Director's Commentary on The Buy Pile for November 4, 2009
I've gotta say, I was pretty pleased by comics this week. I googled Titanium Rain and got a little interested, but my retailer wasn't confident enough in the sales potential to even order it. That's the way the cookie gets stomped upon and then raped by KBR and not allowed to sue for damages.
Just two notes about the purchases:
- I'm super interested in The Great Ten. Unlike the smarmy "ooh cool" attempts at a Japanese superteam in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance, the Great Ten has some interesting pieces -- Mother of Champions had a very interesting run in Nightwing, August General in Iron has had some really nice character moments in Checkmate and both Ghost Fox Killer and Immortal Man in Darkness fascinate me. I did feel Accomplished Perfect Physician was a little too reminiscent in powers to the Authority's Doctor, but the determination his character develops made up for the similarities in power (which is the opposite of, say, Peter Petrelli running his Duplicate Boy shtick for so long).
- WTH happened to Gail Simone and Nicola Scott on Secret Six? They'd better be back ...
Now, into the meaty stuff I don't get as much time with.
After his star turn making gold out of lead with House of M: Masters of Evil, I read Absolution with great interest. This is a perfect case for something I say a lot -- this needs an expanded content based website with biographical info on characters, power levels and descriptions, historical data on the world in question and so on. Stuff I compose for kicks when I'm in line at the grocery store. The villain here, in particular, I could have spent a lot more time understanding outside of the plot, since he was fun!
I'm not sure how Dark Reign and the upcoming clash with New Olympus will play out -- especially with Zeus a prepubescent lacking none of his true power. I kind of think I'd like to see Hercules and Hebe become a regular item, especially if it gave Amadeus more time to shine as he grows into the role of Athena's champion. I don't, however, think all this expanded focus is doing much for the Agents of Atlas, who were doing so well as self-contained. I honestly think they'd do better crossing over with The Twelve (which would really give Amadeus a reason to get involved, honestly, for the whole Mastermind Excello thing).
Magog could grow up and become somebody. I like him so much now I could see writing him. He's kind of got a Jeremiah Harm thing going on, and that's nice. But to see Doctor Voodoo get all whiny after being a badass last time ... that I don't like.
Can I say how much I hate the Red Skull? As a character, as an element, as a symbol. He's lazy storytelling at its root. He's evil because he's a Nazi. He's a Nazi because he's evil. Somehow, he's survived for, what, seventy years after the war? How has no administration simply said, "carpet bomb this guy until he's dead!" It's not like he's even hard to find most of the time.
Nightmare's not an interesting enough villain to appear this many times in a few weeks. I'm sorry. He's not. Also, Jemm, Son of Saturn? Wow.
By the way, to the makers of "Mighty" #10 -- have any of you read Aldous Huxley? Has your lead character really been that oblivious and/or crazy? What a stupid idea.
I'll have more to say about new stuff from Stranger Comics shortly. For now, behave yourselves.
Playing (Music): "Don't Curse" by Heavy D feat. Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, CL Smooth, Grand Puba Maxwell, Pete Rock and Q-Tip
Just two notes about the purchases:
- I'm super interested in The Great Ten. Unlike the smarmy "ooh cool" attempts at a Japanese superteam in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance, the Great Ten has some interesting pieces -- Mother of Champions had a very interesting run in Nightwing, August General in Iron has had some really nice character moments in Checkmate and both Ghost Fox Killer and Immortal Man in Darkness fascinate me. I did feel Accomplished Perfect Physician was a little too reminiscent in powers to the Authority's Doctor, but the determination his character develops made up for the similarities in power (which is the opposite of, say, Peter Petrelli running his Duplicate Boy shtick for so long).
- WTH happened to Gail Simone and Nicola Scott on Secret Six? They'd better be back ...
Now, into the meaty stuff I don't get as much time with.
After his star turn making gold out of lead with House of M: Masters of Evil, I read Absolution with great interest. This is a perfect case for something I say a lot -- this needs an expanded content based website with biographical info on characters, power levels and descriptions, historical data on the world in question and so on. Stuff I compose for kicks when I'm in line at the grocery store. The villain here, in particular, I could have spent a lot more time understanding outside of the plot, since he was fun!
I'm not sure how Dark Reign and the upcoming clash with New Olympus will play out -- especially with Zeus a prepubescent lacking none of his true power. I kind of think I'd like to see Hercules and Hebe become a regular item, especially if it gave Amadeus more time to shine as he grows into the role of Athena's champion. I don't, however, think all this expanded focus is doing much for the Agents of Atlas, who were doing so well as self-contained. I honestly think they'd do better crossing over with The Twelve (which would really give Amadeus a reason to get involved, honestly, for the whole Mastermind Excello thing).
Magog could grow up and become somebody. I like him so much now I could see writing him. He's kind of got a Jeremiah Harm thing going on, and that's nice. But to see Doctor Voodoo get all whiny after being a badass last time ... that I don't like.
Can I say how much I hate the Red Skull? As a character, as an element, as a symbol. He's lazy storytelling at its root. He's evil because he's a Nazi. He's a Nazi because he's evil. Somehow, he's survived for, what, seventy years after the war? How has no administration simply said, "carpet bomb this guy until he's dead!" It's not like he's even hard to find most of the time.
Nightmare's not an interesting enough villain to appear this many times in a few weeks. I'm sorry. He's not. Also, Jemm, Son of Saturn? Wow.
By the way, to the makers of "Mighty" #10 -- have any of you read Aldous Huxley? Has your lead character really been that oblivious and/or crazy? What a stupid idea.
I'll have more to say about new stuff from Stranger Comics shortly. For now, behave yourselves.
Playing (Music): "Don't Curse" by Heavy D feat. Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, CL Smooth, Grand Puba Maxwell, Pete Rock and Q-Tip
posted by Hannibal Tabu, The Operative at
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