Day 21: Four Color Funnybooks for 2/28/08
A light week, but a good one with three Ed Brubaker titles on the shelves, Mark Millar’s new creator owned title, and Grant Morrison writing the goddamn Batman.
Batman #674 - I like Grant Morrison. In fact, I love Grant Morrison. The man’s a genius and I haven’t read a thing by him that I haven’t enjoyed immensely. It is a shame that due to a horribly late shipping schedule and an abysmal Bat-line wide crossover, a story as thought-provoking as this one is made disjointed and nigh-understandable. By going back through my long boxes, I was able to find the issues relevant to this one and the story is a fantastic. Hopefully, when they start collecting these for trade, they’ll go by story and not by issue number, considering this issue wraps up a story that began a year ago, and has been repeatedly interrupted.
Anyway, the story is, naturally, great. Morrison made Batman cool during his run on JLA (which also brought back the Justice League, and if you want to be able to talk about DC heroes intelligently, you should really read. Like now. Now would be good) and continues to make Batman cool, tough, DC’s most calculating hero, and shows how much his presence has inspired his world. This might be an unpopular sentiment, but I’m not a huge fan of Tony Daniels’ art. Batman really deserves an artist with an iconic style. Still, really interesting story, check it out.
Captain America #35 - Ed Brubaker is on issue 35, and is still tying in elements all the way from issue 1, and while this makes the story impenetrable for new readers,* it is dense and satisfying for those who have been following the thing from the beginning. Butch Guice’s pencils help keep the story grounded in the real world and makes you believe a guy with a giant ‘A’ on his head could be the greatest military mind since Napoleon, but doesn’t sell the more fantastic elements of the story short.
*last issue wasn’t a bad jumping on point, actually.
America is on the ropes as the Red Skull and Lukin’s plan to wreck the country from the top to bottom, rolls on and the only man who could stop them is dead on a morgue slab, while the supporting cast is trying to just catch up to the plot, let alone be in any position to stop it. The book is fast paced, desperate, and exciting. Superb book.
Criminal vol. 2 #1 - Hey everybody, it’s an Ed Brubaker book. Hey, it’s amazing. In other news, the sun is hot and water is wet. Everyone act surprised.
I can’t believe the guy writing great superhero books like Captain America, Iron Fist, and Uncanny X-Men, is also writing one of the best crime books, ever. The dialogue is gritty and mean, and doesn’t ever have that notion it might be trying too hard like 100 Bullets can sometimes. The characters are flawed, sometimes even terrible examples of humanity, but never boring. The new volume and a new number 1 issue is so new readers won’t be intimidated to jump into the series, which is silly, as each and every story arc is self-contained. While they do reference other stories and characters, it is never required reading to get into the main narrative.
Sean Philips returns, and the Bru and Philips magic from the vastly underrated, amazingly awesome Sleeper is in full swing here with a one shot about a boxer and his best friend the mob boss. Philips you might remember from a little book called Marvel Zombies. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.
Buy this book.
Daredevil #105 - It’s a Brubaker book. It rocks. We wrap up the current storyline, tying in stuff from the beginning of Bru taking over the book a couple of years ago. Daredevil is comics’ most damned superhero, and between Frank Miller, Brian Michael Bendis, and Ed Brubaker, he has surpassed Spider-man as the most shat on hero, ever. This story puts the screws to Murdock again, and makes parts of Matt’s life irredeemable and unchangeable, leaving him alone, battered, and vulnerable. Mr. Fear is put into position to be the next great villain in DD’s life whenever he feels like coming back to finish off the man he’s already started to bleed out.
Kick-Ass #1 - I really thought this was going to be another "I'm Mark Millar, and I'm cynical about superheroes, 'cuz I'm edgy, unless I'm doing mainstream work*" and while it sort of is, it wasn't as prevalent as I thought it'd be.
*I say that as a fan of Millar.
The issue feels incomplete. It's like the first half of an issue getting us all set up with the status quo of the world, and introducing us to the characters, but then stops before we actually get to the characters, or even get a feel for the heart/tone of the book.
Everything was done mostly in text boxes, which was boring, but I liked the cliffhanger enough to come back, and hopefully now that Millar's done world building he'll do stuff with the character. John Romita Jr., is the best artist who can also be consistent and on time, which apparently, is a rare fucking thing today. It’s unforgiveable that this man is so low on the top artists in the country list. Compared to some of the names on that list who only put out four books a year, this man is a god.
So, what did you read this week?
Matt