Fast Thoughts - The Week of 5/31/07

AMAZONS ATTACK #2 - You know - I want to enjoy this story. Really. But am I the only one who just wishes they'd cut to the chase so we can get to Gail Simone's Wonder Woman?

I doubt it. Because somehow, nothing happens in this book that you don't know about if you're reading Wonder Woman (God help you), Countdown or Teen Titans.

Still, I am somewhat heartened to see that one company cares enough to TRY and do a cohesive crossover that actually makes sense. I just wish it was a series that took full advantage of the idea of the Amazons declaring war on the USA and wasn't bogged down with a HORRIBLE Wonder Woman book that has Diana and Nemesis arguing like Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd.


COUNTDOWN 48 - This was the first issue that I thought was exciting.

That's not to say I didn't like the other issues but this was the first one that I thought REALLY was pushing the promises that were made before this title started (i.e. an action movie set in the DC Universe). Which is weird as the main thing I was looking forward to in this book was the scenes with Flash's Rogues Gallery and this was the first issue without any such scene.

It remains on the pull list, though. Because Jimmy Olsen with super-powers, the death of a New God and all that jazz have me willing to wait for the build.

One question though: WHY HAS NOBODY ARRESTED JASON TODD YET?!?!


DAREDEVIL #97 - Damn you, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark! Why do you have to keep making good books so I can't write Marvel off completely?

This book is intense, well-plotted and provides some genuine surprises every issue. The artwork is picture perfect too, no pun intended.

What happens? Well, if you really must know a reformed villain goes mad, Matt Murdock experiences trouble at home and in the streets of Hell's Kitchen. And if the conclusion is any indication, Matt may be burying yet another love interest...

If that doesn't get you to buy this book, I don't know what will!


GREEN LANTERN #20 - Okay. I'm totally jazzed about the idea of the emotional color power spectrum that is being postulated here. Enough that I'm going to do a whole other post about it later.

I also like how Carol Ferris gracefully takes herself out of the picture once she thinks Hal has moved on. What a shame the whole thing has to be spoiled with the news that she's divorced now. Don't get me wrong - a little romantic tension always makes a book more interesting. I just forsee this becoming one big super-powered Archie comic with Hal as Archie, Cowgirl as Betty and Carol Ferris as Veronica.

What? The fly-boy who sleeps around, the hot blonde who is also one of the guys and the rich brunette with the love/hate relationship. Don't tell me I'm the only one who noticed it or is at least the first to comment on it. :)

Can't wait for Sinestro Corps, though.


JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #6 - I have similar feelings about this book as I do Amazons Attack. I appreciate the concept and I like the characters - but I want them to get it over with because the story is decompressed to the NTH degree and I'm more interested in the questions that aren't being answered - such as why Superman seems to have been visited by a different Legion than the Legion of the Legion of Superheroes title written by Mark Waid. Still, there's a lot of good character moments here - my favorite being Liberty Belle asking Wonder Woman about which single guys on both teams she'd consider going out with.


MAGICIAN APPRENTICE #7 - With a good deal of relief, I can finally give up this book. I wanted to give it a chance as Raymond Feist's Magician was one of my favorite books as a teenager and the artwork in the first few issues of this series was pretty good. But then Marvel bought out the company... and clearly whatever arangement they had for Raymond Feist to approve every issue personally was thrown out the window.

What makes me say that? Because this issue offers us our first look at The Mordehel aka The Dark Elves. Now because of D&D and certain characters in popular fantasy, it is assumed that all Dark Elves have ebony skin and white hair. And the Dark Elves that we see in this comic are colored in such a manner.

One small problem: Feist went through great pains in this work (and later books) to note that it is near impossible for a human to tell the difference between a light elf and a dark elf by appearances. Indeed, the only notable difference was an undefinable feeling of unpleasantness that dark elves inspire and the fact that they usually kill humans on sight.

I refuse to believe that Feist, who has always been one of the most protective of authors when it comes to his works, would sign off on this comic, take the money and run.

Regardless, they won't be taking any more of my money.


TEEN TITANS #47 - The promise of a Duela Dent funeral... and Countdown's two-page funeral had more time for mourning than this book that shows everyone standing around a grave on the cover.

Who do I talk to at girlwonder.org about protesting this? Because Deula had just been turned around in Teen Titans not ONE issue earlier and she had so much potential as a character ready to be used...

... only to go evil - not the silly prankster evil she did before but actual EVIL evil - and then get killed off as part of an effort to do something with Jason Todd other than to have him serve as a Deus Ex Machina in Judd Winick books.

And Again I Ask: WHY HAS NOBODY ARRESTED JASON TODD YET?!?!

Fast Thoughts - The Week of 3/21/07

There's quite a few books out this week that I want to say something about. Hence, I shall be doing a column packed full of reviewy goodness this weekend. But as a little teaser for that... here's my fast thoughts on everything I read this week - one sentence per book.



BIRDS OF PREY #104 - Please don't let this one be a fake-out.

BRAVE AND THE BOLD #2 - What is it with Hal and blonde teenage alien girls?

CONAN #38 - Finally - Rogues In The House!

FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #10 - Finally, Rogues in the house!

ION #12 - Eat it all of you who wanted Kyle to die!

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #4 - Remember Kids: Hawkman says Nazi's bones break just like anybody else's!

MAGICIAN #6 - Why is a medieval princess wearing a spandex bicycler outfit under her nightgown?

SUPERGIRL #15- Best issue since the Secret Identity story in #10.

Looking To The Stars - Gazing On The Internet

A short column this week, as I have been heavily occupied with, in no particular order, job interviews, projects at work and the prep work for two interviews that I think you will all enjoy very soon.

So since I have little time to prepare something for you all to enjoy reading this week, let me talk, in brief, about some things that I have enjoyed reading recently and I think you will too.

First of all, The Dabel Brothers are already taking pre-orders on the first trade-paperback collection of their adaptation of Raymond Feist’s Magician. This was one of my favorite books as a teenager and the comic, supervised by Feist himself with a script by Red Sonja scribe Mike Oeming is a real winner. I understand the first two issues have sold out in many areas, so I encourage you all to order now.

One thing you WON’T have to order, seeing as how it is freely available upon the web is a nice little web-comic I discovered called Sorcery 101. Now, they don’t need my help promoting themselves as they just made the leap to Keenspot after being self-hosted since May of last year. But for what it is worth as an ex-Vampire: The Masquerade player, I’ve never seen anything that quite captures the feel of that world in quite so real a fashion as this comic. Which may say a bit about who I played with as this comic is very much a fantastic comedy.

That’s fantastic as in fantasy, not fantastic as in good, though it is good so both meanings do apply.

The plot, such as it is, centers upon Danny, a schoolteacher and aspiring sorcerer. His life is complicated by, in no particular order, his werewolf best friend Brad, Brad’s demon-hunting wife Ally, his vampire magic teacher Pat and Seth; a very powerful and very alcoholic vampire who Danny has been blood-bonded (or ghouled, to use the World of Darkness terminology) to.

If you have a fondness for films such as Fright Night or Once Bitten… well, I think that’s very sad. But if you like seeing the supernatural dealt with in a stunning hilarious way, then I think you’ll like Sorcery 101.

This is Seth. NOT Neil Gaiman. Really.

Finally, let me point you toward The Absorbascon. A rather neat little blog that has a number of interesting essays on topics as wide and varied as…

* Why The Dibnys Are a symbol of the Seven Deadly Sins

* Reasons to read Manhunter (if you don’t get enough from the staff here)

* *Several essays on the differences between DC and Marvel Comics; re: Greek vs. Norse Myths

My favorite feature though, so far, is a number of custom “non-legal” HeroClix bystander pogs. For those of you who don’t play HeroClix (the best superhero miniatures game of all time!), bystander pogs are little cardboard pieces that represent minor characters in a battle, compared to the sculpted plastic pieces used to represent superheroes and supervillains. Usually they represent characters that aren’t “big” enough to rate a plastic figure, such as Harvey Bullock or L-Ron or civilians who need to be rescued (Aunt May and Silver Sable).

Some of them are funny if useless, such as a pog for Hal Jordan’s pet alien starfish Itty. Some are just twisted, such as a pog for Lois Lane’s slimness-challenged roommate Marsha Mallow. But my favorites so far have to be the series of writer pogs that allow you to put your favorite (or least favorite) writers on the battlefield to direct their heroes or be slaughtered mercilessly.

And just to show off how wonderful this idea is; here are the stats and pictures for my favorite and least favorite writer (of the ones done so far, at least) respectively.

Rules for using Gail Simone

1. All villains (on any team) adjacent to Gail Simone add +1 to their Attacks.

2. Villains (on any team )cannot attack Gail Simone.

3. When next to Gail Simone, Dr. Psycho gets +2 on uses of his Mind Control power.

Rules For Using Judd Winick

1. Judd Winick has the “Poison” power, but only toward figures with the Outsiders Team Ability as well as Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) and Kyle Rayner.

2. Normally, a flying hero can carry most other characters. Judd Winick may be only be carried by another writer.

3. Judd Winick has no ranged attacks, but does have a damage of 1. That means Judd can do damage to characters, but only when allowed anywhere near them.

Most of the articles are more the speed of your average comic fan though, but there’s enough variety to keep things interesting for everyone, even if the site does tend to lean toward DC Comics in what is discussed. Still, I like it. And I think you all will too.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Visit our blog at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/looking2dastars/

Looking To The Stars - High Praise for High Fantasy!

It’s a good time to be a fan of fantasy.

I regret not mentioning this book before now, but I thought for sure one of the full time reviewers would have leapt on a title of this pedigree. But since nobody has… well, that’s just fine. That allows me to tell you all about the joy and wonder that is Magician: Apprentice

I was waiting for this book the minute I heard about its’ release. I was introduced to Raymond Feist half a lifetime ago; a tender lad of 14. Oddly, despite being a ferocious reader of fantasy literature, I was introduced to the world of Midkemia through the Award Wining (and now free for download) game Betrayal at Krondor.

That game still stands as perhaps the best adaptation of a book series into an RPG over a decade later, due perhaps to Feist’s involvement in planning the story. Suffice it to say that I was impressed by the story as well and was soon tearing through Feist’s novels in record time.

Most of Feist’s books follow a standard fantasy formula – a young man or two grow to manhood while finding themselves learning the mysteries of the universe (such as girls) and fighting to save their world from certain destruction as they are manipulated by forces beyond their control. It worked just fine for King Arthur and Tolkien’s Hobbits but Feist has a gift for characters that breaks the mold of typical heroic fantasy.

That characterization is highly evident in this comic book adaptation of Feist’s first novel. It is said that Feist got to sign off on ever single page of the book and it shows. The characters look, if not like I always imagined then at least fitting of the description in Feist’s text. And while Michael Omeing has added some touches in the script (Of the first five pages of the comic only the fourth and fifth actually occur in the text of the book outside of a flashback), they are true to the spirit of Feist’s novels and only serve to further expand the characters and establish the world.

The comic is off to a slow start with the first issue covering just the first chapter of Magician: Apprentice but the book does not feel the least bit slow-paced. The art is also a perfect fit to the setting and I suspect the slightly Manga feel will be appropriate in future issues. (You Feist fans know what I am talking about and the rest… well, you’ll just have to read.)

I note that there is no set limit on the number of issues so with any luck we’ll have this book around to enjoy for a good long while. But don’t take my word for it! If, for some reason, your comic shop didn’t get any you can preview the first five pages at The Dabel Brothers' Website. and buy it from the company store if you like what you see.

But as glad as I am to see this book come, I am just as sad to see another one go. Well, not go really… the book will still be there. But this week also saw the last issue of Kurt Busiek’s run on Conan. And what an issue it was!

It’s no surprise to those in the know that this year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Robert Howard – the creator of Conan. Indeed, the cover of this month’s issue makes it hard to forget as we see Howard’s less famous but no less distinguished visage underneath that of his most famous creation.

Not only is this issue a fitting one for Busiek to go out on but it is a fitting tribute to Howard as well and in more ways than you might think. The plot of this issue, centers not upon Conan but around a peasant named Rovann.

Rovann longs for adventure but due to an injured father he cannot leave his home being an only child and the only source of protection his parents have. He contents himself with the stories of others in the bar, buying drinks for those passing through and then telling stories of his own for the other peasants who cheer his stories even as they mock his foolishness for creating such things.

Now those of us who know something of the life of Robert Howard will recognize a lot of the man who created Conan in Rovann. The art also draws a striking resemblance between the two (no pun intended).

Naturally Conan shows up with several other regulars of Busiek’s Conan run. And at a time when greater men panic, Rovann steps up to the challenge before him and proves himself a hero at heart, if not in deed. And then he is given a chance to match his deeds to the heroes who come to his very doorstep and… well, that would be telling.

Suffice it to say, that if you are a fan of high fantasy in any form, you would be well advised to pick up both of these books as soon as possible.

Finally, to shift gears a bit and address some less pleasant things, I’d like to address some comments that came up on our message board this past week regarding last week’s column regarding a Green Arrow #62 preview as well as some thoughts upon the full issue, now that it has been released.

To quote tgc…

In regards to Matt’s Looking To The Stars column today, some of if not most of your problems with the six pages you reviewed make sense to me. However you never said anything regarding why you find the art to be so bad. Coming from a fan of Scott McDaniel’s work, I don’t get it. I’d like more of an explanation, with references, as to why you said that.

I did skimp a bit on sticking it to Scott McDaniel, didn’t I? Well, Ask and ye shall receive.

Personally, I liked McDaniel’s work on Nightwing but I think he’s the wrong artist for Green Arrow. Nightwing is a very acrobatic character and McDaniel’s style worked well with that (the flashes of Dick’s motion as he moves on a rooftop, for instance, are classic) during the Dixon/McDaniel run of Nightwing.

Green Arrow, by contrast, is a much more subdued title in terms of the ratio of action to talking heads. Nightwing, under Chuck Dixon’s writing, was a very high action comic which played to McDaniel’s strengths as an artist. Winick, as a writer, favors long conversations with very few action scenes, relatively speaking.

That being said, McDaniel draws, at times, some darn goofy facial expressions. And while this can usually be written off in a fight (person being caught midway through being kicked in the stomach or screaming a warcry), it just looks weird in a talking head’s moment.

But my biggest problem is that somewhere down the line, McDaniel has become sloppier and sloppier. The detail he put into Nightwing just isn’t there and what is worse, his sense of proportion and continuity is just plain off.

To give some examples…

Look at Ollie’s arm in the middle top panel in relation to his chest. It looks a little out of proportion, even given the odd angle.

And the “Richard Dragon” pose on the bottom page? That looks REAL unnatural given that he was clutching his chest a moment ago, even allowing for thrashing around in pain.

The picture of Ollie here looks like it was taken from a coloring book. Seriously. The bow looks particularly badly transposed.

Again, I must emphasize that I like McDaniel’s as a rule but that his work on Green Arrow has seem somewhat half-hearted and not up to his usual standard.

Is there an explanation for this? Well, board regular soak1313 had this to add.

From talking to McDaniel at the Pittsburgh con he made it kind of clear that he was thrown into this book with no real warning. I asked him if he got scripts from Winick and he basically said “Kind of, but I had to just go with it”.

He didn’t look all that happy when asking him about the guiding on what things should look like(from the story point of things) from Winick, and actually didn’t seem too happy with this title being basically forced on him

…He hinted at the scripts not giving much direction as to what certain panels should look like and so on. …

Again this was me interpreting tones of voice, facial, and body language from him while talking. Take that as you will….

You heard it here first, folks.

In all fairness, now that the issue is out, I must come out now and say that some of my complaints WERE addressed after the first six pages. From last week…

But this is just fanboy nitpicking compared to the fact that Ollie is pushing the button on some kind of trigger…. Yes, the man who had just been hit full in the chest with a dart poisoned in such a way that could render a man paralyzed, brain-damaged and blind or just disabled depending on his weight…

It gets revealed in later pages that Ollie was wearing some kind of body-armor under his costume, which was able to deflect the poisoned dart. So mea culpa there, even thought here was no indication of there being any armor until that point.

This still does not explain…

1. Why there is, once again, a Star City Action News team reporting on Green Arrow fighting cops at the Star City wall when, according to last issue, all the News Outlets pulled out of Star City during the last year. Unless, it turns out, the reporters are reporting to empty air ala that one episode of Family Guy and have a good deal more professionalism then to say “Think I’ll go get drunk and beat up some midgets!”

2. Why Ollie is suddenly out of his work pants and in full costume as we go from page 7 to 8.

3. How in the the nine hells Slade… bad ass, ever adaptable Slade… gets punked so easily. I like Ollie but… this issue was Winick moving to the other extreme of the one-sided battle and having a villain being beaten way too easily.

Thank you for indulging me in clearing that up, children. No more talking about the bad nasty books for a while. I promise.

Next week, in fact, we’ll have no discussion of books at all. Come back in 7 for my inevitable and likely questionable review of X-Men 3.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Visit our blog at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/looking2dastars/