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Well, I have a hole in my jaw, so I might as well write a review or two. Although apparently my mad spelling skillz has gone to hell and back, so heaven only knows what it'll look like. You wuz warned.
Shade, the Changing Man: The American Scream (Peter Milligan et al)
I tried. I really did try. But there are not enough drugs in the entire world to get me through this one -- and if there were, they'd be so strong that I'd be afraid to take them. Seriously, I liked Enigma, one of Peter Milligan's previous "oh, what nice shiny drugs THOSE must have been!" works. It had some interesting ruminations on the nature of sex and sexuality and reality and narrative and all sorts of fun stuff. And I think that Shade comes back to those last two themes, and throws in the nature of madness and history and psychology into the mix on top of it. I think. But the treatment is so surrealistic and difficult to get through that I just can't do it. Alas. Your mileage may vary.
The Escapists 5 of 6 (Brian K. Vaughn et al)
Oh ... OH ... I have no idea where it's going after this, but I hope it's not where it looks like. In any event, the next-to-last installment is really gripping and interesting, and I really want to see what's going to happen next ... I think.
Astro City: The Dark Age vol 2 issue 1 (Busiek, Anderson et al)
I love the sorts of stories where you get to see what it's like to be a normal person in a city of superheroes. We catch up with Royal and Charles a few years after the end of the last volume. One brother is married, one alone. Both brothers find themselves in a city where the superheroes seem to have become seriously ... unmoored. They don't care about the means and methods they use, they don't care about actual justice, and they don't care very much about ancillary damage to innocent (comparatively speaking) bystanders. And the last page lets you know that there's a lot more pain to come for the brothers. Highly recommended.
Casanova issue 6: Women and Men, part 1 (Fraction/Ba)
I really love this series, with its 60s spy movies attacked by 60s science fiction yanked kinda sorta into the modern day ethos. This is the first issue in which all sorts of dangling threads -- which you didn't realize actually were dangling -- get yanked back into play. (And if I were a different type of person, or perhaps relentlessly adolescent and straight, I'd also say, "And it's got boobies!" Because it does. But I digress.) It's going to be interesting to see how they pull everything together in the next issue to close the first volume. (Apparently, despite the fact that Casanova is the second title in the Image Slimline format, after Warren Ellis' Fell, there actually will be a trade of Casanova in the vaguely near future, whereas Ellis has said that either there won't be a Fell trade, or that it will be way far off in the future.)
Jack of Fables 5 (Willingham et al)
The issue that ends the first volume in a somewhat surprising way. And it's pretty much impossible to say one word about it without spoiling the entire thing, so all I'll say is that I'm looking forward to seeing what happens after the break.
Invincible 36 (Kirkman/Ottley)
You know, enough other things happen in Invincible that it's easy to forget that it's a superhero title -- that is, a "fight comic". And we've hit one of those issues that sets up The Big Fight To Come. At this point, there are really only two or three ways it can go, and all of them are kind of irritating -- one considerably more than the others -- but eventually, the fight will be over, and we'll get to see what's happening in the rest of Mark's life. I do like seeing Mark trying to strike a balnce between superheroing and the rest of his life; it's just that, to me, the rest of his life is so much more interesting ...
Fables 55 (Willingham et al)
In which they continue to set up the end game, which now looks like it's going to be slightly more subtle than it started out to be. It's going to be fun to see how this chess game plays out.
Red Menace issue 1 of 6 (Bilson/DeMeo/Brody/Ordway/Vey)
Interesting how there seems to be an explosion in various media of stories based on McCarthy and his red-baiting quest for a government dictated political orthodoxy.
Just noticing, that's all.
Anyway, in the first issue, McCarthy tries to get American Eagle to tell the House Unamerican Activities Committee not only who the other heroes in the League of Heroes are, but also what their secret identities are. The Eagle refuses, although he does unmask to reveal that he's Steve Tremaine, a well known war veteran and decorated hero. It seems that he's spiked McCarthy's guns, but unfortunately, back in the days when we actually liked and worked with the Soviet Union, Tremaine made friends with a man who later became one of the leaders of the Soviets. An apparently innocent drink then becomes a clear example of Communist sympathizer activity.
Red Menace features very good writing, and good artwork. I half expected them to make it look like a silver-age comic, given when it takes place, but they resisted that temptation. I'll be very curious to see where the story goes, given the cliffhanger place where it left off.
The Damaged (a10comics.com, McKee/Bright/Lynx Studio)
A meteor shower strikes Earth -- sort of -- bringing in its wake all sorts of interesting events. Many of them happen to the unsubtly named Gabriel Millstone, who has basically a day out of his worst nightmares and then some. And, again, aside from noting that Gabriel's very bad day begins when one of the meteorites holes the hood of his car in his driveway and smooshes a goodly chunk of his engine, it's pretty much impossible to discuss the storyline without giving away important story points. I will say that it's almost, but not quite, an all-ages title; a couple of things are just scary enough that you'd probably want to make sure any readers were older than, say, ten or so before you let them read it. Interesting, if not necessarily recommended. I'll probably pick up issue 2, just because, but it's not particularly distinguished at this point.
Shade, the Changing Man: The American Scream (Peter Milligan et al)
I tried. I really did try. But there are not enough drugs in the entire world to get me through this one -- and if there were, they'd be so strong that I'd be afraid to take them. Seriously, I liked Enigma, one of Peter Milligan's previous "oh, what nice shiny drugs THOSE must have been!" works. It had some interesting ruminations on the nature of sex and sexuality and reality and narrative and all sorts of fun stuff. And I think that Shade comes back to those last two themes, and throws in the nature of madness and history and psychology into the mix on top of it. I think. But the treatment is so surrealistic and difficult to get through that I just can't do it. Alas. Your mileage may vary.
The Escapists 5 of 6 (Brian K. Vaughn et al)
Oh ... OH ... I have no idea where it's going after this, but I hope it's not where it looks like. In any event, the next-to-last installment is really gripping and interesting, and I really want to see what's going to happen next ... I think.
Astro City: The Dark Age vol 2 issue 1 (Busiek, Anderson et al)
I love the sorts of stories where you get to see what it's like to be a normal person in a city of superheroes. We catch up with Royal and Charles a few years after the end of the last volume. One brother is married, one alone. Both brothers find themselves in a city where the superheroes seem to have become seriously ... unmoored. They don't care about the means and methods they use, they don't care about actual justice, and they don't care very much about ancillary damage to innocent (comparatively speaking) bystanders. And the last page lets you know that there's a lot more pain to come for the brothers. Highly recommended.
Casanova issue 6: Women and Men, part 1 (Fraction/Ba)
I really love this series, with its 60s spy movies attacked by 60s science fiction yanked kinda sorta into the modern day ethos. This is the first issue in which all sorts of dangling threads -- which you didn't realize actually were dangling -- get yanked back into play. (And if I were a different type of person, or perhaps relentlessly adolescent and straight, I'd also say, "And it's got boobies!" Because it does. But I digress.) It's going to be interesting to see how they pull everything together in the next issue to close the first volume. (Apparently, despite the fact that Casanova is the second title in the Image Slimline format, after Warren Ellis' Fell, there actually will be a trade of Casanova in the vaguely near future, whereas Ellis has said that either there won't be a Fell trade, or that it will be way far off in the future.)
Jack of Fables 5 (Willingham et al)
The issue that ends the first volume in a somewhat surprising way. And it's pretty much impossible to say one word about it without spoiling the entire thing, so all I'll say is that I'm looking forward to seeing what happens after the break.
Invincible 36 (Kirkman/Ottley)
You know, enough other things happen in Invincible that it's easy to forget that it's a superhero title -- that is, a "fight comic". And we've hit one of those issues that sets up The Big Fight To Come. At this point, there are really only two or three ways it can go, and all of them are kind of irritating -- one considerably more than the others -- but eventually, the fight will be over, and we'll get to see what's happening in the rest of Mark's life. I do like seeing Mark trying to strike a balnce between superheroing and the rest of his life; it's just that, to me, the rest of his life is so much more interesting ...
Fables 55 (Willingham et al)
In which they continue to set up the end game, which now looks like it's going to be slightly more subtle than it started out to be. It's going to be fun to see how this chess game plays out.
Red Menace issue 1 of 6 (Bilson/DeMeo/Brody/Ordway/Vey)
Interesting how there seems to be an explosion in various media of stories based on McCarthy and his red-baiting quest for a government dictated political orthodoxy.
Just noticing, that's all.
Anyway, in the first issue, McCarthy tries to get American Eagle to tell the House Unamerican Activities Committee not only who the other heroes in the League of Heroes are, but also what their secret identities are. The Eagle refuses, although he does unmask to reveal that he's Steve Tremaine, a well known war veteran and decorated hero. It seems that he's spiked McCarthy's guns, but unfortunately, back in the days when we actually liked and worked with the Soviet Union, Tremaine made friends with a man who later became one of the leaders of the Soviets. An apparently innocent drink then becomes a clear example of Communist sympathizer activity.
Red Menace features very good writing, and good artwork. I half expected them to make it look like a silver-age comic, given when it takes place, but they resisted that temptation. I'll be very curious to see where the story goes, given the cliffhanger place where it left off.
The Damaged (a10comics.com, McKee/Bright/Lynx Studio)
A meteor shower strikes Earth -- sort of -- bringing in its wake all sorts of interesting events. Many of them happen to the unsubtly named Gabriel Millstone, who has basically a day out of his worst nightmares and then some. And, again, aside from noting that Gabriel's very bad day begins when one of the meteorites holes the hood of his car in his driveway and smooshes a goodly chunk of his engine, it's pretty much impossible to discuss the storyline without giving away important story points. I will say that it's almost, but not quite, an all-ages title; a couple of things are just scary enough that you'd probably want to make sure any readers were older than, say, ten or so before you let them read it. Interesting, if not necessarily recommended. I'll probably pick up issue 2, just because, but it's not particularly distinguished at this point.
