Four Color Funnybooks for 06-20-07
You know, I read the Diamond Comics.com shipping list for this week, and I was fairly sure I knew how much money I’d be dropping on books this week, and it was maybe half of what I actually spent.
Some times this damn hobby gets away from me.
This was an interesting week, because a lot of books let me down, but the ones who were good, knocked it out of the park.
Annihilation: Conquest: Prologue- I missed out on Annihilation. Forced to pick between two large crossovers, I picked Civil War because, c’mon, see those characters? The creators involved? Then did you see the character and creator line-up for Annihilation?
But I was wrong. Oh, I was wrong. I hate the current climate of the Marvel U, and the only book that truly deals with Registration, the War, and all the fall out, is Captain America and that book is the exception that proves the rule, and is a testament to the juggernaut-esque power of Brubaker’s writing. Iron Fist and Daredevil, both also by Brubaker, live in the world but they have their own adventures, the X-Men team I follow is in space, and there’s Hulk. So I’d like to take this space to say I was wrong, and backed the wrong horse.
This book kicks the whole thing off with a bang, though I am a bit disappointed that the “conquest” in the title, was not in fact helmed by Kang the Conqueror. I recently joined the forums at SomethingAwful.com, and that was our popular theory in their comic book thread. The new threat does make sense, and is quite terrifying, though I haven’t thought of them as threatening since they killed 616 Blink and threatened the kids that would eventually be Generation X. I didn’t see it coming, but they’re not as threatening or cool as Annihilus. I’m not really familiar with any of the characters except Nova, but the new design for Star Lord is incredible, and his mini has been described as Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos but in space! That shit is getting bought.
The prologue was interesting, if not captivating since the book revolves around lesbian Quasar and Star Lord, as a retired burnt out cynic. I can’t wait for him to pick up his irons again and go to work on the bad guys. It does everything an opening book should do for a giant crossover, and I’m hooked.
Brave and the Bold #4- With all the grit, darkness, and real world-ness invading comics, good old fashioned, straight faced in the realm of comic book mad science kinds of stories seemingly disappeared from shelves. “How would superheroes act in the real world?” “How would we react to them?” You know, it’s been done a million times, it’s being done a million times right now, and it’s getting damn boring.
The new issue of Brave and the Bold has Batman fused together with a killer robot to a create a living killer robot dedicated to justice.
Not really, but the issue does have a half Batman, half Killer Robot thing going, and a impenetrable maze that not even solar powered Kryptonians can escape, but someone, finally using Lobo’s power that’s not super strength or never-die, can defeat. With a Fatal Five vs. Legion of Superheroes fight coming soon and Green Lantern fighting side by side with the still rad Adam Strange it can only get better. I missed Mark Waid on a big name superhero book. The guy built the Flash mythos, and his run on Fantastic Four is one of my favorites. Maybe not as good as Stan and Jack’s, but it’s damn close. George Perez’s art is awesome, surprising no one. Highly detailed, clean lines, and with none of the coloring problems that plagued his Avengers run post Heroes Reborn. I’ll definitely be back next month.
Captain America # 27- Ding Dong, Decompression’s dead. In lesser hands, this bad boy would have been the beginning of a three or four issue chase for Cap’s shield, but why dick around if you don’t have to? Bucky gets the shield, the status quo changes, characters are fleshed out, and finally, at long last, Tony Stark isn’t pompous as the most dangerous assassin on his payroll, who just got her ass handed to her, tell him he needs to take Bucky’s threat very seriously. High tech playboy, vs. old school commando. Can’t wait for the next issue.
Incredible Hulk #107- Amadeus Cho is a sociopath.
http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~mcafee/Bin/sb.html
He fits almost every bit criteria on that page, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one who killed his folks, instead of some black ops government agency. The only classic symptom he doesn’t exhibit is cruelty to animals. I never trusted the damn kid from his second appearance, and I may well be vindicated. His actions in this issue are damn near impossible to justify, and I can see him dying for his deeds, or feeling disillusioned and becoming a super villain.
This issue, like this month’s Iron Man is just a rehash of World War Hulk from a different vantage point. I might appreciate that as a packaged whole in a giant trade, or omnibus, but piece meal, and for 3 dollars, I feel a bit cheated, even if it has a nice cliffhanger.
Iron Man #19- Dum Dum Dugan is a pussy.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pussy+whipped
It’s a shame to see such a kick ass hard liner reduced to being a kiss ass to Stark. It’s that old writer’s trick of having someone the audience already likes, approve of another character so the audience’s sympathies go that way.
Aside from Dugan forgetting the Fury’s pulled his ass out of the fire so much, those cheeks are technically his, we get to see the resourceful old Tony for a bit as he jury-rigs a Hulkbuster suit together. But we already know how this ends, and I’d rather have been more inside Tony’s head during the fight, and the aftermath as he tries to get the suit jump started again.
The Spirit #7- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Fill in issue, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! A pox on everyone’s house! How dare you give me Darwyn Cooke six months in a row and then take it away! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The first story has art by Chris Sprouse, but the story is rushed, and we don’t get a feel for anybody, except those we already know. I have no idea what’s happening in the third story, and I can’t recall the second! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I’m mad.
Storm Shadow #2- I run hot and cold on Brian Bendis as a writer. He’s more hit than miss with me, mostly because of the insertions he puts into his writing. The “huhs,” “yups,” “hmms,” and my personal favorite, two people talking where one person just repeats one thing of what the other person has said.
-“So Loki jumps down and reveals it was his idea.”
-“Loki?”
-“Yeah, he was behind the scenes the whole time.”
-“The whole time?”
-“So Thor throws his hammer through Loki, who is so dense from fighting the Vision he just implodes on himself.”
-“Implodes?”
-“Yup.”
-“Huh.”
Another bad habit he has, and the whole reason I stopped buying Daredevil until Brubaker took over, was because he’d go through three or four issues without Daredevil actually being Daredevil. No costume, no fights, no nothing. I don’t want to come off as shallow, but that fucking sucks.
I read superheroes for a reason, and that reason is superheroes. I don’t care how many interviews he gives where he says, “I want the costume to mean something, for it to be a force of nature when he has it on.” Great, amazing, go back to writing only graphic novels, because it’s killing me here. Brubaker has managed to balance both Murdock’s personal life with Daredevil heroics, and every issue has at least one person get punched in the face, and sometimes we’ll go multiple issues in row where foot meets face.
This meeting of the “I Hate Bendis Club” is brought to you by this month’s issue of Storm Shadow. The first issue, badass cover aside, had no ninja outfits. This made me worried that perhaps Larry Hama, an old dog, had learned a new trick, and that trick is decompression. Thank God that’s not the case here, as a spirited young woman ginsus poor Tommy’s street clothes to reveal the Storm Shadow duds underneath. The plot, which, honestly, I can’t follow, speeds along, as more people get beaten up by a ninja. The art is fluid, but sometimes, certain panels or actions are skipped, or not drawn in the action, and makes it hard to follow. With stricter guidelines, this sort of loose and messy art is the sort of style I thought New Warriors needed, which I discussed last week. I can’t recommend it as I’m only buying it for the fight scenes.
More gift cards were sacrificed at the altar of commerce this week:
Dr. Strange: The Oath- In the course of reading this, I discovered that Brian K. Vaughan, somehow, accidentally become one of my favorite writers. I say accidentally because the guy writes so well, across so many different genres, I don’t make the connection that it’s the same guy. Runaways, Y: the Last Man, Pride of Baghdad and now this, he’s amazing. He made a team of completely new characters popular in a well established universe, wrote teenagers who weren’t annoying as hell, created a great science fiction book with huge societal imaginings, and a touching tale about lions fighting bears.
He does the impossible here by making Dr. Strange relatable, flawed, and even sets down rules for magic. It’s an outstanding work, and I highly recommend it. I don’t know why this isn’t a launch for an ongoing Strange book, and the good doctor is being wasted in one of the Avengers teams. Strange has enemies, a supporting cast, great art that looks like water colors, lots of wit, and a karate fight at the top of a skyscraper. Buy it. Buy it now.
Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.: vol 1, This is What They Want: I love this book so much, that it makes my heart hurt a little.
Whatever drugs Warren Ellis does, I want to do. I would follow that man. I would see as those eyes see.
This book is about “Pirate Super heroes, twisting the nipples of the Military Industrial complex.” That’s a direct quote from the book.
This is superheroes concentrated. Little to no plot, lots of explosion, people being very witty in situations where the phrase, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” would be more appropriate. There’s homicide crabs propelled by rockets, drop bears, samurai robot monsters, and dragons wearing underpants. Our heroes consist of an alcoholic, trailer trash with a movie star complex, a burnt out Avenger, an immortal vampire hunter, and a robot with a Swiss army chest.
Buy it now.
So, what did you read this week?
Matt