10/20/10

This one’s in real time, or as close as we can approximate it! Reactions to issues, and sometimes specific panels, as they are read! Before the rest of the night’s books are consumed! It might be too much to bear!

BATMAN & ROBIN #15—Had this as the headliner but couldn’t resist hitting it first. Can’t believe it’s over with Morrison on this. Insane way to go out, teasing Damian’s deal with the devil for his soul, really thought that was about to happen right in front of us. And we get an about-face from RoBW #5 two weeks ago, I was for the first time positive that Morrison wasn’t jerking our chains and it really was Thomas Wayne as Dr. Hurt, so of course we’ve got to get the inversion. Every panel with Joker was about the best I’ve ever seen with the character, just perfection. Rings so true.

MORNING GLORIES #3— Better than #2. Wonderful madness of opening w/ flashback in 1490. Somewhat diluted by information expositional dump in last two pages. I’m of two minds about hitting sites like CBR and Bleeding Cool, because I like hearing stuff about creators (the Ba/Moon footage at NYC Comic-Con being the most recent example), but then, almost without fail, I find teaser shit annoying and distracting, to wit, the online heralding of this issue’s Appearance of the First Message. Reading the book, instead of being caught up in the flow, I’m just like, Oh, here’s the first message now. Yep, wonder what it means. The hype diluted the moment for me. And, really, is someone not already reading this going to hear that we’re getting a first message in #3 and suddenly run out and buy this book. Hell, maybe they will. #2’s even up to $10 now. Anyway, yeah, better than #2.

KICK-ASS #1—Devastating. The movie was much better than the series, I thought, as great as both Millar and JRjr were, but Vaughan & Goodman just escalated it, I mean, really the best kind of adaptation where it probably transcends its excellent source material, the other three examples jumping to mind being the films The Neverending Story, The Hours, and Wonder Boys. But then Millar comes back just swinging for the fences. Typing this right now in the white hot ecstasy of not having read books subsequently listed, just really pumped with how much higher up he jacked the bar over what the filmed accomplished. The folks across the street should let the shy lad from Glasgow take another swing at the Big Guy. Also, the best text piece I’ve seen from him. Going to have to go back and reread SUPERIOR with a better attitude.

NEW MUTANTS #18—Brutal. Lots of teens and former teen superheroes getting there asses whupped this week, looks to be a trend in the evening ahead. Fun fact, though the New Mutants have only aged a couple of years, it’s been 22 actual years since the babies were abducted, so the 26-year gap in Limbo is almost real time for us. Does this mean . . . we live in Limbo?

X-FACTOR #210—Best single of these in a long long line. Writing and art both at the top of the class. A joy.

DV8 #7—Ha, know a thing or two about that Alan Moore reference on the first page. First Jocelyn page may be the best single piece of writing I’ve seen from Wood, a master, even and especially on that small small scale. Excellent issue, after two or three months of almost too slow burn, the shit hits the fan in a delightful manner. Looking forward to the wrapup. Isaacs is a force.

ADVENTURE COMICS #519—Best Levitz issue yet, on either side. Can’t believe, the way of the world, that it is that rare beast, a child left behind, came out last week, and just almost randomly, I mean I can’t believe it now, feel so guilty, but didn’t pay the extra for it last week, and it’s crushing, a winner, if you had Levitz and, let’s say, Morrison and Ellis, in a room with the charge, “Everyone give us your best Superboy meets Silver Age Legion in Smallville story,” then I can really see it being a three-way tie, just as much as I love and respect all three, and I’d be shocked if Levitz showed up at that particular high noon with anything but this, again. The Johns list being such a key factor. Embracing the relaunch tone, quoting, really, just really too much.

GAAAH! Insane perfectly justifiable Levitz retcon on the last page! Followed by perfect tone-shift next issue blurb! All this before Lemire on THE ATOM! Gorgeous!

And, yeah, then best Ray Palmer pages I’ve always suspected but never actually managed to stumble across until now. Thank you so much, everybody.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #6—This Portela guy’s fantastic, as is who- or whatever Hi-Fi is, gorgeous fill-in, the kind that makes you wish they’d shack up here for just the next little bit, see what happens.

(Do you know what the coolest thing about AGE OF APOCALYSE was? I just realized. It was the lack of solicits. Or, at least, my ignorance of them. Was it Harras’s first great act after the Image exodus? It might have been his only one, but it’s a compelling argument for his future across the street. We just saw all that malarkey go down with Storm and Bishop and the rest all stranded back in the early days of Charles & Erik and then Legion’s misfire, then, before you even had a chance to think, “Well, it’s not like this means that they’ll cancel X-Factor or Excalibur or certainly not Logan’s solo title,” then at the end of the issue we find out it’s a line-wide reboot, so effective, stunning in execution. All of this to say, instead of fucking laying it out for us in a series of ads just a very few weeks ahead of the actual conclusion, when Bruce hasn’t actually come back yet or, hey, we don’t already know that Dick gets to keep being Batman in Gotham, really, think about that, that’s a bigger deal to me than any supposed but hilarious long-lasting result/consequence that came out of INFINITE CRISIS, but they couldn’t do me the simple courtesy of letting Grant Morrison’s fucking script reveal that none-too-inconsequential plot development, because I’m supposed to be getting my trousers in a knit about the fact that Tony Daniel’s going to keep writing and drawing Dick’s adventures on the eponymous title. To me, that shows, despite the fact that Morrison’s been getting to somehow do this for five years and running now, a gaping void in editorial logic. Wouldn’t everyone have much rather heard Bruce say it after he got back?)

(though, of course, it must also be said that no one’s more pumped for BATMAN, INC., Snyder & Jock on DETECTIVE, and Williams/Hadley on BATWOMAN, and Finch/Williams on THE DARK KNIGHT than me, which actually got me thinking, something has been really rotten in the heart of Denmark when I haven’t been obligated to pick up BATMAN/DETECTIVE & SUPERMAN/ACTION every single month. I mean, someone’s messing something up when I don’t just have to, because I just realized that that should probably be and have been a given in my life and never has been. And I refuse to take responsibility for this gap, this lacking between ideal and actual.)

And wow, then also this is the best Levitz single of this issue, too, now so pumped to read them right together, but wait! It’s Jiminez!!!!

This is the first one where they get it right. Since Levitz returned, as great as the newcomers have been, I’ve always had the sense that it’s a shame not to have Giffen or Perez or Maguire or Jiminez on monthly duties, but of course, I see the problem there already, but man, just so right, getting Jiminez back here on these pages.

And we get to vote for Legion leader. Incredible. This one’s looking pretty much like the #1, here, BESTOF, fix it later.

BRIGHTEST DAY #12—Wow, what a dopey panel when the JLA show up, why not have Reis have drawn that? The Deadman & Dove panels were Reis, I guess. Best ones, anyway. That JT Krul editorial page is even worse than the ARSENAL shit, man, I mean, my God, I knew what I was getting into when I started reading it but then actually started boiling some water in a pot after, to scald my eyes out with. And the hands that held the page. DC’s refusal to attempt to simulate the Johns reboot model and hire A- or even B-list talent on the Titans franchise is galling, but putting tripe like this up on the page this week is way past insulting, not even counting the fact that this guy’s got this job, still, hasn’t been pulled like Stuart Townsend from that Jackson production. Absurdity.

FABLES #99—Lapham was such a delightful surprise at the top of the year, but Inaki Miranda is the best infusion of delight to hit these shores since Buckingham showed up in the first place. Willingham fires it up just as high as he can, yet again.

STEVE ROGERS: SUPER-SOLDIER #4—A fast and insane way to shut it down tonight. Pity the CAP readers who sat this one out. More later. Maybe. M’tired.