Comic Stack 8/13/09

So this week's stack... not a huge one.

Still waiting on my shop to get Veil #2... not sure if this is because they didn't order it or they just missed it. Diamond said LAST Wednesday it should have come out so who knows. Got an order in for it now at any rate.


DARK HORSE:

BPRD 1947 #2
It got weirder. Its hard to explain a Mignola comic past issue one without completely ruining it for people. And I just talked about it in a recent post. Good story, good characters, great art... if you are into Hellboy, jump on it. Its good stuff.


DC:
BATMAN #689 (The Bat Universe in general has its own piece this week cuz my review got long and detailed. Read it here.)
Review of the new issue itself: Batman (the title) has at least remained interesting. Two-Face is damn sure the new Batman roaming Gotham is NOT the one he's used to dealing with and is doing his best to study him for... probably some plot to take him on directly and see who this punk thinks he is. Its a good read. Its dealing mainly with how Dick Grayson actually BECOMES Batman. Sure he fits into the suit, but does he suit Batman? Modifications to both tech and demeanor reflecting the new Not So Dark Knight are brought up and implemented. Its a great companion piece to Grant Morrison's Batman & Robin which seems to be the book we the audience (and I'm starting to wonder if not the other Bat writers as well) must wait for to get any meat around here. But as far as the new Bat direction, this book is still on a well done and interesting course. Good time to jump in for anyone looking to get their Dark Knight reading on.


MARVEL:

DEADPOOL #13
Still written by Daniel Way (thank you very much) but a new artist that makes me scared Marvel isn't going to take this book as seriously. Or the other guy was so awesome (and he was) that he got a great offer he couldn't pass up and this current artist was a last minute replacement. Filler art I guess I'd call it. We left Deadpool rich as HELL after his pseudo stalemate with Bullseye (a stalemate it was obvious Bullseye would have to lose being mortal and all). And what would Deadpool do with so much money? Start his own gig as a pirate! Sounds dumb? You haven't been reading or you'd be on board. Trust me. Its funny. If you haven't jumped on Deadpool yet, perfect time as this new arc has JUST started with issue 13. And you can get by without knowing continuity to get onto Deadpool unlike...

UNCANNY X-MEN #514 (Utopia Chapter #4)
Here, you need your background. It's X-Men! The greatest long running soap ever, of course you need your background! So Osborne exploits volatile situations to gain power and start his own franchises of various factions of super teams. We know this. But now he's exploited the X-Men, even started his own team led by Emma Frost... who's been dating Scott Summers for many years now and just accepts this position? And wait, Scott's not even pissed at her? I read this and I'm screaming 'what the hell writers? I want some s'plainin'!' I'm sure they will. Its all a part of Brian Michael Bendis' (once again) opus, Marvel Universe wide storylines: Dark Reign. Osborne has missed a very important detail in the mutant news feeds as of late however: Cyclops became a bad ass a few years ago after the Mutant population was nearly wiped out (as in under 200 known mutants at this point, the rest are either dead or depowered). Scott Summers does not take shit anymore. Neither do any fellow mutants in his X-men. In this issue, Cyke makes moves to take these "X-Men" head on. A young mutant asks 'but what about Osborne's Avengers?" Cyke says don't worry about it, they're not our concern. Who's concern are they? Enter the new Wolverine led X-Force! (Which has its own ongoing title right now and I HIGHLY recommend it; its a whole team of the most dangerous mutant assassins doing Cyclop's black ops dirty work, its amazing). A throw down between X-Force and the Avengers? Trust me, its gonna be hard to get better than this.

The writing in this book is handled by Matt Fraction who isn't Brian Michael Bendis and he leaves a lot skimmed over in my opinion, but he writes a solid, entertaining book. He hasn't been around that long (to my knowledge) and seeing how this book is a cross-over series with Dark Avengers (which is Bendis helmed), the juggling of such a ridiculous amount of characters must be insane. I can't be too harsh when taking that into account. So far it reads a lot like Secret Invasion did (in the sense that it moved in broad strokes you had to keep up with and ask questions later on certain details). The art is handled by the very welcomed Terry Dobson. The man has a talent and I've enjoyed his work for quite a while. I was glad so see his pencils on this book.

Overall this is a very exciting plot, even if little details are getting clipped a bit more than they should. If you haven't been following Dark Reign at all, you'd probably be ok...? Definitely get your local shop to help you grab Utopia Chapters 1-3 though.

So that's the stack this week. Don't forget to check out my piece on the current state of the Bat Universe.