Kill Your Boyfriend (Morrison/Bond/Vertigo) was reprinted and unleashed today. I’d heard a bit of buzz about the book and decided to give it a try. Usually, I don’t care all too much for Grant Morrison, as I think he tends to muck up franchises with characters acting out of character. So I figure, with his own short story, I’d have an easier time getting into it. The main thing I, (and I’m sure most people my age) compare it to is Natural Born Killers. After the romanticized murder spree couple, the similarities seem to end. I’m not entirely sure what he was trying to say, if anything at all (the very last page seems to undermine anything that might have been learned in the previous sequence), but the book is quick, filthy fun.
Kick Drum Comix (Jim Mahfood/Image) came out, providing more short stories and goodness from Food1! His style has developed and really grown on me over the past year. I hope there are more of his full color comics down the line.
Mike Mignola on Hellboy!? Sign me up! (Mignola/Dark Horse). He hasn’t drawn a book in how long? Anyway, its a classical Hellboy one-shot, plain and simple. Buy it for the art, buy it because its fun. The atmosphere and mood deliver, and the colors really bring to life Mignola’s world, weaved in dark shadows and myth. It’s a great issue for a new comer to try out, and realize how much of a charming character Hellboy is. Mike Mignola is such a modern master and its nice to see him back breathing life into his creation.
Ultimate Spider Man Annual (Bendis/LaFuente/Marvel) was some thing I heard a lot of buzz about, because it skated around a sensitive subject for the young Peter Parker which I won’t spoil here. LaFuente has drawn one of my FAVORITE Spider Man’s ever! The car chase scene was really exciting, and I’d love to see his work appear elsewhere (Runaways maybe?). His Peter and MJ look great as well as everyone at the school, he really nails the youth. The scene in the cafeteria where they have their little argument was so great with Bendis’s classic back and forth dialogue and LaFuente creating the scenes. Most annuals kind of stink, but this was quite the exception to the rule!
Marvel’s 1985 (Millar/Edwards/Marvel) has finally wrapped up. The ending wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but I really loved it. This is probably the cheeriest book Mark Millar has ever written! (Though might have worked better in trade format) Tommy Lee Edwards draws some GREAT stuff in this issue, as well as a tiny panel of Cap, which might be one of my favorite drawings in a comic this year! When our young hero steals the spotlight and calls “Avengers Assemble!,” the smile on Cap’s face is infectious, and is one of those rare moments in good storytelling where the emotions on the page are infectious. Its hard not to crack a smile.
Giant Size X-Men: First Class (Parker/Langridge/Cho/Kilisian/Haspien/Williams/Marvel) was filled with short stories just in time for Halloween. From Beast going out on X-Files-ish adventures searching for the truth with a cameo by “The Thing” and Pod People to a Edward Gorey-esque tale about Professor X as a child (with rhyming verses!). First Class is always goofy fun, and this issue is just in time as a nice one-n-done Halloween treat. If you hate fun, then this book is not for you.
I read a lot of negative stuff about Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Box (Ellis/Davis/Granov/Marvel), but I thought it was OK. It was a fresh reminder of how awesome Alan Davis is, and Adi Granov was a nice suprise too! At first I thought he was a poor fit for the X-Men, but upon reading Adi’s story he really helped set the mood and feeling of the steampunk X-Men adventure! Ellis seems to have taken this issue as a sort of WHAT IF? as I don’t remember the agent in the Davis’s story having any success, and then even further, the possibility HE mentions comes to fruition in the bit Granov illustrates. Granted, alternate realities is nothing new for Ellis, but I think this book would have been received better had it not been attatched to a $3.99 price tag… PS, steampunk X-Men mini please Ellis/Granov?
Who would have thought I’d still be picking Madame Xanadu (Wagner/Hadley/Vertigo) up? This issue brings us into the French Revolution, and our heroine again finds herself in the favor of nobles, but staying away from their affairs after the tragedy that happened during her stay with the Khans. Unable to stay away from the affairs of mortals, she is wrapped up again into historic events, and finds herself trapped. What I’m sticking around to find out is, she is leaping through time and getting closer and closer to our modern day, and what will happen then?
Final Crisis (Morrison/Jones/Pacheco/DC) was a giant mess for me. All I see is Darkseid is coming back, and the heroes of the DCU are doomed. I picked this up because I heard my favorite, Green Arrow, had a proud moment, and so I wanted to check it out for myself. As said before, Morrison is a litle too out there for me, and my unfamiliarity with the DCU made this book a mess for me. It was pretty though (especially the last page)…and the little scene with Ollie was great…anti anti life equation arrow =P What a hero!
