Diary of an up and coming sociopath

Didn’t get around to writing this yesterday, so without further ado:

Daredevil #73: Decalogue, Part 3: This is a significant improvement over the previous couple of issues. I feel like the story might actually be going somewhere, after this issue. Somewhere that looks pretty, er, disturbing actually. It seems like there’s some kind of literal devil that’s influencing some of the crime being caused in the city, and at least two of the characters in the discussion group have encountered it. This arc seems to be a far cry from by-the-numbers Daredevil, and it’s playing off the character’s status as a public figure in new ways. It’s not the first time someone’s done a “how the lives of normal folk are affected by Daredevil” story, but it’s probably the first major arc dedicated to exploring the subject in more detail. I got a good feeling of suspense from Bendis’ writing this issue, it’s almost describable as a horror comic. Maleev doing the art is great as always, and there’s some good colourisation effects during one sequence which is entirely done in red, grey and yellow. I’m looking forward to the next issue more than I was looking forward to this one. B+.

New Thunderbolts #8 - Thank god the art is back to normal, as Tom Grummet returns. Whoever did the fill ins last issue was quite bad. This is classic Thunderbolts, and an issue that shows Speed Demon trying to continue his criminal activities while posing as a superhero. It’s a good fit for the character, since he never really wanted to be on the team, he was placed there by his employer who’s now gone. It does beg the question of why he’s staying at all, but then his actions at the end of the story more or less prove he’s genuinely interested in reformation. In a typically morally ambiguous Thunderbolts fashion, it begs the question of whether it’s morally acceptable to steal money in order to finance fighting crime. The things the Thunderbolts prevent are arguably larger than that, but can comitting small crimes to revent larger ones actually lead to any kind of moral redemption? It’s good that Nicieza has returned to the central theme of the book, since if anything was wrong with the previous run, it was when they stopped focussing on that aspect. B.

MK Spider-Man #14: Wild Blue Yonder, Part 2 - The stabbing from last issue was resolved pretty much how I expected. There’s a great fight between Wolverine and Spidey at the start, and then Peter is left injured for the rest of the story. Peter doesn’t realise his new partner at the Daily Bugle, Ethan, turns out to have some kind of undisclosed super-powers. which is quite a funny spin on the usual concept when they go out for a story and both independantly change into their superhero outfits. Ethan is some kind of Superman analogue, it seems, given how he’s a reporter who can fly, but he does seem to have some kind of healing power. I’m not entirely sure why they didn’t just and write this story using the Sentry, since he’s another Superman analogue who has a whole bunch of vaguely defined powers, but I’m sure the reason will become clear soon. I’ll be interested to see if this stays as an ongoing subplot, or if it’s all dealt with in one arc. Interesting setup for next issue, but given how yet more villains have just discovered peter’s secret ID, I’m willing to bet that Ethan has some memory-erasing ability too. After buying MKSM #13 last week, I wasn’t totally convinced to stay on for the whole arc, but I think it’s definite that I will now, because this issue maintains, if not improves on the quality. B+.

Uncanny X-Men #459 - Well, I’m not sure what to say about this. I’m just glad that the arc is more or less over. Well, not totally over, i’m sure they’ll still be in the savage land next issue, but I’m glad they’ve rounded off the “oh no, Rachel is turning into a dinosaur” plot. One of the inherent problems in episodic fiction is that it’s almost impossible for any character to be killed, and when they are you tend to hear months in advance anyway. This really kills the tension, so I found it very hard to care that Rachel might be lost forever, and the world destroyed, because I knew she wouldn’t be and the earth would be saved. Claremont’s writing isn’t at its worst here, but it’s still only just readable. Alan Davis makes the best of what he’s got to work with here, but I admit I’m not a huge fan of his art. I’m only eager to see the next issue because all this dino-rider crap is hopefully going to be behind us. C+.

Not such a great week, really. Some decent enough comics, but nothing that blew my mind. I also got a free “House of M Sketchbook.” For some reason i’m totally underwhelmed by the prospect of this crossover. Probably because it’s based spinning out of the rather bad “Avengers Disassembled” story. I’ll have to think hard about what, if any, of the tie ins I buy. The House of M Fantastic Four and Iron Man books actually look quite interesting, but I’m still not convinced it’s worth buying them. I’ll have to wait and see what the actual story is like before deciding how much of my money to invest on it, since there are quite a few manga and tpbs I could buy instead of House of M tie in stuff.