New Comic Book Day coincides with another unofficial holiday today, but, amazingly, most comics are treating it as business as usual. Still, there’s no shortage of strange goings-on in today’s top 10: What made #1 on the list?
10) Howard The Duck #6
Howard and Squirrel Girl wrap up their epic teamup, courtesy of Chip Zdarsky and Ryan North on script, and Joe Quinones leading the art team. The two books have always meshed well as part of the lighter side of Marvel, and this goofy crossover, despite being the second part, is easy to get into. Besides, it has a Wolverine squirrel.
9) Astro City #34
Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson wrap up the return of Steeljack, the ex-con that anchored one of the original run’s more touching and thoughtful arcs. This is, amusingly, an action-packed issue, but it lacks none of Busiek’s warmth and optimism, even when things are at their darkest. Anderson’s classic Silver Age-esque style gets a workout here, as he evokes classic ’70s books, especially in the fight scenes. The result is a book both nostalgic and forward-thinking and, as always, a demonstration of how to make a great comic.
8) Leaving Megalopolis: Surviving Megalopolis #4
Gail Simone and J. Calafiore took on a scary task, expanding on the brilliantly simple premise of the first Leaving Megalopolis miniseries, but they’ve done a brilliant job doing it. Simone carefully expands the ideas in the first series without going too over-the-top, which admittedly is hard to do in a comic book about superheroes losing their minds and becoming homicidal maniacs. Calafiore balances the action and gore this book needs with some surprising moments of levity and, best of all, this book ends by answering a question so simple you’ll be surprised you didn’t think to answer it. This subversion of superheroes and their tropes needs to be at the top of everyone’s reading list.
7) James Bond #6
Warren Ellis and Jason Masters wrap up their first arc, but Ellis largely steps aside and lets Masters cut loose. This issue is a masterpiece of violence as Masters details Bond ruthlessly murdering his way through a floating drug lab and the monsters within it. It’s a sequence that would be of a piece with the best Bond movies, but Masters and Guy Major, the colorist, wisely keep the gore from being excessive while making it uncomfortably visceral. Bond does ugly, messy work, and this book doesn’t shy away from it here. Bond fans in particular should pick this up, but anybody who has a taste for action that isn’t afraid to confront how ugly it can get should give it a read.
6) Divinity II #1
This book could easily have been a mess; having a Soviet cosmonaut showing up with godlike power and a commitment to Communism and the State could devolve into self-parody with just a misplaced word or a shallower character. So Matt Kindt takes the time to develop Valentina, and explain just why she’s so committed to the ideal of a nation that collapsed more than two decades ago. It’s a compelling character study, and it lays bare both the strengths and flaws beautifully.
Helping considerably is Trevor Hairsine, Ryan Wynn, and David Baron. This art team syncs up flawlessly to give the book depth, style and detail without distracting from the scripts. Baron’s colors, in particular, are well chosen to emphasize the weird without stumbling into the distracting. This miniseries has a promising new direction, and we’ll be intensely curious to see where Kindt and the team take it.
5) Aloha Hawaiian Dick #1
Hawaii in the ’50s is an unusual setting for a noir, so of course B. Clay Moore and Jacob Wyatt set this first issue in suburban Kansas City. Moore is setting the stage, but wisely, he splits the book between two protagonists: the Hawaiian dick of the title, and his brother, who is also a private eye and equally flawed. Wyatt makes some interesting artistic choices here, not least in that more often than not, everything is clean, shiny, and bright, serving as a subtle contrast to what’s happening in the book. It’s not reinventing noir, but the combination of a unique setting and thoughtful craft will make this a perfect book for fans of the genre.
4) Joyride #1
Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly reunite with Marcus To and fire up a space opera with some hilarious, sweet energy. Earth is encased in a Dyson sphere, its only contact with the wider universe a space elevator to the Moon, now a weapons platform. But teenagers, being teenagers, want to run away to the great big galaxy out there, and two of them have just managed to pull it off.
Lanzing and Kelly cram a lot of backstory in this issue, which is tricky in of itself, but the pace is relentless and keeps the book from getting bogged down. It helps that it’s not a book enamored of its concept, even if the concept is pretty neat. To keep up the pace with unobtrusive layouts and a clean, bright style that makes the book a delicious piece of cotton candy. If you’re missing SF with a sense of exploration and danger, give Joyride a whirl.
3) Superman: American Alien #6
Max Landis gives Jonathan Case, the artist, a tough issue, because it’s all about Superman’s friends calling him out on his crap as they slowly get drunk. It’s oddly an indie comic folded inside a superhero book, because Clark’s buddies from Smallville visit only to discover that there’s a much bigger gulf between them than they thought. It’s painfully relatable to anybody who moves to a city and has friends arrive, only to stare at each other and wonder who the hell this alien on the couch really is.
Case, though, gives the issue its emotional weight. What could be just a bunch of guys yelling “bro” at each other gains genuine emotional weight thanks to Case’s careful framing and lingering on faces. The end result is a thoughtful look at friends growing apart, but still caring for each other, making this an unexpected and welcome little gem of a book.
2) Karnak #3
Agent Coulson asks Karnak point-blank, in this issue, if he’s Satan. And the thing is, Warren Ellis and Gerardo Zaffino make one heck of a case for it. Ellis has been writing Karnak as, well, a complete jerk in this series, but here, in just a handful of pages rendered in gory, exacting detail by Zaffino, we get a sense of just how far down Karnak’s outright nihilism actually goes, and just how dangerous it really is.
Zaffino does some understated work here for much of the issue; Karnak and Coulson having a simple conversation about philosophy in a comics shop is dynamic, yet fills in that sense of a quiet moment before a storm. And when we see just how skilled Karnak is at finding the flaw in all things, it makes what he’s done that much more disturbing. This has quietly become a powerhouse of a book, and once again a triumph for its creative team.
1) Dept. H #1
How do you solve a murder 6 miles underneath the ocean? That’s the intriguing question Matt Kindt opens his new series with as we follow Mia to Dept. H, the underwater research facility with a saboteur and a murderer somewhere among its ranks, and almost everybody is close to our heroine Mia, a space researcher and scientist. Kindt opts for a cleaner style than we saw in Mind Mgmt, his previous solo series, although he can’t help playing with the margins and design, and makes use of watercolor here in clever ways. What’s intriguing, though, is the setup to this mystery; it ends with you having no idea who committed the murder, and desperate to find out. Mystery fans in particular should pick this up; Kindt has a treat in store for us.