I've hardly read any of my new issues; because, I finally decided to read all my Powers issues I got off ebay and the ones I have been buying for the last few years. I've gotten through the whole first series, and am on the final few issues of the second one.
Marvel Adventures The Avengers #26: Sometimes, you can find a gem in the Marvel Adventures line of books. This is not one of them. The writer relies too heavily on humor...and, while it works at first, with the very rude alien bugs who come to Earth in an attempt to get the Avengers' help in stopping Galactus from eatting their planet, it quickly deviates into complete silliness, with the Avengers trying to best Galactus in several games, including baseball and chess.
I love that Marvel has designed the Marvel Adventures line-up for younger readers; but, this kind of writing just verges on complete embarrasement. I would never introduce my kid to The Avengers with this garbage. 2/10
Captain America #40: It's Cap vs. Cap and Sin vs. Sharon. Of course, don't expect any kind of satisfying ending to either battle, as Brubaker is writing the ultimate Captain America epic of all time. (Seriously, this story has been going on since issue #1...which came out when I was still married, for God's Sake.) Don't get me wrong, I do love this title, maybe more than any other Marvel is currently putting out...but, I'm hoping by issue #50, we get a resolve to the whole thing. We're coming up on five years of this story being told...and, each issue tends to end in a cliffhanger...this issue being no different. 8/10
Incredible Hercules #119: I don't know why, but for some reason this Secret Invasion tie-in does very little for me. Maybe it's because I find most of these Gods very uninteresting and lacking in personality. And, frankly, Hercules has always been a character, while nice in doses, not worthy of a title all his own. BUT, I do realize that's just my own personal tastes, and possibly it skews my enjoyment of this series. 7/10
X-Factor #33: The She-Hulk/Secret Invasion tie-in begins! Ok, I cannot get too excited for this title, because I remember too much on how good it used to be. I'm not sure what the big change in writing seems to be...but, ever since Messiah Complex ended, this book has gone seriously downhill. (I do know that Peter David had plans for Wolfsbane, and Marvel's decision to remove her from his group may have put a kink in those plans.) For me, the heart and sole of X-Factor was Layla Miller, and her removal from the story has greatly effect the feel of the series. Still, this title is better than a lot of the other X-titles..namely, New Exiles and Young X-Men. 7/10
Mighty Avengers #16: Again, we get another Bendis Avengers title that is nothing but flashbacks on what has happened previously. That's Bendis' style with Avengers of late...let us know what is happening now, and then spend a good three issues telling us what's happened before, all the while not really progressing his storyline.
This issue focuses on what happened to Elektra and how she became a Skrull. (I'm still not sure what happened to the original people who became skrulls. Is Bendis killing off Elektra, Dugan, and Garvis???) Decent issue, though. 7/10
Well, were talking 20 years ago..but wasn't john an existing re-occuring character about 1 or 2 years before he took over as a cap? Super -Patriot, and the bucky force or whatever it was called?
He had a bit of a fan base before he took over..and I'd really disagree that he was an "out of the blue character".
I remember most mature audience fans ,at the time ,loving the Walker-saga...and frankly most cap fans love it too (now)..maybe more in hindsight becuase it was a temporary thing.
Sure Walker was trained by Taskmaster...but this actually did more to secure Taskmaster as cool and complex more than it hurt walker.
The John Walker deal was a WELL done legacy..with the only exception being a lame commitment. And a lame commitment to keeping the character static in the years and years to follow.
I wasn't reading CA when John Walker was new, so maybe I was a little ignorant. Still, he never seemed to have the appeal of Winter Soldier, but maybe it is all in perspective.
Final Crisis: Requiem You see what I mean? You see what I mean about Tomasi's DC? That's the DC I want to be at. Moreso than any other writer at this particular moment in time, Tomasi is writing the DC that the DC should be, even if it's all about tragedy it still manages to be DC.
One thing, though...hey, Tomasi, who is pure ****ing awesome in every way except this? Effigy is Kyle's rogue, not Hal's, and it wouldn't really be notable except for the fact that you used to edit Kyle's book.
I guess it can be overlooked in that it was just an illusion and not the real thing. Well, that and the fact that J'onn was dying with fire in his brain and probably didn't concentrate too well.
(9.9 out of 10)
Final Crisis: Rogue's Revenge
This is awesome. This is what we deserved with Bart Allen's death, not a bunch of editorial butt****ery. It's really about as simple as giving a book to a good writer and a good artist, preferably those with good track records with the characters they're about to tackle. It's really about as simple as that. Why it should come as pleasant surprises at best when either of the big two companies actually manage to do this every once in a while, I'll never understand. But anywho, the Rogues are the pitch-perfect anti-villains that they should be, and there's even a bunch of awesome reveals here with Zoom and Inertia. Within the span of a couple of pages, Johns completely fixes the Rogue's ****ed-up, OOC incomprehensible actions during "Fastest Man Alive," and even Piper's even more ****ed up, OOC incomprehensible actions throughout the past year.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is why I don't accept mediocrity. This is why, to compare to a recent example, I simply don't accept that Beechen had no choice but to come up with poorly-conceived, poor-executed justifications for mistakes that he himself made in the first place. For the love of Buffy, writing yourself into a corner and then not being a ble to write out of it is a choice; being a bad writer does not count as an excuse for writing bad stories! There's always a better choice. There's always a better explanation to be found, a better story to be written.
Although, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Zoom was simply outside of time and doesn't have the speed-stealing/giving powers that true Flashes do.
(9.5 out of 10)
Trinity #6 and 7
Hey, have the Hawks always had slits for pupils? 'Cause that's weird, because real hawks don't have anything like slits for pupils.
Anyway, I think I see where this is all going now...well, at least I think so.
a) Objects of power throughout the DCU pertaining to the Minor Arcana of the Tarot are being stolen.
b) They may or may not be the objects of power that literally dominate the workings of the DCU; I think I recognize the Orb of Ra, though the spear doesn't quite look like any rendition of the Spear of Destiny we've seen before...although, technically, those objects pictured may just be what the thieves have picked up and may not even be the right ones.
c) In which case, I'm betting that the other objects which showed up from Busiek's JLA/Avengers run will be amongst them. GL Power Battery = Something of Cups, for instance.
d) And these things are going to be the cause of some great powerful whatsis if they are ever gathered...with the Major Arcana being the final piece of the puzzle that will make it all work. The Major Arcana -- as obviously suggested so throughout the series so far -- are the Trinity. Or, more specifically, they are a Trinity; Morgaine, Enigma, and Despero think they can wrest this "power" away from our familiar Big Three, make the great powerful whatsis work for them instead.
e) Somehow this has to do with Krona and [possibly] Konvict. Somehow.
So, a year-long fetch quest? Believe it or not, I'm actually looking very forward. Going around looking for these artifacts basically means going around looking for all the characters and settings that correspond to it, and is the exact sort of cosmic adventure story that can work with DC. It's a great excuse to showcase and explore all the workings of the DCU, make it seem like the vibrant place that it was during 52, for instance. We've been bombarded for so long with so much convolutedness and cluster****ing, it's time for a straightforward adventure.
Now, with that said, I'm not sure how I feel about the Trinity being the so-called foundations of the DCU because they are literally tied into some mystic overall...foundation...of the DCU by their very beings. For one thing, it feels kind of forced; you could substitute almost any hero into the little Truth/Justice/American Way equation and find some way to fit them all in there...which is basically what Tarot does. Which is why, for all the subtle insight into these characters it provided, I was not particularly impressed with that scene.
For another thing, why can't Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman simply be the cornerstones of the DCU because they have organically progressed to that point by nature of what they've been through and what they've done? Why can't their friendship be just that, a friendship forged through decades of powerfully good stories building a cohesive relationship with these three icons not just between themselves but also with the rest of the world? In this comic book world, something as simple as a consistent and well-developed history between colorful personalities is dozens of times more powerful, rare, and impressive than some mystical game of "Why?...Because Destiny Says So."
(7.4 out of 10 for #6)
(8 out of 10 for #7)
Nova #15
Great story, amazing art, can't wait for what happens next. What's that, you say? What happens next is Secret Invasion? What is this Secret Invasion you speak of, all I see is Space Marvel and nothing else thankyouverymuch.
I have to agree with some comments that Nova is coming off kinda jobbed here. Not holding a candle to Silver Surfer is one thing I suppose, particularly when Surfer's been upgraded lately to be a match for proemial gods. But Harrow giving him so much trouble, to the point where he had to resort to tattling on the tentacle rapist instead of just incinerating him outright? In earlier issues we were given notion that Richard just wanted to take him offworld for a proper trial so he was probably holding back, but at this juncture the bug should have been spacedust in an instant. Especially considering that Richard is no n00b, he's been through the Annihilation war as one of the toughest soldiers yet; the whole "oh I don't really wanna kill you 'cause lives are pwecious" thing is not exactly a particularly justifiable line of thought for him.
(8.9 out of 10)
Guardians of the Galaxy #2 and 3
Religious crazies. Why are there always religious crazies? I'm really not so attached to that idea. I simply don't find insanity as motivation particularly interesting; I find exploration of insanity to be interesting, not the mere fact and presentation of it, which is what we get here.
Thankfully, while all that may be a part of this series, it is not nearly the focus. The focus is on this amazing cast of characters and their adventures with each other, quite possibly the single best ensemble cast that exists in any particular book in this particular moment, and beating out Green Lantern Corps due to having a talking space tree in addition to having "just" talking space animals.
I don't really understand the significance of Nighthawk out of the blue, but I'm sure it'll be explained soon.
(8.6 out of 10)
Booster Gold #1,000,000
Man, that whole Peter Platinum thing was like five pages completely wasted. What was the point? I mean, there was a point, but it felt like such a pointless shoe-in. LOOK WE'RE SPOTLIGHTING A BIG DC EVENT okay we're done now.
Rip being Booster's son is kind of cool, I suppose; I'm not really that attached to the character to feel too strongly about it. And oh hey Ted is alive. That's cool.
And so the Johns/Katz team finishes their run on the book, leaving the way for Dixon's two issues which I'll probably pick up, and after him...who the hell knows what. I'll try to be optimistic that DC has a good team in place for this book, but these are the guys who have traditionally had a ****ing terrible track record of picking good replacements for their writers; I'm really not holding my breath. It's been a really good run for Johns here, all things considered; it started off incredibly good and funny and hit a bit of a road bump with this last arc being clunkier than it should be, but at this point Booster is very firmly and truly one of the strongest and most vibrant characters around, so a job well done goes out to all involved.
(7.9 out of 10)
(7.1 out of 10 for the arc)
(8.6 out of 10 for the run)
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam #1
So this was decent. It doesn't feel nearly as charming as Smith's "Monster Society of Evil" did, ironically all it seems to do all the time was try to be charming which doesn't leave much room for anything else, and "anything else" was what MSoE had in spades. Well, it is just the first issue.
The stylized art can get a bit much at points, but it basically all fits and is cute or whatever. It essentially looks like a hyperstylized Cartoon Network show -- and it has to be said that I'm really not a fan of those shows because most of the time it feels like writing gets replaced by LOTS AND LOTS OF DRUGS -- but, again, it does work for the purpose of the book.
What I really liked was Billy dressing up as Captain Marvel dressed up as his dad. That's just straight out of modern age Ordway Shazam, which fills me with joy.
(7.5 out of 10)
Wonder Woman #22
Copying and pasting from the discussion page, for a change...
I don't know that WW is always the best dealing with mythological stuff; I like her when she's an active part of the DCU that just so happens to be swept up in mythological things occasionally. An arc like this seemed like an okay idea in theory, but was just story whiplash all over the place especially after the last two arcs.
And I'm not that impressed with how Simone has set up Diana's loss of humanity or whatever here; it was a complete instance of "tell not show." She shows Diana doing some mean things that she wouldn't normally do maybe once or twice -- which is hard to tell anyway, 'cause it's not like Diana isn't prone to some "aggressive negotiations"
even on a good day -- and then proceeds to tell us through text boxes for three issues straight over and over again how very depraved our heroine is becoming. Yeah, homie don't play that.
At this point, I don't hesitate to say that I'm much more interested in whatever's going on with Tom, the gorillas, and Donna than I am in whatever happens with this random apocalypse villain who's supposed to be all scary but hasn't actually done anything of note. Well, I suppose there's always the next issue.
To add a bit to that, I think the whole idea of the Stalker -- "Elpis" -- being the betrayer here played out fairly well...but, on the other hand, the idea that no one ever seriously considered that he might betray them feels uncomfortably like genre blindness, and I hate it when characters display genre blindness. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Diana questions his loyalty for a panel or two, and then just shrugs it off. Okay but...the man has no soul, doesn't that worry anyone?
Which is unfortunate because, judging from her work on the All-New Atom, Simone can can pretty attached to genre blindness. Some guy shows up who is obviously and entirely untrustworthy, cavorts about like a Bond villain, and very notably manipulates the hero into playing his game by his rules...and the hero always, always just goes along with it, never offers more than a cursory suspicion. It takes me completely out of the story. Yes, ironically, characters who don't understand that they're in a superhero comic book take me out of a story. In my defense, it's because this is a superhero comic book world. Heroes should not act like they've never paid attention to their lives for 200+ issues, or even just 2+ issues, because you assume that these characters have actually, y'know, lived in this world during their lives.
(6.8 out of 10)
Justice Society of America #17
The story no less decompressed than usual, but a lot actually happens here, several of them incredibly important. Several characters' various traits are literally handwaved away by deus ex machina, and it actually works because even if every single one of the them stick, there's no way that there's not gonna be some serious friggin' repercussions out of this.
What I'm not crazy about is how Mr. Terrific is, like, lamenting his own atheism here. Like "Maaaan why don't I believe in God? Damnit, my atheism sucks!" I understand the point of that scene, but if a character is going to have a religious belief -- and yes, atheism be definition is a religious belief -- then I don't like them being a ***** about it. Question it. Explore it. Challenge it in every way. But this...lamenting...just feels awkward, I don't really know how else to say it.
(7 out of 10)
The Dark Knight
I cannot believe how good this movie was. The utter depth of ideas and scope of pathos here is virtually unheard-of from any film these days, and yet here we are. Batman becomes my absolute favorite cinema superhero in one fell swoop. Color me impressed, and damned impressed.
What's great is that this movie manages to capture all that depth and pathos and moral duality and yet still manage to be one of the most exciting, most faithful, most ****ing badass comic book presentations ever. You wanna know what it sounds like when about a hundred people nerdjaculates all at the same time, even those people who have never achieved nerdjaculation before? It'll happen over, and over, and over again in this movie.
You know what stuck out in my mind? The fact that Joker is a supervillain here, and very much so in spite of the grittiness and hyper-realism all around. He is a supervillain in the darkest, most naked form of the word; just as Batman has become more than just a man, the Joker here is a villain that is simply beyond the capability of a normal person to overcome. "Don't talk like you're one of them; you're not." His villainy doesn't come from Nuclearonic Science Bombs or giant mountains of crystal or big rockets or whatever. His villainy is within every fiber of him, so extreme that he was able to bring a city to its knees through the darkest manipulations and most twisted means. He is what people truly fear, he is that thing utterly, not an illusion of what people fear.
Oh, and I loved the Harvey-Rachel switch. It was so maniacal and ingenious and evil, and becomes all the more chilling on the second viewing. Harvey wants Rachel to believe that someone is coming for her instead of him, and it's so twisted because Rachel actually knows for a fact that Bruce is going to choose her over Harvey, and is desperately trying to talk him through, maybe get him to escape on his own, because she knows that a Batman isn't going to arrive to be his hero.
And then, out of ****ing nowhere...everyone's expectations are dashed to hell in a sadistic twist that only the sickest man could have conceived.
Agh, love it.
Incidentally, also I love legal chatter, so even the scenes that might be boring to the average viewer still had me rivetted.
And there is so much here that was custom-tailored for the faithful nerd, and not necessarily the things you'd expect. Fans of Gotham Central, in particular, may recognize one or two moments that must have been inspired from scenes straight out of that series. And there's the two cops obviously casted to look like Montoya and Bullock and even had me thinking it was them until the reveal that it wasn't. And something that surprised me even more was that they'd even included shades of Brother Eye, truly showing that the Nolans had freaking plumbed the depths of this character for anything and everything to use.
One thing that I have to mention though, I reeeally don't like Bale's Batman voice. It's just...it sounds painful, and forced, and he can't get it out all at once so he has to take like three breaths in the middle of a sentence...it's overkill.
You're right about Zoom, but it's not inconceivable for him to restore Inertia's speed. There's always some funky super-science way of dealing with it, especially where the Speed Force and time manipulation are concerned. Maybe he pulled Inertia out of time slightly, allowing him to reconnect to the Speed Force or something. Really, that's the kind of thing to overanalyze when half of the DC universe isn't a mess like it is now. Right now, it's just a minor bit of vagueness in a comic that goes a long way to fixing some of the mess.
I think Johns maybe should have at least made some sort of remark about that in the issue (or maybe in the next, I dunno), because I'm remembering at least two instances of Johns himself having stated in the comics that Zoom very specifically can't do something like that. Cheetah was like hey can you do that, and Zoom was like b**** be trippin' cuz homie don't play that.
Speaking of which, I wrote that Booster Gold review last week, before we found out who the post-Dixon writer is going to be, and I guess that'll learn me for being optimistic because Remender is pretty much my nightmare scenario of what could happen to Booster Gold.
Maybe Remender will channel some of the awesome from his own titles like Fear Agent and Doll and Creature into Booster Gold. We could get lucky.
As for the Zoom thing, I remember Cheetah asking Zoom to give her super-speed, which is pretty different from messing with time to restore Inertia's super-speed. Inertia already had super-speed, after all--he was just being blocked from the Speed Force by Wally. I agree, Johns should've been clearer about what happened, but I don't think it's entirely inconceivable for Zoom to have restored Inertia's powers via some time thingamajiggy.
I don't know; what Zoom does should have nothing at all to do with speed, much less the Speed Force. That much has always been very clear. It's like asking a Green Lantern to charge his ring with...Black Lightning. Especially when later on Zoom -- who's not exactly known for empty threats or hyperbole -- says to Inertia that he could take his speed away if he wanted to. Yeah well...how, exactly?
It is a minor point, yes, but Johns made it very noticeable by making it a significant part of the story.
Yeah, I can't account for Zoom threatening to take Inertia's speed away again. But who knows? Johns may explain what happened in the next issue, for all we know. He took the time to explain all the wonky time-shifting that powers Zoom and differentiate it from Speed Force-derived speed in the first place.
I ask myself that every day, but the churches are still full of 'em.
I actually meant to mention in my review that I totally dug the villains being crazy godbotherers powered by their hoodwinked followers' misguided belief, because I'm exactly the kind of person who goes in for that sort of thing. But I can see where that's not everyone's cup of tea.
Though I feel that the ending of the comic indicates pretty strongly that the church is acting from something more than straightforward insanity, which is more a tool that they use to mask their real motivations. I mean it's actually pretty clever as villainy goes.
Final Crisis: Requiem You see what I mean?You see what I mean about Tomasi's DC? That's the DC I want to be at. Moreso than any other writer at this particular moment in time, Tomasi is writing the DC that the DC should be, even if it's all about tragedy it still manages to be DC.
One thing, though...hey, Tomasi, who is pure ****ing awesome in every way except this? Effigy is Kyle's rogue, not Hal's, and it wouldn't really be notable except for the fact that you used to edit Kyle's book.
I guess it can be overlooked in that it was just an illusion and not the real thing. Well, that and the fact that J'onn was dying with fire in his brain and probably didn't concentrate too well.
I've been saying roughly the same thing since his run on Nightwing started. After the 2 issues with Dick/Tim breaking into the fortress it hit me that he's one incredibly talented guy that most people woudln't notice.
Still needs to get a Nightwing/Robin book though. Soo dreamy
edit; Looking back his issues during / after the sinestro corps were pretty well done too.
I ask myself that every day, but the churches are still full of 'em.
I actually meant to mention in my review that I totally dug the villains being crazy godbotherers powered by their hoodwinked followers' misguided belief, because I'm exactly the kind of person who goes in for that sort of thing. But I can see where that's not everyone's cup of tea.
Though I feel that the ending of the comic indicates pretty strongly that the church is acting from something more than straightforward insanity, which is more a tool that they use to mask their real motivations. I mean it's actually pretty clever as villainy goes.
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