Books: Comics x 6

[woodwardiocom]

Super Zombies

I finally caved and bought Marvel Zombies (by Kirkman, Phillips, Suydam). I was waiting for the trade paperback, but they appear to be content to keep reprinting the hardcover until their decomposing flesh falls from their bones. It's an entertaining and gruesome look at what would happen if a flesh-eating zombie plague got loose in the Marvel Universe. Watching the characters try to grab hold of the last shreds of their humanity, as they hunger and hunger, is gripping. And the writers had fun delving into the, umm, biology of the problem, too. Like I said, gruesome, but recommended.

Super World-Hoppers and Super Kids

I'm still picking up the trades of Exiles (superheroes go bopping from one alternate world to the next, setting things in order, by Winick, Calafiore, Mandrake, Henry, Sakakibara) and PS238 (grade school for kids with superpowers, by Aaron Williams). Both remain highly recommended.

Super Robots

I'm on a bit of a Transformers kick lately ("No, really?" you all say), and I picked up two volumes recently. Transformers: Generations, Volume 1 (by Budiansky, Johnson, et al) is a collection of some of the better issues of the classic 1980s Marvel comic. (Those issues which didn't feature Marvel characters, at least. For a while, the Transformers were actually in the Marvel Universe. E.g., the Dinobots apparently got their altmodes by landing in the Savage Land.) It's alternately overwrought and goofy, but I found it worthwhile for getting in touch with the roots of the property. Transformers: War Within, Volume 1 is a far more recent comic, set on Cybertron before the event of the TV series, starting just before Optimus is selected to be the new Prime, when the war between Autobots and Decepticons was yet young. It is mostly about how one must find the anger within oneself in order to fight, but one must also know how to keep it in check . . . a lesson Prime needs to learn, but Grimlock (co-star of the series) knows too well. Plus, Prime's pre-Earth altmode is treh cool. Recommended.

Super Bisexuals

And I picked up Batman: Harley and Ivy (by Dini, Winick, Timm, Chiodo), about the lovely duo of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, and their adventures together. Tho' set in the world of the animated series, the comic flirts with the edge of stuff not appropriate for weekday-afternoon cartoons, like Quinn and Ivy's relationship, how they get men while imprisoned in Arkham, and Ivy's . . . relationship . . . with plants. Plus, gay lumberjacks. Definitely recommended. (Hey, look, two shower scenes!)

Comments

[inthatoneway.livejournal.com]

So, Marvel Zombies? Great book. But it seemed to start near the end of the tale. Does the back story actually exist out there somewhere, or is it just left to the reader's imagination?

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Apparently the beginning of the story was in Ultimate Fantastic Four, where the FF of the "Ultimate" universe stumbled into the "Zombie" universe, and barely made it out again with their lives. The Zombie FF followed them into the Ultimate universe, becoming that universe's Frightful Four. The Magneto of the Zombie universe destroyed the dimensional gateway the two FF teams used, immediately before Marvel Zombies #1 begins.

So, to get the beginning of the story, one needs to pick up Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 5. (And Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness, apparently.)