COMICS: Thurs. 9/8/05

Punisher: Good start to a new arc. The Punisher is actually kind of showing human emotions. Other than the usual violent rage.

Y: The Last Man: Man, and I thought tabloid reporters were bad now! At least they don't have tasers and pistols. (I think.) So, Yorick's secret is finally out. What will happen when the whole world knows about the last man? This story promises to be excellent.

The Incredible Hulk: As glad as I am to see the end of the House of M crossover, that also means that (unless something's changed, and I don't think it has) Peter David is leaving the title again. And even though the stories he's written since his return have been lacking, that's still a shame. Because nobody has ever written the Hulk better than Peter David. Nobody. Ever. Period.

Ghost Rider: At least no one keeps yelling "Ghost Rider... Spirit of Vengeance!!!" like when this title was revived most crappily a decade or so back. The story was eh -- all set up, basically no Ghost Rider. And the art... I can see how it's technically proficient, I can appreciate the painstaking detail put into it -- but it just hurts my eyes. It's really, really ugly. And the cover art is so generic in a fourth-rate indie horror comic publisher kind of way, I actually looked right past it three or four times while picking out my other comics. It was only at the register, after I had made my purchases, when Mike and/or Dorian mentioned the book, that I asked if it was actually out this week. Mike had to take me over to the rack and point it out for me. Lame, non-eye-catching cover, lame, non-eye-catching logo.

Serenity: Decent three-part story, although I think I liked the two preceding issues better than the finale. Three months ago, I was not a fan of Firefly at all. Now I'm catching up on the reruns on Sci-Fi, I've read the comic series, and I'm all geared up for the movie. This is a great example of why some things deserve a second chance.

The Authority: The Magnificent Kevin: No Glenn Fabry, but still, you can't go wrong with Kev. Except my copy had an unstapled page in it. And it wasn't, like, the center page; it was from a few pages down from the center. It was just this four page sheet folded up, tucked into the comic, unattached and out of sequence. That made reading an interesting process.