5 Things to Like About Strange Science Fantasy

Welcome to my first blog crossover! There's a cool, supportive community of comic book blogs out there and while I've always been happy to participate, I just haven't managed to because of that wretched "only 24 hours in the day" thing. The idea: Many of these blogs focus on a single comic book hero/series, so we thought it might be fun to off-road it for once and shill for a completely different series WE think YOU should also be reading. Now, me, I discuss a lot of different comics, admittedly mostly vintage stuff, but I suppose Star Trek comics have been a daily thing here for a while now. I am thus NOT going to be talking about IDW's Star Trek comics in this article. No, instead I'm going for a completely different IDW comic, one that doesn't even rely on licensed material (which represents most of their output).

I'm telling you that you should read Scott Morse's Strange Science Fantasy too! For at least 5 reasons...

1. Each issue is a big, groovy beat poem
There's nothing like it on the stands. It feels like Morse is doing the comic book version of a jazz set. When his surreal story is about to end, he just takes off in a different, but completely valid, direction. Only in Strange Science Fantasy would a postapocalyptic drag race turn into a war tale where tanks shoot at elephants, only to later instill you with hope for the future via a lighthouse metaphor.

2. Completely new, but retro
Though Morse is using prose over and under his images instead of more standard panel configurations, he nonetheless demonstrates a very real understanding of what makes comics awesome. SSF sits halfway between those strange short stories from the 1950s and Kirby's cosmic god oeuvre. There's something naive about these tales where anything can happen and "logic" is something that's only ever internal.

3. Those weird and wonderful characters
Headlight. The Shogunaut. Script Girl. The Projectionist. They're not only bizarre in a Doom Patrol kind of way, you also feel for them. There's something about Morse's expressive art that makes you care even though you're only with them for an issue's length (albeit one with at least 28 pages). I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

4. Art, uninterrupted
No speech bubbles. No multi-colored, icon-happy captions. No meanwhiles and laters. I've never been so happy to read narration because it doesn't cover Morse's really cool artwork.

5. A Paul Pope page in every issue
Paul Pope does an evocative piece inspired by the characters from the story at the end of every issue. Just makes me want to read more about them, and a beautiful piece of eye candy besides. When you think this comic can't groove any more, Pope proves you wrong with his bittersweet farewell.

So there you have it. If you like awesome comics like I do, and crave what I call a "pure comics experience", give Strange Science Fantasy a whirl. Issue 3 is out right now with more to come.

Interested in reading more? Good! Check out the lesser-known titles reviewed in these other blogs and "Read These Too!":
- Adam Strange at It's A Dan's World
- American Vampire at My Greatest Adventure
- Astro City at Speed Force
- Booster Gold at Red Tornado's Path
- Essential Man-Thing at Firestorm Fan
- Forgetless at Girls Gone Geek
- Franklin Richards digests at Once Upon a Geek
- Glamourpuss at Being Carter Hall
- Peter David's Hulk at Fortress of Baileytude
- Jonah Hex at Boosterrific
- Scott Pilgrim at Toyriffic
- Son of Tomahawk at Aquaman Shrine
- Spelljammer at HeroPress
- Spire Christian Comics at Mail It To Team-Up
- R.E.B.E.L.S. at Indigo Tribe
- Thor the Mighty Avenger at Aquaman Shrine
- The Unwritten at K-Squared Ramblings
- Welcome to Tranquility at Girls Gone Geek
- Zatanna at Red Tornado's Path

Plus, click on the 5 Things to Like tag below for more recommendations from yours truly!

5 Things to Like About the Losers Omnibus

The Inglorious Losers! Captain Storm, Johnny Cloud, Gunner & Sarge... They each starred in their own strips, but were eventually thrown into some kind of special forces unit lent out to whatever service needed them. And from Our Fighting Forces #151, they were an assignment handed out to the King of Comics, Jack Kirby. I recently got my hands on the Omnibus, and only halfway through, I'm already ready to tell you about 5 things I like about it. And here I thought it was one of his "lesser strips" because it wasn't quite so hyperheroic...

1. Captain Storm takes grenades like a manAnd this happens often! You can see how Storm lost both a leg and an eye. Dude's a sucker for punishment. And he always walks away... or at least gets carried away.

2. Kirby will be Kirby
It doesn't seem to matter what kind of comic it is, Kirby remains true to himself. Nazi-occupied France might as well be the fire pits of Apokalips. I bet his romance comics had trademark "Kirby energy dots".

3. Anything goes
The Losers is principally a war comic, and a pretty intense one at that, but in keeping with Kirby's Comics Gospel (of which I have spoken at length before), he manages to squeeze in giant guns, ghosts, the goddess Kali and battles won through science fiction. Anything can happen in a Kirby story, because it's made of pure comics.

4. Tie: Plenty of exploding Nazis / The sound effects
You can never have too many exploding Nazis. And if they go TZUM, all the better.

5. The occasional Joe Kubert cover
As much as I love Kirby, I've got an even bigger man-crush on Joe Kubert. And Joe was never better than in his war comics. Kubert+Kirby in the same comics? You're at least holding a pair of Kings.

Here's to some of the original basterds! Now back to reading!

5 things to like about REBELS

I haven't heard a lot of buzz about R.E.B.E.L.S., which I attribute to Tony Bedard's lukewarm reputation to date, but I've been enjoying the heck out of this series, even if it isn't called L.E.G.I.O.N. It hasn't quite reached the delightful heights of the old Giffen series, and I could do with 100% less Omega Men, but it's still quite entertaining. Here are 5 reasons why I think so.

1. Same old Vril Dox"Brainiac 2" hasn't changed a bit. Still the callous, manipulative, amoral center of the series. There's really no character like him, even when they started making Brainiac 5 a bit of a dick. He's in the service of "good", but doesn't care who he hurts in the process. He's the ultimate "Big Picture" hero. If he gets his way, the book'll be retitled LEGION in no time.

2. The only Legion book
Until Adventure Comics resurrects the 30th century, this is it. If DC is all about Legacy heroes, LEGION is the Reverse Legacy. In addition to Dox, we've had "ancestors" of Tyr, Validus, Dawstar & Wildfire (amalgamated!) and with the return of Strata, Blok. More to come, I'm sure. Heck, the book even has Encyclopedia Galactica entries.

3. Interdimensional Starro Fleet
Who's the Big Bad that's taken over LEGION? Why a black Starro from another dimension whose spawn act like backpacks instead of ubiquitous face huggers. I'm stoked!

4. Psions with monocles
This one is its own comment.

5. Dominators!
Yes! It's the masterminds behind the well-remembered Invasion! who succeeded 1000 years later in the unfairly forgotten Legion 2996 (not participants in Final Crisis: The One with the LSH, for example). I haven't seen them around in a while. Time to bump them up to the major leagues again.

Issue #4 only just came out. It's not too late to check it out.

5 Things to Like About the Trinity's Alternate Reality

I think I might have mentioned before that I was a fan of the under-appreciated weekly Trinity comic. In fact, I consider it more Crisis-y than Final Crisis. For the past few weeks, the trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman haven't even been in it. We've been visiting a rather well-designed "what if" style parallel world where they never existed. Here, the mystery men of yore never went into hiding, but rather revealed their identities to the government and became organized as a slightly fascist force for law (if not justice). In essence, it became the post-Civil War Marvel Universe ;-).

Firestorm is the only hero who remembers and he flies around the place trying to jog other people's memories. In other words, this Earth's days are numbered. Still, it's really nice to spend this much time in an "Elseworld" and allow it to develop. Here are some of my favorite bits:

1. John Stewart's kidsHal and Guy? That's HIGHlarious! Like many other heroes, John never became a superhero in the alternate universe, tough as Firestorm's prime recruit, he's going to have to make a terrible choice: His family or putting the universe to rights.

2. Ragman and Raggedy Andy (not his real codename)
Though the alt-universe originally had Green Arrow as Gotham's rogue hero (the similarites with Batman were hardwired into the character's very design), as reality keeps shifting, Ragman takes on the role. I have great affecting for the Patch Symbol.

3. The Justice Society's HQ
In a world where superheroes and their high tech were nationalized, the JSA has this crazy addition to the U.N. building. In plain sight and sporting a futuristic architecture.

4. Tomorrow Woman
If Ragman took the place of Batman, it's Tomorrow Woman who's in Superman's boots. The universe is really trying to plug the holes in reality, giving her a secret identity that works in the media and keeps scooping Lois Lane. Is she one of T.O. Morrow's androids in this universe too? I'd rather have her over Red Tornado any day.

5. The Justice League Underground
Any Justice League roster that includes Black Orchid, Space Ranger and, yes, Vibe, is all right with me. And with the Absorbascon, I wager.

5 Things to Like About the All-Star Bizarro World

In Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman, Bizarro World made a comeback as a cubeworld coming out of the underverse to terrorize humanity. We're told to "think of it as a super-dense basement level to the universe". Those issues are widely regarded as the low point of the series (a low that is still higher than most series' high point), probably because there's entirely too much Bizarro-speak. I know it's puts ME off. However, there's some very good stuff in there too (not least of which is Frank Quitely's art, which I haven't specifically included in the following list because it really goes without saying, except I did say it just now).

1. Bizarros that make themselvesNo longer waiting for Luthor's beam to hit, Bizarros can now grab hold of your essence directly. It gives Bizarros a reason to invade, unless they want to be putty all their lives. And while they invade, they might as well start Bizarring our planet:
Side-note: Now THAT's a Bizarro Christmas.

2. Flame breath
Bizarro-Superman doesn't have freeze breath, but its opposite! Great visual. I suppose he also has freeze vision.

3. Bizarro origin of Superman
Superman is stuck on Bizarro World, his strength being sapped by the red sun, and the only way to get home is trust Bizarro Jor-El to make a spacecraft out of garbage to send him back to Earth. It's a great twist on the well-known story. And it all comes down to a failing match...

4. The Unjustice League
Hilarious! I love the chains all over the Flash's costume! I miss Yellow Lantern, I do, but a GL who can't think of any shapes to create is actually one rung below the JLU's John Stewart and only two below Hal Jordan's giant nail clippers and stuff.
Batman shot by his parents would have been too grisly for the Silver Age, but a great gag here. And Wonder Woman's reverse origin makes her the best Bizarro hero since Clayface II was held up by a fork.

5. Zibarro
Or Bizarro-Bizarro. The thoughtful, sensitive reverse of Bizarro isn't just another Superman, and serves two purposes: 1) gives Superman someone to talk to that DOESN'T do the Bizarro-speak thing, and 2) fully expresses the tragedy and existential horror that this Silver Age concept now entails in a postmodern age.

Even with the All-Star Bizarro World, a little goes a long way, but I'm glad we could stop by.

5 Things to Like About True Believers #1

Another Marvel mini-series with the word "true" in the title that surprised me last week is True Believers #1, Cary Bates' triumphant return to comics after working a while in animation. Stuff I liked about it:

1. The title

As perfectly titled as Marvel Zombies. When do we get a series called "Excelsior!"?

2. The first true heroes of the Internet Age
It took an old school writer with an obvious love of new school technology to create a team of heroes who work with Internet technology. I'm not sure what "weaponized Wi-Fi" is supposed to be, but it sounds real cool. Taking down "the Man" with streaming video, hacking tv signals, you-tubing the truth that is out there... all in a day's work for the True Believers. In that sense, it makes me think of Damage Control. The same kind of subversive satire, looking at the underbelly of the Marvel Universe, though less overtly humorous. Like the blogosphere, it's snarky and irreverent.

3. Information as a weapon
The True Believers don't just blow the whistle on crimes committed by society's "untouchables", they use disinformation against authorities. In the spoilery twist shown above, the SHIELD agent who gives a briefing to Tony Stark about the True Believers is revealed to be Payback herself, essentially presenting the team to us readers, but laying in some nuggets of disinformation to screw with SHIELD. Brilliant. Remember kids: Payback is a bitch.

4. Fat Iron Fist
Just your run-of-the-mill evil old white men running underground gladiator fights between hopped up mutated prostitutes, but still funny to see them running from the law in their disguises.

5. Their next target
I don't know what skeleton they dug up in the Baxter Building closet, but it's a promising cliffhanger. If the series is consistently used to send up heroes and their actions through the information age, it's gonna be a fun 5 issues.

5 Things to Like About Fantastic Four: True Story #1

Paul Cornell does it again. I was always a fan of his Doctor Who work, both in print and on the screen, and then he made me a believer in his comics work as well with his Captain Britain work. And now, with Fantastic Four: True Story, despite the fact that I currently have no interest in the monthly FF series. Five reasons why:

1. It's about literatureIf you love Fables (and you should), you should really be up for a story that uses the great works of fiction as its canvas. Something is threatening to destroy great literature and the FF have to go into the Domain of Human Story created by our collective unconscious. With Dante as their guide. And the first stop is clobberin' time in Sense and Sensibility. Just check out that nice Meanwhile caption.

2. Sue is the key
I don't know what it is about me, but I like it when the runt of the litter makes good. I like it when Bouncing Boy wins the day, when it's all down to Kitty Pryde, when Vancouver makes it to the Stanley Cup. And Sue Richards is that character in the FF, even after they gave her the force fields, even after they stopped calling her a Girl. In a team with a genius, a strongman and a human furnace, it's hard for an invisible woman to shine, but here she does. She's the reader of the lot. She's the one with a spiritual life and an aesthetic sensibility. So she's the one to crack this case wide open.

3. Reality check!
Cornell knows he's using fictional characters to explore a fictional space, so following in the footsteps of Animal Man and the bulldozer trails of Ambush Bug, the FF are treated as fictional in the story itself (they're in denial though). For example, they're suddenly aware of comic book transitions and can read word balloons, and Cornell uses the comic to play with FF clichés in a meta-fictional way.

4. Reed as the Doctor
This is one the most perfect Reed Richards panel ever. On paper, Reed IS quite a bit Doctorish, isn't he? So I don't mind the characterization at all. Not if he thinks nothing of creating new fields of human endeavor like it ain't no thing.

5. The comedy
Cornell has a lot of fun with FF history and long-standing clichés, using humor to either lovingly highlight it or lovingly lampoon it. There's practically at least one joke that'll make you smile on each page. Willie Lumpkin keeping his Silver Age running gag going, the usual bickering between the Torch and the Thing taken to the meta-textual level, great lines like "Johnny, just for once, could your brain participate in the life of your mouth?"... The FF have never worked so well as a comedy. It's not all highbrow postmodernism either: A giant monster gets hit in the junk.

5 Things to Like About Ambush Bug Year None #1

A week late? Yeah, well, you can't always get your comics on the appointed date, even an important issue like this one, which is part and parcel of why I don't do a lot of "current" material. Still, Year None demands commentary.

1. Ambush Bug is back, and so is everyone else!Though it's never expressly mentioned, it looks like Ambush Bug left the doors of Comic Book Limbo open when he left it. There are TONS of cameos from DC's most obscure stars, some of which have appeared in Ambush Bug before (Egg Fu, Green Team, Sugar and Spike, Glop), many of which haven't (the original Batgirl, 'mazing Man, Atlas, Yankee Poodle). In fact, there are a number of them I can't identify at all! I mean, Cap's Hobby Hints? Where was Scribbly, for God's sake? Giffen even makes a point of having some of the Vertigo prisoners appear. Take THAT, Vertigo!

2. Argh!Yle
Of all the returning characters, the most exciting has to be the Soleless Sock of Evil. Last seen being blown up aboard his orbital Bureau by the Interferer, he was apparently saved by a Superboy punch, because he's back and manipulating 60s Titans style villain Go-Go Chex (easy when the Chex thinks you're "Wonder Chick"). Truly, he is Ambush Bug's greatest arch-enemy.

3. It takes no prisoners.
Truth be told, I was struck at how dark the humor was in Year None. It is, after all, a story about DC's female characters getting killed off violently. Women are found in refrigerators (of course), near the Fortress of Solitude, floating in pools, in orbit, even falling from the sky. Maybe they're just the bastard daughters of the Phantom Stranger, but we care about some of them, like Jonni DC (there goes the continuity cop). The old series seemed a lot lighter, but Ambush Bug is perhaps as subversive as it's always been. Maybe it's just subverting a different reality. Back in the early 80s, subverting DC Comics basically meant laughing at kryptonite's Silver Age prevalence. This first new issue tells us that nothing is sacred and that, by golly, there are places other than blogs where we can vent about Spoiler's pointless death and the ugly new DC bullet.

4. My favorite joke:
The perfect ending for Argh!Yle yet again recounting his origin story. At this point, it's the opposite of a Secret Origin.

5. How the little things have changed.
Obviously I remember when characters made broad use of thought bubbles. I also remember the "innovation" of using first person narration in caption boxes. What's more fuzzy is when captions became so prevalent as to totally displace thought bubbles (despite speech bubbles getting all sorts of bells and whistles to denote tone, accent and sound processing).

There's more, but you'll have to buy your own issue. Next month: Ambush Bug takes a bullet for Blue Beetle. Can one bug save another?

5 Things to Like About Trinity #6

Seems like readers (or at least, bloggers) are a little ambivalent about DC's new weekly series. They like it, but they don't like it that much. They praise the creative team, but they're not sure the story's worth the weekly treatment. They're interested in the stars, but don't care about the guest-stars. It's better than Countdown, but not as engrossing as 52. And so on.

I, for one, love this little series to bits. Here are 5 things to like about the latest issue:

1. It reads like the AbsorbasconThe series plays with the three strong archetypes it's been given to explore just why Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have endured for so long. And this issue's main story is basically one big essay on the subject, placing the heroes in various trinity structures (Sun-Moon-Earth, or through various Tarot Arcana), but mostly as functions of the phrase "Truth, Justice and the American Way". It used to only describe Superman, but since he is the conceptual father of them all, that line may as well describe all superheroes in some way. Here, Busiek incorporates the three ideas in each hero, but they each have a different dominant one.

2. Trinity knows its Tarot
For anyone who knows his or her Tarot, and I must count myself among them (an interest since I was, like, 12), it is very rare to see a done depiction of a Tarot reading in media. Trinity consistently gets it right. Busiek's done his research, or at the very least, has read Rachel Pollack's excellent Vertigo Tarot. No cheap symbolism here.

3. Busiek's read his comics
In an age when continuity snafus are the norm rather than the exception, it's nice to see someone not only use concepts from the whole history of the DC Universe, but also know the details associated with them. Some readers are lukewarm about Gangbuster, a character that appeared in a sizable portion of the Superman books in the late 80s (mostly in Jerry Ordway's Adventures of Superman). Not only am I happy to see José Delgado again, but it was great to see that he was still tight with Lois Lane.

4. The pecking order
To me, referring to Killer Moth as one of Batman's punching bags, is HIGH-larious. They're not all worth the attentions of the Trinity are they? The real blast from the past in this issue, of course, is Nocturna, one of those bad girls Batman sorta went out with, whom I've never see outside of her Who's Who appearance, I don't think.

5. Badassery
Wonder Woman's just talking in this issue, but she's the resident badass*, trust me. And I love any comic that has Wonder Woman as the badass. Badassery in #6 is instead handled by Hawkman, who here reacts to Gangbuster point to a good running away. That's pretty cold.

And I love Mark Bagley's strong superhero art. And I love how all the titles are pulled from dialogue, often with hilarious results. And I love that I don't have to wait a month for each installment. But that would be 8 Things to Like about Trinity...

*I really need to find out why my spellchecker doesn't recognize the word "badass".

5 Things to Like About OMAC

If you haven't gotten a copy of the OMAC: One Man Army Corps Omnibus, you really, really should. Its only real flaw is that it got interrupted mid-swing. Here are some (only some!) of my favorite moments in the book:

1. My body is rejecting the bullets!Yes, there's a medical reason why OMAC is bulletproof. Puts all other justifications for super-powers, EVER, to shame.

2. Nomenclature with OMAC
Animal? Vegetable? Mineral? All three?!? Here again, Kirby deals in pure comics. Screw realism. There can't possibly be a scientific explanation for visuals like this. And later, the monster "fission[s] like a hydrogen bomb!!!" so yeah, we're far off the Safari Cards.

3. The bad guys are ruthless
OMAC survives THIS, among other dangers! The first rule of OMAC: Everything! Must! Be! Extreme!!!

4. Super-Court!
Criminals in "the World That's Coming" don't just go to court, they go to Super-Court, at the very summit of Mount Everest. Everything! Must! Be! Extreme!!!

5. One army. One punch.
It only takes one.