I think it's getting to be about time for me to trim my buying list -- I find myself reading an awful lot of these books and thinking, "Hey, that was meh ... just like last issue." Which is both financially irresponsible AND a waste of my time, especially as I have a new baby that's more intriguing to me than mediocre comic books. Also, I don't want to feel like Negative Review Guy, which is what happens when I read a bunch of books that don't thrill me. Here, then is my public declaration of what I'm not reading
۞ Booster Gold #10 is my last issue of this book. It's perfectly adequate, but it's not dazzling me enough. I feel like the ideas are intriguing at their core, and I like the issues when they're described to me ... it's just that actually reading them consistently leaves me cold.
۞ I'm buying Green Lantern Corps as I eagerly await the forthcoming crossover, but issue #25 ends that. I confused Peter Tomasi and Stuart Moore last month, which makes me feel dumb, but they both write perfectly good space opera that fails to engage me. I'll stick with the core book for now. (I maintain that this book would be much awesomer if it were called Green Lantern Crops and were about interstellar farming, but what do I know?)
۞ Somewhat surprisingly, the current run on Batman Confidential remains on my purchase list. I just adore Kevin Maguire's art, and Fabian Nicieza is, er, playing to his artist's strengths here. (ie, Issue #18 features an extended sequence in which the original Batgirl fights Catwoman naked in a hedonist club. If that's not playing to Maguire's strengths, I don't know what is. Also, probably not a comic to read at work, or around children, or in public, or anywhere else where you might be embarrassed.)
۞ Trinity #2 makes me think I'll stick with this as well. I've got a lot of time for Kurt Busiek, who is competent even at his worst, and this nice, slick, mainstream superhero story is far from his worst. Feels more "comic book-y" than the semi-novelistic sweep of 52, and more "good" than the horrifying disaster of Countdown.
۞ I like newuniversal shockfront also -- it builds nicely on the basic NU concept, but is another strong mainstream showing from Warren Ellis. Every so often it seems like he recharges his batteries and starts churning out really solid work again; he's in one of those phases now. I'll keep buying this...
۞ ... and Doktor Sleepless as well, for most of the same reasons. I wish the art in Doktor Sleepless were a little less generic Avatar house style, but it's perfectly readable, and this book makes a great venue for Ellis's obsession with the intersection of science fiction and our contemporary reality. Good stuff.
۞ I really enjoyed Captain Britain and MI13 a LOT -- it's an improvement on the first issue, and one of the best things to come out of Secret Invasion so far. I'll definitely keep picking this up ... BUT it also points out one of the main problems with modern superhero comics, althoug I'll have to bury discussion of it behind whited-out spoilertext. Highlight between the brackets to figure out what I'm on about. [Apparently, we were meant to believe last issue that Captain Britain (or at least his human host) really died. Like, tragically sacrificed himself. This issue is all about starting to play up the ramifications of that, and it does that well ... except that I never, ever, ever, ever even considered that at the end of last issue. I saw the explosion, thought "well, I wonder how he escapes from that," and moved on. It was a bit jarring to find that everyone here is taking it so seriously -- don't you all know you're in a comic book?] Aside from that minor complaint, though, a fun book.
۞ Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust is pretty good for one of these one-shots. I really like Mike Carey's work at Marvel, and Christos Gage is becoming a reliable mainstream writer. And there's some gorgeous Timothy Green III work, which is nice to see. Worth picking up if you're following Secret Invasion, actually. I don't regret buying this at all. (I absolutely abhor the title pages for the SI books, though -- it's like generic Photoshop Backgrounds for Spastic Beginners 101 stuff. Just hideous.)
۞ I love Action Comics #866 -- when Geoff Johns is on, he is ON. And this is the strongest thing to appear in a Superman book in some time. Genuinely creepy, ominous, and fun to read. I'll be buying this, moving forward.
۞ And Locke & Key continues to be the best thing being published this year, by ANY comic book company. Not only will I continue buying this (for the one remaining issue), I'll buy the collected edition, and anything else Joe Hill writes. Fantastic horror comic. Really.
So after that dramatic intro, I cut a whopping two books. Great.
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I don't have anything as interesting or deserving of responsibility as a new baby, but I've been trying to cull my list for the last few weeks, too. Probably so I can buy gas to drive to the shop. And eat. Anyway, I like Negative Review Guy, so I'm kind of glad you only dropped a few books this go 'round.
I was on the fence with Booster Gold, but having you echo some of my thoughts on it has convinced me it can probably go. Green Lantern Corps lost me right after Sinestro Corps War - books that can't decide who's writing them (fairly common problem at DC these days) are easy to drop. I wish it had never stopped being the space police procedural it was during the mini & the first few arcs of the ongoing. I liked that book a lot.
So you're saying Doktor Sleepless has gotten good? Damnit. I'd dropped that one back around issue 3 or 4 - the art was consistently underwhelming and the plot didn't feel fresh, not worth the high price tag. Maybe I'll check out the first trade.
Did Locke & Key come out this week? Double Damnit. I missed it, or you guys were sold out by the time I got by after work. That's a great book - just the right recipe of a little supernatural stuff to further fuel the all-too-human psychological drama. Also, I thought it was an ongoing? Or maybe a series of minis? I could swear I read an interview with Hill where he talked about having the story plotted out as running 70 or so issues.
Locke & Key did indeed come out. Apparently, according to an interview I had located before my computer suggested restarting, Hill views this initial six issues as the first storyline in a larger story, to run 68 issues spanning a number of years. (ie, not continuously.)
There's also a hidden Joe Hill short Spider-Man story in the Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan TPB, because it has Seth Fisher art. Haven't reread it yet, but I was absolutely floored to find out who the writer on that throwaway was.
Doktor Sleepless isn't great; it's still more of the same. But I'm enjoying it, and I think each issue improves on the whole. I dunno.
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