I Bought Comics: The Middle Weeks of June 2009

[I wrote five reviews on Wednesday, so I'm reviewed out until after this weekend where I'm getting out of town with my girlfriend. It's her birthday and she wants to visit her parents, so off we go. The point: as always, these aren't reviews, they're just whatever thoughts pop into my head.]

The Unwritten #2

I really enjoyed the first issue of this book and the second issue continues in the same vein. Not sure if this will get a spot on my pull list since I usually give books 4-6 issues before making that determination, but this has a very good shot.

Captain America #600

As I pointed out over at Comics Should be Good, this is actually the second Marvel comic to centre around the one-year anniversary of Steve Rogers's death. And, as others have said, this is a another good chapter in Ed Brubaker's run, but it's not exactly the sort of comic you base a big media push around. It's based very much on context and a solid knowledge of what came before. It's rather good, but I really am curious how much it would grab a guy off the street. I really loved the inclusion of a Golden Age Cap comic with some art that is weird and wild and just fantastic.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #14

Paul Cornell writes the hell out of this comic, pulling back from the end of last issue with a major twist that makes perfect sense and doesn't feel like a cheat. Everyone else, take notes, and learn. Only one more issue left. Dammit.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #2

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand ChrisCross is gone already? The comic suffers as a result, because the pair of artists that step in can't quite match him. Comparisons to The Intimates continue as the horrible art that plagued the end of that series happens here in the second issue. Compare this issue to the first and you can see with crystal clear accuracy just how much bad art can hurt an issue. And I don't meant to dump on the artists here, but their work is ugly, cluttered, and pretty bad, and the issue reads bad as a result. Joe Casey's writing is butchered here. We'll see how it reads in the future, but this issue was a disappointment despite Casey hitting all of the right moments, expanding on his character building, and, again, giving us action that dovetails with the vapid nature of the group. But, goddamn.