Adam Beechen, Teen Titans, and Cassandra Cain

First, a thanks to Ragnell for posting about, and drawing my attention to this. After commenting on her post I thought further about, and am expanding upon, my thoughts here.

I would also like to give a warning that this post is LONG. VERY LONG.

Newsarama broke the story that Geoff Johns will be leaving Teen Titans and replaced by Justice League Unlimited and Robin scribe Adam Beechen.

As I intend to discuss stories from Robin, Teen Titans, and things relating to Batgirl:

Here There Be Spoilers

The majority of Geoff Johns' run on Teen Titans was spectacular. While I haven't been crazy about the things going on in the book after the One Year Later jump, the first few story arcs were excellent. Bringing in the Young Justice characters and mixing them with the remaining members of The New Teen Titans was a great way to bring in new readers who hadn't picked up a Titans book before, but still keep fans of the Wolfman/Perez run happy. Johns then added some great villains like Deathstroke (this was four years ago, before he was completely over-exposed), an updated Brother Blood, and (in my favorite arc) future versions of the Titans themselves.

Due to delays, a truly unfortunate two-issue fill-in by He Who Must Not Be Named, a serious down step in the art after Mike McKone left for Marvel, and my overall disinterest in the line-up after One Year Later, I dropped the book.

Adam Beechen is a writer who first caught my attention with Justice League Unlimited #5.

I think for obvious reasons:

In which Blue Beetle is left alone in the satellite on Monitor Duty, and has to defeat The General. It's full of humor, a surprising amount of action, and due to legal reasons the only time we've seen the animated series style Blue Beetle. It's excellent. Based on the strength of this issue, I picked up the trades of the series, which at digest size are $6.99. They're worth every cent. Beechen tells amazing one-shot stories about the League, and not having to worry about the cost of a show is able to showcase characters like Stargirl, The Question, Adam Strange, and even VIBE. Yes, that's right... VIBE. So when he was announced to take over Robin, I put the book on my pull-list.

His first story arc on the book is now infamous for changing the character of Batgirl from a force for good into the leader of the League of Assassins.

While the given motives for Cassandra to change into this evil ninja criminal mastermind were questionable at best (Daddy didn't love her, she wanted Robin to be by her side), I'm not entirely against the idea of this change for three major reasons.

1 - At the end of her own book, immediately before the One Year Later jump, Cassandra had a life-changing quest to find her mother. She ended up fighting her mother to the death, discovering what it meant to be "the one who is all," and decided that Batman's way might not be the way for her. Immediately after, during Infinite Crisis, all of Cassandra's non-Bat friends and family were killed, as well as her new home of Bludhaven completely destroyed by Deathstroke.

If any thing's going to cause someone to snap, it's killing your mom, then coming home to find all you friends dead and your home a radioactive wasteland.

2 - Speaking specifically as this character affects Robin, he has absolutely NO rogues gallery. What makes Batman great is The Joker, Two-Face, The Riddler, etc. This is why no one cares when Batman fights villains like Doctor Phosphorus - Batman is usually only interesting when thrown into contrast with his villains. Robin has no such catalogue of criminals, which is why he's usually most effective in a group, like the Teen Titans. Cassandra Cain as the head of the League of Assassins is a GREAT villain for Robin!

3 - Robin stories should be a reflection of Batman stories. He's basically mini-Batman, and what makes a good Robin story in my mind is one in which we get to see how the character contrasts and compares to Batman. Cassandra Cain, head of the L. o. A., with her army of ninjas and grand designs is part Ra's Al Ghul, and by wanting Robin by her side she's part Talia Al Ghul. So we get to see how Robin would handle stories similar to the Dennis O'Neil 70's Batman stories, and Cassandra Cain could potentially be even more dangerous than Ra's Al Ghul to Robin, as she's closer to him than Ra's ever was to Batman.

This, however, was tossed out the window with this week's Teen Titans #43.
I'm tired of writing it, you're tired of reading it, but I feel the need:

For the love of god, SPOILERS.

So apparently Cassandra had not become evil of her own volition. I'm really opposed to this. To see why, let's run down the character's history one last time:

Cassandra was abused by her father, David Cain, who used her as a living weapon.

Then she found her way to Batman, who used her as a living weapon. That point might be in contention among fans, but I think that since Batman simply loosed her onto Gotham City's underworld based on her fighting skill, and never even taught the character HOW TO READ, then he gets the, "You used her!" treatment. If you want, you can chalk that up to another one of pre-Infinite Crisis Batman's blunders (see: Brother Eye).

When she finally broke away and sought out her own identity, she became completely evil and arguably insane to get back at David Cain and to win the alliance, and sub-textually love, of Robin.

Now with this new issue of Teen Titans, we discover that Cassandra has been brainwashed by Deathstroke, who is using her as a living weapon. And not only is he taking away her free will, but the motivation for doing this have nothing to do with who she is, or what her character traits are, but instead because brainwashing and using her would distress Robin.

So arguably one of the strongest female characters, one who has BESTED the greatest martial artist in the DCU, has never been used outside of her own book as anything other than a tool for male characters.

Could this change? I'm sure she could, at the end of the arc, snap out of things. But looking at the pattern of events, and the way the character's been handled, I'm not sure it will.

What do you guys think?
Will this end well for Cass?
Will she still be Batgirl by the end of the arc?
And does such continual abuse of a character solely for the benefit of other male characters grant her a spot on the Women In Refrigerators list?

Let me know what you think.

-casey-

Read More Comics - Vol 1

Sorry for the delay in updates, intrepid readers.

For the past day or so I've been strucken with an illness that's kept me from getting a good night's sleep for a few days now. I hear there's a bit of it going around, but luckily for us both, I've shaken it* for a quick update about two comics you should read! Yes, YOU!

Read More Comics

This is the first post in this new, hopefully weekly, feature. I'll list off two reccomendations about books you should give a chance. Read 'em or not, here they come.

- The Pirates of Coney Island -

One part The Warriors, one part Oliver Twist, and a healthy dash of street-urchin punk-rock sensibility. Mix until fucking awesome and you've got The Pirates of Coney Island.

Written by Rick Spears, author of one of my favorite trades Teenagers From Mars, he brings an attitude of rebellion and destruction with a story of a runaway that joins a street gang of modern day pirates. They board, steal, and sell cars off the streets of New York.

They've even got a harpoon.

The art is note perfect for the story, too. Vasilis Lolos brings his style of Paul Pope organic grimeiness mixed with a Gorillaz inspired stylization to the table, and makes every bruise and cut look infected, every smile slightly crooked - yet still everything exists in a hyper-real cartoon world, where characters are just that - precisely designed and simplified like your favorite saturday morning cartoon characters. Adding to that overall surreal feeling is Nick Filardi's outstanding colors. I usually don't notice coloring in a book unless it's really bad (What's up, first several years of Nightwing?), so for something good to pop out at me, it's got to be really good.

If that's not enough for you, how about a black vampire car called Caddilacula?

I thought so.

Newsarama's got a 10-page preview of the first issue, so read it! It's free!
Also check out Rick Spears' and Lolos' respective websites to see more of their work.

- Fleep -

Cartoonist and author Jason Shiga describes Fleep as, "ambitous, mysterious and utterly masturbatory." He leaves out, however, the fact that it's genius.

The story is at once simple (a man goes into a phonebooth and is suddenly trapped) and incredibly interesting and complex (what happened to him and how the hell is he going to get out?).

The genius lies in the way that Shiga makes the story compelling to us, the reader. It's two-fold.

First, the character in the story is a blank slate. In the first three strips all we see are him entering a phonebooth, then darkness, then his slightly confused thought. By bringing us into the story immediately before the conflict begins we're instantly hooked, before we can wait to see what happens, the protagonist of our story is already trapped in the phonebooth.

The second is the art style. The main character is the best kind of cartoon design - simple, yet incredibly expressive. At times he's not more than two eyes and a nose, but though body language and subtle changes in those eyes we're instantly in his head. In fact, the lack of detail makes the character even MORE relatable, as a, "hey, that could be me!" feeling sinks in. So when you put a blank slate and simple design together, we end up trapped in that phonebooth with this character.

Fleep is original, honest, suspensefull, and in the end more than a little heartbreaking.

Like Pirates, you can read it online for free! Unlike Pirates, you get the WHOLE THING on Shiga's website.

Do yourself a favor and read it now.

So that's it for me tonight. Tomorrow sees the return of one of my childhood favorite characters to comics. Unfortunately, he's being written by one of, in my opinion, Marvel's hackiest hacks to ever hack a hack. What character, you ask? Well, here's a hint:

It's not Goose Rider.
But it's close.

-casey-

*The batteries in my Wii-mote ran out.

52 Words On 52 - Week 38

This is my now weekly feature on DC Comics' 52. 52 words giving my impressions on whatever went down last issue. As a warning to those who don't read it or are waiting for the 300 trades that this will be collected in, I'm going to get specific.

So, I'm totally serious here: SPOILERS.

52 on 52: Week 38

Will Magnus eating cold beans and building radioactive men is fairly hilarious and disturbing. The Bible of Crime: Book of Apokolips! Does that make Grant Morrison a prophet?

This is really the end of The Question.
How many deaths does one hero get?

I wonder: Was he the man or the butterfly?

So that's this week. As someone who's read most of the published Question stories, and has a great love for the character kicked off by Greg Rucka's Huntress: Cry For Blood story, I'm kind of bummed. Look for something about him to come.

-casey-

DC Teaser Image

NEWSARAMA broke this teaser image for an upcoming DC Comics event tonight.

For those of you who are click-lazy and link-poor, here's the image in question:

(click for larger version)

So there are some things I notice about this image:

1. Poor, dead The Question. Combined with Blue Beetle they've got a good start at a graveyard for Steve Ditko characters going.
2. Also down among the dead is what looks to be the Phantom Zone projector?
   
3. All the ex-characters except for The Question died during Infinite Crisis. That kind of puts the timing of this event into Question (so to speak). Does this take place immediately after 52?
   
4. If so, Superman wouldn't be around yet.
5. Costumes, costumes, costumes - Donna Troy is in her old Wonder Girl outfit, Batman is wearing a really bizarre Arabian Bat-Suit, and...
   
6. ...is that Red Robin? With Kingdom Come Starman showing up in JSA last month, it's looking more and more like Kingdom Come is some kind of canon, be it multi-verse or alternate future.
7. Speaking of alternate futures and the multi-verse, holy CRAP, is that Flash really Barry Allen?
   
8. It's a very couple-y image... Ion and Donna Troy used to be a thing, and Mr. Miracle and Barda are married. This draws odd attention to Canary and Green Arrow being distanced from one another.
9. Is there any other reason for Barda and Mister Miracle to be there? Do they seem out of place to anyone else?
   
10. Mary Marvel looking off to the sky seems like she's only there to draw attention to Captain Marvel's absence.
    

SPECULATION:

At the end of 52, Skeetz is destroyed, and as he "ate" the Phantom Zone last issue, this releases Kryptonian Super Criminals to menace the Earth. Hence the destroyed Phantom Zone projector, and the destroyed Statue of Liberty (what's up, Zod?).
This is the big "World War 3" event DC has been pushing.
Batman returns from the desert because of this. His costume is not, actually, an Elseworlds thing. It's meant to evoke the old school Neal Adams Batman stories, which is what Grant Morrison tried to return the character to after the 1-Year Later jump.
Red Robin is actually Jason Todd, who's given up his Red-Hood persona and has nothing to actually do with Kingdom Come.

And finally, I have one COMPLAINT/RANT:

For the love of god, DC, please stop only showing us Wonder Woman as she affects Batman and Superman. She's in this picture, as far as I can tell, only to be there for Superman to cry to. In Infinite Crisis, her only real role seemed to be to convince Batman not to kill Luthor, and to be there for Superman of Earth 2. Can we get some REAL character development, or at least the acknowledgement that Wonder Woman is a character worthy of her own story? A character worthy of her own, MONTHLY comic book?

Since Infinite Crisis she's been making 75 cents to Batman and Superman's dollar.

So if there's anyone still reading after that, please comment with your thoughts of what all this could mean, what you speculate lies in the future for the characters in this image... DISCUSS!

-casey-

Music: Yes, Music

So, I've decided that I'm going to start posting here about music I like. There will be tags at the bottom for comics or music. I hope that, beyond my taste in music expanding and improving my writing about it, this new turn in the blog-o-machine will cause me to update more.

Holy crap! Has anyone else seen the release list of CDs this week? My wallet is hiding in fear with my debit card, holding each other tightly and weeping, promising each other that everything will be okay, like extras in Independence Day or Deep Impact.

Here is the run-down:

Piebald - Accidental Gentleman

I've only recently gotten into Piebald - the last three months or so - but after being shoved into them as if they were a sliced open taun-taun by my sister and friends, I'm completely in love with their non-hardcore, happy indie-pop-punk mix. Their songs for the most part, are adolescent, but not in a bad way. Singing about road trips with girls, their old tour bus and The Catcher In The Rye, the music colors your glasses rosy with youth no matter what you're looking upon.

I haven't heard anything off of the new album yet, I'm wondering what maturity has done to the band - members are now married, and one is a schoolteacher - but the reviews I've heard are overwhelmingly positive. I'm going to see them the day of the release, so I'll get to hear some tracks live before I hear them on CD.

The Shins - Wincing The Night Away

Does Zach Braff get a check every time someone new loves The Shins?

While the band was great 3 albums ago, they got a lot of success from being the keystone in the mix-tape for everyone that was the Garden State soundtrack. And even though most of the key tracks from that soundtrack were off of Oh, Inverted World (can anyone think of a non-Elliot Smith song more tear inducing than New Slang?), it definitely gave Chutes Too Narrow, their recent release at the time of the film, a push.

Now we're two years later, the expectations for their new release is even higher, and I can't wait to get my ears around it. Reviewed as a more somber piece than Chutes Too Narrow, I hope Wincing The Night Away proves the Shins are still the best at breaking indie rock hearts.

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Sugar cereal powered alt-pop, Of Montreal has proven to be some of the weirdest, happiest music I've gotten on mix CDs in the past. Springtime Is The Season features some of my favorite lyrics:

The winter's good for penguins,
Though brown bears must object.
When talk comes to the joys of winter,
They must interject,
"Hibernating in the snow just isn't where it's at,
because sleeping makes you skinny,
and we bears like to be fat."

More of their songs keep this whimsy, their warbling vocals on Jaques Lamuer (the volunteer fireman) or Everything Disappears When You Come Around (in the song, things litterally disappear) cause your smile to widen with each track. It's with these tracks in mind that I'll be picking up the new CD as soon as possible.

The Good, The Bad, And the Queen

Logic: Brit-Pop geniuses Blur haven't had a new album in 4 years. This is bad.

Reality: Blur frontman Damon Albarn keeps teaming up with people like Dan the Automator, Dj Danger Mouse for new Gorillaz albums and this new project The Good, The Bad, And the Queen. I kind of don't care?

I mean, what more does a CD have to have for me to buy it? It's produced by the "I can't lose even if I tried!" Dj Danger Mouse, who's put out pretty much nothing but gold as far as I'm concerned. The Grey Album mashing up Jay-Z and the Beatles spawned a sea of imitators, and on many tacks Danger Mouse out-produced and out classed the actual producers from Jay's original.

Follow that up with Alban's first Danger Mouse collaboration the Gorillaz cd Demon Days which sits atop a mountain of critical acclaim, then move onto the slightly underrated but personal favorite Danger Doom with MF Doom - a CD completely about Cartoon Network's [Adult Swim] line up. Where then next? Why, the gospel techno hip-hop mash up of Gnarles Barkley, with partner Cee-Lo. This is a disc hot with pretty much everyone. I actually helped a fifty year old woman find it at work the other day, and when I asked if it was a gift, she looked at me sideways and said "Uh, it's for me."

So we've got the frontman from Blur and Gorillaz, producer of Danger Doom and Gnarles Barkley, and that's not enough for you still? STILL? How about Paul Simonon, the bassist from The (mother fucking) Clash? How about Simon Tong, of The Verve fame?

God damn, I wish I had this disc NOW.

COMICS TIE IN:

Interested in Brit-Pop? Check out the amazing Phonogram (phonogramcomic.com) which blends music and magic into this amazing modern fantasy tale of music snobbery gone horrible wrong.

So four CDs in one week is not a lot for some people. But for me, looking at this list, I honestly don't know what to do I'm so excited.

I'll be broke for a long time, but it'll be oh, oh, OH so worth it...

-casey-

Stan Lee Fights The Marvel Universe

In the course of my day, today, I came across not one, not two, but all three of the following pictures of Stan "The Man" Lee.

Since he could not be reached, I will be providing the "Picture To Stan" translations.

Let us begin.

"So, True Believers, by demonstrating my dastardly kung-fu on Steve Ditko's sanctimonious ass, I inadvertently created Spidey's now legendary Web-Spinning pose!"

"Marvelites and Marvelettes, these are my secret decoder rings! Take a look at Joe Quesada sometime, you'll decode their imprints on his face from me slapping him around.

Hard."

"Ha-Ha! Fuck you, Jack Kirby!"

I love you, Stan.

-casey-

52 Words On 52 - Week 37

Ok, this is a new feature. Let's give it a go, shall we?

Also, this is a WEEKLY comic book, so these posts are going to be SPOILER heavy. Also, if you don't have $2.50 every week to spend on this series, why do you care about having it spoiled?

52 on 52: Week 37 -

Supernova’s really Booster Gold! I thought Ray Palmer, back to atone for his nutty ex-wife. Buddy’s back, too? By god, this issue’s heartening. It’s nice that DC might not kill all the characters I like. Question, Booster, Buddy: Any more fake deaths before the end of this? I guess that’s The Question...

I should post one of these every week for the next 15 weeks, until the series is done. Look for more updates soon!

-casey-

Uh... A Month? What? Scott Pilgrim, Yes.

It is excellent.

-casey-

Flight of the Conchords

A few months ago, I discovered this band on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and frankly they're the funniest thing I've seen in a long, long time.

Thanks to the power of YouTube, I'm presenting you with the video that kills me more or less every time I watch it.

Enjoy.




Links!

Flight of the Conchords - Link!
Flight of the Conchords Multimedia - What the Folk!

Tommorrow I'll be back with reviews for this week!

-casey-

Whee! Comics! Pull List for March Thus Far

Before we begin, I have to follow through with a threat -

"Blue Beetle is better than any character Alan Moore could EVER come up with! Oh yeah, I said it!"
- Aaron Trites

This comment was SCREAMED during an argument about the book Birds of Prey. In one particular story arc, Barbra Gordon has talked the retired Ted Kord into riding around in The Bug, his floating beetle air-ship thingee, with her. Ted talks about how he's retired from super-heroics with Barbra until they see a train on fire. He is reluctant to get involved, until Babs talks him into suiting up and rescuing some people. Afterwards she points out that he should keep the costume on, and keep super-heroing.

If this sounds familiar, that's because it's a scene practically stolen from WATCHMEN, the most read and acclaimed graphic novel of ALL TIME. Now, I know that the character from Watchmen, Night Owl, was based on the Blue Beetle, but that doesn't excuse just TAKING a scene from another book! When I pointed to this as an example of sloppy Birds of Prey writing, Aaron had the outburst above, which I assured him would see print on the internet immediately.

Thank you for that.

At some point, I swear to high heaven, I will get a regular blogging schedule. In the mean time, thanks to you who have stuck around when I do post (I'm talking to YOU, secret stalker!).

I would like to take this opportunity to sound the SPOILER ALERT!

The Pull List!

Marvel Comics!

Captain America Vol. 1 - The Winter Soldier -

This was definately the Marvel comic I was most excited about. It's written by Ed Brubaker who was half of the writing team on the deservingly-gushed-about-by-me Gotham Central. The art is nothing to sneeze at either, with an art Steve Epting rocking the present-day Cap action, and Michael Lark doing pencils on the World War II flashbacks. So with a high-profile team in place, and 17 months of everyone from Aaron at Comicazi to Wizard Magazine telling me it was great, I picked up the trade.

And I could not put it down.

Until I was done reading it, and I haven't picked it up since.

This story was an odd experience for me, someone who reads comics over and over again. It was completely engaging, it had international intrigue, all the Cap "face" characters such as the Red Skull and Sharon Carter, and the action was big without being Ultimates-over-the-top. But for whatever reason, after reading it, I was done with it.

So what, you're asking, didn't work? Well, and I warned you about spoilers, but Ed Brubaker kills the Red Skull at the end of the first issue. The Red Skull is an icon, and a hell of a villain, so his death has little impact on me as a reader because... well, he's coming back. I know it probably won't be Brubaker to do it, but if the villian is really villianous, he cannot die.

I paraphrase from the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game Handbook -

"If your villian dies, there's no body found. If the heroes find the body, then they find a robot. If it's not a robot, then it's a clone. If there's a body, and it's not a clone, and the villian is really dead, then he probably wasn't a very good villian o begin with."

Basically don't expect me to flip my wig when you plug the Red Skull - that crazy Nazi bastard will be back eventually.

Also, the book tries to ret-con some pretty serious stuff in regards to Cap's last mission with Bucky, and does it in an odd way. Instead of simply saying how it was, with Cap saying, "I've never told anyone this before..." or the like, Brubaker has long dormant memories awaken in Captain America by way of the Cosmic Cube... Seriously, the Cosmic Cube made Steve Rogers remember that his young partner was tortured by Baron Zemo before his "death". I think it would have been more interesting to actually show Cap coming to this un-blocking on his own.

So in general this trade did not live up to the considerable hype, and maybe I'll give it another read at some point, but for now if I want Cap, I'll just re-read Geoff Johns' Avengers trades.

Powers #17 -

I'm going to come clean. Seriously. I have no idea what was happening during the big fight of this book. Walker gets new powers and... wins? Maybe? Against something? I'm not sure. At least it's interesting.

Also, Brian Bendis proves that some of his strongest stuff doesn't need dialog, as we get a glimpse of Deena Pilgrim tempted to take a very bad way out of her current situation.

Ultimate Spider-Man #91 -

Kitty Pryde and Spider-Man are ADORABLE.

Kitty gets a new costume to fight crime with Spidey and not compromise his identity as Peter Parker. This is all good stuff up until we hea back to the X-Mansion and Ultimate Deadpool, a character every bit as unneccessary as Ultimate Moon Knight, rears his ugly head. Hopefully he'll be proven interesting in the next issue?

X-Factor #4 -

This issue closes the book on X-Factor Investigation's first official case, and it's not quite as interesting as the way Layla Miller handles their frist UN-official case.
There's some more Mutant Town stuff in there as well that's interesting - apparently people who used to be mutants are still feared and hated right there with the people still mutants. So Stong Guy and Wolfsbane make it clear that mutant town is a haven for any mutant, past present or future.

And yes, if you were wondering, I do get a check from Marvel every time I say "mutant" this review.

Mutant.

The Pulse #14 -

This issue of The Pulse was the last, and it abandoned the format of a newspaper suppliment that wasn't really working for Bendis, and gave us all what we really wanted - one more issue of Alias.

The story of how Jessica Jones met Luke Cage is incredibly sweet, and one I'm glad we got to hear. It's a quite a bit sweeter than their first meeting in the pages of Alias which was illegal in many, many states. The whole thing is told to little baby Noname Cage-Jones, who remains unnamed by issue's end.

I'm glad that we get more of Luke in New Avengers, but let's hope Jessica doesn't dissapear into the background, as she's one of the few new unique, strong, real characters in the Marvel U.

Next Wave #2 -

Did you ever have a classmate, or a friend, who desperately wanted to be funny? Oh, they'd spout out whatever came into their heads that passed for wit, but more often than not it would simply be an ol' eye-roller? Ladies and gentleman, that friend has a job writing Next Wave.

I do not like this comic.

Everyone else loves it, so I will continue to try and see the good in it, but so far I've been presented with jokes unoriginal (Ha, ha! Machine-Man calls humans "meat-bags!"), and obvious (Look at Fing Fang Foom's pants! They're purple! He's a dragon wearing pants! HILARIOUS!). Outside of one excellent Douglas Adams moment describing human beings as "the Elvis of snack-food" to giant monsters, I was bored.

DC Comics

Jonah Hex #5 -

That ugly cuss Jonah Hex always gets his man, and this issue is no exception. Here is a book that gives you absolutely no reason to wait for the trade - every issue is self-contained, each story great. Keep it up, DC. I swear to god though, if this book jumps forward "One Hundred & Fourty One Years Later" after Infinite Crisis, I will be very irked.

Batman - Year 100 #2 -

In this issue, Batman... does something other than run from Police.

I'll admit that Paul Pope's take on the Dark Knight doesn't have the most original premise, pitting Batman against the police in a dystopian future, his art style is perfect for the gritty, organic world he's creating. In the first, all we got was Batman running away from football uniform clad Police, but in issue #2 we're thankfully given more of a look at this future Batman, his allies and tactics.

There's also a page where this year's Commisoner Gordon is looking at footage and documentation on The Batman from years past. This page, where we see the Thirties Batman and the Seventies Batman as seperate entities, make me wonder if Pope is trying to untangle the twisted timeline of Batman - the costume changes, the tone changes - that Alan Moore and Frank Miller have tackled so sucessfully in The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns. Good luck, Mr. Pope, you're standing in an awfully big shadow.

Green Lantern Corps: Recharge! #5 of 5 -

This mini finishes off with Guy Gardener getting some respect for once! He takes charge in a way that his ego has always told us he could, and thanks to that, the Gaurdians make him a sectorless Green Lantern! It thankfully looks like he and Kilowog will the focus of the upcoming Green Lantern Corps ongoing series that's out in a few months.

While this book is part of regular continuity the publishing schedule kept it out of Infinite Crisis' path - Kyle Rayner is still flying about as a Green Lantern, Oa is still the center of the of the Universe. With Kyle allready converted into Ion, will there be other major changes to Corps members during Crisis?

Y: The Last Man #43 -

This book continues to be fun, thoughtful and unpredictable.

This is the first part of a new story-arc, which means a combination of talking heads about both the plot and whatever fun facts that popped into Brian K. Vaughn's head. Also a great deal more romance, both overt and tragic (Dr. Mann), and subtextual and misguided (355), than we're used to. Kind of a slow issue, but the last page, as usual, keeps you wondering until the next one comes out.

Seven Soldiers: Frankenstien #3 -

Of the three reamaining Seven Soldiers books, this one simultaneously made the least amount of sense and the least to do with the giant crossover that was the point of these miniseries.

This story, entitled The Water!, managed to simultaneously share all the traits of Grant Morrison's best and worst writing. It's fiercely imaginiative, and has that classic feel of the genre he's aping - Frankenstien reads like an old E.C. Horror book on acid - but nothing makes sense outside of the author's head, and nothing inside of the story operates in the parameters of any kind of logic.

Why does the water turn some things into fierce predators and some people into weaklings? It just DOES.

This was a huge problem I had with Morrison's JLA: Rock of Ages story-arc, wherein the Jusice League prevent an apocalyptic future ruled by Darksied from happening by saving a magic rock from destruction. The same magic rock was being used by Lex Luthor to control Jemm (a telepathic alien), and essentially anything else Luthor wanted it to. They never say how it's doing these things, or why it'll prevent Darksied from conquering Earth, it simply does.

These over-powered, story driving plot McGuffins had been kept out of his Seven Soldiers work thus far, a fact which aided my enjoyment of them SIGNIFICANTLY. But when I read this, I was incredibly frustrated.

Doug Mahnke's art is very, very pretty though.

Seven Soldiers: Mr. Miracle #4 -

On the other hand, Morrison shows in Mr. Miracle that he's really the only person who should be alowed to handle Jack Kirby's New Gods. The people of New Genesis as homeless bum-gods, Darksied as basically Ving Rahmes from Pulp Fiction, and a dimension jumping Mr. Miracle still trying to escape his greatest trap.

In the end, it's compelling, complex, and the greatest compliment I can give it is that I stopped thinking about the original Mr. Miracle after a few pages.

Seven Soldiers: The Bulleteer #4 -

The final issue of The Bulleteer managed to really push it over the top for me. Up until now, the story felt secondary to the art and the concept - a woman who's husband turned her into a super-hero to fulfil a sexual fantasy. Issue four is devoted almost entirely to the back-story of her husband's Super-Mistress, and it shines some unpleasent realistic light on Silver Age style stories.

What makes this title work though, is that while everyone around The Bulleteer is absorbed in the DC Universe and super-hero life, she sees the absurdity of theses people's lives. It's very reflexive, with Bulletteer questioning why she even got into costume, and after the big fight super-fight scene, doing what I've never seen a hero do before - asking someone to call an ambulence for the loser.

Infinite Crisis Secret Files -

Well, that cleared things up quite a bit!

Most Secret Files stories are superfluous, and sub-par. Breaking the trend, the Infinite Crisis Secret Files is well written, well drawn, and crucial to understanding the new Crisis for people who aren't familiar with old-school DC. People like me.

This issue is a look at life inside the "paradise" Alexander Luthor built for himself, Lois 2, Superman 2, and Superboy Prime. Superman runs around trying to do nice things for Lois, and we see how much she becomes his entire world after the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, setting up his actions in Infinite Crisis #5. It does the same for Superboy, showing how Luthor basically spent the enitre twenty years stuck there subtley torturing him. He didn't seem too well glued together to begin with, so Luthor messing with his mind makes the Teen Titans fight in #4 a little more believable.

The most important thing DC does with this book is to use Superboy pounding on the walls of reality to excuse any major glitch in DC Continuity (Hawkman's very existance and history for example), or wipe away things they'd rather just forget (Jonah Hex in the future?). I really enjoy when they can explain poor story choices with a cool in-continuity event.

Infinite Crisis #5 -

And here's the big one.

While it's a good issue, it seems to be full of more problems than the other four. Rather than just run down what happened, I'm going to ask some spoilerific questions, and leave it up to you to answer -

I know asking questions about time travel is simply asking for trouble, but...

Booster Gold comes from the future with knowledge of the events of Crisis. Why isn't he able to do more? Why doesn't he foresee Superboy Prime breaking out of the speed-force at the end of this issue? Instead he comes in and says, "I know of one of your failings, and I am here to prevent it!" And how does he prevent it? With the new Blue Beetle! He's supposedly the only one who can see the Brother I sattelite, but they don't explain why. My speculation: Blue Beetle is the only new hero to emerge since Max Lord had control of Checkmate, so Brother I doesn't know how to hide from him. We'll see if there's another explaination - for now, his costume looks still looks damn cool.

We reach my biggest problem with Infinite Crisis #5 - Pretty much everything with Wonder Woman.

In the last few pages of Wonder Woman's previous series, she sees a riot in Boston, and comes down to the people throwing bricks. There she asks them if this is how they would want to be remembered, and inspires them to put down their weapons and help put out the fires. She puts hope and awe in them, and they become better for it. The whole crux of Wonder Woman in two pages.

In Infinite Crisis #5, we see the same scene, the same riot, but this time, in a completely different set of events, Wonder Woman looses her temper and engages these regular people in a fight. These actions were so incredibly out of character for her, even considering the crisis. That aside for a moment, before a violent Wonder Woman thrashes more powerless people about, Earth 2 Wonder Woman returns from Olympus.

(For sanity's sake, from here on out, our Wonder Woman will be refered to as Diana.)

She said that her husband, Steve Trevor, died using her last bit of power teleporting Wonder Woman to Earth. After a brief talk where Diana is told by her older counterpart that she needs to go to Superman, Earth 2 Wondery Woman does for Diana what Steve Trevor did for her, dissapearing into the aether to send Diana across the barrier to Earth 2.

My question is this: Why does Wonder Woman have to sacrifice herself to teleport Diana to Earth 2 when our Superman simply FLEW there ten pages earlier?

For that matter, in a book that's re-defining the roles and attitudes of the "Big Three" in the DCU, Wonder Woman is written as increasingly blood-thristy. When she does finally come around towards the Diana we know, her purpose seems only to serve Superman's character, something I firmly object to. Geoff Johns is doing a great job serving some of these characters, especially Batman, but Wonder Woman is getting the short end of the icon-stick by my read.

There was a lot of things I did like, but I was so put off by this that I felt let down. The good stuff is the Superman fight on an empty Earth 2 - Jerry Ordway does a great Action Comics #1 homage there, and there's a bit about how all the new post-C.o.I.E. characters would have been from Earth 8 had the multiverse lived on. I think when the next two issues come out, this will have been the lull before the true chaos, so let's hope it all pays off in the end.

Teen Titans Annual '06 + Teen Titans #33 -

The annual was was absurdly delayed. A Valentine's Day issue, it came out last wednesday, after Teen Titans #33 came out. Since most of the events lead into #33, a good deal of this stuff was given already given away.

In the Annual, we get to see Tim Drake - Robin - really come into his own as a leader of the Teen Titans, something that bodes poorly for Cyborg's odds of making it out of Crisis. He and most of the other Titans are helping relief effort after Chemo is dropped on Bludhaven, and even Superman gives Tim the thumbs up to lead the clean-up.

Back in Smallville, things get a little too TV's Smallville, with a recovering Conner and a de-powered Wonder Girl. I really enjoy this pairing, it always made sense to me that the two Titans who felt so overshadowed by their mentors would get together. In this issue, however, they sleep together, and the Kents are suprisingly mellow about it. Superboy answers a call to Titan's tower from Nightwing, and leaves Wonder Girl behind. In #33 we learn that after Conner leaves, Wonder Girl strikes a deal with Ares to regain her powers... how they might change because of this is still a mystery.

Most of the rest of this issue is spent doing the dueling caption box thoughts of Superboy and Nightwing as they make their way towards Alexander Luthor's lair in the arctic. Nightwing is an odd match for Superboy who spends most of his time with, well, Robin. He even points out at one point that it's like "hanging out with your friend's older brother." This is basically to flesh out Conner more before his big showdown in Infinite Crisis #6, and they do a pretty good job. I've been shown more depth to this character in the past two years in Teen Titans than in the entirety of his own series. This could just be to kill him, though. DC is mean like that.

All in all, these were the best two issues of Teen Titans we've gotten in a long while. The next issue is One Year Later, so who knows what's happening or even who's still alive to fill the team's roster.

That's it for me. I'm pooped. I'm so tired, I'm going to go read some comics.

Did I mention that I like comics?

Thanks for reading.
-casey-

UPDATE!

The YouTube video I posted below was taken down, for some reason.

It was a trailer for an upcoming Samuel L. Jackson movie.

What movie, you ask? Oh, just a little movie called...

SNAKES ON A PLANE!

It has snakes! And planes! Well, okay, one plane!

If you're still interested, and after the title how can you not be, here is a link...

SNAKES ON A PLANE!

Revel in the absurditity and awesomeness.

-casey-

This Isn't Comics Related, But...

It Is Here...

Have You Seen This Man

The picture you see above is the DC Direct Blue Beetle action figure from 2002.

I didn't KNOW this existed until a week ago, and as you might notice, it is now 2006.

I've searched eBay, I've made phone calls, I've asked people at Toy Shows to keep an eye out for me... to no avail! So I figured I'd use the meager soap-box afforded me by the internet to beg anyone who stumbles upon this website and knows anything regarding the wearabouts of one Theodore Kord to get in touch with me, and I'll exchange some cold hard cash for your blue molded plastic.

BWA-HA-HA-HA!

-casey-

Comic Shop Box - What I Got In February

Readers and Readettes,

I'm back, for now, and since I haven't done any Pull Lists for this month, I thought I'd take a bit and do the entire month of February in one shot! Next post will be in a few weeks, that Wonder Woman look back I've been talking about, I've been re-reading all the back issues so I hope it'll be worth the wait.

Anyway, here goes nothing:

MISC Publishers:

The Middleman: Vol. 1 -

I kind of stumbled upon this one... I saw the trade paperback at Comicazi, and the art caught my eye, but with a strained budget I couldn't spend 10 bucks on an unknown collection of four issues... oh, what a fool I was. Later, with my lady, we were digging through the quarter bin at Newbury Comics when I found the first two issues: it's solid gold.

At first glance, this story about a cool-as-ice agent of a secret society that cleans up supernatural occurrences seems to just be a Men In Black rip-off, but it after reading the sense of humor and adventure in this book feels more like if Johnny Quest met Bugs Bunny. One of the keener things is that where in Men In Black they had to use a Neuralizer to wipe the memories of witnesses, in The Middleman they just chock it up to people rationalizing things to stay sane.

Any other reservations about originality were cast aside when I picked up the first issue of Volume 2, which features Sensei Ping, an untrappable martial artists who wears a Mexican luchadore mask. It's fabulous.

I also discovered, after the fact, that the art I like so much is done by Les McClaine, an ex-Comicazi regular! Here's a link to his site, Johnny Crossbones!

Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty #4 -

Ennnnh. I'm usually enthused, but my patience for this book is wearing thin. Fresh up until the last few issues, Ashley Wood is running out of tricks that we haven't already seen in Metal Gear Solid 1, and the plot is overly complex and murky... On the other hand, so was the plot of the game. I'll tough it out, because I wish I were Solid Snake, but anyone who's not a crazy fan should wait until IDW puts out Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater which does this crazy stuff with a 1960’s cold-war twist.

Put the Book Back On The Shelf: The Belle & Sebastian Anthology –

An Open Letter To Newbury Comics: Peabody, MA Location –

Dear Newbury Comics,
You are fairly awesome - you put out a yearly zine letting me know what music you liked from the past 365, and always have friendly people working with you. You even let me paw through the loose Star Wars minis when someone opened the box already. So it is with a heavy hand and heart that I write this. While I appreciate that you discounted Put The Book Back On The Shelf by five dollars, WHY DID YOU PUT A BIG PINK STICKER ON THE COVER? Now, the damage was not irreparable... after some long, hard work with a razor and some Goo-Gone, it came off. But I was tested, and tried... we can stay together, but it may take some time to re-build trust.
I love you, Newbury Comics, and can't wait to see you again this weekend.

Now that that's done, if you like Belle & Sebastian, there's no reason not to get this book. It covers a good deal of their rather prolific career, up to Dear Catastrophe Waitress. The different creators they got managed to pick and choose perfectly when to adapt the lyrics of the songs, when to tell a story with the tone of the songs, and when to just let the lyrics tell the story over their pictures. Piaza, New York Catcher is the best of the book, and I get more than a little choked up when I read it.

When Zombies Attack! #1 -

A new piece from Jim Mahfood about cops who handle zombies and vampires in a town where that's the norm. As Middle Man is to adventure, this book is to horror. There's a bit less of winking and nudging in this one, though. It's got a gritty truck-stop flavor, and reading it the town feels less like a suburb and more like the rural south with slightly more flesh eating. A solid read, and Mahfood proves again that his art is good for pretty much any genre.

Marvel Comics:

Powers #16 -

I want you to think about the concept of a Green Lantern Corps.
A group of aliens pick locals from each sector of space, and grant them powers to protect said space. Now picture that concept on as much acid as you can get your hands on, or the equivalent amount of Grant Morrison's Blood, and you'll have a good idea of what this issue of Powers is like. Throw in a really odd movie reference, and viola, instant Bendis Love.

New Avengers #16 -

Just as much Bendis! Not as much love!
Wait, why does that get an "!"?
The readers get another look inside the now inept S.H.E.I.L.D., something every recent Marvel writer has decided to do... it's getting to the point that I wonder how this new director got the job after Nick Fury? Did she loose a bet? Someone needs to show her getting the job even remotely done, just to add some believability to her as a nemesis. Also Alpha Flight dies. If you look at that sentence proportionately to the rest of this summary, that's about how much space their deaths took up in the actual comic. With very few actual Avengers in this comic, I have to question the pacing of a story, even if it's just started.

Daredevil #82 -

Way less Bendis! Way more love!
This book was brutal. Ed Brubaker decided that when everyone says "Boy, it's been a rough year for Matt Murdock!” he should reply "YOU ARE ALL PANSIES!" and cause further havoc in everyone's favorite blind lawyer. Michael Lark's pencils are welcome as always, and I miss them both on Gotham Central like a vegan misses cheese. The ending is a shocker, unless you read Previews (See: my earlier post)

Ultimate Spider-Man #90 -

Equal Bendis and Love!
The perfect balance is struck in Ultimate Spider-Man.
Um, this book is great? It comes out twice a month, and is always great? I don't know what to say about Ultimate Spidey except that it's the only title I buy those sweet deluxe hard-covers for.

X-Factor #3 -

Mutant Noir!
Multiple Man runs a detective agency and employs Siren, Wolfsbane, M, a de-powered Richtor and Strong Guy (who I still don't 'get'). The art is care of Ryan Sook, so it's as dark and silky smooth as the finest dark chocolate, with Peter David's writing providing an ironic sense of humor for a smidge of bitterness. I hereby proclaim this simile complete!
I typically don't buy X-Books, but this one jumped to the top of my read pile after issue #1 off the shelf.

I Heart Marvel: Web of Romance -

Speaking of "Off Radar," Marvel did a whole month of romance comics in celebration of Valentine's Day, most of which were tremendously boring or just plain dumb. All is forgiven, however, because Marvel put out a comic that is the essence of Spider-Man:

Super-powered fights and not knowing quite how to handle girls.

In this ish, Spidey is at a loss for what to get his wife Mary Jane this Valentine's Day, and consults everyone from Captain America to the Mandrill. Pete comes through in the end, as always, and even gets to have some fun at the expense of Johnny Storm. This was a great read.

She Hulk #5 -

While this wasn't the best issue of this book, I'll still take She-Hulk a hundred times before I pick up almost any other book.

X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl #2 -

X-Force/X-Statix was WAY ahead of its time. About a privately owned Mutant Super-Team, the book drawn by Mike Allred and written by Peter Milligan featured bizarre characters like the super-sensitive Orphan, electric-sweat-wielding Anarchist, green blob with a video-camera Doop, and of course Dead Girl.

When a group of heroes and villains come back from Hell to make trouble for Dr. Strange, the sorcerer supreme goes to Heaven to put together a team. Also, he complains about his hemorrhoids and re-incarnates Dead Girl out of prime cuts of meat. It's insane, completely, but fun.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #3 -

Oh me, oh my, do I loves me this book. In fact, the name of this blog should be changed to Casey Loves Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.

Like Web of Romance, it takes the melodramatic romance of early Spidey comics blends that with the fun of Peter Parker's secret identity and then shifts the focus to the utterly charming Mary Jane Watson. This issue is about Mary Jane joining a production of Othello at the school, and all the social pitfalls that come with changing cliques. The whole thing has the same fun nostalgic charm as an episode of Degrassi Jr. High, but with Spider-Man walking around in his civvies.

Don't judge me.

DC Comics:

Rann/Thanagar War Infinite Crisis Special -

This was the only comic I got this month that really tied into Infinite Crisis in any direct way, and it was a yawn - possibly a yawn and a half?
Some anti-climactic deaths, confusing pencils and something… odd happening to Kyle Rayner, my favorite Green Lantern adds up to disappointment.

Seven Soldiers: The Bulleteer #3 -

Bulletteer is the weakest of the Seven Soldiers series yet it's still strangely appealing.
Bulletteer is Morrison's take on the Nineties Super-Hero - the scantily armored busty lass - is reflexive enough to keep my interest. The ludicrousness of the whole situation is on every page, and none more than the last one of this issue.

Y: The Last Man #42 –

Young 355 in Boston! Woo-hoo! BOSTON REPRESENT IN A POST APOCALYPTIC WORLD WITHOUT MEN!

Ahem.

I really liked this issue! The flashbacks give us a good look at how messed up 355 really is, and why. I'll be sad when it's over.

JLA #125 -

Thank GOD this is over.
What can I say? When a key part of your big cross-over is to break-up the JLA, maybe you should end their book, instead of dragging it out in some half-assed Key story-line? The art was abysmal, and it tied in more with the story from Justice League: Elite than anything else, something I had to learn by going "Hey, Aaron, who are these people?" even though I've been reading this book since day one.

I have great faith in Brad Meltzer's upcoming run that takes place One Year Later, and let's hope that Booster Gold and the new Blue Beetle make the roster!

Jonah Hex #4 -

Jonah Hex shoots a LOT of people, and damn, if it isn’t fine reading.

Teen Titans #32 -

Teen Titans is suffering badly from artist Mike McKone's departure. I know a lot of fans are having trouble believing the recent romantic developments but overall the story is just kind of bland. Everything about this book, from its’ characters to it's creators, are stretched too thin across the DCU right now.

Maybe that's a problem inherent in having a book starring teen sidekicks, but I thought the point of Teen Titans was for them to develop outside of their roles as diminutive Supermen, Batmen, and Wonder Women – so it would have been nice to see their development happen here instead of in Crisis or Detective Comics or whatever titles things are going down in.

Gotham Central #40 -

Come back, Rene!

Gotham Central was one of those rare titles full of real people instead of supermen: people braver than any of those dressed in tights and Kevlar. Gritty and mature without being exploitive or pornographic, every issue of Gotham Central said something about standing ones ground in a city so corrupt it needs a man dressed like a bat just to contain the chaos. This book will be sorely, sorely missed.

This is the issue where we see what's to become of Crispus Allen's killers, and watch Rene Montoya spiral further downward. It's the finale to the book, and as the cover suggests, Rene's time with the GCPD. She's become a good friend over the years, and I'm hoping that something can shake her out of this during 52. I know that everyone who reads this book will be there for her.

Wonder Woman #226 -

This was the perfect ending to this series, something that was a big conflict with a scene in Infinite Crisis #5. But I leave you with something Greg Rucka signed on my copy of #195.

"She gives us hope."


While typing up this list, I noticed that I'm getting less comics than I used to... this is for two reasons:

The first is that Marvel is putting out less and less comics that interest me. While Daredevil and She-Hulk remain great, and there are surprises like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane or X-Factor, the majority of their books... aren't that good. Not "great", good.

Spider-Man is without a doubt my favorite comic book character, and his flagship book is just crummy, with gimmicks, crossovers, costume-changes, and silly characterization bogging it down.
Instead of seeking fresh looks at new characters, Marvel seems to be repeating their pattern of giving two or three really great creators an back-breaking load of work: while they've laid the pressure off Bendis in recent months (cutting his work-load down from nine books to three), I'm a little scared for Ed Brubaker's work, which might suffer under the weight of Captain America, Books of Doom, Daredevil, AND his upcoming Uncanny X-Men run.

The second reason is that DC is culling their titles in the wake of Infinite Crisis. Out of the titles I listed, all but two were limited series, and three of them ended this month. That being said, I've been furiously adding new books to my pull-list, books like Blue Beetle, Paul Dini's Detective Comics, and Checkmate. I have high expectations for these books, as I'm losing a lot of the comics I used to rush to the store to get before.

Here's hoping DC reaches the finish line as neatly and excellently as they've run the race.

So that's February for me! In writing this, I've become two weeks late on March, so hopefully I'll get something for that up soon.

Thanks for reading!

-casey-

Lack of Updates

Hey.

So I'm working on a screenplay, and hoping to put it into production in the coming months.

Unfortunately, with a 32 Hour-A-Week job, school five days a week, and a girlfriend who I don't really get to see as much as I'd like as it is, the ol' Blog is going to take a hit...

So instead of writing a few little updates each week, until this script is done, I'm going to just write a big piece every now and again. The next one will be about Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman run. After that, probably a breakdown of All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder so far, and then some Infinite Crisis mojo.

So keep your eyes open, and hopefully soon I'll get back to a more regular schedule.

Thanks for reading,

-casey-

A Correction, An Omission...

Or: The Perils of Late-Night Blogging...

First, a correction from my last post.
Wonder Woman #225 isn't actually the last issue of this volume! This is nothing but good news, as an extra issue of Wonder Woman is always a good thing. I'm not sure why I thought this was the final issue, but me and The Lady were all worked up, and now we get to continue being all antsy and teary-eyed for another month. That being said, the post looking back at the last 31 issues of the book will come at the end of February, you know... When the book is actually over. I discovered that it wasn't the final issue first when I read it today, and saw "Next Month..." in the back, and then when I got home and received an e-mail correcting me.

And since I've read it, a brief review!

Wonder Woman #225 -
What better way to take your character out of the middle of an action scene without having her run away? In this one, Athena plucks Diana out from above the sea where Paradise Island used to be for a chat, in which a great deal of questions about the Gods of Olympus get tied up. We also get a really great response from Diana about why she stays: it's the heart of the character, simple and true, and I got a little lump in my throat when I read it. Great character work on everyone, from the Gods to the staff at the embassy. Also, Ferdinand wears a trench coat and fedora, Ninja Turtle style. I look forward to seeing how this chapter in Diana's life ends.

And I can't believe I left this out when writing up my pulls for last week.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #2 -
This book is so much fun. A lot of people look at it sideways, like it belongs on the WB, but there's far more Archie than Dawson's Creek in these pages. The first issue was Mary Jane trying to corner Spidey to ask him out on a date, which provided a great deal of comedy, some of which in the "wink-wink" variety when she professes her plan to Peter Parker and we get to be in on the joke. When people moan and complain that comics aren't "fun" anymore, I like to generally ignore them while I bury my nose in this fine book.

So that's it, and remember kids: Don't Post Things On The Internet past 11 P.M.! It's a great way to embarrass yourself!

Till next time,

_casey_

Shameful: My Pull List for 3/4 of January!

Okay... Please, forgiveness?
Because sadly this blog does not rain pennies down upon me, and I need to get an education, and because I've been catching up on the new season of Gilmore Girls (what? I don't work ALL the time...), I kind of let my pull-list back up. So here's all the books I've either gotten or will be getting in January. The bonus of doing this late is that I've actually read some of them!

I'm also going to get all wacky and group them by publisher... Okay, KINDA - the Big Two and then Misc.!

MISC:

Metal Gear Solid Vol. 2 TPB & Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty #3 -
Good stuff, and I'm glad that they seem to be publishing the entire game series as comics. Ashley Wood's art is perfect for this surreal world of giant shamans, cloned secret agents and giant, war-head launching tanks. The only bad part is that you don't get the signature sound-track that comes with the game...

Penny Arcade: Attack of the Bacon Robots -
Does Penny Arcade really need me to talk about it? It's a enjoyably profane comic, and the second listing here that's video-game related. It's also the only webcomic that has a CONVENTION all about it. Here's a link to the site, where you can read the comics archived in this volume, but I want to have it bound and bathroomable:
Penny Arcade!

Sexy Chix -
Have I mentioned lately how much I love anthologies? Because I do. Throw in dozens of amazing female creators, from Gail Simone to Jill Thompson to Joyce Carol Oates, and you've got something that should make you sit up and take notice. There's a lot of hoopla about the name of this book, but if our friend 50 Cent has taught us anything, it's that you can't really fight marketing.

WETA Kong vs V-Rex Statue -
I know that this is not a comic book.
I know that it's something that, priced at 500 dollars, is what I like to call a "relationship-ending-purchase."
That being said, it's King Kong, and he's fighting a dinosaur... And he could be doing that in my living room every day till I die.
Feel free to pick one up for me.

Marvel Comics:

Daredevil #81 -
Last Bendis/Maleev issue! The Murdock Papers has been an amazing ride, and I can't wait to see where all the characters end up by the last page of this issue.

New Avengers #15 -
I was really impressed with the last issue, not just with Frank Cho's always outstanding work, but with the depth of Jessica Drew's backstory. It's easy to have a character that betrayed a team seek redemption, and often kind of dull, but to draw an incredibly complex and logical series of events leading to what happened in #13 is well, art. Good show, Bendis.

The Pulse #13 -
What? ANOTHER book I love that Bendis is leaving? The Pulse is more of an off-beat superhero title, and it sadly didn't receive the editorial support of DC's excellent Gotham Central. I'm hoping the new creative team (whoever they are)
understands the behind-the-scenes concept, and gets the book on a monthly schedule.

She Hulk 2 #4 -
Woo! Scott Kolins! He did some amazing work back on Avengers & The Flash with Geoff Johns, but they lured him to She Hulk because of the former. This is a flashback issue, shining new light on the events of the Avengers: Search for She-Hulk story arc that Kolins penciled, and giving us a peek at the aftermath. It's amazing character work, and Dan Slott shows us that even though he's brilliantly funny, he can tug a heart string or two when he needs to.

Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #6 -
This took a surprising turn with the last issue... And no, I don't mean "It came out." While the Dodson's work has a very cheese-cake feel, work like this and Trouble really highlights their subtle expression work. There's a lot of emotion packed into Kevin Smith's script for #5, and I hope #6 continues the trend.

Ultimate Spider-Man #89 -
This issue ties up the Silver Sable arc. Lately this book has fallen into the trap that Brian K. Vaughn's run of Ultimate X-Men has: spending each arch introducing the "Ultimate" version of some character from the regular Marvel U. Ultimate Spider-Man is a whole big sandbox full of toys: play with the ones you've got for a bit. The next arc introduces Ultimate Deadpool but at least we get some Spidey/Kitty pride interaction.

DC Comics:

All Star Superman #2 -
"Can YOU Guess The Secret of Superman's FORBIDDEN ROOM?!"
I miss the days before barcodes, when that would be a big box taking up 1/4 of the cover. The fact that it's on there at all is really a testament to the wacky silver -age feeling of the book. While generally not a member of the Morrison/Quietly Mob (I say mob because they CAN get violent), I'm really enjoying this book.

Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #4 -
Kilowog says to pick up this book, poozers.
While I'm not nutty about Hal Jordan coming back to life, or the direction they've taken his series in, DC at least did us the favor of returning Guy Gardener to the ranks of the Green Lanterns and restarting the Corps. Look for this to turn into a monthly OYL, and for this to lead into Ion, which I'm really looking forward to.

Infinite Crisis #4 -
The Crisis gets bloodier. Weather this issue is more extreme than the Freedom Fighters scene from #1 is up for debate, but there's no arguing that this is a big issue. I really don't want to spoil any of the stuff for you, but now that all the exposition is done, I can't imagine how much nuttier it's going to get in #5.

JLA #124 -
Dawn Raven? More like YAWN Raven!
I feel like a lot of books DC is putting out right now are just waiting to be canceled and re-booted. The Flash had the same problem: Geoff Johns finished his run, and since there was a few months left before the book ended, they've had some really bland filler stories featuring Vandal Savage. JLA, on the other hand, brought back the Key, and ties up the loose ends from the Justice League Elite mini series. While I don't mind Green Arrow getting some face-time, with all the insane things that the League could be dealing with right now his fling with Dawn Raven shouldn't be at the top of the list.

Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle #3 -
A particularly cool take on the New Gods, where the people of New Genesis seem to be homeless crazies, and DeSaad is a conniving therapist. I'm curious to see how this all ties into the Seven Soldiers books, as right now it seems to be in a parallel kind of universe. I have faith as the other soldiers stuff have been an impressive, lego-like piece of work.

This brings us to the last book I'm getting this month:

Wonder Woman #225 -
Issue #225 marks the end of Wonder Woman Vol. 2, and the end of Greg Rucka's tremendous work on the book. This was a character that I wasn't really attached to one way or another 30 issues ago, and now I'll fiercely defend her and the title. I'm going to post a big look back at this particular chunk of Wonder Woman on Saturday/Sunday, and give some speculation about the future of the character. Something this great deserves it's own post.


That's it for me, folks. That's a big chunk of change (especially if I somehow score that Kong statue... With my discount it's only 450 dollars... hmmm...).

Until next time!

_casey_