Locke & Key HC

What an interesting comic. Joe Hill is Stephen King’s kid, right? It sure shows here. This series has all the elements. Sad childhood, creepy locales, depraved psychopaths. In fact, that sad childhood element is a recurring one for King, and Hill seems pretty comfortable tilling the same soil.

The series focuses on the Locke family, specifically on the three Locke children as they wrestle with their mother’s assault and father’s death. There are all sorts of interesting ties between the murderer and the victim, but it turns out that there is a much more supernatural element here. The Locke family moves back to Lovecraft, MA, where the kids start spreading out into their sprawling estate. It’s spooky, but not overly so, in fact, it seems like a pretty great place to live if it wasn’t for the creature in the old well house and the door that turns you into a ghost. And heck, who wouldn’t want to try out being a ghost?

Hill does a nice job getting in the heads of each of the core characters, but he’s not neglecting the rest of the world either. I really enjoy seeing the strength in Locke family matriarch and in the kids’ uncle. They aren’t privy to the toughest parts of the kids’ lives, but they’re doing their best.

After the first collection, I have absolutely no idea where this is going. The creature in the well is certainly giving me some Ring vibes, but it seems there is more than that going on. I’m happy to see the story sort of resolve after the first six issues, but with lots of threads for later. Growing up in the same town your mysterious Dad did is a sure recipe for lots of interesting supporting characters.

Gabriel Rodriguez has a nice style, with big expressive eyes and clear lines. At times the art gets a bit cartoony, especially when drawing Bode, the youngest Locke. That said, some of the elements in this horror story would be too upsetting if drawn realistically. His storytelling is clear, it will be neat seeing if the colors and tone of the art continues or adjusts to the dark subject matter.

Fair

OMAC #7

How many times can you copy something before the colors start to fade?

Listen, I love Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen's take on OMAC, he's much closer to the original concept, Kevin Kho is an amusing "blank" guy, very much in line with Jack Kirby's original concept. Watching the finned Hulk smash things is always entertaining, that's why I'm bummed this comic is going away.

That said, I can't take any more Kamandi homages. I know there were some in Countdown. Karl Kesel did it best years ago in Superboy. I loved the concept then, and when I actually read the original stuff, I was blown away. How many times are we going to see these imitations trying re-create the feeling that we already had? I mean, the DCU already HAD the best Kamandi and OMAC and Fourth World stories, and they got wiped out? Why update people's costumes and tell the same story again, marginally changing things (not for the better)?

Taken on its own, I may have enjoyed this more. I love that there is a place called the Evil Factory run by an evil monkey man named Simyan. Talking animals walking around after dark, with politics and corruption totally hidden from the waking world is hilarious. I was also tickled that Kevin just joins up with them no questions asked. Why would he? His life is smashed anyway. But when I read it, I compare it to the older, better originals, and that makes this comic less satisfying.

Keith Giffen's art continues to be bombastic and fun. I'm going to miss his work on this character. The good news is, it seems OMAC is joining the JLI, so the character won't be gone.

Fair

Uncanny X-Force #1-4

I’ve been hearing good things about the breakneck action in Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force, but I held off because I enjoyed Chris Yost’s take so much over the past few years. Then Comixology had a nice 99 cent sale and I figured it was time to sample. I’m quite happy I did.

It seems Apocalypse is back on the scene, reincarnated or recreated in the body of a young boy. His old associate Ozymandius is pulling strings to make sure this kid grows up to be the Darwinian manipulator we all know and love. Apocalypse also has four new Horseman and a new sentient Ship, making his team a sort of “best of” from his old flunkies. (Although weren’t the Dark Riders his group too? A bunch of generic 90’s baddies, I think.)

After the larger cast in the last series, Remender whittles the lineup down a fair amount. X-Force is now Wolverine, Archangel, Psylocke, Fantomex, and Deadpool. There was no real “forming the team” moment, but I’ve seen so many origin stories, that is certainly fine with me. The team seems a bit awkward, with Fantomex pining for Psylocke, but she’s gotten back with Archangel. And Deadpool just annoys everybody.

The new Horseman are nice and tough, with some original powers. The upper hand gets mixed up quite a bit, as the Horsemen are darn capable of causing serious damage to the X-folks. In fact, the new Famine drains Archangel so badly that Deadpool is forced to empty his pockets to feed him (Pop Rocks and soda), then slice flesh off and feed it to the angelic guy. Pretty dang gross, and now there are two cannibals on the X-Men (since Wolverine ate his own flesh in the early issues of Wolverine: Origins).

I should mention this fight is happening on the surface of the moon. Pretty dang cool. The entire storyline is visually stunning, with Jeremy Opena exhibiting a level of skill I had no idea he possessed. This is a beautiful book; the characters don’t look like perfect cartoons like so many comics, they are lumpy and a bit imperfect, but wonderfully rendered. The designs on the new Horsemen are unique but very iconic. You know which Horseman is which as soon as they use their powers.

Regarding digital comics, the colors really pop and I found the navigation between splash and regular pages to be flawless.

I really enjoyed this opening arc, and I’d love to read more of the series. But $3.99 per issue is steep, and I can’t justify a 16 or 17 dollar trade for four comic books. Let me know if you spot an X-Force sale on Comixology!

Good

Red Hulk: Planet Red Hulk TPB

I absolutely loved Jeff Parker’s first trade on the Red Hulk; this one is solid, but not quite as good. Part of the problem is the diversion to an alien world that gives this trade its name. Planet Red Hulk just doesn’t have the time (and really doesn’t need it) to have the resonance that Planet Hulk did. I can dig the idea that we want to see Rulk go through the same sort of problems that Bruce Banner did. Putting Rulk in this uncertain a situation with this little fallout just doesn’t work as dramatically.

The Earth-bound portions of the story are much, much stronger. Parker is creating a slew of new villains for Rulk, including Zero/One, a reality-altering tech villain; Black Fog, an intangible speedster; and Fortean, Rulk’s own “General Ross.” That’s right, Rulk is now on the run, just like the green goliath.

It is surprisingly fun seeing Rulk deal with Hulk-style problems with a more strategic world-view. I particularly enjoyed seeing him take on Black Fog; when did speed ever actually beat strength? Fortean has some pretty sweet tech to make things difficult too.

Parker’s main strength in this trade is his development of the supporting cast. The LMD (life model decoy) androids get whittled down, but it’s a surprisingly poignant scene seeing how Rulk had grown attached to his handlers. I also enjoy the perspective that Jacob brings to the Zero/One story. We rarely see the formative experiences of new super-villains!

Gabriel Hardman’s art continues to stun me with its power and detail. The action is simply top-notch, and I love the character design in play here. The new villains listed above all have great, instant-classic designs (especially Black Fog). There is one cover where all these villains show up to attack Rulk, and they look like they belong already! Plus Patrick Zircher gets to draw Zzzax and MODOK, an added bonus!

Good

Invaders Now! HC

I picked this one up from the library, and it’s odd, I like the Invaders, I like Christos Gage, but this series left me fairly cold. In fact, other than the excellent Torch trade, I haven’t loved any of the Invaders material that Dynamite put out over the last few months.

And really, I should have liked this a lot more. This story features Arnim Zola, Shuma Gorath, and zombies. I mean, those are three of my favorite things, right? But the whole time lost element of the story never totally works. I just don’t feel bad for Bucky Cap or Toro, not as much as I guess I should. It’s also hard to get riled up about the repercussions of a story we never heard about before now.

Gage does a nice job with Union Jack, giving the character a pretty great batting average. Has anyone actually read a bad story featuring the current Union Jack? I can’t think of one. Steve Rogers is fine, as is Toro, but Namor, Spitfire, and the Torch don’t get a ton to do. The Golden Age Vision is somewhat interesting, but I don’t know much of anything about the character.

Arnim Zola isn’t much of a mastermind, leaving the main scheming up to the Lovecraftian Shuma Gorath. Shuma doesn’t have any dialogue, so it’s up to Zola and a weird WWII survivor to give the Invaders someone to play off. The dramatics never fully coalesced for me.

Caio Reis is a new name for me, and his art is decent. It’s tough going up against those Alex Ross covers. Reis’ faces were a bit lumpy and sometimes the battle scenes were too sketchy.

Average

Villains for Hire #4

Duh. I really should have seen that one coming. I mean, I KNEW that Misty Knight didn’t kill Paladin a few issues ago, but I didn’t see how he’d get re-integrated to the storyline. Nicely done, DnA! (I especially enjoy seeing this character trying to keep everything nice and clean when the villains start fleeing the scene!)

This series is clearly the conclusion to the Heroes for Hire series, unfortunately I bought that one in trade and this one in floppy, so I haven’t seen the resolution for H4H yet. That said, this is a satisfying read on its own. If you dig backup characters like Purple Man, Man Ape, and Avalanche, this is for you. Heck, smaller names like Bombshell and Tiger Shark get a lot of dialogue and work here too.

The pacing seems a tad off, I think this story was meant to percolate a bit longer before the pay off, but Marvel cancelled this book pretty quickly after launching it. I suppose we should be happy DnA wrapped it up at all. The series leaves Misty Knight, Paladin, and most of the villains in convenient places to be picked up again, and the Marvel U always benefits when villains get their moment in the sun.

Renato Arlem’s work is serviceable, the action is clear and the costumes look good, but as always his book looks like snapshots with costumes drawn on. There isn’t a huge sense of motion. (He does squeeze in some more butt-shots for Misty Knight too, always amusing.)

Good

Swamp Thing #7

Good timing, Scott Snyder! I was just about to drop this comic, and not really looking forward to reading this issue, when suddenly the plot lurches forward again. It feels like the book had been nothing more than some scary atmosphere for a few issues, entertaining, but hardly must-read stuff. This issue moves things along as both Alec Holland and Abigail Arcane are transformed into the avatars of the primal forces they represent (the Green and the Rot, respectively).

I'm not a huge Swamp Thing fan, so I'm sticking around for the story, here, I have not real loyalty to the character. Waiting six issues for the main character to show up was tough enough, so I am a tad worried about the pacing.

Yanick Paquette does a fantastic job with this issue, filling the book with gore and detail. He takes the time to include a stork eating a frog in the swamp next to Alec's protective leaves, a dedication to detail that is quite impressive. He also creates some absolutely horrific Rot monsters. Baby-headed, bird-zombies. Enormous meat and bone constructs wearing dead people as jewelry. This is really disgusting stuff. I don't know how this is only rated "Teen-plus" because it may very well give me a nightmare.

I'm aware this is a horror book, but at this point I'm starting to worry about Paquette's sanity!

Good