Comics Kingdom Comic Reviews

Almost as late as FC #6: Paul reads books from 12/10

2008-12-12T14:17:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been almost five months since anyone's posted on here and that is ridiculous. So here goes:

I only read six books this week. In alphabetical order:

Amazing Spider-Man #580 was a nice little done-in-one by Roger Stern and Lee Weeks, two vets of the eighties and nineties. And that's how it reads. It's Okay but does little to further any larger story and, coming after a great two issues by Mark Waid and Marcos Martin, it left me wanting.

Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1 and 2 are nice short stories that shoot off from the current Astonishing storyline and offer brief glimpses into "What If...?" stories, all done by Warren Ellis with four A-list illustrators. And they are Good. Completists, or those looking for really pretty pictures, should check them out. For casual fans, though, they are a bit pricey at $4 for 16 pages of story. Granted, you get Clayton Crain, Kaare Andrews, Alan Davis, and Adi Granov. It helps that Ellis is in top form.

Captain Britain and MI13 #8 is an odd book. While the first arc on this book was a tie-in to Marvel's Secret Invasion, the second arc has yet to really gel into something. I'm cautiously optimistic about this book, and it stands as an Okay book in it's own right, but there's not much "there" there.

DMZ #37 is the start of a new arc, this time with parralels to Nazi Gold/Sadaam's Palaces. I keep think DMZ is going to start to decline soon, that writer Brian Wood cannot push his "Iraq War in New York" metaphor any further, but between the last full arc (Blood in the Game) and the one starting here, it's still a Very Good book.

Final Crisis #5 came out this week, along with word that #6 would be delayed until January 14, 2009. For those keeping score, issue 1 came out May 28th, 2008. It's actually Very Good, too. Worth the wait? I don't know, but definitely worth $4. The art is a bit uneven (what with three pencillers on this issue, eah with a different style), but it's good fun. Morrison is gleefully unpackaging all of the Kirby toys from the 70's with his nods not only to the Fourth World books, but Kamandi, Anthro, and heavy references to the original OMAC (with a pseudo-people factory and faceless global security agents). Plus it has the Seven Soldiers own Frankenstein riding a motorcycle and quoting Milton. So there's that.

Wolverine Flies to a Spider is another one of these Wolverine one-shots that should really just be called an anthology series by now. I'm a pretty big fan of Wolverine, and I like the kick ass and take names version seen here over, say, Origins, but what I don't like is this pervasive notion that Wolverine can't just kill people, he has to right a wrong by killing people. This issue is particularly hard to swallow. If I read it correctly, he reads in the Daily Bugle (a New York paper) about a little girl killed a couple years ago and travels to the American southwest to kill everyone involved in her death. It would have read better as "Wolverine up and heads to Nevada and kills a motorcycle gang", though, because then there would not be the logical ramifications (and just bear with me). Wolverine has no link to the dead girl. While it is a tragedy, he does not race around avenging other girls who are killed, though; he hasn't off'd the Marvel equivalent of Kasey Anthony yet. So why her? And why is she on the front page of the Bugle? In big letters? Still an Okay issue (and far better than last year's holiday offering), but more and more these one-shots feel tired.

Joss Whedon's Superhero Musical Extravaganza Trailer

2008-07-26T10:24:00.002-04:00

http://drhorrible.com/index.html

Go check it out and see what went horribly wrong with Dougie.

Then click on the Master Plan button on the Home Page or on the link below to read what it's all about!

http://drhorrible.com/plan.html

My thanks to Marissa Salas for cluing me in to Dr. Horrible.

Youngblood #4 and others

2008-07-24T09:24:00.003-04:00

According to the Theory of Relativity, as an object approaches the speed of light (c), the amount of energy required to continue it's acceleration (e) increases because the mass of the object increases (m), so that you cannot reach the speed of light because the mass increases roughly to infinity meaning no amount of energy could accelerate it. And so it is with comics: just as I begin to catch up on my reading, an enormous week like this hits and I'm back to square 1.

Liberty Comics #1(?) is really really good. It's an anthology of short pieces that supports the CBLDF and it costs $4. I think I'm the only person that actually was excited. And for your $4, you get a smattering of decent little stories and one- and two-page bits. Personally, it's all worth it for two features: First, there is a six or so page Criminal short story, and I WILL buy anything by Ed Brubaker, especially with Sean Phillips art. Second, there is a five page Dracula story by Mark Millar and John Paul Leon that is just great. It's Dracula as played by your 75 year old grandfather. Tell Sheldon to order you one. It's for a good cause and totally worth the money.

New Avengers #43 is pretty much what is to be expected. Captain America is really a Skrull (yawn). They reveal some plot points that no one really needed explained to them. What struck me was that they did this big reveal of "Captain America was stranded in a spaceship" in Secret Invasion #1 but they won't follow that up in the main title, but rather jettison it in one of the ancillary books. So one of the main plot points of the series is not concluded in the series. That's just sloppy, Bendis.

War Heroes #1 was decent. It's always odd to see Tony Harris inked by someone new. On Ex Machina they replaced the excellent Tom Feister with Jim Clarke, who continues to make Tony Harris's pencils look gorgeous. Here, though, we get Cliff Rathburn, who imposes his own artistic tendancies onto Harris. It's not that its bad, but if you are fmiliar with Harris's art it's a bit of a letdown. The story, by the way, is a bit slow right now, but I'm sure the next issue will be filled with violence because, come on, it's Mark Millar.

Finally, Youngblood #4. To start, I really like that, even without direct involvement from Rob Liefeld (except covers and those look like they are mix-and-matched bits of old art photoshopped together) this book still ships 3 months late. Anyway, this book is actually pretty good. This issue was a bit weak (there's a "big" reveal about a conspiracy that you won't see coming because you aren't brain dead and therefore were expecting something relevent or at least interesting) but the first three issues were pretty good and its got a strong setup that may help it go pretty far before it turns terrible. The art is very good in the Batman Adventures vein and the story is what you expect from Joe Casey: competent with above-average moments. It's a shame Liefeld didn't let someone with a bit more imagination work on this because some big names (Alan Moore, Kurt Busiek, Mark Millar, Jeph Loeb, Robert Kirkman, even Fabian Nicieza did a pretty good job) have been very successful with Youngblood in the past.

In closing, this week Youngblood was actually a hells of a lot better than New Avengers. Just something to think about.

Driana's recs to Baltimore Sun Read Street

2008-07-23T11:15:00.001-04:00

Dear Nancy Johnson:

Just to clarify, our name is Comics Kingdom not Comic Book Kingdom (that is a store that use to be on Hartford Road, I think, and is no longer in business)

My recommendations for you to showcase in Read Street are gleaned from among my favorites and include the Superhero genre, non-superhero, non-fiction, local artist unique, all ages and are as follows:

Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith - Superhero
This was my gateway book in to comics from being an avid reader of novels. To this day I still recommend this book as a true integration of the comic art form where the story is told through and interwoven use of words and drawings - you cannot just read or just look at the art to get the full woof and weave of the tale. This is also the story of how Wolverine from the X-Men became Wolverine, so people will potentially recognize the main character from the popular movie.

Watchmen TP by Alan Moore - Superhero
(trade paperback - a collection of comics that cover a story arc or in this case the complete
story of a comic that originally came out periodically)
- Watchmen is the comic book that basically matured the superhero genre by making the superheroes gritty, with real-life problems and personalities. We see the fruition of this movement in movies like Batman Returns with a very dark Dark Knight as well as across comics in general. Since the majority of people who by comics are men between the ages of 18 and 60 this growing up was inevitable to the survival of comics.

Fables vol. 1 TP by Bill Willingham - not Superhero
A very modern take on the world of fairytales. The creatures and people of our childhood tales have been forced to leave their Homeland to seek refuge in our world. The non-human looking "fables" have to live sequestered on a place called the Farm. This is not a book for kids.

True Story Swear to God by Tom Beland -- Non-Fiction
A autobiographical romance about a soon to be comic book creator who meets a lovely Puerto Rican woman in Disney and embarks on a long distance relationship with her that turns his life upside down. This book is sweet and funny as Tom Beland looks honestly at his own human foibles and examines Love from a male perspective. The art is deceptively simple with an amazing amount of facial expression captured with a few inked lines.

Birth by Michael Bracco (and it's sequel Novo) -- Local Artist
Michael Bracco is a local comic book creator who just had his first book, Birth, picked up by Diamond Comic Distributors - the comic distributor for the United States. Birth is an example of a comic told with little or no text and Mr. Bracco has created a visual feast that hits hard at the human core through his uniquely drawn non-human characters. It made me cry. Novo is the powerful next step in this ongoing tale. These are also examples of a Graphic Novel as opposed to a trade paperback. These books are also example of the unique storytelling that is possible only through the comic genre.

Herobear by Mike Kunkle - All Ages
This is a kids book (or all ages book as we call them) that adults will definitely enjoy. Beautifully rendered so that you often see the blue pencil line of the original sketch. The story is sweet without being saccharine about a boy who inherits his grandfather's broken pocket watch and stuffed bear which are more than they seem. The story really captures the awkwardness and magic of childhood. A must read for families.

The strength and interest in comics continues to be stable among our adult readers. Superheroes are not being left behind because the story lines have gotten complex and compelling as human issues are explored through the Superhero. The "Civil War" into "Secret Invasion" story line that runs through many main Marvel titles right now is an example of that relevancy. Superheroes were forced to unmask and register/be conscripted or be hunted down and incarcerated in Civil War. Secret Invasion reveals the replacement of superheroes and key people in power positions by shape shifting aliens. Both story lines deal with terrorism and how far can the government go to keep people safe. The exposure through excellent movies has definitely brought comics back into the mainstream light. Free Comic Book Day, an industry wide event that allows stores to purchase specific comics from each publisher at a small cost to give away free on a specific Spring day each year, also helps expose current and new readers to the genre.

Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks have definitely gained in popularity in our store in the last 5 years. Comic book fans love the collection, which can read more fluidly than the monthly. The Graphic Novel has become more mainstream and accepted as the wonderful storytelling tool that it is. Maus/The Two Towers, the host of comics after 9-11, Persepolis, etc. show that comics can be historically relevant and capture something human that words alone cannot.

In our store we make an effort to have a strong, well-lit All Ages section that feels accessible to kids and parents exploring comics. And we have had success in growing this section and helping to create the next generation of comic readers. Have we been successful enough? Hard to say. We love it when we get older adults coming in the store looking for the Classics Illustrated comics that they learned to read on. We work enthusiastically with teachers and schools to get comics in the hands of kids to encourage reading, donating hundreds of comics each year. Will those kids be back as adults? I certainly hope so. Comics offer a beautiful way of telling Story that is now richly being explored by creative minds, it would be a real loss to see it fade.

Please feel free to call me on my cell if you have any further questions: 443-756-7073

Driana Pearlman
co-owner with her husband, Sheldon, of Comics Kingdom
Comics Kingdom
3998-A Roland Avenue
Baltimore, Md. 21211
410-889-6005
www. AmazingSpiral.com
In a message dated 7/7/2008 1:40:22 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, nancy.johnston@baltsun.com writes:
Hi, my name is Nancy Johnston, and I write for The Baltimore Sun's book blog, Read Street. We're focusing on comic books this week, and I was hoping to get a few recommendations from your store that I can showcase this week.

Also, I was hoping to get some feedback about the strength of interest in comic books and graphic novels in Baltimore. Are they more popular than ever, or are people leaving their super heroes behind? Any trends that you've noticed?

I appreciate any information you can share. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Nancy Johnston
baltimoresun.com/readstreet

BUY ZOT!

2008-07-22T08:12:00.002-04:00

Everyone go buy Zot! right now. Seriously.

Marvel 1985 #3 continues Mark Millar's enjoyable, nostalgic look at the Marvel Universe in 1985. If the payoff is half-way decent (not like Civil War, Chosen, Wanted, Ultimates 2, later Authority...that's not promising) it may make its way to an excellent series. Surprisingly, I like the art. I'm not the biggest fan of Tommy Lee Edwards (he did the worst comic ever: Speeding Bullets), but it seems appropriate for some reason.

Mighty Avengers #16 is really well done. I had lowered expectations for it (given the last couple issues like this), but it turns out really well. Plus, Elektra is a bad ass in it AND it doesn't deliberately undo anything done by Bendis or other creators (it takes place a little after Enemy of the State, or between pages, and just before the New Avengers rescue Echo, near as I can tell).

Ultimate Fantastic Four #56 was awful: terrible art and the plot just didn't make sense. Sure, you can follow it, but it's just dumb. I don't know why I do this to myself.

X-Factor #33 is fine. It seems a stretch to call it a Secret Invasion tie-in, though, because the Skrulls are just tacked on to sell more copies and cross it over with She-Hulk. It could have been any bad guy, but Skrulls are "cool" (as in "tired and a bit annoying"), so they used them.

X-Force #5 is just kinda bat#$%^ insane. So, let's talk about X-Men.
For the first time in 15 years, I'm reading all the big X-Men books (Uncanny, Legacy, X-Force, X-Factor, Young, Astonishing, Cable). This is due to the surprisingly competent "Messiah CompleX" crossover. That crossover seemed to do a few things: first, it (along with Brubaker's previous Uncanny arcs) removed pretty much all of the terrible things that happened to the X-Men in the 90s. It solved the Bishop problem, it killed Xavier AND Cable, it turned Cyclops back into a strong authority figure, took out Sinister, et cetra. It also allowed the creative teams room to stretch by breaking down the tight continuity of the books. No longer did every book with an X have to start out at Xavier mansion: there was freedom.
Now, 6 months later, what do we have? Well, Xavier didn't die, and didn't stay brain-dead for long, Sinister may or may not be back as a chromosome, Cable's back. So really, it put Cyclops in the seat as leader (which had already happened during House of M, and was going pretty well in Astonishing) and it made Bishop a crazy SOB. But, it still shedded some terrible 90s continuity threads.
And then, there's X-Force, which seems to single-handedly be attempting to revive as many god-awful 90s characters as is possible. Archangel? Bastion? Magnus? Donald Pierce (technically Young X-Men, but he was name-checked, so he's complicit)? I guess they really just wanted to clear up all the left over continuity from "X-Cutioner's Song", but anything after that was fair game. And the art careens wildly from pretty-computer-generated pictures to god-awful renderings that make the Baby Jesus cry. It's sloppy, disorganized, and far too in love with itself to be worth anyone's time. Except mine, apparently. I mean, it's still way better than Ultimate FF, and I've been buying that for over four years now.

The pencil reappears. Comics and the Dark Knight.

2008-07-21T17:09:00.002-04:00

Firstly, the Dark Knight is awesome. It may very well be the best comic book movie ever made, but it is not without it's faults. The most glaring problem with the movie is that it is a half hour too long. It drags in spots and the constant climaxes diminish the effect of the movie's actual climax. Seriously, while the part in Hong Kong is cool the whole Chinese conglomerate subplot was a plot device given too much screen time. Aside from that little gripe everything else is spot on. Heath Ledger is terrifying and everyone else showed up with their a game in tow. the a stands for acting. Oh, other thing: how are they going to top this one? My vote, as always, is for Bat-Mite. And now, onto the comics.

Mighty Avengers #16 - This one was way better than the last SI tie ins in Mighty. Probably because the whole story could not be summed up in three pages like the Pym/Sentry issues. That's about it. Solid return to form for the Bendis. Oh, and I finally read some of the recent issues of Powers and they were solid as ever.

Dreamwar #4 - It's the one where everyone, pretty much, realizes that whole thing is a giant misunderstanding and rally together to fight a common foe that appears at the end of the issue. Pretty meh stuff all things told.

Amazing Spider-Man #566 - Ah, the amazing adequacy of it all. Nothing wrong with it, but at the same time it won't be a part of the essential Spidey cannon. Middle of the road, but you won't feel cheated.

Incredible Hercules # 119 - As good as ever. Although the swaps and switches may confuse some...that's kind of the point with the SI thing. And everything is still pretty clear regardless so...yup. Moving on.

X-Factor # 33 - Overall it's a decent return to the X-Factor of old...more or less. While the new status quo means they can move past the less than stellar previous arc it's just that you go right into the crossover that nobody demanded with She-Hulk. I'll reserve judgment on the cross over, but it just makes me wonder is all.

1985 #3 - It was pretty good. I'm liking where the book is going, but at the same time I hope that this new super villain isn't named Clyde Wyncham. It would explain some things, but on the other hand...I don't know.

Final Crisis Rogues' Revenge #1 - It's a decent start. And who wouldn't enjoy a DC version of the Wild Bunch with a group of costumed super criminals. Although, it should have started a little while earlier what with Barry being back and all. But, on the same side there's the whole Mirror Master business in FC #1, so it would make sense for it to come out now all things considered.

Joker's Asylum: Poison Ivy - Better than that god awful, and totally off character, Joker one, but not up to the higher quality of the Jason Aaron Penguin one. And that's in every respect including art and all that.

That's about it.

I finally read Hulk #4: Paul checks in

2008-07-14T12:40:00.002-04:00

What with parents and booze and yard projects, I've read roughly 15 comics in the past three weeks. I have a stack still of 30 more. So, yeah. This is getting to be like work.

Booster Gold 1,000,000 is AWESOME! Believe the hype! Woo! In truth, it's just really good. A bit sappy at times, but everything turns out pretty well. Plus, someone (a mysterious figure, no less) actually says "Bwa-hahahahaha", which is great. Not looking forward to the Chuck Dixon fill-ins, but this book is just...the bees knees.

Captain Britain and MI13 #3 is great.

Detective Comics #846 is boring. I assume it'll go somewhere, but it's just bland and unappealingly drawn. You know what, I take it back: I'm not sure it'll go anywhere. And if freakin' Trinity is going to ruin Paul Dini's "Riddler P.I." I'm gonna be pissed.

Speaking of which, I just read Trinity #4-6 and, man, what a pile. I mean, when issue 2 is a high point...I just don't know. You know, Alan Moore, through sheer force of will, could write an awesome comic that examined mysticism and the tarot using superhero archetypes (see "Voodoo" or "Promethia"). But it has become abundantly clear that Kurt Busiek does NOT worship a snake god and pretty much learned everything he knows about magic from reading Promethia and Voodoo. And the worst part? I'm probably going to read this whole stupid thing.

Secret Invasion #4 should have been issue 2. If issues 2 and 3 did not exist, no one would be complaining about this book. Or, less people, anyway. It gives me hope.

Then, there's Ultimare Origins #2. Yikes! Ultimate Quasar and Ultimate Watcher and all sorts of terrible Ultimate nonsense. It's just not even ironically funny anymore, just bad. It also illustrates my problem with Ultimate books of late: different writers are picking and choosing the Ultimate continuity, a continuity that has been around for only ten years. It took Marvel well into the 80s to start deliberately ignoring continuity. But I still hold out hope. Maybe it'll become hilariously bad again (I mean, come on, "accidently" creating mutants? Ha!).

Man, Bendis is ******** up.

2008-07-11T20:55:00.003-04:00

Keep in mind that I did not buy Powers because I read it in trade. I'm sure it was up to that book's normal level of quality. But, yup, kind of a weak showing from that lovable Black Francis/Bob Hoskins look-a-like that writes half of Marvel's books and is hated on the internet, yet loved when it comes to sales (Why it almost seems like people use the anonymoty of the internet to make ridiculous claims that they themselves don't even believe to be true. Curious?) Anyway, obvious points and desperate bids for humor and reflection aside onto the books.

Secret Invasion #4 - It really was better than three. Pretty much same formula as the last few. A little chatting, Skrully mind games, ten pages of punching and yelling and then someone shows up at the end to change the tide next issue...maybe? It's probably because issue 1 was so good, but damn all of this rising action. (And on a side note, the thing I've noticed this summer is that seems to be like Crisis on Infinite Earths vs. Secret Wars all over again, even though they didn't come out at the same time. On the one hand you've got mainstays getting killed, worlds collapsing and broad ideas that loosely tie into actual scientific theory like string theory. And on the other you've got a cloud of talking gas, Titania, the Wasp winning over the Lizard, the Wasp dying and the Wasp getting better, and Jehri curls in the sequel. Oh, and the Wasp making out with Magneto. Rant over)

Ultimate Origins #2- Hey, let's re-tell the origin of Cap...again. But this time he's reading about aliens while training. Oh, and Ultimate Project Pegasus. Because that's what we need. You know, because when you want to streamline a line of books the best idea is always including late silver to early bronze age concepts. Oh, Ultimate Jocasta, one day you will be a reality. But anyway, this just seems forced, unnecesary and silly. Pretty much after the whole Canadian government creating mutants in a Dept. H basement in a botched attempt to create super soldiers thing kind of soured me on this series. Oh, and Dr. Cornelius looks pretty good for 103 in Ultimate X-men Vol. 2 I guess. Seriously, am I the only person reading these things anymore.

Final Crisis Requiem - Pretty decent for a tie in. Touching and violent all at once and Mahnke. Glorious Mahnke. Oh, and it had enough of the what are they called...words, to justify the four buck price tag...unlike certain summer event books that shall remain nameless. I'm giving it the thumb up.

Joker's Asylum: Penguin - This is a dramatic improvement over last week's offering...which I would have told you not to buy if I wasn't at a family reunion. But yup, Aaron writes a solid one and Pearson's art is reminiscent of a young Chris Bacchalo. I dig Chris Bacchalo. Just clearing up the confusion. Anyway, solid read and stays way truer to the character than the Joker one from last week.

Young Liars #5 - This comic will sodomize your brain and make your soul cry tears of blood. Seriously, this is possibly the most abhorrent comic book I've read since...last week's issue of The Boys. Now, usually that sort of disturbing and lurid for the sake of it thing is right up my alley. I mean Preacher is one of if not my favorite on going of all time, but the difference with Preacher was that it was grounded with characters that you fell in love with, social commentary , wit and the over top violence and adult situations. Problem is that they seem to be relying solely on shock to get the numbers. But, I am kind of curious to see where this is going. God, I'm a hypocrite.

Captain Britain & MI 13 #3 - I really think Matt covered all of this. Go, buy this. Now. It's awesome.

Guadians of the Galaxy #3 - It's a fun read. And you can get into if you didn't read any of the Annihilation books. I didn't. So, there you go.

Last Defenders #5 - At this point does it even matter. You're either with it or not. I do dig the whole Bizzarro Defenders being the team that was always meant to be and all angle. And I'm always down for some Son of Satan. Mainly because of Ultimate Son of Satan, but I digress. It's a decent mini all things considered.

Captain America White #0 - This is seriously the best thing that Jeph Loeb has done in the past few years. It may be the fond memories of past Sale/ Loeb collaborations (probably is), but this was the superior retelling of the Cap origin story of the week. Good stuff.

Amazing Spider-Man #565 - Apparently all it took to make Spider-Man fun again was to ignore the rest of the Marvel Universe and just let him do his thing. And get rid of JMS. Although a customer brought up an interesting point, was it Loeb or editorial that was mucking up the works for the past few years? I mean the first couple JMS arcs were pretty good. Anyway, this new arc with girl Kraven is alright. Not life changing not god awful. Middle of the road stuff. I'm sure the apathy is leaping off the page right now.

Invincible Iron Man #3 - Oh, that Matt Fraction spins a lovely yarn. Great stuff all over, and he also teaches a class on how you capitalize on the movie. Buy this for serious.

Booster Gold #1,000,000 - It's as continuity heavy and treacly as ever. Seriously, it's a cute book with time travel. I personally like time travel and elseworlds stories so I like the book. And I've always liked Booster, and I always preferred semi-competent Booster so there you go. It's like a slightly more masculine Hellcat meets Sliders with the same number of hugs and less use of the word golly.

Young X-Men #4 - Well, *SPOILER ALERT* Cyclops is not a Skrull, because that would have made so much sense in this context, but well, it's just stupid, and obvious. Moreover, this book is just so...underwhelming. And, for god's sake can we all stop saying cuzin'. God, this book makes my brain hurt. And, I mean you have this big twist in at the end of the first issue, that, while totally illogical and out of the blue was at the least bit interesting. Instead, you go for the obvious twist in this issue that negates the initial draw of the book.

Action Comics # ??? - I left this in the store, but it was pretty solid. And yes, Supergirl is terrifying as rendered. I think Matt already hit the majority of the bases. Solid Johns writing and Gary Frank doing a majority of things right. Except for Supergirl, who looks like Kara Zor-Hell. (God, that was a lame joke, but I had to do it.)

Goon #26 - Oh, it's on now. After some meandering here and there between arcs this new one is off and running. There's action, humor and what else do you want? It's got action, humor the same consistent art and everything else that has made this book a critical darling. And as a critic it is my darling.

Lost Boys #3 - This is seriously made for fans of the movie with three dollars to waste on a, frankly, asinine tie in. Seriously, The Widow Johnson? Just, gah. Why do I keep doing this to myself? Oh, well, see you next week. Take it easy internet

If comics get reviewed in a forest and no one is around to hear - Matt on 6/10

2008-07-11T14:35:00.006-04:00

Hey, remember those other guys who used to post here sometimes? They seemed nice. I wonder what ever happened to them. Also, the two people who used to comment. Ah well. Comics!

۞ Okay, I've mentioned how much I'm enjoying Batman R.I.P., right? Like, in a non-ironic, non-negative way? Because I really, really am. So why is nothing even resembling that storyline showing up in this ostensible crossover with Detective #846? I'll admit that I think Hush is a monumentally stupid character, so I'm prejudiced against this from the jump, but this is ... Look, in a vacuum this would be okay. Ish. I guess. But trying to tell me that this has ANYthing to do with the clever, complicated stuff Morrison's doing over in the main book is setting the bar a bit high. Forgettable, and I'm not going to be sticking with this storyline.

۞ Batman Confidential #19 is part three of the storyline, and more of the same: a solidly entertaining flashback story from Fabian Nicieza with exquisite artwork from Kevin Maguire. They've worked together as a creative team before, and they mesh well. Fun stuff.

۞ I know, I know: I swore I was done with Booster Gold. And I hate buying things just because they're part of a crossover -- it makes me feel like a sucker. But I LOVED DC One Million back in the day, so sending this book retroactively into the crossover was reason enough for me to buy it.

The level of disappointment I feel is suitable punishment for letting myself be tricked like this. Hey, DC: it's ISSUE #1,000,000, not the YEAR 1,000,000. It's the year 85,271, as you correctly note on the cover. And if you were going to go to the trouble of matching the cover, why not include the stupid CGI title page that was on all the 1,000,000 issues as well? Seriously half-assed as a One Million tribute, and still meh as a comic on its own. Fool me once, etc.

۞ Secret Invasion #4 is better than Secret Invasion #3. Damning with faint praise? Maybe so, but it's what I've got.

۞ Invincible Iron Man #3 is fantastic. Matt Fraction's script seems carefully designed to be equally applicable to modern Marvel Universe continuity or to Iron Man movie continuity, and it's such a good Iron Man story that I found myself not caring either way. The strongest Iron Man's book has been since ... I dunno, since I was, like, 12. Nice showcase for Larocca's art, too. Much more appropriate than newuniversal.

۞ Okay, okay, a little bit more on Secret Invasion: it feels to me like Bendis is just hitting plot beats, like he just re-read Robert McKee's STORY and is following all the rules on this one. This is the middle issue, so we find out more about the Invasion plans, the heroes begin to regroup, sort of, and ... yeah, it just all completely fails to come alive for me. Oh well. Maybe next issue.

۞ Although I do have to wonder why the whole thing feels so much better in the tie-in books -- Captain Britain and MI-13 #3 is what I want from the MAIN miniseries: a plot with enough energy and momentum to carry itself past its own stupid points; characters who seem different from one another, and invested in the moment; some humor, some wit, some flair; heroic moments that feel genuinely heroic ... this is worth checking out even if you're ignoring SI altogether.

۞ Action Comics #867 does a nice job continuing the Braniac story. It's shaping up to be another nice Geoff Johns-written DCU book and the best Superman's been in a while. But... well, how to put this.... Ah, heck with it, I'll scan in the image, but let's do it in bits and pieces first. This is from the book's splash page. Can you guess what Supergirl is doing?

If you guessed "vomiting," "recovering from a brutal hangover," "smelling something awful," or "appearing in a Warren Ellis comic," you think along the same lines as me. You're also wrong; she's examining a Braniac drone and is meant to be looking frightened.

Here's another bit of the image that irritated me.

Yes, the left side is a bit deceptive as the shadow cast by her arm makes her appear even more unhealthily skinny, but even with out that ... why is Supergirl emaciated? Look at her ribs jutting out -- it makes me want to send her fifty cents a day so she can get away from Sally Struthers.

So let's put together those two images with the rest of it and see what we get...

Yep. It's Paris Hilton: Supergirl. I can't wait for my daughter to be old enough to enjoy this with me.

GET IT TOGETHER, GARY FRANK!

Where is everyone? Matt on 6/2

2008-07-07T15:54:00.002-04:00

I was out of town at a wedding! What the hell is everyone else's excuse? Anyhow, here's some belated thoughts on all things comicky for June 2nd.

۞ So there's apparently been some kind of fooferaw over Batman #678, partially because of the blatant use of the stupid "magic negro" trope, partially because some people find it incomprehensible, and mostly because it's becoming clearer and clearer that to fully understand Morrison's Batman run, one is going to have to have read (and remember!) thousands of seriously obscure Batman stories. (So far, "Batman -- The Superman of Planet X," "Robin Dies At Dawn," possibly a few issues of World's Finest, and Batman #47. Great.)

But here's the thing: I'm LOVING this. Yes, the art is atrocious (although I like it much better than I did the Kubert who started the run off). Yes, Morrison is writing in a deliberately elliptical and allusive style. But it's FUN. It's interesting. It's somewhat challenging, I suppose, but mainly in the sense that I'm honestly curious about what's going to happen next month. In other words, it's that rare comic that I enjoy in EXACTLY the same way I enjoyed Transformers off the 7-11 spinner racks when I was a kid. I don't expect everyone to agree, but, there you go.

۞ On a different end of the spectrum is Angel Revelations #2. I'm enjoying this -- Aguirre-Sacasa needs to give up on the more action-y stuff and just accept that drama is his metier -- and Adam Pollina's art is fluid and lovely. But if it disappeared from the shelves tomorrow, I don't really think I'd notice. That said, if you haven't given this a shot, check it out; it's good to reward Marvel when they actually try something interesting and different.

۞ And then there's Astonishing X-Men #25, which ... exists, I suppose. It's easy to forget that Warren Ellis wrote Excalibur for 20-odd issues back in the nineties (especially easy as Marvel hasn't ever bothered reprinting them), but ... yeah, I feel like I saw all of this back then. In those days, it was Moira MacTaggart's coffee, which was terrible. Now it's Beast's coffee, which is apparently terrific. Ellis appears to have decided that the way to humanize superheroes is by having them shill shade-grown organic beans. (Actually, Planetary starts with a coffee discussion as well, as does Ellis's novel Crooked Little Vein. Maybe I'm onto something here.)

Back then Pete Wisdom was the sardonic British character who managed to enliven and poke fun at the mutant team tropes. Now it's Emma Frost (who is not actually British, I don't think, but don't tell her last three or four writers).

It's all good enough, I guess, helped along by Simone Bianchi's van art on steroids. We'll see what Ellis does with it long term, I suppose. I know I've been finding a lot of his recent stuff, from newuniversal to Doktor Sleepless to Black Summer to even Nextwave, MUCH better when read as a chunk. It's like he's abandoned writing for the individual issues altogether.

Anyhow, blah blah blah Warren Ellis-y.

۞ Some of you might remember that I really liked Top Cow's Pilot Season: Genius, and that I encouraged everyone to vote for it in the official Top Cow Popularity Contest Of Popularness. Let's just say that I'm a little cooler to Pilot Season: Alibi, which reads like either the pilot episode of a really dull Alias/24 knockoff or like the first issue of a really mediocre Boom! Studios comic that's clearly being pitched to Hollywood.

Nothing here engages me, nothing makes me want to see where the story goes, and, really nothing here is worth wasting any more time writing about.

A Special Comment on Marvel's Preview Books, by Matt

2008-06-30T23:46:00.003-04:00

So, you know, I review these preview books all the time, right? Each week, I read through the envelope and give my pithy thoughts. Usually, these consist of "_______ was pretty good!" or "______ is on a down week, but I look forward to future issues," or "Wolverine Origins is just a terrible comic." But, see, here's the thing: who cares?

Not rhetorical: who actually cares? Once in a great while, I can do some good -- say something like, "Hey, that SKAAR book is better than it sounds," or "Holy crap, Guardians of the Galaxy is good even if you don't like Annihilation." That's a nice feeling, even if only six of you are reading this. Less frequently, I can warn you off some kind of horrid abomination, although usually it's just another issue of Wolverine Origins.

This week, though ... this week, Marvel really irritated me. Here's what we got in the preview pack, along with my incredibly terse (and always spoiler-free!) review:

Amazing Spider-Man #564 - Fine. Not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, but fine.
Avengers Invaders #3 - I find this unreadable, but those of you that are liking it will probably continue to do so.
Cable #5 - Eh. It's ... readable. Fine. Inoffensive. Wraps up the storyline adequately.
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #41 - I'm not the fan of the Marvel Adventures books that some are, but this is decent enough. Does what it sets out to do, anyhow.
Punisher War Journal #21 - My love of Matt Fraction is on frightening public display in my other posts here, and I've worked hard to sell his other awesome work (buy the THOR thing! It's TERRIFIC!) so I feel totally fine saying that this is, um, far from his best.
Squadron Supreme 2 #1 - Continues Straczynski's work accurately in tone and pacing, which means that I want nothing to do with it. But that's a personal issue more than anything else. Supreme Power fans should be very happy.

Okay, so that's five perfectly adequate comics that may or may not please existing fans of the title/character/creator, plus a first issue that's pretty much a continuation of a recently cancelled title.

Meanwhile, here's what was NOT in the preview pack:

Astonishing X-Men #25 - Because god forbid I be able to confidently recommend Warren Ellis's first issue, right?
Patsy Walker Hellcat #1 - No doubt Marvel is so confident in the built-in Hellcat audience, there's no reason to let word get out if this thing is actually good or not. Yep, all eleven Hellcat fans nationwide are just LOCKED IN TO BUY.
Secret Invasion Front Line #1 - The Front Line books have been frankly abominable for the last two big events, but they've put a new, more appealing creative team on this one ... so why not give retailers a chance to put the word out if it's better?

Look, seriously? What's the POINT of these preview packs? If it's just to give people like me a chance to read Cable a week early, well, fair enough. But it's an OPPORTUNITY, a chance for me -- and people like me around the country -- to tell our customers when there's something out there that they're not picking up. And, realistically, that's not going to be mid-storyline in Cable, Punisher War Journal, or anything else, even if those books were better than they actually are.

I dunno. Is anyone actually reading these things of mine? If so, does anyone find them helpful? Because this week's previews depressed the hell out of me, and it had nothing to do with the quality of the books involved.

Good night, and good luck.

Matt hurries through comics for 6/23

2008-06-26T21:38:00.002-04:00

So I have, like, eleven billion other things to do, most of which I'm even being paid for, so of course I'm doing this to procrastinate. But I'm going to make it quick, though! In, out, comment, done, bam!

(I also previewed a bunch of this week's Marvel books a few days ago but can't be bothered finding the link. Scroll down a bit.)

Here we go!

۞ What If This Was The Fantastic Four: A Tribute To Mike Wieringo is a review-proof book, really, because what kind of jerk would complain about paying five bucks to donate to the HERO Initiative in honor of a really terrific artist...? Okay, fine. I'll do it: this isn't a great comic. Wieringo was one of my favorite superhero artists, he brought a real sense of fun to his work, and his death really is a tragic loss for the comic book community as well as his family and loved ones ... but this isn't his strongest work by any stretch, and it's in service of a Jeff Parker story that's ... well-intentioned, anyhow. The tributes in the book are genuinely moving, and I'm glad to have bought it for charity purposes, but as a comic book, it's really only so-so.

Annnnnnnnnnnd that's me going to hell, I suppose.

۞ No Hero #0 from Avatar is an interesting book, Warren Ellis hammering his particular vision of superheroes onto a Marshall McLuhan/Timothy Leary type. Could go either way, but ... did Black Summer ever finish? I don't remember an ending, but can't see Ryp and Ellis starting something new with that still uncompleted. Yes? No? No time for questions! Onward!

۞ Oh, look, it's eleven thousand Secret Invasion crossovers! Runaways/Young Avengers is actually really strong; it captures the voices of both teams, and has some strong artwork from Spidey Loves MJ mainstay Takeshi Miyazawa. New Avengers #42 and Mighty Avengers #15 are both Bendis showing us what's REALLY been going in his books, and they're good if you're into that sort of thing.

I'm kind of tired of Bendis feeling compelled to actually show me whole entire scenes again and again, because I know something slightly new now, but whatever. It's not like I have to pay for it again each time or anythin-- wait, I do? Oh, well THAT'S annoying.

۞ My Matt Fraction love continues unabated with his work on Young Avengers Presents #6: Hawkeye. (And, seriously, the last issue of a mid-selling miniseries is suddenly written by Matt Fraction and drawn by ALAN DAVIS?!? What the hell?) The double entendre on "god, he moves so fast" alone is worth the cover price on this one. Great stuff. Make Sheldon try to reorder it for you.

۞ I'm going to be honest about this, even though I hate reviewers who say this sort of lazy crap, but I literally fell asleep during 1985 #2. Just dozed right off. Not a reflection on the book, I don't think -- I really am juggling a whole bunch of stuff right now, and it's tiring -- but ... yeah, I'm not really qualified to say. I don't like the art very much, though, so there's that.

۞ Meanwhile, over in the DC books....

You know, cutting all the DC books that I haven't been liking really makes their output seem much stronger to me. Green Lantern #32 continues to be an excellent (if somewhat unnecessary, maybe) retelling of Hal Jordan's origin -- I'm really liking this run on GL through and through. Pity about Green Lantern Corps, but I think I've already covered that.

۞ And the big one: Final Crisis #2 I loved it. Just loved it. It feels less like a stupid, continuity-heavy crossover "event" and more like one of Grant Morrison's better efforts on JLA. (Also, I didn't read Countdown or any affiliated books once I realized how terrible they were, so I couldn't care less about the continuity hiccups, which might help.) Anyhow, yeah, good, packed issue with a real sense of menace for the heroes and some characteristically great throwaway ideas from Grant Morrison. (Bullet shot through time indeed.) This one seems to be getting better with each page, unlike the whell-spinning Secret Invasion on the other side of the store. I'm optimistic.

Okay, back to real work. Bye.

I take no solace in being right all of the time.

2008-06-25T17:48:00.004-04:00

Firstly, man, Jeph Loeb is (expletive deleted) up. Just had to throw that out. Which brings me to the title of this week's post. It pertains to the identity of the red Hulk. And now they have finally made it even more obvious so I'm going to call it a win. Barring some left field red herring developments. Now, I, personally find this development to be obvious, banal and a slap in the face of years of characterization. And it may make logical sense given the Bruce Banner is a puss so he has the bottled up aggression angle vis a vis this character being a new age puss...you get the idea. Anyway, just thought I'd get that out there. As for Hulk #4 - The only redeeming parts are the first three pages. Also, I dig how they've chosen to totally get rid of the smarter WWH Hulk in favor of the classic "savage" Hulk. Sarcasm is harder on the internet sometimes. Not like my opinion matters on this one though. Oh, and McGuinness looks a tiny bit off of his game too. Which saddens me to no end. This leads to the next bit of mind scrubbing compliments of Mr. Loeb.

Ultimates 3#4 - This may have been the worst comic I've read in years. It's just silly. And it's got this whole Secret Invasion meets Ultron gimmick thing going on that is just...wow. It's all been leading up to this. Really? They're replacing everyone with robots. . It's just silly and uninspired. And what the hell does Magneto have to do with anything? Glad to see Joe Mad getting work though. Wish it was something less insipid. Like my opinion matters on this either. (begin rant) And does anyone in editorial bother to check up on what characters are where? Pyro in the Savage Land? Mastermind out of prison? And I'm PAYING TO READ THIS. That's right. This is not my job, but I can keep all of this inconsequential BS straight in my head. Is it that hard? Apparently so. (end rant)

Final Crisis #2 - Um, right. I'm so conflicted on this book. I guess my only real qualm with it is that I'm looking for the book to really gel into a cohesive thought. I mean it's not as all encompassing as Infinite Crisis, but it still seems a tad scattered to me. That's my only real qualm with the book. I'm also curious to see how the events within transition into the DCU proper. What with the shocking dearth of tie ins (comparatively). But, two points for Sunny Sumo when all is said and done.

Mighty Avengers #15 - The weakest of the Avengers tie ins this week in my opinion. I don't know there's nothing really wrong with the art or the characterization it's just that it took so long to get to the meat of the story, and frankly, the method of removal of Pym is pretty obvious from the get go. The one thing I will say is that the bit on the last page does raise an interesting question. Wholly, better than last issue.

New Avengers # 42 - It was alright. I'm a sucker for Jimmy Cheung so that helped. Okay, so this issue pretty much connects all of the dots since the beginning of New Avengers until House of M. It's neat stuff, but some of the dots should connect themselves given the prior information doled out in other recent issues of NA. There's nothing wrong with this book, and I guess some of the revelations are huge if you're not that great at ratiocination, I don't know. I am however really excited for next issue...because I'm curious about how they explain that one.

Avengers: Initiative # 14 - I was always a big "They Live" fan. That is probably going to influence my opinion of this book seeing as the main element in at least part of the SI tie in arc is centered around a pair of magic goggles that well...you've either seen the movie or not. And I also dug the Pym flashback moments so all in all I thought it was entertaining. Anyway, this is totally on par with the rest of the Initiative run so go get it. Now I've just got to wait for Mondo vs. Paydirt. Unless they're the same guy..?

Runaways/ Young Avengers: SI #1 - Better than the Cvil War crossover one in my book. Seems a little less forced given the established Skrull presence on both teams. And I dig the manga style so there you have it in a nutshell. As far as unnecessary tie ins go this one doesn't seem totally abhorrent.

Young Avengers Presents # 6 - Just as hug filled as the rest of this series, but less cloying given the input of Matt Fraction. Best of the run in my opinion. And with the incomparable Alan Davis on the pencils it's all the better. That's really all there is to it. An entirely entertaining confection. I hope they don't kill off Kate Bishop in SI...or make Clint Barton a skrull in SI. That'd be a pretty big dick move now that I think about it. Anyway, tangents aside, if you have to get one of the YA mini books it should be this one.

Fantastic Four # 558 - I'm sticking with it after the underwhelming, in my opinion, World's Greatest arc and I think that I may have made the right decision. I don't know this new arc seems to have some of the dimension hoping fun of Millar's tenure on Ultimate FF. And given the reveals towards the end of the issue well, my interest has been piqued. All in all I'd say it's a solid improvement. Part of my does think that the Invisible Woman in question is actually the nanny i.e. an older reality hopping Sue Storm.
Thunderbolts #121 - I'm kind of sad to see Ellis and Deodato leave the book. And the issue in question is overall a success with keeping the characterization, mean spiritedness and the violence all on the level I've come to expect. And yes, the resolution is a tad Deus Ex-Machina, but it's fitting in the pre established realm of character's and their proclivities. Also, it's comics I mean the Deus Ex-Machina is a pretty well respected trope. All in all thumbs up. Oh, and points for a young Edward Norton making an appearance in two Marvel properties in one month. (You'll know it when you see it.)

Immortal Iron Fist # 16 - Nooooooooooo!!!!! God, I hope the new team doesn't mess this one up. Pretty much, this one is a nice bookend for the run (one of the finest in recent years) and sets things up for what could be a rebirth of the classic Power Man and Iron Fist of yore, but with less dated writing...jive fool. Anyway, it's a great send off to Fraction and Aja, but god I'm going to miss them. Just as long as this doesn't degenerate to Cable quality when the regime change goes into effect next issue I'll be good.

Captain America # 39 - I don't think I have anything else to say about this book. I think it may actually be the most consistently high quality book in years. This issue is no different. Intrigue is mounting, tension keeps rolling and yeah. It's all good over here. My only question is how they're going to top this "Death of Cap" epic. I mean damn.

X-Men Legacy #213 - This is, currently, the best X-book on the shelves and it doesn't really lose any steam this month. Although, part of me has some qualms with the ending of the issue...at least Carrey is trying some new ideas that fit perfectly into the pre established X-Mythos. So, thumbs up and go buy it. Actually the only real fault I could find with the book is, as previously mentioned, you have to be up on your X-Men lore to really get the full effect. But I am, so it doesn't really matter.

Uncanny X-Men #499 - Is not the worst X-men book on the shelves these days (Young X-Men), but it's close. Anyway, this issue wraps up the SF/Russia arcs and sets it up for the big 500. And with Matt Fraction jumping on the book I only have high hopes for it getting up to the level of Legacy. Anyway, the issue itself just feels inconsequential. There's nothing terribly wrong with the art or characterization it's just not very interesting is all. Yeah, that about sums it up.

Ultimate Spider-Man #123 - Since the clone saga this book has been back on it's grind as the kids say. This issue is no different. Decent framing devices, a good glimpse at Ultimate Venom for newcomers and if I'm not mistaken it may incorporate some moments from the Ultimate Spider-Man video game from a few years ago. Overall, it's as solid as ever.

Trinity #4 - Why am I still reading this? I think that says it all.

Black Panther # 37 - I forgot that I hadn't been getting this one pulled for a couple months. And hey, much like some of the books on here it's consistent. Interpret that for yourselves.

Green Lantern #32 - Go buy it. I mean seriously, this is one of the best books in the DC super hero line.

Marvel 1985 #2 - It's a good read. Solid art, and a good pacing overall. Millar does know how to write the kids and write them he does. It's some decent rising action. I don't know it's issue two of six. That's about it for me. You can highlight the space after my FF review when everything is over to see if I called that one too. Or not. Is anybody out there? Oh, well. Take it easy internet.

Holy crap there are a lot of Marvel books this week - Matt pre-reviews for 6/23

2008-06-23T08:28:00.002-04:00

There are a ton of books in the Marvel Preview Pack, an absolute TON -- and even more of them on the advance shipping list. It's a HUGE week, Marvel Fans, and a suprising number of the books (the ones I've read, anyhow) are really good. Anyhow, given the volume of books and the always SPOILER-FREE nature of these preview reviews, let's see how quickly we can knock these out.

۞ Uncanny X-Men #499 - Wraps up the SF story and the Russia story adequately, and clears the decks for an interesting run with the updated creative team. Perfectly sound.

۞ X-Men Legacy #213 - Very interesting twists here. I'm really growing to dig this storyline a lot.

۞ Runaways #30 is so late that I have no recollection what's happening, but I get the sense that I would really like it if I did. Stupid late books.... I'm NOT looking forward to the new creative team, though.

۞ Wolverine First Class #4 - Fun. Not my usual cuppa tea, but if you like this sort of thing (Kitty Pryde transformed into a cat warrior, for example), this is a well-executed version of it.

۞ Ultimate Spider-Man #123 - Not quite as appealing to me as last issue, but a suitably creepy introduction to this storyline, and one that has me at least a bit intrigued.

۞ Thor Reign of Blood One-Shot - This is the second of three linked Matt Fraction Thor one-shots, and, like the last one, this one is AWESOME. Captures the violent, sleazy tone of true myth and just goes to town with it.

۞ Captain America #39 - Consistent like the sun, taxes, and traffic. This is good stuff.

۞ Thunderbolts #121 - A lively but slightly rushed wrap-up to the Ellis run. Good, but I was hoping for something sublime.

۞ Fantastic Four #558 - Promising start to the new storyline, this feels like a much denser read than the last one. I hate the fuzzy panel edges, though. Not sure why that drives me so nuts, but it does.

۞ Immortal Iron Fist #16 - Snif. Matt Fraction bids goodbye to Iron Fist the way it deserves. Great stuff. I'll give the new creative team a shot, but they've got a lot to live up to. (And, if there are any other Fraction junkies out there, he's the writer on the Young Avengers Presents issue shipping this week also.)

۞ Wolverine Origins #26 - I'm predisposed to hate this book in general, but replacing the dependable Steve Dillon with a much lesser artist (think Lenil Yu + Mark Texiera + someone who has no clue how to layout a page) really takes it to alarming new lows.

Blah blah blah about 6/18 from Matt

2008-06-19T11:32:00.002-04:00

Last week, I proudly declared that I was going to chop books to save money and then only found two books to get rid of. I can guarantee that number jumps by one this week, but let's see how we do.

۞ The book that's gone is Trinity. I know this is a bit strange, as I was just singing its praises last week, but I realized with issue #3 that I just kind of don't care. The art is painfully static, the writing more than adquate but still not particularly interesting, and the plot unremarkable. Ironically, I think the weekly scheduling is working against the book -- I'd pay three bucks a month for this, but 12 bucks every month? For 12 months? I'd rather buy Wii Fit, or Rock Band Wii, or a palette-load of diapers at Sam's Club. Sorry for misleading y'all before, but I'm done.

۞ Glad I got that off my chest. Now we can turn to ... hmmm ... yeah, let's do another negative one before we get happy. I'm done with Flash. My go-to line on the book has been that I'll buy anything with Freddie Williams II art, but, well looks like I was wrong about that. I really hope DC can figure out what to do with this title, though, because I loved the character back in the mid-90s.

۞ On to happier things! (Happier things which, perhaps not coincidentally, include NO futher DC books. Hmmmm.) Still loving the Incredible Hercules. Last week I called Captain Britain the best thing to come out of Secret Invasion, but the God Squad here is pretty entertaining as well. Hell, writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente also manage to do something vaguely interseting with Nightmare, that depressingly dull knock-off of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. (Down to the word balloons, no less. Good lord, Marvel. Have you no shame?) Nice last page twist, also.

۞ My goodness, but the cover for X-Factor #32 is ugly. And dull. I think we should have a word for that. Dugly? Ull? I'll work on it. Anyhow, yeah, ugly cover but some really nice interior art from Valentine De Landro, and Peter David manages to keep building on the story he's telling here -- he's done an incredibly good job of rolling with the various crossover punches and still letting his story feel organic. Good book, hideous cover -- feel free to send Glenn Fabry back to Vertigo where he fits in a bit better.

۞ Although I have an avowed fondness for Mark Millar's writing of young kids, he's pretty clearly at his best when he's A) working in his Big Dumb Action Story mode, and B) he doesn't need to rely on a bunch of other writers making his ideas make sense. (I think B is what really crippled Civil War at points; Millar wanted to write creepy, vaguely incenstuous dialogue for Johnny Storm and Sue Richards, and the Fantastic Four writers had actually read the characters before.)

ANYHOW, Wolverine #66 sets off Millar's big Future Wolverine In The Bad Marvel Future story, and it looks like it's going to hew pretty close to his strengths. Still plenty of time, as always, for Millar to give in to his more puerile impulses ("...and then in issue #69, the villain has sex with the corpse of Wolverine's children!" or something like that), but he's set himself off to a very strong start.

۞ My favorite book this week, though, was one that most people probably missed: Genius #1, from Top Cow. It's part of their Pilot Season thing, where they release a whole bunch of first issues into the wild with virtually no publicity, and everyone votes on what should become an actual series. (Where "everyone" equals "all seven people nationwide who are aware of the promotion," I guess.)

Genius is a pretty clever book, though -- the high concept seems to be "What if the 21st century's military genius were born into an L.A. gang, and used her military tactics to band the gangs together to declare war on the cops." It works much better than it sounds thre, and the art is stinkin' GORGEOUS, somewhere between cel-shaded animation and Adam Hughes. This Afua Richardson girl is going to be big at some point, I suspect. (Unless she becomes big for her music, which is not entirely impossible either. Good, big voice. God, I loathe talented people.)

Anyhow, all of you should pester Sheldon to order this for you (Diamond Order Code: APR082211, I believe), and then vote for it to become a series, and only then will I accept your gracious thanks.

۞ And I also bought the final trade of Y The Last Man to read, having remained remarkably unspoiled as to the ending. Hopefully I'll get to that today, but I'm pretty confident it'll be fabulous.

Ain't no party like my Nana's Tea Party: Paul flips through 6/18 books

2008-06-19T09:24:00.002-04:00

This week was pretty light, just picking up a few random and unexciting books. What we get is:

Trinity #3 was not as good as #2 and I don't know if I can handle that let-down. The "Trinity", because this is a book that will star the three biggest DC characters, get about three pages of exposure in the weak lead. It reminded me of Secret Invasion #2 and 3, actually, where it was just people you didn't care about fighting. Then the back-up, which was decent last week, was boring as all get-out this week. Just a character who, I assume, will be important reading tarot cards and watching gang members get filleted. After last week, I didn't think I'd say this, but you get two more trys to turn this ship around.

Amazing Spider-Man #563 was another let-down after a strong issue last week. Still, good stuff. Fun, breezy, enjoyable entertainment. Mike McKone's art is still strong, but Bob Gale's writing is proving to be the weak link in the "Brain Trust"'s chain.

Ex Machina #37 was good. It's hard to talk about a book that's a long, continuing story like this because it defies normal jumping-on points. Though, I will say this: mayor's in New York City are elected for four years and we know Mayor Hundred will only last one term (it said so in issue 1). So how did Journal tell her sister something "years before she died" if Journal herself died a year after finding out that bit of information?

Ultimate Fantastic Four #55 is a very strange book. The story is okay, if underwhelming, and it seems to be heavily padded to have "gotcha" moments that lack punch. They might mean something if similar things happened in the "real" Marvel Universe (kill me now for writing that...), but in the Ultimate Universe, where Ultimate Namor (spoiler?) has appeared in a whopping three (bland) issues that failed to generate chemistry between him and Ultimate Invisible Woman, it just sits there. Plus the art is dreadful. I thought it reminded me of Top Cow house style, but I was wrong: with this issue's atrocious inking and coloring, it reminds me more of Awesome Comics, one of Rob Liefeld's publishers. Back in the 90s, guys like Chris Sprouse, Jeff Matsuda, Joe Madueira, Roger Cruz, and a whole bunch of others slummed it there and turned in stuff that looked, well, a lot like this issue: badly colored and trying to impersonate the great Rob Liefeld. And if you can imagine Ian Churchill aping Rob Liefeld with colors by Mack Yackey (assuming you know who all those people are), you get a good idea of what this book looks like: crap. Or Lionheart.

Wolverine #66 is a decent start to what I'm sure will be a decent run on Wolverine for Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. I liked it a lot: there were nice bits, it was dialogue heavy, especially for a Wolverine comic, and the characters dialogue was all surprisingly natural. One gripe: if, on page 1, you say that no one knows what happened to Wolverine, that he just vanished, you should not have every character in the issue know that Logan is Wolverine. Maybe have them NOT call him Wolverine every time they see him. Maybe have them call him "Logan" once or twice. But, no, instead we get everyone from next door neighbors to gamma-irradiated thugs calling him Wolverine and reminding us (because we're reading a Wolverine comic, so we may not know who he is?) that he used to be a bad-ass. But if you skip the first three pages, it's really good. Oh, and the back cover.

Finally, The Spirit #18, well, landed with a loud thud this week and, finally, I figured out the problem here: Mark Evanier used to write Scooby Doo. And when he was told to co-write Spirit, he just picked up a few old Scooby Doo scripts, hit find and replace, and turned them in. Because the last five issues have all read like Scooby Doo episodes: lame twists, globe-trotting, talking dogs. Actually, that last bit would make these loads more enjoyable. As it is, we get a series of half-baked adventures that so little but remind you how great Darwyn Cooke was at capturing the essence (spirit?) of the Spirit. In conclusion, don't read this. Actually, if you thought to yourself, "I like Scooby Doo, but I wish it had more fighting and murder and double entendre's and a main character who is a complete and utter tool", then brother this is the book for you! Otherwise, terrible, terrible stuff.

So, I like, what, three of the six books I read this week? Nice. I'm as bad as Matt.

I don't even know any more.

2008-06-18T20:21:00.005-04:00

The book that caused my feelings of unease and self doubt is Ultimate X-men. It started out really kick ass when Mark Millar, author of Kick-Ass, was working on it. And it was still good when Bendis was working on it. And then there was Vaughn, who had some ideas that I didn't gel with at the time, but in retrospect were pretty inspired for an Ultimate book. And then there was Robert Kirkman who should frankly only write his own creator owned books and Marvel Team-Up. (Ant-man was alright, but more so salacious than irredeemable) And Kirkman pretty much dropped a huge, for lack of a better term, deuce on the book. And now we've got Aaron Coliete doing his thing. And while it's less silly and over blown it's still pretty silly and over blown. Just this whole team of suer duper powered hardasses/D.A.R.E created characters are just aren't compelling. I don't know it's just silly, and retcony, but less silly and retcony than the whole Cable-rine/ Sini-lypse thing. So, I'm going to say that it's slightly better, but still crap. Oh, and a lot of people's jacked up powers are just silly...mainly Beak/Angel as well as energy blast dom-Nightcrawler. It's better, but still ass is what I'm trying to say...why do I even care? And then the rest.

Ghost Rider # 24- More of the same it would seem. I'm fairly sure I know where this new arc is going, but I don't know if I care anymore. It would seem that the book has gone into a a perpetual loop of murderous apostles, judgment stare repeat.

X-Factor #23 - Finally, things are happening again in this book. There's a new status quo, there's no stand up comedy and no Arcade with the Arcade mask over the robot mask which coneals the fact that it's actually Arcade. (It seems sillier when you write it out.) Anyway, I'm just glad that the book has gotten out of it's stagnant post MC arc and can continue to be the book that we all remember fondly. (Although the She-Hulk/SI crossover makes me wonder.)

Incredible Hercules #118 - Keeps the high quality of the book. And oddly enough it's the skrull reveal in this book that I actually find to be the most troubling out of any of the prior ones. I'm bein one hundred percent serious. I just like this character more than Hank "Five Across the Eyes" Pym. But that aside you should be reading Hercules.

Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #2 - I'm a huge sucker for summer crossovers. Even though this one is less compelling than Civil War, but not as inconsequential as WWH I still found myself purchasing this tie in. Personally I know that if I didn't work in a comic book store and take the majority of my pay in comics I would not be picking this up, but I could do worse. Pretty much this book is likable enough piffle. It stays true to the characters, keeps a decent pace and the art's alright. You could do lot worse with your mega event tie ins is all I'm saying. (I'm looking directly at you The Conversation.)

Wolverine #66 - It's probably going to be a pretty good arc. Millar brand fun through and through. I don't know I think everything has been previously covered.

Amazing Spider Man #563 - The best part of this issue is the cover. I think that should sum it all up. Oh, and Spoiler Alert there is no bumper car chase. Bacchalo's on the next arc, I think, so I'll stick with it.

The future - Uncanny X-Men - Is an improvement. Captain America - Is just as good as ever. X-Men Legacy - Keeps the quality, but I fear that the Fonz is revving his motorcycle at the end of the issue. It makes sense (for comics) though, but I don't know how to feel about it. But I'd imagine it's going to stick for as long as Xavier getting skull caped or Darkseid getting space punched or whatever. And the new arc in FF seems to be more entertaining than the last one. Even if it seems to be one of them cross dimensional things that Mark Millar is so fond of. Take it easy internet.

That's why they're called "Business Socks"

2008-06-13T12:15:00.002-04:00

I was not looking forward to this week, but it actually turned out okay in the end. I'm not NEARLY as pessimistic as Matt. Which is weird because I tend to be hard on my books. So, what'd I read?

We'll start with Trinity #2 which is just a great book. Allow me to justify that a bit, though. The story itself, along with the writing, plotting, and art, are okay. Mark Bagley's storytelling and page layouts are more safe and less interesting than his work on Ultimate Spider-Man and Kurt Busiek is kind of on auto-pilot. What makes it great is the way the series is expanding. See, with 52, DC published a weekly comic and had no idea what to do with it so they purposely set up every DC book to not cross over with it by making them all fast forward a year (terrible idea). When 52 turned out to be really good, DC scrambled to kind of tie into it but the titles didn't hit until the last few weeks.

So then Countdown came along and DC went out of its way to tie that into EVERYTHING, from "Green Arrow"'s "wedding" (which, I mean, REALLY?) to the death of Impulse (spoiler?). And it failed because it became more a summary of what was happening in other books than a book on its own (weak) merits. Even to the end, you had four spin-off series running with Countdown. So that didn't work.

So what does Trinity do? You can't have it tie in to nothing because then there may be alleyways you want to explore but can't. You can't have it tie into everything because then people feel ripped off that they have to buy a dozen books just to decode what is going on. So Kurt Busiek TIES IT INTO ITSELF! Rather than say "Go buy [book X] to understand why Green Lantern is fighting a grazed Grape Ape", the book gives half the book to the "Trinity" and the other half to filling in the blanks that you just missed. It doesn't interupt the flow of the main narrative by flashing around among dangling plots, it acts as an appendiw, it's own tie-in mini-series. Which is great, which is why I say it's great.

Not so great: Superman has a solar system appear in Metropolis, Wonder Woman fights giant robots, and Batman deals with mass hallucination in Gotham (?!?). And Superman actually says something like "Clearly all of these events are related to that dream we all had." How did he come to that conclusion exactly? It's such a Superfriends line ("An earthquake? In California? Clearly Lex Luthor is involved!") I lose a little respect for Kurt Busiek. Still, really good.

Booster Gold #10 was all kinds of good. Again, I like time travel, so I'm biased. But this answers unanswered questions from the original series like "Whose flight ring does Booster have?" "How does he have Brainiac 5's tech if Brainiac 5 is from 500 years in the future?" It's just great. And, if you weren't aware that those questions existed, the BEST way to spend 16 dollars is to pick up Showcase Presents Booster Gold, which collects all 25 issues of the original series plus crossovers plus his story from Secret Files. Totally worth every penny.

Amazing Spider-Man #562 has really great art by Mike McKone, who should just rotate with Marcos Martin on every issue of Amazing from now on. He's great, and he's not strickly DC and if ever there were a book that felt like it needed McKone's art, this is it. (Kevin Maguire would also be nice.) I like where its going and I hope that, well, the Spider-double becomes Spider-Man's full-time sidekick, because THAT would be something.

Now, my problem with the issue: at the end of the issue, there is a blurb about two associate editors who are leaving Marvel. Molly Lazer (who I swear has been there since the 80's) gets a very nice "We'll miss you." Then, Aubrey Sitterson (who's been with Marvel since the mid -90s) gets the shaft, being blamed for everything that went wrong with Amazing Spider-Man over the last five years, especially "One More Day". They also make fun of the poor guy because he's working for the WWE (which I can guarantee pays better than Associate Editor for Marvel). It's a very mean-spirited send-off to someone who, I'm sure, worked hard and gave a couple years of his life to Marvel.

Captain Britain and MI-13 #2 is really good for most of the reason's Matt already mentioned. It looks like this may be an ongoing (I swear it was solicited as a 3 issue mini) which has me excited. I will disagree with Matt, though. First, I don't think it's a spoiler to say Captain Britain (or at least Brian Braddock) dies in the last issue. It would be a spoiler, though, to say that the, I think, Pakistani woman is going to be the NEW Captain Britain, which is weird not because she's female or Pakistani, but because the title is called "Captain Britain", but it's not the Cap we've seen for 30 years. Second, it's a fun book that's well-written, well-illustrated, and may actually surpass the event it ties in to. Plus, as mentioned last month, it benefits from having a solid plot rather than a list of ideas cobbled together. And, to top it all off, it has competant, consistent art. Just go buy it. Now.

Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust is another one of those anthology one-shots I enjoy. Beginning to end, this is good stuff. Even the Captain Marvel bit (which is actually the According to Hoyle definition of "superfluous") is engaging and does a better job explaining that bit than the mini did. (though, if I may rant, at this point everyone knows the new Captain Marvel is a Skrull so, really, why bring him back with all the fanfare just to reveal it was all BS?) The other stuff, though -- Agents of Atlas, Agent Brand from Astonishing X-Men -- were just good. Well, except maybe the OTHER Cpatain Marvel bit (the Grant Morrison-ified one), which was decent but drawn well. Definitely worth buying for anyone reading the main series.

The Twelve #6 is WAY better than Avengers/Invaders. That is all.

X-Force: Ain't No Dog is a Wolverine one-shot that didn't make the last batch with a neutered Warpath story tacked on. I know Scalped is good and all, so why did Jason Aaron turn in such a watered down story for the only active Native American superhero? Maybe he's waiting to do a mini-series about the guy from Thunderbolts that put Bullseye in a coma.

Guy Ritchie's Gamekeeper: Volume 2 #4 came out this week and it was prompt. The most exciting thing, literally, is that there is an add for Virgin Fest on the back cover, which takes place in Baltimore.

Local #12 came out, too. If the rest of the series had been as good as this, it would have justified the three years it took to produce. Megan redeems herself while the book keeps its super-depressing tone in place. Despite that, this is still a good series and anyone who hasn't been reading it should definitely get ahold of the recently-solicited trade (pre-orders preferred, I'm sure).

And finally, Doktor Sleepless #7. I really like Doktor Sleepless. I'm not really sure if its an ongoing (as originally proposed) or not because this issue says "To be concluded", but I dig this book. If anyone has read Mister X, this is more or less the same premise: crazed genius returns to a city that he built from the ground up and does crazy future-science stuff. This book, along with Black Summer, are interesting, too, because up until now, Ellis's Avatar stuff has been atrocious (yes, even Black Gas, and especially Black Gas 2 with its zombie-orgy scenes). he now seems to have his own id in check, producing random, bizarre books that are more like what he would produce for Marvel if they made a mistake and let him be himself. So, again, if you are coming late to this, look into the trade that will be out...eventually. It's pretty good stuff.

Matt buys back some time - 6/11 books

2008-06-12T09:46:00.003-04:00

I think it's getting to be about time for me to trim my buying list -- I find myself reading an awful lot of these books and thinking, "Hey, that was meh ... just like last issue." Which is both financially irresponsible AND a waste of my time, especially as I have a new baby that's more intriguing to me than mediocre comic books. Also, I don't want to feel like Negative Review Guy, which is what happens when I read a bunch of books that don't thrill me. Here, then is my public declaration of what I'm not reading

۞ Booster Gold #10 is my last issue of this book. It's perfectly adequate, but it's not dazzling me enough. I feel like the ideas are intriguing at their core, and I like the issues when they're described to me ... it's just that actually reading them consistently leaves me cold.

۞ I'm buying Green Lantern Corps as I eagerly await the forthcoming crossover, but issue #25 ends that. I confused Peter Tomasi and Stuart Moore last month, which makes me feel dumb, but they both write perfectly good space opera that fails to engage me. I'll stick with the core book for now. (I maintain that this book would be much awesomer if it were called Green Lantern Crops and were about interstellar farming, but what do I know?)

۞ Somewhat surprisingly, the current run on Batman Confidential remains on my purchase list. I just adore Kevin Maguire's art, and Fabian Nicieza is, er, playing to his artist's strengths here. (ie, Issue #18 features an extended sequence in which the original Batgirl fights Catwoman naked in a hedonist club. If that's not playing to Maguire's strengths, I don't know what is. Also, probably not a comic to read at work, or around children, or in public, or anywhere else where you might be embarrassed.)

۞ Trinity #2 makes me think I'll stick with this as well. I've got a lot of time for Kurt Busiek, who is competent even at his worst, and this nice, slick, mainstream superhero story is far from his worst. Feels more "comic book-y" than the semi-novelistic sweep of 52, and more "good" than the horrifying disaster of Countdown.

۞ I like newuniversal shockfront also -- it builds nicely on the basic NU concept, but is another strong mainstream showing from Warren Ellis. Every so often it seems like he recharges his batteries and starts churning out really solid work again; he's in one of those phases now. I'll keep buying this...

۞ ... and Doktor Sleepless as well, for most of the same reasons. I wish the art in Doktor Sleepless were a little less generic Avatar house style, but it's perfectly readable, and this book makes a great venue for Ellis's obsession with the intersection of science fiction and our contemporary reality. Good stuff.

۞ I really enjoyed Captain Britain and MI13 a LOT -- it's an improvement on the first issue, and one of the best things to come out of Secret Invasion so far. I'll definitely keep picking this up ... BUT it also points out one of the main problems with modern superhero comics, althoug I'll have to bury discussion of it behind whited-out spoilertext. Highlight between the brackets to figure out what I'm on about. [Apparently, we were meant to believe last issue that Captain Britain (or at least his human host) really died. Like, tragically sacrificed himself. This issue is all about starting to play up the ramifications of that, and it does that well ... except that I never, ever, ever, ever even considered that at the end of last issue. I saw the explosion, thought "well, I wonder how he escapes from that," and moved on. It was a bit jarring to find that everyone here is taking it so seriously -- don't you all know you're in a comic book?] Aside from that minor complaint, though, a fun book.

۞ Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust is pretty good for one of these one-shots. I really like Mike Carey's work at Marvel, and Christos Gage is becoming a reliable mainstream writer. And there's some gorgeous Timothy Green III work, which is nice to see. Worth picking up if you're following Secret Invasion, actually. I don't regret buying this at all. (I absolutely abhor the title pages for the SI books, though -- it's like generic Photoshop Backgrounds for Spastic Beginners 101 stuff. Just hideous.)

۞ I love Action Comics #866 -- when Geoff Johns is on, he is ON. And this is the strongest thing to appear in a Superman book in some time. Genuinely creepy, ominous, and fun to read. I'll be buying this, moving forward.

۞ And Locke & Key continues to be the best thing being published this year, by ANY comic book company. Not only will I continue buying this (for the one remaining issue), I'll buy the collected edition, and anything else Joe Hill writes. Fantastic horror comic. Really.

So after that dramatic intro, I cut a whopping two books. Great.

La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo

2008-06-11T19:20:00.003-04:00

So, you know what I'll be doing later...or not. And I got deadlines on some contests so I'm going to make this quick for now. Firstly, the old business, every person that I have talked to about Ultimate Origins (Spoiler that appears in the ads) agrees that: the Canadian government creating mutants in a basement in Dept. H as an answer to super soldiers is just silly. You really have to say it out loud though to get the silliness of it all. Or write it out. Now, onto the new business in no particular order this weeks books. Oh, and for those wanting the quick fix things were greatly less crappy this week.

Booster Gold #10 - Decent wrap up. Questions answered logically. Competent artwork. So close to being a haiku review, but anyway that about sums it up. I dig this book and it's awe inspiring adequacy. And I would wholly recommend it to any fan of the DC universe at large, people with fond boyhood memories of Dan Jurgens or anyone who loves the totally un-ironic naming of Skeets.

Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs - Hmmm...How do I put this? This book is really only for hardcore fans of the movie, Cory Feldman and the late 80's. The art is straight ass. The story is fairly ludicrous. And the dialog is...thankfully anachronistic...I mean they don't say radical that often so small favors and all that. But, my inner masochist is curious about the ending so I'm going to finish it up. God knows I've continued worse runs for the sake of completion.

Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust - Thoroughly better than Civil War: Choosing Sides. Seriously, you get gregarious Beast, a mercifully short Capt. Marvel bit (I just think this whole resurrection psych out bit is a travesty), Marvel Boy actually does something (although when the hell is this happening in the time line? Because he takes the cube during Civil War I think, which Bendis obviously didn't read I can't keep this stuff straight anymore) Anyway, typical Marvel issues of space time notwithstanding it was a decent little anthology I thought.

Locke & Key #5 - Go buy this book already. It's that good. This issue was probably my least favorite yet, but that's only because it's setting up that climax. Good stuff.

Goon # 25 - Read above comments. Except that it wasn't my least favorite issue. Pretty much if you're already on the train stay on, and if you're not on get on. It'll improve your cred.

Young Liars #4 - This book is spilling over with vitriol. The characters are repellent. But somewhere in this anarchic hug free zone I'm digging it, cautiously. It's probably because of the uneven quality of some of the books at Vertigo in the past couple of years *cough* American Virgin *cough* that has made me reticent in praising it, or recommending it and the like. I guess it's that I'm beginning to wonder if this book is just going to rely entirely on attitude or if this story is going to amount to anything terribly interesting. So, they've got me on style waiting on substance.

Amazing Spider-Man #562 - Fun. Makes me wonder if it's the BND or the regime change that has made this book enjoyable again. It's probably a little of both. And I also think that it's a bit surprising that it took so much silliness to make Spier-Man fun again.

Trinity #2 - I am bowled over by this books competence. That is all.

Titans #3 - Why am I reading this? Eh, I kind of like the art. I grew up in the J. Scott Campbell years. That's all there is to it. It looses a bit of it's charm when you read the words though.

Captain Britain and MI 13 #2 - So...how is it that this tie in is better than the main book? I mean things happen every issue. Characters sound different from each other. They develop. Um, there's no Daisy Johnson (they should just call her Chick-tor...once I get the copyright of course). My only real problem with Daisy is that she just sounds like if Ultimate Spidey and Deena Pilgrim had some sort of snarky baby together or something. Tangents aside, Capt. Britain may be the best thing coming out of SI.

Salvation Run #7 - This book really should have come out on time. Kind of takes the punch out of it now that it's all been said and done...for like a month or two. Although, in fairness, it's not like the ending wasn't a forgone conclusion. Just like the events in another oft delayed book that reemerged recently. It was fun while it lasted though.

Skaar Son of Hulk # 1 - Decent read. Shame it's done in four minutes. Hence the super short review.

Green Arrow/ Black Canary #9 - The only thing redeeming about this book is the artwork o Cliff Chiang. Without said Chiang, I just lose interest. I don't know that's a tad harsh...but pretty close to accurate. I guess the main problem with this book is the tone. It was fine during the first arc because it was a wacky escape from Paradise Island. But a global search for a brain dead Connor Hawke seems like an odd place for all of the attempts at the Bwa- Ha-Ha.

That's about it really. Still got a couple more books to read so I'll probably be back on at some point to finish things up. Take it easy internet.

One last time

2008-06-11T16:31:00.002-04:00

So, to wrap up last week,

Avengers/Invaders #2 was weird. Not in a bad way, but it's really weird that things like Bennett buying the Daily Bugle in Amazing Spider-Man are continuity now in other books. It's jarring to see "The DB in other books." And there's other odd bits of continuity thrown in at random that pull you out of the story a little, which is not that good a story to begin with. I like time travel (you'll see when I get to Cable), but here...it's like The Twelve but lacks any meaning or relevance. If the Invaders traveled to the future in the past, why don't they remember it in the present? Bucky got ALL his memories back in Captain America #13 or 14, so why doesn't HE remember at least? And if there is a mystical (or other) reason for not remembering, then why bother telling a 12 issue story about all of this to begin with? Will it affect the Avengers in the long run? (Doubtful since it is not strictly a Marvel book, but a co-venture with Dynamite, and things like that are rarely relevant). And, why is Alex Ross even involved in this? Hopefully these questions will all be answered by the end, but I doubt it.

Cable #4 is weird for different reasons. I am enjoying the story so far. I like Cable though, and tube guns, and time travel, and a baby in an armored Baby Bjornn being carried by a time-traveling Cable with a tube gun. So this is written specifically for me. Plus it has Cannonball and hints at his long ago dropped continuity of being an immortal, which is nice. Then there's the art: Ariel Olivetti does some things well, and I do like his style, but his interiors are barren. There's a scene where Bishop is holding a guy over a deep fryer. So he's in a kitchen. The deep fryer does not look like a deep fryer (only the dialogue gives it away) and there is NOTHING ELSE in this kitchen. Of a restaurant. Nothing on the counters, no flour or spoons or baskets for the deep fryer. Nothing. Still, I liked it and get a kick out of the crazy time travel stuff. But the art is just a hinderance at this point. They need a Butch Guice on this, someone bleak and shadowy.

Criminal is the best non-superhero book ever. Just read it. This issue, despite one or two rough lines from Ed Brubaker (trying a little too hard), is great. Just great. Go read it. Seriously.

Invincible Iron Man #2 is not as good as issue 1 (despite MODOG, the Mental Organism Designed Only for GENOCIDE), but still holds your attention. Good, super-slick art, good writing, and a good cliffhanger.

Wolverine: Dangerous Games is another Wolverine One-Shot (because he's an under-used and under-appreciated character). This time, he fights fox hunters, I guess. Fox hunters have an odd stigma for me since The Invisibles, so I always expect the worst when I see them. But this is fine. Then, there's another short with Wolverine in Japan, also fine, I guess. Just a bland book, though, with the writing and art barely managing average.

Now, let's talk Young X-Men #3: this book is just a bizarre mess. I feel bad for Marc Guggenheim because I think he has some ideas. But he's saddled with the rejects from New X-Men and he just fumbles around trying to do anything. Then there's the art: Yanick Paquette's style is more open and cartoony here than it was on, say, Codename: Knockout (under-rated) or even Ultimate X-Men. Mostly it looks rushed. There better be a killer twist coming (and not the one in this month's issue, which barely counts) because this is barely hanging on.

Oh, and Amazing Spider-Man 561 was good. Still just solid superhero-y stuff. More people should read it.

Tomorrow: Lots of bad books to review! Woohoo!

I finally made it to the Party

2008-06-11T16:06:00.002-04:00

I finally made it to the blog. Yay!
I have so missed getting my geek-on what with being at the store so rarely.
Just did a quick perusal of the past blog activity and felt so satisfied! Yay!
The only book I got to read so far was Skaar Son of Hulk. Cheesy title, enjoyable read. Love that the beginning voice over is from Hulk's Queen's point of view (won't even attempt to type her name because the book is not in front of me). A momentary confusion over the time jump transition. More my fault for reading to quickly and not giving the art proper due. That is all I have time to review today. I will try and review at least one more book this week but no promises.

Oh, and I read the post about Buffy and the pillow fight. When I started reading that post, I had to pause and think was there or was there not a pillow fight? It was so believable in all it's stereotypical wonder given the world of Bi-Buffy we have just entered. I did enjoy the Dracula bit where he tells the main baddie it is not the vampire he needs to fear. And is Xander never allowed a girl. Maybe he should go gay - it would be less of stretch than Buffy given his relationship with Dracula.
-D

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow - Matt gets caught up

2008-06-10T01:14:00.004-04:00

Hey, so having a kid is time-consuming! Who saw THAT coming? Not me, obviously. Fortunately, she's a dreadful conversationalist, so I can safely read comics while rocking her and the like. Here are my reviews on last Wednesday's books, followed by a couple of "preview" reviews for books that'll be out tomorrow.

۞ Secret lnvasion #3 is, perhaps predictably, a huge disappointment to me. Issue #1 of this was exciting! It was punchy! Stuff happened and things blew up and there was a big surprise ending and wooooooooo! Since then, it's been a long, wanky fight scene (issue #2), and now this: the Marvel F-list fights bravely in New York! They all talk Bendis-y! Something bad happens to The Vision version 8.3, and I try manfully to remember who he is and where he came from and if I should care! There's one good paranoia scene that's got to be a fakeout (or DOES it?!?!), and then a cliffhanger where a bunch of heroes charge in to save the world and it would be amazingly cool, except that it's, like, the G-list of unrecognizable Marvel dudes.

Actually, it's not even the G-list -- it's a bunch of Bendis's pet characters who we know are awesome because he spent a whole issue of Avengers telling us that Nick Fury (who all the famous characters think is awesome) thinks these no-marks are awesome. THAT, my friends, is character development at its finest.

And Lenil Yu is clearly being rushed, as the cleaner line he was using in issue #1 is back to being the Sienkiewicz-ian scrawl he's perfected since Superman: Birthright. This is starting to feel an awful lot like Bendis's last Might Marvel Miniseries, House of Filler.

۞ A while back, Commenter Sean mentioned that he's been known to develop crushes on writers, and I know exactly where he's coming from. I was totally into Matt Fraction for awhile (Five Fists of Science, Casanova, that Spider-Man annual, Iron Fist), but then we got together and it was totally not all I was hoping it would be (Punisher War Journal). So I avoided him for awhile and he acted all embarrassed around me and it was totally awkward until we got drunk together at this party and made out, and there were no strings attached and that was pretty good except for that one part when Namor showed up (The Order). So now things are kind of okay again and I think I like him but I don't know how he feels about me and I'm afraid to ask because what if it makes things all weird, you know?

Which is a long way to go to say that Invincible Iron Man #2 is just as good as issue #1 was, and that you should be buying it and loving it and treasuring every moment with it, because it's summer and you can never tell what's going to happen to a guy on his summer vacation.

۞ I don't really want to make out with Justice Society of America #16, but I sure am pleased to bump into it. This is apparently the story that Geoff Johns has been setting up with the nigh-incomprehensible last four issues, because this is a sharp little character piece masquerading as a 1980's DC Comic (in the best possible way). Some nice swerves on the typical Galactus story, and a good use of the ridiculously large cast. Maybe I'll reread from issue #9 or whatever and see how it hangs together.

۞ I'm the dissenting voice on Kick-Ass #3, it appears. As I mentioned in my thoughts on Marvel 1985 a week or two back, I find Mark Millar surprisingly good at writing teen drama, so I liked the in-school bits, but the super-hero stuff remains dull to me, no matter how much violence he injects it with. I think this will read better in collection, to be honest.

۞ Trinity #1 is ... okay. It features the Superman-Batman-and-Wonder-Woman-sit-around-a-table scene that is apparently required in all 21st Century DC Comics, but THIS TIME THEY'RE IN THEIR CIVILIAN IDENTIES!!!!! ZOMG!!!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!! That said, at least Kurt Busiek doesn't feel compelled to cover the page with 75 billion different colored captions (like Brad Meltzer), or to weight the proceedings down with trite pseudo-psychological melodrama (like, oh, say, Brad Meltzer). It's not the Busiek of Astro City, nor even the terrific early Thunderbolts issues, but it's a solid superhero comic and a promising start to a weekly series. (Except for the backup, which I found literally unreadable. That might be a problem down the line.)

۞ Ultimate Origins #1 was always going to be a problem for me. I found Bendis's thin reinventions of the Marvel Universe in Ultimate Team-Up and Ultimate Spider-Man to be much less interesting than Millar's ground-up rethinks in Ult. X-Men and Ultimates. (Ult. Spider-Man overcomes this with some excellent craft and lively character drama, but Team-Up was pretty much an unmitigated disaster.)

So Ultimate Origins, being Bendis's unifying theory of the Ultimate Universe, was bound to accent the side of the Ultimate line that I find less interesting, and as such to disappoint me.

Which it does. (And I thought this was Butch Guice's worst art in a while as well.) At least it met expectations.....

۞ I also read The Boys #19, which was just as good as the rest of the issues have been, and as such not worthy of special praise or scorn. The price you pay for consistent work, I suppose.

۞ Which brings us to this week's preview books. It was a pretty thin bunch, a lot of things that I don't find interesting to begin with (Moon Knight) or didn't find particularly interesting once I had read them (Hulk: Raging Thunder, the apocalyptically grim X-Force: Ain't No Dog). But I do want to call special attention to Skaar, Son of Hulk #1, which overcomes a catastrophically stupid title to be a surprisingly good book.

For everyone who was disappointed that World War Hulk failed to be an adequate follow-up to the themes and ideas of Planet Hulk ... this is your book. Something like a really good Conan comic blended together with Marvel's sci-fi stuff, there's a lot of promise here, and it's worth checking out.

(Also, it contains 100% less Jeph Loeb than Marvel's other Hulk book, which guarantees a quality uptick.)

Kick-Ass Detective

2008-06-06T12:02:00.002-04:00

First, Kick-Ass #3 is pretty much the same as Kick-Ass #2: a big, loud, brain-dead, bloody comic with a surfeit of ridiculousness (especially since it takes place in the real world...HA!). This is all to say, a totally awesome book that everyone should be reading. There's got to be a big twist coming (because there are hints to...something), but for now it's just big, goofy fun.

Then there's Detective Comics #845. I've liked the Paul Dini issues of Detective. They are all one or two issue stories that are fun to read. And when Don Kramer or JH Williams III or someone competant was doing the art, I really liked them. This issue is by new regular artist Dustin Nguyen. I'm pretty okay with him. But this issue has one of the most hideous pictures ever. If I can find a scanner, I'll post it but it's toward the end when the murderer is revealed. And it's awful. Still, I enjoyed the story. I like Riddler as Detective and am very glad that Paul Dini seems to have decided against turning him back into a bad guy (which he kept hinting he would do). As for the meet between Batman and Catwoman that is featured on the cover, well, that was two pages that only existed to awkwardly point out that Catwoman's escapades in Salvation Run were in continuity. Other than that, though, good stuff. All of Dini's work on this title has been.

You know what Buffy needs? Pillow fights!

2008-06-06T09:20:00.002-04:00

Now that the Lesbian Adventures of Buffy is done, we can all look back on it and reflect with the perspective only time can allow. And, honestly, it's only okay. The highs of Giant Dawn fighting Mecha-Dawn in the streets of Japan, coupled with the adventures of Racist Dracula and Xander (a buddy comic just waiting to happen), are gold. Then, they throw in Lesbian Buffy.

Back in college, my girlfriend had a group of friends with whom she was very close. Lady friends, to boot. And she has told me that, not only did NO lesbiany activities take place, but that they also NEVER HAD PILLOW FIGHTS IN TEDDIES! I was shocked. Because pop culture would lead us to believe that all college-age girls "experiment" and have pillow fights and so forth. It's the "Girls Gone Wild"-ing of America, if you will.

Which leads me to my problem with this arc of Buffy: Lesbian Buffy. Joss Whedon is an excellent writer, so when he wrote Willow's discovery of her lesbian-ness in the show, it was a careful progression rife with subtext involving her discovery of magic, etc. When he revealed that one of the slayers had the hots for Buffy in the comic, then, he had had Buffy (now roughly 27) handle it with maturity. Then came Drew Goddard.

For those who watched the show, Drew Goddard was part of the last two seasons of the show where they traded sub-text for super-text and drove home metaphors with the subtlety of an Abram tank. Or the subtlety of the metaphor (simile?) I just used. Plus, he wrote Cloverfield, a good movie but not known for its compelling character development. And he brought these skills to Buffy Season 8 and ran roughshod over Buffy and her friends and the hard work good writers like Joss Whedon and Brian K. Vaughan had done.

So why is Lesbian Buffy so bad? Goddard, rather than have Buffy act like a mature woman who is leading a batallion of bad-ass super-heroines instead has her act like a fifteen-year-old boys fantasy of what Buffy might do in his dreams: she falls into bed with a hot, asian girl. Then, they go back and forth about how Buffy's SO not into chicks. Then they talk about how awkward it made them feel afterwards. Then Buffy and Satsuo both agree Buffy's not into chicks (in case you forgot). Then they have sex again because they're bored. It's all so casual, like this is what girls do; get two hot women alone with a bottle of wine and of course they are going to explore each other's bodies and experiment. You know, if they're in a Cinemax movie.

Now, again, I am not a woman, but I've asked these questions enough times to know the answer. Do women just randomly fool around with lesbians because they're bored or flattered? "No, not really," says Emily. "Maybe in porn or something." This is by no means definitive. There have been journal articles written that suggest that women today are likely to find women attractive, an interesting side effect to the phenomenon described in "Reviving Ophelia" that first drew the lines between advertising and poor self-image (and suicide, bulimia, anorexia, and other terrible things) in teens and young adults. But there is a pretty big, thick line between finding Angelina Jolie attractive (consistently listed as the woman women would "be bi with") and having hot, sober, sweaty, animal, lesbian action with another woman. Unless a Girls Gone Wild cameraman is offering you a hat. Then all bets are off.

And the new stuff

2008-06-05T14:48:00.003-04:00

I only made it through three books for this week:

Trinity #1's lead story is, like, 10 pages of Superman, Batman, and Wonderwoman sitting in a coffee shop talking. And they are in their civilian identities. Now, this strikes me as odd because: why would a reporter from Metropolis, the world's wealthiest bachelor, and a DEO agent all be sitting at a coffee shop in Keystone City? And the paparazzi is there, though not allowed near. Why does no one think that's weird? Plus, the Flash shows up IN COSTUME and talks to them. And no one thinks its weird. But I do like Mark Bagley's effective storytelling and overall, it is good, if vague. Same with the back-up that confounds AND entertains. Still, I liked the whole thing and have high hopes for the series. Of course, I had high hopes for Countdown...

Secret Invasion #3 is a paradox. It's better than issue 2, but it also seems to ignore Bendis's own continuity for the event. REAL SPOILERS!!! BEWARE!!! If Echo is not a Skrull, why do that New Avengers issue that focused on her? Because that seemed to subtly indicate she was a Skrull. Plus, we know Iron Man isn't a skrull (even in the close-up there was no green in his eyes, so he's human) so why throw that red herring in there just to upset people if they've been doing the damage control for months already stressing how un-Skrully Iron Man is. Anyway, I liked it, but this issue seems to show that a lot of the buildup Bendis planned and worked on was merely to shock and sell books and not actually bolster the story itself.

Finally, Ultimate Origins #1 came out and it was underwhelming. Not, like Brian said, because the reveals made no sense, but because the reveals were so cliche. What is revealed in this issue has been done before. In the Marvel Universe. In Earth X (out of continuity), in New X-Men (in continuity?), in Truth (in continuity). But they built this up like it was revolutionary. Which begs the question: why should I care. Aside from that, though, the writing was very good (minimalist Bendis is all too rare these days) and Butch Guise's art is great. I just wish they were doing something better. Like Ultimates 3. Then, that'd be awesome. Or readable anyway.

Must... Finish... 5/29...

2008-06-05T13:49:00.003-04:00

So, to wrap up last week's offerings:

Thor #9 came out. It's really wordy. And only kind of makes sense. And barely has Thor. So...

Ultimate Spider-Man #122 was really good. Every now and then, this book slips a couple of notches and makes bone-headed moves (like Venom, or Carnage), but I have liked every issue since Stuart Immonen took over. And this one is a nice little "done in one" story that gives Ultimate Shocker some context and background.

Uncanny X-Men #498 was good. I'm sure there was supposed to be a shocking reveal of who the mutant causing all these problems was, but I got nothing. Still, I've been enjoying this arc, so far better than Brubaker's previous efforts on the title.

X-Force #4 was bad. I can't believe I (or anyone else) actually reads this stuff. It just kind of meanders, resurrecting odd bits of 90's continuity and ignoring others and generally not fitting in. Plus, Clayton Crain's digital art does not fit. I'd much prefer his pre-Ghost Rider "Top Cow" style on this book, especially given the 90's-love the book unloads on us. HOWEVER, the reprint of issues 1-3 is worth buying because of the cover, which is simply the best cover of any gore-filled, over-the-top X-Men comic featuring killlers with mad bloodlust EVER!

X-Men Legacy #212 came out, too. Which makes a lot of X-Men for one week. It was pretty good. Gambit returns, and over 90% of his dialogue lacks ridiculous, over-the-top "cajunification". And, unlike X-Force, Mike Carey is able to fold bits of 90's X-Men into his books effectively and not make you wonder, "Why would they bring Archangel back if there is an Angel miniseries beginning THE SAME WEEK?" Anyway, spoiler. Also, X-Men Legacy continues to be a pretty good (if not thrilling) title.

Young Avengers #5 made no sense. Even in the context of the "mini-series", it made no sense. I understand that each issue is by a different author and artist, but come on. At least pay attention to what the others have written. Again, spoiler (I guess), but if Cassie pretty much hates the other Young Avengers in the first 4 issues of the series, why would she be all BFF with them this issue? I know, because it's a terrible issue. But still, at least some editorial supervision would be nice. Also, why would a bunch of rebel teen superheroes who defied the government and refused to join SHIELD be excited to watch, essentially, an ultra-conservative almost-superhero who DID become a government shill super-agent on 24 is beyond me. But, again, this is just really bad, so the writer probably didn't care enough to think about that.

And that's it for Marvel.

Fables #73 was more Fables goodness. I just like Fables so much. I take it for granted that this book has made it 73 issues and has only one or two missteps.

Northlanders #6 is the best issue yet. I've been on the fence with this book because, c'mon, Emo Conan? But it's been pretty good up til now, but this issue gets bumped up to Very Good. And, it is Brian Wood's best comic right now. It's a readable book, unlike DMZ, and you can appreciate it instantly, not when you think back on it a day later. And, despite the lead being a d---, you actually do care about the characters, in stark contrast to Local whose lead really needs to stop. And those are both books I like.

And finally, Dan Dare #6 came out this week. Now, my previous knowledge of Dan Dare was the three issue Grant Morrison-Rian Hughes mini "Dare" (reprinted in Yesterday's Tomorrows and worth the price of admission alone), so I am coming to this with zero prior knowledge. And it doesn't matter. The whole thing is compelling enough: Garth Ennis writes a war comic in space. That's it. The art is nice, Gary Erskine doing his more-Chris-Weston-than-Chris-Weston imitation. All in all, a solid, readable effort. Though, the way the are putting this book in trade is all messed up: they are putting issues 1-3 (that's $9 worth of comics) in a $15 hardcover, with a second hardcover collecting 4-7 ($13 in singles) for probably $16 or $17. Then, they're putting out a $30 hardcover of all 7 issues ($22 if purchased singly) in October or November. See, messed up. Not even DC would do that.

And that is the week that was.

Yeah...About That

2008-06-04T20:25:00.004-04:00

Well, this week I'm apparently wearing my angry hat because of one particular book. That book is Ultimate Origins. I have no problem with the Guice. Hell, I have no problem with them trying to go back to the ultimate mission statement of it being a unique universe that has the same characters. What I do have a problem with is, the reveal on the those last couple of pages. That and the fact that they have apparently ignored just about everything Mark Millar did in the burgeoning days of the Ultimate U by giving a certain , pivotal, character powers that have never been mentioned, hinted at or considered even in the books Bendis himself wrote. Oh, and that isn't even the reveal that I am talking about which is frankly silly be comic book standards, but I'll still finish the series. So go check it out to know what will be breaking the internet by the weekend. And now onto the rest of the books.

Secret Invasion # 3 - Like my opinion matters on this one. For what it's worth it's an improvement on the last issue, but still not as good as the first issue. And yes, they tease the unthinkable again. Actually, my only real problem with it is that it seems from time to time that they tease reveals of certain characters (you know who) that seems like it would drop a huge deuce on a lot of quality work that other creators have been doing in the past couple of years. As it's own book though, it's a decent read. And Yu is doing some of the finest work of his career. So, annoying teases aside it's an improvement over last issue. I know I can't wait until issue #5 for the startling return of Mantis. That's a joke...I hope.

Kick Ass # 3 - It's Millar at his Millariest and at some points it teeters on being Ennisish sensibilities. And I couldn't be more thrilled. Still a fun read and it only looks to be getting better. I think that sums it all up really.

Invincible Iron Man #2 - Damn fine. Fraction is keeping up the good work on this one. It's charming, it's got action and yup...Just go buy it.

Cable #4 - Kind of meh. As time wears on I tend to get bothered by some of the things Olivetti does from time to time. I mean I dig the way he renders characters, but some of the effects, the cars and action look a little off from time to time. I mean this is the man who left the Quake 2 targeting reticule in a background in War Journal. Anyway, as for the other content this book is kind of dragging. It's just another example of the modern trend of stretching out what would have been a two issue arc fifteen years ago into at least 4-6 issues for the sake of trade publishing. It's not really that bad it's just drawn out. Makes me afraid for Iron Fist.

Avengers/Invaders # 2 - I have absolutely no idea how this book is going to run for 12 issues. I mean it's been alright so far, but I really think they could wrap this up in a couple more issues. Unless, inevitably, the Avengers get sent through the time bubble and Luke Cage punches out Hitler or Wolverine and 40's Wolverine team up or something. Actually, the most potentially interesting element involves one of the grunts that ended up in the future with the Invaders. And the potential for 2 Submariners showing up next issue. Oh, points off for the bomb arm thing. That just seems bizarre. And if anyone can find evidence of that being an actual tactic well, I'll just be even more disturbed. Pretty much, this book is right in the middle of the pack.

The Boys # 19 - This book had returned to form in the previous arc, and this arc looks to continue the trend. The big thing that changed it was a return to telling stories about characters and attempting to develop them. So, yup, I'd give it the slight thumbs up.

Trinity # 1 - It can't possibly be worse than Countdown... It's not. I seriously have no idea where this is going though, but I'm a sucker for the weekly because, well, it's weekly. I'm going to wait a couple of issues until I pass judgment because this is pure exposition. But at least it'll have consistent art as opposed to Countdown. Also I never knew that I would actually miss 52 as much as I did during the Countdown period.

Well, that's it for me for now. Still haven't read War Journal and I haven't finished Detective yet. If anything that should be a review in and of itself. So there you go. That's about it. I read most of Young X-men and it's, well, Young X-men. With one of the silliest cameos of the year. Why can't we just bring back New X-Men already? And this arc on Spidey was alright which makes me think the next one will probably be awful. Seems to be the way that book goes.

Something You Should Buy: KILLING JOKE ANNIVERSARY hardcover

2008-06-02T22:42:00.004-04:00

I don't love hardcover books. They're clunky and unwieldy and expensive and they're hard to keep open while I'm eating and a whole bunch of other stupid complaints. Hardcover comics are even worse. I know I'm in the minority, but I like the somewhat disposable nature of comics. I like folding 'em back and reading 'em and then tossing them into a box to give to any of my friends' kids who need entertaining when they're at our place. (Not all comics receive this treatment, but a lot do.)

Slapping a hardcover on, say, six issues of Green Lantern and charging thirty bucks for it just feels like ridiculous overkill, like one of those stupid sweaters for a dog. There are a few things make some hardcover comics (mainly Marvel's oversized non-premier hardcovers and DC's Absolute editions) worth the pricetag and inconvenience, though:

Larger size for improved viewing of the artwork.
Bonus materials like scripts, design sketches, pitches, etc.
Corrected coloring and/or art.

It's the last one that makes this edition of the Killing Joke worth the money. Reading this recolored hardcover is like seeing a favorite movie in HD for the first time. It is simply absurd how much this slight-seeming story is improved by being colored thoughtfully, thematically, and carefully by the artist himself, rather than by a separate colorist. (John Higgins, in this case, who has done plenty of quality work in other places and shouldn't be scorned too badly for this tempera nightmare.)

It never occurred to me to ask why the original was colored largely in arbitrary splotches of pink, yellow, and green, and now I don't know how I ignored it for so long. I wish that someone would go back and do this same thing to the other early Vertigo books where whole pages are colored with undifferentiated washes of green, brown, and yellow. (I'm looking at you, early Hellblazer.)

I could go on for pages about this, but it seems like a good picture-worth-a-thousand-words opportunity. Here's a panel from the original edition (my well-worn third printing):

And here's the same panel from the recolored edition:

The flashback sequences are improved as well, dropped out of sepia into cold black-and-white, with flashes of red popping out Schindler's-List-style. Here's the sepia original:

And Bolland's thematically recolored version:

I can't emphasize enough how much this improves the story. It worth the money for an upgrade if you've only got the old version, and makes the book into a must-buy if you don't own it yet. Last I checked (on Saturday), there was a copy on the shelves; if it's gone, ask whoever's behind the counter to order one for you.

Some hardcover collected editions are a waste of time, space, and paper. This isn't one of them.

Still finishing my books...

2008-06-02T10:28:00.003-04:00

I think Marvel Comics Presents (Issue 9 out this week) is being cancelled. I have no evidence yet, but all the stories end at issue #12 (let's hope they last that long) and I think the sales have been weak. Which is a shame because, much like the previous incarnation, you are guaranteed some good art and/or writing in each issue and they're all reasonably enjoyable. Again, I am biased toward the anthology format (I stuck with Spider-Man's Tangled Web until the bitter end), but this was a fun book. Sure, this issue is illustrative of the uneven nature of the book, but I still like it. To wit, it took two writers to write an incoherent ramble staring the Hulk (called Gammarag, maybe, or something, but at least Ed McGuinness's art is great (colored over pencils, I think, so none of Dexter Vines' inks). Then, there's Machine Man (here, more thoughtful and dour than the version in NextWave) drawn by Niko Henrichon, which is coherent, and brings in his unique history. Then there's two long-form stories that fluctuate issue to issue, but are generally pretty good. And it's probably all going to end once all those stories wrap. So sad.

More sad news: Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men has ended with a Giant-size special. And it was good. Don't believe the anti-hype. After a run that was less-than-stellar art-wise, John Cassaday nails every single panel in this issue. Plus, Whedon is in top form. Overall, this is a very good end to an excellent series. Now, Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi take over and, well, we'll see. But hopes are low, though.

Oh, and Matt Fraction is finishing up his run on Immortal Iron Fist. Issue #15 is an okay issue. I think the timing is off: the previous flashback issue had come right after a storyline that introduced and showed glimpses of the previous Iron Fists. This issue features a character that hasn't been mentioned for a year and, while decent enough, it fails to connect to the greater narrative effectively. Still, I liked it. Though, does anyone remember that K'un L'un is a land that exists in and out of time because of an extra-dimensional ship that crashed there and affected its synching with time and space and is inhabited by human-alien hybrids? Just curious...

And now, fun stuff:

Daredevil 107 reunites Ed Brubaker with Greg Rucka and they come up with a cliched plot that, in anyone elses hands, could easily veer into "hackneyed". But they pull it off. Good stuff.

Marvel 1985 is a surprisingly good book. I was expecting, well, "event" Mark Millar -- the one who wrote Civil War, Fantastic Four, and Wanted. Instead, this is more in line with, say Superman: Red Son: an attempt at an actual, literary comic from a guy who spent the last several years writing books about kicking people in the face (like next weeks Kick A--). Needless to say, I was surprised. Sure, as Matt said, this could all be a trite Twilight Zone with Marvel characters, but at least Millar is self-aware enough to poke fun at himself and the industry. There is a great scene of the main character buying books at his LCS and discussing crossovers and how they mess up the main storylines. Rather than rely on Wedding Singer-style "Hey, it's 1985, it's so lame but retro" jokes, he mixes genuine love and nostalgia for the books of 1985. So, while pointing out that Secret Wars started the comic speculation boom, he doesn't hate on Secret Wars; instead he talks about it and its corporate brethern with affection. So, yeah, I liked it. A lot.

And that's it for the day. Tomorrow, THOR! X-FORCE! FABLES!

I Can't Believe I'm THIRD - Matt on books from 5/29

2008-05-30T12:10:00.002-04:00

Three Grant Morrison books. Joss Whedon’s big X-Men finale. A new Mark Millar miniseries at Marvel. Another Bendis-written Secret Invasion tie-in.

So why do I feel so let down overall? Maybe it’s just sleep deprivation.

۞ Final Crisis #1 is a tough one to discuss. Morrison tends to write his arcs as a whole, which can lead to some seriously inscrutable first issues. (And, sometimes, second and third and even fourth issues -- I remember how completely befuddled everyone was almost all the way through the Rock Of Ages arc in his JLA run, and that reads fabulously in collection.) He has a real knack for tying things up satisfyingly, though, so I’m going to reserve final judgment, even though I found this opening salvo to be something less than I had hoped.

۞ All Star Superman #11 and Batman #677, however, are both terrific. Morrison is doing a much better job accommodating the somewhat limited talents of his Batman artists in his scripts, and All-Star Superman sets up the climactic issue with style. God, do I love All-Star Superman. (Also, apropos of my comments on Final Crisis, Morrison’s Batman run thus far reads MUCH better as a chunk than it did as it was being released. Still a shame about the art on those early issues, though.)

۞ Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1 is a really well-executed book that’s a victim of its enormous lateness. If this had been a normal comic, not something that represented the culmination of a storyline spanning (almost exactly) FOUR YEARS, it would be fabulous. If many of the dramatic reveals hadn’t been spoiled during the wait for this last issue, it would be great. As it stands, it’s a very competently done comic that -- like so many late books before it -- will be much better for people reading it collected in the future, when they can get the whole story without waiting three months between chapters.

۞ Green Lantern #31 is still very good. Not really much to say about it beyond that, but you should be reading if you’re not already -- the upcoming Blackest Night crossover looks terrific, and you’re going to regret not being around for the whole buildup if you miss this.

۞ Brian Michael Bendis has quite a few annoying writing tics, and New Avengers #41 indulges one of my least favorite: the scene we’ve already seen, this time from a different perspective that reveals a tiny bit of new information. This comic could’ve been condensed down to two word balloons from Shanna in a much livelier, tighter-written, NON-FLASHBACK-Y comic. I really think Bendis would benefit from more severe limiting of his storytelling space -- the more room he has to spread out into, the more he bloats to fill it.

۞ Mark Millar has a history of being able to write surprisingly good stories about young kids growing up, when he wants to -- the first two issues of Chosen were terrific. -- and Marvel 1985 #1 is yet another good example of that.

Unfortunately, he also has a habit of shoehorning in something complete asinine in the last issue that completely undermines and ignores the strongest parts of what preceded it, so let’s hope he avoids that temptation here. I don’t think he is -- I think this is an updating of a an old Twilight Zone riff, although it’s being telegraphed awfully early if it is -- but you can never tell when Millar is going to think that a clever little story would be improved by some sort of incestuous zombie rape scene or something.

At the very least, he nails PRECISELY how awesome Secret Wars #10 was for a kid at the time. (And how awesome it remains, in fact. There’s a lot of ridiculous junk in that miniseries, but the scene under discussion here is still Dr. Doom at his finest. That and the cover of the Hulk holding up a mountain forgive a lot of silliness.)

۞ And speaking of silliness, we have Helen Killer #2, which answers the question “How long can a mash-up of Daredevil, the Hulk, and The Miracle Worker sustain my attention?” (Hint: not even two issues.) That said, the pun in the title is terrific, and the whole thing is obviously a labor of love for the creators. So they have that going for them, at least.

Also, I reviewed some of this week’s other books in preview format a few days ago, so go see if any of my warnings or suggestions would’ve helped your purchasing this week.

Bendis and Morrison ALWAYS come first

2008-05-30T10:56:00.004-04:00

I'm off to a good start this week: five whole books wrapped and ready to go. AND I had stacks of work to do at my real job, so I'm awesome.

New Avengers #41 was pretty good. I don't have the book in front of me, but I feel as if there was a note in the first issue of Secret Invasion that explained why Ka-Zar and Shanna weren't around, but I may be making that up. Still, for those who don't read interviews, this issue wraps up some dangling plot threads that showed up in issue #1 or 2, giving New Avengers a cohesion and sense of continuity. That's just nice.

Final Crisis #1 is kind of a slow start. As with so many of these event books, you have to take on faith that the next issue will show that the first issue was good because, on its own, it's kind of weak and scattered. Plus, the Dr. Light/Giganta thing felt forced and out of place. But still, there was plenty to like and it did feel self-contained (unlike Infinite Crisis, which felt like a summary of other books that happened to be going on at the same time) and JG Jones is just an awesome artist. As a bonus, it did feel like Countdown (a 51 issue series that told five issues worth of story) had a point. Not a big point, or even a good one, but a point nonetheless.

All-Star Superman #11 is a very good issue that fails to live up to the last issue (if you haven't read All-Star Superman #10, we can't be friends because it is the greatest single issue of 2008, no question), but that's okay. It's still very good. Good writing, plotting, art. A solid package. When the Absolute Edition comes out (and it will come, no doubt), that's going to be a volume to have.

Batman #677 was the third Grant Morrison book released this week. If only WildC.A.T.S. #2 had also been released... But I digress. I'm excited about this book because, for a year or more, it felt like he was spinning his wheels: weak plots, blown deadlines, art that was barely good enough to be called dreadful, and no apparent direction. This is him pulling it together. He doesn't save or even justify the earlier issues, but he is finally telling a story he cares about and has a sense of purpose again. Some of the ideas that get name-checked are intriguing, but I am guessing (hoping?) these are lies planted by the Black Glove.

King-Size Hulk #1, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of the other books on this list. It's a decent story, lots of big action, just like the Hulk series, but there's no point to it all. The art is great: Art Adams doing more than two pages of interiors is probably worth $5, plus you get Frank Cho and Herb Trimpe to boot. But the story is filler, just mindless backstory that was unnecessary in the main title, so why tell it? I do hope another issue of Hulk gets released, though, because Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness at their most Jeph-Loeb-and-Ed-McGuiness-iest is just good times for everyone.

So, are there going to be comics next week?

2008-05-29T22:27:00.003-04:00

Seriously, just about every book that I read came out this week so suffice it to say I was rather busy today. And I'm just going to go through them in the arbitrary order that they're in at this moment in time. And they're going to be quick because of the season finale of Lost.

New Warriors # 12 - I really have no idea why I'm still reading this book. Wait, I'm a sucker for Paco Medina. Yup, I'm one of those Eastern influenced art style guys. Anyway, This book has just gotten incredibly repetitive. Night Thrasher does something clandestine that nobody approves of. There's some D-List villain wrecking shop. Everyone gets out of it and hugs are all around. And they begrudgingly accept Night Thrasher's reason for surreptitious behavior. With hugs. God I miss classic Beak.

X-Men Legacy # 212 - Keeps getting better and better. Seriously, if you read one MONTHLY (Yes, Astonishing is still better, but, you know, February.) X- book make it this one. It's got deep ties to the lore. A sensible retcon for the douchebag Xavier of the new millennium. And more Gambit than any other book on the shelves. If you like that sort of the thing (i.e. part pimp, part accent that is terribly annoying when overused, and all the pink spandex you can handle)

Uncanny X-Men # 498 - Something happened. I dig Mike Choi's art. Even though everyone looks 15 in the face. It's okay. even though they bring in a villain at the end who belongs in X-Force. Yeah, so...hippies...terrifying? Better than the last couple issues.

Ultimate Spidey # 122 - A cute one and done. Introduces a potentially recurring character. And who doesn't love Ultimate Shocker? At least it's not Geldof? It was alright. Way better than the Deadpool or Sable arcs of years past. Hopefully symbiote wars is better than Venom bomb.

New Avengers # 41 - No sir, I don't like it. I don't know how you can follow up the kick assery of Jim Cheung with the meh that is Billy Tan. Oh, and the story is pretty much a bunch of stuff that you could infer if you read any interviews on SI. He said there were skrulls in New Avengers "Breakout" arc. The ship landed in the Savage Land. As we know there have been Skrulls in SHIELD for a couple of years. I don't think you have to be Richard Oppenheimer to put this one together. Seems a bit unnecessary. Oh, and does anyone believe that Skrull Cap is the real deal? Because if he is...man...worst idea since...just pick something from the 90's

Batman #677 - This is face meltingly good. Seriously, there are bombs that are dropped here that would not work if any other writer was dropping them. It's one of those things were there is the potential to muck up seventy some years of continuity, but if done properly could be mind blowing...for super hero comics. Go buy this. Right now. It'll get that rotten macaroni taste that Resurrection of Ra's Al Guhl may have left in your mouth. Go. finish reading this later. It's not nearly as important.

Iron Fist # 15 - Why aren't you buying Batman 677? God. Still there? Fine. An okay issue of Iron Fist is still better than the majority of books published. That's all that needs to be said I think.

Green Lantern # 31 - Keeping up the damn fine work. It's the #3 super hero book being put out by DC right now in my opinion. The art's solid. The characterization is on point. And they managed to update Pieface...after a fashion. I don't really know how you modernize a character that comes from an outdated colloquial slur that I guess we don't have on the East Coast. Anyway, good stuff. Go buy this book too if you like the capes and tights.

All Star Superman # 11 - The #1 or #2 super hero book coming out from DC right now. It's between this and Batman in my opinion. If you're reading it you know. If you're not. I hate to say this, but...you suck. That's really it. Go, go, get this now. I'm just kidding you don't suck. Sorry, I just get a little snippy because you aren't reading All Star Superman is all.

Young Avengers Presents: Stature - Look, I loved the Henninberg and Cheung. We all did. This book gets a pass because of those sentiments as far as my purchasing of it. That said, I in no way cannot recomend this book with any aplomb. How do I put this...this book is so saccharine that I think I have type 2 diabetes. That ma have been too harsh. Oh well.

X-Force #4 - This book is so very X-Force. It's like that kid you knew in high school who loved Ramstein wrote some X-men fan fiction. But, I kind of like the art for all of it's metal sensibilities. And now onto the rant...How do I put this...the reappearance of a character in this issue makes no (expletive deleted) sense. It (expletive deleted) all over the (expletive deleted) character work of the last (expletive deleted) decade. I mean it worked in the (expletive deleted) 80s. Because it made sense coming out of Mutant Massacre. This here though is just some (expletive deleted). Seriously, Douglock was a better idea than this. Or hell, why don't we just through Technet in the mix. At this point I'd kill for some Technet right now. Or hell, let's bring back Skin and give him some Adammantium skin. I don't know. I'm just waiting for the one where the X-Force Babies murder Power Pack at this point. But, that probably won't stop me from buying it. God that's sad. I did like the puppy variant on the reprints though. I don't know, you're going to buy this anyway.

Giant Size Astonishing X-Men - Go. Buy. Now. Also, called it before the editorial gaffe when the book was supposed to come out (but who didn't?). But not everything. You'll know when you get there. And then it makes so much sense. And it feels so right. Oh, and Marvel needs to let/ force Joss Whedon to write a Spidey book.

Final Crisis # 1- I was pleasantly surprised. IT doesn't seem like the main book is cramming everything in like with Infinite Crisis. (Yes, I'm looking squarely at Rann/Thanagar...and possibly looking back at Rann/Thanagar again.) Anyway, It's good stuff all around. Still on the fence about the New Godz though. Suffice it to say at this point I'm more excited for this mega event than I thought I would be. But, I don't want to get ahead of myself. And hey, two of the less crappy story arcs from Countdown made it in. Unless Mary Marvel kills Libra with an upskirt. Which would probably sell a million copies.

And that's about it for me. I missed the preview books and all of that. Oh, and I totally agree with Matt that DC should do a better job with explaining their cover banners because unless you read Seven Soldiers you may have been curious about the Dark Side club in last week's books. Should be retty self explanatory if you read Final Crisis. Oh, and I got Berserk #23. It earns that Parental Advisory sticker every time it comes out.

Comics Reviews...From the PAST!

2008-05-27T17:09:00.004-04:00

Labor Day or whatever we just celebrated kind of threw me off. Plus, Verizon totally [edit] me over on installing my high-speed interwebs connection, so I still lack the ability to post from home. Because I still have dial-up. Because I have not advanced technologically since 1996, apparently (because, before that I had a 14.4 k modem, so I've moved up). Anyway:

The only DC book I read this week was, apparently, The Spirit #17, a book that continues its swift decent to be a strong competitor for "Worst Book I Read Out of Habit". Much like the other competitors (Game Keeper, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimates 3... actually there's a lot of competition here) it's a book that I used to like, but the bailing of A-List (or at least competent) teams or individuals has absolutely destroyed it. Here, Darwyn Cooke made a terrific, enjoyable, all-ages package that has then been defamed by otherwise competent creators. This issue has Spirit taking a sea cruise and ripping off a plot from "Murder, She Wrote". The art, which had been by Mike Ploog and Paul Smith on previous issues, is by Aluir Amancio, whose cheesecake renditions seem out of place at best.

Indies also had a weak showing: I only picked up Gargoyles: Bad Guys #3, which I enjoyed. It's Gargoyles, so I'll spare you a review. But, it's like the show, but a comic.

Now, on to Marvel. Fun fact, a year ago, I was buying more DC than Marvel.

Amazing Spider-Man #560 continues a string of enjoyable Spidey stories. I had doubts, but really, it's the closest to a kid-friendly in continuity book either Marvel or DC has. People can complain about the violence but, come on, I read Grendel when I was far too young and I'm fine. Ish. Good stuff, really.

Captain America #38 just kind of rules. I don't know why every single comic-reading person is not buying this book. Great cover, awesome art, and the early reveal is just SO good. Brubaker is awesome at pulling off twists that are obvious and surprising all at once (see Criminal, Sleeper, et al). Plus, I am just happy Secret Invasion has not insinuated itself into his grand epic like, say, Civil War did (although, that worked out okay).

Fantastic Four #557 continues Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's very decent run on the title. Hopefully, the next storyline will be an improvement, but it is depressing that the book I was looking forward to so much has turned into something so blah. It's better than Stracynski's run (or sprint), though.

X-Factor #31 was perfectly fine. And the Arcade story is done, so that's nice.

Rounding out the week, there were two Ultimate books (an improvement over past months that saw four to five Ultimate books ON THE SAME DAY), Fantastic Four and X-Men, and both were bad for their own, unique reasons. UFF #54 had some terrible Liefeld-meets-Turner art by Tyler Kirkham. Mike Carey's script is fine, though, if a little padded out to set up the "big reveal" (which was lame).

Then, there was Ultimate X-Men #94, which, just, baaah! I'm not going to defend Robert Kirkman here; his run was somewhere between awful and unreadable. He deliberately went against the established Ultimate continuity (how hard is it to pay attention to all of 50 issues of continuity, really). He wrote a spasmodic, borderline-masturbatory version of '90s excess comics. But, I swear, Aron Collete is worse. Because he writes his book like it IS a '90s X-Men book. Men of Mystery! Random violence! Characters spouting non-sense to build mystique! (Note: I don't care who really Sasquatch is, no matter how much you want me to). So, yeah, this is just a bad as Kirkman's run, but different bad.

And that's the week. I realize now that, if I didn't read bad books, I'd read no books at all. Which is depressing.

Comic Reviews from the FUTURE! - Matt previews 5/29

2008-05-25T07:15:00.003-04:00

Remember, books are on Thursday this week. If you come in on Wednesday, all you'll be able to do is talk to the staff. And who wants to talk to the staff?

Anyhow, here's what I think about the upcoming books.

۞ My original review of Immortal Iron Fist #15 centered around what a disappointing end it is to the Matt Fraction/Ed Brubaker run, with so-so art (for a title that's been graced with some little-known but stellar artists) and an overly talky story. The issue was especially disappointing since the last Times Past issue was probably my favorite single issue Marvel's published in the last decade or so.

So you can imagine my relief that Fraction's got one more issue to tie his stuff up and give a solid launch to the upcoming team, supposedly (hope hope hope!) with pencils from original artist David Aja. But the bulk of my thoughts still hold true. The first serious misstep from an excellent comic.

۞ Thor #9 - Okay, look: I don't like J. Michael Straczynski's work. I'll be up front about that. His stories all seem to take themselves SO SERIOUSLY and claim to have such earthshaking importance, and yet they are so ponderously dull. Like baseball, or presidential debates. So THAT certainly doesn't predispose me toward this book.

But am I the only who hates the pseudo-archaic font they use for the Asgardian word balloons? It renders the book even more unreadable than most of JMS's stuff.

۞ I lost a lot of interest in Ultimate Spider-Man when Mark Bagley left, which is notably odd, as I've never really thought particularly highly of Bagley's art. AND I usually like Stuart Immonen. So that was weird. Also, not something I'm going to solve in this review.

Anyhow, issue #122 feels like the best issue in a long time. Nice bit with the villain, some hints toward Ultimate Origins, Bendis keeps his worst tics in check (needless padding, irritatingly same-y dialogue) and still uses his abundant talents, and some good MJ/Kitty stuff make this really worth checking out, especially if you bailed like I did.

۞ Uncanny X-Men #498 is yet another weird issue of a weird run on this book for me: I hate the art, hate the plot, think the characters aren't acting like themselves ... and yet I remain hopeful. Part of that is that the book will soon be reteaming the writing staff from my beloved Iron Fist, and part of it is ... I have no idea. Faith in Brubaker? Pathetic devotion to an aging franchise? I have no clue.

۞ X-Force #4 - Apparently Dexter really liked this book, but Dexter is clearly the sort of person who cannot be trusted with matters of taste. Seriously? This is the distilled essence of everything that went wrong with the X-Men in the nineties and early 2000s.

It's got grim 'n gritty, black leather, ultra-violence, and all of the worst villains in X-Men history TOGETHER AT LAST. Not to mention the not-at-all-awaited return of a really stupid character direction from the eighties. If it were handled with any sort of humor or subtlety, I suppose it could be big dumb fun, but as presented, I can live without it.

۞ X-Men Legacy #212 - Is this coming out weekly? I mean, better too often than never (check out the in-store date on that link!) but good lord. Anyhow, the art is the weakest of this run, and nothing here makes Gambit any less stupid than usual, but I'm still really enjoying this nevertheless. Mike Carey is quietly becoming a really solid superhero writer.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys thought.....

Matt on some of this week's books.

2008-05-23T16:01:00.003-04:00

Hm. Apparently having a kid puts a damper on the amount of time one can spend reading comics, and an even firmer damper on the amount of time one can spend writing about reading comics (especially for no pay). Here's some of what I read, typed with a dozing kid on my lap.

(Also, don't forget that I reviewed a bunch of this week's books in advance last week. If, you know, you're interested in such things.)

● Justice League of America #21 is apparently an Important Book because Libra appears and does some stuff that sure seems almost exactly like the stuff that The Mockingbird was doing in the run-up to Infinite Crisis. You are supposed to know this because it says "SIGHTINGS" on the cover. I'm not sure how effective this branding is going to be, as the logo is eminently ignorable, not to mention ugly and nonsensial.

Dwayne McDuffie does his traditional underrated terrific job with the character moments, but ... I can't shake the feeling that I've seen it all before, very recently. Carlos Pacheco is one of my favorite superhero artists of the last decade, and it looks like someone has given him a stern talking-to about not giving Superman squinty eyes. Now they all have the creepy Gary Frank Thousand Yard Stare, but whatever. Good book.

● Every time an issue of Justice Society of America comes out, I realize that I have no recollection whatsoever who half the characters are or why they're doing what they're doing. Sometimes this is because I am dumb, other times because I have not been reading DC Comics since the dawn of man, and still other times just because there are nine billion characters in this book. Issue #15 manages to be confusing for all three reasons at once, and winds up borderline incomprehensible as a result! Nicely done, fellas.

● Incredible Hercules #117 is the best Secret Invasion tie-in yet, even though it took me well over an hour to read it in between my child's fussing sessions. The script by Pak and Van Lente is sharp, the plot is both clever and relevant to the crossover as a whole, and the art is terrific superhero stuff. I really like this book, and this might be my favorite issue yet.

● The Flash #240. Huh? Soooo ... this is some sort of Final Crisis tie-in, maybe? There are Darkseid references, anyhow, and some sort of banner-branding of "The Dark Side Club" on the cover? I have no idea. In fact, I have no idea what the higher-ups at DC are even thinking anymore. Anyhow, I'm completely in the tank for Freddie Williams II's art, so I liked this, even with the crossover perplexity and Tom Peyer's not-as-clever-as-it-thinks script. (When Peyer nails one, he NAILS it. The rest of the time, he's Joe Casey with a much better interview persona.)

● Mighty Avengers #14 makes me sad that Marvel thinks that their clever metafictional marketing gimmick actually needed to become a character. I don't know why -- this issue is perfectly fine, with some legitimately clever twists in the Secret Invasion plot -- but it does.

Two quick bits

2008-05-22T10:33:00.003-04:00

I had to work last night, so I only managed to get through two comics:

Mighty Avengers # 14: Brian Bendis adds a new chapter in his fan fiction Sentry story, and I liked it, probably the first time that's happened. I didn't really care for the original mini-series (though I do love me some Jae Lee), and his usage since then has ranged from trivial to inappropriate to "How do we end this...ooh..have the Sentry come to the rescue!" I was kind of hoping he'd be a Skrull (spoiler, I guess?) because he's such a nothing character. Still, I did like this issue, especially since it gave more weight to the light Secret Invasion #2. I still don't like Khoi Pham that much, but the writing seems to be getting better since Frank Cho left, so that's nice.

X-Men: Divided We Stand #2: Judging by sales numbers, people really don't care for anthology series. Me, I love them. It gives writers and artists a chance to work on characters (or experiment with styles) that they wouldn't otherwise get to try. These two issues have acted mostly as a prequel to Young X-Men, which is okay, I guess, and no particular story is particularly strong, but on the whole it's a pretty good collection. Plus, some of the art (especially Frazier Irving and whoever did the Forge story) is just...pretty.

Saturday Man in the house

2008-05-22T09:30:00.003-04:00

X-Force #4.

Four badasses. Claws and blades. Black outfits. Red eyes. Add killer carte blanche from Cyclops himself, and there's no reason why issue #1 shouldn't have been February's top-selling book. With next week's issue #4, I'm now convinced that this will be a top-selling title for as long as Kyle, Yost, and Crane can crank out narrative and visuals that match the high concept. I've always wondered why it takes two guys to write a comic. But double duty from the writing team definitely pays off with a nice balance of pacing and characterization as some shocking developments catch us off-guard, and the villains add one (or maybe 100) more to their ranks. No doubts about Crane, though. He's doing as much as anyone not named Yu to define how his comic should look and feel with the most richly textured images in superhero comics today. While other X-books have suffered from lack of focus post "Messiah Complex," "X-Force #4" makes a a strong case as the best mutants have to offer this month. ("X-Force Legacy of Vengeance" collects issues #1 - #3 and will be on the shelves 5/29. Jump on it.)

I'll take crack for two hundred Alex. And decent comics.

2008-05-22T00:06:00.004-04:00

Mighty Avengers # 14- So...what you're telling me is that skrull Jarvis is responsible for Avengers Disassembled/ House of M? That's rad. Gleaming the Cube (or A Brother's Justice) rad is what I have to say. Okay, but here's the thing: in House of M, Spider-Woman a skrull ends up in mutie S.H.I.E.L.D. Think about it. Small thing. Nit picky as hell, but think about it. Has nothing to do with storytelling, quality of work or anything substantive: just plot holes. Whatever. Whole things a tad silly ( John Locke is moving the island and Fonzie is putting his foot in water skis is all.) And now onto the review. It was okay. I don't really care much for the Sentry as the years roll by. The character hasn't really grown in any way since his inception a few years back and is pretty much a Deus Ex Machina/ post modern Bizarro (in the sense that it reflects the core change in the medium's values with a morally static character like Superman. With schizophrenia being a substitute for Superman's dated world view. Or not.) Weakest Avengers SI tie in so far. But, on the bright side, if the other issues weren't way better I wouldn't be holding it up to a such a high standard.

Onto actual reviews. Fantastic Four # 557 - Ted Kord said it best: "One punch!" Seriously though, you have all of this build up and then you have the one Deus Ex Machina go all Rock 'Em Sock 'Em on the other Deus Ex Machina for a two page spread. Kind of weak. Also, "I got you a ring with a galaxy in it." "Oh, I got you the new Dylan and a Sam Goody card." Says it all. Hitch's art is still on point though and Doom gives me a new hope for the next arc. As does Millar's typical kick assery.

Initiative # 13. Like cornbread, there is nothing wrong with it. Also, a lovable Taskmaster makes my heart smile. I still miss the original line up, but whatever. I'm going to get all "Mad Money" for a second and put this book down as a buy, buy, buy. Competent art, new characters that I hate less on sight (Trauma, I am looking squarely in your soon to be dated direction... cuzin'.) and the ever clever Dan Slott keep me coming back for more.

Incredible Hercules # 117. Exposition. Says it all. But, exposition from Herc is better than anything going on in Hulk so there you have it. Things do border on the silly at points though. And we may have some angry pagans by the end of it. All the adequacy you can handle. But, thoroughly engaging for a set-up issue.

Captain America # 38. There is a very reason that there are no copies of much of the Brubaker run at the shop. So good. So much better than his run on Uncanny. And a twist that hasn't made me dumber by proximity. Kudos for that. But in all seriousness (as serious as one can get about capes and tights)... go... now!

Dreamwar # 2. Yeah, not so much. It's like Supreme Power...but with worse art. You know, because it's the team up that literally nobody demanded. (For my dollar I'd rather watch Kal-el go out for drinks with Jesse Custer and Cass any day over this. Even though it would both cheapen every fond memory of any Vertigo book ever as well as disgust all parties involved.) Anyway, mediocre art coupled with typical cross over business equals apathy. But, true to form, I'm still going to buy every issue because I already have the first two. Makes me miss classic Authority (TPBs 1-4) though

Ultimate X-Men # 94. All it takes is a little regime change to revitalize a book. New ideas, a total reset from the Bah, just Bah, Kirkman run and a story arc that doesn't cross the border of ludicrous junction is all it takes for me to enjoy this book again. By total reset I do mean the de-bastardizing of some characters goes on. None of the new characters have their skulls just floating in a head shaped jar. The writing is okay and the Matt Brooks art is from the Bagley school of consistency. Gets the thumbs up. Comparatively speaking.

Ghost Rider #23. S'okay. Gets all Shymalan. Like just about every book this week. But with fewer skrulls.

As for the future yet to come. X-Men Legacy keeps getting better. X-Force is still very much so X-Force (Oh, and Elixir is gold. You'd think they'd have old issues lying around there for reference materials.) Things actually happened in Uncanny. And maybe some of the DC books I read will be out. (JLA was a decent one and done though. With the most Baltimore of any book on the shelf.)

I wonder if I have to review everything every week...

2008-05-19T11:18:00.003-04:00

Of the thirty singles I read this weekend, only six actually came out this week. Since Youngblood wasn't one of them, that review will have to wait another month. Or three.

Batman #676: I also read issue #675 and, reading them back to back is kind of weird. In #675, he seems back in peak physical condition after his whole "dying for four minutes" thing, but then in #676, he's tender and off his game. Which is just jolting. As for the issue itself, really good. There's a luchadore business man, the plot is finally moving forward, and (sadly) Tony Daniel's art is welcome after the last issue's ugly renderings.

Booster Gold #9: I love this book. Even this issue, which may be the weakest so far, is still just great. It's a bit darker than the earlier issues, but still a fun read.

Serenity #3: It's an episode of Firefly. If you bought this because you like Joss Whedon and Buffy, you were probably disappointed and/or confused by this. Luckily, because this is written like a graphic novel instead of a three issue miniseries, so even people who liked Firefly were confused, too.

Twelve #5: Between this and the "monthly" Thor, I am liking J Michael Straczynski again. Sure, Amazing Spider-Man fell really hard under his watch, and Bullet Points ranks as one of the worst things I forced myself to read (including Countdown, and that was 51 issues). But with this, he has an idea and he's seeing it through. Sure there are preachy bits (visiting under-priveleged schools), but I personally liked the slight twist (bend, really) that hit the Laughing Mask. Did not see it coming. Really, really good stuff.

Wolverine #65: I really will buy just about any Wolverine comic. Luckily, this was actually pretty good, RetCons and all. It's not gonna win any awards, but Jason Aaron shows he can handle established characters and continuity well.

Guy Richie's Gamekeeper: Series 2 #3: I enjoyed the first volume of this. The high concept here is: Punisher as an actual sociopath. He's taciturn, he kills without remorse, he gets revenge. Volume 1 (at the time just known as "Gamekeeper") was written by Andy Diggle and the lead character spoke maybe three lines an issue and killed gangsters with abandon. Series 2 is written by Jeff Parker, who makes everything too talky, including the anti-social anti-hero from the first volume. While not enjoying it as much as I had the first volume, it was okay. Until now. This issue is just, well, by fits boring and just terrible. The "plot twist" at the end is, quite possibly, the worst plot twist EVER. Not just because it's a cliche, but because it is so out of left field, and involves characters who have only existed for a year that it undermines the eight issues that came before it, making you wonder why you should keep caring about a comic from a third-rate publisher "directed" by Mr. Madonna, who hasn't made a good movie in ten years. Terrible, terrible stuff. I'll keep reading it, though (like Countdown or Bullet Points), but I won't like it.

And that's it, probably for the week. We'll see.

-Paul

And the posts keep trickling in

2008-05-16T10:23:00.003-04:00

I worked really hard to read four whole comics just for y'all:

Thunderbolts #120: I would read Warren Ellis' "Norman Osborn: Director of Thunderbolts." Also, apparently OMD in Amazing Spider-Man erased everything Straczynski did on the title, and brought Harry Osborn back to life, but it could not undo the Stacy twins? Seriously? I still liked this a heck of a lot (even when they showed people who were not Norman Osborn), and especially compared to

newuniversal: shockfront #1: I was actually excited to read this. In the year since the last series ended, I had developed fond memories of the original series (though not fond enough to re-read it). After reading this, though, I remembered my problem with the previous series: it was boring. And this, despite explosions, mass destruction, and killing, is slower. Three pages of complaining about manga? Really? Explaining Spitfire and then not featuring her, like, AT ALL? Justice killing people off-panel? At least without an A-list artist there's a chance it'll come out on time.

Amazing Spider-Man #559: If you've been reading Brand New Day, this is more of the same: New villain, Peter has no money, quick read, awesome art, overall very good (and much better than last issue).

Wolverine: Amazing Immortal Man and Other Bloody Tales: I'll read anything with Wolverine. Or Cable. It's my guilty pleasure, shut up. Actually, except Origins, which I dropped after about issue 12 because, well, nothing happened in 12 issues, so... But this? I've never read Stray Bullets, so maybe I'm not "getting" something here, but these three short stories by David Lapham are just bad. Terrible. Terror, Inc. looks subtle and complex by comparison. So, the book is three short stories illustrated by different artists that show Wolverine at various times in the past (all during his "kill'em all and let God sort 'em out" phase) being an Emo charicature of Wolverine: delivering babies, being a sypathetic shoulder to cry on, letting toddler killers go so they can grow up and become real killers before he then kills them, and so forth. I feel dirty owning this (and I have Lost Girls). Dreadful.

Comic Reviews ... of the FUTURE! - Matt reviews 5/21

2008-05-16T01:18:00.002-04:00

Reviews of the Marvel previews -- these books will be on the shelves and ready for your well-manicured hands this coming Wednesday, May 21^st. For now, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

I hate Wolverine: Origins. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I think Daniel Way is a boring writer, and he seems to loathe the characters he’s writing. And yet issue #25 really isn’t too bad. It advances the plot nicely, begins to tie up one of the more unnecessary plotlines in recent memory, and works within its own logic. It’s also probably improved by comparison to the DREADFUL reprint of New Mutants #97 that they’ve included as a backup for no discernible reason.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #54 is actually quite good. I haven’t been reading it since ... good lord, I don’t know, probably since the last Mark Millar run three years ago, but this is a solid FF story that manages to feel like the Fantastic Four while still being identifiably the Ultimate version of the characters. Who knew? The art is blandly attractive as well.

Iron Man Director of SHIELD #29, combined with Green Lantern Corps from this week, leads me to believe that I don’t much like Stuart Moore’s writing. It’s a pity, too, because he was a terrific editor at Vertigo years ago.

Ultimate X-Men #94: thank god that Kirkman run is over. This could go either way, but it’s a promising start and much more tonally in line with the early issues of this book than Kirkman’s weirdly detached ‘90s pastiche was.

Captain America #38, still the most consistent book Marvel publishes. (Although this storyline is beginning to drag a bit -- was Cap really killed over a year ago, real-time?!?)

Fantastic Four #557 is the best issue so far of the Millar/Hitch run, although who would ever have suspected what faint praise that is.

X-Factor #31, also incredibly consistent, and also feeling like it’s spinning its wheels somewhat. I never thought I would type these words, but the book is really missing something without Layla Miller.

I'm slow...

2008-05-15T09:19:00.003-04:00

Since I'm roughly a month and a half behind on my reading, I have only managed to get through a couple of new books so far. Let's go:

Captain Britain and MI-13 #1 was a good start to what will ultimately be an okay series (I'm guessing). It's a bit strange that this series effectively makes the MAX mini-series Wisdom part of accepted Marvel cannon (along with the Skrull Beatles). What I liked about this issue, as opposed to the mini-series is that it had a plot. The Wisdom mini seemed to bounce around from idea to idea without much coherence or plot betwixt. This, on the other hand, tells a linear, clearly constructed narrative (though it is a toss-off tie-in) and does a pretty good job of it. I just think we won't end up caring about what happens when all is said and done.

X-Men: Legacy #211 is the fourth chapter in a strange new direction for X-Men. The point of the book seems to be to redeem Professor X, a character who has been bloodied by recent retcons by everyone from Brubaker to Bendis to Joss Whedon. Professor X, having been shot in the brain, is trying to piece together his past, as well as atone for his sins. This arc reminds me of reading X-Men books of the 90s: I never quite understood what was going on (because it is SO reliant on continuity), but I enjoyed it because of the sense that there was this long, storied history to all the characters. At this point, it is just okay, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Be back tomorrow with more.

Paul

FIRST POST!!!!!!11!!!! - Reviews for books from 5/14

2008-05-15T01:26:00.002-04:00

Well, I suppose that SOMEONE is going to have to start this, and silences have always made me twitchy. So it might as well be me.

Let’s start with DC.

Green Lantern Corps #24 manages to take all the goodwill I have for these books, following on the terrific-ness of Sinestro Corps War, and squander it on an eleventh-hand iteration of a half-assed old Alan Moore story. Sort of like ... well, sort of like a lot of the other stuff going on in the Green Lantern books, to be honest, only without half of the panache or an eighth of the writing ability.

Batman #676, on the other hand, is the first issue where Grant Morrison’s run is starting to cohere as a whole for me, thanks in part to a dramatic improvement in the art. (And the fact that I consider Tony Daniel to be a dramatic improvement should let you know just how unreadable I find whichever Kubert it was that started this run off.)

I keep reading Booster Gold, currently on issue #9, largely because I’m convinced it’s good. There’s no actual evidence of its ostensible goodness, but I keep reading anyhow. This issue has roughly 2,000 too many words, and owes its entire existence to an uncomfortable mashing together of the Giffen/DeMatteis sitcom JLI with the Johns/Meltzer/Rucka dystopian nightmare of OMACs and Identity Crisis. It works marginally less well than that description would imply. Also, Dan Jurgens hasn’t changed his penciling style since 1989.

Batman Confidential #17, on the other hand, was a completely unexpected dose of fun. Kevin Maguire is one of the few artists who can make me buy a book I’m otherwise uninterested in (such as his otherwise TERRIBLE issue of Superman/Batman a year or so back), and this is one of the cases where the gamble pays off. Fun times in the DC Universe, which are all too rare these days.

Meanwhile, over at Marvel....

Captain Britain and MI13 #1 is one of two Secret Invasion books this week, the one I was most excited for. It’s a de facto sequel to the Wisdom MAX miniseries, and it’s ... okay, I suppose. A lot of the charm of the earlier mini is gone, in service of the awkward jihad-esque Secret Invasion plot. But Skrull John Lennon is a lead character, and that makes it worth buying no matter what. You should really get the collected edition of the earlier miniseries, though, because that was much better -- and it might lay some groundwork for this whole Invasion thing.

The other Secret Invasion book is Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1. It’s written by Robert Aguirre-Sacasa, which is significant because he wrote the vastly underrated Marvel Knights 4 series, and it’s nice to have him back on Marvel’s first family. This is a much more successful SI crossover than Captain Britain, fitting in well with the main limited series AND tying back in to a particularly strange bit of FF history. Worth reading.

newuniversal: Shockfront #1: because Warren Ellis likes compound words and hates proper capitalization. This is an improvement over the earlier newuniversal miniseries for two reasons: 1) The characters are no longer painfully obvious photoreferences, and 2) KICKERS INC. puts in an appearance! KICKERS INC.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elsewhere in the Warren Ellis-verse, Thunderbolts continues to be completely fabulous with issue #120.

The best book of the week, though, is Locke & Key #4, published by IDW. Joe Hill (aka Stephen King’s kid) continues to shine as a writer of modern horror comics, and Gabriel Rodriguez is a find on art. Seriously, so many of the creators who start in other media stumble when they get to comics -- too many words (see: Captain Britain) or awkward scene transitions (see: that Iron Man mini by Favreau from last week) or just a general frustration with the form (see: Jodi Picoult’s Wonder Woman run, among many others). Hill avoids all that, and is in the process of crafting a genuinely spectacular horror comic worthy of his father, while making tremendous use of the comic book form. You really should be reading this.

There. That wasn’t so bad for my first week out of the gate, was it? Let’s see how we hold up.....