New Warriors #1 – Review

By: Christopher Yost (writer), Marcus To (art), David Curiel (color art)

The Story: Clearly Robbie hasn’t been listening to Edwin Starr or Louis C.K…

The Review: Launching a series is a complicated thing. There are all sorts of different requirements that a first issue holds above all other books and it can be nearly impossible to craft the perfect opening to many worthwhile stories. Team books can have an even harder time. How do you bring potentially disparate heroes together, define personalities, and establish what a series will be all in a scant twenty pages?

For New Warriors #1 the answer seems to be breadth. This issue is aware that it’s not a team book yet and it’s unapologetic about it. Held together by a single mystery and a tempting opening page, this issue takes us on a regular tour of North America as we meet our future Warriors.

There’s certainly a sense of youth in this book, even Kaine, apparently the oldest member of the not-yet-team, is accompanied by the cheerful Hummingbird. Kaine is also probably one of the highest profile characters in the book. In some ways that’s refreshing, in others kind of sad. It’s rare that a book from DC or Marvel can claim that its most marketable team member is a recently revived veteran of one of the 90s’ most reviled events, but his sullen, brusque demeanor is an instant draw. Chris Yost does a good job of balancing the off-putting nature of such a reluctant hero against the reality of his recent experience and, if his interactions with Aracely are any indication, he’ll be a fine counterweight to the rest of the team. The pair are a delight to read and their powers are highlighted expertly, perhaps evidence of Yost’s familiarity with them. If you’re not intrigued by the descriptor “Demigod, Manipulation of Emotions, Levitation” I don’t know what to say to you.

Carnage USA #2 – Review

By: Zeb Wells (writer), Clayton Crain (artist)

The Story: The calm before the storm.

What’s Good: This miniseries is beginning to me remind of the nineties Spider-Man crossover Planet of the Symbiotes, or rather, what that event should have been. Planet, while mostly remembered as a failure today, actually had some decent ideas. All of New York City, invaded by violent, parasitic aliens? After the success of Spider Island, you can’t tell me that couldn’t have worked. Plus, the possibilities of exploring the structure of a society made of symbiotic life forms really got my inner sci-fi geek revving. However, that series failed because of lazy and unimaginative writing, inconsistent artwork, and action that settled for schlock instead of reaching for real scares.

Carnage, USA by contrast, is actually attempting to be something more than a punch-fest. Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain sell the horror of a bloated symbiote bonding to nearly the entire population of a small town effectively, and the scenes featuring Cletus Kasady playing the “family man” with some of his hostages are outright chilling. Last issue, Crain’s work was uneven, but here he seems to have found his stride. Characters look and stand more naturally, the lighting is simplified, and the storytelling more streamlined. He plays up the motif of Kasady as a puppet master, and illustrates him conducting the madness. It’s outright insidious, and is a good contrast to the portrayal of the other symbiotes in this book.

The first symbiote we meet is Scorn, a spawn of Carnage.  Scorn, who first bonded to a prosthetic, never learned the difference between flesh and machinery. Subsequently, she can manipulate machinery in much the same way Kasady manipulates the townsfolk of Doverton. While Scorn seems to be stable, the military brass are wary of relying on symbiotes in general—and rightly so after being burned by Venom. So the other symbiotes, originally united as Hybrid, are traumatically torn from their host, partitioned from one another, and then trained to act as power-ups for the Green Berets. It’s frankly disturbing treatment, though logical when the symbiotes are viewed from a militaristic perspective. As a result, there is no threat of them bonding with their new hosts, and no threat of the hosts going AWOL. I hope that Wells follows up on this idea, and examines the ethics of using these creatures as weapons of war. Crain captures all the symbiotes well, painting Scorn as elegantly deadly, while the special forces symbiotes are pitifully incomplete, more like equipment than life-forms. I was concerned that the art for this mini would be a mess of tendrils, but Crain’s restraint here has restored my faith.

Sweet Tooth #17 – Review

by Jeff Lemire (writer & artist), Jose Villarrubia (colors), and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: As the battle for the militia camp reaches its bloody end, Jepperd learns the truth about his child.

What’s Good: Beneath all the evocative writing, moody visuals, experimental layouts, and grim atmosphere, Sweet Tooth is a damned good story.  It’s issues like this that prove that, showing that Lemire is just as concerned with narrative as he is with creating his world and striking emotional chords.

This is also one of those issues that builds great things for the future.  By the issue’s end, there’s no mistaking the fact that all of our characters are in very different places from where they were at the start of the arc.  Our band finally congeals as a group, and they have a whole new mission on their hands, one that’s very enticing and looks to go back to the “epic journey” trope that Lemire did so well with early on in the series when Gus and Jepperd were questing after the fabled Preserve.  This trek looks to be even more ambitious and I can’t wait to see where this series goes.

Beyond that though, this issue is an electric thrill ride.  The action is amazing, the violence uncompromising, and there are major twists and developments aplenty.  Standing above them all is Jepperd’s discovery of the identity of his child.  There is no way that the child’s identity won’t shock you, as it becomes increasingly clear how subtly Lemire had laid his red herrings.  Of course, the manner in which its all revealed is gut-wrenching in typical Sweet Tooth fashion.  Regardless, it’s an awesome moment for the series, particularly in how it suddenly makes a character so tertiary up to this point so suddenly crucial.

Sweet Tooth #15 – Review

by Jeff Lemire (writer & artist), Jose Villarrubia (colors), and Pat Brousseau (letters)

The Story: Jepperd and the hybrid cultists prepare for war, Gus makes good his escape, and Singh and Abbott unearth some secrets about Gus’ family.

What’s Good: This is one hell of an issue and the best issue of Sweet Tooth to come around in a while, and that’s saying a lot.  It perfectly mixes big events/reveals with build-up for future issues that, all told, leaves the series at a fever pitch with more momentum and excitement behind it than ever before.  What has often been a slower, quieter, thoughtful series is suddenly transformed, for the time being, into a rollicking and absolutely riveting thriller of a book.

There’s so much to like about this book.  First and foremost is the change in Gus.  While his childhood innocence is still there, he has emerged as a natural leader.  His relationship to his fellow hybrid escapees is sincere and genuine, but he’s also clearly the one they look to.  Gus almost ends up like a weird, dark kind of Peter Pan, leading a band of isolated children through a strange world filled with murderous adult figures.  It’s up to Gus to call the shots, and, more important, instill hope and comfort to his group and the results are a wonderful read.

The big events, however, relate to what Singh and Abbott dig up at Gus’ old home.  It hints at very interesting things to come for the series but, more than that, it lends the book an almost supernatural, or at least speculative, tone.  During these scenes, and the book’s amazingly written montage conclusion, Singh narrates by reading from Gus’ father’s “bible.”  This bizarre book actually reads like a legitimate holy book, written specifically for Sweet Tooth’s world.  It’s filled with the appropriate metaphors and language, but it carries a very eerie prophetic power.  It leads one to wonder whether there were some powers at work in Gus’ father’s work.  Even if not, this narration, and this bible as a whole, lends the book a very, very ominous and downright chilling tone.  More than that, it makes this issue and the events it builds feel important.  The last few pages will have you starving for the next issue, which is not generally something Lemire has focused on in Sweet Tooth.

Sweet Tooth #9 – Review

by Jeff Lemire (writer & artist), Jose Villarrubia (colors), and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: The curtain is pulled back a little more on Jepperd’s past, while Singh tries to gain Gus’ trust.

What’s Good: Despite its focus on a small number of characters, it’s become clear that Sweet Tooth is quite often about betrayal.  Lemire once again does a great job of depicting this recurring theme.  A betrayal in Jepperd’s past with his wife Louise is oddly related to his betrayal of Gus, and thus trauma links with, and creates, trauma.  When Louise and Jepperd are betrayed this month, it’s bitterly fitting that the worst moment of Jepperd’s life occurs at exactly the same spot as his betrayal of Gus.  With Jepperd’s flashbacks coming to their climax, the past comes just a little closer to the present in very effective fashion.

With its running theme of betrayal, it’s only natural that this month would also focus quite a bit on trust.  It’s elegant writing on Lemire’s part that both Gus and Jepperd’s portions of the issue treat this subject.  Singh attempts to gain Gus’ trust, while in the past, Abbott tries to gain Jepperd and Louise’s.   Of course, typical of Lemire’s deftness and his dark, post-apocalyptic world, both situations pull in opposite directions:  Gus struggles to trust what seems to be an honest man, while Louise and Jepperd willingly place their trust in the hands of bad men.  It’s very effective plotting for Lemire, particularly with all the characters walking difficult routes.