The Badass Files #2 - Nathan Kane

(I couldn't find a good portrait shot of Nathan Kane online and my scanner's not cooperating with me right now so here's a picture of Avery Brooks. )

Nathan Kane appears in the miniseries Ocean and he is a badass. Unlike many other badasses, Kane beats people up WITH HIS BRAIN! That's right. Nathan Kane is a Warren Ellis protagonist which means that he is smarter than those around him and he uses those smarts to obliterate his opposition.

Kane doesn't go looking for trouble but he's not afraid to mix it up when people screw with his stuff. Therefore he has a rating of .74 Waynes*.

First off, he has a badass name. Nathan Kane.

Second, he's a U.N. Weapons Inspector. That's a pretty badass job. You know what makes it even more badass? He's a space-faring U.N. Weapons Inspector! He gets to go to Jupiter!

Finally, he's not afraid to use anything as a weapon. A gun, an orbital lander,

or

the gravity generators on a spaceship!! ZOMG!!!!

I'm just going to let the following pages do the talking for the remainder of the post. Click the thumbnails for readable versions.


Badass.

*The Official Unit of the Badass Scale

I Have No Pull List.

I have no pull list.

I love comics. Comics are poems of movies, or dreams of novels. They are one of the biggest--if not the single biggest--inspiration for my art. But I had to let them go.

...well, the monthly issues anyway. I'm a trade paperback guy now. I suspect I will remain one. When my wife and I moved this year, one of the things I had to lug were some longboxes. Now, granted, I don't have nearly as many as some of my friends, but still--there's nothing like lugging heavy-ass longboxes up flights of narrow stairs to get you thinking about this hobby.

Sure, I pull out issues every now and then. I do. My comics are not hermetically sealed. I do not buy them as a collector--they're there to be read. The only reason they're in longboxes is because there's no other way to store them effectively without destroying them.

But you can put a trade paperback on a shelf. On a shelf! How sweet is that? Easier to sneak on business trips too. Much easier to loan out.

Have you ever tried loaning a non-comics friend a set of individual issues to read, hoping to engage them in the hobby? Yeah, how'd that work out? In my experience, trade paperbacks convert the non-believer more often then a slick stack of plastic-wrapped individual issues.

Downsides: I miss the monthly drip-drip of comics goodness, I cannot find a good source that shows me the release schedules of trades ONLY (without also listing every individual title coming out), and then there's the whole "paced for trades" problem afflicting the industry.

So...how does everyone feel about trades versus monthly issues? Does anybody know of a real easy way for me to stay on top of the release schedules of trades? How do people feel about how trades have affected the pace of storytelling in the industry?

Ringing in 2007

Hey there!

I'm Chuck, one of the new kids on this blog. I'd like to thank Vaklam for inviting me to participate. I grew up on DC Comics, and jumped over to the X-Men and other Marvel comics later on, but I enjoy books from both, as well as some independent and manga titles.

For my first post here, I thought I'd identify some comic-related things I'm looking forward to in 2007.

1. More books by Doug TenNapel. I remember when I first played Earthworm Jim and wondered who was coming up with the crazy, cartoony designs in it. TenNapel has produced several graphic novels that I've greatly enjoyed (Creature Tech, Tommysaurus Rex, Earthboy Jacobus, and Iron West). This year will see the re-release of his first comics work, Gear (which was adapted for animation as Nickelodeon's series Catscratch), as well as a new work, Black Cherry. This is a good thing.

2. Jeff Smith's Shazam project. I've been a fan of Jeff Smith's Bone series for some time, and my appreciation for the Golden Age Captain Marvel goes back even farther, so I've been anticipating Smith's take on the character since this project was announced a few years ago. Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil will be coming out as a Prestige Format mini-series beginning this February.

3. The finale to Planetary. It's hard to believe that I've been reading Planetary for this long, and there's only one issue to go. I had already enjoyed the work of Warren Ellis (including his work on Stormwatch and Authority that directly preceded this), but this title introduced me to John Cassaday's pencils.

4. More Essentials and Showcase volumes. I've really been enjoying the "phone books" that Marvel and DC have been producing. I cannot rationally explain the enjoyment I get from the reprinted Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, but the feeling is genuine. Upcoming highlights (for me, anyway) include the first Legion of Super-Heroes Showcase, and the second Luke Cage: Power Man Essential.

5. The Sinestro Corps. I'm not even going to try to explain this one. The potential for awesomeness is high; we'll see how the execution is before the end of the year.

There are also some items that have not been announced, but I'd love to see this year:

1. A series for Doctor Thirteen. DC's mini-series focusing on the Spectre, Tales of the Unexpected, is not hitting on as many cylinders for me as I had hoped; it's too bad, since I'm a fan of both Crispus Allen and the Spectre. However, the backup story in this mini-series featuring Doctor Thirteen has been excellent. Take a man who steadfastly refuses to believe in the supernatural--which can be hard to do in the DC Universe--and his teenage daughter, and throw them in with a frozen caveman, ghost pirates, and Nazi gorilla commandos, and you've got instant entertainment. More, please.

2. More Carl Barks collections. The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa reignited my interest in Scrooge, and I remembered some of those great duck stories I read as a kid, some of which were included in the Carl Barks Duck Tales collections that came out this year. This age of Peanuts reprints has inspired the collection of other material, such as IDW's Dick Tracy collection; this might be the time to compile an archive of the work of Carl Barks.

3. The original Monster Society of Evil. Captain Marvel's first encounter back in the Golden Age was a serial that ran in 25 installments, and I believe it was the first lengthy, extended comics story of its kind. (I'm sure some comics historian can correct me if that's not the case.) With a Shazam film in development, it might be good to get some more classic work in print. I appreciate the DC Archives series, but not everyone can afford to pick those up. I really just want the Monster Society of Evil story in one trade paperback.

4. More of The Spirit. I liked the first issue of Darwyn Cooke's new series, and I enjoyed the trade paperback collecting the best Spirit stories, but there's one more thing I want. Over a decade ago, there was a Spirit series done by rotating creators that paid homage to the original series. I can remember stories by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman off the top of my head. The Spirit: New Adventures was never collected into trade form, and I think there's a prime audience for it now.

Finally, there's one other thing I'm looking forward to this year, and that's the discovery of new books through the comics blogosphere. There are a number of comics that I never would have known about if I hadn't read about them on blogs, books like Street Angel, Iron Wok Jan, Smoke, Hikaru No Go, and Scott Pilgrim, to name a few, and I can't wait to read more.

This isn't everything I want to see this year (there's more Young Avengers, a third season of Venture Bros., and more), but it's a good start. Is there anything coming out this year that I missed? What are you looking forward to?

New Universal #2 - Marvel (2007)

When I think "comics" the first thing that springs to my mind is the feeling I got reading them in the '80s. That was the time that comics felt like mine. Like I was discovering something that was written for me. A big part of that was Marvel's New Universe line which was Jim Shooter's project to celebrate Marvel's 25th anniversary. The setting was a "world like our own" which got superpowers dropped into it overnight when the "White Event" (literally an enormous white light which filled the sky) happened. I was aware of some of the faults even at the time (Kickers Inc., anyone?) but I thought it was awesome.

Warren Ellis continues his "screwing-with-marvel-tropes" kick with New Universal and it feels every bit as awesome as the first go 'round. The first issue started off with a bang (get it, "White Event"? "Bang"? Oh, I kill me!) and #2 just adds to the awesome.

So far, Ellis has taken Justice, Nightmask, Spitfire and Star Brand and he's done some cool stuff with them. Ellis is in "serious" mode on this one (think Ocean) rather than wacky, Nextwave mode. The interpretations are darker and better fleshed out than the first batch and my favorite part of this is that Ellis is weaving all the stories together.

If you like other stuff by Ellis you will probably like this one but it's not without its faults. There are a couple of wordless action sequences in issue #2 which are confusing and there's the patented Ellis Infodump part of the way through but as long as the story remains compelling and as long as it's accompanied by beautiful Salvador Larroca art like the example from #1 below, it will stay in my hold box.

New Year, New Members

I have invited some comic-geek friends of mine to help me out with this blog. Melissa has been a member for a while now but the others (see their names over there on the right) are brand new. I'll let them introduce themselves as they begin posting.

The metamorphosis of Noetic Concordance into a group blog came from several really good discussions I have had with each of these people about comics and other geeky things. Now I am inflicting them on you. So, you threes of readers, welcome the new gang!

Happy Freakin' New Year

Noetic Concordance is like a Marvel character. Just when you thought it was dead it comes back with a new costume and a half-assed explanation for its resurrection.

I am blowing the dust off this blog and I intend to post regularly once again. Since it's been a while I'm going to start out easy and list my favorite comics from 2006.

Nextwave: This is at the top of my list because it's at the TOP OF MY LIST!!! It is the most fun I have had reading a comic in years. I'll be sorry to see it go with #12 but it's been a great ride. Also, the cover image below sums up my opinion of the whole Civil War thing:



Local: There were only a couple of missteps in this title by Oni Press and those were still really good reads. Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly worked beautifully together. If you're looking for a non-superhero book this may be the one for you. I don't know if there are any plans for a trade once the last two issues hit the stands but there are probably some back issues of the early ones around by now.

Young Avengers: This is what I read comics for. OK, most of the storyline was released in 2005 but just thinking about Young Avengers made 2006 better.

Ultimate Extinction: An excellent twist on the Galactus story. I still hope the Galactus in the Fantastic Four sequel is a big, freakin' guy, though.

The Return of the GLC: When I have superhero fantasies I imagine myself as a Green Lantern. 'Nuff said.

Owly: The best thing about Free Comic Book Day last year was that it reminded me of Owly's existence. If you are not familiar with Owly, gaze upon Andy Runton's website, ye mighty, and despair.

Astonishing X-Men: Joss Whedon's writing ability is what mine wants to be when it grows up. He groks the X-Men and John Cassaday makes this a joy to stare at as well as to read.

X-factor: Peter David, ladies and gentlemen. This is one of those House of M fallout moments that nearly made that whole tedious event worth it.

Gødland: Dang! Gødland is crazy! I like it for the same reasons I love Nextwave. It's a fun ride and the story is exactly the right kind of absurd. The art really makes this book, though. This is the case with a lot of comics but if Gødland didn't have the whole Kirby-on-acid thing going for it, it wouldn't have nearly as much praise heaped on it.



I pretty much ignored both Civil War and 52 so I can't comment about them except where they showed up in the regular titles I was reading.

I will now comment on one of the things I said I wouldn't comment on: Frankly, I find the whole Civil War storyline to be tedious. They did something kind of cool with it in the new Heroes For Hire series but that's chiefly because Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are writing it. It's getting in the way of some other potentially cool stories such as the new Iron Fist monthly. Here's Danny Rand in the middle of fighting the entirety of Hydra and he has to take a break to whine about the No-Secret-Identities Act.

I thought the House of M fallout had its moments but I was unimpressed with the big storyline. I am obviously not the target audience for these meta-events.

The Battle for Blüdhaven - DC (2006)

OK, I have a confession to make:

I have no idea where Blüdhaven is supposed to be. For a while, there, I was keeping up with the DC version of North America pretty well. I can still point to Gotham, Metropolis, Star City and Coast City (old and new) on a map. I'm a B-student of made-up geography.

I haven't really kept up with the Big Events in either mainstream universe. All the Crises and Wars have pretty much passed me by. I vaguely remember a reference to Blüdhaven a few years back in one of the Batman-related books but for all I knew it was a Swedish death-metal band.

Like many of the One Year Later issues, this issue does a decent job of catching me up on the past 52 weeks of story. It also tells me most of what I need to know about Blüdhaven. Well, except for why anyone would name an American city after something scrawled on the back of a 14-year-old boy's math notebook.

Blüdhaven is a pretty crappy place to live and all the government-sanctioned superheroes, radioactive freaks and that enormous wall haven't made things any better.

The characterizations are good and the dialogue manages to avoid being pure infodump which is nice. I almost always like Jimmy Palmiotti's writing (espeically in the last couple of years) and he and Justin Gray work well together. The art by Dan Jurgens and Palmiotti is well-executed and I've gotta give props to Javi Montes for the colors on this. They are appropriately dark without getting muddy. They really help convey how creepy and depressing this place is.

I'll pick up #2 to see where they're going with this. They're bound to mention it in relation to some other city at some point and then I can stick a pin in my mental DC map.

EDIT: A Google search reveals that Blüdhaven is next to Gotham City but has an even higher crime rate. That makes sense. Gotham is so fucked up that any town near it would have to call itself "Blüdhaven" just to keep from getting swallowed up by the weirdness that is Gotham.

The umlaut is for respect.

A quick note, bub

I've been re-reading some X-Men stories lately and one thing stands out:

No matter who the creative team, the Fastball Special comes up a lot.

A whole lot.

To the extent that it's not really that "special" anymore, is it?

BEAST: "Pardon me, Logan, could you pass me that beer?"

WOLVERINE: "Sure thing, fuzzy." [grabs beer] "Colossus! Fastball Special!"

BEAST: @#$%!!

In which I bitch about free stuff I didn't get

Free Comic Book Day has come and gone but most of you already knew that. Seriously, if you're reading my blog for "the latest in comics news" you are horribly, horribly misguided.

This year was really disappointing. Turns out that none of the comic stores in Nashville received any of the Silver Sponsor List comics. Those were the ones I was most looking forward to. Particularly Owly. Dammit! I loves me some Owly! I mean, shit, look at him:



I rest my case.

I picked up one each of the Gold offerings and so far, I've been pretty disappointed. The Runaways/X-Men book was horribly written and had the least appropriate art I've seen in months. It also had a bunch of other stuff from titles Marvel wants to push crammed in there. Image attempted to give readers a taste of their titles by chopping, like, a million of them up and giving us a tenth of a panel from each one with which to decide whether we want to spend our money on the full issues. I think they would have been better off giving us an actual full issue.

Tokyopop didn't just give us one full issue they gave us three! In a digest-sized book. And they were all good. Especially Kat and Mouse. I'm going to keep an eye out for that Manga.

The Conan story from Dark Horse was good as was the art. The Star Wars story on the other side was OK. I liked the art but the story was straight out of "Stock Badass Squad Tales vol. 3". Meh.

I haven't read the Transformers, Archie, Bongo or Donald Duck books yet but it says something about the quality of many of the others that I'm looking forward to those as breaths of fresh air.

Moon Knight #1 - Marvel (2006)

As I mentioned last summer, Moon Knight is a badass

I have been a huge Moon Knight fan since I first read Marvel Team-Up Annual #4. This reboot of the series is off to a great start. I'm not going to go into much detail on the story elements in order to avoid some minor spoilers but I will say that I am very pleased with the direction this appears to be going.

Charlie Huston has written an excellent introduction to the character which will initiate those who are unfamiliar with Moon Knight while giving fanboys like me a lot to enjoy. Some parts of this come dangerously close to "dirtying up" the character in the same manner that Identity Crisis tried (unsuccessfully) to do with the JLA. However, I don't think Huston is going that route. Right now, it looks like he's adding depth to the character along with giving him a good point to struggle up from.

I'm not a huge fan of David Finch's art. Something about the way he draws a lot of his faces bothers me on a level I can't quite identify. He's doing a good job with Moon Knight so far, though, and I really like the level of detail he's working at. The visual star of this book is Frank D'armata, the colorist. He's working with a dark, muted palette for most of the pages which fits the mood of the comic perfectly.

I had my hopes pretty high for this one and I am not disappointed. If the upcoming Green Lantern Corps series lives up to my expectations my hold box will be a very happy place.


Now, if somebody would just bring back The Badger...

Blue Beetle #1 - DC (2006)

I haven't been reading any of the Infinite Crisis titles but I have been keeping up with the general events.

The cover and the creative team on Blue Beetle caught my eye enough to pick this one up. Plus, I really like the two previous incarnations of the Blue Beetle character so I thought I'd give this a shot.

I'm glad I did because Keith Giffen and John Rogers are doing a fine job with the writing and Cully Hamner is drawing the hell out of it. The design on the title character (arguably the most important visual element of the book) is spectacular. Check out the cover above. The interior art is just as good and the cool things that the Beetle armor can do are, er, cool.

There are no surprises in the story but it's well told. It's a typical kid-finds-a-doodad-and-has-to-discover-his-powers-on-the-job. It's like Iron Man meets Greatest American Hero.

The only problem I have with this first issue is that it's a bit too much of an intro issue. I would have liked more of an actual story. This feels like half of an issue. Still, this half of an issue is enough to get me to buy #2.

Ultimate Extinction #3 - Marvel (2006)

I have really been enjoying Ultimate Extinction. The conflicts and resolutions between the ultimate versions of the FF, Nick Fury and Iron Man are a lot of fun to read. I'm at MidSouthCon this weekend so I don't have a lot of time to go into great detail on how much I like it but you can read my review of #2 for many of the details.

Issue #3 has a much better cover than #2 (not like that was hard) and it has me wondering if they are going to break out the Ultimate Ultimate Nullifier to destroy Gah Lak Tus.

The Circle is Complete

The Hurting has published a new Doom's Mailbag featuring a question by Dorian with mentions of Tegan and Mike.

The following letter is from some guy named Kevin.

CBDR

Scott from Polite Dissent is compiling a Comic Book Drug Reference which is fitting, since he's a doctor and a comics geek. Also fittingly, there's an entire appendix devoted to Transmetropolitan

Jimmy Olsen gets his own section which covers his "experimental" phase.

Lazy Tuesday

Actual content is on the way now that I've picked up my metric ton of comics from the FLCS.

Until then, here's a little linkblogging action for you:

Check out this frighteningly complete list of comic-character religious affiliations in which The Atheist is outed as an atheist! You heard it here, first, folks.

The lovely and talented Dave Campbell reviews one of my favorite comic issues ever. Alpha Flight #6 is one of those comic gimmicks that worked. Kinda like the G.I. Joe Silent Issue except this one is full of pictures of polar bears eating marshmallows in a snowstorm.

Now, go buy some comics tomorrow!

Elsa commands it!

I apologize in advance...

Spoiler Alert!









































.

Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #5(of 5) - DC (2006)

This miniseries was almost everything I hoped it would be. I thought I was a big Green Lantern fan for years but it turns out I was a big Green Lantern Corps fan.

I discovered that stories about individual GLs didn't captivate me like those of the Corps. I'm sure Hal, Kyle and John are perfectly nice fellas but during the time that the Corps didn't exist I found their tales no different from those of any other mega-powerful superhero. The structure of the Corps, however, allows many different kinds of stories to be told. Stories about camraderie, stories about duty vs. "the right thing", stories about teamwork. Stories I really like.

Fortunately, Dave Gibbons and Geoff Johns like those kinds of stories, too. It's obvious that Guy Gardner is the favorite Lantern of either or both writers because he gets to Always Be Right but that's OK, he's a good character and in their hands he shines.

This mini had epic space battles, enormous power levels and reflections on the nature of morality and belonging. Hell, issue 5 had that. Oh, by the way, if you are even a little arachnophobic, you might want to read certain panels of #5 with caution.

I am quite pleased with the overall story but I do have a few quibbles with the writing. For example, much is made of how the Corps has brought beings from all over the galaxy together to serve a Greater Purpose. Corps members who were at each other's throats in issue one were bestest buds by the end of the miniseries. I have no problem with that, in general. In fact, that can be very powerful and touching when it's well-told. The turnarounds in this case were a bit abrupt. I would have liked it better if some of those rivalries and hatreds hadn't been so neatly smoothed over.

If I have a few quibbles with the writing, I have some major problems with the art. I don't know whether to blame the penciller (Patrick Gleason) or the inker (Prentis Rollins) but there are several panels in this issue in which it is nearly impossible to tell what's going on. In a comic featuring many, many characters who all dress pretty much the same it is vital to be clear with your visuals. Also, there's a weird forshortening/distortion effect that shows up on many of the faces which throws me off.

Having bitched about that, there are some moments of artistic brilliance, especially in this last issue, but for the most part, the lines are way too heavy which obscures the differences between individual faces. There were a few points at which I had no idea who was supposed to be speaking.

Despite these shortcomings, I can recommend this miniseries to anyone who likes the GLC or who would like to get in on the ground floor of this new incarnation. Flip through a few pages first to make sure the visuals are your cup of tea.

If you missed the individual issues, the trade will be out on June 21st. The new GLC ongoing series should show up around that time, as well. No clues about the creative team on that one but I'll keep you informed as I get news. Anybody else know?

Nextwave #2 - Marvel (2006)

I love Nextwave like an illegitimate child who showed up on my doorstep with a suitcase full of twenty-dollar bills and porn.

Nextwave is funny.

It is also a damn good action comic.

These things are to be expected from Warren Ellis and it's nice to see them coming together in this manner. Stuart Immonen isn't just drawing this thing he's designing it! His style for this book is sort of a Bruce-Timm-Meets-Jerry-Bruckheimer thing that works really well with the mescaline trip that is the storyline.

Wade von Grawbadger's inks are spot on and enhance the pencils beautifully. The colors by Dave McCalg are vivid and over the top just like everything else about this book. Also, I will take any opportunity to type the words "Grawbadger" and "McCalg".

I am having so much fun reading this. So is Mike Sterling. If two comics bloggers agree on something it's officially a movement, you know. Perhaps we should have chosen something more earth-shaking than "I'm really enjoying this comic". Eh, we'll do better next time.

If you missed the first issue you can still pick this one up and, thanks to the Primer on the first page, catch up on the story, such as it is. Really, all you need to know is that Nextwave (led by Monica Rambeau, aka Photon, aka Capt. Marvel) is fighting Fin Fang Foom.

Yeah, this guy:



Ellis and Immonen are really kicking ass on this book. If you're the type who takes comic continuity too seriously, stay away from this one. If you like to laugh at the many quirks of this hobby of ours, check it out. It's lowbrow, violent, irreverent and hilarious. Ellis has put three of my favorite characters from Marvel's history (Captain Marvel, Boom-Boom and Machine Man) on a team together blowing lots and lots of stuff up. Also, he takes a much-deserved stab at the "Scarlet Witch goes bonkers and kills, like, everyone" storyline and then uses it as the setup for a dick joke.

Genius!

It's like The Authority mixed with a frat party.

I will now refrain from using the term "high-octane" in this review.

Damn.

A simple declaration

I am hereby declaring my desire to see Batman with a bird on his head as soon as is humanly possible.

Who's with me?



Also, dang! Check out Any Eventuality. It's a well-written, very cool comics blog that I just now found out about.

Welcome Melissa!! & Legion #15 (sort of)

I was gonna post about how much I am still enjoying Legion of Super-Heroes despite a few cheesy decisions on the part of Mark Waid but The Shrew Review beat me to it wth her post about issue 12 and said it better than I would have.

So, um, check out the picture from issue #15 above. You don't have to be a total Legion geek like I am to appreciate the humor in this issue but it helps. It involves dimension hopping, time travel and crossovers with many, many old-school DC titles. Good stuff. The illustrated letters column is particularly funny this time.

Also, join me in welcoming my wife, Melissa Gay, to the blog! I was going to post my review of Nextwave #2 tonight but the aforementioned wife grabbed it before I could read it. **sigh** It'll be up tomorrow.

Look upon my comics, ye mighty and Despair!

Speakeasy Comics is calling it quits which is too bad, really. The Comics Reporter has details including a link which will download a Word document with a short email from a former "unofficial" company representative, whatever that means.

I know nothing about the guy who ran the company other than reports of some bad experiences from some creators, one of whom told me of his woes first-hand during a signing at my favorite local comic shop. I liked two of their titles but didn't read any of the others which, I suppose, was part of the problem. I looked over their ads and solicits and it was obvious that this was a case of "Too Much Too Quickly".

I hope that The Gatesville Company finds another home. Their site doesn't have any news on that front, yet. The first two issues of that book were outstanding. You can find my glowing review of the first issue earlier in this blog.

Stories of hubris are always good for a refreshing splash of Schadenfreude but it sucks that a lot of creators got banged up along the way.

Ultimate Extinction #2 - Marvel (2006)

OK. Lousy Cover^*. I mean, seriously, The Thing as depicted above looks worse than Michael Chiklis's makeup in the FF movie:



Which, as you can see, is pretty hard to do.

Despite that cover the interior art (ostensibly by the same person) kicks ass. The writing's good, too. Warren Ellis has introduced Ultimate Moondragon, Ultimate Silver Surfer and Ultimate Misty Knight. Now, those of you who have been watching the show so far know that "Ultimate" before someting usually means that that person goes up a few notches on the badass scale. Ultimate Hawkeye, for example, is someone I'd actually be intimidated by. Regular continuity (or "Earth-616" to those of us with no lives) Hawkeye often came off as a goofball. Sure, he had his cool moments but for the most part he wasn't someone that, were I a criminal, I'd be too worried about.

HAWKEYE: "Stop or I'll plug you full of arrows!"

ARCH VILLAIN: "Big deal! I've got adamantium armor! What are you gonna do? Strap Ant Man to one of them?"

Anyway, Misty Knight is one of the coolest characters Marvel ever came up with. She's an ex-cop, bounty hunter cyborg! And she dates Iron Fist. Badass! Ultimate Misty Knight hasn't met Ultimate Danny Rand yet but she is even badass-er than her counterpart in the 616. Also, since she's being written by Warren Ellis, she gets much better lines. She goes toe to toe with Ulimate Silver Surfer (cosmic badass!) and survives. Day-um!

There's a good "Revenge of the Geeks" moment between Reed Richards and Nick Fury. Ellis is playing up the whole "smart guys rule" angle very well.

The story is moving along nicely with no slow spots or padding. Gah Lak Tus (who turns out to be some sort of hive mind) is moving inexorably towards Earth and everyone who is aware of it is freaking out. Good stuff.

As I mentioned above, the interior art is good. In fact, it's excellent! Brandon Peterson (inks and pencils) does a great job of conveying the action as well as the quieter moments. He's a good fit with Ellis's writing on this book. It turns out I forgot to put this in either of my local hold boxes. This will be corrected with all due haste.

*Speaking of covers have you seen the latest Vanity Fair cover? WARNING: NOT WORK SAFE!!

Now that's the way to do a cover right!

Young Avengers #10 - Marvel (2006)

I've mentioned many, many times before how much I'm enjoying Young Avengers but Heinberg continues to raise the bar. This is a good time to be a comics fan what with all the cool stuff being published and Young Avengers is my favorite thing on the shelves right now.

I won't blow the surprise at the end of the issue but I will say that it is the sort of thing that, in the hands of a lesser writer, could have been monumentally stupid. Heinberg makes it work.

The Young Avengers make a decision that seems a bit out of character for most of them but I have a feeling that it'll work itself out in the next couple of issues.

So, if you see an issue in the store flip through it and see if it's your cup of superpowers. A little knowledge of Marvel Universe history is helpful but not necessary for enjoying this book.

Issues 1 - 6 are available in a trade if you want to start at the very beginning. It is, after all, a very good place to start.

Adieu!

Shouting Into The Void

Hooray! New laptop! New post!

Comics-related content to follow Real Soon Now but I just wanted to say that Noetic Concordance is back and even though I haven't been posting I definitely haven't stopped reading comics. I'm really enjoying Nextwave and Young Avengers along with many other things that have come out in the past three months or so. Mr. Miracle and Frankenstein are continuing the fine Seven Soldiers tradition.

While you wait for the new stuff to show up, Noetic Concordance presents the following comparison as a public service:


Spiderman shooting a web:



Dr. Strange casting a spell:



The official Heavy Metal Sign:



It's easy to get these confused.

You're welcome.

Unplanned Hiatus

The combination of a dead laptop and a new (better) job with no opportunities to post from work have combined to kill my posting lately. Noetic Concordance will be back soon with regular posts and possibly a new member. More as it happens.

In the meantime, here's a cool picture of Zzutak from the Monsters of Jack Kirby website:

Young Avengers #9 - Marvel (2005)

OK, if you've read any of my previous Young Avengers reviews you know what to expect. Here goes:

Man, this title just gets better and better. First off, behold that cover. Check out all its majesty! Go on, check it out.

The interior art is fine, as well. Jim Cheung started out with a bang and he has refined the look of this book with each issue. He also does some of the inking along with Dave Meikis and John Dell. That's right, Cheung draws with the strength of three men! The visual team (including Justin Ponsor on colors) really makes this book work. The style shifts slightly from sketchy to detailed according to the needs of the individual page.

As for the writing, Alan Heinberg continues to kick ass. He has surprised me many times in Young Avengers and issue #9 is no exception. Whoa, mama, is this no exception. They're gonna make a movie where Godzilla fights my sense of pleasant surprise at the Thing That Happens in this issue. I won't spoil it for you but if you're a fan of old-school Marvel (and you've liked the Young Avengers so far) you won't be disappointed in this issue.

It starts off rather formulaically with all the kids bummed that The Man is not letting them be superheroes but, like a good Joss Whedon show, it twists about a quarter of the way through and gets better and then even more betterer!

There is a Shocking Image at one point in the comic but it works for the story.

I simply can't say enough good things about this title. Flip through the first trade if you haven't seen any of the issues yet. It's well worth the money. I've said it before and I hope I get to keep on saying it:

This is what I read comics for!

Zatanna #4 (of 4) - DC (2005)

OK, that last post wasn't really a review, as such. You want a review? You can't handle a review!

*ahem*

Sorry.

Zatanna has concluded and it remains my favorite of all the miniseries which make up the big Seven Soldiers of Fate megaminiseries. I have enjoyed all the others but it's going to be hard to top this one. Sometimes Grant Morrison is too cutting-edge to be clearly understood. Even then, it's usually fun to hang on and enjoy the ride. When Morrison is on, though, he's really on. With Seven Soldiers, he is super on!

Zatanna can be read on its own without the need for any of the other miniseries. As you might guess, some things will be clearer and more entertaining if you have read, say, Shining Knight but this mini holds up by itself. Morrison throws so many bizarre concepts together and he makes them work. In this issue, Zatanna goes in search of the Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp. Even if you don't recognize them from the single issue which started this megaminiseries, just the coolness of the words "Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp" should suffice.

The best part of this issue is the appearance of a Golden Age magical villain. I suppose it's a spoiler to reveal his name but it's not like anyone is going to buy this comic just because he shows up. Suffice it to say that the battle between Zatanna and the enemy sorceror is the best wizards' duel I have seen in a comic book ever. Morrison goes totally metaphysical with this and I love it.

For all the great writing, this miniseries would not have had half the impact on me that it did if Ryan Sook had not been doing the art. That cover up there is his and the interiors are even better. I can't come up with a better person to have drawn this. The synergy between Sook's art and Morrison's writing makes this comic much greater than the sum of its parts. There were a couple of heartbreaking moments in this issue and both creators get the credit for them.

Now, to read Frankenstein.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #25 - Marvel (2005)

Hey, I'm back to posting reviews! I just picked up UFF #25 and it's official: I'm dropping it from my hold box. I'm not fond of Mark Millar's writing so that's a strike against it, right there. When you combine the writing I don't like with Greg Land's art (which I really don't like) you get a dropped book.

It's not that Land is a bad artist, it's just that his heavy reliance on photo references turns me off. You can find examples of Land's work in so many places on the net that I'm not going to bother reproducing the cover here. I prefer to insert the cover of Fantastic Four #4 instead:

OK, if you really want to see the Land cover, it's on this page

Anyway, if you like what Millar has done with UFF so far, you'll probably like this storyline. I admit that he did do something interesting with Namor's character but it's just not what I want to read. Also, I don't like his characterizations of Reed and Sue. When Warren Ellis was writing UFF Sue was presented as much stronger and more capable than the Millar version. Ellis's Reed was far more interesting and three-dimensional. I get the feeling that Millar just sees these characters as plot modules with great hair.

Improving

Jason Rodriguez has written another excellent, helpful article in his Here's the Thing series in which he walks us through the process of creating his promotional comic.

If you are even remotely interested in doing something similar you should check this out. In fact, the entire DC Conspiracy blog is full of great information from some really cool comics pros.

Go on, check it out.

I cannot click the link for you.

Call for Submissions

Are you an artist? PODpublishing's Blurred Books division is seeking submissions.

Go for it!

Almost A Post

I hope everyone who is celebrating Thanksgiving had (or is having) a great one! For those who are not celebrating, I hope your Thursday was the sort of Thursday that other days want to be when they grow up.

I had a great time with my extended family over at my grandmother's house and I got a bunch more words written on my NaNoWriMo novel. I am now "really behind" instead of "abysmally behind".

Speaking of comics...Oh, wait, I wasn't. Anyway, I'm reading bits and pieces of the House of M fallout and I'm glad they actually did something with it. That something is being redundantly printed multiple times throughout the Decimation titles and I expect X-Factor to do the same thing.

However, it does have a cool cover:

Short Post: Buy Local

Time running out. Must...write...more...words

If you see this comic in a store, buy it



It's good.

If you don't see it in a store, ask them to order it. Unless you're in, like, a motorcycle shop. That'd just be weird, man.

Unintended Sabbatical

Between NaNoWriMo and prepping for my new job (which starts tomorrow) I've let my regular posting pace slip. Things will be back up to four or five times a week starting in December. I've got a few reviews I need to turn into actual posts but by the time I get them on the blog the comics they refer to will be in the 50-cent bins.

In short, I have really enjoyed the latest issues of Green Lantern Corps: Recharged and The Imaginaries. The mutant-related titles of the Decimation storyline from House of M could have been condensed into a single title because they all say the same thing. Some of them like Excalibur say it much better than others (X-Men).

Like most other blogspot users, I've had to resort to word verification in my comments sections to ward off the spammers.

Not comics related, as such, but I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night and it is, in my opinion, the best of the series so far.

Oh, and the Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection is available in the $120 - $150 range.



WooHoo!

Grr, Arg!

James Meeley thinks that the Hulk and Godzilla should totally fight!

I agree with him. This would crack the internet in half! Seriously, those two are strong. If anyone could do some internet crackin' it'd be them.

Anyway, if you agree with James and Me (what sane person wouldn't!) get in touch with Marvel and Dark Horse and tell them to commence to writin' and drawin'.

Oh, and tell them that Eric Powell (who has worked for both companies) should draw it.

Hey, you got your subtext in my peanut butter!

OK, I don't usually go this direction with my commentary but the cover for JLA #121 was hard to miss during my trip to the FLCS today:



So, Black Canary is in a position where you can *ahem* really see her fishnets while Green Arrow launches shafts at her and they're IN A CAVE!!!!!

What, they couldn't work a train going through a tunnel into the painting?

I have it on good authority, though, that the cover artist has, in fact, hidden a salami somewhere in the image.

Comic Urban Legends

Brian Cronin of Comics Should Be Good has been posting a series of Comic Urban Legends where he does the research to confirm or deny said rumors.

They are always entertaining and you could do a lot worse than going through the archives of the site to read past entries. The latest one, however, is my favorite yet. Mostly because it mentions Justice League Europe and Sea Monkeys

Sea Monkeys!!!

Comic Asylum is teh RoXXorZ!!one!

Happy 1st anniversary to the Comic Asylum! Go, James!

If you aren't already reading his blog, check it out. It's one of my favorites.

You can start with this one in which he lists his favorite comics quotes.

I'm working on my response to his meme now. I should have a list up in the next day or two.

Excelsior!

Gødland - Image (2005)

I just finished reading the first three issues of Gødland back to back and I am so glad I found them at my FLCS! This'll be a short post because there's no need for me to go into detail on this. With a single sentence I can help you decide if this book is for you:

If the cover image above piques your curiosity at all, buy this book!!

At first this looks like another tongue-in-cheek homage to the crazy, acid-trip days of the sixties and seventies when Kirby was king and there was an "anything goes" attitude to the stories and plots. It is, in fact, an homage to that era but it is also so much more. It is telling a compelling story with great Kirby-raised-from-the-dead art, a great sense of humor and most importantly, intelligence.

Plus, it's got a dude whose head is floating in a jar that he wears.

Floating. In. A. Jar.

Damn, just buy these if you haven't already.

More Defenders!

Nick Lowe had this to say at Wizard World Texas:

[T]here are plans for another Defenders series by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire.

WooHoo, says I.

I mean, just look at this cover!



Anything that produces more work like this is officially a Good Thing.

Just call me the Speakeasy Blog

Hey, Speakeasy's got a store!

Back when I reviewed the first issue of The Gatesville Company (see previous post for link) I encouraged you to get a copy of issue #1. If your FLCS doesn't have it or can't get it, go to the store link above and the helpful chaps at Speakeasy will be glad to trade legal tender for one or more of their fine pieces of sequential entertainment.

Sing a song of forums

Speakeasy's got forums!

Also, the second issue of The Gatesville Company will be in stores some time this month. WooHoo! If it's even half as good as the first issue I will be mightily pleased. Mightily, I say!

Here's the cover:

In Russia, Novel Writes You

Rick, the proprietor of my Friendly Local Comics Shop told me that today was his lightest shipment from Diamond in weeks and I still came home with a boatload of comics. I haven't even read everything I picked up last week!

I did manage to read Winter Men #3 which is as awesome as the two issues preceding it. Also, check out the cover:



That's a damn fine cover.

I'm going to do my best to get reviews out every couple of days but since I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year my pace is likely to slow. However, there are many comics I want to let my threes of readers know about along with a couple of special features I haven't been able to release into the wild yet. Worst case scenario: December will be chock full of content!!

Rock on, brothers and sisters!

Jack Cross #3 - DC (2005)

I really want to like this comic book but each issue makes it harder and harder. I enjoyed the first issue but the second didn't do much for me. The primary complaint I had about the comic as a whole is that Gary Erskine isn't conveying the action scenes well at all. His compositions are static. There's absolutely no sense that the people are moving. They look like they're posing for a photo comic.

Issue #3 has more action than the first two issues combined. It's one big action scene with a little dialogue thrown in as connective tissue. Which, unfortunately, means that this issue falls the flattest.

Splat.

There's a scene involving a couple of helicopters which would have been very exciting if I could have figured out what the hell was going on. Same thing goes for the fight scene depicted on the cover. Flat.

Jack Cross is written to be a man of action. Literally. He sees what needs to be done and he's not afraid to do it. There is no separation between thought and action for him. That's what Warren Ellis intends to get across, anyway. He gets no help from Erskine.

Not that Ellis is completely off the hook, here. I am one hell of a Warren Ellis fanboy. He's one of the reasons I want to write comics. I want to make people feel about characters I create the way he has made me feel. However, this story and these characters haven't hooked me. It's issue 3. This story just isn't my cup of tea and the slow art simply isn't doing it any favors.

I'll pick up #4 to see how the story ends but after that I'm dropping it from my hold box.

At least Desolation Jones and Fell continue to rock.

Many, many comics

I bought enough comics to build a house out of comics. A lot of things from my hold box came in today and I got several recent back issues I've been trying to find for a while thanks to another shop selling most of its stock to my favorite local comics emporium. For example, I picked up issues 1 - 3 of GØDLAND and the Essential Iron Fist collection. This week's haul was rather indie heavy so keep a weather eye out for many reviewings and opinionatings from Noetic Concordance Headquarters.

Tonight, however, I'm gonna read until I pass out.

EDIT: A closer scan of the comicblogland shows that I'm not the only one who bought a metric fuck-ton of pulp today. At least I'm in good company.

Astro City: The Dark Age

I sat down to write my review of Astro City: The Dark Age and her's how it went:

**ahem**

tippity-tappity-tip-tip...

"Ooh! A shiny thing!"

Fortunately, Mark Fossen of Focused Totality stepped up to the plate and wrote a great review of it.

Plus, Neil Diamond Quotes!!

WoooOOOOoooo!

Dial B for Blog has an excellent collection of scary comic covers.

Reviews resume tomorrow.

In darkest night...

Comics Ate My Brain has some cool insights on my favorite comics subject: The Green Lantern Corps!

Fin Fang 4 #1 (of 1) - Marvel (2005)

All right. You know the drill by now so I'll boil it down to its essential elements:

Get this comic. It's awesome.

Here's the awesome cover by Eric Powell:



Here's a sample of the awesome art by Roger Langridge:



See, it's awesome! I'll wrap this up with some sort of threat to a quality or object you hold dear if you don't read this comic.

Where Monsters Dwell #1 (of 1) - Marvel (2005)

In the proud tradition (1 issue so far) of Devil Dinosaur #1 we now have Where Monsters Dwell. If you read my review of Devil Dinosaur (or, gasp, picked up the comic) you know what to expect from this one. Unlike the first of these Monster-related one-shots, WMD (nice initials, there) contains three new tales by Keith Giffen, Peter David and Jeff Parker along with a spectacular cover by Eric Powell which ties them all together:

The Giffen story is my favorite (for the credits banner, alone) but they're all good reads and the art is high-quality all the way through. There's also a reprint of a classic crab-the-size-of-Montana story at the end.

The image of the splash page below does NOT do it justice! Lovern Kindzierski faithfully recreates the pointilist, four-color style and lays it over Giffen's Kirby homage bringing about a stunning combination of nostalgia and post-modernism that makes me want this Bombu cat to get his own series. Woah! I got all "comic-blog lit crit" on you there. Sorry about that. Er, check out the groovy page:



So, don't buy any of these monster comics if you're, y'know, averse to fun.

Blogger see; Blogger do

If you don't check out BeaucoupKevin's gallery of Star Trek comic book covers the terrorists have already won.

House of M #7 (of 8) - Marvel (2005)

I'm out of town this weekend so I'm short on time. Therefore, in the great tradition of Haiku Movie Reviews (and others) I present my review of the latest issue of Marvel's crossover alternate-reality comics-fun-a-palooza:

So many panels
Yet only one thing happens.
Um...the cover's nice.

Yo soy Señor Lazypants

I was all set to write a bunch of good stuff about Elk's Run but Mark Fossen from Focused Totality beat me to it and said it better and more thoroughly than I would have.

Read what he has to say and see if it's your cup of tea, too.

The Goon: Fancy Pants Edition - Dark Horse (2005)

I got my copy of The Goon: Fancy Pants Edition last Wednesday despite the fact that it apparently doesn't hit the shelves until tomorrow. Eric Powell lives around here so I'm guessing that's why we got ours early.

I wasn't going to get it but I flipped through it and noticed that it only cost $25! Holy crap! I'm new to The Goon. The first issue of the comic I picked up was # 12 (review link) and I have been making plans to get the trades so I'll have the background.

Then this thing comes out. Wow.

It's got The Goon's story presented chronologically (including the two self-published issues) along with a soupçon of never-before-published material. This is exactly the thing I've been looking for.

I haven't read it yet (review forthcoming) but this thing is beautiful! I'm not a hardcover guy when it comes to comics but I'm glad I gave this one a second look. It's a class act right down to the endpapers. Well worth a couple of sawbucks and a fin. And, hey, the thing's even signed by Powell. Way cool.

Viva Dave's Long Box

Dave of Dave's Long Box fame is back from vacation and brings us some comic stuff and this report:

[T]wo raccoons got in a fight outside last night, and I had a hard time getting back to sleep after that. Have you ever heard raccoons fight? They fight to the death, man. It sounded like somebody was butchering a tauntaun outside my bedroom window. I broke it up, and the little fuckers scrambled up some fir trees, but I could hear them talking shit to each other in their native tongue – Hamburglar - for an hour after the fight.

Fan vs. Creator! Who. Will. Win?

Well, here I go again, linking to a Jason Rodriguez post. If the dude would quit making so much sense I'd lay off all the links.

In this one he has some great advice for aspiring comics creators (or artists of any kind). In brief: Don't shoot yourself in the foot by spewing bile at people in the business.

No babies were harmed in the creation of this post.

Devil Dinosaur #1 (of 1) - Marvel (2005)

Eric Powell!

Devil Dinosaur!!

Kirby-inspired!!

That's pretty much all I need to say in this review. You'll make up your own mind about what those elements mean to you.

However, I will go into a bit more detail:

This story takes place in a time before recorded history. When things were simpler and gods walked the earth, barely noticing the lesser creatures around them. I am, of course, referring to the Silver Age.

Powell (writing & drawing) and Tom Sniegoski (writing) knock this one out of the park. It's a silly, bombastic story with time travel, fightin' and aliens in Kirby suits. The page below has most of the artistic elements that make this book the most fun thing I've read in weeks:



As you can see above, J.D. Mettler's colors are spectacular. The page which puts it all together is best shown in a larger size than my blog can handle so I provide this link.

This issue also contains a reprint of a 1960 Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers story which features the first appearance of Xemnu who shows up in a few early Defenders issues, this one, for example. It's is a bargain at twice the price!

If the other ones in this series are this good, I'll buy the individual issues and consider picking up the inevitable trade just to loan to my friends.

Night Mary #2 (of 5) - IDW (2005)

The second issue of Night Mary doesn't contain as many gruesome images (and suggestions of same) as issue #1 but it's no less dark and even more frightening.

Mary Specter, the title character, enters the dream of a guy whose self esteem has been beaten into oblivion. The plot thickens as we learn a bit more about Mary's comatose mother. Also, there is something actively following Mary through dreams and it doesn't like her.

This comic is scary and disturbing in all the right ways. Rick Remender is doing a great job of building the suspense and maintaining a sense of mystery and fear.

The art by Kieron Dwyer fits the story perfectly. We get a couple of new styles in this issue to indicate the differences between dream landscapes.

If you're looking for something scary to read by candlelight this Halloween you could do a lot worse than the first two issues of Night Mary.

Indie 500

I mentioned HeroesCon before. I've been checking their site periodically for new guests. Check out the pile of indie creators they've scheduled.

Yowza!

Polly and the Pirates #1 (of 6) - Oni Press (2005)

More people should be reading Ted Naifeh's comics. He writes and draws exciting, charming stories about interesting people doing cool things.

He's started a new miniseries called Polly and the Pirates which is about a very good, by-the-book, little girl at a boarding school who ends up on a pirate ship. This is an excellent setup issue in that it establishes the world and the characters without boring the reader with exposition. Several well-made secondary characters are introduced and I hope we see more of them in the series.

Like the Courtney Crumrin comics, this is a book that kids and adults can both enjoy. The pirates are scary to Polly but there's nothing here that will induce nightmares.

As you can see from the cover above, the art is similar to his work on Courtney Crumrin. It's cute and spooky and cool. Also like the Courtney books, the interiors are black-and-white which really fits the story and allows Naifeh to show off his abilities with shades of gray and lighting effects.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. If this looks like your cup of tea and your local purveyor of serialized, sequential entertainment devices doesn't currently have a copy, order it. It's still available.