Comics I Bought This Week: October 22, 2011

Oct22
on October 22, 2011 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Comics I Bought This Week

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got three new comics plus a hard cover collection:

  • Savage Dragon – 174

  • Dark Horse Presents – 5

  • Blue Beetle – 2

  • Locke & Key Volume 3 “Crown of Shadows”

    • And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

    ”Incognito: Bad Influences” By Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

    Here we are with the second volume of Brubaker and Phillips’ “Incognito” collection. These two have been teaming up to bring us crime and crime/superhero stories for years. From “Point Blank” and “Sleeper” with Wildstorm to “Criminal” and “Incognito” with Marvel’s Icon imprint. This one is a crime/super hero story.

    ”Incognito” stars Zack Overkill who, in the last volume, was a super villain who was in the witness protection program. By the end of that volume he took a job with the good guy organization the SOS. In this volume, through no fault of his own, it all goes to hell. He’s asked by SOS to infiltrate a bad guy organization and things don’t go as planned.

    Brubaker and Phillips’ stuff is always dark. The heroes aren’t usually so heroic but boy are the villains villainous. In this volume Zack Overkill is discovering how, in some ways, he has become more heroic just by working with the good guys. His thought process has changed and he’s not such the uncaring bastard that he was. Of course not of that does him any good. He’s still a mess and his world is still a mess.

    I find what I like about Brubaker and Phillips’ work and what I don’t like is nearly the same thing. All the books I mentioned in the first paragraph have a similar tone. They’re all about the super villain underworld that is dirty and unromantic. You do not want to hang out with any of these guys. There is a sameness to these stories that I find off-putting. I kind of know what I’m going to get. Not specifically in plot, since these book aren’t about plot, but in tone.

    On the other hand they are really well done. I may know what I’m in for but they’re well drawn and written stories. That seems to be my review of all the Brubaker and Phillips’ comics as of “Criminal” and “Incognito”. I’m a little tired of the subject matter and tone but the skill with which they tell their stories keeps me coming back for more. In the end that’s what maters. They’re good comics.