What You Should Have Seen #20

X-Men: First Class

I think I should have watched this in the theater instead of on DVD. With the inclusion of Magneto’s concentration camp scene from the first movie, the movie sort of goes out of its way to show you that this isn’t a remake or a reboot, but an in-continuity prequel.

There is so much to like about this movie. The casting is superb. The acting is wonderful. The action and effects are seamless. The nods to the comic book continuity are excellent, and the changes are perfectly acceptable.

I feel the need to make comments that will quite possibly spoil things. But, apparently people like spoilers.

NOTES!:

• “Groovy mutation.”
• Moira is a CIA operative? Apparently she’s no longer Scottish, and Banshee is no longer Irish. I’m okay with that. Shaw is also a Nazi.
• I like the explanation for the helmet Magneto will eventually wear.
• I don’t know who the wind guy Shaw has is. IMDB says it’s Riptide, one of the minor Marauders. Eh, okay.
• I like Xavier’s early cockiness.
• I’m okay with McCoy being the “Q” for Xavier. SOMEBODY had to make all this stuff, right?
• “Are you sure we can’t shave your head?”
  “Don’t touch my hair.”
• Angel was one of my least favorite new mutants from Grant Morrison’s run. At least she’s pretty, here.

• How much older is Alex Summers than Scott? Isn’t SCOTT supposed to be the older brother?
• This movie has probably the best cameo I’ve seen in a comic book movie.
• I don’t like Havok’s plasma hula hoops. I’m glad that gets fixed.
• I know OF Azazel, but I’m not familiar with his characterization. I know he’s Nightcrawler’s dad and that he’s a demon. Here, though, he appears to just be a red, evil Nightcrawler…and I’m okay with that.
• I’m only slightly familiar with Darwin and his most recent appearances in X-Factor…but by the nature of his mutation, wouldn’t he still have survived Shaw’s attack?
• I was really hoping for a Basic Instinct scene when Emma was in the interrogation room. I guess that was too much to hope for in a PG-13 comic book movie.
• Jennifer Lawrence is incredibly beautiful, and I’ll take her over Rebecca Romijn any day. She looks real. The brief cameo was another nice nod to the original movies, though.
• January Jones is also very pretty, but at the moment I can only see her as Mrs. Don Draper. The way she carries herself doesn’t seem to fit with the Emma Frost I’m most familiar with. I like the take-charge, smart-ass Emma Frost. That’s not January Jones.

I want more. There’s, what, more than 30 years between the events of this movie and the first X-Men movie? What happened since? I want to know NOW!

If you like comic books, watch this movie. If you like action movies, watch this movie. If you like good acting by good actors, watch this movie.

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 #30

Last Week's Comic Book Badassery

After a long hiatus, I picked up Uncanny X-Men (and the rest of the X-line) again with the Utopia storyline. Dr. Nemesis was already a member of the team, and I knew nothing about him. Truth be told, I still don't know much about him. I like it just about everytime he's allowed to talk, though.

Supernatural is probably my favorite regular season show. It's a worthy successor to Buffy and Angel, as it's well written, well acted, and contains just the right amount of humor. Hell, I even went to a Supernatural convention a couple of weeks ago (it wasn't ANYTHING like the episode where Sam and Dean went to a Supernatural convention). So when Peter David puts a Supernatural reference in a comic, you're damn right I'm going to take notice

Cyclops has never been one of my favorite X-Men. I like his power set, his origin, his look, and his leadership ability. But overall, I just don't like him as a character. I loved this panel though, how he tells Rockslide, the strongest of the X-kids in that room if not the most powerful, that he'll be the first one Cyclops will take down, and Rockslide knows it's true. That panel right there now has me looking forward to Schism (well, besides looking forward to some regular Carlos Pacheco art).

And from the same issue we get another bit of massively egotistical Magneto. Not much different from the page I pulled from the last issue, but I still think it's awesome.

What You Should Have Read #28

Last Week’s Badassery

Another one! Another issue of Astonishing X-Men! And again with Armor! I swear I don’t have some sick fascination with her. She’s being written VERY well. And I could include her fight with Fin Fang Foom here, but I liked it better when she extended her shell around the Blackbird and dive-bombed a monster. Awesome.

This week’s bit of Hulk badassery comes not from something that happened in the comic, but in the badass way writer Jeff Parker tried to recycle Greg Pak’s wonderful Planet Hulk storyline. And I’m not talking badass as in the quality of work. I’m talking badass as in the audacity Parker must have to expect us to NOT raise an eyebrow of this copycat story. Hell, he even goes so far as to have Red Hulk admit that the Hulk went through this earlier. The whole thing seemed extremely lazy.

Secret Six is completely badass each and every month. Between Gail Simone’s tight script and excellent dialogue and Jim Calafiore’s clear and kinetic artwork, this is consistently one of my most-anticipated comics each month. It was difficult to pick out just one page to highlight, but I decided to go with the heart of gold surrounded by a quintet of morally ambiguous killers who we love anyways. Stripper Liana, after being held hostage and tortured for being a stripper, decides to have mercy on her abductor. In a book full of stone cold badassery, that’s one of the most badass things you can do.

Magneto has always been powerful. Even when his control over magnetism was decreased over the years, he still commanded power in his voice and his character. The last page of this week’s X-Men issue demonstrates not his power over iron and metal, but the power of his ego. It’s old-school magneto, in word, deed and appearance.

Comic Book Reviews for the Week of Nov. 12, 2008 (Mini Series)

Anna Mercury #4

I’m not totally sure I know what’s going on. I’m pretty sure the whats and whys of New Ataraxia and Sheol were addressed an issue or two ago, but I just can’t remember...which has made this issue more than a bit confusing. I understand why New Ataraxia is attacking Sheol. I understand that Mercury is helping the resistance. I understand that Mercury is actually from "our" Earth and that she has to be transported somehow to...there...but I either don’t get or don’t know WHAT New Ataraxia and Sheol are. Hopefully it’ll all be cleared up next issue...and I’ll remember what happened in this issue.

Batman: Cacophony #1

"Floyd? My toilet’s on fire over there."

I had to get this. I may be a glutton for punishment, but I just had to. Who knows if the other two issues will ever see the light of day (cough cough Daredevil: Target cough cough), but I’m a Kevin Smith fan. So I thought the story was decent. I thought it was a little cheesy that Smith brought in his own creation, Onomatopoeia, to bust the Joker out of Arkham, but what are you gonna do? I think I’ll enjoy watching Maxie Zeus run like a scared little bitch from the Joker. As for Walt Flanagan’s artwork, wow, no, I didn’t much care for it. I get the Smith likes to give his friends work, it’s what I’d do if I could, but play to their strengths, man. Has he done any comic work before? If not, you start him out on what should be a pretty high-profile story? I don’t think so. Well, it’s only three issues, and there’s a good chance that we won’t see #2 until next year, so maybe he’ll get better by then.

Black Terror #1

Well, that was better than I expected. I think I liked it better than Project Superpowers, the book it’s spinning out of. This book is basically all set-up for Black Terror to rescue his lost sidekick, who is believed to be held captive in the White House. I’ve enjoyed Ross and Krueger’s team ups on the Earth X Saga, and I’m enjoying it here. I also enjoyed Mike Lilly’s artwork. I don’t recall seeing his work prior to this, and it’s not so great that I’ll search out anything he does, but it works very well for this story.

Dead of Night featuring Devil-Slayer #3

Hmm, it’s a Max title, so it might not be in continuity, but does anyone know of the Bloodstone group has ties to Elsa or her dad? I only ask because I don’t follow the characters...but wasn’t Elsa in Nextwave? So Sylva is being chased by Bloodstone, the U.S. Army, demons, and angels? Man, this guy has it bad. It’s too bad I’m enjoying all this crap coming down on him. This is a good little mini (redundant?). I hope we see more of Danny when this is over.

Push #1

I’m not actually sure if this is a mini or an on-going, so I’m just assuming. It wasn’t a bad story, but I’ve got one big problem with it. The team’s changer went in with the target. So the guy who can kill you with his voice comes in and "kills" the target, but doesn’t notice that his orifices aren’t bleeding? Wouldn’t that clue you into something? And why was nobody questioning why H.R. was in the bar in the first place? He was supposed to be outside as cover. Just sloppy writing. And what was Jonah even doing on the mission? He’s in the alley and on the transport home, but we don’t see him again. Like I said, sloppy writing.

The Cleaners #1

I picked this up after really enjoying the Samuel L. Jackson/Eva Mendez movie of the similar name. It looks like there’s a mystery to be had here, but there’s no way of telling which way it will lie. A bunch of blood leads to multiple "donors" leads to runaways leads to The Cleaners...doing what besides cleaning up the mess? Are the private investigators also? Is there a supernatural connection to this? I guess I’ll just have to pick up the next issue to find out.

Dark Tower: Treachery #3

Another great if not short chapter of this part of Roland’s life. These minis have turned out to be a great companion to the seven books. Since it’s been so long since I’ve read the books, I can’t recall if Stephen’s death actually happened, or if the Grapefruit is just showing Roland what will happen. Either way, Jae Lee’s amazing artwork has given us a gruesome picture of his death.

The Stand: Captain Trips #3

It’s weird seeing Lloyd and NOT seeing him as Miguel Ferrera. I like how this adaptation is being done: Aguirre-Sacasa isn’t putting in anything new. All the dialogue and text is lifted straight from the book. It’s just his job to figure out what gets in and what gets cut, and therefore what Mike Perkins should draw. Stu is getting in deep, Frannie had it out with her mom, and Larry is starting to get cabin fever. Oh, and Captain Trips is still making its way across the country. Only two more issues left, and I assume we’ll end with everyone dead.

X-Men: Magneto - Testament #3

My last name is commonly a Jewish name, but I’m Catholic. As far as I know, other than an uncle who married in, I don’t have any Jewish relatives. I say as far as I know because I don’t know really anything past my grandfather, and I don’t really know much about him. My heritage is something I’ve never been that interested in. But now that I think about it, there’s very little doubt in my mind that I probably had Jewish family that were persecuted by the Nazis. Regardless of a family connection or not, this is a very powerful and compelling issue. I’m going to assume that Greg Pak did his research and all the facts are true. There doesn’t even have to be a Marvel connection for this to be a good story. This could be about any Polish Jew family.

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Listening to: Alien Ant Farm - Happy Death Day
via FoxyTunes

Comic Book Reviews for the Week of Oct. 8, 2008

Cream of the Crop

Deadpool #3

An unforeseen double-cross in the first issue was followed by an expected double-cross in the last issue, and this issue we get a very unexpected sort-of-double-cross. This issue had less of the funny and more of Deadpool kicking Skrull ass. We learn his true purpose for being where he is, and ultimately why he allowed the Skrulls to use his genetic material. He’s pretty devious for a guy who’s nothing but a smart ass who kills really well.

Fallen Angel #30

For a book with such religious overtones, it’s about time we get to the big question. I think David handles this very well. Jude’s question to his mother isn’t answered, but at least she tells him why. And in an issue devoted to faith, Lee and Jude make the ultimate leap of faith (with a much more convincing outcome than in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). And there goes Black Mariah following. Will something different happen to her because she fell rather than believed and leaped? I guess we’ll find out next issue.

Ender’s Game: Battle School #1

I can’t remember if it was my freshman or sophomore year of college, but for one semester I took a class called Sci-Fi and Fantasy. We read books, we wrote stories, and we watched movies. It was awesome. Because of that class I read Frankenstein, Wizard of Earthsea, Brave New World, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dune, and Ender’s Game. Out of the three books in that list whose stories continued on into other books, the future of Ender Wiggin was the only one I was concerned with. I followed him through Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. I haven’t read any of the short stories or Shadow books, but I’ve been meaning to. I think after finishing this comic, I may have to go back and reread the series. From what I can remember, this comic is pretty faithful to the book. Since it has been about a decade since I read the book, I can’t call forth any details, but the comic is ringing true for me. This is going to be a book I’ll be looking forward to every month.

Green Lantern #35

Great writing, beautiful art…yet I can’t help feeling that I was cheated a bit. Johns gave us a seven-part origin story, which updated and tweaked Hal’s origin to account for current happenings while setting the stage for The Blackest Night. That’s okay, I have not problem with that, but that’s seven months not knowing what Hal is doing NOW. Couldn’t this have been a mini-series, or at least trimmed down and made into back-up stories or used as flashbacks while telling a current story? I’m okay with Johns replacing Legion with Atrocitus and totally removing Hal’s DUI and prison sentence (Emerald Dawn I and II), but rather than moving Hal forward, we’re taking a look back. Still, it was a great story.

Green Lantern Corps #29

This series is just as good as the main Green Lantern book. With this, we’ve got all the Earth GLs taken care of (I think…John is still a member of the Justice League, right?). As with Hal’s GL book, this is setting us up for The Blackest Night, but at least with this one we’re moving forward instead of reinventing the past. Guy and Tora explore their relationship. A new Star Sapphire (Pink Lantern) is born, thus leading me to believe that Tora might be recruited as Batman was recruited by the Yellow Lanterns. We’ve also got the Lantern who talks to the dead following a giant cosmic hand around the galaxy. The giant hand has got to be Chronos, but I can’t remember what happened to him after the JLA/Avengers crossover, which was supposed to be in continuity. I think he’s showing up in Trinity, so I wonder how that’s going to fit in if at all.

Invincible Iron Man #6

While still a good issue, after the past five GREAT issues, this was a bit of a let-down. Tony using various past armors to help him save the day has been done before. He’s a super genius, a futurist, and this is his fallback plan that he has to go to every time something big comes up? C’mon, man, think of something new!

Marvel Zombies 3 #1

And I thought they mined all the stories they could out of this. So they first showed up in the Ultimate Universe, the 616 Black Panther traveled there I believe, and now the zombies are traveling to the 616 world. I liked seeing Florida’s Initiative team, as well as the A.R.M.O.R. crew. I stopped reading Darkhawk somewhere in the early teens of the series, but I recognize Portal. That’s one good thing about the Initiative, a lot of obscure characters are showing up, if only to be cannon fodder (poor Siege and Conquistador). Right now it looks like Morbius is going to be the Black Panther of this series. It’ll be interesting to see how far this reaches out into the 616 universe. Consider me hooked.

Dark Tower: Treachery #2

And now we’ve got a female gunslinger, or at least a girl who wants to be a gunslinger. I think that’s totally new. I don’t remember any mention of her in the books. Another great and beautiful issue, if not somewhat slow. Other than introducing Aileen and showing us her skill and having Steven stop his fellow gunslinger from bleeding to death, nothing happened. It seems like we’re being set up for what might happen in the next issue.

The Stand: Captain Trips #2

I really hope that the TV movie hasn’t ruined me on this. I’ve already got character faces in my mind: Gary Sinese as Stu, Rob Lowe as Nick, Dr. Kelso from Scrubs as Frannie’s dad, Jamie Sheridan as the Walkin’ Dude, the guy who played Parker Lewis from Parker Lewis Can’t Lose as Harold, the dad from Alf as one of the scientists at the CDC, Dauber from Coach as Tom (M-O-O-N, that spells Dauber), Molly Ringwald as Frannie, and Ed Harris as the General who keeps watching the monitors. Oh, and Kareem Abdul Jabar…can’t forget him. Some of the casting choices never sat right with me. I always envisioned Stu as younger than Sinese (I think I’m spelling his name wrong, but I’m too tired to check), and I didn’t like Parker Lewis as Harold. So far I’m okay with the portrayals here. Perkins is doing a great job visually differentiating all of the cast member from each other. Aguirre-Sacasa is doing a good job so far at chopping the massive novel up, and it looks like the script is lifted straight from the book. I thought this issue ended in a weird place though, rather abruptly. But that’s minor. This is my favorite book, and as long as Aguirre-Sacasa stays true to the story, I think I’ll probably geek out with every issue. BUT (all caps, what could it mean?), this week in his Lying in the Gutters gossip column at www.comicbookresources.com, Rich Johnston mentioned that King would be moving his comics from Marvel to…Del Rey? Does that sound right? It’s a publishing company, but I didn’t realize they were in the comic book business. We’ll see how that goes, and how that’ll affect the two books already at Marvel.

Trinity #19

This book has really gotten a lot better since it started. And I love alternate reality stories. I love getting glimpses of how this “new” world is different yet the same. It looks like Busiek is working on something massive here, and I’m glad I’m along for the ride. The back-up story was pretty good. I like how it brought up Invasion, tying it to both realities. It looks like this artist is taking the place of Tarot, who has moved up into the main story.

X-Men: Magneto – Testament #2

I have one complaint and one complaint only about this issue. At the beginning, when Max’s father takes his book away, I thought it was a picture of a boy he was looking at. If it weren’t for his father’s comment about it always being a girl and then me noticing the pig-tails, I never would have thought that was Magda, or that she was a she. Other than that, this was another powerful story from Greg Pak. It’s sort of nice to see that I haven’t been totally desensitized to this type of violence. It lets me know that I’m not a total robot. Max and his family’s flight from Germany as the Nazis raid homes and businesses was heart-wrenching. I don’t know if this story will make Magneto any more sympathetic, but it’s very interesting to see what this mutant figurehead witnessed and lived through as a boy, and we see why he is so militant about not being persecuted again.

Leftovers

Crossed #1

I went back and forth on where to put this, Cream of the Crop or Leftovers. It’s a very well-written and well-illustrated book, but are there really more zombie stories to tell? And essentially, isn’t that what the Crossed are? I’m going to stick with it and see where Ennis takes us, but I’m just wondering if it’s an excuse for him to just be ultra-violent and deviant. I think I prefer Ennis when he’s working with a more realistic storyline such as his war books or The Punisher. Even Preacher with it’s religious overtones was still grounded in reality. With this book, it seems like he was trying to be Warren Ellis.

Dead of Night: Devil-Slayer #2

That’s a pretty big change of tone from last issue. We go from a pretty standard war story to a horror show in an eye blink. Everything seemed to work pretty well. We met Isaac last issue, so his appearing out of nowhere to save the day isn’t a stretch. And Bloodstone’s methods make sense. Never let it be said that demons aren’t smart or can’t take advantage of a situation. I guess the big question is why the name Bloodstone? Will Elsa (is that her name?) be showing up at some point?

Presidential Material: Barack Obama & Presidential Material: John McCain

These are decent biographies of both of the 2008 major-party Presidential candidates. McCain’s book focused on his military service legacy and record, which seems to be lousy with destroyed planes. Obama’s is more of a full biography (which should be easier since there are fewer years to go through), beginning with his birth in Hawaii. These books should not be used by fence-sitters as decision makers for who they will vote for in the election. It’s useful for anyone who wants to know a general backstory on the two, and that’s it.

Secret Six #2

Not a bad issue. Catman travels to Gotham to keep Batman occupied while the rest of the team infiltrates Alcatraz in order to break out Tarantula. The team runs into trouble in the form of Mammoth, and Catman matches Batman just about punch for punch. Catman sure has come a long way since his appearance the Archer’s Quest storyline that ran in the Green Arrow series.

Walking Dead #53

Oooh, the book gets a reprieve. I don’t like that it was so easy for Rick to find so many friendlies so quickly. But I think it was necessary. He and Michone now have a connection. He and Dale have a connection. And assuming he’s not lying, a new character may just be able to tell us what happened. It was a decent issue, a touching issue that wasn’t nearly as sappy as it could have been. And it took a little longer to read than usual, so bonus.

X-Men: Manifest Destiny #2

Not a bad issue, this. I’m not moving into the CotC pile mainly because I’m not fully up on all the goings on, such as the history between Iceman and Raven, but I’m not turned away by it, so that’s good. And damn, another Dan Panosian story where I don’t want to throw up after looking at it. This is how it works, kids. You’re crap when you start out, but you practice, and you hone your craft, and once you stop trying to be Rob Liefeld and find your own style, you start getting more appreciation from critical nonartists like myself. The Emma story was good too, but how many times have we seen variations of it? Rogue, Magneto, Wolverine…the first two villains before joining the X-Men, Magneto later returning to his roots, and Wolverine a cold-blooded killer and loner before finding a family like the X-Men. But really, with Emma, how many readers have been saying the exact same thing about her that she was thinking?

X-Men: Original Sin #1

Good opening, good enough to know who Daken is if you haven’t read Wolverine: Origins. I’m still not up enough on the X-verse to know why Xavier is out of the picture. While it doesn’t look like I’d need to be expertly versed on recent happenings, I think I’ll wait for the trade of this. I’m slowly revisiting and catching up on the X-verse by starting at the very beginning, and I’m almost to the Mutant Massacre, so I’ve still got a lot of books to read. I would imagine, though, that this would be a great read for X-fans.

Compost

13 Chambers #1

This book actually had a lot of potential, but it fell way short. The plot was very interesting, but there were just too many holes. There were a lot of scene shifts with too little explanations. There’s apparently a follow-up book in the works, but the creators needed to give us more story in this one rather than expecting us to come back for more.

Ferryman #1

The beginning of this book was promising. I thought it was going to be a tongue-in-cheek shoot-‘em-up type of book, but like the move Shoot ‘Em Up, it didn’t know when to just stop. The narration was annoying and the action was improbable. The sketchy art didn’t help either.


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Listening to: Shinedown - Save Me
via FoxyTunes

Comics Review for the Week of Sept. 10, 2008

Cream of the Crop

Amazing Spider-Man #571

Another solid issue by Slott and Romita, Jr. We learn a little bit about Anti-Venom’s abilities and how they differ from Venom. Norman shows us why he is the only real Goblin and why all others, specifically Menace at the moment, are all inferior copies. His hair looks weird, though…well, weirder than cornrows on a white guy normally look.

Deadpool #1

I don’t know why I never read his earlier ongoing solo series or the Cable/Deadpool series. I heard nothing but good things about both, and I love characters who kick ass while cracking wise. So I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss this series. Having it be a Secret Invasion cross-over (even if it wasn’t mentioned on the cover) was a plus, too, since I’m really enjoying it. Since I haven’t read about Deadpool since his second mini-series in ’94, I was a bit out of the loop, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that his conversations were all with himself, and he was crazy as a loon. The ending was completely unexpected, and I liked the Deadpool Saga that was included.

Green Lantern Corps #28

After Superman and his trio of titles (Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, and Superman), my only other monthly DC purchase in the early ‘90s was the previous Green Lantern series, the one that started out with Hal just wandering the country. After Starman, I’d say he’s my favorite DC character. But I’ve really haven’t read many GL stories. I ended that GL series right before John Stewart got his own series, and I picked it up for a short amount of time when Kyle came on the scene. I came back again for maybe a year or so when Kyle brought Hal back with him after a visit to the past. But I’ve never been able to stick with the title…that was until Rebirth and Johns got his hands on him. I’ve also really been enjoying this Corps series. This issue was a breath of fresh air. It was a done-in-two story, something we don’t see much of anymore, let alone the done-in-one. Everything needs to be longer (not necessarily padded, but longer) to make collecting for trade paperbacks easier. I’m assuming the character who took the spotlight in this storyline, Saarek, will be a major player in the Blackest Night storyline, what with him being able to talk to the dead, and the Black Lanterns supposedly composed or only deceased characters. I’ll be looking forward to see what’s done with him leading up to the major storyline, especially in regards to the mission he was sent on at the end of this issue.

Dark Tower: Treachery #1

For these reviews, I’ll only be commenting on the first part of the book, not the narrative at the end. I started reading the narratives with the first series, then gave up. I figure that I’ll sit down with all of them when the series is over and read them then. Now, I’ve been a Stephen King fan since I was in middle school. I remember reading It in seventh grade, sneaking it under my desk in the back of classrooms while the teacher taught. It scared the hell out of me. And I’ve never stopped being a fan. I read the first three Dark Tower books (The Gunslinger, Drawing of the Three, Wastelands) sometime between middle school and my sophomore year of high school, then I read them all again in college shortly after the fourth book (Wizard and Glass) came out, so I could refresh myself. Then there was the accident and rumors of the series never being finished. But it was, and before the fifth book (Wolves of the Calla) was put out, I reread the other four. Five, six (Song of Susannah) and seven (The Dark Tower) have only been read once, though, so I don’t remember as much of them as I’d like to. My wife is just finishing up the final book, and she’s really enjoyed the series. I know I won’t be able to get her to read these comics, though, which is a shame. They’re beautiful, and the first issue of Treachery continues on with the wonderful writing of Robin Furth and Peter David, and the beautiful images of Jae Lee. I was never a fan of Lee’s until recently. His style has changed dramatically (and for the better) since his beginnings in Marvel Comics Presents and Namor. While many loved his work then, I thought it was horrid. Just really, really ugly. But what he does now is nothing short of art, suitable for framing and all that. And Misters Furth and David had a more difficult time with the previous book (The Long Road Home) and this one, I’m sure, since they’re coming up with the stories rather than adapting King’s work (Gunslinger Born was taken from Wizard and Glass). They do an admirable job, keeping the feel of King’s setting and characters. Any fan of King would be doing themselves a disservice by not picking this up, as would any fan of Jae Lee, Peter David, or wonderful comics.

The Stand: Captain Trips #1

I’ve been waiting for this for, oh, I don’t know how long. The Stand is by far my favorite book, and I do my best to read it once a year. I’ve seen the TV mini-series a handful of times, and I enjoyed it more than I do most big- or small-screen adaptations of King’s books. This was a wonderful start to this adaptation. Like the book and the movie, it starts off with the flu right away. We’re introduced to Stu, Frannie and Larry. So far, it’s a very faithful adaptation, and I’m eagerly awaiting the rest. If I could stand (HAH!) the wait, I’d hold off and read the whole thing after the whole story has been released, but I just can’t do it. But it’ll be on the top of my pile each month. Bet on it. Oh, and fans of the Stand should click on this post’s title. I try to link a website to each title, and this one should be somewhat familiar to readers of the book.

X-Men: Magneto – Testament

Okay, wow. I wasn’t expecting this book, just picked it up on a whim (and the fact that another blog reader was looking forward to it). This looks to be the tale of Magneto’s early life “during the Nazi rise to power and WW II,” which, from the letter in the back of the book, is intended to be in continuity. We learn Magneto’s birth name and see him as a boy in school, a boy hated by his peers and teachers for being different (hmm, what persecuted group in the Marvel universe does that sound like?). All of the scenes that don’t involve his family seem to focus on the hatred the Nazis had for the Jews, as demonstrated by a classmate and the headmaster of Max’s (Magneto) school. It’s some powerful stuff, and I’ll definitely be eager to read the rest of this mini-series.

Leftovers

Booster Gold #12

Time travel can easily give one a headache. This isn’t quite so headache inducing, but it’s not especially memorable, either. Dixon and Jurgens have created a very readable book, very reminiscent of the types of stories that I grew up on in the mid-to-late ‘80s and early ‘90s, before everything had to be realistic. I don’t see anything overly special in it, but it’s enjoyable.

Civil War: House of M

This isn’t an important book, and it seems to be somewhat pointless. It’s the backstory of a universe that no longer exists, like revisiting the Age of Apocalypse or the Heroes Reborn universes. But a good story is still a good story, and this is a good story. Not great, just good. I view this as more of a novelty, where as with Ultimate Origins, I HAVE to read it. But it has it’s own review.

Compost

Big Hero 6 #1

I freely admit that I’m basing my review on reading the first couple of pages and then skimming the rest. But I have yet to find a Manga that I like, and while not technically Manga, it’s too close for me. I’m not at all impressed by this type of Japanese art. I’m not a fan of the big eyes or the exaggerated effects. I wonder if I would like it more if it had a more Western style or look to it.