The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1078: Elektra #2, July 2014

Another spectacularly beautiful issue. If they just published a series of stories about the monsters on Monster Island illustrated by Mike Del Mundo, it would be just the most lovely thing. The jungle setting of this issue is reminiscent (or pre-miniscent?) of the Weirdworld books, though the palette's a little more conservative.

We've also got an assassin in this issue who literally gains peoples' abilities when he consumes a part of their bodies. So that's pretty awesome and gross all at once.

If there's one criticism I'd make about this comic, and it's endemic of comics more broadly in the last few years, it's that the 6-issue story arc has become the standard format. I know that, from a publishing viewpoint, this is because 6 issues seems to be the standard size of a trade paperback, and if you can sell a substantial book with a complete story in it, so much the better. But I think I'm of a mind, these days at least, that a comic should be able to tell you a good, solid story in only one or two issues, at least to begin with. Introduce the character and the setting, set the atmosphere, tell a short story that's indicative of the longer one's to come. The creative team behind Elektra instead chose the 6-issue route (or longer than 2, anyway), which, unfortunately, leaves us having to stop mid-story. As I said yesterday, I'll be tracking these down eventually, but wouldn't it be nice to have had a complete story. I think expecting a reader to stick with you for six months on an untested title is a bit much to expect. Build a readership and then tell longer stories.

Well, that's how I'd do it, anyway.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1077: Elektra #1, June 2014

I picked this up a few weeks back as part of a bundle of 15 comics for $5, and it demonstrates one of the reasons that my project is very likely going to take the full 40 years, if not longer. There are 11 issues of this series, I've got 3 of them, and I'm going to have to track down the rest. The reason is the art of Michael Del Mundo, who illustrated, and illuminated, the amazing Weirdworld series that came out of "Secret Wars."

I talked a few weeks back about Michael Turner's art being very fluid, much in keeping with the subject matter of his Fathom series. Mr. Del Mundo certainly has a similar fluid quality, but his use of colour, mostly painted, I think, gives the entire environment, organics and inorganics, a feel of constant motion. And this is especially well-used in today's comic. Elektra, though an assassin, moves quite often like a dancer (there's a moment where she talks about studying ballet), and the grace of this movement is reflected in the beautiful visuals.

Not to be outdone, Mr. Blackman has crafted a story that's actually made me interested in Elektra, a character I've had little to no interest in over the course of my comics obsession. And I kind of hope the Matchmaker shows up throughout the series, because she's a fascinating character.

One more issue tomorrow, as Elektra braves Monster Island, and then I'm off to hunt the rest of the issues down.

To be continued.

(more tomorrow. very painful wrists the last little while.)

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 288: Weirdworld #5, December 2015

I finally got around to picking up the last issue of this Secret Wars crossover. There's an incredible splash page in the center of this book of Crystal Warriors and Magma Men, Eyemazons and Ogres, Man-Things and nuclear-bomb carrying butterflies which is unfortunately too big to fit on my scanner, so you'll have to take my word for it. But the best part, the most wonderful part, of this comic is the final page that proclaims we're getting a new series starting this very month. Colour me excited. I'm hoping it's the same creative team, but even if it's not, the setting has hooked me, and I'm thoroughly intrigued to see how this odd little dimension will fit into the post-Secret Wars Marvel U.

Fair warning, there's a bit of a spoiler for Secret Wars in this issue, but I think we're all going to just have to deal with that since the series is trending a bit longer than I think was intended. And we always knew that a reconstituted Earth was somewhere on the horizon. The fun part is seeing how we get there.

Right, so that's another of my forays into the Secret Wars completed. Just gotta get that last issue of Squadron Sinister, and hope that poor Doctor Zero makes a recovery.

I'm not holding my breath. See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 245: Weirdworld #4, November 2015

Had I known that the fifth issue of this series was the last one, I definitely would have bought it when I picked up issues 2 - 4.

I'm going to admit, right here, that Mike Del Mundo is rapidly becoming one of those few artists that I privilege over writers when it comes to buying comics. For a long time, it was all about the writers, and to a certain extent, still is. But then you come across someone like Del Mundo (or Cassaday, or Quitely) who demonstrates just how much the artist on a series can actually bring to the finished piece. Here's an interior splash page from this issue - I'll apologize for it not being quite the whole picture; my scanner does not have a large enough bed to accommodate two full comics pages.

Just FYI, that's sorceress Jennifer Kale, Queen of the Man-Things, surrounded by her mucky subjects. I was extremely excited to read this issue, as I'm a huge fan of the Man-Thing.

(And yes, we can read that euphemistically, if we want to. I'm still a huge fan.)

But just look at that page. It could have been sooooo much worse in the hands of a more traditional comics artist. Instead this picture not only oozes like the swamp creatures it depicts, but it is steamy and full of bugs and is a swamp in a very real, affective sense. It's all about the atmosphere, and Del Mundo manages to deliver it in vast and wonderful quantities.

Not that I want to take too much away from Jason Aaron's scripting. This is, as I've noted, my favourite of the Secret Wars spin-offs, and one I would gladly continue to follow. In November there's a Black Knight series coming out that's set in Weirdworld, so even if this story doesn't continue, the setting is still around. I'll give it a go.

Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait a bit for the conclusion of Arkon's story. Tomorrow we'll have a look at another of the Secret Wars spin-offs, but one with a decidedly different tone. See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 244: Weirdworld #3, October 2015

This comic just keeps on delivering. Arkon and Warbow escape Le Fay's tower, and Arkon is presented with another map of Weirdworld to replace the lost one, though this map depicts features of the landscape that Arkon has never seen before. Does the world perhaps somehow conform to the subconscious of the individual? Perhaps we'll find out if we see another map.

Speaking of these maps, their make up is odd, to say the least. Here's Arkon's original map from issue #1:

And here is Warbow's map from issue #3:

Perhaps I am underestimating the difficulty in mapping a land like Weirdworld, but these maps really look like they were drawn by a child. Actually, they look like they were drawn by the same child - I'm confident enough in Del Mundo's artistic prowess (I mean, just look at this book) to be pretty sure that the similarity of the maps is purposeful. If that's the case, then there's something going on in this book (which I've alluded to before) that we're just not seeing yet. I am excited to find out what it is.

Arkon meets (and battles) another old school Marvel fantasy hero, Skull the Slayer, in this issue, and their short-lived duel outside the "Swingin Saloon," a bar suspended by ropes over a chasm, ends with something that, for me, is extremely exciting: Arkon finds himself dangling from vines in the "Forest of the Man-Things." Though that does sound like the name of a really terrible gay porn, for those of us who love a muck monster or two, the promise of the next issue is a great one. It's sitting right here, next to my desk, begging me to read it.

But it'll have to wait 'til tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 243: Weirdworld #2, September 2015

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?

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 242: Weirdworld #1, August 2015

Okay. If my inability to focus on a single comic is a sign of anything, it's a sign that I need to switch things up a bit. So, for the next week and a bit, I'll be reading through some current comics that I'm reading, all mini-series and one-shots connected to Secret Wars. I'm going to start with Weirdworld, move on to Hank Johnson, Agent of Hydra for a little break, and then get into the four issues of E is For Extinction. After that, we'll see how the progression through the A section of the storage collection goes.

Onward.

I was quite excited for Weirdworld as one of the Battleworld books in the "Secret Wars" event. The four-page preview that was released just before it came out was beautiful and strange, very much unlike any of the other crossovers. There were no superheroes, that I could discern, and I'd never heard of Arkon, our focal character, before. The only other Weirdworld title I knew of was the "Warriors of the Shadowrealm" storyline from the Marvel Super Special magazine, and this particular Weirdworld seemed (and seems) to have little to do with that one. A few pages in, Arkon stares at the map of the land he's made, and right in the middle is something called the "Mother Board Mountain," and all of a sudden one is completely unsure of what's going on in this particular part of Battleworld.

This unsurety is a nice juxtaposition to basically every other one of the crossover titles that hearken back to some storied era of the Marvel Universe, be it one of the numerous X-crossovers, the original evil Squadron Supreme, even the Howard the Human one-shot. Weirdworld is completely different, completely its own beast aesthetically. What's really lovely about it is that I am almost assured that there will be no caped fisticuffs in this title, yet I have no idea what to expect. A comic that's a surprise is a rare thing to come across for one as jaded as myself. I'm glad to hear that the title will be continuing at least for a little while after the conclusion of Secret Wars. Obviously there's something interesting going on here, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to find out what it is.

Issue two on the morrow. See you then.