zip flip ship: Feb. 1, 2006

SENTRY #5 (OF 8)

Anyway...I thought that the first Sentry miniseries was nothing to write home about, I have yet to read something of Jenkins that is better than Inhumans (and some of his Hellblazer). What's this one about?.

Reminder (as much for my benefit as yours): contains standup!

It came out on schedule as far as I know; I'm guessing the resurgence in interest due to PAD-Factor caused it to sell out.

I freely admit that I had absolutely no interest in the original PAD-Factor but this one is really, really entertaining to me, largely because it has X-Force and Gen-X characters in it.

DOOP GONE WILD

Yeah, it's definitely a letdown -- oooh, it's a mirror, shockeroo! I wish I was more willing to cut and run when I'm not enjoying stuff (see also: Defenders, Black Widow, Ghost Rider... fuck, probably a third of what I buy). I didn't even read the first Sentry series, though I keep eyeing the trade. I keep hoping Jenkins will write something as good as Inhumans, too. Man, I loved that series. Le sigh.

Shameful admission: I've never read any regular Spiderman comics.

the Edd!e Campbe11 TCJ either still hasn't turned up in bookshop or has sold out before I got there.

For the girl:
30 Days of Night
WHEN ZOMBIES ATTACK. I don't know what it is, but believe me, with that title we'll buy it. For all I know, it's an Archie comic. ... God, I hope it's an Archie comic.

"Reading a friend's copy":
Tec, Outsiders (maybe) (I feel so betrayed with this title), Rannathanamannagar

Unexpected treat of the week: "Marvel Romance Redux: But I Thought He Loved Me!" Old Marvel romance comics, art intact, stories totally rewritten into goofyville...

I meant it the other way around. Or replace "higher" w/ "lower."

powers: possibly going someplace very interesting, tuff to tell since dicking around forever is bendis mo. i thought the 'powers does it's spin on green lantern' thing was gonna be just another pomo powers moment but it's looking like it might be a real shift in the comic with longterm series consequences. is anyone thinking that walker's being setup to be basically a straightup superhero again (the cop stuff is almost completely absent from this book now) with retrogirl 2.0 as sidekick and deena (here's where it could get interesting) as archvillain? am i crazy for thinking this is where it's going? am i thick for not picking up on this way earlier? nice beaver shot on the egyptian oa god, supposedly this is gonna get alot more far out. i'm still not quite clear on why i'm the only one reading this book anymore.

bulleteer: this might be my fave of the ss series going right now, nice wit (better at top ten type humor than the top ten revamp was), thrillpower not up to manhattan guardian but it seems the most like it of any other ss (mere mortal deals with tragedy, failure, unemployment by becoming a superhero), heavy tieins to the overarching help alot too.

y:the last man: most awesome one i read this week - an ampersand ORIGIN story basically, alot of vague plague spec, LOTS of awww, amp's dream in particular, and the scene with ampersand running to freedom at the end and the goofy look on that monkey's face push this to the top of my pile this week.

Why I'm not reading it except for occasionally "reading a friend's copy" and vague plans to buy the trades someday eventually:

1 - Loss of faith in Bendis. That's the big one. After Daredevil's floundering, House of M, even Ultimate Spidey losing some of its steam, I stopped reading -- or at least paying for -- most of his output. He's been rebuilding faith lately, though -- I dig New Avengers, and Spider-Woman has been great.

2 - Sort of an extension of that, Powers seemed to be suffering from Bendis being spread waaaay too thin around the time of Disassembled (roughly when it moved to Marvel, too?) I don't know how to quantify "the writing seemed distracted," but it did. With all his Illuminati nonsense in the wings, I don't know if I expect this to go away.

I'm not crazy about the cop stuff falling by the wayside, either, but who knows what his long-term plans are. Oddly, I think Powers is still probably the best of what he does, I just don't think he always gives it the attention it deserves -- cf. Busiek, Astro City vs contractual obligations, albeit different circumstances -- and I know it'll be there for me to read later, whereas the stuff from the Big Two is more transient. (Going back to read House of M in 2009 would be like going back to read Evolutionary Wars or what the fuckever, a bunch of long-obsolete continuity shuffles.)

Well, the problem with a blog is I can talk about books, I can talk about movies, but without doing some Usenet-style monthly roundup of what I read, there's no way to bring up comics except when I pick up trades. And then I'd want to have something of more substance to say than, "Damn, all the Superboys went crazy!" And ultimately I don't actually like substance very much, so that wouldn't work out.

ILC seems to be the best outlet for that.

Q: What should I read?
/
Q: What else would I like?

and

Q: Does anyone really read that?

That doesn't mean they shouldn't be answered, though.

ABC A-Z TERRA OBSCURA AND SPLASH BRANNIGAN
Probably the best ever Splash Brannigan story. S'all I'm sayin'.

AQUAMAN #39
The last issue before rebrand sees Aquaman kill (although probably not) Black Manta. It's still not very exciting though, and I don't like the new artist much. Shame, because I can't see my buying it for much longer on this showing.

BATMAN AND THE MONSTER MEN #4
Lots of RILLY GOOD FITEING. Plus a drugged Bats loses his belt and maybe GETS CLONED!!1!!

SEVEN SOLDIERS BULLETEER #3
Blount is right upthread, this is the SS Top Ten. It follows the structure of all the other minis, and links them to SS#0 in issue 3, which means in the next one we get Bulleteer vs Sheeda action?

SWAMP THING #24
Last issue of the Toad King plot. I don't think I can do this any more.

THUNDERBOLT JAXON #1
TOP ORIGIN ISSUE. MORE BRIT COMIX PLS.

Y THE LAST MAN #42
Woohoo! Ampersand's back story. The first issue to move the plot forward in about a year, I think.

PVP #22
I like it, so there.

FANTASTIC FOUR #534
Thing/Grey Hulk FITE. Not much else. Ho hum.

POWERS #16
Umm. The standup may be shit, and the idea that all the Powers come from some other dimension is... well... a bit cliche, but WALKER IN COSTUME, PEOPLE!

PUNISHER #30
Eastern European plot finishes as you might expect, man on fire, gunshots, yadda yadda yadda. I like the THRILL POWER I get from this book.

X-FACTOR #3
RYAN SOOK DRAWZ HOTT WIMMIN.

I liked it that he lost his boot as much as when he lost his belt. Barefoot Batman should get his own Jim Lee written/drawn macroseries.

GREEN LANTERN #8: I'm sorta convinced that GJ is a decent plotter / idea guy, but could definitely use a dialog assist and some help re: the details. Nice to see Green Arrow's sunny disposition proved to be the key in freeing him & his dipstick friend from KILLER WEEDS! All that mushy-gushy family stuff was 15 types of tooth decay. Also, what is up w/ GJ making folks punch people's heads off? I assume this is Carlos P's last issue, which means it's my last issue as well. See you in the 57th century, Pol!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #529: AKA THE FINAL PART OF THE OTHER. AKA the first JMS Spidey single in a long time that read like the GOOD JMS Spidey singles. If the general thrust of The Other was to expand Spidey's powerset within the parameters of Spideydom, that's all good & fine, but a more enjoyably scenic route towards said revelations would've been appreciated. Also: Tony Stark eavesdrops on MJ & PP doing the schmoopie thing (while making PP's "birthday present" suit, har har), AND DOESN'T THROW UP! Conclusion: I am emotionally stunted.

NEW AVENGERS -- This is the Bendis I like, the Bendis I've always liked, the Bendis who writes a story where basically nothing happens, and it still rocks. It makes me want to read the new Ms Marvel, even, and I've never been that interested in Carol Danvers.

"Ms. Marvel joined the Avengers, but several months later was sidelined due to a surprise pregnancy. The pregnancy progressed at freakish speed and within weeks she gave birth to a son. The son quickly grew to adulthood. Her son, Marcus, revealed that he had come from Limbo, a dimension outside of time and had fallen in love with Carol. He had kidnapped Carol during a previous mission and had used mind control devices to force her to fall in love with him. He had seduced and impregnated her, then transferred his essence into her womb, essentially becoming his own son. After he made this revelation to Carol and her fellow Avengers, she somewhat inexplicably agreed to be his partner and left the team with him for this other dimension. It was later revealed that she was still under Marcus's influence at that point. After she left with him, his accelerated aging continued until he withered away to a husk, at which point she used his technology to return to Earth."

... actually, that makes it sound like I should have been all about Ms Marvel. But at the time it was just lame.

Doesn't the Freakishly Fast Pregnancy Trope (Ms Marvel, someone on Star Trek ... um, I know I've seen it other places too) seem like something that accidentally got jostled out of smutty fanfic and wound up in the comics? If Power Girl OYL starts with an unbirthing story, we'll know there's a leak in the boat and we gotta patch it toot sweet.

Have you considered a career as a lunatic?

RANN-THANGARIAN WAR 48-PAGE SUPERSPECIAL #1 (of 1): You can complain all you like about Senor Gibbons’ writing on this space-opera miniseries, because it was pretty laughable. Note to Rama duder trying to find the silver lining in this galactic turd: I think the definition of "wasting time" is, in essence, "writing 7 issues' worth of space shenanigans where the reader is given no reason at all to care about any damn thing." So now Kyle Rayner doesn't have a face. Wow. And Jade died, because Dan Didio hates Infinity Inc. as much as he hates Giffen & DeMatteis. CONTINUED IN THE NEXT SCINTILLATING ISSUE OF AMETHYST. I want to believe DG wrote this series in exchange for having DC publish The Originals, and had his pet dog write the series for him.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS: RECHARGE #4: If it turns out that GJ, not DG, was the x-factor that saved this series from Ranngarian depths of ass, my world will be so empty. Patrick Gleason is the nu-Manhke, and most worthy of a Huk krush. Give him work, dammit. Gleason, that is. Unless Huk needs work, too.