On The Precipice of Mediocrity, Teetering
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| I Am John's Stomach Pains. On The Precipice of Mediocrity, Teetering |
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Thursday, July 28, 2005 Return of The Geek: Comic Book Watch It's been a while since I gave a comic book update, but this week forced me to comment, only because DC published one of the coolest fight scenes of the year. For those not in the know, DC's big summer/fall event is Countdown to Infinite Crisis, a company wide crossover that started with the murder of super-hero Blue Beetle, which is telling tons of different stories involving nearly all their characters leading up to a big event at the end of the year. It's about halfway through, and overall it's been a good read, with different genres all getting to shine. So far, the two I was least looking forward to, Day of Vengeance (following the magic-based characters) and The Rann-Thanagar War (a full-blown space battle with tons of battling groups) have been the most enjoyable, while Villains United and The OMAC Project, the ones that originally piqued my interest, appeared to be spinning their wheels. Not this week though. After The OMAC Project #3, the reader was told they would have to collect a 4 issue crossover "Sacrifice" in the Superman and Wonder Woman books to understand the next issue... honestly, that was a bit annoying... nothing worse than dishing out a bunch of cash, only to find out you'll have to dish out even more to follow the next part. Still, the covers were intriguing, so I went with it... and after 2 and half issues I was beginning to regret it. But that all changed towards the end of part 3, in which it revealed a brainwashed Superman totally ripped Batman's ass apart, nearly killing him... then the final part appeared in Wonder Woman #219, not a book I usually read. Let's just get it out of the way: if you read comics, and like full-blown action scenes, this book is gonna be a favorite of yours. An all-out brawl between Superman and Wonder Woman, with Supes holding absolutely nothing back (he thinks he's fighting Doomsday, who he 'saw' kill Lois), and Diana doing everything she can just to hold her own. The layouts of each of the frames were incredibly smart, with some excellent direction coming form the books writer, Greg Rucka. And just when you start to come down as the fight comes to a surprising end, Rucka pulls the rug out from under everyone with an ending that's gonna be debated for months. DC is going all-out here, shaking up their universe much better than last year's Identity Crisis even came close to. For all the Marvel zombies out there (of which I used to be a member), y'all are missing out on some price storytelling and well thought out continuity. Other books on the shelves: I'm going to ignore House of M for now... not because I hating it (can you really hate something where nothing happens?), and just comment on some books I've been picking up. Runaways Vol. 2 ended their first arc, and while it seemed a little rushed towards the end, Vaughn is still putting out one of the best team books on the shelves. Add in Y: The Last Man, and Ex Machina, the guy's a veritable powerhouse in the industry, publishing the best books in the biz. Superman/Batman is sucking hardcore with their parody of The Ultimates/Avengers... mostly because The Authority did the exact same story years ago, and at least that one had Supes and Bats (Apollo and Midnighter) as gay lovers. Plus, Loeb has thrown in the most annoying character dialogue from Bizarro and Batzarro, the book can't even be enjoyable to read. Thank God McGuiness's art is still fun to look at. I think I'm in the minority of people who are loving the Hydra/New Avengers arc running through Amazing Spider-Man. JMS has brought the funny back to the book, something that's been sorely lacking as of late, and Deodato is one of my favorite artists. I was wary about Bendis putting Spider-Man on the New Avengers, the guy had always been a loner, but I've been pleasantly surprised, with New Avengers being on of my favorite books on the shelves (even if Young Avengers is somehow better). Great Lakes Avengers: my favorite miniseries of the year. Hands down the funniest (as well as heart-tuggingly sad) book I've read in a while. Track down all four issues and gobble them up, they're perfect. GLX better get here fast. The Luna Brothers, the genius's behind last years Ultra (pick up the trade, ladies!) are back with Girls, which is reading like a cross between a small town sitcom and an Outer Limits episode. Still up in the air whether I like it, but it's nothing if not fun to read and look at. Might update more later (don't have my pile here), but probably will forget... posted by Holz | 4:25 PM | Rant & Rave, Bitches! (1) 1 Comments:I can't afford my habit as it is, without expanding to a whole new company worth of stories. I'm sure this whole crisis stuff is good. I just can't afford it. I can tell you, though, that Rucka did awesome things to bring the wolverine book back to the glory days when Marvel decided to relaunch for no reason. Then Millar took over and his stories are good, but not the gritty realism that Logan used to be about.
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"Let a man get away with fuckin' you once, you stay bent over so's he can fuck you again whenever he damn well pleases. An' if one man can do it? Another will too. An' another, an' another still. So's being fucked, that's yer life. 'Til who you were, you ain't. 'Cause all you are is an asshole." 100 Bullets #42 | |||||
