Welcome to the second action-filled installment of Comics Corner with me, your friendly neighbourhood comic geek Mal Foster. If you missed our maiden voyage last week, you can find it here. Last Monday my main topic of discussion was the Prey arc of Batman, this week I had planned to tackle one of my all time favourites, Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta. However I’ve been a busy boy and despite starting, wasn’t able to finish in time. So im going to call a rain check for now, but you can definetly expect to find that in next weeks issue.
However I have been reading some interesting titles this week, starting with one of Mark Millar’s latest projects Superior. The book follows Simon Pooni, a promising young basketball player who finds his future dashed when he is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. All of his friends (with the exception of Chris) have deserted him and his body is gradually shutting down completely. When all seems lost for Simon he is magically turned into his favourite caped crusader Superior. His wish has been granted by a talking monkey in a space suit called Orman, who may or may not be working for Satan (im not joking here). After discovering what his powers will allow him to do Superior goes around putting them to good use. Yes the story is kinda crazy, but thats where the fun is. It’s over the top, it’s larger than life. It takes the unreal moments from Millar’s other work like Kick Ass and amplify’s them massively. The MS angle and the character of Simon is a really good hook, but it’s Orman the monkey who really grabs attention. He seems devious and his MO isnt clear yet, and besides its a monkey in a space suit!!
On art work duty is Millar’s Ultimates collaborator Leinil Yu, as usual the detail of his work definetly helps the written accompaniment pop. The pair work together well and Superior is another great example of this.
There has only been four issues released to date out of a supposed six, however I hope there’s more because although the story as a whole is pretty good the overall arc of writing is only just begging to form and take shape. It’s been a number of months since issue #4 was released and there’s no date (at least to my knowledge) scheduled for #5, but despite that it’s still definetly a title im going to be keeping an eye on. If you havent checked out Superior yet I would say it’s definetly worth a read.
The second title I checked out this week was one I mentioned in last week’s forecast. I consider myself a fan of Garth Ennis and when I found out he had a new mini series doing the rounds, I was enticed. Jennifer Blood is a six issue run and plays out like an exploitation, vengeance flick. During the day Jennifer Blood is a housewife, home maker and mother of two. But come night fall she is a leather clad, ass kicking vigilante. However unlike your average vigilante, Blood isn’t hunting down street scum and petty crooks. She is hunting down a specific set of wrong doers who are responsible for a life changing event in Jennifers past. As you can expect the book is for mature readers, there’s plenty of filth and fury, sex and violence. But as with the other work from Ennis the nastiness portrayed fits with the storyline and the characters. Although I enjoyed the book it’s not the best work from Ennis, everything seems to tie up too nicely at the end. Not to mention their is are a couple of really good characters who had plenty of potential but weren’t filled out very well. In particular Jennifers creepy, perverted neighbour and the faux trio of Japanese schoolgirl assassins. Had this been a longer run these characters and the whole story could have been shaped better. Still having said that despite those flaws it is a pretty fun read.
In regards next week, like I said at the top of this weeks issue I will gone through V for Vendetta and hopefully Mark Millar’s Ultimate Avengers Vol 1, which im expecting any day in the mail now. In regards this weeks new releases we finally get the third installment of both DC’s Batman and Nightwing. Two lines which seem to be shaping up pretty nicely. Keeping it in that universe I may also check out the first two issues of Penguin: Pain and Prejudice which I have heard good things about. But what about you? What are you reading? What are you looking forward to? Let me know in the comments below along with your thoughts on any of the titles covered so far and recommendations you may have for me and other readers. On that note I shall bid you farewell, whatever you are reading enjoy, and I shall see you here next week.