The X Spot: Batman, Batman and 8 Other Comics in Between

Friends, I got too excited last week.

I wanted to share this bright and shiny new toy of ours, and I don’t think I properly explained what we (That’s you, Loyal Content Consumer, and me) are doing here. [Grote’s note: I tried to tell him, folks.] Each week, I’m going to run down 10 comics — some brand new, some recent and some probably old as hell — that are new to me (be prepared to be amazed at what I haven’t read!) in order from “thing I most regret reading”/“thing I am most critical of” to “thing I would die for.”

We’ll also have “Nevin asides” (as Boss Man Dan put it) that are either my deep thoughts of the week or showing off some of the stuff we have cooking here at ComicsXF. 

Now, the parameters are set. Good. I feel better.

10. Batman Annual #5. Writer: James Tynion IV, Artist and colorist: James Stokoe, Letterer: Clayton Cowles, Publisher: DC

This gets points for not including Ghost-Maker (which I seem to remember as a threat from a previous tease), but that’s not enough to move Batman Annual off this week’s ignominious No. 10(X) spot. While the issue is Ultimately Fine and OK, Stokoe’s art — which, to be clear, is great — didn’t click for me in a main Bat title because I’m probably primed to expect something more like the usual Bat house style (i.e. Greg Capullo and those trying to imitate him); this seemed like it would work better in a sillier/less-based-in-reality book like TMNT. Also, Tynion can’t consistently nail the voice of any Batman character outside of Harley Quinn, and the much touted origin of Clownhunter — while it did strike some resonant emotional chords — didn’t seem all that special and/or different from Duke Thomas’ story.

9. Pulp. Writer: Ed Brubaker, Artist and letterer: Sean Phillips, Colorist: Jacob Phillips, Publisher: Image

I balked — balked, I tell ya — at the original retail price for Pulp; $15 (or was it more?) for a 76-page graphic “novel” didn’t sit right with me, and after reading what is admittedly a great story, I stand by my original take. It is too short to justify at that price (I finally got it in a comiXology sale, but comiXology and Amazon are still on notice), but that has consequences for the narrative as well: We don’t get to the heart of the story until page 57, and it’s over in what seems like a second after that. Brubaker spends so much time crafting Max, a retired Wild West bandit living out his days as a pulp Western writer, and then does nothing with him. Disappointing considering what could have been.

8. Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Dark Nights: Metal. Story: Scott Snyder, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, Writers: Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, Penciller: Karl Mostert, Inkers: Trevor Scott and Norm Rapmund, Colorist: Romulo Fajardo Jr., Letterer: AndWorld Design, Publisher: DC

After what seems like years, I finally figured out my position on Dark Nights: Metal: Death Metal Rock Doom: It’s good, but only to the point that it doesn’t get up its own ass and expect me to be able to follow it from one issue to another or to understand its consequences moving forward. Could I pick up Death Metal and figure out what the hell it’s about? Or even the reading order for Death Metal without a chart? Absolutely not. (One aside about the reading order and jumbled mashup of the main series, tie-ins and one-shots: It’s a better approach than trying to tell this story across three or four books in the main line, but it’s still confusing and, ultimately, self-defeating.) In single, measured doses, the lunacy of Metal is fun; who wouldn’t enjoy a skeletal Flash and a Nightwing armed with the universe’s most powerful guitar? The twisted and corrupted versions of Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern? Hella fun. And acceptable only because I can forget it as soon as I read it.

Ego, Grace and Jon Huber

His confirmation bias made him see a conspiracy.

His readers — and the rest of the internet, for that matter — saw only callousness.

Pro wrestling press commentator Bruce Mitchell’s final (for now) column on the death of AEW’s Jon Huber — a piece in which he speculated Huber’s passing may have been related to the coronavirus, thereby contradicting everything both his widow and his employer publicly disclosed — was roundly criticized as an attack on a family in an hour of misery and a ghoulish play for attention and clicks. Mitchell’s editor, the owner, publisher and founder of the Pro Wrestling Torch, Wade Keller, publicly disavowed the column and explained he hadn’t been given a chance to read it before it was published, and after 12 or so hours — or whatever the time frame it was in which Mitchell stubbornly stood by his work — publicly cut ties with the writer after a 30-year relationship.

When it comes to covering tragedy, I have been on both sides of the reporter’s notebook. As a college freshman working for my college newspaper, I called Beth Thompson — the mother of a missing 11-year-old girl — to ask her about the police theory that her daughter may have simply run away from home. Fifteen years later, I stood in my mother’s driveway and answered questions from local media the day my murdered sister’s body was found. Journalists in these situations must balance the need to report on public events against a family’s anguish, juggling the needs of objectivity and humanity.

Mitchell is/was not a reporter per se. But as a commentator, it was his job to report what he saw as the truth — his truth — and hold the powerful accountable. In this pandemic era of wrestling, he made it quite clear that WWE, AEW and any other fed thinking about running shows during a global health catastrophe should shut down rather than expose wrestlers and fans to a deadly contagion — an opinion that’s not objectively wrong. With Huber’s death, Mitchell — either intentionally or on some subconscious level unburdened by logic — found his evidence and framed it with the embarrassingly shallow (and I’m only slightly paraphrasing here), “I’ve never heard of a healthy 41-year-old dying from lung disease.”

I have no tears for Mitchell’s writing career — not after that absolute boner and not with Huber’s family, friends and fans still hurting after the death of, by all accounts, a wonderful man — but I look at him, a man fired for his stubbornness as much as his poor argumentation and think: Is that going to be me in 25 years?

Writing about comics is much the same as writing about wrestling, in that there is only a small amount of money to be made for a handful of people, so we do this thing with a profound passion. That passion, both for the substance and my personal craft, fuels an ego, one that gets the better of me frequently. Editorial decisions sting, and I resolutely believe in the rightness of what I have to say. And that’s the Mitchell path to ruin.

He may not have a chance to do better.

But I do.

Returning to Business 

7. Kaiju Score #2. Writer: James Patrick, Artist and colorist: Rem Broo, Letterer: Dave Sharpe, Publisher: AfterShock

As I just mentioned, I can be a capricious and cantankerous asshole, and sometimes, I don’t necessarily have good reasons supporting my decisions. Like skipping Kaiju Score. I don’t get the current obsession with big-ass monsters — they don’t entertain me in and of themselves, and so I’m not going to pick up a book only because it has kaiju or mechs or whatever. And so I could have missed out on Kaiju Score, which feels strangely like a book written for me because the monsters are simply there and, in accordance with Harold Ramis’ philosophy in constructing the world of Ghostbusters, everything else is normal as hell. This is not a book of monsters; rather, it’s a heist book, the story of our man Marco (the brains) putting together a team to make off with the best parts of a coastal art museum during big-ass monster season. It is deliciously normal and scheming and treacherous in all ways — aside from the kaiju. And that’s why it works.

6. Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #4. Writer: Cullen Bunn, Artist: Miguel Valderrama, Colorist: Jason Wordie, Letterer: Frank Cvetkovic, Publisher: Dark Horse

Cyberpunk 2077 (the game) has problems both moral and technical, and while we’ve heard much more about the latter at the expense of the former, this miniseries thankfully avoids both (could we have a buggy comic?) and focuses on a tighter story in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. In the game’s dystopian future, there’s no longer health insurance as we might recognize it; instead, residents of the expansive Los Angeles-area city state pay premiums to armed medical assault teams who are then responsible for evacuating customers in the event of an emergency. Trauma Team focuses on the story of a member of one of these medical rescue units, Nadia, a woman who lost everyone on her last team only for her corporate overlords to push her back into the field. The narrative circles back on itself a few too many times, and the ending is too heavily foreshadowed (more like telegraphed or signaled with that phat meme font), but this comic is worth it — if only to spend more time with the parts of Cyberpunk 2077 that actually work.  

5. This Quarantine Life: A Covid-19 Era Comics Anthology. Writer: The Art Students League of New York, Editors: Steven Walker and Greg Follender

The Art Students League of New York was probably the online masterclass of 1875: Anyone could sign up, there was no official program of study, no one graduated and you learned for the fucking sake of learning. Imagine that. The League is still in operation today and still catering to “anyone who truly aspires to develop as an artist,” meaning they take on all comers regardless of skill — which is cool as hell. So in this 100-page anthology (available on comiXology for one single American dollar) there are some pieces that are maybe not ready for prime time, and I’m not going to shit on them. (I’ll say generally that a lot of the lettering could stand to be sharper.) That said, some of these stories — these one-page pieces — cut right to the heart of the misery of the past year, like this, “Gratitude” from Amanda McGuire, four panels that show how overbearing that goddamned virus has been:

And “Demons” by Daniele Marzocchini, a story that features COVID’s mental health toll:

The loss in Steven Tracy Ross’ “We Could Celebrate”:

And the beauty that persists, even in a world of misery, in Derek A. Edwards’ “Lullaby”:

To tell these universal stories in a single page is as impressive as any other achievement in comics. Incredible work and a credit to the League.

X Spotlight: Things on ComicsXF You Should Read

• This Is Who We Are by Jude Jones. The events at the U.S. Capitol were not a surprise nor an aberration, as Jude rightly points out.
• Watchmen Discourse, the Ol’ Cates & Switch and an Actual Crossover in Crossover #3 by Big Boss Man Zachary Jenkins and Dan McMahon. The things Donny Cates does in this book. My God.
• Scout’s Honor #1 Will Make You Wish You Didn’t Quit after Webelos by Boss Man Dan Grote. I quit the Boy Scouts after I made Second Class. Something I kinda regret, especially after my dad made Eagle. Anyway, it’s a cool book … although that lettering drives me nuts. 
• That Which Devours: Exploring Image Comics’ Lost Soldiers by Ari Bard. Aleš Kot is one of the more interesting and idiosyncratic creators working today — he did a heckuva Bond series for Dynamite, and both Lost Soldiers and Zero are in my pile of things to cover in this space. Also, me ‘n’ Ari are tackling Haha #1 next week. 
• Which X-Relationships Were Taylor Swift’s Second 2020 Album evermore Written About? by Emily Harding. Big Why, Will (which is not dead, btw) [Grote’s note: It’s not?] energy here. Love it.

Almost Done Now

4. Sea of Sorrows #2. Writer: Rich Douek, Artist and colorist: Alex Cormack, Letterer: Justin Birch, Publisher: IDW

The thing with Sea of Sorrows is that everything is black — Cormack’s colors and obscuring inks, the murky depths of this deep water submarine/grave robbing operation and the rot at the soul of everyone involved are all darker than you can imagine. Oh, and there are evil mermaids. This is such a lovely horror book and a follow-up befitting of Road of Bones. (Which reminds me — I need to reread that.) 

3. The Wrong Earth: Night & Day #1. Writer: Tom Peyer, Penciller: Jamal Igle, Inker: Juan Castro, Colorist: Andy Troy, Letterer: Rob Steen, Publisher: AHOY

If there could be something better than Peyer’s insight into what makes superhero comics work, it has to be his planning. The first volume of The Wrong Earth introduced the concept of a White Knight, Adam West-styled superhero swapping places with his counterpart in a Dark Knight Returns-ish world, while the second installment was a prequel that focused on their respective deteriorating relationships with their sidekicks and this newest series puts both heroes on the sunny side of the universal divide. How these superheroes will co-exist is a fascinating question, and there’s no one I’d rather have more than Peyer go off looking for an answer. 

2. Future State: Swamp Thing. Writer: Ram V, Artist: Mike Perkins, Colorist: June Chung, Letterer: Aditya Bidikar, Publisher: DC

Humanity is a myth, and there is nothing but The Green. The Swamp Thing reigns. I don’t know dick about the rich history of the title (Len Wein’s last miniseries is on my pile of things to read, and I will open it up to any other suggestions, by the way), but this is such a great thing to burrow into with Swamp Thing managing the family he has created and the challenges they face in this post-apocalyptic world. I mention this in a different context in today’s Bat Chat, but this really feels like the most of what Future State could be — a total recontextualization of familiar characters in new and exciting stories.

Out of ConteXt: Choice ComicsXF Discord Quotes

• “Futura Extra Black Condensed regular”
• “suit made of crack”
• “Gonna suplex Kid Rock”
• “Leave john candy alone”
• “If Mark McGrath was there, shit would’ve been different”
• “i don’t love oxygen, personally”

Wanna get in on the madness that is the ComicsXF Discord? Back our Patreon.

Finally, the Big Hoss of the Week

1. The Batman Adventures Holiday Special. Writers: Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and Ronnie Del Carmen, Artists: Dan Riba, Bruce Timm, Del Carmen, Glen Murakami, Kevin Altieri and Butch Lukic, Colorists: Timm, Del Carmen and Murakami, Letterer: Richard Starkings/Comicraft, Publisher: DC

Remember all the way back up top when I explained the rules? How this list would only include comics I haven’t read? Despite being in the target demo (aka 9 years old) when this was published in 1994, this was entirely new to me after I picked it up this week on account of the gif of Commissioner Gordon and Batman sharing a coffee to celebrate surviving another year. (The gif coming, of course, from The New Batman Adventures, which did a straight-up adaptation of the whole issue less than a year after it hit stands. Wouldn’t it be something if comics ’n’ TV worked like that today?) The whole issue is a joy, despite a Joker story that doesn’t quite match the emotional impact of the rest of the book. Strong recommendation. 

Also, I learned that Harley Quinn is Jewish. Huh. The more you know.

NeXt Time on the X Spot

Commanders in Crisis #4, Future State: Green Lantern, Red Atlantis #3 and seven more … because it’s pronounced “ten.”