#it would be particularly potent if she got more aging done in this next chapter than she has in the previous chapters combined...

[lime-bloods]

After this chapter I'm starting to get a clearer idea of why chapter 4 is represented by Davepeta's feather... when Nanna appeared in the momfang chapter it seemed to be communicating that each chapter would have Vriska aided by a new sprite, so I wasn't sure why we would get another Davepeta chapter after their appearance in chapter one. But now that this latest chapter has introduced two sprites at once, it seems more like Davepetasprite's chapter will be one featuring the sprites as a group; Vriska rejected Tavros and Erisol's offer to just hang out for a bit and it led to her rushing headlong into retraumatising herself, so it would be a logical next step for her to actually take them up on her offer and just spend some time among friends re-healing. After notably not aging at all for the first time in this chapter, it would represent a significant milestone in her development for Vriska to now spend some time simply growing older without acting - becoming wiser and more powerful without necessarily having to keep burning away at her candle.

[totesmccoats]

The Batman Who Laughs #1

This issue is easily a contender for most disturbing Batman story, so, congrats to the team on their accomplishment!

The Batman Who Laughs, the Dark Knight who leads the other Nightmare Batmans (Batmen?) finally tells a completely bandaged-up hostage who he is and how he came to be. Like the others, he was a Batman pushed too far, this time, pushed into finally killing the Joker after the latter’s most horrifying plan yet. But Joker had one last punchline to deliver – his death would release the most potent version of Joker Venom yet, but only enough to infect someone next to him at the time of death, in this case – Batman. And has Batman suffers the mind-warping effects of Jokerization, he becomes the most dangerous man in the dark multiverse, combining Bruce Wayne’s perfectly honed mental and physical abilities with Joker’s conniving creativity and complete disregard of ethics.

It’s difficult to say what the most disturbing image in this book is: Batman turning against his own family; what he does to the Justice League; or Superman in particular; or Superman’s family…

While Tynion deserves tons of credit for writing a story where Batman becomes the Joker that doesn’t feel like bad grimdark fanfic; it’s Rossmo and Plascencia art that really make this book a showstopper. Rossmo and Plascencia already proved their in illustrating the grotesque during Night of the Monster Men; but take their pop-art, almost silk-screen aesthetic to new heights in this book. Their art is distinctly cartoonish and exaggerated, which keeps it from being traumatizing, but it also amplifies the expressions of pain and sadism on the characters faces.

So far, not much about Metal has been comforting or reassuring, but this issue takes the story to the darkest places yet.

  Batman #35

Catwoman and Talia begin their duel to the death. As their swords clash, Talia argues that Catwoman does not deserve Batman, citing the years of dying and resurrection she suffered only to be be rejected by the detective. Selina ripostes curiously, by saying that Batman isn’t the closest thing either of them have to an equal in love or ability, but that he’s incurably broken, and she loves him anyway.

Meanwhile, Dick and Damian sit outside the entrance to Talia’s domain, with Damian wondering why Batman proposed to Catwoman in the first place, and then why he decided to keep it a secret.

So closes this chapter of King’s experiment of Batman as relationship genre. I’d consider it a success. King’s novel addition here is that instead of other arcs that explore Batman through his own thoughts or actions; this one has those closest to him discuss what Batman is to them. Talia sees him as the closest thing she has to an equal on the planet. Catwoman sees him as a broken man who will never find her more important than a vow he made as a child. And Dick sees him as someone who is selfless to the point where he feels so uncomfortable asking others for happiness that he hides it from his own sons. It’s a story about Batman provided through others rather than himself, explaining why he’s the sun of this particular universe.

  Superman #35

Superman and Lex escape from the religious fanatics that now want to put Superman on Darkseid’s throne, and kill Lex for his heresy, only to be ambushed and taken prisoner by Kalibak. Kalibak’s plan to succeed his father involves shooting the chaos cannon into the core of the planet – for some reason – and he plans to dispose of his new prisoners by throwing them into the fiery core as the cannon strikes.

But, before he can put his nonsensical plan into motion, he’s interrupted by Granny Goodness and her Furies – now including Lois. The two factions go to war with each-other, and Superman and Lois reunite in the chaos. But, amidst the fight, the cannon fires into the core, venting it completely and turning Apokolips dark.

Meanwhile Jon gets lost on Apokolips, stumbling upon a group of raiders desperate enough to start eating their own war-hounds. He steps in, scrambling the raiders and freeing the dogs, earning their loyalty.

This arc still hasn’t won me over. I don’t understand anything Kalibak was doing through the issue despite him being the biggest threat, which is a big deal. But at least lots of stuff happened? Supes and Lex use evasive maneuvers, Kalibak’s army fought the Furies, Jon rescues a punch of dogs. I still don’t really care, but at least it’s loud and colorful. Not the greatest praise, I know, but this isn’t the greatest story.

  Wonder Woman/Conan #3

Some years after their first meeting; Conan and Yanna meet again as teenagers, where after picking up their flirtation, Yanna kisses Conan, and then tells him that she’s running away from her tribe, and warns him not to follow. For the first time in his life, Conan feels heartbreak.

But he has other things to worry about at the moment, like just having jumped into shark infested water to escape the slavers who now want to kill him and Wonder Woman. The two manage to pull themselves onto some driftwood, Titanic-style, only there’s room for both; but still find themselves stranded in the middle of the sea. And, with nowhere to go, the two finally begin to open up to each-other, with Conan telling Diana of his memories of Yanna.

But just as Wonder Woman brings up the topic of how, even on a small piece of driftwood, Conan has managed to not make physical contact; the two set upon by the Crow Sisters, who transport them to their hell-dimension, and tell them that they brought them together to settle a bet of which was the greater warrior. They demand another fight to the death between Conan and Wonder Woman; which they again defy by instead slaughtering one of the sisters. The remaining one promises that she shall kill the city of Shana for their defiance, and transports the two back to their driftwood.

And before the two make it to shore, where they will go their separate ways; Conan tells Diana the rest of his story: how, when Yanna fled, he chased, and the two decided to run away together.

This is the best issue of this series so far, Simone finally finding the sweet-spot between Conan and Wonder Woman’s characters and narrative trappings. While still decidedly a Conan story, Dinan finally feels like Wonder Woman instead of the relative non-character she was in previous issues. It helps that we’re also past the growing pains of this story, it seems, with Conan and Diana finally working together against a common foe. Lopresti still draws Wonder Woman a little too cheesecake for my liking, but admittedly, it does work for a Conan book.

  The Wild Storm #9

As promised, Jacob gives Spica full access to his secret lab, filled with alien tech including a giant mech and a toy-looking laser gun. Action then shifts to IO, where Jackie King learns about last issue’s espionage, but still not who’s behind it. She then asks the Director, Miles, if he knows anything about a Project Thunderbook, which Miles reveals was a secret project led by the Director before him, John Lynch, that even he knows nothing about.

In New York, John (Lynch? Doesn’t look like Lynch), another ages old alien in disguise, remembers his time in feudal Japan, completely ruining the days of people transporting a piece of alien tech before being interrupted by another of his species who used to be his superior. In another building, Lucy Blaze accepts a mission from Skywatch to spy on IO and confirm the theft of their tech.

This issue is strangely paced, dominated by John’s flashback of wordlessly slaughtering the people transporting the tech he wanted, despite that scene not really pushing the story forward. The sequence is incredible, with Davis-Hunt able to translate the language of samurai/ninja movies into sequential comic art as though film stayed still or comics moved, bringing over the slicing with delayed results, buckets of ketchup-red blood, and extraordinary feats of gymnastics. What little dialogue there is in this scene is even rendered as though they were subtitles in a movie – a nice touch. But the rest of the issue feels like bureaucracy, with bosses giving orders, and employees asking for the resources they need to get those jobs done. We open and close on Spica in the lab, but don’t get to see her actually work on anything; that’s being teased for the future.

  Amazing Spider-Man #791

After a night of crime-fighting with Bobbi, Peter starts his new job as the Bugle’s science editor. Bobbi’s glad that Peter seems to be putting his life back together, doubly so that he has a job that forces him to be Peter instead of Spider-Man for a while. But, while Robbie is happy to have Peter back at the Bugle, his new employees – particularly reporter Rubylyn Bato – aren’t thrilled to suddenly have a new boss who seemingly only got the job because of his friendship with the EiC.

And Robbie’s not the only helpful connection Peter has with work. Bobbi’s just started her new job at Humanitech, and offers Peter’s team an exclusive interview with her boss, Xander Zynn, and a guided tour of their lab. But, the tour ends early when Peter discovers that Humanitech’s new invention – AI powered androids – may not be entirely artificially intelligent. So, of course Pete and Bobbi gotta return to the lab after dark and in costume to properly follow up.

Seems like Slott has finished pulling Pete through the ringer – for now – giving him time to start off on the right foot – mostly – at his new job, and also have some fun being Spidey. This lightness makes this issue a really fun read, as you can really get behind Peter’s enthusiasm for the life he’s pulling back together for himself. It’s good to see my boy happy instead of stressed and depressed. Hopefully we can get a few more issues of this before this arc’s title goes into full blast.

  Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #297

In a review of an earlier issue of this comic, I suggested that tense action may not be Zdarsky’s strong suit, but after this issue, I may have to reconsider that opinion.

This is an issue-long cat and mouse game between Peter and the SWAT team that ambushes him at home, looking to arrest him and Spider-Man. They have a way to disable his Spider-sense, which means Pete’s actually gotta pay attention and strategize as he tries to evade the cops without outing himself as Spidey.

The ur-reference for this issue is the SWAT sequence from Batman: Year One, and it’s cinematic adaption from Batman Begins; and while they do share a bit of DNA, Zdarsky and Kubert providing their own Spidey twists on it. Instead of bats filling up a stairwell to provide cover, Pete throws down two web cartridges to act as a sticky grenade, for instance.

And even if Kubert’s linework in this issue looks a little lazy – maybe evoking present day Miller a little too much? – his layouts give the book incredible pacing, including one page where Peter crashes through multiple floors to get to his building’s basement.

The issue’s ending can’t help but make everything preceding it feel like a waste of time; but at least it’s a ton of fun to read in the moment. And, we do get a great bit of pay-off for last issue’s big reveal.

  Spider-Men II #4

Wilson comforts Miles at the funeral of his wife, Barbara, telling him about the multiverse, and that somewhere, there are other Barbaras still happily together with other Miles. Despite coming from the Kingpin, and it involving comic book science, it’s actually quite a moving idea; that no matter what happens, there’s a version of you and the people you love who are happy, and knowing that should be enough.

In the present, Miles – Spider-Man Miles – and his friends discuss the giant robot head that crashed into the school off-panel, and Barbara thanks Miles for pushing her to safety. She asks to know what he is, mutant, inhuman, or otherwise; and he promises to tell her, once he thinks of how. After Spider-man’ing off, Miles stumbles upon the Taskmaster killing some dudes and hopping on a helicopter. Miles latches onto the chopper, and calls Peter to meet him wherever he lands.

The Spider-Men meet on top of an airplane hanger, where Miles suspects Taskmaster plans to meet with other Miles. He’s not wrong, but also, this was a trap. The hanger explodes, knocking out the Spider-Men so that other Miles can finally rid himself of his curious doppleganger. But his real goal was to get proof from Taskmaster of an alternate dimension, with an alternate Barbara.

The issue starts off strong, with Wilson and Miles, but doesn’t manage to carry that level of quality throughout. Once the Spider-Men show up, the issue becomes mired in Bendis’ circuitous dialogue about power and responsibility that reads as a less successful retread of the conversation Peter and Miles had in Bendis’ Marvel Generations issue.

At least it’s pretty to look at. Pichelli has an incredible talent for drawing subtle body-language and quirks; and I can even get over her preference for tiny eyes on the Spider-Man masks.

  Hawkeye #12

Following a lead on the person who provided clones to Madame Masque, Katie runs into Wolverine – Laura Kinney – and Wolverine’s younger clone, Gabby, as they track down the same dude, also for clone crimes. After a fight at a villain bar where the dude isn’t, the three go back to Kate’s office to change, and also introduce their pet wolverine, Jonathan, to Lucky.

Then they go to clone guy’s place, get knocked out, and have to fight through all of this guy’s clones. This issue isn’t the most dramatic, but it’s hard to set up a problem that two Wolverines and better-Hawkeye couldn’t easily solve that wouldn’t somehow also involve a city exploding.

So, while this issue isn’t the most thrilling, it’s still hecka fun. A superhero girl’s night out where the stakes aren’t incredibly personal for the first time in a long time for Kate, and where she has backup who she doesn’t have to protect.

  The Wicked + The Divine #33

Well, this issue is basically all spoilers that completely change everything going on in WicDiv, so…that makes it difficult to talk about.

But yeah, this issue’s a game-changer. Lots of revelations. Many holy shit! moments. Really feels like we’re entering the final stretch here. And possibly the best norse-mythology sight-gag in comics.

Honestly, you should already be reading this book, so I shouldn’t have to review it. It’s good. You should already know this. Hit me up on twitter so we can gush about it together.

Comic Reviews 11/15/17 The Batman Who Laughs #1 This issue is easily a contender for most disturbing Batman story, so, congrats to the team on their accomplishment!