Read ’til the end. It’ll be worth it.
A brief exchange at work:
Employee Nathan: “That Will Smith I, Robot movie was probably the one film adaptation that was the least faithful to the original source material.”
Me: “There are movies with no robots in them are more faithful to the original I, Robot than the I, Robot movie.”
Don’t remember why the topic came up, exactly…unless we were talking about V for Vendetta , which is beginning to get some positive reviews here and there on the glorious world wide interweb (currently at 71% on Rotten Tomatoes). I’ll wait and see and judge it for myself…but I’m still expecting any kind of subtlety in the book to become a sledgehammer on film. But I’m a big cynicalpants, so there.
As I mentioned last night, we were totally rooked on our full order of Marvel Zombies, which blows. We also didn’t receive our copies of Spider-Girl, but for some reason I’m not expecting a lot of complaints about that. We also didn’t receive a lot of other items as well, and we’re receiving an “emergency shipment,” so we should have most of the items in our hand today or tomorrow…with the exception of Marvel Zombies, natch, since copies weren’t available for the shipment for some reason. We’re supposed to get them next week with our regular order, with any luck.
Very annoying.
As for some of the comics that did arrive:
Infinite Crisis #5 – Okay, I’m a big ol’ DC fanboy. I loves me the DC superheroes, the convoluted continuity, the multiple Earths, the crossovers…the whole shebang. However, even a huge nerd like me is getting a little continuity-referenced out by the events of IC. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy it, but I think I’m ready for the story to wrap up now. Nice tribute inside to the classic Golden Age cover, too.
Detective Comics #817 – I swear to God, I was so close to buying this comic solely for the brief dialogue mention of Swamp Thing. Not an appearance, mind you, but simply a mention of the character’s name. Yes, I know that’s all kinds of pathetic.
Batman Annual #25 – Sold through all our copies. Immediately. And it’s sort of an Infinite Crisis tie-in, too, though it’s not marked as such on the cover. If sales are this strong everywhere, surely DC will take the hint that annuals will sell if they’re presenting a longer story on subjects of great interest to their readers. And not, say, flooding the market with dozens of annuals filled with whatever junk will fill 48 pages since, clearly, “annuals sell.” Heaven knows they’d never do anything like that.
Batman: Secrets #1 – First, I can’t read that title without thinking of the Conan O’Brien sketches (“George Takei…SECRETS,” among others). Second…well, we’ve been seeing an increase of people buying multiple copies of comics for investment purposes. Someone bought ten copies of this particular issue. No idea why. Sure plays havoc with our cycle sheets, I’ll tell you what.
Runaway Comics #1 – Finally, a new Mark Martin release…crazy humor comics for crazy people. If you haven’t previously enjoyed the anarchic confusion of “Montgomery Wart,” you need to grab a copy of this here funnybook.
War of the Worlds Second Wave #1 – Another fine release from Boom! Studios, this time a sequel to the original H.G. Wells novel, movie, whatever…doesn’t matter, we all know the story, more or less. And this issue is mostly just set-up, as it follows our point-of-view character, Miles, through the initial invasion and his attempts to get back to his wife. It’s fast-paced, with just enough dialogue and captions (from writer Michael Alan Nelson) to keep the story moving without slowing it down. Chee, the artist, keeps the action easy to follow, and though there are multiple full-page splashes during the course of the story, they don’t feel like space-filling cheats as multiple splashes often do in your average superhero comic. The splashes have impact, imparting a sense of the immensity of the events and the danger everyone is in. Well done, and I look forward to seeing what happens next.
Next Wave #2 – I’ve read some complaints here and there that it seems as if Warren Ellis is maybe trying just a little too hard to be irreverent and “wacky” in this comic. Well, if he is, that’s apparently okay with me, since this comic is quite unlike anything I’ve read, and I’m enjoying the heck out of it. Well, in terms of actual plot (superheroes stop monster), it ain’t nothing new, but it’s all about the presentation, baby. Funny dialogue, funny captions, funny asides, and a lot is made about Fin Fang Foom’s giant monster pants.
And that Watcher action figure? It’s better than I even imagined. The Watcher also wears little blue Speedo trunks under his robes, apparently. And, because of the way the head was connected to the neck, I heard a lot of comments about the figure looking like a bobblehead. Sigh.
For reading all this, I give you…
