This week’s comic buying was tinged with the unfortunate but inevitable news of the cancellation of Captain Britain and MI:13. This is nothing new in mainstream comics – a good comic book starring lesser lights in the superhero firmament gets critical praise but not enough people buy it. Some might want to blame Marvel, but it’s not their fault if they can’t persuade people to buy a good comic, and they are allowing Paul Cornell to finish his story instead of rushing it. On to comics that are still doing okay.
Ex Machina #42
I don’t know what to write about Ex Machina every month. Well, I don’t know what to write full stop, but that doesn’t stop me (unfortunately). Mitchell Hundred is an interesting character, Brian K Vaughan writes an interesting comic (with good dialogue, humour and action) and Tony Harris’ art is always good – he does some interesting things with shadows in a dialogue scene, for example. These are all the things that a good comic should have, as well as having a reason to come back each month.
Herogasm #1
In which Garth Ennis indulges in his juvenile sense of humour. It astounds me how someone who can write excellent, profound, intelligent and even moving comic books can produce such adolescent material – look, superheroes all having sex with each other! Tee, hee. I don’t know if he thinks that it is what comic book fans want, or if he just uses it as a tool to sell comics. I hope it’s just the first issue and we can get to the actual story itself next issue. Things aren’t helped by the uninspired art of John McCrea – this isn’t the same fun and interesting style he employed in Hitman, which makes this art look even worse.
Jack of Fables #34
Even without Jack in Jack of Fables, it’s still an annoying book. Do Willingham and Sturges actually think it’s funny? Let’s change Bigby into different animals – that’ll make the kids laugh. Apart from discovering the identity of the drooling chap in a straitjacket is Kevin’s twin brother, Writer’s Block (which is rather nice), there isn’t much to this book – nothing really happens, nothing of note occurs apart from Bigby being turned into a little girl. And there’s a repeat of the little blue ox thinking nonsense for six panels on a page. I look forward to Fables getting back on track and dealing with its own storylines.