Showing posts with label Mixed Plate Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mixed Plate Comics. Show all posts
Feb 18, 2012
Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 2.15.2012
8:46 PM
Hey ya'll!! So between the daily grind owning me the last few months and going on the deep end in heroclix-- I have eventually found my way back into the piles and piles of backlogged, neglected comics. This is actually my first week of reading through all the weekly pulls since...dayuum way back in December (helps that it was a light week)...oh the shame.
Alright enough about me and on to those panels of goodness. This week I read: B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: The Long Death #1 / Daredevil #9 / Green Lantern Corps #6 / Nightwing #6 / Birds of Prey #6 / Wonder Woman #6 / Winter Soldier #2 / Batman #6 / Catwoman #6 / Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi- Force Storm #1 and the most killer of these sequential art experiences were ...
5 Wonder Woman #6 Brian Azzarello, Tony Akins & Dan Green
I am not as well scripted in Greek mythology as much as some of my other friends though being a diehard WW reader for the last 6 years. With that all said the last 6 months of Azz/Chaing's Amazonian ride is easily the most immersive and entertaining take on WW period. No comparison yo.
How fucking sick and ballsy is it to see (okay doesn't actually show her doin it but that makes our imaginations run with it even more!) Diana rip up some centaurs with her bare-ass, bloody hands.
The visual representations of Poseidon as a tentacled, nasty-ass, frog giant and Hades as a candle-face burning kid were ill-mastered by the crazy craftsmanship of Tony Akins--who steps in for Chaing as a super-sub.
Loved this ish and lets hope to see that naggy, preggers chick get killed off already in the next arc ; P
4 Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi- Force Storm #1 John Ostrander, Jan Duursema & Dan Parsons
But of course all of the Jedi comes from some mysterious, flying Pyramids from space! As straight redick as some of Ostrander and team's concepts were in ish 1-- I was still invigorated and felt appeased at what was a solid start to the untold story of the beginnings of the Jedi/Sith.
Cool shit experiencing all of the familiar races and worlds of Star Wars being repped even from over a millenia ago- but again some of the deets were way overgeneralized-- like the gathering of those that were born with the force versus those that were not.
Appreciated the SW ode to history, religion and mythology that were borrowed from and infused into this seriously daunting, audacious script but you all know this prequel of all prequels had to be told!!
Duursema and Parsons page by page storyboards were on point and the imaginative, especially the ancient costuming and use of blades before there were lightsabers kicked Mandalorian ass.
The force hounds owned it while those weird, prawn-looking force lightening-wielding bosses were meh. Look forward to ish 2 and the continued fleshing out and explanation of the beginnings of this rich, Galactic-sized story.
3 Winter Soldier #2 Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice & Bettie Breitweiser
How do you follow-up ish one of the soviet snipers (yes, Winter Soldier and Black Widow) that we can't get enough of?!
Well, throwing in a rat-a-tat-wielding Gorilla that sports a jet-pack to battle the duo and throw in the G of all G's in the Marvel U--muthaeffing Victor Von Doom!!!
Let's just say that you don't know who Ed Brubaker is but loved the Black Widow (Cornell) or Spiderwoman (Bendis) books that were out over a year ago-- if that's the case-- you just have to add this gangsta title to the pull-list.
Brubaker & Guice tag-team us into what is another killer spy vs. spy, noir-esque storyline that reads faster than you expect and makes you get kinda pissed that its another 30 days till we get some more of Marvel's own Mr. and Mrs. Smith (which Brubaker promised this book would feel like).
2 Batman #6 Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion
Batman vs. the Court of Owls comes to its maniacal crescendo with Bats reliving his ancestors cursed path of being manipulated, hunted and killed off.
Watching on as Talon and the Court succeed in the mental breakdown of Bruce is enthralling and a rare glimpse of the Batman in a vulnerable, nearly broken.
Would have been great to see his mental safety mechanism- Zurrenrah, kick in but we all learn that Bats actually planned every chain of event to pull the carpet from Talon and the Court.
A real close one here for the Dark Knight, so imagine how he will be able to face multiple Talons...
1 Catwoman #6 Judd Winick, Guillem March & Tomeu Morey
This book and creative team is still my go to in the New 52 six months later. Selina Kyle rips apart a meta in true Tyson-like fashion along with the rest of some dirty-rotten GCPD. Cats wins her score until some other badass steps in. March and Morey are easily my top art/colorist team of all the monthlies and just bananas how somehow Gil's art is improving and taking on an almost Van Sciver (who is the greatest artist in comics IMO) likeness.
Bats and Cats have a real, crazy moment as Selina continues to unravel into her shattered, dark self. Thank you all for your continued readership and see you at Image Expo!!
This post was written by:
big O
Alright enough about me and on to those panels of goodness. This week I read: B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: The Long Death #1 / Daredevil #9 / Green Lantern Corps #6 / Nightwing #6 / Birds of Prey #6 / Wonder Woman #6 / Winter Soldier #2 / Batman #6 / Catwoman #6 / Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi- Force Storm #1 and the most killer of these sequential art experiences were ...
5 Wonder Woman #6 Brian Azzarello, Tony Akins & Dan Green
How fucking sick and ballsy is it to see (okay doesn't actually show her doin it but that makes our imaginations run with it even more!) Diana rip up some centaurs with her bare-ass, bloody hands.
The visual representations of Poseidon as a tentacled, nasty-ass, frog giant and Hades as a candle-face burning kid were ill-mastered by the crazy craftsmanship of Tony Akins--who steps in for Chaing as a super-sub.
Loved this ish and lets hope to see that naggy, preggers chick get killed off already in the next arc ; P
4 Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi- Force Storm #1 John Ostrander, Jan Duursema & Dan Parsons
Cool shit experiencing all of the familiar races and worlds of Star Wars being repped even from over a millenia ago- but again some of the deets were way overgeneralized-- like the gathering of those that were born with the force versus those that were not.
Appreciated the SW ode to history, religion and mythology that were borrowed from and infused into this seriously daunting, audacious script but you all know this prequel of all prequels had to be told!!
Duursema and Parsons page by page storyboards were on point and the imaginative, especially the ancient costuming and use of blades before there were lightsabers kicked Mandalorian ass.
The force hounds owned it while those weird, prawn-looking force lightening-wielding bosses were meh. Look forward to ish 2 and the continued fleshing out and explanation of the beginnings of this rich, Galactic-sized story.
3 Winter Soldier #2 Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice & Bettie Breitweiser
Well, throwing in a rat-a-tat-wielding Gorilla that sports a jet-pack to battle the duo and throw in the G of all G's in the Marvel U--muthaeffing Victor Von Doom!!!
Let's just say that you don't know who Ed Brubaker is but loved the Black Widow (Cornell) or Spiderwoman (Bendis) books that were out over a year ago-- if that's the case-- you just have to add this gangsta title to the pull-list.
Brubaker & Guice tag-team us into what is another killer spy vs. spy, noir-esque storyline that reads faster than you expect and makes you get kinda pissed that its another 30 days till we get some more of Marvel's own Mr. and Mrs. Smith (which Brubaker promised this book would feel like).
2 Batman #6 Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion
Watching on as Talon and the Court succeed in the mental breakdown of Bruce is enthralling and a rare glimpse of the Batman in a vulnerable, nearly broken.
Would have been great to see his mental safety mechanism- Zurrenrah, kick in but we all learn that Bats actually planned every chain of event to pull the carpet from Talon and the Court.
A real close one here for the Dark Knight, so imagine how he will be able to face multiple Talons...
1 Catwoman #6 Judd Winick, Guillem March & Tomeu Morey
Bats and Cats have a real, crazy moment as Selina continues to unravel into her shattered, dark self. Thank you all for your continued readership and see you at Image Expo!!
This post was written by:
big O
Nov 18, 2011
Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 11.16.2011
2:51 PM
Damn that Heroclix, really is no joke. Along with hitting up various gaming spots around the Bay, picking up bricks and hunting down dope pieces to round out my arsenal...well I have been caught up. So how about those books that I have been neglecting? Nightwing #3 / Star Wars: Invasion- Revelations #5 / Severed #4 / Captain America #4 / Batman #3 / Catwoman #3 / Conan: Road of Kings #10 / Justice League #3 / Mass Effect: Invasion #2 / Green Lantern Corps #3 / Wonder Woman #3 / Birds of Prey #3. As for the phenom five of the reads...
5 Star Wars: Invasion- Revelations #5 Tom Taylor & Colin Wilson
Of the many SW brand of books from Dark Horse I have been mainly jocking the titles, one-shots and issues that center around the Sith Lord, Darth Vader. The cover treatment alone of this ish got me hyped with some props to the 501st Legion.
The arc takes place 25 years after the Battle of Yavin, so we get to enjoy many of the same tech that we loved from the original Star Wars trilogy. AT-ATs, Star Destroyers, Tie-Fighter and of course the classic Stormtrooper battalion-- seriously I am so over the tribal-paint Clonetrooper look so popular these days with the kids.
As you can expect the Stormtroopers show up and amount to mere cannon-fodder but its great to see them do their benevolent duty. This climactic issue of Revelations captures the grand essence of SW with intense ground battles, one-on-one Jedi standoffs and the epic space warfare we all love.
Yes, hella corny that the Jedi descendant of Luke looks just like him minus the Catwomn outfit, along with having a robot as his bestie but you gotta appreciate the Sith Lord- Dray who not only has a black-ass name (Dre) but the ninja is copping a mean cherry-curl mullet.
Sith + Soul Glo = WIN.
I am effing serious yo. You gotta be a bad ass muthaeffer to pull that shit off!! Decent art, nice use of source material and I will indeed go back to read the rest of this fantastic series.
Imperial fools!
4 Wonder Woman #3 Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang
Wonder Woman fans rejoice! We all finally have a story and well-articulated depiction of Wonder Woman, Hippolyta, the Amazons, Olympians and how they all intersect and fit in our world. Zeus is a manwhore. Hippolyta is a blonde-bombshell, Wonder Woman is a no-nonsense warrior. YES!! This is the kinda storytelling this urban nerd can get behind. FYI- Immortals sucked ass. If you wanna get the skinny on some modernized Greek mythos done right, check in here with Azz and Chiang-- they got you covered yo. Diana
made from clay was always a lame origin. Sorry Marston.
Strife shows the power of words and deceit over physical attack as Diana struggles with the truth that she is a love-child and not a mythical, aberration of a creation.
Chiang steps it up yet again in one of the more complete 20 pages of sequential artistry that he has blessed-- from how well he mixes up the paneling to the high quality emotion that is felt from Diana.
Definitely a Top 7 title of the New 52 and with three books in I really can't see the momentum being lost. How Diana sheds her name and proclaims a self-exile from Paradise Island is truly emotional, riveting and like that we have Wonder Woman. Great backdrop into making WW a somewhat, lost-soul with a big chip on her shoulder.
3 Batman #3 Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Batman goes to the streets searching for answers into how the owl assassin was let into Wayne Towers. He gets some leads from local thugs that makes him think about looking closer into the supposed urban legend of the Court of Owls. Bruce's muse, Alfred, drops some knowledge on a Wayne ancestor that had a maniacal fear of owls. Great opening on all of that 1920's madness in the first 2 pages. Props Snyder!
Despite getting tired of all the over-exaggerated big chins and lack of atmospheric backdrops in Capullo's art steez I do admire his growth in camera angles and differing POV techniques to bring us deeper into the story.
Bats eventually finds that the Court of Owls do exist dating back as far as the 1800s in Gotham. And just as owls take over other birds nests in nature, they have settled in abandoned spaces in buildings and in floors not listed in buildings that have kept them under the radar.
Some real creepy shit to have numerous "nests" within the homes/offices throughout the "his"city. We all know how powerful of a hold Bruce Wayne/Batman have on Gotham-- now we find that their is a group of powerful Gothamites backed by an Owlman-- that could very well surpass his influence. Snyder's dynamic wordsmith more than makes up for some of my lacking interest in Capullo's visuals.
2 Justice League #3 Geoff Johns & Jim Lee
The making of the Justice League continues with Wonder Woman entering the conflict against them scary ass, Lee-enhanced Parademons. Silly shit to see her come in and have a first tasting of ice-cream prior to kicking some demon-ass with the rest of the crew though.
The news coverage angling the invasion of demons as Judgement Day is intriguing but its kinda lame when they say that the heroes are the cause of it, whatevas.
We see more of how Supes, Flash, GL and Bats interact and vibe off one another as they slaughter the monstrous minions of Darkseid. Hilarious when Hal calls dibs on WW when she splashpages her fine Amazonian ass at the center of multiple unfriendlies. Bats takes the lead and impresses his tactical warfare on the supercrew in hopes to regroup and go beyond their individualistic one-on-one approach of fighting the baddies.
Through the fighting we get linked in to the creation of Cyborg by Dr. Morrow (cool yo!) and Vic's father. Nice weaving via Johns/Lee of giving us the first look of Cyborg and Darkseid in the same page. And like the previous books we get the final page intro of the next JL member- Aquaman. That's one tough mutha with his chained up trident. Impressive bling Arthur!
1 Catwoman #3 Judd Winick & Guillem March
Winick, March and Morey make every issue of Catwoman the fastest, most entertaining and satisfying spectacle in DC's New 52, not titled Animal-Man, Batwoman or Swamp Thing. The killer thug Bone and his thugs get theirs and then some. Selina goes beyond unhinged and is redeemed by her only believer/friend/ lover- the Batman.
Sexually driven, smartly written and we are seeing a massively talented artistic duo of March and Morey that rocks my world every damn month to the core.
The Bay Area's own Winick has solidified himself as the masterful scribe in some of my fave books of the last few years- JL: Generation Lost, Power Girl and now Catwoman.
The three Batbooks you gotta be reading right now along with this is Detective Comics and Batwoman. Next ish we see what happens to Gothams finest at the crazed claws of Selina. Get it, get it!!
Thank you all for your continued readership and a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Peace!
This post was written by:
big O
5 Star Wars: Invasion- Revelations #5 Tom Taylor & Colin Wilson
The arc takes place 25 years after the Battle of Yavin, so we get to enjoy many of the same tech that we loved from the original Star Wars trilogy. AT-ATs, Star Destroyers, Tie-Fighter and of course the classic Stormtrooper battalion-- seriously I am so over the tribal-paint Clonetrooper look so popular these days with the kids.
As you can expect the Stormtroopers show up and amount to mere cannon-fodder but its great to see them do their benevolent duty. This climactic issue of Revelations captures the grand essence of SW with intense ground battles, one-on-one Jedi standoffs and the epic space warfare we all love.
Yes, hella corny that the Jedi descendant of Luke looks just like him minus the Catwomn outfit, along with having a robot as his bestie but you gotta appreciate the Sith Lord- Dray who not only has a black-ass name (Dre) but the ninja is copping a mean cherry-curl mullet.
Sith + Soul Glo = WIN.
I am effing serious yo. You gotta be a bad ass muthaeffer to pull that shit off!! Decent art, nice use of source material and I will indeed go back to read the rest of this fantastic series.
Imperial fools!
4 Wonder Woman #3 Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang
Wonder Woman fans rejoice! We all finally have a story and well-articulated depiction of Wonder Woman, Hippolyta, the Amazons, Olympians and how they all intersect and fit in our world. Zeus is a manwhore. Hippolyta is a blonde-bombshell, Wonder Woman is a no-nonsense warrior. YES!! This is the kinda storytelling this urban nerd can get behind. FYI- Immortals sucked ass. If you wanna get the skinny on some modernized Greek mythos done right, check in here with Azz and Chiang-- they got you covered yo. Diana
Strife shows the power of words and deceit over physical attack as Diana struggles with the truth that she is a love-child and not a mythical, aberration of a creation.
Chiang steps it up yet again in one of the more complete 20 pages of sequential artistry that he has blessed-- from how well he mixes up the paneling to the high quality emotion that is felt from Diana.
Definitely a Top 7 title of the New 52 and with three books in I really can't see the momentum being lost. How Diana sheds her name and proclaims a self-exile from Paradise Island is truly emotional, riveting and like that we have Wonder Woman. Great backdrop into making WW a somewhat, lost-soul with a big chip on her shoulder.
3 Batman #3 Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Despite getting tired of all the over-exaggerated big chins and lack of atmospheric backdrops in Capullo's art steez I do admire his growth in camera angles and differing POV techniques to bring us deeper into the story.
Bats eventually finds that the Court of Owls do exist dating back as far as the 1800s in Gotham. And just as owls take over other birds nests in nature, they have settled in abandoned spaces in buildings and in floors not listed in buildings that have kept them under the radar.
Some real creepy shit to have numerous "nests" within the homes/offices throughout the "his"city. We all know how powerful of a hold Bruce Wayne/Batman have on Gotham-- now we find that their is a group of powerful Gothamites backed by an Owlman-- that could very well surpass his influence. Snyder's dynamic wordsmith more than makes up for some of my lacking interest in Capullo's visuals.
2 Justice League #3 Geoff Johns & Jim Lee
The making of the Justice League continues with Wonder Woman entering the conflict against them scary ass, Lee-enhanced Parademons. Silly shit to see her come in and have a first tasting of ice-cream prior to kicking some demon-ass with the rest of the crew though.The news coverage angling the invasion of demons as Judgement Day is intriguing but its kinda lame when they say that the heroes are the cause of it, whatevas.
We see more of how Supes, Flash, GL and Bats interact and vibe off one another as they slaughter the monstrous minions of Darkseid. Hilarious when Hal calls dibs on WW when she splashpages her fine Amazonian ass at the center of multiple unfriendlies. Bats takes the lead and impresses his tactical warfare on the supercrew in hopes to regroup and go beyond their individualistic one-on-one approach of fighting the baddies.
Through the fighting we get linked in to the creation of Cyborg by Dr. Morrow (cool yo!) and Vic's father. Nice weaving via Johns/Lee of giving us the first look of Cyborg and Darkseid in the same page. And like the previous books we get the final page intro of the next JL member- Aquaman. That's one tough mutha with his chained up trident. Impressive bling Arthur!
1 Catwoman #3 Judd Winick & Guillem March
Sexually driven, smartly written and we are seeing a massively talented artistic duo of March and Morey that rocks my world every damn month to the core.
The Bay Area's own Winick has solidified himself as the masterful scribe in some of my fave books of the last few years- JL: Generation Lost, Power Girl and now Catwoman.
The three Batbooks you gotta be reading right now along with this is Detective Comics and Batwoman. Next ish we see what happens to Gothams finest at the crazed claws of Selina. Get it, get it!!
Thank you all for your continued readership and a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Peace!
This post was written by:
big O
Nov 4, 2011
Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 11.2.2011
11:01 PM
The New 52 is now stomping into month 3 with the #3s that are buzzing a clear vision of DC's superhero-horror theme they got from the mature, gothic infusion of Wildstorm and Vertigo lines. The pages I furiously flipped & clicked during Halloween hangover were: Heart #1 / Stormwatch #3 / Fear Agent #32 / Justice League International #3 / Animal Man #3 / Detective Comics #3 / The Goon #36 / Red Lanterns #3/ The Last of the Greats #2 / Swamp Thing #3 / Action Comics #3 / The Infinite Vacation #4. As for those C&D must reads...
5 Swamp Thing #3 Scott Snyder & Yanick Pacquette / Victor Ibanez
We are introduced to more deets on the rot(evil) vs. the green(good) in Swamp Thing lore via his old flame, Abigail Arcane. The brief was highly needed (for first-time around ST readers) and whipped up in a quickstyle way as we see the eventual harbinger of our planet equate to a bubble-boy named William...who is coincidentally, Abigail's little brother. Great Scott, excellent setup homie.
Abigail pushes Alec to pull out his green thumb abilities that stops her from capping him one-- a setup to see that Holland still has the ability to help take down her very dangerous half-brother that is awakened to his powers and kills everyone in his hospital. Be warned-- real dark shit folks.
Paquette does such fascinating things in this book-- be it the eerie, straight creeper feel of the swamp and its ecosystem--especially love the animals. Peep those frogs & dragonflies doin work while ST is gettin his!! Nasty!
Love how Swamp Thing and Animal Man are the standout faves of the New 52 that many heads didn't really care for so much pre-52 and though each of their worlds are big enough to stand on their own--thanks to the mighty work of both creative duos-- you can see how their titles will tie-in sometime later. Imagine the faceoff between lil' Will and Maxine. Raw baby!
4 Fear Agent #32 Rick Remender & Mike Hawthorne / Tony Moore
The talents tied to this book (Remender- my tops scribe @Marvel, Hawthorne- dope, indie artist that just destroys Conan & finally Moore who co-created Walking Dead) was enough for me to get on this ish that I jumped on being the homies at iFanboy picked it as book of the week and yes, oh yes I was glad to soak it up. The cover is so simple yet imaginative and truly embraces the experience you get while reading the final ish of the Out of Step arc.
Despite the warning on the first page of not picking it up unless covering the first 4 chapters and never reading an ish of Fear Agent prior, I did. Yeah, badboy hwat!? Though coming in blind and not so invested...I was emotionally impacted by the gripping narratives of Heathrow, his wife and fam going through different steps of life. And then seeing that it is a flashback with Heath and his cyborg wife in battle on a ship in space. Sick yo!
Is it real or fabricated memories? Yeah thats where the backstory coulda helped but I felt a lot of time-flipping, space-hopping SF that makes reads like Cassanova so enjoyable.
And why is that the AI helping Heath resembles his cyborg / Char (his wife)? More questions pop up as I am further engrossed, watching how the AI takes over the cyborg and helps the older Heath to survival, they share a kiss and they get to see what they always wished for...another reality where they are sharing in Thanksgiving, family, normalcy, with an announcement of another child. Heath watches on the memory in tears as he flies into the sun. Time to go download the rest of these tasty reads right now!
3 Red Lanterns #3 Peter Milligan & Ed Benes
Sometimes, patience pays off. I knew that there was some serious setup needed to explain the mythos of Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns to newbs but lets get real, shit was mad slow in the first two reads. Yes, Benes kills the visuals but this ish really brings the pain. The plotlines open up with Atrocitus needing more than mere mindless followers in his crew-- so he selects Bleez as his right hand wo-man. I always saw her
as such but now shes got some sense to balance her savagery.
What happens when Bleez returns home to her planet of Havania where she snobbed all the men that wanted some of that ass that led to getting her wings ripped from her back.
Bloody retribution.
The pacing is improved 100x over the past reads as we all can just get down and dirty in seeing how Bleez may or may not attempt taking over the raging Red Lanterns. Benes elevates his game with Milligan by diversifying the paneling and not cutting corners on his well known meticulous detailing.
So hilarious in the end how Atrocitus vents his concerns to the only two peeps he can trust, his cat Dexstarr...and the corpse of Krona.
2 Animal Man #3 Jeff Lemire &Travis Charest
I am not right all the time, but dayuum I was on the money with Buddy's daughter, Maxine surpassing in her father's powers. Super fun to be taking in this retcon of Animal Man on how he was always intended to be the mere protector of his daughter--who is the actual Avatar for the Red--while he is a mere agent.
Funny that Buddy was kinda butt-hurt about it too. Two of the hunters three jump into the Bleed, stalking Maxine as one is left behind to exterminate the rest of Buddy's fam. Lemire makes you laugh and then gets you freaked the hell out with the nasty-ass intestines-tentacled freaky, monsters that grab you from unsuspecting panels.
I hate you Travel! Sick to see this cat arrive in a style that puts his work on the upper echelon amongst other top artists in the biz. Bet that Maxine is gonna utterly destroy these hunters in ways that we have yet to see Animal Man hone into his powers. What will that look like?
The thought of seeing William (from Swamp Thing) in his bubble-bag across from Maxine with her stunners and backpack on-- staring one another down for the ultimate faceoff just gets me.
Love this book.
1 Detective Comics #3 Tony Daniel & Ryan Wynn
I finally figured that Daniel has been sandbaggin on his plotting skills cos there is no explanation for his double-duty work in getting this damn good. I know I sound like some scratched vinyl but it must be said again and again cause holy fuck this title is ILL!!!! Seriously, this has become the go to Bat-title that I refer non-readers to (that are Batman fans, well along with Batwoman and Catwoman). So, Gordon isn't all cut up but he looks to get the Dollmaker treatment soon.
Bats goes on the hunt to find his homie Gordon after kicking Jack in the Box's floppy ass. (YES he is a straight rip from Ragdoll, but maybe this is who he is in the new 52). Bruce goes back to the cave to figure out who in the hell he is dealing with-- yes, it just so happens to be another child of some Gothamite psycho- Wesley Mathis.
Olivia uses the Bat-signal to bring out Bats and get him some help to find Gordon--yes, its a TRAP! And now we see Batman surrounded by a horde of Joker marionettes. Umm...yeah that isn't freaky deaky one bit huh?! YES! No more surprises that Detective is a top-notch, sure-shot read against every other book that hits. I would probably put this as my top#4 of all the New 52.
This post was written by:
big O
5 Swamp Thing #3 Scott Snyder & Yanick Pacquette / Victor Ibanez
We are introduced to more deets on the rot(evil) vs. the green(good) in Swamp Thing lore via his old flame, Abigail Arcane. The brief was highly needed (for first-time around ST readers) and whipped up in a quickstyle way as we see the eventual harbinger of our planet equate to a bubble-boy named William...who is coincidentally, Abigail's little brother. Great Scott, excellent setup homie.
Abigail pushes Alec to pull out his green thumb abilities that stops her from capping him one-- a setup to see that Holland still has the ability to help take down her very dangerous half-brother that is awakened to his powers and kills everyone in his hospital. Be warned-- real dark shit folks.
Paquette does such fascinating things in this book-- be it the eerie, straight creeper feel of the swamp and its ecosystem--especially love the animals. Peep those frogs & dragonflies doin work while ST is gettin his!! Nasty!
Love how Swamp Thing and Animal Man are the standout faves of the New 52 that many heads didn't really care for so much pre-52 and though each of their worlds are big enough to stand on their own--thanks to the mighty work of both creative duos-- you can see how their titles will tie-in sometime later. Imagine the faceoff between lil' Will and Maxine. Raw baby!
4 Fear Agent #32 Rick Remender & Mike Hawthorne / Tony Moore
The talents tied to this book (Remender- my tops scribe @Marvel, Hawthorne- dope, indie artist that just destroys Conan & finally Moore who co-created Walking Dead) was enough for me to get on this ish that I jumped on being the homies at iFanboy picked it as book of the week and yes, oh yes I was glad to soak it up. The cover is so simple yet imaginative and truly embraces the experience you get while reading the final ish of the Out of Step arc.
Is it real or fabricated memories? Yeah thats where the backstory coulda helped but I felt a lot of time-flipping, space-hopping SF that makes reads like Cassanova so enjoyable.
And why is that the AI helping Heath resembles his cyborg / Char (his wife)? More questions pop up as I am further engrossed, watching how the AI takes over the cyborg and helps the older Heath to survival, they share a kiss and they get to see what they always wished for...another reality where they are sharing in Thanksgiving, family, normalcy, with an announcement of another child. Heath watches on the memory in tears as he flies into the sun. Time to go download the rest of these tasty reads right now!
3 Red Lanterns #3 Peter Milligan & Ed Benes
Sometimes, patience pays off. I knew that there was some serious setup needed to explain the mythos of Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns to newbs but lets get real, shit was mad slow in the first two reads. Yes, Benes kills the visuals but this ish really brings the pain. The plotlines open up with Atrocitus needing more than mere mindless followers in his crew-- so he selects Bleez as his right hand wo-man. I always saw her
What happens when Bleez returns home to her planet of Havania where she snobbed all the men that wanted some of that ass that led to getting her wings ripped from her back.
Bloody retribution.
The pacing is improved 100x over the past reads as we all can just get down and dirty in seeing how Bleez may or may not attempt taking over the raging Red Lanterns. Benes elevates his game with Milligan by diversifying the paneling and not cutting corners on his well known meticulous detailing.
So hilarious in the end how Atrocitus vents his concerns to the only two peeps he can trust, his cat Dexstarr...and the corpse of Krona.
2 Animal Man #3 Jeff Lemire &Travis Charest
I am not right all the time, but dayuum I was on the money with Buddy's daughter, Maxine surpassing in her father's powers. Super fun to be taking in this retcon of Animal Man on how he was always intended to be the mere protector of his daughter--who is the actual Avatar for the Red--while he is a mere agent.
Funny that Buddy was kinda butt-hurt about it too. Two of the hunters three jump into the Bleed, stalking Maxine as one is left behind to exterminate the rest of Buddy's fam. Lemire makes you laugh and then gets you freaked the hell out with the nasty-ass intestines-tentacled freaky, monsters that grab you from unsuspecting panels.
I hate you Travel! Sick to see this cat arrive in a style that puts his work on the upper echelon amongst other top artists in the biz. Bet that Maxine is gonna utterly destroy these hunters in ways that we have yet to see Animal Man hone into his powers. What will that look like?
The thought of seeing William (from Swamp Thing) in his bubble-bag across from Maxine with her stunners and backpack on-- staring one another down for the ultimate faceoff just gets me.
Love this book.
1 Detective Comics #3 Tony Daniel & Ryan Wynn
I finally figured that Daniel has been sandbaggin on his plotting skills cos there is no explanation for his double-duty work in getting this damn good. I know I sound like some scratched vinyl but it must be said again and again cause holy fuck this title is ILL!!!! Seriously, this has become the go to Bat-title that I refer non-readers to (that are Batman fans, well along with Batwoman and Catwoman). So, Gordon isn't all cut up but he looks to get the Dollmaker treatment soon.
Bats goes on the hunt to find his homie Gordon after kicking Jack in the Box's floppy ass. (YES he is a straight rip from Ragdoll, but maybe this is who he is in the new 52). Bruce goes back to the cave to figure out who in the hell he is dealing with-- yes, it just so happens to be another child of some Gothamite psycho- Wesley Mathis.
Olivia uses the Bat-signal to bring out Bats and get him some help to find Gordon--yes, its a TRAP! And now we see Batman surrounded by a horde of Joker marionettes. Umm...yeah that isn't freaky deaky one bit huh?! YES! No more surprises that Detective is a top-notch, sure-shot read against every other book that hits. I would probably put this as my top#4 of all the New 52.
This post was written by:
big O
Oct 22, 2011
Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 10.19.11
8:19 AM
Dark Horse continues to drop quality titles that find their fine spines into my piles to the point they have taken the #2 spot over Marvel on publisher pulls for the month. Here are this weeks reads playa- Mass Effect: Invasion #1 / Nightwing #2 / Dark Horse Presents #5 / Conan: Road of Kings #5 / Wonder Woman #2 / Birds of Prey #2 / Batman #2 / Green Lantern Corps #2 / Justice League #2 / Catwoman #2 / Star Wars: Knight Errant- Deluge #3. As for what were the sureshot grinds...
5 Nightwing #2 Kyle Higgins & Eddy Barrows
Good to see that some vital elements to Dick Grayson hasn't changed post-New52-- like his taste for redheads. After squabing some with the masked mystery-killer that is on the hunt for Grayson-- Dick gets a surprise visit from a childhood friend Raya Vestri (had to let you know that isn't Babs) who is in need of his help. As they fly over to Atlantic City, Raya informs Dick that Mr. Haly (of Haly's Circus) asked her to bring
Grayson to see him in person that same night to carry out a dying man's last wish.
After receiving the deed for Haly's Circus and learning that Mr. Haly knew all along that he was Nightwing-- Dick realizes he was being tailed by the killer who goes by the name of Saiko (slang for cool or awesome in Japanese).
Saiko leads Nightwing back to Mr. Haly-- who was tortured into revealing Dick's heroic alter ego and they brawl again. They go evenly matched until Dick brings the roof down on Saiko the Psycho.
Before Mr. Haly passes, he apologizes to NW into bringing him into all of this...and with that we are left with questions as to why Saiko wanted Dick Grayson dead and how that now connects with the secret of Haly's Circus. We all know that Saiko will return yes?? Higgins and Barrows got me more into their story and made me take another look at #1 again to see why I wasn't so into it. The answer to that-- along with some of the other #1s I wasn't feeling as much as the second issues is getting past the reintro to the character-- which for many, hasn't changed dramatically. But for those #1s that had major shakeups- like Action, Detective, Justice League and Wonderwoman, well they just rocked.
4 Wonder Woman #2 Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang
Azz & Chiang bring us to Paradise Island where we get introduced to a very different looking Queen Hippolyta that doesn't need to bear the same look as Diana being that she was never part of the JSA in the New 52. Really dig the simplistic, medieval stylings of the Amazons to contrast the decadent Olympians.
Seeing how the two daughters-- Strife / Diana interact with their mothers-- Hera / Hippolyta also serves for fabulously layered characterizations. Thanks for that Azz!
We learn of Hera's deep jealousy of Zeus' many bastard children as Hippolyta warns her daughter of helping to protect Zola. Hermes recounts the origin of Wonderwoman, perfect for not being created by the seed of a male. As some of us already know, we learn that is not entirely true.
Strife attacks Paradise Island by making the Amazons attack one another and WW lassos up some truth from her only to find that Zola isn't the bastard she came looking for.
Nope, the bastard is...Diana!! Eww, ahh, ohh...lame that some of us had to hear that spoiler from the NY Post last week..but hey at least Wonder Woman is making the news over things with more substance than hotpants.
3 Batman #2 Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Love this grand scale of story being served up by Snyder and Capullo where they are not merely tinkering small changes in Batman but to the whole of Gotham itself. We have always known of the Wayne family's ties and influence to the city and how they were instrumental in its societal & physical landscape. Now, lets throw in the potential of some other secret society-- lets call it the Court of Owls-- and imagine how far their reach goes through Gotham.
Nice dramatic touch to have Batman believe it as a myth too. I so love that the concept of Owlman is being fleshed out as a major antagonist to the Dark Knight and the redesign is ill! Does resemble the Immortals from 300 some but that is genius to pull from anyhow. Capullo's style is growing on me more and his depiction of Nightwing was on point.
Yeah, I am feeling like that cat Lincoln is associated with the Owls in some way cause yo...when does anybody ever tower over Bruce like that? The backward sequencing from end to start to end again was a treat and the fight scene with the Owl vs. Bruce & Gotham City architecture killed me. I can't remember all of the Batbooks being so damn delish. Mike Marts is the man.
2 Catwoman #2 Judd Winick &Guillem March
Winick, March and Morey are blessing their creative juices all over the place leaving Catwoman fans like you and me pumping our fists in the air. So Bats does know Selina is Cats while she is unaware and doesn't seem to care of his alter-ego. Enjoying the sensual dynamic and refreshing to see Bats get some action
rather than it just be as Wayne.
Hilarious scene when Bruce is macking on Selina when she is incognito at some mob gala and Alfred pops up from out of nowhere to inform him that he traced the call she was making.
Though Catwoman seemed to have the ruskies in line-- all with a wig, pink bedazzled cell, whip and a firecracker-- the outro filled with Bone and his henchmen will go beyond her fill with Bats in for the save.
Poor Lola.
This is the book you wanna read that truly personifies the street-realness grit and scum of Gotham thug life.
I really don't get why this title isn't getting more positive reviews and accolades. Whatevs, I can be the lone torchbearer if necessary. Keep things moving ya'll! Only one other creative combo and title could top Catwoman for the weekly reads and that is...
1 Justice League #2 Geoff Johns & Jim Lee
Last ish we got a glimpse of GL and Bats vs Supes-- more of the same with a helping of "the man whos never been touched"-- the Flash. Sickness how Lee illustrates the speed battle between Flash and Supes. Some real shit to see how truly overpowered the three are individually when matched up against Superman.
Batman eventually gets through to Kal-El through logic and reasoning (yeah those weren't in his utility belt huh?) as the four go underground to escape some military vehicles sent in to contain the metas. We are then brought over to STAR Labs where Victor and his pops argue about his future when simultaneously the mother box goes BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Out comes a horde of Parademons chanting out For Darkseid!!! And we see how Cyborg comes to be in this Johns & Lee production. Justice League is a grandiose, epic, page-flipping behemoth of a read that gives us first looks of iconic heroes meeting, dealing with eachother, the general public and a force that is bigger and more powerful than any of them can handle individually. Up next Wonderwoman.
This post was written by:
big O
5 Nightwing #2 Kyle Higgins & Eddy Barrows
Good to see that some vital elements to Dick Grayson hasn't changed post-New52-- like his taste for redheads. After squabing some with the masked mystery-killer that is on the hunt for Grayson-- Dick gets a surprise visit from a childhood friend Raya Vestri (had to let you know that isn't Babs) who is in need of his help. As they fly over to Atlantic City, Raya informs Dick that Mr. Haly (of Haly's Circus) asked her to bring
After receiving the deed for Haly's Circus and learning that Mr. Haly knew all along that he was Nightwing-- Dick realizes he was being tailed by the killer who goes by the name of Saiko (slang for cool or awesome in Japanese).
Saiko leads Nightwing back to Mr. Haly-- who was tortured into revealing Dick's heroic alter ego and they brawl again. They go evenly matched until Dick brings the roof down on Saiko the Psycho.
Before Mr. Haly passes, he apologizes to NW into bringing him into all of this...and with that we are left with questions as to why Saiko wanted Dick Grayson dead and how that now connects with the secret of Haly's Circus. We all know that Saiko will return yes?? Higgins and Barrows got me more into their story and made me take another look at #1 again to see why I wasn't so into it. The answer to that-- along with some of the other #1s I wasn't feeling as much as the second issues is getting past the reintro to the character-- which for many, hasn't changed dramatically. But for those #1s that had major shakeups- like Action, Detective, Justice League and Wonderwoman, well they just rocked.
4 Wonder Woman #2 Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang
Azz & Chiang bring us to Paradise Island where we get introduced to a very different looking Queen Hippolyta that doesn't need to bear the same look as Diana being that she was never part of the JSA in the New 52. Really dig the simplistic, medieval stylings of the Amazons to contrast the decadent Olympians.
Seeing how the two daughters-- Strife / Diana interact with their mothers-- Hera / Hippolyta also serves for fabulously layered characterizations. Thanks for that Azz! We learn of Hera's deep jealousy of Zeus' many bastard children as Hippolyta warns her daughter of helping to protect Zola. Hermes recounts the origin of Wonderwoman, perfect for not being created by the seed of a male. As some of us already know, we learn that is not entirely true.
Strife attacks Paradise Island by making the Amazons attack one another and WW lassos up some truth from her only to find that Zola isn't the bastard she came looking for.
Nope, the bastard is...Diana!! Eww, ahh, ohh...lame that some of us had to hear that spoiler from the NY Post last week..but hey at least Wonder Woman is making the news over things with more substance than hotpants.
3 Batman #2 Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Nice dramatic touch to have Batman believe it as a myth too. I so love that the concept of Owlman is being fleshed out as a major antagonist to the Dark Knight and the redesign is ill! Does resemble the Immortals from 300 some but that is genius to pull from anyhow. Capullo's style is growing on me more and his depiction of Nightwing was on point.
Yeah, I am feeling like that cat Lincoln is associated with the Owls in some way cause yo...when does anybody ever tower over Bruce like that? The backward sequencing from end to start to end again was a treat and the fight scene with the Owl vs. Bruce & Gotham City architecture killed me. I can't remember all of the Batbooks being so damn delish. Mike Marts is the man.
2 Catwoman #2 Judd Winick &Guillem March
Winick, March and Morey are blessing their creative juices all over the place leaving Catwoman fans like you and me pumping our fists in the air. So Bats does know Selina is Cats while she is unaware and doesn't seem to care of his alter-ego. Enjoying the sensual dynamic and refreshing to see Bats get some action
Hilarious scene when Bruce is macking on Selina when she is incognito at some mob gala and Alfred pops up from out of nowhere to inform him that he traced the call she was making.
Though Catwoman seemed to have the ruskies in line-- all with a wig, pink bedazzled cell, whip and a firecracker-- the outro filled with Bone and his henchmen will go beyond her fill with Bats in for the save.
Poor Lola.
This is the book you wanna read that truly personifies the street-realness grit and scum of Gotham thug life.
I really don't get why this title isn't getting more positive reviews and accolades. Whatevs, I can be the lone torchbearer if necessary. Keep things moving ya'll! Only one other creative combo and title could top Catwoman for the weekly reads and that is...
1 Justice League #2 Geoff Johns & Jim Lee
Last ish we got a glimpse of GL and Bats vs Supes-- more of the same with a helping of "the man whos never been touched"-- the Flash. Sickness how Lee illustrates the speed battle between Flash and Supes. Some real shit to see how truly overpowered the three are individually when matched up against Superman.
Out comes a horde of Parademons chanting out For Darkseid!!! And we see how Cyborg comes to be in this Johns & Lee production. Justice League is a grandiose, epic, page-flipping behemoth of a read that gives us first looks of iconic heroes meeting, dealing with eachother, the general public and a force that is bigger and more powerful than any of them can handle individually. Up next Wonderwoman.
This post was written by:
big O
Oct 16, 2011
Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 10.12.2011
2:58 PM
A crap load of books to consume in Eastcoast swing week of NYCC. Don't pubs know that we don't have that much time to read with all the juicy news feeding our mental on the daily?? Finally caught up and put these books in the library: Suicide Squad #2 / Orchid #1 / Mister Terrific #2 / FF #10 / American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #5 / Deathstroke #2 / Shade #1 / Green Lantern #2 / Batman and Robin #2 / Demon Knights #2 / Batgirl #2 / Uncanny X-Force #16 / Batwoman #2 / SHIELD #3. And the meanest books that I was really feeling are...
5 The Shade #1 James Robinson & Cully Hamner
Shade comes back in The New 52 with a year-long celebration of immortal, dark, brooding misadventures in his beloved Opal City. I never caught the classic tales of James Robinson's Starman (in the queue tho) in the mid-90s but was hooked into the character of Shade in The Blackest Night Starman one-shot.
With an entourage of fly artists- Cully Hamner, Fazier Irving, Darwyn Cooke, Jill Thompson and others to share in the visuals...well, count me in for the Master of Darkness. Scenes sweeping smoothly from his deck with Mikaal over tea, to his bed with Hope, a promenade thru the park and some shadow-puppet fun with Deathstroke.
Robinson's conversational dialogue is delectable to the voyeur in all of us and sick to see Hamner busting his pencilwork on one of the many redesigns he took part in *pointing at Slade. Some shit when Deathstroke's 3 page cameo is better than the last of his 2 books. This read like many of Robinson's best work seems to read too fast yet be gratifying enough as a fully encapsulated oneshot. Definitely back for more in November.
4 Batwoman #2 J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman
JHW3 is back with his sequential art seduction and tantalizing panel porn. Bom-chika-wow-wow! From the opening flip you get modernized, future-now like storytelling of Kate Kane and her cuz breaking bones, balls and the conventional comic as we know it. You see his influence in everything these days be it Manapul's exhilarating experimentation in typesets flowing to the art or even the signature Bat logo used for framing in
other Batfam books. Last ish, Batwoman made a fan in Black Mask and finds another in the Department of Extranormal Ops with all of her freaky-deaky affairs.
Kate takes out Det. Sawyer for a drink and we get a well crafted panel spliced-splash of them in a bar and an onlooking Desolation Jones playing lurker (how tasty would it be to get him in the New52?!)
Batman follows up with his offer to Kane on repping Batman Inc. and is offered advice on how to avoid creating sidekicks into future supervillians. Does that make Red Hood/Jason Todd that in the DCnU? Hmm... Kate investigates the point of origin to the kiddie-abductor ghost and gets washed away into the phantoms grasp. What happens next?!
3 Uncanny X-Force #16 Rick Remender & Jerome Opena
The Dark Angel Saga, a new school classic in the making-- hits the crescendo with Fantomex, Deadpool and Deathlok on the hunt for Archangel, his Horsemen and other followers of Akkaba. Psylocke in captivity has hope that Warren is still within the evolving Apocalypse and makes attempts to reach out with fail. AOA Blob make a disgustingly, nasty entrance by treating Fantomex to a tour of his innards and Deadpool jumps
into battle with AOA Iceman who goes ice-god on his ass. The art team of Opena and White combine to flesh out a crazy barrage of visual storytelling that dresses up the script to the nines.
Pestilence regains consciousness, burns down Ship and Logan within it. For like 3 pages that is...when Wolvie re-enters the stage with a slicing and dicing to end Pestilences' deadly music career.
Archangel goes the way of Dr. Frankenstein with the world-seed and shanks Betsy in the back to re-animate her as his perfect companion. The next ish sports a cover that shows Psylocke in a very Lady Mandarin-like look. Ah the 90's nostalgia, love it Remender! Why do we need Regenesis?! Thankfully, we will still have Remender the title and on Secret Avengers after this magnificent run ends at #19.
& basic origin-- moving into the nitty gritty of the writers subplots and what not. Tomasi brings us deeper into Bruce's concerns with his son's ninja-assassin upbringing via Talia and the League of Shadows.
Gleason/Gray/Kalisz portray brooding pictures and ambiguous angles of Damian that make us wonder, is it possible for Batman to steer this Robin in a different way then his failure with Jason Todd (Red Hood)? The intimate scenes between father and son almost seem like Bruce is getting played.
Alfred gives Bruce some pointers and also provides us with a third party observer of the two (without the unnecessary monologue). As Batman and Robin, the duo team up in a way that looks practiced to perfection. But when we go back to the cave and witness the odd complexities of their chemistry and bear witness to the haunting image of Damian catching and choking out a bat, that's gotta be some foreshadowing of whats to come.
The twist of bringing in Ducard (one of Bats primary mentors -- in detective work/firearms, for more read Blind Justice and no he is not Ra's) is tight. So Nobody is actually a mean cat named Morgan that Bruce is familiar with and oh hey, looks like Damian will be getting a new doggy!
1 Green Lantern #2 Geoff Johns & Doug Mahnke
Yeah boyee!!! Sinestro really is the greatest Green Lantern afterall. We experience this in a number of ways by first seeing how he is able to create a ring for Hal to use (like his yellow rings of Fear), teaching Hal that acting on impulse is a limited scope in dealing with things-- like rather than saving one hawt chick falling from a bridge-- why not fix the bridge, lift the cars /people and multiple things all in unison. Whoa.
Johns promised at NYCC that we would be treated to Sinestro using willpower like we have never seen before. So, so sick. Maybe this is Sinestro realizing how much potential Jordan actually has when he single-handedly destroyed a Guardian, or this could just be his means of using Hal as a wingman for villianous deeds he is concocting.
Up next, Sinestro and Hal vs the Sinestro Corps!! So does this mean they will just be called the Fear or Yellow Corps now???!! Mahnke is fucking incredible.
This post was written by:
big O
5 The Shade #1 James Robinson & Cully Hamner
With an entourage of fly artists- Cully Hamner, Fazier Irving, Darwyn Cooke, Jill Thompson and others to share in the visuals...well, count me in for the Master of Darkness. Scenes sweeping smoothly from his deck with Mikaal over tea, to his bed with Hope, a promenade thru the park and some shadow-puppet fun with Deathstroke.
Robinson's conversational dialogue is delectable to the voyeur in all of us and sick to see Hamner busting his pencilwork on one of the many redesigns he took part in *pointing at Slade. Some shit when Deathstroke's 3 page cameo is better than the last of his 2 books. This read like many of Robinson's best work seems to read too fast yet be gratifying enough as a fully encapsulated oneshot. Definitely back for more in November.
4 Batwoman #2 J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman
JHW3 is back with his sequential art seduction and tantalizing panel porn. Bom-chika-wow-wow! From the opening flip you get modernized, future-now like storytelling of Kate Kane and her cuz breaking bones, balls and the conventional comic as we know it. You see his influence in everything these days be it Manapul's exhilarating experimentation in typesets flowing to the art or even the signature Bat logo used for framing in
Kate takes out Det. Sawyer for a drink and we get a well crafted panel spliced-splash of them in a bar and an onlooking Desolation Jones playing lurker (how tasty would it be to get him in the New52?!)
Batman follows up with his offer to Kane on repping Batman Inc. and is offered advice on how to avoid creating sidekicks into future supervillians. Does that make Red Hood/Jason Todd that in the DCnU? Hmm... Kate investigates the point of origin to the kiddie-abductor ghost and gets washed away into the phantoms grasp. What happens next?!
3 Uncanny X-Force #16 Rick Remender & Jerome Opena
The Dark Angel Saga, a new school classic in the making-- hits the crescendo with Fantomex, Deadpool and Deathlok on the hunt for Archangel, his Horsemen and other followers of Akkaba. Psylocke in captivity has hope that Warren is still within the evolving Apocalypse and makes attempts to reach out with fail. AOA Blob make a disgustingly, nasty entrance by treating Fantomex to a tour of his innards and Deadpool jumps
into battle with AOA Iceman who goes ice-god on his ass. The art team of Opena and White combine to flesh out a crazy barrage of visual storytelling that dresses up the script to the nines.
Pestilence regains consciousness, burns down Ship and Logan within it. For like 3 pages that is...when Wolvie re-enters the stage with a slicing and dicing to end Pestilences' deadly music career.
Archangel goes the way of Dr. Frankenstein with the world-seed and shanks Betsy in the back to re-animate her as his perfect companion. The next ish sports a cover that shows Psylocke in a very Lady Mandarin-like look. Ah the 90's nostalgia, love it Remender! Why do we need Regenesis?! Thankfully, we will still have Remender the title and on Secret Avengers after this magnificent run ends at #19.
2 Batman and Robin #2 Peter J. Tomasi &Patrick Gleason
All the talk of shops going down in excitement and sales with the #2s vs. #1s is understood from the major influx of casual to non-comics heads jumping in and out of the shops to be a part of DC's New 52 marketing bandwagon, but for those that have read on to at least the second ish should be pleased with story dev. I know that I am. For the most part each second book has been better for me being that we are past the intro
& basic origin-- moving into the nitty gritty of the writers subplots and what not. Tomasi brings us deeper into Bruce's concerns with his son's ninja-assassin upbringing via Talia and the League of Shadows. Gleason/Gray/Kalisz portray brooding pictures and ambiguous angles of Damian that make us wonder, is it possible for Batman to steer this Robin in a different way then his failure with Jason Todd (Red Hood)? The intimate scenes between father and son almost seem like Bruce is getting played.
Alfred gives Bruce some pointers and also provides us with a third party observer of the two (without the unnecessary monologue). As Batman and Robin, the duo team up in a way that looks practiced to perfection. But when we go back to the cave and witness the odd complexities of their chemistry and bear witness to the haunting image of Damian catching and choking out a bat, that's gotta be some foreshadowing of whats to come.
The twist of bringing in Ducard (one of Bats primary mentors -- in detective work/firearms, for more read Blind Justice and no he is not Ra's) is tight. So Nobody is actually a mean cat named Morgan that Bruce is familiar with and oh hey, looks like Damian will be getting a new doggy!
1 Green Lantern #2 Geoff Johns & Doug Mahnke
Yeah boyee!!! Sinestro really is the greatest Green Lantern afterall. We experience this in a number of ways by first seeing how he is able to create a ring for Hal to use (like his yellow rings of Fear), teaching Hal that acting on impulse is a limited scope in dealing with things-- like rather than saving one hawt chick falling from a bridge-- why not fix the bridge, lift the cars /people and multiple things all in unison. Whoa.
Up next, Sinestro and Hal vs the Sinestro Corps!! So does this mean they will just be called the Fear or Yellow Corps now???!! Mahnke is fucking incredible.
This post was written by:
big O
Oct 8, 2011
Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 10.05.2011
11:59 PM
An incredible batch of books this week that made me want to have ties for certain tops posts. Though I wanted to highlight more than the normal 5 reads, I stuck to my guns as I bruised through these lucky thirteen o' comics: Action Comics #2 / Detective Comics #2 / Swamp Thing #2 / The Last of the Greats #1 / Penguin: Pain and Prejudice #1 / Animal Man #2 / Severed #3 / Huntress #1 / Casanova: Avaritia II / Stormwatch #2 / Red Lanterns #2 / Justice League International #2 / X-23 #15. Seriously, I changed out the last 3 spots over 4 times because of honorable mentions- Last of the Greats, Action Comics, Swamp Thing and Penguin...here it goes!
5 Casanova: Avaritia II Matt Fraction & Gabriel Ba
Fraction and Ba continue their time-splitting, evocative, Pink Floydinian of a thrill-ride in numero dos of Avaritia. Quinn sees the logic in sacrificing one for many by going on a hunt though every existence of
interplanetary rockstar- Luther Desmond Diamond.
In pure 12 Monkeys fashion, the neverending time-travelling takes its toll on our "hero" and we see this have a hallucinogenic effect on the visuals and dialogue as if we are in a room with Fraction and Ba shrooming and toking along with them.
Not sure if its intended but Quinn sure does resemble Ba and Desmond Fraction huh? Is this the artists way of saying eff you for pushing him around with the word bubble heavy script that takes away from his artistic airspace?! Ha, now it seems that I am making no sense in this rev that is perfect cause when it comes down to it-- this book is all about the LAFFS!! Three fave panels are the kung-fu panda meets game of thrones, comiccon death scene and the when Quinn pulls some crows out of his ass. Fun, fun, fun.
4 The Huntress #1 Paul Levitz & Marcus To
Its downright fabulous when we get to have a creator of an iconic character reunite in a book of this kind of magnitude and importance. Why is Huntress such a major deal you ask?? Well if you didn't catch the DC All Access page in the back of this weeks reads-- we find out that this is the first of the Earth 2 books to come out!! Yes, we have Earth 2 Huntress- daughter of Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne in all of her kickass
awesomeness.
Helena goes back to the motherland of Italia and muses her innner Jane Bond while finding herself in the middle of a slave-trade that is of course run by some no-nonsense cosa nostra. Huntress uses her brand of justice on a bunch of thugs with her signature facekicks, crossbow and everything else that ends with broken bones of her opposition.
Marcus To, who I was introduced to with his mad penciling in Red Robin-- busts some ill action sequences and balances out the sexiness but in a fully clothed affair. Just love that Guillem March rocked the cover of the book and got away with throwing in that product placement for Victoria' Secret lace thong hanging from the clothesline!! Ha! Loved the book and twiddling my thumbs in excitement for Robinson/Scott's forthcoming Justice Society book.
3 Severed #3 Scott Snyder / Scott Tuft & Attila Futaki
You know that creepy ass Korean webcomic that went viral a few months ago and scared the hell out of us on the interwebs making us relive the crabwalk scene from Exorcist the Director's Cut-- so that don't got shit on Severed. As I read through the first 2 issues I could see the importance of fleshing out the young protagonists of the book- Jack & Sam, while giving us enough to keep interested on that sick, demented old
creepy-creeper. Now in ish 3 we get the gathering of the three over ironically, dinner.
Futaki masterfully pans, scans and lays down the most convincingly emotive close up sequences that entertains you without the stereo surround. All of the silence as we read is enough noise to get under your skin and stay with you as you have the shape of Fisher's teeth engrained in your mind.
Jack's naivete makes you wanna slap him in the head and tell him to get the hell out of there!! Sam's instincts may be enough to keep them safe-- though I feel that a book of this nature can't end well. DC has made the jump from bridging the genres of superhero and horror but when a rare gem like this comes along you get why Snyder and Tuft went with Image and of course to keep creative rights to this made for film storyline. Must read book if you haven't heard. Get it!
2 Animal Man #2 Jeff Lemire &Travel Foreman
I have the sneaking suspicion that into book #5 this title may need to be renamed Daughter of Animal Man cos really tho, Maxine steals the show. We learn the extent of her new powers that surpasses Buddys as we see when she protects her older brother from a d*ckhead neighbor by turning his hand into a chicken foot.
So damn funny as we see those re-animated bones (Mr. Pickles and friends) running around all of the madness and through the lens of an iPhone.
Foreman's creative plotting is a visceral, graphic heavy spectacle that oozes of strange and fantastic. Appreciate how there seems to be very little need for limitation or rules on how the pages are laid out and imagined. No other book out there that puts me through this experimentation of storytelling besides J.H. Williams III's Batwoman. I still can't believe this is the same guy thatw as drawing Iron Fist. Amazing!
As scary and obscure things get with the nasty happenings to animals at the zoo and intro to some of the baddies--Maxine's carefree, spirit and ease of navigating to the Red keeps the mood balanced. Every ish feels so short with Lemire's superior cliffhangers that you love to hate. Thanks again to Scott Snyder for turning me on to this massive read.
1 Detective Comics #2 Tony Daniel & Ryan Winn
How the hell has Tony Salvador Daniel gotten this good as a storyteller?! I really thought last ish was the highest of highs that he could pull off but again he proves me wrong. Jerk! Similar to how Daniel had full reign in character redesigns with Battle for the Cowl-- we get introduced for the first time to more of his crafty inventions, enter Dollmaker and his demented family.
Wait, lets rewind a bit. The second ish of DC's historically, most significant title (yes, DC was named after this book after it changed from National Comics and was the longest running book for the company)-- blew me the eff away on how well it orchestrated plotlines between Bruce Wayne to Gordon & his GCPD then to the Dark Knight. If Batman Incorporated was the go to Batman book a few months ago-- it looks like that has all but changed if Daniel can keep this incredibly high level of words & art where its at two issues in. And for those that know thats a huge feat with top scribes- Scott Snyder, Pete Tomasi, Judd Winick and Grant Morrison (back in January) amongst the Bat-fam writers.
Serious, mad props to colorist Tomeu Morey that really brings Daniel's already stunning visuals to a more realistic, brooding feel that already celebrate in Guillem March's work (another Gotham artist that Morey regulars with).
The subtle touches of keeping Batman out at night and Bruce Wayne at play during the day sounds elementary but that slight of hand is so powerful in maintaining the two opposing characterizations. Along with Daniels showing he has some wordsmith chops-- I gotta say that his Dark Knight is the best out there amongst Finch, Capullo, Gleason and even Jim Lee. Here is your long-overdue shout Tony Daniel. Keep it coming son!
This post was written by:
big O
5 Casanova: Avaritia II Matt Fraction & Gabriel Ba
Fraction and Ba continue their time-splitting, evocative, Pink Floydinian of a thrill-ride in numero dos of Avaritia. Quinn sees the logic in sacrificing one for many by going on a hunt though every existence of
In pure 12 Monkeys fashion, the neverending time-travelling takes its toll on our "hero" and we see this have a hallucinogenic effect on the visuals and dialogue as if we are in a room with Fraction and Ba shrooming and toking along with them.
Not sure if its intended but Quinn sure does resemble Ba and Desmond Fraction huh? Is this the artists way of saying eff you for pushing him around with the word bubble heavy script that takes away from his artistic airspace?! Ha, now it seems that I am making no sense in this rev that is perfect cause when it comes down to it-- this book is all about the LAFFS!! Three fave panels are the kung-fu panda meets game of thrones, comiccon death scene and the when Quinn pulls some crows out of his ass. Fun, fun, fun.
4 The Huntress #1 Paul Levitz & Marcus To
Its downright fabulous when we get to have a creator of an iconic character reunite in a book of this kind of magnitude and importance. Why is Huntress such a major deal you ask?? Well if you didn't catch the DC All Access page in the back of this weeks reads-- we find out that this is the first of the Earth 2 books to come out!! Yes, we have Earth 2 Huntress- daughter of Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne in all of her kickass
Helena goes back to the motherland of Italia and muses her innner Jane Bond while finding herself in the middle of a slave-trade that is of course run by some no-nonsense cosa nostra. Huntress uses her brand of justice on a bunch of thugs with her signature facekicks, crossbow and everything else that ends with broken bones of her opposition.
Marcus To, who I was introduced to with his mad penciling in Red Robin-- busts some ill action sequences and balances out the sexiness but in a fully clothed affair. Just love that Guillem March rocked the cover of the book and got away with throwing in that product placement for Victoria' Secret lace thong hanging from the clothesline!! Ha! Loved the book and twiddling my thumbs in excitement for Robinson/Scott's forthcoming Justice Society book.
3 Severed #3 Scott Snyder / Scott Tuft & Attila Futaki
You know that creepy ass Korean webcomic that went viral a few months ago and scared the hell out of us on the interwebs making us relive the crabwalk scene from Exorcist the Director's Cut-- so that don't got shit on Severed. As I read through the first 2 issues I could see the importance of fleshing out the young protagonists of the book- Jack & Sam, while giving us enough to keep interested on that sick, demented old
Futaki masterfully pans, scans and lays down the most convincingly emotive close up sequences that entertains you without the stereo surround. All of the silence as we read is enough noise to get under your skin and stay with you as you have the shape of Fisher's teeth engrained in your mind.
Jack's naivete makes you wanna slap him in the head and tell him to get the hell out of there!! Sam's instincts may be enough to keep them safe-- though I feel that a book of this nature can't end well. DC has made the jump from bridging the genres of superhero and horror but when a rare gem like this comes along you get why Snyder and Tuft went with Image and of course to keep creative rights to this made for film storyline. Must read book if you haven't heard. Get it!
2 Animal Man #2 Jeff Lemire &Travel Foreman
I have the sneaking suspicion that into book #5 this title may need to be renamed Daughter of Animal Man cos really tho, Maxine steals the show. We learn the extent of her new powers that surpasses Buddys as we see when she protects her older brother from a d*ckhead neighbor by turning his hand into a chicken foot.
Foreman's creative plotting is a visceral, graphic heavy spectacle that oozes of strange and fantastic. Appreciate how there seems to be very little need for limitation or rules on how the pages are laid out and imagined. No other book out there that puts me through this experimentation of storytelling besides J.H. Williams III's Batwoman. I still can't believe this is the same guy thatw as drawing Iron Fist. Amazing!
As scary and obscure things get with the nasty happenings to animals at the zoo and intro to some of the baddies--Maxine's carefree, spirit and ease of navigating to the Red keeps the mood balanced. Every ish feels so short with Lemire's superior cliffhangers that you love to hate. Thanks again to Scott Snyder for turning me on to this massive read.
1 Detective Comics #2 Tony Daniel & Ryan Winn
How the hell has Tony Salvador Daniel gotten this good as a storyteller?! I really thought last ish was the highest of highs that he could pull off but again he proves me wrong. Jerk! Similar to how Daniel had full reign in character redesigns with Battle for the Cowl-- we get introduced for the first time to more of his crafty inventions, enter Dollmaker and his demented family.
Wait, lets rewind a bit. The second ish of DC's historically, most significant title (yes, DC was named after this book after it changed from National Comics and was the longest running book for the company)-- blew me the eff away on how well it orchestrated plotlines between Bruce Wayne to Gordon & his GCPD then to the Dark Knight. If Batman Incorporated was the go to Batman book a few months ago-- it looks like that has all but changed if Daniel can keep this incredibly high level of words & art where its at two issues in. And for those that know thats a huge feat with top scribes- Scott Snyder, Pete Tomasi, Judd Winick and Grant Morrison (back in January) amongst the Bat-fam writers.
Serious, mad props to colorist Tomeu Morey that really brings Daniel's already stunning visuals to a more realistic, brooding feel that already celebrate in Guillem March's work (another Gotham artist that Morey regulars with).
The subtle touches of keeping Batman out at night and Bruce Wayne at play during the day sounds elementary but that slight of hand is so powerful in maintaining the two opposing characterizations. Along with Daniels showing he has some wordsmith chops-- I gotta say that his Dark Knight is the best out there amongst Finch, Capullo, Gleason and even Jim Lee. Here is your long-overdue shout Tony Daniel. Keep it coming son!
This post was written by:
big O
Oct 2, 2011
Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 9.28.2011
10:45 AM
The final week of DC Comics The New 52 #1 debuts and all looks to be going as planned with Marvel losing some footing in marketshare and more importantly-- the world getting some crazy, sick, entertaining reads from the heavy talent at DC. The books that made up the weekly stack were: Fury of Firestorms #1 / The Flash #1/ Green Lantern: New Guardians #1 / Teen Titans #1 / Aquaman #1 / FF #9 / The Mighty Thor #6 / Justice League Dark #1 / Voodoo #1 / Batman: The Dark Knight #1 / Secret Avengers #17. The hitmakers that kicked my ass were...
5 The Fury of Firestorms #1 Ethan Van Sciver / Gail Simone & Yildiray Cinar
Firestorm has always been somewhat annoying to me since a youth and I never really resonated with the corny-ness of his character (much like Shazam). But after Brightest Day, he came out along with Dove and Deadman as some of my new fave characters. Huge fan of Simone and hang by the balls of Van Sciver so it
was guaranteed that this would be an add to the pullist.
Glad I did yo.
Post Flashpoint we have Ronnie and Jason at the same High School and even his Asian GF Tonya is still around! Yes, even in comics Black doods love the azns. Ronnie is the star Quarterback, Jason is the nerdy newspaper columnist. So yes, they don't get along.
Some stone-cold killers searching around for a missing Firestorm protocol and they leave a trail of blood wherever they go.
As you would expect with the interacial bromance going on between Jason and Ronnie-- Simone & Van Sciver cleverly touch on the race card and start the dialogue for what many readers have hoped would be a component to this ongoing story. Cinar is solid on art duties and improved greatly in more creative paneling from his last stint on Legion of Super Heroes. Nice spin on Jason being the first Firestorm and accidentally transforming Ronnie into one too. Not so cool that they become a Firestorm version of Hulk, called Fury. Very corny but besides that a title that I will pickup with the same creative team attached to it.
4 Teen Titans #4 Scott Lobdell & Brett Booth
Lobdell seems to have copped Geoff Johns script for Justice League and busted his thing with Red Robin and Wonder Girl in place of Batman and Green Lantern. This is not a bad thing though. It actually works really well. And Booth is like a poor mans Jim Lee. So if you liked Justice League #1 and have a thing for the Titans jump on it.
The book opens with a nice jab at Marvel with the burning down of a Westchester Mansion (Xavier's School of Mutants mayhaps?) Kid Flash dashes in to attempt in saving the day and instead works as a nice news story on how meta-teens need to be put in check. Enter Red Robin and you all know Tim Drake kicks ass.
Awesomeness how Drake throws an old framed pic of him as Robin with Bats to drop an assassin without even looking. He is coerced to join up with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. (my guess is they are the League of Assassins) who have been scooping up some of the young metas around the world. He says no with a B-BOOM. Things shift to the world of Cassie Sandsmark who attempts to use her blonde, crying routine to get out of a speeding ticket. Surprisingly it doesn't work. Red Robin...err..what I meant was Wonder Girl to the rescue. After they take out the fake cop and heli-drone...much like the end of Justice League--we get Superboy. Love the redesigns of Red Robin with his armored Silver Hawk-like wings and the more emo, Donna Troy-esque version of Cassie. Hip, fun dialogue and balls out action. Oh to be young!
3 FF #9 Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
Usually its the final moments in a book that makes you go ga-ga, but not this time. Its the first 2 pages that killed me when Diablo and the Mad Thinker thinking they got Doom in their doublecross and get straight took. Don't hate the playa, hate the game MT.
Reed, his pops Nathaniel and Spidey are summoned to Attilan by Medusa and are welcomed by the recently revived Black Bolt with his harem of wives.
They then watch on how his royalty handles all of the rogue Reed's while sitting on his throne chilling with his 5 wives. Well except for one of em. The last Reed defeats Doom and collars his ass telling him that he is his new manservant.
Boo!!! Doom will prevail, I just know it!! (especially from seeing him still around on the FF in Previews). Epting and Hickman continue busting the best books out of Marvel and the only reason the title wasn't placed higher is cause they hated on Doom. So looking forward to his solo book--please don't eff it up Nick Spencer!!! This is the first book ever that has Spider-Man playing with a dog through a whole ish--just saying.
2 The Flash #1 Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Since Johns has rebooted Barry Allen as the new Flash in the same way of the rebirth of Hal I followed along. Near the end of the run for whatever reason-- probably being that Barry is just so robotic and kinda boring--I was about to jump ship. Manapul & Buccellato got me intrigued with their own take on Barry.
With Manapul now on co-plotting-- I can feel enough of Johns writing and influence but I think that Barry has less of a Dexter (monologue-heavy) appeal to it. Another difference is the way he interacts with people
around him. Like new/old love interest Patty Spivot who is back from Flashpoint without the Hot Pursuit duds but featured as Barry's main squeeze.
But you can never count out Iris West, who will always be a part of Barry's romantic life somehow. Like, Clark and Lois' new dynamic-- we get to see Barry and Iris pre-dating, marriage and etc. And it is fresh. Speaking of fresh, check Manapul's new visual rendition on Iris--D's mutheffing D's, Rosie Perez!
Had to bust a double take at how Manapul illustrates femme figs with more of a busty Phil Noto-ish sizzle to it. Huge improvement brotha!
Barry gets stuck on how one of his old running buddy gets caught up with the wrong crowd and ends up dead. Until his dead friend Manuel shows up to his pad and low and behold-- they are surrounded by a bunch of Manuels?!
Holy Jango Fett, Batman!!! Loved this book soo much I read it thrice. Not alone either being that Flash seemed to be the pick of the week at my top comics new spots.
1 Aquaman #1 Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis
All joking aside--though Johns gets the laughs all out of our system in this first ish-- I am not here for Aquaman. I am here for his hawt-ass, redheaded, powerhouse-of-a-wifey Mera. Seriously. She has become a top heroine of DC lore since her fab comeback in Blackest Night, through Brightest Day and how her character is portrayed in WB animation . Okay, I am also here for Black Manta and Kalder too. Hope that
Aqualad made the cut post-Flashpoint (of course he is right with the success of Young Justice alone). A big problem I always had with water based demigods like Namor and Aquaman is that I really felt zero connection to them as they were like aliens in another planet-- sure its our ocean on our planet-- but the concept never stuck cause their worlds felt so far away.
Johns/Reis is flanking that issue keeping Arthur and Mera away (at least initially) from the depths of the ocean, Atlantis and etc by having them stay on land-- calling home to the old lighthouse of his parents. Good call on that one fellas! With all the major breakups of DC (Clark/Lois, Barry/Iris, Oliver/Dinah) in the New 52 its fresh that this power couple still remains. Maybe Jay-Z will grow on me with the more I get to see of Beyonce...you know what I mean. Nah, really though Aquaman is thug and glad to see he is back in his own book minus the hook, goatee or rocker hair. Brazilians Ivan Reis/Joe Prado is this generations Jim Lee/Scott Williams (minus the delays-ha!!!).
This post was written by:
big O
5 The Fury of Firestorms #1 Ethan Van Sciver / Gail Simone & Yildiray Cinar
Firestorm has always been somewhat annoying to me since a youth and I never really resonated with the corny-ness of his character (much like Shazam). But after Brightest Day, he came out along with Dove and Deadman as some of my new fave characters. Huge fan of Simone and hang by the balls of Van Sciver so it
Glad I did yo.
Post Flashpoint we have Ronnie and Jason at the same High School and even his Asian GF Tonya is still around! Yes, even in comics Black doods love the azns. Ronnie is the star Quarterback, Jason is the nerdy newspaper columnist. So yes, they don't get along.
Some stone-cold killers searching around for a missing Firestorm protocol and they leave a trail of blood wherever they go.
As you would expect with the interacial bromance going on between Jason and Ronnie-- Simone & Van Sciver cleverly touch on the race card and start the dialogue for what many readers have hoped would be a component to this ongoing story. Cinar is solid on art duties and improved greatly in more creative paneling from his last stint on Legion of Super Heroes. Nice spin on Jason being the first Firestorm and accidentally transforming Ronnie into one too. Not so cool that they become a Firestorm version of Hulk, called Fury. Very corny but besides that a title that I will pickup with the same creative team attached to it.
4 Teen Titans #4 Scott Lobdell & Brett Booth
Lobdell seems to have copped Geoff Johns script for Justice League and busted his thing with Red Robin and Wonder Girl in place of Batman and Green Lantern. This is not a bad thing though. It actually works really well. And Booth is like a poor mans Jim Lee. So if you liked Justice League #1 and have a thing for the Titans jump on it.
The book opens with a nice jab at Marvel with the burning down of a Westchester Mansion (Xavier's School of Mutants mayhaps?) Kid Flash dashes in to attempt in saving the day and instead works as a nice news story on how meta-teens need to be put in check. Enter Red Robin and you all know Tim Drake kicks ass.Awesomeness how Drake throws an old framed pic of him as Robin with Bats to drop an assassin without even looking. He is coerced to join up with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. (my guess is they are the League of Assassins) who have been scooping up some of the young metas around the world. He says no with a B-BOOM. Things shift to the world of Cassie Sandsmark who attempts to use her blonde, crying routine to get out of a speeding ticket. Surprisingly it doesn't work. Red Robin...err..what I meant was Wonder Girl to the rescue. After they take out the fake cop and heli-drone...much like the end of Justice League--we get Superboy. Love the redesigns of Red Robin with his armored Silver Hawk-like wings and the more emo, Donna Troy-esque version of Cassie. Hip, fun dialogue and balls out action. Oh to be young!
3 FF #9 Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
Usually its the final moments in a book that makes you go ga-ga, but not this time. Its the first 2 pages that killed me when Diablo and the Mad Thinker thinking they got Doom in their doublecross and get straight took. Don't hate the playa, hate the game MT.
Reed, his pops Nathaniel and Spidey are summoned to Attilan by Medusa and are welcomed by the recently revived Black Bolt with his harem of wives.
They then watch on how his royalty handles all of the rogue Reed's while sitting on his throne chilling with his 5 wives. Well except for one of em. The last Reed defeats Doom and collars his ass telling him that he is his new manservant.
Boo!!! Doom will prevail, I just know it!! (especially from seeing him still around on the FF in Previews). Epting and Hickman continue busting the best books out of Marvel and the only reason the title wasn't placed higher is cause they hated on Doom. So looking forward to his solo book--please don't eff it up Nick Spencer!!! This is the first book ever that has Spider-Man playing with a dog through a whole ish--just saying.
2 The Flash #1 Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Since Johns has rebooted Barry Allen as the new Flash in the same way of the rebirth of Hal I followed along. Near the end of the run for whatever reason-- probably being that Barry is just so robotic and kinda boring--I was about to jump ship. Manapul & Buccellato got me intrigued with their own take on Barry.
With Manapul now on co-plotting-- I can feel enough of Johns writing and influence but I think that Barry has less of a Dexter (monologue-heavy) appeal to it. Another difference is the way he interacts with people around him. Like new/old love interest Patty Spivot who is back from Flashpoint without the Hot Pursuit duds but featured as Barry's main squeeze.
But you can never count out Iris West, who will always be a part of Barry's romantic life somehow. Like, Clark and Lois' new dynamic-- we get to see Barry and Iris pre-dating, marriage and etc. And it is fresh. Speaking of fresh, check Manapul's new visual rendition on Iris--D's mutheffing D's, Rosie Perez!
Had to bust a double take at how Manapul illustrates femme figs with more of a busty Phil Noto-ish sizzle to it. Huge improvement brotha!
Barry gets stuck on how one of his old running buddy gets caught up with the wrong crowd and ends up dead. Until his dead friend Manuel shows up to his pad and low and behold-- they are surrounded by a bunch of Manuels?!
Holy Jango Fett, Batman!!! Loved this book soo much I read it thrice. Not alone either being that Flash seemed to be the pick of the week at my top comics new spots.
1 Aquaman #1 Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis
All joking aside--though Johns gets the laughs all out of our system in this first ish-- I am not here for Aquaman. I am here for his hawt-ass, redheaded, powerhouse-of-a-wifey Mera. Seriously. She has become a top heroine of DC lore since her fab comeback in Blackest Night, through Brightest Day and how her character is portrayed in WB animation . Okay, I am also here for Black Manta and Kalder too. Hope that
Johns/Reis is flanking that issue keeping Arthur and Mera away (at least initially) from the depths of the ocean, Atlantis and etc by having them stay on land-- calling home to the old lighthouse of his parents. Good call on that one fellas! With all the major breakups of DC (Clark/Lois, Barry/Iris, Oliver/Dinah) in the New 52 its fresh that this power couple still remains. Maybe Jay-Z will grow on me with the more I get to see of Beyonce...you know what I mean. Nah, really though Aquaman is thug and glad to see he is back in his own book minus the hook, goatee or rocker hair. Brazilians Ivan Reis/Joe Prado is this generations Jim Lee/Scott Williams (minus the delays-ha!!!).
This post was written by:
big O
Sep 23, 2011
Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 9.21.11
11:49 AM
A heaping mouthful of comics grinds to pick at and enjoy this week. Along with the barrage of New52 #1s had a fab back to back week of Mark Waid's DD and an intro to GoT as a comic which was okay but not spectacular enough to bear that brand, here are the others I flipped thru: Nightwing #1 / DC Universe Presents: Deadman #1 / Captain America #3 / The Red Wing #3 / Daredevil #4 / Batman #1 / Wonder Woman #1 / Green Lantern Corps #1 / Catwoman #1 / Dark Horse Presents #4 / Birds of Prey #1 / A Game of Thrones #1 / Hawkeye #2. The massive selections you gotta snatch are...
5 Daredevil #4 Mark Waid & Marcos Martin
I feel cool when I read this book. You know like when you feast your eyes on the newest, funkdobiest Mondo Tees movie art that just mystifies you with its minimal, stylistic steez. Yeah, thats what I get when
chilling with Waid, Marcos and the gang on DD.
From the rad, imaginative cover that has the cityscape with its sights on rat-a-tat-ing the hell out of our fave devil-- to the double page splash, cubic-paneling that has some Olly Moss-ish design work to it. ILL!!!
Foggy and Murdock take on more of those unfavorable cases and their new approach of having peeps represent themselves. As they rake in the wins they put themselves out there to help a client with similar challenges to Murdock. What they don't realize is how much trouble they could be in to help Austin Cao. Did they say something about Latveria? Please make that mean that my fave Dr come by for a house call!! Muntsa Vicente's visual attack on the colors pays homage to the silver-age with a nice modern twist.
4 Batman #1 Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Snyder is one of the baddest, new scribes on the block, as for McFarlane clone aka Capullo-- I am into his cover treatments but interiors can be inconsistent. I would have preferred an artist less cartoony with darker vibes to match Snyder's moods set. Batman illustrator roll-call!! Tony Daniel check, David Finch check, Chris Burnham check, Greg Capullo...
Luckily Fco Placsencia manages the lighting and shadows of Capullo's art with monotones and few brights to keep it Gotham.
You just know that Dick Grayson is gonna get some major blowback for impersonating the Joker-- but liked how they implemented the tech element there along with the concept of a mobile Batcave. So that's how you handle not having Oracle around huh?! Good answer.
Reminds me of how all of us jump on our cell (Google) when we don't know the name of that actress in that one film...yeah but this is all on a Bruce Wayne level budget..cool.
Okay, here is our first family pic of all the Bat-boys in the New 52-- so if Bruce is 29ish, Dick 20ish, Tim 14ish and Damian 10 or so-- I suppose Capullo pulled that off right. Remember what I told you on Grayson getting some payback, well looks like it might happen sooner than I thought. I told Ethan Van Sciver that his variant cover was my highlight of the week-- oh look, now I just told you. Look forward to his co-scribe gig with Gail Simone next week in Fury of Firestorms and of course the covers!!
3 Green Lantern Corps #1 Peter J. Tomasi & Fernando Pasarin
When headed up by team Tomasi/Pasarin-- GLC followed by Emerald Warriors-- were at the times the best Green Lantern book on the planet from month to month. Looks like that pattern could continue. More of the same usage of Guy Gardner as the main man with John Stewart coming in as his right hand in place of
Kyle Rayner who will be handed his own GL book and other Lanterns (from the rest of the color spectrum) next week. Pasarin improves with every book he pumps out as you can see with even more attention to deets with the atmosphere and surroundings of OA.
Like Hal, John and Guy look to find ways of flling their extracurricular time on Earth with their passions but find maybe life on Earth just isn't their calling.
A new super-powered, unknown threat emerges with the ability of taking out a squadron of GLs that are monitoring a sciencell and it goes on to wipe out an entire civilization.
We are left with Guy and John heading up a hand picked team of some hardass GLC to go out and find out what the hell is behind the genocide of a planet. The go to companion book with Green Lantern if you can't shell out the skrill for the other GL books- Red Lanterns and Bedard/Kirkhams upcoming New Guardians title.
2 Wonder Woman #1 Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang
Wonder Woman has been plagued with not having enough readership despite solid creators being assigned but delivering mediocre, unimpressive approaches that are either to filled with Amazonian / Greek dogma or just suck. This ish moves away from all of that by jumping right into action and letting the reader figure things out as the story unfolds. Thank you. Regular comics readers know that Azzarello's scripts never disapoints.
Throw in Cliff Chiang on cinematography and you have yourself a creative team that is up to the challenge on reviving longtime WW fans and grabbing some new ones along for the ride.
I have only enjoyed reading Wolverine (sorry Jason Aaron) and Wonder Woman in their respective team books or in cameo apperances being that the limited screen time seems to force having characterizations down pat.
Azzarello & Chiang have done their homework and scored big in this ish. The physicality and warrior-essence of WW is captured perfectly panel to panel and I am just praying each of the books they crank out can be as good as this one. Most friends and peeps that I have spoke to in shops were stunned how good this book read. No year-long Odyssey crap story needed, TBNT JMS! With confidence I attest that Wonder Woman is up there with Animal Man as the biggest surprise, kick-you-in-the nuts title of the New52 thus far. Yes, this is the top pick by many other top comics sites but I can't deny how effing good the next title is.
1 Catwoman #1 Judd Winick & Guillem March
Sure, everyone is talking about the soft-porn, gratuitous sex scene that was on some Kevin Smith level of nasty (okay not quite but almost- if you don't know type Poison Ivy Widening Gyre in Google search). Besides all that (and come on this is a younger Catwoman and Batman of course there will be loads of sex) this ish entertains like no other.
Unlike Higgins in this weeks Nightwing (was okay), Winick has Selina Kyle down to a science and you get to know enough about her after the first 6 pages in. How does that saying go...brevity is the soul of wit. Winick shows how on top of his game is after busting fab stories in Generation Lost, Power Girl and now in Catwoman. As for the art...
Guillem March is on the Hugh Hefner robe wearing tip (yes, Adam Hughes does go to cons in a robe too) when it comes to fleshing out the sexy, geeky crotch tent inducing imagery. Think DC meets Cinemax after dark. Winick and March rock a very adult-centric title with Catwoman-- as it should be. Damn DC is killing it.
This post was written by:
big O
5 Daredevil #4 Mark Waid & Marcos Martin
I feel cool when I read this book. You know like when you feast your eyes on the newest, funkdobiest Mondo Tees movie art that just mystifies you with its minimal, stylistic steez. Yeah, thats what I get when
chilling with Waid, Marcos and the gang on DD.From the rad, imaginative cover that has the cityscape with its sights on rat-a-tat-ing the hell out of our fave devil-- to the double page splash, cubic-paneling that has some Olly Moss-ish design work to it. ILL!!!
Foggy and Murdock take on more of those unfavorable cases and their new approach of having peeps represent themselves. As they rake in the wins they put themselves out there to help a client with similar challenges to Murdock. What they don't realize is how much trouble they could be in to help Austin Cao. Did they say something about Latveria? Please make that mean that my fave Dr come by for a house call!! Muntsa Vicente's visual attack on the colors pays homage to the silver-age with a nice modern twist.
4 Batman #1 Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
Snyder is one of the baddest, new scribes on the block, as for McFarlane clone aka Capullo-- I am into his cover treatments but interiors can be inconsistent. I would have preferred an artist less cartoony with darker vibes to match Snyder's moods set. Batman illustrator roll-call!! Tony Daniel check, David Finch check, Chris Burnham check, Greg Capullo...
Luckily Fco Placsencia manages the lighting and shadows of Capullo's art with monotones and few brights to keep it Gotham.
You just know that Dick Grayson is gonna get some major blowback for impersonating the Joker-- but liked how they implemented the tech element there along with the concept of a mobile Batcave. So that's how you handle not having Oracle around huh?! Good answer.
Reminds me of how all of us jump on our cell (Google) when we don't know the name of that actress in that one film...yeah but this is all on a Bruce Wayne level budget..cool.
Okay, here is our first family pic of all the Bat-boys in the New 52-- so if Bruce is 29ish, Dick 20ish, Tim 14ish and Damian 10 or so-- I suppose Capullo pulled that off right. Remember what I told you on Grayson getting some payback, well looks like it might happen sooner than I thought. I told Ethan Van Sciver that his variant cover was my highlight of the week-- oh look, now I just told you. Look forward to his co-scribe gig with Gail Simone next week in Fury of Firestorms and of course the covers!!
3 Green Lantern Corps #1 Peter J. Tomasi & Fernando Pasarin
When headed up by team Tomasi/Pasarin-- GLC followed by Emerald Warriors-- were at the times the best Green Lantern book on the planet from month to month. Looks like that pattern could continue. More of the same usage of Guy Gardner as the main man with John Stewart coming in as his right hand in place of
Like Hal, John and Guy look to find ways of flling their extracurricular time on Earth with their passions but find maybe life on Earth just isn't their calling.
A new super-powered, unknown threat emerges with the ability of taking out a squadron of GLs that are monitoring a sciencell and it goes on to wipe out an entire civilization.
We are left with Guy and John heading up a hand picked team of some hardass GLC to go out and find out what the hell is behind the genocide of a planet. The go to companion book with Green Lantern if you can't shell out the skrill for the other GL books- Red Lanterns and Bedard/Kirkhams upcoming New Guardians title.
2 Wonder Woman #1 Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang
Wonder Woman has been plagued with not having enough readership despite solid creators being assigned but delivering mediocre, unimpressive approaches that are either to filled with Amazonian / Greek dogma or just suck. This ish moves away from all of that by jumping right into action and letting the reader figure things out as the story unfolds. Thank you. Regular comics readers know that Azzarello's scripts never disapoints.
I have only enjoyed reading Wolverine (sorry Jason Aaron) and Wonder Woman in their respective team books or in cameo apperances being that the limited screen time seems to force having characterizations down pat.
Azzarello & Chiang have done their homework and scored big in this ish. The physicality and warrior-essence of WW is captured perfectly panel to panel and I am just praying each of the books they crank out can be as good as this one. Most friends and peeps that I have spoke to in shops were stunned how good this book read. No year-long Odyssey crap story needed, TBNT JMS! With confidence I attest that Wonder Woman is up there with Animal Man as the biggest surprise, kick-you-in-the nuts title of the New52 thus far. Yes, this is the top pick by many other top comics sites but I can't deny how effing good the next title is.
1 Catwoman #1 Judd Winick & Guillem March
Sure, everyone is talking about the soft-porn, gratuitous sex scene that was on some Kevin Smith level of nasty (okay not quite but almost- if you don't know type Poison Ivy Widening Gyre in Google search). Besides all that (and come on this is a younger Catwoman and Batman of course there will be loads of sex) this ish entertains like no other.
Unlike Higgins in this weeks Nightwing (was okay), Winick has Selina Kyle down to a science and you get to know enough about her after the first 6 pages in. How does that saying go...brevity is the soul of wit. Winick shows how on top of his game is after busting fab stories in Generation Lost, Power Girl and now in Catwoman. As for the art...
Guillem March is on the Hugh Hefner robe wearing tip (yes, Adam Hughes does go to cons in a robe too) when it comes to fleshing out the sexy, geeky crotch tent inducing imagery. Think DC meets Cinemax after dark. Winick and March rock a very adult-centric title with Catwoman-- as it should be. Damn DC is killing it.
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big O
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