Top of the Pile 1/27/2016

The comic that made it to the top of my pile this week was Old Man Logan #1. Marvel is doing the “All-New All-Different” thing after the extended Secret Wars shakeup. And with Old Man Logan, what was a stand alone story by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven now becomes a regular Marvel series.

Written by one of my favorite storytellers, Jeff Lemire, Old Man Logan is lifted from the Mark Millar world of desolation into the contemporary Marvel world. This makes it seem to be Logan’s past, since the people in the Millar world who are dead are still alive in the Marvel world. And events that destroyed the civilizations in the Millar world haven’t happened in the Marvel world. Confused? Yeah, me too.

But I trust Jeff Lemire. He is great at telling time travel stories. (Check out his book Trillium) And he doesn’t skimp on the wild nature of Logan. Indeed, the title of this story is “Berserker”. Old Man Logan, once he believes he is in his past and can correct the future, immediately makes a list of people to kill to ensure that his bleak future doesn’t come to pass.

The artwork is by Andrea Sorrentino and it is really good. Not a typical “Marvel” style, he uses softer colors and a lot more shadows. We don’t really see Logan’s full face with it mostly concealed in darkness. The fight sequences are highlighted with sound effects, which makes them feel more kinetic. And though his expressions are subtle in a realistic style, his figures are really nice and substantive.

I’ll tell my comic shop owner to add Old Man Logan to my sub and when it get collected into a trade, I’ll let our teen librarian know it’s something we might want to pick up for the library.

Otherwise, it was a large week for me.
Batman #48
Deadpool #6
Wonder Woman #48
Angela: Queen of Hel #4
Black Magick #4
Chew #54
Monstress #3
The Legend of Wonder Woman #1
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #3

Saga #33

Top of the Pile 1/13/2016

Top of the pile this week is the final issue of the Secret Wars mini-series from Marvel. With delays and extensions, we finally read the conclusion of the multi universe altering storyline from Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic and Ive Scorcina. With this being the last book in the series, my explanation will have some spoilers. But I’ll try and keep them not too blatant.

I’ve always like the work of Jonathan Hickman. It’s almost always really out there in its scope. He takes huge, horrible, existential situations and boils the solutions down to individual choices and actions. And in Secret Wars, after destroying all the different universes with in the Marvel continuum, he stages a fist fight between Reed Richards and Dr. Doom for the fate of everything, That’s pretty cool.

The artwork, by Esad Ribic with color by Ive Scorcina is interesting. Certainly not the classic Marvel/Kirby style. Esad uses softer lines and the colors Ive selected are more subtle. The draughtsmanship is excellent with characters displaying strong emotions both in their facial expressions as well as their body language. But it does lack some of the kinetic feel of Marvel books. But for this story, the action pack fist fighting isn’t necessary.

I’ll ask out teen librarian to pick up the collected volume of Secret Wars for our collection since it’s the latest in the re-defining of the Marvel Universe. And I suspect it would be a popular book among our teen readers here.

Other books I picked up this week:
All-New Wolverine #4
Injection #6
Descender #9
Paper Girls #4

Top of the Pile 1/6/2016

DC is releasing a 6 issue limited series for Swamp Thing, written by Len Wein and art by Kelley Jones. This made it to the top of my pile based on the names of the creators. Len is the creator of Swamp Thing along with Bernie Wrightson back in the 70 as a horror type comic. And then later, with Alan Moore and Steve Bissette, the Swamp Thing book changed into a supernatural type thing. However, this new book seems to be going back to its roots as a horror book.

Len has been in the business for a long time and is among the demi-gods of comics. I grew up reading his books without knowing or caring who created them. I just liked reading cool stories. Later, as I started looking at the bylines of books that I liked, Len was one name I saw quite a bit.

With this new Swamp Thing book, I mentioned that it’s going away from the Alan Moore/Vertigo style and more into a horror type read. The issue read much like the old Tales from the Crypt EC titles from the 50s and 60s. Swamp Thing is a normal guy turned into a creature. He has the same human emotions and is not portrayed as an Earth avatar with god like powers of all the plants on the planet. Instead, Len has Swamp Thing solve a mystery of a missing/dead/zombified college student.

The other really cool thing about this book is the artwork by Kelley Jones. I have enjoyed his work since his Deadman limited series’ from the early 90s. His style is perfect for horror comics, and is matched well with this book. The dark shadowing and distorted figures raises the tension in the story. And he draws gore and guts almost as good as Bernie Wrightson.

So with all this going for it, I’m looking forward each month to a tight, supernatural story that fits in 6 issues.

Other books I picked up:
A-Force #1
Deadpool #5
Detective Comics #48
Doctor Strange #4
Uncanny X-Men #1