6: Leaving the racks
5: Leaving the bookshelves. Hmm... Haven't quite worked out what happens when I roll a 5. Let's see. Got all these boxes here.



How about 1 for that box of trades that I ran out of room for when stocking the shelves. 2-3 for those magazine boxes. 4-5 for those boxes with Essentials. 6-8 for those boxes with prestige format comics. 9 to that other bookshelf, with one shelf of comics and 10 I'll keep looking for other stray comics.

5. Essentials. Roll to pick a book.

15. Roll to pick out an issue

13...

Essential Defenders vol. 1
Marvel: May, 2005



Defenders #5
Marvel: April, 1972



"World without end?"
by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema and Frank McLaughlin

I actually semi-reviewed this issue on the old forum, as part of my Black Knight thread. Y'know, given that today is a holiday, maybe it's time to resurrect that old thing?

My review from before:



Pretty short and sweet due to its Black Knight focus.

This is really a Valkyrie-focused issue. Valkyrie has... a strange history. Maybe she's an old Norse god. Maybe she's a disguise the Enchantress used. Now she's a girl named Barbara Noriss transformed by Enchantress into Valkyrie. Let's just roll with it. This issue is about her trying to find her place in this world, an inexperienced person thrown fully formed into it, without experience of connections.

The theme of the issue is about friendship. The Defenders are a non-team. Sub-Mariner and Hulk wish nothing to do with others. But they're the only people Valkyrie knows. So she needs them to stay together, to be the Defenders. Or else she'd be alone on this strange world. They reject her pleas for friendship. but perhaps her rescuing them from the grip of the Omegatron (with the help of Aragorn and Namorita, of course) will change their tune!

I'm a big fan of Sal Buscema.I preferred him in this era when he mimicked the house style. But I appreciate that he developed his own style, even if it was never my cuppa. But through it all, he's a hell of a director when it comes to superhero stories. I always look to him as a clear example of how to choose where to set the camera to capture these sequences.

Grade: B-

Next: We're going beyond the metropolis...

6: Leaving the racks
2: Going to the bookshelves
4: A Vertigo shelf



53: 6 issues. Pick one out? Or just read it? Let's pick one out.
3:

Transmetropolitan vol. 9: The Cure



Transmetropolitan #51



"Two-Fisted Editor"
by Warren Ellis, Darick Robertson and Rodney Ramos

I don't like Warren Ellis. There, I said it. I first noticed his name when reading his X-Force and I thought it was stupid. Yes, stupid even by X-Force standards. And I still think he just probably shouldn't be writing superheroes. Though, upon coming to this conclusion, I noticed he had written one of my favorite superhero comics, Doom 2099, in particular the issue where Doom walked into the White House, killed everybody and declared himself president. I liked that issue. So he had that going for him. I tried his stuff here and there.

To me the most damning thing was Orbiter. He and Colleen Doran told a story whose premise was: we should keep trying to go to space. I agree completely. And he wrote a great introduction. An issue he's passionate about. I actually met him once and we watched a space shuttle launch on TV. I love that introduction to Orbiter. Space is where we belong. It's the future we need to build. He argued this point so eloquently in the introduction. And so poorly in the comic. I'd never before loved a premise and artist so much and a comic so little.

I also read the first issue of Global Frequency. Again, a cool premise. But it didn't work for me. I read Switchblade Honey, which I understood to be a satirical version of Star Trek. At least that's what I was told. I'm not sure what it actually was, even after reading it. I like Star Trek. I like satire, parodies, dark twists on concepts...

I'd heard his big things were Authority and Planetary. I'll read Authority one day. I guess. But Planetary... I've read so much about it since reading the first trade. Even though I've read it, every time I hear people talk about it, it sounds like something I should love. Or at least enjoy. Or at least be the slighest bit interested in. But it did nothing for me. Nothing. I'll reread that first volume at some point, and probably finish the series. Just to say I did.

I've never read Nextwave because I don't trust him to treat Monica Rambeau with the respect she deserves.

Which brings us to Transmetropolitan, which I enjoyed enough to finish the series. Transmetropolitan is good. I'll give him that. The premise is a good one. A futuristic Hunter Thompson-type. A fucked-up reporter in a fucked-up future. And he makes it work. The humor and the satire aren't quite the kinds I'm into, but they work. And the series has a heat to it. And it seems to have a bit of brains. The sci/fi concepts on display are sometimes actually interesting, in their own right, as sci/fi concepts. Unlike literally everything I've read from the man, this gave me something to bite onto. I still don't love it like many people do. But this series was good.

But enough preamble...

The truth is, it's been a while since I've read this series. I only read it the once, and haven't enough recall to piece together where we are. From the issue, we see Spider has been fired from his paper and seems to be somewhat drugged out. The issue focuses on his editor, Mitch Royce. The whole issue he is scheming and bribing and blackmailing (of course everybody has done something perverse and blackmailble; this is Warren Ellis). He appears to be up to no good, but in the end it seems he was looking out for Spider all along, getting him evidence he needs to go after the President.

Humor is crude, storytelling solid, I'm a big fan of Robertson's art. Not too much else to say.

Grade: B-

Next: Keep a light on for when I return with the next entry. It's gonna be epic...

That looks interesting.. .Veitch and Kennedy did Dark Empire, IIRC, which was amazing.

I kinda agree with you on Ellis... I thought I really liked him when Doom 2099 and Transmet were around, then I realized I really didn't, I just liked those books. I greated disliked Extremis, and, in hindsight, Pete Wisdom is really just Warren Ellis in the Marvel Universe.

Next Wave is OK.. it's a parody, bordering on farce, so you have to take it in that context.   Monica is treated like a has been, more or less, but she is the leader.

I suspect you would really like Transmetropolitan.  Given your age and your political leanings. 

Glad to finally get that off my chest.

I want to emphasize that all these things have great concepts and seem like things I should really like. He's clearly a good idea man. And I thought he made Transmetropolitan work. I think that's the one Ellis book that everybody should probably check out.

It's kind of funny, I really like Ellis, but Transmet is one of the things he's done I don't really care for. I couldn't get past Vol. 6 I think when I last tried to read my way through it. All things being equal, I like Ellis more as a columnist, raconteur and general rabble-rouser than I do as a super-hero writer, but when he does his own stuff, not work for hire I generally like his stuff (with some exceptions). His Come In Alone and From the Desk of Warren Ellis (both collections of columns) are great reads, and I still follow his Morning Computer and subscribe to Orbital Operations. I adore Planetary and really like things like Crecy, his Druid series for Marvel, his Hellstorm stuff for Marvel, Trees, and more, and enjoyed Crooked Little Vein (his first novel-still need to check out Gun Machine his second), but yeah he has some things he's done I am not that fond of too. I think his work can be a bit divisive, it hits the right chords with some and the wrong chords with others, but I will usually at least check out something he does as I know there's a better than even odds chance I will like it or at least find something in it worth cogitating over. 

-M