Columbus, Cdn Thanksgiving, Halloween: Only one of these holidays has its own comic in OCTOBER

Every damn week.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #5

Ok, if X-BABIES #1 is anything like Muppet Babies, it's going to be amazing.

Ur, Bs & Rs for me.

I did my good-stuff-out-this-week post over at http://www.comicsalliance.com/2009/10/05/dont-ask-just-buy-it-october-7-bloom-county-masterpiece-c/ .

You're being very generous with Ellis on Astonishing, Douglas. Really, really generous.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #5
BATMAN ANNUAL #27
BATMAN THE UNSEEN #1- Old school Batman by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones, hopefully on the upswing.
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #34- This has been a pretty good Batman story by Peter Milligan with an artist named Andy Clarke.
CRIMINAL SINNERS #1

I'd also like to find that Master of Kung Fu special that came out last week, but none made it to the shelf at my local store.

Warlord is kind of metal, but then again so is Conan, but he doesn't have a cool pistol. Mike Grell's artwork does look sharp in that Showcase.

douglas way way too generous to bloom fuckin county and mike fuckin grell

captain fuckin canuck

Strongly suspect that Bagge's Hulk story has been re-edited/re-arranged in current serialization.

Damn it, I forgot to pick up the second Strange Tales. Why do I not check this thread first?

Who is even buying this: FLASH SPLATTER SYMBOL T/S XL?

also, why does I HEART CREEPY WMN T/S only come in XL?

Uh, because all women who have anything to do with comics just gots to be fatties?

Dark Horse prolly needs to recheck their stats.

finally picked up the last four weeks worth of comics, and immediately read the last two issues of Incredible Hercules. just about the only monthly I'm still actually excited about.

Incredible Herc has gotten good again, and I think Fraction's Iron Man is still excellent. I'm a little confused tho; how can Fraction be kicking so much ass writing Iron Man and be awful on X-Men?

Haven't many other otherwise rad writers struggled with X-Men to some degree? I heard a lot of complaints about Brubaker's run and I don't, I kinda enjoyed the part of Morrison's run that I read, but y'know.

Area Man Has Far Greater Knowledge of Marvel Universe Than Own Family Tree

Ha ha. That could be me!

Yeah, the whole X-universe is pretty problematic at the moment. Fraction is a huge improvement on Brubaker (who I generally love), but there are still issues. I mean...the whole M-Day thing sucks and totally should've been reversed by now. But even ignoring that issue, most of the X-books are treating mutants like soldiers across the board. Which used to be more incidental. Plus, having all of the surviving mutants migrating from one separatist state to another has gotten way old. I just want to read something like old school New Mutants or Excalibur already. X-Factor is the only book that stands out from the crowd at the mo.

I think the pileup of book upon book dating back about 20 years has left the whole X-universe bloated and metastasized, and it's too bad that the franchise makes a ton of money because it needs to be trimmed back to a nub and regrown slowly with a little more sense. But I haven't followed an X-book since Sienkiewicz left New Mutants, so that's just me yelling "you damn kids get off my lawn!"

CRIMINAL SINNERS #1

I was surprised by how funny this was.

And I continue to be amused by the way Brubaker seems to write the same indentikit shady lady into everything he does.

Haven't many other otherwise rad writers struggled with X-Men to some degree? I heard a lot of complaints about Brubaker's run and I don't, I kinda enjoyed the part of Morrison's run that I read, but y'know.

I've found this to be very very true (though I really liked Morrison's run), a lot of normally good or even great writers often don't quite get how to write a team superhero book, let alone one with so much history and baggage as the X-Men. The general themes of society alienation or teen angst or what-have-you tend to get broadly applied or flat-out ignored too. WmC's correct I think.

...because it needs to be trimmed back to a nub and regrown slowly with a little more sense.

did the Ultimate X-Men kind of do that?

Problem is, the "slowly" part lasted for maybe a few years at best (and it didn't start off nearly as well as USM). Then they started fast-forwarding through 40 years of mainstream Marvel Universe X-men stories at an astounding pace. Occasionally there were entertaining stories, but wow did it really make things senseless. The writers were shifted two years or so, often killing or muddying existing storylines all the time; the art teams changed even more frequently.

UXM didn't have terrible writers on it either, that's the sad thing - I know Millar and Bendis are debatable and inconsistent, but I was surprised to see mediocre, generally unfun stuff coming from Brian K. Vaughan and Robert Kirkman.

I just don't understand why Marvel moved the X-Men to San Francisco. It's the kind of change designed to look like something is happening, but without actually making a chance. Not to mention the move made no sense at the time, and was barely justified within the books. And for some reason, Ellis is awful at writing X-Men too (Astonishing is maybe even worse than Uncanny at the moment). I find all the stuff in Uncanny + X-Force about evil anti-mutant cults so played and boring.

And for some reason, Ellis is awful at writing X-Men too

so very true, which is a shame since obv he has written tights and fights vv well over the years and his current avatar stuff is never worse than pulpy fun. the stiff-as-a-board art really doesn't help either.

I like Ellis on Astonishing - much more than I did Whedon. Different strokes...

mmm, I am in general really turning against Ellis these days.

I just don't understand why Marvel moved the X-Men to San Francisco. It's the kind of change designed to look like something is happening, but without actually making a chance.

You just answered your own question! (Don't you know Marvel is super-big on "illusion of change") Also see: dumping the team in space for a year! Actually, to be honest, I don't mind this kind of stuff too much, these changes often create memorable pocket runs, like "X-Men move to Dallas". But I haven't really liked any X-Men much since Whedon's run ended, and haven't read Ellis' yet.

I just read the last six months or so of Green Lantern. Why didn't anyone tell me Doug Mahnke was drawing it? Inked by Christian Alamy no less.

I'm curious to know ILCers' takes on Dark Reign now that it's sort of making vague moves towards wrapping up. For my own part, I think making it less of a Big Event and more of a general source of tension and conflict across the M.U. was a big plus.

If the only good thing to come out of Dark Reign was this current storyline on Iron Man, it was worth it, imho.

Co-sign on the current Iron Man run. God _damn_ it's good.

Yeah, between Iron Man, Iron Fist and his Thor one-shots, he's one of those writers I'll search out on name value alone.

Just stay away from his Uncanny.

I can't get anywhere near X-books at all. Shit just don't make sense to me.

I like Ellis on Astonishing - much more than I did Whedon. Different strokes...

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:35 PM

no. but I do wonder if the art isn't a big part of it.

that said it was pretty lol to have them go all Furry Paw Of Genocide on Sliding Albion. good times.

Millar is really enjoying writing Ultimate Avengers as a group of real assholes. War Machine blowing apart civilians, misogyny all over the place. Is Tony Stark having an older brother a new thing, or has it been referenced in the ultimate comics elsewhere? I could have sworn he was an only kid in that UIM series, but I have no problem with them retconning the hell out of Orson Scott Card.

what is that Greg Rucka "Batwoman in Detective Comics" book like?

I liked the first run! It's a different writer now isn't it?

I'm really REALLY liking the Batwoman material (the backups still aren't doing it for me). It's still Rucka and J.H. Williams III, who is pushing himself hard, stylistically. I think Jock is going to draw three issues starting in January before Williams comes back.

the art is spectacular. Is Williams a photo reference guy?

the story is a bit 'tarded but the art is so great it doesn't matter

The layouts and weird panel shapes are kinda Steve-Vai-guitar-solo, but what a draftsman.

apt comparison

kinda Steve Bissette and M. Kaluta gave me boners when I was 12

I think Williams sometimes uses photo-ref, but he treats it in a really non-obvious way. The bulk of the new issue is actually drawn in his approximation of Mazzuchelli's "Year One" style.

Very interesting review of Batwoman/Detective by the consistently excellent Jog: http://savagecritic.com/2009/10/review-of-batwoman-in-detective-comics_30.html

xp it was really obvious in his earlier Batman issues w/Morrison, that story with the Batmen of Many Nations. good stuff, tho