Wednesday #69.2
Inception was excellent. I would love to see a prequel mini-series in comic form. It is a heist movie, but we only see two heists (MINOR SPOILERS) the failure/test opening and the titular (tee hee) attempt. Apparently Cobb had been scraping by pulling off extractions, let's see one! I'm generally leery of sequels/prequels/extra context stuff, but I think this one has a good reason to exist beyond making money.
Batman #700: The first of the DC trinity anniversary special issues. The story is fun and I love the art from very talented people, but I felt a little cheated. It's a great issue, but not five bucks worth of greatness. I know the very talented people had to get paid, but it can't be that much for 8 pages of pin-ups, can it?
I love the eternal Batman thing Morrison is doing and that Terry McGinnis is a part of it. I never caught Batman Beyond, but I always liked its look.
Superman #700: Okay, this is 5 dollars worth of stories. The Robinson story was a good coda to his run on the Super-books. Jurgens's was cute. Superman did Dick Grayson's geometry homework for him once. How great is that? And it's canon. The Straczynski story I'll write about when I do Superman #701.
Wonder Woman #600: The last of the anniversary issues and the best. It had a great mix of stories--Gail Simone's featuring Wondy rallying a group of female heroes and Amanda Conner's featuring her talking to Power Girl's cat (really) being the best--and art--Nicola Scott's glorious piece and Phil Jimenez's epic two page spread featuring most of Wondy's allies and enemies of the past 25 years being the stand-outs--of the three special issues. The opening to Straczynski's run, featuring the new Wonder costume, looks promising and non-permanent. Non-permanent in a good way. Eventually, Wondy will fix her time-stream and undestroy her home and past. Nothing wrong with telling new stories, but burying 25 (really 70) years of lore permanently isn't the way to do it. I know Straczynski is the guy who punched Spider-man's time stream, but DC wouldn't let him do that to it's most famous female character. Right?
(All will be well.)
She-Hulk Sensational #1: A celebration of 30 years of She-Hulk. I stopped reading the regular series after Slott left the character, but I do love her and I had a little extra cash, so I grabbed this one-shot. The first story is a hilarious fourth wall SMASH from Peter David. The second has She-Hulk, Ms Marvel, and Spider-woman fighting then teaming up to fight mooks. The last story is the infamous John Byrne jump rope issue. The first two are excellent. The Byrne story, once you get past the jump roping involves knowing a little bit about what was happening in her story around that time, which I don't, so it falls a bit short for me.
Fables vol. 3: Storybook Love: The Fables pull a heist. Bigsby and Snow get to be badasses. Goldilocks is her crazy self. Oh, and Prince Charming is smarter than he seems. Good times.
Batman: Snow: This looked interesting. It's an early Batman story that tells the origin of Mr. Freeze, using the haunting origin from the nineties cartoon. J.H. Williams III is listed as a writer instead of were I'm used to seeing him, as an artist. I figured this could be a preview of what to expect from Williams's upcoming Batwoman series. I really hope not. Batman: Snow is Linkara bait.
Here's the plot: young, cocky Batman decides that he needs a team outside his contact with the Gotham Police, so he pulls together an investigative team of his own. It ends poorly. Also, Dr. Fries attempts to save his wife's life with freezing technology. It ends poorly.
The story isn't horrible. Thankfully, Williams is only co-credited for story. The script and crappy dialogue falls all on Dan Curtis Johnson. The words in this comic just suck. Towards the end, I was just reading to finish the story, not out of any sense of enjoyment.
One nice thing. Though he often draws goofy faces, like Batman's on the cover, Seth Fisher's art is quirky, but it works. I especially like the way he does Freeze's freeze gun's (not a freeze ray. Think Johnny Snow.) coldness waves.
Incidentally, shouldn't it be Dr. Freeze? He has a Ph.D. in coldness.
Batman: The Cat and the Bat: Young Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl chases Catwoman around Gotham City, then out-smarts/beats up half of Batman's rogues including a young and pathetic Catman, the Joker, and the Riddler. The story is funny, a little sexy (but not overly so), and well-written. It's the anti-Snow.
I kept wanting Steph-Batgirl to meet this Batgirl, followed by my thinking "Oh right, she kinda has."
Unknown Soldier: Haunted House: The book is many things--gripping, affecting, gorgeous--but above all else it is brutal. Not just brutal in the bloody fight scenes, but brutally realistic. Moses' flashback to his break-up with an American woman hit me harder than any machine gunning or land mining in the story. The horrible things we say to each other in anger are on full display as are the horrible things we do to get power.
Summary: Dr. Lwanga Moses leaves Uganda as a child with his family to avoid getting killed in a civil war. He returns as an adult, an avowed pacifist, to help treat the refugees of another war. After having his life threatened, he discovered that he has amazing military training and skills and he gets swept up in the violence.
I'm conflicted on this book. On one hand, it is fantastically written and drawn and I love it. On the other, it is so harsh that I prefer the trades so I can take it in at my own pace, either reading bits at a time or reading it quickly like ripping off a bandage. On one hand, it reinforces the single story of a screwed up Africa*. On the other, it examines why Uganda (and Africa in general) got screwed up and why un-screwing it is such a problem. There are no clear-cut heroes or villains. The protagonist and his allies do horrible things. The antagonists do well as.
Normally, this would be the part where I'd tell you to run out and buy ten copies of the book so it doesn't get canceled. Too late for that. Unknown Solider will end with issue #25. There are two trades, collecting up to #14. Hopefully, Vertigo/DC will release trade(s) of the last 11 in a timely manner. Vertigo is actually really good with that, probably because a lot of their readers read trades.
A few years back for Halloween, I rolled a compression bandage around my face, put on a hat and sunglasses and said I was the Invisible man. I wanted to get a prop axe so I could be an In-Visigoth, but it didn't work out. Maybe this year I can get a prop AK-47 and go as the Unknown Solider. Black guy with a hidden face brandishing a big-ass gun. That wouldn't lead to misunderstandings. Not at all. Maybe I'll grow my 'fro back and go as the Brown Bomber.
*That's a little lengthy (~20 minutes), but worth a watching sometime. I kinda have a crush on her. You will too.
Batman #700: The first of the DC trinity anniversary special issues. The story is fun and I love the art from very talented people, but I felt a little cheated. It's a great issue, but not five bucks worth of greatness. I know the very talented people had to get paid, but it can't be that much for 8 pages of pin-ups, can it?
I love the eternal Batman thing Morrison is doing and that Terry McGinnis is a part of it. I never caught Batman Beyond, but I always liked its look.
Superman #700: Okay, this is 5 dollars worth of stories. The Robinson story was a good coda to his run on the Super-books. Jurgens's was cute. Superman did Dick Grayson's geometry homework for him once. How great is that? And it's canon. The Straczynski story I'll write about when I do Superman #701.
Wonder Woman #600: The last of the anniversary issues and the best. It had a great mix of stories--Gail Simone's featuring Wondy rallying a group of female heroes and Amanda Conner's featuring her talking to Power Girl's cat (really) being the best--and art--Nicola Scott's glorious piece and Phil Jimenez's epic two page spread featuring most of Wondy's allies and enemies of the past 25 years being the stand-outs--of the three special issues. The opening to Straczynski's run, featuring the new Wonder costume, looks promising and non-permanent. Non-permanent in a good way. Eventually, Wondy will fix her time-stream and undestroy her home and past. Nothing wrong with telling new stories, but burying 25 (really 70) years of lore permanently isn't the way to do it. I know Straczynski is the guy who punched Spider-man's time stream, but DC wouldn't let him do that to it's most famous female character. Right?
(All will be well.)
She-Hulk Sensational #1: A celebration of 30 years of She-Hulk. I stopped reading the regular series after Slott left the character, but I do love her and I had a little extra cash, so I grabbed this one-shot. The first story is a hilarious fourth wall SMASH from Peter David. The second has She-Hulk, Ms Marvel, and Spider-woman fighting then teaming up to fight mooks. The last story is the infamous John Byrne jump rope issue. The first two are excellent. The Byrne story, once you get past the jump roping involves knowing a little bit about what was happening in her story around that time, which I don't, so it falls a bit short for me.
Fables vol. 3: Storybook Love: The Fables pull a heist. Bigsby and Snow get to be badasses. Goldilocks is her crazy self. Oh, and Prince Charming is smarter than he seems. Good times.
Batman: Snow: This looked interesting. It's an early Batman story that tells the origin of Mr. Freeze, using the haunting origin from the nineties cartoon. J.H. Williams III is listed as a writer instead of were I'm used to seeing him, as an artist. I figured this could be a preview of what to expect from Williams's upcoming Batwoman series. I really hope not. Batman: Snow is Linkara bait.
Here's the plot: young, cocky Batman decides that he needs a team outside his contact with the Gotham Police, so he pulls together an investigative team of his own. It ends poorly. Also, Dr. Fries attempts to save his wife's life with freezing technology. It ends poorly.
The story isn't horrible. Thankfully, Williams is only co-credited for story. The script and crappy dialogue falls all on Dan Curtis Johnson. The words in this comic just suck. Towards the end, I was just reading to finish the story, not out of any sense of enjoyment.
One nice thing. Though he often draws goofy faces, like Batman's on the cover, Seth Fisher's art is quirky, but it works. I especially like the way he does Freeze's freeze gun's (not a freeze ray. Think Johnny Snow.) coldness waves.
Incidentally, shouldn't it be Dr. Freeze? He has a Ph.D. in coldness.
Batman: The Cat and the Bat: Young Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl chases Catwoman around Gotham City, then out-smarts/beats up half of Batman's rogues including a young and pathetic Catman, the Joker, and the Riddler. The story is funny, a little sexy (but not overly so), and well-written. It's the anti-Snow.
I kept wanting Steph-Batgirl to meet this Batgirl, followed by my thinking "Oh right, she kinda has."
Unknown Soldier: Haunted House: The book is many things--gripping, affecting, gorgeous--but above all else it is brutal. Not just brutal in the bloody fight scenes, but brutally realistic. Moses' flashback to his break-up with an American woman hit me harder than any machine gunning or land mining in the story. The horrible things we say to each other in anger are on full display as are the horrible things we do to get power.
Summary: Dr. Lwanga Moses leaves Uganda as a child with his family to avoid getting killed in a civil war. He returns as an adult, an avowed pacifist, to help treat the refugees of another war. After having his life threatened, he discovered that he has amazing military training and skills and he gets swept up in the violence.
I'm conflicted on this book. On one hand, it is fantastically written and drawn and I love it. On the other, it is so harsh that I prefer the trades so I can take it in at my own pace, either reading bits at a time or reading it quickly like ripping off a bandage. On one hand, it reinforces the single story of a screwed up Africa*. On the other, it examines why Uganda (and Africa in general) got screwed up and why un-screwing it is such a problem. There are no clear-cut heroes or villains. The protagonist and his allies do horrible things. The antagonists do well as.
Normally, this would be the part where I'd tell you to run out and buy ten copies of the book so it doesn't get canceled. Too late for that. Unknown Solider will end with issue #25. There are two trades, collecting up to #14. Hopefully, Vertigo/DC will release trade(s) of the last 11 in a timely manner. Vertigo is actually really good with that, probably because a lot of their readers read trades.
A few years back for Halloween, I rolled a compression bandage around my face, put on a hat and sunglasses and said I was the Invisible man. I wanted to get a prop axe so I could be an In-Visigoth, but it didn't work out. Maybe this year I can get a prop AK-47 and go as the Unknown Solider. Black guy with a hidden face brandishing a big-ass gun. That wouldn't lead to misunderstandings. Not at all. Maybe I'll grow my 'fro back and go as the Brown Bomber.
*That's a little lengthy (~20 minutes), but worth a watching sometime. I kinda have a crush on her. You will too.