War Journal Entry number 696 - Weekly Haul 11/11/09
MARVEL
Amazing Spider-Man #611 - Joe Kelly + Eric Canete. Fuck, yeah, I know, I broke my word and bought an Amazing Spider-Man comic before that DC-style world-manipulating bit of lazy writing was redacted (a.k.a. One More Day). Look, I'm upset with myself enough as is, don't rub it in. I had planned on passing it up, but Deadpool and Spidey together, written by the first great DP writer, proved impossible to resist. Thankfully, it was actually pretty darn funny. Imagine how pissed I would have been if I'd broken down and paid for it, and it wasn't enjoyable. Oy!
Cable #20 - Duane Swierczynski + Mariano Guzman. The art is... not good. It's not awful, but it just feels off. The posing, choices of angles, and flow of the action are pretty good. But the faces are off and inconsistent, making it feel uncomfortable.
Daredevil #502 - Andy Diggle + Roberto De La Torre. It still hasn't really hooked me in yet. I'm enjoying it, but I'm not as excited about it as others online have been.
Dark X-Men #1 of 5 - Paul Cornell + Leonard Kirk. I wasn't originally going to pick this up, but then I heard that X-Man, Nate Grey, was going to return in the series and that hooked me. I'm glad I picked it up. Despite featuring a characters that I mostly dislike or have not found interesting in the past, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The back-up feature, X-Men: A Girl Called Hope part 2 by Swierczynski + Steve Dillon was pretty good. Hell, it was better than some of the recent issues of Cable. And Dillon's version of Cable was great.
Deadpool #17 - Daniel Way + Paco Medina. Deadpool's attempt to win his place on the X-Men by way of publicly assassinating a vocal critic is going as well as could be expected. An amazingly good mix of the serious world of the X-Men with the manic world of Deadpool.
Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1 of 5 - Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning + Kevin Walker. Just like everything else by Abnett & Lanning, the issue was spectacular.
Sky Doll: Doll's Factory #1 of 2 - Barbara Canepa + Alessandro Barbucci. The first moments of Noa are detailed, unfortunately that only accounts for 10 pages. The rest of the issue is the penciled pages of the original and some sketchbook material. Not much substance for $5.99. I'd be much more upset if what we got wasn't so damn good.
Strange #1 of 4 - Mark Waid + Emma Rios. Speaking as a big fan of Dr. Strange, I think this was excellently done. No longer the Sorcerer Supreme, it offers a much more human version of Stephen Strange than we usually see. It's like watching John Constantine at work, but not, you know, an asshole.
S.W.O.R.D. #1 - Kieron Gillen + Steven Sanders/Jamie McKelvie. Delightfully good. Gyrich is as big a douche as ever, but easily outweighed by Abigail Chase, Beast, Lockheed, and other new supporting characters. But of course, I'm always won over with an appearance by my favorite freelance peacekeeping agent, yes?
Uncanny X-Men: First Class #5 of 8 - Scott Gray + Nelson DeCastro/Scott Koblish. It's OK, but doesn't really stand out. I really wish that Jeff Parker was writing this since he made the X-Men: First Class series so fresh.
X-Babies #2 of 4 - Gregg Schigiel + Jacob Chabot. Lots of pretty silly fun. Also reprints the first 10 pages of Planet Terry #1 from the 80s by Lennie Herman + Warren Kremer, which makes me wonder how the series got past the first issue and is still remembered by anyone today.
X-Force #21 - Craig Kyle/Christopher Yost + Clayton Crain. My ongoing complaint about Crain's artwork continues to be exemplified, it's often far too dark to see all the details. Still, it was clear enough to tell that the X-Men aren't doing too well against against the undead
BOOM
Muppet Show Comic Book: The Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson #4 of 4 - Roger Langridge. Another fun issue, yay!
Wall*E #0 - J. Torres + Morgan Luthi. Aww, it's so sad. Good, but it's hard not to feel bad for the lonely little guy.
DC
Booster Gold #26 - Dan Jurgens + Jurgens/Mike Norton. When they said that the dead were going to rise, you just knew that the Ted Kord Blue Beetle was going to be meeting up with Booster. And it's quite good.
Green Lantern Corps #42 - Peter Tomasi + Patrick Gleason. It's getting messy on Oa with more GLs getting injured or killed, but it certainly makes for an exciting read.
Hellblazer #259 & 260 - Peter Milligan + Simon Bisley. It's kind of in the middle of what's going on, so I was pretty lost when it comes to the specifics of the plot. Then again, John hasn't changed much since the last time I read it. I picked them up because Bisley did the art, and it's impossible to pass up something where he does more than just cover.
IDW PUBLISHING
Transformers Continuum - Not only does it do a quick recap of all the IDW Transformers comics (aside from the ones for the Animated and Movie lines), it even gives a reading chronology. The recap held nothing new for me, but it was nice to see where all the one-shot Spotlight comics fit in.
WILDSTORM
Authority volume 4 reader: The Lost Year - Grant Morrison + Gene Ha. Reprints the only two issues of Authority volume 4 that Grant Morrison saw fit to finish. Reading it, I don't know how he didn't expect a huge negative reaction to the first issue - it's exceptionally slow (even by today's standards), and doesn't have any of the Authority actually in it. The second issue was marginally better owing to the fact that the Authority actual do appear, but it's still slower than any other Authority comic ever. Whatever, at least it was relatively cheap as it reprints both issues for the price of a single comic. It's all to get ready for the Keith Giffen to finish the rest of the 12 issue series.
back-issue buy
DC
Green Lantern Annual #7 (1998) - Steve Vance + Ron Lim. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner battles dead GL Corps members re-animated and controlled by Nekron, Lord of the Dead. Blackest Night tie-in? Nope, look again at the year. Just goes to show that the stories have all been told.
The issue itself was only decent, the most interesting thing is how some of the dead GL's here later showed up alive and well. Hmmmm, must have been Superboy Prime punching the side of reality. Or bad editing. One or the other.
Amazing Spider-Man #611 - Joe Kelly + Eric Canete. Fuck, yeah, I know, I broke my word and bought an Amazing Spider-Man comic before that DC-style world-manipulating bit of lazy writing was redacted (a.k.a. One More Day). Look, I'm upset with myself enough as is, don't rub it in. I had planned on passing it up, but Deadpool and Spidey together, written by the first great DP writer, proved impossible to resist. Thankfully, it was actually pretty darn funny. Imagine how pissed I would have been if I'd broken down and paid for it, and it wasn't enjoyable. Oy!
Cable #20 - Duane Swierczynski + Mariano Guzman. The art is... not good. It's not awful, but it just feels off. The posing, choices of angles, and flow of the action are pretty good. But the faces are off and inconsistent, making it feel uncomfortable.
Daredevil #502 - Andy Diggle + Roberto De La Torre. It still hasn't really hooked me in yet. I'm enjoying it, but I'm not as excited about it as others online have been.
Dark X-Men #1 of 5 - Paul Cornell + Leonard Kirk. I wasn't originally going to pick this up, but then I heard that X-Man, Nate Grey, was going to return in the series and that hooked me. I'm glad I picked it up. Despite featuring a characters that I mostly dislike or have not found interesting in the past, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The back-up feature, X-Men: A Girl Called Hope part 2 by Swierczynski + Steve Dillon was pretty good. Hell, it was better than some of the recent issues of Cable. And Dillon's version of Cable was great.
Deadpool #17 - Daniel Way + Paco Medina. Deadpool's attempt to win his place on the X-Men by way of publicly assassinating a vocal critic is going as well as could be expected. An amazingly good mix of the serious world of the X-Men with the manic world of Deadpool.
Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1 of 5 - Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning + Kevin Walker. Just like everything else by Abnett & Lanning, the issue was spectacular.
Sky Doll: Doll's Factory #1 of 2 - Barbara Canepa + Alessandro Barbucci. The first moments of Noa are detailed, unfortunately that only accounts for 10 pages. The rest of the issue is the penciled pages of the original and some sketchbook material. Not much substance for $5.99. I'd be much more upset if what we got wasn't so damn good.
Strange #1 of 4 - Mark Waid + Emma Rios. Speaking as a big fan of Dr. Strange, I think this was excellently done. No longer the Sorcerer Supreme, it offers a much more human version of Stephen Strange than we usually see. It's like watching John Constantine at work, but not, you know, an asshole.
S.W.O.R.D. #1 - Kieron Gillen + Steven Sanders/Jamie McKelvie. Delightfully good. Gyrich is as big a douche as ever, but easily outweighed by Abigail Chase, Beast, Lockheed, and other new supporting characters. But of course, I'm always won over with an appearance by my favorite freelance peacekeeping agent, yes?
Uncanny X-Men: First Class #5 of 8 - Scott Gray + Nelson DeCastro/Scott Koblish. It's OK, but doesn't really stand out. I really wish that Jeff Parker was writing this since he made the X-Men: First Class series so fresh.
X-Babies #2 of 4 - Gregg Schigiel + Jacob Chabot. Lots of pretty silly fun. Also reprints the first 10 pages of Planet Terry #1 from the 80s by Lennie Herman + Warren Kremer, which makes me wonder how the series got past the first issue and is still remembered by anyone today.
X-Force #21 - Craig Kyle/Christopher Yost + Clayton Crain. My ongoing complaint about Crain's artwork continues to be exemplified, it's often far too dark to see all the details. Still, it was clear enough to tell that the X-Men aren't doing too well against against the undead
BOOM
Muppet Show Comic Book: The Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson #4 of 4 - Roger Langridge. Another fun issue, yay!
Wall*E #0 - J. Torres + Morgan Luthi. Aww, it's so sad. Good, but it's hard not to feel bad for the lonely little guy.
DC
Booster Gold #26 - Dan Jurgens + Jurgens/Mike Norton. When they said that the dead were going to rise, you just knew that the Ted Kord Blue Beetle was going to be meeting up with Booster. And it's quite good.
Green Lantern Corps #42 - Peter Tomasi + Patrick Gleason. It's getting messy on Oa with more GLs getting injured or killed, but it certainly makes for an exciting read.
Hellblazer #259 & 260 - Peter Milligan + Simon Bisley. It's kind of in the middle of what's going on, so I was pretty lost when it comes to the specifics of the plot. Then again, John hasn't changed much since the last time I read it. I picked them up because Bisley did the art, and it's impossible to pass up something where he does more than just cover.
IDW PUBLISHING
Transformers Continuum - Not only does it do a quick recap of all the IDW Transformers comics (aside from the ones for the Animated and Movie lines), it even gives a reading chronology. The recap held nothing new for me, but it was nice to see where all the one-shot Spotlight comics fit in.
WILDSTORM
Authority volume 4 reader: The Lost Year - Grant Morrison + Gene Ha. Reprints the only two issues of Authority volume 4 that Grant Morrison saw fit to finish. Reading it, I don't know how he didn't expect a huge negative reaction to the first issue - it's exceptionally slow (even by today's standards), and doesn't have any of the Authority actually in it. The second issue was marginally better owing to the fact that the Authority actual do appear, but it's still slower than any other Authority comic ever. Whatever, at least it was relatively cheap as it reprints both issues for the price of a single comic. It's all to get ready for the Keith Giffen to finish the rest of the 12 issue series.
back-issue buy
DC
Green Lantern Annual #7 (1998) - Steve Vance + Ron Lim. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner battles dead GL Corps members re-animated and controlled by Nekron, Lord of the Dead. Blackest Night tie-in? Nope, look again at the year. Just goes to show that the stories have all been told.
The issue itself was only decent, the most interesting thing is how some of the dead GL's here later showed up alive and well. Hmmmm, must have been Superboy Prime punching the side of reality. Or bad editing. One or the other.