Monthly archives: October, 2007

This week, I picked New Avengers for our Book of Doom. I guess I was skittish because most the new books we tried in the past ended up sucking. Had I gone with a new book, it would’ve been Simon Dark, the new effort by Steve Niles. After wading through the absolute atrocity that was Niles’ City of Others, I was even more skittish.

DC was nice enough to send a review copy, though, so I couldn’t avoid it. And, while this book isn’t a contender for debut of the year, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

The book starts with some goons wearing masks about to sacrifice some dude in the grounds of a destroyed church in Gotham City. Suddenly, a weirdo who looks like Madman meets Edward Scissorhands meets The Crow shows up, does some acrobatics and slices off the head of a bad guy. Ouch! Thing is, this new hero, aka Simon Dark, knows his name but has no clue who he is or where he came from. The rest of the book is mostly scenes of everyday life in Gotham, with Simon off at the edges, the dispassionate observer.

Judging from Niles previous work, I expected a full horror book, but this is more creepy and haunted than terrifying and grotesque. It’s understated, which is a welcome 180 from City of Others. Though there are a few slow moments and some character introductions that show no importance here but obviously will become crucial later on, this first issue effectively establishes the framework of the series: This weird cult of hooded bad guys are actually from the city’s upper crust, and they’re planning more sacrifices and killing Simon.

I didn’t read Gotham County Line, which was the previous team-up between Niles and artist Scott Hampton, but Hampton’s work is a good fit for this. He uses the same gritty, realistic style that’s been done perfectly for a while now in Marvel books Daredevil and Captain America, and to a lesser extent in Boom! Studio’s books.

One thing that seems like a bad choice for establishing this new character is setting him in Gotham City. Batman overshadows everything there, not to mention all the other heroes calling the city home. It’ll only distract from Simon’s story if readers are constantly wondering whether Batman or The Question or Robin will show up. Of course, if sales of Simon Dark don’t meet expectations, they probably will.

Let’s call this the Homecoming edition of our weekly Heroes wrap-up. A few central characters had been MIA since last season’s finale, but now they’re back. Was it a good Homecoming? Well, it far exceeded any I experienced in high school. Of course, that’s not saying much at all.

So, what happened? Who returned? Who died? Did the writing improve at all? How many Nissan Rogues would show up?

Dumb criminals — I’ve been intrigued by the Alejandro and Maya-the-crying-chick arc, but man did it ever take a turn for the stupid here. They’re in Mexico and trying to get to America, so what does Alejandro do? He busts out the window of a car in broad daylight in the middle of a crowd with a cop standing nearby. Who would’ve thought such a thing could’ve landed him in the clink?

Packin’ heat — You have to wonder if the writers are making a joke of Parkman and his position with the NYPD. As I mentioned from episode one, he’s a bit over zealous with the firearm. More of the same here, as he wakes up and immediately pulls the hammer and nearly shoots Mohinder. A tip to Mo: You live with a nutjob. Might want to let him know when you’re coming and going.

Sylar’s back — In case you missed the episode and the 20,000 commercials NBC aired last week, the man the world loves to hate has returned, albeit with a big hole in the chest and apparently no powers. More questions to come.

Weekly WTH? — In a single scene, Ando pulls a huge sword from a small cabinet (seriously, how did that happen?) and then finds a note for him on the bottom of the hilt, revealing a secret storage spot for notes from Hiro-in-the-past. So, a famous sword has been studied by historians for ages, yet they all miss a series of notes hidden not-ver-well in the handle? There’s a word for that: unbelievable.

Peter Parker, I mean Petrelli — The sequence of a newly ripped and memory-less Peter trying to use his powers by spouting goofy commands and gesturing wildly is just an offensively blatant ripoff of the first Spider-Man movie. I channel my inner South Park and shout, “Sam Raimi did it!”

Speaking of — It’s nice to know the actor who plays Peter spent the summer lifting weights and waxing his chest. But, seriously, at least come up with a reason for him to take his shirt off. He’s like one of those guys at the gym who wears as small a shirt as possible and spends half the day flexing in front of the mirror. Give it a rest.

Douche boy — Every superhero should have a nickname, and the dork who’s seducing Claire is no exception. After acting like a total prick this week (after being utterly generic previous episodes), I think he’s earned the moniker Douche Boy.

Or… — We could call him Superman Wannabe. Continuing the mode of ripping off superhero movies, we get a straight take from any Superman film as he takes Claire and flies her high above earth. My wife even made the comment during the scene, “Hey, that guy just made the Superman Face.” (more…)

I usually read all my comics right away when I get home from the comic shop on Wednesday. I realized last week that this means by the time Monday rolls around, I really haven’t thought about my weekly comics for a while and don’t have much to say about them. Hence the earlier than normal post.

Countdown has gotten to the point where if isn’t just completely terrible, I’m pleasantly surprised. And what can I say, Countdown #30 wasn’t a flaming bag of dog turds. Pretty much the only storyline that was forwarded at all this issue was that of the Challengers. Remember when 52 started focusing on one storyline for almost the entire issue and got really good? Am I foolish to hope the same thing is going to happen here?

So there’s an alternate Earth where Jason Todd is Batman, Donna Troy is Wonder Woman, Kyle Rayner is Green Lantern, and they all pal around with an Atom? That seems awfully convenient. It also seems quite wasteful of one of the 52 universes DC has to play around with. In less than six months, DC has already assigned specific continuities to 29 Earths (thank you, wikipedia!), including such notable universes as “Conjurers” (huh?), “Justice Riders” (come again?), and “everyone has the opposite gender” (seriously?). At this rate, I doubt the multiverse as it stands will even last until Final Crisis. Seriously, when’s the next time anyone’s ever going to use Earth-15, the “convenient for storytelling purposes” Earth?

With Green Lantern Corps #16, The Sinestro Corps War seems to ramping up into overdrive. With Lanterns gaining the ability to use lethal force, the Sinestro Corp seemed like it was on the defense for the first time. Except now they’re all attacking the Earth, along with Superboy-Prime, Cyborg Superman and maybe the Anti-Monitor. That’s going to be one hell of a fight.

Surprisingly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #7 was not my favorite book of the week (that honor goes to GLC), despite my professed love for the property and the talents of wiriter Brian K. Vaughan. Something about a Buffy comic without Buffy seems wrong, although that was rectified on the last page. Seems the evil Slayer the formerly-evil Slayer Faith was sent to kill is trying to kill non-evil Slayer Buffy and wants pretending-to-be-evil-(and-British) Slayer Hope (Faith) to help her. I desperately want that to be a Kelly Ripa reference, BTW. Great dialogue this issue, particularly during the Willow/Dawn scene: (more…)

Get this – I’m late doing the Doomino Effect because I went to a Mandy Moore concert and had an awesome time. No kidding! And then we hung out at a bar with her and her band. For real! It was actually really good! Who knows what kind of crazy things I’m going to say about my comics now! Suckers!

Speaking of suckers, no, not really, but I’m tired and a little drunksy so I’m going to just start with the first book on my stack, and that’s Batman #669.

I really liked how this series started out, but I felt a little bit let down by this last chapter. It all seemed to resolve too quickly. Plus I don’t remember any of these characters so I have a tough time remembering who is who.

I will tell you what, though – I appreciate the varying styles of the art, even if I’m not always sure why the styles are being varied.

Speaking of endings, that leads me to Astro City: The Dark Age: Book Two #4, the final issue in this second chapter. I love Astro City. The Dark Age issues are the only ones I’ve been picking up as they come out, and they manage to work for me even though I don’t know who many of the background characters are and there’s like 4 months between issues. Kurt Busiek is doing something right in his storytelling if it functions that well with that little effort.

I’m also really enjoying the Silver Agent’s appearances throughout time. I have a feeling that’s just going to lead up to something even cooler than his ironic demise in Book One.

I can’t recommend Astro City enough. Busiek manages to carry out these alternate takes on traditional character archetypes while making it far more meaningful than something as lame as a “What If?” or Elseworlds story.

And speaking of alternate takes on established characters, that leads me to All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #7. This title is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Hopefully Jim Lee can keep something resembling a regular schedule.

I’m growing extremely fond of Miller’s sociopath Batman, and I’m not sure if I enjoy his battle-scene ramblings or his even nuttier internal monologues more. The best part is, as this issue shows, this is actually leading somewhere!

I get enough enjoyment out of reading this that I think I’d honestly be content if it was just Batman beating up and mocking criminals while acting completely inappropriate throughout the rest of his interpersonal exchanges.
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With another episode under the belt, I’m back to continue this weekly Heroes review. But first, I’m still trying to figure out if it’s possible to enjoy Chuck after reading the brilliant and ruthless comments of TV writer Ken Levine. Go read that, and the rest of the blog while you’re at it.

Now, back to the main attraction:

We’re not in Kansas – It’s a good thing that Claire and her family moved to California and not Kansas, because if they were in the Sunflower State there would be no way her teacher would ramble on about theoretical evolution in a way that just-happens-to-tie-into-the-show’s-theme. Come to think of it, wouldn’t having a group of genetic freaks stuck in Kansas actually make this infinitely more interesting?

Speaking of John Doe and fam – The ongoing travails of the most normal of the Heroes families continues to be the best-done aspect of the show. It’s just too bad that, because of the cast of hundreds, there’s not enough show to really get into all the issues they would face. Like how the mom is coping with years of lying from her husband, or what the heck the creepy son does now that he knows he was brainwashed for years.

That guy – This is just really bugging me, but the guy working for “the company” who’s leading Suresh on various missions, you know, the bald goofy actor. I know he’s been in a million movies and TV shows, but I can’t figure out who he is. There’s no point to this, just a little something stuck in my craw.

Devise a virus – The “virus” that’s striking down (sort of) the heroes has to be even funkier than that created by Deltron 3030, because how on earth could a virus survive for 30 years and only appear in three hosts? I hope there’s a good explanation for that on the horizon.

One hot Haitian – Here’s a suggestion to the “virus” stricken Haitian: Maybe you won’t feel so feverish and sweaty if you pull off that blanket. Seriously, you’re in Haiti. It’s hot there. Blankets not needed.

Hair today… – So, in the few months off, Nathan grew a massive Ron Burgundy beard and Peter shaved his chest. Talk about brothers going in opposite directions. (more…)