Day 118: Four-Color Funnybooks for 06-04-08
Solid week of comics with arcs tying up; others are getting going, and every book was quality, can’t ask for much more than that.
The Boys #19 - Superheroes are near and dear to me, and Garth Ennis fucking hates superheroes, so logic would dictate that I should hate his stuff, and yet, a quick glance at my comic shelves (yeah, finally hit two, wooo) would reveal that Ennis, Mark Millar, and Warren Ellis are in a three-way dog fight for shelf space supremacy.
This arc, in particular, heaps the hate on the super heroic, but Ennis simply writes great characters. His settings, mood, and pacing all may be called into question during certain stories, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t write about people I care about. Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy, Herr Starr, Tommy Monoghan, Nat the Hat, Butcher, Hughie, Frank Castle, O’Brien, the list goes on and on, and I find his stuff effortlessly readable, because I grow attached to everyone he introduces me to, even the ones I hate.
This issue deals with super powers in the modern world, and we learn about how superpowers are just like anything else in the world; they’re controlled by big business. The b-plot with the rest of the team was slow going, but seeds are being planted there. The bulk of the plot was Hughie hearing a lot of exposition, but that was still damn interesting. Great book, but I totally understand why DC ditched it, forcing the move to Dynamite after reading this issue.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 #15 - No one is safe in a Joss Whedon universe.
Jesus. No one gets to be happy.
Anyway, this issue was heartbreaking, but also incredibly funny. Drew Goddard has the voices and tone of the Scooby Gang down pat, and it’s like watching an episode of the show, but with a 100 million dollar budget. We get character development for everyone, learn why we should fear Dracula, and see what happens when you make a giant killer mecha version of an American teenager.
If you like Buffy, or really anything Whedon does, you should probably read this series.
Criminal Season 2 #3 - It’s written by Ed Brubaker, drawn by Sean Philips, and it’s one of the best things you can pay money for. Buy this series. Buy it monthly, and then buy the trade.
The Invincible Iron Man - Matt Fraction can fucking write. This is an exciting book, with a ton of a momentum behind it. The title shows us a different version of Tony Stark in a book filled with new ideas, and some really great pencils by Salvador Larroca. You don’t need to know anything about Iron Man before this to read the new series, so you know, if you liked the movie, buy this. Right now.
Mahunter #31 - The best book you never read. This strong, very promising, book has been cancelled and brought back like four times, this time taking over a year long break. The dialogue can be a bit on the nose sometimes, but by and large this is a great series, with an original and interesting female protagonist who is not cheesecake or the type of gal waiting for someone to come rescue her. It’s violent, funny, and has a nice balance between continuity legacy and brand new hero. The trades are easy to find, though this issue is a good jumping on point, as well.
Nova #14 - Turns out the team that brought back Nova and made him awesome can write an interesting and conflicted Silver Surfer.
Blah, blah, blah, great book, blah, blah, one of Marvel’s best, blah, blah, blah, re-invigorated cosmic backdrop, rife with rich potential, etc, etc, I got nothing new to say.
Secret Invasion #3 - Holy, shit, what a great last four pages. That is how you write a cliffhanger. The bit with Iron Man has already been revealed in interviews to be bullshit, but once again, the last page.
In a word, “YAHS.”
So, what did you read this week?
Matt