Brief, Curmudgeonly, Possibly Joyless Thoughts About Yesterday's Comics, Expressed Without Emoticons
So, I read World War III while sitting in my preferred spot in my preferred pub. The beer didn't help as much as it should; the entire thing comes off exactly like what it is: a last minute "Oh, Shit!" patch to create a legacy from 52. Characters deviating from their norm for the sake of the plot? Check. Someone suddenly remembering that maybe somebody should have done something with J'onn J'onzz during 52? Check. Sudden, fairly pointless character death? Check. A massive battle designed to provide some sort of "oomph" beyond Montoya-as-Question and the (quite brilliant) Oolong Island bits? Check. A whiff of something that may or may not have been hints of Marvel's Civil War? Check. Alas, alack, I was a sucker and I fell for it.DC, I hate pulling this tired chestnut out of the "Comics Complainers" bin, but you owe me $10 (Or $7.50 after my discount, to be fair.)
While I'm normally one to let people like Ragnell and the like go after DC for their blatant pandering to the troglodyte fans out there, I have to say this: that's a great shot of Power Girl's best pals in the opening of the final issue.
I'm sort of amazed Darwyn Cooke got by with bringing up birdfucking in the latest issue of The Spirit:
OK, to be fair, it's more like birdlovemaking, but I was still taken aback a bit. I normally don't get much in the way of bestiality from DC's done-in-one adventure comics that feature a decidedly retro spin.
Army At Love hits its stride with the second issue, cranking up the soap operatics to a near-hysterical level while allowing the social satire to proceed at the appropriate pace. I had a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments this go-round, particularly during the description of the shift from recruiting to marketing and the craven greed displayed by Loman Switzer. From screwing over our troops by ensuring they receive inferior equipment to stealing from his own retarded nephew, he's the perfect accidental villain. I'm glad to be getting a monthly dose of Veitch, and even happier that the book seems to be what he's best at.
I completely missed the fact that Jeffrey Brown's Cat Getting Out Of A Bag And Other Observations was due to come out this week through Diamond. As it was published by Chronicle instead of the usual venue for his work, I'm curious to find out what the bookstore lead-time was like. Amazon says it was released on February 1 of this year, but they've lied to me too many times in the past to be trusted. It's a neat enough little book, something that's more for the aforementioned book store market than cat-allergic comics folk like myself, but I can see this being a steady seller to people that like the little bastards.
With so damn many collections this week, a preview copy of the new Eddie Campbell book from First Second, and a pile of Fantagraphics material, I'm just going to have to give up prose for a month or so to catch up with the words-and-pictures material.
