-ism, -ism, -ism: Hibbs talks 9/6

This was definitely BKV's week, as he comes out with a comic that's most-likely to be the best-selling thing he has ever written, as well as a getting even closer to the end of his personal magnum opus. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON EIGHT #6: As much as I liked Whedon's first five issues, I'm going to commit a little heresy and suggest that I liked BKV's first even more -- crisp action, nice plot movement, and snappy dialog (I thought that Faith and Gile's voices were pitch-perfect -- I could easily hear Dushku and Head's intonations in every line). If you were thinking "Oh, I can drop this now that it isn't Whedon", I'd say think again -- this was really EXCELLENT, with the only tumbles being in a few bits of Jeanty's art looking rushed)

Y, THE LAST MAN #58: Oh, no you d'int! Major spoiler warning in the next sentences, so go away if you're squirmy like that. While I can certainly see Yorick making such a dumb move, I can't, at all, for the life of me, even slightly begin for .355 going for it at all. And so, while the ending was of real peril, it felt to this read like absolutely cheap melodrama that was entirely out of place. Who knows, maybe that's because I have two temporal months between this one and the last, and maybe it will read better in the book, but this feels to me right now this second, to be a horrific fumble and crashing misstep in the final steps of the marathon. I guess we'll see if the last 44 pages can erase this bad taste from my mouth.

One thing that occurred to me when reading this, came to mind when flashing on last week's "Hey, the KKK are just like superheroes!" (or reverse, depending on your POV), EX MACHINA MASQUERADE SPECIAL, is that totally coincidentally or not, we just had the major Jewish character kill the major Black character here. I don't think that would have ever occurred to me if EM: MS wasn't JUST last week, but it leapt out at me in that context.

But even completely ignoring that, just based on the character's previous characterizations, I'm going to have to go with this being CRAP.

That's a rare Trick, scoring the top and bottom rating (and what would have been PICK OF THE WEEK and WEAK, if I still was doing that) in a single week. Good job, Brian!

THE BOYS #10: I usually tend to think that Garth Ennis overuses the Gay jokes, maybe too interchangeably with the dick- and fart-jokes. It's hard to admit, especially for a Politically Correct San Franciscan like myself, but y'know, sometimes, in small doses, -ist humor can be funny. Too much spoils the broth, however.

So I have to give points for Garth stopping the story cold in the middle of jokes to have Hughie basically say "Shut up, someone is dead, through no fault of their own, who gives a fuck about their sexuality?" It was a strong and serious, and EFFECTIVE moment, in a comic that's meant much more for a laugh.

I've also generally appreciated the attempt of some shading on the issue, with having "Swing Wing" *pretend* to be Gay so he could gain popularity (and presenting it as a negative, not as "how droll" kind of thing like that "Adam Sandler is a (Fake) Gay Fireman", whatever that was. A solid VERY GOOD from me.

What did YOU think?

-B