Re: Comics are awesome.
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 11:58 pm
I'm gonna go ahead and pass on Flashpoint. And on Fear Itself, for that matter. You'd think I'd be all over a summer event book done by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen, but I just don't feel the need for it.
Now, "Spider Island", that could be interesting. I guess everyone in New York ends up with Spider-Powers, maybe? Looks like something that could tread a fine line between "Superhero Story" and "Horror Movie", and that's the kind of thing that perks my ears up. Plus, it involves the new Spider-Girl, and I like her.
Anyway, I discovered a new comics store I really liked on FCBD, so I guess that event works sometimes, huh? Kind of sucks for the store I left, I guess, but whatevs. Going to this new store's gotten me buying more comics lately. Here's some of 'em I've bought and what I thought of 'em.
Herc #3: A Fear Itself tie-in. Well, these things get hard to avoid. Anyway, Herc spends his first day taking appeals from the people of Brooklyn, whom he's sworn to protect. The appeals for Herc's help are hilarious, ranging from troubles with thugs and drug dealers, to little yapping dogs, to one dude just straight telling Herc he's gotta go after the Kenyans and the Greeks. Herc gets a new costume, which is handy since it makes less sense for him to be wearing the ol' sash-and-skirt combo into combat now that he's no longer superpowered or immortal. Also, a gang of villains busts loose from the Raft, Marvel's current super-prison. The villains are inspired choices for Hercules to go against: The Basilisk, the Griffin, Man-Bull (half-man, half-bull), and a mystery villainess with a nice last-page reveal. Pak and Van Lente have done an amazing job of making this second-tier hero into one of my favorite Marvel character, and this issue makes Herc really feel like the same dude I became such a fan of in Incredible Hercules.
FF #3: So you've got four alternate-universe versions of Reed Richards running around trapped in the 616, and since none of 'em are as compassionate as the regular Reed Richards, they have every intention of sacrificing the 616 Earth for what they perceive to be a greater good. What to do? Well, if you're Val Richards, Reed's super-genius daughter, you get together Doctor Doom, the Wizard, the Mad Thinker, some dudes from AIM, Diablo, and more besides together to plot Reed Richards stopping strategy. This book, as I've mentioned before, seems really gimmicky from the premise, but it delivers on Johnathan Hickman's desire to do the kind of FF stories that haven't been done before. I'm really liking it, and for as much as I like the FF, I'm really hard to please when it comes to their comics. A bit slow, but the fact it seems to be biweekly right now helps keep things moving.
Captain America: The Fighting Avenger One-Shot: Hey, Prowl. You bought this yet? You oughtta buy this. It's by Brian Clevinger and Gurihiru. This was supposed to be a longer series, but Marvel's tragically cutting back on their all-ages stuff lately. Damn shame, they were a line of fun, low-continuity stories that delivered superhero action in it's purest form. This particular issue features a story set in Cap's early days, before he even had a proper codename (a running joke in the book). He's assigned to a crack squad of US soldiers so they can show him the ropes of fighting a war, give him a bit of experience. The mission's supposed to be a milk run, until Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker shows up. And before Strucker brings them to his superior, one Johann Schmidt. Obviously this book isn't set in 616 Marvel, but who gives even half a rat's ass, it's a fun story with Gurihiru's always gorgeous art.
Alpha Flight #.1: Good god, friggin' gimmick numbering. Okay, Alpha's had a convoluted history, which all was just sort of cut short when most of the team was killed off-panel in an issue of Avengers. During the Chaos War event, the guys that were killed off came back to life and managed to stay that way. Everyone that was dead came back, but Alpha actually got to stay resurrected when Hercules put the universe back together. Chalk it up to Herc being a pretty flawed god, or say that his affection for Snowbird subconsciously bring back her friends, but either way, Canada's got a super-team again. This being dead and brought back actually helps some of the characters, Guardian, for instance. Last I checked in with that guy, he'd died, come back, turned out to be a killer robot pretending to be Guardian, come back again, but somehow kind of an android character, died again, brought back as a teenager, showed up as the older character simultaneous to the teenage one, then the two versions were gonna co-exist because they couldn't figure out who was the real one...y'know, things like this, a simple "was killed and brought back from the underworld" is sometimes the best solution. And in a way, I like that they don't waste time with how they came back. No Alpha Flight: Rebirth here, they're just back. (For you DC guys, it's like the end of Blackest Night). This "preview" issue covers the returned Alpha facing down a two-pronged terrorist attack on Canadian election day. But said "terrorists" include the Purple Girl, a former Alpha member. And they claim to be gathering proof of bad things about the "Unity Party", the Canadian third party that wins the election in a landslide by the end of the issue. Basically, it serves to re-introduce the characters and set up the new series, which, from what I can tell, Canada's newly-elected "Unity Government" is gonna be bad news. Fun fact: said Unity party is led by Gary Cody, longtime Alpha supporting cast member based on a friend of team creator John Byrne. This is basically the original Byrne team, just with slightly different takes on the characters. For instance, I don't think original Marrina would have said "Bite me, Earth media". I'm in for the ride, this is by Pak and Van Lente, and with what they've done with Hercules, I'm interested in seeing what they do with a team I've always kind of liked. Just by including the Purple Girl, and showing her do cool new things with her mind-control powers, they've shown they're not gonna ignore what came between Byrne's run and now, so that's a mark in the book's favor already.
So that's some of what I've gotten lately. I slacked for awhile, but I like getting the comics weekly again. It's a fun thing to look forward to on Wednesdays.
Now, "Spider Island", that could be interesting. I guess everyone in New York ends up with Spider-Powers, maybe? Looks like something that could tread a fine line between "Superhero Story" and "Horror Movie", and that's the kind of thing that perks my ears up. Plus, it involves the new Spider-Girl, and I like her.
Anyway, I discovered a new comics store I really liked on FCBD, so I guess that event works sometimes, huh? Kind of sucks for the store I left, I guess, but whatevs. Going to this new store's gotten me buying more comics lately. Here's some of 'em I've bought and what I thought of 'em.
Herc #3: A Fear Itself tie-in. Well, these things get hard to avoid. Anyway, Herc spends his first day taking appeals from the people of Brooklyn, whom he's sworn to protect. The appeals for Herc's help are hilarious, ranging from troubles with thugs and drug dealers, to little yapping dogs, to one dude just straight telling Herc he's gotta go after the Kenyans and the Greeks. Herc gets a new costume, which is handy since it makes less sense for him to be wearing the ol' sash-and-skirt combo into combat now that he's no longer superpowered or immortal. Also, a gang of villains busts loose from the Raft, Marvel's current super-prison. The villains are inspired choices for Hercules to go against: The Basilisk, the Griffin, Man-Bull (half-man, half-bull), and a mystery villainess with a nice last-page reveal. Pak and Van Lente have done an amazing job of making this second-tier hero into one of my favorite Marvel character, and this issue makes Herc really feel like the same dude I became such a fan of in Incredible Hercules.
FF #3: So you've got four alternate-universe versions of Reed Richards running around trapped in the 616, and since none of 'em are as compassionate as the regular Reed Richards, they have every intention of sacrificing the 616 Earth for what they perceive to be a greater good. What to do? Well, if you're Val Richards, Reed's super-genius daughter, you get together Doctor Doom, the Wizard, the Mad Thinker, some dudes from AIM, Diablo, and more besides together to plot Reed Richards stopping strategy. This book, as I've mentioned before, seems really gimmicky from the premise, but it delivers on Johnathan Hickman's desire to do the kind of FF stories that haven't been done before. I'm really liking it, and for as much as I like the FF, I'm really hard to please when it comes to their comics. A bit slow, but the fact it seems to be biweekly right now helps keep things moving.
Captain America: The Fighting Avenger One-Shot: Hey, Prowl. You bought this yet? You oughtta buy this. It's by Brian Clevinger and Gurihiru. This was supposed to be a longer series, but Marvel's tragically cutting back on their all-ages stuff lately. Damn shame, they were a line of fun, low-continuity stories that delivered superhero action in it's purest form. This particular issue features a story set in Cap's early days, before he even had a proper codename (a running joke in the book). He's assigned to a crack squad of US soldiers so they can show him the ropes of fighting a war, give him a bit of experience. The mission's supposed to be a milk run, until Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker shows up. And before Strucker brings them to his superior, one Johann Schmidt. Obviously this book isn't set in 616 Marvel, but who gives even half a rat's ass, it's a fun story with Gurihiru's always gorgeous art.
Alpha Flight #.1: Good god, friggin' gimmick numbering. Okay, Alpha's had a convoluted history, which all was just sort of cut short when most of the team was killed off-panel in an issue of Avengers. During the Chaos War event, the guys that were killed off came back to life and managed to stay that way. Everyone that was dead came back, but Alpha actually got to stay resurrected when Hercules put the universe back together. Chalk it up to Herc being a pretty flawed god, or say that his affection for Snowbird subconsciously bring back her friends, but either way, Canada's got a super-team again. This being dead and brought back actually helps some of the characters, Guardian, for instance. Last I checked in with that guy, he'd died, come back, turned out to be a killer robot pretending to be Guardian, come back again, but somehow kind of an android character, died again, brought back as a teenager, showed up as the older character simultaneous to the teenage one, then the two versions were gonna co-exist because they couldn't figure out who was the real one...y'know, things like this, a simple "was killed and brought back from the underworld" is sometimes the best solution. And in a way, I like that they don't waste time with how they came back. No Alpha Flight: Rebirth here, they're just back. (For you DC guys, it's like the end of Blackest Night). This "preview" issue covers the returned Alpha facing down a two-pronged terrorist attack on Canadian election day. But said "terrorists" include the Purple Girl, a former Alpha member. And they claim to be gathering proof of bad things about the "Unity Party", the Canadian third party that wins the election in a landslide by the end of the issue. Basically, it serves to re-introduce the characters and set up the new series, which, from what I can tell, Canada's newly-elected "Unity Government" is gonna be bad news. Fun fact: said Unity party is led by Gary Cody, longtime Alpha supporting cast member based on a friend of team creator John Byrne. This is basically the original Byrne team, just with slightly different takes on the characters. For instance, I don't think original Marrina would have said "Bite me, Earth media". I'm in for the ride, this is by Pak and Van Lente, and with what they've done with Hercules, I'm interested in seeing what they do with a team I've always kind of liked. Just by including the Purple Girl, and showing her do cool new things with her mind-control powers, they've shown they're not gonna ignore what came between Byrne's run and now, so that's a mark in the book's favor already.
So that's some of what I've gotten lately. I slacked for awhile, but I like getting the comics weekly again. It's a fun thing to look forward to on Wednesdays.