Comic Books

Last Call Comics: Wednesday 05/29/24

Even more reviews of comics from Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, and Dark Horse Comics!

May 29, 2024

Welcome to another edition of Last Call Comics. Here, as we continually bolster AIPT’s weekly comics coverage, we catch any titles that might’ve fallen through the cracks. Or those books that we might not cover but still deserve a little spotlight. Either way, it’s a chance to explore more comics, generate some novel insights, and maybe add to everyone’s to-be-read pile.

Once more, happy New Comic Book Day to everyone.

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Nights #7

Courtesy of Image Comics.

Let’s not get it twisted: Nights is the best game in town right now. After a truly, truly stellar first arc, creators Wyatt Kennedy and Luigi Formisano are rearing up for more potent but wacky misadventures in Santo Pedro with Vince, Gray, and the whole gang. But how do you kick off your second arc?

With a g-d musical, that’s how.

Well, sort of. The musical (Sweeney Todd, FYI) is mostly the subplot of issue #7. It’s seemingly a chance to let Gray, Vince, and even Matt enjoy a night of normalcy. And I think it’s well-deserved: if you’re going to spend a whole arc torturing your cast in several ways, then they deserve a little vacay from giant demon wolves, soul-capturing blood monsters, a suspicious government agency, and the general drama of youth and high school.

The focus, then, is on Ivory, who spent a mostly absurd amount of time locked in his own trunk. But now that he’s out, we get a solid episode to delve into the mysterious young man. And Kennedy gives us exactly what we want — not only does he plug Ivory into the current happenings (building toward a mysterious book and also the coming apocalypse that’s been hinted at since issue #1), but we also get to see Ivory develop from an emotional standpoint. It really felt like they were putting him into the game in a major way, and he’s evolving as a real and interesting person with lots of charm and personal downfalls galore, which makes us cheer him on all that more. And he’s also central to a mystery from circa Nights‘ second or third issue as well as the serving the facilitator for what happens next (let’s just say it involves a large beast and a famous author’s home in Key West, respectively).

All of that together is important for truly effective storytelling, and it proves how much thought and attention Kennedy exuded in trying to make Ivory’s “stepping up” feel massively important as both a person and a rather big player in the next chapter of this massive supernatural kerfuffle (but a very good kerfuffle). It’s how you pace out character work and plot as to maximize your efforts, and not obliterate people’s attention spans by trying to narrative-dump in the first few issues. This story has always felt big enough, but in this issue we see the real size and scope of it, and things are moving into place and aligning as we better understand what’s actually happening and what the real face of this world may be after all. And not only that, but it continues to be endlessly funny and charming, and Ivory’s “lovable loser who we know can do better” is another great color for this story to use to both dazzle and engage its audience.

I also think that, to an extent, the infusion of extra Ivory does a lot to augment the look and feel of this book from a visual standpoint. Formisano (alongside colorist Francesco Segala) has done an utterly amazing work in crafting this alt history Florida — giving us novel perspectives on monsters and vamps, creating a mood with setting, and generally being novel and inventive to make this story’s overarching sense of quirkiness feel robust and grounded in actually meaning something from a narrative standpoint. But in issue #7, there’s all of that and a few key tweaks/tinges.

For one, there’s some new characters introduced, and while I don’t want to spoil them at all, it involves the aforementioned abode in Key West. What I can say about them, though, is that they bring with them a slightly more cartoony and even sillier aesthetic, and I love how that “addition” just shows the range of Nights as well as 1) playing up more joy as things grow darker and more complicated and 2) adding really great layers and textures when thing aren’t as weird or silly as they oughta be.

We even get some really intense horror in this issue, and like the stuff with the reveal of Gray’s true nature in issue #5, it’s top-notch body horror caked in gallons of blood that manages to both unsettle and unnerve as much as add to the lore of the world. Ivory’s very much a part of this new level of visual intensity, and having him re-introduced here and to further develop emotionally has the added effect of making all of this extra bloody horror feel far less gimmicky and just another vital tool of this book’s storytelling efforts.

They even manage a kind of Benny Hill-ian joke with a giant, blood-soaked creature, and that’s how you respect what these additions mean and still find room to let this book be as silly and weird as it needs to be to really and truly flourish. The issue’s ending, especially, captures what this book’s art does so well — balance the heartfelt and the horrific in such extreme proximity that all of it comes together to make you feel scared and joyous at the time, and the bleed over (wordplay!) is such that everything is big and heightened without feeling overwhelming or without “disrespecting” the pillars of horror and humor. The world was big and lush and silly already, and this issue showed us how deep and wide all of this really goes.

I get that some of you are tired of me talking endlessly about Nights. (You can stop me when you pry this book from my cold, dead hands.) But if you believe me and want to really and truly see for yourself, then you just need to pick up issue #7. It’s this chapter that shows that the wonderful, wonderful magic in the first arc was no fluke, and that this book has proper plans for something even greater as it evolves into an increasingly cunning and powerful beast. In short, Nights FTW forever.

Final Thought: I won’t shut up till you love this dang comic book.

Score: 9.5/10

Pine and Merrimac #5

Courtesy of BOOM! Studios.

Pine and Merrimac has been a proper journey. The first couple of issues were smooth as heck as we got to know our wondrous leads, Parker and Linnea Kent, while they tackled the case of a missing local girl. Issue #3 was a bit of a detour into some weird territory, but luckily issue #4 got us back on track with a chapter that balanced absurdity and hilarity with a truly hefty story (complete with a jaw-dropping close).

But like all great road trips, everything’s got to arrive at its destination. And as far as those go, issue #5 was like pulling into the parking lot of those wonderful themed motels that’s also a little haunted.

And by that I mean, it’s a finale that managed to charm and unnerve as it gave us something definitive and yet remained just open-ended enough. A huge part of that is that writer Kyle Starks really nailed the multifaceted tone of this book. After issue #4 saw the sudden and terrifying death of Parker, Starks had quite the challenge: give us the happy ending we demanded for the Kents, and do so in a way that wasn’t ever lazy, awkward, or half-cocked. Without revealing too much, that’s mostly what we got here. But it’s less the end result that matters and more how we got there. Issue #5 was an especially compelling instance of balancing the humor — the stuff with the cult continued to feel a little hokey and silly to undercut its seriousness — and the decidedly serious (a dead spouse, a young girl in danger of being sacrificed). And that was done by leaning heavily into the Kent’s dynamic and humanity; by giving us more of their singularly great relationship, and witty banter, we got a chance to laugh and cry in some rather significant ways.

We were given the opportunity to embrace the messy, complicated nature of life (which is a running theme of this book) to learn an especially valuable lesson: love is a wonderful thing worth living and dying for. Sure, the end itself made me feel really satisfied, but Starks also made interesting editorial decisions that complicated things (like the best kind of twist in some old Twilight Zone episode). That right there is likely the true heart of this book: life is as hard and ugly as much as it’s wonderful and uplifting, and you have to stick and move with both, making the hard decisions and sacrifices to make it all work somehow. The fact that the book was able to do so with humor and heart in equal measure made the messaging all the more real and impactful, as if it lived its credo in a way that made for a powerfully compelling story.

Whereas a lot of the humor in the story really hit, I think the visuals of issue #5 felt all the more serious and deliberate in their scope. (Even as Parker continued to be this glowing, massive cherub in a visual device that plays up the sweet but multifaceted nature of this character). But I think artist Fran Galán had heaps of cause for why he played it a bit more serious.

In this issue, we get some properly robust visual moments, including some gut-wrenching reactions from Linnea; a really unsettling moment with with the leader of the cult (we see him truly and clearly in a moment that counters the book’s message of love and dedication); and more great action (albeit with Linnea being the one on the offensive in a rather nice change of pace for the book and her personal arc). What these moments did is to feel dedicated and unwavering in their approach to showing how serious and dark things had become. Even the interactions with Linnea and Parker in this issue (via some flashbacks initially) were among the more robust and forceful of this book’s whole run, and augmented their playful dynamic with a vein of deep intensity. That whole approach, I think, cut through the humor and some of the hijinks for a greater message about living. Namely, an extension of this idea that the world’s a rough place, and if you’re going to be a champion for those friends/family that really matter, it means going through some big, powerful things.

Sure, said things can often be just as compelling and beautiful — Linnea’s depictions here broke my heart with their sorrow and beauty — but they are deadly serious, and no amount of sex jokes can pierce their veil. They are the work necessary for a life that’s worth living, and while Linnea accepts this “price,” she sees first-hand what it takes to get that which you want most. By the time we get to the ending, that same vein of intense visuals undercuts this otherwise joyous moment in a way that nails the books’ themes and messaging with utter brilliance. The art has always done interesting things to extend and augment the story, but in issue #5, it just felt like a whole new level of prowess and skill to empower simple but deeply effective messaging with heaps of nuance and context. And even as it added all of that magic, never once did the visuals overpower the gentle but deeply effective demonstrations of this book’s heart and its ideas regarding life’s most valuable lessons.

Of course I’m bummed that this car ride is over. But there’s no denying that the final destination of Pine and Merrimac (for now?!) is this deeply, deeply human spin on noir. It’s a story about mysteries big and small, where the answer might just be, “It’s worth being in love for all its ultimate highs and devastating lows.” It’s a case that I hope isn’t done, but that if this is the last we see of the Kents, their journey nonetheless had a massive impact on its readers. It was a proper excursion with laughs and memories galore, and something that’ll resonate with you if you just take that first essential step.

Final Thought: Love is a many brutal and wonderful things.

Score: 8.5/10

Operation Sunshine: Already Dead #2

Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.

Why are vampires so moody and sentimental? Because if you’re mostly not human, then your emotions are all you really have left. It’s that deep vein of humanity and emotionality that’s made Operation Sunshine: Already Dead so deeply compelling. After a switcharoo in titles with the last issue, we really got back to the core of all that drama as the gang’s plans for destroying the OG artifact and regaining their humanity were already deep into the planning stages.

With issue #2, the humanity grows ever more complicated, the caper gets a little overly involved, and everything is generally better for this continued spike in activity.

My earliest connection to this book focused so much on Hex and Steve — while markedly different, it was their back-and-forth that carried so much of the promise and emotion of this book. But as with the last issue, the pair don’t really get a lot of page time together. Instead, it’s Hex and Anwar and Hex and Darryl/Leeds that comprise the bulk of the interactions in this issue. And while they’re not nearly as fruitful for me personally, these dynamics still have their own power.

Leeds and Hex, for instance, is all about giving that side character more power, and Leeds becomes all the more of a vital part of this plot and the larger emphasis on humanity as he reveals himself to be a person with actual layers. Hex and Anwar, meanwhile, are all about complicating the plot as much as advancing it — the pair being frenemies is a bit predictable, but together they also delve into ideas about whether the team can really trust one another, the real history of the artifact, where Anwar really lies (without ruining his morally nebulous tendencies), and just how doomed their plot may or may not be overall.

These more functional relationships may not be as rich as Hex-Steve’s initial potential, but they are, as noted, doing wonders for the caper/heist aspects. I’ve always felt a touch uneasy about that part, even as heisting is why this whole story is happening in the first place. But it often felt like writers Henry Zebrowski and Marcus Parks had a deeply human story that they also wanted to make into a caper, and not even their inventiveness and love of the genre could fully distract me from the idea that too much depth and too much planning can be a bad thing.

But this is really the first time where I truly saw their larger vision, and where everything began to align to make the robust details feel dramatic and to also give more shape and scope to the rich emotion and interactions that really define this book (at least in my eyes). It’s not that we’ve reached a kind of apex for the book, but rather I think things are mostly coalescing in a way that every element is being respected and explored, and that totally feels like the kind of pace and momentum needed as we’re moving closer to the conclusion of this adventure and things growing ever bigger and more complicated. It’s a moment in this book’s run where I feel like we’re getting a full story and everyone has the room to show off. (Even Tick gets a little revenge near the issue’s finale, and that’s satisfying as much as it wonderfully bloody.)

But speaking of bigger and complicated things, we need to really talk about the contributions of artist David Rubin and colorist K.J. Diaz in this issue. In previous issues, the pair have really shown off, and be it a certain perspective on this unique version of New York (and later Florida), or the inventive designs of the vampires, they’ve facilitated so much magic, heart, and humor that also defines much of this book. And, yes, in this issue there were quite a few displays of technical prowess. That includes the aforementioned Tick revenge scene, which is the kind of body horror that makes this book so charming, weird, and a proper perpetuator of the genre. I also think the Hex and Anwar scene was so important because of little visual decisions (like Hex’s emotional range), and the overall design of vampire tech and lore continues to be a powerful form of worldbuilding.

At the same time, though, this issue introduced and also gave more room to several concepts and characters. And while they all popped visually, with the charm and power we need to feel excited about this book, I think the art rang just a touch short of its larger potential. With so much going on, I wanted more decisions made to help keep us feel fully connected to the world and to help us keep pace with both the general speed of this growing caper and the rate of introductions and story upgrades. What we got a lot of the time, though, weren’t any clues or decisions or even little explainers to help understand what’s going on more effectively and to help us feel grounded and not bombarded by the uptick in momentum.

There’s one character who plays a big part of this issue, and while he was introduced prior, his placement and plot just feel harder to keep pace with; there was a sense that I had to slow down to get my bearings (when you really can’t afford that it as the book develops). When we do get some help like this, as with a neat little explainer from Hex of the actual heist plan, it’s tight, efficient, packed with personality and humor, and better than even some actual caper flicks in keeping us on board. At a time when the story was doing so much to align threads and whatnot, the art felt like it was mostly there to be really dope looking, and that’s just not quite enough somehow.

In the case of our vampire gang, tensions and emotions are running extra high. And aside from a few mostly minor missteps, that’s exactly where we need them to be if this caper is going to be a success (for us as deeply invested readers). Everything that needs to be is up in the air, and this story could be a big winner if it all lands with heart, humor, commitment, and a dash or two of novelty/innovation. Otherwise, I’ll be even sadder than the moodiest vampire ever.

Final Thought: This caper is more robust and compelling than ever before.

Score: 7/10