Comic Catch-up
In my ongoing theme of being late reading my comics (again i'm about 6 weeks behind) I've been furiously trying to catch up. I separate the comics into 3 stacks... must reads, middle books, back of pile. So I separated everything last week and started to read the must reads. I currently have read all the Countdowns, and everything Superman and JLA related (notice no Marvel... surprising... not so much). Here are a few thoughts I had.
Countdown
I think it's been pretty strong. Love the characterization of Jimmy Olsen. Love whats happening with the New Gods. Jason Todd has been a revelation. He seemed to be a rudderless ship over in Nightwing, but he's a character I've really enjoyed reading in these pages.
Action Comics 3-D Issue
Um... why did I wait months for this. Obviously its not Geoff Johns and Richard Donner's fault. So I have to blame Kubert. The artwork wasn't great. I thought the 3-D effect for the Phantom Zone was cool, but the art just wasn't strong. I mean, even at my slow pace, I feel like I could hav drawn that issue... and had it on the shelf months ago. The story was ok, not great... but I found it somewhat lacking. Which is sad, because I loved the first two parts to this story, then I had to wait forever for the next two. I'm sure when the story is all said and done it will be great. Its one of those stories that waiting for the monthly issues to come out has been torture, but the collected edition will be great. Oh well.
Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco's Superman
I love this title. I'm never a big fan of magical type stories, but I have enjoyed this. A lot of this is because of Pacheco's amazing artwork. His Superman is unreal. I think it just keeps getting better. Whereas Superman looked a bit Asian in the early issues he looks amazing now. I think Pacheco is the best ever Superman artist. Better than Lee, Bryne, Ries and Mcguiness... at least in my opinion.
Superman Confidential and All-Star Superman
Both great books that are extremely annoying to me. The art and story are great in both books, but the fractured shipping schedule is so annoying. Again this is a story that will be better when its all collected and the readers dont have to wait for monthly books that never show. Everything on these books is of such high quality. The art, story, inking, color, lettering and printing. All top notch.
JLA: The Lightning Saga
I thought this crossover was amazing as well. That it ended with the surprise return of the Flash (in this age of the internet and spoilers, how was his return so surprising... i loved it) and his family was great. Ed Benes is among the new breed of DC artist that is just incredible. Between Benes, Pacheco, Ivan Reis, Renato Guedes and Renato Arlem, it seems to be a golden age of hispanic artist. Brad Meltzer blew me away again. I have yet to be disappointed with anything he writes. Also... when did Karate Kid (no not the Mr. Miyagi trained Danielsan) become so damn cool. It was nice to see the Legion of Superheroes in a mainstream DC book, as badass superheroes... I really dug this.
Justice
The finale to this series is one of the best books I've read all year. The initial draw to this series for me was Alex Ross' art. Surprisingly Jim Kruegger's story was deep and emotional. Every member of the Justice League had their moment in the sun. It was such a wonderful story. Plus Ross' art was top notch as well. This was another book that had high production values. Everything was top notch... loved this story.
All in all it has been a strong week of comic book reading. I've yet to truly be disappointed with anything I've read (hence these are all books from the must read pile)... I'll update next week when I get into the middle pile... hopefully this streak continues.
Countdown
I think it's been pretty strong. Love the characterization of Jimmy Olsen. Love whats happening with the New Gods. Jason Todd has been a revelation. He seemed to be a rudderless ship over in Nightwing, but he's a character I've really enjoyed reading in these pages.
Action Comics 3-D Issue
Um... why did I wait months for this. Obviously its not Geoff Johns and Richard Donner's fault. So I have to blame Kubert. The artwork wasn't great. I thought the 3-D effect for the Phantom Zone was cool, but the art just wasn't strong. I mean, even at my slow pace, I feel like I could hav drawn that issue... and had it on the shelf months ago. The story was ok, not great... but I found it somewhat lacking. Which is sad, because I loved the first two parts to this story, then I had to wait forever for the next two. I'm sure when the story is all said and done it will be great. Its one of those stories that waiting for the monthly issues to come out has been torture, but the collected edition will be great. Oh well.
Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco's Superman
I love this title. I'm never a big fan of magical type stories, but I have enjoyed this. A lot of this is because of Pacheco's amazing artwork. His Superman is unreal. I think it just keeps getting better. Whereas Superman looked a bit Asian in the early issues he looks amazing now. I think Pacheco is the best ever Superman artist. Better than Lee, Bryne, Ries and Mcguiness... at least in my opinion.
Superman Confidential and All-Star Superman
Both great books that are extremely annoying to me. The art and story are great in both books, but the fractured shipping schedule is so annoying. Again this is a story that will be better when its all collected and the readers dont have to wait for monthly books that never show. Everything on these books is of such high quality. The art, story, inking, color, lettering and printing. All top notch.
JLA: The Lightning Saga
I thought this crossover was amazing as well. That it ended with the surprise return of the Flash (in this age of the internet and spoilers, how was his return so surprising... i loved it) and his family was great. Ed Benes is among the new breed of DC artist that is just incredible. Between Benes, Pacheco, Ivan Reis, Renato Guedes and Renato Arlem, it seems to be a golden age of hispanic artist. Brad Meltzer blew me away again. I have yet to be disappointed with anything he writes. Also... when did Karate Kid (no not the Mr. Miyagi trained Danielsan) become so damn cool. It was nice to see the Legion of Superheroes in a mainstream DC book, as badass superheroes... I really dug this.
Justice
The finale to this series is one of the best books I've read all year. The initial draw to this series for me was Alex Ross' art. Surprisingly Jim Kruegger's story was deep and emotional. Every member of the Justice League had their moment in the sun. It was such a wonderful story. Plus Ross' art was top notch as well. This was another book that had high production values. Everything was top notch... loved this story.
All in all it has been a strong week of comic book reading. I've yet to truly be disappointed with anything I've read (hence these are all books from the must read pile)... I'll update next week when I get into the middle pile... hopefully this streak continues.
Labels: Comics
posted by LEV at
11:35 AM
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