Random Access Memory: Five Years – September 2016 (Pushing Through the Market Square)

Rand Bellavia takes a look at his growing longbox, and reflects on comics released in September 2016.

Batman 6: I am Gotham epilogue

story: Tom King
pencils: Ivan Reis
inks: Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Scott Hanna
colors: Marco Maiolo
letters: Deron Bennett

After a fairly dark ending to Tom King’s opening Batman arc, we get some much-needed humor in the epilogue.  We start with the ever-reliable Alfred pointing out the obvious to Bruce:

That this happens while Batman effortlessly dispatches (I swear I’m not making this name up) Captain Stingaree.

And speaking of lame Batman villains, we also get Kite Man.

Yes, this is the origin of his “Kite Man, Hell Yeah!” catchphrase.  It’s not much, but really, how it is dumber than “Hulk Smash!” or even “I am Batman!”

Weirdly, the origin of this fun (and unexpectedly popular) catchphrase is later revealed by King to stem from the tragic death of his son.

Karnak 5: The Flaw in all Things part 5

writer : Warren Ellis
artists: Roland Boschi
color artist: Dan Brown
lettering: Clayton Cowles

While the fight choreography in this mini-series is fantastic, the story is — at it’s heart — psychological and deeply weird (See: Warren Ellis).  The series achieved peaked-weirdness this issue with a conversation between Karnak and (brief pause to recheck the name after thinking “That can’t be right”) Agent Coulson.  They discuss the relationship between art and magic:

The walls around Karnak and Coulson dissolve revealing a lush forest.

This page made me think of this David Ignatow poem:

I should be content 

to look at a mountain  

for what it is  

and not as a comment on my life 

It would appear that Karnak has yet to learn that asserting you have no ego has never ended well for anyone.  Coulson makes an interesting observation about the danger of using meditation to escape the world rather than as a means of better interacting with it.

Karnak’s far from ego-less rejoinder is slightly less intellectual:

Wonder Woman 6: Year One part 3

writer: Greg Rucka
artist: Nicola Scott
colors: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
lettering: Jodi Wynne

In this retelling of Diana’s first year outside of Paradise Island, we rejoin Diana and Steve’s language barrier, already in progress.

But they still manage to successfully communicate with one another.

Diana can trust Steve, but it turns out that Steve can’t really trust the United States government.

Steve convinces Etta to take a closer look.

Following a dark night of the soul, Diana is overjoyed to see Steve and Etta again.

Diana explains that she was visited in the night, and now understands her purpose.

Running out of options, Diana demonstrates her power.

This show of strength doesn’t necessarily prove that Diana was visited by gods who gave her powers (or as she says, gifts), but if her story isn’t true, then Diana has certainly demonstrated her trustworthiness, as this means that she could have escaped at any time during the night and chose peace and mutual understanding over her own freedom.

Other Comics I Read from September 2016

• Aliens: Defiance 5
• All-New Wolverine 12
• All-New, All-Different Avengers 14
• All-Star Batman 2
• Amazing Spider-Man 18
• Archie 12
• Batman 7
• Black Hammer 3
• Bloodshot Reborn 17
• Briggs Land 2
• Britannia 1
• Captain Marvel 9
• Chew 58
• Civil War II 5
• Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man 4
• Civil War II: Kingpin 3
• Daredevil 11
• Descender 15
• Detective Comics 940, 941
• Doctor Strange 11
• Eden’s Fall 2
• Empress 6
• Faith 3
• The Fix 5
• The Flintstones 3
• Generation Zero 2
• Glitterbomb 1
• Guardians of the Galaxy 12
• Hellblazer 2
• I Hate Fairyland 9
• International Iron Man 7
• Invincible Iron Man 13
• Invisible Republic 11
• Kill or Be Killed 2
• Kingsway West 2
• Mighty Thor 11
• Mockingbird 7
• Moon Knight 6
• Ms. Marvel 11
• Nighthawk 5
• Ninjak 19
• Nowhere Men 11
• Ody-C 11
• Old Man Logan 11
• Paper Girls 9
• Postal 15
• Power Man and Iron Fist 8
• Punisher 5
• Revival 42
• Saga 38
• Sheriff of Babylon 10
• Six-Pack and Dogwelder: Hard Travelin’ Heroz 2
• Spider-Man 8
• Spider-Woman 11
• Spread 16
• Superman 6, 7
• Thief of Thieves 35
• Totally Awesome Hulk 10
• Vision 11
• Walking Dead 158
• Weird Detective 4
• Wonder Woman 7