Wrap It Up! Domino #10

This was a mess.

Gail Simone's Birds of Prey run is among my favourites. This is why when I see a Gail Simone book, I will give it a try. I also love Domino, so this title should have been a lock for me. A joy! Something to keep my hope alive! A peek into a better world!

But no.

There are many things I don't like about this comic. The worst crime is that it feels rushed. There is a small army of artists drawing this, all with varying styles but united in their clear attempt to get their pages down and out the fucking door. The storyline--which was flimsy to begin with, something about Longshot being a threat to all humanity because someone from Wakanda said so, so Domino and her team get involved and woah both Domino and Longshot have luck powers and won't that be freaky (SPOILER: it isn't)--races to an abysmally unsatisfying conclusion. From what I can gather, Domino and her team go to an extradimensional realm and conquer it--in 12 hastily drawn pages. They upset years of slavery and rally the oppressed to fight back--in 12 pages. Four people with guns do this. FOUR PEOPLE A BIT OF OF LUCK. IN TWELVE PAGES.

Well, I assume there is a bit of luck, since that is Domino and Longshot's power, but you don't see it. You don't really even see who Domino shoots most of the time. In fact, it could be just four anyones who did this. There is nothing here to make this a Domino comic, since apparently anyone can overthrow an entire realm. You should try it yourself.

Even before this issue, I was having problems with this series. In my opinion, the art style of the regular artist is far too cartoony for a story about an assassin. Domino's sidekicks--Outlaw and Diamondback--seem interchangeable and one dimensional, and in Outlaw's case, down right embarrassing. The inclusion of a new member--Atlas Bear from Wakanda, because you just have to have a Black Panther connection to sell comics these days--seems equally empty. (She wants Longshot dead for most of the last few issues, but suddenly wants to care for him because he's sick.)

Like I said, a mess. Apparently this is the last issue before it gets re-launched as a --wait for it-- a brand new Number One! This time Domino will be in another team book, set to run for five issues. With the same empty characters but with Black Widow thrown in, so yeah, that'll solve all the problems plaguing this run of Domino.

I'm not sure if I'll pick it up. I may let the burning stench of this trash fire dissipate first.

Venom #11

I admit to a certain snobbery when it comes to comics.

I do not consider myself a Venom fan. It has been my experience--and I am being honest here, so please understand--that the people who identify as Venom fans are not ones that I associate with in the weird social hierarchy that exists in my city's comic book shops.

As a young twentysomething, clad in black Levis and Joy Division T-shirts,  I read real comics. You know, like Sandman, Watchmen, Sin City, Love and Rockets.  If I read superhero comics, it was because I grew up reading them, and it was still a somewhat elevated passion. I did not read Venom. Good God, you'd think I read Spawn next.

But here in my fifties, I admit to a certain curious affection for this dumb character. I am circling around watching the Tom Hardy movie. I recently bore witness to a young man spend several hundred dollars on a Venom bust at my local. He seemed to be in his right mind. He also seemed very excited about owning this statuary, and watched as it was boxed, then carefully carried it out to his car.

So I saw this latest issue, liked the cover, and finally gave in. I purchased a Venom comic.

And then I hear this is the issue that led several people to issue death threats against the writer, Donny Cates.

Having not read a single issue in this series--or any of the previous legacy 177 issues-- I'm probably not the best judge of why these people are upset. Apparently, some of these people are shippers, which is another term I had to look up. They wanted a romantic relationship between the Venom symbiote and its host, Eddie Brock?

I guess?

Anyway, as a comic on it's own, with me not knowing really anything about what was going on, I was surprised to enjoy it. It felt very much like a horror story, focusing on the odd relationship between Venom and Brock. There is a major revelation that I can see being very polarizing. But death threats? Please. If you don't like a creative vision, then simply stop supporting it. Nothing speaks more loudly than the non-ringing of cash registers. Look at Solo.

But for me, I was intrigued by the book. Not sure if I'll pick up the next issue, or ever read another Venom comic again, but yeah, I got my money's worth.

Retro Reads: Secret Avengers #34

We didn't know how good we had it in 2013. Jonathan Hickman was on Fantastic Four and Avengers, and Rick Remender was doing Secret Avengers. I'm not sure if things will ever be this good again.

Remender and Hickman are now busy doing their own creator owned work, but I still miss their touches on the Marvel heroes. (Remender's run on Uncanny X-Force remains one of my favourite comic book runs of all time.) So I thought I'd just randomly read an old issue from the Good Times, when the future seemed a lot brighter and smarter.

This issue made me nostalgic for the fun back then. Hawkeye and Captain Britain discussing The Smiths, the Flash Thompson Venom, an alternate world of Marvel heroes gone all horror called Earth-666, Wolverine as Morbius The Living Vampire, Captain America as a werewolf, Punisher as Frankenstein's Monster, and even the original Human Torch as an evil baddie.

There was just an energy to this book that I don't see that often anymore.

I'm getting older every day.

Oh, JoJo: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable

I was going to write a review of the godawful TITANS, but decided against it. It would be waste of my time since no one reads this thing anyway, and it seems that when it comes to superheroes on television, the hack writing and slapdash production evidenced in TITANS is what people want. Suffice to say I did not enjoy it, and I'm perplexed that anyone could.

So I thought I'd focus on something that I also recently finished. Something I adored. Something that is so highly polished and thought out, so clever and so much its own thing. And that thing was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable.

JoJo tells the story of the Joestar family, starting back in the 1880s in dear old England. Each series deals with one member of the Joestar family, who is the 'JoJo' of the show's title. Each series leaps ahead in time, since the awesome of the Joestar family often skips generations (but not always). Diamond Is Unbreakable is the fourth part of the Joestar Saga, taking place in a small town in Japan in 1999.

This time 'JoJo' is a teenage boy with a weird fashion sense called Josuke Higashikata, the illegitimate son of a previous JoJo, Joseph Joestar. Like his father and nephew, Jotaro, Josuke has something called a Stand. Stands are like separate entities tied to a person, each with their own power or ability. Stands were introduced in the previous series, Stardust Crusaders, where it seemed they were rare things. But due to plot events in Unbreakable, several Stands begin to manifest in Josuke's small town. And one of them belongs to a serial killer.

Diamond Is Unbreakable, all 39 episodes of it, tells the story of the various Stands that arise in this quiet and unassuming town and how Josuke and his friends--who also have Stands--deal with them. Whereas the previous series was driven by a quest to save a Joestar family member, this series seems to meander all over the place, almost to the point of distraction. But as the serial killer storyline is brought into tighter focus, it becomes clear there was a reason for that. As the series comes to a climax, the series becomes as tense and dark as the previous series.

One of the things I like most about JoJo is how with each new series, you hate the new JoJo. You miss the previous one, and it takes a very long time to warm up to this clear imposter to the JoJo name. But by the end, you adore them, and are sad to see their time in the spotlight come to an end.

I also enjoy how JoJo masterfully builds tension with most episodes, writing itself into a corner that you're not sure how they'll pull themselves out of. Yet they always do, and they never cheat. The rules are clearly laid out, be it through character traits or Stand powers. Every resolution feels earned, even if you find yourself having to go back several episodes to see where that particular plot point was laid down.

JoJo is also just gloriously weird. The Stand powers are always strange. The titular JoJo is always a bit odd, be it Jotaro's standoffishness from Stardust Crusaders to Josuke's money scams or 1940's bouffant. The show is so much it's own thing, uncaring of what anyone thinks of it. The focus group for JoJo just seems to be that of its creator, Hirohiro Araki, and no one else.

It's a glorious series, and more worthy of your time and attention than another cynical re-imaging of other things I could mention.

I'm Tired of Clones Now Aren't We All: X-23#8

I've been enjoying Mariko Tamaki's run on X-23. She has a great feel for Marvel's convoluted mutant world, and her take on Laura and Gabby is a delight. But I admit to a certain disappointment with this issue, and I'm not sure if it's her fault.

There are some storylines that just seem to glom themselves to certain characters, being repeated over and over like a narrative bass line. Spider-Man has his Self Doubt and Responsibility storylines, Captain America has periodic What Is America Becoming storylines, and Wolverine is forever facing cross checks from Am I A Man or Beast multi-part tales.

X-23 has Another Clone stories. Tom Taylor touched on these in his run, and now Tamaki is bringing her take on that to this title. And I find myself asking: Why?

X-23 is, as I'm sure everyone knows, a clone of Wolverine, as is her sister, Gabby. There was another sister as well, and maybe even more. Being a clone of Wolverine, we've had the stories where Laura confronts her humanity as it vies against her bestial nature. I had thought that particular narrative vein had been mined to death, but nothing in comics is ever mined to death. It's only given a few months to recover.

This time, though, there is yet another clone, another sister, another opportunity for drama. This time the clone in question is the ultimate killing machine, a combination of Wolverine DNA and cybernetics. A Terminator version of X-23.  Once again Laura and Gabby have to deal with this--Laura being the more apprehensive older sister to Gabby's cheerful 'Let's all be friends' approach.

It's not a terrible issue by any means. The exchanges between Laura and Gabby still amuse, as does Gabby's approach to all out carnage. I'm just really tired of clone stories.  What's needed to salvage this story for me--and since I paid for this comic at a store, and didn't rip it off from the internet, paying customer right here it's all about me--is some drastic change or surprise by story's end. Because right now, it just seems like well paddled water.

LOOK OUT! IT'S X-FORCE!!!

Oh, look! Another Number One! And this time it has an X in the title! Goody!

So once again X-Force has been resurrected for another run. This time around Ed Brisson is writing, with some interesting art from Dylan Burnett. Strap in for some hard edged graphic fun! These comics ain't for kids! Look out!

X-Force is the wetworks division of the X-Men. This is the team that takes out threats with a little more finality than the baseline X-Men would be comfortable with. (Black Widow would approve.). My favourite runs on this title have been the Kyle/Yost era and the Rick Remender era, the latter being one of the best runs on a title ever.  In fact, if X-Force never came back, the Remender era would a great high point to go out on.

But I'll give anything a chance. So this new take hews pretty close to what we'd expect from X-Force. The team is a mix of hardcore characters (Deathlok, Domino, Warpath, Shatterstar) and ones who maybe stumbled into the team by opening the wrong door and are too embarrassed to  leave,(Cannonball, Boom Boom.)

Yes, Boom Boom.

We know early on that the team is hard as fuck because they torture some mutant hating terrorists, where Domino informs them that they are 'the mutants you're terrified of'. A little on the nose. I mean, aren't the black variants on the X-Men costumes enough to let you know how hard they are?

The story spins out of an X-Men mini-series I haven't read (Extermination, apparently), with the team assembled to take out Kid Cable, who murderized the old Cable. While investigating, the team discovers some time travel business, weird guns, and a country in a grimy corner of Eastern Europe that may not be as kind to mutants as they keep telling the world that they are.

It's an enjoyable story, and you know it's X-FORCE!!! because we saw a few heads blown apart by bullets. If that's not enough hardcore for you, there is also a real shitty Bulgarian hotel room.

The second story in this issue deals with Boom Boom having slept through the team's departure time and running into the previously tortured mutant hating terrorists in New York. It's a fun bit, with a much cleaner art style by Juanan Ramirez.

All in all, a good launch of Marvel's hardest team. And I actually liked a story with Boom Boom. Wonders, cease, etc.

From Russia With Expected James Bond Reference: Black Widow #1

So it's been nine years since Scarlett Johansson took on the role of Black Widow. Finally, it's been announced that a solo movie is in the works. It only took most of a decade. Ant-Man got two solo movies in that time. So why does the world hate this Russian operative so much?

When I look back at Johansson's time in the role, I can only think of one memorable scene. It was that market fight in Civil War.  That was the absolute shit. That alone should have greenlit a solo movie and two sequels. But other than that, I come up short. I think she  jumped off a bridge in Winter Soldier. I mean, I know she's had fight scenes, but most of the time Black Widow just seems to stand off to the side, looking concerned.

Black Widow has fared somewhat better in the comics, but still hasn't managed to maintain an ongoing series for more than a couple of years. It's difficult to understand why. She is as classic a Marvel character as you can expect, forged deep in the Cold War by Stan Lee. She's like the Punisher but with more class and brains. She's beautiful, and is connected to most of the major players in the Marvel Universe, either through her connections to SHIELD, the Avengers, or just being there whenever she's needed. Scratch any Marvel fan, and you'll find some love for Natasha Romanov. So what gives?

So Marvel is trying to right this wrong again with Black Widow #1.

To their credit, Marvel went outside the usual stable of expected writers, entrusting the Widow's adventures to twin Canadian horror film directors, Jen and Sylvia Soska. This is the point in a review where most people will point out that their film catalogue includes a movie called Dead Hooker In A Trunk. They are also doing a Rabid re-make, bringing back a classic Canadian horror movie. So they can bring the edge, but can they write a decent comic?

Well, yes, they can. Black Widow is clearly written by people who love the character. In this first issue, Widow and Captain America team up to take down some douchebag terrorists. Widow has a more final way of dealing with them that causes a small rift between herself and the good Captain. Fed  up with him and with the fuckery she has endured over the past few years (namely the Secret Empire mini-series), Widow packs her bags and heads to Madripoor to blow off steam.

Madripoor is where most tough heroes go to blow off steam, apparently. I think Wolverine books a week there every year or so. Since this Southeast Asia country is lawless and corrupt, Widow finds people to piss off and punch, and exploited people who clearly need her help.

I am becoming the world's Number One expert on Number One comic books.  As Number Ones go, this isn't the cookie cutter formula realized. It is my much respected opinion that the Soska Sisters are more focused on giving us a great adventure story with fights and great dialogue than explaining just who Black Widow is. And that's fine. I think the only people who pick up the cursed Black Widow ongoings are the sad souls who love her already.

(They also give us a scene where it looks like Captain America is checking out Widow's ass, which may make my Best of 2019 in my much awaited Year In Review.)

Flaviano brings the art to this book, and while I was initially skeptical, I was in love with it by the end of the issue. It's a rougher pencil than I usually like, but the motion and page construction are just spot on. Veronica Gandini's colours really help to pop the pages, especially in the many night time cityscape scenes. The initial shot of Madripoor is also quite impressive as well.

So Black Widow #1 is a pretty good book, setting Natasha Romanov off on another attempt at an ongoing. Let's hope this one breaks the curse.

Guilt, Regret and Punches: Daredevil #1

Daredevil is Marvel's most human character because he's a goddamn mess.  He can't win, at least not for very long. He is, at times, his worst enemy. And he can't sin even a little bit without it coming around to bite him on the ass. Yes, he's a goddamn mess, and it can be argued that he may even be a bit God-damned.

Blessed/cursed with yet another #1, this time Daredevil's descent into hell is written by Chip Zdarksy and drawn by Marco Checchetto, with brilliant colours by Sunny Gho. It's a beautiful book, although unnecessarily expensive. And yes, I know how capitalism works, but here in Canada we get bit hard by the exchange, and even a dollar extra is something that will make me put a book back on the shelf.

Still, Daredevil!

This time around, the hard rules for a Number One (introduce the character, explain a bit of back story, end on a cliffhanger) are thankfully shaken up. The origin is left to a line of dialogue and visual cues. The references to Charles Soule's run form the launching point for this series, so that's back story dealt with. And the cliffhanger is the best one thus far in 2019.

As is to be expected, Matt's not in a good place. He's recovering from the deep physical trauma inflicted at the end of the previous writer's run. (It's a thing for Daredevil writers to leave Matt Murdock in a tough spot for the next writer to deal with. Writers are dicks.) For a good Catholic boy, Matt is hitting the booze, picking up strange women in bars, and exacting bone breaking vengeance on scumbags who cheat the legal system. Zdarsky questions why exactly Matt is exacting vengeance: is it because he believes in justice? Or is it something darker? More addictive?  Just what is going on with Daredevil now?

Matt's need to be Daredevil--is it to do good or just to beat the living shit out of people?--is a big question in this comic. As a result, this need--could it be a sin?--has consequences. Big consequences.

Zdarsky has set up an interesting premise for the first story arc, one that genuinely surprised me, that had me going back and re-reading pages and feeling that horrific dawn of realization. I appreciated that. I also liked the little comic at the end of the book, written and drawn by Zdarsky himself. It was a nice bit of comic book craft.

Daredevil #1 is a good comic about a messed up hero. But it didn't need to be a Number One, and it didn't need to be this expensive.

NAGASH!!!

Well, this was something.

I know a bit about the world of Warhammer 40K, which oddly does nothing for me at parties. I know even less about the world of Vanilla Warhammer, so I thought, "Son, it's time to rectify that.' Maybe then I won't spend so much time alone looking at record collections at the copious parties I attend.

Nagash The Sorcerer tells the tale of a young priest who thinks he's better than everyone else and how he becomes King and now thinks he's really better than everyone else. Along the way he commits atrocity after atrocity in his fist clenching quest for power, until neighbouring kingdoms say "Enough already' and try to murder him.

Nagash's chosen route for self realization is skipping along the cheerful path of necromancy. Along with the expected Harryhausen armies of skeletons, author Mike Lee comes up with a few other horrific applications of said art that had me turning the pages, muttering 'What the fuck next?"

Nagash The Sorcerer is more a horror novel than a fantasy novel, complete with a seemingly unstoppable serial killer (Nagash) and opposing kings and priests, who seem about as competent as the latest group of teen counselors at Crystal Lake. Set in a land that is very much modeled after Ancient Egypt, Lee spends a fair amount of time building up the land's culture and history without skrimping on the horror and action scenes. It's not surprising that since this based on a tabletop wargame, there are many pages dedicated to battle formations and movements of armies, for all the good it does them.

As lurid and dark as it is, I did enjoy Nagash The Sorcerer. I'm not sure how much I've actually learned about Vanilla Warhammer, but I just know enough not to go within twenty miles of where Nagash is.

The Tale of Two Spiders

In the wake of SPIDER-GEDDON!!!! there are now a few different flavours for the Spider-Man connoisseur if the Peter Parker version is just too mainstream for you.

Both Superior Spider-Man and Miles Morales: Spider-Man came out with brand new Number Ones recently. Both do what a first issue in a new series should do: they both explain who their hero is, what their current situation is, and what their relationship to the OG Spider-Man is at the present continuity moment. Both feature classic supervillians from the OG canon. But both seem headed in very different directions.

Superior Spider-Man features Doctor Octopus as a Spider-Man, currently inhabiting a cloned body made of both his own and Peter Parker's DNA, making him look like an older, more severe Parker. He calls himself  Ellitot Tolliver, and has a sweet university gig as a lecturer when he isn't out swinging around San Francisco doing a better job as a vigilante than that layabout Parker ever could.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man focuses on a teenage boy who spends  his weeks at an upscale private school, worrying about things adolescents worry about when he isn't out swinging around the same city as his hero, Peter Parker.

Where these two books diverge is in tone. Christos Cage and artist Mike Hawthorne give Superior a feeling of a goofy time bomb. Doc Ock's haughty sniffiness and sky high superiority complex seems destined to ruin something, sooner or later. As well, this first issue sets the tone by having the ridiculous Stilt Man as an initial enemy. This tone is continued as we see Spider-Man teaming up with the Night Shift, which includes a Frankenstein monster that speaks in Stan Lee like publicity bubbles. If that isn't enough for your wacky bone, a giant clanking robot shows up later. It even whirrs and clicks.

Under writer Saladin Ahmend and artist Javier Garron, Miles Morales takes a more earnest tone. Using the framework of Miles having to keep a journal for his creative writing class, Ahmed has Miles narrate this issue, giving us front row seats as Miles reflects on his happy family life, great friends, his maybe girlfriend, and the wrongs he perceives in the world.

Where Gage centres Superior clearly in the Marvel Universe and superhero problems, Ahmed includes references to migrant children being taken from their parents, as well as poverty in New York. This is a time honoured tradition of Marvel Comics--referencing current social and political problems--but as been proven before, there's not much you can really do with that, narrative wise. Ahmed clearly wants to have Miles be more socially conscious, but there's a hard wall for that, editorially. Ahmed seems to understand this, because after Miles is swinging through the city, considering social problems, he encounters a robbery being perpetuated by robot like beings. You can almost hear him sigh as he says "Well. This, at least, I understand."

I enjoyed both issues, with perhaps a lean towards Superior because of the off in left field characters. As with all new comics, I just hope both titles will be given the time to find their audiences and their writers to do something memorable with these characters, before the appeal of a new Number One!!! sways Marvel to cut them off at the knees.