Shipping This Week: November 23, 2005

FWIW, I meant to say "boring piece OF borningness" up there.

FLASH #228
CAPTAIN AMERICA #12
DAREDEVIL #79
SHE-HULK 2 #2

Ex Machina
Lucifer
Y
She-Hulk
Punisher vs. Bullseye (maybe)

Also, the comic store is holding Darwyn Cooke's issue of Solo for me!

i wish i liked y a little more. it's... good... but not as good as i wish it was. and yet i've still bought them all.

Two:

Dec·a·logue or Dec·a·log (dĕk'ə-lôg', -lŏg') - n.
1) Bible. The Ten Commandments.
2) A fundamental set of rules having authoritative weight.

I'm up for:

SEVEN SOLDIERS FRANKENSTEIN #1 (OF 4) $2.99
SEVEN SOLDIERS ZATANNA #4 (OF 4) $2.99
DAREDEVIL #79 $2.99
PALOOKA VILLE #18 (MR) $4.95

Oh, and P.S.: thanks, Morrison, for starting this Seven Soldiers shit. I managed to avoid buying comics for about 14 months. Now I'm in the shop every week. And playing catch up. Please send me money to support my habit, you fuck.

They've all been great! Except, uh, Shining Knight. And Mister Miracle. And Bulletteer is.... uhhhkay, although it's only one issue in. Som, four out of seven isn't bad. (I'm assuming Frankenstein! will be def. thrillp. -- I mean, it's got an exclamation mark.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/plechazunga/comics/loveless.jpg

http://comics.org/graphics/covers/97/400/97_4_0000392.jpg

Whoops x-po

Was I the only one confused by the ending? A double crossing double crosser gets double crossed by a double crossing double crosser and survives being shot several times because he's the titular character? I enjoyed the series as a whole, but the last issue was a bit meh.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #526

Still nothing but vague hints about SPIDER AIDS, but one of the greatest OMGWTF?!?!?!??!? moments IN THE HISTORY OF SPIDER-MAN during the final bit of the fight scene. Thanks for making me care about Spidey, Reggie Hudlin you cunt.

SEVEN SOLDIERS FRANKENSTEIN #1 (OF 4) $2.99

Confused? You will be. Looks great, and is easy to see how IN BIG HANDFULS it will fit in with the other SS boks, but... eh? I BET, RIGHT NOW, THAT HE ISN'T THE SOLDIER THAT DIES.

SEVEN SOLDIERS ZATANNA #4 (OF 4) $2.99

Much of my love for this has been because of the art, but BETCHA BY GOLLY WOW! goes a brilliant fight scene. OK, this series has really been SEVEN SOLDIERS: MISTY instead, but it's been an awful lot of fun along the way.

CATWOMAN #49

Maybe I missed it, but WHERE IS SURVIVING DEATH EXPLANATION PLEASE?

SHE-HULK 2 #2

I don't think it's quite as good as the best issues of last year, but this is pretty damn fine as Dan Slott pitches a Time Twister to Tharg The Mighty.

Some Warren Ellis thing for Top Cow that I can't remember the name of

I think the description says it all. Warren appears to have written it in his sleep.

The rest of my haul once I've read them.

Lucifer was really good too, this arc (which feels like a series ender, though I have no idea if it is) has just been getting better with every issue.

What was confusing about Frankenstein?

If this isn't the series ender for Lucifer, a new one had better hurry up because there's only two issues after this.

Daredevil: yeah, Bendis is pretty much throwing all the major characters under a bus. How the hell is Brubaker going to write himself out of this one?

Zatanna: lovely--and Morrison's favorite last-issue-metafictional-gambit thing actually works really well here. I think one of the reasons I like his freaky mystical stuff so much is that he's also a total sentimentalist; the revelation of Giovanni Zatara's books at the end is the sweetest thing...

BOOKS OF DOOM #1: Um, kinda meh (or perhaps a little dry). DOOM talks about his life in a documentary-narration style (interspliced w/ interviews w/ other folks in DOOM's life) - I think he's making a Riefenstahl propoganda piece. Art is very nice, tho, in a throwback Kirby style. Best DOOM has looked in a long time. As for the story: Mom was a witch, Dad was a frozen stiff, and DOOM was a little pischer. Next issue: DOOM GOES WILD IN THE USA WOOOOT! (Note to pledges: never enter a shotgunning contest against a guy that comes from a country that makes beer steins.)

CAPTAIN AMERICA #12: Captain America WITH ANGST! As the Big Red, White & Blue Cheese comes to grips w/ Bucky "Don't Call Me Jason Todd" Barnes' improbable return, Cosmic Cube dude does a little wetwork w/ some office furniture. Also: Nazi zombie bomb action. Those dirty Krauts.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #65: Aldo, WTF? BKV says adieu to the X-folk w/ a nice & tidy final issue, drawing all the threads he spun out during his tenure into a nice little knot. In short: Rogue (w/ Gambit's powers) returned to the mansion, Lady Deathstrike snikt'd Dazzler just before Longshot did the Max Lord to her, Prof X is on the outs w/ the Ultimates, Mystique is posing as Magneto in prison, Angel is gonna infiltrate Emma Frost's school for the Prof, and Magneto's newest buddy = LONGSHOT. And I think Mags & LS are in the Savage Land. And, most importantly, Colossus & Northstar are going to a semi-formal together. Robert Kirkman, come on down!

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #86: Spidey drops a truck on Omega Red (yay!), and Silver Sable beats up Flash Thompson (boo!) - goes without saying that this is thee best Spidey title on the market (for my Rapso dollars, anyway).

ULTIMATE VISION PARTS 1 AND 2: I don't care if this is just needless posturing to stoke the hype fires for the arrival of Gah Lak Tus - it's drawn by JR JR, and it's included w/ the previous 2 Ultimate books @ no extra charge. Fun facts: Vision is millions of years old, has mecha-breastses, and likes to use really awkward similes.

WALKING DEAD #24: Speaking of Robert Kirkman - THEY ARE THE WALKING DEAD! And, boy, are they chatty. If you're going to do a(nother) talking-head issue, this is the way to do it. And next issue: THINGS GET WORSE! And you know it's serious because the folks on the next issue's cover are wearing riot gear!

INVINCIBLE #27: Speaking of Kirkman again - BUG / HUMANOID BABIES HAVE BLUE SKIN AND ARE REALLY CUTE! Invincible & his super-powered alien pop (who, once upon a time, tried to kill him) (Dad better hope the cat's not in the cradle) make up just in time so son can help defend his pop's new adopted home (of bug people) from pop's race of super-powered Spartanesque warrior freaks. And next issue: THINGS GET FISTY!

JACK CROSS #4: A little too much of the super-slow action - fine w/ the bullets piercing the gas tank, but the last scene, as Aldo noted, was kinda huh? - but I kinda like when WE mounts the soapbox, so it's all good.

um
hold on
wait, not him
Willie Lumpkin?
and um
that guy with the thing
but not The Thing
because he's Ben, too

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

GREEN LANTERN #5: Oh, yay - stupid supersnob Hal Jordan goes ring-finger-to-teeth against stupid zombie shark (BRAINS MEAT BLAH), while Black Hand gets gritty and Hector Hammond gets washed. "How dare you interrupt my flight to tell me to save the world from Jaws 3-D! Why, I oughta..." Insert GEOFF! JOHNS! punch gif here. Urge to drop: RISING.

EX MACHINA #16: Aw, yay - Mayor Hundred & his self-defense murdering mom face off against hicksville law folk. And a gun lies to the Mayor. Nasty shotgun. Plot schmot - character pieces like this 2-parter work just fine. Slow burn ahoyhoy.

SEA OF RED #6: Kinda meh, despite the BIG TWIST (i.e. the poor undead schlub that's been seeking revenge on the vampire pirate what put him in his current predicament wasn't quite so squeaky clean prior to becoming a toothy bastard). I wish Kieron Dwyer was actually doing the art, too.

X-MEN #177: Kinda meh, despite the inclusion of my favorite bit of X-fun: SENTINELS! Sal Larocca isn't doing it for me. The one thing that's piquing my interest in future Milligan shenanigans (Milliganigans?): DOOP!

MUTOPIA X #5: Very nice wrap-up to an unsung Marvel title. It lost it's way just prior to all the HOUSE OF M-ing, but (oddly enough) the digression into M-World righted the ship, and let David Hine wrap up all the previous District X "fun" quite nicely in this post-M epilogue. I am the only one here who cares. Eat a peach.

RUNAWAYS #10: Fun fun fun. Nuff said.

FANTASTIC FOUR / IRON MAN: BIG IN JAPAN #2: Speaking of fun, holy holy! Getting rid of the ad-o-thon that stymied #1 improved the readability of this series about 1000 times! And I can prove that with math, if I felt like it! A short synopsis: these monsters are wrecking Tokyo while FF & IM are visiting. This issue: THE FIGHT! To take 'em down: Iron Man gets one of the monsters to make him a sandwich, The Thing & Human Torch use an old-school monster-bashing robot to tag-team a couple of beasts (and get bippity-bipped in the process), and Mr. F uses the throat bits from another monster to communicate with the head monster. If you thought Seth Fisher was money during his Dark Knight run, you are going to be beside yrself in glee w/ his work here. The two pages that feature the Iron Man monster / Astro-Mannish flashback & the offering of the sandwich are fantastic (as is the death scene - so sad). Zeb Wells, you are on my X-Mas card list (if I actually had an X-Mas card list). SO HIGHLY RECOMMENDED IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY!

THE THING #1: Milan Ramada = SO CORNY. But I'll let that slide after the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em moment. Also, Dan Slott & Arcade = a match made in heaven.

BIRDS OF PREY #88: Girls go shopping! Black Canary & Green Arrow frolic! Oracle gets hit on by nerdy nerds! The Huntress is a made woman! Keep on keeping on, Ms. Simone & Mr. Bennett!

TOP TEN: BEYOND THE FARTHEST PRECINT #4: By far the best non-Moore ABC stuff I've encountered. This issue: lots of stuff happens! Toybox finding her dollboy in bed w/ another doll, tho - that's harsh.

FING FANG FOUR
BIG IN JAPAN
SUPER F***ERS

FRANKENSTEIN #1: Really boss. I liked the oblivious nobility of the character, I dug the fucked-up Qlippoth High School interlude, and I appreciated the little side allusions to past GM projects (butterfly collectors, etc.).

ZATANNA #4: Nice end to the series, great meta page with the hand, somehow made me feel much better about the whole Seven Soldiers project.

SHE-HULK #2: Good, but I'm still a bit ambivalent about it. I liked the fact that there was so much plot, and the cliffhanger ending made me want to read on, but I'm still not sure about this whole Supernatural Law schtick, and something about the scripting is off-puttingly mainstream.

SECRET VOICE #1: Maybe buying this was a mistake? Bought it on strength of flip-thru mostly because the format reminded me of Jason Sandberg's long-lamented Jupiter, and because of the cover and the "Be strong" breath magic panel but maybe there was too much ineptly executed "cinema" (I found myself frequently skipping over all the little action-to action panels) and half-baked writing this issue (lead feature was a little too much like a fanzine superhero strip, middle story a little too much WTF) for it to be worth continuing with. The last story was amusing, though.

Did this Fin Fang Four thing come and go already? I looked for it but didn't see it. I looked at Big in Japan, but it didn't seem mental enough to be worth buying. Same for the Matt Wagner Batman thing.

!?!?!?!?!??!???!!?!?!?

It has a MONSTER making IRON MAN a SANDWICH with a TRAIN CAR and BUILDING DEBRIS! AND SMILING WHILE DOING SO! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT?!?!??!?!?

If you can't get w/ this, then you definitely ain't getting w/ it.

OTM