Comics: Week of Feb. 14 2007

52 Week 41 - So Charlie died off-panel? I'm not buying it until I see his body. This is all a trick, I tell you.

A trick!

Also, Starfire is rising in my esteem. They're really kind of forging that hard edge she had back in the day.

Astonishing X-Men #20 - Hisako, I think I may have mentioned before, is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I loved the exchange she has with crispy, dented Logan. It was so old school X-Men. I'm sad there are only four issues left in the run, but then when it's all over, I'm going to read them all in one sitting, just like I used to do back in the day when Uncanny was good.

JSA #3 - Is it just me, or has Johns suddenly embraced the ultra-violence? Punching Pantha's head off is one thing (unexpected, dramatic, a little funny) but watching some guy's family being slaughtered seemed a little over the top, especially by a speedster. I'm not complaining as long as the dramatic payoff is earned, and this isn't just a cheap way to raise the stakes.

I was trying to remember who pointed out that Ross's cover for this issue implies that not only does Maxine not wear underwear, but she also uses a depilatory product of some sort. I was sure that it would have been edited from the time it first appeared in Previews to when it hit newsstands, but no. I looked around to find other comments when I ran across the DC message boards. Here are some of my favorites:

"Is Alex Ross implying that Cyclone is the first non-underwear wearing member of the JSA? I think it is a grand move for distracting the foe, but the breezey nature could also distract your friends also."

"She's 19, if that matters. "

"I just hope it's not a factor of where her power stems from... "

"These big vagina women have been getting away with murder for too long."

And one wonders why comic readers are seen as male closet cases. I wouldn't have a problem with it all if it weren't for the typical fan boy mentality around it: the woman-as-object only for sexual desire and fulfillment. This mentality usually involves pointing and saying, "tee hee, she ain't wearing no drawers" which is quickly followed by a) some inappropriate speculation, b) lame, broad demeaning of women's sexuality and c) hasty retreat via condemnation (of the artist, company, etc) because all the crouching masturbators out there are suddenly embarrassed.

Maybe it's me. Maybe it's because the Vagina Monologues is still rattling around in my brain from last week. Maybe it's because this issue came out on Valentine's Day. Maybe it's because I'm tired of weak men treating women as inferior objects... I just want to say get over it and get to know a real girl or something.

Manhunter #28 - Seems like a little bit too much is going on to feel satisfying. We have Shaw off with the St. Dumas gang, Chase getting pulled back into a thread from her own late 90's series and then there's Kate's story. They're trying to tie things up, it's clear. Kate's story is the only one that feels open-ended, as she's being groomed in a way for her transition to Birds of Prey. The others are being resolved, either for good, or for someone else to take up the baton. Shaw's story suffers the most, I think, as there's no good way to reference the whoel Azrael thing. As far as Chase, this may give her character closure that's leftover from her own cancelled series. I'd love for DC to bring her back again, somehow.

I was hoping more for a blow-out, but who knows? There's a rumor that the next big event may stem from something out of this final arc.

Nextwave #12 - Was this planned to end? Some of the dialogue felt positively elegiac, and the interaction between the characters, for once, felt genuine. I'm greatly saddened by the end of this series.

The reveals about who's behind the whole Beyond Corporation felt appropriately weird and logical at the same time. This issue kind of ties the whole thing together in a way that it didn't before. I wonder what Ellis had planned after the first year, and I wonder if he'll ever return. These are probably the most compelling iterations of these characters, ever.

"A M.O.D.O.K. and a M.O.D.A.M. made sweet monkey love by the light of a rack of Worlds of Warcraft servers, and I was the result."

Indeed.


Tags: 52 astonishing x-men jsa manhunter nextwave