Yay, it’s Thursday again.
Small pile of books this week.
I did pick up Rick Veitch’s ‘The One’ trade paperback. Loved the cover - the writing as pretty good as well. Did not care for the art, though. Plus - no color. Bummer.
More to come.
Re: this month’s Y: The Last Man:
[spoiler]Holy shit! Obviously they’re not going to kill off Yorick, but props to Brian K. Vaughn for yet another great cliffhanger.
Is it really the ring? I don’t see how, since Ampersand has been separated from it on many occasions without ill effect. My guess is that Yorick’s illness is psychosomatic: he believes the ring has kept him safe, and so it has.[/spoiler]
Light week for me too (at least DC-wise), so I decided to splurge on the hardcover DC Comics Encyclopedia.
DK has put out yet ANOTHER book RE: DC Comics characters. This one is a $40. thick book with over a thousand entries.
Cutting to the chase, the book DOES reveal the death of a character who has yet to actually die in a current story arc that’s in progress right now. I will not reveal who the character is, nor identify the story line for spoilers sake. I just wanted to give a heads up if anyone plans to buy the book, has it already and hasn’t seen it, or may potentially thumb through it while at a comics or bookstore.
Loki #4 was my most-anticipated book this week. I also got Spider-Girl #79, Scratch #5, Ultimate Spider-Man #66, Uncanny X-Men #450, Detective Comics #799, Legion/Teen Titans Special, Justice League Unlimited #2, Jubilee #2, Thor #85 (last isue), NYX #5, Tomb of Dracula #1, Wolverine #20, and TokyoPop’s fumetti digest of FOX tv’s “The Simple Life.”
I may have to buy that Encyclopedia - hadn’t heard about it until now.
And spoil, please! That’s what the black boxes are for. 
Well, my “big scoop” I just discovered reading last night, doesn’t seem to be that new. I just came back from the DC message boards (a place I rarely freqent), and it’s been talked about for a week. But since you asked …
You’ll note I did say … “spoilers sake.”
I also got NYX #5 this week - and it’s starting to lose it’s luster for me. The art feels jumbled. The storyline doesn’t feel very tight, either.
One the other hand, I also got the Legion/Titans special - loved it. Some classic dialogue exchanges. Titans continually unable to remember the various Legionnaire’s names… (‘Headband Lad’ - hee) and a brilliant moment with Changeling’s criticism of the old Legion HQ. Don’t remember exactly, but paraphrasing : ‘Why is your HQ shaped like a big initial?’ ‘What’s yours like?’ ‘Like I said, great HQ!’
I got Uncanny X-Men #450 and Wolverine #20 just because there wasn’t anything DC-wise for me to buy this week. I haven’t bought a Marvel title for quite a while.
As one would imagine, I have no idea what’s up with the X-Men right now. When did Rachel Summers join (and are her powers the same?) and who is this Sage chick? I did like the book, though. The last time I read X-Men they weren’t in costume, and I much prefer this.
Wolverine #20 was nifty. Especially considering that the last time I read Wolverine was around issue #75 when I was, like, nine years old.
Okay, last week, I saw the new 2099 books. And I thought to myself - did Marvel not learn their lesson the first time around?
This week, seeing as I had a light pile of comics, I picked up one of them - Mutant 2099. It’s actually not bad. It focuses on a world where Mutant are registered at birth and given suppressive medication so they never develop abilities - but thanks to timely intervention by a mentor-figure, the star of our book has been given placebos all along, and has develop his close-rang telekinetic abilities. Art’s good, and the writing’s solid.
Swamp Thing #8 - I hate the art. Hate it. Story’s not doing much for me either right now - may drop this soon.
Majestic #3 - Would it surprise anyone if I said that this little miniseries was better than the Superman titles right now?
Alpha Flight #8 - Slightly less hilarity this issue, but can’t win them all.
Exiles #53 - Exiles : The best X-title not written by Joss Whedon.
Conan and the Daughters of Midoora - basically, a one-shot classic-vein Conan tale. Solid stuff.
I get my books tomorrow (payday!). Yesterday I finally read the Marvel 2099 books I got last week and they were pretty cool. I especially liked *Daredevil 2099 * and Punisher 2099. I’m glad they’re just fun little one-shots and not ongoing titles, though.
I heard about the spoilers in the DC Encyclopedia, but I’m not sure they’re really true. They are possibly just based on incomplete information. Either that, or it reveals the killer’s identity in Identity Crisis, and I think it would be awfully sloppy of them to just throw it out there like that. Beware of IC “spoiler”:
The book says the killer is Dr. Light. If that’s true, holy anticlimax, Batman!
I noticed the Identity Crisis thing in the DC Encyclopedia, too, but I’m absolutely certain that it’s incorrect.
Since the thing is going to be on shelves for years, they probably wanted to be able to say “Sue Dibney was killed by Dr. Light” rather than “Sue Dibney was killed by god knows who because the book hasn’t come out yet” even if it isn’t accurate. Plus, I can’t imagine anyone behind the scenes would just say “you want to publish who the killer is? Sure!”
Also, the DC Encyclopedia isn’t without other errors. They’re pointing them all out over at the DC boards, naturally. For my part, I noticed that the picture of Miss America they chose isn’t even her - it’s Wonder Woman disguised as her from a couple years back.
A few months ago Marvel published their Official Handbook for Spider-Man (that’s close to the title, anyway), and spoiled the story that was running in Amazing Spider-Man at the time. The story arc was only about one issue away from being finished then, so it was obviously something that was just about to be printed if it wasn’t already. I won’t believe any of the DC Encyclopedia spoilers until I see them in the actual comics, but I’d be more inclined to believe the Wargames spoiler than the one for IC.
THE. Best. Book. Of . The. Week.
Ultimate Spider-Man.
Whoda thunk grim-n-gritty Bendis has such a great sensa humor? For those who don’t normally read it, the Ultimate Spidey is A) Younger than our version was when he started (15, maybe) and B) less…neurotic. That said…it’s
well…
It’s “Freaky Friday” starring a 15 year old Spider-Man and Wolverine. :: snerk :: Petey (for reasons unknown) ends up in Wolverine’s body and vice versa.
Wolvie has to go through school for Peter (“YOU HAVE TO! I ALREADY DITCHED 9 TIMES! IF I MISS A 10th I’M EXPELLED!!!”), Flash is in for a nasty surprise next issue (Aunt May may be as well) and Peter keeps cutting off Wolverine’s fingers with the claws.
This was “Laugh out loud” funny and I hope it’s the start the pendulum swinging back from “Deadly serious at every moment”.
Fenris
Jean Loring is the evil mastermind behind “Avengers Disassembled” and Wanda and Pietro are the culprits behind “Identity Crisis.” Jean and Wanda traded off as part of a “Strangers on a Train” arrangement. Boy, aren’t we gonna be faked out!
What? Don’t look at me like that!
I must buy this - when it comes to Trade form, though.
Speaking of Dr. Light, help out a brotha who hasn’t read super-hero comics in ten years: whatever became of the female, good, Japanese Dr. Light?
Better late than never with a reply. Honestly, I don’t recall WHERE I saw her last. (Was it in one panel behind the scenes in a animated like title called, “Adventures in the DC Universse”? I don’t know.)
However, she does get a two paragraph mention in that new DC Comics Encyclopedia. The second paragraph reads, “As a single mother with two young children, Doctor Light II is only semi-active in the super hero business, yet she has recently served with both the Outsiders and the Doom Patrol. Although she is no longer a member of either team, she remains active as a part-time adventurer.”
That latter being being a very short lived incarnation (all of 2.5 issues - v3 #s 4-6, which tok place over a handful of days) consisting of her, Metamorpho, Enlongated Man, and Beast Boy. It was a paying job, which ended when the man who formed that version of the team didn’t have the rights to the team. Presumably, she’s spending more time on whatever she’s doing to keep a roof over her and her kids’ heads than adventuring.
As I have another of my periodic gaps in comics reading, I have a question:
When and why did Luthor step down as President of the DCUSA?
He went nuts at the end of the first Superman/Batman story arc because he’d been injecting some Kryptonite/Venom hybrid drug. He slugged it out with Superman in his old Super Powers armor (which was built on Apokalips, so he’d been dealing with Darkseid), this after he’d lied to the American public by telling them that Superman was behind a giant chunk of Kryptonite headed toward earth. Needless to say, he lost some credibility.
If I remember correctly, he hasn’t been seen since Superman defeated him that one time and nobody knows where he is (the last time we saw him, he said something along the lines of “there will be… a crisis,” leading to speculation that he’s behind the events in Identity Crisis).
Thanks. That makes sense.
To the extent that anything in comics makes sense.
I still haven’t picked up Sleeper #4 yet, but I’m expecting another slow week.
If anyone’s interested, I’m selling a good chunk of my comics and action figures on eBay this week. I have the complete run of Transformers (missing NO issues), a bunch of Sleeper, Point Blank, and WildC.A.T.s, the first appearance of Gambit (Uncanny X-Men #266), Transformers toys, Marvel and Spawn action figures, Lego mini-figures, and more, all closing Sunday 10/17. E-mail me if you want, and I’ll tell you where to look on eBay.