Weekly Comic Book Discussion 10/4/2007

Here 'tis. Still reading my books. Welcome to Tranquility, yay!

Hey, Evil Captor, Empowered vol 2 came out.

Also, Transformers: Devastation, and Atom, and JLA/Hitman 2

Just two books for me this week…

Countdown #30 I have no reason to buy this book but I’ve come this far with it, I might as well finish the run. The Rogues are still the only real highlight for me. I did like Kyle’s quip about wondering if he’ll ever meet ‘happy, fun-time Batman’.

Modok’s 11 #4 I’m enjoying his book way more than I should. So help me, I’m a sucker for B and C level bad guys. Hell, there was even a reference to Big Wheel. How can you not love that?

Yeesh. So many this week.

Countdown #30 - Zod was the most interesting parts; the rest was more of the same not-too-interesting stuff they’ve been giving us. I’m hoping that the backup feature means that Zod storyline might finally get finished up in the Annual.

Search for Ray Palmer #2 - Much better than the last installment, primarily because there was less Donna, Kyle, Jason, and “Bob.” Not seeing that as a good thing, when the main characters are so uninteresting. But I really liked the “interesting facial hair” joke, because the Monitor art design is kind of a joke.

Infinity, Inc. #2 - Nice Supes cameo, the rest needs to start going someplace, soon. My afterglow from “52” has worn off.

Supergirl # 22 - Okay, Starman over in JSA remembers the “three Legions” adventure, which must have happened before he came to New Earth, and if he was with his LSH must have occurred before he came back in time. But Val and Una don’t even suspect that the LSH that Kara knew might be one of the other two?

Metal Men #3 - Okay, I’m a chemical engineer. They really, really need to stop dropping chemistry terms as flavor. All the talk of “free radicals” was just… painful. But I realize I’d be an outlier.

Action Comics #856 - I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this storyline in All-Star Superman, done better. Even down to the Bizarro JLA. Although I’ll be amused if Sinestro actually gave a bizarro a Sinestro Corps ring.

Cyborg Superman - Aside from the last few pages, didn’t really move the Sinestro Corps War plot along, and the backstory probably would have been better told in “Countdown.”

GL Corps #16 - I did not think I would end up liking Sodam Yat.

All-New Atom #16 - Groovy, man.

Exiles - OH, WHAT THE SHIT IS THIS CRAP? Claremont finally gets me interested in his run, and then he drops THIS on it? Not only does he get rid of my favourite character in the bunch, but what, for the first half of the book, looked like it was going to be the setup for a multi-issue arc…gets resolved in the second half of the book, with ONE panel ‘ending’ each of the storylines, save one. I haven’t yet decided. but there’s a good chance this is my last issue of Exiles until Claremont’s off of it - if he doesn’t kill it.

On the other hand…

Welcome to Tranquillity - Ah, now that’s the stuff. From the main story, Mr A and Emoticon were definitely the high points. Interesting thing I noticed with Emo - his ‘face’ turned upright when he jumped sides - I wonder if that’s significant… The back-up was also great, as usual. When she started in on the ‘right to left, back to front’ stuff, I should have figured out it was Mangacide’s origin, but that didn’t occur to me until we saw ‘Stubbs’. What made it worse was that I GOT the reference right away, I just never connected it to the character.

Crime Society - Aaah, I’ve been waiting for this baby since it was initially solicited, and it didn’t disappoint. Only surprise in the whole thing is who Eve turned out to be (and that was a beautiful little reference, too), but that’s not a bad thing, inherently. Well…OK, Duella’s boyfriend was a bit of a shock, too, but it does explain a lot of things. Jokester and Duella’s origins, while not really anything that I hadn’t already figured out, were well done, and very, very sad. I’m waiting with bated breath for someone to drop the bomb on the poor boy, though.

Countdown - The Holly/Harley bits have a different flavour after the resolution of Amazons Attack, and 'Athena’s identity being revealed, but that’s not a bad thing - a lot of it certainly makes a lot more sense in that light.

Piper and Trickster continue to amuse, though there’s not much to say about their bit (other than the recurring complaint about Piper having super hearing, and yet it’s Trickster who heard Double Down).

Earth-15’s Batman is a dick, but less of one than Regular Flavour. The Batnighter speech amused me way more than it should. One thing bugs me about that segment, though…who the hell does SuperZod’s face remind me of?

The brief hint that the Monitors aren’t all psychopathic twerps was refreshing - it’s bad enough to have the integrity of the multiverse in the hands of one short-sighted zealot, 51 of them would be so much worse. (Well…52…Monarch has a serious case of blinders going, too.)

Action - For all that it fit the story, I don’t like the art. Great story, though. I’m going to be on pins and needles for the next month, though… It certainly feels like Pa’s being set up to bite it. But, he survived this month intact, and I was sure he’d get it inside the crystal, so, I may be wrong about this.

Detective - Thank you, Paul Dini, thank you. Thank you for NOT going where I thought you were going to with the Riddler after his discussion with Penguin in the Penguin issue. I was a little annoyed with the bit near the end with ‘Athena’ being played like a twist, when the person ‘Athena’ was talking to was blatantly obvious, with her identity being known. But I guess if you skipped Amazons Attack (and who doesn’t wish they did?), and thus missed that reveal, it’s KIND of a twist.

[Edit - Oops, forgot Atom - Not much to say, although it’s a little disheartening to see Dean Mayland’s obvious lie has rattled Ryan so. My main thought on the issue was that it never occurred to me until the panel with him in the Nehru jacket how much Kettering looks like Stan Lee…]

Oh, yeah, I noticed. And bought. I was afraid Volume 2 might have backed off a bit on the bondage imagery and themes, but no, I’m a little over halfway through, and if anything there’s as much or more of it. He even invented a new term for DiDs that I am sure will enjoy wide popularity – “Shoulder candy.” (As in, bound and gagged damsels who look good carried over the shoulder.)

The humor’s still there, too. I really liked Empowered’s quip for supervillains: “The beatings I serve up come in three delcious flavors: severe, brutal and savage. And … would you like jail time with that?”