Weekend haul

Doing the layouts for this post would be a bitch so I'm going to just drop some notes for this week and then post a bunch of covers... As it stands, I've realized that more often than not, I'm at the comics shop to pick up just 2 or 3 issues every time so instead, I waited a few weeks since my last "weekend haul" (not counting last week when I got into that beautiful hardbound copy of Annihilation; oh right, I still owe you a review, don't I?).

So here we go in no particular order:

Wonder Woman #5: Wow - after lengthy delays between each bi-monthly issue, the stand-alone side-story about a women's shelter hits the shelves only a month early! It's jarring - I'm not sure what DC meant accomplish by releasing this because there's another month to go before the final issue of the ongoing "Who is Wonder Woman?" story would have been scheduled. A nice diversion but ends up opening a door for more questions than answers.

Wetworks #6: For some reason I keep getting this title even tho it's one of the more forgettable stories. I'm sorry, but Portacio's art just isn't cutting it anymore. It used to be that he fit right in with the Marvel style of the early 90's (he had a VERY successful run on Uncanny X-Men back then but for some reason, his emphasis on extreme line-work is getting on my nerves. Maybe it's the inker he's working with, I'm not sure. And the plot has been so fragmented lately even this issue started with a narration from the supporting cast to recap what had gone on before. Now that's really dragging things out.

Worldstorm #2: Yeah, another one of those damn "promo" specials. At least this time they did away with the stupid pin-ups and gave us 2 solid short-stories. I haven't kept up to speed with the Wildstorm comics leading up to the Worldstorm event so I'm a little out of the loop. When did Voodoo become a cold-blooded killer? I mean... huh? This does not seem to be the same one we met post reboot in the new Wildcats series - speaking of which, where the hell is issue 2 of that? It's been like 5 months already. The second story cameos Savant and reintroduces several classic Stormwatch members.

Stormwatch PHD #5: Cool - a flashback episodes! Not a recap, but it does go back and fill in the blank spaces in the WSU we've been expected to "just roll with" - like why several dead characters from pre-reboot appear alive and well post-reboot. Some reviewers hated the fill-in artist. I liked it.

WS Finearts Spotlight J.Scott Campbell: Heh ... yes, one of those "promo" specials I hate so much. But it's a guilty pleasure. My favourite comment is from Campbell himself who refers to Fairchild's thong costume as a "wedgy" and "cringe-worthy." Then he very breifly admits that back in the 90's, such character designs were very acceptable and expected. Hey, I might be stuck in a time loop because I still think sexy women in comics is okay. ^_^;

The Authority #2: hooray, we finally actually meet the Authority in the second issue (did I mention how weird it was to have the entirety of the first issue act like a prologue and nothing more?)... And that was at least 3 months ago... I'm surprised it picked up so easily. Alternate universe and all that stuff is okay if you add in a little nod to the fans - members of the Authority stop by a local comics shop and pick up some collected trades of themselves... ^o^

Midnighter vs. Grifter #1: another "prologue" type issue 1. At least it gave us some brutal action to start with... And revealed that Grifter is a telepath? What the heck? Another "did I miss something?" plot device.

Gen13 #6: Ah the prologue story is done. It's like Gail Simone (a great scripter by the way) decided to take her sweet time with her version of the Gen13 origin. Took 6 issue to do what the original did in 4. It's actually very creepy in a horror sci-fi kind of way but the pay off in this issue was so damn satisfying.