Comics: And a Happy New Year!
by Dee. 12/20/2018
Greetings fellow comics enthusiasts: this month we have three comics which should interest you: Prodigy, Green Lantern and Killmonger.Prodigy (Image Comics): Written by Mark Millar (Kingsmen: Secret Service, Kick-Ass and Superman: Red Son) and art provided by Rafael Albuquerque (American Vampire and a lot of work for DC and Image), this sci-fi thriller is gripping: what do you do with a Nobel prize winning, Olympic athlete and master of the occult Edison Crane? Well, you keep him busy with difficult international situations and games of chess.
If you are familiar with Damian Wayne (son of Batman), our hero reminds me a lot of him, a mastermind at everything he does, and he will do more than what is asked of him. This story becomes more involved when people inexplicably explode, becoming bizarre, futuristic vehicles with dead rodents inside them. I am interested to see what sort of internal problems this prodigy will have to overcome as well in order to provide some dramatic tension (because being an absolute genius has to have some drawbacks; see Sherlock Holmes).
Green Lantern (DC Comics): This series comes from formative writer Grant Morrison (Animal Man, The Invisibles, Multiversity and the TV show Happy!) and artist Liam Sharp (Brave and the Bold, Wonder Woman). Morrison has also worked on various projects for DC in revamping the universe, so this is familiar ground for him. We are currently two issues into the story, and it is off to a fast start, introducing several Green Lanterns that long time followers will recognize. This might require a bit of reading (or at least a little Wiki crawling) to sort out who is who.
One of my favorite things about Green Lantern is how it treats alien languages and culture being so different. Snark doesn't translate, and English certainly isn't the universal language. There's some humor within the action packed issue, with Hal Jordan playing the part of "space police" well, deducing alien species and bringing the evil beings to justice.
Killmonger (Marvel Comics): From writer/ renaissance man Bryan Hill (7 Days from Hell, upcoming Batman and the Outsiders releasing in February) and artist Juan Ferreyra comes a look into the dramatic fall of Killmonger into a villain, but without rehashing the plot of the Black Panther movie. This is only a five part series, so they have a lot of ground to cover.
The colors are vibrant, with flashbacks in impressive and dramatic watercolors. Switching between cool blues and intense reds, the art really captures the different moods and scenes very well. The action flows nicely between fight scenes, and it is quite a fast paced story. Killmonger gets involved with Kingpin and his henchmen after Erik's sniper mission is thwarted. If you aren't familiar with Kingpin, he is a notorious Daredevil villain, which implies that Black Panther is working in the same universe as Daredevil.
Not only is Killmonger running in the same universe as Daredevil, Fisk sends the crew to kill the infamous Bullseye, a villain known for killing people with deadly accuracy using a variety of improvised weapons. The end of the second issue takes a savage turn for the worse, as Bullseye makes his dramatic appearance.
Well, that's it for me folks; happy holidays, and stay safe!
Dee