BT05 – Sizzling Big Action Issue!

So it’s going on 2 p.m. I started at 7 a.m. We’re 30% of the way there! Yay!

The food supplies are more than holding out — not actually eating/drinking that much so far. On the other hand, I’ve gotten through the “P”s in the Trade Paperback stack.

Not that I’m running out of material.

But this time … something a little different.

What comics am I reading right now?

First off, I’m not reading any of the Marvel House of M claptrap. I’m sure we’ve seen this same series from Marvel before — one of the mutie-dominating futures mixed with Age of Apocalypse mixed with, I dunno, Exiles and What If? and we end up with “What if Magneto had taken over the world and now mutants were in charge and how would all the Marvel characters we know be different?”

Ho-hum. Continuity had gotten to be such a brittle thing any more that pursuing alternative realities has stopped being shocking and gone to just being annoying. You’re interrupting my normal comics storylines, folks. I really don’t want to read the HoM version of Hulk, or of FF or of Spider-Man. Really . Of course, since I have my comics pulled by title, I end up having to read them anyway. When is this thing over, anyway? Maybe I should just ask Lynn to *not* pull those issues until we’re back to “normal.”

The DCU is going through its own event or five, but that’s less irritating, largely because it’s been (a) incoherent and (b) spread through existing continuity. Thus, bits and pieces can be ignored as desired.

In the first range of the alphabet.

• Action #829 (DC): Gail Simone can write well. John Byrne can draw well. The current OMAC/Supertitles cross-over, “Sacrifices,” is way too drawn out. Trending toward being dropped.
• Adventures of Superman #642 (DC): Ditto with Greg Rucka on the writing reins. Okay, so Max Lord has boosted his power and ego enough to take over Superman. That should be a lot more interesting than this whole cross-over makes it.

• Amazing Spider-Man #521-522 (Marvel): Spidey’s part of the New Avengers now, living in Stark Tower with MJ and Aunt May. JMS is handling the changes well; Peter is kind of a nerd, but he’s always had a sociable streak that’s never been given good rein. Seeing him with the other Avengers is fun. At the moment, though, he’s up to his eyeballs in a big Hydra plot — which is merely a sideline to focus on problems MJ is having. She’s succeeding in her stage career, which is great, until a paparazzi confronts her entering Stark Tower after a show, and starts the ball rolling on rumors about an affair she’s having with Stark. It all flows very naturally, including everyone’s respective reactions. One fun sidelight is that JMS is also having fun writing Wolverine as a real bastard, without having him seem a tragic and troubled character. Nice.

• Astro City: The Dark Ages #1 (Wildstorm): A tale of the violent Viet Nam-era Astro City, from the eyes of two ordinary citizens, one a cheap crook, the other a cop, both friends. Good backfilling of history for Astro City, but the series has been so hit-or-miss in publication for so long, that it almost seems like a waste of time for Busiek and Anderson to be telling tales of then instead of now. That said, it’s good stuff, a bit slow starting, but promising.

• Batman #640-642 (DC): The first two issues here are apparently the end of Judd Winick’s run on the series, in which the stripped-down Bat-cast was again built back up (with the supposedly-dramatic-but-kind-of-irksome return of Jason Todd as the Red Mask). Okay, but not great. Andersen Gabrych’s arrival is even less propitious, and I’m soon to drop this title.

• Batman: Dark Detective #5-6 (of 6) (DC): Englehart, Rogers and Austin take us on a trip down Memory Lane, showing why their Batman was so well-received in the 70s, and how the character (and the comics) have changed since then. Good reading, indeed, but I’m not sure I’d like the status quo returned there, even if I’m not thrilled with where they are now. I’m mixed on whether I’ll get the TPB — I’m thinking not.

(listening to: Beach Boys, “Good To My Baby” from Capitol Years, The)