Best of THE PAST FEW MONTHS: Zero month, Punk Rock Jesus and more

Work's been taking my time lately, which I can't say is a bad thing. It has been keeping me from blogging, which I'm not too proud of. Here's a recap of the last few comics I've been reading this month. It is not a complete list, because I'm not amused by all the comics I get. Enjoy: remember to take advantage of Google's Lightbox View to check out these images (scanned in 150 dpi for your reading pleasure!).

Batman #0

by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

Zero month was last month, and it threw DC to the top for September. I didn't pick up any more DC titles than I usually do, so here's a small clip from Batman #0. It opens with a really great heist scene where Bruce botches his impersonation of a thief, and in the middle of the issue, there's this conversation between Bruce and Lt. Jim Gordon. In the middle of the enter thing, Bruce has been testing out his delayed-return batarang, so Bruce has to end the conversation before the batarang returns!

Batman #12 was also out, and it was a done-in-one that focused on a Gotham electrician who was an orphan, living with her brother and obsessing over the Batman. The cool thing about the issue is that she discovers Batman's controls, wired into everywhere in Gotham's electrical grid. This really builds on the Batman's connection to Gotham City that Snyder's been theming around. That is pretty cool!

Batman, Inc #3

by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham

Matches Malone returns in this issue! Matches is one of Bruce Wayne's many alter egos, and Matches is what he uses to infiltrate the criminal underworld. Matches visits a bar to get more information about the terrorist organization when he gets more than he asked for, and by the end of the issue he's getting choked in a grocery bag, while Damian's dressed up as Red Robin in order to save him. Cue issue 0.

Batman, Inc #0

by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham and Frazer Irving

Check it, that guy's name is Veiniac. He swings from rooftop to rooftop from veins that extend out of his wrist. "Doubleface" also makes his dazzling debut here, but his gimmick is that he's Bi-Beast.

Oh, the issue? It's about Bruce Wayne starting his global network of Batmen, and it's made of scenes of people recruiting other people for Batman, Inc. It's a shame that this came right in the middle of issue 3 and 4, because Bruce was about to choke to death when issue 3 ended.

Chew #28

by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Chew continues the "Space Cakes" arc, although I'm having a hard time remembering what's exactly happening, what with the Secret Agent Poyo one-shot in between issues 27 and 28.

Anyways, in this series of panels, the team has to take Tony out of the hospital to use his powers, except he's still in extreme pain from last arc ("Major League Chew") so they put him on painkillers.

The Flash #12

by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato 

Argh this entire issue was great! Francis Manapul is making some great comic art, and here's one example of an exciting way to show a person falling down.

Man those double-page spreads are awesome. The issue is about Golden Glider breaking out a bunch of the supervillains that Flash put away, and it spilled over into Annual #1, which is not all that great visually. And when you make that visual aspect mediocre, it removes a lot of what makes this title so great.

The Flash #0

by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

This zero issue tells us a bit about Barry Allen's motivation for crime and the personal tragedy that caused it. It's a different take on the superhero tragedy, in that Barry's dad actually killed his mom in a domestic dispute, and Barry spent much of his life trying to find the evidence to disprove that. By the end of the issue, he learns to move on with it, instead of spending his time living in the past, a major theme in the title.

This zero issue also holds the wild debut of Barry Grylls, survival extraordinaire. Dat beard.

Punk Rock Jesus #2

by Sean Murphy

 Woooow. I haven't talked about any other issues, but this page pops up in issue 2. It's an extreme close-up of Thomas, the bodyguard for Gwen (the mother to the clone of Jesus Christ). After the very conservative, separate-paneled pages, here's this huge close-up on Thomas' face, and you can see all the grit on it. You can see the dots on his hat and the lines on his face, and if you look hard, you can even see fingerprints on his cheek. That's just wild. Sean Murphy is telling this story, and it's exciting to read. Check it out.


I've also been reading The New Deadwardians, but it's' moving at such a slow pace that I'm just picking it up out of habit. Two more issues to go and I don't have to think about it anymore.

Follow chezkevin on rss | twitter