Amazing Spider-Man #540*(Marvel, W: J. Michael Straczynski, A: Ron Garney)
Overview: With the exception of The New Avengers, this is probably the most straightforward super hero comic that I read. Like so much other stuff I started reading it during the Civil War for the tie-in issues, and I've stayed with it a bit longer because Straczynski is a pretty good writer, and the current storyline is pretty sweet. I'll probably drop it relatively soon though, as I'm not into straight up super hero comics enough to read two Spider-Man books, and Ultimate Spider-Man is by far the better of the two.
Current Storyline: As retribution for all the bullshit between them throughout the years, Kingpin hires an assassin to kill Peter Parker now that his secret identity is not so secret. Being that his spider sense still works, Peter dodges the bullet, but it hits Aunt May. She's not dead, but she's in a coma or something equally bad. So now not only is Spider-Man a fugitive because he's still unregistered, but he's hunting down the guy who shot at him, and (in theory) is going to kill him. I feel like this is the umpteenth time I'm saying this, but the fact that he's all aggro and darker and violent now makes the book a bit more interesting than normal, especially when you put that in contrast with Spider-Man's normally goofy demeanor. The only thing that's annoying about it is that while he's all "FUCK DA WORLD" in this book, in New Avengers he's his normal stupid joke making self. So if you read both at the same time, it's mildly frustrating. But the other thing that's pissing me off about Amazing Spider-Man right now is that I'm pretty positive Aunt May died a long time ago, when I was little and still reading comics all the time, like in issue 400 or something. I really clearly remember a cover shaped like a tombstone and all sorts of special horseshit like that. And I'm sure she was just a clone or a shaved ape or a robot or god knows what. And twenty five year old Sawyer is 100% A-OK with that, because thats what comics do to sell more comics. But twelve year old Sawyer is bummed that he wasted time wondering if Aunt May was going to make it, when the only thing that was dying was a broomstick in a sun dress with a big floppy hat.
Chronicles of Wormwood #3*(Avatar, W: Garth Ennis, A: Jacen Burrows)
Overview: Wormwood is a marketing executive who also happens to be the son of the devil. He primarily hangs out with a talking rabbit, and his buddy "Jay" who's Jesus reincarnated as a black rasta guy. But Jay is kind of retarded because some ig-nant motherfuckers hit him with a brick cause they don't like the blacks. The current pope is Pope Jocko, an australian who is mostly into getting his dick sucked all the time, AND he happens to be in cahoots with the Devil. Ennis deals with religion in some form in a lot of his writing, most notably in Preacher obviously, but this is a more direct approach than even that book. Being that it's only three issues deep, it's hard to tell where he's going with it in the long run, but it's entertaining to say the least. Not the best thing Ennis has ever done, but worthwhile. The only thing I really dislike is that Avatar also puts out all the Lady Death books so in the back of each issue of Wormwood there's a catalog of all the zillion different variants of each issue of Lady Death you can buy and whack off to, and it depresses me because then I start thinking about all those dudes I duck at the comic shop each week who are so far removed from vagina that sticking it to a blowup doll requires a few drinks for courage. Man, this fucking world.
Current Storyline: Wormwood is severely bummed because he got caught screwing around behind his girlfriends back, and she dumped him. In very unlike-the-son-of-the-devil behavior, this is actually really bothering him. He's taking the rabbit on a tour of heaven and hell, and the whole Pope/Devil thing is starting to kick up.
DMZ #19(Vertigo, W: Brian Wood, A: Riccardo Burchelli)
Overview: HERE.
Current Storyline: Matty Roth gets deeper into his investigation of the Day 204 massacre. After talking to one of the soldiers involved in the last issue, he goes to interview one of the commanding officers who, shockingly, gives him a much more cleaned up and professional version of the events. WHO KNOWS WHAT TO BELIEVE IN THIS TANGLED WEB....he?...WEAVES?
Immortal Iron Fist #5(Marvel, W: Matt Fraction/Ed Brubaker, A: David Aja/Travel Foreman)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: Danny Rand, and the old time-y WWI era Iron fist, Orson Randall, go up against a full on attack from Hydra. In theory, Hydra are a big bad scary terrorist organization that have been around forever, and are generally into ruining everyone's good time. But it seems like even though every time they show up and people lose their minds, all "oh, shit, Hydra's here, we're fucked", they get their asses handed to them no problem. I don't get how Hydra are a considered a serious threat when they always put up such a yawnfest of a fight. Oh, and the last thing I wanted to mention was that the older Iron Fist has figured out how to extend his Iron Fist power to his handguns, and so now they're just super guns. How is it that he figured that out forever ago and Danny Rand is still running around punching people like a jerkoff? COME ON.
New Avengers #30(Marvel, W: Brian Michael Bendis, A: Leinil Fancis Yu)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: The New Avengers are over in Japan trying to rescue the Ronin girl who went over there for some reason or another. As the cover suggests, Dr. Strange gets stabbed with a big honkin ninja sword, by Elektra, as memory serves, who's leading the Hand ninja's they're fighting. Iron Man also hires some voodoo mystic to try and break Dr. Strange's spell that cloaks his house/The NA HQ and makes it seem empty. But the guy can't do it. Which is pretty shocking, that some dumbass Voodoo guy with a silly hat can't break Dr. Strange's spells. I mean, it's not like he's the sorcerer supreme of the world or anything. Fuck this, I'm already embarrassed to be arguing a point related to sorcery. This book is sweet, but it's moving way too slowly right now.
Punisher War Journal #7(Marvel, W: Matt Fraction, A: Ariel Olivetti)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: Frank's been captured by Hatemonger, the white power dude who's been killing an asston of mexicans down on the border. This issue starts out with Hatemonger about to execute the Punisher...and then it goes back to explain how the whole thing came to be. Fraction has been doing this for a bunch of the last few issues, the whole "start at the end" thing, and always then tracking all the way back up to a point just after where the issue started. I guess it would be exceptionally snotty to gripe about that considering the fact that he's written about ten times more good comics than my...zero. But whatever, I'm the customer dammit. And it's beginning to wear on me. You're a good writer, you don't need a device for a crutch in every issue. And you have a cool name. I bet Matt Fraction could even do the whole thing where he raises his sunglasses all slow and squints down at you and not look even somewhat ridiculous. I mean, I can't pull that off. Maybe Mrs. Fraction is a fox too. Ah, life.
Thunderbolts #114(Marvel, W: Warren Ellis, A: Mike Deodato Jr.)
Overview: HERE.
Current Storyline: The Thunderbolts are out to capture the Steel Spider, because Norman Osborn is all bonkers and keeps thinking it's Spider-Man, who he has something of an issue with. But the Steel Spider is not exactly all there either, so what was already bound to be a fucked up mission gets even more complicated when two random 'jobber hero's show up. I can't remember the girl one's name, but the other guy is actually called AMERICAN EAGLE. He's a Navajo Indian or some shit, and I guess he's pretty strong, and can do some other stuff too, but it's just such a shittly dated character name considering that now pretty much every mall has an American Eagle store that sells cheaper versions of the date rapist/rapee clothes you get at Abercrombie. So the idea of a super hero who champions the cause of discount dickhead clothes is actually a lot sweeter than an Indian super hero who's just another guy that's really strong and stuff. At the end of the issue the Thunderbolts are about to face off against the Steel Spider, American Eagle and some lady hero, and it's all "oh, shit, will they be able to take down THREE AT ONCE???" Yeah, three unregistered heroes is a bigger challenge than one, but if the Thunderbolts can't take down this crew of C-listers, they should just buy a bunch of guns or something, because their various "powers" obviously aren't cutting it.
Wolverine Origins #14(Marvel, W: Daniel Way, A: Steve Dillon)
Overview: HERE
Current Storyline: As Wolverine heals himself from the serious ball-stomping he received from his kid in the previous issue, Cyber tells him the story behind his origin. I'm not into Wolverine enough to know every single villain he's ever fought, so this Cyber dude is a blur at best to me. But how his origins fit into Wolverine's history is pretty cool. Which is good, because the elaborate back story that's being played out throughout the run of this book is what makes it worth reading. Because when it devolves (thankfully briefly, for the most part) into Wolverine fighting dudez and clawing them up and what not, it gets pretty boring.
Y: The Last Man #56(Vertigo, W: Brian K. Vaughn, A: Pia Guerra)
Overview: I was browing through my old posts to find the first review I'd done for Y so I could link to it for the overview part, but apparently I haven't done any of this book yet. Which is weird because I could have sworn the previous issue came out during the time that I've been doing this blog, but I guess not. So basically in the semi-near future a plauge comes that kills everything with a Y chromosome. I hope I spelled chromosome right. Women take over the world and prepare for extinction more or less. But it turns out, that one guy, Yorick, and one male monkey, Ampersand, somehow survived the plague. Yorick's now pretty much the last hope the human race has for survival. This book is his story. It seems like this should have something snarky like all the other entries, but it doesn't. As I'll mention again below, I've read a whole bunch of issues of Y but only the last few in any sort of consecutive order, so my understanding of the finer points of the larger story isn't too clear. All the trades should be readily available, and unless you're an idiot like myself who insist on buying every individual issue rather than the TPB's, you should go out and get them.
Current Storyline: I've been buying up back issues left and right recently, including a batch of Y's. Having read handfuls of issues from throughout the run in the last few weeks, it's even harder than usual to remember exactly what happened in this issue. So instead of trying to do any sort of decent recap, I'm just going to talk about how this book is really sweet in general. My friend Scott recommended it to me and being that this was around the time I first started buying comics on the regular again, I didn't have the excess of monthly books that I do now. It took some time to grow on me now it's easily in my top 10. Vaughn is a pretty good writer in his own right, and with "Y" he's taken the whole post-apocalyptic thing and twisted it a bit. Admittedly it's a genre that I'm going to give a writer more leeway with than, say, the quiet decline of the British monarchy, but my biases aside, I'm willing to go out on a limb and say this is one of those books that will appeal to anyone.
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