Part two of my thoughts on the comics I bought on 23 September, in which I purchased three weeks’ worth of comic books. After adding Morning Glories to my pull list at Gosh!, I was expecting to have issue #2 waiting for me because it was supposed to have come out the week before. Alas, this was not to be – for first time I can recall, Gosh! had let me down and not reserved a copy for me. I’m still coming to grips with this fact, because I’ve never had a problem in all the many, many years of buying from the my favourite comic shop.
Books that I could have bought on 16 September 2010:
Joe The Barbarian #7
‘Why aren’t we wiping them out? We have superheroes and ninjas and laser guns.’ You can’t argue with that kind of logic – Joe is leading the heroic band towards Hypogea, which leads to a mighty battle, where Sir Ulrik has been waiting for them (‘They have zombies!’). This leads to some spectacular pages from Sean Murphy (the double-page spread that covers the battle scene is particularly impressive, especially because it includes Batman, Superman and Lobo action figures helping Joe). And then things turn for the worse: ‘All it takes is one wrong turn’, as Joe takes a fall in the basement. I can’t wait for the end of the series to see how it all works out.
The Unwritten #17
Confession time – I don’t care for ‘choose your own adventures’ stories. I know this makes me a dinosaur in the current climate, where interactive entertainment is the norm (and supposedly the future), but what I want is for someone with skill and a vision to tell me a story that completely absorbs me and takes me into another world. Having to select what happens from options always seemed like a cheat to me, so I never bothered with them. Which made this an unusual comic book for me, as it is presented as ‘A Pick-a-Story Book’. I picked the page on the right-hand side, which meant I didn’t do it properly, which at least validated my feeling about the idea. It just seems like too much hard work, especially the flipping back and forth between the pages. However, more information is provided for Lizzie and the story moves forward, so it must have achieved something, and it’s technically impressive to have worked out the logistics behind the process. But I’ll be happy if normal service is resumed next issue.
X-Factor #209
Peter David’s recent X-Factor stories have been fun because of the way he keeps shaking things up and using the history of the associated characters. Bringing Rahne back into the X-Factor fold to cause drama (and humour – everyone thinking that one of Madrox’s dupes could be responsible for her current heavily pregnant state), and then bringing in Doctor (former Nurse) Jane Foster to provide a connection to Thor for the current Hela storyline. He seems to be enjoying himself as well, because the jokes are good and zipping throughout the script. I’m happy to see artist Emanuela Lupacchino back again – I really like her style, and she handles the humour well and draws good-looking characters (although the figure-hugging mini-dress Doctor Foster is wearing for the conference she is attending is perhaps an incorrect choice). Good stuff.
