6 hours of driving, 4 hotel rooms, 120+ comic books, TPBs, autographs, standing in line, eating fast food, ordering pizza, sleeping, coffee, Slim Jims, panels, disappointment, anxiety, awesomeness, and lots of damn walking.
That was C2E2 for me.
It began on a Friday, ended on a Sunday, and I wouldn’t change a minute of it. I met a ton of awesome people (writers, artists, web comic dudes, and other random people) and I realized–like I always do at comic conventions–that I love comics with all of my damn heart.
Do I have comic news? Not really. Do I have some cool stories? Definitely.
Remember way back when and I was ranting and raving about how much I loved Kick-Ass?
Well, those times are back because after a long, long, long, long, long flipping waiting period, we’re finally given a comic that seriously rules all others: Kick-Ass #7.
If you don’t remember what happened last time, let me lay it on the line:
Kick-Ass, aka Dave Lizewski, has been trying to be a super hero. He’s had his ass kicked multiple times, has been hospitalized for along period of time, has had a metal plate put in his head and all the while he’s trying to live a regular nerdy life. Then enter Big Daddy and Hit Girl; heroes who kick ass and have been inspired by Kick-Ass. Add Red Mist to the mix and you have a great combo of heroes. Right? Wrong. Red Mist was working for the mob who’s been hunting Big Daddy and Hit Girl and they’ve been set up, along with Kick-Ass, to be slaughtered.
That was up through issue #6. More on this month’s issue after the break. (spoiler imagesafter the break) (more…)
I have nothing bad to say about Alan Davis's covers. That logo, on the other hand...
Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s aborted run on Fantastic Four was ambitious, yet disappointing. With their final issue, they joined the ranks of extraordinarily talented creative teams (JMS and Mike McKone, Jeph Loeb and Carlos Pacheco, Chris Claremont and Salvador LaRocca, etc.) that, for one reason or another, proved unable to fill Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Galactus-sized shoes. When I heard about the incoming creative team, I was indifferent at best. I am unfamiliar with writer Jonathan Hickman’s previous work, and Dale Eaglesham’s art has always been solid, but has never fostered any sense of fannish loyalty in me. Still, since I have been fascinated with these four heroes for a long time, I felt compelled to give them a chance and picked up their first issue, despite the retro 70′s logo and the Alan Davis cover (I adore Davis, but his awesome covers have graced someawfulcomics).
Ultimate Comics Avengers #1 -- Look at these bad asses.
Here we are, a new era of comics… Sort of.
Mark Millar is back working for Marvel’s Ultimate line in a post-Ultimatum universe where everything was simply blown to hell. Nick Fury is back in the universe–thanks to a nice deus ex machina bit from Ultimatum–and this new series deals with one thing: Black Ops. Mind you, Nick Fury’s showing up only makes things more kick ass–as I will explain–so bear with me.
I’ve been out of the Ultimate universe for a bit given how bad people have been talking about Jeph Loeb and Ultimatum, so I picked this comic up post-convention and being super hyped for 1) a new Millar comic and 2) Ultimate Captain America being more of a bad ass via Millar’s writing. Let me say one thing: this comic does not disappoint.
Despite a small (and rather sad) contingency of Marvel people at this year’s Chicago Comic-Con (you may know this as Wizard World Chicago), there are still a couple of Marvel panels to report on. The first of which happened on Friday afternoon – the Marvel Ultimate Panel – involving news and discussion of the Marvel Ultimate Comics line. In attendance were Jim McCann, Marvel’s PR guru, Lauren Sankovitch, Associate editor (formerly with the Ultimate line), Mark Paniccia, Ultimate line editor, and Mark Millar, writer of many Ultimate books and co-creator of the Ultimate Universe.
The panel started a little late, as Millar walked in and said that he was “taking a poo”. To which McCann replied that they are only 3 minutes late, like many of their books. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the panel, which was as much filled with witty banter as with actual news on the Ultimate U.
As the laughter died down, McCann said that this is the first panel where they can actually talk about a lot of the Ultimate stuff, now that Ultimatum #5 has finally shipped. The first book coming out with be, as many of you know, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man this Wednesday. Paniccia said that these are his favorite books and Sankovitch said that they are resetting the bar even higher now after Ultimatum. The panel members said look for some huge surprises in Spider-Man from the very first issue. There was also a general praise for David LaFuente’s art on the book.
I don’t know what the hell Marvel is doing with Wolverine, but whatever. We’re waiting on Old Man Logan, which is Mark Millar and Steve McNiven‘s god-send-child about Wolverine in the future that has been extremely delayed for reasons I couldn’t even tell you and all of a sudden Marvel decides they’re going to simply stop with that series, sum it all up in one issue, #72 has to be the last issue even though it’s part 7 of 8, and just jump into this new Wolverine story that appears to be a one shot in two issues but will somehow transition us into Dark Wolverine.
Let me take a deep breath quickly.
Wolverine #73 was a good pair of mini-stories which begins what appears to be the last two arcs of the Wolverine title before it is taken over by Dark Wolverine. After the break, I’ll divulge my feelings over it all.
C2E2 – A weekend in Chicago
