Feburary Comic Roundup

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Haven't had much to report lately, as I am kind of in the groove in terms of what I've been picking up. Everything's been consistent:

Daredevil: best comic on the market, in my opinion

Powers: still fun, still unpredictable

Green Arrow: not quite sure where the writer is going with the arc, but each individual story in it has been great.

Alias: OK, so my brother gives me a hard time because I consider Affleck to be a good actor. What can I say, the guy played the lead in my favorite movie and has also now played (and did a good job with) my favorite comic character. So when my brother noticed that I had a comic called "Alias," he thought it was a takeoff on the TV show of the same name, which stars the girl who plays Elektra in Daredevil. He thought that I was just gobbling up everything even remotely Affleck related. This is not the case! Alias has nothing to do with that television show. What it is, is an interesting character study of someone who normally never gets their own comic book. In ten years the kids will probably be as surprised that Jessica Jones had her own book like the kids today (I am guessing) would be surprised that Doctor Strange had his. But this is great, consistent stuff.

Black Panther: I probably would have been happier if I had subscribed when the book still had T'challa in it regularly. One theme I hate in comics is when writers think the guy in the suit is disposable. I imagine that Priest was more or less forced into changing his comic around because it wasn't selling well, but you'd think that whoever threw down the edict -- Jemas, Quesada, whoever -- would understand that with VERY few exceptions, we hate it when there's an imposter kicking about in our books. It'd be incredibly bop to put out books called STEVE ROGERS, TONY STARK or BRUCE BANNER. In fact, the Spectacular Spider-Man has (had?) the offical title of "Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man" but "Peter Parker" wasn't in font type anywhere near as large as the rest of the title. T'challa was in the last Black Panther that I got from the store. I hope he continues to be in his own book.

Transformers: I asked to have all the Transformers comics removed from my drop list, but apparently they thought I was kidding or something. The art is great -- the robots have never looked better -- but the Armada line is obviously for kids, and the other monthly comic... I have no idea where it's headed and what it is supposed to be about. I've got all the issues for both lines, so maybe I will put them up on eBay or something.

This month's Avengers is apparently a story about the Falcon and quite good. So I guess I'll get that. And in Batman this month, they are doing some Batman versus Superman thing, which I am hoping is different from how it went down in the Dark Knight. Not necessarily in terms of the outcome, as I think "Superman" is a retarded concept, but hopefully something new is brought to the table. We'll see.

[Yumiko]

Yumiko is a slim comics reader of today that when Secretly in love with T'Challa. What would make black leave?

Working in a few works of Marvel's. Avengers. Captain America. Very thin paper with computer print. Just right! Ahh!

[Ben]

1. What is your favorite movie, in which Ben Affleck is the lead actor?

2. Comic books are for children, you understand.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

1. Chasing Amy
2. What's Command & Conquer: Generals for, 50-year old men with Napoleon complexes?

[Lex]

Heh.

[ChainGangGuy]

1. Chasing Amy

Agreed.

Robb -- I have a few Daredevil questions!

1. Do you know if Bendis is working on any other titles besides Daredevil?

2. What was the outcome of the White Tiger trial?

3. Occasionally, I'll hastily thumb through a Daredevil issue while shopping for Spider-Man and Strangers in Paradise comics. This is what I've noticed: it seems like he's never actually battling anyone. Maybe I'm flipping through too quickly... so anyway, is he "laying low" or do I just not know what I speak of?

4. Assuming he still does engage in combat with super-villains, who's he fighting these days? The only Daredevil villains I can name* are:

The Owl (Is he still crippled?)
Mr. Hyde
Mr. Fear
Stilt-Man
Cobra
Paladin
Gladiator

*I can only name them because they've crossed over into Spider-Man's turf once or twice.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

1. Do you know if Bendis is working on any other titles besides Daredevil?

Yeah, he's also writing Alias (which I get each month), Powers (ditto) and Ultimate Spider-Man (which I don't). I'm trying to recall if there are any other monthly titles that he writes, but I am drawing a blank.

2. What was the outcome of the White Tiger trial?

White Tiger was found guilty, and then lost it after the verdict was read. He started freaking out. He got a hold of a gun and was on the court steps when he was met by a squad of cops. He didn't drop the weapon and was shot dead outside the courtroom.

3. Occasionally, I'll hastily thumb through a Daredevil issue while shopping for Spider-Man and Strangers in Paradise comics. This is what I've noticed: it seems like he's never actually battling anyone. Maybe I'm flipping through too quickly... so anyway, is he "laying low" or do I just not know what I speak of?

Right, this is indeed quite accurate. He pasted Mister Hyde along with Spider-Man a few issues back, but other than that he really hasn't gone up against a villain in pure melee mode for quite some time. The thing is, though, with Matt Murdock being "outed" as Daredevil, it hasn't been easy for him to 'get away from it all' and just start pounding guys, I guess. I think it's OK in this book, though, because the author isn't making a big deal out of there being fewer DD scenes: a lot goes on in each issue, it's really entertaining and the dialogue is great. I quit reading Hulk during the last run because the author over there seemed to get off on the fact that the Hulk wasn't around. Some kind of less is more approach or something. I don't know. Maybe when you're obsessed like me regarding the DD book you don't mind so much.

4. Assuming he still does engage in combat with super-villains, who's he fighting these days? The only Daredevil villains I can name* are:
The Owl (Is he still crippled?)

Not sure, be he's around currently.

Mr. Hyde

Yeah, he was in 7 or 8 issues ago. "Mighty Thor my ass." -- Spider-Man

Mr. Fear

No signs of Mr. Fear.

Stilt-Man

Stilt-Man gave up the business. He turned his armor into Matt, after the papers outed him as Daredevil. I scanned part of his last scene for some discussion we were having in AB101. The one thread that got derailed into silliness.

Cobra
Paladin
Gladiator

Haven't seen any of these guys recently.

*I can only name them because they've crossed over into Spider-Man's turf once or twice.

Right. DD definitely needs some new vilians. The book is currently in great hands, but if Bendis one day got sick of it and Quesada came out of nowhere and said WRITE THIS BOOK what I would love to do is take 12 months, get a young, hungry, up-and-coming and altogether unique artist, and then go on a villain rampage for a year. Introduce a few new ones, re-establish ties with the old ones, basically do what David Michelene and Todd McFarlane did with Spider-Man in the late 80s.

Typhoid Mary is supposed to come back pretty soon, however. The book's artist drew a picture of her for a cover and gave her a costume that showed her wearing a nipple ring, but it was unfortunately CENSORED. Or reworked, anyway.

Here's a good recap of her adventures with Daredevil.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Oh, I think Bendis is writing Elektra, too.