John Buys Comics, It's Official

Underground No. 1 (of 5)

Well, all right. Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber tell the tale of a town and a cave. Crap, wait. I meant to make it sound better than I just did. Let me start over.

The town of Marion isn't doing so well financially and so the people are all for a plan to open up a local cave system for tourism. Of course, the presence of massive crowds of people tends to irreversibly screw up basically everything about a cave's workings, so the area's park rangers are opposing the plan.

And since what I just laid out for you is a recipe for a comic about council meetings and petitions and possibly a bit of filibustering, there are ample amounts of nefariousness, licentiousness, explosions and sass-mouth to liven up the proceedings. The protagonist, a rare-in-comics short lady name of Wesley Fischer, is passionately against the project and, unless I miss my guess, is about to be put in mortal peril because of it.

Plus, it's interesting and written well and doesn't feature anyone in a cape - we might just have a new addition to the "lend to those who don't like super-heroes shelf". Huzzah!

Wednesday Comics No. 12

The end of the great experiment! Let's break down how it all went down!

Batman: Looked great all the way through. I reckon that this story would read better in a single reading than sequentially, though. Hey, what do you know, it's on the front page! It's the easiest one to read! There were no aliens or demons.

Kamandi: My Christmas wish to Grampy Tanglebeard this year now includes an ongoing Kamandi series. Post apocalyptic adventure comics at their finest. There were no aliens or demons.

Superman: I was never very taken by the art but now that this is done I like it a lot more, partially because it, more than any other Wednesday Comic, works better as a complete story than as a series of installments and even more because of today's installment, in which Superman is revealed to be absolutely gigantic, much to my drunken amusement. Also, a lovely Batman gag. There were aliens and no demons.

Deadman: Terrific. This comic looked great and never stopped being a good time, especially with the neato reveal a couple of weeks ago. There were demons but no aliens.

Green Lantern: A decent enough yarn, but it seems.. unbalanced. I'm pretty sure that there were more weeks devoted to flashbacks than alien-fighting. There were aliens but no demons.

Supergirl: Nice and light, in the best possible sense of the word. Brought me nothing but joy and was the only one to end on a note of  adorability. There were aliens but no demons.

Metamorpho: A couple of weeks ago I had a bit of an inkling, but today I was suffused with joy: Gaiman and Allred were continuing the Haney run from where it left off! That alien guy was Metamorpho's mysterious enemy from the 60s comic! The one who was never revealed because the book was canceled! Element Dog! You two beautiful madmen, I love you! There were aliens but no demons.

Teen Titans: I wasn't too sold on this at first, but this was a solid story. The art was very nicely adapted to the format after a rocky first couple of weeks and the plot was entertaining to me. It pleased my brain. Most improved. There were no aliens and no demons. Wait, except Kid Devil. And Ms Martian.

Strange Adventures: Paul Pope wins the awards for best adventure comic of the bunch, best title and best use of mandrills. If he could be persuaded to keep doing this then I would buy Wednesday comics forever. There were aliens but no demons.

Hawkman: Man, I wasn't feeling this one. I liked a lot of moments from it but I couldn't get into it as a whole. Still, the last installment, like that of the Superman story, made me smile and redeemed its brethren somewhat. There were sliens but no demons.

Metal Men: I love me some Metal Men, and this was a decent Magnusbot experience. the penultimate episode was the best. There were no aliens and no demons.

Wonder Woman: Like Teen Titans, a much improved comic. The odd style grew on me after a while and the art looked better suited to the format at the end than it did at the  beginning, but the biggest thing that sold me on it was Etta Candy. I'm a big fan of the Golden Age Etta and this might just be the best reimagining of her that I've ever seen. Woo woo! Also, Dr. Poison is a great villain name. My only real problem is with the whole "last of the Amazons" thing. Is it like, the fact that she's the last of them to be born or are the rest of them gone? Is Diana just hanging around on an empty island? So confused. There were demons but no aliens.

Sgt. Rock: Oh dude. This was lovely to look at and feature satisfying Nazi beatdowns, but... twelve installments dedicated to a guy getting out of a room? That's rough. There were no aliens and no demons.

Flash: This one just kicked my ass on a regular basis. Seriously, just look at some of the design-work on this thing. I think that I clapped once. And neither aliens nor demons!

Demon and Catwoman: I was up and down on this one but the last couple of weeks got me back in the positive camp. I think that the  clincher was the implication that about an hour after the final comic ended Selina and Jason were humping like monkeys. That and the iambic pentameter. There were demons but no aliens.

So that's it. I would participate in this experiment again, doctor. No real insight on the alien/demon thing, just an observation on the fact that they are thick on the ground.

Detective Comics No. 857 - Or should I add the "Batwoman in" part to it? I guess I should, shouldn't I. It's like Action Comics Weekly or the like. In any case, the name that the comic goes by doesn't mean much as compared to the contents, which signify nothing but good times. Take all of the gushing that I have done about this run, even the bit about the octopus man, and smash it together for this issue. A truly entertaining read. And in the back, an appearance by irascible scientist Aristotle Rodor!

Supergirl No. 45 - Things that I liked about this issue of Supergirl other than the general good times of the story: a scrolling newsfeed making reference to the events of Detective Comics, Lois finally calling Cat Grant on her wenchery, the fact that Squad K is headed by the archetypal "leader too tough to wear a helmet like anyone else".

The Web No. 1 - Oog... I really want this  to be a good comic. I'm going to defer all commentary in favour of a SECOND ISSUE OF JUDGMENT. Fingers crossed, gang.

Superman: Secret Origin No. 1 (of 6) - I like it! But it''s late and I've had a couple of beer and I think I'll articulate more about issue 2. One observation: if every interpretation of Superman requires an interpretation of Jor-El then I have to say that that is a good Jor-El. Right up there with the Silver Age and Byrne versions.