Variant Covers: All That And A Bag Of Ennui!
And then there was ennui! Welcome to Variant Covers, the column that has me blathering about the comic books I’m picking up this week. There are occasions when the week is stacked to the brim with releases I’m sweating, and then there are weeks like this: a barren wasteland of interest.
Disagree with me? Hit the comments box with what you’re checking out. I’m curious, curious for you.
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Flashpoint #1.
This week DC kicks off their super special comic book event. Meet Flashpoint!, the beast that they’ve conjured to wrestle Marvel’s Fear Itself. The two comic book titan events, throwing down like Godzilla and Mothra. Meanwhile, us comic book fans, stand screaming in the streets of Fanboyopolis.
Good lord, make it fucking stop!
I’m so very, very, very tired of comic book events this summer. It’s an ebb and flow with me. Sometimes I’m digging them, sometimes I’m exhausted with them. Fear Itself, despite featuring a gorgeous artist and one of my favorite writers, is doing nothing but letting me down. It feels like a shoehorned marketing strategy for the Thor and Captain America movies. Certainly all these beasts are marketing ploys, but perhaps hide the egregious nature a bit better!
If you disagree, I’m genuinely stoked for you. It means you’re getting something out of the title that I’m not.
I imagine DC’s Flashpoint will resonate in the same manner with me. If I buy it. Why waste the bucks and be one of those people hating a comic book while still boosting sales. Right? The premise is this: one day the Flash wakes up and the world is all totally ZOMG different and the heroes are missing and things are changed and I can swear we’ve rode this horse before.
Though I must!, I must give it a try. It’s Geoff Johns and Kubert on the pencils, so there’s always the chance it’ll rock. Don’t know unless you try. Just the tip, right?
Also In DC:
Do you like dense, incomprehensible storylines that are still mind fucking and enjoyable? Batman Incorporated #6 is dropping. And if you’re on the other side of the Kent/Wayne divide, Superman #771 has Kal-El yes, walking, around Las Vegas.
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Northlanders #40.
That’s right, true believers! It’s time for a new story arc in Brian Wood’s heavy metal Viking thunder. This newest storyline, “The Hunt” seems to be returning to the epic Hemingway swag that Wood’s storyline over the winter, The Girl In The Ice” had. Illustrated by Matthew Woodson, the storyline follows a solitary hunter as he spirals into a lonely madness while hunting a stag through a harsh winter.
Sign me, sign me, sign me up!
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FF #3.
Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting continue the movement into the Future with the newest issue of the Foundation. With the enormity of the Council unleashed upon the Earth, what the fuck is going to happen when there’s a good amount of Reeds strutting about salt and pepper and stretchy stylee? I don’t know, but I want to find out. That’s nothing new, anytime a Hickman book drops this me me: blah blah he loves philosophy blah blah heart blah blah awesome artwork. Predictable. I know.
Also In Marvel:
Journey Into Mystery #623 is the second issue of the Kieron Gillen and Doug Braithwaite resurrection of the title. The title totally probably exists because of the Thor flick, but it’s getting good reviews and why not throw down some bucks on a flyer. It can’t hurt. It’ll run you three Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers. Finally, the last issue of Daredevil: Reborn is coming out, and it’ll be the last issue of a mini-series coming out that I don’t care about, segueing into Mark Waid’s take on the Man Without Fear with a new #1.
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What are you guys reading this week? Hit me.