The final shipment of books for 2006 brings about the last wallet-buster of '06 and the last Dread reviews of the year. A dense week but overall a good one. Even Bendis, a goat last week with more USM and NA stumbles, does some decent work here. Oh, and to those who don't feel like reading, ANNIHILATION #5 kicked more rear. Go buy it now. Seriously. It's pretty much "Holy **** Moments, the Series", but in a good way.
As always, spoilers free as flowly as confetti at the Ball Drop. Bombs away.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 12/28/06:
52 WEEK # 34: Yes, the cover gives away the major plot detail; during OYL, the Question dies of cancer. Like many other characters this year at DC, he made sure to pass on the legacy to a more politically correct and ethnically diverse (and technically younger) character in Renee Montoya, a Hispanic Lesbian. It seems odd that he would choose her of all people to carry on his legacy beyond the fact that Greg Rucka, who write her on GCPD, wished it so, even after 34 weeks. But to be fair, she has evolved since the depressed boozer of early issues (at least within the past 14 or so issues) and is on her track to become Question II, maybe. But for me the REAL meat and potatoes of the issue was the Suicide Squad vs. the Black Marvel Family. On paper, there is no way they should win. And they don't. Despite the fact that technically, as Osiris and Isis draw on Adam's power for their own, he is weaker with them than without them, they're still demigods who really shouldn't be able to defeat them despite numbers and surprise. Imagine the Sinister Six trying to take on Superman, Supergirl and Superboy. The team is officially Atom-Smasher, Capt. Boomerang II, a new Plastique, Electrocutioner, Vertigo, and Persuader. The last guy I don't get; isn't he one of the Fatal Five who menace the LOSH, circa about 1,000 years or so into the future? Why the hell is he on current DCU and why the hell on the Suicide Squad? Did I miss something? Is this like an ancestor or something? Oh, well, least he looks cool. While Adam is willing to lay in some damage, his family are less experienced and get thrown for a loop until Osiris (just accepted into the Teen Titans) gets angry and kills off Persuader to save his sister. That is all Amanda Waller wanted, evidence to paint the Black Marvel's even uglier in the press. Stone-cold. I will admit that after a year of Maria Hill, a "stone cold bad arse femm with zero personality besides eating nails and talkin' tough" character is something I do not want to see, but I accept it from Waller as she has been doing that for a good 30 years. Oh, and despite the fact that Supernova has done little aside for talking to Cassie, Luthor drugs Kent to get an answer about his identity, only for Clark to honestly reveal that he ISN'T Superman. Mr. Irons also works with the Birds of Prey to set up a meeting with Natasha to try to fill her in, for the hundredth time, that Luthor's a power-mad schemer and her life is in danger. After a good 28 or so weeks of the same drama I am growing a bit tired of it, but it's a progression so I'll let it slide. The Suicide Squad just was cool to read, and made up for some slowness of the last few issues. And naturally, Brian Polland makes Zatanna's origins look all purdy. While other origins seem to omit a lot of the past year's stuff for some characters, Zatanna's reveals from IDENTITY CRISIS are right in there. At least 52 ends the year with a literal bang, still going strong and on time far longer than anyone expected. One of DC's success stories this year.
BATMAN & THE MAD MONK #5: Matt Wagner's gritty, pulpy Batman Year 3 tale continues onward into it's "prenultimate" chapter. Batman barely survives the castle's deathtraps and even Gordon is astonished as to how much damage he has taken. Wayne pieces together the origins of the castle and despite his injuries, races out to save Julie, who is still under the sway of the vampires and has her father's will with her; talk about gold-digging grave diggers. Nyuck nyuck! Some people haven't liked this series as much as the last, and I admit it's not as good (and is selling a helluva lot worse). But I still enjoy it. Wagner's art style, his narration, all remind me of those good gritty Miller Batman stories, only before he sucked, and without all the phobias about big government, homosexuality and rubbing up to teenage girls. It takes Golden Age Batman stories, which had supernatural threats almost as often as mobsters, and makes them work in Y3 Batman-verse. Plus, a younger, less-perfect Batman is always more interesting than a Batman who is a JLA-er with invincible armor and a gazillion strategies and whatnot. This is a Batman who reminds new readers that Daredevil didn't invent that kind of thing. And yes, some of it has been slow, but the final chapter is next and I expect a gorey finish. Batman won't kill the living but does that rule count for the undead? If you can take some of the cheesy lines and impossible staminas of characters from stuff like SIN CITY, then this is the series for you. I'm havin' a ball. The $3.50 pricetag is still annoying, though.
DETECTIVE COMICS #827: Coming out quietly this week is another mystery from Paul Dini. This one isn't a GUESS WHO in the sense that you have a list of suspects and try to pick one, but merely following up on the death of Ventriloquist here. Basically, the mad mobster puppet is back, tryin' ta put da hurtz on da Batman an' talkin' like a 30's pug, a-cha-cha-chaaa. Dini does the story very well and counts on Wayne's ability to have multiple underworld identities to aid in his investigations; something MOON KNIGHT would do and take to extremes. Wayne uses his alias of "Lefty Knox" with the fake arm (Dini homages aliases he used on his B:TAS work) to infiltrate a goon meeting at Penguin's club. There is a new Ventriloquist in town, and I like how Dini takes a villian that some see as corny and really makes it work, noting how the image of Scarface the wooden ruthless puppet actually brings fear to a Gotham underworld that is used to Riddler's and Joker's. "Air of supernatual rumors about the dummy" and all that, especially after his grave is dug up. Turns out it's a new sexy female version nicknamed "Sugar", who is either Wesker's daughter who has developped, and has a fetish for, the Scarface personality, or a lover who is taking on for the dead Wesker. I was little confused as to which but both are almost equally creepy (a lover who takes on her mate's psychosis or a daughter who gets wet over her father's puppet). Batman seems to think the latter but Sugar at the end calls Scarface "Daddy", which is either just a term of endearment or a literal connection. Eh, some sense of mystery keeps it alluring, moreso than some "legacy" villians and a more interesting Ventriloquist II than some might imagine. Plus, Batman's rogues gallery can always use some more femm fatales. Another enjoyable one-shot. Nothing iconic or earth-shattering, and maybe not as intense as the last issue, but still solid Bat-stuff that should be selling better.
BLUE BEETLE #10: Almost a year in and DC's fledging young hero has fallen fast in terms of sales; he should see an issue #12 but beyond an issue #18 could be pushing it even by DC standards (they usually are more patient and willing to sell a low selling title longer than Marvel). The good thing is he's FINALLY abandoned his "quest for my origin" arc that lasted way too long and could explain the drop in bored readers. The bad thing is that he still is having some generic adventures, and while that may be fine in general, for a new franchise, you really have to bring in that spark; lord knows THE THING paid the price for being less intense. Marvel's competing bug hero, IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN, not only sells better, but is leagues better in concept. To be fair, Giffen & Rogers still write a technically efficient superhero yarn and I guess it matches the wonky ride; after playing with magical minions and delving into aliens, Blue Beetle is teleported to a strange world by a Motherbox that La Dama happened to have around that his gal pal Brenda. Giffen & Rogers score some good laughs by having her encounter a bunch of short critters that worship her as a goddess...and then try to eat her. Okay, a worn out cliche even before PIRATES 2, but they managed to get some laughs out of the schtick anyway, which is worth something (they misinterpret her attempts at simple sounding speach to mean she's ******ed, for instance). Beetle is getting the hang of his armor (about time after almost a year, who does he think he is, Ultimate Spider-Man?) as the entire planet has been laden with death-traps. Brenda fends off the vicious critters with aid from "Lonar of the New Gods", who either is an obscure New Genesis castoff or some barbarian Giffen & Rogers invented. I have no clue and he seemed to be a rather stock barbarian figure so far; noble, willing to protect maidens and easily provoked into a misunderstood deathmatch (Beetle assumes it was Lonar who hurt her). If he is a New God, why did Brenda hitting him with a stick seem to "wind" him? Aren't they usually superhuman, if not godly? Is hitting his belt somehow a weakness? I don't care for Metron and New God stuff, but at least I can't say I expected the next Blue Beetle story to be, "Beetle travels to some wonky world and fights a He-Man ripoff". I'm still on-board, but depending on how money works in 2007 it may get the boot after #12 unless it gets a little more intense. Still, for efficient young hero stuff, it works. Not the best out there, but readable with a likeable character. It just makes Eric O'Grady as ANT-MAN III look as interesting and trend-bashing as he is.
JUSTICE #9: Technically a week or so late, but still out in Dec. 2006 so all is well. Ross' latest instant classic pitting the JLA vs. the LOD continues onward. Much like with ASTONISHING, the 2 month gap between issues can take some of the edge off and leave some details a blur, but at least you get a lot of bang for your buck. Ross & Co. are working overtime with a messload of characters and trying not to pretend corny designs didn't happen, but make the characters behind them bad-arse all the same. Wayne & Clark figure out that all of Toyman's seemingly "healed" children & infirmed are just cyborgs being remade into Brainiacs. Brainiac is also assembling an army and ripped off Dr. Sivana's "Mr. Mind" tech for his microscopic controll-worms. Luthor seems to have finally gotten the wind of it and may start to turn the screws to Brainiac. But the JLA is assembling and in a way Ross rehashes KINGDOM COME with yet another "brainwashed" Capt. Marvel vs. Superman fight, which had me rolling my eyes, but at least he didn't overplay it and it was short. The JLA manage to snag a Quadian ring from Grodd (turns out Sinestro claiming "there was only one" was a lie, who'd have thunk villians to be dishonest). On the downside, after all the fleshing Black Adam is getting in 52, Ross & Co.'s generic supervillian version just seems clunky in comparison, almost like comparing today's Magneto with Lee's Magneto from the 60's. But the double spread of the JLA in their Machine-Men/Ray Palmer armor suits is naturally spectacular; although why does Batman always look the coolest? And OF COURSE he had his own suit all along for just this occasion. Rolls eyes. At least in JUSTICE, Ross makes Batman what you would expect, prep-time and all, without making Superman look too feeble in return. The villians have been ruthless and smart, one step ahead for most of the series so you really get a sense of something grand coming together. At 12 chapters it's longer than KINGDOM COME was and it does drag at times, but it also has a much larger cast (KC had a lot of side characters but fewer core ones). In a way it always feels like Ross & Co. are trying to do too much every issue, but that usually beats too little. Some people may have lost patience but this series is still thrilling me, and I eagerly await it every two months. A big HOWEVER, though, is that after all this, if the ending is in any way underwhelming or anti-climatic, the whole 2 year shebang may seem worthless. Ross & Co. have a heckuva final stretch here to lay out. A field goal won't do, fellas, you have to go for the touchdown and the 2-points on this long play.
ANNIHILATION #5: Hands down Marvel's best event, best issue of the week and possibly best mini in a while. Sure, I liked YA/RUNAWAYS, BEYOND, DR: STRANGE: OATH, but this is a series where I went in during the Prologue not caring for space heroes much, and by the 5th chapter I think they're all rather bad-ass. In fact, Giffen's entire main event title seems to consist of one bad-arse moment after the next in it's second half. It's continued to get better and more exciting with every well-drawn chapter. Giffen takes characters who were either villians or chumps before and manages to sell entire issues with them. Who'd have thought that Ronan & Super-Skrull would sell an issue and be war-buddies? Ronan, Kr'lt and Prax take on the corrupt Kree establishment, and I suppose their new ruling body could be seen as a way of "homaging" current feelings on political greed and CEO's, but the great thing here is unlike Ultimates 2 or most Marvel stuff that lays it all bare and dates it, ANNIHILATION, like all great space opera, simply metaphors it, so it becomes timeless. It works as current commentary or seeing the Kree lose their warrior honor, like countless Klingon arcs on STAR TREK. The corrupt House of Fiyero basically bargains with Ravenger & the Annihilation Wave to spare their own lives and profits, and Ronan & Super Skrull make them pay. Ronan also has a rematch against Ravenger, who, er, ravaged him earlier in the series (it took Firelord and a revived Kr'lt to save his life), and LAYS THE SMACK DOWN. I mean he literally breaks his hammer on the fella's melon. That's stone-cold. Meanwhile, Nova, Quill, Phyla, along with Blastaar and even some new Spaceknights from their last series, set up some bombs and for another teleport so Nova can have his own rematch against Annihilus...who Moondragon claims can't be beaten without Galactus. Speaking of which, resident bad-arse Drax continues his high road by freeing Surfer and then Galactus, whose rise is spectactular. See, Giffen gets it. The audience likes seeing characters AT THEIR BEST, RISING TO THE CHALLENGE OF A REAL VILLIAN. That is as old as time and yet it always works and feels better than a hundred million Avenger backstabbings to read. And DiVito, who I still say is this generation's George Perez, makes it all look stunning without it seeming airbrushed like Land or photorealistic. I STILL don't see how Thanos can really die from getting his heart torn out when he's an Eternal and has been obliterated before (usually blaming it on a "Thanosi", like Dr. Doom and "Doombots"), but I'll go with it for now. Maybe Death finally allowed him into her realm? And what is great is that while it did have a lot of tie-in's, you CAN read the core title without having read all of them (although the Nova Corps Handbook is essential in that case, which is still cheaper than 12 issues of back issues), and it ISN'T being pimped out to the almost ridiculous levels that CIVIL WAR is. And yes, this issue was technically maybe 1-2 weeks behind schedule, but it still was December so I don't care. CIVIL WAR may get all the headlines and hype but it's ANNIHILATION that has been delivering, issue after issue with few disappointments. If you enjoy comic books, this is the series you're reading. I complain a lot, well, I also try to praise when it is warrented. ANNIHILATION = INSTANT CLASSIC. Bank on it.
To Be Continued...
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, I guess. But why hurt the geeks, Jesus. Why
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