It’s that time of week again.
My Pick O’the Week?
Identity Crisis #1. I’m a sucker for a crossover. I’m a sucker for the Silver-Age satellite-era JLA. I guess I’m just a sucker.
Nevertheless, excellent writing here. Art… hmm… mostly good, but some panels look weak.
And the terrible, terrible spoilers…
They killed Sue Dibny!
Hmm. Slow today. Next of my stuff this week :
Green Arrow - Wrapping up the big “blackout” storyline, we get to see a big old battle. A moral dilemma is presented at the end of the book… but it twisted in exactly the way I expected.
Fables - Wooha! Another big stinkin battle. Excellent stuff. Snicker-snack.
Other purchases : Action #816 - Glad to see that Gog’s still getting some play, but … liquid Kryptonite?
Witches #1 - Dr. Strange assembles a team of three witches to deal with a mystical problem… one of whom I think I may have heard of before. Charlie’s Angels jokes ensue. Not bad.
Bite Club #3 - Vampire Mafia - Still a cool idea. They need Ninja Pirates though.
Emma Frost #12 - And Emma finally goes blonde.
Ultimate X-Men–I dunno. It’s just…plodding along. Where’s the creepy Professor X from the earlier books? Where’s the vaguely surreal atmosphere? Nowdays it seems like it’s just another X-Book (abeit one MUCH more coherent than most)
Spec. Spidey-Blah. Hello? Paul Jenkins? You’re not in the Ultimates universe. Cap is not (and he’s not perceived as) a “jarhead from another time-zone”. He and Spidey like each other in the regular Marvelverse and have for years. This was gross mischaracteriztion all around…plus the story wasn’t all that good.
Marvel Knights-Spider-Man Mark Millar has a unique voice and can be very good when he’s not trying desperately to be a Warren Ellis/Grant Morrison clone. He’s not trying that here. This story-arc is excellent (although I have no idea how he’s going to resolve things without it all being a dream). Also, give it up, Marvel–there’s really nothing wrong with Electro’s costume and every attempt to “fix” it looks stoopid. Also, the Venom-Vulture costume doesn’t have a 10th of the panache of the Ditko original. Really, all the years I worked in a comic store, all the fans I know and I’ve never had anyone rant about how lame Electro’s costume is. (Although this iteration is far better than Byrne’s horrible blue jumpsuit)
Hero–Weird, but still enjoyable. I’ve never heard of the writer before this series. Anyone know anything else he’s done?
Batman-Death and the Maidens-Rucka is the only writer at DC (outside of the “Batman Adventures” crew) who understands Batman. This was a good series, although I give it…oh…4 months before it’s undone.
Action–Well, the logo looks good. Can’t say much for the interior though. Blah.
Knights of the Dinner Table–This is so dumb and so fun. I wasted so many years gaming with people JUST! LIKE! THESE!
Bone- Um. That’s it? That’s the big finale? And Smith stuck a recycled short story in the middle of the big final issue? (The Christmas/Quiche thing first appeared about 6 years ago). This book really jumped the shark. I doubt either would appreciate the comparison, but it reminds me of Cerebus in that both creators completely lost control of their respective stories. And the very end was limp. Wadda letdown. 
Fables–I don’t buy you-know-who’s death. The wooden soldiers were specificially told to keep an eye out for him. They had to have been shown pictures, etc. I love this book, but that bit didn’t ring true.
Witches–What CandidGamera said, with the following triva: Topaz was a mystic chick that hung with WEREWOLF BY NIGHT. She has the ability to make magic soap-bubbles appear from her head that make Satan/Mephisto/Whichever disappear. She also hung with the TOMB OF DRACULA crowd for a while. She didn’t used to be black/Indian/whatever. I don’t care that she is now, but just FYI, if you go looking for back-issues, don’t be surprised to see someone who looks like Gwen Stacey)* . Jennifer Kale was a mystic chick that hung out with Man-Thing/Dakhim the Enchanter back in their ADVENTURES INTO FEAR days–she was big in the storyline that introduced Howard The Duck–neat character. My fav of the three. Satana was a “Daughter of Satan” type–I think she’s related to Damien Hellstrom, but I’m not positive. I never read her book.
For the book itself, I don’t like the McFarlane-esque art
Fenris
*Note, the “magic bubbles” thing appeared in TOMB OF DRACULA around issue #62 or so. If you’re ever looking for stunningly good (and, last I checked, cheap) back issues, I can’t recommed TOMB OF DRACULA #44-7x(74? 75? the last issue) highly enough. It ranks in the Moore Swamp-Thing category for quality runs of a book.
I’m sad that this thread got more responses than mine. Even if CG was three of them…
Given that the last Essential ToD was about the size of Church and State 1, I think Vol. 3 will take care of the run. Man, what a great comic. Even when Drac starts cracking wise in issue #35. Whatever happened to Colan? I recall he came back in the early '90s for one more ToD go-round, but then I lost track.
A) TOD was so-so from about 1-12, good from about 12-25, great from about 25-43 and became magic from 44-7X
B) Colan (IIRC) kept doing Daredevil (with spiffy inking by Klaus Jansen, IIRC again) and after that (when Miller took over) he went DC and did a wonderful run of Bat-books (excellent stuff, some of his best). He also did a much forgotten (bad writing wonderful art) series called NIGHT FORCE that introduced Baron Winters.
C) Repeat after me: Tomb of Dracula ended at #75(ish). ANY books featuring ANY of the characters from TOD after that are just an illusion. 
Seriously. TOD’s ending was so perfect that the later redoings were just painful to watch. (And they never did get the characterization of Drac right again)
Fenris
I’m sorry! I even posted once in your thread after starting mine… but then no one was posting in either… and I had to put my summaries somewhere…