Who's who in the Comics Bulletin Universe - Update 2009
Who is... Michael A. Diaz?
Michael Diaz lives in Michigan, but don't hold that against him.
There he works as a Sys. Admin. while fostering dreams of one day becoming a "real" writer.
Most importantly, Michael is seriously addicted to comics, something that his wonderful wife tolerates with the patience of a saint.
He also writes this weekly column that people occasionally read.
"[O]ne of the most positive
and entertaining columns going."
- Gail Simone (Birds of Prey, Villains United)
WLG #238: Saved From Deletion!
I honestly don’t know what I did, but about 30 seconds before I went to post this article I hit a series of buttons and POOF! this column disappeared.
Luckily I had done the majority of it in an .rtf file using wordpad, so I am able to recover about 80% of it without having to retype everything. However, the adrenaline did get going and I thought for a moment that all the work I had done was simply gone.
Whoo!
Enough freaking out….
Let’s jump right into What Looks Good...
BATMAN #681 RIP $3.99 OK, I am going to come right out and say it: I don't want to see Batman die.
Before you start freaking out, I have no foreknowledge of the end of this book. All I know is the name of the arc, which is printed across the top of the Bat-books. I've heard rumors online, everything from Batman finally gets rid of the Bruce Wayne alter ego to that Tim Drake/Dick Grayson/Jason Todd/whoever takes over the cowl.
I realize that I sound like an old man that is resisting change, but really, that's not the case. I love Spider-Man, and, well, now that I think about it, that might be the best example because Spider-Man hasn't always been Peter Parker. For a time Spider-Man was Ben Reilly, just like previously Batman was taken over by that Azrael dude, and how Superman was replaced by four pretenders (really, three, Steel never claimed to be Superman, he just wanted to live up to his legacy).
Because here is the thing: Bruce Wayne will be back as Batman at some point. Sure, it might take five, 10, maybe even 15 years, but Bruce Wayne will be Batman again, just like Hal Jordan is back alive and is again a Green Lantern, or how Oliver Queen is again Green Arrow. Heck, even Colossus is back, and we were promised that his death would never be cheapened.
Do I need to go on?
Maybe I sound sour, but really, I don't want to wait for Bruce Wayne to be Batman again.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. I mean, as it is, I can't really say that I buy all of the Bat-books. Heck, I'm only picking up Detective Comics because Dustin Nguyen is drawing it.
Still, I admit that I am curious about what Morrison and co. are going to do with this title, here I am, geeking out about it. They're getting people talking about, and more importantly buying, comics, so I guess their mission has been a success.
I would just like Batman/Bruce Wayne continue to be.
We'll see.
WILDCATS #5 $2.99 (Christos Gage / Pete Woods)Broken record Michael here: listen, Christos Gage is writing Wildcats like any long-term fanboy would love. He's made references to every incarnation of the team, and yet is moving forward with his own version of the team. I love it, and I know I sound like a fanboy every time I go on about this book.
This issue appears to be more of the same. Spartan, an android that was built to lead this team, to save the world from itself, now stands in a world that has effectively destroyed itself. What does he do now? He and his team were supposed to save the world, but now there's very little left to save. Does he try to rebuild this world, save those that are still around, or just give up?
It's an interesting question, because where does a sentient robot find his identity when in effect he has failed at everything he was programmed to do?
I'm geeked!
BRIT #10 $2.99 (Bruce Brown / Nate Bellegarde)I'm going to sound like I'm belittling (minimizing? denigrating?) this book when I say this, but I love this book because it is just so much old school comic book fun where super-powered people punch each other a lot. Even though that is what I love about this book, that's just scratching the surface. Here you have a hero old enough to be your grandfather that loves his former-stripper wife and wants to do right by her and their child. Also, we have a man that thought he was just another government suit who one day found himself dead, only, he wasn't, because he was really a machine.
Who knew?
There's a lot going on in this book but it is also a lot of fun, a touch irreverent, but fun nonetheless.
Good stuff.
Is anyone else here reading any of the Elephantmen books? It was suggested to me about a year ago, but only last week I picked up Elephantmen: Wounded Animals at a local comic book store. I’m looking forward to reading it just as soon as I’m done reading Persepolis (which is taking me forever because the majority of reading for that book is done while…well, in a place where I only spent a few minutes each time each day and I can be alone).
I’ve already bought it, but this book has been hard for me to find (sure, I could get it on Amazon.com, but there I couldn’t page through it and see if the story that I had already read was contained therein; also, I do try to support my local shops whenever I can). I was just curious if anyone else read these books and what they thought about them. I’ve only caught that some of the creators are European, so the pacing of the stories is a bit different than we’re used to here in the States.
Anything else that you are geeked about this week? If so, just stop by the WLG message boards (see link below) and share your thoughts!
See you next week, and to those of you in the U.S., have a nice Turkey Day!
Until then, peace!
-Diaz
Were Diaz's picks on the mark?
Have your say on What Looks Good at the Looking Good message board.