Monday 9 December 2013

A weekend of old friends and new comics

It's always nice to see old friends. Even nicer still when you get to pick up new comic books at the same time. This is what the prior weekend got to be about as I arrived at Proud Lion Comics in Cheltenham for the book signing of Afterlife Inc. Volume 3 (which I have reviewed previously, see here) While there, not only did I get yet another in depth chat with Jon Lock about his creations (poor guy has now had me chew his ear off three times in a year), but also Proud Lion owner Ben Fardon, who I'd previously met years back when he was running a shop in Swindon. It was a good catch up within a beautiful shop (I should have made my way there sooner in my life) and I'll have to find more excuses to make that trip.

Of course, along with old friends is the obligatory weekly pick up of the new comic books which, this week, consisted of only three: Earth 2 #18, Daredevil: Dark Nights #7 and Think Tank #11. A small week to be sure, but after reading them all I'm certain that the small weeks are the best.

For instance, Earth 2 continues to go from strength to strength and issue 18 is no exception as the battle against Superman rages on while even more surprises are revealed to us by Batman. Now I remember having concerns when Tom Taylor took over from James Robinson as the scribe here, but after the first issue those fears were laid to rest, while after this one they were just truly obliterated. Taylor has ramped up the suspense without missing a beat while Nicola Scott's art continues to amaze. If there is one complaint about this book, it's the focus that is being placed on Superman and Batman while the cast which carried this title up until now are pushed back . Hopefully this doesn't become the standard for the book, but for now it has me at a place where I gotta know what happened next (especially to see if my theories on the prophecy are true).

And then, there was the penultimate issue of Daredevil: Dark Nights, which continued the man without fear's high paced team up with Misty Knight in Miami as they track their witness and the man who kidnapped him, the kingpin called King (what an original name). Issue 7 had the unfortunate luck of suffering from what I call mid-story fatigue, in that it appeared to struggle for material to fill in the gap between the beginning and the end. Nonetheless, the book was still a lot of fun as Palmiotti continued to give us a street-smart, fun Daredevil displayed in the loud, vibrant art given to us by Thorny Silas. While it was most likely the weak issue of the week, I still loved it and will be sad when this mini-series ends.

Finally, there came Think Tank #11, which turns out to also be the penultimate issue of the series (apparently, Think Tank is going into a seasons format, just like TV), as David Loren once again escapes in order to rescue his girl, although is his escape and rescue simply part of someone else's master plan? I've said it before (maybe too many times) and I'll say it again; I love this series. Matt Hawkins and Rashan Ekedal continue to provide a fun, engrossing story that seems WAY to far from the end for it to be wrapped up in the next issue. However, with a cliffhanger like this issue has, that might be easier than I think.

So, that was my comics related fun for this week (or, more accurately last week, as it's now Monday when I wrote this). Hopefully next week will be just as enjoyable as I get to read the new issues of Alex + Ada and Lazarus, along with seeing the beginning of Dead Body Road.

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