For a change, I was gonna write reviews in the order that I read the books, but I think it's better that I review this first, and separately, so I can get it off my chest and move on, and people who could care less about Spider-Man--or want to avoid the spoilers--can skip this entry entirely.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #512: Wow. As you may know, I grew up largely as a Marvel fan, and a Spider-Man Marvel fan at that. So this issue managed to be as upsetting to me as all the issues of Identity Crisis put together. I'd like to pretend that that's not the case and strike the pose of objective criticism I think, generally, is pretty important and necessary. But considering I've been up since three in the morning fixating on this, I guess I have to admit it got under my skin and take the time to try to explain why.

I really, really, really hate what JMS has done here. Retconning things so that Gwen Stacy slept with Norman Osborn and then produced genetically shaky offspring obsessed with killing off perceived shitty parent Peter Parker is just ass, plain and simple. I can understand the hook's allure for Straczynski, and don't think it's simply cynical gamesmanship on his part. The idea deepens and justifies the emnity between Pete and Osborn; it makes Osborn much more of an evil calculating prick; it makes for a high stake story; and it closes up any question that Mary Jane isn't the best woman in the world for Pete, destroys the perfect gleaming image of Gwen Stacy that makes the marriage between Mary Jane and Peter seem a little off or wrong or second-best. From the point of view of a writer with a wicked hook and a checklist of story objectives, the idea makes sense.

From every other point of view, however, it is an awful and shitty decision that makes absolutely no sense.

Does it make sense in the continuity of the title? No, it doesn't. Not only was I unable to find any sort of "Gwen in Europe" storyline in my casual perusal of the Eseential Spider-Man volumes, but at no point does Mary Jane Watson act, after Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn's death, like there might be two orphaned children hanging around Europe wondering where their mother is--unless Mary Jane is a stone-cold sociopath. For that matter, I don't remember when Mary Jane's knowledge of Peter's alter-ego was retconned in, but if she did know that Pete was Spidey at that time, I can't see how she wouldn't think that he somehow found out about the affair and killed them both. Even if she didn't know at the time Pete was Spidey, I can't see how she wouldn't at least suspect it since both Gwen and Osborn end up dead near each other at the same time with Spider-Man being blamed and Peter having a hell of a motive...which is about as far from how she actually behaves in those issues as can be.

Does it make any sense with regard to the characters as we know them now, without continuity? I'd say no. Your wife knows that your ex-girlfriend had children with the man who hates you most in the world, a fact which your wife would naturally expect the man who hates you most in the world to try to hurt you with at some point. And she never heads that pain off at the pass by trying to tell you first? Really? (Or the possibility never occurs to her?) And you're also okay with that? Really?

Does it make any sense in regard to the story as it's currently presented? I think not. Gwen leaves the kids in Europe and comes back and confronts Osborn with the knowledge that she's pregnant? Why? For that matter, how? I've heard pretty great things about European socialized health care, but I don't think they allow you to check in to the hospital, pop out twins, and then leave the country without them to fly back to America, do they? How does Osborn then know where to find the kids? I even tried to construct some sort of "Well, Osborn's got a facility in Europe, and he paid for the medical costs so he knows where the kids are, etc., etc." Then why does he act like Gwen has any slight power over him in the first place? If nothing else, why does the other twin look like Pete and not have the patented pimpin' Osborn hair (an apparently genetically dominant trait)? If the twins have half a brain in their head, why would they believe the bullshit Osborn feeds them if he presents himself merely as a uninterested party for years and years? "Oh, I'm just raising you kids out of the goodness of my heart. And if you ever want to kill your deadbeat dad--not that I care or anything--well, okay, I guess I have always thought people who shirk their parental duties deserve to die, but that's just my opinion. Hey, I bought you ninja suits! As a present!"

Let's be honest: are these the reasons that caused me to be so upset when I read this issue? Of course not, any more than JMS stumbled across this idea while trying to explain why Osborn grabbed Gwen and not Aunt May, or why he fled to Europe instead of hiding out in the States. I listed all the good reasons to justify why I think this story is shitty and should have been killed at the pitch stage or any number of steps along the editorial chain, reasons I hope are relatively sensible and inarguable.

The not-nearly-as-good reason is just this: it's fucking wrong. I started reading Spider-Man *after* Gwen Stacy got killed so it's not like she was a girlfriend-on-paper for me or anything remotely like that. And I don't think it's wrong because JMS slammed some sort of big red "Madonna/Whore Reversal" alarm button. I think it's wrong because if we don't allow the characters and the ideas to have some sort of basic integrity, everything falls apart. Because, let's face it: It's Spider-Man. It is not suspension of disbelief that holds this enterprise together. It is an emotional investment on the part of the reader with certain core ideas and characters. And while some may maintain the only core character is the title character and the only idea is that he's a hero, I think I disagree. After all, Spider-Man is always going to be Spider-Man--the guys who put him on bed sheets and super soakers and Saturday morning TV guarantee that. It's what the other characters do that actually matter, if for no other reason than what they mean to him that make him who he is as an actual literary character, and if those characters are utterly malleable to the whims of any and every journeyman that comes along, then he too is utterly malleable, even if you don't touch him. You warp and woof the fabric of his universe until it means less than a bedsheet or a super soaker (because you can't sleep on it and you can't soak somebody with it).

Look, there are a lot of "great" hooks that would "explain" stuff in the Spider-Man universe: The Burglar shot Uncle Ben because the whole crack-for-sex trade went horribly wrong (hey, it explains why the burglar was in the house!); J. Jonah Jameson tried to kill his son by sabotaging his space flight (hey, it explains why he hates Spider-Man!); Aunt May looked like a corpse for all those years because she was a big old junkie (hey, it explains why they never had money!) and liked to try to crush innocent bystanders with her sex toys (no wonder why she and Doc Ock almost married!).

The list can go on and on and on and almost all of it are nothing but bad ideas (except Flash Thompson being gay--that would explain a lot, but I didn't list it above because I don't think of being gay as a pejorative, which is what I was shooting for...) even though they're dramatic and "make sense" (if you just warp and woof that universe a little bit more). You shouldn't do them because they leave that little universe you're shepherding a worse place in just about every sense. You take away something and leave nothing new in its place.

In short (hah!), it seems like a very, very bad idea, and it's a shame this story came about. It's going to be a little difficult pretending it never happened but, considering my powers of make-believe have been mighty enough to keep me reading Spider-Man for over thirty years, I've got faith in me. I only hope enough people feel the same.

I did give this the Ass rating, right? Ass.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

PSA Numero Uno: I'm sure most of you caught the announcement that Geoff Johns is going to be signing at CE from 4 to 7 on Saturday Octobert 30th. But some of you may missed it, so there it is. We hope you can make it.

PSA Numero Two-o: If I was Hibbs I would have posted the shipping list doo-da that he does, but I'm not--I can only link to the Diamond site's if you're curious. But Rob Bennett informs me that we did not get in Superman/Batman #12 this week. He said that the East Coast did, the West Coast did not for quick brown reasons that jumped over the slow, lazy dog of my head. Just a head's up for those of you breathlessly anticipating how much sillier Jeph Loeb was going to twist a storyline about Supergirl wearing a slutty outfit and beating our heroes to pudding in apparent obeisance to Darkseid (I freely admit to counting myself in that crowd).

I have a batch of new comics here. Give me some time and I'll let you know what I think.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

So I'm back. I'm trying to follow in Hibbs' footsteps by saying I'd be right back and then disappearing for a day or two...actually I was kinda torn as to my picks but want to get them out there before the weekend is totally up.

I decided to go with two books for Pick of the Week: I'm totally knocked out by King Cat Comics #65 by John Porcellino and think every fan of alt comix and unique voices should try and get their hands on a copy. I must've picked this book up four times in the last three days to re-read parts of it.

But since King Cat isn't the easiest book to find in a comic shop, I'm also picking Ex Machina #4 as a book everyone should be able to find without too much trouble. Ex Machina is book whose potential seems to grow, not diminish, with every issue, and is very much worth your time & dime.

My Pick of the Weak is Manhunter #2 because, although I haven't worked behind the comic book counter for very long, I've never seen a book that so many people have wanted to like and then decided to take a pass on. I'm frustrated it's not much better than it is.

For the trades, I'm going to assume if Hibbs was here, he would recommend the softcover release of DC OGN The Life Eaters. I haven't read it yet, but I know how impressed Brian was with Brin and Hampton's alternate history tale of Americans, Nazis & Norse Gods.

Me, I have no choice but to pick the second volume of Grant Morrison and Richard Case's The Doom Patrol: The Painting That Ate Paris: this material is fifteen years old and still fresh as a daisy. In particular, I'm blown away by the climax of the titular story, where Morrison uses nested narrative flashbacks to mirror the predicament of the characters caught within the levels of the painting, and uses three different connotations of the word 'Dada' at the finish to devastating effect. Morrison is as good as he claims to be in this one, and I hope DC doesn't wait too long before getting the next volume out there.

I've got a busy week coming up but I'll try to have a go at this week's books, maybe as early as Thursday. And I'll also try to have the new Fanboy up by the end of the week as well.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Okay, so since Hibbs is out of the game for a few weeks, I thought I would try and step in and cover the reviews for a week or two. This first week will be a bit schizo since Hibbs wrote up a bunch of reviews, lost them and spent a chunk of yesterday repeating them to me. At first, it was very much: "So, yeah, if you review that book, you might want to mention I said..." and by the end of the day, it was: "Don't forget to tell them to get The Life Eaters. It's great stuff! Remember!" Sigh. So some reviews will start with my paraphrase of what I remember Hibbs saying, and then I'll move on to what I think. It's kinda like the way we used to do Savage Critic! (Except for all you know, I killed Hibbs, faked that earlier blog entry by him and am now sitting at a desk where his skin as a pelt. Mmmm....Hibbs pelt....)

Oh! And I know Hibbs doesn't post a spoilers warning because it's in our intro, but really, you know: Spoilers. I'm still pissed reading that Brubaker article on Newsarama spoiled this week's Avengers for me....

ASTONISHING X-MEN #5: What's particularly nice, I think, is that Whedon has the X-Men fight as a team, and that's something that a lot of x-writers and artists lose track of in all the characters punching each other out. And that art is shockingly good stuff. I thought this was really Very Good; I'm pretty sure Hibbs did, too; and I think you would as well.

AVENGERS #502: Hibbs sez: Well, at least it wasn't all talky-talk. And they killed off Hawkeye in such a way that any idiot could bring him back. You notiice that cover says "One of these Avengers will die!" and Hawkeye--from what I could see, anyway--was the only Avenger on the cover in the issue? That narrows the field a bit! I sez: Yeah, but the action was confusing and badly paced, Hawkeye went out like a chump ("No, not like this! Not like this! Like this!"), and the only character who actually read in character to me was, unsurprisingly, Spider-Man. I also thought Nick Fury's whole "No, you heroes can't be here! A single radioactive fart could screw up all our careful readings!" was D-U-M-B. Even the coloring (which was lovely but detail-destroying) seemed poorly chosen. I thought it was Awful and if Marvel Editorial brought back Magneto two months later, I kinda hope they're equally classy and bring back Hawkeye next week--at least, they'd be rectifying a bad choice in this case.

BATGIRL #56: I picked this up because of you, Savage Critic reader: I've been avoiding the whole "War Games" thing like it was a British hard candy, and so I hope you feel like you owe me one. Actually, this wasn't so bad because it was mainly a big old fight scene that felt almost cartooned--loose but evocative, quick but vivid--and it went down pretty easy: Batgirl versus Kung-Fu Pirate Girl? What's the harm in that? OK.

BLACK WIDOW #1: Hibbs sez: Great to see Bill Sinkiewicz art, and real stuff--not just him inking somebody else. And the rest of it was good I sez: Yeah, but it was pretty slapdash Bill S. work, don'tcha think? There were only a few panels that really popped with any storytelling verve. That said, as an Elektra-story-without-Elektra, I thought it was pretty good with a lot of stuff happening and an overall intelligence to it. Good.

CATWOMAN #35: Hibbs sez (and this is where I'm paraphrasing and dragging in all this week's War Games comment under one book): Batman's an asshole. Seriously. That he just did that with Oracle's network? I really, really hate this Batman. Everyone acts all respectful of this guy, here and in JLA? Why? He's a jerk and this is at least the second time where the whole thing is all his fault because he's such an ass. I almost want to never read a Batman book again. I sez: I kinda blame Brubaker--his Batman is always a real asshole, and he wrote that infamous Batman freak-out back in #600 where I was half-sure future issues would show that he'd been drugged or something. I really liked the scene where the villains are so awed by how beautiful Selina fights they just gawk and get dropped. And I'm slowly developing an appreciation for Gulacy's Battlin' Boobs & Butts artwork, but I also don't like where this is going or how it's getting there. These big bat-crossovers are like chemotherapy: they may turn around sales for all the titles, but they weaken the shit out of everything else. Eh.

COSMIC GUARD #2: Oddly, I enjoyed this much more than issue #1, probably because it almost read like Starlin redoing Omega The Unknown or the Fawcett-style Captain Marvel: the emphasis is on the kid since he doesn't really know what he can do or how to do it. That may well turn around next issue, but if Starlin stuck to it (and toned down the Dondi-eyes on the kid), I'd be really happy. Good.

EX MACHINA #4: I remember when The West Wing was announced as a TV show, I thought it was a terrible idea: a weekly show about the adventures of the President? How cheap and easy was that going to be? History showed me what a chump I was on that one, but I'm happy to say an old dog can learn new tricks: Vaughan and Harris's superhero mayor of New York sounded like it could be great because they sounded like they really believed in the material and they could do great work. Well, they're doing great work, and I think I enjoyed this issue tremendously as the story continues to open wider and wider but in a way that suggests possibility and not chaos. This is Very Good work, and as your large Samoan attorney, I advise you to pick it up.

EXCALIBUR #5: I can never look at this book without The Odd Couple theme playing in my head. But whereas some of my appreciation for The Odd Couple comes from lazily reading it as coded gay text, I don't think Excalibur makes any sense otherwise: why are Xavier and Magneto hiding out on Genosha if not to play house together? This issue in particular makes it plain that Professor X should be off the island and helping hold the rest of what's he built together, rather than lounging about on Genosha raising an adopted family of misfit mutants with life-partner Magneto. Sure, sure, call me a weirdo perv, but considering this is a book where half of Claremont's agenda seems to be pushing a tentacled mutant as sex-positive lust object, how wrong can I be? I give this an OK, but only because it's a guilty pleasure.

FLASH #214: Hibbs sez: an Identity Crisis tie-in that really tied in. Very classy and understated throughout. I even like that there wasn't an Identity Crisis blurb on the cover. I sez: I think they needed that blurb because this was almost too much of a tie-in--none of the story makes sense if you haven't read the first three issues of Identity Crisis. It does stand out as a pretty dramatic contrast to the "red skies" level tie-ins we've been getting with Marvel's "Dissembled" cross-over, though. I liked it fine, although it seemed needlessly padded--Wally has to meet with GA; then Iris; then back to GA? (Hibbs felt that was actually "necessary" padding since it serves the end of having the issue end with "Dear Wally..." but whatever. This, and IC #4 also point out the problem with open universe crossovers: half the DCU (Spectre, Iris, all of the Legion, maybe Impulse) being dead and/or from the future may easily know who the killer of Identity Crisis is but "can't" say anything. Despite all my bitching, I agree with Hibbs. This is a well-done issue, and if all company crossovers had tie-in issues this classy, the industry would be in much better shape. Good.

HARRY JOHNSON #1: Oh, how Hibbs and I argued about this book on Friday. Hibbs thought it was a clever funny book that made him grin in a few places and that, apart from a dildo joke, was a book you could give a kid and he'd laugh at the goofy stuff while the adult stuff safely went over the kid's head. I thought this was a waste of good-looking art and format ($2.95 for a color book with strong art and good paper? This made most Marvel books look cheap...) because and less-than-timely gags on Raiders of the Lost Ark, a movie old enough to drink, vote and drive in all 50 states of endless wink-wink, nudge-nudge puns. "Well, come on," Hibbs said. "It's called Harry Johnson, what do you expect?" And I guess he has a point. It read to me like Peter David at his shtickiest, but Hibbs liked it and I wouldn't have been disappointed if I hadn't thought the art and production had been top-notch. Let's call it a conflicted OK.

KING-CAT COMICS #65: Apart from the McSweeney's pack-in, this is the first issue of John Porcellino's well-regarded King Cat I've ever read, and I thought it was great. Porcellino is one of the few people doing poetic comics that nails the elegance and craft of true poetry (although I suspect he might suggest what he's doing is closer to Zen writing, of which poetry may or may not be a component) and his art style is so simple it actually becomes iconic. If you could get Kolchaka off the booze and sugared cereals, you'd get something a little closer to King-Cat, and this issue is an extra bonus if you live in the Bay Area: Porcellino recently moved to San Francisco and this issue has observations about the area that opened my eyes. I'm looking forward to hunting more of these down now that he's local, because they're amazingly great stuff. Excellent.

MANHUNTER #2: What a shame. The cover is so lovely, I know customers are actually picking this up off the rack, but I can't imagine they're happy with such a lame, sluggish book. How long was that opening dream sequence? A quarter of the book? And the "Honey, I Shocked the Kids!" style "cliffhanger" didn't really do it for me, either. Hibbs put it best when he said, "That wasn't even decompressed storytelling! It was, I dunno, unpressed storytelling. Or something." Awful.

MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #10: I normally like Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's way with character, but the characters this time (maybe because of The Psycho-Pirate's influence) read kinda shrill and off. His stories tend to be dull little things and this issue, even with the threat of a supervillain and a big monster for Ben Grimm to sock, was no exception. You really wish there was a talented editor like Archie Goodwin around who could work with him. Eh.

NIGHTCRAWLER #1: Another Aguirre-Sacasa title, and while readable, it was also deadly dull. Part of that is because Kurt Wagner is a better reactive character than an active character, and part of that is because the plot read like CBS crime show version of Silence of the Lambs meets Scooby-Doo by way of John Farris's The Fury. With Nightcrawler. Nice art (and a great logo) but one enormous Eh, regardless.

PLASTIC MAN #10: Goofy fun, more classic Looney Tunes than Cole's Plastic Man but I don't mind. Weirdly, Hibbs thinks this is too slight for the money but Harry Johnson isn't, but that's why Hibbs is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a big hairy hippie suit. Good.

ROBIN #130: Hibbs also went on and on about this issue because Steph gets gruesomely tortured. We decided that, given a choice between the Marvel Universe and the DC Universe, all female characters would rather be in the Marvel Universe: In the DCU they get tortured and killed, whereas in the Marvel Universe they just got sexually exploited and drawn on the cover by Greg Horn (torture for some, but not all). Come on DC--does your readership have to have a fundraiser to send you to enlightenment workshops? Awful.

SLEEPER SEASON TWO #4: The best of the reboot issues to date: story, characterization and clever plotting are all top-drawer. Wish it hadn't taken so long to build up steam again, though. Good.

TEEN TITANS #16: The Fatal Five Hundred? Legion Planet? I hope this is the end of the old Legion stuff and not the beginning of the new Legion stuff because it's just too overpowered. I liked the date more than the cosmic blabbity-blab and that's says something but whether that's a glass half-full comment or a glass half-empty comment I'll leave up to you. OK.

THE DRUNK #1: Tim Vigil draws this story that reads like S. Clay Wilson without the sense of humor--or the coherence, God help us all. Also, what's the point in being clever and calling your character "The Drunk" if you don't put, like, a logo on your cover? (Or anything on your cover, for that matter!) CE has more than its share of lushes that would have picked this up if someone had just tried a little harder. A real wasted opportunity on many levels. Awful.

TOM STRONG #28: I really am surprised by the number of good stories written for this title by guys who aren't Alan Moore: here, Brian Vaughan crafts a very clever little story (maybe more like two very clever even smaller stories jammed together). Having Tom Strong's crew punch it out with the liberated subjects of famous paintings was great fun. A high Good.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #11: Hmmm, I think my carefully cultivated illusion that this was going to be good may have been dashed into a million itty-bitty pieces. Doom with a bazooka? Doom with organic techno-spikes? Doom with poison breath? Doom spending a whole page rallying stoned anarchist squatters around him? I don't know how much of this is Ellis and how much of this is from outline notes Millar and Bendis wrote on coke-streaked strip-club napkins but it's pretty double-plus ungood from where I'm sitting. I'm thinking maybe they should get the guys who write Twisted Toyfare Theater to take over UFF next, because even though they're not trying to be serious, they write much better Doom and Thing than I'm looking at here, which barely hits the Eh.

Whew! Okay, back in a bit with the Pick of the Week, the Pick of the Weak, and the trade recommendations.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Ben decided it would be fun to make a grab for the paower cables in my office, so the power to my Alienware flickered on and off a bunch of time before I was able to get hold of his little hands... and, apparantly, something blew out on my system.

Long story short, I've got to send it back to florida for repairs, and that's the system with all of my work/games/WORK, so I'm, basically, fucked on a gimped old computer for the next three weeks or so.

The upshot of THAT is, you won't be seeing any updates on this blog after this one from me for at least 3 weeks.

Jeff may or may not update.

See you in a month or so....

-B

Click Here to Read More...

I really have to get used to saving a copy of what I write outside of blogger -- damn thing just gave me a 404 and lost everything I wrote about this week's comics. I'll try to retype it later, I guess....

-B
Click Here to Read More...

Here's what Comix Experience is getting this week....

(Some more reviews, hopefully, in an hour or four....)


A1 BLOODMAN SPECIAL MISTER MONSTER WWII
ARMY OF DARKNESS ASHES 2 ASHES #2
ASTONISHING X-MEN #5
AVENGERS #502 (#87)
BATGIRL #56
BETTY #141
BLACK WIDOW #1
BRIAN PULIDOS BELLADONNA REG CVR #1
BRODIES LAW #1
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #1
CATWOMAN #35
CONAN #8
COSMIC GUARD #2
DARKNESS VOL 2 #15
DEVIL MAY CRY #3
DICTATORS SADDAM HUSSEIN #1
ELRIC MAKING OF A SORCERER #1
EX MACHINA #4
EXCALIBUR #5
FADE FROM GRACE #2
FLASH #214
GI JOE #34
GI JOE MASTER & APPRENTICE #4
HARRY JOHNSON #1
HERO #20
HUMANKIND #2
JACK & JACK #1
JIMMY DYDO ADVENTURE #1
JUGHEAD WITH ARCHIE DIGEST #196
LUCIFER #54
MANHUNTER #2
MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN #12
MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #10
MYSTIQUE #19
NIGHTCRAWLER #1
NOBLE CAUSES CVR A BUENO #2
NODWICK #25
NYC MECH #5
PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #88
PEE SOUP #3
PLASTIC MAN #10
PS238 #7
REMAINS #5
ROBIN #130
ROGUE #3
RUNAWAYS #18
SAVAGE HENRY POWERCHORDS #3
SHOULDNT YOU BE WORKING #2
SINGULARITY 7 #3
SLEEPER SEASON TWO #4
SMALL GODS #3
SMALLVILLE #10
STARKWEATHER #1
TEEN TITANS #16
THE DRUNK #1
TOM STRONG #28
ULTIMATE ELEKTRA #2
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #11
UNCANNY X-MEN #449
UNCLE SCROOGE #334
VENOM #18
VENOM VS CARNAGE #3
WALKING DEAD #11
WALT DISNEYS COMICS AND STORIES #649
WEAPON X #28
WITCHBLADE #79
WITCHING #4
Books / Mags / Stuff
AVENGERS THUNDERBOLTS VOL 2 BEST INTENTIONS TP
AVENGERS VOL 5 ONCE AN INVADER TP
BILL SIENKIEWICZ VOODOO CHILDHC (O/A)
CHALAND ANTHOLOGY VOL 1 FREDDY LOMBARD TP
CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOL 5 SHADOW IN THE TOMB TP
CINEFANTASTIQUE 36 #5
CINEFEX #99
CONTEMPORARY TEEN TITANS AF INNER CASE
CONTEMPORARY TEEN TITANS DEATHSTROKE ACTION FIGURE
CONTEMPORARY TEEN TITANS ROBIN ACTION FIGURE
CONTEMPORARY TEEN TITANS WONDER GIRL ACTION FIGURE
CROSSFIRE VOL 1 HOLLYWOOD HERO TP
DAWN 15TH ANNIVERSARY POSTER BOOK
DEAD AT 17 VOL 2 TP BLOOD OF SAINTS
DOOM PATROL VOL 2 PAINTING THAT ATE PARIS TP
DUNGEON VOL 1 TP
GAME INFORMER OCT04
GRAPHIC CLASSICS VOL 10 HORROR CLASSICS
HEAVY METAL NOV 2004
HELLSING VOL 4 TP
HINO HORROR VOL 10 GN DEATHS REFLECTION
HINO HORROR VOL 9 GN GHOST SCHOOL
JLA VOL 14 TRIAL BY FIRE TP
LIFE EATERS SC
LITTLE SCROWLIE VOL 1 TP
MARVEL FREE PREVIEWS #14 OCTOBER 2004
MYSTIQUE VOL 2 TINKER TAILOR MUTANT SPY TP
NINETY CANDLES GN
PC GAMER MAGAZINE W/CD-ROM NOV 2004
PREVIEWS VOL XIV #10
PUTTIN THE BACKBONE BACK TP
SHOCKROCKETS WE HAVE IGNITIONTP
SILK TAPESTRY AND OTHER CHINESE FOLKTALES HC
STAR WARS TRILOGY WIDESCREEN DVD BOX SET
SUSPENDED IN LANGUAGE FREE TELEPORTATION POSTER INCENTIVE (N
TOM JUDGE THE RAPTURE TP
Click Here to Read More...

Well, you got to hear Hibbs' excuse, now you can hear mine: I was home sick with some nasty cold thing that knocked me on my ass. While on said ass, I wrote the latest newsletter for the store and so, dropping the blackline back at the store a day early, I got my hands on some new comix today. In the interest of bailing out Mr. "Ooo, I can't review comics, I had to assemble an armoire!" Hibbs, here are my impressions of the following:

BIRDS OF PREY #74: Felt a bit like two disparate stories jammed into one issue, but they were pretty decent stories, so I don’t mind too much. And really nice art by Fern and Bird, too. Overall, a very nice change from the last several issues. Good.

CABLE & DEADPOOL #7: Did Marvel chicken out of using that “Passion of the Cable” title? Bummer. Maybe it was seeing Deadpool get his can kicked by an old Master of Kung-Fu villain, but I liked this: it seems like a faster, dumber incarnation of what Macan and Kordey (right?) were doing on the Cable title back before it ended. I don’t hold much hope for it ending satisfactorily, but in the here and now, I thought it was Good.

DAREDEVIL #64: Well, since the previous issue biffed the storyline for me, I didn’t get too excited by this. But the larger story is still in place and the scenes that connected with that worked for me. Good.

FANTASTIC FOUR #518: Hmmm. I guess it’s a good thing there’s no attempt to live up to the ‘Avengers Dissembled’ logo on the cover, but there wasn’t much here to really grab me on its own merits. I’m sure that’s probably more me than anything in the book; mainly because I think Galactus stories are just experiments in creative self-frustration (you’re just not going to do better than the original stories). Also, I’m no science joe, but doesn’t the planetary invisibility thing make no sense because the planets would still emit a gravitational pull which is pretty easy to detect? In any case, maybe you’ll like this better than I did (I have some weird resistance to the Waid/Wieringo run overall, it should be noted) but for me it was Eh.

HAWKMAN #32: What is this thing you call “fun comic book?” A little too glib in places (if you’re going to have someone say, “Thanks for the exposition,” you might want to make the exposition a little more subtle so the comment seems like more of a joke and less of a self-criticism), but darn pretty art and having it done in one was gratifying. Not great, but somewhere around Good.

HUMAN TARGET #14: Apparently Cliff Chiang can draw anything and make it look great except a naked human butt. Go figure. OK.

IDENTITY CRISIS #4: Basically an “all middle” issue with nothing particularly outrageous. I don’t buy a couple of the premises (Lois Lane isn’t checked into a hotel somewhere under the name “Lori Lemaris” or something? I doubt it.) but the skill in the writing and art are evident. If something had actually happened, I could’ve given this more than just Good.

INVADERS #2: A similar tact and C.P. Smith’s art makes this feel like the Marvel version of Stormwatch, and at least for this issue, it has the same problems: too much set-up, too little pay-off. Pretty art, though. Eh.

MADROX #1: Sadly, never got better for me than that very cool David Lloyd cover. Nothing wrong with it, I guess, other than the introduction of all the secondary characters kinda slowed down the narrative thrust. OK.

STRANGE #1: Hmmm. Pretty much what Hibbs said only more so. Hibbs compared the change from Strange-the-jerk to Strange-the-jerk-with-good-intentions to Han not shooting first; and indeed, this feels like that reported change to A New Hope where Han and Greedo now shoot simultaneously: A decent job is done showing Strange as initially having some good in him but since now absolutely no time is spent showing why he becomes a greedy dick, I think the waters are muddied even more—I guess the opportunity for early introductions of Wong and The Ancient One was too good for JMS to pass up. So competently done, it’s at least OK, but I found it too damn annoying to be more than that.

ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE #2: Torn on this, because while I certainly liked it, it’s just not going fast enough. The plusses are an abundance of interesting possibilities and a surprising connection between Ellis and the Ultimate version of the Marvelverse (that helicarrier page fits perfectly between classic Kirby SHIELD and Ministry of Space, even though I think the naval carrier design doesn’t work). The minuses are Bam Margera right after the recap page and paying not just $2.25 for an issue of all set-up, but for a second consecutive issue of all set-up. Too good to be an Eh; too frugal to be an OK, so a tough call all around.

WANTED #5: Hmmm. That whole “death of the dynamic duo” sequence really underlined for me how low Millar’s ambitions are for this book. Or maybe the sequence is designed to distract from the rather flimsy “the entire world is filled with guns, but only two people in the world are either skilled or motivated enough to use them” recovery our antiheroes make. Lots of gaudy cheap thrills to be had, but I remember back when I thought this miniseries would end up being much better than merely Good.

WOLVERINE #19: This whole arc didn’t do it for me—it’s bad enough that Logan and Creed have a mysterious past, but then The Native gets introduced and, since she’s connected to them, her past has to be mysterious, too. Consequently, too much of this storyline required taking Rucka’s word for everything and so I had no emotional connection to it. It felt like seven issues of well-done plot hammering. Eh.

WOLVERINE: THE END #5: Not reviewing it because I haven’t read the others. But I did want to point out that page eight, where astral Xavier exposes his genitals to Logan while floating on an airplane wing, made me laugh—it’s like Nightmare at 20,000 Feet…only sexier! No review.

X-MEN #161: Looks like Austen is starting to put his toys back in the box (which seems smart since he’s got first-hand experience seeing how the editors deal with whatever’s left lying around). I’ve got the same problems with his work I usually do, but Larroca’s art bumps this issue up to OK, more or less.

YOUNGBLOOD: GENESIS #1: Ow. Between the art (having Rob Liefeld do your inking is a bit like having Jayson Blair do your fact-checking, isn’t it?) and the lettering (reads like NON-STOP YELLING), I’ve actually got a headache now. The “secret origin” plot is clever enough, I guess, but if there was a hook to bring me back for the next issue (it could well be that nobody can work with Liefeld and actually expect there to be a next issue), I missed it entirely. Because of the headache, I’ve got to give it an Awful.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Monday I had to write TILTING, Tuesday I was pulling comics at the store' Wednesday I had to assemble a Cost-Plus armoire with instructions that evidentally were translated from english to korean and back again (5 hours, it took me to make the thing!)... and today Jeff got me the new comics and Fanboy Rampage early, so I was doing ONOMATOPOEIA....

So, that's why thing have been quiet around here lately.

Going to briefly touch on a few new comics:

HAWKMAN #32: Ray Palmer uses the phrases "blog" twice -- that term, of course, means "Web Log". I kinda have to beleive that the JLA isn't allowed to just post classified information at thier discretion to the web, right? otherwise a slightly-retro one-off story that was fun enough. OK

JLA SECRET FILES 2004: The lead story was pretty meh (Much easier to assign it to "comic logic" then to actually try to EXPLAIN Wally being in two places, with two costumes at the same time), but I quite liked Busiek and Garney's intro-to-the-next-arc story with the Crime Syndicate. Especially fun was seeing the "good guys" flashback. Let's call it a Good

STRANGE #1: JM Straczynski's long-promised Dr. Strange mini is here. Me, I kinda shrugged -- there's lots of trying to show Stephen as redeemable before the fact, and that he's basically a nice guy, and I'm not sure that I like that at all. Part of the power, to me, of the original origin was "This guy is a fucking jerk, but he is transformed by his situation" -- much like Han not shooting first, I think this does some harm to the character. THat's a fairly minor quibble though, otherwise, I thought this was OK.

MADROX #1: Liked this quite a bit -- somewhat of a "can go home again" feeling. Thumbs up, and a Good.

*sigh* out of time. PLus tonight I have a focus group thingy ($100 is $100), and Survivor and Apprentice are on, and, geez, it looks like City of Heroes released issue #2, so there goes a lot of my free time...

I'll try really hard to come back with more tomorrow, but no promises...

-B

Click Here to Read More...

I'm actually still hoping to get to last week's comics pretty soon -- been a busy weekend this time.

In the meanwhile, here is what Comix Experience is recieving for the week of 9/14. Only 46 comics, that's pretty damn puny!



ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #632
ARCHIE #551
ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #155
BALLAD OF SLEEPING BEAUTY #3
BARBARIENNE #9
BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #57
BATMAN STRIKES #1
BIRDS OF PREY #74
BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #3
CABLE DEADPOOL #7
COLONIA #10
DAREDEVIL #64
DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #320
EMMA FROST #15
ERIKA TELEKINETIKA #1
FANTASTIC FOUR #518
FIERCE #3
FRACTION #6
FREAKS OF THE HEARTLAND #5
GI JOE VS TRANSFORMERS VOL 2 #1 CVR A
HAWKMAN #32
HUMAN TARGET #14
IDENTITY CRISIS #4
INVADERS #2
IRON MAN #88
JLA SECRET FILES 2004
JSA STRANGE ADVENTURES #2
MADROX #1
MAN THING #3
MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN TEAM UP #1
MARY JANE #4
MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #269
NEW X-MEN #5
POWERPUFF GIRLS #54
SPIDER-MAN DOCTOR OCTOPUS YEAR ONE #3
STRANGE #1
TERRA OBSCURA VOL 2 #2
TRANSFORMERS MICROMASTERS #3
TRANSFORMERS WAR WITHIN VOL 3 #1
ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE #2
VERONICA #155
WANTED #5
WOLVERINE #19
WOLVERINE THE END #5
X-MEN #161
YOUNGBLOOD GENESIS #1


Books / Mags / Stuff
2000 AD #1403
2000 AD #1404
ALTER EGO #40
ANIMATION MAGAZINE OCT 2004
AUTHORITY HUMAN ON THE INSIDEHC
BATMAN IN THE EIGHTIES TP
BUSH JUNTA GN
CAPTAIN MARVEL VOL 4 ODYSSEY TP
COMICS INTERPRETER VOL 2 #2
DESCENDANTS OF DARKNESS VOL 1GN
DOOM PATROL VOL 1 CRAWLING FROM THE WRECKAGE TP
FEW PERFECT HOURS & OTHER STORIES GN
FOLLOWING CEREBUS #1
FORTEAN TIMES #188
GIANT ROBOT #34
HELLBLAZER SETTING SUN TP
HINO HORROR VOL 7 GN THE COLLECTION PART 1
HINO HORROR VOL 8 GN THE COLLECTION PART 2
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #223
LEES TOY REVIEW SEP 2004 #143
LEGEND OF WILD MAN FISCHER
MARVEL AGE RUNAWAYS VOL 2 TEENAGE WASTELAND DIGEST TP
MISS DD VOL 2 GN
OWLY TP
R CRUMBS HEROES OF THE BLUES T/C (NEW PTG)
SIMON BISLEY ILLUSTRATION FROM THE BIBLE HC
SINISTER DEXTER GUNSHARK VACATION TP
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST SEP 04 #126
VIDEO WATCHDOG #111
WALLACE AND GROMIT WHIPPET VANISHES SC
WOLVERINE 30TH ANNIV SPECIAL MAGAZINE
Click Here to Read More...

Hey, everyone. It's Jeff. I really didn't read very many books this week (and bought even less) so initially I figured I'd just skip over doing any reviews this week. But, since I'm tired of sitting here trying to brainstorm the funny for the next FBR, I figured this would be a fine way to productively procrastinate.

So let's see:

ACTION COMICS #819: Huh. I was looking forward to this because Superman was fighting new villains called "Sodom & Gomorrah" and that seemed so dumb, I thought it would be fun. But, you know, now I wonder: is Chuck Austen, by assigning the names to a husband & wife supervillain team/straw man argument, putting forward the idea that marriage is so heinous a sin in the Lord's eyes, it should be destroyed? I mean, the rest of the issue is Lana Lang dismissing her marriage while also trying to dismiss Clark & Lois's, and as far as I can tell, this is the first superhero comic to be structured after Harold Pinter's Betrayal. All the sort of thing a college-boy like me would be smacking my lips over happily, right? Sadly, although I admire the ambitious cut of Austen's gib, he just doesn't have the skills to back it all up: if nothing else, using the actions of characters to underscore points when absolutely no nuance or consistency is shown in manipulating their actions does little to advance an argument. I hope Mr. Austen considers this point before going on to tackle Who's Afraid of Virginia Werewolf by Night? Eh.

BITE CLUB #6: Uhhhhh, and they're vampires why, again, exactly? I admit to skimmming this entire miniseries for the patented Chaykin Deviant Sex (and those startling Quitely covers) but did the vampirism serve any point, under than hide at the pitch stage what a big bag of cliches this was going to be? Awful.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #31: See, this is why Robert Kirkman is a fan favorite, and Ron Marz is Public Enemy No. 1: Kirkman kills the girlfriend in the kitchen, but at no point puts her in an appliance of any sort. See how it's done, Ron? That's classy. Awful.

GOTHAM CENTRAL #23: Previously my complaint about GC is I tend to love an issue until the last page when they bring in a Bat-villain. This ducks that by putting the villain up front in a tense shoot-out, and then uses that opening as a springboard for a story about internal politics, and is really great reading. It's part one and could easily go astray from here, but this was a high Very Good, and definitely worth picking up.

JSA #65: Although most of the set-up gets covered, I wish Johns had thrown in a bit of crucial info for new readers (and guys with no short-term recall, like me): what's the clock count-down again? That's the amount of time Hourman Sr. & Jr. have together again? Or the amount of time Hourman Sr. has when back in limbo with other people? And what happens again when that time runs out? Something bad, I'm sure, but....? Still, apart from all the head-scratching on my part, I thought this was Good.

OUTSIDERS #15: I know it's just me, but the digital color over pencils makes the art look like those foreign comics where snakes ooze out of people's mouths onto somebody's mutilated breast: seamy, that's the word I'm looking for. That, and Judd's affably cynical take on superhero books (The Fatal Five discussing which country to bomb with President Luthor's stolen secret nukes was fun) made this book read a little--I dunno? darker? stranger? potentially off-putting-er?--than I think is intended. But, y'know, I think it's just supposed to be fun superhero comics 2004, and for that it's OK.

POWERS #4: Since I disagreed a bit with the set-up from last issue, I can't buy into everything that's going on here. And, also, the whole "cop killer who decides not to kill the cop but give her up to somebody who really hates her shit" twist is not gritty crime drama, it's just pulp plot device #307, and managed to completely deflate whatever tension this situation might have. Loved that last two page splash, though: Using a chain of horizontal speech balloons to make the reader do a slow pan over the page? Awesome. OK.

THE PULSE #5: If this had come out a month after the last one, I think the storyline may have been fresh enough to have moved me (although I doubt it: wasn't close to a quarter of the arc spent on Ben Urich and Peter Parker doing the secret identity blabbity-blab?) but it didn't and so the triumph of the newsteam was represented rather than felt, making Jessica's following scene lack any counterpoint. Also, this issue (and to a certain extent, Millar's Spider-Man) shows how broken The Green Goblin concept is. I can understand that nobody likes the hoary chestnut of Norman conveniently getting amnesia whenever the fights over (I'm sure even Stan, if he had known the character was going to be around for thirty years, would have come up with something else) but this whole thing of him knowing who Peter is and not saying anything even when he's being outted and humiliated to the whole world is unbelievable. And back in the day, there would be a whole Spidey-angst moment where Spider-Man might even be tempted to save Norman so as to keep his own identity secret, but nope. I can understand not wanting to write that story again--I don't much want to read it, either--and I can understand not wanting to out Spider-Man's secret identity (and I heartily approve, believe me). But then, you've either got to drop the Green Goblin or come up with a new way to work it, because all it does is pretty much advertise how little sense it makes. Eh.

PUNISHER #11: Oy. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. Hibbs and I have argued about how to handle The Punisher before, and my take is that the writer has to tell tough crime/noir stories about people under the hammer and The Punisher as a symbol of all the evil shit they've done catching up to them, and now that it's here, I can barely stand to read it. It could well be that with the length between issues, the lack of any recap whatsoever, and the cast of roughly a dozen (and it seemed like last time I looked, it was maybe six), I'm just confused and tuning it out. Or it could be that it's a rushed, underdeveloped, garish mess. I really can't tell, but it can't be good news for sales either way, I think. I'm gonna plead No Rating but I think anyone picking this up just out of the blue would well think Awful.

SHE-HULK #7: Yeah, Slott and Bobillo are a really great team--I get the sense Bobillo has no idea who Beta Ray Bill is but is nevertheless thrilled to draw a horse wearing boxing gloves--and I liked this issue a lot. Between this and Promethea, that King Solomon gag should probably be retired, but then again, I laughed at both variations, so... Good.

SPIDER-MAN #6: I liked that page that reads like an outtake from Wanted, where Sandman calls bullshit on the Tigra pelt because his cousin is married to Boomerang and knows she's still alive...which brings the sum total of pages I've liked from Millar's work on this to: one. The rest of the time, I find it to be very badly-written with almost no attention paid from one page to the next: Things are so bad Mary Jane's packing heat! And she's so broke, Jameson's making fun of her! (But then, how could she afford the gun? Or, for that matter, why are she and Peter eating out? Is Millar so buried in Marvel Dollars he no longer understands the idea of "broke," except as melodramatic conceit?) I don't like the grim-n-gritty approach to Spidey in the first place, so I can't say I would like it here even if it was done well, but it's just not. Awful.

TEEN TITANS #15: Liked the payoff better than the set-up, with a positioning of Gar Logan beyond that whiny misfit undercurrent he's frequently given. I don't think anyone's learned the Sinestro lesson though: a hero and villain with the exact same powers fighting seems totally cool, but is in fact incredibly dull. At least Johns and Grummet try to give it a visual panache, and make it mercifully brief. A high OK.

TOYFARE #87: Is it just me, or was that the first time in maybe ever that Twisted Toyfare Theater wasn't funny? All the other usual dialogue balloons throughout were really good, but wow. Was itAssistant Editor's Month for TTT or something? Shocking.

Jesus, what was that--eleven million words? I was gonna gab about In The Shadow of No Towers, Persepolis 2 (and god help me, I can't turn off the fucking "Electric Boogaloo" meme) and/or the Essential Super-Villain Team-Up--which thanks to Namor being an anti-hero rather than a villian, fighting Dr. Doom more than he teams-up with him, and the book being completely inessential, should get some sort of award for the irony content of its title being a perfect 10.0--but instead, I think I'm gonna get something to eat.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Let's bat a couple out before I have to run off to the store...

IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS: You have to understand, I really don't want to give this a bad review. It feels tacky. It feels like being accusatory to a widow, or something. Everyone who actually lived through 9/11 (as opposed to people like me who watched it on TV), well, they get a certain amount of a Free Pass, y'know? And, fer christ's sake, this is Spiegelman -- he won a Pulitzer, man!

But, here's the thing --this book is really only 10 pages long.

Sure, each page of comics is 2 pages in the book, and there's all that lovely historical comic strip material in the back so the page count is actually larger, but there's only 10 pages of Spiegelman, and it's $19.95

Yes, sir, it has great reproduction (I was pretty transfixed by the pages with art's cigarette smoke wrapping the balloons), and, man alive, art's craft has gotten nothing but better -- these are wonderfully constructed pages, filled with poignancy and passion and grief and outrage. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is Excellent comics.

However, 10 pages for $20? Um, ouch.

I'm not taking a copy of this home, and I think that's the most telling "review" I can give.



PERSEPOLIS 2: While on the other hand, I think this may be something I buy a dozen copies of and give out for Christmas and birthdays to my mostly-not-comics-reading family.

This was astonishingly good, probably one of the most gripping pieces of auto-bio comics I've ever read, and, perhaps more importantly, taught me more about Iran and Iranian culture in the hour I spent with the book than I've learn from the media or education my entire life.

I'd quibble a little with the choice to kinda brush off the "And then I became a drug dealer" section (4 pages to "and then I stopped" and not one of them is anecdotal or relevatory to that, er, "plot point"), but that's probably just me being an asshole about it. Otherwise, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this was the best piece of comics I've read so far in 2004.

I absolutely can not recommend this enough -- if you want clear and clever insight, wit and wisdom, passion and change, and wonderful human storytelling, this is the book for you. I can tell you, without reading another comic this week, this is absolutely the Pick of the Week (and probably the year), and I urge you to get your LCS to get a copy for you. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a more heroic man in a comic than Marjane's Father.

Hey, and it's $17.95 for 187 story pages, too! So you get value as well.

(Also, while the background of it can help, it reads pretty well alone without having to buy the first volume, just so you know. The first volume was also terrific, but this one was superb)



And, after those two, I'd feel REALLY FUCKING DUMB if I started writing about CAPTAIN AMERICA or JLA or some breezy superhero book, so more later....

-B
Click Here to Read More...

Here's the other thing I'm wondering -- how fucking obligated should we feel about trying to have SOME content up here every day. Jeff and I have both discussed how weird and uncomfortable we feel when we go *gasp* 48 consecutive hours without one of us saying something.

I don't want to start posting BlogShit ("Woke up late. Ate cornflakes, then brushed teeth...."), and I don't have anything remotely like the time to actually write a Rant Of The Day. I mean, notice I STILL haven't done the Deppey/NuMarvel piece I threatened ("I'll wait for the second half!" I rationalized), nor have I said anything public about Rozanski's latest Tales From The Database, which just flatout begs a response from someone who isn't the #4-or-so largest Diamond account (I think I might append it to the next Tilting at Windmills, actually) -- but what I just don't know is What You Want.

Basically, are we updated frequently enough (even if we go 2 days at a time with radio silence), or, because we don't update daily are we on your Secondary or even Tertiary "Surfing Habits"?

I mean, I know that I like my overall bookmark list to be kinda short (I have 34 [!] links saved, as of this moment!), so I only have Heidi and Graham bookmarked, and I hit everyone else either through the blogosphere page -- and people who don't update frequently don't get visited frequently. So, how do you surf? What kind of frequency of content do you need? Does quality over quantity count at all?

Or do you want me to breathlessly blog that yesterday both Robin Williams and Lauren McCubbin came in? (Because, y'know, I'm not sure I want to write that blog?)

Just wondering what you want, is all....

(and because I wrote this, I didn't write up any of this week's comics... eternally behind)

-B
Click Here to Read More...

Here's a list of the comics that are arriving at Comix Experience on 9/9.

Again, not sure how useful this is on a "national" blog -- your feedback will help me decide whether to do this on a weekly basis -- the national Diamond shipping lists, I find, are not always all that accurate when it comes to what a specific store might be getting....

100 BULLETS #53
ACTION COMICS #819
AQUAMAN #22
ARCHIE AND FRIENDS #85
BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #183
BEAR #6
BITE CLUB #6
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #93
BLOODHOUND #3
CANDYAPPLEBLACK #3
CAPTAIN AMERICA #31
CASEFILES SAM & TWITCH #10
CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #4
CITY OF HEROES #4
DEEP SLEEPER #4
DILDO #6
DISTRICT X #5
FABLES #29
FALLEN ANGEL #15
FORSAKEN #2
GHOST SPY #3
GOTHAM CENTRAL #23
GREEN ARROW #42
GRENDEL DEVILS REIGN #4
IDENTITY DISC #4
JLA #105
JSA #65
JUGHEAD #160
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #95
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE ILLUSTRATED #38
LAUGH DIGEST #196
MARVEL AGE HULK #1
MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #6
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE VOL 3 #6
MENAGE A TROIS #6
NIGHTWING #97
OUTSIDERS #15
PHANTOM JACK #5
POWERS #4
PULSE #5
RUULE KISS & TELL #4
SCOOBY DOO #88
SHE HULK #7
SHONEN JUMP VOL 2 #10 OCT 2004
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #19
SPYBOY FINAL EXAM #4
STAR WARS EMPIRE #24
STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III #68
STRYKEFORCE #5
SWORD OF DRACULA #6
TEEN TITANS #15
THE PUNISHER #11
THOR SON OF ASGARD #8
TOUCH #6
ULTIMATE X-MEN #51
ULTRA #2
VICTORY VOL 2 CVR A SANDOVAL #1
WALKING DEAD #10
WARLOCK #1
WARREN ELLIS STRANGE KILLINGSNECROMANCER #4
X-FORCE #2
X-MEN THE END BOOK ONE DREAMERS AND DEMONS #3


Books / Mags / Stuff
2000 AD #1401
2000 AD #1402
2000 AD EXTREME ED #5
BAD MOJO GN
BATMAN JAPANESE IMPORT ACTIONFIG SERIES 2 MASTER CASE
BATMAN WAR DRUMS TP
BATTLE ANGEL ALITA VOL 5 TP 2ND ED
BONE ONE VOL ED SC
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #114
DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH HC NEW EDITION
ESSENTIAL SUPER VILLAIN TEAM UP TP
FREEDOM FRIES TP
GEN 13 ORDINARY HEROES TP
GO GIRL VOL 1 THE TIME TEAM TP
GUNDAM SEED VOL 2 GN
IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS GN
JANES WORLD #15
MAD MAGAZINE #446
NEIL GAIMAN AUDIO COLLECTION CD
PERSEPOLIS 2 STORY OF A RETURN HC
SCARY GODMOTHER SPOOKACULAR STORIES TP
SFX #121
SMAX HC
SUPERMAN MAN OF STEEL VOL 3 TP
TERMINATOR REWIRED GN
THANOS VOL 5 SAMARITAN TP
TOYFARE #87 DC COMICS IDENTITY CRISIS CVR
TSUBASA VOL 2 GN
ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 9 THE TEMPEST TP
WHITE LAMA VOL 1 REINCARNATION TP
WONDER WOMAN CHALLENGE OF GODS TP

-B
Click Here to Read More...

Tomorrow is Wednesday. Wednesday is New Comics Day.

EXCEPT NOT THIS WEEK.

THIS week, New Comics Day is Thursday -- thanks to the Monday holiday of Labor Day.

If you go into your Local Comics Shop tomorrow looking for new books they're going to give you That Speech, and nobody wants to give OR get That Speech.

Don't forget!

-B

Click Here to Read More...

Happy Labor Day! When we did the minor clean-up on the site, I swore I would change my ways and get better about putting up the Fanboy Rampages closer to their publication date. So this latest piece, dealing with Bendis and Millar and underoos and whatnot, was supposed to go up on the first of the month. How it got to be the sixth of September already, I have no idea.

As they say in those fancy restaurants: enjoy!

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

THE NAIL #3: Gore gore and more gore, there was enough of a nugget of a plot to at least make you feel not cheated. As Don Thompson used to say "If this is the kind of thing you like, you'll like this." Eh.

UNCANNY X-MEN #448: No Alan Davis, and, let's face it, you really want to see Alan Davis drawing MurderWorld. I do, indeed, hope Sage took that bullet in the face. I mean, MurderWorld should probably be renamed LightWoundingWorld otherwise. We demand truth in advertising! Oh, and doesn't "The X-Men meet the Queen of England" seem very very wrong somehow? Eh.

TALES FROM THE BULLY PULPIT #1: I was going to say something about how strange and weird it was to have a comic starring Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Alva Edison stealing a time machine and fighting Nazi Martians in Argentina, and then I realized I just read a comic about the X-Men being put in a pinball machine to rescue the Queen of England. I liked this better, but the grade is largely for the At-LEAST-a-Buck-Too-Much cover price. $4.95 woulda gotten this a "Good". Eh.

ELEKTRA THE HAND #1: As you well know, we've often discussed Elektra here at the Savage Critic, and how I find most comics starring her to suck because either she's The Perfect Killer (and there's no drama) or She's Having Issues (which undercuts the very premise of Sexy Ninja Death). Cleverly, they've found a third path here -- Don't Have Elektra Appear in the Flashbacks, and Have 19 Pages of Those. So, in other words, this is really a "The Hand" comic rather than an Elektra one. I liked it OK.

SCRATCH #4: Running and Shouting and All Middle and I say Eh.

MONOLITH #8: You'd think that the Obligitory Batman Appearance would make this a more compelling comic, but you'd be wrong. Only bits I liked were the AIDS test bits, and, huh, did they even say the acronym's name once? Eh.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #3: I'm sure it's possible to have a more confusing comic starring less appealing characters with the few interesting ones being written largely out of character called a "Justice League" comic -- but I wouldn't want to read that one, either. This was Awful, and is my vote for the Book of the Weak.

BATMAN CATWOMAN TRAIL OF THE GUN #2: Preach preach preach. Nice art, but everything I said in the review of #1 stands. Awful.

Y THE LAST MAN #26: I suppose this was neccesary, but it felt like watching the Deleted Scenes feature on a DVD. OK.

SWAMP THING #7: Decent script by Pfiefer, nice art by Richard Corben (!), but I walked away from it only caring a little, and mostly wondering what Swampy's status is right now. No questions are really answered or even addresed. OK.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: BARBARA'S ZOMBIE CHRONICLES #1: Throwing this in just to see if I can do a review shorter than the title, but it looks like I've already blown that. Ah well. There are Zombies, there is gore, there is an attempt to expand upon Romero's mythos somewhat, but like THE NAIL, above, this really isn't my thing -- I prefer WALKING DEAD. Eh.

SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #5: Story #1 has no Spidey, and I think everyone acts like an asshat. Story #2 has Spidey, but he acts like an asshat too. This book serves no good function, Awful.

STREET ANGEL #3: Big leap forward in the art this issue -- this is purely terrific stuff. I'm less excited by the story -- several of the beats seemed forced, But I can give this a very low Good.

SYLVIA FAUST #1: Terrific art, passable story. OK.

UNITED FRONT #1: Anthologies are hard beasts, as I've said 1000 times before people (meaning me) judge them by the least interesting stuff in the issue, and there's a lot of uninteresting marginal material in here -- stories that meander and go nowhere. At least at 3 pages each most of them were over quickly enough. What drives me bonkers is the editorial where the publisher seems to suggest that the market is nothing but superheroes -- when all you have to do is look at a good shop and see that's far far from the truth. Just because some genres are underserved doesn;t mean those genres aren't supported -- it just means you have to be really good to penetrate the market. And most of this material is far from good. About the only piece I thought showed promise was "Yam" by Corey Barsa... and even that didn't really tell a complete thought or have a point. So, sorry, Awful.

PERIPHERY #1: Another anthology, this one with a couple of Steve Niles stories in it. Slight ones, at that (I mean, I thought that first one was dramatically undercut by the "...and by the way, they're VAMPIRES!" Scary!" ending) Still the general level of professionalism was higher, so I'll go Eh here.

RETURN OF THE ELEPHANT: MOTHER COME HOME's Paul Hornschemeier (too many E's!) did this, and it's super creepy in its banality. I did a great big "Ugh! Nasty!" at the end, which I'm supposed to, but this isn't material I really want to think about, damn it. Still, from acraft perspective: Good.

Back tomorrow, I think, with the Books for 9/1

-B




Click Here to Read More...

OK, Ben's asleep, Tzipora's out of the house, I have some time to review, let's do it

GAMBIT #1: Perfectly adequate. I don't see the point of this book, however -- there's not enough here to make it worth $3, and, honestly, I don't care for Remy as a character. Anyway, isn't he blind now? Eh.

JUBILEE #1: Also adequate. I got the sense that Kirkman's never really hung around teenage girls (which is, probably, a good thing for a comics writer, but I digress...) -- I think that this, like the similiarly "all ages" MARY JANE isn't going to 1) find it's nominal target audience 2) be well recieved by them even if they found it. Eh.

BIRDS OF PREY #73: Aw, didn't like this wrap up -- the "big fight" was boringly staged, and Babs' dilemma was sub-plotted rather than really resolved. A long way to go for so little. Eh.

ALPHA FLIGHT #7: More involving than the first six, and I'm marginally more interested in the characters now that we get to know them -- but still pretty much a "so what?" book. Can;t see this getting to #13, to be honest. Eh.

HARD TIME #8: The series started slow, but it's become one of my most favorite titles -- strong emotions, clever situations, but if the audience doesn't double PDQ, this book is probably toast. I still ahve a handful of things to read this week, but, considering where I am now, this gets the PICK OF THE WEEK status. Excellent, and I really urge you to sample it now that it has found some "legs" -- this is Gerber as a mature voice, dealing with material he clearly cares about.

KINETIC #6: Also has found it's groove, and is super-strong material. I also urge you to give this a sample because I suddenly think that "Focus" (Now that they've cut the weaker books) is maybe the best "line" in comics at the moment. Excellent.

BULLSEYE GREATEST HITS #1: I gotta give it thumbs up for the yummy Steve Dillon art, but it's kinda a watered-down "Silence of the Lambs". Despite the dramatic need, there's NO WAY the warden would have made that announcement at the end of the book. A strong OK.

MAJESTIC #2: Not nearly as fun and clever as #1, there's still a lot of charm here, and this "Out SUpermans" the current Super-books. A low Good.

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED: Dude, last week's episode had B'wana Beast. B'WANA BEAST, man! Did you EVER think you'd live long enough to see an animated B'Wana Beast? This was a perfectly adequate comic for the kiddies, though Adam should be punched for laboring the pun on page 21. OK.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #65: Bendis pulls a "Breakfast Club" and mostly works around my doubts of the last 2 issues. Where were the teachers, though? I was thrown way out of the groove by "I'm sorry, Gwen" followed six inches away by "Next Issue: Wolverine" *sigh* (Which wasn't aided by the badly placed "verb" ad) Still, besides that awkward beat, let's go with a Very Good.

FIRESTORM #5: Warming to it, yes -- I hadn't expected so much "Wrong thing, right reasons", and that brings a positive moral ambiguity that we don't get enough of in modern comics. Between this and BLOODHOUND, Dan Jolley has suddenly become one to keep an eye on. Good.

DETECTIVE #798: "War Games" Act 2, part 1 -- too talky to begin with, and I'm not sure I buy ANY of Batman's actions (Starting with the Spidey routine -- where's the batmobile? going through the asking a man he doesn't know for the reigns of power) and the last three pages? That seems way way too fast to me. Not bad at all, but not very compelling work.... OK.

INVINCIBLE #15: Great little self-continaed issue. Top notch stuff, and steadily getting better. Very Good.

AVENGURES #501: A little tiny bit of action (mostly leftover from last issue though, and not advancing a thing) and lots and lots and lots of really dull and what seems to me to be out-of-character talking. "Bendis-y" dialogue works GREAT sometimes (I think he captured some real raw feelings in this weeks ULTIMATE SPIDEY), but other times it's just so much leaden crap -- I didn't buy ANY of the blabbity blab here. This issue is pretty much the textbook defintion of "all middle" and I have to give it a pretty resounding thumbs down. Awful.

MILKMAN MURDERS #3: I thought 1 & 2 built some great mood, and I'll hold hope that #4 goes someplace new, but this issue was just Hack and Slash. Foo. Awful.

EXILES #52: Slight but amusing. OK.

THOR #84: God I hate hate hate that font -- and an entire issue of it really made this hard to read. But... well and cleverly plotted, and I'm looking forward to the resolution. A weak Good.

CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON #7: Priest drives me nutz sometimes -- there's not a comic he writes that doesn;t have at least one really gripping and clever scene, yet his plots are.. oh, I don't know? Too complex? Not focused enough? something. This "Super sailor" thing isn't a horrible idea, but it's going on way way too long. I'm glad the Wanda thing was dismissed though (Still wouldn't it be nice to see her written that richly in general?). I liked it, it bored me, both at the same time. A confused OK.

HULK / THING HARD KNOCKS #1: Two guys walk into a bar (cafe) and that's IT. Nothing happens, doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and would get a big thumbs down except for two things: 1) Jae Lee's scrummy art and 2) Bruce Jones writing Ben Grimm like he was torn from the pages of TWISTED TOYFARE THEATRE. Which is, let's admit it, how Ben would probably really be. I got some serious laffs outta this, and, well not $3.50's worth, but enough to say OK.

Alright, that's all I've read, back later with more (this time I PROMISE to finish out the week's comics -- I only have like 10 left)

-B

Click Here to Read More...