Here’s one for fans of all ages. Writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach is best known for his television work, but his comic series The Middleman is so much goofy fun. The series (also adapted for a television series on ABC Family) follows the adventures of a young woman named Wendy Watson, who gets recruited to join the Jolly Fats Wehawkin temp agency, secretly a front for “O2STK” (the Organization Too Secret To Know), by The Middleman, to aid in his mission to “fight evil so you don’t have to”. It’s kinda like Men In Black for kids. Along the way the Middleman and Wendy go up against gangster gorillas, luchadores, and their archenemy, the evil genius Manservant Neville.

Sound silly? Sure it is, but Grillo-Marxuach pulls it all off with some great writing, and lots of little nods and winks to genre films/books/TV shows of yore (just look at the title of this collection). I spotted references to Star Wars, James Bond, Dune, Doctor Who, Planet Of The Apes, Blake’s 7, Back To The Future, Buckaroo Banzai, and more (and that’s just off the top of my head), and of course, tons of comic books. The art by Les McClaine is nice, very classic cartoon-looking, bold outlines and zipatone shading (check out the preview here).

Derek gave me a copy of this for my birthday two years ago, and it was a great gift. Perfect for (knowing, slightly older) kids, and anyone who loves cool comics!

I just love love love Darwyn Cooke, and he really gets to show off his chops here as a writer as well as an artist. The feature Batman story “Ego” is one of Cooke’s first works in comics, and it’s okay but not great, definitely an early work. The GOLD here though is the longest piece in the book, “Selina’s Big Score”. It’s just a solid heist story featuring Selina Kyle and a character named Stark (clearly based on Lee Marvin in Point Blank), and there’s nary a cape in sight. It reads like a practice run for Cooke’s adaptation of Parker The Hunter (excellent, in case you haven’t heard), and you guys KNOW it’s awesome if I’m recommending it, seeing as I have no great familiarity with the DC Universe and virtually no prior interest in Catwoman as a character. A-1 stuff here.

This is the series spun out of Point Blank (which itself is spun out of Alan Moore’s run on Wildcats, but no matter), brought to you by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the same creative team behind Criminal and Incognito. Here’s where the team comes together, in this fantastic story of a superpowered secret agent desperate to be brought in from the cold. I’m hesitant to say much more though, because the twists and turns are so wild I don’t want to spoil anything. Suffice it to say I COULD NOT put this down! Great on so many levels. Do be aware that this is for “mature audiences”, full of language, sex and violence, and a fair degree of superhero hate (which I usually don’t go for, but it’s used wonderfully here).

Frank Miller’s first work post- Dark Knight Returns is this thrilling retelling of the classic Batman origin story, with all of the hits and bits that are hallmarks of Miller’s writing (strong characterizations of Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon, great internal monologues, etc). The story has always seemed a bit underdone to me, though possibly this is because unlike The Dark Knight Returns Miller knew he was writing this for the main DC continuity. I don’t know. What makes this an essential volume though is the art- David Mazzucchelli’s pencil and ink work and Richmond Lewis’s colors (watercolors, they look like to me) are just marvelous. Reading this again recently I note that there are a lot of ideas here that made it onto the screen in The Dark Knight film, like the sonar bat call and, well, a whole hell of a lot about Jim Gordon. Definitely a keeper!

Someone said to me recently “hey, remember when no one knew any of Wolverine’s back story and he was the coolest character in comics?” Ah, the good old days. Long before we had Joe Q’s “official” origin story (bone claws… pfft!) all we had were little glimpses into Logan’s past, and Barry Windsor-Smith’s Weapon X was the most tantalizing. By the time this came out in 1991 we’d already seen Claremont and Miller’s take on Logan’s exploits in Japan, the story of Mac and Heather Hudson finding Logan reduced to a feral state in the wilderness from the original Alpha Flight series, and even tales of Logan’s WWII exploits with Captain America and Natasha Romanoff. But until the 1991 release of Weapon X (in the pages of Marvel Comics Presents) there had been nothing like this.

Barry Windsor-Smith was no stranger to the world of the X-Men, having notably co-written and illustrated Uncanny X-Men #198 and #205 (a Storm feature and a Wolverine feature, respectively), and Weapon X is entirely his baby. Script, pencils, inks, colors, hell, a lot of the lettering- all his. It’s a great, signature piece of work. The detail in Windsor-Smith’s linework is incredible, and his coloring is incredibly subtle and complimentary.

This is no picnic. the depictions of Logan’s handling (torture) at the hands of the Weapon X program are pretty brutal, by 1991 standards. Not because they’re particularly graphic, but because they’re so manipulative. You feel every poke and prod right along with your hero, and are just as twisted up by the end as poor Logan. You know he’s going to turn out okay, but this is certainly his trial, his passion, as it were.

So yeah. They just don’t make Wolverine stories like this anymore. Check this one out!