066 Astro City: Honor Guard

A couple of posts ago, I was complaining that Kurt Busiek, although a solid writer, just doesn't get the Justice League.  Or the DC Universe for that matter.  There's always been something about the stuff he writes for DC that doesn't click for me.  His Marvel work is great and he's so good at what he does, but not when it comes to DC properties.  Astro City is his creator owned book and what he does here makes his Marvel work look like his DC work, if that makes sense.  There's something magical about reading Astro City to me.  It rarely hits a sour note (though there was that maxi-series a few years ago.  The less we talk about it, the better).  He was born to write this book.

Very often in Astro City, Kurt will write a story which involves some sort of flashback.  Sometimes it's a single page showing scenes from previous adventures of the characters.  When you read something like JLA and they do that, you see a panel of them battling Shaggy Man and you remember that story, or they show a panel teaming up with the JSA and it brings you right back to that issue.  When Kurt does that in Astro City, you get the exact same feeling even though what he's flashing back to has never been published before.  Every time I read an issue of Astro City, it feels like a universe I've been heavily invested in since I was ten years old.  How he can manage to do that on a consistent basis is beyond me.

This collection is a little different than the last few.  It's full of one or two part stories that were published in between longer arcs.  Each story is about a different member of the Honor Guard.  You get some decent backstory on some of these characters.  I do love a nice done-in-one tale and these are all solid stories.  Also different about this collection is the stories are all drawn by guest artists.  But that does not detract from any of the stories.

Astro City: Honor Guard

Writer: Kurt Busiek

Artist: Jesus Merino, Joe Infurnari, Gary Chaloner, Tom Grummett, Wade Von Grawbadger, Cory Hamscher, Ferlis Santacruz, Agustin Padilla Bob Wiacek, Andrew Pepoy

Vertigo Comics

026 Uncanny X-Men Superior Vol 3: Waking From The Dream

I've been an X-Fan since way back when.  I was a big fan back in the day.  These days my interest comes and goes.  Probably because Marvel just doesn't know what the fuck to do with the X-Men.  Once they pick a direction, it comes to a screeching halt, all the books are started over and all the creative teams are new, all the X-Men teams are new and we start from scratch again.  (And to be fair, it seems like that's the way with all their books, but X-Men and Avengers especially.)

The X-book is written by Cullen Bunn, whom I genuinely like despite how uneven he can be.  I love him on this book, I HATED him on Aquaman.  It's weird how someone can write something so readable and turn around and write something you can't make heads nor tales of.  Anyway, Cullen Bunn's team of X-Men consists of Magneto, Psylocke, Sabretooth, M, Angel, Mystique and sometimes Phantomex.  Basically all bad asses with attitudes and chips on their shoulders.  And the dynamic of this team works well, even though it seems like it shouldn't.

My one big gripe about this series is Marvel has gone out of it's way over the last two decades of destroying the character of Angel.  Even in this book they really seem to have no idea what to do with him, nor how to fix him.  I wish they would make that a priority because even putting him in any X-book seems like a waste to me.

Hopefully this version of Uncanny X-Men will survive a little longer before it's rebooted into a completely different book with a different line-up and a different motivation.

Uncanny X-Men Superior Vol 3: Waking From The Dream

Writer: Cullen Bunn

Artist: Greg Land, Ibraim Roberson, Jay Leisten, Wade von Grawbadger

Marvel Comics 

025 Batgirl Vol 3: Point Blank

The Batgirl series starring Cassandra Cain is a series I never read before.  I'm not exactly sure why.  I'm guessing it was because Batgirl FINALLY got her own book, but she wasn't Barbara Gordon.  It might also be because I wasn't reading any of the Batman books at the time.  A little of both, probably.  But the good thing about living in the age of collected editions is I now have my chance to see what I've been missing.  And I really did miss this.  I find that I actually like Cassandra as Batgirl.  She's nothing at all like Barbara Gordon (who is a supporting character here) and dances to the beat of her own drum.  I love the tone of the book.  Cassandra started off not speaking at all, but has slowly started building a limited vocabulary.  It's really interesting to watch the stories develop from her mostly mute perspective.  She's all movement, all action.  Little speaking, no thinking.  Just instinct.  It's fun watching her relationship with Stephanie Brown develop.  Cassandra has no societal norms and seeing her confused and confounded by some things is really refreshing.

The art suits the book so well.  I don't know if Damion Scott continues on beyond this volume, but I can hope.  And Kelley Puckett seems to have a firm grip on who Cassandra is.  As grim and gritty as Cassandra is supposed to be, there's a lot of joy and light in this series.  It's a delicate balance, but it works.

Batgirl Vol 3: Point Blank

Writer: Kelley Puckett, Chuck Dixon, Scott Peterson

Artist: Damion Scott, Vincent Girrano, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Robert Campanella, Jesse Delperdang, Klaus Janson, Wade von Grawbadger, Cameron Stewart

DC Comics