Comics Reviews (9/25/14)

Last week is last week. I shan’t go back.

From worst to best.

The Sandman: Overture Special Edition #3

I wouldn’t normally even count this as a release, as it’s a clearly gratuitous and unnecessary publication for collectors, but I felt like I should single this issue out for having the single worst interview with Neil Gaiman that I think I’ve ever seen.

New Avengers #24

A good week if this is the lowest of the new comics. Several interesting things going on here, and if Hickman can (as he does here) stay focused on the characters and not wander off into endlessly and vaguely restating the same hope/anxiety positions about the nature of the future, he could manage a very sharp finale to this run. And, I mean, I have to love any comic that uses a splash page reveal of Molecule Man as its cliffhanger.

The Massive #27

Huge numbers of reveals, such that it’s rather difficult to see how there are three more issues of this. I suspect that there’s little this book can do to make me not feel like it was a bit of a wasted opportunity. Ultimately, I wish it had been written by Warren Ellis. Or someone who could actually do the book this is trying to be.

Chew #43

A strange sense of deja vu, inasmuch as I swear the comic has done this cover gimmick before. Plot marches on. I’ll be honest, this is a book I wouldn’t keep buying if issue #1 was at this level of quality, but at this point it would have to do something really infuriating to get me not to stick out to the end. Ah, the sunk costs fallacy, also known as the comic industry’s business model. Of course, fridging Olive like they seem to be setting up would do it.

Mighty Avengers #14

A sweet and ruthlessly optimistic ending to the current arc, setting up the “we like this book but it’s not selling so let’s do a title change and a new #1” reboot with aplomb, reminding people who have been buying the book why they like it, bringing this phase to what feels like an ending, and being well set up for the next round. Plus, it’s a book whose best line manages to be “Yay! Good work, team!” Which is cute.

Guardians of the Galaxy #19

OK, after a fluff of a first issue to this arc, this one is starting to grab my attention. The question of Gamora’s moral judgment of Quill works for me this time in a way that it didn’t the first time (probably because, having no idea of the background to this arc, I was busy being thrown by learning the questions at the same time Bendis was answering them). Curious how it resolves. And it had better resolve next issue, because I suspect three issues is a lot for this story.

Cyclops #5

This ends Rucka’s bit on the book, yes? A very solid, standard Rucka issue here. Cyclops’s scheme is very Rucka, and is a nice twist. And Rucka lampshades it charmingly with “kinda a stupid oath to swear if you’re a bounty hunter.” Then ends it on a morally ambivalent and tricky note, which is quite nice. Pity he’s off the book after this – I’ve been quite enjoying his run.

Saga #23

Goddammit I wish I could tell the damn television people apart, or remember their backstories. But I’m pretty sure this is a good comic.

Loki Agent of Asgard #6

I’m kind of dreading Axis. It’s an event whose stated premise bores me, whose first twist is actively something I hate in comics, and is by a writer I don’t much like. But it’s so tied into books I read that I’m stuck with it. So I approached this with trepidation. And instead got a lovely, brilliant book that serves up a great conflict. Plus it has the line “time plus space equals narrative. A time machine is a space machine is a machine for moving through narrative.” Which is so tailored to me it’s almost cheating, but which is more than enough to get this pick of the week.