Live from the Internet, it's Saturday Night Comics!

Continuing this week's comics!

Although I know most people only read the blogosphere during the weeks, I'd like to get these guys done before the next week, so let's get to it!

Amazing Spider-Man #561
by Dan Slott and Marcos Martin

I'm sure most everyone's made their opinion on this arc already who cares. I've been following for the past two issues, and as a vaguely devoted Spidey fan, I thought I should give my own opinion.

It's a tight plot; it's very well-paced; it makes some nods to the devoted fans; it's funny, but most importantly, it respects the characters.

Enter: Peter Parker choosing his personal morals over wealth and fame!

Yay morals!

That memory card contained photos of celebrity Bobby Carr with his mystery girl. Selling those photos would have brought more media grief to Bobby, but Peter chose to respect his privacy! While I don't like that PEter was doing it in the first place, I'm glad that Slott brought this up only as a plot point and an obstacle for Peter to overcome.

Here comes the delicious plot twist.

That "mystery girl" turns out to be MJ. In effect, Peter never gets to find out that she's in New York! This is the kind of writing that really gets at me; even when you do the right thing, you don't always come out on top.

It's gonna take some time for the two to find each other, but I think it's inevitable. I'll probably hang around only for Slott's arcs though, because 10 dollars a month is simply too much continuously.



Nova #14
by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Wellinton Alves

Note that the artist is Wellinton, no "g" in there. No "g"! You have no idea how many people get that wrong.

But we're talking about the comic today, so let's get on point here. Gosh, guys.

Here, Nova confronts the Devourer of Worlds himself, Galactus, and he faces his herald along the way. This opens the way for some great characterization of both Nova and Worldmind as foils of each other, one being survival-oriented and the other compassionate instead. An interesting thing here is how the Silver Surfer is treated. He's seen a few different approaches, from Stan's melancholic version (<--my favorite) to Englehart's cosmic-worldly person. Abnett and Lanning get to who he is, though, as a noble and compassionate man who still must obey his master. This is some strong characterization for a cameo appearance, and what any Surfer fan would want.

The interaction between Worldmind and Nova is sharp as always, and as the last Nova Centurion, we should be very glad that he has someone to talk with.

The only complaint I have is that the beginning fight between Nova and the Surfer takes up a good half of the issue, and that half is only made up of splash pages or three panels per page. Talk about decompression!

stuff I DIDN'T get this week

Ahoy-hoy guys. It's me, your friendly neighborhood comics blogger.

Normally, I just go through comics as I get them, but I thought today I'd do something different. Instead of continuing with reviews, I thought we could actually talk about stuff I didn't get. It gives me a chance to look at everything I'm missing out, and hopefully a chance for you to tell me about something I'm missing out on! So let's get jiggy with it:


-Oh hey the third issue of Secret Invasion was out today. I'm always meh about event comics, because, by their nature, they're big and over-arching. I prefer the details. Hopefully, people are enjoying Secret Invasion.

Handily enough, I caught a glimpse at the checklist, and you'll notice that the tie-ins increase by month!

A little psychology lesson for you: this is what you call the foot-in-the-door phenomenon. It's pretty much a strategy for getting people to do what you want. Take, for example, I want you to get me a box of ice-cool clark bars from the refrigerator, except the fridge is too far right? So I ask you to, for example, to get me the pen that's right next to you. Then I ask for the pad that's a few steps from you, and so on. . .

. . . I skimmed through issue three, and lemme tell you this much: Leinil Francis Yu draws a kick-ass Venom.


-And I suppose I should make a comment on Final Crisis as well. I skimmed through the first issue and found that I had no idea who most of the people were. It's not very reader-friendly, although I did note the red skies, which were a nod to the red skies in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I hope readers enjoy Final Crisis, and it helps bring DC out of the rut it's currently in.

-I was skimming the indy shelves and saw that Madame Mirage #6 came out.

One question: WHEN DID ISSUE FIVE COME OUT???? All I remember is some campy-style writing that ran counter to the futuristic noir setting, lots of big boobs, and then -- nothing! A big fat hiatus.

Needless to say, I didn't pick it up, but I'll always wonder.


-Note to self: I should get Vertigo's First Cuts before it runs out. Six issues for 5 dollars; there's really no way that that's a loss.


-Some big hitters for Marvel include the first issue of Ultimate Origins, which is supposed to give us the origins of the Ultimate Universe. I'd like to check it out, but it seems as if I can just get the story from word-of-mouth on the blogosphere.


- I also figure I can get by word-of-mouth what's going on with the apparently well-received first issue of Trinity, by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley.

I have to say, I'm really impressed that the first issue is 3 bucks, because I usually see DC selling its first issues for 3.50 or the like.


-A big book that had critical acclaim but never made it through commercially is the Manhunter series, which was cancelled and apparently brought back, this week, with issue 31!

Which makes me sad, because good writing should equate good sales =(.

-And hey, check out this free Atomic Robo contest that blogger Kirk Warren is setting up. Get over here, answer some questions about Atomic Robo and you'll be in the sweepstakes for a free and signed Atomic Robo trade!

Atomic Robo is a fun adventure comic with roots in history. It features Nicola Tesla's ass-kickin' robot Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne!


-You know, doing this little segment just reminded me how poor I am, because if I weren't, all of these would just be on the review block.

So what do you think? Any of the stuff here you're particularly fond of? Am I missing out on something great?

I'd be much obliged if you could answer a question, or heck: go wild and answer two! Bwahahahaha!

Regardless, feel free to leave a comment, and if you're shy, you can always choose "Anonymous"

Serials for 6-04-08: Detective Comics #845 and Supergirl #30

What a Wednesday! Lots of stuff to read, so let's be fair and alphabetical. Let's take a review at the DC books first, which for me are Detective Comics #845 and Supergirl #30.

Detective Comics #845

by Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen

The finished cover is gorgeous and has a cat-like figure plus a little blurb saying "She's back!" Yes, that's referring to Catwoman, back from the Hell Planet, but that's a big mislead right there. Catwoman gets about only 2.7 pages time in the issue, but at least she spends those pages being awesome:

But the real story here revolves around a new serial killer in Gotham, and unfortunately, the payoff of the mystery is kind of lazy and underwhelming. Not exactly a stellar issue in the writing, but Nguyen's pencils are still sleek and exquisite. And hey, we get Bruce Wayne munchin' on a sandwich while reading a message board!

Ahhh, what a guy. What a hero.

Supergirl #30

by Will Pfeifer and Ron Randall

Whoawhoawhoa slow down here, DC! I took a look at the credits up top and you totally changed them! Your solicits told me that it'd be by Kelley Puckett and Drew Johnson, not Pfeifer and Randall here! What is going on?

And this isn't the first time either! Remember when you said Cliff Chiang was doing the art for Green Arrow/Black Canary #7, but then when I got it, Mike Norton was all up in my face???

I don't know who to trust anymore! I thought we were friends solicits! Why do you hate me solicits???

Oh, about the issue.

I don't know where to place it in continuity. Is this after Supergirl found out that Timmy's dead? If that's the case, why aren't we shown any kind of reconciliation to that thread?

Instead, we get a story about Supergirl revisiting her past. Sounds kinda needless if you ask me, but it resolves a thread from Puckett's very first arc: she uses the portal from that arc to see the remains of Krypton. This feels contrite, because didn't we get this already? I think Kara visited Krypton already before. . .

. . . well, I went through my longbox, and I didn't find it anywhere. Unless I've missed it, this is just a case of the story feeling done before. Which isn't a good thing either!

I feel like DC made a mistake by putting this issue out. It's actually nice, in characterizing Kara against Livewire, but it feels done-before, trite and needless. And look at this half-page!

Two mistakes right there: "sacraficing" is spelled wrong, and Kara's tears are brown for some reason.

Hopefully, next issue turns it around, but for now, I'm disappointed. Hopefully, this down time can actually make some provisions so that Drew Johnson can actually pencil a full 22 pages?

(just so you guys don't think I hate Will Pfeifer, feel free to check out some of his work on Catwoman. It's fun comics!)

We're actually not going to continue reviews next post, but something experimental. I'll guess you'll have to stay tuned!

more Fables love

You may have noticed the way I've been going through each Fables trade. Here's a moment from the first, in which Prince Charming is great in the sack, and the second, in which Snow White sets a barn on fire.

Those sound worse when you type them out.

Regardless, today we continue pimping out Fables, because honestly, when fandom is in constant complaint over who writer X has brought back in book Y or how artist X just anglicized character Z, they could spend their time reading comics that are awesome instead.

I'm sure you have those books that you regularly hate to read, but for some reason --maybe out of habit, or brand loyalty, or a delusion that the writing will get better-- read them faithfully. That's exactly how I am with Judd Winick on Green Arrow/Black Canary, but instead of wasting our money, maybe we could read something better instead.

So here, we have Bigby Wolf (The Big Bad Wolf!), who is the sheriff of Fabletown, and Snow White (Snow White!), who's the deputy mayor. Bigby kind of has a crush on Snow White, and here, in volume 3: Storybook Love, their relationship grows, as both of them find themselves in the forest with no memory of how they got there. . .

The writing's still coy, but after the entire ordeal, Snow gets softer around Bigby. You can read the trades if you wanna find out more. . .

. . . and any good local library should have volume one: Legends in Exile at the very least. Plan a trip today, folks!

lightspeed serials

Lots of things to worry about, so we're gonna finish the week with some short-esque reviews!

Don't worry; they're all awesome and my ridiculously thorough reviews wouldn't have done them justice anyways.

Fables #73
by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham

Boy Blue's the narrator for this issue as the Fable community makes their move on the Adversary. That's right; they're finally waging to reclaim the Homeland!

We go through how everyone's a part of the war, from Snow's underground coordinating to Boy Blue's messenging, to Prince Charming and Captain Sinbad's aerial assault. The Fables have human technology on their side, so the Adversary et al. are pretty much overwhelmed, except there's a small foreshadowing segment about sending every dragon to the air but one.

A very thorough issue that sets up the three-issue storyarc in which the Fables are totally gonna win the war.

Ultimate Spider-Man #122
by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen

If you're not reading this, you're really missing out on some good Peter-Parker-as-a-teenager. I really mean this. Like, two great stand-alone issue just came out, and you'd be remiss if you mised them.

The only gripe I have here is that the Shocker talks very thug-like when he's pretty much a scientist who's created all that technology. Also, this could have been a nice issue reconciling Kitty's and MJ's animosity, but the issue revolved more around the Shocker.

The art by Immonen is so expressive and clear and perfect for this book. Brian catches the perfect tone as well between Peter Parker the teenager, Peter Parker the goofball, Peter Parker the boyfriend and Peter Parker the superhero.

It's a damn shame that Amazing is selling better.