New funnybooks, yes? New funnybooks – yes! SPOILERS, okay?
Green Lantern: Rebirth #3 – Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver zip along with their ongoing rehabilitation of Hal Jordan, with a focus on the exact nature of the GL Corps’ weakness against the color yellow (how many explanations have we had for this, over the years?), and what it has to do with Jordan’s current situation. The groundwork is being set for Jordan being absolved of blame of all the evil he was getting up 10 years ago. If this has to be done, at least Johns and Van Sciver are doing it with a little flair. Van Sciver’s terrifying rendition of the alien GL Kilowog on the first couple pages is something else. This is, at the very least, an attractively illustrated book.
JLA Classified is more of Grant Morrison’s crazy superhero shenanigans, ably illustrated by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines. The many and varied storylines from the first issue begin to gain a little more cohesion in part two, as we begin to see how Gorilla Grodd’s (him again!) attacks related to the JLA’s adventure in the “infant universe.” I was also going to note the possible relation between Jack and his reality-rewriting “Keyboard of Being” and “The Writer” from Suicide Squad, John Ostrander’s parody of Morrison as he appeared in his last issue of Animal Man, but other people have beaten me to it.
New Thunderbolts #3 – not much to say about this comic, other than this is probably the most pure fun superhero comic book Marvel publishes.* Entertainingly written, clearly illustrated, lots of Marvel-style subplots and carrying-on…it feels like a 1960s Marvel book, without any kind of fakey “retro” stylizing.
Uncle Scrooge #337 – contains a new (well, new in the U.S., anyway) story by Don Rosa, in which Donald gets Uncle Scrooge to finally clean out some of his junk from the office. Of course, one of the discarded items turns out to be valuable, and Donald and Scrooge spend the story chasing after their “trash,” with all the attendant sight-gags and Beagle Boys and so forth. It’s short and slight, but it’s fun, and according to this issue’s editorial, this story apparently “prefigures events” in a forthcoming Rosa adventure.
Following Cerebus #2 – haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but it does have plenty of art by Dave Sim, including a great cover (Cerebus climbing a ladder in the rain), a back cover photo of Sim interviewing Barry Windsor-Smith in 1973 (said interview included within), and, for some reason, a full-page reproduction of “Dave Sim’s Favorite Buffy [The Vampire Slayer] Pic This Month.” That’s the one that made me go “wha-HUH?” There’s also a 6-page Cerebus story from the old fan newsletter. There’s plenty of content here for the Cerebus fan, even for those that abandoned ship several years ago (like most people did).
Other new arrivals:
Black Hole #12 – Charles Burns’ long-running mini-series has come to an end…bring on the collection! I bought it at first, but, well, I’m not sure what happened. I love Burns’ work, and have read other projects of his over the years, but I think I may have stopped buying it at some point when I was trying to cut back my funnybook consumption. I regret dropping it now, but since the trade paperback is inevitable, I think I’ll live.
TMNT #19 – it’s been years since I’ve read a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic (probably not since one of Mark Martin‘s issues in the original series), but I just happen to really like that cover, over there to the right. It’s just the hand of one of the turtles, with a crab crawling on one of the fingers. Painted by Michael Dooney, it’s very understated, and really stands out on the rack.
We received the new printing of The Incredibles #1 from Dark Horse…but as far as I can tell, there is no difference between this edition and the first printing. It doesn’t really matter to me, but I just know someone eventually is going to care. There’s nothing inside indicating that it’s a reprint, and I don’t have a copy of the first printing floating around to compare, just in case the ads or logo colors or anything else is different. Can anyone set me straight?
Space Ghost #2 – now to see if the good sales on the first issue will continue on the second. A brief glance through the book shows that the art is still nicely done, though the story itself looks bone-dry serious.
