Why dwell on the downers when there was so much fun to be found at the comics shop this week?
Someone must have left tiny footprints on my brain, because I didn’t have a problem disassociating JLA Classified: I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League from the recent unpleasantness. It’s got the same antic spirit as its predecessor mini-series, Formerly Known as the Justice League, and Kevin Maguire’s clean, comic art is always a pleasure. He does the best facial expressions in the business, which can turn a talking-head sequence into visual treat. Some of the jokes are a little bit labored (“We get paid?”), and Sue’s odd behavior seems contrived, but the book works more often than it stumbles. The character that arrives at the end of the issue is particularly welcome, as he’s such a reliable conflict generator. (I’m really looking forward to his first meeting with Mary Marvel.) It’s a solid beginning with the promise of real comic highs in subsequent issues.
Behold the power of the exclamation point: Marvel Next. Meh. Marvel Next! Let me get my wallet! Branding aside, Livewires makes a very positive first impression. Adam Warren’s script would be unbearably expository if it didn’t have such a nattering, stream-of-consciousness sweetness to it. He also provides a solid in-story justification for the chatter as he introduces his cast of “semi-autonomous artificially intelligent, limited-nanofunction humanform mecha constructs.” (Edgy acronyms be damned!) Artist Rick Mays makes the most of Warren’s nutty-idea-per-panel plot, and they build a solid cast, quasi-hip code names and all. The reveal at the end is predictable, but the execution is so amiable that it doesn’t really matter. This was the week’s most pleasant surprise for me.
Runaways returns for its second season, and the cast has a lot on its plate. They’re still dealing with the fallout of events from their first run (a villainous power vacuum in Los Angeles and avoiding Social Services and foster home placements) with some fresh portents of doom thrown in just for fun. I can’t honestly tell you if this would work for a new reader, as I read and loved the first 18 issues. But the exposition seems thorough enough, and it’s applied organically so as not to bore returning fans. Writer Brian K. Vaughan introduces a group of former teen heroes, Excelsior, who are forming a support group for peers who’ve left the spandex behind. (I don’t know if it’s intentional, but I picked up – and enjoyed – a sly satire of the ex-gay movement in some of Excelsior’s rhetoric.) Vaughan also does clever work putting a variety of plots in motion while pointing them towards future intersection. He also provides nice character moments for what could have been a dauntingly large cast. I like Adrian Alphona’s art, though the female characters all seem like they could use a sandwich or two.
She-Hulk goes full-frontal meta with the final issue of its first season right from the cover with its “The End” banner. Fortunately, nobody does meta quite like writer Dan Slott, folding it in perfectly with the blend of comedy and action that have made this book such a treat. He does a dandy job pulling together the various plot threads from his twelve-issue run. There’s so much to like about this book – the effortless comedy, the playful view of the Marvel universe, the solid characterization, the genuine affection for comics. The best part for me is Slott’s central argument, though: Jennifer Walters, the woman under the gamma-irradiated muscles, is a smart, resourceful, endlessly likable character in her own right, and her gradual realization of that over the course of twelve issues has been very, very satisfying. I can’t wait for the re-launch, and I hope it gets the buzz it deserves.