Comics Round Up: Reign of the Indies

Before we kick off things this week, I'm going to say something obvious. I REALLY REALLY LIKE SUPERHEROES AND SUPERHERO COMICS. I decorate my desk with those little Made-in-China 3 inch Justice League Unlimited action figures and organize my week around driving to Lexington to pick up my books. I spend more money than I'd care to talk about reading comics and when we're not busy at work, many hours keeping up with stuff on the Internet. Hell, I even write a blog that is largely about them.

My friends and acquaintances know this about me. This means that as the concept of "graphic novels" and non-superhero comics become more and more popular (sometimes even trendy), I tend to find myself in situations with folks who are only into graphic novels and don't read superhero comics who feel like telling about this preference. Truth be told, and with notable exceptions, more often that not these people have usually just read The Watchmen and/or something by Neil Gaiman or took a graphic novel in college and now feel very literary about their taste in comics even though they don't really read comics on regular basis. This is like having only ever listened to Straight Outta Compton and saying, "I only listen to good rap." Well, yes, that would technically be true, but you wouldn't really listen to rap in that case now would you?

I want to send out a message to snobby/literary art comics "fans." I am actually reading a fair number of these non-superhero comics and to paraphrase the great statesman Nikita Kruschev, "I WILL BURY YOU." This week I went over a precipice because I purchased a number of indie/Vertigo books greater than the number of Marvel and equal to the number of mainline DC books I purchased. On top of this, I bought two Vertigo trades, so if you pull that "I only like graphic novels" hipster shit on me, I promise you I can be the bigger hipster and still enjoy my five Superman titles a month. This is not to say I have a problem with casual readers of graphic fiction who don't read superhero comics. That's fine. But don't front like you're better than me or have more refined tastes than I do. I have made a lifestyle choice, so don't trifle.

Now, speaking of those indie/Vertigo books...

Air #14 (DC/Vertigo): I haven't actually read this yet, but I want to acknowledge that it came out yesterday and that I bought it and rep Air. While, I'm waiting for issues 11-13 to arrive from Ebay, to actually read #14, I picked up the second trade paperback last week and was quite impressed. It's a superb series and one of the few books on the stands about a woman that's actually written by one. I demand you buy the very reasonably priced first volume right now or I WILL BURY YOU.

Citizen Rex #4 of 6 (Dark Horse): For those not paying attention, this is Los Bros Hernandez newest venture into the world of comics. I should recommend this series based solely on the fact that a major character in the story is a crazed one-armed robot in a trenchcoat. Also, the phrase "Ritalin sex" was used in the recap and SOMEONE gets their hands chopped off at the end. Beyond all that, this series is visually cool and seems to have a good story, but honestly I keep forgetting what happened in the previous month's installment and my back issues are a wee bit disorganized right now. I'm mostly reminded that I should read all those Love & Rockets scans I have sitting on my hard-drive.

Underground #2 of 5 (Image): This is Jeff Parker and Whiteout artist Steve Lieber's cool story of intrigue in a pristine, government-protected cave somewhere in eastern Kentucky. What strikes me about the series is what a good visual story-teller Steve Lieber is. One gets the sense of how otherworldly and disorienting being, y'know, underground in cave could be. There's also a cool scene where there's a scuffle and Lieber and the colorist Ron Chan do a good job of conveying how chaotic and disorienting something like that would be underground in a cave. Also, there are bats. Grade: A

Chew #5 (Image) rounds out introductory Taster's Choice story arc of John Layman and Rob Guillory's cult hit about Tony Chu, a detective with the gift of cibopathy, meaning he gets "psychic impressions from whatever he ingests." Over the last five issues Layman's done a good job developing Tony from a city level police detective into a hardened federal investigator who eats dead dogs and other gross stuff for the cause. There's a doozy of a surprise ending. I feel like I'm on the cusp of something that's going to be huge when I'm reading this series. Grade: A+

And as for my normal fair...

Somehow, this week's issue of my favorite book, The Amazing Spider-Man #609, was actually pretty lackluster. Perhaps this whole Ben Reilly/Clone Saga stuff is better left in the '90s. Screwball's a cool villain though. Also, the final, third issue of Blackest Night Superman revealed what I had suspected from the get go--that the miniseries was largely pointless. It had some high points, but I'm glad it's the only non-Green Lantern Blackest Night tie-in I've elected to read.

Final Crisis Aftermath Dance #5 of 5: This series has had some of the best single panels and one liners I've ever read, but it's written in a style that is intentionally disorienting and with characters that are not traditional superheroes in a way that is also disorienting. I'm too lazy to hunt for awesome scans right now, but let's just say I got into this book because Most Excellent Superbat narrates the story via his Twitter account and in this the final issue of the series invents a new social networking technology that is described as such:

"Welcome to the new rage in social networking. Our messages carried via protein molecules delivered directly into a digital centrifuge. Disseminated to everyone logged into the system. Everyone's minutiae all at once. Moment-to-moment nonsense. The fourth state of communication."

Color me satisfied. Grade: B+

Azrael #1: I have to hand it to Fabian Nicieza. Out the gate on the Catholic secret vigilante on-going with a subtle, well-written, and morally ambiguous story about sexual abuse of children in the Church. And Ramon Bachs art seems to work for the series. His style really really communicates just how very dirty Harvey Bullock is. Big cliffhanger. Grade: A+

Supergirl #46: It was good. Nothing new to say about the series.

Thunderbolts #137: I was just happy to see Power Man and Iron Fist in a buddy story. That is was well-written makes it even better. There's really no way to talk about this issue with ruining the plot. I'm also not really into this whole Dark Reign thing. Grade: B+

Alright, I have somewhere to be. Peace.