Image Previews Picks: December 2012
Robert Kirkman and original “The Walking Dead” artist Tony Moore have reached a settlement in their dispute over ownership of the series. If nothing else, I’m glad that this didn’t escalate into a Gaiman/McFarlane level throwdown, or the ongoing winner-take-all battle between Marvel and the heirs of Jack Kirby’s estate. Kirkman has been doing a lot to advocate for creators’ rights and to spread the wealth of his success around through his Skybound imprint and this could’ve ruined all of that if it had drug on and gotten ugly. That said, if the writer is really as underhanded as Moore claimed in his initial statement with the case then it’ll be borne out sooner rather than later. As others have noted, keep an eye on the indicia for “The Walking Dead” comic and TV series to see if anything’s changed in the wake of the settlement.
In other news, issue #105 of the comic in question has an extreme close up of an angry Carl pointing a gun right at the reader. More thoughts on actual comics after the break!
Mara #1: Clearly not wanting to be left out of the ongoing Image Renaissance, Brian Wood teams up with artist Ming Doyle to deliver a six-issue series about a world-famous sports star who suddenly manifests superpowers. I doubt that we’ll be getting anything superheroic from this as Wood always looks to smash expectations rather than conform to them. This is where I’d make comparisons to his previous work involving superpowers, both volumes of “Demo,” but I’ve never read them. While I’ve heard that they’re good, they’ve also been described as not a very happy kind of good. The term “soul-crushingly depressing” was thrown about back in the day. That is not the kind of word-of-mouth that makes me want to buy a comic.
The Legend of Luther Strode #1: “Kick-Ass done right” returns for a second volume. The first series was fun, if INSANELY brutal and clearly set things up for this new story. From the solicitation text it sounds like he’s become Batman in the five years since faking his death, but the people behind the secret society that served as the instrument for his superpowers are finally after him. I’ll admit that it doesn’t sound particularly compelling when you put it like that, but the original series didn’t have the most original premise either and it turned out all right. We shall see.
Morning Glories #25: Double-sized with three covers and advertised as “the Season One finale.” I’m inferring that we’re headed towards a new #1 issue for “Season Two” which inspires more eye-rolling in me than anything else. Even so, I won’t complain if writer Nick Spencer manages to deliver a decent amount of closure here and set up a proper springboard for the next season. That means NO CLIFFHANGERS! The audience should want to come back because the story is excellent, not out of any sense of forced obligation.
Fatale vol. 2: The Devil’s Business: The second volume arrives in time for the start of the next (final?) arc this month. You might recall that I was somewhat let down with the first volume of this title. That’s because as a Brubaker/Phillips joint my expectations were about as high as you could get. Even with its supernatural trappings, the story of the first volume hinged on some pretty familiar conventions. If nothing else, I hope that this volume starts defining the nature of the demonic antagonists here. Normally you’d want to avoid explaining the backstory of supernatural threats because they become less threatening when you do. Here, though, the bad guys feel less threatening because they’re so generic. My fingers are officially crossed in this regard.
Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker HC: Done in because it wasn’t selling enough to allow artist Mike Huddleston enough to live on. Or rather, because writer Joe Casey decided to go public regarding the long delays between issues of this title, which led to Huddleston’s rebuttal and the effective ceasing of their creative partnership. That being said, this may actually have been for the best. I’ve heard that this series is a fresh blast of over-the-top sex and violence and the kind of title that would best be served in a mini-series format rather than as an ongoing.
Chew vol. 6: Space Cakes: This volume focuses on Tony Chu’s sister Toni who is cibovoyant — she can see the future of anything she eats… Which, if you think about it, sounds utterly disgusting as the future of everything we eat involves a trip through our digestive system. Or do her visions skip that? We shall see. The ostensible protagonist change for this volume also couldn’t have happened at a better time after what terminal shit magnet Tony went through in vol. 5. A break from his downward spiral was certainly in order, but we’re going to have to get back to his story eventually.
Think Tank TP: After the smartest scientist in the title installation has had enough of developing weapons of mass destruction for the government, he has to find a way out of his situation. It sounds like a riff on the premise of “Iron Man” minus the “creating a suit of armor to escape his terrorist captors” part. I’m unfamiliar with any of the creators so I’ve got no real feelings about this one way or the other. Hopefully the fact that it’s not part of any major superhero universe will allow it to pursue a path that doesn’t involve running headlong into every major genre convention.