Sunday Comics 27 Oct...

I've been out of the scene a while but I love comics and I want to say an early sad farewell to one of my current favorites...

Though I could have figured that I would be posting about this months ago when Journey Into Mystery went away sadly I was blindsided when I saw that Fearless Defenders was going away. I love the adventure fiction of Cullen Bunn and think his femine centric adventure captured some really femine attitudes to heroism and the brutality that it can lead to... This book is one of my current favorites... I may have a great love for the fucked up that is the New Avengers but this was the title I wnt to for a really good time... I for one will miss this book once its gone... I miss Clea, Misty Knight, Valkerie and the rest of the less appreciated of the marvel distaff heroes... Long live the Fearless Defenders in comics fans memories...

 

 

 

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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...

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

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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...

 

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Sunday Comics Aug 25 2013...

This week's Sunday comics choices are both written by Cullen Bunn and one sadly is on the soon to be gone list.

Venom which stars one time bully and long time Spiderman fan Flash Thompson as the symbiot host and darker edged hero trying to do the right thing, fighting his deep personal demons and the influence of Venom. The book goes from self seraching personal drama to frenetic action featuring webs, guns and bombs with repercussions for both the personal and superhero conflicts in Flash's life. The recent storyline has him setting up himself in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, where heroes are scarce and a villain named Lord Ogre has free reign. Starting a new life after his failures in the big apple Flash takes up residence and to the streets as a hero for the people who have no spandex wearing defender.

Flash was crippled in the war on terror and lives life in a wheel chair when not sharing his body with the alien symbiot, he's a coach for a local highschool and seems a man trying to make up for a past he regrets. He's the kind of character I particularly love, much like Jamie Lannister of Game of Thrones he is a man though we know has done bad things he has a code of morals when seen from his point of view as readers we can get. Like so many of the heroes in Marvel that I love he is not a first stringer, he is a character who's past informs his present and will shape his future; he is not Peter Parker who carries the weight of being an icon, Flash gets to be a person beyond the brand of being a brand like Spider-Man or X-men.

The the most recent run of issues have culminated in paranoia on Flash's part, superpowered mercenaries and assassins running roughshod over Phliiy looking for the bounty on Agent Venom's head and his contactes in Philly as Venom are seeking information on the new hero. In his many attempts to be the hero he idolizes Flash inadvertently has created another spawn of the Venom symbiot and gained a "sidekick" in the teen girl now called Mania. The art by Declan Shalvey is unique, dynamic and characterful and may not be to everyone's tastes but I personally love the fresh approach to action. His strengths lie in the expressiveness of the characters faces and when the symbiots are out and in action its a whole new SFX ball game much like Cameron's The Thing for the eighties. Vemon is a book that has action adventure and drama in spades and I'm sad that it will be a memory come November... Both Rick Remender's and Cullen Bunn's runs on this unappreciated book are available to Marvel Ultimate subscribers but if you do check it out get it from a local friendly comic shop.

 

I've mentioned Fearless Defeneders before but since I want this all "life on the d list" marvel women title to survive the current cull that seems to be going on in the second stringer title family at the new excellent house of ideas. This is a superhero comic that is part Big Trouble in Little China with its crazy Hong Kong cinema approach to action and fast forward adventure and part Farscape with its modern media reference points and snappy sarcastic dialogue. Cullen pulls on the whole catalogue of Marvel heroines with this bringing back long sadly ignored characters like the onetime apprentice of Dr Strange Clea and the one time Nextwave monster hunter Elisa Bloodstone. Issue seven was a Valkerie centric episode that used a trip to the Viking afterlife to bring home the perils of the afterlife and reintroduce Clea who I forgot I totally missed and issue eight was a Big Trouble in Marvel little China with a Brood influenced twist.

Fearless defenders spotlights characters that need more so called screen time. Misty Knight has been knocking around the Marvel universe for so long as their version of the bionic woman its great to see her shining as well as seeing Danille Moonstar being more then just another mutant and Brunhild just as a female Thor replacement. These issues are at their best when Cullen is giving us their everyday non-fighting lives. With Journey into Mystery ending next month I need a title like this to get a bit more fan love.

I love these kinds of titles; the Hero's for Hire, the Defenders, the thrid stringers, the d listers; their stories usually involve change that remains with them. Marvel carries stories forward... I say this because of the so called new 52. DC has long been known to push the reset button on stories for the time of the end of the first Crisis in 1985. I loved Crisis and what came after bit as time has gone on their predilection to push the rest button has become a crutch for DC editorial see the recent posts about the new Lobo ideas. Marvel has committed lots of bad summer and yearly events and summer crossovers and the debacle of the clone saga... What I will commend Marvel for the their embracing the past stories and create lemon aid from lemons. I would love the opportunity to read stories I could not afford to own and these days with Marvel Unlimited I can read them... History matters to Marvel so far and this I respect. I know someday Cyclopse will be the golden boy of Xavier and Magneto will be the enemy but there will hopefully be someone who recalles when he was the bad guy... Checkout Venom and Fearless Defenders... They are in sore need of fans... And Marvel loves telling stories these days....

 

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Mind fcuk....

Mind Mgmt is a subversive comic, it is a comic that plays with the idea that people can manipulate one another at a subconscious level to frightening levels. Matt Kindt has written and drawn a comic that plays on the same weaknesses and fears that the novel Lexicon by Max Barry and the movie In the Mouth of Madness plays upon; the basic question of if you can not trust your sences, if at the subconscious level you can be lies to what can you trust. As a reader and a watcher I love this kind of existential horror and with a book like Mind MGNT and John Carpetner's Mouth of Madness I'm totally onboard because the characters are relateable and compelling. Don't get me wrong I loved Lexicon by Max Barry but it's best elements were the ideas, the concepts that drove the tale and here it is the neat Xmen like characters that are the force that gives power to the ideas. If the mind is mailable and can kill with concepts Mind MGMT imagines a world where it happens and where few people use this power to its most powerful aspect, among the privileged few who know of its existence.

Ming MGNT is a world of psionic powers and conspiracy gone corporate, gone viral, and been broken up before a catastrophe. It is a place where subtle powers like telepathy predicts the near future, where ad copy can influence the actions of others more then is the real world and. A select few can erase memory with a whim and kill just by sending a letter with a silly haiku or by pointing their fingers and saying bang. This is a would a mystery crime writer named Meru finds herself living in in Mind MGMT vol 2 and the one I fell into reading it. She is a thriller writer who is failing to writer her promised new novel because of reoccurring thoughts about stories and conspiracies that involve her mailman and letters and such. These worrying thoughts lead her down a rabbit hole that lead to murder, danger and a man named Lyme, people who played with others minds and killed because they could till the Eraser came along.

This is a book highly reminiscent of the eighties comic and RPG Espers written by Mage writer Matt Wagner when he posited a story about characters with ESP powers in the modern paranoia spy driven world of the paranoid eighties. These days its not the red menace that is the fear element but fear is a big element in modern post 2000 lifeline and Matt Kindt taps into that in this comic with its water color highlighted primative lined art and its look over your shoulder storytelling. Given its somewhat amnesiac protagonist and the deceptive nature of the heroes I am still guessing as to the nature of the real story. Yes I came in at the opening of the second act and myself may be Rosenstern but I can hardly tell hero from villain. This is a caper tale where as readers we are forced to be astute and pay attention to the whole picture if we hope to understand the story.

Along the course of this story our reporter heroine Meru encounters many potential allies in her quest to tell the story; her savior Lyle, a man who may not be worthy of her full trust bet is fighting for a bigger goal and seems to be getting the sharp end of the stick, Duncan who seems a sociopath but may just be the tales hero, Perrier who is the most used by the old power who has the most to gain by taking Meru's side and is the most worthy of vengeance and Dusty who well has a lot lose and the most to protect. In the end Matt leaves you with a heroine you still want to follow heroes to root for and villains to despise but your not really sure of things. This is a great overall caper tale like that of Inception the movie in that he end though clear may not be so clear and the story has angles yet to persue. The villain the Eraser is still out there and if we get her/his tale next who knows where the story will go. I like this kind of thing that plays havoc with expectations and makes you wonder though you think you know the story... I'm laughing in the cinema seats with the doomed hero in this one like at the end of Mouth of Madness... At least that is the end I hope for... Its dark but well truth is a darkness sometimes...

If you like mind f7cking stories Mind MGMT may be for you its a great caper bringing the band back together tale.... Excelsior

Mind MGMT by Matt Kindt is a densely packed caper story that has much in common with the thriller Lexicon by Matt Barry I can't help but wonder, but that is the human mind looking for connections (cause and effect) where no conspiracy or link exists. Dropping into this complex mind and memory manipulation tale blind in volume two was no hindrance to understanding the story and getting the characters. It is really more a mix of Xmen and Lexicon since each of the characters has a special ability like being able to read others thoughts, seeing and feeling through their twin or knowing how to twist someone unseen through words an images an addition o being trained today with people's minds on a subconscious level.

 

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Sunday Comics

Wolverine by Paul Cornell is one of those titles... you know the ones it is one you want to love and you like and tickles the right spot just enough that you can't give it up. Last issue I did like but at almost 4 dollars I should love it to continue but because of something I just can't say indeed to stop NOW. Paul is pulling from Marvel history in a way I love; he is tapping into the old Mike Golden Micronauts,the old Frankenstein titles and delves into Logan as a character and not Wolverine as an ICON. It is totally a book I would not balk at 2.99 but at 3.99 I think it always has to prove itself and this issue does it in spades.

Alan Davis is back on the art so it is a feast for the eyes and the emotion in the issue comes out of the corners to hit you as a reader. Wolverine 8 is a winner in terms of story and art renewing my trust in the title... I want so much to love this title that I may be clouding my own opinion but I think its totally up to the task of living up to its price. Black Panther has not looked better in a long time and Logan has not been as sympathetic; he has been for so long a man who's pain has come with little consequence and this issue points our the realities of being Wolverine from several angles because of all the various players in the story including Black Panther, Victoria Frankenstein and several others. I love the fact Paul is thinking about the real emergent behavior of being the Wolverine or having access to resurrection or rebirth or super science... Its a smart book a dim so sad people may have checked out before this happened. I am still on the hook for this one. Thanks Paul for the thinking mans Marvel Comic.... Of yeah could we please have a Victoria Frankenstein mini series written by Deconnick and Cornell.....

Excelsior....

 

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