[I am currently in Oxford for my viva. If all goes well I will have a doctorate by Thursday night. But because I am in England I cannot review this week's comics today because they are not out here until Friday. Worse, out of the bus window on the way from the airport to my hotel last night I am pretty sure I saw boarded up windows on the only comic book shop in town, so I may not even get these till I get back, and so won't review them till next week. Which is a shame, cause this week is a good one:]
Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and David Aja's Immortal Iron Fist 7
Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert's Batman #666
Frank Miller and Jim Lee's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #6 (amazing that this is coming out so soon after #5)
Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo's (is Bachalo on this one?) X-Men 201
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #5 (guest team: Vaughn and someone else?)
Mike Mignola and Duncan Fredrico (is that they guy's name) Hellboy: Darkness Calls 4
Reports that Casanova 8 were out today were wrong; it will be out next week. Nicely if all goes will be Doctor Klock 6 days before the premiere of Fraction's DOKKKTOR KLOCKHAMMER!!!
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
52 volume 2
Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and David Aja's Immortal Iron Fist Hard Cover. If you have not been getting this GET THIS. SERIOUSLY. IT WILL MAKE YOU WISH YOU HAD DEDICATED YOUR LIFE TO KUNG-FU.
Someone else do me a favor and mention what is good on Newsarama this week. I have to run.
Bummer about Casanova and the book store being closed. I put up the first post in my Iron Fist series on my blog. I also had a nice e-mail chat with David Aja, who's a really nice and funny guy.
ReplyDeleteI think it's Ramos on X-Men this week, which is OK, because I'm getting to like his art (via Bachalo, that is). If the two of them switch off to let each other catch up, then there'll be consistency, which is all I really want, artwise.
It's weird, I used to like Ramos a lot, but either he's changed or I have, because I'm not all that into his stuff any more.
ReplyDeleteBachalo won't be doing any more X-Men though, since as I excitedly mentioned on the Free Form Comments post (too late for most to see): BACHALO'S DRAWING SPIDER-MAN! So that's my favourite artist on my favourite superhero. Words cannot express.
Also, Geoff, I don't know what they've been telling you in Oxford, but most of the country gets its comics on Thursday.
Comics Showcase in Oxford has indeed closed down; sadly, there is no place to get comics in Oxford anymore.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the comic shop closing in Oxford. How can we be in the middle of a supposed comics boom - yet shops are still falling like flies around us? It's sad.
ReplyDeleteI finally made my way out to the shop this week. I had one month of comicy goodness waiting for me. My inner fanboy is well fed.
I posted my real time mini-reviews over at my Live Journal if anyone wants to read it.
Geoff - congratz on receiving your doctorate. I missed commenting on the other post - so I thought I would be remiss to say nothing.
Bachalo on Spiderman? Sounds good to me.
Have a safe journey, Geoff.
Oh, by the way - BLACK SUMMER #1 is out this week! Don't miss out on Warren Ellis' creator owned superhero series.
ReplyDeleteOnly fitting that the REAL Dr. Klock should premiere a week before the evil clone.
ReplyDeleteMighty Avengers was neat - I'm not spoiling anything to reveal the 2nd page of the book Ultron does that cliche thing where the villain hijacks every broadcast on the planet to announce humanity is coming to an end. But Bendis does a neat thing with it where Ultron says (paraphrasing) "I've studied your pop culture, your entertainment. You've dreamed of this day for years and now it's here. Your doomsday."
ReplyDeleteAll-Star Batman was pretty much what you'd expect. Lots of weird messing around with the order of events with flashbacks layered within flashbacks, all for no apparent reason.
I really like the fact that she-Ultron basically says: I love you, and that's why it's been hard for me not to kill you all.
ReplyDeleteAres finally earning his Avengers cred was fun, too.
Iron Fist is friggin sweet.
And it's a little after the fact, but I thought I'd state that Ultimate Power is an incredible instance of a missed opportunity. The latest issue shows who is "behind it all" SPOILER ALERT (although I think that the book would have been better spoiled) Dr. Doom did it. To get things out of the way, I love me some Dr. Doom. I don't know why, but he's this kind of one-dimensional villain that just works incredibly for me.
Anyway, the big reveal happens in what is the closing moments of this non-event series. This just seems to me as something that should have been apparent in issue three: by the way, Ultimates vs "DC" is because DR. DOOM HAS RETURNED. This "mystery" has been hanging in a pretty dull mini-series.
Now, with only two issues left, we probably aren't going to get a grand, exciting explanation about how Doom escaped the Marvel Zombie universe (what I was truly chomping for).
And just for posterity, I'd like to state that I thought the pre-reveal was an exceptional example of what I never seen before: wasp vs. "atom" in between blades of grass, fighting until someone just steps on them both. I thought that was a really neat thing I never seen before.
It's Duncan Fegredo.
ReplyDeleteThis week was Warren Ellis week, I guess, with Black Summer, Doktor Sleepless, and Crecy. They were all pretty good; I'll try to have reviews up on my blog sometime soon.