The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: 2017
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The only thing wrong with Sherlock Frankenstein is realizing it’s almost over. I don’t know why I thought it was six issues; just being hopeful, I guess. Lucy’s investigation continues, even after someone has attacked her in the sanctuary. Real quick–apparently Black Hammer (the character) got his powers from the New Gods? I don’t think…
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Copperhead hasn’t exactly been lost since Faerber took the focus off Clara and expanded the existing supporting cast, then expanded new supporting cast, but it’s been kind of… not Copperhead. It’s been missing Clara. Clara’s back, y’all. Clara’s back. Even with the issue mostly juxtaposed against bad dad Clay out to kill Ishmael the good…
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Ferrier continues with his weird sequel to the first Planet of the Apes movie, only with a little King Kong thrown in. And a lot of Skull Island. There’s plenty of Skull Island. And its natives and its monsters. Magno’s design on the monsters–furry dinosaurs, killer vines, a pterodactyl–all looks a little off. Even though…
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What a book. Kid (Lobotomy) has turned into a giant cockroach. What do you think happens to you if you start reading Kafka at twelve–you grow up to internalize it. So he’s a giant cockroach and he’s trying to hide from his sister, who wants to turn their hotel into a haunted hotel attraction. She…
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Retcon finishes with a not terrible final issue. Toby Cypress’s art is good. Nixon gets in a lot of content–too much for Cypress to keep up with at times–and it’s fine content. The story itself is weak. While the one guy is hovering over the Pentagon preparing to attack an intergalactic monster who has taken…
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Skroce moves Maestros along faster than expected. He resolves his cliffhangers, he sets up for his next plot point, he moves through it, he repeats a couple times, he sets up his new cliffhangers. It’s awesome pacing, actually. Even though Skroce’s artwork on Maestros is breathtaking–especially in this issue, where he gets to do disaster…
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Not only is Eddie’s baby brother back, this story arc of The Damned has the same title as the lackluster second series–Prodigal Sons. Except now it’s great. Because Bunn’s learned how to do his exposition. He’s learned how to pace it, he’s learned what Hurtt does best and how to enable the best possible result.…
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Milligan opens the issue with a couple new characters who ostensibly seem to provide the reader fresh perspective into the hotel and the existing cast. And they sort of do provide that fresh perspective, but all the action of the comic is so crazy it’s not like Milligan needed forced freshness. The resolution to last…
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Stokoe finishes up Dead Orbit with an awesome all-action issue. There’s very little in the way of story. There’s very little in the way of characters. There are characters–it’s been so long since the last issue, I only remember the lead and don’t remember how the bookends work–but there’s no characterization. It’s about Aliens after…
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The subtitle for Black Crown Quarterly should be “Shelly Bond Should Be Running Vertigo.” Only then we wouldn’t have BCQ. There are a lot of features in the comic. Interviews, some text pieces, previews of upcoming Black Crown imprint (at IDW) titles. Some comics. The first comic is a strange potential crossover comic by Rob…
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Kid Lobotomy shows just how much editing can help when it comes to an excessive concept. Writer Peter Milligan has this expansive, weird, creepy, disturbing story yet it’s always in check. It hits all its story beats, the writing is there for the art, the art is there for the writing. It’s so well-executed, one…
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No doubt I’m going to regret it, but I’m excited about Barbarella. There’s whatever baggage comes with having an old white guy (Mike Carey) write a bisexual future woman and it’s definitely there. Carey doesn’t have any conversations, he just acknowledges conversations to be had. Only without ever promising they’ll be had. Again, I’m going…
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Evolution is an end of the world (as we know it) story. It’s happening all over the world, though with a predominately American bent. People are turning into monsters, but not mean monsters, just monstrosities. Because it turns out lots of people are evolving rather quickly and it’s happening all over and only one man…
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Craig splits the issue in half, between Cole and his sidekicks talking to a witch about their situation and then something with the actual situation they don’t know about. Cole’s daughter isn’t being held prisoner, she’s the goddess of the Black Temple and she’s going to bring about the end of the… something. It’s unclear…
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Spy Seal ends its first series with an all-action issue. Tommaso doesn’t take any shortcuts on the art though. It’s still very detailed, but it’s all for the action. It’s all for Malcolm doing a cross between a thirties Hitchcock spy thriller and a James Bond movie to get the mission completed. Of course, Malcolm…
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Nitz and St. Claire do a really fun flashback issue. Fu Jitsu when he was in a sixties spy duo, doing jobs for JFK. It’s cute. And it keeps being cute. Fu narrates the flashback, recounting a previous meeting with evil Robert Wadlow, tallest man on earth. Fu’s kung fu powers are able to save…
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If it were any other comic right now, an issue like this one would seem like a major course correction. Cannon talks through most of Kaijumax’s outstanding issues–with talking heads scenes–but really well. He manages to make the prison doctor in love with Zonn work. He’s never been able to do that one. But now…
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It’s not a great issue of Angelic. It’s an all right issue, but it’s kind of an action-packed bridging issue. Spurrier’s just setting things up for next time. There’s trouble brewing with the flying monkeys. The flying manatees are lying to Qora, the good flying monkey girl. There are weaponized cats, who aren’t friendly. The…
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Redneck starts its second arc jumping eight months ahead from the previous issue. The family is in hiding. JV is on guard duty 24/7, Bartlett is on punishment (of sorts), Perry is cheating at cards. New vampire Landry is learning the ropes but still not particularly welcome. There’s a lot of exposition in the comic.…
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And there you have it, don’t count Ennis out, not even on Jimmy’s Bastards. It’s been a rocky series and this issue’s probably just another peak, but it’s a good peak. It’s beautifully paced, it’s funny, it’s dry. The Britishness comes through. The issue’s all action. Regent’s doing things and Nancy’s doing things. Bloodshed and…
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One of the most frustrating things about Copperhead is how effective it can be. This issue ends with one heck of a standoff and it’s kind of cheap, but it isn’t because Faerber has done so much work on the characters and their relationships it can’t be cheap. This issue has the secret origins of…
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Lemire just won the Cthulhu game. For over ten years, comic book companies–usually indie ones–have been doing Cthulhu stuff. Boom!, Avatar (obviously), Archie, Dark Horse, Image. And Lemire just won it for Dark Horse with this issue of Sherlock Frankenstein. In searching for her father, Lucy Weber meets Cthu-Lou II. He’s a sewer varient of…
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Excellent solo outing for Spider-Man Tom Holland (after first appearing in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR). He’s just a modern high schooler trying to survive debate club and homecoming date woes while playing superhero after school superhero. He wants to do more, of course, much to guest star Robert Downey Jr.’s dismay. Watts’s direction has a…
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Retcon turns it around a little this issue. There’s a lot less about government conspiracy and a lot more supernatural. Also the title makes sense now. One of the characters is trying to save the world and putting a team together and every time she fails she resets time and tries again. If you’ve seen…
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Skroce delivers with the second issue of Maestros. He’d had two storylines going in the first–flashback and present; he sticks mostly with present here, the occasional flashback for expository purposes. King Willy (is his name even mentioned in the comic or is he just Maestro?). Anyway, King Willy is making some changes to Magicland. Kind…
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Kill the Minotaur does not finish well. It finishes with a Predator “homage,” a lengthy, rushed fight sequence, and a twist at the finale. The worst part about the issue is how long writers Pasetto and Cantamessa take. Most of the issue is just Theseus and Ariadne fighting the creature. Artist Ketner loses track of…
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Justice League exists, whether intentionally or not, outside a certain kind of critical examination. Director Snyder didn’t finish post-production. Or, at least, when the studio demanded lots of reshoots, Snyder wasn’t involved in a creative capacity. The job went to Joss Whedon, who gets a co-writer credit. Are the terrible scenes Whedon’s fault or Snyder’s…
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The Berger Books Preview is, frankly, concerning. Influential comic editor Karen Berger has an imprint coming out from Dark Horse next year and the Preview shows off the launch titles. Of the four, Hungry Ghosts seems the strongest. The writing isn’t bad, which is something. There’s some bad writing before the end of the ashcan.…
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For a while, Kong on the Planet of the Apes is kind of fun. Writer Ryan Ferrier is doing a direct sequel to the original movie, but with Queen Kong on the shore just behind the Statue of Liberty. Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter are still under house arrest for helping Charlton Heston. It’s an…
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The back matter of Gravediggers Union has writer and opening artist Wes Craig excited about having Toby Cypress drawing the comic. It is exciting to have Cypress drawing the comic and whatnot, but Craig’s too excited. Is Cypress drawing the book the only reason to read it? I mean, is Cypress to that level of…
The Stop Button 