Hell Yeah #1

Written by Joe Keatinge
Art by Andre Szymanowicz

Over the last few years, we've seen a resurgence of the 'superhero utopia' genre of comics - books like Halcyon, Last of the Greats, and The Mighty, and I started to think that we didn't need any more, but Joe Keatinge, who has recently made a splash with his new take on the Rob Liefeld property Glory, is approaching it all from a different direction.

In this series, super powered individuals first appeared during the Gulf War, rescuing a captured US soldier, before going on to end that conflict, and introduce great changes to the world, ushering a period of peace and prosperity.

It appears that this comic is centred on Benjamin Day, the son of that rescued soldier, who attends a university for powered individuals (many people now develop abilities at puberty), but is constantly under threat of expulsion for fighting, both on and off campus.  Most of this issue is used to develop Ben, who is a bit of a childish jerk, and to establish the status quo of his world.

Keatinge also drops numerous hints that things are not as they seem.  There is the mystery of the barcode tattoo that appeared on Ben's neck around the same time as his abilities developed.  The identity of his mother is hidden from us, with the suggestion that Ben's parents have been lying to him for years.  Also, at the end of the comic, there is the appearance of three people who have been looking for him, for reasons we don't know.  All of this has managed to create a sense of intrigue around this comic, and so while it doesn't exactly scream out ingenuity, there is enough here to keep me interested.

Andre Szymanowicz, who I only know from Elephantmen, does some very good work here. He is very talented at revealing character through facial expressions, and gives the book a nice look.

Elephantmen #26

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by Andre Szymanowicz, Vince Lee, Moritat, Boo Cook, Axel Medellin, and Marian Churchland

I find it odd that the main reason why I dropped Brightest Day from my pull-list is the same reason why I like this latest issue of Elephantmen:  the way in which it is telling a number of different, interconnected stories, in a very episodic manner.  I find it doesn't work at all in BD, but here it does.

This issue slowly continues the recent plot about the two SIMM androids that have shown up.  Vanity Case discovers that she was manipulated by one, while Sahara, on a 'Coming to America' style walkabout, gets stalked by another.  The main characters of this book - namely Hip Flask and Ebony Hide, barely get any screen time at all, instead giving the spotlight to the aforementioned characters, as well as checking in on Miki.

The longest segment of the issue is given over to Janis Blackthorne, the new partner of our two favourite transgenics.  Blackthorne has an interesting past, and while the narrative explains her history, the artists (Moritat and Cook) show us what she was up to during the war.  It's a very nicely done sequence.

In fact, the art is pretty strong throughout this issue.  I love Churchland's pages the best, but was also happy to see Szymanowicz, Moritat, and Cook on the book.  The only artist I wasn't particularly fond of was Medellin's Sahara pages, which were fine, just a little more cheesecake-y than I usually like.

Elephantmen #25

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by too many people to list here

Elephantment has reached 25 issues, and to celebrate, Starkings has brought in a pile of artists to each draw a single splash page picture.  There are some of the usual Elephantmen crowd, like Moritat, Ladrönn, Szymanowicz, Burnham, Churchill, Churchland, Cook, and Steen.  There are also appearances by artists that are some serious up-and-comers, like Brandon Graham, and Shaky Kane, and some pages by well-renowned veterans like Gibbons, Erskine, Guerra, Grist, Portacio, Rouleau, Sale, and Scioli.  The art throughout the entire issue looks fantastic, and it's very cool to see different interpretations of the same characters time and time again.

As for the story, it's been written as the perfect jumping-on point for a new reader.  The focus of the issue is on Hank Gruenwald, the executive director of the Information Agency, the organization that Hip Flask and Ebony Hide work for.  Most of the issue is recap from Grunwald's perspective, and it runs right up to the most recent events (remember, this series is often non-linear, so it's nice to see the order in which events were occurring), as well as provides a hint of things to come.

On the flip side of the comic is a five-page preview of Ian Churchill's Marineman comic, which looks to be a Sea Devils sort of thing.  I have not been a fan of Churchill's previous work, and the cover looks a little too much like an issue of the Ultraverse's Prime, but this thing looks fantastic on the inside.  Churchill is taking a more cartoonish approach to things, and his description of No-Limits Free-Diving makes the sport seem very interesting (I only learned of this sport a few months ago when the New Yorker ran an incredible article on it).

This comic is well worth picking up for it's great art, and I encourage anyone who has been curious about Elephantmen to use this book as a good excuse to try it out.

Elephantmen #22

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by Andre Szymanowicz

You really can never guess what you're going to get with an issue of Elephantmen. Last issue was a huge violent fight-fest, but this issue is a nice quiet, character driven affair, highlighting Starking's strength in character development, while suffering from highly uneven pacing, an abrupt ending, and a strong sense of decompression.

That said, the character moments win the day here. I loved the street vendor making soup, and enjoyed the scenes with Miki, Hip, and Ebony.

I don't understand what's going on with this book in terms of overall plotting. Is this 'Dangerous Liaisons part 7 of 8', or 'Seven Days of Smog part 1'? Can you be part of two arcs at the same time? Seeing as there was no 'liaising' in the last issue, I'm not sure if this is really an arc at all. And will '7 Days of Smog' take seven issues? Normally, I don't care about this stuff, but these are the questions I always end up with when I read this title.

The art this issue, by Szymanowicz, is very nice, looking very European in places.