Read Man Without Fear #1 today. How apt. Lemme explain.
Some days I get home feeling like Matt Murdock after a hard night’s fight. I feel invisible bruises all over my body. I crawl, I limp, I stagger from one place to another. All I want to do, on times like this, is to throw myself to bed and sleep for 15 hours straight — enough time, I think, for my 40-year-old corpse to completely heal.
It was like that today. It was not only work; it was also the long and tedious commute home. First, there was the long line of passengers at the terminal. Took me more than an hour to get to the end of the line. The situation was so bad that even the senior citizens, who had a separate line, were bickering among themselves. I would’ve found this quite funny if I wasn’t in such a foul mood. Also, I was famished. Can’t laugh when you’re stomach is imitating Godzilla on speed.
Then there was the sluggish traffic, as the route home is peppered with notorious choke points, made worse by numerous road constructions. Still, despite the discomfort, I still found myself falling in and out of sleep inside the UV Express. Or perhaps I was fainting? Whatever. It was inside the UV Express where dinnertime found me.
Imagine nine hours of work and then that.
This happens so often that I’m sick and tired of hearing myself complain about it. Indeed, it is taking a toll on me both physically and mentally.
I remember writing here what a disappointment Deadpool #8 was and hoping that the next issue would be a rebound. Turns out wishes still do come true, because #9, released last week, is better than I had expected. In fact, it was awesome. One of the, if not the best issue so far in the Skottie Young run of Deadpool.
For today’s comics I wanted something fierce and violent. Blood, guts, the works. Throw in some spit and grit for good measure. I thought a Wolverine comics would fit the bill. So I grabbed Vol.1 of Wolverine: Weapon X (“The Adamantium Men”), threw myself to bed, and pretended the world outside didn’t exist. Got as far as issue #3 before my body gave in to sleep.
Read Venom: The Hunted today, which is part of the Venom: Along Came a Spider TPB, a 398-page tome I started reading way back last year but can’t seem to finish for some reason. Maybe because I find the stories, though entertaining, kind of dated. Or they lack darkness. What can I say? I dig dark stuff. Especially when we’re talking about Eddie Brock.
With over a dozen new additions to my stack of TPBs and HCs courtesy of that damn Powerbooks’ clearance sale, I figured I should start reading them ASAP. So last Saturday, in the middle of reading frenzy, I cracked open Deadpool: Dead Presidents. It’s a slim book, consisting only of six issues, and I could’ve finished it in one sitting if I wanted to, but I didn’t. Something came up, namely Mick Wall’s Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica. So today I picked up from where I left off. One word to describe this book: insane. And I love it!
Not much comic-reading happened today. I just read the two issues that complete Vol. 1 of the New Avengers (2010) TPB, and that was it. Reading time was spent mostly with Denis Johnson’s Nobody Move, which I finished today. Something about finishing a book on the first day of a month makes me want to pat myself on the back. And if it lands on a Friday, like today, it makes for a double celebration. Sort of.
The new Guardians of the Galaxy is off to a roaring start. Thanos is dead, but not really — you just can’t put a good villain down (just ask Juan Ponce Enrile). Meanwhile, en route to Knowhere, trouble finds Peter Quill and Groot, prompting Quill to form a new team of cosmic misfits. And then to spice things up, Thanos’ former cronies, the Black Order, sent on a mission here to retrieve the Mad Titan’s headless body, now serve a new master.
Got started on Brian Michael Bendis’ run of New Avengers today. Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Wolverine — what’s not to like? I hope the story arc is as good as the cast. Bendis is kind of a hit-or-miss guy for me.
In Generations: The Archers, Kate Bishop and Clint Barton, the two Hawkeyes, find themselves on an island where some of Marvel’s most notorious marksmen are on a Hunger Games type of survival game. Since Clint doesn’t know her and is still wearing his old tacky costume, Kate assumes she’s mysteriously transported to the past by someone. Forging a friendship, the two work together to determine what the hell is going on, and who is behind it. They find the mastermind, but so do the other marksmen, including the homicidal maniac Bullseye, and that’s when the arrows and knives and swords start flying.
With me still in cost-cutting mode, I pre-ordered only one comic book this week: Marvel Comics Presents #1. It’s an anthology, and I dig anthologies, so why not? The first story features Wolverine fighting a demon summoned by a gypsy woman facing execution by the Nazis. Then it was followed by two one-and-done’s — one has Namor in WWII having moral dilemma over the Allied forces’ intention to nuke Japan to oblivion, while the other has Captain America bonding with a teenage daredevil over motorcycles and dreams. It’s a good issue, but whether or not I’ll pre-order #2 is still a big question mark.
A comic book a day 