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Random Thoughts from 9/6/07

She-Hulk #21 made me remember this week why I love comics. Sometimes they’re just fun. Writer Dan Slott pokes fun at himself, other writers and the Marvel editors this issue in his final story on the title that explains away all the “heroes in the wrong costumes, with the wrong status quos” that have been running rampant in the Marvel Universe over the past few years. The explanation? “When something messed-up happens, we have to assume it’s because of some idiot who couldn’t be bothered to take five minutes to read their darned Handbook,” and “some ‘A Hole’ that let ‘em get though.” Seriously, just buy the issue. It’s a very funny tale I would highly recommend picking up. And the long-running joke of She-Hulk insisting she did not sleep with Juggernaut finally gets a little resolution.

Ed Brubaker’s got to have just about the best track record for getting amazing artists on the titles he does. He’s got Michael Lark on Daredevil, Steve Epting and Mike Perkins on Captain America, Sean Phillips on Criminal, and Salvador LaRocca on Uncanny X-Men. I’d even go so far to say that LaRocca’s work is overshadowing Brubaker’s on this current arc of Uncanny. I don’t think LaRocca’s art has ever looked better than it does right now. Each character looks completely different, which might seem easy when some of the characters are covered in white fur or have green skin, but even all the faces of the characters are very distinctive. That’s rarer than you’d expect in comics…Steve Dillon comes to mind as a guy who draws everyone with the same face. I’m very much looking forward to LaRocca’s take on Spider-Man and his world when he joins the thrice-monthly Amazing Spider-Man later this year.

Despite the horrendous art by one Joe Quesada (thankfully the guys at the comic shop saved me one of the non-Quesada covers), I really enjoyed Amazing Spider-Man #544, the first chapter of “One More Day.” I’m surprised J. Michael Stracynski brought the May/Jarvis relationship back into the title, because quite frankly I had completely forgotten they briefly dated before all that Civil War nonsense forced everything in a different direction. I always enjoy a scene where someone who Spider-Man helped in the past returns the favor, and I thought the scene with the doctor worked especially well. My biggest complaint (aside from Joey Q’s art) is that this cost me an extra dollar for two extra pages of story and nine pages of a Marvel Handbook entry. A dollar for a Handbook entry that’s virtually unchanged from the Handbook it originally saw print in (which I already paid for, by the way), is just ridiculous.

I like putting Catwoman on the Outsiders. There’s something very fun about morally ambiguous characters, and those characters tend to work better when they’re part of group where they’ve got a lot of different people to play off of than they do in a solo book. I don’t see how any members of the Outsiders (save Catwoman, obviously, and possibly Grace) could convince the bad guys that they’re bad guys now too. I guess having Martian Manhunter on the team might help with that. And I apparently missed where it was revealed that Grace was an Amazon. I’m guessing that was in the Grace/Wonder Woman Five of a Kind issue, which I skipped. When Winick hinted a while ago that Grace wasn’t quite human, I was expecting something a little more dramatic than “Amazon.”

Nightwing’s not really very good. That’s really not that surprising if you’d read any issue post-One Year later, but I seriously thought for a while there that writer Marv Wolman was turning things around. He’s not, though. This current storyline seems like it’s been going on forever, but this was only part four. Also, the art in Nightwing #136 was especially bad. A new writer’s thankfully taking over in a few issues, so hopefully Nightwing will become readable again. I’d hate to have to drop the only title featuring one of my all-time favorite DC characters.

Exiles #98 was sort of a mixed bag. I really enjoyed the story that takes place in the Crystal Palace, due in no small part of the return of Thunderbird. But story featuring the bulk of the team was just as disappointing as previous issue have been. And didn’t Chris Claremont just do a story where the Exiles didn’t properly complete a reality jump at the end of the arc? A “scattered across the dimensions” story certainly has more appeal than an “excuse to get Heather Hudson off the team” story, I guess. I did really enjoy the art in this issue, though. I’ve never heard of Roman Cliquet before, but he has a style similar to Alan Davis or Scott Eaton that worked very well on the title.

Even when Detective Comics has a fill-in team, it almost always ends up being damn good. Detective Comics #836 was no exception. Having Scarecrow use actual fear instead of manufactured fear to terrorize Gotham was an interesting re-imagining of the character.

So Karate Kid’s got the OMAC virus? That’s an interesting twist I didn’t see coming (although if I had read the previous issue of Countdown, perhaps I would have). Countdown #34 seemed a lot better than the series has usually been. Mixing the Karate Kid story in with the Darkseid story (and throwing in one of the strongest elements from Infinite Crisis, the OMACs) make me hopeful that this all is leading somewhere. Mary Marvel’s and Jimmy’s stories are progressing nicely, and the Holly/Harley story finally seems to be going somewhere. I really liked that DC allowed the Wally/Rogues confrontation to actually happen in this title, unlike the “Jimmy knows Clark is Superman” thing. The “Search for Ray Palmer” story continues to suck, though.

Lions, Tigers and Bears Volume 2 #4 came out this week, about 15 months late. I lost interest in this series very early in, which was recommended by fellow fans of Tellos. Since I pre-ordered the whole series before the first issue even shipped (it was highly recommended), I was kind of stuck buying this one. I haven’t read it, and don’t really plan to. LT&B is not good.

Speaking of Tellos, this page was in one of the Marvel comics I got this week. It took me completely off guard because I really had forgotten Mike Weiringo died a few weeks ago. I got a little teary-eyed turning the page and getting the news all over again. I can’t say this enough…he will be missed.