Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities My Big-Ass Pile o'Trades Waiting To Be Read At My Whim

OH NO!! I didn't mean to pick on you, PALardy!! I share your illness!!

...when I look at the monstrosity (beautiful, though it is) that is the Pile! It's just time to follow thru...

(For the non-AG-minutiae-obsessed: AG teamed up with Simon Bisley to create a comic titled "Shit the Dog.")

So with that in mind, I wonder which of these TPBs I should use my certificate on:

Vision Vol. 1
Superman: Lois & Clark
Doctor Strange: Into the Dark Dimension
Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide Vol. 2

Decisions, decisions....

So that's it--the Pile shall not grow anymore between now and January, unless I allow myself one IST order around Christmas!

Really interested on your thoughts on your latest reads! Lazarus and Southern Bastards are two series I switched to trades on as well, which has subsequently meant I've basically forgotten they exist. Your thoughts may sway me in one direction or the other.

(Spoiler: it'll take a lot to get me to reinvest my time in either).

Southern Bastards Vol. 3: Homecoming started to remind me a little of writer jason Aaron's, imo, best and career-defining work to this point, Scalped, which he did at Vertigo. (I think Scalped is one of the best long-form comics stories I've ever read, btw, so that's a good thing.) What he did here in this Southern Bastards arc is to not necessarily tell all that similar a story to what he did on Scalped, but he used a technique he'd used a couple of times in that book--each issue focused on a different character and told a self-contained story with each that still feeds on the overall plot and are all set generally before, after and during the big homecoming football game.

If you are not at all familiar with Southern Bastards, it centers around a small Alabama town whose main claim to fame is their dominant high school football team. Their coach, Coach Boss, is a ruthless S.O.B. who is also involved with organized crime and rules the town with an iron fist. In this way, I suppose, SB does have some superficial similarities with Scalped and its Chief Red Crow and how both use their settings to deeply explore their respective cultural contexts. But its the settings and nuances and unique character evolution that really differentiate one book from the other.

So this 6 issue arc spotlights six separate characters around the homecoming week. It's a mixture of major, supporting and previously unseen characters. It's unclear whether the new characters will continue to play a role or if they are just there to give flavor. One of the stories even features artist Jason Latour (who is a writer himself, having written comics like Spider-Gwen) writng the most bizarre tale of the bunch over guest-artist Chris Brunner.

Overall, it's a good volume which highlights Aaron's affinity for strong character-centric writing. If there's a weakness, it's that forward momentum is sacrificed a bit. There's a character and potential confrontation that's been teased since the end of the first arc. We finally get to spend some time with that character in the volume's final story, but we still have to wait for him or her to meet Boss and the rest in (likely) the next volume. This is also similar to how Scalped's first arc ended with a murder which was not dealt with head-on for several arcs later. That worked out well for Scalped, so I trust that it will for SB as well.

Unlike some of Greg Rucka's work, Aaron is a pro at not only building up and layering his story in an entertaining way but also delivering some real pay-off down the road that makes you glad he told the story the way he did. That's definitely the feel I'm getting from Southern Bastards that compares favorably to the well-admired Scalped.

But what I really like about Bastards is that it's a parable of the American South that feels both genuine and larger-than-life at the same time. I grew up in and still live in the South and can see a lot of truth in the story being told her by two native southerners. It's not pretty and doesn't pull any punches, but it also doesn't feel overly biased for or against its subject matter. When all is said and done, this could turn out to be an important series for those familiar or unfamiliar with the American South and its culture.

I keep thinking about how Greg Rucka can be such a joyless complainer, "we're all doomed" ultra liberal type, and I just can't stomach those people right now. His backmatter was sometimes so doom and gloom that it's still etched in my memory.

For the holiday, I picked up a bunch of stuff.


Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape