Published by Marvel (making it a wait for the trade book for me) Iron Fist is a weird little book. It contains elements of Kung Fu cinema tossed into a blender alongside Shakespearean characterization, with a dash of pulp thrown in for good measure. It's a bizarre concoction and one that, while not always striking the right note, manages to be engaging and fun most of the time.
As in the last arc the bulk of the story is building up to a large scale confrontation that errupts on the page like one of Fat Cobra's special moves. Unfortunately, this time the art is a hodge podge mass of artists struggling to maintain the dynamic look that David Aja has established and sadly, most of them just can't pull it off. Aja is present here, early on, but, by the end of the book he is all but extinct. Visually, in comparison with the first arc, this one is a drastic decline.
Thankfully Brubaker and Fraction chopsocky their way through this epic story of a Kung Fu-like tournament gone horribly awry. It sounds like a simple story premise but thankfully the writers take it in directions wholly unexpected and leave us twisting and turning trying to figure out just where this thing is going. There are tons of characters involved in this story and Brufrac handle them all superbly.
Though in comparison to the first book, this one may not stand up as well on the visual side, it more than makes up for it with (here's that word again) epic story, and fascinating character arcs. Not to mention the best new character this year, Fat Cobra.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
My Cube
About two years ago my wife created me a swell work space out of this tiny room and I thought that perhaps I should share it with you.
This is my tiny desk in my tiny room. You can see my Mr. Potato Head in his usual perch. Also, you might notice the comic pages slapped to the wall somewhat haphazardly by my wife. That's actually the entrance into the office and I kinda dig it because it gives the illusion that you're strolling into a comic. You'll notice the shoe box full of comics down in the left hand corner of the picture. I have about four shoe boxes full of unbagged and sleeved comics sitting around and that strange, white and tan plastic cabinet directly next to my desk is full of those as well. I don't do my blog updates from this desk but pretty much all my other writing is done here.
Again, the entrance and my desk. I went with all Batman comics and I had doubles of nearly all of them. That World's Finest cover came from a comic I'd found years ago that had suffered serious water damage. 
These are all my Justice, and Hush figures with a few random Starcraft ones tossed in on the bottom shelf and a specially placed electric heater that sits there because I have no other spot to put it. Grundy looks like he is about to leap from his place on that shelf.
My hard cover and trade library. I actually am missing quite a few books right now due to loaning them out to friends or just being to lazy to put them all back. I actually have three hardcovers laying on the kitchen table right now that I need to put back on the shelf. Star Wars Unleashed, some DC: New Frontier, and some random DC Direct figures fill in the rest of the space. The bottom shelf is all fantasy or sci fi novels from War of the Worlds to Jurassic Park.
This is my tiny desk in my tiny room. You can see my Mr. Potato Head in his usual perch. Also, you might notice the comic pages slapped to the wall somewhat haphazardly by my wife. That's actually the entrance into the office and I kinda dig it because it gives the illusion that you're strolling into a comic. You'll notice the shoe box full of comics down in the left hand corner of the picture. I have about four shoe boxes full of unbagged and sleeved comics sitting around and that strange, white and tan plastic cabinet directly next to my desk is full of those as well. I don't do my blog updates from this desk but pretty much all my other writing is done here.
Again, the entrance and my desk. I went with all Batman comics and I had doubles of nearly all of them. That World's Finest cover came from a comic I'd found years ago that had suffered serious water damage. 
These are all my Justice, and Hush figures with a few random Starcraft ones tossed in on the bottom shelf and a specially placed electric heater that sits there because I have no other spot to put it. Grundy looks like he is about to leap from his place on that shelf.
My hard cover and trade library. I actually am missing quite a few books right now due to loaning them out to friends or just being to lazy to put them all back. I actually have three hardcovers laying on the kitchen table right now that I need to put back on the shelf. Star Wars Unleashed, some DC: New Frontier, and some random DC Direct figures fill in the rest of the space. The bottom shelf is all fantasy or sci fi novels from War of the Worlds to Jurassic Park.
A closer look at the shelf. My grandpa actually built all the bookshelves in my room except for my leaning desk which was handcrafted by the hard working individuals at Crate & Barrel. I love those New Frontier figures but it's been ages since I've bought any sort of toys so I never got to buy the second series when they came out. Hopefully some day. Also, on the bottom shelf a Sandman figure is hiding. He's a personal favorite of mine.
My bookshelf for my over sized hardcovers. JLA/Avengers, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Batman: Hush are all absolute format. Then I have the Tellos over sized hardcover and the Dan Dare over sized European hardcover which I enjoyed thoroughly but was horribly disappointed to learn only contained three (or maybe it was four) issues. Also, I'm a Disney freak so I have a lot of books about Disney movies and the parks and a few of the DK superhero guides, and the massive DC Encyclopedia. I also have a closet full of short boxes in this room too which I was too lazy to take a picture of.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Crossoveritis
I've been buying a lot of crossovers the past few months and originally I had planned on doing kind of a recurring thing on here where I would review all the different crossover titles and explain their worth as a stand alone and as part of an overarching story. Sadly, I just don't have the time. For some reason I've been picking up practically everything bearing the Secret Invasion header regardless of whether or not I would normally pick up the title. This week I didn't make it to pick up my pulls but I did grab a few comics from the store closest to my house and it just so happened that every book, but one, were crossovers. Here is how that turned out for me...
Deadpool #1: I liked it. I've never followed Deadpool and don't recall even reading one of his staring titles but, for some reason I felt inclined to pick this up. I'm glad I did. Paco Medina is a fun artist and I may be the only person on the planet who enjoys Wolverine: Origins (one of my "wait for trade" titles) so I know what to expect from Daniel Way. I keep hearing him compared to Garth Ennis but this book doesn't remind me of Ennis at all. More like Nextwave-era Warren Ellis. While none of the gags are as hilariously over the top as Nextwave's this still made me chuckle from time to time and props on some hilarious inner monologuing from the title character.
As a tie in it seems to have no effect on the greater Secret Invasion story but it does feature Skrulls as the main antagonists (protagonists?) so I guess it is a tie in. It doesn't even bear the "SI" header however so at least it doesn't try to pawn itself off as something vital to the core title. All in all this was a good read.
Ms. Marvel #30: Wow, a freaking knockout job by Adriana Melo on pencilling this issue. Holy crap. I don't know why this issue bowled me over visually as strong as it did but I was definitely impressed. From a writing stand point this title continues to come across as a late 80's superhero tale and I'm fine with that. I dig it. I have no idea what happened at the end of this book though. Jumps in time usually leave me disoriented particularly when I have no idea who a character is that's obviously recurring.
As a tie-in, again, nothing important to the overall story and, in fact, it kind of confuses me how Ms. Marvel is running around all healthy and in one piece when in the core title she was seemingly wiped out by a horde of Super Skrulls and Nick Fury. Confusing but solid.
Secret Invasion: X-Men #2: Mike Carey impresses me as a skilled writer and Cary Nord used to rock on Conan pretty good so I've been picking this up in hopes that it would be a quality tie in. And it is, just not quite as high quality as I was expecting. Cary Nord seems to be skimping on the details to such a degree that most of the panels seem drenched in fog. Maybe that was the point but, his work here is underwhelming.
The story itself is pretty much a by-the-numbers tie in wherein we're merely seeing how one set of characters is dealing with the events transpiring in the core title from their perspective. Basically it's big on action, small on story. There is some good characterization however, and I'm especially interested in Nightcrawler's Tolkienesque character arc. Overall, good stuff but again, nothing vital.
Secret Invasion #6: Finally I am enamored with an issue of this series. Ever since the first issue I've been feeling that this story was only "good". Now, with only two issues to go, Bendis has punched the little red button. There are your usual assortment of "cool" fanboy moments here but, this time from the first page to the last I was caught up in this story. Heck, I'm going to come right out and admit that seeing all the heroes back together and fighting side by side again gave me goose bumps. Seriously. I can't say enough about how much of an emotional high this issue gave me from Thor's appearance to the two page splashes. Leinil Francis Yu hit his stride with this series and he really brings his all to this issue. Unrelenting awesomeness.
So there you go. I picked up Booster Gold #12 which, sadly, is my last issue to pick up of that title. It was good, but with John's departure and the lack of a really solid writer to come on board I just can't justify spending my money on this. Hopefully it will keep up the pace but I really don't see that happening.
So there you have it. I'll be back with more when I get more. For now I'm off to read my Irredeemable Ant Man digests.
Deadpool #1: I liked it. I've never followed Deadpool and don't recall even reading one of his staring titles but, for some reason I felt inclined to pick this up. I'm glad I did. Paco Medina is a fun artist and I may be the only person on the planet who enjoys Wolverine: Origins (one of my "wait for trade" titles) so I know what to expect from Daniel Way. I keep hearing him compared to Garth Ennis but this book doesn't remind me of Ennis at all. More like Nextwave-era Warren Ellis. While none of the gags are as hilariously over the top as Nextwave's this still made me chuckle from time to time and props on some hilarious inner monologuing from the title character.
As a tie in it seems to have no effect on the greater Secret Invasion story but it does feature Skrulls as the main antagonists (protagonists?) so I guess it is a tie in. It doesn't even bear the "SI" header however so at least it doesn't try to pawn itself off as something vital to the core title. All in all this was a good read.
Ms. Marvel #30: Wow, a freaking knockout job by Adriana Melo on pencilling this issue. Holy crap. I don't know why this issue bowled me over visually as strong as it did but I was definitely impressed. From a writing stand point this title continues to come across as a late 80's superhero tale and I'm fine with that. I dig it. I have no idea what happened at the end of this book though. Jumps in time usually leave me disoriented particularly when I have no idea who a character is that's obviously recurring.
As a tie-in, again, nothing important to the overall story and, in fact, it kind of confuses me how Ms. Marvel is running around all healthy and in one piece when in the core title she was seemingly wiped out by a horde of Super Skrulls and Nick Fury. Confusing but solid.
Secret Invasion: X-Men #2: Mike Carey impresses me as a skilled writer and Cary Nord used to rock on Conan pretty good so I've been picking this up in hopes that it would be a quality tie in. And it is, just not quite as high quality as I was expecting. Cary Nord seems to be skimping on the details to such a degree that most of the panels seem drenched in fog. Maybe that was the point but, his work here is underwhelming.
The story itself is pretty much a by-the-numbers tie in wherein we're merely seeing how one set of characters is dealing with the events transpiring in the core title from their perspective. Basically it's big on action, small on story. There is some good characterization however, and I'm especially interested in Nightcrawler's Tolkienesque character arc. Overall, good stuff but again, nothing vital.
Secret Invasion #6: Finally I am enamored with an issue of this series. Ever since the first issue I've been feeling that this story was only "good". Now, with only two issues to go, Bendis has punched the little red button. There are your usual assortment of "cool" fanboy moments here but, this time from the first page to the last I was caught up in this story. Heck, I'm going to come right out and admit that seeing all the heroes back together and fighting side by side again gave me goose bumps. Seriously. I can't say enough about how much of an emotional high this issue gave me from Thor's appearance to the two page splashes. Leinil Francis Yu hit his stride with this series and he really brings his all to this issue. Unrelenting awesomeness.
So there you go. I picked up Booster Gold #12 which, sadly, is my last issue to pick up of that title. It was good, but with John's departure and the lack of a really solid writer to come on board I just can't justify spending my money on this. Hopefully it will keep up the pace but I really don't see that happening.
So there you have it. I'll be back with more when I get more. For now I'm off to read my Irredeemable Ant Man digests.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
"Kirkmanverse"
Over this past weekend my brother, a friend, and I drove down to Kentucky to visit with a buddy of ours. While there we stopped by Pet Shop comics (not sure the exact location but it's near Shepherdsville) and since we had plans to pretty much spend the weekend sitting around playing video games, watching football, and eating Sonic I opted to pick up some stuff to read. For some reason I've been on a Robert Kirkman kick the past couple weeks. I'm not sure if his ill advised rant simply piqued my interest in him enough to get me heavily back into Invincible or what but I've been pouring through back issues of that title lately.
Last week I had grabbed issues 7 and 8 of Brit and I really enjoyed them so I decided to see if I couldn't come up with the first six issues. Unfortunately, the guy didn't have them, however, he did have the one shots so I grabbed those. I also decided to pick up the Astounding Wolf-Man trade. This was an odd pick for me as I had read the first issue, hated it, and just recently decided to give it another shot and while it seemed significantly improved from the first issue it still wasn't doing it for me.
I read all three one shots and the Wolf-Man trade on Saturday afternoon and I liked 'em all. The Brit stories are extremely rough but they're fun to read and it's interesting to watch Tony Moore's art improve with each one. Wolf-Man seems to be just slightly off. I liked it, and it has an interesting mythology wholly it's own but it's lacking. I think one problem was that in this first trade we get seven issues that never really go any where. The story seems to be sitting in place spinning it's wheels with the occasional shock cliffhanger thrown in to make it seem like it's racing along to... something. It never gets there, at least not in this book, and we're left with a book that is the comic equivalent of getting your car stuck in mud.
It might sound like I'm not a fan but I did actually enjoy reading Wolf-Man, I just really got bored with the lack of forward momentum. I'll probably just keep following it in trade which is completely the opposite of how I feel about the Brit ongoing series. Though it isn't written by Kirkman, you can still feel his presence over the title with the dense plotting and nearly cliched comic book situations. I've realized something about Kirkman over the past week and that is he can take a comic stereotype and turn it into something shiny and new like no one else. Brit is great fun. Probably the best indie comic I've read since I first happened upon Invincible.
So it seems as if Kirkman is thriving with his creator owned stuff. I'm certainly digging these three titles and if you're not picking up Invincible or Brit you certainly should give 'em a try.
Last week I had grabbed issues 7 and 8 of Brit and I really enjoyed them so I decided to see if I couldn't come up with the first six issues. Unfortunately, the guy didn't have them, however, he did have the one shots so I grabbed those. I also decided to pick up the Astounding Wolf-Man trade. This was an odd pick for me as I had read the first issue, hated it, and just recently decided to give it another shot and while it seemed significantly improved from the first issue it still wasn't doing it for me.
I read all three one shots and the Wolf-Man trade on Saturday afternoon and I liked 'em all. The Brit stories are extremely rough but they're fun to read and it's interesting to watch Tony Moore's art improve with each one. Wolf-Man seems to be just slightly off. I liked it, and it has an interesting mythology wholly it's own but it's lacking. I think one problem was that in this first trade we get seven issues that never really go any where. The story seems to be sitting in place spinning it's wheels with the occasional shock cliffhanger thrown in to make it seem like it's racing along to... something. It never gets there, at least not in this book, and we're left with a book that is the comic equivalent of getting your car stuck in mud.
It might sound like I'm not a fan but I did actually enjoy reading Wolf-Man, I just really got bored with the lack of forward momentum. I'll probably just keep following it in trade which is completely the opposite of how I feel about the Brit ongoing series. Though it isn't written by Kirkman, you can still feel his presence over the title with the dense plotting and nearly cliched comic book situations. I've realized something about Kirkman over the past week and that is he can take a comic stereotype and turn it into something shiny and new like no one else. Brit is great fun. Probably the best indie comic I've read since I first happened upon Invincible.
So it seems as if Kirkman is thriving with his creator owned stuff. I'm certainly digging these three titles and if you're not picking up Invincible or Brit you certainly should give 'em a try.
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