Existential Ennui

is on a bit of a Christmas break at the moment, which is probably indistinguishable from all the other times I forget to update the bloody thing and there are no new posts for ages. I'm actually sitting here working, but I'm not at work, and therefore haven't been looking for something to distract me from some mundane task or other, which is how I usually end up blogging. But, as I mentioned, I am sitting here, at home, working, and what I'm doing is really fucking mundane, and so that's why I thought of Existential Ennui. And here we are.

I don't

blog much about music, mostly 'cos I spent a good seven or eight years writing about music professionally and doubt I've got anything interesting or original to say about it anymore (not that I ever really did). But truth be told, I've not been listening to as much new music this year as I have previously. I tend to go for the indie side of things, and indieworld went electropop in a big way in '09. Which is fine – I got nothing against electropop; it's just I sort of did that in the 1990s (and the 1980s). And while guitarry artrock also isn't the most original of music forms, at least I wasn't really old enough to appreciate it first time round (i.e., post-punk/new wave), so artrock sounded fresh to me. But this year it's been largely subsumed by electropop, so for me, pickin's were slim.

There have been some ace albums though: Official Secrets Act, Maccabees, Horrors, Johnny Foreigner, Fanfarlo... probably more I'm forgetting. And a few bands have piqued my interest: Exlovers, Everything Everything... And with new albums due in January from Good Shoes and These New Puritans, there's still cool stuff around.

So... there.

Having now read

Invincible Iron Man #21, we can now increase the tally of Steve Rogers Captain America sightings in the Marvel Universe to three. Yep, there he is again, fine and dandy, and in costume once more. Sigh. Is it even worth the bother of reading the final two issues of Captain America: Reborn now?

Out of Whack

Well I must say, for someone who's purportedly not that interested in comics anymore, I've got rather a lot to say about them at the moment. This post was sparked by something the guy behind the counter at the comic shop said this week when I bought New Avengers Annual #3. He said there was something a bit strange about the comic, in particular the ending, and that Marvel seem to have got slightly out of whack with their continuity. Obviously I had to flip to the last page to see what he was on about... and here we should probably insert a

*SPOILER ALERT*

because there on the final page was Captain America. The Steve Rogers Cap. The one who's currently still got two issues to go of the miniseries (Reborn) bringing him back from the dead. Hurm. But actually, the guy behind the counter obviously hadn't read Dark Avengers Annual #1 from the week before, because on the last page of that, there again was Steve Rogers. Not in costume, but obviously him (Bucky, or rather the current Cap, was standing next to him, and called him "Steve"). I guess these aren't massive spoilers; it was fairly obvious Steve Rogers would be returned to the Marvel Universe at the end of Reborn. But it'd have been nice to actually see how that story resolved before we started seeing Cap running around New York again. Twice.

Reviews: Punishermax #2, Unwritten #8

I read both of these last night, and was surprised to find I enjoyed Punishermax more than Unwritten, particularly seeing as Punishermax was quite unpleasant. I mean, Garth Ennis' Punisher Max was often unpleasant, but that was all part of its bleak nature: the abiding theme of Ennis' run was the world is an awful, awful place and the Max version of the Punisher was exactly the kind of 'hero' the world deserves. It's hard to determine Jason Aaron's theme on Punishermax as we've only had two issues, but it seems to be more of a nastied-up version of Ennis and Steve Dillon's earlier, less X-rated Punisher comics. That's partly to do with the presence of Dillon on art duties on Punishermax, but I don't sense the bitter depth of Ennis' best writing in Aaron's. But, a clunky 'origin' scene for the Kingpin aside (I just didn't buy the rats sequence – this kid witnesses his dog being thrown out of a window so immediately starts keeping rats with which to torture his dad; felt a bit false and over-egged to me (although I liked the bit with the cheese – he's gonna use cheese to torture his dad??)), once I got into the swing of the comic, the machinations of the Kingpin, contrasted with the Punisher's investigations, really worked for me. So yeah: unpleasant, but oddly enjoyable.

As for Unwritten, it's still not clicking for me. It's well written, Peter Gross' art is as great as ever, but I think what I'm missing is any empathy with the lead character, Tom Taylor. The brilliant thing about Lucifer, Mike Carey and Peter Gross' previous series, was the title character was such an epic bastard that even when he wasn't in the comic his presence weighed on and distorted the story, shaping it around him. In Unwritten, I don't mind Tom Taylor, but he does come across as a bit of a dick, and although his presence is felt in stories in which he doesn't appear (as in this one, for the most part), other characters actually shine brighter, are more vivid than he's been so far. Which is a problem. I don't know if it's the comic's problem, or my problem (could be part of my general disillusionment with comics), but it is a problem. I'll give it a few more issues I think, but then I may have to call it a day. Shame.

Review Murderer #1

Just back from the comic shop, and on top of the comics I said I'd get (all of which I did get), I also got the third issue of Kevin Huizenga's Ganges, and the Murderer one-shot by Robert Kirkman. I read that on the train on the way back, and it was actually pretty good – it's part of Top Cow's Pilot Season, whereby Kirkman and a variety of artists produce five one-shot comics and then readers get to vote on which one gets turned into a miniseries. If I could be arsed (which I can't), I think I would vote for Murderer. It's the story of a guy who hears other people's thoughts, except he can't switch them off unless and until he kills someone. Then he gets a few hours' respite. There's an effective use of voiceover panels throughout – at first you think it's the main character, but it's a nice sleight of hand; you're actually reading other people's thoughts. And the art's not bad either: Nelson Blake II isn't your typical Top Cow artist; he's more akin to Cory Walker or Ryan Ottley, Kirkman's artists on Invincible – fairly clean lines, decent storytelling. I'm glad I picked it up.