Weekly Comic Book Discussion 12/21/2005

I think I’ll get stuff started. It was a pretty big week for me.

Infinite Crisis #3: Holy crap. This continues to be amazing. I did find the large fight scenes a little hard to follow, which doesn’t bode well for the inevitable important smackdown to come. I’m absolutely loving this thing. Can’t wait for the Paradise Island scenes to be fleshed out over in Wonder Woman. And I was half right about the Blue Beetle, at least.

The Flash #229: I’ve said it before. It’s okay, but just placeholding until Infinite Crisis and One Year Later. One odd thing, they mentioned Katrina, and how it proved people can’t trust that they’ll be evacuated. The thing is, in a world where superhero rescues are routine, there’s just no way Katrina would have worked out so horribly as it did in the real world, even given the crappy state of things in the DCU right now. I know I’ve said in the past that it’s important that superhero stories still remain in our world (IOW, we shouldn’t be asking why Barbara Gordon hasn’t been cured by magic cyberware, or why Reed Richards hasn’t cured AIDS), but direct references to current events just strain my credibility a little too much. Especially since the DCU never had Bush as president (thus no Brownie, either). They got Lex Luthor instead. I think they got the better part of that deal.

Birds of Prey #89: Commissioner Gordon is just awsome.

Bulleteer #2: Eep. She didn’t do very much, did she? Still, it’s nice to see that agent from Shining Knight again. She was cool.

Green Lantern #6: Didn’t care for the art. I’d like it better if Black Hand’s powers weren’t just “I kill!” Nice work with the “German”, though.

Green Lantern Corps Recharge #3: Good fun. I’m liking the new Lanterns. They’ll carry this thing once Kyle gets his own series.

Justice #3: There’s at leats two distinct story arcs here, and it’ll be interesting to see how they sync up.

Green Lantern Corps #3: If she was so smart she wouldn’t have fell for the old reverse psychology trick. Nice uniform.

Inf-Cri #3: Awesomeness. Gold star to whoever called the Alexander= imposter Lex thing, but I don’t remember anyone calling Superboy as the Watchtower destroyer. It makes so much sense though.

Could someone catch me up on what’s happening in Atlantis? How about what happened to Earth-2 Dick Grayson? How about the weather?

Did the Amazons beat up the Covenant and steal their shields?

On Infinite Crisis #3:

[spoiler] Yeah. I don’t recall anyone calling SB-prime as our villain. It’s an easy enough prediction that a Luthor has alterior motives, but I certainly didn’t see sweet young Clark Kent coming down with a big old case of the Crazies (to use a clinical term). I just read Secret Identity (pretty much the same concept of SB-Prime, without the Crisis).

As for Atlantis, it was expanded upon over in Aquaman. While Aquaman is kept busy by a Society raid in Sub Diego, Tempest and other mages in Atlantis are attempting to suck the power out of a mage that’s cursed Mera to breath air. The ritual attracts the Spectre. Tempest and the evil Atlantean Archmage put up a good fight, but you really can’t fight off the Spectre. He delivers a biblical smackdown and smashes up the place something awful. [/spoiler]

And Earth-2 Dick had a really awful costume. Several of them, actually.

Infinite Crisis #3 - Holy hell!

I don’t remember who mentioned Lex = Alex first. I shall have to go dig through my subscribed threads and find it. Likewise, not sure of Superboy was floated as a possibility, but he does fit the same evidence profile that we were using to make the case for Superman-2 - but it all played out much more sinister than I imagined. I wonder how Alex poisoned Superboy’s mind so well… and how Alex managed to weasel out of the ‘paradise’ before Superman brought the wall down. The dialogue between Superman-2 and Batman was excellent… glad to see the Scarab again, too. I’m guessing Alex’s ability to act as a portal plays a part in their premature escape, and the recovery of the Anti-Monitor’s corpse. The roster of the kidnapped is Breach, J’onn, Black Adam, Lady Quark, The Ray, and now Kara. This leaves two slots, presumably for Alex and Superboy, I’d guess. Funnily enough, the last time I remember seeing Blue Beetle’s scarab was when he was fighting off Shadow Demons on one of these very same towers…

As a footnote, on the page where Luthor meets Luthor, the multi-facet monitor-wall apparently shows Captain Atom, possibly in the Wildstorm universe; the Blue Beetle’s scarab; Chemo under containment; and Liberty Belle battling Baron Blitzkrieg in the pages of All-Star Squadron. (and some other folks)

Regarding Dick Grayson of Earth 2 - aside from his abominable fashion sense, he did do one other thing that Superman-2 probably regards as bad - he represented the prosecution in America vs. the Justice Society, if memory serves. Perhaps it’s just the fact that he was a lawyer…

All I got was Infinite Crisis #3. I didn’t hate it as much as #2, even though I couldn’t care less about the Amazons, Atlantis, or Earth 2 Superman. I’m probably going to end up eBaying my three issues, even though I’m eagerly awaiting “52” once IC is over.

So, of the folks on the tower:

[spoiler] J’onn’s from Earth-1, and I don’t recall him having alternate Earth counterparts, like the others on this list. He’s also a master telepath.

Black Adam is from Earth-S, and channels his powers from the gods.

Lady Quark is from Earth-6, and had powers over matter. (Remember, Luthor wanted Firestorm)

The Ray is the son of the original Ray, of Earth-X, and has powers over energy.

Breach has extradimensional origins and powers. He might also be a stand in for Captain Atom, a Charlton Hero (Earth-C?), who is ironically himself current on an alternate Earth (Earth-W?!?).

Kara, of course, is from Earth-2.

I’m not sure if he’s going for “one from each earth”, or if that’s a red herring and the powers themselves are significant. Mind, Matter, Energy, Dimension, get someone with Time (a Flash, perhaps?), and perhaps Life (Swamp Thing, maybe Poison Ivy) and you’ve got yourself a full set. Or possibly the Infinity Gauntlet. Or maybe Captain Planet. Kara’s powers don’t seem to fit, but it’s not clear that she will be strapped to that thing. [/spoiler]

Earth-4. Earth-C is the home of Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zew Crew.

Zoo. Zoo Crew.

Zew. >< Christ. I don’t know what’s more embarrassing…that I misspelled ‘zoo’ at all, or that I misspelled part of the Zoo Crew’s name. ><

I almost forgot. Did anyone else see this Something Positive strip? Fantasy comic book leagues= best idea ever.

Infinite Crisis 3. Man, I hate these placeholder issues where nothing happens.

Seriously, am I right in thinking (or only just realizing) that, except for the central story thread of the Supes-2’s coup, this is really functioning as a digest of events that are happening in greater detail in all the other DCU books? It seems to be “Here’s a two-page glimpse of what’s going on in Aquaman, now a three-page preview of this month’s Wonder Woman, and if you want to understand exactly what the hell’s going on out in space, well…” Since I’m not reading any of those other books, I have a bit of a hard time following these sequences, which consist largely of tiny, character-crammed panels and very abrupt and fast-moving plot developments.

You mean except for the story, is anything happening?

No. If you exclude the main arc of the story, where we got two big revelations about previously held secrets, then absolutely nothing happened.

And if you exclude all the pictures, there’s no art, either.

(Only the Aquaman and Wonder Woman stuff is straight out of other books this month, AFAIK).

I totally agree, and that’s why I think IC SUCKS. Yes, it sucks. It’s nothing more than an expensive ad for DC’s other monthly books, and almost nothing of consequence has happened in the first three issues. That’s why I’m dropping it, which means for the first time ever, I will be collecting NO monthly comics, hooray!

I meant that ironically. There are obviously a zillion things happening in this issue.

Ok then. See above for why I might be confused. :wink:

Lessee - I got
What If Featuring the Fantastic Four;
What If Featuring the Sub Mariner;
Seven Soldiers : Bulleteer - in which it all really starts to intertwine;
Manhunter - in which we learn fascinating facts about Kate’s ancestry;
Robin - guest starring Blue Devil and RagMan, and featuring some hilarious writing asides;
Adventures of Superman - which concludes the Ruin plot;
Fantastic Four - guest-starring the Hulk as they kick off a new arc, and also containing great dialogue;
Justice - which is oh so pretty;
Flash - pretty solid;
Birds of Prey - about time for this revelation to the Commish;
JSA : Classified - the excellent caper continues;
GL Corps : Recharge - unspeakably awesome;
Green Lantern - very solid stuff.

JSA Classified #6: I’m loving everything about this arc. Kiss some ass, Ma! About the last page: Which of the women is supposed to be Talia? She has a sister? What’s with the Luthor twins?

The outer space stuff is being covered in Firestorm.

New Books for 12-21-05: Potential Spoilers in White Text, use cursor to read. Overall, it was a fair week for comics.

Batgirl #71 Pop Mhan’s layouts, while better this issue, quite quite match the dramatic potential of the story. In fact the layouts seemed to drain all the potential excitement from the script in places, something I found frustrating. If the title’s gonna’ get cancelled, I’d’ve liked it to go out on a bang.

Birds Of Prey #89 Decent issue. My favorite part was Barb’s conversation with her father (though I would’ve enjoyed it a bit more if he’d figured out almost EVERYTHING by now). After the events of the past year or so, I’m not quite sure where Bats gets off telling the Birds what they can and cannot do, in Gotham or anywhere else, but I guess the moment lent the ending some drama. Can’t say I care for the guest artists pencils.

Captain America Vol 5 #13 Brubaker’s story picks up speed again as Cap, the Falcon, and, for a while, Iron Man, take the initiative in the hunt for the Winter Soldier and the Cosmic Cube.

While Eptings’ art is as strong as ever (though there are times I miss the loose-er inking that graced his work on the Avengers some years back, and made his work look like the dear departed Big John Buscema’s) the real strength of the issue were the conversations between Cap and the Falcon (one of the few times they sounded like old comrades-in-arms) and Tony Stark. Also I almost wanted to hear Steve or Sam say something like, “Well, we got our back up now”, after signing off with Sharon.

I realize I might be alone in this, but I do wish the Falcon would wear his original Green and Gold colors again. I preferred that outfit. It made him look more like his own man. Now he just looks like the stripes, complementing Caps field of stars on Blue.

Infinite Crisis #3 IC #2 and #3 are all about temptation. Last issue it was Powergirl. This issue it’s Batman, in what has to be one of the most involving scenes I’ve read involving the Dark Knight in quite some time. At the same time I couldn’t quite give myself over to the moment. I kept thinking these scenes weren’t quite dramatic enough to justify the long slog Batman fans like myself have been put through over the past year and a half, starting with “Batman WarGames” the summer before last. We can see how Batman would be tempted, but the payoff, while reaffirming the man’s core values, just wasn’t presented in strong enough fashion. I think the problem is the art, or more precisely the crowded layouts. The penciler has way too much ground to cover, to give each dramatic moment it’s due. Still it would be funny, once all this is over, if Bats, recalling the alternate future that he was shown, went out and tried to tie the knot with Selena Kyle once and for all.

Justice #3 was far, far better than expected. Very dramatic issue, and one of the few times where the Martian Manhunter is threatened with death by fire that didn’t inspire me to yawn. You can actually sense John Jones’ horror, and earlier, Arthur Curry’s fear. It’s been quite a while since a League story actually generated much suspense for me. Kudos to Braithwaite’s layouts and Ross’ finishes.

I definitely need to re-read Seven Soldiers Bulleteer #2, there’s a lot of fun bits scattered throughout the issue. This is a fun, even breezy read, despite the considerable exposition Morrison worked into the script this issue. Like Seven Soldiers Zatanna before it, here Morrison manages to both resurrect the goofy fun of the Silver Age, while updating it with a much more adult approach to the humor, reflecting the fact comic book readers are often older these days, or if younger, simply more demanding. I hope this aspect of his writing style becomes more and more influential as we reach the end of the excessively programmed One Year Later.

While the mix of Jurgen’s pencils and Jansen’s inks doesn’t quite work for me, Supreme Power Hyperion #3, presents us with a lot of interesting, even horrific, possibilities for the future Squadron Supreme, something that’s really effectively underscored by this issues “cliffhanger close”.

I wonder if JMS intended this whole story arc to function as a kind of cautionary “X-men: Days of Future Past” type story, adding the suspense of a potential “bad end” to JMS’s retelling and updating of Mark Gruenwald’s original treatment. If so, while the technique is getting a bit overused these days (for instance, see Geoff John’s “Titans of Tommorrow” arc, which while good, reminded me too much of Claremont & Brynes’ seminal X-Men story), it definitely works here. I now expect Nighthawk to run for President in upcoming storylines, on the sole platform that someone has to reign in the Frankenstein monster the Government’s created.

I haven’t gotten to Daughters Of The Dragon Deadly Hands or Robin #145 yet. I also hoped to pick up a copy of Rushikoff and Liam Sharp’s Testament #1, but it had sold out. I guess that’s a good sign.

Happy Holidays to All!

Local #2 - Slightly creepy story. Particularly the ending. I hope issue 3 isn’t the Polaroid Boyfriend on the run after knifing Megan. Damn good read.

Bulleteer #2 - Some major WTF moments. Like Vigilante’s a werewolf? (Or was that just a bluff?). Nice tie-ins to the main story, though. Minor art complaint…Bulleteer’s hot, but she apparently has the ugliest hands I’ve ever seen.

GLC #3 - Not much to say on the story itself, but every time I read GLC, I hate the art anew. Guy, particularly, looks awful. And Killowog.

What If? Featuring the Fantastic Four - I’m loving these 717 What If?s (Although I’m having a hard time getting into Namor, and keep stalling out just as the Atlanteans are showing up.). This one, I think, is the best of the lot (although Wolvie as a 1920s Punisher was pretty cool, too.) I particularly like the variants on Reed (ok, Rud)'s powers - but I keep expecting him to yell ‘XAM!’ when using them. Loved the Mole Man showing up in Czechoslovakia just to get the FF#1 reference in. And, OK, another art complaint - well, not so much a complaint as an observation. Natasha’s breasts were the most eye-catching thing in the book. Honestly, I think she’d make Peeg jealous. >_>