The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum

Comics. For years they used to be looked at as nerd fodder. Well, they still are for the most part but with the mainstreamization (yup, das a word) of comics with trillion dollar movies, highly rated TV shows and merchandising rivaling that of the holy grail that is Star Wars, it's hip to be a nerd these days (or at least that's what I tell myself to keep me from crying myself to sleep every night). Who knows how long this trend will last so for now, lets ride the wave, shall we? So not only will I be providing reviews for some of the books I pick up but this week we'll also have speculative reviews from the infamous/legendary artist (not) Rob Lame-feld....umm, I mean (not) Liefeld. He'll join us this week to provide commentary on the current state of the comics industry and how much better he was back in the days. Hopefully he will join us every week but he's a very busy man so for now, enjoy!

Secret Invasion #1 • Marvel
Art by Leinil Yu • Written by Brian Michael Bendis

brodiemash
Fucken Skrulls. Those shape-shifting son's of bitches have decided to come into the Marvel Universe and turn it upside down. Supposedly, the tracks for this event series have been laid all around the Marvel Universe for the past couple of years, keeping a lot of the very creators working at Marvel in the dark about these plans in order to maintain a veil of secrecy. But I call bullshit on that notion. How can such a massive entity like Marvel decide to do something like this and not let EVERYONE who works these books in on it? Hmmm...whatever. As long as it doesn't get all DC and shit (does anyone know WTF is going on over there?). So if your jumping in on this without any kind of history on the background, you might be left out in the dark. Good thing the book includes a sort of recap on all things Skrull, as well as a helpful guide of the events that lead us up to this point (good job on that, Marvel). Yu gets down with his artwork in the book. I became a big fan of the dude's art when he was doing High Roads for Image and his stuff here is some of his better stuff, but not the best. Consistency seems to be the hardest thing for artists these days but Yu is still crafting some good shit here. Now comes Bendis. Never been a big fan of his stuff (to me, he's like the Wal-Mart of comic writers: high volume, low quality) but it's kinda hard to gauge a writer's performance until everything is in sight. But so far, so good and the book was well paced and keep me wanting to turn the page. Definitely looking forward to issue 2.
brodiemash score: 4 (out of 5) Chromium Covers

(not) Liefeld
We've always known about this. You see, all my characters were always secretly Skrulls. Skrulls caught mid shape-shift and forever scarred with disproportioned bodies, heads, arms, feet, faces, boobs, guns, armor, hair and legs, which you can see translated in my art style. So now you can take back all those mean words cause joke's on all of you, bitches! Still, Cable could stop this whole invasion thing with one finger. Lame.
(not) Liefeld score: 1 (out of 5) issues of Youngblood

Kick Ass #2 • Icon
Art by John Romita Jr. • Written by Mark Millar

brodiemash
Mark Millar could write a children's novel and I would read that shit (yeah, I'm on his sack, so what?). He's been consistently hitting them out of the park these last couple of years (we'll. for the most part) scribing such classics as Wanted, The Ultimates and various others around the Marvel Universe. And Kick-Ass continues the streak. Taking place in the real world, the story revolves around a simple question: Why is it that so many people emulate Paris Hilton but nobody tries to do the same with Spiderman? It's this simple concept that drives Dave Lizewski to try to test how a superhero could exist in the real world. Shit's captivating readin' and highly recommended. This issue is the second issue and the story continues and blesses us with more and more insight into the characters of this world. As for the art, I know a lot of people can't stand Jr's art style. It can be overly simplistic & blocky sometimes, but in these kinda of gritty stories, I think it fits very well (him doing World War Hulk earlier this year, yeah, that wasn't such a good project for him). So far, the book is definitely driving me to pick up the next issue and I most certainly will.
brodiemash score: 4 (out of 5) Chromium Covers

(not) Liefeld
Real world?! WTF?! Who cares about the real world. How else could awesomeness like Youngblood & Bloodstrike & Bloodwulf exist? Bah! You really wanna see some teen dressed in spandex getting his ass kicked by a couple of taggers? Plus, real world people can't have disproportioned anything (at least, willingly). Dumb.
(not) Liefeld score: 1 (out of 5) issues of Youngblood


brodiemash gets his comics from Heroes Comics, where he's been getting them since he was a small cub. Legend goes he just gets his bi-weekly paycheck direct deposited into the company's bank account. Visit them at www.heroes-comics.com