STUFFED

The Walking Dead #55

Finally I am all caught up on this book. After getting the fourth hardcover last week I was able to tear through 18 issues in just a few days. I love how the focus has shifted back to Rick in recent issues. For some reason I rarely find myself concerned with a story's main character, but this book is an exception. As well-rounded and enjoyable the cast of characters is Rick remains my favorite. So, it is almost bitter-sweet to see the spotlight on him as he falls further down the path to insanity. Thus far when Kirkman has introduced a new character it has worked perfectly, but it is still too early for me to have an opinion on the three new folks introduced an issue or two back. One thing that I fear now that this new group has shown up is that the book will begin to dwell on the cause of the zombie outbreak. Personally I feel like the book will be much better off if we as readers just never find out the true cause behind it all. 

Captain America #44

Obviously it is hard to follow up the amazing Death of Captain America storyline, but Brubaker is doing a fine job so far. Honestly, I was actually beginning to become a little tired of that strand anyway so these past two issues have been a welcome change. The flashback scenes were great again although it was a bummer that we didn't get to see any of Steve Rogers this time around. To my surprise in this issue we get to see Bucky use skills he honed as the Winter Soldier to help him do a better job at being Captain America, and these were the strongest scenes of the entire issue. I think this marks an important growth for Bucky as a character who obviously had problems confronting his past earlier on in Brubaker's run.  The issue ends with some good action; using Batroc was a risk, but the character is goofy without being over-the-top and not working with the tone of the story. Ross does a great job on pencils, and I especially enjoyed the pages where the characters were standing in the rain. Excited for the finale of this arc next month.

Superman#682

Man was I excited for this New Krypton cross-over to get started, and it seems like out of nowhere it is more than halfway over with. Granted time has been going fast because I have been so busy, but I think part of that feeling has to do with the fact that for me not much has happened thus far. The past two chapters especially were very underwhelming due in part to the fact that they failed to significantly move the story along. Robinson succeeds where they failed by not only hitting on many different characters in this one issue, but by also upping the ante for the story; all these Kryptonians who landed here on Earth are finally starting to DO things other than killing some whales. One complaint for me revolves around a death in issue that I feel is wasted and doesn't work because we barely had time to get to know and care about the character. Guedes art and the coloring in the issue are on par if not better than Robinson's writing. I enjoyed his art during the Atlas run, but by this point it has really started to grow on me. So, a great issue but I still think this cross-over took too long to get going and will likely have to wrap things up in a rushed last few issues. 

Daredevil #113

As cool as Lady Bullseye is, and she is very cool, Master Izo has been my favorite part of this storyline thus far. Not too much else to say, we get pretty much the same as usual which is an excellent all-around issue where people try to make Matt Murdock's life even more of a living hell.  In fact it is because of this that I feel like Master Izo works so well;  as great as this book has been it can get old constantly watching someone get shit on and it is Izo's humor which helps to break up the generally somber tone of the book. Hopefully he as well as Luke, Danny, and Dakota continue to be featured prominently in our monthly meetings with Mr. Murdock.

I'm going to try and post a Batman #681 review sometime tomorrow. Take care.

It's the economy, stupid

The economic trouble isn't hitting me too hard, but it will be if I decide to quit my job which is a distinct possibility considering how much it sucks. Naturally my unhappiness at work coincides with the worst economic repression in decades. So, for this and other reasons, mainly books not being that good, I trimmed my pull list down a bit. And the victims are...

DMZ - For a long time I pushed this book on tons of people so I actually feel bad about dropping it. The Delgado arc was a big disappointment for me not because it was awful, but just because it didn't push the book far enough for me. Wood had a lot of angles he could have explored in that story yet the route he took just did not interest me. 

Runaways - For one, I do not enjoy the artist on this book. Two, the story did not grab my attention at all. Again, Moore did not do a bad job, but he just was not doing a great one either. In reality my decision to drop this title has a lot to do with Josh Wheddon totally killing the momentum I had built up after reading the three BKV hardcovers.

Dark Tower - I plan on finishing up the Treachery arc, but after that I don't see myself buying this book any longer. It looks beautiful and the story is good, but for whatever reason I just find myself less interested in it. Since it is a big seller though I know it will get collected in a nice format, so that option is always there and I could see myself going that way with this book.

Astonishing X-Men - Can not get into the art, and Ellis' story is not doing anything for me. Seems like he doesn't care about writing the book so why should I bother reading it.

That makes my pull-list four books lighter, but sooner rather than later I will be adding Green Lantern once I finish catching up via hardcovers. I plan on giving Uncanny X-Men a few more months based on how much I enjoy Brubaker and Fraction and on the fact that I like to at least have some sense of what is going on in the X-Universe, but that could end up getting dropped eventually too. 

Take care of yourselves. Spread the word if you have a blog of your own. Thanks, bye.

Hello

Work still sucks and takes up most of my time so sorry for still not getting back on track with weekly reviews. However as to not totally ignore this blog I will ramble for a little while.

EVENT BOOKS: This one is pretty simple. Final Crisis is good and Secret Invasion is not. 

Being a relative new comer to the DC side of things I am not always exactly sure who all the characters are on a given page, but I am still captivated by the story. Morrison has written the story in such a way that I actually fear for the heroes and citizens of the DC Universe. Sure I might have to read the book more than once to catch everything, but why should that be considered a bad thing? The recent artists problems for the series are unfortunate, but I expect the story to get better and better as Morrison begins to reveal more of his epic story to us. 

On the other hand is Secret Invasion. After being beat over the head with the "Who Do You Trust?" build up for months the event finally kicked off with Secret Invasion #1, and it was a pretty good and promising issue. However, since then the series has fallen flat on its face. Granted I was never expecting this event to be some ambitious think piece, but with one issue left we have failed to move beyond the basic "Who Do You Trust?" plot device that I was starting to grow sick of before issue #1 even hit. This event feels way too similar to the Hollywood Summer Blockbuster type of event that was World War Hulk; not only in issue #7 but in almost the entire series little has happened besides super heroes and villains fighting some aliens. Okay, Hawkeye had some cool moments but not enough to make up for the poor quality of this event. More and more this event feels like its sole purposes were to get us to Point A to Point B and sell us a bunch more books in the Post-Secret Invasion Marvel Universe. You might say well isn't that the point of every comic book, and in part you will be right but what Bendis and Marvel forgot to do alongside those two other things was to tell an interesting and entertaining story.

Good and Bad Things:

BAD - The art in some of my favorite Marvel Books - Both Invincible Iron Man and Immortal Iron-Fist are great books that continue to get better month by month, but man sometimes these two are tough on the eyes. 

GOOD - All things Super - Action Comics has quickly become my favorite super hero book being published thanks to great writing and amazing art by Gary Frank. Additionally the recently begun New Krypton cross-over has been excellent so far; Robinson's Superman issue this week was wonderful and easily his best yet. Gates' first issue of Supergirl was good also hopefully all three continue to shine during the cross-over and after.

BAD - No new hardcovers - Still waiting on the 4th Volume of both The Walking Dead and Invincible. Hopefully these show up sooner rather than later as both books are great reads.

GOOD - Chief Red Crow - The main "villain" of Jason Aaron's amazing American-Indian drama is without a doubt my favorite current character in all of comics. In the most recent issue we see a flashback of Red Crow punching some hippies in the face, best. thing. ever. I have said it before, but you really have no reason to be missing out on this book. 

GOOD - Lady Bullseye - The recent four-part arc with Rucka as co-writer helped bring Daredevil back to prominence despite a somewhat weak ending, and the first two parts of the Lady Bullseye storyline have been wonderful. Like many I was skeptical of a character called Lady Bullseye, but so far no complaints here at all.

Take care. Remember my birthday is on Tuesday.