What You Should Have Read #45

Last Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

Action Comics #2 – This is my Superman. I don’t care if it takes place “five years ago,” this is a Superman I can like. Cocky, smart, not God-like in power. He can be taken down and bound, at least for a bit. He can’t fly yet, but he can leap tall buildings in a single bound. I think I’m really going to enjoy watching him grow in this series. We’ve also got Steel and Metallo and a Lex Luthor who doesn’t quite know everything yet. This is also the Grant Morrison that I like. His writing is smart, but it’s not weird like all his other stuff lately. This is just a good book.

Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #3 – Wade’s little rant to Jonathan Standish was the basic plot of a joke: “A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says ‘Get in, get in!’ The religious man replies, ‘No I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle.’ Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in god and god will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again because God will grant him a miracle. With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, ‘I thought God would grand me a miracle and I have been let down.’ St. Peter chuckles and responds, ‘I don't know what you're complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter.’” I’m viewing Standish as a stand-in for a certain conservative religious zealot whose name I don’t even like saying.  It’s not that he’s got a Voldemorty, ominous name, it’s just that it makes me nauseous. This book ended up being tangential to Fear Itself, not necessary at all to the main mini, but it was a good story with some beautiful (if not a little dark) art.

Swamp Thing #2 – Scott Snyder has really become a writer to watch. Between this, Batman and American Vampire (I’ve got Severed but haven’t read it yet), the guy has some great stories under his belt. But while I enjoyed the explanation of Alec Holland’s place in this new DCU, it’s not what I liked most about this issue. Wrightson Diner. Bissette Motors. Totleben’s Motel. Three artists who are almost synonymous with Swamp Thing, immortalized and honored in this issue for their past contributions. I like it artists do things like that. Makes me smile.

X-Men: Schism #5 – Well, this is the start of a new era for the X-Men. We’re finally getting the Wolverine vs. Cyclops battle we never really wanted, with each character heading up a new team of X-Men on opposite sides of the country. I tend to like shake-ups like this in the beginning, as with Spider-Man’s “Brand New Day” event. I hope, as with BND, I end up enjoying these new mutant stories once the shine has worn off. I enjoyed this mini for the most part. I liked watching the divide between Logan and Scott grow, especially after Idie’s actions. My biggest problem had to do with the action. Those bratty, super-smart kids are just random, interchangeable villains…and I hate them. It’s not that they’re not good villains, I just don’t like bratty, super-smart kids as uber baddies. It just doesn’t click for me. The briefcase Sentinel was never really portrayed as a scary threat. It was talk up a lot, but almost all of the action against it was off panel. I thought the most effective use of action in this mini was Quentin Quire’s scheme in the first issue.

Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Read #43

Last Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

Fables #109 – I’m glad the Vertigo books, or at least this one that I read, weren’t affected by the reboot. That would have been a huge shame, but this wonderful book remains unspoiled. I’m loving the instruction of the children and their very childlike reaction to what’s happening to them. Ambrose is being singled out, and his reaction to flying is priceless. I’m sure the same would happen to me if I could fly on my own.

Invincible Iron Man #508 – I’m really going to miss Tony’s interactions with the dwarves when Fear Itself is over. Those guys are $&#)# great.

DC’s New 52: Week 3

Batman #1 – Well, this might well be the title that brings me into the Bat Family. Although I have followed him in quite some time, I’ve been a fan of Greg Capullo since his run on “X-Force” decades ago. I followed him to “Spawn” but lost track of him once I gave up on that series. Scott Snyder is one of two comic professionals I’ve ever “spoken” with (I’m counting the extremely brief back-and-forth we had on the blog when “American Vampire” first came out as a conversation), and I’ve been enjoying pretty much all of his work lately. So I was really hoping they’d be able to make me enjoy a Batman book…and they did. Capullos art resembles his “X-Force” work more than his Spawn work, which at times I found to be just plain ugly. His work now seems very reminiscent of Mike Parobek (although with more texture lines added), who brought a very simple but unique style to the early ‘90s incarnation of :The Justice Society of America” and DC’s !mpact title “The Fly.” Snyder did a great job of making this book, who’s continuity changed very little after the reboot I believe, very new-reader friendly. The facial recognition program quickly introduced us to some major players, and Bruce’s speech let us know (as if anybody reading comics doesn’t know) his past. And, since he is a detective, we’re left with a wondrous murder mystery. So yes, I’m very happy with this book, and I’m proud to be following a little corner of the Bat Universe. Thank you, Misters Snyder and Capullo.

Blue Beetle #1 – After reading this issue, I kind of want to go back and reread the previous series. I never had a real connection with Ted Kord, so I accepted Jaime as the new Blue Beetle pretty easily. I remember that he was introduced during Infinite Crisis, but I don’t remember how or what he did. All I remember is that I really enjoyed his solo series. It was a great mixture of humor, action and teen angst, the things that really drew me to Spider-Man so many years ago. If I remember correctly, the broad strokes of this Blue Beetle’s origin are the same; it’s just some details that are different. I’m okay with that for now, but as it stands I don’t see myself giving this title more than another issue or two. While the characters may be the same, the book doesn’t have the same feel of the previous series. The action is there, and the angst is there, but it’s just not the same.

Wonder Woman #1 – Holy shit. I’ve never liked Wonder Woman. I’ve never read a Wonder Woman solo story that I’ve liked, and I’ve really never cared about her in any team-ups or Justice League stories I’ve read that include her. I really liked this issue, though. As with Batman, it was a really good jumping-on point. Although she really does have a huge history, you don’t need to know it here. Actually, Diana seems like a side character in her own book. This looks like it’s going to be about God-level family squabble of which Diana is going to insert herself. It read a lot like a darker Hercules book over at Marvel, and maybe that’s why I liked it. Azzarello did a wonderful job at making this a creepy book, and I’m really looking forward to where he’s going to take it.

 Probably for the rest of the month I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit it out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But my experiment this weekend proved to me that I actually AM making a spot of cash whenever the ads are clicked. So I’m going to put this little disclaimer on the bottom of all my posts for the next month or so, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Read #38

Last Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

I don’t like Victoria Hand. Nobody likes Victoria Hand, and nobody trusts Victoria Hand. I like Maria Hill’s take on her, calling her a glorified accountant. And then Hand goes and gets pissed off and shoots some Nazis in the head. I’m starting to like Victoria Hand a little more. Also, “You can never go wrong with bombing the hell out of people first.”

Calling somebody a fucktard is probably my most favoritest insult, so it gave me large buckets of joy to read the word in this month’s issue of Fables. I really like how Willingham makes seemingly unimportant side characters so important and heroic. Flycatcher, Boy Blue, Bufkin, and now probably Ambrose. This comic book is such a treat to read every month.

 

Speedball was my favorite out of all the New Warriors. I had no knowledge of him before picking up the first issue of the first New Warriors series, but I immediately took to him. I loved his attitude, and I loved that nobody took him seriously. I stopped reading New Warriors after issue #50. It just wasn’t fun anymore. So I really had no contact with Robbie Baldwin until Civil War happened. I hated where he was taken after that, but he ended becoming a somewhat important character, and we then got to watch him fight his way back to becoming a little bit closer to the hero that he was. I’ve been enjoying his feature in Fear Itself: The Home Front, and this issue sent out a pretty powerful and positive message (well, at least in the fictional Marvel universe).

To Hel with Thor, I can get my Asgardian fix from Journey into Mystery. I like witty books. Thor is not witty, it’s grand. JiM, on the other hand, is very witty…and intricate…and well-illustrated…and just a damn good book. I like Loki as a child. I like that his speech is more Earthly than Asgardian. And I LOVE the look of shock and surprise on the dwarf’s face as Loki emerges from the stone casket.

Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine is surprising me by how much I’m enjoying it. The first one, vs. Punisher, was the same way. It reminds me of the Marvel Zombie craze before it started getting watered down. I like how it’s crossing over with the previous mini, and I’ll be interested in seeing where it goes after this mini.

Holy crap, how long has Jeff Parker been waiting for the perfect moment to make that Man-Thing joke? That and Satana’s dark elation at everything that’s going on really made this issue for me.

The Aunt May bits in Ultimate Fallout were perfect epilogues to Peter Parker’s story. Also, having her and Gwen move to France will allow the writers to fully focus on the new Spider-Man without worrying about his most important supporting characters. Although, I did notice that Mary Jane is still around.

Namor has some great one-liners in this week’s issue of X-Men: Schism, but this one might be the best. And really, who DOESN’T want to hit these kids? I’d also like to say that I’m horribly disappointed in Carlos Pacheco’s art for this series…well, the two issues he’s done so far. Issue three of a mini and he was replaced. This guy used to be one of my favorite artists, and the work he did on the first two issues of the series was just not acceptable. 

What You Should Have Read #37

Last Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

One of the attractions to Spider-Man has been that despite all his powers, things just NEVER seem to go his way. And now, even though he’s got a great girlfriend, a great job, and is a well-respected hero and member of the Future Foundation and Avengers, things STILL aren’t going his way. I think I’m going to like this event. Carly with powers? Awesome. And the beginning of this issue, when Pete thinks he may have transmitted his powers to her via a little nudge nudge wink wink? That’s awesome.

She can’t get rid of the boxes! It wouldn’t be Deadpool if Deadpool didn’t talk to himself and break the fourth wall. I do like that the boxes are being addressed while he’s in the loony bin, though.

THIS is why I like Brian Michael Bendis. I’m reading a story focusing on Squirrel Girl, and I’m really enjoying it. Never has a super-powered nanny been so important to a story then, well, I guess Agatha Harkness. I like what Bendis is doing with this (formerly) joke character. She successfully proved her worth as a nanny for a couple of Avengers. Now, let’s see what she can really do next issue while the mansion is under Siege (whoops, wrong event).

I’ve really been enjoying the new New Mutants title. When it first started, I was a little disappointed that The Powers That Be were shoehorning the original New Mutants back together under this title. These aren’t new mutants. They’re old mutants. They’re veterans. But for the most part it’s been a very well-written series, and the characters are written with their continuity complete. The writers didn’t go back to just making these the same characters from 25 years ago. As far as this issue goes, I thought it was funny that the X-Men’s super-duper airplane has a warning for a bird strike. Had these birds not been Hela, Norse goddess of death, would they have still destroyed the Blackbird? And is it irony that a bunch of black birds destroyed the Blackbird?

What You Should Have Read #35

Last (two) Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

This is sad. TWO weeks worth of comics and these are the only bits of awesomeness that I found. Sigh.

I started reading Deadpool when the current series started during Secret Invasion. It was awesome. Now he’s being pulled (or putting himself into) the current event, Fear Itself. The difference, though, is that while Deadpool was pretty integral in the fight against the invading Skrulls, this time he is using this current crisis to attempt to gain a more heroic reputation…and he (so far) has absolutely nothing to do with the crisis. Oh, and apparently there are werewolves.

Wolverine just asked Deadpool who he was talking to. Ask a silly question…

Wanna know how big of a geek I am? I’m such a geek (and a child of the ‘80s) that I got what I’m assuming is a pretty obscure reference from this panel. I won’t ruin it for you unless you ask me to. Also, this is a great series. I’ve loved the IDW reboot of G.I. Joe, but the gem has always been the Cobra series. This is no exception during the Cobra Civil War.

I hate that Tony had to break his sobriety, but damn if that doesn’t come with some awesome hilarity when foul-mouthed dwarves are brought into the equation.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it as long as the book is being published, but Locke & Key is an incredible book. It’s by far the best non-superhero book I’m reading, and it’s always on the top of my stack when it comes out. The ending of this issue was great because it was so unexpected. You’ve got this thing going on for the whole issue, then you get to the last panel and BAM!...you find out that this isn’t just a flashback issue but in fact plot-advancing issue. Awesome.