March Quickies part1

March has been a great month so far. Three weeks straight of terrific books. Of course some of that reflects my buying habits. I've been cutting back a lot lately so there's less crap on my reading list. Here are some highlights from March.

100% Paul Pope

I'm still not sure what happened in this story, but I had a great time reading it. Beautiful art and storytelling.. Amazing writing. I'm tempted to explain this book away a a cross between this and that with a little of the other thrown it. That would be a disservice to Pope's inventivness. There are definately many influences in here, but Pope has made it all his. There's no one in comics doing work like his and very few reaching his level.

Seven Soldiers Grant Morrison and friends

This is where I'm spending my DC money for the next several months. Forget about COuntdown to Infinate Crossovers or whatever the heck it's called. Morrison is the man.

Wolverine #26 Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Wolverine only appears in this issue a bit. It's a great read. Even without the main character Millar drives the action forward and a frenetic pace and the next issue looks to be a killer, literally.

JLA Classified Giffen, DeMatteis and MacGuire

Man I missed this. I really did. This creative team's 1980's run on JLA (or JLI for you sticklers) was a brilliant and entertaining break from the grim and gritty heroes who had taken over the industry in the wake of Millar's Daredevil and Batman. Now it's relief from the wide screen superheroics that have been the mainstay of the industry since Ellis and Hitch's Authority. I find I'm looking forward the latest new take on the Defenders. With this team on that book it could be great.

Comics 3/23/2005

Good comics.

Fillerbunny in My Worst Book Yet aka Fillerbunny #3
Trigger #4
JLA Classified #5
Seven Soldiers:Shining Knight #1
Seven Soldiers:The Manhattan Gaurdian #1

Comics 3/16/2005

And heeerrreee they are.

Wolverine #26
Black Panther #2
Ultimate Spider-Man #74
elk's run #1
The Incredible Hulk #79
the Question #5 of 6
The Ultimates 2 #4
Paul Pope 100%

Comic 3/9/2005

Here's what I picked up last week.

Nightmares and Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time
Sleeper: a crooked line
Channel Zero
Channel Zero: Jennie One
Scurvy Dogs
Ultimate Fantastic Four #16
GloomCookie #23
Fables #35

Ultimate Iron Man #1 Orson Scott Card and Andy Kubert

I've read several novels by Orson Scott Card and enjoyed many of them. If I hadn't enjoyed them I would not have gone back for more. He's the writer of the Ender series which has a wide and slightly fanatical following. I tired of his work after a while though. He only has a few things to say so he says them over and over again and mostly in the same way. So it wasn't a surprise that Ultimate Iron Man felt familiar. It was something of a surprise that it sucks so bad. I mean it could show a West Hollywood tranny a thing or two.

The cliche ridden story is filled with inept stupid people doing inept stupid things. Card obviously has a distorted idea of what a comicbook is and what you can get away with when writing one.

There are so many things wrong with this book and it hinges on so many people acting so moronically that I hardly know where to start.

How about biologists working with virus ridden monkeys wearing glass bowl helmets that can break so one of them can be infected with a genetically engineered virus and pass it on to her unborn son who will grow up to be super genius Tony Stark. It's the virus that makes his a genius you see.

How about a multi billionaire (Tony Stark's father) who has built and runs the biggest arms manufacturer in the United States unaware that his biggest rival is buying up stock in the company and colluding with Stark's soon to be ex-wife to use her stocks from the divorce settlement to take over the company. Howard Stark is a moron. He deserves to have his company stripped from him. He deserves to have his life's work destroyed.

Speaking of the life's work, the value of Stark stock goes down when it's announced that the company is developing a revolutionary form of armor for soldiers? And then the bad guy announces that he's going to destroy the research when he takes over the company?

This is just plain bad, stupid, horrible, incompetent writing.

The art doesn't thrill me either. Andy Kubert is a decent artist, but every other Marvel book looks the same these days. Isn't it time to stop raping the long dead corpse of The Authority. Ellis and Hitch finished their reconstruction of the modern superhero team over 5 years ago. Ellis started the process in Stormwatch almost ten years ago. Let's move on, shall we, please?

I'm just ranting uncontrollably now. Can you tell I'm angry? I'll stop now and leave you with just one more thought. I spent three bucks on this piece of crap and I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

Rising Stars #24 Straczynski, Anderson, Buccellato and Dreamer

So Rising Stars is done. Gee, that's just, great. I guess. It's only been, what, a hundred years since it started? And that's only one of the problems. When the book first came out it was fresh and new. Now it reads and looks like every other super-hero team book out there. Hint #1: strike while the iron is hot.

It was a great high concept book that also was very strongly based in the characters. It's something Straczynski excels at, in the beginning anyway. You see, it's also something he completely forgets about when he comes to the end of the story. He did it at the end of Babylon 5. He did it to a lesser degree in Midnight Nation. Don't even get me started on what he did to Amazing Spider-Man. He's done it again in Rising Stars, in spades. He arrives at the big finish, rushes the climax and completely forgets about the characters. They become puppets acting out the high concept. He always starts out strong and then blows it in the end. Hint #2: take a deep breath before you throw what is working on the character front out the window for the sake of plot.

Now his next big gig has been announced. Fantastic Four. I'll pass. He's just going to do it again. I'll get all excited about his take on the FF and all the new cool ideas and how well he handles the characterization. Then he'll pull some completely boneheaded move out in left field for the sake of high concept and plot, dump any semblance of solid characterization and just leave a bad taste in my mouth about the whole thing. No thanks.

February 2005 Quickies Part 1

Powers #6 Bendis and Oeming

I'm still reading. This issue was better that the last one. Given the fact that I'm pretty burned out on Bendis and feel like Ive heard everything he has to say, and it all sounds the same, "I'm still reading" is pretty amazing.

Solo #3 Paul Pope

This is the only one of these that I've picked up. It's a nice idea. I like Pope's work and was not dissappointed.

Stray Bullets #36 David Lapham

Great read. A great combination of character and story. Most screenwriters could learn something from Lapham.

Ultimates 2 #3 Millar, Hitch and Neary

A great finish to the opening arc. Now we finally get a Hulk and Banner that I can recognize and fits into the Ultimate universe.

JLA Classified #4 Giffen, DeMateis, Maguire and Rubinstein

The old JLI gang done by the old creative team.. What more could you ask for?


That's enough for now. More after my brain stops simmering in my skull.

Comics 2/09/2005 - 3/02/2005

I'm way behind on this so without further adeiu here are the books I've purchased over the past month.

Powers #9
Solo #3
Stray Bullets #26
The Ultimates 2 #3
JLA Classified #4
Queen and Country Declassified # 1 0f 3
Astonishing X-Men #8
The Incredible Hulk # 78
Ocean #4 of 6
Green Lantern Rebirth #4 of 6
Wolverine #25
Strangers in Paradise #71
Ultimate Nightmare #5
Soldiers of Victory #0
B.P.R.D. The Dead #4
Black Widow #6 of 6
Y The Last Man #31
Ultimate Iron Man #1
Ultimate Spider-Man #73
Soulsearchers and Company #70
Hell House Book 2
Rising Stars #24
Superman Strength #3 of 3
Teannagers From Mars