Comic Stack 02/11/14

This week I met Poe, a young boy born with black feathers whose destiny seems to rest in a game played by omnipresent beings, Laney Griffin, a man who has a chance encounter in the woods after deciding to do whatever necessary to help his dying son, Kate Kristopher, who has to return to her fantasy world exploring ways she’d left behind because of a family secret, and a woman who has no memories of the former force she used to be–a being known only as Lady Death.

Shutter #1 by Joe Keatinge
Publisher: Image Comics
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Action-Adventure, Leading Ladies

 “Daaaaaaad! Cooome on! The moon’s boring!”

Kate was an explorer. She came from a long line of explorers. She explored an earth far more fantastic than our own with her father. She’s faced alligator men, large sea fish, dragons, and tentacle-y, er, things. She’s even walked on the moon which was so boring for her. However, now, at 27-years-old, Kate has stopped exploring. There’s no reason given why at this point, but a couple of possibilities do come to mind while reading this book. While visiting her father’s grave, Kate is given interesting information about her family, information that will bring her out of retirement.

This was a very fast paced story. I felt like I blinked and it was over.  I liked the premise of it with earth being this wonderful placed filled with strange things just asking to be explored. It made me wish there were just a couple of more pages to reveal just a little bit more to me. It ended right when I was really starting to connect with the story. Also, the art in this book is amazing.

I’m intrigued, but I kind of feel like this is the type of story I’ll have to pick up its volumed edition. Some stories, like the next one I’ll be talking about, have that pacing that makes you want to pick up each book as its released. However, some stories I know I won’t be able to truly enjoy until a whole arc is completed even if I think it’ll be very good. There’s something about the pacing that tells me this is one of those books. Since volume one is already out, I’ll be picking it up soon. (Side note: This also includes two mini comics. One of which is named Tiger Lawyer and is about an actual tiger that is a lawyer. )

Lady Death #1 by Brian Pulido
Publisher: Boundless Comics
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural, Leading Ladies

Lady Death lives in a world far mundane than the one she’s used to, but the trouble is she doesn’t remember who she used to be. She only knows that horrible things keep happening to the people around her, the people who try to help her. In her absence, another woman has taken her face and rules what was once hers, sending her minions in search of her to finally finish her off. A witch in the thieves camp gives tells Lady Death a broken, fragmented story of the woman she used to be and tells her that she must regain her power.

This is going to be short and to the point. I don’t know about this one. I mean, I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t bowled over with it either. I feel like I should probably read the first volume of this one since it’s got quite a few issues behind it now. On one hand, I want to kind of set it to the side, but on the other, I feel like I should give it another chance for some reason. (Probably because it has everything I love in it, and I’d feel bad not giving it a fighting chance.) I’m indecisive on whether I’ll continue this one or not, but I’m leaning more in the camp of not. I’m not really feeling it right now, and there’s no point in wasting time when I could be reading other things.

Curse #1 by Michael Moreci
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Genre: Supernatural, Horror

“As for your offspring, he’s infected with the scent. There’s no going back.”

Laney Griffin, former football legend, is a man at wit’s end. His son is suffering from leukemia and needs aggressive treatment. Laney is doing everything he can to pay for his son’s treatment, except accept his sister-in-law’s (who is the sheriff, I’m assuming) offer to become his son’s guardian and have her state benefits pay for his treatment. It’s implied here that Laney’s wife died from some disease herself. Nora, his sister-in-law, says she’ll do whatever she has to do to take Laney’s son from him and get him the treatment he needs if she feels Laney isn’t doing enough. Left with very few options for making money, Laney decides to take up the bounty offered on whatever “animal” has been brutally killing people who venture too close to the woods. Things turn out a little unexpected.

It’s not very often that a comic, especially a #1, has me doing my best dying whale act while rolling around in the bed like a madwoman. This one did it. I was captured from the beginning, from the very first page, I knew this was going to be a keeper. The art really compliment the story here. It’s dark with few colors and the more violent the scenes get the starker the art. Laney is the type of quiet, tortured protagonist that I have a weakness for. But instead of a troubled past with tragedy or misdeeds he wants to atone for, his troubles come from the fact that his son is dying and there’s just not enough money.  When his son uttered the words (after his dad asked him why he wasn’t sleep): “I was… I tried. I just… Dad… I’m scared.” The brief talk after those lines between the two, as a parent, that hit me hard. The delivery was so succinct and perfect.  What true parent wouldn’t do whatever they had to do for their child? What parent wouldn’t fight heaven and hell for their child? Fucking comic, what the hell are you trying to do to my feelings here?

While it may be selfish of him not to see things from Nora’s point-of-view, he feels like giving her custody would mean “giving up” his son. It’s easy to tsk and say that he should look at the big picture by giving her guardianship, but that’s a tough decision. He would also give up being involved in his son’s medical matters because he would no longer technically be his guardian. And as someone, who’s been in a family with a very sick family member, you’d be surprised how ugly things like that can get. However, this comic book doesn’t paint Nora as the villain, which can sometimes happen in books and comics when family members are at an impasse. She’s a concerned aunt and you sympathize with how she must be feeling and her frustration with the situation.

This is the kind of story that I could see myself waiting for each issue with bated breath. With that being said, expect a review of the first volume of this one soon.

Feathers #1 by Jorge Corona
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Genre: Action-Adventure

There’s a lot going on in this book, which makes it hard to be concise, but here goes. Two beings leave a baby boy covered in black feathers in the alleyway of a seemingly destitute city known as The Maze. I call them “beings” because we don’t know who they are just yet but they seem to be omnipresent and may even be the beings from the “faith” revered in the book. They’re looking to “break” the balance of things in some game known only to them and The Maze is chosen because “you never know who might show up.” The feathered baby is found by one of the city’s nocturnal inhabitants, Gabriel, who names the boy Poe and raises him as his own.

Eleven years later, Poe has grown into a mischievous boy still covered in black feathers with a birdlike build. He’s known as “The Ghost” by the Mice, the colloquial name for the children of The Maze derived from the term Maze Rat which describes all the people who live in the Maze. Poe spends his days helping the Mice avoid the city’s guards when he should be sleeping because he scavenges at night for parts with Gabriel. It’s implied that Gabriel is a cautious sort and there were initial worries by one of the beings that Poe would learn to be as fearful and sheltered as Gabriel who does show a large amount of concern for Poe’s safety when they’re out at night.

However, Poe sneaks out of his home during the day, thinking his father is sleeping when in fact Gabriel is well aware that Poe is adventuring. During one of his adventures he encounters Bianca, the privileged daughter of a city official. Bianca has never been outside of her walled home. She lives with a dour overly religious mother (who seems to have a mean streak) and a timid father. When she’s presented the opportunity to see The Maze, she plans to make it count and is soon causing mischief of her own with Poe’s assistance (who initially mistakes her as a lone mouse).

The beginning of this made me think of one of my favorite manga, Death Note, where a random variable is introduced into the world just to see what the outcome will eventually be. That angle never gets old for me, and there was just something so endearing about Poe and Gabriel. This was a fun story that had a tinge of darkness attached to it. I’m curious to see what Poe and Bianca get into.