Matt's Weekly Comics - 10/31/12

Wow, holy crap, radical dude, this was a fantastic week for comics for myself. As I'm writing this I have no idea what I'm going to crown my favorite of the week. Because more than a few are just excellent and a half.

Well, I know that The New Deadwardians #8 isn't my favorite. Not to the fault of the book, necessarily. This Vertigo miniseries about vampires, zombies and class warfare is smart and clever, but it's also very dense and therefore hard to follow on a monthly basis. This is the last issue, and it seems good, I guess? It's hard for me to tell. I need to read this story in one go at some point.

And I suppose A + X #1 isn't my favorite, but it's neat. It seems like this series all-around will be cooler in concept than in execution, but the first issue was pretty cool. The premise of this new ongoing is to alternate creators and have them craft stories about an Avenger and an X-Men member working together.  Each issue has two stories.

As far as this first issue goes, one is a pretty entertaining yarn of WW2 Captain America and Bucky meeting up with time-traveling Sable to fight, like, nazi robots and a random time-traveling dorky kid. The other is a bizarre Hulk and Wolverine tie-in that has them fighting them over left-overs in the fridge and against future versions of themselves out to... kill... them... the past versions of the future version of the two characters... it's kinda cool I guess!

I don't know. Neither story was particularly satisfying but I don't feel like my money was wasted.

Grant Morrison's Happy #2 is really, really dope. It's super-twisted. The last page reveal is very disturbing. And the rest is incredibly bizarre and funny in an incredibly morbid sort of way.

It's an ultra-violent and all-around mature book about a murdering ex-cop who is being following around by a floating blue horse; a floating blue horse that is trying to convince our protagonist to save a little girl from a kidnapping and horrific Santa Claus.

So... get it!

I got Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #16.1. I hadn't delved into Miles Morales outside of Spider-Men (which is great!), but I read and love the first five volumes of Bendis's first volume of Ultimate Spider-Man. This seemed like a good jump-on point, and it was only $3.

And yeah, it is a pretty good jump-on point I think. I'll probably try to read this month-to-month now. I'm caught up. Miles seems cool. And it is an interesting story in its own right, smartly giving new readers a recap through a new story about a reporter trying to figure the new Spider-Man out.

Moving on to the annuals now, which were all just great.
Avenging Spider-Man had its annual. And, yeah, sure, this is my book of the week. Holy crap is this book hilarious. Two doofuses find a device in the park that makes everyone close-by incredibly angry at each other. There is some brilliant dialogue exchanged by comically educated and articulated loud-mouth-average-joes and children with Spidey.

And The Thing gets pissed at Spider-Man over an insignificant $30. He calls Spidey a bum.

Oh, and something so amazing happens at the end that it would be a crime against humanity for me to ruin it. I'll just say that The Thing and Spider-Man have a moment.

The detailed and expressive art is even great.

Ah. Loved it. Absolutely loved it.

Swamp Thing's annual is also amazing. Scott Snyder, astoundingly, is able to do both twisted and cute character interactions. The man's a genius.

This issue is a cute story about Alec and Abby first meeting that gets real creepy real fast. The art from Batman #12's Becky Cloonan is also perfect for this issue's story.

It's just really good. As per usually with The New 52's Swampy.

I'm not caught up on The New 52's Action Comics, but I have read the first 9 issues. And now this annual, and this annual is actually pretty cool, I think.

I bought it because of the art, and because I like annuals, if I'm going to be honest here. But it's pretty great! It's a simple "There's a baddy, let's punch him!" storyline with Supes and Steel and it's fun, fun, fun! The dialogue is entertaining and dat art, man. Good stuff.

And lastly, I read Batgirl's annual. Which I loved. Batgirl and Catwoman are a great duo and the artwork here is very, very strong. A Court of Owls Talon is a major character in this story, which is cool, but I take issue a bit with Talons showing up all over the place. Takes away from the mystery and intrigue that Snyder set up so well, man.

Commissioner Gordan acts like a boss, the empathetic angle for the Court assassin is wonderful, dat art, and dat Barbara/Selena pair, though, so.

That's all. My back hurts. And  I didn't shower yet. And sleep is a thing. Bai.