More Comic Goodness

Here's some more of what I've been reading in the world of comics. All of these are awesome books:

1. THE WAKE.
This one just hit stands this week and it has my undivided attention. Though the first issue is merely character set up, the final page leaves us with our eyes wide and our brains screaming, "What happens next!'" Briefly,  a mother/slash underwater sound expert (yes, it's a real field of study) is recruited by a secret government agency to help study something alien at the ocean floor. What makes it weirder is the book starts off with a prologue in which the entire earth is half underwater and dolphins wear bio-mech suits (I want a pet dolphin). Written by Batman: Court of Owls and Batman: Death of the Family writer Scott Snyder, and penciled by Sean Murphy (Punk Rock Jesus).  Get this one, now.







2. DAREDEVIL: END OF DAYS
Another amazing book by Bendis. This is the real, gritty streetcore Daredevil book everyone should be reading right now. While Mark Waid's regular run is killing it in terms of fun, and you're hurting yourself by not reading it, this book is dark dark dark and so steeped in noir narrative I think Raymond Chandler is about to file a lawsuit. And what's truly amazing...Daredevil is not even in the book! This all takes place AFTER Daredevil was murdered, and follows Daily Bugle reporter Ben Ulrich as he tries to figure out what Daredevil's last words meant as he lay dying on a New York City sidewalk. The word? MAPONE. Yeah, Mapone. Anyone? Anyone? It's an 8 issue series and I've read all the way to 7 now, with 8 still not due out for a couple weeks...and I, like many, still have no idea what Mapone means. By the way, this book has the best future cameo of Frank castle ever.




3. HAWKEYE

Holy Crap this book is astounding! Yeah, who'd have thought a Hawkeye book would be the best book on the market. I mean it, it is THE BEST BOOK out there. Matt Fraction's premise behind this book was to show us what Hawkeye does on his days off, when he's not being an Avenger. It mostly consists of getting into trouble with his many girlfriends (and them nearly getting him killed somehow), getting into fights with the local Slavic street thugs, trying to assemble his home entertainment center (an issue so funny it should win best comic of the year), trying to control the tenants in the apartment building he owns (which is the amusing premise of issue 1) and feeding his dog some pizza. Pizza Dog is even getting his own issue next month. Don't worry, there's plenty of action too. Because when Clint Barton screws up his life, he really screws it up good, and it usually results in some wacky shootout or car chase. And you'll laugh the whole way through.




4. THE PRIVATE EYE
Where to even begin with this one? It's written by SAGA and Y: THE LAST MAN creator Brian K. Vaughn. It's only digital...but get this...there's no set price. You pay whatever you want for it. You can get it for free if you wanna be a jerk about it. Basically you go to his site, enter an amount (I gave 1.99) and it downloads to your computer. It's amazing. Vaughn says as long as he gets enough in sales each month he'll keep doing it, and so far he says he's getting more than enough from readers to carry it out for a bit. But even more amazing is the story, wherein the populace of Earth all wear masks, and no one knows who anyone is. This is because at some point in the future, the world's computers decided to dissolve all their security protocols and put everything up on the Internet for the world to see. Your name, your address, your bank account, the google search you did for tranny porn, the text threats you made to your boss, the picture of you in leather adult diapers on your harddrive,  the emails you sent to your drug dealer, EVERYTHING! So now people hide under hologram masks to avoid being noticed. Money is kept under the mattress, etc. Except crime still happens, and to find out who a murderer is, you need to hire someone who can find out who these people are under the masks. Not only an awesome sci fi/sociological story, but some of the best art to boot.  (Get it here: panelsyndicate.com)