The Weekly Comics Grind

[Brand]

I think the only thing I really read this week was Nextwave #12. Good-bye Nextwave, I'll miss you, and your zany antics. ;_;

[Will]

New Avengers #27- Will Civil War never end so we can finally have this series back? I've been enjoying the single-character one-offs, but it's time for them to end.

While the narrative was in the first person it still had the debut of the new team and them rescuing Echo. Personally I loved it, probably my favorite book of the week and Leinil Yu's art was fucking amazing.

New Thunderbolts #111:

Now that the mission is underway, the team is finally put into action.

I find it incredibly hard not to root for Jack Flag out of the sea of asshole superheroes seen in this book. He's a pretty obscure Marvel character and I didn't know of him before now but Ellis does a great job with all the characters here with the exception of Swordsman who gets some fucked up type of revenge.


Ghost Rider Trail of Tears #1:

This is a story about a Ghost Rider who lived around the time of the American Civil War as well as a little after. Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain return again coming off of their previous limited series of the Johnny Blaze version.

Anyway, it's hard to say which of the two make characters (Travis or Caleb) will become the Ghost Rider but I'm highly enjoying it and Clayton's computer painted art. It's very well textured and captures the gritty battlefield setting and the nicer days after.

Uncanny X-Men #483:

I'm still enjoying Vulcan's journey as an unlikely Shi'ar ally.

The whole Deathbird/Vulcan relationship is pretty much an obvious (although pretty messed up) coming of age story of Vulcan discovering poon and becoming so entranced by Deathbird that he's gotten pussy whipped. One has to remember that he's still a young kid who had accelerated age and hasn't really experienced things he should have before his untimely death in Krakoa. The good thing though is that while he'd been under Deathbird's spell he's eased up on the whole "anger phase" and is beginning to think more rationally regarding the whole D'Ken deal. Admittedly, Ed makes Vulcan's powers a pretty convenient fix for D'Ken's condition but at least it's explained further with the use of the comatose psychics.

What I really liked about D'Ken's return was that he knows he has no chance at beating Vulcan but he still acts like the arrogant SOB that he is, just with more caution and knowing that he can make an ally out of someone of Gabriel's caliber instead of an enemy. Which is not to say that he won't stab Vulcan in the back either but it's another case of unlikely alliances and the whole "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" rationale.

Clayton Henry's art didn't look so exciting before Frank D started to color it but boy does it look even better now. It's a fairly restrained but incredibly solid art style and during these Vulcan solo issues totally works, I even like his action scenes which are violent but full of motion (the Imperial Guard vs Vulcan and Deathbird/Vulcan vs Shi'ar troops).

I can't really say that Ed's stuff has been "decompressed", it's just that he has a different style to Mike Carey's and it's a different type of story since it's an entire SAGA rather than moving ahead in smaller arcs so there's eventually going to be alot of payoff to the Shi'ar story and it'll read just as well collected as Mike's stuff does.

8/10

[James]

Just three comics for me this week-

Nextwave #12. Bye for now, Nextwave. The comics industry will be saner and less interesting without you around.

Power of Shazam #5. After the very good Superman/Shazam series last year I was looking forward to this series quite a bit, but so far it's only average. Not bad average, but not great either. I'll get the whole thing in an indifferent way, but Jeff Smith is doing the Captain Marvel I want to read.

Barracuda #1. I'm a bad person for enjoying this, and can't believe I'm happy that the character survived his run-in with the Punisher. This looks to be cruel, stupid, mean-spirited fun.

James

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Monthly comics grind for me.
Nextwave 12- sorry to see it end, but loved every minute of it. Never was a big Immomen fan, but was pleased with his art on this. I heard he's taking over Ultimate Spiderman when Bagley leaves and trying out a new art style. We'll see how that goes.

Fables- Big fan of Mike Allred, and wasn't disappointed with this issue at all. I love the concept of Fables and hope the series never ends.

Scalped 1,2- I try out pretty much everything Vertigo puts out and this was probably the most I've enjoyed since DMZ and Exterminators launched. Soprano's on an Indian reservation sums it up pretty well

Planet Hulk- I was a huge Hulk fan when PAD was writing it, but stopped following it around issue 450. PAD was going through his divorce and the issues got worse and worse. Picked up a few issues here and there when Jenkins and Jones was writing, but couldn't get into it again. Breaking under the pressure of all the hype, I picked up all the Greg Pak stuff and love it! I'm a Hulk fan once again!

JSA 1,2,3- After reading in Wizard about all the Kingdom Come relates in this book, I picked up the new series. I was never a fan of all the "old timey" DC heroes, but this is really interesting and done well. I know Johns is like the Stan Lee of DC now, but he is really a pretty good writer. I've never seen anything that I can remember by Eaglesham, but his pencils are very good here as well. Might have to look into finding some of his other stuff.

Stormwatch PHD- As a kid I read a Marvel Comics Presents that had a Union Jack story. For whatever reason I really got into the character. Fast forward 18 years, and a Union Jack mini is put out, written by some guy named Christos Gage. I picked that up, enjoyed it, and got into this as Gage wrote it as well. Pretty decent, but given Wildstorms track record we'll see how long it lasts.

Hellblazer-Can't wait for Denise Mina's run to end. What seems like a story that should last six issues max has gone on for what, two years? I love Leonardo Manco's art (ever since he and Ellis took over Hellstorm which seems like a lifetime ago), so I haven't dropped the book, but I'd like to enjoy art AND story again. Hurry up and bring on Diggle.

Batman/Spirit- This one flew under the radar for me so when I saw it I had to grab it. Great Loeb/Cooke single that was pleasingly remenscent of classic Batman. Great read!

Fell 7- Seems a little too soon to do another interrigation scene, but the last one was so good I didn't really care. This book is why i still follwed Ellis through his Red/Tokyo Storm Warning/crap three issue mini series period.
IF YOU DON"T READ FELL YOU ARE WHAT"S WRONG WITH COMICS!!

Flash 8- Current writing teams reign is finally over. YAY! If guggenheim sucks that's it for me and Flash.

Detective Comics- Grant Morrison's Batman has been cool, but Detective under Dini has been GREAT! Single issue stories, masterful handling of the rogues, I have not one complaint about this. Just the fact that I'm picking it up speaks volumes because I NEVER collect batman monthlies.

Testament- i don't know why i'm still picking this up. it has so much potential but it's just not doing it for me.

X-factor- I'm a Peter David fanboy, and much like Fell did for Ellis; this series gives me reason to continue being so.

those are all i can remember from the top of my head. There's a bunch of stuff I've yet to read ( i prefer to read mini's all in one shot) so I still have yet to read Mouse Guard, Eternals, and the new Shazam by Jeff Smith.

[bloodyarts]

That's alot of book, JesusC. I'm sorry to admit Fell sort of... fell... from my radar. I'd love to start picking it up but I like starting from the beginning, and I haven't had much success at my LCS. Everyone there knows it's good except me, go figure.

As for Batman, I don't really like the whole Son of Batman angle, but knowing Morrison, by the time all this is over, I'll either be saying, "Oh shit, this man's a genius", or "WTF??"... After reading Batman 663, I'm leaning toward the former.

Re: Planet Hulk, I'm kind of getting worn out on it. It's a great concept, and Hulk in space is always interesting, but this has been going on for too long, I think. I'm also rapidly losing faith in the World War Hulk event. I just have the strange feeling we're not going to see as much ass-kicking as we (read: me) would like to see, especially with him bringing his troops back to Earth. That means less ass for HULK himself to kick! I wonder if this will be the catalyst that ends Civil War, or perpetuates it.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I think I might have felt the same way concerning hulk had I been reading it as a monthly, but issues 92-103 read in one sitting seemed fine to me. Stretched over a year i can see how one might just want it over already.
I'm going to read more today and will post impressions later.

Daredevil 93- I've not read a Daredevil since Cary Nord was doing art in the mid '90s. I had heard all the buzz when Bendis was writing, but never picked it up. I started reading Captain America when it relaunched with Brubaker and based on how great he was doing that book, got into Daredevil when he took over. Very tight scripts with interesting story lines and twists all over the place, I'd say his stuff rivals the best of Frank Miller.

Jack of Fables 7- I love Fables, that I've made evident. I really like this series thus far, but I find Tony Akins art a bit...flat. I would like to see someone else drawing it, but the script is so fun that I'd still buy it if my most hated artists (Dusty Abell or Cully Hamner) were drawing it, I'd still pick it up.

Thunderbolts 110,111- After a not quite so thrilling first issue, Ellis kicks into gear with 111. Akin to waht was already stated, I really felt for Jack Flag and wanted to see him get through this. I find that one of Ellis' strong suits is taking characters relatively few know about and making them interesting in just a few panels. I have to admit that I'm one of those who knows nothing about Jack Flag, so he could be totally mishandled here based on his established continuity (kinda sorta like Ellis did with some of the Nextwave crew), but really, who cares? The book is off to a great start and I hope this is a long term thing for Ellis and not just another six issues and out deal.

DMZ 15- Half way through the Public Works storyline, and I can't wait for the next issue. I think this is going to turn into one of those books where I'll buy the monthlies, but wait till the current storyline ends to read it all at once. I read so much stuff that when the next issue drops, I have forgotten where the last one ended.

Moon Knight 7- Let's throw Spiderman on the cover, and only have him in four pages of the book. Hey, when it comes to Finch, I'll take what I can get.
As I stated previously, I followed the original Moon Knight for Sienkewicz's art, never was a fan of a majority of Moench's script though. Here I get great art and writing. WOO HOO! Will be saddened to see Finch go, but even with waht appears to be a Finch wannabe taking over the art, I'll still follow the book as Huston's doing some interesting stuff here.

New Universal 3- I'm not a fan of the "decompression" trend in comics lately. If I'm paying $3.00 a book, I don't want to have to buy three issues of a comic to get the amount of story I used to get in a single $.75 comic. We're three issues in, and I feel as though I'm only through 22 pages of story here. The art is lavish, beautiful, worth every penny goodness, but I feel as though I've bought at least one issue more than I needed to. I swing from Ellis' nuts big time so I'll keep buying it, but damn, get on with it.

Wolfskin , Black Gas 2, Desolation Jones - I'd like to give impressions of these, but they don't seem to be coming out regularly. Is someones plate a little too full maybe??!

I don't think of myself as a big superhero fan, but there is so much good stuff coming out these days I guess I have to admit that I am.

[bloodyarts]

Civil War is over.
Captain America fucking rules.

That is all. For now.

[bloodyarts]

Daredevil 93- Very tight scripts with interesting story lines and twists all over the place, I'd say [Brubaker's] stuff rivals the best of Frank Miller.

Wouldn't go quite that far, but yeah, this is the best it's been since... Bendis. But before that, was about 15 years of meh.

Jack of Fables 7- I really like this series thus far, but I find Tony Akins art a bit...flat. I would like to see someone else drawing it, but the script is so fun [snip]

Agreed.

Thunderbolts 110,111- The book is off to a great start and I hope this is a long term thing for Ellis and not just another six issues and out deal.

Now, see... I want to like this book, but the idea is so over the top ridiculous, only someone of Ellis' talent could pull it off, and he better fucking do it, because so far, a team of murderous psycopaths run by the biggest nutjob in all of Marvel, is not really cause for celebration, to me. Seeing Songbird slip back into the role of villain just because Osborn knows about her affair with Zemo is not reason enough to go along with the program. Venom, just... no. Since when does he EAT people? Swordsman's ordeal with Purple Man is over. I thought he was also seeking redemption? His little spaz attack at the end served no purpose whatsoever. Radioactive Man and Penance don't really interest me in the slightest, but I will ask, does Robbie have some kind of new powers now that he's Penance? What happened to the kinetic field he had?

I'm along for the ride solely because I love Bullseye, but he needs to see more action. Obviously, this team, like the other Thunderbolts before it, are finite, but this is the first time that I am actively looking forward to this book coming to an end.

Moon Knight 7- As I stated previously, I followed the original Moon Knight for Sienkewicz's art, never was a fan of a majority of Moench's script though. Here I get great art and writing. WOO HOO!

Great writing? Where?? I dropped this book after that Taskmaster fiasco. I've never seen a character job so hard for the benefit of making the comeback hero look KEEEWWWL. Bah!

New Universal 3- We're three issues in, and I feel as though I'm only through 22 pages of story here. The art is lavish, beautiful, worth every penny goodness, but I feel as though I've bought at least one issue more than I needed to. I swing from Ellis' nuts big time so I'll keep buying it, but damn, get on with it.

Note to self: Read this after it's been collected.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

might have to break trend and go back to the LCS tomorrow...
Without spoiling, did the final issue make Civil War worth it?

[bloodyarts]

Without spoiling, did the final issue make Civil War worth it?

I don't want to mislead, so I'll just say of the many ways this could've ended, this was the most... amicable.

Just remember that Captain America is a man who lives by his word, and did what had to be done.