Comics

Animal Man
#4 by Jeff Lemire & Travel Foreman
#5 by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman & Steve Pugh

Dark as sin, with some of the most (deliberately) disgusting art I've ever seen, but brilliant stuff. Really can't believe it's only rated Teen+ though -- surely this is much tougher stuff than that implies?

Anyway, they're off to meet Swamp Thing next... or not. Quick Google search revealed that their much-discussed crossover is coming in the 12th issues, this summer. And there's also an annual about it. Christ, it does feel like you need to read the news to keep up with these things! It'd be nice if it was clear in advance in the comic itself how much crossover there'll be with Swamp Thing, because not every reader will read both (I'm not) and not everyone will have as much forethought as me to Google it.

That said, based on some of the stuff in this interview with Swamp Thing writer Scott Snyder, maybe I should double back and catch up... even though he specifically says, "We don't want you to feel like you have to read both books, at all. It's not that kind of thing."


Detective Comics #6 by Tony Salvador Daniel

That was a lot better -- a decent story, for one thing, even if the Penguin has nothing to do other than call other supervillains by their name so we know who they are; and if at times it felt like it was calling back to past stories/characters that it assumes the reader will know. That's the annoying thing about comics, and something I've always thought newcomers must have when watching something like Doctor Who: when there's a reference to a previous adventure, or the reveal of a villain, there's an element of "am I meant to know what that means?" And sometimes yes, they expect you to; and other times no, it's new to all viewers. Who is almost always the latter -- very little essential is based on fannish knowledge, and certainly not if it's something from the classic series. With comics... you never can be sure.

Most blatant was a reference to the current story in I, Vampire, which guest stars Batman. I'd been thinking about reading it anyway -- it's got Batman; I've thought I, Vampire sounds interesting -- but when it goes being so obviously called up... But there's no need to read it; it's not essential to this story. Which makes it the most pointless kind of reference, in a way; it plays like an uncomfortably obvious advert for another comic, because they've shoehorned it in for the sake of shoehorning it in. Oh well.