Okay, now for something marginally different. Rather than TPBs, I’m going to do some of the regular comics I’m reading today. I went and grabbed stuff I’d received and read in the last couple of months and threw it (alphatically, natch) into a box. Here’s what I have.<\/p>\n
\nReview code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?]<\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
52<\/em> <\/strong>#2-12 (DC) [4\/4\/2\/1] (w. Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid; a. Keith Giffen, Joe Bennett)<\/p>\n
With a list of writers that long, this ought to be a train wreck, and sometimes it does get a bit crazy, but these are all masters at the craft, and their integrated tales looking at what happened to the DCU in the aftermath of the Infinite Crisis and prior to the “One Year Later” everything got rebooted to is working remarkably well. Some of the stories are gelling well, others are merely interesting sidelights, but coming as they are on a weekly basis (the 52 weeks of the year the series will run, hence
\nthe title), it’s turning out okay. At the very least, it’s good for DC triviameisters, if not for the more casual reader.<\/p>\nBacking up all of this has been an odd retelling of the DCU History, w\/a. Dan Jurgens, featuring Donna Troy chatting with Harbinger’s sphere, and, evidently, ushering in a corps of Monitors in the near future.<\/p>\n
\n\nAction Comics<\/em><\/strong> #841 (DC) [4\/4\/3\/1] (w. Kurt Busiek, Fabien Nicieza; a. Pete Woods)<\/p>\n
After the “Up, Up, and Away!” storyline, where we learned that Supes was basically powerless for most of the “Year Later” until he’d recovered from the big duke-out at the end of Infinite Crisis, Supes is now back. It’s either a bizarre coincidence or an odd marketing play that just as Superman Returns comes out, Busiek and Action deal with “how does the world react to Superman coming back after being gone a year?”<\/p>\n
The answer is an interesting one, as quite a number of people actually wonder if it’s really him, or someone faking him. A fair question, given both the disappearance and what happened with Supes was dead previously. It does mean reestablishing some professional relationships again, not to mention getting back whatever security clearances he once had with the governments of the world. A fun twist.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Supes is lending a hand with heroes across the US in fending off an alien <s>invasion<\/s> acquisition of the planet’s treasures. How soon will the status quo return? We’ll see.<\/p>\n
\nAll-Star Batman & Robin<\/em><\/strong> #4 (DC) [4\/5\/3\/1] (w. Frank Miller; a. Jim Lee)<\/p>\n
Miller has gotten a fair amount of heat for this not-really-continuity retelling of Batman’s adoption of Robin, his Bats seeming to be overly brutal, sadistic, and nasty. And that’s just to the bad guys. He’s even worse to the newly orphaned Dick Grayson.<\/p>\n
The criticism seems to be correct, for what it’s worth. It’s an interesting take on the character, but I sure wouldn’t pass this comic on to an impressionable kid, no matter how nice Lee’s art is (and it’s some of his best) or how engaging (within the parameters above) Miller’s writing is. I’ll probably keep reading it, just to see where Miller’s going to take it (and because of Lee’s nice art), but I’m not really enjoying the process.<\/p>\n
\nAll-Star Superman<\/em><\/strong> #4 (DC) [4\/5\/3\/2] (w. Grant Morrison; a. Frank Quitely)<\/p>\n
Another non-canonical alternate take on an iconic hero. Morrison does his take on a classic style Superman\/Jimmy Olson team-up, but with the sort of cosmic uplift that you’d expect from his JLA run a few years back. Black Kryptonite, ultra-sophisticated research satellites, Doomsday potions, lots of technobabble and goofiness. It’s a beautiful book, in look and craftsmanship, but there’s still a vague sense, when all is said and done, that you’re being laughed at by Morrison.<\/p>\n
Folks who like Morrison, or Morrison’s reimagining of comic book conventions, will love this. Big Superman fans might very well not.<\/p>\n
(I suppose we’re lucky — or unlucky — that with Miller on Batman and Morrison on Superman, we didn’t get Warren Ellis doing Wonder Woman … and, upon consideration, why didn’t we?)<\/p>\n
\n\n(listening to: Derbyshire, Delia , “Extended Theme (1967)” from <\/i>Doctor Who (various))
\n(listening to: Riepl, Kevin, “Hide-n-Seek-v3” from <\/i>Unreal Tournament 2003)
\n(listening to: “Theme4” from <\/i>City of Heroes)
\n(listening to: “James at 15” from <\/i>Television’s Greatest Hits – VI)
\n(listening to: Cash, Johnny, “Ring of Fire” from <\/i>Johnny Cash 16 Biggest Hits)
\n(listening to: “The Beverly Hillbillies” from <\/i>Television’s Greatest Hits)
\n(listening to: Barry, John, “Moviola” from <\/i>Moviola)
\n(listening to: Battlefield Band, “The Port of Call” from <\/i>Anthem for the Comman Man)
\n(listening to: Stone Edge, “Yesterday’s Child” from <\/i>Stone Edge)
\n(listening to: Monkees, “Monkees’ Theme” from <\/i>Monkees – Greatest Hits)
\n(listening to: Isham, Mark, “Down the Alley (With You)” from <\/i>A River Runs Through It)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Okay, now for something marginally different. Rather than TPBs, I’m going to do some of the regular comics I’m reading today. I went and grabbed stuff I’d received and read…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogathon","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15360,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-l-is-for-lonely-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":9301,"position":0},"title":"BT09 – L is for Lonely (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 5:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Liberty Meadows, Book 4, \"Cold, Cold Heart\"\u00a0(Image) w\/a.\u00a0Frank Cho\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? I need to look up Liberty Meadows some time next week, because I'm not sure whatever happened to this title -- originally a comic strip, then a web comic, and collected and reprinted, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11633,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/28\/bt07_deep_thoughts.html","url_meta":{"origin":9301,"position":1},"title":"BT07 – Deep Thoughts","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 28-Jul-07 8:54am","format":false,"excerpt":"Action Philosophers: Giant Sized Thing\u00a0#1 (Evil Twin) [collects #1-3] w. Brian Van Lente; a.\u00a0Ryan Dunlavey\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? Action Philosophers: Giant Sized Thing\u00a0#2 (Evil Twin) [collects...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15375,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-p-is-for-punch-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":9301,"position":2},"title":"BT09 – P is for Punch (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 9:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Powers, Vol. 10, \"Cosmic\"\u00a0(Icon) [collects #13-18] Powers, Vol. 11, \"Secret Identity\"\u00a0(Icon) [collects #19-24] Powers, Vol. 12, \"The 25 Coolest Dead Superheroes of All Time\"\u00a0(Icon) [collects #25-30, Annual 2008] w. Brian Bendis; a.\u00a0Michael Oeming\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? These three volumes wrap up the current run of Powers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7859,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/06\/bt05_blogathonn.html","url_meta":{"origin":9301,"position":3},"title":"BT05 – Blogathonners Assemble!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 6-Aug-05 7:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"First off, I want to thank Margie for her support in this, on a bunch of different levels. Things have been increasingly stressful at her office, between organizational conflicts and...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15371,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-n-is-for-naivete-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":9301,"position":4},"title":"BT09 – N is for Naivete (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 8:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's funny -- I can't say that either of the below are so profoundly wonderful that they deserve 5 stars ... but both are among my favorite comics in the stack. Take that as you will. Nextwave: Agents of HATE, Vol. 1, \"This Is What They Want\"\u00a0(Marvel) [collects #1-6] Nextwave:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11619,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/28\/bt07_two_i_really_wanted.html","url_meta":{"origin":9301,"position":5},"title":"BT07 – Two I really wanted to like.","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 28-Jul-07 2:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Whew!\u00a0 2 o'clock and all is (so far) well! Manhunter: Trial by Fire, Vol. 2\u00a0(DC) [collects #6-14] w. Marc Andreyko; a.\u00a0Various Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? I really keep...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}