Sextant: October 26, 2005

Hey, why did no one tell me that Optic Nerve came out last week? I had to find out when I was in the shop. But I shouldn't complain, that was a really wonderful surprise.

Hmm, looks like it's just a relisting of the same old COIHOP tpb (price $29.99 US).

FLASH #227 - OMG FLASHER DON'T DIE PLS.
JLA #121 - OMG BOOSTER GOLD RETURNZ FROM THE GRAVE!!!
JLA CLASSIFIED #13 - At this point in DC history, why should I care about some out of continuity JLA story? Oh, because it's really well written and fantastically drawn?
SOLO #7 - FUN FUN FUN
CAPTAIN AMERICA #11 - The Winter Soldier isn't really Bucky. It's THE REAL Steve Rogers! The guy we think is Steve Rogers is actually a clone.
DAREDEVIL #78 - Bendis & Maleev continue to do the unthinkable to Matt Murdock in their last ever arc as the regular DD team! This issue: BLACK LIGHTNING.

I'm psyched about:
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #11: Betcha Matthew is too.
AGE OF BRONZE #21: Is anybody else here reading this? Unbelievably good comic about the Trojan War (I recently gave a collection to a non-comics reader who's into ancient Greek stuff and it knocked her for a loop).
DAREDEVIL #78: A trainwreck. In a very good way.
DEFENDERS #4: Giffen & DeMatteis having lots of fun.
NEW AVENGERS #12: B-b-but who is Ronin?
LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND HC: I actually have a copy of this already (the gigantic $120 thing), and yes, it actually is as beautiful as everyone says. Even if I have no idea where the hell I'm going to shelve it.

I think most of us have already worked this out...

Super Fuckers #2
Optic Nerve #9 (I thought #10 was supposed to have come out already-- but comic shop lady says no)
She-Hulk #1
Paris #1
Mike Allred Solo (What happened to the original Batusi illo? Did that get printed at all?)
Klarion #4
Showcase Presents: Superman (I read the immortal line of dialogue "Luthor, the Kryptonite Man didn't get me... But his KRYPTONITE MONKEY will!", laughed really loudly, and decided I had to buy it. Still would like a Showcase Presents: Supergirl to come out tho)

I added Action Philosophers to my hold list at Ian's suggestion, but the store hadn't been carrying it since it's part of a chain and shop lady was the only employee who had been trying to order it-- now she has an excuse to get store copies, so that was good. Too much good stuff to buy-- thought about getting Salamander Dream and one of the Jeffrey Brown books, but decided that they could wait. I'm in a similar situation with Age of Bronze-- I read the first trade and thought it good, but it seems to be too late to start picking up the singles, so the set will have to wait for a future time (or maybe my library will continue buying it for me!). Does anyone have an opinion about Shaolin Cowboy? It grabbed my attention so I paged through the latest issue-- nice Geoff Darrow artwork, but the storytelling was cinematic (mostly in a good way, it seemed) and thus very decompressed. Is the story worth following? I was thinking it might be another "maybe" trade purchase for the future. It seems like comics have an overabundance of riches in the good art department right now-- I paged through Fantagraphics' Bête Noire thing and there was a lot of nice cartooning, but I wasn't sure if the content of the stories justified it. There were a couple of other things I looked at that seemed to be the same way-- but then, I bought Super Fuckers today, so who am I to talk?

Oh, and I won't be reading any of today's buys for a while because I'm currently rocking the copy of Epicurus the Sage that I got out from my local library. Holy fucking shit! It's really good! I was paging backwards through it and noticed that Sam Kieth drew Plato as a stick figure and I'm thinking to myself, "'Plato' was the dude's wrestler name-- it means 'flat', i.e., broad-shouldered. Dude, WTF?" Then I get to the beginning of the comic and Epicurus is all like, "Plato, dude, Socrates is not your buddy. Look at the nickname he gave you!"... and Messner-Loebs had me 0wn3d. There's a lot of classical fun to be had with it like that (plus it's making me think I should go back and read some more Epicurus!), and Kieth's cartooning of it all is awesome. Highly recommended (assuming everybody here hasn't already read it!).

The new Uncle Scrooge has a Don Rosa story in it! I love Don Rosa stories!

Really enjoying New Avengers, too--they've finally picked up the "who's Jessica working for?" subplot from the first issue.

I just got Solo (it looks funny, but what's the concept?), Fin Fang 4, and Daredevil: The Golden Age.

And Optic Nerve is only on #9? Hasn't that been around for quite awhile?

Yeah, I just popped in here to say that I noticed that while I was looking for Action Philosophers back issues online! Maybe I will get caught up with the series now!

And Optic Nerve is only on #9? Hasn't that been around for quite awhile?

Yeah, 10+ years, I think! High time for issue #10 to come out, right?

If I'd known .au customs was going to start holding up comics shipments for 2-9 days every week I would have ordered Super Fuckers #2 from Top Shelf! I SO CAN'T WAIT. And yet, I must.

The Batusi cover got squashed because it doesn't pay sufficient veneration to the "Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia" current super-assclenched version of Batman that DC wants to present to the world, cf. Identity Crisis lead-ins and All-Star Brutal. Brutal. Brutality.

I have an opinion on Shaolin Cowboy! IT IS GRATE. And *so* decompressed - there's about three minutes of actual time passing in 32 pages (or whatever) of the first issue, but since any Geof Darrow comic = buying just to look at the pretty pictures, I'm happily paying A$9.90 an issue or whatever so as to e able to open the spreads out and see them properly (for which a TPB will almost certainly suck).
And the story is actually quite funny too, and compared to previously having to tolerate Frank Miller dialogue to get the pretty pictures, scales up to COMPLETELY HILARIOUS.

"Teen Titans Vs. Doom Patrol" in the Mike Allred Solo thing is just amazing great, total joycore comic. God bless.

Teen Titans Oh Liefeld! It's less apparent than it was last issue, but I think that G. Simone sent R.L. scripts, R.L. drew whatever the hell he felt like, and then G.S. tried to make the story fit. There's some really frigging weird non-sequiturs and stuff like that and, OH GOD MAKE IT STOP. Also, Cyborg says to Robin, "Batman made a good choice when he picked you to take Jason's place." WTF?

Flash Maybe it's Livesay's inks, but Val Semeiks looks better than he/she ever has before. The story seems kinda stupid, but the characterization is pretty interesting. Is there Life After Johns for Flasher? ONLY SUPERBOY PRIME KNOWS!

JLA How many Black Canary crotch-shots can we fit in this issue? It's a popular pose, as the solicit for All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #3 (did that come out this week?) features YET ANOTHER BLACK CANARY CROTCH-SHOT COVER! That's the most interesting thing about this issue.

JSA: Classified BOO! Johns strikes again! First two issues were great and fun, final episode bores the pants off me. Luckily Amanda Conner continues the GREATNESS. Get her on a Dan Slott book please!

Captain America The Winter Soldier REVEALED. Brubaker calls this issue "experimental" on the letters page. I wouldn't go that far, but it's non-traditional. Text heavy briefing on the background of the Winter Soldier. Or is it just what somebody wants Captain America to believe is the background of the Winter Soldier? Either way, Captain America remains one of the best reads in superhero comics.

more later...including She-Hulk #1 (still haven't read from last week. I'm a little nervous because I loved the first run so much, and what if, y'know, lightning doesn't strike twice?), Daredevil, and Solo/Allred.

But with the Adam West mask it was so bizarre that it was perfect! I noticed on flipthru that they had some variant Batusi covers as inside art-- they couldn't even run the original as a frontispiece to the Batman story? Were the PTB unwilling to own up to their mistake?

How's Allred's Book of Mormon adaptation coming along, BTW? Has anyone here read it?

LSH: also disappointing. Brainiac stands around going "Dream Girl oh noes!!" while the rest of them ponce around on wacky Star Trek style planets where the laws of physics have no meaning, captain. Very much filler - they should have gone straight into the big fite

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #645: Whatever. Superman flies around a bunch of floating OMACs, runs into one of the Luthors (in the snazzy "The Joker has a GREAT eye for color" battlesuit), then tussles w/ Ruin before realizing that Ruin's using the Phantom Zone to teleport all over the place and the tubes in the back of his head keep him alive. And, hey, how about another fill-in artist to pick up the regular's slack?

SUPERMAN #222: Whatever. Ed Benes draws hawt Lois ass & gams diving and rolling out of the way of an OMAC attack following a tiff with The Red and Blue Boy Scout wherein it's revealed that Superman sent in a robot that Lois possibly sexed. (oh god if only) And, hey, how about another fill-in artist to pick up the regular's slack?

WONDER WOMAN #222: Whatever. OMACs threaten Themiscrya. Wonder Woman turns herself in for doing Maxwell Lord, chats with Supergirl & DONNA TROY about stuff, then beats the crap out of the Cheetah. And then the OMACs start divebombing. And, hey, how about the crappy fill-in artist from The OMAC Project for an entire issue?

BIRDS OF PREY #87: THANK GOD! Even though there is fill-in-itis spreading throughout the DCverse (like the OMAC plague!), an enjoyable rumble w/ some post-virus Oracle stuff mixed in. And the Calculator itching to take Oracle out.

Or the new Batman.

Or the new OMG JASON TODD!

Frustrating auction, I was winning it at 1EU up till 3 minutes before the closing time.

Remember when I ran my head through a brick wall to forget you ever mentioned that?