Wednesday's New Things: Open Rebellion

This is the week we take what's ours. Click on the covers for a preview, where I could find one. 

Convergence #1, written by Jeff King and Scott Lobdell, art by 

Carlo Pagulayan and Jason Paz, colors by Peter Steigerwald

I've bought only a few DC comics since the relaunch, which is now approaching the four year mark, and I haven't exactly been quiet about what I think about the general quality of those books, which is to say that they're largely bad. This linewide Convergence event pits characters from different iterations and eras against each other and was necessitated by the publisher's ongoing move to the West Coast, though, does have the potential to be a little fun. In some ways, the kinds of comics being put out here-- much like the comics that Marvel will put out during Secret Wars a few months from now-- are my favorite kinds of superhero comics, remixes of characters and ideas into something recognizable but different. This kind of recycling is precisely what superhero comics do well, and here there are actually stakes within stories because the stakes involved in publishing are so unbelievably low-- this event is going to do whatever kind of business it does, since it'll only run for two months, and then it'll be over and there won't be any consequences. It's a quick, broad version of Marvel's old Exiles series, great because it's fun to see what creators come up with when the editorial reigns are a little looser. I may try out a couple of these books if any catch my fancy-- and the Chip Kidd variants do look good. At $5, though, I'll leave the main event book on the shelf. 

All-New Hawkeye #2, written by Jeff Lemire, drawn by Ramon Perez, colored by Ramon Perez and Ian Herring 

This is a good comic book, everything I hoped it would be. Lemire is running a kind of two-stories-at-the-same-time gig, something he's been experimenting with for a while, and it allows the book to run at two emotional registers at the same time. One of the reasons it works so well is that Perez is drawing the hell out of the both stories and in much different styles. Unlike the similar thing they've been trying on Bucky Barnes, though the two styles aren't so wildly different as to be jarring, with the more traditional superhero comics pages united with the dreamy flashbacks through, most prominently, the color palate. Looking forward to more of this one. 

Jupiter's Circle #1, written by Mark Millar and Wilfredo Torres

A spinoff of Millar's much delayed collaboration with Frank Quitely, Jupiter's Legacy, this is a retro-styled styled comic with relatively simple art sporting flat colors, which makes explicit reference to the old Superfriends cartoon, the kind of intertextual element that's supposed to point you to a certain way of feeling about the book, which, presumably Millar will then juxtapose with a fair amount of sex, drugs, and other adult stuff. From the preview, it's got a similar effect to the Criminal: Last of the Innocent mini, which takes a similar perspective on Archie, transforming those comics into a site of everything Frederich Wertham was afraid of. This is therefore slightly less trod ground than the kind of superhero realism Millar is trying with this book's parent, at least insofar as it's work is formal as well as narrative; I think it might work better. 

Nameless #3, written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Chris Burnham, colors by Nathan Fairbairn

Rebels #1, written by Brian Wood, drawn by Andrea Mutti, Jordi Bellaire

I haven't read a book by Brian Wood in a while, but I remember liking DMZ a fair bit, at least in the early going. As an American Studies grad studies currently TAing for the first half of the American cultural history survey, this one may prove a little too hard to resist. Probably I'll spring for the first issue, just to see if I might want to try it in trade, later.