I haven't read anything else by Aaron, so I had a clean slate in that regard. The art didn't appeal to me by itself, but I respected the collaboration between author and artist and quickly accepted it as the visual style. The series was originally meant to be a reboot of Scalphunter, but turned into a mashup of two of Aaron's favorite genres, crime thrillers and the Western. There's been a lot of great crime fiction in comics in recent decades, but Scalped was unique in that it was a genre-busting effort that was hugely influenced by The Wire, Deadwood, and other prestige television shows. I'm a fan of prestige TV, so I naturally gravitate towards modern comic book series that read like a television series. Personally, I thought Aaron did an amazing job of writing about a race and a culture that he doesn't belong to. That's an extremely difficult thing to do, and a huge part of why people critique works for lacking diversity and representation. He didn't shy away from including negative stereotypes, which may be off-putting for some people, but he was very honest about the fact that he was writing a crime drama, and overall he received positive feedback from Native Americans. He explored the Native American experience from so many different angles that I think it's impossible to label it as exploitative. At no point did I worry about whether it was authentic or genuine. The series is violent, and there's a lot of guys pointing guys at each other's heads, but at its heart it's a redemption story.   

The Flash #95-#100

Really good arc, loved how the mystery of Max was finally solved and how another one was created with the introduction of the speed-force

I go back and forth on whether the depiction of Rahne is overboard. I think Claremont is trying to show different personalities and upbringings brought together on the team. Some religiously conservative people have very oppressive ideas imposed on them, but on the other hand some of this is hypocritical used to judge outsiders but not so strictly observed by the actual members. 

There are times when it seems like Claremont is really stretching to find an excuse for Rahne to feel guilty. I'm thinking of the slumber party, which was all girls. Yet contradictorily, she gets so angry and hits Sam when he doesn't recognize her in makeup. Sometimes when Claremont creates conflict, he puts the New Mutants in too negative a light. The kids seem like they're just as likely to react negatively when someone offers to help them as they are positively. It would be one thing if it was the pride of a particular character, but he uses it a lot.

I read the Cloak and Dagger: Predator and Prey Graphic Novel, New Mutants #15-21, Uncanny X-Men #180 and #188, Rom Annual #3, and the lead stories (not the reprints) from Justice League of America #114-115 (via Bronze Age JLA Omnibus vol. 2).

The Cloak and Dagger GN is from 1988 and features the creative team of Bill Mantlo, Larry Stroman, and Al Williamson. It's just okay. Mantlo's writing on C&D can be hit or miss because the powers involved are amorphous and it's a struggle to create concrete stakes. Also, Cloak (and the whole thing) is very emo. The highlight is the art. I remember when Stroman took over as the penciller on X-Factor (after the Original 5 period ended), I didn't like the art much. Here, though, Stroman and Williamson make a good pairing, reminiscent of Rick Leonardi at his best. Part of the plot concerns Jack the Ripper reanimated by a demonic force. In this story, he moved to the U.S. after the manhunt in the U.K. grew.

My other Marvel reading is part of my continuing New Mutants binge. Uncanny X-Men #180 continues the set-up of the Massachusetts Academy storyline with Kitty Pryde and Doug Ramsey. Although Claremont wrote both titles, Doug informs Kitty about his Massachusetts Academy offer in a different location. The X-Men have a team meeting about Kitty's plan. They conclude that it's low-risk because Professor X can monitor telepathically and they think Emma Frost is still in the catatonic state Mastermind put her during the Paul Smith run. In other news, Xavier is now playing basketball having shown he overcame the psychosomatic limits on his cloned body in NM #14. Storm beats up some punks and has a heart-to-heart with Kitty saying she needs to accept Storm's new edgelord persona. Kitty's plan backfires when Emma Frost shows up soap opera style no longer in a coma on the private jet to Massachusetts, and the other X-Men go through the gateway to Battleworld, so they can't help.

New Mutants #15-17 is the Massachusetts Academy arc that introduces the Hellions. Emma Frost has brainwashed Doug Ramsey and is working on Kitty. Illyana sends her astral form to find Kitty, because her BFF hasn't been in touch. When Emma sees her, things go haywire with demons flying aroudn the X-Mansion, and the New Mutants learn when Xavier already knew: Illyana is a mutant and a witch. Although some of the kids are uneasy with Illyana, she takes one of Kitty’s old costume and gets a brevet promotion to New Mutant. With the X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four who-knows-where (actually Secret Wars), the New Mutants take the bus to Massachusetts. Emma is telepath, so of course she sees the attack coming. Her students, the Hellions, are the New Mutants counterparts with some very directly comparable: Catseye to Wolfsbane, Jetstream to Cannonball, Thunderbird to Sunspot, and Empath to Karma (even she is presumed dead and has been out of the book for a while). Roulette and Tarot round out the roster. Claremont sets up potential plotlines between the rival teams (like crushes) and some like the odd Catseye are intriguing. A whole issue goes by before it’s pointed out that this Thunderbird is the brother of the deceased X-Man and holds a grudge. Creepy Illyana’s mind can’t be read, so she and Dani escape. After accidentally teleport a few months into the future (it’s not good) they are back. Most of the Hellions are uneasy with the New Mutants being coerced, so they proposed trial by combat for their freedom. Cannonball is on the verge of defeating Jetstream, but Emma (now with Sebastian Shaw) doesn’t want to honor the deal. Good thing Kitty can cause a distraction, and Illyana teleports the whole team back to Westchester. Teaser of the bear haunting Dani’s nightmares!

New Mutants #18-20 is the Demon Bear arc and Bill Sienkiewicz’s debut as penciler, after inking the cover to #17. Sienkiewicz’s trippy style is an earthquake. Lots of beautiful rendering, copious use of black, the very menacing Demon Bear, great work on faces, and the intro of Illyana distinctive haircut. She previously sort of had bangs (but less precise/distinct) and wore a ponytail. The one drawback is that sometimes it explodes on the page with imprecision. For instance, Berto seems about as tall as everyone else and sometimes images are indistinct. Sienkiewicz gives Rahne a new transitional form between girl and wolf, less goofy than the old transition. Illyana armor is introduce covering wounds, and she gets to be a badass. And Sam’s crush on Amara makes him stupidly almost maim Illyana. Two new characters, cop Tom Corsi and nurse Sharon Friedlander, are turned Native American. How are they going to explain that to family & friends?! Sienkiewicz also gets to do a very cool flash-forward with Rachel Summers. Rachel then shows up to the mansion in the present after time-traveling from the future only to discover Illyana is much older than she's supposed to be.

Uncanny X-Men #188 starts with the conclusion of a fight against Dire Wraiths before Rachel reveals her future past to the X-Men. It ends with a teaser of the Kulan Gath story. The New Mutants element is that Xavier calls Illyana in as reinforcements for the Dire Wraith fight. Colossus and the X-Men first learn about Illyana’s powers, so I guess she and Xavier weren’t in a rush to tell her bro. But because Peter is a such a nice guy, he instantly accepts this revelation about his sister, unlike her teammates who mostly think she’s creepy. Rom Annual #3 is actually a significant guess appearance from Bill Mantlo and artist William Johnson. The team (minus Dani who is recuperating from her injuries from the Demon Bear) visits Sam family in Kentucky. We learn Sam’s family know about his powers. Rom’s enemy Hybrid escapes from Limbo, which both is and isn’t Illyana’s Limbo. Hybrid’s plan is to rape and impregnate Brandy/Starshine and the female New Mutants. Pretty heavy for a comic based on a junky toy, Bill. In spite of Rom explaining what Dire Wraiths are to Illyana (she just fought them in UXM), she continues to be the real MVP in defeating Hybrid.

New Mutants #21 is the justly famed slumber party issue. The girls (including recovering wheelchair-bound Dani saved by the Morlock Healer) invite local girl to the mansion. Warlock, who has been hurtling toward Earth in a subplot over several issues, finally crashes. Rahne gets her makeup done, impresses Sam with her looks, then punches Sam for not realizing it’s her. After fighting based on a misunderstanding, the Mutants draft Doug to translate with Warlock. Doug learns all about the team as I think he was mindwipe from the Hellions saga. Warlock is the essence of Sienkiewiczian abstraction. Even though he’s an alien, the team proposes him as a new member to Xavier. The Prof decides his message of acceptance extends to the Dahli painting from outer space.

The JLA reading is an attempt to mix in some stories that are new to me among the ongoing New Mutants binge. I’ll probably alternate every few issues. Both issues are puzzles, although I think it’s cheap rather than deep. Did Snapper Carr really need to know Martian Manhunter’s weakness to figure out this villain was a loser who didn’t actually disintegrate the JLA years ago.

Hulk: This Monster Unleashed
Continuing with my read-through of a bunch of classic Hulk stories I have in various reprint books (my reviews of the late ‘70s Marvel pocketbooks can be found here and here), I just got through with this book that collects the initial issues of the revived Hulk solo series that took over the numbering of Tales to Astonish (so the first issue is #102). This is the first time I’ve ever read any of these stories.
The first story is actually the last 10-pager from TtA #101, because it sets up the story that continues in the ‘first’ Hulk issue, which sees the Hulk spirited to Asgard by Loki because he wants to distract Odin from Thor’s woes on Midgard (I’m assuming this is tied to something going on in Thor at the time). And distract he does, first tussling with but then coming to terms with the Warriors Three. However, he gets entangled in some scheme by the Enchantress and Executioner to lay siege to Asgard and ends up saving the day so Odin sends him back home.
And once he gets back home, it’s non-stop punch-ups – first against an alien baddie called the Space Parasite, then the Rhino and the Missing Link (a radioactive monster sent over from communist China). He also gets abducted by the Mandarin in issues #107-108, who initially manages to hook up some kind of mind-control device to force the Hulk to go on controlled rampages that the Mandarin believes will help him take over the world. Also, throughout this the Hulk has to contend with US military forces commanded by General Ross. As noted above, this volume also includes Hulk Annual #1, the one with the well-known cover by Jim Steranko:

Although it guest stars the Inhumans, the story differs little from what was happening in the regular series, i.e., it’s just the Hulk stumbling from one fight to another, either with a group of renegade Inhumans or the ‘regular’ Inhumans, including Black Bolt. I have to say, I found this book a bit tiresome to read, as the stories are really monotonous (most of them were scripted by Gary Friedrich). I also wasn’t too impressed with the art. Most of it is by Marie Severin with various inkers. Generally I like her work, but here – with the exception of the annual – it never seemed to rise above a workmanlike level. Herb Trimpe came in as inker with #107, and then penciled #108, with John Severin doing the inks – the start of a long stint for both of them on the Hulk.
One interesting bit of trivia here is that in #106 a character named Yuri Brevlov is introduced.

He’s supposed to be the Soviet counterpart to Nick Fury, leading an Eastern bloc equivalent of SHIELD. In fact, he and Fury are acquainted, as it’s recounted that they had briefly fought together in WW2. I’m surprised that he didn’t have a sillier name (or a patch over the other eye), like Nikolai Teedoff (or – if anybody had bothered consulting an English-Russian dictionary – Gnevsky or Yarostov).

Continuing with the list of comics that I intend to re-read in 2023, I dipped into Will Eisner's influential and groundbreaking graphic novel, A Contract With God.




With its full title being "A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories", this is the first part of a loose trilogy of graphic novels. In it, the author examines his youth and the neighbourhood in which he was raised, by telling stories about the poor, working-class Jewish residents of a tenement building on Dropsie Avenue in New York City during the Depression.

The book consists of four stand-alone stories, with the titular "A Contract with God" being the best and most powerful. This story follows Frimme Hersh, a deeply religious Hasidic Jew, who renounces his faith after the death of his young adopted daughter, and it's a tale that is clearly drawn from Eisner's own experiences and feelings regarding the death of his 16 year old daughter Alice. The pain and grief that Eisner experienced is given full expression on the page, as Frimme turns his anger towards a God who he believes had forsaken him and therefore violated a contract between the two of them. It's a harrowing tale, with a noirish tone and it clearly reflects some of what Eisner was feeling regarding his faith during those times.

In "The Street Singer", we meet a nasty, alcoholic wastrel who sings around the tenement buildings for small change and is seduced by a naïve retired singer, who he readily and gamely exploits. This story is, for me, the weakest link in the book, but it's still an engrossing slice-of-life tale and very enjoyable.

The third story, "The Super", is, with the exception of "A Contract with God", perhaps the most memorable and affecting in the book. It's a dark tale in which Mr. Scuggs, the feared and loathed superintendent of the tenement, is paid a visit by the young niece of one of the residents and offered a peak at her knickers in exchange for a nickel. After receiving the money, the girl poisons Scuggs' beloved dog and steals his savings. I won't spoil the ending, but suffice it to say that things end tragically. This is a searing tale of a disliked man of low character and paedophile tendencies, who is nonetheless the victim of a wickedly conniving little girl.

In the final story, "Cookalein", we meet the fifteen-year-old Will Eisner himself as part of an ensemble cast of characters from the Dropsie Avenue tenement who are holidaying in the Catskill Mountains. It's a story that is full of pathos, dark humour, and a gnawing desire for love. In the book's introduction, the author describes it as his own account of coming of age.

Overall, I really feel that A Contract with God deserves its reputation as one of the most important works in American comics. This is a book about the losses and tragedies of the tenement's residents, which takes in themes of death, poverty, seduction, and abuse, along with the cruel brutalism of the Depression era, and yet is couched in a warm, hopeful sense of nostalgia.

Eisner's stark black and white illustrations are gorgeous, with some pages featuring only one illustration. The images are powerful and effortlessly convey the somber themes in the book – particularly in the opening of "A Contract with God", in which the heartbroken Frimme Hersh trudges towards his home on Dropsie Avenue, through the rain soaked streets. And nobody draws rain as well as Will Eisner.