April, 2010

By Craig Reade and Brandon Schatz

A little late (apologies!) but welcome to a new month. So once again, decidedly not live, I am Craig Reade, and my floppy-headed partner is the incomparable Brandon Schatz.

Greetings from Nanuktuk! I know all of you are wondering why this is so late… so I’m going to tell it to you straight. John Cusack has twitter. And Facebook. I make no apologies.

Nor should you good sir. It is quite easy to get caught up in his impossibly deep eyes and boyish looks.

All is quite forgiven.

I just get lost in his eyes. You know… his metaphorical eyes. Since he doesn’t often post pictures of his eyes.

We should probably get this show on the road, eh?
 

March Issues

 
Jonah Hex #53, $2.99, DC Comics. Due Out 03/03/10 ON TIME

Written by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, Art by Billy Tucci, Colors by Paul Mounts

Movie prep time? Maybe. The cover features a woman dressed really similarly to those shots of Meagan Fox from filming.

In any case, the story starts in a dance hall, where Hex hires a dancer named Lana to help him work on a bounty… saying he needed some “acting” done.

Fast forward to our bandits, the Hager Brothers, who successfully rob the train. Checking the cars, they stumble on a woman and a casket. Believing her to be a wealthy easterner who has hidden riches in the coffin, they demand to see what is inside. Of course, the woman is none other than Lana, and the stiff is Jonah Hex, who leaps into action and quickly dismantles Hager’s gang.

Hex’s employer arrives with the money, but the man turns out to be Jethro Hager, who set the whole thing up to get his brothers out of the way. And with a swift hit to the back of a head with a shovel, Lana reveals she was in on it the whole time. But Hex quickly recovers, and kills Jethro, and shoots Lana in the back.

You want to know what really would’ve made this issue of Jonah Hex read better? If there wasn’t a twist at the end. I don’t know about you, but when Jonah places his trust in someone, you can see their sudden yet inevitable betrayal coming a mile away.

Yeah, not having a twist would be quite a twist, wouldn’t it? Yeah, this issue was pretty lackluster to say the least.

Invincible Iron Man #24, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 03/03/10 ON TIME

Written by Matt Fraction, Art by Salvador Larroca, Colors by FrankD’Armata

Tony and Strange walk for a while, until Strange finally stirs something in Stark to make his mind act. Strange is drawn out of Tony’s mind right before Ghost pulls the trigger. Strange protects Tony, but Ghost quickly regains the upper hand. Hill and Potts intervene once again as Ghost gets close to killing Tony – giving him just enough time to come to and defeat Ghost.

In the end, we find out that Tony remembers nothing of Civil War, or any of the events that followed.

Which, unfortunately means he doesn’t remember the time he defeated John Stamos in the John Stamos look-alike competition from that Civil War Aftermath Special: This Man, This Stamos.

But that’s neither here nor there. I thought this issue ended pretty well, and was filled with quite a bit of development. That said, was it worth a whole five issues? Eh. Probably not. But I wasn’t bored, and I’m totally on board for the next story arc.

I think that about sums up my problem with the arc – it wasn’t worth five issues. In fact – this issue was mostly empty. We’d have been far better served by tacking the end of this issue onto the last. The last two arcs have been extremely padded – hopefully this doesn’t continue.

We are in an interesting place now – finally. I’d like to see things step up a bit.
Deadpool Team-Up #895, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due out 03/03/10 ON TIME

Written by Stuart Moore, Art by Dalibor Talajic, Color by Tomislav Tikulin

Deadpool is hired by the niece of It! The Living Colossus, who 5 years ago was defeated by Dr. Doom. His body has been in a coma ever since, and Deadpool has been hired to pilot a sub to take the comatose O’Bryan and his niece to It, in hopes that his mind can be rediscovered.

The sub is attacked by a pair of sea creatures – and Deadpool is able to fight them off by manipulating O’Bryan’s body, causing It to mimick his actions. The sub ruptures, and just as the cabin is filling with water, O’Bryan awakes, and melds with The Living Colossus. He defeats the sea creatures, and takes the damaged sub to the surface.

Oddly enough, of all the Deadpool books out there right now, I’ve been enjoying this one the most. That should seem odd, because I really do like it when there’s a common, uniting thread, but right now, I just can’t get enough of these wacky, obscure team-ups he’s been dropped into. I mean, which other character would this exactly work with?

I remember the end of that Cable Deadpool run, when Deadpool was just being hooked up with random people. The consensus then seemed to be that a Deadpool Team-Up idea would be grand, but I never thought it would actually happen. It isn’t 100% perfect (I still don’t like the inner dialogue), but I totally agree about this title being the best of all the Deadpool books out right now. Without question.

Yeah, the inner monologue thing they do… is not cool. I long for the days of the simple, somewhat understated Gail Simione yellow texty boxes and nothing more. But whatever.
Demo #2 (of 6), $2.99, DC Comics. Due out 03/03/10 ON TIME

Written by Brian Wood, art by Becky Cloonan

Right, so there’s this dude who fancy’s this other girl? And it’s pretty innocent and whatnot… fairly light-hearted… but see, he’s got a problem. He knows that eventually, he’s going to want to share a little bit more of his life with her. He’s going to want to take her home and tell her more about himself, and… well, the whole cannibal thing is probably going to freak her out a little. And so, like a man in love, he tries his best to change and eat other foods, but its hard, and his stomach can’t really taste it, so he tries to ween himself off by eating chunks of his own flesh. In the end, he realizes that there’s no sense in going changing yourself for love – and that if things are meant to be, she’ll understand.

Kind of reminds me of the time when I first met Craig, and he said… what was it, that you were going to dress up as a clown, and then eat me, or dress me up as a clown before eating me?

Well, unless I am mistaken, aren’t you still in my freezer?

See… there was something wrong with this issue. And after reading it twice, I still can’t figure it out. You know they never established that he actually ate other people? We only see that he eats his own flesh.

Which doesn’t make sense, because living on your own flesh would be pretty much impossible if you think about it.

Him being a cannibal and trying to eat himself to wean him off would make sense – and actually might make a kick *** story, but Wood doesn’t even really imply it. That’s actually a clever angle, and you would think it would be the driving force behind the story, and you can hardly figure out that is what is going on.

Just confused… so confused.

See, I didn’t get that bit of confusion. I thought the idea of his cannibalism was fairly well convayed by his reaction to “those kinds of people” and pretty much any other kind of food. Stories in Demo are often left vague on the actual points of fantasy, and lets the reader pretty much fill in the colors however they like.

Regardless of whether it is usually done or not, that bit of unclarity really isn’t an example of strong writing. This isn’t a color that needs filled it, it is a core plot element that makes or breaks the story. But I’ll go easy on Wood this time around for your sake… I know that he’s in the elite McKeever/Cusak man-love club. Last month’s issue was better though, and that being a less-than-stellar effort makes me fear for the long-term quality of this book.
Wolverine: Weapon X #11, $3.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 03/03/10 ON TIME

Written by Jason Aaron, Pencils by Ron Garney, Colors by Jason Keith

Some dude named Slag monologues for a bit, until he is interrupted by a cyborg, who kills him.

The scene shifts to Logan and Steve Rogers – the former taking the latter on a bit of a tour to celebrate his return.

The cyborg finds his next targets – a couple on their first date. After confirming that they will eventually marry and have a child together (who turns out to be a superhero called vigilante, he kills the pair, presumably altering history.

Logan and Steve have a bit of a heart-to-heart, and Logan starts a fight. The cyborg continues his killing spree, this time attacking a pair of twins still in the maternity ward.

Finally, a young girl with prophetic dreams tells Logan about the cyborgs, called “Deathloks” – and their next target it Captain America.

I love the idea of their beer run – thanks to their respective inner cocktails, both of them have a tough time getting drunk, so they totally decide to get hammered by flying around the world in a Quinjet, closing out bars across the world. Meanwhile, there’s IMPENDING DEATH FROM THE FUTURE!

I mean, I know neither of them are actually going to die, but I really like the idea of Deathlok playing some kind of twisted Terminator. And I say that as a man who has seen zero Terminator movies.

And yet, that didn’t stop you from picking up the one aspect of this issue that was a complete and total rip off. I am eager to see where this goes – not that it was a terrible start by any means, but if the sum total of this arc is going to be some Terminator parallel… well, it won’t be worth the extra buck an issue.

Um… I agree? You know, I’m staring to sense a theme with these columns – in that I haven’t seen or read a lot of these old school culture-y hoosits. Anyway, because of that, I wasn’t bothered by the parallel at all…

In this case, I don’t think I was bothered by it, so much as I found it kind of sad. A far cry from the utter creativity we got in the last arc.
Green Lantern Corps #46, $2.99, DC Comics. Due Out 03/10/10 ON TIME

Written by Peter J. Tomasi, Pencils by Patrick Gleason, Inks by Rebecca Buchman, Tom Nguyen, and Keith Champagne, Colors by Randy Mayor

A united spectrum of Lanterns press the fight against the Black Lanterns… Basically we get a big old brawl, and we learn that Ice has been killed, and is now a Black Lantern (we all knew she would die at some point). The battle finally turns to the Anti-Monitor, who is acting as a power source for the Black Lantern battery.

What an awesome fight – and what an awesome issue. Surprisingly light on the casualties, but frick, I’ll take it, as I really didn’t want to see any of these characters go. I think the only thing that could’ve made this better was a definite ending, and not just a prelude to all the lanterns going off to Care Bear Stare the bad guys…

Well, we knew this would be coming, what with that stinker the main event series is… eventually the action would go there for the ultimate climax. But we got some payoff here, so thanks to the writers for that.

I am ready for a little not-so-craziness on this book for a while, truth be told.

True. And we might be getting it in a few issues, as Tony Bedard takes the book over with a tweaked status quo. Should be interesting.
Nova #35, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 03/17/10 ON TIME

Written by San Abnett & Andy Lanning, Pencils by Mahmud A. Asrar, Inks by Scott Hanna, Colors by Brung Hang

Sphinx wields both Ka Stones, and the champions (for both) decide to ally to take him down. Young Sphinx, not quite dead, looks to be a potential savior, but the victorious Sphinx picks him up and swallows him whole. Reed Richards contemplates exactly how their situation is possible, and with Nova devises a plan to stop him. Nova opens a stargate, presumably piercing the reality bubble that was allowing Sphinx to hold 2 Ka stones until he was powerful enough to force the regular universe to accept that reality. The Sphinx is defeated – his reality dissolved, and the champions are returned to their rightful times. Except for one – Namorita, who Nova somehow managed to take with him.

Yeah! You know, DnA seem to operate on this system, that for every character they take away, one gets to come back – unlike many creators who just spend their time mowing down B and C listers for funsies.

I really think that has been what made this title so great – the respect for characters. I think you could put these two on any book at all, and they would find a way to make it awesome.

Even NFL Superpro. My faith is strong.

Marvel, make this happen.
Choker #2, $3.99, Image Comics. Due out 03/17/10 ON TIME

Written by Justin Ben McCool, Art by Ben Templesmith

In this issue, our hard-living gum-shoe-turned-cop-again deals with the ramifications of his deal in the previous issue – mainly hunting down some dude that’s so gross, people feel uncomfortable about him or some such. Anyhow, there’s a whole lot of neat bits to this thing – tropes of noir mixed in with a heaping helping of the supernatural… if we can’t have Fell, at least this sucker is coming out.

And as noted above, this issue came out on time, so yeah. Goooooood times.

Credit where it is due – the book was on time. Color me shocked.

The rest of it? Meh. The story is pretty bare-bones and formulaic. Not a lot happens. This book is all about the art (though, not the artistic storytelling). Templesmith has an interesting, gory style here that I get the feeling you are just supposed to look at the pictures, nod, and remark on how interesting it looks. Without paying much attention to how it helps tell the story (if at all).

Though, you were patient with Sgt. Rock, so I will try to keep my whining to a minimum here!

Awesome! Finally, that Sgt. Rock experience is good for something. (Zing!!!)

 
Power Girl #10, $2.99, DC Comics. Due out 03/24/10 ON TIME

Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, Pencils by Amanda Conner, Colors by Paul Mounts

Right, so we kick this issue off where the last one ended. Power Girl has a gravity well on her chest that’s going to crush her, and that’s bad. Terra ends up saving the day by being hardcore, and the pair end up going home – only to be black mailed by a kid who wants them to go to a comic store and do some other stuff. Anyway, they do that, and it’s cute and junk, but what’s this? It turns out Terra’s erratic behaviour in this issue… can be explained! By something sinister! And it has something to do with a giant ape man who is evil! Oh snap!

Continuity is indeed awesome in this case. The Ultra-Humanite has been around in some form since the very beginning, and how he managed to get his brain in Terra’s body should be an interesting story. As with the geek with the pictures of PG… I look forward to seeing how Kara plans to deal with his bullies.

I guess that is what makes a fun Superhero story to me – the normal and mundane problems mixed with the extraordinary. Awesome.

That’s pretty much why I liked Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane so much. A different tone, for sure, but still, it had that nice balance, which made both halves all the more better.
Avengers: The Initiative #34, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 03/24/10 ON TIME

Written by Christos Gage, Pencils by Jorge Molina, Inks by Andrew Hennessy, Color by Edgar Delgado

Night Thrasher makes a decision, and he joins Tigra to take on the Hood. Penance (memories seemingly intact) breaks free, and takes some members of the Shadow Initiative with him to join the Avengers Resistance in the fight. The Hood, Mandrill, and Griffin depart, presumably to aid Osborne in Asgard, leaving the scraps to fall at the hands of the Resistance. Meanwhile, the Avengers fight off HAMMER – and we find that the President himself ordered the Hood and his team to take out HAMMER. It seems Osborne has gone too far.

Ka-pow! Is anyone else getting the sense that everything going on right now is going to lead to some kind of reformation of the original New Warriors? Coupled with the events in Nova, this issue’s turn for Penance pretty much sets the stage for all the originals to be in the right place to do it. You know, minus the dead Night Trasher, but still.

Inded – Nova’s on his way back to Earth with Darkhawk and a time-displaced Namorita in tow, Penance is about done being emo-kid, Justice is in the thick of the fight, Night Thrasher is active as well (I consider Donyell legit anyway), and Firestar is going to be a part of your boyfriend’s Young Allies one shot in June, and the Firestar one shot this month. I guess you could count Marvel Divas on that list as well, but I’d rather not.

In any case – every single original New Warrior (or a valid successor) is active now, and very well developed character-wise, and highly prominent in the Marvel Universe. If Marvel was going to pull the trigger on a New Warriors reunion, the time is coming very quickly.

Kind of back on topic – I am loving the Constrictor arc. I also loved Cap pretending he couldn’t remember Tasky, just to get under his skin. A lot of good moments in this issue.

Heck yeah.

 
Cloak and Dagger #1, $3.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 03/31/10 ON TIME

Written by Stuart Moore, Pencils by Mark Brooks, Inks by Walden Wong, Colors by Emily Warren

We start with a training session in the Danger Room, Storm overseeing a workout session with potential X-Recruit Dagger working out with some of the Young X-Men. Dr. Nemesis arrives with some test results – Dagger is not a mutant. Tandy tries to call Tyrone for some sympathy, but he is decidedly busy.

Flashback – to shortly after the pair got their powers, then quick back to the present. Cloak arrives, and the two talk briefly about Norman Osborne, and what happened. Cloak retreats back to Southie, where an old friend leads him into a trap.

Dagger goes to the X-Men for help, but they seem completely uninterested in lending their support. She goes after her partner solo – with the X-Men finally helping in the end when they have nothing better to do. Cloak is saved, and the pair decide to leave Utopia and strike out on their own once again.

I don’t really know what to think of this comic. I know that I hate people who complain about comics that “don’t count”, but this one-shot didn’t really seem to do much, other than revert the characters to an old status quo, despite the new one being quite interesting and 100% more marketable.

I don’t know if the old status quo was any more interesting or marketable – but I will agree that this issue really didn’t count for much of anything, and that was quite annoying. The only good thing I can think of was the portrayal of the X-Men – I kind of miss the days when mutants were somewhat isolationist, and despite fighting for acceptance, if you weren’t a mutant, they didn’t really give a crud about you. If Marvel is getting back to something like that, I count myself a fan.

But yeah – the issue was a let down. Needed something more to be worth it.

Well, by old status quo, I was talking about them being a part of the X-Men. Which really, is infinitely more marketable than just Cloak and Dagger. The “interesting” thing is a little more subjective, I suppose.

Indeed. Or at least more interesting. Cloak and Dagger was always a great concept – but as effective as Marvel’s marketing is, it can be a little lazy. Far easier to lump them in with the muties than it is to develop their own niche.

But they certainly had their day – way back. Here’s another one for DnA to do something with…
The List So Far

Jonah Hex #54, $2.99, DC Comics. Due Out 04/07/10
Invincible Iron Man #25, $3.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/28/10
Deadpool Team-Up #894, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due out 04/14/10
Demo #3 (of 6), $2.99, DC Comics. Due out 04/07/10
Wolverine: Weapon X #12, $3.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/07/10
Green Lantern Corps #47, $2.99, DC Comics. Due Out 04/28/10
Nova #36, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/21/10
Choker #3, $3.99, Image Comics. Due out 04/21/10
Power Girl #11, $2.99, DC Comics. Due out 04/21/10
Avengers: The Initiative #34, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 05/12/10

Well, we are looking good this month in terms of drops. Avengers: The Initiative is off for the month, and Cloak and Dagger was just a one-shot. So unless there is something horrible, we don’t really need to drop anything to pick up a new book. Anything you would like to axe?

No sir. Some may have been a bit shaky for my tastes, but I don’t think any of them have been outright terrible.

I think you nailed it pretty well. It wasn’t a great month – but nothing was so horrible that they needed to be slashed. So on to the new books.
New Books

On to new books then. I pretty well had my pick last time around… is there anything that looks interesting to you in April?

I really, really, really want us to read S.H.I.E.L.D #1. Seriously? Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, and a bunch of other dudes through TIME solving large cosmic problems before the Superheroes came along. How can that not be awesome?

It looks totally ridiculous. Let’s get it.
ADD: S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, $3.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/07/10

Of course, that leaves us with about $4.50 (before tax)… more than enough for another book. In an effort to add a little randomness to the Pull, how about Dark Horse’s Hellcyon #1?

You know, the previews of it looked decent – this should be an interesting pick.
ADD: Halcyon #1, $3.50, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/14/10

 
April List

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, $3.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/07/10
Jonah Hex #54, $2.99, DC Comics. Due Out 04/07/10
Demo #3 (of 6), $2.99, DC Comics. Due out 04/07/10
Wolverine: Weapon X #12, $3.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/07/10
Halcyon #1, $3.50, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/14/10
Deadpool Team-Up #894, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due out 04/14/10
Nova #36, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/21/10
Choker #3, $3.99, Image Comics. Due out 04/21/10
Power Girl #11, $2.99, DC Comics. Due out 04/21/10
Green Lantern Corps #47, $2.99, DC Comics. Due Out 04/28/10
Invincible Iron Man #25, $3.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 04/28/10

Future issues:
Avengers: The Initiative #34, $2.99, Marvel Comics. Due Out 05/12/10

The Math

$1.42 (Bank from March) + $40 (April Budget) = $41.42

$41.42 – $37.40 (April issues) – $2.90 (tax) = $1.12 Banked for May

Once again, sincere apologies for the tardiness of this column… back on track for May!

If I don’t drown in the handsome internet eyes of Cusack, for sure.

2007 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12
2008 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12
2009 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 4.1 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12
2010 – 1 – 2 – 3

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