5th Wk Comics Reviews

This title's just six words long...

2011-11-15T05:56:00.001-06:00

Sorry I haven't been as regular lately, folks, but there have been some work related things going on lately, and it's just been hard to get on here as much as I want to. Hopefully, after I get all of my stuff straightened out, I'll get back in the groove!

A very strong week at DC this week, possibly my favorite week of the month. It washard for me to choose which titles to review for you guys this week, there were just so many!

Of course, no week is going to be 100% perfect, so here's my un-recommendation of the week: This one's a little sad for me, because I liked how the book started, but three issues in, Deathstroke has become a little formulaic. Slade goes, kills about 73.67 enemies, and then angsts over what's in the suitcase. At this point, I barely care what it is, but at least they give you an inkling this issue. The art's fine and fits the story well...it's just too bad that said story is kinda weak. It's really not the worst comic out there, but for my money, it's not worth keeping up with.

On to the real reviews!

Green Lantern #3 – What can I say about my favorite comic? This issue really highlighted something I’ve never truly appreciated, and that is just how much of a magnificent bastard Sinestro really is! I mean, come on…how ballsy does one have to be to, essentially, defy the organization that can depower you at a moment’s notice when they find out that you want to defect? And to basically blackmail their former Greatest Hero ™? And further, to install a kill switch/self destruct button in the organization you founded, and base that switch on an off chance that you might go back to the Guardians at some point? Seriously, Sinestro’s got some mad evil skills, and he’s not afraid to use them! We also learn a lot about his motivations here, and his psychology. He created to Sinestro Corp for beings that are capable of instilling great fear, so why wouldn’t they want to subjugate a planet? On the other hand…didn’t he free Korugar so he could rule it himself? Maybe it’s just jealousy that they got there first, or he really doesn’t want someone else doing it. Another thing I liked, that I found greatly amusing, was Hal “Oh, I’ll just make a Tylenol out of willpower to deal with this pain” Jordan is surprised by the fact that he can turn his suit black for stealth mode. The art continues to be strong, and one of my favorites in the entire New 52 line. Mahnke has a nice handle on actions scenes, and I love how nice his books look.

Recommendation: Pull box. Dear god, you cannot get it in your box quick enough!

Batgirl #3 –Things are not going well for Babs lately, are they? A train blows up on her (Yes, that’s literal.), she’s having problems with her love life…I mean, heck, she even gets an imagine spot where she tells her dad everything that’s going on lately. And then when she’s only trying to get back a precious item, up pops her ex, Nightwing. The beats of the flirt fight they have are interesting to me. They seem…almost disjointed, and oddly filled out. It wasn’t until I finished the issue that I realized that would make perfect sense, since her life is kinda spiraling out of control right now. There’s a reason Gail Simone’s hailed as such a good writer, and this just highlights it. Batgirl has quickly become a character I genuinely care about. Adrian Syaf’s artwork is, as always, gorgeous. There are several panels where you just wanna go over to Babs and hug her, she looks so sad.

Recommendation: Pull box, because, quite simply, this team is one of the best out there.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #3 – Poor Buffy Summers. Can’t ever catch a break in the guy department, can she? First, Angel turned all evil and leave-y on her, and then there was the one-night stand. Riley, who while good for her, had other issues going on. Don’t even get me started on Spike! So it really doesn’t surprise me that the flavor of the month acts weird on her the entire issue, and then, ka-pow, right to the…I hesitate to call it evilness, but it’s certainly sketchiness. Honestly, I’m reaching the end of my rope, not being able to talk about the plot on this one, but I’ll hold off for a while longer. But only because I care…but come ON people, if you’re a Whedonite and haven’t read Season 8, go do so! It tells a pretty compelling story. As to the art in this book, it’s excellent. Georges Jeanty has really captured both the youthfulness of the cast, as well as the feel of the world, and I want to hunt down some of his other projects.

Recommendation: Pull box, both for people who like Whedon, and those who simply like good stories.

So there you go. Again, sorry it's so late, but I'm hoping to keep on track after this week, maybe have fewer issues that need more focus than comics. (Blasphemy!) Oh, while I'm thinking of it, Avenging Spider-Man is looking like it's wanting to set up a good starting point for Marvel. Point One seems to be doing the same thing, but I haven't had a chance to take a gander at it. If any of you have, let me know if I should be reading it, okay?

Keep reading and see ya next time!

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

2011-11-06T11:41:00.000-06:00

Let me start off by apologizing for not getting my reviews up last week. Between chores and not feeling well (Stupid cold and flu season.), it just wasn't a good week for me. It WAS a pretty good week for DC, though.

I'm changing things up in order to keep up with that. I'm only going to do the two or three best titles in a given week, but I'll still let you know what else is good to read.

I'll ALSO let you know what titles to run away from, fast. I'm going to go ahead and get this one out of the way: Until Liefeld is off of it, DO NOT PICK UP HAWK & DOVE. In fact, until the entire creative team is taken off of it, it is best avoided. Juvenile writing, bad pacing, horrendous plotting, there is absolutely nothing redemptive about the book. So that one's on perma-ban.

This week, the book to avoid, quite unfortunately, is Men of War. I loved the first issue of the title, but in the intervening issues, it's devolved from a pretty cool story of the men who go to war for our country to a book dealing with superpowers. Nothing inherently wrong with that, obviously, but I was actually impressed with the poignancy of the first issue, and how much you ended up caring for the men of this troop. Even with the metahuman in the distance, it was still primarily about these men in battle. However, in the second issue, they added a direct metahuman influence, and it just went down from there. It doesn't help that the back up story, about a group of SEALs, I think, hunting down a group of extremists in a Middle Eastern town wasn't good to begin with. All told, it's not a book I can, in good conscious, recommend to any one.

HOWEVER, I can recommend the following titles:

Justice League International #3 – It’s like they’ve never seen a horror movie. Never, ever spilt up into really small, easily picked off groups. Sheesh. Still, the action of the plot requires them to split up to take down the four giant robots, and now we get to find out where they came from. Kinda. Mostly, this issue seems to be serving as exposition for some of the less well known members of the team. So, basically everyone who ISN’T Batman. It works, mostly, and doesn’t seem too stilted or awkward. The problem is, it leaves a bunch of the characters out. Okay, so Vixen can use the power of any animal, August General In Iron lives up to his name, and Rocket Red has a crush on Fire. I want to know what Godiva’s deal is. Yeah, I get that she’s a celebrity in the way the Kardashians and Paris Hilton are, but what are her powers, aside from being a superwhiner? It is nice to see Batman using some of his detective skills. I always appreciate it. On another level, the artwork is nice and solid here. Nothing particularly special about it, but it works well to both tell the story and be pleasant to look at. This is quickly becoming, for me, one of the most looked forward to titles each month.

Recommendation: Pull Box.

Animal Man #3 – So, as with most stories involving reality warping and/or destroying elemental creatures, I’m not slightly confused by this one. I usually end up mostly getting it, and seeing my expectations play out, but in a twisted, demented, very odd way in most cases, and I don’t think that this will be any different. Honestly, I’m more impressed by the B-Story in this arc, where the non-powered mom and brother on the run from the Big Bads. Sure, there’s a pretty obvious twist at the end, but it’s happening in a book that I’m enjoying pretty thoroughly, so I’m allowing it. One of the things that works here best is the artwork. Travel Foreman’s work would have fit in perfectly in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman,and works really well with the big neo-mythological story going on here, but that’s something that writers have been using Animal Man to explore the boundries of reality since Grant Morrison’s legendary run in the 80s. (Yes, yes, I go on about Morrison all the time, but, as I’ve said before, some of his stories work REALLY well, and I admit there IS a reason he’s become so popular.) The mythology at work here isn’t as deep or profound as it was during Morrison’s run, I think, but it’s not over yet, so we’ll see if Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman write/draw themselves into the story.

Recommendation: Pull Box, but make sure you get the previous issues, too.

And, to make up for last week, here are the top two from then:

Aquaman #2 – It’s surprising how quickly this has become a favorite book. And Aquaman is a freakin’ joke character, for Bob’s sake! Or has been, before Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis got their grubby mitts on him. I like that they’re scaling (Heh.) him back from being the King of Atlantis, and just be some guy, you know? There are a lot of things to like about this issue, starting with the plot being furthered nicely, while still having some nice, action-packed fight scenes. I also like how there’s still tension building up in Aquaman at all of the jokes he gets about talking to fish, and being an underwater hero. I can’t wait to see him snap and go off on someone because of it. Although, knowing Johns, that’ll either be insanely funny, of the “put down the book for laughing type,” or horrifically devastating.

Recommendation: Pull box, and you can’t get started fast enough!

The Flash #2 – I gotta say, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Flash as a hero and a character. I like the concept of the Speed Force, and the explanation and exploration of it in this issue is really fascinating to me. It does seem like a logical extension of it that Barry’d be able to speed up his thoughts, to such an extent that it borders on precognition. I like logical extensions of power that don’t seem like power creep. (Looking at you, Supes!) The only concern I have with this issue is that the arc plot seems to have been set aside…or has it? Who knows, it could end up playing off the Speed Force stuff from this issue, and I hope so.

Recommendation: Pull box.

As for last week's Drop of the Week (OH! I like that!), I had to drop Superman. Yeah, it's meant to be a flagship title, exploring how Superman operates in the modern DCU, and, yeah, it's written by a legendary creator...it's just too bad that the creator in question is A: Primarily known as an artist, whose work in that field is actually fairly awesome, and B: From a time when dialogue stretched pages and pages, squeezing out the artwork from being, ya know, visible. It's the Chris Claremont school of writing, and it just doesn't work for me. Yes, I know that the plot has to be forwarded in some manner, and exposition, blah blah blahbidy blah. There's a line. This is too much.

So, there you are, last week and this week, all in one tidy little package! Hopefully I'll keep on top of things, now that I'm pulling back.

Another thing: If you have a book you think people should be reading, please feel free to post it in he comments! I'm always on the lookout for new books to read, and love finding out what gets people going.

That's all for now.

Keep reading and see you next time!

BOO!

2011-10-30T11:01:00.002-05:00

Hey, folks. As you may have noticed, I didn't get a post up yesterday. Sorry about that, but it was just one of those days. There were a lot of good books, especially Aquaman, this week, but I just ran out of time to blog it up. I hope to have it done Tuesday for y'all.

So, I'm a little behind on my comic book movies, but I'm working my way through them. I really enjoyed Thor, even if it was a little weak. But it was about building the workd of these interconnected movies, and I think it accomplished that well. I'd like to know something about the post-credits scene, but I'm holding out for The Avengers to explain it next summer.

Captain America: The First Avenger was a blast! I think I liked every single thing about it. He's a character I vascilate on, but this was a good interpretation. It had a nice mix of 616 and Ultimate Universe Caps. My favorite part was the successful implementation of his comic book costume into a sequence. Worked well, I felt.

Anyway, like I said, I hope to have the reviews up Tuesday afternoon, sometime. If you're hankering for a book, go for Aquaman, The Flash or Teen Titans. All good reads.

Keep reading and see ya next time!

Do-do do do dit do, DO! (Think Mario.)

2011-10-22T15:25:00.001-05:00

It was kinda hard for me to get these reviews going this week. Dunno why. I've had some nice days off with my family, so maybe that's it.

But I've also been reading some non-comic book fiction.

Two books have been finished or started this week.

First was one of my favorites, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, By Michael Chabon. It tells the story of two young cousins who helps launch the comic book era, their lives and how their work changes not only who they are, but how comics are percieved. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner, folks, and one of those books I read every few years. Chabon develops his characters well, and you actally learn quite a lot about how the very first publishers screwed their creators, which actually ended up leading to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. It's an intriguing blend of non-genre fiction that somehow manages to also show how a genre works.

Next, I'm about a third of the way into the decidedly geektastic Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It's about the hunt for a treasure, buried by an eccentric billionaire...within the world of a video game he created. The author is very much enamored of the 1980's, and sure does love referencing them at the drop of a hat. That's not normally something I'm a fan of, but here, given the plot, it works really well. I can't wait to find out if some of the hunches I have about plots and characters are going to prove true or false. It's a decidedly quickly placed novel, and one I have a hard time putting down. I can't wait to finish it!

Right, now on to the comics!

Batman #2 – Ah, In Media Res, how I love you! It’s one of my absolute favorite conventions when a show, book, movie, and media starts with a nice action scene, with the hero in imminent danger, and then backtracks to how we got there. Bruce Wayne plummeting to an almost certain doom certainly qualifies. Not a bad book, just one I don’t think I’ll be keeping up with for much longer, due to the fact that…well, it’s just not grabbing me. Oh, hey, look, the guy running for office has a background similar to Bruce’s. What’s that? A mysterious organization that everyone thought defunct is still active, and has metahuman assassins? Okay, that’s actually a good plot, but I’m not a fan of how it’s handled here. It’s somewhat lifeless and lackluster for me. The highlight of this book, for me, is the artwork. It’s reminiscent of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, while still being its own thing. So, kudos to Greg Capullo for that. I may need to seek out some of his other stuff.

Recommendation: Trade, since I think the story will make more sense collected than it does individually.

Birds of Prey #2 – I’m liking the Charlie’s Angels vibe to this book. The mystery’s not too bad either, with the ladies coming together to find out who’s trying to kill them. One of the traps that a lot of comics fall into is not giving its women distinct personalities, and we certainly have them here. Also, continuing the changes from the Old DCverse, Katana is…somewhat mentally unstable. Unless there’s a story I never saw where she thought her husband’s spirit was bound to her sword. But, hey, big universe, you never know. I’d also like to point out that this book basically counteracts all of the criticisms leveled at DC for having slutorama Starfire and cheesecake Catwoman. The women are all strong, non-hypersexualized heroes. They aren’t drawn to ridiculous proportions, and you could actually believe that, somewhere, someone looks JUST like this.

Recommendation: Pull box, especially if you’re a fan of shows like Charlie’s Angels, Alias, Nikita…or any other female oriented action show.

Blue Beetle #2 – Poor Jaime Reyes, can’t seem to catch a break. He gets grafted to an alien superweapon, rendering him unrecognizable to even his closest friends, super-villain thieves after him, and he can’t get to the party of the girl he wants to impress! This book reminds me of the movie Guyver. Same basic concept, but fewer Latinos. Anyway, back on point…after a relatively weak first issue, I really dug this, from just about every angle, and it sets up some nice future conflicts, including an alien invasion and the crush’s aunt being a criminal mastermind. Blue Beetle’s never been a character I really invested much time in when he WASN’T with Booster Gold, so I never knew this iteration, but I am glad I found him this time round.

Recommendation: Pull box, since I like strong action titles with befuddled and confused leads.

Captain Atom #2 – I’ll be honest, there wasn’t much that drew me in for this title. The individual elements are all ones that I like: A hero whose power is both mysterious and slowly going out of control, mistrust when that hero helps stop a natural disaster, the hero using his newfound powers to help someone and finally the consequences of using not fully understood powers. All good elements, in any combination, but something, for me, isn’t clicking in this book. It’s artwork is a style I’m not fond of, either, with proportions changing all the time, in several characters. I could actually buy it if it were just Captain Atom who was shifting, since that would sit well with his powers, but it’s everyone.

Recommendation: Trade.

Catwoman #2 – So…the aftermath. Yeah. So while I understand the reasoning behind her wanting to release a little tension with Batman, it ends up seeming mostly unnecessary. The story we finally get into, however, is a nice heist story, with lots of revenge thrown in. Let’s face it, it takes a special kind of hurting to steal from one Russian mob, set up another Russian mob for it, and take out a lot of high level members of both, including the one who hurt your friend. Also, we see once more why Bruce Wayne is who Batman pretends to be, since he’s never not working. My favorite bit was seeing Alfred muttering to himself when Bruce walks off. It perfectly captured my mental image of him, and how I’d write Alfred, if I were to do so. All in all, though, it’s not my favorite book ever, but it’s not horrible, either. I hope that the next issue builds on the rather horrifying conclusion of this one.

Recommendation: Trade, but pull it if you like the character.

DC Universe Presents #2 – Continuing the Deadman chronicles, I liked this issue. Boston Brand confronts Rama about his destiny and job, and, as he should, realizes that she’s lying, or at the least, leaving something out of the equation. There’s obviously a reason he still remembers the bodies he’s inhabited, and I’ve got my theories, but I won’t elucidate for now. Either way, I like the character, and this treatment’s enormous fun to read. The best bit comes when he’s trying to break into a nightclub that fronts for a metaphysical library, jumping bodies, confusing every one and their brother. And when his original plan breaks down, it just gets crazier and more awesome. I liked it a lot.

Recommendation: Pull, but it’s tricky with anthology comics.

Green Lantern Corps #2 – Man, they had the potential for a decent horror story, but it’s become a decent action comic instead. I’m not upset too much, but it’s like when you’re expecting pizza and get a hamburger instead. I liked this issue a lot, but I would, wouldn’t I? It’s setting up a nice, rogue GL storyline, or at least I hope that’s where it’s going. The artwork’s gorgeous, the plotting tight and well-paced…about the only thing I can criticize this book for, aside from the genre shift, is that I have to wait a whole month until the next issue!

Recommendation: Pull box.

Justice League #2 – Seemed like it took forever for this book to come out, didn’t it? Anyway, after a brief interlude when we find out that Central City PD wants the Flash’s identity, and Wally needs to hide it, we get back to our fight, already in progress. It ends up being a pretty standard, if well done, fight among heroes. You know…misunderstanding, attacking before talking, etc. Even though one of the heroes is wanting to talk, it just keeps going until Batman, of all people, stops things. On a detail level, the panel where Superman “fliks” Flash is hilarious to me, on a basic, fundamental level. It is nice to see the heroes coming to trust each other, but still wary. The artwork is, once again, very nice. All told, I like this issue.

Recommendation: Pull box. Let’s face it, it’s going to be the flagship title of the New DCverse, so it’s probably going to be important.

Legion of Super Heroes #2 – Now this one I just plain didn’t like. And I do like the LoSH in certain continuities. There’s just too much going on here, with no focus at all. The artwork is nice, but without a good story to back it up, they’re just pictures with no context. Overall, not my favorite experience. If you want a nicely written LoSH story, go back to Volume 5, which came out in 2004, 2005. Well written, gives you a sense of depth to the team, lets you see how they all interact. AND good artwork, to boot!

Recommendation: Drop, unless you’re an absolute, hardcore, LoSH fan.

Nightwing #2 – How many fortunes does Dick Grayson stand to inherit? I mean, seriously. He’s probably going to get Bruce Wayne’s, and now a circus magnate’s? Aside from that, and someone hunting down Dick Grayson, there’s more action than plot in this one, but I’m okay with that, in this case. Mainly because the action sequences are well done, with just the right amount of exposition and advancement. One minor thing, and this is about Nightwing in general, is that I like this particular iteration of his costume. Something about the red symbol against the black suit just works for me. All around a good book.

Recommendation: Trade, because while it is a strong book, it’s not pulling me in quite enough to keep up with it on a monthly basis, but I can see where I’d get a great deal of enjoyment out of it collected.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #2 – Well, at least we know how Jason Todd came back to life in this continuity…Talia and a Lazarus Pit. Aside from that, a lot of plot threads are coming together really quickly in this one. Honestly, the team forming is the one I like the best, but I’ve always been a fan of that, when done well. One thing I don’t understand about this book is why the team is called the outlaws. I mean, I know that Arsenal broke out of jail, but that seemed to have been a set up, so it’s not like he’s an ACTUAL outlaw. And, as far as I know, Starfire’s not committed any crimes to speak of, nor Red Hood. So, unless it’s about just using a cool sounding name (Which I could totally see any of these characters doing.) it just doesn’t make any sense. All the same, Lobdell has kinda sorta made up for the Starfire fiasco, and let’s face it, it was, from last month by almost completely ignoring it. Really, that’s the best way to handle it.

Recommendation: Trade for now, but it’s got some good potential to be a pull box book.

Supergirl #2 – The last time I saw this particular characterization of Supergirl was on Smallville. I have to say, though, that everything about this book works. Her anger and confusion come across in both the art and writing, and when she finally accepts that Kal-El is who he says, the shift in her personality seems as natural as you can get when you’re an alien who just crash landed on a strange and distant planet. Frankly, it’s a plot I’ve seen a few times, and it works more often than it doesn’t. It’s one that allows for heroes to fight heroes without becoming too formulaic. The art in this book is nice, too. Once that all settles down, the real story seems to be kicking in, and I like where it’s implicating.

Recommendation: Pull box, one of the stronger Super-titles amd well worth the money.

Wonder Woman #2 – This seems to be origin month at DC. There are several titles this week, and this month, come to think, that give either thumbnail versions of their origins, or a more or less full retelling, like here. It helps that Princess Diana has a pretty easy beginning to recount. That aside, it also seems to be worked into the plot, which helps things quite a bit. It’s a fairly standard mythological story, with Zeus having impregnated yet another mortal. Reading this book made me a little sad to know that people seem to be focusing on the two characterizations that really detract from this whole New 52 thing. WW, Supergirl, Birds of Prey, Batwoman…all good, strong female leads. While Starfire and Catwoman are pretty cheesecake-ish, fantasy fulfillment characters, the rest all have nicely involved, deep back stories that make them worth reading…and showing to your daughters.

Recommendation: Pull box. I like where it’s going, with its twist on Greek mythology.

So, there you have it. One of the strongest weeks in DC's New 52. But I wonder, how long can they honestly call it New 52? I give them a year until they drop it. :-)

Keep reading, and see ya next time!

And now for a nap...

2011-10-16T13:50:00.002-05:00

All told, mostly a good week in comic land, with lots of strong books coming out, and stories deepening. I decided to drop a comic this week, without even bothering to review it.

I dropped Mr. Terrific. It was really starting to come off as cliched writing and villainy 101, and it take a lot, a LOT to get me to read that. The villain even did the cheesy "Call me Brainstorm, prepare to die!" riff that I remember not liking even when I first read comics. I'll be honest, I just didn't want to read it, but forced myself to, and decided it was out. Sorry guys.

Batgirl #2 – Another swimmingly good second issue. I gotta say, I was never huge on Batgirl in the past, but I did dig Batgirl: Year One. So it’s quite interesting to me to see her remembering how to be a hero. I also dig “start of darkness” stories and where villains and antagonists come from, and Mirror, the villain here, has a suitably tragic backstory. The motivation is an interesting one, in all honesty, and only serves to beg a question: Namely, how did he get his list of survivors? I hope it’s got a good answer. One of the nice bits that I liked was with Bab’s new roommate, who thinks that Barbara is being beaten by a guy. The vehemence behind her scene is…interesting and somewhat jarring. I look forward to finding out more about her. All told a pretty good issue. The artwork is pretty decent, and the story advanced nicely.

Recommendation: Trade, because while everything’s good, there’s something here which, for me, stops me from putting it in my pull box.

Batman & Robin #2 – My first thought about the cover? Na na na na na na BATPIG! Apparently the new Batmobile has a very porcine design. Once we get into the issue, though, we have a pretty good story that furthers last month’s plot nicely. My favorite bit, though, was the way Damian’s origin was told…in a nicely laid out 2-page spread. The other thing I liked was seeing Bruce trying to be a father, and getting lessons from his surrogate father, Alfred. This book is actually shaping up exactly like I wanted to see. It’s quite gratifying to see the interplay of Bruce and his son, and how he’s a somewhat less than ideal father, but still trying. It’s better than nothing. The main plot of the arc, who and why someone is killing Batman franchisees, deservedly takes a back seat to the emotional interplay between the two leads. This may be my favorite of the Bat-titles. Um…that is, the Bat-titles featuring Batman.

Recommendation: Pull box. Like I said, it’s the strongest of the Bat-books, with a decent mystery, and wonderful relations between the titular characters.

Batwoman #2 – The story isn’t furthered too much in this issue, but it did let you know more about Kathy Kane and all of her close associates. I also dug how the art shifts between the various parts of the story. It’s subtle, but I like it. I do keep finding myself thrown off by the palate used for Ms. Kane herself. The chalk white skin works for Batwoman, but when she’s chatting up the only other lesbian in Gotham, it’s just…weird. Speaking of…I can ALMOST get why Kathy is trying to hook up with Maggie Sawyer, she needs info, and Sawyer’s GCPD. But, seriously, are there no other lesbians in Gotham? C’mon, DC, I know you’ve created a gay Mexican for Teen Titans, so why not open the doors for more, newer gay characters. Moving on to other parts, I’m also a fan of governmental agencies completely missing the identity of heroes, but getting really damn close. Oh, and once again, it’s two-page-o-rama in this book, making it pass by very, VERY quickly. Not that I minded, it works really well here. I can’t wait to see how the stories end up intersecting.

Recommendation: I go back and forth on this one. The artwork and story-telling are mostly strong enough to get monthly, but there’s something the makes me want to, well…not. Ah, just pull box it.

Deathstroke #2 – This issue read like a cheesy 80s action movie, and DAMN did I love every second of it! Going off of last month’s “Is Deathstroke getting too old for this $#!%?” plot, this is, essentially, Mr. Slade Wilson proving that, no…no he isn’t. Plotwise, there isn’t much arc advancing here, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I will say, though, I would like to know what, exactly, is in the briefcase Slade got last issue. The artwork which this issue relies on has lots of nice, subtle violence in it. Slade, early on, is a crouching tiger, evident in every line of his body language. Once he starts taking out the mercs hired to watch his contact, he explodes into frenetic action. There’s a lot of “Whoa, is that his head?” shots in the book, and it ends with a nice, satisfying battle royale avec fromage. Turns out, all of the fighting had actual plot significance, too! Nice when that happens.

Recommendation: Trade, because as much as I like this issue, the overall story is just kinda weak for me, and I think it might work better in trade format.

Demon Knights #2 – After the strength of its first issue, this one left me a little empty, honestly. There were some magnificent moments, mainly involving Vandal Savage, who delightfully lives up to his name, and is rather nicely eccentric, but the arc advancement was…I dunno. That part feels weak to me. Overall, though, what plot it does have is advanced nicely, and, hey, fire-breathing velociraptors are cool! What I realized reading this is just how many team books are part of New 52. Team books are usually hit or miss for me. But, on the whole, the team books DC’s been putting out have been remarkably strong. Go figure.

Recommendation: Pull box. It’s got an almost Whedonesque vibe to it, when all of the elements pull together.

Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #2 – And here’s one that just didn’t work for me. I don’t know what it is about it, but there next to nothing that worked for me. I don’t care about any of the characters, which kind of angers me, since Jeff Lemire’s Animal Man is one of my favorite books! The artwork is disjointed, at best. Maybe it’s just the style I don’t like. The plot did get advanced, but I couldn’t be concerned about it too much, since I got dragged out of the story by the artwork.

Recommendation: Drop, unless you’re REALLY into supernatural secret agents.

Green Lantern #2 – I’d always heard Sinestro was the greatest of the Lanterns, but finally seeing WHY that is was…wow. There are several, building moments where I went from thinking, “Okay, neat trick,” to “Sweet merciful monkey meat, that was awesome!” The interactions between Sinestro and Hal are all amusing and serve the story nicely. There’s a kind of economy of exposition, which is something I appreciate. Johns give you just enough info to suit his purposes and then shows, not tell you, why something is. I can’t recall ever seeing a story where Sinestro was treated like such a threat, no matter the color of his ring. (I admit, though, I haven’t read the Sinestro War or Blackest Night stories yet, but they are on the list.) Once we get to the reason Sinestro made his offer to supply a ring to Jordan, things kind of snap into place…too bad it’s in the final two panels! I can’t wait till next month!

Recommendation: Pull box, but would I really say anything else?

Grifter #2 – Remember how I said Deathstroke was a cheesy 80s action movie this month? Well…this month, Grifter feels like that classic of cinema, They Live. Or is it? The actual plot, Cole Cash (Finally learned his name, yay me!) is on the run, seeing aliens everywhere. Nobody believes him, and even he starts to question his sanity. It’s nicely played for maximum drama, and heightens the feel of disorientation in the book. Of course, he might not be imagining things at all…cue X-Files music. The artwork, I have to say, is fantastic. Clean, crisp…I just like it! Cafu is quickly joining my list of favorite artists. I’m a little leary of the twist at the end of the issue, it just smacks of cliché, but in a book I’m enjoying this much, I’ll give it a chance. It’s funny, isn’t it, how we’ll allow clichés and formulaicness in something we enjoy, but if we’re indifferent to or don’t like something, we’re less forgiving?

Recommendation: Pull box. Strong story, strong artwork…just a strong book in general.

Resurrection Man #2 – Ah, the hero with amnesia. Struggling to remember why he does what he does. Sometimes it comes off as hackneyed and unoriginal, other times, a writer is worth the paper he prints on and pulls it around pretty well. He’s starting to put things back together, and we get some tantalizing clues as to how he probably got his resurrection powers. A nice action sequence breaks up the exposition, and we end with him resurrecting once again, but, uh…not in a happy place. I think I know who’s been hiring people to try to capture him, but I’m looking forward to knowing for certain soon. One thing, though, is that DC’s not helping ease the controversy stirred up by Starfire, Catwoman and Voodoo with the assassins in this issue. But, at least it’s handled a little better than the others, for me, anyway.

Recommendation: Pull box. It’s going along at a nice, steady pace, and well worth the time.

Suicide Squad #2 – I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting too much from this book after last month’s mediocre premier, but this actually came off really well, mainly due to Harley Quinn treating their mission like a big live action zombie game. It seems like they’re trying to make her goofy, but there’s something false seeming about her eclectic nature, like it’s a wall put up to prevent her from TRULY going crazy. Maybe it is, maybe I’m reading too far into it, but I liked it. A solid issue, if not a stand out one, I did like the twist at the end of the mission, which, in hindsight, I should have seen coming, but still…that they made me not think about it speaks a lot about the writer’s ability. Like I said, a solid book.

Recommendation: Trade. Solid, but not enough there to convince me to buy it every month.

Superboy #2 – This issue made me giggle a bit. When the clone Superboy was first introduced and given his own book, one of the first villains I remember him fighting was a gigantic shark dude. Here, the first villains he fights closely resemble that guy on first glance. Just made me giggle, I love things like that. Good thing, too, because otherwise this was a forgettable issue for me. True, it did give us more insight into Superboy’s thoughts, as well as the scientists and NOWHERE’s motivations, but overall, this was a Chinese food comic. Not too bad while you’re eating it, but you don’t feel like you got anything out of it an hour later.

Recommendation: Trade. Hopefully it’ll pick up, since I love the human/alien hybrid creature angle, but I’m not holding much hope.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 9 #2 – Whew, that was a lot to type! Continuing the fallout from last issue, Buffy’s life keeps spiraling out of control. She’s got creditors sending demons after her, it’s looking like her friendship with Willow is almost at its end, and now she’s wanted for slayings she didn’t commit. And to top it off, she can’t even crash with her sister! I wish I could go into more detail about this comic, I really do, because there’s a lot going on that I like, but some of the ideas are so closely tied to the end of the Season 8 comics, that to talk about them would be to spoil that one! I’m going to give it another issue or two, until the end of this first episode (Which is what I think I’m going to call arcs here.) before talking about it. Good god, is thi an excellent read, though!

Recommendation: Go on…guess.

So there you go! More good than bad this week, with some definite contenders for adding to one's reading list. I think, personally, Green Lantern was my favorite book this week, and not just because I'm a huge fan. It was a solid, enjoyable book that added to a villain...well, antagonist's origins and backstory well.

Keep reading and see you next time!

Yet another minor update!

2011-10-15T06:03:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to let you guys know a few things.

First off, this week's reviews are going to be late. I've got to go be in a commercial today, woo hoo! I'll try to have it up tomorrow. Some good stuff this week, continuing and deepening a lot of stories. (Green Lantern is, I think, particularly good this week.)

Also, I've been thinking about how I want to do things and I've come to the decision that, after the first arcs, I'm going to cut back severely on reviews, and only do 3, 4 a week. Simply put, there's too much good stuff to read from DC right now, and as much as I'd like to review them all, it's going to be a lot easier on my sanity to pick what I think are either the best books or the absolute worst one of a given week. I'll still try to do other, non-DC reviews, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9. (Very good this week.)

That said, I'm also going to regularly put up those family life posts. Or, at least, try to. :-) I'll also try to get my to cents in on various comic book related stories that float around in the aether.

Which reminds me.

Another chain has pulled DC comics from their shelves, Books-A-Million. Now, BAM did that because they're owned by Barnes & Noble, so it's not like companies are jumping on a bandwagon yet, but it is a slippery slope. I'm hoping that Local Comic Shops sieze this opportunity and advertise that they're carrying DC books. Anything to pump some money back into their stores. Although, given the prevelance and popularity of online sales, and the fact that these stores still carry DC in that format, I'm a little doubtful as to how much this will hurt Barnes and BAM.

Be interesting to see how this plays out.

Also, if you needed an excuse to buy something like Trix or Lucky Charms, I suggest you read this story and drool: 'Justice League' Comics Getting Packed In General Mills Cereal Boxes Through The Fall I'm really looking forward to eating the heck out of some cereal! :-)

Keep reading and see you next time!

These are the Star Wars, they never end!

2011-10-11T07:44:00.001-05:00

Two semi-big things to talk about this time. First, the truly important one: I got at least one kiddo watching Star Wars! Yay!

After some false starts in watching it, I got the elder of my children to watch Star Wars with me Sunday. At first, despite earlier in the week having agreed to and said they were excited about watching it, when it came time to watch, they seemed reluctant. Can't say I was surprised, but I talked them around. And, at first, I thought it was going to be a little different, with the elder not wanting to watch and the younger sitting around for the cuddles. But, no. The younger child's reluctance showed up right as I stuck the movie in. She went off to play upstairs and do other, thoroughly important things. :-) Can't blame a guy for trying.

Elder, though, seemed to get into it. She said that her favorite part was at the end, when Leia was dressed like a princess, which, I gotta say, doesn't even surprise me a little bit.

All told, though, neither of the girls really sat down and watched it, so I can't really say whether or not they enjoyed it. Maybe another time.

That's one of the things with children. You can't force them to like the things you like. My daughters geek out over different things. Younger, right now, loves Starwberry Shortcake. Elder loves reading. Whatever keeps them happy and learning is fine by me.

Besides...we'll always have Phineas & Ferb. :-)

Okay, now about the DC/Barnes and Noble controversy. I'll be honest, it seems a short sighted move on Barnes' part, with nothing but gain for local comics shops. By pulling these from their shelves, they've limited the number of places they can be bought. Kinda. Because you can still order them online, and I'm sure that you can have the people in the stores order them to be picked up, also.

Honestly, it seems like Barnes is acting like a spoiled brat who says that if they can't have any of the pepperoni pizza, NOBODY can have ANY of the pizza at their party. Given that their competition just closed down, I can't help but think "BORDERS, BORDERS, BORDERS" when I heard this news. I just cannot fathom wanting to cut out any business, no matter what, admittedly small, percentage it may be.

But, hey, I'm just glad that there are more reasons to go to your Local Comic Shop. So, go out, buy Dark Knight Returns, Sandman, Red Son and Ex Machina there. Meet other nerds, and, hey, maybe you'll find something cool based on their recommendations.

See ya next time!

No cover to get in!

2011-10-08T10:19:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I fibbed. I won't be talking about all of the DC covers this post. Between working a somewhat soul-crushing temp job, and some familial medical drama (Nothing bad, don't worry, just stressful.), it just hasn't been good. So, from here out, I'm going to talk about covers in my reviews, if I feel I need or want to. I'm also going to work on getting some non-review blog posts going.

That said, let's get into it!

Action Comics #2 – Okay, three variant covers, one of which is a sketch version of one of the other two. And I’ve gotta say, while I like them all, I’m partial to the non-sketch original variant. And that would be a sentence I didn’t expect to see outside of the 90s. As to the meat of the issue, here we see little more than a whole issue action sequence, but it is a fairly awesome one, with Superman basically beating his way out of the underground secret prison he’s being held in by Lex Luthor. By the way, this is one of the best characterizations of LL I’ve seen in the comics in quite some time. Arrogant, dismissive of anyone who isn’t him, and obviously well on his path to villainy, his insistence on calling Superman “it” because of the fact that he’s an alien feels absolutely perfect to me. There is a lot of interesting stuff in this issue, especially towards the end, where we learn that Luthor is getting his info on Supes from a mysterious source. Okay…it’s Brainiac. How could it not be? I’ll eat my hat (The nice, Superman one.) if it isn’t. All told, a strong, action-oriented issue that nicely progresses both the story and the characterizations nicely.

Recommendation: I’m still leaning toward trade, honestly, but it’s really starting to make me want to put it in my pullbox.

Animal Man #2 – And the creep factor of this issue continues. Yeesh. The little sister gets powers, much to the chagrin and annoyance of both her older sister and Buddy’s wife. We learn more about the Red and how it affects the world around us…well, kinda. In true horror movie fashion, we only get glimpses of the true nature of the beast. Is it evil? Does it have any morality aside from survival? What does it have to do with Maxine’s powers? Does it have anything to do with them? Man…lots of questions, not too many answers, but man, what a ride. There’s a lot of semi-exposition, that I’m not sure about reliability, because, let’s face it, it’s coming from a little girl. She may be misinterpreting things, or simply parroting a lie the Red told her. But the stage is set, the mission given and the heroes off on their adventure. I’m sure Joseph Campbell couldn’t be any more proud. As an aside, this one and Swamp Thing seem to be heading toward a crossover, with the Red being set up as a malevolent enitity over there. Which is true? We’ll see.

Recommendation: There’s too much awesome here to wait for the trade, so go on and put this one in your pull box.

Batwing #2 – Well…now we know where David knows Massacre from. But what does the mysterious phrase “We honor them all in blood” truly mean? Can’t wait for that one. Again, there’s a lot of action in this issue, and it’s nicely setting the stage for epic events to come. It’s one of those issues that, when it ends, you can’t believe it’s over. Not much to say about it, really. I’m digging the story, but Judd Winick’s always pretty reliable, story-telling wise, so that, even if there’s a slow issue, he’s got a reason for it. Once again, and I should have been prepared for this, Batman shows up here, rather than merely being a felt presence, which kind of begs the question: Does he really wonder why Gotham’s such a hole, if he’s off gallivanting, and taking over Batman, Inc operatives? Are they operatives? Anyway…good book, with a nice, strong finish. Here’s hoping that the fight in the next issue lives up to the last page of this one.

Recommendation: Trade. While I really like Winick’s writing, and Ben Oliver’s art is, simply, gorgeous, there’s nothing here really pulling me in to say that you need to buy it.

Detective Comics #2 – I see DC wasted no time in setting up, not only a new villain, but a new team of villains. Good on them. They’ve got a nice, creepy vibe going on, with the whole mutilation and threatening of one of Batman’s closest allies. (It’d be a big spoiler to say which, but he’s fairly important.) This is, for me, the strongest of the Bat-titles, with a nice balance between the Bruce Wayne saving Gotham story and the hunt for the possible serial killing family that may, or may not, have broken the Joker out of Arkham. (Um…sorry about that run-on sentence. Couldn’t be avoided, really.) Once again, I’m struck by the fact that, in the New DCU, Bruce Wayne seems to be a far more interesting character than Batman. But I think that has more to do with the fact that it’s been several years since I’ve seen a good Bruce Wayne story. They’re nicely setting up the millionaire playboy entrepreneur nature of Bruce Wayne very well. Oh, remember how I said I’d talk about covers here? Yeah, I loved this one. I’m a huge fan of the Bat-Plane, though, dorky though it may be.

Recommendation: Pull box. Like I said, I think it’s the strongest Bat-title, and worth reading on a monthly basis.

Green Arrow #2 – Yet another character whose cover identity is, for me, far more interesting than the superhero. The Ollie Queen pages (All two or three of them) have a far more interesting, to me, plot than the Green Arrow parts…mostly. There are parts where I can see where things are heading, but I kinda dig that. I hope that the annoying suit that wants to oust Ollie doesn’t end up being behind the super- villains’ scheme, but if he is…well, I won’t be disappointed, necessarily, but it’ll be nice if they pull it off. Once we get to the core of the villains’ plot, it starts picking up, and I like where it’s heading. The weakest part of this issue was the obligatory “Let’s show the hero just how eeeeeeeeeevil we are by killing an overly-enthusiastic wannabe bad guy” scene in the middle. It just struck me as being overly pat. I don’t know exactly how it could have been fixed, but it stuck out to me like a sore thumb.

Recommendation: Trade. So far, I’m not seeing anything that puts this in the “MUST HAVE NOW” category, honestly. It’s good, but nothing spectacular.

Justice League International #2 – Okay, the back and forth about Booster Gold vs Guy Gardner as leader here is really getting on my nerves. I understand the need for Booster to learn to accept his role, but he’s striking me as little more than a temperamental teenager. Yes, I know that Booster is little more than that, but the way it’s handled here was poorly done. Aside from that, I thought this was a good issue for advancing the plot, escalating the threat and defining the characters and their relationships. Batman actually works here as a kind of guiding force to the JLI, and a reason for the UN to question Booster’s leadership. The action sequences are well handled, if short. My favorite parts of this issue were the interplay of Rocket Red (A Russian totally-not-Iron-Man.) and August General In Iron (A Chinese metahuman with the ability to…um…something, I’m sure.) mainly because I chuckle at the “My country is better than yours” relationship they’re developing. They act like brothers, and it’s one of the best written relationships of minor characters I’ve seen in a while.

Recommendation: Pull box. From art to script, even the weaker moments in this book are strong enough to make me want to own every copy that comes out.

Men of War #2 – I’m not sure how I feel about this one, honestly. I was struck by the strength of the first issue so much that the second issue comes off a lot weaker than it probably is. It does establish who Sgt. Rock is nicely through some interestingly handled flashbacks. It does establish the antagonist (I’m not going to say villain yet.) nicely and make clear what the blur was from the first issue. It does show how they complete their mission. But all together, this issue just left me feeling somewhat empty at the end. I couldn’t read more than a page of the back-up story.

Recommendation: Trade, but I’ll be honest, if the next issue leaves me with the same feeling this one did, I’m thinking about dropping it.

OMAC #2 – I’m a fan of the reluctant hero format, and the reluctant villain is a nice spin on it. Watching Kevin Kho struggle with Brother Eye’s controlling nature and, of course, changes his mind after fighting yet another person who wants to leave his powers behind. Brother Eye’s manipulation of all of the players involved was really nicely pulled off, and Kevin’s reasons for going along with the Eye make some sense. The feeling of being dragged along passes to the reader quite nicely. The best bit comes on the credits page, where they have a nice throwback and give all of the people involved alliterative nicknames like “Dissident” Dan Didio and “Kombative” Keith Giffen. One of those nice bits from my early comics reading days that I always liked to see.

Recommendation: Trade, because as much as I like Giffen’s art, the script and general storytelling in this book don’t strike me as strong enough to read on a monthly basis.

Red Lantern #2 – I like the “origin of rage” that takes up most of this book, mainly because I don’t like Atrocitus’s characterization. He’s too calm to be a being of pure rage. The exploration of this child’s rage and all of the little things that lead up to her agony are really quite nicely written, so go Peter Milligan, go. But I just don’t care about Atrocitus’s supposed rage or the potential overthrowing of his leadership that was set up last issue. I did like the cover of this one, though. It’s got a nice war poster feel to it, which fits nicely with the apparently endless war that plays into this issue so centrally. It would have been nice to see how things on Earth were going and whether there would be a human Red Lantern. Maybe they’ll come back to it. I hope they do, because, all told, though, I’m not a big fan of this book. Maybe it’s because I haven’t yet read the Sinestro War arc or how the Spectrum came to be. I’ll have to find those and come back to this one, see if I still care.

Recommendation: Drop, I can’t even give this one a third issue because I cannot bring myself to care about anything in it at all.

Static Shock #2 – Good lord is this one wordy comic. I get why, though. Static is a nervous teenage hero. So his internal monologue will be a bit blabbermouth to cover his nervousness. Aside from that, I dug most of the aspects of this story. I did not know that his sister was cloned, and I like the idea of both of them claiming to be the “real” one. It’ll be nice to see that play out over the course of the series. Also, of course Static gets a power upgrade. He’s in NYC now, where the big boys play. At least it’s a power that makes sense and it’s nice to see a healing factor played with in this manner. I liked the hormone fueled meet cute in the high school sequence. It made me giggle, in a manly fashion, because, well…it rang incredibly true to life, and it was nice to see a moment like that. It helps to humanize Static, and give Virgil some depth. The artwork is a little fast and loose for my taste, but it does, mostly, work here.

Recommendation: I’m going back and forth on this one. Part of me really likes it and wants to say pull it. Another part of me thinks it needs to find a better footing and that, while still enjoyable, would be better as a trade. I’m going with pull for now.

Swamp Thing #2 – Ah, the creepy messenger who shows the hero that his power goes back much farther than he imagined. Mostly, I think this issue was about setting up the conflict and bringing Alec Holland into the conflict, while still giving readers the whole back story. It’s a kind of infodump of exposition, but it’s handled decently enough for a character with such an involved history. We don’t get to see much of the artwork because of the dialogue, but what we do see is fairly gorgeous. My favorite part of the art here is that in between the panels, Yanick Paquette draws some gorgeous plants and vines. It works well for the book. One other thing to mention, and that’s the villain, the Red. It’s far less ambiguous here than Animal Man that the Red is a malevolent entity, what with the whole twisting the neck around thing it does to a minor character, and will be nice to see whether or not this Red and the one from AM are the same thing.

Recommendation: Trade, but it’s really starting to draw me in, so I might have to upgrade this next month.

Drop Watch:

Hawk and Dove #2 – So very many teeth. Someone needs to tell Rob Liefeld three things. 1. Mouths don’t open anywhere close to that wide. 2. No creature that isn’t a shark has that many teeth. 3. “This is an anatomy book. Use it. PLEASE.” Tried to read the second issue to tell you if it’s getting better and couldn’t. It’s that bad. I won’t even bother with issue 3.

Stormwatch #2 – Well, it’s drawing me into the story more. It’s setting up a conflict nicely, but there’s still something about it that is somewhat off-putting to me. There was a nice bit, though, dealing with a scapegoat 3^rd- or 4^th-tier super-villain. If the next issue is spectacular, I’ll probably continue with it.

So New 52's going along nicely. Lots of good books, very little crud.

Something cool to let you guys know about, I'm watching Star Wars with my girls tomorrow! :-) I'm looking forward to it, since the last time I tried to, they didn't make it past the first 10 minutes. I'll be tweeting (Look, off to the side, it's a box, it's some words, it's a Tweet!) during it, and after I'll be writing about it. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

See ya next time!

A whole new beginning!

2011-10-01T15:03:00.000-05:00

As the first month of DC's New 52 draws to a close, they put out a decent, if not overly strong, week of titles. Honestly, there were more hits than misses this week, but none of this week's titles really stuck out for me, aside from Aquaman.

Yeah, Aquaman. Go figure. The laughingstock of the sea has this week's strongest, in my opinion, book.

So, on to the reviews, and then I'll let you know which titles I'm keeping, which are in danger of being dropped, and which I'm definitely dropping. This is a feature I plan on keeping, and doing once all of the month's titles are out. That is, between the #1's and #2's, I'll do this, between the 2's and 3's, etc.

So, without any further ado, the reviews:

All-Star Western #1 – Well…it’s hard to really call this a western, honestly. The only western thing it has, really, is Jonah Hex. Everything else about it, from the location in Gotham to Dr. Arkham helping Jonah Hex, is distinctly…well, not western. All told, though, that is about the only real issue I have with this one. A nice mystery being set up, a serial killer targeting prostitutes, a mysterious society which may, or may not, be involved at some level, even Jonah Hex’s characterization all work together to create quite a nice little book. Something that took me a minute was the florid, purple prose at the beginning, with no accreditation. It’s not until you realize that it’s from Dr. Arkham’s journals that it all kind of clicks together and meshes. Of course Arkham would speak like that. It was nice, for me, to see some of the names mentioned, from Cobblepot to Cyrus Pinckney (Solomon Grundy.)…all of which gave me a little thrill each time I saw them. Jimmy Palmiotti’s art fits perfectly here, with a nicely limited color palette, which really evokes the 1880s when the story takes place. I look forward to the next issue immensely.

Aquaman #1 – I did not realize before going in that Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis were working this book. It feels, structurally, a lot like Green Lantern: Rebirth, in that Johns seems to be going for a revamping of the character. They’re aware going in, and highlight a lot of the jokes that have been made in the past about Aquaman, which was nice for me, honestly. I’ve never really gotten the hate. One of the things that worked for me here is how nobody, cops, criminals, citizens, take Aquaman seriously. And Ivan Reis’ artwork really captures his resentment at being treated like a lesser hero amidst Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc, when it’s freaking obvious how strong he is. I mean, upending a secured van is no mean feat. The nicest thing about this issue? We finally find out how Aquaman manages to get by on land. All in all, a good issue, and I look forward to many more.

Batman: The Dark Knight #1 – Something I realized reading this issue was that DC has apparently decided to turn Batman into a kind of internal Chatty Cathy. I mean, he’s terse and laconic as Batman, but the narration boxes, usually from his point of view, go on forever! Anyway…here, as opposed to the other Batman titles, Batman is taking on evil, both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. Look, I’m not even going to try to summarize or review this one. There are simply too many Batman titles where he is the star. I understand, Batman’s cool. He’s one of my favorite characters, and, more often than not, one I gravitate towards. But with ten of the New 52 titles focusing on or featuring him, I’m more than a little sick of it. I don’t even like the story set up in B:TDK, at least not the supervillain part. The GCPD part is intriguing, though, with Internal Affairs trying to figure out how Bruce Wayne is funding Batman and who in GCPD is giving him information. It’s a good mystery set-up. But, honestly, there’s no reason this story needs its own title. For me, calling the book The Dark Knight should imply more of a horror slant, or at least a thriller/noir-ish set up. I guess my biggest problem is that all of the main Batman titles feel absolutely the same. How would I do it, you ask? I’m glad you did. What I would do is this: Batman would be about the more fantastical, superhero-supervillain stories. Detective Comics would be about the mystery-solving detective Batman who, in all honesty, is rarely seen anymore. Batman and Robin I would use to explore the dynamic of how he interacts with all of his Robins, past and present. This one I discussed above. The other ones, where he’s just featured? I’d probably pull him from all but Justice League and JLI, honestly.

Blackhawks #1 – I’m not really clear on the set-up for this one. I think it’s a covert team that deals with meta-human threats that are well below the Justice League level. Or maybe a black ops version of the JLI, since they seem to get funding from the UN. It doesn’t really matter too much to me, since I thought this was a well written, entertaining comic that pulled me in from the beginning, and set up some nice arc plots, as well as relationships that could drastically change at the drop of a hat. It was a quick, fun comic, and I look forward to more from it. One thing I was lukewarm on was the artwork. Something about this particular style is incredibly hit or miss for me. When it works, it works really well, but when it doesn’t, it just bugs me.

Green Lanterns: New Guardians #1 – Kyle Rayner can’t seem to catch a break, can he? He’s goes from being the Torchbearer, keeping the light of the Lanterns alive, to being accused of stealing a whole spectrum of rings…guy’s got it rough. I’ll admit, I think I like where this is going, but this issue doesn’t give us too many clues as to where that is, but that’s the way I like it, so I’m not complaining. The artwork was gorgeous, and the various Lanterns having their rings abandon them was handled well, I thought. It’ll be interesting to me to see how former ring-hunter Fatality handles finding out Kyle’s been chosen by the Spectrum. Another thing I like was the twist on Kyle’s origin, specifically the first five minutes of his getting the ring. Certainly is different from the way I remember it. But ya know, that’s just that whole “new twist on remembered stories” that DC’s doing here, and, for me at least, it wasn’t a nonsensical change, and I dug it.

I, Vampire #1 – Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A vampire who sired a lady who turned megalomaniacal regrets his former life of hedonistic blood-drinking and tries to set right what he did. Yeah, this one goes in a different direction from Angel, but there are, at this point, more similarities than differences. He even spends his days slaying vampires, for Pete’s sake! I was left pretty lukewarm by this one, which is unfortunate, because I really wanted to like it. We’ll see where it goes, but it’s seeming pretty paint by numbers at this point. I was a little intrigued by the setting of this, though. It seems like, unless I’m mis-reading it, it’s taking place on 9/11 at the Towers. Someone’s got some pretty big, brass cojones, if that’s the case. I’ll give this one a few issues, but I’m not optimistic about keeping it, honestly.

Justice League Dark #1 – Another set-up I like, a horror take on the Justice League, and it makes sense why they’d pull this team together. Magic hurts Superman, Cyborg can’t figure it out, Wonder Woman is overpowered, Batman’s a normal human. So you bring in the supernatural heavy hitters of Zatanna, Shade the Changing Man, John Constantine, Deadman and Madame Xanadu. Digging it. The fun part, for me, will be seeing how these characters finally meet and how they’ll interact with each other. The art fit this book perfectly, balancing strangely ephemeral and realistic quite well. Peter Milligan does good team books (He did X-Factor for quite some time, and established a nice, noir detective feel to it.), so I look forward to seeing how things develop in his hands.

Savage Hawkman #1 – A hero with a multiple choice past, Tony S. Daniel seems to have streamlined that past quite well. Hawkman has, at various points, been an archaeologist who stumbled upon a strange mystical power, an alien soldier (Or policeman, I was never clear.), and just some guy with wings, and here he’s the best of all of that. I was pleasantly surprised by this one, something I didn’t expect judging by the cover, which seems to think that 90s excess was the way to go. The reluctant hero who has his powers stolen storyline this seems to be going with is dealt with deftly here, I think, and I look forward to seeing where it goes. One problem I had, though, was the villain’s name. I mean, really, “Morphicius?” Why not just name him “Evil-Blobby-Man?” It’s a minor thing, comparatively, but in a decent book, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

Superman #1 – Hoo, boy, was this a letdown. From the very first pages, you realize that more has changed than you realized. A new Daily Planet, which may no longer be a newspaper (It was a little unclear.) relationships changed (Lois doesn’t even seem to have a thing for Superman…and she’s kind of a slut.) and thing just generally off. I didn’t realize at first, but it was written by George Pérez, and like most comic-book creators who made it big in the 80s, a little bit on the wordy side. I keep going back and forth about this issue. At points, I really dug some of the stuff they did. De-powering Superman was nice, and talking about his power creep struck me as a nice touch. And it’s not the first time in the New 52 it’s been mentioned. The art is also somewhat uneven in a lot of regards. Overall, I probably wouldn’t keep up with this book, if it weren’t meant to be a flagship title.

Recommendation: Trade paperback.

Teen Titans #1 – Man, teenagers sure do have it all figured out, don’t they? Especially superpowered ones who think they know better than the people they deign to help. So why wouldn’t a shadowy organization try to round them up, for their own protection, of course. I like this book, a lot, and not just because I once owned the entirety of “The Judas Contract.” Red Robin, aka Tm Drake, is trying to expose NOWHERE, and decides to pull together a team of teenagers to do so. Nice, simple, almost elegant set-up. There are several nice action set pieces in this book which advance the story rather than becoming the story. It’s nice to see that Scott Lobdell can write female characters who AREN’T vapid sluts, honestly. That whole thing with Starfire makes me think it might be an editorial mandate. But I digress. The artwork is pretty darn good, by funny book standards, so thank you Brett Booth. It’ll be nice to see where this goes. Also, it puts the last few pages on Superboy #1 into a whole new light. Wonder how those are going to fold together, honestly. I’m a little leery of crossovers in books that haven’t had more than, oh, ONE issue. I’ll let it play out some more, though, before I pass judgment. Something you fanbois out there might consider doing every once in a while.

The Flash #1 – A fun and, appropriately, fast-paced book, I really dug The Flash. I mean, seriously, this is one of the easiest to read books of the week, even with a nicely involved plot. And a last page that makes you rethink the previous 21. The artwork keeps pace with the story well, adding a nice dimension to the story, even. I will say that this book had something which I thought had all but disappeared from comics: The use of the title page to enhance the story. Normally, the title is just superimposed on the page, and that’s that. Here, though, in addition to the nicely retro origin summary, the letters of Flash are used as panels to show you the Flash in action, and I could not be giddier about it. It made me want to go out and look up everything Francis Manapul had ever done!

The Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Men #1 – Yawn. Honestly, I was bored by this book. A lot of fairly formulaic plotting, writing, characters, no real depth to anyone or anything, I just couldn’t get into this one. Maybe it’s good for the Firestorm fans, but there just wasn’t a lot here that I can, in all honesty, recommend. Even the anti-stereotypical characters are stereotypes. And, of course the two characters who were antagonistic toward each other are going to end up superpowered and fighting each other. And, of course, one of the characters will have a gizmo in their locker that the villains are after. And, of course, the villain will try to be charming while threatening to kill everyone. And, of course, the villain will kill people even when he promised not to. I was just utterly disappointed in this book. Maybe it’ll read better as a trade.

Recommendation: Trade.

Voodoo #1 – So…yeah. Voodoo is an odd little book. One I’m not sure what to make of yet. The plot, what little there is, seems fairly standard, with a possible alien infiltration…or maybe just an alien who wants to “know about our Earther ways.” I dunno. Ron Marz is usually pretty reliable with a good plot, so I’m willing to try this one out a bit longer than usual. The art, though, is absolutely gorgeous! Crisp and well-defined (Heh…see, it takes place in a strip club, so…yeah.), it really works well here. There’s just such a division between the artwork and the starkness of the plot that the overall effect is one of being unbalanced. Which, I admit, may have been what they were going for. As with all first issues, I’ll give it a few more before I truly decide if I like it or not.

BONUS REVIEW: Brilliant #1 – I know, I haven’t reviewed any Marvel titles yet here. I thought I’d change that this week. But, honestly, Marvel’s company continuity is such a mess, that I didn’t know where to begin. I don’t like just jumping in without knowing if I’m picking a good spot (Hence, my reading of DC’s New 52 line.), so I was floundering for a while…until I found Brilliant by Marvel’s Uber-Team of Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. I’m not sure how much this counts, though, since it’s under Marvel’s Icon line for their creator owned titles. But, meh, my blog, my rules, I’m counting it. The set up is this: College age super geniuses in various fields (Biology, physics, etc.) realize that, in the middle of the last century, science and science fiction were feeding off of each other, and a lot of the big ideas have come to pass, except for one: Superpowers. So they decide to crack it. I gotta say, when Bendis hits, he hits on all cylinders and doesn’t go back, and he’s hitting here. It’s hard to say how long this origin is going to go, as Bendis has a penchant for nice, drawn out stories that make you care about all of the characters, even the villains. And Magley’s artwork is simply magnificent…as always. Back in the day, Ultimate Spider-Man was one of my favorite titles to read, because of how well Bagley’s words work with Bendis’ words, and vice versa. All told, a nicely done book that makes me wish it wasn’t 60 days until the next issue.

So there you have it. Next week starts in on the continuing stories and arcs of these books, so it'll be nice to see how things pick up from the initial dip in the pool. It's quite a brave thing DC's doing, and, overall, it's worked well for me.

Now, as promised, the list of books I'm going to keep for sure, the ones in danger of being dropped, and the ones I'm definitely dropping:

Keep

Animal Man
Action Comics
Green Arrow
Batgirl
Batwing
Justice League International
Static Shock
Batwoman
Resurrection Man
Demon Knights
Superboy
Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
Birds of Prey
DC Universe Presents
Green Lantern Corps
Supergirl
Green Lantern
Wonder Woman
All-Star Western
Aquaman
Justice League Dark
Justice League
The Flash
Teen Titans

In Danger

Detective Comics
Men of War
OMAC
Swamp Thing
Deathstroke
Grifter
Mister Terrific
Suicide Squad
Batman and Robin
Red Lanterns
Batman
Blue Beetle
Captain Atom
Catwoman
Legion of Super Heroes
Nightwing
Red Hood and the Outlaws (I almost dropped this one completely, but I'll give Lobdell et al a chance, especially after Teen Titans.)
Batman: The Dark Knight
Blackhawks
Green Lantern: New Guardians (Yeah, I'm thinking about dropping a GL title. It's hard, but this one just didn't do too much for me, after all is said.)
Savage Hawkman
Superman
Voodoo

Dropped Although I'm not going to stop reading most of these yet, I won't bother reviewing them. If they pick back up and make me like them, I'll let you guys know, though.

Hawk & Dove - Which I'm not even going to bother to continue with, actually. I can't get myself past the Liefeld touch.
Stormwatch - There just wasn't much that I could honestly care about in this book, and I wanted to like it, I really did.
Legion Lost - There was too much going on here that was based on the mega-event, Flashpoint, the immediately preceded the New 52, so until I catch up there, this one's not going to make any sense to me.
I, Vampire - Which is, honestly, a disappointment to me...too much of one to continue on with the book.
The Fury of Firestorm, the Nuclear Men - Even favorite writers and artists can hit stumbling block, so I hope this one picks up down the road, but the first issue did nothing for me.

And there you go. Month one is done in DC. I hope that this experiment of their succeeds and brings in more new readers than just myself.

As promised, my next post will be about the covers. I know I said I would talk about myself more, and I promise that I will in the future. It just was not a good week, personally, to do so. A lot more going on in Chris-ville, and far more events transpiring than I wanted to.

Keep reading, everyone! If there are any reviews of mine you disagree with, or other books (On-going and mini.) that you think I should be reading, or would like my take on, give me a shout, and I'll be more than happy to look them over.

See you next time!

This post brought to you thanks to MC Frontalot and Jonathan Coulton.

2011-09-24T14:07:00.000-05:00

So we're now three weeks in to DC's New 52 universe. A lot of good titles this week, but before we get to that, I thought I'd tell everyone what I think New 52's trying to accomplish.

Of course, there's the PR version: According to Bob Harras, Editor-In-Chief for DC Comics, New 52 is a way to "continue the stories of these characters, to present them in new ways for new audiences...a way for readers to jump aboard, to come join the party that is the DC Universe." And, of course, Grant Morrison chimes in: Things that are familiar will be unfamiliar. Things that may have been stale or boring are revitalized and plugged into feelings that people are having right now. Another thing they've done is made these titles available online the same day they're available in the stores, which is nice for people who may not have brick and mortar stores to go into. And I think the best summation comes from artist and co-publisher of DC, Jim Lee, "We're trying to get new fans. We're trying to get people that have never even bought a comic book before excited about the medium, excited about these stories, excited about these characters."

There you have it. What does that mean, in practical terms? Well, most obviously, a lot of Number One Issues, which are good jumping on points for new fans. It's way too intimidating to see issue 163, "A new chapter starts here!" It's also a nice way for DC to broaden its potential pool of characters, by highlighting lesser known characters like Resurrection Man or newer characters like Static Shock, and new titles that might otherwise fall through the cracks like Demon Knights or Men of War. I can honestly say that they've hit on this far more often than they've missed. There are only one or two titles that seemed to rely too heavily on previous continuity. To highlight two different titles that have already been released, there's Green Lantern and Legion Lost.

In the former, we have a very continuity driven story that gives you enough bits of the previous story to let you know what's going on. The characters are well fleshed out, and you care about them. Even without much dialogue, you can understand why all of the characters want to do the things they state.

In the latter, you're lost almost from the get-go. There's no emotional investment. You don't know what's going on. When characters die, you don't care that they're gone, nor that the remaining ones seem broken by it. You don't understand where they came from or what they're doing here in anything other than a superficial sense, despite the pages of dialogue.

Now, part of the problem with the latter could be the story, and may even work itself out. I'm willing to give it that, which leads to another thing that early issues are good for: People are far more forgiving about early issue confusion, and having not a lot of information to work with. You can't get all of the information, exposition and characterization-wise, into one issue anymore. A lot of readers like the decompression of stories and origins. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. I hope that DC doesn't cave in to fanboi pressure and keeps the New 52 Universe. It's an interesting place, and I look forward to its exploration.

Whew...that was a lot. On to the reviews! It is, apparently, Batman week in the New 52.

Batman #1 – Kicking off Batman week, we have his main title…maybe. It’s hard to tell with flagship characters. I really wish DC had decided to streamline their titles with the New 52 experiment, and decide NOT to have three separate main books for a character…Superman’s only going to be worse. I can see why they did it, but each book feels, roughly, the same. Being the comics reader I am, of course I have my thoughts on what I’d do. Make Detective Comics a mystery, highlighting the “detective” part of Batman’s character, have Batman be about his motivation, and use Batman and Robin to (I hate using this word.) dump all of the stories that don’t fit either category. Concerns about being over-inundated aside, I actually do like Batman as a character, when he’s well written, and I think Scott Snyder captures that balance between Batman and Bruce Wayne quite well. The actual plot elements work well together, with Bruce Wayne being the big hero in this book. There’s a good mystery set up here, as one of Bruce’s closest allies is being, hopefully, framed for murder. (You actually see elements of this plot line seep into another character’s book; so hopefully, the first inter-title crossover will go well.) There are a few stylistic things going on here I enjoy. Being a first issue, people may not know who’s who, so Scott Snyder sets up a contact lens computer, essentially, that automatically identifies who Bruce is speaking to. Nifty, huh? (A couple good jokes come up, too. So props to Snyder for that!) The art is the other stylistic thing going on, and, honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about it. It drifts from almost Romita-esque line work, to a more controlled, cartoony approach. It’s not bad, but it is noticeable, and I had to work a bit to get past it. All in all, though, I dug it, especially the opening action sequence and the last panel.

Birds of Prey #1 – I like the idea of an all-female action book, and this one delivers for me. It’s got a great set-up, with Dinah Lance (Black Canary) and Ev Crawford (Starling) trying to find out why they were being followed by a reporter…who turns out to have been bait to lure the Birds (Hey, I just got the thematic naming thing going on!) out into the open…of course, he was ALSO being used by the Birds (Seriously, I can’t believe I didn’t see that…sheesh.) to lure out the people behind the reporter. It’s a very noir set up, and I like it. The other thing going on, is that Dinah is doing a recruiting drive for the Birds, and wants Barbara Gordon (Formerly the Oracle…seriously, how did I NOT see that birds thing before?) The character development, even over the course of one issue, strikes me as really well developed (Believe it or not, that’s not an innuendo.), and I look forward to the ladies finding out what’s going on. Something about this book: I was looking up Starling’s last name, and found a kind of meta-plot for the book: One is wanted for a murder she didn't commit. The other is on the run because she knows too much. They are Dinah Laurel Lance and Ev Crawford – a.k.a. Black Canary and Starling – and together, as Gotham City's covert ops team, they're taking down the villains other heroes can't touch. So…pretty much a female, super-powered A-Team. That’s actually something I’m looking forward to see develop over the course of the series! Back to this issue, the artwork was quite nice, and seemed to work well with the writing. Jesus Saiz does some nice action work. You can almost see the artwork moving from panel to panel, and that’s something a lot of the best artists do. I’m going to have to look up some of his other work!

Blue Beetle #1 – First off, I like Tony Bedard, so he’s one of the writers I’m willing to give a little slack to. Second, I like the Blue Beetle…but I’m more of a Ted Kord Blue Beetle guy, so I can’t say I’m too crazy about this version, but I’m always willing to try new things…especially when I force myself to. This is another book I was pleasantly surprised by. It sets up both characters, the Beetle, and the kid behind it really well. This book has a lot of balls to juggle, an intergalactic conquest, an international conspiracy, and getting to the hot chick’s party on time. Again, I think this is one of the better #1’s in this New 52 thing. I’m sure there are levels of the character and little bits that fans would get, but I liked how you don’t have to know thing one about anything to get into it. Tony Bedard had an excellent run on The Exiles, so I’m looking forward to seeing how both Jaime and the Beetle interact and change each other. As an example of Bedard’s writing, he toyed with one of the standard conventions, the “Translated from…” caption you see whenever a language other than English is used. He translates the dialogue in Jaime’s home from Spanglish…while not changing a single word in the dialogue! It’s those little bits of humor in writing that I appreciate.

Captain Atom #1 – Something about this one didn’t quite click for me. I don’t really know what it was, honestly. It’s got a lot of elements I enjoy. Action, the hero already running into problems controlling his powers, potentially catastrophic events as a result…some weird, unexplained element in the narration. (A box with unexplained numbers, in this case.) Even a nice ending action sequence, where the fate of our hero is in flux. (Really, it’s a well done last panel.) The artwork, while not my usual, is nice, and fits the uncertainty of what’s going on with the good Captain well, I think. I just, for whatever reason, couldn’t find anything to excite me in this issue, which I suppose was bound to happen. We’ll see if it can sustain my interest. I’d hate for it to be the second book I drop. (Yeah, about that, I’m thinking I may drop Hawk & Dove, and sooner than anticipated. I just do not like it.) But that does highlight another aspect of this challenge for me, and something I don’t think I’ve mentioned before: The Three-Issue Trial. With any new book, it can take a bit to find its footing. So, whenever I start a book that’s completely new to me (Writer I don’t know well, artist I’ve never heard of, character I’m not familiar with.) I always give it a few issues before I drop it. (I’m the same with TV shows…and I really wish I had gone farther with Fringe before dropping it.) Now, there is some leeway there, but that is my general rule. In the case of New 52, however, I’ve decided to give it an arc before I drop anything. I’m also going to drop some titles, simply because I don’t have the time to give them! So, here’s hoping I can keep the Captain on, because like I said, there’s a lot going on that I like.

Catwoman #1 – Hooooooooo, boy. This book, with Red Hood & the Outlaws, created a bit of a stir online. One particular reviewer didn’t like liberated sexuality of Catwoman and Starfire. Without stepping into that particular can of worms, I can say that there wasn’t a lot I cared for in this issue. Judd Winick, while a writer I like and enjoy, seems to have fallen into the same trap that most Catwoman writers fall into, and that’s one where she doesn’t know who she is, why she does what she does, and focusing on the sexiness of the character. Although, some of that can be forgiven. I mean, she DOES get her place blown up on page five. She spends the rest of the issue in almost a daze, even while scouting a job, and has a romantic encounter at the end that…well, I can understand why it happens. I can say, though, Guillem March does some good cheesecake. I liked the story elements, but something about all of them didn’t mesh for me. And, again, with Winick I’m waiting for one of the characters to have AIDS or be gay. And, given the prostitute elements of Catwoman’s back story, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least.

DC Universe Presents #1 – Now the concept behind this is one that appeals to me a lot. This book showcases different characters for a story, and then moves on. Essentially, an anthology series that’s still in continuity. The first few issues will focus on one of my favorite under-rated supernatural gymnasts: Deadman! I love the concept, and this book gives a new light to his origin and on-going quest, one to redeem his soul, and balance out his life by saving souls. Bostan Brand has died and now finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right, that once went wrong and hoping each time, that his next leap will be the leap home. (Think Quantum Leap, but without Al and Ziggy. And yes I did steal that line. Bwa. Ha. Ha.) I’ve always dug Deadman when I’ve come across him, but wasn’t entirely familiar with the character, so it was nice for me to get his origin, and see why he does what he does. As of this comic, he’s started getting tired of doing it, and decides to speak with Rama, the goddess who sent him on his quest. And that’s the plot. It’s far more of a character piece than anything else, and I really like that. Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang do a god job getting you invested into Deadman and caring about his mission, while still seeing how much it’s wearing on him now. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

Green Lantern Corps #1 – Another GL book, and one I was looking forward to, this one delivers! Focusing on two of the four Earth Lanterns, Guy and John, we see them struggle with being publicly known as Lanterns. Guy can’t get a job because the district worries about an attack that would jeopardize the children he wants to coach. John tries to get the developers he’s designing for to see how good his plans are. Meanwhile, something’s killing Lanterns. There’s a nice horror movie plot going on, with John and Guy leading the team to investigate the dead or disappeared Lanterns. There’s a lot of good character moments in this issue, including Salaak, who I’ve never liked much. The artwork, by Fernando Pasarin, is gorgeous. One nice thing about this issue is that we finally learn how the 3600 sectors of space work. It’s not something I’ve known before, and the concept behind it is fascinating to me. Again, this is a book I would probably be pulling, regardless of who was on it, but I’m glad that it’s a well-written book, as well.

Legion of Super-Heroes #1 – This one I just straight didn’t like. The issue was juggling way too many stories. There were way too many references to outside events that you need to read 27 and a third issue to know what was going on, the art, while decent, felt somewhat sub par to me. It doesn’t help that this team has never excited me much in the past. (There was a run, in the early 00’s, that was really well done, I thought.) While I don’t mind being thrown right into the plot (In media res is one of my favorite story-telling devices.) there has to be something there that you care about, or something that you feel compels you to keep reading. Unfortunately, there’s just nothing in this issue that does that for me. Hopefully, as the arc goes on, I’ll change my mind.

Nightwing #1 – Now this, I liked. Dick Grayson is in Gotham, helping fight crime. The circus he grew up in comes back to town and he revisits his old life. Oh, and remember how I mentioned that the plot of Batman would spill over into another book? This is that book. I can’t really go over that plot without giving away both books, so instead I’ll just talk about how nice it is to see a Robin all grown up. It’s gratifying to see how Kyle Higgins doesn’t just make Nightwing into Batman, Jr, which is a trap that is all too easy to fall into, with any of the Robins. The artwork, by Eddy Barrows, balances the darkness of Gotham and its criminality well with the lightness and jollity of Haly’s Circus. This one is a book to watch, and one I look forward to seeing again.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 – This is the other semi-controversial book this week. I’ll come back to that. Lemme just say, I like Scott Lobdell. He does really well writing younger teams. He did a fantastic run on Generation X for Marvel a while back. He balances the personalities and characters really well, and invests you in the plot even better than that. There’s a nice supernatural conspiracy going on here, and I look forward to seeing that develop. Speaking of things developed, Starfire is the other character I mentioned above, as undermining sexual liberation. Sure, there are arguments that could be made against that: Starfire’s an alien who can’t tell humans apart, so her sleeping with them interchangeably could be cultural. And maybe if her costume were larger than it is, I could understand that. I seem to have stepped into a time-warp directly to 1994, and female characters are all 36-DDD who seem to be allergic to concealing clothing. It’s not a time-warp I appreciate anymore. Sure, when I was 13, it was great, that was all I wanted. It’s awfully hard to show people how much comics have changed and grown up, and how there are lots of female characters for girls to look up to, when things like this pop up. It’s unfortunate that Lobdell and artist Kenneth Rocafort felt the need to portray Starfire in this way, because I really do like a lot of what’s going on here.

Supergirl #1 – Yet another action packed issue, I really like this one. Supergirl’s had a…odd history. At various times Superman’s cousin, a clone of some sort, and also split off into Power Girl, I like this characterization. Landing on Earth, confused and frightened, what is the most obvious thing that could happen first? After she fights off her attackers with her new found and quite unexpected to her, powers, she’s on the verge of going crazy when she’s stopped by a voice. While we do find out who it is, I’m not going to spoil it for you. Seriously quickly paced, this issue is over almost before you realize it. There is a nice bit in the middle, when Supergirl realizes she has super-hearing, when lines from other books show up. (One from last week, one this week, and one, presumably, next week.) It’s a fun little moment, and shows her unexpected power while still saying that, yes, this book is definitely part of this universe. I look forward to next month’s issue.

Wonder Woman #1 – Brian Azzerello is a big writer whose work I haven’t read much. I loved his mini a while back, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. It nicely showed why Luthor fights Superman as much and with as dedication that he does. So, seeing his name on one of the, hopefully, major titles was nice. And there is a lot going on here. It throws you right into the action, and doesn’t let go until the last page, and even then it’s got a death grip on you dragging you into the store next month to find out what’s next. Um…I hope I didn’t just oversell it. Anyway, the story is very much rooted in Greek mythology, which is only sensible, really. I kinda hope they use WW as a kind of portal to explore other mythologies. I’d like to see her take on everything from Apollo to Quetzocoatl to yanari. As far as this book is concerned, WW is one of the highlight books this week, I think. Cliff Chiang’s artwork reminds me, favorably, of Frank Cho, who also has drawn WW. It all works well together, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

BONUS REVIEW: Near Death #1 – I was kind of excited about this comic. It has a premise that…well, yeah, may have been played to death, but is one that accounts for infinite variation: A hitman has a near death experience and decides to atone for it. For each life he took for money, he will save a life. And he’s taken a lot of lives. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be an on-going or a mini, but either way, I dig the story idea. The writing leaves a little bit to be desired, but as with all writers I’ve never read before, I’m willing to give it some time before I decide either way. The art is what is going to break it for me, honestly. It’s a slightly sketchier style than I like, but again…I’ll give it a bit. It’s a very cinematic comic, and one I could easily see on either the big or little screen.

There you have it. It was another good week in the New-iverse. (52-iverse? Gotta come up with a good shorthand for this thing.) I've already got some books that are in danger of being dropped, and next week, after the entirety of their 52 titles are out, I'll let everyone know what they are. Hopefully what this means is that I'll be able to do more than simple capsule reviews.

See you next time!

Minor Update!

2011-09-22T15:55:00.000-05:00

Not done with this weeks' capsule reviews yet. (Seems like it's Batman week at DC!) I hope to have them all done by Saturday.

That's not the main thing that I wanted to mention.

You may have noticed some big overhauls to the site. Namely, adding both the tip jar and advertisements, as well as some other, mainly cosmetic changes. I know it's annoying when people essentially beg for money, but, hey...if you like my site, send some love my way. If you don't like it, you aren't likely to be reading this, so I can say, unequivocally, sod off, you badger buggering fanny face.

I just wanted to let you know that, aside from a few tweaks, I should be done for now. I know I hate it when blogs I read switch things up on me all the time, but I'm just trying to find a format that both works for me as a blogger, and you as a reader. If there's anything I've done that you don't like, feel free to let me know. (I could use the laugh...you thinking I'd change something. Pshaw!) Likewise, if there are changes you wouldn't mind seeing, please let me know that, also!

I'm here as much for your enjoyment as mine!

Thanks, all, see ya next time!

Onward and upward! Or at least laterally...

2011-09-20T16:54:00.001-05:00

Here we are in week two, lots of good titles this week, again! So let's get right to it, shall we?

Batman and Robin #1 – This one just jumps right into it. In the first three pages, which I think are going to end up acting as a prologue for the story, we meet the villain. Honestly, I kinda like when that happens. Not a big fan of vague, mysterious threats. Anyway…this book is a good one to highlight one of the other things DC’s New 52 is doing. It’s not undoing the entire history of the past 25 or so years since Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it will show you those events through a different prism, twisting them. The titular Robin isn’t one of the ones I’m familiar with, but Damian Wayne, Bruce’s son, apparently, by Talia al Ghul. Yeeeeaaahhhh…not sure what to make of that origin, but this kid is arrogant, impulsive, brash and obnoxious…so, pretty much a teenager. We get to find out a lot about Batman’s psychology in this issue, and what drives him, as well as how that’s changed with his son started helping him in his work. It’s a nice bit, honestly, and lets you find out Batman’s origin in a new way. You also get a not so quiet scene, with Bruce and Damian working together, which I think highlights quite nicely their different methods. The arc of the first story is picked up in the last pages, and it looks like it’s going to end up being a good one, as someone is out to destroy Batman Inc, and Bruce Wayne personally. Having always been a Batman fan, I think Peter Tomasi’s characterization is a good one, and Patrick Gleason’s pencils work well in the darkness that is Gotham.

Batwoman #1 – Well, this was a quick comic. With seven two-page spreads over the course of the issue, the plot moves along rapidly, and that’s not a bad thing. There’s a very creepy vibe to the comic, and a lot that seems to be going on here. We don’t get any detailed sort of origin story for Kate Kane, aka, Batwoman, only allusions to her sister being a villain, and her dad being military. We get a lot of focus on the arc of the first story, which seems to be a supernatural missing kids story. I like the story idea as well as the writing for this issue, by JH Williams and W. Haden Blackman, and can’t wait to see where it goes. They even have quite a nice last line to really hook you in. The art, I have to say, is 99% GORGEOUS! The only thing I have an issue with is how grey and chalky Kate Kane looks out of costume. It throws me every time I see her. I think I’ll get used to it, though. I hope I do, because this could quickly become one of my favorites, not just as a comic, but as a reading experience.

Deathstroke #1 – Again, a pretty good first issue. You get to find out Deathstroke’s origins pretty quickly, through the eyes of the, quite literal, young guns he’s forced to team up with. Well paced, it has a lot of action. I know I risk sounding repetitive, but this issue sets up the arc nicely, while giving you just enough background info to learn what you need. Here’s the problem I have: I don’t like Deathstroke’s new costume. It screams 90s excess to me. It seems to be feeding into his, as well as his clients’, insecurities about him being too old to handle his job anymore. The art itself, though, is quite nice, lots of detail, good lines. (Yeah, just pretend you know what it means. That’s what I’m doing!) Hopefully, the story, which I’m guessing will be called Back to Basics, after this issue, when it’s collected, will see the re-emergence of his classic costume.

Demon Knights #1 – An unexpected pleasure this week, Demon Knights really got me going in unexpected ways. I’m a huge fan of sword and sorcery epics, and this one’s shaping up quite nicely. Beginning with the Fall of Camelot (Yes, it deserves capitalization, heathen!) , we quickly meet the Seven Against the Dark of the credits page. And, honestly, if you need to be told which of the many, many characters we meet they are, much less WHERE they meet, you’ve never heard of D&D. Quick, witty, charming in a kind of obvious way, I am once again reminded that sometimes we need to force ourselves to try something new.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E #1 – Took me two tries to read this one. I wasn’t a big fan of our introduction to Frank’s base of operations and had to force myself to read it again. Once I did, though, I realized how inventive of an exposition it was. I also got a few inklings of foreshadowing, mainly one set of creatures Frank’s going to have to take down, and another character who, in all likelihood, ends up being the big bad of the arc. Anyone with any Whedon under their belt will likely see the same candidates. It'll be interesting to see if I'm just shooting in the dark, or if I get it right. Once I finally got into it, I found the story to be quite a nice take on the conventional story of the rogue/rough/lone wolf veteran being told to lead a batch of green recruits. Of course, in this instance, they’re all monsters. Nothing wrong with that, at all! The only thing that dragged this book down, for me, was the art. It was a little sketchier than I prefer for my comics. The script, though, once I got into was quite nice. If you’re into monster movies at all, you’ll probably dig this.

Green Lantern #1 – Here it is, the one I have been most excited about since I found out it was going to be a part of this whole New 52 experiment of DC’s, Green Lantern! I’m a huge GL fan…bordering on fanboi…in fact, likely the only thing stopping that is that I don’t have enough money to buy all of the GL stuff. Well, that and my family. And, ya know, I’m not big on arguing about minor issues of plot detail and Kyle vs Hal vs Guy vs John. (For the record: Hal, all the way, and anybody who says otherwise is wrong. I mean, unless they say G'nort. I guess that could be allowed.) Again, though, there’s a lot of history here that, since I haven’t been reading for a while, I’m just not privy to. In fact, I only have the broadest of sketches of the continuity that’s taken place since Rebirth. But, like with most of these titles, that doesn’t appear to be an issue yet. This story seems to be focusing on Sinestro, and how he wants to leave the GL Corps and once again lead the Sinestro Corps. There are two quite interesting bits in this one: The first is that we see one Guardian, Ganthet, questioning and criticizing the other Guardians’ decision to allow Sinestro back into the Corps. Nothing unusual in and of itself…how those other Guardians deal with that, though is…startling, to say the least. The other thing is that it depicts Hal as a hero to his core...unfortunately his judgment isn’t the best. Geoff Johns (Because who else is going to write GL?) seems to have turned Hal into some sort of post-modern, grown up Pete Parker: Evicted from his apartment, no car (He always had the ring!), arrested for crashing into a movie shoot (He thought a woman was in trouble…and it’s not his fault that he couldn’t see the camera crew!), no job and pissing off Carol. (That's, uh...nothing new, though.) I’d likely keep this one in my pull box, even if I didn’t like this issue, but, as I mentioned last time, I trust Geoff Johns pretty implicitly, so I’m willing to see where this goes. As for Doug Mahnke’s art, it’s perfect. I can’t really say anything against it…aside from the fact that, side by side, I’d be hard pressed to tell his apart from Rags Morales’s…and that’s a good thing.

Grifter #1 – I never read any of the Wildstorm comics growing up, but I was somewhat familiar with the characters, at least to be able to pick them out of a line-up. Of all of them, Grifter was one of them for me. Again, no particular feeling for the character, but I dug this issue. A con man caught up in events larger than he ever could have imagined, Nathan Edmondson’s script really makes you feel bad for the guy: His partner think he betrayed her, his brother is sicced on him because the US government thinks he’s a terrorist, and to top it all off, aliens want his body! Well-paced, tightly scripted, it was a good first act of a movie. The art varied for me, though, mainly between really damn good and “Well, it’s all right, I guess.” Pick it up if you’re a fan of con men action films.

Legion Lost #1 – Yay for time travel! Well, kinda. I’m more than a little lost by some of the references here, especially to Flashpoint. (look, I'm sorry I was too broke to buy comics.) I’m sure that’s something I need to catch up on, and I’m sure I will, but for now, I’m guessing it’s going to be one of those things that, if ya know it, ya know it, if ya don’t, well, try to keep up. Ya know what this felt like to me? An issue of The Exiles, from the 20-30s of their run. The characters and relationships are established, people care about who they are, their mission is well known. Too bad that this was issue number one. Aside from that, there are some good things going on here. You get a glimpse into a greater conflict, and then you get the story, a group of time travelers are stuck in the present (Well, our present, their past, relatively speaking. Yeesh…there’s a reason that Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations is blank after a certain point.) possibly with a villain, and definitely with no way home yet. I’m a fan of time travel stories, especially “closed loop” ones, so I’ll keep reading this.

Recommedation – Trade Paperback, if only because time travel stories typically read better that way.

Mister Terrific #1 – Not sure that I’m digging this one as much as the others, yet I can’t quite tell you why. The plot is one that I haven’t seen often in a science hero context, mainly a fantastical one. Essentially, something is turning average people into super-smart beings who decide to eliminate threats and wastes to society…so what happens when the world’s third-smartest man is infected? But there’s just something kind of off-putting about this comic. Maybe it’s the way we’re force-fed his origin all at once, which I’m not a fan of, although at least this way was better than most. Mainly, I think it was the art. I’ll likely drop this one once it’s all out, honestly, unless something really cool happens by the end of this arc.

Recommendation: Trade Paperback

Red Lanterns #1 – There are few things scarier than the image of an angry kitty, blood streaming from its mouth. When it’s the second and third pages of the comic you’re trying to read, it sets a definite tone for the story! What I like about this is that, since I didn’t get to see the rise of the different color rings, you get a glimpse into how they came to be. (Handling two origins at once, the team's and Atrocitus's. No mean feat, I assure you!) Beings of capable of pure rage are granted rings not unlike those of the Green Lanterns, allowing them similar control. There’s a lot going on here, plot-wise, and it’ll be nice to see how they feed into each other. Atrocitus struggles with the mellowing of his rage, which leads to a potential rebellion by the other Red Lanterns. Meanwhile, there are at least two people on Earth who appear to be capable of great rage. (I'm guessing there's a psych-out with one of them, honestly. We'll see.) Not a bad first issue, all told, and I look forward to seeing things pan out. I’ve a feeling that the latter story will somehow end up resolving the former, but I’m not quite sure how.

Resurrection Man #1 – Here’s a nicely odd concept: A man has the ability to “un-die,” (They better pay royalties to Stephen Pastis!) and each time he does, he gets new powers. Again, a primo, grade A first issue. You get a good look at the characters, conflicts and chaos that is his life, and a nice set-up to what the story is. One of the things I liked about it is how well the art fed into the writing, and vice versa. The best example, and there are two of them, from this book are when he un-dies. Both times, he’s very obviously struggling, both with the sensation of being alive again, and with figuring out his new powers and mission. I look forward to issue two. However, I have a fear for this comic, and I hope that it doesn’t happen: I hope that, whatever they do, they use his resurrection ability as a plot device, not the entirety of the plot. That is to say, I don’t want this to be entirely about the new and inventive ways they can kill him, and the awkward situations in which he can find himself alive again. I don’t think that will happen, though, while Dan Abnett is on the book.

Suicide Squad #1 – I’ve always liked the concept of the Suicide Squad. It’s a team of villains given, as the name would imply, suicide missions by the government. That said, there wasn’t much here for me to really connect to. I’m not familiar with most of the characters, aside from recognizing the names. I do know Deadshot, who’s pretty much a staple of this team, and Harlequin, who was…pretty damn creepy here. Aside from that, I don’t have too much to say about the plot. You find out who the characters are, but I don’t really have any particular feeling about any of them, aside from the aforementioned Harley. The art, by Frederico Dallochio, Ransom Getty & Scott Hanna, is nice to look at, if kinda…gory, which I suppose works. This ones’s likely going to be dropped after the arc, unless something REALLY gets me going about it.

Superboy #1 – I have always liked Superboy, especially the clone Superboy, first introduced in the 90s Reign of the Supermen storyline. This take on him seems to make more sense than that one, and I am grateful for it. Here, ‘Boy is struggling with his identity, on several levels. Basically, he’s learning who he is from the ground up. We also see the scientists of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. (What IS it with dc, and their acronyms, lately? NOWHERE, OMAC, STARLabs, CADMUS…now, I like them as much as the next guy, but, c’mon, can we have a line somewhere? No more than so many acronymic agencies?) Anyway. It’s been an open secret for some time now that ‘Boy’s donors are Superman and Lex Luthor. I can’t wait to find out how they got the dna for this experiemtn, honestly. The other thing I like is watching the scientists try to parse ‘Boy’s subconscious, figuring out which aspects of his personality, such as it is, come from the human donor, and which from the alien. I’s a fun story, with at least one of NOWHERE’s men feeding info to Lois Lane. It’s going to be nice to see all of these elements come together. I’m pretty excited about this one.

BONUS REVIEW – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 9 #1 – I should point out, I am a hardcore Whedonite, but, again, decidedly not a fanboi who thinks he can do no wrong. I thought, for instance, there were some mis-steps in the latter issues of BtVS, S8, plot wise, but knowing the restrictions they placed themselves under, storywise, I can see why they did what they did. That said, this feeds right into that ending, in an intriguing way. The first arc is called Freefall, and that perfectly describes every single aspect of Buffy’s life. She moves in with some, for lack of a better word, Muggles, and has a house warming party that she doesn’t remember much of. Her slaying duties are hampered by the fallout of the end of season 8 (I won’t spoil it for now, but they were suitably monumental.), and a demon is being sent after her. (Of course, why not?) In all honesty, this issue felt like the pre-credits and first act of a good Buffy episode. Like I said, I trust Whedon’s storytelling, so I can’t wait to see where this goes.

There you have it. Halafway through all of DC's New 52, and I'm mostly enjoying myself. Some of you may be wondering why I'm not mentioning the covers. I will, once all 52 titles are out. Mostly, they've encapsulated either the idea of the characters well, or the sense of the story or writing. I'll keep some notes on them, and do a post when they're all out.

In other news, once I'm on track, I'm going to alternate posts between my reviews and posts about my life, a nerdy dad trying to introduce his girls (Yes, even my wife!) into the culture, while stalking that incresingly elusive animal: A job!

See ya next time!

In which I set myself a task of Herculean proportions!

2011-09-18T09:53:00.001-05:00

So, I know I've been away a while. Sorry 'bout that. I'm going to try to be better. Mainly because I've given myself a goal: Read all of DC's New 52 titles and review them. I'll then give a recommendation based on that review, telling you if you should put it in your pull box, wait for the trade to come out, or just drop it completely. I normally give a three issue trial to all new titles, but I'm going to stick it out until the end of the first arc for each of these, despite the pain a couple of the titles gave me. (Razzum Hawk & Dove frazzum.) This post will be weeks 0 (Which, yes, was only one issue...but what an issue!) and 1. I'll try to get week 2 up in the next couple of days, and then, hopefully, I'll get on track to do the reviews weekly. I'm also going to try to do one Bonus Review, of something non-DC, depending on whether or not there's anything good in a particular week. Given the improved quality of story telling lately, it seems unlikely that there will be a week that goes by without a bonus review. Okay...all that said, here we go!

Justice League #1 – First off, the art is GORGEOUS. I’m a big fan of Jim Lee and always like seeing his character designs. Second, Geoff Johns is like unto a GOD, as far as story-crafting is concerned. So, you may see how my opinion might be a little bit biased. I’ll say this, I dig the story set-up going on here. It seems like it’s going to show how the world used to “hate and fear” supers, but gradually, through, I’m guessing, saving the world a time or two, come to be seen as beings to be trusted. Hence, “Five years ago…” I’m a little unclear as to who’s supposed to be narrating this, but my money’s on Cyborg, simply from the design of the first two speech bubbles. We’ll see. But, seeing as it’s the first issue, I don’t mind not knowing who’s setting up the story. I also like how DC’s current two biggest properties, Green Lantern and Batman, are the first two heroes we meet, both chasing and fighting a…something, which leaves an alien doodad, which leads them to Superman…who is not our Superman. At least, not yet. There’s a nice set-up of the conflict, and a name drop of “Darkseid,” which, of course, our heroes mistake for “Dark Side.” There’s also the standard “fight between heroes.” It’s clichéd, but it’s also usually there for a reason, and, like I said, I’m a huge Geoff Johns fan, so I’ll give it a chance.

Recommendation: Pull box

Action Comics #1 – Here’s the thing: As much as I try to like Grant Morrison, I just have a hard time. I get into his stories, and then he either goes deep into one of the most obscure parts of a characters' history, or gives the “book flap” version of a philosophical idea. I’ve made the argument before to people that while Morrison’s writing may be dense, dense does not equate to deep…or even good. So, that said, I’m still giving him a try on Action Comics, because, supposedly, this will tell how Supes gets the New 52 armor. I’ve seen a rumor that it’s a tribute to Krypton, so it’ll be nice to see if it plays out that way. One aspect of this issue that I have no problem whatsoever getting into is Rags Morales’s art. It’s exactly the beautiful semi-realistic style that I appreciate in comics. As to the story, it seems to be taking place a few years, or maybe months, before JL. Superman is much more aggressive than we’re used to, dangling, and then dropping and catching, a big name citizen…who “used illegal child labor…no safety standards…[he] bribed city officials.” (Gotta wonder about the legality or allowablility of that confession. Likely, even if a court rules it inadmissible, the Court of Public Opinion will likely crucify him.) It’s a much more activist Superman, courting the “little people” of Metropolis. I kind of like this take, so far. I can’t wait to find out how he becomes the “Big Blue Boy Scout” again. Lex Luthor is, thankfully, in full evil genius mode. He manages to turn Superman’s original catchphrase into a weapon…and it is pretty awesome. So, I suppose, I should give Morrison props on that. I just hope that this doesn’t turn into something I’m going to regret reading.

Recommendation: Trade Paperback (Yes, I know it’s early to say this, but judging from Morrison’s previous work, his stories read better collected.)

Animal Man #1 – Okay, here we have the first of the comics where I’m kinda, sorta familiar with the character, but haven’t read him in any depth before. Also, the same can be said of the writer and artist. Travel Foreman’s art in this book only takes a page or two of getting used to, but once you do, and especially at the end, you can see how it fits the story so well. What I like about the story is that it gives you a good glimpse into Buddy’s family, one of the more realistic ones I’ve read. His wife obviously loves him and wants him to be happy, but also wants to make sure he pays attention to his family. It’s an interesting dynamic in the family, too, one which I’m sure will have repercussions, especially with Buddy openly being a superhero. The nightmare sequence starting on page 15 is, like I mentioned before, where Foreman’s art style really kicks in, and goes strong into the last page, one which is quite disturbing. I’ve never read Jeff Lemire before, but if the rest of his stuff is anything like this, I think I might dig him.

Recommendation: Pull Box

Batgirl #1 – And this is one of the more controversial titles in DC’s New 52 line-up. The controversy, in case you were wondering, is that they took Barbara Gordon, who’s been in a wheelchair since 1988’s The Killing Joke, when she was paralyzed by the Joker. This caused her to find other outlets of superheroics, and so she became the Oracle, DC’s super information collator. The only thing I have a problem with is that there’s just a handwave as to how she’s able to walk again, “a miracle.” Nothing else. Maybe they’ll come back to it. I hope they do. Back to the story. It’s a good one, I think. A serial killer is targeting people who shouldn’t have lived through…something. No reason is given, yet, but there doesn’t have to be for two reasons: It’s the first issue, and it’s Gail Simone. I trust her writing. A lot. What’s going to be nice to see is the upcoming conflict between Batgirl and the GCPD that arises from the last few pages of the book. That’ll be interesting to see play out, given who her father is. As for the art, Adrien Syaf, from what I can see, is a pretty gifted artist. His style plays well with Simone’s writing, which is something I really appreciate. Something I noticed is that they seem to be going with a mix of Barbara’s original costume and Cassandra Cain’s, which I don’t actually have a problem with. Just something I noticed.

Recommendation: Pull Box

Batwing #1 – Now here’s one I’m really excited about. Batwing follows a member of Batman INC, an organization set up by Batman in order to fight crime all over the world. Batwing is stationed in Africa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an area that seems to be having some problems, and where a Batman would likely be quite effective. The hero, David Zavimbe, is a police officer, and seems to be, with Kia Okuru, one of the only ones to be fairly uncorrupted. So…basically, they work in an African version of Gotham City Police Department. It works, but, again, as with all of these titles, it’s the first issue. We’ll see how it plays out. The plot is still forming, as a super, or at the least costumed, maniac is massacring disparate groups. The last page is kind of shocking…or would be, if you didn’t know it was a flashback. Which brings me to Judd Winick. He’s a good storytelling when he’s on, and one of my favorites. But he does have some tendencies which I’d hoped would be gone after so long in the industry, but I guess there are some things you just can’t unlearn. I wonder when he’s going to introduce a character who’s gay and/or has AIDS. (Although, this being Africa, I’m a little more willing to overlook that particular habit of his.) The art, by Ben Oliver, seems to be striving for a kind of Alex Ross painted quality, and mostly achieves it. I’m not a huge fan of the style in on-goings, but I like it here.

Recommendation: Pull Box

Detective Comics #1 – I’ll be honest, this one borders on too much for me. Tony S. Daniel and Ryan Winn (Who also pencils this issue.) seem to be Acolytes of the Chris Claremont School of Writing, aka, the Wall O’ Text. They set up the main, and subsidiary, conflicts well, but…I’m more of a “Show, don’t tell.” guy, I guess. Although, there are worse ways of giving exposition than a conversation. As for the main conflict, it’s a little unclear, but there seem to be identity theft or appropriation issue going on. I also see something about shady dealings at Arkham Asylum being a factor in the story. The subsidiary conflict, though, are easier to figure out: GCPD and the politicians of Gotham do not like Batman, whose only friend on the force is Jim Gordon. This does kinda run up against logic, with there being a Batsignal in Gotham, but I assume that’ll be explained. The other, even more minor, conflict has to do with Batman ruining Bruce Wayne’s social life. Of course, this feeds into the Batman/Bruce Wayne identity crisis, but that seems to be glossed over for now. I like Ryan Winn’s art in this book. Like Jim Lee’s, it’s the cartoony realism that works so well for comics. And, I have to say, the last page is suitably creepy.

Recommendation: Pull Box. Tell ya what…unless I say otherwise, just assume they’ll be Pull Box for now. I feel kinda odd saying whether or not a story should wait until the trade on the first issue of it. I’m also not going to recommend any drops yet. I usually give books a three issue trial, but I think I’ll give all of the New 52 stuff until their first story to decide.

Green Arrow #1 – Again, a character I love and have for quite some time. A social activist superhero, who actually uses his secret identity of industrialist Oliver Queen to do some good also, GA feeds right into my appreciation of Robin Hood. This book, however, seems to be hitting a lot of the clichés: Superpowered villains who underestimate the hero because he doesn’t have powers, just "toys." Said superhero still kicking their keisters from here to the Champs Elysees. (No, I mean that, they fight in France.) The reluctant weapons designer. The hero’s dark past, only alluded to, to be explained (Hopefully.) later. There’s a lot of talk of motivations of the various heroes, but, aside from one fight scene, not a lot of action. We see that Ollie’s not usually present for and disdains board meetings, but that’s nothing new. J.T. Krul isn’t a writer I’m familiar with, and I hope that, as the story moves along, the action moves at a better pace than this first issue. Dan Jurgens style reminds me a lot of Mark Bagley, whose run on Ultimate Spider-Man remains one of the best, and longest, runs on a comic. Jurgens fits well here, I think. Legendary inker George Pérez really makes Jurgens pencils pop. All together, it works well. I’m really looking forward to where the story goes, and finding out what, exactly, it is that caused this Ollie to take up the mantle of Green Arrow. One thing I just noticed flipping through, Jurgens is making Ollie look an awful lot like his son, Connor Hawke. Hmmmmm…

Hawk and Dove #1 – A fairly ho-hum comic, in all honesty. Hawk is an angry man, and his secret identity isn’t much better. Dove is a peaceful lady, and her cover has a secret. There’s an otherwise interesting plot going on, which is essentially abandoned not even halfway through the issue so we can find out how Hawk became Hawk, and the original Dove, his brother, died. I may be dropping this before the story’s done, in all honesty. A weak story can be propped up by beautiful art, but Rob Liefeld hasn’t evolved or changed in all of his years in the field. No…I take it back…his feet look like feet. The art seems to be stuck in the 90s, the story telling is weak. Sorry, but it's all so off-putting I don't really have much to say about it. I will say this: The art and story work well together. Unfortunately, that's like saying that SPAM goes well with saltines. Works for some people, I guess, but isn't something that most people will like.

Recommendation: Trade Paperback. But it's not one I can, in all honesty, recommend actually purchasing. Get it from the library or borrow a friend's.

Justice League International #1 – Here’s another one I’m fairly excited about, and I have to say, it delivers pretty well. It seems to be taking place in the present, or at least after the Justice League is fully formed. Here, a group is being pulled together by the UN, in order to have a group that people can hold accountable, unlike the League. There is the requisite “image of heroes” pages, discussing who’s in, who’s out, etc. What’s nice in this issue is that the people discussing the team are also discussion the geo-political repercussions of having hero X and not Y, and how they’ll ALL love Z. (There’s a nice bit that I hope ties into GA, where they say that he’s “too likely to cross a line." It’s nicely ambiguous, but hints to that mysterious origin of his.) Unfortunately, the team doesn’t gel like they wanted to, and it’s up to the leader, Booster Gold, to make it work. He already had a walk-out, though, Green Lantern Guy Gardner. They get their first mission, which, of course, goes pear shaped almost immediately. You also have a sub-plot where people don’t seem to appreciate that the JLI has, essentially, co-opted a certain building. That’s the story I’m interested in, seeing what this building is, and why it’s so important to everyone…I mean, aside from looking like the Hall of Justice from Superfriends. The art and story are both good, and seem to fit well together. Of course, the writer also being an artist (Although not on this book. ), Dan Jurgens, probably helps smooth matters quite a bit. Aaron Lopresti’s style, again, is one I consider perfect for comics. I like this, and look forward to figuring out how Batman saves the day. (Did I not mention he was in this? Oh, well, he’s a ninja, he’s always there, especially when you don’t see him.)

Men of War #1 – Normally, I’m not one for realistic comics, especially war/military based ones, but I dug this. It’s pretty intense, and once the action picks up, it doesn’t really stop, even with the last panel. This military comic, though, seems to be folded into the larger DC universe, as, after Cpl. Rock (Who doesn’t want to be a Sergeant.) and his men land, things go wahooni shaped (Pear shaped, but moreso.) when a red and blue blur totally destroys their LZ. Okay...so I guess it's not TOTALLY realistic. This book kinda drives home for me the point that, had I not forced myself to try all of DC’s New 52 books, I wouldn’t have been likely to pick it up. I’m glad I read it, and look forward to it. The art is a style I associate with military comics, and actually does call back, for me, anyway, other military comics I’ve read. As for the writing, it’s tight, works the format well, and pulls you in quite nicely. It’ll be nice to see how Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick work together for the rest of the story. There’s a backup story in here, focusing on a group of SEALs trying to clear an area in…some vaguely Middle Eastern city. Dunno. This I’m not a fan of. Everything about it screams CLICHÉ, yet I’m hoping there’s something else going on.

O.M.A.C. #1 – If there’s a more quickly paced book in the New 52 titles, I haven’t read it. The action starts on page 2, and doesn’t let up. We quickly learn that the OMAC of the title has been sent to break into CADMUS lab’s mainframe for some as yet unexplained reason, and that nothing, even CADMUS’s big guns Dubbilex (Yay, I haven’t seen him in ages! One of my favorite psychics!) and Build-A-Friend can’t stop him. We learn that somehow OMAC is actually two beings. And suddenly, we learn that OMAC is the guy who’s been missing since the start of the issue, Kevin Kho. Dan Didio, current co-publisher/head honcho of DC, had to have a reason for writing this one himself. Can’t wait to find it out. It’s tightly plotted, so far, and sets up some interesting concepts. As to the art, Keith Giffen is a legend, and I will hear no ill about him. He’s one of the most expressive artists working today, and that comes across throughout the issue.

Static Shock #1 – A title I wasn’t expecting, since I didn’t know that the cartoon had been folded into the DCU a few years back. But, like a lot of things that are unexpected, this was quite a pleasant surprise. There’s no baggage, for me, associated with it, and I was able to figure out who was who, and why they were doing what they were doing, very easily. Scott McDaniels (Who also penciled.) and John Rozum set up the Peter Parker work/high school/super-heroics balance that Virgil Hawkins has to accomplish really well, while still showing the reader just how dangerous this world is. It’s an almost ideal first issue, setting up the characters and conflicts really well, and making you care about what’s going to happen to Virgil because of the cliffhanger last page. McDaniels art style is reminiscent, to me, of John Romita, Jr’s, which is one of my favorites, and captures the youth and energy of both Virgil and Static. Can’t wait for #2!

Stormwatch #1 – I’m not sure what to make of this one, which is both the blessing and the curse of a new comic. Stormwatch seems to be about pulling one character, Apollo, into a team, but then takes a hard right at the very end, showing you that it’s actually about something else entirely. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the issue, and I’m intrigued to see where it’s going to go from here. But otherwise, I didn’t have any strong feeling about it. I take that back, there IS one thing I didn’t like, and that’s the Editor’s Note on page one, exhorting you to buy Superman #1, on sale Sept 28! Maybe it’s just me, but something about that irritated the ever-loving crud out of me. Aside from that, again, it was a decent #1, interesting enough to make me want to read on. And the art was decent, nothing spectacular for me, but I think it fit both the characters and the story well.

Swamp Thing #1 – Like a lot of children of the 80s, I’m only really familiar with Swamp Thing from the movies, which are cheesetastic 80s fun-o-rama! This Swamp Thing, however, is…different. Seems like it was a lot more mystical. This issue, for me, showcases what new volumes of comics are all about. It encapsulates the character's history quite well, giving new readers a sense of who we’re getting ready to read. (Animal Man #1 did this well, also, I thought.) We seem headed toward a hero reluctantly returning to save the world plot, but given that Swamp Thing’s connection to “The Green” seems to literally allow him to do that, I’m interested to see where it goes. The art, especially the last three pages, is gorgeous. I’ve a feeling I’m going to dig this one. Another nice thing is that I can tell that this one is supposed to be taking place in the “now” of the new DC universe, mainly because the Superman who cameos in this issue is a lot more mature seeming that the one from JL and Action. I wouldn’t mind seeing a timeline of where the comics fall, and I’m sure that some industrious nerd or geek will come up with one.

BONUS REVIEW: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 – Reboots are tricky things. When they work well, they can overshadow the original work to such a degree that anyone who sees that will wonder how the reboot came along. When they don’t work (Superman Returns, I’m looking at you!) they make people flock to the original in droves. It’s a rare reboot that managing to straddle that line, of paying homage to the source material in such a way that makes both enjoyable. Such is the case with TMNT #1…of course, this one is helped by the fact that Kevin Eastman, one of the creators of TMNT, helped with the story on this! The characters feel familiar, while still being distinctive from their original counterparts. Raph is still the troubled, dark turtle, and starts out independent from the rest of the group. Leo is still the leader. Mikey and Don seem like their counterparts. Splinter, while younger, is very much a father to the boys. April is back to her original (Original original, not movie original.) job of lab assistant for Baxter Stockman. The only one who’s substantially different is Casey Jones, but as he’s only in a few pages, I’m sure we’ll see him develop into something akin to the butt-kicking Casey we know and love. Even the art pays homage to the Turtles B&W roots, even though it’s in color. All in all, a fun read, and something I’m going to anticipate each month.

So there you have it. Lots of good stuff to read! So go on, visit your Local Comic Shop, and get to reading!

See ya next time!

How's about...?

2010-01-18T09:26:00.008-06:00

I know, two posts within a week? That's unpossible!

So, after thinking about it after my last post, I decided to start thinking about my OWN Green Lantern cast.

Because, ya know...I've got a direct line to Hollywood.

First, Nicholas Brendan as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. He's can pull off the cockiness, and I'm pretty sure that the new kid at school part when Hal goes to Oa should be easy for him. Plus, he's due for a break.

Next, Michael Emerson as Ganthet. Whoa...I just blew my own mind. Reason for this: Ganthet is a manipulative sumbitch. Mr. Emerson can do that, so I've heard.

The next one should be fairly obvious to...well, everyone. Adam Baldwin as Guy Gardner. Book it, done. Baldwin is one of the better action-oriented actors out there, who can pull off both the toughness and quiptasticness (My word, but you can use it.) needed to be Gardner, as well as work with a team. Although...Adam Baldwin in a Moe Howard haircut? Maybe, MAYBE that could change.

The next one is kinda hard for me. John Stewart is a pretty cool GL, but hard to cast. A bunch of names came to mind, first off Chiwetel Ejiofor. But, honestly, I'm not a big fan of casting British actors in American roles (Or vice versa.), so that's kinda hard for me to admit to. I think Mr. Ejiofor has the toughness to pull off former Marine, and the sensitivity to pull off architect. But if I want to stick with an American, well...a buddy and I were discussing it, and a bunch of names came up. Mos Def aka Ford Prefect...Will Smith...Don Cheadle...and, my personal pick, Terrance Howard. Although, either of the last two could pull off the role, and, again, work well with a team. I also think DB Woodside would do well in this role.

Here's another easy one: Ron Perlman as one of my favorite GLs, Kilowog. The other way that one could have gone was with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or Vin Diesel, but I see the former as not tough enough, and the latter, while a nerd (Skip the parts about the dating, look for the D&D stuff.), doesn't have the maturity, nor the experience, needed to pull off the GLs drill sergeant. (No, I do not want R. Lee Ermey to voice him. Shut up, you're wrong.)

Followed by another hard one, Kyle Rayner. Yeah, one of the more controversial GLs, taking over for Hal after he goes nutty cuckoo and a little bit dead. Dominic Monaghan was the first name that came to mind. But, again, I don't really want to cast a British actor in an American role. Zachary Levi could work, but he's a bit too nerdy. I'm gonna postpone this one for a while. I just can't think of anyone.

Oh, and stick Doug Jones in some funky make-up and he could be, like...half the GL Corps, but I'll settle for Tomar Re.

The next one doesn't, strictly speaking, have to be in the movie, but it was a fun one to cast. Alan Scott, the original, magic infused Green Lantern. Gotta have an older actor, who still looks like he could take on Solomon Grundy. Viggo Mortenson is way too grizzled, Ed Harris, honestly, doesn't seem action-y enough, not too mention being too old. Anthony Head is too British, but otherwise perfect. So who to choose? How's about Dennis Quaid?

That's all I got for now. Next time, I'm gonna work on the villains.

In brightest day...

2010-01-16T08:27:00.003-06:00

So, where was I? :-)

Yeah, sorry, folks, I know it's been a while...a LOOOOOOOOOONG while since I last posted. Lots of doings a transpiring and whatnot and what have you. But I'm back. I'll be posting...irregularly, but more than once every...15 months, don't worry.

As you may have noticed from my little pic over yonder -->, I'm a Green Lantern fan. Just about always have been. Something about a weapon that isn't limited by anything except what YOU think, what YOU believe, by YOUR willpower...always struck me as fairly cool. I'm not even going into the weaknesses...those have been, esentially, done away with.

And the Oath! I've always been able to recite the Oath:

In brightest day,

In blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil's might

Beware my power,

Green Lantern's light!

Gives ya a thrill up the back, huh?

I say all this as a sort of preamble for my talking about the upcoming Green Lantern movie, due out in 2011.

Hold on, just got a chill typing that.

I'm good now.

Now, there have been a few other portrayals or GL over the years, but the only solo flick he's gotten has been a direct to video cartoon, where he was voiced by Christopher Meloni. I haven't seen it yet, but there was a lot of good buzz over it.

This one...I'm not sure about the casting decisions, honestly, and I'm starting at the top.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Ryan Reynolds as an actor. Definitely, Maybe was friggin' genius, and he was friggin' awesome in Blade: Trinity...(Again, secondhand info, but that's the general concensus.) but I just don't think that he has the right KIND of cockiness to pull off Hal Jordan. Someone more like...Nathan Fillion or David Boreanaz. (The latter, you'll notice, has already voiced Hal, in Justice League: The New Frontier...so, come ON!)

Complaints aside, though, I like him, and I'm willing to give him this one...but I still think he's a better Deadpool. His delivery style fits better there, his comedy fits better there...hell, even his LOOK fits better there.

These next two bits, I hope, are reversed.

First, we have Peter Sarsgaard up for Hector Hammond. Now, looking through the dude's IMDb page, there's a lot there that I've heard of, if not seen, Garden State being the only one. And, I'll be honest, I don't remember him much from that.

Next, Jackie Earle Haley is rumoured to be cast as Sinestro, the former GL, and Hal Jordan's mentor, who turns evil. Which, really, with a name like Sinestro, it HAS to be evil. Now, JEH, I like. He was perfetly cast as Rorschach in Watchmen. He's creepily cast as Freddy Kruger in the upcoming Nightmare on Elm Street remake. And, for God's sake, the man was a Bad News Bear! Okay, I haven't seen him in as much as I'd like to have, but I still like the dude.

Anyway, back to my point. These two guy's should be playing each other's role. JEH, who could pull off Sinestro wonderfully, just looks more like Hector Hammond than Sarsgaard. Hammond's not supposed to be tough, good looking, or built. In fact, in all of the appearances I've read, he's creeped me out a bit. So I say, recast them in each other's roles, and bam perfect villains.

Plus, it sounds like Hammond's going to be the main villain, with Sintestro training Hal (Yay, canon!), and I'd rather JEH get more work, honestly.

I dunno, though. I'm basing this mostly off look. I wasn't thrilled with Heath Ledger as the Joker at first, and look how THAT turned out. I'm going to have to just...wait until 2011 to find out, I guess.

Damn it. :-)

A couple other films notes:

How awesome is this poster for Iron Man 2? Super awesome is the answer.

Almost as awesome, in fact, as the last few seconds of the first trailer. Now, that trailer is chock full of awesome...but come on, who doesn't geek out seeing Iron Man and War Machine back to back, kicking ass?

Heroes 3.4 - I Am Become Death

2008-10-11T15:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, readers, I’m starting something new this week. I got the idea from another site (I’m waiting to link to it, until I have the guy’s permission.), and the fact that I can’t afford actual comics. So I thought I’d review the next best thing: Heroes.

For those uninitiated folks who have no idea what I’m talking about, Heroes is a show on NBC about “ordinary people with extraordinary abilities.” (I’m pretty sure that’s a quote…if not, it’s a paraphrase.) It really is a live action comic and achieves, I think, what most comic book-based movies do not. I was going to do an episode summary, but when my original post got up to five pages, and still had a lot of episode left, I figured I’d skip that part. For an EXCELLENT summary, go HERE. Even better, I’d recommend actually watching it HERE.

Instead, I’m just going to get into some of the clichés they use. And, boy, are there a lot of them in Heroes.

First thing this episode goes into is the whole “Scientist experimenting on themselves/injecting the experimental, untested serum into themselves.” This has been a staple of literature, not only comics, since The Invisible Man and Jekyl & Hyde. Sticking to comics, however, there’s a whole pantheon of characters that have done similar things. Hank Pym, for instance, took the “Pym particles,” both to shrink and then to grow, becoming two separate heroes, Ant-Man and Giant-Man.

There’s also Henry McCoy, who is obviously who they’re trying to mold Mohinder after, to a certain extent. A scientist, who injects a completely untested serum into himself, who then undergoes a frightening, unforeseen physical transformation, as well? Yeah…

THIS has a good list of comic book scientists…most of whom have experimented on themselves.

Next big cliché that Heroes uses…a LOT…is the dystopian future, which must be avoided at all costs. Typically, this starts with someone from that time getting the brilliant idea that, if I just go back and change this one little thing, this will all be different and better. Obviously, they never heard of the butterfly effect.

Frankly, yeah, dystopian futures work well. But not when they’re used for every story line. In my opinion, there needs to be more immediate concerns…for instance the 9 (By my count.) remaining Level 5 prisoners. One of Heroes' failings is, for me, how slow it can be sometimes. I think that a more action packed season would be good. Of course, they could be saving it for the second half of the season. Here’s hoping.

Some episode specifics:

I loved the scene with Nathan and Tracy after the bridge scene.
Tracy: So you can fly?
Nathan: Yup.
This show has lots of little moments like that, especially this season.

The Costa Verde fight scene had me literally dropping my jaw. That was a very hard scene to watch.

I also like the very last scene, with Hiro & Ando at the graveyard. Repercussions are not something that Hiro often thinks about, it seems.

That’s it for this week’s episode. Next week’s looks to be pretty good, with meeting Papa Petrelli and all. Of course, knowing Heroes, it’ll be in the last 15 seconds of the show.

Chris

Does whatever a spider can...

2008-09-17T16:50:00.009-05:00

Okay, I'm going to do this a bit differently: This is going to be mostly cut and pasted from a discussion with a buddy of mine.

The other day, Green Bandit and I got into a discussion about the Spider-Man movies by Sam Raimi, with Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, et al. I'll be honest. I watch them, not because I like them, but because I'm a nerd/geek. I know, that's only contributing to them being made, so I really have only myself to blame...well...myself, and bajillions of my fellow nerds and/or geeks.

My biggest problem with the series lies in the casting of the leads. I think that Aunt May, JJJ and even Norman are spot on. (Yeah, yeah...GG's costume was kinda lame, but it wasn't horrible.) Pete/Spidey, MJ, Harry and Gwen? Not so much.

Anyway...what follows is what I told him, slightly edited (You won't even notice if you aren't he or I.)...I'll get into a bit more depth about my comments in red:

Okay, to be fair, Tobey's okay as Pete...it's Spidey I don't like him as. He's far too laconic for the role, and I know that has more to do with the script (That is, they didn't write in the witty one liners.) than with him, but here's the thing: Those witty one liners cover up just how f'ing scared he is. The way Tobey delivers them is just too slow, like he doesn't have a care in the world, almost like he prepared them...now that is a personal thing, I know. In the comics, the only times he doesn't make with the funny is when he's fighting someone so scary, so vile, so much bigger than anything he's ever faced (He does this with surprising regularity...makes me wonder where all of these guys are hiding.). Check out JMS's first Amazing Spider-Man collection, "Coming Home."

The other problem is a body type one: Tobey's is wrong. Pete is supposed to be scrawny, a prototypical nerd. Tobey is, if I had to choose, average. Not big and muscle-y, but not the nerd he's supposed to be. Interestingly...I wanted Topher Grace as Pete/Spidey: Perfect body type, perfect delivery. GB pointed out that, in Hollywood, "average," especially nowadays, is scrawny. Even so, Tobey is still too...I dunno, not buff, but big to be Pete. The guy from Juno would make a good Pete/Spidey, too.

I heard that when Tobey thought he may not be back after Seabiscuit, Jake Gyllenhall was suggested for the role. Again, great actor...wrong body type.

Kirsten...man, they screwed the pooch on that one. First off...there are PLENTY of natural redheads who can act. Why not cast one of them? Like Alicia Witt...who was considered for the role, coincidentally enough. And, in an irony only to be found in Hollywood, Bryce Dallas Howard is a natural redhead who dyed her hair blonde to play Gwen. The other thing they messed up is making MJ the first love. Now how're they gonna kill Gwen in a way that will make Pete feel as bad about it. Gwen was the very first love of his life. Gwen's death shaped all the decisions that came later. I know that MJ is who most of the fans are familiar with, but still...

There's just so much wrong with doing MJ first, I don't even know where to begin. The role are now just about reversed so that MJ has to die, and Pete ends up with Gwen.

That's about the extent of our conversation, but I've got some additional thoughts:

People have a problem with roles being recast for movies. I've got no problem, in certain cases. On going series, which don't tell a complete story? Sure. It's no different from a new artist taking over a run on a comic. If the movie series, like Harry Potter, tells a complete story, then, yeah, recasting isn't a good idea, except, like in Harry Potter, when someone dies.

As much as I'm disappointed with the movies, I do give Raimi's Spider-Man series credit for re-popularizing comic book movies. Since then, we've had X-Men, Superman Returns (Even though that wasn't as good as it should have been...but I'll give Singer another chance...he did create House, after all.), Batman Begins (The BEST reboot ever!), and lots more comic book movies I haven't seen yet.

Chris

Remember, remember the fifth of November...

2008-09-06T14:49:00.009-05:00

I recently re-read V for Vendetta by Alan Moore for the third time, so I thought I'd make that my first review.

Obligatory summary: Someone has been killing off and terrorizing the upper echelons of those who worked at a resettlement camp. The masked terrorist (Oh, how that word has become something else in this day and age...), known only as V, then wrecks havoc on post-unnamed war England, which has become a totalitarian, fascist state.

As much as I want to go more into detail about the plot...you should really read it yourself. Like all good books, there are subplots galore, and even my summary doesn't do the main line justice.

This is Moore at the top of his game, adroitly going between social commentary and action. I've always been a fan of dystopian literature, society gone wrong, etc. This ranks right up there with 1984, Brave New World, and is more than a little reminiscent of both.

Perhaps my favorite scene is toward the end, after V has turned off the Eye and the Ear, England's version of Big Brother, and a little girl...okay, maybe pre-teen, whatever...is trying out her first swear word.

For as much as I love about V, there's a few things I don't like. I'm not, and never really have been, a big fan of 80s-style comic art. This, in particular, seems a little more sketch-like than most types.

Another, mind you minor, quibble is the accent he puts in for Alister. There's only so long one can read a phonetic Scottish (God, I hope it's Scottish, if it's Irish, I'ma look like an idiot.) accent without getting a headache. Of course, that particular accent, wherever it's from, actually can be kinda hard, so I see what he's doing...he just took it further than I've ever seen.

V for Vendetta is a good introduction for anyone who thinks that comics are, ahem, for kids. Try reading this and telling me that comics can't be literature. Really, it's just plain one of the best pieces of literature out there.

Oh, and if anyone could get that song from the start of the third part recorded...I'd appreciate it.

I guess I can't really end this without talking about the movie. The movie was pretty good. It left out a lot of the subplots, but adaptations have to, just to fit into the 2 hours alotted to them. I really don't have any problem with the movie, aside from one thing: the Wachowskis knock you over the head (I'm not giving anythign away here, so don't worry about spoilers.) with it being from "America's War." Hm...wonder which one they mean? (Sarcasm filter off.) I'm not sure, but I don't think that they like Bush very much. (Sarcasm filter on.) Look, we get it...but art of what made the book work for me, was that after England basically destroyed itself in war, that's when Norsefire took over, and started things down the path that led to V's shenanigans. You also never find out, much like in 1984, who they were at war with. Anyway...good movie, better book. Check them both out, see for yourself.

Chris

A little classical reference...

2008-09-02T12:11:00.007-05:00

Heh...my title is a reference to a reference to a rock song.

I may need to explain that: It's a reference to this conversation from The Stand:

Randall Flagg: Pleased to meet you, Lloyd. Hope you guessed my name.
Lloyd Henreid: Huh?
Randall Flagg: Oh. Nothing. Just a little classical reference.

Heh...anyhoo...

Howdy do, all! My name is Chris, and if you stumbled upon this, you're interested in comics. Nothing wrong with that. Comics can be for everyone. That is my philosophy, and the point of this, my very first post!

I fall pretty much squarely into the, ahem, "target demographic;" that is, I'm a guy who likes science fiction and fantasy, reads a lot, watches a lot of movies. I got hooked right at about the age they wanted me to, my pre-pubescent years. I don't remember what my first comic was, but really, who can? That's a level of dedication WAY above me. I do remember, however, a 12 year old's fantasy: Opening my own comic store. I'll get there one of these days.

So I've pretty much been a lifelong comics reader. I've got my favorites, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Spider-Man, Batman...lots more. I'll get to those in other posts.

Here's the thing, though...the phrase "target demographic" is a bunch of malarky. Focusing on one group for your product may lead to a focused customer base, but appealing to a wider audience will always pay off.

For instance, I got my wife reading comics. She's even got one she really likes, Meridian. True, it's been cancelled...okay, not so much cancelled as CrossGen went under...but still, she likes it. In fact, I've bought her all of the collections I could find. I've gotten her to read a lot of the "big" comics, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, etc. She enjoyed them, too.

I've even got one of my daughters, the Princess, able to recognize Spider-Man, Superman, Batman and the Joker. She even seems to prefer the Joker...which worries me a mite, but I won't be too worked up until she starts wearing white makeup, bright red lipstick, dyes her hair green and wears purple.

Comics can be for everyone. There's a comic out there for every one. There's that one character who just reaches past all rational thought and flips on your fun switch.

Oh, and another thing: All of those snobs who say that comic books are for kids...can take a flying leap. There are several books which are adult content, or you have to have read a LOT in order to get. I will probably come back to him again and again in this regard, but Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books, for instance. You have to have at least heard of Dracula, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde, as well as several other stories, like Poe's "Murder at the Rue Morgue," in order to get half of the story and characters' motivations.

There's also Grant Morrison's We3, about three pets used by the government to become weapons. Give that to your 7 year old, see what happens. (Likely, they'll get it quicker than the critics would, kids being, in general, smarter.)

Anyway...this blog will be about things like that, me ranting and raving about comics, letting you know what I think about things. I doubt it will be regularly updated, at least not at first, but keep your eyes open. I'll be back.

Chris