ship to (pauly) shore: mar. 1, 2005

Adventures Of Superman #649 - This storyline is actually the best thing to come out of the UNIVERSE SHATTERING EVENTS of Infinite Crisis. It's Superman v. Superman, drunk in a junkyard.
Batman Annual #25 - At this point (which is several days after reading the pretty shitty Batman #650), I can't imagine this being anything other than resoundingly dull.
Detective Comics #817 - ONE YEAR LATER! Did Batman knock up Catwoman?
Green Lantern Corps Recharge #5 - What happens when you cross the bonecrushing hamfistedness of Green Lantern with collossally boring Rann/Thanagar War? FUN COMICS IN OUTER SPACE! Whodathunkit?
Infinite Crisis #5 - Punch the world away!
Marvel Zombies #4 - Please send Zombie Hulk to the Infinite Crisis.

Complete Jon Sable Freelance Vol 4 TP - WTF? I want, but I don't want, since I liked this book when I was a kid, but I also liked Grell's first two years of Green Arrow, and I don't anymore.
Captain America Winter Soldier Vol 1 TP - CHEAP TRADE! Find out what you've been missing!

What I'd like to see with the new New Universe stuff (not necessarily Ellis's, which I think is a reboot, but the other stuff) is for it to actually take place 20 years later, since the NU took place in real time. I don't think they're doing that, judging from the Kickers In Hell story.

Might pick up the Maxx TPB. I have the originals and the cartoon, but I don't remember if I have the second TPB.

I'll get Essential OHOTMU at some point, most likely.

Friend's copy of Y, Spider-Girl (I want to catch up prior to the MC2 event thing), Doc Samson.

$16.99US is cheap?

Plus! I get to look at the new Y The Last Man on the stand and fight my impulse to look inside because I'm now waiting for Volume 7 of the trades to come out.

QUEEN & COUNTRY DECLASSIFIED VOL 2 #3

Adventures Of Superman #649 [once again, my eagerness to hop on the OYL bandwagon has bit me in the ass]
Aquaman Sword Of Atlantis #40 [King Shark ahoyhoy!]
Battle Pope Color #5 [I swear every Kirkman book BESIDES Walking Dead has zombie action]
Books Of Doom #4
Ex Machina #18
Fallen Angel #3 IDW
Fantastic Four #535 [urge to drop: HULKENING]
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #5
Godland #8
Green Lantern Corps Recharge #5 [Patrick Gleason is the nu-Mahnke Lip God]
Hellboy Makoma #2
Infinite Crisis #5 [in this issue: EVERYONE FROM BLOODLINES DIES, and Superboy eats crab WITHOUT THE SHELL CRACKERS]
Local #4
Marvel Team-Up #18 [urge to drop: HEIGHTHENING]
Marvel Zombies #4 [mmm Galactus]
Ms Marvel #1 [Warbird no more!]
Next Wave #2
Queen & Country Declassified Vol 2 #3
Sentinel Vol 2 #5
Ultimates 2 #10
Untold Tales Of The New Universe Star Brand [why yes I am interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge thanks for asking!]
X-Factor #4
Y The Last Man #43

Adventures of Superman #549: OYL vey
Detective Comics #817: OYL gevalt
Infinite Crisis #5: It may be perversely fascinating, but that doesn't mean it's not fascinating. Or perverse.
Captain America Winter Soldier vol. 1 TPB: dying to see what all the fuss is about
Ultimates 2 #10: will Galactus have anything left to eat once Millar's done?

WHERE THE HELL IS MY SEVEN SOLDIERS FRANKENSTEIN #3 KTHXBYE

GODLAND #8

BOOKS OF DOOM #4 (OF 6) - Hoping this one picks up again
MARVEL ZOMBIES #4 (OF 5) - My favourites series of the year so far
MS MARVEL #1 - I'll check out a few issues of this one
NEXT WAVE #2
ULTIMATES 2 #10
X-FACTOR #4

Some of my favourites, and also JSA. I need to find a copy of X-Factor 3, as I added it to my pull list late and both my stores were out. Now is when I resign myself to going to the big store with the huge inventory owned by assholes. At least it's only a few blocks away.

i might end up getting more stuff this week, such as marvel zombies (though i will probably just borrow this from my friend erica) and/or some jonah hex; i haven't decided if following the new hex or getting the hex showcase is a better idea.

Based merely on having read #1 of the nu-Hex, I much prefer the old Hex.

Vaughan seems like he reads a bazillion livejournals daily to get his tone right.

Molly is so much better when she's playing off the other characters, man.

Can someone please explain Earth 8 to me? I was right with it until they mentioned Kyle Rayner. Wha?

"See young fan, there was no need to get rid of the multiverse to tell these kewl stories!"

or

"See old fan, even if they'd kept the multiverse they'd still have told those horrible modern stories"

Nobody tells those "the heroes are beaten, oh no waitaminute no they're not" stories as well as Millar.

Something INFINITE?

Should I pose holding Leeeee for a Liefeld portrait?

It makes me want the next issue immediately but at the same time I know that the Millar/Hitch run is coming to an end and beyond there lies only a wilderness of Loeb/Maduera...

I was going to give:

1. an A to Hellboy: Makoma #2 for being the funniest and also most Keanu-WHOA mythological revelation in a long time;

2. a C+ to Ex Machina #18 for not advancing the plot and for rehashing an item that's been dead in the news cycle for 2 years; and

3. a B+ to Y: The Last Man for HARAJUKU YORICK...

but now I'm just going to back out of this thread.

In fairness, Ex Machina takes place in the recent past, and at that point in the story, that would be a fresh news item.

Primeboy looks like NFL Superpro.

BATMAN LOVES THE JOKER #650: awful!
SUPERGIRL NEEDS A HAM SANDWICH #5: two times the awful for twice the price!
KEVIN SMITH RAPE CRISIS (aka SPIDER-MAN / BLACK CAT) #4-6: awful by way of mediocre!
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMANS #649: mediocre by way of who-gives-a-pinch!
INFINITE CRISSI #5: WTF by way of WTF (by way of Boy Prime & his magic fists of SPLORT)!
GREEN LANTERN CORPUSCLES #5 (of 5): disappointing, but heads & shoulders above the previously mentioned ass-slapping!
GREEN LANTERN & GREEN BATMANG #9: not as shitty as I feared! but it still kinda sucks! awesome!
WONDER WOMANG #226: pretty good by way of OH GOD THE ART!
MS. MARVELNG #1: not bad, not great - I RECOMMEND IT HALFHEARTEDLY!

Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk was funny and stupid in the right ways.

I thoroughly enjoyed Hellboi, Lucifer, Y, The Thing (esp. Oatu the Watcher vs. dog), and Astonishing X-Men (dude writes good first issues).

[1] I have a special eye-rolling hate for "oh it's real life but it isn't" cutesiness like Barcelona Radisson or whatever the Paris stand-in's name was. Either use Paris -- she's a public figure, you can do so as long as you're careful -- or forget about her. It's never an interesting enough person to make it worth doing the wink-wink nudge-nudge thing.

Batman Annual: Actually not bad! I mean, this is an annual. They're usually "and that's the day Green Arrow learned tolerance" filler or the Wedding of J. Jonah Jameson. This is one of those stories that actually makes sense for an annual, like a deleted scene that doesn't need to be included in the story and messes with the pacing, but that you don't mind checking out when you're clicking through special features.

Fantastic Four: This arc has read like JMS really wants to write The Hulk. Or PAD fanfic. Even as lightweight foils, the FF seem grafted on.

Friendly Neighborhood Spidey: This progressed from eyerolly to kind of funny to kind of cool. Odd time for a filler issue, though.

Giant-Size Ms Marvel: Man, how many times is Rick called a "beardless youth" in that Captain Marvel issue? Many.

Ms Marvel: What is with the Power Girl Action Figure cover? She literally looks plastic. And it's fucked up to combine the "painted on costume" look with the "costumes are made out of things, and things wrinkle" look. I don't have much to say about the comic. Halfhearted. Potential here. Certainly one of the more interesting Marvel heroines who's neither a mutant nor best used in someone else's supporting cast.

Nextwave: It's good and may grow further on me, but it's a little too ... I don't know. That wave of post-Pulp Fiction movies that came out, it feels a little like one of those without a Pulp Fiction for it to be a watery duplicate of. I suspect if you shine a flashlight across the room at this book's ideal audience, I am at limen's edge, albeit not actually in the dark.

UNTOLD TALES OF THE NEW UNIVERSE: STAR BRAND - OH YEAH! Mr. Javier Pulido does his best JRJR while writer Jeff Parker has a character from a future alt.verse explain that A) the Star Brand is a multi-dimensional constant, B) Jim Shooter's work on the title, specifically the charcter stuff, made little or no sense @ all. (Hands up if you forgot about the girl that quacked.) Sidebar: comic books seem to be the conduit through which we learn about other universes, or something. Cameos by Marvel Universe heavies to be had in the midst of 2-page spread 'splaining everything.

Anyway, the girl in the Captain Universe jumpsuit & Galactus-looking orb ship w/ the Watcher-esque oath of non-interference gets busy w/ Mr. Brand, but then gets bonged by her superiors before Mr. Brand can realize his true potential. And then THE PITT happens. You want a grade, I give it a hard B. You want a number, I give it a solid 7.5. You want a recommendation, I say go buy 3 KFC snackers.

Swampy turns up and jumps Abby's bones LIKE THE GOOD OLD DAYS. He leaves a giant 'him' in the back garden to remind her of him and goes out into the swamp. At the rape crisis centre Abby befriends a young girl but the big mouthed monstery thing from the last plot BITES HER HEAD OFF before the police rescue Abby. She goes out into the back garden and we see the giant Swampy has rotted away, and Abby says something like "It's been a year since you were here."

Given this whole series has been about Swampy and the inability to resolve the Alec persona, plus that #27 is about the return of Jason Woodrue and "NOTHING WILL REMAIN THE SAME" it smacks of covert OYL reboot to me.

If not, that probably didn't happen.

In lieu of another halting speaker.