August 2008

This is a left over that never got posted. Septembers is going to be posted this week.

Secret Invasion: X-Men #1
Loved it.
Mini-series especially company wide crossover mini-series usually get completely ignored by me. But Rich (owner of Whatever... located in San Francisco's Castro district) asked me if I wanted to have it set aside anyway and figured the fates must be trying to tell me something. And I really am going to thank Rich for setting this aside for me. It actually got pretty close to selling me on the Secret Invasion crossover. Wait, strike that, it sold me on the INVASION crossover. There really is no secret when Colossuwolverclops attacks you on the street or a portion of the Skrull armada starts blasting the hell out of San Francisco. But that's not Mike Carey's fault, that's Bendis' fault. ; )

One of the big problems with the X-books right now is that the new HQ in San Francisco has been introduced, re-introduced and re-re-introduced and consequentially they get kind of muddled about the edges. But the scene of the Skrulls blowing up fisherman's wharf is fantastic, especially with Cary Nord's moody art.

I've always loved the idea of the Skrulls as shape shifters because there's nothing like a villain that could be anyone, but since they could be anyone, they never focus on who they really are. Now Marvel seems to finally be fleshing out the Skrulls beyond "they can change their form and they hate the Kree." Giving them a priest cast, and making this a holy war certainly makes their intentions more interesting. But isn't it a little dicey since it turns this whole thing into a metaphor for a terrorist invasion?

One political gripe aside, it's a pretty good story that will at least entertain. If you think you'll like it, than you probably will.

Uncanny X-Men #500
REALLY LOVED IT!
I love Brubaker's ability to ghost write in anyone's style and it definitely makes him one of the most important writers in comics. "Did you out Dardevil and send him to jail? We'll put Brubaker on it! Have the X-Men become a directionless mess since we decided to get rid of all but 200 (give or take) mutants in the Marvel universe? Lets get Brubaker to tell a year long space opera to take people's minds off it till we can think of a solution." On this book he's been doing a sort of gritty Claremont that has actually consistently kept my interest. Just good fun super-heroics with a bit of fan-service to years and years and years of X-Men continuity. Which at this point, is all I want from a book that has to appease such a massive fan base.

The plot on this issue is simple. X-Men have moved to San Francisco (see what I mean?) and an avant guard French artist is using three decommissioned sentinels in his exhibit. The X-Men are asked to act as security at the event and Magneto shows up to ruin the festivities (can't be a massive anniversary issue without him!). Everything I wanted from this issue was there. Action, humor and social commentary. My only real complaint is Greg Land. But he's a minor quibble in my book next to Simon Bianchi.

Madame Xanadu #1
Left me wanting.
I'm hoping this is going somewhere... The covers on the next few issues are intriguing.

The Invincible Iron Man #4
Losing interest.
I was really excited to get into the world of Iron Man because I feel he has a lot of potential, but I keep realizing that no one writes him the way I would. Ellis is the only one and no one else is doin' it that way. I like Ezekiel Stane though.

Ultimate X-Men #96
Mixed nuts.
This new writer seems to have finally hit his stride the issue after he completely lost me, and since this series is getting the ax anyway soon, I'm jumping ship. I'm sad that the Ultimates line is dying. But as with most off-shoots that are not main-line continuity, they have to die sometime. Here's to you Ultimate Universe, may your trade paperbacks go on to confuse the hell out of the next generation of comic book readers!

X-Men Legacy #214
Can't get enough.

Astonishing X-Men 26
GAH!
This is a great big trainwreck. I love Ellis. I really do. But lets look at the X-Men for a second. What are they and what is their place in the Marvel universe? They're heroes whose powers are genetic. Wouldn't Ellis be geeked to examine biological powers and what one can do with that angle? Wouldn't Sinister be a villain right up his alley? Instead we see some of this concept with the fire bug, but for the most part it feels suspiciously like Whedon's Space-Opera a-la Breakworld. Wonder if Ellis is going to leave Storm in an energy cloud that needs to be constantly controlled to prevent it from destroying the universe. (bigger stakes, see?) And I'll just reiterate once more, I hate Simon Bianchi. (you're gonna hear this A LOT!)

Captain Britain and MI13 #4
Always leaves me excited.
I miss the Davis/Claremont Excalibur days and this book does a good job of making me miss those days and it's a lot better then the last time Marvel tackled a British super-team. Pete Wisdom and Captain Britain on the same team is always solid gold.

Daredevil #109
Dropping this title again.
I love Daredevil, he's my favorite hero in comics (thanks in large part to Frank Miller). I identify with him more than any other character out there, and while Brubaker is doing fun stuff, I think I'll pick it up in trade format. Daredevil's always better as a novel anyway.

Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #32
Dropping this title.

Wolverine: Killing Made Simple #1 (and only)
Will always be a sucker for Wolverine.
I originally hated the idea of monthly Wolverine one-shots that mean an extra $3 bucks a month out of my pocket. But I gotta say, these keep being good. Having one Top Dollar writer and rising star artist handle the main story with two new guys handling the backup is a stroke of freakin' genius! Wolverine is a character that is handled much better as a side character or in one issue stories anyway. If a writer has a good long story to tell with the guy, then by all means, write his main book. Otherwise, we have these neat little one shots that get to show these artists and writers being the best at what they do.


Wolverine #67
Wow!
Millar, you're my hero. This is the best Wolverine story in a long time, and the best alternate universe since the Age of Apocalypse. Every issue is better than the last.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Photo reference is dwiving me Ka-Wazy!

I am an X-Junky. I read anything Marvel's hawking. There's something about a diverse family of people brought together to fight for what is essentially equal rights. (at least the stories I love)

Right now Marvel's been on this evil kick of using artists that rely REALLY heavily on photo reference.


Adi Granov's heavily posed people.


Simon Bianchi's dizzying lines and shapes.


And Greg Land's porn.
Greg Land's colorist is at least colorful.


But he doesn't exactly challenge himself.


I dunno who I'd pick for X-Men right now, but no one in the community is thrilling me. At least Legacy's being drawn by Scot Eaton.

Dark Knight Returns '09

I don't know if this is really necessary and certainly sets an interesting precedent, but it's nice to see Warner trying their damnedest to get Heath Ledger his Oscar.

I saw the film for the forth time last week after reading The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke (with the original coloring, the new stuff looks like a bad Schindler's List parody) and I'm now disappointed they spent so much time on action and North by Northwest/Stray Dog style pacing that they didn't develop Harvey Dent/Two Face as much as possible. The even sadder thing is that I'm sure they did do more. There are still a lot of weird loose ends in the film for me that I need tied up. I'm really hoping we'll see a nice fat director's cut when it finally gets released on Blu-Ray.

This is an interesting new era for comic book movies. Now that this film has combined classic gritty WB noir with artful indie characterization/acting and tried its hardest to scrub Adam West from the minds of America (the second best Batman of all time) we're finally seeing comic book films not just comic book movies. Also intriguing that this film was full of gimmicky ploys (scenes shot in 70mm, released nationwide in IMAX, "Heath Ledger's untimely death" (in quotes because it's not Ledger's or the studio's fault, but it does give the film that certain Brandon Lee quality)), and yet still captured the hearts and minds of the critics, comic book fans and John & Jane Q. Public.

I hope we start seeing more comic book adaptations as smart as this one and not something like Iron Man which preached an end to weapons manufacturing by giving one billionaire alcoholic tactical human nukes to violently kill a bunch of people... riiiiight....

Is this a good thing though? It's always hard for me to critique the politics of Batman because he is the mighty icon he is. Regardless of my pacifism I still can't help but say, "OH MAN! I WANNA FIGHT CRIME! I WANNA PUNCH THE JOKER IN THE FACE! I WANT A batPOD NANO!!" Since box office grosses reflect public sentiment, and to a degree this film does have a right wing "end the chaos that terrorism attempts to create," does that mean we're hungry for more war? Is the final scene a moment of making George W. Bush a pariah? Am I grasping at straws? Probably. But it's still the darkest comic book movie since The Crow and certainly will inspire just as many costumes every Halloween. Either way, the films Joker is certainly one of the darkest villains to date for a mainstream film of PG-13 and I can't help but wonder about escalation and copy-cats. I hope that the Harvey Dents of the world are strong enough that we don't need Batman, but since a lot of people are looking at the Joker as the "hero" of the hour on this one I continue to worry.

I shouldn't say the film was all right bat-wing (sorry), Lucius decent on the subject of wire-tapping was a sly wink to the present state of our "right to privacy" and I commend them for it.

Yeah, so I guess my point is that Dark Knight is coming back to theaters and they'll probably get my money one more time. Yeh know, since I'll have forgotten it by then.

Who Will Watch the Watchmen?

Looks like no one if Fox has anything to say about it.

Apparently they've owned the rights since 1986 and are suing WB to ensure the film never gets released. This is the strangest case I've ever heard of, and one of the sneakiest things Fox has done since the creation of Fox News!

More pretentious than it sounds...

My Declaration of Principles:
1: I will never point out that I started this blog dedicated to Sequential Art discourse with a Citizen Kane reference.
2: At least once a month (maybe more, as money permits), I will post reviews of the comics I am reading on the direct market at this time.
3: More than once a month I will post philosophical/theological musings (more pretentious than it sounds) on the sequential art medium.
4: Graphic Novel is a four letter word on this site.
5: Hopefully this little space will create another grassroots growth of like minded artists and writers looking to see something other than what "the big two" are giving the industry.

Yeah, so that's done now.