You know, I really like the Phantom Stranger… and can’t quite figure out why. He’s got all the character tropes I normally mislike: nebulous powers, aggressively vague origins, never the active character (since he’s usually presented as deus ex machina), no personal interactions to speak of. And yet, he’s pretty cool.
And it looked like that BN tie-in dropped one of the first hints of Brightest Day, too.
Maybe it’s because he’s the originator of some of those tropes. And, despite his obvious power, you never get the sense that’s he’s omnipotent.
Power Girl was awesome.
Vartox’s humanizing, the whole…reproduction scene (won’t spoil…too funny)…Peeg’s return home (the cat wasn’t being evil!)…
But my favourite bit was Satanna and Badger. Conner’s a true master of facial expressions… Satanna and the Tigers’ reactions throughout the scene were beautiful. (Especially the Tiger to Satanna’s right…that’s pretty much how I’d react if I were in his place.)
BOOM! Studios–The Incredibles.
Anybody getting it?
I am! I love the expanded view of the Incredibles Universe we’re getting.
I shall be picking that up for my nephew, tout suite.
Huge pile of books this week, including Blackest Night : JSA, Atom and Hawkman, and Green Lantern #50, which all rocked.
Siege #2 out this week. The body count begins, and there’s a great last page.
I picked up Blackest Night : Wonder Woman, and The Question. And Buffy #32, which is the funniest thing I read this week.
Also, the Metal Men backup in Doom Patrol where Giganta has a wardrobe malfunction.
I’m a week late with this one, but I only got around to reading Justice League of America #41 a couple days ago. Am I alone in thinking the writing felt really rushed, and had a hard time making any sense of the story? Also, is anybody else getting tired of the team imploding and reforming with a new lineup every few months?
DC has been flailing a bit with the franchise.
JSA Annual - ugh.
New Krypton - What has been good about this series is that it focused on Kal’s personality. That becomes a speedbump to wrapping up the framing “mystery” this time, though. Ending with a teaser showing that they’ll be putting the toy of having Kryptonians around back in the bottle, soon.
At least the Superman books will probably jettison the dull Flamebird/Nightwing, and Mon-El arcs. I can’t even fathom how they made those characters dull.
BN tie-ins: Question shows the strain of having to find a different way for each hero to overcome the Black Lanterns in his/her book. Stripperella Wonder Woman was a fair sight bettern than #2 was, though not as good as #1.
Great Ten - I’m liking this, probably because I’m a sucker for origin stories, and this seems like it’ll be nothing but origin stories.
I’d like to expand on this one a bit. This series is known for generally good art; not here. A lot of the plot points seem to reference things that haven’t happened yet in the regular series. And I got the feeling more than once that the artist and writer didn’t communicate very much, or each see what the other did. It’s pretty embarrassing that the cover had Magog fighting the wrong Wildcat, and Dr. Fate was wearing the wrong costume. I recognized none of the villains, except for Sivana. What a mess.
You weren’t supposed to recognize them - I think Sivana was the only “name” in the bunch. Actually, it was sort of the explicit point, that Haven was where they put the B-List Mad Scientist threats…
My main complaint with the JSA Annual was the piss-poor characterization. Magog is, once again, being needlessly belligerent to his teammates. And once again, his teammates are mysteriously treating him with respect as though he were not as much a newbie to the JSA and superheroing as Cyclone, Lightning, or Citizen Steel.
And, of course, there’s Alan being made into a dunderhead, too, simply because the writers need a way to move this ridiculous team-split plot along. Alan has been slotted with Hawkman’s personality, because Carter is dead now, but they need someone to be a reactionary, fly-off-the-handle dunderhead.
PG actually wasn’t written as poorly as she’s been overhead in All-Stars, recently. She does fly off the handle, but here she’s at least shown using her brains (which have been sorely lacking).
Worst of all is that the JSA somehow stands divided because neophyte Magog has scolded them a few times about not using Iron Age tactics. First, this is the JSA; they do tight-knitted team better than anyone. Second, this is the JSA – half of 'em lived through the Iron Age comics. It strains credulity that Alan or Jay or Kara don’t call Magog on his now-fallen-from-popularity tactics. “Yeah… see, tried that whole ‘brutal heroism’ thing back in the 80s. Didn’t work then; not gonna now. Also: you need a bigger gun and more pockets on your costume for that routine, sonny.”
For comparison’s sake, when New Avengers has the Hood recruiting an army of B- and C-listers, I have a pretty good idea of who most of them are, even when their costumes are different from what I’m familiar with. Giffen could’ve identified more of them somehow.
No, you misunderstand - I think they’re all supposed to be new characters. A faceless horde of mad scientists.
JSA All-Stars: …
Action Comics: Gosh. A superheroine who is the host of a flaming bird that embodies destruction and renewal. How original. For this, they wasted the cool potential of Clark and Lois raising the child of one of his greatest enemies to follow in the footsteps of Superman. sigh At least the Superman books will soon be Superman books again, when the Kryptonians get put back into their bottle, or whatever.
REBELS: Vril gets punked to move the plot along.
Booster Gold: But I like the Blue Beetle backup feature!
BN: Adventure Comics: I would totally buy a monthly Krypto title. And although it’s starting to make Nekron’s eeevil zombies look like chumps, being taken out in every tie-in, this was a clever use of Conner’s backstory.
Batman & Robin: Rather predictable events, but enjoyable nonetheless.
I can’t get my comics yet, due to massive snowstorms. Sigh.
Good week for me. 
Supergirl was pretty good this week: good use of the characters, interaction with the supporting cast, payoff for some stuff that’s been developing for some time (and, frankly, more interesting than when it first showed up in Superman).
BN: Flash was very good. Boomerang Black Lantern is possibly the most evil superzombie we’ve seen so far. Again, the Flash stuff was less interesting than the Rogues.
BL: GL Corps Mogo continues to be awesome. The Guy and Kyle bromance is fun, and Miri is the only Stripper Lantern I like.
BL: Green Lantern also nice, and apparently setting up following storylines about the color-totems. Larfleeze vs. Lex was amusing.