Wednesday!

Hello all,

It's that AWESOME time of the week again. Comic day.

This week I picked up:

Marvel
Mighty Avengers #31 - 6/10
Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1 - 8/10

DC Comics
Adventure Comics #4 - 7/10
Flash: Rebirth #5 - 8/10
JSA: Thy Kingdom Come Vol. 2 - 9/10

Yes I was heavy of the GJ today. Which is odd, considering how often I complain about this thing or the other when it comes to Geoff Johns. He's the second best TV writer in history, that's for sure. only Joss Whedon is better. But Johns continues to do things I like. I support that.

Yeah, I know I said I'd drop Mighty, and I will, but I wanted to finish out this arc. It was just as disappointing as I thought it'd be. While I like Amadeus Cho being the new Ant-Man, Quicksilver's ego would not let him feel remorse about the Silent War. Sorry Slott. Pietro Maximoff feels bad about what he put Crystal through, and he regrets the House of M, but not the Silent War. And Luna? Luna loves her father, she would not refuse to forgive him for telling a lie. Bad characterization to round out bad retconning. Though I can appreciate the themes at work in the story arc.

Who didn't see Maximus turning on the Inhumans? With Black Bolt (the only Inhuman resistant to Maximus's mind control) out of the picture, it won't be long before Medusa is sleeping with Maximus again and Black Bolt's son Ahura goes all Hamlet on Maximus's ass. Realm of Kings is going to be a fun little ride. I for one can't wait to see what Ahura is capable of (given his recent recovery from some inexplicable insanity, God it's like Days of Our Lives...).

I only bought this one because I love Superboy-Prime. He's awesome. Whiny, selfish, and immature as all hell, but name one teen who isn't? Prime faces off against a slew of Black Lanterns but... wait, the next issue hasn't come out yet! He doesn't know how it will resolve! Guess he'll have to wait until next month like the rest of us. (That said, I actually prefer when Superboy-Prime is NOT on Earth-Prime, because the stories get kind of hokey.) And I got a ring! Hope, I haz it! "All will be well."

Good stuff, Johns. Although I've been skeptical about Flash ever since this "you CREATED the Speed Force!" business, I liked this issue. Lots of great action and more Flashs than you can shake a stick at. But I maintain that Zolomon is a much better Zoom than Thane. (I also like Wally West better than Barry Allen)

Thy Kingdom Come is just too awesome. The whole Gog/Magog mythos gets confusing for me sometimes, but there's just so many characters in JSA that you get a lot of interpersonal drama and action. The irony of Gog's resurrection is pretty well thought out. Plus the characterization is top-notch. JSA is one of my favorite things Johns has written.

That's all, guys. I'm about halfway through Deb Olin Unferth's Vacation, so that'll be up here soon too.

-Steve

First of November... on the Eleventh

Happy V-Day Everyone!

I begin by thanking all you veterans who rock enough to protect not only our lives, but our livelihoods. God bless you all, keep doing what your doing!

Now, I could go back and review all those tasty back issues of comics I've been putting off in favor of my schoolwork, but I doubt you care to read how "Booster Gold is still good," "Batman and Robin is awesome," and "Dark Reign is still pretty lame except for Iron Man."

Instead, I have a few unique treats;

No poetry! Yay!

My experiment into Twitterfiction, that is, a flash fiction piece I wrote for my Fiction Workshop entirely from a Twitter account. You can find it here: http://www.twitter.com/illinoisjones (Remember, the Tweets are in REVERSE order, so you have to scroll down and read from the bottom)

And, a sneak peek at the next novel review I'll be throwing up, Vacation by Deb Olin Unferth.

I recently attended James Branch Cabell Library's First Novelist Award Festival (the 8th I believe?) at VCU and heard this year's winner, Deb Unferth, read from this, her first published novel. She has a youthful spark and a passion for storytelling matched only by the wit with which she writes. (She's a fan of lists, and I love the amount of characterization and detail you can achieve through the use of a well-placed list).

I'm only part of the way through her novel (yes, I bought it) and I'm enjoying the nonlinear passage of time, and its quirkiness. My only peeve thus far is the lack of quotation marks. I assume it is an effort on the writer's part to avoid disrupting the flow of words that is very crucial to the work's wit and punchiness.

Full review to come, and now that I have less to do for the next couple of weeks, I'll start comic reviewing next week with a nice little tabula rasa.

Happy hump day.

-Steve