Anyway...
100 Bullets #83(Vertigo, W: Brian Azzarello, A: Eduardo Risso)
Overview: A crime/noir type comic with what I'm pretty sure is a rotating cast of characters. This issue ends the first full story arc I've read, so I'm still not too sure of exactly what/who makes up the "world" of this book, and how the whole routine works. I know I say "generally well written" all the time in these reviews, but in this instance it really is GENERALLY well written. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about the writing that works. The genre is one that lends itself to rely more heavily on strength in the writing than the art, as stylized and awesome as Sin City looked, pictures of thugs and sexy dames and guns and what have you get old pretty quickly if there's nothing behind it, wheras super hero comics tend to be able to lean more on sensational art. And those kind of comics are more likely to attract a crowd that doesn't really care about writing and is more into pictures of dudez and babez with big biceps and tits. I'm trailing off into snob territory, so suffice it to say that if you're going to be reading crime comics in the first place, you're more apt to expect a higher caliber of writing, which 100 Bullets delivers. Not grand slam storytelling all the time, but always better than average. This is a book I usually have to re-read and go back to the few prior issues to keep up because there's so much going on that with the amount of stuff I read every week I lose track. Thats not a slight, it's actually to Azzarello's credit.
Current Storyline: This hard old dude whose name I can't remember has been dispatched to Italy to steal a painting. His contacts turn on him, he gets jacked up by some young punks, gets some sexin' in with a mysterious lay-dee, and so forth. There's also a side plot about the FBI trying to recruit this kid who killed someone and got away with it.
American Virgin #14(Vertigo, W: Steven T. Seagle, A: Becky Cloonan)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: A hurricane or something rips through Florida, or wherever the Chamberlain mansion/compound is (it's sad how briefly my memory functions). Adam is still on his search for the girl from the pageant who's "the one", but as the gets closer to the end of the list, he begins to think "gee, maybe this isn't it after all." Maybe it's just because that little revelation occurs every few issues, and it's ALWAYS accompanied by Adam saying/thinking some variation of those words, that I'm getting kind of sick of it. Sure, a big part of life is realizing that things are always changing, and that something you may have thought to be the end all be all truth one day might not be so the next is a theme which pretty much everyone can/should be able to relate to. But I mean Vertigo books, at least in theory, aren't written for 12 year olds, so it's kind of insulting to have the writer beat me over the head with a theme that's pretty recognizable left to it's own devices, not to mention more meaningful that way. Good comic, weak point. Oh well. Oh, and there's some "oh my, he's a she but she's gonna DO IT with this other she!" stuff going on.
Deadman #9*(Vertigo, W: Bruce Jones, A: John Watkiss)
Overview: This is a book I picked up because I had just paid rent for the month and I was like "fuck it, why SHOULDN'T I blow more money than usual on comics this week!" I honestly rememeber zilch about the book now, but at the time I read it, which is almost a month ago, I'm pretty sure I liked it enough to decide to get the next issue as well. So hopefully I'll be more prompt with my weekly reviews when that week rolls around, and I'll be able to actually review this. Yeah, I could just read it again, but my comics are at home, I'm at work now, and I'm on a roll with these reviews so I don't want to stop and get sidetracked.
Current Storyline: Chandler starts to worry that he's not a serious enough partner for Monica, and that she'll go back to Richard who has always been a more mature and stable presence in her life. Meanwhile, Ross tries to figure out how to tell Rachel how he truly feels, and Joey brings home identical twins but forgets which is which right in the middle of an intimate moment and blows the whole thing.
The Exterminators #17*(Vertigo, W: Simon Oliver, A: Ty Templeton)
Overview: It seems to be similar to 100 Bullets in that there's a cast of characters that floats from story to story, but each story arc focuses more on some characters and less on others. Everyone/everything is generally related to the world of pest extermination, which, being that this is a comic, is much more exciting and dramatic than I imagine the real world business of pest control to be. I just started reading this book at #16, so I've only really gotten a slice of said world so far, but I think the above assessment is pretty accurate.
Current Storyline: There's an exterminators convention in Vegas, and the upstart company, "Shock and Awe" is running the floor. Their business model is making pest control sexy, sending buff dudes in hotttt little outfits on house calls and having all their promo work done by girls with big hooters in bikini's. The CEO type guy is an old friend of that black guy on the cover, who's more of an old-fashioned pest control sort of guy. He's also on the wagon and trying to lead a more straight and narrow life, but the Shock and Awe guy lures him back in to the world of partying and gambling. It's all a blast until he wakes up and is arrested for a robbery he didn't commit. I guess there's something to be said for having a kind of bizarre/different frame such as the world of pest control to put around your story, as it allows for semi-typical plot lines to be more interesting.
Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears #4(Marvel, W: Garth Ennis, A: Clayton Crain)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: Travis Parham (the NOT RACIST ANYMORE confederate soldier) has his first run in with the Ghost Rider, as they've both been tracking and attacking the gang of Klansmen. Said Klansmen are getting all sorts of "shit-fuck-fuck-we're-dead" scared, until one of them figures out they can get their own ass kickin ghost rider demon type guy. I'm hoping for Foghorn Leghorn with a Klan Hood.
Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1*(Dark Horse, W: Mike Mignola, A: Duncan Fegredo)
Overview: Hellboy is this demon thing that was brought to earth by Nazi scientists and occultists in WWII. But American soldiers found him and raised him and now he investigates all sorts of crazy monsters and shit for the government. I'm sure most people either saw or are aware of the Hellboy movie from a few years ago, so I'm not going to waste too much time with this.
Current Storyline: Hellboy goes to visit some old buddy of his at his house or castle-y house, whatever it may be. Hellboy being Hellboy, trouble always follows, this time in the form of a bunch of witches being brought back from the dead, or back out of hiding, something along those lines. It's times like this that I'm tempted to google or wikipedia this shit so my little entries are more accurate, but I feel like that would be cheating somehow. I have zero logic to back that up, but such is life. So that's some form of apology for all the "or somethings", "or some such shit", and "I dunno's." Hellboy is a great horror-crime-whatever comic, and since Mignola does it every now and then instead of an ongoing series these days, it always seems fresh and exciting. Not "BOOOOIIIINNGGGG" exciting, but still up there.
The Incredible Hulk #106*(Marvel, W: Greg Pak, A: Gary Frank)
Overview: Bruce Banner was a scientist researching radiation and gamma rays, whatever the fuck those are, and accidentally got blasted by some trying to save some jackass kid who was in the testing area. After that point, whenever he got angry, he'd turn into the Hulk, this giant monster thing with basically unlimited strength but minimal intelligence who would go berserk and eventually turn back into mild mannered Banner. That was like forty years ago. Since then, the Hulk has been green, grey, smart, stupid, hulk all the time, Banner/Hulk, and who knows what else. I haven't followed the series too closely, so I cant really give you too much more of an accurate timeline than that, though from the current issues my understanding is that he's Hulk all the time these days, and rational and intelligent as well. The Hulk is one of those characters that can make for a really great or really lousy comic depending on who's writing it at the time. There was a movie made a few years ago that had a serious love/hate divide because some artsy froo froo director did it, and it was less action and more talking and thinking. I want to say it was Ang Lee, but that could be wildly inaccurate. If I ever manage to get paid to write anything, it's going to be a bitch to have to start fact checking things, and researching the topics I write about, as I'm pretty deeply immersed in my little "ah, fuck em, I'll just make it up" swamp. Also, whenever I think of Ang Lee directing movies, I just picture him smiling a lot giving the peace sign. Yes, because I'm a shitty person and think of all asian people as the tourists in New York. But if you think of him saying "ACTION!" like that right before the big gay wresting no-wait-we're-fucking scene in Brokeback Mountain, it's pretty funny.
Current Storyline: I'll come right out and admit that the only reason I'm reading anything Hulk related right now is the whole World War Hulk thing going on in the Marvel universe. As a general rule I'll almost always give in and buy up all the crap surrounding these big "events" in comics. Basically, right before the Civil War, the New Avengers Illuminati (Tony Stark/Iron Man, Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Professor X, Namor and the Black Bolt) decided Hulk was too much of a danger to earth and tricked him into getting on a space ship they then sent to what they thought was some crazy uninhabited dimension, basically banishing him forever. He ended up crash landing on this alien planet, enslaved and made a gladiator in his weakness, then rising up with other gladiator warrior alien things and overthrowing the evil King and becoming the new King himself. He then married, and his queen was pregnant with his child when the space ship he came in blew up thanks to a self destruct mechanism Tony Stark et al had built in, killing both his wife and unborn child. Until this point Hulk had been happy with his new life, but needless to say, this got him a little steamed, and now he's coming back to earth with his new alien warrior buddies to kill Stark, Richards, etc. And after the way that whole little crew, especially those two, were such douchebags during the Civil War, it's going to be awesome.
Iron Man #17*(Marvel, W: Daniel Knauf, Charlie Knauf A:Patrick ZIrcher)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: Fuck, man, I really need to start writing these like the day after I read the comics. I have no goddamned clue. Thanks to the cover I know something to do with the Mandarin returning and powering up is going on, and obviously that's bad news for Iron Man, as the Mandarin is this ancient Chinese guy with power rings that can do most anything. Oh, and he's hated Iron Man since pretty much...forever. I'm pretty sure there's also some espionage hooey going on behind the scenes with S.H.I.E.L.D, which, as I'm pretty sure I mentioned in the review of #16, Tony Stark is now director of. Again, it's 95% my problem with obsessively collecting things that makes me keep buying this book.
Midnighter #7*(Wildstorm, W: Brian K. Vaughn, A: Darick Robertson)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: Another one shot (stand alone) story, and with Brian K. Vaughn of Y: The Last Man fame guest writing. This issue is done in reverse end to beginning style, you know, like Memento but with less of that Joe Pantigl-something-italian-oni guy who's acting I really enjoy. Obviously I don't enjoy it enough to remember his name properly, but as should be readily evident by now, that's really just a problem of mine. Something that I guess I hadn't picked up on in the handful of issues of Midnighter that I've read previous to this one, is that his main power, or at least one of them, is knowing what someone is going to do before they do it, and also knowing all the possible outcomes of any given situation. That may not be exactly it, but it's pretty close. So he breaks into some bad corporation's tower, steals something or destroys something or whatever it is he's supposed to do, and gets home in time to fuck his dude. But like I said, the whole issue is written so that the last thing (chronologically) happens first and the first thing happens last. Because he knows what's going to happen before it does. Yeah. I actually read it backwards after I was done, and it fits perfectly. Kind of a gimmicky thing to do, but it's just this one issue, and I think Vaughn just came in to do a special issue while Ennis was off for a month. This comic is growing on me, bit by bit.
The Punisher #47(Marvel, W: Garth Ennis, A: Lan Medina)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: The widows have fucked up their attempt on the Punishers life, and he's now recuperating with the help of his new ally, the chick with no tits. I cant remember if I explained that part earlier, and I don't have the internet right now to check my back postings. If I didn't, she's hot but has no tits (not like she's on the itty bitty titty committee, like she had them cut off) and she's crazy and violent. This issue mostly tells her back story, how she was a mafia wife too, but her husband was exceptionally abusive, even for a mafia guy, and when she contracted breast cancer, some of the guys in the mafia got worried she might spill to the FBI. So one of the other wives, who also happened to be her older sister, arranged to have her killed. But the killers unknowingly fucked it up, and now she's alive, and REALLY hates the mafia wives, especially her sister, and is looking to help the Punisher fuck them up but good. Great comic, staying great.
Scalped #5(Vertigo, W: Jason Aaron, A: R.M. Guera)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: Can't exactly remember, pretty sure there's some more shit going on between Bad Horse and the Red Crow's daughter, and more back story about his Mom and everything that went down with the FBI back in the 70's. Since this is a really good book and I wish I could remember more about what's going on, I'll make a point of mentioning that I picked up The Other SIde TPB that came out last week, which collects the Vietnam book that Aaron wrote before this. After reading that and Scalped thus far, Aaron is pretty quickly climbing into the "I'll check out pretty much anything he writes" club, along with Ennis, Miller, Bendis, Brubaker, and Ellis. Note that it said "anything HE writes", because I've yet to read any halfway decent comic that a woman has written. And frankly, I doubt I will anytime soon. It's not that I don't think women can be good writers, it's just so rare that a woman writes something I'm interested in, that I've pretty much written off the entire gender. That actually extends to comedy and movies as well. I know that sounds shitty but as a card carrying sexist** I don't really care. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, and I'll be the first to admit when those arise (Amy Heckerling, Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler), but it's not too often. Anyway, in addition to highly recommending Scalped, I'm now extending that endorsement to the Other Side as well. Oh, you know what, there was this book Skinnybones that I liked a lot as a little kid, about this wiseass kid and his various misadventures, and I think a woman wrote that. So it's not totally hopeless, ladies.
(**copyright Mike Dikk)
Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil(DC, W: Jeff Smith, A: Jeff Smith)
Overview: Look, I loved Bone, and after recently re-reading the entire run, it easily stands in my top 20 comics of all time. And I really like Jeff Smith's cartoony style in both his writing and his art. So when I heard about the four issue Shazam mini series he was going to do I was pretty excited. This is the third issue, and as much as I'd like to say otherwise, I've been pretty disappointed. I think what worked about Bone was that it was so far removed from any kind of real world that the goofy fantasy nature of the whole thing fit well. While Shazam isn't the grittiest, most real world comic character out there, there's something about Smith's take on him that makes it just too "aw, shucks" and "gee whiz!" for me to take. I think Shazam is a character that's due for a reinvention, but this just isn't it. Oh, and the comic is really fancy, cardstock type covers, extra glossy pages, and no ads, but each issue is fucking six dollars. Six dollars is 12 pack of Busch money, not corny comic book money. Screw you, DC.
Current Storyline: Billy Batson, the little kid who's Shazam's alter-ego, is a little homeless kid who becomes Shazam by accident. There's bunch of Monsters taking over the city, and a war profiteering vice president who's trying to do something crummy. And Billy's little sister turns into Little Girl Shazam for some reason, as if this comic weren't gay enough to begin with.
Ward of the State #1*(Image/Shadowline, W: Christoper E. Long, A: Chee)
Overview: This woman keeps taking in foster kids, but raises them all to be killers. Thats pretty much it. I picked his book up pretty much based on the cover alone, and also flipping through it for about thirty seconds. It's done in black and white, which works well for the tone of the thing. Reading this makes me feel uncomfortable, sweaty, and the kind of dirty you feel when you've been driving for fifteen hours straight and haven't showered in a few days. That's a glowing review, believe it or not. One or two more decent issues and this one will jump into the pull bin.
Current Storyline: This is the first issue, soooo...yeah.
World War Hulk: Worldbreaker*(Marvel, W: Peter David, A: Al Rio)
Overview: Yet another "lets milk a few more bucks out of the bastards" tie-in issue, ala all the "Fallen Son" comics. Though this was actually semi useful to me, as I haven't been following the whole Planet Hulk thing that leads into World War Hulk. For the purposes of this Blog though, I pretty much descirbed everything that you find out in this issue in the Hulk #106 review. Other than that, Hulk is on the ship with his Alien boyz and some of them worry that his Hulk rage might blind him in battle and lead him to attack them as well, because, well, he almost does exactly that. But Hulk's all "psh, naw" and they continue on their merry way.
Current Storyline: Stand alone issue.
Thunderbolts Presents Baron Zemo: Born Better #4*(Marvel, W: Fabian Nicieza, A: Tom Grummet)
Overview: This is a four issue offshoot featuring Zemo since he isn't leading the Thunderbolts now that Norman Osborn leads the post Civil War squad. I missed the first issue, so I'm not sure exactly what set Baron Zemo off into this time traveling adventure, but by no control of his own he's been popping in and out of time, dropping in on each generation of the Zemo Barony, all the way from the first Zemo to the most recent. It's kind of Bill and Ted-ish but less of a comedic gold mine. As he learns just what it is that's made the Zemo lineage what it is, in the present day there's a distant relative of Zemo's who's decided to track him down and kill him and then kill himself to rid the world of the evil Zemo Blood. In the end, lots of lessons are learned, and some serious soul searching goes down. I'm kind of a sucker for the characters-out-of-time thing, and probably wouldn't have bought this otherwise. Alright, but forgettable.
Current Storyline: DOG FUCKER.
Next weeks pull:
-Amazing Spider-Man #540
-Chronicles of Wormwood #3
-DMZ #19
-Immortal Iron Fist #5
-New Avengers #30
-Punisher War Journal #7
-Thunderbolts #114
-Wolverine: Origins #14
-Y: The Last Man #56
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