Jumping in Headfirst

Three...technically four weeks behind.  I'll knock them all out before the week is over.  Anyways... If you didn't know, this is Bottom of the Pile, a weekly column where I take anywhere from five to ten (sometimes more) of my favorite comics of the week and discuss them.  Sometimes that can be a mini-review, sometimes its just short commentary--both are my way of highlighting comics that I think you should be reading.   When a comic is consistently well-written in terms of action, character work, or comedy--it finds its way to the bottom of the pile, because don't we all save the best for last? The Unbelievable Gwenpool It might be a tad unfortunate that Gwen didn't get an issue that lended depth to her character until we were sixteen issues in , but its no less welcome, as Gwen is suddenly dragged back to the "normal" world by her brother.  We finally get to see exactly what Gwen's life was like when she lived in the real world .  Unsurpris...

Welcome back to an admittedly late edition of Bottom of the Pile.  If you didn't know, Bottom of the Pile is an article where I take some of my favorite comics of the week and do commentary on them--it can range from funny remarks to discussing the comic in context of the world around it both in-universe and in a meta sense, or full on mini-reviews, depending on what I'm feeling about it.  When your comic is so excellent that I want to save it until the end, you wind up...at the Bottom of the Pile.   Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows Renew Your Vows hasn't really gone into what the superhero landscape of its Earth looks like.  Bear in mind, this is essentially the same Earth from Secret Wars where Regent had basically conquered the planet and taken all the superheroes and villains' powers for his own...or had them killed, so we should actually be fairly light on heroes aside from our friendly neighborhood spider-folks.  This issue gives us a glimpse at...

Avengers Y'know, you'd think Spidey would be used to the fact that there are multiple versions of the Hulk that have actually had varying levels of intelligence, with most of them being quite smart.   But then, not gonna lie--I have no idea how much contact he's had with the Hulk at all.  If he's just working off general knowledge, I can totally see him just seeing the Hulk as some idiot. This issue finally wraps up the "Kang War" storyline, with all the various Avengers across time working together to obliterate Kang's massive, history-spanning empire.  Everything's kinda wrapped up in the neatest of bows, though there are some cool moments in there--like Ant-Man being responsible for saving the day not once but twice --but there's still something kinda...flat about this whole storyline.  Like, they took Kang out entirely but I guess I've been conditioned to think that shouldn't just be the end of things. Still, the next arc tea...

Adam Strange-Future Quest It's fun that this special doesn't take place during some nebulous period during both these characters' lives--the heroes in the Future Quest world are all wary of Adam Strange because he arrived through a strange vortex like the monster that nearly destroyed them in the Future Quest maxi-series (hopefully), while Strange has lost his memory after the monumental showdown he and Hawkman had over during Death of Hawkman.  Together, Adam Strange, Birdman, the Quest Family and Dino-Boy and Ug all figure out a way to bounce Adam off another Zeta Beam and send him home--all while dealing with evil spies and angry dinos in probably the most fun book of these little crossovers. It is too bad Adam went home, though. Arguably, Adam Strange fits better with these Hanna-Barbera characters than he does in the DC Universe, what with his jetpack, raygun and general 1950's spaceman dress style.  In fact, if I felt like I knew Future Quest was being cont...

Alters And so the first arc of Alters comes to an end--with a surprisingly brutal slugfest between Matter Man and Chalice, as after being captured at the end of the last issue, our hero discovers a major flaw in Matter Man's abilities: they can't be used for more than sixty-one seconds.  Its a unique flaw, and I do feel like it was a bit convenient considering there wasn't really a hint beforehand, but I can't get too mad at it.  For one, the weakness is clever, and for another my argument for new comics and unproven characters is always to tell shorter stories.  Twelve year long epics assume an interest fans may not even have, while short arcs allow you to give a quick overview of the world and if a story doesn't click, the next one will be out shortly afterwards.  Here the story is over after the fifth issue, and next we can move on to (hopefully) bigger and better things for Chalice and her squad. All in all, not a bad start to a budding new hero's adv...

  Batwoman If Kate's thing is "doing things Batman can't" she's going to end up with a very small wheelhouse that includes "knitting" and "has sex with girls".  I know you wanna get mad at that second one, but...let's be honest here: if you take Selina out of the equation, when was the last time Bruce slept with anyone at all?   Jezebel Jet was ten years ago, and she was revealed to be a villain.  Dude's been "Bat-dad" more than "Gotham's most eligible bachelor" for years . In any case, Batwoman's adventures begin with her tracking down people who've bought the Monster Serum and intending to use themselves as biological WMDs only to wind up tracking down the organization selling it to--where else--a place where she has deep, emotional ties: Coryana, a place that looks more like DC's Madripoor every time they flashback to it, a place where crime lords rule and anything goes. But nevermind all ...

A quick update to get ahead before tomorrow's comics drown me. Amazing Spider-Man In this epilogue to The Clone Conspiracy, we learn Ben Reilly actually managed to escape the fact he suffered over twenty years ago in the original Clone Saga, keeping his body from breaking down completely and still having plenty of pills to allow his form to regenerate every few months.  With his plan having gone up in flames, he heads to a safehouse that looks identical to Peter Parker's old childhood home, only to find the real Miles Warren waiting for him in his Jackal persona--who also promptly sets said safe house on fire. Rather than providing us with the knock-down, drag-out fight you'd expect, Reilly realizes the pointlessness of the fight and decides to bring the whole house down on Jackal before escaping on his own.  I think my biggest problem with this is that unlike my prediction for The Clone Conspiracy as a whole, I guessed right with where Ben Reilly as The Jackal w...

Everyone got Valentine's Day out of their system, for good or bad?  We ready to talk comics?  Cool--welcome to Bottom of the Pile.  If you didn't know, Bottom of the Pile is a column where I take some of my favorite comics (anywhere from 5 to 10, depending on the week) and talk about them.  It can be anything from funny commentary, exploration of the themes and ideas being used by the author, or even a flat-out mini-review.   The hope is that I get you interested in the comic itself, because if it found its way here there's a good chance I think it's one of the best on the stands that week.  Please feel free to share this column as many places as you like, and comment if you think it's good (or if you think it's bad).

This is absolutely late, and from now on I'm going to do my best to make these on time from now on.  For now, welcome to Bottom of the Pile.  If you didn't know, Bottom of the Pile is a column where I take some of my favorite comics (anywhere from 5 to 10, depending on the week) and talk about them.  It can be anything from funny commentary, exploration of the themes and ideas being used by the author, or even a flat-out mini-review.   The hope is that I get you interested in the comic itself, because if it found its way here there's a good chance I think it's one of the best on the stands that week.  Please feel free to share this column as many places as you like, and comment if you think it's good (or if you think it's bad). Alters One of the things I love about Alters is just how cocky Chalice is.  For one thing, I'm a sucker for a good, cocky hero .   But it also makes sense--her civilian life is about to go through a change t...

Avengers Now we're talking.  I've been having a bit of an issue with the way this Kang story is being told, vacillating on whether it's a good story or not, but this chapter sold me.  Though Kang has always been one of the most well-known threats in the Avengers rogues gallery, it's been years since they focused on just how big of a problem he is for the rest of humanity--the last time I recall seeing him, he was basically in a losing war with Ultron.   Here though, Kang explains his story--how he's been conquering various time periods and making his empires work together to allow him to truly be the master of Earth at every point in human history. The whole story--beautifully told by Mike Del Mundo, who's abstract, fantastical art is perfect for telling this retrospective through all the different time periods--makes Kang out to be a massive threat, and actually makes Nadia's decision not to simply get rid of Baby Kang all the more insane and ...

I've been away for awhile, but expect this site to start getting regular updates next week.   But for now, let's just enjoy the longest running column on JiH, Bottom of the Pile.  If you didn't know, Bottom of the Pile is a column where I take some of my favorite comics (anywhere from 5 to 10, depending on the week) and talk about them.  It can be anything from funny commentary, exploration of the themes and ideas being used by the author, or even a flat-out mini-review.   The hope is that I get you interested in the comic itself, because if it found its way here there's a good chance I think it's one of the best on the stands that week.  Please feel free to share this column as many places as you like, and comment if you think it's good (or if you think it's bad). This week was apparently all about foreshadowing.  Come see what I mean.

It's here--the first comics day of 2017, and I'm back (albeit a tad late) with the first Bottom of the Pile column of the year.   If you didn't know, Bottom of the Pile is a column where I take some of my favorite comics (anywhere from 5 to 10, depending on the week) and talk about them.  It can be anything from funny commentary, exploration of the themes and ideas being used by the author, or even a flat-out mini-review.   The hope is that I get you interested in the comic itself, because if it found its way here there's a good chance I think it's one of the best on the stands that week.  Please feel free to share this column as many places as you like, and comment if you think it's good (or if you think it's bad).

Alters This could've easily been an overly saccharine moment, as our lady hero Chalice comes out for the first time to her brother, but the combination of dark levity and keeping things focused on other things like being hunted by an insane supervillain cannibal helps to make this the most heartfelt moment of the week for me.  The theme with"Alters" seems to be that superpowers just can't fix everything.  At the end of last issue a fellow superhero, Morph, got injured during Chalice's first run-in with Matter Man. This issue, we discover that despite being a shapeshifter--the damage done to his spine is seemingly permanent and will leave him unable to walk or use his powers again.  If this were DC or Marvel, I'd be pissed at the idiotic limitations placed on someone who should in theory have complete control over his body--but the sense in Alters is that powers don't always help, sometimes they just complicate. 

This was initially going to be a much, much longer article, but Blogger lost my initial draft and I honestly just don't have it in me to start them ALL over again.  So this is an approximation of the best material of the original, before I move on to last week's comics and then THIS week's comics. Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows   If you were wondering how Mary Jane as a superhero is going, well...here you go.  Renew Your Vows #2 shows the same day from issue one, only from Mary Jane's perspective.  By doing so, the writer re-frames your entire view of the character, erasing the sort of flighty, flaky girl you're used to and revealing her to be this goals-oriented, driven woman who only seemed flighty because her mind was on a billion things at once.   Showing her as a woman who splits her time between running a clothes shop, a fashion blog, being a mom AND a superhero, Mary Jane is basically the opposite of Peter--she doesn't take pictures or tel...

Avengers Much as I hate to admit it, the second issue of this series isn't nearly as strong as the first.  Last issue, in an attempt to take out his rage on the Avengers for kidnapping his infant self, Kang (and his alternate, paradoxical self the The Scarlet Centurion) went back in time and murdered all the Avengers in their cribs, wiping them out from time.  Well...all except for Hercules, who Kang either considered beneath his notice or was unable to locate at birth.    This issue, we discover a future version of Kang who discovered the error of his ways basically snatched the Avengers out of time before they could be erased from time, leaving them stranded until a battle with a time-protected Hercules allows them to return for one final battle with Kang.  One in which, despite being Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the group kind of gets smacked around like a bunch of chumps.  They made such a big deal out of having the six of them be enough bu...

Since this week is short, I figured I'd take care of it first and go back and knock the others out later. Batman Annual I've never been a fan of dogs.  Some can be cute, downright adorable, but I'm still more of a cat person.   Still, this new origin of Ace the Bat-Hound in this year's Batman Annual is the kind of thing that makes you type in all caps 'cause the story is just so cute you can't stand it. Found after one of the Joker's...weirder escapades, Ace was one of many attack dogs Joker was using until he got bored of them...and stopped visiting, or feeding any of them.  By the time they were found, they'd all attacked and killed one another with only Ace surviving.  Because amongst other things Batman is chiefly a story about taking in broken things and making them less broken, Ace gets adopted by Alfred, who ends up training him to be more obedient and taming his violent instincts.  Over the course of several months, Alfred tirelessly wor...

I'm two weeks late, but given this is supposed to be the "pull list" month, I can't skip any weeks.

Hello and welcome to a new version of Bottom of the Pile.  For quite some time now, BOTP has gotten away from its core design: to talk about the comic books I saved for last every week because they were so damned good.  Probably a lot quicker than I care to admit, it went from talking about my favorite comics to just going off about whatever was most popular or whatever was making the biggest "waves" in comics whether it was good or bad.  I wasted time talking about comics I barely even enjoyed, and as much as I'd like to say the intent was to gain popularity that's just not true.  The truth is it's easy.  It's so impossibly, stupidly easy to rail against something you DON'T like.  Largely because, not to get overly high-minded, we've created a society that is about tearing things down rather than building them up.  Some of the most sardonic people online, known for writing 2000 word diatribes about something they hate, will admit its more difficult ...

I'm a little late with this week's column and I apologize for that.   So as not to waste any time let's just jump right into it with a look first at this week's Marvel stuff.

Welcome back to the longest-running weekly column on JiH, Bottom of the Pile--where I talk about the most exciting comics for the week--and the ones I found "best".  This week we're looking at the first wave of DC's Rebirth one-shots as well as Civil War II and some of the comics surrounding it.   Civil War II Before I tear this comic a new one, some exposition is probably needed. Given Civil War's phenomenal success as both a film and a comic book, Marvel creating a sequel was really a matter of time.  This is the same company that's made no fewer than three "Secret" Wars after all. In the case of Civil War II, once again it's a "Captain" versus Tony Stark--this time Carol Danvers (a.k.a. Captain Marvel) rather than Steve.   The gist of it all is that a new mutant Inhuman is found to have the ability to see the future, and while Carol thinks he should be used to save lives in the future, Tony thinks there's every chance tha...