New Comic Day June 21

Lots of stuff this week so dig in! A recurring theme this week will be comics that come out out on a very irregular basis (ie. less than one per month). As well, I'm going to do a break down of cents/page (CPP) and see if the best value is also the best comic.

Eternals #1

This is the newest offering of uber-writer Neil Gaiman to the comic reading populous. This is a story based on characters called, yep you're right, The Eternals who were created by Jack Kirby in the seventies. I will freely admit that I am an Eternals virgin and hadn't heard of them at all until Gaiman was announced to be writing this 6 issue mini-series. I trust Neil Gaiman to entertain me and that trust is justified with this comic.

The idea behind this new series is that Ike Harris (Ikaris) is an Eternal in the present day but is the only one on Earth that remembers there ever were Eternals. The other members of the team are leading ordinary lives and have only the vaguest of sub-conscious thoughts that there's something not quite right in their everday experiences. Ike tries to convince a med student, Mark Curry, that he's actually Makkari, an Eternal, and gets the typical "you're crazy" response one might expect. Gaiman does a very good job of portraying Mark as the sceptic and of introducing the other characters, Sersi, Sprite and Thena. Though we are pretty sure that these characters are Eternals, Gaiman still plants the seeds of doubt through Mark and it makes for a very intriguing read. On a bad note though, I realize that he's trying to update the Eternals to the current Marvel Universe, but I didn't really care for the references to the Super-hero Registration Act going on in Civil War.

John Romita Jr. has always been a favourite artist of mine and most of his panels are very well done. The Celestials look fantastic and the expressions Mark has while Ike is telling him some Eternal history are spot on. However there were a few panels that were somewhat jarring. Ike leaping off Mark's fire escape looked very static was a main one and a few other minor things I noticed that I don't expect from JRJR.

All in all, it's not as great as I thought it would be from the oreview pages I read, but it was still decent.

CPP: $5.75/39 pages = 14.7 cents per page!

Ultimates 2 #11

To begin, if you don't know, the Ultimates are the Avengers in Marvel's ultimate universe line of comics. They are a big grittier than their regular Marvel Universe counterparts and more morally ambiguous, which makes them more interesting characters in my opinion. I really like the Ultimates so let's get that out of the way, but I don't particularly like this issue because all it really is, is a set up for the grand finale in issue #12.

So what's good about this issue? Well Thor gets out of his plastic room (somehow), lots of punching, and the Hulk comes back. Other than that though this issue is about getting all the players in place. Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) goes to his space station to activate something called "Iron Man Six, " Captain America gets creamed only to look up to see the leader of the enemy super-villains looming over him, Loki appears to be over confident, which will likely be the cause of the villains' downfall, etc... So while I'm sure #12 will be excellent, #11 sure isn't. As well, this book has been plagued by lateness, but it can be forgiven somewhat because the writer, Mark Millar, has been quite ill lately, battling Crohn's disease. Though he might have had the script done long ago and it might all be the fault of the penciller, Bryan Hitch, who doesn't give a great performance this issue. The inclusion of George W. Bush being a pansy was also a bit tacky I thought.

Last time an issue came out: March 1, 2006 (nearly 4 months ago!)
CPP: $3.40/28 pages = 12.1 cents per page!

Astonoshing X-men #15
Despite what others may claim, I think this is a damn fine comic book series. To catch you up, this is an X-men series that doesn't really care about the shared universe of other X-men titles and is pretty much standalone (as it should be). Written by Joss Whedon (my hero) and John Cassady (the object of many a man-crush), the combination being known as Jossady, the team consists of Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, and Colossus. But wait! Isn't that Emma Frost, the White Queen on the cover with several notable X-men villains!? Yes, and it is in this issue were her betrayal comes to fruition. The new Hellfire Club, consisting of Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, the White Queen, Negasonic Teenage Warhead (that's not a typo and NTW from now on), and a mysterious fifth member lay the smack down on the X-men and truly hand them their asses.

Ass-handedry:
Emma does a great job pretending to be upset and we get a very nice visual right on page one. Cassandra Nova turns the normally brilliant Beast into his namesake, virtually eliminating his higher thought processes. NTW loosens Kitty's ability to control her phasing powers, and she literally phases down through the Earth's crust. Colossus beats down on Sebastian Shaw and forgets his power is to absorb kinetic energy. Shaw then gives Colossus the mother of all boxed ears and we see some metallic blood drip down his nose before he collapses. Nova removes Wolverine's agressiveness, turning him into the equivalent of a 5 year old girl (it's very cute). It's all very reminiscent of the fight against a previous incarnation of the Hellfire Club way back in Uncanny X-men #132, complete with an homage to a classic Wolverine moment:



Cool no? Anyhoo, this issue is a plot mover and hints at bigger stuff to come. Go Jossady!

Last time an issue came out: March 29, 2006
CPP: $3.40/23 pages = 14.9 cents per page!


Casanova #1

There's a bit of a story with this purchase so I'll bore you with that before I talk about the comic. I was really looking forward to this after I read the online preview. It looked really good and was certainly something different that what I was used to. I told Elfsar to pull it for me last week and to my surprise, it wasn't in the stack of comics Ethan plopped in front of me as I walked in. I checked the rack and there were none there. "Do you have a Casanova #1 for me?" I asked? Apparently they didn't receive the entire order and since I asked for one after their order cutoff date, I got shafted. It will be July 5th before I get this comic from Elfsar. However, not wanting to take the risk of getting a second printing, I went to Golden Age and snatched up a copy there. So I'll end up having two copies but it's cheap ($2.35) so it's not all bad.

Anyway what about the comic? It's kind of an espionage book (spy for the layman) which is a nice change of pace for me as the last one I followed was Mystique (the Vaughn run). This is written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Gabriel Ba. Instead of being black and white, the comic has a two-tone color scheme mixing blacks and green/grey. It's very effective in creating a noirish feel which helps the book tremendously. The story is told from the perspective of Casanova Quinn, our "hero" and starts with a decent action sequence that ends with a girl's head getting blown off (nice). Cass's father is the head of E.M.P.I.R.E (Extra-Military Police, Intelligence, Rescue, and Espionage) a world-wide organization deicated to maintaining the peace and it is this organization that ends said action sequence. There's some sci-fi elements to this book as well, in the form of alternate universes and a big mutant brain originating from the fusion of occult zen worshipers, which is always nice.

Thinking about it, the things I really liked about this comic were the little things like the one panel cuts of other character's point of views and the powerpoint reference in the Newman Xeno scene. I really liked the panels with the empty word balloons as it lets the art tell the story and in the funeral scene we can see that Cass is so caught up in grief that, though the minister is talking to him, he's not really hearing him. The main story was a tad on the confusing side, but maybe that's because I read it at work and the sound of construction outside was a bit distracting. A nit-picky thing is that some of the dialouge is in French (Cass was in Paris), but I can't read French!

I didn't like it as much as the Lord and Master, but liked it much more than Greg. I'm sticking with it as I think this book has a lot of potential.

CPP: $2.35/28 pages (with no ads!) = an amazing 8.4 cents per page!

Justice #6 (of 12)
In case you don't know, this 12 issue series is about villains trying to save the world from destruction which they think will be the fault of the world's heroes. I've always liked the concept of heroes upsetting the status quo by trying to fix "real-world" problems (ie. the Authority) and having the villains do it while still being villains is a neat idea. However, this issue doesn't really move the plot forward as much as I'd like and the only interesting thing to happen is that Green Lantern's ring translates his being into a series of electronic impulses and "saves" him inside itself. Neat idea. I enjoy Alex Ross's painting style, but the penciler he's painting over, Doug Braithwaite, could use some improvement. Not much else to say about this one. It was a very "meh" comic.

Last time an issue came out: April 19, 2006
CPP: $4.75/30 pages = 15.8 cents per page!

Ex Machina #21

New storyline and some obvious new plotlines. Check out last week's review if you need an Ex Machina Primer. First, Mitch gets a hot new intern who is not all she seems to be, some potheads get the beat down from a fake fireman, politcal fires are lit over marijuana legalization, and a woman douses herself with gasoline on the steps of city hall and lights herself on fire! Notice a trend here? Anyways this seems to be standard fare lately with Ex Machina, but it's not boring and the juxtaposition of political and super-hero antics is a nice mix. I'd like to see more resolution with the "where did Mitch get his powers from" plotline, but I'm sure Vaughn will get to it as this will be a finite series. He has stated that it will show Mitch's five years in office so it will be a nice arc for the character to go through. The new intern's deviousness may be the starting point of the downfall of mayor Hundred.

Last time an issue came out: May 10, 2006 (it's monthly)
CPP: $4.00/22 pages = 18.2 cents per page!

All Star Superman #4

Ah, the best for last. This is a truly wonderful comic. In the world of crossover this and crossover that, mainstream comics have become pretty inaccessible to the average guy on the street. Not so with this comic. Any kid could pick this up and be entertained to no end. See, this issue revolves aroud Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen. He's a regular joe who is best buds with the big man and routinely gets him out of jams. How awesome is that?

With this issue, writer Grant Morrison harkens back to the old Jimmy Olsen/Superman teamups without being bogged down by years of pointless continuity, which is the idea behind the All Star line in the first place.

There's so many good things about this issue I'm tempted to stop this post and just tell you to go out and buy it so you'll see for yourself. I won't, but you should do that anyways.

The plot of this issue has Jimmy looking for something to write about for his "For a Day" columns in the Daily Planet. He chooses to go to the moon and take over the science institute P.R.O.J.E.C.T. from Leo Quintum. Unfortunately, Jimmy has been cursed with bad luck by a gypsy until the next full moon (sounds silly but it works), so you know something's gonna go wrong. Something does when the Bizzaro workers find some Black Kryptonite in the superheavy gravity underverse (where time itself cools to a solid). It's little extras like this that makes this comic fun and Morrison is a master at adding them. Anyways, the Black K makes Superman evil and Jimmy has to take a super-soldier syrum to prevent Superman from going on a rampage. In a classic comic book explanation, Superman gets weaker and dumber the worse he acts so he goes down pretty easily. I'm definately not doing this issue justice as you really have to see it to appreciate it.

The artwork from Frank Quitely is absolutely wonderful and combines with Morrison's exciting "done-in-one" story to produce a real gem. I don't often mention the colouring of a comic, but I will here as it is exceptionally vibrant. The pages really pop. Jamie Grant digitally inked and coloured the book and he deserves a hand. Using a computer to colour the book likely makes the difference between this and other comics, though I'm not sure what the traditional method is.

Excellent series and I only wish it came out more often.

Last time an issue came out: March 29, 2006
CPP: $3.20/22 pages = 14.5 cents per page!

Let me sum up:
Rank by Favorite (1 best - 7 worst)
1. All Star Superman #4
2. Astonishing X-men #15
3. Casanova #1
4. Eternals #1
5. Ex Machina #21
6. Justice #6
7. Ultimates 2 #11

Rank by CPP (1 best value - 7 worst value)
1. Casanova #1: 8.4
2. Ultimates 2 #11: 12.1
3. All Star Superman #4: 14.5
4. Eternals #1: 14.7
5. Astonishing X-men #15: 14.9
6. Justice #6: 15.8
7. Ex Machina #21: 18.2

Rank by time since last release (1 shortest - 7 longest)
1. Casanova #1: n/a
2. Eternals #1 n/a
3. Ex Machina #21: May 10 - 42 days
4. Justice #6: April 19 - 63 days
6. (tie) All Star Superman #4: March 29 - 84 days
6. (tie) Astonishing X-men #15: March 29 - 84 days
7. Ultimates 2 #11: March 1: 113 days

So All Star Superman is my #1 read this week and it has a decent CPP and Casanova, while good, isn't as good as I thought. It may require multiple readings to "get" everything as it is pretty dense. Bringing up the rear is Ultimates 2 #11 for both it's set-up nature and lateness. Boo-urns on that one.