NCD #3: Better late than never

I missed my weekly ritual this week because of a work thing. As a result my reviews are a day late and thus woefully dated.

Countdown #2

In lieu of a review I've decided to substitute my words with the sound of me repeatedly smashing my head against my desk.

I figure that this course of action is still less likely to kill brain cells than actually reading this comic. But it's my own fault really, I haven't enjoyed a single issue of this comic and yet I continue to buy it. I'm my own worst enemy. However I take solace in the fact that Final Crisis is mere weeks away and that Grant Morrison will soon soothe my troubled soul.

The art on this issue is a little better than some of the stuff I've been subjected to on this title in recent weeks. But that still doesn't make up for the atrocious plotting, poor characterizations and weak writing that has plagued this series. If you haven't caught the scuttle butt on the internet already this issue was meant to tie together some loose ends that Jack Kirby left dangling a quarter of a century ago and open the door for Morrison's Fifth World, a concept he introduced in his final issues of JLA.

The Brave and the Bold #12

On the flip side of the quality scale B and B wrapped up it's inaugural plot arc. There's not much to add here. Waid, Perez and Ordway have done a fantastic job in shepherding this story, with a multitude of heroes from several different eras of the DCU, into a single mostly coherent storyline.

It's a fun comic that absolutely reeked of nostalgia and I'll be sorry to see the current creative team part ways and move on to new pastures.

Superman #673

Speaking of parting ways, this issue marks the end of Busiek's run on Superman. Busiek is on to bigger and better things, a year long stint at Trinity with Mark Bagley being one of them. I've read a lot of good Superman stories, a lot of blah Superman stories and some pretty terrible Superman stories. I'm glad to say that Busiek falls firmly into that first category.

His Camelot Falls plotline almost felt like retro Superman storytelling. It was a nice decompressed story that deftly managed to weave multiple plotlines into one coherent overarching story.

Plot synopsis, Superman takes on Paragon and a trio of Daxamite priests. There's some pre-requisite fighting and the standard Superman solution of managing to take on the baddies without having to dirty his hands. In this story he lets Paragon do all the dirty work, and the majority of the heavy lifting, only really doing anything constructive at the end of the story.

Speaking of Camelot Falls we see the last dregs of that plotline wrap up here with the creation of Alexandria II, a super-library of sorts containing all of Earth's scientific knowledge so that even if the planet is thrown into chaos the knowledge of mankind will never be lost.

Good luck Kurt, I look forward to see what you have to offer with Trinity.

Flash #239

This Flash story kind of felt like an old school Mark Waid tale.

The Flash is dealing with fallout from the bad vibes being pumped out by Spin, a new villain on the scene in Keystone. One of the perennial Flash III tales is that poor Wally West never has any money. Unlike Flash II, he's never really had a secret identity that required him to be duly employed, thus he's never really had a credible excuse for where he gets his money from.

Geoff Johns tried to address this by giving Wally back his secret identity and giving him a job (mechanic). But previous Flash writers have let the Flash win the lottery or start up a super-speed courier service.

Either way the "where does Flash get his money" story line is a bit hackneyed. Not as bad as "Superman gets hit with Kryptonite" or "Batman gets punchy" but it's in the ball park.

I'm fairly sure Peyer is just trying to knock out a quick story before DC gets caught up in Final Crisis mania. It's not a bad story, or even badly done. It just feels like everyone is putting in time here before we get on to the BIG things, oh say, like the return of Barry Allen.

Stay Tuned

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.