What You Should Have Read #26

Last Week’s Badassery

I’ve never been able to get into Alpha Flight. I’ve picked up a few issues over the years (Jim Lee’s early work, the various Infinity crossovers), but I never really liked what I read. The same can be said for the current 0.1 issue. I think Alpha Flight has always gone out of its way to showcase that it’s a Canadian team rather than just telling good stories. I think that really limits what you can do with a book if you try and hamstring it with limitations (hmm, that’s a rather redundant sentence). That said, the badassery from this issue comes from the art. It’s a total package effort by Ben Oliver, Dan Green and Frank Martin. While I loved looking at the book, I didn’t enjoy reading it.

A lot of people have had reservations about Spider-Man since “Brand New Day.” I have totally loved it. Pete is Pete again. And that’s saying something, because I started reading Spider-Man as a kid with the honeymoon issue of Spectacular Spider-Man. But really, after they got rid of the marriage (NOT a comment on my current situation), the book has been a lot more fun. I like to say that I like to see the evolution of a character, but Spidey is really at his best when he’s juggling TONS of problems. And I guess problems now equals success what with him being in a healthy relationship, gainfully employed AND a member of the Future Foundation. Also, if I haven’t mentioned it before, badass can also be humorous. Trust me, it’s my damn blog.

Didn’t I have an Astonishing X-Men page in last week’s post? Well, this issue has nothing to do with what was going on there, but at least they were kind enough to mention where the rest of the team is. Shadowcat has been through a lot in this title, but I always like seeing her strong and confident. Her reconciliation with Lockheed is touching, and their resolve to kick some Brood butt is very badass. What’s NOT badass? Judging by the cover for the next issue we’re back in Japan. I don’t like two storylines running in every other issue. Split the issue between them or wait until one is finished before starting the next.

I guess beating up the kids in Avengers Academy isn’t really badass, but I’ve never seen the Chameleon this confident and capable. And Mysterio’s line about acting gave me a chuckle.

This is the first comic where I’m cropping the page. I find the stories told in the various Crossed series to be compelling, but the gore, violence and sex are WAY over the top. So I’ll just be including the panel that caught my attention, and not the depravity of the rest of the page.

Since it began, I’ve always enjoyed Ultimate Spider-Man as a series more than any of its 616 counterparts. I like Pete as a teenager. The stories are more fun. And now, with his death looming, his actions make him seem even MORE heroic.