Best Book Nominees for Wednesday, June 1
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Obviously the big news this week was the announcement that DC Comics will be rebooting its entire universe come September. Details are very sketchy at this point and I’m sure we will have plenty of news, and hopefully details, along with the usual speculation and opinion in the coming weeks and months. My first reaction to it? That’s insane! My current reaction to it? Do it! Fifty-two new number one issues? Do it! Idea is totally growing on me. Makes Flashpoint even more interesting. Just do it! But that’s in September. Today I have these fine, fine comics for you!
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #663 – Double titled! The Return of Anit-Venom and The Ghost of Jean DeWolff Part One! The FF does not appear nor does Avengers Academy. Which made me very happy. Just a spidey book with a ton of things going on. The Wraith. Eddie Brock. Carlie. Aunt May. The American Science Journal. The Negative Man. Served as both a recap as to what has happened and a start to what comes next. Liked it a lot. Although the speech controlled web shooters are a little goofy.
CRIMINAL LAST OF INNOCENT #1 (OF 4) – Criminal is back! Circa 1982. As this story arc takes place in the past and pre-dates the rest of the Criminal series. Riley Richards returns to his hometown as his dad is dying. Loved the retro “Archie” art in the reminiscing scenes. Naughty, naughty. Excellent first issue as the plot was laid out great and I loved the “I have to kill my wife” ending. Read it up!
FEAR ITSELF #3 (OF 7) – Great intro page of all the relevant characters. And the Thor/Odin conversation was fantastic. Take your hammer and get out! But the book was really about Sin whipping Bucky’s butt. Ripped his cybernetic arm off and beat him with it! Have to wait and see if Bucky survives. He ain’t looking too good.
FLASHPOINT #2 – Was great again. Got your Aquaman. Got your Wonder Woman. Still a Batman story. Thomas Wayne. Barry went Frankenstein to get his powers back. Although that didn’t turn out quite as he hoped. And they did say that this is not an alternate world. It is the “real” DC Universe which has been altered by the Reverse Flash going back in time. Which makes it even better!
FLASHPOINT BATMAN KNIGHT OF VENGEANCE #1 (OF 3) – Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso! Batman, 100 Bullets style! Loved it! A very old Thomas Wayne has to decide whether or not to help change the DCU back to how it was. And he will because it’s the only way to save Bruce.
HULK #34 – Planet Red Hulk part one. And you could have hated it because it was the exact same plot as Planet (Green) Hulk but that’s why I liked it. Planet Hulk was awesome! Get shot into space on a missile. Land on an alien planet. Get captured. Kill the bad guy and become King! What’s not to like! And to be fair it was mentioned in the book that this was the exact same thing that happened to Bruce.
MOON KNIGHT #2 – So much better than the first issue. Moon Knight went Cowboy Ninja Viking! Now known as Spider-Man Wolverine Captain America. Sheoke Sanada as the villain was great and it was even better when we found out she wasn’t the big bad behind it all. Also liked that they brought Echo into the story. As I said much much better than the first issue. If you gave up after issue one highly recommend giving it another shot.
SECRET SIX #34 – Great issue. Much like Amazing Spider-Man this week served as both a recap epilogue to what has happened before and set the stage for what’s to come. And Bane going to the amusement park with his stripper friend was totally awesome! Won a couple of stuffed panda bears and his “origin” page was great.
SWEET TOOTH #22 – Action and intrigue from Sweet Tooth? Surprisingly so. Action: Capping people in the head! Intrigue: What’s up with the Christmas tree insignia? All wrapped around a should I stay or should I go plot. Sweet!
UNCANNY X-FORCE #11 – Starting to run out of superlatives for X-Force. Just excellent again. So much happens and this was another issue that just went on and on and on… in a good way. And the “problem” with the series is that it’s so good every time I’m afraid we might start taking it for granted! Don’t. Just enjoy!
See ya!
Rusty
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I’m going with Flashpoint Secret Seven #1 (of 3). Shade the Changing Man + Peter Milligan = Awesome.
I read all the DC stuff and the Flashpoint Batman book was the best one so far, but now I guess I will have to pick up Moon Knight #2 and see if you are right about that book.
Thought all the Flashpoint books had merit. My favorite thing about Flashpoint in general is that there is this whole Aquaman/Wonder Woman war going on with barely any set up at all. And there is really not a lot of set up going on anywhere. They are all just going forward with the stories not backwards i.e. recaps, flashbacks and explanations about the war or “status quo” of the world of Flashpoint. And I think it works better that way. – Rusty
Moon Knight #2 was just as atrocious as issue #1. More of the worse dialogue in comics, more of a psychosis that would render Moon Knight incapable of creating a hit TV show, much less fight a criminal enterprise. At least Maleev’s art felt a little stronger. Bendis needs to be an editor or have an editor that can help him fine tune his ideas. I wish he would write a book about Luke and Jessica with Michael Gaydos on art. Which reminds me I need to pick up Alias trades one day.
Hah! Jim still does not like Moon Knight. Credit for the attempt. Sticking with the second issue was much better. Anybody else? – Rusty
I also like Moon Knight. I think the dialogue is actually good, except for Moon Knight himself which read like a knock-off of CNV. Speaking of which, when am I getting another CNV?
Moon Knight #2 was an improvement. I think Spider-Man, Wolverine and Cap’s dialogue needs to get a pass here because they’re Spector’s new identities, not the actual characters. It’s how he sees them and utilizes them in his head. I think the idea has total merit. It’s definitely different from the previous Moon Knight stories. I like it.
Chris when I say the dialogue is bad, I was giving Bendis a pass on the crazy talk. The two panel spread when he is fighting the girl while dressed as Spider-Man was atrocious. Bendis has never been good at dialogue, story ideas and having a good artist have been his strongest attributes and non-team books are usually his forte. While #2 was better then #1, it is faint praise, very faint praise.