Comics For 3/29/06

[Gray Lensman]

Latest comics are on the shelves. What did everyone get?

A bigger stack than I expected...

Spike vs. Dracula #2
Action Comics #837
Books Of Doom #5
Green Lantern #10
Fallen Angel #4
All-Star Superman #3

I also finally got a copy of Spike: Old Times. I wanted to get this for a while, but only finally found it today. Like I'm going to turn down Peter David writing one of my favorite Buffyverse characters.

[ptsteelers]

Decent week here ...
Capt. America 65th Anniversary
NA Illuminati
X-Men Deadly Gensis #5
FF #536
Iron Man #6 (Last Ellis issue )
Uncanny X-Men #471
AS Superman #3
Green Lantern #10
Fallen Angel #4

Damn good week

[Gray Lensman]

Okay, some thoughts...

Spike Vs. Dracula: It's solid, all in all. A readable story, but not one I'd suggest anyone go out of their way to get. To his credit, PAD really gets the Buffyverse, and it shows. Basically, it's a fun little historical romp involving Spike, Drusilla, and Dracula during the 1930's, and that's about it. The art is not that great, though, especially compared to the vastly better Old Times. It might be the story would have come across better with a better artist like Fernando Goni. Still, a fun story that fills some gaps on an interesting conflict.

Spike: Old Times: Now this is much more like it. Given a choice between Old Times and the last two issues of Spike/Dracula, I strongly suggest getting this. Primarily because the story is actually about something beyond a cool fan idea. Peter David absolutely nails the character of Spike in this story. To the point where I can very easily see James Marsters saying his lines. The whole sordid history between Spike and the Vengeance Demon Halfrek is well laid out, and the action moves quite well. I also love Goni's art here... Old Times actually looks like a lost episode of Angel rather than the usual adaptation comic. This is the kind of comic that more TV/film properties should try to be, but very few actually live up to. Great stuff.

Action Comics: Moving along well so far, but I'm still not sure where exactly this is going. I'd be surprised if Superman isn't restored by the end of this, but beyond that it's mainly a lot of plot setup. That said, props to Johns and Busiek for finally trying to give Lex Luthor a real motivation beyond his whole obsessive hatred of Superman. If they can deliver the goods, the new Superman creative teams well be well set by the time the new runs start.

Books of Doom: Brubaker at Marvel has been hit or miss to me. This one is in the hit column. Bru has really done a good job in showing how a young gypsy rose to become absolute dictator of Latveria. Doom's complexity really comes through even as his methods become progressively darker. Bru really needs to stick to writing villains, because those are the characters he does vastly better with.

Green Lantern: The book picks up One Year Later, and we see that life isn't great for Green Lantern. Hal Jordan has suffered a great deal in the last year. I find this new status quo much more interesting, and we should get good stories flowing out of his difficulties. I also see some promising storylines ahead for Hal in space as we see more fallout from his whole history with Parallax. Good start.

Fallen Angel: I'm really enjoying the Fallen Angel relaunch so far. More on the history of the fallen angel Liandra, who is really a tragic and sympathetic figure for all her bitterness. Some good conflict between Liandra and Malachi, who seems to have his share of secrets. I'm looking forward to finding out how this all wraps up.

All-Star Superman: All-Star Superman is my favorite comic out right now. This issue doesn't disappoint in the slightest. Grant Morrison is turning out some of the finest work I've seen on this character since Alan Moore. (Not a compliment, perhaps, but true nonetheless.) Plenty of twist and turns as only the weirdness of Morrison and Quitely can deliver.

A good week for me, all in all.

[The Spider]

So far, just...

All-Star Superman #3
Superman/Batman #24
Action Comics #837

And a 11 back issues from the 50 cent bin (to get an idea of the range, the oldest is STAR WARS: DARK EMPIRE #1, newest is SENTINEL vol 2 #5).

[hector]

Wow. New Avengers: Illuminati made me physically ill. Seriously.

I need some All-Star Superman to make me feel better.

[Duncan]

I rather liked Illuminati. As a prologue it served it's function; Stark laying down what will happen, me going 'yes, I would probably pay money to read that.' That said, the Civil War preview was pretty weak in comparison, albeit more preliminaries. First Bendis i've read since his Daredevil 'concluded', and perhaps the lack of exposure has blinded me to usual tics and so on, but I thought the dialogue was all functional, plentiful and not terribly repetitious.

Umm, what else? I got a ton of Marvel books this week. Dead Girl was winningly anarchic as per, and vied with All-Star Superman for my book of the week (and month, most likely.) I really, really hope her and Strange become an item. Also: Edie! Yes! Superman was goofy and lurid, whilst remaining completely convincing. God, I picked up Milligan's latest X-Men this week, and it was actually... was it actually brilliant? Yes, yes it was. A couple weak pages from Larroca, but the new colouring style really made his work look very good indeed, especially in the Ozymandias/Apocalypse confrontation. Apocalypse is getting all the best lines. Amusing, actual interesting motivation, great stuff. I may have to go back for the trades after 'Golgotha'. Deadly Genesis, otoh, was pretty much weaksauce (still liking the backups though) and the worst of the Brubaker trifecta available this week. Books of Doom is winning me over - the portrayal's pitched about right for my tastes: sufficiently, eh, adolescent and cut off from humanity, and with certain sympathetic notes, it's easy enough to apprehend this 'he coulda been a great hero' schtick. The Captain America 65th Anniversary is intriguing, at least the postscript is (Doom, wot?) and the Pulido and Martin art is among my favourite getting play in the mainstream these days. Martin in particular looks like a star on the rise, and I'm really very excited about his and Vaughan's Dr. Strange series (hopefully with added dead girlfriend!)

Oh, and Iron Man concluded and sorted out, to some degree, the ethical quandary Stark was placed in way back in Nov. 2004. The twist at the end completely lacked emotional punch, having no back up prior (as far as I'm aware, I've yet to read it in one sitting) but it was generally laudable and attractive, if somewhat content-free on occasion. (The only comic I've ever timed myself reading was, I think, #3 of this series, which took fully two minutes and can't reasonably be said to be worth $3 in that case.)

(EDIT: Italicising for readability.)

[brett]

All-Star Superman just keeps on getting better and better. I'm reading that Showcase: Superman trade as well right now, and it is a brilliant companion piece to ASS. It also has the story which Morrison pimped in interviews, about Superman's new power being a miniature duplicate of himself which comes from his hands. It's all very much the same mood and vibe. And the Flying Newsroom cracks me up and I will kill for it to make an appearance in ASS.

[hector]

NA: I was actually one of the least worst written comic book by Bendis I've read since..well, probably those early USM issues. My issue was mainly with the theme, Bendis' patented Fanboy Masturbatory Writing™, picking holes at superhero logic, which I assume he must think he's clever for pointing them out.

Unfortunately, no All-Star Superman for me until saturday, probably. Along with the other 'good' comics which I recieve by mail, Action Comics and Green Lantern, among other. So I had to make do with Deadly Genesis, which was perhaps just a bit dull, and Dead Girl #1-3, which were suitably entertaining, or at least, more so than the dozen or so X-Statix issues I've read.

Oh, and FF #536, which I bought mainly because of the next issue's cover. For some reason, watching someone other than Thor holding Mjolnir on the cover works better for me than gorillas, or the color purple.

[brett]

hector said:

For some reason, watching someone other than Thor holding Mjolnir on the cover works better for me than gorillas, or the color purple.

Enjoy. ;D

[hector]

You have just destroyed the last remnant of mi childlike enthusiasm.

I hate you.