All right you insufferable bastards.
Enjoy your pound of flesh.
Trinity #6
Action Comics #867
Green Arrow\Black Canary #10
Justice Society of America #17
Ultimate Origins #2
Wolfskin Annual #1
Final Crisis: Requiem
Booster Gold #1000000
Wolfskin Annual #1
This was a surprise purchase on my part, especially since I’m actively trying to prune my pull list. But two things combined to encourage me to pull this number off the shelf. First, it’s written by Warren Ellis. Second, Wolfskin kills a man by hitting nails into his face as if he were practicing hammering fly balls into the outfield at Sky Dome. What’s not to like? Aside from some intentionally opaque dialogue I thought this was an amusing done-in-one story that sets the stage for the title character’s next story arc.
Booster Gold #1000000
I hadn’t realized that Johns’ final issue of Booster Gold was coming out this week. Regrettably with his departure this title moves into my drop pile. After the death of Ted, Blue Beetle II, time repairs itself and Booster begins to question what’s been driving him to be a superhero in hiding over the last twelve issues. That is until Batman shows him the photographs from the Joker’s camera, that he's apparently been holding onto for years, of Booster trying to save Barbara from being shot. I’m sorry, I’m not buying it. Even keeping the vagaries of a fictional universe’s timelines in mind I have touble believing that Batman is dick enough to hold on to those photos for so long without saying or doing something about them.
Final Crisis: Requiem
Hey, lookit that, Aquaman’s back. Um, I was never the biggest Aquaman fan, but the Internet tells me that the incarnation showing up in this issue is no more. Is this a scheduling goof that has now spoiled upcoming events from Final Crisis? Or was DC determined that all of their Big 7 make an appearance at J’onn’s funeral, throwing logic and continuity to the wind? Anyway, Requiem chronicles the life and death of J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter. Nothing about the way his death is presented smacks of permanence and I think it’s obvious that this is an editorial decision to remove him from the board for a while, for whatever reason.
Action Comics #867
Geoff Johns thrives in his role as DC’s chief continuity repairman for some of their more convoluted properties. This time out Brainiac is getting the Johns treatment. Rather than wait for Brainiac to discover his existence on Earth, Clark decides to turn the tables and bring the fight to him. So he heads out into space where he interrupts one of Brainy’s city smash-and-grab routines. Gary Frank’s art made this issue for me, I’ve never seen Brainiac, and Braniac related constructs, looks so evil and menacing. Now if only we could find some way to get rid of Steve Lombard again, another Crisis maybe?
Now get out of here. You can’t bother to leave me my dignity, so just leave me in peace.
Showing posts with label Action Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Action Comics. Show all posts
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Six sentence comic book reviews
That’s right true believers, if I can’t review an issue of my weekly crack habit in exactly six sentences I’ll not only refund you all your money back, I’ll double it!
Action Comics #866
Hey, it’s the return of Brianiac: Version 833 squared to the fourth decimal place! Or at least that’s what Geoff Johns wants us to believe. Honestly, who knows anymore? Brainiac, to me, is one character who’s been changed so often that it’s impossible to have a definitive version of him anymore. Every time they settle on an interpretation I enjoy another writer comes along and revamps him. Gary Frank, you do gooooooooood penciling, a nice blend of pre-COIE Braniac influences with a modern touch.
Booster Gold #10
What the, Mr. Mind is back, again?! Reusing his own plot device from the somewhat successful weekly series, 52, Geoff Johns reveals that the evil genius responsible for forming the Time Stealers is a demented caterpillar. Either Johns is co-opting Mr. M as a Booster Gold villain or he's running a little low on ideas. But if ain’t broke don’t fix it. The next to last issue of Johns run on BG wherein our titular hero tries to fix time, rescue his pal Blue Beetle II and become a real superhero. I approve.
Trinity #2
You know what? I’m digging this series. I’ve always had a deep admiration for Mark Bagley’s art and Kurt Busiek is no slouch at writing a decent spandex slugfest. It’s nice to see Bags penciling something other than Spider-man for a change. My biggest beef so far is that for a title showcasing DC’s big three the cover art work, and series logo, falls a little flat. How about rotating in some high caliber cover artists to keep things fresh and coming up with a logo that does this series justice?
Invincible #50
I’m a late convert to this series. So I’m sure anything I’d have to add to an analysis of it has already been said elsewhere. But what the hell, it’s my g.d. blog. Reading this book feels like what it must have been like to read Spider-man in it’s early days. It’s always fun, fresh and absolutely free of the grim and gritty superheroes that seem to be populating my comic books. With Invincible’s upcoming costume change it almost reads like this series is a self-referential, tongue-in-cheek take on the traditional story arcs of decades old superheroes.
That’s round one in the bag. I’m hoping the six sentence review structure will force me to be concise and timely in my reviews. But then again, I hope that working out keeps me slim and in shape, instead of just giving me excuses to crummy foods. So, y’know, my standards are all over the place.
Action Comics #866
Hey, it’s the return of Brianiac: Version 833 squared to the fourth decimal place! Or at least that’s what Geoff Johns wants us to believe. Honestly, who knows anymore? Brainiac, to me, is one character who’s been changed so often that it’s impossible to have a definitive version of him anymore. Every time they settle on an interpretation I enjoy another writer comes along and revamps him. Gary Frank, you do gooooooooood penciling, a nice blend of pre-COIE Braniac influences with a modern touch.
Booster Gold #10
What the, Mr. Mind is back, again?! Reusing his own plot device from the somewhat successful weekly series, 52, Geoff Johns reveals that the evil genius responsible for forming the Time Stealers is a demented caterpillar. Either Johns is co-opting Mr. M as a Booster Gold villain or he's running a little low on ideas. But if ain’t broke don’t fix it. The next to last issue of Johns run on BG wherein our titular hero tries to fix time, rescue his pal Blue Beetle II and become a real superhero. I approve.
Trinity #2
You know what? I’m digging this series. I’ve always had a deep admiration for Mark Bagley’s art and Kurt Busiek is no slouch at writing a decent spandex slugfest. It’s nice to see Bags penciling something other than Spider-man for a change. My biggest beef so far is that for a title showcasing DC’s big three the cover art work, and series logo, falls a little flat. How about rotating in some high caliber cover artists to keep things fresh and coming up with a logo that does this series justice?
Invincible #50
I’m a late convert to this series. So I’m sure anything I’d have to add to an analysis of it has already been said elsewhere. But what the hell, it’s my g.d. blog. Reading this book feels like what it must have been like to read Spider-man in it’s early days. It’s always fun, fresh and absolutely free of the grim and gritty superheroes that seem to be populating my comic books. With Invincible’s upcoming costume change it almost reads like this series is a self-referential, tongue-in-cheek take on the traditional story arcs of decades old superheroes.
That’s round one in the bag. I’m hoping the six sentence review structure will force me to be concise and timely in my reviews. But then again, I hope that working out keeps me slim and in shape, instead of just giving me excuses to crummy foods. So, y’know, my standards are all over the place.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
