Daredevil #116 — Writer: Ed Brubaker; Penciler: David Aja; Inks: Stefano Gaudiano
Like Stan Sakai over in last week’s Usagi Yojimbo, Ed Brubaker, here and in Captain America and the various Criminal projects, just keeps turning out highly competent comics: entertaining, well-constructed stories that make us care about the characters and appreciate what we’ve read. Let’s applaud that this week, and look at the other creators who can do it:
The Goon #32 — Writer/Artist: Eric Powell
Powell isn’t much of a Renaissance Man — he can’t do everything well — but so what? He can do this one book better than anybody. In the middle of a well-done but familiar “hero copes with loss through depression and the eventual compulsion to do his duty” plot, he throws in (a) a creepy hobo ghost out of a child’s nightmare, and (b) a\n impeccably-staged dissertation about the occasions when male-on-male rape is considered funny in pop entertainment like movies and comics (I won’t summarize the whole debate, but it involves animal suits, and Trading Places comes up); this all gets filtered through his cheerfully cynical and out-for-the-main-chance supporting cast. We’re very lucky to have had this book around for ten years, and this anniversary issue includes some sketchbook pages of the characters by other artists (Mignola, Wrightson, Ploog, Jeff Smith) and some of Powell’s early sketches of the characters. If you’ve never read this book, try this issue.
No Hero #4 — Writer: Warren Ellis; Artist: Juan Jose Ryp
Ellis is a dependable, brainy entertainer; you never feel guilty enjoying his comics, because there’s always enough character bits or shocking twists or thoughtful academic digressions into future tech or Why We’re All Fucked Up that you feel like your time was well-spent. These little serial graphic-novel side-projects with Ryp (like Black Summer) have offered very bleak, and often funny, deconstructions of standard punch-’em-up superhero conventions: they’re bracing chasers after reading too many issues of standard corporate characters doing standard corporate things.
Battlefields: Dear Billy #2 (of 3) — Writer: Garth Ennis; Art: Peter Snejbjerg
In comics here at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Ennis is the twin pillar to Ellis: he’s just as dependable, with a different set of obsessions (war, crisis and love and their effects on character, plus a knack with the inspired gross-out) and less technological extrapolation but more of a romantic vision. Snejbjerg is an inspired partner; he’s good at the expressive. character-revealing panel, the clear, clean, jolting image that reveals personality, and he makes this B-movie WWII concoction about a traumatized nurse and amiable-but-stoic flyboy by turns sexy, thrilling and heartbreaking. All of Ennis’s war stories are worth reading, and we’re lucky to be reading each of these new ones as he produces them.
Batman: Cacophony #3 (of 3) — Writer: Kevin Smith; Penciller: Walter Flanagan; Inker: Sandra Hope
Smith isn’t at the level of these other guys (not in comics), but he has an absolutely distinct voice, and if it’s sometimes a little too resolutely fanboy-made-good, it’s also compelling: who wouldn’t want to read his version of The Ultimate Batmen-Joker Conversation? No, it doesn’t work perfectly, but arguing about where it goes wrong is part of the fanboy charter, and knowing that he’s part of that too gives the whole thing an amiable, knowing, avuncular glow that makes any excesses easy to forgive.
Secret Six #7 — Writer: Gail Simone; Penciller: Nicola Scott; Inker: Doug Hazelwood
Simone deserves to be on this list because her Secret Six has been a compulsive read since its inception: she has a laser-like insight into the bad-guy mind, and her ear for dialogue and grasp of character (look at the little bits and small spotlight moments afforded the Mad Hatter, Ragdoll, Catman, Deadshot and Scandal here, all so integral to the story that you don’t even realize she’s doing it) make this the kind of project you never appreciate until it’s finished, and there’s that little drop of the stomach when you realize that an expected pleasure won’t be coming out any more. That’s true of all the creators of this week’s selected books, and as good a sign as any of a Good Comic.
Stuff I read and liked enough to buy, but don’t have much to say about, so read previous reviews in the archives if you’re interested:
Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #4 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Mike Mignola; Art: Duncan Fegredo (with a back-up story by Guy Davis)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #23 — Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg; Pencils: Georges Jeanty; Inks: Andy Owens
The Boys #28 — Writer: Garth Ennis; Art: John Higgins
Echo #10 — Writer/Artist: terry Moore
The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #4 (of 6) — Writer: Gerard Way; Art: Gabriel Ba
Madman #14 — Writer/Artist: Michael Allred (plus back-up story by J. Bone and Darwyn Cooke)
Phil Mateer
