Everything Except Saga #55
Look: this week has mostly sucked. We laughed at some grifters, we recoiled in horror as a county school board in Tennessee banned Maus, and, in the middle of it all, Saga came back. But since I stopped caring after Hazel watched her third positive adult role model die in random circumstances, and this newsletter is late enough as is, let's skip all that and talk about some gosh darn comic books.
I have been accused by some of being unnecessarily harsh in reviewing X Lives of Wolverine #1 for last week's newsletter. I understand where the complaints are coming from, but I do not regret a single word of what I have written. I am still genuinely worried about the X-Men line sacrificing the many interesting transgressions of the Hickman era and becoming the exact kind of business as usual, fodder for the industry's summer event hype cycle, boring comic that House of X had been an escape from. But here is where things take a turn for the fucking wild, dear reader: X Deaths of Wolverine #1 is a genuinely great capital-E capital-C Event Comic. Where the immediacy of the action in X Lives made it feel detached from anything that preceded it and from the world that surrounds it, this is a more deliberate affair, staking its place in the greater story of the X-Men line from the get-go by picking up right where Inferno #4 left off. It is about Moira MacTaggert trying to escape the wrath of Mystique, and their chase through New York allows Ben Percy to deftly weave in a couple of wider ranging implications about the world's response to Krakoa that get the mind racing with possibilities.
It's a smartly made comic, and the action thriller core of it doesn't disappoint, thanks to the remarkably kinetic work of Federico Vicentini, which combines steady foreboding and considered character work with fight scenes that sing in action lines and hand-lettered sound effects, all given a slightly colder take on the usual hues of Krakoa by Dijjo Lima. I can't help but think the reason why it's so much fun is because it barely has any Wolverine in it, and, again, that has me worried for the future, because using the possibility of a Wolverine cameo to flog some wares is about as old-school as it gets. Here is the essential part, before I lose myself to cynicism again: a good event comic isn't just good, or well-crafted; it should get you excited about reading more comics. On that front, X Lives of Wolverine is a failure, and X Deaths of Wolverine is a success.
Here's a sentence I'm going to try and unpack for a while: in time for the excellent Peacemaker television show, they asked Garry Brown and Garth Ennis to make a Secret Origins-style one-shot about the Peacemaker, and it's probably my favorite thing Garth Ennis has written since Fury Max: My War Gone By. Now, regular readers of the newsletter will know that I have had my problems with Ennis' recent works, but in Peacemaker, he finds a perfect vehicle for the obsessions of his that I enjoy the most. It's about violence, Americans, the wars they cause, and their sometimes-intended consequences. What's more, the circumstances of Christopher Smith are ludicrous enough that the veneer of dark comedy the co-creator of The Boys likes to put on every single thing he does feels entirely appropriate, and keeps the piece from drowning in its own nihilism.
Because let's keep one thing straight: this is one of the most violent comics DC will release all year. Garry Brown and Lee Loughridge go heavy and hard on the fire and the blood, all anchored by Peacemaker's complete deadpan. It's still within the boundaries of good taste, but just. I'm not exactly sure who it's for, considering how different it is from James Gunn's very jocular take, but as a piece of comics existing for its own sake? I think it rules and that you should check it out, because of all the great pictures of people getting shot in the head that are in it. And that whole thing about violence in the American psyche. But mostly it's the people getting shot in the head.
I'm sorry about the newsletter being so late and being so short, but it took my until this Sunday afternoon to realize that there is nothing I could say about the Batman / Catwoman Special that shouldn't be immediately obvious to anyone with a functioning heart. So it's just the two reviews! Sorry again! It just wasn't a big funny week in comics! Sometimes that happens! Ah well! If you liked it regardless, please subscribe to this newsletter for more! If you think other people would like it, tell them about it and have THEM subscribe! That would be fun! Anyway, let's get this one done, and until next time: HUMBLE YOURSELF BEFORE COMICS!