Comics for me
A week I was looking forward to, that ultimately disappointed.
Nextwave #3 - Might be funnier on a second reading, but this was the weakest issue so far. Still a good time, but felt even more substanceless than usual. HOWEVER, at the end of the issue there is a full-page text analysis of Toto's "Africa", that is so worth the price of admission.
X-Factor #5 - Not sure what the point was, here. We don't really learn anything new, and the outcome is never really in doubt. Thoroughly dull.
Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol. 2 - Or, "Jeff spends 15 bucks on a trade of issues he already owns because he is a damn sucker." The actual material of the trade is far from a disappointment, since Guardian #4 is probably the best single issue of the whole story, and "Sky High" Helligan (showing up for the first time in Shining Knight #3) is probably my favorite peripheral character of the series, but THEY PRINTED THE ISSUES IN THE WRONG ORDER. For some reason, Zatanna #3 is sandwiched in between the fourth issues of Shining Knight and Guardian when it should come after the THIRD issues of those books. Ultimately it makes zero difference to anyone reading Seven Soldiers in trade, but for someone who has been pouring over the minutae of this series from the beginning, it's annoying. I mean, there's a checklist for the order in which they should be read at the back of every single issue. This isn't rocket science.
Runaways Vol. 6: "Escape to New York" - This week's overwhelming success, for several reasons. I was little less than enthused with Vol. 5, especially the non-climax (in which Ultron, who in his last appearance slaughtered the population of an entire country and fought the whole of the Avengers to a standstill, is this time around single-handedly defeated by Darkhawk), so this volume represented a return to form for Brian K. Vaughn, as the kids run around New York but mostly snark and bicker and make out and do all the things teenagers do, only really charmingly. It's not every Marvel book that proposes hot shapeshifting lesbian makeouts, but this one does, and avoids being tawdry. Plus, Molly beats the shit out of Wolverine. It's a good time. PLUS, Marvel's started printing their digests on some new type of paper, so the color-murkiness that plagued the earlier digests is nowhere to be found. Everything's vibrant as hell, and still the same price (6 issues for 8 bucks!). Good on you, Marvel.
Nextwave #3 - Might be funnier on a second reading, but this was the weakest issue so far. Still a good time, but felt even more substanceless than usual. HOWEVER, at the end of the issue there is a full-page text analysis of Toto's "Africa", that is so worth the price of admission.
X-Factor #5 - Not sure what the point was, here. We don't really learn anything new, and the outcome is never really in doubt. Thoroughly dull.
Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol. 2 - Or, "Jeff spends 15 bucks on a trade of issues he already owns because he is a damn sucker." The actual material of the trade is far from a disappointment, since Guardian #4 is probably the best single issue of the whole story, and "Sky High" Helligan (showing up for the first time in Shining Knight #3) is probably my favorite peripheral character of the series, but THEY PRINTED THE ISSUES IN THE WRONG ORDER. For some reason, Zatanna #3 is sandwiched in between the fourth issues of Shining Knight and Guardian when it should come after the THIRD issues of those books. Ultimately it makes zero difference to anyone reading Seven Soldiers in trade, but for someone who has been pouring over the minutae of this series from the beginning, it's annoying. I mean, there's a checklist for the order in which they should be read at the back of every single issue. This isn't rocket science.
Runaways Vol. 6: "Escape to New York" - This week's overwhelming success, for several reasons. I was little less than enthused with Vol. 5, especially the non-climax (in which Ultron, who in his last appearance slaughtered the population of an entire country and fought the whole of the Avengers to a standstill, is this time around single-handedly defeated by Darkhawk), so this volume represented a return to form for Brian K. Vaughn, as the kids run around New York but mostly snark and bicker and make out and do all the things teenagers do, only really charmingly. It's not every Marvel book that proposes hot shapeshifting lesbian makeouts, but this one does, and avoids being tawdry. Plus, Molly beats the shit out of Wolverine. It's a good time. PLUS, Marvel's started printing their digests on some new type of paper, so the color-murkiness that plagued the earlier digests is nowhere to be found. Everything's vibrant as hell, and still the same price (6 issues for 8 bucks!). Good on you, Marvel.
posted by Jeff at 4:23 PM
4 Comments:
Man, I need to catch up with Runaways. I haven't read any of the new series.
Seven Soldiers, man. I hear that's all right.
i NEED to see that text analysis of "africa"...woah.
Wow. Darkhawk's still around?
Darkhawk?
Wow.
Correction time! (Again. See above) It should be Runaways Volume FIVE, not six. There is no volume six. Yet.
Paul, the best part of that Runaways story was the first appearance of Excelsior, a team made up of forgotten 90's Marvel heroes. It consisted of Turbo from the New Warriors, Darkhawk, Ricochet from The Slingers, the 3rd Green Goblin (the good one), Lightspeed from Power Pack, and Chamber from Generation X. It was brilliant. Too bad the story itself was a little too padded.
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