Comics, comics, and more comics

Lots of reading of late...mostly in postponing the finishing of the last two Vonnegut novels and the grading of pretty much anything at all. Sheesh, the summer can't come soon enough for me.

Dollhouse: Epitaphs - Joss Whedon's Dollhouse series made it like a season and a half, and I never saw a single episode. This clearly means I'm not the target market for this comic. In fact, I spent most of the volume absolutely lost as to what's happening. There're quite a few characters introduced here with lines like "wait, you're here? After what you did to me?" This isn't for the noobs.

It wasn't for me.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Identity Crisis - Meh...Spider-Man is framed by Norman Osborne for attacking Norman Osborne and for killing some bad guy with webbing in the mouth and throat. The police are on the hunt, and there's a million-dollar bounty on Peter's head.

So Petey thinks it's a good idea to come up with three new heroic identities (and one bad guy) to fight crime as instead of going out as your friendly, neighborhood webslinger.

It's not a good idea, and it's a boring comic.

A vx X: Avengers Academy - I didn't get into the Avengers vs X-Men thing. I read ComicsAlliance's various recaps, and then decided I didn't have much interest in reading the full miasma.

But I picked this one up from PLCH because it was there. Man, I've read a lot of comics because of that simple reason: because it was there. I'm pretty much a capes and tights slut. Gimme a DC or Marvel comic, and I'm at least good for a flip through any time.

There is a lot of teen angst here with the young X-kids locked up at Avenger's school/training camp/whatever the heck to keep them away from the conflict that they've been trained for. So they have to fight each other - but playfully because they're kids.

Skip it...

Astonishing X-Men: Northstar - Gay guys get married. I've got not problem with that other than the fact that it's written boringly and in the middle of a fight that only gets a false resolution in this volume. The marriage is stupidly written because the two guys agree that they shouldn't get married because it's too soon, because their lives are too different, because they're in too much danger. And then they get married in the next issue.

And then the collection is fleshed out with two issues that have nothing to do with the story other than they have Northstar in them..and the second one is drawn by Rod Liefeld.

Stear clear.

Captain America & Bucky: the life story of Bucky Barnes - This one's at least a good read.

There's a lot of stuff that's already been written about Bucky, but this one focuses more on what we didn't necessarily know: Bucky's background before he became Cap's sidekick and then some o the insecure times as Cap's sidekick. Then we get a little bit of him and Natasha.

I'm expecting this to be pushed a bit more when the next Captain America movie, Winter Soldier, comes out in a year or so. Give it a read but don't rush out to buy it or anything.

DMZ - After just last week I slandered PLCH for not buying the last three volumes of Brian Wood's DMZ, they got the last three volumes of DMZ.

Thank you, PLCH, for all that you do and for letting me read the wrap-up of this outstanding series.

To catch you up, Matty Roth has been dropped into a Manhattan that is no longer a part of the United States of America. Nor is it part of The Free States of America, the group that initiated the new American Civil War. Manhattan is a battleground with ebbing and flowing levels of fighting. Matty walks the tightrope of moral high ground staying neutral between the two sides and choosing instead to tell the story of the people of Manhattan. Then Matty threw himself into the fray backing Parco Delgado in the election for leader of New York City.

And that all went to hell, leaving us where we are when volume ten, Collective Punishment, opens back up. The first few issues don't have Matty anywhere near the story. He is still in hiding for how 'to hell' things went when Parco's reign fell. It's a tribute to Wood that he leaves his main character on the sidelines for four issues and the series doesn't suffer at all in his absence.

Wood's Manhattan isn't Matty. It's every Manhattanite and their stories of how they're trying to survive - and barely thrive - in the DMZ. These three volumes are a wonderful, spectacular close to a series that has seen nothing in black and white terms, instead shading the world in gorgeous grays. Matty's tale ends as his tale should end, and it feels right. The last issue is the most wonderful love letter to New York City that I've read.

Thank you, Brian Wood. You made me cry there at the end.