Bit of a hectic Wednesday since the Mets are in a must-win situation and I just took a test that I'm not feelin' confident in. However, I got my comics and read 'em, which is all that matters here. Decent week all 'round for me. Aside for RUNAWAYS, nothing "explosively" awesome like, say, ANNIHILATION #3 or a trade of INVINCIBLE, but nothing terrible.
As usual, there're holes in the window screen, so the spoilers can flutter in whether I close the window or not. Be ready for 'em.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 10/18/06:
52 WEEK #24: In which the eclectic version of the Justice League that apparently existed during the "year long gap" before the latest JLA title and when Batman (and his two partners), Superman, and WW were gone, Ollie taking care of politics in his home city, Flash still being dead, and Ralph on his own duty. It also shows what J'onn was doing before his latest mini; apparently it was "damage control" over the Checkmate fiasco by literally shapeshifting into an aid to the President and making sure Checkmate doesn't reform. It means revisiting COUNTDOWN, and seeing J'onn casually brush off Kord's fairly legit concerns is still a little fuzzy to think about, but whatever. Least he carved out a nice monument. Jimenez drew this issue, which means expect the trade to include altered dialogue and pages of new material that dramatically changes the story...what? Yeah, still peeved about DC doing that with IC, trying to milk fans twice. It gives fans who normally "double dip" and buy the trades of issues they already have (a practice that's flipping stupid, sorry to say), but for those that don't, you either are stuck with a rushed finale to IC that helped DC overcome Marvel in sales that month, or buy a trade for, like, what, 5 pages of stuff? If Marvel did this with CW, they'd be lambasted over the internet, so I think it's only fair not to give DC a pass on that. Anyway, Super-Chief (who STILL looked like Bitey of Brockenwood from Newgrounds films, only with a jacket) dies quick to teach Dibney some mystical lesson about "power comes from hard work". Sheesh, mystical figures are worse than your parents sometimes.
Shame Dibney couldn't just have an alien toss him a GL ring at random like the Corps used to do. Skeets also goes bat-crap crazy trying to "lure him out", who I am guessing is Supernova but I could be wrong, and a messload of Luthor's "metagene" people die (seems he's tossing more of them out now to fill Metropolis full of capes). But the best thing about the issue was Ambush Bug. Friggin' hilarious. Knowing DC's trend of darkness (hey, they started the trend of "either killing or turning evil any character who was light-hearted" a good year before Marvel did, thanks Dan), I expect him to either die, or turn evil (THEN die) within a few years. Oh, and the Black Marvel Family meets with Morrison's Chinese Heroes With Long Names, and it seems Adam's changing his mind about global alliances, something Amanda Waller doesn't buy, which is why she's having Atom-Smasher seemingly organize a new Suicide Squad for the task. If I could offer one suggestion; Bane, because I think he's cool and could use the exposure. And Booster Gold's orgin is nice, but he's dead so it seems a little pointless. A good enjoyable issue as always, but there've been better. Nothing bad, though, no sir. 52's "average" is better than some books at their prime.
BATMAN & THE MAD MONK #3: Matt Wagner's solo gig of doing Golden Age Batman right continues onward as Batman continues to try to curb the mobster's drug rackets at the same time as he looks into this "Brotherhood" who are organizing the death and blood-sucking of women across Gotham. His art and narration are as solid and gritty as you'd come to expect by now, and he's making the concept of a vampire being in Gotham sort of work out (Batman did fight vampires in the 30's, after all). The first page makes BEGINS' "SWEAR TO ME!!" scene almost look pleasant. It's a set up issue, though, but one of the better ones I've read as I wasn't totally bored and plot elements moved into place. Plus, Wagner works hard to have the mobsters show up to remind us that Year 3 Batman doesn't just fight "freaks", which is good. I think I'm liking Year 1-3 Batman more than current Batman sometimes. Julie Madison is tricked into being bitten by the Brotherhood cult so they can use her father's fortune to continue their vampire ways, but naturally Bruce Wayne has found out so expect the Bat to pay a visit. Solid Batman stuff with just a bit of the supernatual thrown in. Wagner's carving out a nice niche for himself now that Frank Miller's been off the deep end for a while. Better than Morrison's BATMAN, too.
CIVIL WAR: X-MEN #4: The first tie-in CW mini to finish, solely because it's one of the ones not heavilly connected to the main titles like Frontline, FF, ASM and others are. It really was more of a sequal to Hine's THE 198 stuff and seeks to wrap up loose ends from there. The issue's nothing extraordinary, but it's solid X-superhero stuff (a basic "bust in/stop the bomb" sort of dilemma) and it's done well enough, so that's what matters. Gen. Lazer is "interogated" by Val Cooper to surrender the code to free the 198 from the bunker, but Mutie Puppet Master kills him from afar before he can surrender it. Meanwhile, Micromax is whisked off and may survive, although if he outright died I doubt he has any fans. Bishop and Cyclops combine their powers (like Scott & Havok used to do) in order to help take down the door, and even Iron Man and Ms. Marvel, plus the Sentinals, lend a hand to free the 198 before the bunker blows. A point is made that "when it counted, we all came together" whether they were X-Men, Sentinals, or Avengers, which is a bit more upbeat than a lot of CW related stuff these days. O*N*E* is dismantled and the X-Mansion is on track to become, well, not like a concentration camp, and ironically, the same Bishop that was all gung-ho for joining up when the program was all "led by bigots, enforced by death machines" is now suddenly "unsure" when it's being organized into something nicer. I think he just likes his gun too much. As for the rest, it lets the 198 be free (even though some are actual criminals, like Toad, Scalphunter, et al), it had the "original 4" have a nice little side adventure and it ended the knee-jerk stuff from DECIMATION, what with the Sentinal-guarded camps and all that, which were all backwards anyway. Now, with that settled, can the X-Men do something NEW one day? Please? Before I die?
GHOST RIDER #4: The "Lucifer, not Mephisto" retcon from Way is still useless and mind-boggling, but aside for that I actually liked this issue quite a bit. Why keep going on about that retcon? Simple...a retcon is lame enough when in one page you can undo, say, 5 years of a story. This one undoes a good 25+ YEARS worth of comics that said, "Mephisto was behind GR". Imagine if all of a sudden Ben Parker wasn't killed by the Burglar, but rather, Red Skull dressed as a burglar, with no explaination, and you can see what I mean. But, aside for that stuff, it was a solid set-up issue. Ghost Rider unlocks Ketch's Penance-Stare, with Blaze mentioning how he has less control over the demon than before so it's unlocking powers he didn't use back in the Silver Age when he debuted, only he realizes that he just mind-zapped an innocent Dr. Strange. Considering there are ages of Logan being irrational and reckless and being REWARDED, I liked seeing Ghost Rider majorly screw up because he was emotional and untrusting after Lucifer's past tricks. It felt human. Some mystical woman named Numecet beams down when Dr. Strange gets fragged to help him out (makes sense that he'd have mystical contacts, being a Sorceror Supreme and all), as well as provides an easy plot device to explain things to Ghost Rider so he can spend the next two issues taking care of business. It felt very Bendis-esque, but hey, if he can get away with it, so can Way. Texeira's art is as pretty as ever and with the plot now properly explained to him (Lucifer's essence broke up into 600+ undead bodies and if they all die, he is reborn on Earth at full strength), he blazes off to drag Lucy back to Hell himself. Being that Ennis left GR back in hell, I hope Way doesn't follow suit and allows the rider back on Earth at the end. Heck, maybe Dr. Strange could help in the end after all.
MS. MARVEL #8: The only CW mini that portrays the SHRA side as something other than a bunch of idiots, brutes, or fascists continues onward from Reed & De Le Torra. Shroud fills in the backstory of how Julia Carpenter got her powers back, a bit of backstory I appreciated (and got in a FAR quicker amount of time than Bendis did with Drew; it took him about a year to iron her out; Reed took 2 months) as well as explaining how she became romantically involved with Shroud. Arana seems set up to become Ms. Marvel's "partner", and they stage a sting to wait until Julia Carpenter goes to pick up her daughter to arrest her. It would have been easy for Reed to simply justify it as more "disobey the SHRA and get THROWN IN THE GULAG!" style stuff like most CW stuff, but instead he takes a realistic tac; Carpenter is being arrested for putting a dozen SHIELD agents in the hospital from her past battles, which makes legal sense. I mean if a superhero beat up a cop to free their lover, that'd be an arrestable crime. It is heart-rending, though, and something Arana and even Ms. Marvel at the end don't take lightly (although Marvel handles it a little better, being experienced). The major gaffe was that Reed writes Wonder Man as a gung-ho federal hero while Jenkins over at FRONTLINE writes him as obediant but reluctant who questions his superiors frequently, which actually is a difference. I could imagine Jenkins' WM agreeing with Danver's doubts, while Reed's is all "you did the right thing" sort of boot-marching. This is the same guy at the same time; I know he's a B-Lister but can't we keep some things straight, Marvel? It's almost as bad as Beast morphing into a different looking cat depending on who's drawing. It ends with Rogue attacking Ms. Marvel to set up the cliffhanger. I'm on until the arc ends and I'm not sure if the next part is CW related. We'll see.
RUNAWAYS #21: I've always loved this title, but knowing Vaughan's issues are numbered makes me appreciate them even more. Norton puts in his last issue on art and while it'll be good for Alphona to get in his swan song, Norton's art rocked. The Runaways use some deduction and clever tricks to "talk" the "Old Man Monster" down, which actually made an otherwise generic enemy almosts seem sympathetic. But the real focus for me was Chase's meeting with the Gibborum, who offer him a straight-up offer to revive Gert in exchange for an "innocent soul", of which Lotus didn't apply. So Chase orders her to burn the Abstract so no one else can mess with it, but keeps some pages for himself and keeps the offer fresh in his mind. He's back with the team so it can fit in with YA/RUNAWAYS now, and I can see where Chase's future actions may set up BKV's last arc. Did he really hesitate to sacrifice Lotus because she was "impure" or because his conscience got to him even without Gert or the others around? And how far will be go to get Gert back? Will he be willing to sacrifice the moral strides that got them to hook up in the first place (they hooked up after Gert used CPR to save his life after he heroically saved Old Lace and her)? Xavin is getting accustomed to the routine of the team, and I wonder if he/she will die in YA/RUNAWAYS after all. I hope not, but who knows; Marvel may have demanded a body. And I still like Molly, because without her it'd just be hormones and angst, and she lightens things up. Knocking her off leads to the same cynicism that makes DAMAGE CONTROL into "war-profitting" bad guys. Not the best issue but one that basically "ends one arc but leads seemlessly into the next" that BKV does so well. No concerns about Whedon for now, as that's not until Feb. 2008 and there's a lot of Runaways left before that. And the cover's adorable.
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #35: I miss Silver Age aliens. They were crude and hokey but you could understand them. Nowadays writers make them all complicated and hard to follow. So is another issue where Carey mixed superheoics and great Ferry art with a lot of alien gibberish that us "Indigenes" have to read twice to catch. I get he's trying to immerse us and the Four in otherworldly stuff and that's appreciated, really, but he's jumped into the deep end instead of walking from the shallow end. This was easier to follow than the first issue, don't get me wrong. Just with alien terminalogy flung at you every now and then it gets choppier to read. The Four get punked again, save for Invisible Girl who teams up with Dreamcatcher to beat Gallowglass, all the while Carey goes a more theological route for Thanos and claims that he's this diety like being that constantly rises from the dead, sort of like the Phoenix. That works for me. And like I said, the art is gorgeous. But I sort of lement for the 60's when aliens all spoke in a way that readers understood and didn't require a "Human to Gibberish" translation.
"Seven Parsecs from the Nessus Parahelion", indeed. Stuff like that is what gives sci fi a bad name to the rubes.
WOLVERINE #47: Wolverine's 400th "looking angry" cover. And Guggenheim wraps up his CW portion of the show (issue #48 is an epilogue but I'm 50/50 on bothering) and probably wraps up a story about corporate greed and espionage in the crudest way possible, almost so crude you'd think it's SIN CITY. But for Wolverine, it works because he's a gritty hero on gritty adventures. Imagine if you had some legit beef with the CEO of a company. You make your piece by smashing his buildings, then break into his office, and threaten his life. And he takes MGH and FIGHTS YOU IN THE STREETS, WWE STYLE! Good gravey! No one better laugh at Lex Luthor's armor again. To be fair, Logan gets beaten up a bit in this issue, first by the Iron-Wannabes and then by Sentry, only to bust free from SHIELD and be the first to give Maria Hill some payback for being a b!tch. Then he, well, storms into the CEO office of DAMAGE CONTROL and, like I said, the CEO goes for him, WWE style. It was as crude as Wrestlemania but it amused me, and it fit Wolverine. The bit about Sentry "doubting he could kill him" irked me and sort of symbolized my problem with Logan now; he's too bloody unkillable and it takes out all the drama. Even Superman has a weakness. Not even power-dampeners work on him and so when he can regenerate from an adamantuim skeleton it takes any excitement from his battles from me, and is far from the underdog scrapper that he became famous for being. But that's hardly Guggenheim's direct fault, he's just playing along. At least Damage Control is in the, uh, control of more moral people again, and Nitro got taken down. But if Julia Carpenter gets tracked down for merely putting SHIELD agents in the hospital, shouldn't Logan be hunted down for pretty much pasting one to their LEADER? Ugh.
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #2: An utterly pointless X-mini, but a fun one that attempts to tell stories of the original 5 as teenagers, and doesn't have the blaring pop-culture mistakes as the last issue. I mean, in Marvel time, 1963 was "ten years ago", so you can't have Cerebro looking like it does in the 2000 movie and you can't reference a video game system that isn't SNES or GENESIS. This issue has none of that, though, and just has the young X-Men travelling to Florida with Scott & Jean getting some alone time while the rest fight the Lizard (Dr. Conners is Xavier's "old colleague", the easiest way to get either Lizard or Hulk involved with someone; just have the smart-person on the team be their "ex chum" or something). This issue attempts to place itself after ASM #6 but before Conner's next appearence in ASM #32, and it works. Sure, their costumes are redesigned, but they keep the old color scheme. Nothing ground breaking, just good clean X-superhero fun with good art and amusing dialogue. Not much more to ask for.
I also bought INVINCIBLE TPB's #6-7 to catch me up, and they're awesome.
Pretty basic first issue set-up stuff, but at least it gives you the feeling that I want to get the next issue... something that lacks from many comics nowadays. It's the best comic you're NOT reading, so go buy a copy now.
