Bottom of the Pile 2: May 29, 2013
I'm crazy late with this but I spent all weekend working on my speech, so I apologize. Now that I'm finally out of class (for like, a month) I can relax again so here we go. Bottom of the Pile 2.
...What's sad about this is just how few comics found their way to the Bottom, but then this is a fifth week kind of deal so its kind of to be expected.
Earth-2 Annual
What I hate the most about this comic is just how good it is. James Robinson, when given characters that don't already have fleshed out backstories, is a fantastic writer and Cafu and Julius Gopez bring this book to life with glorious visuals of this alternate DC Universe Earth where the Big Three don't rule everything ever. Unfortunately it doesn't really matter because Robinson is gone in 4 months, which is stupid because this Annual apparently hit the top five out of the books sold last week. You don't let someone like that go, especially when they're doing such a great job building a unique world so different from the New 52 or even the original DCU.
Another note: this is clearly the size the book should always be. Just raise the price to $4 and run 32 pages, because this had enough to cover nearly every plot point the book has been dealing with, and fairly adequately at that. That's a much better idea than just following one or two and leaving us hanging on the other three every month.
Justice League of America 4
Let's get it out of the way: That ending is clearly fake. Which is good because if I have to deal with another occasion where DC let a social issue about their comics be more important than their actual comics, I'm going to scream. This doesn't happen when you tell GOOD stories DC, so turn up.
Anyway: This is the first time the JLA has gone up against the Secret Society of Supervillains, and with the news we heard recently (I'll get to that in a later article), its obvious that this is going to be a big deal. I love that Geoff has made a team book starring Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Catwoman one of the most talked about books on the stands, and even though it could stand a bit of tightening up and speed on unraveling the plotlines, it's still a solid book. (Also that one teaser we saw at the beginning of the comic was SICK. I can only wonder when that character will start to play a bigger role in the DCU at large.)
New Avengers 6
Whooo! This story is finally DOING something. Okay, admittedly I like both New Avengers AND Avengers a lot more than...probably everybody else, but that's because I like what Hickman is doing. People spend so much time talking about how there aren't any new characters, there aren't any new villains, and yet here's Jonathan Hickman, creating his own little continuity out of scratch, only making use of what's already there when he absolutely has to, like in issue 6 of New Avengers or issue 12 of Avengers.
Steve Epting's art remains sufficiently dark and foreboding, and even though nothing horrible has happened YET, the tension is palpable in every issue. And Hickman has done the impossible in making Black Swan an almost likable character. She's become three-dimensional as Hickman shows her to have a cold ruthlessness and willingness to do what has to be done, but not so heartless that she can't feel fear, anger or worry. I'm looking forward to seeing how things change with the next three issues of this book in June.
The star book in IDW's G1 continuity, even I get excited when this book comes out at the end of the month. It's absolutely stunning how consistent this title is, even as it gears up into its first big arc Lost in Light, and starts to lose a bit of its humor (but not nearly all of it) to tell this story.
More Than Meets the Eye stands as a testament to just how utterly unnecessary humans are in Transformers when a writer makes an honest effort to develop the characters inside as more than just moving set pieces in a future action scene. James Roberts is a genius. Able to develop these characters well enough that I remember their names (even though there's like a billion of them), he should be working on even bigger sci-fi comics, like the Legion of Super-Heroes or whatever's spinning out of Threshold. But for now I'm more than happy to see my favorite 80's franchise get some worthwhile storytelling. Here's hoping Lost in Light goes somewhere interesting.
Okay, that's all for now but I'll be back--hopefully later this week--with the third installment. Peace.
...What's sad about this is just how few comics found their way to the Bottom, but then this is a fifth week kind of deal so its kind of to be expected.
Earth-2 Annual
What I hate the most about this comic is just how good it is. James Robinson, when given characters that don't already have fleshed out backstories, is a fantastic writer and Cafu and Julius Gopez bring this book to life with glorious visuals of this alternate DC Universe Earth where the Big Three don't rule everything ever. Unfortunately it doesn't really matter because Robinson is gone in 4 months, which is stupid because this Annual apparently hit the top five out of the books sold last week. You don't let someone like that go, especially when they're doing such a great job building a unique world so different from the New 52 or even the original DCU.
Another note: this is clearly the size the book should always be. Just raise the price to $4 and run 32 pages, because this had enough to cover nearly every plot point the book has been dealing with, and fairly adequately at that. That's a much better idea than just following one or two and leaving us hanging on the other three every month.
Justice League of America 4
Let's get it out of the way: That ending is clearly fake. Which is good because if I have to deal with another occasion where DC let a social issue about their comics be more important than their actual comics, I'm going to scream. This doesn't happen when you tell GOOD stories DC, so turn up.
Anyway: This is the first time the JLA has gone up against the Secret Society of Supervillains, and with the news we heard recently (I'll get to that in a later article), its obvious that this is going to be a big deal. I love that Geoff has made a team book starring Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Catwoman one of the most talked about books on the stands, and even though it could stand a bit of tightening up and speed on unraveling the plotlines, it's still a solid book. (Also that one teaser we saw at the beginning of the comic was SICK. I can only wonder when that character will start to play a bigger role in the DCU at large.)
New Avengers 6
Whooo! This story is finally DOING something. Okay, admittedly I like both New Avengers AND Avengers a lot more than...probably everybody else, but that's because I like what Hickman is doing. People spend so much time talking about how there aren't any new characters, there aren't any new villains, and yet here's Jonathan Hickman, creating his own little continuity out of scratch, only making use of what's already there when he absolutely has to, like in issue 6 of New Avengers or issue 12 of Avengers.
Steve Epting's art remains sufficiently dark and foreboding, and even though nothing horrible has happened YET, the tension is palpable in every issue. And Hickman has done the impossible in making Black Swan an almost likable character. She's become three-dimensional as Hickman shows her to have a cold ruthlessness and willingness to do what has to be done, but not so heartless that she can't feel fear, anger or worry. I'm looking forward to seeing how things change with the next three issues of this book in June.
The star book in IDW's G1 continuity, even I get excited when this book comes out at the end of the month. It's absolutely stunning how consistent this title is, even as it gears up into its first big arc Lost in Light, and starts to lose a bit of its humor (but not nearly all of it) to tell this story.
More Than Meets the Eye stands as a testament to just how utterly unnecessary humans are in Transformers when a writer makes an honest effort to develop the characters inside as more than just moving set pieces in a future action scene. James Roberts is a genius. Able to develop these characters well enough that I remember their names (even though there's like a billion of them), he should be working on even bigger sci-fi comics, like the Legion of Super-Heroes or whatever's spinning out of Threshold. But for now I'm more than happy to see my favorite 80's franchise get some worthwhile storytelling. Here's hoping Lost in Light goes somewhere interesting.
Okay, that's all for now but I'll be back--hopefully later this week--with the third installment. Peace.
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