shoes and SHIPS and sealing wax: Feb. 13, 2008

Nothing this week. I picked up a bunch of my comics last week:

Stuff that was "eh": Y finale, Fables, She-Hulk

Stuff that was wtf: Batman, Speak of the Devil (I feel like maybe I missed an issue??)

And even there's something about Omega the Unknown that feels like it's not quite working, I'm enjoying it more than almost anything else I'm getting right now.

DOOM PATROL ARCHIVES VOL. 4--I think this is the end of the original low-key creepy run

Nope, there's one more volume, due in May or June.

Just FF for me.

It's almost sad going in to a comic store these days -- the only weeklies I'm picking up are Criminal and Brave&TheBold. Decided to drop Daredevil (it's been going nowhere for almost a year), Flash (bit of a misfire), and Batman (at least until the "RIP" story gets going).

Anything decent I'm missing out on?

(That is, for monthly super-books. The black-and-white-lesbian stuff I'm still buying)

Speaking of which, I think I did in fact miss Speak of the Devil #3. Which probably explains a lot.

Not really. The last issue really was...I dunno, less interesting even though more interesting stuff happened. I think the last page of #3 gave warning, but even then...it felt like a total tonal shift and not for the better.

I got like, um, Booster Gold and Superman this week, which means I'm staying home. Superman has really gone to shit lately with this Insect Queen story and lame non-Pacheco art.

The most recent ish of BATMAN wasn't great but certainly grabbed me more than anything since the "Batmen w/ funny accents" storyline.

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #16: Hit or miss - WHICH WILL IT BE?
NEXT ISSUE PROJECT #1/FANTASTIC COMICS #24
FANASTIC FOUR #554: Simply because I envy any writer with that much presumption.
BPRD:1946 #2: Every month I'm reminded that I like this title alot more than I think I do.

AMERICAN VIRGIN #23: Le sighe. I guess I was the only person who liked this series?
DMZ #28
WONDER WOMAN #17
GUTWRENCHER #1
SWORD #5
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #550
NEW EXILES #2
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #16
WOLVERINE #62 DWS
X-FACTOR #28 DWS
X-FORCE #1 DWS

A bunch of maybes (Wonder Woman, Gutwrencher, Punisher, Wolverine, and X-Force, New Exiles) because a bunch of my reads are going bye-bye (Y, American Virgin, etc). The only definites on this list are X-Factor Spider-Man, Sword, DMZ and American Virgin.

But I'll be honest about DMZ; it hasn't really been going anywhere for about half a year now.

Booster Gold, Fantastic Four (also ready to drop right away if I'm not impressed), Nova Annual, X-Factor, and whatever came out last week.

Anything decent I'm missing out on?

I'm surprised that somebody who enjoys Criminal and (at least until recently) Daredevil hasn't also been reading Captain America, but since I'm sure you've given it a shot and found it lacking, I won't actually recommend it to you. But, man, it's really good. Along with Brubaker/Fraction's Iron Fist comic, it's the best monthly book with Marvel's logo on it.

is dude still dead?

As long as a single soul shares his ideals, he lives on.

Which is to say: Yes. He's still dead.

Mordy, I got into American Virgin pretty late (through the trades, which is how I'm still reading it), but I like it more than I thought I would...

so what's going on in Dead Captain America?

you know that subprime mortgage crisis? Red Skull's fault.

Lost another one to Ditech!
http://kungfurodeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/kirby_redskull.jpg

Let's see:

Green Lantern Corps
Amazing Spider-Man (will probably quit this, actually. I just can't bring myself to care about Spidey every week)
New Avengers (though I'm losing interest)
Fantastic Four Quarterly
Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure
X-Factor
X-Force, just to see how it goes.

X-Factor is the only one I'm psyched about.

So does this mean we might be getting more than one X-title a week regularly?

Nothing, unless that JLA Classified is the one written by Giffen and featuring the JLI, isn't that due sometime soon?

the idea of Mike Allred doing Fletcher Hanks sold me on this one

The idea appalled me! Allred has such an idiosyncratic stilted and awkward style that to see him trying to channel someone else's very idiosyncratically stilted and awkward style just bodes disaster, I think. Plus a sample page had that shitty fake blown-up dot screen background shit he always uses on ersatz "old" comics, boo.

SUPERMAN #673 - I'm caught up to the current storyline, so I will probably read the last three this weekend.
JLA CLASSIFIED #52 - The current storyline is an 80s throwback team of Roger Stern and John Byrne.
SIMON DARK #5 - I picked up the first four in the past few weeks. I'm willing to follow it for a few more issues, as it has been a pretty good setup so far. I hope they can keep Scott Hampton on doing the art for as many issues as possible. Both of the Hampton brothers can really draw.

I'll also probably end up picking up the Green Lantern Corps issues. I've got all of the issues of both Green Lantern titles through the end of the Sinestro war, but I am waiting to get caught up before getting any more. I'm read up on both of the Green Lantern titles to the beginning of the Sinestro War and will probably give them a read this week.

<i>I'm surprised that somebody who enjoys Criminal and (at least until recently) Daredevil hasn't also been reading Captain America, but since I'm sure you've given it a shot and found it lacking, I won't actually recommend it to you. But, man, it's really good. Along with Brubaker/Fraction's Iron Fist comic, it's the best monthly book with Marvel's logo on it.</i>

Iron Fist I'm pretty apathetic about, but I'm gonna do catch-up on Captain America -- I was just waiting to be able to afford it. (It's a shame to waste a potentially good sofa-comics-reading-experience by just CBR-ing it.)

What's with the new JLI comic?

Apparently the Sinesto Corps trade comes out (came out?) this month and I'm debating whether to get it. What I read seemed confusing and boring, but maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance... what was the ILC consensus? Worth giving it a second look?

remember the last issue of infinite crisis? imagine that went on for 12 issues.

I may have abused my mod-powers and deleted Mr. Perpetua's claims otherwise.

What's with the new JLI comic?

Oops, it's not JLA Classified, I didn't know they had TWO out-of-continuity 'lost tales' type books:

Justice League Unlimited #43 (DC) - Writer An untold tale of the Justice League... Meet the early Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, who want to join the League — because that's where the big money is! They have much to learn… Ships March 5, 2008

Wow. X-Force was AWFUL. AWFULAWFULAWFUL.

I mean, the pacing was poor. The narrative was hard to understand. It was full of unnecessary exposition. The illustrations were inconsistent. Wolverine talked in hackneyed abstract platitudes (If you do this, you'll no longer be human). It was just horrific.

Agreed.

FF is very Millar (i.e. he's not really doing anything innovative with the characters, just making them the louder and more obnoxious). And it's not a patch on Waid & Weiringo's first issue. But it is good fun, and I'll definitely be picking up the next one.

Also bought Essential Howard the Duck (seemed about time I finally read it, considering) and v. cheap remaindered copy of the new Iron Fist trade.

Also, Bryan Hitch -- good at buildings, but he still can't draw faces...

Also, Bryan Hitch -- good at buildings, but he still can't draw faces...

-- Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 14 February 2008 01:20 (Thursday, 14 February 2008 01:20) Bookmark Link

Is Paul Neary still inking him? Because you would have thought that he would, y'know, help him with that.

Anyway, I'm fairly surprised to see The Red Star again, I thought that had gone forever. And it can't take over a year to produce each issue... Especially given very little happens in each issue.

Also, Bryan Hitch -- good at buildings, but he still can't draw faces...

But he sure can draw dimples! (And shampoo ads, should anyone get wise.)