In another slim stack (which I kept that way by passing over the new True Story trade and the Batman City of Crime collection, both for later, and the Heavy Metal summer special after a flip through and the Martha Washington story because I can wait), I’ve got Fables #63, Countdown #42, Y the Last Man #57, and CSN #1047. One of these is very likely to disappoint…
And despite the fun nudity and the coy dialog, Y the Last Man does indeed let me down. I really don’t need that many pages of the reunited lovers traipsing around bare-assed. I don’t need the re-cap that doesn’t reveal anything, on top of a re-cap of the fact that they’ve been re-capping. I really don’t need the parallel full page reaction shots, or the phenomenally shitty play on the title of the book. “So you would have said no to the man… But yes to the last man?” Argh. Somehow Brian K. Vaughan knows exactly what I don’t want out of this story, and he’s dedicated to giving it to me. I think it’s going to cost another 10$ to see this to the bitter, shitty end…
And happily, Fables is the exact opposite. More things happen than I can count, and each moment is delivered in a fully satisfying way. Halfway through the book I’d read enough to justify the cover price. It’s a damn fine tale. The little borders are always a lovely (and telling) touch, the distinct faces of the characters are spot on, and the swift turning of the plot makes me eager for the next chapter. Halfway through this issue, I had no idea where the last page would leave me. Perhaps the whole of the Adversary’s army would be routed; perhaps there’d be secrets spilled. In fact the latter happened but not the secrets I’d thought, and not to the reaction I’d've predicted. I suppose all this is so vague that it means nothing to a casual reader, but the point is that this is a wonderful story.
Countdown is a better issue than last time (and the last wasn’t bad). I still still still don’t buy the new Jason Todd as a good guy but I’ll have to find a way to get over it. And I don’t quite understand the time line match up for Karate Kid. But Mary Marvel and Edward Nigma compare new leafs, and it’s a good action packed set of pages, and Holly and Harlequin move their story along a little, and I have nothing to complain about seeing the Trickster and the Piper in action. Air born action, in fact… Jimmy Olsen’s story is back to moving slowly, but again it’s only for a bearable page. The back-up story with the Monitors is almost to the present, which raises the interesting question about where it will go next…
CSN tells me that Strangers in Paradise will be ending soon, and that Marvel is marketing catfights, and that there’s a Grant Morrison analysis book I won’t be able to afford, and that Valiant comics are getting reprinted which I probably wouldn’t want to afford if I could.
