The New Reader vs. Lobo Portrait of a Bastich

Alright, so today I want to talk a little bit about one of my favorite books.  Portrait of a Bastich is a collection of two Lobo stories.  For those of you that don't know, Lobo is an ass-kicking, shit talking, intergalactic bounty hunter.  He's not a nice guy, and isn't on anyones list of heroes.  Lobo books are really intended for a more mature audience, and being a "mature" person, I just had to read it.

So, the first story sees Lobo, hired by the government to track down a teacher and escort her to them.  As he travels through space, he stops off at a bar, a theater, and a resort.  At each place he causes loads of trouble, making more and more people angry.  The art is wonderful, and the dialouge between our bad mouthed bounty hunter and the proper, stand up teacher is hilarious.  

Now, the second story, in my opinion, is the superior of the two.  The stories starts, with the death of the main man.  From then on out, Lobo rampages through heaven, trying to force them to reincarnate him.  They agree, but in their own terms, turning him into a woman. 

After he's managed to die again, he continues his rampage through heaven to force them to give him a second reincarnation.  Finally, after killing a good three-quarters of heavens residents, they give him what he wants, bring him back to life with an official contract stating "Under NO conditions is the individual known as Lobo to be collected.  His file has been categorized as untouchable, pursuant to clause 27-c, paragraph 7: i~xiv of the immortality brief of 12 B.C."  

The New Reader vs. Iron Man Extremis

Ok, the moment I got out of watching Iron Man 3, the first thing I said was "I have to read Iron Man Extremis."  I'd recognized the word, and I figured they would be very similar stories, maybe with a bit more expansion on some topics.  Boy was I wrong, it's a completely different story, most of the names are the same but in general, the premise is completely different.

This story was written by Warren Ellis, with art by Adi Granov. One of the first things I noticed on my copy was a quote at the very top from screenrant.com "...among the best Iron Man stories ever written."  Right away I was excited to start reading this.  Within the first four pages I knew this book wasn't going to be the same as the movie, mostly because Dr. Killian was already dead.  

Now, I don't want to get too into the differences, just in case anyone hasn't read this book or seen the movie.  I will say that I loved every bit of this book.  The art was intense, and the writing was classic Iron Man, everything Stark said had an intellectual, sarcastic humor to it.  So when it comes down to it, I would recommend everyone to read this book, whether you're a seasoned comic book fan, or someone who's only seen the movies.  

The New Reader vs. Showcase Presents The Green Arrow

Recently, while browsing the comic store, I saw something that I thought to be amazing.  A large, 500 page book for only $16.99!  This book was part of the Showcase Presents series released by DC Comics.  These books are collections of short comics, 5-10 pages each.  The reason they're so cheap, and one of the major complaints I've heard about them, is that they are entirely in black and white.  Something that a lot of readers have a problem with, purely because some characters are so dependent on their color (Green Arrow & Green Lantern for example).

Despite this, I picked it up anyway.  I wasn't going to pass up the chance to read stories from the 1950's and 1960's about my favorite hero.  Reading through, the biggest problem I had was that without coloring, it is often difficult to tell the difference between Green Arrow, and his trusty partner, Speedy.  Other than that, the book is wonderful, consisting of over 50 zany stories, including The Ape Archer and The Mystery of the Giant Arrows.  

Each story is filled with witty one liners, arrow based puns, and some interesting and useful arrows. One of the best parts of reading these classic stories is to see the cheesiness of each and every arrow. Seeing arrows such as the boomerang arrow, the bola arrow, the balloon arrow, and the rain arrow. 

Despite the flaw of being in black and white, I would recommend the showcase presents series to anyone who loves comics.  These stories show the origins of each of these characters, and each book is set up to show some of the defining comics of the age.  

The New Reader vs. Season One: Spider-Man

Ok, so I wanted to talk about one of the first comics I ever bought, Marvels Season One: Spider-Man.  Written by Cullen Bunn, this was one of the first comics done for Marvels Season One line which was supposed to reboot the stories of old heroes.  The entire premise was to give new readers a chance to read the origin stories, and first fights of many of their favorite heroes without making them dig through old issues or look for the right collection.

Now, Spider-man was one of my main draws into comics, I loved his character and I really wanted to experience more of him than just the movies and old animated television shows.  So to start, I wanted to pick up his origin story and find out just how well it measured up to the movie.  So I headed to my local comic shop, picked this up, and sat down to read.  

Within the first few pages we've already had references to a Spider-man villian, The Vulture, and a fellow hero, The Human Torch.  We've also been introduced to many of the main non-hero characters in Spider-man's usual round up, Uncle Ben, Aunt May, and Flash Thompson.  From here on out the story moves VERY quickly, as if it's trying to reach the end before anyone looks too closely at it.  

The next few pages take us through a spider bite, testing out some new powers, creating of a web slinging device, and the first costume and name.  Finally, the story slows down a bit and starts to get into the meat of the origin story, what really made Spider-man who he was, a hero.  

We see our web-slinger showing off in the streets, in the mall, and on TV.  He's having a great time with his powers, making money and taking on no responsibility for himself.  The thing that bothered me was the serious lack of Uncle Ben, from what I'd always known he was a big motivating factor in the origin of Spider-man (and after more reading, I've confirmed this.)  We still have his death, and the perpetrator is still someone that Peter Parker had met earlier, but there are no last words of wisdom. Though, we do get a short reference to "With great power, comes great responsibility" I don't feel it's enough, it's a reference, not a big moment.  

We go through a short sequence where Spidey hunts down his uncles killer, only to realize it's the same guy he let go earlier.  From here on out we have a unique story involving Peter Parker's first visit to the Daily Bugle, meeting Jonah Jameson, and Spider-man's first real fight with his first villian, The Vulture.  

Overall, I'd say the story was solid, all the facts were there with minimal inaccuracies, the biggest problem is the pacing and that can be a killler.  If you want to pick up your own copy of Spider-Man, or any of the other Season One comics, head down to your local comic store, but for now that's all for The New Reader!  

The New Reader & the Grand Opening!

Today was the grand opening of the second location of Main Street comics here in Middletown.  As a comic fan, this was actually the first event I've ever attended at a comic store or with relation to comic books, so it was fairly exciting. 

The event itself was wonderful, driving up to the store, about fifteen minutes early, the first thing I noticed was an enormous line!  I knew that the first ten customers were getting free Omnibuses, and the next hundred we're getting free hardcovers, but I didn't realize how many would show up this early.  

A Display of Omnibuses

Entering the store, I was handed a ticket for my free marvel hardcover and directed to a table that held the qualifying books.  Seeing the stacks, I saw exactly what I wanted, Vol. 1 of Spider-man: Brand New Day.  Even though I'd never heard of this particular series, Spider-man is one of my all time favorites, so I grabbed it from the table before heading into the vast collection of shelves to choose what I wanted to purchase.

The atmosphere of the store was amazing, alive and energetic, packed full with every type of comic book fan imaginable.  There were DC fans, and Marvel fans, old and young, and all of them milling around chatting and sharing their favorite comics and stories.  Browsing the shelves, there was every kind of comic you could imagine, from Aquaman to Zorro the choices seemed limitless.  Myself though, I knew what I wanted to read I went right for the G section and found two comics from my personal favorite hero, Green Arrow.                    

                 

               

Having selected my comics, and with the itching desire to start reading, I made my way to back of the line.  The line itself snaked all the way around the store, the same gleeful look on every customers face showed the eagerness to get home and break the plastic wrapping and start reading.  

With new comics in hand, I am ready to continue down my path into the world of comics, a world full of exciting new worlds and stories.