New Comics

Incognito #1 — Writer: Ed Brubaker;  Art: Sean Phillips Kind of a step backwards for Brubaker and Phillips, into Sleeper territory — and, since it’s under the creator-owned Icon imprint, there’s no connection to the Marvel Universe, either, which might have been fun (still, noir-with-superpowers is something this team is very good at, so it’s hard to begrudge them wanting to own the whole package, instead of just getting royalties for using someone else’s characters). If you’ve been following Criminal, this is more of the same, except with masks, which is to say that it’s still very much worth reading. … Continue reading →

Ultimate Hulk Annual #1 — Writer: Jeph Loeb;  Art:  Ed McGuinness/Dexter Vines and Marco Djurdjevic and Danny Miki Zarda (from Squadron Supreme, or Supreme Power, or whatever it’s called now) has a big fight with the Hulk involving his lack of pants, after which they eat waffles, and then go to a motel and have sex. No, I’m not kidding.  Loeb seems to be going for some kind of weird satire (the jokey, faux-Stan Lee intros suggest it), but, like all of his Ultimates work, this represents a creepy, repulsive view of an “adult” superhero world, and it just doesn’t … Continue reading →

Batman #683 — Writer: Grant Morrison;  Penciller: Lee Garbett;  Inker: Trevor Scott OK, so let’s get this straight: the whole Batman: R. I. P. thing had no effect whatsoever on Bruce Wayne’s life and/or death; he came out of it fine, beat the bad guys, and then went off to join the JLA for Final Crisis, where he was captured, stuck into a mind meld with that Lump thing from the Kirby Mister Miracle books, and that’s where we are now. The reason I can live with that is that these last two issues of mindplay have given Morrison a … Continue reading →

The Spirit Special #1 — Creator: Will Eisner Four Eisner seven-pagers: “Sign of the Octopus,” from 1947,  “Black Alley” from 1949, and the two-part introduction of Sand Seref from 1950. The only reason it’s on the “put back” list is because I already have all the stories; I chanced upon Denny Colt via the Warren magazine reprints 30 years ago, and have been a fan ever since. That being said, this is a wrongheaded package: the lead story prominently features Ebony, making this book problematic as a give-away to non-fans interested by the movie (insert your own joke here) and … Continue reading →

Invincible Iron Man #8 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Artist: Salvador Larroca Thor God-Size Special #1 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Artists: Dan Brereton, Doug Braithwaite, Mike Allred and Miguel Angel Sepulveda Uncanny X-Men #505 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Penciler: Terry Dodson;  Inker: Rachel Dodson I’ve become increasingly impressed with Matt Fraction; his Iron Man has been a textbook example of how a creator can blend the best of a popular movie version of a character with the ongoing, continuity-laden comic version, and manage to please both old and new readers. Here, he has the unenviable task of synching Tony Stark and … Continue reading →