Archive for the ‘Avatar Press’ Category
Or – “Hey, Vent! You Ready To Move Out?”
When you read monthly comic books the way that I do, often times you get to the point where you feel like you know what’s coming, when every title feels like you’ve read it before. On the other hand, you have the odd experience where you read a title or issues that you KNOW you’ve read before, but you cannot for the life of you remember how it’s supposed to end. With over a hundred monthly titles coming out, sometimes you need to play catchup, you need to go where everybody knows your name to the land of the Rapid Fire Revieeeeewwww!
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Or – “Sir, I Protest! I Am NOT A Merry Man!!!”
Once again, we’ve come to the situation where Stately Spoilers Manor contains far more comics than there are days to review ‘em, leading once again unto the Final Frontier… NUQNEH – NOOKNEHH! Phasers on summarize!
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Or – “Never Be Afraid To Reassess Your Opinions…”
Several months ago, I reviewed the first issue of Crossed, and found nothing of worth within the pages. Because it was a Rapid-Fire Review, I didn’t have a whole lot of space to cover what I disliked about the issue, but the primary problem that struck me was yet another use of the “child in danger” gambit to try and up the emotional ante. Still, the combination of what I couldn’t say in such a small space and my appreciation of Garth Ennis’ work (along with some of the less generous opinions regarding recent review of ‘The Boys,’ another Ennis joint) have caused me to return to the scene of the crime and to verify whether my first impression was indeed one I would stand behind.
Or – “Off To Meet My Doom, Mom! See You After School!”
Comic book publishing schedules puzzle me. The Twelve hasn’t come out in what seems like a year, while Agents of Atlas is apparently on a bi-weekly status, and Spider-Man is coming out every sixteen minutes or so. Wolverine alone accounts for half the forests destroyed in the United States every month. The major publishers can’t seem to decide whether it’s a market for the celebrity auteur writer, or whether it’s the characters who sell the books regardless of creator. When Wolverine #73 came out a few weeks ago (before the publication of #72) it occurred to me that the entire industry is run by the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert, and that I should really just relax.Â
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Or – “How Much Do You Want To Be A Super-Human?”
Many years ago, I managed to track down a leather-bound copy of a book entitled “The Encyclopedia of Super-Heroes.” It listed, in ridiculous detail, as many of the superheroes created between 1938 and 1984 or so as the writer could possibly document, from Superman and Batman down to one-shot wonders like Butterfly and Hell-Rider, to advertising characters like Bud-Man. Since then, I’ve often wondered how difficult it would be to update that volume, since the 90’s comic boom created thousands of guys whose names are synonyms for “fight,” and gave us easily as many new heroes as were in the entire original book. But another question floated to the front of my mind while reading these issues.  If you had the opportunity, and you really wanted to be in that book, to have powers and costume and the whole schmear, REALLY wanted it…  What price would you be willing to pay to be Superman?
Or – “Three Weeks Of Comics In Handy Bite-Sized Servings!”
A side-effect of reading as many comics as I do comes when, after a particulary heavy week of reads, you find all the stories kind of blurring together into one. It makes for some pretty entertaining nightmares as well, like the one where Wonder Woman was guarding the galaxy against marauding zombies who wanted to shape-shift into teenagers and make out while simultaneously refitting all of our cars to fly and emit fire, and also giving our grandparents cyborg limbs that glow in the dark. So, I got that going for me… which is nice.
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Or – “I Think We Can Be Certain It’s Not Really Final…”
I started to try and write a big clever open, but y’know what?Â
RACCOON WITH A HEAVY MACHINE GUN!!!!!
How am I s’pose to top that?
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Or – “Hell, Man… I Only Have So Much Free Time!”
There seems to be a thing out there called “Real Life.” It’s composed mostly of things to annoy you and drain your wallet of cash, but sometimes it also feeds on your free time. One of the joys of this gig is getting to share the wondrous things that happen in comics and split the burdens of that which is terrible, which means I usually bite off more than I can chew in terms of comics that I’d like to review. Since this has happened yet again, it’s time to play catch-up (because mustard stains the carpet.)
Avatar Press has sent Major Spoilers the solicitation information and cover images for titles shipping in April 2008. Take the jump for the full list and an eye full of the image above.
Or – “My Newest Summer Blockbuster Fave-Rave...”
Most comic writers have a certain thing that they do really well, well enough that you think of it as “their thing.” For Brian Bendis, it’s the rapid-fire-Joe-Friday-vulgar-conversation. For Judd Winick, it’s the moment of tragedy in the middle of goofiness. For Robert Kirkman it’s the completely unthinkable Holy $#!+ moment. And, in my mind, Warren Ellis really shines in a setting where his characters have completely hit rock bottom, only to find that there are sublevels of unpleasantness yet left to descend into. Wanna guess what happens this issue? (Be warned: it involves violence, four-letter words and adult situations…)
Or – “Not Precisely A Retro Review…”
A couple of weeks ago when I was blown away by Black Summer #2, I mentioned that if enough people were interested, I’d go back and touch on issue #1. Due to unprecedented fan response (which means somebody responded… Thanks, Lou!) and a delay of this week’s comics due to the Labor Day holiday (you’d think after reading the things for decades and working in the industry since ‘98 I might get a clue on holiday shipping delays, but alas…) I’ve decided to go back and cover this one. And while I’m certain that most of our faithful Spoilerites don’t worry about such issues, I have actually struggled with whether or not to label this one a Retro Review… The main reasoning, for those interested in such ephemera (both of ya) was that this book is still an active concern at the time of writing, whereas previous R.R.’s have always covered a book/creator run/storyline that was complete. Thus, we’re going to treat it as a current book, and leap like a Kzin towards a restroom after fifty-four triple salsa black bean burritos… (It should be noted that there is some serious adult content within, this is your warning.)
Or – “Sometimes A Book Will Come Out Of Left Field And Surprise You…”
Black Summer is one of those books that I wasn’t entirely sure about, dealing as it does with the murder of the President of the United States (and it doesn’t pull it’s punches, making it clear that the Prez in question is unequivocally the sitting Commander-In-Chief.) My usual goal in life is to strenuously avoid discussions of politics, religion, or alternate lifestyles, but the setup to this issue (and the Warren Ellis writer credit) piqued my interest. Issue #0 was as interesting as the premise promised (say that ten times fast) and #1 just flat blew me away with it’s detailed art and excellent character work. Usually when I buy my weekly comics order, I set up a pile to buy, a pile to buy if the buy pile doesn’t exceed the budget, and a pile that can wait for payday, but the awesome cover of Black Summer #2 made certain that it was the first thing in the Must-Buy category, and the innards once again exceeded all expectations…
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