Some things

Hey all, I'm in a journalism technology class and I thought you might want to check some of these things out.

My Website

My Podcast

Rothbury Slideshow

Venue Review: The Mercy Lounge/Cannery Ballroom

AHA Press Release

Check em' out, it's good stuff.

-Chris

Week of Dec. 3

So, let's talk Bendis's baby.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #5













This weeks issue played out like an episode of a childrens TV show. That wasn't a bad thing. Folks who remember the old Spider-Man show "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends," (re-runs still play I believe) might understand what Bendis is shooting for. The show started as an attempt to unite popular Marvel characters Spider-Man, Iceman, and The Human Torch. Unfortunately due to licencing issues, The Human Torch couldn't make it and was instead replaced by an original character, Firestar, who was later introduced in the comics.

So here we have Bendis setting up his own "Amazing Friends" for Spidey, moving Bobby Drake in with Peter and establishing his new supporting cast for this chapter in Ultimate Spidey.

Overall, the issue was action packed, but the ending was awkward. It was sort of a campy issue. Bendis can do campy pretty well, fortunately, so I still suggest picking it up. This title just got a lot more "fun," for better or worse.

Cover Credit: Marvel Comics

-Chris

Week of Nov. 25

Are you sensing a pattern? I pretty much read Ultimate Marvel exclusively. Sometimes I dabble in indie comics. Actually, it's not so much that I don't keep up with indie comics as it is that I wait for the TPBs (or Trade Paper Backs for those of you in the regular world).

Ultimate Comics Avengers #4














This weeks issue was a continuation of last weeks. The upside was a lot of action and the chance for Carlos Pacheco to show off his talents as an artist. The downside was very little story and slightly hokey dialogue. Captain America gets his ass kicked, so for those that aren't fans of the cliche of having a superhero named after a country might be in for a treat.

Overall I am excited to see where this is headed, but worried that it might not make good on its promise of a quality story. Either way, it's nice to see someone other than Jeph Loeb's ass writing these characters.


Overall Grade: C+


Next week: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man

Happy Holidays.

Cover Credit: Marvel Comics

-Chris

Week of... Oh, screw it.

Okay, screw comic books this week. Watch this video. This one right here.



Just go. Watch it.

More about comics next week.

-Chris

Week of Nov 12.

I honestly wish I had started a music blog...

All of the good titles seem to come in droves.

Let's do another list, shall we?

Favorite writers:
10. Grant Morrison
9. Bryan Lee O'Malley
8. Bill Willingham
7. Mark Millar
6. Warren Ellis
5. Daniel Clowes
4. Brian Michael Bendis
3. Neil Gaiman
2. Brian K. Vaughan
1. Alan Moore

-Chris

Week of Nov. 4

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #4













Weaker moment for this title this week. It’s still a great book, I’m still psyched for the next issue, just not a lot happens.

Mysterio trolls about some, and eventually fucks Peter Parker up pretty well. Other than that, this issue plays out like an episode of Degrassi. Not that the whole John Hughes think isn’t a staple of Ultimate Spider-Man, it just gets dry in abundance.

Final Grade: B-

Cover Credit: Marvel Comics

-Chris

Week of Oct. 31

Always nice to be a week behind. In that spirit, let's talk Ultimate. I'm about to crack Ultimate Spider-Man #4 right now, so you should hear about that soon, in the mean time...

Ultimate Comics Avengers #3


Ultimate Avengers is a little bit more interesting than The Ultimates 2. The cast is a little over the top, the story is a little bit nutty, but the dialogue is captivating and the characters are compelling.


This felt like a "introducing..." chapter. With all of the new faces, it's starting to feel like the Ultimates of old, and I think that is an aspect missing from the Ultimate line.

Overall Grade: B

Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #2
















I'm not a big fan of the way Warren Ellis portrays most characters. A lot of his non-originals are just too Warren Ellisey when he finished with them. Tony Stark, however, was seemingly made for Ellis.

With just the right amount of witty banter, and action that keeps you on your toes, you almost forget what a nerd Ellis is.

Better than the original armor wars, and easily one of the better ongoing series.

Overall Grade: A-

Cover Credit: Marvel Comics

-Chris

Week of Oct. 21

Been behind... alot. This magazine is keeping me busy, and my finances have been drained. It's been hard to get to the comic book store. Still, you can't ignore gold, and that's exactly what I just finished reading.

Ex Machina #46














You can probably tell by this point that I love Brian K. Vaughan. If you don't, I expect you've never read any of his stuff.

Ex Machina is just about to wrap up, and for fans of a complete series, I suggest jumping on now so that you can eagerly anticipate these last three issues.

More of the same. It's beginning to seem that a religious force might be behind Mayor Hundred's strange powers. Continues to juggle around the idea of Mayor Hundred being anti-abortion and Suzanne Padilla is playing an excellent evil bitch. The scary part? She's a journalist like me.

Well written, cliff hanger ending (well sorta, you know Mitch isn't going to die because he does the introduction at the beginning of the book) and to top it all off, Tony Harris is at his best in terms of art. Really you can't ask for a much better ongoing series.

Final Grade: A+

Yeah, another update tommorow. It'll be more Marvel oriented.

Cover Credit: WildStorm Comics

-Chris

Week of......Huh?

I took the week off from reading to edit the magazine, so I figured I'd give you guys a ranking of my top 10 books. It's quick, easy, takes little thought, and it gives me an excuse.


Top 10 Favorite Ongoing
1. Ultimate Spider-Man
2. Ex Machina
3. Fables
4. Runaways
5. Scott Pilgrim
6. Ultimate Comics Avengers
7. Kick-Ass
8. Invincible
9. Jack Of Fables
10. Powers


Top 10 Favorite Of All-Time
1. Y: The Last Man
2. From Hell
3. Transmetropolitan
4. Ultimate Spider-Man
5. The Sandman
6. Ex Machina
7. Watchmen
8. Fables
9. A Contract With God And Other Tenement Stories
10. Flight

Ehf. Pick that shit up.

-Chris

Week of Oct. 7

Bit of a late night thanks to Andrew Bird playing the Ryman, so how about an early morning edition of whatever it is I’m calling this thing? Inevitably I’ll come up with some sort of catchy name for this blog, but currently I am at a loss for titles.

Speaking of titles, let’s jump right in with the first title I picked up this week, Ultimate Spider-Man.


Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3














Have I mentioned lately that I love Ultimate Spider-Man? I love Spider-Man in general. I love Brian Michael Bendis in general. What a perfect marriage. The day Bendis puts this title down will be a sad day for Marvel and Spider-Man.

Comings out of the shittiness that was Jeph Loeb’s Ultimatum, Brian Bendis wastes no time re-establishing his characters and setting up a brand new cast for his ongoing series. With Gwen now at the helm as Peter’s girlfriend, it was inevitable that another major character would be introduced, and with Ultimate Fantastic Four being canceled, I suppose Johnny Storm is just the man for the job.

But this book ends by establishing that fact, it opens with Mary Jane Watson showing hostility towards her ex-boyfriend Peter “Spider-Man” Parker. Bendis has yet to explain the break-up, however he did drop some clues in this issue and even made mention of the fact that it was MJ that dumped Peter and not the other way around.

From there, Spidey has his first encounter with Ultimate Mysterio, who despite his physical differences from the regular 616 Mysterio, is pretty much the same in terms of power. It’s a short fight and ends with Spidey chasing him off and posing for a picture with the local police officers.

The issue ends with Peter finding out that the Human Torch is going to be living with him for awhile, further cementing Johnny Storm’s new role in USM.

Overall, the issue was well written, but not very interesting. It sort of follows the formula of Spidey books, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s just pushing the story along and not in a hurry, something other writers rarely have the balls to do.

Final Grade: B

Only one book this week? Well it’s hectic. If you only pick up one book this week, I would make it this one though.

Cover Credit: Marvel Comics

-Chris

Week of Sep. 30

This wasn't a very exciting week for comic books in general, particularly less so for Marvel comics. Aside from the ongoing Amazing Spider-Man storyline, it's been pretty dull since Civil War ended.

That being said, this week wasn't all bad. Marvel's cash cow, Spider-Man, is delivering in every aspect, with compelling stories in both mainstream 616, and in the Ultimates universe. In an attempt to cash in on that, Marvel have decided to launch a retelling of one of the most controversial storylines of the 1990s. That's right folks, Ben Reilly is back and the Clone Saga is back in swing... Well, kinda.

For those of you fortunate bastards that weren't reading Spider-Man in the 1990s, there was a story line based on an even earlier story line from the 70s in which Spider-Man was cloned. In the 70s story line he beats down the clone and dumps his body into an incinerator (gruesome for 70s comics, eh?).

Well, the clone returns in the 90s for the highly controversial storyline which climaxed when Peter Parker found out that he was in fact the clone. Of course in the end it turned out that the tests were wrong, that Peter had been Peter all along, and that was that. Infact, pretty much the whole story was retconned in one way or the other, Aunt May's death, Mary Jane's pregnancy, none of it stood. But the fact of the matter is that it did create some sparks.

Here's the kicker, due to some creative changes, the story line lasted nearly two years. That's 24 months of bitchy fan letter. Marvel was quite literally in a financial crisis, and Editor-in-Chief and one of the main writers on Clone Saga, Tom DeFalco was fired.

With the recent success of the retelling of an X-Men story "X-Men Forever", Marvel decided to do it all over again, and with DeFalco as the writer.

Now that I've cleared some things up for those of you hiding under a rock, I'll come back in to modern times so that we can review:


Spider-Man: The Clone Saga #1














The issue kicks off like many Spider-Man issues do, with Spidey webbing through the city thinking aloud in panel boxes. DeFalco's dialogue is a staple of everything that was wrong with comic books in the 90s. The dialogue is forced and spoon fed to the readers. Never at any point does any thing the character says seem genuine.

Anyways, Spidey quickly runs down the situation, Aunt May is dying, his life is in shambles, and he's heading to the hospital to visit her. When he gets there, he meets a very retro looking Mary Jane and the two have a quick corny discussion before Peter leaves. The art here doesn't do a great job of capturing the 90s, but it's just as choppy as the 90s art.
Mary Jane begins get sick, which inevitably leads to her pregnancy, and Peter is back out webbing around.

Meanwhile, in another place we are introduced to the character of Ben Reilly, Spider-Man's clone. The issue culminates in a meeting and battle of the two which turns in to a team-up by the end of the issue.

Is there anything good about this comic book? Not really. All it does is compact the shittiness. This comic book is six issues of wasted opportunity crammed in to one. And in a sense, I suppose that makes it better than the original. It's like getting your ass kicked. A short ass kicking isn't much better than a drawn out one when you get down to the black eyes and broken noses, but at least it doesn't take up as much time.

Final Grade: D+
There are worst ways to waste your time.


One of the better parts of the week:


Runaways Vol 3. #14














Runaways is not the same book Brian K. Vaughan started in early 2003. After several creative change-ups, the characters have become silly caricatures of themselves, and the storylines have become seemingly arbitrary. That all changed when Kathryn Immonen took over a few issues back.

Immonen, who's husband is a former artist on Ultimate Spider-Man, has a real grasp on these characters and where they seem to be going. The woman honestly makes the series feel like it's had a hidden agenda all along. Vaughan has truly found a worthy successor.

Unfortunately, the issue ends with a cliffhanger and the life of one of the Runaways is in limbo until the next issue, which has a currently unknown release date.

My only complaint is the amount of downtime spent moping, but at the same time, it keeps the plot from feeling rushed and cartoony, two things that have been dragging this book down as of late. It's starting to feel like the old Runaways again, and for fans, that is a good thing.

Final Grade: A-
Pick it up. You won't regret it.


Looking things over, Marvel is starting to feel like an aging rocker. All of it's success seems to be from reunion tours and throwback concerts. New material is not a strength, and pushing the bar is riskier and riskier.

Stay tuned, next week we have Ultimate Spider-Man and some other good stuff. For now, go forth and wreak havoc on your local comic shop.

Cover Credit: Marvel Comics

-Chris

This blog...

Greetings my fine feathered fellows. Chris here with a late night update in the world of comics. Brand new to the comic book scene this week is.... This blog! That's right folks, from here on out you can get a brief glimpse at what's going on in comic books before you rush out and buy them. Each week I will select several books from my stack and write brief reviews of them. I will have the reviews up by Saturday, three days after the books have hit shelves, and we'll go from there. Stay tuned folks; for now, patience.

-Chris