PGHHEAD’S 2022 COMIC ODYSSEY, PART 39
In 2021 I set a goal to post reviews here for 1,000 comics, and finished the year at 1,008 reviews. It was a stretch - - not to read that many comics, because I actually read quite a bit more. The challenge is to find and take the time to write a fair review of what I read - - but I made it. I’m up for a new year, and a new challenge. My goal for 2022 is to read and document 1,200 comics. That’s an average of 100 books per month, easy enough to check and update. Wish me luck!
# GOAL FOR October 10, 2022 . . . 933 comics documented
CURRENT COUNT . . . . . 877 comics documented
#857 LAST LINE #1 by Richard Dinnick and Jose (AfterShock, 2022)
I was reminded of a Doctor Who episode while reading this. No surprise, as Dinnick has written several Dr. Who comics for Titan. This has that same quirky, tongue-in-cheek, sci-fi feel to it. I’m also getting a bit of a Men In Black vibe from this.
Sally Hazzard is a train operator on the London subway who witnesses a man being pushed in front of her train and killed. However, CCTV footage reveals it to be a solitary jump and an apparent suicide. Sally and her brother pair up with MI-6 Agent Edward Tarn to investigate.
Dog-faced aliens with space guns. Doppelgängers of other origin. An interplanetary travel system buried under the London Underground. An investigative agency dating back to the 1800’s. Plenty of action and enough fun to keep me engaged. Intriguing art.
THREE STARS.
I followed WEST COAST AVENGERS throughout its’ entire run, so I’m familiar with my share of so-so storylines. The first appearance of the Great Lakes Avengers occurred there, and in my opinion was one of the low points (among several) of that series.
So, why did I spend time with this one. Sigh. The silly cover caught my eye, and in a moment of weakness I fished this out of a bargain bin.
There are some amusing moments, just not enough of them. Here are the most positive things I can say about this . . . .
1) The mini-series is set in Detroit, so it’s nice to see other cities featured. 2) The villain is a white-collar criminal as opposed to standard super-villains. As Nain Rouge, he terrorizes Detroit with a super-villain mob in order to be able buy real estate cheap as city councilman Dick Snerd and then flip it.
3) Nice to see a plus-size character (Big Bertha) get some super-hero cred.
4) The werewolf side of Good Boy (she) is kinda cool. TWO STARS.
This features reprints of stories from the first four issues of SHUDDER, and overall the selection is a good one. Each has a punch line, Twilight Zone kind of ending. Those of us who have read plenty of these can probably guess at some of the endings, but that doesn’t spoil the enjoyment.
Among my favorites were “Exhume Vetting” by Don Glut and Carlos Lamani where a big-game hunter greedily tries to locate where his deceased eccentric brother Ben hid his millions. “Exterminated” by Billy Grim and Santos Zaballos relates how a pest exterminator meets his match in a dilapidated house full of wasps. The best story here is “Hell To Pay” by Bob Fisher and Rodel Noora, a weird western wherein a recently deceased gunslinger tries to outwit the Ferryman conveying him across the river Styx to Hades.”To Kill A Ghost” by Lou Mougin and Nik Poliwko is another weird western tale about a John Wayne lookalike who wants to make amends for the Indian he killed.
There is also a nice assortment of vampire-flavored stories here, along with werewolves and mummies. THREE AND ONE HALF STARS.
The teen superhero team includes Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Kitty Pryde, Cloak and Dagger, Bombshell, and The Black Widow (Jessica Walters). This second volume is the continuation of the prior story where The Ultimates took down the Serpent Skulls, and delivered both vigilante Scourge and Skulls leader Crossbones to the police. Crossbones escapes into the sewers where this volume begins.
Reading this left me with the impression that this was a try-out title for some new Marvel creators, maybe to see if they could sustain a continuing series (although this apparently was only planned for twelve issues). That may be why writer Michel Fiffe crammed so many ideas and subplots into the narrative. There are plenty of battles, including Vermin and Agent Crock in the sewers, superpowers mercenaries The Femme Fatales, white supremacists The Watchdogs, plus the return of Scourge and Crossbones.
Despite that there is a lot of promise here that just isn't delivered upon. This could have been a decent superhero team title. The interactions between the team members were interesting, albeit brief. There is an overabundance of super-villains to fight and more than enough secondary characters (including a police task force).
The art is compelling in places and barely adequate in others, beginning with the minimalist style of Giannis Milonogiannis and later the inconsistencies of Amilicar Pinna.
It's sad to see that titles like this marked the end times of the once mighty Ultimates Universe crafted by Brian Michael Bendis. TWO AND ONE-HALF STARS.
The main story is a suspenseful noir about a Native American police officer on a South Dakota reservation, working as an undercover agent for the FBI trying to dig up some incriminating dirt on a Native American crime boss now running a brand-new casino. SCALPED is also a story about the realities for too many residents of an Indian reservation: rampant alcoholism, drugs, poverty, and crime in a desolate landscape.
Main character Dashiel Bad Horse is a former resident of The Prairie Rose reservation and has prior history with many of the current residents, particularly his mother Gina and Lincoln Red Crow, President of the Oglala Tribal Council, Sheriff of the Tribal Police, and operator of the new casino.
SCALPED is extremely violent, it's ugly, and shines a dirty spotlight on the hopelessness of too many members of this isolated community. The vivid art by Guera matches the tone of Aaron's gritty dialog, and the coloring paints the appropriate picture of a dark, dismal setting (except for the well-lit and colorful casino).
Can Bad Horse possibly survive this world? He jumps right into the fire in this first volume, and he's only getting started. This series will hook you. FIVE STARS.
There’s some focus on Talia this issue, with a flashback sequence of her training of Damien. I don’t know if the fable of Farhad, the Grim Soldier, that she tells to Damien is the creation of Ram V or just a re-telling but it’s a beautiful and moving tale with implications for the current storyline. Later, there’s a scene where Talia confronts Batman (violently) and addresses him as “my grim soldier.” She certainly has an unusual way of trying to protect him and warning “that even the greatest of men . . . may yet be broken."
Following up on Batman’s worries last issue, Bruce Wayne gets a check-up. The doctor notes his surprisingly good health despite many unhealed bone fractures, but suspects that his current symptoms may be panic attacks. The ironic prescription: stay away from high-stress situations. Not likely, considering that the mysterious Orgham family has officially arrived in Gotham, and welcomed with open arms as they have
“far-reaching historic ties to the City of Gotham, sharing a history and lineage with some of the city’s oldest landmarks.” Better move over, Council of Owls. Looks like you have some new competition.
This book is firing on all cylinders. Not too late to jump onboard for the wild ride. FIVE STARS.
There is an overabundance of characters in this title, as a group of Avengers from different realities seek to assemble a new band of allies to go up against The Multiversal Masters of Evil. I’m actually enjoying this title more now that these individual issues have been spotlighting a single character.
This time it’s Carol Danvers, but not Captain Marvel. This is a shackled and subjugated Carol in a world under the domination of Hellfire Castle and its’ queen, The Dark Phoenix. Death to anything that flies (including birds), except the Queen. Carol gets free during a fight and realizes that she also has the ability to fly. So she does, and discovers she’s not the only Carol as she’s recruited to join the Carol Corps of air fighters. The end, for now.
This issue combines the whimsical with the relevant, as the entire story could be seen as an allegory for the independence of women and the efforts to suppress it. Kuder’s art is on point, and really establishes the whimsy. FOUR STARS.
However, I think I’m up for this. I found the ET-ER one-shots from AWA/Upshot to be highly entertaining: a secretive ward beneath a regular hospital that treats ailing extra-terrestrials of all sizes and species. Now, CRASHING comes along to add super-heroes to the mix.
In this world, not everyone is enamored with super-heroes, and a budding anti-Powered movement is protesting, fueled by the Powered Registration Act. The over-worked resident nurse Rose at a metropolitan hospital rebels against administrative policy and decides to treat super-powered patients in the Emergency Room. Like Detective Bosch in Michael Connelly’s series of crime novels, she has a similar philosophy: everybody counts, or nobody counts. This backfires when a recently treated super-patient awakens and his eye blasts create havoc.
Rose is a sympathetic character, recovering from drug and alcohol addiction and teetering on the edge of a relapse. There’s some interesting back-story in-between the main plot line. The art by Morgan Been seems out of place here, as if it belongs in a young adult graphic novel, but I’m warming up to it. The facial expressions and body language of the characters are well done, making it easier to overlook some of the simplicity of the art.
I’m not sure where writer Matthew Klein is taking this, but I’m definitely going to check out Issue #2 before I rule this one in or out. Plus, I’ll get a chance to ask him about the book on October 21, when he makes a signing appearance at Captain Blue Hen. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
Fred is selected for a mission to protect Mall administrator Linda Miles and transport her safely to a women’s luncheon, followed by a television interview, and protect her from corporate thugs out to kill her. Linda was the sole board member to oppose a move by the F.O.A.M. corporation to place vending machines throughout the mall.
These machines dispense F.O.A.M. Energy Blast drink and F.O.A.M. Energy Bar, products which contain chemicals that stimulate the brain and increase consumers’ desire to buy. Linda has safety concerns, as the products have not been tested on humans. What follows is mayhem within the mall, gun battles, armored helicopters gaining access to the interior open spaces, weapons-equipped motorized scooters, and more.
The story and art remind me of some of the best underground comics from the early 1970’s. This is absurd, irrelevant, but absolute fun to read.THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
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