Panel by Panel: Amazing Spider-Man #577

During the holiday season last year, ComiXology had a sale on several Avengers/X-Men titles. I purchased the whole run of Joss Whedon and John Cassady's Astonishing X-Men, some Chris Bachalo/Zeb Wells stuff on Amazing Spider-Man, and this one issue of Amazing Spider-Man, #577, that featured a team-up between the Punisher and Spider-Man.

It's by Zeb "Avenging Spider-Man" Wells and Paolo "Daredevil" Rivera, and it's remarkable. It's kinda like a proto-Avenging Spider-Man, in that Spider-Man's paired up with an unlikely ally to take down the forces of evil.

In this case, that force of evil is Moses Magnum, a South African mutant who's selling Mutant Growth Hormone laced with Gamma, on the black market. The Punisher gets involved because he hates crime, and Spidey gets involved to kind of police him! That is, he tags along to make sure Frank doesn't kill anybody. This single issue is very strong, not because of the plot, but because the plot allows us to do a character study on both Frank Castle and Peter Parker.

Even though they're both Marvel protagonists, they serve as foils to each other. Frank represents this force of destruction, and Peter is the attempt to hold back that force. You get a clear sense of who they are and what they want from life. Paolo draws this intensity on Frank in every panel: his brow is always furrowed, and you can really feel the hate in this guy!

Check that shit out. The dude literally spits in Peter Parker's face for looking at him wrong. Look at his brow too. It's constantly touching his nose, that's how low it gets.

Here's another panel about Frank. He takes whatever Moses dishes out, and he does it with a scowl. This guy does not give in. Also, dig that chest hair.

So Paolo Rivera and Zeb Wells get Frank Castle. That much is clear. Here's some great Spider-Man stuff of Rivera's:

Paolo Rivera gets it! Spidey's visual dynamics are HUGE. He can swing. He can crawl. He can jump. Dig the shadows too, good pencilwork in there.
 

Which is to say, Zeb Wells is no slouch either! He has this knack for telling timeless stories -- that is, he doesn't seek to shake up the status quo, and tells stories that are good for today, as well as four years from now. His work on Spectacular Spider-Man, with Paul Jenkins is a good example if you're looking for more.

If you're looking for a plot summary, I don't apologize for providing one. When super heroes team up, the conclusion is foregone, so the strength of the story lies in the characters, and these guys nailed it. It's no wonder that Zeb's doing Avenging now, and I'd love to see Rivera do some more Spidey. One of my favorite recent-ish issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

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Best of February 2012: I wonder how FAST I can go

Here's a reminder for this week: I'm taking a scheduled break, roughly week-long to recharge my batteries and concern myself with school stuff. Today's going to be the monthly recap for February.

"Hey wait a minute," you say. "There's still a Wednesday left in February," you say! What about those comics?

Well, I'm not getting any of those, so it's safe to say that I've read all of February's comics that I'm going to read. Here are the things from those comic books that came out this month, that I liked, that you might like too:

American Vampire #24

by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque

What a frightening panel! If you look around the vampire's lower jaw, you can see that it actually protrudes outside of the skin. You can see all the muscles in their lower gums -- this is a trademark of the American vampire, and it's a frightening visual!

Do you see this? The layouts in American Vampire are very traditional, so this two-page spread is HUGE. Dynamic. It's the one portion of the comic that explains Travis Kidd's motivation: the death of his parents have haunted him, and the only way he can remove their ghosts is by killing Skinner Sweet. As many vampires as he kills, none of them will do it unless that vampire is Skinner.

Chew #24

by John Layman and Rob Guillory

So here's Mason Savoy dressed up as a nurse, so he could take the blood from a bedridden kung fu champion, so he could feed it to Olive Chu, so she could learn kung fu too.

Someone, somewhere is going to find this sexy.

Daredevil #9

by Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera

Oh my goodness I love this panel. Look at the lines. Look at how they're thicker when they're closer to you, and thinner when they're far. You can see the crevices in between the stalagmites, through the black in between the pink curves. It's such a simple use of lines and color that makes one beautiful image.

The Flash #6

by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

Pages like this are why I don't choose to read Flash digitally. I could save myself a walking trip, and just get it on comixology.com, but I simply wouldn't be able to zoom out and digest a page in the right way. There are some images that you have to hold the page in front of your eyes, so you can look everywhere, and see everything simultaneously, and this two-page spread is that kind of image.

The use of color is so exciting. I love how the Flash's reds and yellows pop out of the snow white background. Couple that with the creative uses of his super powers, and The Flash is the comic book ideal: it's where exciting colors and creative visuals come together.
 

The Goon #37

by Eric Powell with Dave Stewart

Visual irony! Gotta love it.

Peter Panzerfaust #1

by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins

This one's a weird, subtle panel from the issue that caught my eye. Peter Panzerfaust takes the shell of an artillery round, and you can see the outline of his body. And he survives!

Secret Avengers #22

by Rick Remender and Gabriel Hardman

Hardman nailed these tight close-ups on people's faces. There's another one in my original review. Well done.

Captain Britain's reasoning for why he'd make a better Secret Avengers leader than Harkeye. He is literally the life-version of the ">=O" emoticon. I love it.

Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-Man #6

by Brian Bendis and Chris Samnee

So here's Miles running around the rooftops wondering about his superpowers. He's not at the point where he knows what he can do, so this is what he's doing. And it looks delightful.

Here's Miles having a conversation with his mom, and thinking about being Spider-Man. This kid is genuinely excited to have super-powers, and to be the new Spider-Man no less! Who wouldn't be?

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Wednesday's comics, today: Chew #24 and more

We're going to change the schedule a bit in the coming week. I advertised some trade reviews for next week, but these will be pushed to the week after. I'm going to take a break to deal with the Real World, but I have a few backlog posts. Here's what you can expect from me next week:

• A recap for February's comics
• a conclusion of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
• and
• whatever the hell else I felt like talking about

That's next week. This week, I got a few comics, so here are they are:

American Vampire #24
by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque

This is the third part of the four-part "Death Race," and it's not any better than the second. Scott Snyder maintains the same methodic-but-slow pace without taking the real-time story anywhere else. There's this trend for quick, wordless panels that convey small actions, but these are overused. Do we really need three panels in a half-page to show, "Young Travis walks suspiciously from one side of the Doctor's door, to the other." Television shows can afford to include this decompression, because they can convey motion in mere seconds, but comic books are visually static. Snyder employs these wordless panels in a substantial number of pages, and that hurts the story, because it fails to move forward. I can't imagine anyone purchasing this comic book issue for the single issue itself.

The creative team has a high pedigree, and this issue did not match it. This is going to read better in trade format, in a collected reading experience, but it fails by itself, as a single reading experience.

The Flash #6
by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

Have you seen the variant cover for this, by Mike Choi? It's so baller. I love the use of the logo.

This comic book issue follows, in that it's also baller visually stunning. Captain Cold brings in his own color scheme, creating a snow-y backdrop in Central City. This turns the background into this vibrant white that highlights the literal clash between his color (blue) and the Flash's (red), cold (blue) vs hot (red). It's exciting just to look at.

Where American Vampire had these panels that looked empty and required only a glance, every panel managed to look substantial, without getting crowded by dialogue bubbles. The Flash manages to convey more information in 3 panels on a page than American Vampire does in 10 panels on two pages.

Here's an example of the colors I was talking about. Look at how Flash's costume lining, normally yellow, turns bright blue in Captain Cold's presence, because he's slowing down the Flash's molecules. It's a wonderful detail.

Look at the dialogue too: Flash is stuck on why Captain Cold changed his powers, but Captain Cold answers quickly, "Don't need 'em!" He isn't concerned about the past, because it's not going to help him: he wants to move forward, and that's the tone that the creative team's been taking this entire time. They're interested in telling new, exciting stories with old characters, and they're interested in pushing the medium to do it. The script itself for this issue is nothing innovating, but these guys can only improve, and I look forward to that every month.

Chew #24
by John Layman and Rob Guillory

I don't have to read comic books. I could go play Wii with my friends, or talk to people on Facebook or, heaven forbid, exercise. I could even read more about Daredevil online, instead of picking up Daredevil the title.

But I choose to read comic books. I choose to spend my time every week to look at the weekly issues, and I even choose to talk about them online, because comic books have two things that nothing else offers. They offer a serial experience, and a visual experience, and this comic book in particular nails both of them. Visually, Guillory brings an attention to detail that nobody rivals. Every panel has life to it, and rewards the reader who takes the time. The first scene, at the butter sculpture competition is full of these small details, like a Paula Deen banner and an Eiffel Tower made out of butter.

Serially, this is the ideal comic book issue. The story itself is self-contained and we get a full story from page 1 to 20. But, when you read it in the larger context of the storyarc, it brings new depth to the story. When I put this in my comic book pile, I'm going to organize my issues of Chew, and I'm going to re-read those issues one after another, and it's going to be awesome.

If you haven't heard of Chew yet, get your bad self over to the first free issue at comixology. Tell 'em Kevin sent you.

If you have heard of Chew and you did purchase this issue, go to the letters section. Do you recognize a certain Kevin Tam in there?

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Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #'s 1-3

There was a war -- and evil won! Darkseid struck Batman with the Omega Effect, hurtling him through the beginning of space and time! Now it's up to Bruce Wayne to fight his way back home!

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne is Grant Morrison's epic of how Bruce Wayne died and came back. It's the story of Bruce Wayne's struggle for identity when Batman is stripped away from him. Morrison uses the six issues to throw Bruce Wayne in a western setting, a hard-boiled noir setting and a puritan setting, among others. Each issue defines Bruce Wayne in a way that is essential to his identity as Batman. Today we're going to examine the first half: Issues 1 to 3.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1

by Grant Morrison and Chris Sprouse

Of these six issues, the first is the strongest. It's an oversized issue that throws Bruce Wayne in a neanderthalic era. Due to the Omega Effect, his memory isn't completely with him, and when he tries communicating, the words come out as jumbled to the tribe he meets. The tribe holds a man called "man" whose son is called "boy:" here, everyone is boiled down to their essential identities, a reference to Bruce's need to find his own.

When the neighboring tribe attacks this tribe, Man gets killed, and Bruce Wayne is kidnapped, to be eaten for the next day. It's in this moment of crisis that Bruce discovers it. There are no words, but we know. We know when Bruce takes the carcass of a giant bat and wears it. It's this triumphant moment that tells us what Bruce is: he is a survivor, and he is a savior. With the help of his grappling hook, Bruce escapes and saves Boy. The two of them escape the tribe by jumping off a waterfall.

BONUS ORIGIN:

The leader of the invading tribe was Vandal Savage, the immortal man, scourge of the JSA! When Bruce disgraces him by defeating him in combat, Savage flees from the tribe and swears a revenge that would endure time itself! This in turn is a reference to the Batman himself. Bruce Wayne is a man, but Batman is an idea that endures time, literally epitomized in future issues and in Bruce Wayne's journey through time.

Chris Sprouse's clean lines and clear layouts are an effective way to tell Morrison's script. It's not a story about a cape or a costume: it's a story about men, and the issue in question is a story about shirtless man named Bruce Wayne.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #2

by Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving

When Bruce Wayne emerges from the waterfall, he awakes to Puritan-era Gotham! It's a small village that's prone to the occasional witch scare. Despite using small clues and logic to discover the murderer of a man, the villagers accuse the murderer of being a witch! He pleads with them, but fails to convince.


Here's another definition of Bruce Wayne that's essential to Batman. Not only is he a survivor and a savior, he's a detective. He follows logic, relentlessly to a single conclusion. Although the people may not agree with him, he realizes that the system doesn't always work and accepts it.
 

BONUS ORIGIN:

When the witch is being burned at the stake, she utters one last curse: on the village leader's lineage, and on Gotham itself! This is directly parallel to Vandal Savage's promise, and just as enduring.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #3
by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette

Bruce Wayne is thrown forwards in time again. He wakes up in a shipwreck as Blackbeard's hostage; the legendary pirate is convinced that he's the fabled Black Pirate (he isn't). Blackbeard forces Bruce to lead him to the cave of the Miagani, the "Bat people."

The theme of this issue is fear: fear and superstition. Blackbeard urges his crew to set the tips of his hair on fire, "to scare off any ghost or injun" while in the cave of the Miagani. This provides a direct contrast to Bruce who, when taking them through a hall of bat droppings, tells the men to burn out their torches and hold their breathes, for fear of the methane and explosion. Batman is a force of logic, but he has no qualms about using someone's superstitions against them (see above).

That'll be it for me today! Who would think that talking about Batman would have tired me out? Come back next week for the conclusion of my reading of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. The latter half trails off into incomprehensibility, but I'll try to think it out for you. For America.

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Hey Captain America! How about our troops huh?

From John Romita Sr. pencils, taken from themarvelageofcomics.tumblr.com

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Serials for 2-22: Mr. Murdock Goes to Hell, Peter Panzerfaust, and more

Daredevil #9
by Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera
Marvel Comics, $2.99

Get past the moloids and the Black Cats, and you'll see that this issue is about a son's love.There isn't much dialogue in this issue, and that's because it's mostly Matt Murdock's narration that guides the story. It's a personal issue for him. Matt Murdock is many things -- he's a lawyer, a super hero, a lover (boy is he a lover!), but he's also a son, and he's a son who loves his father. The story is about Matt's journey to hell for his father.

The issue achieves an atmosphere that's hard to define: the caverns manage to be both claustrophobic and gigantic. Matt blinds his sense of smell, because the stench is too powerful, and he's unaware of a lot of things in the caves, but he soldiers on regardless. There's a tussle between him and the Mole Man, and the end of the issue sees Daredevil in danger. Daredevil manages to freshen up an old comic book and old characters with new, interesting ideas. Don't miss out.

Peter Panzerfaust #1
by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins
Image Comics, $3.50

Dig that name! There are two things that'll catch my eye: a great cover, or an interesting title. This one got through with its title, and it's a mash-up between Peter Pan and WWII. There's an orphanage in Calais, France amidst the Nazi invasion, and when that orphanage is bombed, a curious guy named Peter Panzerfaust leads them to safety.

That's pretty much the content in the issue. There are a few fine moments in the middle, but it ends far more abruptly than it should. The splash page has no indication that it's the final page, and I legitimately thought I was missing a few pages. There's no clue as to whether this is a limited series or ongoing, and it certainly didn't feel like a $3.50 comic book, but I'll bite for another issue at least.



Secret Avengers #22
by Rick Remender and Gabriel Hardman
Marvel Comics, $3.99

Remender takes on the Secret Avengers in this first "official" issue. His premiere issue was the 21 and 1/2, which I didn't receive from Marvel subscriptions, and is fortunately not needed for the enjoyment of this story. We follow Captain Britain, guardian of the Omniverse, as he joins the Secret Avengers under Hawkeye's leadership. Remender captures the dry wit that Hank McCoy's known for, and throws big idea after big idea at the reader: one of those is that during a firefight in Iran, a woman's superpowers emerge.

That person turns out to be a mother who just wants to protect her son, and there are three groups that come after her: 1) a terrorist cell, 2) a quartet of super-people called the "Adaptoids" and 3) our very own Secret Avengers. Not only is it exciting, Hardman makes it intriguing with his layouts and emotions. Together the two craft a smart, hi-fi and classy version of the Avengers with a clear thesis statement for the storyarc.

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Library Trades for 2-20: Y The Last Man and BPRD

Y: The Last Man Volume 6: Girl on Girl
by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
collecting issues #32-36
(Amazon, $10.19)

The adventures of the last man on earth continue! In Volume 5 (reviewed two weeks ago), a group of ladies kidnapped Yorick's pet monkey Ampersand, which turned out to be the key to the survival of the last man. Volume 6 tells the story of their voyage to Japan to reclaim Ampersand. Yorick and his traveling buddies, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann are on board a cargo ship to Japan, which is threatened by Australian pirates!

There's a juicy plot twist with the Australians, and there's an interesting political dialogue that arises: the cargo ship is transporting opium to the world, which has ravaged Australia's productivity as a people. The pirates raid the ship on this premise, but is it their right? The world has gone into despair, and the ship's crew has taken it on themselves to soothe it. Brian Vaughan engages with real world decisions in this finely crafted piece of speculative fiction.

Oh, and there's some hot lesbian loving for a few pages. The last issue of the trade focuses on Yorick's girlfriend, Beth. The ongoing premise of the story is that Yorick has to reach Beth (backpacking in Australia), and here we get some of their backstory: how they met, why they love each other. Yorick is a man's man, hooking up with a new lady every 5 issues or so, but the issue justifies why they need to see each other, even in a post-apocalyptic world without men.


B.P.R.D.: 1946
by Mike Mignola, Joshua Dysart and Paul Azaceta
collecting the five issue miniseries, with a Hellboy FCBD story and a sketchbook with comments
(Amazon, $17.34)

I'm not such a big fan of Mignola's Hellboy-verse. Volume 1 left me hanging, and I haven't touched anything since, but 1946 is one hell of a comic book. Trevor Buttenholm, a British academic and caretaker of a young Hellboy, investigates post-WWII Berlin in search of one of Hitler's final solutions: Projekt Vampir Sturm. It's exactly what it sounds like, and it's awesome.

Trevor teams up with a disgruntled group of US soldiers stuck in Berlin, as well as the colorful leader of the Soviet Union's own bureau for paranormal investigation. They work their way up, from leftover Nazi soldiers to abandoned warehouse plans to unravel a terrifying alliance between Adolf Hitler and Count Vladimir Giurescu. There's a brilliant payoff at the end that involves Nazi mad scientists, robot gorillas and sending a rocket filled with rabid vampires across the ocean into America.

The miniseries was five issues, and the first was far too slow. It's composed of step-by-step introductions to the characters, and they would have been better off just starting from the second issue, which contains a chilling peek into Berlin's first vampire. This is one of the advantages of the trade paperback: if I were picking this up serially, I would have surely dropped the title by the first issue. Since it's in paperback form, I get to read through all of it. Unfortunately, this trade is priced at an appalling retail of $17.95. Most trades containing this amount of comic book would run for $12.99 or $14.99. It's hard for me to justify this price point, and this kind of stuff is why I turn to my libraries every week.

BONUS SCANS:

lil' Hellboy!

Enhanced strength through years of chicken-chasing!

 lil' Hellboy!

Even as a child he had rampant facial hair!

Lil' Hellboy!

THIS WEDNESDAY: Peter Panzerfaust #1, Daredevil #9 and more.

THIS FRIDAY: We start our look at Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne.

NEXT WEEK: Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! and The Flash: Dastardly Death of the Rogues.

Be here!

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Coming to a computer screen near you. . .

Batman IS Bruce Wayne, in: Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne!

Tune in next week Friday as we look at Grant Morrison's Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne!

Taken from Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving's Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #2

The Flash #'s 1-5: A Visual History

So the Flash recently concluded its first storyarc, featuring the debut of a new supervillain, insane new Flash powers and Central City. I'm still whirring from the five issues, so I thought I'd do a nice little wrap-up about the art, similar to the post on J.H. Williams III and Batman.

Look at this. Look at it. It looks amazing, it's beautiful. I saw this spread in the DC column of  a New 52 #1, and I knew immediately to pick up this issue #1. The design is exciting and joyful: check out Barry's expression in that "H." It tells you that The Flash isn't on a slow burn: it's hitting the ground running.

This is still the first issue. It's not exactly a spread, but it looks freaking nice. Look at Barry's body language in the first page: superheroes have emotions too, and he really cares about the murder case presented. From that page, there's a major color change, from hot to cool, and the second page is just mind-boggling. It's a single overhead shot with additional tiny panels as necessary. We can literally follow Barry's path across his room, with our eyes. Beautiful storytelling.

You best believe that the Flash don't mess around! The use of red is exciting in the first spread; it'll get your heart pumping for this issue (the second). Then, in the third, we follow Barry's race to save an airplane and the Gem City Bridge. Coupled with the cinematic credits and the stark symbols of the Flash, running has never looked so stylish.

In issue 4, Manapul and Buccellato just go buck wild on the pages. It's insane and beautiful at the same time. Since the main story of the issue is a flashback, an origin into Manny Lago's life, I think they executed it in an artistic way.

Just look at this. The panels are fists and hands, with some of their digits dismembered, representative of Manny's ability to regenerate from his severed limbs. Did you get that? Isn't it just amazing? They're playing with the idea of a comic book, the idea of rectangular panels, and it's paying off.

Home stretch now: here's a spread from the fifth issue, with the Flash gathering two ship barges from Gotham and slipstreaming them to help out the citizens stuck on Gem City Bridge. Note the Eisnerian presentation of the title: how creative is that? Comics need more of these.

And here's the last spread I want to show you. Check out how the noise from the EM generator is, literally, surrounding Barry. It's an exciting, visual way to depict a non-visual effect.

That's all I have for you today. The trade paperback isn't out yet for the Flash -- they're going to wait for two more issues and then release them in November. If there's enough demand, I'll do a similar review for these next two issues. In the meantime, head to your local shop and check out the title -- issue 6 is in stores next week!

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Serials for 2-15: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Thief of Thieves and more

Today I'm picking up Peter Panzerfaust and Daredevil #9. Since I'm going to chew on them for a while, here are the serials for today:

Thief of Thieves
by Robert Kirkman, Nick Spencer, Shawn Martinbrough and Felix Serrano

Check that cover! There are some images that just grab you and never let go. When I saw this cover, I knew I had to find out more, and when I read the preview, I knew I wanted to check out the whole issue. It's these incremental steps of curiosity that really paid off for me, and they might pay off for you too.

I love the way the pages are set up. The panels are nearly all wide-view panels, and the colors and pencils cIontribute to this slick, noir-ish tone of the heist comic. Each page is its own self-contained moment, or slice of the story, and I honestly feel that each page could be serialized, like in a Dick Tracy newspaper strip. It's very interesting to read -- they tell a surprising amount of story in the 4 panels per page set-up, and it works for them.

A few complaints: There are obvious moments where Martinbrough takes some shortcuts, ie, reusing the same panel three times in a row, or drawing squiggly lines for people in the background. Comic books are visual, and comic book panels let us relive each panel of background and detail, clear as day. Own it. Take advantage of it.

My favorite parts: The carjacking scene is brilliant. We learn the necessary characters, and we get some handy facts about stealing cars. There's an average cliffhanger on the 20th page, but the 21st treats us to this letter from Robert Kirkman. It's about his hopes for comic books, and his determination that someday, comic books will be a staple of entertainment as much as television sets are. It's a wonderful, optimistic goal for comic books. I would have scans for you, but I've lent my copy to a friend. Scans will be up by the time of my monthly "best of" lists.

Books like Thief of Thieves expand the medium into new areas, and if it isn't the future of the industry, it ought to be.

Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-Man
by Brian Bendis and Chris Samnee

It's the earths-shaking debut of Chris Samnee! I don't know about you guys, but I was pretty hyped up for this change in pencillers. It's insane how much this guy packs in a page, as well as its respective panels. His storytelling and emotions are just as strong as Pichelli's, with a completely different style. The cartoon-ish tone works for the most part, especially for the dynamic motions that Miles makes as Spider-Man, in apprehending a group of robbers. It falters a litle in the noir-ish scenes of Uncle Aaron, who's making a trip to Mexico City for his payment after robbing from Oscorp.

Looking back at it, I'm a bit surprised that that it took so many pages to show this sequence of information: "Uncle Aaron shows up in Mexico City, gets threatened by the Scorpion to eventually get his payment, then gets arrested." The pages seem to be more about the immediate feel, the nuances in the way someone walks, than about telling a longer story. It reads like the first ten minutes of a half-hour TV show.

If you noticed, a scan from the issue is the current banner on this blog. Here's another scan that I particularly enjoyed, of Miles throwing his unique brand of justice at the world:

Oh Miles. You've got a long way to go.

The Goon #37
by Eric Powell

Count on the Goon to juggle so many things -- tragedy, supernatural voodoo, union politics and taco stands -- and make it work. The issue centers on the Pentagram girdle factory in the city, and the horrible conditions for its workers. Some pages are devoted to why a fire arises there -- and each page is necessary to show how horrible this factory and its manager are, how terrible the workers have it there and how inevitable the fire is. No page is wasted.

In the aftermath the survivors resolve to form a ladies tailor union and ask for the Goon's help, who's more than willing. The manager goes to Mr. Corpus, who asks for "three drops of blood and a stool sample. Semen will work too." He goes on to make a "de-monic go-rilla" to break up the riots formed from the union, and the Goon goes to town on him! Only The Goon goes from tragedy to occult action from page to page.

The very last page is a killer, literally and figuratively that evokes the justice of EC Comics. Powell provides a letter to the readers at the end, explaining the historical background behind the issue, and I actually learned something from this comic book about union history and politics. Count on The Goon to add all these things: unions, supernatural priests, girdle fires, and de-monic go-rillas, and learn you something good too.

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