Variant Covers: Frankenstein’s Summer Jam.

This is Covers, of the Varying kind. A comic book column where myself and theoretically other nerds convene to shoot the shit about the comic books coming out on a given week. I vomit up hundreds of words about the titles that are catching my eye, and then you do the same in the comments box. It’s a wonderful community filled with objectification through latex, bi-annual cosmic threats, and the occasionally mind-altering idea.

I love it.

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Morning Glories #10.
Spencer and Eisma’s Morning Glories is something of a guilty pleasure of mine. I haven’t ride a wave of excessively effusive praise like some of the websites that I adore. Instead I make sure to stuff the comic into the brown bag as quickly as possible and deny, deny, deny. Okay, I don’t deny. It’s just that every time I mention that I read it to a friend of mine, there’s either ignorance as to the title, or snickering. Whatever!, fuck the haters. Spencer pens a tale that is “Hey, let’s take LOST to high school!” and that’s fine by me. It’s a comic book fast food cheese burger glutton moment. I consume it, I enjoy it, I pat my mind-belly and I move on. It’s like True Blood: as long as I expect nearly nothing out of it, I’m going to be continually stoked.

I hope I’m not coming off too irreverent or denigrating. It’s a fun title, if all you’re looking for is a mystery to be wrapped up in. Some sci-fi to lose yourself too. The characters are typical high school narrative tropes. The refried beans of adolescent archetypes. Except that they’re all killing people and running around being super-geniuses and such on a hidden campus where the teachers are sociopathic fascists or whatever.

Stuff I’m Not Caught Up On But Probably Rules.
There’s several series that I’m sweating catching up on. None more so than Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera’s Scalped. Issue #49 drops this week, and I feel a deep sense of failure in not being capable of partaking in it. Furthermore, Mike Carey’s Unwritten gets praise and high-fives from countless peeps, and I sit and weep staring at the unread first TPB in my bookcase. Don’t suck? Then you can buy Unwritten #26 this week.

Huzzah.

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Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #159.
My nerd-boy geek rage is somewhat akin to a supernova. The ferocity of my indignity blazes brightly for but a few moments, and then it collapses in upon itself. I told myself that I didn’t want to give a fuck about the ‘Death of Spider-Man.’ I hated on it, I condemned it and Mark Millar. The storyline was a marketing ploy, the writer a hack. After such proclamations, time passed. My expectations fell. I didn’t think about the storyline for a good amount of time, until my brother foisted the last installment of the cross-title MEGA-ARCH upon me. “No dude, it’s good”, he responded to my skeptical nature.

Still it sat in his room for a good couple of days, when one afternoon I felt a deep quiver in my bowels. I knew with a certainty that I had to blow out a caffeine-created soft serve into the toilet for a good amount of time. Figuring I had nothing worse to do, I snagged the comic and sat down with it while I did my business.

Low and behold, it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great by any means. Millar is still a caricature of himself, and the more snarky of readers can perhaps validly state he’s always been a caricature. I stick by it. It wasn’t bad, and now I’m intrigued by tomorrow’s Ultimate Spidey #159. I need to know what happens.

All it took was falling expectations, my indignity burning itself out, and a rumbling in my belly.

Also In The World Of Marvel Swag.
You can get up on Journey Into Mystery #624 if you’re following the title. Douglas Wolk calls it the best thing to come out of Fear Itself. I respect his opinion a good deal, and I’m going to get to it once I’m finishing hacking my comics backlog into bits. There’s also Punisher MAX #14, which has Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon giving old Frankie an origin story that has yet to be seen.

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Flashpoint: Frankenstein And The Creatures Of The Unknown #1.
Ever since I fell in love with him through Sweet Tooth, Jeff Lemire’s name sparkles. I know fanboys, calm down. You fell in love with him in Essex County and that totally makes you > than me. I admit it. I do. And since I cannot traverse the timestream to find him at a more elite and earlier time, I suffer with this indignity. Since said love blossomed on the Comics Field, anything he has written I have chased after with twinkling eyes and sweaty palms. Prior to tonight when I was digging through the releases for this week, I had never heard of Frankenstein And The Creatures Of The Unknown. Doubly, even if I had stumbled across it, seeing the Flashpoint cover, I would have dismissed it.

Then I saw it! The name. Lemire!, oh Lemire. I was sold. I figured that wouldn’t be enough for others, so I did some internet searching. Not puke porn and boat shoes filling my Google Search Bar this time though, no sir. I needed to know what the title was about. From Lemire’s mouth to an Internet Column to my Cut and Paste to Your Eyes, “This Frankenstein is a total badass. An unstoppable, unkillable machine of destruction. But inside is the romantic heart of a poet.”

I’m sold. Totally sold.

Also Romping Around The DC Portion Of Shelves.
Confused by the upcoming DCU reboot? Yeah, me too. It’s a reboot! Wait, no it isn’t. Maybe it is? Who knows.  Batman And Robin #24 is coming out, but I mean, with it changing soon, I feel a sort of nihilism! What’s thee point?! Are you totally sweating Green Wilder coming out in a couple of weeks? Get up on the prequel tip with Green Lantern Movie Prequel Tomar-Re #1, or if he doesn’t suit your alienistic fancies, there’s also a Kilowog joint.

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What are you guys reading this week? Hit me.