The weekly shop #3

Well what a fine Thursday that was: A day off work, some new comics and a night on the sauce with old friends Dave F, Ben W and Rayne P.

I feel like shit today of course, further proof that while my mind continues to regress, my body is steadfastly refusing to come along for the ride.

Enough about my inevitable decline though and onto this week's comics...

Captain America #25

Two weeks after it came out I finally got my hands on Captain America #25 and even though I was roaring drunk when I read it I could still see a damn fine superhero comic through the haze.

In fact if it really is the end for Steve Rogers then this issue stands as an excellent epitaph. It's crammed full of flashbacks for the fanboys to get excited about (THE INVADERS! OH WE LIKE THE INVADERS! GIVE US AN INVADERS BOOK MARVEL, GIVE IT TO US NOW!) , it's got some top notch action sequences and it left me feeling perfectly happy with the notion that Steve Rogers might really be dead after all.

The death scene itself is brilliantly done, (echoes of the assassination of both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald in there methinks), and the last page should get a fair whack of the people who only hopped on board this issue coming back for more.

That's down to Ed Brubaker of course, a top quality comics writer who I’m sure will do as fine a job from here on in as he did with the first 25 issues. Whoever gets to be Cap, with Brubaker in charge it’ll be done well.

PS As much as I hate the evil of variant covers, I admit to buying both on this occasion. Not because I think they'll be worth fortunes but because I genuinely liked them. In fact the McGuinness variant goes down as my favourite cover of the year so far...

Cap comin' atcha!

Checkmate #12

It's obvious that I'm a Marvel zombie at heart, but DC do have several titles that float my boat, and there aren't many monthlies I look forward to more than Checkmate.

This is a book which demands concentration and hence made no sense to me on my drunken bus journey home last night. I reread it today though and thought it was excellent. Two issues into the new arc and the blend of espionage and superhero shenanigans is working better than ever.

As per usual I had to return to the previous issue and flip back and forth in the current one to get my head round the various twists and turns. But that's cool, I like comics that require a bit of effort and anyway there's still enough fighting in this book to keep me happy.

This issue deserves special mention for the appearance of Bane, a character who is most famous for breaking Batman’s back a decade ago. Like a lot of 1990's comic book villains he has a tiny head which is totally out of proportion to his HUGE body.

That combination leaves him looking slightly out of place in a savvy 21st century espionage comic, but I like the fact that Greg Rucka and co aren't afraid to embrace the 90's, and got a kick out of seeing Bane again.

Attack of the 1990’s

Shadowpact Volume one: The Pentacle Plot

Holy crap two DC books in a week. May Galactus strike me down, I feel like a traitor to the House of Ideas!

I certainly never envisaged buying any comic with the Blue Devil in it, even as a kid I remember realising that he was lame. I Blame Checkmate. Shadowpact guest starred in the last arc of that book and got me curious enough about the characters to pick up this trade.

I've only read 20 pages or so, but it looks OK. It's by Bill Willingham of Fables fame so it's probably half decent. I'm still not happy reading a book with Blue Devil in it, but I'm sure his inherent lameness will be counteracted by the presence of Detective Chimp. I'm yet to meet a talking monkey I didn't like.

Talking monkeys punching people. Yay, I just peed my pants!