This morning I read Vertigo's Saucer Country #1. Not bad, but I think I'll be passing on this series. It seems like the whole idea is to set up a "UFO Aliens are kind of like illegal aliens" motif and get into a politics a lot. We'll see.

We took Toby for a walk through Annapolis on Saturday afternoon and I stopped in the LCS on main street (which I'm stunned can afford the rent, considering some high-end shops have closed there) and got a "complete set" deal for $10, an Elseworlds mini from 2010 titled, "Superman: Last Family of Krypton" by Cary Bates and some guy who loves tracing from television and movie stills.



I was surprised to see a miniseries like that out there without me knowing, especially since I've had an idea like that for years now (as I imagine many Superman fans have) -- what if Jor-El built the rocketship that could hold his entire family to begin with? They arrive on Earth and become sort of a Tom Strong family.

It's a cool idea and worth a read but...



Also, Bates kept shoehorning lines from Superman: The Movie in any chance he could... no harm done but it's kinda distracting and felt like fan service. Overall, I'm happy I got it but couldn't really recommend it to anyone but the most dedicated Superman fans.

I've seen that and didn't bother. I do like Elseworlds stuff, though, so if it's decent I might have a look.

I've been on a Marvel binge recently. Catching up for Avengers vs X-Men.

The last three issues of New Mutants. I like this title, despite never caring about the characters. It's been much better since DnA came onboard.

The last couple of issue of Wolverine and The X-Men. The ending of Wolvie's bonding adventure with Quentin was a bit anticlimatic, but the title is still Best. X-Men. Ever.

The Shattered Heroes story in Avengers/New Avengers. I'm getting soft, I don't hate Bendis anymore and kinda enjoyed these issues. Though it was amusing how he can't coordinate the story even when he's writing both titles. And he still can't properly end a story without a whimper.

Next: Fear Itself. Because, apparently, I hate myself.

I just read my old copy of the X-Men/New Teen Titans crossover.

Much better than I remembered it being. The stuff with Starfire and Colossus was funny, and Darkseid & Dark Phoenix made for an interesting pair of villains.

'tis a great comic.

Just because I don't like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings doesn't mean you have to be this petty and vindictive.

Oh yes it does.

I guess you're right.

By the way, do you realize how terrible a human being the sentence "I don't like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings" makes you sound?

Answer: Really, really terrible.

I like Star Wars, but not LotR. Am I only half-terrible? And if so, why not?

You're a non-terrible person. It's the combination what's the key.

Also, Dootiness.

I make up for it by collecting funnybooks.

That just makes it worse

So you're hopping aboard the "You Should Like What's Popular" train too?

Disappointing.

Well, you should, too.

I just read some old comics from the golden age of Marvel, which is to say 1988.

A graphic-album collection of the eight-part "Colossus: God's Country" originally serialized in Marvel Comics Presents. Monk or Darragh, did you ever read this? It's by Ann Nocenti and Rick Leonardi. The plot is a bit thin, but it's certainly very quintessentially Nocenti. Straight-up political discourse without any subtlety whatsoever. It's all a bit dated now, as the whole thing of writing a Russian character in America is Nocenti's entre into musing on the Cold War and glasnost and all of that stuff. It's all very, very VERY liberal. Nocenti is farther left than most, I think.

It's not Leonardi's best work. There are some broadly comic bits involving an old man that I think are meant to have a certain whimsical flavor, and Leonardi doesn't really nail it. But he does some good action scenes.

Nocenti writes Colossus as intelligent, which is nice ... but there are also some characteristically idiosyncratic non-sequiturs. Like Colossus' thought balloons as he ponders the fact that people make war over their ideologies. It starts out with some existential stuff about beliefs and fighting for them, and then he thinks to himself, "I know what I believe in -- I believe in muscle! Belief hardens into muscle!"

That's the line I actually remember from when I read this as a ten-year-old. Me and my best friend at the time both thought it really odd, and would make each other laugh by reciting that line in bad Hanz-and-Franz-like accents.

Anyway, overall, good stuff. Nocenti was doing the whole "weird" thing with the X-Men 13 years before Grant Morrison. And the unvarnished political stuff is rather bracing, if a bit artlessly applied.

Is this about a trip Colossus makes to South Carolina?

I collected Marvel Comics Presents pretty religiously back then, so I'm sure I've read that, but I'm drawing a blank.

Fake Nocenti fan.

Yes, I've read it.



That's fair.



Spot on!