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First Week of 2009

Quick praise first. Scalped was the best monthly book in 2008, don't deny it.

Kick-Ass #5: To be fair I'd enjoy this book no matter what the writing was like just because I think that fondly of the pencil work of JRJR, but I suppose I will discuss it regardless.  Unlike the previous issue, this month's installment puts the spotlight back on the main character Dave who has been kind of annoying and predictable at various points in the first four issues. We see Dave with Katie, but unfortunately for only a single page albeit an enjoyable and humorous one. I would have liked to seen more of Dave's interactions with people, particularly his father, when not in his Kick-Ass gear. Obviously his role as Kick-Ass changed the way he interacted with people, and it wold have been nice to see how his decrease in popularity as a costumed hero impacted these interactions.  However in regards to Kick-Ass, the introduction of a new costumed character provided the best moments for the Kick-Ass persona since the books first issue. As usual, an enjoyable if flawed issue. Hopefully we don't have too long to wait for #6.

Green Lantern #36: Man am I happy to be caught up on this book because it is AWESOME. Everything about this issue feels simply epic. Geoff Johns continues to write the hell out of this series, but honestly what impressed me even more was the work of Ivan Reis. Not only is every panel of this book drop-dead gorgeous, but Reis draws such a variety of different characters and locales ranging from the beautifully rendered home world of the Blue Lanterns to the bloody mess of Ysmault and the Red Lanterns. Speaking of the Blue Lanterns I can not wait to get more of these folks especially since the Red Lanterns are kind of boring regardless of how cool they look.  Its hard to imagine that Johns has to introduce even more colors to this epic saga and I hope things don't become a mess with too many characters being introduced [see New Krypton], but if anybody can do it its Johns.

Captain America #45: This month's issue of Captain America managed to do two things; bring a 3 issue arc to a satisfying conclusion and also set up an interesting continuation of plot threads recently established.  I was worried when I saw this arc was only going to be 3 issues that Captain America was going to switch from a long epic story to a bunch of disconnected shorter story arcs. Thankfully I was totally off. What I particularly enjoyed about this arc was the way Brubaker successfully weaved together the various lives of Bucky into one relatively straight-forward story that helps Bucky further separate himself from Steve; we got a story that you could only tell with a character like Bucky who has such a checkered past unlike Steve Rogers. In fact, I think for this title and Bucky's reemergence to remain successful Brubaker needs to continue to tell these types of stories because of how they showcase these differences between Steve and Bucky.  I'm confident we'll get exactly that and I couldn't be happier about it.

Wolverine #70: Logan's reason for putting away the claws was fine by me, but I had some problems with how it was written. What I certainly don't have a problem with is how it was drawn, DAMN was this a nice comic to look at. The big shocking double page reveal occurs a little past the halfway point, but I think it would have been much more powerful at the very end. These pages speak for themselves and didn't require any of the conversation between Logan and Hawkeye that came afterwards explaining the impact of what we just saw, so in terms of pacing and plot of the issue it could have easily been placed at the end. I'm always a fan of letting art speak for itself, especially when it looks this good. An entertaining although shallow issue which did a solid job of providing the answer to the question we all had been wondering about since this mini-series got started.

Superman #683: Okay so earlier I mentioned in another review how an arc brought a story to a fitting conclusion and also laid groundwork for future excitement. The next and final issue of New Krypton in Johns' Action Comics is simply not going to be able to do that unless it gets delayed a few months and ends up being a triple or quadruple-sized issue. On to this issue of Superman; the art and writing are both fine the biggest problem is that this is part 9 of a 10 part story and things don't progress at an adequate pace in fact they barely progress at all. After nine issues we are still pretty much in the same place we were when we got started except there are a lot more characters thrown into the mix. Actually, so many characters have been introduced into this cross-over that I can't even count how many were completely ignored in this latest installment. I was really excited about this cross-over, and man have I been let down. The annoying part of it has been the fact that none of the issues have been bad on their own, but in retrospect as part of a cross-over they fall flat. I understand Johns, Robinson, and Gates have a definite place they want the Super-line to get to, but I can't help but feel that they could have gotten there without wasting our time with this convoluted cross-over. 

Scalped was amazing as usual not going to bother trying to think of more good things to say there.

Incognito got off to a good start, hopefully it ends up being on par with Criminal.

Hope everyone had happy holidays.

PS Find me a new job.

<3

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.

BALTIMORE COMIC CON

Long time no post. A life-draining teaching job that you hate will do that to a blog.

Anyway, this past weekend I headed down to the Baltimore Comic Con. This was my first time headed to this particular Con, but from what I had heard it was a smaller Con that creators and fans enjoyed in large part due to the fact it is still at heart a COMIC Convention not a TV/Hollywood get together with some comics thrown in for good measure. However, despite its label as a smaller Con the guest-list at the event was stacked featuring Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, Brian Bendis, Robert Kirkman, James Robinson, and plenty of others. 

I showed up on Saturday, the first day of the Con, right as it was starting at 10am. Since I already had my tickets getting onto the show floor was pretty painless and took only about 15 minutes. As usual I spent the first hour or so of the Con searching through boxes of trades and hardcovers ranging from 25-50% off; I generally leave the single issue diving to other convention attendees. It got off to a bad start since the first few retailers I went to had absolutely nothing worthwhile to offer. Even if these guys were offering 95% off discounts I would have walked away from them empty handed. Thankfully persistence paid off and I found a few different retailers with great selections of trades and hardcovers although having somewhat sworn off trades I was looking mostly for hardcovers. I quickly grabbed hardcover editions of Pride of Baghdad, Logan, Superman Last Son, the recent Johns Bizzaro arc, Ex Machina, and The Killing Joke Deluxe Edition as well the last three Y: The Last Man trades. That series is too good to wait for all the hardcovers although I'll probably buy those too if my money situation doesn't collapse which it might, eek. Then me and my new stack of books headed to the panels. The DC Nation and Cup of B panels were both entertaining especially the Bendis panel because he kept making fun of this one kid who apparently made a jacket out of what he viewed as horrible Secret Invasion tie-ins. There were no huge announcements, but Bendis is getting ready to leave Mighty Avengers with Slott taking over. The panel I was most looking forward to was the Bendis vs. Kirkman panel and it did not disappoint. I'll let you guys read or watch it when it eventually shows up online, but I tend to agree with Bendis more than Kirkman. Exiting one of the earlier panels I noticed just how crowded the convention was getting, even late into the day people were still waiting in really long lines just to get tickets. The floor was crowded too because of the sheer number of people, but also because many of the huge lines for the top creators seemed to be right on top of each other.  On the way to get something to eat thankfully I got a free Monster energy drink which went great with my 9,000 calorie 5 Guys Cheese-burger. 

After going to a few different bars I walked over to a Marriott for the Harvey Awards. Bendis gave a great keynote speech about comics and hollywood, but he left right afterwards. Being at the awards show was just a cool feeling even though most of the winners were not present. What made it even cooler was sitting right behind Robert Kirkman and Tom Brevoort. As great as the day had been it suddenly got a whole lot better. I walk into the hotel bar for a drink after the awards and all the Marvel and DC guys apparently decided to stay and hang out too. I mustered up enough courage to talk to some of the guys even though it made me feel kind of weird, but on the whole it was just kind of surreal and hard to take in. 

Sunday was a lot more laid back since the crowd was much smaller. I picked up some cool single issues; the entire Born Again run on Daredevil and the entire Man Without Fear run too. As always the For the Love of Comics and Your Universe panels were fun although Brevoort brought too many other Marvel guys with him to the panel this time and it kind of took away from the fan-centered feel. 

In all, an excellent time.

I hope to be able to start posting my weekly reviews again soon. Bye byes.

BIG WEEK

Short reviews this week since I'm busy getting ready to start working next week, and simply because it was a big week.

DMZ #34

I don't really care about this book anymore. Wood writes the book well, but neither the characters nor the overall situation of the DMZ interest me anymore. Perhaps I am just sick of hearing about politics from everywhere else that I don't want to read about it in my comics. Honestly I'm not sure exactly what it is, but this book no longer moves me. Although, it does seem that the book is about to go in a new direction so maybe I will check out the trades eventually.

Runaways #1

Ramos' art style has never been my cup of tea, but it doesn't bother me here as much as it did on New X-Men. I will never care for the cartoon/anime/manga/etc art but it doesn't detract from the story. Actually I like how he makes Chases look noticeably bigger than the other characters, and Molly and Klara look good too [that sounds bad].

Terry Moore does a good job with all the characters and stays true to what came before him, and even seems to be using an old plot-line as the center of his story arc. Only complaint is that one of Moore's big cultural references seems a bit out of place even for an older member like Chase. Solid first issue. Glad to have Runaways back, let's hope it stays around for a while.

Superman #679

Another solid issue from Robinson and Guedes, but I hope in time his Clark Kent/Superman gets better. As I said last month Superman does not have to be in the spotlight at all times in his book, but right now Robinson has made him a bit too dull for my liking. The supporting cast is great here again, and I like that even more people are getting added to the regular roster. Hopefully the writing of the title character gets better once the big cross-over starts. Also, the last page is great to me, but I understand why some people will hate it. The art here is great too especially in the big fight scenes. 

Kick-Ass #4

Every pull list needs a book like Kick-Ass. With all this nonsense of a Crisis and an Invasion, everyone should treat themselves to some continuity-free fun and violence. And of course fun and violence is that much better when it is drawn by John Romita Jr. If Millar were writing this as well as JRJR is drawing it Kick-Ass would far and away be the best comic book out there. That being said, I like the writing in each individual issue I just think that after four of them the book's main character should be doing more than constantly teetering on the edge of being a regular kid or a "super hero." At this point I am more interested in Hit-Girl, Dave's father, and basically everyone else in the book that isn't the main character. Hopefully these characters' development doesn't stall like Dave's has.

Daredevil #110

As I said in my last review I was afraid that this arc would wrap up too fast and too neatly in this issue, and I was right. I guess Brubaker wanted a nice clean slate before starting his Lady Bullseye storyline which is supposed to be a big jumping on point for new readers. Regardless of the fact that I felt kind of short changed by the ending, still an awesome issue. The art is simply amazing, and so is the writing. Hopefully Brubaker's writing stays at this level now that Rucka is departing. 

The Immortal Iron-Fist #18

I really don't like the art in this book. Granted I'm no art expert, but to me this art just does not look good and some of the panel layout choices seem odd particularly in Danny's first fight sequence. Art aside Swierczynski is doing a great job on this title, and if you decided to drop this when Fraction left you should quickly jump back on board.