Book of the Week - 8/16/2007

Up for consideration this week: Captain America #29, Sub-Mariner #3, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #23, and Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale #2 (although that's not really in the same league).

This week's prize goes to Sub-Mariner #3

At first, Cap is the obvious choice here for any sort of accolade, but i gotta give it to Namor this week for the "wow" factor alone. Since Brubaker took the reins, you just KNOW that Captain America is going to be great, even after he died. Bru just writes kick ass comics. Period. I throw the proverbial shout out to Sub-Mariner because it's (aptly enough) a bit of a sleeper hit. i knew nothing about any of the people involved in this book before it's release. I just knew the concept from a couple of interviews online and gave it a shot on a whim. I'm totally glad I did.

Namor's a character that really adds to the Marvel U as a whole by being around as a supporting character. His guest appearances the past few years have added top the stories he's featured in, most recently his involvement in the Wolverine Civil War tie-in (now available in trade paperback). He's probably not a character that could sustain an ongoing book for long, though. These guest appearances and mini series are the way to handle him, I think, and this mini is spectacular.

Spinning out of the events of the aforementioned Wolverine Civil War arc and Civil War: Front Line, the current Sub-Mariner mini starts off with a bang similar to the one that sparked the Civil War when Nitro blew up in Stamford, only this time the kill zone is in Kansas. See, Nitro is now in Namor's custody after Wolverine handed him over last year. The Atlanteans are implicated by this fact and that there were gills carved into the neck of one of the bodies.

Tony Stark (director of S.H.I.E.L.D. for those of you keeping score at home) confronts Namor about it, but Namor knows nothing. It's no secret that there were Atlantean sleeper cells on the surface world before Civil War, as we saw in Front Line, but Namor has no knowledge of this attack or those involved in this "13th Cell."

Atlantis is in the middle of a full-on coup, as there are some Atlantean citizens that have decided that Namor has gone soft in his dealing with the surface world and is therefore unfit to lead. These are the ones that have set this 13th cell into action against the surface world. Of course the majority of citizens remain loyal to him, and we see in this current issue, things are sure to come to a head between these two groups soon enough.

As a S.H.I.E.L.D. blockade moves in to surround Atlantis until Stark can get some answers, Namor bashes his way through Iron Man to find some answers. Meanwhile, the US government has dispatched Venom, card-carrying Thunderbolt to bring Namor in.

After an unproductive call to the Xavier school, Namor knows where his enemies are and sets course for Washington state, only to be suckerpunched by Venom, who believe it or not, rips off his little foot-wings in a very badass splash page.

A smart plot, perfectly in-character dialog and very cool, off-beat art makes this book a sure fire solid read, if not now, since we're already in issue three, then I strongly recommend the inevitable trade paperback collection.

Question...

Is wrestling cool again? I don't watch it anymore. haven't for years, but i remember when I did that it was sort of everywhere. It was really popular, but then it died down. Now I'm seeing lots of those stupid "Answer this stupid question and you'll get a free PS3" ads, and they've got wresters on them. So is it back? When did this happen? ANd more importantly, in a day and age where MMA has become as popular and accessible as it is, why the hell would you watch wrestling when you could see real fights?

Book of the Week - 8/9/2007

This week's books - Criminal, New Avengers, World War Hulk, Front Line, The Boys, New Avengers/Transformers, and Punisher War Journal

This week's Book of the week is a tie between Ed Brubaker's Criminal #8 and Bendis's New Avengers #33. I really couldn't pick.

These books are both painfully awesome for entirely different reasons. New Avengers continues to kick ass with all the Skrulliness complete with accusations and fear and anxiety. Plus, we get some supervillains! Egad and gadzooks!. It's been so long since there was a legitiamte villain in this book, it's crazy. I'm thinking issue 19 or so. so you do the math. That's over a year! This si going to be good.

Basically, the Hood (read the mini if you haven't) is looking to fill the void left by the combined exile of the Kingpin and the unorganized mess the heroes have become, so he's looking to be new top dog. The Owl gets capped, Deathlok makes an appearance, and so does Madame Masque (her second in two weeks, mind you). Of course all this is coupled with the increasing paranoia among the team.

The only problem is that I knew it was coming. No one knew about the Skrull stuff beforehand, but anyone who reads about comics knew the Hood was set to make a comeback. Hell, I've known for months. That's the necessary evil of the hype machine, I suppose.

Criminal is good for an entirely different reason. What Brubaker's (Captain America, Daredevil) doing in this book is crafting a noir masterpiece the likes of which have perhaps never been seen on the comics page. It's everything that's good about Sin City, without the goofy stuff that Sin City sometimes carries with it.

The current arc follows Tracey Lawless, badass gone AWOL looking for some answers to who killed his brother he hadn't seen for twenty years prior. Tracey has infiltrated his brother's old crew thinking it was an inside job, and has inevitably fallen for the hot chick in the group... who apparently was also fucking his brother before he died. Of course, they don't KNOW Tracey is Tracey. They think he's Sam Logan.

This issue in particualr moves a lot of different stuff forward and progresses virtually every plot thread seen thus far in this arc. Did Tracey really think he could kill those guys at the dock in issue 6 and have no consequences?

The best part is that you believe it. There's nothing about this book that makes you suspend your disbelief even in the slightest. There's no nearly super powered character here like Marv from Sin City who, while entertaining, was hardly what you'd call a mortal man. The characters in Criminal could walk out of any dive bar in any city at any moment and they all breathe individual life and they just work.

Unfortunately, we've also got 2 contenders for what I'm going to call the "Meh Awrad." And nothing bugs me quite like spending good money on sub-par comics. This week's contenders are New Avengers/Transformer #2 and World War Hulk Front Line #3

Now... You look at a book like New Avengers/Transformers, and you say, "Lee. I don't understand. It's got Avengers, Transformers, and there's even some Dr Doom in there for good measure. What's not to liek about that?" Well, besides the horrible cover, the book's just not that good. I think the main thing holding it back is that it's built around IDW's current Transforers continuity and not the much-loved, long-established G1. That, and it's just not that good. It's really pretty, though. Tyler Kirham's pencils are solid. They evoke a '90's feel full of energy and fine pencil work without going too overboard with it.

Front Line's not bad. Really, it's not. It's just not that good, either. After Civil War: Front Line had all sorts of little nuggets crutial to the overall plot of the event and even more plot that set up the Marvel U afterward (Speedball, Norman Osborn, etc), I was expecting more from this. I mean, it's cool to see Ben urich and Sally Floyd, since we don't see them anywhere else, but onthing's happening in this book. The detective story with Korg is nice, but completely disposable. The little back-ups are pretty damn funny, though.

"Go Go Action Dell" or "Incompetent Fucktards"

So last month, we dumped $1500 on a Dell computer and were told it would ship July 24th. This was very important, as Nicole's job has become essentially dependent on this machine since she'll be working from home once the baby's born. In fact, a little sooner. What they failed to mention was that this claim was bullshit. Must have slipped kiosk jockey's mind. Hell, he probably didn't know. It's not his fault. Go go action Dell.

Either way, I guess Dell is upgrading to a new monitor or some such shit on their laptops. Somehow that equates into a clusterfuck that has delayed our order THREE times so that now the "estimated" ship date is not until August 28th. for those of you keeping score at home, our baby is due September 9th, so potentially, or baby may be delivered before our computer is delivered. Go go action Dell.

The bitch of it is we got a really good deal on the thing and there is seriously no way we'd get more for our money elsewhere, so essentially the filthy sons of bitches have locked into this contract with their specials and coupons and free upgrades. Go go action Dell.

I want to call and find out exactly what the hell the problem is. At this point, I'm assuming it's still the monitor thing, but who knows? The problem with calling is two-fold 1. The hold times are retarded. I waited 30 minutes the first time I called and 2. I'm calling Digpak in Huggahjava or some such hellhole and I can't understand most of the shit coming out of his mouth anyway. Go go action Dell.

I glance at my keyboard here at work and realize it's a Dell and I am filled with rage. Go go action Dell.

Incompentent fucktards.

Book of the Week - 8/2/2007

The inaugural Book of the Week (I'm looking to do this every week) is New Avengers: Illuminati 4.

The issue opens up with an awesome few pages where the Illuminati members (Dr. Strange, Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Namor, Charles Xavier, and Black Bolt) lamenting over woman troubles of varying degree. It showcases a rarely seen humor in Black Bolt, but is made very awesome by the stand-off between Reed and Namor about Sue, Reed's wife. (See, Namor fancies Sue for himself, but alas, she loves Reed... for some reason. Even Namor can't figure it out.)

From there the conversation shifts to the matter at hand: Noh-Varr, Marvel Boy. Created by Grant Morris (which should tell you something), Noh-Varr is a Kree experiment gone haywaire. He declared war on the Earth and made it perfectly clear that he plans to build a new Kree empire atop our ruin. That just will not do at all, now will it? They hope to bring him to side of the angels (he's already in prison, so his ststaus at large is not the issue. It's more like being proactive), so after Xavier refuses to simply reprogram him, they decide a "chat" is in ordrer.

That "chat" involves the heroes each appealing to Marvel Boy's sense of honor by showing them what the Kree have actually meant to the Earth and Atillan (the inhumans' home city) inbetween bouts of Namor kicking the shit out of him because 1, He can, and 2, Namor's kind of a dick. Stark invokes an awesome image of Noh-Varr in Mar-Vell's old costume as Captain Marvel and basically asks him how he really wants to live his life.

He seems receptive, but they leave him the Cube prison, telling him he must earn his freedom. What this means by and large is somewhat up for grabs. The whole Illuminati mini is set in the past, this issue taking place likely just before the events of Disassembled (I put that together with contxt clues, kids!). However, last we saw Marvel Boy in regular continuity was in the Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways mini, where he was still a bit of a badass what with the murdering, escaping, and once again spouting plans to rebuild the Kree empire and all.

Either way, this book was great all-around from dialog to the beatiful art with some really great two page layouts from Jim Cheung.

Now for the bad. The inaugural "Three Dollars Better Spent on Soap" award (whcih I do NOT hope to do every week, mind you) goes to New Warriors 3

Other than my inability to leave an arc unfinished, there is NO reason for me to continue buying this book. It's not Wolverine: Evolution (which thankfully sputtered to sucktastic end last week) bad; I just don't like it. I'm not sure who this book is for, but it's most certainly not me. I really don't give half a shit about any of the characters involved. So I'll finsh out the arc, and barring some unforseen badassery, drop it like a bad habit.