Man, I had no energy yesterday. By the afternoon, I just wanted to lock myself in a dimly lit room with a box of doughnuts and some volumes of Fruits Basket. Fortunately, laziness prevented me from doing the shopping that would make that activity possible, sparing me a refined sugar/pathos overdose.
Looking at the week’s shipping list, I’m surprised to see that Marvel does the most to restore my joie de vive. This week sees the release of Avengers: The Serpent Crown, a collection of one of my favorite runs in the book’s history.
A lot of people would name The Celestial Madonna as the high point in writer Steve Englehart’s 50-odd issues with the title. I’m fond of that story too, but A:TSC (issues 141-144, 147-149) just has so much going for it:
- The issues feature George Perez’s earliest renderings of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
- The cast is packed with some of my favorite Avengers, including the Beast in one of his first adventures with the team, Hawkeye working in a setting that really suits him (the Old West), and Moondragon beginning to realize her capacity for profound obnoxiousness.
- Patsy Walker makes a wonderful impression, transforming from romance comic stalwart to costumed heroine Hellcat. (She didn’t stick around long, but she was a fun addition to the cast.)
- The concurrent stories (one group battling Kang in the past, another clashing with the Squadron Supreme in an alternate universe) are jammed with adventure, comedy, political and social commentary, corporate intrigue, inter-publisher digs, a demonic hat… in other words, enough content in seven issues to make most contemporary super-hero arcs look positively anemic.
It’s great stuff, and since I can’t seem to find the original floppies in my long boxes, I’m delighted to see it collected.
Oh, and there’s other stuff coming out, too. Having found the conclusion of Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight to be something of an anticlimax (see: Jog), I’m curious to see how things wrap up (or don’t) in Seven Soldiers: Guardian #4. (This has been my favorite of the SS titles, with Klarion as a close second.)
On another event horizon, it seems as though the simmering homoerotic subtext between two of the fellows of Villains United finally manifests in violence in #5. It sure took long enough!
DrMaster releases volume 13 of Iron Wok Jan!, which is a title I really enjoy, even though I’ve fallen a few volumes behind. It’s over-the-top fun that works best in small doses, but I’m sure I’ll catch up eventually. (It’s a big crossover hit at my local comics shop, oddly enough.)
The second volume of Ultra Maniac (from Viz’s Shojo Beat imprint) arrives, which means it’s probably been in bookstores for about a week. I really enjoyed the first installment.