Once again, a B/T from me that covers two weeks. In no particular order.
Countdown #41 and 40
Something just occurred to me regarding something that happened a few weeks back.
Rose Wilson -- ravager -- is sitting at Bart Allen's funeral, and she looks bored out of her mind, right? She's like, texting on her cell phone or playing with a big purple ***** or something. It just occurred to me that this is ******ed. Bart was the one person that Rose was actually close to, the one person that she actually liked. In Titans Tomorrow, she even ends up together with him. If anything she should have been emo'd out of her mind at Bart's funeral.
Just another thing that Countdown irrevocably fcks up.
Anyway.
Both issues, 41 and 40, were actually not horrible. Things do happen, and the plot does progress. However, the plots are still progressing incredibly
slowly and boring...ly.
Trickster and Piper falling out of the plane in #41 was the very first scene of this series involving those two that just did not work for me. I don't know if they were trying to make it comical or slapstick or what, but it just did not work. When you're falling out of a plane into eminent death, you do not banter. You do not make snide comments and one-liners. It just took me completely out of the moment.
40 was not horrible, but it was pretty boring. Mary Marvel goes to meet Zatanna...but doesn't talk to her yet. Holly finds out not everything is as it seems at the Athenian Women's Shelter...but does nothing about it yet. Donna, Jason, Ryan, and Bob fight some nanoversians...and then nothing, they just go on to the next world to explore or whatever. This decompression bullsht is bullsht. Everything here just screams "To be continued next week!" and not in the good way.
The one interesting part of the book was the new Question showing up at the end there, except she seems to have put on her face wrong or something. Renee, girl, the point is to look like you have no face, not to look like you have no hair. Just another thing that Countdown irrevocably fcks up.
(6 out of 10 for #41)
(4.8 out of 10 for #40)
World War Hulk #2
Big fight. Big action. Pretty explosions! What's there to talk about? Well, the utter incomprehensibility of some of these fights, for one thing. Last issue we weren't shown how Hulk defeated Black Bolt but here we're shown exactly how he takes down some people and...yes it's pretty, but it's about as ridiculous as some of us had expected. The problem with this event from the very start was how overpowered the Hulk was going to become and how underpowered some of Earth's defenders were going to be in order to make Hulk look better.
He takes out the god of war, Ares, with one single blow. Okay, fine, maybe Ares is just a wuss. Then he takes the full force of Johnny Storm's nova blast combined with Storm's lightning, which should exceed the heat of the sun...and just magically is okay somehow. Literally not a scratch on him. Okay, getting less believable, but we can let it slide I suppose. Then Hulk knocks Reed Richards out by...hitting him. Just that, hitting him. What? I'm sorry but...that should not happen. Physical impact, no matter the magnitude, makes no difference when there's nothing to impact. Reed Richards is entirely maleable to the point where he barely even has mass if he doesn't want to. You might as well hit the ocean and expect the water to hurt. The fact that Hulk hits him and leaves
bruises is...not possible, except that it happens here, just magically somehow. What's more annoying is that Hulk could have taken Reed out a lot more logically and realistically if he just used the thunderclap or something. But no, we have to have the Hulk so strong he smashes nothingness and hurts it.
How's the story holding up, apart from that? Pretty good. General Ross is a sweet twist at the end there, and I still suspect Betty is going to come into play somehow before all this is over. I really don't think there's much of a moral debate here; the Hulk is the villain, not the hero, and he has to be stopped. But that's good because this series isn't pretending that there's a moral debate. I like the bits with Dr. Strange where it's hinted that it's not just because he wants to take responsibility that he doesn't kill the Hulk, but also because doing so would damn his soul. That's an interesting take on things; as a magic user with the amount of power at his disposal, Strange would have to be more wary than anyone else at the sorts of decisions he makes regarding, well, his own mistakes. There are powers out there who would love nothing more than to drag the Sorcerer Supreme down into corruption, and the fact that Strange would need to resist that at every moment in his life makes sense.
The one thing I foresee being a problem is that we pretty much know exactly how this is going to be resolved. I mean, we're literally shown the solution here, they literally tell us "This is the solution, this is a way to bring down the Hulk," and even solicit it on the cover of the final issue. Except that...the solution is sitting in his room on the couch watching TV. The one reason why he hasn't flown in and punched the Hulk's head off already is because...he just doesn't. Because we need to fill up space before issue five. Man, I know the Sentry is a big handicap for Marvel writers and it must be irritating to constantly have to come up with excuses for why he doesn't just eliminate every single problem, but this whole "He's sitting in his house having doubts" thing was tired long before it even began. It takes away from the story. It's not even that he's angsting or anything, he's just sitting there waiting.
(7 out of 10)
Justice League of America #11
Not bad. In fact, pretty good, though it wasn't my first impression. At first I thought it was just this big jumble of words. Only after rereading the issue carefully did I actually feel for the situation. If anything, it was a pretty cool idea. And I really didn't see the upside-down thing coming.
I do not believe Vixen is being written in-character here -- much too panicky and damsel-in-distressed and n00bish -- but without being a fan of the character it's hard to say how much. Roy is depicted pretty well, as expected of Meltzer, who's got a giant mancrush on the guy.
One more issue of Meltzer left. I'm not that disappointed to see him go, but I really wish his run was not hampered down by that useless, rambling drivel aka "Lightning Saga." If left to his own devices I think he could have come up with a lot of better stuff. We'll see what happens in the next, final issue.
(7.3 out of 10)
Mighty Avengers #5
Did the Sentry's wife just die? Is this an important moment or something? Am I supposed to feel moved? I'm confused.
I'm officially tired of Ares. I have absolutely no idea what he brings to this team other than to act like a slightly ******ed Wolverine.
Hank Pym actually acts competent and professional here, so of course Janet has to start ragging on him and putting him down. Man, someone seriously needs to slap some sense into that bich or something.
A lot happens here, and yet we're still no closer to a solution or anything involving progression. We still have no idea how to stop Ultron. We still have no idea how Tony's doing. What we did this issue was basically follow the Mighty Avengers around as they fail to find a solution. Yay.
The character interactions are pretty decent, though.
(6.2 out of 10)
Checkmate #16
If this isn't the single best comic that DC's putting out right now, it's right there near the top. I say this about every issue of Checkmate, since it's always true.
Fire and Ice's reunion? Beautiful. Something that was coming for a good long while and handled wonderfully by not just one but now two great writers.
August General as the new Black King's Bishop? Holy penis, what a scoop, something I entirely didn't see coming.
Sasha and Mr. Terrific. It makes so much sense it practically writes itself. He's the only one she can't "see," so of course he's the only one she sees.
And oh snap at that ending. Literally.
(9.5 out of 10)
The Initiative #4
As funereal and unnecessarily dystopian as we expected. Any hero who would knowingly send a dead kid's clone back to live with his parents isn't a hero. I don't like these people, which makes it impossible to care about them. No big loss.
(5 out of 10)
All-Flash #1
It's...quite good, for what it is. That is, the reintroduction of Wally West into the DCU.
Let's be frank here: DC completely botched the death of Bart Allen. The events leading up to it were poorly written and the event itself held practically no resonance. The aftermaths (DC heroes getting pissed and villains being afraid) feels almost fake, as if everyone were just going through the motions (see above re: Ravager). It completely, utterly feels like a big coup organized by bureaucracy and editorial instead of creativity and character service, which its creators have pretty much all but admitted. And despite all the false fuss made during the Lightning Saga crossover, Wally West was never actually dead in the first place. His great "return" is really just more hot air to lift up a story which couldn't stand on its own (see above re: Lightning Saga).
With all that said? I'm looking forward to this title. I'm really looking forward to Flash & Family and their crazy shenanigans. Mark Waid has really sold me on the concept in a very short amount of time. And also props to him for not pulling his punches with Inertia; in
one single issue he managed to make the kid come across as the actual psychotic nemesis that Bart deserved and not a little punk without an ounce of charisma to him.
There's a rumor that John Rogers (Blue Beetle) is going to take on this title after Waid is done setting it up, which is just fine with me. The sad thing is that I think Rogers would have done a phenomenal Bart Allen series as well. Ah well.
(7.8 out of 10)
Quasar #1
I like it. I like her.
It's got some flaws and gets dangerously close to overtalking itself into exposition hell, but generally this is a strong start. What can I say? "Underdog against all odds" is a pretty surefire setup; Phyla is basically playing Nova's role from the last time around; she's got this big power and she doesn't quite know how to use it and she's got this very important task to accomplish with an army of mofos stacked against her. Plus her power supply is limited so that it might (and probably will) run out before the end of her quest. Oh yeah, and there's a piece of Annihilus stuck in her brain. No worries.
I love Phyla's design, as well. Not that many superheroes wear capes anymore, much less superheroines, and it looks remarkably good on her.
And I love that sword. That sword is awesome.
Phyla has the opportunity here to become the next great Marvel universe heroine. What happened for Richard Rider could easily happen for her here as well. I hope it does. That sword is awesome.
(8.1 out of 10)
Starlord #1
The very first thing I notice -- the very first weakness I find -- is that Peter Quill looks absolutely nothing like how he looked back in the original Annihilation, or even a few weeks ago in the Conquest Prologue. It's pretty distracting. The art flatters pretty much everyone here except for Quill himself, who is stuck wearing this expression of perpetually bored petulance, which clashes with Giffen's abrasive Quill dialogue. I see this being a problem down the line...but das't it, I survived the Super-Skrull mini, I can survive this.
And there's a lot to like here. Quill himself is easy to sympathize with. Everyone and their mothers are looking forward to see more of Rocket Raccoon. There's a giant walking tree. There's no way this will not be fun.
What's interesting here is that Giffen reminds us the Kree are big dickz. Yeah, Ronan's a badass and some of the best heroes come from Kree and they're possibly the only stabilized force for..."good"...left in the galaxy, and that makes it easy to forget especially of late that the Kree civilization and Kree superstructure is essentially made up of one big giant clump of *****ebag mixed with ass. Fun times.
(8 out of 10)
Black Canary #2
I actually seem to like this series, which is extremely odd to me. I've always liked Dinah as a character but never enough to be interested by her as a solo character, much less as a solo character contemplating marriage and raising children...and yet here we are, and I'm contemplating it. This series isn't exactly great in the sense that the writing is off-the-walls spectacular, but it's pretty damn good in the sense that Bedard seems to get these characters and knows exactly how to make them tick.
(8.6 out of 10)
Green Arrow: Year One #2
Hmm. Pretty good still. But I don't know if I would recommend this to anyone who's not a fervent Ollie-lover. The character of Oliver Queen today is not someone with whom you would desperately need this origin to understand. But I suppose that if you're looking for a stylized,
very competent reimagining of Oliver Queen's roots, this would be the place to look. I just don't know that it's actually necessary. But hey I dunno, some people tend to like that sort of Ultimatized stuff.
(7 out of 10)
Brave and the Bold #5
Batman and the Legion. And I do have to credit Waid with the fact that while he has Batman basically kicking all their asses up and down the street, he doesn't exactly make Batman look like a big *****e doing so. I still have a bit of trouble accepting the notion that Batman is a match for Karate Kid in any way shape or form...but I'll deal. Interesting developments on Rann. Any chance to see Supergirl not be annoying is a good chance.
(7.2 out of 10)
Blue Beetle #17
Great issue. I actually started laughing at the unexpected Batman cameo. And Brenda? Brenda is made of win.
(8.9 out of 10)
Green Lantern Corps #14
I think I expected a little more, but this is just fine too. Natu vs Sinestro. It was
nice. It played perfectly to the strengths of both characters. And the resolution to the Korugar conflicts takes Natu into a very,
very interesting place.
I don't like the fact that the Lantern rings aren't allowed to kill people. Was this always in effect, even in the silver age? It seems ridiculous. Back in Kyle's day, Kyle consciously made it so that all his constructs could never kill anyone, but always had the
choice to make it otherwise if he ever...chose to.
Curious about the new rookie Lantern that appeared with Arisia this issue, I wiki'd him. And this is what it said:
wikipedia said:
Prophecised in the "Tales of the Green Lantern Corps" Annual #2 by Alan Moore, a Daxamite named Sodam Yat will one day be hailed as the "ultimate Green Lantern." According to the story, he will perish battling the final catastrophe that will bury the Green Lantern Corps in the future.
Whoa.
And oh man, that ending. Some people saw that ending coming back when the character was first introduced, and here it is in all its glory. The Living City vs the Living Planet? Sht meets fan!
(8 out of 10)
Amazons Attack #4
"Cassie? I don't think they can hear
you inside the plane!"
Wow. When
Supergirl is the brains of the operation, we should all be very afraid.
Not much better than prior issues, but not much worse. There's some weird nonsense about Bana-Mighdall Amazons inviting Grace Choi to join them for gods know what reason, possibly because Pfeifer isn't content with just ruining a
few characters in this series.
Oh yeah, and while Superman is trying to make peace with the Amazons, gunfire from American soldiers takes them all out before they can respond. But isn't Superman
faster than speeding bullets? Oh, but that would be using
logic. Sorry. Superman actually makes sense here like Artemis and Phillippus in the last issue...but we can't possibly have that, so things explode instead to distract us from actual facts.
(4 out of 10)
Wonder Woman #11
So apparently the answer is...crazy gods.
Wow. That's...that's...I dunno. I have absolutely no idea what to think. I
think I hate it with the fire of a million burning babies, but truth be told it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. This isn't exactly the first time the gods have turned on Wonder Woman; though it does ruin the stellar depictions they've been given recently, I've honestly grown a bit numb to it considering all the other things about Wonder Woman that has been ruined recently. They ruined her competency, her history, her background, her career, her feminism, her family, her people, her supporting cast...why not ruin her faith as well?
This is going to tie into Countdown with the death of the New Gods or somesht and my goodness I don't think I've ever feared for a series as much as I've feared for this one. Meanwhile, weren't there supposed to be killer bees or something? What happened to those? Oh forget it, I don't even care.
(4.9 out of 10)
Teen Titans #49
It's funny; it's only been four short issues since issue #45, which heralded the start of the Beechen run on this title, which will probably go down in fandom memory as the single worst issues on this title...ever. We are, basically, reading what will probably be known as the worst period of the Teen Titans run. Four short issues, and yet it has felt like
forever.
This issue sucks. It's not quite as bad as the last one and not exactly the trainwreck of a pathetic inbred joke that #46 was, but it sure tries real hard. More junk about Amazons and sides and Superman and somehow there's women doing something. Bleh. Oh and Cassie and Tim make out publicly, which is stupid now kthx.
(2 out of 10)
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