Daredevil: Inside and Out v1 & 2: As these were coming out in monthly format, I thought both parts of Ed Brubaker’s first Daredevil story ran a bit long. Now reading them in the collected formats, both were no where near long enough. I don’t know if it would have worked monthly but I would have liked to see much larger stories for Matt Murdock’s prison stay or his European adventures. Both stories were still great but they also both had room for a lot of growth and more development.
DMZ: Public Works: I’ve been reading Brian Wood for a number of years now but because I’m only getting his stuff in collected dose or slowly with Local, I don’t know if I ever put together what a great storyteller he is. DMZ, now in it’s third collection, is only getting stronger as Wood and Burchielli create this future NYC that is really easy to imagine as a possibility. While reading this volume, I’m wondering how much older the Matty who’s narrating is than the Matty who’s living in the DMZ?
Y: The Last Man V1: Ever since it started coming out, this has been a title that I’ve tried to get into. I’ve bought this volume at least twice and have probably read it 5 or 6 times trying to get into the whole series. People talk about this series all the time but I have yet to really put my finger on why people like it? Is it the characters? Is it the plot? Is it the never-ending cycle of cliffhangers? When I first noticed the Brian K. Vaughan crutch on the cliffhangers, I really liked it. Now it feels kind of old. He’s a good writer and I like his stuff but I still don’t know if I’ve developed any kind of emotional attachment to any of his writing. To me, his writing (including Ex Machina and Runaways) almost borders on calculated. It’s good but clinical.
Dr. Thirteen: Architecture and Morality: Remember when Grant Morrison did the piss take on the original Crisis on Infinite Earths near the end of his Animal Man story? Azzarello is doing the same thing here as limbo-worthy characters fight to prove why they should exist in the post Infinite Crisis/post 52 world. It’s even better when you realize that 20 years ago, Morrison was the rebel, unwilling to let go of the silver age DC. Now, Morrison is part of the establishment and Azzarello is the outsider trying to point out the value of these characters. Somehow, I don’t see Azzarello becoming an architect of the new DCU in another 20 years, although I may want to read his version now that I think of it.
How I Met Your Mother: Ted and whatsername need to become the supporting characters and let Marshall, Lilly and Barney take over. They’re much more expressive and fun characters than the two main and last night’s just continued to prove it. Marshall may actually be one of the most overlooked characters on TV right now, almost too innocent to be allowed on his own (as witnessed by how quickly he fell for Gael) yet dangerous and devious (www.slapcountdown.com.)
Heroes: I should really like this one more than I did. Brad and I were talking about this earlier and I rattled off everything I liked about the episode. There were some great parts (Mr. Bennet’s “conversation” with his boss, the guy who recruited Mohinder [I love that guy but have no idea what his name is], Grizzly Adams Petrelli, Ando’s loyalty to Hiro’s father) but at the end, I wasn’t blown away like I think I wanted to be. I can’t tell if it’s the show’s problem or miine.
Tonight, NCIS (why don’t more people love this show?) House & Damages.