The Comics I've Read in March
I've devised a new type of monthly post for this blog, I'm going to keep track of and talk a bit about comics I've read each month that are either some of my favorite reads or ones that I'd find it interesting to ramble about. This is in large part to keep track of what I've read in any given month and to create little time capsules for myself. Without further ado let's get into what I read this month starting with my the single issues.
X-Men Forever #1 by Gillen and Maresca
X-Men Forever #1 by Kieron Gillen and Luca Maresca is a weird issue. It exists in this bizarre liminal space in terms of continuity. It takes place after Immortal X-Men but before the already released first two issues of Rise of The Powers of X. So essentially the issue is playing narrative catch up, it's explaining how we get from Immortal X-Men to Rise of The Powers of X. That being said it's not like you could read this before the first two issues of Rise of The Powers of X, it is very much is built around the expectation that you have already read those first two issues. So like I said, the book finds itself in a bizarre liminal space.
Despite all that weirdness, the book is still fantastic. It was an exhilarating read that just didn't let up. The hits just kept up coming at a breakneck pace. It feels like the book is weaving together two halves into a complete article of clothing, picking up threads from one half and effortlessly weaving it into the other.
On the art front I was happily surprised. I didn't dislike Maresca's art on Children Of The Vault but I didn't love it either. I don't know if it's that he has stepped it up or if it's the fact that this is a different colorist but it's exceptional work. The facial work in particular blew my breath away on several occasions. To return to the coloring for a second, in the past I haven't considered myself a fan of Blee, I had thought of his colors as bland and washed out. But for whatever reason here I absolutely adore his work and I can't exactly say why.
I have two favorite panels from this issue, the first is Sinister Doug's little chest hair, it's absolutely adorable.
The other is actually a set of panels. It's when, upon learning that the mutants who walked through the gates are alive, Charles Xavier falls to his knees and breaks down into tears. It's a perfect payoff to when he broke down in tears when he thought he sent them all into a meat grinder at the Hellfire Gala.
Resurrection of Magneto #3 by Ewing and Vecchio
I haven't really talked about Resurrection Of Magneto by Al Ewing and Luciano Vecchio online in any form so let me rectify that here. Resurrection Of Magneto serves as a coda to Al Ewing's time in the Krakoan era, it only makes sense that in this final stretch the focus shifts to his two primary focus characters in his X-Men work, Magneto and Storm. Resurrection Of Magneto has been a fantastic book all the way through and this issue is no exception.
Despite Ewing's always fantastic writing, the most continually notable thing about this series to me is the work Vecchio is doing in it. I was a fan of his work even before this series, but even I must admit that his work in Resurrection Of Magneto has been a improvement by magnitudes. It's honestly been shocking to see him shine like he has in this series where before his art wasn't nearly at this level.
My favorite panel from this issue is rather silly but it's the panel where we see the array of the Phoenix's opposites. It has to be my favorite because it brings in a deep DEEP pull in the first fallen. A bizarre character from the tail end of Claremont's return to Uncanny X-Men in the late 2000s.
X-Force #50 by Percy and Gill
X-Force #50 by Benjamin Percy and Robert Gill is the final issue of Percy's run on X-Force. I've been a massive fan of this run all the way through. Percy has been doing what seems almost impossible in big two comics nowadays, a slow burn story. Indeed making it to fifty issues is pretty miraculous at this point and time.
X-Force #50 gave me a adrenaline rush while reading it, but not for the reason one might hope. No, all the while reading this comic my brain was racing with one question: "How the hell do they wrap this up in 20 pages?". The answer? They rushed to the conclusion. It's not bad but it does feel uncharacteristically rushed. I have the feeling that Percy thought he may have had more runway then he actually did, that he had to wrap up unexpectedly quickly. Which sounds insane to say considering he already had fifty issues worth of story, but given what we know about the sudden editorial change in the X-office it seems possible that if Jordan White stayed on perhaps Percy would have been on X-Force for even longer.
As is X-Force #50 is fine, it's a utilitarian ending for a story that feels like it needed more room to breathe. That being said overall Percy's run on X-Force is exemplary comics.
All-Star Superman by Morrison and Quitely
Before All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely I never read a superman comic before. Hell, the only other DC I read was Spirit World #1. So in a effort to read something other then a marvel comic I decided to pick up one of the most famous and beloved Superman stories of all-time.
I find All-Star Superman to be a exceptionally hard series to write about. Even though it's only twelve issues, those issues are dense. I've always thought that Morrison does a great job making a single issue feel like six. All-Star Superman is no different, the issues are dense and feel like they tell their own complete stories.
Based off the iconic cover to the first issue of the series and knowing a little bit about the basic premise I honestly thought that it would be an exploration of the character of Superman and how he deals with his impending death. I was admittedly, very wrong. The series is in fact not an exploration of Superman, but his mythology. The series spotlights the major characters of Superman's mythos like Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Bizzaro, Lex Luther, and more. It feels like a celebration of Superman and the characters history.
On the art front Quitely delivers amazing facial expressions as always. I first encountered Quitely's art in New X-Men, where he really gets to shine by having so many weird freaks to draw. All-Star Superman doesn't nearly have as many bizarre freaks which does make me sad, that being said the work is still incredible.
A complete aside but, my favorite character from All-Star Superman has to be Lex Luthor, the man just has impeccable hater energy.
Lex Luthor is Ahab and Superman is his Moby Dick, I just have to admire the complete and total devotion to hating one man with every fiber of your being.
Moon Knight by Lemire and Smallwood
Back in January I wrote about Moon Knight by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey. I would describe that run as sleek and stylish, it largely runs on vibes. Back when I wrote about it I put a lot of attention on the fact that the series really doesn't focus much on Marc Spector's interiority. Moon Knight by Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood sits on the opposite end of the spectrum, focusing so much on Marc's interiority that the fourteen issues almost entirely takes place inside Marc's mind.
The series is a deep dive into the fractured mind of Moon Knight. Marc and all of his alters get a focus. The first arc starts off with a lot of inertia but honestly kinda slows down at a certain point, it doesn't feel like it needs to be five issues. In the second arc the focus shifts primarily to the alters and we see the world from their perspective which is conveyed through different art styles, it's a pretty smart way to go about fill in artists. The last arc sees Marc reconcile with his alters and go after Khonshu who is trying to take over their body. The last arc is by far the strongest in the book in my estimation, Smallwood returns as the primary artist and his work is just so above all of the fill in artists.
The art across the series is stellar. Smallwood is the primary artist and he brings a otherworldly feel to the comic. It honestly reminds me a little of Sienkiewicz's work at times, which makes sense given he worked on the original run of Moon Knight. Special mention also has to go to colorist Jordie Bellaire, who brings the same careful use of color and it's absence like she did in the Ellis and Shalvey run. Both Smallwood and Bellaire's combined talent lends the book a almost chalky look? Which sounds odd to say but it's the best word to describe the look of the series.
My favorite sequence from the run has to be a flashback that takes place after the funeral of Marc's father. Marc laments to his mother that his father hated him, when she retorts that his father did indeed loved him, Marc experiences a dissociative episode and Steven takes over. Marc's mother reacts poorly telling him to knock it off.
This sequence deeply resonated with me. While I don't suffer from D.I.D I do suffer from Bipolar and I can recall having similar conversations with my own mother when my episodes would flair up. The tragic thing is that for both Marc's mom and mine it doesn't come from a place of malice but a misunderstanding of their child's condition. It's a wonderful depiction of what it's like for your loved ones to not truly understand your condition and it's the moment that most impacted me.
Silver Surfer Requiem by Straczynski and Ribic
Silver Surfer Requiem by J. Michael Straczynski and Esad Ribic is a beautiful series both visually and narratively. It's kind of funny that I read this so soon after All-Star Superman since they have such similar premises. A being of great cosmic power—in this case the Silver Surfer—is faced with their own approaching death. It's a fairly superficial connection but one I find funny all the same.
The writing is quite lovely but the real draw is Ribic's art. There are ample splash pages which are so amazing and breathtaking I want to frame them. I've always thought that Ribic's art has a mythic quality to it and here is no different.
It's very hard to pick one splash panel to showcase here, there are so many amazing ones in this short four issue mini. The one I ultimitely landed on showcasing is this one:
It's a page of the Silver Surfer before he was the Silver Surfer approaching Galactus with a bargain to save his home planet. It's a pretty simple page but something about it just sings to me. Galactus's machinery is a precursor to Ribic's later celestial technology in Eternals. And something about Galactus's face just feels so omnipotent, so beyond human, so unknowable.
Before I go any further I feel the need to give some context, in preparation for the upcoming Marvel event Blood Hunt I decided to read all of Jed MacKay's major marvel works, some of which I go over later in this post. I'm calling it my MacKayathon. Black Cat was the first step in that and my god is it a good first impression.
Before reading MacKay's Black Cat I had no opinion on Felicia Hardy a.k.a the Black Cat. around twenty-eight issues later I find myself utterly obsessed with this character and her world. MacKay's Black Cat run is stretched across two volumes, two annuals, one giant-sized issue, one one shot, and one mini. Even when spread across multiple titles, twenty-eight issues of Black Cat is insane.
Black Cat is all about heists. In fact the first volume is essentially her stealing stuff from everyone in the marvel universe, including, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Danny Rand, and even fucking Kade Killgore. The highlight for me has to be the last two issues where in the process of stealing from Tony Stark, Felicia creates the Iron Cat suit of armor, which is really an amazing design.
The supporting cast is also great, from Black Cat's crew Bruno and Dr. Korpse, to her aging mentor the Black Fox, to her rival and leader of the Thieves Guild of New York Odessa Drake. It's a great cast and MacKay made me care deeply about all of them. Generally Mackay has that effect, of taking characters I either didn't give a damn about before or didn't even know and elevating them to become some of my favorites.
On the art front for the first volume, Travel Foreman does a great job but his pencils is occasionally hampered by colorist Brian Reber, who's colors are fantastic with all the other artists on the series but don't gel with Foreman's pencils for whatever reason. The future lead designer on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Kris Anka does two issues and brings his trademarked stylistic flair to the book. In my opinion though, the artist who best fits the series is the one who comes in for the last two issues, MacKay's future collaborator on Avengers, Carlos Villa. Villa just feels like a star who is waiting for the right book, something about his expressive faces and style just feel perfectly suited to big two comics and especially the expressive Black Cat.
One complaint I have about the art is the way Black Cat is sometimes sexualized for the male gaze. For the most part outside of the first annual this isn't really a big issue in the interiors, but the covers for the first volume it's a entirely different matter. J. Scott Campbell's covers for the first volume most resemble pin up posters, it's a little gratuitous and just feels gross.
Sadly due to covid related reasons the initial run of Black Cat was cancelled prematurely. Fortunately the second volume came out only a few months later, however it starts somewhat oddly. Black Cat volume two begins with three event tie-in issues. They are by no means bad, they are quite fun in fact, but they do interrupt the flow of the book somewhat. However after those first three issues the new volume picks back up the threads of the old volume and starts to continue the story.
Issues five through seven of the series comprise The Gilded City arc which is essentially the pay off to everything that has come before it. It's a wonderful end to the story of MacKay's Black Cat. However that's not quite the end, there are still three more issues that comprise the Infinity Score arc of the series. The Infinity Score arc is a weird one, It's building off of the Infinite Destinies series of annuals that introduce hosts to the infinity stones. Some of the annuals are good but others are pretty bland if I'm being frank. In Infinity Score Felicia must assemble the infinity stone hosts to pull off a heist. Unfortunately the series was cancelled again, with only three of the infinity stone hosts gathered. The silver lining to this is that MacKay gets to finish up the story in Giant-Size Black Cat: Infinity Score, even if seemingly the original plans had to be changed as no more infinity stone hosts join Felicia's team and she has to make do (much like MacKay) with what she has to complete the job.
For the second volume the bulk of the issues are penciled by the returning Carlos Villia. However the Gilded City arc has Michael Dowling, a fill in artist for the first volume, return. Dowling's style is much more reminiscent of Foreman's then anything done by Villia. But honestly he works wonders none the less. Luckily the cover artist has changed from Campbell to comics superstar artist Pepe Larraz. Larraz's covers much like all of his work are breathtaking, and unlike Campbell's work it manages not to sexualize Felicia for the sake of the male gaze!
The last bit of MacKay's run on Black Cat is a five issue mini, Iron Cat. This series sees the return of that exceptional Iron Cat suit of armor as Felicia's ex, Tamara Blake steals the armor and makes a attempt on Felicia's life. Black Cat must team up with Iron Man to take her down and get back his armor.
The art team on Iron Cat is Pere Pérez on pencils and Frank D'Armata on colors. Pérez does a great job, his work is very detailed but still has a lot of life to it. D'Armata is someone I have complicated feelings about, his color work often gives comics this weird glossy look, as if everything and everyone was covered in Vaseline and shoe polish. His colors often are very cold to me, especially building interiors. However here his work doesn't bother me so much, sure I still would have preferred Reber but D'Armata gets the job done.
Iron Cat is a good bit disconnected from the rest of the run. For instance Bruno and Dr. Korpse, two central characters in both volumes of Black Cat, barely appear at all. But it's still a great comic and one that compliments the rest of the run.
Taskmaster by MacKay and Vitti
Taskmaster by MacKay and Alessandro Vitti is a fun and short series, it's only five issues and it's plot is pretty straight forward. The basic gist of the plot is this: someone has killed Maria Hill and framed Taskmaster, Black Widow is after him to avenge Hill but Nick Fury Jr saves Taskmaster's life and recruits him to finish Hill's mission, which involved securing a old H.A.M.M.E.R a doomsday device, the only wrinkle is that to get access to the doomsday device Taskmaster must get close enough to three super spies to copy their biometric signatures or whatever. And that's essentially the plot of the book, sure there are a few twists towards the end but now you largely understand the structure of Taskmaster. Each issue focuses on Taskmaster getting the biometric whatever of one of the super spies, rinse and repeat till it all comes to ahead in issue five.
The thing that makes the series worth the read though is Mackay's voice for Taskmaster. Mackay's Taskmaster is just a lovable goofball.
Taskmaster is just a real joy in this series, he is just such a silly little guy. That being said MacKay doesn't pretend that Taskmaster is all jokes, he's a competent mercenary who knows when to put his straight face on. He's simultaneously lovable and pretty scary, it's a great balance.
There are really only two notable things about Vitti's art in this series to me. firstly his men are big and bulky, which doesn't really speak to anything deeper but is the main thing I remember about his art here. The second thing is that he gets a lot of range of emotion out of a skull mask, Taskmaster is constantly expressive in pretty extreme ways, that alone deserves some props.
I'll just present my favorite panel from this series without comment.
The Death of Doctor Strange by MacKay and Garbett
I wouldn't regularly pick up The Death of Doctor Strange by MacKay and Lee Garbett. I'm just not a huge Doctor Strange guy. That being said, it's the precursor to MacKay's run on Strange and Doctor Strange and by the rules of the MacKayathon I am compelled to read it. With that being said I quite liked The Death of Doctor Strange.
The titles really gives the central premise of the book away, Doctor Strange is murdered, the twist however is that he is going to solve his own murder! This is possible because a unspecified amount of years ago, Doctor Strange took a week off his life expectancy to create a version of himself to avenge his death, the wrinkle though? He only has that one week to solve the case! This is a pretty fun and clever concept and by far the most compelling thing about the book. Seeing this past Strange reckon not only with his future and the choices of his future self makes for good drama.
Upon Strange dying a magical protective seal around the world fails, thus enters the Three Mothers, a trio of beings who capture magic users to feed their eldritch and fetile master, the Peregrine Child.
Besides being creepy and serving as antagonists these villains start a funny trend across MacKay's work at Marvel, the elaborately designed weirdo villain team. Two examples of this from his later work would be the Twilight Court and the Bloodcoven.
It's just a funny recurring beat I've seen in his work.
I honestly don't have strong opinions on Garbett's art generally, his work somewhat reminds me of Joshua Cassara's, especially in the faces. Both artists employ pretty blocky anatomy. Antonio Fabela's colors are quite nice, they especially pop when it comes to the more magical moments.
Earlier on in this post I talked about how I admired Lex Luthor's raw hater energy. Well Doctor Strange has his very own hater, Baron Mordo. I know just about nothing about Mordo except for the fact that he hates strange and hates the idea of Strange dying by anyone's hands but his.
So that concludes the "My Favorite Comics I've Read in March", this post honestly turned out a lot longer then I expected clocking in around 3,500 words. But overall I think this has been a worth while exercise. See you next month, the MacKayathon will continue!
