What You Should Be Reading...

We all know that supporting characters are put through the ringer in comic books. When their fathers are not being crushed by debris or blown up during intergalatic wars, they're being thrown off bridges or buildings and stuffed into kitchen appliances. It's rough, and becoming a little banal. It's time someone shook things up.

In Daredevil, Mister Fear wants to make sure Daredevil is too busy to stop Fear from taking Kingpin's place in the underworld. He douses Gladiator with his fear gas, making him kill at random with no memory of his episodes. While Daredevil is trying to find out the source of Gladiator's madness, he doesn't notice that Milla is becoming more and more paranoid.

While Daredevil is confronting Mister Fear and the Enforcers, Milla is confronting Mafia heiress Lily Lucca, thinking Lily is trying to steal Matt away. Lily just needs help leaving the Mafia behind, but Milla becomes violent and tries to push Lily into the path of an oncoming train, but knocks a bystander down instead. While the Enforcers pound on Daredevil, Mister Fear reveals that the same gas that turned Gladiator into an unpredictable murderer was used on Milla.

Now, Matt Murdock has to save his wife from being inprisoned in a mental ward, leaving Mister Fear to consolidate his empire without Daredevil intervention. Of course, Daredevil is hellbent on finding Fear to get an antidote to his fear agent, but I think it's an ingenious twist on the paramour in danger plot. By making Milla a danger to others, Mister Fear has Daredevil consumed in both his public and secret personas.

Brubaker is a crafty storyteller and is making Daredevil one of the best books being published.

For Ben...

Whenever someone makes fun of your love of girl comics, ask them...

He's Been Turned

*Thanks to Julian for the picture.

Absence Makes The Heart Grow Bored

So I haven't posted for awhile. I'm contributing my lack of writing to my decision to drop energy drinks. Those sweetly disgusting caffeine bombs were my basic fuel for the past two years and now I'm trying to do without. It's taking a toll.


Anyway, I can bring myself to talk about a few things rolling in my mind right now.


1) When will someone tell Nic Klein that he's drawing the wrong Night Thrasher costume on the covers for New Warriors? He's been doing it since issue #2 and doesn't seem likely he will be changing up anytime soon, judging by the cover of #6.

2) Speaking of New Warriors, the team's(mainly Chamber's, who should know better) reaction to Tattoo's dying is confusing. What did they think was going to happen when they threw themselves between murderers and the people they intended to murder? It's one thing to not expect to die at a certain time, but to say they didn't sign on to die is plain stupidity. We want our heroes to live, but to have them completely clueless as to the dangers is kind of bad writing.

3) The Hellcat story in Marvel Comics Presents is great. The Immonens are a terrific team and the story seems like it's going to be pure fun straight through. It's the perfect story for the superhero ex-wife of the Son of Satan. I kind of wish it was it's own series. Marvel needs more books that are free of melodramatic angst. I like my heartwarming to be uplifting, not devastating.

4) For the Accursed Interloper, in All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder, Miller introduces us to a Batman-obsessed Irish bartender who decides one day to join the fight against crime as the Black Canary. Overwhelmed while trying to stop gunrunners at Gotham Harbor, BC is saved by the insanely scary goddamned Batman, and to celebrate, the two heroes make out(more?) right there on the dock. True story.

5) After reading Wolverine #58, I only see Guggenheim digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole. To explain Wolverine's resurrection episodes, it's revealed Logan killed an Angel of Death in World War I. Okay, a supernatural explanation as to why Logan could regenerate after complete flesh destruction makes sense. But get this: it happens for every major injury past bullet wounds. If he gets stabbed in the heart, he dies. If his lungs collapse, he dies. If he gets burned, he dies. At first it seemed like Wolverine was too powerful. Now, his healing factor's weaker than Spider-Man's. At least Petey wouldn't die from a stab wound.

Just a few things I had rattling around in my head. We recorded a new podcast Thursday and it should be kind of hilarious. Except to FDR.

Cap's Taking Hints From Union Jack

When Reinventing Goes Wrong

So the new Big Monkey Podcast is up and one of the things we were talking about was reinvention; when a character is given a new perspective by a new writer. I talked earlier about Marc Guggenheim's reinvention of Wolverine and how it is utter shite. If I had read Wolverine Annual #1 before recording, I would have remembered to mention it as one of the worst cases of reinvention and how contagious it is.

How exactly does Wolverine manage to get out of the superheated molten metal when the tendons and muscle needed to move have been burned away? Some will say this is fanboy nitpicking. But those people shouldn't be reading my comics blog.

Why I Want To See Speed Racer

"It's the first time I've ever really worked with a chimpanzee," said Sarandon of the live action flick.

Susan Sarandon will be playing Mom Racer in the Wachowski Brothers' Speed Racer movie. And obviously that chimpanzee will be Chim Chim. The movie is going to be awesome.

Weekend Fun

So this Saturday I had an excellent time playing HeroClix and getting schooled by the Great JC himself. Seeing a bunch of regular guys on a Saturday playing a game based on superheroes got me to wondering what superheroes do on their downtime. So I decided to hop over most of the country and see what the Avengers WestCoast were up to.

Like most superheroes, USAgent was busy working out in full costume while his compatriots stood around and either heckled or remained unimpressed because they could lift that weight with one mechanical hand. It was a slow day in the City of Angels, but things started looking up for everyone except Iron Man when Wonder Man showed up. Oh, Stark, you were always a bit of a douche.

Anyway, Simon has to go reshoot scenes for his late 80's action movie and needs someone to take his place at a charity event. Iron Man shoots him down saying they had other responsibilities, like watching USAgent work out. But Hawkeye, being not a douche, decides that teammates help each other out. And that's how Hawkeye, Iron Man, Vision and USAgent found themselves at a monster truck rally.

So the redneck's happy, but the rest of the Left Coast Avengers have to tough it out. They put on a show for the crowd but one member of the audience is anything but entertained. A villain who uses a monster truck rally as his debut? This guy must be pure evil, but with a lousy memory. He seems to have brought the blueprints of his master plan along with him. This ne'er-do-well has a point to make and everyone will remember the dramatic debut of......Doctor Goodwrench. Yeah.

So, the good Dr. sends the MTR machines to attack the crowd in the name of machine freedom and the Avengers Dub-C spring into action, without yelling "Avengers Assemble!" Kind of troubling. Still they fight off the mechanical dinosaur and Goodwrench tells the machines to "defend" themselves against the Avengers. Because trucks, no matter how big they are, are no match for the Avengers, Goodwrench turns Iron Man's armor against the Avengers, bringing Hawkeye to a realization that everyone should have came to when Goodwrench first rocked the mic.

Doctor Goodwrench is insane. Because machines don't talk. And Hawkeye decides to talk Doctor Goodwrench down. But it's the Vision who finally brings an end to this quirky tale. And yeah, Vision at this point is half C3-PO. Maybe two-thirds. And this wacky story wraps up the only way it could.

"Let's hug it out, bitch!"

And one last bit of douchery from Mr. Stark. Because Wonder Man drove Doctor Goodwrench crazy.

I think it's telling that while us normal guys are playing hero on weekends, superheroes are doing normal things on their weekends like going to monster truck rallies and making sure nutjobs get the help they need. I think that's called irony.

And who brought us this feel good time from the next best Avengers?