Comics for the week of 01/30/2013

DC Comics

All Star Western #16 - Jonah Hex against Mr. Hyde. This sounds like a terrible comic. It did give us Dr. Arkham dancing on a table and trying to get a woman, so its not all bad. I'm looking for The Black Diamond story to be over soon.

Talon #4 - The sooner this comic gets back to Gotham the better. Snyder's The Court of Owls has a uniquely Gotham feel to it so operating in New York feels wrong. I'm not sure who's running things in New York but I can't see them letting an organization like The Court stick around. It'd be too much competition.

Image Comics

Invincible #100 - Soooooo... How about that preview. From the looks of it The Death of Everyone might be looking to live up to its name. We've got a good chunk of the Earth's populous getting killed or about to be killed and Mark getting ripped in half. Long ways. Knowing the manipulative manner that comics are marketed in I really doubt that'll be the last we see of Mark Grayson, I just don't want Zandale taking over as the lead. He's been a background character with zero development until the last 8 or so issues. I don't have the time invested with him and I don't look to put it in.

Nowhere Men #3 - My previous post HERE had a lot of my feelings on the first issues of Nowhere Men. If we can stay more towards the science and business aspects and less towards a Fantastic Four clone I'll be happy.

Marvel Comics 

Avengers #4 - After the somewhat disappointing end of the first arc I'm glad we're getting some Done in One spotlight issues. Hickman has a pretty large cast to juggle and like lots of other readers I'm not familiar with some of them. This week we find out who this version of Hyperion is. Hyperion has always been a one note character, basically what if Superman was a Dick. We haven't seen enough of this one to see if thats still the case.

Hawkeye #7 - I'm new to the party on Hawkguy but I'm not new to the Fraction/Aja team. I didn't start getting the comic when it came out because it was during my pre-now Marvel embargo. I've since caught up and the art in this book is fantastic. I like a dense comic (More 9 panel grids!) and the sheer number of panels that Aja fits onto a page is staggering. The fact that he does it while everything is crisp and readable is even more impressive. When you combine that with a character that Fraction obviously gets you have a fantastic comic. Now this issue has Steve Lieber and Jesse Hamm as guest artists, but we won't hold it against them that they're not Aja.

The Superior Spider-Man #2 - DOLTS! Doctor Octopus isn't Spider-Man! He's not even very good at pretending to be Peter Parker. But that's where the fun of this comic comes from. Pretty soon the supporting cast is going to realize that Peter isn't just in a mood and its going to come back on him in a great way.

Oni Press Inc 

The Sixth Gun #28 - One of the story ideas I've wanted to write has always been a horror western mashup. The idea of the kind of hard person that lives in a western setting having to deal with the supernatural seemed like it was full of potential. Well Cullen Bunn has put together a comic that is better than anything I might have done. I'm hoping that the pilot that NBC has commissioned gets a full series order because I would love to see this brought to life.

Comics for the week of 01/23/2013

DC COMICS

JSA: The Liberty Files: The Whistling Skull #2 - The first issue of this did NOT hook me at all. Its a shame because I lived both of the previous Liberty Files minis. Part of the problem is probably the title character of The Whistling Skull. He was originally planned to be a creator owned property who has somehow gotten folded into the Liberty Files line. He's really not working for me, and since he's the focus of the first issue it didn't work for me. I'm hoping issue 2 will bring more of the characters I enjoyed from the first two minis back.

Legion of Super-Heroes #16 - I still haven't gotten caught up with my Legion reading. I think that'll be a project for the weekend if I have a few free hours.

Nightwing #16 - It seems like I'm alone in my feelings on Death of the Family. I think its boring as hell. I'm otherwise enjoying Kyle Higgens Nightwing run. He's been focusing on Dick's circus past and his interactions with the Daughter of Tony Zucco, his parents killer. I'd like to see more of that and less tie ins.

Wonder Woman #16 - Brain Azzarello did the impossible twice for me on this book. First he got me  interested in reading a Wonder Woman ongoing. The second was to portray the Greek Gods in a manner that I can get behind. Normally they're done more cartoonish when used. Instead he focuses on the laundry list of flaws that define each of the Gods making them infinity more relatable. And while I'm not normally an "Art Guy" I just marvel at what Cliff Chiang does on this book. His character designs are perfect. They tell you so much about the character before they ever say a word.


Image Comics

Bedlam #3 -  After being jerked around by Morning Glories for twenty some issues and finding Thunder Agents to lack any kind of direction I had written off Nick Spencer. I picked this up solely on the recommendation of James Tynion IV. And I'm glad I did because its creepy as all hell. We've got a psychotic unwillingly trying to turn his life around and doing a terrible job of it. I just hope it can hold itself together instead of spiraling out into nothing like Morning Glories did.

Marvel Comics

Avengers #3 - I loved the first issue of Avengers. It was everything I want in what should be Marvel's flagship title. It had an epic feel to it that the so called event books never seem to capture. The secnd issue took a step back and gave us all of the new members a character moments. Both ended in the same place and I'm anxious to see how it comes together.

Deadpool #4 - I'd say about half of the jokes in this comic land. I doubt I'll be reading much past the current Dead Presidents storyline. Maybe if they keep the ghost of Ben Franklin around as a sidekick...

Uncanny Avengers #3 - This was supposed to be the centerpiece of the Marvel NOW launch and it might have been if it had shipped on time. Rick Remender is a writer who I've been paying a lot more attention to lately. I remember him doing the podcast circuit pretty hard about 5 or so years ago talking up creator owned books hard. Its a little odd for me to see him on so many company owned comics now. He's destroying them though, so I'm not going to complain. In a really odd twist John Cassaday's art might be the weakest part of this title. It might be a symptom of trying to meet his deadline but his art hasn't had the usual WOW factor on this that I've come to associate with him.

Uncanny X-Force #1 - So I just finished Remender's run on Uncanny X-Force a week or so ago and it was fantastic. Which means no matter how good this is it'll likely be disappointing because  its going to be compared to the last run. I'm still not even sure that I'm picking it up. I've yet to read anything by Sam Humphries so I don't know what to expect there. I might end up getting it just to see what the deal with Fantomex is going to be. I've got a soft spot for faux Frenchmen.

Wolverine and the X-Men #24 - Well I'm glad the last arc is over. The Frankenstein story was an issue too long and didn't do much of anything with the main cast. It seemed to serve nothing more than to make a change to one of the villains of this run. Despite that the Hellfire Club still hasn't gotten a whole lot of screen time here. I think if Aaron wants to keep shifting the focus onto them we need to get a proper arc with our students dealing with them instead of indirect moves and Wolverine grumping.

Marvel NOW! Fans ANGRY!

Marvel now has come and boy has it pissed some people off.

Most of the books are pretty good are are being well received. Two of them are not being well received at all. And most of it comes down to fans overreaction without all the facts. Now I know what you're thinking, comic fans overreacting? Never! They're the most level headed of the fandoms, serving as a shining example of rationality.

Or they're the people that are screaming Spider-Man's a rapist. And Mavel's running a teenage snuff film.

So if you're not following comics (Hi Mom! ...she's never been here...) you might not know that Doctor Octopus has swapped minds with Peter Parker and is running around in his body as Spider-Man and as Peter Parker. So whats the story out of this? If Spider-Man and Mary Jane have sex its rape! Well, yeah. It totally is. I guess its a good thing that Doctor Octopus has the people skills of someone who would willingly call himself Doctor Octopus. And its also a pretty good thing that MJ has a choice in the matter instead of just being a doll for whoever is in Peter's body to masturbate with. But instead of thinking about things or even just waiting to see if it happens before getting all riled up we get death threats.

The other Marvel NOW! issue is Avengers Arena. Its a wave riding teen based comic about a bunch of super powered kids getting thrown onto an island and being forced to fight to the death. There are a lot of fans, particularly of Runaways and Avengers Academy that are upset about this comic because they don't want favorites of theirs used for cannon fodder. They refuse to buy it and have started an online petition to cancel the book and undo anything that's happened in it. And I really don't think they need to do that. In the first issue the characters all have health bars and Arcade has god like powers. Arcade is a dude in a white suit who builds deathtraps. Somethings already not right here. I have a feeling that at the end of this it'll have more to do with Ready Player One then it does with Battle Royal.

The Slow Death of DC Comics

Or at least my interest in them. I was always a DC guy. I like Batman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and the JSA in all their old man glory. Its a shame I can't buy them anymore.

When DC rebooted their comic line after Flashpoint I wasn't reading much in the way of comics. I was still getting the Green Lantern books, The Legion of Superheroes  Adventure Comics, Criminal when it came out but not much else. Shadowland had pushed me out of the Marvel universe. My interest in the corporate books had slowly drained out and there wasn't much in the way of creator owned comics that I was interested in.. I was almost out. Then we got the New 52 and I was back on board. The promise of a fresh start for the entire line was enough and I picked up half of the initial offernigs. Of course that didn't last long. I didn't get second issues on some but I stuck with so much more than I was expecting to.

There was energy to the books again. Because of the reboot we didn't know everything for a change. It was refreshing. Then about 6 months in things started to get stale again. I started dropping books that had just been spinning their wheels since the relaunch. Teen Titans and Superboy never really went anywhere. Green Lantern just seemed to be a staging ground for whatever event was coming. Action Comics was a mess. And some books were just terrible. *coughcoughlegionlostcough* So my pull list from DC shrank. Then they canceled a round of books, but from their second wave there was books I was interested in. Then they canceled books, and that third wave? Well, there's Talon. Its pretty good.

So at this point I'm getting the following

Batman
Nightwing
Talon
Animal Man
Swamp Thing
All Star Western
Wonder Woman
Legion of SuperHeroes

And I plan to drop Animal Man and Swamp Thing when Rotworld is over. I've enjoyed them but its taken way too long to get to where we are. Combine that with Scott Snyder leaving Swampy and I'm out. I'm also feeling the shine come off Batman but I'm hoping that's just all the set up we've had on the Joker story and it'll bear fruit. I haven't read Legion in... probably a year by now. I'll continue to get it because I do like The Legion, I just fell behind. And I've got a hell of a Legion run going, no reason to mess that up.

So I'm moving on from DC. But unlike where I was when the New 52 happened I'm reading a lot more from other publishers. I'm getting BPRD, Saga, The Manhattan Projects, Fatale, Prophet and some other minis. I love Brian Wood's Conan The Barbarian. I even jumped into Marvel with both feet thanks to Marvel Now and have been pleasantly surprised. Hickman's Avengers is good, Aaron's Thor is good, Waid's Hulk is good. Remender's Captain America is trippy and fun. I'm even enjoying Bendis' All New X-Men, a title which seems to really suit his style.

Goodbye DC. I hope you get your act together. I miss the characters.