Here it is. A decent week.
From the Marvel side, I got She-Hulk, Exiles, Cable and Deadpool, and New Thunderbolts.
I also picked up the new Alan Moore TPB - I had the old one, and the Killing Joke, but this also has Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.
JLA #124: Still spinning its wheels, killing time. Still mostly just an ad for the much more interesting Infinite Crisis stuff. Blah. And I don’t care if he is posessed, Ollie culdn’t take Batman in hand-to-hand combat.
Since it was such a light week, I also grabbed Animal Man Vol. 1, and was curiously disappointed. Too many tie-ins with events and books long over. I’m also a huge defender of animal research (being a medical researcher myself), so I found it hard to really connect with Buddy. The Red Mask story was cool, however, and the Coyote story was among the most awesome things I’ve ever read.
I haven’t read all of Morrison’s Animal Man, including the famous Coyote story in #5, but if you feel like treading further, the material in the third TPB is mind-fuck amazing.
Yeah, the guy at the store said Vol 2 was better. I should have taken his word for it, but I was hoping for an origin story or something.
You get an origin story of sorts in the third TPB.
All I’ve gotten around to reading yet is Elfquest: The Discovery #1. Took a little while to get caught up on what I’d missed, but that’s not a real problem.
Art is beautiful, as to be expected from Wendy Pini.
-New Books: 01_11_06.
It was a great week for comics.
Ellis & Williams. Desolation Jones #5._Excellent issue. Williams gives us a chilling glimpse of the “desolation test”, and shows us he’s as fine a painter as Alex Ross,…
… This is soon followed by another shift in rendering style for cleverly staged recap (I hardly noticed the pause) and then some wonderfully composed action. What makes Williams work on this title so impressive is the way his inventive mix of styles accents the action, rather than distracts from it. As for Jones, whatever abilities and skills he might have, his greatest asset is that he’s an ornery son of a bitch who won’t (or can’t) say die.
Wood & Burchielli. DMZ #3._ Though it might seem a bit anti-climatic, I found Matty Roth’s quiet choice made for a surprisingly strong end to the first arc. Great dialogue and layout, simply and effectively coloured.
Azzarello & Risso. 100 Bullets #68_Cutting away from the strange desert comedy of last issue, this month we get welcome glimpses of DeMedici, Vasco, Nagel and Graves shared past, inter-cut with a deadly gambit played out in the present. I had to read it over to get that part of it straight, and I haven’t even touched on the Minutemen. Satisfyingly dense and complex: the book is back on track.
Swift and effective characterization make Oeming, Foreman, Friodolfs & Grady’s Ares #1 one of the most involving ‘first issues’ I’ve read in a while. I found it interesting how Foreman’s packed pages of panels pull you into “Mr. Aaron’s” deceptively simple world, making him terribly sympathetic, despite the fact he’s the embodiment of slaughter.
(I also couldn’t help but wonder if this is a re-worked proposal for Gaimen’s Destruction.) High Marks.
A fun mix of seventies attitude and semi-comic action scenes lends Gray, Palmiotti & Evens Daughters of the Dragon #1 issue a colorful Tarantino-esque feel. Misty Knight provides the attitude. (She also dominates the action scenes. I hope Colleen’ martial arts sequences are just as involved.)
Evans’ sense of composition and pacing that reminds me a lot of European adventure comics. While s/he(?) may push the protagonists’ sex appeal, s/he(?)’s never obnoxious about it: the girls just happen to have those proportions.
The last spash page made me think of just how dangerous some of the old martial arts book villains could be back in the day,…
… and in intense moment of “geek nostalgia”, I wanted to see another two-man seventies action team, MI-6 hard man Black Jack Tarr and Shang Chi show up and add to the havoc. ( See: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/connorhawke/tarr.jpg )
Overall, a good start to promises to be a fun action story, akin to Dixon’s Connor Hawke stories in Green Arrow as well as his run on Birds of Prey.
Slott & Kolins manages to pack a surprising amount of pathos into their story for She Hulk #4.. Though the resolution of the tale struck me as a bit tidy, in the way episode of TV series sometimes feel, it suits the single-issue comedy format of the series.
Pfiefer’s tone & Weston’s storytelling complement each other perfectly for an
effecting and melancholy close to “Blaze of Glory” in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #199. (The protagonists hang-dog mug resembles a tired Nick Nolte.)
I’d love to see these Weston work on another Batman, similarly claustrophobic Batman story. I love his take on Gotham City.
A rare unsatisfactory issue, the coloring in Ennis & Crain’s Ghost Rider #5. was way, way too dark, and the story felt a bit too “by-the-numbers”. I may have read too much Ennis to get into throwaway stories like this: it’s def. beginning to look ‘forgettable’.
To expand.
She-Hulk - nice, unexpected choice for the Avenger to be rescued.
Exiles - the 2099 universe lives again.
Thunderbolts - the mystery of the Swordsman resolved.
Cable and Deadpool - not enough Spidey vs. Deadpool.
JLA - I enjoyed it. Love the revelation of ‘telepathic resistance exercises’.
Green Arrow - Fantastic dynamic between Ollie and Dr. Light here. Light strikes one as an evil Bugs Bunny, and then confirms the cartoon reference with a line that made me laugh out loud.
Fables - Great as usual. Nice resolution to the Arabian arc.
I only got Fables this week. Fine ending, sets up a good couple of secondary plotlines for the next couple of arcs, and we got to see more of the kids. Pleasing.
I’m going to ask the stupidest question ever about Animal Man:
Are there any whales in it? Actual pictures of a whale on the page? I am pathologically terrified of whales. I know they don’t hurt people, I just literally can’t look at them without having a panic attack. I know it’s completely insane but I can’t help it; I’ve been this way since I was a little kid. Perhaps I was Jonah in a former life. For this reason, I cannot bear to read Aquaman. My husband is nice enough to warn me ahead of time if there are whales in my weekly comics, and will put post-its over them if necessary. Feel free to point at me and giggle; I’m used to it.
I’m told I would really like Animal Man and I want to read it, but I need fair warning first.
I’ve only read Green Arrow so far, but I really liked it. I’m not normally in favor of killing people, but Dr. Light needs to be put down. Except he’s an awfully entertaining villain…damn.
Wow. That’s… quite unusual. I may be able to dig out my Animal Man TPBs if other folks can’t help…
I know. Totally irrational and crazy. Like I said, feel free to point and giggle. And I didn’t mean to give anyone a big homework assignment, I just wondered if anyone remembered any off the top of their head. 
Opps. I forgot a sentence.
The above should read as follows,…
Ellis & Williams. Desolation Jones #5._Excellent issue. Williams gives us a chilling glimpse of the “desolation test”, and shows us he’s as fine a painter as Alex Ross,…This is soon followed by another shift in rendering style for cleverly staged recap (I hardly noticed the pause) and then some wonderfully composed action. What makes Williams work on this title so impressive is the way his inventive mix of styles accents the action, rather than distracts from it. I haven’t seen as good a use of mixed media in a while. For stories focusing on a single protagonist, it’s great… I’d like to see him interpret a Daredevil story that focuses on what DD percieves with those hyper senses of his…
cbawlmer. I’ve never talked with anyone for whom Finding Nemo and Pinocchio is a horror movie experience.
IIRC, there’s a dolphin issue (#15); there’s at least one peyote-induced hallucineginic image of a whale swallowing the world in a latter Morrison issue (either #18 or #19); I think there might be one in a montage of animals on a cover (#18). I did not stick around for the Delano issues.
… referring back to my post above…
Seems I spoke too soon, (from the newsarama preview of the second issue of the Daughters of the Dragon revival/update),…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/connorhawke/DoD02.jpg
Pinnochio scared the shit out of me when I was a little kid. Gave me nightmares and everything.
Pinocchio might be the source of her phobia.
My phobia was already firmly in place by the time Pinocchio was released when I was a kid. I remember some of the promotional art featured the whale and scared the crap out of me. I couldn’t walk past the theater in our local mall (where the big cardboard stand-up was) until the movie was gone.
Thanks a million, Askia. I really appreciate that. I’ll make Mr. Bawlmer consult and Post-it the issues in question, for heart attack-free reading.
On an unrelated note, over on Newsarama I saw some art that looks like a possible costume redesign for Spider-man. The suit is red and yellow and looks similar to Iron Man. The early '90s are back! :rolleyes:
<<Points>> Snicker, snicker, snicker.
Unless, of course, you’re wearing those fishnets that we were discussing a while back. Or if your husband happens to be around.
The only good that came come out of that outfit is a Spidey cross-over in She-Hulk in which she and everyone else mocks him for it.
Awesome Andy: That’s jusT wRonG.
