Comic Books: September 2006 Archives

Spoiler Alert. This week's comics seem like slim pickens! Besides Uncanny X-Men, the most interestin' superhero comic is the Mighty Avengers preview in Wizard 180. So let's just talk about last week's best comic: Justice 7 by Mr. Alex Ross, Doug Braithwaite, and Jim Krueger! I got a kick out of seein' Braithwaite and Ross draw my favorite second and third tier heroes from the DC Universe. Metal Men! Metamorpho! Doom Patrol! Black Adam! If this series ever gets the Absolute treatment, sign me up. There's a great double page spread where the heroes enter the Fortress of Solitude--for the second time this year, since All Star Superman #2--and the Titanic is there to the left!

I've been wonderin' how they were ever gonna get Aquaman back after Braniac cut out his brain. Now we know: they gave him a new power! Niles Caulder explains:

His cells will regenerate. He'll grow back anything that's lost. He really is a man of untapped potential. Extraordinary.

Holy spit! Ross is on a crusade to make the classic Aquaman cool again. Nuff said.

Ed Brubaker is firing on all cylinders. I'm enjoying everything this guy writes. His space-opera take on Uncanny X-Men is an enjoyable twist on a title that I had given up on reading. The new mutant called Darwin is fascinating, because he adapts to almost any situation he encounters. In this issue, the X-Spacers dock at a Shiar space station for fuel and naturally find more than they bargained for. Darwin gets blown into outer space and suddenly his body doesn't need to breath and his skin increases in density. I'm wondering if Darwin isn't too powerful? How could Darwin die? By the way, notice in this panel that thought balloons have snuck their way back!

The artwork by Billy Tan and Danny Miki is getting better with each issue. I'm a bit confused as to why the Shiar Empire has a death warrant on Charles Xavier. Anyone care to fill me in? Nuff said.

Technorati : X-Men
Del.icio.us : X-Men
Ice Rocket : X-Men

This week's All the Rage has a particularly juicy tidbit for fans of the Claremont\Byrne X-Men. A fan discovered that a sketch pad he bought from Byrne contained plot notes for several issues of Uncanny X-Men. Future issues that extended way beyond the point when Byrne left the series! No matter what people think of Byrne today, I still think his contributions and collaboration with Claremont on X-Men, Iron Fist, Starlord, Marvel Team-Up, etc., produced some of the best superhero material ever made. Here's one event that never happened, involving Mariko, Wolverine's Japanese girlfriend:

Sabretooth attacks Mariko as a way of getting to Wolverine. He brutalizes her beyond imagining. (Nothing sexual. This is sheer animal violence.) He leaves her for dead, torn and bleeding in an alley.

Click on over to Labour Day Rage to see the what Wolverine would have done next. Nuff said.

Technorati : John Byrne, Wolverine
Del.icio.us : John Byrne, Wolverine
Ice Rocket : John Byrne, Wolverine

The character Nasthalthia only appears on three pages of All-Star Superman #5, but she made quite an impression on me. Maybe I just love a goth chick who wears a skin tight leather outfit, or maybe it's her role as Charon (transporting dead souls on the river Styx) in this story. Lex's introduction to Nasthalthia is charming:

Lovely Nasthalthia here will take you back to the land of the living while I await the end. She's 18, speaks 30 languages, and wants to rule the world one day, bless her.

How about this for serendipity? Last night, I start reading Back Issue #17 from TwoMorrows: it's an "All Super Girls" issue featuring articles on Tigra, Spider-Woman, Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and Supergirl. (Highly recommended with lots of great artwork!) The Supergirl article discusses the period of time when the character when through a period of changes in the 70s. Adventure Comics 397 was a milestone issue, because Supergirl changed her costume. She went from her original costume to a number that included a belt and thigh-high red leather boots. The back-up story, titled "Supergirl Meets Nasty" featured a new villainess: Nasthalthia! Lex Luthor shows up and we discover that she is Lex's niece...that can't be good! In her first appearance, she's not much of a threat, enlisting a female motorcycle gang to terrorize Stanhope College which Supergirl defeats easily.

Morrison's Silver Age memory is astounding. Does he remember this from decades past, did he reread his collection, or did Mark Waid remind him of Nasty? Will we see her again? I hope so. And this leads to a question: since Krypto appears in All Star Superman #6, will we see the Silver Age version of Supergirl at some point? Nuff said.

Technorati : Grant Morrison, Nastalthia
Del.icio.us : Grant Morrison, Nastalthia
Ice Rocket : Grant Morrison, Nastalthia

Mythos: Hulk by Paul Jenkins and Paolo Rivera is another retelling of the Hulk's origin. Just like this team's previous Mythos: X-Men, it updates the classic origin story, set into today's world and giving new insights into the characters. This origin story is more plausible than Ang Lee's movie. We see that Bruce Banner has anger-management issues even before getting belt by gamma rays. General Ross doesn't make things any easier by forbidding Banner to see his daughter, Betty Ross. Rivera's fully painted artwork is quite unusual for this type of story, but I really loved it. Especially the sequence where Banner throws Rick Jones to safety and gets hit by the gamma blast. Take a look at the picture of Betty in the above panel...is it my imagination or does she look a bit like Charisma Carpenter. Nuff said.

Technorati : Hulk
Del.icio.us : Hulk
Ice Rocket : Hulk