My search for a title for these types of posts continues. At the moment, I’ll try “Recommended.” Metsfilter sticks around as a tag.
Greg Burgas’s review of Brian Wood’s first issue of X-Men offers a great insight on modern superhero comics, and why geeks stick around. We’re interested about what individual voices have to say about a medium we love.
But … there’s not anything that’s really, for lack of a better word, right about it, either. It’s bland. There’s nothing that says “This is a Brian Wood comic,” which is – in my humblest opinion – really the only reason to read superhero comics these days – to read what individual voices have to say about the characters. I’m sure that Wood is writing what he wants to write (I haven’t listened to his interview with Kelly and Sue yet, because I didn’t want to hear their review before I wrote this), and that’s fine, but when I read this, I don’t get a sense of “Brian Wood” as a writer. The characters don’t do anything interesting, they simply move through the plot.
Boing Boing has a short comic about a crazy close encounter.
Jordan Bloom considers disagreements between libertarians on the subject of abortion.
But it goes further. In one panel Romita changes the comic’s premise as much as any “everything you know is wrong” move. It’s a one-frame “The Anatomy Lesson” (Easy now, Tiger). Because MJ isn’t just beautiful, she’s fashionable. Well-dressed. Hip. Or a Stan Lee approximation of it. Peter Parker has hitherto been adrift in a world of tragic or psychopathic grown-ups: his peers show up mainly to shun or bully him. In an instant, that changes, and suddenly superhero comics aren’t just about typical teens, or outcast teens, or nerd teens. They can be about the cool kids. Cool? Well, maybe not cool exactly – though MJ is. But the possibility of adjusting well to life is suddenly a real one.
Joe Muto, the former Fox liberal mole, describes what it’s like to work on the O’Reilly Factor. His take on Bill O’Reilly is fairly sympathetic.
The New Republic looks at the robust Post-Sandy Hook gun control movement.
The Onion is actually generous to Michelle Bachmann, offering a non-ethics investigation reason for the Congresswoman to announce her retirement.
This was funny: a list of 18 obsolete words that should come back. Zasty, Englisheable, “With Squirrel” and “Groak” are my favorites.
And this is just a cute picture of my dog.
What Would Spidey Do? 