Weekly Comic Book Discussion : 2/26/2009

Really solid week of comics. JSA, Green Lantern… final issue of Blue Beetle…

New Avengers #50: The cover is misleading. There is a mega fight in the middle of the book, but not the one depicted on the wraparound cover. Mainly, this sets up Dark Reign storylines for the coming months.

Mighty Avengers #22: Sloppy writing, sloppy art, no credible reason for this particular mix of characters to hang out together, why are they publishing this mess?

Hulk #10: As Dr. Strange’s blue costume and Namor’s old look indicates on the cover, this Defenders pre-union involves time travel, Elders of the Universe and other deus ex machinas. Fan favorite Red Hulk barely appears. Tread at your own risk.

Green Lantern (as always) rocked, but the “Hal becomes the avatar of the White Light of Life” thing is kinda being telegraphed.

That said, in this case it really is the journey, not the destination. (And call me a traditionalist, but I hate the new Star Sapphire costumes–the original Silver Age one is so much better.)

I’m really enjoying Ultimate Spider-Man

JSA seemed…rushed…stuff that I wanted to see happened between last issue and this issue. Both on this book AND Superman, I’m missing the character stuff. (Pa Kent died and Supes’ reaction was :frowning: )

I’m becoming severely annoyed at Local Comic Shop. They keep running out of GL and GL Corps titles halfway through the release date. But they don’t increase their orders for the next issue, to compensate. And they don’t mention that they’ve run out to customers whom they know buy either title, to ask if they’d like them to hunt down a copy. I know that some of their other locations are better-run; may have to switch to a less-convenient store.

Blue Beetle left the definite impression that the story was rushed to the door, having overstayed its welcome. Not quite as much so as the last LSH issue, but still.

In JSA, Johns seems to be on continuity cop patrol, again, fixing all the assed-up stuff DC had done to the Marvel Family. Which makes me happy, since I thought Winick’s series was pants, and someone needs to tell DC that stupid soulpatch they gave Freddy is about ten years behind the times.

Wonder Woman also undoes a past writer’s messing with Diana’s backstory. But both storylines just come across as goofy-random, with an uber-threat popping up out of nowhere with Cheetah’s shenannigans, and Zeus weirdly overreacting to what happened in their absence.

Also, what is the deal with the Olympians turning up in form-fitting catsuits? Didn’t they used to go about in the ol’ chiton? And, for that matter, how are the Zeus being depicted now in WW, and the Zeus from Winnick’s Trials of Shazam, related? Same guy, different guy, whacky DC continuity editors?

Explicitly stated as different people. The Olympian Zeus is a God of Man, Shazam’s Zeus is a God of Magic, a difference pointed out repeatedly in Trials.

**
Also, Freddy’s costume (back when I was paying attention) kept coming in like 3d in “Best Golden Age Costume” (behind Bats and Supes) and it’s a shame it’s gone.

The togas went away about 2-3 writers ago (Rucka or the pre-Rucka guy) when they were running around in business suits.

Blue Beetle had the best final issue ever. Only problem being that it IS the final issue. The death and two exits were sad, but felt right in context. And a year old plotline finally comes home to roost - not closed, but cleared up.

(That would be the identity of Black Beetle from the first arc of Booster Gold, of course.)

And nobody I really CARE about* died, so…

  • That would be Jaime, Milagro, their parents, Paco, his mother and sisters, Brenda, La Dama, Traci, Khaji-Dha and Peacemaker. Not in that order.

And on another note, I do not like the current artist on Runaways.

I love Ramos, but I can understand not digging his style. But, there’s really no denying he has the skills, and made all the characters look different from each other, and their sex was clear (even Xavin, whose sex kept shifting).

The new guy…

Since I didn’t take the whole page in at once, so I didn’t see the panel at the bottom with Karolina and Nico on the beach, when Chase was storming out, I thought he was Karolina! Right up until he started muttering, and said his name.