I have Issues is a comic book review on the previous week’s new releases. SPOILER WARNING: if you haven’t read your books yet, read no further. These reviews will be posted a few days after comic book release day to give you time to read them so that you can throw your two cents in about what you thought of these books. The picks are currently limited, due to the small selection available in my local comic book shops, but hopefully that will change in a few months. Feel free to visit the Giggaheim.com Forums and start your non-censored, no-holds-barred thread on your favorite books. On with the reviews:

Astonishing Xmen #36

WRITER: Warren Ellis
PENCILS: Phil Jimenez
INKS: Andy Lanning
COLORED BY: Frank D’Armata
LETTERED BY: Chris Eliopoulos
COVER BY: Phil Jimenez

I’ve always enjoyed the hell out of this title, and #36 was no exception. I am not an avid reader of the X-men because, like everyone else, I have a continuity problem. Normally the fun of jumping into a comic book is figuring out who has what powers, why they do what they do, ect…but the X-men have been a convoluted mess since the 1990s, and frankly, I don’t have time to figure out if Warren is the Archangel, or if Jean is alive or dead.

So Astonishing X has been my touchstone for the X books. Whedon wrote fantastic stories with faithful characterizations, introduced new story elements, cut through the continuity clutter and gave us all a new jumping on point. When Whedon left, I was scared of the book going off the rails at first, and the “Ghost Boxes” story didn’t help me out, but luckily I forgot to tell my store I was dropping the title, and the past 2 issues have been a treat.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and Ellis is steering this boat towards the “Convoluted continuity” shoreline., but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I have had no past knowledge of the Brood, but a quick wiki look up filled me in on Marvel’s version of Aliens, and I’m back in the game. I can see the writing challenge of Astonishing being the balance between the Noob and the journeyman, and Ellis is walking that fine line well. The “differences between you and me” speeches between Logan and Scott are getting played out, and I’d rather see more development on Armor, but the story is keeping my attention. The art is a little line heavy for my tastes, and the coloring is using a dark-autumn feel, but Jimenez is illustrating the carnal violence of the brood well. I’m looking forward to seeing where this story is going, and how it will all wrap together.

Doom Patrol #4

Written by Keith Giffen
Co-feature written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis
Art by Justiniano and Livesay
Co-feature art by Kevin Maguire
Cover by Justiniano and Andrew Mangum

Back in college I went to a party that had a bunch of writing and composition majors. We sat around, drank beer, and came up with story ideas. One of their favorite things to do (aside from drinking), was setting story limitation to challenge themselves with. And I feel that Doom Patrol has always been DCs little writing game. The characters assembled were weird and had quirks that set them apart from the Big Blue Boy Scout. I never felt compelled to read them since I never really took to the characters. Where’s the fun in reading about a guy who leaves his body as negative energy for 60 seconds, or a greedy guy in a wheelchair?

Since issue #4 is a Blackest Night tie-in, I decided to grab it, and give it a shot. As entry-level comics go, it’s good. It introduces the characters and their important details, and then jumps into the tie-in story. As with other tie-ins, we see the dead come back, taunt the living, and then fight them. The only “revelation” in the book is watching the black rings process the memories of the deceased, but that’s not really revolutionary. As tie-0ins go, I’m going to pass on the next installment. There wasn’t much here for me to latch onto, and not a whole lot that grabbed my interest.