This Week in Comics – Tuesday Editioon

Have you heard the Plastic Beach yet? Isn’t it brilliant? It’s beautifully consistent, which is something the whole Gorillaz project has been gravitating towards since their first record, which was a collision of the various styles that Damon Albarn was noodling with since he got bored with Britpop. Plastic Beach strives for one mostly uniform style — melancholy electro hip-hop — which is a bit of a continuation of Blur’s Think Tank. Damon even does a bit of rapping on that record, too. It also helps that he fills the album with artists I enjoy like Gruff Rhys, Mos Def, Lou Reed and De La Soul.

So welcome to This Week in Comics, where I can totally talk about Gorillaz because of the Tank Girl connection…Not that I needed an excuse.

MONDAY

First Issues

The A-Team: Shotgun Wedding #1

(Joe Carnahan/Tom Waltz/Stephen Mooney/John K. Snyder III)

IDW Publishing

I like The A-Team and can’t wait for the movie (Joe Carnahan’s a bit of a mad genius), but I gotta say there’s already a good A-Team comic in the world, and it’s called The Losers. Which is also going to be a movie this year.

TUESDAY

New Manga Day

Detroit Metal City Vol. 4

(Kiminori Wakasugi)

Viz Media

Having already read this volume of Detroit Metal City, I’m proud to tell you that it’s one of the funniest manga I’ve ever read, and I’m not even that much of a metalhead. It’s very silly, very crude, and very METAL. This is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Metalocalypse, so if you like that, you’ll probably like Detroit Metal City.

And I’ve just found out they made a movie of it. Time to check Netflix.

WEDNESDAY

Mainstream Superhero Stuff — Sometimes good, sometimes verrrry bad

Justice League: The Rise & Fall Special #1

(James Robinson/J.T. Krul)

DC Comics

Originally I typed out this incredibly long overview of the JLA’s publishing history, but I decided not to waste anyone’s time and just stick to the current series.

Justice League exists in cycles. DC will relaunch the book to huge sales resulting from a combination of “Hey, new creators,” “Hey, new teammates” and “Hey, Justice League might not suck anymore.” This works until the creators leave and their successors have no idea what to do with the book as it sinks deeper into irrelevance. Then they relaunch it again.

The current volume of Justice League of America is currently in the sinking phase. Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes headed the relaunch, which was not very good. Then Dwayne McDuffie took over, and it continued not being very good. Now James Robinson has been handed the reigns and it continues to be, well, downright bad. For some reason he’s set on making the JLA more EXTREME what things like the Cry for Justice mini-series and now the aftermath generically Rise & Fall, which I guess is about people being mad at Green Arrow for killing someone.

So, yeah, I think we’re due for a relaunch real soon.

THURSDAY

Not Quite Friday, but Still Exciting

Mystic Hands Of Dr Strange #1

(Kieron Gillen, Mike Carey, Peter Milligan, Ted McKeever, Frank Bunner)

Marvel Comics

I LOVE these black and white one-shots Marvel’s been putting out. The stories themselves are often hit or miss, but the retro presentation tickles me. They’re a bit too pricey, though, which makes me wish Marvel would print them on cheaper paper to make them a touch more rag-tag and a bit more affordable. This one might be worth the four bucks, though, considering the people behind it. I read the Iron Man issue from a few weeks ago and only really liked the Howard Chaykin story, but this one’s got a few more favorites working on it.

FRIDAY

TGI(The Unwritten, surprisingly)

Unwritten #11

(Mike Carey/Peter Gross/Jimmy Broxton)

Vertigo/DC Comics

The Unwritten turned me off with its first issue (too much seemingly lazy Harry Potter analogue), but I read the entire series up to now for an column on another website. And, boy have I got a secret to tell you: The Unwritten is great — a story about storytelling and fiction that effectively balances meta and plot. It’s pop storytelling with a brain.

SATURDAY

Oh, like you’re doing anything else on a Saturday afternoon –

Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape

(Ivan Brandon/Marco Rudi/Cliff Richards)

DC Comics

Having only read through the first issue of Escape, I can’t pile on a huge heap of praise for the story. I can, however, tell you that Ivan Brandon watched The Prisoner, took drugs, and wrote a comic book about it under the guise of a DC Comics event. So this book is totally worth reading.

SUNDAY

Last Issues. I’m very mad at you all for letting this get cancelled –

S.W.O.R.D. #5

(Kieron Gillen/Steven Sanders)

Marvel Comics

It should surprise no one that S.W.O.R.D. was cancelled, being the kind of “quirky” Marvel book that nobody reads save for a small, vocal audience (see also: The Order, Captain Britain and MI: 13). It should, however, sadden everyone because S.W.O.R.D. was a fun little book about policing aliens starring a woman with green hair who’s shagging a superhero with blue fur. At least these five issues tell a complete story.