I SUCK

To the few the proud and the geeky (no, not the junior woodchuck campers):

I'm out of the game. Some time in January, I'm sure I'll bust a "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" but for now, happy trails. I just don't have the time in December to keep up with this. It's all I can do to READ all the books I enjoy right now, forget reviewing them all.

Walking Dead, Volume 4: Thumbs WAY up. Man this is good. Great. The best!

Anecdote: I walked into a comic shop in Arizona while visiting my parents over the weekend, as I like to check out new (to me) shops wherever I go. They had all their recent books on shelves alphabetically, with multiple months on top of each other. The week's new books were put on top of the title's previous issues, and a "New This Week" marker indicated the week's (you guessed it) new books. Well, having checked the NCRL, I knew to get new issues of She-Hulk, Ex Machina, and some others. They were sold out of She-Hulk (thumbs way up, by the way). Fine, sold out I understand. But when I got home and read my Ex Machina, it felt very familiar.... because it was last month's book! They had sold out of the new one, and not bothered to take down the "New This Week" marker. This is just a dumb way to run a store. New books should be put in their own shelf area, for one thing. And if you don't do that then you HAVE to take down the "New This Week" marker when you sell out! Argh. If I was in town longer, I'd have gone back to the store and gotten a refund (ok, an exchange). Instead, I'm just left to ponder how poorly run this store is. Sigh.

Gobble Gobble

Just quick post about some things I read on the plane ride to Arizona. Mostly I've been catching up on Smallville episodes, but I found time for a couple of tidbits:

Local #1: Thumbs up. But this isn't super heros, it may not be your cup of tea. It's slice of life, but it's got conflict and believability. This issue was told in a kinda Rashamon style, with the main character imagining how something will end multiple times in her head. It's good. It felt real. And I loved how the art changed with each re-imagining. Same artist, but slight tweaks to the characters that were felt prominently when we saw how events actually unfolded. Thanks, Brian Wood. Good stuff.

Hellblazer #213: Meh, but a good meh. If I followed the character more (I read the Azzarello run, but have sparcely read any other issues) I would find this issue really really fascinating. Still, even without being well versed in John Constantine's world, it was still a very interesting issue. Solid stuff, I just am not familiar enough with the character and his overall story to fully appreciate it.

That's it! Now back to the turkey!

Love to Eat Turkey then I take a Nap

Happy Thanksgiving kids, time for me to slink away to visit the retired people in Arizona. Woo hoo! They do have internet access there, but they also have sports on TV and some male bonding expectations. Buff em up, buff em up, go CU. I'm rambling without comic reviews, aren't I? Let's fix that:

New Excalibur #1: Thumbs down, but it's not terrible. Meaning maybe you should give it a flip through at the store and see what your first impression is. Mine was that the story of the first issue was somewhat silly, but once the status quo is set up, this could be a fun series. Dazzler is killed by some original X-Men clones. A few hours later, Cap Brit brings her back with some CPR. (sigh). My medical knowledge is limited to television and the First Aid merit badge, but even I know that's past the credibility point. And the idea that Cyclops would send a full X-Team to England to see how Brian is doing? Apparantly the phones were mutants who lost their powers during M-Day. I could go on with more silliness, but you get the point. All too convenient just to get the team together.

Captain Universe/ X-23 #1: Thumbs down. "Hey, we need a mutant for our Captain Universe crossover. How about Wolverine? Nah, too overused. Hey, we need to promote X-23 more, use her! Yes sir. Oh, and throw the new Scorpion in, too. Uh... Yes Sir." Street characters with cosmic powers just don't work. This was forced and it felt like it.

Batman & The Monster Men #1: Meh. I wanted to like it, because Mage and Grendel are just two of the best things to ever happen on paper. But I didn't. There's plenty of story for your dollar, which is always good. Batman is written well, straight out of Batman: Year One. But this Hugo Strange story just didn't work for me. And it's a Batman vs. Hugo Strange story, and when one of those two just feels... disconnected from the overall story, I just don't get sucked in. Look, thumbs up for me means I get lost in the issue and don't notice earthquakes going on around me. This issue? I noticed grass growing around me.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #197: Thumbs down. Wow, I've been pretty negative all day, haven't I? Sorry about that, I calls em like I sees em. I love Weston's art. And I like nearly every Pfeifer story I've read. But this one lost me in the first 5 pages when I had to flip back and forth trying to decide if this was an elseworld story or not. Not good. After that it was solid enough, but I kept wondering where am I?

Toodle oo, people. I'll be back with more reviews of books I like next week. I can't believe the Mets traded Darryl Strawberry. Sorry Adam Sandler.

Bring the Noise, Bring the Funk

Bring the best you got. Not the best, just the best I got right now here in front of me.

Mutopia X #5 (of 5): Thumbs up. Nicely ties out the Mutant X and the Mutopia X series. As David Hine says in his farewell, these were the stories of officer Ortega and his family. And with the events of M-Day (is that really what they're calling it? geez), his story is over. Very good issue, brings closure to both series. And does it well.

X-Men #177: Thumbs down. Where do I begin? Two weeks after M-Day, Polaris is without powers, but in denial about it. That's fine, I understand that. But no one else around her has noticed? Didn't they do some kind of powers role call after the big depowering? Emma, you pick up on any of Lorna's angst at all? And the way the some of the characters just throw themselves at the Sentinels without thinking... just poorly done. And why do Cyclops and Havok never attack? The two heaviest hitters, who have nothing to fear shooting up robots? I have no problem with the revamped sentinel program, but the X-Men's reaction was poor. And actually, couldn't Val have just called the mansion and said "I'm coming over with some sentinels, don't weird out about it." Just illogical all the way throughout the issue.

Green Lantern #5: Meh. It was a good enough story, easy to follow no matter how new you are to the new GL series. But GL could have been any hero and this would have worked. It wasn't a GL issue, just a generic hero issue. And that's bad. So thumbs up on the well written story + thumbs down on being able to plug in any hero + meh. I like the Van Scriver art, though.

Action #833: Thumbs up. Fun story, clean art from Byrne (though Jimmy looks 10 years old). Done in one, and it wasn'c Crisis related. An issue you could give to any one and they could follow it and appreciate it for a solid Superman story, that stands on its own.

Rocketo #3: Okay, so I've heard tons of great things about this series, so I pick up this issue, the first I can find, #3.... and meh is the best I can give it. Honestly, I want to give it a thumbs down, but will reserve that opinion, since I haven't read the first 2 issues. Though issue 3 didn't make me feel like I have to read issues 1 and/or 2. The art style was pretty, and something new, definately something you should check out. But the story? Average. Fun, but trying to be fun, instead of just being fun. I see the appeal, but I just missed connecting with this book.

X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1: Meh. Rough week. And the X-books are all letting me down. This first issue was a setup with a mysterious adversary from the team's past. But we knew all that before we even picked up the issue. Next issue maybe we'll learn something interesting, but this issue pretty much just put the ads and the articles we've already seen in comic book form. It's like when you see a movie preview and feel like you already saw the whole movie. That's what happened here, too. Pretty art, but frustrating read.

Stand back, kids, this is harder than it looks

Seriously, it's getting hard to keep track. What books have I read, what books have I spoiled at comicspoilers, what books have I reviewed here, what weeks did they come out, blah blah BLAH BLAH. Makes me wonder if I should just do one book per entry and alphabetize em all. But that sounds like work, and I do enough of that during the day.

Books of Magick: Life During Wartime #15 (final issue): Meh. I really wanted to like this series, I really did. But I just couldnt. It was too.... Vertigo-ey? Which is weird for me to say, cause most of my favorite books on the stands are Vertigo books. But this whole series was just too screwy. Too hard to follow. Too disconnected from past Tim stories. Though this issue was fairly coherent and gave good closure to this chapter of his life, which gets a hearty thank you from me.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4: Thumbs down. I'm not a hardcore turtle fan, though I do like some of the original Eastman and Laird issues. I thought the Erik Larsen series strayed too far from the suspension of disbelief that the previous stories allowed, and this current series does the same. Don is a robot. Raph is a monster. Leo works for/inside the Foot. Mike is in a prison world somewhere. And Splinter is, of course, missing. And the art was crap, too.

Ultimate Spider-Man #86: Thumbs up? I was ready for a new story, and this is one. But it's to be a 6-issue arc, so we'll have to wait and see how it shapes up. Good first issue, though, Silver Sable makes her Ultimate debut, and Omega Red gets his ultimate butt handed to him by our hero. Ultimate Vision Part 1: Meh. Hard to feel strongly one way or the other over so few pages. Vision reassembles and is in female form. That's it.

Firestorm #19: Thumbs up. Easy to follow, fun to read, solid art. He goes into space, has his best friend in his head.

This is rushed, I gotta... "go to bed." More to come!

And I can do anything

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 60% Spider-Man 60% Iron Man 60% Green Lantern 55% Supergirl 53% Robin 48% Catwoman 45% The Flash 40% Wonder Woman 38% Hulk 30% Batman 15%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

%20HREF="

A Quick Note about "The Other"

From good friend Scott, he of the Scott Supplements:

""Jumped the shark"? Jesus, where do I start with what's so completely terrible about this issue?

With great power comes great responsibility. I personally can't think of anything more responsible than slapping some antiquated Iron Man armor on a senior citizen and dragging her into Doctor Doom's sure-to-be-dangerous-as-hell castle. To use "the only operational time machine known to man," even though Reed Richards has made - what - like twenty time sleds? Gee, if only Spidey knew the FF, he wouldn't have had to place his wife and aged Aunt in mortal danger. And it's all so they can go NOT SPEAK TO OR BE SEEN BY THEIR DEAD LOVED ONES WHICH SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA TO ME AND NOT AT ALL COMPLETELY HEARTBREAKING. And they're there for all of two seconds before Peter breaks down and has hisself a good cry. "Wait! Don't Leave! I need you! [If you stay, nobody dies!]" Which is, of course, the first thing comes to mind for any man who's had decades to come terms with the traumatic deaths of his parents: childish denial.

reprinted without permission. good thing neither he nor I work at law firms.