Like Tom the Dog, I over-purchased by a mile yesterday. Then I get home and hear the message that my copy of the manga book arrived at Books-a-Million. So, it’s off to the plasma bank.
I’m not quite sure what I think of Secret War #3. Delays might have made it lose some momentum, but I don’t think a quarterly publication schedule is a recipe for breathless narrative in the first place. The painted art is attractive, but something about that approach always seems to put a burden on the subject matter (entirely in my own head, I admit). When I see painted art, I always feel like the story has to be Important. Secret Wars has a fairly interesting premise, but I don’t know how much weight it can hold.
On to some spoiler-y stuff: It was a very odd sensation for the chapter to end at what felt like the halfway point of the comic. “That’s it?” I wondered. The text piece wasn’t much of a compensation, as it didn’t illuminate anything that hadn’t been covered in the story. (I’ve liked previous text pieces in this series, though.) In fact, bits of Cap’s phone conversation were identical to things he said under other circumstances to other characters. (I have to say that I don’t think Bendis writes Cap’s dialogue very well. It seems overly formal, and not in an old-fashioned-guy kind of way. More like a spinster-etiquette-instructor kind of way.) I’ll be interested to see how people respond to the possibility that heroes have been brainwashed, given what’s going on over in Identity Crisis. (I’m actually enjoying Bendis’s portrayal of SHIELD as being a bit more shady than I’ve come to expect.)
She-Hulk #8 was my pre-purchase pick of the week, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I’m going to have to give my buy of the week award to Fallen Angel #16. Peter David has a real facility for world-building in this book, revealing interesting and relevant back story, moving ongoing plots and sub-plots forward, and providing telling character moments in every issue. Glad to hear that DC’s give-away scheme gave the book a boost (found via Johanna, who’s done her own bit for the book).
I’ve only read the first chapter, but I like what I see in the inaugural volume of CMX’s Land of the Blindfolded. It has a very Yu Watase feel to it, down to the intermittent notes from the creator. And since I love Yu Watase’s stuff (note to self: write Imadoki! review already), that’s all to the good.
On an unrelated note, Fanboy Rampage is kind of turning into an Escher drawing in Graeme’s absence.