Valentine’s Edition!
… okay, not really.
But Booster Gold #0 is like a love letter to DC continuity…
Salvation Run was damn good this week. I enjoyed Countdown, GL Corps, and Wonder Woman as well.
Wonder Woman #17: I really like how Diana was pretty badass when she was less than a day old. A satisfactory conclusion to the first story, but I’m eager to see the new status quo with the DMA job and such. I am glad to see that Etta Candy is Diana’s ally and not a retread of the Spy Smasher situation from BoP.
Green Lantern Corps #21: This is interesting. Boodikka has two challenges here: Overcoming her emotional ties to her sisters, and beating another Green Lantern, neither of which should be any problem for an Alpha. I await seeing if next issue is about two pages long.
**Superman #673:**The stuff with Chris didn’t quite work for me. It just seemed a bit too much. The rest is just pure, classic superhero fun. Loved the thing with the baseball.
Booster Gold #0: I loved the off-hand manner that they handle the crossover in. I wanna see them accidentally fight all the big villains in the same manner. Crash into the Anti-Monitor. Run out of gas in front of Neron’s house. That sort of thing.
Countdown to Final Crisis #11: Okay, can I get a bit of a recap here? Now that things are starting to come together, I’m finding myself a bit lost. Especially regarding Karate Kid’s part in all this.
The All-New Atom #20: Sigh. I’m really going to miss Gail Simone.
Suicide Squad #6: Good slimy fun.
And I byrned Salvation Run #4: They’d better not stay dead. That’s all I have to say about that.
If you Wiki Countdown To Final Crisis, they’ll give you a good recap of every issue to date.
But… The reason I’m lost is that in 80% of the issues to date absolutely nothing happened, and I tuned out the interludes where something did happen!
New Avengers- Just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Lessee here… What I’ve read so far this week…
Countdown - Proof that Jason Todd is a MORON. You have no powers, Jay, not even Batman’s popularity-driven aura of invincibility… Apokolips isn’t where you want to be trying to smash heads. Eesh. Holly/Harley/Mary FTW again. Poor Piper, still doing nothing but talking to his dead buddy’s dessicated severed hand. I fear for him, although ISTR Johns talking about him being in the Rogues mini he’s doing soon, so he can’t get screwed over too badly.
Wonder Woman - Gail sure has an odd obsession with people getting eaten by monkeys… Not a bad book on the whole, but the two main conflicts felt…rushed. More the Dodsons’ fault than Gail’s - more, smaller panels wouldn’t have been as badass, but it would have gotten across that ‘there’s a fight goin’ on’ better. I’d forgotten about ‘the weirdo’ until Etta mentioned him, and had to go back to check. Still have no idea who he is. (Unless this is a setup for the next Marvel/DC crossover. >_>)
Gen13 - The turn Rainmaker’s story has taken makes me both sad and happy at once. On the one hand, the whole situation her girlfriend, and the Gens messing with the rest of the group, are in is sad and infuriating, on the other hand, that she doesn’t want to go through with it is pleasing…that the consequences mean Sarah’s still not going to get any happiness, however… The rest of the team just make me sad. Except Caitlin. She’s badass. I still miss Gail on this book, but, it’s still good.
Tiny Titans - So disappointing. It’s cute - adorable, even - but, the writing just isn’t there. I was hoping for more Franklin Richards, less 3rd rate Archie. Oh, well, I’ll give it a couple more issues on the art alone.
X-Force - I’m a little annoyed that I’m reading another X-book, let alone one called X-Force, but Kyle and Yost went there, and brought X-23 with them, so…I’m following.
I’m enjoying the story and characterization - including the acknowledgement that this is a major change for some of them - but I’m not loving the art so much. When it doesn’t look like photographs of plastic models (is it?), it’s very uncanny valley, and the costume they gave X-23 is wretched.
Menochio:
Karate Kid was manipulated into releasing Brother Eye from storage and summoning it to Bludhaven. Karate Kid’s body is infected with a virus (or is it bacteria?) called “Morticoccus” that will infect (and kill?) anyone except Ray Palmer, who had some sort of natural immunity, and anyone in the 52 worlds marked by the “real” Ray Palmer with Ray-51’s immunity. Karate Kid was told that they key to curing him was within Brother Eye. Brother Eye does appear to have cured him somewhat, but has also assimilated all of Bludhaven, including technology left behind by DeSaad, which in turn allowed Brother Eye to discover and come to Apokolips.
Holly and Harley met up with Hippolyta (how is she alive again, after Our Worlds at War?) on Paradise Island, from whom they learned that the “Athena” who had been training them to be “Amazons” was an impostor. They were joined by Mary Marvel, who fell out of the sky and splashed down near Paradise Island after rejecting Eclipso and Black Adam’s power. Mary, Holly and Harley exposed Granny Goodness as the fake Athena, and when Granny retreated to Apokolips through a boom tube, the three women followed her.
Jason (now Red Robin), Donna, Kyle and Ray saw a message from the Source wall-writing finger telling them to go to Apokolips. The Monitor of the late Earth-51 sent them there.
Jimmy Olsen and Forager got a similar message, but Jimmy seems to be getting some backup before heading to Apokolips.
Piper was dying in the desert when a boom tube mysteriously appeared and took him to Apokolips. He has no idea who brought him there or why he’s there, and neither do we.
Superman Prime and Monarch blew each other, and the whole Universe-51, up. Except for a little patch of land with a live, growing flower to give hope. :rolleyes:
Anything missing from this re-cap that you’re still confused about?
Resurrected by Circe in the run-up to Amazons Attack - I can’t remember, offhand if that was shown in AA or WW, but it was in one of them.
That sentence took me a couple of seconds to parse.
Countdown - at least it will all be over soon. Really annoying that out of all the chump New Gods that have been taken out already, the Female Furies are still all around?
Supergirl - much improved over yet another re-telling of her origin story. Like that they have Kal-El involved, but I think they really need to work on how she fits in with the Superman family more.
Superman - I actually like the stuff with Chris the best, although it was all good. Lois needs to have a chat with Clark about his undermining her parenting – 'specially since she is going to end up as the primary parent given how often Clark is going to be occupied elsewhere.
Wonder Woman - fun, but left me feeling like the Nazis were written out way too quickly.
Booster Gold - I have the nagging feeling I’m supposed to guess who Future Beetle was, but I’m enjoying this set-up while it lasts (before they revert continuity).
Isn’t it supposed to be a nanovirus – i.e., nanites, similar to what Brother Eye uses for the OMACs?
Something about the way he exited certainly suggested that to me, too. I also have a nagging feeling I know who it is, but I can’t place it.
(I’m kind of hoping it’s Booster himself, in a ‘I need to learn this lesson the hard way’ set-up, but the light show when he exited suggests otherwise, other than saying ‘this dude is/was/will be important’.)
Simon Dark - Macabre and rather hilarious. I’m kicking myself for thinking the differences in how Simon looks in various maskless moments were an artistic error, now that (at least part of) the significance is revealed. Also, Tom’s connection to him is unsurprising, but also unguessed. I love Steve Niles.
GLC - Now THAT is how you draw a Xudarian. The Guardians are pricks and idiots, but that was established 3 decades ago, and is just getting reinforced again. Alpha Lanterns are creepy, but, again, well-established fact. Interesting to note the variance in skin tone among Boodikka’s people apparently varies wildly within families.
X-Factor - Poor Jamie. Poor Ric. Poor Rahne. Poor Theresa. … OK, basically Monet and Strong Guy are the only ones not getting screwed hard. Not a complaint. I’m enjoying watching the team suffer. Just saying.
But I miss Layla already. Also…Jamie/Layla OTP - their love is so statutory. </'shipper meme>
Oh, jeez, I was going to ask this in my Countdown comment, but forgot.
Who the heck are those guys Jimmy’s talking to at the end?
Tengu:
Inhabitants of a place called “Habitat”, which is connected to Project Cadmus somehow. It comes from the Kirby run on Jimmy Olsen.
Thanks, the Cadmus connection let me look them up.
Superhippies. Heh.
Gotham Underground - You know what the most disappointing thing about this book is?
It’s not about the early Masks referenced in the first issue. That would have made an awesome mini, which I think of every time I read a new issue of what we’ve actually got.
It’s readable enough, but it introduced a much more interesting idea.