The Cipher 05/26/10
May 26th, 2010 by david brothers | Tags: cipher, reviewsJust an experiment, maybe an ongoing thing if you like it.
What’d you buy and read today? Any books we should be looking out for? Any surprises? Let’s talk about this week’s books, or even books you’ve read recently that aren’t from this week. The comment box is yours. Have at it.
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I bought Return of Bruce Wayne, Amazing Spider-Man, Generation Lost, Thunderbolts, and Green Lantern Corps. Batman, ASM, and Thunderbolts were as rad as I expected, but I was pretty surprised by how great Thunderbolts was. Definitely sticking with this for a while.
Generation Lost was good, but this week’s artist was extremely fugly.
Billy Batson and the Magic Of Shazam. Mike Norton is doing some great work on this comic.
Courtesy of the Riverside County Library, I finally read Truth: Red, White & Black (or as it’s now called in its 2009 Premier Hardcover cash-in-on-Brubaker re-release, Captain America: Truth), and it was fascinating, of course. The main thing is that I can’t really figure out even the internal chronology of the damn thing (Morales admits in the appendix that it ended up being in-cont unity even though that wasn’t the idea originally).
I also read one of the McDuffie JLA volumes which was terrible, although it was mildly hilarious to see the Black Bomber for about a page or so (the rest of the alt-uni stuff was completely squandered).
I know I’ve plugged it before, but PS238 is totally worth picking up. And they’ve even got past issues posted online so you can get a free taste before you decide whether you want to buy: http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ps238/comics/index.php?date=2001-11-29
Actually came out last week, but Atomic Robo. Whole series has been fantastic,but the latest issue was the best.
Thor: Because it finished up the Ragnarok thread that’s been hanging around since Civil War, then later showed up in The Initiative. But the issues I’ve read of the series involving him haven’t really had anything else for me to consider sticking around after this one.
Thunderbolts: One of the series that I glanced at in the shop this week to consider picking up, and the only one of them I actually purchased. So it did well enough that I’ll at least be willing to give it an arc or so to see if it can hold my interest.
Secret Warriors: More or less what I expected, though it really didn’t do a lot to stand out this week. Maybe it was just the art, since there was a decent amount of action that took place.
Ultimate Enemy: For whatever flaws he has while writing stuff for 616, I can’t argue at all with what Bendis is doing over in the Ultimate Universe. Even if this now-concluded miniseries is only the first part of a larger set of mini-series, I still get the feeling that Bendis’ Ultimate Enemy/Mystery/whatever-comes-next is what Ultimatum SHOULD have been. I wouldn’t be surprised that this very well could have been the case (and both this series and the Ultimate Universe would both be better for it) had Marvel not been so stupid as to hand the job to Loeb instead.
Thanos Imperative Ignition: It’s a setup book for the main series, and for all intents and purposes might as well be Thanos Imperative #1. You know, if they hadn’t put in a re-print of an old fight between Thanos and Drax that serves no purpose that I know of. Lots of stuff gets set up, the Cancerverse begins it’s invasion (and we learn that the Evil Avengers are known as “The Revengers”), Thanos gets free, and everything is put in place to make me eager for the real event to get started.
Fantastic Four #579 was definitely the highlight of my week. Reed’s speech at the beginning simply blew me away. It really feels like Hickman’s personal beliefs, as it reminds me of the notes he had in the back of the Nightly News TPB. I thought any issues drawn by Edwards instead of Eaglesham were going to be steps down, but this one blew me away.
Picked up Brave and the Bold #34 because it had a team-up of Doom Patrol and Legion of Super-Heroes. It’s supposed to be a two-parter, and unless it’s a joke, or the second part goes totally crazy, it will have the worst second part ever. Everything was totally wrapped up in this one. I have a feeling I’m missing something. Anyone care to enlighten me?
ASM 632 had a great start. I’m a sucker for when Spidey goes into “No more jokes” mode.
I thought the Thunderbolts issue was ok, until it got to Man Thing, when it became totally awesome.
Aaron has a great handle on Spider-man over in Wolverine: Weapon X. He angers the Thing in an honestly funny way.
I need to reread Return of Bruce Wayne a few times. Generally liked it, though I didn’t like how Irving seemed to always have people’s face covered or in shade. It made some moments really confusing since so many of the characters are very similarly dressed and didn’t have very distinct faces.
I have to agree with Space that Secret Warriors didn’t really stand out. I really wish Caselli had been able to finish the arc.
Picking up Bruce Wayne tomorrow. Will read that and more of the Essential Luke Cage: Power Man that I picked up recently.
These. Though I almost grabbed the new Brubaker Avengers. But the price on it made me decide to trade wait…
Shoot, I totally missed that the first part of the next Cosmic Thing came out this week…
This week was 2x GL books, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-man, and The Return of Bruce Wayne. The GL books were the worst for the week, and they still felt decent (though something of a drop in quality, I think, from Blackest Night). Shed is a wonderful story, and I picked the right time to jump into ASM.
Now, Fantastic Four, it blew me away. I’d been getting constant vibes of “good” when I read FF, and this week, especially with Reed’s speech, just amazed me.
And then there’s RoBW. Where Morrison continues to outdo himself with everything he writes.
ASm has been pretty good even with it starting off on sweaty iguana sex
Fantastic Four is too, with the four kingdoms storyline
Amazing Spider-Man, part 3 of Shed, was fantastic. Appropriately dark writing from Wells, the art from Bachalo and Rios was great throughout, and Spidey asking “Is it safe?” was pretty scary. This is one of the all-time best arcs since OMD.
Unknown Soldier 20 had a weird art screwup (printing guides left on the art on a page), but had a good story and looks like it’s going to lead into some answers about Moses. Dysart and Ponticelli are doing a good job, and I’ll be sad to see them go.
Thunderbolts– it’s Jeff Parker’s world, and we just live in it. Longer review coming soon.
The only book I got this week was Sons of Liberty, about escaped slaves turned revolutionary-era superheroes. It’s drawn really damn well by my good friend Steve Walker.
quick thoughts:
JL: Generation Lost – is much better than I expected it to be, Maxwell Lord is coming along as a just a complete bastard of a villain.
GL books – probably at the best they’ve been in a quite a while.
Thanos Imperative: Ignition – The reveal of who the leader of the Cancerverse is is wonderfully ironic.
Tbolts – Luke Cage is THE BOSS. Did not see the ending coming
War of the Superman – Ending was a bit of a downer, basically a return to status quo. I do like Cafu’s art though.
Power Girl — Conner and Palmiotti/Gray go out with a fun issue that’s a romp through their whole too-brief run. This is comics, but too few people making comics seem to know it.
Wonder Woman — Gail Simone’s run ends. It seems a little truncated, but it’s not a story that should’ve gone any longer. Nice finish to hastily sum up her feelings on this underserved iconic character. I dread JMS.
Madame Xanadu — Great art, and Matt Wagner doing a Vertigo book with a DCU feel, in this case set in the 1950s with J’onn J’onzz in a not-quite named supporting role. Fun book. Did I say great art? Amy Reeder rocks, and is goin’ places.