Somebody on Facebook said he finds Heroes in Crisis “frustrating.” He’s not the first one I know to dis Tom King’s new miniseries, and frankly, I don’t know what these people are complaining about. I think HIC is brilliant. Sure, some issues are better than the others, but overall I still think it’s doing great.
And then issue #6 happened, and I was like, WTF!
Sam Stone of Comic Book Resources has nothing but praise about the issue in his review, calling it an “interlude of sorts, both narratively and visually” and a “calm before the storm” as the nine-issue run heads into its final stretch. To me these are just fancy words to describe what I think the issue really is: a filler.
Perhaps Tom King and Clay Mann are really just prepping us for a big climax. Perhaps that’s how they roll. Still, after I closed issue #6, I couldn’t help but feel that somehow the story’s momentum was lost, and that the issue was a missed opportunity to go full bore on the murder mystery. Here’s hoping that the last three issues would be worth the lull.
In other news, started watching The Umbrella Academy on Netflix last Saturday. Whoa! Didn’t expect it to be this good. I feel guilty for not being familiar with the comics. I vow to rectify that oversight soon.
This one’s from my TPB read pile, which has significantly grown after my recent trips to Powerbooks. Punk Rock Jesus, by Sean Murphy, has been sitting on my shelf for years. I remember when I bought it from National Bookstore in late 2016, it came with a very curious freebie: a sachet of Breeze liquid detergent. Weirdest. Freebie. Ever.
I was busy, if not excitedly, unwrapping and leafing through the TPBs and HCs I scored yesterday when I realized I haven’t read the third issue of American Carnage that was released last week. So I dug it from my to-read pile and made it my bedtime reading today.
Finally, I got to read Kingdom Come. I agree with the hype: it’s not just one of the best Justice League stories ever written, but actually one of the best superhero stories ever. And as icing on the cake, there’s that glorious Alex Ross art to please the eye. Amazing story, kick-ass art — if this is not perfection, then nothing is.
Hellblazer #35 is a peek into John Constantine’s childhood… and what a grim childhood he had! The title alone, “Dead Boy’s Heart,” doesn’t give much about optimism. I read it with caution. It’s Friday, after all. No room for bad vibes. Thoughts should be on parties, the weekend plan, friends, escapism… certainly not on strange men, bullies, and dead kids found in desolate quarries with their hearts still intact.
During my last visit to Filbar’s Megamall I saw this Chase collected edition TPB at their bargain section. Thinking of buying it, I considered the pros and cons. Pro: it’s 352 pages long and worth only a little over P900 (down from P1,300 plus); con: P900 is still too much. Pro: it’s a nifty looking book with a cool old-school cover; con: I know zip about the character and for all I know the story is shit. Pro: story looks interesting based on the synopsis; con: I still have tons of comic books to read.
Picked this old John Constantine comic from the to-read pile today hoping for some dark magic voodoo vibe and angst-ridden witticism (duh, look at that grim-looking cover), but turned out there was little of that in “The Boogeyman,” the issue that kicks off the Dangerous Habits volume. Penned by Jamie Delano, the story features John in his saddest sad sack form, reentering the lives of Marj and Mercury and inadvertently causing a rift between them. Drunk and obviously wrestling with inner demons, John’s a hard dude to love, much more welcome to your home. One can’t help but pity the bastard.
Picked up from where I left off in the Adam Glass run of Suicide Squad today. Issue #14 is kind of disturbing. I imagine feminists angrily raising their fists at the violent treatment of Harley Quinn here by her beloved “puddin,” the Joker. One scene shows her hanging by her neck, with a chain for a noose, as the Joker gleefully interrogates her. It’s sick, it’s twisted, and I wonder if this issue got flak when it was released years ago, even though there were fewer hotheads on the Internet back then, and political correctness wasn’t as big as it is today.
Heroes in Crisis is definitely my favorite ongoing miniseries. Made that conclusion after reading issue 4 today. I like everything about it — the dialogue, the pacing, the artwork. Clay Mann really has this talent of making his female look sexy and vicious, damaged and beautiful. Girls I want to save from themselves.
A comic book a day 