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Sunday, June 06, 2004
This Weeks Comics
Uncanny X-Men #445 by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis, published by Marvel Comics:
No, no, I'm sorry, but Claremont doesn't get to use Alan Moore characters, even the bad ones. That needs to be a rule, I think. And why do the X-Men even bother keeping Sage around, when every single villain they run across is able to mind-control her.
Alpha Flight #4 by Scott Lobdell and Clayton Henry, published by Marvel Comics:
Is there a point to this book? Is anything happening? Other than to renew the copyright, why is Marvel even publishing this?
Ultimate Spider-Man #60 by Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley, published by Marvel Comics:
This entire issue is a prologue to the next storyline. Carnage isn't even in the damn thing except for the cover. And as I've said before, if you removed all the little tricks Bendis is fond of for padding out stories, this issue would be about half as long as it actually is.
Ultimate Fantastic Four #6 by Brian Bendis, Mark Millar and Adam Kubert, published by Marvel Comics:
The whole enterprise feels rather anti-climatic and pointless. And, took about twice as long to tell as it probably should have. God forbid Marvel publish anything that won't fit into a 124 page trade paper-back. Does their printer give them some kind of discount for using that particular page count? Is that why every single damn thing published by Marvel lately has to be written in six issue arcs?
Rich Johnston's Holed Up #2 by Rich Johnston and Gonzalo Martinez, published by Avatar:
Should have been a one-shot. What was kind of humorous in the first issue is just one-note and tired in two. By three the concept will probably have worn out it's welcome alltogether.
Misery A Go Go by Mark Crnolatas, Douglas Paszkiewicz and Randy Crider, published by AAA Milwaukee Publishing:
Comics seem to be experiencing a vogue in "sick" humor comics. This isn't as good as Deep Fried or Prison Funnies, nor does it have the manic energy of Battle Pope, but at least it's not as bad as the inexplicably praised Angry Youth Comix, a book that offends me not for it's sophmoric attempts to be shocking but because it just isn't funny. This book is just sort of ok, on a par with the publishers other products.
Scratch by Sam Kieth, published by DC:
There are two kinds of Sam Kieth fans. The first eagerly look forward to any new work he puts out, digging on his utterly unique vision and style. The second come into the store, say their big Kieth fans, and when I show them his newest work look at me with an expression of abject confusion and say: "Wolverine isn't in this? Never-mind." I dug this a lot. And putting werewolves in a book is a great way to get me to at least check it out (werewolves and penguins...if any publisher out there ever does a book about werewolves and penguins it's going to be real hard for me to not like it).
Batman Adventues Vols. 1 & 2 by Various, published by DC:
I bought these mostly out of curiosity. I like Batman, but I generally don't care for the monthly books. Pete got to read these first and he loved them. I was maybe a little less enthusiastic, but this are still quite enjoyable. There's a lot less moral ambiguity to the characters when they're done in this style, and the personalities are more sharply defined. It's almost the Platonic ideal of "The Batman" or "The Joker" or "Two-Face", not the muddled-by-sixty-years-of-continuity versions you get in the DCU.
Also purchased: Hard Time #5, Y: The Last Man #23, Swamp Thing #4 and Girl Genius #11, all of which are good, but I have difficulty thinking of anything more critical or discerning to say about them.
And it's not a comic but I picked it up as well, Video Watchdog #108, which continues it's look at the career of French horror/fantasy film-maker Georges Franju with an interview with the man himself, as well as good reviews of new DVD releases of some of Roman Polanski's and Dario Argento's older films. Polanski is hit-or-miss with me, and I'm still not sure if The Tenant is a brilliant chronicle of one man's descent into madness or just a muddled mess. And Argento, ah, he can do no wrong...except for that horribly ill-conceived version of Phantom of the Opera with Julian Sands. We'll just pretend that film never happened.
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