Welcome, dear readers, to another week of comics and commentary at Comics! The Blog! We kick things off, as always, by handing out awards for the Best of the week – beginning with twoAward postings, followed closely by the past week’s Best.

Just a friendly bit of advice to comic book creators: if you’re going to do a comic about Los Angeles, Hawkeye #16 is a very good way to get me automatically enthusiastic about it. I admit my opinion about Los Angeles is probably unfair; I visited the city a few years ago and it was too hot and the people were too rude and I just felt out of place there like I had a target on my back and ugh ugh UGH. So when Kate Bishop, lonely, beaten down and facing some serious, fundamental doubts about herself for maybe the first time ever announces that she’s gotta get the hell out of LA, I recognized that sentiment. It was that realistic, new place loneliness, that growing up feeling that everything is the worst, especially this new place. And Sage Mystery Detective (For Copyright Reasons) tells her, kindly, “Aw, that’s kid stuff. The filth here floats, y’see? Don’t let it shake you,” and encourages her to make a wish, and it hit me square in the chest. It was a simple moment of connection, something deeply personal surfacing on the comic book page.

When I’m not hating LA, I spend a significant amount of time now and again having very serious opinions about the Beach Boys, and my unending sympathy for Brian Wilson, as well as my outright, baldfaced dislike of Mike Love, definitely got brought up here with Kate’s case trying to recover the stolen/leaked tapes of Definitely Not Brian Wilson, Wink Wink’s “Definitely Not SMiLE” long-delayed masterpiece. The story blows it up to comic book melodrama, complete with hired goons and a hilariously villainous-looking Not Mike Love or Carl Wilson, but what’s remarkable is how it keeps a soft touch to it all. The emotions are big and loud like young people’s problems (Kate) or family problems (the Brysons), but they retain that edge of deep, relatable humanity.

As always, this humanity is expertly conveyed by the book’s entire team, with Annie Wu and Matt Hollingsworth distinguishing themselves as superlative partners and giving this half of the book’s two leads a very defined aesthetic. Those big, gorgeous yellows and oranges from Hawkeye #14 reappear, and what’s really interesting is how they’re played against the cooler colours like blue and purple. With big themes of the issue being Will’s mental instability and how different he and his brother are, the way Hollingsworth plays the two palette halves against each other both heightens the difference between the Brysons but also Will’s own manic qualities.

Wu also showcases a really fantastic psychedelic side in the middle of the issue where Will explains his history (and the sixties) to Kate; Will’s aged present-day self mirrors into his younger, more optimistic self, and the composite image gives a feeling of otherworldly bliss, played against images of orbiting planets and a swirling blue cosmic background that morph into Will’s own aquatic studio as the eye flows through the panel. Next, Will, in shadow, marvels at the beauty of the swirling colours casting light on him as the moment comes to a jarring close as the view pulls out and Will, small and vulnerable, is menaced by goons and a fight scene begins. But what’s truly, truly remarkable is how the swirling designs of one page are echoed in the chaotic brawl on the next; this is a book, perfectly thought out by its team, doing some truly next-level work.

As much as Matt Fraction draws upon a real world example for this issue, he also uses the ability of the book’s fictional setting to give a soft, happy ending, where people forgive and come to terms with each other, and everybody sees the beauty and connective abilities of art before the dark edges of reality bleed in again. For one beautiful moment, Kate realizes the perfection of Will’s dream. No matter what Madam Masque may do next, nothing can take that moment away from her or from us. For this, the book wins this week’s Willy Wonka Memorial Award for Pure Imagination.