Near Mint Condition: Ring In The Year With Monsters, Dames and Defenders
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012It’s the beginning of the fucking New Year, and I can’t think of a better way to drag the Year of Mayan Doom slithering into the world than with some comic books. Fuck if we like our myths and narratives and actions of creation, let us slather it in some sequential artwork and the occasional uncomfortably inappropriate latex-sliding-up-ass panel of horndog High Heaven.
Let us do it together in this Year of Advancing Oblivion. These are the comic books I’m feeling this week. Interested In. Intrigued By. What are you picking up?
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Defenders #2
Despite worshipping at my scuzzy altar of Matt Fraction, I wasn’t too high on the prospects of a Defenders title. It seemed forced, and I’ve never really dug Terry Dodson. Thankfully for me, supplication to my Heroes is a constant. (And my brother bought it despite me saying I wasn’t interested.) Bam! What a fucking title. It feels the closest to Casanova-quality Fraction in a Marvel skein in a long, long goddamn time. A bungling band of depressives and egomaniacs battling against Biblical Myths is the premise. The execution is witty and glowingly metatextual. If you skipped this shit last month, unpass on it. Yeah, unpass.
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The Jeff Lemire Corner
Speaking of fanboy status, two titles are dropping from Jeff Lemire this week. Oh I love him so. It’s not just because we share the writhing conduit of Canadian hemoglobin within our veins. No sir. No ma’am. The good sir is dropping Sweet Tooth #29 as well as Animal Man #5. Lemire knows how to bring the horror into the story and wrap it around some beautiful mundanity. I insist, Chrome. Mundanity is a word. Not to be forgotten are the fantastic pencilers he is working with. Travel Foreman is particularly revelatory to my ignorant ass, and his work on Animal Man was some of my favorite of last year.
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Fatale #1
Controversy! While Brubaker and Phillips often ignite the Beast Mode Transformation of dynamite collaboration, I wasn’t too thrilled about Criminal: Archie Comics last year. I didn’t hate it, but it clunked in its conclusion and left me with a resounding eh! Even still, I’m very enthusiastic about snagging their latest dropping. Isn’t it great when you can watch two creators work together over the years? Marking their highs and their lows, their evolution and changing expressions? Almost, almost brings a tear to my eyes. Anyways, behold Fatale! Warren Ellis digs it, provided a preview. Noir meets horror meets a new publisher in Image Comics. Yes please.















































