The last bit of our 5 week month brings a pretty decent spread of stuff -- especially trades!

2000 AD #1519
2000 AD #1520
52 WEEK #39
A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #50 (A)
ADVENTURES OF SPAWN #1 DIRECTORS CUT #1
AMERICAN VIRGIN #11
ANITA BLAKE VH GUILTY PLEASURES #4 (OF 12)
ANNIHILATION #6 (OF 6)
BATMAN AND THE MAD MONK #6 (OF 6)
BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #214
BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #172
BLACK PANTHER #24 CW
BLUE BEETLE #11
CALVARIO HILLS #1
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #29
CHEMICAL WARFARE #3 (RES)
CREEPER #6 (OF 6)
DAREDEVIL #93
DEATHBLOW #3
DEVI #7
DINOWARS JURASSIC WAR OF THE WORLDS #2 (OF 4)
ELEPHANTMEN #6
EX MACHINA #26
GARTH ENNIS CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD #1 (OF 6)
GHOST RIDER FINALE
HAWKGIRL #60
HUNTER KILLER ROCAFORT CVR A #11
ION #10 (OF 12)
JACK OF FABLES #7
JLA CLASSIFIED #33
JSA CLASSIFIED #22
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #254
JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #128
KABUKI #8
KOLCHAK TALES FRANKENSTEIN AGENDA #1 (OF 3)
KRYPTO THE SUPER DOG #5 (OF 6)
LOVE AND CAPES #3
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT DARK TOWER
MS MARVEL SPECIAL
NEGATIVE BURN #8
NODWICK #36
PHANTOM ANNUAL #1
PIECES FOR MOM A TALE OF THE UNDEAD (ONE SHOT)
PTOLUS CITY BY THE SPIRE #4 (OF 6)
REFLECTIONS #2
SCARFACE SCARRED FOR LIFE #2
SE7EN GLUTTONY #1 (OF 7)
SNAKEWOMAN RED CVR #7
SPAWN #164
STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC #13
STRANGERS IN PARADISE #87
TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #42
TEEN TITANS #43
THE END #1
ULTIMATE CIVIL WAR SPIDER-HAMCRISIS #1
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #38
UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #7 (OF 8)
UNCLE SCROOGE #362 (NOTE PRICE)
USAGI YOJIMBO #100 (NOTE PRICE)
VAULT OF MICHAEL ALLRED #4 (OF 4)
WALKING DEAD #34
WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #677 (NOTE PRICE)
WASTELAND #6
WONDERLOST #1
X-MEN #195

Book / Mag / Stuff
ANDRU AND ESPOSITO PARTNERS FOR LIFE SC
ANIMATION MAGAZINE FEB 2007 #169
ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL 3 TORN TP
BATMAN SECRETS TP
BEASTS HC
CHARLES BURNS LIBRARY VOL 2 BIG BABY SC
CHICANOS VOL 2 TP
COUNCIL OF CARNALITY UNLIMITED GN (A)
COYOTE VOL 4 TP
DEFENDERS INDEFENSIBLE TP
DOOM PATROL VOL 5 MAGIC BUS TP
ESSENTIAL GHOST RIDER VOL 2 TP
FLASH 13 INCH DELUXE COLLECTOR FIGURE
FORTEAN TIMES #219
FRANK MILLERS ROBOCOP TP
GEAR GN
GRAVE ROBBERS DAUGHTER GN
HELLBOY ANIMATED VOL 1 BLACK WEDDING TP
HOUSEWIVES AT PLAY LOVE LETTERS GN (A)
ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE #18
IRON MAN EXTREMIS TP
MARVEL MASTERWORKS ATLAS ERA HEROES VOL 1 NEW ED HC
MR BIG GN
MUSHISHI VOL 1 GN
RED EYE BLACK EYE GN
SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY VOL4 TP (RES)
SUPERMAN BACK IN ACTION TP
WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE HEROESPHOTO CVR #185
XIII TP


What looks good to you?


-B Click Here to Read More...

You know the deal. Your friend calls you, makes plans to meet them at a bar for a few drinks and, when you show up, you realize that not only did they get to the bar early and begin drinking without you, they showed up five hours early. Now, your friend keeps making out with the stranger next to them (who is toothless and looks like Curly Joe Besser in a platinum wig) and, after trying to start a fight with you when you point out they have what you think might be vomit in their hair, you realize your friend has a problem. And if you're lucky you can make your friend realize it too, before they drive away everyone who cares about them.

Obviously, in this case, I'm talking about Marvel Comics and their releases this week. But I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself... Read on and you'll see what I mean.

Oh, and there are spoilers and stuff, so don't read if you don't want 'em...

52 WEEK #38: Kind of a time-waster, in some ways. I think it's already well-established that Nanda Parabat pops up just when you can't go any farther and are right on the edge of collapse, so maybe we could have just opened with that? Also, what fun is the Crime Bible if they've got the same stuff as the regular bible, but with just slightly more absurd details? Give me the the Four Second-Story Men of the Apocalypse any day!

Ooo, and that plea by Eddie Berganza to read Supergirl was uncomfortable, wasn't it? "We're so concerned about making this a book for women, I even asked my assistant--who's a woman--for advice!" And "We wanted Supergirl to be more like a real girl and have a little more weight on her bones!" (Does the tits and ass really count as "bones"?) Sadly the subtext--"ladies, we failed to successfully pander to men, so we're ready to try pandering to you!"--is pretty apparent and sorta amusing in a depressing kind of way.OK.

CIVIL WAR THE RETURN: There's a few things in Civil War--Nitro being part of the instigating event, the prison's location in the Negative Zone--that tie in nicely with the original Captain Marvel (who, to make things more confusing, isn't the original Captain Marvel, but is Marvel's original Captain Marvel) so it seems like this was planned from the start of the event. But, if that's the case, why is "The Return" both unbearably lame and done with so little cognizance of the actual character? I'm not even a big Captain Marvel fan and I found enormous continuity flaws with this (they show Captain Marvel putting on his Nega-Bands, but the dude wasn't able to take 'em off; also, where the hell is Rick Jones? Back in the past, on fire, clanging on his bands, screaming "Why? Why aren't they working??"). If you're gonna bring a character back, shouldn't you bother to at least read the Marvel Handbook entry on him? Plus, why make him the warden of the prison? "We need someone to sign guards' request for overtime, Mar-Vell, and you're the only one we can trust!" Slapdash and hackish, but, to be fair, should I really be surprised when Paul Jenkins can't even do justice to a character he's created? That Sentry story was arguably even worse. This was a really ASS book, and suggests Marvel has already dealt their good shit with regards to the Civil War--it's all rat poison and baby laxative from here on out.

CONNOR HAWKE DRAGONS BLOOD #3: I didn't bother with the first few issues, but probably because they didn't show Connor making out with his smoking-hot Ninja stepmom on the cover. Hopefully, this mini will do the trick and we don't have to read Chuck Dixon's Connor Hawke: The Dragon's Totally Straight, Okay? where Connor really has to overcompensate. OK.

CRIMINAL #4: VERY GOOD stuff, although, you know, some quibblage. Would Leo really leave Greta the recovering addict with access to tons of high grade junk right after he buries his mentor with whom he's made the same mistake? Apparently he would, and I bet it's essential to the "coward" nature Brubaker is observing, but...I dunno. As I said, quibblage. Well worth your time and coin, though.

DAMNED #4: This is also highly GOOD crime stuff which I've been enjoying. I'm not entirely sure on the cosmology--obviously, the creators don't want me to get all the angles yet, but the hardest part about writing magic and fantasy stories is making the reader feel like they know enough of the "rules" to think they're being treated honestly. I suspect we won't know if it all hangs together until the final issue, but I have high hopes.

DOCTOR STRANGE OATH #4: What with all the puns, it's thisssss close to being a high camp self-parody of near Joel ("Ice to meet you, Batman!") Schumacherian proportions, but compared to nearly every other book Marvel put out this week, it's practically Watchmen. OK, is what it is, and probably about as good as Dr. Strange is gonna get anytime soon.

ETERNALS #6: You know, San Francisco is a very difficult town to convey visually, which is why almost everyone falls back on Golden Gate Bridge/Transamerica Pyramid/Gate of Chinatown imagery, but jeez. Thanks to John Romita Jr's apparent disdain for photo-reference (or detail), an average episode of Full House feels more convincingly San Franciscan than this miniseries. Sadly, that's not the worst of its problems, as top-name talent Neil Gaiman sheepishly drags his cosmic superhero tale through its paces with all the verve of a hungover dad at Disneyland. Parts are definitely charming, and Gaiman is one of the few guys who bothers with the idea that superheroes can (and perhaps should) be super-compassionate, but barring some ultra-mega-cosmic finale in the last issue, I kinda feel like an idiot for spending so much buck on so little bang. EH.

FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #8: After eight issues, the creative team has clawed all the way up to an EH rating. Flash goes to Vegas, gets laid, and traps an intangible electrical being behind him on his slipstream. The End. New scripter Marc Guggenheim starts in next issue and I wish him all the best because this book is nine kinds of screwed, already.

HELMET OF FATE IBIS THE INVINCIBLE #1: So, I guess this Helmet of Fate thing is, like, DC's old First Issue Special but with Fate's helmet as a joined linking device? As Brian points out, this'll probably do little more than hurt the upcoming Dr. Fate series and that's a bummer because I thought this wasn't a bad little book--lovely art by Phil Winslade and Tad Williams manages to cover in 20 pages what it took Gaiman 6 issues--if a little glib and unnecessary. But as I grow nostalgic in my dotage, I think I prefer the "let's throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" trademark retention to "hmmm, who can we rape and unmask now?" crossover events. Like I said, kinda GOOD.

HEROES FOR HIRE #6: I can't fully hate any book that has both the Headmen and a Doombot trying very hard not to bond with its precocious kid savior, but it didn't really fry my burger, either. Between this, Dr. Strange: The Oath, Punisher: War Journal and (to a much lesser extent) X-Factor, there's a lot of comedic shtick, as if people writing for Marvel are just trying to keep themselves amused for as long as the checks clear, and hoping that enough old-school shout-outs will keep the audience from noticing how embarrassed the creators are to be workiing on the material. Considering the creators have some talent to them, and it's not quite as bad as the cynically serious-faced money-grab Millar and Jenkins spend more and more of their time at, it's struck me as the lesser of two evils up to now. So, OK, kinda, but Marvel, what's that in your hair, dude?

MOON KNIGHT #7: Moves like a greyhound doped up on horse tranquilizers--slow and kinda stupid (apparently every hero in the Marvel Universe is okay with murder and slaughter when the plot requires them to be (or until the plot requires them not to be)). And if this really got delayed because of Civil War, I'd really like to know why since it's nothing but the most generic of tie-ins. Still, the creative team here has created a superhero who continues creeps the fuck out of me in a way that's neither out of line with the character nor particularly common in the marketplace these days. So, OK, even though I guess it's gonna be draggy-ass all the way through this team's run.

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #3: Maybe Fraction is just making the best of the hand he's been dealt, but this was so badly paced, I really have to wonder--The Punisher stumbles out of his interminable Civil War scene (complete with what I assume is an intentional paradox of a flashback) and ends up in an armory...how, exactly? One scene ends with crazy scientist guy in an elevator and the next starts with him and Frank in the armory... it's as if an entire scene in the middle dropped out (I actually flipped through the pages twice to see if I'd missed something). The first point I can kind of forgive (the scientist has a doo-whatsit pinned on Frank with which he can track him down) but the second is such a fumble of basic pacing, I was kind of mystified.

Also? Establishing shots? They're not just for hacks. Really.

So between all that and the plot-hammering, and the OOC stuff, is it enough to have real pretty art and the re-appearance of the Satan's Claw? I wish it was, but really, this was AWFUL, and I'm really, really hoping that's just a fluke.

ROBIN #158: Brought back those fond days of yesteryear, when two unlikely heroes teamed up and fought an even more unlikely villain, and yet you could read it and pretty much believe it because the creators showed a certain respect and affection for the characters. It wasn't showstopping, even with such lovely art, but it was GOOD.

SILENT WAR #1: Sorry, Marvel: I have successfully made my saving throw against your pretty looking unlikely miniseries. I just couldn't buy The Fantastic Four--humanity's first contact with The Inhumans, mind you--being told by the government to fuck off and being okay with that. I'm starting to feel like Helen Lovejoy from The Simpsons: "Won't somebody please think of the characters?" EH.

SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #26: Sweet art, a strong story, and even a sense of peril in a story where three of the superheroes have Superman level powers--which, if you think about it, is a pretty hard trick to pull off. GOOD, although there's really no way to do an LSH book without it being crufty as hell, is there?

TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD #3: A strong little issue, even if the ending might be just a little bit too pat. GOOD stuff, though, and one of those books I'm always glad to see on the stands.

WOLVERINE #50: The final sign that Marvel might need help is this horribly hacky over-priced issue. Not only is it bad enough that an artist like Simone Bianchi is wasted on this dreck (although, to be honest, he's not that great here. Does "Wolverine" mean "make the fight scenes too dark and show a bunch of knees and elbows flying out at the reader" in Italian or someething?), not only is Jeph Loeb at his most scattershot "I'm having a flashback--or a dream! That's it, a dream of a flashback!--and it inspires me to start a fight--or maybe it doesn't! Yeah, maybe I'm really upset about this flashback, instead! Or maybe not!" But we don't even get a full story (yes, I know that should be in quotes, and yes I know I'm echoing Hibbs' earlier "and such small portions!" complaint) for our $3.99. Instead, we're expected to underwrite Loeb's fellating of former boss Damon Lindelof in the form of a "tribute" to Len Wein and Herb Trimpe's first appearance of Wolverine (where Wolverine says Wein's dialogue and thinks, "Like I'd ever say crap like that if I wasn't told to," and "those whiskers on the costume were humiliating and I begged Mac to take 'em off," which, as tributes go, lacks a certain something) that suddenly morphs into the infamous double-page spread of Ultimate Wolverine Versus Hulk for no reason. I think it's meant to be cute, but the unintended message--"I can suppress my gag reflex if you can get me paying work"--is really off-putting. And that's why Marvel needs an intervention: it's not just that Wolverine #50, like Civil War: The Return, is an ASS comic, it's that it's an ASS comic that Marvel presents like the most amazing comic you're going to read all month and really seems to believe it. We're all used to hyperbole from Marvel with the books it publishes but there's a wild-eyed desperation to the shit Marvel is putting out on the market--"Isn't this girl awesome? Show him your teeth, honey!"--that makes me deeply, deeply afraid and, obviously, cranky. Blow Damon Lindelof on your own time, Loeb!

PICK OF THE WEEK: CRIMINAL #4. Go get it now.

PICK OF THE WEAK: CIVIL WAR: THE RETURN. And WOLVERINE #50. And PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #3, while I'm at it.

TRADE PICK: Just this week, I was rounding up a bunch of books on my shelf that I'd read and realized I was never going to read, and the first two Penny-Arcade volumes were in that round-up. I'd enjoyed them, to be sure, but was I really going to re-read them? So of course, along comes PENNY ARCADE VOL 3 WARSUN PROPHECIES and I tore halfway through that thing yesterday afternoon. I'm sure it's not for everyone, but Tycho's prose style is utter fucking catnip for me.

And, hey, this is a trifecta right here. Howzabout that? Please read my savagely critical colleagues below if you haven't already, and lemme know your thoughts in the funny little comments box when you can.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Dear Marvel,

I believe that the acronym that the kids today would use today to describe my feelings about your much-hyped one-shot addition to the whole Civil War "event", CIVIL WAR: THE RETURN, would be - if you will - "WTF?". I have read your comic in question multiple times by this point, admittedly because the first time I read it, I was kind of stunned by it. I read it, and my mind kind of locked up. And not in a good way, Marvel. Not in a good way.

Here's my thing, Marvel: I don't understand what you're doing. I don't get why you're bringing this particular character back, or why you're bringing this particular character back in this particular way. If this were not really a letter that I'm writing to you, but instead a post for an online review blog, I would feel compelled to tell anyone who really cared that it's time for a Spoiler Warning right now, so that we could talk openly, Marvel. I feel that we should talk openly, don't you? Good. So, Marvel, here it is. I don't care about Captain Marvel. And I don't really think that anyone else really does, either.

I mean, seriously. When was the last time that anyone was screaming for the revival of Captain Marvel? Or, for that matter, that anyone really talked about Captain Marvel outside of the context of the fact that he died? That's been the entire value of the character, for the last twenty-odd years - That he was dead, that he was staying dead, and that he died in mundane circumstances that brought a gravity and realism to the Marvel Universe in a way that exemplified the whole "world outside your window" Marvel thing in a way that had never really been done before with one of the main characters before - much in the same way that Barry Allen has been much more worthwhile as a sacrificial Crisis lamb over at DC. So, you know, bringing him back for no immediately apparent reason and in such a dumb, pointless manner (Never mind a manner that was done last week in 52, and in a much more fitting manner, which has really got to hurt, especially considering Steve Wacker, editor of this book, was also editor on 52 when that storyline started... Hey... wait... Does that mean that this could possibly be a more deliberate reference to the Booster thing...? And, now that I've mentioned Barry Allen, dude! This is exactly the way they always have Barry guest-star to be the Silver Age icon in Flash or Green Lantern or whatever! And it's cheesy even then, even when it's very clearly temporary!)... I don't get it. What's the point?

It hasn't been a good couple of years for death in the Marvel Universe, let's face it. Bucky is back, Colossus is back, hell, even (an) Uncle Ben is back, so perhaps this is some kind of weird post-modern self-commentary thing. Are you trying to make some kind of point about the revolving door, worthless nature of "death" in ongoing superhero narratives, Marvel? Is the fact that Captain Marvel returns to us not as the character that he was before, but instead as a buff depressed Emo kid who wants to listen to Evanescence who just happens, is that meant to represent the insecure overly emotional loner that each comic reader is, and... Oh, no, wait, never mind. I forgot, Emo is in at Marvel again. Especially in Paul Jenkins books, where he's overloading on the "To be a hero, I must feel pain" thing (Sentry: "To be a hero, I must be schizophrenic and deal with the fact that I could accidentally destroy the world!" Penance: "To be a hero, I must pierce myself with spikes!" Captain Marvel: "To be a hero, I must use my super-bracelets that give me special mutated cancer!"). Never mind. Maybe I should just go and get some eyeliner or something so that you'll be my friend again.

Don't get me wrong, though, Marvel. The Captain Marvel story, as shitty as it is - and boy, am I glad to know that he's going to be seen in an all-new Captain Marvel #1 real soon! - still wasn't the worst thing about the book. I love that you keep giving work to Paul Jenkins, because who else could make the second story in a oneshot, a story that's been advertised by the editor of changing the entire status quo of the character and making the new Mighty Avengers series possible in the first place, such a non-event. Any hack could've made that half of the book dull, but only Paul could've made it center around a decision that most readers of Civil War thought that he'd made months ago. I mean, how is there any dramatic tension in wondering if the Sentry is going to register with the Superhuman McGuffin Generic Political Act of 2006 - 2007 when we've all already seen him team up with Iron Man and fight people who don't want to register for the last couple of months? There's something to that kind of thing, Marvel - Call it balls, call it gusto, hell, call it laziness that betrays a disdain for the fans who have shelled out money for this bullshit - that's just impossible to ignore.

So, yeah. I don't know what to tell you, Marvel. I was kind of impressed that you'd managed to get some kind of fan expectation about this obviously-last-minute-addition-to-the-schedule oneshot, especially considering the general apathy that's settled into "fandom" about Civil War in general, and to see the book itself be something so breathtakingly worthless and naval-gazingly, cringeworthingly Ass... It kind of brings a lump to my throat.

Oh, no, wait. That's bile. Sorry. Very easy to get the two confused.

Best to the kids. See you this summer!

Love, Graeme

***

Dear Internet,

I'm sorry that I don't have time to write anymore reviews this week - especially considering that Wolverine #50 proved once and for all that, as nice a stylist as Simone Bianchi is, a Wolverine comic that has art that looks like Heavy Metal and a script that reads like it's been produced by a computer fed with Mark Millar and Chris Claremont comics for years on end is still pretty Crap - but it's been an endless fucker of a week - The one highlight of which was the "She's Such A Geek" reading last night at City Lights, headed up by Charlie Anders and Annalee Newitz (who were both very nice to meet, even if I was sick and potentially just talking shit endlessly because I was nervous. If so, I'm sorry, the two of you. And also sorry to Devin Grayson, who was one of the authors doing the reading, and whom I probably bored to tears even though she hid it very well). For those of you who are free next Thursday night and in San Francisco, they're doing another reading at Modern Times on Valencia, and if it's anything as good as last night's, is highly highly recommended - and the Savage Critic illness curse has struck again, so I'm on reduced Criticing for a week. If you want non-reviews, though: PICK OF THE WEEK is probably Criminal #4, PICK OF THE WEAK is easily Civil War: The Return, and TRADE OF THE WEEK is Bryan Lee O'Malley's Lost At Sea, which I finally read this week after months of meaning to do so.

Okay, now I'm going to finish preparing the house for the arrival of my mother-in-law, and also to make a Theraflu and feel sorry for myself.

What did the rest of you read this week? Click Here to Read More...

I totally don't have time for doing reviews.... like ever, which is why I hardly ever post, but here I find myself with about an hour and I don't feel like doing any REAL work (or playing a brief bit of MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE -- jeez, I suck hard at "traditional" video games), so let's try to pretend that I post content to this blog, too -- shall we?


52 WEEK #38: A downer of an issue after the last page of last week (I'd probably be happy if the last 14 weeks were ALL about the yellow aliens, to be honest), but at least it does seem like some of the threads are starting to come together. This issue is at least OK. I think I'd rather comment on the "DC Nation" page, and Eddie Berganza's plea for women to pick up SUPERGIRL.

I'm kinda disturbed by the "We want her to be a 'real' teenage girl" when the CONTENT is "Act like Paris Hilton, loath yourself, and try to kill your male role model", because all of that, to me, makes it sound like no one in the DC offices has ever MET a "real" teenage girl. This kind of bothers me even more in the context of DC cancelling THE BOYS, resumably for content, because I think garbage like the current SUPERGIRL comic is far (FAR!) more harmful to the souls of people, or to the "mythic value" of the superhero genre, than Garth & Darick's dirty little minds.

Y'know, even IF "real girls" ARE like that (and I think most aren't), maybe JUST MAYBE its because of messages in the media that encourage those kinds of feelings/behavior. And comics ARE part of the media. I certainly wouldn't give this highly sexualized version (look at the skirt! Look at her body proportions!) of Supergirl to a young girl precisely because its the wrong kind of role model. It's pretty shameful stuff, if you ask me.

CIVIL WAR THE RETURN: ....the fuck? Well, I think we have our first contender for The Very Worst Comic of the 21st Century. What a horrific cluserfuck this is. It's not only totally out of left field to have Captain Marvel be the warden of the Civil War prison, but its hamfistedly done at that with exactly the kind of awkward "DC plot" that Marvel usually strenously avoids. It's not even so much a "return" as much as "Oh, look he's been standing here for a while" And, then, as the old joke goes "...and such small portions, too!" The Sentry story just ate up pages that could have been summarized in 2 panels, max, but it didn't even feel "Sentry-like". Man, I am so glad I didn't take a significant position on this one -- this dog isn't going to hunt. It's worse than CRAP -- it's ASS.

CRIMINAL #4: This, on the other hand is EXCELLENT in all ways, shapes and forms. I have nothing more meaningful to say than that, but I wanted to have at least one great comic in this week's pile.

ETERNALS #6: I absolutely have to criticize this for the artistic depiction of San Francisco, which has been an ongoing problem (again, from ground level, you simply can't see the Golden Gate Bridge from Golden Gate Park), but reaches new heights here as we pull back for the wide shots, and it appears the only reference used was maybe a geologic survey map.

Golden Gate Park is yes, about 50 blocks long, but it is only about 6 blocks wide, and on either side of the park is houses. Lots and lots and lots of houses. The way these scenes are drawn, there'd be horrific casualties, in the thousands, if not tens of thousands, with billions of dollars of property damage.

Ignoring that, the story was fine, if a little awkward from the inclusion of the Civil War elements, but I just couldn't get past the staging at all. AWFUL.

FABLES #57: Neat, Mike Allred draws this issue. Solid issue otherwise, too. GOOD.

HELMET OF FATE IBIS THE INVINCIBLE #1: This issue, in and of itself, is fine -- introducing a new Ibis, who probably won't appear in another DC comic for a year, but, unfortunately, making him way too much like Captain Marvel in doing so. The actual execution is really pretty decent, I might even give it a low GOOD, but this is an obvious go-nowhere character introduction that also doesn't really move the "Dr. Fate" part of the plotline forward. All in all, this is bound to hurt the introduction of the DR. FATE monthly book upcoming -- you'd have thought that DC would have learned from the virtually identical marketing mistake made on POWER COMPANY.

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #3 CW: Wow, really disliked this issue. Like virulently hated it. Everyone seems totally out of character, or moving to the dictates of the Plothammer. (yeah, as if Luke Cage would let Castle walk with a "he won't forget a punch from Captain America anytime soon!" after he just murdered two guys in front of them). The art is really lovely though, which saves it by giving it an AWFUL.

WOLVERINE #50: I was kind of surprised that the story ended where it did, given this was the double sized issue, and the backup was (while also fun to look at), basically fluffy filler. So, basically, eye candy, no meat. I'm going to go with OK, but feel free to raise that if you're good with just eye candy.


So, I think the PICK OF THE WEEK should be obvious -- CRIMINAL #4 was a fine piece of work, with a lot of solid backmatter, too! I just wish #1 had gone back to press is all...

PICK OF THE WEAK should also be obvious -- CIVIL WAR THE RETURN, which shouldn't have, and isn't really.


For TP/BOOK OF THE WEEK, I think I'm going to go with two left field choices, which your LCS probably doesn't even have anyway. Either the COMPLETE NEMESIS THE WARLOCK BK 1, with the early eyeball-bleeding work of Kev O'Neill, or Paul Chadwick's underlooked WORLD BELOW TP, which I remember as being seriously strange, and gorgeous to look at at the same time.


That's what I got in my hour -- what did you think this week?

-B Click Here to Read More...

Wow. New York. Actually, that'll probably be another post later in the week, but god damn, did that town knock me on my ass. Since I got back last week, I've been laying low and taking it easy but it's probably time I get back into the swing of things and, since this week was so low-key, the time is right.

You'll probably also get another post on some of the trades I've been working through...maybe. I've been so deeply annoyed by that first trade of Paul Jenkins' The Sentry (which I picked up super-cheap) that a long, hectoring screed will be in order.

And finally, for those of you who remember me talking about Secret Writing Project X about five or six months ago, I should finally be able to talk about in the next week or so.

So, that's what I've got for you in the future, but what have I done for you lately?

52 WEEK #37: Since I didn't get to the previous week's books until this week, I read this right along with the previous and together they were pretty enjoyable. At the risk of being spoilerific, it's kind of a bummer when Supernova's reveal isn't quite as cool as all the red herrings (kinda like when Hush wasn't Jason Todd but turned out to be that boring doctor dude after all) but at least it's still satisfactory in a larger arc kind of way. And the paragraph where Dan Didio talked like The Architect from the second Matrix movie was pretty enjoyable as well, so I'd say this was relatively Good stuff.

AQUAMAN SWORD OF ATLANTIS #48: Old school alert!! Bee-you-tiful art by Ricardo Villagran (a name I totally remember from those Savage Sword of Conan days) makes this book worth picking up. I have to admit, though, it conjures the flavor of the book I'd like to read (Aquaman, Underwater Barbarian) rather than the book I feel like I'm reading (Aquaman, Whingey Naif). Still, just to see some gorgeously fine linework? Highly OK.

BIRDS OF PREY #102: Graeme does a pretty good job below pointing out stuff with this ish that doesn't work and misses the big one: the conclusion of the big confrontation between Barbara and Lois retroactively strips the scene (and since it's the bulk of the book, the issue) of any drama. I don't know if it was last minute editorial influence, or a sudden "hey, wait..." realization on Gail's part, but there are better ways to have surprise twists on your confrontation than "Did you really think I was gonna out your operation? Psyche!!" Eh, although I should mention I'm digging the art.

CABLE DEADPOOL #36: Maybe moves a bit too much into the realm of outright absurdity (the book never lacks for it, but the Cable storylines mean that it has to be kept under pretty tight leash), but not enough to mitigate my enjoyment. And although I liked Patrick Zircher's art, I'm glad to have a new artist on the book--so much so, it may take me an issue or two before I can tell what Reilly Brown's bringing to the table. Good.

EXILES #90: Chris Claremont finally takes over the book, with remarkably hacky results. (An imaginary "and that's what would happen if..." scenario followed by danger room training sessions--all we need are the Exiles going on patrol and beating up a band of muggers and we'd have 95% of the Marvel Comics openings I read growing up.) Then Psylocke shows up and the countdown to sexy ninja mindrape begins. Although Claremont doesn't fumble the ball, it's apparent he's on Exiles because its sales are remarkably bulletproof rather than anything in particular he needs to say. And that's probably the way it's going to be until (a) the book gets cancelled; or (b) Brevoort takes Claremont behind the barn to show him the rabbits. In a way, all well and good, but in another way, unfathomably depressing. Quasi-Awful.

FANTASTIC FOUR #542 CW: Exhibit A in why Hibbs should do reviews this week, because his comprehensive overview of why this did and didn't work is beyond what you're gonna get from me. Me, I thought McDuffie did a very good save on Reed's CW motivations, and Mike McKone's art seemed a little more lively than it's been. I don't think we're out of the woods yet--Civil War hasn't left this
book "revitalized," so much as "just about broken"--but we're getting there. OK, at the very least.

GHOST RIDER #7: Again, lurve the Corben art--particularly those faces--but WTF is up with the story? I think it's flipping between a fiery showdown between Satan and Ghost Rider, and a flashback detailing the events of Johnny Blaze's death before the beginning of the Ennis/Crain mini, but honestly, that's just a wild fuckin' guess. It reads like someone mapped a bunch of cliches to keyboard macros, dropped their keyboard, stepped on it a few times, and then submitted the result. God-damn lovely art, though. Eh.

GREEN LANTERN #16: There's a line here where someone (I think Alan Scott, but I'll be assed if I can remember for sure) says something like, "Every time you and Carol started to get too close, you and Oliver would go on the road to discover America. But you're not running now, Hal," which manages to be a clumsy retcon, a lazy shortcut (So far, Hal appears to have the same relationship with Cowgirl that he seems to have with every other member of the DCU--she admires him and he feels a fierce loyalty to her for which he will break The Rules--and the only way the reader could assume he felt any differently is that the artists always draw Cowgirl super-hot), and hilariously bitchy all at once. Throw in an annoyingly shrill ubervillain (Abin Sur's son, who is apparently the only person in the universe unclear as to how the Green Lantern succession process works) and you've got the very dregs of Eh(--even if it'll maybe lead to a return to Ysmault or something cool like that).

HELMET OF FATE DETECTIVE CHIMP #1: Although competent, it somehow fails to meet the high bar of expectation set by a comic titled "Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp." Eh.

PHONOGRAM #4: Yeah, I dunno. Although it could well be because I can't follow the theme and the imagery of the story without reading all the copious notes and essays in the back of each issue, I think there's something vital missing from this story four issues in. Whether through inexperience or an overabundance of caution, Gillen has left the genuine heart out of his narrative (probably the real-life emotional events at the heart of the story as alluded to in the notes) and chosen instead to invest his allegory with dense imagery and fervent argument. Consequently, even as the book trembles on the cusp of justifying Why Pop Matters, I'm not emotionally invested enough to have it matter to me. It could turn that around before the end, of course, but currently I'm frustrated that the book doesn't feel more than OK considering the amount of passion and skill being put into it.

SHE-HULK 2 #15: Both Burchett and Slott seem off their game here: although Burchett's work usually looks cartoony, this issue doesn't have his usual top-notch storytelling, and Slott's Agent Cheesecake is just one of several neither-fish-nor-fowl conceits. If they're trying to change gears on this book to save or boost sales, they'd better change 'em quickly and a little more smoothly. Eh.

SPIDER-MAN REIGN #2: There's a certain excitement that can accompany a very bad comic book: unrestrained by good taste or commmon sense, the creator can take the reader to an utterly unexpected place. And for about four panels, where a fat, aged Hypno-Hustler suddenly appears, I was struck giddy at the possibility Kaare Andrews might make the entire issue a showdown between an decrepit, senile Spider-Man and his absolute lousiest villain. Unfortunately, Andrews quickly veers from the realm of the insane and ill-considered back to the realm of the dull and ill-considered, but boy did those four panels give me hope. Awful work, as much as it pains me to say so.

SPIRIT #2: A nice improvement over the first issue--the sudden passage of time wasn't handled as elegantly as I would've liked but that's a quibble--and a Very Good little read. Unlike Graeme, I'm not too worried about how long this book'll last--Darwyn Cooke is clearly meant for better things than easing The Spirit's transition from creator-identified signature character to quirky corporate asset--but I'll enjoy the ride while I can.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #104: That fight scene went on and on even though neither Bendis nor Bagley had their hearts in it at all, but the emotional scenes worked really well. Not sure if it was worth the extra buck, exactly, but at least I didn't pay it for an eight page black-bordered series summary. Good.

WISDOM #2: Read this right after Phonogram #4, which was amusingly apt as the two books cover surprisingly similar ground. Since I didn't read the first issue, it didn't make a lick of sense to me, which didn't hurt it much, truth be told. Nice art, general insanity, and the sort of thing "New Marvel" would throw at you back in the day. Good stuff if you're a fan of the peculiar.

Y THE LAST MAN #53: I couldn't buy some of the events in this based on the timeframe (I don't care how much closure somebody needs, I can't imagine anyone looking in a sewers for a body years after the fact unless it was presented as the mother of all quixotic quests) but I liked the, I dunno, how brazen it was about its thematic concerns. Still, it felt more like an item on BKV's dwindling to-do list for the book, and needed more finessing than it got. OK, I guess.

PICK OF THE WEEK is SPIRIT #2, one of the few books I didn't beat until it bled from the ears. PICK OF THE WEAK is SPIDER-MAN REIGN #2, which proved to me that I'll take bad & crazy over bad & derivatively dull any day. No TRADE PICK because I hope to cover that at more length shortly.

And you?

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

And this week, I'm absurdly early, go figure.

SIX Vertigo comics this week. It's like they're TRYING to kill the periodical versions stone dead....


100 BULLETS #80
2000 AD #1518
52 WEEK #38
A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #49 (A)
ALL NEW OFF HB MARVEL UNIV A Z UPDATE #1 (OF 4)
AVENGERS NEXT #5 (OF 5)
BETTY #162
CHECKMATE #10
CIVIL WAR THE RETURN
CLIVE BARKERS GREAT & SECRET SHOW #9 (OF 12)
CONNOR HAWKE DRAGONS BLOOD #3(OF 6)
CRIMINAL #4
CRIMINAL MACABRE TWO RED EYES #2 (OF 4)
CROSSING MIDNIGHT #3
DAMNED #4
DEADMAN #6
DMZ #15
DOCTOR STRANGE OATH #4 (OF 5)
DRAIN #2
DUMMYS GUIDE TO DANGER #4 (OF4)
DWIGHT T ALBATROSS THE GOON NOIR #3 (OF 3)
ETERNALS #6 (OF 7)
FABLES #57
FALLEN ANGEL IDW #12
FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #8
FUTURAMA COMICS #29
HELLBLAZER #228
HELMET OF FATE IBIS THE INVINCIBLE #1
HEROES FOR HIRE #6
INVINCIBLE #38
JOHN WOOS SEVEN BROTHERS AMANO CVR #4
JUGHEAD AND FRIENDS DIGEST #17
LOW ORBIT VOL 1 GN
MOON KNIGHT #7 CW
MOUSE GUARD #6 (OF 6)
MYSTERY IN SPACE #5 (OF 8)
NINJA SCROLL #5
NINJA TALES #1
OCCULT CRIMES TASKFORCE #3 (OF 4)
OFFICIAL HANDBOOK O/T INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE #2 (OF 2)
OUTER ORBIT #2 (OF 4)
PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #109
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #3 CW
PVP #30
RAMAYAN 3392 AD #5
ROADKILL ZOO #1 (OF 6)
ROBIN #158
SAMURAI HEAVEN & EARTH VOL 2 #2 (OF 5)
SAVAGE BROTHERS #3 (OF 3)
SILENT WAR #1 (OF 6)
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #171
SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE #14
STAR WARS DARK TIMES #2 (OF 5)
SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #26
TAG #3 (OF 3)
TEEN TITANS GO #39
TRANSFORMERS ESCALATION #3
TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD IMAGEED #3
WALK-IN #2
WETWORKS #5
WITCHBLADE LINSNER CVR #103
WOLVERINE #50
X-FACTOR #15
ZOMBIES ECLIPSE OF THE UNDEAD #3

Book / Mag / Stuff
ARCHENEMIES SINNERS & SAINTS VOL 1 TP
BANANA GAMES VOL 3 GN (A)
BLECKY YUCKERELLA VOL 2 BACK IN BLECK GN
BLESSED THISTLE GN
CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOL 11 DANCE O/T SKULL TP
COMPLETE NEMESIS THE WARLOCK BK 1
DAME DARCY DELUXE BOOK/DVD BOX SET (O/A)
JSA CLASSIFIED HONOR AMONG THIEVES TP
JUDGE DREDD COMPLETE CASE FILES VOL 6 TP
JUXTAPOZ FEB 2007 VOL 15 #2
KID KOSMOS GN
LEGEND OF GRIMJACK VOL 6 TP
LUCIFER VOL 11 EVENSONG TP
MARVEL MASTERWORKS WARLOCK VOL 1 NEW ED HC
MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE TP
MARVEL ZOMBIES 3RD PTG FANTASTIC FOUR HC
MODERN MASTERS VOL 10 KEVIN MAGUIRE SC
PENNY ARCADE VOL 3 WARSUN PROPHECIES TP
PREVIEWS VOL XVII #2 (NET)
RED SONJA CLAW DEVILS HANDS TP
SHOWCASE PRESENTS BRAVE & BOLD BATMAN TEAMUPS VOL 1
ULTIMATE ANNUALS VOL 2 TP
WORLD BELOW TP


What looks good to you?

-B Click Here to Read More...

Before I start, I just have to say this: If you're in San Francisco and you like the cheeseburger, then get your ass to Nopa on Divisadero and Hayes. It's the best cheeseburger in the city. The rest of the food is pretty damn good as well - you can add to your impending heart condition by having the bacon, onion and gruyere cheese flatbread starter like we did, and their doughnut hole dessert is very nice indeed - but that cheeseburger. Man.

52 WEEK THIRTY-SEVEN: Well, this is obviously the real end of act two, then, with a couple of reveals (including, possibly, just why last week's death of Animal Man was so underwhelming - It wasn't meant to be that dramatic, considering what happens this week?) and an ending that suggests that all of the characters are where they're meant to be for the ending to begin. It's surprisingly Good considering last week's unevenness, even with the strange fact that the big reveal of Supernova's identity is spoiled by the cover, and the "shock ending" is revealed in the DC Nation text page...

BIRDS OF PREY #102: Depressingly Eh. Ignoring the fact that almost nothing actually happens this issue - Manhunter starts the story losing a fight and ends the story about to fight the same character, which doesn't help the feeling of wheels being spun - we're midway through the latest plotline and I still feel as if I'm missing something. Am I supposed to know who Spy Smasher is? She's the antagonist in this story, and Babs has made references to knowing her and having been to school with her, but I still don't really have a clue as to who she actually is, or why she's going after Oracle, and that's a major problem if I'm to buy into her as a threat to the team, or to this story in general. Likewise, the new team is made up of too many characters to allow for characterisation, one of the strengths of the book back when the core cast was only three people; right now in particular, Gypsy and Judomaster could be anyone for all their personalities have been shown. Like I said, it's depressing, because this book normally manages to mix character and plot much more smoothly, but I'm hoping that next issue will explain Spy Smasher enough for me to get what's happening and why, and then future storylines will allow for more character to come through.

FANTASTIC FOUR #542: Yes, Dwayne McDuffie's first issue as writer has Reed Richards giving an explanation behind his pro-registration stance in Civil War that fits in with his character slightly better than what we've previously seen, and all of the other characters sound a lot more like their old selves in general, but I can't help but wonder if this was always meant to be the plan under JMS's reign anyway. The way that Reed is shown to have tried to hide this motivation behind weaker ones feels too planned, in a strange way, to have suddenly come from McDuffie alone (especially when Sue Richards appears at the end and essentially says "I didn't buy the other motivations, but this one works!"); either that, or he's very good at immediate retcons based on fan feedback. Whichever, the issue is still just Eh; McKone's art deadens the book, being static and devoid of the kind of dynamism that this book should have given its Kirby pedigree, and McDuffie's injection of common sense isn't enough to hide the fact that this "Civil War is so important, it tears Marvel's most important family apart!" plotline is going nowhere fast.

MARVEL ADVENTURES: THE AVENGERS #9: Jeff Parker's winning streak continues with this fun, shamelessly dumb, story where all of the Avengers get turned into Modocs ("Killing" having become "Conquest", because this is a book aimed at kids), and that's still not the funniest idea in the book (Personally, I'm a fan of Karl, the inept evil AIM scientist). Yes, the dialogue is a little self-consciously juvenile (which makes sense, considering the target audience), but there's something about the fast-paced, free-wheelingness of the storytelling here, and the lack of the heroes fighting with each other every two seconds, that makes this one of the more appealing Marvel books that I've read in a looooonnng time. Very Good, because it's Very Dumb.

PHONOGRAM #4: I don't share Kieron Gillen's love of the Auteurs or Luke Haines, but nonetheless, this book continues to work for me on multiple levels, but I'm not sure how much of that is because of the fact that I was the right age and in the right place to understand all of the references herein. As the series continues, it seems to unravel - this issue is not only less like the Hellblazer meets Britpop of the first issue, but it's less focused than everything that came before, as well; scenes seem to drift into other scenes, and characters traipse through with dialogue that calls back to earlier scenes with no other context. It fits in well with this issue's plot, where the main character is in a world made up entirely of memory and iconography, but I may just be thinking that because I recognized Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker without having to be told about them in the text pieces at the back of the book. As with every issue, I wonder if those of us who aren't in our late twenties/early thirties and British get anything out of this at all, and think that it's as Good as I find it.

SHE-HULK #15: Okay, so there's a line in this that firmly places the book in the post-Civil War world (Clay Quartermain's reference to a new SHIELD Director), and considering what's going on in the rest of the book, kind of gives away that, yes, that whole Superhuman Registration Act is still in effect after the series so Iron Man probably wins. And yet... the book still has no novelty. The lighthearted tone of the earlier three years is gone, replaced by angst that doesn't feel genuine at all, and art from Rick Burchett that is either half-assed or the victim of really bad inking; it reads, as Hibbs said in the store on Friday, as if both creators were phoning it in. So, yeah. Pretty Eh, really.

SPIDER-MAN: REIGN #2: It's not Dark Knight Returns anymore, that's for sure. It's not good, either, mind you, but at least the Frank Miller worship is lessening. Credibility gets stretched throughout the whole book, but I really get the feeling that Kaare Andrews doesn't care about anything other than the grand statement he's convinced himself that he's making with this book. What that statement is, it's not entirely clear; he's trying to say something about the government using its great power without great responsibility in this post-9/11 world, I think, but he's doing it in the most ham-fisted way possible, with sledgehammer media swipes and inept politicians being misled by their staff, all mixed in with a Spider-Man story that completely lacks the pathos or humor that underpins the character. It's not completely horrible - it's very nice looking - but it's pretty Crap overall.

THE SPIRIT #2: This, on the other hand, is a cartoonist taking on a classic character and doing everything right. It doesn't hurt that (blasphemy!) Darwyn Cooke draws a more attractive P'Gell than Eisner, considering her role as the ultimate Femme Fatale, of course, but there's just so much goodness to be found here. The writing is pitch perfect, managing the right mix between lighthearted romp and melodrama (P'Gell's confession scene felt like classic Eisner in a lot of ways), and visually, the book is amazing - even beyond Cooke (and inker J. Bone) doing some gorgeous linework, Dave Stewart's colors continue the beautiful work he did in New Frontier. It's really an Excellent book, which probably means that it'll get cancelled within a year. Sigh.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE SPACE BETWEEN #1: It says a lot about the spirit of this adaptation that this story, set in the first season of the series, completely captures the tone of what the show was like back then, down to the sterility and awkwardness of a team not being entirely sure what they were up to yet. The writing is exactly like a first season episode, which does kind of beg the question, "Couldn't it have been better?" The art is the main problem with the book, though; it's blocky and doesn't fit the overly 80s, shiny, look of the show at all, nor does it have any real spark on its own merits, either. It's a competent enough tie-in that'll probably sell to the hardcore fanbase, but to casual fans...? Eh, best avoided.

PICK OF THE WEEK is The Spirit, easily, although giant heads and crap scientist mean that Marvel Adventures: The Avengers is pretty recommended as well. PICK OF THE WEAK is Spider-Man: Reign, because it misses the point of Spider-Man in order to make its own point that it's uncertain of, and that's... not so fun to read. TRADE OF THE WEEK isn't a new book at all, but something that came out towards the end of last year - SEVEN SONS, the retelling of the seven brothers myth set in 1850s America that AiT/Planet Lar put out. It's a wonderful book, telling the story sparsely but enjoyably, with some nice art. Highly recommended, and that's before you get to the text piece at the back of the book talking about the history of the myth, which only makes the whole package all the better.

Next week: My mother-in-law's in town, so maybe no reviews. But what did the rest of you read this week? Click Here to Read More...

Sorry, forgot to put this up earlier, I suck!

52 WEEK #37
AQUAMAN SWORD OF ATLANTIS #48
ARCHIE #572
ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #176
AVENGERS EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES II #5 (OF 8)
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #5
BIRDS OF PREY #102
CABLE DEADPOOL #36
CASTLE WAITING VOL II #4
CATWOMAN #63
CLASSIC BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #3
CONAN #36
CONAN & THE MIDNIGHT GOD #1 (OF 5)
CTHULHU TALES 2ND PTG #1
DESPERADOES BUFFALO DREAMS #1(OF 4)
EXILES #90
FANTASTIC FOUR #542 CW
GHOST IN THE SHELL 1.5 HUMAN ERROR PROCESSOR #4 (OF 8)
GHOST RIDER #7
GIRLS #21
GREEN LANTERN #16
GRIMM FAIRY TALES #10
HELMET OF FATE DETECTIVE CHIMP #1
HIGHLANDER #3
JLA CLASSIFIED #32
KADE SUN OF PERDITION #2 (OF 4)
LADY DEATH LOST SOULS WRAPAROUND #2 (OF 2)
LOST BOOKS OF EVE #1
MAD MAGAZINE #474
MAGICIAN APPRENTICE #5 (OF 12)
MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #9
MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #20
MIKE CAREYS ONE SIDED BARGAINS
NIGHTLY NEWS #3 (OF 6)
OMEGA MEN #4 (OF 6)
PHANTOM #14
PHONOGRAM #4 (OF 6)
RED MENACE #3 (OF 6)
RED SONJA SHE DEVIL WITH A SWORD ANNUAL #1
SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE SLEEPOF REASON #2 (OF 5)
SCOOBY DOO #116
SE7EN GREED #2 (OF 7)
SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #34
SHADOWPACT #9
SHE-HULK 2 #15
SIMPSONS COMICS #126
SKYE RUNNER #6
SPIDER-MAN REIGN #2 (OF 4)
SPIRIT #2
STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION THESPACE BETWEEN #1 (OF 6)
STARDUST KID #5 (OF 5)
TESTAMENT #14
TOUPYDOOPS #5
TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT ULTRA MAGNUS
TRON #3
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #104
ULTIMATE X-MEN #78
WHITE TIGER #3 (OF 6)
WISDOM #2 (OF 6)
WONDER MAN #2 (OF 5)
XENA STRANGE VISITOR ONE SHOT
X-MEN FIRST CLASS #5 (OF 8)
Y THE LAST MAN #53
ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS #2 (OF 2)

Books / Mags / Stuff
ANGRY CHRIST COMIX TP
BACK ISSUE #20
BATMAN YEAR ONE HUNDRED TP
BLADE O/T IMMORTAL SHORTCUT VOL 16 TP
BONE VOL 5 ROCK JAW MASTER OFEASTERN BORDER COLOR ED SC
DARKNESS VOL 5 DEMON INSIDE TP
ESSENTIAL X-FACTOR VOL 2 TP
FIRST MOON GN
GREEN LANTERN ARCHIVES VOL 6 HC
JACK HIGHTOWER TP
JSA ACTION FIGURE MASTER CASE
LIBERTY MEADOWS VOL 4 COLD COLD HEART TP
LOVE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE #6
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN VOL 5 DIGEST TP
PIN-UP ART OF BILL WARD
SILENCERS TP
SUPERMAN EMPEROR JOKER TP
TESTAMENT VOL 2 WEST OF EDEN TP
TWISTED TOYFARE THEATRE VOL 8TP


Anything look good to you? Click Here to Read More...

The end of my two-day reviewing stint, and these are both books that aren't out yet (I got to see them in preview PDF format; the perks of being a snarky bastard on the internet). Anyway, one's a full-color Image book about superheroes, and the other is a black and white graphic novel about werewolves. You can work out which one's which.

DYNAMO-5 #1: When this was first announced, I made some comment about the solicit making it sound as if it was Six Feet Under with added superpowers or something: Family dealing with the death of a father? Get Peter Krause on the phone. In reality, though, it's something entirely different, in concept as well as tone. Jay Faerber's one of these writers who's always seemed to somehow miss his due on a regular basis (Sean McKeever would've been on that list as well if he hadn't just been poached by DC and suddenly become an unexpected big player this week, to completely skip subjects for a second), and that's a feeling reinforced by this first issue - The idea of a bastard of a superhero having five illegitimate children, each of whom has one of his powers, is an interesting one, and bringing those children together to take the place of a father none of them knew after his death a nice twist on the "legacy superhero" concept, but the execution is where it's at, though, focusing less on the kids but the superhero's widow. The dialogue that may get a little expositionary at times, but there are some nice lines throughout the book suggesting that Faerber knows when not to play it entirely straight, and an end-of-book splash-page/last line of dialogue that Mark Millar would kill for. Also worth pointing out is artist Mahmud Asrar, whose work is reminiscent of a chunkier Yanick Paquette, and just lovely, easy-on-the-eye superhero stuff. Overall, it's not Six Feet Under at all; it's family drama meets melodrama meets genre action - it's the TV show Alias, if Alias had stayed Good for more than a season.

FIRST MOON: This new coming-of-age story from the same creators behind last year's "Continuity" is an interesting take on some familiar themes. You have the horrors of adolescence redressed as a classical horror story, you have the historical epic, and you have a family drama all in one package that somehow manages to be not only coherent but surprisingly enjoyable. Jason McNamara's got a nice way with the dialogue in the more down-to-earth family dynamic between the main characters, giving you a quicker "in" to the story than the somewhat (for me, at least) colder opening in the historical part of the story, and there's more than a little bit of humor involved with the main character's discovery of his secret (and even more humor in its resolution at the end of the book, making it into a bit of a shaggy dog story). Tony Talbot's artwork has some subtle changes for the different time periods (so subtle, in fact, that I don't know how intentional they may be; I wondered more than once whether I was making a connection between the historical art and the woodcut artwork you'd find from the period that wasn't really there...), but overall has a pleasing similarity to the way I remember EC and Warren horror artwork, if slightly rougher around the edges. It's not a perfect book - the climax to the story gets bogged down with unnecessary exposition between the parents and scenes that slow down the overall plot somehow (including the appearance of a couple of characters that seems unusual and an awkward set-up for a potential sequel), in particular - but it's Very Good, and enhanced by the text piece at the back of the book, giving some background on the historical elements used in the main story. Something that I'd forgotten until the mention of "for younger readers" in a suggested reading list at the back of the book, was that this is a book intended for a audience of 8 and upwards... Re-reading it as a Young Adult book made me like it even more, and answered some of the questions I'd had on the first go-through, in a strange way. Worth checking out, anyway, and enough to make me think that McNamara, at least, is probably about to be poached by Vertigo or someone sooner rather than later.

For those who're curious, First Moon comes out this Wednesday, I think, and Dynamo-5 is due in March. You can read other Dynamo-5 reviews here, here and here, and Ian Brill wasn't as enthused about First Moon as I was, as you can read here. Me, I'm going to go and relax for the rest of this holiday weekend, enjoying the fact that this week only has four workdays as well. Next week: Back to reviewing things that you've probably all read already. Click Here to Read More...

First of two sets of reviews this weekend - I got sent a couple of previews that I want to write about tomorrow, but right now, let's deal with the books that actually appeared in stores this week, shall we?

52 WEEK THIRTY-SIX: This is a really good issue to show what works and what doesn't about the whole series. The big action scene that ends with the death of a beloved character? It just doesn't work. The execution is underwhelming; rushed, with art that just doesn't sell the action at all (partially, interestingly enough, because of the coloring, I think. Imagine the same artwork in darker colors) and a weird lack of sincerity - It feels as if the creators decided that they probably needed a fight scene, but couldn't really bring themselves to care about it that much. But just a few pages later, when it's dealing with the ongoing mysteries of Rip Hunter (making his first appearance in the book, only half a year after first being mentioned), Supernova and Skeets and dealing with easter eggs for longtime DC fans, it's really enjoyable. Is that proof that the book is just more cerebral than action-based, or midway exhaustion kicking in for the writers? Okay.

BLADE #5: What with the cover having not only the "Casualties of War" banner, but also a caption saying "A Civil War tie-in featuring Wolverine", you kind of get the feeling that this is a book that really wants you to know that it ties into Civil War. Problem is, it doesn't. Oh, sure, there's a McGuffin that SHIELD recruits Blade to capture Wolverine for some reason or another, but ultimately, it doesn't really matter. This is pretty much a fill-in issue, and a really old-fashioned one at that, going with the once-familiar idea that two heroes had met in the past before either of them were heroes. As much as it's a Red Skies book in terms of Civil War importance, it's still nostalgically enjoyable, Good, and feels like good Chris Claremont in a strange way.

CIVIL WAR #6: This may be somewhat blasphemous, but does anyone really care anymore? The announcement that issue 7 will ship three weeks later than the last ship date (which was two weeks later than the ship date that it was originally announced for, which was two months earlier) elicited little more than shrugs and bemusement from all but the most hardcore Marvel zombies, and the online news cycle has already moved on to who the New Avengers are, post-CW. Somehow, this series already feels as if it should be over already, that it's outstayed its welcome, which can't be a good thing for Marvel. Part of that may be because this series doesn't really have a plot, as such; I'm sure I've complained before about the fact that this is a book that's all about showing "shocking" events with no context, which completely undercuts any and all dramatic tension, rendering the cliffhanger ending of this book kind of meaningless: There's about to be a big fight, but as a reader I don't feel as if it's "the final battle" no matter how many times I'm told that it is by the characters (who're showing a really unusual self-awareness by referring to this as their "finale", bringing me out of the story as I read it), because it doesn't feel any different from the big fight in #3-4. I don't believe that the stakes have been raised, because nothing that I've read has actually given me that impression. Crap.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #2: I dread to think what people who aren't really familiar with DC continuity would make of this book, which seems to be entirely based around the books that Geoff Johns read in the mid-80s - the Detroit League and Levitz Legion get the somewhat unexpected shout-outs in this issue - while marrying 1990s-style plotting with 1980s-style dialogue. Me, I am familiar with DC continuity, so I kind of enjoyed it, even the new Nazi supervillains who are kind of ridiculous, but it just seemed like the most insular superhero book imaginable. Okay.

POLYGLOT AND SPLEEN #1: I admit it, I picked this up because of the title and the advertisements on the back: "The Romanti-Goth A to Z Coloring Book is an alphabetical trip through the aesthetic world of our favorite Victorian house dwelling," reads one, while the other tells us that "There's a huge difference between a corset and a SINched corset". Who knew? Those ads give you a good idea of what the comic itself is like: Overly romantic and melodramatic in the most Goth-y (as opposed to Gothic, if you see the difference) way, with narration like "At times, I saw through the eyes of a mother, a brother, a lover. Had I truly swapped with another?" and art that makes Emily The Strange look detailed. Pretty Crap for me, but I'm at least ten years outside of the target audience, I think.

SQUADRON SUPREME: HYPERION VS. NIGHTHAWK #1: It's a strange world where "Well, that wasn't nearly as offensive as I was expecting" is a compliment. But that's more or less the best that you're going to get out of me for this book, that takes Marvel's Ultimate Superman and Ultimate Batman to Darfur for an adventure that takes place against a backdrop of real life genocide. The whole concept still strikes me as tasteless, but the execution avoided any obvious "With our powers, we can save the world!" well-meaning yet meaningless posturing, and writer Marc Guggenheim's final page text piece (where he admits, "it's not the kind of thing that you're supposed to write escapist fiction about," before going on to explain why he made the choice to) goes someway towards lessening the nasty taste in my metaphorical mouth. It's still only Eh for me - I just can't get into this "gritty" Squadron Supreme - but that almost feels like a win, compared to what I was expecting.

THUNDERBOLTS #110: Warren Ellis goes broad in his first issue of Marvel's now-with-more-Suicide-Squad villain book (Speaking of which, is anyone else as excited as I am about the announcement that DC is doing a new Suicide Squad series with John Ostrander?); the good guy is ridiculously "good", the main characters are charismatic but without morals (Something that's even in the dialogue, in case readers miss it: "You, on the other hand, have neither morals nor ethics") and there are jabs at America's news media. Ellis is clearly slumming it, but you get the idea that he's enjoying himself doing so, especially with the exceptionally obvious way that he's positioning the Thunderbolts in the Marvel media as the old Gerry Anderson "Thunderbirds" series - Tracy Island becomes Thunderbolts Mountain, complete with the scenery rolling back to let vehicles launch, and he's even as unsubtle as to include the slogan "Thunderbolts are go!" F.A.B., Warren. I can't tell if that shows contempt for the work, the audience, or just a writer who's wondering how much he can get away with on what his publisher clearly considers a much more important franchise than he does. For all the unoriginality, however, it's very readable, and I'm sure that the Marvel fans that this is aimed at will eat it up and declare it revolutionary. Eh for me, though.

WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY #2: I was surprised, upon checking, to see that this wasn't a creator-owned book. It feels like one, for some reason, in the same way that it also feels like a twisted version of Alan Moore's ABC line from a few years back, especially in the opening that switches formats to suggest different media two times before actually starting "the story". Moore's ABC isn't the only thing that this reminded me of, though; it's also similar in the treatment of superheroes and styles of superhero comics to The Intimates, Joe Casey's sadly-forgotten series of a few years back. None of this is to slight Gail Simone, because this is clearly her story - there's something to this that feels like the snark and sex from Birds of Prey given freer reign, perhaps because the main character's narration is very close to Black Canary's from that book - but it's a book very aware of its predecessors as well, if that makes sense. I'm still not sold on Neil Googe's art, entirely, but there are parts where he's spot on as often as there are where his style overrides the content. It's not entirely successful, yet, but nonetheless it's probably the most interesting of the books released this week. Good.

PICK OF THE WEEK is Welcome to Tranquility, because it's ambitious and it's different, and that's more than can be said for a lot of superhero books these days, let's face it. PICK OF THE WEAK is Civil War, because with each new issue, it becomes more clear that there's not really any there there. TRADE OF THE WEEK has me torn; of the books that came out this week, I know that SHOWCASE PRESENTS JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA VOL. 2 will be awesome even though I haven't read it, but I'm still working my way through the ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOURs - I'm midway through volume 4 now - and those really are some amazingly good comics, daring in way that almost all superhero comics have forgotten to be.

Tomorrow: Dynamo 5 and First Moon. But for now, what did the rest of you think of this week? Click Here to Read More...

Not exactly a new link, but maybe you haven't seen this before: Wil Wheaton (Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher) reviews and deconstructs STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, in a wonderfully snarky fashion:

http://www.tvsquad.com/bloggers/wil-wheaton/

-B Click Here to Read More...

100% of the balance of CIVIL WAR #6 is arriving.

Since a bunch of people asked, I took 1 "reading copy" for the counter, and distributed the other 13 copies in order of appearance among subscribers. Oddly, they lasted until 6:58 on Friday night. I still have another 30 subs to fill... people didn't come in last week!

Here's this week: lots of "vs"!

2000 AD #1517
30 DAYS OF NIGHT SPREADING THE DISEASE #2 (OF 5)
52 WEEK #36
AGENTS OF ATLAS #6 (OF 6)
AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #4
AMERIKAN FREAK ONE-SHOT
ANGEL AULD LANG SYNE #3
ANT #9
BATMAN #662
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #2
BATMAN STRIKES #29
BLADE #5 CW
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #121
CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #9
CIVIL WAR #6 (OF 7)
CRYPTICS #2
DEVIL WATER #2
FAMILY BONES #2 (OF 10)
FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #16
GEN 13 #4
GODLAND #15
GREEN ARROW #70
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #8
HELLSTORM SON OF SATAN #4 (OF5)
IMMORTAL IRON FIST 2ND PTG #1
IRON MAN HYPERVELOCITY #1 (OF6)
IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #4
JSA CLASSIFIED #21
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #253
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #2
MARTIAN MANHUNTER #6 (OF 8)
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #23
MELTDOWN #2 (OF 2)
MYTHOS GHOST RIDER
NEW EXCALIBUR #15
NEW X-MEN #34
OMAC #7 (OF 8)
OUTSIDERS #44
PIRATES VS NINJAS #1 (OF 3)
PUNISHER #43
RED PROPHET TALES OF ALVIN MAKER #5 (OF 12)
RED SONJA #18
RUNAWAYS #23
RUSH CITY #4 (OF 6)
SHRUGGED #4
SQUADRON SUPREME HYPERION VS NIGHTHAWK #1 (OF 4)
STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC #12
STAR WARS LEGACY #7
STORMWATCH PHD #3
STRANGE GIRL #13
SUPERMAN BATMAN VS ALIENS PREDATORS #1 (OF 2)
TALES FROM RIVERDALE DIGEST #17
TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #4 (OF 8)
THUNDERBOLTS #110
VERONICA #177
WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY #2
WOLVERINE ORIGINS #10
YOSHITAKA AMANO HERO GALLERY

Books / Mags / Stuff
ALINE & THE OTHERS GN
ARE WE FEELING SAFER YET A THINK ANTHOLOGY TP
BARRONS GRAPHIC CLASSICS OLIVER TWIST SC
BARRONS GRAPHIC CLASSICS TREASURE ISLAND SC
BUTTON MAN THE KILLING GAME NEW PTG SC
CABLE DEADPOOL VOL 1 IF LOOKSCOULD KILL TP
CHAMPIONS CLASSIC VOL 2 TP
CLASSIC MARVEL FIGURINE COLL MAGAZINE #1 SPIDER-MAN
CLASSIC MARVEL FIGURINE COLL MAGAZINE #2 WOLVERINE
CLASSIC MARVEL FIGURINE COLL MAGAZINE #30 BLACK PANTHER
CLASSIC MARVEL FIGURINE COLL MAGAZINE #31 ANGEL
CYBERFORCE VOL 1 TP
DEATH NOTE VOL 9 TP
FALLEN ANGEL VOL 2 DOWN TO EARTH TP
FANTASTIC FOUR BOOKS OF DOOM TP
FORTEAN TIMES #218
G FAN #78
GHOST RIDER VOL 1 VICIOUS CYCLE TP
HEAVY METAL MARCH 2007
HELLSHOCK DEFINITIVE ED VOL 1HC
JACK STAFF VOL 3 ECHOES OF TOMORROW TP
JANES WORLD OMNIBUS VOL 1
LEES TOY REVIEW JAN 2007 #171
MESSENGERS GN
NEW MUTANTS CLASSIC VOL 2 TP
ORDER OF THE STICK VOL 2 NO CURE FOR THE PALADIN BLUES TP
PLEASURE DOME GN (A)
ROUGH STUFF #3
SHOWCASE PRESENTS JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA VOL 2 TP
SQUARECAT COMICS SMALL SQUARE& SARCASTIC GN
STAR TREK COMICS CLASSICS VOL4 RETURN OF THE WORTHY TP
STAR WARS CLONE WARS ADVENTURES VOL 7 TP
TOYFARE HASBRO GHOST RIDER MOVIE FIGURE CVR #115


Plus, just to make Jeff happy (yet sad, since he won't be in this week), finally, among THREE different distributors, and 4 weeks of waiting, Sgt. Frog v11 is in...


-B Click Here to Read More...

First off, Arune? Tell me you're as gutted as I am about the OC's cancellation.

Secondly, happy new year to those who celebrate it. Or even those like Kate and I, who went to bed early and somehow still woke up at midnight by accident.

Thirdly, comics!

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #6, SUPERMAN #658 and SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #3: There's something really strange going on when three of the four ongoing Superman books ship in the same week, and all of them are surprisingly good (Of the four titles, the one that didn't ship on Thursday is definitely the weakest: Geoff Johns and Richard Donner's somewhat hyped Action Comics). Interestingly enough, all of them share a theme of Superman's heartbreak, whether it be All-Star's death of Pa Kent, Superman learning that his actions (and morality) will, accidentally, lead to the end of humanity, or Confidential's Lois telling Superman that they can never be a couple. Unsurprisingly, All-Star Superman is easily the best of the three, an Excellent one-off that is full of little emotional moments that ring true even in the middle of the multi-Superman larger plot - The Lana/Pete/Clark scene in particular felt real, and Superman's despair following the funeral of his father was wonderfully sad even within all the surrounding melodrama. And what melodrama, with the referencing of the mainstream DC Universe crossover DC: One Million and the hints of the hopeful future that awaits ("New Krypton", and the identity of the golden Superman... Ah, remember when superhero stories were brave enough to have happy endings?), not to mention the reveal of just who the Unknown Superman from the second issue actually is... Grant Morrison manages to write a story that is classic, contemporary and exactly what you want a Superman story to be.

Superman Confidential, on the other hand, has Darwyn Cooke writing a more intentionally old-school take on the character - Less superheroics, more Superman vs. the Gangsters with a little bit of Kryptonite thrown in. But it works, in part because the writing knows when to step back and let Tim Sale's art (and Dave Stewart's coloring) shine. Sale carries the book in the best way, here - It's not that the writing's weak, but it does seem to have been written with the intention of giving the artist the chance to show off, and Sale rises to the occasion and then some. Not to do the traditional bagging on Jeph Loeb or anything, but there's something to be said for seeing Sale do a book that's so intentionally fun. Very Good.

Last but not least, Kurt Busiek seems to get settled into his Superman run properly with this oddly-announced "end of book one" issue that wraps up the Days of Future Past-style flashforward with an unusual moral: In order to keep humanity from being extinct before the end of the century, Superman has to stop fighting evil. Which is... unexpected, to say the least, and definitely something that makes me want to read what happens next. The future storyline works better than it has any right to, in part because it avoids the cliches you expect - The heroes save the day by defeating the villain, but that doesn't mean that there won't be other villains, or that they weren't already screwed to begin with. But even in the middle of this depressathon, there are moments of optimism, and there's something to be said for Jimmy Olsen's last words. Very Good, even if I couldn't stop wondering whether any of this has anything to do with the new DC mega-event that Busiek is apparently writing all through the book.

And now, onto less-Super comics:

THE ALL-NEW ATOM #7: As Jeff points out, Hibbs had decided that this was his second-favorite book of the week (after All-Star Superman, I think?), and thus handed it to me to read. And, just like Jeff, I didn't really see whatever it was that Brian saw. It's Okay, but I didn't really get knocked over by it, partially because the guest-art by Mike Norton seemed to be a really weak Byrne rip-off, and partially because I felt as if I didn't understand what was going on for half the issue, due to all the characters who didn't really get introduced clearly and callbacks to earlier issues that I hadn't read. But I did like that the quotations have now moved past science and onto more random subjects. It was fun enough that I'll end up checking out another issue at some point, at least. That said, when will the name of the comic change to "The Same Atom You Read About Last Month, No It's Still Not Ray Palmer, Sorry"?

THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST #2: Still more fun than any book called Iron Fist that doesn't start "Power Man And..." has any right to be, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction manage to make me smile by bringing Luke Cage in for a guest shot already without it seeming gratuitous, as well as callouts to Night Nurse and Heroes for Hire (and a Civil War reference or two, too). Bizarrely, all of this just makes it feel like a really good Marvel book from the '70s (and more Marvel Universe-y than all of the various Civil House of Decimation and Annihilations that we've seen over the last few years, as well). Or, maybe I should say, it feels like a really Very Good book.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5: Seriously, how has it taken five issues of this series - Six, if you include the zero issue - to get this far into the story? Shouldn't this have been, like, an issue three or something? You can tell that Brad Meltzer loves the characters he's writing, but he loves them too much, I think - There's no momentum to the story because he's too reverential to do anything really mean to anyone, and you know it. There's not even an illusion of tension or suspense. Crap.

THE NEW AVENGERS #26: Yeah, I know it came out last week, but I just wanted to say the following: Brian Michael Bendis, I know that you're completely excited that you're writing some of your favorite characters and that you have a ridiculous amount of creative freedom - The kind of freedom that allows you to do something as self-consciously David Lynchian as this one-off that is all about mood and atmosphere (and really rather beautiful art, from Alex Maleev, especially the Klimt infuence he brought to Wanda) instead of, you know, plot or common sense - but still. Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. Eh, because as much as the writing was utterly pointless and the characters so out of character that they could've been anyone, really, that really was some nice artwork.

NEWUNIVERSAL #2: Hey, look! The head of the secret organization that was created to hunt down superpowered people is actually celebrated stage and screen actor, Rene Auberjois! Now Rene can go and hunt down Sawyer from Lost, in this latest issue of the overly photo-referenced imagining of Marvel's failed second universe from twenty-one years ago. It's all very competent, but I found myself not really caring about any of it - It seems as if Warren Ellis is sleepwalking already, which is a shame. Eh.

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #2: Goddammit, that's a second issue of this that I've enjoyed, despite disliking the Punisher and disliking Civil War. Good, and I hope this doesn't keep up. What will it do to my reputation?

SCARFACE #1: So, I've never seen the movie "Scarface". I've heard about it, and I know what it's about and all, but I've never actually seen it. What can I say? Al Pachino snorting coke and introducing people to his leetle friend never really seemed like my idea of a good time. But nonetheless, I kind of had an idea of what the movie would be like, and it's not anything like this comic book turned out to be. Was the movie as broad and trying-to-be-dark a comedy as this is? I really don't have any idea how to review this, in a strange way, because I feel like my disliking it is because I just didn't get it, and didn't know if that's because there's no "it" to get, or I just should see the movie in order to understand. A confused Eh, then.

PICK OF THE WEEK is All-Star Superman, because all superhero comics should have this mix of imagination and emotional melodrama and action. Although if they could do that on a more regular schedule, that would be preferable. PICK OF THE WEAK is Justice League, because... well, there's just no there there, you know? I can't believe that we're five issues into the damn series, and we're still getting what feels like filler with the Vixen scenes each issue. Identity Crisis may have sold well for DC, but that doesn't mean that Brad Meltzer doesn't need an editor these days. TRADE OF THE WEEK, for me, is Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 3 - I'll go on about this more another time, but I've been reading through all of the Essential Fantastic Fours recently, and it's midway through volume 3 where everything comes into focus all of a sudden, and BAM, it really does become the World's Greatest Comic Magazine.

What did everyone else read over the last couple of weeks? And how were your holidays, too? Click Here to Read More...

Aw, I feel sorry for you. Hibbs and I shot the shit for a couple hours on Friday and even though he was far more engaged, critically sharp and emotionally invested in the week's comics, he probably won't be posting because he's got the kid, the family and the store. On the other hand, I will be posting because I've got potentially a free hour or two on my hands even though I'm kinda indifferent to this week's releases. But I'm gonna be in NYC with Edi next week and that's definitely gonna keep me from posting then, so...

52 WEEK #35: If you ask me, somebody flinched and made the book's first real cliffhanger a non-event. At the end of issue #34, Luthor pushes a button so that all his manufactured superheroes will lose their powers in mid-fly-by parade. Silly me, I figured this would mean that: (a) Luthor would have to take it on the lam so as to escape tremendous public outrage (and leading to the events we see at the beginning of Superman: One Year Later); and (b) that Steel story would finally get going because what's-her-name would be toast. But, nope. Luthor fields a single inquiring phone call by saying, "Yeah, gee, hmmm. There must've been some kind of problem, howabout that?" (Yeah, like pacemaker manufacturers could get away with that if everyone wearing them suddenly dropped dead...) Plus, it turns out that big red button Luthor pushed was marked "everyone I gave powers to except Infinity Inc." so that storyline drags on as well. Plus, wasn't that Brian Bolland Zatanna back-up last week awesome? And last week? An Eh start to Act III, I think.

ALL NEW ATOM #7: See? If Hibbs was writing reviews, he would be telling you why this was his second-favorite book of the week. Whereas I thought it was OK--possessing a certain loopy charm, certainly, but still a little uneven. Also, my default reaction to "cowboys in comic books" is "dull," and my default reaction "superheroes who shrink" is also "dull," so the idea of cowboys versus superheroes who shrink? It's a testimony to Simone's writing that I didn't find it "deathly dull."

ALL STAR SUPERMAN #6: By contrast, this story also lays on the loopy charm but it couldn't be less dull. It helps that you've got an artist who's going to make the most out of a panel like a young Superman and Krypto sitting on the moon looking at Earth, but there's also a lovely little bit of prestidigitation by Morrison so that the nostalgic feelings one gets in reading an issue like this actually dovetails nicely with the feelings of one of the character's. It's an Excellent issue, and worth reading if you've got even a sliver of appreciation for DC's Silver Age.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #537: As I've said for the last six issues or so, I prefer JMS's take on the Civil War to Millar's: there's a nice little speech here by Captain America (well, by Mark Twain, really) that has the character's actions make sense (more or less). Unfortunately, dear Jesus, the plot hammering! Spidey goes to meet up with the fugitive heroes, and rather than immediately using them to put his wife and dear aunt in a safehouse, he gets all carried away and is off to raid the Baxter Building with everyone and leaves his wife and aunt in a motel in a cheap motel at the corner of Crack and Hooker. Attaboy, Spidey! Eh, because it made me apoplectic, but probably OK for you.

BATMAN #661: This was so by the numbers, I read it in two minutes while taking a leak. (Yes, it was kind of a long leak.) Sorry to see Johnny Karaoke go, though. Or, wait, am I happy? I still can't tell. Eh.

BONEYARD #23: I read it and liked it, as I always do. But it's been so long since I read the last issue, I still don't have much idea what's at stake. (Come to think of it, maybe I missed last issue.) Tell you what, I'll give it a No Rating if you promise to hunt down one of the trades and try this, okay?

BOYS #6: So violent and perverse you'd think Geoff Johns wrote it!! No, not really, but, hamster aside, last week's entrailicious 52 was much more shocking (and cynical) than this issue, I thought. I liked the character interaction at the end here, I guess, but thanks to a recent post over at the Newsarama blog, I can put my finger on why it also bothered me: the "you touched my stuff" motivation on the part of Butcher is, gruesome little twist notwithstanding, pretty standard shorthand for how you tell the anti-heroes from the villains in an exploitation film. If the superhero medium is getting to the point where a Geoff Johns fight scene reads more like a Garth Ennis fight scene, Ennis is going to have to bring a little more genuine sentiment to the game than that. OK, but it's not shoring up as strongly as I'd like. I'm still willing to give it time, though.

BULLET POINTS #3: Maybe I wasn't paying attention but, unless JMS lays out how the bullet that killed Doc Erskine and Ben Parker ended up causing the death of Nick Fury, Mr. Straczynski has cheated even further on his own "all it takes is one bullett.." premise. So I guess this is just an exercise in the alter-ego equivalent of wife-swapping, then? Bummer. Drops to Awful.

CIVIL WAR #6: Yes, I read it. No, I'm not going to tell you about it. I will say that our last copy left the shop at the very end of my shift, and the sub who got it looked about as thrilled as if I'd handed him a dead bird with his books. (The three people who hung out and read the reader's copy at the counter seemed pretty stoked, though.) Parts of it were competently done, I thought, but they're still kind of outweighed by the retarded parts. Eh.

CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE #10: (Spoilers, by the way.) Now, I haven't followed this title religiously or anything (I may've missed the last issue? Or two?) but I've read most of it and the Speedball stuff had easily been my favorite part of the book. So one thing that really struck me about his transformation to Penance was that it seemed kinda... off. I can buy that, because of the last ten issues of shit heaped on him, Robbie Baldwin has turned from a happy-go-lucky kid into a toughened, driven bastard. They definitely laid the groundwork for that. But one thing that seemed pretty consistent throughout was Baldwin's insistence that he was innocent. In fact, that was why I followed his story--I, too, thought he was innocent, and I lked that they were doing something with the character than having him succumb to the plot-hammering around the Stamford incident the rest of the Marvel Universe had. So, even though I may have missed an issue or two, I can't buy that he's becoming Penance out of a sudden feeling of guilt, and having the needles that push into his skin to remind him of etc., etc. That's not how the groundwork for the character was laid, or how the story developed. You can almost see the fine seam where the editors joined Speedball's story with this other character someone cooked up for the Thunderbolts book (probably because some plan or other fell through).

If it wasn't for that, and the bullshit of starting a story with multiple first person narration and then dropping it because the writer needs to hide the big secret both characters have discovered (this is in the non-Speedball part of the book), I would've gone higher than Eh.

CSI DYING IN THE GUTTERS #5: Dammit, I didn't read this. Now I've gotta go online to find out who killed Rich Johnston. Ironic, huh?

EXILES #89: This issue of Exiles made me think of Long Haired Hare, that great Bugs Bunny cartoon with the Giovanni Jones, the opera singer, where Bugs disguises himself as the maestro Leopold and makes Giovanni hold one note until Jones is writhing on the floor, blue in the face, and the entire Hollywood Bowl collapses. One would think the analogy is clear--Bedard and Callafiore are normally perfectly dandy, but come on, now. Done is done. Set 'em free, I beg you! Sub-Eh.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5: Wow, does this arc end next issue? If so, it's like watching a dramatic spacecraft launch--the countdown, the smoke and the noise... and then the damn thing leaves the pad going twenty miles an hour. It's an OK read, but hopefully they can work on their pacing a little bit.

NEWUNIVERSAL #2: Art's fine, Ellis' explanation of the New Universe heroes (and reconfiguring the dream realm as ideaspace) was cool, but, really, there's nothing "new" yet about Newuniversal. There's not anything new here if you've read any of the "heroes in the real world" stories, and there's nothing new here if you've read Ellis: it's the New Leftovers, heated up by a professional cook with other tables to serve. OK, but was I wrong to think there could (and would) be more to it than this?

OTHER SIDE #4: It's far too lovingly drawn to be ignored, and the writing's been fine on an issue-by-issue basis, but I've got the nagging feeling that the story has had very little forward movement--it's really up to the last issue, I guess. Good, but I feel like it may miss its shot to be great.

POWERS #22: Good issue. A fun read, even if it seems to me that Bendis kinda screwed up the punchline to that "You know how tired I am?" joke. (Also, admittedly, I'm a weirdo conspiracy freak but... with those two quotes in the Quote of the Month section of his letters page, Bendis isn't comparing Johanna Draper Carlson to Paris Hilton, is he? Because I think that would be a really, really strange comparison. I dunno. Maybe it's just me.)

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #2: Not nearly as enjoyable as the first issue, and it's a little weird that the same scene would appear so differently in both Civil War and here. But I really loved how fast-paced it was (at the end, I felt like I'd read a lot of story) and it's not surprising that Fraction's brand of fun apeshit insanity would have to take a backseat to Civil War's apeshit insanity. Good, anyway.

SCALPED #1: I spent most of the issue fretting becuase I realize I need to be a litte more gentle with first issues, but this book struck me as a little too out-of-control. Fortunately, the last page proved me wrong and so I don't have to fret. This was definitely OK, with the potential to be even better depending on how it plays out.

PICK OF THE WEEK: ALL STAR SUPERMAN #6, hands down.

PICK OF THE WEAK: "...and so, Janet Van Dyne, it is you who must now wield the hammer of...Thor!" BULLET POINTS #3, for its cheating cheateriness.

TRADE PICK: I actually didn't pick up any trades this week, but I read the Carla Speed McNeil interview in COMICS JOURNAL #280 which could've benefited from a bit more editorial acumen (in the intro to the interview, it refers to McNeil as still working on Five Crazy Women which I really don't think is the case anymore [on the other hand, tho, I admit I'll be damned if I could figure it out from visiting the Lightspeed Press site]). When I get back from NYC, I'll probably post about Drifting Classroom, Essential Man-Thing and some of the other trades I've been reading.

You weren't nearly as crabby as I was, were you?

Labels: Jeff

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