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Mylo Xyloto #1 writer:Mark Osborne, pencils: Alejandro Fuentes, colour: Steve Hamaker (Bongo Comics)

This is based on some album I haven't heard (and all of you probably know all the lyrics) but the solicit sounded interesting in Previews, so I ordered it.

Good story, a world in which colour is prohibited; people are threatened that if there is any colour or noise, monsters (the Eaters) will come and destroy them. So everything is very drab and dull, with constant patrols by armed stormtroopers (Silencers).

However, you can't keep a good rebel down, and there are a few brave souls (Sparkers) who come out in the darkness and spray psychedlic-style messages on the walls. The council has put the pressure on the top cop and he's promised full retirement to whoever can capture the lead rebel, Fly. Fly's pretty adept at parkour, however, and easily evades capture.

There's something called Hypnofeed, which I didn't quite figure out, but it seems to be regulated doses of colour and sound.

The comic is dedicated to the memory of Moebius, and there is a lot of his influence in the artwork.

Don't know if I'd rate it as highly recommended; that will depend on how the story progresses. You've got to figure it's going to be a win for the rebels in the end, with colour and singing everywhere, but what happens in the next 5 issues could be intriguing, or greatly repetitive.

Age of Ultron "book" one.

Ok I had to get it ... Hitch and Neary with free reign to do what they do best.

Besides the super fun, beautiful, "wide screen" action drawings of Hawkeye kicking butt ... this book is incredibly ludicrous and unoriginal.

unoriginal is being polite.

So, this story was foreshadowed or prequeled many years ago at this point .. and somehow several mega events have come before it.

anyhoo ... dystopian future ... we wake up to Ultron already having kicked the crap out of the world .. ala the "days of future past" or any other dozen comic book stories about a fascist and apocolyptic future.

let me sum it up:



If Ultrons take over the world. I'm looking for Hank Pym. Not Captain America. despite whatever marketing trend or movie is coming out.

2 very weak Power Boy stars.



mostly because for Peebs a matrix like future battle against all odds is always a little ok. Will I get the next one ... yes/maybe. will I complain about it ... sure.

still I enjoy it quite a bit better than I ever did Earth 2 for example.

Age of Ultron Book 2

F.

Uncanny X-Men "00"3

F.

They are both just SO cheesy. And some things don't even make sense.

That got a hard pass from me. Marvel itself seems half-hearted about it.

Babble by Brian Coyle and Lee Robson (graphic novel)

Carrie is a translator, bored with her life. She reconnects with an old flame, now a prof working in the U.S., who offers her a job on his research team. Their project is to discover the original language that all mankind spoke before the Tower of Babel. Is this a wild goose chase after a myth or are they truly onto the universal language?

The original project leader committed suicide after destroying all his files - not a good sign! Carrie finds his journal and sets about trying to recreate his research. At the same time, she makes friends with a co-worker, hops into bed with the prof (hardly a spoiler - that one was evident from the 2nd page), doesn't make friends with the prof's wife and works out the mystery of the suicide.

Unfortunately, things go wrong in a very unexpected way and there's the story.

It's a fascinating premise and quite interesting as Carrie relates her progress to her co-worker - and the reader. Once things started to fall apart, there were way too many pages of Carrie on the run; it got very repetitive. Disquieting ending. Worth a read if you can find it in the library. I didn't love it, but it gave one food for thought.

Finally got the paperback of SUPERIOR


I was waiting for ages because of the rave reviews on LW.net.

What a great great nice book. It distilled a lot of nice things about comic books into a 7 parter.


5 solids ... sitting comfortably ...

Yeah, that was fantastic. Careers highlights for Milllar and Yu.

Just read FATALE #13.

Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Such a great book, Sometimes it has not been my cup of tea but I always respected its quality so ... it wasn't the book I would rush home to read but ... when I was in the mood, I enjoyed it.

Right now the plot centers on the best origin story ever. What I mean by that is after two main story arcs ... arc three went back in time and decided to tell her origin.

"Her" being a mysterious woman who can make men do what she wants, and she fits into some wider scheme in which a cult of creepy octopus dudes want to use her for some apokolyptian ritual.

Anyhow ... Peebs ... was like "great" ... an origin story ... Peebs hates origin stories ... finds them so boring. Usually they just charge us 3.99 to tell us something we already know.

BUT ... this origin story answers no questions! and that's why it is fantastic .. it is just another adventure in which the main character is trudging along ... it is not a retelling of things we most likely already know. It just is a new adventure in an earlier time in the character's life.

Old protagonist didnt know her origin, its a mystery, so doing a story back in time ... dosnt ruin anything because young protagonist dosnt know any more than old protagonist.

Actually they may not even be the same characters.

I will stop before I reveal too much. but Fatale keeps getting more and more fascinating.



and the art is the perfect mix of atmospheric and tension just right for this story.

It was a great story ABOUT comic books as well as a great comic book story.

It was nourishing, I am *proud* to have read it and own it.

<--- even if that sounds a bit weird.

a great book. that could easily be a novel.

Good way to put it! It also about kids, and comics for kids. Which is shocking coming from Millar.

And totally agree about Fatale--one of the best series on the market these days! I love the mood and complexity of both character and plot.

Uncanny Avengers 005


This series seems more like a meta series combining typical Avengers foes and X-foes/plots. OK, not quite as exciting the second story arc around but ...

I'm loving the inclusion of the Wasp and Wonder Man as PR advisers. Who better to get the Avengers back on track than the Wasp, the stalwart and leader of the Avengers through their darkest hour.

Coipel draws a great Wasp but I'm not liking how she is coming off as an annoying angry oldie.

Coipel draws the frickin hottest Steve Rodgers ever.

Scarlet Witch comes off as believable and human after her last several years of crazy/being a plot device.

Havok seems a bit more of a stereotype of young leader in over his head than an actual personality.

i'd love to see She Hulk or Photon on this team I think they'd fit right in.

This seems much more like Avengers with some X to me instead of a hybrid team.

We get Sunfire in on the team, whom I LOVE, and it will make for some sticky goodness in the unpcoming plot.

I'm not sure how I feel about Rogue in her provacateur role ... she seems a bit of a teenager instead of the ... agaisnt the grain character she has been in the X Books.

Actually if there is one person I would take off this team it is Rogue. She dosn't seem like herself and we've already got Wanda as the bad girl.

Actually Rogue does seem like herself but it is Rogue from the 90s. Which I like ... maybe I will just go with it.

This book has somehow ended up as the only Avengers or X book I am getting regularly.

I give it a low:



mostly because the story arc is a bit forced, characters sound great just not quite like themselves ... but Coipel has never been better.

I might replace Rogue and Wolvie with an X-23 (dressed as Wolvie) who is desperately trying to do good and live up to the Prof X dream. That would make more sense for why a character in the Rogue position is giving the Avengers such a hard time.

Young Avengers 003

Does not disappoint. Coming after the previous series, it had some big shoes to fill but I think this new series is nice and is running along pretty well. I like the boy's flip hair.

Overall, a pleasant surprise.

My one criticism before was the inclusion of Loki, whom I assumed was there because it was combining the popular teen characters but ... the plot really thickened in this issue and Loki ... seemed more devious than he has ever in his young Loki incarnation. (yes, including Journey into Mystery IIRC).

Well, of course, if you've read the end of the "Kid Loki" Journey Into Mystery...

Yikes, my eyes!

That is some bad news (I trailed off towards the end of JIM.)

COMIC REVIEW POST: DETECTIVE COMICS #622-624

John Ostrander, Flint Henry, Mike McKone, Jose Marzan, Todd Klein, Adrienne Roy, Dan Raspler, and Denny O’Neil

Dick Sprang on covers

This was a three issue story arc in 1990 that I’d been hoping to find at Boston Comic Con but was lucky enough to find at a comic store on Central Avenue after the show was cancelled.
For years I’d been familiar with this micro hero of a demonic version of Batman and had seen the ads for the story arc in some old back issues, but only recently began to delve further into it after someone posted a page for a Batman named Simon Petrarch.
These three issues concerned an unauthorized comic series about Batman being published in Gotham City, which were then being used as inspiration by a machete-wielding psychopath calling a nighttime radio show as “Batman” and leaving clues about “it’s all in the book, it’s all come out.”

The issues were juxtaposed between the real Batman delving into the mystery of the murders while dealing with an increase of fear and suspicion from both the GCPD and Gotham citizens because of the comic, and tidbits from the actual comic itself, which were highly exaggerated renditions of the Bat mythos.

Batman in the comic is said to be a demon alluded to being Lucifer himself, who chooses a human host named Simon Petrarch to undo some of the evil it let loose onto the world when it fell to redeem itself and get back into heaven, which is actually impossible. The Simon Petrarch Batman is grandiose, moody, and melodramatic, and just about everything else in this Batman’s world are equally dark and melodramatic. Joker’s supposed to be an amalgam of demons working through a human host to prevent Batman’s goals, Robin’s a seven year old kid whose reflection convinced him to be Batman’s guardian angel before Joker utterly destroys his innocence off-panel, the Bathound’s a giant talking dog that transforms into the Batmobile, Catwoman’s a spinster who sells her soul and hunts down souls (which take the form of butterflies), and Batgirl/woman is Simon Petrarch’s psychotherapist who dresses up out of concern for Simon and NOT the demon.

Despite all the rather wacked out demonic aspects, the comic sort of carries the general theme that Batman is a man haunted by personal demons and injustice in the world, the Joker’s a psychopath, Robin’s the light in Batman’s world, Catwoman is female empowerment (although here she’s more of a back-breaking dominatrix), and Batgirl is down to Earth and concerned about Batman’s mental health.

There’s an ongoing theme about escape and responsibility. The serial killer Batman uses the Batman comic to justify his actions, his own psychotherapist avoided admitting her suspicions out of fear that she would be blamed for letting him loose and then says Batman is to blame as well because he provided inspiration. We’ve often heard about how Batman is to blame for the villains he fights, but here Bruce denies any responsibility to the villains who claim he was the inspiration or instigator.

“I’m only the trigger. If I never existed, men like him would find another reason to do what they do.”

The comic is published by TNT Comics, owned by Tod Nathan Taylor, and the man behind the Batman comic is Fred Laskey, who writes, draws, and edits. He uses what he’s seen and heard in his neighborhood as the inspiration for his comic. Given that he lives in Gotham and in a bad neighborhood (a bad GOTHAM neighborhood) it’s no surprise that the comic is rather dark and grotesque. The DC wiki listed Simon Petrarch as being a character in a propaganda comic against Batman, though it’s clear that the book wasn’t meant as propaganda at all. TNT got away with publishing it since Bruce never trademarked the Bat name or costume. Laskey ultimately ends the comic at issue three because he feels a sense of responsibility since the killer is using the comic for inspiration.

This comic features a very early in his career Mike McKone doing the regular Gotham, which is so strange compared to his current stuff, and Flint Henry does the Simon Petrarch moments. In this parts Robin is a ball of light that bounces around, Catwoman’s blonde and grotesquely overly sexualized, and the Bathound’s a giant snarling beast that also appears as a car with a giant dog head on the hood.

Silver Age Batman artist Dick Sprang did the cover artwork, which blends together Silver Age sensibilities with a demonic, claw-footed Batman. One of the things that drew me to this was the Batgirl on the cover of #624, which combines the Barbara Gordon Batgirl with Kathy Kane Batwoman, although that costume doesn’t appear in the comic. I would’ve loved to see this reprinted or reference during Morrison’s run on Batman, though that appears to be a futile hope at this point.

Read East of West 1 through 4.

It is good, I would put it after Manhattan Projects in quality but better than Hickman's Marvel stuff (which IMO goes nowhere fast).

East of West is a little of a deja vous as it seems like a lot of mad max future type stuff I have read or seen before, it also reminds me of Preacher, but is more of a "comic book" version ...


There are a couple of characters that come off the page, in fact most do, especially the silver tongued Mark Twain Chief of Staff of the Black Towers. I'm in for four more.

I would rate this a lot higher if ... I didn't just read Kill Joys which is *realness*.

I've really enjoyed East of West so far. It's pure Hickman, so ones love of the writer will help determine their love of the series. It really stands out though because of the glorious Nick Dragotta artwork and the sheer weirdness / being different quality.

It's good stuff.



I am still ... reading ... America's Got Powers ...

this could've ended at 4 not 7. Especially since it is not at all abstract or meaningful ... it is pretty straight forward but ... only a couple protagonists ... one that looks like Skitter!

I don't think I will get 8. It is funny because I didn't get Uncanny X-Men 008 because I was just buying it because of the art and the plot was slow and I don't like the anti-anti-heroes it is about. and yet I got America's Got Powers number 6? irony.


2 Power Boy stars, and I'm being generous.

what do you think about comparing it to Kill Joys?

Daredevil also continues to be great!

So I've got to say: on one hand, I've found Geoff John's JLA comics to be really dissapointing, light on plot and lacking any heart or substance. And on the other hand, I've really come to love his take on Shazam! Though it took awhile to win me over, by the recent wrap up I was cheering in my seat as Geoff took us through the finale. He has produced a moden Captain Marvel in Shazam...and yet, he's somehow done it by recapturing its original charm and majesty.

Where most of Geoff's recent comic work has been the pits, this shows he still has that intangible quality that made him so popular.

From Mary to Freddie to the new Kids to Tawny to Black Adam there is a ton to love. And the ending opens up so many possibilities with Sivana and another who I won't spoil. Most importantly, by the end, Geoff proved to have a solid understanding of Billy Batson. I shouldn't have doubted him.

The JLA series (all three) continue to slip into pure dreck. But I'd *love* to see a Johns / Frank Shazam series.

Agree with your take on Shazam. I never really followed it but I knew he was supposed to be rather goody two shoes as a kid so that part took me back a bit. But like you, I adjusted. It's an interesting character as Billy now.

JLA brought on the second team a bit too quick for my tastes. Long term fans probably are tired of the big team but I had never really followed JLA so to me it's like, where's the JLA?

Currently Reading Lone Wolf & Cub Omnibus Vol.1, recently released from Dark Horse. I've been fascinated, off and on, with possibly reading LW&C since I saw First Comics' editions on the shelves at my old, long-defunct comic shop back in the late '80s/early '90s. I'm not sure why exactly, but I never picked it up despite my curiosity. Maybe the emerging Vertigo line was as far as I was willing to venture at the time beyond superheroes? Possibly.

When I read a Dark Horse solicitation earlier this year, this Omnibus caught my eye. 700-plus pages for only $19.99? Certainly, the price was right. So I bit the bullet and told by comic book guy to go ahead and order it for me. It's been sitting there staring at me for over two months. It seems summer provided the perfect storm for me as a mix of re-reads and my ever-present two-month backlog of new stuff never seemed to be enough.

So I finally started reading this odd little phonebook compilation whose first two dimensions were about the same as a digest. And you know what? 200 or so pages in--it's really good! It has a really odd concept, spelled out in the title, in which a ronin (a masterless samurai) Ogami Itto travels across feudal Japan with his toddler son Daigoro finding work as an assassin for hire. The son is always with him and is usually in the thick of the danger, occasionally even used as bait. But within the narrative and the culture, it just works. Each story therein to this point has been self-contained.

Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima are really impressive storytellers. The stories so far are very innovative and not at all repetitive as they could be. The linework is very detailed and stark in the black-and-white format it was created in. Itto is enigmatic (the back cover speaks of specifics of his past, but not in-story so far), but you can kind of glean his particular code of morality from his actions and choices. And he will consistently kill men and women who threaten him, so it's nice to see something outside of the usual American equivalents.

Though it is translated to English, a lot of Japanese terms (there's even a glossary in the back) and all of the Japanese names are retained, so LW&C can be somewhat of a challenging read. The translation doesn't insult our intelligence by renaming characters 'Fred', 'Steve', etc. The places, clan names and so on can also be hard to keep track of. I found myself having to backtrack in some stories to remind myself of who this character was or what this place is. In some of the stories, keeping track of these things is absolutely crucial to understanding it.

There's a certain sameness to the outcomes of battles involving our Wolf. He routinely takes out a dozen or more opponents all by his lonesome. And often the choreography in those fights is confusing or portrayed as basically a blur. On several occasions Itto and his opponent run past each other, and the opponent ends up having been impaled or otherwise fatally slashed in the exchange. I wouldn't say the fight portrayal has been a highlight of the read so far.

But we get a LOT more than just a series of fights. The stories are usually surprisingly complex and have a twist or two awaiting. The stories are either approximately 30-pagers or 60- pagers. Perhaps the longer stories were originally published as 2-parters? In any case the juxtaposition is nice.

"From North to South, From West to East" is one of my favorites so far. In this one Itto is hired by some villagers to kill an ally of theirs before he can be captured by those who rule over there area and be tortured into revealing a secret that would bring their overlords' wrath down. Itto's solution is unusual and achieves the goal of those who hired him in an unexpected way.

Another favorite is "Wings to the Birds, Fangs to the Beast" in which Itto and son come across a way station in hopes of relaxing in its hot springs. Turns out, the place has been overrun by a group of rogue ronin who rape, pillage and murder their way from village to village. They are taken captive with other surviving travelers, but Itto seems strangely passive. Towards the end, we see his perspective on the situation and the rogue ronin make a big mistake in their reaction to it.

It's all very entertaining! I'm happy to have already gotten so much enjoyment out of the volume, knowing also that around 500 pages still remain--and then many more volumes to come!

It's apparently very accurate in how it portrays feudal Japan. As such, I'm also enjoying it for the historical insights. Certainly, it's more in-depth and immersive than, say, a Claremont arc of Wolverine going to Japan.

I can see how this particular manga drew a cult following when First Comics originally presented it for American release. It's actually the first manga I've ever read (though I've also had a particular interest in possibly reading The Ring at some point), and it certainly speaks well of the genre.

I'd certainly recommend it to someone who, like me, saw this at some point and wondered if it might be worth a look. Turns out--it IS!!!

Wow--I love that you're reading and reviewing this! It's always been on my "maybe some day" list of things to read, though that would be a ways off. Keep the reviews coming, as I'm really interested in hearing more.

It kind of reminds me of when I started reading the Dick Tracy strips in that its such an immense body of work but once you get into it, you really start enjoying the characters and the rhythm.

This thread just reminded me ... I haven't been to the comic store in at least to weeks!