Comments on: Wednesday Number Ones 11/29/06

By: Don MacPherson

Don MacPherson — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 04:10:00 +0000

Randy wrote:
Pure fun, as Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke serve up a meeting between Eisner’s Spirit and a Batman that’s most heavily influenced by Dini/Timm and Dick Sprang. Reminiscent of the fun of Byrne’s Captain America/Batman

The Cap/Batman riff hadn’t occurred to me, but I see what you mean. Nice comparison.

By: GrayPumpkin

GrayPumpkin — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:14:07 +0000

Let’s see I liked Iron Fist, it was good if not outstanding, I did rather like the art though, it worked for me. I’ll be following this as I always liked the character and so far I like Brubaker’s take him, nice to see Iron Fist getting the spotlight again.
On Batman/The Spirit loved the artwork, it was worth it just for that, but the story was kinda dull and for me it crossed the line from four color fun to being just being sorta inane.
Picked up Whisper, I have vague memories of reading the a few issues of it back in the day, seem to remember I wasn’t all that impressed, and sorta felt the same way about this one too, found the issue hard to follow, though maybe it was because it was late when I read it.
Batman 659 struck me as solid filler material, though it sorta left me itching for Morrison to come back.

By: Tomas

Tomas — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 03:39:18 +0000

Heh, I had planned to get at least six from here when I went to the store today, but I ended up getting only one (money… *sigh*). I got Batman/Spirit, and I loved it. Great art (loved the way Cooke incorporated both the Spirit and Batman’s logos), and a great, fun story (best Jeph Loeb story I’ve read in a while). When Darwyn Cooke’s first issue of “The Spirit” comes out, count me in.

By: Nick Budd

Nick Budd — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:52:02 +0000

You know, what’s funny is that I actually liked David Aja’s artwork in the fill-in issue he did for Daredevil. It was interesting, moody and fit the character. Here, it just doesn’t work as well and there were moments during the action sequences where I was taken out of the action entirely. This might have been due to the rather elongated anatomy Aja used.

Overall, the issue was just okay. Doesn’t top Daredevil or Captain America for me and like Randy and Dan Coyle have mentioned, I don’t want a smartass Iron First. It didn’t annoy me as much as snarky and quippy Punisher but it came close.

By: Dan Coyle

Dan Coyle — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:12:41 +0000

Immortal Iron Fist #1 was the only new comic I bought this week. Mechagorgon!

MECHAGORGON!!!

I liked David Aja’s art a lot better than most, though he’s far too much in love with the rain, comin’ down on a not so sunny day. Brubaker and Fraction have a surprising wrinkle on that last page, something I don’t remember seeing in the Essential volume I have but makes perfect sense. I didn’t think Rand was that much of a smartass, either, though it’s likely Fraction wrote the dialogue.

By: Randy Lander

Randy Lander — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:36:15 +0000

I’ve just noticed that the thread about this week’s comics is all the Comic Pantsers talking to one another. What’s up, readers? No love for the Wednesday Number Ones this week?

By: Nick Budd

Nick Budd — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 13:35:25 +0000

Oh, and you used a word that brings out the grammer cop in me…

Dave, don’t you mean Grammar Cop instead of Grammer Cop? : )

Either way, Dave, I bow to your Grammar Cop ways and knowledge…penultimate was indeed the wrong word to use there. It does sound cool but how about we replace it with paramount or unequalable or superlative? Insert any of these into the statement above.

By: David Martindale

David Martindale — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 07:45:48 +0000

Yeah, I really dug True Story as well this week. Especially with my wife being Buddhist and all. Check out the comments system thread. We’ve got a True Story conversation going with Tom in the comments.

By: Randy Lander

Randy Lander — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 02:48:42 +0000

I was pretty pleased with this week. Had about half as much to read, but liked all of it twice as much. I don’t know how the final math works out on that.

Really pleased with the first issue of the Batman arc by Ostrander and Mandrake, and I actually thought Crossing Midnight was a promising opener to that series. Not in the league of Y or Fables, but it’s as solid as Lucifer was in general, and seems like a potentially interesting fantasy/horror series. Also? True Story Swear to God #2 this week was really, really great. I thought the cover was a gag, I didn’t realize it related to a story, and it’s a really heartwarming story that puts the focus as much on Lily as Tom.

By: Dave Farabee

Dave Farabee — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 01:55:03 +0000

I think his Hatter might’ve been based on the way the Hatter looked in the last season of Batman: The Animated Series when everything got a little more stylized. Not 100% sure of that, though.

Oh, and you used a word that brings out the grammer cop in me - “penultimate.” Lots of folks use that word as if it means something like the “ULTIMATE ultimate.” But it’s actually just means “next to last.” So, for inst, Civil War #6 will be the penultimate issue of the seven issue series. Kind of a letdown, huh? I think the word just sounds like it should mean something bigger than ultimate…but it don’t.

/grammer cop

By: Nick Budd

Nick Budd — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:40:59 +0000

I’m going to chime in on this Darwyn Cooke (who draws the hottest babes, indeed! Pamela Isley, people!) hoopla, in so much as to say that this book was a fun and fantastic read. I know almost nothing about the Spirit but I found myself drawn to the character and am now eagerly awaiting Cooke’s ongoing Spirit title.

And as for drawing the hottest babes, Dave, he also draws some of the best representations of these characters. His Riddler and Ventriloquist are some of the best I’ve seen but his Mad Hatter…There was something about it that I absolutely loved. It is now the penultimate depiction of this character.

As for the rest of the books this week, I was a big fan of Warren Ellis’ Nextwave (probably the only fan for this site), Ostrander and Mandrake’s Batman (people should honestly check this one out) and Captain America (Another villain returns!). Over all, a good week.

By: Dave Farabee

Dave Farabee — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:30:41 +0000

Purely prurient note here: Darwyn Cooke draws THE hottest babes in comics. Adam Hughes? Frank Cho? Too obvious. Too fixated on the Playboy standards of T&A. Cooke’s more subtle and lively, though he’s not above a little smutty cleavage, as evidenced in his take on the classic Spirit bad-girl, P’Gell. But look for other standouts in Batman/Spirit like librarian-hot Barbara Gordon a couch-loungin’ Catwoman. Homina!

(Oh yeah, and the story’s pretty good too. Best of the week, even, though don’t expect anything more than a really fun romp. Randy mentioned to me yesterday that its upbeat, retro-40s flavor reminded him of Byrne’s excellent Batman/Captain America one-shot, and I think that’s a good call.)