I had a terrific Christmas, thanks! Visited my mom in the 'burbs, had a pair of wonderful meals and fun times with everyone doting on Ben, and all was right int he world.

As you can notice from the 2 posts preceeding this one, I also had to get the order form done this weekend (*sigh*), so no reviews this week. No time for love, Dr. Jones!

Anyway, as always, here's what we're getting, your local store may or may not be recivieng this same list of stuff on this same date, and, anyway, this is just stuff from Diamond which isn't 100% of it in any case.

Big ball-breaker of a week, though, huh?

What are you getting, what are you regretting?

2000 AD #1417
2000 AD #1418
30 DAYS OF BLOODSUCKERS TALES #3
ADAM STRANGE #4 (Of 8)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #515
ARCHIE DIGEST #213
ARSENIC LULLABY #17
AVENGERS EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES #4 (Of 8)
BANANA TAIL #1
BATGIRL #59
BATMAN #635
BATMAN DANGER GIRL
BETTY & VERONICA #205
CITY OF HEROES #8
CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #1
COSMIC GUARD #5
CVO COVERT VAMPIRIC OPERATIONS ROGUE STATE #2
DAISY KUTTER #4 (Of 4)
DESPERADOES BANNERS OF GOLD #1
DILDO #7 (A)
DOOM PATROL #7
DOROTHY #1
ELEKTRA THE HAND #5 (Of 5)
ELRIC MAKING OF A SORCERER #2(Of 4) (RES)
EXILES #57
FANTASTIC & PRACTICALLY TRUE ADV OF CAPT GREEDY #1
FIERCE #4 (Of 4)
FREAKSHOW #1
GAMBIT #5
GARTH ENNIS 303 #2 WRAPAROUNDCOVER
HELLBLAZER #203
HUMANKIND #4 (Of 5)
INVINCIBLE #18
IRON MAN #2 (Note Price)
JONAS TALES OF AN IRONSTAR #2
JSA STRANGE ADVENTURES #5 (Of6)
KABUKI #3
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #1
LURKERS #3
MANGA CALIENTE #3 (A)
MARVEL AGE FANTASTIC FOUR #10
MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN TEAM UP #4
METAL GEAR SOLID #4
MONOLITH #11
MYSTERY OF WOLVERINE WOO-BAIT
NIGHT O/T LIVING DEAD BARBARAS ZOMBIE CHRON #3 (Of 3)
RAZORS EDGE WARBLADE #3
SAVAGE DRAGON #119
SKYSCRAPERS OF THE MIDWEST #1
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #144
SPAWN #141 (RES)
STAR WARS EMPIRE #28
STAR WARS OBSESSION #2
STAR WARS REPUBLIC #72
STRANGE #3
STREET FIGHTER CVR A #12
SUPERMAN #212
SUPERMAN BATMAN #16
SUPREME POWER #14
TEEN TITANS #19
THE INCREDIBLES #2
TOM STRONG #30
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #14
ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE #4 (Of 5)
WALKING DEAD #14
WARLOCK #4
WARREN ELLIS QUIT CITY #1
WESTERN TALES OF TERROR #2
WHAT IF AUNT MAY HAD DIED INSTEAD OF UNCLE BEN
WHAT IF DR DOOM HAD BECOME THE THING
WHAT IF GENERAL ROSS HAD BECOME THE HULK
WHAT IF JESSICA JONES HAD JOINED THE AVENGERS
WHAT IF KAREN PAGE HAD LIVED
WHAT IF MAGNETO HAD FORMED THE X-MEN WITH PROFESSOR X
WILDGUARD FIRE POWER CVR A NAUCK #1

Books / Mags / Stuff
BARNUM SC
BLOOD A TALE TP NEW PTG
BOUNCER RAISING CANE TP
CHARLEYS WAR VOL 1 HC
CHRONICLES OF LUCKY ELLO GN
COMIC BOOK ARTIST VOL 2 #5
COURAGEOUS PRINCESS TP
DORK TOWER COLL TP VOL 7 DORKSIDE OF THE GOON
FANTASTIC FOUR VISIONARIES JOHN BYRNE VOL 3 TP
FEMME FATALES JAN FEB 05 VOL 13 #10
GIRL GENIUS VOL 3 TP
HELL HOUSE VOL 1 TP
HELLBOY BABA YAGA Y OTROS RELATOS CHAINED COFFIN SPANISH ED
HELLBOY DESPIERTA AL DEMONIO WAKE THE DEVIL SPANISH TP
HELLBOY SEMILLA DE DESTRUCCION SEED OF DESTRUCTION SPANISH T
IDENTITY DISC TP
INU YASHA VOL 20 TP
MONON STREET POWER COLLECTIVEVOL 1 TP
PASSENGER GN
ROMAN DIRGE PIRATE WALLET
SFX #125
SHIMURA TP
STACKS GN
TALES OF THE REALM TP
TEEN TITANS RAVEN MAQUETTE
TOKYO KNIGHTS GN
TRANSGENESIS 2009 VOL 1 FIDESTP
VERY BIG MONSTER SHOW GN
VIDEO WATCHDOG #115


Click Here to Read More...

Same thing again, just this time sorted by retail cover price. This changes the chart pretty drastically, and is, I think, the better indication of "what's selling" than pieces. "follow the money"

Again, these placements will probably change -- for example, since it is limited to 1000 pieces, I don't think I'm going to get my full order on the $50 PROMETHEA poster thingy.

1 PROMETHEA VARIANT EDITION #32
2 PROMETHEA #32
3 ULTIMATES 2 #3
4 SOLO #3
5 CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOL 7 DWELLER IN THE POOL TP #7
6 SUPREME POWER #15
7 GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH #5
8 SEVEN SOLDIERS
9 SUPERMAN BATMAN #18
10 VIMANARAMA #1
11 OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PG VOL 35 IRON MAN SC #35
12 JSA VOL 6 PRINCE OF DARKNESS TP
13 ELRIC MAKING OF A SORCERER #3
14 SUPERMAN #214
15 NEW AVENGERS #4
16 LUCIFER VOL 7 EXODUS TP
17 POWERS #9
18 BLACK PANTHER BY JACK KIRBY VOL 1 TP
19 BATMAN THE MAN WHO LAUGHED
20 PROJECT SUPERIOR SC
21 TEENAGERS FROM MARS TP
22 CONAN VOL 1 FROST GIANTS DAUGHTER & STORIES TP #1
23 USAGI YOJIMBO VOL 19 FATHERS AND SONS TP #19
24 OCEAN #4
25 ALL STAR ARCHIVES VOL 11 HC
26 TOM STRONG BOOK THREE TP
27 ITS A BIRD SC
28 DAREDEVIL #70
29 ESSENTIAL LUKE CAGE VOL 1 TP
30 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #16
31 CATWOMAN WHEN IN ROME #5
32 JLA CLASSIFIED #4
33 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #3
34 TEEN TITANS #21
35 Y THE LAST MAN #31
36 CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #3
37 SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #1
38 STRANGE #4
39 WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE SPIDER-MAN & WOMAN CVR #161
40 STRAY BULLETS VOL 1 INNOCENCE OF NIHILISM 10TH ANN TP
41 BLACK PANTHER #1
42 COMICS JOURNAL #266
43 EX MACHINA #8
44 UNCANNY X-MEN #455
45 UNCANNY X-MEN #456
46 ARTBABE PRESENTS LA PERDIDA #5
47 YOUNG AVENGERS #1
48 INCREDIBLE HULK #78
49 TOM STRONG #31
50 BPRD THE DEAD #4
51 FABLES #34
52 CONAN #13
53 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #11
54 ULTIMATE X-MEN #56
55 HELLBLAZER #205
56 X-MEN #167
57 TERRA OBSCURA VOL 2 #6
58 JLA #111
59 WOLVERINE #25
60 JSA #70
61 MAXX BOOK FOUR TP
62 SUPERMAN STRENGTH #2
63 JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER SPECIAL PAPA MIDNITE #1
64 LUCIFER #59
65 FLASH #219
66 FRANK MILLER SIN CITY BIG FAT KILL 2ND ED TP
67 FRANK MILLER SIN CITY THAT YELLOW BASTARD 2ND TP
68 CLOUDS ABOVE GN
69 CAPTAIN AMERICA #4
70 DOCTOR SPECTRUM #6
71 THE PUNISHER #17
72 KABUKI #4
73 AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #5
74 BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #8
75 SUPERMAN BATMAN SUPERGIRL HC
76 DETECTIVE COMICS #803
77 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #517
78 100 BULLETS #58
79 BLACK WIDOW #6
80 NEW THUNDERBOLTS #5
81 SHE HULK #12
82 CARAVAN HC
83 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #72
84 GRIMJACK KILLER INSTINCT #2
85 ADAM STRANGE #6
86 OUTSIDERS #21
87 X-MEN FANTASTIC FOUR #3
88 COMICS JOURNAL 2005 SPECIAL
89 X-MEN PHOENIX ENDSONG #3
90 BATMAN #637
91 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #100
92 WONDER WOMAN #213
93 HUNTER KILLER SILVESTRI CVR #1
94 FANTASTIC FOUR #523
95 EXCALIBUR #10
96 QUESTION #4
97 SWAMP THING #12
98 WITCHING #9
99 CATWOMAN #40
100 BIRDS OF PREY #79
Click Here to Read More...

Here's the list of what we're ordering for February '05, sorted by quantity.

Before these books arrive, changes are often made in rankings -- sometimes books get hefty "advance reorders", and in some cases (like Marvel titles) books can be decreased as I get more current information on current sales patterns.

I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone might have on relative placings in the commentary section...

1 ULTIMATES 2 #3
2 GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH #5
3 SEVEN SOLDIERS
4 PROMETHEA #32
5 SUPREME POWER #15
6 SUPERMAN BATMAN #18
7 VIMANARAMA #1
8 NEW AVENGERS #4
9 SUPERMAN #214
10 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #16
11 POWERS #9
12 OCEAN #4
13 UNCANNY X-MEN #455
14 UNCANNY X-MEN #456
15 SOLO #3
16 TEEN TITANS #21
17 DAREDEVIL #70
18 JLA CLASSIFIED #4
19 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #3
20 ULTIMATE X-MEN #56
21 Y THE LAST MAN #31
22 X-MEN #167
23 JLA #111
24 EX MACHINA #8
25 FABLES #34
26 BLACK PANTHER #1
27 WOLVERINE #25
28 CATWOMAN WHEN IN ROME #5
29 FLASH #219
30 JSA #70
31 CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #3
32 TOM STRONG #31
33 HELLBLAZER #205
34 LUCIFER #59
35 YOUNG AVENGERS #1
36 SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #1
37 STRANGE #4
38 INCREDIBLE HULK #78
39 BPRD THE DEAD #4
40 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #517
41 CONAN #13
42 ELRIC MAKING OF A SORCERER #3
43 BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #8
44 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #72
45 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #11
46 TERRA OBSCURA VOL 2 #6
47 BATMAN #637
48 100 BULLETS #58
49 JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER SPECIAL PAPA MIDNITE #1
50 OUTSIDERS #21
51 WONDER WOMAN #213
52 AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #5
53 CAPTAIN AMERICA #4
54 DOCTOR SPECTRUM #6
55 THE PUNISHER #17
56 KABUKI #4
57 DETECTIVE COMICS #803
58 BLACK WIDOW #6
59 NEW THUNDERBOLTS #5
60 SHE HULK #12
61 CATWOMAN #40
62 ADAM STRANGE #6
63 BIRDS OF PREY #79
64 WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE SPIDER-MAN & WOMAN CVR #161
65 BATMAN THE MAN WHO LAUGHED
66 X-MEN PHOENIX ENDSONG #3
67 GOTHAM CENTRAL #28
68 QUESTION #4
69 SWAMP THING #12
70 WITCHING #9
71 HUNTER KILLER SILVESTRI CVR #1
72 FANTASTIC FOUR #523
73 EXCALIBUR #10
74 USAGI YOJIMBO #82
75 GREEN ARROW #47
76 SLEEPER SEASON TWO #9
77 HUMAN TARGET #19
78 LIVEWIRES #1
79 RUNAWAYS #1
80 DAREDEVIL REDEMPTION #1
81 X-MEN FANTASTIC FOUR #3
82 NEW X-MEN #10
83 ED THE HAPPY CLOWN #1
84 JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #8
85 DOOM PATROL #9
86 TRIGGER #3
87 DAREDEVIL REDEMPTION #2
88 EXILES #59
89 ARTBABE PRESENTS LA PERDIDA #5
90 GRIMJACK KILLER INSTINCT #2
91 NIGHTWING #103
92 NIGHTWING #104
93 ACTION COMICS #824
94 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #637
95 PREVIEWS VOL XV #2
96 HAWKMAN #37
97 LOSERS #21
98 WALKING DEAD #17
99 MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #15
100 CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOL 7 DWELLER IN THE POOL TP #7
Click Here to Read More...

In typical comics industry fashion, 2 weeks of famine are followed by this week's feast. Hooray!

Also: If you in the SF Bay Area, and you're not doing anything better on Friday, Comix Experience is having it's annual xmas party. From 5-7 or so, come by and have a beer or some eggnog, or even a glass of water with us. Merry merry!

ASTONISHING X-MEN #7
AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #3 (Of 12)
BART SIMPSON COMICS #21
BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #153
BIPOLAR #5
BLACK HOLE #12 (OF 12)
BLACK WIDOW #4 (Of 6)
BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #6
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #4
CATWOMAN WHEN IN ROME #3 (Of 6)
CONAN #11
DEAD AT 17 REVOLUTION #2 (Of 4)
DONT EAT THE ELECTRIC SHEEP #1
EXCALIBUR #8
FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER CVR A WHEATLEY #7
GI JOE #38
GI JOE RELOADED #11
GLOOMCOOKIE #22
GOON DH ED #10
GREEN ARROW #45
GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH #3 (Of 6)
HARDY BOYS #2
JINGLE BELLE #2
JLA CLASSIFIED #2
JOE LANSDALES BY BIZARRE HANDS #6 (Of 6)
JUGHEAD #162
JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #109
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #98
LIKEWISE #3
LIVING WITH ZOMBIES #1
LOSERS #19
LUNCH HOUR COMIX #1
MANHUNTER #5
MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN #18
MYSTIQUE #22
NEW THUNDERBOLTS #3
NIGHTCRAWLER #4
OJO #4
PUNISHER RED XMAS
QUEEN & COUNTRY #28
RICHARD DRAGON #8
ROGUE #6
SECRET SKULL #4
SLEEPER SEASON TWO #7 (Of 12)
SOLO #2
SPACE GHOST #2 (Of 6)
STARGATE SG1 FALL OF ROME REGCVR #3 (Of 3)
STOKERS DRACULA #2 (Of 4)
TEEN TITANS GO #14
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #19
ULTIMATE ELEKTRA #5 (Of 5)
UNCLE SCROOGE #337
WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #652
WITCHING #7
WOLVERINE #23
WONDER WOMAN #211
X-FORCE #5
X-MEN #165



Books / Mags / Stuff
ALEX RAYMONDS FLASH GORDON VOL 2 HC
ANIMATION MAGAZINE JAN 2005
ART OF USAGI YOJIMBO HC
ASIAN CULT CINEMA #45
AWAKENING GN
CINEFEX #100
CREATURES OF THE NIGHT HC
DC THE NEW FRONTIER VOL 1 TP
ELFQUEST THE GRAND QUEST VOL 6 TP
FOLLOWING CEREBUS #2
GAME INFORMER JAN05
HELLBOY TALKING BOARD
KILLER PRINCESSES TP
KIRBY UNLEASHED
KONG KING OF SKULL ISLAND HC
LUCIFERS GARDEN OF VERSES VOL1 DEVIL ON FEVER STREET GN (C:
MAJOR DAMAGE VOL 1 GN
MATRIX COMICS VOL 2 TP
MIDNIGHT NATION TP NEW PRTG
MYSTIQUE VOL 3 UNNATURAL TP
NEW X-MEN ACADEMY X VOL 1 CHOOSING SIDES TP
PREVIEWS VOL XV #1
SAMURAI EXECUTIONER VOL 2 TP
SERAPHIC FEATHER VOL 5 WAR CRIMES TP
SPIDER-MAN MAXIMUM CARNAGE TP
THIEVES & KINGS TP VOL 5 WINTER BOOK
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #129
VENOM VS CARNAGE TP
WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE #160

What're you getting this week?

-B
Click Here to Read More...

I think there's a lot more interesting stuff said by Hibbs and in our comments (I thought Donnie's comment about Jean hatching some utterly insane plan rather than just saying she wanted Ray back was hilariously dead-on. ("Meltzer's way seems so...Minnesotan.")) but I'll sort of tack on my two cents by way of responding to Hibbs and some of the comments developing in his entry.

IDENTITY CRISIS #7: Unlike ADD, I bought the first issue of IC and thought it was decently written, which is really why I had hopes for this mini. It wasn't unearned hope or me buying into the hype--that first issue was well-written enough that I cared about Ralph & Sue, and Sue's murder carried a lot more weight than if it had just been exploitational junk. Even when it veered into over-the-top melodrama (that damn pregnancy test!), it was done with with an eye toward maximum emotional punch. This wasn't Armageddon 2001 or Knightfall or The Death of Superman: this seemed like the work of a small tightly focused team that was both very talented and very focused on the craft.

And, I dunno, perhaps that was the problem with Identity Crisis right there: if that first issue had been more inept, or seemed a little more hackish, maybe I wouldn't have had my hopes set so high for the story. I mean, honestly, Crisis on Infinite Earths is, I think, a very lovely-looking pile of inept junk. Even when I first read it as a kid, I thought it was flimsy as a story. But I don't know if Crisis ever promised to be more than a spectacle, an event that would change the DC Universe, promises which it delivered on very well. Looking at all the stuff jammed into Identity Crisis, from the re-invention of the Calculator to the Justice League mindwipe thing to, uh, wasn't there some guy who could run really, really fast and that wasn't particularly explained?--all of it reads like a typical DC event: a bunch of twists on the DC Mythos, some new stuff thrown into the mix for creators to play with, and a certain amount of sensationalism to sell some comic books.

For me, a lot of the problem is that this book started high and got a little bit crappier issue by issue until, by issue #7, we had some really junky, poorly done scenes (that whole ending with Ralph talking to Sue is supposed to be heartwarming, I know, but frankly the guy came off like a nutjob. When Ollie told him to talk to Sue, I don't think Ollie meant to pretend Sue was still responding--and that's just one of a dozen examples). And I certainly didn't expect such a big ol' cheating pile of nonsense as Hibbs points out in his review. I'd like to think a good editor would have been able to point out all the stuff that didn't work...and even take the time to hold the last issue if rewrites were necessary. One good scene in issue #5 or #6 between Ray and Jean, crafted with the same care as those opening scenes with Ralph and Sue, for example, would have gone a long way to making the mystery side of the finale more palatable for me.

Finally, it seems to me the title of the series, Identity Crisis, works on several levels with the story--obviously, since it's about the problems of being a superhero with a public identity, and the JLA mindwipe angle is a different type of Identity Crisis--but maybe more importantly on the meta-level: what does DC want the DCU to be? High-profile, quality comics? Grim and gritty realistic books? Uplifting tales of heroes and icons? The fast buck? By trying to be all of these things at once, an event book like Identity Crisis points to an identity crisis at work at DC itself--one that it would do well to resolve before it alienates everyone by promising everything and satisfactorily delivering nothing.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Hooray! Jeff did a bunch of reviews, so I can safely ignore... well, virtually everything this week. Which is good, because the closing-days-of-holiday-shipping have kicked my ass but good, in addition to the 20 box collection we just bought (how in god's name can you have a 20 box collection and not have ANY of them alphabetized?!?!?!)

I've also got this mildly sick stack of DVDs and videos I need to watch (STILL haven't watched THE APPRENTICE finale, but thanks to the SF CHRONICLE for spoiling the results ON PAGE TWO OF THE PAPER, sheesh!) -- including some year-old things from the library like the LED ZEPPELIN LIVE 2 disk set (*orgasmic shudder*) and I also get LotR on Wednesday, plus I'm itching to play some CITY OF HEROES (been 3 days, man... I've gotten to level 43 though!) and I'm just generally drowning in stuff to do.

SO... 3 whole reviews this week!

Hm, let's go with reverse-alpha this week....

TRIGGER #1: I thought this was a terrific start, though the cynical bastard in me wonders how long this can really go. The best Vertigo titles have always revolved around personal responsibility, and this is structured (it seems) to be against the Man. John Watkiss is a fucking great artist, I don't care what you think! VERY GOOD.

SHAOLIN COWBOY #1: Boi-yoi-yoi-yoing! That's the sound of a giant woodie erupting from my pants over this! Holy crap, was this fine shit or what? Sure, the plot is barely a sentence long, but it's not like HARDBOILED was a masterpiece of plot or writing, either. That "360 degree" sequence was simply the coolest thing I saw this week, and I loved how it felt like, dunno, "480" or something. My only quibble? This shoulda been printed at 11x17, darn it! Like Jeff mentioned, this is 2 weeks in a row where Burlyman spanked DC and Marvel in the quality entertainment department, and, there's no doubt this is both EXCELLENT and the PICK OF THE WEEK. Selling like a glass pipe on Free Crack Day, too. Hooray!

IDENTITY CRISIS #7: Here's the short version of the review: Fuck you. Sincerely. In the neck. With a rusty nail. Fuckers.

Ah, but you want the longer version, don't you?

There are several ways in which this doesn't work, at all.

(oh, and hey, there will be spoilers here, in case you haven't read it -- so go away now, if you don't want to be spoiled)

First, and primarily, as the denouement to a murder mystery, there's nothing to call this but shit. There weren't enough clues to put this together. Even a game of CLUE is much less random than this. ("Jean Loring. In the Apartment. With a Flamethrower"), and what IS there doesn't hold up to scrutiny for more than a few seconds. "It was an accident, and I just happened to be packing a flamethrower" The fuck you say? There are far too many improbable things to string together to make this work. Like a) Jean knows how to use the atom suit? b) Ray just leaves them laying around? Really? c) Why the fuck was she packing a flamethrower? Carrying a "weapon" I can conceptually understand, but a FLAMETHROWER? d) um, the world's greatest detectives (Bruce, J'onn, Ralph) with access to god-like forensics tools (Literally in Scott Free's case, metaphorically with the Metal Men et. al.) and Jean didn't leave a single hair, or flake of skin or footprint or anything? I mean, yes, I can buy that she could sneak in microscopically, sorta, I guess, but once she grew, all bets were off. e) I'm no expert, but I kinda thought that flamethrowers would put out a pretty damn distinctive scent? Is that enough? No? Well then, how about f) How did Jean learn to tie that plot-point specific knot? g) Why wouldn't Calculator have called the JLA and tried to sell them the information about the ATOM'S WIFE hiring what seemed to be a random assassination? Seriously, what's the benefit to him to keep that information quiet? If anything, he has more future leverage by playing ball. Also h) by involving him in the plot, shouldn't that mean the Calculator can pretty damn easily figure out that Tim Drake is Robin? And, thus, Bruce, Batman?

There were other non-mystery things too that bugged me. Why was Jean put into ARKHAM of all places? Under her own name? A dank pit of despair and horror, where's there's basically no chance of her ever getting better, and every chance of her getting gang-raped by the Joker, Two-Face and Killer Croc? The fuck? There's even a background "national inquirer" cover that says it happened, if the whole thing wasn't depressing enough for you.

Plus the entire seven issues was basically one big red herring that didn't bear upon the actual events in ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. Think about it: Jean went nuts. Not because of the brainwashing thing though -- that had nothing to do with it. She coulda gone nuts 3 months ago, or 5 years from now, and it didn't have any bearing upon the story Meltzer apparently really wanted to tell.

What this means is that the HORROR of the story, the slaughters of Sue and her unborn child, the orphaning of Robin (which dramatically works against Tim -- HE became Robin out of belief of the mantle, not rage at loss like Bruce or Dick or even Cassandra), the absolutely bewilderingly so out-of-character destruction of Jean (and thus functionally Ray, the single most shat upon of all of DC's "icons"), not one of those things had to have happened in order to tell the MAIN story, the brainwashing plot. And that to me, is repugnant.

Morally so. Ethically so.

I don't blame Meltzer, per se. He might read this "review" and think I hate him or something. On the contrary, I think he's a good writer. Certainly he got into the characters heads, and I think the dialogue for the entire series was largely crisp and on the money. Where I really lay the blame is on DC's management for approving, or perhaps even encouraging, the horrific and cynical events here. This darkens the DCU, again. And this trend makes me sick.

Where is the heroism here? Did anything "heroic" occur in IDENTITY CRISIS? No, we've seen rapes, and murders, and insanity and horror, and self-delusion, and secrets and lies. And I don't think any of these characters are anything other than worse for it. Where's the damn heroism?

Coming out on the cover of the next PREVIEWS Batman's holding someone else as a corpse. Just in time for Christmas, have some more cynicism and horror.

Well, no, fuck you. I don't want that. No one does, not really.

I could go on with the rant, but I'm just sick of it. On the Savage Critic Scale, it gets a CRAP, as well as the PICK OF THE WEAK for this week. In fact, though we have 2 more ship weeks to go, I think I can safely take the position that IDENTITY CRISIS was the worst comic of the entire year. Despite the level of craft being extremely high. It's well scripted, it is be-yootifully drawn, but the level of unnecessary damage it did... just ugh. And, dig, there were a lot of really really really bad comics this year.

* * * * * *


On a lighter note, let's look at the books for the week. My first round pick (that is: what *I* took home) looks like this:

AMERICAN SPLENDOR OUR MOVIE YEAR GN
ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL 1 GIFTED TP
KRAZY & IGNATZ 1933-34 NECROMANCY BY THE BLUE BEAN BUSH
MARGES LITTLE LULU VOL 1 TP
P CRAIG RUSSELL VOL 3 LIBRARYOF OPERA TP
POWERS VOL 7 FOREVER TP

I recommend each and every one for your bookshelf, but I'm going to go with Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's ASTONIGHING X-MEN v1 TP as my BOOK OF THE WEEK. That's how you do super-heroes -- funny and brave and bright even when serious. Hooray for it!

What did you think?

(and now Lester can post something about IDENTITY CRISIS, huh?)

-B




Click Here to Read More...

Man. Yesterday at the story was psychotically busy (holiday shoppers, putting together the newsletter, Hibbs sorting through a just-purchased collection), and I left early for a company Christmas Party at the other job, so I didn’t get very far into this week’s books. Still, operating under the idea that something’s better than nothing:

AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES #3: Scott Kolins draws a kick-ass Iron Man but I'm not down with this pacing. There's no reason we couldn't have had the "Zemoooo!" scene at the end of #2; Cap's not any better developed at the end of this issue than last issue. This story is either padded or flat-out inert, I can't quite figure out which. OK for the art, but that $3.50 price point stings.

CATWOMAN #38: I appreciate a crazy-ass new villain as much as the next guy, but Wooden Nickel? (Or whatever he’s called?) Splinters aside, I'm just not that scared or intimidated by...wood. In fact, thanks to the Paul Gulacy artwork, it seemed less like a story and more like an outtake from Will Smith’s Wild, Wild West starring Robert Mitchum and Trinity from The Matrix. An anachronism filled Eh.

EXILES #56: I’ve never liked the Kulan Garath fantasy setting: it always feels more like a high-concept D&D campaign my little brother would come up with, rather than something with any real thought behind it. Nonetheless, I’m such a big old Marvel fanboy (emphasis on old) that I’m enjoying the supernatural twist with Ghost Rider and Morbius and Werewolf By Night. (I really like how Jack Russell looks straight out of Ploog's art, in fact). So, you know, if you get all starry-eyed when someone starts talking about It, The Living Colossus, you’ll probably also find this OK.

FANTASTIC FOUR #521: Sums up my whole take on the Waid/Wieringo FF: despite all my objections to it (and I’ve got a lot), I have to admit it works. The process by which a herald of Galactus is created was well-dramatized and seems well thought out. So, Good.

IDENTITY CRISIS #7: I started to write this and realized that, although I don't really wanna, I need to give this another read-through before reviewing. In the few brief minutes Hibbs and I had to talk about it, it was apparent we had taken from it some dramatically different plotpoints. And, in fact, Hibbs tried to re-read it to clear up them up, got about ten pages in, and then threw it aside, mumbling: "To hell with it." You should hear from one or both of us about the damn thing in the next day or two.

INVADERS #5: A big ol' train wreck, I thought. I can't tell the characters apart, the fight scenes lack drama (showing vampires burst into flame by having them be colored yellow and adding a "FWOOSH" sound effect seems very Ed Wood-ish for a comic book), but the writing isn't any better than the art: a lot of sloppy nonsense used to wrap up the fight, and a story that might have worked better in Year Two when the characters are more familiar is just a big old mess here in issue #5. I thought we'd get widescreen global adventure from this book, not inbred British vampire hijinks. Awful.

MARVEL TEAM-UP #3: Again, love that Kolins art (and, at $2.50, much easier on the pocketbook than the Avengers), but I felt like the White Queen in Alice: there were just too many impossible things to believe before breakfast in this one. Pretty pictures, though. Eh.

OCEAN #3: Too soon to tell if this mini is going to be anything more than a very smart dressing up of 2001 (the HAL/"spreadsheet people" comparison seemed pretty obvious) but it was another strong issue that moved the story along. Good.

RETURN OF SHADOWHAWK #1: Man, has a patently silly character ever had so much self-important backstory ladled on them as Shadowhawk? (Hmmmm... in the realm of superheroes, that's probably best left as a rhetorical question.) It was kind of nice to read the back and find out that the stuff that read like warmed-over Alan Moore actually came from Alan Moore, and there were at least three or four good story hooks, but it was all very ineptly done--it was like reading an old Charlton comic, and not in a good way. Eh.

SHAOLIN COWBOY #1: This is the second straight week a Burlyman comic has kicked Marvel and DC's ass--slightly troubling considering neither book was particularly deep: this is nothing more than Geoff Darrow taking a joke and a fight scene and expanding both past the point of deliriousness. This book makes the first part of Kill Bill seem like Howards End by comparison, and Darrow deserves some special award for taking over-the-top medium like comics and going even higher over-the-top that you might expect. Really amazing stuff. Very Good.

SIMPSONS COMICS #101: Feels like the "B" Story overwhelmed the "A" story and it took a bit too long to get to that twist on the set-up. I think a passive-aggressive inert magician showdown between Homer and David Blaine would've been funnier than what we got. Still, some decent laffs; Boothby; etc. OK.

TRIGGER #1: The art was a little too murky for me--I think Seaguy, with all the bright colors right on the edge of spoiling, actually conveyed a better sense of how a citizenry is lulled into accepting a corporate dictatorship--and the story a little too pat (those corporate assassins must be using Saturday Night Specials if The Long Goodbye can stop their bullets). But some clever transitions, a certain ambition in the sweep, and a possible subtext about how violent escapism enables a fascist culture have me kind of interested to see what might be coming next. Not quite OK, really, but not a total Eh, either. Let's see where it goes.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #70: The TV special on the Ultimate Dr. Strange seems like a bad mistake: I have enough faith in Bendis (still) to chalk this up as part of the revamp of the concept (a "hiding in plain sight" approach to the character) rather than a really, really lazy form of info-dumping but I don't like it, nonetheless. I also don't like the father-and-son gimick either, which I think really undermines the essential premise of Doc's origin (a Sorceror Supreme isn't about a bloodline or worldly power, it's about talent...which is why a washed-up bastard, not Baron Mordo or some Ancient One, Jr., gets to be picked). But even though I didn't really like, um, technically any of this except maybe Ultimate Deathlok, it's not terribly done or anything. And I kinda admire how Bendis is clearly trying to figure out how to tell action-packed stories in a shorter space that can still fit together into a thematically unified trade. And yet: Eh.

WORLDWATCH #3: Yes, I read this--right after Identity Crisis #7, in fact, which together made for a nice little bit of psychic mind-rape, I must say. Speaking of which...I've read comic book fight scenes for over thirty years and at no point have I ever wondered: gee, why didn't the villain ever try to rape the attractive heroine in the middle of a fight? Between that and the back pages with the naked chicks and their airbrushed "costumes," I found this uncomfortably skeevy. I'm a much bigger perv than Bri, but I still grimace thinking back on this issue. Very creepy Crap.

So that's thirteen reviews and a pathetic excuse. I have a few books at home I haven't read (to say nothing of that IC#7 re-read) so you'll probably hear from me again before the ened of the weekend. And hopefully Hibbs will weigh on IC #7 at the very least; even in the few minutes we spoke, it was clear he had a far better handle on Identity Crisis than I did.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Whoops, forgot to post this earlier. I suck.

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #635
AVENGERS EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES #3 (Of 8)
BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #60
BETTY #143
BIRDS OF PREY #77
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #96
CABLE DEADPOOL #10
CAPTAIN GRAVITY AND POWER OF VRIL #1
CATWOMAN #38
CSI DOMINOS #4
DAREDEVIL #68
DEEP FRIED VOL 2 #1
DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #323
ENGINEHEAD #6 (Of 8)
EX MACHINA #7
EXILES #56
EYES OF ASIA #2 (Of 4)
FANTASTIC FOUR #521
GIRL GENIUS #13
HAWKMAN #35
HEROES ANONYMOUS #6 (Of 6)
HUMAN TARGET #17
IDENTITY CRISIS #7 (Of 7)
INVADERS #5
JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #6 (Of 12)
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE ILLUSTRATED #41
LADY DEATH 10TH ANNIV ED PAINTED CVR #1
LITTLE SCROWLIE #8
LUCIFER #57
MADROX #4 (Of 5)
MARVEL AGE FANTASTIC FOUR #9
MARVEL TEAM-UP #3
METAL HURLANT #14
MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #272
OCEAN #3 (Of 6)
OFFICIAL HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE GOLDEN AGE MARVEL 2004
PLASTIC MAN #13
POWERPUFF GIRLS #57
RETURN OF SHADOWHAWK ONE SHOT #1
ROBIN #133
SERENITY ROSE #5
SHAOLIN COWBOY #1
SILVER COMICS #3
SIMPSONS COMICS #101
SPIDER-MAN DOCTOR OCTOPUS YEAR ONE #5 (Of 5)
SPIDER-MAN INDIA #2
STAR WARS EMPIRE #27
TALES OF SUSPENSE CAPTAIN AMERICA & IRON MAN COMM ED #1
TOMB RAIDER CVR A HUGHES #48
TRIGGER #1
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #70
ULTRA #5 (Of 8)
WITCHBLADE #81
WORLDWATCH #3




Books / Mags / Stuff
ALTER EGO #43
AMERICAN SPLENDOR OUR MOVIE YEAR GN
ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL 1 GIFTED TP
ASTRONAUTS OF THE FUTURE TP
CINEFANTASTIQUE 36 #6
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #117
COMICS BUYERS GUIDE FEB 05 #1601
DC COMICS RARITIES ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC
FANTASTIC FOUR VOL 5 DISASSEMBLED TP
HELLSING VOL 5 TP
HUTCH OWEN UNMARKETABLE GN
ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE #12
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #41
KRAZY & IGNATZ 1933-34 NECROMANCY BY THE BLUE BEAN BUSH
LEES TOY REVIEW DECEMBER 2004 #146
MARGES LITTLE LULU VOL 1 TP
MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 4 KEVINNOWLAN TP
P CRAIG RUSSELL VOL 3 LIBRARYOF OPERA TP
PC GAMER MAGAZINE WITH CDROM JANUARY 2005 #2
POWERS VOL 7 FOREVER TP
PROBABILITY BROACH GN
ROBO HUNTER VERDUS TP
SAGA OF THE SEVEN SUNS VEILEDALLIANCES SC
SCI FI ENTERTAINMENT FEB05
SWAMP THING BAD SEED TP
WHAT IF CLASSIC VOL 1 TP
WHITE LAMA VOL 2 ROAD TO REDEMPTION TP
WIZARD KING TRILOGY BOOK 1 SCKING OF THE WORLD
X-MEN DREAMS END TP
ZIPPY FROM HERE TO ABSURDITY TP


What did you get/are you getting?

-B Click Here to Read More...

Hey, all. I swore I'd keep my nose out of the SavCrit blog for a couple months after October, where even I got a little sick of myself. But since Brian's on a deadline (I am too; I should be working on the CE newsletter but I left the blackline at home) and I'm stuck at the day job with nothing really cooking, I thought I'd throw in a few quick shots in case you haven't gotten to a store yet...

AQUAMAN #25: I'm shocked Hibbs didn't review it since his great contribution to my day at the shop Friday was throwing it at me and hollering, "Check it out!" It's a real education on how execution can either save or damn a book. You've got great art and an idea that's thoughtful and a little daring--the people of Sub Diego are so miserable they're turning to drugs as a way of escaping their "washed up" existence--and the suck suckiest execution that ever sucked a suck. The villains trafficking in Heroin was one thing, but then with all the little cocaine vials, you really wondered what the writer was thinking. (Or as Hibbs so eloquently put it, "Yeah, let's do a rail of cocaine! Underwater!") Then, to add some kind of menace to the issue, you've got coke fiends sharpening their teeth...and then attacking Aquaman and his sidekick..and biting them...you know, as coke fiends are wont to do (Or as Hibbs so eloquently put it, "Wha? Fuckin' huh?") Makes the O'Neil/Adams relevance issues seem like Drugstore Cowboy. A can't-miss AWFUL.

BLOODHOUND #6: I'll second Hibbs on this--they did a perfectly good gloss on the prison side of things in the first issue, I don't really see much of a reason to return to it in this much depth. I think the last thing you want to give the readers is a sense the book's running in place, particularly in the first year, and that was the feeling I took (reluctantly, since I liked the first arc so much) from this issue. Not good. EH.

BULLSEYE'S GREATEST HITS #4: Gah. Getting Steve Dillon to draw this is like getting Gordon Willis to do the cinematography on a 'Little Rascals' short. I love the art and the colors add an extra layer of crispness, but the story's conceit--guys working against the clock to get Bullseye to tell them a life-saving fact--is undercut by all the pointless flashbacks, and all the flashbacks are undercut by all the time spent on the story's conceit. Did Bullseye really think he was in love with Elektra? Was he just blowing smoke up the feds' butts? Or is the writer blowing smoke up ours? Just a big lovely-looking waste of time. AWFUL.

DOC FRANKENSTEIN #1: Great looking book and a clever conceit (connecting the common points between the origins of the Frankenstein Monster and Doc Savage--not to mention Jesus--is pretty savvy) but the book confirmed what Matrix:Re and Matrix:Re-Re taught us: The Wachowski Brothers need a good editor to make them hone their ideas, or things feel draggy and bloated. But that doesn't mean you should pass this up. Quite the contrary; this was still lovely apeshit stuff. GOOD.

GOTHAM CENTRAL #26: I think part of the reason writers stick to cliched work--apart from the ease with which you can crank it out--is that once you start trying to create something a little more true to life, the stuff that's still cliched sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. I mean, there's a perfectly fine start here with well-defined characters having a meal then catching a case, but the rest of the story spins around the idea that Josie talks to her parent's graves for three pages, Catwoman overhears and uses what's she's heard to blackmail Josie into helping her. Maybe in a regular comic I could buy that, but after all the very realistic and believable set-up, that old "character talks out loud to the grave of a loved one" trick stinks like the dead fish that it is. (Has anyone in real life ever done this?) Having Catwoman then use that info just compounds the problem, I think, and left me pretty disapointed. EH.

INTIMATES #2: I didn't finish reading this at the shop because business picked up, but I kinda liked that "hyper-compressed" storytelling with the constant commentary bands at the bottom, the quick cut-aways to character's interior fantasies, etc.--it reminded me of what Alan Moore was doing with the TEXTure panels in Promethea, but I think it has a chance of actually working better here; I felt like there was a full universe here that I was being dropped in the middle of. I can't say if there's any there there, but I think as a way to immerse the reader it's got a lot of potential, and I'm curious to pick the book up to see if it ends up being developed or what.

JLA #109: Bri says he wants a little more plot, and I utterly disagree. The problem is there's too much plot--I want somebody to sock something. You bring back the Crime Syndicate and then spend four issues showing their subtle machinations, contrasted with the political turmoil of Qward? No. Get with the socking, please. Thank you. EH.

JSA #68: Suffers from Identity Crisis syndrome, in that Johns does such a good job making you feel for the family that when they get so brutally slaughtered, you just feel turned off. Having children shotgunned (just barely off-panel) is the sort of thing exploitation filmmakers and writers do when they don't have the time or the talent to make you care about the characters. That said, I liked the rest of it even though time travel stuff almost always makes my tiny brain hurt. OK.

MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #9: I was really glad the villain didn't turn out to be Uncle Ben's diseased zombie corpse, but that's about all I liked about this issue. Weirdly, Millar's "people-behind-the-people" conspiracy for supervillains seems both dated and somehow wrong for the Marvel Universe in a way I'm finding difficult to put my finger on. I think the Marvel Universe as conceived of and developed by Stan and Jack (and Steve, and Roy, and etc.,) is an insanely chaotic place which is the source of its power, delight and terror: Atom bombs dropping all over the place; people getting irradiated; Venusians dropping from the skies and keys to Asgardian kingdoms lying around in caves. In that universe, a guy somehow wiring enough crap together to turn himself into the Leap-Frog makes more sense than the idea that Galactus got ten grand in unmarked bills to show up in New York and make a pest of himself. I'm usually a fan of cynicism where the government's concerned, but it just doesn't seem like the right fit here. The rest of it being generally terrible doesn't help much, either. AWFUL.

NIGHTCRAWLER #3: Again, gorgeous art but a bafflingly bad story. Do I care whether the kid is another demon or not? Is the kid anything but an emotional cipher (although thanks to Robertson, an expressively drawn cipher)? Between that and the usual problems where a magical system is in place but it's only explained as it goes along, this is a pretty slack read. EH.

NIGHTWING #100: Hibbs thought the ending of this was plot-hammered, I actually thought it was the opposite. It read like Grayson was shooting for an ending in which Dick ends up serving time (which would make for a pretty cool arc or two) but looked at her set-up with his ex-partner and went, "Nope, that's not gonna work." A shame, because that seems to have a lot more potential than the "Oh no! There's a streaker in the Bat-Cave!" ending. (Although what a great Infantino-era cover that would make). EH.

Hmm. That may be enough to chew on for a little bit. Unless some repressed traumatic memory regarding She-Hulk or The Punisher comes back to me (and sadly, despite nice art and Furioso2012's comments about issue #1, Wild Girl isn't coming together like I'd hoped it would) the ball is back in Hibbs' court.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

There was very very little this week that fired my imagination enough to write about, plus I have to write TILTING AT WINDMILLS so it will run on Friday, but, damn it, I feel like I owe SOME sort of a quick weekly update, so here's at least 7 comics that I have soemthing to say about....

BLOODHOUND #6: Glowing quote from Ellis on the cover, which is cool, but here we are 6 issues in and I don't know where this book is going at all. The first arc was pretty terrific, but now we seem to be "back to jail" with no easy path out -- and DC already has a "powers in jail" book -- HARD TIME -- which does that much better. I'll go with an OK, but if I was paying cash money for this, I don;t think I'd be back for #7.

DOC FRANKENSTEIN #1: Wow, Burlyman's first comic book is a winner. Nice art, strong dialogue -- it may end up just being, y'know, a HEAVY METAL level story (nice to look at, but doesn't add up to much), but I really did dig this first one, and I'll go with both VERY GOOD and PICK OF THE WEEK here.

JLA #109: How long is this arc? We're at part 3 and, still, nothing has really happened. I didn't DISlike it, but I kinda want more plot. OK

JSA #68: Grimm came by on Saturday, and opined that the DCU is like a pendulum, swinging back to grim-n-gritty every once in a while to remind us that, no, that's not what we actually want. I think the difference in this latest swing is too much towards the "realistic" -- like this issue's sequence where Stargirl's family gets slaughtered in front of her eyes. Slaughtered in graphic detail. Man, I so much didn't need to see that, and it really marred an otherwise fine issue (I dug the Rip Hunter shit), dragging it down to an EH.

MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #9: I am just dumbfounded by this. It fails the logic test on so many levels, I can't even bring my self to enunciate all of the ways. Really, nothing about this series has made any sense whatsoever, and not in a good SUPERMAN/BATMAN, I-want-some-of-those-drugs way. No, this is bad drugs. Bad bad bad drugs. Is the right hand even aware of what the left hand is doing up at Marvel? I mean, what idiot accepted the "sewed eyelids and scapels" add running in a lot of Marvel books this month? Is this something you really want to run the risk of some hard-ass parent seeing little Jimmy reading? It's all symptomatic to me, man. I know I've read something worse this year, but at this moment, I can't think of what that might be -- so, AWFUL and PICK OF THE WEAK from this quarter.

SAMURAI HEAVEN & EARTH #1: It may not actually be, but this sure feels like a recycled CrossGen pitch -- absolutely competant in all ways (though there's prolly enough skin and arterial spray here that it shoulda been a Mature Readers book), but not really feeling deep enough to get me to come back for more. a very solid OK in other words.

SHE-HULK #10: Wait, where's the funny? And where's the nice art? *cry* EH.

X-MEN FANTASTIC FOUR #1: Some one needs to explain to me the appeal of Pat Lee. I don't get it. Ugly, blocky art on a pedestrian story (they actually have a multi page fight scene over a dumb misunderstanding), and this is just here to get some more of your money. Feh, I say AWFUL.


There.

On the Book side, I see a few credible candidates:
ADVENTURES IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE TP -- Minor, but funny, Garth Ennis work... not sure, but I think that this makes every single thing he's done for DC is now collected.

ARKHAM ASYLUM ANNIVERSARY EDITION HC: If you haven't read it, nows probably the time. It's mostly gobbledegook, as I remember it, but the McKean art is scrumdidiliumptious!

ASTRO CITY LOCAL HEROES HC: Even at its weakest, never less than good, and at it's best, it's some of the best recent comics. Plus, damn, that's a fine looking package, ain't it?

GLOBAL FREQUENCY DETONATION RADIO TP: Uneven, but with moments of clever brilliance in most every story.

I am, however, going to go with ASTRO CITY LOCAL HEROES HC as my TP/GN OF THE WEEK.

What about you?

-B Click Here to Read More...

Here's what we're getting this week... yet another meh week for funnybooks it seems

As usual, YOUR LCS might be recieving a wholly different list of things, so don't take this list as anything other than "this week, at Divis and Page in SF"

100 BULLETS #56
2000 AD #1415
2000 AD #1416
ACTION COMICS #822
ALONG THE CANADIAN #5
ANGELTOWN #2
AQUAMAN #25
ARCHIE #553
BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #186
BATMAN STRIKES #4
BLOODHOUND #6
BPRD THE DEAD #2
BRIAN PULIDOS BELLADONNA REG CVR #2
BULLSEYE GREATEST HITS #4
DEMO #12
DISTRICT X #8
DOC FRANKENSTEIN #1
DOCTOR SPECTRUM #4
EMMA FROST #18
FABLES #32
FATHOM DAWN OF WAR #3
FIRESTORM #8
FULL FRONTAL NERDITY ANNUAL #1
GI JOE RELOADED #10
G-MAN ONE SHOT
GOD THE DYSLEXIC DOG
GOTHAM CENTRAL #26
HULK AND THING HARD KNOCKS #4
INTIMATES #2
JLA #109
JSA #68
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #226
MAD MAGAZINE #449
MARVEL AGE HULK #4
MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #13
MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #9
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE VOL 3 #8
NEOTOPIA VOL 4 #4
NIGHTCRAWLER #3
NIGHTMARES AND FAIRY TALES #11
NIGHTWING #100
NOBLE CAUSES #5
NOBLE CAUSES CVR A BUENO #4
POWERS #7
PS238 #9
RISING STARS #23
SAMURAI HEAVEN & EARTH #1
SCOOBY DOO #91
SEX WARRIOR ISANE XXX #1
SHE HULK #10
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #22
STAR WARS REPUBLIC #71
TEMPORARY CUBES AND LADDERS #1
THE PUNISHER #15
THOR SON OF ASGARD #11
TRANSFORMERS ENERGON #30
VIDEO #4
WILD GIRL #2
X-MEN FANTASTIC FOUR #1
X-MEN THE END BOOK ONE DREAMERS AND DEMONS #6
X-MEN UNLIMITED #6



Books / Mags / Stuff
2000 AD EXTREME ED #6
ADVENTURES IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE TP
ARKHAM ASYLUM ANNIVERSARY EDITION HC
ASTRO CITY LOCAL HEROES HC
BATMAN HUSH 2 ACTION FIGURES MASTER CASE ASST
BIG FUN COMICS #2
COMIC BOOK DIGEST #3
FORTEAN TIMES #191
GIANT ROBOT #35
GLOBAL FREQUENCY DETONATION RADIO TP
HEAVY METAL JAN 2005
INTERNATIONAL STUDIO #3
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ARCHIVES VOL 9 HC
JUXTAPOZ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005
LOYOLA CHIN AND THE SAN PELIGRAN ORDER TP
MAC TIN TAC GN
MAD XL #31
MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL TP
MEMORIES OF PARADISE GN
RUROUNI KENSHIN VOL 9 TP
SHONEN JUMP VOL 3 JANUARY 2005 #1
SPECTRUM 11 TP
STAR TREK COMMUNICATOR #153
STAR TREK KEY COLLECTION VOL 2 TP
THE AGENTS POCKET MANGA TP
TOYFARE JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED FIGURES CVR #90
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL 2DOOM TP Click Here to Read More...

I thought I'd have plenty of time for this, but I forgot about grandparents coming to see the grandson, and how that tears my schedule into pieces, ah well, here it is anyway!


ABOVE & BELOW TWO TALES O/T AMERICAN FRONTIER: James Sturm's excellent novellas, THE REVIVAL and HUNDREDS OF FEET BELOW DAYLIGHT are gathered together here in one excellent and economical package. This is older work, but it has been OP for quite some time, and is very worth the effort to track down. EXCELLENT.

ALPHA FLIGHT #10: Head hurting time travel. Maybe this will end up so that they wipe themselves out of existence. I'd buy that for a dollar! AWFUL.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON #10: One wonders if even Priest can follow his own plots. I sure can't. Well, I can, but it is too much work to actually do so for the joy and entertainment value it actually gives. AWFUL.

DARKNESS VOL 2 #17: Dave Lapham hits twice this week between this and 'tec. You'd think that publishers wouldn't be so fundamentally stupid as to have things compete with themselves like that... but, oh wait, this book is late. *sigh* I haven't really cared for this character since Ennis stopped writing him, and it doesn't really feel like there's been any progression from that point either. The "Darkness Narration" was pretty tedious after about 6 pages, but, still, other than that, this was perfectly acceptable (if dark) comics. OK.

DEADSHOT #1: Bored bored bored by the first half of the book. You'd think the character's name alone would mean that real estate doesn't have to be wasted on showing he's a good shot, right? But, once we took the mask off in the second half I warmed right up to this, and enjoyed it tremendously. So, average that out to an... OK

DETECTIVE COMICS #801: I'm of two minds. Mind #1 says: Good look at the character and his environment and his motivations, excellent art, nice use of a 16 panel grid -- this felt dense and satisfying for the price. Mind #2 says: Overwritten, very badly so, and too much density without clarity or throughline -- the "and this person died and that person died and then this person got raped" scenes just dragged on and on and on, and the rich spoiled heiress angle was pretty forced. Still, that might be because I just saw South Park's "Paris Hilton is a Stupid, Shallow Whore" episode (Which was as on-the-mark, vicious and hilarious as anything they've ever done), and anything is going to pale next to that. Still, giving it a GOOD, because it has tons of potential, and is miles better than anything I've read in a Bat-book in a long time.

EXILES #55: Yet another turn in the Kulan Garth barrel, and everything goes sword&sorcery. Kinda meh, but any comic with Werewolf by Night and Morbius and Wednigo can't be all bad. EH.

FALLEN ANGEL #18: Took a year and a half, but I finally felt sympathy and understanding for nearly every character in the book. This was strong stuff, though the fake out ending was pretty damn lame. It almost feels like a response to "Women and children aren't safe in DC titles" rather than something that was planned, but that could just be me. Either way, happy to give this a VERY GOOD.

HARD TIME #11: Anytime we step outside the prison walls I get terrifically bored. But everything within was great stuff. I'll give it a GOOD.

HUNTER KILLER #0: I think I mentioned this before, but in my stupid shallow mind I have a very hard time with KINGDOM COME's Mark Waid writing a book about what appears to be murdering anti-heroes for our cynical world. That's not to say the work is bad, no far from it, but I just can't wrap my brain around it. This intro issue does an OK job introducing characters (though all of Silvestri's designs look identical for me... I just never was an Image kid), and there are some good beats -- and best of all it is only a quarter. For 25 cents, I can easily give this a VERY GOOD, though were this same content in a $2.95 format, I doubt I'd go over EH.

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #4: Here's a hint for Adam -- if you have a story that Superman would "break", just don't put him in the book. Coming up with end-runs around why Clark has to lay around in bed with the trots don't make action-packed reading... especially when you do it twice. Conversely, if you're going to have a guest-star like the Elongated Man, it might be a good idea for him to actually have some plot point revolving around him, otherwise it's just window dressing. Ignore me if the editor sets the line up, and you have no say. Mm, and even when *I* was a kid, I never thought Kanjar Ro was much of a threat. Creepy-loking, yes... actual threat to the big guns? No. EH.

NEW AVENGERS #1: Miles miles miles better than "Disassembled/Chaos", but it still doesn't feel anything like an Avengers comic to this reader. I don't think Bendis really "gets" Team books, really -- even his ULTIMATE X-MEN run was largely individual vignettes, and that's not the structure a team book should have. At least this was readable and largely likeable, and, at least here, there's no Wolverine on stage, so people who were talking about not buying it because of that can at least read the setup. It's either a very high OK or a very low GOOD

OUTSIDERS #18: Both preachy and univolving, which is a pretty neat trick. Actually, it made me think of GL/GA in that -- we all think those are classic comics, but if you go back and actually read them, most of that run is wretched and horrifically written. If it weren't for Neal Adams art, I don't think they'd ever be spoken of, except in a "Wasn't that quaint and misguided?" kind of way. Anyway, this is so very very earnest and well intentioned, but as a piece of entertainment fiction, yee-ikes, AWFUL.

PVP #12: Hint for Scott: If you can't keep the deadlines, don't do holiday-themed covers. It looks pretty bad when a Halloween-based cover comes out in December. Other than that, as usual, the book is funnier than shit. VERY GOOD.

QUESTION #2: Luthor speechifies, and Vic walks, and that's all that happens. As a formalist work, sure that works, and the art is loverly, and it is smartly written, but it pretty much stopped being entertaining about a third of the way into the issue, and then I was just flipping pages and praying it would end soon. When comics were a buck and a half on the high end, I would have praised this, but for twice that money, I can't muster better than an EH.

ROGUE #5: ...the fuck? A mutant dream? Out of tone for the characters, and now I see why we've lost 2/3 of the readers from #1 to now at Comix Experience. AWFUL.

SUPERMAN BATMAN #15: Man, this is just insane. Every crazy-ass, no-that-can't-be-done idea Jeph Loeb has just thrown together in a big pile. I burst out laughing when I saw who got the power ring (mm, and DC History for $100 for issue #14, Jeph -- you can kill Barry Allen, and that means no Flash, but killing Hal doesn't mean no GL... the ring would just have gone to Guy Gardner at that point. Sorry, being picky), and there's murders and changed sides and insanity everywhere and I loved it. Just a big piss take on it all, and it's an easy VERY GOOD even if none of it makes any sense for even 1/10th of a second.

SWAMP THING #10: Ugly ugly and more ugly, with an added dose of ugliness. Except for the "hey, Arcane's back! Again!" thing, this is about as 180 degrees from Alan Moore's work as it could be, which would normally be a big plus for the character, but this is so ugly that it's just plain AWFUL. We lost half of the buyers for the book in the last 2 issues, and I think this will be cancelled before year two ends. (And that's only because this is a DC book, and they give a lot more rope than is warranted... if this was Marvel, I'd say cancelled by #16)

ULTIMATES 2 #1: Very very stupid of Marvel to put this out the same week as NEW AVENGERS #1, if you ask me, as the two books are in direct competition (early result: We sold out of NA #1 first) -- but I thought this was marginally stronger, although less happens. Better character bit conversations, which is damn weird as we're talking about Millar vs Bendis, here. The coloring is WAY too dark, and "banking" several issues works against it as Cap's missions seem very 15 minutes ago. Still, a solid GOOD, I think.

Y THE LAST MAN #29: The character bits all worked, but the Yorick plot just felt like a cheat. If the last page revelation isn't handled correctly next issue, this might be the shark jumper. OK

I've very glad that Diamond coded the Sturm book as a comic (should be "3" for book, I think, despite the staples -- this is a perma-stock item, and not a periodical), because that means that ABOVE & BELOW TWO TALES OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER can be the PICK OF THE WEEK, hooray! As for the PICK OF THE WEAK, almost too many choices, but I think the nudge goes to SWAMP THING #10 because it's just damn ugly.



As for THE BOOK / TP OF THE WEEK, my first cut looks like this:
BATTLE ROYALE VOL 10 GN -- the only currently-new-releases manga I like

DARK NIGHT ARCHIVES V1 HC -- Archives for $19.95? Can NOT beat that!

JLA ANOTHER NAIL TP -- Crazy Alan Davis big-event-story DC nuttiness

LORE TP -- Ashley Wood just doing whatever the hell he wants with narrative, like Bill Sienkiewicz 10 years previous

MAGE VOL 1 THE HERO DISCOVERED HC -- A book that largely should be on Top 100 comics ever lists. Up there with WATCHMEN and DARK KNIGHT, if you ask me (and you did)

TALES OF THE VAMPIRES TP -- Whedon and co., so that recommends it right there

of the 6, I'll go with MAGE VOL 1: THE HERO DISCOVERED as my BOOK/TP OF THE WEEK

More next week!

-B
Click Here to Read More...

See how far behind schedule I am this week? Damn the order form, damn it!

Here's this week's shipping list... except we didn't actualy get everything -- missing MONOLITH, FIRESTORM, and INTIMATES in the shipment... I think we'll have them Friday....

I'll have some reviews this week though, I promise -- it is a small week and I know I can accomplish it. CHeck back in a few days...

ABOVE & BELOW TWO TALES O/T AMERICAN FRONTIER
ALPHA FLIGHT #10
BEAR #7
BIPOLAR #1 (ALTERNATIVE COMICS PRINTING)
BREAKDOWN #2
BRIAN PULIDOS WAR ANGEL BOOK OF DEATH REG CVR
CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON #10
CYCLONE BILL AND THE TALL TALES #2
DARKNESS VOL 2 #17
DEADSHOT #1
DETECTIVE COMICS #801
DOGWITCH #14
EXILES #55
FALLEN ANGEL #18
FATTY ARBUCKLE & HIS FUNNY FRIENDS
FIRESTORM #8
GI JOE #37
GI JOE VS TRANSFORMERS VOL 2 CVR A #4
HARD TIME #11
HOT MOMS #4
HUNTER KILLER #0
INTIMATES #2
JUBILEE #4
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #4
KARAS
LOONEY TUNES #121
LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #12
MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN #17
MONOLITH #10
NEW AVENGERS #1
NEW X-MEN #7
OLYMPUS HEIGHTS #5
OUTSIDERS #18
PANZER 1946 #1
PVP #12
QUESTION #2
REAR ENTRY #8
ROGUE #5
SABRETOOTH #4
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #143
SPIDER-GIRL #81
STREET ANGEL #4
SUPER MANGA BLAST #47
SUPERMAN BATMAN #15
SWAMP THING #10
TABLOIA #574 THIRD ISSUE
TOE TAGS FEATURING GEORGE ROMERO #3
TOMB OF DRACULA #3
TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE VOL 3 #10
TRANSFORMERS WAR WITHIN VOL 3 #3
ULTIMATES 2 #1
ULTIMATES 2 #1 SKETCH VARIANT
UNCANNY X-MEN #453
VERONICA #157
Y THE LAST MAN #29




Books / Mags / Stuff
ALPHA FLIGHT VOL 1 YOU GOTTA BE KIDDIN ME TP
AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED THOR TP
BASIL WOLVERTON READER VOL 2
BATMAN DARK KNIGHT ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC
BATTLE ROYALE VOL 10 GN
BLOODY CROWN OF CONAN TP
BOY VAMPIRE GN VOL 4 RESOLUTION
CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOL 6 CURSE O/T GOLDEN SKULL TP
DARE DETECTIVES VOL 1 TP SNOWPEA PLOT
DEADY THE TERRIBLE TEDDY GN
DOCTEUR MYSTERE VOLUME 1 THE MYSTERIES OF MILAN HC
ESSENTIAL IRON MAN VOL 2 TP
FIRST APPEARANCE SERIES 2 INNER CASE ASST
GUNDAM SEED VOL 3 GN
JLA ANOTHER NAIL TP
JUSTICE LEAGUE SERIES 2 ADAM STRANGE ACTION FIGURE
JUSTICE LEAGUE SERIES 2 ATOM ACTION FIGURE
JUSTICE LEAGUE SERIES 2 MASTER CASE ASST
KATY SEXY MAGIC VOL 2
LAST HEROES HC
LORE TP
MAGE VOL 1 THE HERO DISCOVERED HC
MARVEL AGE SPIDER-GIRL FATHERLIKE DAUGHTER VOL 2 DIGEST TP
MCSWEENEYS ENCHANTED CHAMBER OF ASTONISHING STORIES TP
REMAINS TP
SIMPSONS HOLIDAY HUMDINGER TP
TALES OF THE VAMPIRES TP
THE JOURNEYS OF ALEXENDER ICARO VOLUME 1 HC
UNCANNY X-MEN NEW AGE VOL 1 END OF HISTORY TP
VAMPIRELLA CRIMSON CHRONICLES VOL 2 TP
VIDEO WATCHDOG #114
WILL EISNERS JOHN LAW VOL 1 TP
Click Here to Read More...