More comics I’m reading these days.

I read a lot of comics, evidently.

1. Lucifer #64 (Vertigo): This title will evidently end around #75, which is probably a good thing. It’s lost its focus long ago, and is now more fascinating to watch for the various events unfolding than how the characters react to them. Still a decent read, but more in the sit-back-and-enjoy it rather than being engaging.
2. The New Avengers #7-8 (Marvel): Solid hero and dialog work by Bendis as Stark continues to get the new team together (including an interesting briefing he gives to Reed Richards, Charles Xavier, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt, and Namor). That team ends up spending most of the first issue duking it out with the Crusher (it’s nice to see Wolverine batted around a lot); that battle concludes, amusingly, in the next issue. More important is the unfolding tale of the Sentry — evidently the “most powerful hero in the Marvel Universe” — save that nobody remembers him, except his “creator,” comics writer Paul Jenkins, who gets dragged to a cave by the Avengers to confront the refugee hero, with various flashbacks to Sal Buscema-drawn issues of his 70s-era comic. Yes, it’s confusing, but Bendis makes it interesting (so far) at the same time.

3. The OMAC Project #2-4 (DC): So after Batman started realizing his memory had been tweaked during the course of the events described in Identity Crisis, he build the covert monitoring satellite system to watch the world’s super-heroes. And that’s been taken over by Max Lord, former slim CEO of the Justice League, now head of the covert agency Checkmate, whose further modified “Brother Eye” to turn people into super-powered robots (temporarily). It so happens that one of his chief lieutenants was once Bruce Wayne’s bodyguard. And it turns out that his psychic control powers have grown to the point that he can control Superman, whom he convinces to (nearly) kill Batman — until he’s finally stopped. And now Brother Eye has decided to kill all the heroes, and may be able to do it. Got all that? Now you know what’s been going on in DC — or a big chunk of it — for the last several months. It’s been executed unevenly (Rucka’s done a decent job with this overarching title), but it’s still been kind of a muddled mess. We’ll see what overall impact it has.

4. Outsiders #25 (DC): The end of Judd Winick’s run, evidently, as well as the end of the Titans cross-over and the crazy Superboy and crazy Indigo storyline. It all ends very powerfully and tragically. Well, if wrenchingly, done.

5. Outsiders #26 (DC): A deep, dark, former secret reuinites all the classic BatO characters. Somehow. The “regular” team is nowhere to be seen. Nor is Judd Winick; this one’s written by Peter Tomasi. Okay, but sort of dark-conspiracy-cliched. So far, ho-hum.

6. The Pact #2-3 (Image): An odd “team book” consisting of other sorta-related Image “Shadowline” title characters — Invincible, Zephyr (from Noble Causes), Shadowhawk, and Firebreather. These teen heroes kinda-sorta hang together and do heroic stuff. It’s all very … well, sorta lame. On the drop list.

(listening to: “Flightcastle” from Unreal)
(listening to: Corrs, “Breathless” from Grammy Nominees 2001)
(listening to: Chapin, Harry, et al., “The Last Supper” from Cotton Patch Gospel)
(listening to: White, Nancy, “Bet He Can Tango” from Gaelic Envy)
(listening to: McKennitt, Loreena, “Stolen Child” from Elemental)
(listening to: Birmingham Symphony, “Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 – Allegro con brio” from Beethoven – Complete Symphonies – Vol. II)

Okay, time for another change of pace.

Where on the web do I go for comics news?

Well, fact is, I don’t do this nearly as much as I once did. Just no time, frankly. I occasionally skim the headlines, but the days when I pored over the sites in detail are, for the moment, in the past.

That said, here’s the sources I still have at my fingers:

(more…)

I love comics. Really. In case there were any questions in your mind.

(more…)