Zatanna #3(of 4) - DC (2005)

Blah, blah, Grant Morrison is an amazingly good writer blah, blah we're not worthy blah a god who walks among men, etc. etc.

Now that that's out of the way:

Zatanna is the miniseries of all the Seven Soldiers minis that I have enjoyed the most so far and that's saying something!

#3 is the issue that brings Zatanna and her charge, Misty, fully into the stories of the other minis. Especially Shining Knight which is my second favorite. This issue builds upon the two before it and really brings everything together.

Morrison does some wonderful things, here. He manages to combine great action with powerful emotion. I love the feel of the magical world Zatanna and Misty travel through. Little touches like the blue-flame-wreathed skeleton who drives spirits to their final resting places in his bus really grab me. Zatanna takes many things in this world for granted that would freak most people completely out (e.g. exorcisims). Therefore, when something makes her freak out we know it's big.

Ryan Sook's pencils and Mick Gray's inks are superb. I don't possess the proper visual-arts vocabulary to express how well their work fits with Morrison's writing. They bring Magical Los Angeles to life and Nathan Eyring's colors make it sing. Zatanna looks competent, beautiful and a little sad. This issue is worth opening up just for the artists' portrayal of Ali Ka-Zoom, the Merlin of the Ghetto.

You can enjoy this miniseries without having read the others. You don't even have to be familiar with the DC universe's "continuity". I'm assuming these will show up as a trade at some point but, if not, hunting down the back issues of this would be worth it.

From the "Wish I'd Thought of It" Files

If you've ever read one of Warren Ellis's Bad Signal newsletters it is imperative that you check out Steve "gutterninja" Pheley's BAT SIGNAL

Ultimate Spider-Man #81 - Marvel (2005)

Once there was a Marvel Team-Up Annual which featured the following superheroes:

Spider-Man (natch)
Iron Fist
Power Man
Daredevil
Moon Knight

I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was bigger than a regular issue and the bad guy was the Purple Man who had the power to make people do anything he told them to do. He had Xtreme hypnotic voice powers which he got through exposure to a mysterious gas. In the Marvel Universe, radiation and chemical weapons are good things. They give you kewl powerz.

Here's the cover:



It was, in fact, the coolest thing ever. If they'd managed to work Cloak & Dagger into the story it would have become a coolness singularity and collapsed in on itself.

Anyway, the current storyline (Warriors) from Ultimate Spider-Man reminds me of that Annual. Here's the team-up:

Spider-Man
Iron Fist
Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
Moon Knight (badass!)

Be sure to throw the word "Ultimate" in front of each of those. Wouldn't want anyone getting confused.

This lineup has the potential for supreme coolness. Any one of these guest stars would be worthy of his own entry in The Badass Files and this third part of the story delivers the Big HK Action Fight you'd expect. However, there's something missing. Bendis hasn't made these characters stand out, yet. Iron Fist and Shang-Chi are going through the motions of Martial-Arts Plot #19: The Gang War and Moon Knight hasn't done enough for us to know what his deal is yet.

I'm not disappointed in this issue but I wish there had been a little more meat to it. There is an excellent scene between Spider-Man and Ultimate Jean DeWolfe and the fight scene is exciting and fun. Bagley's art is, as always, superb especially during the scene where Iron Fist and Shang-Chi catch up over dinner.

There are four more parts to this story which means that #82 is likely to slow the action down a bit to allow for some much-needed exposition. Also, the last page of this issue should lead into a very interesting opener to the next one.

This is one of those stories that'll work better in the trade which (even though this is no Marvel Team-Up Annual #4) I can recommend that you buy when it comes out...about five minutes after the ink dries on issue #85.

Kickin' it on the Indy tip, yo

Greg from Comics Should Be Good discusses three graphic novels from independent companies that I want to check out:

The Annotated Mantooth (AiT/Planet Lar)

Heartbreakers Meet Boilerplate (IDW)

and the one which intrigues me most, Capote in Kansas (Oni Press)

The Imaginaries #3 - Image (2005)

Anything containing the line "I heard the call of Liberty's siblings, Equity and Equality, and answered that call with extreme prejudice!" scores extra points with me.

This is the pentultimate issue of the Lost and Found storyline and it's the one where things really pick up steam. The first two issues did a good job of setting up the Imagined Nation which is where imaginary friends go when the children who dreamed them up no longer want them. The realm is ruled by the Ice Queen and she hasn't made it a nice place. Her draconian rules are enforced by her army of sadistic, jackbooted teddy bears.

For the record, anything which elicits the phrase, "sadistic, jackbooted teddy bears" also scores extra points.

Enter Superhero G who is not willing to accept that his sidekick, Tanner, no longer has any use for him. He also doesn't like the way the Ice Queen runs things. In D&D terms, G is Neutral Good while the Queen is Lawful Evil. G gets a job as a reporter and only appears in his true identity when there's injustice that needs to have its head knocked in. Hijinks ensue.

The secondary characters, such as Melee Mouse, are superbly done and Greg Titus's art fits Mike Miller & Ben Avery's story perfectly. The showdown with the Queen (if it happens in #4) should be good. Image has already put an ad for the first trade in the back of this issue so, if you haven't been buying the individual issues, wait a little while and fork over the ten bucks. You'll be glad you did.

Courtney Crumrin Tales - Oni Press (2005)

I was going to write a review of A Portrait of the Warlock as a Young Man by Ted Naifeh but Randy Lander from The Fourth Rail beat me to it and said all the stuff I was going to. Plus a bunch more.

Er, I thought it was good. Go buy it.

Nextwave

This article from Comicon.com's The Pulse has a lot of new information about Warren Ellis's ongoing title for Marvel, Nextwave.

I love Immonen's art on this. It'll be in my holdbox for sure.

Serenity #2 - Dark Horse (2005)

I'm not one of those people who thinks Firefly was the best show in the world. I'm one of those people who thinks it was the best show in the universe! Ever!

Being such a drooling fanboy about the show, I had mixed feelings when I heard that a comic miniseries was on the way. My first thought was, "Sweet! A Firefly comic!" This was quickly followed by, "Oh, jeez! I hope it doesn't suck."

Good news! It doesn't suck. The dialogue and story really capture the feel of the show. The art is hit or miss but it's not easy to consistently draw images of actual actors and it's not like I ever got, say, Jayne and Inara mixed up.

This second issue was a little jumpy in places. For example, I'd like to have seen more build up before Book decks Mal. The way it happened in the comic made it seem out of character. If it had happened on the show we would have seen it move more organically. This may just be a matter of pacing. A different arrangement of panels would have solved that problem.

Overall, I am really enjoying this. The few flaws such as the aforementioned pacing and the Chinese being written in actual Chinese (although phonetic spellings would be equally distracting) are overshadowed by the quality of this miniseries.

One smart thing Dark Horse did was to hire three cover artists per issue. I normally despise the variant cover thing but these are so well-done that I want to collect them all. I only bought one version of the first issue (Mal by John Cassaday) and I currently only have the Kaylee cover by Jo Chen (see above) but if I can get my hands on a copy of the Tim Bradstreet Book cover (see below) it will be mine.

Two more miniseries I'm giving up on.

Albion #2 - Wildstorm (2005)



The first issue of Albion showed promise. I liked the art a lot and I was intrigued by the two main characters. However, the big reveal at the end of the issue left me flat. I got the idea I was supposed to know who the figures were. OK, I recognized the Cyberman but the other two?

Albion #2 knocked down the good will that #1 had built up. The interactions between the two main characters became shrill and the number of references to things I didn't recognize increased dramatically. Also, the frequent cuts to the "Prison of fucked-up wankers" were frustrating. The worst thing about the second issue was the obtuseness of the storytelling. Grant Morrison's stuff is wacked-out and nonsensical but it holds together. Leah Moore and John Rippion are going in so many directions with this that I can't follow whatever threads may be there.

Maybe there'll be an annotated trade.

The covers by Dave Gibbons (see above) are very nice and George Freeman is a spectacular inker but they aren't enough to keep me coming back.


1602 New World - Marvel (2005)



I thought 1602, the first miniseries by Neil Gaiman was just OK.

This sequel makes its predecessor look like Death: The High Cost of Living. New World is a jumbled mess that made me stop caring about characters that Gaiman started off as sympathetic.

The Jiminez interview mentioned in my previous post helped explain the uneven quality of the Donna Troy miniseries. In a similar vein, I have run across a transcript of the meeting between Greg Pak, the writer and Greg Tocchini, the artist, where they came up with the first issue:

Pak: So, the Hulk's in the New World and there are dinosaurs. He's gonna fight 'em!

Tocchini: Right. Dinosaurs.

Pak: I mean a lot of dinosaurs.

Tocchini: Sure, man, I can do that.

Pak: I don't think you follow me. You're not grasping the magnitude of the dinosaurage we're gonna have in this issue. It's gonna be a fuckin' Where's Waldo of dinosaurs. I want herds of 'em in each panel.

Tocchini: Each panel? Even the ones where people are indoors.

Pak: Yes.

Tocchini: Well, all right. You're the writer.

Pak: I like dinosaurs!

Seriously, there are pages and pages of big lizards followed by more pages of lizards. I like dinosaurs but a man can only take so much.

There are a couple of neat moments in this book but not enough to offset the lack of pacing and interesting story. I'm not even going to check out the trade on this one.

Wonder why I'm not buying this again?

I've given up on The Return of Donna Troy miniseries. This article gives Phil Jiminez a chance to explain why.

Wizards and Warriors

It looks like the Comic Geek Speak podcast broke the story of Wizard World pulling out of Atlanta for 2006 with this interview with Gareb Shamus.

Here's a Newsarama article about it

Submit!

Comics creators often say, "There are no comics critics just people who want our jobs".

Guilty as charged.

Chris Piers has some great tips for submissions to various companies.

What, am I made of stone?

This. Must. Be. Mine!

I mean, look at the cover, man!



This is what I read comics for: Jimmy Olson = Yo=Yo!

JLA Classified #10 - DC (2005)

Warren Ellis wrote this story (entitled "New Maps of Hell") in 2003 and it is set in the DC Universe of that time. Lex Luthor is president and Brad Meltzer is still just writing novels. Three seemingly unrelated situations are pointing towards a common cause.

Lots of LexCorp employees have been committing suicide lately. Clark & Lois are on the scene of the latest one. Their banter is reminiscent of the Tracy/Hepburn movies. It's light on the surface but the subtext shows the depth of their relationship. Butch Guice nails these characters. Clark is clean-cut, strikingly handsome and no-nonsense. Lois is beautiful, a little wicked-looking and there is intelligence in those eyes. This is some of the artist's best work.

We get to see the journalists (mostly Lois) doing real journalist stuff. I like that a lot. The only part of the newsroom scene that didn't work for me was Perry White's dialogue. He comes off sounding too much like Spider Jerusalem and that doesn't fit with my idea of the Planet's editor-in-chief. Despite that, he gets some great lines.

The second scene begins with Batman's transformation. A lot of comics shorthand the steps of the secret-identity-to-superhero switch. We don't need to see it every time but it's nice when it shows up. Ellis knows when to turn off the dialogue and let the artist interpret the story. When you've got Guice drawing your script you're in good hands. Stately Wayne Manor looks great. Bruce looks like a driven, intensely-focussed man. Gotham and the Batcave both have the proper sense of dark spaciousness - opressive and bigger than life.

Wonder Woman is next. She's meeting some academics on Themyscira and the character design on Wonder Woman is the best of the bunch. Instead of the swimsuit, Guice has her in a looser version of her usual costume. Diana's introduction to the plot is the most dramatic. Huge explosions rock the island and that's where we leave the story.

I don't know if we're just getting the Big Three on this one or if more JLA members will show up. I'd like to see Ellis and Guice work with the Martian Manhunter or one of the Green Lanterns but if it's just the Triumvirate of Justice, that'll be fine, too.

This is a JLA story through and through. Those of us who have read a lot of Warren Ellis comics can see his fingerprints on it but, so far, it's a straight-up superhero tale and it's off to a great start.

Hero Squared - Boom Studios (2005)

Keith Giffen and J.M DeMatteis team up with artist Joe Abraham to produce a funny, sometimes-touching story about a guy named Milo who meets an alternate-universe version of himself who has superpowers. Also, Milo's girlfriend's otherworld self is the vilest of villains.

This is a great intro issue and it should still be on the shelves. This is one of those "supporting indy comics" things that Jason Rodriguez was talking about. Not that I'm saying Giffen and DeMatteis are struggling kids just trying to get their books published but Boom Studios deserves our support for putting this out. Also, if this sells well, we could see lots of new cool stuff from Boom.

I like Abraham's art. He plays well with the Bwa-ha-ha boys and he handles the action scenes as well as the conversation scenes with style. There are a couple of points where things could be clearer but it holds together well.

I'm looking forward to issue #2.

Legion of Super-Heroes #8 - DC (2005)

I've really been enjoying the latest reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes by Mark Waid.

Until now.

The tension between Cosmic Boy and Brainiac-5 has been building since issue 2 or 3 and I was looking forward to seeing it come to a head. Unfortunately, Waid squandered a really good opportunity. The big blowup, when it came, was formulaic and uninteresting. This is disappointing because Waid has defied conventional logic about the Legion up 'til this point. He's done some wonderfully inventive things with the Legionnaire's powers and origins. He's made them real characters with depth. I cared about these people.

With issue 8 he turns them all in to cocky assholes who spend the entire issue one-upping each other and fighting pointlessly. I like conflict among team members when it's done well. That's what we had. This big fight issue did not resolve the tension nor did it move the story forward in an interesting manner. Now we have a big mess on our hands. Waid's a good enough writer to get us out of the mess and I hope he does so.

It doesn't help that this issue has the worst art yet. Kevin Sharpe and Prentis Rollins are listed as "Guest Penciller" and "Guest Inker", respectively. Everyone is drawn with bulging neck muscles even though they've never had them before. Also, there's very little diferentiation between the male characters. I have subtitled the character roster page "Five Men - One Face".

The inking looks unfinished. It's like the kind of thing you'd see in a sketchbook or a concept drawing. In a finished product, it just looks sloppy. I hope Barry Kitson and Mick Gray are back on board for #9.

Grimjack: Killer Instinct #6 - IDW (2005)

This is the conclusion of the 6-issue miniseries by John Ostrander and Timothy Truman. It's got, by far, the best cover of the bunch. I enjoyed this story but by issue #4 it seemed as if it had been coasting on my sense of nostalgia. #5 atoned for these sins a bit and #6 brought everything to a satisfactory close so, all's well.

If you're not familiar with Grimjack, it's a title originally published by First Comics back in the 80s. IDW is publishing this new series. The main character, John Gaunt, lives in a city named Cynosure which is a patchwork of multiple dimensions some of which are unstable. As John puts it, "Guns work here, magic works there, swords work everywhere". It's a brutal, industrial dystopia. You know the type.

If you're a fan of Grimjack from back in the day, check this out. If you've never seen it, don't expect The Dark Night Returns. This is a melodamatic, sword-swinging, dirty mess of a tale and it's definitely worth picking up the trade when it comes out.

Indy Rampage

Jason Rodriguez, an editor for Hoarse and Buggy Productions explains why you should support independent comics.

More importantly, he points out the best way to support the indies:

There’s a popular misconception that supporting indy comics means never talking bad about them and buying everything ever made by every company and individual that scraped together some money to make a book. That’s wrong. That’s actually hurting indy comics. If you support everyone with a book, you’re saturating the market and making it more difficult for books of merit to break out of the crowd and actually start to make money. A lot of guys have just one shot and a great book and sometimes it’s tough to pick them out of all the noise.

Supporting indy comics means buying the small press books you like.

I've pointed out a few non-Marvel-or-DC titles I like but not as many as I'd like to. I'm going to bring more of those up in the future. I expect I'll pick up a few indy titles at Dragon*Con that I wouldn't have seen before and I'm headed to my FLCS today where I'll scout out some more.

Standards and Practices

My fellow comics bloggers have threatened to kick me out of the club if I don't attend to a couple of things ASAP:

First, I have not spent enough time on this blog bitching about Wizard magazine. I have passed on reports of their dastardly dealings re: HeroesCon but apparently that wasn't enough. So, here goes:

I'm done with Wizard. The few scraps of advance knowledge I've picked up from their "exclusive" news items have not been worth the pages and pages of filler and movie coverage I have to sift through. Wizard released a Special Movie Issue! a while back. Here's the cover of one of their "non-movie" issues:



You'd have to be Entertainment Weekly to be any more "movie" than that. What qualities could a "movie issue" possess that would make it any different from "as seen on Alias", up there?

I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the magazine since I began reading it regularly a couple of years ago. Once I realized that their ratings and hype don't represent comics fans in general and that they are decided upon by, like, eight guys who work for the magazine, I stopped caring about what they had to say.

Second, I've been told that I'm not using enough profanity. This is just a misdemeanor and not grounds for expulsion from the Comics blogosphere but I'm on thin ice already so:

Fuck.

Heroes Victorious!

Newsarama reports that the Wizard World/Heroes Con kerfuffle may be over:

Now, it’s looking like the weekend won’t be an either/or proposition for comic fans in the Southeast.

Newsarama has learned that WizardWorld has not made the deposit payment to the Cobb Galleria (where WizardWorld: Atlanta was slated to be held June 30th -July 2nd, 2006). Likewise, sources close to Wizard speaking to Newsarama report that the current thinking within the company is that it will officially cancel its planned Atlanta show for 2006, while eyeing debuting in Atlanta in 2007, ideally on a weekend with no other show in close proximity.

Thanks to Fanboy Rampage for bringing this to my attention.

Yet another reminder

To those who have seen this on my blog already, I apologize but I want to make sure people are aware of this:

Bryan Deemer of Comic Geek Speak (which is an awesome podcast) is going on a 150-mile bike ride in September to raise money for MS research. Click here for more information and to make a pledge.

Please let others know about this. Post it in your own blog. Geeks unite!

Defenders #1 (2005)

Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire (the Fab Three who brought us the funny JLA back in the 80s & early 90s) are assaulting the Marvel Universe with a 5-issue Defenders miniseries.

This thing is funny! If you don't like this gang's sense of humor or if you have no sense of humor about The Defenders, stay away from this one. I am a hardcore Defenders fan and I don't see how you can not have a sense of humor about them.

I've been reading The Essential Defenders Vol. 1 collection and the first issue of this miniseries fits into the mold of the first few Defenders issues perfectly.

Which is to say, Defenders #1 is funny because Namor and the Hulk/Bruce Banner spend the whole time fighting with each other and the Defenders series from the 70s was funny for exactly the same reason. Giffen and DeMatteis also spend a great deal of time making fun of the way Dr. Strange talks. Again, this is straight out of old-school Defenders.

The writers did their homework. They obviously like The Defenders a lot and they also see the inherent humor in putting four über-powerful, egotistical beings together and forcing them to work together in order to save the world about once a month. It's like a superhero reality show where everybody is the "loudmouth who's gonna get kicked out" character.

I love Kevin Maguire's art but there are some parts of this issue where he out-Maguire's himself. Namor and the Silver Surfer look too stylized for my taste but it's not enough to put me off the comic. Maguire's facial expressions are still the best in the business and he has drawn the most amazing Dormammu I have ever seen. Ever. Maguire should be the only person allowed to draw the Lord of the Dark Dimension for the rest of time.

Even if you've never read The Defenders, this is worth picking up just for the laughs.

Klaus Janson + Marvel 4-Ever!

Newsarama announced that Klaus "The House"* Janson has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel. This is quite a coup for Marvel. They needed to do something after losing the Kubert brothers. (My apologies for the Newsarama link. I'm tired of looking at that picture of Kevin Smith, too.)

Janson is one of the best inkers in the business (see the Black Panther cover below) and his pencil work is awesome, too.



So, cheers, Klaus!




*No one calls him "The House" I'm just trying to start a movement.

Heroes vs. Wizards

This editorial by Matt Fraction sums up the Starbucking practices of Wizard World.

A quote:

HeroesCon, an annual comics convention held in Charlotte, North Carolina for the last 24 years, has been threatened direly by WizardWorld who, having been made fully aware of the Heroes tradition and show dates, announced a new show to launch in Atlanta, Georgia, the same weekend. HeroesCon celebrates its 25th year in 2006. WizardWorld was appraised of that fact by HeroesCon founder Shelton Drum last year after their Philadelphia show.

I agree with Matt: This Sucks!

Fortunately a bunch of comic pros including Tony Harris, Greg Rucka, Mark Millar, Warren Ellis, Brian Stelfreeze, Cully Hamner Bryan Hitch, Scott Kurtz, and Art Adams also agree with him. They are going to Heroes Con instead of WW Atlanta. I'll be there, too.

Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #15 & #16 (2002)

It's Buy A Bunch of Discounted Crap week here at Noetic Concordance HQ!! This means I've bought some older comics and I'm going to go all Dave's Long Box on you and review some of the ones worth mention. I'll start with a couple of good ones:

One of the two Friendly Local Comic Shops I frequent has a whole other store for their 50-cent bins. I was over there the other day and I picked up Ultimate Marvel Team-Up issues 15 &16.

These issues are parts one and two of the Spider-Man/Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu team-up. Stephen Strange may be the Master of the Mystic Arts but Shang-Chi is the Master of the Whupass Arts! He knows all the fighting styles that ever there were because his father (a really evil guy) had him trained to be the ultimate fighting machine. So, this Shang-Chi is the Ultimate ultimate fighting machine which makes him even more badass.

The story is simple and well-told by Brian Bendis. Bendis, as I have mentioned before, groks Peter Parker so his reactions to Shang-Chi are spot on and funny.

Artistically this story is an all-star jam session! The covers (see above for #15) were done by David Mack. The shining star, though, is Andy Lee who does these gorgeous brush-art interludes throughout the panels. They enhance the story and give it an exotic quality that really "brings the room together" as The Dude would put it.

The main interior art by Rick Mays and Jason Martin is good, especially in the action scenes, which for a tale about ass kickin' is vital. However, I wish that the numerous Asians and Asian-Americans in it had looked more, um, Asian.

Spider-Man and Shang-chi don't fight each other upon meeting which is a refreshing change. In fact, Shang-Chi doesn't really need Spidey's help at all. Webhead's appearance for the climactic altercation just helps the Master of Kung Fu get done faster than he would have normally. The action movie that follows Shang-Chi around is really cool and this Ultimate version of him is a welcome addition. I hope he shows up elsewhere in the Ultimate Universe.

If you can find these issues in your local funny-book emporium or at a con pick them up. They are completely self-contained within the two issues and are the best buck I've spent in a long time. You can also get them as part of the trade-paperback collection Ultimate Marvel Team-Up Vol. 3.

Powell-a-Palooza

Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities #4

Writer, Cover Artist & Interior Colors: Eric Powell
Interior Artist: Kyle Hotz



This is a damn fine ending to a damn fine miniseries.

Damn.

The story is engaging, funny, suspenseful, touching and exciting. All in four issues! A band of sideshow freaks personalities has hired Billy the Kid as a "Tactical Specialist" to assist them in retrieving an item of great value. Powell doesn't pull any punches with Billy's personality. He's an uncouth, belligerent jerk but he's a supernaturally good shot. The friction between Billy and the rest of the troupe works well. The ending wraps up the story in a very satisfying way. Hotz's art (+ Powell's colors ) is exactly the right combination of dark and garish for this twisted tale.

Fans of creepy circus stories and/or tales featuring Cthulian medical experiments won't be disappointed.

The Goon #13

Eric Powell writes and draws this comic.



This is the second issue of The Goon I have ever read but it certainly won't be the last. This one's in my hold box, now. The Goon is (as his name might suggest) a tough guy who is not unfamiliar with the criminal element. Hell, he is the criminal element. The art is gorgeous, cartoonish and like nothing else in comics. Powell gives The Goon substance. He looks like he was slapped together with a trowel. I get the sense that he could jump off the page and smack me around if I give him any guff. I keep my mouth shut while reading The Goon.

Issue #13 finds The Goon in prison. There are a couple of panels which reference every well-known prison movie from the 40s through the 60s. Nice stuff. Things don't turn out as you'd expect them to (or if you've read a lot of this comic, maybe you did expect it) which makes for a funny story. The secondary characters are hilarious and the tough-guy interactions make me want to go rough some guys up.

I'm glad the earlier issues are out as trades. I'm gonna get 'em.

New Comics 7/23/05

Ultimate Spider-Man #80



OMGOMGOMG!!!!!

Danny Rand and Moon Knight and Spider-Man all in the same comic at the same time. I can't wait to see Ultimate Iron Fist. He hasn't done anything yet but when he does you just know it's gonna be good! This storyline is going to rule. It will crack the internet in half! It will crush all other storylines with its might!

**ahem**

There, I'm better, now. This was a very good issue with a really nice, tense moment between The Kingpin and Spider-Man. It's the 2nd part of a storyline but you don't really need issue #79 to pick up what's going on. Brian Bendis is losing me on many of the other titles he's writing but US-M continues to be strong. Bendis groks Peter Parker and this title continues to be the one I anticipate the most every month except for Young Avengers.

House of M #4

This issue has my favorite art of the miniseries so far. Especially the first two pages. It does a great job of setting up the alternate-universe Genosha. There were some really confusing visuals throughout this issue and I don't know whether to blame the writer, Brian Bendis, or the artist, Olivier Coipel, for these weird layouts. I shouldn't have to re-read part of a comic book to figure out what's going on. I'm still not sure what happened in one of those sections. The story is getting better and it looks like something might actually happen in the next issue or two.

Freshmen #1

This is the comic that was co-created by Seth Green. It's OK. The premise: 14 college freshmen are housed in the science building. Something Happens and they all get superpowers based on what they were thinking or doing at that moment. The walking stereotypes students have only been introduced at this point and issue #2 will feature more information about their actual abilities. The art's good but the writing is really wooden in places. I'll see if they've worked the kinks out by next month.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #21

Here's my spoiler-free review:

I miss Warren Ellis on this title almost as much as I miss Adam Kubert

Now for the one with the spoilers:

The Art: This is an excellent visual team. Greg Land on pencils, Matt Ryan inking and Justin Ponsor (Or "Jutin" as his front-page credit would have it) doing a spectacular job on the colors. Each page has something really cool and shiny and well-rendered on it. I have no complaints about the art.

I do, however, have several complaints about the character design.

Sue has been restyled as an underwear model. Not that I have anything against underwear models but this interpretation goes far away from the previous looks for the character. I find Kubert's Invisible Woman to be much more attractive and far more human. I have trouble seeing past the cheesecake of Land's version. The eye candy is nice but it does nothing to give me any sense of the character.

Also, Land couldn't decide which "as seen on the hit show" hairstyle to give her so he changed it from panel to panel. She sports four different hairdos on page 20, alone. Or maybe that's one of her lesser known powers. She's got an invisible Flowbee!

The previous two artists (Kubert and Stuart Immonen) made Johnny look young and brash and, well, hotheaded. In UFF #21, Johnny looks like "Human Torch, 90210". He's too pretty and it doesn't work with the character. Both of the Storm siblings are well-drawn but something about them doesn't click with me. Reed and Ben look good.

The Writing: Mark Millar completely failed to piss me off in this issue. That's about the best he can do at this point. I went into this issue expecting to dislike it and I came out of it mildly interested in what's going to happen next. Nice work, Mark!

The opening scene looks cool but it doesn't stand up to multiple readings. The FF have chased some hackers into the past in order to stop them from killing the first thing to crawl out of the sea. "That's just the kind of wacky hijinks the FF were always getting into!" I have heard some people cry. No, it's not.

Let's think about this for a minute: You're a 1337 haXXor who has just broken into the system of a huge government-funded research group. Do you:

A) Steal the plans for a time machine, build it and threaten to kill the aforementioned amphibian unless the U.N. pays you a zillion dollars?
B) Steal the plans for a superbomb (hello! government-funded), build it and threaten a big city?
C) Siphon a bunch of that government funding into several accounts of your own thus setting you up for life?
D) Build the time machine, buy a sports almanac and bet on lots of sporting events throughout time.

If you chose "A" then you, too, are lame.
If you chose "D" then your name is Biff.

I have no problem with the time-travel as throwaway tech angle. I do have a problem with how weak this premise is. I know, I know, it's a comic book. Just a bit of fun. However, things like this knock me out of a story. I'm not the kind of guy who goes looking for things to nitpick but when they jump out at me like this they take my suspension of disbelief with them.

As the intro is wrapping up, Millar becomes a nominee for "Lamest use of the phrase Who let the dogs out?". There's an Eisner for that, right?

The actual story of the issue is pretty good. This is how Millar keeps getting me to buy stuff he writes. He doesn't totally suck. There's usually just enough to interest me and this issue is no exception. I like the idea of Ultimate Reed meeting Alternate Universe Reed. There are some nice moments (and only one stupid one) between them.

The ending I have mixed feelings about. First off: Ultimate Reed gets tricked into teleporting into the universe of the Zombie Fantastic Four! That's pretty cool. However, given some of the stuff I've seen Millar do in The Ultimates 2 and (ye gods!) The Authority this story could remain kinda cool or it could piss me off. With Millar and me it's a crapshoot.

We'll see.


By the way, here's a guy who pretty much disagrees with everything I just wrote. His review has a shot of the other, cooler cover.

Next up: Powell-a-palooza!

Podcasts Ahoy!

I'd like to bring your attention to a very good comics podcast. I Read Comics just posted its 4th episode and they're all good. It's run by Lene Taylor and she has covered some really interesting topics so far.

Check it out.

If you have a LiveJournal account you can add her site feed to your friends list and keep up with new episodes.

New Avengers #7 - Marvel (2005)

This title started off strong. It had consistent, interesting characterizations, good art, funny one-liners and exciting action. New Avengers #7 has none of these things. Or, more accurately, not enough of them. It's like a sequel to a wildly successful movie. The studio tells the director, "Do all that stuff you did in the first movie! That was awesome!" and then the director can't capture the lightning again.

First off, the cover: Luke Cage appears in this issue. Unnamed ninja haXXor on the far right of the cover does not. This is obviously another case of THE MAN tryin' to keep a brother down. Oh, sure, a black man can get his ass kicked all over a comic book (see below) but he's not gonna get his picture up where it belongs. I guess if he had a rack like Spider-Woman's, there, he'd be front and center. Also, the ostensible title character of this story arc, The Sentry, is shoved way over to the left. hmph!

Bendis is usually good at cute dialogue. His characters often say quirky, self-aware things that neatly sum themselves up. In this issue, he comes off as trying too hard. For example, there's a meeting of the (not so) Secret Masters of the Marvel Universe: Dr. Strange, Reed Richards, Charles Xavier, Black Bolt (or "Blackus Boltus" or whatever his real, lame name is), Namor and Tony Stark. This scene (in which the art is atrocious) exists solely for Bendis to get these characters to interact with each other in their own typical fashions.

It doesn't work.

These are all strong, well-known personalities and Bendis falls back on the stereotypes. Unfortunately, he doesn't even use the stereotypes well. There is one almost-funny moment with Reed Richards during this scene but the placement of the panels on those two pages wrecks the pacing.

Speaking of wrecking, The Wrecker shows up in this issue and engages most of the New Avengers in the most boring fight scene ever. I'll sum it up for you:

Wrecker: I have the power of a GOD!

The New Avengers: Shut up! You're stupid! New Avengers, New Assemble!!

Wrecker: #@%$ you! I #@%$ed up the #@%$ing Avengers and #@%$ed up #@%$ing Thor personally! #@%$, #@%$, #@%$!!!!!!!

The New Avengers: Ooof! Argh! All this getting thrown around a subdivision sure does make us angry!

Wrecker: Don't you know who I am? Respect my crowbar!

The New Avengers: Oof! Argh!

Lather, rinse, repeat.

So this Al Cowlings of the supervillain set gets his magic crowbar* back and spends seven pages knocking each of the New Avengers several blocks away one at a time. He gets to do this because the assembled superheroes come at him like extras in an old kung-fu movie instead of using anything resembling tactics. Not to get all comics geek on this but Luke Cage, Wolverine, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman have all fought in teams before and each of them has years of super-powered combat experience. They know the power of tactics and they have been portrayed in earlier issues of this very comic as able and willing to effectively team up on someone. They played this one stupid because Bendis didn't want the fight to be over yet. The worst part is that The Wrecker defeats the heroes by using the same damn move over and over.

After the crappy fight (with more bad art, by the way) we get four pages of "Oooo, isn't this thing with The Sentry mysterious?" which could have been done in one or two. The last two panels of this issue are straight out of the Bad Star Trek Episode Playbook.

Neither of the attempted cliffhangers makes me want to pick up the next issue. Maybe I won't.

*"Magic Crowbar" Insert euphemism here.

Mnemovore #4 - Vertigo (2005)

Here's the cover:

It tells you pretty much all you need to know about this comic.

Here's my spoiler-free review:

Oh...shit.

OK, that's not so much a review as a reaction. Here's my review with minor spoilers.

The miniseries has been realy creepy up to this point. With #4 it becomes full-on scary. If you haven't read the first three issues you're probably better off waiting for the trade since there are only two issues left in the story.

By the way, Mnemovore gets the Noetic Concordance Trade Paperback Seal of Approval because, so far, there hasn't been a single issue which has been just padding. The writers (Hans Rodionoff and Ray Fawkes) are pacing it appropriately along with scaring the hell out of me. I'm not going to have dreams about Mnemovore or anything, this is more of the "freaked out" kind of scared.

The series deals with memory, information and what happens when our access to those things goes away. The creepy, tentacled thing on the cover is some sort of monster which feeds on the memories of humans. Whenever it feeds on the stuff in your mind you don't get it back. Rodionoff and Fawkes explore different reactions to the alien feedings through the few people who are affected differently from most everyone else. These people aren't any better off.

The scariest element of this story, to me, is the recurring theme of the important people in the main character's life not remembering her. Just as she's getting pieces of her life back into place, parts of it begin detaching themselves from her. This sense of being isolated from people even when you're with them is conveyed masterfully by Mike Huddleston's art. He uses a dark palette along with a fluctuating level of detail depending on the needs of the scene.

If you like creepy, well-told stories and don't mind not having all of the information about the plot right off the bat, pick up Mnemovore when the trade comes out. Maybe it'll have some spooky extras.

Seven Soldiers Commentary

This post about Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers megaminiseries from I am NOT the Beastmaster is what my posts want to be when they grow up.

House of M: Now with spoilers!

I'm not going to review House of M so much as ruin the last page of the third issue for those of you who haven't read it. Before I do that, though, I do have a couple of comments:

This is an 8-issue miniseries which, so far, looks like it should have been planned for 4 - 6. I thought that six issues was the ideal size for a trade. If this is so, why didn't they solicit six issues? That way, Bendis could have written the events of the first two issues into a single issue. House of M #3 has all of the marks of a second issue. All of the setup has been done and now the action starts.

I have no problem with an entire issue in which "nothing happens" as long as that nothing is interesting and well-written. I don't need constant action and fight scenes but I do like to get to the meat of the story before all the exposition becomes tedious.

Now for the "spoiler":

Hawkeye shows up at the end of issue #3. That's cool and all but it's not really a big deal. Gwen Stacy appears in the first issue and she's dead in the "real world", too. Mutants are running the world and we're supposed to be amazed that Clint Barton shows up after being dead for about five minutes in comics time? Not really.

Having said all that, there is some cool stuff in House of M and I'm a sucker for "Elseworlds" stories but I'm not really impressed with what's going on so far. I had to restrain myself from calling this post "House of Meh". Oops, I guess my restraint is "Just OK".

Oh, Meltzer, how I stab at thee

Afraid of the Light has some new content up. It's good stuff. I think I agree with Chuck that Brad Meltzer did what he did on Identity Crisis because he's too much of a fan rather than not enough of one.

I will soon rant briefly about Identity Crisis but first, I'll show the cover to issue #7 which is one of my favorite comic covers of all time.

See, even I can find something nice to say about Identity Crisis

Now, on to the rant:

I don't like Meltzer's writing on Identity Crisis but my reasons are different from those of a lot of his other detractors I've seen. I don't have a problem with the darker direction he took the characters in (though I don't think IC was dark, per se). I don't have a problem with the premise behind the series or any of the deaths of Z-list characters at the hands of double-Z-listers.

I don't like Meltzer's writing on IC because it's lazy. He took the easy way out that so many writers of novels, etc. have taken before him. He wanted us to hate Dr. Light so he made him a rapist. Yawn. That action had no reason to be there other than to elicit a reaction from the readers. None. Nothing in Light's background suggested that he would do such a thing and even within the scene the rape made no sense.

Meltzer could have done the work to make us hate Dr. Light in so many other ways but he opted for the shortcut. I wasn't disgusted by the rape just because it was a rape (though that was a big part of it). I was disgusted by it because it was tacked on. It came out of nowhere and such a brutal act must have a better reason to exist in a story than this one did.

Next up: Why bringing back dead characters in an Alternate Universe story isn't much of a surprise.

Ocean and Matador: Two Future Trades Which Have Pleased Me

Ocean #6

A great ending to a good series.

Expect to see Nathan Kane in a future installment of The Badass Files. I had to read one section twice to make sure I understood what was happening with the action but none of it was as bad as the "BUMP" incident from an earlier issue where the cause of a certain effect was not explained until the following page.

Chris Sprouse's art is good and Kane does what Warren Ellis characters often do: He kills lots of bad guys by being smarter and more ruthless than they are. The supporting characters are awesome, too. I'd like to see a screenplay by Ellis but knowing what I do about Hollywood it'd get watered down by all the committees who'd get their hands on it.

Matador #3

Wow. Oh wow!


Young Avengers is full of what I read superhero comics for. Matador is what I read "mature" comics for. This is a damn good story, well-told. Brian Stelfreeze's art gains momentum with each issue. When I go back and look at individual panels I say, "Damn! That there's a fine piece of art" because I become a cowboy when faced with aesthetically-pleasing things, apparently. However, it's not the kind of awesome art that distracts me from the story. It's the kind of awesome art that tells the story.

Speaking of the story, Devin Grayson is a purty good writer, yeehaw! Dang, I've gotta stop that. Anyway, Grayson is doing a great job with the writing. I think one of the reasons Stelfreeze's art works so well with the story is that he's got a story credit on this miniseries so he's got more of a connection to it.

And now it's time for the Noetic Concordance Trade Paperback Rant

The threes of you who read this blog regularly know that I have a deep loathing for anything which has been put through the business end of the procrustean bed of the six-issue trade. Matador may continue to live because, so far, it looks like it's actually a six-issue story. Unlike House of M (which I'll get to in a future reveiw) Matador is moving along at a pace that matches the number of issues it has left. (See also: Ocean)

Ultimate Spider-Man #79

The Writing: This one doesn't have a lot of action and it spends too many panels recapping events from the previous issue but it's still a good one. This is the first issue of a new future trade-paperback collection so the recap will be necessary for those who come into the series at this point. Bendis did a pretty good job of adding some new material to the bit but, as I said above, it could have been done in fewer panels.

This one is unofficially titled "Peter Parker No More" which gets points for riffing on the old-school plotlines.

The art: It's Bagley. He's done 79 issues of this book and they have all looked good. His style fits Bendis's writing and works perfectly with the story. His character design on Silvermane is a little weird but (for reasons which become apparent in the first few pages) we won't have to worry about that anymore. His design on Hammerhead is spot on. Nice work.

The Bad Guys: The various crime lords of Spider-Man's New York always interested me and I'm glad Bendis is spending some time developing them.

The Badass: Now for the thing that would have made me buy this issue even if I hadn't already bought all the ones leading up to this (or, more accurately, been given most of them by a generous benefactor): Ultimate Moon Knight!

Sorry if I spoiled that one for you. I knew about it well in advance from various ads and other releases so it's not like Marvel was trying to keep that a secret.

As I mentioned before, Moon Knight is El Badasso Grande. I'm interested to see if Ultimate Moon Knight keeps the faith. So far, he's off to a good start. The cover of #80 is lookin' a-pretty nice so I'm hopeful.



Besides, Bendis hasn't let me down (on this title) yet.

Dial FF for Fantastic Four

Dial B for Blog is one of my favorite blogs of any kind out there. It's always entertaining and informative but with this article about the Origins of the Fantastic Four (that's the comic, not the team) Dial B outdoes itself. It is one of the finest pieces of comics writing I've ever seen.

Check the Back Issues section in the sidebar for the earlier installments of this series.

A reminder

Since my original mention of this has dropped off the front page, I'm reposting it:

Bryan Deemer of Comic Geek Speak (which is an awesome podcast) is going on a 150-mile bike ride in September to raise money for MS research. Click here for more information and to make a pledge.

Please let others know about this. Post it in your own blog. Geeks unite!

Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities #3

This is awesome. The first issue was quite good even though I had a few problems with the art. With this third issue, the art (by Kyle Hotz) has really grown on me. It does a great job of portraying Eric Powell's writing and the creepy stuff in this issue is damned creepy.

Billy and the rest of the freakshow he's been hired to travel with ride into a village in search of a jewel which is in the possession of Dr. Frankenstein. Yes, that Dr. Frankenstein. Powell's characterization of Frankenstein is excellent and Hotz draws him and his hideous creations spectacularly. Powell's colors are lurid and they look great on top of Hotz's pencils and inks.

Another reason I like this mini-series is that it's four issues long. This is exactly the number of issues that the story is going to require. I am sick and tired of six-issue series or story arcs which are only that long because that's what fits into a good-sized trade. This series would work well as a trade but I am so glad to see that Powell didn't try to stretch it into a shape it couldn't hold.

Sweet Christmas!

THE PULSE: What did you enjoy the most about working on this character?

LEN WEIN: Getting to work with the wonderful George Tuska, before Vinnie Colletta got his hands on the pencils and ruined them.

From this interview with three of the writers featured in the new Essential Luke Cage tome.

JACK KIRBY MUSEUM ANNOUNCED

OK, anybody reading this probably also reads Fanboy Rampage and/or Newsarama so you already know this but for those of you who haven't heard, yet:

There's a Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center coming!

My favorite part by Randolph Hoppe:

"Our first program is to build an exhaustive, collaborative online Jack Kirby 'Catalogue Raisonné'," reports Hoppe, referring to the term for a book of "all the works" by an individual artist.

For those of you not familiar with Jolly Jack, check out this bio or this collection of stuff he drew.

Here's one of my favorites:

Is that Mjölnir in your pocket?

Normally, this sort of thing would be handled by Scipio but he doesn't like the Marvel. Therefore, Noetic Concordance is proud to present:

Homoerotic Lines From Classic Comics

"Give 'em a taste of your Joy-Stick, Thor -- before they can jump us!"
--Goliath from Sub-Mariner #35

The Badass Files #1: Moon Knight

Moon Knight is one of the baddest asses in the entire Marvel Universe. In fact, with a rating of .92 Waynes*, he is one of the baddest in any universe.


Being a badass is not just a matter of skill or strength, it's a matter of attitude and Moon Knight is all about the attitude. That's a ladder suspended from a helicopter that he's kicking that guy from. That kind of thing really makes a statement about your stance on crime.

His only real superpower is that his strength increases dramatically when moonlight hits him. The Badass Code doesn't let such things as being weaker when the sun is up hinder you, though, so Moon Knight fights bad things wherever and whenever he sees them. Badass.

He is also apparently drawn towards dread supernatural occurrences but I'd call that a "series of bad days" rather than a superpower.

How much of a badass is Moon Knight? His real name is Marc Spector. That's a badass name! He could just show up at a bank robbery and say "I'm Marc Spector; knock it off!" and the bad guys would throw down their guns and run. Not only is his name badass, he was a mercenary before becoming a superhero. Say no more!

Moon Knight is such a badass that only badass bad guys are worthy to oppose him. For example, Arsenal:


Notice that the aptly-named Arsenal is literally wearing a pile of ordnance. Our boy Moon Knight has a freakin' bow and arrow! Is he cowed by the superior firepower? No, he's a badass! Let's look at the cover of the following issue to see how that altercation turned out:


Only the living evil of Bushman...Could unite Moon Knight and Arsenal

Yeah, that's right, Arsenal: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Badass.


*The Official Unit of the Badass Scale

Make mine Mogo!

I was really excited to hear that a new start-from-scratch Green Lantern monthly series was coming. However, I have read the first two issues and it's not grabbing me. It's neither the writer nor the artist, I now realize, it's actually that I don't really like Hal Jordan stories. That surprised me. I thought I was a big Hal fan. Turns out I'm a big Green Lantern Corps fan. Now that I realize that, I can stop buying the GL monthly and wait for a Tales of the GLC monthly.

Speaking of Hal Jordan, I now see what all the fuss about Kyle Rayner was. He was a much more interesting and better-developed character than Jordan. I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other but, if pressed, I would put myself in the camp that wishes Jordan had stayed dead. The story of his flipping out, killing everything and then redeeming himself through sacrifice is watered down now that he's back. On top of that, it doesn't look like they're doing anything interesting with his return. I'm glad there's a book on the shelves for the Hal fans but I'm not gonna read it anymore. I am, however, encouraged by the reformation of the Corps.

Back to the Corps: I like the GLC because it allows a really broad range of stories to be told. You can put a bunch of them together and explore the differences between their approaches. You can send one off on a solo mission where he or she (or it) has to be really smart and clever to get out of some situation. You can go completely batshit wacky and bring in Ch'p or Mogo.

I also like the sector assignments and the pseudo-military trappings of the organization. I'm a sucker for the whole intergalactic police force thing.

This is not to say that the GL monthly can't become a great comic and if that happens I'll pick it up again. For now, I'll wait for Tomar-Re or Katma Tui to show back up.

Again with the Defenders

I'm less than a third of the way through Essential Defenders vol. 1 and it's a blast, so far. I just hit this cover from Marvel Feature #3 which was, technically, the 2nd issue of the Defenders as they came to be known:

Dang! That guy's scary!

OK, he looks like an arctic version of this guy

but check out what he's saying:

"And now that the Defenders are dead I shall steal--Earth's Children"

Yikes! What's he gonna do with all those kids? How are they going to fit on that rocket?

This is Roy-Thomas, Silver-Age, twelve-sandwich-eatin' comics!

Young Avengers, Young Assemble!!

Let's talk about Young Avengers for a moment. I am just one of the many people who picked this up out of curiosity and I was not just pleasantly surprised, I was blown away! First off, check out this promo:



I saw this and said, "Wow. That looks like it could be stupid on an epic scale." But a small voice in my head murmured, "It could be kinda cool." Boy am I glad I listened to that voice. This thing rocks! Young Avengers has all of the elements I read superhero comics for.

The characters are engaging, the art is excellent - especially the action scenes, the relationships between the heroes and (more importantly) between the heroes and the villains are three-dimensional, stuff blows up, I could go on and on about what's good about this title.

Allan Heinberg, a TV writer best known for his work on The O.C. is doing an above-and-beyond-the-call job on this. The writing is tight and the story is compelling. This is the only comic book out right now that makes me want the next issue to be in my hands as soon as I'm done reading the current one.

Heinberg is one of those "celebrity" comic book writers who has come in from another medium who understands that comics are visual. He doesn't waste words (and valuable page space) by having characters say what the reader can clearly see in the panel. Each character has his or her own distinct voice and their actions all make sense within those characterizations rather than serving the plot. Nothing turns me off of a story more quickly than watching characters make decisions for no reason other than to put them where the plot needs them to be.

Heinberg also knows how to keep me turning the pages. He's doling out the information about the main characters with an eyedropper and it works! Each issue reveals a tiny bit about one or more of the characters just as it raises more questions about them. This is a very, very cool comic book. The trade paperback compiling the first 6 issues will be out in either August or September. If you like superhero stories, get it.

OMAC

Yeah, I understand that Rucka and Saiz are doing a comic with OMAC in the title but just so no one forgets, let me introduce you to a fella named Buddy Blank



That's right. One Man Army Corps, baby! That's where it's at.

Nobody messes with the OMAC! OMAC was Kirby at his most Kirbyest. There were only 8 issues of the series. Sounds just right for a slightly oversized trade to me.

Help a Blogger out

Bryan Deemer of Comic Geek Speak (which is an awesome podcast) is going on a 150-mile bike ride in September to raise money for MS research. Click here for more information and to make a pledge.

Defenders the way God intended

I'm going to post some reviews of the issues that make up the Essential Defenders Vol. 1 in the near future but I just wanted to say right off how much I'm enjoying reading these things! The first thing I noticed about the comics in this compilation is that they move fast! None of this "pages and pages of dialogue and exposition" you get nowadays. The story leaps from action scene to action scene and you'd better be able to keep up. Decompression be damned! The first Hulk issue in the book starts off with Bruce Banner unconscious and being dragged into a creepy mansion where people perform black rites on him. Damn! That's entertainment!

They're full of dialogue that would drive me nuts if I read it in something that came out recently but in the context of the early-70s wackiness that these stories come from it works, mate!

As soon as I get the scan-i-merator workin' I'll post some examples such as:

Right after Dr. Strange teleports himself and Namor into the Ward mansion. (Something abundantly clear from the art as well as Dr. Strange's words)
NAMOR: "We are back inside its walls!"

Until then, I leave you with the cover of Dr. Strange #183 which got the whole Defenders ball rollin'

In loudest din or hush profound

Rot Lop Fan is coming



Are you ready?

Bloody great cover archive

Most of you already know about this, I'm sure, but for those of you who haven't seen it, check out this flippin' huge Comic Covers Archive.

The search function is pretty good. I wish they had a thumbnail option but one can't have everything, can one?

LSH #7, UFF #20 & Grimjack #5

Today I rounded up the remainder of my holds. I got one from Marvel, one from DC and one from IDW. I only liked one of them all the way through but I only disliked one of them completely, as well.

Let's start with the bad:

Ultimate Fantastic Four #20: (spoilers)The hackneyed story introduced in #19 gets just plain dull in issue 20. The villain is tedious and unoriginal and the way Mike Carey depicts her "higher" brain output becomes difficult to keep reading. See, she's overclocked her brain so she doesn't pause between words because she's thinking so fast. Get it? This little trick made a tedious story that much harder to stick with.

This issue also contains the Worst. Villain. Monologue. Ever. She injects it directly into Reed's brain. I think this was Carey's attempt to throw the necessary exposition in there without resorting to the "Now that I've got you I will reveal my insidious plan in great detail" cliché. It didn't work for me. Warren Ellis would have done much better. That this comes right after Ellis's run on UFF makes it even harder to read. I like Jae Lee's art even though it's a radical departure from the work Kubert did when he was on board. The only gripe I have about the visuals is the cover. Everybody looks good except for Johnny. He seems to be wearing eyeliner. It's Robert Smith as The Human Torch!

EDIT: Clarified Artist reference above.

Grimjack: Killer Instinct #5: #5 made up for a lot of the problems I had with #4. Issue 4 made me realize that the first three issues had pretty much coasted along on my nostalgia. I mean, dude! Grimjack! Ostrander and Truman are gettin' the band back together, man!

#5 is every bit as full of the clichés and tropes and worn-out, tough-guy dialogue as the earlier issues but somehow in every one, except for the fourth one, it works! I think it's because Ostrander is completely unapologetic about it. There were a couple of lines I predicted as they came up. e.g.:

"No way I could take 'em in a fair fight."

[turn page]

"Good thing I don't fight fair."

It's like a sing-a-long. It's like a classic-rock station. We all know the songs but it's fun to belt out the verses.

This book has absolutely no surprises and it's not intended to. It's empty calories and stuff blows up. What more could you want?

Legion of Super-Heroes #7: Waid and Kitson are still doing a great job with this one. I've been a Legion fan for a long time. I have enjoyed each revamp on its own merits and this one is becoming my favorite. They have done some cool stuff with the origins and sources of the various legionnaires' powers. This issue focusses on Colu, the home planet of Brainiac-5. Something bad is happening there which ties into the larger impending war storyline.

The characterizations are good and the setups for many of the "wow" moments work well. There are two inkers credited on this issue and it shows. The style is inconsistent from page to page but it's never bad.

Mark Waid sometimes tries a little too hard to inject intrigue and conflict into the Legion and this issue has a large helping of that. He's at his best when he lets those elements come naturally out of the story instead of plugging them in but overall this is still engaging and I'm interested in how the larger story arc develops.

Fear and Loathing in Atlanta

I'm really looking forward to this year's Dragon*Con but I am going to be busy this year! I had to plan last year's schedule to within an inch of its life and this year will be more of the same. The guest list is the best yet!

Most of the Firefly cast along with Joss Whedon will be there. Whedon's appearance is going to bring great Chaos and Doom to those two hotels in Atlanta. It'll be worse than the year James Marsters showed up. I'll have to show up early for any panel with JW in it.

Also, the comics track is full of people I want to see: Howard Chaykin, Joe Jusko, Cully Hamner, Brian Stelfreeze, David Mack, Ted Naifeh, Eric Powell, Chris Staros and a bunch of others who haven't been officially added yet.

Oh, and Dean Stockwell. DEAN STOCKWELL!!

All this and I'll be "working" in my usual capacity as a demo rabbit for Looney Labs

woo

New Comics 6/22/05

New Avengers #6: The story is getting muddier and the writing is weaker than on the first five issues. Also, the art looks more Liefeld-y than it did before. I may just be nitpicking the visuals because I was unimpressed by the writing this time. This issue provides the Big Reason for the Avengers to reform. Unfortunately, the details behind the reason seem rather contrived. So, the U.S. government (or a faction thereof) is doing something dastardly and the New Avengers are gonna New Avenge the bunches of people who died because of it, or something.

The problem here is that all of the evidence for this dastardly stuff is either revealed or explained in this issue. They make some references to things that happened earlier but the setup for the big moment seems rushed and tacked on. I have enjoyed the series up to this point and I'll pick up #7 but if the story doesn't tighten up I'll drop it.

House of M #2: I was pretty lukewarm about the first issue of House of M but I really like #2. The art is excellent and the alternate reality (semantics be damned - if it's going to go back to normal it's an alternate reality) is very cool. It's like Magneto's version of the Top Ten setting. Apparently, Logan's powers include the ability to smell cosmic changes to the order of things. I'm definitely picking up #3. My only complaints about this issue involve the pacing of the scene between McCoy and Pym (the two Henrys) and the cover which uses a muted palette when brighter colors would have made the figures stand out better. They're probably saving that for the inevitable variant cover.

Astro City: The Dark Age #1: I've been waiting for this one for quite a while. It wasn't what I expected it to be at all but it is a very engaging story about a pair of non-powered brothers and how they are affected by all of the ca-ray-zee superheroes around them. It distinguishes itself from Marvels and other "regular people reacting to superpowers" comics by focussing on the relationship between the brothers. The art is good and the Alex Ross cover is cool even if it depicts a relatively minor scene. I guess a picture of a couple of guys talking very intensely doesn't just pop off the shelves.

The Iron Ghost #2: Still liking this one. I care about the major characters and I'm even more curious as to why this guy is going around murdering Nazis. Murdering these specific Nazis, that is. The art in #2 is even better than it was in the first issue and we get more of the detectives who are really cool. Chuck Dixon seems to have done his homework on what it was like in Berlin during the constant bombings. Great stuff. The violence (and there's plenty of it) is handled well both in the writing and in the art.

There are 1,001 people

From the blog of the Executive Producer of the Global Frequency pilot.

An excerpt:

"I bitch and moan about how all this emergent technology is going to change the entertainment industry and nobody's taking advantage of it. And here I have, well, unless I'm mistaken, a fan base which exists and is trying to organize for a show which has never appeared on television. Not a cancelled show -- a show which has literally never aired on broadcast television. "

Basically, the words "snowball" and "Hell" come to mind regarding the probablility of GF airing but the following quotation gives me an iota of hope.

"BUT ... having said that, I'll make some calls, talk to some humans. I'll try to learn, in what time I have, how this totally new process could work. That's what we're talking here, about you (the audience) creating a completely new process for television shows.

On the other hand, the entire idea of Global Frequency is of ordinary people subverting the establishment and getting things done. The concept of a fan base for the show subverting the establishment and getting things done ... frankly that's a little irresistible."

crossposted to my LiveJournal

Dial H for Hypericon

Dial B for Blog is what Noetic Concordance wants to be when it grows up.

Regular posts will continue once I'm done with Hypericon

Global Frequency

From the "Stuff I wish I'd said" department, BeaucoupKevin (of BeaucoupKevin fame) has good stuff to say about the Global Frequency Pilot.

An excerpt:

We need to believe in the common man as hero now more than ever, and this show could have gotten us all a little closer to that - all of the viewers would be on the Global Frequency.

.

Legal Guide for Bloggers

Not comics-related but very blog-related:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation had published an online legal guide for bloggers.

Most of it isn't the type of stuff the majority of bloggers are going to run up against but it's still good to have this kind of thing bookmarked.

The Goon and the Ghost

The Goon #12:
When you've got a Spanish-speaking lizard guy, a resurrected villain named "Dr. Alloy" and an army of robots what more do you need?

This is the first issue of The Goon I have ever read and that's a shame. This is a really good comic book. I had heard good things about Eric Powell before and I had been told to check out this title specifically. Powell even lives in the same state I do so I had read stories in local papers about him.

The art is incredible. Powell has a gift for facial expressions and composition that rivals Kevin Maguire's work. Powell's style is nothing like Maguire's but both artists are able to convey what they want to elegantly. Check out Powell's site for examples of his work.

The writing (also by Powell) is excellent. It's funny and compelling and downright silly in places which is exactly what this story needs. The dialogue is snappy and the jokes are always part of the story. The Goon himself is an excellent character. He's the tough guy you all want to root for. He'd make a great movie action hero but Hollywood would probably screw it up. An animated series would be better but it would have to be on HBO to really convey the mood of the comic.


The Iron Ghost #1: I picked this one up on a whim. I really like World War II stories, especially those from the European Theatre. The story is introduced very well and we get some tantalizing hints about why the title character does what he does. I'm not spoiling anything by telling you that this comic is about someone who has it in for SS Officers and goes around Berlin during the heaviest American/English bombing raids killing them. The story alternates between the Iron Ghost and two German police detectives who have been assigned to solve these murders in the midst of all this chaos.

The art by Sergio Cariello is excellent. He uses a narrow, dark pallette of browns, blacks and greys to give the whole thing a historical feel. It also fits the story very well. Chuck Dixon wrote the story and he does a great job of balancing the main character's need for revenge against the brutality of his actions. This is one angry guy. The whole thing has a very "The Shadow" feel to it. In fact, the cover is an obvious nod to that look.

New Comics 6/11/05

Ultimate Fantastic Four #19: The story has a "been there; done that" feel to it: A they all laughed at me at the academy villain takes over the Baxter Building's defenses while the FF is out of town (WAY out of town - Like, in another dimension). She's had something done to her to enhance her intelligence and she's very, very angry at the cool kids who made the cut.

This is part 1 and I'm interested enough in what's going on to read part 2 (which should be the conclusion of the story) but Warren Ellis would have done it better. Ellis realized that Reed Richards' primary superpower is his intelligence. At least once per issue, Ellis would have Reed do something really clever. Sometimes it was a small thing but it would make me say "Wow! Cool!". Mike Carey didn't write any of those moments for Reed in this issue. It's a different style, I know, but there was nothing particularly exciting about the events. The dialogue was even kind of flat.

The art, however, I like.

Jae Lee did a great job of conveying the darkness and isolation of the characters as they move through a familiar building which has now become unfamiliar. Nothing beats Adam Kubert's art for this series but I like Lee's work on this. It reminds me of Stuart Immonen's stuff in that he really captures the "guy on fire" effects on Johnny well.

Ultimate Spider-Man #78: As I was reading this issue I was thinking "Ugh. This is a lot of navel-gazing even for Bendis". Then I got to the punchline. Nice work.

It didn't go the direction I was afraid it was going to and it did, in fact, advance the story. Brian Bendis isn't Joss-Whedon good but he keeps pulling compelling stories out of these characters. I'm not reading much else that Bendis is writing right now but I am very impressed with Ultimate Spider-Man. He has kept my interest through 78 issues and that ain't easy. There was a bit of meta-comic-geekery that threw a speedbump into the story flow but it was a minor thing.

One of the reasons I have stayed interested in US-M has been Mark Bagley's art. Damn he's good! His style fits Bendis's writing perfectly. If the title had rotated through various artists (see Ultimate Fantastic Four above) I might not have stuck with it. Consistency of art and consistency of writing have combined to keep this thing in my holdbox.

Also purchased: The Goon #12 and Iron Ghost #1 but I haven't read those, yet.

Defenders Assemble!

I am sitting next to a really big collection of black & white Defenders issues. There are two things written on the cover that make me very happy:

1. Sal Buscema - Because it means that there's lots of early-70s Buscema art inside.

2. Volume 1 - Because it means there's gonna be a Volume 2.

It's the Essential Defenders collection! There are (if I counted correctly) 24 issues featuring The Defenders in this thing. All for seventeen bucks!

Some of the other names I am glad to see on the cover are "Len Wein", "Steve Englehart" and "Gene Colan". I don't know who's making these decisions over at the House if Ideas but I hope they stick around!

Hey! I found a reason to read Millarworld

Warren Ellis did a Q&A on the forums.

Millar and Ellis have been friends for quite a while and there are some good Qs that Ellis As.

Steranko!

From Comics Should Be Good Jim Steranko was the inspiration for Mr. Miracle and the Kavalier & Clay escapist character. I had read that Steranko was an escape artist back in the day but I didn't know he was the inspiration for Scott Free

The Steranko bit is the second of the Comics Urban Legends. They're all ineresting.

New Comics (yester)Day!

Rann-Thanagar War #2 Good art. Muddy storyline. Lots of explosions and people getting disintegrated. Kyle Rayner gets some good screen time but Hawkman and Adam Strange not so much, this issue. I've made this complaint about other series and I'll make it about future ones, I'm sure but here we go again:

This issue suffers from "Trades Disease" which is the unnecessary padding of what should be a 4-issue miniseries or story arc into a 6-issue run because that's the number of issues that fit nicely into a trade paperback compilation. Not a lot happens in this issue. Having said that, there is some good padding in #2, especially on the Tamaranean queen if you know what I'm sayin'

Ahem.

Sorry about that. My biggest complaint about this series is that people keep showing up as if we're supposed to know who they are. Me heap-big comics geek and I don't recognize a lot of these cameos. Maybe they'll be identified in later issues. Also, so far, this conflict is not triggering any sort of emotional investment on my part. I really don't give a damn about most of the characters. In a war story, you're kinda supposed to, aren't you? I'll pick up #3 to see where this goes.

Lex Luthor Man of Steel #4 The Adventures of Businessman! continues. I'm still liking the series but this penultimate issue is the weakest yet. It's well-written but it's also all over the place. Also, Bermejo's art (still awesome!) makes a couple of the secondary characters look really insane in a couple of spots. Check out the freaky morning-show guy on page 14! Woah!

The introduction of Hope was done very well and I have to mention Dave Stewarts colors. They make this book. It wouldn't have a tenth of its impact without them.

The Stardust Kid #1 This one's by Image. I didn't know anything about it when I saw it on the shelf. I liked the cover art (see below) and I saw J.M DeMatteis's name on it.



Definitely worth the money. There's too much telling and not enough showing for a visual medium like comics in this intro issue but the story is very good and I am very interested in what happens next issue. This is by far the best comic I picked up this week.

More to Come My holdbox is at the other comics store and I won't have the stuff in there until Saturday. More mini-reviews then. In the meantime, it has come to my attention that many people have not heard what Rot Lop Fan can do for them. This will be corrected as soon as possible.

Last week's comics reviewed today!

Zatanna #2 I said earlier that when Grant Morrison is on he's on and he continues to bring the goodness with Zatanna and the rest of the Seven Warriors of Victory megaminiseries. This one has action, wry humor, great art and cool characters. I want a Zatanna monthly series!

Matador #2 The art in this issue is some of the best I have ever seen. In fact, Brian Stelfreeze's work on this comic deserves its own post. Once I get the scan-u-lator and the computerizor talking to each other properly I'll do that. For now, let me just say that his use of color is perfect for this story. He and Devin Grayson work very well together. The writing is good but it almost has trouble keeping pace with the quality of the art. The story and the main character got some more meat to them in this issue. It has turned from a typical "obsessed cop gets pulled from the case" story into an interesting study in the similarities between cops and criminals.

The Imaginaries #2 We've seen elements of this story before: Imaginary friend gets left behind by his kid. This comic handles the tropes a little differently in places and it adds a really cool setting and some very cool secondary characters such as Melee Mouse. That's one of the best names anyone ever came up with. Melee Mouse. I wish I'd thought of that. The art is very good and fits the story to a tee. I'll definitely pick up #3.

House of M #1 Not much I can say about this that you can't find elsewhere. I like the art and the Magneto angst. I am also a sucker for alternate-reality stories. My favorite DC stories were the various Elseworlds tales. Marvel's essentially doing the same thing with House of M and I think they're off to a good start.

However, I think they could have told the same type of story without being as arbitrary as they have been with HoM. The story as Bendis is telling it requires several well-established characters to either act completely out-of-character or to be temporarily stupid in order for things to work themselves out "like they're supposed to". This is weak storytelling.

There's also a lot of unnecessary talking in this issue. I don't mind talky comics. I do mind comics that waste space by showing panel after panel of the same characters rephrasing what they said two pages ago. We get it! Dr. Strange and Professor X, two of the most powerful people on the planet, are stymied! The situation is that dire! Move on!

The final panel has a nice little surprise for those of us who are Spider-Man geeks. I missed it the first time I read that page.

I'll pick up the 2nd issue because, despite its flaws, the story is interesting and I want to see what happens next.

Superhero Radio

Those of you who read The Absorbascon already know about Superhero Radio. Those of you who don't should check out both.

Superhero radio is a Live365 station with nothing but songs about (and sometimes by) superheroes. Fun!

War continues to be Heck

I can't decide who's more wrong in this conflict.

Oh, wait. Yes, I can.



It's THANAGAR!!

Great blog

If you haven't seen Glyphs yet, please do so now.

Thank you, citizen.

Mark Millar Doesn't Suck

Mark Millar is not a bad writer. I think the things he chooses to write about are very well-written. He's good at the craft of writing. I don't think he's a good storyteller, though. Grant Morrison is a great storyteller. His sense of pacing and the interactions of his characters are both top-notch. Morrison can write some stuff that at first seems to have the consistency of a fever dream but he usually pulls an excellent and interesting story out of all of it. For example, Morrison's Zatanna mini-series really has me hooked. It's got a cool, well-told story and compelling characters such as the girl who is tagging along with the title character.

Millar seems to have an idea of where his story arcs are going but, to me, it looks like he gets lost along the way. He's got Points A and Z thought out but there's not much of a sense of the path between those points. Many things just seem to happen. He has dropped some hints about future events (such as the Vision android) but the introduction of said synthetic being just seemed incongruous.

In Ultimates 2 Millar is definitely going somewhere with Pym as well as with Captain America & The Wasp but I get no sense of an arc or of any compelling elements which tie any of the parts of this story together. I have no problem with a comic that tells a self-contained story in each issue but Ultimates 2 is obviously on an arc.

Another thing that good storytellers do well is suspense. Allan Heinberg is doling out the information about the main characters in Young Avengers with an eyedropper. And I love it. We are several issues into the series and we just found out something very important about Hulkling. Heinberg is keeping me interested and I actively look forward to each new issue. This is, no doubt, something Marvel would be thrilled to hear.

Millar, however, has not captivated me with the mystery of the Ultimate Traitor. Ultimates 2 #6 ended with another tease showing that Pym knows who the traitor is but we, the readers, don't yet. It also ended with a cliffhanger that in the hands of a better writer would have made me say, "Woah! What the hell? I can't wait to see what that's about." Instead, because the events of the cliffhanger have had no build-up, I don't care. That's something Marvel doesn't want it's readers to say.

The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.

I think the main reason that Millar's writing bounces off me is that he doesn't seem to care for the characters he's writing about. Allan Heinberg does. Joss Whedon does. Giffen and DeMatteis do. Let's take another writer who does.

Warren Ellis.

This allows me to make a direct comparison between the two writers because they both worked on The Authority. Ellis writes cynical, smart, bastards who have seen too much. Some say he writes those characters too often but that's fodder for another essay. Jenny Sparks and the rest of the Authority are willing to do extremely violent things to make the world a better place for the majority of its inhabitants. They are not amoral but they do not abide by any law that keeps them from doing their jobs. This is one of the core premises of The Authority.

As written by Ellis, The Authority were a bunch of bastards but they were Bastards for Justice. They were also sympathetic. There were several moments in the first twelve issues of that comic which moved me and one or two that nearly had me in tears. Millar never did that. When he took over The Authority became assholes. Just assholes. I no longer cared about these formerly fully-realized characters. And I don't think Millar did, either.




EDIT: The distinguished commentor makes a good point. I could tack on some specific examples of the differences between Millar's and Ellis's Authority work but it will take up quite a bit of space and this post is plenty long, already. So, STAY TUNED for part two wherein I go on at length about that comic book.

No one will be seated during the thrilling Hegelian Dialectic scene!