Elephantmen #38 – Review

By: Richard Starkings (writer & letters) & Axel Medellin (art)

The Story: The “Big Bad” is revealed and it’s not who I expected.

Review: Before we get into the Spoiler-filled discussion of the events in this issue (beginning in Paragraph 3), let’s take a second to give some credit to Richard Starkings who keeps this title very accessible.  Elephantmen isn’t a comic that comes out like clockwork.  Although it isn’t a horrible offender at lateness, it does have some gaps between issues.  What I appreciate is how compact and straight forward the story remains.  Starkings always has little narrative bits that help to remind the reader what is going on and this is helpful to both long-term Elephantmen readers and newbies who just want to see what this title is all about.  I love the copious footnotes to events in previous issues too.  Bravo, sir!

The art is also gorgeous again.  It’s amazing how consistently attractive Elephantmen has been during it’s publication history given the diverse collection of artists who have contributed.  There hasn’t been a poor-looking issue yet.  Axel Medellin has a very distinctive look and he defies description as a “penciler” or “inker”.  His art is very complete and unified, and it has advantages compared to a line-artist who has to hand their work over to a colorist.  Axel knows exactly how he is going to color every aspect of the page.  This shows through in little things like the light sources.  Sometimes separate inkers and colorists can “argue” about where the light sources in a panel are located (the inker has a light source in the sky, but the colorist is putting the light source in someone’s mouth…), but Axel never has this problem.  I really love his work.  And, my goodness does he draw a sexy woman.

WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Prophet #23 – This series is probably legit now: Three really HOT issues in a row.  The world-building is great and the art is great, but what sets the series apart is this sorta stoicism  that I’m not getting from any other comic right now.  Everything in this comic is very direct and blunt and sometimes it’s nice to creators do that than try to show us how clever they are.  The only thing this series wants you to “get” is what is on the page, yet it isn’t a kiddie-comic either.  As a bonus, this issue gave us our first BIG reveal of the series.  Hop on now while we’re only three issues into the series!  Runner-up: Batman #7

Most Anticipated: Scalped #57 – That last issue was kinda unexpected, right?  There are only 3 issues left after this one and I’m sure it won’t be happy endings for the good guys of the Prairie Rose Reservation because that just wouldn’t be Scalped.   Something awful is probably going to happen to Dash, but what will it be given that most of his antagonists are already dead?

Other Picks: American Vampire #25, The New Deadwardians #1, Spaceman #5, The Unwritten #35.5, Choker #6 (after ~2 years!), Elephantmen #38, Morning Glories #17, The Walking Dead #95, Daredevil #10, FF #16

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Wonder Woman #7 – Honestly, this issue went buy in a flash and really sticks to one locale, but there’s so much coolness here.  The designs for Hephaestus and Eros were fantastic, Azzarello’s tinkering with Amazonian culture/history is great, and Diana’s lesson in assumptions making an ass of you and me was a solid character moment.  Oh, and Cliff Chiang returns.  Hurray!  A really fantastic book that every DC fan should be picking up and one that’s easily in my top 5 of the new 52. (for the record, the other four are Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Batman, and either Batwoman or Flash)

Most Anticipated: Spaceman #5 – Yes, I realize there’s a proverbial elephant in the room written by two of my favourite writers in AvX #0 this month, but there are two reasons for picking Spaceman this week.

1.  While I’ll be picking it up, I’ve never been a huge fan of zero issues.

2.  I have completely and utterly fallen in love with the world of Spaceman.  Every issue is like a vacation to a favourite destination.

Other Picks: Avengers vs. X-Men #0, Aquaman #7, The Flash #7, American Vampire #25, Scalped #57, Daredevil #10, FF #16, Mighty Thor #12, Moon Knight #11, New Avengers #23, Secret Avengers #24, Uncanny X-Force #23