What I'm Getting Wednesday

My weekly post that highlights my madness in reading graphic stories.

This week starts with Absolute New Frontier. One of the all time greatest series that is a terrific love letter to the Silver Age of comics and the golden age of my youth. A fantastic mini-series by Darwyn Cooke given the deluxe over sized hard cover treatment. At a retail price of $75 a crack not many will buy this, but you can probably get all six issues on E-bay for a song. Well worth finding and reading. Just a fantastic piece of work and really was a spirit lifting story. The "New Frontier" speech will make you fell inspired and full of hope again.

Also Action Philosophers "It's All Greek to Me" issue. This is the most educational and fun comic I have ever come across. I here it will end with issue #9, but it is a great comic and wonderful reference tool as it is well researched. Accurate, educational and fun.

52, we are starting the second half of the year long weekly comic and it is now moving faster and I have a feeling it maybe a frenetic pace by the time we get to the end of it. Batman, part 4 of Grant Morrison's run on the book, which will be followed up with a four parter by Ostrander and Mandrake to allow Andy Kubert more time to get ahead on the book. I don't mind the "fill-in" team when they are a team that could carry the book on their own anyway. Next is my substitute All Star Batman book, Batman and the Mad Monk, Matt Wagner as artist and writer is doing a real All Star quality job on this story of Batman in his early years.

Fables is out, always a great read and the best long term Vertigo series since Sandman; Firestorm, a good solid monthly book; Gen 13, the second issue of what appears to be a total reset of Gen13 by one of my favorite writers Gail Simone; Green Arrow, a really fun book right now; Green Lantern, a new story arc, this book has been up and down, so no pre-judgement on this issue.

JLA Classified, an okay arc by Chaykin and Plunkett; Martian Manhunter, I maybe the last person enjoying this book, but I love the character so much I'm highly predisposed to like it; Stormwatch PHD #1, I have no expectations so this book is a blank slate going in; Superman, Busiek and Pacheo have been during a really nice job on this book; Tales of the Unexpected, Spectre and Dr. Thirteen, you can't go wrong, no really it is fun; Teen Titans, my least favorite Johns book as it just feels to lack a real direction, fun for all the extra Titans that have been introduced.

Amazing Spider-Girl, fun series, but the art is too simple for my taste and it is hurting my enjoyment of the series, but I'll give it a try out. Annihilation, a really pleasant surprise, this outer space war of Marvel's has been a lot of fun and has brought back characters that I had forgotten about. Bullet Points, the concept is one bullet changes the Marvel Universe and how the repercussions affect everything going forward, an alternative history book with a clever title, still I usually enjoy a good Elseworlds story (sorry What If). Dr Strange, the second issue in this mini-series, the first issue was decent, we will see if it continues to be enjoyable; Eternals, an interesting start to what should be a series, I guess it is Neil Gaiman bringing the Eternals into continuity for Marvel but is lacking as a mini-series.

Wisdom #1 from Marvel, looks to be a different type of book, no real expectations going in. Cross Bronx, a great piece of work by Micahel Oeming from Image, a crime noir/supernatural story. Damned, a demon gangster story from Oni and Drunken Monkey which is just a silly and funny book.

Certainly a week with a lot of entertainment potential.

Ravens 6-2

Great game. A real hard fought battle and the Ravens are looking like a really solid team. Still want a little more offense as they settled for too many field goals, but they are definitely in the driver's seat now. Halfway through the season and two games up on the second place team is a great position to be in. They say our strength of schedule is not that hard, but we have two games against the Steelers are they are a very tough team that could turn at any moment.

Justice League of America #3 - A Review

Justice League of America #3 - Writer - Brad Meltzler, Artists - Ed Benes, Inkers - Sandra Hope & Mariah Benes, Colorist - Alex Sinclair

Premise - The Justice League is reforming, separate story lines are slowing converging and we are apparently reforming the Justice League of America.

What I Liked:

1) The art. Ed Benes is rapidly becoming one of the premier artist in all of comics. DC does not over promote their artists like Marvel and that maybe a mistake, because Benes is as good as any other super-hero artist out there. Strong layouts, good emotion, sexy woman, barrel chested male heroes, he has all the tools and is a superior draftsman. The inking is well done as it compliment's Ed's pencils. The color is dead on for this book. I wish I had a better appreciation of who does what, because I know some inkers and colorist can save the day, but I think Ed Benes is just getting better and better and he was very good to start with.

2) A few small bits. The Phantom Stranger showing up; Arsenal, Canary and GL fighting the duplicate tornadoes; and the little Starro on the back of the bad guys neck.

What I didn't Like:

1) The writing. Brad Meltzer appears to be a very good writer and I'm sure his novels are great reading, but he still is struggling with writing a good or great comic. The pace of this story is laborious and I wonder if it will be issue #12 before the JLA actually has a meeting. Then Meltzer leaves and the new guy comes on and has to deal with Brad's team or shuffle the deck. If Brad can only do 12 issues, then make it a mini-series.

The structure of the story is also poorly done. We have the Black Lighting story (now adding Hawkgirl), the red Tornado story, the Arsenal, Green Lantern and Black Canary story, the Vixen story (only one page this issue) and Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman holding a meeting (that is going on forever) to decide who is in the new JLA. On one hand having separate arcs all coming together is fine. The different heroes are working on cases unaware they are related and ultimately team-up and save the day. Great stuff, classic team type story telling, if well done they are some of the best team stories around. We also have the impending crisis and a team is pulled together to save the day and they decide to stay together to fight major problems when they occur. Again classic concept for a team and if well done great stuff. Here we have these story lines going on and BSWW (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) choosing a team. Apparently the team is already pre-determined so what is with them picking out the pictures. In this issue we show Hawkgirl and Black Lighting running into each other and then Black Lighting takes the bad guy and Hawkgirl to Batman's cave interrupt the meeting where BSWW are choosing the team. What the frell? This is confused as hell. Are they choosing a team or is the team being pulled together by circumstances? Brad wants it both ways it seems and is still trying to tell his heartfelt Red Tornado story. Time to get on with the story and have a team. We are on issue #3 and still have no team or no rhyme or reason to why these various storylines are going on. Maybe this will be better as a trade as Meltzer seems to be stuck with novel pacing as oppossed to monthly comic book pacing.

Grade C

The Duke Rape Case

Keno and poker tonight, so no time for a real blog, but this is a great article about the Duke rape case and a review of a system gone wrong. Really fascinating case bringing to light many, many issues that go way beyond just the case itself.


http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson148.html

Fantastic Four - The End #1

Fantastic Four - The End #1 0f 6 - Alan Davis - Story & Art, John Kalisz - Color

Premise - A six part mini-series that chronicles the end of the Fantastic Four. At the beginning of the series we see a battle with Dr. Doom where Sue and Reed lose their children during the battle. An unknown number of years jump forward and we find that Reed Richards has turned the world into a Utopia, yet all four have gone their separate ways. Reed is on his satellite making new inventions, Sue is doing archeology, Johnny is an Avenger and Ben is married with kids and living on Mars.

What I liked:

1) The art. I'm a big Alan Davis fan and think that his work has a great fluidness to it. I have always thought that he was the heir to Steve Ditko in some ways (although he can draw woman and Ditko was weak in that area). Davis has a great style, solid layouts, can draw crowd scenes and a great sense of design. The color was okay, but a little too dark.

2) The story. Davis the writer is a little hit or miss (Another Nail being a miss), but is usually very good with these type of stories where he is allowed to do anything with these characters. His extrapolations of where these characters are in the future feels right. Reed isolating himself, Johnny continuing as a hero, Ben as a family man. Sue just wondering off to do archaeology does not fit as well, but her trying to occupy herself now that she has lost her children and her husband has buried himself in work feels right.

What I Didn't Like:

1) What seems to be an obvious story element. When Dr. Doom and the Richard's children are killed, we don't see the bodies and the kids are middle school, young high school age. I feel like Davis is setting us up for a typical comic book non-death and the kids come back perhaps as Dr. Doom's allies and the FF reunites or something. If the kids don't come back I will rescind this criticism.

Grade B

Superman Confidential #1 - A Review

Superman Confidential #1 - Darwyn Cooke - Writer, Tim Sale - Artist, Dave Stewart - Colors

Premise - A series about various elements and/or events that occurred in Superman's life. This arc is about the origin of Kryptonite. The actual story starts with a hint about Kryptonite, then jumps to Superman in his early years and his questioning of how invulnerable he is or is not. Then the story moves into an assignment that Perry White has given to Clark, Lois and Jimmy in finding out the secrets behind a gangster type figure who has moved in on Metropolis.

What I Liked:

1) The art. Tim Sale has a wonderful style and an economy of line that makes his work have a cartoonish quality, while maintaining a seriousness to the work. Sometimes Tim's work can get too loose, but not in this issue. It's is gorgeous work. The Royal Flush Gang looks cool, Superman is heroic, the fluidness of the work is great, his Lois is sexy as hell, Jimmy is a hard nose kid, Clark is the seriousness and conservative reporter. Terrific work, complemented by the colors of Dave Stewart, whose work always seems to be spot on for the project he is working on.

2) The story. I'm a big Darwyn Cooke fan and its hard for me to really love all of his work, because my expectations are always high for his stories. He hits the mark again and I love this story so far. Short and sweet opening segment setting up the Kryptonite coming to earth, Superman at the start of his career wondering what can kill him (a point that has never been touched on before in my readings), Perry White the crusading editor guarding his city, the brassy Lois Lane, the straight laced Clark always a little too square, Jimmy as the hip technology geek, the swarthy but good looking bad guy. The book is set in more modern times, but has an ageless quality and feels like the golden age, silver age and modern age all rolled into one. Loved updating Jimmy's role as beyond just a photographer , as with today's technology just taking pictures is not enough to make him part of the team. Also, back to Superman wondering what can kill him, it was such a great point. I mean if you found out stuff was hurting you, how far would you go with trying stuff until it got too dangerous. One false step and you could kill yourself.

What I Didn't Like:

1) Ads, ads, everywhere an ad. The ads are way too persuasive. The 3-D goggles to view some special ad, the Teen Titans Go comic shoved in the middle of the book with some other crap insert. The ads are too much in comics again. Last time Marvel was really bad, I think DC maybe worse then Marvel now. I don't care unless they interfere with my enjoyment of the book and this arrangement really was annoying when first opening up the book.

Grade - A

Side note: I enjoyed Superman when Bryne re-launched Superman for a couple of years, loved some stories of Superman over the years (Alan Moore Last Superman Story especially), but I'm shocked after ten to fifteen years of not giving a damn about Superman to be really enjoying 4 different Superman titles. Superman, Action, All-Star and Confidential. Kudos to DC for giving their number one icon, the high quality talent a character like Superman deserves. Hope it last for awhile.

Random Thoughts

At times it seems like comic books never want to give us what is expected. Dick Grayson and Babs should be a no brainer, but because it is expected, the editors seem to think they should not let it happen. Yet, when you think about it what more unconventional love story can you have then a younger man marrying a handicapped older woman. Still, since it is expected it almost never happens. I always enjoy it when it does happen Superman and Lois Lane, Reed and Sue Richards, Barry Allen and Iris West, it was great to see those relationships actually end up in marriage.

Politics also seems like that in some ways. Everyone who has a brain can see the coming fiscal crisis with social security, medicare and other such programs as the baby boomers are getting to retirement. But no politicians even try to really make common sense reforms. They are willing avoid it until it is about to collapse like a house of cards and do something stupid that will cost us a lot more money to fix it later then sooner.

Stem cell research is something else that has gotten my attention. I think it is a shame that as a nation we have under funded a lot of pure research and let too much of the pure research be corporate driven. Taking out the profit element is important for some research. Stem cells is certainly a promising area and I think should be funded by the government and if a woman donates her eggs to the research they should use those also. But, I also don't think we should put all an eggs in one basket (pun intended). We have no proof that stem cells are the magic bullet to cure everyone and every problem.

We have diagnosed all of these diseases and I wonder does anyone die of old age anymore. Eventually all of you have to die and labeling the cause as a disease after someone is into their nineties seems a little loopy to me. Every type of behavior is now some diagnosis, so now instead of common sense of boys will be boys, the little hyper active boy is labeled with ADD and medicated into submission.

Our rationalization and over diagnoses of everything has made us into a bunch of victims. I didn't mean to run over that person with my car, I have a drinking problem and the steering didn't work right and the manufacturer should have made the car softer as not to hurt anybody. Everyone has some trauma or childhood grief that occurred to them and 90% of them don't do evil shit, so why should we believe just because Johnny was beaten as a bed wetter it was okay for him to be a pedophile or something.

Very random and all over the place, but there it is.