Avengers vs X-Men launch party at Comix Revolution

There are keggers, there are mic nights and there are concerts.

For the rest of us, there's the Avengers vs X-Men launch party! I attended the one at Comix Revolution, and here's how it went!

Above photo: Comix Revolution had cake and comics. Is there no better combination?

The cake was made in the cover of AvX #1. I had Cyclops' shoulder.

Here are the variant covers: the one on the left is the Jim Cheung fold-out, to the right of that is the Ryan Stegman variant, and the two up front are the John Romita Jr. ones.

Above: The party was well-attended, and Joe the cashier put up a stream of the Fox Kids X-Men cartoon. Comix Revolution is officially on Team X-Men, but didn't qualify for much more of the swag.

But cake!

Above: nerrrrrrds.

I got myself a copy of Avengers vs X-Men #1. Review to follow, on Friday.

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Trades for today: The Flash and the Punisher

And a happy April to you too! It's a quick one-two trade review today, in order to settle myself in to regular content. Hint: Neither of these books are from the library; I purchased them myself, and I tend to warp my opinions to justify my purchase. Let's see if those opinions follow the rigor of a blog post.

The Punisher Max Comics Volume 6
by Gregg Hurwitz et al.
(Amazon, bargain: $16.00, regular: $29.29)
Collecting PUNISHER #61-65, PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX #66-74, PUNISHER: FORCE OF NATURE and PUNISHER MAX SPECIAL: LITTLE BLACK BOOK

I purchased this volume about two weeks ago, sight unseen from Amazon's big ol' bargain bin. The Punisher's team-up with Spidey in Amazing #577 made me curious enough to check out this huge hardcover. As of this writing, there's 8 copies left of the bargain edition: that's $16.00 for 424 pages! That's five stories spread out over two one-shots, 1 4-parter and 2 5-parters. Since different teams took over different stories, I examine them one by one:

1. #'s 61-65: "Girls in White Dresses" I picked up the hardcover as an introduction to The Punisher, and this one doesn't work so well as an introduction. Frank gets caught up in a Mexican village, whose women are victimized by a local drug dealer, and doles out some punishment. There's a big twist mid-way that turns the traditional Punisher story on its head -- which is strong only if you've read a good amount of them (I haven't, yet).
2. #'s 66-70: "Six Hours to Kill" What a great idea! Frank Castle has six hours to kill these two criminals, a lawyer and mayor from Philadelphia, or else he won't get the antidote. What follows is a bloody path through the city working up to these guys, but, it's still not entirely clear what the lawyer did wrong. The ride is surely exciting, but the end might require a few more re-readings to completely understand.
3. "Force of Nature:" This one's a great introduction to the Punisher. He creates an elaborate trap to break three low-level low-lifes that have a BIG job with Russian criminals, and it works out to a "T."
4. #'s 71-74: "Welcome to the Bayou" Here's an offbeat Frank story, where Frank meets a hillbilly shack/gas station in the middle of Louisiana. Goran Parlov draws an outrageous yet grim Frank, and it's a great ride from first issue to fourth.
5. "Little Black Book:" No kidding, you guys. Frank hooks up with a hooker to get her black book, to kill a dude. That is how far gone he is: everything he does is for killing now. It's a great story, with great deaths and great character work.

Overall, this hardcover works as an introduction to Frank, more or less. I took a risk with this HC ($16 risk!), and I'm glad I did.

Also, hey Weekly Crisis's Ryan K. Lindsay, you got quoted on the backcover of the slipcase. Props.


The Flash: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues
by Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

This collects the first seven issues of the 2010 reboot of The Flash, starring Barry Allen, before the 2011 reboot of The Flash, starring Barry Allen. I'm generally a fan of the latter, so that convinced me to buy a hardcover of the former: and I don't regret it a single bit. Geoff Johns knows how to write a Flash story, cramming an amazing Flash feat into each issue, and Francis Manapul knows how to draw it. What results is a solid murder mystery. . . where The Flash is the accused! It's loud, it's exciting and it's a great story. Here are some scans:

In the very first issue, Flash -- the monarch of motion! -- tries to catch Trickster in a car, which ends up hurtling off a highway in construction, towards a father and son:

Do you see that?? Click on it and super-size the image. Flash disassembles that s**t in mid-air and saves them. Amazing. I can't tell you how many times I've reread this, just to look at these amazing spreads.

Near one of the final issues, The Flash -- the crimson comet! The sultan of speed! -- vibrates through the Top from the future and defeats him. It's insane.

One more from the first issue: when the Renegades from the 25th century return to their time, they create this "time-ripple" that ages the apartment building across the street:

The Flash runs on the building's steps before they decay in order to save each and every occupant from their building. It's. Amazing!

Comics!

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March photo a day: Where you relax

Thanks for joining me on my very last entry for March Photo a Day! I hope you enjoyed the posts, and I hope you'll cherish them, because that's the most regularly I will ever have posted here on chezkevin. The final photo today will be "where you relax."

I've taken a photo, instead of a comic scan, of my dorm room wall, which I think depicts a lot of the things that make me relax. Together, they create a place. . . of. . . relaxation. . .? Here's a bulletpoint run-down of each item, from top-left to bottom-right:

• That big poster up there is DC's "Drawing the line at $2.99" ad from a 2010 edition of Comic Shop News. None of the heroes have their nu52 costumes, and Wonder Woman has that weird costume from when Straczynski was writing her.
• 42nd St Playbill cover: I attended my University's premiere musical show in the winter, and I enjoyed it enough to post on my wall. TO the right of that is a Chicago Bulls poster, of Carlos Boozer taking on Lebron James to the hoop. This was during their 2010 playoffs hubbub, and was courtesy of the Chicago Tribune.
• There are four comic book covers to the right of that: A beautiful variant cover of Wolverine: Origins from Mark Texeira, a Web of Spider-Mancover by Gabrielle Dell'Otto, a Secret Avengers cover from John Cassady and a Captain America cover by Steve McNiven.
• Last row now: These two beside each other are ads for the Nintendo franchise, Metroid and the Capcom franchise, Resident Evil. I'm fond of both video games.
• To the right of these are two problems I solved for my classes, and three comic book covers. The middle paper solves a problem on stochastic processes, and the paper in the lower-right corner is the derivation for the electric field due to a loop of charge. There's an Usagi Yojimbo cover from last year, a Batman #1 and a Wonder Woman #1 that's actually signed by Brian Azzarello himself. He came to Comix Revolution on the day it released, so I got a copy for myself, for him to sign.

 That does it for my little wall. It makes me happy to look at, and it makes me happy to type about, because each picture reminds me of a specific time in my life. I'm going to fill in some space with the new American Vampire storyline that just concluded, so I'm going to be eviscerating even more of my comic book issues.

Any comments? Anything to share of your own? Drop a line here.

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chezkevin's coasters: a visual history

Best of March 2012: Ultimate Spider-Man and friends

Hey party people. For those of you who missed it, Marvel shipped out previews for their Ultimate Spider-Man Premiere comic this week (this is the comic adaptation of the upcoming cartoon on Disney XD this Sunday). This is the full first issue: if your shop didn't get ahold of this, you can still obtain a free digital copy from comiXology (mine didn't). The link is here. 

There's no credit for the art, so I'm assuming it's all screencaps from the first episode. Even so, it all works together, and I chuckled at a lot of the site gags in the comic. I don't have cable, and I don't intend on watching cable, but I hope this cartoon takes off.

Now for this month's highlights!

American Vampire #25

by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque

This is a good horror moment that continues to explain Travis Kidd's hatred of vampires. Put within the context of the comic (a high-octane fight between Travis and Skinner, the American Vampire), it's out-of-place and muddles the comic's tone.

 AvX #0

by Bendis, Aaron, Cho and Keith

Is there nothing more terrifying than a dinosaur's head on a rocket? Is America -- nay, the world, ready for rocket rex?

Check out the way M.O.D.O.K.'s legs frame the page. That huge leg in the middle tells you to read the left panels, before moving onto the right. Do you see that hint of a leg in the lower right corner? The white background of the webpage obscures it, but when you're holding it in real-life, it mimics the crease of the page, inviting you to turn it. Holy shit, Frank, that's amazing. It's a perfect visual story on these two pages.

Daredevil #10

by Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera

I think Daredevil was phenomenal this month. I'm a little miffed that the Buy Pile doesn't agree with me, but, I genuinely feel that every page is worth showing to you. Since copyright laws, here are two clips about mortality:

Really heavy stuff. Matt's escape scene from the giant cave monster is detailed in the previews as well: the full three pages are nothing short of brilliant, visually and word-ually. Check it out for yourself.

The Flash #7

by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

The Flash seems to be fighting an uphill battle, since every time he uses his powers, he runs the risk of opening up a wormhole, which Iris West finds herself in. And, everyone in Central City blames him for the power blackout. The Flash is getting an unusual amount of bad PR, so here's to hoping that it gets better.

After the conclusion of Capt. Cold's storyline, there's about 6 or so pages of checking in on random people, from Gorilla Grodd to Director Singh and Patty Spivot. It's the weakest part of the issue. What the creative team needs to do is, to focus on a story and tell it. Organize your thoughts.

The New Deadwardians #1

by Dan Abnett and I.N.H. Culbard

When it comes to zombies, you're going to be killing a lot of them, so the more creative the better. Here's one example from the (six-page!) preview for The New Deadwardians. I liked it enough to pick up the issue, and I think you should give it a try too.

What follows are the highlights for a few comics, that I haven't gotten around to talking about yet. I'll get to them next week if I haven't collapsed in a pile of my own mucus (I'm sick by the way).

The Secret History of D.B. Cooper #1

by Brian Churilla

I dig that this was 22 story pages, with no ads. I dig that this is coming from the work of one guy. I dig the secret-agent-that-assassinates-monsters-in-the-dreamworld-and-kills-their-people-counterpart-in-reality vibe. What I don't dig is that this was $3.99, without much to justify it. I picked this up on Don MacPherson's recommendation, but I won't continue it, unless in collected edition down the road.

Thief of Thieves #2

by Kirkman, Martinbrough and Spencer

A very flashback-heavy issue, with a killer final page. Redmond isn't a complete character to me yet, but he's getting there, and I'm interested in reading more. Tell me a story guys.

Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-Man #8

by Bendis and Pichelli

What a great pose! Spider-Man's been around for 40+ years, I've been reading him for about 10, and let me tell you that I've never seen a panel like this. Keep it coming.

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