We’ll be seeing a lot of Halloweeners walking around dressed up as our favourite comic book characters on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY Wednesday. How appropriate. Penny and I will be handing out mini comics at our house.
Don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour this weekend. You don’t want to be an hour early for church on Sunday when you can sleep in even more.
It was a drizzly weekend here in Ottawa, which gave me a chance to whittle my backlog of unread comics down a bit. I went on a comic book reading binge on Sunday and caught up with some titles.
A-Babies vs. X-Babies One Shot - This too cute, mildly amusing story is by W-Skottie Young and As-Gurihiru. It's rated “I” for immature.
National Comics: Madame X One Shot - The National Comics One Shots have been quite entertaining and this one is no exception. W-Rob Williams and A-Trevor Hairsine has the Tarot cards reading mystic working for a law firm in New Orleans. This murder mystery involves Voodoo and zombies and the last page left me wanting more.
Ghost #1 - The woman in white sets off to solve the mystery of her identity. I like the two bozos that brought her into our reality.
Wolverine Max #1 - This is the kind of Wolverine story that I like best. W-Jason Starr and As-Roland Boschi and Connor Willumsen introduce the Max U Logan and Victor Creed. There's none of those silly super hero costumes, just a couple of guys with a healing factor. Take away the swearing and this would still be a good Max book.
Fables #122 - Huzzah, W-Bill Willingham teams up with A-Gene "Top Ten" Ha on a new two-parter called "The Destiny Game" starring Bigby Wolf. It looks like a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood but this girl is green.
Revival #4 - I love the cover for this issue. It shows a scene that is actually in this issue. It’s very alluring but also deceiving.
Punisher War Zone #1 - This 5-issue mini continues directly from Punisher #16. W-Greg Rucka and A-Carmine Di Giandomenico give the Avengers a crack at bringing Frank into custody. I think this is going to be good.
Talon #1 - I'm finding that comic books with a lot more reading in them to be more satisfying. Ws-Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV and A-Gillem March pack a lot of dialogue and story into this book and it all makes sense. Oh, except for Calvin sliding down the smoke stack without a rope. Did he think he was Santa Claus? Calvin's mission is clear now. He's going to be an ingrown Talon to hurt the Court of Owls with the help of a rich old coot named Sebastian Clark. That's enough to keep me reading.
Hero Worship #4 - I think I'm one of only two fans in Ottawa that reads this comic book. I hope other stores are selling this because I would hate to see this cancelled before the end of the story.
AVX Consequences #3 - Oh ho, Marvel has bamboozled me into reading an X-Men comic book. I used to be a devoted fan but I got tired of all the drama. There have been some good X-Men stories since I stopped reading the regular titles but I've stopped reading X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Uncanny X-Force, X-Men Legacy, X-Treme X-men (although Helen says it grows on you), Astonishing X-Men, New Mutants, Wolverine and last but not least First X-Men, on a regular basis. I still read X-Factor because W-Peter David kills me. I also read Wolverine and the X-Men because I love the art. W-Kieron Gillen does such a good job here chronicling Scott's incarceration and sneaking in the lives of other X-Men that I want to start reading all those X-books again.
Amazing Spider-Man #696 - Ws-Dan Slott and Christos Gage came up with a very clever way of keeping Spider-Man’s secret identity a secret. I love the two Hobgoblins fighting each other. I'm rooting for the old guy.
All Star Western #13 - I can see why some kids are afraid of clowns. If you're going to say that there are "a multitude of stab wounds", bloody well show a multitude of stab wounds. There's not a mark on the priest. I hate it when the art doesn't match. This book is rated T+, who are you going to offend?
The Shadow #6 - Nowhere in this issue is a busty woman wearing silk stockings and lingerie holding a luger. It's just what A-Howard Chaykin drew for his cover. W-Garth Ennis brought to light some of the atrocities that the Japanese army perpetrated on the Chinese during their occupation of that country. Did it justify the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? War and innocent lives lost are inevitabilities. It gives one pause as we approach Remembrance Day.
Avengers #32 - The identity of the mystery damsel in distress is revealed. I didn't figure it out until W-Brian Bendis spelled it out for me. I've noticed that someone says "agh!" in every Bendis book. They sure are pandering to the movie fans with the rescue crew consisting of Cap, Iron Man and Thor. I'm surprised Hawkeye didn't go.
Saucer Country #4 to #8 - W-Paul Cornell and A-Ryan Kelly's mix of politics and alien abduction is a quirky story. It's done well enough to make me keep reading but not so well that I can recommend it to a lot of fans. Issue #8 ends with a shocker that made me decide that I want to keep reading.
Invincible Iron Man #511 to #527 - I don't know if I'm going to like the new Marvel Now Iron Man by W-Kieron Gillen and A-Greg Land that's coming out in November but I really liked reading these last 17 issues of W-Matt Fraction and A-Salvador Larroca's run. I loved the cool technology that they brought to this long battle with the Mandarin. The story resolved itself to my satisfaction and I am anxious to see what Fraction and Larocca do next.
Justice League Dark #4 to #13 - This non-team grew on me with every successive issue. W-Peter Milligan's run to issue #8 was weird, I never really got Shade the Changing Man, but when W-Jeff Lemire took over with issue #9 and Shade left, I found I was enjoying the crazy stuff going on. I got excited when the Houses of Mystery and Secrets were introduced and even more excited when the Books of Magic popped up. Seeing Timothy Hunter again was a thrill. I might make this a first string title from now on.
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