Myles:
Longtime listeners/followers will know I’ve often been a tad harsh on many DC titles since the New 52 rebranding in 2011. Justice League was one of those titles. We had just been stripped of everything and everyone we knew, given a brand new “team origin” fighting Darkseid, which has since been turned into the animated film Justice League: War, and it seemed off. I felt like I was reading stoic action figures on sets than I was a fleshed out comic.
Things have changed since then. Many continuity and character changes have come and gone. And since their introduction, many of the characters have been fleshed out much better. This brings us to Justice League #41, the first issue after DC’s big Convergence event, serving as the first part of the new “Darkseid War” storyline.
Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok deliver the cinematic quality the title originally strove for. While a number of things have happened within the DC Universe since the title begin, it’s a great jumping-on point for readers. Think of it as a slightly more mature version of the animated series and you should be fine. Fabok’s art deliver that sleek blockbuster movie style while still maintaining expressiveness and fluidity that the series lacked when it first started. Because he can juggle these traits, the set-up for the upcoming war with Darkseid as well as the deadly introduction of Darkseid’s daughter are delivered in a bombastic fashion. Johns equally deserves credit for balancing what has been clearly been ongoing in the title and designing scenes in such a way that a reader who hasn’t been reading the title the last four years can pick things up on context clues.
Justice League #41 is a solid start for “The Darkseid War” featuring a fine representation of the Justice League, even if it isn’t “my” JLA. If you’re looking for fun a fun superhero book with gorgeous art, interesting new villains, and Captain Cold hilariously/adorably asking Superman to say “Hi” to Wonder Woman for him numerous times, this is your book!
Patrick:
Airboy #1 from Image Comics
James Robinson is running out of ideas, Comic Book money, and ‘Charlie’ in Image comic’s “Airboy” #1, with art by Greg Hinkle.
I was very interested to see this issue on stands this week, having avoided spoilers about it. I will not lie 
to you, I was tempted by the poly-bagged book’s promise of something so illicit that children’s eyes needed to be guarded from the bacchanalian hi-jinx that the cover promised lying within. The names on the cover should be enough to sell you on picking up issue 1 on a whim, like me, but in case you need a little more incentive, here is a review of this first issue:
I won’t lie, that while reading this comic, itself a satirical look at the creation of a reboot (or re-imagining) of a classic Golden Age character, that I myself did not know if the titular Airboy was real or a creation of the comic. As it turns out, Airboy was of the ilk of other pulp adventurer heroes like Doc Savage and The Shadow, who have each seen several reboots and revivals in recent years. This comic is about the creative process involved in bringing back such a character, and the possible problems and roadblocks that lie within. In it we see Robinson and Hinkle teaming up, and trying to find inspiration in a genre that is nearly cliche at this point, where the term ‘reboot’ is a dirty word. This issues strength is that it peels back some of the superficial distance between many comic book readers and authors, and reveals some of the Id/Ego relationship that exists within that context. The format worked extremely well in Apostolos Doxiadis “Logicomix” where the creators explored the life’s work and philosophy of Bertrand Russell in vignettes in the present day. Speaking nearly directly to the reader works for those who know of the comics book business, or similar creative processes. In “Airboy” ostensibly we see Robinson in this light, exposed (literally and figuratively) during a point in his career in which he identifies as being in stagnation.
At one point Robinson bemoans the fact that his work at DC comics is becoming weaker, both in his own eyes and in the writings of online fanboys, who only care any more if he is “killing off Batman, or some shit”. The line is one that may haunt many comic book creators, and echoes back to Batman’s quote from Geoff Johns’ ‘Infinite Crisis‘ when he tells Superman “the last time you really inspired anyone was when you were dead”. Do creators have to shock and stir controversy in order to get noticed in a comic book industry that is becoming more and more jaded by Cross-overs, Summer Event Tie-Ins and graphic variant covers that, honestly, nobody really cares about? It is a time and a place that is explored here in “Airboy” (though with heavy exaggeration and parody) as we find the comic book creators here in a post-modern existential crisis, forced through necessity to re-invent a character whom no-one is clamoring for, in a medium that perhaps has passed by the subject matter of punching Nazi’s and giant jungle-beasts.
I won’t reveal all the spoilers regarding the crazy shenanigans that Robinson and Hinkle’s ‘Avatars’ get into, i.e. the reasons this issue was poly-bagged. Nor will I reveal the interesting twist at the end of the issue that promises that this series will be as weird as you think it will be. I will say that if you finished and enjoyed Dark Horse’s sequel to Fight Club last week and would like something along similar lines that you won’t do worse than reading Airboy this week. My only issue is that this first issue, as crazy and interesting as it is, leaves us on a cliff-hanger that I want to read about immediately. Check out issue 1 of “Airboy” today.
Drew:
The Wicked + the Divine is honestly a book I’ve been up and down on since launch. It creates a world with a wonderful concept. There is a Pantheon of 12 gods and goddesses that awaken in humans every 90 years. They are worshipped. They are hated. They cause chaos or bring great art and beauty. But no matter what they do, they are dead and gone within 2 years. Writer Kieron Gillen takes us to London in 2014, where the Pantheon has emerged into today’s celebrity obsessed, social media saturated world. We’ve seen them mostly through the eyes of Laura, a teenager who (at least on the surface) idolizes them much like one would idolize Justin Bieber, or Miley Cyrus, or One Direction. She eventually gets embroiled in conflicts between the gods through her relationship with Lucifer, a trial, and Luci’s unfortunate assassination. All of this works beautifully with Jamie McKelvie’s art bringing these gods and their powers to life, whether it’s the nature infused idol singer or the underground gothic metal goddess or the masked technologically bound trance god. The colors pop the art off the page, and McKelvie is going to make things really difficult for the special effects team for the newly announced TV series, I just don’t know how they’re going to bring all this to life without losing some of the magic. This series is a wonderful metaphor of young celebrities that seem to be on top of the world one minute and completely vanished the next.
So, why have I not always been 100% with this book? Mostly because I’m old. Laura’s growth from superfan to confidante to TMZ article fodder feels incredibly real. But because Laura’s feelings (and those of the gods for that matter) are so well written it makes me feel weird, like when you look at an old photo of some article of clothing that you loved at the time but are just embarrassed by now. It’s sometimes uncomfortable to read because I can remember being that particular brand of obsessed with being famous and being adored and being somehow worthy of all that attention. That very common teenage feeling of wanting to matter but on a whole different scale. Age has tempered this, as it often does, but reading this book often snaps me back to those feelings and my current uncomfortableness with ever really desiring it. It hasn’t been enough to stop me though, my old age has taught me that doing things that make you uncomfortable have the tendency to teach you something, and quite frankly there’s more to this book than I should let those feelings stand in the way of.
Let’s talk Issue 11. What a doozy! I hesitate to even talk about it because it is such a game changer. We have had so many hints at a bigger picture of what goes on behind the scenes for the Pantheon, Laura is still trying to prove Luci’s innocence and get closer to her killers. After Baphomet had his revelation a few issues ago he makes another move to see if he can extend his short time on Earth. But really, this issue comes down to the final pages. My spoiler sense is tingling, so I can’t say anything more, but I am absolutely shocked by the events. Shocked, confused, and excited! We have on more issue next month and then we have a long wait for the next arc, and for the first time with this series I absolutely, positively, definitely have to see what’s coming next! #noonegetsahappyending