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In Case You Missed It

With all the “news” cycling through this site, sometimes it’s easy to miss our column.  So, I’ll be posting a link here to the previous week’s column just to make sure the reviews don’t get overlooked. You can read last week’s column HERE where we review Battlefields: The Tankies #1, Resurrection Volume 1, Viking #1 and Frank Frazetta’s Freedom.

Trade Winds: Point Blank (DC/Wildstorm)($14.99)(New Printing)
By Sean Fahey

Point Blank gave us the Ed Brubaker we know today.  Before his insanely popular and critically acclaimed work on Criminal, Incognito and Captain America, the writer staked his claim here, with a five issue noir-influenced, espionage-tinged mini-series called Point Blank (recollected for a second time this week). The series is best known as the prequel to what is widely considered Brubaker’s most accomplished work, the noir spy thriller and future Tom Cruise vehicle Sleeper. But that perception sells short the strength of Point Blank, which truly does hold its own with the rest of Brubaker’s work. 

Though undeniably rooted in the Wildstorm superhero universe, Point Blank is anything but a superhero story, owing more to the hard-boiled stylings of Dashiell Hammett and Richard Stark that to any peddlers of capes and spandex. The story follows Cole Cash (aka The Grifter) through the seedy bars and back alleys of the Wildstorm underworld as he looks for the would-be assassin of John Lynch, Cash’s former special ops mentor and sometimes friend, sometimes enemy (a sort of Nick Fury). The answer to the mystery of who shot John Lynch and why is what ultimately leads to the events in Sleeper. But truth be told, that mystery, while engaging, is the least interesting part of this book. Like any great noir mystery, the strength of the story rests with the characters and the dialogue, and Brubaker works his magic on both, especially during the little moments. There’s a sequence very early on in the story where Cole learns that Lynch has been shot, and despite a very tenuous relationship, shows up at the hospital and waits alone on a bench for hours and hours on end until he gets word of Lynch’s condition. It’s a small moment (brilliantly laid out by the insanely talented artist Colin Wilson), but it speaks volumes about the two and their history together. Point Blank is full of moments like that.

If you enjoy gritty, hard-boiled mysteries and authentic spy-craft (Cole’s voiceover is full of clever little tips, like how to spot a tail without giving yourself away), you cannot go wrong with Point Break. The series is one of, if not the, most intelligent and engaging series the Wildstorm imprint has ever published. You can read some preview pages HERE.


FIVE OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS

Raided: Jonah Hex #43 (DC)($2.99)
By Sean Fahey

One of my favorite single comic books when I was a kid was G.I. Joe #21 (aka “Silent Interlude” or “The Silent Issue”).  Written and drawn by the legendary Larry Hama, the issue featured Snake Eyes infiltrating a Cobra installation to free Scarlet, battling scores of ninjas along the way, without a single word of dialogue uttered.  It’s an epic covert operations vignette, and some of my all-time favorite visual storytelling.  Now, I’m not going to blow smoke up your derriere and tell you that the latest issue of Jonah Hex is the Wild West equivalent of G.I. Joe #21, but it certainly evokes that issue, at the least the first half, as our favorite defaced bounty hunter quietly infiltrates a fortified hotel, in order to rescue the owner and his daughter, and makes short order of their captures.  It’s hardcore, no-holds barred stuff -- as in Bowie knives and meat cleaver “no-holds” barred, and artist Paul Gulacy does an amazing job conveying the brutality of the engagement (and when I say “engagement,” I mean slaughter).  Oddly enough though, about half way through the issue, the narrative takes a turn, and what began as Hex’s “Silent Interlude” turns into a dialogue heavy story about Hex collecting what’s owed him.  By no means do I want to suggest the second half of the issue is disappointing, far from it (as usual, the issue ends with a unique brand of “justice” being exacted). It’s just that the transition is a bit jarring.  Still, this is another great issue of DC’s best ongoing series.  The world needs more Western comic books. You can read some preview pages HERE.


FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Ancient Treasures: The Black Diamond Detective Agency (First Second)($16.95)
By Sean Fahey

I generally try not to use the term “graphic novel,” especially when referring to comic books in general.  But the term aptly describes Eddie Campbell’s 2007 turn-of-the-century thriller The Black Diamond Detective Agency -- this is a novel, and a smart one a that, told graphically.  Sometimes the shoe just fits. 

Much like writer Caleb Carr’s The Alienist, Black Diamond Detective Agency is as much about the tension of an burgeoning America on the eve of the 20th century than it is about the mystery that drives the central characters.  Claustrophobic cities replacing the expansiveness of the open west.  The rapid development and increasing reliance on technology.  Industrialism.  Justice being more of an exercise in science than a natural concept.  The growing pains of a growing nation.  It’s fitting then that the story begins with a horrific train (the very symbol of America’s transformation) explosion at the site of an agrarian labor protest -- as if old America and new America literally collided with one another.  From that tragedy, the narrative, and the mystery driving the narrative, are set in motion, as agents from the Secret Service and the Black Diamond Detective Agency (basically, Pinkertons) race to figure out the who, the why and the how.  What was in the missing safe taken from the train, and who is John Hardin - the sole suspect of the bombing? Like any good thriller, questions with answers that only lead to bigger questions and deeper motives. 

Taken on just a superficial level, Black Diamond Detective Agency is an exciting historical mystery that is well paced and skillfully rendered by Campbell.  Dig a little deeper though, and you’ll find the work is a thoughtful reflection on the most transformative period in our nation’s history. You can watch a trailer for the book HERE. If the book isn’t available at your local bookstore or comic book shop, you can order it on Amazon HERE.


FOUR OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? SUGGESTIONS?

We’re always looking to find ways to improve in our mission to provide the best comic book reviews on the web. To that end, let us know what we can be doing better. Is there a genre we’re not covering enough of? Is there a book in particular you would like to see reviewed?

Please send any and all questions and suggestions to me at: scfahey@yahoo.com