Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: All The Growing Things, Buffy Season 10 #8, Comics, dark horse comics, dc comics, Deathlok, entertainent, entertainment, Loo Harvest Group, Mind MGMT #27, The Pitiful Human Lizard #2, Typod Mary

Thor's Comic Review Column – All The Growing Things, Buffy Season 10 #8, Mind MGMT #27, The Pitiful Human Lizard #2, Deathlok

This Week's Comics Include:

All The Growing Things #1

Buffy Season 10 #8

Mind MGMT #27

The Pitiful Human-Lizard #2

Deathlok #1

All The Growing Things #1 (Typod Mary, $0.99)

By Cat Taylor

Although I love superhero comics as much as the next fan, I often try to look for something a little less traditional and under the radar when writing reviews for this website.  My reasoning is simply that superhero comics, especially from Marvel and DC, get plenty of press already. Plus, as a person who did my own form of "art", if you can call it that, in the underground music scene for many years, I know how important it is to a struggling artist to get their work recognized. As a result, this week I give you the first issue of All The Growing Things.

The first issue of All The Growing Things comes off as a lost but modern Grimm's Fairy Tale about a crotchety old woman who obsesses over her garden and finds a disturbing dream-like world buried beneath it. We only get an introduction in the first issue and no explanation about what's going on just yet but my best guess is that the old lady has found Hell. At least that's what the evidence so far seems to suggest, unless it's going to be one of those "it was only a dream" stories. Then again, I'm only speculating. The writer, Jenn Myers, may unveil an entirely different answer to the mystery of the world under the garden.

As a protagonist, the gardener lady certainly seems like a prime candidate for the kind of morals that old fables and children's stories like to instill. She's singularly obsessed and not very friendly. She's also the only character in the story that is more than a cameo in the first issue. So, much of the narrative is directed by her inner thoughts speaking to herself.

The artwork, which is also done by the writer, looks like the sort of stuff you would find in the comic strips of a college campus newspaper. It's rather flat, cartoony, and sketchy but also very stylized with detailed texturing that catches the eye in an unusual way. In a sense, it's so ugly that you can't look away and that fits the tone of this story very appropriately.

What I find especially interesting in this comic is that stories of this type are usually a "one and done" issue but All The Growing Things is going to be a mini-series at least. Fortunately, despite what I'm used to seeing in a story like this, the pace of the first issue doesn't seem to be drug out for no good reason. The creator has provided an interesting first issue that makes me want to come back for more. This is in spite of the fact that the main character isn't the type of person with whom I can identify or would typically want to learn more about. On the other hand, the unusual choice of a lead character is one of the things that makes this story interesting. When I picture a group of young tween-idol types or action heroes in the same scenario, it doesn't seem as exciting. However, the "fish out of water" nature of an old bitty going through a world that may actually be Hell, well that adds another layer of fun that arouses my curiosity for another issue.

Cat Taylor has been reading comics since the 1970s. Some of his favorite writers are Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Peter Bagge, and Kurt Busiek. Prior to writing about comics, Taylor performed in punk rock bands and on the outlaw professional wrestling circuit. During that time he also wrote for music and pro wrestling fanzines. In addition to writing about comics, Taylor tries to be funny by writing fast food fish sandwich reviews for Brophisticate.com. You can e-mail him at cizattaylor@hotmail.com. Happy belated Halloween. I hope you didn't get any razor blades in your apples.

Buffy Season 10 #8, and Some General Housekeeping

By Adam X. Smith

Back from the dead. Surprise surprise, motherlickers. ;p

Joking aside, my long and unexplained absences is a direct result of me returning to university, running low on comic book money, and my evil alien overseers confiscating all my high-end electronics. However, after my girlfriend was good enough to give me the first comics I've had access to in nearly a month, I've resolved to get back on the horse, and with it being Halloween, what better place to start than the latest issue of Buffy Season 10, the first of a two-part Halloween episode.

So, anyway… *clears throat, does best Anthony Head impression*

Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer…

With the laws of magic recently reset to a more fluid state, and the Scooby gang taking it upon themselves to ensure that the Vampyr book (into which new rules of magic can be written), Xander and Spike are left in charge of the book, only for it to be stolen. After establishing that it could only have been stolen by someone with access to the apartment, the question of where the hell nerdy former-Trio member Andrew Wells has gone pops up. A quick locator spell indicates that he is on his way back to the giant crater that is the remains of Sunnydale.

The Buffyverse understandably has a long tradition of Halloween episodes, but the joke has always been that it's usually considered to be a relatively quiet time on the Hellmouth due to most demons finding it tacky and crass. So when the Scoobies find out that there's essentially a Halloween version of Burning man taking place on the ruins of Sunnydale. Boy, it sure would be a shame if some kind of eldritch abomination were to show up and eat everyone's souls.

And as for why Andrew wants the book in the first place… well, it first looks like there's going to be a reunion of the Trio, but the final page shows that his motives may be leaning closer to redeeming himself for sins past.*

The thing that strikes me as interesting about this "season" of the comic is that, while lacking any world-beaters in terms of story arcs, the general quality of the art and writing has remained consistently good throughout. Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs continue be consistently good, whilst veteran artist Richard Corben provides a short aside which can best be described as a revenge tragedy involving an "off-brand Cthulhu" and his mate, who is killed by the First Slayer.

So yeah, it's good. Not a shocker, I know, but them's the breaks sometimes.

Also, for those who may be interested, my attempts to read all of the Edge of Spiderverse books mostly hasn't panned out – partly because I only got my copy of EoS #2 with Spider-Gwen this week, but also because the third issue didn't really keep my attention.

Secondly, whilst I've not given up on the Deconstructing Morrison column, it's also taken a bit of a backseat to my other work. For those three people who actually enjoyed it, don't worry – I'm still planning to do more with it when time allows.

And finally, whilst I've been keepin' track of Miracleman, I think I'm probably going  to wait until the final Alan Moore arc before writing anymore on the subject.

Well, that's me done for the foreseeable future; I've got some death ray schematics to steal from the Tesla Museum. Peace out, y'all!

*Whilst I won't give you spoilers, I'm sure a quick peruse on the site will indicate what I'm talking about. You're welcome.

Mind MGMT #27 (Dark Horse Comics)

By Bart Bishop

Every now and then with these reviews I like to challenge myself by jumping into a series that's far along. Generally I stick to first issues as a judge of how well it hooks, and for the sake of endorsing fresh starts, but there's something to be said for a comic that can grab your attention and be accessible in its third year. Matt Kindt's Mind MGMT has been making the rounds since 2012 as a must-read series, and Kindt himself has grabbed my attention recently with the likes of Revolver and Sweet Tooth. The creator is both writer and artist for a good deal of his creator-owned work, and with issue #27 it's clear that his distinct visual stamp is prevalent if his storytelling is a bit familiar. The series is yet another secret history of the world, and more specifically the United States, kind of story that is so appealing to narrative fiction because it creates a central threat to be combated. I can't help but feel, however, that yet another clandestine organization pulling the strings of governments and guiding the world's fate will run into the same problems and hit the same brick wall that so many stories already have many times before.

So totally in medias res here, this issue jumps in mid-conversation between Meru Marlow and Francis, the First Immortal. Meru is a crime fiction writer that has been investigating an incident in which the occupants of a commercial airline flight were all stricken with amnesia. This series-long investigation has brought her to Francis, one of the founders of Mind Management, who is now asking Meru to kill her even though he cannot die. She refuses, and instead is given a "history lesson" of Francis's attainment of immortality in "the jungle"; his meeting with Leopold Lojka, the founder of Mind Management; the creation of their first base of operations; recruitment and skepticism of their own abilities; and, most importantly, their intervention in world politics and attempts at preventing World War II. This last tidbit is key as it leads to a rift in the group and Francis's massive scarring, leaving him a walking scab in both the physical and metaphysical sense.

Kindt has a good handle on weary characters. I've noticed this in his work before, but he's not one to celebrate youth and prosperity but rather characters beaten down by life's hardships. Even the young, in this case Meru, are portrayed as naïve and cloying in their innocence. The skillful, as well, carry a heavy weight of responsibility and do not revel in their abilities; rather, they dread what they're capable of unleashing upon the world. Here that's Francis, who seems to have traveled more out of desperation than sheer wonder. Almost immediately he regrets the formation of Mind Management, and his navigating through major events and meeting recognizable figures of note is certainly provocative if not a little reductive. Like I mentioned before, the notion that powerful individuals were/are aware of coming atrocities and plot to intervene either for better or worse is an oversimplification. Churchill, for instance, is written as being too aware that he's trying to prevent World War II, as if he's read the Wikipedia entry. This posits antiquity as a sequence of calculated moves rather than a cascade of inevitability, a storytelling device that has worn out its welcome.

Kindt's art style is what really stands apart from his peers. It's truly sui generis in its sketchy, squinting style overlaid by murky water colors that appear to have spilled onto the pages. His characters always look tired, creaky and strung out, with their eyes reduced to black smudges unless in close-up and their sloping postures implying the weight of the world. His long, oval faces and smoky shadows keep everything mysterious and distant, giving a work an ethereal quality that is very apropos in this issue considering it deals with shady dealings in a past remembered by a long memory. Most fun is how Kindt plays with the frame and gutters, having the issue appear as a report being filed for Mind Management on vaguely faded manila paper. This is reminiscent of his work on Revolver that not only had dual images on the page showing alternate reality versions of the same events, but scrolling newscast tickers along the bottom filling in the reader on the grander implications on a global scale.

While not the most original scenario, its engaging characters and sense of grandeur make Mind MGMT #27 a nice jumping-on point, or at least incentive enough to check out the earlier issues.

Editor and teacher by day, comic book enthusiast by night, Bart has a background in journalism and is not afraid to use it. His first loves were movies and comic books, and although he grew up a Marvel Zombie he's been known to read another company or two. Married and with a kid on the way, he sure hopes this whole writing thing makes him independently wealthy someday. Bart can be reached at bishop@mcwoodpub.com.

The Pitiful Human-Lizard #2 (Loo Harvest Group, $5)

By Graig Kent

I love my city.

I wasn't born or raised here, nor did I attend any college or university here.  I came to be here despite my own small-town trepidation quite by accident 13 years ago and haven't even remotely considered leaving.  It's home.  I have a job, a family and access to some of the best movie, music, comic, art, theatre and cultural (among other) festivals in the world.  And then there's the food…with a population that is approximately half immigrants, we are one of (if not the) most multicultural cities in the world, and as such have so much variety of cuisine to choose from: authentic, hybrid and downright innovative flavours abound.

This is Toronto.

But Toronto isn't perfect.  Torontonians have a reputation elsewhere around this country for thinking we're the bright center of the universe, an unfortunate but not altogether inaccurate reputation.  We've long had the crappiest managed sports teams.  Our public transit is decent in theory, but severely problematic and woefully underdeveloped.  Our architectural design is confused, with every new building trying to stand out from the other.  Then there's the smugness, that prevailing air that we're better than other cities because of our tolerant, multicultural, progressive attitude.  Then "we" (I didn't vote for him) elected Rob Ford mayor, and suddenly we went from being a world-class city, officially scaling larger than Chicago, to a global punchline fronted by a buffoon even Chris Farley would have found too over the top.

But my biggest personal pet peeve about Toronto is we have no superheroes.  We can't be considered in the same breath as New York, London, Paris, or Tokyo when we have no costumed do-gooders to take down our crack-smoking mayor.  The best we've had is Scott Pilgrim, which, mind you, is no small shakes in terms of brand recognition, but Toronto still more often than not hides behind the facade of other cities.  There is a tiny bit of forward momentum of late.  Orphan Black and the recent Jake Gyllenhaal film Enemy both show Toronto as Toronto.  In the same way they say New York comes alive as a character in certain films, Toronto has a soul itching to come out in pop culture.

While we may missed out on having a Toronto-set "Justice League Canada" because of Jeff Lemire's predilection towards rural settings, this crowdfunded comic, like Scott Pilgrim before it, captures our city's energy to a "T".  The Pitiful Human Lizard is indeed a superhero comic for our city, one that reflects our prevailing laid-back attitude and congenial nature.   The city's biggest gun is Mother Wonder, a full-time mom/part-time hero, full of paternal rage, stuck fighting  crime on her night out.  Pity the villain that crosses her path. The titular hero this issue apologizes with sincerity to the art thief he laid out on the ground after a swift knee to the gonads. That's how we do.  The Human Lizard was somewhat outed as Lucas Barrett in the inaugural issue when his father did a segment on the local newscast talking openly about his public life as "Lizard-Man" back in the day. All of Lucas' office-mates have figured it out, anyway, and seem remarkably fine with the whole thing.  While last issue led to Lucas learning he has a regenerative power, he also learned that his financial debt is even more crippling than losing an arm.  This issue Lucas is just focused on going on a date.

If you know Toronto, you might see some familiar sights in this book.  The Art Gallery of Ontario, one of our many board game cafes, and city streetcars all serve as key settings this issue.  Creator Jason Loo takes great care to make sure the city is represented accurately, and its sense of being relaxed and easy-going, if somewhat taken with a jaded hipster skew, is never more present than the issue's climactic showdown between the Human Lizard and Rabb the Malevolent (a parody of Mayor Rob Ford put in just under the wire, as we mercifully elected a new, boring mayor this past week), and the phone-cam/social-media-happy crowd that gathers.  A telekinetic alien has taken over the mayor's host body, and is less than impressed by his new form, but his objective is still conquest.  Can the Human Lizard stop him?

No, actually.

While the Pitiful Human Lizard may not be the Spider-Man or Batman Toronto so desperately wants, he's a thoroughly enjoyable — moreover, suitable — creation, in the vein of the Tick, a superhero comedy that is in equal measure more grounded in reality than most superheroes, but also more prone to absurdity.  Loo's art is full of expressive characters and good spatial awareness (some truly fun angles at play), and while his work can be a little light on details, the details he does put in are highly effective (he captures Toronto's street corners with deceptive simplicity).  His chalky colour pallet keeps things light and open, and the overall imagery is virtually shadow-free, to a point: Toronto is a pretty bright city day or night.

Even if you won't be into all the little T.dot easter eggs, this is still a ridiculously charming book.  Check out pitifulhumanlizard.storenvy.com to acquire.

Graig Kent lives in Toronto, in case you missed it.  He will actively tweet @thee_geekent if awake at 3:30 AM.  His dog has a blog, tacomblur.tumblr.com.  His 2003 unpublished novel, Quarter City, will be released chapter-by-chapter every day  this November on Wattpad.

Deathlok #1 (Marvel, $3.99)

By Jeb D.

I think, at this point, I'm a couple Deathloks behind. The original 1974 series, from Doug Moench and Rich Buckler, was, like Master of Kung Fu, Tomb of Dracula, and Conan the Barbarian, part of that "post-Marvel Age" (or whatever you'd call it) period where the House of Ideas branched out beyond spandex for some of the best four-color storytelling in the company's history. The concept of the (usually) reluctant cyborg super-soldier gets recycled pretty regularly, and I suppose it's a character that most comic universes should have in their arsenal. Well, he's back.

Writer Nathan Edmondson is carving out a nice action-movie-comics niche at Marvel (Black Widow, Punisher), and his premise here is a fairly sturdy one: this version of Deathlok is Henry Hayes, ostensibly a doctor working for ""Medics Without Borders," completely unaware that he is being controlled by a shadowy high-tech organization as a wetworks specialist (some of this is actually not made explicit here, but was the crux of Deathlok's appearance in Original Sins earlier this year); his cover as an aid worker makes it easy to drop him into international trouble spots while not arousing suspicion at home. Not suspicion, maybe, but resentment: hard to say, though, whether his daughter's anger at her absent father would be better, or worse, if she (or he) knew what he was actually up to. My recollection of Deathlok's appearance in Original Sins seems to slightly contradict the chronology presented here, but I have to admit that I'm at least pleasantly surprised that Marvel didn't twist the character to match J. August Richards' portrayal on Agents of SHIELD.

Artist Mike Perkins, with color Andy Troy, has done the super-espionage thing before (Crossgen's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,– no relation to Shane Black's brilliant movie), and he's firing on all cylinders here, with a cinematic look and feel, and dynamic layouts that make good use of contrasting panel sizes; and it's always worth noting when an artist puts the time into creating distinctive facial features for characters of color. From a purely graphic standpoint, this is one of the best-looking action comics from Marvel since Tradd Moore's All-New Ghost Rider: more conventional in approach than Moore, but just as visually effective.

The new Deathlok is certainly not bad; it's equally certainly not exceptional. We're well past the point where anything genuinely new can be expected with legacy characters like Deathlok, and an idea that was fresh in 1974 needs that little extra something to get readers interested in the fourth or fifth iteration of the character. Perkins' work is enough to get me to take a stab at a second issue, but beyond that I'd like to see things shaken up a bit.

Jeb D. is a boring old married guy whose comics background includes attending the very first San Diego Comic-Con, being lectured on Doc Savage by Jim Steranko, and fetching an ashtray for Jack Kirby. After a quarter-century in the music biz, he pursues more sedate activities these days, and will certainly have a blog or Facebook account or some such thing one day.

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