When Linkblogging Attacks!

Added to the sidebar: When Fangirls Attack. Of course, according to the latest stats three quarters of the readers of this blog now come from there so, "Hi!".

Warren Ellis wins a huge pile of Eagle Awards. See, I told you Nextwave was awesome! Both trades are out. If you haven't read them yet, go get them. See also: Global Fequency, Fell, Planetary, Transmetropolitan, the first twelve issues of The Authority and many more.

Also, here's a wicked cool picture of George Pérez:

The Brave and the Bold #3 - DC (2007)

I mentioned in my review of Immortal Iron Fist #4 that my favorite comics are the fun ones. Mark Waid and George Pérez are obviously having a lot of fun writing and drawing this book and it comes through on the page in spades!

The covers are fun. That's a good start. One of my favorite things about the old-school The Brave and the Bold was how each person in the team-up got his or her own logo on the cover. That simple design choice reflected the primary strength of a team-up title: The comparison and contrast between two superheroes. I'm glad to see that this reboot of the series is sticking with that.

More importantly, however, the stories and art are fun. This story started off in Vegas (and low-Earth orbit) and moved on to a casino planet. This issue brings us back to Batman who is in the Texas desert with Blue Beetle. They're up against the Fatal Five and a dude who has a weapon which alters reality to more effectively wipe out its opponents. That's right. The Legion of Super-Heroes' enemies have traveled from the 31st century and it's up to Batman and Blue Beetle to foil their nefarious schemes. Awesome!

Meanwhile, Supergirl is still on the casino planet trying to recruit Lobo.

See what I mean? Fun!

The entire DC Universe is Waid & Pérez's playground and I can't think of a better team to have put all this wacky stuff together. I can't believe this is only issue #3. There's been enough story and cool stuff for twice that many isses.

Splash-eriffic!

I did a micro-review of The Brave and the Bold #2 a few days ago but I ran across a beautiful scan of the title page. Behold George Pérez at the top of his game. I love it when comics work the credits into the image like this.

(Click on the image to embiggen it in a new window. Depending on your browser, you may need to click it again to get it out of "fit to screen" mode.)

Two New Comics, Two Little Reviews

The Spirit #4 - DC (2007)


Darwyn Cooke groks The Spirit. He knows what makes it cool and he's able to put all that coolness into this book. #2 had my favorite cover until this one came along. I am simply blown away by how good this comic is.

Mexico, The Spirit, Octagon/Octopus, a CIA agent named Silk Satin and a dude named Hussein wearing a cowboy hat. Oh, and stuff blows up. Get it if you like fun.

The Brave and the Bold #2 - DC (2007)


This series is chugging along nicely. It's a real superhero tale with people flying all over the freakin' universe and fighting big crime. This one features Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and Supergirl flying to a casino planet to get a future-predicting book out of the wrong hands. WooHoo! Some people are creeped out by Hal's reaction to Supergirl but I thought it was funny and that it addressed the Supergirl-as-sex-object issue well.

This is doing all the things a team-up book should do. It highlights the similarities and differences between the characters and gives each one a chance to shine. Mark Waid and George Pérez make an excellent team.

The Brave and the Bold #1 - DC (2007)

Hooboy! A superhero comic. With superheroes doing superhero stuff. I like Mark Waid and George Pérez which is good because they are the real team-up, here. The Brave and the Bold is a resurrection of one of DC's biggest hits. It was best known as a team-up title which introduced lots of new characters. More information can be found here. WARNING: The preceding link goes to Wikipedia so by the time you click on it the article may have been replaced by Alan Greenspan porn or something.

Pérez's art is spectacular in this issue. It's easy not to notice Pérez's stuff because his style is (to me) What Comics Look Like. People throw around the phrase "visual storytelling" a lot (well, people like me) but this issue is a textbook example of how it should be done. Pérez uses the whole damn page to convey the information. He overlaps panels and puts stuff in the gutters. It's artistic without being distracting.

Waid's script is excellent, as well. Batman and the Green Lantern are doing the things I read comics to see those characters doing. Each one gets to shine and the fact that they've known each other for a long time really comes through. Also, their banter during a fight for their lives says a lot about them.

I won't go into the story in great detail other than to say that there are some aliens involved in a murder mystery and it's off to a great start. The next issue has Green Lantern on his way to a planet called Ventura. Aren't Mike and Dorian from there? They'd better watch out.