What Comic Books Have You Read Today?

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

THE ETERNALS - 50th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL:

This was going to be my "Pick of the Week"... until I read it. 

There are three stories. The first takes up half the issue. It is set in the present with a flashback to WWII dealing with how Ikaris and Captain America first met, in 1942. The art is acceptable, but the dialogue of both the main characters doesn't ring true. "Jack Kirby" is cast as a sidewalk hot dog vendor.

The second story concerns Ransak, the Deviant known as "Reject", but it seems to be written more with Kirby's Orion in mind.

The third story, six pages, was just a mess, in terms of both story and art. I couln't make head nor tail of it. Pointless.

The issue ends with an essay by senior editor Mark Paniccia, the highlight of the issue.

I can't recommend this to anyone, not even (perhaps especially not) hardcore Kirby fans.

[ClarkKent_DC]

I've recently read several in the crime/action vein.

• End of Life. This is an offering from the revived Vertigo line. It opens in medias res, with our protagonist, hitman and thief Eddie Stallion, in a mansion getting shot at by a platoon of goons. He's on the phone with his handler, trying to figure a way out of this mess. How did he get into this mess? Stallion was a late addition to a crew burgling the vault in the mansion. There's boatloads of booty: cash, bonds, rare coins, jewelry, gold, and so on. But when Stallion notices a gold ring in a display case, he discerns just who owns this home ... and immediately blows away the burglary crew's ringleader. Why? Because the homeowner is HIGH up in a mob organization. Zaniness ensues as Stallion escapes the vault and runs to the last place anybody would look for him, a forgotten town in the middle of nowhere. Stallion is the kind of guy who thinks his charm will get him out of the messes he gets himself into, but here, damn near everybody is out to kill him ... including dear old Dad. Lots of fun, and great artwork.
• The Other Half. Kind of a Nick and Nora Charles thing with two detectives. One half of the team is a scruffy p.i. doing the non-glamorous work of trailing cheating spouses. The other half of the team is his husband, who comes from a posh, veddy veddy high society family who think the p.i. isn't good enough to be married to their son. Somehow, though, the p.i. gets a case that requires him to embed in that high society world.
• Ordained. It opens in St. Louis at a hospital where a dying mobster calls for a priest to take his confession and administer last rites. Soon after this encounter, the mobster strangely -- miraculously? -- makes a full and complete recovery. How does he respond to this good fortune? Does he repent? He does not, the ingrate; he puts a hit out on the priest. Two hitters come for the priest at his church only to find that, apparently, he studied harder at Parris Island than he did in seminary and defends himself with brutal efficiency. Issue #2 opens with our mangled hitters arriving at the hospital, and a police detective on the trail of the mobster wondering What the hell happened? We get a flashback showing that our priest was a Navy SEAL in his past, but an operation gone wrong leads him to leave the service and follow Christ. The mobster mistakenly believes our hospitalized hitters were set upon by another crew and declares all-out war on his rivals. And, oh yeah, the priest is still around, having successfully fought his way out of another trap, so the mobster brings in more muscle to take him out. I like this one, a lot.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ROMEO & JULIET and GODZILLA:

The prologue is delivered by two fairies wearing period costumes while standing on a table...

Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona. where we lay our scene... while deep beneath tides in vicinity, a deadly force swims forth to intervene.

Within the shadow of a mighty beast, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life... as giant kaiju trample through the streets, so intigated by their parents strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love, amid cacaphony of monstrous rage... which, but their children's end, naught could remeove, is now the two-score page count of our stage.

...and it goes on from there. Actually, it is a fairly faithful adaptation (under the circumstances), save for Godzilla (and Mothra) rampaging through Verona in the background. The art is peppered with "kaiju eggs," and the prose (when the monsters interact with the characters) is reminiscent of the faux Shakespreare of William Shakespeare's Star Wars. The back-up feature is part one of "Godzilla Meets Robin hood and His Merry Band of Outlaws" (part two to be found in Godzilla's The Odyssey). I would recommend this to either fans of Shakespeare or fans of Godzilla, doubly to fans of both.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

2001 NIGHTS:

2001 Nights (1990) was the third manga series I collected (following Lone Wolf & Cub and Crying Freeman). It is by Yukinobu Hoshino and was originally serialized in Monthly Super Action from 1984-1986. It is Hoshino's version of the future chronicles of humanity's journey to the stars and our encounters with the universe. (Think: Arabian Nights + 2001: A Space Odyssey.) The first issue includes the first four "Nights":

• Night 1: "Earthglow"
• Night 2: "Sea of Fertility"
• Night 3: "Maelstrom III"
• Night 4: "Posterity"

Hard science fiction. Good stuff. And yes, I am listening to the soundtrack of the Kubrick film to set the mood.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

No Man's Land 1-4 : This is a miniseries that takes place during the early days of the Cold War. An FBI agent is denied hios early retirement to investigate a murder. The murder took place on the ice bridge that forms temporarily between Russia and Alaska each eyar. he is told if he is captured by the Russians, they will deny knowlege of him and they will treat him like a spy. Once he arrives, he of course meets a KGB spy, and they agree to solve the murder together. 

This was a pretty good little story. Written and drawn by Szymon Kurdański

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Sometimes, reading one thing can inspire to read something else quite different. Cases in point...

Lone Wolf & Cub has put me in the mood to reread Sin City.

2001 Nights has put me in the mood to reread Cerebus (specifically, the end of "Church & State").

But Lone Wolf & Cub and 2001 Nights are both manga, and what I will likely read next is Ultraman.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

LONE WOLF 2100: 

One Hundred years from now... the world is coming apart. A deadly man-made virus known as the "War Spore" is spreading, the debilitating effects felt by man and android alike. Whole populations have become refugees; barred at every border. Human-like android emulation constructs called EmCons, suspected of intentionally releasing the virus, are in revolt. Only a few places on earth remain safe havens from the Spore... Hiding among the displaced hordes are a man named Itto and a young girl, Daisy. She is the daughter of a renowned scientist who was working on a cure for the virus. He was her father's bodyguard, but now his accused murderer. They're on the run from the operatives of the Cygnat Owari Corporation, men ? and machines ? who will stop at nothing to kill the man and retrieve the girl. Whether Daisy is an infectious carrier of the virus, as the corporation claims, or something more, as Itto believes, escape is but the first step on their journey, the final destination of which is vengeance...

Here's another series I bought years ago (24 in this case) but didn't around to reading until today. Part homage and partly a re-imagining of the original Lone Wolf and Cub manga, this series was done with the cooperation of Kazuo Koike, the writer and co-creator of the original. I would describe it as a mash-up of LW&C, Mad Max and Bladerunner. At the end of the fourth issue, the editor said, "We come now to a break in our story; the end of our first arc, if you will," but I never saw another issue. (Either that or I decided at the time not to continue and have simnply forgotten.) But I was today years old when I learned that this series ran for 12 issues, plus a one-shot, plus another four-issue series in 2015, all readily available in a number of different formats and collections. It was okay, but I don't think I'll pursue it any further. 

ALSO... in the time since I last posted to this thread (some three hours ago), I have read Church & State: Book Seven - "Walking on the Moon" (Cerebus #107-111). So I've got that out of my system.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I started re-reading Swamp Thing #80-87 today so that I'll be prepared for Swamp Thing 1989 #1 next week.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Tracy brought a comic book for me home from her vacation.

Painted cover (color "wash" technique) by Sanho Kim.

• "Trophy Room" - A big game poacher gets what's comihng to him. (Ditko)
• "The Posessed" - The spell of an ugly witch cause a man to see her as a beautiful woman.
• "Ghost's Town" - A couple visits an abandoned mining town haunted by ghosts.

[The Baron]

(Well, I read them yesterday, actually.)

I Hate Fairyland #50: Skottie Young has run out of ideas for this series and looks for other ideas to homage/rip off. (That's not me commenting, that's the actual plot of the comic.) We get glimpses of Absolute Gert, Sin City Gert, The Exorcst Gert, Indiana Jones Gert, Ultragert and Dragon Ball Gert before Young decides to put the series on pause while while he decides where to take it next, leaving Gert and Larry trapped on an otherwise blank page. In a text piece, Young explains that he is indeed takinng a temporary break from the series to allow everyone involved to get caught up with "real life".

The Ultimates #23: Rsgarok comes to the latest Ultimate Universe as Thor and Loki (each with some unlikely allies) battle over the ruins of Asgard. This is one of the better "Ragnaroks"  that I've seen over the years. It's what I imagine the "death of the old gods" that led to the birth of the Fourth World  looed like.