Comics are Awesome II

[Dominic]

Well, that kind of explains why Sinestro was so hot to have Hal drop all of those extra rings before the big fight in issue 49 then. (I could see Hal thinking the extra rings would help because he was a bit nutty at the time. But, It never made sense for Sinstro to be worried about the extra rings. But, if Sinestro was a projection of Hal's fears, then Sinestro would have been bonkers by proxy...)


And, comics:

GI Joe Cobra volume 1:
Stuff like this is why I love comics. IDW's rebooted "GI Joe" franchise starts from the reasonable premise that Cobra the organization is largely an unknown quantity. This series follows a deep cover operative's attempts to research the enemy. Even knowing how the arc ended ~2 years later, (yes, I am that far behind), does not take away from this book. Both the high concept and Costa execution make this book well worth reading. Costa has clearly done at least a yeoman's job of researching espionage and manages to write that in without appearing to be showing off. The art is a bit murky in places. But, this is a minor issue and can be read around easily enough.
Grade: B



Dom
-read some other stuff, but will probably not bother to review it.

[andersonh1]

Batman #5
I'm loving the whole "Court of Owls" storyline, but this issue appears to be largely filler. It's "the breaking of Batman" as over a week trapped in their maze and the probability of drugged water leads to an issue of Batman having hallucinations. I'm not sure how much of what we see is relevant to the plot and how much is just there to make Bruce's breakdown convincing. He's lost his utility belt and part of his mask between this issue and the last with no explanation. We do learn more about the Court of Owls and just how many victims they've claimed over the years, assuming anything we see is real. We do get another great cliffhanger, but what happens cannot possibly be real, or else Batman is a dead man, and we know that's not the case.

Daredevil #8
My shop didn't have the issue of ASM that had the first part of this story, so thank goodness for recaps. And Black Cat is a pretty blatant Catwoman rip-off, down to the cat-themed moniker and job as thief, not to mention some UST with the heroes of the story. This remains one of my favorite monthly books, and I never thought I'd say that about a Marvel title. And for goodness sakes, Matt, you just met her! Control yourself! Spider Man isn't going to be happy. Is this why OMD happened, so that we could see Spider Man involved in lust triangles? Ugh.

Good week for comics. I've pared down my DC comics purchases into a few books that I really enjoy. I'm looking forward to the upcoming JSA title, and I hope it's worth the wait. I've missed my monthly Golden Age hero fix.

[138 Scourge]

Well, that kind of explains why Sinestro was so hot to have Hal drop all of those extra rings before the big fight in issue 49 then. (I could see Hal thinking the extra rings would help because he was a bit nutty at the time. But, It never made sense for Sinstro to be worried about the extra rings. But, if Sinestro was a projection of Hal's fears, then Sinestro would have been bonkers by proxy...)

Has it ever been said officially if the extra rings help anything or not? I thought it was a case of one willpower times extra condiuts for same with the power that entails equals more damage. Like, say, if Freddy hit you with one finger of his glove versus the whole hand. Or if you shoot both barrels of a shotgun as opposed to just the one. Which still begs the question of why the Guardians don't just give every Lantern a full set of rings in the beginning. Whatever, the extra rings were a good visual cue for Hal being extra-dangerous, anyway.

And for goodness sakes, Matt, you just met her! Control yourself! Spider Man isn't going to be happy. Is this why OMD happened, so that we could see Spider Man involved in lust triangles? Ugh.

Well, DD is all about living in the moment right now. And it's pretty well established that he just can't help himself around a certain type of woman. I wasn't sure about the whole "Taking Black Cat to his apartment" thing, either, but I'll let it slide because it fits both characters.

Good week for comics for me, too, actually. All three of my favorite Marvel books came out this week (Amazing Spider-Man, Venom, and Daredevil), and a bunch of interesting other stuff came out, too.

Especially Prophet. Now for those of you that weren't into comics then or blocked it out, Prophet was one of Rob Leifeld's Image things, featuring a guy in a purple suit with the Rob Leifeld hair and weird mask he had his dudes wearing. I don't actually know what the dude was about, I guess he was a time traveler or something? Had Rob Leifeld guns? Got drawn by Stephen Platt for awhile? Anyway, Image is starting up a bunch of Leifeld's old "Extreme Studios" books again, and while it seems like a bad idea, it's worth noting that Leifeld's "Supreme" became one of the best Superman stories ever when Alan Moore got ahold of it, so there's a history of other creators being able to make things happen with these characters.

Prophet starts up again with issue twenty-one, a ballsy move, starting up with the old numbering. And this book, man, I don't even know what to think about how this happened. It opens up with the main character coming out of hibernation on a far, far, far future Earth. He doesn't recognize any of the wildlife, the terrain, or the locals, and just has to make do. Man's got a contact to meet up with and a delivery to make. This book's kind of great, really, it has artwork that really appeals to me, and it manages to be a barbarian story, which I'm all for, but does it without the fantasy trappings that I can't stand. For real, sci-fi barbarian comic with compelling writing and fantastic art. I really liked it.

The other book that really got my attention this week was Amazing Spider-Man #678. What a damn amazing superhero book. It shakes out like this: One of Peter's colleagues at Horizon Labs built a doorway that takes you one day into the future. When the colleague goes through it, it comes out with the next day's newspaper, taken from the breakroom the next day. When Peter goes through it, it opens up on a destroyed New York City. All Peter's got is the next day's paper and a watch stopped at 3:10 to figure out what happened and why the whole city'd be ruined if he was gone for 24 hours. And according to Madame Web (his friend who sees the future) he can't enlist the Avengers or FF, or evacuate the city because that could make things worse. So he's gotta retrace what the paper said he did the previous day, and figure out what went horribly wrong. And at the end of the issue, he's got literally seconds to figure it out. This is seriously old-school super-heroing at it's best. Dan Slott's always a good writer, but he knocked it the fuck outta the park with this one. And Humberto Ramos makes everything just so damn pretty to look at. Plus, this is part one of two. Anyone that says that things have to be written for the trade these days is a damn liar, because Slott proves right here that a good story can be two parts just as easy as six. If you like superhero comics, I can't recommend this issue enough.

Bought a lot of other really good comics today. Avenging Spider-Man had a lot of great character moments and some really nice artwork. I wanna stay with the book, especially because Hawkeye and Spider-Man are the stars next issue, but crap, Greg Land artwork? Man, I dunno. Paul Grist's Mud Man is a lot of fun, it's basically a supremely talented storyteller taking the feel of 60's Marvel (so basically, the best superhero books ever) and running with it. Venom #12 presents the worst day in Eddie Brock's life, both as Agent Venom and as Flash Thompson, and features the return of Toxin, which I guess is another symbiote character? Man, Marvel went nuts with these things, didn't they? And Legion of Monsters brings a really fun series to an abrupt and unclear ending. Sort of disappointing on that last one, but I feel justified in supporting it just to give my money to more left-field Marvel books.

Anyway, that's my stuff of the week.

[Onslaught Six]

And Black Cat is a pretty blatant Catwoman rip-off, down to the cat-themed moniker and job as thief, not to mention some UST with the heroes of the story.

It's always been that way, hasn't it? It's not a new thing. It at least makes sense because Spiderman has an amazing amount of crazy animal-themed villains. (I always liked Rhino. He's just a big dumb guy in a rhino suit and he's hilariously inept. Nothing complicated. Nothing deep. Just a big dumb guy who can beat Spidey up a bit before he outsmarts him. I always wanted to see him in one of the Raimi films. Not as a major character, just like, Spidey stops him from robbing a bank or something at the beginning.)

Is this why OMD happened, so that we could see Spider Man involved in lust triangles? Ugh.

Much like Catwoman, Trying To Fuck Spiderman has been a major character trait of Black Cat since day one.

Especially Prophet. Now for those of you that weren't into comics then or blocked it out, Prophet was one of Rob Leifeld's Image things, featuring a guy in a purple suit with the Rob Leifeld hair and weird mask he had his dudes wearing. I don't actually know what the dude was about, I guess he was a time traveler or something? Had Rob Leifeld guns? Got drawn by Stephen Platt for awhile? Anyway, Image is starting up a bunch of Leifeld's old "Extreme Studios" books again, and while it seems like a bad idea, it's worth noting that Leifeld's "Supreme" became one of the best Superman stories ever when Alan Moore got ahold of it, so there's a history of other creators being able to make things happen with these characters.

Prophet starts up again with issue twenty-one, a ballsy move, starting up with the old numbering. And this book, man, I don't even know what to think about how this happened. It opens up with the main character coming out of hibernation on a far, far, far future Earth. He doesn't recognize any of the wildlife, the terrain, or the locals, and just has to make do. Man's got a contact to meet up with and a delivery to make. This book's kind of great, really, it has artwork that really appeals to me, and it manages to be a barbarian story, which I'm all for, but does it without the fantasy trappings that I can't stand. For real, sci-fi barbarian comic with compelling writing and fantastic art. I really liked it.

Damn it, Scourge, stop making me want to buy things!

The other book that really got my attention this week was Amazing Spider-Man #678. What a damn amazing superhero book. It shakes out like this: One of Peter's colleagues at Horizon Labs built a doorway that takes you one day into the future. When the colleague goes through it, it comes out with the next day's newspaper, taken from the breakroom the next day. When Peter goes through it, it opens up on a destroyed New York City. All Peter's got is the next day's paper and a watch stopped at 3:10 to figure out what happened and why the whole city'd be ruined if he was gone for 24 hours. And according to Madame Web (his friend who sees the future) he can't enlist the Avengers or FF, or evacuate the city because that could make things worse. So he's gotta retrace what the paper said he did the previous day, and figure out what went horribly wrong. And at the end of the issue, he's got literally seconds to figure it out. This is seriously old-school super-heroing at it's best. Dan Slott's always a good writer, but he knocked it the fuck outta the park with this one. And Humberto Ramos makes everything just so damn pretty to look at. Plus, this is part one of two. Anyone that says that things have to be written for the trade these days is a damn liar, because Slott proves right here that a good story can be two parts just as easy as six. If you like superhero comics, I can't recommend this issue enough.

DAMN IT, SCOURGE, STOP MAKING ME WANT TO BUY THINGS.

and features the return of Toxin, which I guess is another symbiote character? Man, Marvel went nuts with these things, didn't they?

That they did!

I meant to do a full comics write up but I'm a lazy bastard lately so I haven't done it yet. But I'll tell you what I did get: Scarlet Spider #1. Morbid curiosity, I guess. I loved Ben Reily, and even though this is Kaine in the costume, maybe it'll be cool. And it...sort of is! For one thing, the issue gives you all the information you need to know about Kaine's backstory, and then reintroduces him as he is now. It's pretty cool I guess? He's kind of like early Good Guy Venom, working as a lone anti-hero in the streets. Got the desire to do good in him, repay his past sins, but he isn't really sure how to do that and he's also just trying to live his life for the first time (His scars have healed, so he doesn't look all ugly-ass now).

[Dominic]

Has it ever been said officially if the extra rings help anything or not?

The multiple rings were a problem with "Emerald Twilight". If I recall, the official "physics" at the time were that 1 ring was the same as two rings was the same as 3 and so forth. Sinestro's worries did not make much sense.

so there's a history of other creators being able to make things happen with these characters.

That is common for the industry. Look at the Big 2, and be honest about things......


GI Joe Cobra #9: Ain't read it yet. My plan is to read a compilation for every issue of this that I get. I read one for last week's annual, and will read another in the newst week or so. (For those keeping track at home, I am keeping up on the read 2:1 rule I set down. And, depending on how I stack last week's reading, "Cobra" volume 1 actually covers this and the annual.)


Moon Knight #9: Holy crap, Marc Spector is not only loopy, he is creepy. Spector is really creepy. Spector is "creepy stalker man-crush creepy". Holy crap, he is creepy. Bendis' use of flash-backs and non-linear story-telling really works here, even if it does get a bit predictable in places. For all of the complaints about his pacing, Bendis' "then/now" style generally keeps each individual issue/chapter consistent in tone. And, it really keeps the issue coherent. (Of course, most of the fans who make that complaint are reading at a 5th grade level, but hey....) Grade: A


Ultimate Spiderman #6:
Another crackerjack issue of this book. Making Miles and Ganke gifted kids gives Bendis enough flexibility to be able to write them as kids, (making a fair amount of stupid mistakes), without making them insufferably whiny little terds who are not credibly heroic. Bendis also avoids the tir4ed cliche of making all adults inept/malicious. The letter column needs to get past the "how I feel about the new Spiderman" thing and move on to discussing the comics themselves though.
Grade: B



Dom
-was mildly annoyed when Newbury tried to close the comics section at 6pm yesterday for a signing. Closing the comics section. At 6pm. On Wednesday.

[138 Scourge]

For all of the complaints about his pacing, Bendis' "then/now" style generally keeps each individual issue/chapter consistent in tone. And, it really keeps the issue coherent. (Of course, most of the fans who make that complaint are reading at a 5th grade level, but hey....)

Not sure how to take a comment about people reading superhero comics at a 5th-grade level, there. It's not necessarily that he takes a while to get to his story's climax, it's that it often feels like nothing's going on while he's getting there. Parts one and two of a six-part story have no hook to 'em to make 'em feel like a complete story. And yeah, I've bought whole big books about nothing more than people talking to each other and whining about their jobs, but the best of those manage to keep their stories moving by having something happen each issue. Like I've said about the Miles Morales books, I want to support the character, but it didn't feel like each issue was earning my five dollars. If I wanted to be spend five bucks to be entertained for two minutes a shot, I'd start smoking crack.

But hey, whatever works for you. I'll be buying a Bendis Avengers book soon enough, whatever I think of the writing on it, because when an Avengers book happens with Walt SImonson drawing it, I feel like I oughtta be reading it.

Thing I didn't notice before-this week's issue of "Venom" features a "24 years of Venom" tag on the cover. This is a goof on the "70 years of Spider-Man" tags the Spidey books have had, but good grief, I remember when the first Venom comic came out! Well, I'll be stepping outside now, telling those kids to get off my lawn, I guess.

[Dominic]

I have said it before, and will say it again: Single issue stories are rare, and even more rarely worth reading in the first place. Comics are a "buy the story a piece at a time" medium, and have been for at least 25 years.

"Ultimate Spiderman" is one of the best damned books on the shelves, and one of the only ones doing something *new*. I am buying that book partly out of obligation, but also out of legitimate curiosity.

Not sure how to take a comment about people reading superhero comics at a 5th-grade level, there.

It duz not hav enuf big wobuts fiyting on evuwy payge! Or, people complain because every little detail is not spelled out as soon as they want it to be. (Wait an issue or two. The answers will get here.)


Dom
-or people who seem to think that comics are written week by week, on the fly... Oi.

[138 Scourge]

I'm not even against multi-part stories, I just want each issue to be worthwhile on it's own. Not saying that Ultimate Spidey isn't, and honestly, I wish 'em well. I hope Miles Morales becomes wildly popular and the next Spider-Man movie is able to finally have Don Glover starring in it.

I ask you this, though: If Ultimate Spidey couldn't hook a thirty-five year old man who spends way too much of his spare change on Marvel comics and is entirely capable of following a multi-issue story, how's it supposed to hook a hypothetical kid who picks up, say, the second issue and sees a couple kids talking about being Spider-Man, but very little actual Spider-Manning taking place?

Not sure how to take a comment about people reading superhero comics at a 5th-grade level, there.

It duz not hav enuf big wobuts fiyting on evuwy payge! Or, people complain because every little detail is not spelled out as soon as they want it to be. (Wait an issue or two. The answers will get here.)

Now, sunshine, you know full well that's not what I'm talking about. I'm just saying that it seems silly to get all intellectually-snobby about comics where dudes in spandex beat on each other.

[138 Scourge]

Damn it, Scourge, stop making me want to buy things!

Let me not help matters at all by linking you to the "Prophet" review that sold me on the book. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/01/1 ... on-graham/

Oh, shit, speaking of sci-fi barbarians, this looks really good and I'm totally in. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/01/1 ... d-valiant/

[Gomess]

I remember playing "Iron Man & X-O Manowar" on the Sega Saturn back in the 90s and thinking Manowar's basic concept was pretty fantastic. The spider aliens and modern Earth parts? Not so much.