Pick of the Week
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
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Size: pages
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Story & Art by Terry Moore
Published by Abstract Studios | $2.99
I had to stomp my cynicism right into the ground to enjoy this. I’ll get this out of the way up front. This issue wasn’t perfect. There were at least a couple of things early on that I had a hard time swallowing, and then when it was over, I had to give it a good think. Did I like what I’d just read? I’ll tell you that about halfway through this issue, I thought to myself, “This isn’t gonna be the Pick.”
And then, oddly enough, it was.
Allow me a moment to explain. There’s a scene about five pages into this where Tambi and Casey re-enact the most laughable, scene-chewing crud to ever win an Academy Award for screenwriting. Do you remember Robin Williams hugging a teary, snot-faced Matt Damon, softly rocking and repeating, “It’s not your fault,” over and over until hard ass Will Hunting finally capitulates and admits his inner pain? Of course you do.
That scene happened on page five of this book note for note.
But surely Terry Moore has seen that film, and wouldn’t do it exactly like they did in the movie, would he? So that’s what I decided to accept. Through some cosmic similarity, Moore never saw Good Will Hunting, and just happened to write the exact same scene, and that must be the answer.
So clearly it’s going to take a lot to drag me over that hump for this to become the Pick. But oddly enough, that magnificent thing didn’t happen. Instead, what happened was exactly what was supposed to happen, and at first, I thought that it was sort of anti-climatic. However, when looking at the book in retrospect, and thinking of what life is actually like, I think the way it happened was just about right.
If you’re thinking of reading this book, or you’re halfway through the trades, or whatever, you might want to avert your eyes from the upcoming plot details. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
They get together. It’s been years and years, and after many misunderstandings and anger and false starts, they’re going to make a go of it. And when Francine and Katchoo finally decide to accept their fate, there wasn’t much about it that was mind blowing. It was just right. Francine ended up stripping off all her clothes, and Katchoo glibly decided to stop resisting, and they just were. And after all they’ve been through, doesn’t it make sense that the final acceptance of their love be somewhat low key? I think it does, and I think Moore did exactly what was needed to get them to that point, when they just couldn’t fight it any longer. In a way, it felt somewhat like an earlier issue in the series, when the characters were just a bit simpler, because we didn’t know them as well.
Holy crap, I am going to miss Terry Moore’s art. I noticed that in this book, he almost used two styles. The first section of the book is strong and clean, very similar to Frank Cho’s work. It is just the characters, and the only lines there are there for a reason. Then, you get to the later section where Francine and Katchoo are out in a beautiful landscape, and everything gets a bit softer and more expansive. He’s forcing you to change your perspective. Where the earlier scene was about the characters, the later scenes are about the characters existing in the world, and it just so happens that the world here is amazingly beautiful. I suspect I’ve picked up on a metaphor. Further, there’s a sort of rushed quality to the final pages in the book, as if he had to get it out of him as fast as possible, like tearing off a band-aid. After hearing Moore speak on several occasions, I imagine that this defining act wasn’t so easy to draw, and I think he was trying to get it done and away as quickly as he could. This is not to say that the quality suffered, but it says something about the artist’s connection to the work, and it is part of the reason that this book achieves a strong personal connection with its readers.
There is only one issue left. I think I agree with Terry that it’s time. But, oh, how I will miss them. A good thing can’t last forever, and we’ve all spent more time with these characters than we could have hoped for. I think the only thing Moore could do wrong at this point would be to have Katchoo wake up and realize it was all a dream, but in the absence of that, we’re seeing the closing of a monumental chapter in comics.
Did you read Strangers in Paradise #89? Add a comment and tell everyone what you think about this week’s comics!
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Nice pick. I went with Runaways #26
http://www.revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?p=116715#post116715
Allow me a moment to explain. There’s a scene about five pages into this where Tambi and Casey re-enact the most laughable, scene-chewing crud to ever win an Academy Award for screenwriting. Do you remember Robin Williams hugging a teary, snot-faced Matt Damon, softly rocking and repeating, “It’s not your fault,” over and over until hard ass Will Hunting finally capitulates and admits his inner pain? Of course you do.
That’s my favorite scene in the movie.
I saw this on the shelf and knew it would be the POW. I’m not subscribed to SIP. Tried it and couldn’t get into it. But I’m actually enjoying Josh and Ron talking about their affection for the book and their sadness at the end of the series.
Now it’s time to go read my books and find my own POW. 🙂
my LCS doesn’t carry anything Indy, so im going to miss out on this POW. its a shame because i hear great things about Strangers in Paridise. but the trades are in my Amazon.com wish list queue.
Interesting pick–I thought I’d be lookin at the cover of 52 up there. Josh–how do you do it? You had the pick for the Civil War 7 and for the final issue of 52…CONSPIRACY!! CONSPIRAC–uuh..sorry.
wtf–“for the Civil war 7” I sound like a grandma with that…
I expected to see 52 issue #52 as the pick as well. But then I remembered that I read it. I’m sorry I am a huge DC fanboy but I totally didn’t get why this was the big ending.
*SPOILER*
I understand that the return of the Multiverse is important but I hated Mr. Mind as the bad guy. I guess I am so down on it because for 51 issues this has been SOOOO good and I just expected a bit better. Am I alone here? I was SUPER excited to see what Earth 22 consisted of though!!
Not 52? This book was an amazing achievement. I figured this would be the week that recieved the big Ifanboy love.
the Tiki
Yeah. 52 was awesome. A HUGE comic book milestone in the history of story telling. Shoulda’ been 52! And what an ending! Other than the Mr. Mind thing . . . The DC Universe has exploded with future story telling opportunities. Very exciting! And what an awesome Joss Wedon week!!!!
I KNEW Conor was going to say that. Further proof that while our sensibilities sometimes align…occasionally, we fly wildly off each other’s radar. However, our Netflix similarity rating is a staggering 97%.
52? Like we’re not gonna talk about it on the podcast?!
It’s funny, I did have Civil War 7 (and the fact that people remember that scares me), and I did have 52. But c’mon, that’s so obvious. 😉
And CW#7 deserved no such honor.
When I picked up SIP this week and the cover said only one more issue left I thought it would be a bigger issue. Instead I thought “well that was quaint” and I shuffled back in the stack. I thought it was good but it didn’t stick with me the way 52, Astonishing X-Men and Checkmate did.
DC’s new Multiverse (or Megaverse) is just great. I can only hope that they really capitalize on it during Countdown. I’m looking forward to more Earth-2 & Earth-3 stories.
If all the X-books were as good as Astonishing I’d be an X-men fanboy again. I’d argue that this is the flagship team book for comics.
I got a Superman 662 question for all of you. Did Zantanna change her costume or did she just decide to wear her sluttly underwear for Superman? That outfit would make Emma Frost blush. (well maybe not)
Okay. Right on. Strangers in Paradise is fine. However, we just witnessed the conclusion of one of the most intruiging and innovative series in comic history (and by that, I mean 52 of course). I know it is easy to get jaded by greatness, but 52 is absolutely the way to go for me.
I got a Superman 662 question for all of you. Did Zantanna change her costume or did she just decide to wear her sluttly underwear for Superman? That outfit would make Emma Frost blush. (well maybe not)
Zatanna was in Superman??? Dammit – what a month to drop it.
Well I’m a little out of the loop. My shop doesn’t get indie stuff, so SIP is a bust for me, and when 52 started I knew nothing about recent comics, so by the time I heard it was good I would have already had to pick up 15 issues.
It was a big Joss Whedon week. RUNAWAYS #26 Is my POW. The last issue I jumped onto with very very little knowledge of the team, but my library got runaways VOL. 1 and I ate it up. after reading that I felt like I knew the characters more, and this issue was just fun overall. MOLLY HAYES GETTIN A GUT PUNCH ON THE PUNISHER. “But how could I know he didnt have powers?” “From his lame name! If he had powers he’d be named after them…! What you think he’s got some ‘punishy’ force?”
Astonishing X-Men was fun. Not much to say, just an overall good book. Action, romance, comedy, and a cliffhanger.
I tried Checkmate today for the first time. It was a fun book, but it looks like it’s a biweekly book, and with countdown comin up I can’t afford to pick up an extra book.
HULK 106 was pointless. Maybe later the stuff in this book will matter, but it was in no way enjoyable, at least for me…
Another week where I have to skip the first ten minutes of the podcast (I read SIP in trade).
My pick would have been either Astonishing or 52. Both were great. I can’t wait for a lazy weekend where I can read all 52 issues back to back.
Conor, yes Zatanna was in Superman and yes that outfit was slutty, but wow I loved it and this was a surprisingly good issue of Superman.
that issue of Superman is apparantly the continuation of the ‘Camelot Falls’ storyline from a couple months ago before busiek started doing those terrible one-shots. I’m tempted to undrop it.
OK, can someone explain the new DC multiverse to me, briefly? Most pressingly, where does the JSA fit in? They’re on Earth 1, right? [They have to be, for the current crossover to make sense.] Are they also on Earth 2? Or WERE they on Earth 2 in its history…?
And I thought Superman was good– and not just because of Zatanna’s outfit (although that was good, too!). As bad as the previous “Silver Agey” issue was, this one was good.
OK, can someone explain the new DC multiverse to me, briefly? Most pressingly, where does the JSA fit in? They’re on Earth 1, right? [They have to be, for the current crossover to make sense.] Are they also on Earth 2? Or WERE they on Earth 2 in its history…?
It begins!
Countdown is apparently counting down to the need to reverse THIS, and do Crisis on Infinite Earths 2! (by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven (fill-ins by Igor Kordey)
This was a joke.
In regards to the new multiverse, near as I can tell the current JSA, as read in the pages of their book is on New Earth, which may or may not be Earth 1. The JSA of Earth 2 seen in 52 #52 is presumambly a different JSA, one with Superman and Batman as founding members. This is all assumption though. Remeber folks, this is why they got rid of the multiverse the first time around.
I enjoyed 52 though. I only read that, Buffy, and Initiative #2 yesterday, but something will have to be really good to top 52. Initiative had a good X-men cameo at the end though.
Hey guys am I the only one that picked up the Spiderman Annual? I loved this book it!!!! It was lot like the Nightwing Annual with all the romantic flashbacks, this was a great book that had everything I love and missed about Spidey, a lot of drama and relationship stuff. So what did you guys think?
I had a pretty light week this week, so here goes nothin’:
52 is over. I’m actually extremely sad about this, since it got to be so good around the end, and the ending wa AMAZING (in my opinion, anyway), I like when they went through all the alternate earths,the first time (maybe) that Ted and Booster met, and everything else. BUt Mr. Mind as the big bad villain? I guess I can forgive some things due to the books awesomeness.
I liked Checkmate a lot. Still wondering how Nightwing managed to break into the top-secret headquarters of Checkmate, but I’m sure it’ll be explained next week in Outsiders (which I’m buying solely for this crossover)
Avengers: The Initiative is still good, I’m happy that I’m buying it. I really wanna know who Trauma’s new tutor is gonna be (scarlet witch?), but I liked the interaction between Beast and Gyrich (was there anything behind that? I don’t know and I don’t really care since it was funny anyway)
I still like Green Lantern, although I’m starting to wonder how many organizations there are in the universe, since it seems like there’s three at the moment (GLC, SC, and the star sapphire corps? did I get that right, or did I misread it?) I liked the art and the back-up story about Karu-Sil was good (I like the back-up stories, I found), and I can’t wait for the “Sinestro Corps War” to begin, should be cool.
Shazam… no comment on that one, I still can’t figure out if I like it or not.
all in all, a lovely week for comic books
I liked Checkmate a lot. Still wondering how Nightwing managed to break into the top-secret headquarters of Checkmate, but I’m sure it’ll be explained next week in Outsiders (which I’m buying solely for this crossover)
I don’t think it needs to be explained – he’s Nightwing.
Kinda like when Batman broke into the White House in Superman/Batman.
“Astonishing X-Men was fun. Not much to say, just an overall good book. Action, romance, comedy, and a cliffhanger.”
Did anyone else think that Astonishing X-Men was sub-par? Not that it was bad, but I found myself double reading several pages. Typically I fly through them. It wasn’t the art either–great page composition, panels were symmetrical by page, GREAT ART, good flow. But most weeks I think an argument could be made that this is one of the GREATEST X-MEN RUNS EVER. This week though, it was just good.
Actually, I thought Astonishing was the absolute *best* book this week. This is the title that NEVER fails to deliver and it may be the one book I look forward to more than any other.
It also made me laugh out loud, as did Runaways. Whedon = Genius.
i thought “marvel zombies vs. army of darkness” was the best this week which is saying alot becouse “hellboy: darkness calls” came out and i love hellboy. i’ve been waiting forever for this. (literally it seems)
ash is the second greatest charactor ever created, (it’s a photo finish with jack burton winning by a nose) they do such a pitch perfect job of him in this book its amazing. the art has grown on me as well.
one last note. props to marvel for reconizing that ash is the real star of the book and not wedging in one of there charators as the hero… so far.
“But most weeks I think an argument could be made that this is one of the GREATEST X-MEN RUNS EVER. This week though, it was just good.”
This is a classic case of us being spoiled dave. It wasn’t superb this week(at least i don’t think so), which is what we’ve come to expect
from whedon, but like you said, “it was just good.” I enjoyed it cause like I said it was very well rounded. Any other week I would be singing it’s praises, but below whedon’s standards is still not bad.
I really liked Shazam! this week. I’m really not crazy about the way smith writes cpt. marvel(or maybe cpt. marvel is just too old school for me, I don’t know) but I have so much fun reading billy batson and his sister as children. And the way he draws the childrens expressions is really(i’m gonna say it) cute. I guess I enjoyed it cause even when cpt. marvel was around mary was still a little kid. The story is more built up now too.
I can understand where the iFanboy love comes from with SiP, but I guess I have a hard time swallowing this as pick of the week. I’ve read the first trade of the series and I thought it was pretty decent. But to see this as pick of the week again (I believe Ron did #87…) seemed pretty surprising, especially with such strong books this week (at least for me) and the overall explanation given in the review.
But I digress. The whole reason for this is that you pick what you like, and of course, this is all just a matter of opinion.
My pick of the week has to be Avengers: The Initiative #2. This book is awesome on so many levels and Dan Slott is doing a phenomenal job scribing this, and I’m very much digging the art. I also picked up the Spider-Man Annual, which I’ve heard great things about, but have yet to read. Overall, this was an awesome week for me. Of the 16 books I got, I’ve really enjoyed all of them.
And I close with this thought: did anyone else think Detective Comic’s cover had nothing to do with what happened in the book?
OK, can someone explain the new DC multiverse to me, briefly? Most pressingly, where does the JSA fit in? They’re on Earth 1, right? [They have to be, for the current crossover to make sense.] Are they also on Earth 2? Or WERE they on Earth 2 in its history…?
The JSA are still on New Earth (Earth 52), the JSA we saw on the new Earth-2 are not the pre Crisis versions, there new, but they appear to be missing there Superman and Power Girl.
deezer, Beast was an Avenger during the time when Gyrich was their government liason. Gyrich was also involved in several anti-mutant agendas, like Zero Tolerance. And he shot Storm with Forge’s mutant-nuetralizing gun. And he’s an ass. I don’t if there’s anything more personal than that. But it was funny.
Also, how badly do you wanna know who Trama’s new tutor is? Because I could tell you but it might be more fun to find out on your own.
The Initiative is really surprising me. I never heard of Slott before, but I’ve even been picking up She-Hulk lately and it’s… pleasant.
52 was really, really good, but almost disappointing at the same time. I can’t say if it was the story or just knowing that it came to an end. 95% of the story was already wrapped up by 51 anyway, so this was primarily a set up of things to come. But it was done well, fit into the story, and I really like the direction DC is headed. Conor, you may not like the Silver-Aginess of it all, but at least DC righted a wrong they made back when Byrne wrote the Legion out of Superman’s past.
Oh, and I’m glad to see Kane is still alive.
Conor, you may not like the Silver-Aginess of it all, but at least DC righted a wrong they made back when Byrne wrote the Legion out of Superman’s past.
Only if you consider it a wrong.
how do you do the Italics for something someone else said or put something in bold? Do I have to open up word just to do that and then cut and paste or is there another way?
Yeah I can’t even paste italics. Guess you gotta be be a web-host.
Re: Avengers Initiative #2–I haven’t finished it, (dozed off reading it late last night.) But I agree with Pat, a great surprise. Why does this comic work? Maybe becasue it truly stems from the Civil War story-line and isn’t just throwing in Civil War type stuff because it has to to have a fancy cover. maybe it just has great art and a good story teller.
I also liked the zombie MVP splash page… sort of reminicent of the classics.
Damm I forgott to pick Avenger Initiative I have to go back to my store and get it tommorrow damm.
My POW is Spiderman Annual, I guess I’m the only one who got it and you guys don’t know what your missing!!
It was only wrong, for me, in that those stories were an integral part of what made Clark who he was. I think Johns puts it very well, the Legion was a place where Clark felt like he was among peers, not a misfit because of his powers. There was plenty of good about the post-Crisis reboot, we’ll just have to see how it all shakes out now.
How to do italics (and bold) can be found in this thread:
http://www.ifanboy.com/archive/weblog/holiday_hodgepo.html
hey there
bold is ended by
italic is ended by
italics rock
This has nothing to do with comics but what the fuck…….
Anybody else watchin the Delahoya Mayweather fight tommorrow? I’m really looking foward to it!
If you want to talk sports or whatever, do it on the forums please.
I’m sorry, its just that but this fight has popped up everywhere I went today, and I wanted to see if ifanboy land cared about boxing!!!! My bad I don’t go to the forums so I just posted it here, won’t happen again.
I read the Sensational Spider-Man Annual last night. Sweet Jesus was that thing awesome. Definitely my co-pick of the week.
That’s the one by Fraction right?
Good to hear you liked it. I was curious how it would read.
I have to say that I was soooo disappointed in 52. Really the multiverse is back? Didn’t we go through a crisis, a zero hour and another crisis to get rid of all of this??? I loved this book for 51 issues and to then see it end with this……..sigh
YAY
THANK YOU FOR THE LINK
Re: Avengers Initiative #2 — I’m pretty sure the private tutor is going to end up being Danielle Moonstar. She lost her powers on M-Day, is female (“Tell me you’ve brought the girl?”) and had sorta-kinda-similar powers to Trauma.
Ok, so I got completely caught up on SiP and picked up issue 89 today. While I agree with everything said about it in this review, I can’t say it was the best book of the week.
‘Cause as much as I loved seeing Francine and Katchoo finally get together, nothing is quite as awesome as Molly punching The Punisher in the nuts. 🙂
*shrug*
I’m a simple, simple creature.
“nothing is quite as awesome as Molly punching The Punisher in the nuts. :)”
Hehehe ya I laughed out loud during that, some people think I’m crazy, my co-worker asked me why I was laughing and I answered “Molly just punched the Punisher in the balls because she tought he had powers, the baddest guy in the Marvel you just got his ass handed to him by a 10 year old” and “The hen says didn’t see that coming” comic genious.
way to go josh. i am glad you went with the brave choice. very cool
I don’t consider myself much of an X-Men fan. I am aware of the X-Men events that have happened in my time, but the details are a little fuzzy to me. Having said that, I really dug Astonishing. It felt like these X-Men were totally involved in the story. They weren’t leaning on any events that occured before Whedon’s time with the X-Men. It is acknowledged that Colossus died and has come back, but they don’t dwell on it. So I don’t think you have to be an X-Men fan to enjoy this arc.
Did anyone else read that Baron Zemo series? I enjoyed it, but I don’t think they needed four issues to tell that story. They probably could have gotten away with two. Is this it for Zemo? He has had a presense in the Marvel Universe since Thunderbolts began. He has become something of genuine hero (although I don’t think I trust him). There is no room for him in the current Thunderbolts and it is unlikely he is is going be in his own series. Is he going to just fade away until someone comes up with a new twist for him. How about “Cable, Deadpool, and Baron Zemo”? I’d buy that book.
“Re: Avengers Initiative #2 — I’m pretty sure the private tutor is going to end up being Danielle Moonstar. She lost her powers on M-Day, is female (“Tell me you’ve brought the girl?”) and had sorta-kinda-similar powers to Trauma.”
Bingo, I definitely agree with this. Other factors that point to Dani Moonstar, Mirage, is that she most recently had a recurring role as a mentor/instructor to teenage mutants in the New Mutants/Academy X books, so being a teacher is right up her alley.
Her powers are now very…diverse but initially were the ability to force people to see illusions of their greatest fear just like Trauma.
Honestly as soon as they mentioned the tutor, Moonstar came to mind.
Hi..Can anyone help me by telling a good comic books store in florida…near Coral Gables would be Ideal… I’d Appreciate this info asap, i’ve got until friday….
The political references in Monster Society of Evil are pretty plain, to the point that Jeff Smith has done everything BUT rename Sivana. In the first (or second) issue, the news broadcasts basically describe John Ashcroft (politician who lost to a dead guy, who was then appointed Attorney General), only in the comic, it turns out to be Dr. Sivana. Plus, there’s all the references to a war on terror, etc.
I still think it’s a pretty good all-ages book. There wasn’t anything I can remember that stood out in issue #3 as being inappropriate for kids. To me, it’s a series that can be enjoyed by kids, but adults can be amused by these little references that would probably fly over the heads of younger readers.