New Fables, old Action Comics, Hitman, ‘Mazing Man, Accident Man, and Manhunter.
Employee’s Pick
[DC] Hitman #15-20
Wtiter: Garth Ennis
Artist: John McCrea
Mawzir returns in the six-part Ace of Killers. His masters, the Arkannone, bid him fetch a mystical weapon, the Ace of Winchesters, that can kill demons. Mawzir, resurrected with a boost in power, seeks revenge on Tommy Monaghan for his earlier defeat. It’s Tommy, Natt the Hat, ex-Detective Tiegel, Catwoman (tricked into stealing the Ace), and Jason Blood against the nigh-invulnerable Mawzir and a horde of armed thugs.
Tommy convinces Blood to send Etrigan after the Ace in Hell, where The Demon runs into his old friends Kakk and Baytor. Acquiring the Crown of Horns from Baytor grants Etrigan the power to face the Arkannone and retrieve the Ace, which he’s in no hurry to hand over. As Tommy bargains with one demon and another closes on him with deadly intent, we witness one of the Great Moments in Comic Book History.
The return of Section Eight! The dumbest and greatest superhero team of all-time. Six Pack! Friendly Fire! Shakes! The Defenestrator! Jean de Baton-Baton! Flemgem! Dogwelder! And Bueno… Excellente. It is glorious.
Reading through Hitman the second time has made me appreciate it more than ever. It’s hard to say which story is best; each one is full of so much win, so consistently good. I’d give this one the edge so far because Ennis doesn’t resort to caricatures of corrupt cops or superheroes here, aside from his own parody team. The humor’s more goodnatured, the villains more threatening than usual. Arguably the best of the major storylines. Still can’t touch Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium, of course. That goes without saying.
New-Type Books
[DC] Fables #78
Writer: Bill Willingham
Pencilers: Mark Buckingham, Peter Gross
Oh, dear. Things have turned quite ugly now. Freddy and Mouse unleash an ancient evil, who in turn frees another. Scary. Boy Blue goes in for one last operation. Bad follows bad, and this is only the start. These next issues are going to hurt. With any luck, it’ll be the good kind of hurt.
The backup story finds Mowgli exploring the jungle, where he meets a very peculiar character.
Back Issues
[DC] ‘Mazing Man #9
Writer: Bob Rozakis
Pencilers: Stephen DeStefano, Fred Hembeck
More sitcom crap that forgets to be funny. Laurel and Hardy rob a bank. Were it the real comedy duo, entertainment would be had, but these are just guys who look like them and have similar names. And there’s another Zoot Sputnik farce, drawn by Fred Hembeck, whom I forgot to credit last week. It’s painfully bad, like all the rest, and by now it’s clear that someone decided there ought to be one of these in every issue.
[DC] Action Comics #491
Writer: Cary Bates
Penciler: Curt Swan
Oh noes! Superman is wrecking the Justice League Satellite in a blind rage! To stop him, Hawkman delivers a daring hug attack! And throws him… at Kryptonite? Woah, Hawkman, is that necessary? Also, they have some on board "for experimental purposes?" Mhmm. Bet that was Batman’s idea.
Superman falls butt-first (I am not making this up) to Earth, hitting every branch of a sequoia on the way down. He’s discovered by an old man and his robot (this story was published back in the days when not everyone had their own robot, so it was a bit of a shock). After Superman lights the old man’s pipe for him (way to condone smoking in a kids’ comic, Supes), he turns two lumps of coal into diamonds and uses his heat vision to cure the old man’s blindness. This somehow leads him to an idea for a cure of his own. By exposing himself to the brilliant flash of a supernova, he’ll… trigger "the most violent attack of all?" What? It sorta makes sense. By overloading himself with energy, as the attacks do for no logical reason, he’s able to break through Brainiac’s "impenetrable" forcefield, something, as Brainy is kind enough to inform us, he’s never done before. And… then he’s cured… because bright light < brighter light. Cracktastic.
In other news: Penguin thwarted by Hostess Fruit Pies. Mmm, delicious failure.
[Dark Horse] Accident Man #1
Writers: Pat Mills, Tony Skinner
Artist: Duke Mighten
Yay, shock value. Here we have a miniseries about a Canadian hitman who makes all his hits look like accidents. Nice concept. Guy’s an elitist a-hole, though, and the whole comic’s about how much better he is than everyone, with gratuitous sex and violence thrown in. It’s like Garth Ennis if he forgot to be remotely charming. If the remaining two issues see our "hero" knocked down a peg or thirty, it might be a decent mini. I’ll never know.
Trade
[DC] Manhunter Vol. 2: Trial By Fire
Writer: Marc Andreyko
Pencilers: Jesus Saiz (issues 6 & 7), Javier Pina (issues 8-12 & 14), Diego Olmos (issue 11), Brad Walker (issue 13)
Ah, so that’s where the staff’s from. Turns out the new Manhunter’s power staff is the old Manhunter’s power staff, specifically Mark Shaw’s. Still don’t know where the suit’s from. There’s every indication that it’s a new design, which you’d expect from a new superhero’s costume, but its origin is such that it had to have been used by or in the possession of someone before. Probably a criminal, as Kate found it in an evidence locker.
This trade collects a whopping nine issues, quite a change from the first volume. The story moves along at a good clip, so whether you’re looking to savor a relatively hefty trade or zip through it and move on to other things, it’s a good package. Kate Spencer’s prosecuting Shadow Thief, angling for a death sentence for the murder of Firestorm, and someone’s killing Manhunters. The Secret Society of Super-Villains (or The Society; I prefer the old name) send assassins to keep Shadow Thief from talking, and the Manhunter-hunter closes in on Kate, leading to some very nice action sequences.
The series is starting to grow on me, as is Kate. Good writing has a habit of endearing itself to you. The mystery of the Manhunter-hunter is put together well, lurking in the background before leaping to the fore to climax and ultimately find resolution. It’s the main reason this volume is so large, and I have to say I much prefer collecting around the story to the trend from a few years back of writing for the trade. Instead of stretching one story to six issues so they fit into a neat package, he we have a more natural progression that is separated into its own volume after the fact. One story starts, then another. The first ends, then the other, the two overlapping for a time so that any other arrangement would leave important parts out. That and the recap pages allow this trade to stand up well on its own, even if you’ve read nothing that precedes it.
Speaking of, there’s an Identity Crisis tie-in here, the extraneous kind. Readers of Manhunter will have no idea what the miniseries is about without reading it, while readers of the mini will have no reason to ever check this title out, much as DC would like them to believe otherwise. The good news is, Andreyko ties the whole OMAC business into his plot and we all get a good story out of it, or part of one. You’d miss a bunch of Manhunter-hunter buildup if you only read the two tie-in issues, and that’s where the OMAC comes in. You can’t win with crossovers. The idea is to get you reading every comic the company publishes, as that’s the only way you’ll get the whole story, every story. Only buying the tie-ins gets you, at best, a little extra to add to the main story, and a bunch of incomplete stories from other books. Ignoring crossovers gets them thrust in your face as companies desperately flail about for new readers, oblivious to the fact that most people fall into one of the two aforementioned groups.
It’s half-assed all around. If you make every tie-in important, you alienate people from both groups as well as writers. If you don’t force writers to do something relevant to the Big Event, you end up with stuff like this, where it’s advertised as a tie-in but is anything but essential. So they do a little of both and hope it works out. At least with Final Crisis, none of the regular series are asked to have anything to do with it, and any tie-ins are specifically designed for the event and placed under the Final Crisis banner. I’m not sure how essential any of them are to the main series, but I know I can ignore them all, and that’s what I care about.
Getting back to Manhunter, the other main plot here is Shadow Thief’s trial, picked up from the first volume. It’s never made clear whether he killed Firestorm. Maybe you’re meant to read another series to find out, maybe Andreyko’s fine with it being uncertain. I only know that Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond, is dead, and Shadow Thief’s not above killing him. Guilty or not, he’s in quite the spot, trapped in a shadowless container between a bloodthirsty prosecutor and a series of "colleagues" who would much rather silence than free him, which becomes a bit comical in the final attack, where the courthouse is wrecked and they’re still trying to kill Thiefy.
Interesting group of villains the Society send after him. There’s Shrapnel, who’s about what you’d expect: a walking assemblage of metal shards who can scatter and recompose himself at will. Great design. Cheshire, deadly master of poison, who is implied to have taken the job at low pay for the opportunity to kill people, which sounds a bit off, but only because she can get her kicks and big bucks at the same time. Merlyn, vile archer who delights in killing. Phobia, whom I’d forgot existed; her design’s been updated considerably, but she’s no less evil than I remember, taking great pleasure in showing people their fears. And The Monocle, the most and least notable for being a palette swap of Gentleman Ghost who fires laser beams out of his monocle and isn’t as into the whole pain and death thing as his teammates.
In addition to the action and the crossover and more action, there’s still ample room for the supporting cast and Kate herself, who’s beginning to soften. Far be it from me to suggest a character is worse for being a smoker, but I’m more inclined to like them if they are’nt, and seeing Kate wear nicotine patches increases my enjoyment of the book. She’s also trying to become a better mother, which is good since she was nigh-on rock bottom at the start of the series. And, unsurprisingly, she’s moving away from the whole killing supervillains thing. Not abandoning it, mind you, but setting up clear boundaries and hesitating where others wouldn’t. Hitman would have a much higher bodycount in her place. Safe to say she’s separated herself from him despite some similarities.
Truncation
Hitman – Epic win.
Fables – Silly of me to doubt Willingham. A war easily won has consequences enough that the fables may come to regret fighting.
‘Mazing Man – Promising as it seemed at first, this series is absolutely dreadful.
Action Comics – Hug! For justice!
Accident Man – Crap.
Manhunter – Still good. Starting to like it more. Unfortunately, still cancelled.
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