What You Should Have Read #31

Screw Badassery, Let’s Just Have Some Awesome

It had to happen sooner or later, but I was hoping it would be later. I liked Bucky as Cap, and I liked Steve as Commander Rogers. But if the movie is coming out soon, anybody who might wander into a comic store to pick up a Captain America comic needs to see Steve Rogers in the red, white and blue suit. I loved Bucky’s story since his reawakening, and I loved that Cap didn’t immediately come back once he was “reborn.” I just wish this could have lasted a little longer.

I remember when Carnage was first introduced. I remember thinking, “A new symbiote? Awesome!” I was probably around 13 or 14 at the time. I liked him until the Maximum Carnage storyline, which I thought was heavily diluted with guest heroes. I don’t think I read any other issues with Cletus until the done-in-one story where he was crazy and had poured a bucket of red paint all over himself and was “terrorizing” a city street. I have no idea what happened between that issue (drawn by Lee Weeks, I remember) and this series, but I love having him back and drawn by Clayton Crain. This was a great series, and I’m hoping Carnage USA doesn’t go the same way that Maximum Carnage did.

I was less than impressed with the swiftness in which Mister Dark was dispatched, but I was suitably impressed by the North Wind’s power and his reason for defeating Mister Dark at his own expense.

Thank you, Volstagg, for brightening my day. I needed that.

What You Should Have Read #29

Last Week’s Comic Book Badassery

As much as I enjoy reading Booster Gold each month, I don’t think I’ve ever really found a good example of badassery from the book. This month’s issue (#45) isn’t much different. But the writing and art are good, and really, this is the only book I’m enjoying during all this Flashpoint crap. Right now, as we’re in the beginning stages of hearing news about the “new” DC universe, I really don’t know what to think. I hope that we’re going to get some great stories out of this, but I’d really hate to see 70+ years of continuity just evaporate. Is this what people thought in ’86 after Crisis on Infinite Earths was going strong?

This week’s Badassery in Editorializing award goes to Robert Kirkman, writer of Invincible. In this particular panel, our hero goes off about starting a book over with a #1 issue then going back to the original numbering when it’s time for an important anniversary. I wonder when this was written in relation to when news about DC’s relaunches reached Kirkman’s ears. Marvel has also announced that Uncanny X-Men, their longest-running series, will end in October. I wonder how long it’ll be before it (and Detective Comics and Action Comics, DC’s two longest-running series, the latter of which just hit issue 900) comes back with its original numbering?

Volstagg is the one person I can somewhat connect with in Thor’s cast of characters. In an overly serious and/or godly book, I gravitate toward the comic relief. That’s Volstagg. He’s the big, fat comic relief with a heart of gold. He’s cliché, but he’s extremely well written in Journey of Mystery, and I really, really like him. I also like his reason for watching over Loki.

Strong and sure-of-herself Aunt May has always been preferable to me instead of weak and sickly Aunt May. I loved the way J. Michael Straczynski wrote her in Amazing Spider-Man, and I love that she has stayed that way. And while Uncle Ben was a long-haired hippie type when Ultimate Spider-Man began, I’ve always loved Aunt May’s support of Peter, especially after finding out that he is Spider-Man (spoilers?). She wasn’t a doting or coddling aunt, she was the mother that he needed and didn’t have. That is greatly illustrated by what she does in Ultimate Spider-Man #159.