RASL #2 — Writer/Artist: Jeff Smith
All about the bodily fluids, as our protagonist sweats, drinks, has sex, sweats some more, drinks some more, and encounters a murder victim. Also included: advice about how to navigate parallel universes, with emphasis on the usefulness of maze architectural theory as a totem. Only the second piece of a much bigger story, obviously, but compelling and cool so far.
Wolverine #66 — Writer: Mark Millar; Penciler: Steve McNiven; Inker: Dexter Vines
With Kick-Ass, 1984 and FF currently on the stands, I’m not sure we need quite this much Mark Millar, although it’s OK, with Logan 50 years into a dystopian Marvel future where the “heroes fell,” and America has been sliced into villain territories — Hulkland, Doom’s Lair, etc. He’s a broken pacifist, trying to raise a family on the West Coast and getting hassled about rent by the Hulk’s grandkids, until an ancient Hawkeye shows up and needs help delivering a package to the East Coast. Roadtrip! That’s the first issue, and if it’s not particularly original it’s still readable and fun, with solid, gloomy art and a B-movie structure that pulls the reader along briskly.
The Incredible Hercules #118 — Writers: Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente; Penciler: Rafa Sandoval; Inker: Roger Bonet
A clever Secret Invasion crossover that doesn’t require much knowledge of the mini-series, as Herc, Snowbird, and other representatives of Earth religious pantheons sail into the symbolic sea of the unconscious, to carry the fight for Earth to the Skrull deities, and have to go through Nightmare to do it. Good last-page “gotcha,” although I think we’re going to get sick of that particular trick pretty quickly, as other Marvel books employ it throughout the summer.
Grendel #8 ( of 8 ) — Writer/Artist: Matt Wagner
Kind of depressing and low-key, despite the violence — last issue was the emotional climax for the title character, while this one is a grim denuement for the point-of-view supporting characters (in Wagner comics, the good guys die or get broken in the final issue too, but at least they get to have good sex in the issues leading up to it). Not particularly uplifting, but true to Wagner’s previous adventures of this, his first creation, and very well told.
War Is Hell #4 (of 5) — Writer: Garth Ennis; Art: Howard Chaykin
Starting to wind up, as the W. W. I pilot rookie has become the veteran (or the second-year resident, anyway), and watches the newest clutch of lambs get led to the slaughter. This has been an episodic series so far, issues taking place over varying spans of time without much of a through-story (other than “rookie gets educated), so it’ll be interesting to see how Ennis concludes it next month. As always, the Chaykin art os rock-solid, although it’s still awfully hard to tell all those similarly-helmeted aviators apart.
Punisher #58 — Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Goran Parlov
Ennis again, as he wraps up a much-longer run on a series (over eight years now) with… two issues to go in this final arc? The previous arc with Barracuda felt more like the true ending; this is more of a coda, as some old, big scores against the military-industrial complex are getting settled, with threads reaching back into years-earlier stories tied up and the Punisher’s ethical-soldier underpinnings and reason for existence made clear for the next creators.
Phil Mateer
