Spring Cleaning isn't fun. It's especially not fun when you just moved, and you're not really cleaning. Instead, I'm finally unpacking the last 15% of boxes in the house. Stuff we didn't need at all right away, that I now have to find a good place in the house for. Thankfully, we finally bought a minivan, so the inevitable trips to Goodwill and the local trash dump will be that much easier. I've got less than 4 weeks until I have to return to my day job, and I'm determined to have a catalog ready house when I do.

Who am I kidding? I have 3 kids and 3 pets. This house will never be clean again. But the least I can do is get rid of the boxes.

​

This week, we're getting the latest reboot of The Amazing Spider-Man. This time, the series will be helmed by Joe Kelly with art by Pepe Larraz and John Romita, Jr. (weird combo but ok). As I stated on this week's episode of The Pull List, I've always wanted to love the ASM title. Two runs into my comic fandom, it's never fully clicked with me. While I've found my reading home in the pages of Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man and Cody Ziglar's Miles Morales: Spider-Man, I think the comic world is in a better place when the flagship Spidey title is humming along nicely. Here's to hoping this is the one that finally does it.

And Now… The Reviews

I know I promised I’d review Absolute Martian Manhunter #1 last week, but what can I say that hasn’t already been said about it? It’s another excellent debut in a string of excellent debuts by Deniz Camp. Javier Rodriguez‘ trippy art made the whole issue feel like a psychedelic trip through that 3D Maze game we used to play on Windows 95 (I’m not old, you’re old). It completely flipped the script on what I thought a Martian Manhunter book could be, and there was a really cool practical effect for physical readers on the last page. It was well worth the $4.99, which is about as good a compliment as one can offer in this tariff-driven economy.

Since we're dealing in absolutes, I also checked out Absolute Green Lantern #1 by Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay last week. This one was slightly less of a gut punch, opting to open the narrative a bit slower. A huge Green Lantern Logo-shaped object fell from space and obliterated the city of Evergreen. Those who were at the site when it happened seem to have been imbued with scary, unpredictable powers. We spend most of our time in this issue with Hal Jordan, though all the solicits and covers indicate the story will eventually focus on Sojourner 'Jo' Mullein. I'm reserving judgement for this series until we see more of her, but it's interesting enough so far.

Perhaps my most interesting read in the past week has been Animal Pound. Published by BOOM! Studios, this 5-issue miniseries by Tom King, Peter Gross and Tamra Bonvillain was collected in hardcover on April 1st. Since it's inspired by George Orwell's classic Animal Farm, I decided to make good on my promise to my teen daughter and read it so I could compare notes with her latest assigned book for high school English.

At Manfield Pound, dogs and cats are separated. When they finally communicate and realize their shared grievances, they decide to revolt, overthrow the humans, and begin governing the pound themselves. Where Orwell's classic allegory warned us about how Communism can lead to Facism, King's update attempts the same with representative Democracy -- which the animals decide on after some early setbacks. We see Manfield's 'founding fathers' lay out the framework, with each major party (Dogs, Cats & Rabbits) being represented well. This system works for decades (in dog years), until scarce times allow a new type of leader to rise up and take advantage.

​

The rest of the book goes as you might expect. All the gains made in previous administrations erased. New self-serving initiatives are enacted. Dissenters are punished. Conditions dramatically worsen, all while animals continue to cede their power -- even voting outside of their clear best interests -- until the pound ends up remarkably worse than before the experiment began. A cautionary tale.

As much as I wanted to compare Animal Pound to its predecessor, Tom King's passionate foreword established some lofty goals and made it clear this was to stand alone. Animal Farm is outdated, irrelevant. This is the book that should be in the hands of every reader in America, inspiring the next generation of essays and interpretations. So I'll give my thoughts as a standalone.

As a comic, this one was a bit of a chore. Tom King's flowery narration comes across as either poetic or pretentious depending on your mood. The self aggrandizing foreword doesn't really help that mood, and sets the stage for a fairly tiresome opening chapter. It picks up as the wheels of democracy keep turning, but I honestly wanted to put it down once President Red Cap came to power. Even days removed from reading, I can't tell if I'm upset at the book itself or the events that inspired it. I just know I didn't enjoy it.

Maybe I could have tolerated this book a bit better if I hadn't read it in the wake of the tariff announcements, or if I didn't have loved ones who were severly impacted by the tanking stocks. Maybe if my sister's life-saving cancer research grants weren't upended by a ban on words like classism, inequity or gender health disparity. Maybe if I didn't have a close friend whose future hangs in the balance because his immigration hearing got pushed up out of nowhere.

Maybe if, like Animal Farm, the events of this book were meant to be about those people over there, I wouldn't have such a reflexively angry response to that dog and his stupid hat. Then again, maybe it was supposed to hit this close to home the whole time. Well played, Tom King.

​

Read Something Dope Today,

BJ KICKS

​