REVIEW: Uncle Sam and The Freedom Fighters #1

A city devastated by metahumans. Political intrigue and post-9/11 fear-mongering. Heroes pitted against the government and each other, forced to choose between wildly uneven sides.Marvel's Civil War?No, actually, it's DC's Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #1, "from the pages of Brave New World" and spinning out of the events of the Battle for Blüdhaven! So, did writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray pinch Mark Millar's notes, or vice versa? Or, have the Big Two simply hit the inevitable bottom of the "big idea" barrel and are now scraping up similar muck from its depths?Whatever the reason, credit Palmiotti and…

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COMMENT: Pull List Massacre, Part II

A couple of months back I did my first round of Pull List pruning, in anticipation of some real world changes necessitating a decreased comics budget, as well as a shift towards "emphasizing comfort over experimentation" in my selections. Originally I was expecting to cut it roughly in half, to $75/month (including my hefty discount), with another $25/month towards sampling and/or TPBs. Now I'm thinking $50/month with a much more selective eye towards sampling might be in order.Thankfully, several mini-series I was buying have ended or have only an issue or two left, so it wasn't quite as painful as…

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REVIEW: V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta, on the other hand—while similarly dated and liberally incorporating elements familiar to any fan of the vengeance seeking, flush with resources anti-hero—holds up remarkably well all these years later. It's a flawed story, mind you, as Moore slips back and forth between compelling melodramatic fiction and hamfisted polemic (similar in some ways to Fahrenheit 911), but the overall result is that of an incredibly engaging tale—part revenge thriller, part political potboiler, part police procedural—that takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride before ending on a somber, if obliquely hopeful, note.

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On The Shelves: 3/22/06

Support GOOD Comics! Try something new EVERY month...or not. Who cares? Between Blogger and Gmail's sporadic outages the past week or so, and some behind-the-scenes dustups that are really testing my patience for this labor of love shit, I'm feeling rather jaded and cynical these days. That's a bad combination, but there's light at the end of the tunnel, so I still have my fingers crossed. Anyway, here's my weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 3/22/06. The full shipping is list available at ComicList. [NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If…

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On The Shelves: 3/8/06

Support GOOD Comics! Try something new EVERY month! My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 3/8/06. The full shipping is list available at ComicList. [NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com] PICK OF THE WEEK BrownsvilleABRAMS Moms Cancer HC, $12.95 No idea what this is, but it's a catchy title that would certainly get me to pick it up and give it a flip-through. That it's published by…

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Blog, I have forsaken thee…

Remember when I used to post every day, sometimes multiple times a day? Those were heady times, between the war and the elections and the poetry scene, etc. Nowadays, I don't think I'm even averaging one post a week.Part of the reason is that comics have pretty much taken over the little bit of free time I have, so most of what I have to say these days either goes on CBC or Buzzscope. On the personal front, I've always been reluctant to get too personal here, and Salomé is doing a much better job of keeping people updated on…

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A Rare 2005 Political Moment

In the 2004 Presidential election, Bush wasn't the only winner. Apathy struck a critical blow, too, in the non-action of the 40% of those eligible to vote who chose not to. Pretty much broke my spirit, even with accepting that not voting can be considered a vote in and of itself, as opposed to the more cynical "silence = consent."Anyway, I received an email this morning from the Working Families Party, asking members to support Fernando Ferrer's bumbling Mayoral run the old-fashioned way...with cash. Of course, I wasn't terribly pleased...--- "Dan Cantor, WFP" wrote:This time, we urge you to directly…

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