Gamblor187

Marvel Team-Up #8 - Not a bad book, but why do I feel that it should be much better?

Ultimate Spider-Man #15 - Still not crazy about Bagley's art, but it's a consistently enjoyable read.

100 Bullets #30 - I'm tired of waiting a whole month for each issue. Can we make this a weekly book?

Hellblazer #167 - Said it before. Say it again. The best this title has been in years.

Optic Nerve #8

Snakes & Ladders - Pro: Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Con: $5.95!!!!


I also picked up The Simpson's Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy set, since I apparently have nothing better to do with my money.

jim

Liquid Death

100 Bullets #30 - I didn't think there was that much "payoff" in the issue...but I still enjoy the series...I thought for sure Graves was in the first part, and then it switched to Shepard. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention

Savage Dragon #90 - I used to love the Savage Dragon, and while I still like it, it gets tedious. Larsen is basically following the same formula each issue - Dragon ends up somewhere "new," he meets a few people he used to know, there's a fight, etc. I'm looking forward to #100 - maybe he'll get out of the Savage World...I'm not going to hold my breath though.

Ultimate Team-Up #8 - I liked the series, but Spider-Man & Daredevil played a fairly small role (which was alright)...and there wasn't much difference between Ultimate DD and Punisher than Marvel Knights DD and Punisher. The art, though, was great

Ultimate Spider-Man #15 - I love USPM - and I love Mark Bagley's artwork I'm anxious to see what Bendis has in store for the title...I guess Kraven is showing up soon (from Wizard)...

I also picked up Aphrodite IX #3, but I'd have to find #1 & #2 before I read it, as I have no idea where it left off. Its been awhile. And I have yet to read the Negation Prequel as well.

I bought Sigil 1-16 off eBay for a steal, and I started reading them (I'm on #4) and so far, I'm really liking it - its a good sci-fi/adventure comic. I have yet to read a bad Crossgen book, and if I can find the back issues (cheaply) for Meridian and Mystic, I plan on giving those a try as well (I already read Sojourn, Scion, and Ruse).

The 3rd Daredevil/Frank Miller TPB is supposed to come out next week and I dunno what happened with the Danger Girl HC that was supposed to come out on Halloween...

Sessa17

Pretty big week for me & looks like next week will be the same.

Some first looks I got that ship next week

Origin #3 - Another amazing cover by Quesada. Haven't read any of the issue though as I'm waiting to read them all at once.

Uncanny X-men #399 - Finally this book is readable. And a worthy companion to the brilliant new X-men with Tom Raney (who I've always been a fan of) taking over as the regular artist and giving perhaps his best work to date. Another new X character joins the group this issue & new villains galore are expanded upon.

the rest I got.

Negation: Prequel - Crux & Sojourn are the only 2 Crossgen books I read so I figured I'd give this Crux spinoff a try. Haven't read it yet but the art doesn't do much for me.

Wolverine: Annual 2001 - Like JLA last week, this book is pure garbage. Got it b/c the regular series has been so good. ARt looks like a kids sketch book at the story, all I need to say is the villains name is Bloodscream . I thought there was a law after the early 90's that characters with "blood" in their names are no longer aloud in comics.

The Agency #4 - Like everything out of Top Cow it took forever to come out but I've enjoyed this pretty twisted series so far by Jenkins.

Universe #3 - Another solid mini-series by Jenkins & this issue I really liked a lot. The dialogue by the devil is great & although not my style Crane's art has been surprisingly nice.

Superman/Tarzan #1 - I absolutely love these team up books by Dark Horse & this one is has become one of my favorites. I'm a big fan of Medina's art & this is some of his best stuff with a great cover by the amazing Humberto Ramos. I highly recommend this book for a fun read.

Alias #3 - Just phenomenal. Despite the hype I truly believe Bendis will go down with greats like Miller & Moore etc. Jungling a million books & does not let down on any of them (although I don't read his ultimate books)

Superman #176 - I wish I would have flipped through this in the store to notice Liefeld. . . . I mean Churcill did the art on this book or I never would have bought it. Do people actually enjoy this guys work?

Batgirl #22 - Perhaps the most underrated & all around consitently great book being published today. How many mainstream monthly comics have had the same creative on them today for 22 issues?

Exiles #6 - Haven't read yet.

U.S. War Machine #9 - Art still sucks but story is still great.

Book of the Week! :

New X-men: E is for Extinction Trade - I normally would not consider a trade the bool of the week, but I feel this is the best comic book story all year & perhaps the most riveting X-men story ever told. With a new cover, character sketches & Morrison's script as X-tras anyone who hasn't read this story X fan or not should check it out.

I too also got my Radioactive Man & Fallout boy set today. I love these damn things, & they are very addictive. Also picked up another Toys R Us X-mas set. Think I'll ebay that one though.

Al Infinitum

Generally, I review three comic books in a week, beginning with what I feel was the weakest and moving up the list to the one I found most entertaining. Being that I am a Bendis fan, it reflects well on the books I read this week that I am starting out with:

Fire

A fun read, though Bendis clearly hadn't fully developed his writing talents when he produced this. An afterword mentions that Bendis did slightly tweak this one for this publication, which may be why it isn't rougher than it is. I would probably recommend this to anyone that liked The Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution or even La Femme Nikita, though this work is more comparable to the television show than the movie.

The Authority: Relentless

I probably liked this less than the majority of reviews I've read, but still found it very entertaining. Here's my Devil's Advocate routine: 1) the two story arcs contained in this first collection felt a little repetative, 2) dialogue was awkward at times, 3) I could have dealt with a bit more character development. Of course, all three of these complaints are evident in the majority of comics out there. Ellis does feel more developed as a writer in his work on Planetary: All Over the World, though this could be because that universe was completely developed by him. In any case, reading this has inspired me to pick up the next Authority book, along with giving Transmetropolitian a second chance.

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

Recognizing that I'm a cynic, my assumption was that since I had only heard good things about this one, it was guaranteed to be the absolute worst thing I ever read. I was so very wrong. It's work like this that makes me laugh when I hear that Watchmen is one of the best pieces of literature ever written. I like Moore (largely), but his writing doesn't touch what has been done here by Ware. The story structure is incredible and the restraint shown with dialogue shocked me. Highly recommended.

A couple of quick questions before I close this one off. I've picked up all four of Bendis' crime comics, are they at all related to one another, and is there an order I should read them in (particularly Jinx and Torso, since I've already started on Goldfish)? Also, just wanted to get a general feel for people's opinions of Stormwatch. Should I pick it up before I continue with The Authority series?

Liquid Death

Torso is a stand alone book about the Torso serial killer.

I've read Goldfish, but I haven't started Jinx yet - I think I remember reading somewhere that Goldfish appeared in Jinx, but I don't know for a fact. I honestly couldn't tell you which to read first. Jinx though, is not in Goldfish

I've read the two Authority TPBs and I liked 'em both - I never read Stormwatch though...

Al Infinitum

Thanks Liquid Death, both for answering my question and for recommending Goldfish. I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far and I'm guessing it'll be my top review next week. Have you tried Road to Perdition by Collins? I'm only about halfway on Goldfish but they have a similiar feel to them, though Collins' book is set in the 1930s.

I think Road to Perdition is due to be republished soon, you may want to give it a try.

Tuan Jim

The stormwatch TPB's are pretty good for giving you a feel of what led up to the creation of Authority. I passed on Authority originally, in favor of planetary, but I came back later and picked up the first 2 tpbs, though I've been collecting the individual issues since then -- it's so hard to decide on getting individual ones or waiting -- however long -- for the tpbs. This is the big problem with Hellboy. I missed issue 2 of "The Conquerer Worm", and it's now virtually impossible to get even though our local store reordered the day after it was released. I love the stories, but I don't want to wait sooo long for the tpb even though Mignola always adds gobs of new stuff.

At any rate, for the intro of Jenny Sparks, Hawksmoor, and Shen Li (was that the name?), along with Apollo and Midnighter in the last volume, it's pretty good. When I first read Authority -- I didn't end up picking it up initially -- because I didn't know where they were coming from, or get any of the references.



For the price, I'd say they're worth it. The story is pretty consistent, but the art varies from great, to pretty crappy, imo.

Tuan Jim

edit. Planetary is still my favorite book in recent times, just because of the overall variety and the completely different types of characters.

Gamblor187

I don't think reading "Stormwatch" is neccessary to enjoy "The Authority". It does, however, give you background for some of the Authority stories and (sorta) gives you info on The Authorty got together as a team.

I found the TPBs to be enjoyable, but not always very memorable. I don't think it really gets interesting until about the third TPB. I felt that Ellis was stuck with some pretty forgettable characters when he started writing the title. It wasn't until he started inroducing more new characters that he really seemed to feel comfortable with the book and more willing to take chances.

For those that don't want to spend too much money on all those TPBs but still want to know what happened to Stormwatch and how The Authority was formed, the final TPB ("Final Orbit", I believe) was released a few months ago.

jim

Gamblor187

But can "Watchmen" and "Jimmy Corrigan" really be compared? Sure they're in the same medium, but have very different goals and aspirations. Both succeed at what they set out to do, but it's really apples and oranges.

That said, "Jimmy Corrigan" is the best book I've read in quite some time, and I can't wait for Ware's next collection, "Quimby The Mouse". (I believe that's its title.)

It should also be noted that, although I think "Watchmen" is great, I still prefer Moore's work on Miracleman".

jim

Gamblor187

Speaking of Alan Moore, here are a few comments about the books I picked up.

Snakes & Ladders - Given my high regard for "From Hell", I was bound to be disappointed by this new collaboration between Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. But I wasn't expecting to dislike it this much. It's well written, but it's just more of the ponderous musings that have made "Promethea" so difficult for me to read lately. Yes, it's ambitious. Unfortunately, it's an ambitious failure.

Optic Nerve #8 - I pick up this book every once in a while, but it's never really grabbed me. It reminds me of the work of Daniel Clowes, but it's missing the humor and quirkiness that makes Clowes' stuff so memorable. It's an interesting idea, but repetitive and not very well executed.

Ultimate Team-Up #8 - Was there any point to this storyline? Spider-Man shows up for about 5 pages during this three issues storyline and serves no purpose other than to sell more copies. And the Punisher/Daredevil thing has been done to death.

100 Bullets #30 - I love this book and felt that this was another solid storyline. However, I am getting a little impatient. I want to see a more active role by Graves and Sheppard, and I'd like to see some of the fascinating backstory start coming together.

Hellblazer #167 - Brian Azzarello was done a great job with this title, but Constantine's use of magic during his run has been pretty nonexistent. You can't forget about such a big part of the character. So I was glad to see a bit of magic back with this issue...and with such bloody horrific results.

jim

Liquid Death

I'll look for it - it seems to be a bit pricey via eBay at the moment, so hopefully they will reprint it soon Thanks for the recommendation

Al Infinitum

To be honest, I am a bit unfair on Watchmen. I haven't read it in years and even then only gave it a shot one time. I just picked up a new copy and plan to give it another shot soon.

That said, I do believe that the skill with which two pieces of work are written can be compared, even across genres. These pieces have more in common than the medium - they are both narrative prose.

Haven't tried Miracleman and it looks as though it may be a while until I get a chance. Meanwhile, I've picked up issues of both Tom Strong and Promethea recently and enjoyed both, to varying degrees. I'll have to try to pick up the first TPBs from each series to get a better feel for them.

Liquid Death

I have the first HC of Tom Strong, and I loved it - I can't wait till the 2nd comes out.

Promethea, however, I had a hard time getting into. I read 2-4 and I stopped after that. I couldn't get into Top Ten either.

And I too am waiting for Miracleman - with all the talk/hype about the series, I hope they do eventually re-release it in TPB form.