Shipping This Week! - 05.01.19

BPRD THE DEAD #3 (OF 5)

AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #4 (OF 12)
BIRDS OF PREY #78
HUMAN TARGET #18 (MR)
LUCIFER #58 (MR)
PLASTIC MAN #14
TEEN TITANS #20
TRIGGER #2 (MR)

I didn't know you were on the BPRD trail. Is it any cop?

And to throw this bone out to anyone: I got that first Human Target trade with the reverand and it was good, but no great shakes. (God I sound like a stupid Super Quiz now.) It gets better, yes?

And the BPRD thing is something I've been meaning to get, but...

Hmm - half my BUY ME post got the shaft when I posted it. Starting from where I left off:

WONDER WOMAN #212

WANTED #6 (Of 6)

DAREDEVIL #69
MADROX #5 (OF 5)
POWERS #8 (MR)
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #71
WOLVERINE #24
X-MEN #166

DEMO SCRIPTBOOK

Anyone here reading Trigger, perchance?

AUTHORITY REVOLUTION #4
BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #7
HUMAN TARGET #18
LUCIFER #58
PLASTIC MAN #14
TERRA OBSCURA VOL 2 #5
WONDER WOMAN #212
WANTED #6
BULLSEYE GREATEST HITS #5
DAREDEVIL #69
MADROX #5
POWERS #8
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #71
WOLVERINE #24

I had stopped buying Madrox, but picked up 3 and 4 on a whim at the weekend and found it was really quite good. Ditto Mark Millar's run on Wolverine, which is rather spiffy but I keep on forgetting to pick up.

Since I'm pretty out of it these days, what the hell is this about? Is Tim Hunter in a Talking Heads cover band or has be joined the army and deployed to Afghanistan or what?

Erm... piss poor. The 'second Carrier' shenanigans have been diverted by another, bigger plot, and all the baddies have got old and died. Already. To introduce a new baddie (who may or may not have something to do with Jenny Quantum). Oh, and the 'Midnighter turns the Authority into super-duper fascists' plot seems to have been dropped. Already. It's only issue 4. Either this is going to do Grant-esque "Oh my fucking God, my head has exploded trying to rationalise all this BUT ISN'T IT FUCKING GREAT??!?!?!?" or it's going to get worse. I'm not sure if I want to be about to find out.

BOOKS OF MAGICK LIFE DURING WARTIME #7

This came out? I didn't get it anyway...

HUMAN TARGET #18

Sad to say, I didn't understand this at all; mainly down to the colouring and the art. I think at the end Chance has made one of the anti-Muslim guys up into an Arab so the police pick on him, but I couldn't tell. The weakest issue of this yet, and if I was at DC it would convince me I was right to cancel it.

LUCIFER #58

Why do I buy this? I'm serious guys, somebody tell me...

Erm... Elaine and Lucifer have a conversation during which she becomes the Feet Of God. It's half-told in Illustrated Classics style, or like woodcuts from some 17th children's fable. As I type this, it sounds like the best book ever. SO WHY CAN'T I GET TO GRIPS WITH IT?

PLASTIC MAN #14

A stand-alone issue, but an absolute belter. Kyle B turns his attention away from Jack Davis and, or so it appears, turns it to Davy Law. The plot is classic British comics, and at several points Plas looks exactly like Keyhole Kate (presumably intentionally).

TERRA OBSCURA VOL 2 #5

Oh No! Multi-dimensional hijinks! Oh No!

Normally I would lap this up, but coming in the same week as Authority and Lucifer doing same(ish) things it just HURTS MY BRANE. I might come back to this later and see if it's any better.

WONDER WOMAN #212

Hooray! The blind WW fites all of the JLA and pwns them! Come back next month for yet more KEWL FITEING ACTION (trailed in this issue) and more background nobody reads.

WANTED #6

It's hard to know what to say about this without SPOILERing it. It's a let-down after the previous greatness and the last panel is distinctly meh. It's been a good mini-series overall though, if not quite living up to the initial pitch of 'Watchmen for Villains'.

BULLSEYE GREATEST HITS #5

I enjoyed this a lot, but it doesn't do very much. We get a bit of Bullseye history, a couple of decent deaths, and some nice Steve Dillon art. Glad it's over, mind.

DAREDEVIL #69

WHO WILL SAVE US FROM THE MONOTONY OF THIS PLOT ARC! JEEBUS, BMB, FINISH THE FUCKING STORY ALREADY. OK, the White Tiger stuff is quite nice but we're another month down without the story moving on one iota. I'm sure some of the panels are even duplicates of earlier ones.

MADROX #5

Bah. My shop didn't have it. I need to go to another one tomorrow.

POWERS #8

This is plodding on at it's own pace. Like the Grand Old Duke Of York's Men, this issue is neither up nor down. Is it just me, or has Powers sucked ever so slightly since the move to Marvel? Where are the anarchist terrorist group plots? Where are the heroes exploding? WHERE AM TEH MONKEY ASS FUCKING?

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #71

The last issue started the Ultimate Doctor Strange plot really nicely. This one wraps it up really badly. Things happen and things are resolved in tiny little lines of dialogue that aren't even interesting. WHITHER "BY THE HOARY HOSTS OF HOGGOTH!"????!?!?! Meh of the worst kind.

WOLVERINE #24

More meh. Can't even muster up the enthusiasm to criticise this other than to say HAHHAHAHAHAHA D4R3D3V1L PWNS W0LV3R1N3!!11!1!!!

This was a depressing week, really.

MADROX
Fairly predictable wrap up to plot. A bit of a let down after previous issues but still fun. Also on the editorial type page they mysteriously hint at a new PD X Factor type series. Please please let them do this.

EX MACHINA
I mainly got this because I lurve Tony Harris' lush art. As to the writing etc. Hmmm, it was OK and sporadically amusing and I am looking forward to flashbacks with Machine Bloke's arch nemesis or whatever BUT I had the same problem with this as I seem to do with all comics that try to be literary and serious - the serious bits just weren't good enough to compete with proper serious writing and it just served to dilute the superhero thrillz. I would rather read a proper serious book at one point and then put it down and read a snazzy superhero action type comic than read something which tries to do both weakly. These are probably my problems though...

No, it ends with the old guy turning up at the Gladiator's costume shop. Again.

HUMAN TARGET #18 (UM, POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

Yeah, the last 16 issues or so have been great, but this one was a bit muddled, like Milligan's trying to stick in all the vague political commentary that he hadn't got around to before the series ends. Aldo, I think that Chance only shot the one anti-terrorist kid, and then he took the other one with him to look for the Muslim guy they were abusing, but the police shot him because he was Muslim and paranoid?

BULLSEYE

I read #3-5 last night and I really enjoyed it, even though the last issue was a little confusing (the dad in the base seemed utterly random, for one). Still, it had some good character and Hannibal Lecterish moments, and the Dillon art.

WANTED #6

I have nothing to add to what Aldo said, it was kinda 'meh' but no surprises based on what had come before. I would like to know what exactly Millar was trying to say in a meta-comics sense, i.e. "things used to be so much fun in the superhero days, before we killed them all and things got all grim and gritty" (and he says "grim and gritty" a bunch of times).

WOLVERINE

Meh, Grant Morrison is doing the 'superheroes as weapons' thing a million times better in JLA right now, and without all the big names.

JLA: CLASSIFIED #2

It doesn't get much better than this. Um, I feel stupid for asking, but did Grant create the Ultramarines as British JLA analogues for this series or were they pre-existing?

LUCIFER

I didn't actually read this issue yet because it looked boring, but very pretty.

I also dropped Powers of the list because it reads better in trades, and picked up Uzumaki vol. 2 & 3 and JLA: Divided We Fall. I hope this is the one where Batman sends the JLA out to look for Bruce Wayne?

SPIDER-MAN/THE HUMAN TORCH #1:

I totally agree with what y'all have been saying about Slott writing fun, old-school comics, I love She-Hulk, and I enjoyed this. However, I don't think I can take any more issues of such overwhelming earnestness.

Alex came back and was in a coma for a while; his nurse sort of fell in love with him despite hating dirty dirty mutants. Then they broke up.

Meanwhile, Lorna went crazy in Genosha for no discernable reason, at least no reason that was given while I was still reading UXM. All I know is that she's no liable to kill people at the drop of a hat, Bobby seems to be dating her, and both of them are ona team led by Alex, a situation that seems to be causing strain and makes the Rogue/Gambit romance seem balanced and normal.

Oh yeah, I remember Lorna being in Genosha in Morrison's NXM (which I have now finally read, I don't remember if I mentioned that on the Astonishing thread). Is Magneto really her father? I thought that had been something he'd told her way back in the early days, and it was decided to be a hoax.

Man, poor Alex. He goes through as much shit as Scott, but Scott beats him to the brooding.

I think that Lorna's going goofy was due to the destruction of Genosha & Magneto's "death". Of course, then Ch*ck A*sten went off and did his thing (w/ the love pentagon & such) (and bringing back the previously-debunked "Polaris = Magneto's daughter" thing). Siss boom BAH. I am hoping for some housecleaning from PM.

Scott's got the better look - he SHOULD get first dibs!

Did I mention that Dan Slott is forever in my heart for dismissing the "WTF?" Juggernaut / She-Hulk tryst (in the last Shulkie) with just a line of dialogue?

(Dan, the cat is H0TT!)

He created the Ultramarines (the water guy, Warmang One (the guy that Grodd's tearing in half), the girl who can turn two dimensional, and someone else who I'm forgetting) in JLA. I know that the Knight is from some Batmen of many Nations pre-existing idea, and I'd guess that Jack O'Lantern isn't new, but his antagonistic relations with Knight probably is.

I haven't read Milligan's X-men issue yet, but my girlfriend was trying to explain all the history behind Polaris/Bobby etc. in the car this morning. It sounds complicated.

Spidey / Torch #2 keywords: GWEN STACY KRAVEN
Spidey / Torch #3 keywords: SPIDER MOBILE

Am I just noticing it more, or has there been a real Gwen Stacy revival lately? I half-expected her to be in one of the movies.

I don't think it'll be as good as She-Hulk, cause She-Hulk isn't out and out comedy -- that's what I like about it, it's funny but it's really not put together as a joke book. But who knows, it's Slott, I'll check it out.

Lucifer: I'm with aldo, except I really do think this is the best thing ever. Well, not ever, but it's really fun to read, and the story of a creation from the point of view of a creator who lets things run in sped-up time until they veer off the tracks, then each time tries to manhandle them back on is really cool. Ant I loved the art, even if I thought the "main story" bits looked a lot like Paul Pope.

X-Men: I don't think I like Milligan if he's going to be all "Can I ever feel that way again - now more than ever!?". Though that sentence remains true if you replace Milligan with anyone else. Are these people the emotional wrecks whose absence from the team was the secret to New X-Men's success?

Wanted: and now, for fans of Mark Millar, he will slap you in the face with his tattooed dick for five minutes.

Powers: I was seriously drawing a blank when it came time to remember what happened last issue, and I suspect I'll be the same next issue. Good things: this thing moves. Over here, over there, over here, over there, a lot happens in this issue. Bad things: the things this story does well are less and less connected to actual powers, and more and more the sort of stuff I could see on TV if I wanted to.

Human Target: Yeah, I reckon it's that the good guy (er, such as he was) died, the sidebutns bad guy lived, and the black bad guy also lived, but maybe isn't that bad. It's all very "what the fuck was that", and not in a good way. I suppose I like the little touches that suggest other stories, and I don't necessarily need a moral at the end, but yeah, WTF?

!! You may be on to something here. I like Astonishing, which has its share of wreckage, but I definitely like it in a different way than Morrison's.

And I had the same reaction to Milligan. Deep down, I think I want him to do 80 issues of X-story about haircuts and omnipotence, like Shade, but deep up, I realize he won't. And I didn't like many of the characters in Shade, so getting me to like the book despite that was a lucky shot.

The highlight of my comics pickup, I think, was the sad issue of Fables. It's nice to see all the shit lining up for the fan in a book where you know the writer's gonna be able to handle it.

http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/features/110645458078680.htm