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[Thad]

It seems like less happens in Kick-Ass #3 than in the first two, but it moves along at a nice clip.  We get more Peter Parker Teen Drama With a Twist, and really, I'm sure we ALL did some embarrassing things in high school to hang out with the hot chick.

The issue also introduces a new character who promises to be a lot of fun in the coming months.

The lettercol says we should have heard about a movie deal, including director, by now.  Seeing as I haven't, that means news should probably be coming soon.

[Thad]

Morrison on FC#1.

The first bit is mainly his complaining about people nitpicking the continuity errors between it, Countdown, and Death of the New Gods.  Reading between the lines, I like to think he agrees with me that those other series should never have been made.

It gets more interesting later.  He talks a lot about Seven Soldiers, Kirby, and mythology.

He's a smart guy, and he knows what this stuff is about.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Cannon]

His thoughts about gods most interested me. I kinda' get the idea that he's had much more of a hand in the development of the Green Lantern mythos than just the Alpha Lanterns.

[Thad]

Right, between FC and Trinity we're getting some pretty good comics-as-mythology stuff right now.

[Arc]

The issue also introduces a new character who promises to be a lot of fun in the coming months.

Somehow I'm less interested in what Lil' Zorro has to say, and more interested in what Dave's reaction will be. He came off as a bit of a twerp in the first two issues, but issue three skillfully grounded him just as his celebrity persona was taking off. How he responds to this bloodshed could be a major character defining moment.

The lettercol says we should have heard about a movie deal, including director, by now.  Seeing as I haven't, that means news should probably be coming soon.

There was the playfully unconfirmed story from March, but have yet see anything else as a follow-up.

[Thad]

Somehow I'm less interested in what Lil' Zorro has to say, and more interested in what Dave's reaction will be.

Well, yes.

[Burrito Al Pastor]

Today I was in the book store, and I noticed they had the 52 trade paperbacks. I sat down and started flipping through one.

Then I realized it was four hours later, I was very hungry, and my neck hurt from reading while sitting on a stool for four hours.

So I would say I enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course, I always liked Montoya, dating back to when I watched the Batman animated series as a kid, so there's a fanservice factor in my enjoyment, but it was still pretty fun.

I've also been reading trade paperbacks of something called The Exterminators, and that's a pretty awesome series, but I haven't heard anything about it anywhere else.

[Thad]

52 had its problems, but I bought the whole series and found it very satisfying.

Countdown was the opposite -- a few cool bits (Jimmy Olsen, Trickster/Piper) wrapped in crap.  A huge disappointment all around, and the most disappointing part was that I made it halfway through the series before I finally stopped spending money on it.

Trinity is still too early to call, but I'm an unabashed, longtime Busiek fan and have high hopes for it.

Don't know The Exterminators.  Might be worth checking out.

In other news: picked up issue #1 of the new, non-Gaiman Eternals yesterday.  The story's not really much to write home about but the art's purty enough for me to look forward to #2.

[Thad]

Action #866: Gary Frank's back on the art, for a Brainiac arc.  His Brainiac drones and ship look scary; there's a definite Terminator influence.  As for everything else, well, I've already praised his art previously, and his coming back is a big part of why I'm still picking the book up.

The new Daily Planet crew is a very cool addition too; I'm looking forward to seeing more from those characters.

[Ted Belmont]

I have about half of Countdown left in my pull box, and it's too late to put it back without getting in trouble. :(

[Cannon]

I kinda' enjoyed Countdown. I thought it was mediocre overall, but not terrible.

[Thad]

Madman: Atomic Comics #9 is the one Allred mentioned in an interview I linked awhile back, the one that's just one long panel.

It's very kinetic -- it shows the cast moving across a cityscape that spans the entire issue.  (The feeling reminds me vaguely of the Mario 3 levels that scrolled by themselves.)

As you might expect, it's some more style-over-substance storytelling in a series that's been chock-full of it, but that's Allred's forte: he's an artist, and he's pushing the medium in directions that nobody's tried before and which it is uniquely capable of in contrast to other media.  The effect is something very cool, though sometimes hard to follow (I kept reading the dialogue and narrative boxes in the wrong order).

The story is a simple "chase the aliens, save the girl" affair with some of Frank's characteristic philosophizing thrown in.  But it's probably the most groundbreaking presentation I've seen since Rick Veitch's Can't Get No.

Also, it has two pin-ups by Darwyn Cooke.

I have more Madman chatter to give since I recently read the Atomics TPB, but I'll hold off for now.  It's about bedtime.

[Thad]

Go pick up a copy of the Top Shelf 2008 Seasonal Sampler.  It's free, it's over 200 pages, and it's chock-full of previews of recent and upcoming books.

Sadly, there aren't any actual panels from League vol 3, but there IS a brief plot summary.

and in a London mental institution there's a patient who insists that she has all the answers.

I am frankly going to be disappointed if that turns out to be anyone but Fenchurch.

[Mongrel]

RASL 2 came out yesterday.

Well. THAT accelerated things considerably.

[Thad]

It's in my stack; will give it a glance later.

Just picked up an issue of Wolverine for what I believe is the first time since he got his adamantium back in a fucking flashback.  I hate Wolverine, but I figured another Millar/McNiven teamup was worth the price of admission.

It's an interesting and compelling story, but its premise is flawed.  It's the same problem that made the short-lived Birds of Prey TV series hard to swallow: it goes against the character's essential nature.  Wolverine's not the kind of guy who'd run away, start a family, and refuse to fight back.  He'd go down fighting.

But leaving that premise aside, the Mad Max setting is a promising one, and "Logan and Hawkeye hit the road in the Spider-Mobile to deliver a MacGuffin to the east coast, traveling through territory owned by Kingpin and Doom along the way" is a good setup.

The problem is that I don't think you can separate the flawed premise from the rest of the story, because the most interesting question is "What could have happened to do that to Wolverine?"  And the real answer is "Nothing" but the answer we're going to see is probably "something nasty involving Kitty and/or Jubilee" (prove me wrong, Millar).

There's also the fact that this story's just part of whatever it is Millar's working on now.  He said that this, Fantastic Four, 1985, and, tangentially, Kick-Ass all tie together.

Anyway.  It's interesting enough that I want to see what happens next month.  Which I definitely can't usually say for a Wolverine comic.

[Thad]

RASL 2 came out yesterday.

Well. THAT accelerated things considerably.

Having read it, I am now going to assume you are being sarcastic.

[Bal]

There have been times in Wolverines labyrinthine history where he's been overcome by events and gone to ground before, just not lately. I enjoyed the first book, and I'll probably follow it until it becomes retarded.

[Thad]

There have been times in Wolverines labyrinthine history where he's been overcome by events and gone to ground before, just not lately.

As I mentioned before, the last time I picked up a Wolverine comic was when he got his adamantium back in a flashback (thanks, Claremont); having recently gone through my Wolverine collection, I can state that it's a nearly-complete run of the years he had bone claws, with little before or after.

So yeah, I know that he's run off before (and even left the X-Men for awhile, as crazy as that sounds), but it wasn't to settle down and raise a family as a damn farmer after attempting suicide by jumping in front of a train.  He's gone away to clear his head, but he's never given up.  (Guess I could be wrong; like I say, I haven't picked up a Wolverine book in years.)

Then again, the train's got me thinking about the "he'd die fighting rather than give up" point -- maybe the point is that he CAN'T die fighting, that he tried but was robbed of even the possibility of a noble death.  Possibly several times.

It's still going to be a tough sell, and Millar's got a tendency to promise the moon in his early chapters and then run out of juice halfway through (Civil War, Ultimates 2, Authority).  But we'll see.

[Bal]

Well, it's really hard to say. There are stories where he's tried to completely leave that life behind, only to have it all fall apart of course, but telling what is and is not canon with Wolverine is a completely asinine endeavor at this point. His past and future is so muddled there's just no point, but the story is definitely not without precedent.

[Mongrel]

RASL 2 came out yesterday.

Well. THAT accelerated things considerably.

Having read it, I am now going to assume you are being sarcastic.

I was speaking in terms of information, not plot pacing. 'Accelerated' was probably not the best word to choose for that though.