Review: Captain Britain and MI13 #10
See, told you it’d be good. What I didn’t know, however, was that it would be one of the best issues so far. This is a series that’s actually at its best when it’s dealing with the character stuff, and having spent nine issues carefully assembling and trimming the book’s cast, Cornell is now giving them a little time to breathe and interact with one another. And it’s terrifically engaging if you’ve been following these people up to this point, littered with the series’ textbook skill with moments. Meanwhile, Leonard Kirk – whose main attribute up to this point has been his ability to convey action – copes admirably with an issue composed almost entirely of conversations, with the pages featuring Jac and Blade in the pub and Faiza and Dane in a plane particularly lovely. This is a series that it’s just impossible to dislike on any conceivable level. [SP]

Review: DMZ #39
There was a danger that Obama’s entry into the White House would instantly suck the relevance out of a title so obviously born out of two terms of Bush’s disastrous presidency. Luckily, DMZ’s current focus is on analogising various elements of US foreign policy that started before Bush and will undoubtedly continue past Obama, so the contents are, luckily, more than timeless enough to stand alone. There’s more than enough intrigue in the book’s own mythology now that the series doesn’t need to focus on a congruous political mood to make its point – and hey, if the idea of a newly-elected, popular President starting to show some cracks in his facade don’t seem relevant now, well, give it a few months. [JHu]

Review: Green Lantern Corps #33 / Batman & The Outsiders Special #1 / Nightwing #153
Peter J. Tomasi’s really starting to creep up on me, you know. As I mentioned earlier in the week, The Mighty was a fairly intriguing first issue – and he follows it up this week with an impressive THREE titles that are all varying levels of “quite decent”. His work on GL Corps has been impressive for a while – although its last arc suffered somewhat from being dragged still further into the relentlessly rubbish “let’s have an entire spectrum of Lantern Corps” concept – but here, in a parallel with this week’s Captain Britain, he gets a between-storylines issue that basically allows him to take stock of the various characters. And he’s good with these characters – Guy Gardner in particular. I’m not sure what Kyle Rayner’s done to deserve getting off with most of the DCU’s hottest characters, mind (Jade, Donna Troy and now Soranik Natu), but the burgeoning relationship here is quite well-played. And his take on Mongul as being somewhat deranged and desperate is one that works well. His Batman and the Outsiders one-shot, meanwhile, mainly focuses on characters I don’t really care for – but in its really quite touching opening pages, does a better job of looking at the aftermath of Bruce’s death than either the Paul Dini or Denny O’Neil fill-ins on the main Batbooks managed (even if certain readers won’t be able to avoid thinking “Have a fantastic life, Rose”). As a bonus, the inconsistent Adam Kubert is actually on a good day. And finally, Tomasi does something similar – if a little overly schmaltzy – in the final issue of Nightwing, which also looks quite pretty courtesy of Don Kramer – although if I’m honest, the flashback to images of various DC characters who’ve died and returned, including yet another take on The Death of Superman, feels a little unnecessary. It’s strange that the schedules should have thrown up such a week, but all of a sudden Tomasi feels like one of those solid B-list writers that I’ll be wanting to look out for a bit more from now on. [SP]

Review: Incognito #2
Brubaker and Phillips’ dark and edgy supervillain-turned-accidental-vigilante slice of noir

steps up another notch with its second issue. This is a grim and nasty little series, but it’s quite beautifully wrought in both the measured writing and sumptuous visuals, and here relishes in playing with readers’ initial conceptions about what they’re seeing on the page – laying something of a twist on one of the supporting characters, before throwing another one into the “normal” side of Zack’s life. Oh, and there’s an utterly inspired use of telepathy. It’s not necessarily the most purely enjoyable read, but like all good noir, it’s an almost titillating peeling-back of the more wretched side of human nature, and already among the most classily-put-together titles on the racks. [SP]

Capsule reviews from the Comics Daily team, including Amazing Spider-Man #580, DMZ #37, Mirror’s Edge #2 and X-Men/Spider-Man #2.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #580
Roger Stern returns to the character to deliver a rather decent done-in-one issue with artist Lee Weeks that, together with Waid’s recent 2-parter, does much to convince me that Spider-Man is getting well back on track. Stern delivers a story that feels timeless, rather than retro, and the even fact that it stands alone doesn’t derail the book’s momentum at all. Weeks’ art is great, and together with the last few issues makes the case for a rotating creative team very strongly. A rewarding read. [JHu]

Review: DMZ #37
Matty returns to the DMZ to discover that the new governor he helped put in charge might not be quite the saviour for the DMZ that he hoped. Even as the election of Obama threatens to suck the bile out of the audience for such a political title, Wood warns us against the perils of getting the leader you voted for, rather the one you wanted. Consistently gripping. [JHu]

Review: Mirror’s Edge #2
With the introduction out of the way, Wildstorm’s games tie-in moves onto the story proper, with no drop in quality from last month’s proposing beginning. The inclusion of a downtown area adds flesh to the bones of the setting, but the closing sequence of the issue is of particular note. Writer Rhianna Pratchett manages to translate the sort of moment that typifies the game, with Faith sneaking into a back office, with the result not feeling remotely incongruous in a more detailed narrative. Mirror’s Edge is a compelling series in its own right, and bodes well for next year’s Resident Evil series from the same publisher. [JHa]

Review: X-Men/Spider-Man #2
Aside from a rather hard-to-fathom team-up between Kraven and Sinister, this series is turning out to be rather good. It might have sounded a bit gimmicky on paper, but between fantastic artwork and a decent exploration of both property’s histories, it’s really getting the inner-fanboy going. This month takes place during the comics of the 80s, and a Black-Costumed Spidey teams up with a completely different bunch of X-Men, while a mutant massacre tie-in serves to make it seem…all a rather convenient fit. Unexpectedly excellent – roll on next month’s “90s” issue! [JHu]

There’s an uneasy ceasefire in the DMZ – something the series has never seen, which creates an immediate sense of tension. Matty can’t believe his story about Delgado has been rejected, but Zee explains why, calling it a “press release” – seems like Matty has lost his journalistic objectivity, and we later see that Delgado is willing to exploit that. However well-meaning he might be, you just know this isn’t going to end well.

After all Matty has been through, his simplistic view of the situation in the DMZ has been shattered and put back together so many times that he’s lost the plot a little. Delgado seizes upon this, encouraging Matty to actually choose a side once and for all, and Matty literally embraces the certainty he craves. It’s to his credit that despite all this, Wood remains detached from the situation - the reader is never lead to believe one way or the other whether Matty’s doing the right thing or not.

With Matty having chosen Delgado’s side, the still-unaware Liberty News once again tries to get his father to talk to him – you might remember that, at the start of the series, Matty was a spoilt rich kid who had to struggle out from under his father’s shadow. I saw the big cliffhanger twist coming only seconds before it arrived – the issue ends with Matty’s MOTHER getting in touch. Once again, the sense of family and what that means proves to be a strong theme in Wood’s work.

Seeing Wood take on a specific kind of political figure in Delgado may well prove the high point of the series. DMZ’s complicated politics have set it well apart from the herd. The dissection of characters and situation is as incisive as any broadsheet, if not more so. It’s almost hard to believe this kind of story is coming from someone who, as far as I know, has never been in the military at all. Still, Wood is always serious about his research, and between this and Northlanders, he’s displaying a range that would make some writers gnash their teeth in envy. At this rate, DMZ is going to make a lasting impact in the comics landscape, and deserves some serious recognition from the wider media as well.

DMZ #27 once again features guest art from Nathan Fox, and continues the “Hidden War” non-arc concentrating on various new and supporting characters from around the DMZ. Under the spotlight in this issue is the DMZ’s own club DJ, Random Fire, who finds himself just angry enough with the world to make some seriously bad decisions.

At the start of the issue, Random Fire’s set is bumped in favour of DJ Grendel, a celebrity DJ who has moved in to the DMZ to do a “dangerous” live webcast. RF discovers that he’s manipulating the situation for his own popularity, planning to stage an atack during his set, and he’s just angry enough that when the chance arises to stop it, he jumps at the chance. As ever, the politics are vivd and the characters realistic in their motivations and decisions. A large part of DMZ’s appeal is the well-realised world it’s taking place in, and the recent issues have exemplified that by telling stories largely removed from the main cast.

Wood’s solo issue, #12, which was a magazine-like “guide” to the DMZ in the style of say, Timeout, has clearly proven a goldmine for ideas, as club Rezurrection, which appeared on fliers in that issue, finally makes a grand entrance here as the focal point for the action (and my nerd credentials would be at stake if I didn’t mention that it’s got the same name as the club from Wood’s debut work, Channel Zero.)

Still, it’s also fair to say that the ongoing plot of DMZ is also a big draw. This arc has been great, and next issue about the Central Park “Ghost” has me particularly excited because they were always a neat concept, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to pick up Matty’s story and see how the larger series arc is shaping up. Granted, everything contributes in its own way, but with an arc focussing on a DMZ Guevara/Chavez analogue around the corner, it’s hard not to get excited for a return to whatever passes for normalcy in this series.

It’s a big day for DMZ as it starts its third year. This is a real milestone to anyone who remembers the days when the comic was conceived as being around 24 issues long (the current target is somewhere around 60)  because any issue from now on should taste extra-sweet.

For this arc, entitled “The Hidden War”,  Wood is once again proving his mastery of the single-issue format by telling the stories of individuals and side-characters living in the DMZ while the main cast largely sit it out. This issue specifically focuses on Wilson, the former gangster who now runs Chinatown, and shows us how he got where he is today in a story stretching right back to the start of the war and ending shortly after the series begins. As one of the series’ more colourful characters, it’s good to see what Wilson’s story is, and ultimately what drives him.

Guest art for this issue is provided by Danijel Sezelj. It has a brilliantly bleak feeling, and a sequence where a bomb explodes, leaving the art temporarily black and white before the colour slowly fades back in is a masterful use of the comics form. Unfortunately, based on the preview pages that were posted on Newarama’s Blog it all should’ve looked so, so much better. The printing job has left the pages incredibly muddy and it’s a real shame to see the art suffering from it.

While I’m thinking about it – DMZ #25, and in fact this entire arc (which began in #23) is a good place for anyone to join the series in progress if they’re interested in it. Because they’re all single-issue stories, they give you an excellent flavour of the series and of Wood’s writing without needing you to know any of the backstory. You should give it a try if you haven’t.