I'm working on reviews, honest, but in the meantime I want to take a minute of your time and "hip" you (I don't blab the drab gab, I chatter hep patter) to the sale that the fine folks at TOP SHELF COMIX are putting on right now. But don't take my word for it- this is what they have to say:

To celebrate The Surrogates movie wrapping principal photography, surviving San Diego, and all the cool new summer and fall releases, for the next ten days -- thru Friday September 12th -- Top Shelf is having a giant $3 graphic novel web sale. When you visit the site, you'll find over 125 graphic novels and comics on sale -- with 90 titles marked down to just $3 (!) and a slew of other key titles just slashed!

Any help y'all could give in getting the word out on the sale would be greatly appreciated (as we only do this about once every two years).

To go directly to the list of items on sale, just click here:
http://www.topshelfcomix.com/specialdeals

Here are a few sample sale items:
-- $3 Books: Comic Book Artist, I Am Going To Be Small,
Lower Regions, Regards from Serbia, That Salty Air,
-- $3 Books: Alec - After the Snooter, The Mirror of Love,
The King, Fox Bunny Funny, plus 90 more!
-- Slashed Prices: From Hell Hardcover, Lost Girls, Blankets,
Too Cool To Be Forgotten, Owly, Korgi, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Super Spy, Essex County Trilogy,
Incredible Change-Bots, The Surrogates, and more!
-- Freebies with every order: Yearbook Stories,
The 2008 Top Shelf Sampler, and Owly & Friends!

Please note that Top Shelf now accept PayPal (as well as Visa,
MasterCard, Amex, and Discover -- all secure), and that this
sale is good for "direct market" retailers as well (and comic
book shops will get their wholesale discount on top of these
sale prices).

This fulfills my Good Neighbor Comics Blogger duties for the month. I don't mind shilling for TS because they all seem to be very cool people, plus they have sent me boxloads of books in the past so I am kinda beholden to them. I only wish that someday they would put out an affordable edition of Lost Girls... I'd love to read that one but no can do the hardcover. One of the many titles on sale is James Kochalka's rude and hilarious and NSFW (for language, if nothing else) Superf*ckers, which I wish would come out again already...here's a page!

Another day, another BSBdG to send out- this time to WALT SIMONSON, who is 62 years young today!

Just like with Kaluta, Kirby, and Colan, Simonson's groundbreaking art was galvanizing to me as a young man- his playful use of onomatopoeia, his dynamic figures and layouts, all were some of the most exciting things I had ever seen, comics-wise, in the mid-to-late 70's. I'm pretty sure the first place I saw it was on the excellent Manhunter backup feature he did with Archie Goodwin in Detective Comics, issue 438 to be exact. Yes, that was chapter 2. Yes, I was always late for the party, even at age 13. After that, I made it a point to pick up anything I saw Simonson's byline in, even though he often was inked by some pretty dodgy inkers. His exciting take on Dr. Fate in First Issue Special #9, his excellent take on Captain Fear in Adventure Comics, brilliant stints on Hercules Unbound (especially when self-inked, towards the end- they had Wally Wood inking him early on- Wood was one of the greats, but his inking style didn't mesh with Walt's pencils) and Metal Men, as well as two of my all-time favorite Batman stories- one, which appeared in Detective #450, titled "The Cape and Cowl Deathtrap", which featured a GREAT one-panel shot of Batman leaping, in a pose that I'd never seen anyone attempt with Bats before...he also took the radical step of drawing Batman with SHORT EARS, for the first time since at least the late 60's. Also, the above-represented Batman #312, which made me a lifelong fan of the poorly-regarded Calendar Man character.

When he went to Marvel as the 80's began, I wasn't quite as thrilled...but after I saw his take on Thor, which many fans revere to this day, I wasn't quite as disappointed. He did sone good work after that, especially on Fantastic Four, and it was interesting to read his Star Slammers graphic novel, which was visually sharp but light in the story department...but he seemed to get mired in the X-book/Shooter regime quagmire that claimed many fine writer/artists back then...and despite some good covers for both companies, it wasn't until his smart and energetic 90's take on Jack Kirby's Orion that I started paying attention again. However, that didn't last long- I didn't care for his Elric take at all, and I haven't seen anything of consequence since.

However, Simonson is a creator who always demands one's attention, no matter what he does...and for all the thrills of my teen years, I will always revere the man's work. Hope he's having a great day.

Sending out a Bacardi Show Birthday Greeting to the great GENE COLAN, 82 years young today. As tribute, here's a gallery of covers, just a fraction of the great work he has done over the last few decades. Most of these are comics I've owned and loved growing up. Hopefully, his recent health problems are working out, and I wish him all the best in the future.

CONFESSIONS OF A SPINNER RACK JUNKIE.



Here's a special in-between shipments edition of CoaSRJ, that more-or-less regular JBS feature in which I write shortish reviews of various works of sequential fiction that I have perused in the interval since the last time I inflicted such reviews upon one and all, in this case, to be specific, the period from approximately August 22 through August 30, some of which may even still be on sale at finer comics selling establishments worldwide if you're lucky. Or not, as the case may be.

FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #1: With all due respect to Hawkman and Hawkman fans, there is no more fucked-up continuity in the history of comics than that of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Since day one, a long line of creators from E. Nelson Bridwell and Curt Swan through Cary Bates and Dave Cockrum on through Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Olivier Coipel have tried to give comics fans a Legion title that would be aesthetically satisfying (i.e. in synch with current comics trends) and sell in enough numbers to make the bean counters happy while still maintaining enough continuity between versions to pacify the hardcore longtime LSH fans, a difficult task if ever there was one. So now, here's Geoff Johns, a bit of a dab hand at handling books with large casts of characters, to try and sort it all out and perhaps give us a Legion everyone can live with. Again. Not a bad start, actually; while Johns jumps around from setting to setting, alternating between a destructive infodump starring Superboy Prime in the 30th Century's Superman Museum and a beleaguered Legion facing forced disbandment (again) at the behest of the United Planets, and while there is a lot of overheated dramatics it still moves along at a speedy clip- not recent Brave and the Bold speedy, mind you, but a brisk pace just the same. George Perez, pretty much the point man when it comes to drawing massed throngs of superpeople, does his thing here with, strangely enough, slightly less cluttered results- instead of 12 people per panel, we only get 7, and instead of 150 chunks of rubble, we get only 65- that sort of thing- and it's a lot more readable because of it. I especially like Perez' disheveled, stringy-haired Brainiac, who's just as grouchy as ever but becomes the most compelling character by default. I don't know how exactly this fits in with current LSH continuity (since I haven't read an issue of that ongoing since it was in its early teens) and don't really care, and I'm only a bit more interested in how it fits in to the whole Final Crisis tapestry (don't see how just yet, except in the once-more rebooted Legion that will presumably result at the end of the day), but I thought this was a fine opening chapter and I want to see where it goes. Docked a notch for Perez drawing Kinetix in her late-DnA period Amazon Human Breadfruit Woman look. B+

FINAL CRISIS: REQUIEM: Basically a retelling of the death of the Martian Manhunter, with some details that were omitted from Final Crisis, and an account of the aftermath of that death. Better than it sounds; J'onn's struggle against Libra and the villains is gripping, and most of the sentimental stuff afterwards isn't overdone. Of course, it helps that it's Doug Mahnke illustrating it all; not only is he capable of expressing a range of emotion with his powerful style, but he has a passing familiarity with most of the characters via his stint on JLA. It wouldn't surprise me if the events of this issue, one or two in particular, don't come into play before this whole Crisis thing is done. A-

FINAL CRISIS: REVELATIONS #1: This is somewhat better than the turgid Spectre feature that ran in Tales of the Unexpected last year; better drawn for sure but still steeped in the sour tone and drab carnage that dragged the previous series down so much. The Crispus Allen Spectre, still a waste of a formerly good character and still looking hell of stupid with that Van Dyke, gets to get all wrath of God on our old buddy Doctor Light and another supervillain I'm not all that familiar with named Effigy. Batman badguy, perhaps? Also, the new female Question is mixed up in the proceedings as well, to not particularly good effect, scuffling with a group who seems to have dug up the Spear of Destiny, aka All-Powerful Plot Resolver Device #12,762. I have to believe that these two were among the character restarts that Dan Didio deplored so publicly the other day. Anyway, what this series has to do with the Final Crisis goings-on is still up in the air; we do get a scene in which Spec tries to take down Libra for killing J'onn J'onzz, but of course he's ineffective- there's still too many comics in the series yet to be published! In spite of all my grousing, this was fairly readable- Rucka's good enough to at least keep slight material moving at a decent pace, so it's at least that. Of course, there are still four or so issues to go, too. C+

IMMORTAL IRON FIST #'s 15-17: Whoops, I think I might have bailed a little too early on this one- after Brubaker left with the conclusion of "7 Capital Cities of Heaven", I knew that Fraction would be gone soon after, and just figured it was the beginning of the eventual decline and cancellation under lesser talents. Looks like I was hasty. #15 is another flashback to a previous Iron Fist, reading like a parable and ultimately quite moving in its resolution, much to my surprise. It's enlivened by the best Khari Evans art I've seen since Daughters of the Dragon. #16 brings back original series artist David Aja for a last hurrah and gives us some great character stuff as we see where Danny Rand's head is at following the events of "Capital Cities". Also, Fraction delivers one last wrinkle before bowing out: in this issue, Danny comes to the realization that nearly all previous Iron Fists died at age 33, then is presented with a surprise birthday party featuring a cake with large "33" candles on it. Dah-dah-DAHHH! #17 is the first issue by new writer Duane Swierczynski (with whose work I am completely unfamiliar) and artist Travel Foreman (with whose work I'm only slightly more familiar), and it's OK as far as it goes; we get a bit more present-day stuff with Danny, neither here no there, and an extended Sergio Leone-inspired flashback featuring another outstanding art job by the great Russ Heath. The modern-day scenes are fine, but don't really tell us much about the new team- a toe in the water if you will. Foreman's more modern, "kewl", overrendered and kinetic style will still probably be a good fit but suffers in comparison with the old master, Heath. As it turns out, I'm still interested in this book after all, and I guess I'll have to jump back on the bandwagon, at least until the ride stops being fun. #15: B+ #16: A- #17: B+

JOKER'S ASYLUM: THE PENGUIN: Is it just me, or is Jason Aaron hot in here? Haven't been reading everything he's done lately (I refuse to jump on board the Ghost Rider train), but everything I have read has been smart and sharp, and you can't find a better example of this than this- what, on the surface, seems to be just another Penguin story but because of the skill of both writer Aaron and artist Jason Pearson (I still wish Redbird had been completed), it becomes a solid character-driven story, more in-depth than, say, your average episode of Batman: The Animated Series. I especially liked the occasional glassy-eyed, expressionistic rendering of Pengy; made him look like Tony Millionaire drew him. The ending was just a shade too ambiguous for my liking- SPOILER HERE- is the girl going to spend the rest of her (probably) short life in that cage? Who feeds her? Cleans up after her? If she was in a basement room or attic or something, that's one thing, but she seems to be in a main office of some sort. Oh well. SPOILER OVER. The positives far outweighed the negatives for me in this very good one-off. A-

VINYL UNDERGROUND #'s 1-11: "First impressions are often the truest"...I've heard this all my life, and it's often accurate. But this series, I think, is an exception. When I first saw the ads, it was some time around the time I had just read Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Phonogram, (a bit late, I know) and it reminded me a lot of that series, with the hip, cynical young lead character, the supernatural themes and the British locale. It also gave off a strong Hellblazer vibe. But while there are definite similarities, VU manages to wear its influences on its sleeve, yet folds them in quite smoothly, and the result is very readable. As so many comics do these days, this reminds me of a TV series pitch...but this is a series I'd like to see. DC calls them "occult detectives in London", but really they're a Scooby gang: Morrison Shepherd, a Jarvis Cocker or Richard Ashcroft lookalike, constantly referred to as "Mozz" by most of the cast, (because everybody loves Morrissey but me apparently and it makes him sound even more kewl and British) is the Fred of the group, a former cocaine addict, underground DJ, and son of a famous footballer who has serious mother issues (his is missing, and his search for her informs many of the later issues). Although he has all these quirky character traits, he really doesn't do much of anything except perhaps provide the axis around wich the others revolve. Another quirk is that he leaves an Otis Redding vinyl 45 at the scene of crimes he and the Gang solve, an expensive calling card if ever I heard of one. His cohorts include Leah King, a Barbie-doll beautiful morgue assistant (this comes in handy when stiffs from the weird mysteries come in) who provides the muscle (she is a brutally efficient fighter). She also moonlights as an internet model, pornstar and call girl of sorts in one scene in the middle of the first arc. "Perv" is a Mister Sensitive type, doesn't like to be touched, and also is extremely sensitive clairvoyant- he has possessed seizures that tip the Gang off to the upcoming storylines, that is, what they should investigate next. Rounding out the group is Kim "Abi" Abiola, Mozz's ex-girlfriend who is nothing less than an African princess in exile, her father being a powerful witch doctor- and she's psychogeographically sensitive to boot, which makes her sound like Hellblazer's Map character. I think mostly she's there to provide some sparks between Leah, Mozz and herself. Anyway, four very attractive characters with a wide variety of quirks to make them more interesting, check. Also serving as a father figure of sorts is retired gangster Tommy McCardle, who serves Morrison as a father figure of sorts, since Mozz's real dad is dead and his mom is god knows where. Police detective D.J. Caulfield, a Meshell Ndegeocello lookalike who is the usual recipient of all the Otis singles, provides a liason and source of information, although she is rarely happy about it. Other London gangster figures, neo-Nazis and a number of other seedy characters also make up the supporting cast. The two main story arcs in these were actually well-set-up; the first, in which Abi's witch doctor father is set up to take the blame for a child's murder, and it's up to the Gang to prove his innocence and get him out of prison. It's a fairly involved mystery, with a supernatural-tinged ending, and was a very good showcase to get to know the characters. The second involves a trio of university professors who are performing experiments on young women, and weaving a weird William Blake-inspired scenario as they do their ghastly work. It has some squicky moments, but I liked the British-ness of it all, Anglophile that I tend to be, as Spencer works in constant historical and geographical commentary- and the resolution was certainly unpredictable if not especially plausible. The last two issues to date deal with Morrison's search for his Mom against the background of a race riot in London; we get some flashbacks to his earlier life and some often oddly poetic moments as he sees and interacts with his younger self, something which has been a recurring thing during the course of the series. When I brought up VU on Twitter a while back, more than one commenter opined that it seemed like a "generic Vertigo book" and didn't read it- and I'm afraid I was guilty of that as well. And it's not a misconception; every character and every situation is redolent of many, many other past Vertigo series and storylines, and that also applies to the art- rather than the baroque, oddball style Simon Gane brought to his collaboration with Andi Watson, Paris, he (admittedly) tones it down and along with inkers Cam Stewart and Ryan Kelly gives us a really good Philip Bond impersonation, although truth be told I'm also often reminded of 1970's cover stalwart Ernie Chua (neé Chan) as well. Now, here's the thing- I don't necessarily mind derivative works of fiction, if a little wit, creativity and (most elusive) spark are brought to bear...Brian Wilson took Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" and made it "Surfin U.S.A.", and both were stellar. Marc Bolan was fond of doing the same; "Monolith", from Electric Warrior, is a complete "Duke of Earl" swipe, to name just a couple of examples over the years. I've always been fond of the saying that "creativity is the art of disguising your sources", and Si Spencer does just that for Vinyl Underground, but he manages to put it all together in such a fashion that it works very well with Gane & Co.'s assistance. I wish now that I had been buying this from the beginning, but of course that's besides the point. Maybe I could have persuaded a few people that this was worth their time, but who knows. Anyway, next issue, #12 (out in the next couple of weeks, I think) is the last and that's a shame- I wish this book could have gotten another year to get its feet under it. I suppose the first trade must not have sold that well, because thats generally how low-selling Vertigo titles earn their keep anyway. It would be nice if we could get a new original GN once a year with these characters, or something like that, since a monthly series is apparently not tenable, but I know better. This is a dead book walking, and there's no way the Scooby VU Gang is going to be able to rectify that situation. It's a pity. A-

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!



Tonight's Female-centric exercise in brutality comes from issue number 2 of VINYL UNDERGROUND, the sadly canceled DC/Vertigo series I just discovered, late for the party, as usual. Administering the beating to these two Neo-Nazi bruisers is Leah King, the morgue attendant/slash internet porn star who knows how to bring the pain with panache. She's one of the British Scooby Gang that makes up the main cast of VU, which is a book that I'm right in the middle of writing about even as we speak! Click on the images to see them all bigger. Script by Si Spencer, art by Simon Gane and Cameron Stewart.


BAHLACTUS SAID KNOCK YOU OUT.

Posthumous BSBdG's go out to the late great JACK KIRBY, who would have been 91 today. I loved Ditko, I loved Gene Colan, I even loved Don Heck...but Kirby's was the first superhero art I saw as a young child, and it cast a spell on me that has lasted for 48 years. Here's Kirby point man Mark Evanier's post today, as well as Tom Spurgeon's mammoth art post that puts my little cover contribution to shame...

Hail to the King, baby.

Got my confirmation email today, so if all goes according to plan I'll be gettin' some new comics on Friday! And they are:

DELPHINE #3: Haven't had any Sala weirdness for a long time; this is a nicely rendered take on the Snow White fairy tale.

SCALPED #20: This promises to be a rip-roaring, hilarious look at the life and loves of young Native American buck Dashiell Bad Horse, who is cutting a trail of hijinx throughout today's wild west and leaving a trail of broken hearts in his wake...huh? What? Oh, sorry. I got mixed up there. Never mind.

AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE #2: Now, this one does promise many yuks. Or at least some knowing chuckles. I keep expecting Super-Hip to pop up here; perhaps the Hope Estate isn't down with that.

MADAME XANADU #3: Man, talk about link rot- when I reviewed the previous issue a few weeks ago, I posted a link to a website that had a good picture of the Grampy character from the old Betty Boop cartoons, which was Amy Hadley's apparent art reference for Merlin. It's gone now, and I've been too lazy to find another. Oh, wait, I just did.

NORTHLANDERS #9: I miscalculated; I meant to go trades-only with this title and thought I had dropped it. Oh well, it will work itself out.

DAREDEVIL #110: Stay tuned as we remain on the edge of our seats, anxious to find out if Matt's allowed to smile this time out, and have nothing particularly shitty happen to him! Vegas oddsmakers place the likelihood at 25-1.

CATWOMAN #82: This title's ninth life is gone.

BLUE BEETLE #30: This is one reboot that they did right, Mr. DiDio. Just so ya know.

A quick announcement: most of you probably know this already, but I have decided that I want to do more music posting, and have created a blog for that very purpose. It's called Johnny Bacardi's Off the Record, and I have the first two posts up now. Basically, I plan to take a good, long look (more than a review, less than a novel) at albums out of my collection, not just vinyl, mind you, but releases from the last four decades, not only my beloved early-mid 70's. I can't promise how frequently I'll update it- I'm afraid they're gonna take days to write- but I'll try to get at least one a week up there. It's really gonna depend on how motivated and inspired I get. Anyway, hope you'll like it and add it to you Bloglines or Google Reader or whatever you use, that way you'll know when I've put something up.

A Bacardi Show Birthday Greeting is in order for illustrator extraordinaire Michael William Kaluta, who turns 61 years young today.

I've used this forum to opine and spotlight a great many artists in the last (almost) six years, but of all of them, Kaluta may just be my favorite. From the first time I saw his artwork, in DC's The Shadow #2, on through his multitudes of wonderful covers and illustrations, through Starstruck and other works, I have always made it a point to pick it up and never cease to marvel at his graceful style, highly redolent of the great pulp magazine-era illustrators and even farther back than that. It has wit, style, and sexiness, and his design sense is flawless. Of course, even the greats falter from time to time, and for sure he's done figures that didn't quite work or compositions that didn't come together as well as you'd hope...but they've been few and far between.

Here's one of a multitude of pages from Starstruck that blew me away; click to see it bigger. It's a conference-call type conversation between several of the characters, that takes place about midway through the first graphic novel. Notice the varied facial expressions, as well as the details around the edges of each panel, which help clue the reader in on who's speaking to whom:



Also, here are four pages from the 1973 Shadow I mentioned earlier, and the one which certainly grabbed my attention and made me a fan. SPOILERS, if you haven't read this issue! Even though this is early on in his career, there is so much going on in these pages, as the Shadow pursues and eventually puts paid to the killer that was hiding as part of a circus- the atmospheric, moody black night sky, with tiny pinpoints for stars (and for once the crappy 70's coloring doesn't really hurt all that much), the train, which evokes a lot of nostalgia, Hank Williams, all that- it's as if Hank did the music for a 40's noir- and perched incongruously behind the locomotive engine is a giant whale, providing humor. The standoff scenes have real tension, and combined with Denny O'Neil's terse dialogue, the merciless nature of the Shadow here is underlined perfectly. This stuff hit me so hard when I was 13, and I have yet to recover; I didn't know it until a couple of years later, but this looks like it could have been taken straight from the Pulps. Obviously, click the images to see them bigger (I've taken the liberty of "whitening" the page scans a bit):



One of the biggest thrills in my life was when I got to meet the man, at a Louisville toy and game convention in 2000. He was sitting there sketching when I approached, with large notebooks full of the originals of the various DC covers he'd been doing at the time for The Spectre, Books of Magic, and Aquaman. All hand colored with Dr. Martin's dyes, he said, and they were gorgeous. Of course, I couldn't afford- he was asking four figures for them- but I did spend some time browsing. He autographed my copy of the first Starstruck graphic novel, I shook his hand and tried to relate my admiration for his work (variations on which I'm sure he's heard from a thousand different people in a thousand different places)...now I've met some fairly well-known people, musicians, celebrities and such, but I was never as nervous as when I first approached this man. We made some small talk, I got my signature, and then I got the hell out of there before I became one of those people who linger long after their time has come and gone. I've had a little email correspondence with him since, here and there, and he is still every bit as gracious there as he was in 2000, but I'll never forget that meeting.

Anyway, I've gushed enough. Hope you've had a wonderful day, Mr. Kaluta. Thanks for the memories, and here's to many to come.

(Starstruck page and portrait pic ganked from the website of Todd Klein.)

Here's something which occurred to me as I was rereading Final Crisis #3 on this fine Saturday morning. Most people who have written about and reviewed this issue are comparing pink-haired leather clad Mary Marvel (above) to Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones' earlier Marvel Boy adversary Oubliette aka Extermanatrix, below:


But really, really, it's not Oubliette aka Extermanatrix that she's supposed to be at all! Remember, the evil minions are all Fourth World characters re-bodied. And that makes Mary Marvel's look more applicable for:


MAD HARRIET of the Female Furies!

If you're looking for stunning insights, boy, you've come to the right place!

You may all now resume whatever you were doing.

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!








Yes, it's still Ladies Night and the fighting's right, or something like that. Tonight's scrap comes from Avengers #83, cover dated December of 1970. This features, unless I'm mistaken, the first appearance of the Valkyrie- or WAS it? Anyway, she coerces the other female Avengers (Medusa, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow) into banding together as the "Lady Liberators", to overcome the male Avengers (and a group of hapless bad guys who happened to be in the neighborhood) and take over Avengers Mansion. Yeah, it's a hamfisted attempt to work the then-novel Women's Lib movement into a superhero story, and it's just as goofy as you'd expect. Still, it's a fun if dated little tale, and you gotta love that last panel. Again, ganked from scans_daily, and if you want to read the whole thing go here.

Script by Roy Thomas, art by John Buscema and Tom Palmer.

BAHLACTUS SAID KNOCK YOU OUT.

CONFESSIONS OF A SPINNER RACK JUNKIE.



Time once more for CONFESSIONS OF A SPINNER RACK JUNKIE- (with capital letters, no less!) that more-or-less ongoing and often overdue feature in which I write shortish reviews of various works of sequential fiction that I have perused in the interval since the last time I inflicted such reviews upon one and all, or to be specific, the period from approximately August 7 through August 21, some of which may even still be on sale at finer comics selling establishments worldwide if you're lucky. Or not, as the case may be.

100 BULLETS #94: Yeah, "Another well-done issue what will engage the already engaged, baffle the uninitiated, and even baffle the initiated upon occasion. I think I'll just cut and paste this review for the next 6 issues". But this issue also gives us, even as Azzarello continues his maddening dance all around the clarity maypole, a great little scene in which the brutish loose cannon Lono squares off against sleek and sexy Dizzy Cordova...and it's as good a fight scene as I've seen in a comic (and no, I haven't seen any REAL fights) in quite a while, not to mention a very logical progression of long-simmering tensions. Good show. A-

AIR #1: We're not exactly in Coffee, Tea or Me? territory here as we get the adventures of a acrophobic stewardess (I'm kinda acrophobic myself, so I can relate) who gets mixed up with what at first glance seems to be terrorists vs. good guys on her plane, but soon gets a bit more complicated as no one seems to be what they really are, especially a handsome young fellow who claims to be from about what seems to be a half dozen different countries, and paranoia is the order of the day. G. Willow Wilson's script is an ambitious one, even though the airport/airplane setting reminds me quite a bit of many issues of the late, lamented-by-some American Virgin- and we all know how that one turned out. I do believe, though, that she has a plan and some ideas, and this is only the beginning. It could get quite interesting, I believe, if she can downplay the tendency towards fanfic-like situations (how many hospitals have you been in that provide for uninterrupted sex? I've never been in one) and dialogue (the line “You taste like the sky.” screams it), and (ironically enough) keep the story grounded. I found myself wondering about nitpicky things like how she keeps her job with all the running around through airports and different flights, and how such an acrophobic person could agree to jump out of an airplane with essentially a total stranger and not even seem to whimper (I'd be beating somebody up, let me tell you), also how handsome stranger seems to be able to board any flight he wishes, whenever he wishes...not to mention (and this is on the artist, I think) how he can get a "microchute" to open when it's underneath his sport jacket. Oh well. Speaking of the artist, I wonder what is it about the Vertigo imprint (or maybe the Vertigo editors) that seems to suck the life out of some artists who do work for it? While there are exceptions, take M.K. Perker here as an example- while his non-comics illustration work looks very interesting, on this title it looks like he's striving for a Phil Winslade or mid-80's Val Mayerik as inked by Craig Russell lefthanded look. It's awkward and oddly proportioned and over-rendered (despite a curious lack of shading and blackspotting) and almost the opposite of what you'd expect someone as accomplished as he apparently is to look. Never fails. Maybe he'll improve, too, or at least get more comfortable and less fussy with his approach. Who the hell knows. At least it's a Vertigo book, which means it might get at least 16 issues to get its feet under it before the inevitable canning. B-

BATMAN #'s 676-679: I think Grant Morrison must be a hell of a cook; certainly no one can recycle last week's (well, actually, the last decade's) worth of meals, I mean plots, like he can. And at the end of the day, that's what Morrison's doing- he seems to be determined to test the limits of the whole Batman concept, from day one to now, by introducing all the craziness and whims of fancy that writers and editors of all stripes saw fit to introduce (for varying reasons) in last seven decades...and so far he's getting away with it, despite a slightly disappointing reliance on the backbone of most Batman stories, at least in the modern era- question Bruce's sanity and/or present him with some sort of cataclysmic threat, have him down and out and tasting the bitter dregs, show him rising from the ashes to ultimately triumph, and oh yeah- the Joker. Got to have the Joker. Well, that's the backbone of most modern superhero stories, sans Joker (in most cases), but I hope you see my point. Grant's having fun and providing clever ideas (like Batman's "no Bruce Wayne" contingency plan) within the framework, but it's a frame I've seen used on many, many pictures before. Apparently penciller Tony Daniels and inker Sandu Florea's art education began and ended with Image comics from the mid 90's- they want to look so much like Jim Lee or Greg Capullo or J. Scott Campbell that it's kinda sad, really. Daniels tries, I think, to add some panache via shifting perspectives and random camera angles, but none of it feels organic or instinctive, but rather it just feels arbitrary and uninspired. It's mostly competent, but unexceptional and unexciting work. One can only wonder, I suppose, how memorable this series would be if a singularly talented creator (like J.H. Williams from a few issues back) had been on board from the beginning, to goose Morrison's complacency just a bit. Oh well, we simply have to get by with what we have, and fortunately it works well within its limitations. But it's far from over. B

THE BOYS #21: Of course the 9/11 setting is in poor taste; that's Ennis' entire modus operandi in regards to this book. That he manages to finesse it enough to where it comes across as fairly horrifying (in an of itself, and not because he chose to do it) rather than smirky is a testament to his writing chops. Otherwise, we keep getting dibs and drabs of backstory via Hughie and the Leader, and Darick Robertson continues to contribute good- not so good that it smacks you upside the head with its greatness good, but very good just the same- art. A-

B.P.R.D.: THE WARNING #2: Arcudi and Davis continue to do that thing they do so well, with lots of characterization and a generous helping of Indiana Jones-style crumbling temple action to boot. This is kinda review-proof as it goes; Arcudi is crafting great dialogue and pacing his story very well, and Guy Davis just can't do any wrong. If you're on board the B.P.R.D. train, then this is another satisfying chapter. A-

CRIMINAL 2 #4: Further proof of why picking up hitchhikers is generally a bad idea. Spotlight this time is on the unfortunate (well, he certainly seems so so far...) fellow who draws the Frank Kafka newspaper comic strip that has been referred to several times in previous issues. He gets in a bit of a sticky wicket this time, making what seems like a bunch of unfortunate mistakes- but who can say that they wouldn't make the same ones in his position. Anyway, we will see what we will see. As always, deftly scrpted by Ed Brubaker and impeccably drawn by Sean Phillips. A

FINAL CRISIS #3: The longer this goes on, and the more I see would-be naked-Emperor spotters opine, the more I'm convinced that this would have been better served coming out all at once, as a graphic novel, rather than in installments, where it's pretty much freaking people right the fuck out because they're only being given pieces of the puzzle in short bursts. Apparently these people have never read anything Morrison has done besides his JLA- this is Morrison's modus operandi when doing the sort of involved narrative that is his bread and butter. If you're unsatisfied by anything except the linear and demand neon-lettered resolution at every turn, you're bound for disappointment. Which isn't to say that this issue is perfect, far from it- there's a dogged ordinariness to many of these set pieces that one doesn't really expect from Grant; fan service perhaps, with the extended Wonder Woman/Oubilette Mary Marval fracas and all the Flashes running around. I'm afraid J.G. Jones doesn't help sometimes- from time to time he goes for the challenging camera angle, seeking to test his skills (I assume) and maintain his interest rather than help the reader suss out what's happening. Me, I think this is still a work in progress, and I'm being patient. Again, we'll find out in four more issues whether it's worth it. A-

HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN #2: OK, it was bound to be a bit of a letdown after the excellent first issue. Second of three chapters tend to be this way, I think. Hellboy and his new acquaintances set out to bury the formerly ensorceled father of one of them, and encounters creepy crawly resistance along the way until they take refuge in an old, crumbling church that has a blind minister living within. Of course, things promise to get out of hand at the end, and I'm still looking forward to the resolution although I hope it gets away from the slight predictability on display this time out. As long as Richard Corben provides more of his atmospheric visuals, I'm not worried. A-

JACK STAFF #18: I don't know if it's me or what, but Grist seems to be a bit on autopilot here. Granted, rote Grist is infinitely superior to 90% of what's out there, but I'm not getting the little unexpected delights and satisfying twists I was getting back in the old black and white days. Familiarity breeds...well, "contempt" is harsh and totally wrong, but perhaps "dissatisfaction" might be more apropos. Regardless, I still have high hopes for future issues, and while I would still hand the uninitiated a copy of Everything Used to be in Black and White before any of the Image stuff, I am far from done with this comic. B+

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1-17, ANNUAL #1: I bought this title's predecessor, JSA, for well over 60 issues. I liked the characterization emphasis that co-writers Geoff Johns and David Goyer brought to the party, and it lasted a good long while with a rotating cast. Then, eventually, Johns (Goyer having bailed a good while back) seemed to be content with cranking out needlessly complicated superhero fights with cliched situatons and dialogue at the expense of the characterization I had previously enjoyed, and I, too, bailed. Then, after one of the Crisis series was completed, they decided to restart the title with its longer name and with a new number one issue, why I cannot say since Johns is still on board with a new artist. Funny thing is, though, there's also a renewed commitment (evidently) to the characterization that I grew to miss on the former title, with Johns taking the "society" part of the name literally and emphasizing family ties with the older members such as Wildcat, Flash and the Red Tornado. For the first few issues, we get to meet a lot of newish legacy characters (most probably introduced in the latter stages of the former title, or in one of the Crisis issues, I'm sure) such as Cyclone, a cute, chatty, endearing redheaded granddaughter of Ma Hunkle, the original Red Tornado, and one with the wind powers of the android version (it's done with nanobytes or somesuch); a twentysomething son of Ted Grant who turns into a cat person with abnormal strength and speed; yet another version of Steel, this one the grandson of the original who suffers a strange fate and fills the role of the requisite tortured superhero guy because of it; Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore) from the late, lamented-by-some Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. book, with a bigger role than she had before, and others. Less endearing is the 30th century Starman, who's stuck in our time and is batshit insane because of it (I always felt that the worst thing James Robinson did in his Starman was drop that hint that Thom Kallor was part of that particular legacy), and he mostly goes around spouting nonsense, eating sloppy joes and opening black holes for the Kingdom Come version of Superman to emerge from, and...well, let's just say that there's a hell of a lot of stuff going on here and let it go at that. It's a huge, sprawling cast, and Johns is doing a commendable job of giving nearly all of them respectable face time, and making most of them compelling on top of that. It's especially gotten interesting in the last four issues or so; Johns is expanding on the characters Mark Waid created for Kingdom Come, giving us the godlike Gog, who blissfully strides the Earth, granting the JSA'ers (well, most of them anyway) their fondest wishes- he handles the somewhat puzzled, often grateful reactions of the team members to his presence in engrossing fashion. Anyway, short story long, Johns is impressing me by the way he's handling this burgeoning group of characters and with this most recent plotline in particular. Never once have I found myself wishing he'd sacrifice a few to relieve the clutter. Dale Eaglesham is the regular artist, for the most part; he's got a meticulously rendered style that is occasionally too stiff for its own good but manages the neat trick of packing each page with a multitude of people and things and just plain stuff, and never evokes the far less readable clutter of a George Perez. His work has grown on me. A few weeks ago, an annual came out, which seemed to be designed to make the aging fanboys that grooved on the 1975 All-Star Comics JSA revival, not to mention the All-Star Squadron readers, happy- he had Gog deposit Power Girl back into that Earth-2 world in which the adult Robin was in love with the Huntress, the female Dr. Midnite was still alive, the Joker is old and decrepit, and so on. Jerry Ordway drew this one, and while his art was as mannered and lifeless as usual, it still fit the story well, as is his wont. It was a very readable "what if" kinda story, but of course it's going to be shoehorned in with all the Final Crisis satellite titles, as is the saga of the KC Superman...so who the hell knows where it's all gonna go. Regardless, that doesn't change the fact that I was pleasantly surprised by the entire run- even when it got all angsty, and even when it devolved into mammoth superhero brawls, it was always interesting and well-done. So I think I'll have to get back into my Justice Society habit again, at least until the inevitable decline rolls around again. I hope it won't be for a long time. A-, Annual: B+. ETA: I had forgotten, but over a year ago I was sent a comped copy of #5 to review, and I did so right here. My opinion of the book has risen since then.

MANHUNTER #33: Looks like Kate is up against some mighty tall odds as she continues to investigate the girls with missing hearts along the Mexico/US border. Lots more cameos this issue as well, including an amusing exchange with Oracle, who winds up calling in some other Birds of Prey to help her out. Mike Gaydos' art still really hasn't grown on me yet- it strives for realism, or at least a J.P.Leon/Tommy Lee Edwards/Alex Maleev type of realism, but unfortunately so far all he's mastered is the sloppy ink line. Me personally, I prefer this style to the calculated slickness of many other DC/Marvel artists these days, but I can see why others might not like as much. Anyway, Andreynko has several intriguing plot threads lined up waiting their turn after this one's over, and I intend to hang in for the long haul with this book. Problem is, how long is long? B+

PATSY WALKER, HELLCAT #2: How in the world this manages to be so breezy and fast-paced, but so incoherent, is a puzzler. Perhaps LaFuente could help a bit more; he seems to get carried away with the breathless script and tries to match it pant for pant. Still, this is fun; the dialogue remains clever, the situations novel, and the art is awfully good-looking, especially as colored by Jon Rauch. I just wish Kathryn Immonen would just dial down the quirk, just a notch. B

TRINITY #'s 1-6: I went into this cold, not really having read a lot of the hype- don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting this. It's like there was a study group that was devoted to creating the most generic superhero comic book possible, and that's what this is- it's like Super Hero Comic 101 or something. I don't really think Kurt Busiek is untalented, far from it, when he's writing Astro City (the book he seems to care about), he's often engaging and clever (even though I don't buy AC anymore, go figure). When he's doing the major players for the Big Two, though, he's workmanlike and dull more often as not. It's a puzzlement, it is. I will say that I was interested for a couple of issues in the slightly clichéd Latina tarot reader whose adventures make up the back feature, but it's not long before she gets dragged into the same stale superheroics that plague the lead. I'm sure in a few more issues she'll be wearing a peekaboo cutout leotard and hitting people with her tarot deck or something. Mark Bagley is a solid craftsman (and a hell of a nice guy, judging by the telephone interview I did with him a few years ago), you can tell by what he does here...but what he does is merely competent. There's no real flair or enthusiasm apparent, no matter how many poses remind me of Gil Kane here or John Byrne there. Fabian Nicienza fares no better on the backfeature. You'd think that DC wold make damn sure that such a high-profile project as this aspires to be would make top-notch, inspired, committed (to something besides a paycheck) creators mandatory, but this is utterly devoid of anything that even remotely resembles innovation, flair, or excitement. It's just empty, toothless spandex posturing and that's a damn shame. Mike Sterling says it gets better in another six issues, but I'm not sure I want to wade through the next five to find out. D+

WONDER WOMAN #'s 22, 23: Well, this one got a little needlessly gnarly towards the end, with betrayals on top of plot twists on top of betrayals, and Gail Simone still has, I insist, no flair for dialogue- but hey, she did great by good old Beowulf, actually had me giving a shit about Stalker (my interest in 1975 was limited to art only), and she gives Wondy a definite charisma and presence, even if I don't quite understand what her relationship to the reality she inhabits is exactly. And the art was never less than outstanding- the Lopresti/Ryan team handled the action stuff the script demanded very well. Anyway, overall I liked this four-issue arc; any questions I had early on were more or less answered, or at least made unimportant, and it's all good. I liked. Will I buy any more? Probably not. I'm still just not that big a fan of the character. But if you are, I think you should be supporting this book. It's good enough. B+

RIP JULIUS CARRY, who yes, played "Sho 'Nuff" in the excruciatingly silly 1985 flick Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon...but contrary to what Variety and the other news sources who have reported the death would have you think (since they don't even mention the role or the show) his biggest film/TV geek cachet came in the role of Bruce Campbell's Brisco County, Jr.'s sidekick (just don't ever say that with him around) Lord Bowler in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr..