This Week's Haul: I'm back, baby

Hey, I read some comics this week in a (somewhat) timely manner for the first time in, oh, months. I have been reading comics very slowly lately, what with the new baby and all. So here are my quick thoughts, several days later.

The Return of Bruce Wayne #1

Hey! It's Bruce Wayne! I love that guy! And I love Grant Morrison! And you know who else I love? Chris Sprouse!

This was awesome. I loved how the cavemen talk, how Bruce Wayne talks, and how shirtless he was. In this comic, Bruce Wayne emerges from a cave, shirtless, in cavemen times. He shirtlessly kicks a young Vandal Savage's caveman ass before jumping forward in time without a shirt on. It's just good comics.

I know a lot of people, myself included, felt that Batman jumping around through time on a journey back to the present had been, y'know, done. But here's what Captain America: Reborn didn't have: Bruce MF Wayne.

Booster Gold #32

Keith Giffen and J.M. Dematteis jump on to revisit the character they made so enjoyable in their JLA comics. But here's the thing: it's terrible. I almost stopped reading this issue like six times. I felt the same level as exhaustion as I did watching Iron Man 2. I just wanted everyone to shut up for five seconds. This issue is a sea of word balloons, and each one is full of really obnoxious dialogue. You would think that written dialogue couldn't be grating, but, well, here we are. I hate to say it, because I have been a fan since the beginning, but this series is getting officially dropped by me.

Marvels Project #8

I was really excited about this series when I first heard about it. Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting revisiting Marvel's Golden Age characters sounds like the best thing. But in actuality, it was pretty boring. I think the problem was mostly that the whole story was just straight narration from the POV of The Angel. The series looked fantastic, and the writing certainly wasn't bad, but there was nothing particularly memorable about any of it, which is surprising and disappointing.

Birds of Prey #1

Thanks to some poor decisions about new writers, I will no longer be reading a couple of my favourite series, Wonder Woman and Power Girl. This is a real drag, but at least we have BoP starting up again with Gail Simone at the helm. I would much rather see Nicola Scott than Ed Benes on art duties, but I'll still take it.

Black Widow #2

Marvel is putting a lot of effort getting some Black Widow books out for potential new fans who loved her in Iron Man 2. Even though the script failed to ever mention her name. I was kind of expecting this series to be a thrown-together intro to the character, but it's actually been really good so far.

The Flash #2

I do not care about Brightest Day and I didn't like Flash: Rebirth, but I am really liking this new series. Francis Manapul's art certainly helps.

Say, can we talk about that preview of Green Arrow #1 that's running in a lot of DC comics this week? A rape scene! How fresh and original! And also: the ENTIRE preview is JUST a rape scene. If you are going to preview the first few pages of an issue...man, I don't even know what to say. Seriously. What the hell?

Danny the Bungalow? I Could No Longer Resist

I don't know about you folks, but I've been enjoying the hell out of the latest Doom Patrol series, partially because I really like the idea of the Patrol as a part of the Oolong Island scientocracy but also due to the fact that Keith Giffen has been doing a fantastic job of integrating some of the weirder elements of the team's past back into a continuity that had essentially been kicked back to the Sixties by the combined effects of the Byrne reboot and the Infinite Crisis de-boot.

So far we've seen a Chief very much in the super-manipulative jerk mode of the Morrison team, a very successful and inclusive synthesis of all of the various Negative Men into one character, a resolution to nearly fifty years of Robotman bemoaning his lost humanity and most recently the reintroduction of Crazy Jane and Danny the Street, two of the most thoroughly long-lost characters that I could name.

And of course that got me thinking: just what else will be reappearing from the murky depths of the Doom Patrol's past? Join me as I present the top ten people, things and tendencies that I would love to see make their way back into the light.

10. The Arsenal

Not of course the post-Speedy, pre-Red Arrow Roy Harper (and isn't he going to be going back to that name again soon?). No, this was a guy in a pretty radical set of robotic armour who had a trap-filled castle and a giant chip on his shoulder, the latter because he was maybe three feet tall.

I really do think that there is a place on Oolong for someone brilliant enough to design a humanoid exoskeleton that can nearly defeat the Doom Patrol but dumb enough to try to rob a bank in a humanoid exoskeleton that has no hands.

9. Scott Fischer

Scott was one of the unfortunate characters introduced pre-Morrison in the 1980s revival of the series, all of whom were surplus to requirements after Invasion and most of whom met with grisly ends, including joining the Suicide Squad, being shot by the Chief and getting exploded by aliens. Poor Scott wasn't even doing that well beforehand, since the same childhood snacking on toxic waste that gave him his powers also gave him leukemia, but things just got sad once the Dominators set off their gene bomb and provided hundreds of DC characters with origin stories. Somehow Scott managed to take the mysterious radiations that were giving folks the world over super-powers and turn them into even more leukemia, leading to his off-panel death. Poor kid never had a chance - he never even came back as a Black Lantern, for heaven's sake!

Plus, he's got huge Erik Larsen-style ears! Who can resist those?

8. The Codpiece

 

One of Rachel Pollack's very first creations for her turn as Doom Patrol scribe. The motivation behind the Codpiece's criminal career is refreshingly transparent, but will I ever see him in a non-Vertigo comic? Probably not.

7. The Return of R-2

Way back in the day there was an origin of the Chief that involved a young Niles Caulder being sponsored in his hunt for a means of conquering death. Too late, he discovered that his sponsor was the dastardly General Immortus! To prevent Immortus from becoming... even more immortal, Caulder enacted a plan that called for him to die and for his trusted robot aide R-2 to bring him back with science.

The whole thing was a complete success, although Caulder was no longer a walking man. And how did he reward the faithful servant that had brought him back from death itself?

 

Yep, two in the back of the robo-head. That is cold, brother Niles.

I would dearly love to see R-2 come back as a headless mechanical ghost, or even as a robot servant that doesn't get mob-style executed for doing a good job. Perhaps then the above panel would stop haunting my dreams.

6. Giant Guys With Delusions of Grandeur

 

 

 

 

 

They sure fought a lot of them. Why not a few more?

5. ROG!

Rog, the giant red robot used by the original Brotherhood of Evil: best giant robot ever? Judge for yourself:

Name me one other giant robot that has commenced an attempt to steal the Statue of Liberty by skiing up on two motorboats.

4. Shasta the Living Mountain

I know that he was just a useless, doomed-to-die sad sack character in Doom Force, the comic that only existed to mock the state of comics in the 90s, but how can you resist that sad little face?

 

Wait, no, it's a pretty hideous face. Well, maybe he could die again.

3. Ir, Ur and Ar, the Freaky Mutants

 

Ar, Ir and Ur, mutants caused by early atomic testing, were more than a match for the Doom Patrol. Heck, they almost took out the entire planet with a comet - the only reason that they didn't was that the Chief managed to trick them by employing the old Robot Gladiator From an Advanced Mutant-Run Alien Civilization Routine.

More importantly, these guys are completely freaky - they weird me out more  than any number of tentacled hell-beasts in actual horror comics have managed to do, especially the face-on-chest guy. I bet that they could be turned to good, unsettling use nowadays.

2. The Beard Hunter

 

So I like the idea of super-serious Niles Caulder having a ridiculous Punisher parody as an arch-enemy, so sue me.

1. GIANT ROBOT JUKEBOX

REE-DEE-DOO! REE-DEE-DOO!

I have loved a lot of giant robots down through the years - just last week I was loving those amazing red guys on the "Super Batman of Planet X!" episode of Batman: the Brave and the Bold - but the Giant Robot Jukebox holds a strong position in the race for the title of my favourite.

REE-DEE-DOO! REE-DEE-DOO!

Putting aside the glory of the design (and ignoring the mediocrity of the colour scheme), there's just something about the idea of a guy taking the fact that his company has assigned him to make a giant promotional jukebox and just totally seizing the day. this might, after all, be his only chance to make a giant robot on the company dime.

REE-DEE-DOO! REE-DEE-DOO! 

And in a world filled with super-humans doing super things, how great would it be to be able to tell your boss you were late because a giant robotic jukebox destroyed the bridge with bad pop?

Don't worry: this doesn't invalidate my affection for Rog, since he is clearly a giant robot that you ride around in and that is completely different than the kind that you just let loose to go smash things.

And that's that: my list of ten things, the appearance of any two or three of which in Doom Patrol will completely validate me. Feel free to let me know your own preferences in the comments section and I'll share the list of runners-up. Good night!

Cameron Stewart Visits Halifax!

Heads up, all Haligonian lovers of cool comics! Canada’s own Cameron Stewart will be dropping by the Halifax branch of Strange Adventures this coming Saturday, March 20! Cameron will be appearing between 2 and 5 PM to meet fans and sign stuff. Come down and say hello! 

Cameron's a favourite collaborator of some of the top scribes in the comic biz. His run with writer Ed Brubaker on Catwoman has been collected in the trade paperbacks Relentless, Wild Ride, and Crooked Little Town. He also teamed up with Jason Aaron for the Vertigo miniseries The Other Side. Oh yeah, and he's provided stunning art for a bunch of stuff with some guy named Grant Morrison--namely, the two Seaguy miniseries, Seven Soldiers: Manhattan Guardian, and most recently, Batman & Robin #7-9. You can also find his work in the Oni Press graphic novel Apocalipstix, written and co-created by fellow Canuck Ray Fawkes. Come check it out, it’s gonna be dope! While you’re at it, have a peek at his webcomic Sin Titulo, and peep his blog here.

 

Saturday! 2 PM! Don’t miss it!

Cat Week: Scrapperton Buys Comics

For Cat Week, I'm passing my reviewing duties over to my cat, Scrapperton. He's an avid comic reader, although I don't usually trust his opinion because he's basically only interested in comics with cats in them.

His favourite is Grant Morrison's WE3, even though "iz sad" according to him.  I gave Scrapperton a copy of Cat Getting Out of Bag by Jeffery Brown, but he hated it and said "iz not true. All dis is stereotypes."

So, here's what Scrapperton has to say. (I've included some of my comments for clarification.)

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1

Scrapperton: Dis one haz a cat in it. Two cats! I luvs it.

Tiina: Yeah? Great!

Scrapperton: I roded on a hippopodamuss once, like da guy in da comic.

Tiina: What are you talking about? No, you didn't!

Scrapperton: Maybe it wuz just a fat guy.

Ghost Projekt #1

Scrapperton: Dis one has a cat.

Tiina: Yup.

Scrapperton: Iz he da bad cat? Did he kills all da baybees?

Tiina: Um, I don't know. I don't think he's to blame. He might be bad though.

Scrapperton: He scratchez da couch. Iz very bad.

DMZ #51

Scrapperton: No cat. I hates it.

Tiina: But besides there being no cats, what did you think?

Scrapperton: Needs more cats.

Batman and Robin #10

Scrapperton: CAT! Anothr cat!

Tiina: Sort of a fancy tiger guy. A little like Bubastis from Watchmen. Remember him?

Scrapperton: Where iz Catwoman?

Breaking Into Comics the Marvel Way #1

Scrapperton: Da title doesn't rilly describe what's inside. And if dis iz da best up and coming artist den Marvel should be wurried. I can't wait 'till Faith Urrrin Hicks has comic in next issue of Girl Comics. She'z waaay better than any of dees guys.

Tiina: Wow, that's pretty insightful, Scrapperton. I was thinking something similar.

Scrapperton: Put dis comic in my box. I poop on it.

Tiina: Oh dear.

John Buys Comics - Cat-Style!

What a week! B.P.R.D, Solomon Kane and The Unwritten their usual high-quality astonishment; Giffen managed to bring some Morrison-era weirdness into present-day Doom Patrol; present-day Morrison continued his efforts toward ensuring that someday I'll refer to Morrison-era Batman weirdness in Batman and Robin; Jersey Gods got turned on its MF ear; there's a damn A-Team comic and somehow The Twelve has manged to claw its way partially free from that shallow grave I tearfully buried it in.

Sadly, it's Cat Week, so I won't be reviewing any of those comics. No, there were really only two books of note this Wednesday, and here they are:

R.E.B.E.L.S. No. 14

This is the first time in a fairly long time that a series that I enjoy has manged to wrap up a long and at least moderately complex storyline in a way that has left me satisfied. All of the major plot-threads managed to come together for a finale without feeling extraneous, a lot happened without feeling rushed and the villain's defeat was both not easy and not only achievable by deus ex machina. I sure do hope that this thing continues, whether as R.E.B.E.L.S. or as L.E.G.I.O.N. '10.

The really important thing about this issue, however, is Tigorr. Everyone's favourite Omega Man really comes through in this issue, leading his team back from the furthest reaches of Starrospace in order to save the day with his trademark aplomb. How he manages to traverse two galaxies, have his mind taken over and save the day without letting his stogie go out, I'll never know, but I sure do hope that Dox makes him his right-hand man (er, alien) after the reorganization. He'd be purr-fect for the job!

Secret Six No. 19

The Secret Six, complete with new member Black Alice, go about their usual business in this issue as they raid a summer camp run by that Brother Blood cult from Teen Titans.

----- PARENTS: DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILDREN TO ANY SUMMER CAMP RUN BY A GROUP THAT HAS THE WORD "BLOOD" IN ITS NAME. IT'S JUST GOOD SENSE. THAT IS ALL. -----

Now one might think, based on the cover image, that Catman plays a prominent role in this issue. Sadly this is not the case, though that cover does almost make up for it (I just want to scratch his pointy little ears!). No, Catman only gets as much face-time as any of the other characters in the issue. However there's a pretty god chance that this story arc is going to be full of opportunities for Catman to shine, and possibly to shed the excess baggage that is his team and prowl solo, thus giving us the kind of all-cat experience that we want! Everybody start writing postcards!

John Buys Comics

I’m a bit out of sorts today, so forgive any lameness in the ol’ writing.

Chew No. 1

They had me at the house ad. A couple of weeks ago, Image slapped an ad for Chew on the back of… something, probably Invincible, and I knew that I’d be buying it. Standard detective fare doesn’t generally turn my crank, but show me a book where the investigative role is filled by something oddball (a dinosaur in a human suit, a fictional character who has emerged from a historical novel, a gang of computer nerds in a camper van, etc.) and I’m a pretty easy sell. There’s something about the mystery genre that benefits from the addition of strangeness. This is probably why I like Detective Chimp so much.

In Chew, the oddball investigator is one Tony Chu, who is ‘cibopathic’, meaning that he receives psychic impressions from virtually anything that he eats and therefore that he doesn’t eat much of anything at all. Tony’s world is slightly different from our own (outside of the psychic power thing) in that the US government’s response to the non-starting bird flu epidemic was to ban chicken. So: the story opens with hungry vice cop Tony Chu staking out a chicken speakeasy. I would be sold on this book already, so if you’re not, I don’t know what else to say.

This is another one of those terrific creator-owned books from Image that I’ve been loving so much recently. John Layman’s written a pretty great intro to the setting and characters here, with a throwaway mystery to showcase the amazing gustatory detection of Mr. Chu. Nice pacing, good characterization - heck, you really get a sense for the plight of a justice-seeking, eternally-hungry grump. Rob Guillory’s the guy on art and colour and is extremely well-suited to the book, particularly in his command of facial expression and body language. Likewise, he lays down some highly appropriate and super evocative colours. See? This is the lame writing thing kicking in. It was great: the art was great, the colours were great. The story was great. The premise is great.

Great!

Secret Six No. 10

Woo! Now this is what I am talking about. The past nine issues of Secret Six have been great and all but have featured the Six in what is basically a heroic role - they’re after the Get Out of Hell Free Card but so are a lot of much less savory people, or they’re killing potential child-killers or whatever. The point is that they weren’t doing anything that, say, the Outsiders wouldn’t get up to but the methods and dynamics that came into play were different because the people that were doing it were amoral villain types. Now, not that I had anything wrong with that setup - I’d be pleased to read more adventures of the Semi-heroic Six - but it’s really quite refreshing that this storyline revolves around the team signing up with what are very clearly some bad bad dudes and that the choice is not how they will go about achieving their reasonably good ends but exactly how evil they are prepared to be; how compromised they are going to allow themselves to become for the sake of a job. Moral ambiguity, yeah!

Superman: World of New Krypton No. 4

Heh, I just noticed that this sucker doesn’t have an “of 8” or what have you after the issue number. Clever ploy to obfuscate the exact length of this “World Without a Superman” dooflappy? Don’t worry: even if it is, Dan Didio will spill the beans on Superman’s return to Earth well in advance (if he hasn’t already, that is). As with Jersey Gods, I’m really enjoying this ongoing look at the workings of an alien society, all stitched together out of the Kryptonian history that’s built up over the last seventy years (“Ooo, a Byrne-style Kryptonian! And an allusion to the old story about all of the black people on Krypton living on an island!”). Seeing the Green Lanterns interacting with this new society was a good time, though I’m a bit confused - over in Strange Adventures folks are having a hard time raising Oa on the space radio due to all of the craziness happening with “Prelude to Blackest Night” stuff. Is this happening before that? After? I’m normally pretty willing to look the other way on minor continuity gaffes but if this book synchs up with that crossover just in time for a bunch of Black Lanterns to show up I may slowly raise one eyebrow.

You know, just this week I was talking about Mon-El’s space-explorin’ Daxam vs. Sodam Yat’s xenophobic Daxam and wondering which one Mon-El came from in current continuity. Like, is he a sociological anomaly or did someone forget to recon him? Judging by Yat’s reaction to hearing about him, my questions may soon be answered. Yay, closure!

Batman and Robin No. 1

Terrific! New Batman! Basic Batman! Fighting guys, detecting, gadgets! Sure the team is Dick Grayson and Damien but so what? Batman and Robin chase down a guy named Mr. Toad in their flying Batmobile - this is enough for me.

Morrison’s doing a helluva job here: he’s unleashing some of his trademark weirdness but it’s focused and channeled into making the bad guys suitably freakishly weird for a Batman yarn. Meanwhile, Dick Grayson is easing into the Bat-role and Damien is happily not just a one-note spoiled brat. He’s a good addition to the Bat-team, that Damien. I’m sure that Tim Drake would have fit quite snugly into the role of Robin in this series but there have been a veritable legion of stories featuring Nightwing and Robin palling around. I certainly hope that Tim has some role in the Bat-books but this Damien thing is definitely pregnant with story potential.

Good job, DC. I was extraordinarily skeptical at first but it looks like you pulled it off: you broke down Batman and then killed him off in a very heroic manner while still leaving open the possibility of his return, you churned up Gotham and established the status quo with the whole Battle for the Cowl brouhaha and you started fresh with a new Batman and Robin without having to resort to retcon or reboot. I mean, if any character needed some sort of massive change and was more resistant to it thanks to the baggage surrounding him then I can’t name ‘em, and only one really shitty series in the bunch!

Oh, and Quitely’s art is both great and very much contributing to the fresh feeling of the whole thing. I’m foregoing my normal cautious optimism for the full-blown, rose-coloured, glass-half-full, uncut real stuff. Don’t break my heart, guys.

Jersey Gods No. 5 - I like this comic so much - I wish I had new good things to say about it. It’s still astonishingly fun epic/cosmic Kirby-esque but not Kirby-derivative stuff, full of action and fun. Much like the best Kirby stuff, I want to find out more of the history of the gods of Neboron, so I’m happy to see that the historical backup story is returning next issue, especially as the story looks to be moving to Earth for a time. Important Question: when Fusion and Union join… what the heck do they call themself?

Strange Adventures No. 4 (of 8) - Nothing new to say, really. Still a fun comic; still all spacey. The most impressive thing about this issue was the backup story, which supplied Lady Styx with an origin and thus made it possible for me to give two craps about her. Seriously, she was almost painfully generic before. Is there hope for her now? Possibly.

Irredeemable No. 3 - We get a little closer to the reasons for The Plutonian’s breakdown and turn to wicked evil. There’s no sign of this comic losing momentum, folks. Now: can I figure out what’s going on before it’s explicitly spelled out for me?

Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! No 2 (of 6) - Well well well… I was liking this before and I like it even more now. I was expecting a steady slide into desperation and hardship for old Mr. Human Flame but it looks like he’s in for more a roller coaster ride, which is great! ZOOM! The depths of degradation! ZOOM! The heights of joy! ZOOM! Back down again! Plus (and he’s on the cover so it’s only a semi-spoiler) General Immortus, who doesn’t get used enough, and Condiment King, who definitely doesn’t get used enough. It absolutely makes sense for a world full of superhumans to have super-losers, and Condiment King is possibly my fav’rit.

Okay, I have company so this is it. I might write more about this stuff later so I'll list what else I bought this week. If you really care what I think, come back in a day or so. Maybe.

I did it! Compulsive behavior, yay!

Captain Blood No. 1

It’s a good sign when an adaptation makes me want to read the original work. Okay, I guess sometimes it’s because the adaptation is so bad - Postman the movie, I’m looking at you - but in this case I just want to check out the aspects of the story that had to be left out in order to fit the comic book format.

If you have an irrational fear of black and white comics, I guess that you should avoid this one, but I also thumb my nose at you. Michael Shoyket is the man on art here and his style is looking goooooood sans colour. Actually, this might be one of those “sketch variants” that I hear so much about nowadays (uh, that Tiina mentioned that one time last week, rather), as the art is uninked as well, so don’t blame me if you buy a copy and it’s all colourful and stuff.

Issue numba one deals with the rise of Captain Blood, from soldier to doctor to slave to pirate. Blood is an interesting figure, a learned and complex man who doesn’t look like he’ll be ravishing wenches any time soon. Matthew Shepherd does a fine job on the writing/adapting front - another reason that I want to check out the original: to check out which of those two arts he is practicing more. Neal Stephenson fans take note that the events of Captain Blood take place at about the same time as the Baroque Trilogy. Look, it’s Jefferys, the hanging judge! Anyone? Am I the only one who’s read that damn series?

Werewolves on the Moon (versus Vampires) No. 1 (of 3) - I passed up a zombie western genre-mash comic this week because it didn’t look entertaining enough to justify the six dollar price tag, so how could I pass up a comic about Werewolves vs. Vampires on the Moon for only three-fifty?

This is a pretty great comic. The jokes are good, the drawings are suitably amusing without being flat-out goofy and everyone involved is absolutely unapologetic about the premise. Of course werewolves want to get to the moon. Of course the vampires that are already up there aren't too happy about it. Yay!

Dead Run No. 1 (of 4) - Not that this isn’t a tremendously lazy way to describe things, but this is like Transporter plus Mad Max. You’ve got a tough-as-nails, cool-as-ice courier saddled with an unwanted female companion and attempting a nigh-impossible task in a post-apocalyptic wasteland while being stalked by deformed thugs in jury-rigged vehicles. It’s exactly as good as it sounds. Uh, which is pretty darn good, if you’re me. And I am.

Astro City: the Dark Age Book Three No. 2

Man, Astro City. I didn’t really get to say too much about this when the last issue came out due to, you know, life (my girlfriend is wonderful and tolerant and never gives me grief about my hobby or the time I spend on the blog, but there’s only so much reading and writing about comics that I can do in an evening without feeling like a big dumb neglector. Someday I will get a big grant and spend all day doing this stuff, if I can finally catch that dang leprechaun). I love Astro City, unconditionally. I love the Alex Ross covers (Alex Ross plus new characters equals great) and the extensive and eternally-unfolding history and all that. The only time that I was ever glad to hear about someone getting mercury poisoning was in the context of that being the reason for the long hiatus in this comic. Man, that sounds bad. Okay, I wasn’t glad that Kurt Busiek was poisoned so much as that there was an external reason for the disappearance of Astro City and that it would return. Maybe I should edit out the poison part of this review.

Astro City: The Dark Age has been a damn good time - as I mentioned last week, it’s both a trip through a portion of the history of Astro City and an examination of themes and trends in the comics industry itself, as the innocence of the Silver Age(nt) gives way to the darker, more violent days of the late Seventies/early Eighties. Busiek’s been focusing on the people on the street rather than the heroes and villains for a while now, so you get to piece together the histories of fascinating characters like the Apollo Eleven bits and pieces at a time while following the perilous history of brothers Charles and Royal as they seek vengeance for their parents’ deaths. Blah blah blah. It's good! I want to convey that it's good and I'm just running my mouth (fingers) off. Rah rah rah!

Atomic Robo: the Shadow from Beyond Time No. 2 (of 5) - Remember how happy I was about this comic the last time? It’s still just as great as I said in every way, except that HP Lovecraft’s head is now a giant monster, so he’s not babbling so much. IN ADDITION: these great things occur: a) since Lovecraft’s head is now a giant monster there is a giant monster running around wearing a human body like a little hat. b) While fighting the Lovecraft-beast, Robo has a highly entertaining father/son-style phone call with Nicola Tesla. c) Lightning guns. d) A backup feature that takes the form of a fairly hostile article about Robo and that I hope continues in a future issue. May Atomic Robo have a long and glorious life.

The Muppet Show No. 3 (of 4) - Man, this just keeps on being great. A Gonzo-centric issue, with a couple of decent songs and the usual high joke quality. This is the issue that really underlines the love that Roger Langridge has for these durned puppets, which is probably a big contributing factor to the quality of this series. Also: there’s a Generic Pig Muppet on the cover, near Gonzo’s cape on the left. I have an irrational fondness for Generic Pig Muppets, so hooray.

Seaguy No. 3 (of 3) - This is where Grant Morrison is putting all of the weirdness that he’s not using in Batman and Robin. Is it confirmed that he planned Seaguy as a three-part tale? I mean, it could easily end here but I can definitely stand to have more of this. What the heck is going on? What’s with Mickey Eye? Wait and see, I guess.