Comic reviews: Convergence week 4 and lots others

So many comics to write about.  I'll try to keep each review brief.

Justice League 40
I bought this one for the boy band cover and obviously now want to watch Magic Mike, the film it is apparently from.  I did rather like the story too.  Metron is about and meets the anti monitor and all the crises are referenced.  At the end the Amazonian birthed anti-God turns up, which feels less stupid than it did in the WW FCBD story.

Multiversity 2
I think this reestablished the pre 52 Multiversity, with new universes, and established a group of protectors for it, including lady Aquaman.  It also has a panel of Vampire Wondy and Vampire Bats craving coffee.  Which is fun.

Superman 40
This is a very strange comic,  The JL are being written like they are all aged about 18 or 19, or younger.  The plot kind of works, but the way in which it's delivered is weird.  John Romita JR writes and pencils, and the pencils are bloody awful.

X-Men 26
The Krakoa storyline ended.  All but Rachel seem a bit bloodthirsty.  It's a reasonable ending, I suppose.

Bitch Planet 4
I adore this comic and the editorials.  Y'all should read it.

Princeless the Pirate Princess 4
Fecking wonderful, as ever, and Raven is confirmed queer. Love this,

FCBD offering from the CBLDF
This is a bit too much issue focused for me to really enjoy it. I'll pass it on.

FCBD offering: DC's Divergence
Ridiculous.  Commissioner Gordon is the new Batman in the Batsuit that looks like a Blue Beetle suit.  Lois has told the word Clark's secret.  An Amazonian fucked Darkseid and the child is the anti-God.  What a load of crap.

FCBD offering from Dark Horse
The Fight Club story was quite good.  I haven't bothered reading the other two.

FCBD offering from Boom studios
I've flicked through this and it looks good, but I haven't had the headspace to read it in totality.

Convergence 4
I can't be bothered to flick through this and re-acquaint myself.

Convergence: Shazam 1
One of the best Convergence books so far.  It has that innocence the Marvel family used to have, when they were unashamed at being written for kids.  It's got Sivana and Tawky Tawny but isn't written as a nostalgia trip - it's a genuinely good story and a good addition to Marvel canon.

Convergence: Blue Beetle 1
This is about Captain Shinypants, the Question and Blue Beetle, with a guest appearance by Booster.  Pretty Good, even with Shinypants in it.

Convergence: Crime Syndicate 1
Somehow I liked this.  I normally find the Crime Syndicate really really dull, but this was enjoyable.   Nice art too.

Convergence: Booster Gold 1
Pre 52 Booster meets New 52 Booster and if you like traditional Booster you'll like this issue.  the Legion of Superheroes turn up.  Fights ensue.  This was one of the highlights of this week's comics.

Convergence: Detective Comics 1
Helena Wayne and Dick Grayson from the earth where they are proper adult legacy heroes.  I liked their squabbling an the clear characterisation of all involved.

Convergence: Infinity Inc 1
I'm not clear on the background or history for this, but I quite enjoyed it.

Convergence: Plastic Man 1
I get the Freedom Fighters existing in a world where the Nazis won the war, I don't understand what Plastic Man is doing there.  Was he ever part of that world?  I did enjoy the comic and the Freedom Fighters as a team, so that's a job well done by the creators.

Convergence: World's Finest 1
This I did really enjoy.  It feels like a decent standalone story in it's own right.

Convergence: Action Comics 1
Another good one.  Like World's Finest, it simply works as a story by itself.

Convergence: Justice Society of America 1
This week turned out a bunch of corkers.  This feels like it was created by people with real respect for the JSA era and the main guys in the team.  Good work.

JLA Paradise Lost 1
I got this from the comic shop in Brugges in March, but forgot I'd bought it.  It was pretty good.  It has Zauriel in it trying to stop a fellow angel take over Heaven.

JLA Incarnations 6
Also from the Brugges comic shop.  This is the JLI at it's finest and it much better than the Convergence JLI issue.  The first story is led by Booster and Beetle, and proves why they shouldn't be allowed to roam around unsupervised.  The second story is led by Captain Shinypants when he's on Extreme Justice and just proves that team is rather incompetent.  Worth reading for the JLI story.

Superman Krypton Chronicles 1 and 2
These are really good fun, and a bit batshit.  Plot holes a aplenty but as they aren't meant to be serious, who cares?  Clark is asked by the Daily Planet boss to put together an article on Krypton's history, so Clark has to travel to Kandor with Supergirl, now on the planet Rokyn, to meet with Supergirls parents and learn about Kryptonian history.  It's all a bit unhinged, but it allows the writers to have fun, and so the reader has fun too.  The reasoning for getting Kryptonian's history seems a bit bandwagon jumping though:

Superman Confidential issues

These are a great set of issues, and it's a great run.  Superman stories where he's being heroic from different stages of his life.  It's only 14 issues long and the ones I picked up were written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, who nearly always turn out reliably solid work, with the later issues pencilled by Phil Hester, who I adore.

Superman issues, pre 52 ones

One is a Christmas issue which I recall liking a lot, one is a one year later one that I already had, but forgot about and because it had Supergirl on the cover I bought it again.  She's barely in it.

The Adventures of Superman Annual 1997

I'm always disappointed by these pulp heroes annuals that don't have a pulp themed story.  Upon reading this it occurred to me that perhaps it's just that I don't know what it meant by 'pulp'.  The letters section was intriguing as everyone was complaining about the blue and red Superman.  It reminded me of all our kvetching about Supes' new solar flare power.  Oops.  Perhaps we should just roll with it...

"Finally, comic book women get a real bodies make-over"

Title in quotation marks because redraws have been going on for years.

I am referring to this article which has been doing the rounds.  A facebook friend asked me what I thought of it so I thought I'd tidy up and post it here.

The motivations of the team behind this are explained as follows:
When the team at bulimia.com saw Buzzfeed's Disney princess makeovers, they decided they should take these super-human ladies and give them some super human bodies. Their hope is that when viewers see these realistic waistlines, they will be able to better relate to the characters. After all, being powerful doesn't have to correlate with being a double-D, size 2 cat lady,

I'll admit that I'm more inspired by men's physiques in comic books than I am by women's physiques.  I'm not sure if this is because I have a fairly relaxed attitude to gendered bodies or because men are shown as being more muscular than women, but if I think about who I most want to look like it's hook handed Aquaman, every time.  I know I'll never look exactly like him, I know his physique is caricatured, but when I think of visual motivation for working out and getting a six pack he's who I think of.

I don't lady comic characters unrelatable because they can be drawn ridiculously.  I think the world of Wonder Woman, even when she's drawn by Mike Deodato.  Relatable doesn't just mean 'looks like me'.

Having said that, I like the idea of re-drawing characters to look more normal.  It made me realise that some art which I consider realsistic really isn't - the thigh gaps for example.  I think that some of the redraws aren't quite right though - they aren't athletic enough.  There's a difference between tits an ass, normal realistic bodies and athletic.  I don't think there's a problem with making superheroes (and villains) look atheltic if their power set and skills demand it.  For example, the Flash should look like a runner.  Guy Gardner is an ex PE teacher, John Stewart is an ex marine.  I'd be surprised if they didn't keep fit, but they shouldn't look like triangular beefcakes.  Aquaman and Mera should look like swimmers.  Batman and Black Canary should look like martial arts experts.  Wondy should look like a gladitorial athelet.

Some of the redraws don't look right.  Black Widow doesn't look as fit as a physically active spy should be.  Her spying is a core part of her character, and if she doesn't look right I can't relate to her.  If she looks like she spends more time behind a desk than out in the field I'm not interested.  Catwoman, Ivy, Power Girl and Phoenix work for me.  Rogue doesn't.  Given the amount of time the X-Men spend training she shouldn't be as soft as that around the middle.  The same goes for Storm.

In making these characters look like normal everyday women that we can now supposedly relate to, they've taken away some of the power fantasy.  If I'm going to be inspired by a superhero I'll be inspired by their strength of character, their morals and what they can do with their bodies and how capabel their bodies are - but I'm someone interested in fitness and what exercise and training can do to the body.  Not everyone is.

To simplify, often lady superheroes are drawn to be fancied by men, and male heroes are drawn to be power fantasies for men.  Female characters should be power fantasies for women too, but to dot hat, you have to understand how bodies and exercise work.

Recent comics purchases

I keep thinking about reviewing the comics I've got recently, but as soon as I start thinking about it my enthusiasm wanes.  I tend to go to the shop every few weeks now and pick up a bit pile that way.

These two lots I bought at some point over the Christmas period:

Of these, I remember Bitch Planet as being spectacular and Batgirl as being not spectacular, mostly for the poor treatment of ASL and Deaf people, as I blogged about here,  Ody-C is memorable for being utterly dull (to my mind).

Of this lot, X-men was fun, Ody-C was dull.  I think I may have put Sex Criminals away without reading it.  Either that or I've lost it...  Justice League United was pretty good and I think has further confirmed that I am a real Legion of Superheroes fan now.. oh dear!

This week I also got my first Elsyia reward through:

It contains the first volume of the comic, a tote bag, stickers, t-shirt, bookmarks and a feather or two.   the art is by Jennie Gyllblad so I know it's going to be a good read.

This week I bought this lot:

I've read Sensation Comics, which was a pleasure as always.  If you prefer the pre 52 Wonder Woman you really should give this title a chance, it's lovely.  The style of art on the cover is pretty horrible but I like the choice of characters in it.  I see Cassandra Sandsmark, a warrior child and other women in WW style outfits.  I like it.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, so although my brain is telling me to write a review of Tiny Titans for New readers... I think I'm just going to catch up on comics and prose fiction tonight.  Hope you're all feeling a bit better than I am.

Comic reviews for week of 16/04/2014

No spoilers in this review - it's short and sweet.

Ultimate Comics Spidey 200

I wasn’t fussed about this.  Too much blathering about Peter and not enough character moments or story.

Harley Quinn 5

Fun, but not outstanding.

X-Men

The start of a new arc that I am not feeling the love for.

Batman and Aquaman 29

This was good.  The art was spectacular and it had enough Arthur in it to push Bats out of the limelight, so I was happy.

Batman and Wonder Woman 30

Also pretty good. The art wasn’t so great but it’s always a pleasure to see Batman and Wondy together.

Wonder Woman 30

The Amazons are back but Hippolyta isn’t.  This didn’t have the thrill of last month’s issue but was solid enough.

I think I’m losing enthusiasm for some of my pull list because I know I’m going to have to cancel them soon.  We won’t have enough money for me to keep buying comics and we certainly don’t have the space.  Because I know I’m going to spend a few years out of the loop I don’t want to read monthly instalments, I want to get lost in big story arcs and hundreds of issues at a time.

For example, I’m reading Secret Invasion and all associated tie–ins (about 100 issues) at the moment.  I read Civil War and House of M recently as I’m trying to get a handle on the Marvel universe.  I’m not going to the dark side, I still prefer the DC universe, but I’m enjoying what I’m reading.  The most enjoyable issues so far are Secret Invasion itself,  New Avengers, Front Line, Runaways & Young Avengers and the Spidey tie-in.  Guardians of the Galaxy, the group that Black Bolt belongs to and Deadpool are not as bad as I thought they’d be, but I am not finding myself moved enough to really care about the characters.  I am very much enjoying the chaos of the secret invasion.

But back to my pull list.  I am currently getting:

Forever Evil, Supergirl (and the Red Lanterns with Kara in) Wonder Woman, Adventures of Superman, Larfleeze, Batman/Superman, Smallville (although I haven’t read it in, I get it on comixology so can catch up at any time), Hawkeye, X-Men, Danger Club, Princeless, Revival.

Of these, I’m going to cancel Larfleeze, X-Men and Revival immediately.  Forever Evil has just one issue to go so I may as well get that.  Hawkeye I will cancel after the June issue as that’s the ASL issue.  I don’t know what’s happening with Princeless or Danger Club but I expect to cancel those from the end of May.  Smallville I will continue to get as and when on comixology.  Wonder Woman I will stop getting once Azzarello and Chiang have left.

That leaves me with Supergirl, Red Lanterns, Adventures of Superman and Batman/Superman.  The latter two of which I love, the former two I buy out of a sense of misguided loyalty.  I have to decide whether to keep these on my pull list, cancel the whole pull list and just pop in to buy issues as time and money allows, or whether to go fully digital.  I’m very sad about having to reduce my reading, but money and the baby take precedence.  My problem is I really don’t have a clue how life will change once the baby arrives, other than being very busy and sleep deprived.  That's not really any sort of idea though, is it?

House of M - Erik's global paradise (or not)

So I'm now reading the House of M tie-ins.  Some are better than others.  The Incredible Hulk ones are (so far) interesting.  In Incredible Hulk 84 we have some bizarre imagery:

That's the Australian government, looking suspiciously like Nazis.  In the House of M reality Erik Lensher is still a holocaust survivor.  I can't imagine him condoning the Australian's government's treatement of homo sapiens.  A view point supported by this entry in Secrets of the House of M:

Maybe I haven't read enough X-men but in my head Magneto is fighting for a fair deal for mutants, if homo sapiens are killed in this fight, fair enough, but he wouldn't approve of treating non-mutants like the Nazis treated their victims.

In this reality everyone is meant to have their heart's desire.  I don't buy that Magneto wants to enforce this level of suffering on humanity.

House of M

I've really enjoyed reading the House of M mini.  I read the main event first, and while a little confused as to the start of it, overall I thought it was great fun.  The preludes from Excalibur were shockingly bad.  For example, from Excalibur 11:

I honestly thought the floral wall decoration was part of Magneto's hairdo.  Which would be fine, but it's not.  This art is just dull and lifeless.

In contrast, we have in House of M 4, Emma Frost getting her memories back and becoming completely off the wall furious:

That's a much better piece of art.

 As for the rest of the tie-ins, most were fairly enjoyable, but only the Spider-Man ones, The Pulse 10 and Captain America 10 are worth keeping.

Secret War

A few images from Secret War before I start blogging House of M:

This series is really, really pretty.

Comic reviews

Over the last two weeks I have read X-Men 10, Forever Evil 5, Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion 5, Green Lantern/Red Lantern 28 and World's Finest Annual 1.
Spoilers after the break.

Coming out in comics - Psylocke

I recently read Uncanny X-Force v3, issue 7.  I have no idea how I got hold of this or why I was tempted to read it, but I'm glad I did.

The premise is that Psylocke is living with a guy named Fantomex, who was recently split into 3 different bodies through a cloning process I think.  We now have Fantomex, Weapon XIII and Cluster (the only female clone) - each version got different parts of the original Fantomex's personality.  Psylocke was in a relationship with Fantomex before he got split into 3, and she continued her relationship with this Fantomex's body, believing him to be the same personality as he was before the split.


However, it turns out this Fantomex is a bit of a dick, which leads to these 2 scenes from issue 7:

I have no idea what Psylocke regards her sexuality as.  I have no idea if she has had relationships with women before.  What I like about these pages is that once she realises which personality she loves, she doesn't hesitate to act on her feelings.  There are no negative thoughts around Cluster being female, it's just Psylocke and Cluster, acting on their feelings.  They love each other, they've realised and acknowledged it, that's all there is to it.  Beautiful.

Moar comic reviews!

So I got those books back in November and I never talked about them.  Here's a few brief thoughts:

Supergirl: Part of the H'el on Earth crossover.  Actually not bad.  Didn't make me want to buy the other issues in the crossover though.

Sex Criminals I talked about on the last review post.

Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion, probably issue 2: I recall thinking this wasn't as strong as issue 1.

X-Men: I had to ask friends who this lady with the make up was.  I liked this issue a lot.  Good shiz.

Harley 0: Great stuff. Really great.  Cleverly told, lots of different artists who all worked really well together. The unknown who won the competition turned out to be not so unknown, but my main comment on his piece was that it wasn't very interesting.  His work was technically competent and his style is very 'now' but it was also pretty dull, to my eyes.

Wonder Woman: I can't remember what happens in this issue.

Comic reviews!

Hell I haven't done these in a long time.  Here goes nothing.
Spoilers ahead for the following:

Super Silly Sunday

Well I think it's a precarious and silly plan.

From a 90s Uncanny X-Men comic.

Super Silly Sunday - timelines

These did make me giggle.. timelines for Cyclops and Cable... 

No you;re not meant to be able to read them.. just marvel at the convuluted lives!!  These were 4 page foldouts int he middle of a couple of comics.  I love comics.

From a 90s Uncanny X-Men comic.

Super Silly Sunday - adverts

America what is wrong with you... I ahve been assured that the beefaroni tasted foul.  Maybe it inspired these characters:

From 90s Uncanny X-Men comics.

Comic reviews - only 1 week old!

Reviews and spoilers for Wonder Woman 23, Supergirl 23. Animal Man 23, Justice League Dark 23, X-Men 3, Revival 13,Adventures of Superman 3.

Super Silly Sunday

No Archangel No.

Not the mullet... no...

From a 90s Uncanny X-Men comic.

Comics review - catch up

These will likely be three sentence reviews as I'm really behind and have to start cooking dinner in half an hour.. I will talk about:

Justice League America 7, Animal Man Annual, X-Men 3, Fearless Defenders 7, Princeless Tales of Girls Who Rock, Adventures of Superman 3, Resurrection Man 17, Supergirl Annual 2 (1997), Legion of Superheroes (5 years later), Demon Knights 23, Thor 11 and Fearless Defenders 8.

I'll never get these all written in half an hour...

Super Silly Sunday - a note on housekeeping

Good grief who treats their house like this!  And why are Archangel and Bishop in action poses?  Why is Bobby icing up the stairs and not just running down them?

Fuck sake!   How is their house not ruined!

From a 90s Uncanny X-Men comic.

Super Silly Sunday - missing accessories

Hey it's a nice glove.  I'd be upset too.

From a 90s Uncanny X-Men comic.

Super Silly Sunday

Eating doesn't work that way y'all.

An 'emaciation' power is stupid.  I do like the inclusion of the skeleton in the top left of the image though.  I do not approve of the use of literally.  We know it's literal, because you;ve just described a real event.  You tosser.

From a 90s Uncanny X-Men comic.