Starting very early as I will be busy immediately after work, and have fantastic news! According to the AICN report posted today, Dan Slott will be returning in December to give us the GLX : Christmas Special. That’s right folks, the Great Lakes X-Men! Woohoo!
Awesome.
Asterix and Cleopatra. Now I understand why all the European comics fans I know have such fond memories of this series from their childhoods - it’s a scream! The book was enjoyable for me as an adult, and I would have madly loved it as a kid. Why didn’t someone tell me comics could be like this a lot sooner?
Selkie, I tried to, but my British made time machine doesn’t work. “Those Brittons are crazy.”
I’m just cross-posting something from Geoff Johns’ message board, regarding an issue that comes out today, Green Arrow #53. I don’t ever buy Green Arrow, but I’m tempted to get this one, and y’all might consider it as well.
I actually considered starting this at 11:59 last night just as a joke. Great minds, I suppose.
I picked up a few JLEs last night including #9 in which Superman performs surgery on Power Girl. It actually makes sense within the story. I always thought it seemed silly.
I may pick up this current Green Arrow arc at a later time as I’m hearing good things so far. I have at least seven books I’m interested in this week and I think the new Freshmen and Fathom are coming out (don’t quote me).
Villains United #4: If my extremely vague knowledge of Portuguese (and things that look like Portuguese) serves, the guide is saying, “Many thanks, my young one…and always a pleasure to guide someone as pretty as you.” I love Dr. Psycho’s “Are we supervillains or Rotarians?” Is crawling through sewer pipes going to be a theme for the crisis? (See also last months Rann/Thanagar.)
We learn that supervillains don’t practice safe sex.
Zatanna #3: A cover right out of an Olivia design, and inside we see a bit more of Z. than in the previous issues. Is she borrowing Power Girl’s wardrobe? A lot going on in this issue, with strong tie-ins to Shining Knight and Seven Soldiers #0.
JLA #119: Uh, Perry, you’ve already got a full cup of coffee on your desk.
Rann-Thanagar War #4: I have no idea what’s going on in this comic.
Lex Luthor #5: MIA. Apparently it didn’t ship this week. I suspect Azzarello is still trying to figure out how the hell he’s going to resolve everything from the previous four issues in just one comic.
Heh. I also noticed that when Faust was hitting Superman with “The Rays of the Red Sun of Krypton”* his blasts were… Blue? I don’t think the art editor was on the ball in this one.
*Magically conjured red sun energy? That’s just overkill. What, Faust, you couldn’t work in Kryptonite anywhere there?
Villains United #4: Excellent issue. I came into the series not knowing any character except Deadshot, and now I’m dreading leaving them behind in two issues. Simone’s really drawn the characters well,a nd the action ain’t too shabby either. Even the art was better. I dug the alternaye stealth costumes.
Green Arrow #53: Picked up on the above recommendation. It’s… Okay. I like Arrow, and I like Grundy, but this story threw away everything I knew about Grundy’s origin. Since when was there a serum?
JLA #117: Okay. Besides the art issues, this was a pretty solid issue. I wonder how the League will handle this. Even if they do the easy thing and have Zatanna zap them, it’s morally questionable, but still a far cry from Light’s lobotomy.
Rann-Thanagar War #4: not bad. Good action. Interesting plot. I do wish there was more interstellar intrigue and war stories, and less zombie and giant alien hell god stomping.
Batman Dark Detective #6: The Joker’s fun, but the love story kinda just… ended.
Zatanna #3: I hate this version of the costume, which is a shame, because the version worn by Beth in last Week’s Y is among my all-time favorites. Some oblique references to current happenings in the DCU. I’m really digging this.
Batman #643 Ah, shit. It’s a crossover. Dammit, and I was so enjoying this book.
Ultimate FF - The crossover continues, and is a fun read - though one wonders how a disease overtook the Odinson and the Lion of Olympus.
Villains United - Spiffing! Loved the Inferior Five cameo.
Ultimates 2 Annual - An intriguing story of an assassination attempt wrapped around insights into the Super-soldier program.
Nightwing - Most of the book wasn’t terribly interesting to me, as it builds on the book’s recent continuity, but I bought it because of the last panel anyway.
Action - Villains United tie-in, and next month’s should have a nice fight between Supes and Black Adam, if the blurbs are to be believed. Byrne’s art is… good. Maybe it’s the inker.
Majestic - He’s back in the present of the Wildstorm U, and things are starting to take shape. I have high hopes for this book, I’d like to see the Wildstorm U have at least a few monthly ongoing titles.
Green Arrow - Bought on recommendation, and I liked it. GA is well-written here.
Outsiders - Meh. Though it appears Katana will be joining Wonder Woman’s faction.
Zatanna - “It was a perfectly normal day. Breakfast with the Phantom Stranger…” Heh. It does seem to be weaving together nicely, and unfortunately, it does seem its going to be tied to current continuity. Dammit.
Doom Patrol #14 - bought it because I heard it gave insight into why no one remembered the originals. Kinda, but not as much as one would’ve liked.
Still have several to read…
Hey, can anyone who reads Firestorm brief me on who was in the energy core with Firestorm (and how they got captured)?
See, unlike OMAC, this one incorporated meaningful plot points from other books, without leaving folks only reading the core mini in the dark.
Last week’s Firestorm had Amazo show up, disguised as J’onn, and KO the new Firestorm to take him back to the Society. That’s all I got for you.
Brief notes:
City of Heroes #4.
Remember how good Common Grounds was? Well, he’s writing City of Heroes now, and Troy Hickman’s talents are as suited for CoH as Joss Whedon is for X-Men. Buy it. This feels like the game.
Also, Aaron Archer has another story with the Nodwick Crew in spandex. They’re up to Junior Hero 004.
Top Ten #1 … five years later, and seems interesting. Love the new cars.
Live Wires #6 … Yeah, that’s a good end. A good start for an end, at least. Did you pick up on the glasses? I did.
Question: J’onn is afraid of fire. Firestorm’s hair is flames. Was this mentioned in the book? Can J’onn and Flame-head work together without J’onn freaking out?
I only picked up a few titles this week. Lex Luthor #5 didn’t ship and JSA: Classified #2 wasn’t there either. Perhaps the DC website was wrong (shocking.)?
Fathom #3: Some blogger, I wish I could remember who, described Fathom as pretty pictures looking for a story. I think they finally got it this time: beautiful pictures and a story that’s starting to heat up. Very cool.
New Books for August 10, 2005.
“So many books came out this week, which to start with? I doubt I’ll be able to get to them all in one sitting….”
Jeph Loeb gives us a surprisingly sympathetic Kara-El in Supergirl #1 (I passed on the Turner cover. I just don’t care for his drawing style). I enjoyed the character bits about Kara’s insecurities about lacking connections to the world outside Paradise Isle, her “girl talk” with Courtney, and her unsatisfactory conversation with the even more messed up Power Girl. (heck, after that the girl should be relieved if she doesn;t turn out to be her sister. Madness could be genetic.)
I like the way Rapmund’s inks look over Churchill’s Jim Lee-ish pencils (most noticeable in the way he renders Solomon Grundy and the men of the JSA). He lends Churchill’s work a solidity I can’t recall seeing his work having before. I especially liked the two page splash when Krypton detonates. The only thing I didn’t care for was the way Ian Churchil renders Power Girl. Here she looks like an anorexic with an ill-advised boob job. Whatever happened to the full figure Wally Wood once blessed her with? Too many thin chicks in the comics these days,…
Terrific’s theory and the conversation with Karen makes me wonder if the new Supergirl might be some sort of clone, or possibly the key to recreation of an Earth-2. It’s far too early yet to even think about adding this to my “pull and hold” list, but I liked it a lot more than I expected. I’ll take a look at the next issue.
Frank Cho’s brings his Shanna the She Devil story to a decent enough, if quick close with issue #7 this month. A bit straightforward but the art is a nice as ever. If Cho continues this story, I see it going in a direction very much like the Chris Lambert/Iam Holm film Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan with the good doctor standing in for Ian Holm’s benevolent Belgian explorer. It’s a relief really, I couldn’t see how the story could rightly continue without him.
In Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #3 things get seriously weird fast, for there is more to Misty the Goth Girl than we ever knew. It’s all in fun, but,… Sir Justin? I thought the Seven Soldiers stories were supposed to be self contained. Zatanna’s feeling guilty about doing things super-heroines aren’t supposed to do? Please don’t tell me this ties into Countdown too! Well, Sook’s art is nice.
After growing up with nuclear proliferation and the arms race between the superpowers, the idea that General Fury might expand his superhuman ‘deterrent’ in Ultimates Annual #1 doesn’t surprise me at all. What does surprise me is that mark didn’t have the reserves represent ultimized versions of underutilized and pre-existing Marvel trademarks, say like Cloak and Dagger or Power Pack instead of Libermann and the Four Seasons (it self a nice joke, considering their colors).
Mr. Nix is a fun invention: a one man Authority who for intents and purposes, is a suburban grandfather (though it did make me feel a bit like the old). It was good to see the Ult. Defenders again, pathetic exhibitionists that they are. (That was Ult. Colossus I saw there, telling the stripper he wasn’t into lap dances, right?) Poor Lieberman. Poor Nix, too. I love how that closing monologe could’ve come out of either Nix or Fury;'s mouth. It also made me wonder if this issue wasn’t a tribute of sorts to busy editors. With a few changes this could’ve been a day with Joe Quesada or Dan Didio.
This Annual was a nice change from the usual fast-moving Ultimates story. I t reminded me of those in-between arc interim stories Claremont was so good at writing for the Xmen. We could use more issues like this to round out the Ultimates story, y’know? Nice work Mr.s Millar and Dillon.
Kabuki Reflections #5 Eh, did I miss something? I thought we were getting a new installment of “Kubuki tries to find herself”. Instead we get a sketch book of works in progress, rejected cover comps, etc. Not that I don’t appreciate David Mack’s work. He’s the reason I buy this book. I’m just disappointed we didn’t get a story this time. It feels sort of… self-indulgent.
I picked up a copy of Green Arrow #53 to check out Messmer-Loebs’ story and enjoy Battle and Purcell’s art (I liked their work together on their previous GA story, where Ollie teamed up with Anarchy). The art was fine, Purcell’s inks reminding once again of the work of the Fillipino artists that did such great work in the 1970’s. However the story which started well enough, eventually gave me pause. I liked the approach Messmer-Loeb took to Grundy’s grand-daughter idealization of her great grand father, and Ollie’s narration in the first half of the book. A similar tack would make for a pretty interesting set of Hulk stories, one written entirely from another persons’ point of view, emphasizing the humanity trapped inside the raging behemoth. (Love the flying cars.) But then, halfway through the issue, the story takes a severe right turn off the road, and, well, that plot twist just struck me as needlessly weird somehow. Chrissy could have been playing Ollie the whole time, like Echo Memoria played Branch, Lono and “the Counterfiet Detective” in Azzarello’s 100 Bullets the whole time, but it’s hard to believe anyone would want to become a super-lizard. The girl doesn’t belong at Star Labs. She belongs in Arkham, up Gotham Way…
Speaking of weird curve balls, Azzarello throws a mean one in 100 Bullets #53. Agent Phillip(?) Graves? Graves isn’t on Augustus DeMedici’s side? How does Branch [/color]expect to get away with blowing off Cole Burns’ mission[/color]? What’s this about messing with Dizzy? You know this is all intentional on Azzarello’s part. He let us think it was all coming together, and now he’s got us guessing all over again. Damn.
Having long been a fan of Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko novels, like Red Square, Gorky Park, Polar Star*, I loved the approach Lewis and Leon took in Wintermen. Our narrator however is no Renko, Kris Kalenov, is too cynical, but for that reason, he fits in beter in the casual corruption of contempoary Moscow. He puts me in mind of a tired cynical Chaykin hero. (This vision of the New Russia is very Chaykin. For instance, the way the Mayor of Moscow speaks of Fiorello LaGuardia and Al Capone with the same degree of admiration, in the same sentence. Hilarious.) I look forward to learning whatever broke up the Rocketmen in Chechnya, and to a showdown of some kind between Kris, Nikki, possibly Borst (an out an out merc). I wonder what the Siberian is all about.
Palmiotti and Gray fill in the gaps in the Golden Eagle’s origins in an interesting way in Hawkman #43, providing us with a pretty plausible reason for this wealthy young man’s decision to don wings and armor and take Carter Hall’s place (however temporary I suspect) in the skies over St. Roch. I also enjoyed the ending w which made Lionmane a surprisingly sympathetic character for once. I doubt he’ll get the chance, but it’s almost as though, here in the Congo, he could actually become a tribal or local hero of some sort.
I didn’t care for Ed Brubaker’s early issues of Captain America. There was something lacking in his characterization of Steve, Nick and Sharon (most noticeable when compared to his Karpov and Lukin, who at least seemed full of passion), and the stories lacked the strong pull of emotional conviction he brought to his scripts for Deadenders or Catwoman. Re-reading issue #7 and the new issue, #8 changed my mind. The story seems to come to life now that Bucky’s fully factored into the story. I want to know how Karpov and Lukin brought him around to “their side”. Or even better, that Bucky had his own reasons for serving the Soviets (preventing a de-stabilizing advantage during the arms race, perhaps?) I’m not sure I’ll stay on board for the whole run (as I did with those two earlier titles), but I definitely want to see where this is going now.
Johnson, Williams and Fisher’s “Snow” arc takes an unexpectedly funny turn in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #194 when unexpected connections between the tragic death of Victor Fries wife and the crimelord the Batman’s crew is focused on emerge, and the crew makes a mess extracting themselves from their first “field trip”. It was pretty funny seeing Fisher’s Batman try to feign innocence to a pissed off Detective Gordon. I’m enjoying this, though I can’t help the feeling that there’s tragedy on the way, and that it won’t be limited to the delusional Fries and his wife.
Will have to try and get to Outsiders #27, Villains United #4, Batman #643 and JLA #117 later tomorrow.
Yes, you missed something. You’ve confused Kabuki - Reflections with Kabuki - The Alchemy. Reflections is Mack’s very irregular (the last issue was 3 years ago) series of sketches, original art, etc. The Alchemy #5 is also supposed to come out later this month, though I’m not sure when.
What? I thought this was coming out next week. Damn!
J’onn partially overcame his fire issue in a JLA arc about two years back.
I got Supergirl #1, which was interesting … JLA, of course, which was very cool, and I love that last panel. Fables, which finally tells us who the Adversary is … and he’s someone I suspected a little bit during one of the previous stories, so I’m pleased. Rann-Thanagar War… I just love the screentime Captain Comet’s getting. Lastly, Exiles, which will unfortunately have to mix with the House of M crap next month.
I just got Villains United #4. The highlights were the Six’s variant black and gray costumes (although I agree Catman in black and gray looks too much like Batman, and he still needs a better regular costume), Ragdoll’s trip through the toilet, and Chesire and Catman’s pillow talk at the end. The general plot involving the Six’s Brazilian mission and Firestorm were boring, and the little we’ve actually seen of the Society doesn’t impress me much. I already hate the new “gang”-like Royal Flush Gang. Did anyone catch that the new recruits were an updated version of the Inferior Five, with “Lagomorph” as Dumb Bunny, the archer, the jester, the fat guy, etc.?
As for Catman, we now know he’s the same guy as the fat, washed-up loser we saw in Meltzer’s Green Arrow run… or is he? Is he an undercover superhero? I’ve heard rumors about him being Roy “Arsenal” Harper (a redhead, a Green Arrow confidante, and a former lover of Chesire and father of her child), but I’m sure she would have recognized him by now. I wonder if he could be Tom “Nemesis” Tresser, the master of disguise and undercover operative from Ostrander’s Suicide Squad. But if he is the real-deal Thomas Blake, I like the guy. He has a clear code of honor, he’s against unnecessary killing, he’s saved his teammates more than once, he likes cats, and he hooked up with the hot Asian chick. Too bad she’s a sadistic, poison-obsessed psycho who wanted to get knocked up.
I feel incredibly stupid, not because I didn’t recognize the Inferior Five parody, but because I did catch “Lagomorph” as a takeoff on Dumb Bunny and I still didn’t notice that the whole group was the Inferior Five. Granted, a couple of them weren’t very close to the originals, but “Hindenberg” should have been a dead giveaway. And I love the Inferior Five.