Comical Frustration

I haven't bought comic books in a while. A long while. There haven't been any storylines or new books that piqued my interest. I've pretty much given up on trying to find books on par with stuff like Watchmen, Sandman, Transmetropolitan or Preacher. Hellblazer's always been reliable but I've been jones-ing for something different before going back to ol' John Constantine so I thought I'd check out some good ol' superhero stuff.

And it sure's been a mixed bag.

As I was browsing through Borders last week I saw there was a new 'Astonishing X-Men'. I'd been loving the series under Joss Whedon, a fresh and enjoyable run after Grant Morrison's 'New X-Men' became more and more of a headfuck (btw, totally looking forward to the Whedon touch on the Avengers movie). And the series was now being written by Warren Ellis.

I'm a huge Ellis fan. 'Transmetropolitan' is one of my favorite comic books and his novel 'Crooked Little Vein' was brilliant. Seeing his name on an X-Men book instantly made me salivate and I bought it straight away, even though I thought the price was a bit high...

...and I wish I could say the book was thoroughly enjoyable, but it's not the case.

Don't get me wrong - the writing is classic Ellis, but the entire story is predicated on the reader knowing about a whole bunch of crap that happened in the Marvel universe somewhere between the last book and this which involved Wanda Maximoff killing all the mutants in the world except for about 198 of them by giving birth to a baby with her brain or something.

The entire story in this book is based on all this stuff that's happened before. There was no such problem with the transition from 'New X-Men' to 'Astonishing X-Men' but in this it's just nuts. The last thing I knew about the Marvel universe was the whole 'Avengers Disassembled' storyline where Wanda went nuts which really just felt like Marvel trying to do something like DC's 'Identity Crisis' and reaching nowhere near the strength of that storyline. As for 'Civil War'? I haven't a frickin' clue. Now Wanda's gone nuts again? And it's affected everyone? And there's no explanation given, just assume the readers know all about the entire Marvel universe and carry on? Rather annoying.

On top of that, whilst the art is beautiful and the paneling creative, it's also real difficult to read and follow, sometimes downright confusing. Quite a disappointment indeed.

Now, remember how I was saying that Grant Morrison's run of 'X-Men' turned into quite a head fuck? I've always found Grant Morrison's writing difficult at times for my tastes. I know people who swear by him, and I can see why, but sometimes his head fucks really fuck up my head.

'Batman R.I.P.' is no exception.

I'd heard that Batman had been killed off and was really curious to read the book on how it happened and I assumed 'Batman R.I.P.' was the one only to discover it's the book that leads up to his death in 'Final Crisis' (which, I guess, since I started with R.I.P. I might as well buy to find out what the hell's happened). I'd read earlier Grant Morrison Batman stories and I thought his style really suited the character.

This book is also written with the assumption that you know what's been going on before and makes a lot of references to it, but it's a lot more acceptable since it's an on-going series and the book's just a compilation of a bunch of issues that make up a story arc. A bit frustrating, but understandable as opposed to X-Men which assumes you've read every other Marvel story arc from every other damn comic.

However, after reading R.I.P., I think my brain's just not tuned for Morrison stuff. I dunno. It was just really hard to get into. Yet another head fuck in which Batman is the one being head fucked. leading to one's own head feeling fucked at the sight of Batman going bat-shit crazy.

Still, would really like to know how Batman buys it in the end.

Out of all the comic books I bought, though, the one that I enjoyed the most was the one I didn't expect to grip me at all - 'Ultimates 3'.

Now, although I have been following the 'Ultimates' series since issue 1 (for those not in the know, 'Ultimates' is basically the Avengers done as if in the real world here and now, starting from scratch), at least 'Ultimates 3' has the courtesy of having a 'previously on Ultimates' type intro on the first page to catch new guys up to speed. Jeph Loeb's writing is fast and fun and in keeping with the 'Ultimates' style of a huge, epic blockbuster movie and Madureira's art is mind-blowing.

However, yet again it's all centered around Wanda Maximoff. What's everyone's beef at Marvel with the Scarlet Witch?!

I'm not sure which books to buy next. I'd really like to get into a brand new series, one that blows my mind and grips me the same way my favorite graphic novels of the past have, but I have no idea what to pick up. If anyone's got any ideas, holla back.