Manhattan Projects # 3

Jonathan Hickman is making some really great comics. Manhattan Projects is one of these great comics. Hickman's writing is what happens when Warren Ellis gets over the fact that mainstream comics are littered with men in tights and plays nice with us. 

Manhattan Projects is about mad, evil scientists masquerading as protagonists in post-WWII America, crafting abomination after abomination in an underground bunker and the redneck American cum Army General who commands them all to do it. Hare-brained ideas are strewn throughout this book. 


Granted it may be due to the era that Hickman choose, but it is nice to see some fantasy revisionist science fiction that isn't riding the steam-punk wave. It is pretty much near perfect, Manhattan Projects is.

Batman Incorporated # 2

I know exactly this much about Talia Al Ghul:

1. she's the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul
2. she's hooked up with Batman
3. she's Batman's Baby Momma
4. and according to this issue, she's hella bad ass.

The new issue of Batman Incorporated is one crafty son of a bitch. 

Grant Morrison re-introduces us to the sinister ways of Talia Al Ghul. Intelligent, tough, and foxy as all get go, Talia is not a woman to be trifled with. Morrison takes us through the events that made Talia who her the person that is today and even pays it forward, adding a little extra to the mythos. At the end of this issue, Talia informs her father and the readers that the tables have been turned. Not only is she in charge, but Damian's fate from last issue is not as final as Morrison tried to fool us to believe. 

Batman Incorporated is a righteous jam of a comic book. I really do need to pick up those Morrison-Quitely issues in trade.

Wolverine and the X-men # 12

Yes, I know. It doesn't make any sense. If Beast walked out on the Avengers in Avengers Vs. X-men, why is he at their side in this issue, fighting against the X-men? I don't know and I don't really care. Who does?


I know, I know. YOU do. Editorial oversights that allow for heroes to flip-flop between books is sloppy and unprofessional. Give it a few days. More than likely, it will be the first question asked in this week's X-Position over at Comic Book Resources. 


In the meantime, soak in the Bachalo & Co art that makes an issue of Wolverine and the X-men the monthly, illustrated treat that it is while taking solace in the fact that Jason Aaron is promising us a fight between the Phoenix Five and Gladiator in the next issue.


Gladiator is from outer space and he has a mohawk. It very often doesn't get much better than that.

Preview of The Massive # 2

6 page preview of Brian Wood's The Massive # 2. 

The 1st issue of the The Massive wasn't the best thing that I read but it was engaging and I'm willing to stick it out for a couple issues. The world has flooded and a group of seafaring environmentalists are on a mission to find their missing sister ship. Should make for an interesting tale.

Indestructible Art # 36

Co-host Ryan calls in sick, allowing for my good friend Tony to step in and help us out with the episode. Tony is wicked smart and super funny. Me, I am a rambling mess and I apologize to whoever has to listen to me say anything about everything. That said, everyone else did an excellent job discussing the past week of comic book and video game news. We also talked about Saga # 4 which we all love. And Tony schooled us all on what you need to do to get your kid to read comics. Hint: it involves just leaving them around the house for your kids to discover for themselves.

Listen and rate the show over at iTunes. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. If you do the last two, I promise we won't bug you as much as we could because we are the worst when it comes to social media.

Thanks!

Preview of Archer & Armstrong # 1

Archer & Armstrong #1 – Five Page Preview (Lettered)

I was going to do a wait-and-see on this book it but reading this five page preview made me realize how much I miss this comic. A cover by Barry Windsor-Smith would be a fantastic

Ed Brubaker leaves Captain America

Ed Brubaker talking with Tom Spurgeon over at The Comics Reporter, let us know that he's done with writing Captain America:

By the time this interview comes out, I will have written my last issue.

Is Captain America still good? From what I gleaned from the sidelines, it became mostly meh when Steve Rogers was killed. I do love me some Criminal which I have collected randomly in trade. The only thing that keeps me from having all of them is the fact that when I'm confronted by a bunch of Criminal trades at my local comic shop, I always forget which trades are the ones that I already own.

As Bleeding Cool points out, Brubaker leaving Captain America is by far the least most interesting discussion in the interview, as inevitable subject of Creator Rights and Before Watchmen rears its ugly head:

But the thing that really bugged me was when Watchmen was announced it was, coincidentally, that same summer the entire industry rallied around Jack Kirby against Marvel. It was the era of the “Creator’s Rights Revolution” and DC really used Watchmen at the time. Part of the PR was that it was creator-owned, that these guys would get this property back. DC used it to position themselves against Marvel as the more creator-friendly company. 

I was at the San Diego Comic-Con the year that Alan Moore was there. I saw him talk about Watchmen and what a revolutionary thing it was that they’d gotten this deal for it. Part of it felt like a promise to the industry that things were changing. That this was different. And so while the book never went out of print and they never got their ownership, I always felt that on some level Paul Levitz seemed to respect the spirit of the deal: that they had created this thing and while DC officially owned it, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons had moral ownership of it, at least.

I really miss Paul Levitz.

I'm still here, friends. It's slow going when it comes to me sitting down and typing up how I feel about these comic books that have us by our heart strings, but don't think that I have forgotten.

I dropped $100 on an OVER-SIZED Moebius slip-cased hardcover the other day. I'm afraid to pull the shrink wrap off of it for fear of falling into a deep, dark place that'll take WEEKS for me to pull myself out of. To also further my street cred, I'm gonna brag / complain about how my book shelf broke the other night, crushing under the weight of Anders Nilsen's 658 page Big Questions, a Habibi hardcover, and a bunch of random issues of Giant Robot and Idn. If that isn't hardcore enough for you, then I can't do anything for you, my friend.

I'm still reading Avengers Vs. Xmen. How could I not? Avengers Vs. Xmen introduced us to the Cap Punch. Never before have so many talented creative minds come together to deliver something so blah. Thanks to the Cap Punch we can pinpoint the exact moment when we turned on our backs on the notion of this thing being any good.

And the Walking Dead. Am I the only one who thinks that Kirkman's writing, although technically proficient, is emotionally flat? 4 trades of my life given to that series and not once did I ever find myself caring for those people. The dramatic moments when a zombie attacks a character started to get boring and dull halfway through the 2nd trade. I really enjoy both Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard's work but they are not good at drawing zombie attacks. 


Sorry. The Walking Dead is uber-popular right now so I keep getting reminded of the $50+ spent on that series back in 2008.

You know what would be a good book? Remender and Opena on Astonishing Avengers. That would be a damn fine book.

Indestructible Art # 35

Another Tuesday, another episode of Indestructible Art. This episode is about rumors and things slipping between the cracks. And Batman # 10. It's a good episode. Give it a listen. We're on the Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to follow along.

Thanks.