The weather is actually getting nicer finally, here in Saint Louis and much of the nation. Therefore, let us celebrate this warming-up by staying indoor and reading some more comics. It makes perfect sense to me, at least...
Elephantmen #54/#4
This is the fifty-fourth entry in this series, but for some reason as of issue #51 they have been doing a subtle kind-of renumbering, mainly as a way to draw in new readers. Another way to make this new-reader friendly is it seems a lot of the plot has been stripped down, with instead of us focusing on the big cast of this series and all they have gone through up to issue #50, the focus has turned to a detective and how he is working with the Elephantman character (who is actually a Hippo) named Hip Flask. That continues in this issue and things are continuously getting weirder.
Between it appearing that the evil MAPPO is more alive and well than anyone ever suspected, and a hallucination that actually may more-so be a ghost, Elephantmen remains intriguing even all these issues since it first started. While these new issues have definitely been more new-reader friendly, this one starts to make it apparent that past events haven't been forgotten with certain characters being mentioned or starting to pop up--making it evident that an over-arching plot about MAPPO and all the trouble they cause still is in play. Elephantmen is always a solid read and this issue continues that trend.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
The Wake #6
Now this is interesting. As was briefly hinted-at during the first five issues of "The Wake" we now are in a flooded world, something that came about due to the events of the first half of the book. It is interesting to see the focus go from a small underwater research station set in 2014 to two hundred years later in this post-apocalypse-styled kind of world.. It definitely is creative and between Scott Snyder's good writing and Sean Murphy's ever-incredible artwork, this is a solid book that has gotten even better thanks to growing from a small-scale horror-ish story to a globe-spanning science-fiction epic. Cool stuff.
4 out of 5 stars.
Revenge #1
I greatly enjoyed Jonathan Ross' "America's Got Powers", and figured "Revenge" was worth checking out. Well, this comic is quite different from "Powers" or his other work I've read some of, "Turf". This is a super-violent and hyper-sexual comic loaded with blood, nudity, and just enough heart to not be completely devoid of soul. Basically our protagonist, Frank Griffin, is an aging movie star who has a new hit movie on his hands and the desire to keep looking young-enough to still get work. This leads to some questionable surgery down in Mexico that turns out to all be a plot to ruin him financially and cause him a lot of physical pain too. It's a perfectly fine comic if not amazing, but should you enjoy gore and topless women with a hint of soul thanks to Griffin not being that bad a guy, then this is a good comic to check out.
3 out of 5 stars.
Forever Evil #6
Throughout its running I have found "Forever Evil" to be perfectly decent. I haven't read the stand-alone mini-series that tie-in with the event much at all, but have been following Justice League as it ties-in, which seems kind of like mandatory reading to fully understand what is going on (kind of like how during "Blackest Night" you really needed to be reading the "Green Lantern" book too). Even though I haven't read much tie-ins, I 'm still able to follow along easily, and have found "Forever Evil" to be that sort of story that is perfectly decent without ever truly great throughout basically every issue. It has some impressive set-piece moments, a startling death (or potential death) here-and-there, a few kind-of shocking occurrences, and while some people hate David Finch's art, I've found it serviceable and generally solid.
This is just a comic that excels at being "good enough" and not much more. It also is odd (and potentially good for folks' pocketbooks) that so few comics seem to be really tying-in with this series. You have the big Villain's Month event, the Justice League books, Suicide Squad, the stand-alone titles...and that's it, I think. It is still plenty of comics I'm not bothering to read, but it doesn't seem like the deluge that accompanies some events. How was this issue itself though? Again, perfectly serviceable, although I doubt a certain characters apparent death is for real, and that ending is a bit odd with--Spoiler Warning--it turning out the hooded man is Alexander Luthor, a reverse-version-sorta of Shazam? Okay, that's different.
3 out of 5 stars.
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