Boy howdy, X-Men: First Class sure done alright by me. It's a shame that the last two made so much stinking money while being largely mediocre (or downright disappointing). Here we have a quality script under a fine director and critics and fans actually agreeing on it, but the larger audience seems to be suffering from "fool me twice, shame on me."
I'm sure positive word of mouth will help stretch the box office dollars but it's a rough summer with some extremely heavy competition and it's gotta go up against J.J. Abrams' Super 8 and the positive early reviews and post-Star Trek good fortune this weekend.
I'm sure I'll still try to squeeze in a second viewing of First Class somewhere, either before or after I get around to seeing Super 8. I'll be a busy weekend for us at CBXF, as we'll be present at the inaugural Contagion convention here in Omaha. We're pretty excited as it promises to be the biggest sci-fi/fantasy convention this area has seen. We'll be sharing booth space with The Weisenheimers, America's favorite improv comedy troupe from Omaha, NE who happen to count our own Monty Eich as one of their founding members. Attendees of Contagion will have the pleasure of seeing a free show performed by The Weisenheimers, Saturday night, while you can find Robb and I doing free sketches at the booth during the day.
You really couldn't ask for more fun out of your weekend unless you're actually fortunate enough to get one of those V.I.P. passes to spend time with Jewel Staite at Contagion. Sigh.
Anyway, I'm buying comics tomorrow. Let's talk about them.
15 Love #1 (OF 3)
We talked about 15 Love on the blog back when Marvel announced they were digging this thing out of the vault and actually publishing this oddity. It's a manga style, female centered tennis comic published by Marvel Comics and written by indie darling Andi Watson. It was originally meant for Marvel's "Tsunami" line of comics which originally spawned Runaways, and had more of a young adult/female slant trying to make a grab at the bookstore audiences that were buying up manga in droves. The book was announced but was never published since most of the line, outside of Runaways, dried up. It's nice to see the already completed series repackaged and made available for public consumption though it seems like even more of an oddity now, unless they're figuring it'll draw the attention of the audience that's buying their Oz and Jane Austen comics.
Batman And Robin #24
This appears to be Judd Winick's swan song for Jason Todd, though the character will continue on post-relaunch in a new series by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rockafort and featuring a trucker cap wearing Arsenal. The team of Winick and Guillem March will reteam on a new Catwoman series in DCnU, though, so that'll be nice.
Birds Of Prey #13
I can't help but feel like all of these DC books are colored by the impending relaunches now. Especially considering that this is now Gail Simone's last issue of Birds of Prey, what with the final two pre-relaunch issues being written by Marc Andreyko. I don't know if it'll have the feeling of a goodbye from Gail or if it'll just be business as usual as we complete the Huntress/Question team-up that started last issue.
Empowered Special 10 Questions For Maidman #2
I'm really behind in my Empowered reading but I love Adam Warren and these specials are fun because they're in color.
Fear Itself Deadpool Fear #1 (OF 3)
I haven't bothered with any Deadpool comics since Dwayne Swierczynski's Marvel Knights mini but when you hire Chis Hastings, the writer of the hilarious webcomic Dr. McNinja, there is no way I cannot buy this. I'm a bit sad that Marvel replaced the lovely MC Hammer parody cover with this rather generic one, though. Boo, legal department. Boo.
Fear Itself Fearsome Four #1 (OF 4)
You put Man-Thing, She-Hulk and Howard the Duck in a comic together and I kind of have to buy it. That's practically a love letter to Steve Gerber right there. I loved She-Hulk's team-ups with Howard in the 90's so much that I honestly used to write fan-fiction starring the two of them.
Flashpoint Frankenstein Creatures Of Unknown #1 (OF 3)
This book is reboot tinged in a much different way than Gail's final issue of BoP. Now we know that Jeff Lemire will be writing a Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE series in the DCnU relaunch, this book has now turned from a charming oddity from a beloved indie comics creator to a try-out/taste test for the upcoming new series. I was already planning to buy this based on Lemire's work alone, but now I'm all the more curious, considering Jeff will have a lot more to say about the character, even if this takes place in an alternate reality.
Golly Tp Vol 01 Catching Hell
This book is very special to me because, well, I'M IN IT. I was very pleased to contribute a pin-up to this collection of low brow humor and southern horror from writer Phil Hester and artists Brook Turner, Bruce McCorkindale, and Rick Hiltbrunner. (who are all not only talented creators but happen to be really awesome people in real life) It's my first time being published in a trade paperback so I'm pretty excited about it.
Journey Into Mystery #624
Lil' Loki's doing his schemey thing and it's delightful work from Kieron Gillen and Doug Braithwaite.
Mega Man #2
I super dug the first issue. Especially the art. I hope Spaziante plans to stick with this book for the long run because his work is gorgeous.
New Avengers #13
Bendis is purposefully trying to torture me by dragging this Mockingbird thing out, isn't he.
Red Robin #24
So there's absolutely no hide nor hair of Red Robin in the DCnU relaunch at this point. They made all their Bat-book announcements so if Tim isn't leading Teen Titans when they get around to announcing it, I'm not sure what to think. I'm also not sure if it's worth my time to stick with this series for it's final 3 issues when I've been kind of waffling on it of late. It's a fine book and all, I just don't feel like it's had my complete attention. This might come down to a flip-test.
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #159
Oh my precious Ultimate Spider-Man, why do you make me shout at my friends? Why is my love for you so strong? Please don't come between me and my friends again. Even though they are wrong, so very very wrong.
X-Men Legacy #250
This may wind up being another flip-test. I just don't know how much I care about this new line-up/direction. I'd normally be all over an Xavier/Magneto/Rogue/Gambit book but I'm just kind of tired with Legacy of late. Maybe it's the drab art. Maybe I just miss Clay Mann. Maybe it's just that Uncanny X-Men and Generation Hope are doing such a great job of satisfying my mutant needs that I don't really feel like I need Legacy at this point. Not sure. We'll see, I guess. This one's double-sized so it better double my interest.
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