Seven-day Spotlight: It lives!!

After a brief hiatus, the Seven-day Spotlight is back and ready to roll! The tires have been rotated and fluids have been topped off, so let's take a spin around the comic blogs block and see what caught my eye this week:

Seriously guys, Ken Lowery's point isn't really about Doctor Who or Russell T. Davies. Seriously. (via Dorian) (Andrew had something to say about the whole thing, too.)

Brian Hughes illustrates why "Hulk vs Thing" will always be a classic match-up.

Wow, have I been staring at Kevin and Birdie's Rack for a year already?! Time flies, eh?

Brainfreeze looks back to get a handle on the future of kids and comics.

Who could know more about fun than everyone's favorite li'l stuffed bull? Bully wraps up his Fun Fifty of 2007 (and don't forget to read the rest of the entries!).

That Sims — what a softy.

Batman tangles with El Bolo! Muchas gracias, Mike Sterling!

Gah! Friggin' clowns, man! Thanks for the Golden Age nightmares, Pappy.

Friday Night Fights: You'll put an eye out!

Thanks to the attention movies like Cloverfield and The Host have been getting, you might be asking yourself, "What can I do to defend myself and my community (and I guess that jerk, Johnson) from a giant monster attack?"

If you're Fin Fang Foom and you and your fellow shrunk-to-human size pals have access to the Fantastic Four's flying bathtub, the answer is simple.

You throw Gorgilla at 'em.

Panels from Fin Fang Four one-shot

Wait for it ...

....

Waaaaiiiit for it ...


Got 'im!! How do you like them apples, Johnson?!

But, you say, I'm not Fin Fang Foom and I don't have access to the Fantastic Four's flying bathtub! Or Gorgilla! What do I do?!

Um ... hide behind Bahlactus?

Following a link? You can read more of Great Caesar's Post here!

WTF Wednesday: The Beard Hunter - on the razor's edge!

Welcome back, fans of the weird, to the clean-shaven oddity that is ...

WTF Wednesday Presents:
The Beard Hunter!

"Beard Hunter?" you might ask — "What the hell's a Beard Hunter?"

"THE Beard Hunter" (thank you very much) is the sort of satire only Grant Morrison could've cooked up during his warped run on Doom Patrol, and it's one of the crazier characters he came up with — which, if you've read his Doom Patrol stories, is saying something.

In this stand-alone story, vigilante Ernest Franklin is an urban hunter, a misunderstood soldier waging a lonely war — against facial hair. Why? Why target the bearded, the mustachioed, even (or maybe especially) the goateed? Because those guys are obviously assholes, that's why.

After shooting a comic shop patron from a nearby rooftop for saying, "Ron McMurray, award-winning writer/artist on 'The Glo Worm' didn't understand the elementary rules of grammar," our anti-hero shaves off his victim's Van Dyke and leaves him silky smooth on the hood of a car. Unfortunately for him, he's also dead.

You'd think that would earn this gritty punisher of evil some respect, but you'd be oh-so-wrong. After getting hassled on the street by some cross-dressing hookers ("They were lucky. No beards.") he goes back to headquarters. Which happens to be his mother's house. Can't a guy just go home to spend time with his stuffed dog and body-building magazines?

Moooom!!! Jeez!!

Next week: Who is the man with the blue beard, and what does he want with The Beard Hunter?!?

Panel from Doom Patrol #45
Grant Morrison, writer; Vince Giarrano, penciller; Malcolm Jones III, inker

The Pull List (2-6-08): Counting down to OMAC

You know what's the hardest part about putting this thing together? The introduc ... to the list!

Countdown Special: OMAC: So, I haven't been reading Countdown, or any of the Countdown related one-shots, not out of any real ambivalence but mostly just out of a severe case of disinterest. When it first started I tried to figure out what exactly it was counting down to, but then decided I didn't care, especially when several reviews started detailing it as confused and aimless and — worst of all — boring.

It figures it would take something like the One Man Army Corps to break my streak.

How mind-blowing is the very concept of OMAC? Man, OMAC is a character with a name that says it all; when Jack Kirby called him a one-man army corps, he wasn't screwing around. Set sometime in the near-future, OMAC is pure, mohawked Kirby genius, pitting a relentless hero against the kind of off-the-scale action and weirdness that has to be read to be appreciated. Even though there's only one of Kirby's stories featured in this one-shot anthology (a full collection of his run is set for release soon), that alone makes it a good place to start if you're new to the world of Buddy Blank and Brother Eye.


The rest ...

Justice Society of America #12

Metal Men #6

Vinyl Underground #5

North Wind #2

Wasteland #14


Maybe ...

Incognegro: An interesting idea, but one that can either be a thoughtful starting point for discussion, or something that will deliver shallow pontificating at the end of a sledgehammer. Personally, I'm hoping for the best with this story of a black reporter investigating the arrest of his brother by using his lighter skin tone to "pass" for a white man in the early-20th century's American South. The concept is fantastic, and I'm curious to see if the story itself holds up. Curious? Check out the preview.

Gyakushu! Vol. 2: I enjoyed the first volume of Dan Hipp's sorta-samurai revenge manga, but I'm not sure it grabbed me enough to pick up the second. While a lot of interesting groundwork was laid, along with a couple of satisfying fight scenes, for the most part it left me wondering if there was really anything there. The art was great but most of the book seemed to be a series of drawn-out character introductions, and the flashback-within-flashback story structure slowed things down just when the plot seemed as if it should be ramping up. Seriously, I liked it — I just don't know if I liked it enough. (The preview, though, looks awesome.)

Scud: The Disposable Assassin: Man, I used to love Scud — 10 years ago! That is a hell of a long time to wait for a follow-up, and frankly I'm a little worried that — like that hot girl you used to dig — it just won't be the same now. It'll be hard, but I just might end up waiting for the promised omnibus instead. I just hope it doesn't take another decade.


Trading up ...
(These are titles I either am, or will be, picking up in trade)

Abe Sapien: The Drowning #1


Recommended ...

Pantheon High Vol. 2: I pretty much like everything about the first volume of this manga written by local boy Paul Benjamin (y'know, the guy behind Marvel Adventures: Hulk, among other goodness). The art is the standard "manga-style" most people are familiar with, but the story of the children of gods from various cultures going to high school is funny, clever and peppered with just the right amount of action and panty-shots to pull it all together. I've been waiting for the second volume, and thankfully that wait is over. If you're already a fan of manga, or if you've been wondering what all the fuss is about, Pantheon High is worth adding to your list. Want to see for yourself? Read a preview of volume 1!

Hulk rehydrate puny human!

Earlier today, I was sitting at my desk contemplating Spider-Man.

It wasn't about the implications of the One More Day storyline, or how off the mark the last movie turned out. Mostly, it was along of the lines of, "They put that little figure in a cool pose." And then, as I glanced at a plastic Green Lantern ring while reaching for my drink I thought, "I've got a lot of superhero crap in here."

And I keep adding to it. Because I wasn't reaching for just any cup — I was reaching for a Hulk Slurpee cup. Last week I rediscovered the movie-related cup waaaay in the back of one of my kitchen cabinets, where I'd tucked it away the last time my wife threatened to throw it away, and decided to bring it to work. I can't really blame my wife for wanting to throw this cup away; it's unwieldy and there's always been an aftertaste that's best described as "funky."

But it's a Hulk cup and I've refused to give it up. Plus, it's a COLOR-CHANGING cup. OK, it really only changes from a light green to a darker green, but mainly that's to show the transformation of Bruce Banner to the Hulk with some nifty overlay, shading and the application of ice-cold slush. (Though I may have — ahem — ruined that by running it through the dishwasher too many times.) If you look closely, you can still see the Hulks' face hidden in Banner's chest and hip.

Man, I cannot wait to see what kind of search results that turns up.

I've tried to my desk at work from overflowing with comic book stuff, but it tends to creep in until, like memos and take-out menus, they seem to be everywhere. I know I'm not the only one, so let me know in the comments what kind of comic book ephemera you have littering your work space. And if you post about it I'll update here with the links.

Blech. That water really does taste funky.

Friday Night Fights: Either way, Superman will make you cry

If Superman ever decided to drop reporting as his day job, he'd make a hell of a motivational speaker.

Panel from Action Comics #565

Well, as long as you need the motivation to smack the crap out of someone in Kryptonian battle armor.

Wait a minute — what am I saying? Bahlactus already leads a weekly seminar on crackin' heads!

Following a link? Read more of the Post here!

WTF Wednesday: Enter: The Beard Hunter!

Are you prepared for the baby-faced terror? Are you braced for the silky smooth feel of freshly shaved menace? Are you ready for ...

The Beard Hunter?!?

Click for a closer shave!

In my mind, Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol is the definitive version of the misfit group of heroes, and the sheer tonnage of pure bat-shit crazy in any given issue is a big part of that. There's so much nuttiness in this one issue that one WTF couldn't contain it! To share this bounty I give you the first installment of WTF Wednesday Presents: The Beard Hunter!

Next week: More Beard Hunter!

Panel from Doom Patrol #45
Grant Morrison, writer; Vince Giarrano, penciller; Malcolm Jones III, inker

The Pull List (1-30-08): A trip to the tradin' Post

In my mind, this little feature is supposed to be posted on Tuesdays. Who knew, right?

This week I'm going to blame the slight delay on something new being added to the Pull List: Trading Up is a section highlighting comics that I'm interested in reading but, for various reasons, I'll be waiting until they come out in trade. Sometimes it's something that looks like it would be better to read in one big chunk, and sometimes it's something that I had been picking up monthly, but have decided to see whether or not it's worth following all the way to the end of a storyline (or at all — dun-dun DUN!).

Now — on to the list!

Wormwood: Calamari Rising #1: Wormwood is without a doubt one of the weirder comics out there. It's sort of a horror comic, but that's mostly because the main character is a tiny demonic worm that tools around in a fully-functional corpse. In spite of its macabre setting, Wormwood is really a humor comic, wringing comedy out of clever word-play, sight-gags and good-old-fashioned gross-outs (seriously, leprechauns are far from anything magically delicious in this book). It doesn't hurt that Ben Templesmith continues to be a hell of an artist, drenching everything in washes of color that brings his weird, sketchy little world to life. He also does a solid job with the tongue-in-rotting-cheek writing of this title, and putting it all together it's easy to see that Wormwood is his baby. If you only know Templesmith from 30 Days of Night or Fell, give Wormwood a try and see his work from a slightly different, and much funnier, angle; it's good stuff.


The rest ...

Captain America #34

Daredevil #104

Green Lantern #27

The Spirit #13


Maybe ...

Ral Grad Vol. 1: On one hand, this fantasy-based manga about a dragon, hellish creatures that spring from shadows, and a boy who's kept prisoner in a pitch-black cell for 15 years sounds interesting. On the other hand, it's based on a video game. But on another, Stryker-like hand, one of the personality quirks of the main character is a fascination with squeezing booby. Decisions, decisions ...

Salem #0: I had to read the solicitation a couple of times to get it, but I think this is about a coven of witches who are a manifestation of God's punishment for some major sin of mankind, and a Solomon Kane type of character is all that's between them and ... God's will? I guess? I'm not sure I get the conflict, but still, it sounds kinda neat so I'll be giving it a look.


Trading up ...


Conan #48

Suburban Glamour #3

Y The Last Man #60


Recommended ...

Manhunter Vol. 4: Unleashed: I really, really wish they would bring back the Manhunter monthly. It was fun while still maintaining some grit, with a strong and smart female character that readers actually cared about. In the meantime, the trades are a good way for people who are new to this Manhunter to catch up and pine with the rest of us.

What Were They Thinking? Vol. 1: The stories from this occasional anthology are silly, funny and almost as much a love-letter to the goofy age of comics as it is a roast. And hey, Kevin wrote some of it (and other fine folks like Blue Beetle writer John Rogers and comics godfather Keith Giffen) so check it out.

Friday Night Fights: Winter Soldier's brand of unarmed combat!

In a recent issue of Captain America, the Winter Soldier was captured by the Falcon and Black Widow and then held prisoner on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. Considering his reputation as a bad-ass, you'd really think the S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists studying his cyborg arm should have realized he'd have something up his sleeve.

Panel from Captain America #33

I love that the second scientist tries to reason with it; arms don't care, man! A foot might give you a break, but arms — like the mighty Bahlactus — will only hand you a knockout!

Following a link? You can read more of the Post here!

WTF Wednesday: That's a pretty good excuse

Who else could that handsome devil be but the intrepid Jimmy Olsen, who is nothing if not a gentleman. Seriously, would you still have the cojones to show up for a date after:

• chugging down some old elastic-serum to save a little girl who's falling from a building,

• turning into a shapeless pink blob (with freckles),

• running from a mob that thinks you're trying to hurt the little girl because your vocal chords are apparently as blobby as the rest of you and all the explanation you can give is "rraaggh,"

• and finally being presumed dead because an eagle-eyed reporter saw the pile of clothes you left behind and quite rationally concluded, "The monster ate Jimmy!"? (Thanks a pantsload, Lois)

Hell, I've been an hour late for things just because I wanted to catch the end of Blossom, and I don't even stop off for flowers. Oh, and you might be wondering if there was anything that could've hipped Jimmy to the thought that drinking old, unstable elastic-serum wasn't a good idea.

Well, nothing Jimmy would notice.

Panels from Action Comics #563
Craig Boldman, writer; Howard Bender, penciller

The Pull List (1-23-08): Coming clean about Jack Staff

There are some good comics coming out this week, and some serious new contenders that might be showing up on this list for months to come. Like what, you ask? To the list!

Jack Staff Special #1: I have to make a confession; I've never actually read a full issue of Jack Staff. I've flipped through copies, and I've read plenty of reviews that made it clear it's a book I'd probably really like. Believe me, I wanted to read Jack Staff. I burned to read it. But most of the reviews also hinted at a fairly deep back-story, with characters and a background that, honestly, was a little daunting. Thankfully, this Jack Staff special is supposed to be a stand-alone story that makes a good jumping-on point, as well as a kick-off for the now-monthly title. Wow — that's a lot of hyphens. Anyway, I'm looking forward to finally seeing what I've been missing: Jack Staff, your mysteries will be revealed!


The rest ...

Army @ Love #11

Astonishing X-Men #24

Blue Beetle #23

Wonder Woman #16


Maybe ...

Afterburn #1: Maybe it's just the afterglow from re-reading Atomic Robo talking, but this pushes a lot of the right buttons for me. Good looking art, a distinct crime-adventure feel, and it's all dropped into a post-apocalyptic setting — which, y'know, is one of my drugs of choice. And I appreciate that the premise — treasure hunters chasing the valuable artifacts left behind after half the world is ravaged by a massive solar flare — puts a new spin on a familiar set-up. Check out the preview and see what you think.

New World Order #1: You know what else is like crack for me? Anything that name-checks the Illuminati. I don't know if that'll be enough for me to pick up this occult-espionage thriller that makes me think of a mix of Planetary and Challengers of the Unknown, but it's something I'll be at least keeping an eye on. Get it? An eye? With the Illuminati and the ... ? Aw, forget it.


Recommended ...

Infinite Horizon #1 (2nd printing): I'm enjoying this title — a modern retelling of The Odyssey set in a Mideast war zone and anchored by a character known only as The Captain — in almost every way. The writing is measured and well-paced, keeping things moving with a mix of gun-burst action and steadily building tension. And the art, which has so far used a surprising palette of mostly pastel browns and yellows, really works for what is turning into a quietly muscular title. If you missed it the first time around, be sure to pick up this reprint of the first issue.

Heath Ledger, 'Dark Knight's' Joker, dies unexpectedly

There was bad news tonight when it was reported that Heath Ledger, the Oscar-nominated actor who will be playing the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie The Dark Knight, was found dead in a New York City apartment.

Making it especially sad was his young age — he was only 28 — and the family he's left behind, including a 2-year-old daughter. At the moment there hasn't been any cause of death given, but pills were allegedly found near Ledger so there has of course been speculation that he committed suicide. It's still early in this sad event, so there are a lot of theories and stupidity flying around; someone on CNN just commented that Ledger had said playing the role of the Joker "really got into his head, and he was having trouble letting it go," and needed Ambien to go to sleep — apparently making a half-assed attempt at connecting it to his death. We'll have to wait and see how the whole thing washes out.

In spite of his youth, Ledger had plenty to brag about: He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in Brokeback Mountain, and was also known for his roles in popular popcorn movies like 10 Things I Hate About You, The Patriot and A Knight's Tale (one of my mom's favorite movies).

Like a lot of people, I was a little surprised when Ledger was announced as the Joker for The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins. I thought there was no way this pretty boy could pull it off. But as more news and movie stills started coming out I started to think he might not only be able to pull it off, but he could actually be a great Joker. I reached a point where I was excited to see Dark Knight, and especially Ledger's Joker.

I'll still be looking forward to seeing it, but it will be sad to think that the movie was the actor's last. I think when I see The Dark Knight, I'll be rooting for the bad guy.