Saturday, February 16, 2008

Comics of the Week (2/13/08)

Astro City Character Special #1 - Beautie - From a stunning Alex Ross cover to a wonderful Kurt Busiek written tale, this done in one special focuses on a previously unknown hero in Astro City. The story, while a little predictable, reads very well and presents a new character in full form. Kurt is excellent at this kind of stuff. It is a shame Astro City books can't come out more regularly than they do though.

Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #11 - a nice tie-in with the 31st Century and the 21st Century by using Mars and J'Onn J'onzz in the tale (okay, not really J'Onn but still...). Another fun, done-in-one tale.

Salvation Run #4 - they always used to say that monkeys on the cover sell comics. This one has two, with one bashing the other over the head with a brain in a robot body. Gotta love that! The inside delivers the cover fight, a brutal one. This whole series is brutal with villains at each other's throats on the alien world, and one lone hero trying to make sense of it all. My love of villain tales has me loving this mini. Three more issues to go. Can't wait to see how it ends and who is left standing.

Countdown to Final Crisis #11 - OMAC is assimilating Apokolips! If that isn't scary, I can't think of what else might be. This mini has ten issues left and I am certain the whole thing will be throwing down on Apokolips with the remainder of the cast. I cannot guess how this will all turn out, and I'm loving that. That's how to hook and keep readers.


Comic of the week - Booster Gold #0! Yes, zero - as in tying in with 1994's Zero Hour event. Given that Dan Jurgens was artist on that as well as this title and on Booster's original series, this issue is a nice way to link all of that together. There are some hilarious lines in this issue - I won't spoil them but readers will know what I mean. This comic is pure fun, pure adventure - just the way comics should be. Is it any wonder it is at the top of my list every month? Nope. I hope this title continues on this level for years to come.

2 comments:

Jim McClain said...

Martin,

Beautie isn't a new character in Astro City. She's been in Honor Guard since the beginning. She helped fight off the Enelsians in the Confessor story arc too. She also appears in the "Tarnished Angel" stories. I agree with you that I wish Astro City could come out more often. The Dark Age stories haven't done much for me, but this one reminds me of why AC is my favorite comic book.

Anonymous said...

Uh, Martin, Beautie isn't a new character, exactly - she's been around a long, long time.
This was the first chance we got to really see her private life - such as it is - and origin, though. Remarkable done-in-one tale.
My main quibble is that this is right in the middle of the Dark Age - and THAT series is already taking a ridiculously long time to come around. I mean, why put the effort into this story when you could just finish the damn story you already started?
Astro City is a good book - but it would be a lot better if it came out reasonably on time. If you can't do the work then wait until you have a coupleof issues done, hey?
THis is the very first time I'm seriously thinking of waiting for the trades from now on.

KC