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Black Panther (1998) #2
The misadventures of Everett K. Ross continue, with writer Priest still hopping around the flashbacks to give the most bang for the two and a half bucks. It starts with Mephisto, last issue’s hilarious and extra cliffhanger. For some reason, Mephisto’s waiting for T’Challa; Ross (and Priest) don’t tell us (or Nikki, Ross’s boss, who he’s debriefing). Instead, we get these occasional check-ins on the odd couple sitting on a couch, Ross without any pants (but a Pez dispenser in his sock), and Mephisto silent until just the right moment.Just the right moment for comedic effect. Priest makes Ross’s adventures cringe-worthy and absurdist; Mephisto handles the latter (at least until the mud wrestling), while the former has Ross showing up at the airport to pick up T’Challa blaring Kool & The Gang’s Jungle Boogie. No way they were doing that scene for the movie (Cracker and Martin, indeed). We also haven’t seen Ross and T’Challa have a regular scene together, but Ross implies he’s been the King’s U.S. handler before.
Meaning T’Challa knows Ross is a goober. I’m sure if so, Priest will get some solid laughs out of it later. Or at least hearty chuckles.
Ross still doesn’t get to losing his pants, but we do find out why everyone got arrested (the mud wrestling). Before then, however, Priest works on the B plot about T’Challa’s political problems back home. It’s T’Challa’s arc, while Ross’s ostensible A plot gives the comic such a distinct, immediate personality.
Then there are the drug dealers and the tough guy, “is he dangerously racist or was it just 1998” Brooklyn cop who seems like he’ll be back later. There’s also Black Panther action with T’Challa confronting the drug dealers a little bit later in the timeline. It’s a fascinatingly fractured timeline.
Excellent art from Mark Texeira, who—if I’m reading the credits right—is drawing over Joe Quesada’s panel breakdowns, with Alisha Martinez then doing “background assists.” Quesada’s credit is “storytelling,” and if he’s responsible for the pacing, he does a fantastic job. The comedy timing of the book is phenomenal, but the dramatic moves are good too.
Black Panther’s great.
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Infinity 8: Volume Six: Ultimate Knowledge (2018)
Much of Ultimate Knowledge is the best-written Infinity 8 has been so far, and Infinity 8 has been exceptionally well-written so far. But this volume pairs an odder couple than usual, so there’s constant banter. The partner is also a know-it-all, verbose historian, and he’s always got something to say about whatever they’re experiencing (or running from).The volume opens introducing the historian—Bert—and the agent, Leila Sharad. Also, more than any of the other volumes, Bert is the lead here; Leila’s the comic relief and occasional blunt object. Leila confronts him about a possibly stolen antiquity (she’s in customs) and ends up causing an incident involving the dead flesh-eating aliens from the first Infinity 8 volume. It’s a slightly familiar scene because the series used it as a non sequitur reference to the first volume back in the second volume–a long-cooking Easter egg.
Except when Leila gets the assignment from the captain—go to the center of the solar system-sized space graveyard and wait for the ship they found out about last time—she’s going into the mission with a lot more information. And a clear purpose. So she demands Bert come along. Their first meeting was tense, with quite a few deaths, and she wants to make it up to him.
Of course, she’s a hard-ass, and she doesn’t want to show any empathy, so he can’t figure out why she’s making him go along.
The other big change is the creeper lieutenant, who hits on Leila as usual (the only one he left alone was the nun) but goes on to explain he knows it’s all getting reset, so it doesn’t matter how he behaves anyway. So, he’s worse; though presumably, time will reset, and no one will know it.
Except for the captain.
Bert and Leila fly to the center of the graveyard, waiting for the spaceship’s arrival, and go sightseeing. After some good banter and comedy of errors, they discover a metal orb, which seemingly brings the dead being’s consciousness to (holographic) life. Immediately following this discovery, plant roots reach up and grab the sarcophagus they were looking at, and our heroes give chase.
The roots are part of a plant-based life-form, who’s had plenty of time to talk to the dead beings, but no actual experience with other life forms. Ultimate Knowledge then detours into hard sci-fi with Bert trying to piece together how this life-form works (and thinks) while Leila’s distracted by the beautiful scenery and her own good jokes.
The finale has some action—both explosions and chase scenes—as they get back to rendezvous with the spaceship from last time, but they also learn more about the nature of the graveyard on their own. Turns out having Bert along—someone who thinks to use his tricorder instead of just zapping everything to oblivion—leads to, well, maybe not ultimate knowledge, but definitely more knowledge.
And then, just in case Knowledge hasn’t been heady enough for the reader, there’s a last page spin everything about the graveyard (and the series) around again. Since it’s on the last page, the characters don’t have time for their minds to be blown; there are hard cliffhangers and soft cliffhangers, but this one’s a conundrum cliffhanger. Bert spends the third act explaining to Leila (and the reader) how to think about the things they encounter, and it sums up something special.
Excellent writing from Emmanuel Guibert and Lewis Trondheim; Trondheim gets second-billing in the script credit for the first time (I’m pretty sure). Bert’s a fabulous lecturer, and Leila’s the perfect bratty foil for him. I hope they return, especially since their character arc is left unresolved.
Franck Biancarelli’s art is often gorgeous; the plant life-form, Bert’s gentle expressions, Leila’s harsh ones; Biancarelli brings a slightly different energy to everything, which gives Leila and Bert’s personalities additional layers. Knowledge is dense, exposition, and detail-filled, but their experiences of the unknown—including one another–are where the creators focus.
Again, it’s fantastic.
And that final reveal ratchets expectations for the next volume unlike anything the book’s done before.
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Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #264
Turns out the only time Wildfire isn’t a raging asshole is when he’s ostensibly worried about his kidnapped parents. Either I forgot, didn’t realize, or didn’t care his parents had gotten taken last issue. They didn’t stand out (I think some parents got kidnapped off-page) because they weren’t assholes like their kid. It’s a really weird failing for writer Gerry Conway, who can write Wildfire freaking out about someone not saying hello to him, but when he’s actually supposed to be concerned….Nothing.
The issue opens the Legionnaires causing a sky-traffic accident. Unlike the last time (I can’t remember who was writing that issue), Wildfire doesn’t threaten to incinerate the civilians in their car. He’s almost sympathetic this issue, though it’s probably just rebounding from him being such a prick every other issue.
After serving a bunch of red herring—including on the cover (which features Shadow Lass and Tyroc fighting, whereas they’re pals in the comic and Tyroc’s literally in two panels on the last page)—the issue settles into a mystery. After tracking the bad guy and the kidnapped parents to a remote power station, which turns out to be a trap, the Scooby gang starts investigating who might be after them and why. Well, they know the why—Legion patron R.J. Brande going bankrupt.
Or should I say, “B.D. Brande,” as his company’s building reads this issue. Jack C. Harris didn’t pay much attention when editing. It’d be difficult to pay too much attention—Jim Janes and Dave Hunt’s artwork is exceptionally bland and exceptionally boring. Janes occasionally does some okay composition work, but he’s also got some goofy angles. And his figures are terrible. It’s unclear how much Hunt’s inks help or hurt.
The bad guy turns out to be another of Conway’s rote Legion villains, though next issue promises something different, which is something at least. The cliffhanger reveals Tyroc’s got a good reason for running off last issue, though if he had a smartphone (in the year 2972 or whatever), the calendar app would change his life.
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Do a Powerbomb (2022) #2
Well, despite being curious about something related to the issue’s Brobdingnagian last page reveal when creator Daniel Warren Johnson set it up last issue… I can’t remember the last time I’ve been as surprised by a comic. It’s a perfectly solid narrative choice but also entirely unexpected. Johnson started Powerbomb last issue doing one comic, then changed to another, then another. So now he’s on to a fourth–or at least a three and a half.It’s still about Lona Steelrose teaming up with an inter-dimensional necromancer (named Necro), who loves pro-wrestling and wants to stage his own tournament, but the tournament is just a MacGuffin. The reveal this issue promises so much character development and such wide arc swings, Lona will be lucky if they don’t decapitate her.
Necro gives Lona the backstory in the opening. He tried taking over the galaxy, got busted, and exiled to an island where he discovered the earthly joy of television. So what’s his favorite show? Pro-wrestling, of course. But fighting to the death is passé (and why would anyone do it) unless there’s some fantastic prize.
He’s a necromancer, after all, so why not have the prize be resurrecting a person of the winner’s choice.
Now, presumably, Necro could just resurrect someone without the whole wrestling tournament, but why wouldn’t he combine the two?
Lona’s not only got to decide if she wants to do an inter-dimensional death match to potentially resurrect her mom but she’s also got to find herself a partner because Necro’s throwing a tag team tournament.
In her search for a partner, she sees a particularly brutal wrestling match, which also gives Johnson the opportunity for some action. The issue’s very visual talking heads for most of it—including Lona’s decisive call home to dad to say goodbye—but the wrestling’s gruesome.
In a good way, both in terms of artistic skill and narrative import. I can’t imagine next issue will have another big reveal—Johnson’s got to start the story sooner than later; he’s only got five more issues—but there’s so much material he’s already got to work through.
Powerbomb’s fantastic.
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Tomb of Dracula (1972) #31
The “Taj in India” C plot has been running seven issues, so half a year, and it’s just now getting to him staking his vampire son. The cover shows Taj thrilled to do it and the wife begging him to stop; the interior’s the opposite; the entire point of Taj going home was to stake the kid before the villagers do it. And to slap his wife around for being… a woman, basically.Anyway.
Writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan cover the Taj C plot simultaneously with the Frank Drake C plot. Frank’s down in South America working for his shitty white guy pal and not noticing all the workers seem to be literal zombies. Neither subplot gets any resolution (and Frank’s doesn’t even get a real cliffhanger), but maybe next time, we’ll finally get some movement on the Taj story. I mean, we won’t, but still. I’ll pretend.
Then we get a half page of Rachel Van Helsing (once the series lead) moping around with an ominous, text-only cliffhanger. Great art from Colan and inker Tom Palmer, but it’s the laziest check-in Tomb could do.
The actual A plot involves Inspector Chelm finally getting the upper hand in his hunt for Dracula. The issue opens with Drac killing a member of Parliament’s daughter (a week after killing the wife), assuming such loss will inspire the guy to vote for “The Master.” It’s unclear the guy doesn’t know “The Master” is Dracula, but there’s also a conspiracy group subplot (almost entirely in expository dialogue) and then a qualified reveal of Dracula’s great scheme.
Qualified because Wolfman reveals the good guys know there’s a great scheme, and they reveal to Dracula they know it, but the reader doesn’t find out. If it goes at Taj pace… it’ll only be four issues before we hear about it again.
Wolfman does a neat little “mixed media” thing with a newspaper report about the Parliament member’s daughter’s death.
Quincy Harker making his own speakerphone, so he doesn’t have to hold the receiver because he’s too busy reading papers, is less neat and makes it hard to sympathize with the heroes. Sure, they’re not trying to take over the world and kill everyone, but Dracula’s not out there making Rube Goldberg speakerphones either.
Gorgeous art from Colan and Palmer, some of their best even: it’s a police conspiracy thriller guest-starring Dracula, and they make it happen.