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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 8, 2018 13:04:28 GMT -5
Astro City #51 was the only other comic I bought this week. Astro City is ending with #52, and they seem to be ending the series with a three-parter about Michael Tenicek, the guy whose wife doesn't exist anymore, who appeared in Astro City # 1/2, "The Nearness of You." He's started a support group for people whose lives have been affected by super-hero antics. And ... there's not a whole lot more to it than that, so far, but it's still fascinating. At the end of #51, somebody in the support group accuses him of being a fraud because they looked into it, and his allegedly deceased wife doesn't exist! (He's never told them the whole story because in the past, people always thought he was crazy.) Will they believe him this time? Or is this the end of the support group? There's a bit more to it than that, of course, but that's the main thrust of the story. It might seem like a meager premise to build three issues around ... but not to people who know that Kurt Busiek is MAGIC! |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 8, 2018 16:35:36 GMT -5
Astro City #51 was the only other comic I bought this week. Astro City is ending with #52, and they seem to be ending the series with a three-parter about Michael Tenicek, the guy whose wife doesn't exist anymore, who appeared in Astro City # 1/2, "The Nearness of You." He's started a support group for people whose lives have been affected by super-hero antics. And ... there's not a whole lot more to it than that, so far, but it's still fascinating. At the end of #51, somebody in the support group accuses him of being a fraud because they looked into it, and his allegedly deceased wife doesn't exist! (He's never told them the whole story because in the past, people always thought he was crazy.) Will they believe him this time? Or is this the end of the support group? There's a bit more to it than that, of course, but that's the main thrust of the story. It might seem like a meager premise to build three issues around ... but not to people who know that Kurt Busiek is MAGIC! I'm interested to see where Busiek goes with this. The original story is so powerful and such a classic I'd be loathe to mess with it. This also points to what has been, to me, one of the hardest things to deal with in a world where superheroes are real. It's quite clear that the supers are saving the world on a daily basis. Alien invasions happen as a matter of course. A member of the group was recently captured by a spider-man. And yet it's somehow too much to believe that someone's wife could just vanish from history. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 8, 2018 17:13:36 GMT -5
Astro City #51 was the only other comic I bought this week. Astro City is ending with #52, and they seem to be ending the series with a three-parter about Michael Tenicek, the guy whose wife doesn't exist anymore, who appeared in Astro City # 1/2, "The Nearness of You." He's started a support group for people whose lives have been affected by super-hero antics. And ... there's not a whole lot more to it than that, so far, but it's still fascinating. At the end of #51, somebody in the support group accuses him of being a fraud because they looked into it, and his allegedly deceased wife doesn't exist! (He's never told them the whole story because in the past, people always thought he was crazy.) Will they believe him this time? Or is this the end of the support group? There's a bit more to it than that, of course, but that's the main thrust of the story. It might seem like a meager premise to build three issues around ... but not to people who know that Kurt Busiek is MAGIC! I'm interested to see where Busiek goes with this. The original story is so powerful and such a classic I'd be loathe to mess with it. This also points to what has been, to me, one of the hardest things to deal with in a world where superheroes are real. It's quite clear that the supers are saving the world on a daily basis. Alien invasions happen as a matter of course. A member of the group was recently captured by a spider-man. And yet it's somehow too much to believe that someone's wife could just vanish from history. I see your point. But it's not that hard to find real-world examples where people stick to their belief systems and have ridiculous opinions because they've internalized something retarded and find it much easier to just go with their gut, no matter how stupid their gut reaction is. In current events, look at all the people who find it easier to believe that the Parkland student activists are A) crisis actors, or B) brainwashed by parents, the media or the liberals in general, than it is too believe that they could have possibly come to the independent conclusion that dying in a school massacre is a bad thing. As for Astro City, maybe the third part of the story will show how the different people in the group come around (or don't) to the idea that Michael's wife really existed, not just in his mind. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 9, 2018 9:32:30 GMT -5
I really need to catch up on Astro City. I don't know why it happens all the time, but I always seem to lapse and then binge read it like 20 issues at a time.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 9, 2018 12:42:01 GMT -5
I really need to catch up on Astro City. I don't know why it happens all the time, but I always seem to lapse and then binge read it like 20 issues at a time. I hadn't read Astro City regularly since Local Heroes. For a while I had a co-worker who went to the comics shop during lunch hour (this was at a time when I wasn't reading comics) and so I was able to read some of the early issues of The Dark Age when that came out. Then I didn't read Astro City for a long time. I didn't know there was a Vertigo series until around #36 or so. I've been reading it ever since, getting caught up on the back issues (I have every issue from #20 on (there's a great Quarrel storyline in #19 to (I think) #22, I'm still missing the first part) and I have about half the issues from #1 to #19. I read The Dark Age digitally (I seem to like it quite a bit more than a lot of the other CCF members) and I still have a few odds and ends from before the Vertigo series started. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 9, 2018 13:11:21 GMT -5
I really need to catch up on Astro City. I don't know why it happens all the time, but I always seem to lapse and then binge read it like 20 issues at a time. I hadn't read Astro City regularly since Local Heroes. For a while I had a co-worker who went to the comics shop during lunch hour (this was at a time when I wasn't reading comics) and so I was able to read some of the early issues of The Dark Age when that came out. Then I didn't read Astro City for a long time. I didn't know there was a Vertigo series until around #36 or so. I've been reading it ever since, getting caught up on the back issues (I have every issue from #20 on (there's a great Quarrel storyline in #19 to (I think) #22, I'm still missing the first part) and I have about half the issues from #1 to #19. I read The Dark Age digitally (I seem to like it quite a bit more than a lot of the other CCF members) and I still have a few odds and ends from before the Vertigo series started. I loved the Dark Age story line, it had some really moving scenes. |
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Post by Jeddak on Apr 10, 2018 11:51:38 GMT -5
 Batman 44
Written by Tom King, Art by Mikel Janin & Joelle Jones Picked this up based on comments in this thread. I enjoyed it as a nostalgic look back at the Batman/Catwoman relationship, but the present-day sequence did not thrill me. Selina sneaks out of Bruce's bed, without waking him (but he's Batman! Is his guard down that much around her?). She uses explosives to break into a boutique, which seemed a bit much for a cat burglar. Then she spends several pages looking for a wedding dress (which included a couple more shots of her butt than seemed appropriate). I haven't read Batman for a while, and this issue didn't really give me much of an idea of what the creative team is doing with the character. I know, it's unfair to expect much from any single issue these days. Would I pick up the next issue? Hard to say. I don't know how the title character is being written these days, and I don't believe the marriage for a second. So probably not.
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Post by Jeddak on Apr 10, 2018 12:00:58 GMT -5
 Harley Quinn 41
Written by Frank Tieri, Art by Inaki Miranda & Moritat Picked this up out of a fondness for the character, and a little bit because of the Harley-as-Supergirl illo on the cover. The cover lied, eh? Nobody dresses as Supergirl in this book. So I'm a bit unhappy with that. Otherwise, the book was okay. It's the concluding chapter of a story, so it's mostly a big fight scene. There's a bit where Harley's friends don't trust her because of stuff that happened previously, so she gives them a generic inspirational speech, and everything's okay and they go ahead and beat up the bad guys. (A lot of Batman villains in that bunch, by the way.) There's running around, there's action, there's jocularity. About what I expected. Would I pick up the next issue? Probably not. I do like Harley, and the light touch of the book. But I've never gotten into the stories of this series, or any of the supporting characters. So I'll probably just pick up an issue here and there, to see if anything's changed. |
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Post by Jeddak on Apr 10, 2018 12:09:52 GMT -5
 Justice League 42
Written by Christopher Priest, Art by Pete Woods Another one I picked up partly for the cover, though as a long-time League fan I try the book every once in a while. And another one where the cover was, shall we say, misleading. The shooting of Wonder Woman happened last issue, and anybody who read that issue already knows who shot her. There's no mystery there. Ah well. The book was actually better than I'd expected, with the League thrust into the middle of a messy civil war and refuge crisis in Africa. Cyborg is in trouble, but he gets out of it using technobabble. And there's a villain who comes off as Black Panther with the numbers filed off. But I really liked the heroes finding themselves in a situation that they couldn't punch their way out of, actually having to debate their course of action. Would I pick up the next issue? Yeah, actually, I probably will
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Post by Jeddak on Apr 10, 2018 12:21:53 GMT -5
 F sorry I Hate Fairyland 18
Written and Arted by Skottie Young Second issue in a row without Gert, the main character, as the new Big Bad is being built up. The villain was brought into (or back into) the book last issue, but here she really makes an impact, wreaking havoc in Fairyland. The devastation is all the more effective, I think, because of the quirky/cutesy art style Young uses. His Fairyland may be twisted, but it retains the kiddie-story feel, and seeing such a village get torn apart drives home the idea that this is Bad. The rest of the book is building up to bringing Gert back, and maybe these 2 issues could've been done in one. But the build-up works; I cannot wait to see Gert when she finds out what they expect of her this time. Definitely getting the next issue. This is one of my favorite current series. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 10, 2018 17:28:37 GMT -5
F sorry I Hate Fairyland 18
Written and Arted by Skottie Young Second issue in a row without Gert, the main character, as the new Big Bad is being built up. The villain was brought into (or back into) the book last issue, but here she really makes an impact, wreaking havoc in Fairyland. The devastation is all the more effective, I think, because of the quirky/cutesy art style Young uses. His Fairyland may be twisted, but it retains the kiddie-story feel, and seeing such a village get torn apart drives home the idea that this is Bad. The rest of the book is building up to bringing Gert back, and maybe these 2 issues could've been done in one. But the build-up works; I cannot wait to see Gert when she finds out what they expect of her this time. Definitely getting the next issue. This is one of my favorite current series. I loved Skottie Young's Oz books so this has been on my list for a while but I've yet to pick it up; but it sounds fantastic. |
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