Do you like comics? Wow, what a coincidence! We like comics! We hoped you liked these comics too, because they were some of our favourites of last weeek:

WHITE KNIGHT

As the New 52 hit the stands a year ago, it was met with a small wave of confusion. At its foundation, the idea was simple: everything starts over, everything is new. Start right here with the new number ones! But still, as each and every Wednesday rolled around, I would get questions. Or rather, not questions, but sentences phrased like questions.

“I don’t get it. What’s happening. What’s happened.”

Because Action Comics began in the past. Because Justice League featured the characters as they originally met, and not how they existed in their own titles. Because there was a mystical five years worth of comic book time that had occurred before the lion’s share of the first issues. Thankfully, with a small bit of explanation, everyone was sated and on their way home to enjoy their purchases.

Now, just one year later, DC is going back and filling in all those gaps with a month’s worth of zero issues - flashbacks to fill in that nebulous period people had so many non-questions about.

It’s a prudent idea that’s working out nicely, as each series has been utilizing the zero issue in different styles. With 55 different books following the format, it could be easy for there to be far too much overlap in style or substance. The Bat-books alone could have been a trainwreck - five books in the line star Bruce Wayne, and the danger of them treading on familiar ground is immense, not only within the context of the zero issues, but with the various flashbacks that have occurred in the Bat-books before. But in Batman #0, the team has put together quite a nice, new look at Bruce’s past - one that overlaps with his various protégés in a neat and surprisingly concise way.

In the main story, we see Bruce functioning in a period before Bats became involved, but after his return to Gotham. We see him try to stop a crime, and fail, in a sense. It’s a failure that clearly leads to the Batman we all know and love - the one that is always over prepared for everything and anything, leaving nothing to chance just in case things go horribly wrong. There’s learning present in the book, and a sense of the future. This is mirrored nicely in the back up, written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Andy Clarke, in which we are introduced to the majority of Bruce’s impending “family”, and get a glimpse at his early impact on the characters. It’s some deft storytelling that makes for one of my favourite reads of the year. The whole package is great, and is well deserving of the Up All Knight Award. (B)

LITTLE BOY BLUE

As we near the end of Jonathan Hickman’s run on the Fantastic Four books in preparation for Marvel NOW!, it’s interesting to see the moves he’s making. Having resolved the first big climax of his run a few months ago, Hickman has spent the time since in both Fantastic Four and FF telling smaller, interconnected stories that move forward their shared area of the Marvel Universe and its overall vision. With Fantastic Four #610, readers get a conflict that’s long been suggested: Bentley vs. the Wizard.

For those in need of a catch-up, the Wizard is a nemesis of the Fantastic Four, a mad scientist who went nutter butters and himself locked up. However, he also had a penchant for cloning himself and somewhere along the way made Bentley 23, who ended up being welcomed into the Future Foundation, partially as a way to keep him under observation and try to turn him away from becoming like the Wizard. In FF, a consistent source of humour – and tension – has been his apparently natural villainous nature, even when trying to be a hero. As far as I know, he’s the one student in the school to kick a dude in the junk and then gloat about it. Oh, and he might be into the “funny” Satanism.

That’s the humourous side, though. That’s Bentley being a little bit of a dick while doing something good; with Fantastic Four #610, the first half of a story shared with FF, we get a full plunge into the discussion of who Bentley is and who he will be. This ambivalence runs through the whole issue – the plot is centred around a villainous organization coming into legitimate control of a nation and the Fantastic Four going in to determine whether or not this needs to be an international crisis. Reed Richards’ actual discussion with the representative of the ostensibly evil AIM is surprisingly cordial; despite AIM being pretty well-established as evil, there’s an uncertainty to the direction they’re taking. Is it evil? Probably. Is it benevolent? Almost certainly not, as their representative almost flat-out admits. But for the time being, there’s an uncomfortable détente, much like the one with Bentley that could be breaking, bringing us back to the end of the issue.

Hickman’s stories with the first family have been about exactly that: family. In particular, he’s examined relationships of fatherhood, be it between Reed and Nathaniel Richards, or Reed and his son, Franklin. The Bentley story is another example, as Bentley comes face to face with the man who’s as close a thing to a father as he’s got. He – and the reader – now stares down a road that we’ve known is coming for a while: who is he? Is he his father or is he his own man? And what if being his own man makes him even worse?

For tackling and intertwining such topics so beautifully, Hickman and the artist of this issue, Ryan Stegman, have showcased why these books and issues like Fantastic Four #610 are some of the best around. They’ve earned this week’s Cat’s in the Cradle Award. (J)

“Three minutes. One hundred and eighty.”

She appears at the door with a knowing grin on her face. Before her eyes, two skinheads are threatening a couple with box cutters. It’s not a good situation, and in the span of mere moments, she can be overtaken by men who are a lot bigger than her. Yet there she stands with her hands on her hips, surveying the scene with something resembling glee.

She is Dex Parios, owner, proprietor and primary detective for Stumptown Investigations. She doesn’t take any shit, and she’s going to take you down.

“One hundred and fifty, now, probably.”

The case begins at a show. Tailhook is in town, and they are rocking the shit out of a thankful crowd at the Crystal Ballroom. After the show, when things die down, the members of the group give a little colour to the dynamic they all live with from day to day. Then, sometime overnight, a guitar is stolen from Miriam Bracca, the group’s guitarist. Naturally, she goes to Dex.

“Someone stole my baby.”

She has many guitars of course. When you’re into something so deeply, you can’t help but spread your affection around. She can replace guitars, but this one is special. This one is her baby. She hires Dex to find it and we’re off to the races.

“One ten.”

“What does that mean!?!?”

Stumptown is a favourite of ours here at The Blog. The reasons are wide and varying, and we’ve waxed poetic about them on frequent occasions. With the return of the series this week, it’s all come rushing back to us. Dex is a wonderful character, full of a rich vein of emotion and motivation. In the course of one issue, we’re reminded about her character. Brief reference is made to a previous case, and we’re shown the value she places on her morals (spoiler alert: it far and away outstrips her need for money or comfort). We see her act around and react to people, bouncing wonderfully off the array of new characters set before her. She smiles. She makes jokes. She does not take your shit.

“What does that mean!?!?”

Dex smiles.

“It’s the seconds you have left before every cop in southeast Portland is crawling up your ass in response to this little home invasion of yours.”

“You… you’re full of shit.”

“Take the time to stab me and you’ll find out.”

Sex smiles and says “fuck you”. She says it with the sweetest god damn face, dimples and everything. She’s a private detective, cast in the mould of Jim Rockford, and she’s ready to rock this shit… and we are absolutely on for the ride. (B)

This is Comics! The Blog. We now commence our broadcast week.