The Revenge of New Comics Day (8-06)

[138 Scourge]

So, I had to play catch-up at my local comics store, so I picked up some books from the last couple weeks.

Newuniversal:1959 A book that looks at the past of Newuniversal Earth, when a celestial event called "The Fireworks" created three superhuman beings on Earth. While this one's not written by Warren Ellis, it is done by Jamie McKelvie, who Ellis handpicked for the job, and keeps the same feel of regular Newuniversal books. Plus, extra points for setting the bulk of the book in beautiful Kansas City. Also, "The Man Who Wasn't There" is an awesome name for a supercharacter. The art's pretty decent, better, I think, than the current art in the regular title, and the story's a satisfying one-shot. As an added bonus, this book features this Earth's Tony Stark. For a little bit, anyhow.

Ambush Bug: Year None #1 By Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming. Wow, Ambush Bug's back after only fifteen years? Hot damn. Admittedly, it probably helps to either be reading or have read a lot of DC comics to get the jokes here...I dunno how many casual comics fans would get a joke relating to Captain Carrot's Zoo Crew. It has to be said, though, Keith Giffen's art? Beautiful, just beautiful.

The Skrulls VS. Power Pack #1: Sort of an unofficial "Secret Invasion" tie-in. And, y'know, for a guy that's not reading Secret Invasion, I sure am seeing a lot of Skrulls in my comics lately. In this story, Power Pack is framed for stealing the various treasures of the Patchworld (a community consisting of the survivors of destroyed planets), and held in a Castrovala-esque prison, while four Skrulls imitate them on Earth. The Skrull's reaction to a joking "Who are you, and what have you done with my children?" is priceless. Also, the covers of this series are spectacular, particularly the second issues. My god, the Smartship Friday's got spinning rims...The only downside, while this fellas art is servicable, he's no Girihiru.

Transformers: All Hail Megatron #1: I'm way behind on IDW TF books, but I figured, what the hell...there's no Furman on this book, and Guido's doing the art, so I'll give it a shot. The story here basically consists of the Decepticons kicking the crap out of everything while the Autobots cry over Optimus Prime (I dunno if he's dead or what's up). The Constructicon's greeting to the first humans they encounter is hilarious, and the writing's decent for what's essentially a long battle scene. Guido Guidi's art, of course, is awesome, though I kinda miss the redesigned characters from the initial IDW story arcs.

Punisher War Journal #22: As Frank Castle is in SHIELD custody, en route to "The Raft" Marvel's current supervillian prison, he gets a stern talking-to from G.W. Bridge about his motivations. Stuart Clarke schemes to break the Punisher out before he can arrive at the raft, and Jigsaw brings in new muscle to wipe Castle out...the Wrecking Crew might be able to pull it off. Chaykin's art irritates me less and less on this book, but he still wouldn't be my first choice, and Fraction's storytelling gets better and better...the intesity of this issue, which is mainly a series of people talking to each other, is amazing, really. Clarke and Bridge each get great bits about how they see Castle, and the twist about halfway through I did not see coming at all. Wouldn't be right if I didn't mention that it's really amazing to see a Punisher book this good.

Also picked up The Invincible Iron Man #4 and Final Crisis #3, but haven't read either yet. I'll update once I do.

So, anyone else been at the comic shops lately?

[BWprowl]

The Skrulls VS. Power Pack #1: Sort of an unofficial "Secret Invasion" tie-in. And, y'know, for a guy that's not reading Secret Invasion, I sure am seeing a lot of Skrulls in my comics lately. In this story, Power Pack is framed for stealing the various treasures of the Patchworld (a community consisting of the survivors of destroyed planets), and held in a Castrovala-esque prison, while four Skrulls imitate them on Earth. The Skrull's reaction to a joking "Who are you, and what have you done with my children?" is priceless. Also, the covers of this series are spectacular, particularly the second issues. My god, the Smartship Friday's got spinning rims...The only downside, while this fellas art is servicable, he's no Girihiru.

I honestly cannot wait to see how passing as the Power Pack is the Skrulls' 'Pefect Plan' for conquering Earth... Also: Holy crap! Kofi Whitemane in modern Power Pack! About friggin' time! You're right about the art though. To me, Gurihiru IS modern Power Pack, and while I'm happy to see them giving other artists a shot... I also kinda wish they wouldn't. Nothing will ever top the Hulk team-up series though. Had that one been longer than the requisite four, the art might've forced me to stop reading it...

Anyway, I stopped by today, and while I haven't read any yet, here's this week's haul:

Transformers: Saga of the Allspark #2- I'm pretty much a slave to buying anything with 'Transformers' in the title at this point, but I at least had a passing interest in the UK Movie books, with their whole 'alternate universe' approach. Too bad the art kinda looks like ass...

Spider-Man Loves Mary-Jane #1- An apparent bring-back/reboot of the old series (I've got all the trades of that one. *Love* Miyazawa's art), with the guy from 'Strangers in Paradise', an odd choice, IMO, given the disparity in levels of subject matter between the two titles. But, we'll see how it turns out.

Trinity #10- Yes I'm buying this series, shoot me. I was too tempted to be able to 'jump on board' a new weekly title, especially with Batman as 1/3 the focus of it. It's at least holding my interest for now, in that shallow, network-TV thriller sort of way (the weekly format helps) and it's nice to finally have a weekly DC title that *doesn't* have a cast composed of 500 nobodies who end up saving some sort of multiverse only to be forgotton until the next Big Event...

Final Crisis #3-...which brings us right into Final Crisis! While I've actually liked the side-stories to this thing (Requiem, Rogues' Revenge) more than the actual event, there's some merit to it. Fancy artwork, fun new ideas (the Japanese superheroes are exactly the type of thing I can get behind. Most Excellent.), even if I can't really see it coming to the sort of closure the 'final' in its title promises, especially with all this other cosmic sh*t happening closely around it. Whatever. A quick aside on #3 here: I got the 'red' covers on the first two, but opted for the full 'character' cover on this one, since I think it should be obvious that I prefer to see a vaguely cute Supergirl as opposed to Wonder Woman with some wacky helmet on her head.

[Dominic]

Project Superpowers: Not much to say. This issue is better than some of the earlier chapters. But, the whole story is a bit too decompressed and drawn out to make it worth buying, despite the appeal of the core concept. Dynamite seems to have sufficient confidence in the franchise to launch a second series, and a few related titles. Grade: C If you are not reading this, do not bother starting.


Hawkman Special: Oh goody! Hawkman's origin gets revised, yet again. To Starlin's credit, he does not do much to dress this up as anything other than a "everything you the reader and the character know is wrong" story. On the other hand, that is not worth much credit. Even putting aside DC's recent tendency to have more noise than signal, I would have doubts about anything from this sticking. Hawkman's origin, (up untll the "big-reveal" here), is tied in with so many other characters and events that this change will require more revisions to other books. I am given to understand this ties in with "Final Crisis", but I have no idea how, or even how well, it will sync up. Grade: C/D Read it for the joy of seeing the "Hawkman Trainwreck" continually unfold, but nothing else.



I can see the appeal of a weekly book like "Trinity". That was a big part of what got me into "Countdown". No matter how bad that book got, (and believe you me, it was awful), it came out every week, and I always had a comic to look forward to getting. Still, I doubt it will have much more sticking power than "Countdown" though. DC context is mess right now.

"Final Crisis" is not even consistent with "Countdown", or the rest of DC. None of that is going to stick, and I see whatever revisions that are going to follow being even messier. I would be a bit more tolerant of it if "Final Crisis" were not the crescendo of a symphony of noise going back about 4 years now. Imagine starting HS or college with "Identity Crisis", and its promises of "something big", and reading *this* after graduating. DC is getting bigger, louder and stupider by the year. The sense of optimism about comics I had at the end of "52" is gone. I flip through DC books just to laugh at the train-wreck.



Dom
-notes that there are 2 TF books next week. 2!

[138 Scourge]

Oh good god, Hawkman. Has any character ever been so screwed up? I mean, they've done a lot of dumb stuff with Alan Scott, too, but his character seems to come through pretty well unscathed.

Different note, but, y'know what's a cool book? The first three-issue "Hawkworld" series. Pre-Hawkman Trainwreck stuff.

[Dominic]

Are you kidding? That was the book that ushered it in.

Aside from that, the whole faux-politics and class thing just bugged the heck out of me.

The new reboot makes a bit more sense than the "Zero Hour" era stuff, but that is damning with faint praise. And, I think it will stick for a bit less time.

Dom

[138 Scourge]

The first three issues, though! It was like, "Emerald Dawn" for Hawkman. Or "Man of Steel".

The Trainwreck started when the regular series picked up with the Hawks heading for Earth in the (then) present-day DCU, and the DC editors deciding that the Hawks that had been around all that time beforehand was the Golden-Age Hawks...

So, yeah, the regular Hawkworld thing may have screwed everything all up, but the limited is innocent. Besides, gorgeous Tim Truman artwork.

[BWprowl]

Well, after reading Number 3, I can reassure you Dom that yes, Final Crisis is a trainwreck! I think there's a different subplot for every *page* in the book, and only about half of them are coherent. It's all the classic DC trick of "Hey look, remember this character? No? Too bad!". I'm half-tempted to just abandon this one for now and get the trade later down the road. It'll be easier to follow and keep track of that way. Eh, we'll see what the upcoming onslaught of mid-run tie-ins has in store...

Half of Trinity's current plot involves the CSA. And that book is still more fun to read than Final Crisis. Yowch...

[138 Scourge]

See...I don't get that. Final Crisis makes perfect sense to me...well, maybe not the bit with Mary Marvel. That gets a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot for sure, but the actions of the character are easy enough to follow, if not the rationale behind her new self. Yeesh.

There's a lot of subplots, and a lot of skipping between 'em, but they all seem coherent enough. Of course, I may just be enough of a Morrison fan that I'll be pretty well forgiving of whatevah.

Oh, yeah, and the thing with Wonder Woman's head? I don't think that's a helmet.

[BWprowl]

See...I don't get that. Final Crisis makes perfect sense to me...well, maybe not the bit with Mary Marvel. That gets a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot for sure, but the actions of the character are easy enough to follow, if not the rationale behind her new self. Yeesh.

There's a lot of subplots, and a lot of skipping between 'em, but they all seem coherent enough. Of course, I may just be enough of a Morrison fan that I'll be pretty well forgiving of whatevah.

Oh, yeah, and the thing with Wonder Woman's head? I don't think that's a helmet.

Well maybe it's because I'm *slightly* less familiar with some of these characters, plus I was exaggerating for comedic effect, but there's still a couple bits that get me. Like...was that a JLAxis version of Supergirl they found smashed in the ground? Or some New God? See, I don't know WHO that is, so the whole moment is just bewildering to me. That, and since the Daily Planet exploding got regulated to barely two pages last ish, I all but forgot about it by the time I read this one, and had to flip back through #2 because I couldn't figure out why Lois was in the hospital and Superman was totally getting One More Day'd. And then there's Alan Scott's 'Superhero Draft' thing that drags on for too many pages and ends up accomplishing....nothing. The heroes all get together to pose for a Token DC Crowd Shot, then it cuts to a little more build-up for the Japanese Heroes, followed by just Wonder Woman and some Atomic Knights (I WILL at least praise the return of the Pony Dogs!) getting pwned by Mary Marvel. Whatever.

Also, Bombshell's in the back of the aforementioned crowd shot, and that bugs the hell outta me. I was under the impression she was de-powered/dead. Or did I miss something?

[138 Scourge]

I think the heroic draft would have accomplished more if we'd seen the few weeks in between the anti-life virus uploading and the last couple pages of the issue...maybe there'll be more happening for 'em in-between here?

No idea about the Supergirl, either...though, yeah, I'd guess some sorta alternate Supergirl or somethin'. Again, I figure in the next issue or so it'll be 'splained.

Now, the FC tie-in books, those I'm not sold on. For some reason, I thought FC was gonna be all self-contained and like that. Eh, I'll pick up the ones that seem interestin'.