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Despite the horrible state of the world, there is an insurmountable amount of content at the ready to be consumed. Just an egregious, impossible mountain of things to engage with. Escapism is always good, but when there are this many things to escape to it can be really daunting. We’re at the “want to watch something, but scroll through Netflix for an hour, then get tired and go to sleep” stage of content engagement. So that’s why I’m here. We’re gonna specifically talk about comics today, which is a medium in a true golden era for fantastic storytelling. But just like everything else, it can be hard to figure out where to jump in, and what’s worth your time. So strap in, and listen to me ramble about a few of my favorite comics of this year so far and dig into some of the craft elements that make them stand out to me. 

Nightwing

Look, I love Nightwing as a character as much as the next fan, but there’s something truly special about this current run written by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. Dick Grayson is dedicated to not just protecting the city of Blüdhaven as Nightwing but also ushering it into a new era of prosperity as Dick Grayson. My man is burning the candle at both ends in this one, but his smile never wavers, even with a new villain named Heartless who steals people’s hearts, or with Blockbuster trying to assassinate Dick at every turn.

I’ve said this many times over, but it really feels like an all-time, definitive run for the character and the entire creative team. We’ve yet to see a lot of Nightwing adapted into other mediums (which is a shame, to be honest), but when we do, there’s not a doubt in my mind that this Nightwing run will be mined for inspiration in a myriad of ways.

For starters, the thing that pulls me into every issue is how Taylor and Redondo put on a masterclass balancing act on providing levity and serious stakes that other comics miss at times. It is incredibly inspirational as someone trying to navigate writing in this field, and it’s really dope to see that these two seem to have such a symbiotic relationship. It elevates the book astronomically in my opinion. I can feel both of their equal agency in these pages, and I feel like more comics need to follow this approach.

Why You Need to Read it

I’ve talked in more detail about this Nightwing run before, but the aspect that’s my absolute favorite thing is the creative team’s dedication to Heart, Heat, and Hands. There’s heart at the middle of every story, absolute heat from Nightwing’s quips, and the hands of a fighter so skilled that sometimes it’s feeling like you’re getting your ass beat through the comic book page. But there’s been a fourth “H” that I’ve neglected to mention before, and that “H” stands for hope. Full stop, this is one of the most hopeful monthly Big Two comics on the shelves. It doesn’t shy away from the bleakness or the negativity of the world but opts to show us that there is a way through the existential dread or the nihilistic tendencies that so many find themselves drowning in. Issue after issue, I find myself full of hope, and I don’t even live in Blüdhaven.

I’m talking forever about this book, but I’ll just say one more thing. After more than ten issues into this run, I can safely say now that it’s incredibly paced from an individual standpoint, and as an overarching story. I can’t tell how long this particular run is planned out to be, but Taylor and Redondo do such a good job throwing twists and turns every issue that it doesn’t feel like an intentional wrench to stretch out the story just because. Everything feels really organic, and I honestly like that. It’s easy to telegraph where a story is going sometimes, but there’s never a point where I feel like I have to start to look ahead. Every time that even begins to happen in my head, there’s a turn in the story that sends us down a different direction. Nightwing really keeps its audience on its toes, and I’m not just talking about the yeeks. 

So do yourself a favor, please. If you aren’t reading Nightwing, rectify that expeditiously. You’ll be mad at yourself for not jumping on this train sooner but happy with all the catching up you have to do. 

The Thing: The Next Big Thing

Yancy Street’s very own pile of rocks is back in his own comic, and it’s an airtight, highly entertaining six-issue comic series. I know I just spent about 600 words gushing over the ongoing monthly masterpiece that is the Nightwing comic, but honestly, that book is an outlier for me. I’m at a point in my life where I can really appreciate a complete story. Get in, get out, and then reflect on how it made you feel.

That’s what we get from this recent run centered on Ben Grimm. Written by Walter Mosely, and Illustrated by Tom Reilly, The Thing: The Next Big Thing is a standalone story tucked somewhere in Marvel’s past where Ben is home alone at the Baxter building while the rest of the team is away on a vacation. He’s left to his devices, and gets into trouble with his girlfriend Alicia, and the law, landing him in prison. But something more nefarious is happening behind the scenes. The death God Mot seems to be manipulating things and making things difficult for our favorite pebble.

What really stood out to me while reading this story was how it read. In the first issue, it goes out of its way to inform the reader that this is a story that takes place sometime in the past, which really just told me that they wanted to tell a standalone story without having to pay too close attention to canon and current events of the other comics. Marvel doesn’t have Black Label like DC for stories like that, so I just thought this was a clever way to let us know upfront the level of connectivity that would be present (or not) in this story.

But what I found interesting was that the story also read like one of the comics of old. It had that somewhat over the top dialogue (even for The Thing), and the art and colors from Reilly really dug into that aesthetic from the Bronze Age. But with that, it didn’t lean into that aesthetic too hard. The structure of the story didn’t feel dated which was nice. I love old comics, but overwriting was way too common back in the day, so I’m glad this book didn’t have panels with nine pages, each filled with dialogue bubbles with 60 words.

It was also just dope to see The Thing in his element outside of the Fantastic Four. Often, that team has to lead on each other’s strengths to get the job done, and Ben was thrown into the fire without that crutch. It was fun to see how Moesely and Reilly navigated giving Ben obstacles in creative ways. It really helped with fleshing out the character and fleshing out his growth.

This was a character study through and through, and I love that for The Thing. It’s the main reason why I love self-contained stories. It can often be hard to see a character’s growth over the course of a fifty issue run. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. At least for me. With The Next Big Thing, Ben Grimm goes through an internal metamorphosis over the course of just six issues.

Like Nightwing, this book has a lot of heart as well. But at the center of it all, it’s a love story. I’m always here for a little bit of simpin’.

So if you want to read an old comic without reading an old comic, and see a pile of rocks smash things into smithereens while also progressing as a human being, this is the book for you. 

Bolero

Do you like to cry? I’m not talking about a single tear down your face and one sniffle. I’m talk snot dripping, swole faced crying so hard that may or may not feature a few loud and involuntary wails. You’re probably answering no to that question, but that’s because you haven’t read Bolero from Wyatt Kennedy and Luana Vecchio. Because after reading this book, you’ll feel like you’ve been emotionally gutted and deep cleaned, in the best way possible of course. 

Bolero is a story about the multiverse, but it’s really a story about being in love. The story follows a woman so broken after a break-up that she travels the multiverse, inhabiting her alternate selves bodies, in an attempt to make things right with her ex to fill the void in her heart. 

If you like Everything Everywhere All at Once, you will love this comic book. Aside from being stories about the multiverse, they’re pretty different, but that deep emotional feeling you feel after finishing Everything Everywhere All at Once is very similar to how it feels to finish Bolero.

This was a book that was an easy sell for me. I love anything and everything about the multiverse, so with that in the logline, I was already in the bag. But I was not ready to feel as deeply as I felt while reading this. It hit me hard. 

This is an incredibly vulnerable comic book, so know that going in. It’s going to make you confront some things about yourself, and it might bring up some painful memories. But I found it incredibly cathartic. Being heartbroken is one of the worst feelings you can feel, but it happens to be something that most of us have experienced, and seeing it conveyed in such a creative and inventive way can help you navigate parts of yourself you thought you’d locked way. 

Aside from the tears, this comic book does an incredible job of having fun in the midst of the existential dread. Devyn (the protagonist) travels the multiverse, and gets to hang out in space, fight in medieval battles, attend Victorian balls, and hook up with anyone and everyone she so chooses. It’s a lot of fun, and Vecchio absolutely kills the visuals on the book. Each page is more stunning as the one right before it, which is hard to do when a book is five issues. I wouldn’t have cried nearly as hard as I did were it not for Vecchio’s art. 

Whether you want to clean your tear ducts out or not, I still think you should read Bolero. You’ll feel better in the long run, I promise you.  

There’s still an insurmountable amount of comics to read, and while reading this article, atleast a dozen new comics have dropped, but I hope you’ll give these three a try, or at least put them on a list to prioritize. You won’t be disappointed.

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https://blackgirlnerds.com/herc-from-the-wire-is-one-of-tvs-greatest-villains/

As The Wire hits its twentieth anniversary, I believe it is important to look at the many things this piece of literary fiction transposed onto the small screen gave the world: there were the Ivy League-level courses centered around its depiction of race and its interplay with the justice system; there was the fact that it was part of a Second Golden Age of Television, a time period wherein TV shows, rather than movies, became the place to see blue-chip acting and quality screenwriting; and then there was the fact that it gave us Thomas “Herk” Hauk (Daredevil’s Domenick Lombardozzi), one of television’s greatest villains who was too stupid to know he was such. 

Fans of The Wire are well aware of Herc’s antics. He was the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) Narcotics Unit detective who hit first and asked questions later. For Herc, the best day was one spent putting “hoppers” against the wall and getting $25 worth of heroin off the street and into evidence. And he did this, of course, with his partner in crime Detective Ellis Carver (Seth Gilliam of The Walking Dead) and the rest of his Western District unit.

I use the past tense because those same Wire fans know what then happened to Herc’s police career. After a series of screw-ups like losing a $1,200 surveillance microphone one season, or, losing a camera and illegally attributing information to a fictional informant in another, or, in that same season, when he harasses a Black minister due to some faulty information (more on that later), Herc is rightfully canned from the BPD — which, if the show is correct, is like a demon getting fired from Hell for taking the whole “eternal torment” thing a bit too far. 

Sure, Herc eventually lands on his feet working for scummy-but-skilled criminal attorney Maurice Levy (Michael Kosstroff), but this should be seen as a negative. He went from being the cop who ratted on his commanding officer’s plan to effectively legalize drugs (in order to focus on “quality arrests” and community policing) to an admittedly well-paid private investigator for the lawyer representing Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector) — the show’s physical manifestation of murderous, capitalistic id. But here’s the thing: I said it should be seen as a negative. Emphasis on “should.” 

Herc, however, may just be dumb enough to think he’s finally won. 

Herc is a villain precisely because he doesn’t know how effectively he destroys people’s lives and works toward the detriment of those around him. 

Whereas the show’s outright villains like Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) or antiheroes like Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) have a sense of self-awareness about the consequences of their actions, Herc seems blissfully unaware that, as McNulty says, “a patrolling officer on his beat is the one true dictatorship in America.” As a sworn officer, Herc has the ability to effect material changes in people’s lives. He can focus on investigations into strings of burglaries or assaults. He can actually get to know the people in the communities he’s policing.

He could do these things, but he doesn’t. 

Instead, like many of the BPD officers depicted, he focuses on stats and overtime in order to make rank and retire with better pay. One can argue that these goals are not inherently bad, but it’s how Herc goes about it and who this affects that’s so upsetting. 

In fact, Herc’s single mindedness and selfishness get some people badly hurt, even killed. 

First, there’s Bubbles (Andre Royo) and his young friend Sherrod (Rashad Orange).

Season 4 sees Bubbles and Sherrod being harassed by a street punk (Armando Cadogan, Jr.), who robs and beats them every chance he can get. Bubbles looks to Herc for help, and the latter man says he’ll have Bubbles’ back. Thank god Bubbles didn’t hold his breath over that one. 

Herc repeatedly dismisses Bubbles’ phone calls resulting in Bubbles and Sherrod being beaten, sometimes severely. As a result, Bubbles gives up on Herc and instead opts to rig a “hotshot” — tainted heroin meant for his tormenter to steal, inject, and overdose from. As a bit of payback, Bubbles finally gets a hold of Herc and gives him the “tip” that a well-dressed man with a town car is carrying drugs. This becomes the Black minister’s arrest that ends Herc’s career. This almost-funny bit, however, is ruined by what happens with the hotshot. Bubbles leaves it out and Sherrod, also an addict, shoots it up while Bubbles is out. This kills the young man and shatters Bubbles nearly beyond repair. All because Herc was too distracted to pick up a phone.

Of course, Herc didn’t force Bubbles to rig that shot, and he didn’t make Sherrod shoot the dope, so it’s arguable he didn’t really, actually hurt those people. Fair enough, Meanest Person in the World, but what about this: the second pair of lives he ruined were that of Randy Wagstaff (Maestro Harrell) and his foster mother.

Basically, Herc, in an effort to expedite the length of an interrogation in which he has no leverage, tries to goad a drug dealer, Little Kevin (Tyrell Baker), into thinking that someone has informed on him about his role in a murder (it’s a long story; watch Season 4 of The Wire to understand and because it’s great). In doing so, Herc inadvertently reveals Randy as someone who has spoken to the police, even though he didn’t give them any information that could land anyone in prison. 

Regardless, the word gets out that Randy is a snitch, and his life is ruined for it. He is beaten at school, his home is firebombed, and his foster mother lands in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. And Randy? He gets put back into the group home system, but this time as a known “snitch.” 

I’ll let you imagine how well that goes for him. 

The one and only time we see Randy after this is when we see what this treatment has done to him. He’s leaner now, meaner. He’s had an education on the dos and don’ts of the street world and he’s proven to be an excellent student.

In short, Herc ruined this kid’s entire life. Or, at the very least, his adolescence. 

But Herc, until Carver gives him a brief speech late in the show’s final season, remains largely unaware of the reverberations of his actions. As Carver says, “It all matters. We thought it didn’t, but it does.” (This is after the now-fired Herc says of his many mistakes, “Yeah, I screwed up. So what?”)

From here, we see Herc attempt to make amends by using his Levy connection to give police a promising lead on Marlo. It’s comes late, but it does help take a devastatingly murderous organization off the streets.

So, Herc: idiot, or villain? Well, it’s both.

He means well, but intent is often divergent from impact, and Herc’s impact, here, is devastating. 

As the show’s low-key indictment of the BPD, Herc represents the worst of what can come of a police department lacking in empathy or self-awareness. 

What Herc, and therefore all cops, have to remember is: it matters.

It all matters. 

The Wire is available to stream on HBO Max.

http://www.afronerd.com/2022/07/thor-4-spoiler-review-mcu-phase-4.html

Afronerd Radio can now be heard LIVE courtesy of Apple Music/Itunes

Ok, citizens, let's get into this!  Check out the latest episode of Afronerd Radio's Mid Week in Review airing this Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern on the BTalk 100 internet broadcasting platform.  Join your Kree-enhanced AFROnerdist hosts as they unpack the above-titled issues including a recent toy exhibit in Las Vegas depicting a statue of a lynching in a model train scene.  Hence this appalling scene:

One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF

http://www.afronerd.com/2022/07/thor-love-thunder-review-candace-patton.html

Afronerd Radio can now be heard LIVE courtesy of Apple Music/Itunes

Let's keep it tight and concise, folks!  Welcome to the latest episode of Afronerd Radio's The Grindhouse broadcast airing this and every Sunday at 6 p.m. eastern on the BTalk cyber-radio platform.  Listen to your shattered Uru-hammered empowered AFROnerdist hosts as they discuss the following topics: the highly-anticipated fourth installment of Marvel's Thor franchise, Thor: Love and Thunder was released this weekend to a healthy 300M plus global box office takedown, and the crew have their first impressions; CW Flash actress, Candace Patton has recently alleged onset racial disparities along with social media harassment that her employers failed to address; our thoughts concerning the season finales of Amazon's The Boys (S3) and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (S1); a recent article and MSNBC TV appearance by Naval War College educator and conservative writer, Tom Nichols, places some blame on the popularity of MCU films for the rise in young male perpetrated mass shootings in the US; former Japanese PM, Shinzo Abe, was assassinated in a country with minimal gun violence and Dburt has to ask, is the US exporting its culture to the "Land of the Rising Sun?"; more icons are leaving the planet-Sonny Corleone himself, James Caan passes at the age of 82 and F-Troop comedic actor, Larry Storch dies at 99; Lastly, more details are coming out about the fourth installment of the Captain America franchise, starring Anthony Mackie (including Chris Evans future in the Steve Rogers role an dthe MCI at large).   

One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF