Bought/Thought 10/29

[GNR]

You're all insane.Secret Invasion Thor was effing awesome!Thor just kicking ass and smashing the crap out of all things Skrull,my god it was great.

Thor #11 - It's strange how Loki is starting to sound like the voice of reason while Thor looks to be unknowingly following the steps of his father.JMS has set up a real convincing dynamic here especially with Balder in the middle of it all.Coipel's art continues to impress,he puts so much detail into every warrior's look it's insane.The scene with Rogers was a long time coming,I found it a bit short but it read nicely.

Secret Invasion Thor #3 - Fraction's take on Thor is so balls out relentless.It's a nice alternative to the more delicate yet effective style JMS is using.This entire mini has been some of the best comics I've read in quite some time.Sure the main gist of it isn't all that complcated:Thor and his fellow Asgardians smash the piss out of genetically altered aliens.Fraction's "mythic" storytelling approach matched with Braithwaite's breathtaking visuals of people smashing the ground with fists and hammers as the earth trembles have made for some insane and loud comics.

Iron Fist #19 - Despite some problems with Foreman's storytelling here and there,this was another fine addition to Duane's run which has really caught alot of people off guard.It was great to see the Weapons being utilized,they make for a great supporting cast and it looks like they're going to be sticking around for a while.I love how Duane isn't shying away from the big mystical ideas that Bru and Fraction toyed with during their tenure,he's making them all his own and totally running with it.

Incredible Hercules #122 - Probably the only title that makes me laugh without being idiotic or silly.Henry's art is PERFECT for this book,he has a real solid look which gives the characters,especially Herc,alot of weight and presence.Pak and VL are playing with some fun toys here:Namor,Atlantis,the Amazons,Ares,etc.It's great to see this book finally free of any events and being totally left off the chain.The only thing I'm waiting on is a Thor/Hercules encounter,hopefully soon!

 

[BrianWilly]

Some quick thoughts...

Reign in Hell #4
This series takes a bit of a nosedive this week, and it's beginning to lose me. I'm enjoying the characterizations and how Giffen's using all the obscures and that "twist" end, but the story just gets less and less interesting. The thing is that the stakes haven't presented very well at all. "Guys, if Blaze and Satannus takes over then...something, we don't really know what, will happen...and if they don't take over then, ah, something else will happen, we don't really know what that is either. And hey if the resistance loses Purgatory then...hmm, it'll be bad? Or it might not be. Who knows."

I mean that's literally the sort of narrative we've been receiving.

It certainly isn't like frontlines of Annihilation where we knew very specifically where everything stood, what people were doing at any given point in time, why it was important, what would happen if yada yada.

(5.4 out of 10)


DC Universe Halloween Special
I got this because Kyle was on the cover. Kyle, having a personal story in a DC special?? Holy crap it's like 2004 again. It's pretty generic, really, nothing we haven't seen before; ooh mindgames and nightmares, let's have Kyle be overwhelmed and then overcome them again like we've already done a billion times before. It is nice, though, to see someone still keeping track of Kyle's continuity (oh ****, Terry?). I had to lol at the refrigerator, and also at the Green Power Ranger costume. Even if it isn't remotely the right one.

As for the rest of the book...eh, it's all interlaced with pretty dubious writing and art and editing, sometimes a story would get one or two of the three right but never all three at once. Favorite was probably the Dibny one, but even there you could tell how very rushed this all was.

(6.1 out of 10)


Trinity #whateverthelastmonthhasbeen
Just to check in on this...it's still good, I'm still into it, but it's been an odd month for this book. You kinda just have to have faith that all of this setup will pay off eventually. If this were a lesser writer, I admit that I may have gone ahead and took a break from this. But it's Busiek. When's the last time he didn't deliver?

Alternate reality stories are a tricky beastie. Why should we care about a world that's just going to go away eventually, with no one or very few people even remembering it? This is the problem that most Elseworlds-type stories encounter, as well as something like House of M. Busiek attempts to circumvent that problem by periodically reinforcing the fact that this isn't an alternate universe or timeline; this is the real world, it's just that something very wrong has happened to it...though that's not exactly new hat either.

What Busiek has done very well is to present this convincingly. Through various voices he gives the idea that these are not alternate versions of our characters -- this is not Green Arrow-2 or Hawkman-2 or Geo-Force-3, this is Green Arrow and Hawkman and Geo-Force -- and they are truly our characters and what happens to them in this story is what is happening to them in the real continuity, because this is the real continuity. This will have effects. Everyone may very well remember all this by the time all is said and done. I definitely feel that "pieces are in motion across the board" feeling that I really like in a story.

Moreover, Busiek's worldbuilding is incredibly sound. His treatise on why the notion of superheroes in this universe wouldn't even exist if Superman didn't exist is a bit meta and debatable to boot, but it still is very well presented and argued. Completely debatable, but well-argued. And it does give at least some sort of in-universe reason for why Superman came years after the JSA members and yet is still considered the first, most important superhero.

Bah, these were supposed to be short reviews.

(7.9 out of 10 for the month)

 

[Galact-Gal]

I'm staying out of the Thor argument, but I have to respond to this quote from Dread--

"I know the X-Men did; I should note that Xavier partly lied to the New Mutants about this by claiming Magneto was "Michael Xavier" when he was teaching them. I used that X-Men example precisely because I always thought it was a bit ludicrous. Like, gee, you fellas REALLY were surprised when he tried to teach the New Mutants to be more militant against humanity? SERIOUSLY!?"


First point) The "Michael Xavier' identity wasn't for the New Mutants. It was for the neighbors and local government--something like 'Charles Xavier is seriously ill, so while he's away his cousin, Michael, is taking over the school'. In the first issue where Magneto became headmaster he introduced himself to the students as Magneto. Nobody lied to them.

Second point) Magneto really didn't try to teach the kids to be more militant against humanity. As things got darker--what with the Mutant Registration Act, Doug Ramsey's death, and Storm & the X-Men letting everybody think they were dead (essentially abandoning Magneto and the kids)--Magneto did revert to not trusting humanity in general. But his response was to try to confine the kids to the school, in order to keep them safe, not teaching them to go out and fight.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh **** I missed a tussle.

I have to agree with Dread a little, I really can't stand genre blindness in the medium, much less on this level. At best you can try to make it character-consistent ("Thor is often too trusting"), at worst you have to loophole it with some arbitrary plot justification ("It's a new life for the Asgardians! Second chances for everyone! Nothing that happened before counts...well, nothing bad anyway."), and either way it takes me right out of the story.

That being said, I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't have a problem with the pacing of this book. It's late and not a lot happens per issue...but that doesn't really affect my enjoyment when I am reading the story, which altogether hangs together very well.

I like the pace now that I know where JMS is going with it. The political nature of the story sort of requires a slow burn. Granted, the best stories centering on political intrigue, like Rucka's Checkmate and Brubaker's Captain America, tend to throw the readers a bit of action along the way whereas JMS has sort of abandoned any sort of traditional comic for the last several issues (since the Odin two-parter, I think). The delays are what really irk me. The pacing wouldn't seem so bad if we got the comic at regular intervals.

 

[Blader5489]

If this were a lesser writer, I admit that I may have gone ahead and took a break from this. But it's Busiek. When's the last time he didn't deliver?

Anything that says "written by Kurt Busiek."

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Anything that says "written by Kurt Busiek."

Disagreed. His work on Untold Tales Of Spider-Man, Astro City, Thunderbolts, Avengers, and Conan was all top-notch stuff.

 

[Themanofbat]

Disagreed. His work on Untold Tales Of Spider-Man, Astro City, Thunderbolts, Avengers, and Conan was all top-notch stuff.

I agree.... his work/research/effort on Untold Tales of Spider-Man alone would put any writer to shame, and was arguably one of the top 5 books to come out of the 90's, in my opinion.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Really, the only outright bad thing I've read from Busiek is that one arc on JLA that tried to pick up on the threads he put forth in JLA/Avengers. That was boring. And this is coming from a giant Thor fan, and Busiek can't write Thor to save his life. The rest of his writing is great, though.

 

[Blader5489]

Disagreed. His work on Untold Tales Of Spider-Man, Astro City, Thunderbolts, Avengers, and Conan was all top-notch stuff.

Okay, I do love Astro City.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I read the first few issues of Astro City. It seemed pretty good but I never got around to reading any more of it. I'll have to get back to it eventually.

 

[Anubis]

Try the Confessor arc. that's what got me hooked on Atro City. And his and Nord's run on Conan was all kinds of awesome.

 

[fifthfiend]

Incredible Hercules #122 - Probably the only title that makes me laugh without being idiotic or silly.

Probably the only book on the stands that can put teenage hormonal antics right next to a mythical amazon queen's head being stood up on a pike and actually make both bits work.

 

[Dread]

I like the pace now that I know where JMS is going with it. The political nature of the story sort of requires a slow burn. Granted, the best stories centering on political intrigue, like Rucka's Checkmate and Brubaker's Captain America, tend to throw the readers a bit of action along the way whereas JMS has sort of abandoned any sort of traditional comic for the last several issues (since the Odin two-parter, I think). The delays are what really irk me. The pacing wouldn't seem so bad if we got the comic at regular intervals.

True; CAPTAIN AMERCIA is loads more entertaining. JMS easily could have Thor fight some things every once in a while. I mean, does Oklahoma have no crime whatsoever? No villains who wanted to set up shop in a state that wasn't NY or CA (the two states with the most superhero activity historically) who now have a thunder god to deal with? Anything to at least break up some of the very predictable tension.

"Regular intervals" has plagued a lot of runs and comics. Wasn't the Whedon/Cassaday ASTONISHING X-MEN the poster child of that (or at least one of them behind ULTIMATES 2)?

Oddly, for research purposes I have been re-reading some of AXM, and I will say in hindsight it isn't nearly as bad as some of my earlier hysterical reviews of some of the issues. It's overrated, don't get me wrong. But it's a perfectly fine popcorn adventure story with a few decent character moments and lines along the way; I could imagine a HC of the whole run would serve as a decent "gateway" story for X-Men fans who maybe have been away since the 90's and missed the run. True, the Breakworld saga was still a cliche alien story where, with minor re-writes, you could insert virtually any superhero team into it besides the X-Men, but it isn't like Whedon will be the last writer to have them tango with aliens. Taking some 3-4 years to put out 25 issues is astonishingly unprofessional of Marvel & the creative team, but now that all of the issues are in a block, yeah, it wasn't as bad as some made it out to be. Granted, my "research" so far has had me skip DANGEROUS and TORN.

 

[iloveclones]

Oddly, for research purposes I have been re-reading some of AXM, and I will say in hindsight it isn't nearly as bad as some of my earlier hysterical reviews of some of the issues.

I hadn't noticed.....

 

[masteryoda]

I hadn't noticed.....

heh

 

[Blader5489]

Try the Confessor arc. that's what got me hooked on Atro City. And his and Nord's run on Conan was all kinds of awesome.

I liked the Samaritan issues the best, myself. The very first issue of Astro City is one of my favorites.