The Captain America Omnibus by Ed Brubaker…

Ok, this tome is not a big as the Garth Ennis Punisher Omnibus or the Amazing Spiderman Omnibus, but it is still a huge collection.  In this volume is 700 pages plus of Captain America in the new century..Captain America #1-25, Captain America 65th Anniversary Special and Winter Soldier: Winter Kills and a House of M story.  This is all penned by Ed Brubaker, with a few different artists – Steve Epting being the most prominent one.  Plenty of bonus material:  original arts, layouts, the script for Captain America #25 and several interview pieces with Brubaker.

My first reactions were to the art.  Having read mostly 1970s and 1980s Marvel titles (with some of the early 1990s hyper-detail stuff like Art Adams and Jim Lee) I must admit I was not a huge fan of the art.  It was not bad, but it brought out a reaction that I have to admit to.  I do not know if it is a result of the computer manipulated art.  There are plenty of bonus pages in the back of the book that show some of Epting’s original pencils.  They look really good.  It is something in the composite stage, maybe the inking or the textural elements done digitally, I don’t know.  Since I have been reading alot of Marvel Essentials lately it was not the most impressive stuff in the immediate mind buffer, especially after a few hundred pages of John Byrne Iron Fist.

I am not complaining.  The art was good, just not a style that I find incredibly exciting.  I guess it is one of those things about comics, a lot of the time you keep going back to what you became a fan of when you were reading comics at age 12 or whenever it was that you found yourself going beyond casual reading to becoming involved in the books.  Eventually you become like someone who is into soap operas, these are “your stories” and they become very important.

Well, besides hesitancy with the art I have to say that I loved the writing.  These issues took place in two essential time periods – during the period right before the Marvel Civil War and during World War II.  The bulk of the series is about how Bucky Barnes didn’t really die all those years ago in WWII, but was in fact rescued by a Russian submarine who took him back to a secret government base where he was turned into the Winter Soldier – a Soviet assassin that became a feared shadow menace for high ranking members of the world government.  Nick Fury has disappeared, but he is trying to keep Captain America informed on the re-emergence of Bucky.

That is just a main plot.  The issues fit into to some of the other Marvel Universe titles, but since the comic companies don’t feel like they should publish editor notes anymore you cannot tell.  I have not read Secret War III, but I assume that is why Nick Fury is underground in this series.  The movement between events in the current time, WWII and other time periods works pretty well for the purpose of storytelling.  I could easily imagine this becoming part of the Captain America film, though I think the flashing back and forward could be too distracting in film form unless you use a stylistic difference – like a different color correction process to divide the footage or using black and white for the WWII stuff.  But you would also expect the WWII stuff to be more brightly colored and the present day to be more muted colors, moody and dark to represent the difference between the more idyllic WWII and the complex and grey world of today.

It is also interesting and sad that the book essentially ends with the death of Captain America, though the House of M alternate universe story does come after it in the book technically.  By ending with that conclusion of Civil War it provides a really interesting climax.  Most of these collections are not completed so satisfyingly, despite the fact that in many ways the Captain America issues after his death in #25 are compelling for showing the reactions to his death by many of those around him.  The wake was very interesting, Agent 13 deals with her role in the hit and Bucky takes the role of Captain America.  Sitting here and reading this massive run of issues over a few days feels far different than what 2 years of storyline must have felt like.  I don’t have the patience for that though, and for what I would have spent on this issues I could afford this book plus more.  But to know that Captain America would die at the end does change your reading of the story a bit I guess, it makes these last actions of his life seem more meaningful to the character than they would have felt if you did not know the character was gonna take those bullets on the courthouse steps.  Maybe therein lies the problem with spoilers – they will change our perception of an event, but they are news for the people who need something to talk about so what can you do?

As far as new readers are concerned, they may enjoy this even if they have no prior exposure to Captain America but I think that some of the things – like all the stuff with SHIELD, the Falcon and the Red Skull – might be a bit confusing to those without the background.  This is definitly not your dad’s Captain America, unless you were born in 10 years ago (which you might be, but we all know that most comic fans are about 30 years old).

Transmetropolitan Soup For The Soul #8

The Thing Loves You…

Found on Ebay.

Transmetropolitan Soup For The Soul #7

The Punisher Omnibus by Garth Ennis

This monster volume collects over 1000 pages of Ennis doing his thing with the Punisher.  That is about 40 issues.  It weighs seven and a half pages and is a little uncomfortable on your crotch when you hold it on your lap.  That being said this collects some of the most interesting Punisher work ever.  It is violent, crass, disturbing, funny and in every sense pure Ennis.

Most of these stories were published in 2000 and 2001, and represent some seriously twisted work.  The events of September 11 peek into the stories, and gain some mention.  There is the story arc about the Punisher’s war on the matriarch of a crime family.  After he leaves here to a fate that involves being mauled by polar bears in a zoo, she is left without arms and legs.  That is just the beginning as this armless, legless hate filled crime lord wants Castle dead but cannot seem to make it happen.  During this storyline we are also introduced to the 3 neighbors that were part of that Punisher movie that came out a few years ago.  While they are in that story, it is not the same story that you saw in the film.  This story arc is probably the first half of the book.

You also get a pretty good story involving Wolverine, where the Punisher blows his face off with a shotgun.  For the rest of the story Wolverine fights on, minus the face, and is subject to some awful puns.  Those Wolverine/Punisher crossovers from the 1990s seem a little tame now (except for African Saga, which is just awesome).  When Wolverine, Spiderman and Daredevil decide to team up to take down Punisher he manages to get ahold of the kidnapped Bruce Banner, feeds him a few pounds of C-4 hidden in stew and then proceeds to slap him around and call him a bitch.  The obvious happens, and it is the superheroes who have to deal with the raging Hulk and not the Punisher.

This is just a dip in what madness this book has on display, oh gentle reader.  Ennis produces some great work, and the collected issues in here are proof of that.  It is dark comedy, like the part in Pulp Fiction where Travolta’s character accidently shoots that guy in the head.  It is like that…slapstick hyper-violence that reminds me of the early films of Peter Jackson like Brain Dead, Dead Alive and (my personal favorite) Meet the Feebles.  Maybe Meet the Feebles is the best description here – a totally absurd sensibility combined with a level of violence that makes you feel a little guilty for liking.  It is a guilty pleasure in the truest sense as one of those joys you feel like there might actually be some sociopathic part of you responsible for enjoying it so much.  Either way, despite the high cover price it is still some of the most fun you can have without a hangover, though watch the weight of this thing on your pelvis.

Transmetropolitan Soup For The Soul #6

Flight 666: Sam Dunn’s Iron Maiden Documentary In Theaters Soon…

Coming to the big screen on April 21st, 2009.  Not coming to my area, but hopefully it will be out on DVD soon.

My First Distortion Pedal – The ProCo Rat 2

I  got my first distortion pedal in 1993.  It was a Proco Rat 2 and it cost about 80 dollars.  It was my main distortion pedal until about 5 years ago, when the wiring problem became really bad.  The battery connector came unhooked from the wires and I had to resolder a new battery clip onto the wire leads.  The solder I used was cheap and not so good, so the connection was not very stable.  I used a multiple ac adapter to power it, since it took an odd shaped design of adapter plug.  That worked for a few years, until my cheap multiple adapter actually caught fire and burned up my power strip.  The adapter input on the pedal had started to fall apart at the end there, and I had picked up a couple of new pedals so the Rat was eventually retired.  At times I do miss it and have thought about buying another or fixing up this one, but I have never gotten around to it.

The Rat pedal is nothing spectacular.  It sounds good and has a strong metal housing.  The main controls are Distortion, Volume and Filter.  The Distortion and Volume controls are the same as on other pedals, and the Filter controls the smoothness of distortion.  Roll if off and it is chunky and turn it up and it is smoother.  The logo is glow in the dark, and the on led is a red light in the middle of the “A” on the logo.  The control knobs are made from a hard plastic, with glow in the dark for the dial as well.  I don’t think you can see it in this picture, but I put a big scar in the volume knob somehow.  I don’t remember doing it, but I must have been wearing ice skates when I stepped on it.  It is not easy to damage these suckers.

As far as sound goes, well at the time it was the coolest thing in the world.  I am mainly a humbucker guy, and this lays on alot of gain so you can get a pretty thick high gain metal sound.  Going into a little 10 watt Crate amp it sounded pretty good.  Well, as I have gotten older and collected some other pedals it is not as great as it once was.  I might get around to fixing it up this summer, if I have some time.