Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 11.2.2011

The New 52 is now stomping into month 3 with the #3s that are buzzing a clear vision of DC's superhero-horror theme they got from the mature, gothic infusion of Wildstorm and Vertigo lines.  The pages I furiously flipped & clicked during Halloween hangover were:  Heart #1 / Stormwatch #3 / Fear Agent #32 / Justice League International #3 / Animal Man #3 / Detective Comics #3 / The Goon #36 / Red Lanterns #3/ The Last of the Greats #2 / Swamp Thing #3 / Action Comics #3 / The Infinite Vacation #4.  As for those C&D must reads...

5    Swamp Thing #3   Scott Snyder & Yanick Pacquette / Victor Ibanez
We are introduced to more deets on the rot(evil) vs. the green(good) in Swamp Thing lore via his old flame, Abigail Arcane.  The brief was highly needed (for first-time around ST readers) and whipped up in a quickstyle way as we see the eventual harbinger of our planet equate to a bubble-boy named William...who is coincidentally, Abigail's little brother.  Great Scott, excellent setup homie.

Abigail pushes Alec to pull out his green thumb abilities that stops her from capping him one-- a setup to see that Holland still has the ability to help take down her very dangerous half-brother that is awakened to his powers and kills everyone in his hospital.  Be warned-- real dark shit folks. 

Paquette does such fascinating things in this book-- be it the eerie, straight creeper feel of the swamp and its ecosystem--especially love the animals.  Peep those frogs & dragonflies doin work while ST is gettin his!!  Nasty!      

Love how Swamp Thing and Animal Man are the standout faves of the New 52 that many heads didn't really care for so much pre-52 and though each of their worlds are big enough to stand on their own--thanks to the mighty work of both creative duos-- you can see how their titles will tie-in sometime later.  Imagine the  faceoff between lil' Will and Maxine.  Raw baby!


4    Fear Agent  #32   Rick Remender & Mike Hawthorne / Tony Moore
The talents tied to this book (Remender- my tops scribe @Marvel, Hawthorne- dope, indie artist that just destroys Conan & finally Moore who co-created Walking Dead) was enough for me to get on this ish that I jumped on being the homies at iFanboy picked it as book of the week and yes, oh yes I was glad to soak it up.  The cover is so simple yet imaginative and truly embraces the experience you get while reading the final ish of the Out of Step arc.

Despite the warning on the first page of not picking it up unless covering the first 4 chapters and never reading an ish of Fear Agent prior, I did.  Yeah, badboy hwat!?  Though coming in blind and not so invested...I was emotionally impacted by the gripping narratives of Heathrow, his wife and fam going through different steps of life.  And then seeing that it is a flashback with Heath and his cyborg wife in battle on a ship in space.   Sick yo!
 
Is it real or fabricated memories?  Yeah thats where the backstory coulda helped but I felt a lot of time-flipping, space-hopping SF that makes reads like Cassanova so enjoyable.

And why is that the AI helping Heath resembles his cyborg / Char (his wife)?  More questions pop up as I am further engrossed, watching how the AI takes over the cyborg and helps the older Heath to survival, they share a kiss and they get to see what they always wished for...another reality where they are sharing in Thanksgiving, family, normalcy, with an announcement of another child.  Heath watches on the memory in tears as he flies into the sun.  Time to go download the rest of these tasty reads right now!


3   Red Lanterns #3  Peter Milligan & Ed Benes

Sometimes, patience pays off.  I knew that there was some serious setup needed to explain the mythos of Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns to newbs but lets get real, shit was mad slow in the first two reads.  Yes, Benes kills the visuals but this ish really brings the pain.  The plotlines open up with Atrocitus needing more than mere mindless followers in his crew-- so he selects Bleez as his right hand wo-man.  I always saw her

as such but now shes got some sense to balance her savagery.

What happens when Bleez returns home to her planet of Havania where she snobbed all the men that wanted some of that ass that led to getting her wings ripped from her back.

Bloody retribution.  

The pacing is improved 100x over the past reads as we all can just get down and dirty in seeing how Bleez may or may not attempt taking over the raging Red Lanterns.  Benes elevates his game with Milligan by diversifying the paneling and not cutting corners on his well known meticulous detailing. 

So hilarious in the end how Atrocitus vents his concerns to the only two peeps he can trust, his cat Dexstarr...and the corpse of Krona.
 

2    Animal Man  #3  Jeff Lemire &Travis Charest
I am not right all the time, but dayuum I was on the money with Buddy's daughter, Maxine surpassing in her father's powers.  Super fun to be taking in this retcon of Animal Man on how he was always intended to be the mere protector of his daughter--who is the actual Avatar for the Red--while he is a mere agent.

Funny that Buddy was kinda butt-hurt about it too.  Two of the hunters three jump into the Bleed, stalking Maxine as one is left behind to exterminate the rest of Buddy's fam.  Lemire makes you laugh and then gets you freaked the hell out with the nasty-ass intestines-tentacled freaky, monsters that grab you from unsuspecting panels.

I hate you Travel!   Sick to see this cat arrive in a style that puts his work on the upper echelon amongst other top artists in the biz.  Bet that Maxine is gonna utterly destroy these hunters in ways that we have yet to see Animal Man hone into his powers.  What will that look like?

The thought of seeing William (from Swamp Thing) in his bubble-bag across from Maxine with her stunners and backpack on-- staring one another down for the ultimate faceoff just gets me.

Love this book.



1    Detective Comics #3    Tony Daniel & Ryan Wynn
I finally figured that Daniel has been sandbaggin on his plotting skills cos there is no explanation for his double-duty work in getting this damn good.  I know I sound like some scratched vinyl but it must be said again and again cause holy fuck this title is ILL!!!!  Seriously, this has become the go to Bat-title that I refer non-readers to (that are Batman fans, well along with Batwoman and Catwoman).  So, Gordon isn't all cut up but he looks to get the Dollmaker treatment soon.

Bats goes on the hunt to find his homie Gordon after kicking Jack in the Box's floppy ass.  (YES he is a straight rip from Ragdoll, but maybe this is who he is in the new 52).  Bruce goes back to the cave to figure out who in the hell he is dealing with-- yes, it just so happens to be another child of some Gothamite psycho- Wesley Mathis.

Olivia uses the Bat-signal to bring out Bats and get him some help to find Gordon--yes, its a TRAP!  And now we see Batman surrounded by a horde of Joker marionettes.  Umm...yeah that isn't freaky deaky one bit huh?!  YES!  No more surprises that Detective is a top-notch, sure-shot read against every other book that hits.  I would probably put this as my top#4 of all the New 52. 


This post was written by:
big O