Well! Here it is - delivery was delayed thanks to the holiday.
So, Ray Palmer - found at last. On a mostly-awesome Earth, no less.
All I’ve finished yet is Countdown. The artist can’t draw fat people. Zee’s proportions were all wrong, unless she got some weird ‘carry fat primarily in the neck’ gene from her homo magi side. I don’t quite get Earth-51’s timeline, but I think that’s because the writer didn’t either. (Ray Palmer-51 wasn’t the Atom when Ray Palmer-NE went to Earth-51. Then Ray-NE was with the JL-51 for 5 years before most of them retired, and Zee packed on a few hundred pounds…but all this happened after Identity Crisis, which was MAYBE 4 or 5 years ago in the current timeline? Something doesn’t work there…)
Green Lantern - Only read the first few pages - the creation of the Alpha Lanterns - and, Great Rao, could they have possibly made the Alpha Lanterns more portentous-looking? I mean, even without the obvious foreboding that’s been in the air since they rewrote the Book of Oa, scowly robots with power batteries for hearts are SCARY.
Wait, I didn’t see that.
Blue Beetle: More awesome every issue. Danni Garret is awesome, and it looks like the Scarab picked something up from Ted and Dan. Jamie’s dad is also awesome.
Brave and Bold: Interesting. Odd.
Invincible: Atom Eve special 1 of 2: Kick ass!
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 545: One More Day Part 4. Let’s just say that, baring a plotting miracle, this is going to screw up continuity in the Marvel universe for years to come.
Got 10 DC titles this week. Sheesh.
Apparently, Countdown reached the randomly-determined issue where one of its random plotlines starts to be resolved. Yawn. Death of the New Gods was just as lifeless and joyless and poorly written. Hard to believe this company also just did the Sinestro Corps War crossover, which was fantastic!
Got LSH action in LSH (now with less Super!) and over in Action (the with-Super one). Liking both stories… but the art in Action is starting to bug, although I’d kinda liked it as kitch before.
Blue Beetle was good. Teen Titans was okay, although it kinda had that “and now, it is time for a conclusion, so everything must wrap up in this issue” thing going on, too. After whole issues of characters Clairmonting at each other, the pivotal Cassie-Cassie conversation happens off-panel?? And then Tim-Batman has a sudden change of heart so that the storyline can end. Oy.
Green Lantern continues to be strong. Really liked the Secret Files, not only for eventual re-reading the Sinestro Corps War, but as a good place for newbies to pick up on what’s what. Hope this makes it into the trade. Also: the Alpha Lanterns almost manage to out-creepy the Guardians, and all we’ve seen of them is what they look like.
Brave & the Bold was odd but fun. Seriously, Blackhawks and the Boy Commandos? somehow fits right in with the Challengers. However, the Hawkman & All-New Atom team-up made no sense. If Hawkman’s nth metal and Atom’s white dwarf belt interacted that way, how is it that this is the first time we’ve seen it happen? Carter and Ray go way, way back in team-ups – and those are the same objects they’ve always used!
OMD: Yeah, I’m ignoring that for at least six months.
But B&B was worth it just to see Tin with the HERO dial.
Brave and The Bold: Always a fun ride. Mark Waid thinks of some great character interactions, and George Perez’s pencils never fail. The detail in his artwork is as amazing as ever, and the dynamism in his poses would almost put Jack Kirby to shame. Heck, in one tiny, unimposing panel, he made Lady Blackhawk look positively glamorous, whereas other artists would have required a full-page spread.
Green Lantern was awesome. How many bad guys can sit in prison and say they’ve won and make you believe it?
Thor was good, nice twist thrown in and a good “oh shit” cameo. Poor Thor’s getting dragged into the world whether he likes it or not.
About One More Day…it’s just horrible. Why does Quesada hate MJ so?
Skrulls!
That issue did it for me…I am through buying Spider-Man. I’ll stick with Ultimate Spider-Man.
It might as well be Ultimate Spider-Man.
Batman #672: I have very mixed feelings about Morrison’s run in general. Perhaps it’s because I’m holding it against Dini’s dead-on perfect Batman over in Detective, but this just feels odd. Like I’m coming in halfway through the arc, or I’m missing some important past reference. It’s just confusing to me.
Green Lantern #26: The Alpha Lanterns look like crap. I get the concept, but they should have just made it a title/assignment (the Internal Affairs to the GLC’s space cops), not this silly cyborg crap. The rest of the issue was pretty cool. Liked John getting some face time.
Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files and Origins #1: I thought I could resist. I know the Secret Files formula, a couple of completely disposable stories, and then a half dozen sketchy bio pages that will be out of date as soon as the character next appears. But this… This has everybody! Only one short story, but tons of bios, for all manner of freaky corpsmen. I couldn’t pass this up.
The Four Horsemen #5: After a promising start, this has become rather creaky and boring. I’m not at all sure how Batman managed to win, and I’m beginning to lose interest. Oh well, only one issue left, and if they pull out all the stops, it still shows promise.
The Brave and the Bold #9: The mini-stories format served this book well. Only Atom/Hawkman could really have been served by being fleshed out, but even that was a fun little vignette. But man, the Boy Commandos really didn’t age well did they? Maybe I’ve just been reading too much about African child soldiers recently, but I find the concept quite disturbing.
Teen Titans #54: I’m willing to give McKeever a pass for now, and see what he does with a fresher slate, but this story was a mess. The timeline was confused, the plot muddy, and the characterizations often off-model. Why was Starro there? Why was he a Sinestro? Where these the same future titans from before, or have they been altered by their previous encounter? Why were Cyborg and other “good” Titans with them? It just didn’t work. This book’s on the bubble for me.
Blue Beetle #22: Hey! That’s actually a really good plan! It’s also a refreshing choice to see the hero figure out and set out to defeat the villains long-term plans early in their implementation, instead of just before bomb goes off. They seem to be building up the Scarab as a separate personality, even as Jaime takes more and more control of the armor. Hope they keep on that path.
The Flash #235: As usual, the main feature is merely adequete, and the backup was much cooler. It’s hard to swallow that Flash couldn’t get the other heroes to snap out of it, this sort of thing happens often enough that you’d think they’d have a specific password or something for it.
Countdown to Adventure #5: I hope they re-restrict Animal Man to earthly animal abilities (when on Earth). Letting him draw from an infinite list of alien animals just makes his powers way too undefined. And man, the forerunner story shifted gears so fast that I’ve got whiplash.
The Death of the New Gods #4: Knowing that the title is hyperbolic, and the “Fifth World” will almost certainly turn into something nearly identical to the Fourth World before too long, I’m finding this pretty enjoyable. If this really was the last word on the New Gods, I’d be majorly disappointed, though.
Legion of Super-Heroes #37: A very strong start. That snowboarder chick caught me by surprise. Now I really was a LSH strategy game.
**Action Comics #860:**Johns’ Action just hasn’t been as bright and fun as Busiek’s Superman. It’s okay, but between that and the fact that I’m finding keeping two Legions (one of which I’ve read from the begininng, and the other with an even deeper, though mostly implied continuity), I think I’m done here, despite the fact that this really isn’t that bad a title.
Crime Bible #3: Pretty cool, but I don’t really like how Flay is leading the Question around by her nose.
Countdown #19: I continue to maintain that there’s a story here, for some of the plotlines at least, and we’re now through most of the filler. This was pretty cool, except for fat Zatanna. Yeesh. Most overweight people don’t carry *all *of their fat on their neck.
Having re-read this one, I think that we’re to realize that these are the same future-Titans, but that events in the present immediately “update” their future continuity. I suspect that was supposed to explain future-Tim’s inexplicable change-of-heart.
Still was one mess of a story, though.
I kinda liked Sinestro Corps Starro, just because he showed up in the Secret Files, too. Although seems like he would’ve made a better Greed lantern than Fear lantern, but, eh.
Finished GL - Sinestro’s creepier than he’s ever been. Being that unperturbed in that situation? That’s either a whole lot of crazy, or a deep devotion to his cause. (Or, you know, both.)
Arena - Erm. Well, still a waste of a lot of characters, but the story actually managed to come together in a vaguely logical way. But unless recruiting involves mind control, this can’t end well for Monarch, since 6/9 of his recruits are there unwillingly, one of whom swore revenge, and two were actively involved in attempts to kill him.
Action - Good story, on the whole. Some elements of the new Legion Mark I continuity make me :dubious: though. Dawny’s not straight, as per the Lightning Saga*, and no longer involved with Wildfire in any case, but it appears Lightning Lass is still involved with Timber Wolf. This strikes me as somewhat odd. (And annoying, since Dawnstar/Wildfire and Vi/Ayla are two of my favourite couples.) Artwise…argh, torn. Faces are so, so bad, but the costume redesigns are great.
- Brin’s taunting of Wildfire could be reference to that, or else simply the two of them breaking up under different circumstances than those from the old continuity - either way it’s tacky.
Which is probably an artifact of it being a story that was left hanging half a year ago (last mentioned in 666, and even that was a flash forward, rather than part of the Black Dossier story proper) - we’ve had the 3-part Club of Heroes and 3 parts of The Return of Ra’s al Ghul in the middle. Bad scheduling, thanks to the terminal delays of the early part of his run, I’d guess.
That said, recognizing it as such, I found it to be well handled, given the big gap in the middle - it felt like something that’s been sitting in the background finally bubbling up, not ‘shit, I’ve got to finish the story’.
It;s the Marvel motto. If it ain’t broke, break it and fix it in a retcon later. For those out of the loop Peter and MJ make a deal with Mephisto. Peter’s secret identity is no longer out there which doesn’t really make sense since they kind of dealt with this about a month ago in Avengers: The Initiative. Aunt May lives again. Poor woman’s trying to take the top death spot from Jean Grey. Mary Jane and Peter never really met and were never married. At least they had a good reason for it. The good reason being (my guess) lazy friggin writers.Okee dokey. Done with Spider Man. Damn shame that. Still, poor writing needs to be dealt with the only way this consumer knows how. This storyline actually makes me long for the days of the clone saga.
So Dawny can’t be bi-sexual? Especially since she had lost her memory when she hooked up in that story.
And the events in OMD make me glad I wasn’t following the regular spidey.
Nah, I felt that way when this storyline first surfaced.
Green Lantern and Blue Beetle continue to be two of the best titles I’ve read in a long time.
I have to admit that I’m a bit sad to see Supergirl’s departure from LSH. Now I only get to see her in her own title, where the art has gone to complete crap.
We still don’t know what MJ whispered in Mephisto’s ear. My guess? She alone remembers and will always hate Peter for it.
My plea to Marvel: Next time an A-list writer writes himself into a corner, take him off the book and let someone else sort it out. Undo this by having Peter remember, have his ID be public again, and forever stop writing stories about how he has to keep his secret identity away from Norman Osborne; have the character grow up and deal with weightier issues, like how to impart his values on the next generation of heroes or something like that. If you’re that nostalgic for the Ditko/Romita days, resurrect Untold Tales of Spider-Man.
That was my assumption when she was revealed to have hooked up with a woman in the Lightning Saga.
She might still be, but they broke her and Wildfire up - at her initiative, based on Brin’s comments - anyway.
It just seems strange that they’d unstraighten another character, then, by all appearances, put one half of the previously canon lesbian couple back with the guy she was with before she was revealed not to be straight.
And I’m still upset that both of my favourite couples have been broken up (or possibly rendered non-canon in the case of Vi/Ayla).