Wedding Crashers

What’s the best way to start the New Year? Two aspirin, some hot coffee, and a couple new comic reviews.

Love and Capes #12

It’s the big wedding day for Mark Spencer, the Crusader, top superhero on the planet, and Abby Tennyson, totally normal bookstore owner. Then there’s a crash of thunder, and everything’s different. Abby’s living in her old ratty apartment, no one remembers her wedding’s coming up, and it turns out the Crusader died three years ago. Abby tracks down Doctor Karma, the Liberty League’s resident sorcerer, who soon verifies that a supervillain called (snicker) Evil Brain went back in time and killed Crusader using his knowledge of past events. And only Abby is able to go back in time to set things right. Will she be able to do it and save her own wedding?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Yes, I’m being a bit vague describing the plot — it’s a very good plot, and I don’t want to spoil it, or the stuff that comes afterwards. Yeah, sure, the timeline is saved — that’s not a big spoiler for a humor book — but it’s a nicely-designed save, with great tension and an elegant solution. Great character work from creator Thom Zahler all the way around.

PS238 #42

There’s a big spaceship over the city. The claim is that it’s an Argosian ship, from the same homeworld where the superhero Atlas came from. Atlas isn’t around to meet them, so the suspiciously shady Praetorian Academy sends Atlas’ son, Argonaut (formerly PS238’s Captain Clarinet) to make first contact. The Argosians immediately transport Argonaut into their ship and take him prisoner, while a group of PS238 students — Moon Shadow, 84, Guardian Angel (and her awesome exploding baseball bat), Cecil Holmes, Poly Mer, and American Eagle — sneak onto the ship and capture and shrink the ship’s much-abused technician. The kids get busy smashing up the ship, but once they get the Argosian commander’s attention, what chance do they have against someone with the powers of Earth’s strongest superhero?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great art, great dialogue, funny situations, and a nice cliffhanger on the last page. Seriously, I love this comic so much, and I don’t know why more people aren’t reading it. Why aren’t you reading this, blog readers? Why are you trying to make your all-powerful bloggermeister so sad and cranky and stabby?