What I Read This Week

These are a little stale, since obviously I was too busy being in Belize last Wednesday to make it to the LCS.  But these are the last comics I have read, so nyah.

Batman And The Outsiders #11 -- Tieri takes over for Chuck Dixon and everything falls apart.  A big, jumbled mess of complaining and angst which drops the ball pretty handily.  Oy.

Flash #244 -- Alan Burnett and Paco Diaz tackle the first post-"Fast Money" Wally West story and it's pretty good.  What is the cost of curing Iris and Jai for their father?  Enjoyable Flash story, but one has to wonder what this means for the character of Wally West.  

Tiny Titans #8 -- It's report card time at Sidekick Elementary, and we get some insight into everyone's best subjects.  Plus, Beast Boy gets caught up in his reading at the library.  And is it any surprise that Robin is scared of clowns?  Adorable as always.

Guardians Of The Galaxy #5 -- More distrust and suspicion running rampant on Knowhere as the Guardians are being cut off at the knees while trusted comrades seem to be behaving not-quite-like-themselves.  The entire "Secret Invasion" fiasco holds little interest for me but this story has been using the Skrull motif in a very compelling manner.  Top-notch stuff.

Iron Man #33 -- Or, War Machine: The Prologue.  In the wake of Tony Stark's technology being conveniently disabled during Secret Invasion, it's up to Jim Rhodes and Suzi Endo (whoa... Force Works flashback!) to save the world.  Very 90s (the Chen artwork does a lot to add to that impression) and over the top, this is a fast read, the very opposite of what this title has been since the Knaufs took over after Ellis.  Still, for a War Machine title that's just fine with me.  Gage really likes Rhodey and that shows.  If this is what we can expect from the ongoing than I will be happy.  

Marvel Apes #2 -- The hairiest Marvel event ever takes a bizarre, and yet still awesome, hard left turn here as the big secret behing the Apevengers is revealed, and it ain't pretty.  Kesel and Bachs' series about intelligent apes in capes might have started out as a "cocktail party joke" but it has really captured my interest as a legitimate alternate reality tale.  Very much wondering where this goes from here!  

glamourpuss #3 -- Gone Missin'.  At least, it was as of the 17th, since my shop didn't get it in their shipment.  Should hopefully be there by now.

The Pick Of The Pile was Marvel Apes, which has crossed a threshold into the absurd the likes of which cannot be easily topped.  For what it's worth, Batman And The Outsiders was one of the worst DC comics I have read in a long time.  Yikes.

So what did YOU read last week?

Hiatus Next Week

Well, my wife and I are celebrating our anniversary by getting on a really large boat and sailing around.  That's right, we're going on a cruise!  So I will be off the grid for the next week or so, which means no updates until the 29th at the earliest.  Thanks for your patience, everyone!  

What Looks Good?

Another week halfway done, another reason to be happy.  

Batman And The Outsiders #11 -- Let the post-Dixon era begin!  Long live the Tieri-era!

Flash #244 -- Is this the end of Wally West as we know him?  Only Geoff Johns knows for sure.

Tiny Titans #8 -- The cuteness... it's unstoppable!

Guardians Of The Galaxy #5 -- One of the two good things about Secret Invasion.  The other one is Nova.

Iron Man #33 -- Starring War Machine, as this title gets set to be relaunched as such.  I wonder if my sub is going to automatically switch?

Marvel Apes #2 -- Picked up the first issue on a whim, and really dug it... this is one Marvel event I am excited about!

glamourpuss #3 -- Anything that isn't "The Eighties!"

So, what looks good to YOU?

Fair Trade -- Essential Captain America v.1

I picked this up at HeroesCon back in June, and, in honor of Rick's new Captain America blog, Let's Rap With Cap, I figured that now would be a good time to talk about the Living Legend of World War Two and his Silver Age adventures.

The vast majority of the stories presented here (Tales of Suspense #59-99, and Captain America #100-102) are written by Stan Lee (of course) and drawn by Cap's co-creator Jack Kirby.  While the pairing of Lee and Kirby on Fantastic Four is the stuff of legend, their work on Captain America is rarely talked about in similar tones.  Maybe it's because it's not an unbroken run (there are a couple of spots where Jack needs a fill-in), or maybe it's because these Cap stories in ToS were 10-pagers instead of full length.  But whatever the reason, it's not really fair, because this volume contains some absolutely masterful Silver Age heroics.

The series takes the fact that Cap is a man out of time and really plays that up as a strength.  Stories vary between Cap busting up commies or gangsters in the present day, and busting Nazis with Bucky in WW2, both of which play well as straight action while also giving the team a chance to flex their creative muscles and play with the setting.  In the early 60s, the war was not so far in the past as to be dim in the minds of readers, and America's fascination with WW2 was in full swing, so if nothing else this was a smart move on Stan and Jack's part.

The art is pure Kirby, with bombastic battles and insane technology, both on the side of good with SHIELD and the forces of evil .  Jack plays to his own strengths with lots of brawling fights, with Cap springing between opponents like a pinball and laying punks out with punches which look painful some 40+ years after they were drawn.  And Lee holds up his end of the bargain as well.  Even though each ToS segment is only ten pages, Lee writes feature length tales and just breaks them into chapters; where the ToS Iron Man strip is often just a short, Captain America is epic each and every time.  And the cast of characters which surround Cap are strong -- the mysterious and beautiful Agent 13, the gruff SHIELD Man Nick Fury, the diabolical scientists known as AIM, and the utterly evil Red Skull all have the chance to share the spotlight.

As one of the original Marvel Essentials, this is an excellent choice for someone just getting started reading the Silver Age or wanting to learn more about Captain America and his history.  As the first large chunk of solo Captain America I ever read, I must say I was impressed, and walked away with a new interest in the character.  So this volume is definitely recommended.

What I Read This Week

Dead, She Said #3 -- Our undead gumshoe gets a little help from a medical examiner ex-girlfriend, then heads out to figure out what tore apart his mark last issue.  Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson's noir horror-detective story wraps up here, in a mostly satisfying manner.  We don't learn why Coogan is a walking, talking corpse, and the whole giant ant thing is only kinda-sorta addrssed, but it's a good ending to a good story, with the potential for more to come.  Wrightson's art alone is worth the cost of admission, with rain-soaked streets and gruesome gore juxtaposed nicely.

The Pick Of The Pile seems a bit silly this week, yes?

So what did YOU read this week?

What Looks Good?

No matter what gets you down, we all know that the local comic shop has the cure for what ails ya.  Cmon.  You know I'm right.

Dead, She Said #3 -- It's not uncommon for your noir detective to end up dead.  It is uncommon for him to be dead at the beginning of the story!

Whew, only one book this week.  After last week, that is a heck of a relief!

So what looks good to YOU?

Blogiversary

I checked my post count last night, and I am now over the 300 mark!  I know I am amazed.  In honor of that, I am posting the cover of one of my personal favorite #300 issues (in fact, this may be the only one I own as a single...), Iron Man #300.  Back in 2005, when I seriously decided to obtain a full run of Iron Man, I actually managed to find this issue for 80 cents on the very first day of back issue buying.  Now, my copy is the newsstand version, so it lacks the shiny foil cover seen here, but none the less, this was one of my favorites from that batch, and remains one of the best anniversary issues of any comic I have ever collected.

Hopefully most of these 300 or so posts have been worthwhile, and hopefully I can push out 300 more.  So ,thanks go out to to all of you who have stuck with this blog through the highs and lows (mostly lows), offering feedback and inspiration.  You know who you are!