Gotta go to work in a few here -- Lester is on "vacation" (something about a nude midget chocolate factory?), so I have to go cover his shift. Curse you Lester, you infernal bastard!!

I spend yesterday's shift doing "industry reading" Wizard, CBG, etc. There go my brain cells. So I only have 4 comics here to discuss. By tomorrow I plan to go over this week's trades, then take Sunday off and hopefully, Monday wrap up the last of this week's reviews just in time to get another pile of new comics.

This is my life. Week in, week out, over and over again.

BATGIRL #54: That was kinda cool -- the story actually turned on her illiteracy, and something mean was said. Good.

CAPER #10: A little too over the top, but there were some good one-liners here -- I can;t see this being sustainable for 44 more pages though? OK

METAL HURLANT #12: Anthologies are usually pretty uneven, but I thought this first MH published under the DC co publishing deal was pretty solid from cover to cover -- as a a first, I don't think there was a story here I didn't enjoy. This was as good as Heavy Metal once was, decades ago. Good.

PLANETARY #20: Damn damn damn fine stuff. We finally meet the Thing, and take him out all at once. Barrelling towards a conclusion -- one uglier than we expect, I suppose. Excellent.

 

That's it for now -- be back soon.

 

-B

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Something they don't tell you about babies -- the little beasts are STRONG. Ben can easialy haul 150% of his weight, and I'm scared he'll figure out what a fulcrum is.  The real problem, though, is that they have NO IDEA they are strong -- they use thier full strength all of the time because, well, why wouldn't you?

We and Tzipora have little welts all over our bodies when Ben has given us a hard pinch while trying to climb somewhere.

While I'm going to try to review "everything" for the next few weeks, once I've cycled through a whole month, I'll probably drop back to "items of significance". Are you liking this format, by the way? Should I change anything? Add publisher credits, maybe? Opinions!

SINGULARITY 7: Ben Templesmith's new book and it's really pretty to look at. Sure, the story is pretty much a warmed over 21st century Dawn of the Dead meets Terminator, and, yes, his scripting is a little overwraught in places, but it's damn fine to look at, and the story problems don't get in the way of enjoying it. I also like that he's using a brighter palette than in 30 Days of Night -- this is Good stuff.

TAROT #27: And we veer ever closer to Bondage Fairies territory.  I'm continually stunned by the contrast of the messages of the comic compared to the ones in the editorial section. Reading Tarot always makes me feel like I'm a robot in "I, Mudd"... "But if you are telling the truth, then it must be a lie, but if you are lying, then you must be telling the truth. Norman.... coordinate! *fzzzt*" Awful, but I don't think you can judge this on the same scale of a real comic...

POWERLESS #2: It's a What If...? story, I guess, but it suffers from too-many-ingrediants-itis. Honestly, less is more, and having this span the entire Marvel Universe-yet-not just gives me a headache. Nice art by Gaydos, but I didn't care about a single page of the 22. Eh.

BATMAN #630: While "last stand in the Batcave" is a good idea (and not one especially overused, really), it's probably better to save it for something of more significance than the (*shudder*) "Scarebeast". I suppose it's a stab at trying to solve the "Wait, what the fuck can we do with the Scarecrow, anyway? He's a sub-one-trick pony!" problem, but turning him into a version of the Hulk who says "Are you scared yet"? Nah, not the path to have gone. Other than Wagner's covers, I've really disliked this arc. Awful.

LEGION #36:  Something bad happens, something else bad happens, another bad thing happens.... did Gail steal Bendis' notes for Avengers? Waiting for motivations, or rationales or something to make it a mystery or a story rather than just a series of events. Part of the problem is that events are too big -- any humanity becomes a sidenote, rather than the focus like good fiction. It's not badly done, no not at all, but it sorta feels like plothammer more than anything else. OK.

AVENGERS #500: See Legion #36. Though I'll also say that I think the coloring was way too dark because on top of "busy" artwork, it's often difficult to tell what's going on. OK.

USAGI YOJIMBO #77: Stan Sakai is a master cartoonist. And he gets better at his craft every year. Simple, clean storytelling, action every few pages, honest humanity, and a strong eye for humor and terror equally, it's hard to say there's a better comic being produced each and every month than Usagi. If people want to do comics activism, here's an excellent book for you to start with. Excellent. 

NAUGHTY BITS #40: And this would have been a good one too, but unfortunately this is suddenly the last issue. That's a damn shame because Roberta Gregory is not only a fine cartoonist, but she's produced 40 issues which is a whole lot better than most "indy" books could hope for. I also really liked Robert Triptow's gay wedding comedy in the back of the book. Very funny stuff. Very Good.

(Marvel Knights) 4 #8:  As a comedy it falls kinda flat (The Watcher bookends were wretched), but as a character piece it's OK, I guess. In a week I'll have forgotten I've ever read it, though. Eh.

CATWOMAN #33: Not quite a fill-in, but it feels like marking time because of next quarter's crossover. It's a solid-enough story, but in the end it doesn't feel like it matters much. OK

SLEEPER V2 #2: This on the other hand, worked like a charm. "Now can I stop breaking your heart?" Wonderful stuff on both an action and human level. Very Good.

OK, time to go off and work at the store! Restock, hurray!

-B

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The best part of him climbing up on the shelf is that he doesn't have the foggiest notion of how to get himself down, so he'll start crying about that, and I haul him to mother earth, and what does he do? Yeah, try to get back there right away.

He understands there IS gravity, but he doesn't quite get how it works yet....

Still, I got him down for his afternoon nap, so back at my in-box....

KINETIC #5: There were a couple of books that really REALLY made me wish I had a column during the hiatus -- issue #4 of Kinetic was one of those. Wonderful quiet story about the reactions of his mother as her world shatter and changes around her, and all of her preconceptions are discarded in a moment. Kinetic started really slow, probably too slow, but it has really come into its own now, and is one of the most emotionally satisfying comics on the stands. This is "the next Sleeper" or "the next Runaways" -- the kind of book no one is reading, but they really should because they'd just love it if they did. Very Good.

FANTASTIC FOUR #516: I liked the first part of the arc, I thought the second was OK, but here at part three, I think it should have been a done-in-one. Nothing wasn't said here that wasn't said last issue. Eh.

SUPERMAN #207: This book is running the trajectory almost exactly opposite Lee's Batman run -- started strong (though less so than we anticipated), but it's bleeding readers every issue. I kinda don't even think this will be Top 10 by issue #12. Far too much blabity-blab talking about stuff that only tangentially matters ("faith" is a great topic for Superman to undertake -- setting it in this context robbed it of almost all of it's real-life human resonance). After six issues of Batman and 4 of this I think it's fair to declare what we all guessed going in -- Azzarello really doesn't "get" how to write super heroes. (which is fine, not everyone should / does)  Lee is a great artist, but the underlying material is so unremittingly dull and oddly paced that I just have no interest in this. Eh

SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT #12: And so the stealth reboot ends. I sadly found the whole thing to be a bit preposterous, and largely unnecessary -- this last bit of Luthor's big master plan was just dopey, and wrapped with a real whimper. Plus, trying to fit it into continuity with the offhand "You know Luthor will find a way to beat the charges" just hurt my tiny little head. I really don't think this added anything new or majestic to the legend, so foo. On the other hand, the last two pages, though slightly torturously arrived at, where a really touching bit of "closure" on the K-side. I liked that so much that I'm going to be a big softie and give the whole thing an OK.

FUTURAMA #18: Reasonably funny (Go, Ian Boothby, go -- how come I'm the only reviewer who ever says what a fabulous writer this guy is?), but doing extended storylines in a quarterly comic book is really a bad idea. Good.

DC COMICS PRESENTS HAWKMAN #1: I really thought the first three of these (Batman, Adam Strange, and GL) were really awful, so I'm glad to say this one was pretty charming. The Cary Bates story (w/ Byrne) brought back Earth-Prime (Did Cary "invent" that? I have strong memories of him starring in a JLA one... but I'm not sure if that is the first one) and the Kurt Busiek (w/Simonson) one had a decent Silver Age "feel", and ended on a sweet note. This isn't great comics, but it's decent stuff, and the strongest of the batch. OK.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #3: Joss has, I think, found his legs (fingers?) with the characters -- some razor sharp characterization, and some really fun scenes (Scott and Nick Fury aboard the Helicarrier, or the excellent Danger Room sequence) made this issue crackle. This is the first time I think I've ever found Scott an agreeable personality, because too often "all work" = "boring dick". Not here. This is great stuff, and I think I might even like this better than the mad-wild Morrison run. Excellent.

Right, that's it for the mo... gotta read more, but since Ben is asleep and Tzipi is out, I'm going to go grab an hour of City of Heroes instead. Probably a bit more tonight.

-B


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I'm watching Ben today while Tzipora is off shopping -- the kid is a little dynamo, trying to get into little nooks and crannies where he shouldn't be. There's only so much baby proofing you can do, and there's always some place he shouldn't be. His latest thing is to rip apart the CD collection... which is on a shelf under the TV, abotu 4 feet off the ground. Yet the little terror manages to crawl up there with no real problem.

Quickly, a few more books while I've distracted him with some shiny keys!

WALKING DEAD #9: Like I said, I need to cleanse my palate every few shitty comics. Glad I picked this one. Gripping, human story by Kirkman, and fabulous art by Adlard. The book took a quantum leap forward (and it was already really good) when Charlie came on board. That little reaction sequence on the bottom of page 10 is good, chilling comics. Excellent.

Damn, he's bored with the keys already and is hauling ass into my office trying to rip up this week's funny books.....

Let's try this one-handed with the baby in my lap.

EXCALIBUR #3: We keep selling out of this, which surprises me -- this is the worst of Claremont's excesses, with few of the charms. The supporting cast makes "Nudge" from Doom Patrol look like a fully formed character. 3 issues in, and there's still no real explanation of how (and why!) Mags is back. Poop. Awful.

Ok, Ben is squirming too much, this isn't working... back later

-B

 
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Didn't get much read last night, but let's see what I have so far.

(Just about the only way to get through all of the comics for the week is to power through the "bad" ones first, with the "good" ones acting as the carrot. Bear that in mind.)

(Though, I do need to intersperse a few "good" ones in the middle to reset my palate)

ROGUE #1: I'm not sure if Rodi really "gets" how Rogue's powers work, or if they're changing it for this series, or if the editors are so overworked they don't care, but I kept getting super annoyed by the dumb stuff like her absorbing Remy's blindness, but not Juggy's heart attack. The core of the story, once you get past that, isn't so bad, but this is a really unnecessary book I think. This is the dark side of "Reload". Eh.

DOOM PATROL #2: #1 was a complete and utter train-wreck (nested flashbacks? I thought Johnny knew how to tell a clear story?) but this one was a lot better. I really enjoyed the first 5 pages, with the "revised" origin of Negitive Man (Though.... Rita is a flight technician and not an actress? Muh?), but then we went back to the dumb vampire leftovers from the JLA story. Thankfully it wrapped this issue. I really really REALLY hate the "new" characters, and I hope they die quickly. And I absolutely did not understand the last 2 panels -- was there an extra "not" or maybe one missing or something? Still, this was at least competent, and, perhaps, now that the "Crucifer" story is done maybe this can go somewhere fun. A low OK

GREEN LANTERN #179: Huh? Major Force has consistently been portrayed as an insane psychopathic killer -- he murdered Kyle's girlfriend, for god's sake, and chopped her up and put her in the fridge -- so why the fuck would John Stewert be defending him? That makes zero sense. Zip. Zilch. Unlessssss...... Marz had 4 issues schedualed and only 3 issues of story. Awful

VENOM VS. CARNAGE #1: It's written by Pete Milligan so I was hoping for at least a little wit, and cleverness. Nope, none of that here. The art was kinda nice except it looks like it printed way too dark, such that there's panels I can't tell at all what is happening (Nor can I read the captions in some palces with white-on-black and white-on-red), and there's some wonderful peril to a pregnant woman, which is always charming to read. On the other hand, there's a tit-alicious apearance by the Black Cat which doesn't appear to have anything to do with the story (wouldn't that be cool if it doesn't? She just showed up every 12 pages or so to show her breasts off so there could be some sex with the violence?), and some 12 year old boy, somewhere is going to be very happy for that. Or a 42-year old cat's ass man. Either way. The old CBG used to say something like "If you like this kind of thing, you'll like this" which is probably fairly accurate in this case. I don't like this kind of thing, though, so Awful from me.

JLA #102: The "Everyone Cries" arc continues. This issue: the Flash cries! It's not *bad* per se (Actually, it's well told), but I can't take 4 more issues of this -- wake me when it's over. OK

CITY OF HEROES #3: I love how the comic really has no relationship to the game whatsover, and doesn't really work as a comic on it's own. The only bit I leked was the War Witch in the astral plane thing at the very end, but that's not worth $2.95. You get this free if you subscribe to the game, which I suppose is a nice gesture, and almost certainly places this book in the top ten of circulation of American comics (the game has "well over" 100k subscribers) Anyway, Awful

Hrm, Ben's awake, time to take care of the boy. Back with more, later....

-B

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Wow.

Comics have nearly beaten me.

I just got back from the store, where I finished dealing with the new comics (We're the San Francisco drop point for Diamond, so we get the books on Tuesday -- though we don't put them out for sale until Wednesday), and I don't think I've seen a single week packed with so much comicy goodness since the late 90s. Well, badness too -- but the point is there's a FUCKING LOT OF COMICS THIS WEEK.

We had next to no restock in the main shipment this week, and still we recieved 60% more boxes than normal.

There is just no way that anyone can buy everything they want this week. You thought last week was heavy? Ha!

Blame San Diego, I guess, as every publisher under the sun puts most of their line out this week (I sorta understand with the small press, but why the fuck do Marvel and DC do this? It's not like they are selling books to individuals), which brings to mind the old joke: How can you tell it's a convention week?  Supernatural Law was released!

(OK, you can substitute "A dozen books from Fantagraphics" in the above, too)

Anyway, my ass has been kicked, and I need to lay down -- you'll get a review or three tomorrow.

-B

 

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Welcome to the Savage Critic blog.

As some of you may remember (depending on how you got here), I used to do a weekly review column (aided and abetted by the affable Jeff Lester) of which you can find the archives here.

Once the wonderful Benjamin Alexander Friedman-Hibbs was born, I realized I couldn't keep up with the old format any longer -- I just didn't have that big block of time any longer!

So, again, thanks to Jeff Lester, we have the new cutting edge SavBlog where I can do shorter, but theoretically more frequent, updates / reviews.

I will probably be posting something daily (let's hope), but will not limit myself purely to comic reviews -- I'll also probably babble about being a dad a bit, as well as covering comics industry topics from a retailer's perspective. At least that don't fit into my monthly Tilting at Windmills column up at Newsarama.

(Matt Brady still needs to update the index)

(You can also find a lot of older, Pre-Newsarama Tiltings here, as well as purchase a copy of IDW's collection of the first 100 Tiltings here)

Anyway, this is just a "welcome" message -- we still have to add links, and do a lot of tweaking, but here I am, alright?

-B
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