Isaac’s Book of the Month
Blackest Night #7
Geoff Johns (w), Ivan Reis (p), Oclair Albert, Joe Prado (i), Alex Sinclair (c). DC Comics.
There was a lot I skipped over in my Blackest Night review — but that’s what the Book of the Month is for. I purposely didn’t spoil too much, but I’m going to spoil a lot more here. That was your warning, if you haven’t read it yet and don’t want some premature knowledge, then get rid of your internet a week ago. Seriously, this has been spoiled all over the place all ready. So here is a list of awesome things in this book
- The biggest kudos goes to the art team. There are many intricate drawings throughout the book that would require just a mind-boggling degree of research to pull off. I’m thinking of the two-page splash with the entrance of many secondary Lantern characters that have only ever appeared in big background moments like this.
- Searching out fan favourite characters in this kind of a “Where’s Waldo?” game (I was just able to find Dex-Star, the Red Lantern space cat in the top right corner).
- The ebullience of Kirby dots.
- The second page — it’s an explosion of special effects and kineticism taking up about five-eighths of a two-page spread. If it were just a full-page image it would have a punching effect, the equivalent of a one-word sentence ending in an exclamation (Shazam!), but because it’s a panel that pushes out to the page beside there’s a subdued effect. The panel says “yes, this is amazing, but it’s just par for the course in this book. Just wait ‘till we REALLY get going!”
- When the Yellow Lantern Scarecrow steps up his game to attack the villain Black Hand, it starts an interesting theme that builds through the entire issue. He screams, “This is MY moment!” immediately followed by the Orange Lantern Lex Luthor going nuts and saying, “It’s mine.” A few pages later and we cut to John Stewart, who has had a relatively small part in this story, fighting for his own place.
- A further few pages later and we see a figure trying to break out of the Black Lantern power battery (presumably the famous Anti-Monitor) and he is saying “Let ME out.”
- The focus of the comic is very rarely on the assumed protagonist and antagonist, Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Nekron respectively. That’s a refreshing subversion of general convention, but it makes sense in retrospect as the lead in to…
- The ending!
I love being surprised by my comics. When I can sit back and say that this totally makes sense and, even when I couldn’t see it at the time, everything was clearly pointing to this big reveal. And there’s still one more issue to go!
Miles’ Book of the Month
DEMO #1
Brian Wood (w), Becky Cloonan (a). Vertigo.
Wood and Cloonan are better at their jobs than they were when they did the first run of DEMO. They’ve matured as talents and this story show a similar evolution. There is something distinctly less teenage about this effort; partly because the main protagonist is now a woman in her mid-20s, whereas most of the protagonists in the fist volume were in their late teens or early 20s. The change is a good one and shows that Wood and Cloonan aren’t going to cover the exact same ground they did five years ago.
I think this is the best work I’ve ever seen from Cloonan. The characters are sharp, distinct and emotive, but the real star is her depiction of St. Paul’s Cathedral. All of the locations stand out, which ties in with Wood’s story of distant locations and destiny.
Rounding out the package is a conversation between Wood and Cloonan about reteaming on DEMO, cover concepts, thumbnail story layouts, penciled pages and a preview of the second issue. I love that kind of stuff and they promise that there’ll be more of it in subsequent issues. I can’t wait.
Owen’s Book of the Month
Punisher #14
Rick Remender (w), Dan Prereton and Tony Moore (a), Dan Brown (c). Marvel Comics
I suppose it had to happen. A great creative team is working on a book I don’t usually like and turned it into one of my favourites. So here we are, with Punisher as my book of the month.
I’m a sucker for a great back-story issue. You know the type, where we take a pause from the action to learn the history of a certain character or somesuch, and this is a a fantastic one. The story behind the antagonist who has been killing off monsters contained in this issue is touching, sad, badass and completely fascinating to read. Watching the monster-hunter devolve makes for great reading, and Prereton’s art is perfect. It adds a level of history to the issue and makes the story feel more epic. Not only that, but it meshes surprisingly well with Moore’s artwork.
I’ve been catching up on some Fear Agent lately (a fantastic book), and have come to the realization that Remender and Moore are a must-read team. Remender writes perfectly for Moore strengths (expressive faces, great detail and awesome monsters) and Moore does a great job tackling Remender’s really cool ideas.
All of this brings me back to this issue, which is an awesome one-shot. Sure it comes in the middle of an arc, but it’s a sort of time-out story. If you’re a sucker for a great character-based one-shot like I am then I recommend you pick it up. You don’t really need to know the story going into it, but I bet after this issue you’re going to want to.
