Ixnay by Night

I've really liked this series so far, but this was the first issue I loved. Everything worked perfectly for me, even the artwork that I wasn't as keen on in the previous issue.

Any word on a release date for this? I'm looking forward to it!

I'd recommend Spurrier's Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch mini-series as well, it came out about 10 years ago during Jason Aaron's run on the main Ghost Rider series.  

I've not been following any of the Sandman Universe stuff, are they mature readers titles?  Will we be getting a Constantine with the training bra taken off again?  Spurrier is an inspired choice to take on the series, so I'm hopeful.  

I think I read something about Snyder and Capullo doing a Black Label Batman book a few weeks ago, but that might have been some weird kind of fever dream.  They keep releasing trade collections rebranded with Black Label, though, like New Frontier and All-Star Superman.  Why the fuck those two comics, which I would consider all age reads, are now branded with a mature readers imprint label I will never understand.  I think Watchmen trades have Black Label imprint designs as well.

I haven't read a single issue of King's Batman run and had no idea a Constantine appearance was happening until I saw the cover image on Comixology this morning.  I was intensely curious how King would write Our John, and even though I have no god damned idea what the fuck is going on in the story I really enjoyed how Constantine is written.  The character sounds intelligent again for the first time in, what, maybe a decade?  I actually really recommend it, maybe because I'm spoiled for a well-written John (and I always dug how Mikel Janin drew Constantine in JLDark), and now I'm itching to see a Tom King Hellblazer story.

I caught up on the Uncanny X-Men relaunch up through this week's issue # 10, and boy howdy is it a fucking mess.  The Avengers creative teams did a pretty great job with this weekly one-series gimmick during "No Surrender" last year, but the X-Men teams have really struggled to make this anything other than a 3 issue story stretched out waaaaaaay too fucking long.  And at the end of the day, this 10-issue relaunch is nothing but a trailer for another crossover event.  So very disappointing that Marvel just can NOT get the X-Men right, that franchise has been fucked for years now.  

Of all the past Batman creators to get for an anniversary celebration, Kevin Smith would probably be on the bottom of the list.  Who in their right mind would read Cacophany or Widening Gyre and then say "yeah, Kevin Smith GETS Batman"?  To think, there's no Grant Morrison, no Alan Grant, no Chuck Dixon or Doug Moench, but we get Smith.  Seems fair.  

John, are you still watching Legends?  I thought the last two episodes with the mid-season finale were some really solid Constantine centered stories.  The comedy is really working in the series favor, I think, and while I'm iffy on the fact that they doubled down on stuff from the Ming Doyle run I still think Matt Ryan's portrayal of John is aces.  

The artwork is unbelievably good, it's Bermejo at his grittiest best.  I just wish he had a better story to draw.

I remember that, and I think the seriousness of it here is my biggest problem.  It's kind of a natural way to take the character if you're playing it for laughs, like Ennis did, but Azzarello does it with such a straight face that it makes the entire comic look fucking ridiculous.  

Batman: Damned # 2 is out today.  I read it.  I saw the night club scene and the "brilliant re-imagining" of the character that's found there.

Go home, Brian Azzarello, you're drunk and you need to lay down.

Been reading through the Complete Phonogram recently, and it's so so good.  I'd read the original "Rue Britannia" mini way back in the day and really enjoyed it, but never picked up the follow-up series.  "The Singles Club" was fantastic on just about every level, and I'm about halfway through the good-but-not-quite-as-good "Immaterial Girl" mini.  I really, really wish Keiron Gillen had been given a chance on Hellblazer, I think Phonogram proved he'd have produced at the very least a thoroughly interesting run with John.

I tried out that first collection of Wolf and just could not get into it, I gave up about halfway through and moved on to reading something else.  It was the art that really killed it for me, I didn't like it all.  I might have been able to look past it if the story had engaged me more, but again, just couldn't get into it.  Kot may not be to my tastes, but I'd be open to reading something else by him in the future.

Finally caught up on the last few months of Black Hammer material.  It's funny, I was so unimpressed with the first two issues of Quantum Age, since I've never cared a bit about the Legion of Super-Heroes, but those cliffhanger endings for issues 3 and 4 have sucked me right into the story.  Age of Doom, however, totally lost my attention with the 2-part Colonel Weird story.  Even though it had some cute ideas (Inspector Insector!), the art work and "creator" nonsense killed it for me.  Looking forward to Cthu-Louise, though!

Chantinelle mentions at the end of Rake at the Gates of Hell that, due to the First of the Fallen being taken out of the equation, all of the rules of Hell were being rewritten, which is how she's able to cure John's lung cancer that the FotF had given back to him.  I always just assumed that's how she was able to return to Hell, but it was never explicitly stated.

Speaking of the Carey run, didn't I read somewhere that he wanted to use Zed during "Staring at the Wall" but got denied by editorial?  Is the Alba character who Carey slotted in to take Zed's place?  Wonder why Zed got denied?

I'm really enjoying Legends this season, the last episode retained the goofy charm while still giving some really great Constantine material for Matt Ryan to work with.  The stuff in the pub about John and his mum was pretty great.  

I took that Midnighter/Apollo tease to be just that, a tease.  Everyone's expecting them to show up eventually, but since this is the only walk-on appearance they've made I don't think we're going to see them again.  Granted, they've not been seen in the DCU since around the time Rebirth happened, so who knows.  I also haven't read the newest issue of The Wild Storm yet, so they could be on every god damned page and I just don't know it yet, lol.  

For anyone interested in checking out the 30th anniversary Hardcover for free, before its even released in stores I believe, it's up on Hoopla now.  I downloaded it but haven't read through it yet.

Yeah, I was down for everything in that synopsis as well until it got to the "monster hunter" bit.  Might still check it out, I dig Sandford Greene's artwork.

I liked it quite a bit, too.  Legends of Tomorrow is inherently goofy as all fuck and I"m surprised by how good a fit Matt Ryan's John seems to be in the ensemble.  I find myself still not caring one bit about the other characters in the main cast, I'm strictly there for Constantine, but I was pleasantly surprised and entertained by it.  I saw some complaints elsewhere about John's glowing eyes and magical rune casting, but fuck it he's in a superhero show now so I can forgive it.  

Wasn't there a scene in Diggle's run early on, where he's with a woman in Ravenscar after it was turned into a hotel/casino?  

I downloaded the first volume of Wolf on Hoopla after the recommendation, I don't believe I've read anything by Kot before.  

On 10/3/2018 at 6:56 PM, Christian said:

I wonder what is going on at Marvel behind the scenes right now.

That Typhoid Mary one-shot came out this week. It was scheduled to be written by Max Bemis, but at the last minute, Marvel changed the writer to Clay Chapman (whoever he is? A playwright I guess, looking online).

Also, I paged through the issue, and since when is Typhoid Mary a former soap opera actress? Her back-story was that she was sexually abused as a child and became a prostitute in order to lure men to her to get revenge for what was done to her as a child. She was never a soap opera actress.

Plus, since Anne Nocenti is back writing comics at the moment, it would have been nice to get Nocenti to write the Typhoid Mary comic. Maybe Nocenti wasn't interested, of course. I definitely would have bought that book.

Next, I read that the Chelsea Cain Vision mini-series (featuring Viv Vision, the daughter of the Vision from the Tom King series) was canceled out of nowhere. Cain said it wasn't due to any delays, as she and the artist were both completely on schedule. Marvel just dropped the book suddenly. I wonder why?

I'm not that concerned about either comic (didn't plan to buy either), but it makes me wonder what is happening at Marvel now.

Brian Bendis made Typhoid Mary a soap opera actress during his run on Daredevil, it's where she was when the Kingpin "reactivated" her Typhoid personality.  Why he went with "soap actress" as a natural professional progression for Mary, who was so shy and passive it bordered on catatonia, I have no idea.