WLG #185: Short Stuff!

By Michael A. Diaz

First off, thanks to those of you out there that took the time to wish me “congratulations” on my pending nuptials. What with a wedding in the family last October, and another one coming this June, it looks like my lovely fiancée and I are going to be eyeing 2008 for the big day. Sure, I wish it would be sooner as opposed to later, but we've got other plans (like buying a house) that are already in progress, so the wedding will have to wait.

Looking at the comics this week I see that there's not a lot that has me geeked; that's not to say that there aren't some good comics coming out, just that there isn't a lot coming out this week that I buy, let alone to get me uber-excited.

Looks like it's going to be short and sweet this week; I had better throw in one of these:

Standard Disclaimer: For those of you new to the WLG experience, here's how it works: Every week I check out the release schedule from the Diamond Comics Shipping List and decide which comics that I am going to spend my hard-earned money on. Yep, my money. That's good, because it helps to maintain my objectivity. If I spend money on a comic book and it turns out to be crap I'm going to be upset.Before I jump into the column I was curious how many people here watched Superman Returns and what they thought of it. I won't go into it here, that's what the message boards are for, but I FINALLY rented it last week and over the course of three different nights was FINALLY able to finish it. Yes, it's longer than the average movie, but not THAT much longer.

That should give you a hint to what I thought about it. If you want to see more, well, just stop by the message boards (see link below). I realize that the film came out several months ago but I just got around to renting it; Batman Begins it wasn't.

And with that let's dive into What Looks Good...

DC

Y: THE LAST MAN #53 (MR) $2.99 (Brian K. Vaughan / Goran Sudzuka)

There has been a lot going on in this book over the last five years so I figured that Vaughan and co. would be using this time to try to wrap up all of the loose ends. In a fashion they are, but even as they start to do that the book is continuing to surprise, all the way until the bitter end.

Also, I have to say that I figured that Yorick and Beth would have found each other by now, but obviously they haven't yet. With only a handful of issues to go I am beginning to wonder if they ever will find each other, let alone spend any meaningful time alone. Are we, the readers, going to have to go through a painfully emotional ending a la Cold Mountain? Normally I'm the kind of guy that appreciates movies/books/comics/etc that have anything but a good ending because that's how life is most times, but this one time I am really pulling for that so-happy-it's-almost-sugary-Spielberg-ending (more ET happy ending than War of the Worlds).

Just this one time.

However it ends Vaughan and co. have been keeping things clicking all along, so kudos to them.

MARVEL

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #104 $3.99 (Brian Michael Bendis / Mark Bagley)

Yeah, I've been figuratively slapping Bendis and Bagley on the backs for months now, but I really think you've got to hand it to these guys for creating an truly quality book for 104 straight issues. That's an impressive feat. I honestly can't think of any other book that has been this consistently good for a similar duration of time, at least not while I was reading it. Preacher is excellent, no question, but I missed it the first time around and have been reading the trades; Y:The Last Man hasn't let me down yet, but it's getting ready to hit the brakes with its 60th issue, a full 44 less.

I am sure there are people out there that will disagree with me and cite many other runs on other books that were better and maybe longer (some of them will probably be Cerebus fans I'm sure; I've yet to touch that series), but in the time that I have personally been collecting comics, roughly 20 years (with a couple of interruptions) this is the longest and most impressive run that I've been able to actually witness.

So, one last time I offer congratulations to this creative team for doing such a bang up job.

This current arc is just as good as any other in the run and I'm enjoying it fully.

Job well done, gentlemen, job well done.

Sadly, that's it for this week. As I've said many times before, the point of this column is to highlight the books that get me particularly geeked, and this week there were only two.

Sometimes that's just how it goes.

Was there something that did it for you this week, maybe something that I didn't mention? If so, stop by the What Looks Good message boards (see link below) and let me know what YOU thought looked good. With such a small week for me this week I might be persuaded to check out something that I might not usually read.

Until then,

Peace!

-Diaz