What I Got - 8.22.07

To reiterate from my other blog....I suck, but hey, it's August and I'm not the only one whose blogging-fu has dropped off recently. Anyway, I'm still paying my weekly tithe to the shop, so I might as well write about what I'm spending my money on:

Batman #668

Morrison continues on his "Batmen of Many Nations" arc and ups the stakes for our collection of heroes. It's an interesting little murder-mystery that really brings Bats back to his roots. I only have read a few of Morrison's Batman issues, but what I really like is how he's humanized (dare I say...softened) Batman. When Robin starts making fun of some of the past-their-sell-by-date heroes they're trapped with, Bats sticks up to defend them. Plus, his continued confidence in Robin's abilities is very cool. It's nice to see him acknowledge not every hero can measure up to him. This is the middle-part, so it suffers a bit from that, but it's still a very good issue.

One thing about the art, I had noticed while re-reading the previous issue, it looks as if J.H. Williams III is drawing each hero in a different artist's style. The Knight & Squire look as if Ed McGuinness is drawing them, the Argentine hero is in Carlos Ezquerra's style, the American Indian heroes look like Kevin Nowlan did them and The Legionairre looks like some of Carmine Infantino's Silver Age work. It looks really cool.



Superman #666

Holy crap that was awesome. I was disappointed with Batman #666, but this issue of Superman more than makes up for it. Essentially the plot is that Superman, thinking he's dreaming, decides to live out every single awful impulse he has ever had...from killing Luthor (by spitting in, and through, his face!) to making Jimmy Olsen's head explode using his super-whistling, and hey, no biggie, it's all a dream.....(wait for it)....OR IS IT!

Kurt Busiek writes an insane script that essentially exists solely to give Walt Simonson insane things to draw in the way that only Mr. Simonson can. I think this is the best single-issue tale I've read all year.





Annihilation Conquest: Starlord # 2

So our heroes go into battle (including everyone's favorite Racoon riding a sentient tree) and things get messy. That's pretty much it, this issue was good, but not to the heights of the first issue. It could be that the artist is better at drawing people talking rather than shooting, but it's still good. Part of the problem may have been for as much action that happened in this issue, there wasn't a lot of story, it's like the script read "Our Heroes bicker as the fight their way through the sewers and X & Y characters die." It's not that simple, but not too far off.

Irregardless, I'm still excited to see where this is going and I'm confident that it won't let me down.





The Spirit #9

Darwyn Cooke gets back into fighting form with this issue. Focusing back onto out main villain, who was created during The Spirit's origin, this issue mirrors the tale told in issue #3 with multiple member's of the cast telling the story in narration as we move through. It's well done and what could have been incoherent is easy to follow.












Immortal Iron Fist #8

Here's the pitch: Iron Fist...starring in..."Enter the Dragon", with superpowered kung-fu deities.

FIGHT!

Oh yeah.....