Of late, my preference in Marvel comics has skewed toward the outre. Now, I, of course, am still reading Jonathan Hickman's masterful deconstruction of the MU, but it's titles like Howard the Duck/Human, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Moon Knight, and, unsurprisingly perhaps, Weirdworld that are really floating my boat these days. They're not your typical superhero comics. In fact, in a lot of ways, each one, though set inside a superhero universe, completely troubles how we might think through the superhero. And with Weirdworld, we're perhaps even getting an incursion into the superhero universe of a full-on fantasy setting, in many ways similar to the realm of The Warlord in DC comics.
Add to this the fact that this issue stars characters from freaking Crystar, the Crystal Warrior, an obscure 80s toy line that Marvel concocted and published a very short-lived series of. I was blown away when Arkon is rescued from underwater ape imprisonment (yes he is) by Warbow, best friend of Prince Crystar. Weirdworld is a comic that, unlike many, lives up to the promise of it's name (when was the last time the Avengers avenged anything?).
Del Mundo's art continues to be amazing. Jason Aaron's writing is very good. I've probably read something he's done before, but I think this is the first time I've noticed that it was him I'm reading. He gives Arkon a very interesting voice, and I'm hoping that it's intentional, rather than a result of poor writing. Arkon sound like Conan the Barbarian if he'd grown up playing Nintendo. It's a weird mix, but every now and again he uses a colloquialism that I just can't really reconcile with someone who's the Barbarian King of Polemachus. Add to this the "Mother Board Mountain" that I mentioned yesterday, and I begin to wonder if this particular part of Battleworld doesn't exist inside a video game somehow. Whether it does or doesn't, however, it's hands down one of the best, and most innovative, titles Marvel's got going at the moment.
I've hit this point, as I do on a bi-yearly basis, where I'm reading far too many comics on a monthly basis, and I have to start whittling down the list. Weirdworld continues to stay near the top, along with the aforementioned Marvel titles. I've seen the post-Secret Wars previews, and I'm not really that excited about any of them (except perhaps New Avengers, since Squirrel Girl is on the team), but I know that these four, at least, will be around. Sometimes it's nice to have that ground level look at the MU, rather than the view from above that Avengers or Fantastic Four might afford. More Weirdworld tomorrow. What other strangeness will be revealed?
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