Bottom of the Pile - Nov. 19th, 2014

Amazing Spider-Man

The guy who knows it all being killed before he can supply us with a healthy dose on exposition, cluing us all in on the rest of the plot.  I'm gonna miss that guy.

Astro City

What I love most about Astro City (besides the excellent storytelling) is just how far Kurt Busiek goes to make his universe feel expansive--like there's always another wonder to be found, right around the corner.  This issue introduces several sets of universes that you could tell stories in for centuries, and really beg to be revisited right now.

Avengers and X-Men - Axis

I love a good "Tuesday" joke as much as the next guy, but I think this time you guys are seriously in over your head.  So it's probably closer to a Friday.

 

 Avengers

All year I've been reading Chris Claremont's X-Men, and a few months back I got to the point where I could start reading about the New Mutants.  I say that to say that moments like this are why I love superhero comics.   Claremont's "Sunspot" went from the hothead (ha!) of the New Mutants to a guy trying to rally the Avengers caught in between Tony and Steve's latest "war", hoping to bring them together in time for them all to deal with the biggest threat they've ever faced.   It's character growth on a level that you rarely get to experience in a medium that favors "sideways" growth rather than forward movement, but I love it when it shows up nonetheless.

Batman Eternal

That Batman had weapons shouldn't be a surprise.  What IS a surprise, now that I think about it, is how Bruce Wayne wasn't sued for announcing Wayne Enterprises worked with the Batman in the first place.  He didn't STOP being a vigilante just because he got a sponsor, after all.

Black Widow

YES.  Which is why the original Civil War was a load of crap.  The heroes make decisions so far beyond what political entities deal with that why should they ever get a say in anything?

Earth 2: World's End

I left this part out, but apparently in the new DC Universe, the helmet of Nabu is "another Mother Box".   Ping.  Ping.  Pi-actually no, this is STUPID.  I'm all for tying things that make sense together inside of canon, but these two things had NOTHING to do with one another.   What do you get from linking these?

Justice League

It's been a long road, but I think Geoff Johns is finally onto something with Justice League.  Ever since Forever Evil, month in and month out it's become an absolute must-read.   Watching Bruce and Lex maneuver around one another is great stuff, and moments like these prove he really gets both Batman and Superman, a far cry from when people first claimed Geoff hated Batman.

 Loki - Agent of Asgard

 I had wondered what would happen to Loki if he were near the inversion.  This particular version of Loki was a bad guy attempting to turn his life around--doing good deeds and avoiding the sort of super villain behavior he'd engaged in for decades when he was plaguing his brother and his team.  I was hoping the Inversion wouldn't return him to that sort, and it hasn't.  Rather, it's taken his sense of good TOO far--making him arrogant and incapable of seeing his own faults and past mistakes.  A great choice from Al Ewing every month, if that's your character.

 New Avengers

Yikes.  Apparently when Time Ran Out eight months ago (in-universe), things started to go really poorly for the Superior Iron Man, one of the few characters who escaped being reverted to normal before the Inversion.

But as much as I'm a fan of arrogant characters, Tony's fucked up too frequently not to be aware of his own shortcomings.  Here's hoping "Superior Iron Man" doesn't spend too much time trying to make me like a guy like this, funny or not.

New 52 - Futures End

Still not letting my boy Jason be the body for Firestorm, I see.  #stillirise

Author's Note: Bottom of the Pile is a weekly column (or at least, my attempt at said) in which I cover the comics that found their way to the bottom of my pile, thus being the best as I've always been a proponent of "saving the best for last".   Since bog standard reviews can be found literally anywhere, coverage can range from mini-reviews to funny comments to commentary on a creator's run or comics as a whole, depending on a wide range of factors including the comic itself, the amount of time I have, and my general mood.