Weekly Comic Book Discussion 11/25/2004

Cafe Society
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Started early, as tomorrow is Turkey-Day.

Powerless #6 - Not a bad wrap-up. Still, I kinda wish I hadn’t picked up this series… it never really caught fire for me.

Batman #634 - Establishes a sequence of events for War Games and Identity Crisis. A wrap-up, bridging issue.

Thunderbolts #2 /#83 - I wish Marvel would give up the dual-numbering crap. Yay! Speed Demon!

Adam Strange #3 - Rocks the house. I want this to be a regular series. I’d buy it.

Ultimate FF #13 - Wow. Kubart art, and a talky, but interesting issue.

Richard Dragon #7 - Some flashbacks, talking about those that Richie-boy trained in the past. Like Batman.

Superman #211 - Not bad at all. Fight between WW and Supes is excellent. Supes pulls an amusing stunt that I won’t spoil - a creative projectile weapon.
Flash #216 - The Top as a suspect in IC’s killings seems unlikely, given what we see of his recent past here. He does drop a bomb on Wally, though… metaphorically.

Green Lantern Rebirth #2 - Holy Crap. Holy friggin crap. I was puzzled by the setup going on in the previous issue, a bit - but it looks like they’re going to give us a retcon-style extra-plausible reason for Hal’s descent into madness. This is good stuff, people.

And also, it finally clarifies what I’ve been wondering about for months : John Stewart’s ring no longer possesses the Yellow vulnerability.

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The rest of this week’s will be coming along shortly… any time now, honest.

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The new issue of Daredevil was brilliant. Alex Maaleev gets to strut his stuff here; the story is set in three time periods, the 40s (which he does in a kind of Milt Caniff ink brush style), the 70s (drawn in a Bob Brown/Don Heck pen style) and today (which looks a lot more painted than he’s done previously). Bendis writes great dialogue for his villains, although Bont doesn’t seem particularly more substantial than Mr. Silke or the Yakuza guy from previous storylines. I predict that Gladiator is waiting for some pre-arranged signam from Matt. He’s setting up the Kingpin’s inevitable return, I guess, but what a ride!

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Supreme Power #13. Been waiting for this for ages. Didn’t disappoint. Loves me my JMS.

Loved Ultimate FF #13 too. Good story lead-in. Hope it pans out well.

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Ex Machina started its second story arc. Looks like it might be interesting if they don’t fuck it up.

The Authority: Revolution looks to be shaping up OK, but it feels a lot like one of the previous stories. Plus, there’s no way the Midnighter could kill Jack Hawksmoor.

Where the hell is the concluding part of WE3? Issue 2 came out a month ago, but issue 3 isn’t even on the schedule for next week.

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Nodwick #26; Army of Darkness : Ashes to Ashes #3; The Witching #6; Jingle Belle #1 (of 4); Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales #12; Sleeper #6; Powers #6 Supreme Power #13; Invincible #17.

Favorite of the Week? GL : Rebirth #2.

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Light week for me, just picked up GL: Rebirth, the Flash IC tie-in, and Ult. FF #13.

But my big news is that I was home over the weekend, and dug up my old comics. And I mean “dug up” pretty literally. They’re in pretty bad shape. But I have some reading material. I can post a list if anyone’s interested in any of them. Hell, I’ll do it now, I have to type them in sometime. Plus, the thread’s dying, and could use a bump for the holidays.

Detective Comics: 508, 516, 520, 533
Batman: 359, 367
Magik (Marvel): 1, 2
X-Men & the Micronauts: 1, 4
Beware the Spider-Woman: 10-13, 50
Daredevil: 202
DC Comics Presents: 55 (Supes and Air Wave)
The Fly (Archie Comics): 5
2001: Space Odyssey: 5
Hercules Prince of <something>: 3 of 4
Kazar the Savage: 29
Battlestar Galactica: 1-3
Supergirl (Daring New Adventures): 5
Sword of the Atom: 4
Secret Wars: 1, 2, 3, 5
Captain America: 239, 256, 261, 276
Captain Marvel: 42
Doctor Strange: 62
All-Star Squadron: 28-30, Annual #2
World’s Finest: 288
ROM Space Knight: 49
Vigilante: 2
Infinity, Inc.: 2
Marvel Two in One: 97 (Thing and Iron Man)
PPtS Spider-Man: 58, 68 (two variant covers), 74
Defenders: 78, 106, 110, 111, 118
Ragman: 2, 5
New Teen Titans: 37, 38
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan): 151, 171-176
Alpha Flight: 4, 5, 8, 14
Fantastic Four: 249
Thor: 307
Saga of the Swamp Thing: 5-7, 12-13
Classic X-Men: 15
Uncanny X-Men: 176, 180, 181, 183

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The rate at which GL: Rebirth sells out at my local shops is driving me insane. I got there, like, half an hour after the store opened last Wednesday, and it was already gone. Of course I never think to have them pull it for me. I guess I’ll be 2nd-printing it for this series.

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Two words : Pull List. :wink:

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Ultimate Fantastic Four: I liked the explanation for Johnny’s flame on. I know they are having to stretch these stories out to 6 issue arcs for the tpb sales (love me some tpb’s) but it sure does take a while to get going. I wish they’d allow them to just write as many issues as it takes, then package and price the tpb’s accordingly.

Squadron Supreme: Good stuff. hate to see Hyp just being used issue to issue by whoever, but I guess that’s his character. Even after teaching his previous captors a lesson, he still seems so easily manipulated.

Army Of Darkness: Ashes to Ashes: I’ll just be glad when it’s over. This isn’t turning out to be as good as I hoped. Maybe I’ll past a pic of Bruce Campbell’s face in each panel to help.

Amazing Spider-Man: Interesting, but really, how many goblins do we really need? Oh yeah. NONE. Let it die, please.

Supreme vol 1 & 2 TPBs: Haven’t read them yet, but I did get them out of my hold box. Those will last me a couple of weeks of nightly bedtime reading.

What am I missing in the New Thunderbolts? I’m trying to curb my comic budget so I decided not to pick it up. But I do love me some Speed Demon. In fact the Sinister Syndicate was one of my favorite bad guy groups ever, and they were only together a short time. Speed Demon, Hydro-Man, Beetle (does Speed Demon know who MACH IV is?), Boomerang…and who was the fifth member?

Also what’s this crap that they are pulling in Spectacular Spider-man? Why does Pete have to have organic webshooters now? His ability to create the shooters and fluid using his God-given brain power was a part of the whole thing! I’ve no issue with it in the movies since that’s a whole other canon, but I like mechanical shooters in my comics. God I hate Jenkins.

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I thought the first issue felt just like a cold re-hash, but it’s gotten a bit better.

Don’t recall the other member. Beetle indicates he’s worked with Speedy before - I’m guess Speedy knows who it is. So far, I like the writing. There are some things I don’t understand yet - like why Atlas got so violent with Captain Marvel in issue one - and I feel I’d be better off if I’d read the original Thunderbolts series. Really, if you can squeeze them in, buy the first two issues and see if they appeal.

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sighs Sorry I haven’t had a chance to post sooner.

My local comics shop had a sale last week. The nice swag I got included Detective Comics #282 (August 1960) which backs up my consecutive run from #282 to the present issue (#800).

For $3 apiece, I also got two old '70s DC Romance comics. Young Love #106 has these cover captions, “My romance was ruined by frizz” and “I was a girl in hot pants, driven to steal a boy’s job – a boy I loved! I was the – DAUGHTER OF WOMEN’S LIB.” Great stuff! Young Romance #194 MAY possibly have the first interracial kiss in comics. The story involves a relationship between a male doctor and female nurse. Pretty progressive stuff from DC in 1973.

My enthusiasm over my new treasures sorta squelched my feelings over the new releases. I don’t think I overly liked or disliked anything.

*Fans of Peter Bagge take note, Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales #12 has a Bagge story which was written by Alan Moore in sorta a “Hate” vein; liked it.

*Flash #216 – Maybe the wordiest book of the week, but no complaints. We know as the reader where we were, where we’re at, and where we’re going. Nice, but kinda sad when that’s worth noting in today’s comics.

*Batman #634 – has yet another “War Games” epilogue, but appears to finally wrap things up in a concise manner.

*Batgirl #58 – has the title heroine coming to Robin’s rescue. It’s part 2 of a 4-parter that I like.

*Black Widow #3 – I’ver really liked the 3 issue Black Widow mini-series they’ve come out with the past few years; this is no exception. I’m glad this one will be a 6 parter. Love the Land covers, love the Sienkiewics art.

*Daredevil #67 – I can’t say it any better than Krokodil did.

*Wizard – has one of their covers sporting Jennifer Garner as Elektra and has an offer for Flash #1/2 which is an Identity Crisis tie-in. The offer sheet also solicits the previously released Teen Titans #1/2.

I also got Ult. FF #13, Jingle Belle #1, Amazing Spider-Man #514, Amazing Fantasy #6, Ult. Elektra #4, New Thunderbolts #2, Powerless #6, Richard Dragon #7, Marvel Team-Up #2, Green Lantern: Rebirth #2, Doom Patrol #6, Superman #211 and Adam Strange #3.

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Nikolai Dante: The Romanov Dynasty. This is one of the first volumes of DC’s deal with Rebellion Studios to publish material out of the long history of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, 2000 AD, and the book is wonderful. It’s the story of Nikolai Dante, a bounder and adventurer in a science-fiction Russian Empire ruled by a tyrannous tsar and a handful of aristocratic families that scheme to put on of their own on the imperial throne. The phrase “loveable rogue” is an overused cliche, but it is necessary to describe the irrepressable Dante, whose main goal is to hook up with as many women as possible but who keeps getting drawn into the power struggle between the tsar and one of the imperial families, the Romanovs, when it turns out that Dante is an illegitimate child of the Romanov dynasty. Writer Robbie Morrison keeps the action fast-paced and mostly humorous, wile Simon Fraser (who provides the bulk of the art) does great “acting” and storytelling, while his landscapes are gorgeous. Highly recommended, and I can’t wait for the next Nikolai Dante volume.

More (as-yet unread) to come.

–Cliffy

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I finally finished reading this week’s stack today. I had *AoD: Ashes to Ashes, Batman, Batgirl, Daredevil, Flash, GL: Rebirth, Powers, Supreme Power, Ultimate FF, Amazing Spider-Man, Ultimate Elektra, New Thunderbolts *, Marvel Team-Up, Adam Strange, Authority: Revolution, *Black Widow * and Ex Machina.

I don’t have a lot to add to what’s already been said, but here goes:

Army Of Darkness: Ashes to Ashes – I really feel like this could’ve been better. There’s probably AoD fan fiction out there with tighter plotting and funnier dialogue.

Ex Machina: This book is much better than it has any right to be, considering it’s pretty much *The West Wing * with superpowers. I get excited every time I get a new issue.

New Thunderbolts: I never read Thunderbolts, so most of this is lost on me. I think I’m going to stop reading it because it does nothing for me.

Supreme Power: Ok, now we’re getting somewhere.

Adam Strange: So, do you think he’ll be okay?

Amazing Spider-Man: Should famous supermodel MJ be hanging out in a hospital hallway, holding hands and stuff? Way to keep that secret ID, Peter. Kind of an anticlimactic end to this storyline.

Batman: I really like the direction the Batbooks are taking, with everyone rearranged geographically and otherwise.

Batgirl: Is there something starting to happen between Tim and Cassandra? Either way, I like the way they work together.