Getting it started. Haven’t gotten to read mine yet.
Astonishing X-Men #10 : The good news, Whedon did have something up his sleeve other than “holodeck’s on the fritz again!” The better news, it’s awesome. Danger (as I think the incarnated Danger room is called) is a plausible villain with a nasty (but not perfect!) knowledge of her foes and their tactics. Wall-to-wall smackdown, but a really smart one.
Aquaman #30: You know, perhaps J’onn did have a point last issue. Orin seems entirely too dependent on outside help. The SD coroners, the Scarecrow (shoulda been the Riddler), guy just can’t do it on their own. The science here is… Interesting, but I’m glad to see that they’re at least having some fun with the possible consequences of non-human physiology here.
Green Lantern Rebirth #6: Okay, let me get this out of the way first. It kicked ass. I was especially enamored of the different ways the Lanterns expressed their powers.
Now then. Batman is not an asshole. He’s emotionally cold, grim, authoritarian, and prone to extremism in his quest (although that last part is at least partially an affectation to scare crooks), but he’s also incredibly moral, rational, compassionate, and would welcome the Joker with open arms, should he ever actually reform. This isn’t that Batman.
Yes, I know, he was under the influence of Parallax, but so was Superman (and he’s just as authoritarian as Batman, truth be told, he just doesn’t wear it as proudly) and he didn’t do anything. Batman was also standing in for the readers (well, some of them). He was right. Nobody should trust Hal, and Parallax being a separate entity is just a tad fishy. But Johns doesn’t care. These are good narrative reasons, and I’d shrug them off if I wasn’t concerned with the increasing dickification of Batman in general. He’s not a nice man, but he is a fundamentally good and decent one, and that’s getting lost.
Also, weren’t the Guardians (save Ganthet) dead? I’m still not sold on the character of Hal. It may just be that he’s set up against Batman, but he’s not my cup of tea. Arrogant, when he’s not being boring. I’ll still give his series a shot.
Rann-Thanagar War #1: Awesome! The best of the IC stuff yet (although OMAC is still MIA). Great conflict, great action. Unlike teh others, it hops right into the thick of things. You really get a sense of the scale and stakes for this one. Adam’s new outfit kicks ass. Is this anything like Strange’s recnet mini? I may have to watch for that one in TPB.
I didn’t go to my shop today, but on Saturday I picked up She-Hulk #7, 8, 9, and 12, and loved them. I now plan to track down #10 and 11 and the first TPB, because I just loved this comic. Who knew I’d ever admit to being a She-Hulk fan? I also got several Free Comic Book Day books.
I also got a big lot of Question comics that I won on eBay. #12-36 (missing only one issue in between) and a few Annuals and Quarterlies, all for less than $8 shipped! I’m a pretty big Question fan, so it will be great to finally read these.
Owly: The Way Home and The Bittersweet Summer – I will never be able to describe in words how wonderful this thing is. Which is not terribly surprising as there are only a handful of words in the whole book; the stories are told with the expressions on the characters’ faces. Andy Runton has done something truly special here, and it’s the first all-ages comic I’ve ever seen that is really all-ages – OK for a 4 year old, OK for a 44 year old. Just wonderful.
Mnemovore #2 – I really liked the first issue and this one is almost as good. There’s some info here about what the thing is that’s tormenting Kaley, and I hope it’s more complcated than that, but that’s a minor problem given how well the characters are crafted and the mood is maintained. The art is largely gorgeous. I’m in for the duration.
The Atheist #1 – Good start. Interesting problem and the main character is someone I’d like to follow. There are lots of wrong paths this could go down (for instance, how can you be a skeptic when you have such a near-magical ability?) and I don’t see as the premise could be maintained long term, but for the time being it’s pretty cool.
More to come.
–Cliffy
Got last week’s and this week’s yesterday…
Ultimate Spider-Man: Sad to say, it’s just more of the same. SM fights big bad guy, decides he can’t be with MJ, they break up. Yawn. The Nick Fury stuff is good though. Does SHIELD really have the ability to do what he says?
Ultimate FF: Twas fun but I kept getting distracted by the aliens that were a blatant rip off of Jawas and Tusken Raiders that go so far as to use Gaffi sticks as their main weapons. That is pretty sad coming from an otherwise great artist.
Excalibur: I don’t normally buy X-titles but this was to be a House of M tie-in (which I’m really looking forward to. The 6 page preview looks great). What a crock. I wish I’d flipped thru it at the shop. There are like 3 or 4 pages of Prof X asking Dr. Strange for a hand. The rest was some story in which I’d no interest. Give me my $2.99 back, dammit.
Marvel Nemesis: Imperfects: Thought I’d give it a shot mainly because I like fighting games with Marvel characters (Marvel vs Capcom 2 is one of the greatest fighters out there) and I wanted to justify new characters in the game. Sadly this book actually does read like a thrown together backstory for a video game rather than an actual story. I won’t be picking up the other 5 issues.
Oh, by the way, Menocchio, Kyle reconstituted the Guardians during the end of Winnick’s run on GL.
–Cliffy
Missed Astonishing X-Men. Crap.
So far, I’ve read two of mine : **Freedom Force ** #4, which continues to recap the events of the first game, and Fantastic Four, which wraps up the Diablo and dream plots in a neat little bow.
That was pretty hot. I actually liked Guy in this series. He was more than just a token asshole and was actually funny (ie saluting Batman while Hal and he were having their discussion towards the end). I had to laugh at
Hal slugging Batman
Guess he wasn’t prepared for that.
As for the Guardians, Kyle temporarily gained the ability to tap into the full power of the Central Power Battery and with that gained god-like abilities (but he had to learn how to use them. Very well handled IMHO.). He eventually decided to return the power to the Central Battery, but before fully handing over the power he re-created the Guardians as toddlers. (See the paperback The Power of Ion) I’m not sure how they got so old so fast.
Rann-Thanagar War: A little slow for me, but a lot of good stuff building up. Too bad they’re kicking Kyle off the planet, but it could make for interesting stories and cross-overs.
I also picked up a few back issues. I got Firestorm #80 because after reading The Crisis of Infinite Earths I liked the character. I got JSA #67 because of the Identity Crisis tie-in. I liked the way it made the characters more human, for lack of a better phrase.
I also have this week’s Outsiders, JSA, and last week’s Birds of Prey to read. Back later.
A big fat red herring?
Reading OUTSIDERS #23 reminded me of Agatha Christies’ mysteries, where the round Belgian detective Poirot or the elderly English spinster, Marple, interviewed one suspect after another, compared their stories, looked for discrepancies, and announced who the murderer was in a drawing room finale. As in those stories, Roy’s interviews showcased each character, and most of them rang true - Nightwing’s acceptance, Grace’s impatience (Kory’s reactions falling somewhere between the two), Thunder’s honesty, and Jades disappointment (though I wished we’d seen more of this “caring” for team members she professes earlier in the series: I was ready to label Jenny-Lynn the traitor). However dramatic, for some reason the ending of the issue didn’t convince. It’s all just too pat, and [spoiler]Shift’s denial at stories end reminded me too much of Cassandra Nova’s protests at the close of, “E for Extinction”, Morrison’s introductory arc to his run on New X-Men. If I’m right, all that Roy Harper accomplished was to give several teammates good reason to leave the team once the crossover with the Titans is over (of which is the prelude). That might have been the whole point to this chapter, as the “Titans of Tomorrow” story arc suggested a shuffling of team members in the near future.
That said, I felt sorry for Indigo. Her romance with Shift was one of the most appealing things about the book, and balanced the messier relationships between the “older” members of the crew. I hope I’m right and they get the chance to resume their affair later (unless the little blue robot is the real traitor). Personally I’m betting on Jade (who moved against Nightwing’s leadership earlier, took it for herself, and then did squat) or Arsenal, via hypnotic suggestion.[/spoiler]
Gods & Magic
Having enjoyed the Hawkman/JSA - Black Reign Crossover a while back, I picked up JSA #73, the first of a three part sequel to that earlier event. (Great Ross cover by the way). It all looks pretty interesting, (particularly the meeting between the new Crimson Avenger and the Spectre: she’s wouldn’t be a bad candidate to host the Spirit of Vengeance), but I wasn’t sufficiently inspired let myself get tied into yet another Countdown Spin-off, and this story is definitely connected to Days of Vengeance, Talking Chimp, Big Red Cheese, and all. Still it was good to see Black Adam again, and learn his reasons for throwing in with Lex Luthor and the Secret Society (see Villains United). I hope he isn’t going to be made to pay for trying to free his people back home in Khandaq, as the Authority was for saving the world. I also felt mildly cursed when I found an ad for the upcoming The Return of Donna Troy in this issue. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed the Teen Titans and The Outsiders these past two years. To see these titles tied into the upcoming Donna Troy story actually depressed me. I couldn’t give a flying g@dd@mn for Donna Troy. This issue underscores the down side of DC’s decision to link as many titles as possible to the big Crisis event of the summer. I really hope the pay off turns out to be worth it. There’s nothing worse than a big crossover event with a lousy ending.
Speaking of Wonder Women, past and present, whose side is Ares really on, in Wonder Woman #216? The side of Diana, Cassandra, Ferdinand and Pallas Athena? Or the side of Hades, Poseiden and Zeus? Ares flip-flops confuse me. He should be called Loki. Having followed some of Cassandra’s encounters with Ares in the Teen Titans I enjoyed their meeting in the Underworld (though one would think they’d have brought this particular subplot to a close by now). Rags Morales and Mark Propst’s shadowy, almost sculptural, art lent this journey to Hades, with all of it’s attendant temptations and horrors just the right feel of weight and menace, and the action scenes were filled with muscular power just short of that Morales brought to his recent run on Hawkman. Good stuff. Having returned late to Rucka’s Wonder Woman #216, I have to say that it’s the most interesting (and most Vertigo-like) issue of the amazon’s adventures I’ve read in quite a while, something that surprises me given the weight of the political elements in the earlier stories of his run.
Fast Futures, Faster Prose
A breathless story comes to an equally breathless close in Adam Strange #8. One world survives, but another is doomed, and we’re off and running, right into the Rann Thanagar War #1, the start of an even bigger, faster, and more complex interplanetary adventure. Visually Rann Thanagar #1 is glorious (if a bit overstuffed), in a very 90’s way. Every page is literally filled with figures in flight. It all looks like great fun, but I’m afraid my mind (and wallet) could use a break, so I might pass on this Countdown spin-off, just as I passed on Days of Vengeance. (I’m already following the earth-bound story in two other Countdown spin-offs, *Villains United * and - assuming the next issue makes up for the first - The OMAC Project. If it doesn’t I might take another look at Rann-Thanagar or Days of Vengeance, which looks like it might be the meatier of the two.) However if you found Diggle and Ferry’s Adam Strange more exciting than, say, current story arcs in the Teen Titans, I’d say, go with Rann-Thanagar War instead.
Equally fast paced was Ellis and JH William the Third’s Desolation Jones an old fashioned, sleazy L.A. Noir detective story, almost completely camouflaged by Ellis’ trademarked post modernist scifi/pulp fiction intell-babble. What separates this story from say, Red, Reload or Global Frequency is the quality of the prose narration, that sweeps the reader along at a breakneck pace, and satisfies our pretensions, intellectual, cultural and otherwise. (One almost feels like patting oneself on the back for catching references to post modern thinkers like Balldrillaurd, among others.) I think I just might buy into this, being a fan of noir, sci-fi and spy novels. Of course Mr. Williams art helps matters along just fine, with an inked finish that recalls Jae Lee’s best work. I’m so glad he’s free and clear of Moore’s Prometha. While I revere that writer, that last epic flew off the rails for me, a ways back. If Desolation Jones turned you on, I suggest looking up Delano and Quitely’s first three part storyarc in** 20/20 Visions #1-3** about the dealings of a 60 year old pornographer forced underground in a Femi-nazi America teetering on the brink of riots, just like LA. The only difference between that and the real City of Angles is, out here, pornographers operate in the open, and people celebrate the fact that many young women become strippers to make a decent living. Urban sprawl indeed.
Something I’ve noticed in these threads…
Am I the only Marvel Zombie here? I notice most of the talk concerns DC. I’m not a Marvel elitist; DC has some great stuff. But I started out on Marvel as a kid and now I buy too many comics as it is. I couldn’t afford to add a whole other universe to my collection.
I guess I’ve always preferred DC characters, mostly because the Super Friends cartoon and Super Powers action figures introduced me to comic book superheroes in the first place, and then the Justice League International series captured my imagination in elementary school and I’ve loved it ever since. I went through a major X-Men phase around 1991-92 (at their peak) and I stayed loyal to the G.I. Joe and Transformers series throughout their runs, but I’ve just never collected as many Marvel books as DC (plus DC also had Vertigo and Wildstorm, for more diversity). I get into Marvel books every now and then (Milligan and Allred’s X-Force, most recently Slott’s She-Hulk) and I’ve read plenty of indies over the years, but deep down, I’ll always love the DCU (and Vertigo-type stuff) the best.
I’ve never been an exclusive fan of Marvel, though I was initially an exclusive fan of DC.
I’ve just always been a DC fan myself. I’ve read some Marvel issues from time to time, and I enjoyed the Spiderman movies and I’m looking forward to FF, but I’ve just always generally preferred DC.
As for this week…
Outsiders - I have a hunch that Shift is innocent and Arsenal knows it. I think this is a set up to flush out somebody else, and Shift was in on it from the start. We’ll see.
Action - not a bad story, but…Byrne? Come on. There are so many better artists out there.
GL Rebirth - a satisfying ending, especially since Kyle isn’t being ignored. I too wonder about the Guardians though. They seem older than they should be at this point.
Wonder Woman - Ares seems to be on Diana’s side and I suspect he is, but as the “god of conflict” as he called himself recently, I imagine he’s enjoying this situation and it’s to his benefit to egg on both sides. Now…who is Cassie’s father? Both Zeus and Ares seem to have denied it, although remember when Cassie met her father and the drawing she’d given Zeus was on the fridge door? Maybe he was lying. Of course, Hermes is the god of thieves…
First off, my apologies for the screw up with the Spoiler Function. Still figuring that stuff out. I asked the mods to delete the non spoilered post above.
While agree there’s a big element of Batman’s character is getting lost these days (underscored by my watching of the Animated Series Box set – where the Bruce Wayne and Batman personas are well integrated – unlike the comics) there is another issue here: in Batman #639 Winnick and Mahnke show Batman getting sharp with Zatanna, and Green Arrow, over mindwiping him in Identity Crisis. Hal Jordan had a hand in that as well. That might have something to do with it.
Despite the fact my first comic book was a Joe Kubert Hawkman, I read Marvel exclusively for years. This was largely because of the great writing and art in books like *Spiderman, Howard the Duck, Conan the Barbarian, Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu, Warlock and Tomb of Dracula, in the seventies, but following the boom of independents and the advent of Alan Moore (and Frank Miller’s brief move over to DC) there was a perceptable shift to DC Comics, esp. as they got more and more experimental with their titles and characters (granted it was a glacial shift, but still…). So today the ratio’s reversed. I think I read three times as many DC titles than Marvel books, with a sprinkling of indies here and there.
When I first got into comics I read exclusively Marvel, but since I’ve been back into comics (about five years now), DC has consistently put out a wider range of interesting material. There have always been exceptions, of course, but if your primary interest isn’t superheroes (as mine isn’t) you’re going to find more published by DC that is worth purchasing.
–Cliffy
I’m not an exclusive fan of DC or Marvel, although I find myself now reading more DC. I read what I like, and I’ll quickly drop issues I don’t like. When Marvel went all X all the time, and ‘forced’ me to buy bad comics to follow the stories in the books I liked, and kept switching my favorite characters to bad comics, I dropped everything X like a stone. I’ve never turned back.
That’s a possibility that hadn’t occurred to me.
Dunno’ if you’d noticed, but Kyle’s in the first issue of Rann Thanagar War, taking orders from Kilowog, who seems to be the Oans (I thought they were all dead) messenger boy these days.
[quote]
Wonder Woman - Ares … , but as the “god of conflict” … , I imagine he’s enjoying this situation and it’s to his benefit to egg on both sides. [/qupte]
That’s an interesting point of view. Very Gaiman.
Sorry to say I don’t recall the scene. Though I have been following Ares appearances in the Teen Titans, where he regularly shows up to give Cassandra Sandsmark the creeps. (I haven’t read WW regularly since the Messmer-Loeb & Deodato run (I liked the whole Artemis storyline), and picked up WW #215 & 216 for Rags Morales’ pencils. I’ve followed his work for sometime, though I really think he came into his own with Mike Bair on Johns’ Hawkman)
The 90’s Xmen crossovers rendered the Mutant titles unreadable for a decade.
I’m worried that DC might be overdoing the same tactic with the whole, Identity Crisis-Countdown-OMAC, Rann Thanagar, VU, Vengeance - Infinite Crisis thing. (It def. looks like overkill, doesn’t it?) Bad timing, given the quality of writing on some of these books. (I’ve heard the summer Batman crossover cost loyal readers Brubaker’s Catwoman, an excellent book, all around.)
I agree that the situation has gotten worse in recent months, and that is definitely due to the IC events. But I’m not at all confident that “nice underneath it all” Batman will return once that conflict is resolved. Time will tell, I guess. Besides, the transition of Batman from “dark and brooding hero” to “barely contained psychopath” started well before Identity Crisis.
As for DC vs Marvel, I’ve always preferred DC. The Dini/Timm Batman was my gateway, and it just spread throughout teh DCU from there. Once the Morrison JLA started, I was a goner. Plus, DC’s subsidaries, like Vertigo and ABC are also putting out some of the best stuff out there.
I like sidekicks, so…