Bought/Thought 4/9/08

[THANOSRULES]

I really look foward to Dread's posts and can't believe he would be banned. I skim more than Post but I always value his opinion.

 

[CaptainCanada]

It's only probationary, so he'll be with us again soon enough. Seriously, though, a B/T thread just isn't the same without him.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

Dude. MANY, MANY people write reviews in these threads. I don't what's up with you swinging on Dread's nutsack, but his reviews are generally the ones I ignore (because of length) or read just to laugh at. Everybody else's reviews I usually read regardless of the poster who posted them.

BLASPHEMER!!

 

[MyPokerShirt]

Elijya -- why's dread banned?? Enlighten us oh great moderator... please?? You KNOW there's no Data Protection Act when it comes to the Hype (heck, there's no DPA in the USA anyway is there??). C'mon...


edit: I so should have merged these last two posts. d'oh.

 

[Darthphere]

It's about time Dread got banned.

 

[Anubis]

It's only probationary, so he'll be with us again soon enough. Seriously, though, a B/T thread just isn't the same without him.

Nah, that looked like a full ban to me, unless they changed it.

I feel sorry for him. I got unjustly banned once. It ain't right.

 

[Darthphere]

It's a probation. He'll probably back tomorrow.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

Nah, that looked like a full ban to me, unless they changed it.

I feel sorry for him. I got unjustly banned once. It ain't right.

Will someone pllllllllease dish the gossip? The suspense is killing me!! I could pretend I have some sort of shame, but I just don't. Was it racist? Is he a big, dirty racist? Anti-semitic? Sexist? Homophobic? Did he complain about a certain moderator's choice of merkin?? I HAVE to KNOW!

 

[Anubis]

Well, he is a satanist.

 

[Anubis]

It's a probation. He'll probably back tomorrow.

I see, they did change it. This morning it just said Banned user.

 

[Xofenroht]

Wow, I'm so thrilled that I got the chance to read the reviews of "Dread issue 12". Damn, I could've sworn that was on my pull list.

Womp womp wooooomp.

 

[Doc Destruction]

It's about time Dread got banned.

For WHAT? Talking too much? He's like the most level headed guy on here. Hell, you and I should have been banned LONG before him.

That said - greatest moment of the week in COUNTDOWN, no less. Mary Marvel using Kyle to beat Donna senseless, Bam Bam style. Hysterical!

 

[Anubis]

Wow, I'm so thrilled that I got the chance to read the reviews of "Dread issue 12". Damn, I could've sworn that was on my pull list.

Womp womp wooooomp.

Not as good as Dread #06, when he finally got that stick removed...

 

[yenaled]

Meh, haven't we all got a probationary ban at some point.

It's what SHH is all about.

 

[Xofenroht]

Not as good as Dread #06, when he finally got that stick removed...

It was a stick? I thought it was a pine tree?

Oh well, maybe I have a variant.

 

[GNR]

Hulk Gray - 9/10 - Sale's Hulk is so strange and bizarre,very unique take.As with most of Loeb's collabs with Sale,this was close to perfection.

Hawkman Rise of the Golden Eagle - 10/10 - Johns' and Graymiotti's 40+ issue run on Hawkman is one of my favorites.The run had it all and really showed why Hawkman is one of the DCU's best and most badass.

Flash: Return of Barry Allen - 10/10 - I love Waid.Everything he's done from Kingdom Come,JLA Year One,Flash and GL:Brave and the Bold to the current Brave and the Bold series have been some of DC's finest.This book really emphasized the whole legacy aspect and character of the Flash, Wally and Barry.I found it more emotional than I expected and LaRoque's depicition of these speedsters' abilites in action are mind blowing.I might have to check out the rest of Waid's Flash run if it's as awesome as this book was.

 

[Anubis]

Meh, haven't we all got a probationary ban at some point.

It's what SHH is all about.

Yes, it is a right of passage. Some of us have had several.

It was a stick? I thought it was a pine tree?

Oh well, maybe I have a variant.

You're thinking of Dread Volume 1 # 274. That was also the same issue we find out his fetish for dead cripples. The first documented Necro-Abasiophilic. Truly cutting age storytelling at the time.

 

[Xofenroht]

Yes, it is a right of passage. Some of us have had several.



You're thinking of Dread Volume 1 # 274. That was also the same issue we find out his fetish for dead cripples. The first documented Necro-Abasiophilic. Truly cutting age storytelling at the time.

Oh god...he's not going to kill Stephen Hawking now is he?

csad: yes, shame on me, but somebody had to do it )

 

[IFryKids]

Is Bendis a moderator on this board now or something?

 

[Dread]

I actually am kind of embarassed and touched that discussion about the probationary ban got this kind of a response. I usually don't like distracting from the B/T.

The short end of the story is that it was a case of mistaken identity; my IP address matched that of a troll on the Hype. Because I use a cyber cafe for most of my posts (where I go after school/work), my IP address is rather common. But I explained myself to the mod and several people vouched for me. I don't know who exactly by name, but to all of you, thanks. It is appreciated.

Everything's cool now. Thanks for the concern.

Dude. MANY, MANY people write reviews in these threads.

Word. I like that my reviews have a rep here, but I never wanted to disparage other people who post them, too. I read every one that is posted and sometimes incorporate the opinions into my drafts, like if a "consensus" about something is brewing. Still, this is all a MB and while my opinion is important to me, it rarely is any better than anyone else's. So give some of the other loyal B/T'ers some attention and a read.

I'll try to get things back on track with reviews soon enough. This was a small but good week. I got BOOSTER GOLD #8, FANTASTIC FOUR #556, THE LAST DEFENDERS #2, and NOVA #12.

 

[J. J. Jameson]

Still gotta read Wolverine, and my only other book this week is Amazing Spider-Man #556

Zeb Wells is a Godsend. While the first arc of BND by Slott and McNiven featured beautiful pencils, the story wasn't anything groundbreaking. The second arc by Guggenheim and Larroca was bland and came off as Goblin re-hash story, mostly because it was. "Menace", as this new Goblin was called, was a 2 dementional character with little appeal because we've really seen him before. The last arc by Gale and Jimenez was trash and puke-worthy. I had all but lost faith in this "Brand New Day", being skeptical from the beginning.

Then Zeb Wells comes a long. He does two things right from the start: He gets rid of the corny Stan Lee-imitating opening sequences and the dumb 70s-ish narration. A word to comic creators: It was cool when Stan did it back in the old school; when you do it, it's cheesy. Wells clearly has a grip on the Spider-Man character. He uses humor at the right spots and writes dialog that flows smoothly. He quickly creates a fun, enjoyable Spider-Man story that anyone could pick up and enjoy. Really, he's restored my faith in BND and Spider-Man in general. Take note, I still don't agree with a dozen different things that they've done with Spidey, but this is a good story. And the art is wonderfully moody and surprisingly not a mess of black lines and color. My hat goes off to Mr. Wells.

 

[iloveclones]

I actually am kind of embarassed and touched that discussion about the probationary ban got this kind of a response.

Actually, we all kind of thought you deserved it. Wait until we get ahold of those vouchers.....

 

[Dread]

Now that the misunderstanding is cleared up, how about some more reviews? Great job on the ones so far; it doesn't surprise me that Zeb Wells is hitting ASM out of the park. When he shattered the low expectations of YOUNG AVENGERS/RUNAWAYS during CW and produced a fun, likeable and appropriate team up with a lot of action and character, I realized that whatever ills he wrote for NEW WARRIORS, he probably learned from the experience for the better. Everyone is allowed one mulligan in their career. Or in the case of some creators, several.

This was a short week, but an overall great one in quality. Even the worst book of the four listed would be about a B in quality, and that's pretty damn good. Couldn't they all be like this?

Dread's BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 4/9/08:

BOOSTER GOLD #8: Or issue nine if you get technical, the storyline involving the ramifications of Booster saving Blue Beetle continue onward and quite frankly it is a compelling and exciting storyline, full of heart and character.

I remember during Darwyn Cooke's commentary on JUSTICE LEAGUE: NEW FRONTIER in which at one point he mentions a scene and scenerio where he says, "both of them are right". In a way, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are both right. No one is going to begrudge Micheal for saving his best friend from being murdered. Why should he believe Rip's theory about "solid time" when time has been altered before? When countless heroes have risen from the grave? Besides, emotions would surely come into play. He saw his chance and took it, and no one could begrudge him for it. On the other side, Ted has been hinting that altering what was meant to be, as he is catching on that he was "destined" to be killed by Max Lord, has ruined things and he does try to convince Booster to reverse it for the greater good. Again, a noble, selfless gesture and that is in character, too.

Of course, at some point Booster and Beetle will probably agree that fixing the time-stream is more important than their friendship, that being heroes is better than both of them surviving, and for all we know that could be how Johns & Katz want to end their run (since we know from previews that with issue #12, or technically 13, a new creative team is on). But the point isn't always the conclusion, but the ride getting there. Johns & Katz are not rushing things, letting things run their course, and all the while keeping the tone serious and dark overall, but not without amusing interludes to break the tension, so things are not so dire. More stories could benefit from this.

Undoing Beetle's death undid the JLA discovering about the OMAC Project, so now Lord & Brother Eye have seemingly destroyed all the major superheroes, and Max is using Superman as his personal brainwashed flunky. He can't get Kal to kill (just yet), but pummeling other heroes is just fine. Blue & Gold fall into the token resistance movement, led by the bickering Hawkman & Green Arrow, and comprising of C-List fodder like Pantha, Anthro, and Mad Dog. I only them vaguely but that is just fine for this story. They plan an attack on Lord's stronghold, but it doesn't work and virtually the entire team is killed or OMAC-isized aside for Booster & Ted. There is also another Countdown homage, when Lord shoots Beetle in the shoulder. Since Johns wrote that, it verges on tooting his own horn, but it is done well so I didn't mind. Rip begins to track down the Time-Breakers while they, including the "Black Beetle" of the future, plot to undo Booster Gold before he becomes the threat he is destined to be to the villians, noting that there is a grand destiny to Booster.

The art by Jurgens & Rapmund is great as always. Classic without being retro, expressive, and very energetic. It has enough detail for the eye for some of the costumes and local yet it all moves very well. BOOSTER GOLD is just a well-put-together comic on all levels, which may not be the case for the rest of the DC line, or so I hear. If you're not aboard, you're missing out on DC at it's best. The reunion of the JLI, or "the Leaguers who seem to always get mutilated during the DiDio tenure" looks to be very sweet, both nostalgic and appropriate at the same time to the story. THAT's how to do it. Johns has some blunders on his resume, but this isn't one of 'em. Thumb's up.

FANTASTIC FOUR #556: Hitch doing a retro cover like that is...interesting. At any rate, while I agree with the masses that this is the worst issue of Millar & Hitch's run on the book so far, there's no reason to get hysterical about it. As part 3 of 4, it is basically resolving the build-up and setting up the climax. It has a functional purpose to the story as a whole, even if not as a story in itself. If this was a 6-parter I might be irked, but at a 4 parter it is acceptable.

Even taken as is, it was better than a slew of books out there. Perhaps the surprising bit of news for some is that if you look at the sales charts for Feb. 2008, which was the launch book of this, while Millar & Hitch have doubled FF's sales and gotten it into the Top 10, they couldn't get it into #1 or even in the Top 5, and Feb. was a slow month in terms of sales (only three books, all Marvel, sold 100k or over). Why this is is anyone's guess; it could be because the Four are not the hottest franchise Marvel has, especially after the fizzled performance their sequel had. It could also be a hesitation to get involved since the LAST project from these two got delayed quickly. Or it could be a sign of retailer belt-tightening due to the economy. Who knows. Frankly, I never expected Millar & Hitch on FF to score #1, and getting the book into the Top 10 without needing an event is a worthy accomplishment, not unlike JMS & Coipel on THOR. The trick will be to keep it there.

As I stated, this is a bridge-the-gap issue. CAP is raging a rampage outside of New Earth, taking down an Alaskan military squad and moving onto taking nukes out of the equation, not unlike Superman in SUPERMAN IV (at least until Radioactive Fingernail Man arrived, speaking in second person). Alyssa asks SHIELD to throw every superhero they can at it, and they do, to no avail. Johnny is trying to kick-start his shameless media exploitation career while sleeping with the "criminal chick" he collared last issue. Her codename, Psionics, is so lame that I had to re-read it before I caught on that it was actually her codename. I mean, how about this as a general rule; if you can't think up a good codename, don't use one at all. Just use a character's regular name. Heck, even just using her hair color as a codename would have worked better. But, it wasn't an issue-breaker.

I suppose the issue does have two fundamental problems involved in the big fight. The first is namely that if SHIELD is assembling this hero-force, then why are a slew of unregistered heroes among them? I suppose that considering the events of the twin AVENGERS books, where the Mighty Avengers have accepted aid from the rogue New Avengers without arresting them, including during WORLD WAR HULK, it isn't such a big deal. CAP is easily at least as big a threat as Hulk posed. Perhaps the biggest issue is that upon having arrived at the scene and seeing that CAP has already dispatched with half of the current Marvel hero roster, you automatically know that Johnny, Sue, and Thing have absolutely zero chance and you just sort of thumb along, waiting for Reed to make his enterance (which he does in the final page splash). I mean a threat that has just defeated both squads of Avengers alongside Hercules, Yellowjacket, Gravity, et. al., then watching 3 of the Four give it a go almost feels like going through the motions, no matter how you slice it, or how well Hitch draws it. It isn't like the three of them did anything remotely clever or out of the ordinary for the Four; Thing tried punching it, Torch tried burning it, and Sue made her 1,000th forcefield that got shattered. I mean something interesting might have been, say, trying to get CAP high enough into the air that Johnny could supernova the thing without killing everyone. But what do I know? Besides, the problem with CAP taking everyone out so quickly is that it almost feels like a plot-hole, without having to explain the robot's powers directly.

Still, despite being action packed set-up, the issue does no harm; hell, you have heroes fighting something in red, white, and blue and no one mistakes that for some political angle. That is because it is not part of the story at all; CAP is meant as an homage to the fallen hero and that is all you need. This is shaping up to be at least as good as Millar's UFF run and probably better, and Millar is enjoying himself with the fundamentals of the Four, even if I would say it is about time Johnny matured some. But, yeah, the McDuffie run was SO last year.

Hitch's art is great as usual, although some of his faces for women looked similar, and he still struggles with non-leather 616 outfits. Maybe he is actually trying to rush to keep schedule? Anyway, even as the worst issue of the run so far, it is fine enough and does what it needs to do. It still is the best thing I have read from Millar since, well, Ultimate Fantastic Four. I cynically called that this run would only get out Four issues on time, so I have until June to be proven wrong. I wouldn't mind.

THE LAST DEFENDERS #2: That IS a Deodato cover, isn't it? Not only is She-Hulk barefoot, but her rear is facing the camera. Anyway, TLD chugs along and Casey & Giffen have made a light-hearted superhero team book that seems all over the place at times, but doesn't do any harm to the characters and offers some chuckles and action. Muniz's art still isn't quite as good as Casey gushes, but I say part of that is Fabela's colors, because these pages inked without color looked slightly better from Newsarama previews.

The core plot centers around Iron Man disbanding the team after their first mission against the Sons of the Serpent goes horribly wrong. Sure, they pummeled the magical dragon the zealots summoned and beat up a lot of grunts, but they trashed half of Atlantic City in the process, and even Stark fears the wrath of Donald "Yuh Fye-ED" Trump. She-Hulk notes how they didn't know about the dragon and whatnot, but Iron Man is on his "hypocritical safety concern" jibe and isn't hearing it; after all, his Mighty Avengers have been equally reckless, without having to repeat myself. Blazing Skull and Colossus seem to go their seperate ways, but Jen sticks around and when Nighthawk gets a signal from his SHIELD agent pal's com, She-Hulk lends a hand for the rescue. Agent Pennysworth gets in some great lines as Jen & Kyle fight each other and then encounter the SOTS' "Mad-Bomb". Meanwhile, Yandroth goes back in time and tries to form an alliance with a young Hellstorm.

Under the hands of others, I might be concerned, but Casey & Giffen are planning something here, and both are good at their craft. But more to the point, not many of Marvel's team books are this "fun" these days and so even the bits that don't quite work can be forgiven. Considering I raised enough angst about Colossus' placement on the team to sink a battleship, so far while he hasn't done anything noteworthy, he hasn't been harmed, either. I mean, sure, Nighthawk is clearly the focus, but Skull and Jen have also done more in the story than Colossus, who just seems sort of "there". Still, I guess Piotr is the sort of fellow who would work on a traditional superhero book; he is a tanker and he follows orders and doesn't have ego issues. Kind of like those B-Level players on a sports team who don't always get all the attention, but know their fundamentals and do their job, and when the team wins, are often the unsung heroes. At least the mystical fire-breath didn't do more than scuff him. It was cute seeing him in a bathrobe in steel-form. Still, I see a lot of missed potential here and hopefully the next four issues have something special for him to do.

I expect the core four to reform, although with Stark wanting to scrap the Defenders, it explains why we have some new members coming in future issues; perhaps a do-over? Defenders vs. Defenders? To sum up, LAST DEFENDERS isn't the best Marvel book out there, but it has plenty of action and chuckles, and is light-hearted. More serious than X-MEN FIRST CLASS yet not suck in melodrama and bleakness. I can't imagine the sales will be too strong, though; unfortunately, as Kirkman has hinted, any lighter hearted hero books these days sell like poo. It is only a mini, though, and I am looking forward to more madcap action and where it all will conclude for the heroes. Nighthawk works surprisingly well as the lead here, too.

NOVA #12: If I did a "Pick of the Week", this might be it. Abnett & Lanning perform the amazing task of getting NOVA to an issue 12, and he will probably get to at least issue 16, which is an accomplishment for the franchise. But moreover, they provide a kick-ass story with some stunning art & colors by Pelletier, Magyar, and Guru. Seriously, those Technarch designs hurt my fingers just looking at 'em.

The technarch Siredam has been summoned, and hope for Warlock, Tyro, Nova and their planet seems lost. Left with little option but to flee before they are killed, Tyros wants to fight but Warlock wants to preserve his offspring and his hope for the new Technarch. Seeing that only Nova has enough power to slow down the Siredam with his collective Nova Force, Warlock sacrifices his "lifeglow" to cure Nova and then, well, the comic goes from bad-ass to, uh, even more bad-ass. Nova is back to full power and it looks as cool as it should be. He is able to fight toe-to-toe with the massive threat again and it looks stunning. Who said superheroes have to be low powered to be relatable? Abnett & Lanning are simply masters at making Nova cool, running with the foundation that Giffen had left them (and they helped build with NOVA's first 4 issue mini). Leaving Earth has been the best thing to happen to the character.

I was afraid that DnA would be pulling something similar to past arcs; creating or writing good supporting characters and then either killing them (Ko-Rel) or removing them from the stage (Kosmo). But fortunately they don't repeat themselves. Tyros ends up saving the day, his father, and even Nova's buddies Drax and Gamora. Contrary to solictations or checklists, the gang is set to appear in ANNIHILATION CONQUEST #6, and while I don't see DnA abandoning Phyla & Adam Warlock, or even Peter Quill to allow Nova to take out Ultron, I can see this gang purging the Kree of the Phalanx. AC #6's finale next week just got all the more sweeter.

People may begrudge ANNIHILATION CONQUEST for not surpassing or maybe matching the prior event, but it has still been an incredible ride, with a better villian. No delays, no posturing, no overhype, no fudgy morals; y'know, the opposite of the Mainstream Marvel event. And as the only ongoing of the line, NOVA has blazed a path of greatness for 21st century Marvel space heroes. Blue blazes indeed.

I know this seems short compared to the other 3 reviews, but even I struggle to spend a thousand words trying to capture how great a read this issue was. Just go out and grab it for yourself.

 

[FatalEnergy]

Fantastic Four #556 - Part three of the worlds greatest arc and its just okay. For being an action-oriented issue, nothing really happens. The issue begins with C.A.P. killing people and doing what he was programmed to do, which is hunting down and destroying an kind of weapon. Mrs. Fantastic aka Alyssa Moy calls for as many super heroes as S.H.I.E.L.D can give them and then the issue slooows down.
The issue then begins to focus on Johnny's rock band subplot and it is extremely un-interesting. The only seemingly important things that happens with him is the prospect of a relationship with "psionics". Then sue gets her time with a seemingly unnecessary scene where Alyssa miscalculates her teleporting or whatever she does and explodes glass. The FF are then gathered together sans Reed to try and help take down C.A.P. They arrive just in time to miss the battle with all the heroes (who knows why unregistered heroes answered a S.H.I.E.L.D call), but worry not for they all get back up at the same time for round 2. There is a quick fight sequence and then we cut away to what I guess is an hour later and we learn that C.A.P. beat everybody again and he learned how to teleport, making him a "global threat". Reed arrives and promises to save the day.
The whole issue was awkwardly paced, going from fast to slow to light speed, and the issue just seemed off. It felt like they were making C.A.P. seem more dangerous than he actually is. I felt no global threat vibe from the events shown in this issue. The art was no doubt great, however the action scenes were very busy and kind of confusing, the snowing effect didnt help either. Plus in the page where it shows all the heroes knocked out, Iron Man looks very Ultimate, which I thought was kinda funny.
Not a bad issue, but it was nothing special. Millar had this interesting kind of pacing and story-telling in the first two issues and with this issue it felt like he omitted those qualities for action, like this issue had to be told in this manner. I guess this is a set up issue for next months arc ending issue. Just a little quip: I dont like the propaganda magazine style headlines on the covers of the issues. It makes it feel like a cheap magazine trying to appeal and get attention through these "shocking" headlines. little baby rant. 6/10

Nova #12 - A great issue that sets up Richard Riders return to Annihilation: Conquest. Last issue, Drax and Gamora turned into a babel sphere, summoning a Siredam - a fully mature technarch. The phalanx virus goes crazy, leaving Richard weak and unable to fight. Warlock orders Tyro to leave and then gives Nova his lifeglow, cruing him of the virus. Nova then fights the Siredam, only to realize that he can't beat it. He decides to flee, when he sees that Tyro has returned to show that he is not a coward. He is promplty eaten by the siredam, but then he overwrites the sriedam with some of warlocks mutant strain and becomes the siredam. Tyro then heals warlock and Drax and Gamora. Gamora has Phalanx withdrawals and warlock offers Nova aid with the Phalanx.
A solid issue. It's nice to see Nova free of the phalanx virus and back to full power. It seemed like both Warlock and Tyro were much easier to understand this issue than the previous, which was nice. The art was great, and the fight scene was great like the fight scenes from earlier issues. The whole issue had a nice flow to it and it perfectly sets up the return of Nova for Annihilation: Conquest, which comes out next week (yay). 9/10


I tried.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Nova #12: All of the plot threads left dangling since the Annihilation: Conquest tie-in sure got tied up pretty quick. And yet the ending didn't feel rushed because DnA gave me a satisfying emotional payoff that made sense. It's great to see Warlock and Nova and the Worldmind back and in top form, and I even liked Tyro by the end. Now I'm looking forward to AC #6 even more. Pelletier's art in this issue was fan-frickin'-tastic, by the way. Loved every panel.

The Last Defenders #2: This book has a really weird tone. I guess it's just because of the stark contrast to the modern norm of decompression, but this book seems to jump around at lightning speed. It's never slapdash or badly paced, mind; it all makes sense and flows perfectly well. The book just wastes no time at all. I'm still not quite sure what to make of the story just yet, but Casey and Giffen have a great handle on the characters and I'm willing to see where Casey's ultimately going. I'm very curious about Joaquin and how Daimon Hellstrom fits into everything. Muniz's art is okay. I'm not a huge fan, but it's serviceable. Oh, and this issue is full to the brim with thought bubbles, too! And not the snarky, nonsensical bubbles of Bendis' Mighty Avengers, either. These are the classic sort of thought bubbles that actually tell you what the character is thinking! I love 'em.

Green Lantern Corps #23
Hey, look, part two of an arc that started three issues ago. Bwuh? Oh, DC, you and your kooky idea of throwing fill-ins in at the absolute, very last second, screwing up your publishing schedule left and right. Anyway, bad scheduling aside, this was a fun issue. This is the Corps I want to read about: a big group of the best and brightest the Corps has to offer, not some side story about one of the Alpha Lantern cast-offs from Hal's title. In a nutshell: "heroes" of the recent Sinestro Corps War (although I think they're being charitable in Kyle's case) are sent on a mission to capture Sinestro Corps rings and send them back to Oa--say it with me, now, 'cause it's the Guardians' new catch phrase--by any means necessary. That means that while Lanterns brought up in the traditional superhero mold, like Guy and Kyle, send the Sinestro ring and the Sinestro Corps goon who owns it back to Oa in bubbles, not-so-traditional Lanterns like Isamot Kol and Vath Sarn--both soldiers by trade--send back the ring and, if the Guardians are lucky, a piece or two of its goon owner.

While the departure from the GLC's role as space cops into space military is morally questionable to me, it's apparent that that's the intent, and that this is Tomasi dealing with the fallout of the Sinestro Corps War and the Guardians' newfound willingness to break their own rules. Tomasi doesn't do much with it here, but the nonchalance with which he throws a hint of it into the mix here suggests that it'll be an ongoing theme. I'm cool with that.

Oh, and Mongul's collecting Black Mercys and throwing them on GLs while gathering up his own private squad of ne'er-do-wells within the Sinestro Corps. This brings up two points for me: 1) I ****ing hate this idea that, well, since a Black Mercy made for one of the all-time greatest Superman/Mongul stories ever, we'll just grab a ton of Black Mercys and this story will automatically be awesome too! It's stupid and, frankly, the Black Mercy worked so well for the Superman story because it allowed the story to be such a personal, emotional introspective on Superman as a living, breathing person. Grabbing a bunch and throwing them at Green Lanterns is the very opposite of personal and introspective. 2) Sodam Yat. ****ing. SUCKS. Seriously, this guy's got the power of Ion and he's used it to, essentially, enhance his ability to get his ass kicked. Just give Ion back to Kyle already; he at least did some cool **** with its power.

Gleason's back on art this issue and not only is the familiarity of the visuals welcome, his art is a damn sight better than the fill-in artist's by any measure. Glad to have him and Rollins back, pumping out their unique take on the Corps. I really love the way he draws Iolande and Guy in particular. He manages to capture Iolande's weird mix of wide-eyed naivete and battle-hardened badass and Guy's self-righteous smugness with an apparent ease that puts other artists' renditions of the characters to shame.

Booster Gold #8: Pretty good. It would be better if every new issue of this series didn't drive home a little bit more the fact that Ted Kord will be back in a grave by the end of this arc. I know it was silly to get my hopes up, but the fun of seeing Booster and Ted together again... well, it got my damn hopes up. Anyway, not much meat to this issue, to be honest. We get to see more of the dystopian present that Ted's un-death has wrought, which is exactly what we expect it to be. Max Lord waxes maniacal a bit, the gang runs in fear from Superman, the ragtag resistance group gets slaughtered, and Booster and Ted are essentially back where they were when they first got to this twisted version of reality at the beginning of last issue. It's a fun ride, don't get me wrong; I'm just saying there could've been a little more substance. We do at least get some more face time with the villains (who include a really lame, pre-power-up Despero among their number, which kind of sucks), and we kind of get a little bit more about what Rip's trying to do, although that's only about a page or so of mostly quantum babble about preserving lineages and rectifying Booster's ****-up. Jurgens' art is Jurgens' art--it's the same is it's been for years now, so you either love it or hate it. I happen to love it. He's rough around the edges in some ways, sure, but he brings a lot of energy to his layouts and, given that a lot of today's artists seem to think comics are meant to be page after page of static still-lifes, I appreciate his approach. Oh, and Johns can't resist throwing in a line of dialogue about how Max Lord never broke Hal Jordan's will--just sayin'.

Wolverine #64: Aaron's run has been so awesome I'll be sad to see it go in just one more issue. I hate to use typical "review-speak" like "rollercoaster ride" and "full of twists and turns," but they're apt in this comic's case. Aaron's gotten me into Wolverine in a way that few other writers have done--in fact, I think the last time I was this into a Wolverine comic was back in the halcyon days of my youth, reading Larry Hama and Marc Silvestri's stories of a grizzled, loner Wolverine tearing out across the desert on his bike to hunt down some old, personal demon or other every issue. Meanwhile, Garney's been solid throughout the arc, but this issue he gifts us with some particularly awesome visuals. I haven't really felt all that excited about Wolverine defying death in a while because, frankly, it's easy for him and he does it all the time now, but Aaron set up a pretty awesome moment that Garney knocked right out of the park with that scene of Wolverine slicing himself free of the bodybag and getting out looking all gnarly and ****ed up. Bad. Ass.

Wonder Woman #19: Simone seems to be hitting her stride. As much as I begrudge Johns for turning the Green Lantern legacy into one of Hal fanboyism and weird, nonsensical metaphors on colors and emotions, I'm glad that the GLC has regained its place of utmost respect within the DC universe because it enables great stories like this to be made. It was great to see Wonder Woman's thoughts on the GLs as opponents and as an organization. The resolution itself seems to be becoming par for the course lately--when in doubt, make someone a new Green Lantern!--but the path there and the context that Simone places it in was really well conceived. I especially liked the symmetry of Procanon and Rho filling the void their respective races created in their lives. I really, really like Bernard Chang's art, too. I hope the Dodsons have left for good and Chang's the regular penciler now. Excellent stuff.