Saturday, January 26, 2008

Fast Thoughts For 01/23/07



HELLBLAZER #240 - The 20th anniversary of Hellblazer is an amazingly sedate piece. We don't get a big retrospective akin to Paul Jenkins' special 10th Anniversary issue. Instead, we join John on a birthday where he has nothing to celebrate and no one to celebrate with even before he gets the news that a powerful war-mage and eater of souls is coming to England looking for him.

Andy Diggle's run on the series so far has been nothing short of - pardon the pun - magic. And it is fitting that he should be writing this story - which draws off of the mythology behind the very first Hellblazer story - as his stories have been very reminiscent of the works of Jamie Delano; the first writer on Hellblazer two decades ago.


RED SONJA #29 - Finally! After what seems like an eternity of pointless running battles, even more pointless supporting characters and a lot of, to quote Trace Beaulieu, "milling about toward our vague goal" - everything is finally explained as Sonja goes into her final battle against the sorcerer/god Kulan Gath. It's a pretty decent pay-off, but I feel like we had to go through two trade-paperback's worth of padding just to get to this point.

I don't think it spoils anything to note that starting next month, Red Sonja is switching to rotating creative teams and that the first story to spin out of Michael Avon Omeing's saga will be written by Ron Marz (of Green Lantern fame) and is entitled Red Sonja In Hades!

Looks like somebody at Dynamite started listening to me, finally. I like Sonja as a character but she doesn't lend herself well to long-epics or large adventuring parties. She's much more effective as a lone warrior and in two-part adventures.


WONDER WOMAN #16 - What can I say about a comic in which Wonder Woman recreates the invasion of Normandy with a magic shell and an army of talking gorillas?

Nothing, save that it is FRAGGING AWESOME!

If you're not reading this book yet, you should be.

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