Make ’em say UNF!
Na-na na-na!
That’s right, folks, it’s Thursday night (more or less) and that means that it’s time for another round of the Internet’s Most Punctual COmics Reviews! Although as you may be aware, the Memorial Day holiday caused comics to be shipped a day late this week–unless of course you live in the godless heathen lands of Canada–so in order to give me time to actually read the stuff I’m reviewing, I’m dragging the One-Sentence Reviews (or two, if you count the alt text) back out of retirement for a special engagement!
Here’s what I got this week…
…and here, in brief, is what I thought about ’em!
Amazing Spider-Man #595: It might just be a reflection of my recent, unabashed enjoyment of I Kill Giants
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #5: I’ve mentioned the steady improvement of the Brave and the Bold tie-in before–and this issue continues that trend with a script from the always-enjoyable J. Torres that involves flying monkeys and a big red Captain Marvel Dragon–but the real story here is on the letters page, where a kid writes in requesting to see Batman team up with the Blackhawks, and thus proves that the current generation of comics-reading youngsters might just be all right.
Godland #28: Reviewing Godland is pretty much an exercise in futility, as it all boils down to how much you like Casey and Scioli’s faux-Kirby cosmic tripouts (in my case, quite a bit), but I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that on a purely costume-related basis…
…this guy right here is the most awesome dude in the universe.
Incredible Hercules #129: Jack of Hearts completists–of which I know at least one–will want to take note, as the Cosmic Avenger and Part-Time Poet makes a cameo appearance in this, America’s Finest Source of Sound Effects Since 2008.
Spider-Man: The Short Halloween: Uh, hey, Marvel, look, this one’s perfectly enjoyable, and I don’t want to embarrass you guys or nothin’, but did you know you put out your Halloween-themed one-shot by two guys from SNL and the the great Kevin Maguire
Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5: Just when you thought my reasonably arbitrary ranking system couldn’t get any more farcical, I’m going to go ahead and throw the top honors this week to Thrizzle without even reading it, because…
a) Michael Kupperman is hands-down one of the funniest guys in comics,
b) It gives me a nice excuse to link to Adult Swim’s Snake ‘n’ Bacon, the show based on Kupperman’s comics that features Flight of the Conchords’ Kristen Schaal and NPR’s David Rakoff, and
c) The only reason I haven’t read it already is because it’s the one comic this week that I wanted to take some time to enjoy,
…and yes, that all still counts as one sentence and you can suck it.
Wolverine #72: As much as this comic represents a complete and utter clusterfuck–what with #73 shipping out of order for some ill-defined reason and the fact that “Old Man Logan” doesn’t even finish here, instead going on to a special in the vague, far-off future–I’ve got to admit that Mark Millar’s loud, predictable, amazingly stupid lift of all the Marvel dystopian futures just charms the hell out of me every time I read it.
Eternal Smile: Again, this is one that I haven’t had the time to read yet, but since it’s the latest book from Gene Yang, whose Eiser and Printz Award-Winning American Born Chinese
And that’s the week! As always, if there’s anything you desperately want me to elaborate on, or if you just want to talk about how Kyle Baker’s Special Forces
But try to keep it to one sentence, folks; we’re workin’ on a theme here.
Is The Short Halloween five months early or seven months late?
Or are we both just naive fools for thinking that Marvel gives a damn about whether or not a book comes out on time?
They have to release it five months early…next month they are putting out their Christmas specials.
Off topic: hey Sims, what do you think about them Eurocomics? I was just reading the part of The Metabarons where the main character allows his arm to be eaten in order to blow up a God, and then shoots the stump with a laser to cauterize the wound and I was like “damn, Chris Sims would fucking love this.”
What new horrors did Tarot unleash upon the world this month?
I f***ing LOVE that Godland cover. What do you do when you’ve straight-up Kirbyed the wheels off this mother?
You drive on the Sterankos!!
In an interview the team behind Short Halloween said that the date was purposeful so it wouldn’t get buried in other Halloween stuff. Or something
Final page of GoG: Awesome or Double Awesome?
Jack of Hearts is RAD.
Everybody should read Metabarons and for that matter other comics by the great Jodorowsky, who by the way also directed some weird, trippy movies
I’m surprised that you didn’t mentioned the amazing cameo of THE TIGER MAN in Hercules during that villain double-page spread at the end. Who could forget that armless serial killer and not be excited to see him try to bite Hercs head off?
You didn’t pick up Dark Reign: The Hood, Sims? I’m surprised! It’s a fairly average read, but it is Jeff Parker, where his average book challenges many writer’s best.
I am ready for you to talk all about the Batman: The Brave and the Bold tv show…this is a fantastic weekly romp through the entire DC universe and I am loving this…a few examples:
1) I totally expected a comment from you about Batman saying to adult Robin that the location was “on the corner of Haney and Aparo”, because that was that just brilliant;
2) the many homages to the 60’s TV show in the opening sequence;
3) Robin coming to rescue Batman and having a long drawn out speech (like you would expect a bad guy to do) and by the time he’s done, Batman has escaped; and
4) Robin’s face at the very end when he had to go back in the side car…comedy gold.
(One sentence, baby!)
Even if there’s not much new you can say about Godland after all this time, it’s always nice to see it make it into the reviews above ironic comedy picks like Tarot.
I’d like to know what you think of Gene Yang’s new book. American Born Chinese was amazing for sure, but sometimes it’s hard for lightning to strike twice. I just want to hear some things about it before I decide whether or not to pick it up.
The guy from Godland obviously stole Luchadore La Parka’s costume.
Maybe his secret identity is Diamond Dallas Page?
“I f***ing LOVE that Godland cover. What do you do when you’ve straight-up Kirbyed the wheels off this mother?
You drive on the Sterankos!!”
I was going to make a Kirby-and-Steranko comment, but nothing I could say will top that.
You didn’t get Mouse Guard 6?
God Bless the godless, heathen land of Canada…we stand on guard for thee.
Another cool thing about the Brave and the Bold comic: cameo by the Haunted Tank, of whose existance I only learned about in the past couple months.
I bought “Thrizzle” since everyone raves about it, and have rarely been more disappointed in a comic. Sophomoric humor repeated over and over, and not much else.
If this is typical, I’ll take a Pasadena.
You drive on the Sterankos!!
Yes, this.
In an interview the team behind Short Halloween said that the date was purposeful so it wouldn’t get buried in other Halloween stuff. Or something
Yeah, but holiday specials don’t really work like that. Again, it’s a perfectly enjoyable comic–though well overpriced–but putting it out in May is just silly.
Final page of GoG: Awesome or Double Awesome?
Double-awesome. What a great book that is.
I’m surprised that you didn’t mentioned the amazing cameo of THE TIGER MAN in Hercules during that villain double-page spread at the end.
I didn’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone who hadn’t read it yet, although now that it’s been brought up, you can find my own thoughts on the Armless Tiger Man right here.
You didn’t pick up Dark Reign: The Hood, Sims?
Nope, I just cold forgot about it. I’ll grab one at work tomorrow.
I’d like to know what you think of Gene Yang’s new book. American Born Chinese was amazing for sure, but sometimes it’s hard for lightning to strike twice.
It’d be more a case of lightning striking four times: Yang’s Gordon Yamamoto And The King Of The Geeks
and Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order
are both fantastic as well. I’m about thirty pages into Eternal Smile and it’s great so far.
The guy from Godland obviously stole Luchadore La Parka’s costume.
That WOULD explain why he hits Adam Archer with a chair and then does a chicken-walk across the ring.
You didn’t get Mouse Guard 6?
D’oh! I did get it, but because it’s odd-sized, I didn’t bag it up with the rest of my stuff and it wasn’t in the stack when I did the reviews. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m really looking forward to it.
This week’s Spider-Man offerings were fantastic, and it has been far too long since I felt that.
Did Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li #3 not come out? I haven’t seen it on your shopping lists this month, so I was wondering whether it was delayed, or if you’d decided to not continue purchasing it.
I realize there’s very little chance of the latter, but I thought I should at least consider it.
In one sentence, I’m not buying anything until Giffen’s Doom Patrol comes out.
Giffen’s Doom Patrol? I’m waiting for Giffen’s final Ambush Bug miniseries issue.
Was he in a car accident or something?
I might be insane, but I’m pretty positive that issue of Thrizzle came out a month ago.
Did it just ship late to some places?
“That WOULD explain why he hits Adam Archer with a chair and then does a chicken-walk across the ring.”
Did… did he do that? Do I need to knock my mother over to a copy of this issue, or are you just making an awesome reference?
Oh, and
“The guy from Godland obviously stole Luchadore La Parka’s costume. Maybe his secret identity is Diamond Dallas Page?”
This also panders to me. Only partially because there just aren’t enough Diamond Cutters in comics today, or at ever, at all.
“Giffen’s Doom Patrol? I’m waiting for Giffen’s final Ambush Bug miniseries issue.
Was he in a car accident or something?”
I’m convinced its lateness is a joke on Final Crisis’s own scheduling problems. That or he did get in a car accident. Maybe someone should look in to that.
Dan DiDio said in an interview a couple of months back that the final issue of Ambush Bug was done and was(paraphrase) “sitting on his desk, waiting to go out.”
Maybe he’s waiting until October, when it won’t get buried by the non-Halloween stuff…
Call me an intolerant jack-ass or prejudiced, but as much as I enjoyed Yang’s “ABC” (being an ABC myself) I was rather offended that he presumed that “Christianity is a vital part of the Asian-American experience.” It certainly hasn’t be part of mine. And yes, I know these things can’t be a cover-all for every ABC’s experience, but I’ll mention that my own experience also differed from that of Yang and his protagonist in that it was one in which I was more than pleased to share my Chinese background with other kids growing up and tell them about the fun things I got to do, relished in the culture and the food, and counted myself lucky and proud to be a part of something great that my peers weren’t. And despite that, I still got the point of ABC–the stigma, the desire to assimilate, etc.–in growing up as an Asian-American. I got it and liked it.
But maybe it’s just salt on old wounds as a gay Chinese guy, but something about the idea that Christianity is somehow “integral” to being ABC, when I view it as almost laughably obvious example of modern assimilation (one that ironically, is one of the looming issues in the work and one that the main protagonist attempts to muddle his way through and out of) just rubs me the wrong way. There has to be a level of normative assumption going on when one writes things like this, but that last chapter, seeing a symbol if ancient Chinese culture prostrating itself in front of a symbol of Western religion was the splotchy cherry nestled in the whipped cream that you find at the bottom of your sundae for me. The fact that the sundae was so delicious becomes little consolation to the horrifying realization that the entire time it was steeped in the putrefying cherry juice from the beginning. Just sayin’.
But I guess it’s just a gripe about the author’s presumptive normative perspective conflicting with my own and how it translated into his work. The book was pretty enjoyable overall, I guess. Maybe “The Eternal Smile” will be better.