Angel. This book is serviceable, but like Buffy it has this weird thing where even though Whedon is writing it it still seems like fan-fiction. Pretty good fan fiction, but fan fiction none-the-less. Maybe it feels like fan fiction because it seems such an unnecessary addition to the television show. I don't know. I will continue to get both this and Buffy though. There is a weird bit in the art where Nina and Gwen do the same head-cocked danger face thing. The art on Buffy and Angel is not doing Whedon any favors. Since I half want the books a good artist like Bachalo could convince me this is a great idea.
Umbrella Academy. The art remains stunning as always -- I especially liked the monkey making Vayna feel better, and the experimental-y bits in the middle were ok. And I loved the bit at the end where she plays just the single note. I never talk about lettering, but I will also mention here that I adore the font chosen for the titles.
The Order. The Order continues to grow on me. This book has kind of a slow build that is really working. I think it is going to continue to get better and better in part because it is a character study on a lot of levels, and they more time we spend with these folks the better.
Iron Fist. Aja continues to be just shockingly good. His layouts, often very architectural, create some unique rhythms that are light-years ahead of someone like Cassaday -- who I like, but who tends to just do simple layouts in a way that can seem like advanced storyboarding, rather than advanced COMICS. The more I think about it the more I think these layouts are a BIG DEAL. Look at the page three pages from the end and notice the way he uses empty space to break up the character's heads. Maybe I will scan some in and talk more about them. I like Aja so much that I also wonder what would happen if you read, from issue one, only the pages drawn by Aja? Is this being created in a way that that could be a valuable alternative reading style?
In Comics News they have one of those big, vague interviews with Dido about the future of DC and the next big event. I never read interviews like that, but I glanced at it. Here is an image:
http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Dec07/DiDio/02/MONGOL-ad.jpg
(I cannot make blogger hyper-link today). Boy, Darkseid with the colored Green Lantern rings looks a lot like Thanos with the Infinity Gems.
Marvel and DC have their solicits up but I have not had a chance to check them out.
Review and discuss this weeks comics and comics news. You can click the labels to read reviews of the earlier issues of the comics out this week.
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9 comments:
um, on the Darkseid bit, isn't that Mongol with the power rings?
otherwise, yes, very much like Thanos anyway, but then again, every comic book universe needs their big cosmic baddie.
Yeah, I don't really consider the Angel or Buffy "add-ons" canon at all.
My fan-boy rule generally is I don't consider printed continuations of Television or movie series' canon even if the creators and writers from said series' are involved in the works. To me it has to be on the screen (either the silver screen or the tube) to be considered canon. My exceptions to that rule involve Boba Fett surviving the Sarlac and To Dream in the City of Sorrows (a B5 Novel). I also consider Angel: The Curse and Angel: Old Friends to be in canon because I thought they were fitting enough follow-ups but I really don't know if I'll consider the events in the Whedon Angel continuation to be canon if the writing sucks (and the writing is pretty crappy in the Buffy continuation but then again nothing can be worse than the final season of the show).
I haven't gotten any new comics in, like, two weeks. But I burned through a couple of my stockpiled trades on the plane back to Georgia:
Essential X-MenVol. 5: Claremont and John Romita Jr. with practically NO fill-in artists. (There are two issues that Barry Windsor Smith does, but COME ON! Does it even count as fill-in if the artist is awesome?). Lots of fun stuff in there- Colossus breaks up with Kitty, leading Nightcrawler and Wolverine to take him to a bar to help him work through his problems. Storm loses her powers, but falls in love with Forge, but then hates him when she finds out that Forge is the guy who caused her to lose her powers. There's a weird medieval Manhattan story (which are always great). Most interesting about this trade- it has the first appearance of Rachel Summers (now Grey) from the future. She has really grown on me through this book. Talk about a character that could only exist in a superhero comic- she is the alternate future child of two characters who were not (and at the time it seemed) could not ever get together; hence if she ever goes back to her own time she won't exist. Anyway, I like her. Hopefully they will find something interesting to do with her someday.
Madrox. Marvel Knights. By Peter David and Pablo Ramondi. Peter David is no Alan Moore, but he has fun with the main character in this, by really thinking about what having multiples would do to your decision making processes. If you can go in six directions in once, David/Madrox argue, what is the point of any of them? The act of having to decide defines us as people and Madrox struggles with the fact that he doesn't need to. Unfortunately, David gives Madrox a bunch of Film Noir references that just get annoying.
X-Man Volume One. By Jeph Loeb and Steve Skroce. As I pointed out before, I'm a friend to the Summers family. If anyone represents the totality of all the "fucked-up" in that family, it's Nate Grey. I also thought, hey I used to like Jeph Loeb, but I hate him now. It'll be nice to read something when he was good. Guess what? HE WAS NEVER GOOD. I think he is just smart enough to keep captions out of the way of Tim Sales in the Long Halloween and other collaborations. Other than that, the guy writes with a freakin' jackhammer.
D'oh. I meant:
"I think he is just smart enough to keep captions out of the way of Tim Sale's art in the Long Halloween and other collaborations."
I thought of a different way to re-state my Buffy and Angel point: I don't hate them, but I would never recommend someone who wasn't a "seen every episode Whedon fan" read them. That's not a good sign is it?
Well, they're primarly FOR the fans, so I don't think it's necessarly a bad thing.
For me, when the shows ended, I didn't feel FINISHED with the characters, so that's enough.
i think the reason why it's so hard to really "accept" the new buffy and angel comics as a continuation of the show because for the show, like any other production on a limited budget, places certain limitations on what they can show the audience, and we get quite used to those limitations, and no what to expect, and what not to expect. comic books, however, afford an unlimited budget, and so they can show us whatever it is they want to show us, but the audience cannot quite get over the visual limitations that were put on the show, limitations we have all accepted as part of making the fictional world real, and to see angel flying around on a dragon or buffy globetrotting around the world, especially when most of the time we're at the familiar locations of the school library, or wherever the hell else they hung out at (i stopped watching after season three), and anything else just seems... well, not real.
The Buffy continuation's not perfect, but I the Angel one is borderline unreadable. It seems wrong to write them both off without coming down on Angel harder.
Mitch, keep going forward with X-factor, I just finished the second trade. David is great with these characters. Honestly, he's just as good as Whedon and Bendis but he never gets any of the acclaim
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