Everyone ploughs through the Walking Dead in a mad rush – I’ve been takin’ ‘er real slow.
It definitely has a sustained nightmare quality. And also a repetitive quality that exists in the fables of some Eastern religions as well as Cardassian literature. I like it.
This (relatively) recent repackage is really just the first seven or so issues of the post-Crisis GLC on Earth. It’s kinda John Stewart’s show, though Hal is there (and there are cutaways to Guy on Malthus) though the bulk of the stories have to do with. . . Ch’p! And his evil foe Dr. Ub’x (who has many alter egos, including Truk – a truck.)
It’s very silly and perhaps even childish. . .until Arisia goes through the puberty machine and puts the moves on Hal. Should DC put out a volume 4 I’ll definitely pick it up – not so sure I’ll be chasing down the single issues. (I say this now. . . .)
Some of the most fiery and consistently engaging, fun live jazz piano I’ve ever seen performed – and I’ve seen a lot of the legends.
Mixon plays locally quite a bit, so catch his show.
So the Brightest Day was something of an anticlimax after Blackest Night, let’s be honest. It was a wise decision to take the 3 Green Lantern books and use the run-up to the “New 52″ as a quick and dirty mini-series.
The 10 issues of “War of the Green Lanterns” flowed nicely between the three and had many exciting moments. It also looked GORGEOUS. As is what is beginning to feel like standard operating procedure, the ending seemed to come out of nowhere – and while it makes a great cliffhanger, I can’t help but feel, once again, that all this cool shit flying out of these books isn’t all to well thought out in advance.
The third novel set in Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space Universe (and sequel to the original Revelation Space, with Chasm City more of a “side-quel,”) is my least favorite of the three. For about 250 of this 700 page brick, not a whole hell of a lot happens. I honestly think you could tear those pages out and nobody would have minded.
And, unlike the other two books (particularly the brilliant Chasm City, which I truly think is a masterpiece) there are not mindscrambling sci-fi/fantasy concept bombs being dropped every other page. By Reynolds’ standards, Redemption Ark is relatively straightforward.
Which is not to say it is not enjoyable. I love the world of the Conjoiners, the Demarchists, the Ultras, the Inhibitors and Pattern Jugglers. I love the lighthugger Nostalgia For Infinity and I love Alpha Level Sims, “Medichines” and unionized worker simians.
One of Reynolds’ greatest strengths is actually knowing a thing or two about science, so his interstellar travel is full of Relativistic puzzles that, for a layman like me, take a little bit of thought and/or Google research to follow. It is worth it. I still don’t really understand redshift, but I understand it slightly better now.
I’m seeing the movie Thor in about 18 hours so I thought it a good idea to read this collection.
The only Thor stuff I’d read prior were his appearances in Mark Millar’s Ultimates – which I very much enjoyed. I can’t really lie and say the same about this. It is. . . okay.
I like how goofily serious he is when he speaks, but that’s just because I have a bizarre sense of humor about that sort of thing. Nothing actually happens in this book, other than a very slow “getting the band back together.” The concept of a floating Asgard in the middle of Oklahoma is pretty entertaining, I’ll admit.
Didn’t hate it, but don’t see myself following up with volume 2 any time soon.
Northlanders is back to kicking ass again. The last two arcs have been minimal, slice-of-life affairs focusing on a small group of characters against ridiculously epic backgrounds of either nature or history.
This collection (and a decent place to start if you are new) focuses on a historical footnote where Vikings actually raided Paris – and very nearly took the place down. Some terrific artwork and very action-driven scenes. Good stuff.
I’ve read every issue of Northlanders and these smaller stories is what it does best. When reflected upon as a whole, it really does tell a story about a culture, and in a way that, perhaps, is more interesting than if there were continuing characters. The next one is a one-shot – I’m looking forward to it.
What’s annoying about the (relatively) recent relaunch of the JSA is what’s annoying about all ongoing superhero comics.
It always seems to be really building, building, building to something, but it never quite gets there.
In this collection there’s an interesting tangent concerning the Batson family and the reemergence of Black Adam, but once that slugs itself out it is simply dropped. The continuing A-story lumbers on – a self-referential bit of business, mostly about just who should be allowed in this new JSA.
Still, there is an indescribable charm in seeing young Stargirl complain about her braces as Grandfatherly Jay Garrick gives her a mock-punch in the arm. And Alan Scott in a paper birthday party hat.
I read this stuff just before I fade off to sleep in my bed, once my wife is already in the Land of Nod and can’t judge me.
I’d been schlepping through this 700 page whopper for months.
Some of it is a rip-roaring page-turner, some of it is as dull as a long march through the desert.
The parts that are ceaselessly fascinating are the political machinations, the way the Crusades were sold to commoners and Kings alike, and how the Pontiff was able to mobilize thousands of people to travel across the globe on an impossible mission.
Less interesting are the very detailed battle descriptions. Still, author Thomas Asbridge keeps it focused on the personalities and the cultural aspects of “taking the cross.” I wish I read this before I went to Israel – I’d be pretty stoked to see the city of Akko again now that I know some of the shit that went down there.
When Guillermo Del Toro announced he was going to adapt this film with an R rating under James Cameron’s umbrella with Tom Cruise in the lead, I felt that I needed to read this novella for professional reasons.
Now that the project’s been scrapped, I read it mostly out of curiosity.
So here’s the twist: it sucks. Some of the ideas in the “mythos” are neat – the Shuggoths kick ass – but nothing effing happens and the writing is, for the most part, flat. It is all backstory. No interesting characters. No forward momentum. Two dudes walk in the snow, see weird shit. The end. The only cool stuff is crammed in to the middle, narrated to us by a character who suddenly intuits all sorts of shit he’d never understand if he was looking at a city of cubes with black ooze everywhere.
It would have been a crap movie, even with GDTs awesome monsters running around.
Now that Hush redux has been put away, Terry McGinnis is ready to fight some crime, yo. Sadly, a former janitor (?) at the Watchtower has been zapped by some sort of isomer and has become MATTER MASTER. What is his first order of business? Going to the mall and taking everyone hostage – and wouldn’t ya know Terry’s family is there. He must save the day, but that means standing up his date! And it also means the pesky Justice League (featuring a future, child-like Green Lantern named Kai-Ro!) get in the way and won’t leave until he and Bruce Wayne agree to join them. Problems!
It’s a zippy 3-issue arc and part of the ongoing series that I keep trying not to read (I’m doing my best to divest myself of single issue comics – they are a pain in the ass) but the art gets me every time.
I read the total run of the Black Widow comics from this spring til the end of the year and I enjoyed them a great deal. This was the next step with some of those characters and it is also. . .where I get off.
It’s convoluted storytelling and mindless fight scenes with not-that-interesting art. Probably for hardcore Marvel fans only, not a curious DC fan like myself.
Today was the day I read over 400 pages of John Byrne’s Next Men.
It’s got everything you can want – conspiracy, intrigue, whacked-out sci-fi, muscled heroes bashing each other and even some sexy dames (if you are into dames who look like the cover of the Duran Duran Rio album cover.)
I find Next Men to be far more enjoyable and relatable than anything I’ve read of the X-Men.
An out of continuity (I think) 12-part tale from 2008 that isn’t all that dissimilar from a bunch of other Batman tales. A new baddie is on the loose and somehow he is involving all the well-known Rogues in ways you wouldn’t normally expect.
What sets this collection apart is actually giving some good panel time to Alfred and Kelley Jones’ really outrageous artwork.
I’ve been doing a very good job of weaning myself off of single issue comics. I mean, come on. . .it’s just getting to be ridiculous.
But after reading so much about what’s been happening in the Dick Grayson/Batman-in-Gotham arc of the current fractaled (and impossible to follow) Batman Incorporated nonsense, I had to check this out.
It’s a straight-up “who’s pulling the strings” bad guy tale, that incorporates some of the classic rogues gallery. More importantly it has Grayson admitting that the evil sewer that is Gotham is just getting worse, and the drawings by Jock are truly creepy and expressive. These are art panels you can stare at for a while and not feel like a dope.
So while I’ll be ignoring everything else happening in Batman-dom for a while, I’ll be keeping my eyes on this.
Wow, comics from 1992 sometimes look like movies from 1986.
Anyway, do you like The Penguin? Of course you do. If so, you could do a lot worst that read this (very short) book and learn more about the man’s hopes, dreams and idiosyncrasies. (Plot point: manipulating the stock market with COMPUTERS!)
I like All-Star Superman. It’s an actual story with a twist and a heart and a unique point of view. All those things.
Also – Lois Lane is a foxy little minx in it and we learn that the Bizarro Underverse is called the Oververse. And Frank Quitely’s use of color is nice.
One of my favorite things about reading Nortlanders, Brian Wood’s comics tales of the Viking Era, is that between the 8-issue arcs comes a quick 2-issue arc or a one-shot. This newest one can be summed up in about a sentence: hermit discovers body in ice, gets blamed for murder. It’s a dark tale, with drawings that are truly evocative. In a very simple, minimalist way, these microscopic works of art offer up a “You Are There” experience you’re not likely to find anywhere else.
