Comics Are Expensive: INCREDIBLE HERCULES #115, FEAR AGENT #19, THE BOY WHO MADE SILENCE #1

"Comics Are Expensive" is by Chris Lamb, licensed Expertologist. Don't try this at home.

Ah, the smell of new comics. As promised (or at least, as suggested might happen), this week saw me grab up a number of new titles I’ve never read before in the interest of seeing what else is out there beyond the tried and true mainstays I pick up each month. Lucky for me, it turned out pretty well – while not everything tried knocked my socks off, I wasn’t disappointed by anything I bought, and now have a couple of new series to start following and a few others to investigate further. It was such a success, in fact, that I think I’ll try it again next week. Pushing my luck? Probably, but then, what else is it for?

THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES #115

Writers: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente

Artist: Khoi Pham

In my defense, I had no way of knowing this was going to be good. World War Hulk had just ended, remember, bringing its overall fun story to a sort of okay conclusion, and the stuff coming next didn’t exactly look promising: a red Hulk by Jeph Loeb of all people in on title, and the continuing adventures of Hercules and Amadeus Cho, boy genius. Hercules was an unknown quality to me – the sum total of my knowledge of the character could be summed up as “Thor with less clothes, no hammer, and Greek. Also, kind of dim.” All in all, I think I can be forgiven for not realizing that him taking over the Hulk’s book while he spends the time from now till the inevitable movie-triggered reset to status quo being unreadable would turn out to be a good thing.

And it is. Despite not having read the last however many issues since the torch passing, the story is remarkably easy to jump into – Cho is continuing his personal vendetta against S.H.I.E.L.D. with Herc in tow, currently following a plan straight out of nu-Battlestar that sees the entire fleet of Helicarriers knocked out of commission (completely with a lovely visual hat-tip in the form of the Behemoth’s design). Of course, it’s going anything but smoothly, with our heroes getting into an argument over how far is too far just as the Avenger Ares and a battery of anti-being-dicked-with missiles courtesy of a very pissed off espionage organization show up on their doorstep. This rather naturally culminates in a fantastic fight scene befitting two immortal guys, with lots of hitting, explosions, and a whole bag of WWH’s glorious sound effects dropped in for good measure. I’m sure there are more practical ways of stopping incoming missiles, but I can’t think of any nearly as fun.

Now don’t get the wrong idea - Incredible Hercules isn’t all hitting, all the time. After a good long while of Cho’s obsession with hurting S.H.I.E.L.D. for their treatment of the Hulk, his time with Herc seems to be paying off in the form of him actually growing up and learning to let go. It’s a nice reminder that, for all his smarts and adventures of late, he’s still a child, an orphan who’s greatest role model is an uncontrollable monster and who’s only friends are a Greek god with an unpleasant past and a wounded coyote puppy. As moments go, it’s a nice bit of balance to the massive fight scene that precedes it, creating a solid and fulfilling read that hits each mark it tries for with room to spare.

It also makes for another reminder of what a weird place the Marvel Universe is to hang out in these days. On one hand, you have books like this and Iron Fist and Nova, great titles taking characters nobody’s really thought about in a while and making them shine. On the other, you have editorially-mandated retcons and a constant stream of massive events threatening to “change everything” just as everything was getting good. A character smoking is such a horror that it can never be shown in a book, but Faustian marriage annulments are not only okay but something to be excited over.

And of course, you have ideas that shouldn’t work, like a big, sorta dumb guy who means well and a smart kid wandering around and getting into trouble becoming must reads while former sure-things like The Ultimates are turned into the comics equivalent of a thalidomide baby. That House of Ideas has felt pretty schizophrenic for the last few years, appearing from the outside as if they’re trying to please everyone – including their own inner fanboys – at once. It’s led to a lot of unfortunate decisions across the board, and caused me to question more than a few times why I bother keeping up with them at all. Of course, every time I start asking, that same process seems to produce an unexpected gem like Incredible Hercules to remind me.

BUY STATUS: Yeah, okay, I’m in. I can only assume the oncoming war mentioned at the end has to do with the Skrulls, and while I can’t help but feel I’m going to get my heart broken, I’ll at least be there for it to happen.

FEAR AGENT #19

Writer: Rick Remender Artist: Jerome Opeña

Well, this was different. The inevitable danger of picking up a handful of new books based on word-of-mouth, an interesting cover, or random whim was leaping into the middle of a series with no idea of what was happening. Fear Agent is very much that series, and this, the third issue in its third story arc, manages to confuse and entertain in equal measures. What do I know? People are in SPACE. They are having ADVENTURES. There are also BAD GUYS. Oh, and something about the Earth probably being destroyed in an intergalactic war against little ball things riding around in person-sized suits and the crazy lady who appears to lead them. Easy enough to follow, right?

There’s not a lot of apparent main character guy Heath Huston this issue – we see him at the start, getting insulted by some aliens riding rather awesome flying fish monsters, and then he pops up again at the end for a heroic rescue. Elsewhere, Mara, who I’m guessing is at least one of Heath’s love interest, is stranded on a dead planet with the last survivors of her scouting party, a guy named Scott and a walking cliché who dies just as I was about to propose a moratorium on Latino characters exclaiming “Santa Maria!” or “Madre Dios!” whenever they’re surprised. Creepy imagery abounds as certain parts of the planet prove to be less dead than originally thought, with art that swings between genuinely lovely and early-90’s Image levels of ink splatters and scratchiness. It’s a fun ride, if suffering from a bit of disjointed writing and art from time to time, and manages to make the decisions made by the characters have an impact on me despite not knowing who they are or where they’re coming from.

And there’s the real question: Do I want to know who these people are? Y’know, I think I do. Remender says in the letters page (which wears thin pretty quick) that Fear Agents is structured like an HBO series – the sort of thing you can’t really jump into the middle of a season and know what’s happening. And I can appreciate that. There’s enough big dumb ideas and mad science here to make me want to know how it all started, so I imagine I’ll pick up the first trade rather than venturing further into unknown territory with the next two issues to see how I feel about the book as a whole. If nothing else, maybe they’ll explain why everybody’s space suits have spurs on them.

BUY STATUS: Hunting down the first trade in the next week or so, and then I’ll let you know.

THE BOY WHO MADE SILENCE #1Writer & Artist: Joshua Hagler

Now this is an odd one: according to the internet, this book originally appeared as the first issue of a twelve-part series in 2007 after creator Joshua Hagler won the Xeric Grant in 2006. So what’s it doing back on the stands here in far-flung 2008, appearing again in single issues rather than a nice trade? I suppose it doesn’t really matter – whatever the reason, it’s another chance for Hagler’s work to get some attention, and I have a lovely first issue of a potentially interesting series to read.

Before getting into the comic’s actual content, it’s worth noting the ad in the back for a gallery show made up of work related to the series. Hagler’s roots as a serious artist (thanks again, internet!) are readily apparent, and it lends his work here a rare beauty in comics – there are any number of panels and full pages from this first issue I would gladly having hanging on my or anybody else’s wall. There’s real power to his art, with scenes capturing not only the isolation main character Nestor’s sudden deafness has foisted upon him but the similar effect it’s having on his mother as the challenges ahead begin to down on her. There’s more to comics than still images, of course, and luckily Hagler comes through again, linking scenes together with an eye for storytelling that shows a lot of promise. The quotes on the back from David Mack and Sam Keith couldn’t be more apt – throw in a Dave McKean and a think you’d have the hat trick of artistic influences nailed. For all their fingerprints, however, you rarely feel as if anything you’re seeing is less than unique.

And the story? There’s not a lot to say right now – this first issue opens with Nestor in the hospital, having been pulled out of the river by a little girl named Esme after accidentally falling in. The story here deals with him waking up to spending the rest of his life deaf, his hearing lost in the accident, and the first steps he takes at becoming reacquainted with the world around him. It’s a thoughtful, sad series of pages, though not completely without hope – while faced with a tremendous amount of growing up that needs to happen very quickly, Nestor seems able to accept and for the most part roll with what has happened to him. It’s around here that the weirdness kicks in – while robbing him of his hearing and ability to speak properly, whatever happened to him in the river left him with something else instead, something that seems to stop the people around them in their tracks and cause them to see the world the way he’s learning to. Which, y’know, is pretty handy.

It’s hard to say where things will go from here, but the groundwork is in place for things to move in a number of interesting directions. As long as Hagler continues to prove he can write as well as he paints, I’m willing to stick around to see what happens next.

BUY STATUS: I could most likely track down back issues from the last time this series graced the stands, but I’d rather watch it play out fresh. Hopefully the next two issues can keep up the level of quality established here.

And so ends the first test flight of the Great New Comics Experiment. I can easily see this becoming a regular thing, as I’m always looking for some outside force to drag me away from my comfort zones. If you have any such potential forces to recommend, leave a note in the comments or drop a line to chrislamb@gmail.com. If you find yourself just dying to know what else I picked up this week, I’ve included the rest as quick paragraph reviews at my personal site Expertologist. They should be up a few minutes after this goes live.