Singles: Clear, We Have Demons, The All-Nighter, Snow Angels, Night of the Ghoul

What is this, pilot season? Anyways, I found out you get a bunch of "free" digital comics via an Amazon Prime membership, so I decided to give them a whirl and see what stuck. There's some big names on these "comiXology originals," so it seemed like a good way to get more of my favorite artists.

Clear #1

by Scott Snyder and Francis Manapul

Snyder and Manapul create their version of a Surrogates-style dystopia -- only instead of everyone hiding away inside their robot bodies, everyone is hiding behind a "veil," a digital filter that virtually repaints the world around them. Want to live in the roaring 20's? Boom, now that hobo on the street is a swinging dancer. Prefer the future? Boom, the rats eating the garbage in the alley are cyberpunk raccoons now.

The main character Sam Dunes is this hardboiled P.I. kind of guy tracking down "black" veils, illegal filters being sold when he finds out that his ex-wife has been murdered. Unlike the rest of society, he still chooses to view the world with "clear" eyes without a veil, along with one of his clients, an obvious femme fatale character.

It's got the trappings of a decent neo-noir cyberpunk murder mystery. And honestly, I can't say no to Francis Manapul's art anyways. I wonder why Brian Buccellatto isn't on his colors anymore, but they're gorgeous all the same. Cool blues appear in the morgue, and the ending scene is encased in this beautiful sunset orange. Here's the highlight of the issue, when Sam is injected with a black veil meant to take him off the trail of the illegal dealers. He begins to hallucinate a whole set of weird veils while chasing them down.

We Have Demons #1

by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, and Jonathan Glapion

Man, Amazon can't get enough of Scott Snyder huh? We Have Demons centers around Lam, a snarky teenage girl from Florida: the issue is about her finding out that her pastor father is actually a demon hunter -- and when he dies, it's up to her to take over the family business.

Think Buffy the Demon Slayer. The one thing that makes this series stand out is this whole creation myth story about the "halo" and the "horn." The lightest element in the universe, and the heaviest element in the universe, meant to somehow scientifically represent good and evil. If anything will give this series legs, it'll be how they flesh out this universe. And how many Liam Neeson jokes they can pull off.

Snow Angels #1

by Jeff Lemire and Jock

This single issue is about a girl's twelfth birthday on a hunting trip with her dad and sister. It's some kind of sci-fi snow world dystopia where they can only stay in the "trench," this seemingly endless trail of ice below the surface.

They come back from the hunting trip to find their whole village murdered by the "snowman," and that's pretty much the issue. It's clear this series was meant to be binged rather than read serially. If I have any feelings about it when I read the collection, I'll let you know.

Night of the Ghoul #1

by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla

Now this is a #1 issue! Snyder really shows his range here and Francavilla is the perfect artist for this suspenseful horror comic. It's about a father and son who drive through the woods to this secret hospital nestled away in the dark. The father makes up a story to see one of the patients, this decrepit-looking old man to profess his love for a film that the man directed, originally lost in a studio fire, "Night of the Ghoul." At first the flesh-faced man denies it, until he realizes it's too late and has to let the father in on the truth.

All the while, we get these burnt-reel panels of the lost film playing in between the real-time scenes, finally ending in a climactic attack of the ghoul. The son makes a call to the mother, telling us that there's some things they're not letting us in on, and it's icing on top of a suspenseful, immersive cake of an issue. This is a horror comic done right.

The All-Nighter #1

by Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo

Just your average everyday comic book super hero -- except this one's a vampire. That's pretty much it, with the added wrinkle that there's these things called "the takers," some kind of organization that will kill you if you ever reveal to humans your true nature.

The art itself is standard superhero fare.

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Serials: Daredevil #598, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #41, Spider-Man/Deadpool #27

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #42
by Slott, Smith, Pallot, and Weber
"Bury the Ledes," back-up story "Spider-Sense & Sensibility," and gag page "The Many Costumes of Spider-Man"

It's a throwback to classic Spider-Man as we see Fancy Dan and the Enforcers! They're part of a larger story involving Daily Bugle reporter Betty Brant, her deceased husband Ned Leeds, and an underground mob plot about the (falsified) Battle of "Blood Creek."

Spider-Man plays more of a side character her, where Betty takes the main stage. "Blood Creek" was her husband's story, before he passed away, and so events happen to spur Betty on to finish his life's work. The whole thing comes off as a traditional, play-it-safe, Spider-Man crime story. No character development here, but it's not needed. Slott would be great as an animated series writer for this reason. He's very good at weaving plots together and teasing storylines early. The characters don't need to develop so much as their situations change.

Following is a shorter story about Peter's birthday, and his spider-sense. It has a very charming way to convey spider-sense that makes it worth the read alone.

Capping off the annual is a page of Spider-Man's costumes -- a fun way to look back at years of Spider-Man, and Dan Slott's 10 years there!

Daredevil #598
by Soule, Garney, Milla
"Mayor Fisk"

Man, talk about decompressed! Everybody walks around New York City and contemplates Muse's new art (remember him?) on city buildings, until he makes one of the Punisher.

Cue next issue, except, well, now you have to wait a month. It helps that Ron Garney is back on, but there's a disturbing amount of pages where there's a massive panel of nothing. . . did I really need a half-page of the back of Wilson Fisk's head? Could you have picked a better angle to

At least when Bendis decompressed his stories, he had oodles of dialogue to focus your eyes on. Here it's just tracts of unused space.

Spider-Man/Deadpool #27
by Thompson, Bachalo, and Hepburn
"Area 14" part 1

Reading this issue along with Daredevil just shows me how they're worlds apart. Thompson hands in a creative script that challenges the reader to take multiple reads to "get" it, utilizing both artists to jump back and forth between two different scenes that build on each other, technically and emotionally.

Those last few pages make Deadpool a sympathetic character in a way I've never seen before. Both Bachalo and Hepburn are perfectly suited for this style of storytelling, injecting their visual humor into each page, despite having utterly unique styles. They really squeeze the story out of each page, and this would make a great jumping on point for anyone. (So would last issue!)

This is the best comic book I read this week, if not the best comic book I pick up monthly.

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Serials: X-Men: Red #1, VS #1, Quantum Jack #1

Samurai Jack: Quantum Jack #1
by Fabian Rangel and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell

This is a fun read, evoking the cinematic action of the cartoon. I guess the conceit of this miniseries is that Jack is not a samurai -- in different issues, he's a space pirate, a luchador, different "quantum" possibilities of the original universe. You get the sense of scale here, with Jack's space pirate gang stealing a portable prison, holding some kind of divine person.

Space Pirate Jack thought he was just doing a gig, but now he gains a sense of duty in protecting this being, diverging from his values as a space pirate. The action is fun here, and there's certainly some story, but it's not enough for me to continue at $3.99 an issue. I'll wait for the discounted trade.

VS #1
by Ivan Brandon and Esad Ribic

Anything with Esad Ribic's name is an instant buy on it. The creators bill this as a "space gladiators" story, so it's kind of like Hunger Games, but ridiculously beautiful.

Two separate scenes occupy this issue: a pulse-pounding flashback battle between space gladiator Satta Flynn's team and some other team, and (what seems to be) a scene in the present where (gasp!) Satta has amputated his leg and is watching that flashback battle on a vid screen. It's an expert use of time here -- how does past Satta get out of the situation we saw him in? What is current Satta going to do without two legs? It makes him a sympathetic character and gives me all these questions which I'm hungry to answer for next ish.

X-Men: Red #1
by Tom Taylor and Mahmud Asrar

The world needs a story like this. It seems that the X-Men's story of persecution will always be relevant, and now that Jean Grey is back from the dead (the adult Jean Grey, not the teen Jean as seen in "All New X-Men."), she wants to find a way forward for the world, recruiting the help of superheroes like Namor of Atlantis, T'Challa of Wakanda, and Nightcrawler along with the geniuses of the world to brainstorm with her.

Beautifully drawn by Mahmud Asrar, you see what makes Jean such an inspiring character, from the initial rescue scene of a mutant teen, to another rescue of a baby, to Jean's speech at the UN to recognize the mutant nation. Classic superhero drama at its finest, with a modern take on Charles Xavier's original dream of human-mutant peace.

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Serials: Unbeatable Squirrel Surfer, Spider-Man: Threat Level Red Pt 1

Amazing Spider-Man #794
"Threat Level: Red Pt 1" by Dan Slott, Christos Gage, and Stuart Immonen

Now that "Venom, Inc" is over, Spider-Man can get back into the swing of things, pun. . . not intended. Immonen and von Grawbadger make the visual indication that we're back in Spidey's world, not Venom's world, and I mean the "Spidey" part too. Peter Parker hasn't unmasked in several issues, choosing to focus on his Spider-y life, and in this issue, the focus is on one villain from yesteryear: Zodiac, the man who assembled the Zodiac Key and understood a year's worth of happenings in the world.

Zodiac breaks out of his prison with 1 hour left in his year's worth of knowledge, so Spidey's on the clock to beat him. . . and beat him he does, with a twist! You don't need to know much about Zodiac beyond the intro blurb, so it results in a solid done-in-one issue with a neat and tidy "A" story, and a shocking "B" story on the last page.  Spoiler alert: Wouldja believe. . . Norman Osborn and the Carnage symbiote?

This is gonna be a good one.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #28
"The Forbidden Pla-Nut, Pt 2" by Ryan North and Eric Henderson

That cover is after John Buscema's cover on Silver Surfer (1968) #4. But for most people, it's really their first introduction to that iconography. I think Unbeatable is the closest you can get to a modern Marvel comic. There's lots of callback to the larger Marvel universe, with threats of Galactus and Squirrel Girl teaming up with the new Doctor Strange, and there are these cute little annotations from the writer on the bottom of most pages. It's usually a little joke that expands on the page itself.

When we first saw the "surfer hunks" from last issue, I knew that there was something off, and it pays off here: turns out these guys are scam artists who go from planet to planet, heralding the (false) coming of Galactus and promising that they can ward them off in exchange for material goods. Squirrel Girl doesn't like people who take advantage of others, so she unknowingly gets in a tangle with. . . Norrin Radd, the true Silver Surfer!

Unbeatable is one of Marvel's most consistent, consistently fun comic books. While it modernizes established Marvel mythology, it plays with them in a way that evokes the free-spirited optimism of the silver age.

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Serials: Doomsday Clock #3, Daredevil #597

Daredevil #597
by Soule, Landini, Milla

This issue is in two parts: in part 1, Wilson Fisk makes the announcement of his Deputy Mayor, Matt Murdock, who gets adjusted to his new office (he has a stack of backload documents to review -- and he doesn't get them in Braille, he has a reader to , and in part 2, Daredevil (almost) gets taken in by the authorities.

The civilian scenes are woefully under-colored and under-drawn, and the story suffers for it. A street comic like Daredevil deals very well with the stark colors of night and shadows, but during the day, solid colors are used too often to portray the realistic lighting of Matt Murdock's day job. Foggy is jarringly referenced off of Daredevil's Elden Henson, and the occasional panel of Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock and D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk elicits an uncanny valley that jumps you out of the story.

All said and done, it's a solid serial script, a little decompressed, with enough meat for 20 pages, and a cliffhanger to keep you going. And let's say it's a good thing Ron Garney will be back in 598.

Doomsday Clock #3
by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, and Brad Anderson

This issue raises more questions then it answers. Where #2's back-matter focused on "The Supermen Theory," a theory that over 97% of metahumans are American because of government-sanctioned experiments, #3's back-matter focuses on the JSA, a team I'm not familiar with too much, so it goes mostly over my head.

Other different scenes play out, between Batman/Rorschach, the Mime/Marionette in a bar, and Comedian/Veidt. It's a setup issue built out of Easter Eggs for fans, so much so that cbr.com is even doing an annotation for the series, if you want to get anything out of it.

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DC Universe: Rebirth

DC Universe: Rebirth #1

by Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, Gary Frank, Ivan Reis, Phil Jimenez

Geoff Johns became the chief creative officer at DC for a number at reasons. But if you just look at his bibliography, you can see why. He wrote a stable of Green Lantern and The Flash stories, reviving hidden meaning in the lore established in the past, and established a framework of stories in what were some of DC Comics' otherwise-mundane history. For example, in Green Lantern: Rebirth, he rewrote Parallax -- at the time, the evil alter-ego of Hal Jordan -- into a yellow energy creature that embodied fear, that had possessed Hal. The original story (Zero Hour: Crisis in Time) was still true; readers hadn't wasted their time with that miniseries. It was just a wrinkle to the story now, that allowed a whole new story to tell.

Johns does the same thing here. It seemed that, at the time of the New 52 reboot, superheroes were miraculously de-aged. It was the impetus to tell new stories with heroes who were otherwise old, as much as 3/4 of a century old! People didn't know which stories were true anymore, and which stories weren't. The general consensus was that they were still true, but that brought a furrow to readers' brows, when Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) was never crippled by the Joker in The Killing Joke, but continued to be Batgirl. Or when Wally West was actually black, instead of caucasian as in the pre-New 52. The New 52 just wasn't reconcilable with a number of past stories.

DC seems ready to address these contradictions now. The "New 52" Wally is actually another nephew of Barry's with the same name, and the "legacy" Wally, the one that eventually became the Flash when Barry died, is trapped in the Speed Force! This 80-page giant takes us on a five-part tour through the DC Universe as Wally tries to escape the Speed Force, and warn people that The New 52 didn't happen because of the events in Flashpoint. They happened because of someone's interference.

As if to say "Oops" DC (re-)introduces to us the vestiges of stories it had seemed to ignore. Ryan Choi, who had replaced Ryan Palmer as the Atom, and Jaime Reyes, who replaced Ted Kord as the Blue Beetle. Green Arrow and Black Canary, who were married pre-New 52, now barely know each other.

Wally jumps from person to person, each one failing to remember him, each one failing to save him from the Speed Force. Until Barry does. In a flash, Barry remembers the adventures they had together as Flash and Kid Flash, when Wally joined the Teen Titans, and those other stories. Not much else happens there. We're left to wonder exactly who tampered with the DC Universe timeline, as we're shown a clock reconstructed on Mars, presumably Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen fame.

DC Universe: Rebirth rebooted the full DC lineup, again, back to #1. Superman got a new #1, as did Batman, Wonder Woman, and so on. You name it, they rebooted it. But, it seems that it's still the same characters as we left them, from the New 52 numbering. They're just carrying on with new #1s, but some people (The Flash) are aware of their pre-new 52 lives. DC continues to rejigger their continuity, but did it really need any rejiggering? Do we need another universes-spanning event that rewrites past events? How many times are we going to (re-)hear our heroes' origins? Why do new stories need to re-tell old stories to work?

One could imagine this being a gateway comic for anyone, a great jumping-on point for someone new to comics. . . it certainly isn't. There's nods and flashbacks to a host of other DC stories, the visual vocabulary evoking stories like Barry's cry for help in Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 9-page grid of Watchmen, and the first issue cover to Flashpoint, to name a few. If you haven't read up on these, you're already three laps behind the readers who have.

For those obsessed with continuity, and with fitting in comic books year-by-year, this is the comic for you. In other words, for the super-fan, this is your comic. For everyone else, well, at least there are new #1's so you can jump on whenever you like. For me, I just want good stories.

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Serials: War Machine-off and Captain America's Rock-Fu

Captain America #697

by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Matthew Wilson

People talk about decompression in comics -- the act of stretching out a single storyline across multiple issues, but Captain America is doing the opposite: I guess the term would be. . .compression. Each issue since Waid/Samnee have taken over contains a stand-alone story, umbrella'd by the larger story of Captain America visiting an America that moved on without him. In today's issue, Captain America gets kidnapped by Kraven, the Hunter, and has to compete in a game against him. . . the prize: Captain America's life!

There's a nice twist near the end of the story with an unexpected cliffhanger. A very classic cape comic elevated by the cartooning from Samnee.

HIGHLIGHT: LEOPARD SUPLEX

Question: There was one bit that I didn't understand. When Cap and the other captive David Cotter get caught in a mudslide, Cap looks behind him before diving to save David. Why does he look back?

New Super-Man #19

"Day in the Life of a Shanghai Reporter," by Mariko Tamaki and Brent Peeples

Conveniently, this takes place directly after New Super-Man Volume 1: Made in China, and I just finished that trade!

This story is about a day in the life of Laney Lan, the Chinese analogue to Lois Lane. She reports for Primetime Shanghai, nails an action scene between the JLC and an interview with the New Super-Man over noodles. There's a slew of family secrets in this issue, one having to do with New Super-Man's *true* mother (gasp!), and the affair that Laney's father is having, overseas in America.

Overall a quiet issue that serves as intrigue for a larger story.

Punisher #220

"Punisher: War Machine Part 3," by Matt Rosenberg and Guiu Vilanova

And you thought last issue had a high body count. Rosenberg and co. up the kill scenes from here, making issue 220 the action piece of the storyarc. Frank doesn't spare any second killing ne'er-do-wells who are part of General Petrov's military regime. There's a whole page of him killing the guys running four separate concentration camps. It ain't pretty.

Turns out, Petrov has his own men in War Machine Armor, resulting in a War Machine-off in the second half of the comic. The designs make it a little difficult to distinguish Frank from the rest of the War Machines, but serviceable. Frank's "banter" with the armor A.I. makes for a entertaining reading experience that'll keep me coming for the title.

Venom, Inc. Omega

by Dan Slott, Mike Costa, Ryan Stegman, and Gerardo Sandoval

If ever there was a video-game plot, this is it. It's an over-sized issue spent on making a big bad villain bigger (literally) and badder, and only through combined teamwork and other gimmicks do our heroes overcome him. The focus is on Flash Thompson, repeatedly told that he is a hero by Spider-Man: the goal seems to be writing him into a superhero role once more, as the Anti-Venom. I just don't see why it needed a crossover with two separate one-shots, and a Stay Puft Marshmallow Venom.

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Serials: Wheelchair Spider-Man, Spider-bully, and more

Venom, Inc. Pts 4 & 5

Amazing Spider-Man #793 & Venom #160

by Dan Slott, Mike Costa and Ryan Stegman

The sooner you realize that this Spider-Man isn't sympathetic, the better. The "Spidey-as-bully" dynamic that's been introduced here takes on its own life, as Spidey performs the bidding of ??? Price, the villain of this Venom, Inc. crossover, robbing a truck and brutally beating on some regular people. I've already forgotten Price's first name, simply because he's just not that memorable. But his whole deal is that he's making a run for the five mob families of New York with a symbiote he's stolen from Maniac, a supporting character from Flash Thompson's Venom days.

There's enough continuity here that you'd be better off with this story if you were a Venom fan. I've been curious but have never dived into those myself. But if anything, Eddie Brock/Flash Thompson are the protagonists of this story, rather than Peter Parker, who plays nothing more than a henchman -- a henchman who still says "Yoiks."

After Spidey is cured in Amazing, the motley crew of Felicia, Eddie, Flash, Andi, and Peter take on Price's gang of Venoms. Venom #160 comprises of the battle, which is nice, because we don't have to contend with the weird depictions of pet Venom, or annoying Spider-snark. The action scenes are fun to read, and there's a bit of characterization with Flash and Eddie when they're pinned down in a firefight.

Spider-Man/Deadpool #'s 25 & 26, "Arms Race" Conclusion & "Oldies Pt 1"

by Robbie Thompson, Chris Bachalo & Scott Hepburn

Well, if you didn't get enough of Spider-Man, here's his team-up book with Deadpool! This title is a humor/buddy comic, with the absurd elements coming from Deadpool, and Spider-Man playing the part of the straight man. Easily, it works and, it's refreshing to see a Peter Parker that's not constantly cracking a joke. He's more than a comedian, after all.

I haven't been following this series at all -- but with Wheelchair Spidey gracing the cover of #26, I couldn't help myself. Wheelchair Spidey. Issue 25 is the conclusion to "Arms Race," while Issue 26 is the start of "Oldies". It's easy to get confused at the tail end of an arc, but I put some extra effort into it, and Chris Bachalo's pencils didn't make it seem like a chore. I'm of the opinion that any story works in media res, so the story worked for me. Also: laser sharks and Hellcow.

Hellcow was a creation of Steve Gerber and Frank Brunner's, in an old Howard the Duck comic. She was originally a prize-winning milk-producing cow, until Dracula feasted on her blood in the absence of human's, turning her into a vampire cow capable of flight and superbovine strength. Apparently, from her wiki page, she's been co-opted into Deadpool stories. Hellcow.

Issue 26 begins the "Oldies" storyarc, a story in which Peter and Wade are now among the elderly, and share the same senior home. There's some great inner monologuing from Peter, who's given up the webs as a paraplegic, paired with a ladykiller Wade who's shacking up with a different woman (cougar?) every day.

Issue 26 was all I needed to know that Robbie Thompson understands both of these characters and how to play them off of each other. Scott Hepburn's pencils capture the emotions of a man past his prime, but not his expiration date. There's a silent three-page sequence where Peter finds a thief, that's very powerful. Kudos to both the writer, for letting the art breath, and the artist for weaving together a strong set of scenes. His use of shading for action is an exciting break in otherwise static images, and he uses them well. Thompson doesn't take shortcuts, filling in the details of the backgrounds for set panels, and emphasizing emotions in background-less panels. Further kudos to the colorist, who establishes this tone of the senior home with dry, realistic colors -- and then splashing bright yellow to tie in with the superheroics. It's a blend of the mundane with the extraordinary, comic relief with pathos. This is a well-done comic book on all fronts, and I'm in for next month!

Here's the scene referenced, for your enjoyment:

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Serials: Batman #37 and Venom, Inc. Pt 3

Batman #37

Super-Friends, part 2

Tom King concludes his two-part slice-of-life story on how Batman breaks the engagement news to Superman and Lois Lane. In this one, they go on a double date, but with a twist: it's superhero night at the carnival in Smallville, so the two pairs must cross-dress. . . that is, Bruce dresses up like Superman, and Lois dresses up like Catwoman and so forth.

What, you were thinking of Batman in a catsuit? If only we were so lucky!

He grounds the superheroes in an uncanny way. Where their caped identities are by far the dominant egos of their lives, Tom King humanizes them in a way that makes them relatable. It's like following the lives of your favorite royal celebrity. If they ate toast, you'd want to know where they got their toast from.

Venom #159

Venom, Inc. Part 3

Parts 1 and 2 didn't make for much of a story. Part 3 gives you at least a look at how Eddie Brock feels now that his symbiote is severed from him. In the weirdest way, Eddie Brock is the person to ground the story, where Spider-Man and the others are supporting characters. I don't collect Venom regularly, but that seems appropriate in a Venom comic, but not necessarily a Spider-Man story.

Again the plot moves forward, but with little story to make it mean much.

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Serials: The Forbidden Pla-Nut pt 1, and more

Amazing Spider-Man #792

by Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman

Dan Slott takes Spider-Man to new places, and sometimes it's a little . . . weird. Flash, as the new "Anti-Venom," strips Eddie Brock of the symbiote, and contains it for safekeeping. Apparently, with Flash, it's like a pet now, so you see Flash cuddling with it in weird ways.

Yeah. The other weird part is Spider-Man's spoken dialogue. There's a lot of parts that just sound strange coming out of Spider-Man's mouth. He comes off as a hyperactive teenager, which Bendis did in a much better way, in Ultimate Spider-Man. It's hard to tell whether these oddities are meant to be humorous, or whether they're a serious evolution for the characters. The cognitive dissonance just makes for a confusing issue

A weaker issue that leads to a confrontation between Spider-Man and Anti-Venom, and Venom-Black Cat.

Daredevil #596
by Charles Soule and Stefano Landini

This issue is an extended chase scene, with the full force of the NYPD chasing Daredevil across the rooftops and the streets of New York. There's a nice surprise at the end with how Daredevil gets out, and a killer cliffhanger. It's a job offer for Matt Murdock that comes out of nowhere, and his response comes out of nowhere as well: he goes all in on the job offer from Kingpin. See, that's why we call him the Man Without Fear -- he doesn't hesitate to know the unknown, and to jump without looking. That's all I need to know, to know that Charles Soule understands Matt Murdock.

It's an exciting place for Matt that makes me excited to see where it goes next!

Another thing I noticed about this, but when you have the comic in your actual hands, it gets real easy to admire the penmanship. Just look at this zipline. The panel cuts it off near the top, but it's crazy to think that it's just a single line that can make you imagine depth and length. It's great.

There's a full page in the first half with Daredevil slinging around NYC, and it's great fun just to follow the lines from his cables. Occasionally there are phone-it-in panels that re-use other panels, but overall good fun.

The Punisher #219

by Matthew Rosenberg and Guiu Vilanova

I was surprised to find out just how funny this book is. There's a wry sense of humor that comes from Frank's interaction with the War Machine's AI. They're both the straight men, with Frank's no-nonsense approach to, eh, murdering bad people, yet still it works. Check out this scene where Frank tries to understand why his machine gun failed to operate:

Frank's operated a plethora of weapons during his time in Vietnam, and surely in his war on crime. You'd think he could operate one that can take voice commands, so it's pretty funny to see that his weapon can talk back now, and tell them when he's using it wrong.

The frame of the story is an old man's farm that's about to be stolen by General Petrov, the bad guy that means to instate military rule over Chernaya, using ill-gotten weapons from S.H.I.E.L.D. His soldiers approach the old man to forcefully take his farm, when Frank butts in to save him. There's at least 3 redonk murders here that are certainly not for the faint of heart.

It's a great microscopic view of the macroscopic story. The old man is an allergy of Frank. He served in multiple wars, and outlived both his wife and children, but the farm allowed him to pretend, to get away from all the fighting. The tragedy of course is that Frank could never pretend. When his armor tells him that there are no remaining threats, and that the conflict is over, Frank gives a chilling "Don't tell me when the conflict is over," and sends a missile to blow up the guys that are retreating. This is a comic that can balance the light and the dark, the funniness from Frank's situation along with the grimness.

Easily the best issue for me this week, a great reflection of Frank's character through allegory (the old man) and foil (the War Machine AI).

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #27

by Ryan North and Erica Henderson

A hilarious issue despite all of the infodump provided. Squirrels from the planet Chitt-crrt have accidentally kidnapped Nancy Whitehead, Squirrel Girl's college roommate and Tippy Toe, Squirrel Girl's pet squirrel, in order to discover how SG stopped Galactus from devouring Planet Earth. It's a joke that gets slightly hammered over the head, and then they're distraught when they find out that SG simply -- befriended Galactus! There's this aura of positivity around Doreen Green that lets her do that, and some might even call that a superpower!

There's a bro-ey depiction of the Silver Surfer here, which is, well, different to see, and then SG finds the Sorcerer Supreme (Loki Laufeyson?!) to try to find her friends. It's old-school Marvel team-up in a brand new world.

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Serials: Venom Inc Alpha, Captain America v. Swordsman, and More

Amazing Spider-Man #789
by Dan Slott and Stuart Immonen

Peter had to give up his company, Parker Industries, to keep it from getting in the hands of the sinister Doctor Octopus! For those keeping track, I read the fhhollow-up issues already, 790 and 791 last week. It's an interesting experience to read out of sequence For one, you already know what's going to happen, but for two, you see all the hints that were dropped for the future issues. Slott is great at dropping little seeds of a story that bloom in later issues, like how Peter acquires the science editor position in 791 because of how he randomly helped the then-science editor in 789.

The relationship with Mockingbird adds an interesting layer too. I'd heard good things about Mockingbird, so it helps me get to see her as a character.

It took me a while, but now I'm used to Peter Parker as a more immature person. He took on a CEO position that he was completely unqualified for (a position that Otto-as-Peter handled adequately), couldn't handle the responsibility of a global tech company and let his millions of employees down. Slott's background is as a humor writer, with some great runs on the GLA and She-Hulk, and Amazing Spider-Man is a humor book first, above all, including character progression. It's OK that Peter isn't as mature, because I've still gotten great stories out of it like Spider-Island and Superior Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man: Venom Inc. Alpha #1
by Mike Costa, Dan Slott, and Ryan Stegman

In Dan Slott's Spider-Man, villains sometimes get their own event storyarcs. The Jackal had Spider-Island (and Clone Conspiracy also? Haven't read that one.) Doc Ock had Ends of the Earth. Morlun (and his wacky family) had Spider-Verse. Now, Venom gets, Venom Inc.

Poor symbiote. It's been hustled out to so many hosts, that it's just a punishing comic for the thing. It gets sonic weapon'ed at, anti-venom'd at, and torn between the two people that have bonded with it the most (Flash and Eddie). Add the symbiote to someone you didn't see coming, take it away from someone else, make Flash the Anti-Venom, and you've pretty much got this issue. Very plot-heavy, really setup for next ish.

I'm not a huge fan of Stegman's take on the symbiote. It's weird how, when it separates from the host, just looks like another humanoid. That's always confused me, even when it was able to speak by itself like in Paul Jenkins/Humberto Ramos's The Hunger. If it could speak by itself, why take a host? I don't know. Here's some weirdness for me:

Here's Eddie Brock, crying (?) tears of symbiote while telling off Flash that he's the One True Host for it. Oh, to be a young blushing symbiote, to have two capable, hunky men fighting for you.

Batman #36
by Tom King and Clay Mann

I told myself I wasn't going to collect this in singles, and, well, I failed. Clay Mann draws some really nice figures, akin to Olivier Coipel, and I couldn't say no to him!

Tom King has gotten good word of mouth, and I can see why. He has an understanding of the super heroes that allows us to be a part of their world and realize what it would look like. The Cat & the Bat, and Superman and Lois, have parallel conversations with their spouses about certain engagement etiquette -- that is, who should call whom. The men of the relationships keep avoiding it, while the women urge them to talk to each other.

It results in a 20-page gag which, when you read it, is pretty good. The decompression is strong, but it reads as a solid single issue that ties in to the next one.

Captain America #696
by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee

Well, they can't all be riveting page-turners. There's nothing really novel about this story here -- Steve Rogers travels around America, a la Superman: Grounded, to understand the America that he left, and hijinks ensue. Hijinks being super-criminals who are ready to destroy a small town just to get at Captain America.

So it's in the little moments that make this serial worth picking up. There's so many little details in this comic that make it delightful. How the shopkeepers refuse to let Steve Rogers pay for a meal. The Swordsman's Vibranium-sword, and how Captain America gets around it. There's some very strong iconography here, how Cap and S-man have a hurtling fight in the guts of a dam that has the American flag here. The way Cap uses a katana to manually close the dam, in a feat of superhuman yet layman strength evoking that of the common worker.

I looked this up to see what it's evoking. But really, it's calling the last page of All-Star Superman #12, which itself wasn't directly referencing a piece of art. Here's the closest I found for it on the internet: https://ask.metafilter.com/102370/image-of-man-pulling-lever

It's such a great comic book idea. In that 12th issue, Superman, by "dying," became a very part of the planet that adopted him and saved him, and in his death he returns that favor in the ultimate way. Now, he is a part of the clockwork that helps Planet Earth run. It's such a beautiful image and a great end to that miniseries. It tells us that through grit and perseverance, we can do something great. We tell ourselves that it's such a striking image that, surely, it must be based on some image or piece of art from real life. Socialism sounds right, due to its emphasis on the common worker, but like the above tells you, no, that image came from comic books.

Hawkeye #13
by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero

I had the unfortunate circumstance of knowing enough about this comic to know that it's good, but not having read very much of it to know what's going on. Really, I just loved how the holographic variant cover turned from an homage to the original Hawkeye #1 cover, to a new cover that featured both Hawkeyes shooting arrows from the same rooftop. Pretty neat!

The pencils make me feel like I'm already back on track with Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye but sadly, I am still lost. There's a pretty solid cliffhanger, but I think I'd prefer to understand the full backstory in trade before I can drop another $4 on a single.

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