The Week of February 6 in Review Preview

I thought I would give you a clip from tomorrow's post as opposed to just covers.

This week is just two parts.

The best I saved for last and that is Green Arrow #1 #17 by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. I love Sorrentino’s art so the book looked great. Jeff Lemire tossed the whole new Green Arrow concept in the trashcan and started over again. A good thing to do with this book and I have no clue if this will jibe with the new JLA, but I could care. It is interesting because I have been watching the Arrow TV show and it is okay for what it is, but the comic seems to be aligning itself a little more to the TV shpw. Since I do not know who this Green Arrow is I was surprised to find out his being stranded on an island is still part of the overall origin. Anyway Lemire strips way his wealth, his high tech supports group and has a mysterious stranger show up and kick Ollie’s ass. Just as the mysterious Komodo is about to kill Ollie the mysterious Magus shows up to save Ollie. I know I said enough with the mysteries, but mysteries are okay if you are telling a story and Lemire is telling a linear story. These new elements are unknown to Ollie also. Magus also reveals that Ollie was never supposed to leave the island. It was a great opening and now I can comfortably get into this version of Green Arrow.

Part 1 tomorrow and part 2 Tuesday.

Comic Covers Sunday: Supergirl

Last time, I talked about Superboy but let's not forget his lovely companion in super capes!  The girl of steel herself, Supergirl.  Supergirl has been around forever and has had more bad comics than just about any other hero I can think of.  Actually, her original 50's stuff is great (My girls give it 2 thumbs up!) and her 70's stuff was atrocious.    Peter David's run in the 90's was one of the best and is still very, very readable today.

Here's a selection of some of her best covers. 

Supergirl #1, September 1996
Pencils: Gary Frank
Inks: Cam Smith
The cover that launched a whole new SG series, and it's great !  I think it captures the elements of Sueprgirl with an added twist of grunge.  Best of all, it isn't slutty Supergirl.  She actually looks like a normal person. 

More below the break.

Superior Spider-Man #003 – A Review

I was all set to shatter the glass and pull out an emergency post this week as I’m really swamped with earning my PDHs for license renewal and our house is in a shambles trying to find places for numerous bookshelves and other things (like a new record player!) that we bought this week. But then I read Superior Spider-Man #003 last night and I just had to write about it again! SPOILERS Follow.

Superior Spider-Man #003

Writer:  Dan Slott

Artist:   Ryan Stegman

Color Art: Edgar Delgado

Letterer: VC’s Chris Eliopoulos

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99 (including “FREE” digital copy)

Look!  Up in the sky! Is it a bird -- a plane?  No … (dramatic pause) … it’s the SPIDER-SIGNAL!  Seriously.   That cover image wasn’t just thematic.  We get to see an actual spider-signal light up the sky and it was AWESOME GREAT!

Seriously Bad Ideas

Ok, if you want happy, go read today's earlier post.  But there are some things that are just so ridiculous I have to say something.  I am an art guy, so when the art goes bad it ruins the story.  IMO, good art can save a bad story whereas good writing cannot save bad art.

That said, there were a couple of moments in comics that made me want to bang my head against a brick wall they were so bad.

You've been warned!   See what I am talking about below the break.

Good Books You Probably Aren't Reading

So, after Wednesday's rant, Jim told me I needed to write something positive.  Ick!  But, he had a point.  This isn't about telling you all the things about comics that bore me, this is about trying to get you to read new and better comics.  Over the past week or so I've managed to read some great things so let me share those with you today.

Over the past few weeks I've managed to read Shadow #7-8, Shadow Special #1, the latest OMAC tpb, and Ralph Azham.

You can see what I thought about them below the break

The List - January 2013

irst List of the new year.  I found January to have fewer of the regular titles I'd been getting so I tried out a few new things.  Only one of them has been a particular gem so far, but it's early.  Off we go, then.

1. Stumptown: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case 5 - Starting off with a conclusion, we have the consistently great Stumptown.  Not that this is actually a conclusion to the series.  It's just the end of the second chapter.  That's the best way to look at the first two Stumptown installments - chapters in a larger novel.  More so than the first chapter, this one ended with clear indication that there's a lot more to come.  Dex's retrieval of Mim's missing guitar, Baby, exposes a meth smuggling ring and brings back a heavy hitter from the first chapter who's clearly not going to be pleased with Dex's involvement, as we'll no doubt see in coming chapters.  If you have any fondness at all for PI stories, from Sherlock Holmes to Stephanie Plum, I can't recommend this series from Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, and Rico Renzi highly enough.  On top of a great story, the creators have been providing insights, in each issue, into their processes in creating the story.

X-Factor, reminding me why I like superheroes

It should come as no surprise that there was another heated discussion behind the scenes here at Comicsand. It was the usual state of comics and the need for change in characters. The details aren’t important but I came to conclusion that's what I hate about superheroes; I get older, they stay the same age.

So how did I come to this conclusion? It started when I read X-Factor 241 -246, which comprised the ‘Breaking Points’ storyline.  I realized that while there was nothing wrong with the story, there really wasn't anything really new either.

Was it good? Yeah, for the most part it was. Peter David needed to reset the team so it’s a 5 issue arc kicking out the deadwood and streamlining the membership. Did I enjoy it? Eh, not really. Why? It starts with Peter David. I’ve been reading Peter David for over 25 years now. I know the cadence of his dialogue and the rhythm of his storylines. I know the tics of his plotting and characterization.  It’s like putting on an old pair of underwear. It’s still snug in all the right places and just loose enough in the areas that need it. But, at the end of the day, it's still an old pair of underwear. I felt I could replace Havok with Captain Marvel, or the Hulk, or Aquaman and it would be the same story.

Past the writing, I realized these are the exact same characters from 20 years ago going through the same motions.  Sure there are some changes, but I am not sure they were for the better, nor could I tell you why they happened.

In X-Factor #241, Strong Guy gets the boot. Apparently he’s no longer happy go lucky guy. Now he’s moody and depressed guy because he sold his soul. When? Couldn’t tell ya. Why? Couldn’t tell ya. The book neither explained it, nor gave me a hint as to where to go look to find the answer. Honestly, I liked old Strong Guy better. There's enough grim and gritty in the real world, I really don't need yet another hero acting that way.  And then the villains were just alternate universe versions of the core characters. I know creators don’t like to give up intellectual property but this is the best they got?  So, I had character growth which was good, but in a direction I didn't like and I had villains that were only sorta new. 

In X-Factor #242, Rahne gets the boot. Apparently she’s had a baby and Darwin tries to kill him. It was well executed but since we’re writing characters out it’s really hard to care. Not to mention, it appears to be variation #247 of Days of Future Past.

In X-Factor #243, no one gets the boot but we set the stage for Havok to go. Polaris learns she may have been responsible for killing her parents, freaks out, and starts the break up of the Havok/Polaris relationship.  I’ve been reading about their relationship for 25 years now, it's great their breaking up.  This feels like a change.  The problem is that I don't have a great deal of love for either character.  Nothing wrong with them but nothing all that exciting either.  It's another fine issue.

In X-Factor #244, Banshee gets the boot. Something occurred and she made some sacrifice that was supposed to save someone I guess. I mean this was supposed to be M-A-J-O-R. Now, here’s my snit about continuity, I have no idea the importance of what she did because David offered no explanation and the event was mired in continuity. Who was the villainess? Couldn’t tell ya. What was the big deal? Couldn’t tell ya. The book neither explained it, nor gave me a hint as to where to go look.  Honestly, unless you've been reading the last 5+ years of X-Factor, this issue was a waste of time.

Finally, X-Factor #245, the final team members leave, old ones return and.... I felt a great big nothing. 

Granted, this probably wasn't the place to start reading X-Factor after a long hiatus.  I have to say that all the issues were well executed in terms of art and story. 

But, this story didn't feel any different than Peter David's X-Factor issue #71 from October 1991.  It was the same characters.  It was the same team.  The only thing that changed were the villains... and they weren't even new villains!  If I were to say, in over 20 years, the only thing that changed were the costumes and the haircuts.

As a critic, I would say the storyline was fine and it achieved the desired task, reseting the team.  As a long time fanboy, I gotta say I wasn't thrilled.