NCD #1: What I dun read...

ACTION COMICS #863

The story thus far. Superman’s friends from the future, The Legion of Super-heroes, need his help in stopping a xeno-phobic 31st century Justice League. The only problem is, Earth’s sun has mysteriously turned red, meaning Superman is far less super than he normally is.

This issue wraps up the whole arc and the whole thing wasn’t too shabby. On the whole, I’m fairly clueless as to who\what the Legion are. Although with all their exposure recently in the DCU I’ve picked up enough by osmosis to follow a conversation, even if I can’t chip in intelligently.

Geoff Johns is a capable writer, so he’s able to keep things moving at a fairly decent clip, despite the burgeoning amount of heroes on the page that he needs to make time for.
Gary Franks’ art was solid and I enjoyed seeing him sneak in a DCU version of Doctor Zoidberg, a la Futurama, strappy sandals and all.

Only one thing bothered me in this issue. Johns split up the first act of the story, having the Legion attempt to ‘fix’ the sun, while Superman and Earth man duke it out in orbit. Even though it doesn’t say so explicitly it’s strongly implied that these two events are taking place simultaneously. The problem is that when they fix the sun Superman is instantly re-powered, despite the fact that it takes 8 minutes for sunlight to reach Earth.

This may not have bothered me as much if I hadn’t watched Sunshine recently and had that little fact re-inserted into my brain. It’s an easy fix, with a text box to label the Legion story has happening “Eight minutes ago” and the Superman one as taking place “Now.” I’m pretty sure I’m just quibbling over details.

On the whole, I approve.

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #4

I stopped reading this series about a month after it first started and I only picked it up again recently because I want to know how they’re setting things up for Morrison’s upcoming Final Crisis.

It says nothing good about me as a fan that I’m reading a terrible comic book only so I can understand what else is happening in an entirely fictional universe.

In all fairness the art wasn’t as bad this week, as it has been in this title’s recent history. But the writing and dialogue is just atrocious. I won’t bother with repeating any of it here, mostly because I don’t hate myself enough to read this issue again.

Suffice to say if you don’t like making your brain bleed, don’t read this comic.

THE WALKING DEAD #48

I read this and you should too.

I love this comic. I love it enough that I employ passive-aggressive techniques, and flat out begging, to get my girlfriend to read it, and she really doesn’t care for comic books.

I expend a massive amount of relationship capital every month just so I’ll have someone else to talk to about it. I love it that much.

I probably shouldn’t gush this much, it destroys my objectivity.

But an open ended zombie story that refuses to let itself get drawn into making all the safe choices, yes, I’ll have some of that please.

This month? A lot of people die. A lot. Many of them who’ve been around for a very long time.

And one death that still has me on the fence.

Yah, you know the one I’m talking about.

ANNA MERCURY #1 (new pull)

I’m almost always willing to try out a new Warren Ellis comic, considering that he’s told some of my favourite stories over the last four years.

If you subscribe to Bad Signal or visit his website at all then you’ll quickly discover that Mercury is visually just the kind of protagonist that Warren would design. Smart, smart-mouthed and wearing skin light leather.

This one is pretty much Warren doing his thing.

We jump into a story already in progress, throw in some clipped techno-babble, a graphic beatdown (or two) and give readers just enough of the bigger picture to draw them in.

So yes, I’ll be reading this.