Sunday, June 30, 2013

Sunday Comics June 30

So this week is a lot of nostalgia for me mixed with a bit of cool storytelling and have to wait for next week when I have the free cash....

 

Ah Journey into Mystery does my heart so good. I've been out of the mix for a while but it is so easy to get back on the marvel soap opera ride that I did not feel out of the loop at all. Beta Ray Bill is totally still my favorite character and though Sif and he still love each other its so much more complicated that the artist along with the history says so much more then the dialogue. I missed the creation of his girlfriend and all that but it matters not because the history of their love shoes through. I will so much miss this comic when it gets canceled in the next coup,e months... At least I got some great action adventure drama comics out of this and I can ever go back to them when I miss the good new days...

Katheryn Immonen deserves another comic in the marvel stable.... I would so buy whatever she writes....

 

 

Wolverine by Paul Cornell is one of the mutant titles I hope gets enough attention. Anyone into Hawkeye should check this out. Paul does not pack as much into an issue but this is the title that wanted to tell the story of Logan and hisnfriends recognizing that he is more then the bloody killing machine that most titles featuring him goes for. Logan here has buds he has a heart and a voice that says that he may be the best there is at what he does but that may not make him happy. As someone who enjoys a good brew, who would love to hang with his old buddies and well has so many regrets tis may just be the Wolverine title for all us old fans who wants more then the claws and the attitude to engage us... Paul I so want this to succeed.... Hell is love to see a Logan as Dredd comic....

 

Hawkeye... What can I say about his title that has not been said... If tour into comics someone must have said check put Matt Fractions Hawkeye. Well if yo have not read anything about how great the writing is on this book here is an issue to check out. Matt writes from the POV of the dog in Clint's Barton's life. The issue touches on the events of the series recently, on the perception of the non human loved ones in our life and treats it with all the seriousness of the first person episode of MASH from back in the early eighties. This issue is such a success in writing and in art by Aja that it better shadows what comics can achieve in storytelling. I feel that though I was paying attention I missed subtitlites in the story that would have been more implicit had an English speaker told the tale.... Check this out if you thins comics have nothing new to say...

 

 

The next two I have yet to get because of the cost of comics this week.... I can only go one 3.99 a week but next week is so minimal for me I can check out Uncanny and Xmen by Bendis if not All-New if I get the chance.... Costs forestall me sometimes and this is one of those weeks.... I was a big fan of Magik and Illyana from the New Mutant days back in the eighties and I so want to read about her these days since another old favorite of mine Doctor Strange is involved. In terms of the Bendis Xmen well I love the leads and giving then a series beyond Scott and Logan well is too awesome to pass over.....

Next week is small so well hope to comment on some of these then....

 

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Personal apology...

Hey everyone... I don't have a Sunday Comics column this week... I will try to make it up to you this week....

I got no votes on the review so this week in addition to my planned review I will be doing a review of Lexicon by Max Barry...

One of the post Age of Ultron books I most want is Mighty Avengers.... It includes some of my most favorite characters... The old Captian Marvel from the late eighties, Luke Cage the man once known as Poweman hero for hire, Falcon my favorite part of the seventies Captain America and Jennifer Walters The Sensational She-Hulk.... Its also written by Judge Dredd Al Ewing.....

 

 

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Sunday Comics...

I did not get to my friendly local comics shop this last week so I've yet to read my copies of Paul Cornell's Wolverine and the Kelly Sue Captain Marvel issue of Avengers Assemble. I am most likely going to pick up the Thor issue this week as well as possible look into the current BPRD Hell on Earth series....

What I would like to do is write about the sad imminent end of Journey into Mystery in a few months. I have really loved the series and will miss Kathryn Immonen's writing.... Hope that she geta another regular gig soon...

At least we have three months left in this series and getting some Beta Ray Bill is great even if its just for a short time.... Learned that Red She Hulk is also on the chopping block... Sad that but well that is how things go...

Till later in the week Excelsior.....

 

Thursday, June 13, 2013

The Return of the Master(s)

Mike Mignola and John Arcudi spin a great apocalyptic tale; in fact they are so good at it that BPRD Hell on Earth The Return of the Master (a title worthy of Mark Hodder) overcomes any apocalypse fatigue you may have. As a horror story fan I have to say Mike and John create a great mood of foreboding in this volume foreshadowing a horrible event on the horizon. I am an on again off again reader of BPRD and have only passing familiarity with some of the characters and I'd say this is a bad place to start but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its got me hooked back into the story. Hell on Earth pulles storylines from the early volumes of Hellboy and talks about recent events like the horrors that affected the UK, Canada and lead to the shooting of favorite Abe Sapien and the suspension of another long term BPRD agent.

This volume in the long running story of the B.P.R.D fight against the supernatural brings back a long though defeated antagonist who has a real desire to bring hell to earth. The all too mortal agents sent to Scotland to deal with the threat have no clue of the magnitude of the danger to them. The story brings in elements of the world created by Mike and John Arcudi from as far away as the old Soviet Union and from stories dating back to the days of World War Two. Though I have read the series sparingly their handling of the history is so deft that I never really felt that lost or out of the loop.

This story has a newbie coming into the department, one who gives a different perspective on the agency. She is a percognitive and has disturbing visions of a blood soaked future. Given her fresh eyes on the story as well as the perspectives of the leader of the Russian paranormal agency, the veteran BPRD agent Johann as well as the mortal operatives I could really see just how serious the situation is. Without the essentially super powered heavy hitters of the agency things look terrifying bleak given the events in Return of the Master. It ends I warn you on a cliffhanger and I need to see the next issue now. NOW I say.

John Arcudi is a perfect artist for this story and he has been Mike's creative companion on so much of this series he really has defined the world visually. His characters are very human looking blemishes and all, this is not the supermodel/bodybuilder kind of books. The people look like people and their expression through his art give gravity to the storylines. This time out he gets to create giants and ogres and mythological things left best unnamed lest they be summoned. Some of the things in this story get decisively into the Kaiju range of things. If you are like me and enjoy seeing people trying to contend with situations far beyond their pay grade this is one you need to get. The sketchbook alone that accompanies the five issues collected in the volume is worth having as a springboard for creativity.

 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Sunday Comics

I have precious little for you...though I did buy a good load of comics this week I will be mentioning one... I love Loche and Key and picked it up but have yet to read it, same goes for Winter Soldier and Fearless Defenders I read just one that I will note ... With personal issues and a speculative fiction death and reviews pending this week I've only got a single book to spotlight...

Avengers Arena proves again with issue 10 Hopeless is I afraid to hurt readers yeat leave them with a shred of hope... This issue focuses on a Runaway favorite of mine and its hurt from beginning to end... I don't know how I'll feel is the end is a nightmare kind of Dallas kind of denial of the entire story.... I like to think a writer named Hopeless will not deny us change... Its a great book people should really be reading ... just in case it makes big changes......

 

 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Sunday Comics June 2

 

(Un-adjective) X-men number 1 starring all the women of the team is a 3.99 book you all need to read. I'm a old comic collector; I recall the days of Kitty's unending costume changes, pre and post mohawk Storm, pre and post asian Psylock and the advent of Rachel Summers so I have a history with these women and Bendis does the legacy proud. He manages to overcome being a guy to present women as more then damsels in distress and presents them as powers in and of themselves... I for one am happy with this book, happy e nought to tell me local shop owner to add it to my list as my second 3.99 title after Paul Cornell's Wolverine. I don't do this lightly... Hell I don't do that with Hickman's Avengers just yet and I love the New Avengers title...

This is the real deal guys... I have long looked for a writer who loved these characters enough to test them like this ... I don't know much about the antagonist but Storm, Psylock, Kitty, Jubliee and Rachel are the heroes here and I am so on board... after Avengers Arena This one is on my list... Awesome...

 

With my comments about Hickman in the post about Xmen I have to be honest with myself because New Avengers has hooked me too into the long haul. I like Tony, Namor, Black Swan and the rest here. This book hooks in the big man Doom who is my bĂȘte noir. Doom is the shadow that keeps me engaged with FF, he is the character the has lured me into story after story and though I'm a fan of Strange and Stark its the shadow of the man named Victor Von Doom that reels me in. A good Namor tale is great but its the lure of Victor after all that is the hook. New Avengers is the title that people may regret passing over... Jonathan is telling a tale like the long con here and I know I'll be sorry missing any of the goodness between Avengers and New Avengers.... Tale a look there is good story telling going on here... Ignore at your own risk as I did with the pre Fraction FF...