Vertigo 2 - World Comic Book Review

Biblical Grandeur: Lucifer #14-15 (Review)

February 20, 2017 by Neil Raymundo

Lucifer #14-15
DC Comics, January-February, 2017
Writer: Richard Kadrey

The 14th issue of Vertigo’s relaunch of the Lucifer comic book series is notable for two reasons.
First, it marks the start of a new story arc. The previous issue (which we have reviewed before) was a holiday special that serves as a much needed break after Lucifer and his cohorts have finally solved the mystery of who killed God (addressed in our review of the first issue here). It turns out that it was not so much a murder as it is a suicide, with God destroying himself so that he can be reborn. (The trouble with this is that this God 2.0 seems to be more in line with the Old Testament version of God – vengeful, aggressive, and autocratic.)

Lucifer #13 (review)

January 11, 2017December 26, 2016 by Neil Raymundo

Lucifer #13
Vertigo, December 21, 2016
Writers: Holly Black, Richard Kadrey

We reviewed the 1st issue of DC Comics’ 2016 relaunch of the Lucifer comic book series a year ago. In that first review of the first issue, we were of the opinion that the relaunch itself is inherently problematic by virtue of bringing back Lucifer (in so far as the character’s story was already told and wrapped up neatly in the pages of Mike Carey’s 2000-2006 series, leaving very little room for a new story, much less one that carries similar overtones). But we found no fault in the quality of the writing itself. New writer Holly Black’s Lucifer was consistent with Mike Carey’s Lucifer: the plotting in Ms Black’s renaissance of publisher Vertigo Comics’ most intriguing character – the Devil, as imagined in John Donne’s “Paradise Lost” (1667) but engaging in machinations both quiet and loud in contemporary times – is both solid and interesting.

Mother Panic #1 and the Rise of Young Animal

December 6, 2016November 11, 2016 by Paul Murphy

Mother Panic #1 and the Rise of Young Animal
Written by Jody Houser
Published 11/9/2016

When American publisher DC Comics announced the launch of a new imprint earlier this year, it promised to offer something different. The release of Young Animal, fronted by rocker (the lead singer of the band “My Chemical Romance”) and Umbrella Academy scribe Gerard Way, has so far kept to the weird and eclectic side of DC superheroic stock-in-trade. The uninhibitedly promising Doom Patrol, the bizarre Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, and the psychedelically charming Shade, The Changing Girl have debuted strongly with their creative direction and likably oddball characters.

It is impossible to look at Young Animal’s spark without thinking of another DC imprint, the prominent and groundbreaking Vertigo Comics. In interviews about his new line, Way frequently mentions the personal impact Vertigo had when it launched in the 1990’s to formally offer more mature takes on life in the DC Universe. Previous iterations of Doom Patrol and Shade found a home at Vertigo, along with The Sandman, Swamp Thing, and Hellblazer. A few decades earlier, The Young Animal books would have fit right in with this roster.

Clean Room Volume 1 (review) – Gail Simone Frightens Us

January 11, 2023January 27, 2016 by DG Stewart

Clean Room #1
Vertigo Comics, December 2015
Writer: Gail Simone
Review by DG Stewart, 27 January 2015

Gail Simone is a comic book writer with a deserved reputation in characterisation. In titles such as Birds of Prey, Batgirl, Secret Six, and most recently Tomb Raider, Ms Simone takes often but not exclusively female characters and engages in a process of overhaul. This was most obvious in Secret Six where Ms Simone reshaped the previously forgettable villain Catman into a rational and even likeable personality. For very extended writing projects like Birds of Prey, this detailed addition of character was a prolonged exercise with some subtlety: certain players in the plot slowly changed direction over a long period of time, while others (notably the lead character, the paraplegic mastermind Barbara Gordon) engaged in a process of shaping peers – and, indeed, in the case of Barbara Gordon, authorial identification with the character rendered it sometimes difficult to ascertain where the fictional character ends and Ms Simone begins. These sometimes musty, sometimes unremarkable characters spring to life under Ms Simone’s care and interact with each other in a way which makes them approachable and likeable. Ms Simone has done this so often in the genre of superhero comics, and with such sympathy and thought, that one would think it was her exclusive stock-in-trade.