Same data, this time sorted out by dollars, which, as always, I think is the better sense of what's important and what's not.

Same caveats as last time, and, again, I'm VERY interested in any outside-looking-in perspectives you might have...

1 ASTONISHING X-MEN #10
2 FLIGHT VOL 2 GN #2
3 BATMAN COVER TO COVER HC
4 GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH #6
5 ULTIMATES 2 #4
6 RISING STARS VOL 3 FIRE & ASH TP #3
7 PLANETARY VOL 3 LEAVING THE 20TH CENTURY TP
8 SECRET WAR #4
9 SUPREME POWER #16
10 LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #13
11 BATMAN CHRONICLES VOL 1 TP
12 SUPERMAN BATMAN #19
13 SEVEN SOLDIERS GUARDIAN #1
14 SEVEN SOLDIERS SHINING KNIGHT #1
15 VIMANARAMA #2
16 FRANK MILLER SIN CITY HELL & BACK 2ND ED TP
17 PROMETHEA BOOK 4 TP
18 NEW AVENGERS #5
19 FABLES VOL 5 THE MEAN SEASONS TP
20 ULTIMATE SECRET #1
21 SAMURAI EXECUTIONER VOL 5 TP 10 FINGERS 1 LIFE #5
22 OCEAN #5
23 SUPERMAN BATMAN PUBLIC ENEMIES TP
24 MAGE VOL 1 THE HERO DISCOVERED TP
25 FANTASTIC FOUR VISIONARIES JOHN BYRNE VOL 4 TP
26 DAREDEVIL #71
27 IRON MAN #4
28 SUPERMAN #215
29 CATWOMAN WHEN IN ROME #6
30 EISNER MILLER TP
31 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #4
32 QUEEN & COUNTRY VOL 7 OPERATION SADDLEBAGS TP #7
33 Y THE LAST MAN #32
34 EX MACHINA #9
35 DC COUNTDOWN #1
36 TEEN TITANS #22
37 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #17
38 FRANK MILLER SIN CITY BOOZE BROADS BULLETS 2ND TP
39 WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE SUPERMAN BATMAN CVR #162
40 JLA CLASSIFIED #5
41 PULSE #8
42 UNCANNY X-MEN #457
43 STRAY BULLETS #37
44 COMICS JOURNAL #267
45 BPRD THE DEAD #5
46 FABLES #35
47 SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #2
48 STARMAN VOL 10 SONS OF THE FATHER TP
49 CONAN #14
50 BLACK PANTHER #2
51 HELLBLAZER #206
52 ESSENTIAL DOCTOR STRANGE VOL 2 TP
53 COMIC CAVALCADE ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC
54 TOM STRONGS TERRIFIC TALES VOL 2 HC
55 MARGES LITTLE LULU VOL 3 TP #3
56 YOUNG AVENGERS #2
57 CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #4
58 DOC FRANKENSTEIN #3
59 JSA #71
60 JLA #112
61 ULTIMATE X-MEN #57
62 LUCIFER #60
63 FLASH #220
64 X-MEN #168
65 WANTED HARDCOVER
66 X-MEN COMPLETE AGE OF APOCALYPSE EPIC BOOK 1 TP
67 AVENGERS ASSEMBLE VOL 2 HC
68 SLEEPER VOL 3 A CROOKED LINE TP
69 SUPERMAN STRENGTH #3
70 GOON DH ED #11
71 OTHERWORLD #1
72 ULTIMATE IRON MAN #1
73 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #12
74 X-MEN THE END HEROES AND MARTYRS #1
75 FLAMING CARROT #2
76 BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #9
77 X-MEN FANTASTIC FOUR #4
78 MINISULK GN
79 FRANK MILLER SIN CITY FAMILY VALUES 2ND ED TP
80 GRIMJACK KILLER INSTINCT #3
81 WOLVERINE #26
82 DETECTIVE COMICS #804
83 AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #6
84 100 PERCENT TP
85 JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER SPECIAL PAPA MIDNITE #2
86 X-MEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE #1
87 CAPTAIN AMERICA #5
88 X-MEN PHOENIX ENDSONG #4
89 BATMAN #638
90 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #73
91 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #74
92 100 BULLETS #59
93 EXCALIBUR #11
94 THE PUNISHER #18
95 ADAM STRANGE #7
96 X-MEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE #2
97 KABUKI #4
98 ESSENTIAL TOMB OF DRACULA VOL 4 TP
99 USAGI YOJIMBO #83
100 QUESTION #5
101 FANTASTIC FOUR #524
Click Here to Read More...

Just to prove (well, not really) that I'm working my little ass off, and that's why I'm not typing up reviews, here's the just completed 1/05 order placed at Diamond today, sorted out by quantity. Happy Sunday!

(and tomorrow I HAVE to get the Feb subs written up, so if there are reviews, they'll be late in the day)

This is, of course, not a list of what WILL sell (If anyone has that crystal ball available, I'd like to see it!) for the month -- beyond sell-through issues, a huge chunk of this will not actually ship IN March; and, of course, reorders (and, potentially, order DEcreases on the Marvel titles) will all be added as intelligence continues to come in.

I'm definately interested in any outside-looking-in perspectives you may want to venture in the comments section.

1 ASTONISHING X-MEN #10
2 DC COUNTDOWN #1
3 GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH #6
4 ULTIMATES 2 #4
5 NEW AVENGERS #5
6 SUPREME POWER #16
7 SUPERMAN BATMAN #19
8 SEVEN SOLDIERS GUARDIAN #1
9 SEVEN SOLDIERS SHINING KNIGHT #1
10 VIMANARAMA #2
11 ULTIMATE SECRET #1
12 SECRET WAR #4
13 SUPERMAN #215
14 OCEAN #5
15 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #17
16 UNCANNY X-MEN #457
17 TEEN TITANS #22
18 DAREDEVIL #71
19 IRON MAN #4
20 LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #13
21 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #4
22 FABLES #35
23 Y THE LAST MAN #32
24 JLA #112
25 EX MACHINA #9
26 ULTIMATE X-MEN #57
27 CATWOMAN WHEN IN ROME #6
28 FLASH #220
29 JLA CLASSIFIED #5
30 PULSE #8
31 X-MEN #168
32 JSA #71
33 HELLBLAZER #206
34 LUCIFER #60
35 BPRD THE DEAD #5
36 CONAN #14
37 BLACK PANTHER #2
38 WOLVERINE #26
39 BATMAN #638
40 BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #9
41 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #73
42 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #74
43 YOUNG AVENGERS #2
44 STRAY BULLETS #37
45 GOON DH ED #11
46 OTHERWORLD #1
47 ULTIMATE IRON MAN #1
48 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #12
49 SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #2
50 X-MEN THE END HEROES AND MARTYRS #1
51 100 BULLETS #59
52 CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #4
53 DOC FRANKENSTEIN #3
54 WONDER WOMAN #214
55 DETECTIVE COMICS #804
56 AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #6
57 OUTSIDERS #22
58 JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER SPECIAL PAPA MIDNITE #2
59 FLAMING CARROT #2
60 X-MEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE #1
61 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #518
62 CAPTAIN AMERICA #5
63 X-MEN PHOENIX ENDSONG #4
64 EXCALIBUR #11
65 THE PUNISHER #18
66 WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE SUPERMAN BATMAN CVR #162
67 CATWOMAN #41
68 ADAM STRANGE #7
69 BIRDS OF PREY #80
70 X-MEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE #2
71 X-MEN FANTASTIC FOUR #4
72 KABUKI #4
73 USAGI YOJIMBO #83
74 QUESTION #5
75 FANTASTIC FOUR #524
76 GREEN ARROW #48
77 WITCHING #10
78 INCREDIBLE HULK #79
79 GOTHAM CENTRAL #29
80 BLOOD OF THE DEMON #1
81 SLEEPER SEASON TWO #10
82 X-MEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE #3
83 X-MEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE #4
84 X-MEN AGE OF APOCALYPSE #5
85 GRIMJACK KILLER INSTINCT #3
86 NEW X-MEN #11
87 SAMURAI EXECUTIONER VOL 5 TP 10 FINGERS 1 LIFE #5
88 LEX LUTHOR MAN OF STEEL #1
89 JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #9
90 PLASTIC MAN #15
91 SWAMP THING #13
92 WALKING DEAD #18
93 DAREDEVIL REDEMPTION #3
94 LIVEWIRES #2
95 EXILES #60
96 EXILES #61
97 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #638
98 PREVIEWS VOL XV #3
99 PLANETARY VOL 3 LEAVING THE 20TH CENTURY TP
100 HUMAN TARGET #20
101 TRIGGER #4
Click Here to Read More...

[Opening statement; half-hearted apology for being underwhelmed by week's comics; statement of appreciation for readers and incisive commentary by posters; statement blaming Hibbs for refusing to initiate first post.]

And with that out of the way...

AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS #1: I very much wanted to like this, and it says something about how low on fumes I've been lately that I was grateful for just kinda liking it. Although I can respect their decision to throw the reader right into the middle of action (it's not like Scooby-Doo had an introductory or origin episode, for example), that, in tandem with art that I think is supposed to be joyously anarchic and cluttered but instead largely comes off as merely cluttered, made this a tougher read than I would have liked. It's got potential, and like I said, I very much want to like it, but right now, it just makes me miss Jay Stevens' work. And wonder when the volume of Scott Pilgrim is due out. OK.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #516: Didn't like this much last issue, don't like it any more this issue. Again, not only are the continuity implants annoying here, they also work against each other: if Uncle Ben deemed wassisname is lacking enough moral character to hang out with Peter, what kind of asshat is Peter to completely ignore that twenty years later and attach his name to this guy's research without keeping the slightest eye on him? Huh? Not Awful-Awful but still, Awful. Also: isn't this just The Molten Man, only kinda different? Seems like a lot of work to dupe up a villain Spidey's already more or less got...

ARANA HEART OF THE SPIDER #1: I got six pages into this. No Rating.

AVENGERS: EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES #6: Yeah, fine, Kolins art good, blah-blah-blah. Thanks to the bi-weekly publishing schedule I feel as if I've been reviewing this book every week for the last nine years. It doesn't suck but, if it ends where I think it does (I'm assuming the formation of Cap-Hawkeye-Quicksilver-Scarlet Witch Avengers in, what, issue #16 of the original run?), what does it say about comics storytelling that we get a quarter of the stories, in dramatically truncated fashion, in approximately half the space? OK.

BATMAN #636: Pop quiz, hotshot: which sticking point most dramatically points out the shortcomings with the Batman editing team: (a) A line being cut before it could be pulled 'taught'; or (b) Batman working completely totally on his own in the wake of War Games--except for the Nightwing cameo here, and Batman's cameo in Robin? Pretty art, and the story is certainly readable, but come on guys--put down the bong and the X-Box controller and start paying some sort of attention, okay? OK.

BETTY #144: Between the cover to this issue, Tarot, and Dave Robson's infectious glee regarding Sci-Fi Channel's upcoming Chupacabra: Dark Seas, we had a fine ol' time in the store Friday night. (I tried to find a an easily importable version of this cover, but no dice.) As for the stories--well, "stories" might be too strong a word--as for the anecdotes from this issue, they were inoffensive and that's the point, right? I think some highbrow critic should examine how Betty stories often tread dangerously close to suggesting that Betty has absoutely no self-definition outside of her social structure, and the best Betty stories have her pondering exactly this sort of quandry, and edging toward the existential horror that results from realizing we have individual identity and yet must rely on a societal structure to impart this identity, before something happens (like, the opportunity to bake cookies) and Betty forgets all about it. But that highbrow critic, alas, won't be me--I picked this up because my girlfriend and I were in a restaurant the other night and saw three young girls at a table excitedly pass around a Betty & Veronica Digest, and it was sadly sweet. OK.

DETONATOR #2: Hey, the Detonator talks to his dog! Awwww. And yet he doesn't detonate anything. Is this decompressed storytelling? We have to wait six issues for him to detonate something? Eh.

FANTASTIC FOUR #522: This book has really been suffering from "I love you, man" syndrome. Reed: "Johnny, we're so glad we found you. We love you, man." Johnny: "Wow. I just got to see you guys in a new way that is oddly similar to the way people see you each and every issue! I love you, man." Sue: "You know, Ben, I can't believe Johnny actually gave orders to Reed, and Reed listened. I love him, man." Ben: "Yadda-yadda-clobberin'-something's-on-my-foot. Oh, and dont' tell anyone I told you, but I love you, man." Also, giving Galactus an origin and then making it such a half-assed origin sucks. Eh.

FLASH #218: Got more creepily convincing as it went on, but I think a more ambiguous ending would have left me with a bit more tension: is Heat Wave going to lose his shit, or not? Instead, the ending--"and then Heat Wave lost his shit. The End."--underlined how pat some of the psychology has to be to work this into a single issue. I'd still give it a Good, though.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #2: Well, that's two for two--great art, characters are nicely established, done in one with some threads for a future story in place. What the hell, let's go with Very Good.

LUBA #10: A nicely elliptical ending made me want to sit down and reread a whole batch of last issues at a go, although I still think what Beto is trying to pass off as his point--that these people are so utterly lost in their largely sexual obsessions and jealousies they are incapable of seeing any larger picture--is really more a problem of the author (Beto is so lost in his characters' largely sexual obsessions he's incapable of imparting any larger picture) than his characters. The ending gave me a certain amount of hope, though, and as always, the storytelling chops on display here are staggering. Very Good for this as well.

PLANETARY #22: I kinda admire Ellis' moxie in refusing to try and amp his story up to meet everyone's heightened expectations--if his outline says issue #22 is going to give us the secret origin of the Lone Ranger then, by Christ, that's what we're going to get. And as an incredibly dark twist on the Ranger, it was great. As part of the larger story: who can tell? Are we supposed to infer something about how Snow, like Leather, saw the true nature of the universe in a state of heightened consciousness, and yet still didn't refrain from being vengeful and vicious? Is there some secret to the secret of consciousness that makes people violent torturing bastards? Or is it just that's what Ellis finds cool, and that's what's on the outline for this issue? Incredibly well-done so at least a Good, but I'll be curious to see if this can wrap up at all satisfyingly.

RICHARD DRAGON #9: The plot hook--working as a bodyguard for a guy you're going to eventually wipe out--I liked. The actual execution, what with the mask, and the dopey superpowered stuff I no longer even remember--I didn't. Let's go with Eh and hope Dixon re-uses that hook for something a little more durable.

ROBIN #134: Pop quiz, part two: What's a more egregious sign of bad editing: (a) the post-"War Games" appearance of Batman despite the supposed point of "War Games" being that everyone has to stay away from Batman; or (b) "Wow, Batman wants to adapt me. That's so cool! I'm so happy I can barely remember my father being gunned down in cold blood?" Willingham is smart and clever, but he so obviously can't be arsed with this book I wonder why he's still around. Again, Bat-editors: stop emailing that brazilian waxing video to all your friends and get on the stick. Awful.

SLEEPER SEASON TWO #8: Miss Misery is, let's face it, an awesome character. And in this issue stuff--a whole lot of stuff, actually-happens, which is great. But it all seemed pretty pat--I figured out the last page by somewhere around the sixth page and nothing in there really threw me a curve. Maybe reading it all in a go will prove me wrong, but Season Two seems pretty damn lackluster making this Good issue seem far better than it actually was. (In short, I almost gave it a Very Good before I thought about it a little.)

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #24: Ugh. Even worse than last issue, in part because Peter Parker comes off like a super-powered Archie Andrews. Awful.

SUPERPATRIOT WAR ON TERROR #2: Was there a reason we had to wait so long for that? Because unless someone on the creative team lost a limb and then waited for it to grow back, there was no reason a book that mediocre should take so long to put together. Eh.

TRUE STORY: SWEAR TO GOD #12: As always, a pleasure to read, but there was more narrative tension in Betty #144 than here. Either Tom's gotta tackle some of his topics more deeply, or he's gotta put a pretty bow on it and wrap it up. I'd hate to see it end, but I'd hate even more for it to become perfunctory. Eh.

WE3 #3: Saved the best for last as Morrison and Quitely jam on the gas and knock us all on our asses. Sure, it left me wanting to see more, but I think that was precisely the point--it's a fine little antidote to the fumes of all the decompressed leftovers the market's been running on. (And how did I miss that the Rabbit poops high-explosives out its butt? That one little detail makes this must-read of 4-H and FFA kids everywhere!) I could quibble (Christ help me, I can always quibble, it seems like) but I'd rather just call this Excellent and exhort everyone to pick it up. PICK OF THE WEEK, for sure.

And, finally, to mention some of the other stuff on the racks quickly:

If you wanted to read a goth Locas drawn by Frank Quitely and/or Homer Tanuka, you should check out Wet Moon, Vol. 1. It's wayyyy too slow and wayyyy too precious, but the art is exquisite and the eye for body language and telling details is top-rate.

Ibooks' republication of Introducing Kafka by David Zane Mariowitz and R. Crumb is good news for the direct market, as the matching of Crumb to Kafka results in a spot of terrific work from Crumb--I think his retelling of "The Judgment" is a perfect wedding of artist to writer--and Mariowitz's cutting between the biography and fiction is edifying and smart. The neither-fish-nor-fowl arrangement of text and alternating comix won't please everyone, though, and I gotta wonder why this wasn't just drop-dead fantastic, considering how similar Crumb and Kafka are (what with their similar domineering fathers and shlemiel as hostile outsider routine). But it's nice intro to Kafka and Crumb fans like me are grateful for any new work.

And finally, I haven't read Epileptic, but jesus, that's one sweet-looking hardcover, isn't it? I can't wait to dig into it...

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

I'm double-plus overbusy this week -- I haven't even finished reading this week's books!

Ben's getting to be a real handful -- willful as all get out (that's my boy!), and in everything all the time. He might possibly be learning the word "no", though. We think he knows when he's doing the wrong thing, he gets this little gleam in his eye, and wags his finger at us, then goes and does whatever it was he shouldn't have been doing.

So this is why I have so little time these days. I'm desperate to get back and finish my rewrite of my novel that got put off because Ben was born -- but I just don't see HOW to get back to it while he's a little terror who is just a little too young to play by himself.

Anyway, so that's why this review thing is kinda not here this week for me.

I do want to say this: Watch BATTLESTAR GALACTICA on Sci-Fi. Really killer show. I never was a fan of the original, and I only watched the middle of the pilot last year, but Bennett got the DVD and made me watch it and the first 2 episodes of the series, and I'm damn glad he did.

God, it's nice to have some quality science fiction on the air again, after all of these barren years.

If anything it reminds me of DS9 during the dominion war. Arc based storytelling, strong characters, desperate situation. It's Ron Moore, so that's probably why.

It has flaws, yes (I don't really like the Sexy Cylon chick), and it gets notes wrong here and there, but overall, it is a terrific show, and you should jump right in. Thankfully it is Sci-Fi, so you know you'll be able to get caught up in rerun pretty fast.

As for this week's comics....within what I've manged to read this week (about 60%), I think I'll go with POWERS #8 as my PICK OF THE WEEK, not because it was an exceptional issue, but because there really wasn't much else this week. I also liked the end of BULLSEYES GREATEST HITS #5 more than I thought I would.

PICK OF THE WEAK? Probably a three-way tie between FREEDOM FORCE #1 (I already played the game -- several times in fact, it's terrific! -- who wants a literal retelling?) ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #71 (each of these team ups has stank more than the one before. I think the book has leapt the rails) and WANTED #6 (I expected something more clever than that last page. Don't know what, but I did.) But then, I didn't read a LOT of stuff, man.

The BOOK / TP OF THE WEEK easilly goes to EX MACHINA THE FIRST HUNDRED DAYS. We sold out of 7 rack copies in the first day, I was stunned!

And that, for what it is worth, is that!

-B
Click Here to Read More...

100 GIRLS #3
2000 AD #1420
30 DAYS OF BLOODSUCKERS TALES #4
AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS #1
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #516
ARANA HEART OF THE SPIDER #1
ARMY OF DARKNESS SHOP TIL YOUDROP DEAD #1
AVENGERS EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES #6
BATGIRL #60
BATMAN #636
BETTY #144
BEYOND AVALON #1
BLACK WIDOW #5
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #5
CONAN #12
DEADPAN #2
DETONATOR #2
DOOM PATROL #8
EVENFALL #7
FANTASTIC FOUR #522
FLASH #218
FUTURAMA SIMPSONS CROSSOVER CRISIS PART 2 #1
GI JOE #39
HELLBLAZER #204
JLA CLASSIFIED #3
JSA STRANGE ADVENTURES #6
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #99
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #2
LOSERS #20
LUBA #10
MARVEL AGE FANTASTIC FOUR #12
MINIBURGER DIRTY DOZEN AND LUCKY 13TH BOXED SET
MYSTIQUE #23
NEW X-MEN #9
NIGHTWING #102
OFFICIAL HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE WOMEN OF MARVEL 2005
PLANETARY #22
RICHARD DRAGON #9
ROBIN #134
SLEEPER SEASON TWO #8
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #145
SOULFIRE #3
SPAWN #142 (RES)
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #24
STOKERS DRACULA #3
SUPERPATRIOT WAR ON TERROR #2
TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #30
TEEN TITANS GO #15
TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD #12
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #15
ULTIMATE X-MEN #55
UNCANNY X-MEN #454
USAGI YOJIMBO #81
WE 3 #3
WITCHBLADE #82
WITCHING #8
X-23 #2
Y THE LAST MAN #30



Books / Mags / Stuff

2000 AD EXTREME ED #7
ABC WARRIORS THE MEKNIFICENT SEVEN TP
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL 8 SINSPAST TP
ASCEND GN
AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED TP
BACK ISSUE #8
BERSERK VOL 6 TP
BLOOD STAINED SWORD #1
BLUESMAN #1
BONE VOL 1 OUT OF BONEVILLE COLOR ED SC
CHALAND ANTHOLOGY VOL 2 FREDDY LOMBARD TP
CINEFANTASTIQUE VOL 37 #1
EIGHTBALL LIKE A VELVET GLOVECAST IN IRON TP NEW PTG
EPILEPTIC VOL 1 TP
GAME INFORMER FEB05
GRIN AND BARE IT MAGAZINE #15
HOUSEWIVES AT PLAY ALL ACCESSGN
HULK VOL 1 INCREDIBLE DIGEST TP
JADE SCREEN VOL 3 #1
KING COLLECTED ED TP
KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE VOL 11TP
LABYRINTH TAROT HC
LOKI HC
MIGHTY LOVE SC
NEGIMA VOL 4 GN
NOBLE CAUSES VOL 3 DISTANT RELATIVES TP
PHANTOM GRAHAM NOLAN SUNDAY VOL 1 GN
POPBOT COLLECTION VOL 2 SC
PREVIEWS VOL XV #2
R CRUMBS KAFKA GN
SAMURAI EXECUTIONER VOL 3 TP
SCREEN POWER OFF JACKIE CHAN MAG VOL 6 #3
SFX #126
SHADOW STAR VOL 6 WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU NOW TP
SINGULARITY 7 TP
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #130
TSUBASA VOL 4 GN
VIVID GIRLS VOL 1 GN
WET MOON VOL 1 WANDERING COMPANIONLESS GN
WILDGUARD VOL 1 CASTING CALL TP
WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE SPIDER-MAN & WOMAN CVR #161
XXXHOLIC VOL 4 GN Click Here to Read More...

My schizophrenic approach to reading comics (read the ones I don't buy while working Fridays, read the ones I do buy over the weekend) and my slapdash approach in ordering comics has left me looking at the new release list and going: "Hmmm, why didn't I read that? And why didn't I *buy* it?" So that particularly incisive review of Eric Red's Containment #1 is going to have to wait, dammit.

But here's a quick take on some stuff I did read:

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #636: I'm still shocked that Rucka's work on this just isn't doing the trick for me. The story is so cautiously doled out, it feels frugal: once Superman called in Batman and Wonder Woman, it was hard for me to imagine why he wouldn't have done so immediately, whereas at least, say, Jeph Loeb would have thrown them into a full-page spread halfway through the second issue of the arc. I actually prefer the trainwreck of Action to this. How sad. Eh.

EXILES #58: Enjoying the economy of the plotting on this--I think most teams would have dragged out the Evil-God-Controlling-The-Team angle for at least a couple of issues, but nope, they wrapped it up right after it was introduced. I'm not sure about the insistently comical tone that keeps popping up in the book, but it may be because the execution isn't just living up to the potential. Definitely a high OK, but I think the creative team's got some kinks to work out before it'll get higher than that from me.

FREEDOM FORCE #1: I was really amped for this, not only because I enjoyed the game so much but because the people who worked on it seemed like such big Kirby fans. So this was a mighty disappointment: nothing more than a retelling of the events in the game and, apart from an occasional thick ink line and a dynamic close-up or two, having almsot none of the Jack Kirby dynamism I would have hoped for. Between this and the similarly unimaginative Metal Gear Solid comic, my cool-comics-about-cool-video-games dreams have been thoroughly crushed. Awful.

NIGHTCRAWLER #5: Aguirre-Sacasa, bless his heart, strikes me as someone who stopped reading comics around 1962 or so, or else is modelling a lot of his Marvel work on Scooby-Doo episodes. I mean: the nine scary ghosts of the subway? I was kinda surprised there was no scene of Kurt running with Logan, Ororo and Kurt's date stacked on top of his head. The art is lovely, but really: the nine scary ghosts of the subway? Eh.

PLASTIC MAN #14: I think it's great Kyle Baker is doing a comic that'll make his kids laugh, but I don't think I want to pay to read it, particularly. Eh.

SIMPSONS COMICS #102: Too in-jokey, or too much of a "tribute" issue, I guess, because I saw most of the jokes coming from a mile away. And there are a few shticks Boothby does (like the faux-dramatic splash page) he might want to consider retiring. Again, just an Eh.

TEEN TITANS #20: Worked for me as a very solid bit of characterization, and, weirdly, I'm always happy to see that ugly ol' Luthorsuit. Good.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #71: Think I'm done with this title-it's just seemed very sloppy since that bungled ending to the "Ultimate Carnage" storyline. Kind of a drag because I remember when this used to be the most consistent book on the stands.

WANTED #6: Probably the dumbest last page I've seen in quite some time. And Millar seems genuinely unaware how much his "nah, I'm fucking with ya" scene undercuts any emotional resonance in the climax (because, you know, emotional resonance is for pussies and shit)--or, more than likely, he doesn't care. I started this title wanting nothing more than a good story; I finished it wanting Eminem and Chuck Palahniuk to team up and beat Millar's lazy stealing ass. The art gives it an Eh it doesn't really deserve otherwise. Bleah.

WOLVERINE #24: Millar's take on Daredevil (basically, if Daredevil=Ben Affleck, then Daredevil=widely loathed himbo of the Marvel Universe) was sorta funny but annoyingly lazy. It seemed to serve no real point to the story other than to help fill up all those little colored caption boxes, and also made this one of those issues where I figured out the last page from about page four. It was still entertaining enough, although even the John Romita, Jr. art felt kinda phoned in this time around. OK.

WOLVERINE THE END #6: How long did this take? A year? A year plus? And to top it off, Wolverine doesn't even "end," which is a real testament to how impressively Jenkins flaked off on this project. Crap.

X-MEN #166: This was so awful I wondered if Peter Milligan licensed his name for Chuck Austen to use--and the art looked surprisingly rushed and inept to boot, making me wonder if the script on this was not only lousy but late. Playing "The Naked Time" card with the X-Men is not exactly rocket science, so you'd think this would have been no worse than mediocre, but it was, in fact, full-blown Awful.

Wow. A whole lot of cranky, huh? Let's hope Bri will appear and show me the error of my curmudgeonly ways...or at least point out some gems I might have missed.

Labels: Jeff

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Like el Jefe said, it was Tzipora's birthday this weekend, so I'm drowning for time -- gonna try to cover the items Jeff didn't....

HERO SQUARED XTRA SIZED SP #1: It's wordy, yes, and the middle sequence kinda dragged on, but, overall I thought this was a terrific start, and I hope they continue it. Parallel universes and slackers and comedy ahoy. GOOD.

WARREN ELLIS SIMON SPECTOR #1: And Ellis' "5th week event" (hahaha) comes to an end. Might have been nice if it all had shipped in the same week, though. Shouldn't these be returnable, really? I thought SIMON SPECTOR was probably the least of the 4 books, but that might be because "The Man" is the least compelling of the four concepts -- when heroes are perfect and unstoppable, there's not too much drama there, is there? Still, nothing worse than an OK from me.

WARREN ELLIS ANGEL STOMP FUTURE #1: Easially my favorite of the 4 "Apparat" titles, perhaps because it has the most cleanly "Ellisian" voice -- Warren does "Turn to the camera and think about technology out loud" bettrer than almost anyone. This "felt" like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, and the earlier issues, at that. Ryp's artwork is bloody fucking lovely and insane, but suffers a bit, I think, from not being colored. On most pages there isn't much of an "anchor" for your eye to fix on TO check out the insane little details everywhere. When Ryp does, say, porno, it works fine because there's usually lots of naughty bits to center your eye on, but in a dense SF-driven world like this, there's a lot of blurring going on. However, one really wonders how he has gone all of these years without being snapped up by a more... respectable publisher -- he's got all of the density and sight-gaggery of Darrow, but, apparantly, he's twice as fast at LEAST. Either way, perfect art choice for the voice of the book, and I thought this was two great creators at the top of thier form. VERY GOOD, and, all things considered, my PICK OF THE WEEK.

NIGHTWING #101: Rather than "Nightwing: Year One" it's more like "Robin: Year last". Nice to look at, competently written, my only problem was I kinda felt I had read this issue like 99 times before. Yes, yes, Dick and Bruce fight, we KNOW that one already. So, let's go with a very very high OK.

ULTIMATES 2 #2: A very solid issue, and I like the way it confounded my expectations by NOT having the fight scene where it might otherwise, and seeming to be serious about executing the Hulk. I really think they should, too. An easy VERY GOOD.

MAJESTIC #1: Well, I don't see the point of the book, or really the audience either ("modernly told silver age superman stories without superman" I guess.. and that's, what, 79 people in America?), and I really can't see it lasting more than 12 issues, but, having said THAT, it was pretty solid, with very nice art, and well-written "big ideas". I'm even going to give it a low GOOD. But it probably won't have a #13.

X 23 #1: Well, so she's not Wolverine's clone, but his "genetic duplicate", and, the script really really seemed to think this was some kind of big difference, and it just felt, dunno, kinda defensive or something. But, god, why? Why do we need a She-verine any way? With a belly ring? Jeff deeply disturbed me on Friday by saying something like "They were probably thinking, 'A character as cool as Wolvie, except we can fuck her! Woo!'" which immediately made me want to get very very drunk and curse humanity forever. I don't think this character adds anything, and it seems... oh, I dunno, cynical? or calculated, maybe. I also really felt I'd pretty much read THIS before, too -- "scientists create unstoppable killing machine then are surprised when said machine, y'know, is unstoppable and kills everyone" Really, as an individual comic, it was probably OK, but the underlying concept and lack of imagination on display here drops me way down to an AWFUL.

In terms of the PICK OF THE WEAK, I'll go with something Jeff handled: CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON #11. It hurt my little head trying to follow all of the permutations of characters and I think Priest should stop trying to be SO clever, darn it.

Only place I really disagreed with Jeff's assessments was on MARVEL TEAM-UP #4. I thought it was a god damn good DC comic. I can't even defend that statement really, but that's how it felt to me. GOOD.

For the BOOK/TP OF THE WEEK, I'll go with Andi Watson's LOVE FIGHTS VOL 2 TP it's charming stuff.

OK, now back to sorting through BookScan numbers for NEXT month's TILTING...

-B


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Reviews within the hour, here's this week's list of comics.

Although there's a "monday holiday" this week, comics are shipping ON TIME for Wednesday....

2000 AD #1419
2000 AD PROG 2005
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #636
ARCHIE #554
AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #4 (OF 12)
BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #61
BIRDS OF PREY #78
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #97
BLOODRAYNE SKIES AFIRE
BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #7
BPRD THE DEAD #3 (OF 5)
BRODIES LAW #4
BULLSEYE GREATEST HITS #5 (OF5)
CABLE DEADPOOL #11
CASEFILES SAM & TWITCH #12
CATWOMAN #39
CHUBBY #1 (A)
COCOPIAZO #2
DAREDEVIL #69
DESPERADOES BANNERS OF GOLD #2 (OF 5)
DOGWITCH #15
DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #324
EL GATO NEGRO LEGACY #1 (Of 4)
ERIC REDS CONTAINMENT #1 (OF 4)
EXILES #58
FIREBREATHER IRON SAINT ONE SHOT
FLUFFY #1 (Of 4)
FLUFFY #2 (Of 4)
FREAKSHOW #2
FREEDOM FORCE #1 (OF 6)
HAWKMAN #36
HUMAN TARGET #18
INVINCIBLE #19
JANES WORLD #17
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #227
LUCIFER #58
MADROX #5 (OF 5)
MANGA DARKCHYLDE #0 FREE SAMPLE
MANHUNTER #6
MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #273
NEW INVADERS #6
NEXT EXIT #2
NIGHTCRAWLER #5
ODD TALES SNOW PRINCE #4
OUTSIDERS #19
PIGTALE #1
PIGTALE #1 OVERSHIP COPIES
PLASTIC MAN #14
POWERPUFF GIRLS #58
POWERS #8
ROB HANES ADVENTURES #7
ROGUE #7
SAMURAI HEAVEN & EARTH #2 (OF5)
SIMPSONS COMICS #102
SMALL GODS #6
SPACE GHOST #3 (OF 6)
SPIDER-MAN INDIA #3 (OF 4)
SUPER MANGA BLAST #48
TEEN TITANS #20
TERRA OBSCURA VOL 2 #5 (OF 6)
TRIGGER #2
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #71
ULTRA #6 (OF 8)
WANTED #6 (Of 6)
WATERLOO SUNSET #3 (Of 4)
WOLVERINE #24
WOLVERINE THE END #6 (OF 6)
WONDER WOMAN #212
X-MEN #166


BAD COMPANY GOODBYE KROOL WORLD TP
BEST OF DRAW MAGAZINE VOL 1
CHAOS EFFECT TP
CLASSIC 40 OZ TALES FROM THE BROWN BAG TP
CLIVE BARKERS THIEF OF ALWAYSVOL 1 TP
COMIC BOOK DIGEST #4
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #118
COMICS BUYERS GUIDE MAR05 #1602
COMICS JOURNAL #265
ELRIC OF MELNIBONE GN (O/A)
EMMA FROST VOL 2 MIND GAMES DIGEST TP
ESCALATOR GN
ESSENTIAL PETER PARKER SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN VOL 1 TP
EX MACHINA THE FIRST HUNDRED DAYS TP
FORTEAN TIMES #192
FROM EROICA WITH LOVE VOL 2 TP
GREEN LANTERN ARCHIVES VOL 5 HC
HANGING OUT WITH THE DREAM KING SC
HELLBLAZER ALL HIS ENGINES HC
HULK VISIONARIES PETER DAVID VOL 1 TP
JUXTAPOZ MAR APR 2005 VOL 13 #4
LAND OF THE BLINDFOLDED VOL 2TP
MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN VOL2 VENOMOUS TP
MIGHTY MAN #1
NEIL GAIMAN A SHORT FILM ABOUT JOHN BOLTON DVD
OH MY GODDESS SORA UNCHAINED VOL 19 TP
OUTLOOK GRIM VOL 1 DEAD NASTIES TP
REX STEELE NAZI SMASHER GN
RUROUNI KENSHIN VOL 10 TP
SPOOKHOUSE VOL 2 TP
STAR TREK COMMUNICATOR FEB MAR 05 #154
STICKLEBACK GN
WAR VOL 1 TP
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So, you may notice Hibbs never showed last week. Not surprising, I guess, since he was working on a Tilting at Windmills that just got published over at Newsarama (and I should really remind him to pop in here and post links to this stuff like I just did--what's the point of a blog, after all, if you don't remember to contintually self-promote?), but, still, he might want to show up for his blog at least once in a while.

Of course, yesterday at the store, he swore he was going to be on top of reviewing books this week and then added, "Although it's Tzipora's birthday on Saturday so we'll see. It depends on what she wants to do." Now, Tzipora is an incredibly great wife but I can't see her saying, "Well, Brian, for my birthday, what I'd really like to do is read your review of New Thunderbolts #4." Just. Can't. See it.

So, just in case:

100 BULLETS #57: I thought the two conversations jumping back and forth in time read surprisingly well--gave Azzarello more to do with his predilection for wordplay than just craft puns--but I've hopped off the 100 Bullets train, I've realized. I stopped caring I don't know how long ago, and so couldn't tell you if the emotional resolutions here were properly set up and paid off from previous issues: I haven't bothered to remember what happened in any previous issue enough to know. Seeing Eduardo Risso's art every month for only $2.50 is a thrill, but I'm either waiting for the trade from here on out or dropping out entirely. Maybe better than OK but I just couldn't tell ya.

ACTION COMICS #823: Imagine if Jerry Bruckheimer got Neil LaBute to write the next Superman movie and then got Michael Bay to direct it. That was this issue of Action, kinda--lots and lots of splodey with a few quick scenes centered specifically around sexual jealousy. Sadly, that sounds more interesting than it reads (cuz it reads, frankly, pretty damn crappy) but I wish Austen had the time or talent to flesh out his ideas: all we've got here currently is a pretty looking train wreck. Even though this is awful, I admit I eagerly pick up each issue of Action to see how awful it's gonna be and that counts for something.

AQUAMAN #26: A lifetime of evil twin stories leads me to believe this is the "Mirror, Mirror" of the current Aquaman setting but, interestingly, there's no particularly clear indicators this is so. It'd be great if someone picked this issue up cold and thought the first twenty-five issues had been about this bastard Aquaman sinking a city and subjugating humanity, wouldn't it? Eh.

BLOODHOUND #7: It's not that anything here is particularly original (I groaned aloud at the impending "child traumatized by death of pet" scene), it's just that Jolley and Kirk really do it well: all the blood flying on the last page was shocking, but it's the close up of Clevenger's upset face that sells it. Bloodhound's officially a dead man walking and I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm frustrated nonetheless. Good.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON #11: A very pretty looking issue, but I think they screwed things up by only having two Captain Americas and two MODOKs in this storyline--as it was, I could almost maybe understand it. If Priest had worked just a little bit harder, he could have put in two Falcons, two Nick Furys, and maybe a set of six or seven Sharon Carters...kind of a shame when a writer slacks and lets his story approach coherence, isn't it? Eh.

DEADSHOT #2: Not sure I liked the last page (although, really, where else could it go?) but I really enjoyed the rest of this--for us urban types, the idea of one unstoppable bad-ass with no scruples cleaning up a neighborhood is an attractive one. I doubt the last two issues are going to meaningfully examine the dangers and fallacies in that kind of thinking, but as a little slice of nasty darkly comic noir, I'll bump this up to Very Good in its own right.

HARD TIME #12: Some sort of lesson in supercompression here as Gerber jams almost all his plotlines into one speedy wrap-up. It's not as satisfying as things resolving at the established pace, but still a Good read. Again, another book I'll miss. And yet, when I read a blurb on the back page promising a "Season Two," I weirdly found myself almost hoping it won't come back. Sometimes it's just better for a book to end (particularly when you get as poignant a final page as here) and let the creators get a chance to try something different.

JLA #110: There's always a good scene or two in each of these issues but, uh, why hasn't anything happened yet? And by anything, I mean, you know, socking and punching and giant green power ring head noogies and stuff. I may come off like a philistine here, but one would think the appeal of having the JLA fight a team of evil counterparts is obvious: you don't need five issues to set it up. May read great in a trade but on its own very much an Eh.

JSA #69: It's kinda interesting that Geoff Johns just finished a Teen Titans story where the Titans meet their future selves (or counterparts) and here he's just starting a JSA where the Society meet their past selves (or counterparts). These types of stories used to be a staple of DC Comics and, as always, Johns seems very aware of that. Unfortunately for me, unless someone ends up as their own grandfather I get kinda bored. Clearly Good, but I guess my biases currently leave me blase about the whole thing.

MARVEL TEAM-UP #4: Donnie may hate Scott Kolins' work but I'm actually enjoying it more and more all the time (and I think the colorist does a great job keeping all that thin line work from flattening out on the page). So I like this just as nice art at a nice price and will leave the whole Iron Doom/Golden Child storyline to more discerning critics. From here, it doesn't seem particularly interesting but I'll watch Kolins draw Iron Man any day. OK.

THE PUNISHER #16: The Punisher getting his ass kicked by a combat-trained short person hidden in a corpse's backpack? Hell, yes! But everything else remained remarkably dull apart from that. Eh.

Finally, gotta mention TOYFARE #91: after several very lame and flat Twisted Toyfare Theaters, they bust out one of the funniest things I've read in months as Daredevil decides to sue Ben Affleck for the lousy Daredevil movie. Absolutely hilarious dumb fanboy humor and the closest a $4.99 price tage may ever come to being justified by a mere eight pages. Really great.

Labels: Jeff

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Ah, the joys of comics: it wasn't exactly an inspiring week of new comics, I thought, but there was plenty of good stuff I had missed through a combination of the holidays, poor fiscal planning, general dumb-assedness, etc. So before getting to any current savaging, allow me to express much favor and enthusiasm for such not-new items as the latest issue of Ariel Schrag's Likewise, the Brubaker cover issue of The Comics Journal, and particularly Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, which someone recommended to Hibbs. O'Malley's book is such a warm and witty mash-up of autobio comix, manga, videogame conventions and "rawk" (as Kolchaka would put it), it's a big-time charmer. My PICK OF THE WEEK, though it didn't come out this week. Bug your store or Oni Press directly for a copy.

As for this week's stuff:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #2: The art on this was very, very strong, although the Lark flashbacks felt a little more tacked on here than they did last issue. Epting's action scene was impressive, all the more so since it's basically Cap 101, and I liked Cap's suspicion about the Skull being dead. I've got some reservation somewhere about the whole thing I can't quite place, but it's still Good work.

DETECTIVE COMICS #802: David Lapham is still working his butt off on this story: it's big, jammed with characters, and looks like it might be trying to be a Bat-noir version of a Tom Wolfe novel, where all the strata of society are shown colliding and colluding to produce a crooked town (pretty much the Batman story I've always wanted to read). But it's gummed up by a few items, not the least of which is the appearance of Mr. Freeze at the end--pretty much more or less the end of last week's Batman, giving this an utterly unnecessary feeling of warmed-up leftovers. I'm sure managing the Bat-titles is an utter nightmare, but the editors really have got to pay more attention to the storyline management--the books keep tripping each other up. Should be better than OK, but still not.

FANTASTIC FOUR: FOES #1 (OF 6): Did not like this at all: if there's one thing we never ever need to see again in a FF book, it's the "Reed, stop working and spend time with your son" scene, but I wasn't particularly crazy about the non-autopilot scenes either (Sue's not shoving people aside because of the alarm, it's because there's a sale on! See, it's funny because she's rude and clothing obsessed! You know, like all women! Wa-ha-ha!) Throw in some lackluster art, an existence predicated only on having a trade out for the movie, and you've got an Awful book.

FIRESTORM #9: Coming in late on this since I haven't bothered with the book in three or four issues. Interestingly, Killer Frost was so one-dimensional compared to the level of characterization I'm used to from this book, I found it distracting and annoying. (That's not a left-handed compliment, so I guess it's a right-handed complaint?) Not really a Firestorm fan old or new, so this book really can't seem to get more than an Eh from me either way. Which I guess is why I usually don't bother...

FLAMING CARROT #1: Says something about this week of comics that this felt kinda stale and sketchy and still seemed more vital than most of the other books out this week: is there anyone who still gripes about having to be politically correct other than lonely old guys who listen to too much talk radio? I still enjoy the loping storytelling of Burden's stories, though, so more of a high OK than a low one.

THE GIFT #9: I found the art on this appallingly bad--at almost every point in the story, the artist's choices (usually for a sketchy panel lacking detail) screwed up a later storytelling point. The writer isn't exactly innocent either, mind you, but there seemed to be a certain effort made to give each character type a distinct voice that showed some potential--or at least more effort--than what I saw from the art. Still, pretty damned Awful.

INCREDIBLE HULK #77: Liked that Lee Weeks art, but the story felt like Peter David aping Bruce Jones. In fact, a lot of the elements (random opening, weird flashbacks, strange island, monsters) seemed straight out of Wolverine: Xisle. Done a million times more competently, but still very much a low Eh at best. Prognosis not good.

NEW AVENGERS #2: Finally, after five or so straight issues of big team fights, Bendis and Finch seem to have developed some sort of competency with the conventions of it, although it's now become the superhero equivalent of bad disco music: all highs, no lows, and instilling an annoyed mindlessness in the audience. (Who would have thought Spider-Man being unmasked and having his arm broken would seem so perfunctory?) Oddly, it made me think of what Loeb and Sale--the equivalent of good disco music, I guess--could have done with it: dramatic moments that would have held a moment of resonance, big bright splashes highlighting the seemingly endless army of villains, and even tiny bits of characterization. Sure, it would have still been stupid (might have seemed even more stupid, in fact), but it might have actually been enjoyable. Eh.

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #23: I think they changed the cover for this, but I guess they couldn't do the same with the insides. Even if I had really somehow loved JMS's "Sins Past" storyline, I think I would have disliked this: it reads like really bad soap opera crossed with somebody's attempt to get their trip to Paris written off on their taxes. Could get better but I doubt it. Awful.

SUPERMAN: STRENGTH #1 (OF 3): Hmmm, the art was very Keiron Dwyerish, which didn't strike me as particularly right for a Superman story (particularly following an Alex Ross cover) but I liked a lot of Scott McCloud's story even if I wasn't as enamored of the whacky twist at the end as Hibbs was. But I couldn't help but wonder: why this price point? It's a good story, sure, but $5.95 good? Not with that art, I'm afraid. What would have been a high Good at $2.50 or $2.95 (I enjoyed it more than any of the regular Super-titles) becomes an Eh at $5.95.

SWAMP THING #11: Probably someone is appreciating the Cliver Barkerish ultra-gore approach to this title, but that's not me. In fact, seeing an animated corpse that talks from a barely-connected dangling head somehow breaks any suspension of disbelief: how can it talk through the dangling head if there's no air to push past the vocal chords? The more explicit the gore, the more those sorts of questions get pushed to the fore, I think. I liked the page where Arcane addresses Abby about his previously failed redemption (addressing some prior continuity I don't know about, I imagine) but other than that, really found it Awful.

TOE TAGS FEATURING GEORGE ROMERO #4: What's kind of a shame about this book is Romero finally has the space to develop some of his ideas as actual ideas (the nature of good and evil, a pessimistic belief in the power of the individual in modern culture, catastrophic change as being more than just a catalyst for horror) but he can't seem to do more than bring them up before cutting to scenes of head shots and zombie-stomping elephants. I guess it's a old dog/new tricks thing, but it's still kinda frustrating: this could have been better than just an Eh.

WILD GIRL #3 (OF 6): Liked this issue the best of all of them, although part of that is just some seriously ass-kicking art: the story is still too circumspect for my liking, as if the author expects us to connect all the dots because we've read lots of Alan Moore--which may not be an incorrect assumption, admittedly, but still keeps the story feeling stilted. OK.

So to sum up: Scott Pilgrim and Likewise? Yes. Loeb & Sale? Good disco music. Most of this week's comics? Not too inspiring. Hopefully, Hibbs will chime in with his .02 soon.

Labels: Jeff

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OK, sub setup is done, and Ben and Tzipi are sleeping, so let's see what, if anything, I can address before I need to go off and do family stuff....

CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #1: I'm a long-time Concrete fan, and I usually really like it's usual brew of heady politics and realistic environmentalism. However, this one kinda thudded for me -- stories need conflict and there's really none here except internal monologue. Further, it wasn't so much a moral or ideological choice as much of a practical one, dampening much of the drama. Given Chadwick's track record, there's no way I won't give him the benefit of the doubt for the long haul, but as a single issue entertainment experience... this was merely OK.

DESPERADOES BANNERS OF GOLD #1: Very solid return to this Horror/Western hybrid, though that $4 cover price is hard to swallow. It's one thing on a licensed title, where they have to pay a rights holder over and above creation costs, or on an artsy experimental book like almost anything Ashley Wood or Ben Templesmith do, but it feels way too expensive on something like this which is so... well, I don't mean this prejoratively, but "middle of the road". The script was good fun, the plot moving, the art solid... basically everything I want in a comic book, but, be that as it may, it "feels" too expensive. That knocks a grade offa it, bringing us, sadly, down to OK.

LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #1: Yes, that worked. It felt new, but nicely retro too. This may be a LSH reboot that "works" -- maybe the "DCU book for people who don't like DCU books". VERY GOOD.

STRANGE #3: Dude, I already saw THE MATRIX! What the fuck? As Lester mentioned in the store on Friday, this totally undercuts Strange's origin, which was originally a tale of redemption. But if they just outright tell him, "You are The One, Neo", then where is the redemption there? Foo! You can't look at this, or AMAZING SPIDEY and tell me the man doesn't need an editor for the shared universe toys. AWFUL.

SUPREME POWER #14: Meanwhile, he doesn't seem to need an editor at all here -- this is firing on all points, almost certainly because it doesn't MATTER if he changes something totally -- in fact, that probably makes it better. VERY GOOD.

WARLOCK #4: What Jeff said, but let me amplify it, and say that the twist made me go "whoa, that's fucking clever!" out loud and everything. I really do wonder if this was meant to go on from here, or if this ending was planned for later, or just what the "path not taken" was, but I thought this was VERY GOOD, and while I didn't like it the BEST this week, I was caught by surprise enough to give this one the PICK OF THE WEEK.

WHAT IF...? 5th week event: From the interviews, at least, one might think that Bendis was a big fan of WHAT IF...?, which shocks the fuck out of me considering how badly he got every little thing about the execution wrong. I mean, first off, you can't consume nearly half of your page count doing the recap! Then it was all Tell-Tell-Tell and some more Tell. Barely a page of "show" in either issue. Either ...KAREN PAGE HADN'T DIED or ...JESSICA JONES JOINED THE AVENGERS were the PICK OF THE WEAK, so let's jointly bestow that honor, shall we? Both were CRAP.

PAD's ...GENERAL ROSS BECAME THE HULK worked as a proper WHAT IF...? story, but it and the Kesel/Smith ...DOCTOR DOOM WAS THE THING suffered a lot from not having any space to breath. It's easy to forget that series 1 of WHAT IF...? were 48 pagers. The Paul Smith art on the latter was really really something to behold. OK for the former, VERY GOOD for the latter on the strength of the art.

Brube's ...AUNT MAY HAD DIED was OK (I thought the conciet of it being a comic book store conversation was pretty funny), but it depended more on WHAT IF PETER PARKER WAS A NORMAL TEENAGER? than the bounds of the concept.

The whole event gets an AWFUL, sorry.



For the BOOK/GN OF THE WEEK we don't have a ton of choices, it is either BLOOD A TALE NEW PTG, finally back in print,or FANTASTIC FOUR VISIONARIES JOHN BYRNE VOL 3 TP, showing us that, yes, once Byrne was a major talent, and a follower of the grand traditions of the Marvel Universe. I'm feeling nostalgic this second, so the award goes to BYRNE'S FF.



I had more to say (like about QUIT CITY's aviator comic without airplanes?!?!), but they woke up 20 minutes ago, and I must jet...

What did you think?

-B
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Actually, some of the comics from last week...which was last year, right? When I left the store on Friday, Hibbs kept saying, "So, write a few reviews okay? Just one or two? And then I'll riff off 'em!" I, of course, promised I would, then became too damn entranced with setting up my new computer to review anything. But I do feel a little guilty, so let's see what I remember about:

ADAM STRANGE #4 (of 8): I initially felt a bit gypped by the opening escape by Adam, but realized the whole guy-rescued-from-certain-death-by-hot-chick trope is what powers most of the original Flash Gordon, and so is considered fair game in a book like this. I'm not thrilled about it, mind you, but I can accept it. Overall, a Good read although, man, The Omega Men still suck, don't they?

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #515: Another JMS continuity implant and while less alarming than "Gwen Did The Goblin," a potentially bad sign of things to come: goober scientist guy could've been a distant friend of Pete's, some kid who he bonded with at a science fair, rather than going to the same school at the same time. Again, this seems done to maximize the drama of the storyline but violently undercuts the believability of the mythos. ("Oh, hey, it's that kid I went to school with! Boy, I felt so guilty about him I never thought about him even once in the last _________ years!") Plus, all that continuity retconning, and the story spins first on Tony and Peter being teammates in Avengers and then on them never discussing the seed money Tony goes on to give? Very, very sloppy and pretty close to Awful.

AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES #4 (of 8): Apart from the very unexplained panels of Rick Jones apparently locking himself in the Avengers' Cosmic Clothes Dryer, I liked this. The Cap storyline and the Avengers security storyline synched up and progressed nicely. Not a big fan of that last page (if there's one plot thread that should be retired for a few years, it's the "will the hero kill?" which has been done, pardon the pun, to death...) but still, a qualified Good.

BATMAN #635: Me likes the Mahnke--that opening fight scene just seemed kick-ass even as it got more and more absurd (guy sticking a knife in a building to slow his fall? Not in a Batman book, I think...). But every arc on this title keeps swinging for the fences and feeling more and more overplayed each time: the first half tried to out-hush "Hush" and the second tried to out-game "War Games," which, considering those are very, very recent Batman arcs, leaves me uninspired to run out and get next issue. Purty, though. OK.

EXILES #57: Pretty nonplussed by the conclusion to this, and I wasn't even expecting that much from the arc. It's kinda like the creative team went, "Oh, wait! The Kulan Garath setting sucks! Let's move on to something else, quick!" Eh.

IRON MAN #2: Interestingly, I don't think Warren Ellis understands decompression. He just doesn't have the patience or something. So when he writes a decompressed storyline, he just writes the same issue twice. I would've really liked this...if I hadn't read it just last month. Eh.

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #1: I hope Hibbs will get off the stick and write about this, since he's the DC guy. Me, I liked it--a lot. It seems to have everything one would want in a Legion title, plus it's easy to follow. If the team stays this inspired, I'll have a new book joining my list of favorites in pretty short order. Very Good.

SUPERMAN #212: Too bad we don't have "Huh?" as a rating because that would be my rating for this issue. Oh, what the hell: Huh?

SUPERMAN BATMAN #16: Loeb knows how to make a Kirby fanboy like me cry with joy: not just a Kamandi cameo, but a Kamandi cameo that properly references that bizarre Superman tie-in story in Kamandi? Not just Darkseid and Metreon, but Darkseid keeping Etrigan on a leash like a pet? Batman punching it out with Jonah Hex? Kryptonite buckshot? It's a big goddamn beautiful mess and I'm enjoying it tremendously. Very Good.

TEEN TITANS #19: Felt a little rushed, particularly if you've read Alan Moore's Twilight proposal which Johns pillages for this arc (I can't really fault him for that, since it seems nearly everyone, Alan Moore included, has ripped ideas from that proposal--it's the damn Gnostic text of mainstream comics). I don't know if I would have gone for a full six issues on this, but maybe four or five? I dunno. OK.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #14: I thought about retyping my exact comments from Iron Man here as a metatextual joke but you deserve better. On the one hand, there's no reason why the end of this couldn't have been the end of issue #13. On the other hand, Ellis, like Bendis, writes very funny dialogue when he's got the room and I'm used to leisurely storytelling in the Ultimate 'verse. Still, it could be much better than just a grudging OK, I think.

ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE #4 (of 5): I liked Ultimate Unicorn from issue #3, by the way, but Ultimate Red Guardian, not so much. Also, because audiences tend to root for the underdog, I think the Lethal Weapon gambit almost never works. Remember the end of Lethal Weapon where Mel Gibson and Gary Busey are kick-boxing each other to death on a lawn with 37,000 police officers surrounding them? It's not dramatic because Busey is going to go down either way. Similarly, the Captain America/Guardian throw-down with three other Ultimates standing around with machine guns really doesn't get me too excited. Unless Ellis miraculously grabs the Ultimate Brass Ring next ish, I think this is gonna be a sludgy failure. Eh.

WALKING DEAD #14: Someone else, maybe Evan Dorkin, pointed out how bad the visual-verbal blend on this book has gotten--there's just balloon after balloon after ballon of explaining. Wayyy tooo much text. And yet, as a card-carrying member of the Post-Apocalypse Fan Club (I think everyone who grew up in the late '70s, early '80s is a member) and a guy who's read King's The Stand at least four times, I still like this quite a bit. Just start trimming that text a bit, Kirkman! Good.

WARLOCK #4: An amazingly nice wrap-up. I'd been enjoying the series despite some serious reservations, and I really, really like how this turned out. My guess is Pak had his last issue written in his head, figuring he'd break it out in another year or so, but man it worked like a charm. Sorry to see this book go, and worth hunting up in bargain bins and back issues if you didn't read this. Good.

WHAT IF DR. DOOM HAD BECOME THE THING?: Pretty dumb, but like the Hulk's What If?, gets right to the meat of the matter. And the Paul Smith art, particularly in that Thing/Hulk punch-up was so dreamy, I had to give this at least a high OK.

WHAT IF GENERAL ROSS HAD BECOME THE HULK?: A bigger misfire, just because there's nowhere, really, for it to go and the art was pretty uninspired. This made me realize those old What If's were double-sized because they needed to be: without the extra pagecount, the story has no space once everything's in place. So, really, there's just no way any of these could have worked, I think. Eh.

WHAT IF KAREN PAGE HAD LIVED?: Out of alpha order because it was the first Bendis title I read and the biggest failure. Sure, sure, he took over for Kevin Smith when Smith bowed out or something, but still: ten pages to recap the storyline? Ten pages before you even get to the "What If?" There was no space for anything but tell, tell, tell, tell, making it all incredibly dull, dull, dull. An honest to God postcard ("Dear Jeff: Karen Page lived, so I killed the Kingpin. Visiting hours are ten to five on Saturday. Love, Matt Murdock") would held more drama. Flat-out Crap.

WHAT IF JESSICA JONES HAD JOINED THE AVENGERS?: May be the biggest piece of professionally produced fanfic I've ever read, with Jessica finally revealing herself as Brian Bendis' Mary Sue par excellence. Because even though Jessica Jones is a fucked-up mess, she marries Captain America and they have millions of beautiful babies! Again, so long spent bringing the reader to the "What If?" point, there was no space for any drama to develop. Also Crap.

So, that's what I got. Now, let's see if Hibbs will chime in.

Labels: Jeff

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I have every intnetion of writing up a few reviews today, but I HAVE to get my January sub setup done today, or people won't get comics on Wednesday...

I can't beleive the decade is half over... that's just wrong.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get this done fast, and there will be more content later this afternoon....

ALPHA FLIGHT #11
ARCHIE & FRIENDS #88
ARMY OF DARKNESS ASHES 2 ASHES #4
BELLY BUTTON #2
BLACK TIGER LEGACY OF FURY #4(Of 4)
BLOODSTREAM #4 (Of 4)
BREACH #1
CAPTAIN AMERICA #2
CAPTAIN GRAVITY AND POWER OF VRIL #2
CONSTANTINE MOVIE ADAPTATION
CSI DOMINOS #5 (Of 5)
DEADSHOT #2 (OF 5)
DETECTIVE COMICS #802
FANTASTIC FOUR FOES #1 (OF 6)
FIRESTORM #9
FLAMING CARROT #1
FLASH #217
GIRL + GIRL #1
GRENDEL DEVILS REIGN #7 (Of 7)
INCREDIBLE HULK #77 (NOTE PRICE)
INTIMATES #3
JUBILEE #5 (OF 6)
JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #7 (OF 12)
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #5
LOONEY TUNES #122
LORE #5
MAD MAGAZINE #450
MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN #19
NEW AVENGERS #2
NOBLE CAUSES #6
PLASTIC FARM #8
PVP #13
QUESTION #3 (OF 6)
SIN CITY ANGELS #1
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #23
SPIDER-GIRL #82
SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #7
SPUNKY KNIGHT EXTREME #4
STICKY #1
STRANGERS IN PARADISE #70
SUPERMAN STRENGTH #1 (OF 3)
SWAMP THING #11
TALES OF TELLOS #3 (Of 3)
THE GIFT #9
TOE TAGS FEATURING GEORGE ROMERO #4
TOMB OF DRACULA #4
ULTIMATE X-MEN #54
WILD GIRL #3 (OF 6)
X-MEN FANTASTIC FOUR #2 (OF 5)
X-MEN PHOENIX ENDSONG #1 (OF 5)
YOUNGBLOOD IMPERIAL #1


Books / Mags / Stuff
AUTHORITY FRACTURED WORLDS TP
BATTLE ANGEL ALITA VOL 7 2ND ED TP
BLUE SPRING VOL 1 GN
BOMBABY TP
CATWOMAN RELENTLESS TP
CONSTANTINE THE HELLBLAZER COLLECTION TP
DOCTOR SOLAR MAN OF THE ATOM VOLUME 1 HC
ELEKTRA MOVIE TP
ELEKTRA THE HAND TP
G FAN #70
GHOST IN THE SHELL VOL 2 MAN MACHINE INTERFACE TP
KINGDOM OF THE WICKED HC
LEES TOY REVIEW JAN 2005 #147
LIBERTY MEADOWS CREATURE COMFORTS VOL 2 TP
MADARA VOL 2 TP
POGEYBAIT DAN CLOWES EIGHTBALL VINYL FIG
POUNDCAKE VOLUME 1 TP
POWERLESS TP
SUPERMAN UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE TP
ULTIMATE ELEKTRA DEVILS DUE TP
VALKYRIE GOLDEN AGE COLLECTION VOL 1 TP


What looks good to you?

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