jack_g

Comic Picks for 4-11-07

Here's a copy-n-paste of the latest entry from my comics blog on myspace. It was my plan to do comic reviews tonight but I really don't feel like seeing the sunrise. Reviews coming soon, then.

And so begins my new era of (relatively) conservative comic buying! I am now attempting to buy only the comics I can't wait to read. I simply can't go on buying every title that I think is good, because there are a whole lot of those and I've been starting to feel like keeping up on my weekly reading is quite frankly a chore. Luckily I work in a comic store where we are not only allowed, but encouraged to read as many comics as we can for free, so I will still try to keep up with all the good stuff. I'm also going to try out titles I haven't been reading, and review those. ANYways, shall we get on with the picks? There were only five this week, and honestly, it kinda hurts.

*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED* (meaning I bought these comics):

All-Star Superman #7 (dc)
BPRD: Garden of Souls #2 (dark horse)
Fables #60 (vertigo/dc)
New Avengers #29 (marvel)
Tales of the Unexpected #7 (dc)

and these others are definitely worth reading (meaning I only skipped them because I'm making myself cut back):

Conan and the Midnight God #3 (dark horse)
Fell #8 (image)
Newuniversal #5 (marvel)
Thunderbolts #113 (marvel)
Uncanny X-Men #485 (marvel)

*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED trades:*

All-Star Superman vol.1 hardcover (dc)
This comic is absolutely not to be missed. It really doesn't matter even a little how much you like or hate Superman. You give a writer like Grant Morrison a mythos like Superman, and take away the limitations (shackles!) of comic book continuity, and what you get is your mind blown. I will say no more, just buy it already.
(writer- Grant Morrison/ artist- Frank Quitely)




Civil War trade paperback (marvel)
The most important thing to know about Civil War is that the entire story is right here in this one trade. Yes, there are about a hundred tie-in stories, and some of them are great, but you sure don't need to read a single one of them. The tie-ins each have story elements that are not in the main book, but are also not essential to following the whole story. You will be glad of that, because they are of varying quality, and so reading the good ones will enrich the whole thing, and skipping the bad ones will not detract. This is how a giant crossover is done right.
It's clear that Marvel's editors have done a lot of careful planning and spent a good long time setting the stage for CW, most specifically making sure that ultra-powerful characters couldn't participate. Probably wouldn't be much of a war if one side had the damn Hulk. This goes (at least) all the way back to Avengers Disassembled, which took Thor out of play and set up House of M, which reduced the number of mutants worldwide from thousands (millions?) to a handful, most importantly de-powering some of the god-like ones. Later, the Hulk is shot into space for his own (seemingly unrelated) big adventure, Planet Hulk. All these things and many others were vital to Civil War in terms of having believably kind of even sides.
Don't expect a nice neat conclusion that leaves the characters right back where they were before this all started. In fact the ending isn't an end at all, but the next step. The careful planning I mentioned before is continuing straight on through this event and apparently well into the future of the Marvel universe. I say "well done".
Ok, so that wasn't really a review of the comic, but do I really need to review it? You've heard the hype, and now I'm recommending it. If you didn't follow the issues you've been waiting for the trade. This is key shit for superhero fans, and it's also a great read, so don't miss it.
(writer- Mark Millar/ artist- Steve McNiven)