Vinny’s Comic (Con) Picks of the (Last Two) Week(s)!
Since we were on vacation the last two Wednesdays, we’re going to do this a little differently.
Also, I should probably admit that this has little or nothing to do with any convention, but hey, I wanted to be able to tag it while the show is going on. That’s modern marketing, folks. You’ll find this format to be a little looser than normal, but I’ll throw in some of my favorite books of the last two weeks and some insight on why you should check them out.
Let’s start with Superman #1. Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Prado and Ivan Reis bring us the unnecessarily renumbered relaunch, but it is well worth your attention. Though many, myself included, found Man of Steel to be a bit underwhelming, Bendis kicks off his takeover of the two Superman titles in admirable style. His premise certainly does not insult the work done since rebirth, but creates a new path for Kal-El to walk on. This is arguably one of Bendis’ greatest strengths, and though I can’t claim to have been a big fan of his most recent work, I had flashes of his Daredevil re-invention here.
I had similar feelings about The Amazing Spider-Man #1. Though tied closely enough to recent issues to not renumber, Marvel makes the call to do so anyway. At least here it seems a bit more appropriate as Nick Spencer, Ryan Ottley and Cliff Rathburn craft a tale that might as well have been called Spider-Man: Rebirth. I won’t get into the specifics of what it re-establishes, but there’s a big one that you’ve probably already guessed and a couple more that, without taking away from Dan Slott’s run, adjust Peter to a more familiar state. Ottley is the perfect choice for this type of Spider-Man book, and I guarantee that you’ll be blown away by some of the pages found in this one.
Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter bring an end to Flash War in The Flash #50, and the book continues to be one of my favorites. This is another one that I can’t say too much about, but fans of nineties and turn of the millennium Flash books are going to be quite happy. It is also a great point to jump on as things over on the book seem to be moving faster and faster.
A couple of Batman wedding spoilers ahead.
The negative fallout from Batman #50 might be deserved in some respects. While Tom King delivered a story that does perfectly fit the narrative up to this point, DC was caught between a rock and a hard place. How can you NOT promote a wedding between two of the most popular characters of all time? Maybe the tie-in issues were a bit much, but it was simply a hard thing to handle appropriately. King, along with Lee Weeks, brings us the follow-up to the wedding, featuring a hopeless, aggressive Batman. Bane’s plan is working, but luckily Dick Grayson is around to help sort things out. I think by the end of this one, and King’s planned forty-nine more issues, fans will be quite happy.
Dan Slott’s exit from The Amazing Spider-Man has brought us Tony Stark: Iron Man, which continues to bring us the contemporary hero that has been so difficult to pin down in the last decade. I am admittedly of a generation that doesn’t need Stark to be as snarky as he is in the films, but it would be silly to act like that hasn’t become the predominant version of the character. Slott, along with Valerio Schiti, have found a nice balance between pop-culture’s Stark and the Iron Avenger who has delighted comic fans for far longer. Slott has also gathered a wonderful and logical supporting cast.
These were two really solid weeks and I feel like I could go on forever, but some of those books will certainly appear here again. Also, I need to find a reason to gush about that Shazam trailer, so keep your eyes open.