Ugh, I wish I got JLA this week.
52 Week 34
Hnn.
Is this truly necessary? The whole "defamation of the Black Marvel family by videotaping their worst moments thing?" Didn't we just go through this with Wonder Woman? It was a hot topic back then, but now it's kinda "meh." Yes, Osiris ripped through a man in a nice bit of flashback to Superboy-Prime, but anyone who saw even a
portion of that fight can claim justifiable self-defense for him in a way that is completely different from how Superboy plowed through the Titans; I mean, christ, they were ambushed and his sister almost got an axe shoved through her face. There's no "controversy" here. The most we can get is out of this is "lawl Waller is defaming them by selective broadcasting so the public will misunderstand lol isn't she so corrupt she's a villain you know" which seems really old hat. At the least it wasn't the way I'd expected the Black Marvels to go down.
Also, I really don't like how Atom Smasher is being portrayed here, as nothing but a dumb stooge so desperate for something, in this case redemption, that he can't even see how he's being played for a dumb stooge. I've read a reasonable amount of JSA in the past, and while I get that he's not the brightest guy and he's got a good heart or whatever and he and Black Adam have some iffy business between them, this seems like a pretty awkward way for him to go about it. He goes to jail of his own accord, fine; he then proceeds to go about his redemption by accepting membership into the Suicide Squad, a squad of villains that only "redeems" themselves through bribery with the government...every single cape in the entire DCU should know that it's complete bunk and a stupid, dishonest way of reforming yourself. And
then he goes and tries to reform Black Adam, to get him to turn himself in...by punching him in the face. What?? Ignoring for the moment that Adam has committed no legal crime (he's the leader of a nation and can deal with its criminals in whatever way he sees fit), absolutely
no one in the entire DCU should be dumb enough at this point to try and force Black Adam to do anything through violence, much less someone who knows him as well as Albert does!!
Like I said, "meh."
As for the rest...it was mostly pretty good. The Natasha moment was cool mostly for the Birds of Prey cameo. Luthor does something and I'm not sure what it is, though I suspect we'll find out next week. Oh yeah, and the Question dies.
(6.2 out of 10)
Astonishing X-Men #19
"I did it because right now, I need super heroes." Wait, are you
sure you need superheroes? Wouldn't you rather have a bunch of SHIELD agents with guns or whatever? Don't you think that, y'know, superheroes are just
dangerous kids with too much power and cause explosions everywhere and we need to totally
register them or lock them up in alternate dimensions forever?...oh wait, now I remember, Joss doesn't have to acknowledge Marvel continuity. Joss gets to forget all about the fact that Civil War even exists.
Thank the lords, it's about time
someone did.
Honestly, it's always nice to be reminded in comic books that superheroes are people that you
want to see, after months and months of being told the exact opposite. Okay, so the X-Men are in space, which is usually a recipe for boredom. However, the last time Whedon wrote anything involving space, it left me with zero room in my pants...so here's hoping. And yes, the Uncanny X-Men are in space too. Unsurprisingly enough, I don't care. I'm not reading Uncanny X-Men, I'm reading this. And this is awesome, so again with the not caring.
The angry lesbian in Whedon comes out in this issue, as we're introduced to an apocalyptic alien world where the big bad Man rules with badness and fighting and war and the compassionate Women tend to the sick and lament the manliness of the world. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this Breakworld will indeed be destroyed by the end of the next six issues (why make something interesting if you're not gonna destroy it?), and that Colossus will indeed be the one to do it. It's the steps that we're gonna take to get there that are gonna be fun.
Someone needs to smack Kitty upside the head, though. Come on, why are you leaving Pete? Oh, right, 'cause you have issues. Seriously, look at the man. He's all large and stuff. And he makes jokes.
What more could you want, dammit.
And oh yeah...
Dread said:
(in fact, a psychic scan finds no trace of her, as if those last 6 issues were the filler they were)
As issue #18 showed, we're meant to believe that Cassandra hitched a ride on Hisako.
(8.8 out of 10)
Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood #2
As I'd expected, I liked this issue more than the last.
There is a part of me that wonders at the logic of someone inviting Connor Hawke, public identity of Green Arrow II, into an contest of the world's best archers while
completely forgetting that there was also a Green Arrow
I. I mean honestly, how likely is that?
But anyway, a solid issue. By now, the main plots of the story are laid out pretty clearly...first there's Shado and the baggage that she's carrying with her, specifically concerning Ollie. Ollie's illegitimate child with Shado is something that is kinda long overdue for a reexamination, especially as it pertains to Connor. I mean, it had to happen at some point; honestly, better here in his own miniseries than cluttering up the pages of GA. (not that I really trust Winick to be able to handle something "sensitive" like this with a lot of grace, anyway. Don't get me wrong; Winick has written some of the most emotionally rivetting and powerful stuff I've ever read. But letting him on a story like this would kinda be the equivalent of a bull loose in a china shop; the man doesn't really get the whole "less is more" aspect of writing. For him, more is always more.)
Anyway, I'm just glad that Dixon is handling this, 'cause he's shown a great deal of understanding of this subject matter in the past, both with his work on Connor
and on Dinah over in Birds of Prey.
The other part of the story, the whole archery competition thingy, isn't quite as interesting maybe but it's still pretty interestingly set up. Looking forward to this whole World Dragon business, how it relates to Connor, and how Connor will eventually kick its ass.
Speaking of which, hello to Connor being badass by catching an arrow out of mid-air. More of
that, please.
(8.2 out of 10)
Checkmate #9
I'm entirely convinced that if Greg Rucka were writing Civil War, not only would it actually be
good, it would actually make sense as well. No one, absolutely
no one, writes superhero socio-political realism as socially and politically and realistically as Greg Rucka. I credit him as the sole reason why so many aspects of the DCU in recent years have seemed so...legitimate. From Lois Lane covering a war in the Middle-East and Clark Kent delegated to the police beat at the Daily Planet, to Wonder Woman debating international law with the president, to Gotham police investigating the deaths of Robins...so many "fantastic" elements of the comic book world intersect seamlessly into "boring" elements of the real world and combine into incredible ideas and stories.
Y'know what? If Greg Rucka were at Marvel,
Sally Floyd would even make sense. Oh yeah, that's right. I
went there. *
snaps fingers*
And now Checkmate. Man.
Only Greg Rucka could write government espionage departments btching at each other for screwing up one another's sting operations against a terrorist fanatic cell in one page and then write the same characters walking into a bar full of fairies and witches and vampires in another page to enlist the aid of a talking monkey...and it would all feel completely natural. Moreso than almost any writer I can name, Rucka knows what the hell he's doing. He knows the tools he has and he uses the frak out of them. He's crafting an epic here, laying down the foundations of an awesome run, and setting up the clues like -- GASP! -- pieces on a chess board.
(9.3 out of 10)
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