Here 'tis. She-Hulk was my single Marvel purchase this week - wasn’t bad, but I’ll need to see more.
JLA Classified: Who the hell approved this incoherent, implausible snoozefest of a story arc?
That sounds like most of the plots in that book. Which is why it is long off my pull list.
Flash was good.
She-Hulk-Anytime Absorbing Man shows up, I’m in. I’m cautiously optimistic about the new creative team.
Thunderbolts-Holy crap, it actually wasn’t too bad. Doc Samson goes against every rule of therapy, but that’s okay, it made for a good read.
Moon Knight-I really liked the art. Yet another long scene in a therapist’s office. What is this, National Mental Health Week?
Flash-I was on the verge of dropping, mostly because I hate the kids, but here they come with an AWESOME back-up story. I’ll keep buying just for that.
Fall of Chtulhu-Good stuff for Halloween.
I’m not sold on the new direction yet. Lawyer to bounty hunter is a major step down in life and it seems like a rather weak attempt to give the book more action that it didn’t really need. Still, David has been able to take weak books and concepts in the past and give them a fresh spin by being willing to pitch out the bulk of the baggage so I’m willing to give him a chance…
Superman-Prime - Oh, good lord, I knew he was a whiny child, but the narration jumps that to a whole new level. Pretty good story, if you ignore Superbrat’s hypocritical whinage. ‘You made me do it!’ Shut up, shut up, shut up! They really should have headed west when they got him, though.
Authority Prime - Not bad, despite being a Stormwatch book, more than an Authority one. (I like Stormwatch, but it wasn’t really what i was expecting.)
GLC - It wasn’t until reading this issue that I realized I missed 15 and 16. :smack: I missed Yat kicking Ranx’s ass! Still, the book was full of badass. Especially Yat mouthing off to Gardner.
Action - Loved it. Especially the resolution. Pa Kent is brilliant. And he lived! All the telegraphing of him getting killed, and it didn’t happen! God bless you, Geoff and Richard!
Superman - So, that’s the third Kryptonian, huh? Pretty cool, actually. I like her. I hope she sticks around. When this arc is all over, I hope our crazy villain dude ends up locked in the Phantom Zone. I’m sure the Kryptonian Criminals would love having him visit.
Countdown #27 - Meh. I’m only buying this to be a completist. It’s really not that good. Jason Todd and Black Mary should go away into limited run tie-ins and stop stinking up the rest. And Holly can just go away altogether – that storyline is going nowhere.
Flash # 233 - Art has improved, nice to see the nod to Wally’s involvement with the JL, but the back-up story was more fun IMO.
Teen Titans #52 - Not as fun as I’d expected. And the JL cameo was really handled poorly – they have full faith on the Titans handling Starro and their evil doppelgangers? Since when? That is completely the opposite of how the JL members have been portrayed in the past, and completely opposite to the point of this book altogether – the Titans are trying to prove themselves to their mentors, who do not yet accept them as equals.
Blue Beetle # 20 - Seems like an awful lot of plotlines are being tied up recently…
Superman #669 - This storyline is not really grabbing me, and while Kara and Chris and Krypto are okay in the Superman pantheon, I think this is one Kryptonian too many.
Action Comics #857 - Sneak Sinestro Corps War tie-in! Now I know that the SuperVision was a Checkov Gun here – with Jor-el’s warning of blue sun powers and Bizarro’s BizarroVision, it had to be fired. But… nothing was done with it. Superman could have saved Pa without using the SuperVision, and Pa did nothing with the SuperVision in the story. If it was just so someone could understand what it was like to be Superman, well, Morrison did that better in All-Star Superman and did Bizarro better to boot.
Superman-Prime - This really did nothing to move forward or reveal more of Prime’s story or personality. Just re-hashed the same stuff that happened in the last Crisis. Not terribly interesting, and Risk showing up again was just random stupid again. At least PG is back to her own personality (unlike Brave & Bold). The back-up Tales of the Sinestro Corps was much better.
GL Corps #17 - Prime spoiled the ending of this, which was annoying.
Oh, gods, I don’t think I could disagree more. The backup was just lame (like 3/4 of the other Sinestro Corps backups).
Actually, no, it wasn’t just lame, it was INSULTINGLY lame.
To sum up the concept: Green Lanterns are brave. Except when something they actually care about is on the line, then they go to jelly and get themselves and what they care about killed and/or kidnapped. Invariably.
Interesting that we had such divergent opinions on the Supes titles and the GL Corps stuff…
But I liked the Sinestro Tales back-up because it showcased the Yellow Impurity weakness being the fear of a fearless GL. As I seriously cannot think of something more fearful than your child being held by some freak, it rang true to me.
And it’s really in line with one of the themes going through the Sinestro Corps War – that while the GLs think they’re fearless, they’re not (exemplified by Parallax vs. Kyle & Hal), and that while the Guardians think that Willpower allows them all to be rational and emotionless, they’re not, either.
Countdown #27: The usual nothing continues to happen. Plus a shout-out to Salvation Run, which I’m really looking forward to.
Action Comics #857: Yeah, Morrison just did this, and “Superman Vision” didn’t go anywhere at all, but the ending was sweet. I do like how one Bizarro somehow qualified to be a Sinestro.
**Blue Beetle #20: ** Nice tie-in Works very well with BB’s given history. The Infiltrator was one scary mo-fo, and damn are the Reach slimy. Just as well for them that they lost, though. Sinestro would never give them what they wanted.
The Flash #233: Superman’s line was a stretch. Nobody would say that in that situation. Similarly, Batman has enough brains to see the irony and not say that either. But still… It worked. And the backup story just kicked all kinds of ass.
Superman-Prime #1: I kinda preferred it when the “ranting fanboy” subtext SB’ wasn’t *quite *so blatant. Oh, and that part with Risk? That is the exact line between comedy and tragedy right there. Like all the Sinestro-Corps specials, not really necessary, but a decent appendix.
Green Lantern Corps #17: I really liked Kilowog here. Sodom Yat is great in concenpt, but in execution he just feels like too much too fast. All he is is badass.
Teen Titans #52: BB is still off. So is Wonder Woman, for that matter, but it’s improved from the last issue. Especially with the last pages.
Superman #669: Loved it. Loved that we got a really good explanation for why an advanced civilization only had one baby-sized spaceship around. In my dreams, I get to write a comic that’s essentially the history of Krypton. So this was pretty cool.
Parallax is, to my mind, a different beast.
He is extrinsic, but internal, to Kyle and Hal while he’s in control. It’s not just their fear that’s working against them - which, given the obviousness of such scenarios, and having been in the situation before, in Kyle’s case (WiR is named for the fate of his girlfriend, after all), should have been something that was already weeded against - but Parallax psychically poking at it.
Something so obvious as holding family hostage (external, but intrinsic, if you will), without the extra push from a mental parasite, like Parallax shouldn’t be something any Lantern who’s not still being babysat by Kilowog should be fazed by, IMO. In fact, after the Parallax incident, and Kyle’s myriad troubles on that front, it should be something the Guardians know to specifically weed for. Not that the Guardians as a whole are particularly far sighted, but that’s the sort of thing I’d see Ganthet and Sayd seeing coming, and the others actually seeing their point (for once).
You know, just once I’d like to see the Guardians make a smart decision that doesn’t come back to bite them in their tiny blue asses. I know, it’s a trope of GL stories, that the Earth GL shows the Guardians the error of their ways (again, and again, and again), but damn they are boneheaded little twits.
Granted, they’ve probably got a lot of bone to spare in their macrocephalic heads. But as is, I really can’t be too surprised when the Guardians’ plans for GL training and Willpower get proven fallible.
Related topic – how many more issues is the Sinestro Corps War supposed to cover? Because I’ve been expecting some other Lantern Corps to start showing up, but there’s been no signs of 'em since the Star Sapphire prelude story.
One more issue of GL, plus an epilogue in GLC, but the fallout’s going to continue after the War itself. (For instance, Mongul’s getting a rin in January.) The Zamarons’ new faction is probably going to play into Final Crisis, which the next arc of GL is explicitly setting up.