Listen, I lived a block away from Wrigley Field during the home-run chase of '98, it's one of the things (along with the Cub's wild-card run) that helped turn me from a Cubs fan to a CUBS FAN. I was 24 and I was all but certain that the chase was fueled by steroids, but, I didn't care much, simply because neither baseball, journalists or the government cared enough to do the simple investigations into illegal drug trafficking to clean up the sport before it became an issue that not even my dog could ignore. And she ignores her own poo when she goes in the house. Whenever I hear all of these sportswriters delighting/complaining about Bonds, I keep wondering, what kind of stories were you writing in 98(I'm looking at you Mariotti)? It was obvious to anyone with eyes there was something fishy going on.
BLEARRRGGHHH!!!!
Anyway, here's what I bought this week:
World War Hulk #5
Well, at the end of the day, that was kind of disappointing. I mean it certainly delivered a great fight between the Sentry and the Hulk (and also gave us a good glimpse into exactly how much of a head-case the Sentry is), but c'mon, they may as well have just hung a "to be continued..." on the whole thing. I understand that event comics are meant to be jumping off points for new series and storylines, but really, can't you just give us some type of closure? Shit, has House of M even ended yet?
Fortunately, John Romita Jr.'s art makes the whole thing worth the price of admission, but I still feel like I just ate a really good steak that was slightly over-done.
Nova #8
So yeah, this book has apparently found what its over-arching storyarc is to be and it's Star Trek: Voyager. That is not to say that the comic isn't excellent. We have an entire issue of exposition of Nova's new situation, but since said exposition is delivered by a Soviet, talking, astronaut dog (named Cosmo!), it is awesome.
My only fear is that since this story mirrors said crappy ST series (and Abnett & Lanning's previously awesome series: Legion Lost) that they may go on auto-pilot. But irregardless, I'm in.
X-Factor #25
So this is smack dab in the middle of the Messiah Complex cross-over and instead of something like David's well-written Civil War and (kinda) House of M stories that only tangentially touched the whole things, this issue continues on directly from the last X-issue that came out last week and leads into whatever issue comes out next week. That said, it's not totally incomprehensible, but you only really get about 10 pages of story actually including any of the stars of the book, the rest is Cyclops bitching out whatever members of the New X-Men that are still alive this week.
Anyway, I'm intrigued enough by the thing that I'll probably pick up the trade, but I hope that we'll get back to some stand-alone X-Factory goodness next month.
All-Star Superman #9
So yeah, not much to say. A-hole Kryptonians show up on Earth, try to take over and Superman ends up proving that he's better because he's not a complete dick (depending upon who you talk to).
There's not much more I can say about this series except that it's very good, however this issue was a little disappointing, simply because the resolution came a little too quick, I honestly thought I had missed a page or two somewhere.
I know, I know, why am I the only person who's not talking about LOEG: The Black Dossier? Well, I didn't get it (yet), and even if I did, there's no way I'd be through it by now. Truth be told, I've never been completely hit-over-the-head in love with LOEG, I've liked it and thought it was a great idea with good execution, but I've never thought it measured up to Moore's best work of archetypal deconstruction (Watchmen, Tom Strong). Hopefully I'll have something to say about it in a week or so.
But now to the best book I've read this year:
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together
If you haven't read the first three volumes of this series of GN's and you enjoy fun, video games, Canada, indie rock, (half)ninjas, laziness or fun, you are doing yourself a disservice by not going out and buying them all and spending your weekend catching up. Seriously, buy copies for yourself and anyone you know over the age of 12, it's like crack, but it won't fuck up your teeth.
This book is pretty much impossible to review, just say that over four volumes and hundreds of pages, Bryan Lee O'Malley has managed to write and draw one of my top five favorite series ever with no drop in quality. Now I'm just pissed I gotta wait a year (at least) for vol. 5.
Anyhoo, thanks for coming, I'm going to an art gallery and (perhaps) a movie tonight, so maybe tomorrow I'll came back to drop some knowledge bombs on y'all.
No comments:
Post a Comment