Drunken Comics Rage

Shark nailed it. We are slackers. We've slacked like our lives depended on it. We slack for those who cannot slack. We are earning our slacking degree. Perhaps even a Doctorate in slacking. We are taking a shot at the Heavyweight Slacking Championship of the World. We have slacked like million voices cried out at once, and then slacked off.

Tuesday night certainly led to a rough Wednesday which played a part in it, that is for certain. Good times all the way around but being up that late on a school night will certainly take it's toll. But truth be known, I slacked last week as well. It started innocently enough. I told myself I'd slack just one time. The I slacked another, and another. Then I said I'd slack one more time and be off the stuff for good. But once slacking has oyu in it's grasp, it's hard to unslack.

Okay so I've taken the joke as far as it can go. I know that.

Truth is I just didn't have much to say really. Which is really kind of odd because I had a massive load of comics I bought last week. But somehow I couldn't muster up the energy to post about them. WizardWorld in Chicago came and went last weekend and beyond the Bendis/Johns panel (more on that in a minute) I didn't see anything I felt like I need to comment on. I was truly without post material. I had said from the beginning if I didn't have anything of interest to say I wasn't going to post just for the sake of posting. So if you have enjoyed my posts in the past, please appreciate that I wasn't so much slacking as I was delaying in posting to keep my quality up. And if you hate my posts, well, just imagine how much worse they would have been had I just been throwing some shit up here without any thought.

So what have I been up to you may ask (or may not ask but I'll tell you anyhow)? Well over the weekend a good friend of mine from New York and I went to see Tom Waits here in town. If you have never heard of Tom or heard his music, do yourself a favor and check it out. You may love it or absolutely hate it, but I can pretty well promise you will never hear anything else like it. The other guys here at DCR hate him with a passion, which I accept because even being a big fan I understand he is not for everyone. By and large everyone either loves him or hates him. There's no one who thinks he's "okay". Anyhow, the show was absolutely incredible. Listening to great music with old friends while sipping a few strong drinks is a little slice of heaven in my book.

As mentioned further above, WW Chicago was this weekend as well. I obviously didn't go, although had I not had the concert I would have been very seriously tempted to make the roadtrip just to hear Warren Ellis speak again. Apparently there was a cash bar at the back of the auditorium during his talk. How great is that shit? Also at the con was a joint panel with Brian Bendis and Geoff Johns. Apparently it was build as the first joint DC/Marvel panel, but it really didn't go down like that. Pretty much Bendis and Johns invited some of their other friends from the two companies up on stage and they all just talked about what the love about comics or what they thought was good that the rival company was doing and such. You can catch a synopsis for it over here. While well received by the audience, apparently it wasn't well received by everyone at DC because they did have advanced notice or something.

What the fuck? Me personally I like the idea of the joint panel between them. I think clearly both companies want to excel and outdo each other in sales and such, but I would have to think the guys and gals in the industry that "get it" understand that the more both companies do well, the more readers in general that means and the more it pushes them to do bigger and better things. I don't think anyone from fans to creators buys into the idea of some crazy ass "gang war" type competition between the companies. I know I've read posts from other sites from some pretty rabid fans of one company or the other, but I can't imagine it's really "all or nothing" for either side is it? Currently I read far more Marvel than I do DC, but there are a few DC titles I'm really digging at the moment.

Which I guess is as good a segue into what this post is supposed to be about according the title right? As anyone who hits the site regular knows I tend to just post on Wednesday the books I've bought for the week but rarely do I comment on them afterwards. So I figure since I slacked for two weeks on the weekly reading list, maybe I would just a few minutes to tell you the books I've read that you should really be reading if you aren't already. So here they are in no particular order:

The Immortal Iron Fist - When this book first started, I picked it up on a whim. Iron Fist always seemed like a cool character but I never really followed the Heroes for Hire gang. Now between this book and the way Luke cage is handled in New Avengers, these or some of my favorite characters in the Marvel universe right now. I try not to go in for the ranking of "which book is the best?" or any of that nonsense because every book has it's own things to enjoy. But if you held a gun to my head, I bet this book would be pretty damned close to the top of the list. Seriously. The run on this book thus far has been about as good as comics get these days. I've even really loved the one-shots and such that tell tales of the past Iron Fists. Great, great kung-fu action and stories going on here. I will confess I'm a little concerned if the direction and the style will continue after Fraction and Brubaker are gone from the book, but that's got everything to do with not being familiar with the work of the new writer. Even still if all you do is pick up the first two story arcs in trade, you will not be disappointed.

Secret Invasion - I must confess I've been chuckling about the idea of this story for the better part of a year now. Shapeshifting aliens invading earth is always just a goofy and fun premise even before you throw superheroes in the mix. I of course immediately started thinking of all the shit Marvel could undo on a whim if they so desired with this event. Everyone hate the Xorn thing? Skrull. Spidey unmasking? Skrull.  Thus far this event has been a lot of fun. There have been some fairly nice twists in the story thus far without getting outlandish. I will confess that if you've been on ongoing reader of New Avengers, you will likely get far more out of it as you know where the story came from and are getting some payoffs to mysteries you've seen build for the last few years. But in all in all I still think a  reader could pick it up pretty cold and still follow the story and enjoy it.

 

Final Crisis - Hard to believe? I know I tend to throw DC under the bus about a lot of things, and quite frankly I wasn't completely sold on it after the first issue. But after two issues I really think Morrison is going to deliver something pretty special on this one. I know some of the DC fans were all in disarray because it didn't match up with the continuity coming out of Countdown and Death of the New Gods and even Morrison has expressed some displeasure over that. But fortunately for me, I didn't read any of that shit and can really just dig on the story Morrison is trying to tell here. So if you're wondering if you can follow the book without knowing DC continuity, look no further than me. I definitely have some misgivings about whether the change in art come issue #4 (or is it after issue #4? I can't remember) will work, but for now I have faith in Morrison's storytelling abilities.

Thor: Ages of Thunder/ Reign of Blood - Matt Fraction is rapidly becoming one of my favorite comic writers these days. So having him handle the Thunder God is just incredible. These two books are just a couple of one-shots that are loosely tied together. They effectively have absolutely zero to do with the Marvel universe proper. Think of this more as someone retelling old Norse mythology tales in a comic. All the Norse character we know and love/hate here. I really love the way he captures the personalities of the good and their ambivalence or sometimes flat out cruelty to humans.  And honestly, if you are a little bored with the JMS run on the main title (I like it but Thor needs to punching more shit), this is far more action packed. There is more Frost Giant ass kicking in a single issue of these books than there has been in the entire run of JMS thus far. I have to admit these two books have me thinking seriously about pickign up the Thor: Secret Invasion miniseries just because Fraction is writing it. And really I rarely buy books that spinoff from an event book.

Captain Britain and MI 13 - Did I just say that I rarely buy books that spinout from event books? What I really meant to say was it's my post and I can change my mind or lie my ass of in it whenever I so choose. Okay so seriously, there were three things that made me pick this book up. #1. Captain Britain is a pretty cool concept and kind of a "classic" looking hero. #2. Who doesn't dig British Intelligence special branch stories (Hello? James bond anyone?) #3. It has a "good" skrull who walks around looking like and talking like John Lennon. What's not to love about that? So while I thought "Damn I hope I don't regret this" as I purchased it, it's been pretty entertaining thus far. I mean come on, the Skrulls are trying to destroy Stonehenge to steal Britain's magic and attack the faerie-kind. That's some pretty amusing shit right there even if you didn't have a skrull-beatle in the mix.

Hulk - Okay, so um, here's the thing on this book. I'm not sure I can really say it's a good book. I'm not even 100% certain that there's much of a story there. I'm even less certain that the story that is there makes a whole helluva lot of sense. But GAWDDAMM this book is hilarious! A Hulk gun? A-Bomb? Mechanical Harpies controlled by S.H.I.E.L.D.? I can't honestly believe that Jeph Loeb wants anyone to take this book seriously I think he knows how damned funny it is from the jump. And if there was any doubt about it, the point where the Red Hulk punches the Watcher in the face pretty well crushes those doubts. If you're looking for a seriously, melodramatic Hulk book, turn and run from this book as fast as you can. But if you want to laugh out loud at some really insane shit happening in a comic, this is your book.

 

And with that we'll call it a day. There are several other books I culd add to this list. Wonder Woman comes to mind but I've already said plenty about it over here. Guardians of the Galaxy is another that could easily madke this list, but Shark has said about all that needs to be said on that book already. Perhaps next go around for this list I'll focus on some good reads outside of the realm of DC and Marvel.

Everyone have good Fourth of July weekend. With any luck we won't drink ourselevs silly over the weekend and you'll actually get a new post on Monday from someone. By the way, if anyone is counting, with this post, Monkey officially became the biggets slacker.

Filed under: DVO Reading Rage