Lots of mediocre books for me this week… no real standouts.
I’ll list’em anyway, when I get home. So what is everyone else reading?
I missed last weeks books so I had to catch up. This week I picked up:
Ulitmate Spider-Man 57
Ultimate Fantastic Four 5
Ultimate Six 7 (ok, those last two are just confusing…)
Captain Marvel
and a used copy of Star Wars Infinities: ESB
Ultimate Six really kinda went out with a whimper after the tremendous first 6 issues. And I was never exactly pleased with the treatment of Goblin’s power. He’s more of a smart bumpy Hulk, getting bigger and bigger and he goes along. The ending to the series just left me kinda…eh.
However, I was WOWed by Ult FF!!! I never figured Bendis and Millar would have this kind of symbiosis! It’s got a Millar scope plot with Bendis pacing and it works beautifully. I’m assuming Bendis scripted it. The dialog is fantastic. It actually sounds like what you’d think of three young people who are just figuring out they have these powers. They are learning as they go and no one is sure about what they can do. Which does actually make Thing jumping out of a building a bit of a sticking point with me, considering he had no idea if he could survive such a thing. I don’t usually gush about issues, but this one gets my highest recommendation. Check it out!
Agreed on Ultimate Six.
I forgot to pick up Ultimate FF this week. :smack:
Wait, what’s “Ultimate 6”?
Five of Spidey’s villains escape from government custody, and battle Spidey and the Avengers. More or less.
I picked up Superman, Green Lantern, Ultimate Fantastic 4 and JLA. (Warning, sporadic psuedo-spoilers may follow).
Superman was good, though the art was better than the story. Interesting that none of the Superman titles seem to be dealing with where Lex Luthor is now or what he’s become.
Green Lantern was, sadly, the return of the uber-hack Ron Marz to the writer’s desk. The start of the story didn’t fit the end of last month’s issue at all, and generally all the characters are once again acting like they did before Marz was replaced by talented writers a few years ago. Not good. Ron Marz sucks. I hope his stint is temporary, or I may drop the book again.
JLA was decent, but the story is kinda dumb, and Bern and Claremont seem to be writing it like it was some sort of 1980s comics. I mean, please, who uses thought bubbles anymore? Exactly.
Ultimate Fantastic 4 was pretty good, but I hope the book picks up soon, or it won’t hold my interest. Let’s see the team as a team already!
My purchases this week, as always, feel free to ask for more detail on any of them, otherwise, I will be brief.
Tales of the Vampires #4, #5 - I guess I missed #4 last month, so I bought both this week. Good stuff from actual Buffyverse writers… I love the framing sequence with the ancient vampire telling tales to junior Watchers… but Ben Edlund’s offbeat story in #4 takes the cake.
GI Joe : Reloaded #2 - There are too many GI Joe books out, Nevertheless, they’re pretty good… and this is the best of them.
Conan #3 - I’m still withholding judgment on Conan’s resurrection… seems pretty good, so far. Less like the Marvel comics and more like the novels.
Transformers : Generation One #4 - Too many Transformers books too. But, again, a good one. In this issue, we get to see ‘Supreme’ badass Omega Supreme kick a little tail.
Ultimate Six #7 - Meh.
New Mutants #12, #13 - Saw #13 had a cover featuring the New Mutants I remember, so I bought both of these. Rahne’s back, yay! That’s pretty much all I have to say about that.
X-Statix #22 - I’m so torn on this book. It’s delightfully offbeat and often funny… but I can’t stand Michael Allred’s art. It’s horrible. It’s an eyesore.
Legion #32 - I was always tepid with my feelings about the Legion - seems like a very interesting book, and I can’t wait to find out what the deal is with Superboy.
Birds of Prey #66 - Whee! A retro-tale with the original Canary? (No, not Tweety…) Sold! I like the guest penciller, but I don’t like the cover… Dan Brereton doesn’t do anything for me.
Batman #626 - Hm. I hated Nguyen’s work on the recent Doom Patrol, if I recall correctly, but he seems better here. As for plot… well, two classic Batman villains? Can’t go wrong with that.
Superman #204 - Huh? When did a bunch of people vanish? Great art, but did I miss a memo about the story…? Maybe they’ll tell me next issue.
My only book this week was Legion # 32. A better story than most of what Abnett and Lanning have been serving up lately, and looks like we’re about to get some closure on a festering subplot or two.
Point of order, Senator.
I see and hear a lot of Dopers gushing about Legion. They love Legion. They can’t get enough Legion. They get excited each time Legion comes out.
What’s Legion?
The current incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes, DC’s 30th century superteam.
Oooh, that’s my favorite artist you’re talking about! I love Allred’s quirky retro pop-art style, although I realize it isn’t for everyone. There’s a lot of older influence to his style–Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Alex Toth in particular–so his artwork stands out like a sore thumb today, especially in an “X” book. But ever since Allred and Milligan took over X-Force and then made it into X-Statix, it seems like people either love his art or vehemently hate it. I can’t think of another artist with such a polarizing effect on readers (except possibly Rob Liefeld)!
I’m not trying to flame you, but I’m just curious as to the artists you do like. Personally, I also like Art Adams, J. Scott Campbell, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, Jim Lee, Matt Wagner, Dave Stevens, Travis Charest, Darwyn Cooke, Tony Harris, Phil Noto, and John Cassaday.
Seriously. So does this whole story take place a year in the future or something? Or did everyone actually dissappear a year ago?
Art Adams, J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee immediately leap to mind as folks whose art I really enjoy. Other artists I like are Humberto Ramos, Ethan van Sciver, Rags Morales, Howard Porter, Adam Warren. I know some of the other names on your list but can’t picture their art at the moment… Adam Hughes, Kevin Maguire, Matt Wagner, Phil Noto, John Cassaday… can’t say I know the rest at all, off the top of my head.
I’m guessing it’s a year into the future, that’s the only thing that makes sense… maybe they’ll go into a year-long flashback starting next issue.
Harley & Ivy #1 hit the stands at my local comics shop. Very funny, attractive art, rather cool, girl on girl fight in the prison shower…for those that need fansevice, of course.
Oh! ME! Me! 
My local comics shop doesn’t carry PS238, so I picked up the last four issues at an out-of-town store I was in yesterday. I’ve been reading collections lately also; this week I picked up Red Son and Gotham Central. I also got the new issues of Abadazad and Wanted and the collected edition of the first three El Cazador issues.
Midnight, Mass #4 I was an unabashed fan of the first series, Bluebeard’s Castle, about the experiences of the glamorous, Nick-and-Nora-ish paranormal investigators Adam and Julie Kadmon, who inhabit the titular city. That doesn’t mean I didn’t recognize its flaws. From John Rozum’s comments over at Delphi, it seems that all of the points I objected to were rooted in editorial interference, but although that explains some of the problems, it doesn’t negate their existence.
I loved the first issue of this new miniseries, Here There Be Monsters, but it’s been up and down since. I loved the brash, aggressive, confident Julia Kadmon of Bluebeard’s Catle, and I wonder where she went. The timid little “ooh, i’m having a crisis of confidence” mouse doesn’t begin to compare, and the explanation the text provides for the change doesn’t quite jell with what happened in Bluebeard’s Castle. This issue carried the additional burden of feeling padded for page count. Pacing for the TPB is one thing, but this was outright stretched.
I’m crossing my fingers this series pulls itself out of the shallow grave it’s digging itself, because it has a great concept, some sharp one-liners, and the occasional glimmer of brilliance that it can’t quite sustain.
Midnight Nation - Well, it’s not at all what I expected! What had been described to me as a vampire story turned out to be a man’s very Christian spiritual quest story. Well illustrated, well written, not quite my thing. Lucifer’s given some credible motivations for his behavior, and, as is always the case when the devil’s given his due, I sided firmly with his point of view, if not his methods. The afterward is excellent, and well worth a read on its own if you ever get a chance to skim it.
Supreme: The Story of the Year.
Hmmm …
On the one hand, I think this is an amazingly well written book. More than one layer of meaning, a fairly dense plot, and an incredible ability to capture some of the tone of the Golden and Silver age comics. Only atrue master of his craft could weave so much into a book such as this. On the other hand …
I don’t like much in the way of pre-Vertigo comics, let alone Golden and Silver age material. Admiration for the metafictional elements of Moore’s writing carried me only so far before I finally called it quits. Although not opposed to good superhero stories, they’re always an uphill battle and this one defeated me before I reached the top of the hill.
Well worth reading for the right kind of person, but I’m not among them.
Point Blank #1-5 (reprinted in a TPB by DC/Wildstorm): A-
Ed Brubaker’s Point Blank TPB was a TIGHT piece of noir writing, with a lot of dark, seamy atmosphere and a real mind-fuck ending. You all know I like my comics dark and morally ambiguous, and prefer crime/noir/mystery stories to brightly-colored superheroics these days. This was perfect for me, since it is still set in the shadowy backalleys of a “shared universe” of people with powers.
Cole Cash, the Grifter from Wildcats, is the protagonist of Point Blank, and he plays the well-meaning P.I. who never really stands a chance against the forces conspiring against him. We meet Holden Carver, the central character of Sleeper, for the first time, and see a lot of old faces from the Wildstorm Universe: Backlash, the Gen13 kids, Jack Hawksmoor and Midnighter from the Authority, and more. You don’t need to know them to appreciate Point Blank, but I did, so it made the story resonate even more. Poor, poor Savant. (She was a character I loved from James Robinson and Alan Moore’s WildCATs runs–sort of an immortal female Indiana Jones type, a sexy, brainy alien anthropologist with teleporting boots.) Even if her scene hadn’t been spoiled for me in advance, it still packed an emotional punch. And no, she’s not dead or “refrigerated,” just fallen on some really hard times.
As the readers, Brubaker only allows us to know as much as Cash does, and when he finds out just how far things have gone and how bad they are and how out of his depth he is, we are as shocked and scared as he is. I really give this little TPB my highest recommendation, even if Colin Wilson’s art isn’t very pretty. Ed Brubaker is the MAN. I’m more excited about Sleeper than ever, and also for Wildcats 3.0, to see if these events changed Cole Cash at all in Joe Casey’s stories.
As an afterthought, I should add that you can probably enjoy Sleeper without reading Point Blank first, even though I recommend it the most to Sleeper fans. Also, if you read Alan Moore’s Wildcats: Homecoming and Gang War TPBs first, you’ll probably get even more of a kick out of this, but those definitely aren’t required reading.
My favorites this week:
The Punisher #5 Marvel Max: I saw issue 5 while browsing, and picked up #4 as well. I gotta say, this was one of the best Punisher books I have ever read. Back in the day, I used to love the psuedo-violence that the regular Marvel book had. After they got Frank correct in the Marvel Knights series I was impressed. A bit more violent, a bit more cursing, etc. Basiclly a more mature version.
Marvel Max though takes even that one step further. The violence is hyper-violent. Lots of cursing, lots of gore. Basiclly what The Punisher should have been years ago. Now, let me also say that the story was well thought out. Its not all about the gore. Oh, and Micro is back!!! Zoinks!
The Human Torch #12 Marvel: I have been enjoying this series more and more as it has gone along. The art and story are well done. This issue, Ben “The Thing” Grimm makes a guest apperance. The ending also has a good moral at the end, so its an excellent book (and series) for those with young 'uns.