-laws. It’s work that hits that magic middle ground in comics, straddling the line between efficiency and entertainment.

But I digress...I can (and do) prattle on about storytelling craft and comic book structure all day. Let’s put a pin in all that and get on to the specifics of this issue of Saga!

Saga #7

Here’s the official preview text from way back when for Saga #7:

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' smash-hit ongoing series returns! An all-new adventure begins, as new parents Marko and Alana make an unexpected discovery in the vast emptiness of outer space.

So yeah, this is the start of the book’s second arc, likely following a roughly three-month break, the same sort Saga has taken since the series inception (until this recent one year minimum hiatus, the impetus for our reading project). There’s definitely, as I touched on above, a new sense of polish and focus to the comic now, so much so that one imagines Vaughan and Staples sitting down together before getting to work again so as to evaluate everything that worked and didn’t work, identifying along the way the direction they wanted the tone of the book to go.

A Re-Reader’s Perspective by Zack: This was just a fantastic issue of Saga, likely my favorite yet, with the way it runs the whole range of this series’ strengths. It’s all in this book: Hazel’s voice and narration, gross out visuals, unique new monster designs, soap opera twists, and family bonding that moves at breakneck speed from disastrous to awkward to heartrending. This is the first time since we’ve started I’ve been tempted to push right through and read the next issue. Great stuff.

A New Reader’s Perspective by Cory Webber: Saga #7 features a familiar family dynamic: disapproving in-laws (not that I speak from experience or anything). Herein, Vaughan introduces us to Marko’s parents, and we see similarities between the generational gaps that we experience in our own lives, namely attitudes toward war and how the younger generation doesn’t make much mind of it, or seem to respect it, since it’s been an ever-present part of their lives. I think this is one of the bigger appeals to Vaughan and Staples’ Saga, the parallels between their worlds and ours. Also, another hallmark of their work is their talent for injecting real, emotional drama, and we see it again in this issue by way of a startling confession. All this and I haven’t mentioned the splash page that will forever be burned into my retinas. Maybe I was avoiding it? At any rate, if you’ve read Saga #7, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, then you’ve been forewarned — keep the eye bleach handy!

Cory’s New Reader Predictions: Vaughan and Staples will find a way to replace the aforementioned image burned into my retinas with one that will be even grosser.

Cory Webber is a work-from-home entrepreneur who also reads and reviews comics for fun. Find him on Twitter at @CeeEssWebber. He lives in Lehi, Utah with his wife and three sons.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Best Marvel Comics Right Now (2018)

September 20, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — Earlier this week (or maybe it was last?), I mentioned on Twitter that I thought Immortal Hulk was Marvel’s best book...and that it wasn’t close. Now, I threw in that last bit because, well whatever, and also because overstating things can be a great way to get attention online (only use that power for good). Somewhat surprisingly, the vast majority of folks who responded to my effusive Hulk Tweet seemed to agree with me! This could be an effect of disagreers having healthy attitudes about life and just rolling past, going on with their days.

Orrrrrrr, it could be that Immortal Hulk is really that good. Whatever the case, it became clear that there was a conversation (and listicle) to be had around the things that Marvel has been doing well in recent months, at least since the publisher’s semi-weird Fresh Start announcement turned out to be less of a drastic relaunch, and more of a soft but steady refocusing. Anyway, what I’m here to talk about today are the best Marvel comics right now (2018).

I’ve culled this list from the suggestions of folks on Twitter plus a healthy dose of my own opinions. Let’s do this!

Best Marvel Comics Right Now (2018)

Immortal Hulk #6, with guest artist Lee Garbett, is out now. — **Immortal Hulk #6,** with guest artist Lee Garbett, is out now.

1. Immortal Hulk

Al Ewing is a writer who’s had a number of beloved-by-critics-yet-ignored-by-fans superhero book, with the most prominent among them being The Ultimates. The Ultimates was fantastic, a direct cosmic successor to many of the ideas in Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four/New Avengers/Avengers. The problem, however, was that the book wasn’t pushed hard enough. It should have been billed as Marvel’s flagship title, but it was shuffled out with a wave of other forgettable All New, All Different team books, fated as it was to go unnoticed. Immortal Hulk, however, has avoided that.

Marvel wisely spun the book out of its attention-grabbing (if not quite meriting) 16-issue weekly Avengers event, No Surrender, making clear as it did that this was A. the return of Bruce Banner, and B. the Hulk in a horror book like you haven't seen before. It was a great conceptual move, one that Ewing and artist Joe Bennett capitalized on by setting a clear tone, telling four seemingly self-contained stories to start, and then segueing into an ongoing story arc that pulls in all of Marvel’s hardest hitters, including The Avengers, just like any good Hulk crisis would. It’s really something, and I can’t recommend it enough. For extra reading points, do yourself a favor and try guessing the villain of this story. I think about it every month, and it makes this title all the more engaging.

2. Thor

Jason Aaron’s run on Thor has just been so good for so long, ascending into the pantheon of all-time great Thor stories alongside those of Jack Kirby and Walt Simonson. Oh yeah, and it’s not even headed for its end just yet (although it’s likely well past halfway). Aaron just gets the nordic lore that inspire Thor. He also gets that this hero is immortal, and that his time in The Avengers is but a blip on his life arc.

Understanding all this the way Aaron does has freed up his story, allowing it to extend through all of time. He walks a careful tightrope with chronology and he walks it well, expertly plotting developments so as to not contradict himself. And, really, I could have very easily put this book number one. In fact, given the length of its run, it probably merited it, but, hey, this is monthly superhero comics, where the attitude of what have you done for me lately reigns. A more interesting question is whether the opening arc on Immortal Hulk ends up being as good as the opening God Butcher arc was for Thor. That’s a battle.

3. Venom

Donny Cates is a rising star at Marvel, with nearly everything he touches finding a vocal and extremely pleased audience (presumably a tattoeed and head bang-y too). After tooling around with brief stints on properties like Doctor Strange and Thanos (read Thanos W ins, like, yesterday if you haven’t), Cates seemed to land on a book he’s always wanted to do: Venom.

And his love of the character has certainly shown, along with his obvious desire to write a sustained run, potentially to rival Aaron’s Thor (which he’s already entwined his Venom story with). I’ll be honest, I’ve never read Venom for any length of time before this, but Cates collaboration with veteran Spider-Man artist Ryan Stegman has been great. It hasn’t totally obliterated me with sheer excellence the way Immortal Hulk has, but I don’t have a single complaint about this title. It’s going to be very good for a very long time.

4. Captain America

This is a beautiful comic, drawn to near-perfection by one of Marvel’s best artists, Leinil Francis Yu. Plus, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose background is firmly in non-fiction and journalism, clearly learned a lot from his early stumbles in 2016 on Black Panther. This book has all the compressed and exciting action that run lacked, complete with the poignant ideas that he executed well even as he was learning the medium.

5. X-23

Phew, writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Juan Cabal sure had a tough road to follow, taking on Laura and her world after Tom Taylor’s fantastic run with her on All-New Wolverine, but they’ve done a fantastic job, keeping the best bits and the boundless heart from his work, while bringing a slightly more serious, horror-tinged new direction. If this Fresh Start business has a sleeper book, I’d definitely say it’s this one.

Others Receiving Votes

Amazing Spider-Man has especially been a favorite of mine, with writer Nick Spencer and Ryan Ottley really working to capture the long-time spirit of Marvel’s flagship title, and, really Amazing Spider-Man and X-23 could be 5a. and 5b.

At one time, Marvel 2-in-1 and X-Men: Red would have been no-brainers, but the debut of Fantastic Four and the forthcoming event of Uncanny X-Men have really sucked the momentum out of those titles.

Punisher had a great first issue with savage artwork from Szymon Kudranski.

Exiles, meanwhile, has been eclectic and high-energy, if a bit frivolous (which to be fair is by design).

The aforementioned Ta-Nehisi Coates’ continuing Black Panther run has been strong, but it’s more of a new arc than a fresh start proper.

And after this week’s Avengers #8, I’m all in on Jason Aaron as the long-term writer for Marvel’s flagship superhero team...what a quiet but strong feat of character building that was!

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

REVIEW: Burnouts #1 by Dennis Culver, Geoffo, Dave Dwonch, & Lauren Perry

September 19, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

Burnouts #1 is out 9/19. — **Burnouts #1** is out 9/19.

By Zack Quaintance — Burnouts #1 is essentially a hybrid of a B-movie and a teen comedy romp, in which there are glowing neon green aliens possessing people, green aliens that only a few outcast kids in a random suburban town can see...while they’re wasted. It is, essentially, a comic that piles trope on top of trope, hoping it will all add up to some new ground, while also doubling as the antithesis to the D.A.R.E. program (is that still a thing?).

And it kind of finds a little bit of new ground, especially toward the end of the book when we start to get a little glimpse at what’s going on. The creators do a good job of doling out the most perfunctory exposition when the action on the page is at its highest, kind of like putting medicine in with chocolate. It’s a great way to get information across, and it really works to serve the story in this book.

The pacing in this comic is also strong, in that it’s a quick read that hums right along. Part of that is the discretion they use in withholding information to make their story lean, and part of that is that there just doesn’t seem to be much deeper meaning to be found here, nor is there much characterization. In fact, I wasn’t entirely sure which character was the protagonist until about halfway through this issue (although to be fair, if I’d gone back and looked at the cover, it would have been pretty obvious that it was the nerdy kid in the center, Andy).

Also to be fair, my inability to lock into this comic might be an effect of my age. This premise, which puts being totally wasted at its center, is one I would have found exciting in high school. I’m a few years past that now—ahem—and I just kept thinking that the alternatives to partying (especially watching Star Trek and having pizza) sounded like a much better time. I suppose part of the point here is sober people (like me) are automatons, but isn’t that a little outdated in 2018? I live in California, where I can get weed delivered to me door in the next 15 minutes...by three different businesses. It’s hard to think of something that’s become so entrepreneurial as subversive or countercultural at all anymore.

That said, first issues are incredibly hard, and I think there’s enough capable storytelling in here to suggest it’s still possible to turn this title around.

Overall: A quick read, an alien invasion story by way of Stranger Things. Burnout #1 shows some potential toward its end once its premise becomes clear, but the characters are pretty ill-defined throughout. The whole thing relies heavily on tropes, and the characters are a little hazy, much like the weed smoke at the center of this premise. 6.0/10

For more comic book reviews, check out our review archives.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.

Top Comics to Buy for September 19, 2018

September 17, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — This was an especially strong week, with the penultimate issue of Mister Miracle sort of headlining the books I’m looking forward to. It kind of seems like that book has been going on for years (even though it launched in August 2017) and like we’ll have it for the rest of our days (the last issue is currently due out on Oct. 24...although if recent issues are an indication it's probably likely to slip).

The book has just been so so good, and we will most definitely be sad to see it go. That said, we’re also enjoying the heck out of these final few issues. Tom King is one of the best and most introspective superhero writers, and what he’s done first with The Vision and now with Mister Miracle is work that seems likely to find a wide audience for a good long while. It’s been really rewarding to follow it in monthly issues, even with these minor delays.

Oh hey, and also there’s a lot of other good stuff, too! Let’s take a look...

Top Comics to Buy for September 19, 2018

Crude #6
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Garry Brown
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Thomas Mauer
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Piotr has fought his way across Blackstone to avenge his son's death. Now he faces off against the biggest bastard of them all, and only one will walk away.
Why It’s Cool: This is the finale of a fantastic book about closure, violence, secrets, acceptance, and fathers and sons. If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. Creators Steve Orlando and Garry Brown, however, streamline their many powerful themes into a cathartic and powerful story.

Harley Quinn #50
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artists (In Order of Appearance): John Timms, Whilce Portacio, Agnes Garbowska, John McCrea, Kelley Jones, Jon Davis-Hunt, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Scott Kolins, Dan Jurgens, Guillem March, Mirka Andolfo, Babs Tarr, Tom Grummett, Cam Smith
Colorists (In Order of Appearance): Alex Sinclair, Gabe Eltaeb, John Kalisz, Michelle Madsen, Andrew Dalhouse, Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99
In a special anniversary story, "Harley Saves the Universe!"-no kidding! While reading a mysterious Harley Quinn comic book, H.Q. accidentally breaks all of reality. And you know the saying: if you break it, you bought it! Now it's up to Harley to travel through both time and space to fix all the continuity errors she created. Luckily, she'll have a little help, 'cuz riding shotgun is none other than special guest star Jonni DC, Continuity Cop! Good thing, too, because if Harley fails, it means her own mom will be lost forever. Gulp! That doesn't sound very funny!
Why It’s Cool: Listen, I’m not a big fan of Harley Quinn stories. The zany superhero books (ie Deadpool) don’t usually do it for me, but this one takes a gigantic and meta idea, using it to tell a poignant story about the nature of superhero franchises, sprinkled liberally with fun deep cut nods to DC continuity. It’s a must-buy for long-time DC readers.

Ice Cream Man #7
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.99
"MY LITTLE POLTERGEIST"
Another sullen, sequential short! Here, a little girl's best friend comes back from the dead. Or does she? It's hard to say, ghosts being an unreliable sort.
Why It’s Cool: Ice Cream Man #6 was one of my favorite books of 2018 so far, accomplishing some really impressive feats of comic-making craft. It did, however, leaving me wondering if this book was becoming a bit nihilistic...until this issue put that question at rest. This is the most heartfelt issue yet of one of the best comics on the stands, and I highly recommend picking it up.

Immortal Hulk #6
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
"THE GREEN DOOR" STARTS HERE! Bruce Banner is alive - and everyone knows it. Now he's hunted by the government, Alpha Flight, the mysterious Shadow Base...and the Avengers. And someone's going to find him first. But Bruce has bigger problems. Something terrible has infected him. Something with unspeakable plans for humanity. And the only one who knows about it...is the IMMORTAL HULK.
Why It’s Cool: I’ve liked Immortal Hulk quite a bit from its first disturbing issue, but last month’s Immortal Hulk #5 introduced a new villian that in my opinion gives this story a chilling new sense of direction, one that stands to make it an even more powerful book. This is, quite simply, my favorite comic at Marvel right now.

Mister Miracle #11
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mitch Gerads
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
If there's one thing popular fiction has taught us by now, it's: never make a deal with the devil! And yet Mister Miracle is still listening when Darkseid approaches him with just such a devilish proposition-if Scott sends his newborn son to Apokolips, there will be peace on New Genesis. Since when has Darkseid been famous for his honesty?! It'll be a miracle if this doesn't blow up in Scott's face.
Why It’s Cool: Our site and many others have spent the past year or so heaping praise upon Tom King and Mitch Gerads Mister Miracle, and that’s not going to stop now that we’ve reached the penultimate issue. This is a series filled with equal parts introspection and misdirection. Expect some answers here, but also expect to wait for Mister Miracle #12 to really get a clear idea of what’s been going on.

Others Receiving Votes

Avengers #8
Batman #55
Black Badge #2
Black Hammer: Age of Doom #5
Britannia: Lost Eagles of Rome #3
Ether Copper Golems #5
Justice League #8
Lost City Explorers #4
Pearl #2
Skyward #6
Teen Titans #22
Thor #5
Usagi Yojimbo The Hidden #6
Venom #6
The Wild Storm #17

See our past top comics to buy here, and check our our reviews archive here.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

The Saga Re-Read: Saga #6

September 14, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

In Saga #6, the narration continues to do so much work, floating through panels like wisps of nostalgia gently tinging all that's taking place. — In **Saga #6**, the narration continues to do so much work, floating through panels like wisps of nostalgia gently tinging all that's taking place.

By Zack Quaintance and Cory Webber — Let’s talk about Saga’s narration, about the little snippets of Hazel looking back at the story. They just do so much work, both in setting an epic and emotional tone as well as in helping Saga stand apart from other comics, which I think is accomplished mainly through the aesthetic way the font seems to float through the panels, as if it were wisps of nostalgia gently tinging all that’s taking place.

Anyway, my point is that the narration is back and heavier in Saga #6 than it has been in some time, and I’m glad for it. This is the conclusion of the first Saga trade, the one I’ve bought for more than a few people and always been absolutely puzzled if they decide not to move on. How, I wonder, could anyone (regardless of their experience with the medium) stop following this story after these six installments? Then I shake my head and shrug, because, hey, we like what we like and anyway it’s not really my business.

What is my business is continuing this one-issue-per-week plodding Saga re-read. Onward!

Saga #6

Here’s the official preview text from way back when for Saga #6:

The epic hit series continues, as Alana and her baby finally reach the legendary Rocketship Forest, where everything changes forever.

Despite the presence of epic phrases like the legendary Rocketship Forest and everything changes forever, this is still a pretty bare bones teaser for the issue. The cover is decent, though, juxtaposing an indelible sign of nature (a bright green leaf) with the harsh and instantly-recognizable void of outer space. The color contrast works well enough too. I wouldn’t, rush, however, to put this cover up with the best of the series.

The cover for Saga #6. — The cover for **Saga #6.**

Now on to our takes!

A Re-Reader’s Perspective by Zack: Ho boy, the brief interaction between Prince Robot IV and The Will put dread in the pit of my stomach. Oh, the things that come...anyway, here’s a great line about our lovers: Marko, the father, is a force of fucking nature. But it’s the mother who really frightens me. Awesome. In terms of craft, it’s evident in this issue that Staples potential is vast and unlimited. Her linework isn’t quite as clean as it becomes, but she’s really nailing the excellent grandeur, specifically the first shot of the spaceship. The design work on the ship’s interior is also interesting as is the ship in flight and the armor for Marko’s parents. I’m noticing upon re-reading that the domestic drama cliffhangers (And then my grandparents came to live with us) are just as significant (if not more so) than those rooted in action or blood.

A New Reader’s Perspective by Cory Webber: The family expands! I love how Marko’s parents were introduced. I just hope Izabel is okay. After all, we see her get zapped and nothing after that. Also, I’ve just assumed Horrors couldn’t die...again, but I digress. Moreover, I loved the developments here: a wood-based rocket ship with empathetic abilities, Marko’s parents being introduced, and The Will showing human emotion (again!). I can’t wait to crack the next issue and see where the intergalactic saga goes next. Although, I will admit I am pretty anxious about this journey based on the general sentiments regarding the developments in the final issue before the hiatus. For now, I’m buckled in and ready to take this ride for eight more volumes! Wish me luck!

Cory’s New Reader Predictions: Izabel will be okay, right?! I mean, she’s bonded to Hazel. That has to mean something!

Cory Webber is a work-from-home entrepreneur who also reads and reviews comics for fun. Find him on Twitter at @CeeEssWebber. He lives in Lehi, Utah with his wife and three sons.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Top Modern Superhero Artists: The Sultans of Style at Marvel and DC

September 13, 2018 by Taylor Pechter in Comics

By Taylor Pechter — In comics, there’s always debate over what is more important: writing or art. These discussions can go either way, but they almost always conclude that both are equally important in different ways. Writers give characters their personalities, desires, and struggles, while the artists give motion and create a flow to the story. Artists also give characters different body types, faces, and ticks that writers can’t show with words alone. They are, simply put, storytellers in their own right.

Through the many decades of comics history individual artists have helped inform the style of the time. From legends like Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby in the Golden and Silver Ages, to the sleek photorealism of Neal Adams in the Bronze Age, to the incomparable detail of George Perez that helped usher in the Modern Age of comic art. However, in the past 20 years, a handful of artists have helped push the medium forward, while defining the company they belong to. This has been dubbed house style.

Exactly what is considered house style has changed during the past few years, but, even so, what I’d like to look at today are the artists who who have helped define their respective superhero universes.

DC

1. Jim Lee — Arguably the most popular artist of the 1990s, Jim Lee rose to fame drawing the X-Men for Marvel in the early years of the decade before breaking away to form Image and his company, WildStorm Productions. In the late 90s, he sold his company to DC, bringing his signature style over to the brand. Lee’s style contains heavy linework, chiseled jawlines, extreme detail, and dynamic action. This style has helped define the look of the modern DCU by making it grander and more epic in scale. Currently, Lee serves as Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment.

Notable Works:

Batman: Hush
All-Star Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder
Justice League: Origin
Superman: Unchained

2. Ivan Reis — Coming to American comics all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Ivan Reis has quickly become the go to event artist for DC of the past decade. Combining the sleekness of Neal Adams, the cinematic flair of Bryan Hitch, and the sheer scale of George Perez, Reis is a defining artist of the current generation. He’s also a notable collaborator with modern DC architect Geoff Johns, and his delicate-yet-cinematic style has helped bring new prominence to characters like Green Lantern and the Teen Titans. He’s currently drawing Superman, which is written by Brian Michael Bendis.

Infinite Crisis (With Phil Jimenez, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway)
Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War
Blackest Night
Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow

3. Gary Frank — English superstar Gary Frank is a roughly 23-year veteran of the business. Frank got his start at DC helping co-create the Birds of Prey team with legendary Bat-scribe Chuck Dixon. He later honed his craft at Marvel, drawing the Incredible Hulk and also collaborating with J. Michael Straczynski, but he eventually returned to DC to become one of, if not the defining Superman artists. With his keen eye for detail, simple-but-effective panel layouts, deep shadows, and expressive faces, Frank has become a favorite of mine and of many others.

Notable Works:

Superman: Brainiac
Superman: Secret Origin
Batman: Earth One
Doomsday Clock (currently ongoing)

4. Alex Ross — Arguably the most recognizable artist of this bunch, Chicago-based painter Alex Ross combines the photorealism of Norman Rockwell with the grandeur of the DCU. Ross depicts superheroes the way they were always meant to be seen: standing taller than life in the face of adversity. Using vast landscapes, strong postures, and smiles galore, Ross has become a multimedia sensation, not only drawing comics but also creating posters for film and video games.

Kingdom Come
The World’s Greatest Super Heroes
Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come

5. Jason Fabok — The newest artist on the DC block, Canadian Jason Fabok rose to prominence during DC’s New 52. While starting on smaller stories in Detective Comics, he later became popular via the mega Bat-event Batman Eternal followed by a run on Justice League with Geoff Johns. With his blend of realism, glossy texture, cinematic layouts, and brutal action, Fabok has fast-become one of the most acclaimed DC artists of the decade.

Batman Eternal
Justice League Darkseid War
Batman/Flash: The Button
Three Jokers (upcoming)

Marvel

1. Joe Quesada — Coming from New York City, Joe Quesada, much like his contemporary at DC Jim Lee, had a hand in crafting Marvel’s signature style coming out of the 90’. With inker Jimmy Palmiotti, Quesada redefined what street-level Marvel meant, fueling the creation of Marvel Knights. Quesada’s use of overly exaggerated proportions, dense and heavy shadows, and cartoony-yet-expressive faces is part of the blueprint for Marvel to this day. He now acts as Chief Creative Officer for Marvel Entertainment.

Daredevil: Guardian Devil
Spider-Man: One More Day

2. David Finch — Another comics superstar hailing from the Great White North, David Finch started drawing in the late 1990s for Marc Silvestri’s company Top Cow before moving to the House of Ideas in the 2000s. An early collaborator with a young Brian Michael Bendis, Finch’s heavy shadows, musclebound heroes, and cinematic action helped Marvel craft a denser and darker universe. He now works as a freelance artist and is husband to writer Meredith Finch. Most recently he has drawn issues of Tom King’s ongoing run on DC’s Batman.

Avengers Disassembled
New Avengers: Breakout
Moon Knight: The Bottom
Ultimatum

3. Steve McNiven — This is the last Canadian artist on this list, I promise. McNiven has been a Marvel mainstay since the early 2000s, when he did many covers for the publisher. His big break, however, came in 2006, when he was tapped for Marvel’s biggest event of the decade, Civil War. After that, McNiven started a partnership with Mark Millar. He is a king of rendering, using different styles of fabric and metal to do so. He adds many layers of texture that help lend to his somewhat stylized photorealism. His explosive panel layouts and eye for epic moments have led him to become one of Marvel’s blockbuster exclusive artists.

Civil War
Wolverine: Old Man Logan
Death of Wolverine
New Avengers: The Sentry

4. Olivier Coipel — Magical, mythical, grandiose...these are all words that have been used to describe French artist Olivier Coipel’s work. Rising to prominence as a frequent collaborator of Brian Bendis, Coipel helped tear down and rebuild the Marvel Universe many times over. With his delicate linework, his characters move with a certain grace along with detailed architecture and lush landscapes that help create truly stunning comics.

House of M
Thor (2007)
Siege
Unworthy Thor

5. Leinil Francis Yu — Last but not least we come to Filipino artist Leinil Francis Yu, who got his start his start in the late 90’s, his claim to fame being a major stint on Wolverine and other X-Men titles. His style is much looser than the others on this list. Yu uses many different lines to add intricacies. During Marvel’s big resurgence in the 2000’s, he became, much like Coipel and McNiven, a go to artist for the blockbuster events and headlining books. His action is frenetic and that helps greatly set the pace for the books that he draws.

Wolverine
Secret Invasion
Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk
Captain America (currently ongoing)

In the end, these artists have all been mainstays of certain universes with styles that while influenced by many great artists before them, are still uniquely their own. They have all played significant roles in creating the house styles that differentiate the two superhero universes, with DC having a more detailed, almost photorealistic look, while Marvel features a more exaggerated, cartoony, and fantastical aesthetic. These artists have helped redefine their universes; they are true sultans of superhero style.

Taylor Pechter is a passionate comic book fan and nerd. Find him on Twitter @TheInspecter.

Check out Marvel Comics, now at comiXology.com!

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The Saga Re-Read: Saga #5

September 07, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance & Cory Webber — We crossed the 50 weeks remaining mark! Congratulations for all of you who have made this trip with us. I can only speak for myself, but re-reading at this slow and careful pace has been a real treat for me so far, giving me a chance to really live within this story and consider all that I know about what’s to come before moving forward. I hope you’re having a similar experience.

Meanwhile, during this hiatus the creative team is making itself somewhat visible. I highly encourage all of you re-readers to check out this interview from Entertainment Weekly with both Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, in which they discuss that plot point from Saga #54. Also, if you happen to be one of those mythical folks who doesn’t have a gigantic surplus of comics to read, Vaughan and Staples also recently built a Goodreads list for fans of Saga, which contains some other recent favorites of mine such as Ice Cream Man, as well as some other books that are all new to me and soon to join my ever-expanding to read list.

That does it for this week’s preamble. As always, thanks for joining us on our epic journey. Onward!

Saga #5

Here’s the official preview text from way-back-when for Saga #5:

The smash hit ongoing series from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples continues, as Prince Robot IV's hunt for Hazel and her parents takes a deadly turn.

And boy does it. It’s still so early in this story, and already we have Vaughan and Staples slamming various character motivations around and making their creations pay the price. Good writing is often as simple as giving characters a clear desire, putting giant obstacles in their ways, and depicting how they respond. Saga has always had an impressive command over that, and this issue is a great example. Plus, that cover!

A Re-Reader’s Perspective by Zack: Looking back, the amount of space dedicated to humanizing The Will and Prince Robot IV in the first arc is interesting. It’s easy to think of them both as side characters who were incidentally fleshed out. That’s not entirely the case, though, considering maybe about a third of the very first arc went to giving them human and relatable motivations for who they become and how they later interact with our heroes. This issue is also notable for being the first appearance of Marko’s defining character flaw, his violent bouts of rage. Eep.

A New Reader’s Perspective by Cory Webber: This issue starts off with another signature Saga splash page of the mundane with Prince Robot IV on the toilet. I love that he’s reading the harlequin novel he confiscated as evidence back in #2. Now, let’s talk about Marko, specifically his sword skills. Umm, remind me not to piss him off. Also, I love how he goes all Kill Bill on the soldiers, but Alana shoots him before he can kill them...and he thanks her for shooting him. This pretty much sums up their relationship—she grounds him, by any means necessary. Now, let’s talk about The Will the Lord of shit vacations. It was nice to see him try and rescue the child. I like that Vaughan is creating sympathy for characters who are bad. Nothing about this book is black or white; there’s lots of gray. As for the ending, I definitely did not see that coming.

Cory’s New Reader Predictions: The Stalk is okay. Her heart is somewhere in her large abdomen. And her and the Will will go on endless shitty vacations with their newly-adopted and rescued child.

Thanks for joining us, and be sure to check back next Friday for a discussion of Saga #6! Tweet us @BatmansBookcase with your own thoughts, and we may run them here next week…

Cory Webber is a work-from-home entrepreneur who also reads and reviews comics for fun. Find him on Twitter at @CeeEssWebber. He lives in Lehi, Utah with his wife and three sons.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

The Punisher’s Code: A Look at Frank Castle’s First Appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #129

September 06, 2018 by Theron Couch in Comics

By Theron Couch — Unlike Marvel’s other vigilante heroes, the Punisher has always used lethal means to accomplish his goals. Whether in his own series, a guest appearance in another character’s book, or even during an extended alternate future tale like the one in this week’s Old Man Logan Annual, Punisher always carries the chance for serious casualties. Frank Castle’s history of lethal justice dates all the way back to his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #129, wherein Spider-Man was his target and readers could be forgiven for not being able to tell whether Punisher was good or bad...despite who he was aiming his gun at.

Spider-Man vs. The Punisher

Through a lie that Spider-Man had murdered Norman Osborne, the Punisher was manipulated by The Jackal into trying to kill the wall crawler. Much of the issue focused on Peter Parker, yet I’d still call it action packed, since we are talking about a battle between Spider-Man and The Punisher, after all. And that fight started off decidedly in The Punisher’s favor, at least before Spider-Man summoned the strength to break the titanium bonds Punisher put on him.

Even after getting free, Spider-Man still wasn’t a match for the combined forces of Punisher and Jackal, the latter of which scratched him with electric claws and sent him off the side of a building. Of course, Spider-Man survived, eventually finding a clue planted by The Jackal that leads to a dead friend of the Punisher’s. The Punisher and Spider-Man arrive in the same place, and Spider-Man explains the frame job to Punisher—only Jackal could have planted the clue leading to the body, clearly killed by Jackal’s claws, but it’s Punisher who would have taken the fall. Spider-Man and the Punisher depart tolerably, if not amicably.

The Punisher’s Code

Old Man Logan Annual #1 is now available. — **Old Man Logan Annual #1** is now available.

Even in this first appearance, Gerry Conway establishes a code of conduct for The Punisher that puts him closer to the side of the angels than the devils. The Punisher will only kill murderers. Indeed, his justification for killing Spider-Man was the supposed murder of Norman Osborne. The Punisher’s code is so rigid, in fact, he believes he must kill a target rather than allow that target to die in an accident—such as when Spider-Man falls off the roof following Jackal’s attack. Siding with Jackal may be a stain on Punisher’s shield, but Punisher remarks that he believed they were teaming up to rid New York of a criminal element.

The thing that ultimately lands Punisher in the villain column, however, comes at the end of this issue. Once Spider-Man has revealed the frame job and exposed Jackal, Punisher calls him a hero and leaves him alone, instead vowing to get revenge on Jackal. Unfortunately this set of circumstances does nothing to absolve Spider-Man of the Normal Osborne murder—the reason Punisher was hunting Spider-Man in the first place. To stay loyal to his code, the fight against Spider-Man should have continued.

The Punisher is often likened to a simple villain in Amazing Spider-Man #129, and maybe that’s the case, but I think there’s more to it than that. The Punisher follows his code of conduct throughout the issue, acting in a consistent way with a clear and avowed goal to end crime. If there is a villainous moment, it’s when he decides to stop fight against Spider-Man—abandoning his code—in favor of the pettiness of revenge.

Theron Couch is a writer, blogger, and comic book reviewer. His first novel, The Loyalty of Pawns, is available on Amazon. You can also follow him on Twitter at @theroncouch.

The Saga Re-Read: Saga #3

August 24, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance & Cory Weber — The Saga re-read rolls right along this week, as me (the returning reader) and Cory Weber (the first-time reader) continue to share our thoughts and the book continues to settle into the powerhouse comic it would later become. Three is a bit of a subdued issue, albeit one with a pretty excellent cover.

We left off last week with Marko gravely injured by The Stalk, who was in turn chased off by The Horrors, who aren’t exactly what they seem to be. Meanwhile, The Will is heading with Lying Cat to Sextillion (whatever that is!) and Prince Robot IV is losing his cool while integrating Wreath prisoners about what went down between Alana and the escaped Moonie she is said to have fallen for, ultimately giving birth to a child.

Saga #3

Here’s the official preview text for Saga #3:

BKV's and FIONA STAPLES' controversial epic continues! Stranded on a mystical alien world, new parents Marko and Alana encounter their greatest fear.

That’s not a lot to go on, and, really, it’s maybe a little appropriate since this is the first issue where things tend to slow down just a little bit. It’s maybe worth noting that I can’t remember what the controversy was about now. I think it had something to do with breastfeeding? Which is maybe why they ended up putting a breast-feeding Hazel on the first omnibus cover? Either way, controversial epic now strikes me as a mostly quaint way to describe Saga through it’s first three issues. Let’s get to our takes!

A Re-Reader’s Perspective by Zack: Saga’s whole deal, as it were, is just so seamless now, that it’s easy to forget that a big part of what marked the earliest issues was a give and take between action sequences and family drama, almost like a jockeying for territory before we got fully invested in both. This issue is a bit heavier on the family drama side of things, especially the end. It’s definitely a slower issue of Saga (which bums me out, because I recently invested in a CGC-rated 9.8 copy of Saga #3), but it’s by no means a bad issue.

A New Reader’s Perspective by Cory Webber: First off, I just want to say, again, how much I love Staples’ character work, especially her facial expressions. They can almost tell the story without any words. Second, Lying Cat is growing on me, and I have a feeling it will become one of my favorite characters. Finally, as a parent of three children, this issue of Saga hits some strong notes. Parenting is hard, and I have the luxury of a house with running water, electricity and not much threat of war breaking out. Needless to say, I can’t imagine having a newborn, while on the run, on a war torn planet. But I digress, the family drama in this third issue is intriguing, what with a grotesque spirit requesting to bond with a newborn baby, and Marko making an accidental deathbed confession, while being semi-conscious — who the #&%! is Gwendolyn?!

Cory’s New Reader Predictions: I’ll tell you who the #&%! I think Gwendolyn is! It’s Marko’s wife, whom he has conveniently failed to mention prior to this. Also, I feel Alana wants to let him die, but her desire to get some answers will be a smidge stronger.

Thanks for joining us, and be sure to check back next Friday for a discussion of Saga #4! Tweet us @BatmansBookcase with your own thoughts, and we may run them here next week...

Cory Webber is a work-from-home entrepreneur who also reads and reviews comics for fun. Find him on Twitter at @CeeEssWebber. He lives in Lehi, Utah with his wife and three sons.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

The Original West Coast Avengers #1: A True Soap Opera for Superhero Fans

August 23, 2018 by Theron Couch in Comics

West Coast Avengers #1 from 1985. — **West Coast Avengers #1** from 1985.

By Theron Couch — The original West Coast Avengers #1 starts with Mockingbird leaving lipstick on Hawkeyes’s lips...I challenge Kelly Thompson and Stefano Caselli’s new West Coast Avengers to be half as tantalizing!

In fact, that first page with the lipstick business would ultimately prove to be consistent with the overall style the old book developed as it charted a course in a separate direction from its parent title, The Avengers back on the East Coast. With the West Coast Avengers returning to Marvel for the first time in ages this week, I’d like to look back today at the original series and at how its debut issue effectively used soap opera dramatics to separate itself from its parent title.

See, West Coast Avengers #1 was essentially a soap opera that just happened to guest star Ultron 12 and his henchmen, Man-Ape and Goliath. Writer Steve Engelhart spent most of the issue following personal drama rather than focusing on action. For instance, in the opening pages—when Hank Pym interrupts the Hawkeye/Mockingbird make out session—Engelhart introduced Hawkeye’s primary goal: find a sixth member to round out the team. Hawkeye then went on to offer the position to ol’ intruding Hank...who resoundly turned it down. These motivations reverberated throughout the issue, coming up repeatedly in both private moments and group scenes.

Speaking of Hank, he actually had the highlight of the issue, that being when his ex-wife Wasp (whom he didn’t want to talk to anyway) not only questioned whether he was joining the team but—unlike everyone else—agreed that he shouldn’t. In similar fashion, nigh-invulnerable Wonder Man spent much of the issue worrying about death—a fear that almost crippled him in the team’s first fight with Ultron, and Tigra spent most of the issue sorting out who and what she had become following her transformation...until she finally stopped, mid-mission, to psychoanalyze herself.

The new West Coast Avengers #1 is out now. — The new **West Coast Avengers #1** is out now.

Artists Allen Milgrom, Joe Sinnot, and Petra Scotese complemented this soap opera scripting with superb rendering of the characters. For starters, everyone was presented consistently, whether it be via shape or shading or color. Most importantly, though, was the attention the artists paid to characters’ expressions. Even some of the best artists today still fail to present character expressions consistently or to connect those expressions to the dialogue and events taking place in the moment. The entire first issue of West Coast Avengers, however, is a study in accurate rendition of character expressions—and good thing too since you can’t very well have a soap opera without ample closeups on stricken characters.

Another soap opera-y quirk in this comic—one often found in spinoffs like this one—is packing the book with references to critical events from the past. In this issue, Engelhardt and editor Mark Gruenwald almost go overboard with 16 (!) issue callouts that see the cast frequently speaking of past events from the parent series. As if a cast of Avengers weren’t enough, Engelhardt and Gruenwald want to constantly remind readers that West Coast Avengers really is a spinoff, one that as the first page says continues the proud Avengers tradition in a west coast way.

Overall, West Coast Avengers featured no shortage of action, and this review shouldn’t be construed to mean that nothing exciting took place—indeed, a lot of exciting things did go down between the drama. This first issue, though, establishes a character style that borders at times on melodrama. The west coast way, it turns out, is the tried and true old-school soap opera. And it’s quite a lot of fun to read.

Read more of Theron’s thoughts about the original West Coast Avengers series here.

Theron Couch is a writer, blogger, and comic book reviewer. His first novel, The Loyalty of Pawns, is available on Amazon. You can also follow him on Twitter at @theroncouch.

Hawkeye, West Coast Avengers #1 & Redemption

August 21, 2018 by Theron Couch in Comics

By Theron Couch — Superheroes fighting each other has long since gone from reliable genre convention to outright cliché. Whatever the reason for the fight’s start, it almost always turns into a let’s discuss how best to defeat a villain coffee clutch. Avengers West Coast #69, though, is one of those great examples of superhero fights that have nothing to do with upholding justice and fighting crime, and everything to do with two characters who can’t keep their mouths shut literally picking a time and place to beat each other senseless. So yes, it remains my favorite superhero fight to this day—and it also forever-defined for me a major character who is returning tomorrow in Kelly Thompson and Stefano Caselli’s new West Coast Avengers #1.

Avengers West Coast #69: The A Story & B Story

Screen Shot 2018-08-17 at 7.52.45 PM.png

Avengers West Coast #69 is a glorified team picking. The story jumps back and forth in time, telling two stories concurrently. In the A story—the story that opens the issue—Hawkeye and US Agent dish out a mutual ass beating. In full costume and with arrows and shield, the two fighters hold little back. There is no love lost between them, and since the A story begins before the fight actually starts, it’s clear the whole thing was orchestrated in advance, which leads to the obvious question of why.

Enter the B story, which occurs earlier in the day and is confined to Avengers West Coast headquarters. The team is choosing a new roster, but before they do that General Heyworth has a message for US Agent. Both Avengers teams will operate under the United Nations going forward so the US government is no longer maintaining a representative on the teams. US Agent, who had had a guaranteed a slot on the team before, now has to earn his way on like everyone else. US Agent doesn’t take the news well, and Hawkeye rubs plenty of salt in the wound. Predictably, the voting doesn’t go US Agent’s way, and with only one vote cast in his favor he gets a spot as an alternate. The end of the B story dovetails into the A story as Hawkeye and US Agent set up a fight for later that night.

Avengers West Coast #69: The Fight

The infamous fight in Avengers West Coast #69. — The infamous fight in **Avengers West Coast #69.**

It’s a lean story in Avengers West Coast #69, one that really boils down to two events of consequence: the team selecting its members, and Hawkeye and US Agent fighting. With respect to the first event there’s no real rising action or plot twist; the result of the vote is so obvious that it’s hardly a surprise when Hawkeye makes it and US Agent doesn’t. As for the fight—it’s also clear that it has no real teeth. The story is the fight rather than the outcome, so to an extent it’s overwritten.

To the benefit of both stories, though, Roy and Dann Thomas used a convention that these days is pretty common, but it much less so at the start of the ‘90s: non-linear storytelling. Both stories benefit from being broken up and interspersed with the other, preventing the vote from feeling more important than it is and keeping the fight from feeling too long. It’s a brilliant move, one that makes the issue work.

I’ve never read other issues of Avengers West Coast, so I don’t know if there is additional backstory to the Hawkeye/US Agent relationship. You don’t really need it, though. The Thomases write US Agent as a self-entitled jerk through and through. Even before the general unceremoniously delivers the news in front of the entire Avengers team with no warning, US Agent’s smug attitude goes such a long way to damaging him in the readers’ eyes.

Hawkeye, though, is actually almost worse—and this is where I wish I did know the backstory. Hawkeye starts rubbing salt in US Agent’s wounds immediately, and it’s entirely personal. At no point does he offer a compelling argument for why US Agent is a detriment to the team. Hawkeye just doesn’t like him, and he’s having a good time kicking him while he’s down. The pettiness behind both men’s actions colors the fight and sets it into a special class—a more personal class—of hero combat. There are no lofty ideals here.

Can Hawkeye Be Redeemed?

West Coast Avengers #1 is out Aug. 22. — **West Coast Avengers #1** is out Aug. 22.

Overall, Avengers West Coast #69 has all the makings of a forgettable one-off. And if not for the non-linear storytelling device, I’m not sure it would be so much fun. But it is the comic book that colored my perception of Hawkeye forever. US Agent is a jerk in this story. Everybody knows it. And everybody knows he’s not making it on the Avengers. But only Hawkeye takes the tack that he shouldn’t; he does it very personally and very publicly. Even if he’s right, his attitude in the B story and his willingness to stoop to US Agent’s level is definitely a stain on someone who just got overwhelmingly voted on to the team.

What’s more, the promised suspension at the end of the issue rings very much like the kind of non-punishment reserved for popular members of teams and groups. To me Hawkeye walks away from this fight looking far worse as a character, and to this day I’ve been ambivalent toward him, if not outright suspicious—his defining moment to me is a petty fight on the beach because he was talking shit to someone in a position beneath him.

Here’s wondering if Kelly Thompson can, at long last, redeem Clint Barton in my eyes.

Theron Couch is a writer, blogger, and comic book reviewer. His first novel, The Loyalty of Pawns, is available on Amazon. You can also follow him on Twitter at @theroncouch.

The Eye of the Storm: WildStorm Past and Present

August 16, 2018 by Taylor Pechter in Comics

WildStorm is really 25 years old now. Really.

By Taylor Pechter — The 1990s was a consequential decade for comics, a decade of deaths and broken backs, of shoulder pads and huge guns. It was also the decade that gave us WildStorm Productions, an imprint created by then-rising star Jim Lee, who jumped ship from Marvel and DC along with other big-name artists following disputes over creators’ rights. When WildStorm began in 1992, it could have been dismissed as just more large guns, heavily-detailed art, and not much focus on story.

After the company grew in popularity, though, Lee sold it to DC. With this sale, DC editorial took the universe under its watch, ultimately overseeing great experimentation in storytelling spearheaded by writers such as Warren Ellis and Joe Casey and artists such as Bryan Hitch, whose worked helped redefine what comics look like.

Now get ready because today we’re jumping head first into the defining era of WildStorm, looking at the themes and visuals from the imprint that have had such a lasting impact on the comic book industry today.

StormWatch

The year is 1997. The comics speculator market bubble has burst and sales of WildStorm books have stagnated. Enter Warren Ellis, a British writer who had done some work at but was not on many fans’ radars. With his run on Stormwatch starting at #37, however, that quickly changed.

Ellis would completely redefine the team, splitting it into three squadrons: Prime (defense against superhuman threats), Red (members with destructive powers for deterrent displays), and Black (undercover black ops). As the run started, Ellis introduced us to his thematic interests via the words of Frederick Nietzsche, I want to teach men the meaning of their existence; which is the Superman, the lightning from the dark cloud that is man.

Ellis’ run incorporated themes of corruption of power, the relationship between man and superhuman, and ultimately how supherhumans change a world. These themes are primarily conveyed through StormWatch leader Henry Bendix (alias The Weatherman), the StormWatch Black Team (Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor, and Swift), and The High and his Changers. As the run progressed, StormWatch’s prominence grew while Bendix became madder with power, coming to view his team as the end-all, be-all of planetary surveillance and defense, akin to worldwide secret police. This eventually leads him down a path of murder and a removal from his position, with former field leader Jackson King (alias Battalion) taking over in his stead.

Meanwhile, the members of StormWatch Black personified rebellion, especially their leader, Jenny Sparks. As one of the proclaimed century babies, Sparks lived through the highs and lows of the 1900s, coming to be known as The Spirit of 20th Century. She’s also seen firsthand how superpowers changed society, with adventures through the decades as a solider in the wars and later a member of the shady Royal Space Program. This history also informs her relationship with John Cumberland (alias The High). The High is the main ideological lynchpin of the run, with his actions in the story Change or Die reflect the theme of the run, as The High actually says, We are Superhumans, just as your modern crimefighters and Covert Action teams. However, we feel a different responsibility than they do… They try to save the world, but make no effort to change it. This speaks to the somewhat hypocritical nature of the modern superhero. As time passed, StormWatch dissolved due to infighting, Bendix succumbing to insanity, and SkyWatch (the team’s satellite command center) being set upon by alien infestation. With most of the team dead, field commander Nikolas Kamarov (alias Winter) made the final decision to the throw the station into the sun. StormWatch was dead, but from its ashes rose a new force, an Authority that would either save the world, or rule it with an iron fist.

The Authority

Out of the ashes of StormWatch rose The Authority, a team formed by former StormWatch Black operatives Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor, and Swift. It also included Apollo and Midnighter, The Engineer, and The Doctor. The Authority’s story is broken up into three four-issue arcs, which focus on innate fears with society: the fear of terrorism, the fear of foreign invasion, and the fear of the unknown. Through The Authority, Ellis wove a tale of a team of powerhouses trying to save the world and to also change it for the better. However, their goals came at a cost.

What Ellis also did was break down the glitz and glamour of a superhero team. The Authority is brash, arrogant, and—most of all—violent. Cities were leveled and an entire alternate Earth was destroyed. The Authority, however, considered it just part of the job, losses to make the world a better place. Toward the book’s end, the team eventually faced an alien entity that was blocking out the sun. Jenny Sparks shocked its brain and the day was won, but at a cost that shook the team to its core. As the century wound down, so did the life of Jenny Sparks. After 100 years of being a planetary defense mechanism, she died at the stroke of midnight January 1, 2000, in the arms of Jack Hawksmoor. With a new century, however, came a new generation of defenders.

The Art: While Ellis’ scripts were certainly groundbreaking, so too was the artwork of Bryan Hitch, inker Paul Neary, and colorist Laura Depuy (later Martin). With wide panels, splash pages galore, and cinematic action, Hitch was, and still is, the main purveyor of widescreen comics art. With Neary’s clean inks and Martin’s luscious colors, The Authority is still one of the most visually influential books in modern comics.

Wildcats

What happens to covert teams that don’t have a war to fight? What happens when a teammate dies, splintering the rest of the team? Or, when a team’s leader wants to transcend to a higher level of living, one that requires he be killed?

In 1999, writer Joe Casey and artist Sean Phillips took over Wildcats and set out to answer these questions. After a mission gone wrong, Zealot is killed and Grifter is left reeling. Grifter has become a washed-up shell of his former self, trying to find answers about Zealot’s death. On the other end, Lord Emp (known to Earth as Jacob Marlowe, leader of the Wildcats), is asking his long-time rival Kenyan to kill him so he can ascend. Kenyan, however, instead kills himself, and Spartan is forced to kill Emp. In the aftermath, posing as Emp’s great-nephew Jack Marlowe, he is bequeathed HALO Industries and inherits Emp’s fortune. Meanwhile, Priscilla Kitaen (alias Voodoo) and Doctor Jeremy Stone (alias Maul) are living together. Jeremy has locked himself in his lab to to find a cure for a disease.

That’s a lot, to be sure, but overall Casey tells a story about destiny and legacy. Spartan has to deal with running HALO and guilt for killing Emp, which is easy enough because as a synthetic humanoid, he feels no emotion. This, however, conflicts with Grifter mourning the loss of his trainer and lover. Spartan also has to deal with having the Marlowe name, a target since Emp had many enemies. After Pris is nearly murdered by superhuman serial killer Samuel Slaughterhouse Smith, she is visited by a Daemonite, of which she is a half-breed. With that meeting she fully comes to terms with her heritage. Optimism reenergized, she then looks to a brighter future, alongside Jeremy.

The Art: Joining Casey on this book is noir art master Sean Phillips. With deep shadows, imposing figures, and brutal action, Phillips creates a foreboding tone to perfectly match Casey’s script. Sadly, the book only lasted two years before being cancelled but returning a year later as Wildcats Version 3.0. In a short time, however, Casey and Phillips crafted one of, if not the defining runs on Wildcats.

Planetary

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way. This is the mantra for Warren Ellis’s magnum opus, Planetary. A decade in the making, Planetary revolves around a four-person team of mystery archaeologists who explore the world. This team consists of Elijah Snow, our ride along character Jakita Wagner, The Drummer, and Ambrose Chase.

With Planetary, Ellis constructs a story that revolves around genre and—more importantly—pop culture. This journey through 20th century pop culture is seen through the eyes of Elijah, who like Jenny Sparks is one of the century babies. The series has one main through line, but each issue also tackles a certain genre, breaking it down and showing how it has changed the world. These stories included a ghost cop out for revenge in Hong Kong (Dead Gunfighter); the somber Vertigo-tinged To Be In England, In The Summertime; the hypocrisy of vigilantism in The Torture of William Leather, and the metaphysics of superheroes in Zero Point.

In them all, Ellis demonstrates how the aspects of various genres has affected society through use in pop culture. While the macro exploration of genre and pop culture is the book’s driving force, the heart of Planetary is the micro exploration of Elijah Snow as a character, as well as how he becomes more in tune with the world. Snow’s motives, while staying somewhat consistent throughout the first half of the series, shift as we approach the final act. As readers, we are Elijah, not just in terms of the world Ellis is crafting but also the world outside our window. There is so much to explore here, and we’ve barely scratched the surface.

The Art: Not to be outdone by Ellis’ deft scripting are John Cassaday’s art and Laura Martin’s colors. Cassaday shifts his style throughout each chapter to capture the tone. This can mean changing panel sizes, borders, shadows, or expressions. It’s commendable how much work he put into each page, and it’s made even better by Martin’s amazing colors, with bright reds and blues making the art pop. This book was subject to many delays, attributed to both Ellis and Cassaday, but Planetary eventually ended with its 27th issue, becoming one of the most celebrated comic books of all time

The Wild Storm

Twenty years after he helped redefine the WildStorm Universe with StormWatch, Warren Ellis is doing it again with The Wild Storm, which just released issue #16 this week. This time, Ellis is writing a stripped down, no frills, corporate espionage tale focused on three organizations: tech giant HALO (run by Jacob Marlowe), black ops intelligence agency International Operations or IO (run by Miles Craven), and secret space program Skywatch (led by Henry Bendix). This is an entirely new story, rather than a continuation of past titles.

The main conflict in this series is rivalries between organizations, with the story asking how Earth would react if it was ruled by these power structures. There is, of course, a twist. While IO is interested in Earth and its resources, Skywach is more interested in ruling space, even going as far as colonizing other planets. After Bendix starts getting a vested interest in Earth’s resources, IO starts to retaliate. Caught in between this corporate battle is a team of rogue IO and Skwatch agents who have formed their own covert action team, a Wild CAT. Their objective is to stop this war, fearing it will tear the planet apart.

The Art: Joining Ellis on art duties is Jon Davis-Hunt, whose simple yet dynamic style lends to the gritty espionage themes and to the frenetic action that is wonderfully brutal. His linework combines with the gorgeous colors of Steve Buccellatto. With stripping down the universe and giving it a more modern feel, this creative team has given new life to characters Ellis made his name writing.

In conclusion, following its start in the ‘90s, WildStorm went grew from the typical extreme fare of the decade into one of the most fertile grounds for storytelling in all of superhero comics, doing everything from looking at how superheroes have changed the world to how a team can survive in a world that doesn’t accept them. WildStorm also has a history of art that has redefined the style of comics, from the widescreen destruction of The Authority by Hitch, to the noir stylings of Wildcats by Sean Phillips, or the versatility of John Cassaday in Planetary. These artists helped raise a new generation, also contributing to the creation of the modern comics event.

Thank you all for joining me on this journey—hopefully you too will now jump into the eye of the storm.

Taylor Pechter is a passionate comic book fan and nerd. Find him on Twitter @TheInspecter.

How Hawkman Soars: A Five-Panel Explainer

August 14, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — Hawkman by Robert Venditti and Bryan Hitch feels like a throwback (in a good way) for a couple reasons. First, it’s a story of a modest scale. This is an odd notion, given we're talking about a comic that spans all of space and time, but at its core Hawkman is a relatively simple adventure starring a character who is unraveling personal mysteries while also combating threats to the larger world. Second, it features killer artwork by Bryan Hitch.

Regarding Hitch: it’s often hard to see how the standards and conventions of a storytelling medium limit it until someone breaks them. This was true of my perception of comics in the ‘90s (a super weird decade, yet not as bad as its reputation...a topic for another day). Hitch’s work on The Authority showed me the freeing potential of excessively splashy spreads brimming with gigantic action and wide perspective. Basically, I’d never realized how claustrophobic most books felt until Hitch blew it up.

Lately I’d forgotten how much a revelation his style once was, especially since it has now become commonplace in superhero stories. Obviously, it’s not a fit for every book, and it has maybe been overdone at times (way overdone), but when used well as it is in Hawkman—look out. And so that’s what I’d like to discuss today via five-panel explainer: how Hawkman soars on the wings of old school adventuring and free-flying artwork. Let’s do it!

Panel One - The Continuity

Like many DC heroes, Hawkman is a great character with a long and convoluted history, one that can potentially act as a barrier of entry for new readers. Venditti and Hitch realize this, and in Hawkman #1 we get this stunning panel, which orients us and conveys the basics while also establishing that this book is about our hero himself coming to terms with his background. Basically, they’re telling us relax...it’s okay to be confused. We’re heading out—together—to explore.

This killer spread from Hawkman #1 does a great job refreshing the current state of Hawkman's continuity. — This killer spread from **Hawkman #1** does a great job refreshing the current state of Hawkman's continuity.

Panel Two - The Journal

From Hawkman #3, our hero pours through his journal, reminding us of the status of his quest. — From **Hawkman #3**, our hero pours through his journal, reminding us of the status of his quest.

This second panel is less visually-exciting, yet it’s just as important as the one above in terms of giving structure to the narrative. If that frenetic spread establishes we’re sorting out our hero’s past together, the journal acts as a device for reminding us what we’ve so far learned. It gives our protagonist an organic means of taking stock of his progress, and it gives Venditti a nice way to craft interesting narration without showing the writer’s hand in the story. It’s been well-done through three issues, and I'm hoping we’ll see more of it moving forward.

Panel Three - The Museum

Not to go too far into the story, but this book is about Hawkman learning he’s been reincarnated not just over time but also throughout space. In any given issue, the story goes to another planet, another time, and then back to present day. It’s a lot and it could become unwieldy...if Venditti and Hitch weren’t so good at creating pedestrian visits to things like subways and museums. Basically, this book positions Hawkman as the Indiana Jones of the DCU, and so it needs the cleaned up scenes where Indie is curating or teaching classes. So far, we’ve gotten them done well. This panel is a personal favorite.

The significant of an epic quest can sometimes get lost if there's nothing present to ground a character, which Venditti and Hitch do well in this museum scene from Hawkman #2. — The significant of an epic quest can sometimes get lost if there's nothing present to ground a character, which Venditti and Hitch do well in this museum scene from **Hawkman #2.**

Panel Four - The Monsters

An old school adventure comic book is nothing without its monsters, and Hawkman is no exception. This was the hardest panel to pick because there were so many good choices, but I went with giant angry ape (apologies to giant angry T-Rex and giant angry flock of automaton birdmen). This is classic Hitch, with larger than life kinetic artwork that explodes through panels and off pages. Love it.

What's an adventure that travels through space and time without giant angry monsters? Scene from Hawkman #1. — What's an adventure that travels through space and time without giant angry monsters? Scene from **Hawkman #1.**

Perhaps the most important panels in the entire series are those in which Hawkman takes to the sky. Artwork from Hawkman #3. — Perhaps the most important panels in the entire series are those in which Hawkman takes to the sky. Artwork from **Hawkman #3.**

Panel Five - The Skies

The best visual bits of this book, however, are the open skies...as they should be in a story about a flying character. There are plenty of closeup action shots, sure, but Hitch and Venditti often pull the theoretical camera back to show us what a speck our hero is against the vastness of the sky he moves through. This framing is used often and clearly not meant to diminish his stature, which it really doesn’t—we’re never more than a panel or two away from him hitting a dinosaur or something with his mace—but instead it aims to show us the freedom of his explorations, the limitless nature of his life and his journey, and it wildly succeeds.

To wrap up, I’ll say that through three issues Hawkman has established itself as a welcome addition to DC’s superhero line, a book that flies a bit beneath the radar, content to function on its own as a rewarding and good-looking read, hard to predict and loaded with mystery. It remains to be seen if the creative team can take the protagonist to meaningful places through a prolonged run, but Venditti has a good track record with long-form superheroics (see X-O Manowar and the recently-concluded Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps), while someone in Burbank deserves a hearty pat on the back for fitting Hitch’s artwork to this character and story.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

The Saga Re-Read: Saga #1 and Foreshadowing

August 10, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

The lewd-yet-mundane opening panel is an ocassional Saga tradition that started way back in issue #1. — The lewd-yet-mundane opening panel is an ocassional **Saga** tradition that started way back in issue #1.

By Zack Quaintance & Cory Webber — Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples recently announced a 1-year (minimum) intermission for Saga, our favorite ongoing comic here at Batman’s Bookcase. To be blunt, we’re ambivalent. We know artistic inspiration is fleeting and intangible, and that one cannot always just will it into being. Great work is often done by creators who are rested, happy, unstressed. Basically, we know even massive talents like Vaughan and Staples need a break.

That’s our logical stance. Emotionally, however, we’re bummed to go an entire year without Saga, and so we’ve decided to occupy ourselves by undertaking an idea we saw on Twitter: during Saga’s 52-week (minimum) intermission, we’re going to re-read the series in its entirety, one issue per week.

We’re going to talk about what happens (briefly), share observations made with the benefit of hindsight, and wrap up each installment with impressions from a first-time reader. We’re going to keep spoilers to a minimum to make this accessible for veteran Saga fans and newbies alike. And we’re going to invite you all to join us—like a massive and amorphous online book club, without the part where everyone meets to talk about it for a few minutes before devolving into unrelated conversations and drinking lots of wine.

Anyway...there you have it. Check back each Friday for the next year (gulp!) as we discuss our re-read of Saga.

Saga #1

Here’s the official preview text for Saga #1:

A rare scene of the two species in combat. The war the series is so heavily informed by is afterward waged mostly off panel.

Y: THE LAST MAN writer BRIAN K. VAUGHAN returns to comics with red-hot artist FIONA STAPLES for an all-new ONGOING SERIES! Star Wars-style action collides with Game of Thrones-esque drama in this original sci-fi/fantasy epic for mature readers, as new parents Marko and Alana risk everything to raise their child amidst a never-ending galactic war. The adventure begins in a spectacular DOUBLE-SIZED FIRST ISSUE, with forty-four pages of story with no ads for the regular price of just $2.99!

That’s a decent description, although the Game of Thrones comp is off...there is no dynastic politicking to be found here. Saga #1 definitely has hints of Star Wars, though, including but not limited to this killer line: It was a time of war. Isn’t it always.

This is overall a great debut, one that orients the reader in the world of Saga and also introduces a number of excellent character designs, including Lying Cat, Prince Robot IV, and the utterly fantastical chaos our young family encounters at the Uncanny Bridge. What this debut perhaps does best from a script perspective is establish the relatable dynamic between Marko and Alana, our two central lovers. In fact, a better solicitation might have been Star Wars-style action collides with Romeo and Juliet-esque drama if the star-crossed lovers had managed to have a child…but in 2012 (same as today), George R.R. Martin was a far more relatable reference than ol’ Willy Shakespeare. Sigh.

This foreshadowing is yet to come to fruition, although it is established a few panels later that Alana carries a non-lethal weapon called a heart breaker...

Veteran and First-Timer Perspectives

A Re-Reader’s Perspective by Zack: What’s most interesting to me is the foreshadowing. So much plot is hinted at by via quick lines. I won’t go into detail (spoiler free, after all), but for re-readers I don’t have to. In terms of craft, Vaughan’s preference for exploring family dynamics versus war is evident. Staples art, meanwhile, is noticeably rougher—in everything from colors to linework—but her ambitious and unique designs are here from the start. Last, I’ll just note that a Saga tradition—the lewd-yet-mundane first panel—is the perfect place for our story to start.

Veteran readers who are all caught up show also checkout Why Saga #54 Hurts So Bad.

A New Reader’s Perspective by Cory Webber: Wow! Okay, I get why I’ve heard fans hyping this book since I started reading comics four years ago. First, Saga #1’s world building is uncanny. After just one issue, I feel like I’ve been living in their same universe. Also, Vaughan writes these characters as if they’re real people he’s known for a lifetime. They are flawed, emotional beings—none more so than Alana and Marko—and I find myself sympathetic toward almost all of them (hey, I’m just not sure about The Will and Lying Cat right now, okay?!). Out of the gate, Alana is my favorite...she is witty, feisty, sardonic. I did, however, have to re-read this book a couple of times due to its length. This issue is dense, yet it’s not overly complicated, nor is it filled with any inconsequential fluff. It’s just so detailed that you really have to pay attention. All this, and I haven’t even mentioned Staples’ art. She brings an enormous amount of emotion and humanity to her characters through their faces and postures. Even, surprisingly, for characters that have TVs for heads. I’m excited to finally be starting this journey, and can’t wait to see where this goes...even though I hear the final issue before the hiatus is a real heartbreaking note to end on.

Cory’s New Reader Prediction: The last page shows Alana and Marko with the baby, along with a narration from an older Hazel that makes me think one of them won't make it past #54. There’s no way Alana will be killed off, so I’m guessing Marko kicks the bucket along the way. I sure hope I am wrong!

Thanks for joining us, and be sure to check back next Friday for a discussion of Saga #2!

Cory Webber is a work-from-home entrepreneur who also reads and reviews comics for fun. Find him on Twitter at @CeeEssWebber. He lives in Lehi, Utah with his wife and three sons.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Fantastic Four #1 (1961) and the Birth of the Marvel Universe

August 09, 2018 by Theron Couch in Comics

Fantastic Four #1 (1961) is universally recognized as a landmark comic and, in many ways, the start of the Marvel Universe. — **Fantastic Four #1 (1961)** is universally recognized as a landmark comic and, in many ways, the start of the **Marvel Universe.**

By Theron Couch — The Fantastic Four returned to comics this week for the first time in years, following the 2015 event Secret Wars, which essentially ended with Reed and Sue Richards, as well as their children, wandering off the rebuild the multiverse. Without an ongoing title staring Marvel’s First Family, comics just haven’t felt the same. One could even argue there would be no Marvel Universe without The Fantastic Four, the first of many memorable characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

With all that in mind, it’s worth checking out the original Fantastic Four #1 from 1961, taking a closer look at how Lee and Kirby did it the first time.

Fantastic Four #1 (1961): The Story

Fantastic Four #1 opens with a call to action: Mr. Fantastic has sent the signal for the Fantastic Four to assemble. Sue, Ben, and Johnny each abandon what they’re doing and race back to headquarters. As the team arrives, the story flashes back to their origin, wherein an ambitious Reed Richards wants to initiate a mission to space. To do so, the foursome sneak aboard a rocket and launch. This trip has unintended consequences, with cosmic rays granting different powers to each of them. Realizing that they are more effective as a team than they are apart, they return to Earth and become The Fantastic Four, using their powers in tandem to benefit mankind.

Once the flashback has ended, the team is off to Monster Isle, where they believe someone is causing cave-ins across the world. This someone is revealed to be the Mole Man, who intends to launch his monsters all over the planet. Fortunately, The Fantastic Four are able to seal the Mole Man away forever, ending his threat.

Fantastic Four #1 (1961): The Art

Kirby’s art in Fantastic Four #1 deserves much praise, which is unsurprising given that this is The King, Jack Kirby. His work here delivers a dynamic opening sequence that showcases the powers of all four main characters. He packs a great deal of visual information on every page with layouts that often exceed six panels. What always strikes me about Kirby’s art—and which is on display in full here—is his ability to convey characters’ emotions through facial expressions. Doing so continues to elude many comic artists even today, and Kirby—whether it is images of the main characters or random soldiers never to be seen again—knocks this trick business out of the park in every panel.

Fantastic Four #1 (1961): The Writing

Writing wise, Fantastic Four #1 is every bit a story from a bygone era. Lee pens an origin for a four-person team as well as an adventure that begins and concludes in the space of one issue, rather than standing as the first part of an arc designed to fill a trade paperback. Fantastic Four #1 has much in common with other Marvel comics of its time, wherein Stan Lee created memorable characters starring in plots that are almost afterthoughts. Indeed, the final battle with the Mole Man is handled in one page and conveyed almost entirely through narration, rather than stunning visuals or complex dialogue. This is a comic book that definitely tells rather than shows. Despite these quaint characteristics, however, Lee displays surprising sophistication in how he tells the story.

The pages in Fantastic Four (1961) all feature more than 9 panels, a stark contrast to today's often less-dense superhero comics. — The pages in **Fantastic Four (1961)** all feature more than 9 panels, a stark contrast to today's often less-dense superhero comics.

Fantastic Four #1 begins, as I noted at the start, in media res with Mr. Fantastic sending out a call for the whole Fantastic Four to assemble. Brief vignettes show each character making their way to headquarters; en route they are put in positions to showcase their powers for the reader. Once the team has assembled, but before the crisis is revealed, the story flashes back to the team’s origin, which cements the relationships between characters and reveals their motives while simultaneously building suspense for whatever threat forced the team to be called together. Following the origin story, the team goes on its mission to Monster Isle only to be split up, which allows for the story to be intercut, preserving the suspense for as long as possible before revealing the Mole Man’s origin and, finally, taking readers through the final battle.

Overall, Fantastic Four #1 is undoubtedly a product of its time. It’s almost hard to take seriously a comic book that features Ben Grimm wearing a rain slicker to a place called Monster Isle, subsequently taking the rain slicker off before fighting a monster, and then putting it back on until he comes upon the next monster. Yet, the way its plot unfolds is also without question an influence on later comics that routinely use time—including flashbacks and intercuts—to tell stories, a technique that was novel back when this issue was first published. The five pages devoted to the team’s origin could almost have been left out, given the action-packed opening Lee and Kirby delivered. In spite of all that, this is just a well-designed comic book, easily one of the best I’ve read from the period, and one that I’d put up against many modern origin issues.

Theron Couch is a writer, blogger, and comic book reviewer. His first novel, The Loyalty of Pawns, is available on Amazon. You can also follow him on Twitter at @theroncouch.

Top Comic Book Previews for the Week of July 30

July 30, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

By Zack Quaintance — Our previews feature is back after a week hiatus during our trip to San Diego. Last week we did, however, roundup our picks for SDCC 2018’s 10 Coolest Comics Announcements...so check that out if you haven’t already.

Anyway, no use in belaboring it...on to the previews!

*Preview of the Week*
The Sons of El Topo Volume One: Cain OGN
Writer: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Artist: José Ladrönn
Publisher: Boom! Studios
More Info: December 2018
This is a hardcover original graphic novel from legendary filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (Dune) and virtuosic illustrator José Ladrönn (Incredible Hulk) that continues the 1970 Mexican Acid Western film written, scored, directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky himself. This sequel, arriving in stores December 2018, tells the story of El Topo—a bandit without limits and a man with no moral compass. But when his journey through the arid west brought him face to face with a series of rogue outcasts, he found enlightenment in the unlikeliest place and was forever transformed, becoming a holy vessel imbued with the power to perform miracles. This was a journey that took him far from his first born son, Cain, and brought about the birth of Abel.
Our Take: We love Jodorwsky (as much for his films as for his candid appearance in the all-time great art documentary Jodorwsky’s Dune), and while this presumably means an end to any chance of Jodo making a cinematic sequel to the first film, his comics are always imaginative and worthwhile. Oh, and the Ladrönn art is is just stellar.

Blackbird #1
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Jen Bartel
Publisher: Image Comics
More Info: $3.99 / 32 pages / Oct. 3
An all-new ongoing series from fan-favorite writer SAM HUMPHRIES (Harley Quinn, Nightwing) and red-hot artist JEN BARTEL! In this neo-noir fantasy, Nina Rodriguez is positive that a secret magic world ruled by ruthless cabals is hiding just beneath the veneer of Los Angeles. The problem: everyone thinks she’s crazy. The bigger problem: she’s not crazy—she’s right. Can she unravel the mystery before the Great Beast catches up with her?
Our Take: Oooooo, shiny. Sam Humphries sensibilities and Jen Bartel’s art are such a wonderful fit, and look how nice it is washed over with all that neon. We’re not entirely sure what neo-noir fantasy means, but it looks like we’re in for some big magic fight in hella trendy LA. So, that’s cool.

Bone Parish #2
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Publisher: Boom! Studios
More Info: $3.99 / 32 pages / Aug. 29
As a drug made from the ashes of the dead continues to spread across New Orleans, the Winters family is forced to defend their turf from the encroaching drug cartels. But some mysterious deaths could threaten everyone in New Orleans...
Our Take: Cards on the table...we haven’t read Bone Parish #1 just yet, but it was one of those books that half our Twitter feed (roughly) turned out to tell us to read. So, we’re on board with that and we’ll get to it when we have chance, plus also this second issue, too.

Harbinger Wars 2 Aftermath #1
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Adam Polina
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
More Info: $3.99 / 32 pages / Sept. 26
The power's back online and the fighting is over... but who are the real victors of HARBINGER WARS 2, and what was truly lost in the carnage? For those who survived the terrible onslaught - and who must now witness the devastating aftereffects of their actions - will there ever be peace again? As the seismic summer event of 2018 comes to a close, Eisner Award-nominated writer Matt Kindt (X-O MANOWAR, ETERNITY) sorts through the rubble of the most brutal confrontation ever felt in the Valiant Universe - and discover what lies beyond the bloodshed!
Our Take: It’s all in the solicit, isn’t it? Who ARE the real victors? We’ve enjoyed this event quite a bit (more than most Big 2 Events, incidentally), and what kind of savage would read and like an entire event and bail for the aftermath? Not us….not us.

Valiant High #4
Writer: Daniel Kibblesmith
Artist: Derek Charm
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
More Info: $3.99 / 32 pages / Aug. 1
Save the last dance! Homecoming is here! For the students of Valiant High - the super-powered preparatory academy where tomorrow's heroes learn what it takes to save the world - that means that the biggest night of their young lives is almost upon them...and that the Immortal Enemy is finally ready to make his move! But as Faith, Colin "Ninjak" King, Peter Stanchek, and Amanda "Livewire" McKee try to stir unity amongst their classmates, can teamwork triumph over ancient evil? From rising star Daniel Kibblesmith (Lockjaw) and Eisner Award winner Derek Charm (Jughead), this side-splitting, all-ages reimagining of Valiant's greatest heroes is going out in style!
Our Take: Save the last dance, indeed! Like the Harbinger Wars 2 event serving as a refreshing alternative to Big 2 events, this 4-part series has been a refreshing proximation of Big 2 fun and irreverent character takes. Kibblesmith is pretty funny guy, both in terms of writing comics and on Twitter, too.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

The Infinite Crisis of Being a Helena Wayne Fan

July 26, 2018 by Zack Quaintance in Comics

With DC’s Doomsday Clock halfway finished—and potentially serving as a re-instatement vessel for the Justice Society of America plus other DCU characters—we turned to Diane Darcy, likely the foremost expert on Helena Wayne, who details the history of her favorite character and why she should return.

By Diane Darcy — I’ve made no secret that I’m a huge fan of Helena Wayne (see my blog, Tumblr, and Twitter), and today I’d like to share my interest with all of you. Let’s start at the character’s beginnings: Helena Wayne was created by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton, and Bob Layton in 1977, originally conceived as the daughter of the Golden Age versions of Batman and Catwoman—a very intriguing background from which to build a character—and as a member of DC’s original superhero team, the Justice Society. She is, essentially, a character built upon DC’s Golden Age lore.

Helena Wayne’s Relationships

In the Bronze Age, The Huntress and Power Girl together were a second generation World's Finest team. — In the **Bronze** **Age**, The Huntress and Power Girl together were a second generation *World's Finest* team.

People are often defined by their relationships and Helena Wayne is no exception. Her most significant are her friendships with the Earth-2 versions of Kara Zor-L (Power Girl) and with Dick Grayson, the original Golden Age Robin who continued with that identity into adulthood.

With Power Girl, Helena provided a contrast to Kara’s outspokenness, impulsivity, and more assertive personality, but she also loved and respected Kara for those same qualities. Kara connecting with Helena in a meaningful way created character development opportunities for both women, effectively allowing them to cement their place as the second generation World’s Finest team.

With Dick Grayson, Helena provided a different contrast. Whereas Dick maintained unwavering loyalty to her father—never challenging Bruce’s authority—Helena didn’t hold her father on the same pedestal. When she felt her father stepped out of line, she refused to accept it. She either challenged his authority or worked to diffuse the situation another way. We saw this most notably in All-Star Comics #69 and especially in America vs. the Justice Society. When it came to Batman’s legacy, Dick considered it his responsibility to continue his mentor’s work as Batman, whereas Helena felt she could more meaningfully carry on that legacy on her own terms as Huntress.

Part of what makes classic Helena Wayne such a compelling character is her status as a superhero and a working lawyer.

Helena Wayne and the Crisis on Infinite Earths

Apart from Helena’s time as a caped crusader, I found her civilian life just as interesting. When she wasn’t fighting the good fight as Huntress—or stopping major crises with the Justice Society—she had a day job as an attorney, which also created interesting conflicts. She had a stronger preference for her work as the Huntress and often found it difficult to balance that with her day job. Her double life also created relationship problems with her boyfriend Harry Sims, who was Gotham’s District Attorney.

This was all established in Helena Wayne’s first eight years of publication, and writers used it to tell incredibly fun stories that went in interesting directions. You can imagine then how devastating it was when she was one of the characters sacrificed in DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot in 1986, later to be retooled in 1989 as Helena Bertinelli, the character we know as The Huntress today.

Helena Bertinelli

While not a bad character, there's no denying that apart from physical appearance, nothing of the original Helena Wayne Huntress survived via Helena Bertinelli. She was completely retooled. In fact, by the time DC reinstated the Wayne origin two decades later (during Flashpoint) we still ended up with a completely different character. Post-Flashpoint, Helena Wayne had a new origin and the same post-Crisis Helena Bertinelli personality. Also, her relationships with both Power Girl and Dick Grayson were profoundly changed.

Between two cosmic reboots, Helena Wayne moved further away from the compelling character Levitz, Staton, and Layton created in 1977, and her situation was made all the more complicated by being retooled into Helena Bertinelli post-Crisis.

Part of the promise of Rebirth and Doomsday Clock, however, has seemed to involve restoring all of DC's characters to their iconic statuses. What, then, would DC need to do with Helena Wayne to restore her to her original compelling stature while also saving her future? I have a few recommendations…

Four Ways to Fix Helena Wayne

Classic Helena Wayne as The Huntress contemplates crime and its causes in South Gotham City.

1. Make Helena Wayne and Bertinelli Separate Characters

Step one is to stop treating Helena Wayne and Bertinelli as the same character with two different origins. They are—at their cores—profoundly different. They are two very different women with different backgrounds and significantly different motivations.

Helena Wayne became Huntress to honor her family legacy. Helena Bertinelli, meanwhile, became Huntress as a way to reject hers. Essentially, Helena Wayne embraces where she comes from and Helena Bertinelli does not. Helena Wayne is a legacy heroine whose core values and motivations are shaped by her upbringing as the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. Helena Bertinelli is a tragic heroine with a conflicted identity, molded by Italian-American heritage, her Catholic identity, and her roots within a crime family.

Quite literally the only thing Helena Wayne and Helena Bertinelli’s origins have in common is they both became Huntress after seeing their parents killed. The reasons and circumstances that led to the deaths, however, are still profoundly different, inevitably sending them on very different paths with different potential for stories. Simply put, Helena Bertinelli—while still a compelling character—does not satisfy the needs of Helena Wayne fans anymore than Wayne does Helena Bertinelli fans. The answer is to let these two women co-exist separately.

2. Reinstate Helena Wayne’s Pre-Crisis History

Maintaining Helena Wayne's legacy and motivations for fighting crime is vital to ensuring she remains a compelling character.

In post-Flashpoint continuity, a version of Helena Wayne was created in which she served as Robin. While it was cool to see what Helena as Robin looked like fighting alongside her parents, this is better as an Elseworlds or What If story. Making her Robin changes too much of her character.

In pre-Crisis continuity, Bruce and Selina marry only after reflecting on their lifestyle choices and concluding they were not happy with where their futures were going. They also reflected on who they were as people, realizing that Batman and Catwoman were outlets for pain, not true identities. When they became parents, they retired their costumes to give their daughter a normal upbringing. Making Helena Robin changes Bruce and Selina from responsible to irresponsible parents who brought their daughter into their dangerous lifestyles—a regressive change.

Making Helena Robin also drastically changes her motivation. Pre-Crisis, Helena became Huntress both in response to her parents' deaths and in response to their legacies. She felt that with the upbringing she had, she had a stronger chance of making a difference in Gotham as the Huntress than as a lawyer in a courtroom. Why wait for a crime to happen when she could actively prevent it? The decision to become a costumed hero was entirely her own. It was very powerful. As Robin, the decision was made for her by her parents when she was a young age.

Finally, it’s simply more interesting having Helena Wayne as a Harvard graduate and a successful lawyer. She just has so much more agency than if you make her yet another sidekick whose choices were made for her while she was a child. Seeing Helena try to balance her life as a lawyer and as the Huntress created a conflicting and compelling dichotomy that affected her most intimate relationships.

3. Reinstate Her Original Identity, Personality, and Relationships

Speaking of her identity and relationships, the change I want most is to see them reinstated. I love when Helena Wayne’s Huntress showcases her detective skills, combat training, and, of course, her signature pistol crossbow, but her civilian identity is just as important. It’s the Helena Wayne side of that Huntress that most strongly attracts me to her character vs. Helena Bertinelli when she occupies the same costume.

What makes the Helena Wayne identity so special? It goes back to what I said at the start. She is the daughter of the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman, and she originated the Huntress identity as a way to continue their legacy. In being the original Huntress, she even provided the base template for Helena Bertinelli. (I always think of Helena Wayne as the Jay Garrick to Helena Bertinelli's Barry Allen.)

I also like the fact that she is a lawyer because it positions her as a working woman who earns her own money as opposed to living on her family's fortune. She even differs in this way from her father, who seemed to spend more time fighting crime as Batman than working a real job. (Golden Age Bruce started working a real job after he retired his Batman lifestyle.)

On the personality front, pre-Crisis Helena Wayne was never a dark and brooding heroine. Even when she experienced low points in her life, she still maintained a high level of self-confidence, which always spoke to me. She remained happy and optimistic in the face of grave troubles, which is another way she differs significantly from Helena Bertinelli.

While not as important as her relationship with Power Girl, Helena's friendship with Golden Age Dick Grayson is also worth revisiting. — While not as important as her relationship with Power Girl, Helena's friendship with **Golden Age** Dick Grayson is also worth revisiting.

What was also vital to her personality was her relationships, which brings me to another vital point—Helena Wayne needs Power Girl in her life and vice versa. They enrich each other's lives by being the legacies of the Golden Age Batman and Superman, and their friendship also makes their tragic circumstances a little less sad. If Power Girl in particular is going to return to her status quo of being the Earth-2 survivor of the Crisis reboot (a development we’ve seen hints of), having Helena is vital.

Another relationship that would definitely enrich Helena's life on the main Earth would be rebuilding her friendship with Dick Grayson. Even though Nightwing is a different character from the guy she knew as her big brother on the original Earth-2, the Prime Earth Dick still embodies the charm and appeal of the Golden Age Robin (perhaps with a better fashion sense). Of course, DC could also just retcon the current Earth-2 Grayson back into the pre-Crisis original and settle for having two Dicks on the main Earth instead of one. I mean, why not? We already have two Wally Wests. Just let the Earth-2 guy grow a beard and call him Richard. But I digress…

One more classic Huntress panel for the road...

4. Return Her to the Justice Society

Last but not least, reinstate Helena’s membership into the Justice Society. The Justice Society was her superhero family from the beginning, and putting her back on the team would allow her to reclaim her place within DC's Golden Age lore. She was always a character built on that history. Now we have a main Earth that erases the Trinity from the Golden Age, but putting an Earth-2 Helena Wayne Huntress alongside Power Girl, along with Lyta Trevor as Fury, would help make up for that.

I am, however, a realist, and I know it is unlikely that any of the things I want to see happen for Helena Wayne post-Rebirth will actually happen. If there is, however, a creator or editor at DC who’s thinking of Helena Wayne fans (like me), we’d absolutely love to see the classic character return. Her existence would benefit other characters in the DCU, and, most importantly, she is still so ripe with the potential for good stories.

Click here for a reading list of comics starring Bronze Age Helena Wayne.

Diane Darcy is a huge fan of Bronze Age DC, Earth-2, the Justice Society, Power Girl, and especially Helena Wayne as the Huntress. When Diane isn’t obsessing about comics, she enjoys music, writing, animals, and researching exoplanets, multiverse theories, and time dilation. You can find her at @HelenaWayneBlog

Rogue and Gambit in Love: A Look at the Iconic Couple's First Appearance

July 23, 2018 by Theron Couch in Comics

By Theron Couch — A bad drink is often saved by the right chaser. In fiction, happy endings make great chasers, able to cleanse and forgive any unpleasantness in the story that came before. Rogue and Gambit, after years of will-they-won’t-they tension, took a major step forward in their relationship in the recent Rogue and Gambit mini-series, before finally hitting real pay dirt with their spontaneous wedding in X-Men Gold #30.

As if all that wasn’t enough, though, now they’re headlining a brand new series that starts Wednesday, Mr. and Mrs. X by Kelly Thompson and Oscar Bazaldua. This happy ending is one hell of a chaser, one that forgives a series of past missteps related to how these two have been depicted, including villainy, underdeveloped characterization, and an arguably disturbing first meeting between them. It’s that first meeting—as well as the first appearances of each character—that I'd like to discuss today.

Rogue’s First Appearance

Note how the cover teases a shocking mystery guest! — Note how the cover teases *a shocking mystery guest!*

Rogue’s first appearance was Avengers Annual #10, and there was very little in that book to indicate she would spend decades as one of the most popular X-Men. Rogue shows up as part of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in an issue that starts with Carol Danvers being found unconscious, thereby kicking off a mystery that culminates in a confrontation between the Avengers and Mystique’s aforementioned Brotherhood.

Before the main event battle, though, Rogue assaults the Avengers’ heavy hitters all on her own, using her powers without the restraint commonly seen in her X-Men years. Rogue single-handedly eliminates Captain America, Iron Man, Vision, and Thor. But for all that power, her place in the story is essentially just as muscle for Mystique’s team, with no real character development aside from use of her powers. As she flees at the end, there’s no suggestion of redemption in her future; Rogue’s first impression is that of a powerful enemy to be seen on a recurring basis.

Gambit’s First Appearance

It would have been hard to predict at the time that the mutant called Gambit! would both enter and stay. — It would have been hard to predict at the time that *the mutant called Gambit! would both enter and stay.*

Gambit, on the other hand, first appears as a hero. Sort of. Uncanny X-Men #266 opens with Storm in the custody of the Shadow King and his Hounds. Gambit is engaged in thievery at the mansion where Storm is being kept—a perfect setup for him to help her attempt an escape. This Gambit, however, is a man of few words, lacking the flirtatiousness that later becomes a hallmark of his depictions.

When Gambit chooses to help Storm, it’s not because she’s an X-Man or a mutant, but rather because he suspects that she is Ororo Munroe, herself a famous thief. In this issue Gambit is little more than a cipher. The reader is given no special reason to care about this new character—except, perhaps, that he’s an active thief; Storm could have been rescued by anyone. Mutants come and go in X-Men, and there is nothing in Uncanny X-Men #266 to suggest Gambit would stick around.

Rogue and Gambit in Love

Mr. and Mrs. X (out July 25) looks to be a sweet chaser to one of the most famous-yet-tumultuous romances in the X-Men world. — **Mr. and Mrs. X** (out July 25) looks to be a sweet chaser to one of the most famous-yet-tumultuous romances in the X-Men world.

Over time—and despite mutually rough beginnings—both Rogue and Gambit find a home on the X-Men, and eventually their characters are fleshed out. Being on the same team, it’s only a matter of time before the two start appearing together. Their first interaction takes place in the Chris Claremont and Jim Lee X-Men #1 and their romance begins in X-Men #4, several years after Rogue’s first appearance and roughly one after Gambit’s. To have a romance start so quickly, one can only assume it was love at first sight.

Well, it was something at first sight, if not exactly love.

In the recent Rogue and Gambit mini-series, it is revealed the couple actually first became entwined during the Muir Island Saga—which pays off machinations at work in Gambit’s first appearance. The entire X-Men team is on Muir Island during Uncanny X-Men #278 - 280, and the Shadow King has taken control of all of them. To avoid spreading himself too thin, those in the Shadow King’s thrall are free to act on their own when he isn’t in direct control. Their personalities, however, are dark and violent reflections of their normal selves.

These are the conditions under which Rogue and Gambit first meet, according to Rogue and Gambit #2—first meet and, it’s suggested, first make love. On the surface, the encounter can be see as one of simple lust and little more—but not to Gambit, who points out that even under mind control the two were drawn together. And maybe he's right, because they did start their little dance soon after.

Ultimately, Rogue and Gambit have experienced almost every permutation possible both as individuals and as a couple. Their fictional history began in a much different (and darker) place than where we find the couple now. In some ways, this makes their wedding the best happy ending of all. Rogue and Gambit have never quite forgiven themselves for what they’ve done. Perhaps they never can. But if a marriage is a leap of faith, maybe the message is that they each forgive the other, even if they can’t forgive themselves. Anyone who’s followed their histories knows that Rogue and Gambit have often been a rough drink. In that regard, Mr. and Mrs. X looks to be one hell of a chaser.

Theron Couch is a writer, blogger, and comic book reviewer. His first novel, The Loyalty of Pawns, is available on Amazon. You can also follow him on Twitter at @theroncouch.

The Thirstiest Comics of September 2018

Saga #7

Best Marvel Comics Right Now (2018)

Others Receiving Votes

Top Comics to Buy for September 19, 2018

Recommended New #1 Comics for September 19, 2018

Others Receiving Votes

Saga #6

DC

Marvel

Saga #5

Spider-Man vs. The Punisher

The Punisher’s Code

Saga #3

Big 2 Books That Read Like Indie Comics

Avengers West Coast #69: The A Story & B Story

Avengers West Coast #69: The Fight

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StormWatch

The Authority

Wildcats

Planetary

The Wild Storm

Panel One - The Continuity

Panel Two - The Journal

Panel Three - The Museum

Panel Four - The Monsters

Panel Five - The Skies

Saga #1

Veteran and First-Timer Perspectives

Fantastic Four #1 (1961): The Story

Fantastic Four #1 (1961): The Art

Fantastic Four #1 (1961): The Writing

Helena Wayne’s Relationships

Helena Wayne and the Crisis on Infinite Earths

Helena Bertinelli

Four Ways to Fix Helena Wayne

Rogue’s First Appearance

Gambit’s First Appearance

Rogue and Gambit in Love