Here we are again! Hoorah. I’m almost getting the hang of all this, losing that ‘New Blogger’ smell as I figure out the how’s and when’s of posting, as well as learn not to post at 1am so my spelling’s better.
Thanks for bearing with! Anyways, on to the comics:
- Marvel Zombies #3
- Eee hee hee. This book makes me giggle just by those AWESOME covers. Who knew a throwaway idea of Mark Millar’s would turn out to be quite frankly, my favorite breakout Marvel book yet! I can barely tell you of its goodness as I believe it is better to experience it yourself than hear it second hand. Suffice it to say, Galactus’s herald comes to announce to Earth its doom and the zombified Marvel heroes only want his flesh in witty retort. How does he get away with this? Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more bizarre, Iron Man’s rotting upper torso is floating around under the power cosmic. I mean, come on. This is good stuff.
- Spider-Man: Web of Romance #1
- Quirky, kinda cute. Like… Those little sugar dots that come on wax paper. I wanted a lot from this book considering its author, Tom Beland of True Story, Swear to God fame, but it’s real hit or miss by each page. On one hand, there is some great Mary Jane characterization and she’s back to being the fun-loving, Tiger-catching powerhouse she used to be, but on the other, … Jarvis is hiding the Cheezits from Iron Man. It’s a little too humanistic bordering on the forced. The art doesn’t swing it one way or the other, most people faces looking a little too hatched or angular. It’s okay, worth a flip through at the store. (NOTE: Mr. Beland was kind enough to find this little weblog and correct me on my TERRIBLE error on his name. It has been fixed and I will do my best to shower him with apologies.)
- Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #9
- Klaw, after training with robots, is finally ready to take on his arch-competitor (ah, capitalism), that damnable Richards and his ‘Fantastic’ Four. Muhaha. The Thing, Torch and Reed all go down to his dastardly plans, leaving good ol’ underestimated Sue to mop the floor with him (assist by Ben). They defeat evil just in time to answer their reader mail. Great stuff, not dumbed down and a little bit of what we like about the Fantastic Four.
- Marvel Knights: Fantastic Four #27
- … and after the simple fun of Marvel Adventures, this was kinda lame. Part of a longer story, the FF go out and fight someone by the name of ‘Scratch’ who’s bringing back and Elder God and eventually convince his children to turn against him and get an assist from Diablo (yeah, I was confused too) and good ol’ Dr. Strange. Diablo gets to be the hero (I know, I have no idea) and poor Strange is stuck on monster-fighting duty (and comes back in tatters), leaving the FF to end it all with a near-’Well, that was interesting’ and go home. This book kind of nickel-n-dimed me to death with so many little problems that only served to remind me why Mark Waid’s run was cool and Aguirre-Sacasa is not.
- Incredible Hulk #93
- Planet Hulk begins here, touted as one of the first signs of the Civil War I think as well. But, no matter how you slice it or tie it into Marvel’s Next Big Thing™, it’s just okay. Since the Hulk’s been a thorn in their side (I guess) the Illuminati (…. anyone else feel like a total dork calling them that? Couldn’t they think of something better?) decide to send the Hulk into space like so much garbage. In a contrived fashion, Reed leaves the furious Hulk a message as he’s hurtled through space that sounds an awful lot like a ‘Dear John’ letter, expecting that he’ll be left on a deserted planet to finally ‘leave Hulk alone’. If that was to actually happen, this would be a very boring book so he’s instead found by rebels and slavers and gets the Russel Crowe treatment to become…. a GLADIATOR! Ha-HA! Then he’s thrown to the Maw for trying to kill the
EmperorI mean, space king guy. A lot of time is spent on the aliens for who I’m still ambivalent towards, but the art is really nice and the book is fast paced and has what countless previous issues have lacked: SMASH. I’ll give it another issue, but only because I’m a Hulk fan and hate to see a good concept go to waste. - Ares #2
- It’s Man on Fire! Ares is here for his son and he’s gonna kick ass and take names no matter what God he has to punch in the face! Another surprising new book that kinda gets to me and makes me wanna cook outdoors or wrestle a bear. And, it set itself firmly in the Marvel Universe! There’s references to the Avengers and, we learn through this issue, gods are falling everywhere since the loss of the Asgardians. I like mini-series that tie themselves into current continuity, it makes them feel less… throwaway. Anyways, the Olympians are the next to fall from this threat in the East and only one man can save them. Hells yeah. The art’s okay for the most part, the ‘evil Asian’ influence s kind of funny in my book and it’s shaping up to be a strong little mini-series.
- ‘Sensational’ Spider-Man #23
- Marvel Knights No More! First off, let me just say that this art is WAY too Spawn for me. It’s Spawn-esque. That makes it a little hard to concentrate on the story which isn’t half bad, thought it was weird to see Mary Jane relegated to damsel-ness when she’s so strong and awesome elsewhere. Anyhoo, ‘part-time teacher, part-time photographer, full-time scientist’ (where does his hero gig fit into this?)Peter Parker investigates a rash of madness in the animals at the Zoo, beats up a crazy Vulture in a flashback, goes to ’save’ a crazy Lizard (and… son of Lizard?) and will no doubt get a visit from a crazy Man-Wolf in the near future. I sense a theme.
- X-Men #182
- Y - the Last Man #42
- Again? Did someone at the store forget to put this one back or did they double up again?
- Captain Atom: Armageddon #5
- Guest starring the Authority for sales! The new Doctor’s even on the cover. Snazzy. The recap in the front was nice and really helped set you into the plot (Captain Atom crossed from the DCU into the Wildstorm Universe and is now a walking bomb for his troubles. He’ll blow everything sky high if he doesn’t get home, tah-dah!) and the Authority are kind of shown around haphazardly which actually says more about the Wildstorm universe than anything they might have meant to say. The Engineer and Jack Hawksmoor try and help out Captain Atom by shunting him through a variety of really generic worlds to see if they can’t get him home, surprisingly falling into one of many Nazi Worlds that the Authority come across. Casually, they put holes in all they see and Jack, thinking he’ll help Captain Atom out, go digs up this world’s Hitler and offers him up for a punching bag. Capt. Atom is more than a little put-off by the Authority’s rather self-serving violence, leaving them to shrug their shoulders at him. It’s a small moment, but really showcases how all the ultra-violence in books like the Authority really doesn’t think too hard about how they go there. They have the powers, so they don’t have to, while Captain Atom comes from a different mindset. See? The DCU isn’t all that dark, it could be worse! Unsurprisingly, Capt. Atom doesn’t find his way home and various Wildstormers hmmm at him for his subtle danger to their world.
- 100 Bullets #69
- This is what Azzarello should be writing. This seems so his bag. A very well-woven story through a seedy underworld told through the backdrop of a brutal street fight. Not exactly an issue to jump into, but artfully told nonetheless. One of those books you have to start at the beginning with and probably worth the time to do so.
- Jonah Hex #4
- Ahhh, a good ol’ fashioned Western Tale that reminds me where my cockles are because they are so warmed. You don’t need to know anything, just the matters at hand: there’s a bounty on Chako, so Hex brings him in for the pay, but when his innocence comes into question, it’s up to Hex to take a stand and a strong woman to set things a-right. Yep, I’ll warn you, there’s a rape plot involved, but hopefully he mute chick won’t become a hard bad ass because of it, just a truthful soul in a hard situation. Sure, there’s a bit of a plothole considering Chako didn’t come clean to his own defense but there’s enough style and substance to account for it. People taking care of business. Yeah.
- Wildcats: Nemesis #6
- The covers have always looked Turner-esque and that for some odd reason draws the eye like a magnet. Cracking the book open, I find it rife with ‘trying to be cool’ syndrome, where the writer inflicts the main character on you in a series of staged events in order to make them seem ‘cool’ instead of writing a really good character to begin with (SEE the New Avenger’s Spider-Woman). So, someone’s using a super-person to activate a bunch of mooks in cities that have Wildcats team members in so they can have a fight scene. *yawn* Meanwhile, Nemesis falls out of a plane and lands on a car hard enough to jog a flashback about being Sherlock Homes’s femme fatale as they hunt down a demonic Jack the Ripper and defeat him (I think?) while she strips down to sexy (non-period) lingerie to fight the bad guy with a really big sword. Sherlock and Homes are non-plussed. When Nemesis comes to, the Wildcats are there to take her into the team. Pretty good art interiors, very classic comic book stylings which can be pretty refreshing from time to time but in the end, it’s just trying too hard.
They… ‘lost’ Lorna? That’s it? Last issue she got sprayed with dead alien good then lifted up into the air with the Leper Queen and now… it’s just ‘I think I lost her and I think she might be dead or… something *shuffle* *shuffle*’. And why is Apocalypse such a doddering old man? When did Ozmandius lose that soliloquism and turn into a yappy dog? He goes on and on about how Apocalypse should smite those under him and basically just cut all the theatrics and kill the non-believers and Apocalypse just turn to him and goes ‘Were you talking? I’m gonna go work on my Horsemen.’ and walks away. It’s nutty! And that’s what he does, recruiting a new War (whose story seems interesting enough) and Sunfire (for that slick AoA look!) and Alex goes home to admit defeat in ‘losing’ Lorna as if she were a set of keys. Iceman looks like he’s going to lay into him for it and Cyclops stops everything to point out the huge Apoca-Sphinx now hovering over the X-Mansion. What is up with these books? Why does everyone act as if they don’t even know why they’re acting this way? Why do I have all these questions?
The only thing missing is Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #200, and I’ll probably flip through that on my lunch. Enjoy.
One Comment
I’m not sure what “fame” I have when you say I’m Paul Beland and not Tom Beland. Whatever.