What Did You Read? 04/19/2006

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

It's been a couple of days -- time to talk. What have you read this week?

Daredevil #84: I'm still enjoying the storyline -- and I loved the cliffhanger -- but I'm a bit worried that Michael Lark is going to the photoreference well once too often. He's starting to morph into Alex Maleev. From there, it's just one short step to Greg Land. And I don't want to see that.

Marvel Spotlight: Daniel Way/Olivier Coipel: Daniel Way is one interesting guy. . .

Nextwave Agents Of Hate #4: Fun fun fun. Loving this series.

That's all in addition to the entire Kirkman run of MARVEL TEAM-UP, which I read in the past week. And the first three issues of NEXT WAVE. And a couple more SHE-HULKs. (Only one more to go!)

-Augie

[De Carabas]

After a week of pacing it out, I just finished Essential Moon Knight vol. 1 TP. And I gotta say that it is one helluva a good read. Comics have changed alot in the last 25 years, so I wasn't sure if this would be anything more than a nostalgia buzz, and the first bunch of issues (two "WereWolf by Night", two PPSSM, and one Marvel Two-In-One) were just that. Lite nostalgic fun. But then came the real Moon Knight. The back-ups in the Hulk Magazine and then his own book, and I gotta say...wow. Moench writes dark and creepy stories that would hold up today well and Sienkiewicz pencils are something else. Now this is three years before Sienkiewicz's experimental (and now legendary) New Mutants run, but he still has the essence of...dark.

My sole complaint is the inking. Once Sienkiewicz becomes the sole penciller, we begin a round robin of inkers: Bob McLeod, Frank Springer, Frank Giacoia, Klaus Janson, one more person I'm forgetting, and Sienkiewicz himself. Some do good work, some, well, don't, but the issues where Sienkiewicz inks himself are fantastic. In fact, if you know anyone who doesn't quite understand the difference between inkers, hand them this volume.

After reading this, I'm even more psyched than before for the new Moon Knight series. Gee, could that have been Marvel's plan? ;)

EM

[torippu]

Not sure if I'll make it to my shop this week so I put a dent in my reading pile last night:

SW: Boba Fett Overkill One-Shot - this was OK. Definitely pales in comparison to the previous offerings. If I remember correctly, I think that Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy did most of those and I missed Kennedy's art the most.

Civil War Opening Shot Sketchbook - technically, not a comic book. Re-read the Illuminati special and then this freebie and am now thoroughly excited about Civil War.

Outsiders #35 - Nightwing condoning tortue? Are you kidding me? Is that really Dick Grayson under the mask? Beautiful art from Matthew Clark though. Still not sure if the opening OYL arc is to my liking. As a whole, I still like this series.

Moon Knight #1 - Wow, that was a fast read! Nice art though. I've never been an avid Moon Knight fan so I'll give this 3~6 issues to hook me.

Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven #1 - Who are all of these characters? New or obscure DC characters? Guess this is what I get for not being a DC fanboy. Dan Jurgens art is solid, although it felt a little out of place in such a dark story. I'll read to the end as I'm interested to see what will become of Bludhaven.

Young Avengers #11 - Man, it really doesn't matter when this book ships, it's still the one of the best that Marvel is publishing. Origin revelations galore! Beautiful Jim Chueng art. The perfect combination of superhero action and soap opera teenage angst in a comic book. Also listened to the wordballoon podcast with Allen Heinberg today and I'm now convinced that his Wonder Woman is going to be great as well.

Trip

[torippu]

This is what I read over the weekend:

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #41 - I really wanted to like this book. Especially with the creators involved. However, looks like its 2 and out for me on Aquaman. I'm a big fantasy fan and even the quest theme couldn't get me interested in the character. At the same time, I'm already reading too many books so something had to give.

Exiles #77 ~ 79 - Here's how I view this book - if Paul Pelletier is on pencils, I love this book. If Jim Caliafore is on art, I read it but don't get too excited about the goings on. That being said, I did like the Squadron Supreme issues better than the 2099 ones.

Invincible Ultimate Collection Vol. 1 HC - It'd been a while since I had read the issues contained in this HC so in anticipation of Vol. 2 that is scheduled to ship ssoon, I sat down and read this book from cover to cover last night. The first 7~8 issues are still one of the best coming of age superhero stories you will ever read. It's great to see the evolution of Ryan Ottley's art from his first issue to the current day.

The Kirkmaniac in me has now been been released! Next up in my reading pile: The Walking Dead Omnibus Vol. 1, Brit (all of the various one shots) and maybe it's time for me to track down the Tech Jacket issues.

[DF2506]

I'm a bit behind on my comic reading. I finally did get to read Infinite Crisis #6 this week though. I really like this mini-series alot. Great issue. Shocking cliffhanger too! Can't wait to read next issue!!

Now..if I could just catch up with Ultimate Spidey and Savage Dragon...

DF2506
" I think there's only been one Savage Dragon released recently though..right? "

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Read THE TOURIST last night, Brian Wood's recent OGN at Image Comics. Drawn by Toby Cypress. It's all right. it has that scratchy black and white independent art feel, but with a story that has a surprising amount of heart.

I don't have much to say about it past that, sadly, which is why I'll likely never write it up in the column.

Sometimes, that's the annoyance of being a comics reviewer.

-Augie

[dancj]

Hellblazer: Red Sepulchre - Okay, but nothing special. Not a patch on Carey's Lucifer
Birds of Prey vol 1 - The first half, which reprinted a couple of on-shots and a Showcase story completely failed to grab me, but the 2nd half reprinting the Manhunt miniseries was very silly and lots of fun
Groo: The Most Intelligent Man in the World - It's Groo. You know what you're going to get and I got it.
Tom Strong Book 4 - The first three issues (by Alan Moore) probably make the best Tom Strong story I've read. I always prefer this comic when it has longer storylines. The other three issues were by Peter Hogan and Goeff Johns weren't nearly as good.

[UniqueFrequency]

Ex Machina Special #1 - good job by Sprouse on art, nice story, but don't see why this couldn't be a regular issue.

X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl #4 - really enjoying this, but didn't like Ant-Man being a coward.

Captain America #17 - just fantastic. I love how things are coming togeter. Crossbones/Sin, Cap/Sharon, Bucky and now, Fury

Birds Of Prey #93 - totally sold me. i'm on board for the rest of OYL

Daredevil #84 - i like the new Matt. can't wait to see what happens when he finds the guy responsible

JLA: Classified #20 - still don't like the art, but this issue was fun

Next Wave #4 - absolutely brilliant. Captain's origin was FANTASTIC.

Manhunter #21 - not overly impressed, but i will stay on for a few more issues

New Avengers #18 - waiting for a good point to jump to trades.

[UniqueFrequency]

oops missed out some older stuff.

Stormwatch: Lightning Stikes - picked this up at the library. nice features on the Stormwatch teams. I liked the Jack and Jenny spotlight. didn't care for the rest.

Outsiders #25-31 - i cannot BELIEVE i waited so long to drop this book. i like what Winick writes, generally, but this was really bad

Avengers #19-20 - first few parts of Ultron Unlimited. really enjoying this and the Perez art!