The Bill January 20, 2010

Stupid holidays and their stupid maybe late delivery. Twice in three weeks I was caught off guard by books actually shipping when they should. When did this all happen? WHO'S RESPONSIBLE THIS!?

ugh. Whatever. I got comics and I want to tell you what I think of them. Just try and stop me.



How An Avengers Spinoff Should Read:


Avengers Academy # 8
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Mike McKone


Man, there's nothing I don't like about this book. It's got a fantastic cast, a clear vision for itself, a totally awesome artist, and, best of all, it feels like a book that actually counts. Unlike, say, Young Allies which I loved, but totally felt like it didn't 'matter'.

In this issue, our merry gang of students show that they're a little more villainous than heroic when dealing with the tough problems. It was actually a pretty great done in one tale about what it takes to be a hero. Sure, it seems like a good idea to deal out as much hurt as was inflicted on you (or more!) instead of turning the other cheek, but the consequences could be even worse.

It's great, and you should totally be reading it. If not, it'll become another one of my beloved but cut short series and that would just make me sad. You don't want me to be sad, again, do you?

Totally worth it, I promise!



How Not To Do An Avenger Spinoff:

Avengers vs. The Pet Avengers # 4
Writer: Chris Eliopoulos
Artist: Ig Guara


If you're any kind of reader of this blog, you know that I have a crazy soft spot for Throg. That first miniseries with these guys was fantastic! Everything I want in a quality book. I was an instant fan.

Since then there has been a significant, and consistent, decline in quality. And for me, this book will be my last with the Pet Avengers.

You'd think that with dragons, Throg awesomeness (which I stopped featuring because it wasn't all that great), and a big Avenger showdown, this series would be totally awesome, but somehow it just lacked... anything that would make me care.

Not that Eliopoulos doesn't try. Like the previous series, this one was all about finding one's place in the world, just instead of featuring Throg and mythical beasts it featured Lockheed and space dragons. The result was the same: Home is with the people that love you, regardless of their blood relation.

The other difference was the previous series had more going on than this one. This was a story that could have been told in one or two issues that was stretched into four and it shows. It's slow, thin, and just generally unsatisfying. Kind of like the previous series.

So, I'm cutting myself off. Not that it'll make that big of a difference, because I haven't seen anything about another one of these series in a while. Something tells me that Marvel was just as tired of these stories as I was.

That said, I will still totally pick up a Throg series if it ever happens. All five issues of the ongoing...



And that's literally all I got this week. Don't worry though, next week seems to be a big one, it all balances out in the end.

Also, in case you didn't notice, I seem to have figured out this whole domain name thing. With that in mind, I'd like to welcome you to the new home of Platypus Robot. Same as the old, just easier to tell everyone about.

Now, if you'd excuse me I have some sleep and Silver Surfer comics to catch up on.