If any Houston people are going to Free Comic Book Day this weekend, I will be hosting a demo of Magic: the Gathering at Bedrock City Comic Company at 6517 Westheimer. Come down and meet me and get some free swag.
Ultimate FF: This has been my favorite title month in, month out since it came out. Great book.
I Hunt Monsters from Antarctic Press is amusing, & has fun art, as well as a vampire babe. With a ponytail.
Teen Titans, based on the Cartoon Network series, has a fun plot that reminds me of the Silver Age comics. Art is improving.
Am I really the first person on this thread who read Sleeper Season II #1?!
It’s been a Sleeper week over here, starting with the second TPB, All False Moves. No matter what Ed Brubaker - one of the best in the biz - writes in the future, I think Sleeper will always be his masterpiece. All False Moves is nothing less than an investigation of the nature of good and evil, as played out in a battle for the soul of a deep cover double agent. Odd for a diehard atheist to use such religiously loaded language, but there are no other terms with which to describe it. I can think of very, very few comics that I’d mention it in the same breath with, and most of the others were written by Alan Moore in the proto-Vertigo days. . Yes, it’s that good. I don’t care that I bought a badly misbound copy for full price, because nothing is going to pry this masterpiece from my hands.
With that as a lead-in, I couldn’t help but be excited about the beginning of Season II. Brubaker continues to move the plot in the logical and heartbreaking directions that flow naturally from the characters’ origins and experiences. This first issue is merely very, very good instead of brilliant, but still miles ahead of almost everything else on the stands. There’s no reason why someone who had never read season I couldn’t jump on board with this issue, although a slightly fuller explanation of Miss Misery’s origins would probably have been beneficial to a new reader.
I had raised an eyebrow at the marketing taglines - something about “Super powered life on the wrong side of the law” - because the first season was a sci-fi espionage thriller in the tradition of Philip K. Dick or William Gibson, and not anything I’d consider superhero. Although it’s still a far cry from a traditional superhero book, there are certainly signs that it’s being nudged gently in that general direction. None of the changes are anything likely to alienate the book’s core audience, and will probably help sales to the mainstream comic readers. We’ll see. Certainly I have faith in Brubaker and Phillips to maintain this book’s position as the best thing from the Big 2.
Despite disliking the monthly floppy format, I’m going to be dragging my butt into the shop every month to get my fix, rather than waiting for the TPBs. If your shop still has copies of this issue I’d recommend grabbing one, because Big Bad Voodoo Lou’s experience seems to be pretty common based on what I’m hearing. I think I nabbed my shop’s second to last copy, and that was Wednesday evening.
Dammit. Everyone keeps mentioning Ultimate FF - now I’m going to have to start reading that now, aren’t I?
Well, only if you want to be cool. 
Damn, like that’s an obtainable goal around here! I just started collecting!
I just finished up reading Superman: Red Son. What a fantastic read! I was worried it was going to turn into a Batman: DNR remix when Oliver showed his face and Batman started plotting. But it didn’t, and it was a good read. One plothole, though:
If the narration is being done by Superman, and it’s stretching into the future where Luthor’s distant relative is Jor-L, and the Earth is crashing into the sun (which has shifted into red), why is Superman still around? The sun has been red for several centuries!
Supes is still hanging around becasue thanks to the Genius of the Luther line, people live for hundreds of years. Its in the last few pages, a few panels after Lex bites the big one
On a side note, I just finished THe Dark Knight Strikes again, and I just want to know what the hell drugs frank miller is on and please someone get him in a program. There were so many things wrong with that book I could start not only a thread but a lecture seris on A&E about it. Jesus, the only thing that saved it is when Supes made the earth move (If you read it, you know if not…woah)
Crap I’m the worst coded on the east coast
damn it, somebody report that please, I can’t seem to report my own posts :smack:
I wouldn’t sweat it. But I should amend my “centuries” to “millenia”. Supes should have been long gone by then, regardless of longevity pills, no? He increased the life expectency to 800 years. Certainly it takes millions of years for the sun to shift red.
IT would take millions of years to shift to red, but as along as it was still admiting yellow rays, he’d still have some bit of his super powers. SO you figgure Lex gets life expectancy up to 800 in HIS lifetime, what would his sires do over the next 4 or 5 million years?
And the rest:
Transformers Summer Special - Battle Beasts Cameo. Beast Wars backup feature. Nice.
Transformers : Micromasters #1 - Pretty good. Cluttered art, though. Too many Transformers titles.
GI Joe #31 - Same old, same old. It’s a pretty good same old, of course. Destro manipulating expertly, dissension in the GI Joe ranks…
**
Green Lantern #178** - I’m starting to want Hal back sooner.
X-Statix #24 - Some very amusing bits. But that’s all… bits.
Batman #629 - Please change artists. Now.
Invincible #13 - Probably the best Superhero title in ten years. Just keeps getting better.
I have to comment on **Wolverine/Punisher #4 **in the Marvel Knights line.
Like Ultimate FF, this has been hands down one of my favorite Punisher books month in month out. Peter Milligan has got to be one of my favorite writers recently.
Wolverine and The Punisher have found a city (called Erewhon) of the worst criminals and scum in South America. During one scene in the book, the Punisher is fighting a group of the criminals and says in thought:
“I’ve been told plenty that things aren’t as black and white as I see them. Well here in Erewhon, they are. There are no innocent bystanders. There are no civilians.”
“So let this be armageddon.”
:eek:
Brilliant.
This is what the Punisher was meant to be. I hope you’ll give it a try.