Weekly Comic Book Review 6/24/2004

Cafe Society
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Our pal, CandidGamera said he couldn’t start this week’s thread, so I’m taking up the gauntlet this week!

Decent week, IMO.

Amazing Spider-Man: JMS just gets better and better. The characterization is tremendously good, the dialogue sounds “real” and the stories are intriguing. (Except for the limp “GOTTA FINISH ARC BEFORE MOVIE COMES OUT” end to the last story.)

Big spoiler warning, not only for this issue, but for the whole storyline, but I got a question about this issue.

Ok, the two “ninjas” that attacked Peter at the graveyard. We know (from a advance cover Marvel posted) that the girl “ninja” is Gwen Stacy (or looks like her). Was the boy “ninja” supposed to be Peter (or a clone thereof?)

Astonishing X-Men-Wow. The heir to Grant Morrison for good plots, complex charaterization and good dialogue. IMO, this (along with whatever the renamed “New Mutants”) is the X-Book to read. I loved the Kitty-Emma confrontation. I like the fact that Kitty hasn’t forgiven Emma for their first confrontation. Rarely does a new writer deserve a new spin-off title. This guy does! The writer’s some guy named Joss Whedon. Anyone know who he is or what he’s done before?

Teen Titans Eh. A) I hate the fact that Gar is like…21 and went back to “Beast Boy”. Changling is such a better name. B) I hate Brother Blood. I’ve never read a story where I cared. C) Ditto, Deathstroke (except the Terra story). D) Ditto “Raven” (except for the first one and the other one when Titans Vol 3(?) came out) so this story didn’t have a lot of built-in appeal to me. But I trust Geoff Johns.

Batman Adventures-As always, consistantly the best Bat-book out there.

Robin-GREAT book. Granted, anything Willingham does is great, but this is…um…very great. Except Cassie’s haircut. It looks like she lost a fight with Electro. And funny dialogue.

Excalibur–Oh. My. God. (The following is all IMO, of course) This sucked. This sucked so much that, if the next issue is even half as bad, they’ll collapse into a black-hole of badness. Let’s run a thought experiment: On one hand, we have Grant Morrison’s X-Men was complex, challenging, his Magneto was consistant with the first 149 issues of X-Men and became (again) an interesting villian. On the other hand, we have Claremont A) with a stOOpid retcon (“The Grant Morrison Magneto wasn’t REALLY Magneto, he was an imposter good enough to fool world-class telepaths like Professor X, Emma Frost and PHOENIX! as well as people who’ve know him for decades (Toad, Cyclops)”) B) a reintroduction of a cuddly Magneto so nauseating that he should be wearing a purple dinosaur mask and singing “I luv yoo. Yew luv me!” and C) horrible dialogue (Callisto’s expository dialogue was cringe-worthy.) with a plot that would offend the intelligence of a cocker spaniel (IMO again). I was actually embarrassed for Claremont).
I wonder which one will survive the test of time. Highly un-recommended. I’m dropping the book after next issue unless it magically improves. (HA!)

Superman-Feh. He’s not that hard of a character to write. Why isn’t anyone writing. If I didn’t have a solid collection that went back to 1952(or so), I’d drop the book. Meanwhile I console myself-this too shall pass.

Witches-I dunno where he’s going, but I’m intrigued. (Also, Topaz didn’t used to be Indian and Jennifer Kale didn’t use to be a lesbian (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but since neither had much of a personality before…I don’t mind acutally.

Avengers–Isn’t Austen gone yet? (Apparently he’s being thrown off in the next issue or so). This issue in particular: Zzzzzzzzzzz[sub]zzzzz[/sub] Does anyone actually like Austen’s writing? (I know people who tolerate it but I’ve never met a Chuck Austen fan. So why’s he getting all these cherry books from DC and Marvel?). Also, the art is tragically bad. Captain America looks like he’s wearing the Porcupine’s shirt dyed red, white and blue.

Wonder Woman–Geez Rucka does a good Dr. Psycho. (and the cover is bizarre and cool) Very good book.

Conan-Shrug. It’s Busiek, so it’s great. 'Nuff said, true believer. I can’t think of a single bad book he’s written.

Flash–Geoff Johns, IMO, is the best Flash writer in the last…30 years or so. I liked Waid’s stuff, but it had some serious down periods (and the Speed Force/Allen legacy stuff got old the third (fourth?) time he did it (the atrocious “Cobalt Blue” arc). Johns has been on the book about as long as Waid was, and has yet to have a bad run.

Anyone else? Comments on my comments? Other books I didn’t list? C’mon in and participate! :slight_smile:

Fenris

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Catwoman. God the art this month was a step back in the right direction. No more overly-veluptuous Catwoman, Slam is looking like Slam. The story was interesting, and a departure from where Selina and Bruce left off at the end of their last “together” period, but I liked it.

Robin. I hate the new Robin’s hair. I hate the new artist. I hate the way Tim isn’t the main character and I really hate the way the lame new “artist” draws Tim like he’s a five year old boy. This was my favorite book about a year ago. The writer writes good dialogue, but I don’t like this marginalizing-Robin-just-to-play-with-a-new-character crap. I read the book for Tim Drake, not the red jumpsuit.

Superman. Good God. I could write a boring story where Superman hangs around with a priest and chats about stuff. Why are they letting the writer pad this damn story so much? There’s more to a superhero epic than having the character stand in cool poses and grab his cape heroically.

Teen Titans. Meh. I miss Young Justice more with every issue of Titans that comes out. David had these characters down cold. This new book is just all action, not nearly as much fun.

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Was this the fill-in issue by Sean Phillips? That guy is awesome. If you liked his art here, I highly recommend Sleeper, written by Catwoman scribe Ed Brubaker. There are two TPBs, Out In the Cold and All False Moves, the latter of which came out today! I can’t hype this book enough, especially because the second “season” is starting soon, and it needs all the reader support it can get, to stave off cancellation for low sales. Sean Phillips also did amazing work on the second volume of Wildcats, written by Joe Casey. His run is collected in three TPBs, Vicious Circles, Serial Boxes, and Battery Park.

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I hadn’t thought of David and Young Justice in a while. You’re right and I miss David too. (And I miss L’il Lobo). It’s weird that Johns can be so great on Flash and on JSA and so…well…eh…on Titans. I wonder if there’s editorial issues going on?

Fenris

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Well, Titans wasn’t a book created because the staff wanted to write the story, but ordered by DC brass to coincide with the new cartoon. I’m sure that had there not been a cartoon, we’d still be enjoying the adventures of Young Justice.

The cast of Young Justice was better, too. Starfire? BORING. Cyborg? BORING. Beast Boy? Shouldn’t he be Nightwing’s age, and part of the Outsiders?

If they had to do a Teen Titans book, why not just rename the David book?

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The thing is, it really is that bad. The original “Excalibur” was one of my favorite books of all time, and this abomination has no right to share its name. I can’t stand the new “edgy” mutants either.

Anyone know when “Powers #1” is coming out?

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Surely you’ve heard of of a little TV show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Oh, comics. Well, there was that Buffy-spinoff-type-dealie Fray. Haven’t read it though. I agree that Astonishing is excellent.

This may be the place to ask this question. When the hell did WW get the ability to talk to animals? Did I miss a memo?
While I’m here, I seem to be the only person reading anything from DC’s “Focus” line. I’ve started with two of the books. Firstly, Fraction sucks. The writer is trying to be all edgy and Sopranos-like, but it’s curiously tepid and annoying. I’ve dropped it after only two issues.

On the other hand, I rather like Kinetic. Surely not to everyone’s taste as it is a slow moving character study and the characters aren’t even all that likeable. But I find them believable and interesting anyway. This one’s good. My only complaint - and it applies to the whole Focus line - is that the color palate is fat too muted. I think they’re going for some kinda non-four-color-real-world feel, but it’s not neccessary. But I am getting used to it.

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Did you ever read the run of Excalibur that Warren Ellis wrote? Wonderful stuff…and, come to think of it, was also f*cked up retroactively by Claremont. Ellis had Kitty as a young woman of oohhh…19 or 20. She got an older boyfriend (Peter Wisdom) who was in his early 30s. They were clearly boinking…and it was a fun, adult relationship (and one of the two best runs of the book, the other being the early Claremont/Davis stuff).

When Ellis left the book Clarmont grabbed Kitty back into one of the other X-Books and made a big deal of how she was just NOW turning 15 (or 16). Which means that Wisdom would have been a child molester. :rolleyes:

It’s the same sort of crap he’s doing to Magneto where, if he didn’t write it, he just ignores it (or screws it up).

And, come to think of it, similar to what he and Byrne are doing/did to DC’s Doom Patrol. You all do know that the theory behind the recent Doom Patrol arc in JLA and the upcoming Byrne series is that the JLA arc is the first appearance of the Doom Patrol as far as everyone in the DC universe is concerned, right? All those other stories? The team-ups? The crossovers? Didn’t happen. The fun ( :rolleyes: ) part will be seeing what that does to Beast Boy/Changling since his origin is so tightly tied into the Doom Patrol’s.

I’m not a continuity freak–the fact that Peter Parker said he liked wheatcakes in Amazing Fantasy 15 shouldn’t stop a multi-part epic that’s dependant on the concept that Peter’s allergic to wheat, but at the same time this sort of silly rebooting of characters just doesn’t work for me and undermines the coherence of the shared universe.

Fenris

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Y’know, outside of the original movie, I’ve never seen it. Worth a watch? (I’ve got a friend who’s got all the DVDs)

IIRC, it was right around the end of the Byrne run (or just after). It was either a side-effect of the “Goddess of Truth” thing or it had something to do with the city where she got the “Wonderdome”/“Invisible Jet that folds up into something the size of a CD” thing. I dunno. I’m kinda ok with it. It…fits…her character. (The vegetarianism doesn’t. She’s an Amazon–a warrior culture. She’s named after the Goddess of the hunt. I’d actually be more OK with Superman becoming a vegetarian.)

I saw 'em, but…well…it looked like a standard “Big new line launched with major hype where all the books die by issue 8”. Remember Marvel’s “Shadowline” or whateverthehell the Dark Horse-verse was called. Or the Marvel Knights-esque magic-character line (Dr Strange fought Lillith for most of it) or that recent DC one about the city of aliens that crashes on top of where Coast City was that didn’t even end up getting an ongoing title (it was supposed to, IIRC). And money’s too tight (and life is too short) to get involved with another “loser” line.

On the other hand, if one of 'em’s good…What’s Kinetic about, anyway?

Oh, a tidbit for Legion fans…the book dies in like four issues, then there’s a Titans/Legion one shot crossover by Geoff Johns and Mark Waid, then Waid relaunches (I hate relaunches, but at least it’s not a reboot) Legion again in December. I enjoyed Abnett and Lanning’s Legion (they had the balls to do something different. And they’re great if you read 'em in a lump. The previous several writers who’s ovure seemed to be “Ok, here’s a pre-Crisis story that we haven’t strip-mined yet. Let’s “borrow” it.”) but Waid’s early post-Zero Hour Legion rocked, so I’m kinda looking forward to it.

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Well, I was a fan. It’s a good show. On the other hand, if you want to see what a Joss Whedon TV show is like without a seven season run staring you in the face, you could try out Firefly (assuming you can get a hold of them on DVD).

Makes sense. I wasn’t reading it then. I just hadn’t noticed it when the previous guy was writing WW. But then again, I read the book rather sporadically.

The whole idea behind the “Focus” line is: No superheroes, just super powers. Kinetic is about a kid (Tom, 16 or so) who’s been pretty sickly his whole life. Constantly on lots of meds and his right arm doesn’t work. A 98 pound weakling to the Nth degree. Suddenly (and so far, without explanation) he’s damn near invulnerable and super strong. So, how does he react?

Fortunately he hasn’t run off in some power filled frenzy. He’s just learning about it - not always in a really smart way either.

But the focus of the book is on the characters. It’s issue four and we’ve spent a lot of time on backstory. This current issue focuses on Tom’s mom.

I like it. I can’t guarantee anyone else will. How’s that for an endorsement?

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An Obituary.

Kate Worley, the writer of Omaha The Cat Dancer, possibly the most award-winning comic book of the 80’s died recently.

Omaha’s success was due not only to art, but brilliant writing.

She had been recovering from cancer, and planning to re-start the book. Her death was unexpected.

The cause of death was cancer.

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Light week for ol’ Max this time around.

Amazing Spider-Man: Yep, I liked it. While I love J.R.Jr.'s art, I never realized how dark it was until the new artist came aboard. It’s nice to see a new style after a few years. Plus he does a heck of a DeNiro. Why the heck does MJ put up with all of Pete’s whining about Gwen? Yes, it was tragic, but hey, get on with life. Gwen wouldn’t want you moping and crying every time a letter or clone pops up.
And, yeah, that unmasked “ninja” did appear to be a Peter duplicate, judging from the previous pages…hard to say since it is a new artist.

Wanted: I shouldn’t like this book, but I do. It’s just more “shock value” violence/language/sex, but I like a world run by villains, using powers like real bad guys would. Plus it’s always fun picking out the cameos.

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No new comics for me this week, so I’ll contribute by posting a link to an interesting article about DC’s Focus line from the ever reliable Paul O’Brien.

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Darn! I thought Fenris was wooshing us.

Joss is perfect for the X-Men. For one simple reason.

He has an uncanny talent for writing characters you identify with and like and that he likes.

And then doing horrible, terrible things to them.

Even his villians are sympathetic characters. They’re still evil. Still murderous. But you understand them.

Yeah. The Buffy TV show is worth watching if you liked New Mutants or early Gen13.
It’s just plain good writing. First two seasons, at least. Forget the movie.

You’ll get a taste of what kind of good pain is ahead. Like… mmm. God Loves, Man Kills.

(I did love the first issue of Astonishing, with ghost-Kitties from previous comics. It’s a nice and very Wheldon touch)

Also, Kitty was “fourteen, going on fifteen, old as I’m gonna get” in X-Men vs FF, where Doom cured her from the Fall of the Mutants Nimrod thing, where she was permanently phased. Which leads to Excalibur, where she can be solid, but sometimes drifts, and she has the 16th birthday during the Cross-Time Caper, with Courtney Ross hitting on her.

Pete Wisdom was boffing an underage girl. Sorry.

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In other words, he’s a good writer! :wink:

I disagree: there’s a scene during the Ellis run where they all go to a bar (roughly issue 90) and Kitty says something like “At last I’m old enough to drink”. I’m currently straightening out my comics so when I get to the "E"s I’ll look up the acutal quote, but I’m certain that Ellis made it clear that she was at least 18.

Fenris

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Me poor thread coulda used ya, Lou.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=263064&highlight=Sleeper+trade

:wink:

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Well, I just scrounged up the “Bar” issue and it doesn’t state her age, but given that Nightcrawler and Moira (and everyone else) a) know that Wisdom’s boinking Kitty and have no problems with it (other than the fact that they don’t like Wisdom) and both Nightcrawler and Moira would and b) ditto Kitty drinking booze. There’s also the fact that Marvel wouldn’t have let her drink and boff if she was underage. I’m positive that Ellis said her age somewhere. But I can’t find the actual reference.

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Yes. He’s a good writer.
Yes, I’m sure Ellis aged Kitty, but what I’m saying is that the aging was more of a distortion of the status quo… (Drinking age is 21 in the US, 16? in the UK… and I don’t know what in Scotland) than restating her as 16 or so. It’s a two year minimum jump forwards.

Plus, nobody during that time period was acting like themselves. During any of it.

(I have a low opinion of the Brittanic Excalibur)

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I didn’t pick up much, just Astonishing and Excalibur. Pretty much the same opinion as Fenris had (though not nearly as vehemently against Excalibur, since I just don’t have much to compare it to).

Is there a reason there just aren’t many offerings this early in the summer? Wouldn’t the summer be the perfect time to grab new readers, or are they holding back some releases (Batman/Superman #11, for instance) until after FCBD?

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Oh, thpbbbbbt. It figures.