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A tiny bit of the backlog.
Neil Gaiman et al., The Books of Magic: I got this instead of 1602 because the guy at the comic shop said that the latter was mostly good to read if you knew a lot of Marvel lore, and I don't. Similarly, The Books of Magic is probably more rewarding to those who are familiar with Sandman, John Constantine, and Zatanna (who appears to really get around the DC-verse). While beautifully illustrated in a variety of styles that help to set and change the mood of the various segments, this story of a boy given the choice whether to be a great magician or a mundane failed to grab me. Too much of what was shown was too mysterious to give me any sense of connection with his journey/dream.
Dan Slott et al., She-Hulk: Single Green Female: I've had some trouble finding my way around the Marvelverse. Jennifer Walters has a bit of the same. In her ordinary human guise, she's a lawyer and a wimp; switched on, she's She-Hulk, Avenger and major party girl. After she gets dumped by a male model for being too shallow, fired from her job as an assistant DA for being too flamboyant, and kicked out of the Avengers mansion for being too rowdy, she has to make some changes. A new job – at a law firm with a division focusing on superhero law – might be just the thing for her. But do they want Jen, or She-Hulk? Does Jen want Jen, or She-Hulk? The story didn't move me, in part because I wanted to watch the gorgeous woman on the cover paintings rather than the round-faced, almost noseless cartoon inside. I'd love to see a serious exploration of how mutants etc. fit into the legal system, but this wasn't it; though she was recruited as Jennifer Walters, her firm turns out to want the She-Hulk, and not in a legal capacity, either. The fellow associate who really liked both versions of Jen was nice, as was her utter obliviousness to him, but this isn't a title I'll be following.
Alex Ross & Paul Dini, Superman: Peace on Earth: This oversized title features gorgeous work by Alex Ross, unfortunately over a pretty uninspiring story about Superman trying to feed the world's hungry and realizing that a Superman can't do it. Instead, we have to change our hearts. I like attempts to meld superheroes with some real-world considerations, but this treatment was too short and formulaic to inspire me.
Kurt Busiek et al., Astro City: Life in the Big City: There are a hundred stories in the naked city. Or is it a thousand? Anyway, Busiek and friends are telling several of them, episodes connected only by the setting, a city protected by a league of superheroes of varying competencies and agendas. A shady guy witnesses a hero's secret identity and tries to balance his fear and his desire to take advantage of his information; an alien observes one hero to decide humanity's fate; two lonely, busy heroes go on a date that gives them more than they bargained for, even though they're not interrupted by danger or disaster. I liked the stories well enough and will probably pick up more volumes, but I don't consider this one a necessity. Ross does the covers; the interior art is fine but not memorable, except for the first episode which presents the Superman-esque Samaritan as a Ken doll, bizarrely sexless during a period of extended nudity, just a flesh-colored blur at the juncture of his legs. This was a stupid compromise; they should have covered him up or given him actual genitals.
Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev, Daredevil: Golden Age (issues 66-70): Matt Murdock's been outed as Daredevil – sadly, his defamation suit against the Daily Bugle seems to have been cast aside as a plot point – and old enemies are coming out of the woodwork. One in particular, from early in his career, is determined to bring him down. The flashback art is nice, including the glimpses of the older, flashier costume, and Daredevil remains notable for muddling the heroes' morals and sometimes those of the villains. Daredevil will never be my favorite hero, but I like him more these days after repeated exposure than I did at first.
Colleen Doran, A Distant Soil 37: Yes, professional authors publish WIPs whose update frequency slows to almost nothing, too. I've been following this insane over-the-top mix of aliens, magic and really, really flowing hair since I was a kid; some of the pleasure in the clichefest is gone, but it's still fun. This is the only issue from 2004. The drama continues apace, and there's an unrelated story at the end as a bonus, featuring magic, murder and revenge in the Old South.
Brian K. Vaughn, Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days and issues 7-9: If I didn't get an extra jolt out of Supreme Power's resonances with the standard Superman story, Ex Machina would be my favorite comic by far. As it is, it's still fantastic. Mitchell Hundred was a civil engineer who came across some bizarre technology (?), a fragment of which embedded itself in his face, and now he can talk to any machine and tell it what to do, within its capabilities. At first, he tries to use his new powers to be a superhero, then realizes that superheroes are kind of incompatible with orderly urban life. So he runs for mayor of New York City. After a surprise win, he finds that very few of his troubles are ones that superpowers help with – gay marriage, obscene art, snowplow drivers being killed on duty – though the occasional visits from the NSA, and others interested in his special powers, keep him jumping. There's some alternate September 11 history here, including an image I found powerfully affecting. After the first trade, more of the mythology starts getting hinted at, with other traces of the alien/eldritch/whatever that infected him showing up in the subways. Highly recommended.
Bill Willingham and others, Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers and issues 32-35: The premise of Fables is that fairy-tale creatures have been driven out of fairyland by a dark adversary, and have taken refuge in New York. The ones who can pass as human live in a special neighborhood in Manhattan, while the others live upstate. In March of the Wooden Soldiers, a pregnant Snow White has to deal with a political threat to the status quo posed by her feckless ex-husband as well as a potential invasion by the adversary who killed so many of their kind in the beginning. The invaders are, indeed, wooden soldiers, and Pinocchio fears that his father Gepetto has been enslaved to do the adversary's bidding. I have my own theories about that, but I guess I'll have to wait to learn more. Recent issues deal with Snow White's rather unusual offspring and with Jack and Jill's adventures in Hollywood. What I like most about this series, aside from the neat premise, is that so many of the characters have understandable motivations and rounded-out characterization; some are more sympathetic than others, but there are very few who seem to do things just to further the plot – the troublemakers are the kind of people who make trouble, and we often get to see their self-justifications, even if we don't always agree.
Neil Gaiman et al., The Books of Magic: I got this instead of 1602 because the guy at the comic shop said that the latter was mostly good to read if you knew a lot of Marvel lore, and I don't. Similarly, The Books of Magic is probably more rewarding to those who are familiar with Sandman, John Constantine, and Zatanna (who appears to really get around the DC-verse). While beautifully illustrated in a variety of styles that help to set and change the mood of the various segments, this story of a boy given the choice whether to be a great magician or a mundane failed to grab me. Too much of what was shown was too mysterious to give me any sense of connection with his journey/dream.
Dan Slott et al., She-Hulk: Single Green Female: I've had some trouble finding my way around the Marvelverse. Jennifer Walters has a bit of the same. In her ordinary human guise, she's a lawyer and a wimp; switched on, she's She-Hulk, Avenger and major party girl. After she gets dumped by a male model for being too shallow, fired from her job as an assistant DA for being too flamboyant, and kicked out of the Avengers mansion for being too rowdy, she has to make some changes. A new job – at a law firm with a division focusing on superhero law – might be just the thing for her. But do they want Jen, or She-Hulk? Does Jen want Jen, or She-Hulk? The story didn't move me, in part because I wanted to watch the gorgeous woman on the cover paintings rather than the round-faced, almost noseless cartoon inside. I'd love to see a serious exploration of how mutants etc. fit into the legal system, but this wasn't it; though she was recruited as Jennifer Walters, her firm turns out to want the She-Hulk, and not in a legal capacity, either. The fellow associate who really liked both versions of Jen was nice, as was her utter obliviousness to him, but this isn't a title I'll be following.
Alex Ross & Paul Dini, Superman: Peace on Earth: This oversized title features gorgeous work by Alex Ross, unfortunately over a pretty uninspiring story about Superman trying to feed the world's hungry and realizing that a Superman can't do it. Instead, we have to change our hearts. I like attempts to meld superheroes with some real-world considerations, but this treatment was too short and formulaic to inspire me.
Kurt Busiek et al., Astro City: Life in the Big City: There are a hundred stories in the naked city. Or is it a thousand? Anyway, Busiek and friends are telling several of them, episodes connected only by the setting, a city protected by a league of superheroes of varying competencies and agendas. A shady guy witnesses a hero's secret identity and tries to balance his fear and his desire to take advantage of his information; an alien observes one hero to decide humanity's fate; two lonely, busy heroes go on a date that gives them more than they bargained for, even though they're not interrupted by danger or disaster. I liked the stories well enough and will probably pick up more volumes, but I don't consider this one a necessity. Ross does the covers; the interior art is fine but not memorable, except for the first episode which presents the Superman-esque Samaritan as a Ken doll, bizarrely sexless during a period of extended nudity, just a flesh-colored blur at the juncture of his legs. This was a stupid compromise; they should have covered him up or given him actual genitals.
Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev, Daredevil: Golden Age (issues 66-70): Matt Murdock's been outed as Daredevil – sadly, his defamation suit against the Daily Bugle seems to have been cast aside as a plot point – and old enemies are coming out of the woodwork. One in particular, from early in his career, is determined to bring him down. The flashback art is nice, including the glimpses of the older, flashier costume, and Daredevil remains notable for muddling the heroes' morals and sometimes those of the villains. Daredevil will never be my favorite hero, but I like him more these days after repeated exposure than I did at first.
Colleen Doran, A Distant Soil 37: Yes, professional authors publish WIPs whose update frequency slows to almost nothing, too. I've been following this insane over-the-top mix of aliens, magic and really, really flowing hair since I was a kid; some of the pleasure in the clichefest is gone, but it's still fun. This is the only issue from 2004. The drama continues apace, and there's an unrelated story at the end as a bonus, featuring magic, murder and revenge in the Old South.
Brian K. Vaughn, Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days and issues 7-9: If I didn't get an extra jolt out of Supreme Power's resonances with the standard Superman story, Ex Machina would be my favorite comic by far. As it is, it's still fantastic. Mitchell Hundred was a civil engineer who came across some bizarre technology (?), a fragment of which embedded itself in his face, and now he can talk to any machine and tell it what to do, within its capabilities. At first, he tries to use his new powers to be a superhero, then realizes that superheroes are kind of incompatible with orderly urban life. So he runs for mayor of New York City. After a surprise win, he finds that very few of his troubles are ones that superpowers help with – gay marriage, obscene art, snowplow drivers being killed on duty – though the occasional visits from the NSA, and others interested in his special powers, keep him jumping. There's some alternate September 11 history here, including an image I found powerfully affecting. After the first trade, more of the mythology starts getting hinted at, with other traces of the alien/eldritch/whatever that infected him showing up in the subways. Highly recommended.
Bill Willingham and others, Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers and issues 32-35: The premise of Fables is that fairy-tale creatures have been driven out of fairyland by a dark adversary, and have taken refuge in New York. The ones who can pass as human live in a special neighborhood in Manhattan, while the others live upstate. In March of the Wooden Soldiers, a pregnant Snow White has to deal with a political threat to the status quo posed by her feckless ex-husband as well as a potential invasion by the adversary who killed so many of their kind in the beginning. The invaders are, indeed, wooden soldiers, and Pinocchio fears that his father Gepetto has been enslaved to do the adversary's bidding. I have my own theories about that, but I guess I'll have to wait to learn more. Recent issues deal with Snow White's rather unusual offspring and with Jack and Jill's adventures in Hollywood. What I like most about this series, aside from the neat premise, is that so many of the characters have understandable motivations and rounded-out characterization; some are more sympathetic than others, but there are very few who seem to do things just to further the plot – the troublemakers are the kind of people who make trouble, and we often get to see their self-justifications, even if we don't always agree.
