Checking out the comics of late

Loads of comics of late...quick run through coming...

Fables - volumes 5-7...The Mean Seasons...Homelands...Arabian Nights...the run continues, and I continue to be impressed, particularly in volume six and Boy Blue steals away and heads back to the Homelands to kill the adversary - whose identity is finally revealed...the intrigue of an actual insurection going on is a change from the Fabletown stories that we've seen...turns out that it's all part of the larger, ongoing plot that's been rolling since the second volume or so...Fables has me totally hooked, and I'm rolling on down the rest of the series...volume nine is waiting upstairs...sadly, volume eight hasn't come in at the library just yet...outstanding series...

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I've done the Frank Miller route - through the first couple of Sin Cities, Dark Knight Returns, and even the abysmal Dark Knight Strikes Again...DKReturns and Sin City are outstanding...DKStrikes Again was horrible, nearly ruining all of the goodwill of the first volume...Ronin wasn't as bas as the latter nor nearly as good as the former...it's an interesting read, throwing down a reincarnation story - futuristic dystopia sees guadrapalegic absorb reincarnated spirit of the Ronin (dead, shamed samauri) - that turns out to maybe not be what we've been lead to believe...the images are hard to follow at a number of times as so many of the characters look pretty similar, and the storyline doesn't give us all that much to latch on to, either...characters go from hair up to hair drastically down (with all looking facially very similar)...and there's some sort of ultimate bio-computer bad guy who may or may not really be bad but who clearly has to be destroyed...all in all, meh...

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Again, and often stupidly, I continue to try the Uncanny X-Men this time going for End of Greys. This one wasn't too bad, though. The story's mildly interesting. The artwork's not bad. The characters are pretty clearly laid out, and we get a continuation of the eternal Phoenix storyline that's almost original as the Shiiar show up to kill the last of the Grey family line and to mark Marvel Girl with some kind of unremovable homing mark so that they'll always know where she is - since her mom killed the universe...or something. I'm not really down the the Uncanny, but if you are, this one's one worth checking out.

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I finally finished Promethea by slogging through the jumbled mess that was Book 5. Alan Moore's series has continually vascillated between fascinating as it pushed the bounds of graphic storytelling and annoying as it jabbered on and on about various quasi-mythic-religious philosophies. The entire fifth volume falls painfully on the latter, jabbering side of that sway. It's a huge load of crap and absolutely undoes any neatness and good that the previous volumes might've ever produced. Now that I've seen the final installment, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't even worth my effort to read this far. Final, official determination is: crap.

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I've mentioned my thoughts about the gigando Civil War event. The main thread was good but rather episodic and jumpy. By filling in the various side and plotlines, I'm getting a much fuller picture of the choices that the authors are making the characters make. It's pretty clear that they've set up Spider-Man as the readers' connection to the story. He's the conscience that we're all supposed to feel connected to. And, surprisingly, this volume sort of lives up to that. Even though there's a little too much exposition at times, we get a Parker who is fully conflicted, signing on first with one side and then questioning his choice once he sees how far that side of willing to go to achieve their ends. The echos of the current US government's war on terror are, at times, a bit heavy-handed, but that doesn't blunt the effectiveness of the storyline. Civil War is one of the few cross-over events of the past decade or more to actually live up to the hype. But it sure does take a ton of reading to get the full story. If you're choosing piecemeal, this one's a must, however.

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Another, less essential Civil War: Captain America. It's the story of the one of the two main characters, but he stays pretty much one-dimensional throughout. He's got some remorse, yeah. But he's the "good guy" in this fight. He's the one in favor of freedom, so we're supposed to side with him. We get some fighting and punching, and Red Skull in the sideplot - which doesn't come even close to fruition in this volume - so it's pretty much the standard Cap'n. And his SHIELD girlfriend ditches the Helicarrier to side with the Cap'n. The only issue in the collection that really works well is the final one - without the captain is barely in it - as the Winter Soldier shows some remorse for the things that he's done. The final issue is surprisingly effective even though the rest of the collection is only about average.

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I was shocked that Relentless is outstanding, easily one of the best trades that DC has put out in years and the best of the high quality Catwoman run. It's not happy, I warn you, as the villain does just about every possible thing to destroy Selina's world - killing and bombing through her friends and relatives, turning one old friend against her and all but destroying a couple of long-lost family members. It's a very, very dark story arc that only just barely leaves hope in the end. The emotional rollercoaster, however, is beautifully plotted and drew me in without a bit of hesitation. Be ready for a tough fight but for an oustanding character exploration - especially in the late issues as the writer and new artist (a change that works masterfully in shifting the emotional tone of the tale) explore the after-effects of the horror inflicted on Selina.

This one probably deserves to be added to the best DC comics list that I recently posted.