Fat Pants is a monthly Comic Pants feature in which we mull over the last month’s trades and graphic novels in order to let you know which ones we feel are most worth your attention. It is far from a comprehensive list of all the good reads published in the past month, so please feel free let us know in the comments which trades and graphic novels came out in the last month that you, the reader, feel are most worth our attention. So, without further ado, here are the books we think really stood out this month.

In addition to these books, Randy wrote a full review of Incredible Change-Bots.

DMZ Vol 3: Public Works
Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Riccardo Burchielli
Company: DC Comics/Vertigo

Randy: DMZ has been to some dark places already, with journalist Matty Roth robbed of his idealism and betrayed by his news organization throughout the first two volumes. Hardened a bit by his experiences and slowly “going native” in wartorn New York, Public Works finds him going undercover inside a Blackwater-esque military corporation named Trustwell and finding himself confronted by the moral ambiguities of working with a cell of suicide bombers and resistance fighters. There’s terrific moral complexity, because nobody really seems to be 100% on the right side, and Wood is amazing at depicting the difficulty for Matty to do the right thing when anything he does is going to have unfair consequences for somebody.

Nick: Time and time again, DMZ amazes me with the level of complexity that each of the stories being told carries. That’s one of the reasons why this series is so good. In all honesty, I’d still have to say that the Body of a Journalist arc was my favorite so far but Public Works is a close second. It’s thought provoking and a story that’s taut with real suspense. One of the things that Wood always does that impresses me is the ability to not only let people understand his characters through the words that they say but also through the actions that they take. It’s such a key thing in a story like this and he does it perfectly. Watching Matty rationalize and deal with the monumental issues that are raised in this arc is fascinating.

Randy: There’s no doubt in the way he’s portrayed that Matty is a “good guy” and not just a protagonist. He’s young, but he’s remarkably principled, and because we’re in his head as a result of the narrative captions, we can see the noble purposes behind the various compromises he makes. He may screw up, he may not be popular with everyone, but he’s trying his best to do the right thing. But that’s about as straightforward as DMZ gets, and even then Matty sometimes makes big mistakes that get other people hurt. Over the course of this arc, Matty finds himself balancing the relative good and evil of several guerrilla military forces, all of whom are responsible to some extent for the strife as much as the openly corrupt government and corporate forces at work. And the ending of this arc is just a punch to the gut, with a very clear message of “even when we win, we lose” that comes from the kind of messed-up situation that the warfare of the world of DMZ (not unlike our own) has caused.

Nick: And then there’s Riccardo Burchielli. He’s one of those artists that for me, simply came out of nowhere and just wowed me. The work that he has provided for this title, his grand but always lived in and very realistic cities and very human, very identifiable characters continue to impress and astound.

Randy: Oh yeah. Burchielli just might be my second favorite artist on a monthly Vertigo book right now, just behind Becky Cloonan on American Virgin. Burchielli is often called on to do action that is exciting and vivid, but not glamorous, leaving behind the very real scars of violence on the characters and the locales. On a smaller scale, he’s got to portray the emotional core of the stories in the characters’ faces and reactions, and on a larger scale, he’s got to show things like a military attack on a UN convoy, city bombings or people at work on seemingly doomed reconstruction project. And in every case, he really comes through. I also have to mention Jeromy Cox’s colors, which are fantastic. I’ve generally known Cox more for the bright color work he’s done on Mage and Rex Mundi, but here he’s working with a grimier palette, more akin to Lee Loughridge or Matt Hollingsworth, and he does a great job with it.

Nick: Seriously folks, as hard as it is to believe, DMZ continues to get bigger, stronger, faster and yes, it even gets better. If you’re not reading this series, you should be.

Thunderbolts By Ellis Vol 1 Faith In Monsters HC
Writers: Warren Ellis & Paul Jenkins
Artists: Mike Deodato Jr. & Steve Lieber
Company: Marvel Comics

Nick: The one thing that I’d never thought I’d say that I’m saying now is this: Damn, Thunderbolts is good. I know, I know, somewhere out there a kitten is crying and sure, Kurt Busiek’s and Fabian Nicieza’s versions of the team were always well crafted and chock-full of good stories, but Warren Ellis’s take on the team is all together a different sort of animal. It’s an enjoyable animal to watch, one full of Ellis-isms, ingenious concepts and crazy, big-budget action. In fact, in many ways it’s very much like John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad in that you have a group of B-list and C-list bad guys at the beck and call of the United States Government, doing the dirty work, or in this case, hunting unregistered heroes.

Randy: Given that Suicide Squad is one of my all-time favorite books, I can’t think of a higher compliment than to say that Ellis and Deodato may be turning in the modern equivalent. However, while Suicide Squad was very much a book about villains and ambiguous heroes, Thunderbolts is more or less a straight superhero book… it’s just told from the point of view of the supervillains. And that makes all the difference. The heroes usually still win, in fact they usually beat the crap out of the lead characters, but it’s interesting to see those battles when the law is on the villains’ side. Or to cut back not to the heroes’ private lives and subplots, but to what happens to the villains between their battles with the heroes. Scheming and power-jockeying, dealing with their own particular brand of madness, the little glimpses into the lives of the Thunderbolts team are as much fun as the action.

Nick: Also, Ellis elevates many of these characters, the ones on the team and the ones that the team are hunting, and makes them into something more than they were and gives them a stronger sense of character. Making people like Jack Flagg, The Steel Spider and American Eagle seem like total badasses isn’t something that I would normally call easy and Ellis does the job extremely well.

Randy: Given his treatment of C-list characters as pure jokes in Nextwave, I was impressed with the clever, fairly straight treatment Ellis gave such characters here. These heroes, guys that even many diehard Marvelites have only seen in their Marvel Universe entries, come off as cool and fresh new characters. And while there’s definitely a streak of dark humor at work, particularly notable in the parodying of pop culture heroism in the first couple chapters, wherein we see that the ‘Bolts have action figures, commercials and a super-cool mountain headquarters, at its heart this is a book that’s about awesome superhero vs. supervillain action and how the right thing and the law aren’t always the same.

Nick: And action is certainly something that this book isn’t lacking. Deodato Jr. outdoes himself with his work on Thunderbolts as the action is some of the best he has ever done. It’s very in your face, very brutal, but is superiorly choreographed, on par with artists like Luke McDonnell and Paul Pelletier and Alan Davis. There’s a grandness to all of his lines and work, from the mundane situations that have Norman Osborne sitting behind a desk snidely commenting on how Moonstone is screwing up his team to the non-stop actions sequences like having Jack Flagg unceremoniously decimate the entire team one person at a time. All of it has a unique and very well defined flow to it that’s rare to find.

Randy: Deodato Jr. has been around since the mid-’90s at least, but this is the first time I’ve really sat up and taken notice of his art. It is, as Nick says, the best he’s ever done. There’s a photo-realistic gloss to the whole thing, but with an underlying smoothness of motion that prevents it from having the stiffness that photo-real guys like Greg Land or Alex Ross can sometimes have. There’s a terrific sense of place, as these battles inevitably take place in some not-quite-New York-scaled city, and the buildings, the people and all the other potential collateral damage are rendered as lovingly and with as much detail as the characters. Deodato Jr. also deserves credit for some clever redesigns, from the street clothes remakes of American Eagle and Jack Flagg (which might have been a Marko Djurdjevic design, in fairness) to the clever tweaks of Radioactive Man and other team members. Thunderbolts has the look of a slick superhero book, with just the slightest tinge of parody and subversion to make the whole thing click.

It’s worth noting that in terms of format, this isn’t exactly perfect. The inclusion of stories not written by Ellis and drawn by Deodato Jr. is a mistake, and even though you’re paying for them, I don’t particularly recommend reading them. Jenkins’s “Americop” story is particularly painful, and not even a great example of the talented Steve Lieber’s art. And it sure would have been nice, for the hardcover price, to get some extras like Ellis’s scripts or notes or Deodato Jr.’s sketches or something. And it would have been nice if it was oversized. Despite all those complaints, though, this is still a very good book, the collection of the first arc of a great new series.

Captain America By Ed Brubaker Omnibus Vol 1 HC
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artists: Steve Epting, Mike Perkins, Michael Lark, Lee Weeks, John Paul Leon, Tom Palmer, Stefano Gaudiano, Javier Pulido, Marcos Martin & Rick Hoberg
Company: Marvel Comics

Randy: Upon taking over Captain America, Ed Brubaker brought Bucky back to life, had Cap killing people, and then offed the Red Skull and Nomad as a prelude to killing off the lead character. None of these seem like good ideas. In fact, any one of them would be a deal-breaker for me, and I know from reading the interviews with Brubaker in the back of this volume that he and I do not see eye-to-eye on the notion of Cap not killing, or his general disposition, or any number of facets of the character. In fact, in many ways his take is the diametrical opposite of what I want from the character. So why would I spend $75 on a hardcover collection of his first 25 issues, and offer up the opinion that Ed Brubaker is probably the best writer Captain America has ever had? Because it’s just that good.

Nick: That’s a bold statement, Randy, but it’s one that I completely and utterly agree with. If I could, and I probably will, I’d shell out the $75.00 for this beautiful tome of Captain America goodness. And really, that boils down to the overall craft of the story. Ed Brubaker is simply one of those writers that I will pretty much follow anywhere they go (Yes, even if he did series of Smurf comics, I would happily buy them.) but Captain America is the diamond amongst them all and he brings his A game to the pages of it.

Randy: Brubaker has a tendency to bring noir to most of his work these days, and Captain America is no exception. In many ways, Brubaker’s Captain America reads more like a modern-day action movie than a superhero book, featuring political and corporate intrigue, terrorism and the moral ambiguities of intelligence work. There are mind control games reminiscent of The Manchurian Candidate and the real life story of Patty Hearst. And the book opens with a battle atop a train against terrorists that is like Jack Bauer in spandex.

Nick: The spy sensibilities, though at times dark for what has usually been a superhero story, have added a new level of intrigue and suspense. Also, Brubaker’s knack for bringing back some underused and almost forgotten characters to the forefront like Sharon Carter, Falcon, Crossbones and yes, even Bucky, is something that I personally like. These are cool characters and that’s apparently something that Brubaker thinks too as he makes these characters just that.

Randy: That’s definitely something I like about Brubaker’s run. Rather than turning the book into another chapter in the weepy self-important mope-fest that was the post 9-11 Captain America, the superhero elements are blended in to make a perfect mix of modern, semi-realistic suspense and the superhero genre to which Cap belongs. The political and corporate intrigue comes from a rogue Russian general Alexander Lukin, but also from Cap’s longtime nemesis The Red Skull. The terrorists aren’t faceless guys with machine-guns, but rather long-time Marvel Universe baddies Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) complete in their yellow beekeeper looking suits. The moral ambiguities of intelligence work are represented by S.H.I.E.L.D., not the C.I.A. And there are even cosmic cubes, giant robots, Nazi super-soldiers and all that good stuff too. All of these elements are presented with maximum visual style by a bevy of talented artists.

Nick: God, where do you even start when you have such talented artists as Steve Epting, Mike Perkins, Michael Lark, Stefano Guadiano and so many more? The bulk of the material seen in this omnibus is put forth by Steve Epting and Mike Perkins and truthfully, I can’t think of two better people to bring such a story to life. Their styles really mesh well and both artists completely understand the noir/spy feel that Brubaker has brought to the book and have matched that with their own visual styles. There’s a photo-realistic quality to both of their styles but neither have the overt feel of being stiff. The action is always dynamic, case in point a scene that has Captain America and Winter Soldier taking on a giant Nazi robot. It’s all gorgeous and when you have people like Michael Lark, Lee Weeks (who worked on the Winter Soldier: Winter Kills Special), Javier Pulido and Marcos Martin (both artists on the Captain America 65th Anniversary Special) backing you up, can you really get any better?

Randy: I don’t know that I have much to add to that. The quality of the artists on this book is amazing, and their work looks terrific in the oversized format. We would be remiss in talking about this oversized collection if we didn’t talk about the last quarter of it, which consists of Captain America’s role in Civil War and, of course, the ultimately fatal payoff of that role. This didn’t get a super-deluxe collection because it’s such great work, it got it because Captain America’s death turned out to be a milestone in popular comics. Brubaker’s more complex take on the politics of Civil War and its friend against friend nature is played out in a far more interesting and balanced way than it was in any other title. Seeing Sharon Carter deal with her divided loyalties, or Nick Fury continue to move in the shadows with Winter Soldier as his operative, is essential to the Captain America ongoing narrative while paying its due to the needs of the crossover story. And the death of Captain America, while shocking, is clearly visible in the setup when you know what’s coming, even if one gets the feeling that it wasn’t a “day one” plan but maybe something that developed in the late teens of the book.

In terms of extras, the Omnibus offers up a beefy page count, but nothing super-exciting in terms of content. Reprints of Marvel Spotlight interviews with Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting and news coverage of the death are interesting enough, but don’t offer up a lot of insight. The script for #25, with commentary from Brubaker, makes for a good (if brief) read, and it’s nice to see thumbnails, design sketches and alternate covers as well. Basically, there’s nothing wrong with the extras, but neither is there anything so exciting that you should chuck your trade paperbacks in the trash and pick up this hardcover instead. However, if you’re a hardcover junkie like myself, not to mention a fan of Brubaker’s run on Captain America, it’s definitely worth the cash.

Killer Vol 1 HC
Writer: Matz
Artist: Luc Jacamon
Company: Archaia Studio Press

Nick: It’s a rare thing indeed to say that you were able to be wowed, amazed and even strangely disturbed by any single comic book that’s been published. With regards to the first hardcover edition of Archaia’s The Killer, that’s exactly what happened. Matz’s story of the psychological downfall of a hitman is a truly stunning and phenomenal thing to watch. It’s such a layered and extravagant story, one that’s so involved and rewarding, that the utter originality of the execution of the thing simply blows most other books out of the water. What’s even more amazing to me though is that Matz actually makes the main character, this money hungry, cold hearted murderer, someone so deplorable, actually likable and a person that is interesting enough that you can’t help but keep turning the page.

Randy: Indeed, Matz and Luc Jacamon’s professional killer is strangely charming, not uncommon for a sociopath. And make no mistake, that’s exactly what the lead character is. The narrative is from his point of view, and we see that he is both highly intelligent and highly deluded, offering up seductive bits of false logic about how humanity has always murdered and how he’s no worse than the rest of us. So we see that this professional killer, the protagonist of the book, is dangerous and brutal, but he doesn’t see himself that way. To him, this is just a job, it happens to be something he’s good at, and that is chilling. Some of the most memorable sequences in the book show him killing someone with cold efficiency, whether it’s the underwater struggle in the first chapter or his baseball bat-wielding first kill, where an opportunity allowed him to learn first-hand that getting away with murder was his natural talent.

Nick: Speaking of chilling, not only is the story something that really gets under your skin but Luc Jacamon’s art is by leaps and bounds some of the most visceral art that’s graced the shelves of comic book shops in quite a long while. There’s a very real element that he brings, something that makes you think that while even though this is a comic book, this isn’t superheroes, and the events that its depicting could easily be happening somewhere in the world right now. His frame work is masterful and his action sequences are so different from what we typically see. They’re so personal and human, so real that again, like Randy has already, it’s chilling to watch this professional killer end people’s lives. If someone asked me to compare Jacamon’s work with someone else, I’d probably put it right above or close to people like Jason Alexander or many of the others who worked on the Queen and Country series.

Randy: Jacamon’s work has in common a strong sense of emotive characters, storytelling and suspense, but I don’t really link him with the guys on Oni’s Queen & Country book. Instead, I’d say that it’s a lush European style, with masterful use of bright colors that don’t contradict the darker tone of the book and expressive, almost exaggerated character work reminiscent of anime and manga master Hayao Miyazaki. Jacamon creates fascinating, visually quirky characters and then drops them into some of the most fully-realized settings I’ve seen in any comic. The streets of Europe, the beaches and jungles of Venezuela, the snowy peaks of the Alps… this book has visually stunning, exotic settings out of a Bond or a Bourne film, but with a heightened sense of color thanks to Jacamon’s art. His action sequences likewise take on a style reminiscent of European comics and film, unafraid to be brutal but artful in its brutality, most notably when the lead character is conducting an interrogation and a staged accident in a hotel bathroom.

Nick: Read between the lines people, Randy thinks I’m insane! Regardless of that and how my sometimes addled brain perceives art, everything about The Killer is exceptional. It’s a prime example of what a comic book can be and what creators should strive to produce. Now, go out and pick it up!

Randy: It’s true, folks… Nick is a crazy person. But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong about The Killer. It’s a thought-provoking, beautiful piece of work, and this hardcover features all of Archaia’s usual stunning production values as well.

For A Few Dollars More:

Nick: Punisher MAX Vol 8: Widowmaker (Marvel Comics) Believe it or not, Ennis is still doing quality Punisher stories. Yes, I know, that doesn’t seem possible considering the character is such a one note creature. And yet, with each new story that Ennis crafts, he reveals something new about the character. In this volume, the Punisher is barely even present and operates as more of a sideline character than anything. Instead, we have a group of women, all of who have had husbands killed by the Punisher, and who are now wanting a little justice. Lan Medina handles the art duties, and does it with his own flair and style. I still am a fan of some of the other artists who handled arcs on this book like Goran Parlov, but Medina’s take on the starkness of Frank Castles world and the hatred and fear and sometimes adulation that he instills in people is quite striking. All in all, a title and story that surprises in more ways than one. Definitely one worth reading.

Randy: Essential Punisher Vol 2 (Marvel Comics) Fans of Ennis’s Punisher may be surprised to learn that even before Garth started kicking it nudity, harsh language and violence style, the character had some fairly hardcore moments in Marvel continuity. This collection reprints the early issues of his first ongoing series, and in the first story arc, he’s a complete badass. The writing by Mike Baron is sharp and witty, the comic book equivalent of ’80s Michael Mann, and the art on the first six issues by Klaus Janson is fantastic, gritty and evocative of the work he’d done with Frank Miller. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the book features art by Whilce Portacio, which is a huge comparative letdown, but there’s some pretty solid action storytelling going on here, as Baron keeps things true to the character’s Mack Bolan origins and dips only occasionally into the Marvel Universe for flavor. Usually, the character is on his own against organized crime, from drug runners to corrupt televangelists.

Randy: Gods Of Asgard (Studio E3) A lot of folks were pleased to see Marvel’s Thor return, but if your interest in Asgardian myths extends beyond the superhero flavor, Erik Evensen’s Xeric-award winning Gods of Asgard should be on your must-read list. Using a clean yet evocative cartooning style and short, concise storytelling, Evensen breaks down the Norse myths in stories that range from about four pages to about a dozen. Many of the story involve tales of trickery or contests, and it’s clear that Evensen has an impressive knowledge of the myths of Asgard, but he presents these stories in a way that make them accessible and fun even to those who wouldn’t know an Aesir from a Jotun. An indispensable educational account of Norse myths as well as a breezy, fun read with excellent cartooning, this is one of the indy comics gems of the year. You can find out a lot more at the Evensen’s website for the book.

Randy: Process Recess 2 Portfolio (Adhouse) This isn’t really a graphic novel. It’s actually a huge portfolio of artwork from James Jean, full color pieces with design work and sketches on the back. All suitable for pulling out and framing. It’s not as exciting as his first book, the compact hardcover Process Recess, which had a lot more process and a lot less flash, but if you’re someone who digs on Jean’s covers and want to see some of his commercial work in a beautiful format, this is well worth checking out.

Randy: Shortpacked Brings Back The Eighties I don’t usually go out of my way to recommend books that you can’t get at your local comics shop, but the first collection of Shortpacked, David Willis’s webcomic about toy collecting and toy retail, is too much fun not to recommend. It’s kind of like Kevin Smith’s Clerks filtered through an even more pure geek sensibility. It gets off to a rough start with overly broad characters and an uncertain purpose, but it takes remarkably few pages for it to really get going, and when he starts riffing on how Batman’s ultra-seriousness makes him funnier (watching him play Dance Dance Revolution is hysterical), or making fun of the sex lives of G.I. Joe and Star Wars characters in dead-on, perfectly paced one page strips, it’s tough not to laugh and fall in love with Shortpacked. These are very much the early strips, and the coloring, comedic timing and art in general continues to get better on his daily strips. But this is an easy recommendation for anyone who has ever worked retail or loved toys way beyond the age they’re supposed to… and I’m guilty of both.

Randy: Spider-Man Family Back In Black Digest (Marvel Comics) The Spider-Man Family monthly has had some good original stories, but it’s also packed with reprints and Spider-Man manga, which I have little interest in. Judging by the sales, neither do most of you. Good news, then, that this $9 digest reprints the original stories from the first three issues. There are some good villain-focused stories, such as a Sean McKeever/Kano piece on Venom and a terrific horror-tinged Lizard story by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos. There’s a cute themed piece where Hellcat faces off against Black Cat in Chicago, with a nice reveal about Black Cat’s new job at the end. And there’s a great flashback story to Spidey teaming up with the Fantastic Four by Paul Tobin, with art by Pierre Alary, that is fun and funny and almost worth the price of admission all by itself.