My Week In Comics 9-15-10

An interesting (well, probably only to me) quirk: I bought four books -- from four different publishers.

Batman Beyond 4 (of 5): From DC Comics, obviously. I found this issue to be a letdown. If the last-page reveal of the person behind the "Hush" getup who is killing the former enemies of the original Batman is to be believed, it rubs me the wrong way. The way the tale here is told, it's not quite logical unless the story isn't being told in chronological order.

Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven 4 (of 4): And this one's from Marvel Comics, and was also a letdown. Everything played out quite predictably, including the identity of the old man who was being held with the Earp brothers. In the end, like most sequels, this didn't quite live up to the first series featuring the gay cowboy.

This image unites two of the four books this week!

Simpsons Comics 170: From Bongo Comics -- did I mention they finally have a website? -- comes a story that isn't a letdown! Lisa discovers that a tune she plays on her sax-o-mo-phone makes everyone instantly go from mean and greedy to kind and generous. Of course, she decides to use it to make the world a better place, but things don't quite go as she planned.

CBGB 2: Finally, we have this: a comic book about the legendary nightclub, from a company called Boom! Studios. Is it an ongoing book? A miniseries? No idea. The only reason I even looked at it is because one of the stories in this issue was written by Ana Matronic of the fabulous Scissor Sisters. It's ostensibly about a writer and her writer's block, but it's really a love letter to the New York City of the 70s, before the Disney-ification of Times Square, the days when CBGB was entering its prime as the home of the punk and New Wave scene. I highly recommend this one just for Ana's story.

My Week In Comics 8-11-10

Another pretty light week. Of course, if I stopped buying some of the series I seem to be complaining about regularly, every week would be a lot lighter...

Superman 702: The Superman Across America walking tour continues. This issue has him, according to the very first caption, "somewhere in Detroit..." -- so he walked from Philadelphia to Detroit and nothing of importance happened in between? Anyway, he gets to Detroit and, without giving away much of the plot, manages to get some long-closed factories reopened, help save a dying man's life, deal with some aliens (bonus: this plot features a couple of jabs at both the illegal immigrant issue and the finale of "Lost"), and help out a kid whose friends won't let him play basketball with them because he's not good enough. Oh, and there's a cameo by Metropolis Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent! Haven't seen him in forever!


Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven 3 (of 4): Our flamboyant hero and his group pick up the final member of the posse -- Billy the Kid, who doesn't exactly go along voluntarily -- and the Sensational Seven head to Mexico to rescue the Earp brothers from Cristo Pike. But Pike has seven counterparts to deal with them. Plus we have a flashback to the Rawhide Kid's childhood that, if it doesn't lead to a certain revelation in the final issue involving the old man in the cell with the Earp brothers...well, if it doesn't I'll eat my hat. (Disclaimer: no actual hat-eating will occur.)

My Week In Comics 7-8-10

Now that I've educated y'all about the Rawhide Kid, I can make a confession. I actually bought issue one of the new miniseries the last Wednesday of June, and not as part of this week's purchase. I just wanted to hold off on discussing it until I wrote the Flashback post, and as it turned out issue 2 hit the stores. In another time-shifting move, the other book I bought was actually released a week ago. You may have heard a little something about it...

Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven 1 and 2 (of 4): It's more of the same -- perhaps the gay angle is a little toned down, but it's still there. (It's still got a "Parental Advisory" label on it, but it's in a much smaller font.) The Kid rides into Tombstone looking for the sheriff, Wyatt Earp, and his brother Morgan, only to find them gone and none other than Annie Oakley locked up in a cell. She informs him that Cristo Pike, brother of the outlaw the Kid handled in "Slap Leather," has managed to capture the Earps and is holding them in a stockade at Fort Pecos, with plans to hang them. In issue 2 the Kid and Annie arrive in Deadwood to assemble a team of gunslingers to rescue the Earps from Pike's army, including Doc Holliday, who's dating Annie. By the end of the issue the team is at six, so we know there will be one more addition.

Wonder Woman 600: This was out last week and I didn't plan to buy it, but then changed my mind a week later. There's an introduction written by Lynda Carter, a number of pinup pages, and some stories (one featuring a team-up of a ton of female heroes, one with Power Girl and one with Superman) that are fitting for a milestone issue. It ends with a prolouge to the new direction of the series. Oh, and there's that costume change that shook the world. I don't get the jacket, but other than that I don't dislike the new costume. I just don't think it was necessary to change her outfit that much. Considering the apparent cause of the change, it may not even be permanent. Something happened to change the time stream, and as a result there's a new history: Paradise Island was destroyed, Diana's mother and most of the other Amazons were killed and the infant Diana was whisked away secretly to save her so that one day she would grow up and be able to set things right. By the end of this story arc will there be other changes to her life story and/or continuity in general? Who knows?

Comic Book Flashback: Brokeback Before Brokeback

A while back, during a dark week where I had no comic books to buy, I mentioned that I was considering re-reading something old and writing a "flashback" post about it. At the time I had a vague thought of writing about "The Death of Superman," since it was that trade paperback collection that got me into this little obsession of mine. I never got around to it, though. Recently, I stumbled upon the news that Marvel Comics had released the first issue of "Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven," a four-issue follow-up of sorts to the 2003 miniseries, "Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather." And the seeds for this post were planted.

Now, normally a comic book about cowboys wouldn't be something I'm interested in. In fact, the resurgence of superhero comics in the 1950s led to fewer books featuring cowboys and other non-superhero characters. Marvel's book starring the Rawhide Kid, a creation of legendary Stan Lee, held on until 1979 and the Kid was only seen in a couple of miniseries after that. But in 2003, for the "Slap Leather" mini, the Kid was given a slight character revamp: now he was gay.

And not just gay, but gay. I mean, really gay. He's well-dressed, well-spoken, sophisticated and rather flamboyant. He makes no bones about what he likes. For example, here's what he says when some kids (small-k, as in youngsters) ask him about other famous gunfighters, including the Lone Ranger: