I Like Big Butts

If you follow me on Twitter (@Gint_McSoss) you'll see something I like to do every so often called "Words That Always Sound Dirty." Among those are words like throb, quiver and penetrate. Added to the list once I saw The Hobbit was "defile." As in Azog the Defiler. No wonder the dwarves are terrified of the guy.

Tonight is New Years Eve and we bid a fond adieu to 2012. As comic nerds we had some highs (The Avengers) and some lows (the Superman comics). But since we keep going back to our nerdist ways, the good must be outweighing the bad.

Good luck to everyone with your 2013 resolutions and with 2013 in general. Its probably not going to get any easier.

Happy New Year!

-Mc$oss  

Gint's 12-26-12 Pull-List Review

Two great reads this week. A week to state, "this is why I read comics."

Second Place:
Justice League #15

Its the calm before the storm and its Geoff Johns at his best.

Johns can craft an exciting, big screen, big action spectacle but where he really shines is when he opens the door on who the Justice League is behind the capes and cowls. He has a great understanding of their interpersonal relationships with thier families and with each other.

This issue is the setup before Aquaman's brother Orm attacks the surface world. Its the first strike in the Atlantean war plan that Aquaman himself constructed while he was leading Atlantis.

Ivan Reis and his team take over the book from Jim Lee and it doesn't miss a beat. As far as comic creator "power couples" go, Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis have a solid spot on that list. And Reis and company's work is outstanding. A couple of the later issues of the Aquaman run dropped off a little bit, but the enthusiasm seems to be back for Justice League and that's good for us readers.

Johns and Gary Frank's Shazam backup is just as good getting into the meat and potatoes of the story. I love seeing Frank's work, but at the same time I'd like to see this story get folded into the main book and use the full breadth of the book for the Justice League story. BUT, that would mean losing Frank's art and that's unacceptable.

First Place:
Aquaman #15

For as great as Justice League #15 was, Aquaman ekes it out for the top spot this week.

Picking up right after the events in Justice League, the League prepares for Orm's attack on the surface world. No matter why Orm is attacking, the League has determined Arthur needs to bring him is as a criminal, not as the King of Atlantis. I always though Aquaman had potential to be a great character, and Geoff Johns is giving me the character I always wanted him to be.

Paul Pelletier takes over art duties for Ivan Reis who is now on Justice League. Pelletier does a great job. I was a big fan of his work on Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy and I'm thrilled that he's over at DC. His style is very similar to Reis though a little more stylized. This is going to be a great looking book when its collected.

Panel of the Week:

A look at what Paul Pelletier is bringing to Aquaman.

-Gint
 

For The Man Who Has Everything

Christmas has come and gone. The magic of gift giving is over. We have New Years in a few days and then we do it all over again in 2013. 2013, which looks an awful lot like 2012 so far except a few things to look forward to:

DC's Trinity War Event
More Hellboy In Hell issues
Man of Steel
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

I'm sure there are others. I guess we can put Iron Man 3 on that list too. So the golden age of being a comic book fan goes on. I keep waiting for the bubble to burst, and it keeps on keeping on.

Here's to 2013.

-Gint    

Soss' Pull-List Reviews 12/27/12

Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan #3

Dr. Manhattan sees the damage done by changing the timeline of his accident and goes about the business of correcting events from his past. We get some backstory about his mother and his young life in war torn Nazi Germany.

This was my favorite read of the Dr. Manhattan books. I enjoyed the flashbacks and JMS added some much needed meat to Jon's character.

Adam Hughes stepped his game up considerably. This book is chalk full of breath talking action scenes and beautiful girls. This book makes me long to see Hughes pencil a regular series.-Soss

Panel of the Week: The Silk Spectre is so hot she can make people change reality.

The Holiday Spirit

No matter your religious denomination or holiday traditions, Mc$oss wishes all of you out there a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Merry Kwanzaa and so on. Even if you're a douche that ruined a much beloved franchise from our childhoods, we wish you a good one.

Happy Holidays from Mc$oss 

Gint's 12-19-12 Pull-List Review

The Pull-List the week before Christmas was a mixed-bag.

Fifth Place:
Supergirl #15

Mike Johnson holds the writing reigns in navigating the Supergirl issues through Scott Lobdell's H'El On Earth storyline. I haven't been reading it, so I'm hoping its over soon and we get back to what made Supergirl a great book when the New 52 launched.

Mahmud Asrar is still on art and he's still doing a fine job. But tying into an uninteresting story... we'll you can't shine a turd. H'El somehow has the power to shrink Kara down and send her into the bottled city of Kandor to steal Kandor power source. He's tricked her into doing this of course.

It seems like a crazy-ass silver age story. I don't know why so many Superman writers are so beholden to that time in Super-history. I guess because that's what they grew up on. If it was up to me, Superman would't have a Fortress of Solitude and Kandor would have just been destroyed with the rest of Krypton.

Lets get back to the real Supergirl please. The sooner the better.

Fourth Place:
Wonder Woman #15

I had no idea what the hell was happening in this issue. I think I might have an idea. But at the end, I'm really not sure.

Orion, of the incredibly overrated New Gods shows up and needs help from a bum who has some kind of seeing power... but he's blind. I guess he's Diana and Lennox's brother? And Hephaestus shows up out of nowhere and gives Diana more powers? I'm sure Azzarello has a plan he's working toward, but like the last few issues, this one seems to set up more questions than give any answers.

The positive is that Cliff Chiang drew the whole book. Its a great looking book. Its just a shame the story around it isn't.  

Third Place:
Sword of Sorcery #3

Alas, the great consecutive run of Aaron Lopresti's art is over. He's limited to 15 of 20 pages this issue, presumably because he's fallen behind schedule and the book needs to stay on time. His fill-in, Claude St. Aubin does a more than capable job, but when you (me) buy a book just to see Lopresti, its a blow (not in the good way) when he's not there.

We learn more about the world of Nilaa in that its populated by all Earthlings. I assume we'll learn more about it as the story continues, but apparently people of Earth found Nilaa and its magics and settled there. Neat little twist for a story that could of easily made them just people from a different world.

The first arc of Tony Bedard and Jesus Saiz Beowulf wraps up and for as much as I like Amethyst, this backup story is really what I get excited for. The setting of Beowulf is a He-Man-type world of medieval times couple with technology. The technology left over from a world where homo sapiens destroyed the world in a war with meta humans. ($oss take note: this is a sweet dystopian future).

I haven't looked at the numbers for this book, but I'm really enjoying it so I hope it sticks around a while longer.

Second Place:
Green Lantern: New Guardians #15

According to this interview here, it sounds like Aaron Kruder will be the new artist on New Guardians after a few different artists were in an out of the title.

In the past I was a little hard on Kruder's art. I think it had a lot to do with his style being so different from what I'm used to on a Green Lantern title. After hearing him talk about being on the book, and seeing him handle a whole issue, I'm on board. His style is kind of an indie/Quitley style, but I like it anyway.

The problem I'm having with what was a very entertaining issue, is how Kyle can channel each color corps without a ring for each? I know its crazy nerd stuff, but how can he channel each corps with only a Green ring which isn't built to handle love, compassion or any of the other emotions? Even in comics you have to adhere to the science that's already been established.

Overall, good stuff and a worthy book for the Green Lantern Universe.

First Place:
Green Lantern #15

Since 2004 this had been the book I most look forward to reading.

Simon Baz is the center of the book. And before each month I think "man, I wish Hal was the lead again." And I still do. But for as much as I think I don't care about Simon Baz, Geoff Johns makes me give a shit. Baz gets into trouble with the FBI and the terrorist who he's been framed for and saved by... B'Dg, a Green Lantern squirrel. Assumingly the same alien squirrel species as C'hp.

What also makes this book great is the art of Doug Mahnke. Since he's been on the book, he's never missed an issue or even split duties with another artist. Yeah, there's five inkers including himself, but the pencils are all Mahnke all the time.

Page of the Week:

A sample of the great stuff Jesus Saiz is doing on the Beowulf back up in Sword of Sorcery.

-Gint