Welcome to the latest installment of your breath of snark free air!

Enjoy!

THIS COMIC IS GOOD

A line I find myself using often is the following, "This book/movie/comic/TV show took a different approach, but often, there's a good reason why other writers in the past avoided this approach."

Brian Wood's Pounded (with art by Steve Rolston) takes a different approach.

But in this case, I believe it pays off.

Heavy Parker, the star of Pounded, is one of the more....unique comic characters of recent history. He is the the local king of the Vancouver punk scene...even though he really has no discernible talent. Heavy is all show and bluster. Underneath it all, he is an untalented, spoiled rich kid.

And he's the STAR of the book.

And the kicker, by the end of the series, you are almost ROOTING for him.

Wood does an excellent job filling Heavy with in depth characterization. The rest of the characters get much less introspection, but I suppose that's just logical.

In any event, the three-part series follows a familiar path, while taking an interesting detour.

In #1, Heavy is at the top, but he screws over his innocent young girlfriend.

In #2, his ex-girlfriend, Missy, back from college in New York, turns the tables on Heavy, and Heavy hits the bottom.

In #3, Heavy makes his comeback...but manages to do so without really learning a lesson.

It's such an absurd literary idea, but you will find yourself totally going along with it.

And the art by Rolston is top notch. He's an amazing talent.

Pounded is a good comic, and one of the rare mini-series that leaves you wanting more of the story.

Pounded was released in a trade paperback (under 10 bucks, I believe) by Oni Press in 2002. Steve Rolston's website has links if you want to purchase it.

COVER HOMAGE

One cool point to the first person who can tell me which cover this A-Next cover is homaging!

SNARK FREE CHALLENGE

If the original five members of the X-Men competed on American Idol against each other, who would win?

COVER THEME GAME

As always, here is the game. I show three covers. They all have something in common, whether it be a character, a trait all three characters share, locale, creator, SOMEthing. And it isn't something obvious like "They all have prices!" "They all have logos!" "They all feature a man!" etc.

In addition, please note that you must have some familiarity with comic book history to correctly guess these comics. You cannot guess the connective theme just by looking at the covers solely, you must have some knowledge beyond just the covers.

Good luck! A cool point to the first one who figures it out!

1.

2.

3.

COOL COMIC MOMENT

The set-up is this - Kang kidnaps the Avengers and brings them to his time, where Captain America follows (by challenging Kang to bring him to the future, as well). Kang is dealing with some minor revolutionaries, which he is trying to use to get a princess, Ravonna, to marry him.

Ravonna and Captain America help start a revolution, but it is cut short when Kang's forces are just too much.

Ravonna, then agrees to marry Kang, to save her people.

However, Kang's men have a problem with this idea...

This leads to even more problems...

Ultimately, Kang is forced on the run, when they try to assassinate him. He is forced to come crawling to the Avengers for help...

Ultimately, Kang wins victory, and perhaps Ravonna's heart...but the moment is not a happy one, for another assassination attempt on Kang occurs - which is stopped by, of all people, Ravonna!!!

Pretty damn poignant, eh?

Well, that's it for this installment of Snark Free Corner.

Hope you had fun!