The Comic Book Noob

Of Paolo Parente and Rick Remender: New Comic Day 6-02-2010

2010-05-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

My shopping list for June 2, 2010.

I ultimately decided to add this to my pull list completely blind of any work previously done by the creators. There were two driving reasons behind this. The first is that this is alternate history. In 1938, the Axis got their hands on alien technology to For a period I was obsessed with alternate history. Harry Turtledove is the king of this genre in novel form, and I have about 10 novels of his on my bookshelf. The second reason is that the art reminds me very much of Battalion Wars, a spin-off of Advance Wars, which are both among my favorite game franchises.

Having read about this title further, I'm intrigued by the way this comic came about. Paolo Parente is the creator of the DUST property. Instead of trying to focus on one particular thing to make his property famous, he's thrust it into multiple markets. He's created tabletop games, model kits, pinup illustrations and other interactive events surrounding the universe he's concocted. Now, an Image book deal. Paolo Parente: Walking entrepreneurial inspiration.

Franken-Castle #17

So they did it. They turned the Punisher into Franken-Castle, and it was one of the best comics out every month. Tony Moore (and for one issue, Roland Boschi) created awesome panels specifically designed to give Punisher fans who are also metalheads an orgasm.

There's an interview with Rick Remender on iFanboy's Talksplode that does a great job of getting into his head and unfortunately takes a set of questions from a notoriously rude retailer. After learning about some of his crazy sci-fi sensibilities and the way he thinks about comics, I'd love to get a Marvel event from this guy. I know a lot of people are down on event books, but the next time (or the time after that) Marvel gets the itch to change everything forever with a big event book, I'd love to see Remender as the writer.

Hercules: Twilight of a God #1

Justice Society of America #39

Demo Vol. 2 #5 (of 6)

iZombie #2

Irredeemable #14

Serenity: Float Out

Hey Lizard!

2010-05-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hey, Lizard! Over here!

See this picture here?

Can you tell me that guy's name?

Oh, Lizard!

It's Almost New Comic Book Day! 5-26-2010

2010-05-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

My shopping list for this Wednesday:

Green Lantern #54

Geoff Johns seems to get quite a bit of flak, either for unintentional racism or for being an all-around poopy writer. Now, I'm aware that the people I linked to actually enjoy some of his work. I've got to admit, I do too. Even as much as I was disappointed by Blackest Night, my interest in the lore of Oa and the various Lantern Corps is something that's grown as I read BN, and Johns weaves quite a story in that regard.

I read the #0 and #1 issues of Brightest Day and had to stop after that, because for the most part I just didn't care. But Green Lantern, and how "Brightest Day" ties in with the mythology and who that shadowy guy is who wrote the oath? I can't get enough of that.

Doug Mahnke is the artist on this. I recently read through the four volumes of Seven Soldiers of Victory in trade. Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein is probably some of my favorite art that I've seen in comics. I'm going to have to go back through some of the Green Lantern issues I've got with that new perspective on Mahnke's art.

Amazing Spider-Man #632

So we've entered the Heroic Age at Marvel. The first tale of the Heroic Age in Amazing Spider-Man is a gruesome tragedy. Somehow, this is not a bad thing.

SHED tells the tale of the death of Curt Connors and his son, Billy as assisted by the Kraven family. The first two parts, written by Zeb Wells, have set up an excellent Spider-Man tragedy. I think my favorite part of this arc so far are The Lizard's word bubbles, referring to Connors as KAHN RRS.

Chris Bachalo did an excellent job of switching between the cuter, cartoony style of Spidey's interactions with the Black Cat and the fearsome monster that is The Lizard. Some great, terrifying art is involved whenever The Lizard is on panel. Also, the eight Emma Rios pages we got in #631 were delightful, of course.

Sadly, this does mean one of the more interesting characters from Spidey's Rogues Gallery is pretty one-dimensional now. Less Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, more Killer Croc. At the same time, I think this will be seen overall as a positive addition to classic Spider-Man lore. And I can't wait to see Peter Parker's reaction.

Incorruptible #6

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #2

Green Lantern Corps #48

The Mighty Crusaders Special

Fall of the Hulks: The Savage She-Hulks #3

Wolverine Weapon X #13

Star Wars Legacy #48

Cowboy Ninja viking TP

Virtual World of the Week: Red Dead Redemption

2010-05-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

Every Monday (in theory at this point, anyway) I sit down and share my experience with a particular video game I've spent some of Sunday with. The idea is to get a good amount of gameplay in and then write a review/travelogue of the particular world I've been immersed in. Because I have a tendency to focus on story in video games, there are likely going to be plenty of spoilers. This week: The first 4-6 hours of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption on the Xbox 360.

I'll start off by explaining the somewhat colored past Rockstar and I have. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was my first experience with a Rockstar game, thanks to Steam. I enjoyed the short time I spent with it to an extent, but I'm generally bad at gaming and I was playing a game built for a controller with a mouse and keyboard. When I got to parts that I struggled with, I found it pretty easy to just quit playing.

Part of my problem with Vice City could have had something to do with my overall disdain for open world games. I like my games with a lot of linearity, Bioshock and Half Life spring to mind as a couple of my favorites. With a big open space to wander around, it's sometimes hard to stay focused at the task at hand. A lot more can go wrong with open world games, one example being locations that are difficult to find, another being that going from Point A to Point B can get somewhat boring. However, Vice City isn't something with specific problems I can cite, it's more of a distant memory of something I didn't play for very long.

Grand Theft Auto IV was a bit more recent for me. The specific problem I will cite is that it felt to me a little bit too much like The Sims, there was too much normal people stuff to do, that you were expected to do. For a game series that relies on satire and exaggeration of stereotypes, there was far too much realism. Somehow, I don't think the point of GTA IV is to be a realistic carjacking simulator. So then why do I have a cell phone that people can call and annoy me on? Why do I have to be so damn careful in traffic? Why am I penalized for doing ridiculous, fun, over-the-top things in a sandbox game?

Red Dead Redemption begins with an interesting cutscene, I'm still not aware of the story behind it at this point. The basic premise is that the main character, John Marston is in a big city, being escorted to a train by a couple of lawmen. Once at the train, the lawmen just make sure he gets on, but they don't accompany him or seem to care what happens to him once the train reaches it's destination. The train is heading to Armadillo, which is located in the Old West. For the portion of the story I've played through, we learn things about him in two different ways.

The first is what people's assumptions of him are. They talk about how they don't like interference from "the government" in people's lives, they seem to suspect he's a federal agent of some sort. It's also assumed that he's a city slicker, raised in the East.

The second is what he says about himself, facts that I choose to be wary of, because of the opening scene. He claims his mother died during childbirth and his father left, so he grew up in an orphanage. From there he fell in with a gang, but they had some sort of code they followed. They were honorable thieves of a sort. Along the way he met a man named Bill Williamson, and they have a bit of a history. Now, he has to kill Williamson to ensure that his wife and child are not endangered. We've never once seen his wife and child in the story so far, only heard him mention them briefly a couple of times.

Despite having a wife and child, John Marston has a small amount of romantic tension with a woman on the ranch where he stays, Bonnie MacFarlane. Marston calls her Ms. MacFarlane, and in turn Bonnie refers to him as Mr. Marston even when they grow to know each other better. The chemistry between the voice actors is incredible. There are enough cutscenes for them to establish a friendship, and the writing and voicework do an amazing job of making these characters seem real. I should note at this point that MacFarlane is voiced by Kimberly Irion and Marston is voiced by Rob Weithoff. Both are terrific.

Bonnie is a classic old west tomboy, a cowgirl. She handles the day-to-day business of the MacFarlane ranch. She's also well-read and at one point calls Marston on being a former gang member and he explains that they had a code. I don't remember her response word-for-word, but she talks about how the honorable thief is a bad literary trope, that essentially, crime is crime.

Bonnie has you doing chores on the ranch from time to time, through those you learn how to break in horses, protect your crops from coyotes and herd cattle. All of this was actually a lot of fun for me. Some people might find it boring, but I thoroughly enjoyed these sections.

At one point while you're herding cattle, a lightning bolt strikes a tree and spooks the cattle. They start running towards a cliff and you have to round them up before they go over and die. It's an intense moment, you're trying to outrun cattle on your horse. I got most of them stopped, but there were a few more still heading for the cliff. I went into high gear with my horse and stopped three in the nick of time, but one went over the edge.

Because you're just doing chores for someone else, it's a lot of fun. If you had control of everything and were expected to do a whole lot, balance the books, buy and sell livestock, it could have turned into a really boring farm simulator. A really good part about it is that if you'd rather be shooting some dudes, you can just do a bunch of missions for the Sheriff in Armadillo.

The gunplay in Red Dead Redemption is fun, but not especially difficult. There is an autotargeting system which makes things a lot easier. You can even slow down time with something called "Dead Eye" which I haven't found much of a use for yet. Cover mechanics are very important, you can't stay out in the open for too long or you end up dead.

Red Dead Redemption isn't a shooter any more than it's a horse-wrangling simulator. There are plenty of different types of tasks to accomplish, hopefully they don't get too repetitive after a while. You can be a bounty hunter, a swindler/salesman, a deputy, and a ranch hand. That also doesn't include when you progress the story by stealing a deputy's horse to distract them while a graverobber busts his buddy out of prison to get the location of half of a map to some buried treasure.

One of the more interesting anecdotes I can give is when I approached a stranger with a broken leg. The culprit who broke his leg was running away. I tracked him down, lassoed him and carried him back to the man with the broken leg. As it turns out, the man I'd lassoed was acting in self defense and the man with the broken leg was a cannibal. I shot the cannibal and cut loose the man I'd hogtied. Alternatively, I could have simply walked away and allowed the cannibal to devour the man I'd tied up.

My first taste of Red Dead Redemption was pretty amazing. A solid story, quality writing and voice acting combined with gameplay that isn't difficult, but is fun, is what Rockstar games (and open world games in general) should be all about.

Next week: Maybe more Red Dead Redemption. Maybe I'll try and finish Heavy Rain. Maybe I'll work on Bioshock 2. Maybe something completely different.

6 reasons to buy DC Universe Legacies #1 based on dialogue alone.

2010-05-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

Also, fedoras.

OK, and great art by Andy Kubert and J.G. Jones.

Marvel Comics in 1999

2010-05-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

-- From the Stan's Soapbox column in The Invincible Iron Man #23 v. 3

Iron Man: Legacy #1 Review

2010-04-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

Tony Stark, man. This is exactly the sort of Tony Stark story that should be told. It is a play on Armor Wars, but a really, really good play. This is classic comics. Iron Man is in two different fights near the beginning and end of this book. The end of the first issue reveals who the big bad is. Pithy remarks as the hero easily dispatches the first enemies he faces.

Yet, the real genius from writer Fred Van Lente comes in the middle of the book. Some Iron Men are using what appears to be his oldest design to murder innocent people in "Transia." So he goes to his Marvel Universe Video Conference Screen to consult with Foggy Nelson and Nick Fury among others. He feels tortured by this sequence of events later on.

At this point, I'm going to mention the lettering in this book. It is really, really well done by Dave Lanphear. There was only one point that I noticed it at, originally. The video conference convo between Rhodey and Tony is lettered with Iron Man and War Machine's colours with two little eyes on the left of the text box during a cutaway shot of James Rhodes' past. There are also shots from Iron Man's perspective with some white text on red that is also quite excellent.

Somehow I mentioned the letterer before the artist on a book, but I will mention that Steve Kurth does a great job on this book. Everything Iron Man in this book looks beautiful, from the early fight between Iron Man and some thugs to near the end of the book where Iron Man flies in wearing his regular Iron Man armor inside a bigger suit of armor and then he pulls out a "Repulsor Blade" and starts kicking ass and then and then and then this comic is just awesome long-running sentences fuck yeah.

Iron Man: Legacy. Get it.

Uncanny X-Men #523 review

2010-04-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

Uncanny X-Men #523 jumps right into the Second Coming story arc. This is Chapter 2 in the arc. I have some major problems with this.

The last issue of Uncanny left Kitty Pryde stuck permanently phasing through everything she touched, Colossus waiting anxiously by her side as she underwent some tests. Colossus is now out in the field. Did he protest with Scott about this? Was there some sort of farewell? I have no idea, I didn't read the BIG CROSSOVER EVENT BOOK THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING FOREVER AND KILLS SOMEBODY OFF ALSO.

It seems odd to set up the event this way. Event books work better when one big event happens in a main book, and then books take what happened most recently and build their own story around it, with their own characters in their book.

As an example, a couple weeks ago I leafed through Avengers: The Initiative in my local comic shop. It used Asgard falling apart in Siege as well as the arrival of the Captain Americas on the scene to have implications for two characters. It wasn't a great book by any means, but it was an excellent use of the events of Siege #3.

This format however features the work of Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson in chapters 2, 6 and 10 of a larger story. Despite my bitching and moaning, this is a really excellent comic. Dodson draws great expressive faces and does incredible work on the characters, they really pop off the page thanks to him, inker Rachel Dodson and colorist Justin Ponsor.

The story is well told, especially the parts that involve Cable and Hope. The stuff about Nightcrawler seems like just part of the larger story, something there to make sure he goes along with the plan for the arc. There's a lead in to something that will be happening in New Mutants as well.

All in all this is another good Uncanny X-Men issue, it's just a shame that to get the whole story you have to drop money on 4 X-books a week, something I'm not quite willing to do.

Batman and Robin #11 Review

2010-04-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Grant Morrison is in my head. A couple days leading up to Batman and Robin #11 I began thinking about the story Morrison had laid out so far. One thing that sprung to the forefront of my mind was Oberon Sexton, admittedly because of this cover. So, my thinking turned to a suspicion of him actually being Bruce Wayne, back in Gotham having taken up a different guise to ingratiate himself with the Bat-family.

Page 18 of the issue, Damian Wayne straight up asks Sexton if he's Bruce Wayne. I am DC's monkey. They still won't get me to buy anything spinning out of Cry For Justice, regardless of the Eisner nomination.

Batman and Robin #11 looks fantastic. Detail is a thing I love in my comic books and Andy Clarke throws in plenty of it. I try to appreciate flashier styles with less detail, but for me there's nothing like seeing comic book characters in what look like real places that I could walk right into. Clarke and inker Scott Hanna do an amazing job on the book from a visual perspective.

This is quite the book from a story perspective as well, it explains why Damian hit Dick in the previous issue, knocking him down a hole. It puts Talia in an interesting role, delves deeper into the man with the "Double You" carved into his back, introduces another bad guy at the end of the book (who I had to look up because I'm a noob) and for good measure throws in "99 fiends" as well as a bat-demon.

The one thing I didn't get right away was that something happened to Batman in between when he was last shown underground and when he surfaces. He claims he's "found it" I thought he was just talking about the bat-demon sculpture, but apparently we're gonna need a flashback or reveal later to find out what he found.

Great issue, not light reading (and never really is with Morrison) by any means. It's something I really had to focus on and read twice to catch some of the stuff. I don't mind that though, because this is a comic that I want to read multiple times.

What is Catwoman? and thoughts on Kevin Smith

2010-01-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

Problems with Widening Gyre

I just want to start by saying that this is where I get off, Kevin Smith. When I started buying comics for the second time in my life I pretty much picked up everything Batman for obvious reasons. I grabbed Batman: The Widening Gyre #1 and thought it was an alright start. As time went along I decided to give Green Arrow a try. I got the Quiver trade paperback and enjoyed it. I also followed Kevin Smith on twitter for a little while, until I couldn't take the endless torrent of inane bullshit I didn't care about and *gasp* unfollowed him!

Enter Batman: The Widening Gyre #4 (after no Widening Gyre in December for no apparent reason). It opens with a thing about how a lot of the pop criminals in the 60s and whatnot were nonviolent mostly and just wanted attention. This was quite an interesting plot point. Then Joker started killing people and a lot of the ones who just considered themselves performers, not murderers, stopped altogether. A villain called Crazy Quilt shows up and the new hero guy named Baphomet helps Batman take him down.

Some flashbacks and a scene with Batman's girlfriend in which Bruce Wayne looks like Sylvester Stallone in a couple of panels go by. We arrive at an alarm being tripped at a jewelery store. Batman investigates it and Catwoman is there in an old costume, purple with a green cape. She pretty much makes a plea for Bruce to choose her over his girlfriend.

This scene does not contain the Catwoman I've come to know. It contains some superheroine who is awkward, talks too much and is a tad obsessed with Bruce Wayne. It contains a woman who puts on a sexy costume just to try and seduce Batman. This entire scene, and the entire string of dialogue coming from Catwoman's mouth is a load of crap.

I have done a fair bit of reading since I got back into comics last year. I've read Hush and a few other things that have Catwoman as a central character. Even my preconceptions of her before I got back into comics would consider this most recent development to be very, very wrong.

Maybe in some twisted way, Smith thinks that Catwoman has "grown" into the type of character who would don an old costume to seduce Bruce Wayne in order to prevent him from getting serious with a girl that he loves. I disagree, and am done with Smith's work.

Random Kevin Smith tidbits that Gyre #4 led me to consider

I'm starting to believe that Smith has written himself into his comics. Baphomet is Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith loves Batman and considers himself to be a huge dork, but also a funny guy. Let's check some of Baphomet's dialogue from the first few issues.

Holy water, from St. Agnes, two blocks over. Id've been here sooner, but it was hell finding a stew pot in the rectory kitchen. Pun intended.

You're OK down there now though-- right? 'Course you are. You're the original bad-ass.

Okay-- I was dreading this moment. I never meant to crowd you or step on your toes. This is your city-- I get that. But I just thought that, I dunno... even the Batman can't be in every corner of the city at once.

Backup? Ha. You're about the only guy on the planet I'd take that from-- you being the legend and all. But I'm not looking for any charity. I'm good at what I do. If I had any doubt about that, I wouldn't've sacked up and finally talked to you, so I feel confident in telling you that... if I'm getting involved, I gotta know I'm bringing something new to this thing. And I promise you... I'm bringing something new.

I know. But I figured more than one mask can rock a crossbow, right?

It goes on like that, through the end of #3 and into #4. As I understand it, this is Kevin Smith's farewell tour to Batman, so I guess a story arc where he becomes best friends with Batman makes sense.

Also, both Aquaman and Etrigan have made appearances in the two Smith things I've read, Quiver and Widening Gyre. So this would be some kind of wet dream for him, no?

The trouble with Deadpool

2009-12-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

Deadpool appeared in 3 comics this December. In March, he's set to appear in nine different comics.

The first issue in December was Deadpool Team-Up #898, which is actually number 3 in the series. Team-Up is flawed in premise to begin with. Most recently in the main Deadpool title, Deadpool had joined the X-Men which includes "Team-Ups" of a sort with Wolverine, Domino, Cyclops and other characters (and in January with Spider-Man). So why a secondary book just for Deadpool to team up with other characters? You can always argue that it's a parody of crossover books in general, but deciding to create an entire series that includes actual crossovers, the point of which is to bring different characters to interact with Deadpool in order to parody books that do the exact same thing isn't parody. It just looks like Marvel couldn't figure out how they could make a third Deadpool book. This is a likely problem for the upcoming Deadpool Corps as well.

The issue itself starts with the always overused "Now" "this many hours ago, that many hours ago" trope. We get some mysterious conversation that doesn't make sense right away, then cut to Deadpool singing and being all wacky, having his typical multiple personality conversation. There's a "late Bea Arthur" reference (topical!), the Zapata Bros. discuss the iPhone and AT&T, the Blackberry and Facebook (topical x3!)

The book isn't funny. It's an excuse to have some Mexican guys say "bro" a lot and tell a comic book story Tarantino-style. If Team-Up is intended to be an out and out parody, someone should let the writer know.

A week after Team-Up #898, Deadpool #18 came out. Deadpool is the best Deadpool book out right now. #18 involves an altercation with the X-Men, Domino's fear of roosters and a couple of H.A.M.M.E.R. "agents" who use the word "dude" as liberally as the Zapata Bros. use the word "bro." This is another problem with three semi-comedic comic books featuring the same renegade "doesn't fit in" character. You're marketing to the same, geeky, "doesn't fit in" audience. So jokes on the type of guys who say "bro" "dude" and "pound it" are obvious choices.

The issue itself is very well done, the hero saves the day and gives the X-Men some good publicity while taking the fall and looking like the bad guy to the public. Cyclops admits that Deadpool's "got some moves" in the end. The book is funny and it's well done across the board. There's a strong argument for it to be the only Deadpool title right now, as it is the only quality Deadpool book.

The third week of December saw the release of Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #6. This series has the most continuity of the three Deadpool books. There are redneck jokes for 3 pages, then Deadpool and his crew arrive in a spaceship. This is the dialogue for page 6.

Redneck kid: AAAAAAARGH!

Redneck adult #1: Haunted dead alien head! Run!

Deadpool: You're a real people person, shorty.

Dismembered zombie head of Deadpool: It's a gift, my man. A gift.

Dr. Betty: Nice parking job. I don't think we're taking off anytime soon.

Bill: Give me a break, will ya? I haven't logged a lot of hours landing in swamp muck.

Deadpool: So you can find this portal, right?

Dismembered zombie head of Deadpool: Nope.

After that, I was wondering where the six audience laugh track reactions were. This stuff is terrible.

The rest of the issue is devoted to bringing some guy that I don't really remember or care about to the swamp to fight Deadpool. There's a joke about the guy giving a long, boring speech and Deadpool not paying attention. It's kind of ironic due to all the long, boring dialogue that accompanied pages 9, 10 and 12 prior to the speech.

Three books a month featuring one character. One is good, two aren't. When it gets right down to it, the only problem with Deadpool being in three books a month is a lack of quality.

A Webcomic

2009-12-22T22:36:00.000-08:00

I couldn't think of anything to post today. I'm not gonna try to be like that crazy Mike Sterling guy and post something every day. But I wanted to post something today just because. So I made a webcomic.

So, Daytripper was an awesome thing.

2009-12-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Daytripper #1. Art by Fabio Moon, written by Gabriel Ba.

Daytripper #1 is just great storytelling. I think what I want to say about it is that it meanders perfectly. Recurring themes of fathers and sons, of life and death imprinted themselves on my mind as I read through it. The level of detail in the story is excellent. The level of detail in the art is excellent. I don't even know how to describe the art, because I am in no way an authority on the matter of art. It looks real, but it has a bit of cartoonishness to spruce it up. That probably made no sense, but the art fits perfectly with the writing.

Spoilers from this point forward. If you haven't read it, go get it and read it first. Seriously, it's a great book.

The death of the main character has become overused and maybe an easy out in some cases. In this case it was done in the first issue of a ten issue limited series, maybe that in itself can be looked at as a gimmick. But it was done with such grace, with such beauty, that I really didn't mind. In fact, I felt like I had developed a bond with Bras in those 22 pages, so much so that I had chills when I read the last page. Part of me is worried that the next 9 issues will be lacking because we know what ultimately happens to the character. Honestly, though, I just can't wait to read more work by this awesome creative team.

Other stuff I loved, the bit with Dante, the cigarettes as foreshadowing of a sort, the part about not being able to choose your family, the panel where Bras is writing "and he never forgot his son's--" and everything in this comic. I'm mostly writing this as an excuse to pore over this comic for a second, third and fourth time.