Secret Six #17

This story is a direct continuation of the one from the recent “Blackest Night” crossover Suicide Squad #67. The Secret Six and the Suicide Squad are both stuck in Belle Reve prison in the middle of an attack by the Black Lantern zombies, while Scandal Savage is trapped by a bunch of Multiplex clones with a taste for arson. Nightshade and Count Vertigo get close to taking Bane down before Black Alice copies Nightshade’s powers and saves his bacon. Catman and Bronze Tiger try their darndest to beat each other to death. Virtuosa, the new female Fiddler, drops some pain on Ragdoll ’til Jeannette comes to his rescue — then the Black Lantern version of the Fiddler shows up and tries to kill all of them. And Yesemin Soze, killed in the previous issue, comes back from the dead to try to execute Deadshot and Rick Flagg.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of chaos, lots of battles, lots of fun. Lots of funny stuff, as always — my favorite ones were Bane’s complete boredom with Nightshade’s attempts at fisticuffs and Virtuosa’s fangirl glee at meeting the zombified Fiddler.

Daytripper #2

I loved the first issue of this new series by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, and half-suspected I knew what was going to happen in the second issue. I was way, way wrong. Brás de Oliva Domingos is 21 — so this is set about 11 years before the events of the first issue. He and his friend Jorge are on a sightseeing trip to El Salvador. He meets a beautiful girl named Olinda, and while the three of them are visiting the market, she tells him that his dreams of a woman calling him from the water may be about Iemanjá, a spirit of the waters, whose celebration day is coming up tomorrow. Brás and Olinda make love the night of the celebration, then she vanishes, telling him to find her on the beach. He and a fisherman take the flowers, gifts, and offerings to Iemanjá out to sea. And then something unexpected happens.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Holy cow, the art on this one is amazing. The dialogue is fun, the story is great, and as of the last page, this one is now something I want to get every single issue of.

Neonomicon hornbook

Whuzzah? What’s a “hornbook”? Martha, that comic book guy’s gone corruptin’ our youth agin with hornybooks! Git mah shotgun! No, no, wait, a hornbook is an old name for an educational primer — but in this case, it’s a short comic used as a preview for an upcoming series.

So Alan Moore, famed bearded mad genius of comics, and Jacen Burrows, hyper-realistic artist whose most recent work is in Garth Ennis’ bleak pseudo-zombie epic “Crossed,” are going to be making a new Lovecraft-inspired horror comic called “Neonomicon,” a sequel to their series “The Courtyard.” We follow a couple of FBI agents, Merril Brears and Gordon Lamper, as they visit a pschiatric hospital to interview Aldo Sax, a former FBI agent who went bad in a big way and started hacking people to death. Sax speaks in a pseudo-Cthulhoid language, which isn’t real helpful in an interview. Brears and Lamper try to quiz Sax about a copycat killer, but he unexpectedly clams up when they mention a place called Club Zothique.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Nine pages and a script excerpt. Two dollars. Massive rip-off.

Daytripper #1

This is a new series by Brazilian twin brothers Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, who have done art chores for “The Umbrella Academy” and “Casanova,” along with other comics here and there. This one focuses on Brás de Oliva Domingos, a Brazilian man working as an editorial writer. His father is a famous writer, and Brás would like to be a writer, too, but outside of work, he’s plagued by writer’s block. On his birthday, he goes, somewhat unwillingly, to an event for his father, visits a bar for some smokes… and gets an unwelcome surprise.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Oooh, did I not have enough description up there? Was it all a bit vague? Too bad, perfesser — it’s got a nice shocker of a cliffhanger, and I don’t much wanna spoil it. But the art is beautiful, the dialogue and characterization are first-rate, and the whole thing is extraordinarily intriguing. I’m looking forward to seeing where this one will lead us.

The Unwritten #8

This one is actually something of a flashback to previous issues of this series, but this time, our focus is on Chadron, the warden of the French prison where Tom Taylor is being held — and in particular, on Chadron’s two children. Chadron is himself a huge fan of the Tommy Taylor fantasy novels and engages in a lot of imaginative roleplaying with young Cosi and Peter, but his wife is no fan of all the foolishness. She’s concerned that the children — Cosi especially — are dwelling too deeply in their fantasy world. Cosi draws magic symbols on the windows and attacks a couple of schoolmates while pretending to cast magic spells. A psychiatrist diagnoses her with a mild psychosis — she has trouble telling fantasy from reality. But can the children’s faith in the Tommy Taylor fantasy save their father and the real Tom Taylor?

Verdict: Thumbs up. I was kinda hoping we’d get to meet the warden’s family a bit more, as he’s developed into an unexpectedly fascinating character — part hard-nosed prison administrator, part doting, fantasy-loving father. The rest of the family seems equally interesting, from the children’s utter faith in the Tommy Taylor fiction, to their mother’s complete hostility about the fantasy lives that she can’t join.

Strange #2

Last issue, Stephen Strange taught a minor vanishing spell to Casey and magicked up her glasses so they’d be able to see the capital-T Truth of anything she looked at. Now she’s trying to track Strange down again to see if he can teach her more magic, and in the process, she’s making a lot of stuff vanish — irritating cell phones, parking tickets, a moving van. She runs into a few people who claim they know who Stephen Strange is, but they’re all either con men or lunatics — or, in one case, a demonic monster who’s willing to eat her for asking the wrong questions. Luckily, Strange shows up to save her, and is surprised that Casey is still able to use the small spells that he meant to be temporary — but it turns out the vanishing spell doesn’t really make things vanish — it just sends them to another dimension. And the sole inhabitant of that dimension is tired of Casey using his dimension as a junkyard. Strange and Casey have to pay the interdimensional monster a visit to beg him not to kill them — but is he going to be willing to listen to a couple of mostly-powerless humans?

Verdict: Thumbs up. I’m still enjoying this much-more relaxed version of Dr. Strange, and the characterization for Casey — midway between a spoiled rich girl with abandonment issues and a quick-thinking magical neophyte who can’t plan more than two seconds ahead — is also a lot of fun.