Comics: Oh (jeez) Canada.

In the crowded field of comics blogs, I'm glad there's room for something as quirky and unique as Ecocomics, "where graphic lit meets the dismal science." Most comics blogs spend their time doing three things: acting as volunteer or professional shills that attempt to use their force of personality to impose value judgments on certain works, making structural and functional explorations of how the medium itself functions, and reflecting on biz-oriented news. The differing mixtures and the depth of analysis, filtered through the style and personality of the blogger, gives each comics blog its unique character.

Ecocomics comes at the field from a new angle. It looks at the unlikely overlap between economics and superhero comics, using the endless adventures of the long-underwear and cape set to explore economic issues and asking economically-informed questions about the worlds we see in the comics.

Plus, it's often funny.

In a recent post, Ecocomics asks the question: Why does Canada keep funding supersoldier programs?

In the Marvel Universe, Canada is responsible for creating some of the most deadly super-soldiers in history. Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Kane, and Agent Zero were all deadly assassins who were empowered by Canada's Weapon X program. This secret division of the Canadian government went to great expense to create nearly unstoppable weapons (and in almost all cases, allow them to escape shortly thereafter). This gives rise to a single question: WHY?

What threat was Canada so afraid of that the government felt the need to constantly produce human death machines?

"Holy Crap, Quebec is getting uppity again, let's coat another mutant in adamantium!"

Conclusion? Wasteful institutional inertia and weak government oversight are responsible for a oddly large percentage of Marvel's most badass superheroes.

Stuff: Giant monster art rampage!

During the 1960s, Marvel and Atlas Comics ran several series of monster anthology rags featuring oversized monsters that stomped their way around various, usually anonymous, cities. The slim plots of these tales were about a formulaic as they could come. The monster would rise out of the depths or fall from space. The citizen panicked, defenses forces proved useless, doom seemed certain. Then, always, some lone guy figure out the beast's Achilles heel and the day was saved! We were safe . . . but for how long? Dum dum dum. For a full run down on these beasts, check out the nifty Monster Blog (see sidebar), an entire blog dedicated to these big baddies.

In tribute to this cheesy but fun era of outsized monstrosities, several artists have gathered together to create tributes to the Atlas/Marvel giant monsters. Tremble before the horror of Orogo! Thrill at the awesome might of Gomdulla! Ponder the boundless oddities that are The Things from Nowhere!

Comics: Avengers disassembled . . . with a chainsaw.

Earlier this month, Marvel trotted out their bestselling zombie-variant heroes again for an unusual team-up. After trying to eat the Fantastic Four, and chomping down on Galactus, the undead anti-heroes face off against one of pop cultures most prolific zombie slayers: Ashley J. Williams, better known as Ash, the S-Mart sales clerk turned Deadite killer (re-killer?) from the Evil Dead franchise.

Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness is one of the more promising monster mash premises of late. The set up is simple: Ash, tumbling between various planes ever since the Necronomicon knocked him out of dimensional whack, gets dropped into the alternate Marvel continuity where the Marvel hero population is zombified. For those true comic geeks, the crossover even fits into the general continuity of both comic companies. This mash occurs after issue 13 of Army, but some time before the Fantastic Four discovered the zombie-plagues dimension. He arrives right as a mysteriously infected Sentry begins to contaminate the rest of the world's super-powered beings.

Now it is impossible to pretend that this mini-series is anything but stupid fanboy fun – but what great stupid fanboy fun it is! The key to the whole Marvel zombie shtick is watching the noble heroes we've grown to love doing absolutely horrific stuff. This is what allowed the Marvel franchise to stick out from the current glut of zombie products. And, in this, Marvel vs. AoD doesn't disappoint. We get several panels of the rotting Avengers chewing up innocent civilians, including one of Hawkeye chomping directly into some nameless zombie-fodder's head.

It is hard to imagine that Marvel was completely comfortable with this idea. After all, you can't imagine Disney putting out some product in which we see an undead Mickey Mouse ripping apart Donald Duck with his teeth. That said, Marvel seems perfectly content to keep cranking these monstrous gore-fests out so long as they make money.

On a strictly fanboy level, the concept of a Marvel universe full of zombies does raise some questions. Comic dorks, like myself, want to know how it is that certain Marvel characters are even eatable. Wouldn't zombie teeth just break on the rocky body of the Thing? Are gods like Thor edible? What about aliens like the Skrull member of the Runaways? Can they get turned? Sadly, the authors don't seem too interested in exploring such issues. For example, issue 2 promises us a scene with a zombie Howard the Duck (a being that doesn't even have any teeth) and, as much as I like that idea, it does suggest that they decided to skip the details in favor of getting as many character cameos in as possible.

(Actually, even more puzzling, what about Marvel's already undead characters? Can the half-vampire Blade be only half-zombified? Wouldn't Dracula – who interacted with several heroes during his run in Tomb of Dracula - have to take action against this threat to his food source? And what about the Simon Garth, the Zombi? Does he get doubly zombified if bitten? Or, perhaps, it un-zombifies him? And Ghost Rider and Morbius and . . . It is enough to drive a comic nerd insane!)

But enough geeking out – basically, we're going to get Ash pitting his chainsaw, boomstick, and clumsy wit against rotting versions of Earth's mightiest heroes. It is hard to imagine you need more inducement than that.