I went to the comic store to pick up three weeks' worth. Here's what I've read out of the stack:
A Gregory Treasury v2 - Marc Hempel. Collecting the original Piranha Press Gregory III and Gregory IV in a pocket-sized fun pack. This material is distinctly inferior to the previous volume, largely because the novelty has worn out and Hempel is pushing the premise outward to compensate. Note that this means that the material is inferior only insofar as it is evaluated as an example of what Gregory was; outside of that context, it may be very good indeed. Gregory IV: Fat Boy, in particular, is a story about the conflicting strands between children and parents within one particular family. It's just not a Gregory story.
Would I recommend this? Damned if I know. I liked the hell out of Gregory, and my collecting sense wouldn't permit me to not buy this. Tell you what, we'll do an experiment: Half of you who've never read Gregory before, pick this up and just read starting on page 67; the other half of you pick up the first treasury and read that, and we'll see who likes what better.
Ultimate Spider-Man 59, 60: Bendis is too soft on Spidey. Sure, it's nice to read Gwen acting like a sane and good friend after wigging out. But one can argue that the point of Spider-Man is Peter Parker karma--that his one moment of selfishness has doomed him to a private life of small victories and large defeats and a public life of constant expiation. Lying on a bed cracking jokes with two spectacularly-beautiful girls is the writer being too nice to the character.
That's #59; in #60, the Lizard is coming back, more or less, also probably the Venom derivative Carnage. In traditional Bendis style, this takes twenty pages to lay out.
But that Mark Bagley can sure draw up a storm, and do it at something like two pages a day; why isn't this guy working with a craftier writer?
Ultimate X-Men 46: Apparently the first issue of new writer Brian Vaughn and new artist Brandon Peterson. Eh. Peterson's better than Vaughn; his Angel is impressively quasi-divine. Vaughn's got some moments, like pairing Angel and Nightcrawler to (fail to) recruit a new mutant, but the characters don't have voices of their own (I can't imagine anyone younger than fifty saying "Oy" in anything but post-ironic fashion, and Kitty's not post-ironic), and he puts in gratuitous jailbait cheesecake.
Storm recreates the Claremont punk transformation; Emma, so recently arrived, gets on the bus; and Mister Sinister, who I seem to recall was a master villain of some consequence in the mainstream X-Men universe, but of whom I know no details, is beginning an Ultimate incarnation.
Promethea 30: J.H. Williams III may be the best artist in the biz, actually. Here, he flips seemingly effortlessly among styles, both painted and line-drawn. Unfortunately, what he's illustrating is Alan Moore's career coda with all its accompanying profundities and finalities when what I want is more Top Ten. Promethea's forcibly elevating the world into the next plane of thought, which is generally opposed by people who like the way they're thinking now.
Birds of Prey 67: Greg Land back on covers. Benes is quite good on interior art, but I'd take Land back in a few tenths of a microsecond. Simone's story is entirely competent and entertaining; a bit more craftwork and she'll be Chuck Dixon. This wraps up the Canary/Shiva/Cheshire and Oracle/Senator Whoositz tangles with a lot of cameos from Oracle's gynocentric rolodex.
B.R.P.D. 4: Liz burns a lot of stuff and Abe finds out that the plague of frogs is connected to yet another Rasputin-acolyte attempt to Bring About the End of the World (and this time, it might actually happen). Plus a bunch of frog-men disperse across America to, I dunno, be evil and breed with our women or something. It's traditional Hellboy stuff, without Hellboy and without Mignola art and definitely second-class.
Seaguy 1: Like, whatever. Don't bother reading this as individual issues.
Batman: Harley and Ivy 2: Dini and Timm hijinks. Timm doesn't quite have the hang of inking cartooning for comics and I suspect Dini giggles a lot at his own script. Plus, these guys really need to do a full-on adults-only special to get it out of their system, because what they're doing here isn't going to satisfy anybody. Harley and Ivy retrieve a rare plant from the tropical jungle, getting mixed up in politics and with a couple of gormless bozos called "Slash and Burn".
Girl Genius 11: Now in oversized format guaranteed not to fit anywhere in your collection. The fuck? Anyway, the story finally begins to branch out beyond the incredibly-spoilerific material that shouldn't have been printed in the Girl Genius #0 special. Unfortunately, it's not as densely plotted, not as funny, and not as good speculative fiction, as Buck Godot. It's still Phil Foglio, which still rates it a must-buy, but it could be better. Phil also seems to be experimenting with reproduction from pencils, and I don't like it. His line has a lot less weight and fails to anchor the images.
Anyway, Agatha and Krosp crashland their dirigible and encounter a traveling circus. Then a cliffhanger that I don't believe for half-a-second happens.
I do gotta say, though, Phil's (and/or Kaja's) doubletalk-German as practiced by the Jagermonsters is catching--"Alvays remember--Any plan vere you lose you hat iz a BAD PLAN."
Astonishing X-Men 1: Joss Whedon has John Cassaday's beautiful art to rely on. Like Vaughn, Whedon has yet to capture the voices of the X-Men, something that Morrison accomplished from the first page of his run on New X-Men. A very truncated X-Men team led by Scott Summers intends to operate as a superhero team to help mutant image, which is a bit of a yawn, except that it's contrasted with an obvious but yet interesting idea, never quite done in this fashion to my knowledge, that of a doctor who approaches mutation as a genetic disease, for which she has developed a cure.
Simpsons Comics 94: Now printed, for some reason, on paper that quite likely could support the weight of an Audi TT. The story, a full-length epic about a sleep-deprived Springfield, is typically mildly entertaining, though Boothby has a tendency to overexplain a gag.
Common Grounds 5: This high concept series from Troy Hickman and various artists is almost great, and were I not so curmudgeonly, I might actually rate it highly. As it is, it's a bit too much the same without the spark of greatness. Still, it fills the days between good issues of Astro City, and multiple stories in an issue makes an issue feel meatier.
Here, a gang of pre-hero Marvel monsters hang out in the back woods of the Treasure State (but have giant-size coffee and doughnuts delivered), and a norm and an immortal superhero have a talk about love and relationships.
Richard Dragon 1: I really don't like Scott McDaniel's art, which pretty much swamps any other opinion of the book I might have. Despite looking about 19, this seems to be the same Richard Dragon who goes back to the mid-70s, complete with the Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva, which probably means that the Society of Assassins is close to hand, at least in one form or another. Dragon's a mouthy punk kid, though. Not recommended.
Ultimate Fantastic Four 6: Big fat whatever. I gather than Ellis or some can about similar overrated yobbo is coming on board next issue as a writer, and I guarantee I have no interest in what he may do with the book, so this will most likely be the first Ultimate book I drop.
Anyway, having screwed up the first Fantastic Four fight last issue (by not having the entire team present), the book closes off the fight with the Mole Man's forces and returns the team, now all together, to the surface.
Also, Bendis says "Changing his name to Van Damme was my idea. So there, now you're glad I left." Except that the damage is already done and non-undoable, rimsniffer.
Supreme Power 10: It would be rather disheartening to compare where the first Squadron Supreme series was at issue 10 compared to this one, but Gary Frank's pencils are significant solace.
Power Princess returns, sucks the life out of a few people to restore her youth, and then latches onto Hyperion like a champion golddigger, so I have no clue what to think about this. Did Straczynski get rejected by Linda Carter in high school or something? Also, Doc Spectrum is probably going to hook up with Amphibian.
I have a lot of affection for the idea of the characters and the series and JMS's execution always falls somewhat short.
Futurama 17: A multi-issue story begins, involving a time travel accident (that, of course, obeys Zweig's Second Law). Boothby does a better job here than in Simpsons Comics.
Sandwalk Adventures collection: I missed this when it came out a while back, because I was having some reliability problems with my comics pull. I noticed the collection and picked it up and recommend it. Cartoonist Jay Hosler is quite talented, one of a handful of people doing science fact in comics form (cf. Larry Gonick and Jim Ottaviani). (Hosler's Cow-Boy strip from back in the day demonstrates his ability with fictional narrative.) Here, he has Darwin explain his theory of natural selection via a remarkable contrivance, albeit one executed with considerable wit and narrative competence.
I would only quibble that Hosler should probably have addressed why the definition of fitness isn't circular, since that's a common attack on the theory.
Highly recommended, if you're the kind of person who'd read science fact comics.
You certainly adhere to the crusty Curmudgeon moniker, good sir.
How you don't praise Allah, Vishnu, Buddha, and JR Bob Dobbs for the Avatar of Mirth known as Ian Boothby is beyond me. His "Simpsons" and "Futurama" keep me in stitches every month.
And, even worse is your dig regarding a lack of greatness in the most recent "Common Grounds" Sweet zombie Jesus, man--this issue was a respectful, loving tribute to the Mighty Marvel Monsters of the 50s (and reprinted with gusto in the 70s). Anyone who does that gets major ups from this reader.
I demand that you surrender your FOOM membership card immediately.
(I do agree with your "Richard Dragon" assessment, though. It's rare that a comic triggers visceral, disgusted "I just got ripped off" reaction, and this one did it in spades. If I wasn't a Bronze Tiger completist, I'd use it as parrot cage lining.)
Never had a FOOM card, nyah.
If it's any consolation, I should have said that I do recommend Common Grounds.
an obvious but yet interesting idea, never quite done in this fashion to my knowledge, that of a doctor who approaches mutation as a genetic disease, for which she has developed a cure.
This is slightly reminiscent of a bit from Peter David's X-Factor run where fetuses were tested in the womb to see if they might be mutants. (Pity Marvel wimped out and censored the obvious conclusion to the concept.)