Well I skipped New Comics last week for a bunch of reasons that we need not go into here. Luckily my buddy Billy Superstar picked up the slack with his Comics Round Up, so this week I’ll be covering notable comics from the last two weeks and riffing off of the Round Up a little bit. As for Spoilers, I spoil a little bit of stuff on the X-Books, except for X-Factor. I also sort of spoil Neil Gaiman’s “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusander?” in the following paragraph.
DC, coming at ya:
Billy Superstar talked about the first part of Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? two part story in Round Up, and the second part came out this week. As Superstar said, this story has good art, but is really no big deal. At the end, Gaiman’s says that Batman has to go out fighting, but is that really true? Why couldn’t Bruce Wayne go on to a mentor stage some day, like in the Justice Society? Bruce Wayne is driven but I don’t think he’s so crazy he just has to die in battle. Batman is, after all, one of the smartest men in the DC universe.
Also on the Bat-tip, Azrael, Death’s Dark Knight #2 (of 3) came out this week, written by Fabian Nicieza with art by Frazer Irving. This is a light-hearted, albeit violent, mini about the new Azrael. I won’t spoil any details on this one because it is worth reading. Art by Frazer Irving is always super cool.
In Mighty Marvel Land…
Starting with the X-books, I couldn’t agree more with Billy Superstar’s assessment of X-Men’s Legacy and Uncanny titles. Uncanny especially is getting spread way too thin, there are currently so many plotlines going that they don’t even get coverage in every issue. Last issue’s final pages showed the High Evolutionary and Magneto machinating off in space, yet they weren’t even in this most recent issue. Also, character development is too sporadic, why are we being introduced to a bunch of Russian refugees, while the fairy girl mutant they spent so much time developing in past issues has been totally pushed to the back of recent events? I know Matt Faction can do better that this, what’s up?
On to my two of my favorite X-Titles, X-Factor(#42) and X-Force (#14). That’s right baby, I said X-Force! This ultra-dumb Messiah War event is cracking me up. Logan and his crappy team of killers have gone to the future to find Cable and the all important Messiah Baby, Hope. Upon arriving in the barren, post-multiple-apocalypses-future our heroes are immediately beset upon by everyone’s favorite Cable clone, Stryfe, aided by the X-turncoat Bishop. This is all utter stupidity but it is kind of funny, and the focus on Cable and Stryfe makes me nostalgic for the worst of the 90’s X-titles. As for X-Factor, I couldn’t have more respect for this title. With all the crap mentioned above going on in the other X-books, I surprised more die-hard, mutant-loving nerds don’t read this title.
Lastly I’ll quickly mention Astonishing X-Men #29. I’ve been pretty disappointed by this title. The art style Simone Bianchi uses here annoys me, it looks very good, but I feel like it doesn’t convey any real action. As for the writing, I feel like this title has really just lost all sense of direction. The story is about some inter-dimensional invasion. Yawn.
An interesting entry into the Marvel U. is Fantastic Force #1 (of 5). Well, saying this title is an addition to the Marvel Universe may be untrue, as this story takes place in the alternate universe on the planet Nu-World, the earth clone introduced in recent Fantastic Four storylines. Here the refugees from an alternate Marvel future live, protected by the Fantastic Force, formerly known as the Last Defenders. The team consists of some robots and aliens and, of course, Wolverine. As wacky as that all sounds, this was an okay comic. I didn’t go in with big expectations, but this comic has some good action, we’ll see where it goes. This Nu-World could very well be Marvel’s attempt at creating a new Ultimate-type alternate universe to franchise out.
Kick-Ass #6 came out, a little late. This title is kind of growing on me. I still think the story is a little dumb, but the art is really good. Also, as the issues unfold, more and more standard comic conventions are employed in this supposedly non-superhero world. The thing is, that’s kind of what’s making me like this comic more. In the beginning of this series, the main character, Kick-Ass just really annoyed me, but he’s such an underdog in such a classic, Peter Parker-esque manner, you really start to feel for the guy. I still go back and forth on how much I like this title, but it at least continues to be interesting.
Daredevil #118, part three of Brubaker’s swan song on the title continues to be pretty cool. Is there nothing Brubaker cannot do? Captain America #49 rocked the house, ramping things up for next months big Number Five-Oh! Also, last week we were treated to Brubaker’s Incognito #3 with art by Sean Phillips. Incognito continues to impress, I enjoy seeing Phillips draw superheroes after seeing so much of his straight noir art in Criminal, it gives me the added impression that Incognito takes place in a very “real” world.
Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani entered the fray of indie books by big time talent last month with Ignition City. Here in issue number two, we are treated to some more cool intrigue in an alternate-universe-sci-fi-Victorian-western-type of way. Why is it that this comic so good and Astonishing X-Men sucks so bad? Also, why the hell did they cancel Nextwave, agents of H.A.T.E.?
Lastly (whew!), I’ll mention Godland #27. Godland is a fun ride, it’s a comic for people who like to get stoned and read Kirby comics. In all seriousness though, I have a hard time convincing people to read this comic. It’s hard to explain how, but Godland is more than just a Kirby homage comic, it’s funny, it has good action, amazing character designs, and there is a lot of good character development amongst all the craziness going on. I highly recommend Godland to everyone.
Next Week:
Final Crisis: Legion of three Worlds #4.
Green Lantern #40.
Justice Society of America #26.
Dark Avengers #4.
Uncanny X-Men #509.
-Ronald Rosebud
GIANT SIZE MAN THING 