The enticing $1 "What's Next" series from DC is an exemplary promotional tool that got me into The Walking Dead series. A single dollar investment that led to a frantic search for the collected editions and gave me a new series to get excited about. It's a simple rule; You advertise a good product, people will line up for the real deal. What follows are my own mini-promotions, the working elements that bought my interest as a reader and have me awaiting the AMC series with great expectations, all spoiler-free.
Spoiler Alert! The full post contains some spoilery discussion of events in the film itself!
Rubber Justice suggested last week that we both see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World this weekend then produce a joint review of it. We've both read a portion of the Scott Pilgrim comic book but neither of us has read the whole thing. I thought this sounded like a grand idea and yesterday we hashed out our thoughts.
The short version? We both liked it and we both kind of didn't. It's interesting, because this book is obviously extremely popular but everyone I know has roughly the same set of heavily mixed reactions to it and that's before anyone gets into discussing the character of Wallace. The process of translating a comic into a film doesn't usually do anything to improve the iffy bits, either. All this added up to what I think are a really interesting range of responses to the film.
Read on for Rubber Justice's and Klarion's thoughts on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World!
I haven't gotten as far as reading #3 of this comic - released last week - but over the weekend I did read issues #1 and #2. As a huge fan of the cartoon a decade ago I was very excited to see the resumption, brief though it be, of Terry McGinnis' career as the Batman of the Future. Unfortunately, so far this comic seems to be more about Bruce Wayne's past than Terry's future. It's an entertaining book, yes, but it isn't exactly what I'd hoped it would be.
Read on for more thoughts (and send me an email at klarion at pink kryptonite dot net if you want in on the American Vampire giveaway)!
(Don't forget that if you want in on the random drawing for one of three sweet American Vampire giveaways, courtesy of Scott Snyder, you need to send me an email at klarion at pink kryptonite dot net!)
I was completely unaware this comic existed but my comics shop slipped it into my bag as it's a tie-in with The Return of Bruce Wayne. I've come to like the idea of the character of Booster Gold, though, and despite knowing next to nothing about Rip Hunter I figure that with a name like that he must have a drag queen sidekick around somewhere so I was an easy sale.
I turned out to enjoy this comic book for the most part. As soon as it stopped being explicitly about the hunt for Bruce Wayne, though, I couldn't care less.
I am a huge Grant Morrison fan and a huge fan of anything Batman-related so I have really enjoyed The Return of Bruce Wayne so far. I was particularly looking forward to this issue since it involves a crossover with DC's main supernatural dude, Jonah Hex.
It turned out to be kind of a dud issue, though. Somehow it never really came together for me and despite great art and a plot containing many elements that mesh well with my personal tastes I couldn't get it up to do anything more than shrug when I set it aside.
The last few weeks have seen a bunch of issues of normally great or new but promising comics drop - Return of Bruce Wayne, Time Masters: Vanishing Point and Batman Beyond. Of all the comics in my neglected-due-to-work-obligations bag, however, the best by far is X-Factor #207.
I am something of a Peter David fanboy, and I love the cast of this book, but this issue is a step up from their usual excellent quality, with some really top-notch writing and a serious art upgrade - and most welcome hottie-on-hottie makeouts.
Read on for more thoughts on a fantastic issue of a fantastic book!
Last weekend my boyfriend hit a newly opened secondhand store nearby in search of buried treasure. While there he found an unexpected handful of extremely random comic books including one he knew I would love, 1994's Batman Annual #18. It's an enjoyably terrible book that amicably wedges itself - not unlike a clumsy puppy - between the two major Batman storylines of the moment: Batman & Robin and The Return of Bruce Wayne.
It does so by crossing a Batman-as-out-of-place-artifact story with that of a "third-party" Batman, a person whose own life experience mirrors Bruce Wayne's well enough that he also winds up a vigilante. There's a lot about it that's compelling but the completely over-the-top presentation and the story's thoughtless blotting out of a bit of queer history steal the show in the end.
I've gone on the record as an enthusiast for DC's animated DVD releases. Most of the times, they're a great platform for synthesizing various strands of continuity to give the audience a unique superhero tale that can be both fan-pleasing and entertaining for those less emotionally involved. It should be a bonus, then, that Judd Winick wrote the "Under the Red Hood" movie, given his previous and ongoing work with the resurrection of Jason Todd. What we get with this movie is an oddly disfigured retelling of his death and rebirth, paying more attention to the dynamic between characters, namely Jason, Batman, and the Joker, that will entertain most but certainly not all of its viewers.
This week brought another issue of what remains my favorite new comic of 2010, American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque. This is a really solid issue and one in which both Snyder's and King's stories achieve narrative fulfillment in the best of all possible ways: they let you appreciate the close of their current respective arcs and entice you into wanting to know what happens next.
Read on for more abject praise and a bit of navel-gazing about why I'm so glad Scott Snyder is the new pick to write Detective Comics!
Rubber Justice tweeted a couple of weeks ago that the dialogue for Batman & Robin #13 is brilliant and honestly I'm not sure there's a better word for it. This issue sports amazing writing, some moments that made me pause and admire the precision with which Morrison has assembled this story and at least a couple of gasps of surprise. Throw in some really beautiful art and... yeah. It's really, really good.
Two or three months ago I had posited that issue #13 would have to bring some major cycle to a close, or otherwise contain some significant conclusion and possibly a new beginning. At the time I thought it would all have to do with a major symbolic break in the identities involved: Bruce Wayne would return or Dick Grayson would relinquish the identity of Batman or something like that. I was wrong about the details but right in a general sense in that this issue - when viewed through some of the mystical lenses favored by Morrison himself - would mark the completion of a cycle of some sort, perhaps one of initiation. This issue does that and it manages to do so in the middle of a classic Batman form so engaging that the reader barely even notices.
Oh, my heavens, another load of great comics landed last week and I'm still working my way through them. The first one out of the stack and into my hands, however, was the next installment of Grant Morrison's fantastic Return of Bruce Wayne. I have really enjoyed every issue of this book and issue #3 - continuing Grant Morrison's dual love letters, one to Batman and one to nostalgia for classic adventure stories - earns the same affection.
After two extremely light weeks, in terms of my personal subscriptions, I picked up the trade paperback collection of Criminal volume five: The Sinners. I think it's probably pretty clear that I like Ed Brubaker - I like him a lot - but most of what I get to read from him these days is superhero comics. They're comics I enjoy, make no mistake, but while I was waiting for last week's bounty of good comics to arrive I took great pleasure in being able to immerse myself in Ed Brubaker's very finest style: the absolute darkest of noir.
The whole genre of noir is and always has been difficult to define. One of the best descriptions I've read, however, ran something like this: an anti-hero, a code of honor, a doomed love, a betrayal and no good endings. That fits most of the self-identified examples of film noir I've seen and it is practically a script synopsis for The Sinners. It is delicious. There is no other way to say it.
Review: Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1
I literally clapped my hands together and said OhMyGodYesssss when the friendly staff member at my regular shop held this book out to hand it to me. Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung finally - finally - return to this title with a nine issue limited series. I will spare you paragraphs of pontification and cut to the chase: it's not just good, it's the best thing Marvel has going, period. Read on for the pontification and petty quibbles!...
