comics chat ! bagguy and david !

Bag guys adventures in villains month #1

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

Comics the now

Hullos !

 

Comics right now are pretty damn good. I cant really remember a poor week for ages now. I guess there's a few reasons for that. I'm buying a wee bit more books now. Long gone are the days of only picking up amazing spider man. Damn they were good times. Now marvel has caught up with DC and have started putting out there new stuff. I'm a bit bummed that there renumbered books haven't had a synchronised launch but that might have been a bit too much like the new 52.

Aye I think ill still call it the new 52 on here despite it being auld and not exactly the same 52 books. Its been damn good though. Kept up the pace pretty well. Batman's been there top book since day one and I'm still loving it. The book got off to a rocking start and even though I had my doubts when it looked like that bat god would break snyder pulled it back in style with the silliness of the end of the court of owls and this new bat perfecting his YOUR INSANE paunch. Right now bats is onto another mega arc with the joker back in town starting shite. Its damn good. Ideally id just want an instant bat god win. But for the sake of drama its damn gid.

Action comics its fucking insanely brilliant. Like fucking insanely god like in its awesomeness. At times. Sadly its has its ups and downs. Now the downs arny really downy downs there just not highs. Which is a shame. Now that last issue just gone. #13. hoo lee fuck. Had me crying manly tears. Superman rides to the rescue of a mission to mars base and its apparently British crew. Super man at his supermanyist. A fusion of superman , Dr who and gurren lagann ! At times it felt like Morrison was writing it just foe me it was that spot on to what I like to read about.

Aquaman by the way. He's a bit of a lad. Well no, not really. He's just the standard man on a mission character the big goff likes to write. The aquaman book though. Now there's a hell of a lad. Like all comics its had its ups and downs. Its opening arc had some gosh darn fantastic moments. Establishing everyone in the DC verse thinks of aquaman the way the real world thinks of him. Id have personally like to see him just being the brave and the bold version but the loser hero was an alright way to go. The recent aquamans 90s anti hero team arc could have went badly but the team showed there true colours as not an anti hero team at all but a RANGER time. That last arc had a hell of a Saturday morning cartoon vibe. Its geof johns I know that's his thing but god damn it was glorious. It was the atlantian millennium items that did it for me.

The guardians of the galaxy continue to be moustache twirllingly evil. Its damn entertaining to watch. Sinestro and hal were finally getting down to the serious business of being buddy cops in space but they got sucked into a death hole. So theirs a new green lantern kicking about earth. Surprisingly cool dude. The preview images made him look quite the dick. Running about with a gun. We dinny need another John Stuart. Well no another current comics John Stuart. A justice league cartoon John Stuart would be joyously welcomed with open arms at this point. Aye so the new guy. What's his name. Cool dude. Canny fly yet. Drives construct cars. As fast as the flash. Like I said. Surprisingly cool dude.

Now marvel. Marvels fucking insane. Like proper loopy. Not entirely sure why. But they are. Big news was amazing spider mans getting a renumbering after issue 700. that's a huge kick in the balls. I feel like they renumbered it before and it didn't take. So we're all probs taking bets as to when it resets. Bigger news was that it might not be peter under the mask after 700. now that's probably the biggest ball kicker of the year. Maybe that hole Disney star wars thing. Its defiantly a big deal. Now normally with this kind of thing you'd just write it off as a desperate attempt to build up hype for a book. But here's the thing. Marvels fucking insane. We're at the point ware they could actually kill off peter god damn Parker. In the year of his 50^th anniversary and a recent film release. Now I'm not all that up to date on it but hopefully its just dan slott the eternal lad taking the piss. But if not. Calm the fuck doon marvel.

 

 

Now despite there insanity they do make quite fine comics. Avengers vs X men was pretty well done in my opinion. Not to everyone's taste I expect. It really was a lot of fighting. But I have to stress. Damn good fighting. Cyclops. Cyclops is an utter bastard. But a loveable bastard. He's just so amazingly evil. That's what I took away from A vs X. I know that's not always been his character but its some thing for him to do at any rate. Marvels moved on from civil war a bit. Now there bastard of the event is at least employable evil unlike Tony stark was back then.

I picked up Two X books in the aftermath of the event. Not really an X fan but I thought id give them a chance. Uncanny avengers just blew me away. Two things did it for me. The the just plain awesome casual vibe. And the red skull stealing prof X's brain. HOW AMAZINGLY RED SKULL IS THAT. Aye prof X has been dead for two hole seconds and BOOM red skulls in there. No hesitation. Proper old school villainy. Now this Wednesday just past big brain Michel bendis swaggered into the room and slammed all new x men on the table. It was actually pretty good. Staggeringly. Now the full impact of the first issue was spoiled by previews but the idea of getting young Scott summers to come to the future and talk some sense into himself is a damn amazing idea. Nice one bendis.

The fantastic four books missed a trick. They ended there current run going to save Dr doom from a universe he crated that turned against him. Aye naw pal. That might be actually what would happen given the circumstances and dooms actual character. But that's not what would happen to the lad doom. Lad doom would never need the fantastic four to rescue him. Lad doom wouldn't need rescuing at all. Lad doom would be off conquering universe's duel wielding infinity gauntlet like the ultra lad he is. Now to the books credit despite this fall at the very last hurdle the issue did have some fine moments and quite doomy lines form the lad himself. Sad that the run over really. The new runs just kicked off. Bit to early to say how its going but baglys art it is grately appreciated.

I decided to pick up iron man. Juuuuuuust as the book was gearing up for its final arc. Gotta say I like what I read. Very very metal gear solid ish. Sad I missed out on the hole run now. Might have to go pick up the trades at some point. Actually I don't think iv bought new trades outside of xmas presents since I started buying comics by the monthly format two or three years ago. Damn likes. That's something for me to think about. Picked up the new number one with him in his new black and yellow armour. Only one issue down of course but so far its not as good as fractions run. Not bad though. A few nice bits here and there. Gotta wait and see ware it go's

Lastly iv been venturing into deeper comic waters. The darker depths of indi comics. Well indi-er than the two big company's. Saga is a damn fine piece of comicbooking. Its the new one by that there y the last man guy. Now a fair bit of it is quite out there for my taste but that's offset buy its incredible comic booky-ness. Its about a couple and the new born child escaping from two factions at war with each other. IN SPACE. Grant Morrison's new book, happy is hopefully a piss take of mark millers indi books in particular and mark miller in general. It is defiantly a piss take but hopefully that will be made official eventually. Happy is a charming Christmas tale of a scumy scum bag and his tiny wise cracking flying purple unicorn buddy. It be horribly depressing if its not a piss take. So you can see why I want it to be one. Has to be. Hopefully

Also I'm back !