Saturday Morning Loot

Every Saturday morning I drive into town to get the latest batch of comics on my pull list. While I’m there anyway, I tend to go through several other stores and buy various stuff that catches my interest. This week my bag of loot included the following:

• The second halves of the CSI season 3 and 4 dvd sets (13 episodes each)
• Two classic Lucasarts games: The Dig and Full Throttle
• Another game called Heaven & Hell
• As for comics: Wonder Woman v2 #222, Jack Cross #3, Adventures of Superman #645, JSA Classified #4, Defenders #4, Hulk: Destruction #4, New Thunderbolts #14, Young Avengers #8, She-Hulk #1 and to round off, Bart Simpson’s Treehouse Of Horror #11.

If it hadn’t been for the twenty dollar discount at the comics store, this would’ve cost me 105 euros in total (54 for the dvd’s, 21 for the games and another 30 for the comics). Still, this should keep me entertained for a good long while. Some thoughts:

Why oh why does it always have to be Cat and Grissom on the CSI covers? I’d love a Sara/Greg one, or a Sara/Brass one—how hard can it be? (Note that I really want Jorja Fox on the cover, heh.) For some reason they release them as half-season sets here. Heck, the first season even had a different opening theme, something instrumental and ooh-ah'y rather than The Who's "Who Are You". Go figure out us weird Europeans, eh? ;)

The Dig and Full Throttle are two Lucasarts adventure games that I had to pass on back when they came out because I was a mere high school student and couldn’t afford them. I’m glad I didn’t fork down the high price for them back then too, because so far they don’t look like they’d offer the same kind of entertainment as, say, Day of the Tentacle did. I went through the introduction scenes of both and played them a little bit and thus far they’re not that exciting. The Dig is sci-fi oriented and supposedly has lots of puzzles; I’ll believe it when I see it.

Full Throttle is a biker’s quest to stop his gang from being ambushed, which is rather insipid as adventure-quests go (not quite up to the level of King Graham trying to save his family from an evil sorcerer and encountering a bevy of magical creatures along the way, back in the glory days of King’s Quest). Lucasarts games were great because of their awesome use of humour and quirky storylines and puzzles (I’m thinking of Sam & Max Hit The Road in particular here). From what I’ve heard, these two were duds in comparison, but for 6 bucks each, I won’t complain if the rumors turn out to be true!

Heaven & Hell caught my eye because it reminded me of the supremely fun Majesty. You can choose between being a benevolent god or an evil demon and your purpose is to try and convert as many people as possible and then bring about the End of the World. The screenshots seemed fun and I always like when they combine strategy games with out-there concepts, so who knows, maybe this’ll be just as fun as Majesty, which was highly addictive back when I was first exposed to it. I played the tutorial level so far and it had nice visuals and sounds, so I’m not disappointed yet.

On the comic book front I’ve read 4 of the 10 comics I bought so far. Adventures of Superman #645 promises to be written by Rucka and drawn by Kerschl on the cover, but in reality Rucka only plotted with DeFilippis/Weir from New X-Men fame (meh) scripting the issue, while Kerschl only pencilled two thirds of the story and Renato Guedes did the final third. I call that either false advertising or simply not giving credit where it is due. Even though the issue is juggling several balls at once (Ruin’s identity and benefactor, Luthor’s schemes, the half-assed OMAC assault, Lois’s investigation into who shot her) it still manages to end up feeling rather flimsy in the end.

It’s clear Rucka had a plan when he started his run, but it feels like they’re doing a lot of stretching and padding here just to keep things unresolved. Frankly, it’s annoying/boring more than it is exciting. Kerschl’s pages look sweet as usual, delicate yet bold, and Guedes’s fill-in pages aren’t horrible either, but the styles don’t seem to mesh altogether well. I’m also not fond of Kerschl needing help all the time, he’s barely done a full issue of his own since he started a few months ago (same deal with Rags Morales on Wonder Woman). Sidebar: having Perry exclaim that the world may be ending, but they still have to report it, was far better executed and poignant back when they had him say it during The Final Night. Ah, Kesel and Immonen, good times, good times... I loved Luthor’s evil smirk on the cover, at that.

JSA Classified #4 concluded the Power Girl origin story. I’m not quite sure why we needed 4 issues to tell us this, because it seems pretty straightforward despite the parallel universe mumbo-jumbo. It feels like Johns is trying to complicate rather than trying to present a clear picture, and I don’t see why. Amanda Conner’s art is fun and whimsical though, and I’ve always liked the Psycho Pirate, so I was happy enough with this—besides, I have no quarrel with any Infinite Crisis-related stories.

DC does need to do something about the vaunted open-endedness of almost all their current storylines though; the to-be-continued-in-another-book endings are likely to be bothersome to a great deal of the readers. Not so much to me though, since I tend to buy them already anyway, but still :) Next issue features the Injustice Society, which includes the Gentleman Ghost. This makes me very, very happy indeed, because Gentleman Jim Craddock kicks butt! (almost as much as Jorja Fox does, mmm ;))

Wonder Woman was written by Rucka and featured guest-art by the unfortunately named Cliff Richards. I just always get flashes of “Living Doll” featuring the Young Ones when I hear that name. Ray Snyder provides the inks, giving the book a delicate, pseudo-shadowy yet fairly flat look. It’s not bad, but it’s not all that great either. I don’t know how Cheetah’s appearance here (not to mention Diana’s) works with the events as portrayed in Infinite Crisis #1, but that’s par for the course with DC lately, not yet having grasped the concept of a clear timeline. I liked her caption boxes, very nice effect there with the yellow/spotted look (ditto for the Psycho Pirate’s captions over in JSA Classified).

It was odd to see Wonder Woman taken to The Hague, but I guess that adds some seriousness to the situation? I’m sure they made several stupid mistakes though, but I’ll try not to care. Interesting how Barry Allen was involved in a murder trial as well before they killed him off during the Crisis. Hmm... More OMACs too in this one. They’re everywhere, aren’t they, and they’re about as effective as your average fruitfly, it seems. Nevertheless, Rucka and company continue to try to make it look impressive and foreboding whenever they show up, but it’s not quite working. I can’t say I was all that enthralled by this issue, but it didn’t make me gag either. Considering the pivotal role Wonder Woman is playing in this entire Crisis business, I was expecting something more though. Pity.

Finally, I also bought and already read last week’s She-Hulk #1 because of the good reviews. Even though I think Slott isn’t looking at the big picture when he complains about those waiting for the trades in-story, I’ll give him what he wants and I’ll buy both She-Hulk and the Thing in ongoing, monthly form rather than holding out for the superior product. Since Slott is good at making a single issue very enjoyable in its own right though (wonderfully assisted by Juan Bobillo on art chores), I don’t think I’ll regret my decision.

Slott’s way to potentially bring back Hawkeye is a classic one, I’m sure they’ve tried it in various sci-fi stories, but it should still be a lot of fun to see him playing with perceptions and expectations and then doing some nice, inspired twisting. Here’s hoping. In the meantime I’ll join the crowd in giving this two thumbs up, as it’s just pure fun, and that’s all I need in a comic, really.

Speaking of fun, the eleventh Treehouse Of Horror special looks like it will be too. I’m lucky my store still had a copy (they had 3, actually) because it features a Wolfman/Colan spoof on their acclaimed Tomb of Dracula and a Wein/Wrightson parody of their equally acclaimed Swamp Thing. It’s worth the price of admission for those two stories alone, I’m sure, but the 5-dollar price tag ends me up with 56 pages of story with additional art by John Severin and Mark Schultz, among others. Very nice deal, and I expect it to be enjoyable if not outright hilarious.

As for the rest, I’m really looking forward to reading New Thunderbolts #14 because Nicieza continues to write engaging yarns about these characters and of course Tom Grummett on art is always a good thing. Exciting-looking cover, too. Meanwhile, Defenders is still trying to recapture the old Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire Justice League vibe, and while it’s not quite succeeding, it’s still a joy to read DeMatteis’s one-liners and let my eyes roam over Maguire’s scrumptious pencils.

I flipped through Hulk: Destruction (whose cover made me think of the Hulk/Wolverine one that Adam Kubert started his run on the Hulk with--I'll have to write about that sometime because it was a neat run) to count the story pages because the issue somehow felt thicker and I was hoping for an extra-sized final chapter, but it turns out it’s just your regular 23 pages with each page followed by an ad. Truly pathetic.

Looks like Young Avengers is just as bad in that respect. And Slott wonders why people prefer to buy trades instead? No freaking ads, baby! I hope that Jim Cheung is back next issue because just getting a cover from him isn’t all that satisfactory—DiVito’s not bad but by contrast he’s a bit boring. Jack Cross, meanwhile, features a pretty dull cover promising me a gunfight on Guantanamo Bay. If it wasn’t Warren Ellis writing this, I don’t think I’d be bothered. I still might drop it after next issue concludes the current arc because unlike his far superior Fell, this one is dragged down by all of Ellis’s usual flaws, not helped at all by Erskine’s oddly stale art.

And that, as they say, is that. Now, to decide what to watch, read or play next...