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I am a comic book collector and happy to be one. I might say “proud” if I hadn’t, over a year ago, switched to reading digital as opposed to print comics. I feel a bit robbed of the tactile sensations of the hobby – of the turn of the page, the sneaking look to the panel a page over, the bagging and shorting and stacking and filing. Though I read my comics in a different medium than I used to, I still treat each Wednesday (comic book delivery day to specialty shops around the country) as different from the other days of the week. I subscribe and now, rather than go to the comic store to be handed the books pulled for my “Hold Slot,” I click a button on my iPad and watch them download.
Then I read them.
Rare is the week that I don’t read them all between Wednesdays and some weeks I have, well… let’s just say more comic books in my digital downloads than a grown man should. Comic book legend Will Eisner (creator of The Spirit) is one of the most influential men even to put pencil to drawing board in the pursuit of making comics. So influential was he that the industry awards (think the Oscars or the Emmys or the Grammys) are named The Eisner Awards. He called comic books “sequential art,” perhaps because he became embarrassed by his profession when he had to admit what he did for a living. This is my weekly reaction to the comics I read.
Comics I Read Last Week:
The best comic I read last week was Secret Empire #9.
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artists: Leinil Francis Yu, Rod Reis, Joe Bennett
Okay, perhaps Secret Empire #9 becomes the pick of the week this week because this is the penultimate issue of the series. I may be suffering event fatigue here.
I know it is suffering from artist fatigue. The rotating list of pencillers has hurt the series overall. There is no doubt of that in my mind. Had there been one, solid, superstar artist, Secret Empire may have been a tremendous book. As it is, it has been a good one.
The stability provided by the Rod Reis prologues and epilogues has been great. The return this issue of Leinil Francis Yu helps. And Joe Bennett is solid if not uninspiring. A regular artist would have helped.
But Nick Spencer has surely delivered in his writing and the best of what he has done in Secret Empire is on display this issue. This issue is taut, delivers twists and turns and capitalizes (finally?) on the promise of the Hydra-Cap. Though it seems clear where things might resolve, I am enjoying the ride overall and this issue is clearly the best of the bunch.
Spencer understands that he must bring together the heavy-hitters and stars of the Marvel Universe as the series wraps and he does so here: all the plot threads (including the pro/epi-logues) are draw tightly together and the last showdown is foreshadowed for issue 10. I read this issue more than once – always a sign of a good and complex book – and am looking forward to the conclusion.
In a good way.
And There Came a Day... 