Weekly Comic Book Discussion 12/13/2007

[CandidGamera]

Here it is.

EXCELLENT issues of Booster Gold, GL, GL Corps this week.

VERY disappointing ending to Captain Carrot and the Final Ark.

[Menocchio]

B]Green Lantern #25:[/B] Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do a crossover event.

I'll break it down step by step, so that future crossovers may note what's been done here:
-Only tie up a small number of books, and those should be intimately tied to the central plot of the event. In fact, they should be the event. Outside miniseries just create waste. Don't use them unless you honestly have that much material.
-That said, you can still milk this thing by releasing a reasonable number of specials and tie-ins with other books. Just don't interrupt the proceedings of the other books, and don't put anything vita; in them. The completist should have the richest view of the story, but not the only coherent one.
-Similarly, You're an event in a rich and deep shared narrative universe. Both use and further enrich the universe with your event.
-When I say "enrich", I mean provide new twists, new story hooks, new characters and situations that can be used in future stories. Don't kill people and remake history just to be important. Being important isn't the point.
-The point is to KICK MY ASS. In the writing, in the artwork. You've got computer colorists and glossy pages, use them. Make up Lanterns every color of the rainbow (and then some). There is room for quiet, slow-moving, introspective stories, even in the superhero genre. The big event is not the place for them. Kick my ass. Kick it hard. A page with less than ten characters on it is wasted. It is best if you can kick my ass consistently throughout, but if you really go to town on the first and last issues, some weakness can be accepted in the middle.
-Leave me wanting more. End your story with a two-page ad for the next one. Why not? It just makes me hungry.

Seriously, this issue, and this storyline kicked ass.

Booster Gold #5: I'm a bit confused by the mechanics of time-travel here. If altering the past is impossible unless you exploit specific weak spots in the timeline, then why must Rip be so careful to conceal his own identity? Surely you'd fail to kill young Rip just as surely as Booster failed to save Babs? Why make such a huge moral issue over it? Why not simply explain to Booster that Ted can't be saved as a matter of physical fact? Booster is right to be pissed. Although, overall, I liked the issue. Booster has good spirit. Oh, and between Rip's board and the ad for Dixon's return to Robin, things look good for another Girl Wonder.

Angel #1: Interesting. I think I still like my perfect "Butch and Sundance" ending better, but then, there's no more story after that. So I'll take this as a compromise.

Ion #1: Meh. Not great. One part bridging the gap between the Sinestro Corps war and GLC's regular line, two parts stroking angry Kyle fans and telling them that their guy still matters. Which the other books did perfectly fine on their own, so I don't see the point.

Suicide Squad #4: Nice, but I'm a bit concerned. It's an eight issue series, and we're still to get to the meat of the story.

Green Lantern Corps #19: A very nice wind-down after the war. The next villain is a bit more of the same, after the SC, but this specific one is always fun.

Countdown to Final Crisis #20: It's perhaps far too late, but this book really is turning a corner, I think. Something seems to be happening in every plot thread, which is more than I could say for the first half.

Black Adam #5: I like Adam. He's a bad man. He knows it. He jut thinks what he does is necessary. Not for "the greater good", but in some kind of metaphysical sense. He's a mature antidote to Prime's rampant whinging.

[Love Rhombus]

I agree fully about the whole Sinestro Corps event. Every bit has been good: the twists interesting, the array of bad guys just fun to look at ( my personal favorite is still the evil Corps member in that battlesuit with the dead lanterns on the front). Top to bottom, well done. I'm not even annoyed that nothing was resolved with any of the villains, AND I do feel sorry for Henshaw, which surprises me.

Green Lantern Corps: I'll admit, my first feeling on seeing the preview for the next big ring-threat was Oh Noes! DC Zombies!

Wonder Woman and Atom, both good. Again, they made me feel bad for the villain. Also, monkeys!

I disagree about Black Adam, though. I think he's an arrogant jerk who only thinks of himself. "Oh, my wife died? Better go kill innocent people!" Maybe I just have an issue with casual brutality.

[Lightray]

The end of the Sinestro Corps War was, indeed, awsome. It could have actually used another tie-in, stand-alone book just to cover what some of the other heroes of Earth went through -- aside from the cameos here. Particularly for Alan Scott.

GL and GL Corps were very nice. The Ion stand-alone was... not well drawn. Instead of accusing the artist of tracing porn stars in this case, I'm going to accuse him of tracing old Jewish men for the Guardians. yeesh.

Booster Gold and Wonder Woman were solid. I just explained the wonky temporal metaphysics as "Rex is lying to Booster, again". And WW vs. Nazis is always good.

Countdown is actually moving toward something. I'm just no longer sure if I care what, it's been so dull and uninteresting in getting to wherever it's going. However, I accidentally bought the Countdown Arena thing -- who the heck thinks that book is interesting?!? Seriously, cage-matches of versions of familiar characters which we know little about, with Captain Monarch parading around as some writer's Mary Sue in a heel turn worthy of Superboy Prime. Tossed it straight into the trash, I did.

[Love Rhombus]

I was just pissed that Gotham by Gaslight Batman bought it in Arena last time. I LIKED him!

[Menocchio]

What the hell is going on with Monarch, anyway?

He seemed almost decent in Countdown to Adventure, in a ends justify the means make deals with Nazi Superman kind of way, until the latest issue where he gives Forerunner the boot suddenly and for very little reason. His part in this mess just doesn't make sense.

[CandidGamera]

I'm wondering about Monarch, myself - though I *do* enjoy Countdown : Arena. It's just the kind of crossover-porn I like. Tantalizing glimpses of other DC Universes.

My thoughts on Booster : The timeline can be changed. It's just really really hard. And you have to know how to do it.

I'm just thrilled that Booster Gold explained bits from the Lightning Saga, and is pulling in stuff from Johns' JSA stuff from before Identity Crisis. Rip Hunter seems to have been fighting this temporal battle since then, and it's still going, and probably relates to the Waverider cameo in 52, and more things.

Also : Black Lantern rings have Black Hand's symbol. Innnteresting.

[Kamino Neko]

I was just pissed that Gotham by Gaslight Batman bought it in Arena last time. I LIKED him!

This is kind of a spoiler for this week's issue, but I doubt anyone cares...

Red Rain Batman only killed Liberty Files Batman. Monarch has Gotham by Gaslight Batman in suspended animation. What he plans to do with him isn't clear. One scene has Monarch talking about sending him back to his world to defend it, another has his minions talking about holding onto the surviving losers (GbG Batman, Apollo, In Darkest Knight Lantern, so far) as 'spares'.

Even LF Bat is technically not dead....he was turned by the bite.

The confirmable death toll so far: 2 unidentified Nightshades (one looks to be Earth-4's), Earth-5 Green Lantern, the Blue Beetles of Earths 33 and 39 (both killed by the Earth-26 version), Earth-10 Ray.

Monarch's motivation just gets muddier every time he speaks. He's clearly gone thoroughly insane.

[Lightray]

I'm wondering about Monarch, myself - though I *do* enjoy Countdown : Arena. It's just the kind of crossover-porn I like. Tantalizing glimpses of other DC Universes.
I would have been far more interested in actual glimpses of the other DC Universes. This is just a "Who Could Beat So-and-So" thread turned into comic book format.

I'm not really interested in people speculating on why Red Son Superman could obviously thrash Golden Age Superman. Snoozeville.

Maybe Captain Atom has been replaced by (some version of) Hawk inside the Monarch suit. ;)

[JThunder]

I was just pissed that Gotham by Gaslight Batman bought it in Arena last time.Doubtlessly due to a lack of preparation.