But a whole bunch of pamphlets came out to fill my time:
book of the week
DMZ #25(w. Brian Wood, a. Danijel Zezelj)
Brian Wood continues his run of done-in-one stories, and out of the three so far, this is the best one. "Wilson" follows the title character, from before the war, to the start of the war and into the present where Matty only makes a cameo. A chinese man, who before the war was destined to never be anything more than a low-level Triad, has used his own brand of leadership to gain power in China Town with aspirations for even more. An excellent issue, drawn by guest artist Zezelj. He's bounced around doing some Loveless issues as well as the new "ongoing" artist for Desolation Jones (before THAT disappeared). His artwork can be hard to decipher at times with his heavy use of blacks, but it's unique and displays excellent storytelling.
runner up
100 BULLETS #86 - Another issue where our main characters play alongside characters we haven't met before, culminating in a dark crime, but Azzarello and Risso handle it beautifully. Victor is the one to shine here, as we get to see a little of his humanity, amongst a couple of his grizzlier acts of violence. The overall plot gets a little bump forward with the death of another Trust member, but more importantly is Victor and his wavering allegiance to both sides. Another really good issue.other real good books
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #9 - Whaaat!?!? An issue of All Star Superman and it ISN'T book of the week?!?! How could this happen? Well, this is two in a row that this has happened, and it truly has nothing to do with the still excellent comic book, it has just set a really high bar for itself is all. Although was anyone else besides me a bit confused by the odd space-time glitch half way through? After getting his ass kicked (gorgeously by Quitely), the beaten Superman worries about the cracked moon the Kryptonians caused, and after the villains go off to fix it, we CUT TO: Clark Kent in the office? I felt like I missed a moment. I suppose he was hiding out, waiting for the Kryptonians to weaken? Otherwise, excellent stuff.FABLES #67 - The Good Prince continues its epic journey, and the story of Flycatcher and his new Kingdom just gets better and better. Last issue promised much violence, and although all out war has been delayed an issue, Flycatcher's mind games and resolve continue to entertain. Who would have thought it 15 issues ago, but starting with the excellent origin story in 1,001 Nights and continuing into The Good Prince, Flycatcher has been elevated to one of THE characters in Fables and I couldn't be happier.
three-star comics
X-FACTOR #25 - Messiah Complex continues, and sue me for being a long-time X-Men fan, but I'm enjoying it. The whole Jamie Madrox dupes in the future thing worked pretty well, as did most scenes with Layla (no surprise). One stumbling block, was how quickly the infiltrating Rictor is shown the company secrets. I guess there isn't time to let Rictor be under cover for 12 issues, even though it would have been more effective.PUNISHER #52 - This story is really clicking. Bullshit or not, the last page cliffhanger was awesome.
WONDER WOMAN #14 - Gail Simone finally arrives! And a pretty solid Wonder Woman comic it is. Admittedly, I do not have tons of experience with the character, but this was fun. First off, Simone's story looks amazing, as the Dodson's knock it out of the park every time and may just be the perfect artist for WW. A perfect balance of strength and beauty. The opening action sequence was good, and although the whole 'Clark Kent" aspect of Diana doesn't work for me, Simone makes the best of it. Good start.
THOR #4 - The change in locale was a bit shocking, but I'm still enjoying the slow moving Straczynski take. Copiel's art has been great as well, which begs the question, what happened to the design on The Warriors Three? After Heimdall looked bad-ass last issue, these three looked like douche bags.
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #13 - So I kind of liked this ultra crazy Matt Fraction take that only he can bring. Besides Spider-Man being a little too jokey and nonchalant about "Punny" trying to kill again, this worked. The inclusion of Domino makes me smile, as I've always liked her potential and I'm glad someone is using her somewhere. Cory Walker does some nice mainstream work too.
NEW AVENGERS #36 - Even when you remove the sycophants and the haters, Brian Bendis' New Avengers continues to polarize people online. The pace of the story is slow, yes, but it is still working for me. Not many scenes here, but a lot happened. We got the recap of he Mighty Avengers story that is way behind, but this book needed to keep going so that is fine. I blame this on marvel, not the quality of this book. The lengthy talk between Cage and Jones seems to be leading to something, and it even made me miss the Jessica Jones of Alias a bit. The scene between Wolverine and Spider-Woman was good, and needed. Although apparently its not weird at all for the Black Widow, dressed only in her underwear, to walk into Jessica's shower looking for deodorant. Come on Bendis, that's just parody. Yu was great as always.(Side Note: My girlfriend wondered why Jessica's tits were so huge all of the sudden. Am I being too kind in assuming that Yu is just being conscious of the fact that she just had a baby?)
GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #2 - Another perfectly entertaining comic book. Not sure where this book is headed post rescue, but as long as the charming art of Cliff Chiang is here, I am too.
comics with problems
CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 - I'm on the fence with this title. Although I am unsure of the point, it wasn't a bad read. I mean, they went through all the trouble to return him to the Marvel Universe, badly tacked on to a crossover that definitely didn't need it, but then we are being presented a story that ends with him eventually going back to die. Huh? Could this internal Marvel conversation be far from the truth:"Lets bring him back during Civil War too! The fans will be shocked!"
"And then what?"
"We'll figure it out later. Waaaay later."
We are led to believe that this matters, and we SHOULD be reading this. I suppose once we get around to SECRET INVASION this will become clearer, but that shouldn't be the case.
MICE TEMPLAR #2 - A) I really want to like this title. B) I really don't want to compare it to Mouse Guard. C) FUCK, I'm gonna have too. This issues was sooooo boooooooogged dooooown in exposition, that it was tough to get through. Both mice comics have a lot of characters with a lot of history and that's fine, but Mouse Guard never makes me feel overwhelmed by it. Oeming and Glass have been so caught up in the detailed history they've come up with, that they feel we need to get it all right now. The history lessons would have been better over issues I would think. The second half of the issue, where we stay with our heroes and the assassin after them was decent. I'm still around for more.
THE SWORD #2 - I've read Ultra, I've read Girls, and now, I've read two issues of The Sword. This could be the worst single issue I've read in 34 comics from the Luna Brothers. The dialogue just went off the deep end here. The interrogation with the cops was excruciating. This conversation defied logic, as it would never have happened the way it did just after her family was massacred and she (a cripple!) miraculously survived. These were the dumbest cops ever. Then later, our (dumb) villains decide they need to send in a guy to take care of her. Um, aren't our villains these guys? At least, compared to the bumbling idiot that they did call? Confusing. They still have me at the sword though. What/who/where/when/why? So I'll read some more.
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #48 - Not quite sure why this issue didn't work for me. It was a decent comic, but it felt very paint by numbers to me. It could be my apathy for the Ultimate Universe, as it is just hard to keep any enthusiasm up. I'm around for the Loeb ruckus, then some decisions are happening in regards to this title and Ultimate X-Men.
AVENGERS THE INITIATIVE #7 - This title is slowly slipping for me. There just isn't anyone I'm invested in. Seven issues in, the best I can do is Justice. I like Justice. But I've always liked Justice and what's annoying about that, is I feel like he is being made to look dumb while they yank him around. SO its kind of a win-lose that his storyline is moving forward. The Scarlet Spiders and the whole Parker thing at the end didn't work for me. And if Marvel wants this to be something that is important For future Spider books, why have it happen here? Odd choices. Still curious who the Ninja Mutant is.
NIGHTWING #138 - This crossover has not been very good so far, has it? Nightwing helps Robin and Damien fight off a shit load of ninjas. Where is Batman anyway? And where is Ra's al Ghul in this, his return for that matter? This crossover is feeling stretched.
WORLD WAR HULK #5 - I almost put this below with Wolverine, but for John Romita's art and the Sentry/Hulk battle it will go here. Now, for the most part I've enjoyed this series. Even though it came from the Planet Hulk storyline which I hated, the Hulk duking it out with the Marvel heroes has been mostly good times. The issue starts off fine, then escalates with a pretty cool (but bright) fight between the Super Giants and once that is over, it quickly goes wrong. First, the Hulk just stops. He was never going to do anything anyway, but slap some wrists. I mean, okaaaay, but I would have rather Sentry stopped him. And then, oh yeah, Lame-ass Miek goes nuts revealing that he was in fact responsible for the death of Hulk's wife and kills Rick Jones. Um, WHAT THE FUCK? I mean, Rick dying is a shoulder shrugger, because he'll be back, and its not like he has been featured anywhere but here anyway. But having the deaths taken away from the Illuminati pretty much sucks, and the Hulk being taken out by a lazer (?) pretty much sucks too. This got messy.Oh wait. Back matter: Incredible Herc with Amadeus as sidekick? Could work for a few fun issues. Red Hulk? It will look good for sure (McGuinness), but with Loeb who knows what we'll get. Oh, and SKAAR SON OF HULK. Jesus Hector Christ. NO.
um, just no
WOLVERINE #59 - Three issues into this storyline and I'm just not interested. In fact, anyone that likes good comics should not be interested. Never a huge fan of Chaykin, not even the luxury of his art on a monthly basis is exciting. For those that are, great? For those with me: T-Minus TWO more issues until Jason Aaron's run starts.
*****
Now that I feel like I've finally caught up to my stack, a huge week looms with me traveling to Vegas for Thanksgiving. We'll see what I can even get read over the next four days.
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