Metropolis

Hey everyone!  Don’t forget that Saturday, May 2nd, is the 2nd Annual Comic Book Expo.  We’ll be on the 2nd floor of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center during the Lubbock Arts Festival.  It is also Free Comic Book Day, a national holiday/event sponsored by finer funny book peddlers across the country.  I, and the whole Metropolis crew, will be in attendance.  You can come argue with me about my reviews at the STAR COMICS table.  Just look for handsome bastard who looks like he could kick everybody else at the STAR table’s asses.
 
We hope to see you there!  Now – On to the comics! 
 
BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 4 – You have not lived until you’ve seen Sugar & Spike team-up with Batman against Felix Faust.  Why couldn’t this have been the main story instead of the four page lead-in? I guess we’ll take what we can get.  If that isn’t FANBOY FUN, I don’t know what is!

 
TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE 5 – It just gets better and better.  This issue is largely filled with the adventures of Twain and Einstein: Hollywood Detectives.  In a week when we saw Sugar & Spike team-up with anyone period – we also got Mark Twain and Albert Einstein temporarily gain super powers and fight crime.  Could this week’s comics get better?  Seriously doubt it.  BUENO EXCELLENTE!
 
DOCTOR WHO CLASSICS: SERIES TWO 5 – Another first!  I’m usually inclined to enjoy these classic Doctor stories, but for whatever reason this one just kind of bored me just a smidge. It might be that the stories usually contain some sort of synopsis of the previous story, if they are continued from issue to issue, but this one doesn’t and it seems to indicate that is most assuredly does.  I’m at a loss, however, to remember what happened.  Presumably something to do with Merlin and a demon named Melinococus (or something. Too lazy to pick it back up and spell it right).  The Dave Gibbons artwork is nice, though. EH!
 
BUCK ROGERS 0 – Like a lot of kids in the late 70s/early 80s – I grew up with the adventures of Gil Gerard and Erin Grey (who I fell in puppy love with) in the motion picture and subsequent TV series.  That cheesy show still holds a lot of nostalgic love for me. To this day I still mutter “Bidi-bidi-bidi, come on, Buck!” whenever I see a robot that looks a little like Twiggy. So this debut/preview, for the low price of one shiny quarter, had a lot to prove to me out of the gate. The first thing to appeal to me was the art by Carlos Rafael. I wasn’t impressed with the costume redesign by John Cassaday, but I was willing to overlook it. Rafael’s art has a nice realistic quality to it that is reminiscent of Greg Land’s work, but with a more fluid and less posed edge to it. Scott Beatty does a decent enough job on the script, letting you see a little glimpse of the world Buck is in, and possibly setting up the future.  I’m still not sure whether we will see more of the same world in the regular series, or if, as the plot for this preview suggests, that the first issue will be Buck displaced in time once again.  Either way – the zero issue was solid enough to get me to commit to more.  GOOD STUFF.
 
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 32 – Am I the only person that is not enjoying this book any more? Dr. Light? I didn’t like her when she was a part of my all-time favorite run on the book, by Giffen and DeMatteis.  EH!
 
IMMORTAL IRON FIST 25 – Iron Fist and the Seven Weapons finally stage their break out from the prison in a Hell dimension.  Damn, this book just gets better and better. I’m looking forward to the upcoming event with the Seven Weapons.  FANBOY FUN!
 
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 13 – Abnett and Lanning bring the Guardians into their War of Kings event with nothing less than full force.  The team is back up to strength and ready to fight – just in time to divide and take on Black Bolt and Vulcan separately. Abnett and Lanning really know how to make a cosmic epic feel truly vast and in scope and consequences, and the humor and pathos they give the individual characters on the team really makes them all come to life. Even if you aren’t following the War of Kings stuff – you could still pick this book up and follow along AND have fun doing it.  You can’t ask for more.  FANBOY FUN!!
 
BATTLE FOR THE COWL: ARKHAM ASYLUM 1 (of 1) – How many times can you tell the same story about Dr. Arkham being a bad psychiatrist and still expect to make it interesting?  The worst part is that several new inmates are introduced and yet none of them seem to be psychotic or criminals. Isn’t Arkham called the “Asylum for the Criminally Insane”? EH!!
 
BATTLE FOR THE COWL: AZRAEL – DEATH’S DARK KNIGHT 2 (of 3) – Not quite as solid in the “win” category for me as the first issue, but still decent.  Gotham’s protectors react to the new Azrael as he himself confronts Talia al Ghul.  OKAY.
 
DETECTIVE COMICS 853 – Once again my friend Tyson declared this to be a useless piece of garbage.  I think he missed the point. Where the first issue seemed to be more of an interlocked imaginary tale type of thing, where each tale told of the death of Batman from a different and contradictory point of view – herein it becomes clear that Batman himself is hallucinating as he dies, before remembering the love of his Mother and Father and being in their arms for the first and last times.  It is a beautiful piece of comic book writing that touches the reader in a very different way than the horror of seeing your favorite character be killed in battle (i.e. Death of Superman) or go nuts and slaughter all your friends (i.e. Hal Jordan).  Very effective as a tender goodbye to Bruce Wayne.  …or course those jaded older readers, like me, just know he ain’t really gone.  No way!  BUENO EXCELLENTE!
 
IGNITION CITY 2 – We are slowly introduced to all the main characters, as Ms. Rocket continues to investigate her father’s murder.  The first thing I noticed was how many more words per panel there were when compared to Ellis’ other works.  Warren Ellis is traditionally a writer who knows how to let his artist work and tell the story as instructed and can step back to “show” and not “tell” the audience what is happening.  Of course, he stills does that here, but also uses the dialogue to fully flesh out his characters and enrich the world they live in. I’m sure Ellis has done this before, but it really stuck out here for me for some reason. BUENO EXCELLENTE!
 
NO HERO 5 – Another AVATAR book from Warren Ellis, another BUENO EXCELLENTE.  Ellis and artist Juan Jose Ryp, who has become a favorite of mine since BLACK SUMMER, are really shredding the question of “how badly do you want to be a superhero?” to Hell!  When I first read that tag line I never suspected that ***SPOILER ALERT ACTIVATED*** the poor protagonist would be deformed in the process. ***SPOILER ALERT DE-ACTIVATED*** This book continues to shock and horrify me in ways I never could have imagined.  Mostly due to the ultra-detailed pencils of Ryp.  Just take a look at the nightmare sequence this issue and you’ll see what I mean.  **shudder**