This Week's Haul: Poor Daredevil

Let's see if I still remember how to review comics.

Daredevil #105

When you are feeling stressed out, there is really no better cure than picking up a Daredevil comic. Because no matter how bad your life is going, Matt Murdock's is much, much worse. And his loved ones are having an even rougher time.

So, this concludes the Without Fear story arc. And does it end happily? Oh my goodness no. Not at all. Daredevil confronts Mr. Fear re: the poisoning of Matt's wife, which has turned her into a murdering lunatic. Mr. Fear is a stone-cold badass:

Haha...good one, Fear.

DD is pretty badass too:

Well, that shut him up.

So anyway, Matt punches Fear around and, having beaten him, believes he's going to get the cure for poor Milla. Nope:

Ohhhhhh shit.

And I love that the preview of the next issue is a picture of Daredevil crying in the rain.

Captain America #35

Let's see if my boy Winter Soldier is faring any better than Daredevil this week.

Yup. *sigh*

Blue Beetle #24

Love it! Love the cover. Love how much ass Jaime kicked in this comic. Love the Death of Ted Kord motif.

Love Traci 13:

This comic rules.

All-Star Batman and Robin #9

Ok, I wasn't going to say anything about this comic, because I am trying to ignore it. But, seriously...

WTF, DC?! Why are you even allowing this?! I don't care who's writing it or how "legendary" they are...this is just wrong.

Batman #674

Well, at least this was some awesome Batman. I like it when Batman just does something really, really cool. Like this:

I liked how this issue ended too. Bruce Wayne is clever.

Teen Titans #56

This issue was really entertaining. I've been pretty underwhelmed by McKeever's Titans run so far, while at the same time being very impressed with his Birds of Prey writing. So of course he's leaving Birds of Prey. When McKeever was announced as the new writer of Titans, I thought it would be perfect, and this is the first issue of his run that had the level of fun I was expecting. The Titans are teenagers! This title should be two things:

a) fun
b) a soap opera

I think we are getting there.

In this issue Kid Devil decides to invite some fans from a Kid Devil message board to Titans Tower for a party...with hilarious results!

I particularly loved this little detail, with Robin bitching Kid Devil out from home:

Very funny.

And, of course, Batman getting prank called:

Saying "Your Mom" to Batman is funny for so many reasons...

New Frontier DVD

And, of course, New Frontier came out on DVD this week. In case you forgot. You should buy at least one copy. You won't be disappointed.

There were lots of other good comics this week too. I actually haven't gotten to Nexus #100 yet. I'm saving it. It's going to be rad.

Caption Contest Winners!

Hi guys! I'm back! Thanks for your patience and kind words. My life has now settled down and I am ready to resume reading comics and writing about them. I haven't picked up my comics in two weeks. Insane, eh? I also haven't worked at the store in weeks. But that all changes now!

So after much deliberation, I have chosen a winner of the caption contest. But first I want to give a special mention to Tony Z, because he put so much effort into colouring his entry:

And now the winner...Scott!

I entered the text into the panel myself (a little tricky because Lois's speech balloon is so tiny):

I think Bruce's thoughts match his facial expression perfectly. Ditto with Lois. Plus, the idea that Batman is analyzing the Sunday comics every week for Riddler clues? Hilarious.

So congrats, Scott! Email me with your address and you get an autographed copy of Nexus: The Origin, signed by the legendary Steve Rude (courtesy of Strange Adventures)! And, hey, Tony Z...I'll send you something too.

rachellegoguen at gmail dot com

Thanks to everyone who entered. You can see all the entries here.

Archie Sunday: Canada, Here We Come!!

The (new) Archies are going on vacation to the happiest place on Earth...Canada!

Before we get started, I just want to say that I hate the New Archies. I hate Archie's mullet. I hate Betty's vertical ponytail. I hate Veronica's bob, shades and giant bow. I hate that Moose is 500 lbs. I hate that my beloved Dilton has been replaced by a young black man named Eugene (I'm all for diversity, but writing out Dilton is just plain wrong). And I hate that they are all younger than usual.

But I do love how excited these kids are to go to Canada:

I think maybe they have Canada confused with California.

Aw, that's nice.

Canada here we come. Right back where we started from. Canadaaaaa...here we coooooooome!!

I like that, in the background of the bus, is...Canada? Or something? Where is Riverdale exactly? I always pictured East Coast, but here we have Rocky Mountains in the background.

OK, this is where it gets really good:

Ok, where the hell is Mr Lodge's cabin?! There is no way that all of these sights are on the way. It's just not possible. His cabin would have to be suspended in an alternate dimension.

Basically, to see all of these sights, the gang would have to drive coast to coast, which is about 6100 km, or 3,700 miles. And that's a modest estimate. What I am saying is, Mr Andrews is a very patient man.

Actually, I need to make this point too: I live in Atlantic Canada. I have never seen a puffin. You have to go out to sea to see them. I can only assume that Mr Andrews did this so Reggie could get a picture.

"It's always interesting to see how other people live." What the hell is that supposed to mean, Jughead? In cities? With jobs and cars? What is so fascinating about Calgary? (By the way, Toronto to Calgary? 3,500 km, or almost 2,200 miles).

Do you think that maybe they had all that stuff about Toronto and Calgary first so that they wouldn't give readers the impression that this cabin in the woods is a typical Canadian habitat?

Well, at least we know that it took them about a week to get there, since Mr Lodge is meeting them tomorrow. But still...that's some very speedy driving.

Look at how cute those beavers are! Chomp chomp!

What to do if you spot a bear:

1. Don't panic
2. Don't yell
3. Don't run

Archie fails.
Yet another Canadian vacation ruined by beavers.

I always love it when the Archies travel to Canada for any reason because it's full of inaccuracies and geographical impossibilities. But that doesn't mean I don't love an Atlantic Canada shout-out.

Addendum to the Review of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Part Four, By Johnathan

SHRINKING VIOLET

This is an interesting picture. The power-demonstration aspect of it is both highly effective and highly accurate. One look and we know exactly how small Violet's ass is. Well, kind of. On my ruler, it's 1/16 of an inch, but I hail from a land of metric measurement, so it beats me if that's standard. Basically, this is one small heiny. Her outfit isn't bad, I guess. It's not as pleasing to mine eyes as the little (haw!) number she was wearing when she clocked Phantom Lad, but it's okay. The gloves are nice. Green is nice.

What really puzzles me about this little scene, though, is her head and face region. Why is she all dolled up? Why is she shooting a sultry look to stage left? Why does she look kind of like Elizabeth Taylor? Ever since I noticed this stuff it's been tormenting me. I mean, who is she trying to seduce? Not Micro Lad, I hope, but it can't be anyone at regular size, can it? Take a look at your ruler - even if her rear is 1/8 of an inch wide, Ms. Digby is just to tiny for a smoldering look to register. Unless she's flirting with a microscope-wielding scientist (and why wouldn't she?) whoever it is is just going to think she has some sort of facial tic.

Eh. Green is my favourite colour and the Growing Uppercut is my favourite special move, so:

JOHN APPROVED

STAR BOY

See, now this is the outfit that I was talking about in the original review of the Legion - the plunging neckline is history, hooray, and there is a pleasant shaggery to the facial features. As one of the very few super-heroes to sport the full beard (let's see... Star Boy, Hercules, latter-day Blockade Boy, uh, one of the Thors and... and the good Lex Luthor that died in the first Crisis, I think) he's a pretty good representative for any union or benevolent society that they might form. It's just so much better than his old no-beard-and-crew-cut look. And he's so affable, if occasionally insane.

This image, by the way, was taken from a poster that the Legion had made up in an attempt to get Rann Antar to stop coming around for the tryouts. The text, which has been omitted here, read WE ALREADY HAVE A GUY WHO CAN MAKE FEATHERS HEAVY. It didn't work, though.

JOHN APPROVED

Addendum to the Review of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Part Three, By Johnathan

SHADOW LASS

I quite like this costume. I mean, sure it's got a great big revers-cleavage window, but frankly that's the acme of good taste compared to here old "couple of bats on some string" outfit. I only wish that the feature that I pillaged these images from had occurred a couple of years earlier, so that it would have featured possibly my favourite Shadow Lass look ever, the one with the 1920s haircut and the one-piece black swimsuit (but without the Caucasian-tone makeup). Ah. well. This is almost as good.

Special bonus: you can tell that Shadow Lass and Mon-El are a couple because they have similar habits. In this case, they're both invading other people's panels with their capes! See if you can find the ends of the blasted things! Uh... after I finally finish this series of posts.

JOHN APPROVED

Addendum to the Review of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Part Two, By Johnathan

PHANTOM GIRL

This is another one of those pictures that looks fine at first but has something really weird nestled at its heart, so that the longer you look at it the stranger you find it. As far as demonstrating Phantom Girl's powers, the ol' "jaunty traipse through the atoms of a table" gag is a pretty fair representation of what she's all about. And you can't beat the patented Phantom Girl skin-tight, flared-sleeve, bell-bottomed, cut-out pant-suit as far as costumes go. No, what's bugging m bout this picture of PG is her hair. Why is her hair so big? It's kind of like the artist was determined to draw her with great big glam hair like Dream Girl but then had the law laid down upon 'em re: Phantom Girl having pig-tails but then rebelled against hair-fascism by making giant poofy glam pig-tails. And twenty years later? Twenty years later those things are freaking me out, man.

NOT APPROVED