Just a thought or three about some new comics.

§ April 16th, 2010 § Filed under Uncategorized § 3 Comments

Running a bit late here, so lemme jot down a few thoughts I done thunk about a few of this week’s comics:

  • The Flash #1 – Still seems like this is all entirely unnecessary, aside from being a repair job caused by the torpedoing of the franchise, but…well, it all seems pleasant enough, I guess. If there has to be a Flash comic book, this one will do…things are set up quickly, appropriately enough, and we jump right into the action, and we’ve got the Rogues, and we’ve got superspeed stunts, and it’s all very much a Flash comic. Not sold on the art yet, despite a couple of individual pieces standing out nicely. Maybe I’m just not used to it, in that the art feels…gentler than what I’m accustomed to seeing in edgy, no-holds-barred, in-your-face modern superheroic adventures.
  • Brightest Day #0 – Spins right out of the plotlines left dangling at the end of Blackest Night. I know some respected colleagues of mine hated this comic with a passion, but I think it looks like it could be an entertaining tour through the DC Universe. Or it could crash and burn completely. I don’t know…it’s all set-up, delineating the multiple plotlines we’re going to be getting over the next year, so we’ll see how it goes. Knocking down the number of issues in this year-long event book from 52 to 26 seems like a very good idea, given that DC’s last 52-issue mini was painfully thin on plot.
  • Black Widow #1 – A lot of “wait…another Black Widow comic?” from the customers, since this new issue came right on the heels of two designed-to-be-collected-into-TPBs-for-the-Iron-Man-movie mini-series. Still sold a few, so why should I complain, right?
  • PunisherMAX #6 – Dumb name, but still a great comic. The Kingpin storyline of the first few issues transitions nicely into this new Bullseye story, and it’s ridiculous and gross and remarkably entertaining. Plus, there’s a bit of business in here reminding you that 1) The MAX version of the Punisher was in the Vietnam War, and 2) he’s totally in his late 50s/early 60s by now. I really like the idea of Nearing Retirement Age Punisher.
  • Irredeemable Special #1 – Good book featuring three short stories detailing backstories for some of the supporting characters. Howard Chaykin draws one of the stories, which involves a house of ill repute and lots of girls in skimpy underwear, so it pretty much needed the Chaykin treatment.

    Also, this time I went for the Retailer Incentive Variant, presenting all the previous “Giant Letter” variant covers from the series that spelled out the title. Thought it was pretty cool, couldn’t resist it.

3 Responses to “Just a thought or three about some new comics.”

  • Jim Kingman says:

    It’s better to love something with a passion than hate something with a passion, so please, Mike, try to convince your respected colleagues to stay away from Brightest Day, and probably all the tie-in books involved, too, and only follow the books they love passionately, or they are going to have a very, VERY bad, and brightless, year. With a passion. Oh, I did like Brightest Day #0. Not with a passion, though. At least not yet.

  • Dean Hacker says:

    I am moderately excited about the new Flash.

    Geoff Johns is in danger of having his treatment of A-list DC properties descend into schtick (i.e. “it was only ONE date!” bit). Still, he is a gifted plotter and his love of the characters does come through. His taste in what elements from the past to dredge up and weave into modern stories is pretty solid, even if the practice itself wearing thin.

    Francis Manapul is a really solid choice to my thinking. The Flash SHOULD BE a gentler title. It is about a guy that figures out solutions to problems. There is an optimism to the premise that shouls be embraced.

  • bad wolf says:

    If Brightest Day is meant to be tying in closely to GL and GLC then i do think of them in toto as another 52-week total series. Maybe this is Geoff Johns’ “52 done right”?