This just in!!

I have important breaking news* for the new year!!!

Ed Brubaker can sure write some crime fiction!

*I am pretty sure I am the last person for whom this was breaking news.

Coward (Criminal #1 tpb) - Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

This is just a terrific story. If you like crime fiction, or well written stories with great art, you'll love this. Truth is, you probably already love it. I am a bit late to the party on everything, but being first has never interested me. The goal is to read and enjoy good comics, not to break any records for reading them before everyone else.

I am a big fan of comics that read like really good movies. I know that not everyone is, but I don't really understand that prejudice. This reads like a good movie that I would like A LOT. I am really into the sort of movies where the main character is holding back and then despite trying to stay above such things, is eventually unleashed. (A History of Violence, The Unforgiven, etc.) This has a bit of that, combined with another thing I love, and that is the character type of the mastermind. The character that has everything planned out. They think of angles that you can't believe even existed before that person thought of them.

In Coward those things are presented in the form of Leo, a pickpocket and heist planner with a knack for making it out alive by following some solid rules, and a reputation for being a coward. The story is about a job gone bad, and throughout the course of the story we see a lot of compelling and well written characters, and really get into the mind of Leo and learn what he is really all about.

There is a lot of humanity in this book. There is a certain sympathetic view of a certain class of criminal that really rubs off on you when you read it. I highly recommend this, and have already picked up Volume 2: Lawless.

Back in the New York groove...

I will be in New York City for work next week. I will be out there late Sunday through the following Saturday. I may not have a single bit of time of my own, but if I did, are there any of those big fancy New York comic shops near where I will be? I will be staying right around Battery Park, and Working around the World Financial Center? not terribly far from there? If anyone that sees this happens to know that part of the city, let me know if there is any place close to it that is worth noting.

Thanks!!

Rob

The Comic Book Day before Christmas

I wasn't going to pick up my comics today, but I ended up having to ride out and pick up a last minute gift card. I'm glad I did. The nice part was that while they had just had the busiest day of the year, they were empty when I showed up so there was no trouble chatting with my friendly LCS guy while I browsed. The other great thing was that it was a good strong week for me. I wish every week could bring me a really solid four or five good titles. As it is, I am pretty happy with what I get right now, but I still have those slow days.

My LCS gave us all a nice discount as a present and I bought the first trade of David Lapham's Young Liars. I am looking forward to reading this, and will post about it at some point.

The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #2 - Except for the awful scene of the guy who had his arms and legs cut off, I really enjoyed this issue. I love the characters, so any time we get to see more of them just being themselves, it's a good thing... We see more Kraken in this one and a nice dose of Rumor, including a cool full page thing by Ross Campbell. Ba's art is great as expected.

Runaways #5 - This thing keeps being just endearing enough to me that I can't drop it. I really love Ramos' art. I really love it. I have said it before, but I loved his art on the New X-Men, and i love this as well. It's perfect for the age of the characters and the tone of the book. This one had a lot of vehicular goings on, and the effects of the scatter spell have finally worn off, thank god. It was pretty fun, which is good enough for me.

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam #3 - Holy Cats Mike Kunkel can cram A LOT onto a page. Fortunately for me the amount of stuff on the page tones down a bit as this issue goes on, but the effect of it all gives the book a sort of hyperactive in a good way, kid vibe (Sort of like the adorable Mary Marvel in this same title). This issue brings us the inevitable... Theo Adam gets the magic word and becomes Black Adam! It's good fun and the art is great.

Atomic Robo - Dogs of War #5 - I guess it had to end some time. This was a pretty incredible mini series. The art is fantastic, and the writing was superb. The story and the backup stories were just good comics. It is great to see Robo at different points in his 'life', and see the way his attitudes have changed, etc. The ending of the book is done well, and says a lot about the character. In this issue Robo's upper half fights nazis while his legs relax in a crate...

Watching Batman again

When Tim Burton's Batman came out, I dragged my wife to the theater to see it. I would later figure out that it might be best to not make her see the movies that I am frothing at the mouth for when I know she has no interest in them. I didn't love the movie. There were a lot of things I liked about it, a bunch of things that could have been done better, and a few things that were just stupid in my opinion. That didn't stop me from seeing each Batman movie as they were released. I love Batman, and however progressively more awful each movie was, there was still some joy to be had if you are a fan (although some of them might be better if you don't know the source material).

Unlike a lot of people, I thought the movie was pretty much ruined by it's Joker. I thought the movie focused WAY too much on Nicholson. I thought his performance was OK, but I didn't like most of the things about the way the character was written and portrayed. I thought it suffered a bit from Burton's excesses, but I liked the look and feel of things just fine. Michael Keaton made a fine batman, but didn't hit the Bruce Wayne notes. I thought Keaton was great as a rich playboy with a secret double life as Gotham's Dark Knight Detective... but he didn't seem very Bruce Wayney to me. He was perhaps too squirrely to seem like Bruce Wayne for me. I also didn't like the inclusion of the man who would be Joker in Batman's origin story.

All of that said... My daughters have never seen any of the old Batman movies as far as I know. We have watched the new ones in the theaters, and they have loved them, just as I have. I decided recently that They should probably have a sense of what went on before, so I added Batman to my Netflix Queue and we watched it together last night.

They loved it. They had no issues with it, and enjoyed it without the burden of having grown up reading tons of batman. They have both watched cartoons with the character their entire lives, but I think that may allow a greater tolerance for other takes on the character, than when you have old comics canon ingrained in you. Talking to my 14 year old, she says there is no question that Ledger's Joker is way better than Nicholson's, and that the new movies are better than the old one, but none of that kept her from enjoying the film.

I have to say that I enjoyed the movie way more this time than I did previously. There are aspects still that i think are stupid, but they don't ruin the movie for me, and there is a lot that is done just right. I like dark and deco Gotham. I like Joker in the style of Cesar Romero, I think it can work. I like Heath Ledger's Joker for what it is, and his performance was better without seeming as omnipresent as Nicholson's. My new opinion on this movie is that it isn't nearly as bad as I recall. I had no problem enjoying it this time. I will probably go through all of the old movies with my girls. I have no doubt that they will enjoy them on at least some level.

Does this feel wrong to anyone else?

After happily finishing the fourth issue of the Terra mini series that I enjoyed partly for how relatively light it was. Regardless of what it was about or what happened, there was an over all feeling that just came off as not overly heavy. Great taste, less filling I guess. I am a bit of a fan of that, if it isn't already obvious to you. I can certainly handle heavy and serious stuff, but I don't think everything needs to be that way.

Here is Dan Didio's piece from the last page of the comic. You may have seen it in another comic, but for me it was in Terra #4 as i said.

"The dead shall rise."

Well, at least that's what Geoff Johns keeps telling me. And since I've seen some of his plans for next year's epic, BLACKEST NIGHT, I have to say this will easily be one of the most anticipated events in comics for 2009. The story has been building and building since the Sinestro Corps War helped define everything we knew about Green Lantern, and Blackest Night promises to do the same for the entire DC Universe.

Starting in July, Blackest Night will rip through the DCU as the different color Corps are faced with the onslaught of the Black Lanterns. Our heroes such as the JLA, JSA, Titans and more are forced to defend Earth against some very familiar faces. As a matter of fact, any character who has died in the DCU is eligible to be a Black Lantern (and you know how many have died in the last couple of years). Geoff answered a couple of fans from several DC Nation panels at conventions this year when fans would ask about the status of certain deceased members of our universe, and the answer was always the same. It would go something like this:

Fan #1: Are there any plans to bring back Martian Manhunter?
Geoff: Yes…Black Lantern.
Fan #2: Will we see Aquaman this year?
Geoff: Black Lantern.
Fan #3: How about Pantha?
Geoff: Black Lantern.
Fan #4: I'd like to see the return of Max Lord, Solovar, and Airwave…
Geoff: Black Lantern. Black Lantern. Black Lantern.

Now, we can't say exactly who comes back wielding a black ring this summer, but we can tell you for sure to expect the unexpected. I know July seems like a long way away now, so we have plenty of action going on in Green Lantern (Red Lanterns and Agent Orange) and Green Lantern Corps (Star Sapphire and the Sinestro Corps) to keep you occupied. And in February the Origins & Omens event sweeps through the DCU featuring a certain narrator who is a central figure in Blackest Night. It's all adding up to be one of the biggest and best events in the history of the DCU, so get ready.

I'll be back next week to fill you in on the Titans (both regular and teen) and give you an update on a certain villain and a certain crossover that will turn teammates into enemies and change the status quo of every character involved. Sound serious? Welcome to the DCU in 2009.

To be continued...

DD

I was bugged by the parenthetical up there. I realize that this is a guy plugging the big event to presumably an audience that is hungry for it, but It just feels like winking and smiling about all of the characters that have been killed off, and that doesn't sit right with me.

I am really not a fan of gratuitously killing off characters. I know that characters have been dying or seeming to die, or being announced as dead for as long as there have been hero comics. I generally don't care for it. Have characters die, only if it makes sense and is essential to the story. Worse than most of the ridiculous temporary deaths that big named heroes seem to have every now and again are the deaths of underutilized characters. They are usually brought in just long enough to make them interesting and show their potential before being offed, etc.

Is it something to be proud of that you have amassed a great stable of dead heroes and their friends and loved ones? Is dragging them out of their graves to use them as villains really something that needs to be done as a company wide event?

It's probably not something to actually be bothered by, I guess. From some of the searching around I did about this, there are at least some folks excitedly banking on their favorite dead hero coming back evil. I guess the key to anything like this is good writing and plotting, etc. With good enough writing anything is possible.

Comic Book Day 12/17/2008

Not as much going on for me this week, but still a good week

Amazing Spider-Man #581 (Dan Slott, Mike McKone)- Way to not be dead, Harry... Poor Harry, you would think there would be someone happy he isn't really dead. This issue begins a story arc called 'Mind on Fire'. It starts with Spidey getting set up to look like the tracer killer, and ends with the Molten Man wreaking havoc in a suburban home. The art is decent, it's a good read.

Spider-Man Noir #1 (Hine & Sapolsky, art by Giandomenico) - I have a good bit of hope for this mini. Like X-Men Noir, I think this one gets off to a good start. The art is awesome, and the writing is good. I like the set up. It may not be 4 dollars awesome, but it's pretty good. It lives up to the noir label, and spins the story in some interesting ways. Regular Spider-Man's uncle was killed by a regular old robber... the Noir Spider-Man's uncle was EATEN BY A CRAZY GUY. The Enforcers, the Vulture, Black Cat, Norman 'the goblin' Osborn are all present here.

Tiny Titans #11 (Baltazar, Franco) - Terra Trouble. Poor Beast Boy, He's crazy in love with Terra, but she returns rocks instead of affection. There are a number of other cute bits in this one, including a good one about changing names featuring Robin and the male Starfire(Red Star). Cute and fun as usual.

Terra #4 (Palmiotti,Gray,Conner) - This series seemed to come out really fast. It was nice to get the new installments so quickly. Sadly, I am not convinced I want to read something called Terror Titans, but I guess I will look, since that is where Terra is available with the end of this mini. I really liked this . I LOVE how Terra and Power Girl are portrayed. Power Girl comes off as fun and friendly and nice. Terra has the fish out of water awkwardness that is the stuff of sitcoms. The end of this book is great. It is a female super-hero buddy comedy. I think that should be an ongoing series.

Beanworld Holiday Special (Larry Marder) - I picked this up this week as well. It's cute and quirky and has a cool style about it. peculiar is the word on the cover, and it is fitting. This is the first Beanworld i have read, and I consider that a shortcoming of mine

The Annotated Wondermark (David Malki) - This isn't a new book. I met Malki at Heroes Con this year (by that I mean I stood in front of his table). I had never read or heard of his work prior to that. I picked this $10 trade collection of strips yesterday, and I love it. I will go back soon to pick up the hardback Beards of Our Forefathers. The strips are done using public domain images with a decidedly 19th to very early 20th century feel about them, and the humor ranges from childish to disturbing, to sublime. There is also a great deal of humor in the presentation of the material. The front and back cover are funny, the front pages about how to read the book scream Monty Python to me for some reason I can't really explain. It's good funny stuff.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold Episode 4

Episode Four: Invasion Of The Secret Santas - I liked this episode more than the last one. I'm not sure how it would rank against the others, but it was better than the Aquaman episode. The intro this time features Batman and Blue Beetle again, and they face off against the Sportsmaster, who has apparently been around for a good long time. There is a lot of humor in this one, and it is mostly visual. It also has some of the darkest moments of the series so far. The main story is Batman and Red Tornado vs Fun Haus, who most internet chatter seems to say is the Toyman without any pesky ownership issues.

I never cared much for Red Tornado. I don't have any great thing against him, but he never did much for me. In this episode he is played completely as the robot trying to get the human experience. He doesn't really have any personality, and speaks in 'robot speak' like 'Observation: my character is a robot stereotype"... Ok, not that phrase specifically, but you see what I mean.

So... Fun Haus has an extremely convoluted plot to steal presents from what appears to be a small town where Red Tornado lives. First he sends aliens to attack, then he sends Santas in to attack, then he relies on every kid in town getting a specific action figure that will come to life on Christmas day 'Small Soldiers' style and then steal presents for him. I imagine that he spent way more money making all the stuff for this caper than he could ever recoup from it.

Running through this are two themes that are interwoven. The first is that Red Tornado wants to feel 'the Christmas spirit' that people feel, and the second is that Batman for some reason is avoiding it. During the course of things we see a yet again conveniently altered version of the origin story where this time young Bruce is a brat who doesn't get what he wants for Christmas, so his parents take him to a movie to make up for it, and get killed on the way home... Yep, right in the middle of the goofy show that doesn't feature Bruce Wayne is the very serious double murder, and this time it is Christmas related AND it is even more his fault.

The particularly good parts of the episode to me are:

• When Blue Beetle KO's the Sportsmaster's goons, all the bowlers trapped in giant see through bowling pins clap for him.
• Each time there is a new attack by Fun Haus's creations you get the close up of the same lady screaming in the style of old monster/invasion movies.
• Red Tornado giving Batman a 'World's greatest detective' mug.
• Red Tornado overloads himself and blows up, and then attributes it to the 'Christmas spirit' that he has been so desperately seeking.
• All the little action figures transforming into a giant robot.
• Batman goes through roughly 1000 batarangs in this episode, I swear.
• Blue Beetle inviting Batman over for Christmas dinner.
• Batman riding a reindeer to catch up with a runaway sleigh.

It all came together to form a pretty enjoyable episode, despite containing a combination of what I saw as weak elements. I am still enjoying this series.