I picked up two books today:
Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty's Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #1. I was very excited about the new Buffy comic book -- Whedon himself writing what would have been season eight in comic book form (I had no idea they were going to actually have the phrase "Season Eight" on the issue itself). But now that I have it I have to admit that, in spite of the fact that it is all perfectly solid, I am not so sure I need to follow these characters anymore. Seven seasons was a long time. When, on the final page, an old character assumed dead or gone suddenly appears, I was not excited, because I do feel a little done with these characters, and this new permutation fails to revive my past interest. But I love Whedon and will stick with it for a long time because he has earned my trust with many, many good episodes and seasons of television.
Matt Fraction and Ariel Olivetti's Punisher War Journal #5. Fraction has spent two issues with stories surrounding the Punisher (rather than stories about the Punisher), which seems like a pretty good direction to go with a character like this. The Punisher is still a character I have a hard time caring about, but Olivetti's art is growing on me -- at times it seems horribly absurd at times brilliant, at times both. I am now coming around to the idea that he is a great fit with this absurd character.
Newsarama has been covering all the press surrounding the "Death of Captain America" but I have nothing to say about it, other than the fact that it is very annoying and did people not forget what a stupid stunt the Death of Superman was?
The next part of Brad Winderbaum's Satacracy 88 is up at itsallinyourhands.com (these are now coming in smaller chunks so you can get it more often, once a week). He has also launched a forum to discuss the show, so follow the link there and say something.
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13 comments:
I haven't been able to comment during the "comics I picked up" blogs because I have been out of the comic book loop for nearly 5 yrs, but reading this blog has brought me back in. I also picked up the Buffy comic and thought it started off strong. I was laughing through the first 4 or 5 pages, but like you, I didn't get excited when the returned character was there. I think perhaps if it had been someone I liked during the run of the show I would have been more excited.
Also, due to all the hype I picked up all 7 books of Civil War and read them.
fyi - the forum is still in beta, so there isn't a link to it on the main page of our site. I would love to hear your thoughts about the new episode or the series and the website as a whole. So visit, sign up , and post at the itsallinyourhands forum here: http://www.itsallinyourhands.com/forum
I do agree with the fact that the hype surrounding the Cap death is ridiculous, but Joey Q is a huckster in the grand tradition of Stan Lee. Either way, that doesn't detract one iota from the fact that Cap 25 is a graceful, moving comic, one that Brubaker took apins to integrate with all the themes and plotlines he's been carrying since #1.
Lost was great last night. You can tell that they're playing to the fans only now, which is fine. I liked how Claire said she'd learned about the birds from the shows she'd watched with her mom. At the end, we just glipse the show on the hospital TV, no overselling the point.
Also, the late, great Lester Bangs said it's harder having heroes than beiing a hero. I feel this is what you're going through of late.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1.
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Okay, this was pretty good. Georges Jeanty’s art is fantastic.
The difficult thing with Whedon (and many people love him for this) when you encounter something that causes you to roll your eyes, he goes ahead and rolls your eyes for you. So Xander’s become Nick Fury, then Whedon makes note of this and goes further with it. Buffy starts piling on the self-pity and just when you’re sick of it, Whedon gets sick of it.
(btw- am I the only one who found “Willow ‘s the expert on boys since when now?” a tad homophobic?)
(btw-btw- Whedon, it really undercuts your whole “girl power” shtick to have your heroine moping around ‘cause she can’t get a boning.)
I’ve taken for granted Whedon’s going to annoy me.
I just noticed Buffy’s wearing a Serenity t-shirt -yay for shameless plugs!
Guy hovering over the church; okay, Whedon we all know who this is; and I beg you in all hopelessness PLEASE DON’T.
So now we have Slayers vs. US Government. Does that mean that W. is the Big Bad? If it doesn’t –can it?
I don’t wanna see the Sunnydale crater, truth be told I don’t what any acknowledgment
that seasons six and seven took place. I’ll get over it.
Big Giant Dawn.
What more is there to say?
Big Giant Dawn reminds why I used to love this show.
Hey Joss, do us a favor, KEEP HER DOWN THERE!
Ends with a character I’m very happy to see return and I’m even more eager to see who or what the boyfriend is.
Overall-pretty good. I’m looking forward to the next issue.
Unless Kennedy’s in it.
I thought seeing Buffy was fun again but this feels like it's taking place too soon after season 7. I would have liked to see a bit more distance in the narrative from the events of the series.
George Jeanty is a surprise. He manages to capture the likenesses of the characters without going overboard. One of the main troubles I have with the Serenity mini was that the likenesses were too close to the characters, almost to photo realisitic. Jeanty captures the likenesses in a comic-booky way.
Scott: I was just saying that to a friend last night. I wanted to like the Serenity mini, but the realism took me right out of the story.
I agree with Marc entirely about Cap... the coverage is annoying but the issue itself is actually really well structured.
I'll probably be lambasted here, but that Buffy comic was my first official journey into Buffy land, despite seeing a few episodes (and liking them). I think I feel opposite from you Geoff- I may enjoy this comic because I haven't seen seven seasons of the show.
Speaking of Matt Fraction-- There is a great interview with him on yesterdays episode of Comic Geek Speak. You have got to listen to i, Geoff... in the first few minutes he talks about why he DIDN'T like Kill Bill. With his interest in pop culture, you may have met your match, Doc Klock!
Madd_Hadder: I like the first few pages of Buffy very much as well, and I am glad this blog got you to read comic books again -- but for god's sake, not Civil War! Go read Casanova or something to wash the taste out of your mouth, and don't blame me for your picking that thing up.
Brad: oops. yeah, I see clearly now how I was not supposed to post about that. Sorry.
Marc: I read Sleeper and it was not any good, I read something else by Brubaker I did not like and I want to stay away from anything Civil War related so I will not be going near Cap 25. Sorry. I am just a jerk today. That said Lost was GREAT and I look forward to talking about it when I post the TV review, and thanks for that quote -- I think that is quite right.
VoE: You are right that the art was great -- not photorealistic but still alluding to the show, which is just what you want. As for Whedon deflating himself before the reader can, yeah, that is his thing. I am always surprised how I fall for it every time, but I do, and I love him for it. I can understand someone who did not like it though. Not with you on the homophobia or girl power being undercut -- I just don't think these details should be blown up too big. People think and act like that, and it seems fine to me.
Forvive me for being dense: who do you think the hovering person is?
Scott: good point about the art, and I agree that since it has been so long since season 7 that time should be reflected a LITTLE more in the book. But not a big complaint.
Mitch, I will check out that CGS interview. God, you and Mark both -- am I going to have to get Cap 25?
It’s Spike. I don’t want it to be, but it’s Spike.
RE: Whedon’s deflating himself-sometimes I love it and sometimes it makes me want to scream, particularly when he becomes dependent on it- it seems like he loses interest in the story and just goes “aren’t I so frigging clever” to the audience.
Geoff: I certainly do not blame you for me picking up Civil War. I had read about it and thought at the veyr least it looke dinteresting, so when I finally got myself back into a comic book store, I figured "what the hell." Next time I shall look for Casanova. I also picked up the first two books of the Steven King comic, because, well I couldn't help myself. Thats the reason I stopped reading in the first place, I would go in and just buy everything I could find!
Geoff: So what turned you off with Sleeper? I seem to recall you mentioning that Tao stuck in your craw.
I really enjoyed Sleeper. Thought it was a good hardboiled mix of the superhero, crime, and spy genres. Mind you, I'm not conversant enough with either spy or crime fiction to judge how Brubaker's work stacks up to the standard bearers in those genres.
Also, I only read the second and fourth trades because my public library doesn't have the other two (yes, I'm poor). But I don't imagine there were huge differences in quality between volumes.
Good comics this week:
The Damned #5, by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt
Chronicles of Wormwood #2, by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows
Sam Noir: Ronin Holiday #2, by a couple of guys whose names I don't remember right now.
I also picked up Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears #2, by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain. I'm not sure if I like it or not, or whether I'll pick up the next issue.
That's all I got this week. I'll probably do reviews of these on my blog sometime this weekend.
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