Yeah, we're on vacation, but I'm still putting up the list. Gets me away from too much arguing with people on Facebook. Is it really that hard to grasp that there's no irony or hypocrisy in being intolerant of other people's intolerance? Are people who are against gay marriage that unable to reason through the thought process? Just wondering.
Oh, and lest we have any trouble: SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS. I'll be talking about what happens in books, ok?
1. Spaceman 8 - It's been a bit slow at times in coming out, but every time I get an issue of this book it's the highlight of the month, even if Scalped came out, too. The dystopian world Azzarello and Risso created is just so engaging. Carter and Orson are working together to find and rescue Tara now, though it's a bit of a suspicion filled alliance. The flashbacks to their time on Mars is still filling in how Orson came to be a junk hunter and Carter became a bounty hunter. Hard to believe it's all going to be wrapped up in the next issue. Oh, and loved the title of this issue: "Floating Wait Less".
2. American Vampire 29 - The Blacklist arc hits its second issue as Skinner and Pearl try to infiltrate the ring of vampires running things in Hollywood in the '50s. There's more going on with that than they supposed, but in the forefront for Pearl is how Skinner came to be alive at all, let alone working for the Morningstar to hunt down other vampires. Not that Skinner would mind hunting down other vampires even without something hanging over his head to force him. It's the lack of killing non-vampires that's really different.
3. Fairest 5 - The Snow Queen and the Bad Fairy are ripping things up nicely in their battle. Jonah, now a flaming bottle imp, is arcing across the sky. Ali Baba figures out why he loves the Snow Queen rather than Sleeping Beauty. Hadeon must have liked the George Clooney Batman. She magically creates a suit of armor for her battle with Lumi and goes to the trouble of including nipples on the breast plating. Next issue's battle of the fairy godmothers looks like it'll be a great conclusion to the story.
4. The Walking Dead 100 - I know, it's the big 100th issue and it didn't even make #1 on the List. Not that it's bad, obviously. It's just there was a certain determinist element to it. Big issue means someone major in the cast had to die. That it turned out to be Glenn wasn't a big surprise, given who we had to choose from among the captured grouped. I would have been more surprised if it were Michonne, and a whole lot surprised if it were Rick or Carl. Nagan's an interesting villain, as we're finally seeing him. He's not so much The Governor reincarnated as the Humongous from The Road Warrior. Sure, he doesn't have the shirtless thing and mask going on, but he's a big guy and there's some gay bondage overtones. With the Guarding the Globe mini and this, I'm starting to think Kirkman has a bit of an obsession going on.
5. Saga 5 - Love this book. From the opening page of royalty taking a crap (and reading while going about it) to the end of our bounty hunters in love angle, it's a great ride. I sure hope my wife doesn't shoot me with a stun gun as a sign of love, though. That I could do without. Again, though, I want to mention Vaughan's letter column, To Be Continued. I haven't had this much fun with an exchange between writer and readers since The Question back in the day. And, of course, I should mention Fiona Staples's great art. All kinds of differnet humanoids and critters to work with in this book. And we didn't even have a disembowled ghost showing.
6. Fables 119 - The Island of Misfit Toys, deadly edition, continues to hit home. Terese is an a very bad place, and it's interesting to see how the young cubs have so much potential to be very malignant forces in the Fables world, depending on what happens to them. Raw tyger for lunch. Even if Dare or her parents rescue her, Terese is a changed person after this experience. And every time you have some sympathy for the toys, it quickly goes out the window with the next horrific thing they inflict on her.
7. The Unwritten 39 - Pullman's wooden forearm and hand are now totems of worship. Our cult leader, not surprisingly, is connected to the doings at Oxford a year prior, as is our infiltrator of the cult. Not a happy reunion, though they didn't know each other at Oxford, what with all the other people involved. Surprisingly, we suddenly get a bunch of Pauly Bruckner back story. I had forgotten about Pauly's job before he was turned into the fictional rabbit who fathers a generation of warriors. Ride 'em, cowboy? Does that apply for riding a unicorn?
8. American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares 2 - So Dracula isn't entirely fictional and he's also not entirely back from the dead. Still, he exerts influence from within his coffin, which is now out and about in the world. Now it's up to Felicia and Hobbes to track him down. Nice choice of name for Hobbes, considering his line of work. The tie of Jack the Ripper to the captured Dracula is a nice touch, too. Everyone has their Jack theories and stories. Why not Dracula?
9. Invincible 93 - Lots of good story about Robot and Monster Girl's 700 years in the Flaxan Dimension. Still haven't gotten to the point of finding out what she did that he still holds against her. Seems like it's mighty painful to both of them, whatever it is. I love the reach to small details that were way back in the beginning of the series. Mark's graduation cap that he tossed how long ago? That thing's still at the center of a cult, its leader killed in a new Flaxan invasion. Loved the consecutive splash pages showing battle progression, wordlessly, followed by a series of smaller panels, still wordless, that continued to show the fighting. And now, super, big Flaxan dude...
10. Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures 4 - The Sparrow fights Nazis. Robo learns the economics of comic book collecting. Bruce Lee continues his tutelage of Robo, and goes through a lot of fence posts. The survivor of the Vampire Dimension is found. The comic book collecting short is all too spot on.
11. Wonder Woman 11 - Where most of the New 52 titles have dragged on and I've dropped, Wonder Woman remains the unique entirely engaging book. From Azzarello's story telling to Chiang's art, this book has no peers in super hero comics from DC or Marvel. Ok, I don't read any of the Marvel books, but I've seen nothing that approaches this in solicits. Son Rise has us smack in the middle of godly machinations that would make Machiavelli proud. Artemis and Harvest have a lovely conversation, with Harvest getting the primo quote: "Moon, there's birth and there's death, and in between it's all improvisation." Now there's a truism.
12. Before Watchmen: Minutemen 2 - I think I'm getting more of how warped the Comedian is out of this book than out of his own book. That probably has to do with this book showing how he was as a youth, which seems more disturbing than the same sort of behavior when he's older. I love the cast of misfits at the tryouts for the Minutemen. I can't decide if Hank or The Slut are my favorite.
13. Before Watchmen: Comedian 2 - You know someone as bent as The Comedian is in his element in a war zone, and especially one that had so little control as Vietnam did. Too many clandestine missions and remote stations without adequate accontability. Of course, why Dr Manhattan isn't sent in right away to end things, as I recall he eventually does in The Watchmen, I don't know. But it is interesting to see how The Comedian approaches the war as a fun house.
14. Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre 2 - Laurie's bohemian living while moonlighting as a super hero is less the dark tale that emerges in The Comedian or Minutemen, but it sure is beautiful with Amanda Connor's art. Fitting for the beauty of the cast in the original story. Fitting for the girl fight in this issue, too.
15. iZombie 27 - Almost at the end. Or rather, the end of The End. Too bad Gwen can't get any of her family to leave town to save themselves from the method she's going to employ to save the rest of the world. Hell, even more of her family is showing up now.
16. Saucer Country 5 - A bit curious on the cover, what with all the little symbols. The governor is quite the woman, being able to fake being under hypnosis like she did. Setting up Dr Glass to marginalize him as a threat to her presidential campaign was impressive.
17. Thief of Thieves 6 - Well, Redmond set up his team and all but one were arrested. Now if only he can explain to Celia how the set up is a set up itself before she shoots him...
18. Dark Horse Presents 14 - Even without any of the big names a I really like to follow, this anthology continues to have a good selection of quality stories. This issue even had 104 pages instead of its usual 80 pages, so the $8 price isn't a bad deal at all. Not that it's bad at 80, but 24 more pages of good stories for the same price doesn't hurt. The gimmick of having to flip over the book halfway through and start at the other end is pointless but harmless.
19. Dominique Laveau Voodoo Child 5 - We're settling in off of the opening arc, with some characters being more resistant to Dominique's assumption of the role of Queen than others. Werewolves could be a bit of a problem.
20. Batwoman 11 - I've totally lost what's going on in this second arc of this book. It looks great with Trevor McCarth and Pere Perez doing the art, but I can't remember why Batwoman is fighting these guys or what their organizational structure is. Killer Croc is more a sideline than a villain. I need to re-read.
21. Swamp Thing 11 and Animal Man 11 - I enjoy this and Animal Man as I read them, but unless we get to a resolution of some sort with the fight against the Rot I'm going to have to consider dropping these books. For one thing, it's hard to believe no other heroes in the New 52 have noticed all of this going on around the world. Not that I want some major crossover. Far from it. Just some mention within these books that someone, say like the great detective, Batman, has noticed. At least Animal Man and Swamp Thing are now going to be working together.
23. World War III: Book One, Trinity 18, Trinity 34 - Free stuff. World War III I understood, having read 52, but the Trinity books were a total mystery to me. The only thing I got out of them was that the Lois Lane depicted in these is a really shitty person. No idea why Supes would want to have anything to do with this one.
