Comics for 01/09/2013
I picked up four titles this week; Action Comics #16, Punisher: War Zone #3, Superior Spider-man #1, and Detective Comics #16 (Death of the Family tie-in). As usual I will give a brief synopsis and my thoughts on the title.
Action Comics #16: Much like Nicholas Cage, Grant Morrison continues to defy the odds and find work in comics. On a lark I purchased this title to see what has been going on with Superman, and after reading I continue to wonder what is going on with Superman. In the interest of full disclosure I submit that I'm not the biggest supporter of Morrison's work. I feel that his work is not the type that one can pick up and read without being fully aware of what has happened in the past few issues. I have become a big fan of All-Star Superman; however, so I think maybe it's best I wait and read his Action run as a whole. The Verdict: Pass on this title and wait for the trade
Punisher: War Zone #3 (of 5): When this title started I was honestly excited to see where it would go. The back story crossed over from the main Punisher title. Essentially the Avengers felt that Frank Castle had crossed some sort of line, and have set out to bring him down. This title got off to a hot start, but now it feels as if it is a vehicle for a weekly chat session between Castle and a member of the Avengers. This week saw Thor and Castle share a six-pack and take down a small army.
The Verdict: Pass on this title and go pick up Garth Ennis' stellar Punisher: Max run in trade form.
Superior Spider-man #1: Creator Dan Slott sure generated a lion's share of publicity with the events at the conclusion of the Amazing Spider-man #700. This issue picks up after that with the adventures of the "new" Peter Parker. While Otto grows accustomed to the his new life and his new body he finds himself limited by an unseen (to him) force. The big two (DC and Marvel) have generated a great deal of criticism within the industry and from comic fans alike for their propensity to use stunts to sell. Unfortunately, this stunt will be over too quickly to be remembered.
The Verdict: Pick it up if you want a halfway decent Spidey story, or if you enjoy a good marketing ploy.
Batman: Detective Comics #16 (Death of the Family tie-in): Although I faux scathe at marketing ploys by the big two I have been a sucker for this particular one. Death of the Family is everything that I have always loved about comics. Joker, out of sheer insanity and unpredictability, is one step ahead of Batman on his trail of terror. This issue takes a deviation from the main prose regarding the clown prince of crime and lays the groundwork for Gotham going forward. Readers are introduced to a series of increasingly dangerous Joker Cults that will surely populate the Gotham landscape going forward. This issue also furthers the introduction of Ignatius Oglivy as the new "Emperor Penguin" and the new face of organized crime in Gotham.
The Verdict: 50/50 - this isn't really a "can't miss" title, but there is some nice story work with not too much of the Joker or the Bat.
Comics for 01/16/2013
This week was a difficult one for me. While I usually read and rank my titles from worst to first I had a hard time finding a weak spot. A first world problem if there ever was one! This week's titles were Daredevil #22, Batgirl #16 (Death of the Family tie in), Batman & Robin #16 (Death of the Family tie in), and Batman #16 (Death of the Family tie in).
Daredevil #22: This was my favorite title of this week, and that is saying something when considering the competition. Mark Waid continues to draw from his past work and center this title around uniquely human elements. In Waid's stellar work Kingdom Come Batman tells Superman that he was lost from the day that he "made the Super more important than the Man". Waid seems to have continued to heed these words. In this issue Hornhead and the "new" Spidey thwart a rampage by Stilt Man. After the battle Waid juxtaposes the light prose with a very real and heartbreaking confession from Foggy to his best friend Matt Murdock. Dear reader I cannot stress enough how much I love this comic, and I cannot suggest strongly enough that you pick it up at least once.
The Verdict: Pick it up. This is the best thing going in comics today.
Batgirl #16 (Death of the Family tie-in): DC made a monumental mistake when they fired Gail Simone via e-mail. Luckily, enough backlash and fan support got her hired back in a New York minute. I have never in my life picked up a Batgirl title, but I now plan on reading the entirety of Simone's run. In this issue Babs is set to tie the knot with the man who famously put her in a wheelchair "for the fun of it". While she and the Joker exchange banter she decides that regardless of the outcome she is now willing to "cross that line" and put a definite end to the Clown Prince. While nothing is resolved in this issue all roads lead to Batman #17 in February.
The Verdict: Another fantastic title from a fantastic author..can't miss
Batman & Robin #16 (Death of the Family tie-in): Confession time. I love Damien Wayne. I hated him at first like some of you probably did. He was a spoiled, he was disrespectful, he treated Dick Grayson like crap, and to top it all off he was a cold-blooded killer. Fast forward to Peter Tomasi's run with the Boy Wonder (and some of the work Grant Morrison has done in Batman Inc.) and we have a decidedly different Damien. The character has the type of empathy that I love in superhero stories. While he's no boy hostage like the previous incarnations of the character the thing that is so interesting about Damien is that above all he wants his Father's approval. That is story that is more than common to the reader as we've all been in a situation, in which we seek the approval of another.
The Verdict: Pick it up as it's another stop on the road to the big finale in Batman #17
Batman #16 (Death of the Family tie-in): I hope Scott Snyder continues to write Batman for as long as humanly possible. There were questions whether Snyder could successfully follow-up his wildly popular "Court of Owls" storyline. He has answered those questions with a definitive yes. Snyder has taken a popular villain like The Joker, and made him decisively more dangerous. This version of the Joker embraces the chaos, but he has an end game in mind. I don't want to spoil too much from this title, but suffice to say if I could only buy two comics a month it would be Snyder's Batman and Waid's Daredevil.
The Verdict: Pick it up
We've come to the end. Looks like next week I'll be picking up Red Hood and the Outlaws #16 and Nightwing #16, which are both continuing the Death of the Family storyline. I'll stay current from here on out so I don't have to be so verbose in future posts. Thanks again dear reader! See you in the funny pages!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
New Comics for 01/02/13 and thoughts on the Peter Parker controversy
I have to get out of the way early that I am not the biggest Marvel fan in the world. I enjoy movies like Captain America, Thor, and the Avengers but I'm not one to sit down and read weekly issues of these iconic characters.
You, dear reader, will not often hear me wax poetic about the adventures of one of the many incarnations of the X-men. I'm more likely to romanticize the monthly tales of any one member of the Batfamily, talk about how much dissonance I have with the New 52 version of Supes, or how much respect I have for Geoff Johns for taking an eternal doormat like Aquaman and making him compelling and interesting.
I appreciate the internal logic of the Marvel way. Create everyday people and through some extraordinary circumstance they are imbued with a power like nothing before. These characters have ethos, pathos, and are much easier to relate to than an alien with the powers of a demigod.
I do read some Marvel as you will see from what I purchased this week, but the majority of what I purchase is DC.
01/02/2012 - The Pull List
Daredevil: End of Days, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Teen Titans (Death of the Family tie in)
Daredevil: End of Days - Other than Mark Waid's fantastic run with the main DD title this is my favorite thing going at Marvel right now. Set in the not to distant future we follow Ben Urich as he investigates the death of Daredevil. This issue focused on the suicide of DD's long-time arch nemesis Bullseye. The gritty artwork and the 1950's detective style narrative from Urich make for some intriguing and engaging storytelling. The introduction of an old character in a new setting in the last few pages only adds to the overarching mystery of the title. I feel that DD: End of Days is this week's must read.
Batman: The Dark Knight - One of four main titles for the caped crusader in the New 52 relaunch (Batman, Batman & Robin, Detective Comics, Dark Knight) Dark Knight has been consistently underwhelming. I'm not sure if is bad storytelling or the fact that overwhelming sheer number of Batman-centric titles has a numbing effect on this reader. This issue ties up the ongoing Scarecrow story arch, and the entire affair completely feels unnecessary. I question DC's logic because I'm a big proponent of less is more. With a new Batman title hitting shelves four weeks out the month one is left to wonder if it is because there are THAT many Batman stories to tell or if the publisher is THAT greedy for my dollars. Nonetheless, I have a hard time passing up on any Batman story so I guess in the end I'm the sucker. The Verdict: This one can be missed
Teen Titans (Death of the Family) - The most recent tie-in to the ongoing story of The Joker's return to torment the various members of the Batman Family. Teen titans is one of the more bland and unoriginal titles I've seen in the New 52. Couple the uninspired storytelling with the retcon of Tim Drake's character, in which they deny that he was ever Robin, and you have yourself one train wreck of a title. Even the special appearance of Batgirl couldn't save this issue from running off the tracks. It brings to light the larger issue with the return of the Joker in that he is being overexposed for the sake of making money. This version of the Joker seems to be neither master strategist nor drooling psychopath. What sense does it make for him to take on this multiple front war against the Batfamily by himself? One man versus Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood & the Outlaws, and the Teen Titans? Sun Tzu he is not, in willingly taking on that battle strategy. I am interested in seeing where this is going so I will continue to read, but lets hope that the rest of the Death of the Family tie ins are like Snyder's Batman or Simone's Batgirl. I have a lot of faith in and respect for Scott Snyder, his "Court of Owls" and "The Black Mirror" Batman stories were fantastic, but I have begun to question the necessity of some of these other tie ins. The Verdict: Only buy if you are collecting the whole Death of the Family run
About Spidey - *Spoilers Ahead*
As you may or may not know Peter Parker is no longer Peter Parker. In his last ditch diabolical act a dying Doc Ock pulled a permanent Freaky Friday with the longtime wall crawler in Amazing Spider-man #700. Despite Parker's best efforts he couldn't get himself back into his body; however, in doing so he helped Otto to see all the pain and suffering he had gone through. Otto subsequently decides to dedicate his life to doing good, and protecting the Parker clan....and there in lies the rub with this comic reader.
Otto Octavius, one of Parker's greatest enemies, and a general bad guy hell bent on world domination loses all of his evil inclinations at the drop of a hat. Instead of using the pages of Superior Spider-man to spin a compelling yarn of the conversion of Otto from evil to good. They choose to throw away these storylines in a brief few pages in the final Amazing Spider-man issue.
I am very interested to see where this is going, but I do have a bit of trepidation about some of the ramifications of the switch to Spidoc. The most concerning is that Otto was married to Aunt May for a time, and now he inhabits the body of her nephew. Oedipal complex much?
Dan Slott is currently getting a lot of heat for "killing off" Spidey, but as we should have learned by now no one stays dead in comics anymore. If anything it's a state of dormancy. If Barry Allen, Bucky, and Jason Todd are once again among the living in the pages of current comics then it's not out of the realm of possibilities that Peter Parker will be Peter Parker once again sooner or later.
Despite all the controversy and the anger ASM #700 is a good read if not only for being able to see Peter Parker's journey finally end. The scenes in which he meets Captain Stacy, Gwen, Uncle Ben, and his parents in the afterlife are especially touching, and make the overall issue worthy of a read.
You, dear reader, will not often hear me wax poetic about the adventures of one of the many incarnations of the X-men. I'm more likely to romanticize the monthly tales of any one member of the Batfamily, talk about how much dissonance I have with the New 52 version of Supes, or how much respect I have for Geoff Johns for taking an eternal doormat like Aquaman and making him compelling and interesting.
I appreciate the internal logic of the Marvel way. Create everyday people and through some extraordinary circumstance they are imbued with a power like nothing before. These characters have ethos, pathos, and are much easier to relate to than an alien with the powers of a demigod.
I do read some Marvel as you will see from what I purchased this week, but the majority of what I purchase is DC.
01/02/2012 - The Pull List
Daredevil: End of Days, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Teen Titans (Death of the Family tie in)
Daredevil: End of Days - Other than Mark Waid's fantastic run with the main DD title this is my favorite thing going at Marvel right now. Set in the not to distant future we follow Ben Urich as he investigates the death of Daredevil. This issue focused on the suicide of DD's long-time arch nemesis Bullseye. The gritty artwork and the 1950's detective style narrative from Urich make for some intriguing and engaging storytelling. The introduction of an old character in a new setting in the last few pages only adds to the overarching mystery of the title. I feel that DD: End of Days is this week's must read.
Batman: The Dark Knight - One of four main titles for the caped crusader in the New 52 relaunch (Batman, Batman & Robin, Detective Comics, Dark Knight) Dark Knight has been consistently underwhelming. I'm not sure if is bad storytelling or the fact that overwhelming sheer number of Batman-centric titles has a numbing effect on this reader. This issue ties up the ongoing Scarecrow story arch, and the entire affair completely feels unnecessary. I question DC's logic because I'm a big proponent of less is more. With a new Batman title hitting shelves four weeks out the month one is left to wonder if it is because there are THAT many Batman stories to tell or if the publisher is THAT greedy for my dollars. Nonetheless, I have a hard time passing up on any Batman story so I guess in the end I'm the sucker. The Verdict: This one can be missed
Teen Titans (Death of the Family) - The most recent tie-in to the ongoing story of The Joker's return to torment the various members of the Batman Family. Teen titans is one of the more bland and unoriginal titles I've seen in the New 52. Couple the uninspired storytelling with the retcon of Tim Drake's character, in which they deny that he was ever Robin, and you have yourself one train wreck of a title. Even the special appearance of Batgirl couldn't save this issue from running off the tracks. It brings to light the larger issue with the return of the Joker in that he is being overexposed for the sake of making money. This version of the Joker seems to be neither master strategist nor drooling psychopath. What sense does it make for him to take on this multiple front war against the Batfamily by himself? One man versus Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood & the Outlaws, and the Teen Titans? Sun Tzu he is not, in willingly taking on that battle strategy. I am interested in seeing where this is going so I will continue to read, but lets hope that the rest of the Death of the Family tie ins are like Snyder's Batman or Simone's Batgirl. I have a lot of faith in and respect for Scott Snyder, his "Court of Owls" and "The Black Mirror" Batman stories were fantastic, but I have begun to question the necessity of some of these other tie ins. The Verdict: Only buy if you are collecting the whole Death of the Family run
About Spidey - *Spoilers Ahead*
As you may or may not know Peter Parker is no longer Peter Parker. In his last ditch diabolical act a dying Doc Ock pulled a permanent Freaky Friday with the longtime wall crawler in Amazing Spider-man #700. Despite Parker's best efforts he couldn't get himself back into his body; however, in doing so he helped Otto to see all the pain and suffering he had gone through. Otto subsequently decides to dedicate his life to doing good, and protecting the Parker clan....and there in lies the rub with this comic reader.
Otto Octavius, one of Parker's greatest enemies, and a general bad guy hell bent on world domination loses all of his evil inclinations at the drop of a hat. Instead of using the pages of Superior Spider-man to spin a compelling yarn of the conversion of Otto from evil to good. They choose to throw away these storylines in a brief few pages in the final Amazing Spider-man issue.
I am very interested to see where this is going, but I do have a bit of trepidation about some of the ramifications of the switch to Spidoc. The most concerning is that Otto was married to Aunt May for a time, and now he inhabits the body of her nephew. Oedipal complex much?
Dan Slott is currently getting a lot of heat for "killing off" Spidey, but as we should have learned by now no one stays dead in comics anymore. If anything it's a state of dormancy. If Barry Allen, Bucky, and Jason Todd are once again among the living in the pages of current comics then it's not out of the realm of possibilities that Peter Parker will be Peter Parker once again sooner or later.
Despite all the controversy and the anger ASM #700 is a good read if not only for being able to see Peter Parker's journey finally end. The scenes in which he meets Captain Stacy, Gwen, Uncle Ben, and his parents in the afterlife are especially touching, and make the overall issue worthy of a read.
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