For The Love of Comics

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I’m still very far behind in my reading stack - almost a month behind in some spots - to the point that I’m seriously considering dropping a few titles and just picking up the trade so that I can keep up with some other titles.

I tell you this to explain why none of the titles in this post came out this week. In fact, I don’t think any of them even came out in the same week as another. I’m trying to do better, I swear.

On to the reviews! As always, there may be minor spoilers. If you have not read the issue and want to come into it without any foreknowledge of plot whatsoever, skip this until you’ve read the comic.

First of all, 52 Aftermath – Crime Bible: 5 Lessons of Blood really needs to shorten their title. I’m already sick of typing it all out, I’m slightly offended as a consumer that they’re trying to manipulate me into buying this based on the 52 name, and I’m offended as a fan of Greg Rucka, The Question, and Renee Montoya that DC thinks they need to manipulate fans to sell this title. It’s a good book with a good main character and they should let it stand on its own merits. I’ve heard a rumor that this is not just called The Question because DC has reservations about having a homosexual main character in a series, and that just offends me as a human being.

Now that I’m done with my soapbox, the lesson of issue #2 is “Lust”. Renee tries to infiltrate a “convent” disguised as a Washington DC brothel and run by Crime Bible adherents. Apparently, the “nuns” try to recruit powerful DC figures into the Crime Bible faith through the lesson of lust. During her investigation, Renee is nearly seduced by one of the women of the cloth, so to speak.

I’m still a fairly big fan of this series, though I can certainly understand some criticisms of not really knowing where Rucka is going with this. This issue seems to help in that regard, several subtle clues given throughout the issue, and one statement made by the monk of stone at the end, make me think that they know exactly who Renee is and what she thinks she’s doing and reinforce my belief that Renee is unknowingly being taught each of the Five Lessons of Blood, in the hopes that she will become an adherent of the Crime Bible.

Rucka does mystery and subtle intrigue quite well, and he is an excellent fit for this book. I hope to see him write more Question stories in the future, even without an exclusive DC contract.

I moved Uncanny X-men #493 to the top of my stack to keep up to date with Messiah Complex (I got it this past Tuesday, I’m not sure why I didn’t wait until the next day and just get this week’s stuff too. That would have made too much sense, I suppose) and because I feel like I shafted y’all a bit in my recap earlier this week. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on your perspective – I’ve decide to still shaft y’all a bit; I’m not going to do a play-by-play, since I figure there may be some of y’all who are as far behind as I am and would like to read the issue first. I will still give you my impressions, though.

This… was not the strongest chapter of the event. It’s still better than the last New X-Men chapter, but it’s probably weaker than all the others. It just did not do much for me. The art was still gorgeous, there was nothing wrong with the writing per se, but… I don’t know, there wasn’t much to move the plot forward, other than the introduction of the X-Force, “we all gonna cutchoo” team.

I can understand Cyclops reasoning in going after Cable, to a point. I get that if you know nothing, it’s best to plan for the worst, but when has Cable ever played for the other team when it comes to the X-Men and what’s right? He’s not a traitor and I think sending a team to take the baby by any means necessary, including killing Cyclops’s son, is a bit rash. But then, as Cyclops said, these are desperate times and there may not be room for half-ass actions, so it does fit into the story, it just rubs me the wrong way a bit.

Of course, this issue could be absolute crap and I’d still be sticking around, and this issue was NOT crap. Second weakest chapter out of a bunch this strong is still pretty good.

I’ve been waiting for Northlanders for what feels like almost a year, so I was excited to see it finally came out. Now that I’ve read the first issue, I’m…intrigued.

I was a bit iffy on Davide Gianfelice’s art at first, it seemed a bit grainy, but the more I looked at it the more I liked it to the point that I now feel like it fits the feel of this book perfectly. Brian Wood’s writing is strong and – as far as I can tell – historically accurate regarding the Varangians and Norsemen of the era, with the exception of their mode of speech. I was definitely struck by the fact that the characters in this book are almost all unlikable people, but I doubt Vikings were very pleasant people.

It’s always hard to tell how much I’ll enjoy a book just from the first, setup issue, so I have no idea how long I’ll be sticking with this series, but I’m definitely interested enough to pick up issue 2.

Now, for the comic I was fairly certain I would hate, All Star Batman and Robin #8…

My god, I actually loved this issue; it was easily my favorite of the bunch! The Joker was definitely my favorite character, especially with his opening monologue and musings on love (in his own special way) but even Bats was excellent in this issue! There was none of the “Goddamned Batman”, but more of a softening of his character, particularly towards Dick Grayson. There was none of the posturing and puffing of the chest, only some grudging affection towards Grayson and some musing on his assuming a father-figure role.

There were even some amusing moments when Batman’s talking to himself caused him to question his sanity and his disdain for the mental prowess of Green Lantern (who is a bit of a twit in the All Star universe.) We even got to see the debut of Robin’s costume, with a twist on the original origin.

This issue left me with an impression that Frank Miller is painting a picture of Batman slowly evolving from a violent, twisted vigilante, to a humanized crime-fighter who serves as a father figure to a young man who has been through similar circumstances as him, which makes me accept the “Goddamned Batman” as an understandable starting point.

I just might have to reevaluate my opinion of Frank Miller as long past his prime, he could be doing something very excellent with this book. Now if it only came out on time….

Also, I’ve been thinking that my reviews are a bit too much of a lovefest, I only review what I like. I’ve been considering the stuff I haven’t liked as not even worth mentioning, but I’ll try to start posting a bit about those comics and why I don’t like them, to save you the money, if nothing else.

As always, comments, suggestions, criticisms, and concurrences are ALWAYS welcome!

tag: Comics, DC, Marvel, Vertigo, Question, Renee Montoya, Crime Bible, 5 Lessons of Blood, Greg Rucka, X-Men, Messiah Complex, Cyclops, Cable, X-Force, Ed Brubaker, Northlanders, Brian Wood, Davide Gianfelice, All Star Batman and Robin, Batman, Robin, Joker, Dick Grayson, Green Lantern, Frank Miller, Review

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Popularity: 22% [?]

You may remember my review of the Messiah CompleX one-shot, which was Chapter 1 of the Messiah CompleX crossover.

It’s been a long time, but I’m going to try to catch up with the reviews now, but first I need to say a few things.

First, I haven’t paid much attention to the X-Men in the past ten years or so, mostly because they reached a point where it all felt very chaotic with everyone going off in their own direction. There was no real cohesion to the X-Teams or their books, and the focus seemed to be much more about action and pissing contests than any kind of storytelling and teamwork. I’ll tell you now that this doesn’t seem to be a problem so far in Messiah CompleX; if this keeps up I may become an X-Fan again.

That said, over a decade away from the X-books has hurt my understanding of the continuity and dynamics in their world, so please forgive me if some of the things I say seem stupid to someone who’s kept up with them for all these years.

Second, since all of these issues (except for the last few) have been out for a while, I’m not going to go out of my way to avoid spoilers. I’m not going to go out of my way to include spoilers, either, but I’m sure there will be some minor ones, so if you’re a spoiler-phobe, you may want to go read the issues then come back. I’ll still be here, I promise.

Actually, I lied. As I wrote this review, it turned into a stream-of-conscious commentary piece more than anything. I’d recommend reading this along with the issues or after you’ve read the issues. If you read this before you read the individual issues, I still recommend you pick them up; you’ll get a lot more enjoyment out of the actual crossover than you will my commentary, I guarantee.

Chapter 2: Uncanny X-Men #492

A good example of that lack of understanding is that I assumed that Predator-X was known to all of the team-members, and thus Cyclops wondering what happened to the Marauder’s bodies seemed to be an attack of his secondary mutation of brain damage. Wikipedia has shown me how wrong I was.

Speaking of that secondary brain damage mutation, Cyke seems to have gotten that under control. This is the most in-charge I can remember him being, he’s got schemes on top of schemes going and he seems to be in control of all of them. He also seems to have finally grown some balls in respect to Professor X, which is nice to see no matter how much I like the Professor. I’m only aware of what happened to prompt the dropping of Scott Summers’ balls, but I’m beginning to think I need to go back and pick up those issues.

“Help by letting me do what you trained me to do… to lead.” may be the greatest line from Cyclops that I’ve ever read. Whatever else Brubaker does with this series, he may have finally turned a lifelong Scott Summers hater into a Cyclops fan, or at least someone who respects the character.

Ok, back to the story

The artwork is very nice; we get some cool shots of Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Angel hunting some ex-Acolytes to get information on Exodus, who is working with Sinister and the Marauders. The tactical planning comes in again when we realize that this strike team is composed of those with powers that counteract the people they are hunting, particularly Nightcrawler teleporting Neophyte all over the place so that he could not phase.

Cyclops pulling in Madrox, Rictor, and Layla Miller AND finally going for full disclosure is an example of the improved tactics and unity of vision I mentioned. It’s a new turn that I really like… they’re all in this together, for once.

While I was looking at the excellent artwork here, I noticed Layla’s choker. Then I remembered reading when Malice possesses someone, she manifests as a choker. The previews for the upcoming issues mention a traitor in the X-Men’s ranks. I don’t remember ever seeing Malice’s choker, so I have no idea what it looks like and could be way off base, but what if…?

There’s not much else to mention in this issue… Wolverine and Co. got the info on Exodus that they wanted, Emma likes Scott taking charge in ways other than I do, Scott feels like he’s missing something big, that something big is Predator X, who (which?) is running through Canada looking for some of that other other white meat, and the story will continue in…

Chapter 3: X-Factor #25

I’ve been reading X-Factor for awhile and I should probably mention that I never really cared about any of these characters, and thus don’t know much about them, before I started reading this incarnation of X-Factor, which is a testament to Peter David’s writing on this series.

Rictor “helps” the Purifiers try to capture Rahne in order to gain their trust, according to Cyclops’ plan.

Layla and Madrox go to see Forge and send dupes to travel along alternate timelines, again following a Cyclops plan. When is the last time we saw Forge, anyway? I thought he was dead. And if he isn’t, shouldn’t he have been there in the last issue, helping fix Cerebro?

Wolverine walks in front of a car to get admitted to a hospital and question Amelia Voght, who is apparently another former Acolyte, to find the other former Acolytes. Of course, they anticipate her running and have Storm and Nightcrawler waiting for her on the outside of the hospital to make her recondense from mist.

Back to Madrox and Co, where I have a point of confusion – Why did dumbass Layla hitch a ride with one of the Madrox dupes, why didn’t Forge just tell Madrox that the plan was for his dupes to kill themselves, and how in the hell can Forge include “psionic commands” to the people he transports in his “Chronal GPS unit” thingy? Madrox is going to be even less inclined to trust Cyclops after this, so much for full disclosure. Anyway, Madrox passes out when he finds out that his dupes and Layla may be lost.

Cyclops tell the New X-men to sit the heck down, shut the heck up, and wait their damn turn, which maybe needed to be said. (Originally, I used much stronger language here)

God, when did I become such a supporter of frickin CYCLOPS?!?

Back with the Purifiers, they scan Rictor with what I assume is Nimrod tech. He scans as human and is, apparently, in like Flynn. Which raises an important question – exactly who is this Flynn and why is he so in? No, seriously, I would like to know where that saying came from.

Rictor finds out that not only does the Purifier base extend under and beyond the small New York church that he found them in, the New York base is one of the smaller ones. DC is apparently HUGE.

Which brings us to…

Chapter 4: New X-Men #44

I’ve been trying to read New X-Men for the past few months, at least as long as Endangered Species - that total waste of time – ran, and I just could not get into it. I don’t really find any of these characters – other than X-23 – remotely interesting and I could care less if the entire team was killed, so I went into this issue expecting nothing more than 23 pages that I’d have to get through in order to advance the story. I was wrong…

I counted only 22 pages I had to get through, not counting all the filler thrown in on the backend.

That’s being a bit overly harsh, actually. This is not a bad issue, really. The art is nice, and I’d likely have a higher opinion of the writing if I actually cared about these characters but, like I said, I don’t.

I did like the twist at the end, but more because of the return of Lady Deathstrike and implication that she and the Reavers have joined up with the Purifiers than the possible death of Hellion. Like I said, I just don’t care about the New X-Men.

Anyway, on to the pseudo-recap. Prof. X is apparently the communal punching bag these days, I’m starting to think he needs to lay a psychic smack down on some of these kids. Although Surge does raise a good question: Where was Professor X during the aftermath of House of M when all those kids got massacred? I obviously wasn’t reading.

Madrox is still in a coma, and Scott’s a stone-cold determined mofo. I kind of like this new side of him, the idea that he’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish this mission, but I’m curious to see if he’s as willing to sacrifice those who are closer to him or just those he didn’t like very much anyway, like Madrox. I still say that he should have explained the plan fully to Madrox in the first place – your soldiers need to trust you, and I don’t see how anyone on X-Factor will trust Scott if he needs them for any further missions.

The X-kids decide to go after the Purifiers. I can understand why they want blood so bad, but they’re acting like dumb kids. Of course, they are dumb kids, so I guess this is pretty true to character and I have no reason to gripe.

Wolverine’s strike force has gone to Antarctica after the Marauders. Have I mentioned that it’s cool to see Wolverine not only functioning as part of a team, but actually leading that team? I know that there’s a common perception of Wolverine as terribly overexposed, but I still love the little furball.

Rictor finds out that the Purifiers don’t have the baby, but do have far more resources than the X-Crew ever imagined, including new, “mysterious” allies, whose identities I already spoiled. YAY ME!

Layla and one of the dupes are eighty years in the future of an alternate timeline, bickering just like Madrox Prime and Layla. Layla using her “amazing common sense powers” to use the library to figure out what happened to the mutants was very snicker-worthy.

The X-Kiddies infiltrate the Purifier’s DC base and I still don’t care.

Back in Antarctica, the Marauders – most of whom I don’t recognize – are about to relocate right before Wolvie’s crew throws one of them through a wall. Way to make an entrance. I noticed that Wolverine’s biceps are as big as his torso and his forearms are as big as his thighs here, but who am I to judge art when I have trouble drawing stick figures?

X-Kids. Church in DC. Still don’t care.

Rictor tells the scaly green kid to quit being a dumbass and to get his friends and get the heck out of there. Scaly green kid and his friends don’t listen, of course. And for that, Hellion gets Deathstruck.

Bringing us to…

Chapter 5: X-Men #205

Layla and Madrox dupe, 80 years in an alternate future. Apparently there was a war between mutants and “flatscans” that the mutants lost. Now the mutants are in internment camps. I didn’t say this two chapters ago, because I figured it would explain itself, but I really don’t see the point of exploring these alternate futures. How is that going to help them find the baby mutant or save the mutant race? Did I miss something or should I just shut up and keep reading? I’m still loving the banter between Layla and Jamie – it’s cool that all the writers have picked up on that dynamic so far.

Back to Antarctica, where Sinister is hooked up to some kind of machine and is talking six kinds of smack. I was about to wonder when Sinister started reading minds and then realized that the X-Men were being clever by suggesting he read their minds; Emma hitched a ride with them, which explains Scott telling Forge she was “unavailable”. Nicely done, writers!

Ok, apparently, Sinister DOES have psychic ability that I never picked up on, but this is still good writing – “A good idea is worth stealing” indeed, I’m loving this tactical genius side of Cyclops. I’m guessing that taking out the psychic advantage has given the X-Men an edge, because they are kicking some Marauder butt, but Sinister doesn’t seem to be impressed.

X-Chillens. Church in DC. Hellion maybe dead. Still don’t care. They hold their own long enough for Rictor to save their butts. Pixie freaks out, teleports her team all over the country, and her psychic scream distracts Emma enough to get her blocked out by Sinister. Someone’s going to get a spanking.

Wolverine guts Gambit, Sinister leads the Marauders in a comeback, and just before Wolverine can pass on the information that there is an X-traitor to Nightcrawler, they teleport and Kurt is shot at the same time. Logan does get the information to Emma once they’re away from Sinister, and I notice that he specifically says an X-Man took the baby from Cooperstown, which kinda invalidates my Layla choker theory.

Some kind of weird crap infects one of the Sentinel O.N.E. pilots and he attacks the X-Mansion, or did the Sentinels just go back to the robot-style? I’m a bit confused on that one.

Final panel and we see that the X-Man who has the baby is….CABLE?!

WTF?

Anyway, on to….

Chapter 6: Uncanny X-Men #493

Annnnd my comics guy evidently didn’t put this one in my pull stack. It looks like I’ll have to head back over there and this issue will get its own post in a day or so. Sorry, folks.

If you couldn’t tell by my above comics, I’m very impressed with this crossover so far. The writing is solid, even for the characters I don’t really care about, and some of these characters are having their finest moments that I can remember, especially Cyclops, who I distinctly remember hating and considering the most boring X-character ever.

If you haven’t been reading Messiah CompleX, I recommend in the strongest possible terms that you go to your local comics retailer right now and pick it up. I will commit right now to continuing to read the X-Titles well into the next year, just based on the strength of this crossover.

Comments? Criticisms? Concurrences? Contentions?

Let ‘er rip!!

tag: Comics, Marvel, X-Men, Messiah Complex, X-Factor, New X-Men, Crossover, Review, Cyclops

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Popularity: 80% [?]

I was so disappointed and turned off by some of the recent Evil Dead comic adaptations, like Darkman vs Army of Darkness and Marvel Zombies vs Army of Darkness, that I almost didn’t pick up Freddy vs Jason vs Ash.

Rarely have I been so glad to be so wrong. This first issue feels much more like the recent Friday the 13th comics than the recent hokieness of the aforementioned Army of Darkness books, what with the blood and gore and graphic violence that I love. If I had read about this on any news sites before, I can’t remember, but I quickly realized that this series is an adaptation of the treatment that Jeff Katz wrote years ago for a sequel to Freddy vs Jason that would include Ash. Obviously, the movie was never made, but the treatment got out on the internet and obviously got enough good hype that they finally decided to turn it into a comic. Since I read the treatment, I almost certainly know how this is going to end, but I’m still excited to see how they do this.

Anyway, on to this particular issue. I suppose you could say that spoilers will follow, but there are no big plot reveals or surprises here, it’s a slasher book, ferchrissakes!

So our story is taking place five years after the events of Freddy vs Jason, and Crystal Lake is undergoing a makeover, including renaming the town Forest Green and getting a new Superdupermegaawesome S Mart, the managers of which are asking a Mr. Ashley Williams to help get their Housewares Department in order, which brings Ash into the game.

Since Jason can never ever ever EVAR die, he’s still going and Freddy is trapped in his subconcious. Freddy realizes that the Necronomicon can free him and - posing as Jason’s mom - sends Jason after the book, which gives us the main conflict of the story.

If you want a high-browed, Alan Moore-penned work of literary genius full of subtext and whatnot, go read The Black Dossier. If you want fun, blood, guts, and smart-ass guys with chainsaw arms, go grab Freddy vs Jason vs Ash. You won’t regret it.

tag: Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Ash, Ashley Williams, Necronomicon, Comics, Freddy vs Jason vs Ash, Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th

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Popularity: 44% [?]

I’ve tried several times over the last few days to write something explaining how awesome the recent “Escape From Bizarro World” arc in Action Comics was, but I couldn’t quite get it right. I think it has something to do with normally not liking Superman very much.

But then, as I was net surfing and trying to avoid doing any actual work, I came across the review that I wish I had written over at Again With The Comics and thought to myself “perfect”, although I will add my favorite moment from issue 857…

tag: batman, Bizarro, comics, DC, Flash, jla, Review, Superman

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Popularity: 8% [?]