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Tag Archives: Battlefields: The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova

Top 5 Books of May: Cities, Dreams & Red Underwear

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by ScottNerd in 5 Comics You Should Be Reading

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake, Adventures of Superman, Battlefields, Battlefields: The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova, Brian Wood, Chris Samnee, Dark Horse, DC Comics, Dean Motter, Dream Thief, Dynamite Entertainment, Fatale, Garth Ennis, Greg Smallwood, Image, Jai Nitz, Jeff Lemire, Jeff Parker, Justin Jordan, kaboom!, Man of Steel, Matt Kindt, Mind MGMT, Mister X: Eviction, Natasha Allegri, New 52, Nowhere Men, Riley Rossmo, Russ Braun, Saga, The Bounce, The Manhattan Projects, The Massive

This was the toughest Top 5 list we’ve had to put together yet: ol’ reliables like Saga and Manhattan Projects didn’t put out an issue in May. And other stalwarts like Fatale and Nowhere Men, while solid, weren’t quite their usual, exemplary selves (hmm, looking at the above titles it seems we’re really putting the Image in images and Nerds). All these open spots generated much discussion from your intrepid reviewers about who should fill them. Change, of course, can be a good thing. Shake things up! Diversify! In the end, we’re pleased by the inclusion of three brand new #1’s on the list below, with all the promise they imply, even as we bid a fond adieu to one excellent title that seems to be ending its run.

5. Dream Thief #1 (Dark Horse): An undeserving lowlife is possessed by a mystical power that places him in hairy situations, seemingly in the name of justice. Jai Nitz’s tightly-structured occult noir hums like clockwork thanks in large part to Greg Smallwood’s beautifully designed graphic fireworks. After one issue, both of these gentlemen feel like creators to watch. And Dark Horse, with titles like this, Brian Wood’s The Massive, and Matt Kindt’s Mind MGMT (not to mention our #1 title below) is positioning itself to give Image a run for its money as the most exciting publisher around. (DM)

4. Battlefields: The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova #6 (Dynamite): It’s a bird!  In a plane!  It’s Anna Kharkova!  Garth Ennis and Russ Braun set the irrepressible Night Witch free with a Yeatsian final stanza that celebrates the unconquerable human spirit. (SC)

3. Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake #5 (kaboom!): The only regular on this month’s list, Natasha Allegri’s gender-switching fairy tale pulls off the neat trick of subtly subverting story-time expectations while also thrillingly living up to them. Truly a comic for “all-ages”. (DM)

2. Adventures of Superman #1 (DC): So what if this trio of short stories first appeared digitally? We first read them the old fashioned way – holding them in our grubby little hands as an actual comic book! Whatever the format, this is the best Superman title we’ve read in a while. Jeff Parker pens a classic story about an early Luthor encounter, made even more so by Chris Samnee’s utterly gorgeous art. We’re convinced: Samnee should draw Superman regularly. And every other superhero title. Justin Jordan and Riley Rossmo close the book with a fun Bizarro tale. But the star here is Jeff Lemire. Set in the vast expanses of rural Kansas, Lemire’s story and art are given the room to breathe that has been sorely lacking in some of his other superhero books. That may seem an odd comment for a story that’s all of ten pages, but Lemire fills them with the sense of imagination and wonder that are the essence of Superman. In the process, Lemire also reminds us what we love about him. This wonderful book has the cumulative, perhaps unintended, effect of making us long for the pre-New 52 Man of Steel. Long live the Red Trunks! (DM)

1. Mister X: Eviction #1 (Dark Horse): Amongst the standout books for the month, Dean Motter’s urbane banquet of urban anxiety stands out the most; in fact, it towers above the rest!  Mr. Motter is in complete control of the pagescape: he wields images and words with an imaginative precision that makes a penthouse reality out of street-level dreams.  All hyperbole aside, this, folks, is why we make our weekly pilgrimage to the comic shop. (SC)

The Biggest Dis(appointment): The Bounce #1 (Image):  If Joe Casey’s Sex is a tired, syphilitic muse, then his latest, The Bounce, is an adopted crack baby.  From the opening toke–a decision more desperate than daring–Casey wields his great power irresponsibly: he lazily and preposterously offers up a seemingly incorrigible pothead, one agonizingly alliterative Jasper Jenkins–an obvious Peter Parker analog–and then oddly recalls an irrelevant hero, Speedball–no, really, Speedball!–who himself was misguidedly modeled after Spider-Man, for goodness sake, all the while sticking too closely to the all-too-familiar amazing spiderweb, you know, because why futz around with a tried and true formula that’s caught villains and readers alike for fifty-plus years.  Speaking of villains: in the grandiloquent antagonist The Darling, Casey conjures his inner Mark Millar yet again (see Sex for more evidence of Casey’s indisputable infatuation with the obnoxious Scotsman); and in the Grand Design, he shows that he’s embarrassingly “behind the curve”–certainly behind Jonathan Hickman, whose The Manhattan Projects sports a curiously similar device.  Yeah: surprise.  If I’m being fair, The Fog, injected into the end of the book, does bring a tablespoon of originality to the flame; but whatever taste I’ve gotten is a bizarre, almost indescribable feeling that smacks of questionable calls–including having The Crush inexplicably use “tenacious” to describe the “pigs” that he assumes one sentence later will be “pissed” once they find out what he’s done–and tone deaf pseudo-intellectualism.  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?  Really?  So, while I did say yes to the first issue, going forward, I’m going to listen to the small voice in my head, that of the former first lady who famously said that, when facing a choice such as this, I should just say no. (SC)

Turning pages,

Derek & Scott

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In Scott’s Bag (5/8)

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by ScottNerd in I&N Scott's Bag

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Tags

Ales Kot, Archer & Armstrong, Avatar, Batman, Batman and Red Hood, Battlefields: The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova, Caanan White, Chin Music, Clayton Henry, Danny Miki, Dark Horse, David Finch, DC Comics, Duane Swierczynski, Eric Nguyen, Fred Van Lente, Garth Ennis, Geoff Johns, Greg Capullo, Harbinger, IDW, Image, J. Bone, Joshua Dysart, Justice League of America, Khari Evans, Kieron Gillen, Patrick Zircher, Peter Tomasi, Roger Langridge, Russ Braun, Scott Snyder, Steve Niles, Suicide Squad, The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror, Tony Harris, Uber, Valiant, X

If I’m…using this…stupid abacus correctly…it seems…I’ve purchased…Gosh darn it!  I’ve purchased eleven books.

  • Uber #1 (Read it!  Soaked from the opening splash!  Memorable, for sure.  [Tell me you weren’t like, “Pull it, you Nazi bastard!  Pull it!]”  Then comes the twistory upon which the story is built.  After that, some obnoxious Nazi name dropping, followed by, as one might expect, violence worthy of the Avatar brand.  What I didn’t expect: Gillen’s got the Reich stuff!  He’s already made Hitler and his Nazi posse a more interesting lot than the post-Schism, pre-NOW! X-Men he so painfully mishandled.  Looks like I’m down for #2!)
Uber #1

Uber #1

  • X #1 (Read it!  Not bad.  Nguyen’s art is fine, never really spectacular.  So’s the story.  It is what it is: a #1.  Willing to give Swierczynski more time: I mean, Bloodshot‘s bangin’ and–at its core–this isn’t so different.)
X #1

X #1

  • Chin Music #1 (Read it!  Story’s sort of all over the place.  But, like Swierczynski, Niles has earned my precious patience.  [I’m not handing it out as freely as I had, say, when I first came back to comics and tried to stick with too many New 52 books because I loved the characters and the stories just had to get good at some point, right?]  Harris’s work, as expected, is fantastic.  Lovelovelove the layouts.)
  • Suicide Squad #20 (Read it!  Change is here!  And Ales Kot lets us know two panels in–just in time to support the upcoming release of the collected Change, Kot’s crazy little mini for Image that only recently reached its own form of flatulent enlightenment.  Blatant self-promotion aside, in this first issue from Kot and Patrick Zircher, we’re treated to a kick-ass Suicide Squad circa Adam Glass’s New 52 nod–before SS shattered to boring bits with some awful pacing and the relentlessly regrettable Regulus claptrap.  Man, I wanted to take the shards to my wrists and–I thought better of it and simply dropped the darned thing from my pull-list.  Safer.  Now, I’m back on board, and so is the sexy storytelling–the spirit of spontaneity–that sucked me in from the get-go.)
Suicide Squad #20

Suicide Squad #20

  • Batman #20 (Read it!  Convoluted.  Irrelevant.  Everything we’ve come to expect from the keystone Batbook.  I hate myself for having bought it because, at this point, I know better.)
  • The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror #4 (Never excited to see a good mini go–for a few reasons, actually.)
  • Justice League of America #3 (I really want to like it.  We’ll see.)
  • Batman and Red Hood #20 (Thanks to Peter Tomasi, I may have found a way to satisfy my need for a monthly Batbook.  Would make dropping Snyder’s  that much easier.)
Batman and Red Hood #20

Batman and Red Hood #20

  • Archer & Armstrong #0 (Still hate dinosaurs.)
  • Harbinger #12 (As solid a monthly series as your bound to find.)
  • Battlefields: The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova #6 (End of an arc–an Ennis arc.  The mourning period begins now.)
Battlefields #6

Battlefields #6

That’s what’s in my bag.  What’s in yours?

Turning pages,

Scott

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What’s Up?

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by ScottNerd in What's I&N Store?

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Tags

Abstract Studio, Battlefields: The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova, Brian Hurtt, Clone, Cullen Bunn, Dark Horse Comics, Deathmatch, Dennis Hopeless, Dynamite Entertainment, East of West, Ed Brubaker, Fatale, FF, Fury: My War Gone By, Garth Ennis, Goran Parlov, Green Hornet, Image Comics, Jonathan Hickman, Mark Waid, Marvel, Matt Fraction, Mike Allred, Mike Norton, Oni Press, Paul Jenkins, Rachel Rising, Red Team, Sean Phillips, Terry Moore, The Answer, The Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun

Another sizable stack–with one remarkable difference.  Let’s see if you can pick up on it.

To All the Books I’ve Bought Before

  • The Answer #3 (Dark Horse): Unquestionably a good time.
  • Clone #5 (Image): The end of the first arc may be the perfect time to bid this underperformer adieu.
  • Fatale #13 (Image): Consistently terrific.  Impossibly defies expectations with each new offering.
Fatale #13

Fatale #13

  • FF# 5 (Marvel): Fraction and Allred are paired so well on this otherwise inconsequential title.  Off beat?  Right on!
  • Fury: My War Gone By #10 (Marvel): “The final arc begins.”  Don’t think I can express to you how those words make me feel.  OK, I’ll give it a shot: Ain’t good.  How’s that?
Fury: My War Gone By #10

Fury: My War Gone By #10

  • Deathmatch #4 (BOOM!): Frivolous?  Sure.  Worth reading?  You bet!
  • Battlefields #5: The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova Part 2 (Dynamite): Ennis at his very best.
  • Red Team #2 (Dynamite): Wow!  Three Ennis books in one week?  Happy Easter, indeed!
Red Team #2

Red Team #2

  • Rachel Rising #15 (Abstract Studio): I’m all caught up and wanting Moore!  No self-respecting comic nerd should be without this title on his or her list.
  • The Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun #2 (Oni): I’m through the first two trades of The Sixth Gun, waiting on the next two.  (Go Amazon!)

You Always Remember Your First

  • East of West #1 (Image): Miss an Image #1?  Not a chance!  Seriously, though, while I missed out on Hickman’s The Manhattan Projects (I did order Volume 1 recently and am awaiting its arrival, however), I’ll not make the same mistake here.  Definitely worth a shot.
East of West #1

East of West #1

  • Green Hornet #1 (Dynamite): Mark Waid.  ‘Nuff said.
Green Hornet #1

Green Hornet #1

Did you pick up on it?  Of course you did.  It’s yet another first: no DC books this week.  That’s kinda huge.  A little light on the ol’ Marvel, too, now that I think of it.

Something’s afoot, friends.

What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

Turning pages,

Scott

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