An almost labor free Labor Day

Last week, I worked way too hard. This weekend, outside a short shift at my second job, I had a full three day weekend and it was a glorious feeling to have time to spend with family. A visit from my brother, a mutual visit to our mom and dad and a whole lot of grilled chicken and brats made up a significant part of my relaxed weekend.

Piskor even gave his first FCBD cover the
Marvel 25th Anniversary treatment.

The rest of my time was spent either with a book or with a movie. I watched a couple flicks I'll talk about more in the next couple days, but I also finished a few books, including the second volumes of the Rebirth Superman and Wonder Woman.

Superman: Trials of the Super-Son was disjointed by multiple stories, but co-writers Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason clearly have a handle on what they want to do with the character and his family. Doug Mahnke stepped into the art chores for the majority of this volume, even returning to Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE. It made for an overall fun if not particularly eventful book.

Wonder Woman: Year One continued Greg Rucka's seemingly pointless reboot of the character for the umpteenth time. I found the need to retcon the Azzarello/Chiang history with the book distasteful enough, but the over-wrought path to her full powers and the annoying need to have her unable to speak English for most of the book just seemed like unnecessary additions to an already unnecessary story. I frankly cannot understand why this run drew such praise. It feels like a rehash just for the sake of pleasing a writer, even as several of the retcons he made are being fully embraced by the DCEU. I will sing the praises of Nicola Scott and Bilquis Evely however. Both artists did stupendous work trying to bring to life a rather flat storyline.

The best book I finished however was Hip Hop Family Tree Volume 2. This series is the first I've ever read by Ed Piskor, but he's taken the old Peter Sanderson / Mark Gruenwald tales of Marvel history to heart when he produced this series. Told in the same style as Gruenwald and Sanderson's historical back stories in numerous late eighties Marvel Annuals or the very similar Marvel Saga series, he brings an era of music to life I only had limited knowledge about until I've worked my way through these books. This volume gives the origins of Run DMC, Ice T and others, while also showing the rise and fall of several other talents in the New York Hip Hop scene and beyond. It's compelling, well drawn and makes me terribly excited for Piskor's upcoming X-Men histories from Marvel. Pin ups in the back by the likes of Michel Fiffe and Benjamin Marra just make the package pretty much perfect.

So that's what I did this Labor Day weekend. Tell me what struck your fancy about this long weekend in the comments below or on Facebook.