Day 66: Four-Color Funnybooks for 04-09-08
A solid, solid, solid week and it gets three “solid’s” because while there wasn’t a lot of amazing stuff, each issue is setting up their arcs for a spectacular finish. A month or two from now all of these issues are going to pay off big.
Booster Gold #8 - It’s amazing how good this series is. Booster Gold, as a character, is a fucking joke. He’s every annoying reality TV star and pop star who thinks he’s hard all rolled up into one person, and the fact that this is one of DC’s best series is astounding. For Christ’s Sake, Grant Morrison is writing Batman and it still isn’t as consistently good as this. Grant Morrison on Batman.
It takes the idea that Booster Gold is a joke, and runs with it making him, as the tagline says, “The Greatest Hero You’ve Never Heard Of!” He goes throughout time, foiling mad scientists, time-traveling tyrants, and chronol assassins. He can’t ever be suspected as being this great hero, because those same criminals could just go through time to when he was a baby and kill him in the crib, or map out his family tree and kill an ancestor on the toilet. The man responsible for keeping time itself from unraveling is regarded as an embarrassment by the world.
However, the praise I heap on this title is blunted a bit because you’re going to have been reading DC for some time, or be willing to spend a few minutes after every issue on Wikipedia. This is a fanboy’s book, and it makes no attempt to be truly accessible to someone walking into the comic shop for the first time. If you’re well-versed in the universe that Superman built, this is a title you MUST be reading. If you’re willing to spend some time online running down some of the more esoteric stuff, it’ll be rewarding. If anything, this title’s stories combined with Wikipedia, is a nice crash course for DC.
Criminal Vol. 2 #2 - Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips do it again. If this is the first issue you’ve read, you’re going to find a hard-edged noir about terribly flawed people in bad situations. The only black and white in this book is in the word balloons because everything else is in a rich and engrossing shade of gray. If you’ve been following this book since the first volume, this fills in a lot back story about not only the setting, but also some characters we’ve met before. I was a “trade waiter” on this book for the first volume, and that was pretty dumb of me. The monthly book contains interviews and essays about crime fiction that could be university level lecture on film noir. This material is not collected in the trades, so I implore you to buy this month to month. This is one of the best books on the shelves.
Green Lantern Corps #23 - Finally, a little focus on the main story. Hopefully series artist Patrick Gleason had enough time to catch up because I cannot remember the last time he did the pencils for an entire issue. I want to say it’s been over a year and a half.
In the aftermath of a war that has been felt across the known universe, the victorious Green Lantern Corps is running down and destroying any hint of the brutal Sinestro Corps. However, with their leader imprisoned, a new warrior has come to lay claim to the leader of the Sinestros, and he may have plans that not even the immortal Guardians could have foreseen. It’s a must read for Green Lantern fans, everyone else, well, you could go without. The current arc of Green Lantern proper is doing an up-dated origin of Hal Jordan which would be a much better story (and money better spent) for new readers.
The Goon #23 - Apparently writer/artist Eric Powell has the following people under his thrall: burlesque dancers, a professional cage fighter, and a women’s roller derby team. That little tidbit has nothing to do with the content of this issue; I just wanted to say “fuck that guy” for living the dream.
While this comic would be perfectly good if it rested on its laurels and gave us the same humor and violence every month, it would still be entertaining. Just like Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry, you’d know the beats and all the tropes but the change in setting and the imagination involved would make it all okay.
However the story is racing forward, and the status quo is being turned upside down to the point almost nothing is recognizable anymore. Dangerous, seemingly un-killable enemies have been taken off the board; new alliances are made with old foes, and the mystery of where the whole thing is going gets even murkier. Buy this book. Well, not this issue. Find an early trade to jump into the series, but read one of the best comics out there.
Nova #12 - Richard Rider is just a guy from New York selected to join a galaxy-spanning group of space cops. This great organization gets wiped out, and the race that started this force was wiped out. The whole of this corps’ power, culture, and memory are riding in the head of some kid far from home.
This could have easily been written as outer-space Spider-Man, or a sub-par version of Green Lantern, but the comic has a characterization remarkably different from the rest of the Marvel U. Through the massively under-rated, and excellent, Annihilation crossover, we actually got to see him grow from faceless space cop to warrior, general, and finally to one of the greatest heroes in the House of Ideas. This issue continues Nova’s growth, and the whole package: the character, the writing, the art, everything is improving right in front of our eyes.
Scud #23 - This is the second to last issue for a storyline ten years in the making, and it is shaping up to be a doozy as the solid gold bomb himself, Scud, is getting ready to wage war on heaven to free God, and find some redemption for himself.
This is a great issue, but even if you found the first two in the new storyline, you’re going to be woefully out of the loop. However there is an omnibus coming out that contains all 24 issues, and if you want something funny, exciting, off-beat, and delightfully strange pick it up. It’s an edgy little book made when the creator was trying to get over a broken heart that became something else entirely. The book can be pessimistic and negative on one page, and inspire a zeal for life on the next. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you feel cooler for reading it. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor of something great.
Serenity #2 - Why the hell does Joss Whedon get his pick of artists at Marvel but when he does a book for Dark Horse, it’s almost like they just get whoever wandered into the office that day?
It’s frustrating because in one panel the artist, Will Conrad, absolutely nails how the actors look, and in the next you can only tell who it is because of the color of their hair. The writing however is top-notch, and even though it’s been years since we saw the crew of the Serenity on a new adventure, it’s like they never left. Every character gets time to shine, and the fantasy moments as the crew describes to each other how they plan to spend their newfound fortune are brilliant. If you’re a fan of Browncoats, the ‘Verse, or the Hero of Canton, you’ll probably enjoy this. The art is a big downer though, so be sure to page through it before picking it up.
So, what did you read this week?
Hahahaha, no one reads these entries. I can say whatever I want. Farts, farts, farts, turdies, poop.
Matt