Comics

[avram]

This week’s comics, a day late because of Labor Day:

Ultimate X-Men #9: “The Tempest”
by Brian K Vaughan and Brandon Peterson
I feel like I maybe missed volume #8. I have no memory of the Big Event Just Passed that most of this volume was filled with reaction to. Anyway, Brian Vaughan works some nice touches into this arc. I especially liked the parallel between the Xavier Academy and the Harvey Milk School. And Vaughan’s Courtney Love-like take on the Dazzler. The original Sinister plotline happened when I wasn’t reading X-Men (or, I suspect, any Marvel comics), so I that aspect of this arc didn’t do a whole lot for me.

Fire Proves Iron: Grounded Stars
by Page Malbrough, Michael C Malbrough, and GW Fisher
This small book is a nice-looking but unreadable fantasy story. The art’s good, but it contains exchanges like this:

“I’m different. But I don’t think I’m superior to a Precarian. I have no desire to pull my energy like other Mechans.”
“Remember Madeline... you aren’t a pure Mechan. Your bloodline is Precarian.”
“Yeah. I was born a Skimp.”

Dungeon Vol. 1: “Duck Heart”
by Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim
The gem of this week’s acquisitions! A funny, clever, and somehow touching, yet very violent, D&D-inspired funny-animal fantasy story.