Ham Helsing - Rich Moyer
Han Solo - Marjorie Liu
Solo is tasked by the alliance to run
in the galaxy's most dangerous race while also attempting to flesh out a
mole. Decent story with a few surprises. I think I'd have preferred
street-level Solo action. [3]
HAPPY STORIES ABOUT WELL-ADJUSTED PEOPLE - Joe Ollman [Conundrum]
Black
and white sketches in a cramped style. The lettering is nearly
illegible in places. The stories, slices of life of small-town
failures, self-loathers, and go-nowheres, are truly heartbreaking.
Extremely well written but tough to read, they're so grim. [4]
Hawkeye - Kelly Thompson
- Vol. 1: Anchor Points. Owing a great deal to Fraction's run in art and writing style, this showcases Kate Bishop, the other Hawkeye, as she closes in on an incel-type bro who feeds off of hate to become a sort of hulk-type bad guy. Starts off strong with some real-world dangers, but the super-powered stuff here doesn't suit the material. It would have been cool to see some social justice. Also bringing in Jessica Jones seems less like a team-up and more like, Kate Bishop needs help. [3.5]
Fun, tongue-in-cheek, everyday street-level superheroics. Bro! You gotta read this. Romance, sex, adventure, a dim-witted yet lovable hero.
- 1. Little Hits - Clint lets a beautiful redhead with a suspicious story talk him into helping her against the bros, much to the disgust of the women in his life. [5]
- 2. L.A. Woman - Kate ditches Clint and sets up as a detective for hire in Los Angeles, where she is found by Madame Masque. Fun, full of winks and jokes, but also hard-boiled noir. [5]
- 3. Rio Bravo - an attack leaves Clint deaf, just as his trouble-making brother comes back in his life to help him out / cause trouble. But with the help of his tenants, and a newly returned Kate, Clint might just end the scourge of the bros once and for all. Brilliant. [5]
A clever story of Hawkeye and Deadpool teaming up, reluctantly, to stop Black Cat from obtaining a list of secret SHIELD agents. Over the top and funny, but with a genuine threat and a real sense of what drives the two anti-heroes. Although I love Fraction's work on Hawkguy, Duggan mocking the pacing and detailed pictorial maps of Fraction's book is pretty funny. Library. [4]
Hellblazer - various
- HARD TIME [146-150] - Brian Azzarello - Well, this is a bit different, innit? Constantine in an American prison. Richard Corben art completes the alien feeling. I'm not sure Azzarello's ghetto noir is a fit here, but it's interesting to se how he has JC deal. [3.5]
- GOOD INTENTIONS [151-156] - Brian Azzarello - Constantine continues his trek of America, trying to track down why some two-bit grifter framed JC for his murder. He meets some hillbillies who get up to some rather distasteful things on the "World Wide Cum Web." JC is far from appealing here, as he directly deals out some nastiness to people who don't really deserve it. A bizarre Shirley Jackson ending leaves a bad taste. [2.5]
- FREEZES OVER [157-163] - Brian Azzarello - Constantine finds himself stuck in a small cafe during a blizzard with some townspeople and a trio of killers. And perhaps a serial killer as well. There's also a flashback scene in which a young JC cheats a naive young rich man who wants an occult object. Creepy and well-done. [4.5]
- HIGHWATER [164-174] - Brian Azzarello - JC tangles with a bunch of small-town skinheads led by a supremacist separatists, in a fine vignette, He then finally catches up with the rich American who's been pulling all the strings back to when he was framed for murder, and... uh. He seduces the guy in a bizarre omnisexual game of perverse wills, fakes his own death, and drives the man mad. Um. It may well be a fine crime piece, Mister Azzarello, but we must not call it Hellblazer. [3]
Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite - Barry Deutch [Amulet]
In
a sequel to a story that I haven't read, Mirka, a young Jewish girl
warns a witch about a meteorite, which them gets transformed into her
double. Mirka tries to continue with her life, but finds it hard to
have a faster, stronger, willful alien double of her around, so
challenges the doppleganger to a test to see which one will stay.
Detailed cartoony color drawings with lots of sly subtle humor; a
cracked fairy tale leavened with the values of Jewish love and family.
Not flawless, but well done. [4]
History Comics
HOPELESS SAVAGES: GREATEST HITS 2000-2010 - Jen Van Meter [Oni]
A
compendium of stories about an extended family of retired punk stars
given to getting entangled in spy dramas, punch-ups, and bad
relationship drama. The black and white art, from a very long list of
contributors, is often shoddy, and even when the lines are crisp and
clean, it's very difficult to tell the father from the son, or a
daughter from a girlfriend (no one is old, even though the children are
grown). This combined with Van Meter's trying way too hard to make
these characters tough, cool, insouciant, self-aware, and satisfied
(only the youngest daughter is in any way fragile), made me fairly
uninterested in what ought to have been my cup of tea. Library. [2.5]
Hutch Owen - Tom Hart
- Collected Hutch Owen: Volume 1 - Hutch Owen, an hunchbacked old hobo rabble-rouser kicking against capitalist cronies and everything superficial, is an irascible, demented gnome who lives in a shack, angering the local magnates who want to monetize everything from skateboards to Malcolm X. The original story, in which Hutch and the CEO are revealed to have history together and then shows that Hutch himself is monetized and made into a brand, is really very well done. After that I expected it to sort of tread the same ground without that wonderful final scene, but the story in which Hutch meets an old friend who is now in publishing shows that not everything is so one-sided. Very crude black and white drawings definitely fit the theme. [4]
