Scalped #37 — Writer: Jason Aaron; Art: Davide Furno
Northlanders #27 — Writer: Brian Wood; Art: Leandro Fernandez
These are linked because they’re both the books-good-enough-to-buy this week; both are well-written, gritty noir efforts, the former set on a Native American reservation/casino, and the latter set in the Viking era, offering stories of Norse culture from roughly between 0 and 1200 A.D. Both also have good art; Furno’s is more expressive, with a gritty grasp of caricature, while Fernandez’s is cleaner and better-composed, with an effective grasp of white space that works well with its wintery setting; both are also effective at illustrating their grim, violent plots. My problem with each is that I’ve never been able to quite care about any of the characters, but if you’re looking for cool genre alternatives to standard superhero fare, they’re equally worth checking out.
JLA: The Rise of Arsenal #2 (of 4) — Writer: J. T. Krull; Pencils: Geraldo Borges and Kevin Sharpe; Inks: Mario Alquiza and Mark McKenna
This, like the Green Arrow title right now, continues to offer queasy grief porn, as readers are subjected to flashbacks of Roy Harper’s young daughter dying over and over, and Harper’s arm being torn off, and Harper struggling with addiction temptations, and so on and so forth. To be blunt, it’s a stupid, cynical, character-deaf mess, and to hell with it; instead of reading this and feeling like you have to wash your hands afterwards, ignore this storyline, and stop encouraging these people.
Random Acts of Violence #1 (of 1) — Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray; Art: Giancarlo Caracuzzo and Paul Mounts
A comic book artist and writer publish an indie horror comic called Slasherman, and one thing leads to another and real-life serial killers show up, and… well, the art’s competent but not much more, and it’s semi-cleverly constructed but lacking heart, like most of Palmiotti and Gray’s non-Jonah Hex work. It isn’t bad, especially if you’re a slasher/gore fan, but it’s also 66 squarebound pages for $6.99, and it really ought to be maybe 12 pages in a back issue of Creepy or Eerie instead.
Detective #864 — Writer: David Hine; Pencils: Jeremy Haun; Inks: Haun and John Lucas
Yeah… first J. H. Williams disappears, and now Greg Rucka has gone (although he’s still scripting the 8-page Question backup with Cully Hamner), and this no longer has anything to do with Batwoman, instead following the Dick Grayson (?) Batman as he encounters the former Dr. Arkham as an inmate in his eponymous asylum, and it’s too self-referential, written for people who remember both the ’70s Englehart/Rogers run and the recent Dr. Arkham/escaped inmates special, which amounts to… me, I think, and I’m not impressed enough to buy it, so there goes your sale.
X-Force #26 — Writers: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost; Pencils: Mike Choi;
Continuing the Second Coming crossover: A major X-character “dies” saving Hope from Bastion (oh, the shock!), but since this is only Chapter 5 of 14, Bastion immediately gets better, and the sacrifice is for nothing. It’s appropriate that the depressing-gore-and-death chapter is in this book, since that’s pretty much what it’s been offering all during its run, and this issue doesn’t even have the benefit of the regular Clayton Crain art. X-fans are going to buy this anyway, but, other than filling in the name of the deceased, the story reveals little, and advances the overall plot not at all. Nine chapters (and six extra tie-in books) to go….
The Authority: The Lost Year #8 (of 12) — Writers: Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis (with Grant Morrison); Art: David Williams and Kelsey Shannon
The Authority, travelling through alternate dimensions, encounter a version of themselves resembling the ’80s Bwahhaha JLA (which is why Giffen and DeMatteis are the scripters here), with the Apollo and Midnighter characters taking over the Booster/Blue Beetle comic relief roles. Readers with fond memories of that era might give this a look, although both writers have gone to this particular well so often over the last 20 years that it’s just about dry by now.
Phil Mateer
