Museum of Pop Culture, Slash and Burn, Swamp Thing, West Coast Avengers, Action Comics, Walk Through Hell, Runaways

Museum of Pop Culture
I was in Seattle for PAX this weekend, and I stopped by the Museum of Pop Culture.  Aside from just sounding like an awesome place, they’re in the middle of showing a Marvel exhibit, providing extra incentive.

Wow.  This place was full of the most precious artifacts.  The amount of original comic art hanging on the walls blew my mind.  And these weren’t just random pages, these were pieces of history – The cover of Giant-Size X-Men 1.  The final three pages of the death of Gwen Stacy.  Bullseye’s magic trick. The cover of Iron Man 1.  The cover of the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga.  Frank Miller’s Wolverine covers.  An insane Bill Sienkiewicz New Mutants collage.  It was surreal looking at these works of art which I’ve now known for decades.  They’re practically holy relics for me. I felt like a kid again, rediscovering something that I’ve loved for years.

On top of that, the museum was packed with other treasures – Costumes from the Marvel movies.  Actual copies of Amazing Fantasy 15, Fantastic Four 1, and Marvel Comics 1.  Greedo’s mask.  Costumes from The Princess Bride.  Hicks’ armor and pulse rifle.  The placeholder cards Richard Garfield used to playtest Magic: The Gathering before it was first published.  The helmet John Cleese wore as the insulting French soldier.

I love going to museums and appreciating the craft and skill of our planet’s greatest artists.  There’s unmatched beauty and culture filling the halls of the Getty, the Met, the V&A Museum, and all the rest.  (Haven’t been to the Louvre yet…) But while I admit that they are objectively better than the things I just saw, none of them triggered the pure joy in my heart the way that Miller and Romita’s linework did today.  A magical experience.

Some new comics from the last two weeks:

West Coast Avengers 1

Let’s not kid ourselves, this is flat out the next volume of Kelly Thompson’s Hawkeye comic.  Which is why I picked it up. If building a team around Kate Bishop is what it takes to get more of her on the shelf, I’m totally fine with it.  It’s even sillier than the previous go-around with Gwenpool, land sharks, and giant Tigra, but Thompson makes it all work. Plus, she gifts the world with the introduction of BRODOK, so A+ from me.

His head's intentionally too big.  Perfect.

Action Comics 1002

Below average Bendis, but not bad enough that I’m thinking about dropping it yet.

A Walk Through Hell 4

Tons and tons of backstory recapping.  It doesn’t fit together all that well, but I’m still intrigued enough to give it at least another issue.  (No idea how long this mini is supposed to last.)

Runaways 12

I have a colleague at work who was inspired to read the Brian K Vaughan run of Runaways after really liking the tv show.  (Which I still have to watch.) After he got through those, I told him to skip everything after and jump right to the Rainbow Rowell issues.  Reading her latest offering, I’m still feeling confident in my recommendation. I love where she’s taking all of these characters. Their personalities and relationships are so very strong, enabling issues like this one, where there’s no real plot to speak of, just interactions.  I could read this quality of stuff for quite some time.

Kris Anka does some phenomenal work here, too.

Back to Vertigo Box 3:

Slash and Burn 1-2

A firefighter who’s a closet pyromaniac.  That’s the hook. The story’s fine, and Max Dunbar does good work as a rich man’s Howard Porter.  But it’s nothing that I’d go out of my way to read or buy, even though I’d gladly revisit it. If I ever come across it at a bookstore, I’d probably pull it off the shelf to see how it all turns out.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Swamp Thing 3

I probably bought this because I read a good review of it.  Gah, what a piece of trash. Tefe Holland plays a supporting role in this story about an aspiring writer on a crabbing ship.  The author’s stuck on how to finish his book until he realizes that killing everyone on board will somehow free him from his writer’s block.  It’s a ridiculous premise that had me rolling my eyes and hating the issue. A faster drop there’s never been.

Regret buying: Yes

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Hated (Cutting)