The Spinner Rack

(b) I cannot believe the balls on Brad Meltzer. I didn’t think Identity Crisis was aging well anyway, but that was before I found out how Meltzer took its arguably most interesting story hook from a decades-old analog story and, as far as I can tell, never acknowledged it.  Ethically abhorrent human that I am, I would probably forgive him if he’d taken the idea and moved it forward in some way, but Squadron Supreme has been a *far* more satisfying read on every front so far.  —Jeff

(From Terror on the Planet of the Apes, a collection of the original Ape material from Marvel’s black & white ‘70s magazine.  I had no idea this was coming out until I saw it on Comixology.  So far, I could be a little happier with the reproduction—I guess Ploog was using some very soft pencils during this period, but the contrast this is practically washed out—but having these stories (most of which I didn’t get a chance to read) at my digital beck & call has been one of the highlights of the week.  —Jeff

I’ve got a whole bunch of words about how great Hanselmann is by scraping the last little bit of sentimentality from indie comics, a genre that prides itself on its lack of sentimentality, by taking one of its few sacred genres (underemployed adults doing little) and cutting you with it...but let’s face it, I’m high on painkillers right now—don’t worry, they’re prescribed and being used conscientiously!—so it would all come out like gibberish anyway, which is exactly the kind of thing I’d like to think Hanselmann would find both amusing and apt.  —Jeff

Anyway, now I’ve got a handful of posts backlogged that’ll have to all pop out at once, like clowns from a clown car.  Sorry about that!

This little throwaway joke by Al Ewing and Adam Gorham in Rocket #4, is just superb.  Leave it to Ewing to figure out the absolute and perfect opposite to Deadpool in every way.  —Jeff

Been browsing the Fantagraphics reprint of Basil Wolverton's Spacehawk. It's gorgeous work and idiosyncratic in a way you want your Golden Age work to be. It's Buck Rogers stuff but drawn with Wolverton's appetite for grotesquerie and imbued with early superhero dynamics. Wolverton's Spacehawk is able to do anything he wants, whenever he needs to do it, but even there, Wolverton isn't quite in step—several stories in, Spacehawk's identity is a secret to the reader and hints are ongoing he's no longer human. As you can see from the page above, Wolverton's design sense is a delight, and I love the use of color. They're very light works, but enjoyable. If you have a ComiXology Unlimited subscription, I recommend checking it out. —Jeff

Because I don't like myself very much, I decided to read the first four issues of Civil War II on Marvel Unlimited (issue #0 is on there too but I'd read it already, figured it'd be pretty skippable). Out of all the stuff that annoys me about Brian Bendis' writing these days, having a scientist refer to an algorithm and math as "guesswork" makes me irrationally angry. Any scientist worth their salt understands the best working model concept of knowledge...except for Tony Stark, apparently. And I can't help but worry this kind of laziness on the part of people writing science heroes helps contribute to our current American wave of know-nothingism. I mean, as long as you need to generate a reason for Tony Stark to be on this side of the argument, why not have him say, "look, if I'd known in advance about the attack that was going to almost kill me and make me Iron Man, I would've done everything I could've to avoid it and I never would've become the better person I am"? Arghh. Anyway, it drive me nuts. -Jeff

Happy Batman Day!

The fuck, Zebo?

This caption. Written by robots.

Okay, when Morrison explained these stories as Batman being on drugs, I had no idea how much they really read like,hey, Batman is SERIOUSLY on drugs, you guys.

Again, a perfectly good t-shirt right here, DC. -Jeff

the fuck

It seems to me if you took the Batman of panel two and gave him the dialogue of Batman of panel one, you'd have a hell of a great shirt or something. -Jeff

Reading a Batman comic from 1963 and man, Gotham City was a bitchy, bitchy burg. -Jeff

(By the way, I didn’t make up that “2015B” business, that’s in the Comixology information for the Gwenpool issue, and I guess is what happens when you reboot a book in the same year? It’s bad enough that Marvel’s screwed up sequential numbering, but apparently they’re trying to take out the Gregorian calendar system as well?  Thanks, Marvel!)  —Jeff