Jupiter’s Legacy #5- Image

Holy hell, it actually came out. Issue #4 came out in March of last year- I’d essentially given up on seeing this one. This one’s got a bit of a hefty price tag, at $4.99, but you do get 29 pages out of it, which is pretty impressive. I picked it back up surprisingly quickly, so it was at least memorable for me. Many comics I read I forget things just month to month- Mark Millar, love him or hate him, at least does pretty memorable work. Jupiter’s Legacy, while good, however, hasn’t especially felt groundbreaking. I’m somewhat doubtful that it’s possible for many superhero comics to be groundbreaking anymore, of course. The art in Jupiter’s Legacy is odd- it looks really good, but at the same time very spartan and minimalist, but not in the way you’d usually imagine it. I’m having trouble explaining what I mean here, but you’ll understand when you see it.

Copperhead #5- Image

Copperhead’s first story arc ended in a very different way than I expected. It played it as a straight mystery- no plot twists, no sudden reveals, just a steady path to the conclusion. It’s a fresh breeze in comics, where the big twist is king. The mystery here, though, isn’t the brilliant, convoluted plot that it takes a genius to solve- it’s the kind of crime you expect a small-town sheriff to be able to solve. The characters of Copperhead don’t exist to support the plot, though- the plot exists to support them. The story is about Sheriff Clara Bronson and Co solving the mystery, not about the mystery being solved by Sheriff Clara Bronson and Co. It’s a fine distinction, but an important one. It’s part of what makes a good story. Also, don’t get me wrong- I’m talking about this story like it’s a mystery, but it is definitely a Western, and a good one at that.

Federal Bureau of Physics #17- Vertigo

FBP has really hit the ground runninng. The cast just found out a couple issues ago that the entire universe is dying, and now they’re stuck in a traffic-jam on a freeway with colossal, matter-shredding quantum tornadoes bearing down on them. A couple of new characters- genius schoolgirl Ina Jones and her mother- are introduced in this issue, and I already like them much more than some of the long term characters in the comic. This issue honestly feels like FBP is going a whole new direction, which makes sense, given, you know, the whole universe dying thing.

Ten Grand #12- Image

J. Michael Straczynski lost a lot of credit in my book following the horrendous Apocalypse Al- Ten Grand, thankfully, isn’t bad like that. Still, though- I think I’m dropping this one from my pull here with the conclusion of the first arc. (Not that there are any definite plans to release further issues I’ve heard, yet, though it leaves it open for more). The biggest reason behind that: I’m goddamn sick of the supernatural hitman subgenre. (Or maybe sub-sub-genre? Eh.) Urban fantasy, I can deal with. Hitman stories, however, have possibly the least likeable protagonists around for me. Assassins can be redeemable, interesting protagonists. Hitmen… not really as much. Supernatural hitmen? It literally turns into the same story over, and over, and over again. Ten Grand is pretty much a redux of the 2000’s videogame Painkiller. Not bad, necessarily, but it just doesn’t really offer me anything.

Deadpool #40- Marvel

Finally! The accursed SIXIS is over and done with! This issue, though, is weird even by Deadpool standards- it appears to have been colored in crayon. Seriously, it’s drawn like a coloring book, then colored in. The whole thing appears to be a Roxxon funded PSA about how wonderful “Gracking”, or Gamma radiation assisted fracking, really is. The best moment, for me, was definitely when Deadpool accuses a child with leukemia in a wheelchair of being Professor Xavier. When Sarah Silverman shows, up, it starts going into an absurd weirdness spiral even by Deadpool standards. I’d say this was a palate cleanser after Sixis, but… It’s more like a suicide shot. This is going to be the last of the weird interlude comics, since, you know, Deadpool is dying in 5 issues. Thanks a lot, Rupert Murdoch.