Okay: welcome to the third month of DC's NEW 52 project and my take on those books I still read from that line. Are they all gonna make the cut? Well, we shall see...
ACTION COMICS: Right off the bat, we're on Krypton with Jor-El defending his wife Lara and a baby Kal-El from some sort of alien that is absorbing Krypton's database. In present day, Clark is being rousted by the Police and he sarcastically sends them away. But his landlady is holding his costume and asking about this rumor that he's from outer space. A little later, he and Jimmy are watching a news broadcast where Glen Glenmorgan bitches out both The Daily Star AND Superman in the sames news conference. A strange homeless woman later tells Clark that a "ghost is watching" over him and that there's a "white dog". When Superman tries to rescue a cat stuck in a tree, a crowd pelts him with bottles and bricks. We see him looking at a picture of his earthly parents and they don't resemble the Ma and Pa Kent I grew up with. Later, the three journalists end up at a job site for an interview and mysterious robots come out of the sewers. As the book ends, John Corben prepares for a transformation and gets more than he bargained for in the form of an alien consciousness within him.
This book continues to get better and I can now say that Grant Morrison has begun to redeem himself. I am still not totally thrilled with the Clark Kent attitude and miss my old 'blue boyscout'. But it wears on me less and less each month. And talk about multiple subplots! Let's see: the alien on Krypton who may be somewhat related to the alien inside of Corben who SHOULD be transforming into Metallo. Plus, what's going on with Clark's landlady-a subplot left dangling midway through the book. One thing immediately noticeable, to me at least, was that Gene Ha's inking is becoming much more prominent as the fact that I'm positive he pencilled the Kryptonian prologue to this issue as it just screams TOP TEN at me. Love it. Okay Grant: keep this going-you're on a roll now.
ALL STAR WESTERN: Jonah and Dr. Arkham battle the horde from last issue and capture the Gotham Butcher in the process. At some sort of a victory celebration, a mysterious guy driving a wagon with a Gatling gun opens fire and of course, it's payback time. Seems the Followers of Cain have taken hold of Gotham. So Jonah Hex decides it's time for him to leave Gotham. But not before he sets up for a good old fashioned gun fight in the streets. The back-up story finishes the initial appearance of El Diablo. And then ANOTHER back-up story introducing the new Ray.
Really DC: you give me a main story that's 20 pages long and two back ups tales and I eat $3.99? I love the Jonah Hex tale, although the wrap to this storyline seems to come up a bit quicker than I expected. But then I get the second half of a back-up story that I really didn't care about the first time and then a preview that is in most of this month's DC books which, again, I DON'T CARE ABOUT!
ANIMAL MAN: Maxine and Buddy continue to battle their way through the Red. In our world, the rest of Buddy's family has to battle their way through the growing numbers tries to escape from the rot that has invaded. Mrs. Baker contacts Detective Krenshaw and arranges a meeting. Unfortunately, by the time Krenshaw arrives, he's not the man she thought he was.
Continuing weirdness in this series. If you're not reading this, you should be. For that matter, if you're reading this WITHOUT reading SWAMP THING or vice versa, then you are missing half the story. Jeff Lemire weirdness at his best!
AQUAMAN: Aquaman and Mera continue their battle with the undersea creatures and continue to deal with the constant verbal abuse from the townspeople. Aquaman makes the decision to visit marine biologist Stephen Shin, who once tried to kill a young Arthur Curry because he wouldn't take the scientist to Atlantis. Shin gives his opinion on one of the creatures and once again asks to go to Atlantis. Instead, Mera and Arthur make the trip, wondering if the creatures are only trying to survive rather than conquer.
Interesting issue. Not as bang up as the first two, but we get some action and a little back story and the introduction of a member of the supporting cast who, in Aquaman's word, could be a very dangerous man. Always great art from Ivan Reis. Hopefully the next issue will have more of a payoff to the current arc.
BATGIRL: Batgirl continues to chase after The Mirror and unfortunately can't stop him from blowing up an elevated train. She visits her father and then spends the rest of the book talking and sparring with Nightwing. She tells him that she has a mission that she needs to do alone and is he won't agree to her terms, then they can't be friends.
Slow moving issue this time around. Barabra
BATMAN: we start the issue out with a flashback that has Alan Wayne being haunted by owls. Back to the present, where Batman is doing a pretty poor job of getting Intel on the Owls.What he discovers is that the Owls have made their way into the homes of some of Gotham's most prominent folks and have been there for a long time. That's when the building our hero is in blows up with him in it.
A load of back story dropped in this issue, dealing with the Owl storyline. A lot of dialogue and a lot of true detective work on the part of Batman. Good stuff here. I know it doesn't seem like a lot happens because of the short synopsis, but trust me: this one if jammed with goodies. And as always, killer art from Greg Capullo. Can't wait to see how this whole story arc turns out.
BATMAN AND ROBIN: Damien and Alfred play chess and we find that Damien is NOT a good loser. We also find out he has no interest in the dog Bruce bought for him. So he splits and gets into some action. Morgan shows up, in costume of course and tries to lure Damien into going over to his dark side. Batman shows up trashes him for a bit before both he and Robin get taken out. They wake up in an abandoned drive-in theater and get ready for the big reveal.
Another stellar issue here as we learn that Damien is truly affected deep down from his raising and his family lineage. This is fast becoming more of a Robin book than a team book. And I'm okay with that. This dark Robin has been underplayed over the years and letting him come forth is great! Deep down we know he won't totally turn, as we already have one former sidekick who is a little more to the vigilante side of justice and don't need a second one. Peter Tomasi's story is moving along nicely and Patrick Gleason does another bang up job on art.
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT: So we quickly find out that this morphed Joker is actually Clayface, who has also been modified by the same thing affecting many of Gotham's nastiest. The Flash races to save the day as the White Rabbit makes her escape. Bruce ends up on a date with Jai who reminds him of someone else. He gets word that the White Rabbit has been seen and makes a hasty departure. He and The Flash go to Poison Ivy's place but things don't look very good there.
Great, great issue. The storyline just keeps moving forward and is much better than the first issue was. Paul Jenkins art continues to impress and just who is the White Rabbit.
BATWOMAN: Our heroine struggles with a lady in the lake(pun intended) before breaking free and getting to the surface. Immediately thereafter, Agent Chace wants to bring her in for terrorist activities but she breaks free. Meanwhile, Detective Sawyer is trying to reach Batwoman's alter ego only to find she's not home. Kate, totally freaked out by her experience, fires her trainee and they have a bit of a spat about it. Kate showers and goes to see Maggie, breaks down and they share a passionate kiss.
Wow! Yes kids: we have just had a one third of a page same sex kiss in a Mainstream comic. And the Apocalypse didn't happen despite it. I love this story and can't say it enough. This is a book like an onion filled with so many layers and levels that it's scary. A killer story with equally addictive art. One of my top three favorite NEW 52 books!
BIRDS OF PREY: The team that is starting to come together starts to deal with their potential new member: Poison Ivy. They try to interrogate a prisoner but he recites some gibberish and blows up(not like we haven't sen THIS before!). The Birds end up on a plane flight and things go from bad to worse when Canary is plagued by voices in her head asking her to tell a nursery rhyme. That can't be good-sounds like someone has a bomb in their brain.
Duane Swierczynski turns in another interesting issue as this team continues to try to work out their differences and come together. Not to mention solving the whole mystery of this exploding nursery rhyme thing. Jesus Saiz' art rocks and the book is just a huge bunch of good, not always clean fun.
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS: Deadman continues to grill the Librarian and she threatens revenge. He takes the book of his life and proceeds to end up back in the body of the legless veteran he seems to be responsible for working with. He recalls being assigned to a prisoner named Larry Glock who he could not save. He gets involved with the League of Anarchy and does a nice job of screwing up their big operation. For a finale, he ends up at the circus and gets ready to take a ride on The Devil’s Dive.
Another fun issue here as Boston Brand tries to find out his purpose in the “afterlife” and provides an interesting contrast to the way he is portrayed in JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK. This is more about trying to define the character and I credit Jenkins and Chang for moving the story along-remember: they only have five issues to get this done before they give way to the next mini-series. Anyway, pick this up. If you’re a long time fan of Deadman you will be thrilled to see someone handling the character with some grace and caring.
DEATHSTROKE: Deathstroke takes out an unknown assailant, then proceeds to meet with his close circle of friends. He is off to Colorado to kill one Elmer Burnham. In the process, a green and pink assailant, identical to the one Deathstroke killed on the first few pages, arrives to join the fray. Same results though: Legacy(yeah…this particular mercenary has a name) is toast! And someone gets to Burnham before our hero. No problem: Christoph delivers on the cash. But here comes the twist. Back in issue #1, our anti-hero killed off the partners he had been assigned. Well, the parents of poor little April are hiring meta-humans that fit the suit-giving the lifetime contracts: Deathstroke or Legacy to the death.
Okay, so the mindless and violent book gets itself a conscious! Nice! Looks like Slade Wilson may have to pay for his cries after all. Great book just keeps getting better and better thanks to the team of Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert. Keep it up guys-you may yet turn Deathstroke from a second rate Punisher to the number one position.
DEMON KNIGHTS: Xanadu casts protection spell that costs the woman her youth and possibly her life. Etrigan is a little burned up by it and takes it out on a cleric. So the rest of the knights prepare to fortify the stronghold. Vandal Savage does his best to rile up the troops, Etrigan goes back to hell long enough to release Jason Blood and Exoristos has a conversation with a young girl who gets motivated and goes out to scout the enemy. But she gets beheaded for her troubles.
Wow! When you first heard DEMON KNIGHTS, can you HONESTLY say you thought the book would be THIS? What a wild ride. Paul Cornell is doing a great job of crafting lengthy back stories to some of DC’s oldest characters and some new ones too. And there is a promised tie-in down the road to GRIFTER, STORMWATCH and VOODOO and can’t wait to see how that gets pulled together. Pick up this title! Seriously good fun!
DETECTIVE COMICS: Batman finds himself knee deep in the Dollmaker’s lair with a body who ISN’T Jim Gordon. Jim is being held captive and has had an organ removed. But Olivia is free and Gordon send\s her to find Batman and deliver a message to him. Escaping fro Dollmaker’s lair, Batman deduces that the real identity of his foe is Barton Mathis who is seeking revenge on Jim Gordon, who once shot Mathis’ demented, cannibalistic father. Olivia gets Gordon’s message to the Caped Crusader but she takes out a cop and it seems like Dollmaker is her father. Batman anticipates a trap as he arrives to do battle with a handful of constructed Jokers.
Kudos to Tony Daniels and Sandu Florea for making this one of the darkest superheroes titles on the shelf today. It is like reading SAW, only without the deathtraps. Dollmaker is one creepy villain, and the plot twist that Olivia is one of his “children” is awesome! This arc ends next issue and I can’t wait to see how it shakes out.
GREEN LANTERN: Hal and Sinestro come to an uneasy truce as Sinestro wants to destroy the Yellow Lantern Corps he created. Ganthet, no longer the Guardian he once was, seeks to do away with the Green Lantern Corps and replace them with something he calls the Third Army. The two Lanterns head off to Korugar where Sinestro witnesses the atrocities first hand that his Corps is inflicting on his people. He loses it and begins an attack, as does Hal who ends up disintegrating in a Yellow Lantern battery.
I love where this book is going. Geoff Johns takes the baddest of the bad, Thaal Sinestro, and tries to make him a good guy. Say TRIES because we all known Sinestro is serving his own desires and not the good of all. But he still maintains enough of his smarminess to make him TOTALLY unlikeable. Killer read with equally killer art fro Doug Mahnke.
THE HUNTRESS: Helena continues to hunt Moretti even as he makes plans to deliver girls to “The Chairman”. She gets into a tussle with one of The Chairman’s muscle men and even that will not keep her from Moretti.
Okay-so there isn’t much to where this story goes. We can see that, by issue #6, Helena will get her man and that will be that. What makes this fun is seeing how any immovable objects get thrown at her to try and stop her. The mini-series is half way home.
I, VAMPIRE: John Troughton fills us in on how he met Andrew Bennett while he attempts to care for the injured vampire. We discover that most of the U.S. is suffering through a vampire plague, including Boston, Star City and Coast City. As they travel through the tunnels of South Station, they encounter a young vampire hunter named Tig and she joins the merry band of vampire hunters. Next stop, Gotham City. Yeah-this is gonna be fun!
Joshua Hale Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino turn in a winner this time. We get a little more back story, the introduction of some new characters and try to figure out exactly where in DC Continuity this fits in. Or does it? Could this be one of 52 different realities’? We shall see. Glad to see this issue as an improvement from the last. It’s pretty obvious this title isn’t going to be an action blockbuster, but it does have noteworthy characters.
O.M.A.C.: Poor Buddy Blank. He gets arrested for trying to rob and A.T.M. and he needs to call on and off girlfriend Jody Robbins to bail hi out. He discovers the warden is dead and ends up being taken to a meeting with the New 52;s version of Psi-Man. Psi-Man calls O.M.A.C. out of Buddy’s body just as Maxwell Lord’s Checkmate Elite team arrive via what comic purists would call a Boom Tube, Sarge Steel and company do battle with O.M.A.C. who eventually escapes their grasp, as does Psi-Mon who is now loose in the world.
I have quickly found that the only people who like this book are crazies like me who have a love for Jack Kirby’s quirky styled characters. Dan Didio and Keith Giffen have embraced the legacy of Kirby here while carving a bold new path. Somewhere Jack is smiling that his creations are getting treated with such respect.
SUPERBOY: We start with two meta-killers from the NATURAL BORN KILLER school of killing. Superboy is having a meltdown which leads to his escape, even as Red and Rose debate. Like I said, he escapes in ends up right in the idle of a make-out session between Tony and Alison. He ends up scaring away Tony and flies Alison back home, just in tie to be attacked by a female creature from out of Pen 51. If that wasn’t enough, he heads back to N.O.W.H.E.R.E. to talk to ‘Red”, who morphs into a super strong woman that bursts out of her clothes. Interesting…
This book thrills me and kills me. Who is this mysterious girl? Where does she get the powers? How long before Superboy realizes his destiny? This book is not at all going where I thought it would and I like it that way. If this is supposed to be one of the future of DC titles(that IS what we were told the YOUNG JUSTICE line was all about, then I consider this the cornerstone.
SUICIDE SQUAD: The Squad tries to get out alive with the baby they secured in the last issue. The problem is that Mad Dog(boy-they basically dug up the Wild Dog character and bent him sideways) . Before that happened, Spider and Diablo become friendly(not like that) and discover that Voltaic was shot, not eaten(but we already knew that). Meanwhile Deadshot, and Harley become friendly(yes-EXACTLY LIKE THAT!)
So Mad Dog arrives and Spider gets shot, but looks to pull through thanks to Harley and Diablo. Mad Dog appears to get chopped by King Shark and just when you thought it was safe to go back to Belle Reve, here comes a new mission. And who left Captain Boomerang in charge?
Yeah…this is MY GUILTY PLEASURE TITLE!!! Harley looks hot, Deadshot is a slime ball and we’ve taken the THUNDERBOLTS concept of villains acting as heroes and turned it upside down. It’s MISSION IMPOSSIBLE on a whole new playing field. An Adam Glass story with art from Cliff Richards (no…not the singer) and this book totally rocks. Still very highly recommended as a good read! But…how did we end up with the OLD Capt. Boomerang? Is this POST BRIGHTEST NIGHT or did that NEVER happen? I’M CONFUSED!!!
SWAMP THING: Alec Holland gets to hook up and meet, for the first time as Alec Holland, Swamp Thing’s former long time lover Abigail Arcane. She fills him in on her past and warns him of the approaching rot coming to take over the green. They end up at a hospital when they get to see first-hand the atrocities of her half brother William Arcane.
Great issue that touches on the mythology and continues to pay tribute to those who came before. There is a beautiful rendition of Swampy and Abigail kissing which is taken straight from an issue of the old series. At least Yanick Paquette had the decency to put YEATES where it should say LEVIS. I know some people feel this title a\is an insult to the classic series, but I love it and continue to be excited as it races towards an eventual intersection with ANIMAL MAN.
WONDER WOMAN: All you need to know is this: Queen Hippolyta had sex with Zeus and that resulted in Princess Diana being born. Yeah-the story about Diana being made of clay is a lie.
Talk about rewriting continuity! This is the big one! Brian Azzarello hits one out of the ballpark with this issue and is sure to piss off long time fans of the character. But I like the twist and I’m not a huge fan of change in a title. This one certainly changes everything! Wonderfully written and nicely illustrated by Cliff Chiang. With each issue his art style gets closer to the style of one of my favorite “old school” artists, Trina Robbins. And that’s a good thing! Hop on the bandwagon and get this book. It is breaking new ground with each issue.
More #3 issues next time.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
DC's NEW 52-more #2's
THE HUNTRESS: Helena busts up a sex trafficking ring...well, sort of. She stops one operation and targets the guy at the top. A little tracking device is always helpful.
This book is actually more than what I just wrote, but that IS the plot in a nutshell. Good strong story from veteran Paul Levitz and complimentary art from Marcus To. This is a mini-series that could lead to something else, especially if Earth 2 EVER comes into play again. For now, I'll hang with it just to see what happens in the final reel, as it were.
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: Zatanna discovers that the Enchantress has been busy trashing the planet. Boston Brand is trying to have something resembling a date with Dawn(Dove) Granger and gets slapped by the wife of the guy who's body he has inhabited. John Constantine gets the you-know-what kicked out of him in order to be able to make him more receptive to the mystic. The multiple girl from last issue shows up at Dawn's apartment and Deadman possesses her, leading to a very interesting semi pseudo lesbian moment that sends Dawn packing. And Madame Xanadu appears to be sending The Enchantress towards the League.
Once again, Peter Milligan does his best to write a creepy superhero tale. It twists and turns and you never quite know which way it is going to come out. Who's the hero, who's the villain and how does this all fit into continuity. Couple that with Mikel Janin's artwork and this book
continues to be a weird winner.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: When last we left off, Superman and Batman were having a confrontation. Now it becomes a serious fight with Green Lantern trying to help but finding himself totally ineffectual. So he calls in the cavalry in the form of The Flash. So now it's a three on one battle and still the Man of Steel comes out on top. Cooler heads finally prevail and the four heroes take a hike as the military shows up. They convene at Superman's secret base-an underground printing press. The Mother Box they have starts to ping and the next thing you know, we're back at STAR Labs, Victor Stone has a confrontation with his father and STAR's own Mother Box explodes causing life changing damages to Victor, which will obviously lead to his transformation into Cyborg.
By far, a much better read than the first issue which brought the age of the reader down to a middle school level. Geoff Johns has decided to forgo some of the really ridiculous dialogue (although some do remain, but nowhere near as prevalent as in issue #1) in favor of some real plot. Introducing Barry Allen into the group and setting up the whole transformation of Victor Stone is great. And the whole setting up of the Fourth World baddies is cool and needs to lead to a great payoff. PLEASE don't let Darkseid look like a tool! yeah-I'm sending that to you Jim Lee. Okay-you made it worth my four bucks(what happened to "DRAWING THE LINE AT $2.99?") this month.
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL: The Hall of Justice has been fire bombed while the team is in Peru getting the you know what kicked out of them by a giant robot. Taking a play from the playbook of "better safe than sorry", the team retreats to higher ground. Guy Gardener sees the incident on TV and heads to meet his former lover who proceeds to give him an icy reception. Booster decides to call it quits and then is surprised to see his team fall in and stand behind him. Meanwhile, some big bad guy with a nasty axe like weapon arises and declares this is the day our planet dies.
Lots of action, some descent plot points and a bunch of fun. Nice going Mr. Jurgens. Great looking art from Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan. Interesting to see what their departure and the arrival of Marco Castiello will do to the look. All in all, a fun little read.
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE: Robotman gets eaten by a big robot snake. Garbage Man meets his old friend and she freaks at his new appearance. And Batman shows up too. And, in the third story, Tanga tries to adjust with being a hero.
'Sigh'-hate to say it, but I'm done with this book. Robotman does NOTHING for me, despite being part of my favorite non-team of all time. Garbage Man is fast becoming a cross between Sludge and Swamp Thing. And I like Lopresti's work, but I've already done SLUDGE back in the Malibu days. And while Tanga is interesting, it's not THAT interesting. And so this falls by the wayside. Sorry guys: I really wanted this to be one of my favorites but it's just a jumble.
OMAC: Brother Eye gives the back story to Kevin Cho, explaining to him how he is now O.M.A.C. At Project Cadmus, they clean up the place and Sarge Steel works out. you see: Cadmus is part of Checkmate. While Kevin tries to get some needed food and a drink, the local Police receive a BOLO(Be on the Look Out) alert with a real time satellite image of the diner Kevin is in. The cops arrive, the cook at the diner thinks they are after him(and he's right) and he transforms. Well, that just means that Brother Eye pulls some more strings(who do you think sent the BOLO in the first place, hmmm?) and transforms our hero into O.M.A.C. Rocker gets absorbed into Brother Eye after several bone jarring pages of Kirbyesquetransformed again and Kevin hops a bus out of town. Meanwhile, the man behind Cadmus is revealed. Surprise-it's Maxwell Lord!
Okay, so I'll take O.M.A.C. being a creature truly led around by his master and how he spouts no dialogue except for what he is told. The use of classic Kirby characters and tying together Cadmus, Checkmate AND Max Lord is genius! Dan Didio has made this book one of my quirky favorites and the fact that Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish channel Jack Kirby in every square fingered panel is pure genius. I only hope that the team of Scott Koblish and Scott Kolins (as it looks as though Giffens is off the book with issue #4) manages to do the same, as it won't play as well without that artistic kick. I absolutely love this book, even if I have to read each issue twice to capture all the nuances.
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS: We get a flashback of Jason Todd's time in training for his role as Red Hood. In present day, Roy and Jason are on their way to Hong Kong and Jason picks up a flight attendant. Waiting in Hong Kong is the former Starfire with a limo. Back at one of his safe houses, Jason gets attacked by Suzie Su and her crew. But they are messing with Red Hood, who makes the baddies pay. Later, high above the Himalayas, Jason and his team drop into the hidden temple and end up having to fight and kill zombified warriors from the temple. Unfortunately, these warriors used to be Jason's teachers. And now he is severely pissed!
Really curious to see where this book is going. I like the interesting interplay Scott Lobdell drops into conversations between the trio. And the whole sexual tension between the three is great. It's obvious that Red Hood is going to hunt down those responsible for the invasion of the temple and it won't be pretty. The piece that baffles me is the inclusion of the former Speedy and Starfire. If this is DC's version of X-FORCE, these two just don't fit. Again, curious to see where this goes...at least for another month.
RED LANTERNS: Atrocitus tells a tale of how The Yuevers inaded Ghan IX included the killing of the siblings of a little girl named Rixx. Atrocitus wreaks vengeance on the pilots of the ship that attacked the girl and her family, killing one and bringing the other to the site of the horror. The Red Lantern serves up vengeance on the Yuever, but Rixx runs in fear. Back on Ysmault, Atrocitus communicates with the deceased Krona and tries to decide who gets a power boost that will bring one to his level.
Another great issue from Milligan and Benes. Nice build-up and further fleshing out Atrocitus' character with the possibility down the road of Rixx becoming a Lantern. At least, that's where I would go with it. If not the best of the Lantern books, this is pretty darn close.
RESURRECTION MAN: Mitch goes to visit his dad and finds out he has passed on. He also finds out that one of his father's best friends used to be a super villain. Meanwhile, the Body Doubles, everyone's favorite big boobed assassins,hunt Mitch down and of course he dies...again. But where he ends up...well, that ain't good!
Another strong issue from Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagino. Fun story that moves along nicely and adds some nice background touches to Mitch ffamily tree. And Dagnino's art border between surreal and "Good Girl". A fun adventure worth riding on.
STORMWATCH: Adam-One verbally spars with part of the team while Midnighter continues to woo Apollo into not joining the team. On the moon, Harry Tanner has a conversation the the sentient being living there. Eventually, Jack, Adam and Jenny end up in the conversation among those on Earth while the creature on the Moon bust loose and lands in the middle of farm country and begins to wreak havoc.
Slightly uneven issue. I really LOVE the old book and this is now moving really slowly. Paul Cornell's story is fine, as is the work by the art team. But lets get this "please join the team" story out of the way and let the real action begin. The appearance of the alien creature on Earth should help and, when you couple in that the horn ties into Superman's mythos, it should result in a great story. I'm giving it a couple more to see where this arc goes.
SUICIDE SQUAD: The team has made their way to the stadium, as they were assigned last issue and are in the process of locking the place down. The place has been infected by a nasty virus that turns folks into zombies, so it needs to stay in quarantine. They also need to find a woman named Caley Burns, who apparently has the package they are looking for. And Deadshot has been giving the order that to contain the virus, they must "burn everything". So we get a book full of zombified sports fans getting totally descimated by the Suicide Squad. They shoot, stab, and even eat their victims. Eventually, they find Caley Burns who has turned into a monster and is about to finish off Harley when Killer Shark chews her head off. Deadshot performs a C-Section and delivers the baby, who apparently carries the the cure. And, like every good cover-up, someone has to pay, so Deadshot offs Voltaic, so that he can be passed off as a rogue super villain.
You have got to love a book that is so hardcore that it makes most other titles pale in comparison. Adam Glass delivers another dynamite, blood soaked story that is filled with gore and humor. And Federico Dallocchio's art drips blood on every page. Just like DEATHSTROKE, this is such a guilty pleasure book. As part of the continuing changes DC seems to be dropping on these books, Dallacchio is soon to be off the book. The good news? Tom Raney is on it. Can't wait to see where we go from here.
SUPERBOY: Superboy has just trashed the lab he's been living in and, despite getting comforted by "Red", he gets his butt handed to him by an unseen person who, if you look closely, is wearing some sort of uniform like everyone else at the lab. "Red" gets into it with Templar and then gets into it with everyone's favorite child of Deathstroke, Rose Wilson. They go off on a mission to take down some rioting alien inmates with moderate success. Before it's all done, Rose is on her way out of the facility and doing so alone.
This title continues to intrigue me. The retooling of Superboy's origin is either going to payoff or fall flat. Right now, it seems promising. The whole subplot with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. seem to be working at putting the group into the forefront of baddies in this new DC Universe. R.B. Silva's art continues to impress and Scott Lobdell-again: what can I say. He gives you a good story, snappy dialogue and a whole bunch of action. Good read indeed!
SUPERGIRL: Supergirl and her cousin fight it out as she adjusts to her new powers. Meanwhile, her pod is picked clean and what looks like a piece of Red K falls into someone's hands. Is it Luthor or someone else?
Still not totally sold on this title. I know there's a lot of ground to cover when you introduce the character AND give her back story AND try to tell how it feels to be a stranger in a strange land. But this whole thing is moving to slow. get the back story done, let her adjust a little quicker and let's get to the action. I think this gets one, maybe two more issues and then it may be gone.
SUPERMAN: Superman gets the heavy quiz session from general Lane, specifically about what his relationship is with his daughter. We all know the relationship, on a different level, but that has changed now that Lois is working as a producer instead of a reporter. For the second issue in a row, a mysterious creature comes to call intent on whipping Superman's backside, which this invisible creature does quite well. Luckily, video cameras CAN see the creature and the video feed of the fight helps the Big Blue Boy Scout defeat the creature. The story ends with us checking in on a night watchman who survived the inferno from last issue.He gets a visitor and they both speak...is that Kryptonese?
George Perez and Jesus Merino weave a wonderful tale of action and mystery. Mysterious aliens who may speak Kryptonese? Could these be the first of a group of Kryptonians from the Phantom Zone perhaps? Curious to see where this goes, but it's obvious these incidents in the first two issues are highly connected. Still a good read and it looks like this duo is just hitting their stride.
SWAMP THING: Swamp Thing and Alec Holland have a long talk about what has gone on before and what is about to come. There is also a lot of exposition about Alec's origin during his last incarnation as the creature. Not long after, Alec goes looking for his paycheck and finds that the entire town are now attacking him-all with their heads twisted around(yeah-we've seen this before). He gets saved just in time by a motorcycle riding Abigail Arcane. And now it gets interesting.
While not exactly like the classic series, this one hearkens back to it nicely. Scott Snyder is doing his best to channel those classic writers while Yanick Paquette really has got the gritty feel of the Bissette days. And the storyline is tying in nicely to events occurring in ANIMAL MAN. If you're reading one book and not the other, you are truly missing the full scope of this story. This is the best this book has felt in a long time and, despite my love of the original series and its' characters, I am fast becoming a huge fan of this book.
TEEN TITANS: The book starts with Kid Flash sitting in a cell and...SMOKING??? Red Robin and Cassie(don't call her Wonder Girl) ending up crashing at her place in West Hollywood and wait for N.O.W.H.E.R.E. to come a calling. The next day, Red Robin investigates the appearance of a new character called Skitter when he gets into a tussle with a pair of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. goons who are brothers who use one body to teleport. Skitter comes to the rescue and then attacks Tim, who gets saved by Cassie. Superboy, still on the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. payroll contemplates the orders he has been given to get Red Robin. And, if that wasn't enough, Kid Flash makes a break for it and meets...? Could this be Raven?
Hey-it's that Lobdell guy again cranking out another killer tale. I SO WANT TO HATE THIS BOOK, especially after the convoluted mess BOTH Titan books became in to OLD DCU. But I love the feel and the fun. And Brett Booth just puts the icing on the cake with his truly Image styled art. Again, I really DON'T want to like this book. But it throws enough curves, cool dialogue and action to keep me more than enthralled. May be the best of the YOUNG JUSTICE line in the NEW DCU.
WONDER WOMAN: On Mount Olympus, Hera tells her daughter Strife about Zeus' latest dalliance and charges her with getting involved. Wonder Woman is on Paradise Island trying to save Hermes life and encounters her mother and her sister. Her pregnant charge gets the Wonder Woman life story regarding the whole making her out of mud legend. Strife attacks the Amazons only to drop the bombshell that she and Diana are sisters. We know what that means? Zeus is Diana's father. So, does that mean the classic legend is all B.S.?
Brian Azzarello is in the process of turning thew whole WONDER WOMAN mythos upside down and throwing away everything that was ever written. Normally, I'd be raising a MAJOR stink but considering this poor character has had so many origins and changes over the year, I am somewhat at peace with that. While Cliff Chiang's style is nothing like some of those who came before, from Giordiano to Perez and beyond, it is slowly growing on me. This is one weird book. As someone told me, it's kind of like 100 BULLETS set on Paradise Island. Love it!
Next time, a look at some of the issue #3's.
This book is actually more than what I just wrote, but that IS the plot in a nutshell. Good strong story from veteran Paul Levitz and complimentary art from Marcus To. This is a mini-series that could lead to something else, especially if Earth 2 EVER comes into play again. For now, I'll hang with it just to see what happens in the final reel, as it were.
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: Zatanna discovers that the Enchantress has been busy trashing the planet. Boston Brand is trying to have something resembling a date with Dawn(Dove) Granger and gets slapped by the wife of the guy who's body he has inhabited. John Constantine gets the you-know-what kicked out of him in order to be able to make him more receptive to the mystic. The multiple girl from last issue shows up at Dawn's apartment and Deadman possesses her, leading to a very interesting semi pseudo lesbian moment that sends Dawn packing. And Madame Xanadu appears to be sending The Enchantress towards the League.
Once again, Peter Milligan does his best to write a creepy superhero tale. It twists and turns and you never quite know which way it is going to come out. Who's the hero, who's the villain and how does this all fit into continuity. Couple that with Mikel Janin's artwork and this book
continues to be a weird winner.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: When last we left off, Superman and Batman were having a confrontation. Now it becomes a serious fight with Green Lantern trying to help but finding himself totally ineffectual. So he calls in the cavalry in the form of The Flash. So now it's a three on one battle and still the Man of Steel comes out on top. Cooler heads finally prevail and the four heroes take a hike as the military shows up. They convene at Superman's secret base-an underground printing press. The Mother Box they have starts to ping and the next thing you know, we're back at STAR Labs, Victor Stone has a confrontation with his father and STAR's own Mother Box explodes causing life changing damages to Victor, which will obviously lead to his transformation into Cyborg.
By far, a much better read than the first issue which brought the age of the reader down to a middle school level. Geoff Johns has decided to forgo some of the really ridiculous dialogue (although some do remain, but nowhere near as prevalent as in issue #1) in favor of some real plot. Introducing Barry Allen into the group and setting up the whole transformation of Victor Stone is great. And the whole setting up of the Fourth World baddies is cool and needs to lead to a great payoff. PLEASE don't let Darkseid look like a tool! yeah-I'm sending that to you Jim Lee. Okay-you made it worth my four bucks(what happened to "DRAWING THE LINE AT $2.99?") this month.
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL: The Hall of Justice has been fire bombed while the team is in Peru getting the you know what kicked out of them by a giant robot. Taking a play from the playbook of "better safe than sorry", the team retreats to higher ground. Guy Gardener sees the incident on TV and heads to meet his former lover who proceeds to give him an icy reception. Booster decides to call it quits and then is surprised to see his team fall in and stand behind him. Meanwhile, some big bad guy with a nasty axe like weapon arises and declares this is the day our planet dies.
Lots of action, some descent plot points and a bunch of fun. Nice going Mr. Jurgens. Great looking art from Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan. Interesting to see what their departure and the arrival of Marco Castiello will do to the look. All in all, a fun little read.
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE: Robotman gets eaten by a big robot snake. Garbage Man meets his old friend and she freaks at his new appearance. And Batman shows up too. And, in the third story, Tanga tries to adjust with being a hero.
'Sigh'-hate to say it, but I'm done with this book. Robotman does NOTHING for me, despite being part of my favorite non-team of all time. Garbage Man is fast becoming a cross between Sludge and Swamp Thing. And I like Lopresti's work, but I've already done SLUDGE back in the Malibu days. And while Tanga is interesting, it's not THAT interesting. And so this falls by the wayside. Sorry guys: I really wanted this to be one of my favorites but it's just a jumble.
OMAC: Brother Eye gives the back story to Kevin Cho, explaining to him how he is now O.M.A.C. At Project Cadmus, they clean up the place and Sarge Steel works out. you see: Cadmus is part of Checkmate. While Kevin tries to get some needed food and a drink, the local Police receive a BOLO(Be on the Look Out) alert with a real time satellite image of the diner Kevin is in. The cops arrive, the cook at the diner thinks they are after him(and he's right) and he transforms. Well, that just means that Brother Eye pulls some more strings(who do you think sent the BOLO in the first place, hmmm?) and transforms our hero into O.M.A.C. Rocker gets absorbed into Brother Eye after several bone jarring pages of Kirbyesquetransformed again and Kevin hops a bus out of town. Meanwhile, the man behind Cadmus is revealed. Surprise-it's Maxwell Lord!
Okay, so I'll take O.M.A.C. being a creature truly led around by his master and how he spouts no dialogue except for what he is told. The use of classic Kirby characters and tying together Cadmus, Checkmate AND Max Lord is genius! Dan Didio has made this book one of my quirky favorites and the fact that Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish channel Jack Kirby in every square fingered panel is pure genius. I only hope that the team of Scott Koblish and Scott Kolins (as it looks as though Giffens is off the book with issue #4) manages to do the same, as it won't play as well without that artistic kick. I absolutely love this book, even if I have to read each issue twice to capture all the nuances.
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS: We get a flashback of Jason Todd's time in training for his role as Red Hood. In present day, Roy and Jason are on their way to Hong Kong and Jason picks up a flight attendant. Waiting in Hong Kong is the former Starfire with a limo. Back at one of his safe houses, Jason gets attacked by Suzie Su and her crew. But they are messing with Red Hood, who makes the baddies pay. Later, high above the Himalayas, Jason and his team drop into the hidden temple and end up having to fight and kill zombified warriors from the temple. Unfortunately, these warriors used to be Jason's teachers. And now he is severely pissed!
Really curious to see where this book is going. I like the interesting interplay Scott Lobdell drops into conversations between the trio. And the whole sexual tension between the three is great. It's obvious that Red Hood is going to hunt down those responsible for the invasion of the temple and it won't be pretty. The piece that baffles me is the inclusion of the former Speedy and Starfire. If this is DC's version of X-FORCE, these two just don't fit. Again, curious to see where this goes...at least for another month.
RED LANTERNS: Atrocitus tells a tale of how The Yuevers inaded Ghan IX included the killing of the siblings of a little girl named Rixx. Atrocitus wreaks vengeance on the pilots of the ship that attacked the girl and her family, killing one and bringing the other to the site of the horror. The Red Lantern serves up vengeance on the Yuever, but Rixx runs in fear. Back on Ysmault, Atrocitus communicates with the deceased Krona and tries to decide who gets a power boost that will bring one to his level.
Another great issue from Milligan and Benes. Nice build-up and further fleshing out Atrocitus' character with the possibility down the road of Rixx becoming a Lantern. At least, that's where I would go with it. If not the best of the Lantern books, this is pretty darn close.
RESURRECTION MAN: Mitch goes to visit his dad and finds out he has passed on. He also finds out that one of his father's best friends used to be a super villain. Meanwhile, the Body Doubles, everyone's favorite big boobed assassins,hunt Mitch down and of course he dies...again. But where he ends up...well, that ain't good!
Another strong issue from Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagino. Fun story that moves along nicely and adds some nice background touches to Mitch ffamily tree. And Dagnino's art border between surreal and "Good Girl". A fun adventure worth riding on.
STORMWATCH: Adam-One verbally spars with part of the team while Midnighter continues to woo Apollo into not joining the team. On the moon, Harry Tanner has a conversation the the sentient being living there. Eventually, Jack, Adam and Jenny end up in the conversation among those on Earth while the creature on the Moon bust loose and lands in the middle of farm country and begins to wreak havoc.
Slightly uneven issue. I really LOVE the old book and this is now moving really slowly. Paul Cornell's story is fine, as is the work by the art team. But lets get this "please join the team" story out of the way and let the real action begin. The appearance of the alien creature on Earth should help and, when you couple in that the horn ties into Superman's mythos, it should result in a great story. I'm giving it a couple more to see where this arc goes.
SUICIDE SQUAD: The team has made their way to the stadium, as they were assigned last issue and are in the process of locking the place down. The place has been infected by a nasty virus that turns folks into zombies, so it needs to stay in quarantine. They also need to find a woman named Caley Burns, who apparently has the package they are looking for. And Deadshot has been giving the order that to contain the virus, they must "burn everything". So we get a book full of zombified sports fans getting totally descimated by the Suicide Squad. They shoot, stab, and even eat their victims. Eventually, they find Caley Burns who has turned into a monster and is about to finish off Harley when Killer Shark chews her head off. Deadshot performs a C-Section and delivers the baby, who apparently carries the the cure. And, like every good cover-up, someone has to pay, so Deadshot offs Voltaic, so that he can be passed off as a rogue super villain.
You have got to love a book that is so hardcore that it makes most other titles pale in comparison. Adam Glass delivers another dynamite, blood soaked story that is filled with gore and humor. And Federico Dallocchio's art drips blood on every page. Just like DEATHSTROKE, this is such a guilty pleasure book. As part of the continuing changes DC seems to be dropping on these books, Dallacchio is soon to be off the book. The good news? Tom Raney is on it. Can't wait to see where we go from here.
SUPERBOY: Superboy has just trashed the lab he's been living in and, despite getting comforted by "Red", he gets his butt handed to him by an unseen person who, if you look closely, is wearing some sort of uniform like everyone else at the lab. "Red" gets into it with Templar and then gets into it with everyone's favorite child of Deathstroke, Rose Wilson. They go off on a mission to take down some rioting alien inmates with moderate success. Before it's all done, Rose is on her way out of the facility and doing so alone.
This title continues to intrigue me. The retooling of Superboy's origin is either going to payoff or fall flat. Right now, it seems promising. The whole subplot with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. seem to be working at putting the group into the forefront of baddies in this new DC Universe. R.B. Silva's art continues to impress and Scott Lobdell-again: what can I say. He gives you a good story, snappy dialogue and a whole bunch of action. Good read indeed!
SUPERGIRL: Supergirl and her cousin fight it out as she adjusts to her new powers. Meanwhile, her pod is picked clean and what looks like a piece of Red K falls into someone's hands. Is it Luthor or someone else?
Still not totally sold on this title. I know there's a lot of ground to cover when you introduce the character AND give her back story AND try to tell how it feels to be a stranger in a strange land. But this whole thing is moving to slow. get the back story done, let her adjust a little quicker and let's get to the action. I think this gets one, maybe two more issues and then it may be gone.
SUPERMAN: Superman gets the heavy quiz session from general Lane, specifically about what his relationship is with his daughter. We all know the relationship, on a different level, but that has changed now that Lois is working as a producer instead of a reporter. For the second issue in a row, a mysterious creature comes to call intent on whipping Superman's backside, which this invisible creature does quite well. Luckily, video cameras CAN see the creature and the video feed of the fight helps the Big Blue Boy Scout defeat the creature. The story ends with us checking in on a night watchman who survived the inferno from last issue.He gets a visitor and they both speak...is that Kryptonese?
George Perez and Jesus Merino weave a wonderful tale of action and mystery. Mysterious aliens who may speak Kryptonese? Could these be the first of a group of Kryptonians from the Phantom Zone perhaps? Curious to see where this goes, but it's obvious these incidents in the first two issues are highly connected. Still a good read and it looks like this duo is just hitting their stride.
SWAMP THING: Swamp Thing and Alec Holland have a long talk about what has gone on before and what is about to come. There is also a lot of exposition about Alec's origin during his last incarnation as the creature. Not long after, Alec goes looking for his paycheck and finds that the entire town are now attacking him-all with their heads twisted around(yeah-we've seen this before). He gets saved just in time by a motorcycle riding Abigail Arcane. And now it gets interesting.
While not exactly like the classic series, this one hearkens back to it nicely. Scott Snyder is doing his best to channel those classic writers while Yanick Paquette really has got the gritty feel of the Bissette days. And the storyline is tying in nicely to events occurring in ANIMAL MAN. If you're reading one book and not the other, you are truly missing the full scope of this story. This is the best this book has felt in a long time and, despite my love of the original series and its' characters, I am fast becoming a huge fan of this book.
TEEN TITANS: The book starts with Kid Flash sitting in a cell and...SMOKING??? Red Robin and Cassie(don't call her Wonder Girl) ending up crashing at her place in West Hollywood and wait for N.O.W.H.E.R.E. to come a calling. The next day, Red Robin investigates the appearance of a new character called Skitter when he gets into a tussle with a pair of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. goons who are brothers who use one body to teleport. Skitter comes to the rescue and then attacks Tim, who gets saved by Cassie. Superboy, still on the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. payroll contemplates the orders he has been given to get Red Robin. And, if that wasn't enough, Kid Flash makes a break for it and meets...? Could this be Raven?
Hey-it's that Lobdell guy again cranking out another killer tale. I SO WANT TO HATE THIS BOOK, especially after the convoluted mess BOTH Titan books became in to OLD DCU. But I love the feel and the fun. And Brett Booth just puts the icing on the cake with his truly Image styled art. Again, I really DON'T want to like this book. But it throws enough curves, cool dialogue and action to keep me more than enthralled. May be the best of the YOUNG JUSTICE line in the NEW DCU.
WONDER WOMAN: On Mount Olympus, Hera tells her daughter Strife about Zeus' latest dalliance and charges her with getting involved. Wonder Woman is on Paradise Island trying to save Hermes life and encounters her mother and her sister. Her pregnant charge gets the Wonder Woman life story regarding the whole making her out of mud legend. Strife attacks the Amazons only to drop the bombshell that she and Diana are sisters. We know what that means? Zeus is Diana's father. So, does that mean the classic legend is all B.S.?
Brian Azzarello is in the process of turning thew whole WONDER WOMAN mythos upside down and throwing away everything that was ever written. Normally, I'd be raising a MAJOR stink but considering this poor character has had so many origins and changes over the year, I am somewhat at peace with that. While Cliff Chiang's style is nothing like some of those who came before, from Giordiano to Perez and beyond, it is slowly growing on me. This is one weird book. As someone told me, it's kind of like 100 BULLETS set on Paradise Island. Love it!
Next time, a look at some of the issue #3's.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
DC's NEW 52-second issue critiques
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!! You have been warned!!!
I have neither the time, money nor patience for all of DC's NEW 52. Time and money is a given and patience...well: some of the titles just didn't do anything for me. So, out of what's left, here's what issue #2 had in store. Please note: some of these books are still on the bubble, so these issues are critical to me continuing with a series.
ACTION COMICS: Superman has been captured by Lex Luthor and General Lane and he's been tested and tortured. Doctor Irons, he of Steel fame, and Sergeant Corben, he of Metallo fame, are introduced. And he's seriously being tortured-Sarin Gas and everything. He gets free by using microwaves from his eyes to fry their equipment. He finds the rocket that brought him to Earth and hears voices from Krypton. Before it's through, Corben makes his plans for the future and an alien ship arrives. Looks like a Brainiac to me.
Much, MUCH better than issue #1. Superman is a bit more humble. The fact he's getting the crap kicked out of him to the torture chair helps. Lots more action, lot of plot development and great art from Rags Morales and Brent Anderson. Keep this up guys and it's a keeper!
ALL STAR WESTERN: Masked men are heading for a holed up Arkham and Jonah Hex and Hex is just mowing them down pretty savagely. We find out the masked guys follow the teachings of the Crime Bible(nice!). Gotham's most influential plot and plan at what is now a house on Blackgate Isle.Hex and Arkham arrive with plans to waste everyone and find they have to free Police Chief Cromwell. But Hex finds himself in a monster headlock. This issue also has n El Diablo backup that introduces the character to the NEW DC Universe.
Yeah...this one still rocks! The backup is nice, but I really wanted more story. Still on the must read list.
ANIMAL MAN: Buddy and Maxine decide to make a trip to the Red Place and save the tree. Monkeys are behaving weird and the hippos are very pregnant and not in a good way. And the zoo keepers are possessed and hungry for visitors...also, not in a good way. In the Red Place, Maxine and Buddy travel through and it's very trippy.
More great stuff here that is very reminiscent of the best of Vertigo. This is so old school
SWAMP THING it's scary. This book brings creepy to a whole new level. Great read!.
AQUAMAN: Fishermen are becoming lunch for some long toothed sea creatures. And there are more on shore(food that is!). The local sheriff (well, he's not but says he is) shows up at Aquaman and Mera's place and asks for help. At the docks, confusion ensues and someone opens a cocoon and out comes the sea creatures. There's a little bit of a slaughter and Aquaman gets told he's food and needs to go to "The Trench".
Not as much fun as the first issue, but still a really good book. Some nice quiet moments with Mera and Arthur and there is still some highly insulting comments made to our pair. For my money, it's still a winner. But make this storyline work, guys so it doesn't become a remake of HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP.
BATGIRL: Batgirl is still fighting The Mirror, who killed a cop last issue. Commissioner Gordon gets called in and is stunned to find out that Batgirl is back in town. She tussles with The Mirror in a graveyard and pisses him off when she reveals she has some of his personal papers(guess she figured out who it is, huh?). Barbara borrows some clothes from her roommate so she can go out on a date. Following the date, she puts the pieces together and finds out that The Mirror has a death wish. he was saved from a car crash while his family dies. Now he wants everyone who is a Good Samaritan. His next target: a train full of people.
Still fun. Still no major revelations on how Barbara can walk after so long, but I'm okay with that. The payoff will come at some point. And the banter between Babs and her roommate is great, especially how she is known as G.B.G.(you had to read issue #1 for that). Still liking this a lot. I hated the idea of Oracle getting out of her chair but damn: I MISSED BARBARA GORDON in the suit!
BATMAN: Book begins with Bruce Wayne taking a long fall from a really high building. Then comes the flashback. In a nutshell, we discover that the John Doe with Dick Grayson's DNA was because grabbed Dick's arm at an event and that's how the DNA got under his fingernails. The guy was pin cushioned by someone from the Court of Owls, who attacks and attempts to kill Bruce. He dies in the process, but apparently...not really.
Fun issue! The introduction of this mysterious villain and his issues with Wayne and people who may or may not be connected to him has me guessing. Nice script with a lot of incidental back story dialogue by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo delivers another artistic performance. This one definitely stays on the list and is probably quickly earning a spot as the top "core Bat" books.
BATMAN AND ROBIN
The issue was okay. Patrick Gleason's art is dynamic as always and Peter J. Tomasi's story was nice. A few plot points delivered and a lot of time spent on Robin's anger management issues. Need to pick up the story pace in the next few issues to maintain any kind of momentum on this book. It's on the reading bubble right now, but it is the only place to get a major dose of the Boy Wonder.
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT: Batman is getting the you-know-what kicked out of him by a super string, mutated Two face. Eventually, he just collapse to end this battle. I guess some of Arkham's inmates are claiming they were injected with something, which we get told resembles Scarecrow's Fear Toxin, and saw a woman dressed as a White Rabbit. Robin and Nightwing go up against someone who thinks he's The Ventriloquist and he too has been mutated. In fact most of Batman's allies are up against villains who have turned into something more deadly than before. batman interrogates Harvey Dent and ends up fighting some of the Joker's gang on a moving train. he ends up inside and meets the White Rabbit and...a highly mutated Joker!
As always, great looking art from David Finch. And the story from he and Paul Jenkins isn't that bad. It has a ton more action than last issue and that's because most of the allies were involved in one way or another. We REALLY don't need another solo Bat book on the shelves. A team book? Now that WOULD be cool! So here's a suggestion: lose the idea of bringing back BATMAN INC. and let this be the team book. It'll up the action quota and eliminate one more duplicating title.
BATWOMAN: Batwoman and her faithful ward beat up the bad guys while Kate tells how she turned down Batman and his offer to join Batman Inc. Detective Sawyer and Chase have a confrontation. Kate and Maggie go on a date. The ghostly woman kills again. Batwoman breaks into Sawyer's office to look for clues, gets caught and Maggie calls the D.E.O.. And Batwoman, well she's in a tidal wave of trouble.
Yeah...I still love this book. The artwork is great, the story is funky and we get a lesbian romance in a mainstream book. Rock on, folks: this book is still having the makings of a major cult classic.
BIRDS OF PREY: Starling and Black Canary survive the explosion at the airport and Canary scoops up some DNA before they split in one of those golf cart things they use at the airport. Katana arrives and begins speaking with her dead husband. The dead guy has the effects of a drug called Stroke and drug labs have been getting hit. So the trio go to check it out, bust up the place and take a prisoner. And they bring her to Poison Ivy. Meet the newest member.
I know that some people bailed on this book after issue #1, but I'm still a fan. It's not Gail Simone and it's not Oracle in a wheelchair. But this is a wild ride down a bumpy road and it's still on the list for a while.
CATWOMAN: we start with the end of some pretty hot sex between Catwoman and the Dark Knight. After meeting with her friend Lola, she heads out to a dance and hooks up with Bruce Wayne(wait...didn't she...oh yeah...this is Selina and Bruce not Catwoman and Batman).She finds the Russians from issue #1 and does a number on them with Bruce almost pursuing her. When she returns home, she finds Lola tied to a chair, beaten and a bloody bullet hole in her head. Looks like Bone and his men are responsible.
Woah! This book hits on all cylinders! It's got rough sex, funny lines, bloody deaths and looks great too! Judd Winick may have hit his finest hour. This is one of my favorites, despite the controversy about the whole Batman/Catwoman sex thing in issue #1. Save your pennies for this one. This is truly a hot book in more ways than one!
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS: Deadman has a conversation with Rama and learns his true place in the universe. He goes back to the distraught veteran and hooks him up with a nice lady in a bar. And then he moves on. He weasels his way into the Moonstone Club-a place where supernatural folks hang. He starts a fight and ends up in the Library where he learns his final fate.
Okay...still uncertain here. I like the fact that we're finally giving old Boston Brand some depth and establishing his place in the world. If this whole search for his future continues, the book will be really good. If too much time is spent watching him body hop and help people, well...we have had nearly 40 years of that already. Give me something new. So...I guess another issue will have to come out before I decide to keep or dump.
DEATHSTROKE: Slade meets with Mikel, concerning last issue's little debacle and the nuclear secrets. Mikel has his own trick up his sleeve: a bunch of hired guns to take Slade down. And what do you think happens next? Gratuitous blood and death. We have beheadings, people being run through, knives to heads, bodies cut in half...FACES cut in half! Yeah-good stuff! Mikel runs and Slade is in hot pursuit. We get an armed helicopter thing and more guys. More bodies and more bloodshed. Hey wait: here comes a guy in a battlesuit. Yeah-he gets short circuited. The chopper crashes and cuts Mikel in half too. Slade talks with the big guy in charge and he gets told this was all done for show. Send someone better next time.
Gratuitous violence and little plot. yeah-a fanboy dream! It's not always about hard hitting stories and deep meaning. Sometimes you just need some blood, guts and mindless entertainment. Yeah-this is the book. Blood, guts and crazy action. It's a roller coaster ride down the silly slope but it's fun. Picture your favorite action movie that, no matter how stupid it may be, you just love. This is that action movie. Yeah-this goes on for the long haul with me.
DEMON KNIGHTS: Nothing like a little battle with a dragon in a tavern. Vandal Savage likes the idea of eating one. The Demon goes inside and causes it to explode! Morgana and Mordru plot and plan. The Knights visit the local town and warn them of bad tidings. Etrigan and Xanadu head off on a date and run into barbarians riding flying dinosaurs. The Shining Knight, still androgynous to us all, jumps into battle. Xanadu runs out of energy and makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Yeah-totally cool. I'm a huge fan of all these characters, at least those we have seen before. In this settings, they are that much cooler. Love the dialogue too! When was the last time you heard a hero facing a danger mutter the phrase "Oh dung!" Put this high on your reserve list as it is a fun ride down the comic roller coaster. Definitely approved as a good read!
DETECTIVE COMICS: Bruce discusses business with Hugh Marder. Bruce gets physical with Wendy Rivers.Gordon discusses the state of affairs with Dr. Arkham. Batman chides Gordon for his nicotine habit. Gordon shows off a photo his the suspect from the murder last issue. Batman goes after the suspect and finds him dead. Batman gets attacked by some crazy family led by a guy named The Dollmaker. Gordon gets stitched up...literally!
Not a great issue. Far too much useless dialogue and not a whole lot of plot development. Well, unless you figure that the guy who helped Joker last issue was this villain and possibly the guy with part of his face removed is The Joker. But that's just a guess. After such a great first issue, this one is a dud. But it IS Batman and I don't see me canning this one anytime soon...unless they keep stinking up the joint like this one did!
FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E.: Frank and the gang evacuate the kids from their captor then dive into the lake to take out the monsters that appeared last issue. We get Nina Mazursky's origin story, which is weird and VERY troubling! Also troubling is that they rip the brain out of a creature and learn that the townspeople have been sacrificing kids to the creatures for years. When the team head off to join up with Mrs. F. they learn there's a whole lot of bad news going down!
Strange little book. Best thing about it is the J. G. Jones cover. no, seriously: you either like this or hate it. There is no in-between. I like it because it is weird. Again, not a huge fan of the art by Alberto Ponticelli but I guess it fits the book. I can't say I totally recommend this book because it is so weird.
GREEN LANTERN: Hal Jordan teams up with Sinestro in an attempt to get his power ring and career back. Unfortunately, Sinestro controls all and makes Jordan look like a fool as he attempts a rescue. Seems that Sinestro is now gathering all the accolades. Korgar shows up and Sinestro slays him. He enlists Jordan to help him free his home world which has been enslaved by the Yellow Lanterns.
Well, the plot thickens. Geoff Johns turns in another great story and Doug Mahnke's art is still killer. This book always entertains and, although this issue was a bit light, it's still better than a lot out there.
GREEN LANTERN CORPS: The team finds itself still trying to deal with an entire civilization being slaughtered. They go off to defend the planet Xabas. A major battle ensues, Isamot arrives with his limbs removed and the entire army of the enemy comes bursting through the protective barrier.
The first issue of this book was a major surprise for me as the writing, specifically the great dialogue, held this book aloft. This issue is more what I had expected from this series. No substance at all. So disappointed in it. Fernando Pasarin's artwork continues to dazzle, but Tomasi's script falls totally flat this time around. There's a ton of action but not much else. I'm giving this book issue #3 and that may be it. I'm just so bummed by this follow up to such a great beginning.
I VAMPYRE: Mary, Queen of Blood rallies her followers in the forthcoming war with her former lover and now enemy Andrew Bennett. They meet, he takes out a bunch of the followers. They debate the moral ramifications of being a vampire. She leaves him to fight off her zealots. She declares herself ruler of the planet.
Slow second issue here. We went from a fitting modern era sequel to the classic 1970's series and then we get this. Disappointing is a mild description. I had hoped for more than a lengthy "I used to love you but now I want to kill you" sappy TWILIGHT love story. Sure, there's some blood and guts but not enough to fill this book. Is the third time the charm? Hope so because this book is on life support with me after this issue.
NIGHTWING: The book starts where we left off last month with Nightwing getting a beating from this mystery baddie. Upon defeating him, but he flees in the process. Not long after, as Dick is trying to get some sleep, Raya Vestri shows up at his door saying she needs him to take her to Atlantic City. She tells him that he needs to visit Mr. Haly: his first boss and owner of Haly Circus. Turns out the old guy is dying and gives Dick the deed to the circus. On the flight home, Dick and Raya get busy(this is a Bat Book after all and there seems to be a sex scene of some sorts in almost every title). The mysterious baddie calls Dick, threatening to kill Haly. So the usual fight ensues, Haly's house burns down and he dies in Nightwing's arms. But not before he reveals the secret: he knows Dick is Nightwing.
Interesting book that I never expected to like. Yeah, it's Nightwing. I used to be Robin and a Teen Titan. I'm a second banana in a main book and now a second banana in my OWN book. but this title rocks! The whole concept of Dick revisiting his roots and then all these little bits dropped in. hell, as far as I'm concerned the mysterious bad guy, who will turn out to be someone connected with the circus, is secondary. The core story of Dick, Raya, Haly, the Circus and all of that gives Dick Grayson a new life and new meaning as a character. If he truly ends up running the circus, it leads to some many different avenues that this could follow. I look forward to future issues.
More #2 musings next time.
I have neither the time, money nor patience for all of DC's NEW 52. Time and money is a given and patience...well: some of the titles just didn't do anything for me. So, out of what's left, here's what issue #2 had in store. Please note: some of these books are still on the bubble, so these issues are critical to me continuing with a series.
ACTION COMICS: Superman has been captured by Lex Luthor and General Lane and he's been tested and tortured. Doctor Irons, he of Steel fame, and Sergeant Corben, he of Metallo fame, are introduced. And he's seriously being tortured-Sarin Gas and everything. He gets free by using microwaves from his eyes to fry their equipment. He finds the rocket that brought him to Earth and hears voices from Krypton. Before it's through, Corben makes his plans for the future and an alien ship arrives. Looks like a Brainiac to me.
Much, MUCH better than issue #1. Superman is a bit more humble. The fact he's getting the crap kicked out of him to the torture chair helps. Lots more action, lot of plot development and great art from Rags Morales and Brent Anderson. Keep this up guys and it's a keeper!
ALL STAR WESTERN: Masked men are heading for a holed up Arkham and Jonah Hex and Hex is just mowing them down pretty savagely. We find out the masked guys follow the teachings of the Crime Bible(nice!). Gotham's most influential plot and plan at what is now a house on Blackgate Isle.Hex and Arkham arrive with plans to waste everyone and find they have to free Police Chief Cromwell. But Hex finds himself in a monster headlock. This issue also has n El Diablo backup that introduces the character to the NEW DC Universe.
Yeah...this one still rocks! The backup is nice, but I really wanted more story. Still on the must read list.
ANIMAL MAN: Buddy and Maxine decide to make a trip to the Red Place and save the tree. Monkeys are behaving weird and the hippos are very pregnant and not in a good way. And the zoo keepers are possessed and hungry for visitors...also, not in a good way. In the Red Place, Maxine and Buddy travel through and it's very trippy.
More great stuff here that is very reminiscent of the best of Vertigo. This is so old school
SWAMP THING it's scary. This book brings creepy to a whole new level. Great read!.
AQUAMAN: Fishermen are becoming lunch for some long toothed sea creatures. And there are more on shore(food that is!). The local sheriff (well, he's not but says he is) shows up at Aquaman and Mera's place and asks for help. At the docks, confusion ensues and someone opens a cocoon and out comes the sea creatures. There's a little bit of a slaughter and Aquaman gets told he's food and needs to go to "The Trench".
Not as much fun as the first issue, but still a really good book. Some nice quiet moments with Mera and Arthur and there is still some highly insulting comments made to our pair. For my money, it's still a winner. But make this storyline work, guys so it doesn't become a remake of HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP.
BATGIRL: Batgirl is still fighting The Mirror, who killed a cop last issue. Commissioner Gordon gets called in and is stunned to find out that Batgirl is back in town. She tussles with The Mirror in a graveyard and pisses him off when she reveals she has some of his personal papers(guess she figured out who it is, huh?). Barbara borrows some clothes from her roommate so she can go out on a date. Following the date, she puts the pieces together and finds out that The Mirror has a death wish. he was saved from a car crash while his family dies. Now he wants everyone who is a Good Samaritan. His next target: a train full of people.
Still fun. Still no major revelations on how Barbara can walk after so long, but I'm okay with that. The payoff will come at some point. And the banter between Babs and her roommate is great, especially how she is known as G.B.G.(you had to read issue #1 for that). Still liking this a lot. I hated the idea of Oracle getting out of her chair but damn: I MISSED BARBARA GORDON in the suit!
BATMAN: Book begins with Bruce Wayne taking a long fall from a really high building. Then comes the flashback. In a nutshell, we discover that the John Doe with Dick Grayson's DNA was because grabbed Dick's arm at an event and that's how the DNA got under his fingernails. The guy was pin cushioned by someone from the Court of Owls, who attacks and attempts to kill Bruce. He dies in the process, but apparently...not really.
Fun issue! The introduction of this mysterious villain and his issues with Wayne and people who may or may not be connected to him has me guessing. Nice script with a lot of incidental back story dialogue by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo delivers another artistic performance. This one definitely stays on the list and is probably quickly earning a spot as the top "core Bat" books.
BATMAN AND ROBIN
The issue was okay. Patrick Gleason's art is dynamic as always and Peter J. Tomasi's story was nice. A few plot points delivered and a lot of time spent on Robin's anger management issues. Need to pick up the story pace in the next few issues to maintain any kind of momentum on this book. It's on the reading bubble right now, but it is the only place to get a major dose of the Boy Wonder.
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT: Batman is getting the you-know-what kicked out of him by a super string, mutated Two face. Eventually, he just collapse to end this battle. I guess some of Arkham's inmates are claiming they were injected with something, which we get told resembles Scarecrow's Fear Toxin, and saw a woman dressed as a White Rabbit. Robin and Nightwing go up against someone who thinks he's The Ventriloquist and he too has been mutated. In fact most of Batman's allies are up against villains who have turned into something more deadly than before. batman interrogates Harvey Dent and ends up fighting some of the Joker's gang on a moving train. he ends up inside and meets the White Rabbit and...a highly mutated Joker!
As always, great looking art from David Finch. And the story from he and Paul Jenkins isn't that bad. It has a ton more action than last issue and that's because most of the allies were involved in one way or another. We REALLY don't need another solo Bat book on the shelves. A team book? Now that WOULD be cool! So here's a suggestion: lose the idea of bringing back BATMAN INC. and let this be the team book. It'll up the action quota and eliminate one more duplicating title.
BATWOMAN: Batwoman and her faithful ward beat up the bad guys while Kate tells how she turned down Batman and his offer to join Batman Inc. Detective Sawyer and Chase have a confrontation. Kate and Maggie go on a date. The ghostly woman kills again. Batwoman breaks into Sawyer's office to look for clues, gets caught and Maggie calls the D.E.O.. And Batwoman, well she's in a tidal wave of trouble.
Yeah...I still love this book. The artwork is great, the story is funky and we get a lesbian romance in a mainstream book. Rock on, folks: this book is still having the makings of a major cult classic.
BIRDS OF PREY: Starling and Black Canary survive the explosion at the airport and Canary scoops up some DNA before they split in one of those golf cart things they use at the airport. Katana arrives and begins speaking with her dead husband. The dead guy has the effects of a drug called Stroke and drug labs have been getting hit. So the trio go to check it out, bust up the place and take a prisoner. And they bring her to Poison Ivy. Meet the newest member.
I know that some people bailed on this book after issue #1, but I'm still a fan. It's not Gail Simone and it's not Oracle in a wheelchair. But this is a wild ride down a bumpy road and it's still on the list for a while.
CATWOMAN: we start with the end of some pretty hot sex between Catwoman and the Dark Knight. After meeting with her friend Lola, she heads out to a dance and hooks up with Bruce Wayne(wait...didn't she...oh yeah...this is Selina and Bruce not Catwoman and Batman).She finds the Russians from issue #1 and does a number on them with Bruce almost pursuing her. When she returns home, she finds Lola tied to a chair, beaten and a bloody bullet hole in her head. Looks like Bone and his men are responsible.
Woah! This book hits on all cylinders! It's got rough sex, funny lines, bloody deaths and looks great too! Judd Winick may have hit his finest hour. This is one of my favorites, despite the controversy about the whole Batman/Catwoman sex thing in issue #1. Save your pennies for this one. This is truly a hot book in more ways than one!
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS: Deadman has a conversation with Rama and learns his true place in the universe. He goes back to the distraught veteran and hooks him up with a nice lady in a bar. And then he moves on. He weasels his way into the Moonstone Club-a place where supernatural folks hang. He starts a fight and ends up in the Library where he learns his final fate.
Okay...still uncertain here. I like the fact that we're finally giving old Boston Brand some depth and establishing his place in the world. If this whole search for his future continues, the book will be really good. If too much time is spent watching him body hop and help people, well...we have had nearly 40 years of that already. Give me something new. So...I guess another issue will have to come out before I decide to keep or dump.
DEATHSTROKE: Slade meets with Mikel, concerning last issue's little debacle and the nuclear secrets. Mikel has his own trick up his sleeve: a bunch of hired guns to take Slade down. And what do you think happens next? Gratuitous blood and death. We have beheadings, people being run through, knives to heads, bodies cut in half...FACES cut in half! Yeah-good stuff! Mikel runs and Slade is in hot pursuit. We get an armed helicopter thing and more guys. More bodies and more bloodshed. Hey wait: here comes a guy in a battlesuit. Yeah-he gets short circuited. The chopper crashes and cuts Mikel in half too. Slade talks with the big guy in charge and he gets told this was all done for show. Send someone better next time.
Gratuitous violence and little plot. yeah-a fanboy dream! It's not always about hard hitting stories and deep meaning. Sometimes you just need some blood, guts and mindless entertainment. Yeah-this is the book. Blood, guts and crazy action. It's a roller coaster ride down the silly slope but it's fun. Picture your favorite action movie that, no matter how stupid it may be, you just love. This is that action movie. Yeah-this goes on for the long haul with me.
DEMON KNIGHTS: Nothing like a little battle with a dragon in a tavern. Vandal Savage likes the idea of eating one. The Demon goes inside and causes it to explode! Morgana and Mordru plot and plan. The Knights visit the local town and warn them of bad tidings. Etrigan and Xanadu head off on a date and run into barbarians riding flying dinosaurs. The Shining Knight, still androgynous to us all, jumps into battle. Xanadu runs out of energy and makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Yeah-totally cool. I'm a huge fan of all these characters, at least those we have seen before. In this settings, they are that much cooler. Love the dialogue too! When was the last time you heard a hero facing a danger mutter the phrase "Oh dung!" Put this high on your reserve list as it is a fun ride down the comic roller coaster. Definitely approved as a good read!
DETECTIVE COMICS: Bruce discusses business with Hugh Marder. Bruce gets physical with Wendy Rivers.Gordon discusses the state of affairs with Dr. Arkham. Batman chides Gordon for his nicotine habit. Gordon shows off a photo his the suspect from the murder last issue. Batman goes after the suspect and finds him dead. Batman gets attacked by some crazy family led by a guy named The Dollmaker. Gordon gets stitched up...literally!
Not a great issue. Far too much useless dialogue and not a whole lot of plot development. Well, unless you figure that the guy who helped Joker last issue was this villain and possibly the guy with part of his face removed is The Joker. But that's just a guess. After such a great first issue, this one is a dud. But it IS Batman and I don't see me canning this one anytime soon...unless they keep stinking up the joint like this one did!
FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E.: Frank and the gang evacuate the kids from their captor then dive into the lake to take out the monsters that appeared last issue. We get Nina Mazursky's origin story, which is weird and VERY troubling! Also troubling is that they rip the brain out of a creature and learn that the townspeople have been sacrificing kids to the creatures for years. When the team head off to join up with Mrs. F. they learn there's a whole lot of bad news going down!
Strange little book. Best thing about it is the J. G. Jones cover. no, seriously: you either like this or hate it. There is no in-between. I like it because it is weird. Again, not a huge fan of the art by Alberto Ponticelli but I guess it fits the book. I can't say I totally recommend this book because it is so weird.
GREEN LANTERN: Hal Jordan teams up with Sinestro in an attempt to get his power ring and career back. Unfortunately, Sinestro controls all and makes Jordan look like a fool as he attempts a rescue. Seems that Sinestro is now gathering all the accolades. Korgar shows up and Sinestro slays him. He enlists Jordan to help him free his home world which has been enslaved by the Yellow Lanterns.
Well, the plot thickens. Geoff Johns turns in another great story and Doug Mahnke's art is still killer. This book always entertains and, although this issue was a bit light, it's still better than a lot out there.
GREEN LANTERN CORPS: The team finds itself still trying to deal with an entire civilization being slaughtered. They go off to defend the planet Xabas. A major battle ensues, Isamot arrives with his limbs removed and the entire army of the enemy comes bursting through the protective barrier.
The first issue of this book was a major surprise for me as the writing, specifically the great dialogue, held this book aloft. This issue is more what I had expected from this series. No substance at all. So disappointed in it. Fernando Pasarin's artwork continues to dazzle, but Tomasi's script falls totally flat this time around. There's a ton of action but not much else. I'm giving this book issue #3 and that may be it. I'm just so bummed by this follow up to such a great beginning.
I VAMPYRE: Mary, Queen of Blood rallies her followers in the forthcoming war with her former lover and now enemy Andrew Bennett. They meet, he takes out a bunch of the followers. They debate the moral ramifications of being a vampire. She leaves him to fight off her zealots. She declares herself ruler of the planet.
Slow second issue here. We went from a fitting modern era sequel to the classic 1970's series and then we get this. Disappointing is a mild description. I had hoped for more than a lengthy "I used to love you but now I want to kill you" sappy TWILIGHT love story. Sure, there's some blood and guts but not enough to fill this book. Is the third time the charm? Hope so because this book is on life support with me after this issue.
NIGHTWING: The book starts where we left off last month with Nightwing getting a beating from this mystery baddie. Upon defeating him, but he flees in the process. Not long after, as Dick is trying to get some sleep, Raya Vestri shows up at his door saying she needs him to take her to Atlantic City. She tells him that he needs to visit Mr. Haly: his first boss and owner of Haly Circus. Turns out the old guy is dying and gives Dick the deed to the circus. On the flight home, Dick and Raya get busy(this is a Bat Book after all and there seems to be a sex scene of some sorts in almost every title). The mysterious baddie calls Dick, threatening to kill Haly. So the usual fight ensues, Haly's house burns down and he dies in Nightwing's arms. But not before he reveals the secret: he knows Dick is Nightwing.
Interesting book that I never expected to like. Yeah, it's Nightwing. I used to be Robin and a Teen Titan. I'm a second banana in a main book and now a second banana in my OWN book. but this title rocks! The whole concept of Dick revisiting his roots and then all these little bits dropped in. hell, as far as I'm concerned the mysterious bad guy, who will turn out to be someone connected with the circus, is secondary. The core story of Dick, Raya, Haly, the Circus and all of that gives Dick Grayson a new life and new meaning as a character. If he truly ends up running the circus, it leads to some many different avenues that this could follow. I look forward to future issues.
More #2 musings next time.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
DC's NEW 52-the final five
Okay, so here is the last last five of the first issues for DC's NEW 52 books. It's a mixed back of titles and a mixed bag of reviews.
Created by Jim Lee, STORMWATCH first appeared in 1993 and through it's many incarnations, has been a cornerstone of what once was the Wildstorm Universe. The were run by the United nations and were overseen by The Weatherman. Over the years, the series was written by such notables as Ron Marz, James Robinson and a notable run by Warren Ellis.
Issue #1 begins in Hyperspace where a horn is noted. yeah...the same one from SUPERMAN #1. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Jack Hawksmoor former member of The Authority and currently the leader of Stormwatch and his team(Projectionist-a new character, and the Martian Manhunter) are trying to convince Apollo to join up. Apparently Apollo is an Internet sensation as he has become famous due to a video of him killing a child molester. Well, Apollo splits leaving the team's mission as a failure.
Back in space, one of the team gets attacked by the moon and is dragged below the surface where he comes face to face, so to speak with a huge eyeball that proceeds to ear-probe our hapless team member. We see visions of the Demon Knights, an early "Stormwatch" team and a "Shadow Cabinet"(a nod of sorts to the old Milestone book perhaps?). Consequently, the poor guy is now taken over by...the beast.
Meanwhile, off in the Himalayas, Jenny Quantum tests her powers on The Horn which she attempts to teleport to the deck of the headquarters. And the hunt goes on for Apollo, complete with Martian Manhunter transforming into some kind of hideous monster.Apollo is told he could be the most powerful man on the planet and soon after, the team is taken out in very short order by Midnighter. At last: lovers reunited.
Okay, I am a huge fan of the original book, especially after Warren Ellis got his hooks in it. And I have high hopes for this book, but it's just not where I want it to be yet. I understand it's the first issue and since about six people actually read the previous version of the title, you have to set it up for the newcomers. I'm cool with that, but let's not spend the first six issues setting things up.
Let's get to the good stuff! Paul Cornell has great experience, being responsible for some DOCTOR WHO material, YOUNG AVENGERS, "War of the Supermen" and is currently doing DEMON KNIGHTS. It's a well paced tale and drops enough bits to keep me interested. And Miguel Sepulveda's art is nice and reminds me of the art when Doug Manhke was doing the book.
I still have high hopes for the book and will hang with it for awhile. Hey: maybe we can even find a way to bring back Rose Tattoo...hint, hint, hint.
BTW: the mysterious hooded woman is in the first panel of page 13, right before Apollo meets the Stormwatch team for the second time.
Priscilla Kitaen is VOODOO, or at least she was when introduced in WILDC.A.T.S. #1 back in 1992. True to form, she is an exotic dancer, just as she was in the original series. And she's being checked out by this guy and a girl who we assume work for the government or some other shady organization. The guy gets a private lap dance and threatens to have her cut up like something from Area 51. Voodoo turns into her true form and shreds him, then becomes him and goes off to meet his partner. In between, the female partner kicks some thugs asses and we get some interesting chatter between the exotic dancers.
Yawn...never thought a book about an alien stripper could be so lame. Shame on you Ron Marz for turning in this truly awful book.But Sami Basri's art is awesome...sure knows how to draw exotic dancers! How much does this book stink? Well, DC has announced that they want a "change of direction" of the book and, starting with issue #5, Josh Williamson will take over as the writer and there will be a crossover with STORMWATCH and GRIFTER. And the book's editor, Rex Ogle, is leaving DC Comics altogether. Gee...if I was DC, I'd make the book a four issue mini-series and cut it off at the pass. This book is so bad, I didn't even waste time to do a cover scan for this review.
BTW: the mysterious hooded woman is in the next to last panel of page 8, right after the thugs get beat.
The TEEN TITANS have a long and storied career. From the earliest days, through the George Perez/Marv Wolfman era that became the NEW TEEN TITANS, through the most recent incarnation, which had two teams. Now we revisit the past and present the future.
Metahuman teenagers are popping up all over and the newest one, Kid Flash, tries his hardest to help a situation but manages to totally screw it up in the process. gee-the media is treating these guys like their mutants or something. Tim Drake, the former Robin, is monitoring this when some bad guys come in-bad guys who have been capturing metahuman teens. So what does the ever resourceful Red Robin do? He blows up the joint! Really? Not something he learned from Batman. At least not the Batman we know.
Cassie Sandmark, once known as (and don't ever call me) Wonder Girl, gets stopped driving a little fast by an alleged police officer. Actually, he seems to be connected to N.O.W.H.E.R.E., which seems to be one of the major bad guys in this new DC Universe. Red Robin comes to the rescue and forces her to show her hand and display the powers she claims she didn't have.
Back somewhere else, a certain redhead and her boss are in discussion regarding releasing...Superboy.
This is different. I mean, it doesn't come at you full on. It kind of creeps up on you. We don't get a lot of characters here, with only appearances by Red Robin, Kid Flash and(don't call me) Wonder Girl. Oh...and Superboy at the very end. So we don't have a full team yet. In fact, we don't even have an offer to MAKE a team. But I can assume that the various heroes pictured on the cover will band together and form that team.
Good job from Scott Lobdell, as usual(although one of his other books was a clunker in my opinion). Brett Booth rocks. I love his work, going back to his co-creating BACKLASH. His style is clean and his facial expressions are great. Keep this book on schedule and keep Booth on it!
Since this book is just starting to put pieces of the puzzle on the table, I'll give it a few issues. For now, let's just say that it doesn't suck.
BTW: the mysterious hooded woman is in the first panel of page 12, just over the police officer's left shoulder.
The last two books are new DC titles, but not bearing the NEW 52 logo, so it's uncertain if you consider them NEW 52 titles. If so, then that makes 54. Either way, here's a couple of quick ones on THE HUNTRESS and MY GREATEST ADVENTURE.
In a nutshell, The Huntress breaks up a shipment of girls who are being put on the White Slavery market and heads to Naples for further investigation. Again she foils one of the bad guys and, just like the messenger after the first bust up, this guy pays for his failure with a bullet to the head. Boom...roll credits.
Paul Levitz redeems himself on this book with a nice tight, action filled story. A little background is offered, like she has connections at The Daily Planet and some references to Batman. But the fact that she is referenced as "the suit" leads me to believe that this is at the early days of her career and we can wash away the whole Earth 2 connection and the Birds of Prey. Or can we? Could this be the first appearance of Earth 2? Anyway, Levitz' story rocks and the icing on this cake is Marcus To's art. His pencils are clean, inks by John Dell enhancing and then Andrew Dalhouse adds the colors and the whole book just explodes off the page. It looks as great as it reads.
This is a mini-series and it's a winner. Thanks to my friend Jeff T. for recommending it. We don't always agree on titles, but he hit this one on the head!
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE is a six issue, three story anthology.
The first tale features an old favorite of mine, Robotman. Robotman got his start in the original MY GREATEST ADVENTURE series as part of the now legendary Doom Patrol. It seems his story continues from his most recent story in DOOM PATROL. He works at a detective agency, he's a robot with Cliff Steele's brain inserted and he fights bad guys. Well, better than the storyline where he was dating a bisexual, post op transsexual, I guess.
The second story, Garbage Man, picks up from where his tale left off in WEIRD WORLDS, which ended with issue #6. The back story, for those unfamiliar, has Attorney Richard Morse experimented on by folks connected to Titan Account. Thinking their experiment a failure, Morse gets dumped in a swamp and, much like Swamp Thing before him(in fact creator Aaron Lopresti has claimed the character was created to fill the void left by Swamp Thing), the chemicals in him react with the swamp and turns him into Garbage Man. Anyway, the short tale here has his somewhat girlfriend pining for him and our hero turning up in good old Gotham City to begin his work anew.
The third tale, Tanga, also hails from WEIRD WORLDS which kind of makes sense as Tanga was designed to be a 12 issue storyline in a book that only ran 6 issues. To describe Tanga is to use creator Kevin MacGuire's own description: she is a purple space girl with great cosmic powers, trying to connect with folks and usually stuff goes wrong. That's true here too, as she meets with a space alien and, before the tale's end, stuff hits the fan.
I really haven't fathomed a full opinion on this title yet. I love the Robotman character, but he seems under utilized here. Garbage Man is Swamp Thing redux and Tanga? Star Sapphire with issues? Great creators working hard on their creations. I'll give it a couple and see where it goes. maybe if I had READ WEIRD WORLDS, I might have more of a connection with Garbage Man and Tanga but unfortunately I don't. May be time to hit the back issue bins, huh?
So thus ends the NEW 52 reviews. Next time, I'll give you a taste of how issues 2 and beyond on the series I'm sticking with are. Will I continue past #2 on these titles? Tune in and see!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
DC's NEW 52-The LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES franchise
I'm a long time fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes, going back to the days when a 14 year old kid by the name of Jim Shooter crafted their stories. I moved through the days of Cary Bates, Gerry Conway and the now legendary run of Paul Levitz. During those days, artists like Dave Cockrum, Mike Grell and James Sherman became known to me and I followed their respective careers after they left the title. I suffered through the numerous reboots, following ZERO HOUR, the "threeboot" in 2004 and the 2007 Post Crisis reboot. I even suffered through the sometimes confusing FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF 3 WORLDS series.
But now the team is back in two distictively different books, one of which is crafted by longtime scribe Paul Levitz.
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES picks up its' continuity from the series that began in 2010, with Levitz again at the helm, this time with Francis Portela handling the art chores. The story begins with some of the team on the planet Panoptes, where they're involved on a mission on the planet Panoptes. High above the planet, Colossal Boy is bumming that he's not in action and that his wife and some of the others are in another book(he doesn't know that, but we do). Chameleon Boy becomes a fly and infiltrates the military installation on Panoptes.
At Legion Headquarters, Brainac 5 and Mon-El are conferencing with some of the other Legion embers and this is where we learn that the "Flashpoint effect has definitely closed off time travel to the past". Well...at least SOMEONE recognizes that Flashpoint happened. On the planet, Chemical Kid and Dragonwing swap some bodily fluids and get captured. And we learn that the Watchworld is sending out messages to the Dominators, which is not what it was designed to do.
Things go from bad to worse when a pretty pissed of Daxamite appears. Okay, when I first read this I thought it was awful! I'll be honest, I haven't read that much of the Legion books in the last few years because of the convoluted and changed continuity. So I came into this kind of in the dark. On second read, it's a typical Levitz script and I'm cool with that. While I don't know ALL of the characters, I know enough to get by. Portella's art is great and hearkens to images of some of the great who have had their pencils on the Legion over the years.
Things go from bad to worse when a pretty pissed of Daxamite appears. Okay, when I first read this I thought it was awful! I'll be honest, I haven't read that much of the Legion books in the last few years because of the convoluted and changed continuity. So I came into this kind of in the dark. On second read, it's a typical Levitz script and I'm cool with that. While I don't know ALL of the characters, I know enough to get by. Portella's art is great and hearkens to images of some of the great who have had their pencils on the Legion over the years.
So here's my advice: if you're a fan of the the Legion, you will probably like this book. If you have never read the Legion, then you probably will be confused but have no history to get tripped up on. Either way, give it a shot. I may actually do the same.
BTW: the mysterious hooded woman, who may or may NOT be Legion member Glorith, is on the catwalk in the Panoptes control room, first panel on page 7.
The sister book to LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES is LEGION LOST. In it, a group of Legionaires have travelled in their time bubble from the 31st century chasing future terrorist Alastor. Unfortunately, the Flashpoint Effect has screwed things up and they all land in 21st Century Earth. Alastor trashes Red Lakes Falls, Minnesota before the stranded Legion members capture him. But not before he releases a pathogen which guarantees they can't go back to their present. Alastor detonates and apparently takes two of the Legion with him. So the team is still stuck in the present and now missing two more members.
Fabian Nicieza is a great writer and this is not one of his better works. I can't say it's his story or just what he's been given to work with. Not the most exciting of Legion members here and the whole lost in space and time story was boring to me. I don't care about the characters or if they ever go back. Sorry Fabian: don't think it's your fault but you're stuck with it. On the plus side, Pete Woods art is dynamite, as always!
Can't recommend the book just because I found the story boring. If you like the Legion and need to read the WHOLE story, then grab it. Otherwise, save your pennies for the core book.
BTW: the mysterious hooded woman is in the background of the first panel on page 10, where Alastor is rampaging.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)