Sunday, September 15, 2013

Sunday Comics Sept 15

Shameless anime cover aside Fearless Defenders continues to deliver the goods when it comes to fun comics and Cullen Bunn is the hero here. The book includes a collection of the current and not so current squeezes of the leads of Defenders these days. The guys are getting together to have an intervention with their distaff partners including luminaries like Venom (Flash T. is the man), Doctor Strange (who totally needs his own title), Iron Fist (ditto), Hercules, Werewolf (assumedly by night), Cannonball and Xman all in a bar run by the onetime heroine Shamrock(hmmmmm). The leads of the book are entangled in a combat with a bunch of female and other villains including a new Enchantress, Sandwoman and the totally weird group the Headmen (and woman) en route to the meeting. The interactions between the players here is really great in light of the usual fare of super hero relationships and the woman formerly known mainly as Shamrock was totally sarcastically charming. The next issue looks to be great too... till low sales kills this great book I'm totally on board.

Among the other books I actually bought this week were Wolverine by Paul Cornell which was a good book but at 3.99 a pop

The other book I had to get was Avengers Arena... Its as much a guilty pleasure as Paul's Wolverine but they are both great books its just if your into the books themselves when it comes to spending the money.... I like the ideas Paul and David are playing with... Logan is so much more interesting now hat he can't just Waid into damage... and Arcade is so much cooler now that he can well be what heal wars should have been... I'm sad to see young heroes die but... Well if death is off the table how much can you buy into the struggle....

 

Till next week...

 

 

 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Sunday Comics Sept 8

First off a few comics from this week that may have slipped by you among all the hype...

Ok, yes. Last week I posted a good bit about the Superior Foes of Spider-Man by Spencer and Lieber and here I am posting again about this book about third stringer super villains and this book delivered the fun again this week. Its not the kind of book that you can just fall into one issue of since this one references events from both the previous ones and does so subtlety so I think this one will read as an excellent collection once it comes out. This time around we get a lot of play between out title character Boomerang and his new parol officer introduced at the end of last issue and there is a bit of backstabbing that goes on all throughout. The story really evolves around the interpersonal problems between these all too human characters.

One of the real fun things about this book comes when you pay full attention to everything going on in the panels, there is a story going on being told through the smaller icon only word bubbles and though some are just defining the background characters I think its a great way to move the story along. No really its a good time....

 

Oh look this may just be a theme like from A Christmas Story; here is another book I mentioned real recently. I would say if your a Marvel Unlimited member this is a book that you should definitely be reading. Cullen Bunn is moving this story towards a conclusion soon bringing in elements that have been lingering in the story since the Remender run including Damien Hellstorm who its seems people are gunning for... well actually skinning. He also reveals the why's of The speed with which Mania has become bonded to her symbiot. Also to give some of you a taste if you have yet to read Venom starring Flash Thompson check out the Marvel Unlimited app - there is an issue from a couple months ago up there for free and its a very good insight into the new Flash and the growth in his character.

Lastly this week I'll point out Catalyst Comics from Dark Horse again. This is an anthology of stories in the Dark Horse super hero universe in which Ghost and X are lead characters. This one stars in its lead tale another take on the flying super strong handsome hero and asks some questions that really need to be asked about where the real villains in the world are and why the spandex crowd kinda does nothing about them. The follow up stories do new and different things with superheroes too. I like this book and think Joe Casey who's been doing new and interesting thing with the genre since leaving the big too is doing something that needs a much bigger audience. Take a peek this is a very appealing book and does more in a few pages then some books attempt across a whole run of issues. Lacking the meddling of editorial shackles this books takes chances others might not be able to.

 

 

 

This last week there were a couple of big things that happened and both related to issues caused by DC editorial decisions and both in my opinion were a sign of an attitude I do not like at all. Because of editorial demands for changes and a roadblock put in the way of a lesbian marriage between Batwoman and her long time girlfriend Maggie Sawyer co writers JH Williams and W Haden Blackman both have decided to leave the title as of issue 26 (god knows what issue number it really is because of the Forever Evil thing et al marketing BS). I read several reasons as to why they decided that including the idea that marriage ages characters which is questionable that the editorial stated audience is 40 something men at some con this summer. I for one feel that alienating creative teams is pretty bad for a struggling industry especially when the title is so well recieved. 

The other editorial piece of strangeness and misogyny relates to the new Harley Quinn ongoing series. If you have not read about that well here is the skinny; DC ran an artist search allowing new unknown artists to try out to draw part of the book, all pages of which become property of DC winning or not (corporate creepy much?), but it gets better in in that one page is images of poor disturbed Harley committing suicide in increasingly silly ways including a planet showing her naked in the midst of the attempt. I don't know your mileage and morals may differ but that just seems in all bloody kinds of bad taste. This comes on top of the extra sexification of Catwoman in the new DC and the travesty that they did to Starfire.   I don't know about anyone else this seems to be misogynistic and in absolute as bad a taste as the dead girlfriend I the refrigerator thing. I don't mention DC much here and there is a reason... I could name the titles I liked and I think you'll see some similarities in their fate... Frankenstein Agent of SHADE, Demon Knights, and Dial H... I'm pretty sure that Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol would not survive given where it fit thematically and story wise. So, I do not like saying negative things but these events well they leave me wondering about the general direction of one of the big two.

 

 

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Sunday Comics Sept 1

 

You could probably have guessed I'd be posting about the last issue of Journey into Mystery with how often I have mentioned it over the course Kathryn Immonen and Valerio Schitis' run on the title. Along with Captain Marvel this was the title that take the concept of female lead comics to a new fun storytelling level that we so need more of these days. As lead character Sif is much more then just a feminine Thor she was at times a very violent woman berserker, a leader of men and women, a storyteller and a devoted friend and protector. The final storyline brought back her old friend and one time love Beta Ray Bill in a story where we got a good deal in terms of interaction between them and a look into how both of them have changed. The art by Schiti was as wild and playful as the storytelling. This is a comic that like so many I enjoy had a great short run that developed many stories for the great background players in the Marvel picture. Kathryn gave us some fun Viking adventures with blood, mayhem and honor a plenty. Get the trade when it comes out if you missed these and fondly recall the Walt Simonson era of Thor. Short runs like this though sad often are better for not becoming tired after several years of issues. I will be looking forward Mrs. Immonen writing something else soon.

 

Though I'm not following all the Infinity issues across the marvel titles New Avengers by John Hickman is the one I choose to get with my limited comics dollar. Though this title is of the Avengers family I often love the title most for characters who are not traditionally Avengers and for ones for whom the stakes seem very very personal. This issue "introduces" Thanos' little band of generals and advisors and gives a few pages of their battles with the characters in this title across the world. I particularly loved the stories surrounding Black Bolt and Namor, neither characters are easy one being effectively mute and the other well kind of an ass but they are so much fun to read about. I think in many ways compared to the other infinity issue I read this one well stands alone and is much more a part of its own story. With such a big cast on stage in this issue I particularly enjoyed seeing Doctor Strange and miss him having his own title. Two pages in particular near the end of the issue seal the deal in terms of enjoyment level and OMG kind of reveals and added mystery; sure that is what serial fiction is good for and Hickman really gets that. Mike Deodato shines here too but with the amount of story in the issue you kind of have to go back and pay attention to his art just for how much he does in terms of storytelling too. A winner of a book even at 3.99.

 

Though I am still sorely missing the old DCU Secret Six and its over the top super villain capers I'm ever so glad that I gave Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber's Superior Foes of Spider-Man a couple weeks back. Where as Gail Simone's title was the Inception/Oceans 11 version of the villain super book this is the Cohen Brothers look at caper stories. Taking the same approach to the story as Matt Fraction does with Hawkeye SFoS focuses on the normal lives of the Sinister Six including Boomerang, Shocker, Speed Demon, the new Beetle and their getaway driver Overdrive. I have to ask you what other super villain group include a getaway driver who is a major player in the story. This book gives you their planning sessions ala Tarantino and the aforementioned Cohen's, Boomerangs meeting with bosses, lawyers, and judges; it also includes their personal attempts at robberies that don't really go as planned or expected. The title is sarcastically fun in its look at being a criminal in the Marvel universe and fans of Hawkeye should really take a look at ta book before it goes the way of Venom and Journey into Mystery...