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DC’s New 52 Year One Reviews: All-Star Western #1-9

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Up until very recently there was just something about Westerns that I rejected intellectually. As a genre, Westerns seem so base. Cowboys and Indians? At best it’s a throwaway Sleigh Bells lyric, and worst it’s violent, racist, and embodies American’s deep-seeded inability to ever just get along.

I realize the hypocrisy here from a (relatively) grown man who reads comic books like it’s his job. But, for whatever reason, Westerns always seemed a rung below acceptable.

Then I watched The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. [Read more…] about DC’s New 52 Year One Reviews: All-Star Western #1-9

DC’s New 52 Year One Reviews: Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales

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If you’re a collector, you probably bought the new 52 Action Comics #1 for the numbering. With an ongoing run that began in June of 1938 with Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, Action Comics became the go-to example for just how dramatic DC’s new 52 was going to be. “They’re renumbering Action Comics! Giving the iconic Superman line an all new number one issue! My heavens, have they completely lost it?!!!”

I’ll admit, it’s pretty easy to get caught up in the speculative gold rush of a new number one issue, even for a non-collector. Nonetheless, the main reason Action Comics held so much appeal out of the gate was not because it defied a deep and storied history that few people know. No, it was the fact that DC announced Grant Morrison as lead writer, this less than a decade after his All-Star Superman redefined what we talk about when we talk about the Man of Steel. [Read more…] about DC’s New 52 Year One Reviews: Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales

DC’s New 52 Year One Reviews: Animal Man by Jeff Lemire

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It’d be pretty cool to have a superhero for a Dad. I know a lot of people get all mushy and say “My Dad is my hero,” but let’s be honest, if the dude can’t fly/lift a truck/inherit the powers of a jackrabbit, he’s not much of a hero.

I think the most heroic thing I ever saw my Dad do was stoically fix his dislocated toe on a water park net bridge. I’m still a little impressed, but I’m not exactly bragging to Superman about that one. “What’s that, Supes? Oh you saved a WHOLE civilization from being colonized by Braniac? That’s pretty cool. One time my Dad dislocated his toe on a playground built for children, and he didn’t even cry.” [Read more…] about DC’s New 52 Year One Reviews: Animal Man by Jeff Lemire

DC’s New 52 Year One Reviews: Dial H By China Mieville and Mateus Santolouco

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If you read comics and you’re mildly pretentious, or kind of feel like someone’s calling your name when they say “intellectual,” there’s a pretty good chance you have what I’d call the “Sandman Complex.”

In addition to a troubling tendency to throw powder around strange bedrooms, this complex is the desire to defend the literary artistry of your funny books (*shudder*) with the verbose and complex line of argument that Sandman made so damn easy. The non-comics ridiculer wants to laugh at the lack of Joyce in your hands? Fine: that won’t stop you from your fierce rebuttal of “But but but Shakespeare… and and and refried reality!”

It was in this general mindset that I originally felt compelled to pick up Dial H. How does it rank in terms of fulfilling my Sandman Complex? [Read more…] about DC’s New 52 Year One Reviews: Dial H By China Mieville and Mateus Santolouco