On with the show:
- American Virgin 4 (DC) - It might be my laziness as a reader coming through, but I don't think there's enough to the story here. It seems like this first arc is just built to set up the possibility of an ongoing series that's an updated version of the quest-for-the-mystery-villain idea. I'm much more interested in character studies ("so why the fuck do I read mainstream comics?" asks the peanut gallery) and this seemed like the perfect story set-up for that exact thing, but in place of characters we get Generation Y archetypes with the smallest of twists. The American virgin of title is just the opposite of what society presumes a 20-something to be, at least sexually, but he's just as daft as those same people would assume. He's one-dimensional, which means his proselytizing comes off as sanctimonious rather than sympathetic. An idea like this needs a sympathetic main character, and even with his girlfriend killed (in the first issue so I hope that doesn't spoil anything) I don't sympathize. On a positive note, the art is improving still. Becky Cloonan and Jim Rugg make a good team, and like I theorized, the pencilling is stronger still with this issue.
- Wolverine: Origins 3 (Marvel) - This title is a good example of how to deal with a one-dimensional character. Wolverine has been manipulated from one-dimensional state over the years to a point that his multiple dimensions, to a reader like me, don't mean shit. I don't care that he forgot his history and then remembered it. I don't care who the guys were that made him a crazed killing machine. I don't care about anything but a good potboiler of a story month to month, and Daniel Way is giving it to me. Everyone's a badass, and it's a big badass contest to figure out who the biggest badass of all is. Is it Wolverine himself? Is it Nuke? Is it President Bush? I don't care, I just like to read about how badass everyone is. This is the title that best brings out the teenager in me. Arrested development, indeed.
- Civil War 2 (Marvel) - Issue two provides an awesome cliffhanger, but if you want to get the gist of the series without spending four bucks, just read the last three pages in your comic shop. The rest of the issue is filler, as far as I'm concerned.
- Mad Magazine 467 (DC) - I read Mad religiously as a kid. I've read nearly every issue published between 1984 and 1998, and by the time I stopped reading it regularly, it was pretty terrible. In the last few years, the line-up of artists has improved dramatically, and the writing, while still fitting the Mad formula, has at least been much more topical. I flip through an issue here and there, and the arrival of advertising didn't seem to be the curse that people expected. Sure, they do a little shilling here and there for some bullshit video game or movie, but they have basically been advertising the movies with their parodies since the late 60's. This issue doesn't have Bill Wray (is he even a regular anymore) or Peter Bagge or Evan Dorkin, but it does have Marc Hempel, Peter Kuper, Hermann Mejia, and Drew Friedman, and the nostalgist in me loves to see Al Jaffee, Mort Drucker, and Sergio Aragones. I'm going to go squint at some margins now.
- Two Gun Kid 1 (Marvel) - Is it a coincidence that, with a total of five westerns this summer, Marvel is not putting out another Rawhide Kid book. I guess nobody ever goes back in the closet.
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