So I’m paging through the most recent issue of Wizard Edge at the shop, just to see what the “25 Most Overlooked Graphic Novels” are, only to see that one of them is Blankets. Yes, really. The graphic novel that you’d have to be Helen Keller – you’d have to be deaf, blind, and dead – to have missed is called “overlooked.” Oh, and Ghost World is apparently “overlooked” as well. You know, the graphic novel that inspired the critically acclaimed movie and sold like gangbusters? Yeah, that one.
Well, that pretty much was what I was expecting. Of course, for the intended audience for Wizard Edge, pretty much all of these graphic novels would have been overlooked.
And now, it’s time for Mike’s One Word Comic Reviews:
The Moth: Beautiful.
New X-Men #154: Finally.
Spawn #133: Still?
X-Treme X-Men #43: GAAAH!
Mister O: Perfect.
Thor Son Of Asgard #1: Why?
New Frontier #3: Purty.
Abadazad #2: Fabulous.
Superman/Batman #8: Surprising.
Agony in Black Vol. 2 #1: Undisplayable.
Superman Secret Identity #3 – Paperback.
My favorite book so far this week is the aforementioned Mister O by Lewis Trondheim, from NMB. It’s an 8 1/2 by 11 inch hardcover, 32 pages, in full color, featuring the little fellow pictured at the left trying to get across a chasm. Each page functions as a single strip, filled with little wordless panels, and invariably ending in Mister O’s defeat as he’s frustrated by rockslides, birds, old age, and by other people who seem to have no problem getting across the gap. It’s absolutely brilliant…you really begin to feel for the little guy’s endless attempts at overcoming the various obstacles that stand between him and his goal.
I say Superman/Batman #8 is surprising because I ended up enjoying it more than I was expecting to, since I’m not a big fan of the Image-style art by Michael Turner. Nothing against the guy – I’m sure he’s perfectly nice – but this kind of art doesn’t really do anything for me. However, Jeph Loeb continues turning in stories that evoke the Silver Age without necessarily copying the Silver Age, and it’s still a lot of fun.
Thor Son of Asgard #1 is one of those frustrating mini-series that really seem sort of unnecessary. It’s competently done, given my brief glance through the book, but is there any reason why it had to be a separate series? Is Thor really selling so well that we need spin-off series?
Fantastic Four #511 – while I liked the ending of this issue (kind of a dramatic cop-out, but emotionally satisfying), you have to remember that there’s no way the higher-ups at Marvel would have let this ending happen, say, 10 years ago. I don’t want to say more and spoil the ending, if you haven’t read it.
While I’m sorry to see Grant Morrison leave New X-Men, the art on this last storyline didn’t do his script any favors. Again, it’s that Imagey-type of art that I’m not really a big fan of. However, overall Grant’s run was the best X-stuff we’ve seen in a long time…shame it’ll all be reversed in the next six months.
So…how’re you all doing?
