The Week of 19 October, 2016

The reading list this week (10/19/2016):

Best of the Pile Aquaman #9 - (Writer - Dan Abnett; Art - Scot Eaton) Dan Abnett is penning some of the best Aquaman outside of the Brave and the Bold animated series. These last two issues have really shown the promise of the DC: Rebirth. In the last issue, Black Manta sent a Shaggy Man (an old Justice League villain - an absolutely indestructible, sasquatch-like creature) to destroy Amnesty Bay, Maine; Aquaman's home town. With Aquaman suffering from a massive chip on his shoulder after being suspected of committing acts of terror against the U.S., he's not going to call in the Justice League to help. With the help of his Atlantean forces, it's up to Aquaman to save Amnesty Bay from an unstoppable monster. Meanwhile, Mera is unable to help him as she undergoes trials to prove that she is worthy to marry Aquaman.

In nine issues, Abnett has given Aquaman the kind of support structure that you would expect a ruling monarch to have. The writing that Abnett did for the Black Library is really paying off in creating a structure of a non-conventional world power that feels like it has real weight. He also has a good handle on the DC populace. They idolize their heroes until something goes wrong. "You're always trouble! Bringing your deep-sea crazy into this town like--" Some classic DC.

Eaton's art work is good solid work. He keeps up continuity. At some point, Aquaman's trident gets one of its tines bent slightly. Every time that it shows up, it has the bend. Everything looks good.

Green Arrow #9 - (Writer - Benjamin Percy; Art & Color - Stephen Byrne) The second part of a story that begins with Green Arrow stranded on a seemingly deserted island (you may eye-roll if you like). It makes sense that Black Canary and Diggle might be on the island, as they were all involved in taking out the 13th Circle "tanker." However, there are also people who were living on the island who have their own ideas. There is a bit of a disagreement between the two leaders of the island people. One wants to build an island ecotopia. The other had an arrangement with the 13th Circle to produce poppies for heroin production.

Stephen Byrne's art is a bit on the cartoonish side. In the first half of this two-issue arc, it made Black Canary's arrival seem like Ollie might be having a bit of a hallucination, kind of dreamlike. It will be interesting to see where it goes when the team gets back to Seattle.

DK III: The Master Race #6 - (Writer - Frank Miller & Brian Azarello; Pencils - Andy Kubert) The plan to make the Kryptonians vulnerable has gone into effect. Batman and Superman, sporting a heavy armor suit, beat on their leader. Everyone else starts swinging. I haven't been following this since the first, so I got a bit lost. Might have to get the back issues. It's not quite the Dark Knight Returns, but Kubert's art might be worth it.

Nightwing #7 - (Writer - Tim Seeley; Art - Javier Fernandez) All of the Bat-family books are recovering from a large cross-over, and the apparent death of Tim Drake. Before the Rise of the Monster Men, Nightwing had teamed with a vigilante called Raptor. Together they found the names of all the members of the Parliament of Owls. To get his mind off things, Nightwing joins Tiger (a character I don't know) in attempting to bust the Owls. It turns out that agents of Kobra (not making this up) have killed all the Owls; after buying the information from Raptor. Nightwing goes to confront Raptor who is like a Batman who has fun (He's singing a new Raptor theme song when he meets with Nightwing.) and cool with the idea that all these Owls are being killed. Tim Seeley has a lot of work cut out for him in trying to introduce a character with such a deep connection to Grayson's past, especially with Raptor being treated as an equal to Batman in fighting skill.

Shipwreck #1 - (Writer - Warren Ellis; Art - Phil Hester) I like weird comics, where the rules are changed to a world that doesn't act like our own. Shipwreck was touted as such a tale. Dr. Jonathan Shipwright is the loan survivor of a shipwreck. As Jonathan comes to a seeming deserted town, he enters a dilapidated diner where a detective is waiting for him. After a few pages where we learn that the Janus ship was sabotaged, Jonathan flees to the kitchen using an experimental technology. There, he finds who might be the diner owner. She makes an attempt on his life, quite possibly with the goal of eating him. A previous victim is impaled on a number of knives beneath the prep table. Jonathan escapes to follow after the saboteur.

So, aside from the casual murder and ghost town detective, what is unusual here? Well, there is an abundance of "crows" and spiders. Jonathan's left hand has bandages wrapped about it. It also appear to be red, where the rest of Jonathan is white fleshed. The next issue will let me know if I'm going to keep with it.

Avaterx #1 - (Writer - Grant Morrison; Art - Jeevan Kang) There is the orbiting space vessel Shamballa which comes online in this time of darkness to awaken the champion of light, Avatarex. Shamballa tries to get Avatarex up to speed on this current era while warning that things may be a bit more dire than before. On that note, an entity from the Hydra Void begins to attack. Meanwhile, the human anchor for Avatarex, Rishi Chandra, is getting married. In order to fully power up, Avatarex needs to make physical contact with Rishi, something the Hydra Void entity is working to prevent.

It's an okay first issue. Grant Morrison sets up the possibility that Rishi might not be the actual avatar, but that may or may not happen in the next issue. Rishi's brother Varun is the character given the time to form. Morrison tends to be a long story guy, so it may take a few issues for everything to fall in place. Like his Vimanarama and 18 Days, Hindu culture seems to be important to Morrison. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Jeevan Kang's art is solid. In this case, it is probably really good that it does not deviate from a good house style. That way, things that are out of the norm can be better appreciated by someone that may not have as strong a connection with Hindu stylings.

Love and Rockets #1 Volume 4 - (Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez - Art & Story) The first story is about the Locas. It's always good to see Maggie and Hopey together. Jaime's artwork is really sharp. He follow that with a two-pager about two tables of creatives selling zines at a zinefest.

Gilbert then does a Fritz story. It's about successors to Fritz's legacy and life in celebrity. It was somewhat disappointing. I was hoping for something more along the line of the Paloma stories.

Jaime returns for a strange story about a super-powered vampiress trying to do the right thing. She "saves" a friend from a tentacle demon, and then tries to stop some tentacle aliens from immolating people. So, yeah...classic Love and Rockets.