I am also known as the Blue Bomber
I can shoot the legs off Jeffrey Dahmer
Kill a robot fish
Kill a robot frog
And then I ride off on my robot dog…
Oh, uh…hey. Didn’t see ya there. Y’gotta forgive me – I’ve had that song stuck in my head for a solid week now, and I’ve been LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT! I must implore you to click the highlighted text, if you want to know the definition of pure awesome. Click, I beg you – click!
Okay comic book heads, we are here and welcome to our twenty-eighth installment of…
…and I promise this time, I’ve got pictures. Heh.
Just one last announcement on the subject of my next standup performance: I’ve got about one more week until I take another shot at COMIX NY‘s TRIAL BY LAUGHTER on Tuesday, September 30. The club is located at 353 West 14th Street, just east of 9th Avenue. You can buy advance tickets by calling the club at (212) 524-2500. Normally tickets cost $15, but if you tell them you’re there to see Greg Manuel specifically, they’re only $10.
Now on to some newsie goodness – A pretty searing and over-the-top review of SECRET INVASION #6 is up over at SavageCritic.com and in a word…damn. Check it out by Clicking Here.
I went a little word-heavy last week, when I hit y’all with J.M. DeMatteis’ incredibly insightful peek into the genesis and gestation of an idea that just won’t let go. Even as I ping back to it here because, really – it’s an awesome read – I thought I’d go the other way this week and balance things out, with a few of my favorite images and scenes from comics I’ve bought over the last coupla weeks.
First up is from ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #12…
Enlightenment is a funny thing…like those truly important things in life that you can count on one hand, you can barely articulate what it did to you, and there’s no one way to reach it…but when it hits you, it hits you. Lex Luthor’s stolen Super-serum may only work for 24 hours, but in this moment, you can see that he’s never going to be the same again. He’s been an absolute assclown for the entirety of this run, but here…you almost could weep with him. Beautiful job, Grant. Frank. Be proud of this work – you deserve to be.
From ATOMIC ROBO, Vol. 2 #1: DOGS OF WAR…
I cannot get enough of this character – and this is coming from a guy whose comic book diet unapologetically consists of 99.999999998% superheroes. You show me a guy who can’t derive any entertainment from a snarky, ass-kicking robot who uses the word “mook,” and I’ll show you a guy who’s past probably includes electroshock therapy.
And how about CAPTAIN AMERICA #41…
You know what – you’re absolutely right, Mister Barnes, sir – I take back what I said in my second column. I’m not about to dispute anybody who is about to dragon-kick me right into next month.
Ed Brubaker hit us with a coupla killer interviews in coincidence with his next new series INCOGNITO, this one featured on WIRED.com:
Wired.com: How about Captain America? What are your thoughts on his transition to the 21st century? Do you think he’s an accurate symbol of where America’s head is at today?
Brubaker: I think what makes Captain America work in the modern age isn’t so much him reflecting where America’s at, but in showing where it should be. In my series, I’ve had Cap quote Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Paine and Dwight Eisenhower, because Captain America isn’t some partisan tool. His history as a character since the mid-’60s shows that. He can call a lie a lie, and he doesn’t care which side the liar is on. I think the United States really needs an icon without those partisan blinders on right now, more than ever. But you know, with Cap what we’ve also done is make it feel more like a modern high-tech espionage comic, in many ways. Cap’s military/government background is part of what keeps him relevant, too.
I dig that…and then he had to go and up the awesome quotient:
Wired.com: Any thoughts on changing his color if Obama wins? It’s been done before.
Brubaker: I’ll be so happy when Obama wins that you never know what I’ll do.
Ooh – that reminds me…
Third printing! How d’you like that?
Now, as if you didn’t need me to expound any further on the awesomeness of Brubaker, he shows us how very clearly he gets a certain Man Without Fear…first, there’s this image from DAREDEVIL #110…
And then we have this excerpt from COMIC BOOK RESOURCES, promoting the next issue and the debut of the latest gender-bent Marvel villain in the form of Lady Bullseye…
Having been outed as Daredevil, Matt Murdock’s had to fight a lot battles and overcome enormous personal threats, but in the recently wrapped “Cruel and Unusual” arc, Daredevil got to use both his legal and crime fighting skills to fight for someone else; a fight which proved succesful. “The thing we’ll learn in issue #111 is just how much winning one for somebody else reminds him to some degree of why he started to do this in the first place…It’s about taking on the system and taking on injustice, and for a long time Matt Murdock’s life has only been about Matt and not what being both Daredevil and a lawyer is all about. That’s a lot of what ‘Cruel and Unusual’ was about. It was designed to take Matt from this deep dark place he’d gotten into and remind him of who he is. I don’t think one thing gets you back there, but in that last moment, when he was at Dakota’s bedside and walks away smiling, that’s like the first time we’ve seen him smile in a long time.”
And then, once again, he gives us just a little bit more and says this:
“The first year of [DAREDEVIL], it looked like the pendulum was swinging back the other way and Matt Murdock was taking back everything that was taken from him. The second year was about how after all he’s been through, he can’t just hit the reset button. It was kind of a meta-commentary on how there’s no such thing as a reset button.“
It’s like he knows I talk about him. If I may be allowed a slight turn of phrase: BRU, YOU’RE MY BOY!!!
This opening page from EL DIABLO #1 (of 6) feels almost as if it was directed just as much at the reader as it was to miniseries protagonist Chato Santana…
It’s like the first thirty seconds to Jimi Hendrix’s VOODOO CHILE. Those opening bars almost dares you to keep listening. “Take my hand,” Jimi said. “Take my hand,” El Diablo says. To which I can only say…’kay.
And what can you say about SUPERMAN/BATMAN #51…
This was one of those impulse buys, and since it promised to be just a two-part story, I figured “why not?” and gave it a look – I’m very glad I did, because this was just a fun read all-around. “Are those hearts?” Heh.
Meanwhile, we’ve got UNCANNY X-MEN #502, where Marvel sets hard to work at making up for all that lost time in the past twenty years, making Cyclops into the man he was meant to be.
I knew you had it in you, Scott. You never needed no stinkin’ claws. Just please don’t ever say “suck it” again, ‘kay? ‘Kay.
Oh and by the way…
Yeah, uhm…your visor? It’s doing that thing again. Might wanna get that checked. It’s a little weird, y’know? Oh, yeah – busy right now. I gotcha. Carry on…
And you just have to love this introductory page from X-MEN: FIRST CLASS # 16, which told you all you needed to know about this comic – you’re gonna have fun.
If Jeff Parker keeps this kind of work up, I’m going to be gushing about him the same way I do with Brubaker. There’s no manufactured angst here, folks. No melodrama. Just fun and excitement, full of that which makes a Marvel comic a Marvel comic. Gotta love it.
And I think that’s it from me this time around, friends – tune in next week where I discuss several developments in comic book films to come – DAREDEVIL may get a reboot a la THE INCREDIBLE HULK, Stephen Chow will be co-starring and directing Seth Rogen’s THE GREEN HORNET…
…and would Will Smith make a good CAPTAIN AMERICA? Innnnnteresting!
Actually, before I go…one question:
Did I miss something, here?
