What You Should Have Read #48

Thoughts on Last Week’s Comic Books

Justice League #3 – So Wonder Woman is what Marvel’s Hercules would be like if he were a woman.

New Mutants #34 – So the first two mutants Dani’s team go after are both refugees from the Age of Apocalypse. I mean, I’m assuming that’s where this Blink is from. The 616 Blink is still dead, right? Even after X-Necrosha or whatever that crossover was? Oh, nevermind. I guess I should have read the entire issue before putting words to paper (as it is). So it’s not the AoA refugee but the formerly dead one. Good to know. The first time I gave up on the X-Men was right after the Phalanx Covenant and before AoA. I ended up going back and reading the entire AoA saga, but I never really connected with Blink. I also never picked up the Exiles book, so I never got around to knowing her from that book. Then when she appeared in X-Necrosha, she was just some dead girl. I guess we’ll see if Abnett and Lanning can put some life into her, so to speak.

Wonder Woman #3 – So apparently a lot of stuff happens to Wonder Woman in the…year?...between Justice League and her solo title. She goes from being somewhat ignorant and awestruck by the “world of man” to hardened and maybe a little cynical. It’ll be interesting to see how that came about…maybe.

X-Factor #227 – I don’t care if it was intended or not, I’m considering Rictor’s snarky demon-lawyer line as a nod to Angel and Wolfram & Hart. And Longshot’s David Carradine question was great. Every time I read this book I really want to go back and read Peter David’s Incredible Hulk run. Then I think about all the back issues I’d have to track down and it sobers me up a bit.

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, 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 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 when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas looming on the horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!

What You Should Have Read #39

Last Week’s Comic Book Awesomeness

DC Retroactive: Justice League – The ‘90s #1 – I realize that I don’t include many DC comics in these weekly write ups. Lately I’m just enjoying Marvel more. I’m hoping that’ll change next month with the New DC 52. I didn’t read Justice League when Giffen and DeMatteis were originally writing it. Morrison’s JLA is MY Justice League. But I really got into the characters and writing style when the team was revisited and before Max became an evil dick, so I thought I’d enjoy this issue…and I did. It’s the humor you’d expect from these guys and some clever nods to what will happen to the characters after this story. Good stuff here.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights #13 – Since I saw the cover of this issue, I was waiting for this joke. I think it’s a requirement that the “one punch” mention has to be made whenever Guy and Batman are together. I also want to say that I’m horribly disappointed in the final issues of all of the DC comics that I’ve read. I realize DC is excited about this “new” universe they’re starting, but they’re letting this one go with no fanfare, no final battle…nothing. I guess they did this right before the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot, too, but I wasn’t around then. This just disappoints me.

New Mutants #30 – The stuff with Dani in this issue is fine. Nothing wrong there. But the really good stuff comes with the rest of the team’s interaction with Mephisto. I love how easy and nonchalant he is. I’ve never really liked him as a villain before, but his attitude shines here, and that’s what has won me over.

Ultimates #1 – It’s a bear….drinking beer…with Norse gods. Read that again and look at the picture. There’s no text, no dialogue, just probably the most awesome panel of a comic book to come out this week.

Wolverine #14 – When the badguys drank the Kool Aid, I figured that the joke would be on THEM, that Wolverine wouldn’t give a damn…he’d just be happy they were dead. I totally did not see the big reveal. That…that was genius, and it made perfect sense. And something like that, it’ll stay with Wolverine and fuck him up. So kudos to the bad guys this time.

X-Factor #224 – Agamemnon is a…pleasant…sort of character, isn’t he?

X-Men #16 – Emma Frost is just a telepathic, diamond-hard ray of sunshine, isn’t she? Still, her ideas aren’t totally without merit, are they? I can say that because I’m positive that my ex does not read my blog, at least the Wednesday updates. And of course I’m talking about the mind wiping. And it’s nice to see Wolverine and Thing addressing powerful, world-dominating elephants in the room.