What Did You Read? 4/5/2006

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

I read MOON KNIGHT #1. Had to laugh at one of the funniest typos in a lettering job that I've seen in a while:

"I never told him that a priest doesn't change the color of his investments to suit himself."

If money is a religion, then that makes a lot of sense.

I flipped through ESSENTIAL X-MEN Volume 7 tonight. Gorgeous black and white art from Alan Davis and -- timely enough for Pipeline readers -- Art Adams. I thought Adams' work from the time would be difficult to make out without color. Not so. I'm pleasantly surprised.

I also realized something: Art Adams is to superhero comics as Don Rosa is to Duck books.

-Augie

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

I pulled Dan Slott's THING tonight.

Well, I still have issues #4-5 to read, but the first three are fun. Not as strong as SHE-HULK, but crazy and madcap in its own right.

Again, I'm not going into more detail because I don't know what I'm going to use for the column next week yet. . .

-Augie

[torippu]

I pulled Dan Slott's THING tonight.

Well, I still have issues #4-5 to read, but the first three are fun. Not as strong as SHE-HULK, but crazy and madcap in its own right.

Again, I'm not going into more detail because I don't know what I'm going to use for the column next week yet. . .

-Augie
Yay!! Good for you. While I liked the first three issues, I think things all came together for me with issue #4. It's where I went from liking the series to REALLY liking the series. It's got to be my absolute favorite issue of the past year.

Trip

[torippu]

Here's what I have been reading this week:

Teen Titans #30 ~ 32, Annual #1, #33 ~ 34 - Read in this order. I'm still of the opinion that this book has been treading water with a lot of filler since Mike McKone left after the Dr. Light storyline. This is part of the reason why I dropped the book at the beginning of the year. In the end, I decided that I was going to give the OYL issue a shot and didn't want to have a 5 issue gap in my collection so I picked up most of these books a couple of weeks ago. After reading these last 5+ issues, I had a sneaking suspicion that SB was going to bite it during IC. The art from Tony Daniel is improving with the addition of Kevin Conrad on inks. I could do without the computer geeks on the team (unless they got some heretofore unseen powers), but overall enjoyed the OYL jump and am intrigued to see where is goes from here. Looks like TT is going back on my pull list.

Infinite Crisis #6 - and the series races towards it conclusion and this was my favorite issue so far! Finally, some action! It's a shame that if/when we look back on this series in 5~10 years time that we won't be able to refer to it as a Johns & Jimenez masterpiece (depending on your opinion of DC books at this time), but as a Johns & Jimenez/Perez/Ordway/Reis/other pencilers that I forgot to list work. I would have thought that with all the time DC spent planning IC, they would have had enough lead time for Phil Jimenez to get whole issues under his belt before soliciting. Wow - do I sound like a whiny fanboy or what? Guess I just couldn't see Marvel putting multiple pencilers on their big projects like House of M or Civil War.

Green Lantern #10 - this may displace Catwoman as my favorite OYL jump. Enough action & intrigue (Hal Jordan a POW for a year?) to make me want to pick up the next issue. Nice art from Ivan Reis - loved the opening splash with GL & the Red Rockets.

Blue Beetle #1 - I find it interesting that while all DC books are jumping ahead one year, this one seems to take place shortly during/after IC. Strong art from Cully Hamner. I've even starting to like the costume. I'm going to stick around for a couple more issues before determining if this is going to a long-term read.

Now that I've got my DC books out of the way, it's time to get to the recent issues of Captain America & New Avengers in my reading pile.

Trip

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Yay!! Good for you. While I liked the first three issues, I think things all came together for me with issue #4. It's where I went from liking the series to REALLY liking the series. It's got to be my absolute favorite issue of the past year.

Good call. Read #4 and #5 this weekend. Those two issues are ten times better than the first three, which were fairly light-hearted fun. Slott really created Thing's character in issue #4, and it was great. It reminded me a bit of the work I noticed Peter David doing when I first started reading comics in the early 90s. After showing a character behaving in such a way for a few issues, there'd be the big revelation in which we understand WHY the character acts that way, AND the character realizes it. Very interesting.

-Augie

[dancj]

For me in the last week it's been:

Ultimates vol 2 book 1 - Great stuff. I love this book and don't care how slow it is.
The Red Seas: Under the Banner of King Death - Dissappointing Pirates of the Carribean bandwagon jumper from Ian Edgington and Steve Yeowell. Two creators I normally like, but this didn't do it for me.
JLA - Secret Origins - Every bit as rubbish as the Superman and Wonderwoman books. I don't know why I keep trying these Dini/Ross oversized jobbies.
Tomorrow Stories Book 2 (bathroom book) - Greyshirt and Jack B Quick still stand out as the best strips. There were a couple of decent First American stories too, but for the most part, this is Alan Moore at his very weakest.
Gravity vol 1 - Big City Superhero - This was a little dissapointing. Not bad, but it didn't have the spark that it needed to lift it above the crowd
Blankets - Very good and very personal. I was a bit nervous after really not liking Goodbye Chunky Rice, but I needn't have worried

[UniqueFrequency]

Batman: War Games - Act 1

just picked this up at the library. i've read lots of bad stuff about it from the boards, so i didn't want to buy it

so far, it's been pretty decent. i really liked the Bat-team's work at Tim's school. the bit about Spoiler and Matches Malone didn't work for me, neither did Batman being caught in the open.

however i always like watching the Bat-family working together, so this was fun

[pmpknface]

I read Samaurai Executioner Vol's 6-8. Very cool! With these chapters you start to get more of an ongoing storyline. Looking forward to getting through the next 2 vol's I have and then moving onto finishing Battle Royale and starting Lady Snowblood.

I also need to finish Sea of Red vol 2.

[Maukingbird]

I could do without the computer geeks on the team (unless they got some heretofore unseen powers), but overall enjoyed the OYL jump and am intrigued to see where is goes from here. Looks like TT is going back on my pull list.

But it's Wendy and Marvin from the Superfriends cartoon!!! :P

No talking Wonderdog, though. ;)

[torippu]

But it's Wendy and Marvin from the Superfriends cartoon!!! :P

No talking Wonderdog, though. ;)
As in the form of an elephant and form of a bucket of water Wonder Twins? If so, then that's about all I know about them. Still thought they were stupid back then. With Geoff Johns writing, why do I have this feeling I'll be eating crow in a couple of issues when I end up calling them the coolest characters in the book?

[Maukingbird]

As in the form of an elephant and form of a bucket of water Wonder Twins? If so, then that's about all I know about them.

No, no... Marvin and Wendy came BEFORE the Wonder Twins. Marvin and Wendy had NO superpowers and no given reason for their even hanging out with the Superfriends other than for comic releif and viewer association (even though I think everyone hated them). They had a dog. The Wonder Twins had a space monkey named Gleek and have previously appeared in-continuity in Young Justice towards the end of it's run.

Marvin and Wendy haven't been in-continuity as far as I'm aware, outside of appearing in the Superfriends comic series way back when.

[dancj]

Batman: War Games - Act 1
...
so far, it's been pretty decent.

War Games is fine. Much better than you'd think considering all of the backlash. It was a bit padded out though. The trades are quite good value, but I'd probably view it in a harsher light if I'd paid for all of the individual issues.

[dancj]

and then moving onto finishing Battle Royale ...
Does anyone know when the final volume is coming out? The last volume is volume 15 right? I've been holding onto the last few books to read them in one go, but it seems to be taking an age to finish.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Dan -- The final volume of BATTLE ROYALE came out a couple of weeks ago.

-Augie

[UniqueFrequency]

War Games is fine. Much better than you'd think considering all of the backlash. It was a bit padded out though. The trades are quite good value, but I'd probably view it in a harsher light if I'd paid for all of the individual issues.

yes i agree it's a little padded out. glad to see at least one person doesn't think it's the worst story in recent memory!

[pmpknface]

I re-read Sea of Red vol 1 and then moved on to vol 2 last night. Good stuff! The back cover blurb puts it as a combo between Pirates of the Carribean and Lost and I think that's about as close as you can get. I really needed to re-read vol 1 though, as a lot of the characters motivations were lost on me.

I also got my DCBS box and read Moon Knight #1, which was AWESOME and Silver Surfer: Annihilation #1 which was also cool! I know Civil War is getting pimped to be the bigger of the 2 events, but right now I'm all about Annihilation.

I just checked out the CBR Annihilation boards and Andy Schmidt is answering fan questions, which is as cool as it gets. I even changed my desktop pic from BotI: Dreamsong to the giant pic that the #4's from the 4 mini's come togather to make (check out Marvel.com for d-loads)!

I read there that all of the issues for Ann. will be 25 pgs, and if there's only 22 story pages then there will be bio's and stuff! And with all the parts to this I should have something to read every week too! YIPPIE!!! :D

[torippu]

No, no... Marvin and Wendy came BEFORE the Wonder Twins. Marvin and Wendy had NO superpowers and no given reason for their even hanging out with the Superfriends other than for comic releif and viewer association (even though I think everyone hated them). They had a dog. The Wonder Twins had a space monkey named Gleek and have previously appeared in-continuity in Young Justice towards the end of it's run.

Marvin and Wendy haven't been in-continuity as far as I'm aware, outside of appearing in the Superfriends comic series way back when.
D'oh! Guess I was flat out wrong - that is what I get for being a Johnny come lately pseudo DC Fanboy, eh? Seeing that they are not the Wonder twins, I'm still going to say that they are lame but that Johns will eventually having me liking them.

[Drew Melbourne]

This is a completely self-serving self-plug, but please buy my new Dark Horse series, ArchEnemies. For those who don't know, it's the story of a superhero and supervillain who don't realize that they're roommates in their secret identities. As hero and villain, they're sworn enemies. But as roommates, they really hate each other.

They just ran a really positive review at Broken Frontier (http://www.brokenfrontier.com/reviews/details.php?id=716).

(My "stuff I didn't write" pull list last week was INFINITE CRISIS, OMAC SPECIAL, EX MACHINA, Y: THE LAST MAN, YOUNG AVENGERS, SUPERIOR SHOWCASE, MARVEL TEAM-UP, MARVEL ZOMBIES, X-MEN UNLIMITED, PLANETARY.)

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Drew - no problem here. I'm on board. Of course, I'm cheating. Dark Horse comps me this stuff. But I AM looking forward to reading it when it arrives. =)

-Augie

[dancj]

Dan -- The final volume of BATTLE ROYALE came out a couple of weeks ago.

Oooh - thanks! That probably means tomorrow here in England

Dan