09 October 2009

A Few Thoughts on Comics from This Week

Planetary #27 completes the series. Finally. I'd rather forgotten there was another issue yet to come. I can't even remember when #26 came out. Years ago, it was, literally. This was a wild issue, filled with theories about time travel and with a fine ending but, at the same time, was nothing particularly exciting. No big blow-out, no show-down, just science at work. Well, at least, science-fiction at work.

I wondered why I should continue with the Ultimate universe post-Ultimatum. I was concerned that the Ultimate version of Spider-Man would be too radically changed and I would no longer find it enjoyable. Boy was I wrong. We're 3 issues in to the revived series and we seem to just be stabilizing the new basis for the series. It doesn't feel slow, it doesn't feel unnatural. It feels like we've been shown enough of the character's lives to understand what we missed in the months between Ultimatum and the relaunch of the series. Drat it all but this is still really good reading.

Daredevil #501 shows just how much things have changed for Matt Murdock. The man either has a devious plan in hand for the Hand or he's gone completely insane. Could be both I suppose.

Captain America – Ghost of My Country is another in the line of one-shot stories featuring unusual stories or flashback tales or what have you, stranger type stories of Cap at war. This issue visits a number of different periods of time in American history, starting in 1776 and the reading aloud of the Declaration of Independence traveling all the way to a specific day in 2001. A ghostly figure of Captain America appears as we transition from one time-period to the next. The implication is that these are the events that shape a symbol like Captain America, the good and the bad, the upbeat and the sad. I found it rather haunting. I suppose that's what you'd want from a ghost.

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