QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE THURSDAY 09-04-08

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE THURSDAY 09-04-08
By John Judy

(Note: Long weekends mean late comics but only by a day.)

AL JAFFE TALL TALES HC by Al Jaffe. Collecting 120 installments of the world’s first and last vertical newspaper comic-strip from the veteran MAD artist who gave us “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” and the folding back-cover gags of about a million issues of MAD. Very cool stuff. Recommended.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #570 by Dan Slott and John Romita Jr. Big fights between Spidey, Venom and “Anti-Venom” so help me. Where’s a Skrull when you need one? But it’s Dan Slott so of course he makes it all sing.

ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL #12 by Brian Lynch and Nick Runge. The incomprehensibility continues! Contains vaguely humanoid shapes and words!

BOYS #22 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The Legend wraps it up, the Homelander throws a hissy, and Butcher learns something. Featuring a variant glow-in-the-dark cover and lots of perversion. Not for kids. Recommended.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #18 by Joss Whedon and Karl Moline. Buffy’s in the future and Dawn’s a centaur. A really hot centaur… Hey Michelle Trachtenberg’s like 32 years old now so it’s okay! Oh man, it’s never gonna be okay….

GREEN LANTERN #34 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Hal Jordan and Sinestro take on Abin Sur’s killer. It’s like Anakin and Obi-Wan if George Lucas knew how to write. Recommended.

MARVEL APES #1 of 4 by Karl Kesel and Ramon Bachs. An alternate universe where the Marvel heroes are all monkeys. Hey, it was this or more zombies… Oh wait, they’re doing that too. I don’t care! It’s monkeys as heroes! I’m reading it! Ook-ook!

SECRET SIX #1 by Gail Simone and Nicola Scott. The always awesome Gail Simone returns to chronicle the on-going adventures of DC’s favorite anti-heroes. Strong, character-driven stories of triple-crosses, desperation, out-and-out psychosis and other stuff straight out of the GOP National Convention! Highly recommended.

STORMING PARADISE #3 of 6 by Chuck Dixon and Butch Guice. It’s game-on as the allies invade the Japanese mainland in this alternate-world history in which there was no Fat Man or Little Boy to end WWII. Weird, wild stuff. Recommended.

SUB-MARINER: DEPTHS #1 of 5 by Peter Milligan and Esad Ribic. The Marvel Knights version of Namor the Sub-Mariner which means it’s out of continuity and probably incredibly sexy, vulgar and violent. And other stuff straight out of the GOP National Convention! (Call-back! Yes!) Gotta look. Unless you’re a kid.

TWELVE ½ by Various Creators, including Stan Lee, Joe Simon and Basil Wolverton. Collecting early golden-age appearances of the stars of the hit series THE TWELVE. This issue includes the Fiery Mask, Rockman and Mister E. For those of us who love such stuff but can’t afford the big-buck back issue prices. Cool.

X-MEN: MANIFEST DESTINY #1 of 4 by Mike Carey, Michael Ryan and Others. A series of stories laying out the latest status quo of all things “X.”

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