By Darryl Ayo
Edna II
by Sophie Goldstein
redinkradio.com
2013
The cover of Edna II shimmers. It has a thin reflective overlay which creates a glimmering haze over the landscape that encompasses The Bubble and The World Outside Of The Bubble. This effect, along with the fact that there is a bubble for characters to live in implies that the world as we know it has been destroyed by environmental pollution.
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By Darryl Ayo
“The Pilgrimage”
East of West, number seven
By Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta
With Frank Martin & Rus Wooton
Image Comics, November 2013
Review: I like the comic book series “East of West” and I liked the seventh issue more than some of the prior issues. Frank Martin is one of my favorite comic book colorists and Nick Dragotta structures his spatial compositions in a way that appeals to my particular interests in comic book drawing. I mostly enjoyed reading issues one through six and as time goes by I feel that the writing has gotten stronger whereas most serials settle into a groove and begin to deteriorate as their central mysteries are revealed to the audience.
When I set down the previous issue of “East of West,” I thought to myself “that was really good.” Upon completion of the current issue (number seven), I thought to myself “that was better than the last one.”
End “East of West” review.
By Ayo
The Shaolin Cowboy, no. 1
By Geof Darrow with Dave Stewart
October, 2013
Dark Horse Comics
To the best of my recollection, I’ve never read a Geof Darrow comic book. I’ve seen his art a thousand times, I’ve read comics where he had contributed a single illustration (cover, pinup) but I’m not certain if I have ever seen Darrow’s pages. Until the Year of Our Lord, 2013, mid-October.
By Darryl Ayo
“Once Upon A Time…” Chapter One
Hinterkind, no. 1
By Ian Edginton & Francesco Trifogli
With: Dezi Sienty & Cris Peter
And: Greg Tocchini
The first thing of note to occur in Hinterkind number one is on the second page when the protagonist Prosper Monday jumps out of the brush and shoots a zebra. Artist Francesco Trifogli uses a repeating-image of the hunter Prosper superimposed over a still environment to indicate not only her precise movements through space but also to imply the speed and clarity of her action. It’s an old comics trick but it’s a trick that I like. It requires more work and it telegraphs to the audience that the artist isn’t shy to put extra effort in when the situation warrants. That was on page two. Got my attention.
By Darryl Ayo
“Lexington”
Secret Avengers, no. 09
Nick Spencer, Butch Guice with Matthew Wilson & Clayton Cowles
Marvel, September, 2013
There’s only two real characters in this comic, Daisy Johnson and Maria Hill, and they both look the same. In other installments of the series, they nearly act the same. Daisy Johnson is essentially Maria Hill but younger. We know that she is younger because the dialogue indicates this to be the case. Who in their right mind would put a nineteen-year-old in charge of the most powerful international police and espionage organization in the world? That is asinine. I’m not really complaining, just lobbing a truth grenade in your direction. That’s how I do, homie.
By Darryl Ayo
Mighty Avengers, no. 1
Al Ewing, Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Frank D’Armata, Cory Petit.
Marvel Worldwide, INC.
September, 2013
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By Ayo
“Torment at the hands of the Four Horsemen!”
Uncanny Avengers, no. 11
Rick Remender & Daniel Acuña
August, 2013
One day it’ll all make sense.
If you read Rick Remender and Jerome Opeña during their storyline “The Dark Angel Saga,” then it is obvious that the current Uncanny Avengers storyline (The Apocalypse Twins) is the sequel to that. The irony of Uncanny X-Force was that the titular team was formed to permanently end major threats by assassination and yet all of their actions created larger and worse counteractions. While that group of characters disbanded, the problems that the have caused are still spiraling into larger and more complex threats.
By Ayo
“The Paradigm Shift, part one”
Collider, no. 1
Vertigo Books, July 2013
Simon Oliver & Robbi Rodriguez
With: Rico Renzi & Steve Wands
Featuring: Nathan Fox
Months ago, when Karen Berger stepped down from DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, I believed that the imprint was essentially done-for. My suspicion was that Vertigo would move more into DC-proper publishing and eventually dissolve. Instead, the house seems to have run in the opposite direction, away from Swamp Thing and John Constantine and closer to the spirit of autonomy that the imprint made itself famous for.
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By Ayo
“This rap shit is like reality TV, it’s totally different from what it’s marketed as.”
-Joe Budden
“Quivers ‘n’ Shakes”
Sex, no. 5
Joe Casey & Piotr Kowalski
With Brad Simpson, Rus Wooton and Sonia Harris
This is less about the comic and more about marketing.
When Joe Casey, co-creator of Sex, was making the rounds to publicize this series, he described to readers a story wherein sex would be a driving and integral factor. Instead, five issues in, it appears to be a fairly standard post-superhero crime-comic. With one sex scene neatly packed into each issue, tucked into the story to justify the series title.
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