Short bits about comics I've been reading

Time's at a premium for me at the moment. I'm reading comics inbetween other more important real life stuff and updating the blog as and when I can grab five minutes. Fact is I'm too knackered to put any real thought into anything but changing nappies and dealing with family stuff. BUT I am still ploughing through the comic backlog, so here are some SHORT strem of conciousness styleeee reviews of what I've been reading...

Green Lantern/Green Lantern Corps

Nearly hit the Sinestro War now. Seems the whole Empire of Tears, Alan Moore thing was cropping up even earlier in the run than I'd thought. Ranx and The Children of The White Lobe both appear in the Corps. Wish I'd been reading them at the time.

And the other day when I said it would be really cool to see Batman as a Sinestro Corps. Well fuck the ducks, for one glorious splashpage it actually happens. NERDGASM!

Green Lantern is a great run. I did raise an eyebrow when Hal Jordan started quoting John McCain and creating pissed off US soldiers instead of big green mallets to take down Chechen terrorists, but hey I guess that's the kind of shit Hal would do. On the other hand maybe Geoff Johns is a raging republican hawk. Oh well, I still like his comics.

Fantastic Four #554

Superheroes as celebrities. Savvy cynicism. Pop culture references. Bryan Hitch on pencils. Basically Mark Millar is still writing The Ultimates. That's alright by me.

I liked the Back to the Future III beginning, The cheeky Miracle Man T-shirt (Copyright! Copyright!), the obscure Chris Claremont character dredged up to be Reed's ex, Sue Storm's Spice Girl style charity gig and the Doombots serving cocktails.

We've read it all before of course, but Millar and Hitch do it so well that it's still worth picking up.

Northlanders #3

I like the pencils and colours on this a lot. It's got a stark look to it. Brutal. Cold. Grim. The kind of art that fits the grimy paper Vertigo use to a tee.

The Orkney Islands in the 10th Century look like a shitter of a place.

The story is good too. Sven is like a skinny whiny Conan.

The coolest/only viking comic I've ever read (Thor doesn't count)

Amazing Spider-Man #549/#550

I'm not mad aout Salvador Larocca's art. It's not horrible, it just doesn't seem like the best fit for Spidey. His Jonah Jameson is all wrong.

Guggenheim's words are good, not Dan Slott good, but good all the same.

I'll keep reading, but I'd still rather be reading Slott/McNiven Spidey once a month.

Teen Titans Year One #1/#2

I like the idea behind this one, and it's entertaining enough comic tomfoolery but really, I could use a few more words. Seriously, it pisses me off to spend £2 on a comic that takes 1 minute to read.

I get that the writers are aiming at a younger audience, but when I were a lad I was drooling over Daredevil and Watchmen. Lot of words in those buggers I tell you. Lot of words.

The covers are ace though.