Comics!

I've been mulling an entry on comics for awhile now, but I still don't feel like I'm ready to write it. Still, there's been a bit on my mind, so I'm just gonna write about some of my current favorite comics. I've done this once before on The Walking Dead, which is a zombie comic in the tradition of the George Romero tradition (focusing instead on character development instead of satire though. Still, it makes its social commentary and has the theme of any good zombie story where the most dangerous thing to human beings are their fellow human beings.) I was tempted to write about some favorite non-superhero comics, as I have quite a few of those. However, the stuff that I've really been enjoying lately involves superheroes. So, without further ado:

Captain America - This has been a really great read ever since writer Ed Brubaker took over a few years ago. The story is a bit complex to go over without sounding overly complex and geektastic, but it's a good stuff, and I'm sure if the scripts were adapted into a TV show, a lot of people who don't even watch superhero movies would be watching it. It basically involves a plot to destroy capitalism in general and America in particular from the inside, actually tying in some current events like the mortgage crisis (which is just one small step towards a much larger scheme to bring the country down.) Also, there's a new Captain America, as the old one was assassinated (I'm sure they'll bring him back - they gotta!). The new one is his old sidekick, and he has all sorts of issues as he had been brainwashed by the Soviets to be an assassin until the original Cap brought him back to reality.

Daredevil - Also written by Ed Brubaker, this is a series that makes me realize that the comic should have been adapted into an HBO miniseries instead of a movie. Forget about the movie, I know it was lame. Daredevil is a great character though, and the current series really drives home the one thing that the movie got right - it really sucks to be a superhero. Daredevil's life goes from one tragedy to the next, and the last writer left with his identity exposed to the public and Matt Murdock (his secret ID) thrown into jail. From there, the series has had a prison break, DD going to Paris, and DD returning to have his wife go crazy and push a man in front of a moving subway. (Turns out that she had been drugged by Mr. Fear.) Now he's finally put Mr. Fear behind bars, but his life is basically ruined as it's quite likely that his wife will be going to jail.

Green Lantern - I've never been a big fan of the character or concept, but the current writer, Geoff Johns, has managed to take years and years of convoluted continuity and actually create a book that's accessible. This one would sound even geekier if I went into the current plot in too much detail, but to just give a few details, Hal Jordan has recently returned as the Green Lantern of sector 2814 (The Green Lanterns are basically space cops). Previously, he had been possessed by an evil entity known as Parallax, the embodiment of fear, who turned him into a villian, resulting in the near destruction of the entire Green Lantern Corps. So, he's back and on the good side, but his fellow Green Lanterns don't trust him. Meanwhile, Sinestro, a former Green Lantern who deliberately went bad, has created a sort of anti-Green Lantern Corps called the Sinestro Corps. Honestly, this one is probably the geekiest of all of them, and I'm not too sure how much appeal it would have to somebody who doesn't already read superhero comics, but since I am somebody who regularly reads superhero comics, I'm loving it.

So, there's a post about comics. I've posted about beer. Next up, I should actually post about Shakespeare, as the name of my Blogspot Blog is "Comics, Beer, and Shakespeare." The problem is, I come off as a geek when blogging about comics, and I'll probably come off as a pretentious ass if I blog about Shakespeare.

I like them both equally, but in different ways. Certainly the comics provide a little bit more of an instant gratification though.