The Pull List (5-29-08): That's a whole lotta Morrison

Holy crap! Three different books by Grant Morrison coming out in the same week, along with some of my favorite ongoing titles?! Let's just say that if my weekly comic budget was a diet, I'd be stuffing my face with cupcakes and spare ribs ... delicious, delicious spare ribs.

Who else is hungry? To the list!

It's no secret Grant Morrison is one of my favorite writers, so when he's the source of three fairly significant titles coming out at the same time, it's kind of a big deal. Big enough that the only way I can wrap my mind around it is to squeeze All Star Superman #11, Batman #677 and Final Crisis #1 into one big lump of weirdo goodness.

All Star Superman has been a consistently strong title, re-energizing Superman with plenty of Morrison's hyper-modern, out-there concepts while fondly touching on iconic characters, locations and scenarios. There is nothing about AS Superman that doesn't feel as if it's solidly two minutes in the future, but at the same time it is nicely familiar and exceptionally inviting. A lot of the credit for that goes to the characterization of Superman himself, who is portrayed as the ideal hero who, essentially, is just trying to be the best person he can be. I have no idea if Morrison will revisit his version of Superman once this storyline ends with the next issue, but if not, at least I'll be able to reread and enjoy what will be considered a landmark Superman story.

As if that weren't enough, Morrison is also the writer for Batman #677 (part of the Batman R.I.P. story) and Final Crisis #1. Morrison writes an interesting Batman, and more importantly an interesting Bruce Wayne, so I'm curious to see where he takes things. Final Crisis is supposed to be the definitive wrap-up to the whole Infinite Crisis-52-Countdown thing, but really sounds more like it ties into his excellent (and mind-bending) Seven Soldiers "mega-series." Personally, that sounds A-OK to me and makes me care more about a story I might have chosen to ignore instead.


The rest ...

Giant-size Astonishing X-Men #1: The finale to Joss Whedon's big ol' X-Men in Space story.

Blue Beetle #27: Another issue written by pinch-hitters while the title transitions to a new, permanent creative team in July. Also — more Traci Thirteen.

Daredevil #107: Great crime-noir driven stuff every month about Marvel's mopiest superhero. It's the start of a new storyline, so try jumping on if you haven't already.

Immortal Iron Fist #15: Not only has the regular storyline been a fantastic blend of mystic kung-fu, superhero scenery chewing and sinister political machinations (not to mention a super-sumo named Fat Cobra), but the occasional looks at the Iron Fists of the past have been a highlight of this series. It's a clever way at deepening the legend of the Iron Fist and helps give Danny Rand an honest-to-God legacy; it also gives us titles like, "The Story of the Iron Fist Bei Bang-Wen — The Perfect Strategy Mind and his Miraculous Travels to the Dark Continent, and What Mysteries of the World and of the Self that He Learned There (1827-1860)."


Trading up ...
(Titles I either am, or will be, picking up in trade)

Fables #73

Green Lantern #31

Thor #9


Maybe ...

Firebreather #1

Zombie Tales #1

Beyond #1


Recommended ...

Immortal Iron Fist Vol. 2: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven (hardcover)

Jack Kirby's OMAC: One Man Army Corps (hardcover)

The Nearly Complete Essential Hembeck Archives Omnibus (trade paperback)

Favorite Panel Friday: Astonishing X-Men

Some people have criticized Joss Whedon's work on Astonishing X-Men, saying he tends to shoehorn certain quirks into his characters or that his rat-tat-tat dialogue has become a repetitive trademark.

All I know for sure is that Whedon, along with series artist John Cassaday, made me fall in love with the X-Men all over again.

This isn't a blind love, though - I'm fickle, and my affection is reserved just for Astonishing. The art has been across-the-board gorgeous — just look at that panel from Astonishing X-Men #20 — with expressions and body language that work like a second layer of dialogue.

And about that dialogue: The playful banter, the quick retorts, the tough-guy posturing are all elements I remember making me an X-Men fan in the first place. I think it's pretty obvious Whedon's a fan himself, and that's not a bad thing at all, especially since he seems to not only love the X-Men, he gets them. Cyclops sounds like Cyclops, but he also sounds like Scott. In Whedon's scripts the characters not only sound like superheroes, they also sound like real people who just happen to have super-powers.

In a way, I think that's what the X-Men is supposed to be about.

So, smarty-pants, you might have noticed that after all this talk about dialogue ... there isn't any in the panel above. That's because Whedon not only writes fun patter, he also crams more raw action into a single issue than you'll find in just about any other monthly comic out there.

Aliens with blasters and eye-whiskers! Kitty goes all ninja and uses her phasing power at the same time! And Colossus hits a guy so hard he hits the ceiling!

DUDE PUNCHES A GUY INTO THE CEILING!

That pretty much speaks for itself.

Astonishing X-Men #20: Joss Whedon, writer; John Cassaday, artist