Monthly Archives: August 2009

This Week’s Comics

by Jesse

Diamond Releases for 8/12/09

A slightly bigger week for me this time.  Here’s what I’m picking up:

  • BATMAN #689 – I feel like I should keep giving Winick’s run a shot.  Plus, you know…It’s Batman. I picked this up too. I’ve been hoping something would happen…you know, other than getting a rehash of ’90′s Kyle Rayner. This was the first Winick issue that didn’t disappoint.
  • BLACKEST NIGHT #2 – Assuming there are extra pages in this book to warrant the extra dollar, I’ve really been enjoying the lead-up and the first issue. I’m hoping that, like Final Crisis, this reads better as a whole. I enjoyed the other week’s GL much more than this “clip show” of who’s coming back from the dead.
  • BLACKEST NIGHT BATMAN #1 – Yeah, I’m a sucker, but I need to know what they’re going to do here. Skipped it; maybe I’ll get it during a light week. How was it?
  • AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #602 – I actually wound up picking up #601 last week but haven’t read it yet.  Assuming it’s still good, I’ll keep rolling with it. I’m really enjoying this arc. It’s a good old fashioned SM story with little Twilight Zone tweaks. Harry’s broke, MJ’s always running late for a date, and JJJ is mayor. I’m tempted to go back and get things since Brand New Day started.
  • GI Joe #8 was solid, but it’s moving too slow.
  • Action 880 continues to surprise me. I never would have thought I’d care about a Rucka story again after his mediocre run on Batman back when Bruce Wayne was a fugitive. Nightwing and Flamebird are interesting.
  • X-Men Forever might be the best stuff Claremont has done in ages. AND the X-men are interesting and easy to grasp again.

What are YOU getting this week?

That about sums it up for me.

Why I Love Comics…when they’re done right.

by Matt

Robots, the periodic table of elements, mad scientists, and forbidden love. Metal Men is the story God would write if He wasn’t busy with that whole running the Universe – answering republican prayers – gearing up for Armageddon thing. Until He clears some room on the calendar for that, Metal Men fans are still riding the crests of quality and troughs of troubled stories and characterization.

The Metal Men are quirky. This statement is probably self evident to some, but I ask you to think beyond the basic premise of robots with personalities based on their elemental namesakes. For an editor and writer they’re quirky. You either get them or you don’t. At their worst writers and editors focus too much on Will Magnus as a human that readers can “relate to,” or the writers and editors try to make them too serious losing the essence of the characters. At their best writers have made them part Marx Brothers, part 1950′s sci-fi movie, part Bill Nye the Science Guy. A good Metal Men story should be fun to read in the same way that Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin have made the Marvel Adventure: Avengers fun to read.  The key, in a word, is irreverence. It shouldn’t be a surprise then that Giffen, DeMatties, and Maguire get this in their back-up feature in the newest incarnation of Doom Patrol. This is Metal Men being done right by people that get the quirkiness. Thanks for crest this go round, DC.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #600

by Jesse

It’s not often that I’m super-impressed by single issues of a book, especially when it’s one I don’t pick up regularly (working on the admittedly-faulty premise that I’m already picking up anything that’s worth reading), but I was really surprised by Amazing Spider-Man #600.  I’ve been picking it up from time to time when the story appeals to me, most recently with “New Ways to Die,”  but the thrice-monthly publishing schedule puts me off of buying it more regularly.

There’s a lot to love in this issue, though.  It hit a lot of my criteria for a good comic and a good anniversary issue.  I always see anniversary issues as a good place to jump in and catch up with titles I don’t read regularly, just to see what’s going on.  I figure for something that the publisher makes such a big deal over, they’re going to put out their absolute best work to showcase.  However, after picking up Ultimate Spider-Man #100 a while back and finding myself in part 4 of a storyline where I had no idea what was going on, I thought Marvel had forgotten how to put together an anniversary issue.

What went so right with it?  Right off the bat we got a strong, 60+ page self-contained story that I was actually able to follow even though the Jonah as mayor and Jay Jameson plot threads were new to me.  One solid creative team for the whole story helped, too.  That probably would have been enough, but the backups teased some interesting stories coming up, and the pinups were goofy but fun.  That, my friends, is how you turn an impulse buyer into a regular reader.

At some point, I will inevitably post my arguments against why I refuse to pay $4 for a 22-page comic, but $5 for 104 pages of new material is a bargain.  If Marvel wants to start charging more for monthly issues, I highly advise them to follow the model they put in place here and give us more content for that extra cover price.   (8-page previews, don’t count, DC!)  Heck, even if we’re just getting reprint material in the back, that seems like a fair exchange.  It worked in the 70′s!

Good work, Marvel.  I’m proud of you.

This is the End…

by Jesse

No, not the beginning, the end.  The last post you’ll ever make it to.  Oh, you can try going back further in the archives, but good luck!

Love, Matt and Jesse

PS – If you do find anything past this, please let us know.