Copperhead

Weekly Pull Review: 4/8/15

This is, to say the least, an astonishingly large amount of comics this week, at least compared to what I have been getting in my pull of late.

Saga #27- Image

Saga, of course, takes top billing. Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples abandon the triptych format of the last few issues for an issue that just buckles down on Marko- and it’s a doozy. Marko spends the issue tripping balls on a bad batch of fadeaway, and Prince Robot and Ghus are trying to figure out a way to pull Marko and Yuma out of their overdosed state. This issue really provides a sense of catharsis for much of the tension that built up over the last arc. The rest of the family getting kidnapped, though providing a slam dunk cliffhanger ending for the last arc, nonetheless really failed to provide emotional closure for Marco, and Saga has been building towards this issue for a while now. Both Marko and the story have a much stronger sense of direction now. Since it’s already one of the single best comics coming out, well… If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to fanboy out for a little bit.

ODY-C #4- Image

Saga and ODY-C in one week? Fuck yes. Odyssia and her crew have to escape from the cyclops’ den, and the comic gets more than appropriately visceral in the most literal sense this outing, leading eventually, to, well… some windy conditions. (Hah. Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.) Matt Fraction and Christian Ward are really getting into the swing of things here. Ward’s art continues to amaze- even my curmudgeonly roommate who hate comics, science fiction, kittens, and fun loves Ward’s art. (He has very, very strict views on the Odyssey, however, so he’s not sold on the story yet, though if I can get him to actually sit down and read it, I have high hopes.) I’d honestly say that ODY-C is one of the chief contenders for best art in my pull- Saga is the only competitor this week, though there’s plenty of other great art on display.

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Weekly Pull Review 1/14/15

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.

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Weekly Pull Review 12/10/14

I know, I know, it’s technically the 11th, but I’m going to start dating theses reviews with the date I picked the comics up from here on out. Anyhow, on to this week’s comics I deemed good enough for my pull.

Bitch Planet #1- Image

I somehow utterly failed to realize that a new Kelly Sue DeConnick series was coming out until Tuesday night- but it was definitely a good surprise. Kelly Sue DeConnick is rapidly proving herself to be one of my favorite contemporary comic writers- anything by her is definitely going to receive at least a try. Bitch Planet might not have been something I’d pick up normally, since prison stories, even scifi ones, are hardly my cup of tea, but I gave this one a try, and the first issue already has me hooked. That’s not to say it’s perfect- the twist definitely confused me for a little bit, but that’s very likely to be my fault, so… Also, it’s pretty refreshing to have a comic book where the majority of the cast isn’t white. That’s still pretty damn rare these days. Valentine De Landro’s art is pretty well fitted to the book, and the dot-based backgrounds like you’d see in old comics really fits the aesthetic of the book. (I can’t for the life of me remember what that technique is called.) Also, having the title page be a two page spread four pages in? Actually works really damn well here. Very cinematic.

Copperhead #4- Image

Copperhead is really working well for me so far. It’s not that the story is particularly better than other good scifi police procedurals- and I do consider Copperhead more of a police procedural than a western so far, though it draws strongly from both- it’s that the comic focuses on a smaller, more focused cast than usual. It’s a consistent weakness of the genre, especially in comics- you have a limited amount of space to develop your characters, and introducing a giant cast just makes them all fairly forgettable. The comic Storm Dogs comes to mind- brilliant story, amazing setting, spectacular art, some of the best alien designs I’ve seen in a comic- but ask me to name the characters, or even describe more than a few, and I’d just have to shrug. It’s not that they are bad characters, by any means. I remember liking quite a few of them. Copperhead has avoided that pitfall by focusing on a smaller, more mobile cast, and it works extremely well. That, ultimately, seems to be its biggest takeaway from Westerns, rather than any stylistic element.

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Weekly Comic Pull Review Returns!

I know, I know, it’s been forever since I’ve posted one of these. But hey, I can finally afford my comics again! Yay employment!

 

(Lady) Thor #2

I was genuinely skeptical about this series. I was a reader of Thor: God of Thunder for its entire 25 issue run, and I loved the hell out of it. Some of the best art of any superhero comic, a truly epic aesthetic, time travel, and Gorr the Godslayer, Voldemort’s bigger badder brother. So when they announced that Thor was becoming unworthy and being replaced, I pretty much dismissed it as another gimmick, like any superhero death or depowering. But I’m swiftly changing my mind. The God of Thunder storyline is picking up where it left off, but in a very new way. We still don’t know who Lady Thor is (though I feel that it should be obvious to readers of God of Thunder), but she brings a whole new style to the hammer. She’s less single knockout blow, more hurricane of fists, lightning, and hammerblows. Regardless, Jason Aaron and Co are keeping there momentum going at full throttle from Thor: God of Thunder, with the added bonus of being a great starting point for new readers.

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