Thoughts On The New Comics - 4/2, 4/9 and 4/16

I know. I know. I'm a bad critic. Work stuff got me and I didn't get anything one week. I'm all caught up now, though.



COMIC FOUNDRY #2 - Only two issues in and this little magazine (billed as The #1 Men's & Women's Pop Culture Magazine) has already been nominated for an Eisner. If there is any justice in this world, it will win it. Smarter than Wizard and less pretentious than The Comics Journal, this is the magazine for the discriminating fan.

My favorite features this issue?

* The "All-Star Batman and Robin Drinking Game" (One drink when Batman tells someone to shut up. Two drinks if it's Dick Grayson)
* A profile of the Too Much Coffee Man opera.
* A preview of Season 3 of The Venture Brothers.
* Brief interivew with Kristen Bell and Masi Oka
* Brief review of Grant Morrison's oft ignored classic series The Invisibles
* Profile of the men behing Milestone Media

There's also some stuff about Manga and Matt Fraction that didn't interest me too much, but that's okay. This magazine has a little something for everyone so even if you don't feel the need to read the whole thing cover to cover, you can be guaranteed there will be something worth your time. And hey, it is cheaper than Wizard.


DOCTOR WHO #3 - I dunno. Maybe this is just me but this comic just doesn't hook me like the new series did. I suspect that may be because I'm less than enamored of the Doctor Smith/Doctor Jones pairing than many who fans are and I see the "Mary Sue" complaints that were frequently made about Rose Tyler being a lot more obvious in Martha Jones. Still, this is a harmless bit of fluff with The Doctor saving cat people - who are not, despite the cover, affiliated with the cat nuns of New Earth - in the far future. It's not really all that bad but - thus far - this series has done nothing but retread old characters and ideas from the show, save for a subplot involving the aliens who were apparently the true Egyptian gods.


GREEN LANTERN CORPS #23 - So what did we learn?

Bastards rhymes with Asses, according to Guy Gardner.

Mongul has a butt-load of Yellow Power Rings, a minion and a field full of Black Mercys (i.e. telepathic parasitic plant that makes the one it attaches to envision their perfect world as they slowly waste away)

The Guardians are still idiots.

"Change Hope Into Fear" - that isn't foreshadowing at all, is it? What with Hope and Fear being diametrically opposed on the emotion color wheel.

Hmmm.

HATE is to LOVE as RED is to VIOLET
AVARICE is to COMPASSION as ORANGE is to INDIGO
FEAR is to HOPE as YELLOW is to BLUE
GREEN is the BALANCE between.


HELLBLAZER #243 - There are no words for how awesome Andy Diggle's Hellblazer is.

Not only did he take a very simple high-concept (The Vatican create a room God cannot see into so they can indulge in their vices guilt free), introduce a fairly simple complication (the sins build up until all Hell breaks loose - literally) and milk it for everything it was worth by dragging John Constantine into the mix. He also threw an 11th Hour curve-ball that made total sense and yet totally surprised me at the same time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Get this Man writing Green Arrow/Black Canary post haste!

KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #138 - Lots of Gary Gygax tributes this issue - both in the comics themselves and in the columns. This is only fitting given that this is the premiere gamer comic and - with Dungeon and Dragon vanished into the Ether, perhaps the premiere gaming magazine as well.

As for the comics themselves, there's quite a lot to like here. We finally get a glimpse of book publisher Shelia Jackson and the horror of horrors that a woman who doesn't like role-playing games is about to take a hand in trying to design one from the ground up. (I foresee a LOT of D&D 4.0 jokes coming). Gordo transforms his wheelchair into a Dalek costume and one of the most infamous gags of the old KODT days threatens to return as Brian, Dave, Sara and Bob discover another portal to Bag World.

Not a great issue to jump in on, but a great comic bar none. Check out the freebies (including the Dalek story) at http://www.kenzerco.com/index.php?cPath=22_23_53


RED SONJA #32 - A surprising "What If?" story in which we see the path Sonja's life would have taken had her family survived the bandit attacks that set her on the warrior's path. One of the better filler issues I've ever read, would that the regular series had been as interesting and as true to form as the different stories by different writers we've been reading these past few months.


SERENITY: BETTER DAYS #2 - A bit of a filler issue for a 3-part mini-series. Then again, if you're reading a Joss Whedon comic, you probably won't object too strongly to a story that is basically 80% all of the main characters sitting around and talking about what they'd do with a ton of money.

Oh, there's a little action too - with Mal and company playing Big Damn Heroes in stopping a robbery. But as per usual, the magic is all in Whedon's dialogue and the moments between the characters - both the tender (Wash describing his ideal life with a big ship of his own and a ton of kids to play dinosaurs with) and the hillarious (Jayne asking Simon for advice on approaching a Companion).


WONDER WOMAN #19 - Damn fine book. That's all I need say.