Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns
Justice League of America #26
No Hero #2
Superman #681
Trinity #22
Ultimate Captain America Annual #1
Ultimate Spider-man Annual #3
Showing posts with label Superman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Superman. Show all posts
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Six sentence comic book reviews: The day evil won
Aetheric Mechanics
Final Crisis #4
Final Crisis: Submit
Hellblazer #248
Invincible #54
Trinity #21
Superman: New Krypton
Ultimate Spider-man #127
Final Crisis #4/Final Crisis: Submit
I’ve been watching Final Crisis: Submit appear and disappear off the publishing schedule for a couple weeks now. I don’t know the reason for its perpetual vanishing act, but if someone with any brains at all intentionally decided to release these two titles on the same day, I give them well deserved kudos. FC: Submit reads almost like an exceptionally long Prologue, yet the events that take place within it dovetail nicely into the more opaque goings-on of FC #4. Weighing in on the J.G. Jones controversy, I think it’s a shame that he won’t be finishing the penciling on the lead series. With so much riding on the success of this crossover event I don’t think DC comes off particularly well in their ability to adequately plan and co-ordinate the whole thing. When the series penciler is publicly questioning his own role with the project you can tell something has gone wrong behind the scenes.
Invincible #54
Still not feeling the new costume. It’s not just that I’m notoriously resistant to change (I am) but the new threads feel like a generic re-tread of so many of the superhero costumes currently out there. The original Invincible look was clearly punching above its weight, borderline iconic, representative of the wearer’s personality and it makes an instant impression on the reader. Black and blue and a darkening personality is an overused gimmick I’ve seen in too many other places to really care about it. Yes I know Kirkman and Ottley are making a point here, but I think they’re being self-referential about an era in comic history that’s better left in the pass. I hope this Dark-Mark bit will be finished sooner rather than later.
Final Crisis #4
Final Crisis: Submit
Hellblazer #248
Invincible #54
Trinity #21
Superman: New Krypton
Ultimate Spider-man #127
Final Crisis #4/Final Crisis: Submit
I’ve been watching Final Crisis: Submit appear and disappear off the publishing schedule for a couple weeks now. I don’t know the reason for its perpetual vanishing act, but if someone with any brains at all intentionally decided to release these two titles on the same day, I give them well deserved kudos. FC: Submit reads almost like an exceptionally long Prologue, yet the events that take place within it dovetail nicely into the more opaque goings-on of FC #4. Weighing in on the J.G. Jones controversy, I think it’s a shame that he won’t be finishing the penciling on the lead series. With so much riding on the success of this crossover event I don’t think DC comes off particularly well in their ability to adequately plan and co-ordinate the whole thing. When the series penciler is publicly questioning his own role with the project you can tell something has gone wrong behind the scenes.
Invincible #54
Still not feeling the new costume. It’s not just that I’m notoriously resistant to change (I am) but the new threads feel like a generic re-tread of so many of the superhero costumes currently out there. The original Invincible look was clearly punching above its weight, borderline iconic, representative of the wearer’s personality and it makes an instant impression on the reader. Black and blue and a darkening personality is an overused gimmick I’ve seen in too many other places to really care about it. Yes I know Kirkman and Ottley are making a point here, but I think they’re being self-referential about an era in comic history that’s better left in the pass. I hope this Dark-Mark bit will be finished sooner rather than later.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Pull List: 15 October 2008
Brave and the Bold #18
Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds 2 of 5
Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge 3 of 3
Flash #245
Grant Morrison's Dr. Who #1
Justice Society of America #19
Trinity #20
Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen #1
Ultimate Origins #5
Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds 2 of 5
Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge 3 of 3
Flash #245
Grant Morrison's Dr. Who #1
Justice Society of America #19
Trinity #20
Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen #1
Ultimate Origins #5
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Six sentence comic book reviews
Offered without comment.
Trinity #8
The Brave and the Bold #15
Green Lantern Corps #26
Justice League of America #23
Superman #678
Ultimate X-Men #96
Invincible #51
Gravel #3
Black Summer #7
Green Lantern Corps #26
Mongul II, dead and dismembered? Don’t bet your life on it. In this issue Mongul goes head to head with almost the entire cast of the GL Corps. In a predictable battle, but beautifully drawn by Patrick Gleason, Mongul gets his ass handed to him after one of the Lanterns, Bzzd, sacrifices himself to bring down the new Sinestro Corps leader. A rock’em, sock’em, widescreen space opera that absolutely could not be any more enjoyable, highlighting just how much writer Peter Tomasi is on top of his game. Consistently one of the best comics being published right now, by any company.
Black Summer #7
Warren Ellis’ two year old blockbuster comic event comes to an end, and boy does this thing get talky. The surviving female contingent of the Seven Guns decide that helping keep their city safe is more important than taking revenge on the military for killing Tom Noir in cold blood. Horus, Blacksmith and a not-quite-as-dead-as-we-thought Noir then proceed to jaw at the reader for half a dozen pages in an attempt to justify their actions over the course of this series. A good, but somewhat anti-climatic, end to a better than average story. The incessant moralizing by three of the leads, in order to make their character motivations explicit, really pulled me out the tale. I would have preferred to let their actions speak for themselves and avoid spoon feeding me the unnecessary details.
Invincible #51
The Venom years, only without the sentient costume. For a Jim Lee cover I can’t help but feel like I’m not getting my money’s worth. Invincible’s right hand seems to be twisted into some kind of claw shape and there’s no background to speak of. It’s not a bad cover, just not what I’m used to from JL. Anyway, in this ish Invincible gets a new, darker toned costume, a kid sidekick and a girlfriend to boot. A series that continues to live up to the high standard of comic bookery that it has set for itself, if you’re an Invincible fan you’ll find nothing to hate here.
Superman #678
The latest attempt to repatriate a long lost Jack Kirby creation into the DCU proper continues. Atlas, a former hero type turned planetary dictator, shows up in Metropolis in order to challenge Superman for control of the city. The fists then proceed to fly. There’s a pair of obligatory shadowy figure types pulling various strings in the background and Atlas’ backstory is given an appropriate Kirby style visual treatment. There’s an unfamiliar cadence to some of the dialogue in this issue that’s neither good or bad, but pulls me out of the story nonetheless. An admirable attempt at varying the Superman formula a little bit that will keep me onboard with this title, for no other reason that to see how this story plays out.
Trinity #8
The Brave and the Bold #15
Green Lantern Corps #26
Justice League of America #23
Superman #678
Ultimate X-Men #96
Invincible #51
Gravel #3
Black Summer #7
Green Lantern Corps #26
Mongul II, dead and dismembered? Don’t bet your life on it. In this issue Mongul goes head to head with almost the entire cast of the GL Corps. In a predictable battle, but beautifully drawn by Patrick Gleason, Mongul gets his ass handed to him after one of the Lanterns, Bzzd, sacrifices himself to bring down the new Sinestro Corps leader. A rock’em, sock’em, widescreen space opera that absolutely could not be any more enjoyable, highlighting just how much writer Peter Tomasi is on top of his game. Consistently one of the best comics being published right now, by any company.
Black Summer #7
Warren Ellis’ two year old blockbuster comic event comes to an end, and boy does this thing get talky. The surviving female contingent of the Seven Guns decide that helping keep their city safe is more important than taking revenge on the military for killing Tom Noir in cold blood. Horus, Blacksmith and a not-quite-as-dead-as-we-thought Noir then proceed to jaw at the reader for half a dozen pages in an attempt to justify their actions over the course of this series. A good, but somewhat anti-climatic, end to a better than average story. The incessant moralizing by three of the leads, in order to make their character motivations explicit, really pulled me out the tale. I would have preferred to let their actions speak for themselves and avoid spoon feeding me the unnecessary details.
Invincible #51
The Venom years, only without the sentient costume. For a Jim Lee cover I can’t help but feel like I’m not getting my money’s worth. Invincible’s right hand seems to be twisted into some kind of claw shape and there’s no background to speak of. It’s not a bad cover, just not what I’m used to from JL. Anyway, in this ish Invincible gets a new, darker toned costume, a kid sidekick and a girlfriend to boot. A series that continues to live up to the high standard of comic bookery that it has set for itself, if you’re an Invincible fan you’ll find nothing to hate here.
Superman #678
The latest attempt to repatriate a long lost Jack Kirby creation into the DCU proper continues. Atlas, a former hero type turned planetary dictator, shows up in Metropolis in order to challenge Superman for control of the city. The fists then proceed to fly. There’s a pair of obligatory shadowy figure types pulling various strings in the background and Atlas’ backstory is given an appropriate Kirby style visual treatment. There’s an unfamiliar cadence to some of the dialogue in this issue that’s neither good or bad, but pulls me out of the story nonetheless. An admirable attempt at varying the Superman formula a little bit that will keep me onboard with this title, for no other reason that to see how this story plays out.
Friday, April 18, 2008
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.
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
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