Crecy - A Review

This comic should suck.

Written by Warren Ellis, Crecy is the story of the English Army that fought the French at the Battle of Crecy in 1346. The story is told from the perspective of an English archer, who spends nearly the entire book speaking directly to the reader. Through his narration we learn about the reasons for the war, strategy, what it was like to be a soldier in this army, the revolutionary nature of the English longbow, and ultimately “the English and the French and why the English hate the French.”

While this could make for an interesting history, you can be forgiven for wondering how the hell this makes an entertaining comic and not just a dry recitation of history. The answer is Ellis’ the narrator. Ellis does an incredible job with the voice of William of Stonham. Whether he is describing his hatred of the French, the advantage of different arrowheads, the importance of archery, the tactics of the battle, or what the Welsh do to sheep, his downtrodden tone and constant, innovative cursing never fails to entertain. He may be straight from the Warren Ellis School for Unpleasant Bastards, but he is well suited to this story.



William speaks directly to the reader, giving us a lesson in the historical importance of the Battle of Crecy, but he always keeps the reader grounded. His casual tone alongside the details of the life of an English soldier in the 14th century keeps everything in perspective and makes the historical events we’re seeing relatable and understandable, even if you have zero interest in English history or Medieval warfare.

Though the majority of the book is William speaking to the reader, it mixes it up by having William interact with his fellow soldiers, showing us maps to help us understand the battlefield, and having William and his compatriots shooting Frenchmen in the face with arrows. And honestly, when has people shooting the French in the face NOT made something better? Well, except for WWII. ANYWAY….

The artwork by Raulo Caceres is well suited for the story being told. It is extremely detailed and does an excellent job showing us the muck and filth that probably defined 14th century warfare. Reminiscent of Chris Weston, the art has a classical feel that seems appropriate for a story set this far back. I typically hate the artists Avatar pairs with Ellis on his project, but Caceres seems particularly suited to this story and seems more interested in telling a story than drawing intestines exploding in intricate detail. That said, there is a fair amount of gore in this book and Caceres does it justice.

Crecy is a book that shouldn’t be as good as it is. It’s funny, interesting, AND educational. How can comics continue to rot my brain if they can make learning this fun?

The Week of April 28 In Review

I could have almost gone without a best book because it was such a big week and I started to get lazy in how much I wanted to write up, but Echo and Stumptown are just superior comic books. Echo is amazing in that we are 21 issues into this story and it keeps getting better. Stumptown is also a terrific series and I should contact Matt Southworth and see if he would do an e-mail interview, his back matter material was great this issue. Matt has that great noir feel to his work that is making Rucka’s scripts come to life. I hate that Greg has left DC for the time being but boy if we get more of Stumptown and Queen and Country type of material I’m all for it.

BEST

Echo #21– By Terry Moore. This issue just continues what is one of the best stories being told on the stands today. I have no idea how many issues we have to go before we hit the finish line but this issue marks a major turning point as it appears Annie has taken control of Julie via the suit. Of course this opens up all sorts of questions as what happens to Julie Martin if Annie is the mind in charge. What was Annie’s plan for the suit? Terry Moore has built about five to six characters who have a lot depth and where these characters end up at the conclusion of this story is a mystery. How will the power of this suit be destroyed or ensured to be used in peaceful ways is an open question. I also have to wonder if the suit is so powerful how was Annie able to be killed by her employers. The art, the dialogue, the pacing, it is all spot on. The situation is unreal, but the people are very real.

Stumptown #3 – Writer Greg Rucka, Art Matt Southworth, Colors Rico Renzi. It was a long time between issues, but I fell right back into the story. Dex is trying to figure out exactly who is out to get Charlotte and why and getting little cooperation from Isabel (Charlotte’s friend). It is a lot of people to get to know in a few issues and every once in awhile I forget who is who, but the story moves along at a great pace and has plenty of characterization and action. My favorite scene this issue was Dex going to shoot out some tires so the bad guys would not follow her and the girls and she is out of bullets. The girls take off and the thug laughs at Dex’s luck. Dex is always getting beaten up, but true to the genre she is never out of the game. Greg and Matt are knocking it out of the park with this series that leaves you just begging to see what happens next.

OTHER BOOKS OF NOTE

GI Joe Cobra #4 – This was supposed to be the end of this mini-series and it appears obvious that the end was modified a little to make it a cliff hanger and not more of an open ended thing. This book has a very cool feel to it and the crosses and double crosses are all well done. It is more of a spy book then a GI Joe thing from my viewpoint.

Justice Society of America #38 – This story has grown on me. I was not big on doing a Nazi story, but having Mr. Terrific as the central character in this mellow drama is making it work. I always like characters who are trying to outthink their situation as that is power we can all have. Now how he gets out of being shot in the head is another story. Somehow they need to do an Adam Strange Mr. Terrific story one day.

Madame Xanadu #22 – This could easily be in the best category, but it is a middle chapter and that makes the story have less of an impact at times. Amy Reeder Hadley and Richard Friend turn in another stellar art job. I’m enjoying having J’onn J’onzz around a lot. His guest starring role works on many levels, not the least that Nimue can’t figure out how he does the things he does without magic. The story is building as we see Morgana is trying to restore her son Modred back to life.

Mighty Avengers #36 & New Avengers #64 – I know companies have to make decisions with certain books and releasing them or not when they tie into an event, but this is the second time that the event books is late and major beats are revealed before the issue hits the stands. Siege #4 should have been out and these books are giving away a bunch of stuff making the ending of Siege ho-hum. Dark Reign at least is over and I find I was very tired of it.

Scalped #37 – Certain books could always be a best book and Scalped is one of those series. Shunka gets played and made to look a fool. It was another great character piece and Jason Aaron weaves in these back stories while the main artist works on the main plot of the book. This makes the main story a lot better as many players are fully developed and gives the series a richer feel to it.

Walking Dead #71 – I love the left turns that Kirkman makes at the end of his books and in hindsight they are almost always perfectly within character. This issue we are learning about the compound they have moved into and Carl and Andrea both remark how everything seems fake and they are worried that this is no longer the way to live. At the end Rick says “If they ever try to make us leave well just take the place from them and make it ours.” We have been seeing Rick going nuts with talking to his dead wife on the phone; this is just confirmation that no matter how normal we think Rick is, he is not. This world has impacted everyone. The artist Charles Adlard continues to do a great job and I need to buy one of his pages of art for my collection one day.

War of the Superman #0 – The free comic book day entry for this year from DC is a great prelude to the Superman event in May. It was well done and set-up everything perfectly. From a marketing perspective I think this might have been their only good option. There is no event on the horizon for 2010 that would work like Blackest Night, so this story goes right into what is a weekly four part series about Superman and then into JMS taking over the book, so it is a good way to bring back lapsed Superman fans. I have to assume Superman sales have been depressed with the storylines of the last year.

X-Force #26 – Second Coming Chapter 5 – I continue to be impressed with this story. Oh there are some odd plot holes here and there inherent to almost any super hero comic, but this is such a wonderful job of each writer telling the next chapter in a linear story. The apparent death of Nightcrawler worked very well and the sacrifice felt like something Kurt would have done. I’m still a little confused as how Rogue’s powers work, but someone may explain that down the road. The one panel at the end was suppose to be dramatic when Wolverine pop his claws, but I found it incredibly laughable that Logan’s reaction to a teammate’s death is to pop his claws. Minor quibbles in a story that is holding my interest from week to week and building an exciting entry for a new character to be part of the MU. It seems apparent Hope will be the new wielder of the Phoenix force, but as long as they don’t make her too powerful it could work.

BOOKS THAT MISSED AND WHY

Iron Man #25 – The new start for Iron Man in the Heroic Age and boy as much as this is a good looking book and the story has a plot it is so dumb that even comic book logic fails to help it make sense. This of course is an example of why having Tony Stark as Iron Man forever is the death of all character growth. There are multiple things that I can’t believe even in the context of a comic, such as James Rhodes looking like he is 25 if he is a day and Pepper Potts has graduated from a supporting character to being a master corporate guru and at times action hero (she has been turned into the female Tony Stark, way too quickly). Before I go on, I would actually enjoy it if Pepper became the new Iron Woman and took over the role as opposed to Tony Stark yet again. Here is the big problem Tony now has holes in his memory because he uploaded an old version of his brain from a year or so ago. Tony admits to Reed it was a big mistake and he should have made updated copies. What about the fact that Tony erased his frigging brain for no good reason. One of the smartest guys in the world could have taken lesser steps to protect the information in his brain from Osborne. Oh and if he did have updated copies wouldn’t Osborne have found those. The whole idea of what Tony did is stupid and reeks of some sort of thing that allows him to have a clean slate. I’m not that vested in Iron Man and I know right now with the next movie coming out he is Marvel’s shining star but I’m done with Iron Man for awhile.

Outsiders #29 – I’m within a hair’s breadth of dropping this book. Since Dan Didio has taken over the direction this book has taken makes little sense. Geo-Force aligns with the Eradicator and sends most of the team packing. The characters are acting out of character and the dramatic shift in direction from being an ancillary part of Batman’s world is gone. Then we get this issue with Looker all of a sudden front and center running around as a vampire. I missed her being turned into a vampire, but this issue was like we jumped into the middle of a long running plot line with Looker that apparently I have missed. Then it ends with some character being given a horn to be some other character’s herald and the words “the end for now”. I thought perhaps the series was cancelled, but I checked and more issues are coming out. If it was not for my fondness for some of the characters and solid artwork by Don Kramer and Philip Tan I would drop it. I may have to soon anyway as this book has no clue what it is doing or where it is going. Of course how can an editor tell the co-publisher his writing needs to be more cohesive and tighter and needs to get to the story faster? Answer – he can’t, it never works critiquing your boss’ work no matter how much he says it is okay.

I found that I had more to say about the books that missed than I did about the great books this week. One reason, it is difficult to constantly praise something as I sound redundant. How many ways can I say it was great? When something goes wrong there are tons of things to look at and try to determine where it all went wrong. I also noticed I’m way too easy on not cancelling DC books. Partly because I like the characters more and partly as I know Marvel doesn’t care about the single fan like I believe DC does.

Aunt May Forever or The Stagnation of Super Heroes

Being a super hero comic book fan is like being trapped in an endless time loop. I’m sure many of you have seen that idea in a Star Trek episode or more recently in a Fringe episode. The theory is, you are constantly stuck reliving a certain moment in time over and over and only have a vague notion that you have done this before. Super-hero comics are like that. As I often celebrate a good story, I recognize how much we, the readers, are trapped in amber forever preserving a moment in time.

What recently drove this point home for me was the new Marvel series with the Forever tag lines after them. Add to that the new GI Joe series where Larry Hama is picking up his story line from years ago and not only are we stuck with keeping the same characters forever, but now we want the same writers to be around forever telling whatever story we were hoping they were going to tell before. I’m often guilty of wanting this type of stuff as I’m pretty happy to see Paul Levitz come back to the Legion, but at least this is not just a straight picking up from his run in the 80's! He is building on what Johns has done to reboot the Legion.

I think it is bad enough that we can’t move past Cyclops and Ray (Atom) Palmer as characters as both are 50 years old and their stories have been told over and over and over and over again. Now we add to it that we want to jump back 15, 10, 20 or whatever number of years and grab a certain point in time and let the old creative team tell whatever story they had in mind before the powers to be moved them off the book (usually due to declining sales). I don’t care what writer “x” had planned for character “y”. I liked reading about stuff like Claremont and Byrne were not going to kill Jean Grey on the moon way back when and that they were going to lobotomize her powers. The storyline from there could have been interesting, but Shooter as Editor-in-Chief disagreed and so the x-history was changed. It is all good as stories were made up to bring her back in multiple ways that become the basis for some wonderful convoluted continuity.

Moving forward is always more important then moving backwards. What strikes me as so bad with the capes stuff is, as fans, we are stuck in a point in time so badly that we can’t even let go of supporting characters. Which is why Aunt May is even forever. I mean this doddering old woman was killed once and then we were told she was not the real Aunt May and now we have the 150 year old Aunt May still hanging out in comics. Franklin Richards was born in the sixties and is still about 7 years old over 40 years later. Jimmy Olsen is still hoping to become a photo journalist even though the photography industry and print industry has radically changed. Alfred should be pushing daisies, but was recently running a super hero group. Johnny Storm seems to be 25 forever and Iceman is still 20 and the list goes on and on.

How sad is it that, as a group, we can’t let go of yesterday? My Dad is ninety years old and I have heard him talk about yesterday all my life. I love history, but I want to make my own not relive what has already occurred.

Geoff Johns has stated that death will be forever going forward in the DCU. Given the power he welds at DC and his relatively young age, he has a chance to make this statement stick for a decade or so. I hope he does because, as much as I love his writing, Geoff is guilty of bringing back some of the older characters and having them supplant the heroes who had taken over. So if we went back to go forward then I can live with that.

Plus, being stuck in time has created the very confusing Marvel sliding scale of continuity where whatever happened to a character happened in the last ten years. This lead to Iron Man now just starting during the Iraq War of the first Bush and soon he will have started during the second Bush era. At the same time other characters still reach back to WWII and I guess Cap was unfrozen in 2000. It is a loose rule and is so messed up no one has a clue about who does what.

Even with DC and my much ballyhooed second and third generation heroes like Bart Allen, Connor Kent and even Cassie (Wonder Girl), they have been around for a decade of more. Still at least this cast is fresher and newer then Marvel’s New Warriors who first appeared in 1989 (21 years ago!).

Regardless, these characters are fresher and even Dick Grayson and Bucky Barnes being the new Bat and Cap is fresher and more exciting than the older heroes. Once you let go then anything can really happen again and the books are exciting.

Of course what this has done to me is forced me to fall in love with all the non-cape books, which is a good thing. Non-cape books can have endings and tell stories with a beginning, middle and an end. Some of the best non-capes books are: Scapled, Echo, American Vampire, The Sword, Sweet Tooth, Madame Xanadu, Rasl, Queen and Country, White Out, Stumptown, Northlanders and the list goes on. The forever aspect of capes has caused me to drop almost every super hero at one time or another. I get back into the character, but not always. Spider-Man and the X-Men have been off my list for awhile.

This is a point I make over and over again, almost as often as Deadpool appears in a Marvel book, but I think if comics are to regain a larger audience that may be coming with digital comics they need to be bold and make that jump into the future. Let Cyclops, Clark Kent, Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Hal Jordan, Barry Allen give way to the next generation and the next one after that. I love a lot of the old stuff but with trades and hard covers we can relive the past by re-reading the stories we love instead of trying to recreate it again. Otherwise I will one day be as old as Aunt May and still seeing her in comics, yet when I started reading comics I was in first grade and Spider-Man was in high school. Aunt May and I forever trapped in amber, sounds darn scary to me.

What I’m Getting Wednesday May 5

May promises to be a month that will kill me as far as dollars go, but will keep me happy with all the new series coming out and great collected editions that should hit the stands. Also if all goes according to schedule the first statue I have ordered in many years should show up this month.

It starts with DC which has Brightest Day #1 hitting the stands. I loved the zero issue and DC has often left good ideas languishing in the dust, but the end of Blackest Night has just given way to tons of great series. This book is following Aliveman (he isn’t Deadman anymore), Aquaman, Hawkman and Hawkgirl and more of the resurrected heroes. It comes out bi-weekly and we have a very strong creative team on the book. It has can’t miss written all over it. The other big book from DC is Superman War of the Superman #1 (of 4). A weekly event chronicling Zod’s war against Earth and General Lang with Superman caught in the middle. Superman is finally interesting again and should be a top book to read every week.

The rest of the books from the DCU look good also with Batman and Robin #12, Batman Confidential #44, Doom Patrol #10, Great Ten #7 (of 9), Jonah Hex #55, JSA All Stars #6, Nemesis the Imposters #3 (of 4), Red Robin #12, Secret Six #21 and Warlord #14. Batman and Robin has been great, Secret Six is in the middle of its best arc ever, Nemesis has been killer and the list goes on. The DCU is having a strong opening week.

Vertigo has IZombie #1 hitting the stands. Allred’s art is perfect for this book. The preview pages show off Allred’s art and his quirky, yet realistic style fits the strange premise to a “T”. Writer Chris (Cinderella from Fabletown) Roberson’s has a pretty young girl that has to eat a brain a month to keep from being a true Zombie. Add to that that her name is Gwen and the book sounds like it should be a very cool series. Vertigo also brings us Demo Vol 2 #4 (of 6), Sweet Tooth #9 and House of Mystery #25. Vertigo is the best imprint on the market for my money. Very high quality and many, many more hits then misses.

Rounding out items from the DC Entertainment group is Astro City The Dark Age Book Four #4 (of 4). I love Astro City but this was way too long of a story and I have lost interest to a certain degree. Finally the release of the week is Dong Xoai Viet Nam 1965 HC by Joe Kubert. The solicitation copy tells the story “Joe Kubert, one of the most influential storytellers in comics history, tells the harrowing, true story of a detachment of Special Forces soldiers on a simple recon mission into the village of Dong Xoai, Vietnam, that turned suddenly deadly. DONG XOAI, VIETNAM 1965 has a unique perspective, since Kubert based the story on extensive information gathered from the surviving members of the unit. It covers not only the action of the event but the details of deployment and build-up that led to the deadly encounter for these young American G.I.s.” This should be excellent and at $25 for 200 pages in color it is a bargain.

Marvel is almost a skip week for me with only Realm of Kings Son of Hulk #4 (of 4), Stephen Kings N #3 (of 4), Uncanny X-Men #524 Second Coming Chapter 6 and Moon Knight #8. The Second Coming story has continued to be terrific. It is such a pleasure to read an event like this that skips from book to book but maintains a straight story line. Heck I’m so into this story I will probably get the tie-in series called X-Men Hellbound #1 (of 3) about what happened to Magik.

The other category is killer this week with Walking Dead HC Volume #5, Barry Windsor Smith Conan Archives HC Volume 2 and Dreadstar The Beginning HC (finally) all coming out the same week. I knew May was shaping up as the perfect storm with late books hitting my list and others hitting their publication dates, it always happens that way. The rest is Codebreakers #2 (of 4), Irredeemable #13 and Killer Modus Vivendi #1 (of 6). I’m very glad to see a second story on The Killer as the first series was one of the best stories about an assassin for hire I have ever read.

A nice way to start the month of May which promises to be the brightest heroic age we could possible ask for! Of course the fact that the economy is still in the tank and is being held up by the government printing money until it is worthless should not bother you at all.

Next week I will be skipping this column as I’m out of town for a few days and Greg is doing a Monday post for us. Thanks Greg! I may do my What I’m Getting and an abbreviated Week In Review on Tuesday May 11.

Iron Man Thor – FCBD Comic – A Commentary/ Review

This book was a perfect example of why I recently dropped Iron Man and why Marvel’s writing in general and Fraction in particular irk me to no end.

In one part of the book Tony refers to the fact that he is broke. This is in keeping with the current continuity of Iron Man. Then a few pages later we find he owns a space station that I guess is the size of a football stadium at least. Comic book logic is always a crap shoot, but the internal logic of the book has to make sense. On page one saying the sky is blue and then to just change it to green makes no sense. Some sort of one liner to explain this away would be nice. This is a common failing with Fraction and I notice it with Bendis and Millar a lot of times. The attitude seems to be that this is comic books and it doesn’t have to always make sense. I get that comic books are suppose to at times be fun and the adventures and battles will be outlandish, but the internal logic still needs to be there for me. I know fans that don’t care and just brush my complaints off as nitpicking, but for me it is a “dumbing down” of comics or disrespecting the audience. Once these things are allowed you can never try and figure out what is going to happen next because even internal logic is out the window. The same thing happens with characterization, Tony Start becomes gay next issue and it is treated like he was always gay and the womanizing was a cover. No sense is followed by some writers and characterization is mercurial at best.

This issue is rife with other things such as the cavalier fact that human lives were being lost left and right. The book starts with a tidal wave of immense proportions and Thor can’t stop it. The loss of lives must have been in the thousands, but it was a page panel of awe inspiring disaster. When Thor mentions it to Iron Man he smiles about what he may have created and that it was stolen. Where is the heroic effort to stop the tidal wave and save lives?

Finally at the end of the story rich corporate fat cats are the evil guys on the moon who have caused these disasters. Everyone on the moon is put into Tony’s space station and set adrift in an orbit between Earth and Mars. Everyone! Thor and Tony are fine with it and maybe they will get back to them someday. I guess they are judge, jury, prison keeper and now the final arbiter of right and wrong. Isn’t this what we just got away from with the new “heroic age”? Come on Batman drops off the bad guys at Gotham Central and Spider-Man ties up the criminals for the police, but Tony and Thor, hey you reap what you sow and we decided anyone even just working for these people are guilty.

Yeah, yeah, it is just a one shot story and doesn’t need to make sense is what some people are saying. Other will argue that I’m over analyzing it, it is just a comic book. I grew up with people deriding comics and what I thought was a great entertainment form and as the writer has gotten better I can point to what I read with pride. This type of writing is why people who have an IQ that don’t normally read a comic, will read this and think we are retards or intellectually stuck at 12 years old. If comics are to be a viable source of entertainment and something you want your kids to read than we have to demand better. I have read a ton of single issue stories far superior to this. It is lazy and sloppy story telling. While most fans may just think it was a cool action picture and a neat team-up, I disagree. Heck you might as well read the silver age stuff that was targeted for eight year olds.

I thought comics were getting better, but not here, not here.

The List - April 2010

I think there are two factors, aside from quality, that are influencing my choices in what goes to the top of the list. One is that some of my favorites come out at the end of the month, so they're fresh in my mind. For instance, this month the top 5 all came out the last week of the month.

The other factor is my inclination for noir. It's why Batman is often near the top of the costumed contingent of the List. This month was a little different in the super hero section because the two issues of Action Comics were ahead of the Batman titles, but the Flamebird and Nightwing story's conclusion was really quite good.

Anyway, off we go.

1. Stumptown 3 - Really missed not having an issue of this last month, but in a sign of the quality of the project, I had no problem picking up where we left off two months ago. Falls in line with my predeliction for noir, of course, but it's the quiet threats involved in the story, along with excellent character development that keep the interest piqued. As many times as people talk about a book, comic or movie being "real world", this one captures that feeling as much or more than anything I've seen. The added bonus of artist Matthew Southworth's commentary and sketches at the end is like manna.

2. Scalped 37 - Shunka is one bad mother... Ok, in his case it's more likely a father, but same idea. Loved this two part story of the previously undeveloped character who's Red Crow's right hand and enforcer. The machinations of the man who was Shunka's one night stand are slightly contrived, the faked death having been done a little too often over the years, but at least it was not a super hero return from the dead.

3. Madame Xanadu 22 - The Morgan le Fey of Arthurian legend is just bat shit crazy now. Kind of like Wagner and Rucka got together on a theme for Action and Madame, villains in both working on the same sort of plan of world destruction. No hunt for power in Morgan. She just wants glorious destruction. Beautifully rendered by Amy Reeder Hadley, of course. I like that Martian Manhunter is such a mysterious character in this setting, too.

4. Northlanders 27 - Now that's a fight. Boris versus Gunborg is just brutal. Like Stumptown, realistically so, though far more brutal than Stumptown, as is fitting of the differing mores of the eras involved. Hilda versus Jens wasn't so much of a fight, but it too was a brutal confrontation. Leandro Fernandez's art employs a simple style that is very much in keeping with the tenor of Wood's story.

5. Invincible 71 - The Viltrumite War is here! Hooray! Conquest is back! Hooray! Death and destruction on a cosmic scale in the offing! Hooray! Great Kirkman character development! Hooray! I really should stop cheering for a war, but this one has been coming since the first issue. Much like Willingham's Fables reaching the fall of the Empire after many years of great stories, I'm looking forward to not just the resolution of what's been building all this time but also to seeing how Kirkman moves forward from there.

6. Secret Six 20 - Simone looked to have written herself into a corner at the end of last issue, but the harsh "reality" that this team inhabits perfectly allowed her to write Catman out of the dilema that would have confronted an upstanding super hero. Violently, of course. Easily and consistently my favorite super powered team.

7. Fables 94 - Although titled Rose Red Part One, this issue is more eclectic. We have stories involving Pinocchio's much sought for revenge on the Blue Fairy, Beast's deal with said Fairy, Totenkinder's search for ways to defeat the Dark Man, and the really, really scary Dark Man himself. Of course, we also have Rose Red, still looking haggard, as well as a tete a tete with Beauty, Beast, Snow and Bigby. The setting for the eventual fight against the Dark Man moves forward. I don't feel like it's going to take as long to get to this battle as the war with the Empire did.

8. daytripper 5 - This month's story of a life and death of Bras de Oliva Domingos was set in his childhood. I'm still amazed how one consistent character is shaped by a series of vignettes that each end in his death by some new method and during some varying point in his life. It's one of the most creative means of telling a story I've ever seen. Gabriel Ba continually captures the feeling of both Brazil and the appropriate stage of life that's being told in a given issue. Always touching, each issue.

9. Atomic Robo and the Revenge of the Vampire Dimension 2 - Fun. Just plain fun. Even though I was never into the Japanese animation super hero stories that took off in the '80s, I like the homage in this issue. Consistently clever dialog and outright obfuscatory psuedo science are al part of the fun.

10. The Walking Dead 71 - For some reason the stories that heavily feature Carl are always my favorites. Maybe it's because I find the child's perspective, with its momentary awareness encapsulated within an overall situational lack of awareness, a fascinating one. Not that the other characters are less interesting, but they're all adults. Carl's a child with adult problems. As always, there are numerous undercurrents in the story. Another fine addition to the Kirkman pantheon.

11. Cinderella From Fabletown with Love 3 - Where I had problems with another writing Kirkman's characters in Atome Eve & Rex Splode, I don't have problems with Chris Robinson writing Willingham's Fables characters. The development is spot on to the personalities Willingham had brought forth, and really just a lot of fun. Very nice conclusion that should have some broader repurcussions in the Fables world that can be developed in future stories.

12. Incorruptible 5 - Max Damage really is a far more interesting character than the Plutonian at this point. His efforts to protect Jailbait from retaliation by his many enemies, though a bit questionable, involving kidnapping as they do, show how much he's changed from the amoral villain he'd been previously.

13. The Astounding Wolf-Man 22 - A werewolf/robot romance. How often have you seen that? I have to re-read earlier issues because, for the life of me, I can't recall when or how that happened. A shame this series is ending at 25.

14. The Green Hornet Year One 2 - Does anyone do non powered super heroes better than Wagner? I don't think so. Not even Frank Miller, in my opinion. My dad was a fan of the Green Hornet when I was a kid, but I have never seen or read a single thing with the character until now. Loving every minute of it.

15. The Unwritten 12 - Leaving aside the story of Tom, we're in a single issue that, based on Carey's prior writings, is almost certainly going to play an important part in the larger story later. Pauly Bruckner is not a happy person, and his efforts to escape his prison end very badly for him. All told within the confines of a treacly children's story. Not at all in subject matter similar to Carey and Gross's Lucifer series, but in tenor there's a certain bleakness to this that does remind me of that great series.

16. American Vampire 2 - Vertigo keeps on bringing out great new series. Snyder and Albuquerque's front half of the book is still the more interesting of the two tales, but King's Skinner Sweet origin story is very good, too. Being a vampire is teaching Skinner some patience, that's for sure. Unlike any number of Dracula stories over the years, he won't be the vampire who's been around for a much longer time than his pupil. With his time at the bottom of the lake, he'll really not been a vampire much longer than Pearl.

17. Unknown Soldier 19 - Why does Moses keep surviving? Simply amazing. Not unrealistic, but at some point one of these uber violent confrontations has to mean his end. His accumulated enemies list just keeps getting longer. Dysart's commentary is a nice plus, too, even if it was supposed to be in the previous issue. In this book, a discussion of witchcraft persecution in primitive versus developed societies is always germane.

18. Proof 26 - A whole lot of interlude stories. I'm not as harsh on the long story of Spring Heel Jack as some other writers, but I do like these small scale stories more than the big stories in a book like this where there are so many good characters to follow.

19. Daredevil Hell to Pay TPB - Half price sale on a large shipment of Marvel trades at Cards, Comics and Collectibles lead me to this purchase. I'd seen several positive comments about Brubaker's writing on Daredevil, and truth be told, there's really not much Marvel in which I'm interested these days, so here we are. It was certainly worth the price. Lark's are was great, setting the appropriate mood and moving the story along, but ever since Miller's run on Daredevil it seems every story I read about Matt Murdock is hugely depressing. The man's life has just taken on Jobian proportions. Someone give the man a break.

20. Invincible Returns 1 - Although published as a starting point for new readers to get in before the Viltrumite War launches in the regular series, and also full of a lot of exposition, there was some good new stuff in here, too. The exploration of why super heroes should or shouldn't kill villains was worth the buying of the issue all by itself. Add in Eve's continuing withholding of her pregnancy from Mark and the return to a costume similar to Invincible's original costume and you've got something easily worth the $4.

21 & 22 Action Comics 888, 889 - It's interchangeable as to which issue comes first on the List. The love triangle of cosmic proportions comes to an end here, quite nicely. I felt sorry for the Breaker, much more so than Morgan le Fay in Madame Xanadu, even if they're both trying to destroy the world. At least the Breaker has a deep emotional basis for his desire to see everything destroyed. Morgan's just selfish. I never did get into the back up story of Captain Atom, a character of little interest but whose now moving on to the Justice League, apparently.

23. Superman Secret Origins 5 - I don't care at all if this is in continuity. It's just a joy to read. I like these smaller scale efforts by Johns more than the grand epic like Blackest Night. Probably true for just about any writer, I suppose. With the exception of 52, I haven't been particularly impressed with the grand epics of late. I would like to see some members of the military who aren't just xenophobic and power mad. These guys don't resemble the US military that I know.

24. Batman and Robin 11 - Oberon Sexton is just one of the coolest looking characters ever designed. That I don't know jack about him actually helps keep my interest in the story, too. Damian is easily my favorite Robin at this point. Who'd have thunk Robin would be the more dangerous half of the titular duo? The off panel action involving Batman was done perfectly, too. We may see it later, but I don't need to in order to know what's happened to Dick was not good.

25. The Great Ten 6 - Can DC turn this into a regular series? I'd like that. These are some really interesting characters. There's no uniform reason for them to be working for the Chinese Communist Party. Some are believers in the cause, but others are doing it because it was the only or least bad choice they had. I haven't found a one of the characters to be stale or uninteresting. The story that encapsulates the character development isn't bad either. Who are these Chinese "deities"?

26. Batman: Streets of Gotham 11 - I keep thinking I might drop this title, but I like the Dini stories too much. Consistent with Morrison's Batman and Robin, Damien is the dangerous character. Even a more or less nothing villain like Zsasz is put to good use here.

27 Gotham City Sirens 11 - More Dini goodness. Combining Batman related mythos, Dini and elements of Secret Six's anti-hero stories is a sure winner for me. Selena and Harley seem to be making more effort at staying out of trouble than Pam, but I suppose it's all relative. Love the hyena's dietary choices.

28. Justice Society of America 38 - What better team for fighting super Nazis? Willingham's offhand reference to Mr Terrific's make up as minstrel related was excellently done. The beginning of the fight to change this future and the background stories of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Aquaman in this Nazi future are quite good. Timely telling of this story, too. The allegory between the propaganda of the Nazis that the super heroes were keeping non-powered people under the heel of their authority and the Tea Party propaganda that the US government is doing the same today is subtle and spot on.

29. Spaghetti Brothers Volume 2 - The Martin Public Library sent me this one in March, but I didn't get to read it until this month. It still reminds me a lot of Will Eisner's Spirit work, but the archetypes represented by the 5 siblings is just a little too pat sometimes.

30. The Warlord 13 - This book was near being dropped at one time but it really is much better. It hasn't moved up to the top half of the list, but the new direction it's taking with Tinder as the Warlord has my interest again. Can someone portray a US general as something other than snarling, though? Snarling guys don't really rise far in the military, as a rule. Not just today, but guys like Eisenhower and Marshall were as much politicians and strategists as blood and guts fighters. Probably more so. Patton was the exception, not the rule.

31. Jonah Hex 36 - More free stuff from Cards, Comics and Collectibles. This time I actually did get a single issue story. A great story of tragic misunderstanding and the why of Jonah's confederate jacket being worn so long after the war.

32. Detective Comics 864 - Maybe it's just that I really liked Rucka's Batwoman stories, but this Jeremy Arkham story wasn't very interesting. It's Psycho inflected twist wasn't much of a twist as much as a curious moment of dumbfoundedness at the stupidity of the people running this institution. If not for the back up story of The Question, I might consider skipping Detective if Rucka's not writing.

33. Irredeemable Special 1 - Mostly filler. The background stories on the Hornet (who's been dead since the first issue of the series), Kaidan, and Max Damage aren't bad. It's just that I don't see where they needed this issue to do it. The first two stories could have been told in the regular series and the last could have been told in Max Damage's own book.

34. Dazzler 1 - Yes, this is the book from 1981 that was spun out of the Uncanny X-Men. I had this back in those days and got rid of it some time ago, but it came with the free Jonah Hex issue. It's still as bad as I remembered. I think I have TPB of a Dazzler story on the shelf somewhere. I think I'll re-read that and post on it some time in the near future.

35. Fist of Justice 4 - Another one in the free pack. It's cute enough. I want it to be set in Baltimore, what with the banner above the title saying it's Charm City's Greatest Defender, but it doesn't look like Baltimore on the inside. It's not bad. It's just not worth the regular price of $4, at least to me.

36. Outsiders 29 - Well, it's better than the crazy Geo-Force story that was going on previously, but it's still not good. I missed the whole Looker turned into a vampire bit, but it doesn't hold an appeal for me. The subtitle's a bit odd, too. True Vampire Romance? There's not even a hint of vampire romance in the story. The closest thing to romance is the wet one Katana plants on Owl Man. Gotta remember to tell the shop to stop holding this one for me.

Don't Forget! Today is Free Comic Book Day!

I can't believe it's here already. I mean it really snuck up on me this year. It doesn't help that FCBD is usually the day after a major comic book movie release and Iron Man 2 comes out next week. Still the stores are ready for you. It's a great day to bring the kids or that friend who only knows comics from the movies.

Some stores have limits on how many free comics you can grab (these books aren't free for them you know). So, I've compiled a short list of books I definitely want to get.

Of course, my number one pick is going to be Owly. He only gets a few pages of the issue now, but it's always great. I encountered Owly at FCBD 2005 for the first time. I didn't want "waste" my free issue on this "kiddie" book, so I talked my daughter into getting it. We both LOVED it!

Love and Capes is a great comic. The first IDW trade was really well done -- I think the paper is even better than the floppies. The second trade is due out this summer and this issue begins the next chapter of the series.

Al Williamson's Secret Agent Corrigan -- Wow! This is a no brainer for me (and I've never even read this series) as I love Williamson's work! Hopefully, this means there will be a collected edition in the future sometime.

I've been enjoying the Mouse Guard HC's from the library with my kids. This should be a beautiful book and it's all-new too.

This book is worth picking up for the cover alone.


With my rekindled love for Archie comics this should be fun.


This book picks up where the old Marvel series left off. If only Herb Trimpe were drawing it!

Even if none of these "tickle your fancy", there's bound to be something out there you'll like. HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

Special scheduling note: Next week my post will be on Sunday, which is Mother's Day. Thanks to Thomm who was gracious enough to switch with me.