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"comics: the buy pile"
Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Every week I go to the comic book store (Comics Ink in Culver City, CA, hey Steve and Jason!) and grab a lot of comics. I sort these into two piles -- the "buy" pile (things I intend to spend money on, most often a small pile) and the "read" pile (often huge, including lots of stuff I don't actually like but wanna stay well informed about). In no particular order, here's some thoughts about all that.

Avengers #64:
Sam Jackson, the Avenger known as the Falcon, is the spotlight in this issue (and really the whole reason I paid for it). Y'see, Sam's sidekick nature is being made a positive in recent storylines, and here it's done well. Falc has a little chat with Henry Peter Gyrich that's simply riveting and powers him up a great deal. It goes a little something like this ...

FALCON: I'm always psychically connected with Redwing, but through concentration I've recently tapped into another ability -- I'm able to link-up with other birds.
GYRICH: So?
FALCON: So I have over six billion pairs of eyes in the United States alone.

Good googa mooga! Writer Geoff Johns just powered up Sam Wilson in a way that's ... well, to be frank, he's becoming the Jack Hawksmoor of the avian set, a flying Aquaman with a 'tude (okay, a different 'tude). A mere two pages later, Sam flies in with a flock of various types of birds to attack a nasty kidnapper. Yow.

The issue is merely okay, but I had to have it to document this power-up of one of Marvel's perennial punching bags. Luckily he's a hero, or with stock tips and sports gambling alone he could overtake Tony Stark in a few weeks. Yowza.

Supergirl #79:
Technically this came out last week, but somehow I missed it. Peter David is having a lot of fun sending this title out in style. He simultaneously homages, insults and lauds the Silver Age in the space of a few pages. Ed Benes does indeed draw women like softcore porn, but theyre very well-rendered and highly detailed softcore porn, and I for one am growing to love his style (he's also doing well on the new Thundercats book I perused in the store). This book is entertaining, with a whimsical take on how the pre-Crisis times could have turned out with another Supergirl in Kara Zor-El's place, and a cover homage to the classic cover from Crisis on Infinite Earths. I'm sorry I waited until #75 to jump on this bandwagon (the angel thing never worked for me, somehow), but boy is it a fun ride while it lasts.

Global Frequency #5:
Every time I finish an issue of this title, I set it down, think, and smile. I freakin' love this book. This issue has more questions than answers, and none of the kick-ass action of some of the other issues, but I still liked it a great deal. Miranda Zero may be getting more face time than she deserves, based on the character development available to her, but the magician Alan Crowe really made the issue for me. I am still buying the pamphlets because this is too much fun to wait for in the trades.

Battle of the Planets #7:
I went back and reread the whole run, and the ominous undertones that Munier Sharrieff is jamming into this book really do it for me. The subtle implications of sending children to kill and die, the determined conquest of a really determined terrorist force ... this is good stuff. It's not your daddy's G-Force, it's better. Kudos.

Wildcats 3.0 #7
I remember reading Joe Casey's Uncanny X-Men and saying "eww." I remember reading his Superman and yawning. Now I know why -- he's been saving himself for this. A superhero corporation. He's mad. Deliciously, entertainingly, intricately mad. The insidious infiltration of the Halo brand into the Wildstorm universe may owe some ideological credit to Morrison's Hexus the Living Corporation, but in style and determination this far exceeds that material. Wow. Black Panther and Transmet fans have a new roost to call home, IMNSHO.

A good week all around, even if the "buy" load was kinda light.

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