Wednesday Haul 2/22/12
I’m still way behind in writing these posts, but for what it’s worth, here’s what I bought 7 or so weeks ago:
Aquaman #6 - Blah. Is anyone else noticing how cliched and bland all of Geoff Johns’ supporting characters are in this book? The art was so-so this time around (with layouts only by series artist Ivan Reis), but this story was just weak and been-there-done-that. Seriously, how much more stereotypical could the “bad guys” have been in this issue? The pervert grocery store manager who can’t keep his hands to himself even when he’s dealing with a superhero who could obviously kick his ass? The wife-beating prison escapee who stands on his front porch threatening to kill his daughter while mocking the superheroine because she has a funny name? The cops were all simple stereotypes as well. If you’ve seen Lethal Weapon more than once you could have probably written better dialogue for these characters yourself. Come on Johns…you wowed me with your first issue, but this series has been delivering diminishing returns ever since. You’re lucky I’ve bought 6 consecutive issues of Aquaman. Please make it worth my while.
Camptain America & Bucky #627
Dark Horse Presents #9 - Dark Horse Presents is an $8 per issue anthology series, so I basically paid $1 per page of the book that I read this week. Those 8 pages were drawn by Richard Corben though, so I have no complaints.
Invincible: Ultimate Collection Vol. 7 HC
Prophet #22 - Imaginative, wacky books in which anything can happen like this one and Orc Stain have been filling the gap left by Warren Ellis’ recent (but a-long-time-coming) departure from comics for me. A few years ago I could get all of my kooky sci-fi/fantasy from Gravel, Anna Mercury, Doktor Sleepless, and Wolfskin. Now I have Prophet. That makes this series required reading. For me, anyway.
RASL #13 - When Jeff Smith’s characters in this series begin blathering techno-babble and telling stories about alternate histories, that’s when I enjoy RASL the most. There was a good bit of that in this issue, as well as some thrills and Mexican standoffs. I still wish this series were a bit easier to wrap my head around, but it Jeff Smith draws something, I’m gonna buy it.
Secret Avengers #23 - I wasn’t thrilled by Rick Remender’s first issue of Secret Avengers, but this issue was a really good superhero comic. The best part about it is that it featured a hero doing something really heroic. I loved Ant-Man’s struggle to save a small child from a gang of evil cyborgs intent on kidnapping him and turning him into a monster. It’s always entertaining to see a hero taken out of their element and forced to be spontaneous and creative to get the job done. I really hope this series can continue to deliver the way this issue did.
Uncanny X-Force #22 - At this point I’m just tired of this story arc. It has felt rushed and jumbled right from the beginning, Greg Tocchini’s art isn’t up to snuff with some of his past work, and I can’t really say that I care a whole lot about what’s going on. Obviously every arc isn’t going to be as good as the Dark Angel storyline, but this arc is several steps down the awesome scale in my opinion.
Voodoo #6 - That’s it…I’m done with this series. And you know what? Grifter too. These books are a complete waste of my time and money. I’ve loved Grifter and the rest of The Wildcats since I started reading comics in the 90’s, so it pains me to drop the last 2 Wildstorm books on the racks (not including Stormwatch, which I didn’t read past issue 1), but I might as well be burning $6 rather than spending it on Grifter and Voodoo. It’d probably be more fun than reading either of these books.
Wolverine And The X-Men #6 - This series remains a bit more goofy than I’d like, but I enjoyed this issue quite a bit. There were 3 stories going on at once which kept the story moving at a brisk pace, and though some of this issue’s (count them…) 4 inkers didn’t pull their weight as much as others, Nick Bradshaw’s art was still enough for me to buy the book just based on the visuals alone.
