meganbmoore | may comics, part 1 (Reply)

This time I played it safe and started with the ones I knew would drive me batty. In order read. Incidentally, now that I’m back in the comics reading mood, it kinda sucks that I get them once a month because New Warriors #1 is already out and it’s apparently actually pretty good and I won’t have it for a month…

And when oh when will the days of Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman come? I mean sure, Diana and the amazons will be screwed beyond redemption by then, but at least it’ll become readable again.

Amazons Attack #2-And so the campaign to make us hate the amazons continues. Not quite as heavy handed and not nearly as sexist as the first issue, but there it is. Neither Diana nor Hippolyta sound remotely like themselves, and even though it’s obviously going to turn out that Hippolyta is being manipulated by someone, this is some pretty blatant character assassination. And even after it’s revealed that she’s being manipulated, the fact will remain that she’s still doing it, and that, with two exceptions, the amazons are blithely going along with it. At least Phillipus and Artemis still have functioning brains, though Artemis was stripped of her awesomeness the second Rucka took over a few years back(my poor, poor Artemis) and Donna, at least, was fairly right, though, like Phillipus and Artemis, and Diana herself, portrayed as far weaker than and subservient to Hippolyta…and the ONLY one of these women to ever put up with any garbage from Hippolyta is Phillipus, and even she wouldn’t stand for this much.

Nova #2: Iron Man: “I’ve been hunting down and persecuting all my old friends and encouraging superheroes with vulnerable loved ones to announce their secret Ids on national television. You?” Nova: “I’ve been leading an intergalactic war against invaders from another dimension who were powerful enough to take down Galactus and were on the verge of conquering the universe.” Iron Man: “Oh yeah, I heard about that but thought the Kree were just squabbling again. How’d it turn out?” Nova: “I ripped Annihilus’s guts out with my hands and saved the universe.” Iron Man: “…” Winner: Nova. And Iron Man…seriously…guy hears scattered reports of a huge war in space and thinks it’s another Kree border skirmish? THIS is who they put in charge of the superheroes and SHIELD? *sigh* OTOH, this is the only DECENT handling of the subject of the Warriors and Stamford that I recall hearing, with Richie just not BELIEVING all the stuff he’s hearing(now for someone to just point out that the one at fault was Nitro, not the guys trying to stop him) Also, is it just me, or did Justice almost look like Zircher was drawing him?

(had to read something good to brace myself for more)

Wonder Woman #9: Note to self: when reading the horror that is Wonder Woman comics of late, WW comes before AA in chronology. Unlike last month, AA wasn’t so horridly terrible and offensive that it made WW look good. This time, they were in equal amounts of suckiness. Nice art, terrible dialogue, nothing resembling an understanding of the characters or history. Just click the WW tag for last months rants… Gail…Gail…Ggggaaaaaaaiiiiiillllll…

Captain America #26: I have one and only one problem with Captain America under Brubaker, and that’s that Sharon Carter bores me. It’s not that I dislike her-I actually rather like her-it’s just that, like Cap himself, on her own she isn’t compelling or driving. That’s also why, while I don’t dislike them as a couple, Cap/Sharon doesn’t interest me-it’s well written and there’s nothing wrong with it, but they’re both characters that work best in any context when paired with a very different character, which is a large part of why I like Cap/Diamondback so much. As a result, even though it’s always well written, when the focus is on Sharon and just Sharon, my attention drifts…like the first half of this issue(though I did like her slapping and telling off Tony) My interest perked considerably, though, when the attention shifted to Falcon, and especially Winter Soldier(though, much as he’s the bulk of my interest in the series, I really, REALLY don’t want to see him become Captain America) And his idea of grieving and idea of paying tribute? I highly approve of both. Too bad Marvel will never let him pull it off.

Fables #61: Mowgli!!! Thank you Willingham, thank you thank you tha---BAH!!! One page and he’s being shipped off to Baghdad. *sulks* I’m not sure if Frau Totenkinder is the scariest thing ever and pondering the merits of killing them all, or if she’s secretly in charge and conspiring to save all their butts. Probably both, really. Gotta wonder how many secrets she still has, though, and who her spies are. Loved Blue and Fly’s conversation…it can be really easy to forget just who Blue is and what he’s done at times, just because he looks like such a nice young guy(which he is…well, the nice part at least) and Fly…is really too sweet for war, honestly. As much as I’m looking forward to the upcoming storyline, I worry about what it’ll do to him. (PS-Prince Charming, we all know the only reason you’re going up there instead of just calling is so you can see the cubs, admit it.)

Jack of Fables #10: My love for Jack seems to consistently grow and grow. Sure, he’s a sorry SOB with virtually no morals or decency, but he does have his own very limited set of standards and every once in a while, is almost a decent guy. Odd as it sounds, I think he actually cared for his Vegas chick(bizarre as it is to think about him caring about anyone but Rose) but I don’t expect that to hold him back for long. I don’t know if he actually likes Gary or if he just finds him useful, though. The Lady Luck story was interesting, in your typical twisted Fables way. Eating brains…urk. Jack really can’t get a break…and for once, it wasn’t even his own fault that he got screwed over in the end.