Friday, November 08, 2013

OK, this week's comics:

A good batch of comics this week, and my store was shorted Ballistic #3! Well, still a nice pile.

There is a far more objective review of Amazing X-Men #1 at CBR, but the reviewer points out that storywise, the issue coasts a bit on "Woo! Nightcrawler's back!" and the general swellness of Ed McGuinness's art. But those two points carry it quite a ways for me, too. I think this is supposed to be a five-issue storyline, so Aaron's got time for more plot later. You all know I'm on the hook for this one: the Comic Book Shop even got me to buy a spare with the variant cover, too!

Baltimore: the Infernal Train #3 is the conclusion of this limited series, but sets up the next one nicely. (This is three of three, but really #18 in the series.) The titular train is powered by vampires, burning them instead of coal, as a series of sacrifices to awaken a dark god; but even that is only a roadblock to Baltimore in his quest for vengeance against the vampire Haigus. So is the insane inquisitor Duvic, who is determined to destroy anything he feels is contaminated by evil--Duvic would be better served going after the vampires than Baltimore, for a number of reasons, not the least of which being Baltimore is bad ass. Killing vampires seems like an easier target. A well-executed book: even though I've read the novel, I'm still enjoying the journey here.

I've also been quite enjoying Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye--just in time for it to start a massive twelve-part crossover with Transformers: Dark Cybertron #1. D'oh! Being a relative newcomer, there are some points I'm probably not completely up on--the name "Jhiaxus" sounds familiar and I feel like it should mean something, but I don't know the character. And in an already somewhat sprawling cast, I was surprised to see Rattrap and Waspinator, two characters from the Beast Wars cartoon. (Putting that in superhero terms, it would be like Legion of Super-Heroes members just wandering into the scene of All-Star Western: they might exist in the same universe, but not the same time, usually.) Still, the book does feature Autobots being heroic and snarky, in the right measure, so we'll see if I go all in.

Since I don't have cable right now, and there's only a few episodes on Netflix, the comics are my primary source for Regular Show, and issue #5 and the first issue of the Skips miniseries were out Wednesday. There's a Blake Babies song, "Nothing Ever Happens" that I think Mordecai and Rigby would probably agree with: they probably feel like nothing ever happens, even when facing a mad hair-cutting robot, infestations of freegans, or a visit to a geyser-covered national park. The latter is from Skips' series, which looks like it is going to go with a Groundhog's Day story, and looks like it's going to be fun.

We're three issues into the George Lucas-rough draft version of the Star Wars, and while it's interesting in a "what could've been" sense and the art is nice, the characters still don't really feel fleshed out, even for Star Wars characters. I think if I sat down with the previous issues and read them together, it would hold together a little better. Itty Bitty Hellboy #3 is also from Dark Horse, and likewise not a bad book, if I kind of feel like I'm buying it out of Hellboy completionism. (And I don't have a complete Hellboy collection...not quite.)

And with that, I'm out for the weekend! Already got my tickets for Thor: The Dark World, too!

Scans from Amazing X-Men #1, Tradd Thomas Moore Deadpool variant cover, written by Jason Aaron, pencils by Ed McGuinness, inks by Dexter Vines.

Baltimore: the Infernal Train #3, written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, art by Ben Stenbeck, colors by Dave Stewart.

Transformers: Dark Cybertron #1, written by John Barber and James Roberts, layouts by Phil Jimenez, finishes by Andrew Griffith, with prologue art by Brendan Cahill.

Regular Show #5 written by K.C. Green, art by Allison Strejlau; with "Freegans" written by Brandon T. Snider and art by Wook Jin Clark. Regular Show: Skips #1 story and art by Mad Rupert.

The Star Wars #3 based on a rough draft by George Lucas, script by J.W. Rinzler, art by Mike Mayhew.

Itty Bitty Hellboy #3 story and art by Art Baltazar and Franco.

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