Villains month. Ayes. So it did seem
quite shite when the news first broke way back when. Though to be
fair. Almost all news tends to be met with at least a somewhat
negative response. Comics are just like that. Change in my opinion is
the work of the devil. Or at least another almost as important daemon
like creature. I remember when I was just a lad the adds for avengers
vs x-men sent our own dovay davey into an unstoppable rage. Millions
died. So basically. A lot of decisions that are made in comics tend
to sound amazingly shite when you first here them.
Villains month sounded AMAZINGLY shite.
Like. Basically everything about it. The the villain take over. The
point one nature of the books. The fact that a fair chunk of them
aren't by the same creative teams. The SHEER amount of books. And the
3D covers. That I feel was a gimmick to far for a lot of folk. They
REEK of the 90s. Not a bad thing in my book. But definitely in a lot
of other comic buyers. I'm forever hearing rumblings of another comic
book crash. A negative effect of the 90s. So I can understand why
most folk widny want to be reminded of that particular decade by
theses shiny covers. Those folk are bastards. Just remember the
endless summer !
So ayes. Wasny existed for villains
month. I was still gonna get it of course. Just wasny at all hyped
for it. But then that last justice league issue happened. The end of
trinity war happened. And I was BACK IN THE GAME. Trinity war was a
lot of faffing about. It has to be said. There was a lot of running
about and wonder woman being utterly horrible. That will be my
abiding memory of the mini non event thing. That and the sheer crazy
holly shit factor of the last issue. It was a proper goff johns last
issue of an event. Meaning stuff ACTULLY happened.
I doubt its any kind of spoiler at this
point. But the actual contents of Pandoras box was a portal to
another world which the crime syndicate rocked threw. That's pretty
neat loikes. Like the implication for magic in the dc verse are kinda
fucked considering the box was only supertech. But hey ho. We got
some solid as all fuck villains out of it. Now this is my first time
dealing with the crime syndicate in actual comics. Iv seen them in
the brave and the bold cartoon and I know of them from general comics
lore though I'm assuming thieve been updated for cutting about the
new 52 verse. Now. It dosent really matter who they are. I just think
its cool there actually something. A real threat that has to be dealt
with in the present. In the beginning I just assumed villains month
was going to be mostly origin story's and dat. Though with with
forever evil as the first proper event of the new 52 I should have
known better.
So I got four dc books this week. All
of varying quality and shininess. Lets take a quick gander !
First up is joker #1. its odd.
Appropriately so ayes. But iv not really decided if its the good kind
of odd or the bad kind of odd. Its not at all what I thought it was
going to be. Though I'm not actually sure what I thought it would be.
Its surprisingly weird yes. But a book being odd and strange in no
way makes it a good comic. The main chunk of the story is the joker
cutting about with his face on raising his son. who is a ape he
kidnapped. Ayes. Now it is a joker story so there is a hell of a lot
of room for joker to a an unreliable narrator. For all of the issue
to be utter bull shit his mad brain has just made up. I get the
feeling its aww real though. And its just written in an older less
palatable style to modern sensibility's. I personally did enjoy
reading it. Though I did find the insights into the jokers childhood
to be somewhat pandering to the youth of today. And if anything in
the issue wasn't quite real it be those bits. His aunt was basically
evil olive oil from pop eye. Who abused him. So now he abusing and
killing other folk. I don't care how real a thing that is. It can get
the fuck out my comics. Its a SHIT trope. Other than that I thought
it was pretty neat. Balances the evil sinisterness and the need for
sillyness of the joker quite well. At least in my opinion. And its
the one book that most people will probably get this month even if
thieve sworn of the event. Popularity power of the joker after all.
Next up is grodd #1. and its defiantly
the least good of my dc purchases's this week. Not bad at all. Just
the least good. Nothings wrong with the over all story. The gorillas
have made peace with central city and both sides are committed to
rebuilding and living in peace until grodd rocks up and ruins
everybody's day. The premiss is incredibly flash like. normally in
modern comics civilians be they man or ape tend to be right bastards.
Not so in the flash. Mainly because big barry allan is generating
enough lad to go around. And its only really grodd that spoils that,
but that's good. Because he's a bad guy. Its what there meant to do.
Now. I did say this was the least good dc book I read. That's mainly
because certain parts of it come off as a little clunkie. This group
of lesser villains just turn op for grodd to kill. I'm not
underselling it. They just turn up midway threw the book. Ayes there
moving in on flash territory but it could have been handled a little
better I feel. Anyway. Still worth a read and the art its hella warm
and wovely.
The last of the 3d covers I got was
count vertigo #1. surely to be the critical darling of the first week
of villains month. It gets major points for having green arrows
actual creative team behind it. Big jeff limire likes. It hits all
juicy tropes so beloved by the youth of today's hippster audience.
Vertigo had an abusive child hood. A drug addict whore failure of a
mother who he eventually mercy kills/ takes vengeance on. He's turned
in a psychic child solider. Aww the classics. Well. There not thaaaat
comen. Its just the over all tone they create is very much something
designed to appeal to the hated youth of today. Thing is it works. I
attribute this to the continued SHEER metal gearness of lemirs run on
green arrow. Vertigo is BASICALY psycho mantis. And his sad back
story is fits with a lot of bosses from any given metal gear solid
game. So aye. Its probs the mainstream indi book of choice for dc in
particular. This week. And yes I did enjoy it. But god damn it
hipsters.
Finally we come to forever evil. The
first proper event of the new 52. now ayes, there's been hella cross
book events. Particularly in the lantern books. But this is the first
proper eventy event standalone book but with hella tie ins. To my
knowledge. I could be talking uttter shite. But lets carry on like
I'm not. Its a first issue so yes there's a lot of set up. Something
that I should have expected but after that last issue of justice
league I assumed it be straight into the action. Sadly not. What we
got was still staggeringly entertaining for how weirdly subdued it
was. Let me explain. There was sort of a low key tone to
proceeding's. Which ayes. Set up and all that. But there's these
moments of sheer insanity. Like ultraman snorting kyrptonight. And it
also give it points for the crazy amounts of super folk ripping giant
doors off there hinges. There's something pirmaly super heroy about
that. And ted kord might be back in the game. ACTUL POINTS THERE. So
lots of fun so far with crazy potential to get even amazinger. Yeah.
So defiantly a solid start to the
month. Lets hope it continues to go well