Big pile of comic books
Well, yesterday's purchases of comic books were fairly underwhelming,
which should prove fairly good fodder for your amusement. Enjoy!
Robin #65: Robin sneaks into a hospital so he can hang out with Spoiler,
who is outputting baby.
Hmm... the Mask Principle seems to only go but so far,
as Robin gets (sort of) busted this issue, despite wearing full
medical scrubs, which are just about as all-covering as garments
get. Various angst happens. Various tie-ins to the No Brain
Here... er... No Man's Land crossover happen. Wayne Manor's
destruction seemed so symbolic. Burn all your bridges behind you,
and all that. I'm just glad I get to see it here instead of the
main Bat-books, where it was no doubt beaten in with a massive,
metal pole.
Nova #2: Color me only mildly impressed. Nova fights generic
villain Diamondhead and gets more tidbits of his past revealed
in classic comic book manner, ie, while getting his head bashed in.
Oh, and there's some more angst about him putting the guy who was
beating on his old girlfriend into a coma. The Insurance
Companies are after him. OooOOooo, the HORROR. Bonus: Captain America
shows up for no readily apparent reason to boost sales, acts out
of character, then leaves. Look, ma, I'm a cameo! Plus: Namorita
recovers from a serious bout of ugliness and pays Nova back for dissing
her by seeking red hot monkey love with one of his roomies. Yowza!
X-Force #91: Okay, so I buy the occasional X-book. X-Force is one
of the ones that's actually worth reading, since it has a pretty
interesting cast, a good writer, reasonable art, etc. Well, it HAD
reasonable art, anyway. Who stole the artist, damn it?! The new
art looks bloody awful, like it's almost un-finished. Very moody
and all, but I don't want a damn mood piece, I want a comic book
that doesn't suck. If it weren't for the art, this would be a very
good issue. Lots of angst... but it's angstful for a reason, since
one of the characters lost her powers -- for a reason, instead of
the typical Oh, My Powers Are Fluctuating, I Must Now Question My
Existance smeg. And the forces of government seem to be out to get
Our Heroes, as a random federal agent comes poking around after
Domino (perfectly understandable, since she does seem to show up
around trouble spots all the time, and with that bulldog tattoo,
she's not exactly, you know, inconspicuous). And Roberto is
hassled by, of all people, the Immigration and Naturalization
Service.
And, of course, he can't simply wipe them off the map because, you
know, he's a hero and all. Having the 'public identity'
disadvantage can be such a downer, especially when you've been
casually breaking the law... And Moonstar's Deus Ex Machina
powers are nowhere in sight. Hmm. But if they don't get a real
artist back, I'm going to be spending my money on something
slightly more worthwhile... like Pez.
Deadpool #29: Deadpool fights zombies. LOTS of zombies. And a guy
in a chicken costume. The phrase "Brains is good food" is used!
What more could you ask for? Wackiness! Carnage! Occasional
snippets of plot! A bare minimum of panty shots! And did I mention
zombies? Brains IS good food. Anywhere else, the kind of stuff
that goes on in Deadpool would be either horribly angstful or just
plain dull, but here it's cool. Back from the dead, indeed.
Avengers #17: Kurt Busiek is one of my favorite comic book
writers. It's a damn shame, too, since he didn't actually write
this book. Nothing like a good, solid superhero adventure. Poor
Justice gets beat upon some more, Wanda's Deus Ex Machina
powers continue to not show up (yay!), and the bucket o' plot
danglers continues to be dredged in as the villain who was after
Warbird turns out to be a combination of two old foes with ties to
another one, and as a bonus, Perez gets to draw Warbird in her old
costume. Ever get the feeling that Perez is bored? The guest writer
tries to cram plenty of stuff in, with two groups of Avengers going
after today's Dispose-A-Villain as well as the Wrecking Crew, who
were shunted to another dimension last issue and promptly conquered it. Whups.
Astro City #17: Oh, there's Kurt Busiek. I knew he had to be
around here somewhere. Anyway, Kurt turns out some more tales of
minor villains, as the Steeljack story (hunting the hunters of minor
villains) takes an abrupt twist to
explore the plight of one particular minor villain, the Mock
Turtle. Mock Turtle has a problem, see, in that he's a dreamer.
Dreamer minor villains tend to get taken advantage of because,
well, let's face it, dreamers are not the best judges of people's
character. Which means he gets in rather a big ol' lotta trouble.
Along the way, we get to see just how surly the Astro
City faceless extra brigade is getting about someone knocking off
all those low powered villains. Even though the Mock Turtle's
plight seems to have nothing to do with the rest of them... maybe
there wasn't a grand conspiracy after all? Or maybe there IS, and
our hero...er, protagonist is going to get a major kick in the
pants about it. Hup. I bet we'll find out more next episode, since
this IS Kurt Busiek, Writer God after all. Sure. Next Episode.
Which will probably come out next YEAR. Perhaps we must sacrifice
more small animals on the idol...
Luftwaffe 1946 #16: Ted Nomura continues to demonstrate that
either he's an unspeakably brilliant writer, or he can't construct
a plotline worth a damn. What the hell's going on? Didn't anyone
edit this damn book? Oh. Right. Antarctic Press. Small press. Duh.
Love that art, though... But, of course, there's not much art in
this book, either, as someone decided to explore the wonders of
photo manipulation and fiddle with old World War II photos. Yes,
yes. Photoshop is a wonderful thing. Give us the art back, now,
please. This episode deals more with the subtler points of
alternate history design than anything else. It's filler, albeit
filler of such beefiness that it out-beefs entire cows. It's
meatiness is mighty indeed, and fortunately, almost
indescipherable. I'd consider dropping this book, but if it stays
like this, it'll probably get cancelled before I get around to it.
Someone get this man an editor, stat!
Neon Genesis Evangelion Volume 4 Number 3: Asuka and Shinji
continue to surl at each other, Rei continues to sit in the
background and look cute, and various other surliness continues
between Kaji and Misato. Nice art and all, but besides the
characterization (which is a lot more fun than the old version),
this looks pretty much like the anime episode it's based on. I
have a feeling later parts of Volume 4 are going to suck pretty
badly if they try and follow the anime, since what made that
episode of the anime so cool was the music. I doubt that a manga,
no matter how well drawn and plotted, can equal that with the same
script. We'll see. No fan service this episode, aside from a
Loli-com cover, although Kaji tries to cop a feel.
Gold Digger #49: Ah, Fred Perry, my idol. In the world of
Ameri-Manga, he's the only one who's in Kurt Busiek's league (except
perhaps for Ben Dunn) in terms of the ability to run a cast of
thousands, and keep all the little buggers distinct and fairly
memorable. In this case, an old villain comes back for revenge
against the 'Gold Digger Crew's favorite hired pilot, 'Ace'.
Morgan and Tris... er, wait... Dark Bird and Skippy, an old
fighter pilot whom Ace humiliated and her tech support sidekick
(albeit a tech support sidekick on a shoestring budget) battle
against Ace in a duel of... jumbo jets? Added Bonus Features:
Charlotte the Harpy binges on airline peanuts, and due to a
bizarre but typical chain of events, decides that she'd like to
have a baby. Sure, whatever you say. That ought to be, er,
interesting... Clueless, perky lil' Charlotte will not have an
easy time finding an un-claimed guy in this babe-heavy comic. On
the other hand, there's got to be a guy with wings SOMEWHERE in
the Cast of Zillions... Assuming Charlotte is ever informed about
the birds and the bees enough to go looking...
Also, Ryan the 'badass ninja' sits out the
entire episode, Cheetah explores the wonders of a giant ball of
string, Skippy finds luv, and a serious discussion is had, only to
be promptly interrupted by villainous attack. It's fun for the
whole family!
Tomorrow: Public urination, French Chateaus, and the 'Eat-Man' graphic
novel! Be there!
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