This week’s Comics Are Expensive is up at Occasional Superheroine, featuring three books picked somewhat at random that I haven’t read before: Incredible Hercules, Fear Agent, and The Boy Who Made Silence. Check it out, won’t you?

Of course, I bought more than three comics this week, meaning there were some titles that got left out. I’m going to start posting quickie write-ups on those books here under the title “B-Sides” until I think of something better. Any suggestions?

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B-Sides

Young Liars #1 (Lapham): The new series from Stray Bullets creator David Lapham feels like familar territory, but honestly, why would you want anything else from the guy? The first issue left me feeling strange – while intrigued by the characters (despite Sadie Dawkins, girl with a bullet lodged in her brain, being a bit too over the top), they’re clearly all broken – each of them shows signs of massive fault lines under the surface just waiting to explode, and they’re almost all kind of horrible people. It creates an interesting shift on the moralities of the book while right and wrong are not exactly up to their usual standards here, the core values still apply, and it already appears as those a lot of people are going to have a lot to answer for. Also? Best first page I’ve seen in a good long while.

War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle #1 (Ennis, Chaykin): Garth Ennis is a sucker for war stories, and I’m something of a sucker for listening to him tell them. War is Hell looks to be a retelling of the Phantom Eagle’s origin, moved over to the MAX line to allow Ennis room to get as realistic (or over the top) as he pleases. I’ts a nice little start, a simple, down to earth story about one of the first doomed groups of American pilots to enter Europe in WW2 and the new recruit with a lot to hide. I had completely forgotten there might ever be any fantastic elements entering the story until the preview of next month’s cover, which points to a nice bit of subtlety on Ennis’ part. All in all a promising series, but man, can we pass some sort of law against wrapping Chaykin’s current art style in a John Cassaday cover? The juxtaposition is more than a little jarring.

The Immortal Iron Fist #13 (Fraction & Brubaker, Zonjic, Aja, & Kano): I’ve mentioned before how much I utterly love this book, right? Because I really, really do. after last month’s pause in the action in the form of an Orson Randall story, this issue brings us back to Danny, the war brewing within the K’un-Lun and the Hydra forces gathering without, and of course, Fat Cobra. There’s also a bit with Danny’s father, the man who was very nearly Iron Fist, and the story of how he left the sacred city and went punching his way across the Earth in search of the man who raised him. There’s so much fun to be had here: great dialogue, a variety of art styles that blend seamlessly together, and a last page that makes me want the next issue in my hands immediately. Truly, the best comics about kung fu billionaires with glowy fists can hope to be.

Captain America #36 (Brubaker, Guice): This issue: fighting! And lots of it. Bucky has his first encounter with actual super villains since putting on the suit, and it goes pretty well – y’know, except for a couple of them getting away and Crossbones nearly killing him. As fun as that is, this issue also has the sort of moment of truth I’ve been waiting for, and handles it rather well. Punching Nazis is important and all, but there’s more to being Captain America, and Bucky has a long way to go before he grows into that aspect. Oh, and there’s a big last page reveal that should surprise absolutely no one.

Filed under: Bam Biff Pow