WLG #225: Love To Hate You!

By Michael A. Diaz

I think I'm going to stick with the “jump right in” format for the time being, so let's see What Looks Good

DC

WILDCATS: WORLDS END #2 $2.99 (Christos Gage / Neil Googe)

Yeah, forget everything I said about being wary of this new reboot of the WildStorm Universe; I’m eating crow now because so far every book that I have checked out I have enjoyed thoroughly, perhaps no more so than the first issue of this fifth incarnation of the Wildcats team.

Here’s why I am particularly excited about this issue: over the last couple of years I discovered Majestic. I bought his second series and went back and bought several issues from his first series. True, I have the old Alan Moore penned Wildcats issues as well, so I wasn’t completely new to the character, but I really began to follow him during the third solo series for this character, the one that was written by Abnett and Lanning, and was also penciled by Neil Googe. I fell in love with the book, and as is usually the case, it was soon canceled.

So imagine how geeked I was when I saw Majestros show up at the end of story. More importantly, he seems to be not quite so good anymore. That’s not a surprise for anyone that has been following the WildStorm Universe closely, but for me (who hasn’t the last few months) I was quite shocked. Whereas before Mr. Majestic was like a more-science fiction-themed Superman, now he looked like Superman mixed with Conan.

Looks like I’ve missed much more than I thought; if this book is as good as the first issue I think I’m going to have a lot of fun catching up!

IMAGE

BRIT #8 $2.99 (Bruce Brown / Cliff Rathburn)

What’s not to love about an impervious guy that punches stuff until it stops moving?

Yeah, that’s simplistic, but Brit is just a fun book that I can’t help but love every time an issue come out. Will the formula get old eventually? Maybe so, but for now I am loving it, maybe even obsessing a little bit.

I have to remember to pick up that trade with the one-shots in color!









MARVEL

RUNAWAYS #1 $2.99 (Terry Moore / Humberto Ramos)

During my sabbatical I lost track of my beloved Runaways. Truth be told, as much as I enjoyed Whedon’s run on the book, the title has been missing something for me ever since Vaughan left. Under his tenure this was simply one of the best comics out there, month after month. Like I said, Whedon’s run was good, but it just wasn’t the same.

That’s fine, I completely expect every creative team to add their own polish to a book when the come on board; I expect no different from this new creative team.

I can’t say that I am terribly familiar with Terry Moore’s work (I know of it, but not about it), but I do know that Ramos has a very lively and kinetic style. Sure, it’s different from the way Alphona created the book, but that’s fine. I’m just looking forward to see one of my favorite titles regain the luster that it once had, so I’m going into this with optimism. Here’s to hoping for only the best from the Runaways!

WOLVERINE #68 $2.99 (Mark Millar / Steve McNiven)

Sometimes when someone reaches the top of the mound it is very hard not to throw stones at them in the hope of knocking them down a peg or two. I mean, Mark Millar talks a LOT of hype, I mean, LOTS of it. According to him his books are all better than the second coming of Christ. Add to that the fact that the guy just made a mint on a movie called Wanted that is very loosely based on his comic book of the same name, and now we hear that his current ultra-hyped book Kick-Ass is going to be made into a movie as well, which mean many, many more $$$$ going into Millar’s pocket. Never mind the fact that Wanted did well enough that it will most likely spawn a sequel (or two), netted Millar millions more even though the stories for the next two films will have even less to do with his awesome comic book.

You almost want to hate the guy.

Then I read the first issue of this arc he’s doing with Steve McNiven called “Old Man Logan” and when I finished I wanted to find this surly Scot and kiss him right on the mouth.

Why?

If you’ve been reading comics for any length of time you know who Wolverine is. Sure, he’s very popular, but he can be very two-dimensional. It takes a writer with great skill that can spin a yarn that about short Canadian that doesn’t veer straight into cliché. Many writers have driven a straight path with this character, but every so often the cross the center line or move too close to the shoulder of the road. It’s hard not to because of the nature of the character, a guy that is nigh unkillable who also happens to be the “best at what he does” and all that. The same problem comes when trying to write good Punisher stories, because it is almost too easy to write them as caricatures instead of as characters. In my opinion one of the best Wolverine writers of the last 10 years or so was Greg Rucka, when he and Darick Robertson relaunched the book 67 issues ago. That was some excellent work from both of those creators, and I thank them for it.

Sure, there have been decent, even good stories in the pages of Wolverine since then, so please don’t think that I am trying to knock other writers or complete creative teams. It’s that Wolverine is such a popular character that sometimes Marvel gives the fans what they think the fans want (like the storyline around issue 50). For me, the book is best when the character, the man who is Wolverine, the person named Logan, is explored fully.

And that is what Millar and McNiven are doing right now.

Think about it: have we ever really seen Wolverine, Logan, this broken before? Maybe he has been. I could see how someone could argue that he was not himself when Magneto sucked the adamantium from his bones, and later we saw that Wolverine had bone claws (I know I was shocked!), but even that doesn’t feel like these past issues have felt.

It doesn’t feel too gimmicky, either, at least, in my humble opinion. Sure, when I first heard about the book I thought “gimmick!” but I read the issue and I was won over.

Has it all been done before? Of course it has: a dystopian future, Wolverine trying to survive near what appears to be the apocalypse, a world without heroes…none of this is anything new. Still, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a compelling story.

So yeah, there are times that I would like to knock Millar down a peg or two, but that’s probably just immature jealous rearing its head. The simple fact of the matter is that yeah, Millar does come with a LOT of hype, but sometimes, OK, more often than not, he can live up to it. In the case of Wolverine this time around I think he’s doing just that and then some.

In short, I haven’t been this geeked about Wolverine since Rucka was on that book, and for me, that’s saying something.

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What books are YOU most geeked about this week? Let me know! Just stop by the WLG message boards (see link below) and share your thoughts!

See you next week!

Until then, peace!

-Diaz

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