SSSSSTINK BOSS: WE3

I love WE3. If anyone ever said that they didnt like this comic I would take it personally. In just three short issues it does so many things right and almost nothing wrong. The whole style of it is beautiful and is something that comic writers should aspire to achieve. I've rarely seen framing laid out so well and explain so much. The story is heartbreaking but still makes you feel good in the very end. It deals its complex subject matter in as little words as possible and still manages to drive it home. There are too many good parts to count but here are a few that really stuck with me:

1. The Cat aka 2

From an evolutionary standpoint cats are pretty much the perfect creature. With ridiculously amazing senses and physical ability they are perhaps the only animal that nature got right on the first try. Birds used to be dinosaurs, dogs used to be bears, man used to be apes, but cats have always been cats. Now to take an animal that is already damn near perfect and outfit it with a supersuit that would give iron man a run for

 his money is perhaps the coolest thing i've ever heard. 2 is awesome because of what he can do to a helicopter pilots eyes from the trees hundreds of feet below. He also appears to be the smartest and most tactical out of the three.

2. Animal Behavior

People always wonder what animals are thinking, or what animals would say if they could talk. I think this is handled particularly well. The dog is a do-gooder always asking for his master for approval. The cat puts on the facade of an asshole but you can tell that she cares. The rabbit is always trying have sex with everything. Dead-On!

3. The Framing 

I mentioned this before. In many instances death is portrayed in a single moment. This is not the case in WE3. Take for instance the scene where the three are terrorizing the small army sent to destroy them, when the dog aka 1 goes head to head with the humvee. Almost 30 frames are used to just detail the gruesome way in which he dispatches the passengers. The action probably lasted a second or so but we get to see pretty much everything that goes on in that instant from the terrified look in the drivers eyes to the broken glasses that got blasted out of the vehicle.

4. Explosive Poop

A rabbit with the ability to poop bombs?!? UH-OH!

The Watchmen: Protecting Mankind...FROM ITSELF!!!

Watchmen goes right up there with Akira and Batman: Long Halloween as one of the most satisfying graphic novels that I have read. I say satisfying rather than greatest(even though it is definitely one of the best things I've read) because I genuinely feel that the story was executed perfectly. There are a few reasons why. First of all, the art of the book was excellent with a great attention to detail. My favorite recurring detail would have to be Rorschach's  mask. I can only imagine how long it took for them to decide which blot goes where.The characters and the sequencing of their respective stories in and out of each other was also pretty brilliant. Some of the characters who the audience is led to hate in the beginning, like Comedian, wind up being somewhat redeemed in the end, while others wind up almost betraying the reader. I think that the extra texts at the end of each chapter really helped flesh out their  backstories, but even without them it would still be very good. The whole idea of Caped-Avengers vs. Superheroes was really interesting and I like how they brought that conflict sort of full circle with Veidt besting Dr. Manhattan. 

Speaking of which, Adrien Veidt aka Ozymandias might just be one of the biggest baddasses in any genre ever. I always love it when the bad guy wins but in this case he isnt necessarily the bad guy. Sure he committed mass genocide but he accomplished world peace in doing so. I guess you can even say that because of Rorschach's journal at the end that maybe Adrien doesn't win. In fact one can even argue that Rorschach with his inability to compromise is the books biggest antagonist. Regardless of whether or not you agree that Adrien is in fact the villain, you cannot tell me that when he finally realizes his achievement that you do not feel happy for him. When the tears begin to well up in his eyes and he proclaims, "I DID IT!", it made me revaluate my whole perspective on what it means to be a hero. In the Dark Knight, Michael Caine talks about how sometimes a Hero has to be more to the people tha just someone who rounds up badguys and rescues kittens from trees. This applies to Veidt because he realized what was at stake here. He knew what he needed to be for the people. For a couple million he was the final judgement, but for billions of others he was the last savior. He was the one that had to bare the burden. The other Watchmen were just going along for the ride and at times made things even worse

Comic Con 2009

The 2009 New York Comic Con was pretty hectic on its opening day. Even though I have never been to any sort of convention besides the auto show, I cannot say that I was too awe inspired. In fact I would say that it was pretty much what i expected it to be. Not to say that it was a let down. In all honesty I did not attend any seminars or sneak peeks or anything like that.We tried to get into the Furturama movie but it looked too crowded I pretty much stuck to the main floor. We started out in the ATM line right outside of the entrance which was perhaps longer than any other line. While waiting to get some money I saw several scantly clad women in Princess Leia and Supergirl Costumes. When I finally entered the main room it was kind of like sensory overload. Everywhere you looked someone was geeking out to the max. I noticed a whole bunch of video games that hadnt come out yet that i would have liked to play. However I didnt really want to wait in anymore lines, plus I figured I would get my chance. I think I was there maybe 10 minutes before I bought my first item, "Mavel's: A Celeration of Dinosaurs". I figured Id get a sense of the whole place so I hit up all the spots. I waled through the artist alley and got to see what its like to be a struggling artist in a sea of other struggling artists(cant wait until that is me). Over in the video game section we were confronted by this woman who in a crowd of Chewbaccas and Captain Americas seemed out of place. She tried pimping this rotating video game seat to us and was all in all very creepy about it. The one cool game that i saw and actually tried to play was this game called "Deadly Creatures" where you play as a tarantula in the desert, biting peoples feet and eatin' rats. It was pretty cool to walk around and see so many familiar comic books from my child hood. I purchased several Spiderman and X-men issues based on the covers alone. Half way through though I realized what I really should be setting my sights on, Akira in Color. I didnt even know if they existed in English but my friend told me that he once read a colored version of Akira in French so i had to see.The rest of my time there was spent going from booth to booth seeing if any of them had any old issues from the 80s when Akira made its first North American run. After the first several failed attempts at finding it, I finally came across a booth that had many issues, including the very first one, AT HALF PRICE! I proceeded to buy all that I could, but still would up coming short of the complete set. It was still pretty awesome though. After my purchase I finally felt that i should leave, knowing that if i stayed there any longer i would have to make another trip to the ATM. I took one more victory lap then bounced. I really had an interesting time there to say the least.

The Spirit

The origin story of The Spirit is comparable to those of many other heroes and villains over the years. It seems like something straight out of batman what with the vat of acid changing him into something more than human. I feel like comics these days require more explanation whereas back then the very fact that it was a lot of acid will do just fine. I personally like this approach better because i do not like pretending like a know a lot about science. I mean I know that his face should have been burned off but I do not really care. The Spirit is pretty cool and Im glad we've read some of it because after the movie I was completely prepared to write it off.

The grimy story  of "Lorelei Rox" is like something out of gotham or Sin City, or some sort of film noir. There are serveral other influences out side the realm of comics that helps push the story. Lorelei is an obvious take on the three deadly sirens from the odyssey. The visual style is very dark and sinister almost as to instill a sense of fear into the reader. However it still manages to maintain a level of goofeyness that you only see in the funny-pages of newspapers. Everything from the characters facial expressions to how they pronounce words seems to lighten up an otherwise pretty grim story. I wasnt scared reading it but you get the sense that most of the characters are always on edge, Dolan specifically. Even the spirit at times seems kinda scared, or maybe hes just always mystified with what is going on. As for what I thought about it, I'm not really picky about comics, especially ones that are decades old. It doesnt really make sense for me to pick it apart in terms of what it did right and what it did wrong. I probably wouldn't normally read the Spirit on a regular basis but it definately gives me gold insight into the golden age of comics.