Well, after every Halloween there are always a couple holiday-themed stragglers that show up in our Diamond boxes. This year’s winners were the Trailer Park of Terror Halloween Special and the Felix the Cat Halloween Spectacular. I wonder how many Christmas specials we’ll see in January?
Some of the new releases from yesterday (SPOILERS ahead):
Swamp Thing #9 – If I’m reading this right…the book opens ten years in the past, back when Swamp Thing was still living in the swamplands with Abby. However, in that flashback he’s drawn in the “new look” style which he adopting following events in recent issues. What did I miss? Anyway, the new “personality” of Swamp Thing seems to owe more to Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing, a mindless creature that acts more on instinct…an interesting take on the character.
The Question #1 – I was never really a Question fan, but I tend to check out anything Rick Veitch works on just as a matter of principle. His previous excursion into the DC universe, Aquaman, didn’t really do anything for me (sorry, Laura!), but I’m glad to say this first issue of The Question mini-series really captured my attention. I particularly like the “fight” scene between the Question and “the Psychopomp,” where the violence is relegated to silhouettes in the side panels, and the actual conflict is acted out in the dialogue between the characters.
B.P.R.D. The Dead #1 – while I’d like to see a new Hellboy series from Mignola sometime soon, B.P.R.D. is quite good, too, with moody art by Guy Davis, and a funny(!) script by Mignola and John Arcudi. A lot of the humor arises from Roger the homunculus and how he reacts to the world around him…and how other people react to him as well.
JLA Classified #1 – Grant Morrison has some fun putting Batman through some sci-fi paces that he normally doesn’t get up to in any of his own books (at least, not since the 1950s).
Mad Magazine #448 – includes a “graphic novel review” of DC Comics’ Infinite Secret Crisis on All Earthly Worlds, which includes a list of characters killed in the first issue (Wonder Tot, Egg-Fu, Granny Goodness, etc. etc.) which I’m sure most readers will find hysterical, not realizing that yes, they’re all real names of DC characters. Also of note is “The Mad World of School,” a “Lighter Side”-style series of gags, drawn by Marc Hempel, and Sergio Aragones’ “A Mad Look at Fear Factor.” There’s also a long article on “When Spider-Man Goes Completely International” (inspired by the real-life Indian Spider-Man comic), that probably should have stopped with just the gags covers, and not bothered giving us sample pages from each supposed comic. Hey, so the French Spider-Man comic features a reference to surrendering? How entirely unexpected! The cover, featuring a gag based around The Incredibles, may be a little misleading, as the related article is “A Mad Peek Behinds the Scenes of…” and not a direct parody.
Or Else #1 – a little comics digest by Kevin Huizenga…fun and well drawn. You can see sample pages here.
Punisher #13 – really, you’ve got to laugh. Garth Ennis is taking full advantage of Marvel’s adult MAX label and going whole-hog with the language. This issue brings us a guest appearance by Nick Fury, more in line with Ennis’ portrayal of him from the MAX mini-series Fury than anything you ever saw in the Steranko issues.
Star Wars: Empire #26 (and this is another SPOILER WARNING, so don’t come complaining to me) – so you know those movies and TV shows where somehow, somewhere, our hero comes across a Japanese soldier who has been hiding out in some remote area, years after WWII had ended, and didn’t know the war was over? Well, it looks like we’re getting the comic book version of that story, complete with Clone Trooper.
Superman/Batman #13 – finally, it’s over. I’m not a fan of this particular art style, as some of you may have gathered over the last few months, and this Supergirl story just dragged and dragged and dragged. Too much of the story was taken up by pin-up pages of characters standing around looking “cool” and “anatomically incorrect.” For this we lost Peter David’s Supergirl?
Marvel Select Dr. Doom action figure – every home should have at least one Dr. Doom figure on display, somewhere. This one isn’t too bad…the mask doesn’t come off, but he does come with a swell fascist dictator-style chair. I already have a previous Doom figure, however…pal Dorian gave it to me a Christmas or two back, and this one does have a removable mask (revealing the minor scarring that creator Jack Kirby envisioned Doom as actually having):
from Jack Kirby Quarterly #11 (Autumn/Winter 1998)
Uncle Scrooge #335 – this issue reprints Don Rosa’s “Son of the Sun,” which was his very first published Uncle Scrooge adventure…well, first actually starring Uncle Scrooge, given that Rosa’s Pertwillaby Papers were essentially Duck stories in human drag. Rosa contributes a new article about the making of this particular story, and, for you super duck completists out there, the “D.U.C.K.” dedication is restored to this printing!
