Been meaning to get back to a regular comic book round-up, but you know how that goes. This week I had a pretty small haul, though, and I decided that there was actually a thing or two I wanted to say about them, and since there is no one in my life (sob) to whom I can talk about comic books, I figured I'd just do it here.
And awaaaaaay we go.
A mere four books this week, representing four different companies, so that's kind of nice, ennit?
From BOOM! Studios, we have Coda #1. I hadn't heard anything about this, but I tend to at least pick up new comic books for a little look. When I picked this one up, I was immediately impressed by the cover stock. It's heavy cardboard, the same as they used on The Grass Kings, and I like it like it like it. I opened the book up and started reading and it only took about three panels before it made me laugh out loud. So I thought that was worth my hard earned $3.99. It's also 40 pages of story (+ 4 pages of maps), so a good deal from that angle as well. The art was interesting, and for the most part I liked it, but it was that "messy style" which sometimes makes it hard to know what you're looking at. In fact, there was one panel I had to stare at for several seconds before my brain could interpret the images. The writing seemed okay to me, with one reservation: in Simon Spurrier's author bio he makes reference to the idea that Coda is "the mercy killing of the entire exhausted High Fantasy genre." Um . . . a little big for your britches there, ain't ya, Simon? I'm not a big fan of the whole arrogant asshole schtick. So I don't think I'll be coming back for issue 2 of Coda. I'm not sure that I won't, though. If it's a light week . . . it could happen. Maybe.
From DC, we have DC Nation #0 . . . which only cost 25¢, and had three stories, one eight-page Batman (written by Tom King, and it was quite excellent), one eleven page Superman (which was not bad, but hopefully not indicative of the best that Bendis can do as it wasn't that good, either) and one ten page Justice League story which just seemed like shit to me, so let's not talk about it. Still, that's a lot of bang for your one-fourth of a buck, so you should probably snag it.
From Image, we have The Walking Dead #179. I managed to get the Bill Sienkiewicz variant cover, which made me happy. This was Part 5 of the 6 part "New World Order" storyline . . . and while I have been quite happy with this comic book pretty much from the get-go, next issue will be my last hard copy purchase. I just never really got over the whole We're Hiking the Price Up a Buck Even Though It's Doing Better Than Ever . . . And We're Not Even Going to Mention It To You. It's $1.99 (a month late) from Comixology for me from here on out. Anyway, this was a good issue. It's going to be hard to endure the one month off from reading this title while I wait for the price drop . . . but I'll manage.
And from Marvel, it's the True Believers edition of Wolverine #1. One dollar . . . but barely worth it. Man, the pencil art on this thing is horrible! The only thing worse is the color. Although the story is nothing to write home about. It's easy to get nostalgic about 80s comic books, but reading them often reveals that they just weren't very good, ya know? I don't need any more of this storyline, for sure.
And speaking of online comics . . . I also made a couple of those purchases this week: Injustice 2 #56 (of course) and Dungeons & Dragons Classics Volume 3. Yes, you read that right. I can explain.
But first the Injustice. For me, the series is in a bit of a slump of late, but not in a general sense, just in an Injustice 2 sense. Which means that it still kicks ass every issue and I have no intention of not buying it for as far into the future as I can see. In fact, I love this book so much that I don't even regret the fact that I've now spent $56 on a comic book which doesn't even exist in physical form. Tom Taylor is just an awesome writer. So by "slump" what I really mean is that this issue didn't make me gasp or involuntarily cry out, "Oh my God!"
Okay, as for the DnD. I happened upon an issue of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons at Half-Price completely by accident--it was just there and I was on my way someplace else when it caught my eye. But the cover was so arresting that I had to stop and really look at it. Which was when I saw that the artwork was by Jan Duursma whom I have long loved. And it was only a buck. So I bought it. And I actually read it almost immediately, and was not only impressed by the art, which I knew I would be, but I was struck by several interesting story elements. Such as the fact that there was a warrior woman (with the unfortunate name of Vajra--and there's good reason for her having that name in terms of the word's meaning, but for fuck's sake, kids, that is WAY close to Vagina) who was drawn like a woman with good muscle tone rather than like a Playboy model or a WWE Woman's Heavyweight. And there were lots of other nice touches as well. It was a bit more Lord of the Rings-y than I would have liked, but I really wanted to read the rest of the story. Problem: I'd looked through the other issues at Half-Price and I knew that they didn't have all four issues in the story arc. But you know who did have them? Comixology. As a matter of fact, the package including that story arc contained a total of 258 pages for less than $8. Bought it, read it. Thinking about getting me some more. And in the meantime, Comixology offered me a second free trial, so I did that, and guess what they had for me to read?
Dungeons & Dragons Volume 1: Shadowplague. Mmm-hmm.
So I'll be reading that tonight.
Good week!
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