O.M.A.C. SHIPS, So That Man May SHIP...! (10/31/07)

And if the first link proves correct, next week is waiting to kill kill kill me...

d00ds, when does A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #69 huh huh come out???

Batman, Jack of Fables, maybe look at some of the stuff mentioned in that last AV Club roundup (why because it look intrsting).

so, um, BATMAN. and that's it.

Maybe I'll give that there Crime Bible a shot.

I'm steering clear of BATMAN til this x-over business blows over - I'd really rather not have NIGHTWING taking valuable funds from my SCOTT PILGRIM purchases (three copies = me and two nephews).

PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP TRIAL OF COLONEL SWEETO HC $14.95

Batman, the Daredevil annual, and I'll give Crime Bible a shot 'cause that Rucka interview on the Question website was pretty entertaining.

I might also finally pick up the Iron Fist trade paperback, as long as it's small enough to hide in my pants -- my girlfriend and I are trying to make severe budget cuts this month, and she's on the lookout for any suspicious concealed packages (i.e. extraneous graphic novels and beer).

I've officially dropped Batman from my list, so nothing this week.

any suspicious concealed packages (i.e. extraneous graphic novels and beer).

Weapons of Mass Distraction.

Batman, Apocalypse Nerd, Daredevil Annual, Crime Bible

For me:

BATMAN #670--it says Morrison, I buy it, that's the rules
CRIME BIBLE: THE FIVE BOOKS OF BLOOD #1--the new Montoya mini!
SPECIAL FORCES #1--Kyle Baker is hit-or-miss for me, and this sounds tasteless, but still...
DAREDEVIL ANNUAL #1--is it me or is this a weirdly light Marvel week?
MAGGOTS GN--actually I have this already and haven't, uh, read it, but it's a fantastic artifact
NEW ENGINEERING GN--one of the weirdest damn things I've ever seen

Kyle Baker? I buy it, that's the rules.

Wow, I feel so weird being the only X-Men fan around here sometimes. I'm really excited for Messiah Complex!

Also: Supergirl/Legion, Daredevil annual but only if Brubaker wrote it, and I guess Batmoz though I have virtually no enthusiasm for that book at this point.

BATMAN #670
JACK OF FABLES #16
JSA CLASSIFIED #31
MIDNIGHTER ARMAGEDDON #1
SHOWCASE PRESENTS TEEN TITANS VOL 2
SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #8
DAREDEVIL ANNUAL #1
IRON MAN #23

Is that all? Really? If I see the Kyle Baker, then that too.

AMERICAN VIRGIN #20
BATMAN #670
JACK OF FABLES #16
NEW X-MEN #43
X-MEN MESSIAH COMPLEX ONE SHOT

Actually looking forward to: Messiah Complex and American Virgin (have we not seen an A.V. in awhile?) Jack of Fables has kinda been slow for me over the last 4 issues -- especially compared to the epic storyline going on in Fables. New X-Men I'm only reading because I've been reading it for Endangered Species. But unless it really pulls me in, this'll be the last one I read.

Mordechai, New X-Men #43 doesn't have any Endangered Species in it, they put the final two chapters in X-Men last week.

Surely you will buy the issues of NXM that will feature the Messiah Complex story, right? From what I understand, they aren't fucking around here, and each issue of the storyline advances the plot, it's basically a weekly series running through the four titles.

That said, man I wish I didn't have to buy New X-Men. It breaks my heart to see them waste the New Mutants "mutant high school" thing like that.

BATMAN #670 - At least, if they're going to resurrect Bat-overs, there aren't THAT many shitty Bat-Books anymore like Sword of Gordon or Azrael's Three Sons or Gotham Central.
BATMAN AND SON NINJA MANBAT ACTION FIGURE - why does the phrase "ninja manbat" remain a highlight of the BatMoz era?
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 26 - not buying it, but y'know, Moz Crisis in 6 mos.
CRIME BIBLE THE FIVE LESSONS OF BLOOD #1 (OF 5) - lesbian sexing!
SHOWCASE PRESENTS TEEN TITANS VOL 2 TP - MUST RESIST! RESOLVE WEAKENING!
SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #8 - Can't be worse than the last two?
SPECIAL FORCES #1 (OF 6) - Kyle Baker + tasteless? OH YEAH
IMMORTAL IRON FIST VOL 1 TP - am starting to think i should get more books I like (or might like) in trade.

BATMANG, and a bunch of stuff I didn't get last week. Like Casanova and Action Comics, and maybe somethin else. Maybe the Daredevil annual depending on what the creative team is.

Also, Maggots is great fun.

In another of the long-running installments I like to call "Help ILC, Do My Work For Me!"... I'm interviewing Juli3 Douc3t next week. If anyone has any questions they'd like me to ask (it's via email), feel free to mail me or just pop the q right here. (Thanks.)

Maybe the Daredevil annual depending on what the creative team is.

Bru plots, w/ Ande Parks scripting and Roy Allan Martinez drawing. I imagine something happens.

it's basically a weekly series running through the four titles.

Okay, I can (reluctantly) handle this Batman crossover, but there's no way I'm going to pick up three extra X-Men books a month just so I can understand what's happening in X-Factor. I might have to take a breather from that comic.

Ha, I totally forgot about Gotham Central. I was reading it through trades, but there must be a few more out by now?

Or just buy the G-Mo issues and make up what happens inbetween.

The final Gotham Central trade came out recently ("Dead Robin," I think)--you can read the whole thing now!

Perpetua, I knew that Endangered Species was over, but I didn't realize that they were telling the Messiah Complex over the 4 titles. Guess I'm stuck with New X-Men for a bit longer then (God, I hate that title. It's like the writing is intentionally obfuscating the plot week-to-week). Also, Garret... outside of New X-Men, the other ones haven't been bad at all. Adjectiveless X-Men is fairly good (and the art doesn't look like Powerpuff Girls anymore), and Uncanny X-Men still has at least one good thing every issue or so (and if Magneto becomes a player in Uncanny, I can see it picking up a bit). So it might not be the hugest loss. Except for New X-Men. God is that comic awful.

Batman

I've ordered a couple of more Preacher and a The Invisibles trade paperbacks, so those are also on their way.

Has anyone read any of the Wildstorm titles? I'm kind of curious about the titles Sleeper and Planetary.

To make matters worse, Humberto Ramos is drawing New X-Men during Messiah Complex! Just can't win, you know? I hate having to buy that title too, but eh, we'll all get through this together.

I really enjoy Carey's X-Men and Brubaker's Uncanny has been good since he got out of that horrendous Shi'ar storyline. I'm just hoping they don't do anything stupid with Messiah Complex, and that it all keeps getting better after the crossover. I'm feeling a bit optimistic.

Sweet, Douglas.

GM wrote GC?

Is there new sleeper? Or are you talking about trades?
I highly recommend the 4 trades I know about, they are amongst my favourite comics.

Not read planetary.

Messiah Complex part one was.... uh, kinda boring, just a lot of plot set-up, really. It did what it had to do, I guess. I didn't realize til actually reading it how much of the story is geared towards forcefully canonizing a lot of Nu X-Men, what with the Purifiers and Predator X being major plot points. That last page with Predator X is hilariously awful!

So I guess Warren is officially the Angel now, no more Archangel? I'm no continuity buff, but I really would have appreciated at least one line of dialogue to the effect of "hey Warren, it's nice to have you back on the team even though you've been absent from all of the X-Men series since 2002 or so."

Planetary is aight, though I rate it less highly than most people. Ellis kind of rewrites a lot of the same stuff from his other comics into Planetary, though if you haven't read that stuff before, it's not so important then. It might also bite off some Alan Moore ideas too. Starts off slowly, gets better, though I haven't read the whole run.

I went ahead and picked up the first Planetary and Immortal Iron Fist trade paperbacks today. The artwork on the Planetary title looks really sharp.

I've been picking up quite a few of Warren Ellis titles, starting with Transmetropolitan (I'm up to trade #6). Global Frequency is a good mini-series. I'm a couple of issues away from being through with the last trade paperback of Global Frequency. I wish there was sequel for this title. I also got two of his other mini series at a buck an issue: Mek and Reload. Mek had a good story, but the artwork was just OK. Reload's story seemed kind of rushed, but the Paul Gulacy artwork was great.

I was curious about the Casanova series, but they only had issue 9. I'm probably going to have to look online for the trade paperback or the back issues to give it a try. The series premise does sound like something I would like.

As for Sleeper, yeah I meant the trades. I'm mostly reading stuff in trades.

GM wrote GC?

Nope.

Starts off slowly, gets better, though I haven't read the whole run.

Kinda gets poo-ey once those two flashback episodes post-FOURTH MAN end. Inversely, Cassaday's art just gets better and better.

Has anyone else been getting the feeling that Endangered Species and Messiah Complex, are just long deferments? The entire Beast crusade was the constant deferment of resolution, and now that we're in Messiah Complex, the child is no where to be found. Again, we're deferred. I'm not saying this is intentional (it's probably just poor writing, or a lackluster attempt to generate suspense), but it's certainly there. Also, on that note, why does Messiah Complex start in media res with no setup? Are they just assuming we read all the interviews that explain what was going to happen? Or did I miss some kind of pre-Messiah Complex that set up the born baby?

Rereading what I wrote: I have no idea what I was trying to say. :(

So I read Countdown to Final Crisis. Seems to be a sort of attempt at getting the beast on track. It's still a clusterfuck of bad ideas and worse execution, though.
And I picked up the new Big Questions and, um, something else oh yeah, the Kyle Baker thing.
Sometimes it seems like the only thing superhero comics have going for them is that there's a lot of them that come out every week.

Mordechai, I'm kinda getting the opposite from Messiah Complex #1 -- it's really just everything the interviews/press said was going to happen, and now it's like "huh, I wonder where it's going from here..." If you've just the stuff on Newsarama, it was just kinda like "okay, yeah, I knew that."

There was nothing about the baby til this issue, BUT the entire point of the last five issues of X-Men was that Sinister's crew was doing everything they could to make sure that the X-Men did not have any way of knowing that the mutant baby would be born, and that they would have the jump on it. There's no real explanation for why the Purifiers had the knowledge about the mutant birth though. Maybe that's a plot point?

Endangered Species was a waste of time, but c'mon, it's just back-up stories. The point of that seemed to be "hey, let's exhaust all the potential ways to reverse the Scarlet Witch's hex before we go into the story that will point in the direction of bringing the mutants back."

Oh, here's an annoying thing in Messiah Complex -- there's those pages in the back with Cyclops explaining some basic stuff for new readers, and in the page for the Purifiers, he's like "yeah, they killed 45 of my students, but y'know we'll get around to dealing with them someday." WTF???? That's a Nu X-Men thing, and I can't believe the editors let that slide, like, how does that happen without the X-Men having to retaliate immediately and it being a major storyline? That's a fucking crossover right there, you know? But they just shrugged it off, and that page makes Cyclops sound like the most disorganized incompetent superhero leader/school headmaster imaginable.

the story that will point in the direction of bringing the mutants back.

Which is a terrible idea, of course. Wanda's paring down of the mutant population was one of the best things to happen to the Marvel universe in recent memory.

I realized I'd read all the GC stuff except for the last trade, so I got that. Great, except hell of depressing ending. Also that apocalypse/magic/Spectre crossover issue was good but still way out of place.

Goddamnit, Kyle Baker, stop being such a genius. It's depressing.

<i>Which is a terrible idea, of course. Wanda's paring down of the mutant population was one of the best things to happen to the Marvel universe in recent memory.</i>

This is the falsest thing ever written on ILC!

I guess that makes sense if your position is that you think the BASIC CONCEPT of the X-Men should be destroyed for always and forever, but whatever, bro!