Mystic Comics #1 (of 1) — (Vision story/22 pgs.) — Writer/Artist: David Lapham
…Plus two seven-page Vision stories from the Golden Age, from Marvel Mystery Comics #14 and 16 (the Dr. Fate-y mystic-avenging Vision, of course, not the Silver Age robot). These retro issues, celebrating Marvel’s 1940s titles, have been rising or falling on the strength of their art, and here Lapham delivers a tight, attractive-looking retelling of the Vision’s origin. The reprints, with their bright colors and bold, young-Jack-Kirby energy (from 1941!), manage to convey some of the excitement of what it was like to be a kid reading comics back then.
Young Liars #18 (of 18) — Writer/Artist: David Lapham
Here’s Lapham again, with the final issue of this now-cancelled title, and instead of going for a neat wrap-up he adds metatextual commentary; a scene where a character’s being interviewed by a reporter ends up reading like a summary of the reviews of the series (“After the seventh session and all that shit about Martian bugs in the trailer park? I called my editor and said there’s nothing here. The guy’s a fruitcake“), and the “ending” is elusive and unsatisfying. Maybe that’s what we all should have expected with a title like Young Liars, but this book’s run will have to be filed under “failed-but-interesting experiments.”
Immortal Weapons #2 (of 5) — Writer: Coleen Bunn; Penciler: Dan Brereton; Inkers: Tom Palmer, Stefano Gaudiano and Mark Pennington
Featuring the Bride of Nine Spiders. It’s a horror story, of course (you don’t hire Brereton for stories about cute little girls and puppies, unless they’re getting possessed by C’thulhu), and doesn’t actually end up telling us much about its main player, but it’s structured well, offers a few chills, and makes good use of its artist’s talents. However, when the most sympathetic character in the book is a singing spider, you’re not offering the reader a lot to grab on to….
Daring Mystery Comics #1 (of 1) — (Phantom Reporter story/22 pgs.) — Writer: David Liss; Artist: Jason Armstrong
… plus, along with a few pinups and sketches by Armstrong, a Golden-Age eight-page Phantom Reporter story from Daring Mystery Comics #3. The reprint’s not as interesting as the ones in Mystic Comics (how could it be? It’s by an obscure journeyman, not Kirby), but the main story has its moments: it’s trying to recreate the crude early energy of the original stories, filtered through a modern indie sensibility with manga influences, and while that sounds like it would never work it actually comes close in places (the big problem is that the Phantom Reporter is just a guy in a mask, and after he punches out his fifth or sixth mobster the reader interest in the proceedings starts to drop considerably).
Fall Out Toy Works #1 (of 5) — Writer: Brett Lewis; Artist: Sam Basri
There’s also a “created by Pete Wentz, Darren Romanelli and Nathan Cabrera” credit, presumably because, as the first page says, this story is “inspired by the ideas and lyrics of Fall Out Boy.” If you brightened at that news, this book is for you; if you rolled your eyes and muttered “poseurs,” there won’t be anything here to change your mind. The seemingly-miniscule amount of work that Wentz himself put into this comic just helps to spotlight how lucky we were with Gerard Way and The Umbrella Academy (and why we were all astonished when that book proved to be so worth reading).
Marvel Zombies Return #1 (of 5) — Writer: Fred Van Lente; Art: Nick Dragotta
The… sixth? seventh? trip to this particular well, and while it’s better than the last few (Van Lente wisely goes for Kirkman’s rotting-tongue-in-pus-filled-cheek tone from the originals), it’s hard to muster up much excitement. Suydam cover? Yawn. Severed heads? Ditto. Exploding intestines? Whatever…. Points for all the little shoutouts to the Lee-Romita Spidey run, but that’s not enough to make me care.
The Torch #1 (of 8) — Story: Alex Ross and Mike Carey; Script: Mike Carey; Artist: Patrick Berkenkotter
This is for Ross fans in the same way that Avengers/Invaders was: it’s an “Alex Ross series” in the sense that he did the covers, and, presumably, hashed out the plot with the actual writer over a couple of lunches. Wheee. Carey’s old-pro enough to deliver an OK script, but this features the same obsessive strip-mining of older characters (Toro? The Mad Thinker? The Golden-Age Vision?), retconning of obscure continuity, and doesn’t-quite-make-sense plotting of most of Ross’s similar output over the last few years, from Earth-X on. If you’re a fan of that, here it is.
Phil Mateer
