lolcat of the week for 3/31/09

Comics Shipping for 4/1/09

DARK HORSE COMICS

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24
Who Wants to be a Superhero: The Defuser

DC COMICS

Authority #9
Bang Tango #3 (of 6)
Batman: Battle for the Cowl: Man Bat #1
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazan #4
Dead Romeo #1 (of 6)
Flash: Rebirth #1 (of 5)
Greatest Hits #6 (of 6)
Haunted Tank #5 (of 5)
Jonah Hex #42
Justice Society of America #25
Looney Tunes #173
MAD Classics #25
Mighty #3
Preacher #1 – Special Edition
Prototype #1 (of 6)
Scalped #27
Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye #1 (of 3)
Strange Adventures #2 (of 8 )
Superman and Batman #57
Teen Titans #69
Teen Titans: Annual
Trinity #44

IMAGE COMICS
Astounding Wolfman #14
Cyblade #4
Jersey Gods #3
Killer of Demons #2 (of 3)
Noble Causes #40
Savage Dragon #146

MARVEL COMICS
Agents of Atlas #3
Amazing Spiderman #590
Astonishing Tales #3
Avengers: Invaders #9 (of 12)
Black Panther 2 #3
Cable #13
Captain America Comics, 70th Anniversary Special #1
Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2 (of 5)
Dead of Night Featuring Werewolf by Night #4 (of 4)
Deadpool #9
Destroyer #1 (of 5)
Dr. Doom: Masters of Evil #3 (of 4)
Franklin Richards: April Fools
Invincible Iron Man #12
Marvel Assistant Size Spectacular #1 (of 2)
New Avengers: Reunion #2 (of 4)
Official Index to the Marvel Universe #4
Secret Warriors #3
Universal War One Revelations #1 (of 3)
War of Kings #2
X-Men First Class Finals #3 (of 4)

OTHER PUBLISHERS
Angel Blood and Trenches #2
Army of Darkness #18
Betty #179
Boys #29
Buckaroo Banzai Origins
Cars Rookie #1 (of 4)
Farscape #4
GI Joe #4
GI Joe Movie Prequel #2
Glamourpuss #6
Gravel #10
Irredeemable #1
Knights of the Dinner Table #149
Masquerade #2
Pals N Gals Double Digest #130
Sabrina Vol. 2 #101
Shrapnel #4
Star Trek: Countdown #4
Star Trek: Crew #2
Tales from the Crypt #11
Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #4
Transformers Spotlight: Jazz

Some items of interest this week include part 3 of the Deadpool/Thunderbolts crossover Magnum Opus.   Several DC miniserieses ending this week.  New Avengers: Reunion is out again this week, but frankly I disliked the first so much I probably won’t even look at it.  Otherwise it looks like a slow week for the big 2, they’ve already gotten their big titles out recently, so we’ll have to wait for next week,

Who’s a Winner in Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Comic Awards

Nickelodeon’s has started their own comic awards bit.  The Nickaloedeon Magazine Comic Awards.  The twist in this one?  The awards were all chosen by polling kids.  The catagories were pretty standard, with the exception of “best hair in comics,” and the “grossest thing in comics.”  Something called a Diary of a Wimpy Kid showed up twice, including “best graphic novel” so maybe it’s looking into.  Best hair obviously went to Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.  The Simpsons Comic was voted best comic series, and Snoopy was voted the cutest comic character.  It’s good to see that some classics are still getting recognition among kids.  Otherwise it was pretty uninspiring, with a bit of statistical inaccuracy mixed in.  Some catagories were only availiable for voting via online and cell phone ballots, so the same pool of children did not vote on all the awards.  Nothing majorly wrong with this, per se, but as a math and science person, this is the kind of stuff I notice.

Aquaman’s Lament

Here’s a fun song my Mark Aaron James, it’s called Aquaman’s Lament.  I really like how the Aquaman uses the fact that he’s had 7 gin and tonics as a real selling point; “well, he does all that fun stuff, but look at what I’ve had, SEVEN gin and tonics!”  Enjoy!

Review: Deadpool #8

It’s so refreshing to see Deadpool with his own series again.  I have to admit, for all my love of Thor and the Cap being such amazing heroes, Marvel has some damn great anti-heroes, most certainly including Deadpool, who always sets off with the intention of selling to the highest bidder, and more often than not, tends to come home with no cash at all because much to his dismay, he did something stupid… like the ‘right thing.’

Lead up to the Story

Deadpool has been engaging in shenanigans as usual, been jumped by random b and c list villains, most recently Tiger Shark, out smarted friend and foe alike, and served up enemies to zombies.  Through all of this, he’s found out that both his friend Bob and Tiger Shark were hired to take him out.  The hit was put out by none other than Norman Osborn, or Oscorp.  Basically, if you weren’t paying attention, Norman Osborn is the new Tony Stark and runs the new SHIELD (called HAMMER).  He tricked the world into thinking he was a savior by killing the Scrull queen, using information that Deadpool got for Nick Fury.  All in all, Deadpool is pissed, and this is part 1 of what we can hope is a good old showdown at noon.

Plot Synopsis

Daniel Way has Deadpool begins his assault on Stark Tower.. Osborn Tower?  I don’t know.  He’s assaulting it anyway (this review is starting to sound more and more like a Deadpool comic).  As I said above, this is the first part of the story arc, called Magnum Opus, and is part 1 of 4.  It starts with just a little back story, and goes straight into action really.  Deadpool initially runs into some robotic traps, steals the Iron Man chest piece, throws some bad hair jokes Osborn’s direction, and begins his ascent.  We are then plunged into a classic Deadpool hallucination.  This one is a Jack and the Beanstalk parody, and although it is only a few pages in length, it falls sort of flat.  Not that it is bad, it just seems to be an unnessessary stopping point in the story, a storyline bottle neck of sorts.  As unfortunately for us that it does, things start going worse for Deadpool when he gets into a fight with his inner monologue, or readers.  I can never tell if the white boxes are supposed to be readers, a voice in his head, and if the yellow boxes are him thinking.  No matter what the case, they’re ignoring him, because when he reaches the top, it’s not Osborn who’s waiting for him, it’s the Thunderbolts.

Art Critique

The art is pretty well done, Paco Medina has the Deadpool look down to a T.  Explosions, guns, action scenes, he can do them with great skill.  Basically, everything that you are most likely to encounter in a standard issue of Deadpool.  Sometimes faces are an issue, and can come out disproportional (for example, see the recap page), but this is the exception rather than the rule.  The hallucination, which I mentioned was not my favourite part of the story, really gives Medina a chance to shine, and he takes it.  Everything is much more comic than usual, and I mean that in two ways.  First, it’s absolutely ridiculous, which is awesome, the adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk is right on target.  Secondly, if you look behind the action, you’ll see that the background is actually made up of dots, as the old comics and newspapers were.  The only major criticism that I have is that when Deadpool takes the Iron Man chest piece, it’s not immediately apparent.  I had to look back and check a few times, and maybe this was intentional, but there could have been a larger colour and size difference.  That said however, the third page or so, the full page spread with Deadpool decked out to assault Stark/Osborn tower is pretty fantastic, it’s always great to see how each artist will render Deadpool fully equipped for action.

Is it Worth Buying?

I would say absolutely, this looks to be a good story arc.  We know that Daniel Way can write a good story, and he’s set it up perfectly for a high action comic in the next issue, with a great cliffhanger.  Even to non-deadpool fans, I would recommend picking up the next few issues of Deadpool.  The story is great, the art is great.  Daniel Way has come into his own with his ability to deliver one-liners befitting Deadpool, with just enough humor, and a few thrown in there that probably only make sense to Deadpool himself.  I will be looking forward to the next issue, to see how the merc with a mouth settles the score not only with the Thunderbolts, but also with the voices in his head.

EDIT: Magnum Opus is Deadpool 8-9 and Thunderbolts 130-131.

You caught me…

I recieved an email this morning asking why I haven’t been posting as many reviews lately, and if I am “stalling” for some reason.  Yup, you caught me, I’m stalling.  I had a bout of real world-ness to deal with (applying to graduate school, working 2 jobs at 12 hours a day) and just hadn’t been able to get to my local comic book store.  Mix this with my chronic, compulsive need to know a whole story, and as a result I’ve got a whole big pile of comics sitting around, in a huge mess.  Well, in an attempt to clean up the house, I decided it was finally time to really organize my comic book collection last week.  I took a photo to send to a friend, and it is reproduced here.  From top to bottom, right to left, the following comic piles have been organized in such a way that Howard Hughes looks rather commonplace…

At the top is a mess of comics I determined that I had read, so I bagged and boarded them.  Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Rebellion, Star Wars: Legacy, Star Wars: Dark Times, Comic News (yes I save them), random bargain bin comics including a number of Alpha Flight, Thor, Marvel Knights publications, Conan: The Cimmerian, two comics featuring Fin Fang Foom (look for a post on this pile!), Wolverine: Origins, X-Men: Legacy, Uncanny X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, X-Force, my DC pile, Captain America, War Machine, New Avengers, varios Iron Man comics, Weapon-X: First Class, and Deadpool.  The largest piles by far are Star Wars: Legacy and Knights of the Old Republic.  Right now I am wading my way through these comics, and enjoying every minute of it.

So, yes, I was stalling, and I got caught.  But have no fear, reviews are incoming, probably even one today, so make sure you check back at Your Comic Relief for all your comic related needs!

Watchmen meets the Simpsons

This was too hilarious not to share, V for Vacation? hahahahaha

Thai Firefighter Dresses up as Spider-Man to Rescue Autistic Child

Now here is a news story you don’t see every day!  In order to save an austistic child, a thai firefighter dons his Spider-man costume (which he usually uses for school fire drills), and brings the kid a cup of juice.  How amazing is this?  On a slightly mawkish note, this ties in nicely to the moral of the  story in “Nemesis” which I discussed yesterday.  Does anyone remember when cartoons had the moral at the end, I distinctly remember Rocky and Bulwinkle having one, and of course GI Joe had their PSA announcement.  This story really shows what a little bit of ingenuity can do to save the day, and create a real life hero.

(queue moral-of-the-story scene)

Comics Shipping for 3/25/09

DARK HORSE COMICS

Conan the Cimmerian #9
Indiana Jokes and Tomb of the Gods #4
Star Wars Legacy #34
Umbrella Academy Dallas #5
Usagi Yojimbo #119

DC COMICS

Batman: Battle for the Cowl, Commissioner Gorgon #1
Batman: Gotham After Midnight #11 (of 12)
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #3
Cartoon Network Block Party #55
Gears of War #5
Jack of Fables #32
Justice League of America #31
Madame Xanadu #9
Oracle #1 (of 3)
Planetary #1
Resistance #4 (of 6)
Superman #686
Top 10 Special #1
Trinity #43
Unknown Soldier #6
War That Time Forgot #11 (of 12)
Wildcats #9
Wonder Woman #30

IMAGE COMICS

Amber Atoms #2
Darkness #76
Elephantmen #17
Spawn #190

MARVEL COMICS
Amazing Spider-man #589
Captain America #48
Daredevil #117
Dark Reign Elektra #1 (of 5)
Fantastic Four #565
Guardians of Galaxy #12
Immortal Iron Fist #24
Incredible Hercules #127
Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #46
Mighty Avengers #23
Ms Marvel #37
New Avengers #51
Nova #23
Runaways #8
Skaar: Son of Hulk #9
Squradron Supreme #9
Thunderbolts #139
War Machine #4
War of Kings: Darkhawk #2 (of 2)
Wolverine: First Class #13
X-Infernus #4 (of 4)
X-Men: Kingbreaker #4 (of 4)
X-Men: Sword of Braddocks
X-Men: Times and Life of Lucas bishon #2 (of 3)
Young X-Men #12

OTHER PUBLISHERS

Archie #595
Archie: Double Digest #197
Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War #3 (of 4)
Caped #1 (of 4)
Crossed #4 ( of 9)
Death Defying Devil #4
Futurama Comics #42
GI Joe Origina #2
Incredibles: Family Matters #1 (of 4)
Mupper Show #1 (OF 4)
Sonic Universe #2
Terminator Salvation – Movie Prequel #3 (of 4)
Transformers: All Hail Megatron

Marvel is having a big week, with a lot of titles comic out, and several miniseries coming to an end.  There’s also a good number of palindrome comics, the ones that I remember specifically were Superman and Fantastic Four, and upon rechecking, Archie.  Three for one week is pretty high.  This is a pretty heavy week for me, with Captain America, War Machine, Hercules (which I have to remember to add to my pull list because I love it), X-Men, Conan, Star Wars, as well as Batman.  Overstreet comic book pricing guides are also released this week in both hard and soft cover.  What comics are you going to pick up?  Do you have any recommendations? Let me know!

lolcat of the week – 3/24/09

I very much appreciate the expression on the cat’s face.