Bought/Thought February 10, 2010

JewishHobbit

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Not a big buying week for me this go round. And not many issue that really interested me initially, but I found I enjoyed the issues more than expected.

Batman & Robin 8 - This was a good issue, though I'm not sure what I think about the art. I like it, but I don't know about it being on this title.

Anyhow, the story was also good and it gives us the answer to Bruce's body (and whether or not it is his). The answer is so obvious for anyone who's read Final Crisis (and the Batman tie-ins) that it's embaressing that I didn't think of it sooner. If you remember, Darkseid's people wanted to clone Batman and use his knowledge to create an unstopable army... or something along those lines. However, Batman's mind was too strong and he overcame the process. The dead Batman that was found by Superman was one of those clones. When resurected in the Lazarus Pit, it had the damaged mind due to Batman's resistance to the process, and thus, we have a crazy Batman running around. And Dick realizes quickly that it isn't Bruce at all, though it technically is.

Good issue. Batwoman dies in the end also, but they hint it's not a finalized death, so there's room for a return by arc's end.

Sword 4 - Second to last issue and I'm just now starting to like the art... sad. But to be honest, the story itself has been fun and enjoyable since issue one, so it really is sad to see this ending next issue.

We get some humor with Beast and more funtime with Death's Head. And though Gyrich is the obvious thorn in the issue his standing up to Norman kinda makes you like him... which is typically his way. But the real interest of the story lies with that android guy who's been mysteriously chipper this whole time, yet strangly sinister. Next issue is the culmination of everything thus far and I find myself excited to see how it plays out.

Sad that it's ending :(

New Mutants 10 - It's fairly simple but it's probably my favorite issue of the series so far. This is probably one of my least favorite titles I buy monthly but it's been getting better. In this issue we see the New Mutants fighting some Savage Land mutates (along with Sauron) and Cyclops and Emma overwatching them. Typical fight and all ends well. The most interesting though though is that Cyclops was watching with the mindset of molding the next leader of Xavier's dream. That really interests me. And while Emma's assuming it's Sam, we get the idea that Scott is looking at all of them, and maybe Dani is the best choice.

I'm curious where this goes post-Second Coming.


Imperial Guard 4 - Another good issue from the mini I wasn't expected to like as much. While I'm not really getting into the Guard themselves, the story is really good. There's really only a few of them that I actually like... and one of them, Starbolt I think his name is, dies in this issue. And we learn that Smasher is actually Talon in disguise, finding two more amulets to form Raptors. Between this and the new Raptor's hinted at in last week's Nova issue we're getting some good returns in that story. Can't wait to see what comes of it.

And in the end we have some evil X-Men from the other side of the Fault attack, but to the rescue comes Gladiator, tired of the diplomatic ways of Majestrix. It's good to see him get dirty again. Eager to see how it all ends.

So far, I like this mini WAY more than the Imperial Guard one. That one's more played out and I hate that they're hinting at Maximus's betrayal.


And that's about it. I also bought Blackest Night: Flash 2 because I saw it took place right after Blackest Night 6, so it might read well with it, but I haven't read it yet.
 
It snowed at least six inches where I was, but I still braved the tundra for my weekly installment of comics. Now, that's dedication! As always, check out my Examiner page for reviews first. They pay me, so I type there first. Also as always, full spoilers/rants ahoy.

Dread's Bought/Thought for 2/10/10:

BOOSTER GOLD #29:
The last issue with a Blue Beetle second feature/back up strip, which means the last issue that is $3.99. I liked the Blue Beetle strip, as I bought all 35 issues of his ongoing series, and I must say I'll be sad to see it leave. This was one case where I felt the package was worth the extra dollar. I have no intention of buying TEEN TITANS so in a way this seems like it really will be farewell from Jaime Reyes and his cast, at least barring a relaunch of his series (which is possible; series that last 3 years usually get at least one relaunch). At least outside TV's BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD.

There's a Booster main story, of course. He's still knee deep in trying to make sure that the evil of Cyborg Superman plays out in DC history as it should. He once again is combating a rival time-traveler intent on mucking up the time stream, but this time she doesn't appear to be an outright villain, like Rex Hunter or Black Beetle are. She's Capt. Sondra Crain (any possible relation to Johnathan Crain, the Scarecrow?), she's a government agent from eighty years in the future (basically, the end of the 21st century, but still at least 200 years from Booster's home time), and she's been sent back to deliberately prevent the massacre of Coast City. Having failed to prevent Cyborg Superman's birth, she now is left with the task of evacuating the city. Her only problem? Turns out even 80 years in the future, government sources/technology is crap, and instead of days, she barely has hours. While still angry at Rip Hunter's strict philosophy of maintaining the time line, Booster still upholds his rules to Sondra...until she seems to convince him otherwise. I mean, this was the guy who was willing to mess it all up for Ted Kord, right? Unfortunately, Cyborg's assault begins, and both are swept up in it. Mixed into the mess is Booster's sister, Michelle, who has found herself and her "non-action boyfriend" Drew in the middle of this as well. Her attempt to flee from Rip's time meddling and sort out of the terrible, horrible knowledge of having been saved from death (which is certainly worth flipping out and running away from friends/family over, sarcasm alert) may have backfired, and she may end up dead after all. As always, Dan Jurgens is kicking rear on art as well as telling a solid time story. I could do without Booster's narration recapping his mission every single issue, especially since the summary over each issue's official title EXPLAINS ALL THAT IN FINE DETAIL, but beyond that, this is a more suspenseful issue than the last. Norm Rapmund, as usual, helps on the art chores.

I like the idea of Booster's morals being questioned not by some fanatical time villain, but a rival who genuinely thinks she is doing the right thing for selfless reasons, and she may be correct. There's still that weird subplot of Booster being Rip's father even though Rip looks older, which is kind of like the deal between Cable and Cyclops, but it doesn't reach any absurd level or anything.

Reyes' strip wraps up the subplot of Jaime's scarab once again being controlled by the Reach, albeit perhaps a bit too quickly. After "rebooting" his scarab at the end of his ongoing series, Reyes finds himself fighting the control of the alien more and more. Now led to the ancient Reach ruins once again, he becomes enslaved to the aliens' will completely, and turns against his friends. Fortunately, Peacemaker returns to either free Reyes from the control, or kill him. Which he would prefer, as usual, it never known. The Reach pyramid is quickly blown up, Reyes is freed and all it well. While I'm hardly a fan of decompression, I imagine that Matt Sturges could have done more had he another ten pages to work with. Mike Norton, as usual, knocks the art out of the park. There is a bit of an in-joke when Paco laments that his favorite comic book has been canceled, and dismisses the character popping up in team books as "not the same". I feel your pain, Paco, I feel it indeed.

Even though future issues will save me money, I'll miss the Beetle strip, and can only hope the character gets a relaunch. I'll take him over another run of THE FLASH that crashes and burns in 18 months any day.

HAUNT #5: This has perhaps been Robert Kirkman's most timely Image title within the past five months; it hasn't missed a month yet. Surprisingly, it's quickly become one of Image's best selling ongoing titles, outselling even WALKING DEAD (for now). This will be Ryan Ottley's last issue as co-artist, which was inevitable. He likely got two months of lead in time during the Cory Walker run of INVINCIBLE, and now the schedule has caught up, and he can't work on two books at once; INVINCIBLE has run nearly a month behind at this rate. Greg Capullo will take over on full art chores next month, which likely will be fine, as this fits his SPAWN credentials. Robert Kirkman still writes, and Todd MacFarlane still inks (and partly edits). This professes to be the end of the first arc, and while many questions have been answered, there still are many more.

The biggest is why, exactly, Kurt and Daniel Kilgore not only gain super-human powers by being "a haunt", and why these powers manifest as a spandex suit that shoots webbing/symbiote tendril type abilities. Technically, Kurt is the haunt, a spirit that remains on the earthly plane longer than he should because he is linked to his live brother. But, it seems many Kirkman books, whether ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN or INVINCIBLE, don't reach a major crux until sometime between issue 7 to 14, so I imagine some of this could come up at a later date. At any rate, we learn more about Kurt's final mission that went wrong, which includes another mistress of his, Mirage, a faction-less double agent. Hurg, the Kingpin-type boss man of the series, escapes the issue's bloody gunfight, but Haunt manages to retrieve the notebook that Kurt died for, containing the notes to a new biological weapon. Unfortunately, Rhodes reveals her status as a mole, and severely cripples the organization that Kilgore works for. This turns out to be a boon in a way, because whatever is left is more willing to work with him/them.

Dan and Kurt have another emotional exchange about life and whatnot, which I suppose is par for the course when you're stuck with the ghost of the brother you hated (and the ghost is stuck with the live brother he hated), and by the end Dan actually seems used to his ordeal as Haunt and willing to delve into the black ops lifestyle. Part of me is wondering if this may become like ALIAS, only instead of a main character who is an "action girl" who often changes wigs, we have a supernaturally powered Venom knock-off who has his own guardian ghost. While Dan was a conflicted man, it does seem a bit weird that he now all of a sudden kind of wants to be a supernatural monster agent. Then again, I suppose it beats being a chain-smoking assistant priest who only trusts a local hooker. Kirkman (and MacFarlane) have two brothers who are both very flawed and have their share of skeletons, but the point is together they are stronger than apart. The concept is actually so close to Brother Voodoo, whose title, DOCTOR VOODOO, was vastly outsold by HAUNT and whose 5th issue will be it's last, that Marvel should frankly be embarrassed. At any rate, I've now read the first arc, and what do I think?

It's not as good as INVINCIBLE, or ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN. It's roughly on par with CAPES or TECH-JACKET, only more ultra-violent and self-important, which almost makes it seem more absurd, because it has less of a sense of humor. Still, it's not as dire as Kirkman's ULTIMATE X-MEN run was. Nor was it good enough to make Ottley run weeks behind on INVINCIBLE, frankly. I'll still continue to buy it, as I enjoy it enough that I do anticipate it, and I don't mind paying $3 for it, now that I am five issues in. I am genuinely curious where Kirkman is going with this. The irony is while in the letters pages, both Kirkman and MacFarlane have vowed to keep Haunt apart from the rest of Kirkman's "Image Universe", the tone does fit that of Astounding Wolf-Man a bit, as another supernatural being. At any rate, I'll continue to "Haunt" my shop for more issues when they come out.

That was bad, wasn't it?

INVINCIBLE PRESENTS ATOM EVE & REX SPLODE #3: Finishing late as well, this is the end of the sequel mini seeking to flesh out the life of Atom Eve before she became involved with INVINCIBLE. In practice, though, this title was more about Rex Splode's origin. Eve showed up by obligation, and because the characters were intertwined anyway as each other's first love. This issue sees the evil government man Erickson, who is responsible for creating Eve as well as killing her birth parents, try to salvage the leftover technology of the evil Radcliffe, who created Rex as his personal assassin before being blown up by him (when Rex refused to kill Cecil Stedman, since killing someone in the Pentagon didn't pass his smell test). This leads to a showdown between the titular heroes and Erickson's armored grunts, a battle that is quickly won when Rex manages to completely blow up the rest of Redcliffe's stuff.

Benito Cereno writes this (as well as the last mini) and does a solid job imitating Kirkman's style and tics for the series, to the point where if you didn't know it was Cereno, you'd assume Kirkman was writing it (he edits). Nate Bellegarde does the art, and while his style is different from that of Cory Walker or Ryan Ottley, it still matches the tone of the universe both created well. He does a nice job of Rex's official costume as well as one Eve "made" for him.

Some might question the point of revealing more about Rex when he's been dead for months in the parent title, but not me. He was Eve's first boyfriend so while Eve was a secondary character in this mini, knowing how she met Rex and whatnot helps to understand her a little better. The three issues missed schedule often and stretched out a bit, but that didn't really hurt the story much, just make the series easier to forget on occasion. Shops barely ordered any of this, so I had to chase down past issues. At any rate, it wasn't a bad ride, although I am curious if the next Invincible Presents will be more Eve backstory, or something on Allen the Alien, arguably the most popular supporting character in Invincible.

MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN #2: Jeff Parker continues on his mini fleshing out Bob Grayson of the Agents of Atlas, whose origins stem from 1950's era, when Cold War paranoia was at a peak and superheroes were taboo on the streets as well as in comics. Felix Ruiz is on art, and his style is very scratchy; it isn't bad but I am not sure whether it really fits the tone of the series well, as it isn't dark at all. Val Staples does the color art and he does a lot to bring Ruiz's art together.

Grayson continues to operate on Earth as a superhero and an ally to local police and government, in this issue foiling the terrorist plot of a Communist agent. His cover is that he helps Timely Comics craft comic books about his adventures, albeit with heavy alterations. This "comic within a comic" angle is clever, straddling the line between the real Marvel Boy comics of the 50's (which are reprinted in the issue) and the fantasy of Modern Marvel Continuity. The Uranians on Uranus, however, are unhappy that Grayson has seemed to forget his "real" mission to act as an ambassador for their return to earth after centuries on Uranus; they feel he is becoming too loyal to Earth, where he was born. So they poison his father to convince Grayson to return suddenly to Uranus, at the end of a hot date in fact. They outfit him with new gadgets and abilities, and he returns to Earth a year later, new and improved. But is everything as it seems?

While I like Agents of Atlas stuff and Jeff Parker has some clever ideas, as well as writes Marvel Boy with distinctive dialog, this isn't quite the most compelling back-story I have read. Compared to the INVINCIBLE PRESENTS ATOM EVE stuff, it isn't as entertaining or compelling. While the 50's color reprints are interesting to read, it might have been better for this to have been as close to $2.99 as possible. At any rate, I'm still enjoying the stuff, but it's hardly the best Agents material or Parker written material around.

VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #5: Skipping the start of the year to ship now, this continues the relaunch of Moon Knight from Gregg Hurwitz and Jerome Opena, with colors by Paul Mounts. Both DOCTOR VOODOO and SWORD, which launched near the same time as this, have been canned with issue #5; both don't sell more than 15,200, at least as of December. Moon Knight has been solicited until April at least, but this title in Dec. '09 officially sold outside the Top 100, at #101, with under 21.5k sold. While it will outlast those other launches, it seems not enough time elapsed between the end of the last volume of Moon Knight and this one to build THOR like demand. I'll be stunned if this survives to issue #12, considering how cancel happy Marvel is this year. Which is actually a shame; while Hurwitz and Opena aren't remaking the wheel, and they're even adding fuel to the fire to those who criticize Moon Knight as "a Batman riff", they are providing a solidly drawn and paced superhero action comic book. Maybe asking $4 for a #1 issue for a C-List character isn't the best way to attract retailers. I mean, jeez, even infomercials make a "too good to be honest" deal in their customers' favor to get a sale; Marvel won't even do that for a PET AVENGERS title. You want people to try it? Make it cheap.

But, I digress. This issue continues things as they have been written previously. Moon Knight, with the persona of "Jack Lockley" still in charge, continues to try to redeem himself as a proper superhero, stopping criminals without maiming or killing them. Khonshu's avatar continues to goad Specter into slipping back into slaughter sprees, and grows impatient with his holding out on the blood. In the meantime, Bushman is alive again, and has unleashed a horde of mental ward crazies, as well as Scarecrow, into the city to lure out Moon Knight. It works, although Scarecrow's murder of crows complicate Frenchie's support in the Moon-Copter. Probably the coolest sequence is when Moon Knight locks his carbonadium armor into place to hold up a wall of a building, only to slip out in his mask and boxers to take down a half dozen thugs. It's paced and drawn well, and actually looked very cinematic. Scarecrow naturally gets his butt kicked, although Moon Knight was a lot easier on him than Hellstorm and Jaine Cutter we in GHOST RIDERS: HEAVEN'S ON FIRE. Bushman is still out there, and Specter is still having to use all his will to not lose control and slit throats. Spider-Man shows up to help at the end, and seems to have no faith that Moon Knight will succeed. Moon Knight, to his credit, seems to believe that an unwavering ability to "go grey" on personal codes is what led types like Osborn to power, and he's not exactly wrong.

The angle of Moon Knight tackling an army of escaped mental ward patients in a city is too familiar to "BATMAN BEGINS" for comfort, but I get past it. Opena has done a great job of redesigning Moon Knight's costume for functionality without going too far like Bryan Hitch does; if Moon Knight is ever designed for a cartoon or movie, the character designers would be unwise to disregard Opena's take.

There is a part of me that thinks Moon Knight is being wasted in his own ongoing apart from the rest of the Marvel Universe, and that Hurwitz has done enough rehab that he could actually be more interesting on an Avengers roster again. If he winds up as one of the "SECRET AVENGERS" in May, I wouldn't mind. Still, this has been a solid relaunch; more solid than a lot of the last volume in fact, and I'll be in until it ends.

UNCANNY X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #8: The trade dress doesn't say it, perhaps to fool retailers, but this is the final issue of this 8 issue mini. The series hasn't been solicited in a while, there's no stop-gap one-shot or new mini coming up, so this may be it for the First Class franchise. If so, it's had a good run (including the Jeff Parker issues, almost 40 issues of material) and sparked interest from Fox studios. It's provided some fun adventures, and proved you can sell a few more all ages comics if you don't slap "MARVEL ADVENTURES" on the cover (like a few thousand more). The subplot of this mini wrapped up last issue, so this is actually more of a one shot story than some of the previous issues. It is another one focused on Sean Cassidy, with other X-Men (Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Colossus) there more out of functionality and obligation than adding anything really major. There's an amusing bit when Nightcrawler gets to meet real goblins, which he is often called as an insult, but beyond that the X-Men are there just because the title says so.

I must say the cover is very misleading. The crux of the story is that Sean is trying to solve a leprechaun murder mystery at Cassidy Keep, and while the tone of the story is no more grim than a typical episode of "MATLOCK", the cover makes the story seem more of a comedy than it is. I know cover artists aren't always given much data on the story interior, but doesn't the editor even know to say, "it is a leprechaun murder mystery"?

There is a risk of things getting too stereotypical; Banshee being the one who deal with Irish folklore creatures and whatnot. However, prior 70's and 80's stories from Claremont already established this, so Scott Gray isn't inventing the idea. Plus, Marvel is a world where European gods and demons are real, where Greek gods and monsters are real, where Norse gods and creatures are real; so, why not Irish ones? A beloved leprechaun turns up dead in the Cassidy Library, and while it seems like suicide, Sean isn't convinced. He ultimately is proven right when the murderer is a half-leprechaun, half faerie whose class has been mocked to the point where he has become twisted. The issue ends with a short lecture on tolerance, and things end well. It is a bit of an odd issue to end the run on, but here we are. The artwork is by Fernando Blanco, whose style doesn't match the cartoony stuff of the cover either, and he does a fine job. The ending is on a somber note as the X-Men convince Banshee that they have many years of life yet, and we all know that Sean will die (only to come back in X-Blackest Night, I mean NECROSHA). Not the worst issue of Gray's run, but not the best either, and not as thrilling as #7 was last month. Still, not a bad read, just not an exceptional one. It is good to get a simple little Banshee story (or two) out of this run; I always felt he was an oft under appreciated X-Man out of the "new X-Men" of 1975, at least after GENERATION X ended.
 
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I bought nothing new this week, for the first time in living memory. At least there was the Madame Xanadu: Exodus Noir trade.
 
JH got to start a bought/thought thread???

Green Arrow Vs. Black Canary #29

It's the final showdown between Green Arrow & Black Canary vs. Cupid and Dark Arrow! I've been enjoying this title so much lately, that I'm a bit disappointed with the ending. Cupid was becoming one of my favorite DC villians, and who knows if we'll see her again after the ending to this issue. (There is hope, though...but, seeing as she might be popular, I'm afraid they might turn her into a good guy.) We also get the premeire of a new villian, Hilt. Not too thrilled with this guy. He's just a guy with a knife sticking out of the back of his head. (If you take out the knife, he'll die. Of course, they don't get a second opinion.) Finally, Dark Arrow really doesn't appear in this issue...at least, not alive.

Human Target #1

I own a few issues of the original series; but, have never read them. I have been enjoying the new series on FOX, though. It's well casted, and just nice escapism tv that isn't reliant on watching the previous episodes. This comic, though, really wasn't anything spectacular. In it, Christopher Chase is assigned the task of bringing in a dying, top mob boss, Angelo Morelli, who is going to tell all his secrets in hopes of redemption in the eyes of God.

Watch the tv show. It's fun with action and good humor. Skip this comic.

DMZ #50

There are things I enjoy about anniversary issues. This is NOT it! For me, you should have some big event that gets the reader re-energized in the series and boldly sets the comic in a new direction or storyline. What it shouldn't do is present a bunch of short stories that have no direct impact on the series. Save that for a special or an annual. Don't waste my time by taking me away from the series I've been reading.

If you've never read DMZ, maybe you'll like this issue as an introduction to what it's about. If you've been following it for the past 49 issues, though, it's a waste of time. Big thumbs down!

Daytripper #3

This 10-part Vertigo series has been very enjoyable, and a real surprise. But, it wasn't until this third issue that I've noticed we keep getting to see the same guy being killed at the end of every issue. Each issue is a standalone story set in Brazil that tells the final day in this man's life. This issue deals with lost love and how we deal with long term relationships, how they break down, and how to keep them going.

You don't need to read what came before to enjoy this comic; but, as I said, for some reason we keep witnessing the same man being killed. This story is even built on the previous, because the end of the relationship in this issue was shown at its beginning with issue #2. Are the death scenes real, or are they simply a tribute to someone who died in the same fashion at some time in Brazil?
 
Adventure Comics #7:I enjoyed this issue but it was kinda blah.*****

Dark X-Men #4 of 5:The ending rocked but it was boring at points.****

Green Arrow vs Black Canary #29:Preety good issue the only thing is Dark Arrow died.*****

Jackpot #2 of 3:Ok i hope the dad and the little girl don't die or we are going to have another over-used Anti-Hero.****

Tails of The Pet Avengers #1:The Throg story was preety good art was ok and the story was as good as a story meant for kids can get.The second story was kind of meh not the best.The ms.lion story i enjoyed even if the villian was two chiefs and a seagull :p.The lockjaw story didn't intreast me the villians were lame and lockjaw never spoke.I HATED THE FIFTH STORY! Lockheed barley appeared and it was more about the stupid girl that thought dragons were real and meanwhile we could have gotten a good kinda sad story about poor lockheed.The last one was preety good it showed Red-Wing being humbled by a heroic pigeon.***

Pixie Strikes Back!# 1 of 4:Terrible art and confusing story aswell as some weird moments.**

X-Men Forever #17:I loved this issue and it looks like nightcrawler is depowered and rogue is stuck with nightcrawler's powers.*****

Batman and Robin #8:I enjoyed my first issue of this series but i hope batwoman comes back.*****

Amazing Spider-Man #620:I hate dan slott's issues really the art sucks and iwas dreading reading this just because of how bad this has been. No stars

New Mutants #10:I enjoy this series and it was no suprise it was really good and it rocked seeing the savage land mutates and sauron now if only stegaron was among them.*****

Secret Six #18:Wow i wasn't really expecting much from this and i must say i may read the next issue just because of how good it was.*****

S.W.O.R.D #4:I enjoyed this issue sadly this awsome series will be lost forever *sigh* if only this wasn't the end of this wonderful series anyway back to this issue preety good it was kind of slow at the end though.*****

Uncanny X-Men First Class #8 of 8: I really thought this would be bad but it was really good besides the craptastic cover and banshee's speech at the end touched my heart :).*****
 
It snowed at least six inches where I was, but I still braved the tundra for my weekly installment of comics. Now, that's dedication!

Wuss...

Tell me when it REALLY snows... lol...

:yay:
 
Wuss...

Tell me when it REALLY snows... lol...

:yay:

Heh. We're standing at a little over a foot at the moment, with more coming Sunday and Monday. I know some other places are in multiple feet.

Six inches... heh. What a noob that Dread is!
 
It was a bit nippy here in Los Angeles last night. I had to wear a sweatshirt:csad:
 
Uncanny X-Men First Class #8 of 8: I really thought this would be bad but it was really good besides the craptastic cover and banshee's speech at the end touched my heart :).*****

And here I didn't think anyone read Uncanny First Class beyond me and Phaedrus45 (who seems to read/buy everything). It wasn't a bad issue, just not as good as last month's.

Wuss...

Tell me when it REALLY snows... lol...

:yay:

Heh. We're standing at a little over a foot at the moment, with more coming Sunday and Monday. I know some other places are in multiple feet.

Six inches... heh. What a noob that Dread is!

I know other areas got hit worse. Heck, NYC got a worse snowstorm than this in December, when we got about a foot. Just that time it was on a weekend, so no risk of not getting comics.

Compared to other New Yorkers, I accept snow as part of winter way better than they do. Last week when NYC got a measly 4 inches, most of the local network news programs were predicting doom and hellfire.

We got about 26 inches once in 1996...:o
 
Yeah, I love the snow, but around here people complain left and right about it. I'm like... we get big snow every year... why do you live here then?

I now like it more though because I work as a janitor in a school... which means I'm sitting in front of the tv with my kids doing the 'no school' 'no school' chant just the same. I get paid for up to 5. We've used up 3 snowdays so far.
 
It's the middle of Friday and I haven't read any comics yet. I feel... wrong. :ninja:
 
Okay... it's not really new... and I already owned it... but I just reread it so I thought I'd comment in here.

The End Leauge 1-9 - I bought these as they came out but they were so spiratic, and there were so many characters, that it was hard to follow. I said after the last issue came out that it'd probably be better as a reading in one sitting, but I never got around to doing it. I was debating on selling some stuff and was considering selling these but I remember what I said, and being that my memory of most of the series was blur, I thought I'd try the one sitting thing.

Man... let me tell you, having already read it once and knowing the characters and beats of the story... this second all-in-one sitting was great. I was totally pulled in from the first issue and I couldn't stop reading them. I found so many things in the earlier half of the series that is either A) later referenced in the later issues, or B) were subtle hints of what was to come, that I was pleasantly surprised.

I know that Remender is good writer, but I didn't realize how good of a job he did with this title until I sat down and just reread it all in one sitting. It was really good and fairly deep. Not shallow like many of today's comics (or comics in general in many cases).

The characters for the most part are interesting, great homages to Marvel and DC characters, with a dark twist, and the same can be said for the villains. The main characters are themed after Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Spider-Man, Captain America, Ghost Rider, and I think Doctor Strange. There are two others who are less obvious, I think one is a Man-Thing/Swamp Thing homage, and the other is like a mixture of Xavier an Oracle. There main villains are based after Lex Luther, Joker, The Red Skull, Shadow King, and Loki. Thor is a semi-villain in it as well, and there's tons more minor characters.

As for the story, it's VERY complex and it takes at least 2 readings to realize how good it really is. The story begins by talking about a catostrophic event in 1962 that whiped out nearly all of humanity, inearly 3 Billion I think it was, and it began giving people powers. Since people are inherantly evil, most of these new "magnificants" as they're called pretty much brought the downfall of those who survived, leaving the world in turmoil and rot. The sad thing is that this was caused by Astonishman, the Superman type character. This was kept secret though and his guilt had built to modern days. He formed a group of superheroes, but the world didn't want them and the growing 'villains' whiped them out.

And so we're left with a near dead world ruled by corruption. There's only a handful of good guys left in all the world and they're forced into hiding. Food is scarce, and hope is dead. This story details these few heroes in the end days of the world, the final battles against the big villains who rule the world, and their attempts to survive and find the lost hammer of Thor, the only weapon that could potentially save the world.

That's just the basic premise leading into the first issue, but it there's a lot more to it once it gets going. It has a very 'survival of the fittest' feel to it and it really has won me over today. I don't know if everyone would like it as much as I did, but it's at least worth a shot. I know some of you tried it when it came out and dropped it, as did I for a while, but it's a completely differant show when you read it all together, I think.

There's only 2 real problems with the series:

1) And this corrects itself after the first reading... and that is that there's WAY too many characters with mild introductions. So it's hard to learn who they are at first. By the end of the story you have the idea of them, but it's hard getting to that point. But once you finish reading it and start a second reading, you know them all so you can ignore this part and just enjoy the plot for what it is.

2) Artists. In 9 issues we're given 3 artists... and the shift between the first and second is jarring. The first artist is Mat Broome, who I wasn't much on. He'd do good on some things, mostly beastile type creatures or backgrounds, but his human-like people were very stiff and lacking soul. And he obviously liked flaunting his ladies around, always drawing them mostly naked and with skirts blowing up and such. It was annoying.

The next aritst, Eric Canete, came in at the very end of issue 4 and ran through issue 8, and I liked his style best I think. I didn't at first, but once I got used to it I grew to like his designs much better. I think the problem for me was that his art is so drastically differant from Broome that it was jarring and took me out of the story. I had a hard time figuring out some of the characters. Once I became familiar with his character designs, the second reading became more enjoyable because I could mentally switch designs in my head and retain plot.

The final artist is Andy MacDonald... who did the double-sized issue 9 (40 pages no adds). He was pretty good and was a good medium between Broome and Canete style-wise. I enjoyed his just fine and he did a great job with the closer.

So yeah, the art was the biggest problem for the series, and if they had a steady, decent artist, it would have made this so much better. I wish Canete would have done the whole thing, or even MacDonald, if his art retained the quality of the final issue... but oh well.

There's a very finale feel to the series, but Remender said in an intervew that he's done with them for now (to do Marvel work) but he's grown fond of the characters and would like to come back to them at some point. I look forward to it if he does. Now sure what else he'd do with them, but I'd be on board.

Like I said, good series reading it through once... though distracting in parts... but a second or third read through proves to be much more enjoyable and really lets Remender's plot shine.
 
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SWORD was great. Beast is stealing the show every issue now. Gillen seems to have gotten more comfortable with Beast's voice at this point, too, so his jokes aren't as forced as some of his earlier ones. The "redheads" comment was pretty funny. Death's Head is awesome. The ending sets up the next issue really well. I'll miss this series when it's gone.
 
Batman & Robin 8 -
Good issue. Batwoman dies in the end also, but they hint it's not a finalized death, so there's room for a return by arc's end.

And then there's the fact that she's the current star of Detective Comics, and will be getting her own comic soon.
 

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