Some Thoughts on Recent Comics

I picked up my books for the past couple of weeks this weekend, and just wanted to toss out a few comments.

Cthulhu Tales #3: I would never have thought I'd pick up this book, but then I saw the magic words on the cover: "Messner-Loebs." After reading his story, I would love to see more of Charles Dexter Pigeon's investigations. I don't think the Elder Gods have ever been this wryly amusing...

Thunderbolts #121: And so the Ellis/Deodato run comes to an end. I've enjoyed it...not as much as Nextwave, but I've still appreciated Ellis' take on "playing with the company's toys." I am, however, greatly disappointed that Bullseye is up and about again...his comeuppance was one of the book's most satisfying moments, and seeing him fully recovered and back to his old self is a bit of a letdown. To expand: Bullseye is one of those villains who has been used so often and done such monstrous acts that I can no longer think of him as a challenge-worthy antagonist, but can only wonder "when is this guy gonna get what's coming to him?" I thought that moment had finally come, but now it's gone again. (The Joker is another one of those villains that's gone too far and gotten away with too much...while I know that the Joker is too important financially for DC to do away with, I can't believe that Bullseye is a comparably vital property for Marvel.)

(And an artistic quibble: What was up with those blades that Bullseye was using? If they were supposed to be scalpels that he picked up in the infirmary, it shouldn't have been too hard to find a reference picture of a scalpel. If they were SUPPOSED to be X-Acto knives, where would he have gotten them?)

Another thought on the Ellis Thunderbolts run. While I enjoyed his characterization of Norman Osborn, my initial impression was that Osborn was supposed to be the shadowy "man behind the man," running the operation from behind the scenes in an "I'm not really here" kind of way...and I was perfectly fine with that. When it turned out that he was a very public spokesman, my suspension of disbelief went out the window. Government pardon aside, Osborn's identity as the Green Goblin was revealed very publicly in The Pulse...and even if he'd managed to cast doubt on his previous Goblin activities (e.g., Gwen Stacy's murder), there's no way he could deny the cops he killed in that Pulse storyline. I can see a corrupt government agency deciding to overlook Osborn's crimes to make use of his tactical brilliance...but from a PR standpoint, putting a known cop-killer in charge of this agency is strictly a no-go. (Nevertheless, there were so many other elements in the book that I enjoyed that I was willing to look past this flaw.)