And I've managed to consume some media, too. First out of the blocks is...
...the new DMZ collection, number four in the series of trades, Friendly Fire, somewhat based on the Haditha killings in 2005.DMZ is outstanding, tip to tale one of the best series being run and dropped from the four color presses month in and month out:
DMZ is one of the most powerful and important comics being produced these days. Brian Wood has created an interesting and unique look at current events and has given us numerous characters for the reader to latch onto and care about. Matty Roth is a great character because she represents the common person who has not been aware of what’s going on but is slowly learning what’s important. Sure, the book has a political message, and that may not be to everyone’s taste, but the plot of the book is engaging enough that you can see it as pure fiction and still enjoy it...All true...all very true.
DMZ really is the total package. It’s also one of the best gateway comics on the market as it’s well drawn, well written, and totally important to the times we live in. I wonder how well it will age, as so much of it is tied into current events, but I think this is one book that deserves a wider audience. It’s not the goth faux supernatural book that many people identify with Vertigo. It’s just an artist using the medium to tell a unique story. And it’s one of the books I look forward most to every month.
But I will say that this arc didn't grab me quite as much as the first three had. The tale is that Matty - our main character - is investigating an incident of true ambiguity in which the soldiers of the remaining American states fired on a group of protesters. The story is told from various points of view with each character believing their version at differing levels of certainty.
The art is solid; the story is well put together; and it just doesn't quite make the cut for me. Solidly good. Not quite solidly great. It's a seven where the rest of the run has been nines and up.
Last time at the 'bery, I screwed up and instead of hanging with the graphic novels, I got all lost and headed into the 741.5's. There I found Percy Gloom, a little slice of not so superhero comicdom.Percy's reviews, none of which I've ever read - even as I write this, are pretty solid, and they're deserved. For a guy used to the floppity, floppity trades, this slice of hardcover novelty was a serious change-up.
And I dug it.
Percy's a thoroughly depressive little man whose entire dream is to write cautionary messages and find his love love Lila without too much pain and suffering - another thing that he seems destined for. In all his brown and white goodness - check the preview here - he fights the good fights against his natural state of sadness and comes out the other side with a happy ending.
For the first half or so, it was good, nothing exciting. By the end, however, I was all smiles on my face.
Give it a chance and dig it yourself.
I'd seen the movie, and I was smack in the heart of the 741.5's when I found the hardcover version of 300 - which apparently you can totally read for free over here. So I was all in. Heck the cover alone (which I've got to the right, 'cause I'm awesome like that) had me solidly grabbed and locked down.I'm thinking that I took things in the opposite direction by seeing the movie before reading the story, but such is the way of life. If I'd gone the right way, I might've been more impressed. The movie, however, is such a faithful adaptation of the novel - even filling in some of the details that the novel didn't originally have.
The imagery is outstanding, bloody and brilliantly colored, matching the material marvelously well where the black and white harshness of Sin City fit its material so well. Frank Miller takes a few liberties with the story, but he crafts a heck of a tale and rocks the massive pages with great visuals.
If - by some weirdo possibility - you haven't seen 300 yet, read the book first so you can appreciate the movie. If you're going the other way, it's still worth the read, but I'm guessing it won't be nearly as revelatory.
The Girl took long enough in getting a gift for her student aide that I was able to read the entirety of World War Hulk in the store, and it was a blast.It's all old-school, sure-there's-a-reason-but-who-cares fighting between the strongest freak on the planet - amped up to his full potential and no longer the mindless brute that most of us grew up reading about - and everybody in the Marvel universe. I've not been through all the crossovers (just the X-Men one), and I can't speak to their quality, but I will say that the core title of the event is a hell of a lot of fun.
A while back, Marvel set up these events by having the Illuminati chuck Hulk into space, sending him to a planet where he'd never do any harm. They misaimed, however, and dropped him onto a gladitorial planet where he grew stronger and stronger, having to have his wits about him to survive. They then - or so Hulk thinks - blew up his shuttle, killing everyone on the planet including his wife and unborn child.
So he comes back to Earth a little angry. And, man, did I enjoy him angry.
His first stops are to gather up the Illuminati who had exiled him - Black Bolt, Tony Stark, Mr Fantastic, and Doc Strange - apparently Prof X was out of town and Namor had already ditched the buggers, so they get off nearly free. He cripples the four and sets them to gladitorial combat against each other while the world watches.
Most every Marvel hero gets a shot at stopping the Hulk but nobody is even remotely successful because they all just make Hulk angrier and stronger with each punch. Then Marvel brings in the biggest of big guns, the agoraphobic Sentry, a character with an interesting back story (originally a hoax, eventually an elephant in the Marvel room). In the end, Sentry - along with Tony Stark - knock the Hulk out once his anger subsides as he finds out that his belief that the Illuminati killed his love and child, Skaar, wasn't quite true.
Great read...loads of fun...
Last one this week was 52 Aftermath: Four Horsemen, a follow-up to the unending line of crossovers (Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, 52, World War III, next up is Countdown) in which the big three of DC - which is always interesting in that Wonder Woman's profile really is so much lower than the other two - are rising back to the leadership of the DCU.The storyline - bringing back four villians from the 52 / World War III minis - is interesting enough, with four god-like baddies from Apocalypse brought to Earth and bent on total destruction. Of course, the holy trinity of heroes step up and, after a decent enough fight, stop the destruction.
The tale isn't disinteresting, but I don't see any sort of necessity to this mini-series. The artwork's ok, as is the story itself. The most interesting development is the continually rising profile of Oolong Island from 52's run. The creation of another nation to harbor bad guys - the role of Bialya for a decently long time before its recent wiping from the face of the Earth.
More stuff coming some other time, folks...
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