Manifest Destiny #6 – Review

By: Chris Dingess (writer), Matthew Roberts (art), Owen Gieni (colors) and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: The resolution of the Plant Zombie storyline.

Review (with SPOILERS): A lot happened in this issue.  We got a good and exciting dose of Lewis & Clark (and men) fighting Plant Zombie Animals.  That was exciting and gave the art team a chance to stretch their legs a good bit.

Then the issue went totally sideways with this revelation that the Plant Zombies were being caused by some sort of underground Sarlacc-like creature.  I have to admit that this wasn’t something I saw coming at all.  I’ve consumed a lot of monster-fiction in my life and it takes quite something for a storyteller to throw me a complete curveball like this.  That alone isn’t enough to make the story wonderful or great – I’ll always contend that execution is more important to storytelling that a mere idea – but if you can be semi-original, more power to you.  I don’t mean to totally discount ideas, it’s just that there aren’t that many ideas that are actually all that new and novel.  But, this was at least “new” to me, so bravo!

Manifest Destiny #4 – Review

By: Chris Dingess (writer), Matthew Roberts (art), Owen Gieni (colors) and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Lewis & Clark are trapped by monsters in a frontier fort and can’t find their Native American guide.

Review (with SPOILERS): This first 20 pages of of this issue felt very much like a middle-Act type of story.  You know: The first few issues establish the stakes, then the middle does some plot development and then in an issue or two, we’d get some resolution before moving onto the next tale?

So, most of this issue was occupied with Lewis & Clark devising a strategy for getting past the “minotaurs” surrounding them and wondering where their Native America guide, Sacagewea, is.  There’s humor and fun like when they describe one plan as the “mad dash” to the boat and someone remarks that it would be a better plan if there wasn’t the need to include the term “mad”.  Then Sacagewea and her French husband show up with a pile of minotaur pelts and the problem seems to be solved, or at least ONE problem is solved.

There is clearly something weird going on with Sacagewea and her husband.  Never mind that she killed all those minotaurs (off panel) and is now somehow rendered silent and lets her husband do all the talking.  She’s also supposedly pregnant, which is weird because we saw her doing the super-ninja-warrior thing with the minotaurs.  And the husband just looks weird and acts weird…  Something strange is going to happen with these two….

Mercenary Sea #1 – Review

By: Kel Symons (writer), Matthew Reynolds (art/colors) and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: A gang of misfits and bootleggers find adventure on the high seas of the pre-WWII Pacific Ocean.

Review: I’m always looking for different things to read.  It isn’t that I don’t like superheroes (and the talent working at the Big 2 – especially at Marvel – is tremendous), but I do feel like I’ve read a lot of the superhero stories before.  I’ve already seen the X-Men time travel and fight all the villains, you know?

But, I haven’t read very many stories that are set in the South Pacific during the 1930’s.

It’s mostly the setting that makes Mercenary Sea so alluring.  The set-up is that we have an old German U-Boat captain (probably from World War I) who somehow stole his submarine and has taken on an oddball cast of characters: bootleggers who can’t return to America, former heavyweight boxers who crossed the mafia, disgraced British doctors who killed patients by mistake when drunk, etc.  It’s a motley and charismatic crew.  From a big picture point of view, they’re looking for treasure, but to finance their operation, they have to take on various ill-advised jobs from shady characters.  They’re basically living out the Libertarian Dream on the high seas.

The combination of era, setting and characters is just very unique.  Nazis are boring, Imperial Japanese are novel…  So, even if the story itself isn’t totally curling my toes, there is something very enticing about a quickly paced, pulpy comic that is set in a unique place.  It’s $2.99.  You could spend more than that on the middle issue of a mediocre 6-story “epic” about a bunch of B-list Avengers that you don’t really care about.

Manifest Destiny #3 – Review

By: Chris Dingess (writer), Matthew Roberts (art), Owen Gieni (colors) and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Beset by centaur-like creatures, Lewis and Clark take refuge in a fort that conceals yet another threat.

Review (with SPOILERS): This is quickly becoming a favorite series.  We haven’t covered it yet here on WCBR, so some extra set-up is probably in order.

The premise of the series is an alternate take on the Lewis and Clark expedition that was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore and catalog the Louisiana Purchase from 1804 to 1806.  It’s hard for us to image what the world was like back then.  Now we have Google Maps based on up-to-date imaging from orbiting satellites.  Back then, the United States had purchased this swath of land from France with only the most general knowledge of what the land looked like.  The true story of Lewis and Clark is just amazing.  If you’re a history person, go read Undaunted Courage.  It’s a wonderful read and window into a very different time.

Anyway, where Manifest Destiny breaks from history is that it pretends that the mysterious western side of North America was also teeming with unknown life forms – like monsters.  Lewis and Clark were there to scout those monsters and determine how big of a threat they were to the ~20 year old United States.

So far, the series has seen Lewis and Clark on their expedition, dealing with minor problems with their men due to drunkenness and what-not.  But last issue they ran into trouble with a group of monsters: A type of centaur/minotaur creature than has the lower body and head of a bison and the trunk of a man.  These carnivorous creatures are BAD NEWS and they chase our protagonists into an old fort….which brings us to this issue.

I Love Trouble #1 – Review

By: Kel Symons (writer), Mark A. Robinson (art), Paul Little (colors) and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: A tattooed, con artist woman named Felica runs afoul of the mob and gains a superpower.

A few things: 1). Never know what you’ll get. – I’m sure I saw this in Previews a few months ago, but now that I read almost all comics on my iPad, I tend to forget what these stories are about.  I look at the Diamond shipping list every Sunday and make a list of what I want to buy that week and see “I Love Trouble” and have no recollection of the pitch.  I’ll try most #1s from Image Comics, but to borrow from Forest Gump, Image #1s are like a box of chocolates; you never know what will be inside.  Often the issue is “okay”, sometimes I can’t erase it off my iPad quickly enough and every once it awhile, we come across an issue like I Love Trouble #1 that is a sneaky gem of a comic.

Freelancers #1 – Quick Review

By: Ian Brill (writer), Joshua Covey (art), Justin Stewart, Vladimir Popov & Zack Sterling (colors) & Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Two young PI-ish ladies are “freelancers.”

Review: I hate to use a cliche term like “meh,” but that’s how this comic left me feeling: “meh.”  The internet is so full of hyperbole that if you aren’t calling a comic the “greatest thing since Watchmen” it somehow means you hated it.  That’s not the case here.  Freelancers #1 is a perfectly fine comic; there are a lot of comics better and I presume there are many comics that are worse (although I don’t really know because I don’t read crappy comics).

The set-up is pretty basic: two young ladies have known each other since they were childhood orphans.  Now they are bottom rung “freelancers” at a kinda private investigator agency.  They’re kinda sexy and kinda sassy.  They know kung-fu.  They go out on cases and are jealous of the #1 freelancer at the agency.  That’s the story…

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #5 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Sean Murphy (art), Dave Stewart (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Cash and Felicia try to escape from the Nazi vampires with a “cure” for vampirism.

Review: This was a very satisfying conclusion to this AV miniseries.  It ties up most of the action from this story of American agents working for the Vassals of the Morning Star and their infiltration Nazi-occupied Europe in the late 1930’s, and the unresolved issues will make ample fodder for future AV stories.

This miniseries also really cemented for me what kind of series AV is.  For awhile, I wondered what AV was about in the sense that a series like Transmetropolitan was about Spider Jerusalem’s quest to take down the Smiler or how Planetary was about Elijah Snow’s mission to stop the Four and save Ambrose.  If AV has an over arching story like that, it is slower to develop (think 100 Bullets), but I think it could just be like Y the Last Man where it isn’t so much about the individual missions, but more a study of what happens when you create a certain type of world: What if vampires existed and what if the founding of a new country (the USA) also saw the founding of a new race of vampires?  What would they be like?  How would they interact with humans?  With other vampires?  How does the status quo change with this new race?  I think that’s the kind of ride we’re on.

Getting back to this issue, the opening “escape from the castle” scene is more of a prolonged action scene than I think we’ve ever seen from Snyder and he and Murphy pull it off very nicely even if a motorcycle chase is a waste of Snyder’s writing skill.  [As an aside, comic fandom too often uses the term “good writing” to mean “comes up with neat ideas for a comic book”.  That isn’t writing.  Writing is taking that concept and transforming it into a series of words that are engaging to read and this is an area where Snyder is way ahead of the average comic book writer.  Compare that to a dude like Marv Wolfman who had ideas coming out of his ears, but couldn’t write a lick.]  Still, it’s a fun scene that moves the action along and Murphy draws the hell out of it, even if it doesn’t make Snyder exert himself very much.

Sweet Tooth #26 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (writer), Matt Kindt (artist & paints), Pat Brosseau (letters) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: A flashback to 1911-era Alaska and a possible glimpse of what triggered the plague that has wiped out much of humanity in the present day Sweet Tooth story.

What’s Good: Matt Kindt is probably the perfect artist to illustrate a few issues of Sweet Tooth.  I’ve wondered for a while if we’re seeing some of the last monthly art from Jeff Lemire who usually writes and draws this series.  Now that he has duties to writer Animal Man and Frankenstein over in the new 52 at DC, it has to be hard finding time to also draw a 20-page comic every month.  That’s not to say it’s impossible, but it has to be difficult.

Kindt is really an inspired choice to do an arc of Sweet Tooth.  I think of Kindt as more of a watercolorist, but even his linework is pretty different than Lemire’s.  However, both Kindt and Lemire live in that same emotional area in terms of what their art says.  It’s very somber, measured and thoughtful art in both cases and perfect for the mood of Sweet Tooth.  There are a few panels in here that are beyond wonderful such as a double-pager of the team dogsledding with the Northern Lights in the background. That would be a hard scene for digital colorists to capture, but Kindt nails it with watercolors.  Also love Kindt’s sound effects.  There’s a particular scene where a guy get’s grossed out and barfs and the word “BLURRG” is mixed in with the vomit coming out of the guy’s mouth.  Great stuff!

The script is pretty interesting too.  In the main ongoing story of the series, the characters have decided that they need to reach Alaska because they think there is an answer for the plague that killed most of humanity frozen up there.  This issues’s story seems to be filling in some of those blanks as we follow a new character in the year 1911 as he searches for a lost missionary expedition in frontier Alaska.  The whole thing has a creepy vibe because you just know that something bad has befallen the expedition and Kindt really sells the “alone in the wilderness” atmosphere.  It’s really just an alien concept to today’s reader: Being so totally out of touch that no one would know what happened to you for months/years.

American Vampire #19 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Jordi Bernet (artist), Dave McCaig (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: The secret history of Skinner Sweet and John Book.  Who knew?

What’s Good: This is how to do a fill-in artist!  Usually when you substitute someone for regular artist Rafael Albuquerque, it is going to be a step down in class.  But when you’ve got the pull to get a living legend like Jordi Bernet to do a few issues… That is just something special.  Not saying he’s better than Albuquerque, but you usually can’t get someone like this for a fill-in artist.  Anytime you see art by a guy like Bernet (or other living legends like Joe Kubert, Sergio Aragones, Michael Kaluta, etc.) the art has such a surety and confidence.  The art never looks like someone screwed around with it and changed it five times before coming to the finished product.  He just knows what lines he needs on the page to tell the story.

It’s also really cool how Bernet changes up his styles halfway through the issue and both of the styles fit the subject matter so well.  He starts with a very clean and economical style to illustrate two boys fooling around in the fields doing things like catching snakes and playing jokes on each other.  It perfectly illustrates Skinner and John Book as kids.  Then we catch up with the duo again while they’re fighting Apaches along the Mexican border and the style becomes a little darker and rougher.  Makes sense; fighting Apaches in the desert was nasty work.  And then the cherry on top is the final page that shows the topless Native American vampire.  Wow, what a page!  Sexy and scary.  I would LOVE to own a Bernet page.

Sweet Tooth #25 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (writer, artist & colorist), Jose Villarubia (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letters) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Choices for the good guys: stay in the dam or continue to Alaska?

The Review: This wasn’t the best story cycle of Sweet Tooth, so I’m kinda glad that its over and we’re on to new and hopefully better things.  It wasn’t remotely “bad”, but it lacked for those punch-in-the-guts moments that have characterized the earlier stories.

It was interesting seeing the protagonists arguing about what to do next and that ties into a common theme of post-apocalyptic fiction: Where to rebuild?  All of these stories have their moments of action where the good guys are running for their lives from mutants or the bandits of the wastelands, but once they get some room to breathe, it becomes a question of what to do next.  Is this a good spot to settle down?  Might it be better somewhere else?  Search for “the cure,” or just hunker down and make the best of things where you are?  Us readers are so used to living in a world where we have instant answer to questions like, “What temperature is it in Anchorage, Alaska right now?” that you have to really think about what you’d do in their situation where you don’t know anything.  The dam is a pretty sweet place to hang out and a LOT better than anything else they’ve found.  But, splitting the group wouldn’t be a bad idea from a storytelling standpoint because this comic worked better with a smaller cast.

Of course, the other staple of post-apocalypse fiction rears its head too towards the end of issue: If you’re going to try to live in the best spot, you’d best be armed to the teeth because other people – nasty people – will come knocking.  The last page really augurs good things for the next story cycle.

The only disappointment I have with the story is that we still don’t really know much about the dude living in the dam.  I guess that is to be expected because we don’t really know much about most of the characters, but I was expecting a little more information.  I’m unsure whether to be truly disappointed about this or glad that Lemire didn’t take the easy path of having a cliché moment where the dude laughs (“BWAH HA HA! style, of course) and springs a trap on our protagonists.

American Vampire #18 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (artist), Dave McCaig (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: The final issue of the WWII/Pacific-theatre story is here.  Some folks will survive and some won’t.

What’s Good: I’m going to pick at a few things below, but overall….this is another strong entry for the award-winning series.  The big event of this issue is the showdown between Pearl and Skinner.  Not only is this a fight between the two American Vampires (that we know of), but there’s all kinds of residual and complex issues going on between the two: Pearl is defending her human husband and probably has some issues with the fact that Skinner made her a vampire in the first place….Skinner also reveals that he has some issues with Pearl that go beyond him just being a jackass.  So, there is a lot more to this fight than mere fisticuffs.  You’ll just have to read it, but it makes clear why Skinner has been on the lookout for Pearl and Henry for decades and why he has it in for Henry.

We also get a few cool cliffhanger events in this issue.  One major character sure seems dead, but this being comics, you can’t really be sure.  It seems like we have closure on the island of feral Japanese vampires, but since it happens off-panel, we can’t be entirely sure of what happened.  There is a really cool cliffhanger final panel where we might have a new American Vampire, and you have to wonder what that’ll mean for Pearl.  AND, there is even a major character who might be vampirized too.  He did get bitten and nothing is really said about the bite (although a full panel is devoted to it), so I guess we’ll just have to see.

There is even another example of Snyder not taking the easy way out of a scene.  At one point, the protagonists are tossed into the ocean with the feral vampires below them and Snyder comes up with a very cool reason why the vampires can’t just swim up to grab them.  I love the way Snyder takes this neat idea and just tosses it away after a page because it makes me feel confident for the future of the series.  Weaker writers construct 6-issue stories around this sort of idea, but Snyder uses it for a page and then moves on.

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #3 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Sean Murphy (artist), Dave Stewart (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) and Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Cash & Felecia’s mission to Nazi-occupied Europe looks bleak as the Nazis have been revealed to be league with vampires.

What’s Good: Everything about this issue is good (again) and that’s almost expected with these creators.  When we last saw our heroes, the curtain had been lifted on the collaboration between the Nazis and the vampires.  This issue details how Cash and Felecia deal with that information.

One of the things that Snyder has been doing throughout American Vampire is playing with the different races of vampires.  Other writers of vampire stories have fiddled with that, so it isn’t new, but Snyder does some very cool things with it.  For example, not only does this issue have “vampire Nazis” in it, but they aren’t just vampires that have been drafted into Nazi service OR Nazis that were turned into vampires.  These vampires have just as many ethnic/genetic superiority issues as their human counterparts. Like the Nazis, they believe that they are the master race of vampires!  It’s touches like this that put Snyder on another level.  Not only is he talented, but he also gives a crap!  Most writers would have been happy to stop at “Nazi vampires” knowing that a sizable segment of the readership will just say, “Whoa!  Nazi vampires?  Cool, sign me up!”  And this story probably could have worked fine that way, but Snyder is always looking for ways to add a new wrinkle to the story.

The rest of the story is more Snyder goodness as the set-up exposition starts to fall away and we shift into action mode.  This plays up the whole superspy/espionage feel from the first two issues of the series and moves the story very quickly to the next set-piece.  This series isn’t letting up at all.

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Sean Murphy (artist), Dave Stewart (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Cash and Felicia enter Nazi-occupied Europe in a search for a secret that can help them in their battle against the vampires.

What’s Good: As a reviewer, you run out of superlatives for series as good as American Vampire and this offshoot/sister-series, Survival of the Fittest.  Last month’s #1 issue is my personal clubhouse leader for the mythical “issue of the year.”  Not to back off that statement or diminish that issue at all, but it’s really hard to say how that issue is any better than this issue.  It really could be a case where we’ll get to the end of the year and the “Top 20 single issues” are dominated by issues of American Vampire.

So, what makes this issue so hot?  Let’s start with Sean Murphy’s art .  His style is really hard to nail down without a professional artist’s vocabulary, but I’ll try.  While his style is rooted in basic realism, he leaves his linework just rough enough that his characters ripple with energy.  There is never any doubt about what his characters are doing or which way they are moving.  But his work also has a slightly cartoony edge to it that allows him to capture slightly overdone expressions like eyes bugging out or an overdone shrug.  What is cool about this hybrid style is that it seems to allow Murphy to have the best of both worlds: the cartooning that allows him to better sell the action and the realism that allows his characters to look at home in the settings he draws. And, everything is so detailed.  As I type this, I’m looking at one particular panel showing the inside of an airplane where Murphy has drawn in the buttons on the upholstery, the patterns on the rugs, the curtains, the air vents, the reading lights, the luggage in the overhead bin, the clock on the wall and even a view up into the cockpit showing the gauges, dials, levels, coiled radio cord….  Wow!  And, that’s ONE panel.  When the settings are this detailed, I don’t think you could easily place super cartoony characters (think Humberto Ramos) into the scene without them looking weird.  It would look like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but Murphy’s hybrid style allows his characters to look great in these hyperrealistic settings.

American Vampire #16 – Advance Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: When we last saw our Vassals of the Morning Star (masquerading as American Marines), they ran into some Imperial Japanese soldiers on a Pacific island infested with some funky vampires.  Will this be a case of “any port in a storm,” or will our heroes be sorry they ran into the Japanese?

Sustained Excellence: Anyone who has followed reviews of American Vampire knows that the stunning thing is how consistently awesome AV has been.  I’ve been keeping a database with notes on every comic book I’ve read for the last 2 years (when I began writing online reviews).  It has ~1300 entries and a couple of things jump out from that list.  I use a 10-point scale rather than the letter grade we use here, since it allows me to sort titles, calculate averages and really compare titles.  The lowest score I ever gave to an issue of American Vampire was an 8.0 for issue #1.  That would work out to roughly a “B” here at WCBR.  Issue #12 was an 8.1.  And that’s the lowest score the series has ever gotten from me.  Other than that, it is a steady string of 8.8-9.2.  In fact, AV has the highest average score of any comic series over the last year or so.  The other contenders are Scalped and The Walking Dead, but to paraphrase Larry Holmes, “they can’t carry AV’s jock.”  And, that’s not to be dismissive of those outstanding titles, but I’ve never read a series that kept hitting home runs like AV without ever striking out.  Surely at some point, AV will release an issue were I have to say, “It was okay, but it was in the middle of a story arc, so I expect it to get better next issue…”   But, it hasn’t happened yet.

So, trust me. I read a lot of comics and think about them pretty critically, and American Vampire is the best monthly series right now.  Most “good” series have an average score of 8.0 and blip up to 9.0 once or twice per year.  AV is hitting those heights with every issue.

Advance Review: Well, after that lead in, it is probably no surprise to tell you that AV #16 is really incredible.  When we last left our protagonists in American Vampire #15, the Vassals of the Morning Star were being pursued by these really nasty looking, feral vampires.  Just when things looked grim, they ran into a bunch of Japanese soldiers and we were left with a bunch of cliffhangers:  Would the humans band together?  What is the deal with these feral vampires that the Vassals have never seen before?  Will Henry be tempted to become a vampire by drinking the vial of blood that Pearl gave him?  Will Pearl come to their rescue?  And when will Skinner Sweet make his play?  This being an advance review, I don’t want to spoil anything, but this issue will give you answers to 80% of those questions.

And what makes this issue so tight is that the answers we get are quite complete.  The creators really know how to pay off a mystery.  For example, there’s no vague, lame-ass explanations of what these feral vampires are.  Boom! They hit you in the face with the vampires’ reality and move right on to the next story element.  Even though this issue is a “middle issue,” Snyder and company keep the pacing brisk enough that it never feels like we’re just killing time until the big finale.  Heck, I’m not even sure I want a finale because I’m enjoying the ride so much.

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Sean Murphy (art), Dave Stewart (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: It’s 1941 and the Vassals of the Morning Star are on a mission to stamp out some vampires and head off on a secret mission to Nazi-controlled Europe.

High Expectations: American Vampire is one of the best current comic series.  Snyder and company haven’t had an issue that was even “pretty good”.  Every single issue has been somewhere in the “really good” to “outstanding” range and it is always among the best books of the week whenever it comes out.  So, when the news broke months ago that there would be a 5-issue AV miniseries set in the European Theater during World War II and that this miniseries would feature art by Sean Murphy, expectations were sky-high.  Remember…Sean Murphy is the guy who made Grant Morrison’s much-delayed story about diabetes and home-foreclosure must read stuff (or at least “must look at” stuff).  But, you know how it is with high expectations: you often end up at least somewhat disappointed.  So, I was actually nervous when I read this issue because I really didn’t want to be let down.

What’s Good: Let’s start with what a glorious comic this is visually.  I’m no serious art critic, but I’d say that Murphy’s general art style is “a more energetic Chris Bachalo”.  Bachalo is one of my all-time favorites, so I mean that as a supreme compliment.  Murphy’s characters are very interesting; he knows which parts of the character are important for imparting the sense of energy in a scene and he leaves those body parts more open and fluid whereas other (less important) body parts are cast in shadow or cut off in the panel.  Your eye always knows where to look in his panels.  And Murphy’s attention to detail is incredible.  In a particular scene where a vampire is tossing a desk across a room, not only are all the papers, lamps, etc. from the desk tossed into the air, but the mini-blinds on the wall behind the vampire are also tossed about too.  Combine this with the low angle that Murphy chooses for the panel and you’re left with a inescapable, “Holy crap!  That vampire is POWERFUL!” feeling.

Two other things that Murphy does really well that we’ll talk about briefly are (a) a really nicely choreographed fight where the panel-to-panel actions of the combatants actually make sense physically and (b) wonderful drawings of guns, lamps, chairs, cages, buildings. All hallmarks of a serious and professional artist.  This is big time art, folks!  You won’t see better art anywhere!

Another visually striking thing in this issue is how well Dave Stewart colors things.  Most of the issue is just standard Stewart excellence: warm colors that serve the story and are tasteful.  All of this serves Stewart well when he wants to bust out RED for a panel or two.  It’s amazing how Stewart’s colors become part of the story telling process.  It’s almost like Stewart’s colors have a sense of pacing all their own.

American Vampire #15 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Henry’s gang of vampire hunter/soldiers runs for their lives on the Japanese island of Taipan in WWII.

What’s Good: Fun and exciting story?  Check!  A sense of mystery?  Check!  Great art?  Check!  I feel like I say those things every month about American Vampire and it is truly one of the most consistently excellent books on the market.  Seriously, if you haven’t been reading, get the first two hardcovers and catch up.

The first couple of issues of this story arc had a lot of ground to cover to establish this story: Henry joining the U.S. military and being sent with a team of secret vampire-killer commandos to deal with possible vampires on the Japanese held island of Taipan and keep the vampires from interfering with U.S. forces landing on the island.  All of this is set against the backdrop of Henry and Pearl’s strained relationship as he ages and she doesn’t and whatever schemes Skinner Sweet and the secret society of vampire hunters back at Pearl Harbor have going.  What’s great about all the plotting and scheming is the reader never gets the feeling that says, “I know what’s going to happen next!”  Life is too short to read predictable stories and given how inundated a modern reader is with “story” in all forms of media, it is a real testament to Snyder & Albuquerque that they can keep us guessing about what’s next.

This is also a mostly all-action, run-for-your-fucking-life kinda of story as these weird feral vampires descend upon our band of soldiers.  One thing stands out in this action further drives home what a gifted writer Snyder is.  At one point, one of the soldiers is rapidly transformed into a feral vampire and comes after the good guys.  Snyder proceeds to show us the scene where the other characters pause to discuss how their vampiric buddy [paraphrasing] “didn’t even know who we were.  he just came after us”.  That scene can be pretty cliché because we’ve all seen it countless times in vampire/zombie movies, but Snyder is able to power through the cliché by wrapping it with a discussion of the nature of these new vampires (and probably a little bit of accumulated good will from the entirety of the series).  It just goes to show that some writers can pull off a challenging scene when other folks would struggle.

American Vampire #14 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Henry goes to war with his secret little group of vampire hunters masquerading as Marines on the Pacific island of Taipan during WWII.

What’s Good: It’s another good issue for Snyder, Albuquerque and company.  With new creator-owned/controlled series, one of the hallmarks is how long they can sustain their initial excellence before tossing out an average issue.  Hitting that wall doesn’t mean that series sucks, because lots of series lose some momentum and regain their footing (see: The Unwritten, Promethea, Fables).  As readers, we’re also really familiar with the phenomena of the AWESOME #1 issue that quickly peters out in issues #2, 3 & 4.  So, one of the kindest things I can saw about American Vampire is that it is still hitting on all cylinders on issue #14: We haven’t had an “average” issue yet and the story still seems fresh and new.

So, how does AV #14 keep the momentum going…?  Well, some of it is just really nice story construction and a writer knowing how to work with his artist.  As with Snyder’s Detective Comics this week, AV grabs you with a well-done first page that starts with a tight panel of a toothy/bloody mouth.  As the panels progress and pull back, we realize we’re looking not at a vampire’s mouth, but toothy mouth painted onto a U.S. Navy landing craft (although I’m not sure those landing crafts had glass windshields) with Henry’s narrations boxes talking about how you sometimes cannot recognize things when you are standing too near to them… such as his relationship with Pearl.  I think too many comics waste page #1 on some dramatically posed superhero that doesn’t do much to get the reader invested in the story and this sequence really sucks the reader in.  It’s just good storytelling.

From there, the mission is just an entertaining ride as the team heads off to find and eradicate some “nest” of vampires before the vampires can interfere with the Marines invasion of the island.  One of the fun things about this issue is that because Snyder is playing so much with the different types of vampires, this is really a journey into mystery as neither the reader or the characters has any clue what the enemy will actually look like.  Along the way, the team (of course) runs into Skinner Sweet.  The team doesn’t know that he’s a vampire, but we know that Skinner is going to have some personal motive for being there and it’ll be fun to see what his goal is.

Cuba: My Revolution – Graphic Novel Review

By: Inverna Lockpez (writer), Dean Haspiel (art), Jose Villarrubia (colors) & Pat Brosseau (letters)

This is a very moving story that is written in semi-autobiographical fashion by Inverna Lockpez at the behest of longtime artist Dean Haspiel.  It tells the story of a young woman named Sonya who comes of age during the Marxist revolution in Cuba and her personal emotional voyage from being an eager supporter of Castro to fleeing the country a short time later.

Fans of history (like me) will enjoy that it hits on many of the key events from the early years of Castro’s reign: deposed President Batista fleeing on New Year’s Eve 1958, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc.  These are all events that have appeared in various fictional works before, but seeing them from the ants-eye-view is very different than anything I had been exposed to before in either history texts or various movies that brush on the subjects.  It is also unique in that it shines a very bright light on Cuba and the evils of the Castro regime, which is a little unusual in the artistic community that has more in common politically with Sean Penn than with Jesse Helms.  There were a lot of nasty things that went on in Cuba and there can be debate about whether they were better/worse than the Batista regime or how far the saying “you cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs” can be pushed, but these acts shouldn’t be ignored.

What connected for me most was seeing Sonya’s personal journey from pure, unfettered excitement at Castro’s arrival to being a staunch defender of his policies even when the handwriting is clearly on the wall to finally being ready to leave.  I guarantee that you will see similarities between Sonya and a personal friend or two who insist on defending elected officials merely because they voted for them a few years past and seeing the lengths that she would go to in order to excuse evil decisions by Castro’s regime as “necessary” was almost heartbreaking.  You really find yourself wanting to smack her on the side of the head and say, “Hey……snap out of it!”

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3 – Review

by Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Chris Samnee, Mike Mayhew (artists), John Kalisz, Andy Troy (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer)

What a jip! 2 stories only?! What the hell?! If DC’s gonna skimp out us on our expected Lantern stories, they could’ve at least given us 2 compelling stories related to the ongoing event; not two character profiles that read like annuals that you can pass on. And what’s with the Directory’s Commentary for Free Comic Book Day’s Blackest Night #0? That’s something I usually expect to find at the end of the trade.

So what are we really getting with Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3? 2 character histories (Kilowag’s and Arisia’s) that don’t reveal anything new about the characters, just the dead people in their lives– who we can expect to be in the background somewhere when all hell has broken loose and Johns has each respective character battling the ghosts from their pasts. I guess that’s supposed to be the point of these two stories– to expect and know who those Black Lanterns are.

But if you’ve already picked up the first two, you might as well swoop this one. The Kilowog story takes up most of the pages, and I guess I can say it’s all right. In this story, Tomasi gives us the history of how Kilowag came to be the hardass that he is. And although you may know where the story is going by the second page, it’s still somewhat entertaining to witness the half-assed character exploration behind Kilowog and how he got his ball-busting drill sergeant ways from Lantern Ermey (lame Full Metal Jacket reference by the way, Tomasi…). As for the Arisa story, it’s forgettable, unexciting, and reads as if the creative team thought it would be funny to forcefuly run an unfunny gag over and over…

There aren’t a lot of redeeming qualities with Tales of the Corps #3; but since it’s the 3 out of 3, you may as well get it. Read it once, slip it back in the bag and board, and marvel at it for a couple of seconds when you connect all three covers. Then pray that Blackest Night #2 comes out already.

Grade: D

-Ray Hilario

Batman Gotham After Midnight #6 (of 12) – Review

By Steve Niles (writer), Kelley Jones (art and cover), Michelle Madsen (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Bruce Wayne tries to make nice with Detective Clarkson, while Batman’s frustration grows as he can’t seem to find a method to Midnight’s madness. To make things worse, the Joker returns and further complicates things as he holds a busload of children hostage at a haunted house somewhere in Gotham. It’s another Halloween in Gotham and this one might be the worst yet!

What’s Good? In another issue where it seems like Steve Niles took a lunch break, Kelly Jones comes through as a hero once again. These are truly some of the creepiest Joker pencils I’ve ever seen. It’s as if his insanity has literally deformed him. Michelle Madsen’s colors are a real treat to see as well, such as her use of red lines on Batman’s cowl, where the color paints the character enraged.

What’s Not So Good? The pacing of the series as a whole has proven to be a consistent weakness. Some issues are all action, some all story, and others feel unconnected. This issue falls into the third category. The introduction of the Joker is fine, but he’s out of the action pretty quickly, making this issue feel like a throwaway. There’s no movement on the Midnight story-line aside from learning he’s frustrating Batman (shocker). It’s frustrating to have such potential in such a moment to moment book. Things started off so well, but inconsistency is killing the story.

Conclusion: Every comic will have it’s problems, but each issue in this series seems to have a new one. Whether it’s too much action or story, it’s pretty clear that twelve issues is way too many for this arc. I’d be much more lenient if it was an ongoing series, or even a bunch of one-shots but I shouldn’t be reading a different take on Batman each month within the same title. The big picture Niles portrays is good, but all the remaining filler is becoming more and more cumbersome.

Grade: C

-Ben Berger

Batman: Gotham After Midnight #5 – Review

By Steve Niles (writer), Kelley Jones (art and cover), Michelle Madsen (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters)

Things take a sinister turn in Gotham and the inevitable clash between Batman and Midnight looms ever closer. Man-Bat and a Midnight imposter crash Bruce’s party and the body count rises. After an issue or two where the quality suffered with Clayface, Niles returns to form with a real page-turner that refuses to let up. It looks like we’re about to see a huge turn in the story with the reintroduction of a familiar face who I’ve wanted to see for a long time.

Niles and Batman are back and the long-winded responses are gone, replaced with the dark brooding dialogue we all know and love. This issue does an excellent job of starting the transition to move things away from Midnight. Long term, it’s probably his arc, but the introduction of The Joker guarantees a bit of focus on him and his plan to play Midnight and Batman off each other. In addition to Niles’ focus on Batman’s rogues, he also does a good job illustrating the Batman “without the mask.” In this issue, Bruce Wayne ditches the drunken playboy act and risks his identity to save Henderson. We’ve seen this before, where Wayne often disappears and comes back in cape and cowl, but in this story, we are reminded that there is no Bruce Wayne, it’s all Batman with and without the mask.

Kelley Jones has an excellent visual fake-out in the final panels of the issue. Since we saw the fake Midnight at the party earlier, we’re expecting to see him at the end. “Mr Blagueur” has the same creepy shadowed face and eyes, we’ve been shown panel by panel of Midnight. To my surprise (and relief) it’s our friend the clown prince of crime. The final frame of his face is my favorite in the book. The horror tone to his face really suits the character. He’s drawn and written as disturbingly as his actions, haunting the readers.

Steve Niles, has answered my wishes, and the Joker appears to be the focus of the next few issues. Expectations are high for me, and I think he can pull it off. I’ve been interested in his take on the character since he was seen in Arkham, and now I’ll get my wish. Best of all, some of the focus will be taken from the villain I’m assuming everyone isn’t interested in. Niles’ Batman is definitely worth checking, and it’s not too far in. (Grade: B+)

– Ben Berger

Batman: Gotham After Midnight #4 – Review

By Steve Niles (writer), Kelley Jones (art), Michelle Madsen (colors)

Since its debut, this has been one of my favorites titles by DC. What makes it so much fun for me is that it’s a brilliant and different take on the Dark Knight. Unfortunately, I’m troubled by how issue #4 reads. I’m not sure what happened, but I hope it’s a story hiccup and not a new direction.

Something is really off with Steve Niles’ dialogue this issue. For starters, Batman talks too much. I don’t mean too many lines, I mean each line is too long. It’s like a long winded Oscar speech, but nobody gave him the signal to “wrap it up”. I’m also turning on Midnight. The more he talks, the less I like him. I was unclear about his plan when he was a puppet-master and now that he’s become a heart stealing psycho I’m more lost. This isn’t to say it’s all bad, it isn’t. Batman’s scene in the cemetery with Gordon is executed really well; Niles depicts them as both peers and partners. The duo seek council from one another and Gordon isn’t just locking up Batman’s captives.

Kelley Jones’ artistic excellency is, thankfully, never ending. I’m not sure how his style would feel on another title, but here he truly shines. My favorite panel shows Mightnight’s silhouette on a brick wall after he’s killed Van Ark. The heart in the foreground and the details of the bricks within the lines of the silhouette is really great. What’s tough to follow, however, is how Midnight is drawn from panel to panel. Maybe it’s conveying something about the character or maybe it’s a stylistic choice – either way, he looks different shot to shot – sometimes very detailed, sometimes not. On a side note he’s starting to look like a horror version of Slash (from Guns N Roses fame) with the top-hat and stringy hair.

Part of why I like this series was how different it is. It’s possible that Steve Niles is trying to say or do too much with this issue. Either way, the writing feels off. I’m all for Midnight’s agenda – it seems like he has a good plan – I just wish we could get a better sense of what it is. Even though I’m left wondering what happened, Gotham After Midnight is still some of the best Batman reading out today. (Grade: C)

-Ben Berger

Trinity #9 – Review

By Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza (writers), Mark Bagley, Tom Derenick, Wayne Faucher (artists), Art Thibert & Andy Owens (inks), Pete Pantazis, Allen Passalaqua (colors), Pat Brosseau, Ken Lopez (letters), Andy Kubert (cover)

I said before that Trinity is the biggest disappointment so far this year. In that regard, this issue doesn’t fail me and, well, I think you can see where this is going.

The writing has limped along largely without the presence of a major villain. Sure, Le Fey and company have a hand in what’s going on, but they’ve yet to truly make an impact. In Kurt Busiek’s portion, Batman finally feels like himself. Alfred’s cover for why he left the party after the wolf attack was a bit on the lame side, but oddly, a nice touch. Sadly, the bad jokes about Batman lightening up continue. It’s as if Busiek is trying to write an adult story, with young adult dialogue.

Luckily on Fabian Nicieza’s side, the story feels connected again… sort of. I’m not sure why Swashbuckler would want to steal Nightwing’s mask, but I’m sure it’s uninteresting. Speaking of stealing, taking The Joker’s laugh is a good idea, but with no explanation as to why or how Joker’s even connected to the story, things quickly fall flat.

As usual Mark Bagley’s panels do a good job of conveying the action. Sadly, his art still feels weak to me. There’s so little detail in each face it’s like The Question wearing different masks. Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens don’t fair much better. While slightly more detailed than Bagley’s work, the final product comes off as more inconsistent. For example, after Swashbuckler cuts Nightwing’s grapple there’s a panel which shows a detailed Nightwing standing next to a “blank” Swashbuckler – talk about looking off. But The Joker gets the worst look with his feminine features and blue tears. I just don’t get it.

I may be a minority in thinking so, but this series isn’t good. Nine weeks, and almost no story movement. Nine issues is almost 300 pages. I’ve read books with complete stories much shorter than that. I consider myself a fairly patient man. I don’t need constant explosions, loud music, or hot babes to be entertained (though it helps). With Trinity, I just don’t have it in me anymore. I hope you don’t either, don’t buy this book. It’s time me and this title parted ways. (Grade: F)

– Ben Berger

Batman: Gotham After Midnight #3 – Review

By Steve Niles (writer), Kelley Jones (art and cover), Michelle Madsen (colors), Pat Brosseau (letters)

Steve Niles and Kelley Jones are truly a gifted creative team. Not only are they putting out a very engaging story, but they also compliment each other very well. I was skeptical of a Batman horror comic, but each month they shut me up, and I couldn’t be happier.

For me the writing takes a slight step back this week. I enoyed the book as a whole, but there are a few lines and character choices referring to Clayface that bug me. It’s not a particular attachment to the character, but more of a belief. One of the things that I like so much about Batman’s villains is how different they are. He has a handful of dumb villains and I’ve never thought of Clayface as one. I’ve also never seen Clayface as an environmentalist. With all of his “return to the Earth” lines he sounds like a brown, ugly Poison Ivy. It just didn’t work for me. That said, my favorite lines come from The Joker. He has no more than three, but Niles makes them count. I don’t know if he plans to use The Joker after this issue, but I’m dying to see his take on the character.

Jones continues to impress me each issue. His pencils of Clayface make me smile, which is an odd thing to say. I think it’s because each panel shows movement, he’s constantly dripping and remolding. It reminds me of Pizza The Hutt from Spaceballs (that’s where the smile comes from). My favorite panel show’s Gordon smoking his pipe. He’s just informed Clarkson that Batman is long gone, and the smoke is literally the shape of Batman in the wind. Great stuff.

If you’ve ever wanted to see a Batman horror movie, this is as close as you’ll get outside of a vampire or alien cross over. We should all be so lucky to have a creative team so in synch. We’re nine issues away from the conclusion, and while it’s too early to tell how things will end I’m excited to find out. All I need is a few Joker issues and I’ll be set. (Grade: A-)

– Ben Berger

Trinity #7 – Review

By Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza (writers), Mark Bagley, Tom Derenick, Wayne Faucher (artists), Art Thibert (inker), Pete Pantazis, Allen Passalaqua (colors), Pat Brosseau, Ken Lopez (letters), Andy Kubert (cover)

For each glimmer of hope, there is a reminder of why Trinity is mediocre. Even with everything that’s happening I don’t feel any significant story movement. To progress any story you need a mix of action and information. They need to be working together harmoniously. Without that balance, Trinity will continue to be an unsatisfactory experience.

The writing for this series to come around remains an event amongst itself. Technically speaking, it’s better to show story than it is to tell it. Busiek’s choice to only show or tell depending on the issue really hurts the overall flow of the book. Even when we get a good chunk of information, it rarely sees an immediate payoff because the next week is all action. Busiek doesn’t need to pick one, but instead needs to find a way to balance the elements, otherwise the story will continue to be unbalanced and disappointing. I must admit, I feel bad for Fabian Nicieza. Ever since Rita popped up in Busiek’s story, Nicieza has felt like an afterthought. I’m sure his portion of the story is important, but right now it feels like supplemental material. At this point I’d rather have Busiek just write everything since each week Nicieza seems to have less pages and a less compelling story; Busiek’s story would most likely benefit from the extra room.

Artistically, things haven’t changed much. The characters are still drawn well up close, but the further you get from the action the worse and less detailed it looks. Superman looks like a kid in half of the panels because of this. Mark Bagley’s art is at its best when he’s drawing action, so issues like this one seem to suffer as a whole. Tom Derenick and Wayne Faucher get the short end of the stick. They have less pages, so they have to cram more information into less space. The compositions are nice, but each panel just feels claustrophobic.

Inconsistency continues with Trinity. Busiek can’t seem to decide if it’s an action story or something more cerebral. Sure the last five to ten issues may be incredible, but is anyone still going to be reading? We all know that a payoff is only as good as its setup. Someone should mention this to the creative team. (Grade: D)

– Ben Berger