I was planning on getting Wonder Woman when Gail Simone took over, but my girlfriend and I have been curious about this Picoult run (even though I'm hearing mixed things), so I went ahead and picked up #6-8 this week to see what's what for myself. I set them on the "TO READ" pile that has various comics and graphic novels that have built up. I'll get to them as soon as I can.
This week:
USAGI YOJIMBO #102
(w/a. Stan Sakai)
The assassin Shizukiri has been after our hero for months now, and at the end of last issue-- our hero injured and obviously at a disadvantage-- finally meets him face to face. This issue then opens... with a flashback?!?! Aaaarrgghhh!! Okay, it wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was a pretty rockin' issue, just a bit of a jolt as Sakai doesn’t normally use this kind of storytelling device. Regardless, we see what happened to Shizukiri and his captor (Mayumi, a love interest for Usagi) leading up to last issues meeting, and THEN we get to the fight. It was refreshing to see Usagi outsmart as well as outfight his opponent. Mayumi’s death was sad, but only because Usagi’s personal life is always in shambles. Just one more thing for him to deal with. I was not disappointed, and it was another good chapter in the Usagi epic. FAVORITE OF THE WEEK, mostly because I've been waiting for this confrontation for a long time.
This week:
USAGI YOJIMBO #102(w/a. Stan Sakai)
The assassin Shizukiri has been after our hero for months now, and at the end of last issue-- our hero injured and obviously at a disadvantage-- finally meets him face to face. This issue then opens... with a flashback?!?! Aaaarrgghhh!! Okay, it wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was a pretty rockin' issue, just a bit of a jolt as Sakai doesn’t normally use this kind of storytelling device. Regardless, we see what happened to Shizukiri and his captor (Mayumi, a love interest for Usagi) leading up to last issues meeting, and THEN we get to the fight. It was refreshing to see Usagi outsmart as well as outfight his opponent. Mayumi’s death was sad, but only because Usagi’s personal life is always in shambles. Just one more thing for him to deal with. I was not disappointed, and it was another good chapter in the Usagi epic. FAVORITE OF THE WEEK, mostly because I've been waiting for this confrontation for a long time.
POWERS #24(w. Brian Bendis, a. Michael Oeming)
Over the years, Brian Bendis has BLOWN UP over at Marvel, and the buzz has long moved away from this book. But really, it continues to be probably the best book he does (there was a small battle with Ultimate Spider-Man for a while). Since Volume 2 has started, both characters now have powers, I.A. is all over Deena’s ass AND they continue to investigate gory-ass power murders. This issue, Deena finally finds out about Chrisitan's new powers, and she flips out. Christian doesn’t have time to deal with it, as he has to save the world. And by that, I mean finish whuppin' ass and outwit The Devil. Good times, and I can’t wait until Deena and Christian talk.
WORMWOOD GENTLEMAN CORPSE #7(w/a. Ben Templesmith)
I think this book moves up my Read Pile with every issue that comes out. Underneath another amazingly simple cover, is the conclusion to the 3-part leprechaun storyline. The wacky characters and even wackier plots all come together nicely, with a little bit of a promise for future story goods. And I think I may have said this before, but I feel like this could almost take place in the Whedon-verse. Regardless, I think the book is taking a little bit of a break, and that’s too bad. With as many comics as I read, this book is especially refreshing because nothing else is like it. No, seriously: nothing.
GIRLS #24(w/a. Luna Brothers)
The finale of this comic was delayed an extra week for me, since Diamond shorted my store their orders. But after another week of waiting, it finally arrives, and the Luna Brothers' second finite maxi-series comes to a close. And frankly, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. This series started with a spectacular series of cliffhangers that had me freaking out for the next issue. Eventually, the cliffhangers fizzled, and then we were left with the characters and their interactions amidst the oddest alien invasion of all time. The Luna Brothers come from the Robert Kirkman/Erik Larsen form of writing, which is: lots and lots of words, with characters sharing their subtext via dialogue, rather than letting the readers infer from action. Which is an old-school hallmark of the medium for sure (so it's not entirely out of place or anything), but at times I would turn a page and see what seemed like two pages of text covering the wonderful art. The simplistic style is really attractive and the Brothers have an excellent cinematic style with wide screen pacing, so I wonder why they didn’t show us more than tell us. Regardless, for me, parts of the middle and the last third of the story seemed to be in a holding pattern, with the main characters talking a lot about their horrible situation with no real answers coming. Maybe that’s because there really weren't going to be many answers, and the ones that were given made me indifferent. Lastly, I was a bit let down because I thought a book titled “Girls” which had men uncontrollably fucking naked female monsters would have some commentary about the sexes and how they interact. Unfortunately, I don’t think we ever got that deep, and that’s too bad. Ultimately, I think Ultra was a much tighter arc for the creators. Maybe this book didn’t need 24 issues after all.
FALLEN SON: AVENGERS: A better effort than the Wolverine issue, but really, the highlight for me was, again, the art.
WALKING DEAD #37
DAREDEVIL #96
CROSSING MIDNIGHT #6(w. Mike Carey, a. Jim Fern)
I'm really starting to get into this series. Generally, horror books aren't my thing, but this one is so much more than your average horror book. Especially the blood splattered, flesh-eating zombie books that are the rage these days. This world that Carey is creating appears to be even larger than I thought it would be after the first storyline. Both of the twins, our main characters, seem to have their respective Masters of sorts, and things are getting more and more complicated. I look forward to the next storyline or two, to see more things answered and for the picture to get even clearer. The one thing that bugs me about this book is still the inclusion of Jim Fern. He's not a bad artist-- in fact, at times he is quite good-- he just lacks the creative design sense that would really make this book shine. (Perhaps a Chris Bachalo?)
EXTERMINATORS #16: Boy am I glad Laura dropped that chick of a cliff. Holy shit. Where is this book going?
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #5: What exactly is this crossover about?
WETWORKS #8
FANTASTIC FOUR #545
(w. Dwayne McDuffie, a. Paul Pelletier)
When McDuffie first took over, picking up those last two Civil War issues, I was really excited about what was to come, but two issues in and this title has completely fallen off of my radar. There are legitimate reasons, and there are personal ones. First, I still find the Reed/Sue interactions annoying. What happened to them during Civil War was serious damaging stuff, and things are just taken with a wink-wink. “Oh Reed, a Dream Vacation on Titan makes up for you cloning Thor, killing a hero (Goliath) and chasing others in a way that I completely disagree with.” It's just frustrating and lame. And I bet Pelletier has some fans, but he is just second-rate at best to me. Kind of like when everyone looked like a Jim Lee clone back in the day, for those that remember that. Waitasecond, wasn’t Pelletier ONE OF THOSE GUYS? Now, personally, I kind of hate the whole Black Panther/Storm thing. Okay, hate is not the right word. DESPISE. There. I’m not sure why either, 'cause I know that I’m an X-fan, and I miss not seeing Storm involved in those books. I just hate seeing her second fiddled to the Black Panther. (And I know that she will be back for the crossover, but she won’t be alone.) It still bugs me how shoe-horned the whole thing is. Whatever, I guess we are past that. And final personal reason, I don’t care about Gravity, Deathlok or the semi-sequel to a story I didn’t read, no matter how good it was. For the first time in a bit, I’m thinking of dropping this title.
SILENT WAR #4: Oh, HOLY SHIT. Blackbolt is piiiiiiiiissed.
WOLVERINE #53: – This is just awful. Simon Bianchi is being waaaaaasted on this. I would love to see him on Thor, or is that TOO obvious?
FANTASTIC FOUR #545(w. Dwayne McDuffie, a. Paul Pelletier)
When McDuffie first took over, picking up those last two Civil War issues, I was really excited about what was to come, but two issues in and this title has completely fallen off of my radar. There are legitimate reasons, and there are personal ones. First, I still find the Reed/Sue interactions annoying. What happened to them during Civil War was serious damaging stuff, and things are just taken with a wink-wink. “Oh Reed, a Dream Vacation on Titan makes up for you cloning Thor, killing a hero (Goliath) and chasing others in a way that I completely disagree with.” It's just frustrating and lame. And I bet Pelletier has some fans, but he is just second-rate at best to me. Kind of like when everyone looked like a Jim Lee clone back in the day, for those that remember that. Waitasecond, wasn’t Pelletier ONE OF THOSE GUYS? Now, personally, I kind of hate the whole Black Panther/Storm thing. Okay, hate is not the right word. DESPISE. There. I’m not sure why either, 'cause I know that I’m an X-fan, and I miss not seeing Storm involved in those books. I just hate seeing her second fiddled to the Black Panther. (And I know that she will be back for the crossover, but she won’t be alone.) It still bugs me how shoe-horned the whole thing is. Whatever, I guess we are past that. And final personal reason, I don’t care about Gravity, Deathlok or the semi-sequel to a story I didn’t read, no matter how good it was. For the first time in a bit, I’m thinking of dropping this title.
SILENT WAR #4: Oh, HOLY SHIT. Blackbolt is piiiiiiiiissed.
WOLVERINE #53: – This is just awful. Simon Bianchi is being waaaaaasted on this. I would love to see him on Thor, or is that TOO obvious?
