Comics: Week of November 23

Five sentences just doesn't seem like enough to describe some of this week's books accurately, but I have done my very best and will keep to it until I have some kind of epiphany, or can actually see some improvement. For now, though, here are twenty sentences on some pretty good books.

Ex Machina #16 - "Off The Grid, Part Two"
(Brian K. Vaughan, words; Tony Harris, pencils)

The first issue in this two-part story took Mayor Hundred out of New York politics and on the road in search of his mother, and this issue wraps things up fairly nicely. I like the look of the flashback scene at the beginning of this issue; the panel arrangement and point of view work to create a disjointed feeling that fits the tone of the action. I'm not particularly thrilled with the "Is Mitchell gay?" thread that's popping up again in this title; I think it's an unneccessary plot point in a series that's full of potential. (Personally, I'd love it if he was functionally asexual after his accident, and only feels twinges of love for a nice, dependable Blackberry or a good-looking sports car.) All in all, a fairly standard issue of an above-average series, but I'm looking forward to the next storyline - "March To War" - with great interest.
Expectation: 3.5
Rating: 3
Differential: -0.5


Jack Cross #4 - "Love Will Get You Killed, Part Four"
(Warren Ellis, words; Gary Erskine, art)

I'm a Ellisoholic - which, in my opinion, should really be "Ellisic"; is there really anything called Ellisohol, and if so, can someone please tell me where can I get some? Anyhow, considering he's putting out 3 different cop/investigator comics right now, and I can't afford to get all of them, I'm afraid Jack Cross, the "Hard Man" himself, gets the boot. There's nothing particularly wrong with it: Ellis has the different characters' clipped, military dialogue down just fine, and in a few places he and Erskine show just how effective decompression can be. Jack Cross is a spy-action movie in comic form, very cinematic and striking, but ultimately it suffers in comparison to the superior art and story found in Desolation Jones and Fell. I gave it four issues, and now I'm afraid I'm going to have to give it a miss.
Expectation: 3
Rating: 2.5
Differential: -0.5


Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein #1
(Grant Morrison, words; Doug Mahnke, art)

As much as I love Karloff, I like my Frankenstein's monster a little less "monosyllabic and cement boot-dragging" and a little more "philosophical and Paradise Lost-quoting"; Morrison and Mahnke have given me the latter. The main thrust of Morrison's Seven Soldiersseries - interdimensional Fae folk bent on the destruction of this world - is an oddly compatable fit with Shelley's monster-hunting monster, who sort of reminds me of a white-collar Hellboy. This is the best I've seen Mahnke's art; he successfully draws beautiful young men and women, overweight pimply-faced dweebs, and a reanimated corpse with equal success. I would have liked to see more of the monster himself (he bookends his own title), and was a little confused by a publishing error on Page 4, but those are minor complaints. Out of the all seven miniseries was the one I was the most worried about, and yet based on the strength of this first issue, it's probably my second-favourite (after Klarion: The Witch-Boy, and trust me, no-one is more surprised than me about that): "Frankenstein Lives!" indeed.
Expectation: 3.5
Rating: 4.0
Differential: +0.5

Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #4
(Grant Morrison, words; Ryan Sook, pencils)

Another Seven Soldiers mini draws to a close with this issue, and I must admit I'm sad to see it go; this Zatanna is the most effective and enjoyable of her many incarnations, and I hope she isn't relegated to "deus ex machina" or "plot point" status after this. Sook's Zatanna is sexy without being vulgar, but more importantly in this issue, his pencils give the reader an excellent look at both the mundane and the mystical - and beyond. Here Morrison mines one of his favourite story veins, what I like to call "the comic book as conscious cultural construct", something he's done in The Filth, Doom Patrol, and most effectively, Animal Man. It's well-done here, and it highlighting the massive intensity of the magical confrontation by suggesting that not even the all-powerful Fourth Wall can contain this fight. This issue finishes off the miniseries with style, and even though I'm irked that the story won't be quite over for another few months, this is a good enough place to pause for now.
Expectation: 4.0
Rating: 4.5
Differential: +0.5