On a kind of side note, I'm not very good about checking comments and that kind of stuff. They get pooped into my business's email and I constantly have crap in there about ordering new product and other garbage so to wade through the mess and filter out the goodies can be daunting. And because of that, I've gotten kind of shitty about checking it, but I try to do it at least once a week. I checked this morning and shit my pants when I saw that Jason Aaron left a comment on my "The comic book love of my life." post which is about his series Scalped. I don't know if this is really Jason Aaron or just like a webmaster that does his beared bidding, but I don't care. I just feel crazy honored to have maybe earned his attention to check out my shitty little blog. I'm crazy ecstatic. And this should of course come to no surprise that my number one book this week is:
Austin's number 1 book of the week: Scalped # 49
God damn this book is so good. Scalped #49 brings the current arc "You gotta sin to get saved" to a close, and it does it with a swift kick to the junk. My stomach was reeling and my mouth agape as I scrambled to turn each page. One of the most impressive things about Scalped to me, is how the book just hit the ground running. It got started like a bullet screaming down a barrel and 48 issues it still hasn't stopped. The absolute lack of bullshit filler that comics are often plagued with says so much about this title. This is really one of those game changing arcs, much in the same way that "The Gnawing" was. The reason why this book stays as my first book to read each week it comes out is because I never know what to expect. It imitates life and all its eccentric discrepancies with such merciless tenacity. I never know what I'm gonna get and I absolutely love the surprise. Nothing is random, it's not crazy and out of character. I don't stop and say, "That's not what Bad Horse would do", because these people have built to be so believably damaged. Anything is possible and it's so easy to see the self disillusionment these characters plague themselves with, or the self delusion they convince themselves of. I love the title, straight and simple. Comic arcs often have such throw away titles, where its just a cheesey cliche tag line more than something that is suppose to embody the story as a whole. But that is never the case with Scalped. And after reading the conclusion to "You gotta sin to get saved", I'm still not quite sure who its talking about in particular. That's probably the point. I CANNOT wait for issue #50. And that is a comic's job, serialized story telling should be all about convincing the reader to check out the next installment, to reward them with gradual characterization and plot. And Scalped never misses that mark, I always cannot wait.
Austin's number 2 book of the week: New Avengers # 13
I'm a big Marvel guy, when it comes to the big two, I'm always gonna pick Marvel. It's what I grew up reading as a kid and its always been so much more appealing to me than their competition. So I recognize that I got a big old Marvel bias. Not to say you won't see DC books pop up in these, because I do got a big old thing for Grant Morrison. But just as much I got a big old thing for Brian Bendis. I just got nerd crushes all over the comic industry.
New Avengers from its original first issue to this current volume has just been plain old super hero comics fun. It's been loud and flashy and had plenty of that super hero soap drama I love with all smooching. And I suppose the biggest reason I enjoy reading it each month has to do with what I was saying earlier during my bit about Scalped. Bendis, and New Avengers especially, exceeds and making me want to read more. He has the serialized bit down great and this issue especially exemplifies that. This issue also brings a story arc to a close but in the traditional super hero way in which nothing is totally resolved it just gives way to more options, more possibilities. And I love that! It might seem like a weird way to end a story, but I think it works with this never ending medium. When I read Secret Invasion #8 I wasn't sucked in by the conclusion as a logical ending to skull shenanigans, I was sucked into the conclusion as a means to start up a whole bunch of new stories. I was excited for what was going to come next. And that's exactly what New Avengers #13 brings to mind as well. Sure we got a little big of answers about H.A.M.M.E.R. and the infinity formula, but for the most part it just leads to more story telling options, and I dig that. And this bit with Mockingbird? I'm very very intrigued. I can't wait to see what happens next.
Austin's number 3 book of the week: Black Panther # 519
I have to say when I first opened the book and saw that it wasn't Francesco Francavilla drawing the pages I was disappointed. For the first six issues of this randomly well executed book, he was drawing the shit out of it. I was pretty disappointed with Shadowland as a whole. I'm a colossal fan of Daredevil, I'd say he's probably my favorite Marvel character, and I wasn't pleased with how things ended. It seemed forced, weak, and out of character. I'm also a pretty big fan of T'challa. I absolutely love Christopher Priests run on the character and it really made me dig everything about him. So after reading the butchering of Black Panther for the last couple of years I didn't have high hopes for his sudden weird placement as the guardian of Hell's Kitchen. And when I started reading it was I was pleasantly surprised. David Liss crafted a decent intro story that as it continued only seemed to get stronger. And I was continually impressed with Francavilla's art, its dark shadowy look just oozed noir and I'm sucker for that noir, ya know? One of the things I love about super hero comics, and Marvel especially, is shared universe. I like continuity! I like the idea of this big connected sandbox where all these people interact together in crazy ways. And for the first six issues it was missing a little bit of that connectivity. I wanted some Storm in there! However forced and weird their marriage was, I wanted to at least see some acknowledgement of the fact that he is married! And with #519 we get that! And we get a little bit of fun stuff dealing with Kraven after Amazing Spider-Man's run in the gaunlet and grim hunt, so that doesn';t hurt too. Jefte Palo taking over isn't too big of a problem, cause since his work on Punisher, to Taskmaster, to this he's been impressing me. When Kraven and T'Challa tussle throughout the kitchen their is a real solid sense of fluidity where I really see the agile nature of these two. It works great and love rough straight linework. I'm certainly not on the fence anymore and I'll continue to read, especially if I keep seeing how this is suppose to work as part of a bigger piece of the Marvel universe.
Austin
Haha, I'm leaving a comment whether you check or not...
ReplyDeleteUpdate plz. Actually, update next week. I already know about this week.
And you were right, DMZ is fantastic.