First of the year! Picked up my stuff today. Actually, a fairly slow week for me…
Detective Comics #840: I liked this much better than I liked Resurrection itself. It does undermine the earlier story, but then, Resurrection undermined itself plenty. First, “The Globe” is an entertaining third stringer, not as good as Little Italy and Mr. Zzzz, but I’ve really enjoyed Dini’s attempts to build up the little guys that enrich Batman’s mythos. I thought the overall plot was well-built, and I really liked the ending. It’s cold-hearted in a way that Batman doesn’t (and shouldn’t) get to do with anyone except Ra’s. And I liked that Batman got a definitive and total victory this time. Ra’s too often slips away after his plans are foiled, or is last seen in a collapsing building or something. It’s refreshing to see him utterly defeated and locked up.
Countdown to Final Crisis #17: I’ll give it a “B-” for effort. They’re moving the story quite quickly, and I think I even like the general shape of it (and the parallel takedowns of Jean was a neat idea), but the execution still isn’t up to snuff. Mary’s awfully lucid after being Batshit insane for the last few months, and I’m not sure what Bob and Solomon are trying to do. But hey, at least it’s going someplace now.
Jonah Hex #27: I like the new guy, hope we see more of him, but the villain gang had even less of a reason for their actions than they do even for this book. I mean, I’m sending out a lot of resumes right now, and not once has any prospective employer tried to kill me for not meeting his standards for employment.
The All-New Atom #19: I think I’m looking for reasons to dislike this issue. I don’t like being left hanging on the martial law and JLA membership, and Ithought the villain was wimpy and derivative of Morrison’s Klarion the Witch Boy. But really… It’s pretty good. Champagne did a good job using the book’s essential weirdness, as well as a decent use of Ryan’s achilles heel/mysterious magnetism for pretty girls.
So… the new Spider-Man status quo… basically resets Peter to over twenty years ago.
Ooookay.
My one Marvel pickup this week was Exiles : Days of Then and Now.
This book made me sad. This was Exiles. This was good.
I would love to see a title about Quentin’s team…what Claremont is doing to the real Exiles, not so much.
It also reminded me…what in God’s name happened to newuniversal?
Atom was entertaining, but I’m currently a little perplexed that Gail Simone left Birds of Prey to do Wonder Woman, but WW is the only book out this month that she wrote - Welcome to Tranquility’s over (at least until after the whole Wildstorm: Armageddon thing is over), Gen13 and Atom are written by other people…I am confused.
Uncanny X-Men - Meh. I can’t wait for this story to be over so I can drop Uncanny and X-Men again (unless the New X-Men move to one of those teams…argh)…there’s an interesting story, here, but it’s getting drawn out way too much.
Could this have been a reset for Jean? The one in the ocean off New Earth’s Paradise Island could turn out to be from Earh 51.
The Spider-Man reset just made me go WTF? even more than the clone saga.
(which I will not speak of)
I’ve been following the current storyline and I was wondering just how the hell they were going to get the story out of the corner it’s been written into.
Frankly I expected a clever plot twist, not a deus ex machina suppository.
I’m not too worried though. A big fan outcry has begun.
Thank God for small weeks…
Thunderbolts is a beautiful disaster. I don’t know where it fits into the Marvel Universe but I don’t care. It’s such a mess, but it’s a great mess.
Uncanny X-Men continues the impressive (to me, at least) Messiah Complex. I think I’m even going to add Uncanny to my pull list.
Anyone read The Ultimate Human #1?
Sir Prize:
That was my first thought, but the Jean that fell into the ocean was wearing pants - Jean of Earth-51 was in a dress.
Menocchio:
They are trying to merge their power (and ultimately, that of the other monitors) into one being, to be known as the “Prime Monitor” or “the Source” (unknown if meant to be synonymous with the New Gods’ Source). They seem to be genuinely well-intentioned, believing that this will lead to multiversal stability, although still a bit selfish - each is out to be that Prime Monitor himself.
Maybe they just switched minds. Ray Palmer’s tragic story. Every one thinks his love is an insane killer but she is really his love from another Earth.
Rumor has that Gail was having trouble with her deadlines - getting stuff in just under the wire. So she got pulled from Gen13 and Atom.
I read “Jean” and “in the ocean” and “reset”, and for one terrifying moment I thought “they’re resetting Jean Grey as Phoenix dropped in the ocean again?!?” Phew.
No, but I think she’s currently showing up in The Initative.
Have you seen the two page picture spread that outlines the fall out of the new status quo? Basically Mary Jane and Peter DATED for a long time but never married… because apparently that made all the difference with Quesada the fact that they were ever married. No one, NO ONE, even those that knew before the unmasking, knows Peter is Spidey. Some people vaguely remember Spiderman unmasking but can’t remember who it was.
The younger Osborne never died he’s just been away in Europe for years. He is estranged from his father and is Peter’s best friend… but he hates Spiderman.
Even though this isn’t mentioned in that spread… Mary Jane is apparently a super hero now. Which I think is the only interesting thing about this story. Mary Jane remembers everything so got super powers because that’s, she figures, is the surest way to get back in with Peter.
I think I missed the latest issue of Walking Dead… my comic shop swore that the issue that was on the stand is the newest issue but I bought that issue a long time ago now.
Messiah Complex on the X-men side seems to be going strong. Considering it’s almost over, it’s run at a quick pace while managing to avoid most X-over cliches.
Yup, and Peter’s Poor, living with Aunt May at her house, and has mechanical webshooters again…
This was my response:
