Best of Marvel: Week of July 10th, 2019

Best of this Week: Wolverine Vs. Blade – Marc Guggenheim, Dave Wilkins and Travis Lanham

It is quite possible to just have TOO MUCH AWESOME in one book.

Wolverine Vs. Blade had been advertised for a while, but that didn’t stop it from hitting me like a train from out of nowhere. Hile the story is very one note, it still fits both of these characters and the art elevates it to a level that I haven’t been excited about from Marvel since Clayton Crain was doing Carnage USA and X-Force. It blended the line between almost 3D and photorealistic and the writing turned this into an awesome buddy-hero story with hilarity and badass banter.

Taking place in Wolverine’s X-Force days, prior to Avengers vs. X-Men and before Blade became a full time member of the Avengers, we open to Blade and Wolverine in the middle of taking down a Cult of vampires known as “The Creed.” The book wastes no time on the banter or the action as Wolverine makes a nod to one of their previous interactions where blade stuck him full of Vampire blood while slicing a vampire head into pieces.

Wolverine shines in these opening pages in the always badass black and grey. His face is alive with burning vampire hating rage, showcasing his sharp canines and HEAVILY muscled body as he slashes and slices through vampires with the reckless abandon that he’s known for. The vampire LOOK scary, but Wolverine IS SCARY, especially covered in their blood and surrounded by the still burning remains of their bodies.

After thinking they’ve completely torn through the cult, Blade offers Wolverine a marshmallow from the fire that he’s about to set. Wolverine thinks he’s joking, but then, in a moment that I regret laughing heartily at, Blade shows off a single white marshmallow and gives us ONE of the best shit eating grin in this entire book.

Cutting to six months later, Wolverine is being attacked by very minor villain, Dragoness, who has been turned into a vampire. For no other reason, I think, than to flex his art skills and give me something to fawn over, Wilkins draws Wolverine standing with his back to a window and arms flexed so hard that I almost thought his veins were going to EXPLODE. He was Huge Jackedman levels of vascular and needed to rehydrate like hell, but I couldn’t look away from how ridiculous and magnificent he looked. However, he cuts through one of Dragoness’ wings and sends her spiraling into a conveniently placed piece of sharpened wood. Soon after, he finds the item that she was fighting him for; a mysterious box radiating with magic.

Elsewhere in Germany, Blade is taking down a Vampire Count who fires at him with eye beams that curiously look like Cyclops’. Blade allows the vampire to think he has him on the ropes before setting off explosive charges that trap the vampire under rubble. Blade is the undisputed king of banter in this issue as he offers to pick up a rock or two before the sun rises and kills the vampire for a little bit of information. When the vampire says he’d rather die, Blade gives another grin as the sun rises and burns the vamp to ash.

Both men are given information from their sources, Wolverine in Doctor Strange and Blade in some fellow he dangles off the side of a building. They learn about the prophecy of a Vampire Messiah named Varkis. Logan sees a pictogram that looks like him fighting Blade and Blade learns that Varkis may be a mutant. Armed with their information, the two make their ways separately to South America for a final confrontation.

The fight is epic.

Both men ripple with brutal and blood energy and their musculature is a sight to behold. Blade impales Wolverine with his sword, but Wolverine, being the badass that he is, rips it out and slashes blade across the face, destroying his glasses. Wolverine pounces at him again, but Blade hits him with an anti-vampire glave and Wolverine stands confused. The two work out their equal confusion until Varkis appears, looking like Wolverine, but still with bone claws.

He tells the pair that he was created from a portion of Wolverine that was sliced off and grown using magic as Wolverine has left many parts all over the world, but none have spawned a whole person. Wolverine tries to take on Varkis while Blade cuts through more lesser vampires until Wolverine remembers the picture and suggests he and blade recreate the battle ON VARKIS. Wolvie aims low while Blade aims high and Varkis is thoroughly killed.

Blade gives his last shit eating grin as he says he forgot the marshmallows this time after they blow up another temple. It’s a nice call back to earlier and the perfect cherry to top this wonderful book.

This book was a treasure. Wilkins art was amazingly dynamic, making every fight scene feel like it was brutal, bloody and horrifically violent. His colors straddle the line between very dark and amazingly bright when they need to be. The red from Wolverine’s eyes in the X-Force costume stand out alongside the red of Blade’s sunglasses as they glean with their movements and create little motion lines as they go. Most of the book takes place during the night and Wilkins makes great use of lighting to set the mood, giving a real goth or Castlevania-esque feel to things.

Guggenheim is in top form for the characterization of Blade of Wolverine. Logan is no-nonsense and violent to a terrifying degree as he always should be. Blade is snarky and effortlessly cool like Wesley Snipes before him. If there were to be a mini-series between these two, I would love it if this team came together again, but for a One-Shot, this was absolutely fantastic.

If you want to see amazing art and basic story that still is a riot to enjoy, this book is definitely made for you. Dave Wilkins wows on every page and Guggenheim brings his skills back to the best of the mid-2000s Marvel style. If it did have any pitfalls, it would have to be that it should have been even longer. High recommend!

Best of DC: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Runner Up: Batgirl #36 – Mairghread Scott, Paul Pelletier, Norm Rapmund, Hi-Fi and AndWorld Design

It finally seems like the Batfamily troubles have finally met Batgirl.

For the last few months, Batgirl has gone through something of a transformation in the way that her stories are being told. Back in 2015 she received an upgraded costume and status quo during the DCYou era, but with that came this unfortunate lack of seriousness and gravitas as she remained hopeful through all of her problems. She had a good support network and being the owner of a multimillion dollar start-up, she was absolutely set.

But that era came and went, DC Rebirth happened and I don’t know, her books just sort of foundered to me because they lacked the importance of other Bat-books, until Mairghread Scott took over. She’s been putting Batgirl through the ringer and has been bringing her back down to the gritty and hard nature that the rest of the Batfamily has been going through and this issue is no different.

After being put up for an auction to see who would finally kill Batgirl. Barbara escapes, defeating the Terrible Trio’s Shark as the auction house catches fire, trapping everyone inside. Batgirl fights her way through to a metal gate that she can maybe cut her way through, but The Trios Vulture throws a knife into her back. She states that letting these people go would be bad for business and that Batgirl sealed their fates when she escaped their trap. Vulture is willing to let herself and many others die to protect her reputation.

This kind of callousness stuns Batgirl because villains usually want to live, but Vulture is absolutely on the side of culling weakness from the world and the Terrible Trio failing to kill Batgirl is something she can’t abide and will take everyone down with her. Fox betrays Vulture, allowing Batgirl to free everyone, including the carrion villain. Shark, however, is unable to move after his beating and Batgirl, still wanting to be hopeful and helpful tries to save him. With everything crumbling down around them, Shark pushes her out of the way of debris, killing him as Batgirl watches on.

As she crawls out of the ruins, nose bloody and face full of dejection, she heads to a meeting that she was supposed to attend in order to talk with her investors. Her friend Alysia, who she placed in charge in case she wasn’t able to attend meetings, tells her that the investors forced her to make a decision that ultimately led to Babs being pushed out of the company. Now, broke and homeless, Barbara’s thoughts drift to Shark and in the face of everything, she still sees positivity.

She gets her stuff from Jason Bard, the guy who she worked with on a Mayoral campaign or something along those lines with in earlier issues, and seeing how caring he’s become since their last few encounters, she actually kind of sees him as a friend. Black Canary hooks her up with a dingy apartment in The Narrows, but Babs sees it as a good start, thinking of Shark and Jason, even as her life is collapsing, she still has hope.

I know earlier I said that the stories prior to this also had hope as the ultimate ending to everything, but at the same time, Barbara also had a safety net of things to fall back on. She’s not calling on Bruce to help her, she doesn’t have Dick to confide in and she doesn’t have the money that she used to have and to her, that is perfectly fine.

With her Year of the Villain tie-in coming up soon, I can’t wait to see where things go for her.

Best of DC: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Best of this Week: DCeased #3 – Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo and Saida Temofonte

Hope is dead.

Tim Drake, Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne lie dead on the floor of the Batcave as Alfred makes his way to the Batwing, unable to mourn their deaths and wanting to help stop the zombie threat. Harley Quinn finally gets the catharsis that’s she’s been looking for by pumping an infected Joker full of lead. With her face full of glee, it soon turns into a look of determination as Batgirl, Catwoman, Huntress and Batwoman are set upon her, bloody and rabid with infection.

These first few scenes are horrific and shocking to the extent of which this infection is spreading. The Batfamily is normally the most prepared for things like this to happen, but in one fell swoop, they’re almost all gone. That’s the brilliance of Tom Taylor’s plotting with this story, the inability to know what the hell is going to happen next. Batman would have come up with a cure, a plan, but with Tim and Dick being infected and him unable to fully prevent himself from succumbing to his wounds, the world’s greatest planner is no longer a factor. Barbara would have been an excellent second, but any hope of that was lost the moment she showed up covered in blood.

The world has turned to hell and even Superman can’t bring himself to smile or be hopeful as he looked into the faces of friends and companions, their eyes replaced with the rabid rage of infection and none of the love that they once had. He removes the infected from the Daily Planet office and shores up defenses on the outside before promising Jonthan that everything will be okay before he flies back home to Smallville.

The best way to describe Clark’s emotions as he makes his way through the Planet is hope being replaced by despair. The captions say it best, the hardest part of dealing with the infected is dissociating. These people are no longer Clark’s colleagues. They’re rageful monsters bent on killing, thankfully none of them can make a scratch on him, but the internal scars are far more painful than anything on the outside. Even when he promises that he’ll be back to his son, there’s this underlying feeling of doubt. We don’t know that he will, he doesn’t know that he will, but he’s Superman, right? He has to have hope?

Elsewhere, Garth and Mera are working to make his magic stronger before noticing the sky grow darker, dark with blood. They watch as Aquaman tears through Atlantis’ warriors, infecting and spilling their blood as it flows through the water and gets Garth. Mera barely escapes, but the fear on her face is palpable, she knows that all is lost.

Even Atlantis isn’t impervious to all of this, granted it’s because Aquaman was attacked by infected diving out of a boat, but that doesn’t make things any less terrifying. This also helps us to learn that the infection can spread through blood and given how fast Aquaman and Tempest can swim through water, and how far spread the infection already is, nothing is safe.

On his way to Smallville, Superman does his best to save anyone not infected along the way. He catches up to Jefferson Pierce, aka Black Lightning, and his daughters, telling them to head to the planet before reaching the home of the Kents. Martha is okay, but Jon… Superman makes one final act of kindness before flying his mother to safety, leaving any hope that he might have had in the barn with his father.

That’s what I loved about this book. It is hopelessly nihilistic because of how tragic everything is and how all of it can even break Superman. Hairsine’s art invokes the feeling of terror that I felt the first time I watched 28 Days Later, seeing these ridiculously fast and violent killing machines tear through everything in their path. The shading on everything makes the inkers inks feel even more dark and bleak especially as Aquaman is slicing through Atlantis in a nice double page spread with a black background.

DCeased is definitely much better than I initially gave it credit for. With Hairsine’s art and Taylor’s bleak writing, this is definitely worth checking out, high recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Runner Up: Savage Avengers #3 – Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato Jr., Frank Martin and Travis Lanham

Well, this was wild, wacky and amazingly violent.

Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato Jr. have come up with an absolutely fantastic story that’s full of brutal action, some cheeky comedy and remains true to every character involved up to a point. It pulls no punches and with Deodato’s amazing art, not only does it read well, but it looks damn good at the same time.

Starting off with a bang, we see Frank Castle tearing his way through Kulan Gath’s stronghold in the Savage Land looking for the bodies of his family. Of course Frank knows that it’s a trap, but never in his life has he let that stop him. With rage as his eyes, he tears through the Hand Ninjas, using a sniper rifle at close range and taking their own katanas to use against them. Suddenly, one of the ninjas puts a sai into the barrel of his weapon and he immediately recognizes them. Elektra has joined the fight.

Elektra seems to know of Kulan Gath’s plan to use the blood of warriors to summon something and she’s there to put a stop to it. She looks absolutely fierce back in her old gear, especially as she roundhouses and slices through Hand Ninjas while telling Castle to be careful as they make their way through the castle.

Meanwhile, Wolverine is captured by Gath and is suspended over his blood pit. Unfortunately for Logan, his healing ability only helps the evil Wizard as his blood only makes the plot come closer to fruition and Logan has an ever flowing amount of it. Soon after, Jericho, in the disguise of one of Gath’s students, tries to fool him. The Wizard sees through the ruse and gets stabbed in the chest, but given his sheer power, says that the insult hurts a lot more than the blade does and Jericho insults him by saying that’s not even worth Doctor Strange’s time.

Just as Gath is about to stab Jericho again, remarking that in his time he is the Sorcerer Supreme, he is shot right in the head by Castle. Gath makes Castle an offer to return his family to him alive in exchange for finding the thief who stole his amulet. Logan smirks and muses that the thief is long gone by now… only for him to return and threaten the Wizard. Conan is portrayed is a comedic man out of time and element in contrast to his own books where he is as serious as death and twice as deadly. Elektra frees Logan who collapses as he tries to stand and fight and Gath commands his forces to attack.

Conan picks up Logan and uses his still unsheathed claws as weapons as he swings the diminutive mutant around. Gath uses his magic to toss Logan into Elektra and runs his hand through the heart of Conan for the Amulet of Power and just as things are getting bleak, a certain symbiote attaches itself to the warrior as Gath summons his creature, Jhoatun Lau, The Marrow God.

Savage Avengers is shaping up to be the same kind of sleeper hit that Secret Avengers was back in 2012, especially while building Conan up to be a possible major player in future stories and hopefully in the upcoming Absolute Carnage event now that he’s had the Symbiote become part of him. The rest of this team itself is pretty good, fusing Castle and Logan’s rage with Jericho’s magic, Elektra’s skill and Conan’s cunning, this is definitely a book to keep watch of.

Best of Marvel: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Best of this Week: Captain America and the Invaders – Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Jay David Ramos and Joe Caramagna

What better way to celebrate American Freedom than by having Captain America inspire us to keep the country safe from Facist, Authoritarian rule of the dirty Nazis?

Reuniting two of the co-creators of DCs All-Star Squadron, Captain America and the Invaders tells a one-shot story of an adventure in the Bahamas Triangle a short time before the team actually assembles. With fantastic art by Ordway and perfectly campy writing, this book captures the feel of both the 1940s books and the stellar 80s works that these two are famous for.

Beginning with Captain America, Steve Rogers, bursting through and interrupting a meeting of home grown Nazi-sympathizers, the book manages to set the stage for what the action and dialogue will be like for the entire issue. Captain America is certain of his every action, punching and jumping over obstacles to take down the bastards and when one tries to escape, Steve sets upon him with fervor as the FBI emerges to arrest the Nazis. Once they’re taken down, Cap gets his next assignment, Protection Detail for President Roosevelt as he meets the Duke of Windsor as he governs the Bahamas..

We get the background that the Duke stepped down as King at the request of Winston Churchill for getting too cosy with the Nazis after being guests in Germany. President Roosevelt hopes to sway them to America’s side by offering them protection from Nazis. Ordway makes sure that everything looks absolutely of the time. Cars and some structures look exactly like they did in the 40s, however, the US Navy Sailor uniforms he and another sailor by the name of Jim Hammond wear for the undercover assignment, are not. Captain America himself looks very good in his original costume.

After a nasty storm, the President’s ship arrives on the island and not long after, he, The Duke and his wife are met by Baron Heinrich Zemo, the father of Helmut Zemo. Zemo takes everyone hostage as his men kill all of the Sailors protecting the President aside from one draped in the American flag and another who can become living fire. The Human Torch looks absolutely awesome “flaming on” to contrast the cloudy night sky. His flames are seen from the house and he proceeds to fly into the air and burn several Nazis alive. I’ve always loved the old look of a mostly naked Torch with bright oranges and yellows for the flame and his body with hatch lines for details.

As Zemo prepares to kill Roosevelt, the lights in the house turn off and a mysterious agent proceeds to knock out Zemos men while the Baron runs away. The rain picks up and Hammond’s flame goes out as other Nazis escape into a U-Boat. Rogers catches up to Zemo who uses a Death Ray of some sort to fight the American and is goaded into fighting in an enclosed space during the chase. Cap gets one good punch in, sending the Death Ray out of Zemos hands, causing the roof to fall on Caps head as Zemo makes his escape.

Cutting back to the escaping U-Boat, the Nazis think they’ve made the escape from America’s living flamethrower as their ship is torn through by an unknown assailant, Namor showing up to make sure that they didn’t get away. Cap and Hammond get back into their uniforms and make up stories about what happened to them during the night as they rejoin the protection detail with their flimsy excuses before musing to each other about meeting up again in the future.

This book was a fun little romp in a simpler time and definitely had less seriousness than the current Invaders series, but did have the heart given that Thomas co-created the team way back in 1969. It felt like he was slipping back into his old baseball glove and found that it still fit. Ordway’s art was well complimented by Ramos’ colors and looks amazing. I know he’d done some cover work recently, but his panel to panel art was certainly fantastic, like he hadn’t missed a step at all.

Flying the flag high and on Independence Eve ensures that this book is a must-read!

Best of Marvel: Week of June 26th, 2019

Runner Up: Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #20 (Legacy #720) – Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Jason Keith and Cory Petit

I love She-Hulk.

She’s always been a fun, sexy character that’s easy for me to project my McMahon-esque muscle fetish on and this issue deconstructs that in the most brutal way that needed to be acknowledged.

Starting off with a trial of the She-Hulks, Attorney She-Hulk accuses current She-Hulk of flushing Jen’s reputation as the jolly yet sassy, beautiful She-Hulk down the drain after her powers were enhanced by the Celestials in the first arc of this Avengers series.

Effectively, Killing the Fun. Current She-Hulk objects and the two get into a fist fight as we cut back to reality and see that it’s just Jen giving herself some therapy to control her powers.

But the theme of “No Fun” runs throughout the issue almost to a maddening degree. It’s the name of this chapter, Jen makes nods to it and even wears a shirt with the saying on it. I don’t take this to mean that Aaron dislikes the old She-Hulk, but that the objectification that came with her was not fun or good at all and that is a strong stance to take.

Sensational She-Hulk was an amazing series, not only for the writing and art, but also because of those spectacular pin-up covers. She-Hulk has been one of Marvel’s top tier sex symbols for decades almost to the point where it overshadowed a complex character with a fantastic personality and maybe more heroic deeds than her cousin, especially as he’s a Horrifying Gamma Monster now and she’s an Avenger saving the world.

Through the book, Jen tells us how villains would make crude jokes at her old form, grope her during fights and just in general not take her seriously. As she fights Ulik, King of the Trolls (a title that doubles as a use against some fans that didn’t accept Jane Foster Thor as he makes a comment about Thor being a name and not a legacy to pass on) he asks her to marry him as she beats his ass to a pulp. This, though contrary I think to the point that only her slim form got this kind of harassment, is the objectification and invalidation of her character.

Deadpool, for whatever reason, suddenly appears. He asks her why she stopped being funny. She replies so that she’s free to be ugly, to which Deadpool replies as she jumps away, “Can’t you do both?” This gets expanded on as Jen monologues of a conversation that she and Bruce had, where he said that he was envious of her Hulk looking the way that she did and that people didn’t run away in fear of her.

Of course, we then learn that she’s been hit on during team ups, groped, had topless pictures taken of her while she was in the Fantastic Four and just had horrible stuff happen to her that would never happen to Bruce. She thinks that being an “ugly monster” sounds good sometimes.

This book was powerful in exploring why Jen doesn’t necessarily miss being The Sensational She-Hulk. Even after that’s what it seemed like she was going back to after Mariko Tamaki’s Hulk series, I can see how Aaron feels about her character and the respect he has for her. She’s still not as strong as Bruce, but goddamn if she isn’t still one of the strongest Avengers.

And now to ruin any good will and intent I had with this review by gushing and arguing against the “Ugly Monster” statement with my own personal opinion.

Ed McGuinness has a very cartoony and exaggerated style of drawing and I absolutely love it, especially when it comes to heavily muscled characters. Back when he was doing pencils for every Hulk series, McGuinness always drew the She-Hulks exquisitely and now that Jen Walters She-Hulk has taken on a more JACKED look, she’s only gotten better.

Jen knows her Hulk form to be ugly and that gives her all of the validation and strength that she needs. I, HOWEVER, see “ugly” and all I can ask is WHERE?

In ny OH SO HUMBLE OPINION, this Hulk design is one of her best and most appealing. I loved the design of the “Broken” She-Hulk from Mariko Tamaki’s run with the character and McGuinness’ design builds on that with AN EVEN BIGGER FRAME and the MUSCULATURE to carry it.

Jen’s biceps and triceps are so large that both Scott Steiner and Hulk Hogan would blush and cower in fear. Her hands are boulder hard and could easily crush ANYONE with no effort. Her shoulders are wide and imposing in a way that should strike fear into even Mephistos heart.

Her legs and abs ripple with the strength to RIP KICK CELESTIALS APART and DO CRUNCHES WITH THEIR MASSIVE REMAINS as weight. Her chiseled jaw and face of anger make her a FORCE to be reckoned with. Any coward that runs away in terror of the sight may be justified, but anyone who sees this is as “Ugly” does not deserve the gift of being crushed under the weight of any of these muscles.

This She-Hulk is TOP THREE in most beautiful HULK designs and it takes up all three spots. Maybe this issue was directed at me, in regards to undue comments about Jen Walters appearance, but to mirror Ulik’s statement – Marry Me tho.

Best of Marvel: Week of June 26th, 2019

Best of this Week: Conan the Barbarian #7 (Legacy #282) – Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson and Travis Lanham

Conan’s heart is as cold as ice.

As such, he has great trouble letting people in and, in all honesty, why would he? He’s a thief and a killer in a world of thieves, killers and maniacs around every corner. The very idea of trust and love is something that Conan keeps far away from his heart as either a distraction or something that can be a grave detriment to any traveler. As such, when this book begins and Conan requests a few ladies of the night to join him on a journey, he is very cold to them initially.

He rides ahead of them on his horse to avoid unnecessary talk while they gossip amongst themselves over his intentions; whether or not he’s going to sacrifice them to a savage god, or planning a robbery and they laugh at the barbarian. It’s not uncommon for anyone to underestimate Conan, but his lack of willingness to touch them or even share a tent with them, given the nature of almost everyone in the Hyborian Age, is a little bit suspicious. We then get our first hints of what the underlying plot of this issue might be as Conan is unable to sleep because of memories of a certain Pirate Queen.

The next morning, one of the girls holds a blade to Conan’s throat and the barbarian doesn’t flinch. The Khitan woman asks where he is leading them and he surprises her by acknowledging what kind of hardships that they’ve shared in life, without any prior knowledge and she, the coldest of the girls sort of falls for Conan, earning him the respect of all of them. That’s what makes Conan great and so admirable, he has lived a life that most Hyperborians could only dream of and has suffered almost every pain imaginable. His eyes are filled with conviction and a darkness that commands respect.

Not only are Conan’s words hard, but his body is as well. I haven’t commented on it in a while, but Asrar’s work still shines amazingly as he draws Conan as a rock hard, man of power as he protects the girls from wolves. Though only one panel, Conan looks as ferocious as the beasts, driving his sword through the wolves, blood splashing from their wounds. His biceps and triceps tighten as he overcomes the animals in his frothing rage. Conan is intimidating and as the girls look on, their various faces from stunned bewilderment to gazes of lustful want only makes this entire book that much more beautiful to look at.

Not only is the action good, but the scenes of downtime are even better. With Wilson’s spectacular coloring, their evening feast feels all the more intimate. Conan, unable to fetch more than a rabbit, is surprised when the girls show up with a nice dinner and the way that they look at him, lit with the warm orange of their fire, is fantastic. Conan sat by and ate their food, thinking it was the finest meal he’d had in months and that was the moment they’d entered his heart. He listened to them tell tales of their various homes and stunning sights and when he did speak after being asked why he left Cimmeria, he looked at all of them and said that he knew that there was a world with sights that would leave him stunned.

He didn’t sleep with memories on his mind that night. The next morning, he reveals his plan to the girls, that they would sneak upon a pleasure ship so that Conan may kill a man that he had his eyes set upon for quite some time, telling the girls of a great reward for his head. Making fun of him for looking like a shipwrecked hobo, they clean him up nicely and board the ship. Unfortunately, Conan’s drink was poisoned and he finds himself dangling over croc infested waters at the mercy of the ships owner, Pheidus, an Argossean money lender. Love had made him sloppy. Pheidus, thinking he has the upperhand because he knew Conan was coming, drops him into the crocs, while taunting him about having the girls captured.

But, amazingly, the girls kill the guards holding them, toss Conan a sword to free himself and tear through Pheidus’ men. Violence is sexy and this scene might as well have been porn because not only did Conan rip and tear as normal, but each of the five girls did as well. They slashed and sliced with daggers and fists, grit their teeth in rage and screamed the same mad scream that Conan is famous for. As Conan tosses Pheidus from the ship, his inner monologue explains why he targeted him with such fervor.

Conan’s thoughts drift to his one true love, Bêlit, and how Pheidus ensured that her father would flounder on a sand dune until he died. This was all personal to him and the sheer amount of depth this adds to his character is astounding. Conan and Bêlit had one of the most beautiful and storied romances in Conan’s history before her death due to greed MANY, MANY years ago. Conan taking revenge on a man that wronged her family whose vice also happens to be greed is mighty poetic.

This book, as with the others in this series was absolutely beautiful. Jason Aaron really understands this character, his moods, his wants and desires and Mahmud Asrar is able to capture it with perfect line art and intensity. The action is amazing and using these one-shot stories to connect the overarching narrative is masterful and I cannot wait to see where this all ends up, high recommend!

Best of DC: Week of June 19th, 2019

Runner Up: Superman: Year One #1 – Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., Danny Miki, Alex Sinclair and John Workman

Trigger Warning: Attempted Rape/Sexual Assault

Slow and steady wins the race.

That’s the approach visionary writer and sometimes crazy person, Frank Miller, took when writing the great, but flawed, Superman: Year One. The book is a masterwork on the slow burn that builds excitement and tension for a character that has all the potential to be exciting, especially as a young child.

Beginning with the destruction of Krypton from the toddler Kal-El’s point of view, the boy is rocketed from his dying home. He watches as his parents get further and further away, engulfed by the fire and explosions of the dying Krypton, scared and alone until he reaches his new home; Earth.

This presentation feels a lot more personal through his eyes. Though his inner monologue is a bit jarring for a toddler, it speaks volumes that he doesn’t know what’s happening. He’s terrified that his parents are leaving him alone, that he may never see home again. His hands press against the glass in fear.

Pa Kent just happens to pass by, noticing the rocketship land with this strange child in it. The baby Kal exhibits a strange telepathic suggestion ability and makes Pa Kent think that taking him home is all his idea. Ma Kent is introduced as the ideal small town mother and the majority of this book expands on Kal-El’s life in Smallville.

This comic acts as the absolute ideal in what Superman’s life as a kid could have been. It’s hokey in a way that the Kents are just simple farmers and the perfect parents with Clark learning the values of how to be a good person. He defends his nerd/outcast friends from bullies and gains the love from the always awesome Lana Lang.

The books flaws, however, are as awful as the entire thing is good. Things get a bit jarring as the bullies go from simple name calling and egging to physical violence and attempted rape after Lana takes pictures of their actions. If anything should have been cut, it should have been this gross depiction of near violence against a teenager.

This and the fact that there’s no real comeuppance after the fact, aside from Clark just beating their asses, and leaves a bad taste in my mouth and the plot is dropped from there. It shifts to his relationship with Lana Lang after he reveals his powers to her and gradually makes up his mind about his future. In his late teens, instead of going to college or to Metropolis for his common origin of becoming a reporter, he decides to join the US Navy.

I am a little biased because his experience was much like my own from people questioning the decision, to telling my girlfriend at the time that I’d come back and what not and the teary goodbyes. Of course everyone who joins may have the same story. It just felt very personal to me and stood out as the most glaring change to how Clark Kent becomes Superman. I felt kinship and traumatic flashbacks when seeing John Romita Jrs. representation of RTC Great Lakes.

Speaking of the amazing artist, his art for the book is absolutely stellar. Capturing the vibe of the dry heat of the American Midwest, Romita Jr pulls you into every scene. The sense of scope is grand in space, it feels home-y in Smallville and the road to Illinois feels desolate and empty and yet full of hope and joy.

The line between adult and children’s faces, however is very thin. Clark’s faces run the gamut of emotions from joy, to surprise to near rage, but between each time jump, it’s hard to tell just how old he actually is. Ma and Pa Kent age with the subtle graying of hair and maybe a few wrinkles, but Clark is forever having the face of his three year old self.

Despite covering ground that’s been trodden millions of times, Frank Miller’s found a way to inject a bit of interest into a familiar origin story. I love the new angle of Clark Kent becoming a Sailor and fighting for America, not exactly knowing what kind of person that it will change him into. Though I hope we get a more focused and less Crazy Frank Miller in the next issue. Attempted rape is disgusting as a simple storytelling device and depending on what kind of accounts he’s gotten from Sailors on boot camp, things could go either way.

I am excited for the future of this series, however, and can’t wait for the next one. High recommend!

Best of DC: Week of June 19th, 2019

Best of this Week: Teen Titans #31 – Adam Glass, Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo and Rob Leigh

Lobo came to bring the pain.

Starting off with a bang, Lobo completes a contract on a Dhorian at the behest of Kanjar Ro, blowing up the disguised alien’s bodega before shooting him right in the face for his cash. After completing the contract, he receives a job from The Other to take down the Teen Titans. After an initial rebuff of the job, his interest is piqued after he’s shown an image of Crush, the only other living Czarnian. (not counting Twink Lobo that should still be trapped by Larfleeze)

Cutting back to the ending from the last issue, Lobo confirms that Crush indeed her daughter and proceeds to absolutely DESTROY the Titans. All of my love comes for this book comes from just how amazingly dominant Bernard Chang makes Lobo look and how terrifying Glass scripts him.

All of the Titans rush the Main Man with Roundhouse being the first to face his wrath. Lobo takes Roundhouse, who has taken the form of a ball, and uses him to BEAT THE OTHERS. He slaps Kid Flash with his best friend, he smacks Red Arrow upside her head, Robin dodges, but his cape is used against him as he’s crushed between Roundhouse and Lobo’s hands. Kid Flash tries to come back with a flurry of punches, but Lobo has none of it and decks the Kid in his face.

Djinn teleports him into Crush’s room and he sees her wall of pictures and articles about her dad. Djinn tries to bind him with magic, but he uses a mirror to turn it against her and just as he’s about to kill her, Crush saves her in the nick of time, suplexing him out of the Titan’s hideout. Lobo, unaffected, uses her as a basketball, throwing her into the backboard before using his hoop as a bat and hitting a home run with her as the ball. Throughout the carnage he has nothing but a smug grin, like he’s playing with these kids; because he is.

Lobo has killed a lot of things, including his own children, so killing the Titans would be nothing to him. At the very least, he’s jovial and having a fun time beating their asses. Chang draws him as being kinda relaxed and casual about his violence. He’s still rippling with muscle and almost appears to be showing off a little, it’s really charming in a sick way.

Catching up to Crush, he shows no restraint against her. He breaks her ankle to test if she has his healing factor, grabs her by the hair and smashes her into a train. The impact is hard and brutal with the train crumpling as Crush’s face kisses it. Back at the hideout, Djinn has the idea to loose Crush’s chain, Obelus, as it might be the only thing that can save her. Crush, however, is not a fan of the idea because the chain came from Lobo and may not obey her. In her anger, she crushes her communicator and LOBO CRUSHES HER WITH A TRAIN.

This splash page made me lose it. Lobo just leans on the train car as Crush is pinned underneath, reaching out in pain and the bottom is EXPLODING in a hail of debris and fire with a deep red and some blood spatter effect acting as the background to the insanity. Lobo taunts her, saying she was lucky that he wasn’t around to mess her up for all of her years, but that there was still time for him to let her down. The absolute CHAD hasn’t been in her life at all, comes back and IMMEDIATELY threatens to ruin it, absolutely. I can’t believe how callous and brutal it is.

Crush spits blood in his face and just as Lobo is about to deliver his coup de gras by smashing her head into a fine red past on the ground, Kid Flash swoops in and saves her, setting up Round 2 for the next issue.

This issue was absolutely insane thanks to The Main Man. Lobo just brings out the crazy in everything that he’s in and introduced the Titans to a WORLD OF PAIN. Crush was absolutely an overpowered member of the team because almost nothing could hurt her and to see her absolutely dominated like this was astounding. One thing that truly stood out was her anger when seeing Djinn in danger because of her, pun intended, crush on the young Genie. She had a burst of rage and actually slightly overpowered Lobo, but of course he continued the beating.

Lobo’s ferocity stood out in a way that we haven’t seen in any of his fights with Superman or his time in the Justice League of America. He wasn’t angry at all, but was having fun. While he could have swatted any of the kids into dust, he played with them, dragging out their pain. His fight with Crush was hard to read/watch at times with his banter. It was almost scary how ready he was to straight up murder her to keep his rep as the last Czarnian, (again, not counting the pretty boy) but at the same time he was weirdly fatherly in his own murderous way.

Honestly, this issue was just a ton of fun. I love Lobo and any chance that I get to see him act like a madman, I enjoy. Adam Glass wrote him so very well that it kind of feels like a callback to Giffen and DeMatteis’ series and Change makes him look like an imposing freak of nature that eats nothing but protein and drinks rage. Seeing Crush express even a little bit of fear was fun because all we’ve gotten out of her is anger and snark. I can’t wait for the next issue and her eventual win just to see what she’ll be capable of. High recommend.

Best of Marvel: Week of June 19th, 2019

Runner Up: Iron Man #13 (Legacy #613) War of the Realms tie-in – Gail Simone, Paolo Villanelli, Edgar Delgado and Joe Caramagna

There’s a lot to be said for how greed changes a man.

Tony Stark, eccentric, billionaire tech mogul, loved by millions across the world definitely had his flaws. He used to be a terrible alcoholic who sold weapons of war to the highest bidder until his failings led him down the path of heroism. His is a very heartwarming story and it’s intriguing to see what he used to be reflected back to him in the form of a greedy, magic leaking dragon as the War of the Realms reaches his front door.

With Tony’s armor being transformed due to being infected after his first encounter with Sadurang, he has to contend with one of the few things he tends to avoid like a plague: Magic. As a man of science and technology, it makes sense that Tony is averse to such things, taking a more structured approach to fighting people like Doctor Doom. He figures that it has to function similarly to coding and does his best to figure things out as lives are in danger.

His thoughts immediately drift to Sadurang and how similar they are. Sadurang, the All-Consuming is a gold hungry dragon, sometimes in the form of a man, whose appetite causes him to destroy everything that will be a profit to him. Tony used to be much the same and claims that while he was changed, his time in the eScape let him hit the bottle again and he hasn’t managed to tell his new girlfriend, Janet van Dyne aka. The Wasp. To me, this seems like the next step to a destructive end after Rhodey manages to stop him from walking into a bar in the last issue. He’s not dealing with his problem by telling her and only seems to be pulled further in as Sadurang mocks him for his weakness.

With Janet and Rhodey’s help, they manage to take down Sadurang by distraction and utilizing an improved Mk. I armor. Villanelli’s art shined throughout this issue. I have a weakness for stipple shading and this issue is full of it, almost giving it sort of Pop Art feel that really helps with the gleans and reflections of Tony’s armor. Delgado’s coloring accentuates this by making everything much brighter. Tony’s red and gold stand out amongst the beautiful purple magic effects and Sadurang is beautiful in a similar shade of red. Wasps yellow makes her look downright angelic as she zips around before the bright silver of the Mk. I armor steals the show.

With the upcoming Ultron Agenda being teased by Mike Deodato Jr. and Marvel a few days ago and the secrets that Tony is keeping from Janet, this book is a high recommend from me because of the story possibilities that are likely to follow from this. Tony has an awful habit of pushing the women he loves away and as Ultron returns, will his secrets spill out then? Who knows, but buy this book!