I'm mostly enjoying this arc. But Matt has been REALLY STUPID a couple of times. In this issue, Vice Mayor Matt goes to Mayor Fisk to warn him about Muse and it seems to be just minutes after Fisk briefed a few intimates on his plans. Matt! Wait a few hours, or Fisk will begin to get suspicious that you're eavesdropping with your highly developed senses because you're Daredevil!

A few too many writing lapses like that will ruin an alleged classic for me. For example, The Long Halloween. It's just not that good.

I'm the same way on King's Batman; I love just about everything else he's written and I liked the first arc of his Batman but it went way off the rails after that.

Exit Stage Left #2.  Written by Mark Russell.  Art by Mike Feehan and Mark Morales

Russell's look at theater and the Red Scare through the eyes of Snagglepuss, channeling Tennesse Williams, continues and continues to be very strong.  We see more of Huckleberry Hound who is a closeted writer with a wife and children who was caught in a homosexual affair and loses his family.  We get to see a bit of Auggie Doggie as a script boy who is being helped by Snagglepuss.  And Squiddley Diddly puts in an appearance.  On the human side we get Lillian Hellman after her appearances before HUAC.  

This issue isn't quite as successful.  It's a bit slow.  The antagonist is maybe a bit too over-the-top.  But it's still a great read.  The issues of art vs. politics is still incredibly timely.  Probably moreso now than it's been in a long time.  The blending of humans and anthorpomorphs is seemless.  Between this and The Flintstones Russell has become a must read writer for me.  And the art doesn't let it down.  It would be easy for either the human or the anthros to overshadow one or the other.  But they don't.  The flashback showing Huckleberry Hound's story and downfall is incredibly moving.  

Unfortunately there's a back-up story in this one that is one-note and that note is just in the mid-point of bad and uninteresting.  I hope to not see any more of Sasquatch Detective. 

8.5/10

I really loved the focus on Huckleberry Hound here, and the anthropomorphic details in the art are fantastic; just look at their hands, they're human but the palms have the pads you'd normally see on an animal. I've seen a lot of anthropomorphic comics in my time, but that detail was new to me and I loved it.

As for the back up, yeah it was bad. I stopped reading after the pretty woman scene, and I have no intention of reading more although unfortunately she'll be back.

Incognegro Renaissance.   Written by Mat Johnson.  Art by Warren Pleece. 

Ten years later Johnson and Pleece revisit the world of Incognegro with a prequel done for Karen Berger's Dark Horse imprint.  This one takes place before Zane Pinchback has established his Incognegro pseudonym and is a brand new reporter for the New Holland Tribune, a black newspaper in Harlem.  Set in Harlem, during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, the issue finds Pinchback at a interracial party to celebrate publication of a novel about blacks in Harlem written by a white author.  Because of his extremely light complexion Pinchback is mistaken for white and when a black author is murdered at the party and the police brush it off as a suicide "because you know how those negroes can be" Pinchback takes his first steps to passing as white to try to figure out what happened.  

The original GN was a great read and I'm glad that the creators are back.  A prequel means the mystery will have to stand on its own for those familiar with the characters, as we already know the fate of at least some of them.  Still this is a very rich time period and location and there is a huge amount of history and societal issues for Johnson and Pleece to work with here.  Looking forward to more and glad that Berger is giving us this quality of work.  

8/10

Just from the first issue I'd say it is accessible.  In some ways it may be better not to know the fates of some of the characters.  The original GN just came out in a new edition, so it's available.  And it's one of those books that got some mainstream buzz when it came out so it may be available from a library or through the interlibrary lone system.  

X-Men Red #1 Written by Tom Taylor, art by Mahmud Asrar, colourist Ive Scorcina, cover by Travis Charest.

Plot: Jean Grey is back and assembles her own team of X-Men. With the support of Namor of Atlantis and T'Challa of Wakanda, Jean speaks to the United Nations in order to get her recognized as the voice of the mutant population. Of course, things don't go as planned.

Writing: The story starts off with a short scene with the full team saving a young mutant and bringing her to the team's new undersea base. The scene then shifts to two months earlier, Jean and some of her future team saving another young mutant. The flash forward seemed unnecessary to me, but I guess showing the full team in the first issue might draw some readers that want to know which direction the team is heading.
The basic premise, I like. I always like X-Men trying do actually work on their dream instead of just running after the villain of the day or hiding in Australia.

Art: The whole comic is sadly not completely illustrated by Charest, but Asrar is a good enough artist. Not much chance for really special things in this first issue, which is mostly Jean talking to people.

Overall, interesting enough with enough talent behind so I'll keep following it.

So now we have an X-Men Blue, X-Men Gold, X-Men Red and an Astonishing X-Men. Methinks one book should change its name.