# Weekly Comic Book Discussion 11/20/2008 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644 "2008-11-20T14:27:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/1 "2008-11-20T14:27:18Z")
Here it is! I was very pleased this week - Trinity continues to impress, and we got a really solid little Brave and the Bold issue… (with one glaring teeth-grinding error in it, but the rage will pass…) ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/2 "2008-11-21T02:03:18Z")
I actually liked Supergirl’s characterization this week, in Maelstrom and in her New Krypton crossover. That was somewhat surprising, since she’s been hit-or-miss since her Brave & Bold teamup with Hal. Maelstrom herself is a bit of an idiot, though. And although the New Krypton storyline seems to be laboring under a heavy load of cliches, I rather liked the de-facto retcon of conflicting Supergirl origin stories. _And_ managed without retelling her origin over an entire issue _yet again_. Nice job. Liked the Brave & the Bold, too… but am not grinding my teeth over it, so… what error? (I’ll probably regret asking, of course). Also first time in years I can remember the Guardians showing up and not thinking they’re utter buffoons because of stupid behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/3 "2008-11-21T04:36:06Z")
Trinity wasn’t bad…the backup with ‘Freddie’ and his team was the more fun. It amuses me to look at the team makeup, though… Superman’s pair are his wife and his cousin. Wonder Woman’s are her boyfriend and sister. Batman…Alfred and Dick. Gives an…interesting perspective on Bruce and Alfred’s relationship. :eek: 😃 Also read Terra. Ah, Amanda Conner, we need to get you more work. Jimmy and Justin, too, but especially Amanda. Over in Uncanny X-Men, I’m SO, SO, SO glad to be rid of Land…and, yay, Dobsons! The bit with Peter at the borscht restaurant was pretty funny (up until his BSOD moment). Flash…Cris really needs to just kick God in the balls and tell Him he’s not going to do this crap any more. \>\_\> Catching up on some older stuff… Manhunter’s last arc has the most awfully depressing ending I’ve read in a long time. It’s bad enough they’ve uncovered the atrocity they did, did they really need to twist the knife? TWICE? First by showing all the people who’d unintentionally benefited from it, while she was making her speech… Alfred, Dr Mid-Nite, Lana, or Bane…not so bad… But Mia and Cyborg have enough problems without finding out their quality of life was partially based on Vesetech’s actions… Then the ‘oh, and hey, what we’ve stopped? Just a drop in the bucket!’ ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/4 "2008-11-21T19:07:01Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > Liked the Brave & the Bold, too… but am not grinding my teeth over it, so… what error? (I’ll probably regret asking, of course). Also first time in years I can remember the Guardians showing up and not thinking they’re utter buffoons because of stupid behavior. The Sector number. It was in the 3800s. There are only 3600 sectors. I’m trying to pretend the ‘8’ was a typo for ‘3’. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/5 "2008-11-21T20:13:27Z")
Heh. Okay, I may be an overly nitpicky and retentive engineer, but not in a thousand issues would I have noticed _that_ nit to pick at. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/6 "2008-11-21T20:28:28Z")
I really liked the Brave and Bold–whoever this guy is, I liked how he dumped us in the middle of the action, how he didn’t spoon-feed us and I loved the creepy-ass vibe he got. Anyone recognize the writer? I’d like to read more of his stuff. The error didn’t bother me at all. I blinked and then shrugged. 🙂 I loved the Supergirl (at last a coherent origin! And an expalination for why Supergirl is to personality swings what Eddie Murphy was to comedy. But I’m missing one thing–and it’s possible I missed a detail somewhere. I’d appreciate any help if this is just a thing I missed: 1. Kandor was shrunk by Braniac. 2. In the Kandor crater, Zor El found the Braniac-bot head which he used to make a dome-shaped force field for Argo. 3. Zor-El goes home to Argo. 4. Argo eventually goes ka-boom (more or less) for reasons discussed in this issue and Supergirl is shot off to Earth. We see Zor El and Alura waving bye-bye from Argo. 5. +/- 30 years later, Kal El finds Braniac and frees the Bottle City of Kandor (on Earth). 6. Zor El and Alura rush out of…_ **KANDOR** _?! to greet their daughter. But wait…weren’t they in Argo? When it died? Yeah, I know the pre-Crisis “Survival Zone” thing. But did I miss something in the “New Earth” version? They can’t have left a plot hole this big–not if Geoff Jones is at the helm. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/7 "2008-11-21T20:33:23Z")
Who knows anything with the Guardians, any more? They could easily be hiding 200+ sectors that are off-limits, or guarded by the Corpse, or whathaveyou… Come on, can you really say it’d be out of character for them? 😃 Other reading, so far… The Magog special is a little disappointing, since it looks like Tommy and Cyclone have decided to go with different factions within the Society, so that makes it so much less likely that they’ll interact. Also, I would have expected A-man, Tommy and Steel to have more of a reaction to him coming back head to foot in other people’s blood - concerned for his health, both mental and physical, disapproving of the fact that that indicates he did something very, very violent, or both. Loved the Starman origin backup. I’ve been one of the few people enjoying Young X-Men from the start, but even I have to admit it’s picked up with Anole joining - him and Rockslide make quite a pair. (In a heterosexual life partners way, even if only one is actually heterosexual.) The new Cypher looks interesting - I’m sure certain people screamed in frustration, though, since it was a NEW Cypher. Not sure about the art…it’s better than Paquette, or the guy who did last issue, but, it’s still not great - Anole and Rockslide look good, and nobody else is really BAD, but shiny Greymalkin just feels wrong, and something about Sunspot feels oddly ‘off’ to me. Over in X-Factor, my main reaction is the need to know just what the hell happened to Banshee. The first time Teresa got into an argument over whether he was alive or dead, I thought ‘too bad’…now that they’ve mentioned it repeatedly, I must know what happened… ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/8 "2008-11-21T21:01:06Z")
Supergirl speculation: Allura got hit by personality changing K-Radiation. She’s Superwoman, under an amnesiac second personality. There is one way Zor-El and Allura could be in Kandor. They spent a lot of time near a Brainiac head. He doesn’t keep people. He digitizes them. Like the Animated one, but more literally. These Kryptonians are digital constructs of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/9 "2008-11-21T21:12:23Z")
As I recall, Brainiac found Argo City and Zor-El just managed to send Kara away before the attack, during which the survivors of the attack on Argo were added to the Kandor group. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/10 "2008-11-21T21:58:33Z")
> [@photopat](#): > > As I recall, Brainiac found Argo City and Zor-El just managed to send Kara away before the attack, during which the survivors of the attack on Argo were added to the Kandor group. That’s right, as per Zor-El’s explanation to Kal-El of what happened to them in Action 869. (The second-to-last issue of the Brainiac arc.) Extra details - the force field that protected Argo after the destruction of Krypton was based on Brainiac’s technology, and the survivors of the attack were the ones Brainiac didn’t deem ‘redundant’. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/11 "2008-11-21T22:00:02Z")
I splurged this week: **Terra** : Agreed, Amanda needs more work. Very fun to look at. **Legend of the Blue Marvel** : Story’s interesting, if it wasn’t all a flashback. Art is crap. And did they really have to make a brand new villain who’s the super-powerfullest ever!1!!11! just to make it better when the BM fights him? **Captain Britain** : This book’s been good for a while. Dunno how popular it is, but it’s good. **She-Hulk** : Normally I like Peter David, but this was meh. Art was pretty though. **Astonishing X-Men** : Ellis on X-Men is great. Simone Bianchi art sucks ass, though. Cancels him out. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/12 "2008-11-21T22:11:11Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > **Captain Britain** : This book’s been good for a while. Dunno how popular it is, but it’s good. Captain Britain’s been full-on awesome. Wisdom’s little greatest desire fantasy was…well, the boy’s mind is clearly an interesting place. One thing bugging me a little about the issue (the Brian/Meggan scene, specifically). Jamie looks SO damn familiar - I mean, like a real famous person…I’m familiar enough with the character that it’s not just a ‘I’ve seen him before’ thing - he looks like someone real as much as he looks like his previous appearances. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/13 "2008-11-21T23:41:28Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > That’s right, as per Zor-El’s explanation to Kal-El of what happened to them in Action 869. (The second-to-last issue of the Brainiac arc.). !!! I missed an issue! :: frantic call to my friendly neighborhood comic book shop :: Thanks guys! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weekly-comic-book-discussion-11-20-2008/473644/14 "2008-11-24T14:03:00Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > Heh. Okay, I may be an overly nitpicky and retentive engineer, but not in a thousand issues would I have noticed _that_ nit to pick at. 😉 For a story so steeped in Green Lantern lore, it’s an odd little error. 😉