Friday, July 25, 2008

Favorite Panel Friday never misses the hamper

The next round of Friday Night Fights doesn't start for another week, so it seems like a good time to revive an old, neglected feature here at Great Caesar's Post — Favorite Panel Friday!

OK, so you might not be familiar with Favorite Panel Friday (I wasn't kidding when I said it's been a while). Basically, it's my favorite panel from the stack of comics I bought this week ... not necessarily a panel from the best comic of the week, just the one that stuck with me most.

So what was it this week? Something highlighting the excessive pinkness of Atlas in Superman #678? (Because seriously, dude is pink.) A riveting scene of people talking in an office from Daredevil #109? Not this time, fans of watching people order take-out!

No, this week belongs to Ambush Bug.

A fan from way back, I've been waiting for Ambush Bug: Year None #1 ever since it was announced. Surreal, absurd and an antidote to comics taking themselves too seriously, the character is one of my favorites, and after his appearance in 52 I was happy to hear he would be getting some solo attention (not as dirty as it sounds, though I am hoping for a happy ending).

So far, it's not quite the book I was expecting: The ha-has are fast and frequent, but most of them are very insidery and I had to hit Google more than once just to get the joke. I can only imagine how frustrating (or worse, unfunny) it would be to someone who hasn't been reading comics for years. And seeing Ambush Bug playing the straight man was a little jarring and, for me at least, out of character.

But! All of that is forgiven because this book also gives us the return of Ambush Bug's greatest nemesis, Argh!Yle!, an irradiated, deformed and maniacal sock that believes he was long ago abandoned by the Bug. And of course, where Argh!Yle! goes, his evil army of socks is sure to follow.

Behold — the dreaded peoplepult of Argh!Yle!

So damn evil ... and yet, so darn adorable.

Panel from Ambush Bug: Year None #1
Keith Giffen, plot and pencils; Robert Loren Fleming, dialogue

1 comment:

Siskoid said...

Yes, I thought the humor was a lot darker than it was before too. I mean, it's a take on the girl in the fridge meme, right?

Then again, AB spent a lot of the Nothing Special as a burnt ribcage, so maybe it's not so far afield.