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[Royal☭]

Tom Strong does that, actually.  At least, the first few trades I read did.  Each issue would have various background stories on Tom Strong and his villains, each done in differing art style.  It was really unique.

[Thad]

Oh man, I love me some Tom Strong.

[Rosencrantz]

Reminds me of one of the early Invincible issues when they introduced the blatant Justice League homage/parody (Guardians of the Globe), and each member had their own page or two drawn in a different style. I don't know nearly enough about comic artists to get any of the references, though.

[Thad]

Well, Kirby's a pretty obvious one.  You know they're going for "vintage" because they use the Photoshop filter for big newsprint-esque color dots, and if it's vintage, it's probably safe to guess "Kirby homage".  There are also some attempts to replicate the way he drew facial features and his style of shading.

The Frank Miller one's obvious because it's stark black-and-white with some red.

[Norondor]

Kirby is obvious because in the kirby world, women look like men, and fire looks like dots

[Thad]

Trinity #9: Ah.  Was wondering when the CSA was going to show up.  Not slapping a spoiler warning on that because I've considered this a sure thing since day one, made even more certain by Busiek's self-reference in bring Krona back.

The most interesting thing, I thought, was that this issue managed to draw focus on Enigma while being the first issue he doesn't actually appear in.  It's the most Gotham-centric ish yet, and the inclusion of Joker and Penguin and reference to Mad Hatter push the focus onto which of the rogues is missing.

So, all right.  I didn't really care about Enigma's backstory when he debuted back in #1, but now I'm curious.  The Riddler connection's been obvious from the beginning, but unless there's some heavy retconning yet to come, he's not "our" Riddler.  So that means probably future or parallel-universe.

I'm going to figure he's the CSA universe Riddler.  ("Shouldn't the CSA universe Riddler be a good guy?"  Ah, but the New Earth Riddler has reformed, so shouldn't that mean the CSA Riddler turned to crime?)  Then again, he seems plenty familiar with Batman -- not Owlman, but "our" Batman.

I dug the trophy-collecting secondary story, too.  Interested to see where that goes.

On to Panther:

Thinking it's about time to drop this book.  On the other hand, next month's is written by the same dude who did Joker's Asylum: Penguin.  On the other other hand, it's a Secret Invasion tie-in.

BIG EVENT aside, this was the best Panther book I've read in a long time.  A little heavy on the now-standard "The Black Panther is a fucking genius who is always eleventy billion steps ahead of his adversary" setup, but doesn't go COMPLETELY overboard with it -- the Skrulls get their licks in too and manage to seem like pretty formidable adversaries.  I dig the art on this one, too.

[Thad]

As a fundraiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Liberty Comics would be worth the price of admission even if it were crap, but it's a good read.  It's a good anthology, something that's become all too rare in modern comics -- good four-page stories are a lost art.

My favorite is probably Mark Millar's story of Dracula, retired to London, no longer feasting on the living, wandering around in a cape but otherwise having an ordinary day-to-day life.  I'm also quite partial to the Aragones/Evanier strips on the history of comic censorship; they're preachy as hell but make for some interesting stories (like an EC editor being arrested in the 1950's, not for horror comics but for making fun of Santa Claus).  Gordon Lee is never mentioned by name, but his case is alluded to -- after all, cases like his are the reason the CBLDF exists.  And hey, it's great, goofy Aragones art -- you can't beat that; there is a reason he is one of the true legends of the form.  (Stan Sakai and Tom Luth are credited too, but I'm not sure what they did.)

It's $4 for an organization dedicated to upholding the Bill of Rights.  That alone is worth the price (even though I remember the days when freedom only cost a buck oh five).  But on top of that, it's a fun read.  And Mignola did a Hellboy cover for it.

[Thad]

All right, I'm warming up to Old Man Logan.  I still don't care for the premise, but the atmosphere's good, and I kinda dig the Easy Rider/Road Warrior/Days of Future Past/every movie where a cop comes out of retirement swearing "I don't do that anymore" mashup.

Still too many questions without any answers.

• What's up with Hawkeye?  Does EVERY blind person in the Marvel Universe have fucking sonar powers?
• Who's the President?  We can eliminate most of the Marvel big bads -- Magneto, Kingpin, Goblin, Doom -- because they already have territory carved out on the map.  (Well, Magneto's is "formerly", so it could TECHNICALLY be him, but I doubt it.)  We can rule out Apocalypse because that story's been done.  Most of the Avengers baddies I can think of, like Loki and Immortus, don't seem like the President type -- maybe Kang.  But my money's on a former hero.
• Who's Tanya's mother?
• What's in the suitcase?  It's gotta be more than just drugs.

And of course the perennial "What the fuck happened?" and "What will it take for Wolverine to finally say fuck it and pop his claws?"

Also interested to see how this plays out in the other 3 books.  Expect we'll see one version of the catastrophe in this book and another version in Fantastic Four.

[Arc]

Old Man Logan is the best Marvel title running, just due to the sheer anticipation factor that comes with each page.

Who's the President? ... But my money's on a former hero.

Sweeeeeet.

Who's Tonya's mother?

Doubt we'll find out.

What's in the suitcase?

Hedging my bets on an artifact to assassinate The President. My knowledge of such weaknesses to established Marvel villains and heroes is lacking, but reading over The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe, I'll go with Nuclear Weapon for $500, Alex.

Also interested to see how this plays out in the other 3 books.

Head over heels for Kick-Ass, and Fantastic Four is solid enough to purchase. Marvel '85, however, is simply not catching my attention. One-sided conflicts never have.

[Mongrel]

As a fundraiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Liberty Comics would be worth the price of admission even if it were crap, but it's a good read.  It's a good anthology, something that's become all too rare in modern comics -- good four-page stories are a lost art.

My favorite is probably Mark Millar's story of Dracula, retired to London, no longer feasting on the living, wandering around in a cape but otherwise having an ordinary day-to-day life.  I'm also quite partial to the Aragones/Evanier strips on the history of comic censorship; they're preachy as hell but make for some interesting stories (like an EC editor being arrested in the 1950's, not for horror comics but for making fun of Santa Claus).  Gordon Lee is never mentioned by name, but his case is alluded to -- after all, cases like his are the reason the CBLDF exists.  And hey, it's great, goofy Aragones art -- you can't beat that; there is a reason he is one of the true legends of the form.  (Stan Sakai and Tom Luth are credited too, but I'm not sure what they did.)

It's $4 for an organization dedicated to upholding the Bill of Rights.  That alone is worth the price (even though I remember the days when freedom only cost a buck oh five).  But on top of that, it's a fun read.  And Mignola did a Hellboy cover for it.

Stan Sakai has been doing Sergio's lettering for over two decades, just as Tom Luth has been doing his colouring for as long (and Marc Evanier does whatever the hell it is he does).

[Thad]

Trinity #10 is the best issue yet.  Main story is a good spotlight on Superman, features the CSA and a bunch of interdimensional hostages who each mistake Superman for their respective universe's version (including a shoutout to Apollo), some more attention to John Stewart, and a new villain named Sun-Chained-in-Ink who presumably has that miniature sun from #2 (?) inside him.

The backup story features Robin and Nightwing fighting a flirty ape, and then Jason Blood finally puts in an appearance.

There's also a big clue involving dreams; my guess is we'll see John Dee tying into the villain story pretty soon here.

[Thad]

Final Crisis #3 is fucking awesome.  Frankenstein, the Flashes, the draft, the Anti-Life Equation, Shilo Norman, Sonny Sumo, and the Super Young Team...

...well, after all that the ending seems a little flaccid.  But the last-page shot of [spoiler]the new Female Furies[/spoiler] is pretty sweet.

I'm curious whether this will win over the doubters.  I feel like the story's starting to stand on its own, but I also feel like people who haven't read Seven Soldiers or Fourth World are going to be left wondering who the hell all these characters are who keep showing up for two pages without explanation and then disappearing.

I know who Sonny Sumo is.  I know his significance to this story.  I know he knows the Anti-Life Equation (or used to; it seems like he's forgotten his role in The Forever People.  And it bears noting that Mister Miracle also knew the Equation -- though that was Scott Free, not Shilo Norman, and it was in the 1990's Orion series, which Morrison may be ignoring).  The majority of the readership probably doesn't know any of that.  And again, that last page is going to be a whole lot less impressive to anyone who doesn't know [spoiler]who the Female Furies are[/spoiler], especially inasmuch as the "scary Wonder Woman" image is on the friggin' cover.

...Curious as to whether Orion's hair color is a mistake or a clue.  (Was going to say something similar about Robin and Nightwing's disappearing, reappearing masks in Trinity #10, but forgot.)  And I haven't been reading Outsiders -- is the new Aquaman actually capable of surviving on land now, or is that a continuity error?

Anyway.  Nitpicking aside, as far as I'm concerned it's Morrison at his best.

[Zaratustra]

Stan Sakai has been doing Sergio's lettering for over two decades, just as Tom Luth has been doing his colouring for as long (and Marc Evanier does whatever the hell it is he does).

Evanier fixes Sergio's spanglish into proper english.

[Mongrel]

Stan Sakai has been doing Sergio's lettering for over two decades, just as Tom Luth has been doing his colouring for as long (and Marc Evanier does whatever the hell it is he does).

Evanier fixes Sergio's spanglish into proper english.

I've been reading Groo for 10 years. Yes, 'whatever it is Mark Evanier does' was a joke. The same one Mark or Sergio makes in every single issue.

YOU KILLED IT ZARA! 

[Thad]

Eternals is largely directionless, pretty much just continuing the "find the gods who have been turned into mortals" story started by Gaiman in the previous volume (and, for that matter, used by JMS in Thor).

But I dig the art.  It's straight-up Kirby homage, but not in an annoying way like Death of the New Gods.  The Eternals and ESPECIALLY the Celestials are quite clearly Kirby characters -- their dimensions, their costumes, their shading -- but Acuna's art and, nontrivially, colors (I assume they're his as there's no "color" credit, just "art") are distinctive.  The Kirby influence is clear, but it's not the only thing going on.

[Thad]

Crossed #0:

And so I find myself, not for the first time nor, I can reasonably assume, for the last, saying, "Yeah, what the FUCK, Ennis?"

[Ted Belmont]

Stan Lee's career.

[Brentai]

Bah dump-ching.

Isn't Stan Lee mostly loved and admired for being a ballsy hack?  This might be inspired perfection for all intents and purposes.

[Kazz]

as long as it openly mocks what a retard Hilton is, I might be in support

but only if it is really, really mean

and they, like, beat her openly

[Niku]

uh

didn't stan lee help create PAMELA ANDERSON IN: STRIPPERELLA