[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

Spoilers Ahead. Forreal.

It isn’t always easy to choose a best comic of the week. Some weeks, none of the funny-mags I’ve picked up have any sort of Wow! to them. Other times, I’ve got a stack full of quality books and hate having to choose just one to feature.

This week, I’ve decided to make the entire process a bit easier. The name of this column, Images & Words, is named after the two separate media that combine to make comics. Oh, well, it’s actually named after a Dream Theater album. But the pun stands. So please just roll with it. Anyways, comics are composed of illustrations and text. As such, this week I am going to highlight both the artist and writer with whom I was most taken.

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Dig on the latest promo for One Moment In Time, which is, I believe, the cover to Amazing Spider-Man #641. Isn’t Paolo Rivera gorgeous?

I’m torn on the current Spidey storyline, One Moment In Time. On one hand, I find it surprisingly grounded in relatable minutiae. The conversation between Parker and MJ that dictates the narrative is absurdly heartbreaking to a giant slobbering mess like me. On the other hand, the entire thing is a knotty attempt at perhaps over-explaining what happened back during One More Day.

I love it, but I feel like I shouldn’t.

As somewhat of a closet Emo Kid and sucker for romance, the heartfelt convo by a shattered couple sprawled about an apartment gets to me. I can’t help it.

Here’s the thing, Grant Morrison is kicking off a new title, Batman INC, in which Bruce Wayne is franchising Batman. No, seriously. And adding an entire line of Batmen makes for some interesting sorts of interpretations of the god damn Rodent Guy. One possible interpretation? Gay Batman.

LA Times:

Batman can take anything. You can do comedy Batman, you can do gay Batman…it all works. It something intrinsic to the character. It ‘s so strange and amazing.

Well then! Personally? I’d love to see a gay Batman. I know there’s the Midnighter over in The Authority who is an obvious Batman homage and homosexual superhero. But a legit gay Batman? Radical. Even more radical would have been if Morrison could fit Bruce Wayne into the gay Batman mold, but god only knows how many heads would explode at DC and Warner Bros.

Source: Templesmith

"Shhh...It's still supposed to be a secret."

Mark Millar’s Nemesis has been optioned for a film and Tony Scott is going to direct.

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James Stokoe is the internet hotness today, and with good reason. The artist and writer behind Orc Stain as well as Wonton Soup apparently was working on this son of a bitch as a warm-up exercise every day.

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[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

Spoilers Ahead. Forreal.

I believe in ideas.

I’m not religious. I don’t belong to a political party. And I’m generally weary of aligning myself with institutions. But what I am unabashedly interested in is the formation, exploration, and discussion of ideas. Anything that has or can or will be done has come about by the processing of thought. Mental exertion. Trying to conjure up something that has yet to be plucked out of the nebulous pool that is the collective unconscious.

Human beings are squishy blots of flesh that exchange fluids with the world and rarely last one hundred years. They are fragile and gross and quite often unhinged mentally. And yet, within the few protective millimeters of skull is the capacity for goddamn anything.

Penicillin. Films. Sexual fetishism. Hospitals. Education. Genetic manipulation. Geoengineering. A hilarious anecdote about a dead relative. Cloned organs. Terraforming. Dinner reservations for two, no wait, three. Interstellar travel.

It’s all in there, in the goddamn ideaspace. The realized and unrealized.   The real and the fictional and the grey area where the two meet for conjugal visits.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is a comic book about these conjugal visits.

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This story is ridonkulous, and it warms my bleeding heart. A family was on the brink of losing their house. To the point where they’re boxing their shit up, and preparing to have to leave their humble abode, when they come across some old comic books. And low and fucking behold what sort of phat loot they find amidst the funny books! Yep, that comic book. Action Comics #1.

ABC News:

A copy of Action Comics No. 1, the first in which Superman ever appeared, was discovered as they went about the painful task of packing up a home that had been in the family since at least the 1950s. The couple, who live in the South with their children, asked to remain anonymous.

“The bank was about ready to foreclose,” said Vincent Zurzolo, co-owner of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Comics and Collectibles in New York. “Literally, this family was in tears. The family home was going to be lost and they’re devastated. They can’t figure out a way out of this. They start packing things up. They go into the basement and start sifting through boxes — trying to find packing boxes — and they stumble on eight or nine comic books.”

…

Last Thursday, the couple’s copy received a 5.0 VG(Very Good)/Fine rating on a scale of 1 to 10. It could fetch upwards of $250,000 when it goes up for auction on ComicConnect.com from Aug. 27 through Sept. 17.

How fucking ridiculous is that shit? Amazing. See Moms and Dads of the world! Don’t throw shit away. Stuff it into boxes and hide it in the basement. And should a time come sixty years from now when you’re bankrupt, you’ll unearth some gem and save your state of affairs. Or maybe not.

But good for those people.

Another week, another edition of Variant Covers. The weekly column dedicated to fawning over Wednesday’s new comic book releases. As an over-educated but under-developed fanboy, most titles I mention are of the superhero assortment. This results in me griping about the lack of character development in financially charged titles, while still giggling at laser beams, and staring at spandex-covered asses. Paradox! Let’s dance.

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S.H.I.E.L.D. #3
If you’re not reading SHIELD (I’m absconding from using the acronym every time, sorry), I don’t blame you. Outside of the buzz carried through the various comic book websites, it’s rather unassuming. Walking across it at the shop, you may not be lured by the gorgeous artwork. I mean, funny books ain’t cheap no more, and curiosity often meets short ends at the hands of a tight wallet.

So I’m beseeching you, read this comic book. If you haven’t yet, snag the first two issues, and pick this up tomorrow. Jonathan Hickman’s SHIELD ain’t Nick Fury and a helicarrier. It’s Leonardo Da Vinci, and an immortal city underneath Rome. It ain’t covert ops and espionage, it’s Galileo versus Galactus. From what the reader has been told throughout the first couple of issues, the premise is that SHIELD has been a centuries-old secret society fashioned to further the Human Machine. Unfortunately, as all good things, it has been spurned by the handiwork of some legit d-bags. Alas. Fuckers.

Thankfully, a resurrected Leonardo Da Vinci has returned to set shit straight. Yeah man, that Da Vinci.

It’s a surreal trek through time, space, and philosophy. Not content just blending the worlds of history and funny book, Hickman has continually pressed the issue on the power of ideas in shaping human history. SHIELD ascends being a literal shield, and instead becomes symbolic of humankind’s pursuit of the Heavens. Not only that, but the battle over definition extends to the very concept of definitions – if Da Vinci claims destiny means one thing and the Legions of Old Assholes claim otherwise, the battle seems to rage on not just an ideological battle, but also a physical one as well.

In other words, they be spittin’ both thoughts and spears at one another.

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There’s been talk for a while that Robert Rodriguez may be the dude to direct the Deadpool movie. And in the last day or so it seems to be more and more likely we could get this shit in our welcoming nerd mouths. Surely you jest! Naw son, it’s really happening. Apparently at this point Fox and Rodriguez are in active negotiations. I say? Give this dude what he fucking wants.

Deadpool is, at his best, an absolutely ridiculous, ultra-violent chap. Rodriguez, at his best, brings movies of absolutely ridiculous ultra-violence. In a perfect world this shit is a hard R, and we can see some gruesome hysteria. But now I’m gettin’ greedy. Seriously though, the fucked up mind behind Machete, Planet Terror, and the adaptation of Sin City? Win, win, win!

What do you guys think? Hit the comments box, let’s chat.