The Pull List – April 14th

| xeyeti

Comics! Really, that says it all.

Booster Gold #31: I didn’t actually intend to pick this up (I wanted to start getting the series next month, when Giffen and DeMatteis take over with all the “bwahaha” that entails). It’s the last issue written and drawn by Dan Jurgens, and it’s really just a send-off for him. There’s not a whole lot of substance to the story: Booster fights against some nameless mooks, there’s some collateral damage, Booster feels frustrated about it, and then everything ends up getting fixed up nice by the end. It’s a straight-forward end to Jurgens’s run, but it’s a nice end.

Secret Six #20: Catman gets mad and starts tracking the folks who threatened to kill his son. It ain’t pretty, the Six split over what to do about Catman running off, and you generally get the sense that there’s going to be some hell to pay in the issues to come. Another fantastic issue from Simone, though this one does lack a lot of the trademark humor we’ve come to expect from the title.

Green Hornet: Year One #2: A little more back story on the original Green Hornet and his companion, Kato, and a couple steps closer to their inevitable first meet-up. Plus some mobsters get beaten up. Wagner’s script doesn’t do much of anything new (especially if you’ve read any of his Sandman Mystery Theatre), but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. The art’s fantastic and fits perfectly, too.

Atomic Robo: Revenge of the Vampire Dimension #2: Atomic Robo continues to be one of the best reasons to read comics. Great dialogue, giant monsters, a mecha with a rail gun…what’s not to love? I’m not sure how this connects to the first issue in this particular series, but I’m sure all will be made clear by the end.

This week, I also picked up the fourth volume of Fables and the second omnibus of Starman. Both are fantastic, and the Starman collection includes a crossover with Sandman Mystery Theatre (see how I brought it all back around full circle?).

Birthday Stuff!

| xeyeti

So my birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but the stuff my wife ordered for me didn’t arrive until today. On the positive side, the stuff she got me is tremendously awesome.

First, there’s season 2 of My Name is Earl, which is a show I’m rather fond of (my youngest brother got me seasons 3 and 4). Even better, she got me the graphic novel of Coraline, the fantastic Neil Gaiman story illustrated by P. Craig Russell, and Mr. Punch, one of Gaiman’s first comic efforts illustrated by the amazing Dave McKean. I’m really looking forward to reading them.

All of which is a nice way of saying my wife is better than yours.

The Pull List – April 7th

| xeyeti

It’s a beautiful day out today, but I didn’t let that stop me from sitting down and reading this week’s comics!

…

That sounded a lot better in my head.

Batman and Robin #11: This comic continues to be awesome. I’ve read a lot of speculation about who Oberon Sexton really is (and there are some out there who are convinced he very well might be Bruce Wayne, despite that being way too easy an answer for a Grant Morrison comic), but one thing’s for certain: this comic kicks ass. Batman runs around in a secret underground railroad, Alfred flies the Batmobile, and Sexton and Robin beat the crap outta some guys from a group called the 99 Fiends. Plus, we get some nice callbacks to Morrison’s original Batman run (with a nice reference to the Domino Killer and that bit at the beginning of the issue with The Penitent). Add to that Andy Clarke’s fantastic and expressive art, and you’ve got a damn good comic here. It’s not doing anything all that different from the previous 10 issues, but why mess with awesome?

Doom Patrol #9: For awhile, I was considering dropping this (especially when I heard they were getting rid of the Metal Men backup), but I’m glad I’ve stuck with it. While the book may’ve had some troubles stumbling out of the gate, it’s finally starting to pick up a bit. There’s some solid character interactions, a new power from the Negative Man, and lots of sarcasm from the robot (and the brick). Giffen keeps throwing weird idea after weird idea at us (Danny the Bungalow?), the dialogue was sharp, and the ending was pretty damn funny. Add to that the new character who’s implied to be joining our merry little band on the last page (surely not, though. Right? I mean, really?), and you’ve got a solid issue here.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1: I’d heard so many good things about this one this past week that I decided to pick it up and give it a shot. The art’s beautiful, the concept is pretty cool, but it feels kind of disjointed to me. The issue didn’t seem to flow too well, but that could just be because it’s a first issue setting up what’s to come. Da Vinci as (essentially) a superhero is a pretty awesome idea, though.

In terms of trades, there was some fun stuff this week. First, there was volume four of Booster Gold, which I find I’m enjoying quite well (enough so that I’m adding the monthly to my pull list when Giffen and DeMatteis take over in May). This particular collection featured the issue written by Giffen from last year, which I actually quite enjoyed (and hey, who doesn’t love a good Happy Day’s reference?) as well as a solid story from series regular writer/artist Dan Jurgens. All in all, enjoyable classic superheroics.

I also picked up the second collection of the Secret Six ongoing, Depths, which happens to include one of my single favorite issues of anything ever (the “Double Date” story from issue 8) and features art by the always-awesome Nikola Scott. Simone’s writing is top-notch as usual, and Ragdoll is possibly one of my favorite characters ever.

Jakob Dylan – Women and Country

| xeyeti

I realize that, at this point, there probably aren’t a whole lot of people clamoring for a new Wallflowers or Jakob Dylan album. I am, mind you, but I have a thing for sturdy roots-rock with layers of guitars, organ, and thoughtful singer-songwriter lyrics.

Jakob Dylan’s first solo outing, the sparse and spare Seeing Things, wasn’t a bad record. The sepia-toned music didn’t really aspire to do much, and some of the songs seemed to be more sketches than fully-realized tracks. That said, I still enjoyed it, slight though it may have been.

Dylan’s second solo record, Women and Country, avoids many of the traps and pitfalls of its predecessor. For one, the tracks are more fleshed-out, with a greater diversity of instrumentation (Seeing Things mostly featured Dylan’s voice, acoustic guitar, and the occasional upright bass or sparse percussion), a wider stylistic net, and songs that just feel more complete. Probably the best sonic comparison for this album would be Allison Krauss and Robert Plant’s duet album from a few years back, Raising Sand (an album likewise produced by T-Bone Burnett): there’s lots of pedal steel guitar, reverb-heavy guitars, subtle percussion, and the occasional hint of strings or banjo to add texture.

Dylan throws out a variety of song styles on this record. “Lend a Hand” sounds like it could be a Tom Waits song, while “Standing Eight Count” “and “Truth for a Truth” sound like they could have been Wallflowers tunes. “Smile When You Call Me That” is a straight-up old-school country song the likes of which you’d expect from George Straight or Merle Haggard. “Holy Rollers for Love” is a beautiful song made even better thanks to the fantastic backing vocals from Neko Case and Kelly Hogan.

This is the sort of solo album you like to hear: different enough from the artist’s main gig to be worth the effort to go solo, but with enough familiarity to not alienate. Women and Country is easily my favorite album of the year so far.

Time and Again – Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

| xeyeti

There are some things that I just keep coming back to again and again: particular albums, specific books or comics, movies that I’ve seen a dozen times or more. There’s just something about them that keeps drawing me back in, and every few months I find myself cracking open the book/CD case/DVD case and running through it all over again.

Warren Ellis (writer) and Stuart Immonen’s (artist) Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. is one of those things. I feel the overwhelming urge to reread this comic every couple of months, just to remind myself that, yes, something this awesome does in fact exist. It’s probably my favorite Ellis comic, and I’m quite the fan of most anything he writes. It’s probably that he seems like he’s just having so much fun writing the comic. I happen to usually like my comics with a bit of “bwahaha” in them (hence, JLI is a perennial favorite), and there are plenty of those moments here. Ellis throws so many completely random things at the reader (Fin Fang Foom in purple underpants, for instance, or “drop bears,” deadly koala commandos dropped from the aeromarine, which is itself basically four submarines thrown together with great big jet engines strapped onto the back), and it’s the sort of comic that never takes itself too seriously. I like that. I like comics creators that see this as a fun medium (which isn’t to say you can’t have Serious Comics; I also happen to like some of those, but I tend to come back to the fun ones more often) and take advantage of the goofy and downright bizarre nature of the artform to craft engaging, entertaining stories.

Ellis’s writing is, of course, top-notch, wry, and funny as hell, but what really sells this particular book is the art by Stuart Immonen. Immonen’s art for Nextwave is a loose, cartoony style that perfectly captures the crazy, kinetic nature of the action. “Cartoony” doesn’t mean “less detailed” in this case, though; Immonen crams so many details into each page that it’s amazing the book doesn’t just explode awesome all over the place. The series of splash pages in the middle of issue #11 – in which our heroes face increasingly bizarre enemies such as Elvis M.O.D.O.K.s that spew hamburgers, monkeys with Wolverine’s claws, a dinosaur with Cyclops’s eye beam, and crazy ninjas – as they march towards their enemy’s inner sanctum is just brilliant and reason enough to read the book.

Nextwave is a great cheek to the somewhat-stale superhero genre. It’s out-over-the-topping (yeah, I just made that up) the sometimes-extreme nature of superhero comics, with the splash pages and the hyper-violence and the old anti-hero trend (seriously, can we get away from that one now?). While Ellis and Immonen clearly have some affection for the genre they’re so mercilessly lampooning, they don’t pull any punches. Nextwave is easily one of the best comic books that’s been released in the past decade, and the only problem with it is that it doesn’t last longer.

The Search

| xeyeti

I’ve been a teacher for five years. I really enjoy the act of teaching; I like imparting information and knowledge to young people, I like watching them learn how to ask questions and think critically (and since I’m a history teacher, critical thinking is basically the gig), and I like getting to do something different every day. I’m not fond of the procedural side of things; I hate paperwork, I hate grading, I’m not fond of writing lesson plans, and I wish I didn’t have to be involved in so many meetings. It’s a tricky balance to strike; while the procedural stuff is necessary and has to happen (especially in special education, where you have to have meetings and documentation of everything), you don’t want it to interfere with your ability to get into the classroom and teach the kids (which should always be the focus). And, of course, there’s the damn standardized tests that have become the bane of every teacher’s existence since No Child Left Behind came into effect (“teaching to the test” is a concern administrators have, but everyone basically teaches the students what they need to pass the standardized tests because that’s just what you have to do). But, despite all that bull, I still like teaching.

I’ve spent my teaching career working with students in special education. For four years, I worked at a school for students with learning disabilities. I loved my time there, enjoyed that student population immensely, and really only left because it wasn’t possible to continue surviving on the pittance the school paid. The sad fact of the matter was, I needed to make more money. I switched this past school year to a different private school, one that works with students who have emotional disabilities. It’s a different environment, one that is more restrictive than what I was used to. That in and of itself wasn’t a problem. Sure, I had more rules I had to know and enforce, but that’s a minor thing. I had to learn how to do restraints (or “therapeutic physical interventions,” as they’re called), and I’m only teaching one history class (which is my area of expertise; I’m not real good at math, yet that’s what I spend most of my day teaching), but I still rather enjoy my time in the classroom (even the math classes). Actually, teaching things outside of my area of specialty has been a benefit; I’ve gotten better at planning and thinking about how I actually teach, which is great.

What I don’t like is the attitude of the administration at my school. There’s a negativity there about the students and about the job we do that wasn’t present at my first school. It drags me down, makes me feel negative myself, and generally casts a pall over my time there.

So I’m looking for a new job. I’m sticking to small private schools, primarily in the special education area because that’s what I’ve got experience with and it’s what I’m comfortable with. I used part of my spring break this week to craft cover letters and send them and my resume off to a few schools, and I’ll send a few more before the week is up, I’ll wager. We’ll just have to wait and see what the effort yields.

The Pull List – March 31st

| xeyeti

Spring Break means getting comics on the day they come out! Huzzah! Get ready, here come the comics!

Detective Comics #863: The end of the Cutter storyline gives us a decent-enough resolution to the arc, with more of that parallel storytelling between what happened in the past with Batman and Batwoman in the present. Both get their man, we get a nice little moment between Batwoman and her cousin at the end (though I’m still not sure if we’re supposed to know what costume Bette’s wearing). Jock’s art is great, and Rucka’s writing is solid as usual. The backup feature with the Question is great as usual, with the revelation of the big baddie (though when did he get that weird burning sword cross thing on his forehead?) and some solid banter between Rene Montoya and the Huntress. Good stuff all around.

Wonder Woman #42: Wonder Woman is only featured in half of this issue, really, with the first half focusing on some Green Lanterns and setting up the conflict for Wonder Woman in the second half. We get a nice bit between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor and a great Etta Candy moment (“You think you could maybe go get my guns for me? Oh, and maybe some pants while you’re at it?”). The enemies seem truly dangerous and malevolent, but why is it her enemies are always women? It’s strange.

Trades this week: third volume of Fables, Wonder Woman: Ends of the Earth (which felt disjointed the first time I read it; maybe reading it all in one shot will be different. Also, it includes the great two-part story about a Wonder Woman movie), and the third volume of Mark Waid’s The Brave and the Bold (which seems slighter than the previous two volumes, but it’s still good fun).

The Pull List – March 24th

| xeyeti

Pretty light week this week, but hey, today’s my birthday, so you get a present!

Deadpool #21: This particular story just hasn’t been doing anything for me, so thank goodness it’s over. Maybe it’s just the presence of that horrible thing known as Hit-Monkey, or maybe the conceit of Deadpool running around “trying to learn to be a hero” has just worn thin for me, I dunno. I’m gonna give the book another few issues before I decide what to do, but I seriously hope this title picks up a bit. On the positive side, there were a couple of decent gags in this issue, and it was definitely stronger than the last couple of issues. The art’s still solid (though I’ve no idea why Carlo Barberi draws Spider-Man with such broad shoulders. Isn’t Peter Parker supposed to be more…I dunno, wiry? Not built like a guy who lifts weights and downs protein shakes?)

I also picked up two trades this week: the third volume of Brian Wood’s excellent Northlanders and the Deadpool: Suicide Kings collection. Suicide Kings was alright, though it relied a little too heavily on a couple of crutch-like jokes throughout (the whole “imagine some ‘wacky’ situation then snap back to reality and realize he was daydreaming or whatever” thing was used, like, at least once per issue, and most of the supposedly-wacky situations weren’t all that wacky), but it was okay. Northlanders was great, a collection of some of a couple of the shorter stories from the title so far (two two-parters, “Lindisfarne” and “The Shield Maidens,” and a couple of one-shot issues, including the excellent “Sven the Immortal,” proving that an old man who is pissed off can take a bunch of insolent young idiots anytime). Good times.

When Did THAT Start Blinking?

| xeyeti

It's a Logan's Run reference, yo! They all, like, disappeared at the age of 30 when that little thing in their palm started to blink. Remember?

I turn 30 today. I do not feel like I should be 30 yet. I don’t feel much like I thought adults would be like when I was growing up. But here I am, 30, and while turning 30 doesn’t really scare me the way it does some people, I do find it strange and foreign to not be in my twenties anymore.

On the positive side, I’m doing better at thirty than I was at twenty-nine. Or twenty-eight, for that matter. Really, better than I was for a lot of my twenties.

You know what? My twenties sucked. Screw the twenties! I’m glad I’m thirty! Up yours, traditional interpretation of getting older in this stupid youth-obsessed culture!