it's my birthday and i'll geek out if i want to...
So I've gotten a few books from Barnes and Nobles with my birthday gift card (my birthday is Sunday, yay, 27!). One actual book, Confederacy of Dunces, which is set in New Orleans and my Aunt Jeanie told me I had to read it. So, okay! But then again, she likes Jackie Collins, so maybe I shouldn't have taken her advice. It is a classic though, right? *hopes she didn't waste $12* The other two I bought were um... graphic novels. Heee. Apparently I'm a comicbook nerd. I blame ethrosdemon for giving me access to Kevin Smith's Green Arrow book, Quiver. Erm. Wait. I'm wrong. Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, that's the first graphic novel I read. And that? Was fucking AWESOME. That one, though, I didn't get from Kass.
Anyway, the two graphic novels I got were Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, which was really pretty and damn good but odd in that instead of me squeeing over Batman I spent the majority of my time adoring Lt. Gordon, and Judd Winick's Green Arrow: Crawling Through the Wreckage, which wasn't nearly as good as Quiver was, but I still enjoyed... and finished way too quickly.
But seeing as how I only have LL:MOS and Quiver on my harddrive, those are the ones I'm most going to talk about, and show to you, because the best way to get you to read these things is to show them to you. I was originally only going to talk about Quiver but then I remembered that LL:MOS was actually my first, so I'll talk about it too.
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel
The thing about LL:MOS is that it tells a story that doesn't paint Superman as the benevolent beloved superhero that is adored by millions, because this is told from a not-necessarily-evil Lex's pov, and he thinks Supes is dangerous... and I can't say I blame him.
And to be quite bluntly honest, I love Lex Luthor ala Michael Rosenbaum seasons 1-3 of Smallville, and this guy? THIS Lex Luthor, in this comic book, is much more a believable future incarnation of THAT guy than the one the show is currently showing us. I am so pissed at SV for how they raped Lex's character and made him go from a dude with morality issues that is constantly warring with himself to be a Better Man to cartoonishly evil ala Gene Hackman in the Superman movies. They forgot that thing called CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT and ya know, BELIEVABILITY. They also forgot that Lex is evil, sure, I'm fine with that, but Lex is an evil GENIUS. And the Lex on Smallville is kind of just... there. Being all evil and stuff. Because PAPA WAS MEANS TO ME and CLARK WON'T FUCK MEBE MY FRIEND ANYMORES!
But LL:MOS Lex is not evil, he's not cartoonish, he's BRILLIANT, and sure he's ruthless, and sure he's maybe wrong, and sure he's jaded and ethically and morally suspect, but he's not evil. There is reason behind his "madness", and it's damn good reason.
I would try to explain it to you but there is no way I could explain it to you better than the comic does itself in issue 1:
(click to enlarge)
p.11.
p.17
p.18.
p.19.
p.20.
p.21
p.22
Plus there is Bruce Wayne/Lex Luthor slashiness in issue 3, and that is hawt.
(click to enlarge)
p.06.
p.07.
p.08.
p.09.
p.10.
I'm sure the writer didn't intend for me to giggle about Lex wondering how deep Bruce's hole is for an hour, but... ya know. I did.
Green Arrow: Quiver
And then there is Quiver, which is written by Kevin Smith, so ya know, I'm sure the artist wanted to kill himself in the middle of drawing it because 'KEV OMG IT'S A COMIC, NOT A MOVIE, CAN YOU CUT SOME OF THIS DIALOGUE, WHERE AM I GONNA FIT THIS SHIT?!?!!?' to which the answer is, thankfully, 'NO I WILL NOT!' I kind of cackle myself silly when I picture the meetings about turning the comic script into a graphic depiction because I just know the artist had to bang their head against the table when they realized they were going to need four bubbles to fit in ONE DAMN SENTENCE.
I'm thankful for it though because I worship K. Smith, for he is GOD, and he made Oliver Queen the bitchenest fucking archer EVER. Now I'm not going to say I'm all that familiar with Ollie anywhere outside of Quiver or Crawling Through the Wreckage, so I don't know if his portrayal is an accurate one, i just know that i fucking LOVED HIM. I loved his heart, I loved his monologues about politics, I loved his quips, I loved his sarcasm, I loved his righteous anger, and I loved his dumbfounded WELL THIS SHIT JUST AIN'T FUCKIN' RIGHT! when he found out he'd been dead and had lost 10 years of his memory. LMFAO.
See the thing is, Ollie "died" right, but they never really die, so the thing is, everyone thinks he's dead, but he comes back and has NO IDEA he's been dead, nor does he remember the past 10 years of his life. So there's all this "new fangled" technology, like computers and cell phones, and Ollie's just like "you're effin' nuts, with your contraption there" about it all, and I just... GAH. Too funny.
And you know it's going to be funny right from the beginning, wherein Bats and Supes have a convo that both entertains AND informs... as only K. Smith can:
(click to enlarge)
p.02.
p.03.
p.04.
The best, hands down the BEST thing ever, is when he is finally confronted with "the past", wherein Aquaman discovers he is not dead and brings him to the JLU in issue 4:
(click to enlarge)
p.08.
p.15.
p.16.
p.17.
p.18.
p.19.
p.20.
p.21.
p.22.
And just... here are some more of my favorites:
Heee. GA giggling.
There is a reason behind this, but it's so damn funny out of context I just can't bring myself to explain it to you.
This is included in the series of pages up above, but I had to include it again because it's just too damn funny... oh, Bruce, you and your long-winded explanations... and Flash. With his wit.
click to enlarge:
And that's just fuckin' funny. And also... like Bats is one to talk about toys?
And then I made some GA icons from Quiver, because... well. I had to.
Find them over here.
Anyway, the two graphic novels I got were Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, which was really pretty and damn good but odd in that instead of me squeeing over Batman I spent the majority of my time adoring Lt. Gordon, and Judd Winick's Green Arrow: Crawling Through the Wreckage, which wasn't nearly as good as Quiver was, but I still enjoyed... and finished way too quickly.
But seeing as how I only have LL:MOS and Quiver on my harddrive, those are the ones I'm most going to talk about, and show to you, because the best way to get you to read these things is to show them to you. I was originally only going to talk about Quiver but then I remembered that LL:MOS was actually my first, so I'll talk about it too.
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel
The thing about LL:MOS is that it tells a story that doesn't paint Superman as the benevolent beloved superhero that is adored by millions, because this is told from a not-necessarily-evil Lex's pov, and he thinks Supes is dangerous... and I can't say I blame him.
And to be quite bluntly honest, I love Lex Luthor ala Michael Rosenbaum seasons 1-3 of Smallville, and this guy? THIS Lex Luthor, in this comic book, is much more a believable future incarnation of THAT guy than the one the show is currently showing us. I am so pissed at SV for how they raped Lex's character and made him go from a dude with morality issues that is constantly warring with himself to be a Better Man to cartoonishly evil ala Gene Hackman in the Superman movies. They forgot that thing called CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT and ya know, BELIEVABILITY. They also forgot that Lex is evil, sure, I'm fine with that, but Lex is an evil GENIUS. And the Lex on Smallville is kind of just... there. Being all evil and stuff. Because PAPA WAS MEANS TO ME and CLARK WON'T FUCK MEBE MY FRIEND ANYMORES!
But LL:MOS Lex is not evil, he's not cartoonish, he's BRILLIANT, and sure he's ruthless, and sure he's maybe wrong, and sure he's jaded and ethically and morally suspect, but he's not evil. There is reason behind his "madness", and it's damn good reason.
I would try to explain it to you but there is no way I could explain it to you better than the comic does itself in issue 1:
(click to enlarge)
p.11.
p.17
p.18.
p.19.
p.20.
p.21
p.22
Plus there is Bruce Wayne/Lex Luthor slashiness in issue 3, and that is hawt.
(click to enlarge)
p.06.
p.07.
p.08.
p.09.
p.10.
I'm sure the writer didn't intend for me to giggle about Lex wondering how deep Bruce's hole is for an hour, but... ya know. I did.
Green Arrow: Quiver
And then there is Quiver, which is written by Kevin Smith, so ya know, I'm sure the artist wanted to kill himself in the middle of drawing it because 'KEV OMG IT'S A COMIC, NOT A MOVIE, CAN YOU CUT SOME OF THIS DIALOGUE, WHERE AM I GONNA FIT THIS SHIT?!?!!?' to which the answer is, thankfully, 'NO I WILL NOT!' I kind of cackle myself silly when I picture the meetings about turning the comic script into a graphic depiction because I just know the artist had to bang their head against the table when they realized they were going to need four bubbles to fit in ONE DAMN SENTENCE.
I'm thankful for it though because I worship K. Smith, for he is GOD, and he made Oliver Queen the bitchenest fucking archer EVER. Now I'm not going to say I'm all that familiar with Ollie anywhere outside of Quiver or Crawling Through the Wreckage, so I don't know if his portrayal is an accurate one, i just know that i fucking LOVED HIM. I loved his heart, I loved his monologues about politics, I loved his quips, I loved his sarcasm, I loved his righteous anger, and I loved his dumbfounded WELL THIS SHIT JUST AIN'T FUCKIN' RIGHT! when he found out he'd been dead and had lost 10 years of his memory. LMFAO.
See the thing is, Ollie "died" right, but they never really die, so the thing is, everyone thinks he's dead, but he comes back and has NO IDEA he's been dead, nor does he remember the past 10 years of his life. So there's all this "new fangled" technology, like computers and cell phones, and Ollie's just like "you're effin' nuts, with your contraption there" about it all, and I just... GAH. Too funny.
And you know it's going to be funny right from the beginning, wherein Bats and Supes have a convo that both entertains AND informs... as only K. Smith can:
(click to enlarge)
p.02.
p.03.
p.04.
The best, hands down the BEST thing ever, is when he is finally confronted with "the past", wherein Aquaman discovers he is not dead and brings him to the JLU in issue 4:
(click to enlarge)
p.08.
p.15.
p.16.
p.17.
p.18.
p.19.
p.20.
p.21.
p.22.
And just... here are some more of my favorites:
Heee. GA giggling.
There is a reason behind this, but it's so damn funny out of context I just can't bring myself to explain it to you.
This is included in the series of pages up above, but I had to include it again because it's just too damn funny... oh, Bruce, you and your long-winded explanations... and Flash. With his wit.
click to enlarge:
And that's just fuckin' funny. And also... like Bats is one to talk about toys?
And then I made some GA icons from Quiver, because... well. I had to.
Find them over here.