THIS WEEK: Bleeding Hearts #5 is the best issue of this new Vertigo series yet. Plus, Supergirl remains excellent, The Fury of Firestorm remains intriguing, and Absolute Catwoman #1 expands the hottest line in comics.
Note: The reviews below may contain spoilers.
Bleeding Hearts #5
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Stipan Morian
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
I was in the room at NYCC when DC Comics executive editor Chris Conroy essentially revealed the lineup for this year’s Vertigo relaunch, bringing out members of the creative teams and having them discuss the concepts and visions of their books. Bleeding Hearts, which released its fifth issue this week, was, of course, among them, and writer Deniz Camp was on hand, taking the stage to talk the title up.
What struck me most about the book — aside from Stipan Morian’s always-interesting artwork, which is colored here by the great and versatile Matt Hollingsworth — was not just that this was a zombie title where the zombies were the main characters. But that the book seemed to have an anthropological bend to it, a desire to explore a society created and managed by the undead after they had basically won, defeating the remnants of humanity so thoroughly that they didn’t really pose a threat anymore.
In the first arc of the book (which I enjoyed well enough), it felt like the zombie society concept was a bit backgrounded in favor of a story that centered on our main character zombie befriending humans, a mother-daughter, specifically. I think this was an effective choice, one that gave the book character to root for (the daughter…although I think with time we will / maybe already have come to relate more to the main character zombie) and a set of great hooks for the early issues, centered around, how in the world is this friendship going to play out?
That first arc is behind us now, and, in my opinion, the book has accelerated into new, more interesting territory, to the point that Bleeding Hearts #5 is easily my favorite issue of this series yet.
The book essentially kills the mother character off page, between the cliffhanger at the end of last issue and the start of this issue, which is a good move. It’d be emotionally distracting to have to see the gritty details of the daughter losing her mother, presumably in front of her. Doing it this way lets the book focus on what it really wants to be about, the aforementioned wider happenings of zombie society, which start to overlap here with the new plight of the orphaned human from early on.
I feel newly intrigued by Bleeding Hearts as well as unsure (in a good way) where it wants to go next.
To bring this review back full circle, at that NYCC rollout last October, Conroy also said that these new Vertigo titles would be given long runways, with the intention to all be ongoings. The way Bleeding Hearts eases into the anthropology side of its story speaks to this, and I’m glad it’s having the chance to take us along patiently. It makes for more interesting, less predictable, and complex storytelling.
The Round-Up
Are you all reading Supergirl? You all really ought to be reading Supergirl. This week’s Supergirl #14, like all of this series, is great and fun and madcap and bent on making great use of the character’s complicated continuity, like many great DC comics of this era have been. This is a mid-arc issue that’s really not like a big flashy chapter, but more just another reliably piece of a great run. It’s also both written and illustrated by Sophie Campbell (with colors by Tamra Bonvillain and letters by Becca Carey), which is when I think this series is at its best.- And while it’s much earlier in its run, I am also really digging The Fury of Firestorm, which published its third issue this week. While these last two haven’t hit the incredible high heights of the debut issue, they’ve been doing a great job moving this story forward, pushing it toward geo-political espionage, which is generally a superhero motif I appreciate. I also like it when a superhero story gives you the sense that its creator has been thinking about it for years, maybe since they were a young fan themselves, and that’s certainly what Jeff Lemire’s script feels like here. This book also features art by Rafael de Latorre, colors by Marcelo Maiolo, and letters by Lucas Gattoni.
- Finally, this week also brings us Absolute Catwoman #1. A book spinning out of Absolute Batman was always coming, given how critically and commercially successful that title has been, so this was inevitable. And the Absolute Catwoman design is as great as they come. This first issue is fine. It didn’t wow me the way the debuts of Absolute Martian Manhunter and Absolute Green Arrow did, but given the Absolute Batman connection, it maybe didn’t have to? I’m sure it will be just fine. The storytelling is strong too, I just feel like plot-wise, this had extra-long one-shot written all over it, and I might be wrong but I think this book is ongoing. This one was written by Scott Snyder and Che Grayson, with art by Bengal, colors by Giovanna Niro, and letters by Lucas Gattoni.
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