I’m subjecting myself to “The List: X-Men” because I am a sucker, Dark Reign: Made Men, Uncanny #515, and Ms Marvel #45.
Uh, I know none of those are yours, but might I point out I STILL haven’t gotten X-Factor #48 from Marvel Subscriptions yet, and it was released last week?? I’m sorry, I’m never subscribing to Marvel ever again. I will just press my luck and go to the comics store.
Two unrelated things:
(1) I realized that you are the author of one of my most favorite comics quotes ever, from the Incredible Hulk when we was with the Pantheon. Sabra had used her quills to make it so the Hulk couldn’t talk so they fought it up, once he could they realized Achilles was the true enemy, and when they caught up with him (“Nowhere to run, baby”, “Nowhere to hide”), Achilles whips out with “Wonderful. You’ve stopped being enemies and decided to become Martha and the Vandellas”. GREAT!!!!
(2) More and more of my comic collector friends are having a decidedly f**k it attitude about comics in general, given the $4 price hike. I’ve done some research on comparative price increases over two decades (comics vs….other stuff); you think there could be, at some point, an open discussion on that?
Thanks. X-Factor is my fav now, and that’s not kissing up…
Not sure why I got Superman: Secret Origin, but even though I like both author and writer, there’s little here to justify buying the whole thing. It’s not a bad comic, but it’s too familiar. I get that DC needs to establish which origin Superman has (this week), but if we’re just going to get a pastiche of every origin (except the Byrne one), why not just do this as a series of Second Features in the Superman books instead?
I didn’t get any comics this week but I did wanna not that Marvel has announced their December titles and the new artist for X-Factor is…Bing Cansino. An unknown to me but I googled some of his work and I think it’ll be a great fit. I just wonder who will be inking. Maybe the guy who inked Sook’s work on the first few issues? This book really needs to have a consistent, solid artist on hand to deliver the great characters, plots, and dialogue. I’ve been annoyed with the current story since there have been artist swaps between scenes with DeLandro (who I like) and Santucci (who I don’t like). I’ve often wondered why there was such a shake up every year. Why Marvel didn’t dig up some of PAD’s former partners in crime like Leonard Kirk (Supergirl) or Chriscross (Captain Marvel; God, I miss his brilliant facial expressions and hand gestures!) I’ll never know.
X-Factor is one of my faves, along with Madame Xanadu, and I plan on staying along for the ride. Thanks, Peter, for you commitment and love towards this book. I just hope Mr. Bing sticks around for a solid run!
The UPS deliveries have been late at my local comic shop’s new location, so I’m a week behind. I did pick up Dark Reign: The List – Daredevil out of curiosity. Once you get past the concept (I assume this isn’t a SPOILER)
of Daredevil running the Hand (didn’t he become the Kingpin a few years back?) it’s actually kind of interesting. Much like The List: New Avengers, it’s just an additional issue of the regular series designed to sucker folks like me into paying na extra $4, but the setup, and the preview of DD 501 at the end, do have me kind of intrigued. Probably not enough to bump another title off my collecting (I’m trying to keep a relatively steady number) but maybe…
The other one I picked up was JMS’ first issue of Brave and the Bold. Neat story, the kind of one-off a series like this can do really well. Don’t know if I’ll hang around, but I definitely enjoyed the issue.
Hoping to pick up Wolverine: First Class next week. The Madrox issue was my favorite so far.
Uncanny was … OK. A big set up issue for lots of dominoes. I’m not too jazzed about Utopia so far, but it is a little interesting.
OK, I did NOT buy the Old Man Logan thing, but I did read it. Wow… am I the only one who found it disgusting and more than a little insulting? Suddenly Banner is susceptible to radiation poisoning, and somehow she-hulk agrees to make inbred babies with him? WHAT THE >#$@!?
X-Men/The list was decent BUT it ended in a horrible mass of stupidity that can only be justified by the immortal comic book logic phrase “just because.” The question to be asked is, of course, “After just killing his ex-wife, Namor then threatens to kill Osborn, instead of ACTUALLY killing him, when it was clearly within his power.” Sorry Namor & Fraction, together you lose 47 badass and good writer points, respectively. (Seriously, they could have found another way to end it that didn’t involve Namor looking like a pansy and Osborn continuing to smirk at everyone. Man I hope next time he dies it sticks for at least a decade.]
Sad to see Agents of Atlas end – now that’s a good book. Killing that and MI13 meant two of my top five comics have dropped away, with nothing of equal quality to replace them. Of course, Atlas looks like it gets to continue as limiteds and back-up features in Hercules (yay!) at least, so there is that.
There are SPOILER S below
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Andy said:
OK, I did NOT buy the Old Man Logan thing, but I
did read it. Wow… am I the only one who found it
disgusting and more than a little insulting?
Suddenly Banner is susceptible to radiation
poisoning, and somehow she-hulk agrees to make
inbred babies with him? WHAT THE >#$@!?
I don’t recall them saying that She-hulk bred w/ him voluntarily…
Also, I have to wonder how in the heck that Banner ate Logan’s adamantium skeleton.
gah. this did not post the way I meant it to. the “I don’t recall..” and everythign after is me, everythign before it is andy.
Yeah, I forgot to mention the skeleton thing as well. Also totally baffled me.
That’s true, he didn’t say willingly BUT wasn’t that supposed to be She-Hulk there at the end? The emaciated lady he was calling “Jenny”? I don’t have the issue to reference, but I thought she was there.
Either way, I still find it pretty offensive on a few levels.
I picked up the first part today of yourWolverine — First Class story, Peter, and am enjoying it so far. I like your take on Kitty’s personality of however many years ago, and the neat “guest star” who showed up at the end.
Also, today, I picked up the last of DC’s Wednesday Comics, which just concluded the stories. I thought the Batmani, Kamandi, Metal Men, and Adam Strange were touching, Metamorpho, Hawkman, and especially Supergirl were fun, and Teen Titans raised my opinion of their page slightly. If they do this again, someone needs to tell whoever was doing the Wonder Woman page that one of the ideas behind WC was that the art could be BIG, so don’t fill the page with lots of small panels.
I found I had pre-ordered The Web and can’t remember why.
I got the latest Power Girl and find I am really liking the personality they’ve given her more and more. (Did anyone else notice the cameo by the Big Bang Theory characters in the last issue?) In my mind, this is the way PG should be. I’d like to see them do a three-way crossover with PG, Terra, and Stargirl.
I’m still getting the Blackest Night crossovers, but find myself thinking this isn’t as dark as it should be.
Tried out an independent two-issue mini-series called Beautiful Creatures and found myself disappointed by it. It wasn’t what the description in Previews led me to believe it would be.
Still haven’t read the second part of the big Archie/Veronica marriage story yet. (Still haven’t quite forgiven Archie for their treatment of Dan DeCarlo in the last years of his life.) I’m one of, I guess, the few who was always rooting for Archie and Veronica. But I never really considered what it would do to Betty. Maybe now, she pushes herself to become a head of business herself and crushes Lodge Industries or Enterprises or whatever it is?
Kim, you have a slight point regarding the Wednesday Comics Wonder Woman feature but, conversely, can you imagine what that artwork would’ve looked like if Caldwell had attempted the story in a standard-sized comic?
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Caldwell, as I see it, had a fairly unique opportunity to use a special size format and to take an artistic risk with it while most of the other stories could’ve easily been converted to a standard comic book size with no real loss of coherence or detail. I do agree that Caldwell gambled and lost but I have to applaud his decision to try something very different.
Wolverine: Old Man Logan Giant Size #1
I was waiting for this finale for some time, though I wish that it wasn’t mostly a slaughterfest of Hulk’s children. I also didn’t see how Wolverine’s healing factor was so strong that he could reform after being eaten by the Hulk. Wasn’t his healing factor reduced in his old age, as indicated when he popped his claws in the beginning of the first issue of the story? Sure, it was a dream sequence, but wasn’t it implied that that was how much he’d really bleed when popping them? Still, it was okay, and I liked the ending.
. Dark Reign: The List – X-Men #1
I picked this up because I’m huge fan of Alan Davis’ art, but he didn’t write it, and I regretted buying it. It’s not often that I almost fall asleep while reading a comic book, but this book reminded why I steer clear of most X-titles. I don’t know who Pixie is or why Magik is alive and ruler of Limbo again, and it’s yet another reminder of how the X-Titles are obsessed with costumes, and pretending that there are countless permutations to a mutant ability with which a mutant can do almost anything. How can telepathy cause another mutant’s power, which is biological in nature, to amplify? And why does Iceman even need this, when his powers received an upgrade way back during the Simonson run on the original X-Factor? What happened between Namor and Osborn after Namor confronted him? Pass.
. Power Girl #5
I enjoyed the three-issue Power Girl story in JSA Classified, and both that and The Pro made me a fan of Amanda Connor’s lovely, straightforward, sometimes funny art style. But this series seems a bit fluffy in terms of the story. Maybe that’s what they’re going for, since PG is being depicted as such a happy go-lucky optimist with a positive attitude about her looks and bod, but I don’t know if I’m going to stick with this one.
. Superman: Secret Origin #1 of 6
I’ll admit that then I heard they were doing yet another Superman origin series that I groaned a bit, since it’s only been five years since the last one by Mark Waid and Lenil Yu, but I picked this up because I like Geoff Johns writing in general, and love Gary Frank’s art. I hoped the they were not going to retcon yet again what was established in Birthright, and so far, the only premise they did so with was in making the “S” the family crest of the House of El, and not the symbol of all Krypton, which I actually prefer. Frank’s art during his Action Comics run with Johns was beautiful, and looks to have grown even more polished than it already was when he was on Incredible Hulk. The fact that he clearly models his Superman on Christopher Reeve’s features was also a wonderful touch, and you can see that he’s still doing so here with the teenage Clark, showing how those two front teeth of his come forward a bit just like Reeves.
Totally agree on the Psylocke bit & the ending of List – X-Men. One of the sloppiest endings I’ve seen in a comic in a while.
She just came back from the dead again, so maybe it was supposed to have something to do with that? Who knows.
Then again, I guess the argument could just be that she’s not really amplifying his powers so much as accessing more of them than he could consciously… but yeah, he just got another upgrade of sorts recently as well during his bout with Mystique I think. And he just re-formed himself from scratch in the Hulk Team-Up issue recently a well soooo…..yeah I don’t think he needs any help.
I’ve usually been really enjoying Matt Fraction’s work on Uncanny X-Men, but this isn’t a good example of it. TI had the same problem with the ending, but I think it is an editorial thing, this isn’t the first time Namor and Norman have a stand off where I’m reading it and saying, “Seriously? Puffed up chests and nothing more? Namor’s been pushed far enough, he should just rip Normie in half.”
I’m not an advocate of violence being the answer to everything, and was really impressed with last month’s issue of Nova where Nova talked his way out of a fight with Blastaar. But I also like when things ring true for a character, and Namor isn’t lately.
Picked up the latest issue of “Geek Monthly”, which is, as always, filled with fun and interesting bits of random stuff that geeks like. There’s a good Tennant article, a “State of the Union” on Blu-Ray (still not enough to convince me to adopt just yet, but that’s because I still have a working DVD player. If it ever conks out, my next player will probably be Blu-Ray) and a piece on the new Evangelion flick. Oh, and I’m not done with it yet.
Couldn’t pick up much this week since I got Halo 3: ODST. Dont’ worry, I’ll get it next week and I’m really looking forward to the latest Wolverine: First Class.
This week I only picked up Guardians of the Galaxy 18, Nova 29, Incredible Hercules 135, and Dark Reign: The List – X-Men.
Like the rest of the people here that got it, I was disappointed in the X-Men issue, but the other things were so good they made up for it. GotG especially was another great issue in a great series that puts a lie to the adage of being careful what you wish for. (I’ve wanted GotG to come back for years, and I’ve been thoroughly thrilled with it).
Herc was also great, as the nerdiest and most scientifically theoretical comic that Marvel has put out in a long time.
Guardians was good, one of the weaker issues of the series thus far though – the art made the story hard to read, and almost ruined it for me.
I think I’m going to add Herc to my pull. I’ve found it this long, but especially with the Atlas backup features coming…
That “Spider-Man Spoils A Snatch” Days of Marvel Past Hostess ad in Wolverine: First Class #19 sure went off in an entirely wholesome direction, didn’t it?
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Enjoyable issue, however, with a tremendous cover.
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Is there some reason the title isn’t listed among Marvel’s December solicitations? Concerned.
I wish I could tell you that it is cancelled, but that would be a lie. (That’s the kind of mood I am in these days—wishing to spread misery.)
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It’s probably just taking a month off.
I was only hired to write through #21. I have no idea what Marvel’s plans for the title are past that.
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PAD
Today I got:
Incredible Hercules: Just a VERY good comic. Love it. Both the Herc & Amaduis issues are excellent.
Spiderwoman #1: Haven’t read it all yet, but I like what I’ve read so far.
Wednesday Comics #12: The last issue?! 🙁
Seriously, LOVE this series. I really do. Hope they do more!
Wednesday Comics — most of the stories wrapped up so nicely. It was a fun experiment. Perhaps they’ll do one every summer.
Glad someone brought up “Brave and the Bold” #27. It is one of the most pleasant surprises in comics I have experienced this year. While I was looking forward to Straczynski’s run on this title and his Batman in particular, if you told me I would absolutely love and reread a story co-starring Dial H For Hero..well, quite frankly, I would have told you you were out of your mind.
But Strazynski makes Dial H For Hero compelling, the overused Joker actually seem a little fresh and Batman seem human, almost touching.
It is one of the best comics I have read this year – and proves that Staczynski not only knows how to spin a helluva story but write dialogue as well or better than most in the business, with his stamp clearly on it.
The first twenty and a half pages are great. Then Batman decides to give one of the most egregious “And here’s the moral of our story” speeches in recent memory…
But I will be sticking around. It has a lot of the anything-can-happen feel of the old Bob Haney stuff, without the flaws in Haney’s style that occasionally made that book painful to read. (I’m looking at you, Bat-Squad.)
Michael,
I rather liked Batman’s speech. It was good, in my opinion, to actually show him with some emotion – rather than the usual angst, anger and pain. And having lived with regret all his life,from a young boy traumatized by the reality of death, I felt it was in character to tell a young man to “live to a ripe old age”, especially since in a lot of the classic stuff, he doubts that he will. in fact, I think a lot of his speech was him talking about himself and wondering if he really makes a difference, how he will be remembered, etc. and/or if he does feel he makes a difference, he feels blessed to have a chance to do so. he has obviously seen a lot of despair and a lot of comrades die at a young age.
I short, I feel the dialogue was moving and powerful. Your mileage may very.
I obviously meant, “vary”, not “very” in the previous post.
Alan Coil,
Why would you wish for the demise of “Wolverine First Class”. It’s a book appropriate for all ages, has an almost nostalgic feel and has been written in a very entertaining manner by the host of this blog. Why “spread misery”? It’s just as easy to “spread joy”.
I don’t wish for its demise.
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I did, however, say that I wished that it had been canceled so I could be the jerk to break the news to Brett. I was saying I didn’t know what the deal was AND that I was in a jerky mood.
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Again, not wishing for its demise. Mainly because I haven’t read it, so can’t have any negative feeling toward it. There are a lot of books I don’t read these days because of a lack of a job. 2 years, 56 days and counting.
Biggest thing of note from the weekly stash was getting to meet local artist, well local to me, Joe Quinones (the Green Lantern artist for Wednesday Comics) Very nice and engaging guy, had a chance to talk about some process stuff like coloring for Wed Comics. And got to see the boards for his upcoming ASM cover, should be previewed http://marvel.com/catalog/?id=13321 at sometime down the line http://marvel.com/catalog/?id=13321 … currently not available.
It was my first time meeting a comic pro, and it was very cool.
I apologize for the weird formatting, and repeating link.
I really enjoyed the latest issue of Wolverine First Class. I have to admit that I would not be buying it if it wasn’t being written by Peter. Still I have not had much expectations for this series. It is a lot of fun and the perfect sorbet after reading the dark blackest titles being put out by the big two.
J. Alexander,
Exactly! I love “Wolverine: First Class” because it dares to have both old-fashioned heroics and humor. While I absolutely love Garth Ennis and other similarly talented writers, I simply don’t feel virtually every superhero title has to be “dark” or “realistic”. There is plenty of room for titles like “The Boys”, but I don’t feel every title has to be like that – and I feel the fact that the vast majority of the books being published ARE like that is not a good thing – the same way that if every title was lighthearted adventure wouldn’t be a good thing either.
Just read Dark X-Men the Confession, when Scott went to his little black secret box, I began to think it was going to be about his secret affair with Logan or Henry or maybe even bobby. But then I realized that Mr. David wasn’t writing this book. Whew!!!
hey pad, i’m a huge fan of your star trek novels! check out what this guy did to the covers of some of them. hilarious.
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Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday!
I’m subjecting myself to “The List: X-Men” because I am a sucker, Dark Reign: Made Men, Uncanny #515, and Ms Marvel #45.
Uh, I know none of those are yours, but might I point out I STILL haven’t gotten X-Factor #48 from Marvel Subscriptions yet, and it was released last week?? I’m sorry, I’m never subscribing to Marvel ever again. I will just press my luck and go to the comics store.
Two unrelated things:
(1) I realized that you are the author of one of my most favorite comics quotes ever, from the Incredible Hulk when we was with the Pantheon. Sabra had used her quills to make it so the Hulk couldn’t talk so they fought it up, once he could they realized Achilles was the true enemy, and when they caught up with him (“Nowhere to run, baby”, “Nowhere to hide”), Achilles whips out with “Wonderful. You’ve stopped being enemies and decided to become Martha and the Vandellas”. GREAT!!!!
(2) More and more of my comic collector friends are having a decidedly f**k it attitude about comics in general, given the $4 price hike. I’ve done some research on comparative price increases over two decades (comics vs….other stuff); you think there could be, at some point, an open discussion on that?
Thanks. X-Factor is my fav now, and that’s not kissing up…
Not sure why I got Superman: Secret Origin, but even though I like both author and writer, there’s little here to justify buying the whole thing. It’s not a bad comic, but it’s too familiar. I get that DC needs to establish which origin Superman has (this week), but if we’re just going to get a pastiche of every origin (except the Byrne one), why not just do this as a series of Second Features in the Superman books instead?
I didn’t get any comics this week but I did wanna not that Marvel has announced their December titles and the new artist for X-Factor is…Bing Cansino. An unknown to me but I googled some of his work and I think it’ll be a great fit. I just wonder who will be inking. Maybe the guy who inked Sook’s work on the first few issues? This book really needs to have a consistent, solid artist on hand to deliver the great characters, plots, and dialogue. I’ve been annoyed with the current story since there have been artist swaps between scenes with DeLandro (who I like) and Santucci (who I don’t like). I’ve often wondered why there was such a shake up every year. Why Marvel didn’t dig up some of PAD’s former partners in crime like Leonard Kirk (Supergirl) or Chriscross (Captain Marvel; God, I miss his brilliant facial expressions and hand gestures!) I’ll never know.
X-Factor is one of my faves, along with Madame Xanadu, and I plan on staying along for the ride. Thanks, Peter, for you commitment and love towards this book. I just hope Mr. Bing sticks around for a solid run!
The UPS deliveries have been late at my local comic shop’s new location, so I’m a week behind. I did pick up Dark Reign: The List – Daredevil out of curiosity. Once you get past the concept (I assume this isn’t a SPOILER)
of Daredevil running the Hand (didn’t he become the Kingpin a few years back?) it’s actually kind of interesting. Much like The List: New Avengers, it’s just an additional issue of the regular series designed to sucker folks like me into paying na extra $4, but the setup, and the preview of DD 501 at the end, do have me kind of intrigued. Probably not enough to bump another title off my collecting (I’m trying to keep a relatively steady number) but maybe…
The other one I picked up was JMS’ first issue of Brave and the Bold. Neat story, the kind of one-off a series like this can do really well. Don’t know if I’ll hang around, but I definitely enjoyed the issue.
Hoping to pick up Wolverine: First Class next week. The Madrox issue was my favorite so far.
Uncanny was … OK. A big set up issue for lots of dominoes. I’m not too jazzed about Utopia so far, but it is a little interesting.
OK, I did NOT buy the Old Man Logan thing, but I did read it. Wow… am I the only one who found it disgusting and more than a little insulting? Suddenly Banner is susceptible to radiation poisoning, and somehow she-hulk agrees to make inbred babies with him? WHAT THE >#$@!?
X-Men/The list was decent BUT it ended in a horrible mass of stupidity that can only be justified by the immortal comic book logic phrase “just because.” The question to be asked is, of course, “After just killing his ex-wife, Namor then threatens to kill Osborn, instead of ACTUALLY killing him, when it was clearly within his power.” Sorry Namor & Fraction, together you lose 47 badass and good writer points, respectively. (Seriously, they could have found another way to end it that didn’t involve Namor looking like a pansy and Osborn continuing to smirk at everyone. Man I hope next time he dies it sticks for at least a decade.]
Sad to see Agents of Atlas end – now that’s a good book. Killing that and MI13 meant two of my top five comics have dropped away, with nothing of equal quality to replace them. Of course, Atlas looks like it gets to continue as limiteds and back-up features in Hercules (yay!) at least, so there is that.
There are SPOILER S below
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Andy said:
OK, I did NOT buy the Old Man Logan thing, but I
did read it. Wow… am I the only one who found it
disgusting and more than a little insulting?
Suddenly Banner is susceptible to radiation
poisoning, and somehow she-hulk agrees to make
inbred babies with him? WHAT THE >#$@!?
I don’t recall them saying that She-hulk bred w/ him voluntarily…
Also, I have to wonder how in the heck that Banner ate Logan’s adamantium skeleton.
gah. this did not post the way I meant it to. the “I don’t recall..” and everythign after is me, everythign before it is andy.
Yeah, I forgot to mention the skeleton thing as well. Also totally baffled me.
That’s true, he didn’t say willingly BUT wasn’t that supposed to be She-Hulk there at the end? The emaciated lady he was calling “Jenny”? I don’t have the issue to reference, but I thought she was there.
Either way, I still find it pretty offensive on a few levels.
I picked up the first part today of yourWolverine — First Class story, Peter, and am enjoying it so far. I like your take on Kitty’s personality of however many years ago, and the neat “guest star” who showed up at the end.
Also, today, I picked up the last of DC’s Wednesday Comics, which just concluded the stories. I thought the Batmani, Kamandi, Metal Men, and Adam Strange were touching, Metamorpho, Hawkman, and especially Supergirl were fun, and Teen Titans raised my opinion of their page slightly. If they do this again, someone needs to tell whoever was doing the Wonder Woman page that one of the ideas behind WC was that the art could be BIG, so don’t fill the page with lots of small panels.
I found I had pre-ordered The Web and can’t remember why.
I got the latest Power Girl and find I am really liking the personality they’ve given her more and more. (Did anyone else notice the cameo by the Big Bang Theory characters in the last issue?) In my mind, this is the way PG should be. I’d like to see them do a three-way crossover with PG, Terra, and Stargirl.
I’m still getting the Blackest Night crossovers, but find myself thinking this isn’t as dark as it should be.
Tried out an independent two-issue mini-series called Beautiful Creatures and found myself disappointed by it. It wasn’t what the description in Previews led me to believe it would be.
Still haven’t read the second part of the big Archie/Veronica marriage story yet. (Still haven’t quite forgiven Archie for their treatment of Dan DeCarlo in the last years of his life.) I’m one of, I guess, the few who was always rooting for Archie and Veronica. But I never really considered what it would do to Betty. Maybe now, she pushes herself to become a head of business herself and crushes Lodge Industries or Enterprises or whatever it is?
Kim, you have a slight point regarding the Wednesday Comics Wonder Woman feature but, conversely, can you imagine what that artwork would’ve looked like if Caldwell had attempted the story in a standard-sized comic?
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Caldwell, as I see it, had a fairly unique opportunity to use a special size format and to take an artistic risk with it while most of the other stories could’ve easily been converted to a standard comic book size with no real loss of coherence or detail. I do agree that Caldwell gambled and lost but I have to applaud his decision to try something very different.
Wolverine: Old Man Logan Giant Size #1
I was waiting for this finale for some time, though I wish that it wasn’t mostly a slaughterfest of Hulk’s children. I also didn’t see how Wolverine’s healing factor was so strong that he could reform after being eaten by the Hulk. Wasn’t his healing factor reduced in his old age, as indicated when he popped his claws in the beginning of the first issue of the story? Sure, it was a dream sequence, but wasn’t it implied that that was how much he’d really bleed when popping them? Still, it was okay, and I liked the ending.
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Dark Reign: The List – X-Men #1
I picked this up because I’m huge fan of Alan Davis’ art, but he didn’t write it, and I regretted buying it. It’s not often that I almost fall asleep while reading a comic book, but this book reminded why I steer clear of most X-titles. I don’t know who Pixie is or why Magik is alive and ruler of Limbo again, and it’s yet another reminder of how the X-Titles are obsessed with costumes, and pretending that there are countless permutations to a mutant ability with which a mutant can do almost anything. How can telepathy cause another mutant’s power, which is biological in nature, to amplify? And why does Iceman even need this, when his powers received an upgrade way back during the Simonson run on the original X-Factor? What happened between Namor and Osborn after Namor confronted him? Pass.
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Power Girl #5
I enjoyed the three-issue Power Girl story in JSA Classified, and both that and The Pro made me a fan of Amanda Connor’s lovely, straightforward, sometimes funny art style. But this series seems a bit fluffy in terms of the story. Maybe that’s what they’re going for, since PG is being depicted as such a happy go-lucky optimist with a positive attitude about her looks and bod, but I don’t know if I’m going to stick with this one.
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Superman: Secret Origin #1 of 6
I’ll admit that then I heard they were doing yet another Superman origin series that I groaned a bit, since it’s only been five years since the last one by Mark Waid and Lenil Yu, but I picked this up because I like Geoff Johns writing in general, and love Gary Frank’s art. I hoped the they were not going to retcon yet again what was established in Birthright, and so far, the only premise they did so with was in making the “S” the family crest of the House of El, and not the symbol of all Krypton, which I actually prefer. Frank’s art during his Action Comics run with Johns was beautiful, and looks to have grown even more polished than it already was when he was on Incredible Hulk. The fact that he clearly models his Superman on Christopher Reeve’s features was also a wonderful touch, and you can see that he’s still doing so here with the teenage Clark, showing how those two front teeth of his come forward a bit just like Reeves.
Totally agree on the Psylocke bit & the ending of List – X-Men. One of the sloppiest endings I’ve seen in a comic in a while.
She just came back from the dead again, so maybe it was supposed to have something to do with that? Who knows.
Then again, I guess the argument could just be that she’s not really amplifying his powers so much as accessing more of them than he could consciously… but yeah, he just got another upgrade of sorts recently as well during his bout with Mystique I think. And he just re-formed himself from scratch in the Hulk Team-Up issue recently a well soooo…..yeah I don’t think he needs any help.
I’ve usually been really enjoying Matt Fraction’s work on Uncanny X-Men, but this isn’t a good example of it. TI had the same problem with the ending, but I think it is an editorial thing, this isn’t the first time Namor and Norman have a stand off where I’m reading it and saying, “Seriously? Puffed up chests and nothing more? Namor’s been pushed far enough, he should just rip Normie in half.”
I’m not an advocate of violence being the answer to everything, and was really impressed with last month’s issue of Nova where Nova talked his way out of a fight with Blastaar. But I also like when things ring true for a character, and Namor isn’t lately.
Picked up the latest issue of “Geek Monthly”, which is, as always, filled with fun and interesting bits of random stuff that geeks like. There’s a good Tennant article, a “State of the Union” on Blu-Ray (still not enough to convince me to adopt just yet, but that’s because I still have a working DVD player. If it ever conks out, my next player will probably be Blu-Ray) and a piece on the new Evangelion flick. Oh, and I’m not done with it yet.
Couldn’t pick up much this week since I got Halo 3: ODST. Dont’ worry, I’ll get it next week and I’m really looking forward to the latest Wolverine: First Class.
This week I only picked up Guardians of the Galaxy 18, Nova 29, Incredible Hercules 135, and Dark Reign: The List – X-Men.
Like the rest of the people here that got it, I was disappointed in the X-Men issue, but the other things were so good they made up for it. GotG especially was another great issue in a great series that puts a lie to the adage of being careful what you wish for. (I’ve wanted GotG to come back for years, and I’ve been thoroughly thrilled with it).
Herc was also great, as the nerdiest and most scientifically theoretical comic that Marvel has put out in a long time.
Guardians was good, one of the weaker issues of the series thus far though – the art made the story hard to read, and almost ruined it for me.
I think I’m going to add Herc to my pull. I’ve found it this long, but especially with the Atlas backup features coming…
That “Spider-Man Spoils A Snatch” Days of Marvel Past Hostess ad in Wolverine: First Class #19 sure went off in an entirely wholesome direction, didn’t it?
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Enjoyable issue, however, with a tremendous cover.
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Is there some reason the title isn’t listed among Marvel’s December solicitations? Concerned.
I wish I could tell you that it is cancelled, but that would be a lie. (That’s the kind of mood I am in these days—wishing to spread misery.)
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It’s probably just taking a month off.
I was only hired to write through #21. I have no idea what Marvel’s plans for the title are past that.
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PAD
Today I got:
Incredible Hercules: Just a VERY good comic. Love it. Both the Herc & Amaduis issues are excellent.
Spiderwoman #1: Haven’t read it all yet, but I like what I’ve read so far.
Wednesday Comics #12: The last issue?! 🙁
Seriously, LOVE this series. I really do. Hope they do more!
Wednesday Comics — most of the stories wrapped up so nicely. It was a fun experiment. Perhaps they’ll do one every summer.
Glad someone brought up “Brave and the Bold” #27. It is one of the most pleasant surprises in comics I have experienced this year. While I was looking forward to Straczynski’s run on this title and his Batman in particular, if you told me I would absolutely love and reread a story co-starring Dial H For Hero..well, quite frankly, I would have told you you were out of your mind.
But Strazynski makes Dial H For Hero compelling, the overused Joker actually seem a little fresh and Batman seem human, almost touching.
It is one of the best comics I have read this year – and proves that Staczynski not only knows how to spin a helluva story but write dialogue as well or better than most in the business, with his stamp clearly on it.
The first twenty and a half pages are great. Then Batman decides to give one of the most egregious “And here’s the moral of our story” speeches in recent memory…
But I will be sticking around. It has a lot of the anything-can-happen feel of the old Bob Haney stuff, without the flaws in Haney’s style that occasionally made that book painful to read. (I’m looking at you, Bat-Squad.)
Michael,
I rather liked Batman’s speech. It was good, in my opinion, to actually show him with some emotion – rather than the usual angst, anger and pain. And having lived with regret all his life,from a young boy traumatized by the reality of death, I felt it was in character to tell a young man to “live to a ripe old age”, especially since in a lot of the classic stuff, he doubts that he will. in fact, I think a lot of his speech was him talking about himself and wondering if he really makes a difference, how he will be remembered, etc. and/or if he does feel he makes a difference, he feels blessed to have a chance to do so. he has obviously seen a lot of despair and a lot of comrades die at a young age.
I short, I feel the dialogue was moving and powerful. Your mileage may very.
I obviously meant, “vary”, not “very” in the previous post.
Alan Coil,
Why would you wish for the demise of “Wolverine First Class”. It’s a book appropriate for all ages, has an almost nostalgic feel and has been written in a very entertaining manner by the host of this blog. Why “spread misery”? It’s just as easy to “spread joy”.
I don’t wish for its demise.
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I did, however, say that I wished that it had been canceled so I could be the jerk to break the news to Brett. I was saying I didn’t know what the deal was AND that I was in a jerky mood.
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Again, not wishing for its demise. Mainly because I haven’t read it, so can’t have any negative feeling toward it. There are a lot of books I don’t read these days because of a lack of a job. 2 years, 56 days and counting.
Biggest thing of note from the weekly stash was getting to meet local artist, well local to me, Joe Quinones (the Green Lantern artist for Wednesday Comics) Very nice and engaging guy, had a chance to talk about some process stuff like coloring for Wed Comics. And got to see the boards for his upcoming ASM cover, should be previewed http://marvel.com/catalog/?id=13321 at sometime down the line http://marvel.com/catalog/?id=13321 … currently not available.
It was my first time meeting a comic pro, and it was very cool.
I apologize for the weird formatting, and repeating link.
I really enjoyed the latest issue of Wolverine First Class. I have to admit that I would not be buying it if it wasn’t being written by Peter. Still I have not had much expectations for this series. It is a lot of fun and the perfect sorbet after reading the dark blackest titles being put out by the big two.
J. Alexander,
Exactly! I love “Wolverine: First Class” because it dares to have both old-fashioned heroics and humor. While I absolutely love Garth Ennis and other similarly talented writers, I simply don’t feel virtually every superhero title has to be “dark” or “realistic”. There is plenty of room for titles like “The Boys”, but I don’t feel every title has to be like that – and I feel the fact that the vast majority of the books being published ARE like that is not a good thing – the same way that if every title was lighthearted adventure wouldn’t be a good thing either.
Just read Dark X-Men the Confession, when Scott went to his little black secret box, I began to think it was going to be about his secret affair with Logan or Henry or maybe even bobby. But then I realized that Mr. David wasn’t writing this book. Whew!!!
hey pad, i’m a huge fan of your star trek novels! check out what this guy did to the covers of some of them. hilarious.
http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2009/02/23/and-the-circle-is-complete/