So, What comics did you buy this week?

[anarky]

My "trial period" at the library ended, so I checked out more stuff now that they don't impose the strict limits on my checking out of materials:

Fables Vol. 1 (haven't read)
100 Bullets Vol. 2-3 (haven't read 3 yet, but this book is fucking awesome!)
Walking Dead Vol. 1 (haven't read yet)
Kingdom Come (more in a minute on that)
a manga adaptation of the Hagakure (More for curiosity than anything else--I'm apparently the first to check it out, it having just been bought. Really curious to see how they adapt a list of "how to's," and I'm willing to bet the adapter(s) will be among the many who miss the fact that it was all wishful thinking and not fact.)

Kingdom Come, well, it wasn't bad. But after a decade of "holy shit, you must read this comic," it was quite underwhelming. The art is nice, no doubt about that, but Alex Ross's photorealism occasionally gets creepy. The story itself was competent but rather pedestrian, though the nods to Revelation were clever (UN General Secretary Wyrmwood, especially). So many things seemed that they needed more explanation or history, or weren't expanded upon enough, and the characters mostly seemed like cardboard simplifications of themselves faced with situations that would've been interesting to see the "real" characters in. It seemed like way too much work went into pretty designs and not nearly enough into a compelling story. Magog was an especially weak Cable surrogate; he'd been hyped as this ultimate badass in the years since this was published, and I'm not sure where people got that from.

I don't regret reading it, but I'm glad I was able to read it for free.

[Rollo Tomassi]

When I started reading books again in 2003, I went out and bought a few trades of the stuff everybody had gone crazy about between '95 and '03. One of which was Kingdom Come. I agree with your assessment. Overhyped, but okay. I thought 'geez, if that was the best of the last 8 years I didn't miss much'.
I also got Long Halloween and Dark Victory, which I enjoyed immensely(and it pisses me off that Loeb has crashed so hard in recent years, knowing what he's capable of makes it all the more tragic.)
And I got Origin around then as well. Which I also liked.

[Rollo Tomassi]

It was a light week for me, only 12 books. And I'm super proud of myself because I skipped the big Marvel Event Fear Itself and its tie-in series Home Front. That's right. I'm blowing off the two big events this year! F.U. Flashpoint!!! And F. yer 20 tie-in miniseries, too!!! Anyway..

Amazing Spidey Annual 38. Somehow Spider-Man (along with Deadpool and Hulk, where this Annual crossover continues) gets shunted to another dimension where Peter parker is a bigtime super-hero with a cape, and Uncle Ben is still alive. But this Uncle Ben is a raging douche and wants to kill "our" Peter and steal his mojo. Remember when Annuals were actually annuals, and not just one-shots? I do.

Annihilators 2. So you get another limp episode of the "main" book, Big Gun cosmic heroes vs Dire Wraiths. ROM, SpaceKnight gets mentioned, but not by name. And then you get a totally awesome "backup" story with Rocket Raccoon and Groot.

Young Avengers 5. Iron Lad shows up and takes everybody back in ttime to when Wanda blew up the Mansion and killed all them Avengers. Cassie inadvertantly (but deliberately) saves her dad, which messes up the tiemline (but doesn't). And then Wanda discovers she's the Scarlet Witch. Yikes. Avengers Academy is the best Avengers book right now, but this one is a close second for its pure epicness.

Brightest Day 23. What. The. Fuck. Seriously. I don't even want to talk about it. 24 issues at $3 a pop is 72 dollars I'll never get back. Shoulda trusted my instincts way back during the first few issues.

Heroes For Hire 5. Puppetmaster tries to get Punisher to kill Misty Knight. Frank kills PuppetMaster instead.

Incredible Hulks 625. More Savage Land shenanigans.

Jonah Hex 66. Jonah deals with weirdo town full of cannibals (for what seems like the fourth or fifth time in this series. Were there that many cannibals in the 1880s??) Presumably because they were snowed in and forced to turn on each other. Jonah shows how laughably ludicrous this notion is by going out and shooting a few elk in the woods. Stupid peckerwood town. Jonah kills them all.

Official Marvel Index 12. Well, they've gotten up to the part where Tony Stark turned evil, killed some people, then turned into a teenager. Which never seems to come much at Avengers meetings. Did Tony do any time for killing people? Nope. none whatsoever. Also some Cap and Thor stuff..

Secret Six 32. The team is in hell trying to get the "Get out of Hell Free" Card back from Ragdoll, who is the new Prince of Hell.

Superman/Batman Annual 5. Doomsday vs Cyborg Superman. Doomsday co-ops Cyborg Technology into himself making "more of a threat" ( Idisagree with that notion, but whatever). Also a lengthy and boring therapy session with Supergirl. Boy, that James Robinson sure knows how to kill the momentum of a Doomsday/Cyborg fight. Also, you would think "hidden" breaker boxes on the JLA Satellite would be better safeguarded against tampering. But Grayson, just heads down there, pops it open , and reroutes controls at his whim.

Wolverine Hercules 2. Logan and Herc fight mythical Greek monsters. Wolvie gets turned to stone by Medusa. ooh! Cliffhanger!!

Uncanny X-Men 534.1 The X-Men hire a PR firm to make people less frightened of Magneto, who is now an X-Man. They actually address the whole Magneto/Xorn New York situation. Somebody has balls wading into that whole fiasco as a plot point. Then Magneto saves San Fracisco from an earthquake, Yay!!

[anarky]

If the X-Men want to make Magneto more popular with everyone, why don't they point at the calendar? They can say, "As you can all clearly see, this is an even-numbered month. This being the sixth, Magneto is a good guy for 24 more days."

[anarky]

The Hagakure was pretty much as I expected: talking heads. Your hopes can't get too high when you come across grammatical mistakes within a couple of pages. It was also obviously adapted by one of the people who think it was an actual samurai manual. Which would be like someone in 200 years not reading any actual American history but picking up a Glenn Beck book and thinking they had a thorough knowledge of the Founding Fathers.

Walking Dead.... I'm about to get myself banned from this forum. It wasn't bad, but I didn't see what's special. The characters were just okay, some of the plot twists were a tad melodramatic since I thought it was supposed to be "real" folks dealing with an unreal situation (the kid blowing the dude's head off was the worst part). A few weird things that bordered on too weird to get past:

• Who the hell was keeping Rick alive for a few weeks in the hospital, if everyone was dead?
• Where the hell in Atlanta is there where you can go from a Spider-Man styled rooftop chase to full woods in just a block? Has Kirkman ever been there? (No, really, I can't seem to find out where he's from.) I've never lived there, but Atlanta is one of those cities with a moderately sized downtown and huge, sprawling suburban sprawl. I don't even know if there's a place where someone could jump from building to building in the first place.
• Glenn says he's from "Macon, GA." A minor point, but anyone close enough to head to Atlanta as the nearest big city knows where the hell Macon is. That'd be like someone telling Diabolical they're from "Ann Arbor, MI" or telling vyn they're from "Syracuse, NY."

It wasn't bad--it's easier to point out bad than good, and the bad things weren't enough to bring the book down. But I didn't think the characters were strong enough for what the book supposedly is, at least not yet. If I were paying, I'd give it a volume to improve. Getting it from the library, I'm likely to check out whatever they have just because it's free.

Go ahead, vyn. I have spoken words blasphemous to this site, so I must be banished.

[Diabolical]

I'm beginning to think you over analyze the shit out of things, especially if its popular.

[anarky]

Sadly, I always think that way.

It's just that people don't give a shit when I share my thoughts unless something's popular. Unless it's awesome like Speed Racer, in which I don't give a shit myself and hope to convert others.

I don't really know if it's "over-analyzing," though, if the setting plays an important role in the story and simple details aren't right. Sorta like a while back when Spider-Man went to a famous restaurant in NYC and the artist didn't use any reference material, it irked vynnie because he was familiar with the place.

[vynsane]

Go ahead, vyn. I have spoken words blasphemous to this site, so I must be banished.

HA, actually, TWD vol. 1 is relatively weak comparatively. kirkman was just coming into his own when it started up, so there are some foibles and cliches applied. but i can't say it ever dipped to that level again throughout the course thus far, and only got better. seeing as how you're getting to read them for free, there's no reason not to continue.

Sorta like a while back when Spider-Man went to a famous restaurant in NYC and the artist didn't use any reference material, it irked vynnie because he was familiar with the place.

close, but it was actually spidey trailing a perp into a train station, and saying 'he could be on his way to jersey by now' - except the station he was in was depicted as grand central terminal, from which no trains actually depart for jersey.

[anarky]

There actually is a reason to not continue, at least not yet. Volumes 2-6 were checked out today.

I did pick up the next two each of Fables and 100 Bullets.

[Diabolical]

I never did continue with TWD after Volume 1 because I was focusing on finishing Y:The Last Man.
Good thing, since I didn't know this was out at the time.
The Walking Dead: Compendium One
48 issues, 1088 pages only $35.37 ($.73 per issue)!

[Diabolical]

Forgot my comics from this past week.

iZombie #12
The Boys #53
Batman: The Dark Knight #2

[Rollo Tomassi]

I can't decide whether I want to continue with Dark Knight. The story isn't all that compelling, and I feel like issues will be in abundance should I decide to look for them down the road in the dollar bins. I'm getting the same feeling about Batman, Inc. as well. But thats because I feel like Morrison just writes whatever trips his fancy on the morning the book is due, then plops Batman into a page or two to justify the title. "I feel like an issue devoted entirely to Salsa Dancing! Oh, shit. And here's Batman on page 7 so nerds will buy it..."

[Diabolical]

The Dark Knight is only 2 issues in, so I'll go with it for a bit. This first arc, at least.
It just seems odd that Bats is so worked up over this Dawn Golden chick. She was apparently a big part of Bruce's early years yet we've never heard of her before (Bruce seems to have a lot of chicks he was in love with at one point).

As for Batman Inc., I have #2-4, but not #1, since I put the wrong damn book on my pull list (it was supposed to be B:TDK), so I haven't read 'em yet.

[Rollo Tomassi]

A big week with 24 books, and there were even more I left on the rack. But happily Uncanny X-Force 7 came out this week, and I left it! Mnyeah!! Suck it, Remender!!

Anyhoo, here's what I bought.

Amazing Spidey 658. As Peter is about to seal the deal with his new GF he gets called away on a Future Foundation mission. Slott continues to humor, like calling out the new Spidey FF costume as an Anti-Venom rip-off. Also, a nifty Spider-Man/Ghost Rider back-up tale. This book continues to impress.

New Avengers 11. Howard Chaykin's ugly art continues to mar this title in the 1959 flashback tale with the retconned first Avengers Team. And Mockingbird struggles to survive a gunshot wound in the present.

Batgirl 20. Steph discovers her new arch foe is her slacker study buddy, and soundly defeats him. But there's a bigger gafe afoot.

Batman & Robin 22. The conclusion of the White Angel story. I was debating dropping this one along with a host of other Batman related books, but this issue was great, and Jason Todd is returning next issue. Peter Tomasi impresses me with his writing. Plus, Damian beats the shit out of Zsasz.

Birds of Prey 11. Huntress gets Catman out of her system, after he stages an elaborate kidnapping to make her not find him attractive anymore. Gail simone writes some messed up characters that you can't help but like because of their complicated flaws. Well done.

Booster Gold 43. Booster helps the legion of Super Heroes fight Validus.

Captain America: The Fighting Avenger oneshot. the book that went from an ongoing, down to a mini series, down to this single issue. Written by ATOMIC ROBO ALERT!! Brian Clevenger, this light hearted tale features a n00b Super Soldier (the Top Brass still haven't settled on a name which makes for much of the mags humor) being babysat by a small commando unit so that he can get some experience. As usual, clever witty dialogue from Clevenger.

Carnage 4. Cletus Cassady has control of the symbiote again. Crain has some beautiful art, but I wish it wasn't so damn murky all the time.

Formic Wars 4. The Buggers arrive on earth and attack in this Enderverse prequel series.

Flash 10. only three issues left, so I figured I'd ride it out.

GIJoe Cobra Civil War 0. Small vignettes from IDWs three new relaunched series. Alas, Barbecue, we hardly knew ye. And the rest of your team, we didn't know you at all. I won't even go into the events of the Snake-Eyes preview.

Hawkeye Blindspot 3. Baron Zemo is revealed as the big baddie in this mini.

Incredible Hullks 626. Hulk channels his inner James Bond as he crashes an italian consulate party to talk to his ex-wife who is cuddling up next to Tyrannus, the badguy leader of Subterranea. Then everybody starts throwing punches. But Hulk wears his Tuxedo nicely.

Iron Man2.0 3. Nick Spencer is quickly impressing me as the writer of this title. The War Machine gets yet another upgrade and removes the superfluous rockets and phallic chaingun from his shoulders in favor of a muted Silver/Black Iron Man clone. Will fans appreciate this? Time will tell. But the writing is crisp.

Justice League Gen Lost 23. The penultimate issue. Max Lord sends a giant OMAC to kill Wonder Woman and the JLI intercede.

PunisherMAX 12. First issue of the new arc finds Frank in a prison hospital reflecting on his life so far, while prisoners outside can't seem to work up the courage to kill the invalid in the next room. In this case, Frank's reputation alone saves him.

Red Robin 22. Tim's faith comes into calling as he must rescue the immoral mayor of Gotham or have the city destroyed by religious nutcase Azrael and his telekinetic nutjob toadie.

Secret Warriors 26. Holy shit. Going back and reading the VERY first issue and seeing it ALL come to fruition just makes me pee myself. this book is so awesome and should be read in one sitting. I'm sad there are only two issues left.

Superman 710. Superman and Batman reminisce about some adventure they had before they became Batman and Superman.

Thor: Whosoever Wields This Hammer oneshot. A reprint of the very first Thor stories from Journey into Mystery 83, 84, etc. What was fascinating was the side by side comparisons at the back of the book of the original coloring vs the modern coloring technique of today's books. Splendidn and eye opening.

Journey Into Mystery 622. The first issue of the newly renamed Thor title focusing on Loki. between this title and Uncanny X-Men Kieron Gillen is slowly starting to impress me with his writing. And for a bit of trivia, the last time thor renamed itself back to JiM it went from issue 503 to 521. So this picks up exactly 100 issue later. huh.

Transformers 18. A bitchin' Shockwave cover. Optimus is such a maroon. he picks a fight with Megatron and gets his ass handed to him. Then Megatron turns himself over without a fight. Because he's playing chess, while the Autobots are playing checkers. I'm almost rooting for Megs, because Prime is being such a beef.

X-Men Legacy 247. The Age of X crossover is almost over. This has been a great mini "event".

Uncanny X-Men 535. Gillen's first regular issue as solo writer and he just knocks it out of the park. perfect blend of snarky, witty infighting amongst the X-Men, toss in a threat from the Joss Whedon's Astonishing run, and finish it with a twist ending. the mediocre Fraction run is over.

[anarky]

Plus, Damian beats the shit out of Zsasz.

This makes me sad. First, they phase out Harold, make him completely unlike himself, and kill him in unceremonious fashion. Then they kill Ventriloquist for no reason but shock value. Then they get rid of the awesome Tim Drake Robin costume. And then they put the real Anarky in a coma while some putz steals his name. Now Zsasz is beat up by that pretender Robin? Fuck. Are they asking Alan Grant to do one of the Retro-Active one shots so he doesn't put a curse on their heads for entirely fucking up everything he did during his run? Damn, is the next issue going to feature Legs being sodomized with Ratcatcher's severed arm by Superboy Prime?