It’s been many months since I last reviewed this title, but I’ve actually been reading it every month, following the big event Secret Invasion. But before that event officially started, we get the end of The Trust story arc which managed to elevate the Hood as a leader among the criminal community. He later on played a small part in the invasion, but I am sure he’ll have even more to do in the Dark Reign era.

Issue 38 was a nice story focusing on Cage and Jones, and it was even drawn by Alias original artist Michael Gaydos. As a fan of the Alias comic series I enjoyed this issue, it was very emotional and it just felt like the old series. But I don’t know how much an Avengers fan liked this issue.

Next is an issue focusing on Echo, who was created by David Mack so it made sense that he would draw this issue as well. As a huge fan of Mack I always enjoy his art, but I didn’t read his Daredevil issues where she was introduced and I never really connected with her in NA. Still, there was something for me in this issue as well.

Issue 40 is the official start of the Secret Invasion tie-ins. I actually enjoyed these issues more than the main series. Bendis has been planning this event since he started writing the Avengers, so he put a lot of clues throughout his run. These issues often go back to some of those stories and reveal what really happened or what happened behind the curtains.

But they also check on the Avengers in the present, which to me wasn’t as interesting since we already see them in the main series. One of the best revelations is about the Skrull Queen taking over as Spider-Woman, who has been playing many different groups (Avengers, Hydra, Nick Fury…)

One issue explores what happened during House of M, when the Skrulls didn’t have their memories altered. Frankly that issue wasn’t as interesting, because it didn’t really reveal much about that story. It’s not like there were little mysteries during that story that I couldn’t figure out.

My favorite issue was the one about the Skrulls using Richards’s clone to find a way to disguise themselves as humans. That was an interesting story with a surprise beginning. The problem is that we never actually learn how Richards did it, not even a throwaway sci-fi explanation.

The art was divided by Jim Cheung and Billy Tan. I love Cheung’s art, so I was very happy to see his artwork. It’s too bad that he can’t work faster, I can almost identify the Skrulls’ look with his style. Billy Tan is less interesting to me, his style is reminiscent of Image, which I like enough, but it’s not very distinctive.

The most recent issue (47) is another issue focusing on Cage and Jones. Gaydos is back for a flashback story about the first time Cage and Jones met, which was a treat for me. In the present, they have to deal with Skrull-Jarvis kidnapping their baby. Actually they’re not dealing with it yet, which is another big problem with this event. It looked like their baby was going to play a big role in the invasion, instead nothing happened until he was kidnapped at the end.

Overall I enjoyed most of these issues, I was definitely more interested in these tie-ins than the main series.

If I were forced to name my favorite comics series/author I would probably say Kabuki by David Mack. So when I learned about Mack’s first children’s book I thought it would be a perfect book for me and my children to enjoy.

I’ve recently read some children’s books to my son, who is now 2, so I might be able to understand a little about what a child might like, or at least my child.

The drawings are very simple and focused, there is not much clutter or complicated background that might be more distracting to a child. Each creature in this story has its own page, so you won’t see more than one Shy Creature in one page.

The creatures Mack chose are all very famous and symbolic, with the exception of Pushmi-Pullyu. All the others have a very distinct shape and name that children can easily memorize and recognize.

Mack also inserts a worm inside an apple in each page, without referring to it in the text. This might seem a small detail, but I noticed that my son likes to pay attention to these small repetitive details. In Goodnight Moon he loved looking for the little mouse in each page, and it was always in a different position doing something different.

I haven’t read this book to my son yet, he’s in a strange phase right now, but I hope he will like. If not, I hope my daughter will like it once she’s older. Nevertheless, I think this is a good book.

This is the latest Kabuki volume, and it stars Scarab, one of the other Noh agents. This story spans many years in Scarab’s life, most of them told in flashback.

We see Scarab at the time of Metamorphosis, while inside the Control Corps trying to get to Kabuki. We see her a few days before that, spending time with Tiger Lily. We see her first assignment as Scarab. And we see her before she became Scarab, her life as Keiko with her friend Seiko and especially when she met Yukio.

This last part of her life really reminded me of True Romance, which I watched just recently. As that movie, this story is about their love at first sight, and their problems with drug related crimes.

We also see how she eventually becomes an agent, but best of all we see her last mission. And what a twist!! It tells the events in Metamorphosis from Scarab’s point of view, and even if you read Metamorphosis already, it still contains a few surprises. It not only answers a question from Metamorphosis, it also poses a question answered in Metamorphosis.

I really love this story, it has a finality to its main story that was very very surprising. The emotions are also very high thoughtout the course of the whole series. Again, it really reminded me of True Romance. I wonder if Mack was inspired by it.

The art is by Rick Mays, and I couldn’t be happier. He has a very clear style, which reminds a little bit of a classic manga style (in fact he imitated that style in the Kabuki cartoon sequences). His storytelling skills are also excellent, his action scenes flow very easily. One thing that bugs me a little is that his faces are all the same. I could hardly distinguish Tiger Lily from Scarab without their masks. But it doesn’t bother me too much.

Even thogh it doesn’t star Kabuki and it’s not drawn by Mack, this volume is one of my favorites of the series. I can’t wait for future stories starring the other Noh agents.

Metamorphosis is a continuation of both the story and the art development from Skin Deep. Skin Deep was shorter and more focused on one theme, Kabuki’s imprisonment and Akemi’s notes. Vol 5 is much broader, in length, in themes, in art styles.

The overall story sees Kabuki’s attempts to escape with the help of Akemi. Towards the end of the book the Noh enter the facility, as we saw at the beginning of Skin Deep, and we finally learn Kabuki’s fate.

Underneath this plot, Mack inserts many themes: most prominent are the sessions with the psychiatrist, who tries to get inside Kabuki’s head. At first she manages to get her attention, and it almost seems like Kabuki might give in to her. However Akemi’s arrival changes things, and her own story with her psychiatrist seems to inspire Kabuki and change her strategy with her doc. The way Akemi manages to overcome her doc was awesome, playing the doc’s own tricks and making her an inmate. Just great!

Kabuki’s character is a veiled version of Mack’s persona, and to me the closest similarity is their level of understanding of the 6-7 area of knowledge: math, physics, psychology etc… (don’t have the book in front of me now). Both Kabuki and Mack are prolific in these disparate areas: the doc explains that Kabuki’s mind works like that. Mack also shows his many interests in the course of this book, explaining physics theories, or math equations, or many other topics. These are not necessary for the understanding of the plot, in fact they can be skipped altogether. However they are interesting, and they do explain the motivations of the characters.

Mack’s art style is also very disparate, and he tries many neat experiments in this book. How can I not mention the double page fight between Akemi and Siamese, designed as a board game where each step sees a development of the fight (”Akemi kicks Siamese down, go 2 forward”). He also mixes color with black & white panels, his figures vary from expressionistic to photo realistic.

Don’t be alarmed though, if you think this stuff seems too brainy or not for you, you also get the espionage/crime story, and what a great story. You’ll get to the end of the book and wonder: who was that? What is going to happen now? What is she gonna do?

All these questions will be answered in future volumes.

As I was saying, as soon as I finish reading a Kabuki volume I am compelled to pick up the next one and at least flip through it if not start reading at once. So here I am, with the next volume in my reviews of Kabuki.

Skin Deep is a short volume, but this is where Mack’s painted creativity really shines. We saw colors in vol 2, but there were more of a tease. This is the real thing.

Mack uses various drawing techniques, from painted to black and white to collage etc… Each technique is perfectly chosen to suit the story, this is not just random craziness (although some say David Mack IS crazy, a crazy genius).

The story takes place in a place similar to a mental institute, where all inmates are secret government agents turned rogue. Control Corps is another secret agency whose purpose is to rehabilitate these rogue agents and reprogram them for new assignments.

Kabuki is here after what she did to the Noh, but it doesn’t really matter. You don’t need to know what happened before, this story takes place in a prison, and tells the hardships Kabuki goes through in her solitary cell. Someone is slipping secret messages written on toilet paper, she claims to be called Akemi, another inmate. But is she real?

We are immersed into Kabuki’s mind, and can almost feel what she feels. This story is an intimate character study, and the art and words really help with the “full immersion”.

Since Mack draws everything you see on the page, including colors and letters, he can fully integrate captions and balloons into his images. Some of his letters are free flowing on the page, going around the page in circles or strange lines. This just makes it even more appealing to me.

I think this volime is the best one if you just want to try out Kabuki. It is short, you don’t need to know what happened before, and it shows David’s fully developed art. Give this one a try if you are on the fence.

This third volume of Kabuki is a little different in that David Mack only drew parts of it, and it doesn’t star Kabuki. It instead features the other Noh agents colleagues of Kabuki.

The story is still a continuation of the overall arc: the Noh agents are trying to track down Kabuki after she disappeared at the end of Circle of Blood. Each agent is sent to find clues, and little by little they piece the puzzle together.

Each agent’s story is drawn by a different artist, and they all look very good. My favorite is Rick Mays who draws Tiger Lily and Scarab’s stories. These two characters are also the most developed, and we see part of their past lives and their current private lives.

We are hinted at the other agents past, but for the most part we just see them kick ass in great action scenes. Mack has a history for each of them, and one day he will publish all their stories in their own series. Scarab’s series is already out, but I will get to that in the next few weeks.

The art collaboration is incredible, especially once you know that Mack and his friends drew this volume while they were on convention tours, in hotel rooms or on buses, and their collaboration process is unique: one could draw the layouts, one could draw one panel, one the others, one would ink this panel and the next… just a true collaboration.

This could be seen as a bridge between Circle of Blood and Skin Deep, the next volume of Kabuki, but it is also a great way to tease us for the Agents of the Noh series in the future.

This volume reprints the two Kabuki color specials. This is the first time we see David Mack’s color work, and it’s clear that Mack is an illustrator in his heart. Each page is a beautiful painting, full of emotions. The first story is basically a retelling of the last few pages of Circle of Blood, with more point of view from Kabuki’s mind.

The second story tells us what Kabuki is feeling soon after vol 1, all her emotions, what her subconscious feels, and even her link to her mother’s spirit. This is my favorite story, it is the true companion epilogue to Circle of Blood, really completing Kabuki’s story and  bringing her back to the beginning, when she died the first time.

This is really a poetic story, and the images are a perfect complement for this amazing journey of Kabuki’s soul. Even though this is just a tease for Mack’s fully developed art, it is already astonishing to the eye.

At first I planned to re-read a volume every few days or weeks, but after finishing each volume I can’t help getting the next one and read it. This is just a great comic.

Kabuki by David Mack is probably my favorite comic series. This is unlike anything else in the market, so I will review each volume separately.

The first volume is in black and white, and it tells the beginning of Kabuki’s tale. Kabuki is an agent of the Noh, a secret agency of the Japanese government whose job is to keep the balance between the criminal organizations and politicians. We are introduced to her current job and her history, in particular her spiritual relationship with her mother and her father.We go through flashbacks of her childhood, her training to become a Noh.

But there is also the epionage/crime story involving the General, his son Kai and Dove. All three are trying to eliminate each other in order to dominate the Japanese government. All three are also connected to Kabuki personally, and we find out how.

Mack’s art is very well thought out, each page could be a single piece of art, but it is also part of the storytelling. It is not his fully developed illustration/collage etc.. style, but it fits the story at hand.

What I love about this book is that there are so many levels to the story, it is impossible to get it all in just one reading. There are many metaphores, and many hidden meaning behind those words and images. The afterword does an excellent job at trying to tackle a small fraction of these, but there are so many others that I haven’t even a clue about at the moment, and I’ve read this many times already.

On the other hand, the straght forward story is as compelling as its metaphores, so even if you don’t get all the references or clues, this is still a great story. A very personal story, with plenty of action and intrigue. This book has it all, I truly believe anyone would get something out of it. If you are a comic fan, you have to get this. If you are not a comic fan, you have to get this!!