Comic Review- Cover #1

[bedsitter23]

Cover (2018-) #1 by Brian Bendis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Bendis to Dc move has been a bit underwhelming (and seems to be the only new books I am picking up. Shame on me), but I don't want to be unclear. I have been a Bendis fan for twenty-plus years. I was there from pretty close to the beginning with Jinx and AKA Goldfish. With someone as prolific as Bendis, highs and lows are to be expected. He ended his Marvel run with some titles that weren't his best (and yet, he had spread some gems even in those last transitional issues).

We are getting a bunch of mixture of Jinxworld titles now- some brand new and some continuation- and its a lot to take in.

Cover comes with a fairly nondescript title (After you read the comic, it actually is perfect) and a pretty nondescript cover.

I took to this with not really any idea of what the title was even about.

In any case, I will cut to the quick. This is fantastic.

I knew having David Mack as artist would mean good things. Mack's art for cover is very interesting. It's very nontraditional for comics (which you probably already know), but it works really, really well in bringing this story to life.

I am sure some will hate it, but others like me will love it. For the cliche, it gives it a dreamlike quality, but with the minimal characters, it's never confusing, and well focused when it needs to be. It is also (as it always was) a perfect compliment to Bendis since the action is really dialogue not movement.

All of the reasons you loved Bendis in the first place are here. It seems like a simple plot, but there are a lot of layers here. They are easy to follow and they stay with you after you put the book down. There's mystery building. The dialogue moves the mystery along in a classic Bendis vein- which means a lot of reading- but it is snappy like the cliche Mamet or Tarantino film comparison that inevitably comes up with Bendis.

I was beginning to wonder when we would get the next Jinxworld hit and figured it might take time for it to settle in, but this definitely is it. This is very much what I used to expect in the heyday of Jinxworld.

I will end my review there if you want to be like me and come in with no expectations - or if you want the mildest of Spoilers-keep reading.

So, this is in the blurbs, so it's no secret, but if you didn't know- the plot is about intelligence work (like much of Bendis's other work) but how logical it might be for comic book writers who go from this Fest to that Comic Convention to be spys. It's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Bendis instead of Chuck Barris.

That sounds horrible in theory, but it works well in execution. I think it will also give Bendis to throw in a bunch of insider jokes and references as well, which will make it very readable. Bendis has hinted at this in the past and did Fortune and Glory, but it is a well of content we haven't seen him dip into for awhile.

I am really excited about this, as I think it will be very much in Bendis's wheelhouse and dually feels familiar and feels brand new.




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