Comics Rundown: Spoilers ahoy.

Hm. Today was a good day--I had an hour of productive writing time this morning before everyone else got up and it was time to start the drive up north, the shop was its usual awesome fun (even if somebody kept gossiping all morning) and my drive home didn't completely suck. Read: I didn't yell obscure science fiction references from the car. Good times!

The spawn are still leaking from their noses, but the elder one is spending the night with my moms, so I suppose I can survive the tiny one.


There are spoilers here, so you might wanna wait if you're a purist.

Below I make a silly error because I started writing about Batman, got distracted and then switched midline and got all confused. Dini writes this. Theoretically I know this. I'm leaving the mistake up to punish my inner editor.

Spankings ahoy.

Detective Comics #843: It's beyond official--I'm a Morrison whore. Some people don't like him--this may be close to a Bendis Effect where you either love him or hate him--because of the sometimes obscurity/over the head/whateverness. Personally, I adore him and would contentedly sharpen all his pencils for the rest of my life (this would be more effective a statement if most people understood my deep loathing for all things pencils, so here: I'm left-handed and they smudge. ALL THROUGH GRADE SCHOOL!). Anyway, I really dug this issue, Batman is sharp and a smart ass and clever and Zatanna is smoking hot. Zatanna is smoking hot. Am I the only one that desperately wants the blond to get killed so that he and Zatanna hook up? She hit on Batman, people, without being all KittyMeow about it! I friggin' love it. She's there and wearing a top hat. Hawt.


Countdown #4: Today I had a conversation with a customer about buying Countdown that completely summed this and every other issue up: Countdown is the quintessential abusive relationship. Every week I go back to it after spending the previous seven days swearing up and down I'm done with it for good and every week I get beat up by bad art, worse writing and the most bug-fucked plot anyone's seen in years. Honestly, I have no idea what's really going on. Jason threw a tantrum, ripped off his cowl and stormed off. Then he stole snazzy (um, not so much Jason, please steal a GQ next time) outfit from a department store and ran off with the Hot Evil Villainettes--one of whom will be paying for his bus fare. Crap, did I use whom wrong there?

Mary sulks, flies off, sulks and insists she needs 'Me Time' while wandering around her apartment in something frumpy, Darkseid holds up an Evil Glowing Blueberry and she goes all evils again.

Jimmy complains and asks, "What're we gonna do about me?"

Donna asks "What're we gonna do about Jimmy?"

Atom angsts, askes "What're we gonna do Jimmy?" and thinks.

Kyle looks hot, so he's forgiven. I'm not shallow, shut up.

Mary attacks them after they get to their destination, talks shit, beats people up, gets hit by a car, then takes Jimmy and flies off.

Yeah. I'm going to say I'm not reading it next week. Then next Wednesday night I'll have bruises again.

God DAMN them.

Buffy #13: Xander, I love you. I love you so, so much. I love the banter, I love the implications, I love Xander and Dracula sickly and yes, god yes, I love Drew Goddard. This issue made me just as happy as 12 did.

Willow is still adorable, perverted and nosy and everyone else was good too.

But seriously: Xander and Dracula and poor, poor Renee. I freaking LOVE sulky Dracula and again: their banter, their banter is so goddamn great. I'm going to cuddle with this issue tonight.

Angel #6: I really could just copy and paste what I said about #5 for this one, but I'll be nice. Lynch has such a great voice for the characters and Urru screws it all up by being a horrible, horrible artist. Look, I didn't need to copy and paste! Woot!

Really, though, I forgot (and I'm not sure HOW) how much I love Lynch's Spike. He's got him down like gangbusters--funny and arrogant and irreverent but so, so meaningful beneath the rest. And now that he's spent proper time on Connor, I have to say the same thing. I like the way he went into Connor's past--though for those that haven't seen Angel seasons 1-4, it's a little too vague and he could've spent an extra page on what was going on regarding him. It came out a little shallow because of that--and I mean shallow as in not affecting. I have the advantage of four years, though, so I really enjoyed his section and thought it was well-done.

Lorne . . . made me laugh. It could've been a little more melodic and song-like, but it was done pretty well and again, made me laugh. I love Lorne.

The issue explored some really interesting ideas and I'm enjoying where Lynch and Whedon are heading with this.

"So. Right then. In Hell."

FUCK, I love Spike and am all the more excited about the upcoming mini.

Kick-Ass #2: It's still excellent. It's vicious and hard and way more touching than I thought it would be. I really like Kick-Ass the character, he's sweet and idiotic and noble and terrified which is exactly what a first real-world superhero should be. I also really like Millar's use of words, the embarrassing 'homies' white-boy use, the excessive teen swearing, the street slang and still managing to pack an emotional punch. Millar and JRJ make a great writer-artist team, too, you can tell how much they live on the same wavelength here. The fight scenes are excellent and gory and also funny as hell, which is hard to pull off and still be upsetting.

I'm really excited about this character and I really want to see where he goes from here. The pace is a little slow for me, but that's just preference and not really a formally lodged complaint.

"The beast was friggin' in me, man"


Nightwing #143: Tomasi was born to write Nightwing. Seriously. I'm back in love with this series and I no longer feel dirty every time I hit the last page. One of the best things is Tomasi remembering that Dick reaches out to the rest of the superhero community. He loves them and they love him, they know him. Cameo appearance by Sir Hotness Arsenal was much appreciated as well. Robin and Nightwing make the most adorable pseudo-brother team and I laughed way, way too hard at the last page. GOD, you stupid boys, please never stop being great.

"How far out do you think we parked it?"