My family is out of town on vacation, so I am home alone with a very large stack of comics to get caught up on. So, I decided to share my thoughts with you.
Punk Rock Jesus #1
I was going to do a long in depth review on this, but I have too much I want to get to. Maybe I will when the whole thing is done. I loved this book. Now, I am a Vertigo guy. I like the odd and different. Give me something new and I’m happy. This books delivers in that regard. When it was in Previews, I didn’t give it a whole lot of attention. I couldn’t even tell you what the solicit said. I just ordered a few, half of my DMZ and Fables numbers. When it came in, the title made me pick it up. I do like Sean Murphy’s art (Joe the Barbarian, Off Road). I went into it knowing nothing but the title. Wow, what a start. The issue starts with an Irish family sitting down for dinner. Then their house is attacked. In the aftermath, the young boy is taken away on his father’s motorcycle. Next panel, a very grown up big tough looking guy sitting on the same motorcycle. He is now the head of security for a firm that does high concept science. They cloned Polar Bears to keep them from going extinct (and the head scientist keeps one as a pet). They want to to some super algae, but to fund this, they are doing another cloning. This time they are taking DNA from the shroud of Turin and cloning Jesus. They have a virgin whom they are planting the egg in. Fast forward to the birth and of course there is a complication.
Now, the kid from the beginning doesn’t have a big role in this other than doing security, but the way the book started, you know that he is going to be front and center once this really gets going. There really is a lot to like here. An interesting plot and lots of characters that have some teeth. Not cookie cutter people. The book is black and white, which really goes perfectly with Murphy’s scratchy style of art. Its not messy, but its not neat and clean either. One benefit of the black and white is that there are no ads. Its 32 pages of story for $2.99. A good deal in the age of the $3.99 20 page book.
If you are looking for something different, I recommend giving this one a shot. #2 comes out next week and it will a be a top of the pile read for me.
Justice League Dark #11
Finally this book is what I had hoped for when it began. Constantine and his group facing off against the mystical. Magic powers, cool totems (Merlin’s staff), deception, Constantine’s plan not working out quite right. If you jumped off this, I recommend picking up the last few issues that Jeff Lemire did. Its really cooking now.
X-Factor #241:
I was trying to figure out why I was not loving the X-Books lately (or a lot of books for that matter). Then I read X-Factor #241. Last week I got caught up on the last 4 issues (double shipping gets me very far behind quickly). So much went on in the last few issues and this issue bringsi t all together. This is part of what I miss in comics. It may be a by-product of writing for the graphic novel. The last 6 or so issues won’t really work as a trade unless you’ve been reading them all along. But that’s actually good. Peter David has a lot of plots going along. He touches on different ones as he chooses. This does say part one, so it may be a big arc (involving Strong Guy leaving the team and getting into what we can assume will be trouble). But its fun reading and its addressing the search for Rahne’s baby, Madrox’s dimension jumping, the Mojo attack in Seattle, Layla’s adventure last issue and more plots than I remember. Nothing is settled, but each are touched on. Kind of like what Claremont used to do on X-Men. I miss that. I was thinking that that’s what I wish Spider-Man would be again. Bring up something and then address it 6 months later. But it seems that more and more books are being as short stories rather than long ongoing novels.
If you’re not reading X-Factor, you are really missing a well crafted story about character that you would otherwise have no interest in. My favorite being the characters ripping on Havok because his costume make it look like he stepped out of Tron.
I, Vampire #11:
I was excited for this series originally because Josh Fialkov was writing it. The art is fantastically moddy and fits it to a tee. They just added Clayton Crain (Ghost Rider, X-Force) covers to make it a total package. Its about as far from sparkly Vampire that you could find. Vampires vs Zombie Mummies. Really good stuff.
Hawkeye #1:
I had no faith in this book. I didn’t order a lot (about half Secret Avengers and double what his mini series were selling). I kind of missed the boat on it. It is really good. I will have more in a few weeks.
Fraction’s star has dimmed since Fear Itself. Both Thor and Iron Man numbers keep dropping for me. But this one is quite good. It took everything that Daredevil is doing right. Amazing David Aja art (not a surprise there). A nice little one shot story. Good on character, a little light on real plot, but it sets stuff up for the series.
Action Comics #9:
I am going to try to get caught up on all of these, but this was kind of a one shot, so I decided to get to it first.
This a Superman from another reality fighting his own Lex Luthor (will they ever get along anywhere?). It turns out Luthor has created a Transmatter Sonic Array which connects to other dimensions. And shortly after this Superman discovers it, some travelers from another dimension arrive. It is essentially a one shot. Our Superman doesn’t show up in the books at all (even the back up story is Earth-23 Superman), but its one of those books that I’m sure will pop up later, either in Action or in Morrison’s Multiversity. I enjoy Morrison when he’s being Morrison. And he has fun with this. Interesting discussion of super-human ethics with the Earth-23 Justice League. I really enjoyed this and am looking froward to getting caught up on Action.
Secret Avengers #29:
This book is picking up pretty much right where it left off before the AvX cross-over. A plot thread from the 2nd story arc in Uncanny X-Force continues where the heroes need to stop Father from doing bad things. It does finally tie back to the Brubaker stuff with John Steele and the Serpent Crown. Its still good, but my concern is that people have waled away because of the interruption. I just looked up the sales numbers to see how this was doing and I was a bit shocked at what I saw:
Issue 21.1: sold 28 (1st Remender issue)
22: 26
23: 22
24: 18
25: 16
AvX tie ins
29: 11
Yikes. That’s a very dramatic drop. Come back! The book is pretty good!
Amazing Spider-Man #690:
I am not liking anything about this Lizard storyline. It reads like Slott was told to do a Lizards story to tie in with the movie. The first one was fine, but the last 2 seem based solely on stupidity. The Lizard has just been injected with something designed by Horizon labs to turn him back to being human. So they take him back to the lab, show him his child (who he ate and they dug up and were experimenting on!), leave him alone (he was just the Lizard right before this – not the next day or anything – like an hour has passed). He makes Morbius freak out and Spider-Man chases him. While Spidey is chasing Morbius, the Lizard has time to synthesize a new formula and get the head of Horizon to go in the lab with him with no security! Did I mention he was the Lizard an hour ago? So something bad happens. He then leaves the lab with a satchel (Officer Carlie Cooper is apparently not overly concerned) and then he visits each other scientist individually and they work to help him counter the effect of the formula they designed to stop him. What? They initiate a lock down, but it is so slow that Spidey who is outside (finally returning from fighting Morbius, (whom he stopped with webbing – might have tried that earlier) has time to get into before the steel gates shut. For Slott, who usually seems so clever, this is just sloppy and disappointing.
X-Treme X-Men #1:
When I saw this, I was not excited. A book spinning out of a delayed storyline in the lowest selling X-book (Astonishing). Where did the demand for this come from? Its basically Exiles without Psylocke. But, I want to try to be fairer to Marvel than I have been and at least give it a shot (I never finished the storyline in Astonishing). It stars alternate reality Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Emma Frost. Then they throw in our Dazzler and a Professor X head. But given all of that, I really enjoyed it. Reality jumping to stop evil Professor Xs that they accidentally created saving a world. Who ever thought Dazzler would be kinda cool?
World’s Finest #4:
Dear DC. Fix the logo. People keep telling me they missed it on the rack.
Other than that, this book is fun. Kevin Maguire killed it on the flashback part. Nothing real deep here, but a fun read with 2 characters I never really thought about a whole lot. A good start and I’m interested to see where this is going to go now that it wrapped up its first arc.
Dial H #4:
While I understand that this is not for everyone, this book is right up my alley. Vertigo-ish, sci-fi. A dial that makes you a hero (but the hero’s is broken). A bad guy who is a nullomancer who uses the power of nothing. Yup, this is not a normal book. The art is just odd enough to let you know that this is not a normal book. I don’t know what all is going on, but I am enjoying the ride.
Earth 2 #4:
Solomon Grundy is powered up and looking for the Jade Knight. Flash still has no idea what he’s doing. Who is Hawkgirl? Enter The Atom. And its not what you think. Lots here to keep you interested.
Avengers #28:
Holy cow! A book that makes me care about Red Hulk. Its a Red Hulk solo issue mostly, but very well done. What he is doing and why he’s doing it from his point of view. Lesson #1: don’t make Red Hulk mad. Looming forward to the next issue to see Red Hulk smash X-Men.