Four-Color Riot

If you believe the shitstorm of rage, hatred and recrimination coming from The Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott’s Twitter feed since the comic stores opened at about 10 a.m. today, it would make you think that The Amazing Spider-Man #699, like The Clash in 1978, was the Only Thing That Matters. And, as the second-to-last issue of The Amazing Spider-Man as an ongoing comics concern (until someone realizes they might make an extra seventeen dollars out of Amazing Spider-Man #725), it is certainly an important comic book – and one we will be addressing in the very near future – but certainly not the only comic book of the week that matters.

Not when Luther Fucking Strode is back in the house.

Which is a long way to go to explain that this wealth of awesome…

…means the end of our broadcast day.

Seriously: this might be the most interesting week of new comics in quite a long time. Not only is there the new Amazing Spider-Man and the first issue of the second Luther Strode miniseries, but there’s the first issues of the renumbered (but not rebooted! Marvel doesn’t reboot! And the editorial staff of Crisis On Infinite Midlives hasn’t been drinking since four minutes after leaving the comic store!) Avengers and Thunderbolts (starring Punisher, Elektra and Deadpool), along with the third issue of Daredevil: End of Days by Brian Michael Bendis, and the latest Hawkeye by Matt Fraction!

But before we can review them, we need time to read them. So until we have that chance…

…see you tomorrow, suckers!

Seasickness: Aquaman #14 Review

Editor’s Note: One last review of the comics of November 28, 2012 before the comic store opens with the new stuff today…

I have never understood the general enthusiasm over the New 52 reboot of Aquaman, even though my co-editor Amanda liked it enough at the start to mutter things like, “Hero’s Journey” and “Joseph Campbell” and a bunch of other stuff that made me wish I’d learned more in college than the fluid dynamics surrounding beer bongs. For me, the sudden DC focus on Aquaman, who has never been able to support his own book for very long (his longest running self-titled book lasted 75 issues – about six years) stunk of a Trading Places-style Gentlemen’s Wager between Geoff Johns and Dan DiDio: “I will wager you, sir, one American dollar that I can transform this water-sucking, fishfucking, orange-pantsed fashion victim into a proper superhero!”

So I read the first few issues and then kind of tuned out – and I’ve just realized that I’ve said that about no less than three New 52 books in the past couple of weeks, which might be a topic for another time – but with Throne of Atlantis, the next big Justice League arc, on its way, I decided to check out Aquaman #14 to bone up and get a sense of what’s going on with the book.

The short answer? I have no fucking idea.