Eldest #1

Well, hidey ho fair readers of the greatest Jonah Hex blog ever. This is Eldest and I'm gonna try my hand at this whole comic book blogging thing. I know Sally and Sea discussed the ways to make a comic blog successful, but I unfortunately don't have the resources available at the moment to do it their way, so I'll have to try from scratch.

I finally managed to wrangle some free time away from my job and other random things to get to Barnes and Noble so I could "free-read" some trades I had missed out on.

All-Star Batman
Honestly, I'm not sure I really like Frank Miller all that much. I mean, I enjoyed The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Returns was ok, but Sin City isn't really how I roll and I enjoyed 300 the movie more than the book (awful, I know). All that aside, it was all I could do to not laugh out loud while reading this book. Batman's running train of thought is perfect for his 21st century characterization (Note: I think it's important to clarify the 21st century thing because I'm not sure this is how Bats should actually be written, but it's how he's being written so...).

Overall, a great book. I especially loved the yellow room and how Hal is just a complete and total moron compared to Bats. Almost dying because of an inexperienced Robin: Not cool. Being taunted with lemonade: Freakin hilarious. Take that Guardians of the Universe! My one gripe with the story is how easily Dick becomes Robin. Seriously he doesn't flip out or anything? Disbelief....suspension.....reaching....limit.....

All-Star Superman
There's no way Grant Morrison could have actually written this book, but I'll get to that later. Absolutely loved this story. Characterization was great, Clark acting like a bumbling but lovable idiot (while saving people in the background) was great. As usual I remain in the minority for not liking Quietly's artwork...at all. I mean, it's good, just not my style. Didn't like him back when he was doing New X-Men with Morrison and I still don't like him. Only person I've ever seen who can make Emma and Jean into hideous man-like figures, but whatever. Great story, great dialogue (Random side note: Why is blogger telling me this is spelled wrong? Proof I'm smarter than the interwebs).

Ok, back to why someone else wrote this story. It was entirely too coherent. I actually understood it all in one read. And that had me worried because I have this theory about Grant Morrison. Bear with me because this could be a little hard to follow. There was an episode of Family Guy where Lois finds out that Peter is a prodigy on the piano but only when he's drunk. That's exactly how I think Morrison writes. He has to be sitting at his computer or in his living room getting ready to go on a 48 hour writing binge and just drink everything he can get his hands on and then snort, shoot, or smoke every drug he can find. This is the only explanation for what he comes up with. And that brings us to...

Batman: R.I.P
Weirdest story I've ever read. And this is coming from the guy who's dad has the largest single collection of Weird Western Tales in the world. The entire idea of Bats creating a subconscious identity for himself in case of a post hypnotic attack AND THEN MAKING THAT IDENTITY ANOTHER BATMAN is one of three things:

1. Pure genius

2. Absolutely the most ludicrous thing I've ever read

3. The highest of high comedy

and the best part... I can't decide which it is! Having absolutely no backstory and for some reason expecting this "event" to stand on its own (which it did better than I expected after finishing the first page) I managed to follow the story for the most part. The Joker was amazingly insane, people randomly disappeared with no explanation, in perfect Morrison fashion, only to reappear later, people lived, people "died", and everything was drawn beautifully. Not sure I would recommend this to someone who didn't either follow Batman or enjoy Morrison but then again, I doubt it was written for anyone else. So...

Final Crisis
Followed this from the beginning but I don't really think it should ever be considered as anything BUT a trade because that's just not how Grant Morrison rolls. Seriously, reading his stuff issue to issue is like watching the middle five minutes of LOST every week and that's it. I even went and bought the two Superman Beyond issues so dad would stop whining. Taken as a whole I really think this was about what I expected. After the 2 recent Crises failed miserably to live up to the original (which kicked ass and took names in my humble opinion) and the fact that the Idiot-in-Chief over at DC was prominently involved, I wasn't optimistic. So, read as a whole, I actually enjoyed this, even if it was so far out there I had to trip out on LSD sometimes to feel like I belonged.

So there's your introduction to my ridiculously rambling writing style (and my alliterative ability). Hope it doesn't scare you away. Stay tuned for why Sally's blog may cost you a fortune...and why that's a good thing. Coming soon!

_J