Welcome to the first installment of Weekly Emanata, a weekly review of the comics I buy. With MEGATONik’s push to be a place for all sorts of nerdpop culture, I’ve made it my mission to pretend I’m qualified enough to review my favorite things in the world. In fact, I’m just a guy who works at a comic store and has spent more money than I can believe on all sorts of comics, graphic novels, and sequential art.

So, here we are. I’m going to write as if you, the reader, has some passing knowledge of comics, but feel free to post questions in the comments and I will do my best to answer. This first set of reviews might be a little longer than later columns since I’m also going to be doing a little “bringing up to speed” on the titles I get every month.

Beanworld Holiday Special
Larry Marder finally returns to his comic book baby, Beanworld. It’s a little tough to describe: Beanworld is a little microcosm of humanity and ecology, a world that is carefully balanced in a strange set of rules. Marder intends to have the arc of the book, which was first published in 1985, follows its own life cycle. “First and foremost, I’m investigating what I often call the ‘poetry of a bean plant.’ Beanworld over time is growing and evolving in the same way that a bean plant does. First, it is nourished by its own seed. Then it sends down roots and feeds itself. After that it, reaches aggressively towards the sky. All of this is the foundation upon which Beanworld is built upon.”

In this issue, the artists and scientists of Beanworld work to get the Pod’l'pool Cuties, little baby beans, to interact. The solution is typical Marder, unpredictable in a traditional story sense but fitting perfectly into the logic of his fantastic universe. If you’re interested in ecology, globalism, or comic book formalism, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Air #5
A lot of comics used to get by on mystery. What’s Wolverine’s real past? Where did Cable come from? Who is the Black Orchid? I believe this kind of sensationalist excuse for a story blossomed during Chris Claremont’s run on the X-Men as he wove dozens of long-term plots together, many of which lasted long after his considerable time on the titles of the X-Universe. Brian Vaughan pulls similar tricks, but he backs it up with solid characterization and eventual delivery on these mysteries.

What does this have to do with Air #5? Well, I’ve been dipping back into DC’s Vertigo imprint lately, and Air is one of them. The first four issues, though, seemed to throw dozens of ideas at the wall with nary a connection. In issue five, those threads begin to get drawn together, and writer G. Willow Wilson does so in a way that convinces me to stick with the book. Here we get impossible flying contraptions, secret bases, and a way of travel that doesn’t seem to rely on the laws of physics. Oh, and Amelia Earhart shows up at the end. This strange fable springing from the concerns of the post-9/11 world reminds me, in strange ways, of Jack Kirby’s epic Fourth World: the set of symbols Wilson is playing with, while superficially familiar, are not the stories of the past. This is a new mythology.

Manhunter #37
Manhunter is The Little DC Book That Could. Cancelled once, put on hiatus a second time, it’s been repeatedly saved by fervent fan-response. With news of a new and final cancellation in, this penultimate issue dispenses with the established plots to jump fifteen years into the future and start a sort of swan song for the extensive group of characters that have found their homes in this book.

It’s a bold move by writer Marc Andreyko, who says, “…when faced with short notice of our cancellation, i had to make the choice of trying to tell a 6-issue arc in 2 issues or doing something completely different.” Kate Spencer, lawyer and bloody vigilante, is still doing the superhero thing in the future, as is her son, who has grown to manhood amidst a great cast with ties to all corners of the DC Universe. Sure, there are heroics going on here, with a cackling villain even, but, as usual, Andreyko lets his characters shine. In a shared universe where people are usually recognized by the colors on their costume, Manhunter exists in a little corner where it would be just as exciting to see everyone standing around talking (or, most likely, arguing) in their street clothes.

Trinity #29
Trinity is DC’s current weekly series, following on the heels of 52 (which was great) and Countdown (which I stopped reading after the tenth issue). I actually got into Trinity late, going back and picking up the whole series around 17 issues. It’s a weird story, masterminded by Kurt Busiek with help from Fabian Nicieza, Mark Bagly, and others, starring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. What makes it weird? Well, for the last few months of the story, the titular trinity has been pretty much absent from its pages. Evil villains have taken their place in the structure of the world, a structure that apparently needs the archetypes of DC’s biggest three heroes to always be filled. Now that others have taken their places, the world has changed (and everyone’s memories with it). This issue, readers are treated to the supporting cast of the trinity as they slowly realize that something is wrong and try to set things right.

The neatest part of this book is the structure. Each issue has a main story, usually about 12-14 pages, and a backup story that takes up the rest of the book. The connections between main tale and backup are varied; sometimes it’s the same story from a different point of view, sometimes the backup springs from an event in the main story, and sometimes seem completely unconnected, only to meet again later in the narrative. Busiek seems to be attempting a new kind of story structure here, something that can only be done in a massive shared universe. This is becoming less and less a story about characters and more and more about a world.

Madman Atomic Comics #12
I’m on the fence regarding Mike Allred’s latest foray into story of the character he is probably most known for. In the first story arc, Madman explored his own psyche as he was confined to a rocket shooting through space. Then he saved the universe and his girlfriend was… combined with a superheroine ally. Back on Earth, there was an issue-long fight occurred in a straight horizontal line through the whole comic. Last issue, Madman had some spiritual revelations bestowed upon him by a ghost that looked like Ziggy Stardust and smacked of Mormonism (Allred’s religion; this is not meant as a criticism). And now… the girlfriend is separated from the superheroine, Madman’s archenemy returns in a new body, and at the end, everyone dies. Maybe?

It’s great to see Allred play with his artistic process as he’s been doing throughout this iteration of the series. The combination of pencils and inks, while initially offputting, is starting to grow on me. It’s strange, though, because I want to see Allred mess with storytelling (as he’s done in a few single-issues, such as the all-horizontal one and the issue where Allred aped the art styles of dozens of his inspirations), but I also want to see the story progress, and so far, it seems like Allred is having a hard time doing that. I’m going to stick with it, but I’m worried that the trip will be too long and the destination won’t be worth it.

God-Sized Thor #1
I loved Walt Simonson’s run on Thor in the 1980s. I love Matt Fraction, writer of Casanova and this here comic book. So when Fraction takes on aspects of Simonson’s arc, I got excited. When I read the comic, though, I was unimpressed.

God-Sized Thor is illustrated by a number of artists, which is usually bad news, but there’s a perfectly acceptable in-story reason for each art change, so it’s not that. It’s just that each artist did not bring their A-game (Dan Brereton, I’m especially looking at you). The story itself is kind of dull as Thor, Loki, and Baldur just sort of wander around as the world changes around them, reach the root of the problem, and take care of it pretty simply. Then there’s a Walt Simonson reprint. And then I put the comic back.

Green Lantern Corps #28
When I’m buying comics, I generally have fewer standards for something I get at a lower price. Green Lantern Corps is a series that I buy off and on depending on how the solicitations read. It’s also a comic that DC will frequently put on sale to distributors a few months after it’s released. It’s under these conditions that I buy GLC for a buck fifty. And for a buck fifty, I get a good story. Still working under the fallout of last years big Sinestro Corps War, the Green Lanterns fight a coven of Yellow Lanterns who are murdering Corps members’ family. It’s a good enough cosmic romp that is backed up by a number of nice little character moments. I don’t know if I would consistently spend three dollars a month on this book, but it’s worth at least half that, no question.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #5
A lukewarm ending to what has previously been a solid series. I don’t know if this is because I read some of them out of order (I somehow missed issue two and only got it after issue four) or if the book was supposed to last past issue five (I don’t remember it originally being solicited as a miniseries), but I just felt… let down? Terry Moore writes great female characters and great drama. The art by Craig Rousseau is perfect for this sort of story. So I don’t know. Maybe if I re-read the whole thing in the correct order it’ll feel better.

Best American Comics 2008
What a fun book. I’ve never really liked Lynda Barry’s comics, but her choices as this issue’s editor are almost all hits. Eleanor Davis, who is probably my favorite “indy” comic artist, has a showing here as well as doing the cover. The excerpt from Nick Bertozzi’s Salon was enough to get me to order the whole book. Matt Groening has some really excellent short pieces (which I think are nonfiction). And I am now on the lookout for anything by Cathy Malkasian, John Mejias, and Joseph Lambert. This is what an anthology should do.

Popeye Volume 2: “Well, Blow Me Down!”
I finally got my hands on the second volume of Fantagraphics Books’ reprints of E. C. Segar’s Popeye comic strips, and man, that’s exciting for me. These books are huge, with six weeks’ worth of strips on each page. Segar’s a great cartoonist with shades of George Herriman (who is my favorite). While the comic is supposed to be funny, and is, at times, I find myself entirely caught up with the adventure aspects of the ongoing story more than the weekly gags. I want to know what’s going to happen! I want to find out why the house is haunted! I want to know how Olive Oyl is going to get out of this one! Is it weird that I’ve never been that concerned with suspense? It took a comic strip from the 1920s to get me invested in ongoing stories.

Next week: Batman #683, Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner, Mister X: Condemned #1, Mome Volume 13, Nova #20, Runaways #5, Salon, Spirit Special #1, Top 10 Season Two #3, Trinity #30, Unknown Soldier #3, Usagi Yojimbo #116