Panel Discussion: Scans From Spider-Man Summer Special, Buffy Season Eight #17, Special Forces #3, and More

Worst Battle Cry - Teen Titans #61
Truly putting the "kid" in Kid Devil, looks like someone is still hanging on to their third grade zingers.

Inappropriate baby imagery, inappropriate places to have sex, and inappropriate uses of the English language, after the jump...

Supervillainscuties - King Size Spider-Man Summer Special

Chris Giarrusso's brain-hungry symbiote and Colleen Coover's squat little Modok make for some adorable little miscreants.But what's up with the Spectacular Spider-Chub?

How They Like It - Catwoman #81
Catwoman and Batman have sex while falling off a building.

Is She or Isn't She? - King Size Spider-Man Summer Special
Hmm, that would explain her obsession with Thor--the girliest hero in all of comics. I also submit into evidence the fact that this story was drawn by Colleen Coover, the writer/artist responsible for the lesbian porno comic Small Favors. Coincidence? Perhaps.

Class Act - Blue Beetle, Teen Titans #61
Blue Beetle is such an enjoyable character to read, you have to wonder why more teen super heroes aren't written beyond petulant, angsty stereotypes. Here he tries to make piece with Kid Devil after they find their tracking the same vllian...
And though this next panel may seem like a dick move out of context, I feel that this is a honest attempt to respectfully keep KD in the loop, and to downplay the awkwardness of the situation by injecting a little humor. Tactful texts are very important in this day and age...

Stay classy, Double B.

Spider-Man is Creepy - King Size Spider-Man Summer Special
Keeping an eye on the missus? Trying to stare down her blouse? Any way you cut it, this is a little weird.

Irony Alert - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight #17

Buffy has done more than her share of twisting the english language into a near unrecognizable web of adjective-nouns and superfluous suffixes, and only a thousand years in the future does Buff realize what her valley-speak hath wrought.

Woah, Overreact Much? - NYX: No Way Home #1
What? There's nothing I understand about this interaction. Her art? What the hell? Dumpster diving? And that face! She's really really pissed about this. I just don't get it.

Celebrity Casting Corner - Army @ Love: The Art of War #1
Paris Hilton makes an appearance here as Sylvia Stein, a hot actress who just happens to spend much of the issue as a giant ape that blesses a fanboy soldier with some rough monkey sex. Oh, that sounds like something you'd like to see?

Kyle Baker Goes Too Far - Special Forces #3

Going...
Goooiiiinnnggg...
Gone.

Writer's Worst Nightmare - Army @ Love: The Art of War #1
This issue opens up with writer Rick Veitch getting waterboarded for the suspicious web research he did when writing the first series. I'm sure this scenario has played itself out in the heads of anybody who has ever Googled something like "how to build a nuclear bomb" for the sake of some creative work. Or published the words on their public blog. Be right back, someone's at the door.

Snap Judgments: Reviews for Buffy, Detective Comics, NYX and More

Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. Arranged from BEST to WORST.

There are probably some minor SPOILERS herein.

King-Size Spider-Man Summer Special gets an A from Albo
I used to LOVE these 80-page Summer specials when I was a kid. Turns out I still do! Kinda. What we have here is a really great Spidey-less story about a bunch of Marvel Girls facing the Enchantress, a really awful Spidey/Falcon team up story where the the latter gives the former a bunch of unwarranted race relation scoldings, and a sub par story of mini-Spidey and mini-Venom competing for a paper route. Still worth it for that first one by Paul Tobin with really cute, clean art by Colleen Coover.

Reviews for Detective Comics #847, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #17, Special Forces #3, NYX: No Way Home #1, and Army @ Love: The Art of War #1 after the jump!

Detective Comics #847 gets an A- from AHR
I get it now! "Hush" fits into the cannon of Batman villains because his evil pathology is a Norman Batesesque mama's boy gone homicidal trip. And "Hush" is probably a hush-little-baby thing. I wonder if any of this was planned ahead of time or if Paul Dini in his wisdom just filled in the backstory to give this silly "event" character some substance. Either way, it's fun to see the pieces come together, and Dustin Nyguin's art shows no signs of becoming any less fun and surprising.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #17 gets a B from AHR
Did you enjoy the way the future punks spoke in The Dark Knight Returns? I didn't. Joss's future-speak in this arc of Buffy sounds even more tinny and labored than Miller's, but it does at least give rise to one really good gag in which Buffy bemoans how this perversion of the English language may be partly due to her own Whedonesque speaking patterns. I'm still not quite sold on the Fray arc, but the heavily foreshadowed cliffhanger of this issue guarantees my continued readership.

Special Forces #3 gets a B from Albo
This book is astonishingly amateur. It's really quite sloppy, but in a way that feels more like uncapped creativity than poor storytelling. Kyle Baker is constantly ALMOST going too far, and while the series hasn't quite lived up to the amazing first issue, it's still chock full of absurd, thought-provoking stuff. Bonus "reality" section in the back brings real world context to the issues Baker is dealing with in the book--including photos of real mutant babies with ironic word balloons. Like I said, this guy really pushes the boundaries of good taste.

NYX: No Way Home #1 gets a C from Albo
This first issue looks nice, but doesn't do much to get me interested in the characters. 'Nuff said?

Army @ Love: The Art of War gets a D from Albo
Very unfriendly to the new reader (me). If you want to see lots of cartoon boobs, this book is for you. If you want a clear story or a funny joke or some good drama leave this one on the shelf.