Variant Covers: Recommendations and Apologies
Yeah, welcome to Variant Covers! I’ve been slacking like a fucking asshole. I have a thick ass stack of stretchy-limbs, sociopaths, mutants and blind dudes with nunchucks to catch up with. Float me this week and I’ll float your boat. Instead of previewing what is coming out this week, I’m going to give you the lowdown on the shit I heartily recommend you check out, if not follow with an insatiable ass-lust.
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Choker:
Choker is the demented love child of Blade Runner and super-vulgarity. It’s super profane, super gritty, superly super. It’s a detective story at the peak of expletive-laden blood-soaked awesomeness.
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Daredevil:
Daredevil. Oh, do I love thee. One man’s internal struggle with his demons made literal, as the bro attempts to control the Hand. This is going to end in tears. Or maybe it already has. Like I’ve said, I haven’t read the latest issue. Inorite? Fuck me.
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Fantastic Four:
Jonathan Hickman is fucking fantastic. Puns ahoy! But seriously. I don’t read enough comic books that can intertwine the intergalactic with the heart. Or really, I don’t read any besides this.
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Joe the Barbarian:
Grant Morrison sheds his mind-warping bananas bullshit for…Alright, he doesn’t actually drop any of that. Rather he fuses it together with a touching story about yet another disaffected youth searching for his place in the world(s). Teenage confusion wrapped in a world of wonderment.
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Invincible Iron Man:
Matt Fraction continues to prove that you can be a billionaire and actually have feelings besides “Must use batarang to batarize people.” One of the things that I’ve felt missing from Wayne lately is that he really doesn’t come off as human anymore to me. Just a dude kicking ass, with occasional forced moments of emoification. Tony Stark may be a brazen dickbag, but he’s also capable of self-doubt, panache, and reflection. I enjoy reading about Tony Stark as much as I do seeing Iron Man level buildings and shit.
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis:
The title is as odd and outlandish as the title. Warren Ellis and Kaare Andrews take you into an X-World that, for better or worse, doesn’t resemble regular continuity. It’s perfect for me, since I find the typical X-Title to be mired in crossover madness and leagues and league of canonical red tape.
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne:
Remember when I shit on Bruce Wayne like two titles back? Yeah, well, I’m loving this mini-series. Why? For all the reasons I was bitter about Wayne in the aforementioned post. Stripped away from modern times and of his Batcave, the human emerges from within. It’s Morrison, so its batshit crazy, alright? Time-warping, universe-death bullshit, which I can’t get enough of. But it’s stapled down by Wayne hunting down the woman Anne Elliot, who he feels responsible for getting murdered.
Secret Avengers:
There’s too many Avengers titles. New Avengers, Avengers, Avengers Prime, Avengers Avengers (Avenging), Avengers Academy. Blah, blah, blah. So I’ll stick to the one that’s penned by Eddie Brubaker. Featuring a covert crew (how many fucking covert crews are there in the world?) led by Steve Rogers, they seem to be up to something interesting. Who knows. Only one issue has dropped. We’ll see.
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Hit me with your comic book recommendations.