The State of Things

On Friday, my roommate Adam and I walked downtown to buy comics. I bought a bunch, while Adam bought three. As we walked from the store to Bubble Tea to sit and read our purchases, he lamented the state of comics these days. At one point, he asked if I was a saddened by the state of things since I'm more tuned into what's going on.

And, yeah, at times I am. But, I also think it was a matter of the shop we were at since its selection is rather paltry and limited. I do wonder if there's something wrong with comics (and by comics, he was talking about the more "mainstream" stuff--although, he is strangely anti-DC, so...).

Is there something wrong? Well, let's look at what I bought and see.

The Immortal Iron Fist #9

One of my favourite monthly books, in this issue, Danny Rand gets his ass whooped. Oops. The writing an art are both top-notch. As well, in opposition to most other comics, all you need to understand what's going on is this book.

For some reason, Adam didn't dig this as much as I did. Maybe there's something wrong with him?

Captain America #30

Things progress in the post-Cap storyline and nothing earthshattering happens, but this issue doesn't exactly read like filler either. Strangely subtle in that way. We're so trained to think of issues as either taking monumental steps forward or simply acting as padding for a storyarc, when this issue is neither.

Adam liked this, but wondered about Iron Man's armour being all liquidy and shit.

Batman #668

Yes, somehow, after this issue came out, I visited the shop and they didn't have any copies. Now, I visit on the week #669 comes out and they do--just no copies of 669.

The murder mystery continues. Williams' art is still amazing. I love the character bits between Robin and Squire. Jog apparently discusses issue 669 (and maybe the whole arc) in detail, but since I haven't read 669, I've saved the link. I'll talk about this in more detail when I've read the final part.

Adam didn't like this.

Starlord #3

Wow, this series has been disappointing. Some nice character moments, but the story bores me. Actually, many of the characters bore me. In this issue, one of the characters comes back to life (which is a cool moment) and things go to shit. Even more so. I have no idea what's going on elsewhere in this crossover, but where the first Annihilation story's mini-series seemed to tell solid stories alone, this one just isn't doing it for me. Which I find odd since normally Keith Giffen's writing wows me. The art on this book is very well done. I'll pick up the final issue, because I want to see how it turns out (or, semi-concludes so it can lead into the rest of the crossover).

The Boys #10

That's not quite how I expected the story to end. I can't actually see the point of this arc beyond namecalling and giving Hughie some great moments. I hope future stories expand on the other members of the group a bit. So far, it's been 10 issues of Butcher and Hughie mostly.

JLA/Hitman #1

I never read Hitman, but figured I'd check this two-parter out since I do love Ennis' work. It's a nice little story with some nice little character moments, going back to Morrison's JLA line-up. My only beef with the characters is that Wally West is a fucking asshole here. Whenever he opened his mouth, it wasn't the usual friendly bashing of Kyle that I remember but him just being a giant jackass. Wow.

Overall, not a bad bunch of books. Adam picked up an issue of Fell, the first issue of Ennis' Streets of Glory (or whatever it's called) and an issue of Fables that he couldn't finish because it sucked so much--and then left at Bubble Tea.

Tomorrow, I'll post on the third volume of 52, which I also bought.