Comics I bought This Week: April 5, 2007

Another week where only one of my regulars was in and a new regular at that:

Buffy Season Eight - 2

Along with that I finally bought the collected version of Frank Miller's 300. I've been meaning to get it for a while but it was never a priority. Slow week and a little cash in my pocket made me do it.

I just finished reading the first hardcover volume of Astonishing X-Men which reprints issues 1-12 of that series. I'm kind of ambivalent about it. It's good and it's bad. The artwork by John Cassaday sure was pretty and the plot and dialogue by Joss Whedon were fine. There were the requisite amount of "cool moments" that make up current super hero stories but there didn't seem to be much meat on the bones.

Whedon kept it simple and stripped the team down to mostly members from the classic Byrne/Claremont days. That appeals to my tastes since those were the days when I read the X-Men regularly but still something wasn't right. There is an awkwardness to the storytelling that I can't put my finger on. Maybe it is the lack of any kind of narrative or scene setting captions. With the plot depending on so many mysteries and surprises I don't think the dialogue carried it all along especially well. The X-Men spend a lot of time hanging around the mansion oblivious to the plots unfolding around them. Since most of the dialogue is spoken by The X-Men yet most of the plot is forwarded by others these is a disconnect to the whole thing. I had a hard time getting into it but when the "cool moments" hit they were powerful. That's when I could get into it. At least for a few pages then the disconnect started again. A bit of a frustrating read.

So overall I'm still ambivalent. The cool stuff is cool. The awkward stuff is awkward. With the "A" level talent involved in this book it's worth checking out and deciding for yourself.

Week Fifteen of my reviews of recent DC Comics.

Teen Titans - Titans Around the World TPB - This book reprints Teen Titans 34-41. I've reviewed some individual issues in this story line before and my review is basically the same. Some solid super hero action but nothing to get too excited about. The Doom Patrol guest stars in the first few issues and I that was my favorite part. I was a little miffed that they went the "Everything You Know Is Wrong (EYKIW)" route with the Chief (the guy who heads the Doom Patrol) and made him a manipulative jerk with good intentions to no one but himself. Though I did like the interaction of the two teams. Check it out if you want a Teen Titans fix.

The Boys 6 - This has got to be the dumbest comic book out there today. Cheese. Pure 100% cheese. But the over the top violence keeps people coming back for more. Well, except DC Comics they cancelled it.

Warlord 8-9 - I'm an old school Warlord fan so I really wanted to like this book. I reviewed and was disappointed with the first issue when I bought it last year. I hoped it would get better as the series progressed but it's worse. The story and characters barely resemble (except for visually) the original series so it's obvious the only reason this is called Warlord is for marketing purposes.
Warlord isn't a modern man out of time trapped in a barbarian world anymore. He's a god (complete with super powers) inhabiting a man's body and running around getting into intrigues among a royal court. Whatever. The book also has some of the worst inking I've seen. Stay away from this mess.