purplish haze

drive-by readings

Scalped #40 (DC/Vertigo) "Unwanted Part 2" Jason Aaron R.M. Guera Giulia Brusco Trish Mulvhill Steve Wands Jock (cover)

what we learned: Red Crow and Dash's dad Wade do the tango, but no shots are fired. bummer. Carol wrestles with her pregnancy and abortion, and her palpable fear and anxiety gets to you. also, Dash is either hallucinating or is in an actual community with a shaman and he's puking spiders and shit.
oh shit moment: ever ran around in the snow naked in the dead of night?
what's next: that Dash/Shunka rematch will have to wait.


it was sad when they kicked Kevin Costner out of the rez.

with feeling

drive-by readings

Scalped #35 (Vertigo/DC) "Listening to the Earth Turn" Jason Aaron Danijel Zezelj Guilia Brusco Steve Wands Jock (cover) haven't read much this week, but for sheer emotional drive, this is hands-down my best book so far. taking a break from the action and backstabbing, but not taking the gas off the heartbreaking. Danijel Zezelj's bleak landscapes and tone fit the story of Mance and Hazel Boaz, hardy survivors of the Dakota Badlands, who are undergoing a grueling winter, tending their meager crops, and identifying Air Force jets from the sound of the engines as they lie in bed at night. food is scarce, and the biggest challenge is to drive into town and ask for supplies from the Assistance Center. it certainly takes a lot of guts to swallow your pride and accept the fact that some things are beyond your control. Mance though, maintains a modicum of pride by only accepting less than what's being offered. but the winter isn't done with them yet. Hazel's taken sick so they drive into town for medicine. this turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as a wayward jet crashes into their house. but their indomitable spirit gets them through, and out of disaster, hope springs eternal. this issue put a lump in my throat, as i can easily put myself in their shoes. i may be a big fan of the superhero genre, but its comics like these that justify me staying a fan.

they started it!

i have my beefs but damn if it doesn't make you go yeah!!! especially when Jensen "shoots" the security guards with his hands. [via @andydiggle]



they turned a bit brighter and hipper than the original darker tone of the Diggle/Jock series. it won't give the A-Team a run for its money, but who knows?

yippee ki-yay, M'F-er!

drive-by readings

Die Hard: Year One #1 (Boom!) Howard Chaykin Stephen Thompson Matthew Wilson Ed Dukeshire Dave Johnson Jock/John Paul Leon (variant covers)

well, well, well. i didn't know they were putting this out. as a fan of the Die Hard series, i feel that its best served on film, not on sequential art. but whatever. until the next movie comes out, this is aimed squarely at the ... well, die-hards.

here our intrepid hero John McClane starts life as rookie cop in mid-70s Big Bad Apple, emphasis on the bad, which today's generation wouldn't really know about. yes, kiddies in those days, you would not want to walk in Times Square, and no, there wasn't any Toys R Us then!

and that's as far as we go. this is primarily a set up issue. we have country bumpkin Rosie Haskell, trying to keep up with life in the big city, becoming a witness to a murder perpetrated by two corrupt cops (and before you say anything, only one of them is white). the vague reason being, the victim, Ira Lewis, wanted more money for something, and the two cops wouldn't budge. so as usual, events beyond his control will engulf McClane and be his first test of fire, honing the skills of getting out of sticky situations, skills that should serve him well in the future.

man in tights

probably the one good thing that Kevin Smith did among his Big Two works (his Marvel run is something that has been critiqued ad nauseam) would be his resurrection of Green Arrow for DC. there's something about a regular dude with a bow and arrow running around with the Big Guns in capes, with no powers at all save his marksmanship and athleticism. well, that and his notorious ladies' man and devil-may-care reputation.

it is with great excitement then that i learned a Year One series for Oliver Queen was coming, written by the two gentlemen who wrote a couple of my favorite books:

yep, that Andy Diggle and Jock. sorry, guys; i wanted to post about The Losers - i still will at some point. the opening scene already gave me deja vu: camera zoom out shows perspective - reminiscent of the Goliath tanker scene.

make no mistake, this is for newer/younger fans, an origin story that would make sense for the next generation. but i see it as a re-visitation as well. i've been more of a Marvel guy through the years, but my childhood is replete with memories of the Justice League, and Superman, to me, is always the first superhero a child learns of.

Ollie, looking a lot like a Loser, is living the high life as the playboy millionaire, without the heart condition and the technological genius. mr. pampered peter pan blows through money like a breeze, and his close confidant Hackett tries to keep him on an even keel.

Ollie bids on the non-existent Britney Spears undies

that is, until he betrays him, while on a boating trip. money changes everything.

"no, but you now own the Brooklyn Bridge."

Ollie, despite his raw archery skills, can't quite match up with the determined Hackett, and thus he ends up in the drink.

there's probably more than one Green Arrow origin stories written out there. but i like this one, which gives a rational explanation how Ollie came to be stranded on an island instead of merely falling overboard while drunk.

this is shaping up to be whole new gritty take on the Emerald Archer. i don't care if he wears green - he's gonna be a manly man when all of this is over.
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Green Arrow: Year One #1
Andy Diggle/Jock