Married With Comics – November 5th
November 10th, 2008 by Martin
Since these will be spoiler filled discussions, we’ll hide these behind a link. This week your favorite married comic-reading couple will be discussing four really good comics that happen to have come out this week: The Authority: World’s End #4, Gigantic #1, Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1, and Top 10 #2. (Not in that order.)
Top 10: Season Two, #2
Florence: Top Ten is really good. I haven’t read any since Season One, but I really loved the story, and the characters were familiar enough that I remembered them, but also had clearly evolved since I’d last read about them. I loved the art and the colors.
Martin: I too loved this. I traded reading this for reading The Authority, since I was behind on that series and Florence showed no interest in this one. I knew she’d like it though. I have pretty much loved everything Top Ten that I’ve read, (with the possible exception of Smax, which was only so-so). If you’re not already reading this, you should definitely pick it up.
The Authority: World’s End, #4
Florence: This is so fucking depressing. And bleak. I haven’t read any of the tie-in comics that presumably explain how the world has gotten to this point, and how everyone else is dealing with it, within the Wildstorm universe. The Authority is decimated, with little access to their respective powers, with logical explanations.
Martin: What explanations?
Florence: Well, Hawksmoor’s powers were tied into the city, and the city has been decimated. Apollo’s powers are linked to the sun, and the sky is filled with crud blocking the UV rays. Midnighter is at full strength, but without Apollo… it’s so sad. And Angie has lost a lot of her powers, but I don’t fully understand that. It has something to do with some EM pulse that knocked out her technology. The ship, which was a lot of the source of their mobility and ability to stay above it all, has now been fused and trapped and blended with London for reasons we didn’t really see, and have perhaps been explained elsewhere.
Martin: OK, I guess those were pretty good explanations. I personally think Apollo’s power should be stronger than they’re giving him credit for, but maybe he’s always been this way. I guess I never really understood the logic (if there is any) behind Hawksmoor’s powers, and what ever happened to the Doctor?
Florence: I have found it nearly impossible to follow any sort of continuity in the Authority story lines. I would like to understand what happens.
Martin: You complain about pretty much every other Authority comic that you read. Basically that they’re horrible.
Florence: It’s true, because the other ones I read are these spin-offs that are often not part of the main continuity and don’t seem to have consistent characterization. This arc appears to be back on the main continuity, but with a bunch of missing bits, and I don’t know where I can find those. What did you think of this? Are you glad you read it? Do you agree with me on everything?
Martin: Um, yeah, pretty much that’s my job, right? (There should be some marriage jokes in here. Where’s my beer, woman?) But honestly, yeah, this is dark and foreboding. I am intrigued. Sort of glad I read four at once, because not terribly much has happened, but enough now that I’m probably going to stick with it. There was some pretty much anticlimactic bad guy that just got beat up by Midnighter, and the whole plague that turns people into superhuman monster type people for minutes until they blow up because their bodies can’t handle it. (Doesn’t seem like that virus would last terribly long in the wild, does it?)
Florence: Which makes you wonder if maybe it’s some kind of directed weapon being released sporadically.
Martin: True. Possibly by the former British government types that were introduced in the end of this issue.
Sandman: the Dream Hunters, #1
Florence: This was beautiful, and told an intriguing story. You don’t have to have read the previous Dream Hunters book, but it does help to bring you into this world. The previous book was even more gorgeous in its illustrations. Full of spectacular watercolors.
Martin: I also loved this. I think I got to about the middle of the third page before I looked up at you and said “This is awesome. I’m really glad I got it.” Neil Gaiman’s signature writing is totally apparent, even that early in the comic, and gives it that sort of high-gloss literary polish that we both know and love.
Florence: I don’t want to give too much away. You should just read it. We should also mention that it’s a miniseries and not a huge commitment.
Martin: Also, although it’s no doubt in the Sandman universe, you don’t necessarily need to have read Sandman to enjoy this.
Florence: But if you have, you’ll at least recognize one of the characters.
Gigantic, #1
Florence: We mentioned this in the podcast. You brought it home, and I was skeptical, but said that I’d enjoy it. You were completely correct when you told me to just read the first page and that was enough to get me hooked, and to agree that this was a good buy. Did you know at the time that it was the same team that created Strange Girl?
Martin: No, I really had no idea. This is the third series I’ve gotten into (although only the first issue of it) written by Rick Remender, and I’m now convinced he’s totally awesome. It’s hard not to love someone who so clearly loves Samuel Clemens, who was my idol in high school. (There are tons of Samuel Clemens quotes in Fear Agent, and I just finished reading the fourth TPB of that recently.) Also I knew you would love this because the premise is that our world (the planet Earth) is one giant reality TV show created by sadistic aliens to boost their ratings, and what’s not to love about that?
Tags: Neil Gaiman, Rick Remender
