"there IS a god. and he HATES us all."-ultraman, superman beyond 2

final crisis: superman beyond 2
battlefields: the night witches 3
green lantern 37
supergirl 37
dark avengers 1
mighty avengers 21
uncanny x-men annual 2
x-men legacy 220
astonishing x-men 28
x-factor 39
thunderbolts 128
x-men manifest destiny 5
trinity 34
conan the cimmerian 7
justice league of america 29

x-factor: on the opening recap page peter david begs his readers not to post spoilers about this issue. while i was turned off by a delusions of grandeur vibe in his self described plea, i will respect it. it's a good issue with a good twist and i'm eager for the next one.

superman beyond 2: grant morrison writes the best superman, though these two issues only exist to cram in a subplot that was apparently left out of the proper final crisis book.

thunderbolts: spider-man meeting obama? boring! andy diggle takes presidential cameos to a new level by sending the green goblin to attack obama on air force one!

uncanny x-men annual: matt fraction should write a namor monthly. and is there anyone in the marvel universe emma hasn't fucked? seriously.

i've also been reading a lot of little orphan annie vol.1 this week. the plots are funny, exciting and heartbreaking with beautiful, terrifying cartooning. little orphan annie makes me regret all my abortions.
well, almost.

-neg man

christmas comes twice

today i pulled Nate Powell's swallow me whole out of the stack of graphic novels i got for christmas. swallow me whole observes a family in which three of it's members, a sister, her brother and their grandmother, are all being effected by some degree of mental illness. Powell moves from relatable to surreal easily, and presents a very unique dynamic between the two siblings and their understanding of their condition.
thanks jason! merry christmas!

stuff i paid for:

doktor sleepless 11
no hero 3
gravel 7
anna mercury 5
the sword 14
the walking dead 57
the boys 26
invincible iron man 9
cable 10
detective comics 852
the sandman: the dream hunters 3
superman/supergirl maelstrom 5
trinity 32
the haunted tank 2
solomon gundy faces of evil special
blue monday: thieves like us 1

the boys 26-REALLY liking the current arc, despite the darick roberston size whole in the art department. as much as i'm enjoy the current x-men line, few things please me more than busting their over-hyped balls.

speaking of... something cliche happens in cable 10, but i'm not holding it against them. it's still the best version of the character i've ever read, though the competition is slim. The x-men have become a nice supporting cast, fighting bishop as he wages war against cable in the distant future.

and though it isn't new this week, i need to rectify the fact that i haven't mentioned the awesomeness of madame xanadu before. for some reason i find myself forgetting about this book except for when it's in my hands, but have put down each issue feeling nothing but impressed. it's the most interesting script from wagner in a long time, coupled with an art team perfect for the early history of the character. i also never expected to read will-they-won't-they romantic tension involving the phantom stranger... the fucking phantom stranger! you've got good taste mr. woodrue.
have a good week everybody,
negative man

i heart mark millar.

wolverine 70
kick-ass 5
fantastic four 562
incognito 1
green lantern 36
justice society of america 22
superman 683
captain america 45
final crisis secret files
trinity 31
batman 684
avengers the initiative 20
madame xanadu 7
the goon 31
x-force 10batman cacophony 2
justice league of america 28
marvels eye of the camera 2
back to brooklyn 3
punisher war zone 4
punisher war journal 26
30 days of night: 30 days 'til death 2
why i killed peter

mmm, delicious mark millar-comic-book-flavored neopolitan ice cream!
fantastic four tastes like complicated family bonds, insults, threats and horrible periodontal disease.
kick-ass tastes like a bro-wich thats really fucking me off.
wolverine tastes like blood blood blood! shit shit shit!

the 4th best comic this week: incognito. reads like a hardcore astro city noir.

i'm buying batman cacophony as an apology to kevin smith for not seeing zack and miri make a porno. thanks again for mallrats and chasing amy kevin! oh, and your green arrow was awesome.

why i killed peter is charming, uncomfortable, somewhat predictable but still surprising, beautifully drawn and true. it's a story of bad parenting, free love and catholicism. no, i'm not saying anything specific. if you like the first few pages you'll love the whole book. check it out!

-the negative man

happy holidays!

batman #683
invincible #57
the astounding wolf-man #11
new avengers #48
ultimate spider-man #129
daredevil #114
thor #12
the immortal iron fist #21
unknown soldier #3
trinity #30
maelstrom #4
flash #247
umbrella academy #2
secret invasion requiem
punisher war zone #3
runaways #5
billy batson and the magic of shazam #3
mome vol. 13

batman #683: final crisis #6 now now now!

invincible/wolf-man crossover: the astounding wolf-man tries to convince invincible to be his friend; robert kirkman tries to convince invincible's readers to read astounding wolf-man. though shamelessly obvious, it was a pretty good read.

the flash #247: dc puts this book out of it's misery. i'm gonna miss ya wally. too bad your book has been shit recently.

the monster inside me is getting bigger!

ex machina #40
the walking dead #56
supergirl #36
doktor sleepless #10
mighty avengers #20
uncanny x-men #505
x-men legacy #219
x-factor #38
avengers initiative #19
invincible iron man #8
thunderbolts #127
dark reign new nation
trinity #29
hellblazer #250
punisher war zone #2
thor god size
madman #12
conan the cimmerian #6
zorro #9
dc holiday special
ultimate fantastic four #59
superman past and future

and...
monster vol. 18! the final volume! Monster is an epic crime thriller following dr. kenzo tenma, who throws away his medical career by saving the life of a young boy instead of operating on a celebreity. soon after, several members of the hospital staff are found dead and the boy has dissapeared. years pass and a conspiricy is reavealed as tenma becomes obssessed with apprehending and understanding the young serial killer whose life he saved!

ex machina #40- best single issue story of the year. hear me eisners?

dc christmas special- the bastards got me with the quietly cover. fuck!

i also reccomend checking out dc's zuda comics, particularly one called The Accountants. a crime story with a genuinly new twist on anthromprphic characters and it's free to read! it's by rob osbourne, the man behind the nearly infamous zango and sunset city. check it out, and if you like it as i do, sigh up and vote for its continued existance.
http://www.zudacomics.com/node/910

-go neg man go!

"but thats the thing about batman."

criminal 7
secret invasion 8
batman 682
jsa 21
the boys 25
the sword 13
new avengers 47
immortal iron fist 20
marvels eye of the camera 1
cable 9
punisher xmas
x-men manifest destiny 4
sandman the dream hunters 2
trinity 27
haunted tank 1
army @ love 5
superman/supergirl maelstrom
solomon kane 3
fight or run

batman 682: personally, i'm more of a superman guy. i've rarely been excited about batman. there's just something about how he always pulls the solution out of his utility belt, or has already anticipated every possible outcome of an unpredictable situation, that deflates the drama for me. but thats the thing about grant morrison. he wrote an epic about batman facing a foe he could never suspect or plan against, only to reveal that he had suspected as much and had a plan for it all along. the line"but thats the thing about batman" on the first page of 681 is the defining moment in r.i.p. for me and made me smile more than any comic in recent memory. when he took off his cowl, jumped on the helicopter and disappeared in the explosion, i just smiled again. thats the thing about batman. no matter how it looks, he has a plan.
so here we are with batman 682. now we're treading water. it was an enjoyable issue, bringing bat continuity up to speed with the rest of dc, tying into final crisis and rewriting the history of the character at the same time. whats next? i'm not excited about battle for the cowl or the o'neil issues. i'm hoping for great things from neil gaiman's "whatever happened to the caped crusader?", but in light of his marvel comics projects over the last couple of years, i don't consider it a sure thing. what i want is to see the next part of batman, and grants, plan.

punisher xmas: fuck right floronic man.

secret invasion 8: grade b. good wrap up to the story, but with a little to much bullshit. mockingbird is back? what? norman osborne gets a massive promotion for shooting someone wolverine was a split second away from killing? the cabal group is a pretty cool idea, i just hope this isn't a return to evil for emma. and as much as i appreciate a change everything epic, i'd pay anything to read a comic about dr. octopus robbing a bank or something. event fatigue for fucking real.

-the neg man

KOCHALKA KOCHALKA!

american elf vol. 3!!
american elf vol. 3!!!

batman # 681
superman # 683
captain america #44
the walking dead #55
unknown soldier # 2
battlefields # 2
daredevil # 113
x-force #9
trinity # 26
ultimate spider-man #128
madame xanadu# 6
secret invasion x-men #4
secret invasion inhumans# 4
umbrella academy dallas #1
runaways #4
wolverine origins #30
jsa k.c. special the kingdom
thor man of war
mesmo delivery

take a peek at mesmo delivery. the art is like geoff darrow borrowing a little of dave coopers gross flesh drawing powers. the story is strange, kinda funny, very gruesome and very short.

batman #681 hmmmmmmmmmm.

in case i didn't get my point across: JAMES KOCHALKA'S AMERICAN ELF VOL. 3!

invincible being awesome goes without saying.

invincible 55
fantastic 4 561
ex machina 39
supergirl 35
kingdom come special magog
x-factor 37
thunderbolts 126
john constantine hellblazer 249
goon 30
ultimate fantastic 4 58
spirit special 1
uncanny x-men 504
x-men legacy 218
flash 246
trinity 25
conan the cimmerian 5
superman/supergirl maelstrom
punisher war journal 25
dynamo 5 18
jack kirby's the demon hardcover
castle waiting 13

castle waiting is sort of like the idea of fables, with an all ages bone feel, but instead of having wars and enemies, the characters just learn about each others as they live their day to day lives. issues 12 and 13 were about dr. fell's experiences during the plague and about bowling.

there is new art team on x-factor this month. thank you god! this have been the most consistently good x-comic over the last few years, but the last few issues looked like absolute shit.

andy diggle takes over thunderbolts today. i'm expecting good things, and by good things i mean he's going to do horrible things to characters i like. in this issue songbird, penance and radioactive man are all in trouble as the more vicious members of the group act against them, under norman osbornes orders...

my crush on peter tomasi continues this week in kingdom come special: magog. every character in jsa deserves an issue like this. it's a good read and adds some needed character focus to the over-staffed justice society.



-the neg man

still sobering up from post election celebrations...

hooray obama! hooray comics!

big questions 11
final crisis resist
justice society 20
sandman dream hunters 1
trinity 23
adventure comics special: the guardian
superman/supergirl maelstrom 1
grant morrison's dr. who 2
avengers initiative special
invincible iron man 7
cable 8
x-men manifest destiny 3
army @ love 4
back to brooklyn 2
freakangels vol. 1
superman vs. brainiac tpb
the essential dykes to watch out for
watching the watchmen

"it's a hard taste to forget. once you've had it you can't go back."
-a scary ass bird, big questions 11
anders nilsen has done some of my favorite comics over the last few years. it is hard to think of anything as depressing as the books he wrote about the death of his fiancee, "the end" and "don't go where i can't follow." his additions to the kramers ergot anthologies are among the best of the series and his experimental book "monologues for the comic plague" made me scratch my head in a good way. that said, "big questions" surpasses it all by MILES. each issue has had an increase in production values, the comics themselves becoming art pieces regardless of the contents. fortunately, the story has matched this upgrade in physical quality. the story of a flock of birds puzzling over the sociological and religious issues created by their discovery of a crashed jet plane. they assume the plane is a giant bird, witness a human hatch from it's head, then peck away fanatically at another egg it laid, actually a missile. if you can find the older mini comics, start there. if not, the main story begins with issue 4. a nice complete collection is inevitable and very exciting.

final crisis resist- i haven't been reading checkmate, the team this book focuses on. is rucka REALLY writing snapper carr as a serious character on a regular basis? no offense if you like that book, it could be great i haven't tried it, i just hate teen mascots gone serious.

sandman: the dream hunters- though i love his gaiman adaptations, i'd love to see p. craig russell get back to operas. honestly? he could adapt mein kaumpf into comic form and it'd still make me cry.

superman/supergirl maelstrom- phil noto! why are you drawing awesome pictures for such boring writers? jesus christ this guy draws a perfect, slightly older but dignified superman!

invincible iron man- like an old-school super hero team up from your childhood, but really well written!

watching the watchmen- this book is VERY pretty. i got the special edition, with a big mean smiling comedian close-up on the cover. this book isn't about the movie, which several people told me, but is actually an examination of the process of creating the art for the graphic novel. that is MUCH more interesting to me. the special edition is signed by dave gibbons (in pencil!) and includes five prints, two of which are obviously frame worthy.

xoxo,
neg man

how are we spending our wednesdays?

or else #5

final crisis #4

final crisis submit

superman: new krypton

secret invasion #7

criminal #6

invincible #54

new avengers 46

trinity #21

unknown soldier #1

captain america #43

daredevil #112

ultimate spider-man 127

runaways #3

x-factor #36

hellblazer #248

x-men legacy#217

thunderbolts #125

Aetheric Mechanics

northlanders vol. 1

i live here

I had assumed Kevin Huizenga would be spending all his creativity on his Ignatz series "Ganges," so seeing Or Else #5 on the shelf was a pleasant surprise. This issue includes stories on spiders, turtles, sentence diagraming, wasting time, tuesdays and, of course, Glen Ganges. Instead of the usual scenario of Ganges and his wife analyzing some aspect of life, this issue gives him the lead role in an adaptation of a story in Giorgio Manganelli story about political oppression . I enjoyed "The Spiders around the House: A Special Report" the most and "Which Sentences are we Diagraming?" the least. They are both about exactly what you think they are.

In Final Crisis #4, the world is being overrun by the Anti-life equation. Kalibak returns as a tiger, the Tattooed man starts looking like Metron, and, in my favorite moment of the issue, Terrible Turrpin becomes Darkseid. In the midst of this were a couple of scenes of Wally West looking useless next to Barry Allen, which saddens me. Mark Waid's run with Wally really changed the way I look at super hero comics and I'm very unhappy this character is being swept to the side. I've been enjoying Final Crisis, though the first 3 issues really felt like an a long prelude. I hope we are finally on the cusp of something REALLY HAPPENING here.

Take a look at I Live Here if your comic store carries it. At first glance I thought it was a large hardcover, but it is actually four volumes in one case that folds out like a dvd box set. The four books include journals, comics paintings and fabric art telling the tragic stories of people living in four overlooked regions of the world: Ingushetia, Burma, Ciudad Juarez and Malawi. A full review will follow later this week.


-NM