REVIEW: Pestilence - A Story of Satan #1 by Frank Tieri, Oleg Okunev, Rob Schwager, & Marshall Dillon

An upcoming cover by Tim Bradstreet for Pestilence: Story of Satan from AfterShock Comics.

Pestilence: A Story of Satan #1 marks the start of the second volume of an ongoing story in which the bubonic plague, aka The Black Death, of the late 14th Century was actually mankind’s first brush with zombies. Church and religion factor into its plot, as do the political power structures associated with those institutions. To up the stakes this time around, the antagonist is now Satan. So yes, there is quite a bit going on here narratively.

Make no mistake though, in spite of the historic and theological trappings, the core of this book is good ol’ fashioned zombie killing and survivalism, and the creative team is well aware. The plot constructs are mostly used as an interesting lens to filter the tropes of zombie horror through, to create a different set of circumstances for readers to imagine themselves in and contemplate what they would do if faced with the same odds, which to me is the core of any good zombie story.

And as with most zombie stories, there’s also plenty of cheese here. Satan is grotesquely and perfectly rendered by Okunev and Schwager’s artistry, while simultaneously being portrayed by Tieri’s script as a lord of fire and brimstone mixed with that one friend you don’t call much anymore because he swears around your kids, brags about the deal he got on his whatever, and punches you in the arm as a greeting. Satan is terrifying but also the absolute worst.

For example...WARNING, profane language...in the space of two pages, Satan says the following: “...stupid mortal c**ts…” “...you fleshbag t*at…” and “Shut the f*ck up!” The profanity works though, and in this book there is over-the-top fun on nearly every page. Tieri also does a great job nailing his plot twists and ending, making for a quick and suspenseful read that does its duty with exposition while also peaking at its end, thereby enticing anyone who enjoyed this first issue back for another installment.

In a larger context, this book fits nicely with the rest of its publisher’s line. It is essentially an action-packed, B movie-esque horror alternative that compliments AfterShock Comics’ more literary and mysterious takes on fear, specifically newer books like A Walk Through Hell and Her Infernal Descent (both of which I love). It is, to be blunt, one hell of a bloody good time (sorry!).

Overall: I recommended this book for fans of both alternate takes on history and of horror stories co-mingled with theology, and I suspect it's also well worth a look for fans of the zombie genre. Pestilence: A Story of Satan #1 is an uncouth variation of standard zombie tropes made more interesting by its continued secret history premise. 7.5/10

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Vampironica #2 by Greg Smallwood & Meg Smallwood

Vampironica No. 1 was essentially just a brief introduction to Archie Comics’ latest horror book. It was a fast and good-looking comic, one that got the horror started, laid on some heavily eerie ambiance, turned Veronica Lodge into the titular Vampironica, and gave all of us readers some of Greg Smallwood’s creeptacular imagery to feast our eyeballs on (much like Vampironica feasted on supple necks). But that first issue wasn’t a substantial read, and, truth be told, it didn’t really have to be. It was a hook and that was just fine.

Now, fast-forward a couple months (there have been delays), and here we are at Vampironica No. 2, which does a solid-to-very-good job of filling in any expository blanks left by its predecessor, questions like who turned Veronica, what's this story going to be about, and exactly what sort of vampire will she be? Vampironica No. 2, to put it simply, delivers missing context, while also upping the ante by throwing in usual Riverdale melodrama (of the Archie-Betty-Veronica variety, of course), plus an unexpected twist.

This issue strikes an excellent middle ground between horror and camp, the exact tone these Archie horror books need to hit in order to work best. Greg and Meg Smallwood (who joins her husband here for a story by credit) are clearly fans of both Archie and horror, and they seem to lean into what they're inner fans would like to see.

I won’t spoil it, but there is one particularly campy and grotesque dream sequence about midway through the book that let me know the Smallwoods were in full control, and that we as readers/Archie horror fans could just sit back and trust in the upcoming bloody fun.

Smallwood draws a great OMG! face.

Smallwood’s art is, of course, excellent throughout, but he especially excels with Veronica’s facial expressions, which run the usual Veronica gamut from OMG what am I even doing in Riverdale I’m a Lodge! to very charming and sweet. As far as the story goes, this is also a deceptively-dense script, one driven by three distinct types of storytelling: Riverdale, horror, and mythology.

By the time we reach our end, we’ve gotten key ingredients of our hero’s journey: Veronica has a mentor for the threshold she’s crossed, and we as an audience have a villain to watch machinate against her. This issue basically assures us that the book will go to some delightfully-dark places, made even livelier by Smallwood’s strong artwork.

Overall: Vampironica No. 2 delivers any and all missing context that the first issue that was withheld in favor of stylish brevity. Smallwood’s artwork is strong and creepy as ever, and the Smallwood’s story shows not just an excellent grasp of Riverdale, but that they might just have a bit more planned than Vampironica biting a bloody path through high school. 7.7/10

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Quantum and Woody! (2017) #6 by Eliot Rahal, Francis Portela, Andrew Dalhouse, & Dave Sharpe

There may be a high intimidation factor to Quantum and Woody! #6 for some. It’s billed in part as a tie-in to Harbinger Wars 2, it’s six issues into a run, and it’s the first issue by a new creative team. Any of those things might discourage a new reader from picking up this book, but none of them should. Quantum and Woody! #6 is a simple but surprisingly emotional comic book that requires no prior knowledge of the characters, preceding issues, or even the Valiant Universe.

I’ve read Quantum and Woody! sporadically, depending on the creative team, but I’d caught all of this run from Daniel Kibblesmith and Kano. I also came into this book previously familiar with writer Eliot Rahal, whose own career is not short on humor writing, as he used to do stand-up comedy and also co-wrote an amusing The Paybacks book with Donny Cates. Kibblesmith is a blast on Twitter and his run on this book conveyed his humor well. That’s all a way of saying I came into this book maybe expecting Rahal to try to out-joke him, but what I found was a much richer reading experience.

Instead, this issue is a rare superhero comic wherein I could see myself very clearly facing the same predicament as the heroes: a burning building filled with imperiled people that the heroes as able-bodied passerbys (without their powers for a reason unbeknownst to them) felt obligated to help. No spoilers (always and forever), but Quantum and Woody have to make difficult choices, take risks, and ultimately sacrifice, leaning on each other for support.

See? Like I said, simple but surprisingly emotional. Much credit is due to the scope of Rahal’s script, which doesn’t ever needlessly exaggerate the situation or odds Quantum and Woody face. Francis Portela’s art (with colors by Andrew Dalhouse and lettering by Dave Sharpe) is also on point. Valiant in recent years has at times seemed to have a house style that favors full room perspectives and intricate detail, and Portela deploys it here expertly, also doing a great job of capturing the calamity that eventually befalls the heroes.

This arc stands to be brief—just this issue plus next month’s—but Rahal will be staying on the book longer, eventually teaming with Joe Eisma (who’s done some great work for Archie Comics of late) through the end of the summer at least. This issue stands alone really well, but Rahal also captures a few small moments that would seem to strongly indicate he has an expert grasp on the tentative, brotherly dynamic that drives Quantum and Woody! I for one will be following this title during his tenure to see where else he takes it.

Overall: Despite being six issues into a run and billed as a tie-in to Valiant’s big summer event, this issue of Quantum and Woody! stands well on its own as a simple but surprisingly emotional tale of self-sacrifice and heroism. 9.0/10

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCED REVIEW: Harbinger Wars 2 #1 by Matt Kindt, Tomas Giorello, & Diego Rodriguez

I’ve always thought of Harbinger as Valiant’s answer to X-Men, which is, admittedly, a fairly obvious comparison to draw. Harbinger Wars 2 #1, however, was actually a really nice reminder that this franchise’s significantly more under-the-radar status allows it a degree of agility the now-hulking X-Men behemoth no longer has, and it uses that degree expertly in this issue to play upon current societal woes and concerns. Essentially, the first part of this summer’s Harbinger Wars 2 event is a poignant and engaging story, involving nearly all of Valiant’s best characters (where’s the Eternal Warrior at these days, btw?).

As it should. The Harbinger concept to me is the center of Valiant’s universe (or was until Divinity showed up, anyway), and this event is poised to treat it as such. It’s yet another tale of superheros turning against each, and as common as that has become these days, doing it convincingly is still tricky business. Without giving anything away, I’ll say this book handles it better than most in recent memory, rich as it with solid and believable motivations for the involved heroes to take their respective sides. The action of the shadowy government types here are a little harder to fathom, as they almost always are, but I digress.

But let’s keep it abstract, seeing as this is an advanced review (this book drops May 30) and I don’t go in for spoilers. Let’s get away from details and talk about the commentary. In a sense, the themes in Matt Kindt’s script are nothing we haven’t seen done or attempted by X-Men several times over the years: an outcast population, children on the run because of who they are, a government acting out of fear, a debate over what constitutes proper methods of resistance.

Kindt, however, is an incredibly nuanced writer who doesn’t need to hit us over the end with any of that to make this story compelling. He puts all those questions and themes in here seemingly as a mechanism for understanding the reasons our characters have for fighting, then he gives them all plans that start to pull them together. Each page pulls our opposed characters closer, revealing more about their motivations as it does so and setting the stage for a massive rumble to come.

There’s a cinematic quality to this story, in both its structure and scope, as well as in the way characters from various Valiant franchises are introduced, presented in big splashy panels as if they were leaving room for an applause break. Tomas Giorello hits the artwork here out of the park, as he has during previous collaborations with Kindt in Valiant’s best ongoing right now, XO Manowar.

Overall: Come for the incredibly tense and entertaining story, stay for the subtle commentary on our times—exactly as a book about outcasts persecuted by vast governmental power structures should be. This issue is all rising action, bringing in power players and stopping just short of slamming together. I can’t wait for No. 2. 9.3/10

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Crude #2 by Steve Orlando, Garry Brown, & Lee Loughridge

Crude No. 2 by Steve Orlando, Garry Brown, and Lee Loughridge is a rare second issue that builds expertly on its predecessor while also standing alone as a rewarding read. On the surface, this issue is the story of a turf war between a dominant oil company in a far-flung industrial Russian city and an upstart rival, with an old man who has a history of violence  interjecting himself into the fray.

I’m not doing the plot justice (read this book for yourself—I strongly recommend it), but it’s equal parts bleak and compelling, heavy on ethos and fast-paced, graphic storytelling. It's very good. When evaluated as a continuation of Crude No. 1, however, this issue becomes a deeper and more rewarding part of a larger narrative about a man solving a mystery, seeking revenge, and potentially atoning for his life's chief mistake.

One of the qualities to Orlando’s work that puts him among my favorite comic book writers (dating back to his excellent 2015 Midnighter) is how he refuses to dumb anything down for readers. There’s a promise I’ve found made by Orlando comics, something along the lines of If you work to immerse yourself in this story, to really focus and engage with what I’m doing here, I will greatly reward you for your efforts.

And this new creator-owned book from Image Comics is his strongest work to date. In the first issue, Crude showed itself to be a story of juxtapositions of two lives, one of violence and another of domestic bliss, all within its first four pages: two of which showed our protagonist, Piotr, at breakfast with his family, and two of which showed him violently thrashing enemies.

One problem I see at times within modern comics is a somewhat gratuitous use of time jumps: Then. Now. Five Minutes Past Then. Next Thursday, etc., but Crude uses non-linear storytelling to great effect, thereby justifying every time jump. Crude is a story that must incorporate mistakes made through time—not so much the violence of Piotr’s past but rather his decision to keep it hidden from his son—and it uses juxtaposition to make those mistakes all the more powerful. The non-linear time elements in this book are, in other words, essential.

There two panels, which appear in both Crude #1 and #2, are at the crux of its story.

Crude's artwork also bears mention. The nature of our plot is such that there’s a significant amount of interiority. It’s basically a story of a man grappling with regret, which is a difficult conflict to convey in comics, but Brown and Loughridge’s art does an incredibly effective job working in tandem with Orlando’s scripting. In issue No. 1, when Piotr first sees the body of his son, the book excels at showing rather than telling, deploying panels that alternate between the body and the man’s reaction as he hears earlier dialogue echo in his mind, asking “this your son?” and we realize he’s weeping not only for his loss but because his own life of secrets prevented him from ever truly knowing his only boy. Powerful stuff.

Overall: Crude No. 2 introduces a framework for the challenges and mystery our protagonist must fight to overcome, and it does so in a suspenseful way that doesn’t sacrifice any of the interiority that made No. 1 so compelling. Orlando, Brown, and Loughridge are really building something special here, something that feels powerful as well as painstakingly deliberate. 9.3/10

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Bloodshot Salvation #9 by Jeff Lemire, Ray Fawkes, & Renato Guedes

Under the guidance of writer Jeff Lemire, Valiant’s Bloodshot franchise has grown in recent years from being a revival of another ‘90s heroes who carries big guns (plus also maybe a sword) and can heal from gruesome wounds, into a walking metaphor for the human toll of the military industrial complex. In Lemire's stories, our man Bloodshot has looked for love, found it, and become a dad—only to be dragged back into war and violence.

Lemire’s characterization of the principal Bloodshot—Ray Garrison—is top-tier, just like Lemire’s characterization in most books, but where his work on Bloodshot has really excelled has been in telling the story of the Bloodshot technology over time, bringing in past Bloodshots as metaphors for the military industrial complexes in bygone eras, including Vietnam and World War II. This issue focuses on another recent addition to Bloodshot’s supporting cast, his faithful dog Bloodhound, who we learn here is a veteran of WWI.

It’s a solid issue of Bloodshot, to be sure, and it’s the type of story Lemire, joined on writing duties here by Ray Fawkes, does well: one that fleshes out characters and is so entertaining that readers can forgive a one-month break from our plot (see his work on Descender for more great examples of this). The end result is an issue that both adds to the larger Bloodshot mythos but could also work as a poignant standalone for first-time Bloodshot readers.

All of that is a credit to the plot, which subverts expectations in terms of the roles the two main characters in the narrative seem poised to play at its start. The groundwork is laid for the sensitive doctor, who is seeing his first battle, to be our heart, our humanitarian, our entry point into a violent and savage world of war. Meanwhile, we also get a foil for our assumed protagonist, a seasoned military commander who barely tolerates the doctor’s presence, one I assumed would be a cynical roadblock, complicating the doctor’s efforts to save lives.

This issue, however, just isn’t that neat or simple, and, not to spoil anything, but there ends up being shades of gray throughout. There’s a particularly poignant bit where one character refers to “cost,” and it later becomes unclear if the true cost being referred to was lives or money. It’s a moment that puts the lens back on the reader and asks what are you as a civilian more concerned about: sending soldiers to die or finding more efficient ways to kill enemy soldiers at minimal taxpayer expense? Yikes.  

My only gripe with the issue is a small one, in that some of the commentary is a bit on the nose, with soldiers randomly cursing the war, or describing it as a pointless meat grinder.

Overall: Bloodshot No. 9 is a well-done issue, one that sets out to create an emotional origin story for Bloodshot’s faithful companion Bloodhoud and succeeds, all while paying off one of the better commentaries about the military industrial complex and our role in it as civilians, which is what I’ve long seen as the overarching theme of Lemire’s Bloodshot work. 8.5/10

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCED REVIEW: We Are the Danger #1 by Fabian Lelay, Claudia Aguirre, & Taylor Esposito

We Are the Danger #1 is a book about music, outcasts, and friendship, which means that it has some familiar ground to tread. Fortunately, it’s a book that treads that ground quite stylishly, both in terms of form as well as in the aesthetic of its characters, its settings, and the pivotal scenes in which there is music.

In terms of form, writer/artist Fabian Lelay (Jade Street Protection Services) finds plenty of interesting (and sometimes unique) ways to disseminate the story here of a girl who changes schools during her senior year of high school, including shots of text message conversations, tracklists that reveal the mindset of characters, and key parts of said first day at a new school overlaid atop a cassette tape. Lelay’s art also uses posture to great effect, especially in the early part of the book, where two characters are having a (potentially-romantic) first interaction.

What I found most interesting within We Are the Danger #1, though, was the book’s subtle and efficient use of time, blowing expertly past all mundanity to give us key scenes of action and development. It’s an unnoticed thing for most readers, but it's also one that can bog down slice-of-life graphic storytelling, which is the category I'd put this book into. The stakes aren’t all that high here, and that’s okay—they aren’t meant to be, not yet, anyway. I have a feeling they'll start to increase as our story moves forward, and our story certainly has a stylish and engaging foundation. This first issue is a breezy read, as good introductions should be.

What’s really for sale here is the artwork and aesthetic, and Lelay reaches lofty levels of stylishness without a single scene reading as preening or too on the noise, no simple task for a book about music. Lelay’s artwork shines most, however, in scenes where music is being performed or listened to. Sound is tricky to convey on a static comic book page, but this book draws on the universality of youthful experiences with live music to create imagery capable of making one’s mind fill in the drum, the guitar, and the voices of these fast friendships. Good stuff.

Overall: This first issue builds friendships really well while also establishing a confident aesthetic tone. It’s a slice-of-life story, to be sure, and a good one at that, taking the time with emotions and relationships those books rely so heavily upon. I really appreciated how stylish this book was without ever becoming preening. It’ll be a fun one to follow. 7.5/10

We Are The Danger #1 will be available May 30, 2018.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Barrier #1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, & Munsta Vicente

Brian K. Vaughan has done the superhero thing, he’s penned critically-beloved works like Ex Machina and Y: The Last Man,  and he’s currently writing a pair of powerhouse Image titles in Paper Girls and Saga. Vaughan also runs Panel Syndicate, a webcomics platform through which he puts out widescreen graphic stories directly to readers, along with collaborators artist Marcos Martin and colorist Munsta Vincente.

Panel Syndicate is where the recently-Eisner-nominated Barrier comes from. It’s a bilingual story of immigration and borders with a sci-fi twist, and following a Free Comic Book Day tease, it arrives this week in local comic shops. So, we're diving into Barrier ourselves, having not yet read the full series, approaching it as a first-time reader.

Barrier, unsurprisingly, is well-done and interesting, of the same quality as the creative team’s past collaborations: Private Eye (2013) and The Walking Dead: Alien (2016). Barrier’s first issue consists of dual narratives, one of a borderland ranch owner in South Texas, the other of a migrant headed to the U.S. from Honduras.

This setting and concept is a personal one for me. Vaughan’s ranch owner lives in Pharr, Texas...which is where I got my first job out of college as a cops reporter for the local newspaper. I covered migrant deaths, Border Patrol, drug smugglers, crashes, coyotes, all of it.

While I have nitpicky issues with details (there are no Minute Men in the real Pharr, and a character references Marfa like its a neighbor, despite Marfa being 9 hours away), Vaughan and Martin depict a serviceable border, and anyway, creating a hyper-realistic Pharr isn’t the goal. The goal is a convincing borderland locale, and I got that.

Vaughan’s other narrative, the migrant traveling north, also rang true. The Spanish dialogue worked well for me. I have decent Spanish, so the decision to use it instead of bracketed-English lent the story authenticity, and for non-speakers, I suspect Martin and Vincente’s visuals provide sufficient clarity.

In fact, the imagery does much work throughout, showing us haggling with callous coyotes, a train named The Beast that pulls the diaspora north, and myriad other dangers Oscar faces en route. Vaughan obviously researched the dangers migrants face, and his collaborators illustrated his research well. I’ve seen this imagery often in documentaries, but rarely in visual fiction, and never in comics. The effect was a powerful one.

I was especially impressed with a sequence of wordless storytelling showing our heroes under the same sky, a sky that shrank as they approached one another. Observe:

Overall: Barrier #1 uses the widescreen webcomic format to great effect, and Vaughan’s incorporation of two languages creates a literal barrier between the book’s dual leads, serving its plot and its theme of separation. Based on Vaughan’s past work, Barrier seems poised to raise fascinating questions about the intersection of seemingly disparate worlds. 9/10

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at@zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCED REVIEW: Harbinger Wars 2 Prelude #1

For a story ostensibly about the world heading into a massive war, this comic sure did leave me feeling optimistic. I love a good (fictional) conflict as much as any fan of high-stakes narratives, but my optimism here bears a heavier connection to recent goings on at the publisher—Valiant Entertainment—than to this book itself. So, let’s dive into that before we consider to the BIG question of any review...is this comic good?

In January, Valiant was bought out by investors (learn more here). Almost immediately, its familiar leaders began to depart. This was bad. Last month, however, news broke that Joseph Illidge, a great veteran editor with an evident love of the medium, was taking the reins. This was good. I’d been looking at Harbinger Wars 2 as a last hurrah, but with Illidge coming in I now see it as an epic between eras, started under the old regime and shepherded into publication by the new. Thus, optimism.

Now for the review...while Harbinger Wars 2 Prelude #1 is inherently an intro for a big event, this book also feels like a triumphant ending to a story about growth started in Secret Weapons #1 last June, a story that has been expertly told by writer Eric Heisserer and primary collaborators Raul Allen and Patricia Martin (learn more here). Not to go too far into plot (a pet peeve of mine in reviews), but earlier Secret Weapons books detailed three main characters learning to understand/master powers, and this book shows them using said powers in cohesive and effective ways.

For those of us here from the start, it’s immensely satisfying to witness the end results of past struggles. There’s a lot that HAS TO get done plot-wise before Harbinger Wars 2, but this prelude is still character-driven on the strength of that groundwork laid in the past. Essentially, if you’ve enjoyed Secret Weapons, you’ll be at home here. But what If, conversely, this is your first exposure to the team? I think you’ll still grasp what’s happening—there’s some fine graphic storytelling and action to be found here.

Optimism wasn’t the only feeling coloring my reading of this book, though. There were also some pangs of regret. See, the initial concept for Harbinger Wars 2 was to use 48-page issues featuring two complete stories—one from Matt Kindt and Tomas Giorello, and another from Heisserer, Allen, and Martin about the Secret Weapons. That ambitious format, unfortunately, disappeared. That’s bad. Thus my regret. My hope, however, is the summer event still incorporates the Secret Weapons characters heavily into the plot. Even without Heisserer and co. doing the storytelling, the track they’ve laid in books like this one is too good to ignore.

Overall: While this issue doesn’t have as many of the high-minded page designs and narrative concepts that made the Secret Weapons mini and one-shots such a visual feast, it is still heavy on character. It’s an exciting and above-average event lead-in, but more than that it serves as a kind of a reward for any reader who has followed this crew dating back to its humble start. 7.9/10

Best Exchange

Government guy: “If you...step out that door...you’ll be...enemy of the state.”
Livewire: “Yeah, we were never friends.”

Just feel the pith in that dialogue.

Zack Quaintance is a journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCED REVIEW: Deep Roots #1 by Dan Watters, Val Rodrigues, & Triona Farrell

I think I just got deja vu. It’s early in the week, I’m looking at new books for Wednesday, and a Vault Comics title seems poised to be a major hit, one that will grab a sizable and smart audience. It’s the same feeling I had last week before Wasted Space #1 dropped, and that book went on to garner significant praise from comic critics.

As it turns out, though, I did not in fact just get deja vu. Vault actually does have another killer series loaded and ready for release. This time it’s Deep Roots #1, a book that, like Wasted Space, takes several huge ideas—here it’s eco terrorism, mankind’s abuse of the environment, capitalism, plus a little PTSD—and pairs it with a perfect aesthetic.

“To put it reductively Deep Roots is a genre-bending book with a dual storyline: one about a mythic realm of destiny and vegetation, another about a modern world in which said vegetation seems to be rising against humans that have paved and diminished it.”

And it’s that pairing of plotting and perfect aesthetic that most impressed me when I read Deep Roots. The art team is Val Rodrigues and colorist Triona Farrell, who work together to create a pair of distinctive aesthetics. To put it reductively Deep Roots is a genre-bending book with a dual storyline: one about a mythic realm of destiny and vegetation, another about a modern world in which said vegetation seems to be rising against humans that have paved and diminished it.

For the real world, Rodrigues and Farrell work is realistic, using a detailed style evocative of Frank Quitely, Jon Davis-Hunt, or Geoff Darrow. For the mythic, they create lush, abstract landscapes closer to Christian Ward or Mike del Mundo. The script passes through these two worlds often (and rightly) without giving readers the direct connection, trusting (rightly again) the artists to convey it. Basically, I was impressed throughout at how Deep Roots handled this, making the dual plot threads easy to differentiate yet never so disparate that transitions began to feel like non sequiturs.

So, yeah, the art is great, but what about the aforementioned script by Dan Watters? Well, his narration does an equally effective job of transversing the realms of our story, using a mythic dialect for the abstract bits but spare and direct sentences to ground us when we return to the real world.

A panel from Deep Roots #1 where the real world seeps into the mythical realm of the story.

There are utility sentences, like, “Meet Sal. Sal still has nightmares from the war in which bodies turn to red mist. He would do anything for a quiet life.” And there are poetic sentences where he gets his Cormac McCarthy on, like, “Sometimes he sees figures in the distance, and wonders if they are other walkers of the path—or if they are those he seeks, watching him walk his penance.”

Watters plotting—particularly the way in which it confidently handles the fate of its characters—is also bold, although to say much more would likely be a spoiler, or at least spoiler adjacent. I don’t want to go there. Just trust me when I tell you it works.

Last week, we told you Wasted Space #1 would be a hit, and it was, drawing an impressive buzz for an indie that dropped on the same day as the landmark Action Comics #1000. Wasted Space was a great book filled with killer frenetic dystopian panels and underlaid searingly-relevant ideas. Combine it with a rising publisher like Vault, and it became a hit. We foresee the same happening with Deep Roots.

Overall: Deep Roots #1 lays out a bold vision, one that grows (excuse the plant pun) from both the tight muscularity of its script and the beauty of its artwork. It’s a story of two worlds—man’s world and an ancient vegetative world beneath—and its art depicts each, as well as the places they intersect, with a gorgeous abandon. This is a rare and wonderful debut that gets the basics of pacing, world-building, and cliff-hanging right, while also leaving the reader with a sense of a wondrous plan in place for its continuation. 9.2/10

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Action Comics #1000 - The Stories Ranked

Forbidden Planet retailer-exclusive variant by Jock

Action Comics #1000 is a monster book, with a page for each of the 80 years Superman has existed. It features 11 stories and is perhaps best evaluated on the merits of its individual vignettes, rather than as a whole. So, let’s take a quick look at the good and bad, before doing a ranking of the stories that comprise this historic publication.

The Good: Action Comics #1000 is a trip through the past, present, and future of Superman, one that is ultimately a meditation on not just Superman/Clark Kent, but on why fans have read about powerful beings in capes for eight decades plus.

The Bad: Not enough Lois Lane. I didn’t count, but Mr. Mxyzptlk’s wife might have more lines in one vignette than Lois in 80 pages. Lois is a presence, certainly, but a story about the Lois-Clark relationship should be here. (I’ve talked about the importance of Lois before.)

10. The Game by Paul Levitz and Neal Adams

This story is strong and its art stronger (Neal Adams has been doing some great work again lately). That said, it’s one of two stories about Superman and Lex, and it’s the lesser of the two.

9. An Enemy Within by Marv Wolfman and Curt Swan

A decent story that inverts the usual relationship between people and Superman, this one examines how mankind inspires its Kryptonian protector. It’s pretty good, also standing as an homage to the character’s political history, taking aim at the teachers with guns nonsense, police violence, and individuals resisting nefarious manipulation. It’s a fine work, just not one of the more memorable in the book.

8. Actionland! by Paul Dini, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and Trish Mulvihill

One of the book’s best-looking stories, this one is expertly handled by Paul Dini and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. But a whole section for Mr. Mxyzptlk? He should be included, as one of Superman’s most interesting and oldest foes, but this is almost a story entirely about Mxyzptlk. The other pieces focused on specific places or characters (Luthor in The Fifth Season, Daily Planet in Five Minutes) still take a backseat to Superman, making this a bit confounding.

The Daily Planet is hardly The Daily Planet without Lois.

7. Five Minutes by Louise Simonson, Jerry Ordway, and Dave McCaig

I’m a writer at a trade magazine and my wife is a reporter with the LA Times. I should love this story of Superman being a powerful superhuman AND a heroic journalist. The problem, however, is it's a Daily Planet story without Lois. A Daily Planet story...without Lois. Freaking Bibbo gets in here and Lois does not. I liked it, though, especially this line:

Superheoring. Reporting. They’re not so different if you do them right.

But why not give the reporting heroics to Lois, a human who fearlessly does the job, often putting her life at risk?

6. The Fifth Season by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Dave McCaig

The issue’s most complex story, this is a tale of Superman and Lex Luthor. Admittedly, I didn’t understand it well upon first reading. It’s not low-hanging fruit, but it’s classic Scott Snyder, rewarding those who invest effort to really digest and understand. This story deals with shades of gray, questions of results versus intentions, nurture versus nature, and, ultimately, whose road is harder: the human genius or the powerful alien striving to be altruistic. Basically, it's a perfect encapsulation of the dynamic between Superman and Lex.

5. From the City that has Everything by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

With quiet and consistent work, Dan Jurgens has over the years established himself as an all-time great Superman writer, and stories like this illustrate why. It expertly blends significant parts of Superman’s past and present—big galactic adventure, being a symbol of inspiration and hope, believing the best of mankind, newfound domesticity—to create a modern incarnation of the character that started superheroics 80 years ago. There’s even a touching panel here with the heroes of the DC universe thanking Supes for his influence. I’m excited for Bendis' run (more later), but I also want to thank Dan Jurgens for his service. His contributions to Superman are appreciated and will be missed.

4. The Car by Geoff Johns/Richard Donner, Olivier Coipel, and Alejandro Sanchez

In this story, Superman follows up his adventure from Action Comics #1 by finding Butch, the tough who drove the green car from the cover. The Coipel art and Sanchez colors are gorgeous, and the panels are laced with callbacks to history (a bird, a plane, a line about the trunks). It’s the best type of Superman story, in that our hero saves a troubled soul, makes the world better, and doesn’t throw a single punch. It’s a clever conceit, but better still, it suggests Superman’s real heroism is his ability to understand and inspire, not his fantastic powers.

3. Faster Than a Speeding Bullet by Brad Meltzer, John Cassaday, and Laura Martin

This story had my favorite panel in the entire book. Just look at this beauty:

Artwork by John Cassaday with colors by Laura Martin.

Its construction is stunning, but, moreover, it shows the enormity of Superman’s task, how even though he can fly and whatever else, he’s still a single man who can only be in one place. He is, by no means, omnipotent. It also has a wonderfully simple setup: an assailant shoots a woman in the head point-blank as Superman rushes to save her; with a powerful outcome: a little bravery by the woman gives Superman the slight help he needs to succeed. A funny joke about Batman, a touching dedication to Christopher Reeve, and we’re out. There’s an odd choice made, however, with the woman’s look, in that she bears a strong resemblance to Lois Lane. We also later find out her name is Lila. Still, this is a nigh-perfect story nonetheless.

2. Of Tomorrow by Tom King, Clay Mann, and Jordie Bellaire

Of Tomorrow was pretty good the first time I read it, but during my third read, I found myself near tears as I fully realized what it was about. Tom King is a master at poignant stories about family and superheroes, and this is one of his best. It’s essentially a man talking to himself after multiple lifetimes, contemplating his childhood, marriage, son, and the cause to which he dedicated his life, as close as a writer has come to capturing the human condition in five pages about a guy in a cape.

1. Never-ending Battle by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, and Alejandro Sanchez

Patrick Gleason's retailer-exclusive Newbury Comics variant.

Vandal Savage imprisons Superman by weaponizing hypertime, trapping him “in a fabric of yesterdays--a loop that never ends,” which sees our hero living out his past lives from the decades in which they were published. He powers down in the 30s, fights World War II in the ‘40s, is consumed with Silver Age goofiness thereafter, and so on. He's even fried and nearly destroyed in what is presumably the ‘80s, with a piece Gleason signs with a nod of the cap to Frank Miller, whose Dark Knight Returns deconstruction was an obvious inspiration here.

Superman fights Savage’s time manipulation onward, reaching the versions of himself that followed Death of Superman all the way through to Alex Ross’ and Mark Waid’s depiction of him aging in Kingdom Come. Not to spoil the exact nature of how Superman saves himself, but in the end we are given a comforting shot of him and his family as seen them Tomasi and Gleason’s now-concluded Superman run.

I loved everything about this section, from the villain (Savage is one of my favorites) to the logical exploration of the character and his past to the hopeful domestic note it ends on. Gleason’s art and Sanchez’s colors make for truly beautiful pages. If I could pull one story from this compilation and turn it into a fully-realized issue it would be this one.

Disqualified: The Truth by Brian Michael Bendis, Jim Lee, and Alex Sinclair.

I’m disqualifying this one because it has the unfair advantage of ending with “TO BE CONTINUED…” while the others are inherently self-contained. I will say, however, I’m more excited for Bendis’ run than ever after reading this. Bendis’ villain concept is fresh enough for an 80-year-old character/mythos, but where he really shines is in depicting average Metropolis folks reacting to Superman. Bendis has said he wants to make the city a realized and vital place, and he’s off to a good start. I can’t wait to see what he does with the Daily Planet.

Overall: I'd been looking forward to this celebration of Superman for months (if not longer) and this book did not disappoint. Today really felt like true observance of Superman and what he has meant to the world over the years. It was an anthology, so some stories were always going to be stronger than others, and I definitely wanted to see way more Lois Lane, but overall I'm glad I not only got to read this book, but be apart of comics fandom during its release. 9.5/10

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

REVIEW: Justice League of America #28 by Steve Orlando and Hugo Petrus

Justice League of America #28 by Steve Orlando (w) and Hugo Petrus (a).

After the previous issue of Justice League of America setup Chronos as one of the most dastardly villains in the DC Universe, this one went ahead and solidified his terror. What really did the trick for me wasn’t Chronos’ typical villain dialogue, which was well done and included both taunting the heroes and telling henchmen to shut up. It also wasn’t the way Chronos took the fight to the JLA via a literal army of sycophants from throughout history (a classic move used often at Marvel by Kang the Conqueror). What made Chronos so compelling to me was the triviality of his motives. He seemed to embrace and own his status as a straight up bad guy (a fitting motif given our current political climate but that’s another discussion…).

As I noted in my review of issue #27, Steve Orlando is a writer who really lives in the heads of characters he writes, giving his books a more well-rounded feel than most, a sense that even small lines and brief actions matter, even if it’s just to create a more robust picture of what’s happening in this world with these people. There have been signs that Chronos was a petty man from the start, that his motives were entirely vindictive, and that he was messing with the God of superheroes, Ahls, simply to humble the League and take them down a notch for being altruistic, which has been a recurring motif in this run.

By the end of this issue, Chronos all but confirms as much, with Ryan Choi subsequently noting that Chronos had started as a petty thief, a dim man with a chip on his shoulder for being degraded by the superior intellects of first Ray Palmer and now Choi. This is all very much in keeping with behavior we’ve seen from Chronos, and it’s yet another example of what I’ve often said about Orlando’s JLA: it’s a well-wrought and complex run that rewards readers for investing deep levels of focus and attention.

Another thing I’ve really enjoyed about this current arc is that it leans in to being a story of superheroes. Orlando is also a writer with real passion for the tradition of his work, often taking close consideration of continuity when scripting character interactions. This passion shows in the lack of cutesy winking found in JLA. This is a book that takes story very seriously, and, as a reader, it’s hard to not follow suit. Of the talented artists Orlando has worked with throughout this run, Hugo Petrus’ work best embraces this total buyin. There are some truly fantastic superhero panels here, including one of a battle in which Black Canary lunges from the foreground at a foe, giving us a glimpse at an immense and impressive depth of field.

Overall: Justice League of America #28 is the penultimate issue of a book that has been a real treat, and I’m sad that things have to end. Not many of the characters from this team have been teased as part of the League moving forward, with the exceptions being Batman (of course) and Lobo, who is at least involved with No Justice. Still, getting nearly 30 issues with this eclectic and disparate group has been a treat, and issues like this illustrate why. 8.8/10

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.

ADVANCE REVIEW: Wasted Space #1 by Michael Moreci and Hayden Sherman

I’ve been a fan of Vault Comics for a while now, continually impressed by how the rising publisher manages to put out some of the best pure science fiction and fantasy stories in the graphic medium. I’ve written about this before, but along with Lion Forge and Aftershock Comics, Vault is slowly remaking perceptions of what indie publishers can be, exercising incredible judgement at the talent and books they promote.

Vault’s latest sci-fi book, Wasted Space—by writer Michael Moreci, artist Hayden Sherman, and colorist Jason Wordie—is yet another in a growing collection of titles that are as entertaining as they are complex. Wasted Space is set in a dystopian future where most facets of life have evolved toward their logical extremes, including technology, religion and—most importantly for our plot—drugs. I was impressed here from the first page, wherein a blip of a human form floats tethered to a ship deep in the cosmos. The narration begins: The galaxy is totally f*%#&@.

I’m an easy mark for stories about futures wherein things have gone massively awry, and I’m also prone to liking protagonists who start their hero’s journey feeling distant and defeated. Wasted Space delivers both those elements, and it delivers it well. This book’s marketing describes it as Preacher + Phillip K. Dick + Star Wars, and, to be sure, there are shades of all those properties, but Space also addresses modern concerns, as most good science fiction tends to do.

The social commentary, however, never becomes too overt, and Moreci’s script here is careful to focus on characterization. The galaxy has gotten bleak, sure, and it’s clearly due to some combination of religious extremism, greed, group think, and charismatic-yet-devious leadership, thereby forcing much of the populous to seek chemical-fueled escape. To me, this world seems more than a little familiar, and I’d wager that’s the point.

It’s also worth noting that Hayden Sherman is fast-becoming indie comics go-to artist for frenetic dystopian futures. I first noted this earlier in the year after reading Cold War #1 from Aftershock. That book, drawn by Sherman as well, is a breakneck story of a world in which cryogenic promises have been broken. Once-frozen citizens awake and are plunged by some shadowy control agent into violence. In Cold War, Sherman accomplishes some incredible world building as well as clear action in his panels.

Sherman’s work in Wasted Space again creates a set of sci-fi cityscapes that enhance the script rather than distract, and while there isn’t as much kinetic energy as there was in Cold War (I struggle to think of any recent book with as much kinetic energy as Cold War) Sherman does a pitch-perfect job of using panel perspectives to convey the tension, desperation, yearnings to escape, and loneliness that drives our characters.

Overall: Wasted Space #1 is a super solid debut issue with an incredible amount of promise. Being a vocal proponent of Vault, I’m often asked for a good title to start with, and for the sci-fi set my answer moving forward will likely be Wasted Space. Basically, Wasted Space is a sci-fi allegory for our tumultuous times, one that raises questions about demagogues, escapism, and the dual businesses of selling religion and drugs. This debut issue does a great job of setting the stage and piquing interest for future installments. Count me in. 8.5/10.

Spare Thoughts: Moreci is a graduate of DC’s New Talent program, and his work first caught my attention in the publisher’s New Talent Showcase, which featured a story of his about the White Lantern at the time. It’s also worth noting that Cold War, which we mention here, was by Christopher Sebela, another graduate of that program. Along with Moreci and Sebela, that class of creators also featured Vita Ayala, who has been co-writing Supergirl with Steve Orlando and also had a recent notable indie book of her own in the form of The Wilds. In other words, how badly would you like to participate in DC’s new talent program? Look at the careers it’s helping to launch!

Wasted Space #1 is available for pre-order now at your local comic shop, and it will be out April 18. 

Zack Quaintance is a career journalist who also writes fiction and makes comics. Find him on Twitter at @zackquaintance. He lives in Sacramento, California.