Geekanerd Spotter: Invincibility Star Street Art

This entire condo complex has an invincibility star! Does that mean that the people who live here will never die, as long as they don't leave their rooms? But what kind of life would that be? Actually that may be a scenario all too familiar to both you and me, dear reader.

And speaking of you, regular readers have certainly noticed by know that our posting schedule and regular features have slowed way down recently - a bit of excusifying after the jump...

The slowdown in production is mainly because I, AHR, am residing outside of NYC for the fall, and accordingly my nerd powers are only operating at about half capacity. You see, LIKE SUPERMAN, I draw my powers from a localized source, in my case the Manhattan/Brooklyn area. I'm currently in Charlotte NC, which has at least one amazing comic store, but sadly not as many amazing nerd events to keep me inspired.



That said, the NYC Weekanerd Event Calendar and our Twitter/Facebook feeds still get updated all the time. Geekanerd proper will still be updated with feature articles, though on a slower schedule for the next few months.

If you have any feedback, holla: tips@geekanerdblog.com

Panel Discussion: Scans from Amazing Spider-Man, Locke & Key, Final Crisis, and More

Most Hope-Inspiring Panel - Amazing Spider-Man #583

Oh noes, two Obamas! But which one is real? Let's see; one reacts to Spider-Man with angry, closed-door political paranoia. The other reacts with calm, open-minded discourse. There's no mystery here; kick that partisan imposter to the curb, Spidey! WHOO! FOUR MORE YEARS!

Weirdness, sadness, dodginess, and more after the jump...


Least Respectful Death of a Character We've Known for 11 Issues - Young Liars #11
Good old whatsherface here has been a solid supporting character for the entire run of this series, and she gets her final dismissal in a small panel on a crowded page with no great final moment and not even a mention of her for the rest of the book. Lapham, how can we care about your characters when you don't?

Most Respectful Death of a Character We've Known For 11 Pages - Locke & Key: Head Games #1
This, on the other hand, is how you do it! This guy was introduced this issue, and by the end we know him and love him, and when it comes time for the series villain to kill him, he gets his heroic moment before he sinks into the abyss and reunites with his smokin' dead wife. It makes me wanna cry just looking at it again. Goddamn this book is good.


No Comment Award - Final Crisis #6
Er, that's Mary Marvel on top, for those of you not following the series. So...yeah.

Best Splash Page - Locke & Key: Head Games #1
Shakespeare never looked so good! Bonus points for anyone that can identify the play without cheating!

The Old Alter-Ego Blues Award - Amazing Spider-Man #583
This is a classic of superhero ironies; Spidey is out saving the world, misses a civilian appointment, irony ensues. For more examples, read our comprehensive article on the subject.

Best Scam - Invicible #58
Oh, those wiley shapeshifters. Poor bastard's not even gonna get a design credit.

Most Heartbreaking Screw Up - Captain Britain and MI-13 #9
The second time I may cry during this single Panel Discussion... Captain Britain and crew are fighting an entity that tempts you with your heart's desires, so when Brit is tangled up with him and sees his long lost wife Meggan, he of course assumes it's some sort of trick. But apparently the realm they're fighting in intersects with many others--including this terrifying Hell dimension that Meggan is trapped in and only briefly escaped. Oh God, it's like Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet all over again. Hold me.

Banana Randomizer Award for Achivement in WTF - Cleaners #2

Wow, just....wow. There is context for this, but I had to go back and read through the comic a few times to really understand it. So just enjoy this goretastic Tales From The Crypt-esque panel on it's own merits, such as they are.

Panel Discussion: Scans from Invincible, War Heroes, Ambush Bug and More

Every week we at Geekanerd rip panels from our comics and put them on display here, recognizing the best, worst, and weirdest moments of the week. Beware some major SPOILERS.

Click these suckas for high res!

Try It, You'll Like It - Invincible #51
Knowing that comic fans are surpassed only by the Amish and conservative talk show hosts in their unwillingness to accept change, Robert Kirkman seems to be directly addressing his audience here through Art the costume tailor. Doesn't really make much of a difference to me though, because I've always found Invincible's look to be extremely generic, he reminds me of the fake, generic superhero suits seen in The Boys.

Scans from Ambush Bug: Year Zero, Avengers: Initiative, CBLDF Presents: Liberty Comics, and War Heroes: Colon after the jump!

Gag Highlight Reel - Ambush Bug: Year Zero #1

Ambush Bug was chock full of gags, but these were my faves:Seeing Women in Refrigerators Syndrome get an extended gag in a comic is pretty sweet.
I always go geek-kneed for this meta shit. (And for those that don't remember it, those checkers appeared at the top of all DC comic covers in a bygone era.)This one is probably a little to easy, but I like the idea of Sandman escaping across the Multiverse (or whatever it's called these days) from the long hand of DC Editors.

Saddest Moment - CBLDF Presents: Liberty Comics
I never thought I liked Mark Millar all that much, but all it takes is one five-page comic about a sad and lonley old vampire to get me completely on his side. This little moment of supermarket weeps is great because it shows how lonely it would be to be a vampire; struggling to keep up with the changing world around you, and getting attatched to things that you outlive by centuries. I also really love three-cheese pizzas, and they are harder to find now. Single tear.

Suggest Much? - Avengers: The Initiative #15
What a line! "Hey foreigner, you've really been "boning up" on American customs... (Howsabout boning up on mine?)"

Just a Great Panel - War Heroes #1

Snap Judgments: Reviews of Invincible, Liberty Comics, War Heroes and More

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

There are probably some minor SPOILERS herein.

Liberty Comics: A CBLDF Benefit Book gets an A- from AHR
Mark Millar's tale of Vampire ennui is reason enough to get this book. I've been asking Albo for a while why Mark Millar is considered such hot shit when all I've read by him concerns former-nerd baddasses in rubber suits, but this five page story surprised me. I do wonder why it's the only story in here with nothing to do with censorship. The minus grade is only for the Criminal story, which is as emotionally bloodless and by the numbers as every other issue of Criminal I've ever read.

Ambush Bug: Year None #1 gets a B from Albo
I usually don't like humor books, but this book is full of genuinely funny gags. I'm sure I'd get even more out of it if I wasn't such a Marvel Zombie, because most of the humor is DC in-jokes (Ambush Bug inspiring Jean Loring to kill Sue Dibny, for instance--and even accidentally suggesting the method!). Anyway, some of it is very meta (Ambush Bug wondering why his thoughts don't appear in clouds anymore), which is always exciting to me. Recommended for you DC freaks.

Reviews for Avengers: The Initiative #15, Invincible #51, Two-Face: Year One #1, War Heroes #1, Joker Asylum: Scarecrow #1 and New Avengers #43 after the jump!

Avengers: The Initiative #15 gets a B from Albo
Dan Slott's finding a way to make his Avengers book relevant to Secret Invasion but compelling on its own, something that Bendis isn't quite managing over at Mighty and New. This story, brilliantly titled "The Only Good Skrull..." is about just that--the only good Skrull. It's a little hokey in execution, but somehow I think that's the style Slott's going for. It's like an after school special about a closeted gay teen. Except this one's about a Skrull who's been in hiding and operating as an Earth hero and who worries that the current Skrull invasion might reveal his true colors, at which point it'll be too late to convince the Earthlings he's a good guy. Anyway, far from perfect, but Super-Mega-Colossal-Event tie-ins are so tough to do well that I'm giving it serious props.

Invincible #51 gets a C+ from AHR
"Jump on!" they said. "The new story starts here!" they said. Feh. Only having read a bit of Invincible before, about half of this issue felt like talking heads, and heads that belonged to people I didn't know. The half that followed Invincible and his kid brother, however, was fun enough and the art in this book is appealing enough to get me through. Don't like the new costume though, and I don't even remember what the old one looked like.

Two Face: Year One #1 gets a C from AHR
It's always nice to see some familiar faces from Gotham Central (Maggie Sawyer, GCPD lezforce go!) and it's neat that they integrated the crime boss from Dark Knight, but then they destroy any continuity with the movie by offering the tried and true split-personality acid origin Harvey's always had. Throw in some really strange writing choices in which white-collar characters brush-off random acts of agression by their colleagues like it happens every day, and this feels like a rush-job.

War Heroes #1 gets a C from Albo
I believe I'm getting Millar fatigue. Maybe I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Wanted. I wanted to like the film, some reviews said I would like the film, but... ugh. Anyway, there's been so many Millar books recently (Fantastic Four, Wolverine, 1985, Kick-Ass, on and on and on) and more often than not I like them. But I think I've reached my saturation point, because I found very little to enjoy in War Heroes. Just that same slick Millar attitude with not much below the surface. I might be being too harsh, as it's only the first issue, but... Millar has wowed in the past with first issues (Kick-Ass, for instance). It doesn't help that in the back of the book he spends half a page declaring how awesome he is.

Joker Asylum: Scarecrow #1 gets a C- from AHR
It's really cheesy that all the issues in this miniseries are #1's, even though they're all part of a sequential anthology. Also the plot is like one of those teen horror movies from the mid-90s, except instead of a killer in a black cloak the bad guy is the Scarecrow. What a sad excuse for a spotlight issue. But I couldn't bear to give a book with such awesome art a D. It's chunky and colorful and very web 2.0. Sure it's not very scary, but with a script like this it was never going to be.

New Avengers #43 gets a D from Albo
Bendis, you have really blown it. You spend years setting up the Marvel Universe for one huge event, and then when it's finally time for shit to hit the fan--you hit the pause button. Let's see, what has happened in Secret Invasion thus far? A ship of Skrulls posing as heroes have crashed in the Savage Land and are fighting our heroes. A handful of Skrulls have appeared in Times Square and are fighting our heroes. That's it. Oh, sorry, last issue of Secret Invasion had Nick Fury show up and fight. Bendis' Avengers books, meanwhile, are stuck in the past, telling us all about how we got to this moment but not progressing the "event" in any way. I'm sure this Invasion stuff will make a great hardcover one day, when the stagnancy of it is softened by the absence of month long waits between issues, but for now it's growing more and more fetid.

Panel Discussion: Scans from Catwoman, Invincible, Countdown to Mystery, The Flash, and more!

Every week Geekanerd rips panels from their comics and puts them on display here, recognizing the best, worst, and weirdest moments of the week. Click the pics for high res goodness, and beware SPOILERS.

Product Placement Alert - Catwoman #76

This was actually a really fun comic, but these out-of-nowhere product shots kind of eeked me out. I suppose it could just be a creative choice that Catwoman loves her Chucks but...surely there are more appropriate shoes for the professional cat burgler. Whatever. Here are the shoes the second panel are based on:
Hit the jump for time travellers, zombie shoppers and crying children!

Achievement in Futurespeak - Invincible #46Time travellers with "superior future fighting skills" stealing the Declaration of Independence and escaping on a "time sled"? Count me in!

Never Forget - Countdown to Mystery #3Batman can't go a day without being reminded of his dead parents.

Best Splash Page - The Flash #234
This is just a great looking splash page. Artist Freddie Williams III gives us a big beautiful cityscape that really pops with oustanding colors by Tanya and Richard Horie. The Flash's speed-path kinda reminds me of those Family Circus cartoons with the dotted line.

Seasonal Reminder - Countdown to Mystery #3
This scene takes place in a man's subconscious, but it also serves as a timely reminder of the horrific spendor of Black Friday.

Best Dramatic Pathos - The Flash #234
Context: The Flash's kids arguing about their new powers, and the boy is more wary because he privately overheard that their unstable powers might one day kill them both. The combination of angles in the first two panels are really disorienting, considering the boy is hanging upside down and the girl is half inside a wall. This combined with excellent kid-dialouge makes for a very tense couple of panels, and sudden wide shot at the end effectively captures a particular sort of helplessness only felt by little kids in confusing situations. And where would superhero comics be without childhood angst?

Banana Radomizer Award for Achievement in WTF - The Search For Ray Palmer, Gotham By Gaslight
Besides the editorial mistake (after Kyle jokes about searching 131 worlds, Monitor Bob looks at Jason and says, "There are only fifty-two worlds, Jason, you know that."), there's this strange insistence by Jason Todd in the first panel that this Victorian Era World is somehow where he truly belongs. And he was saying that throughout the whole book. What is it exactly that attracts you to this world, Jason? Your love of social caste systems? A strong interest in antiques? Have you been steam-punk cosplayer all this time? Just find Ray Palmer already.

Review: Invincible #42

Being a big fan of the early Invincible story arcs, but afraid to pick up any new issues in fear that I'd be lost, you can imagine how excited I was to see this cover.

"NEW READER FRIENDLY!"

"DON'T MISS OUT A SECOND TIME!"

"INCLUDES A COMPREHENSIVE RECAP OF THE ENTIRE SERIES!"





Tacky, sure, but VERY alluring to a lapsed fan like myself. Unfortunately these things never work out the way you want them to.

So the gagillion-page recap in the back is written by a fella named David Campbell, and I don't know what Robert Kirkman was busy doing (Other than Ant-Man, Walking Dead, Wolf-Man, and Lord knows what else) that he had to hand the recap duties over to someone else, but it has none of the charm and wit that pervades the book itself. It's just dry dry dry.

Which would be fine if the issue itself were snappy and exciting. Unfortunately, by page two the train's already pulling into Talky-town. They spend so much time talking about what happened PRIOR to this issue that they run out of space for anything to happen DURING this issue.

Which I suppose I should expect from a recap issue. Maybe it's my fault that I didn't come in with reasonable expectations.

Maybe when I saw "NEW READER FRIENDLY" I shouldn't have interpreted that to mean "MORE ATOM EVE HINEY." Sigh.

THE GOOD

On the sunny side, there are short bursts of action that show off one of Kirkman's greatest talents: creating compelling throwaway villains for Our Hero to fight.

First we meet The Giant, an eight year-old boy who was pulled into another dimension when his grandmother accidentally opened a portal while making an herbal remedy for her cat. The boy was enchanted by a sorcerer, turned into a monster and over the course of a year became the king of a vast empire before being sent back to Earth by an enemy, whereupon he embarks on a rampage meant to win him the Presidency of the United States. And you know how many pages he's in the book? Two. He is introduced, given an origin, and dispatched in TWO PAGES. And we'll probably never see him again. Kirkman pulls these guys out all the time, and I love him for it.
Also of note is the awesome-looking one-pager Octoboss, who came to this world and was frustrated that no one understood him so he "take time off" to learn the language as best he could. He also claims to have watched some TV.

THE VERDICT

This issue was not good. I certainly would not recommend it to someone who has never read Invincible before, because then they might get the mistaken impression that it's a boring book. Everyone, including me, should read all the Invincible trades. People that want to catch up without spending all that dough should at least go buy the first trade and read the Wikipedia article (which I swear is better written than the recap in this ish) to prepare for next month's issue, which looks to be the beginning of a new story arc. The last panel of this issue hints at where it may be going (Invincible's rapidly-growing purple half-brother developing powers), and I'm sure Kirkman has some tricks up his sleeve to make it worth your while. Hopefully one of those is the back end of a cute redheaded superheroine.