Comics

Matt Wagner’s return to his beloved creation continues with more bloodshed, more battles, more musings, and more discoveries.  This is the best issue of the new mini-series so far as Wagner weaves a mesmerizing tale of the first Grendel, Hunter Rose.

Grendel: Behold the Devil #3
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“I saw them both Liz!  I actually saw Grendel!  And the wolf.  The whole fucking massacre…”

If the first two issues of Matt Wagner‘s new eight-issue mini-series (read about them here) set-up what was to come, here the action really gets started.

We begin with a rooftop battle between Grendel and Argent the Wolf, and move on to Hunter Rose’s realization that Argent isn’t the only one on his tail, a blow-up between Detective Lucas Ottoman and Detective Elizabeth Sparks, and a final panel revelation (so good I can’t spoil it) which will knock you on your ass.

The battle between Grendel and Argent, as witnessed by Ottoman, dominates the first half of the issue.  It’s terrifically rendered capturing the frantic action and balancing the sheer animalistic brutality of Argent with Grendel’s delicate and deadly movements.  Set to William Blake’s “The Tyger” and ending with Grendel’s escape and Argent standing over the remaining pieces of what was once Grendel’s soldiers, it terrifically starts the tale.  The later scenes with Ottoman trying to process what he has seen are also well done.

This series, originally conceived by Wagner as a stand-alone graphic novel, gets better issue by issue.  We still don’t know who exactly is hunting the hunter, leaving much more to be told in the remaining issues, but what we have gotten so far is great storytelling mixed with some damn fine trademark Wagner art.  I don’t want this series to end.

 

More please!!!  With Behold the Devil and The Umbrella Academy, Dark Horse is putting out two terrific mini-series which I want to see lengthened for years to come.  I’m soooo ready to see the next issue of this series!

The Exiles may have wrapped up their series last month with their over-sized 100th issue, but writer and X-Men guru Chris Claremont sticks around to relaunch the title with a new team, new missions, and new troubles.  This folks, is the New Exiles.

New Exiles #1
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“They’re heroes used to saving lives.  Occasionally saving the world.  Now, they find themselves responsible for saving – everything.  The totality of creation.  They’re not the first to be charged with such an impossible task.  And likely not the last.  But they may well prove to be the very best.”

For those unfamiliar with the the premise of the series let’s start there.  The team consists of Marvel characters from different dimensions and realities who have been removed to correct divergent timelines and hiccups in the Marvel multiverse.  After going out in style with the #100 issue, a new team is formed.  These heroes are asked to risk there lives on countless worlds and times, to fight and possibly die unknown, to keep the Universe and time intact.  The current roster led by Sabertooth, includes Morph, Psylocke, Cat, Mystiq, Rogue, and Sage.  The team makes its home in the Crystal Palace of Panoptchron where they can monitor and jump into action in different parallel universes.

Written by Chris Claremont this is a good jumping off point for both new readers and for those jonesing for a fresh take on the series.  The issue introduces the new team, through the eyes of Sabertooth who is evaluating each of them, re-introduces the Crystal Palace and the team’s mission, and sends them off on their first mission – all done with expert skill and crammed neatly into a single issue.

Tom Grummett’s art is light-hearted, playful and fun, matching the spirit of this first issue.  It will be interesting to see how the art will adapt to more serious storylines in the future.  He certainly loves drawing the female members of the team giving them each a certain girlishness and femininity in their poses and actions.

 

To be truthful, except for newuniversal (read that review), Marvel Comics hasn’t put out too much lately to get me interested, let alone excited.  There’s a rich and complicated world here for Claremont to mold and shape how he wishes with an unlimited supply of characters and tales from multiple dimensions and parallel realities.  This is a good first issue, and I am interested to see where he takes it from here.

They’re B-a-a-a-a-ck!  The comedic duo of Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle reunite as Booster travels back in time to save his best friend.  The DCU will never be the same.

The All-New Booster Gold #6
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“Booster Gold, the future of Ted Kord depends on you!”

For five issues Booster Gold has saved the world, the DC Universe, and time itself.  But now, without the help of Rip Hunter who refuses to be a part of the endeavor, Booster travels back in time with three Blue Beetles from different time periods to save his friend Ted Kord from being killed by Maxwell Lord.

Dan Garrett, Jamie Reyes, and an unknown Blue Beetle from a future timeline show up to stop a time disturbance the Scarab has detected and help Booster save his friend’s life.  The threesome show up in the futuristic time sphere with the ability to make Solidified Time malleable enough to change.

The foursome travel back into the past to a castle in the Swiss Alps and are successful in changing time and preventing the death of Ted Kord.  The reuniting of the two heroes is great including a fun short discussion the two have while battling Lord’s troops involving his purposeful attempts to make the Justice League ineffectual.  Heh.

The issue ends with the group returning to present time with the understanding that Ted Kord must appear to remain dead in order to preserve history.  So now the greatest hero the world has never known on a mission to save time has become the two greatest heroes the world will never know.

We’ll have to wait until the next issue to see the ramifications of rescuing Ted Kord, including what actions Rip Hunter must now take and what they have to do with Booster’s ancestor, but for now I’m just happy to have the pair back and in action together.

One of Season Five’s best episodes from Angel (read our Season Five DVD review) involved Angel’s transformation into a puppet.  Well, now it’s Spike’s turn!  The recent mini-series from Brian Lynch and Franco Urru is now available in a trade paperback which includes an army of puppet ninjas, a telepathic fish, a guy with a giant brain and a helper monkey, oh, and did I mention Spike is turned into a Wee Little Puppet Man!

Spike: Shadow Puppets
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“No, No, No…I’m a…I’m a…Wee Little Puppet Man!”

 

“I feel as though I should be on a lily pad with a banjo.”

The story follows Lorne and Spike making a trip to Japan where the Smile Time demons have set up a new base of operations.  On arriving in the Land of the Rising Sun the pair are immediately attacked by a horde of puppet ninjas (how cool is that!), and their reunion with Beck and Betta George (introduced in Spike: Asylum and their new ninja pal Tok Shinobu.  Together the team makes a run on the Smile Time Japan facility, but it seems Spike, Lorne and Beta George take a small wrong turn and end up in the “Don’t Room.”

Those familiar with Season Five‘s “Smile Time” (and if you’re not, why did you pick up this book?  how did you even find it?) know what that means.  The threesome find themselves puppetized, and then the fun can begin in earnest.  Brian Lynch captures Spike’s spirit, insecurities and insanity (all exponentially maximized in Puppet Spike).  Puppet Spike is quite a bit of fun to watch, as is the comic relief of Puppet Lorne.  Franco Urru‘s drawings are the perfect fit for the zaniness and the madcap puppet savagery unleashed.

I love how this book gets crazier and manic as it goes along.  Spike takes on puppet ninjas, then is turned into a puppet, then is forced to take on puppets made to look like Angelus, Fred, Gunn, Wesley, Drusilla, and others.  Through all of this our hero takes hits to his pride and vanity along with a real beating including getting his arm ripped off and getting impaled.  Fun, fun, fun!

The trade paperback also contains a short writer’s commentary where Lynch discusses some of the hidden jokes of the script and background props (my favorite by the way is the Angel puppet hanging by a noose in Spike’s apartment early in the tale).  Also included are all the covers for the mini-series, which I always appreciate being included in collections like this.

 

Fans of the show, and fans of Spike in particular, will really enjoy this tale.  Although you don’t need to have read Spike: Asylum or seen “Smile Time” to enjoy the read, both are referred to and built on in this new story and fans who have experience with both will get the most out of it.