Comics this week

Artifacts #22- You know something; I am getting tired of telling people how good an artist Stjepan Sejic is. From now on, even if I don't say anything, just assume that his work is great. Writer Ron Marz has put together a nice mysterious supernatural detective story in this issue but the main star of the issue (and the series as a whole) is still the gorgeous art by Sejic. I hope Top Cow got this guy on a long-term contract because if I’m from Marvel or DC, I would be looking at his work and wondering how great he would be at a higher profile title! 

Justice League Dark #13- After the #0 issue, you just knew Nick Necro would show up. He did as expected but writer Jeff Lemire still manages to spring a few surprises into the issue. This is the most action-packed issue of the series for quite a while and the chase between the House of Secrets and House of Mystery is the main highlight. Yes, there’s a chase between houses! I’m still not convinced it’s a good idea to have John Constantine’s former mentor and Zatanna’s former lover being the main villain of the team but there’s enough crazy magic and spells in this issue to make me wonder if I’m wrong about that. This is quite an entertaining issue to say the least.

I, Vampire #13- After #12, the problem facing writer Joshua Hale Fialkov is that main character, Andrew Bennett, is now the "Big Bad" while the main bad guy of the series, Mary, is now a powerless human. So what does he do? He took the ball and ran with it! A masterful pivot by Joshua Hale Fialkov now has Andrew and Mary switching roles, and with Mary less than happy about being the great hero. The art of Andrea Sorrentino has been the main selling point of the series so far but in this issue, the story takes centre-stage and Mary, Queen of Blood may be a better protagonist than Andrew Bennett ever was. She was queen of the vampires, she almost dominated the world, and now she’s a human taking on her former lover who is now a vampire out to bring a new breed of evil vampire into the world. To say she’s a replacement for Bennett is an understatement, she has the potential to be much more than that.