Actually, I was surpised that we didn’t see other Black Lanterns going up against Robotman, after that tease with the “graveyard” and the discussion about his multiple brains.
But of course, he has no heart to rip out, so what’s the point?
GLC - can’t say it was a surprise, since someone on another comm suggested that was the way things would go, and it struck me as the best possible version…but, boy what a way to go. ;_;
Batgirl - I love Babs and Steph’s interaction. Also, Steph and her cop friend. Also the commissioner and Steph’s cop friend. And Babs and Wendy, for that matter. Basically if nothing happened in the book except Steph hanging around with Babs and her cop, and his hanging around with Gordon whenever he wasn’t hanging around with Steph, the book would be well worth the price. But stuff is happening, and it’s good stuff.
GL Corps - yeah, thought something like that would happen during BN, but was expecting it to be John over on Xanshi. Also: “Munk” is a very dumb name.
Batman & Robin - well. That was certainly an anticlimax.
Speaking of John…I just got thinking…since DC’s bringing back backups (or ‘second features’), and since John’s pretty much reduced to the side lines right now…they should give him a backup in GL or GLC.
My money was on Kilowog. Ah well…
Got two more rings this week! REBELS and Booster Gold!
Local Comic Book Store once again dropped the ball on my pulls this week. Grr. :mad:
They’ve scared up additional copies, so I’d better get those rings. After all, the one ring I do have is yellow… 
Got GLC, REBELS and Booster Gold this week, and I’m loving the use of Blackest Night in these stories. Also picked up JSA vs Kobra, which was…anticlimactic. I thought the point of the build-up was that Mister Terrific was going to finally figure out Kobra and outsmart him, but Kobra still faked him out, just like he did all through the miniseries.
And my comic shop isn’t big enough to get the rings. 
It may get some of them. I think you just had to have ordered more than 25 copies of the relevant titles, and surely Blackest Night or GL is selling 25 issues at your local store.
My comic store guy was only selling a handful of things like Doom Patrol, but pushed his order to 25 for the rings - and promptly sold out of the issue. People want those rings.
Just got through reading the latest Action Comics… Fun seeing Toronto getting torn up. >_>
And Pere Perez clearly did his research - I wasn’t able to identify just where the fight was being viewed from. (Rucka and Trautmann too. Although I’m not sure anyone would bother specifying that it was a Toronto Hydro crew, rather than just Hydro…)
Blue and Violet rings this week! On Outsiders and Adventure Comics.
Why? I got the black and orange, as they came with my normal order, but they are no different than the crap I’d get out of Cracker Jacks or the gumball machine as a kid. If they become collector’s items, even as a set, I’d be amazed by the idiocy of future fanboys (and then just start casting them myself)
And get slapped with a cease and desist by DC as a couple of online entrepeneurs have already discovered.
Just because you don’t find them appealing doesn’t mean they don’t have appeal.
I guess I’ll have to move my operations offshore.
I know collectors have all different reasons for collecting the things they do, including many fooling themselves that it might one day be their retirement fund. But you are right, I don’t understand collecting exceptionally cheap trinkets.
My comic store has never seen that Seinfeld episode about rental car reservations. How do I know this? Once again they did not order enough Blackest Night crossover titles to cover their pull list. You know, the list that they know when ordering exactly how many they’ll sell. Yah.
However, they did get me the two they hadn’t ordered enough of last week, and the rings, so I’m only missing Blue (I think).
Anyway, I have mixed feelings about these three tie-ins. DC just doesn’t understand what to do with a crossover event, even still.
REBELS includes the title’s ongoing action with the crossover events, and sort-of, kind-of explains the title’s ongoing action. (not well, though.) However, it’s explanation of the crossover’s backstory is severely lacking – it explains the different Corps, and the Black Lanterns… but misses out explaining about the Sinestro Corps, upon which the culmination of the story rests. I can almost excuse this, since the Sinestro Corps has been in DC continuity for a while by now, but still poor writing to bring in stuff current readers might be mystified by.
Adventure Comics goes bad the other way: crossovers should improve sales of the title. Not just for one issue. So you want to showcase why all these crossover readers should keep reading once the crossover ends. Unfortunately, the tossed the usual Conner storyline in favor of yet another fourth-wall-breaking Superboy Prime appearance. With no explanation of his convoluted backstory for anyone reading, whether regular or crossover reader. They did include the LSH – the normal backup in AC – in the main storyline. But, oops, different LSH version and not explained anywhere.
Booster Gold got it right, though – the backup is merged with the feature storyline for the crossover, the ongoing story is explained for the crossover readers, and only the relevant parts of the crossover are explained for the regular readers.
Of course, since I’m actually aware of all the various convoluted backstories, I liked all three. But it annoys me that DC still hasn’t figured out how to handle crossover events well (although they’ve slowly improved).
Not all crossovers are to increase sales - and I believe Adventure Comics is doing pretty well on its own. The Superboy Prime feature was just plain old meta-fun, rife with comic fan in-jokes. And the Earth-Prime LSH is actually clearly identified as the Legion of Earth-Prime. The target audience of the main feature is ‘people who read the Legion of 5 Worlds miniseries that this title spun directly out of’, so I think it’ll do fine with regular readers.
Only thing that disappointed me in Adventure was the lack of a Billy Mumy/It’s a Good Life reference in the Superboy story, since the bits with his parents were giving that vibe.
It was a very funny story. Has some causality issues, but, eh, whatever.
[spoiler]Luthor’s ‘this box is a conduit for the rage on this world’ line cracked me the hell up.
So, whoall were the Black Lanterns that Alex brought with him? I recognized Bushido, Element Lad, Sun Boy, Boss Moxie/Major Disaster (way to make the trainwreck of identification more trainwrecky!), and a Bloodlines parasite, and…I have no idea who anyone else is, although I assume most of them were probably introduced in Bloodlines.[/spoiler]
Most of the others are, as you guessed, “New Bloods” - I recognize Geist, Gunfire, Razorsharp and Nightblade.
I don’t think it’s Gunfire - I’m pretty sure he’s still alive, and if not it was Prometheus who killed him (at the same time he killed Anima).
Looking up the New Bloods, I suspect that might be Ballistic, who was in the Blood Pack with Geist, Nightblade, and Razorsharp, and was (probably) killed by Superboy-Prime. Costume looks more like his, certainly.
Oh, and I am THOROUGHLY confused by the current state of Kryptonian naming practices. The male names seem to be consistent with the old standard <Personal>-<Family> setup, but women are getting both the standard <Personal> <Father/Husband> and the typically male form. Mostly the former, to be sure, but enough of the latter are coming up to be confusing.
I suppose Bin-Se could have been the councillor’s father’s or husband’s name (although I don’t think I’ve seen Alura called <Title> Zor-El), but that still leaves the clearly female Car-Vex among Zod’s sleepers.
Lots of stuff this week for me.
Robinson continues to bore in Superman. Mon-El and Bizarro, and an awesome cameo by an LSHer, and still dullsville.
JSA… kind of a hot mess, really.
Detective Comics, I actually didn’t cringe at Kathy’s portrayal as a lesbian. Surprising, given the amount of lipstick-lesbians-in-lingerie tossed in. Still like the current day art style over the flashback style, though. Little surprised at who showed up as backup in the backup story.
BN: Teen Titans, didn’t really bear on the main BN storyline, and didn’t really interest me enough to pick this up again after BN ends. meh.
BN: JLA. Robinson, again dullsville (yet I like World of New Krypton. go figure.) Callback to the years of the second-stringer JLA could have been more interesting if anyone ever cared about them. Particularly, Vibe. Seriously? Again with this? Would have been nice to get a quick explanation as to what was up with Plas, since crossover readers (i.e., me) will wonder what is going on. But also didn’t interest me enough to pick this up after BN.
BN: GL was fun. Atrocitus vs. Larfleeze. Gonzo vs. Uncle Scrooge. Absolutely everyone dissing on the Guardians. Good stuff.
BN itself starts out with a corny power-up sequence focusing on the even cornier oaths. And then, things actually happen; for a bit I was wondering how they’d stretch it out for 4 more months. And then the seven Lantern colors combine to form the megazord and Carol actually hangs a lampshade on it.