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Some good stuff this week, but much like cover of the week…nobody could compete with J.H. Williams and Amy Reeder on Batwoman #0. That said, because of the way it was structured and drawn, it was almost impossible to pick a single panel…so you’re getting a whole page. Enjoy!
Also, check out my review of Batwoman #0 on She Has No Head – as well as our discussion of Batwoman #0 on our second episode of 3 Chicks Review Comics, which goes up today at 2pm on Comics Should Be Good.
Click to enlarge!
This panel from the very first page of Batman Inc. #1, by Yanick Paquette is pretty damn hard to beat…you can see why…
This was a really weak week for my comics. Nothing seemed especially interesting or beautiful.
The final arc to The Return of Bruce Wayne had a couple great opportunities and some that really should have been perfect opportunities for Panel of the Week, (some of them even involving awesome “old school” Wonder Woman) but none of them really rose to the occasion, instead just feeling ho-hum to me and not really worthy visually of what was going on story-wise.
Normally Cass Cain appearing in a few pages of Red Robin would easily be enough to pick up a Panel of the Week from me, but while the art was not bad it wasn’t anything to write home about and I didn’t like or appreciate the story…so there were no truly great moments there to pick up on.
If I wasn’t so against Batgirl #15 perhaps one of those opening adorable Nguyen panels could have won, but I can’t bear to support that little bit of revisionist history.
Stuart Immonen did some beautiful work on The New Avengers #6, as per usual, but without the surrounding story…it’s hard to just pull a panel and have it work out of context This one does though and is pretty awesome, so it’s our winner:
The book I enjoyed the most this week, and which had TONS of panels worthy of Panel Of The Week, but is not technically eligible as it came out last week (I had a delay in getting it) is Marvel’s Strange Tales II issue #2. But just for fun, here’s what I would have picked had Strange Tales II been eligible…and in some nice symmetry it’s more Wolvie!
For what it’s worth I would read the FUCK out of Jeffrey Brown’s X-Men regularly. Hilarious in all the right ways. I laughed out loud repeatedly in his short from Strange Tales II.
“More Indie Creators on Mainstream Properties!” I say.
Man, I’ve got to come up with a battle cry that has a better ring to it…
Sometimes comics are just badass awesome. Case in point:
Batman & Robin #16, Fraser Irving.
Also:
Hawkeye & Mockingbird #6, David Lopez.
It’s a bit bittersweet however as it appears Hawkeye & Mockingbird has been canceled. Which is a shame because it was a solid little book. Well-written and well-illustrated and better than a large percentage of the monthly books I read, but I guess it just didn’t have enough HEYLOOKATME!HEYLOOKATME! to make it in this cutthroat comics world (it doesn’t help that a bunch of other books debuted at exactly the same time – Avengers Academy and Young Allies – only one of which – Avengers Academy – has survived the ax). But it does seem you need a lot of the pretty/shining/shock&awe these days in order to survive more than your first arc. I feel bad for not talking this book up…I didn’t because I wasn’t “blown away” but I’m sorry I didn’t because in reality what we need are more solid well-written, well-illustrated books that tell good stories consistently. And that’s what Hawkeye & Mockingbird was doing.
And while we’re talking about comics being badass awesome, take a look at this page by Rebekah Isaacs from the last issue of the DV8 miniseries Gods & Monsters.
I mean, WHOA. Right? And if you like the looks of that, check out this post I did on She Has No Head! about Brian Wood and Rebekah Isaacs’ full DV8 Gods & Monsters mini-series, which just finished last week.
Tags: comics!, Panel Of The Week, she has no head!, things made of awesome
How can it not be this fantastic hilarious panel by Jill Thompson in the Hellboy/Beasts Of Burden one shot. Pug isn’t my favorite Beasts of Burden character usually, but between Dorkin and Thompson for this one-shot he’s moved WAY up the chain. Adorable.
But I do want to give an honorable mention to this excellent, surprisingly complex Matt Camp panel from Supergirl Annual #2. But I think this panel is more powerful in context, so I’m going to tell you that what Supergirl is looking at/reacting to is being in a museum in the 30th century that is showing how she died. It was surprisingly impactful, thanks both to Gates simple words and Camp’s wonderful art – the emotion in her face, even the positioning of her hands, I think he just nailed it.
A lot of good stuff to choose from this week, but I had to go with Batman & Robin #15 with art by Frazer Irving, because while I “diggs me some Dick Grayson scooting around in the kevlar pajamas” (to borrow from a hilarious line in Power Girl this week)…there is only one Batman to me…and that’s motherfucking Bruce Wayne:
‘Nuff said?
Sometimes comics are just flat out pretty, like this gorgeous panel by Ryan Sook from Batman: The Return Of Bruce Wayne #5:
But it’s also great when they’re adorable and funny, like this one by Javier Pulido for Black Cat #4:
In fact, seeing Spider-Man and Black Cat together, as a non-regular Spidey reader I can only ask…why oh why are these two not together? I mean I know she’s a bit of an anti-hero and they have drama about which side she’s on…but that’s like the built-in spice you need for any ongoing relationship in comics (or anything serial). I suppose it could be because Felicia doesn’t want to constantly bring him bad luck? Is that it? That kind of makes sense, I guess. But these two have great chemistry…it’s a shame they can’t work it out. Especially on the heels of Spider-Man getting somewhat forcibly paired up with Carlie…which most fans seem to hate. Like I said, I don’t regularly read Spider-Man (although I like him immensely and if had less books I probably would) but I’m not sure why publishers would force a character on Spidey as his girlfriend when so many fans hate it when there are so many other appealing options still out there…you can’t cater to fans every whim of course, but they are your readers…sometimes it pays to listen to what they DO NOT WANT. Anyway, for the record I would read the hell out of a Black Cat ongoing…especially if written by Jen Van Meter, this book was lots of fun.
This week’s offering from guest pencils by Celia Calle in Madame Xanadu #27 is gorgeous and gives me a chance to talk about context in comics. But first, here’s the panel:
So under normal circumstances this would be a total example of the always frustrating brokeback pose*, however in context it totally works. First of all, this character, unlike most superheroines, IS a model. So it makes sense to me that she’s posing and strutting and trying her best to strike poses that are exaggerated, dramatic, sexual, and even controversial. Her JOB is to make people look at her body, and better yet, to make them yearn for it (and whatever she happens to be wearing/selling/etc.). This pose (though still pretty much impossible) makes SENSE for her in the context of who and what she is and her purpose (at least what we know of it).
Secondly, the clothing. That is clothing fit for a MODEL, not for a superhero, and again, that’s what she is. And I love those clothes, they are crazy hott. Thigh highs? SEXY. Miniskirts? SEXY. I think there’s this perception that women that complain about portrayals of women in comics don’t like anything sexy…so wrong. We just want the sexy where it belongs and used in moderation so everything and every woman does not look exactly the same. This is a good example of where it belongs.
You also can’t compare this image to more realistic imagery as the artist is working in a crazy exaggerated style (one that is a great fit for the story inside I think) but one that is obviously not based on any kind of reality.
Beyond the “controversy” what do I like about this? Well, it’s just cool looking – the limited color palette is gorgeous, the stylized exaggerated forms are crazy cool, and the perspective is striking as well. It’s really interesting to me and actually reminds me a little of a more dramatic but not quite as polished version of Stuart Immonen’s art for Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. I wish we had Calle on a regular book that would call for this kind of stylized exaggerated style, it would be a fun read.
*the brokeback pose in comics means a character that is twisted in such a way (usually to show both her tits and ass at the same time) as to make her back look broken.
Tags: comics!, Panel Of The Week
Greg Burgas called this on his What I Bought post last week, and I really can’t disagree. It makes me chuckle.
Puppets! Monkeys! Awesome!
Tags: comics!, Panel Of The Week
Bit of a weak week in panels (at least for what I bought) but I liked this kind of badass but quiet panel from Fables #98 of the young (again) Frau Totenkinder matter of factly drinking her tea and making her plans to kill Mr. Dark.
All of this would be much more badass and interesting (and somewhat revolutionary for comics) if Totenkinder hadn’t made herself young again and she was still her awesome old self getting these things done, but it’s still some good stuff. And thank the gods I have something good to say again about Fables which has been in a horrible lull for months as we waited for Rose Red to get over her depression (and getting over it was inevitable). Note to Mr. Willingham: Depression and mourning? Not a page turner.
From Fables #98 by the always superior Mark Buckingham:
