Sunday, August 26, 2007
Recent Comics I Have Read
Amazons Attack #5: A character I know next to nothing about turns out to have a twist in her background that means nothing to me. Not sure if this development is due to Superboy's fist or the giant reality-eating worm.
The Mighty Avengers #4: Ares riding one suit of Iron Man armor and steering it with a sword impaled through the helmet while blasting away with the bootjets of the severed torso of another set of armor = priceless.
New Avengers #33: Scrub villains made moderately cool. Luke Cage slowly going insane.
Batman #666: Oh noes! A grim 'n' gritty future Batman what kills!
Birds of Prey #109: Yes, I know there were some pretty glaring continuity errors in this, but I still thought this first post-Simone issue was somewhat Simone-esque.
Detective Comics #835: Ugh. Gross, badly written, bad art.
Ultimate Fantastic Four #45: Nice re-imagined use of Silver Surfer and Psycho-Man. I wonder if they turn out to be in the Ultimate Microverse? However, isn't the whole "Mr. Fantastic endangers the world" plot device getting a little old?
Invincible #45: More smartly-written personal and professional drama for Mark. I miss when Spider-Man used to be this good.
Justice League of America #12: I like the classic logo and the Silver Age flashback art, and the fact that Lian has an Arrowette costume. I like that Black Canary plays the harmonica (tho' I bet this is a little detail that was just retconned for this issue), and that she thinks of Red Arrow as "my boy." Meltzer continues to surprise me.
Justice Society of America #8: Why is there no Silver Age anymore? Why are we pretending that Golden Age heroes of the 40's have kids in their 20's? As long as we have Superboy's fist and that worm guy's mouth as retcon tools, couldn't we say that Hourman and Liberty Belle are the grandkids of the originals? That makes more sense that pretending that superheroes vanished after WWII and didn't reappear until the standard "ten years ago." And does no one have a secret identity anymore?
Ms. Marvel #18: One of the things I liked best about NEXTWave was it's wacky surly version of Machine Man, so it's nice to see him again. Puppet Master has always been a seriously creepy disturbing supervillain concept and this storyline reflects it. It may be skating towards the edge of exploitation, however. We'll have to see.
Powers #25: Eh. It's getting harder and harder to enjoy this series now that it's basic concept (non-powered cops investigating super-powered crime) has been chucked out the window. The Powers addiction plague is a nice idea, but every glimpse of the Millennium Guard costume makes me want to hurl.
Ultimate Power #6: More big superhero battles among light-table rendered supermodels in assorted porno poses. Scarlet Witch, in particular, is rendered in an almost Liefield-ian grotesque out of proportion shot on page 10. Seriously, is her left arm withered like Kaiser Wilhelm? Why is her belly button an off-center slit? Why is her right leg a pipe-cleaner and her right boob twice as big as her left? If I wanted art this bad, I'd just trace pictures out of Playboy myself.
Wonder Woman #11: More of the hideously-convoluted Amazons Attack plot. J. Torres seems to be capturing WW's voice and personality well, a hero who is a pious pagan, yet would berate the gods when she thought they had it coming.
The Mighty Avengers #4: Ares riding one suit of Iron Man armor and steering it with a sword impaled through the helmet while blasting away with the bootjets of the severed torso of another set of armor = priceless.
New Avengers #33: Scrub villains made moderately cool. Luke Cage slowly going insane.
Batman #666: Oh noes! A grim 'n' gritty future Batman what kills!
Birds of Prey #109: Yes, I know there were some pretty glaring continuity errors in this, but I still thought this first post-Simone issue was somewhat Simone-esque.
Detective Comics #835: Ugh. Gross, badly written, bad art.
Ultimate Fantastic Four #45: Nice re-imagined use of Silver Surfer and Psycho-Man. I wonder if they turn out to be in the Ultimate Microverse? However, isn't the whole "Mr. Fantastic endangers the world" plot device getting a little old?
Invincible #45: More smartly-written personal and professional drama for Mark. I miss when Spider-Man used to be this good.
Justice League of America #12: I like the classic logo and the Silver Age flashback art, and the fact that Lian has an Arrowette costume. I like that Black Canary plays the harmonica (tho' I bet this is a little detail that was just retconned for this issue), and that she thinks of Red Arrow as "my boy." Meltzer continues to surprise me.
Justice Society of America #8: Why is there no Silver Age anymore? Why are we pretending that Golden Age heroes of the 40's have kids in their 20's? As long as we have Superboy's fist and that worm guy's mouth as retcon tools, couldn't we say that Hourman and Liberty Belle are the grandkids of the originals? That makes more sense that pretending that superheroes vanished after WWII and didn't reappear until the standard "ten years ago." And does no one have a secret identity anymore?
Ms. Marvel #18: One of the things I liked best about NEXTWave was it's wacky surly version of Machine Man, so it's nice to see him again. Puppet Master has always been a seriously creepy disturbing supervillain concept and this storyline reflects it. It may be skating towards the edge of exploitation, however. We'll have to see.
Powers #25: Eh. It's getting harder and harder to enjoy this series now that it's basic concept (non-powered cops investigating super-powered crime) has been chucked out the window. The Powers addiction plague is a nice idea, but every glimpse of the Millennium Guard costume makes me want to hurl.
Ultimate Power #6: More big superhero battles among light-table rendered supermodels in assorted porno poses. Scarlet Witch, in particular, is rendered in an almost Liefield-ian grotesque out of proportion shot on page 10. Seriously, is her left arm withered like Kaiser Wilhelm? Why is her belly button an off-center slit? Why is her right leg a pipe-cleaner and her right boob twice as big as her left? If I wanted art this bad, I'd just trace pictures out of Playboy myself.
Wonder Woman #11: More of the hideously-convoluted Amazons Attack plot. J. Torres seems to be capturing WW's voice and personality well, a hero who is a pious pagan, yet would berate the gods when she thought they had it coming.
