The List - November

Here's what I got in November, in order of preference.

1 Northlanders 22 - Still knocking it out of the park. The 22 issues of this series have shown a level of craftmanship not often seen, particularly on such a consistent basis. Number one in the numerous books I seem to be getting that feature strong women, as this current arc and the last both have.

2 Superman: Secret Origin 3 - Geoff Johns has a lot of projects with DC, and this month they're all tooting his horn. This one is deserving of the flourish. Gary Frank's art doesn't hurt, either. Quite possibly the best psychological examination of Luthor, Lane, Olson and Kent I've seen. I don't care if it's continuity. I think I'd be happier if it isn't, so Johns goes all out.

3 Detective Comics 859 - Rucka and Williams on the lead story of Batwoman and Rucka and Hamner on the back up of The Question are keeping this one near the top with excellent stories and excellent art, though Williams is probably a bit ahead of Hamner. One of the aforementioned series featuring strong female leads, this one's unique in that both leads are lesbians. More impotantly, they're well fleshed out characters. Neither is solely defined by being a lesbian, but Rucka really brings it to the forefront this issues, as the deeply flawed "Don't ask, don't tell" policy is shown to be the reason the Army lost a potentially great soldier in Kate Kane, which also sent her on a spiral of self indulgent aimlessness. The reveal of the early relationship between Kane and Montoya was also a nice touch.

4 Stumptown 1 - Another one from Rucka, and also another one with a strong female lead. I didn't have this on my radar initially, but with over the top reviews by both Pops and Chris Sims of the ISB, I picked it up. And I'm damn glad I did. Featuring a Native American lead who's a PI, the parallel with Scalped is obvious, but this one's set in Portland, OR, it doesn't have the despair of the Souix reservation in Scapled. There's the obligatory Native American casino, of course, but even with a gambling problem and a brother who appears to suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome, the lead is an upbeat person who lives fairly well. The evident plot she's stumbled into is just taking shape, but Rucka looks to have a good plan in place here. This one's from Oni Press, by the way.

5 Madame Xanadu 17 - More in the strong female lead category. I'll have to write something on that at another time. Our 1950s foray has gone from the bizarre malady of an apparently typical middle class woman to outright sinister with the reappeaance of Morgan le Fay. Another great one from Wagner and Hadley.

6 Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love 1 - Roberson and McManus bring us a tale of secret agent work and fine shoes. Surpassing it's source material this month and, yet another strong female. This issue just set the groundwork, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the tale.

7 Fables 90 - Willingham, et al continue the focus on Frau Totenkinder and the other Fables strong in magical ability, as the imminent battle with the Dark Man builds. The battle of Bufkin, a flying monkey from the Wizard of Oz, against the extremely magically powerful Baba Yaga, as both remain confined in the Fabletown offices, is both amusing and a neat little tale of death by a thousand cuts. Sort of. An ensemble tale and lots of strong characters, male and female alike. It's good to see the ship righted since the end of the irritating Great Fables Crossover.

8 Unknown Soldier 14 - Like Northlanders, Unknown Soldier is as much a cultural exploration as it is a strong tale with strong characters. Dysart has a clear vision of where he's going with this story. I can't help but think there's an eventual end point to this tale, as its lead is so damaged and so at risk that I can't possibly think that he would survive too much longer.

9 Action Comics 883 - I'm reading nothing else set in the current Superman world of Kryptonian politics and human machinations. You'd think that would make it hard to keep up with what's going on in this book, tied to the rest as it is, but Rucka has done an excellent job of making the needed information from those other stories just present enough to follow what's going on while at the same time advancing the story of Flamebird and Nightwing. I could read this one for the relationship between the two leads alone, but the other elements make for even more enjoyment.

10 The Unwritten 7 - This is definitely more interesting since the massacre. I enjoyed Carey and Gross on Lucifer, so I gave them a good bit of room on this one and kept with it when others were complaining it wasn't going anywhere to start. Good work like this needs to develop at a pace that doesn't necessarily involve knock down, drag out imbroglios in each issue. There's conflict aplenty now, as well as plenty of story.

11 Giant-Size Thor Finale 1 - Mostly I'm disappointed that it's the end of Straczynski's run on Thor. I'm done with Thor, like I was done with it shortly after Simon's run ended. Then I kept with it awhile to see what would happen. This time Marvel made it easy by giving me preview into the next story line that totally sucked. The mere fact that Dr Doom is seen to strangle the goddes Kelda, who was just shown in the lead story to be able to turn herself into mist, is enough to kill any hope I might have had that this new story line would be worth my time. Where Pops lowered his view of this issue because of the preview and the re-print of the first Thor story, I raised it because it's an automatic cost savings next month.

12 The Walking Dead 67 - Kirkman continues the best zombie story I've ever seen, probably because it's not really about the zombies, who sometimes make only token appearances. The conversations with Rick and Karl, and the development of their characters, make this a comic worth buying, regardless of the rest. The reveal that there's really no point to the sojurn to DC and the appearance of a new character at the end are bonus.

13 Secret Six 15 - Ostrander's origin story for Deadshot. Really, nothing else needed to say.

14 Ex Machina: Ex Cathedra TPB - This is a rarity for me in that I only buy the trades. A friend told me about the series, knowing I was reading Y the Last Man at the time, and Vaughan's work here is probably better than Y, which I enjoyed up until the end. This arc features Hundred's near assassination of Pope John Paul II and, as always, explores interesting social, political and religious ground in a world where there was only ever one superhero, who's now mayor of NYC, and only one of the twin towers was successfully attacked.

15 Teen Titans: The Future is Now TPB - I think I reviewed Geoff Johns's work on this series in a Comics Cabinet post and came to the conclusion that I don't know why I dropped it. This is the first trade that picks up issues I didn't read. Good time travel stuff, which isn't something you'll here from me often.

16 The Mighty 10 - Another world with only one superhero. This one's not so heroic. Turns out he's more akin to Omni-Man in Invincible, prior to his reformation. I've found Tomasi's talke very interesting and am looking forward to the final two issues to see how it wraps.

17 Irredeemable 8 - While The Mighty looked at its superman with ambiguity, Waid's Plutonian has been a bastard from the beginning, having killed millions. The journey has been learning why. More of a Superman without the stable home life that grounded the original. Really, it's a kind of Elseworlds tale, but more violent.

18 Invincible 68 - And here we are in the third of the trio of characters inspired by Superman, though it's a less direct line here. More Son of Superman, I suppose. I still wish there wasn't the coy scene business when the characters have sex, given the graphic level of violence, but I understand Kirkman's reasoning that outside forces put the book in a different classification if it has graphic sex but don't if it has graphic violence. The question out of this issue? Are we hading toward Grandson of Superman?

19 Gotham City Sirens 6 - Just plain fun. Dini's the reason I bought into this and he's been as good as expected. Sort of falls into the strong female class, except the three females are rather damaged goods. I loved the look into how the Joker was transformed from a gag themed criminal into a homicidal maniac, and the former being whistfully missed by a former henchman, now homicidal in his own right. Besides, what's not to like about a little person with a Moe haircut and bulbous nose when you're aiming for tragicomedy?

20 Batman: Streets of Gotham 6 - This started at the same time as Gotham City Sirens and was originally written by Dini, too. Like Action Comics or Detective Comics, it's featured a lead story and a back up story. I've never been a particular fan of Huntress or Manhunter, but both have been interesting. Chris Yost wrote this one, and it kept the flow Dini started. Still, I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if it's worth continuing.

21 Outsiders 24 - Tomasi's story line is being interrupted a bit by Blackest Night, but this was the best of the Blackest Night stories I bought this month. I liked the tactic of Terra talking to her brother rather than attacking the group.

22 Batman and Robin 6 - This would be higher if I could keep in my mind what's happened from one issue to the next since the Professor Pig line ended. I have to go back to see what happened, and that's not so good.

23 The Great Ten 1 - A maxi-series at 10 issues, this falls into my like for explorations of other cultures. It's taking the easy track of criticizing China on Tibet policy in this issues, so I hope it goes into greater depth in exploring Chinese culture in the future.

24 Hellboy: The Wild Hunt 8 - I liked this story and the development that Hellboy is descended from King Arthur, but I'm not sure I'm going to stick with the Hellboy universe. Kind of wavering here, but it's falling into the problem of feeling like I'm buying too much already.

25 Adventure Comics 4 - I've liked where this has gone with Connor Kent, and Superboy Prime can be grating, but this is so self aware a tale, I couldn't help but enjoy it. Second rank amongst the Blackest Night stories. The back up story with the Legion gets lost in my memory, but it's just the back up.

26 Jersey Gods 9 - As I've said previously, I like the Kirbyesque art and grand story, but this issues was a bit slow. It also had the coy nudity bit I love so much.

27 The Brave and the Bold 29 - I had dropped this awhile ago but with Straczynski coming on I thought I'd give it a go. I know little to nothing about Brother Power the Geek, but it was a nicely touching little one and done.

28 Justice Society of America 80 Page Giant 1 - Seven individual stories wrapped around a central theme. A classice style of story in comics and quit enjoyable, if of little consequence. More a fill in the details sort of thing.

29 Green Lantern Green Arrow TPB Vol 1 - Couldn't resist this one when Cards, Comics and Collectibles had it on sale for $5. Eventually I'll get volume 2. The style of story telling from the early '70s doesn't hold up to the more fluid style today, and the stabs at topicality were about as blunt as you'd expect for the time, but it was ground breaking work all the same.

30 Air 15 - This one's on its way out. A female lead who dithers and traipses around after her mysterious love, but sleeps with some other guy along the way isn't what I'd call a strong female lead. Lovely art, but the story's dragging it down. I'm trying to hold out until at least a semblance of resolution to what's currently the main arc, but that'll be the end.

31 House of Mystery 19 - Same kind of problem as Air. At least Fig doesn't sleep with someone else while mooning over a strange lover. And her's is a lot stranger, being an aspect of the house itself. I just don't think the arc we're in, in which Cain is trying to get his hous back, is working too well. Once that arc's done, I'll have to re-assess.

32 Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire 4 - I don't dislike this series, but I'm not thrilled either. It's no Scalped, Jason Aaron notwithstanding.

33 The Warlord 8 - This one looks like it could leap up the list soon. Good groundwork, but this particular issue seemed like it should have come before issue 7. Really, the two issues seemed like an acid flashback, or what I'd think one would seem like. If it doesn't make the leap soon, it'll fall off altogether.

34 Justice Society of America 33 - There's way too much Magog in this series now, and the break to JSA All-Stars that this issue represents could be good for having less Magog in JSA, but I also don't like seeing all the younger cast leaving.

35 The Flash Rebirth 5 - A good story that now seems to have no point because other events have passed it by as it has slowly emerged. Plus, the whole speed force business is about as complex as time travel, which isn't a good thing.

36 Haunt 2 - Still looking for a clear direction, but I'm allowing for some room, as Kirkman is the primary writer here. Hopefully he'll have primacy over McFarlane.

37 Blackest Night 5, Green Lantern 47 & 48, Green Lantern Corps 40-42 - I lump these all together because they're all the same grand epic. It's going to need some overview before I decide if this is any good. I've bought all this because it's Johns, but right now it's making me think hanging back for the trades on these things, as I did with 52 and the Sinestro Corps War is the better course.

38 Image United 1 - Another purchase for the sake of Kirkman, but I have no idea who any of these characters are. I've seen Savage Dragon in Invincible and Proof, but that didn't give me but so much. It all seems very '90s somehow, and I can't help but wonder why Image is taking the direction of making its various creator owned titles inhabit the same universe. One of the best selling points to creator owned is the independence to follow the story where it needs to go without concern about how it's going to affect someone else's entirely unrelated title. Look at what garbage is happening with Thor being sucked back into the Marvel Universe and you can see why I don't understand why Image would look to the same direction. I'll give his one more issue, but that's probably about it unless there's some major improvemement.

With strong female characters being something of a theme in this post, may I just say "What the hell?" The creators of the newest version of Star Trek (which I just got around to seeing) are clever enough to give themselves an open playing field with no allegiance to any of the Star Trek that's gone before, but they have only one strong female in the story, and she's fatally undercut, in my opinion, from early on. I don't mean that Uhura as played by Zoe Saldana is missing the wonderful proportions of Nichelle Nichols. No, far worse, and not at all superficial, is that Uhura is evidently engaged in a sexual relationship with Spock, who is also her instructor at Starfleet Academy. There's nothing I hate more than the canard of a supposedly brilliant woman sleeping with her professor. There's nothing admirable in such a relationship, nor even attractive to me as a viewer. Universities have policies against such relationships for very good reason. It's too open to abuse by either party, as the man has control over the woman in terms of her academic future based on the grades he can give, and the woman is equally empowered in a negative way with the possible threat of exposure of the man, who faces his own consequences for engaging in the relationship. Beyond that, it just makes both characters seem stupid when the story up to that point has worked hard at making them out to be brilliant. I think less of this Uhura and this Spock, and I don't know what the creators of this version of Star Trek can do to repair it.

Global Frequency - Reviewed

Last week, as I was driving home after Thanksgiving, I decided to stop in Maryland to visit Jim for awhile. A great time was had by all as we talked comics, sports, and more comics for hours on end. And, like every other time I visit Jim’s house, I perused his endless collection of books. The one that struck me was Global Frequency by Warren Ellis. It’s one of the few Ellis books I haven’t read and since he had both trades, I borrowed them.

In case you don’t remember, Global Frequency was a 12 issue miniseries Ellis wrote between 2002 and 2004. The story revolves around a secret organization, the Global Frequency, which protects the people from government mistakes. Not government mistakes like spending too much tax payer money, more like government mistake “ooops, the military cyborg went psychotic and is heading towards Los Angeles” mistake.

The Frequency is a group of 1,001 people include ex-military, intelligence agents, black ops, scientists, various hackers, and everything inbetween. Each issue was self contained, and because there are so many operatives, Ellis created teams to address whatever the latest threat was. Some of the stories were over the top violent, and some were slightly more thoughtful explorations of supposed mystical events. Typically, each issue also had a tight timeline, less than an hour, in which the team had to accomplish the mission.

After reading all 12 issues, I was both thrilled and underwhelmed at the same time. And that’s a very odd feeling. Ellis stated that the series was supposed to read like a weekly installment of a television show. And, to that end, Ellis hits the mark perfectly. With the tight deadline and flexible cast, each issue whizzes on by. It doesn’t hurt that each story is full of typical Ellis science fiction, pseudo science elements.

But the action seemed to take precedence over any type of character development. This series is essentially a group of one shots with little or nothing to tie them together. This doesn’t mean the stories aren’t exciting or interesting. It just means that there isn’t any real reason for me to read the next story. In terms of characters, the only constant from issue to issue is the leader, and founder of the Frequency, Miranda Zero and her computer operator Aleph. But you never learn anything about them. The strength of a large flexible cast to handle any situation becomes a problem when no one appears twice.

In terms of writing, what can I say? Warren Ellis is Warren Ellis. He always has great ideas and characters. He manages to give each character a unique voice. Can I see some Jenny Sparks in Miranda Zero? I sure can, but Miranda Zero still stands as her own person with her own quippy line. The stories are all good with many being great.

The artists that worked on the series were Garry Leach, Glenn Fabry, Steve Dillon, Roy Martinez, Jon J. Muth, David Lloyd, Simon Bisley, Chris Sprouse, Lee Bermejo, Tomm Coker, Jason Pearson, and Gene Ha. I don’t need to tell everyone what an incredible collection of artists this is. And for the most part, they all turned in great work.

Overall, would I recommend reading the series? Yes. It was a great deal of fun. Would I read it in one sitting? No, I would not. I would read an issue then read something else and come back to this. In one giant sitting, the emptiness of ideas with no characters is far too evident.

Siege: The Cabal – A Review

Siege: The Cabal One-Shot

Publisher Marvel Comics

Writer Brian Bendis

Pencils Michael Lark

Inks Stefano Guardino

Colors Matt Hollingsworth

Price $4.99

Format 27 Pages of Story and Art

First a little explanation: my real life job has gotten very, very busy and with the holidays my time to be able to devote to blogging has been cut way back. Therefore this review is being used as the regular Friday post and then next week things maybe a little bit back to normal. Also I have some ideas for posts to go up at the end of the year while I am away. One thing which has taken a huge hit is the twitter side of the blog as there is hardly anytime to be able to even make remarks on that. Last and far from least congratulations to fellow blogger (and my daughter) Gwen on her engagement to her long time boy friend Andre! You guys have been and will be great together.

I choose this book because I keep hoping Marvel is going to end the Dark Reign and saw this book as the beginning of the end. I was expecting some great things from this book as I love Michael Lark’s art and it was great, also Bendis usually does well with the bad guy side of things. It was a waste of good art and yet another $4 waste of paper.

I should know better. Bendis is a master at many things. Number one he has been fantastic at bringing the Marvel universe back to a more cohesive style. You can read almost every Marvel Universe book (outside of the X-Men) and know that they are occurring in the same time frame. This has not happened since the days when Stan Lee was orchestrating and writing or scripting almost the entire line. This has it pluses and minuses, but overall I see Bendis as the architect behind it. Bendis also has some great overall ideas. Finally Bendis can drag out a story and a plot point like no one else and he can have some really clunker moments when it comes to characterization.

The basic story is Norman calls together his Cabal and we see that Taskmaster has replaced Emma and Namor who have moved on to Nation X. Doom shows up and has a fight with Norman and will not support his effort to take over Asgard and let Loki run it. Doom and Norman go at it and have a fight. Norman calls out his secret weapon and he crushes Doom. The secret weapon’s face is never seen.

Sidebar: Okay if the secret weapon is Miracle/Marvel Man I think I will puke. The Sentry was brought in as a Superman / Thor replacement and has never worked and now Marvel will have Marvel Man as a Superman in their Universe? Superman is a very tough character to make work as his power level is so insane that everyone else is a joke. DC has powered down Superman and then he always gets back to those godlike levels again and it is hard to make him work in even a super hero universe. In Marvel the problem is magnified a thousand times because they have not had the years of experience developing credible bad guys or actual things that can threaten a Superman. Plus never having had a long term series they are trying to utilize the character in a group setting. So if it is Miracle Man it would be a big mistake. Now back to the review.

Doom is a robot (shock!) and explodes sending out a zillion bug things. The Sentry comes in and saves the day. Why not use the secret weapon to save the day is never addressed. Norman then asks the President to invade Asgard, he says no. Norman and Loki plot to create a reason for the US to have to invade Asgard and the issue closes. Then we see a preview where said event is shown so we know Norman will get his wish to invade Asgard.

The whole thing is very contrived. There has been no rational build up to this event. In fact in Thor, Loki and Doom have been working together a lot and have had the Asgardians leaving in Latveria. Norman is show to be a schizophrenic and while Bendis has been doing this for awhile it is almost too cute and comic book perfect to make it work for me as a reader. Often it reads like good fan fiction with beautiful artwork. As most writers now are ex-fans, I guess that is what we get many times. The problem is the characters and events no longer dictate the stories. The stories are cast with the characters we know, which is the opposite of what it should be. A good writer makes it feel like the characters are writing their own stories.

Overall Grade C – It had lots of good ideas and some nice touches, great artwork, a professionally done comic and miserable execution, all Bendis trademarks. Bottom line this could have been the first eight pages in the first issue of the mini-series.

One last thing we get the checklist for the four issue Siege Event, 37 books in all, which is actually showing restraint for Marvel. If I decide to not follow this I will also have to drop Dark Avengers, New Avengers, Thor and Mighty Avengers as they are tied into this. On the flip side if I pick up the mini-series I can skip the books I wouldn’t normally buy and just add on the mini-series which is only four issues. I will get the mini-series because I still have a level of interest in some of these characters, but I feel I’m closer and closer to getting ready to drop a bunch of floppies and Marvel would be the company to take the biggest cut.

Yodeling Christmas Trees

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, it’s time to focus on Christmas! The first step to getting into the Christmas spirit is getting the Christmas Tree.

In case you weren’t aware, the getting of the tree is a huge event in the lives of little people. You see, the countdown to Christmas officially starts once the Tree is in the house. It doesn’t necessarily have to be fully decorated but once it’s in, the counting of days can begin.

Because of the importance, parents must carefully control the announcement about getting the tree. If you tell the kids too early then you will be nagged to death. It becomes a never ending series of questions not unlike “Are we there yet?” If you announce tree getting time and then miss the date, woe is you! No matter how good the reason, you have delayed Christmas and must deal with the disappointment of the children. A week of “are we there yet?” is nothing compared to a week of Cindy Loo Who’s “Why Daddy? Why?” over and over again.

Anyway, Wife and I talked about it, planned for it, and finally decided to get the tree this past weekend. We even held in announcing it until Sunday night at dinner. That way we were sure that we couldn't miss it. Now, for whatever reason the kids were so excited that they started yodeling. I don’t know why, but they were. And they all yodeled to the best of their ability and to whatever words they thought comprised a yodel. In case you were wondering, yodeling is basically, Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo.

The kids were so excited that by the time we loaded them into the car and drove to the tree stand they are ready to explode. As soon as we turned the car off, the kids jumped out, and raced into the little maze of trees.

I live in a fairly rural area so the tree stand was literally on the edge of a field with little to nothing else around it. The trees were all precut so it looked very much like a hedge maze with movable pieces. Besides the attendants, there wasn’t anyone else at the stand so I wasn’t worried about the kids. They were screaming and yelling and having a grand old time. Just for the record, if anyone else had been there, I would have calmed them down, but there wasn’t so why stop the fun.

And, for all the excitement about picking a tree, the kids never even bothered to visit it. They were having too much fun running around.

Of course, they tried to include Wife and I in the fun. Boy fresh from yodeling practice at dinner, ran past me and said “Yodel-A-Hoooo Daddy! You can’t catch me!”

Needless to say, in a high pitched childs voice, this sounds just like A-hole. So, the next time he runs past, I catch him, tickle him for a second, and remind him that it’s Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo. We practice for a moment and off he goes again.

We finally decide on a tree, and as I’m paying the kind man, Boy shouts out from across the field of trees, at the top of his lungs HEY DADDY Yodel-A-Hoooole! Daddy A-Hooole.

Yep. Nothing better than buying a Christmas Tree while your son screams Daddy A-Hoooole.

Terrorism or Hypocrisy?

A follow-up to a previous rant. Now that Maurice Clemmons has shot and killed four police officers outside Seattle, I'm eagerly awaiting Ron Smith's column on the topic. After all, Smith concluded that "political correctness" was responsible for the Ft Hood killings. Surely Smith will reach the equally valid conclusion that the Fox News Party (aka the GOP) is responsible for these killings. It was Fox News Party Governor Mike Huckabee who let free Clemmons in 2000, even though Clemmons was sentenced to 108 years for armed robbery and other offenses. I won't hold my breath waiting for Smith, though.

It was clear in Smith's column that his target was Islam as well as perceived liberal orthodoxy that allowed Nidal Hasan to be free to commit his crimes. Nevermind that Hasan had never actually committed a crime prior to his shooting rampage. He was a devoutly religious Muslim who had expressed misgivings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hasan had contacted a radical imam in Yemen, which raised red flags and was investigated, the Army concluding that it was part of a legitimate research project Hasan was conducting. He should have been locked up, obviously. Not like a convicted armed robber. He should have been on the street.

I expect little from Smith, so I'll move on to a broader question. A number of talking heads, particulary of the Fox News ilk, have declared that Hasan's attack was terrorism. The definition, courtesy of YourDictionary.com, is "the act of terrorizing; use of force or threats to demoralize, intimidate, and subjugate, esp. such use as a political weapon or policy". Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that Hasan's attack was terrorism. Was the Clemmons attack also terrorism?

Clemmons used force, and he certainly demoralized police and citizens in the Seattle area, as well as intimidating them. On its face, then, Clemmons appears to have committed a terrorist act, for though the use of force as a political weapon or policy is frequently an element, the fact that "especially" precedes it in the definition means it's not essential to the definition. However, even if the political element is included, Clemmons arguably fits the definition of a terrorist. He had railed against police for years, and in the months prior to the shooting had grown more agitated against police. In the days before he went so far as to say outright that he was going to shoot police. Sounds like a political agenda of sorts.

Is a plan to kill police a political act? Is a religious element required, as the purveyors of bugaboos about Islam, imply (a bit of irony in that, as these same purveyors used to require atheism when they were going after communists)? Clemmons believed he was Jesus and that the world was on the edge of apocalypse.

One thing that Clemmons had that Hasan did not was accomplices, though that's nowhere in the definition. Clemmons had a fellow ex-con as a driver in his getaway. Clemmons had an apparently extensive network of family and friends who hid him, made false and misleading tip calls to the police, and attempted to doctor his wound. Hasan was totally alone in his attack.

If the talking heads of Fox News are really concerned about terrorism in the US, where is their hue and cry about the dangers presented by Clemmons, an evidently delusional "Christian" and his network of associates. Certainly he must be a far greater danger than Hasan, who couldn't even get out of the site of his shooting, let alone have the assistance of numerous people.

The reality is, neither are terrorist attacks, at least when viewed in the context of the 9/11, Atlanta Olympics bombing, Bali hotel attacks, or Oklahoma City. Neither of these men had any coherent political agenda that their shooting was designed to further. Hasan was desperate not to be sent to Iraq. Clemmons had recently been arrested and charged with the rape of a child. He had previously been evaluated psychologically and been deemed a dangerous person but not so dangerous that he should be incarcerated. Both of them had deep psychological problems that were not addressed. Perhaps the area of concern should be the standard by which persons with psychological problems are judged to be a danger, but determining that is always easy in hindsight, not so much so as a precognitive decision.

As always, the hypocrisy of the Fox News Party is what bothers me the most. It's not tragic enough that people were killed in each instance. The Fox News Party feels it incumbent to take the tragedy and turn it into a political cudgel against people who should be allies in keeping the US safe. When a similar tragedy occurs that doesn't include someone who can be shoe horned into their enemies list, they're strangely silent. When the similar tragedy involves a possible error in judgment by one of their own, the silence is deafening. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Tales from the Farm - Essex County Volume 1 – A Review

Tales from the Farm – Essex County Volume 1

Publisher Top Shelf

Writer/Artist Jeff Lemire

Price $9.95

Format TP B&W 6”x 9”, 100 Pages

This year I finally discovered Jeff Lemire. I don’t know about you but when I find a new writer or artist I feel like it was a discovery and of course I like to share my opinion and spread the word. Jeff sure doesn’t need my help as his talent is self evident.

I started out with Nobody, an OGN from Vertigo, that I thought was good, but I had some quibbles with elements of the story. Still the book showed that Jeff was a talented writer & artist and someone to look for in the future. The goofy title and odd looking character for the new Vertigo series Sweet Tooth, almost made me pass up on the book, but I got it and now I’m hooked on Mr. Lemire’s work.

Then Lee gave me (he must have found it for a super sale) the trade “Tales from the Farm”, Essex County Volume 1. This I believe was Jeff’s main indy work and had drawn a lot of critical acclaim and for a damn good reason, this is a beautiful story.

The story on paper is simple. A young boy’s mother dies and he is taken in to be raised by his uncle. Neither the boy nor the uncle knows how to make it work, but ultimately they both learn to grow up a little and make a family together.

It sounds so simple, but it is the story is one of those heartfelt stories they stays with you for a long time. Lester is constantly wearing a mask and a cape, leaving in a make believe world. He is stuck with his Uncle Ken who tries to do right by Lester, but doesn’t know how to talk to him. Since Lester is constantly in a daze and wearing his costume the other kids make fun of him. He is befriended by another local outcast Jimmy, an ex-NHL hockey player, whose claim to fame according to the townspeople is his being busted up in his first and only professional hockey game.

As the story unfolds we see Les and Ken try to connect, we see Jimmy and Les connect, gets hints that Jimmy maybe Les’s Dad, we see via flashback’s the death of Les’s Mom and Ken and Les first getting together. At the end Les abandons his imaginary world and realizes what Ken is doing for him. For his part Ken is starting to learn how to be a real parent for Les.

It is a touching story and feels very real and as true to life as possible. It feels autobiographic in nature, it is that good. Even with the few bad words in the book, this is an all age book in the best possible sense of the word, in that I think it speaks to anyone. If a child of grade school age was reading it, I would read it with them to explore all the themes together.

Overall Grade A. This is a truly heartfelt and beautiful tale that is so simple yet so complex and deep all at the same time. Lemire is a story teller of high caliber and understands how to connect to an audience.

Best and Worst of Last Week

I’m very late in getting this done as I’m typing this after midnight Sunday / Monday morning. This weekend was unusually busy with a visit from Lee, a poker game, helping my Dad out and the Ravens game being the Sunday Night game. I want to reiterate that I’m working to make this post as tight as possible and that means a lot of books are not getting comments, but I’m trying to at least do a twitter post about most books. I think when a post gets too long you lose a good portion of the audience.

THE BEST

Superman Secret Origin #3 (of 6) - Writer Geoff Johns, Pencils Gary Frank, Inks Jon Sibal, Colors Brad Anderson. Not only is the actual issue itself well done, the story beats and the structure of the entire mini-series is also well done. If the complaint before was the first two issues were too much a reflection of the Smallville show, then the complaint this issue is it was too much like the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeves.
The comparisons are inevitable as Johns and Frank are obviously paying tribute to that movie and incorporating the Clark as the clumsy nerd persona into Clark moving to Metropolis and getting a job with the daily planet. In addition to that Frank has used Reeves as his model for Superman and manages to pull off the classic Superman looks along with the essence of Chris Reeves’ Clark Kent and make it work.
Johns starts off with Clark looking on the sidewalk in Metropolis in awe of all the big buildings and the farm boy is dazzled by the big city. Having visited and then worked in New York City for a little while, Johns captures the essence of the jaded nature of the citizens and the awe of the tourist. We also get a clear picture of how important Lex Luthor has become as apparently he chooses one person a day to fix their life. See my full review here

Thor Giant Size Finale - Writer J. Michael Stracynski, Pencils Marko Djurdjevic, Inks Danny Miki with Allen Martinez & Marko Djurdjevic, Colors Christina Strain.
The story opens where the last issue left off. William, the mortal love of the Asgardian Kelda, is dying after being attacked. Balder comes in and after being informed by William of what Loki and Doom are doing begins to fight off the Asgardian henchmen of the evil duo. Balder appears to be almost beaten when William makes a heroic effort with his dying strength to save Balder. Balder is now aware of Loki and Doom’s machinations and is alerted that he has led his people the wrong way.
We also see the showdown between the enhanced Doombots and Thor. The Warriors Three and the Lady Sif defend Dr. Blake as the Doombots strike. We get to see one of my all time favorite scenes as Volstagg takes on the Doombots and is shown as a hero. He loses his clothes and we are given some great humor as Sif comments on other attributes of Volstagg that have increased his legendary status. From there Donald Blake finds his cane, but before he strikes it, then a Doombot shoots a bolt of enjoy and wounds Blake’s back. He succeeds in changing and Thor dispatches the robot and then checks Donald Blake into a hospital. See my full review here

Blackest Night #5 (of 8) - Writer Geoff Johns, Pencils Ivan Reis, Inks Oclair Albert & Joe Prado, Colors Alex Sinclair. Nekron shows up on Earth, Hal and almost all the other corps pull together and are heading to Earth to save the day. Back on Earth Flash gets a lot of help showing up to also help to save the day from the Black Lanterns. Towards the end a Black Lantern Batman comes to life, but interestedly he does not speak. I’m betting this is not Batman and this is just further proof that whatever happened to Bruce that was not his body that was brought back by Superman. As the corps are attaching the Black Lantern as a group instead of destroying it, it looks like they maybe actually powering it up. Then a great twist as Black Lantern rings attached themselves to all the heroes who have died and risen again. We are left with Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Arrow, Connor Kent, Bart Allen and more now Black Lanterns, yet still alive gathered around Nekron. Nekron also hints that the Guardians big lie is due to be exposed. You know this is an eight issue series, but Johns does a nice left turn at the end to really hold our interest. The final two panels are Black Lantern rings going after Hal and Barry. The art is stunning as it has been the whole series. I really can’t say enough good things about, but to just say again Ivan Reis is the standard in super hero art that everyone else has to try and meet.


THE WORST

New Avengers #59 – This book is not working for me. Between Bendis missing almost everyone’s voice and Immonen’s art not well suited for this type of comic the book is barely hanging together. I’m close to bailing out on this book.


QUICK HITS

Chew #6 – Another fine issue in this series. Tony is now partnered up with his old partner who is not quite himself anymore. The case this issue leads to capturing bank robbers who are making chicken gumbo, that Tony tastes and discovers it isn’t chicken. This strange fruit that Tony taste was shown in the first few pages as growing on an island and it looks like a pineapple with octopus tentacles. How this all ties in, I don’t know but I’m happy to read on and enjoy the ride.

Immortal Weapons #5 (of 5) – This book almost made best of the week. We end the series on a high note. I thought all of the Immortal Weapons were pretty cool characters and most of this series hurt these characters. Not this issue The Prince of Orphans was very cool as he goes around trying to resolve different issues or problems that seem to have been caused by the cities. Also he called in Iron Fist to help him and the interplay between the characters was great. This issue was what I hoped every issue was a spotlight on the Weapons that made me want to read more about each one.

Invincible Iron Man #20 – Four bucks for a story that went nowhere and had tons of filler to justify the $4 price tag. Also what the heck is Tony’s origin now in Marvel and is he of a mixed race descent? I don’t care, per say, I just want to know as I’m confused by who Tony is anymore. Maybe it is just the push by artists to make him look more like Robert Downey Jr.

Justice League Cry For Justice #5 (of 7) – I love the art in this book as far as the pictures, but his layout of design work leaves something to be desired. Of course the fault could be with the writing as Robinson is telling a very choppy story as he tries to build up to the climax of his story. It just has a disjointed and stilted feel to it. Next up is Red Arrow gets his arm ripped off; really this needed to be done why? I guess we are making sure Green Arrow has no competition since Connor has been taken out of the running, now Roy can be sidelined. As my Dad lost an arm over 60 years ago, I know Roy can make do, but this was ridiculous. Finally why is the cover Freddy and Supergirl making out when inside it never happens and instead it appears Freddy has gone nuts or been taken over by a bad guy.

Justice League of America #39 – Vibe is back as a Black Lantern. Vibe is such a horribly dated character and in hindsight a funny character, but this issue of JLA worked as it focused on some JLA members dealing with the newly risen dead.

Superman #694 – I like Mon-El, but something about this series has just been off. I think it is a combination of the artwork being not quite what I’m looking for in a pure super hero book and a choppy story telling that has been infected the entire Superman line of books. There are a lot of great ideas in the Superman line of books and maybe this is all foundation building, but the line needs an overall to get out of being a middle of the pack type of book.

Teen Titans #77 – The best issue of Teen Titans in a very long time and it didn’t have the Teen Titans. A bad sign for a book called Teen Titans. This issue was about Deathstroke and Ravager facing off against each other and Black Lanterns that are Slade Wilson’s crosses to bear. One bit that was great is seeing Wilson’s early training in the military and he is taking out a solider with the last name of Rogers, very funny.

That wraps up this week. Have to wait to Thursday to get new books this week. I think I can make it.