Here 'tis.
Action Comics Annual #10 - Mmm. Tastes like… Silver Age.
That’s way too charitable.
What we get here is Lex Luthor fantasizing about how he might be able to kill Superman, and musing over the many forms of Kryptonite (back to full pre-Crisis, I guess, except for white and jewel), a two-page rogue’s gallery, a two-page spread of the Fortress of Solitude (including a nice little Easter Egg for pre-Crisis Legion fans) a pointless two-pager about some Thanagarians encountering the Bizarro World (again, restored to its pre-Crisis “glory”), a comic-book adaptation of the pre-title sequence of Superman II (Jor-El doesn’t look like Marlon Brando, though), and a re-telling of Mon-El’s first appearance, with Birthright Clark Kent replacing Superboy.
Smells like a waste of paper to me.
I also got 52, like I do every week. This week’s edition is focused on the Steel-Natasha-Luthor subplot, and strangely, it seems to be wrapped up with a dozen issues still to go. Is there more to the story beyond what seems to be the end, or did the team mis-map the pacing on this one? I guess we’ll find out. I am enjoying this book.
Grr… My store forgot to put the Atom in my box, and I didn’t realize it until I was half way home. I’m still pissed at myself for not turning around.
Action Comics Annual #10: A mixed bag here. The Luthor bookends are super-awesome. The Mon-El story seemed a bit pointless since we’ve seen it before (and I’m sorry, I’ll swallow huge chunks of Silver Age science, but “death by proximity to lead box” is just too much for me), but it did clarify what Superboy’s status is in the new continuity. The Zod story was kind of cool. I liked giving Zod a motivation beyond “I’m evil! Kneel!”, but I think it’s important that Krypton was an overall good place, not a super-fascism that the universe is better off without. The rest is mostly just filler.
Mystery in Space #6: More fun spacey goodness. The Weird backup was a little weak this time, since our boy was just a spectator.
Detective Comics #828: I love Riddler as rival detective.
Jonah Hex #16: Did I mention that they mutilated her genitals? Because they totally did. Sorry folks, but Miss Black’s tragic path crossed over to comedy when she got left in the desert. It’s just too much. Tragedy, cruelty, and badassedness, the three notes of any Jonah Hex story, all become farce if carried out to extremes without the proper grace. This didn’t have them.
Welcome to Tranquility #3: The thought of an Authority saturday morning kid’s cartoon makes me giggle.
52 Week 40: The title had me really worried there for a second.
I also Byrned Sargon the Sorcerer. Like Ibis, it gave us a really bad new costume and really poorly defined powers. Unlike Ibis, it isn’t much fun.
Welcome to Tranquility #3 - this is my favorite new book - I just love everything that they’re doing with it, and I’m excited to see where it goes.
Marvel Civil War: The Return - Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame. Dude, there are so many things wrong with bringing Mar-Vell back, but doing so in this fashion is dingus to the max.
The Dark Tower #1 - I think that they’ve really nailed the Dark Tower vibe, though I didn’t imagine Gilead as being such a wreck. I’m a bit disappointed that this series looks to merely be a re-telling of the “young Roland” parts of “The Gunslinger” and “Wizard and Glass,” as it was repeatedly billed as all-new material…
Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man 17: First comic of the “Back in Black” storyline. Seems kinda sorta the same. No dark and gritty in this book. This is really only interesting because it takes place after the end of Civil War. Spidey is being chased by the cops because he violated the registration act, so we know that’s still in place but the cape killer SHIELD program may not be. Peter spends the whole time talking about Uncle Bens death but no time talking about any other deaths. I’m going to guess that MJ and Aunt May are still alive, but that Peter either sent them away or asked Stark to take care of them in a witness protection way. They didn’t come out and say why he’s back in the black costume. Probably have to wait until Civil War 7 or the next issue of ASM for the full story. Oh, and there’s something to do with the alternate timeline Uncle Ben and Sandman. The issue feels a little movie tie-inny.
Ibis was cool, yeah. Sargon…why should I care? Some drifter lucks into incredible power-booooring. A cipher inherits the mantle of a 4th-string never-was. No imagination in the costume, either.
Detective 838: Glad they took a time out from spotlighting Batman’s villians to show that Riddler actually does have some chops as far as figuring stuff out.
Atom #8: This new guy’s pretty fun. Wonder if he’s getting the same type of response from the hardcore fans that Kyle did when he stepped up? Or is Atom not as well known/popular?
I haven’t encountered any die-hard Palmerites. Just people who don’t care, or who don’t like Gail Simone.
Yes. Not nearly as badly as Kyle. since Hal was a much more popular character than Ray - or Jason over in Firestorm - but he, and Jaime in Blue Beetle have gotten some grief. Ryan and Jason get some extra beyond the people who want Ray/Ronnie back, because they’re non-white, and some people seem to react badly to the ‘political correctness’ of doing that. Jaime, oddly, doesn’t get as much of that as them, or at least it doesn’t look like he does, because the ‘he’s not Ted’ faction of his critics are louder.
Unlike Kyle or Jason, Ryan and Jaime seem to have won over most of their critics pretty quickly, however.
I’m going to be a dissenting voice and say I actually really liked the Clark Kent’s Big Brother story in the Action Annual (I’ve only read that far, so far. >_> ). While I’d rather Clark gained his powers and learned of Krypton in adolescence (like in Smallville) or adulthood (Like Byrne’s version), if he’s going to have them since infancy, I’m happy with how their doing it.
I absolutely adore the original Superboy’s Big Brother story, and the retelling, aside from the slightly different continuity (yay, no public career as Superboy!), eliminates the more blatant wtfery of the original - Clark doesn’t fly through the same hoops to justify thinking Mon-El is his brother, and isn’t an absolute dick when the cracks start to appear.
Astro City Dark Age V2 #2. Finally.
Welcome to Tranquility is indeed awesome.
I picked up New Avengers this week, with the debut of the new team… meh. Though Spider-Man is acting pretty upbeat, and the new Ronin… hmmm. No clue who it is.
Outsiders - Not bad, not bad - let’s see if they can deliver a satisfying conclusion, though.
Nightwing - This is the Nightwing I want to read. His interaction with Batman in this issue is solid gold.
Detective - Yes! Hooray for the Riddler! I really want a different art team on this book, though.
Sargon the Sorceror - the weakest of the Fate tie-ins so far. No explicit mention of Sargon’s turn to evil, either - I wonder if that’s been retconned?
Mystery in Space - I’d read a Captain Comet ongoing by Starlin.
Supergirl - Wow. They made the new Supergirl interesting, Power Boy takes an odd, but somewhat predictable twist, and… Hi, Opal.
All-New Atom - Nice little done in two arc. Nice to see the Superman vehicles from various toy lines make a cameo. Not enough Head, though. Orange Soda or Death!
Well, the first time he got a black costume (1984), there was a wait of about five months for an explanation.
As for Ronin: Wasn’t Kitty Pryde a trained ninja at some point? Also, how did Echo read Ronin’s lips?
No praise for Captain Marvel: Monster Society Of Evil?
The artist has the perfect amount of whimsy to make the Big Red Cheese work.
Eh, I glanced through it and put it back on the rack. It looks like another re-telling of the same old origin, but with childish art and unnecessary changes.
Ordway’s SHAZAM and stories that built with it were amazing. There’s no real need to tamper. And I’m not crazy about cartoony art in super-hero books.
No praise from me. The only part I actually liked was the art.
I much prefer the recent ‘Cap is just Billy matured to adulthood’ approach to Cap and Billy being different people, but I could have dealt with that, since Smith was supposedly trying to take the character back to its roots, if he had actually made me like them - EITHER of them. But Billy’s a brat, and Cap’s a twit, so it’s a wash. The Wizard annoyed me, too.
Actually, I think the story could be interesting, and will keep me reading at least another issue, to see what he does with the villains, but issue 1 was a serious letdown.
Talking about Shazam, what happened to the other miniseries focusing on Freddy visiting the Gods getting their power? Was that killed?
Supposedly the event that causes the reblackening comes at the end of Civil War as a result of events in Civil War. Obvious speculation would be that either Mary Jane or Aunt May bite it (again) and in the last issue of ASM a hitman sent by the kingpin was taking aim at Mary Jane or Aunt May. Since he seemed relatively upbeat in this issue and The New (new) Avengers, I’m doubting either of them die. I’ll place my money on a death not really close to him but that he feels responsible for. Cap is no longer an Avenger. Hmmmmmm.
Yep. She’s also been an agent of SHIELD if memory serves me. The question is whether or not Wolverine trained her in that most difficult of ninjatic arts: the ability to be in umpteen places at once. I’m going to guess that Ronin is either Captain America (trading shield for sword. That’s deep.) or Winter Soldier (Bucky following in Caps footsteps).
I had that exact same thought in the store upon seeing this Shazam series. I also wondered where the Helmet of Fate: Zauriel issue went to. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask Comic Book Guy about 'em.
So, apparently next 52 issue Montoya fights a Dragon… and back to space. This issue, Steel’s armor falls to bits because… Everyman turns into a giant crab. Mmm-hmm. At least Lex was amusing.
Sargon: sucked. Action annual: good Silver Age fun again (and maybe some Fortress of Solitude storylines coming up, plz).
All-New Atom could’ve been extended a few more issues for this storyline, easy. But, boo, when the ‘Linear Man’ referred to Ryan as “oh fleeting mantle-holder”! Boo, I say!
Still ongoing. I like it, but it is a step away from the core Shazam principles, since a young adult Freddy is taking over, and it focuses on the Occult rather than sneering mad scientists.
Bosda: note the photo in the upper right. (Sorry I couldn’t find a bigger version.)
I’m still not buying any current comics, but I got the Emperor Joker trade, which is a riot. When Mxyzptlk serves as a relative straight man, you know there’s some funny stuff going on.
I would slap you with a wet trout for that link, Biffy, but you had the good taste to score E.Joker, so I’ll let it slide.
Only bad thing about E.Joker was the cheap paper it was printed on.