Reading Comics #125 "Bull Moose Grab Bag II"

Ten comics packaged together with a remarkable bargain price!  These are all from last year, but that's okay...

Angel & Faith #23 (Dark Horse)
I don't particularly care for Buffy and/or related franchises, so I don't have anything to say about this one.  Sometimes you get comics you just don't care about in these things.  It's a risk!

Secret Avengers #5 (Marvel)
Even more blatantly than the other time I read an issue from this series (and hopefully this is the last time, but again: brag bags) this is so blatantly a S.H.I.E.L.D. comic, I have no idea why it's called anything but.  Are people really assumed not to know that term better than "Avengers" of some extrapolation?  Really?

Batman: The Dark Knight #21 (DC)
The New 52 Batman launch that was meant to be a vehicle for David Finch (and, incidentally, has since ceased publication), one that until now I hadn't read (there was a Bane issue early on that...looked like the kind of Bane story I try very hard to avoid).  This particular issue was written by Gregg Hurwitz with art from Ethan Van Sciver, who I'm still surprised has been reduced to relative obscurity after being a huge deal not so long ago.  Notable people get lost in the shuffle no matter the context.  It happens.  It's still sad to see happen.  Dark Knight was always more of a visceral experience than other Batman comics, and this one's no exception.  It features Mad Hatter, but Batman is still in pretty dramatic mode (perhaps only in the pages of Dark Knight would this have happened).  It's funny, because within the context of Dark Knight this is kind of the story Scott Snyder has been telling within the pages of Batman proper, whether in the Court of Owls stories or "Death of the Family," what have you.  (I noticed as I was making the Ethan Van Sciver label that I was, in fact, making that label.  Just goes to show.  I've been blogging here since 2011.  That's a long trip in obscurity, alas.)

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #4 (DC)
I'm on record as supporting the whole Before Watchmen project.  As it was being published I eventually had to back off reading the whole thing, and so eventually boiled my experience down to the excellent Comedian, but I enjoyed what I'd read of Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner's Silk Spectre when it began, so it's nice to have randomly come across its final issue.  This was a story that was thoroughly about Laurie's journey out from the shadow of her mother, the original Silk Spectre.  Famously in Alan Moore's Watchmen, Laurie's arc was much more about her relationship with Doctor Manhattan and Nite-Owl as well as reconciling the fact that Comedian was her father.  In this comic it was much more about mother and daughter, and so that's how things conclude, a different and perhaps more important reconciliation.  That's the whole thing about Before Watchmen, that it was able to explore significant aspects of the Watchmen canon that benefited from being brought to the forefront in ways that were not possible during the original story.  If it had been a matter of exploitation for exploitation's sake, I think that would have been obvious.  To call Watchmen a finite work and say there were no other stories possible is to miss the point of storytelling entirely, and to limit the impact of the original story, to say these characters who became instantly iconic ultimately had no potential, which is also to say Moore created something that didn't inspire anything.  I think we all agree he inspired a lot of what comics became after Watchmen.  What about before?  In a new context, superheroes mean something else.  Not just allegory.  A place where superheroes and their own narratives can be taken seriously.  Such as this tale of mother and daughter.

Captain America #8 (Marvel)

via IGN

I'm drawing special distinction to this one because my whole perception of the issue changed remarkably while I was reading it.  I don't, or perhaps didn't would be more accurate at this point, have a high estimation of Rick Remender.  I figured, based on my experience with his work, that Remender is a goofy sensationalist (perhaps typified by the whole Zombie Punisher run known as "FrankenCastle").  Long story short, when I heard he was the guy replacing Ed Brubaker as writer of Captain America, I couldn't understand it at all.  I mean, Remender is pretty much the opposite of Brubaker's gritty realism.  And when I heard that he'd definitely gone in that opposite direction, I thought, Well that's all you need to know.  So when I found this in the grab bag, I figured it would be just another one in this particular selection that I didn't particularly have to care about.  Then I read it.  And then the moment happened.  Captain America has basically been in a Superman-in-space-exile, "Planet Hulk" moment, and there's this boy he's formed a relationship with, and right away I'm completely lost.  But then the relationship between Steve Rogers (that's Captain America, naturally) and the boy crystallizes.  And I think Remender totally gets Steve, in a way Brubaker never did.  He understands that Steve's journey is a matter of deliberate choices, not random chance (as it can sometimes seem post-thaw).  The art is from John Romita, Jr., who has just begun his first-ever DC run, with Geoff Johns, Superman #32.  Romita has a distinctive style I've always enjoyed (among many other projects, he's the guy who helped Mark Millar bring Kick-Ass to life), which is perfect for Remender's Captain America, certainly this particular issue.  The criticism I always leveled against Brubaker was that he didn't really know what to do with Steve Rogers himself (his most famous contribution was the creation of the Winter Soldier, which audiences everywhere got to see in the movies earlier this year).  On that score, I shouldn't have been so critical of Remender, or Marvel's decision.  It was just surprising.  As of now, I might actually argue that Remender's run has a chance of being better.  Start with this issue for yourself if you want to see.  

Deadpool #12 (Marvel)

This is part of the Brian Posehn/Gerry Duggan run that I've previously written as making me as close to a believer in this goofy character as I've ever come.  I don't have much to say about this issue.

The Malevolent Mr. Burns #1 (Bongo)

With stories from Gail Simone (yes, that Gail Simone) and others.  Mr. Burns, of course, from The Simpsons.  Reliably entertaining whether in cartoon or comic book form.

Star Trek #22 (IDW)

"Amok Time" as reinterpreted post-Abrams reboot.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #23 (IDW)

Hey, so for what it's worth, reading this issue, which is also part of the "City Fall" arc from the other grab bag-instilled issue I read previously, is a less painful experience.  So there's that.

Ultimate Comics X-Men #28 (Marvel)

Basically, I'm really of the opinion that Marvel ought to scrap the whole Ultimate line at this point, other than Brian Michael Bendis's Spider-Man.