Christmas has come and gone. It was a nice few days. Nice to see my family and Michelle's family. Nice to just be away from the usual daily grind bullshit. This year, things seemed skewed towards books over DVDs and CDs as far as presents went. I guess people think I'm not reading enough. This week, my shop had a post-Christmas sale, so I managed to get caught up on Jamie Delano Hellblazer trades (the new edition of the second volume came out this week and my shop had the third and fourth volumes). I also got a couple of Astro City trades as well as Banner by Azzarello and Corben. There was plenty more that tempted me, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Also, Diamond shorted my shop on a couple of titles -- but they did overship the new issue of Angel and Faith (30 or so copies instead of the two or three my shop ordered), so that had them covered.
The Mighty Thor #9: A weird case of this comic being less than the sum of its parts. I genuinely enjoyed almost every scene in it and, yet, it didn't feel like it added up to anything. Maybe because it seems like we're in act two of it already. Maybe it's some unconventional storytelling that will add up in the end. [***]
Secret Avengers #20: For a time travel story, this was surprisingly linear. Last week of the year and this issue may have been enough to make me reconsider this title for my best of the year list. Damn fine comic book. [****1/4]
Spaceman #3: Bringing in Carter was a surprise -- and the end was pretty good. Each issue is more interesting than the previous. And... RISSO! [****]
The Ultimates #5: Man, pity those poor fucks who didn't pick up Ultimate Hawkeye... A bit of a breather issue as everyone tries to figure out what you do after a huge chunk of Europe is absorbed into a City populated by people that could kill the rest of the world without too much effort. Hickman doesn't quite push it as far as I'd like, but this is interesting territory -- like I said on the podcast, it's similar territory to where the X-titles have been at times, except it's actually addressing the issues raised instead of finding 'clever' ways to sweep them aside. Esad Ribic not doing the full issue is a shame, but Peterson's art is better than I remember... Not too sure about the ending, though. [***3/4]
Uncanny X-Men #3: Who would have thought that I'd actually enjoy Mr. Sinister as a villain? [***1/2]
The Unwritten #32.5: Another half issue, one that goes back to Gilgamesh and gives us some of the history of Pullman. Me, I'm just happy to read any comic drawn by Dean Ormston. [***1/2]
Later
Exceptional X-Men #4 annotations
5 hours ago
