One episode a week from now on. That's all you're getting, and it will be damn good. This week, Chad Nevett and I talk about Jason Aaron's now-concluded "Ghost Rider" run, Alan Davis and vague memories of "Clandestine," the true protagonists of "Secret Warriors," and some other gems of wisdom, I'm sure.
I review the heck out of "Ghost Rider" #35 over at CBR. You should probably read the comic, read my review, then come back here and say, "you were right about everything! How can you be so right?"
I listened to the Word Balloon interview with Jason Aaron a week or so ago, but my hiatus from posting prevented me from talking about a little nugget of information Aaron dropped on the show.
Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Wolverine: Weapon X #1, about which I write the following sentences: "In this issue, we get the return of Maverick, Wolverine's old Weapon X colleague, and a growing mystery involving the Blackguard group and the introduction of some mysterious laser-claw wielding killers. Aaron is building some new mythology for Logan, not by telling stories from the past, but by using the legacy of the past to drive the story forward. Like most of Aaron's protagonists, Wolverine's fate is bound to into his history, but he has no choice but to boldly push forward and make amends for who he is and what he's done."
In this week's "When Words Collide," I grill Jason Aaron on his early years -- what he was like as a student, how he feels about some classic comics of the 1980s, how much he's written about strippers -- and talk about his approach to his craft.
Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #3, about which I write the following sentences: "Don't let the 'Manifest Destiny' tag throw you off. This isn't part of some crossover event, and it has little or nothing to do with whatever else is going on in anything else labeled 'Manifest' or 'Destiny' this season (except maybe the idea that the characters have moved to San Francisco, and they are on various solo adventures). This thing should more accurately be called 'Wolverine: Fists of Pointy Fury,' or 'Wolverine: Kung-Fu Boogaloo.' Because what it is -- and after three issues, it hasn't changed its mind yet -- is a Wolverine martial arts movie in panel-by-panel form, with echoes of 70s cinema and the comics of the Bronze Age."
Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Ghost Rider #30, about which I write the following sentences: "Aaron has established what he terms (in the letters page, at least) the 'Ghost Rider Survival Squad' -- the last remaining spirits of vengeance who stand united against the threat of Danny Ketch. I have to admit: Aaron trapped me into thinking that this comic was starting to fall into a rut. The first half of this issue is pretty straightforward spirit-of-vengeance-on-spirit-of-vengeance action. The bizarre look of the characters make it visually interesting, but there's not much more than an extended series of fight and flight scenes for the first dozen pages. But halfway through 'Ghost Rider' #30, Aaron and Huat reveal a new layer of meaning, and show a different side of the Ghost Rider mythology in spectacular fashion."
Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Punisher Max X-Mas Special #1, about which I write the following sentences: "Aaron's surprisingly layered story -- it's not surprising for anyone who's been reading his work regularly, but might surprise those that picked up the comic based purely on the title and cover art -- works because the resonant subtext does not overwhelm the surface narrative. It reads as a great Frank Castle blood-and-guts tale, but it also has a meaningful connection to Christmas that goes beyond the tree trimmings and the red fluffy suit."
Good news for WWC fans: Jonah Weiland, head honcho of Comic Book Resources, has given me the go-ahead to continue with my weekly column. You probably didn't realize this, but I was on kind of a three-month trial, and if readers weren't flocking to my once-a-week babble sessions, "When Words Collide" would have gotten yanked from the regular rotation. 
Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Scalped #21, about which I write the following sentences: "The virtues of this series aren't obviously apparent if you're just flipping through the comic in the shop, and a new reader might pick up this issue and find very little happening on the surface, but it is very much like 'The Wire' in that respect. It's the accumulation of dramatic moments, and the echoes of past story beats that add up to something remarkable. And although Aaron doesn't try for the bleak poetry of Cormac McCarthy's narrators, he does capture the glimmer of hope within the bleakness that's the essence of McCarthy, and I'll be damned if Aaron isn't terse. But he's terse with a purpose, and though his two main characters, Bad Horse and Red Crow, speak louder with their actions then their words, he isn't afraid to throw in an extended monologue every once in a while. Here, Bad Horse doesn't even appear, and Red Crow says only what he needs to, but the wise Mr. Brass speaks volumes. And like McCarthy, like 'The Wire,' Aaron gives all of his characters a distinct speaking rhythm, capturing their worldviews clearly and precisely without resorting to exposition. These characters talk at each other, making their way through the cold, hard world."
Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Ghost Rider #26, about which I write the following sentences: "Danny Ketch's motorcycle in the background of page three is the only thing that gives it away as a 'Ghost Rider' comic. Ketch himself is on the page, smack in the foreground, but Tan Eng Huat's expressive line and twisted anatomy render him almost unrecognizable. That's okay though, because we can see the bike, and his identity is pretty clear by the context. But the rest of the characters on the page? They look like they stepped straight out of the Brotherhood of Dada Auxiliary. They are Morrison rejects, and their presence here livens up the comic to a gleefully twisted level. If you're interested -- and who wouldn't be? -- the characters are the all-new Orb, dressed like an orange Evel Knievil with a giant eyeball instead of a head; Doghead, part man and mostly pit bull; Death Ninja, the zombie ninja dressed in crimson; and Blackout, with the braided white hair and purple trenchcoat. Based on the dialogue, I'm guessing some or all of these characters have appeared before. But they're new to me, and they are great additions to Aaron's menagerie."
Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Scalped #19, about which I write the following sentences: "After last issue's done-in-one look at Officer Falls Down, Jason Aaron and new artist Davide Furno begin a new story arc called 'Boudoir Stomp.' You can imagine what kind of love story it is with a title like that and coming from the mind of Jason Aaron. If you've never read a Jason Aaron story before (and you're crazy not to), then think of it this way: it's savage and twisted and hopeless, but that doesn't stop anyone from trying. That pretty much encapsulates the world in which these characters live. Stuck on the Rez, they seek escape, but no matter how much they want it -- no matter what they're willing to give up to leave -- the Rez drags them back in."
Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Hellblazer #245, about which I write the following sentences: "I bailed out on 'Hellblazer' halfway through the Garth Ennis run, and I haven't picked up an issue of this series since. I can't really blame Ennis. His work on the title was quite good, but I moved on to other things and never bothered to look back. But how could I resist 'Hellblazer' #245 when it's written by one of the best current writers in American comics, Jason Aaron? I could not. Especially when I found out that the story would deal with John Constantine's days as a member of Mucous Membrane. Punk rock plus Jason Aaron? How could I go wrong? 'Hellblazer' #245 lived up to my expectations and then some. It reminded me how good this series used to be, and it made me want to go back and reread all the back issues. I have more than enough to do these days, so any comic that makes me want to dig through the longboxes for extra reading material is a pretty extraordinary comic."
I expected Jason Aaron's debut on Ghost Rider to be strong. His work on Scalped has been phenomenal, and his fill-in issue of Wolverine last year was one of the best single issues I read in 2007. Aaron even made Ripclaw interesting during "Pilot Season." So I expected his take on Ghost Rider to be worth reading. 
I read a huge pile of today's comics, and it's probably because I've been listening to too many podcasts lately--Bendis, then Loeb, then Fraction on Word Balloon, most specifically--but I'm continuing to feel the pull of the Marvel books at the expense of the increasingly lackluster DC output. I grew up as a DC guy, but even when I was a teenager, I didn't think so much in terms of companies as I did creators. I liked Chaykin, so I read American Flagg, and I liked Steve Rude, so I read Nexus, and back in those days Marvel didn't have much of interest to me, except when Miller or Sienkiewicz (or both) came back to play. The DC icons always interested me more, as characters, as visuals, as concepts, and clearly DC put out far superior comics than Marvel in the 1980s. It's not even close. But this Quesada-era Marvel has something special going on. Say what you will about Quesada raping your childhood, and pretend that you're going to boycott something that you really won't, but Quesada has not only turned Marvel into the best mainstream company this decade, but he's brought in creators who are just beginning to heat up. Jason Aaron is sure to impress on Wolverine and Ghost Rider, Fraction will be on half a dozen titles by the end of 2008 (and my guess is that one of them will be the Young X-Men with Yanick Paquette--if the preview art is to be believed. EDITED TO NOTE: The April solicits, just posted, confirm my guess about Paquette, but Guggenheim, not Fraction, will be writing. That just gives Fraction the freedom to write more Thor!), and Brubaker is writing the best super-hero stuff of his career. Brand New Day has convincingly turned the main Spidey titles around, and even stuff that seems like it has been bled dry, like the Marvel Zombies and Ultimate Universe "franchises" continue to amuse me.
You know what is good at DC, though? You guessed it! Blue Beetle! The newest issue (#23) might be my favorite of the entire series thus far, and I've been raving about this book for over a year, so you can imagine that the newest issue is, in fact, really damn good. As I read it, I realized that John Rogers would be a PERFECT choice to take over the Legion of Super-Heroes once Jim Shooter completes his run. (I have no clue how long Shooter plans on sticking around, but if he leaves anytime in the next year or so, PUT ROGERS ON THAT BOOK!) Rogers mixes super-hero science with aliens with a kid learning to use his powers in an unconventional way with family drama and makes excellent comics out of it. Rafael Albuquerque could come along as the artist on Legion too. He's pretty great already, and I have a feeling he's going to get even better.
Last week I listed Wolverine #56 as one of my most anticipated comics of the week. I said, "Jason Aaron is great. Howard Chaykin is great. Maybe, together, they will make a great story. It's gotta be better than the last Wolverine arc, right?" I was correct.
The story itself, at least in it's conceit, is reminiscent of Eisner's Spirit. Many of the great Spirit tales focused on a minor character, usually someone pathetic in their way, who crossed paths with Denny Colt, but the story was actually about the minor character's rise and fall (or just their fall from grace). Aaron and Chakin, in Wolverine #56, give us the story of the lonely and misguided Wendell, a man who may never have achieved greatness, but he has also never sunken so low as he has by the time of this story. Wendell shows up to work, awkwardly attempts banter with his colleagues, and then performs his daily task: shooting a giant machine gun into a pit. Inside the pit, of course, is a battered and bloody Wolverine. How he got there is irrelevant. Why Wendell (and the other employees) shoot him is irrelevant (to them). It's their job. And they have to do it every ten minutes to keep Wolverine from healing enough to climb out of the pit.
Technically, this story fits into current Wolverine continuity, which is now mired in deep conspiracies and the shadowy machinations of some mysterious "Romulus" character. I'm not very interested in any of that, but I am interested in this single issue. It's a strange, off-beat Wolverine story that never worries about getting the character into costume. And even without a traditional fight scene, it manages to show what is so cool about a character who has been overexposed and underwritten for years.
If I have time this weekend, I'll go into more detail on this later, but I think Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guera, is the best Vertigo comic in years. I think DMZ and Fables are both solid books, but, based on the first handful of issues Scalped looks to be something quite amazing. It's like David Milch meets Robert Altman if that makes any sense.