Comic Picks By The Glick

I return to the well of "Star Wars" comics yet again with my thoughts on why the John Ostrander-scripted series is one of the best.

Correction to the Podcast:  According to Wikipedia, artist Jan Duursema is NOT married to Ostrander, but actually to his frequent collaborator Tom Mandrake.  Which probably explains how they got to know each other in the first place.

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“Avengers vs. X-Men” kicks off this month and as it’s the next major X-event, I’m committed to picking it up in hardcover.  That said, I’m having a disconnect between the fact that this twelve-issue series requires five different writers (Bendis, Brubaker, Aaron, Hickman, and Fraction) in order to see it to completion.  Theoretically this shouldn’t be a problem for me since it’s basically the same format as “Messiah Complex” and “Second Coming” and countless other crossoves, only told in a single mini-series as opposed to over several different titles.  It could be because all five writers involved have very different styles of writing and are coming to this from very different areas of the Marvel Universe so I’m bracing myself for a style clash between issues the likes of which have never been seen!  I’ll see how it turns out... unless the word is bad enough to make me wait to pick it up in softcover at Comic-Con (see also:  “Fear Itself”).

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DC obviously sees something in the man as he will soon be taking over writing duties on “Deathstroke,” “Grifter,” and “Hawkman” after “Hawk and Dove” is cancelled.  For myself, and I suspect many others, that just gives us a reason we can safely avoid these titles for the forseeable future.  What’s more interesting is the news that “The Infinite,” the time-travel series written by Robert Kirkman that Liefeld was also illustrating, would be ending due to “creative differences” between the creators.  The differences in question appear to center around the artist’s use of an inker and how the finished product wasn’t “Liefeldian” enough for Kirkman.  That’s entirely plausible, but what these reports have left out is how the book’s sales have been sinking like a stone since its debut, with November’s issue selling only 20% of what the first one did.  It’s one of the swiftest demises of a comic I’ve ever seen, especially when you consider the high-profile creators involved.  Saying that the series was finished due to “creative differences” not only works in the context of Liefeld’s history as a creator, but allows him and Kirkman to bow out of the series without admitting what a bomb it was.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Extreme Studios “soft” relaunch which kicked off last week with the arrival of new issues of “Prophet” and “Glory” after an almost decade-long hiatus.  The completion of Alan Moore’s “Supreme” run is also a part of this, but the early word on the two aforementioned titles was good, and the buzz has only gotten louder now that they’ve arrived.  Unless something goes horribly wrong, I’ll be picking up both once they’re collected.  What’s interesting to note is that these two titles have been relaunched with the aim of letting indie creators Brandon Graham and Joe Keatinge do whatever they want with the characters.  It’s essentially the same tact that Liefeld took when he got Alan Moore to write “Supreme” back in the 90’s.  I don’t know what took him so long to realize that the same approach could be applied to other characters he has created, but I’m glad he finally did.

Steve Rogers and company team up with Shang-Chi in order to take on the Shadow Council and the “Master of Kung-Fu’s” mostly-resurrected evil dad.  Then Rogers dives into the mind of a former comrade from WWII to find out what happened to him after the mission they were on went to hell.  Though the first volume had the energy to power its high-stakes story, this one is the lesser work in both areas.  It’s competently put together, but you need more than that if you’re going to stand out in this market and “Eyes of the Dragon” doesn’t have much to recommend it.  Maybe if Shang-Chi’s role had been leveraged to make the arc into something resembling a Hong Kong martial arts action movie by way of the Marvel Universe, it could’ve been more interesting.  Or maybe that’s just my sense of wish fulfillment talking.  Mike Deodato and Will Conrad provide the art, and they try their best to liven things up while also impressesing me with the consistency between their styles.

This volume also marks the end of Brubaker’s run on the title.  It’s interesting to note that he apparently didn’t come onboard with the plan to tell one over-arching story through these twelve issues.  His remit was apparently to show that the team could work together and introduce the Shadow Council as a recurring antagonist.  While the was successful in the former, the Council still feels a bit too generic to be an actual threat.  Evil organizations with lots of secrets are a dime a dozen in the Marvel Universe and at this point, the most interesting thing about them is Max Fury, the sentient life-model decoy of Nick Fury that’s working for them.  So even though Brubaker is leaving, it’s not a bad thing for the title by any means.

It's not an unpleasant surprise, but it's still truly baffling nonetheless.  After none of the previous volumes even cracked it, vol. 10 of "Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project" is now a #1 New York Times bestseller.  I believe it's also the first Dark Horse title to have that distinction and one of the few -- if only -- titles to crack the list in the past year.  For something like this to come out of nowhere... well, now I REALLY hope that Carl Horn returns to Fanime this year because I'd love to both congratulate him and find out how it happened in the first place.

And the collection of the “New 52” juggernaut rolls on...

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Brian Michael Bendis’ first “Avengers” arc was a suitably epic story that got most of the classic team back together, plus imports from “New Avengers” like Spider-Man and Wolverine, and new additions like Noh-Varr/Captain Marvel, to stop the fracturing of time itself.  It had great art from John Romita Jr. that enhanced the old-school feel of the series and helped set it apart from Bendis’ other work with the team.  And yes, I realize that using the term “old school” when talking about Bendis’ “Avengers” work will likely irritate those who prefer the team before he got his hands on them.  As I’ve said before, though, I only started reading “Avengers” comics once he started writing them so I’ll admit my perspective on the team’s history is a bit skewed in the matter.  That being said, vol. 2 suffers from trying a bit too hard to top the scale and spectacle of the first.

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While Image publishes a lot of comics that I do buy, they also do a good job publishing many that I didn’t know I wanted.  Series like “Orc Stain” or “Forgetless” that I’ve either heard about in passing or are now written by an established author.  Sometimes they’re great, other times they’re flawed but interesting and I generally don’t find this out until raiding the half-off bins at Comic-Con.  This month sees solicitations for 27 vol. 2:  Second Set, Green Wake vol. 2, The Infinite Horizon, and The Strange Talent of Luther Strode vol. 1.  All titles that have had some buzz to them, but the word of mouth hasn’t been enthusiastic enough to get me to consider ordering them when they come out.  Of course, they will be on my list once Comic-Con rolls around...

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So if you’re looking for an example of how NOT to do a volume-ending cliffhanger, look no further than this.  At the end, we’re told that a major character is on life support, but with no brain activity leading to the final words, “He’s gone.”  While it may be upsetting for the characters, anyone reading this will be expecting the individual in question to eventually recover.  If not in the next volume, then maybe sometime further down the road.  You’d think that seasoned vets like Mike Mignola and John Arcudi would realize this, and to be fair maybe this particular turn of events will take on a new meaning in the next volume.  Still, I’ll be looking forward to the next volume, “Russia,” based on the quality of work here rather than the cheap trick on the last page.

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A bit of self-indulgence first:  Sometimes, going back and reading old reviews surprises me.  For instance, I was surprised at how positive my thoughts were regarding the last volume of this series.  Having had several months to let its events fester in my mind, as well as consideration for my “Best of 2011” list, I kept coming back to how I felt that there was no justice in the resolution of Chizuru’s story.  Not killing the teacher who took advantage of her, passed her around to his friends, and got her pregnant may have been the “right” thing to do but leaving his fate up to the reader’s imagination felt like a cop-out.  While one’s imagination is a powerful tool, for me it couldn’t compete with the fact that we’d never see the teacher’s suffering on the printed page.

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