Tuesday Catch Up: Invincible Hardcover #1

INVINCIBLE HARDCOVER #1
Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Ryan Ottley @ Cory Walker
Colors by Bill Crabtree
Published by Image Comics

Now I love Kirkman's Walking Dead. I love it. I think it is one of the best comics out in the market right now. Therefore I have always been interested in seeing his handle on superheroes in his own little universe. I have been wanting to give Invincible a shot for a while but I just haven't had the time until recently. I had heard tons of praise for the book and thought it was about time to check it out in hardcover form which collects the first couple trades of the series.
At first I was little underwhelmed. I liked what he was doing with the whole Spiderman meets the son of Superman thing and it was an interesting dynamic seeing a family so used to having a superhero for a father. But it was just kind of whatever for a little while. Until Kirkman does what he does so well and just pulls something that pulls the plot rug out from under you completely. I am not going to give it a way but a major shift happens that makes this go from "eh" to "Hey that is really interesting, I don't think I have ever seen something like that happen before." Unfortanatly that happens right at the end of the hardcover so I need to wait to the next one to find out more. I will definitly purchase the other hardcovers. It is worth it too. A couple trades for about $35.
The art was good but some things annoyed me. I don't like the way they drew noses. I love every thing else but something about noses bothered me. This isn't the first time this has happened to me either. I remember looking at John Romita Jr. art and thinking the same thing. I just am particular about noses. I also love the colors in this book. Big bright and a lot of fun.
Check it out and catch up on the trades. Apparantly it is hitting issue 50 which is supposed to be a catching on point for everyone. As for me, I am going to stick to the hardcovers.

How can I motivate myself to post here more often?

I will tell you how! You give yourself goals and asperations. Who cares if nobody reads this blog. That's right I am going to start a new feature that I will be doing every Tuesday called Catch Up Tuesdays! We all have stacks of books to read, movies to watch. I have a large stack full of those things. Comics I bought at a quarter bin to films I own to god knows how many novels I have bought on a whim from half price books. Every Tuesday I will be reviewing one or more of those things. Depending how caught up I am. Check for the first in this series tomorrow.

MOVIE MARATHON

TIMMY'S ALL-NITE MOVIE MARATHON 2008!

I, Timmy Wood, will choose six awesome super cool ass movies and show them on the night of April 19th at 8 pm until 8 am. After the movies their will be an awesome prize and contest for those that stayed awake during all the movies. $7

All proceeds go to CHOOSE YOUR OWN PLAY 2: BIGGER BETTER CHOOSIER!

Are you up for the challenge?

COMICS OF NOTE 2/13/08

Here are some of the best comics that came out this past week.



I normally don't read WOLVERINE. Yeah I like the character and I enjoy him in other books but I never feel the need to pick this up because he seems to be in every book. After a while I just get a little tired of seeing him so I rarely read this title. However I found out that Jason Aaron was writing him and I decided to give it a try.
Now if you don't know who Jason Aaron is you should. He is writing a book over at the Vertigo line that not enough people are reading called SCALPED. It's amazing. I haven't been this excited about a book since Y:The Last Man. The premise is simple, Donnie Brasco on an Indian reservation, but the book evolves into something so much more than that. I highly highly recommend it. Aaron even has a deal that if you buy the first trade and don't like it, he will buy it back from you! (http://www.scalped.info/) So you can't go wrong. Everyone go out and buy the first two trades and then the last two single issues and you will be caught up. Do it's worth it.
Back to Wolverine. This was great. We have Wolverine hunting Mystique because she apparantly betrayed the X-men somehow (I didn't read the messiah Complex crossover so I don't know but I don't think it is necessary.) Cyclpos orderes Wolverine to find her and to bring her back if he can but he doesn't want her breathing. Then we get a nice little backstory of how Mystique and Wolverine first met going along with the plot as well. Through in an awesome ending (which I should have saw coming due to the nature of these characters) and this is one solid book.

FANTASTIC FOUR #554


I haven't picked up this book since the Waid/Weringo run way back when and I almost didn't pick this up, but I figured well everyone is going to be talking about it. I will give the first issue a shot.
The new superstar creative team is, as I am sure you might have heard Mark Millar and Brian Hitch. I really enjoyed the Ultimates 1 and 2 and I like Hitches art. Whatever you want to say about the major delays that those books had, which sucked I know, that was still a fun book. However I have a little thing about Millar. I love him whenever he handles characters that aren't in the main universe. He has a little more freedom and can make them do things that they normally couldn't do in the main universe. That is why Ultimates and Superman: Red Son are so good. Whenever he is the main universe it just doesn't work for me as much. Which is why I didn't care for CIVIL WAR. If that book took place in the Ultimate Universe it would have made complete sense and nothing would have seemed out of character. This Fantastic Four was a lot of fun and I didn't feel that way. Ben and Reed worked really well off each other and it felt like a fun Sci-fi adventure book which is want this book needs to be. I think I will stick on this title for a little longer.

THE WALKING DEAD #46


Again Kirkman proves that he will kill anyone and no one is safe in this book. This book feels dangerouse when I read it. I can't explain it. I never know what Kirkman is going to do in the next issue.

Those were the awesome comics of last week. Laters!

AC Podcast taking a break! Say What!

The Around Comics Podcast announced today that they are taking a break. This is sad news as Around Comics was in the holy trinity of amazing comic podcast, the other sides of this triangle being iFanboy and WordBalloon. I will surely miss them but I completely understand them wanting to take a break. So have fun on your break guys. I will look forward to Tom's new podcast TOM VS the JLA and Skotties new podcast and eagerly await the return of Around Comics.
Man this is just like when Brubaker killed off Captain America.

RIP Steve Gerber has passed...

Steve Gerber passed away yesterday. I just recently started to discover some of his great characters like Howard the Duck and Man-Thing. I also picked up some of his run on the Defenders which was awesome, there is a renegade elf with a gun in it and that is his name ELF WITH A GUN! He was an amazing writer and he will be missed.

Man Captain America is Awesome but.....

The Last Issue of Y: The Last Man came out yesterday.
Now Y was the comic that got me back into comics. I was in college I hadn't read comics in years. Even as a kid I wasn't really allowed to read comics I had to read my friends copies. One day I as I drove home from my freshman level courses at the good old University of Houston I started thinking about comics and how much I used to love reading them. I found a comic shop that was close to my neighborhood and I pulled in. I told the guy working there and he recomennded a few things. I went to the wall and just grabbed some stuff that I thought I might like or whatever. I picked up Y: the Last man, Sleeper, Ultimate Spider-Man, Green Lantern, and Detective Comics. Of all those Y and Sleeper hit me the most. I was blown away. i had never read anything like it. From that day on I was addicked to comics and now spend way too much on them.

This last issue was a really great way to end the series. It was emotional and ended in a completely unexpected way. It wasn't like a twist ending or anything but it really cuts back to the Sci-fi roots of the series. Y the last man is a Sci-fi book but it was so good that you forgot that it fits in that genre. Lost also falls under the same catagory. This issue really reminds you that and also is a great bookend to the series.
Brian K. Vaughn. I love you. Thanks so much for doing such a quality series. I hope whatever you have in the future is super succesful as well.