Well, here we go again. Huge pile for me this week… I’ll try to chime in later.
I’ll start with Captain Atom: Armegeddon #5 -
Good issue, on the whole. We FINALLY get to meet the Authority (even though it’s been obvious all along they’d be showing up).
But the Authority is confusing me again. When did they replace the Doctor? (Or is this more proof it’s not the Wildstorm U proper?)
Also, Jenny’s growing into a little brat.
Finally an issue where Cap doesn’t get into a fight with the other heroes. But there are Nazis to fight with. (‘If you can’t kill Nazis, who can you kill?’)
More!
Superman 226 - Last issue of Superman before it’s cancelled and Adventures of Superman reverts to simply Superman. Damn fine story, about Kal-L. Although they messed up Ma Kent’s name - her grave (and the one use of her name in the text of the photo album) is marked Martha (the Earth-1/Post Crisis Ma Kent), rather than Mary (Earth-2 Ma Kent).
Teen Titans 32 - Lots of good stuff in this one. Particularly for us Doom Patrol fans who are still angry about the old version being taken out of continuity. A slightly more detailed look at the Duel of the Superboys. Risk and Red Star are alive, though Pantha, Bushido and Wildebeest are still toast - although it looks like Beest took less damage than we thought - not that it mattered much. The Blue Arrow is…interresting. And, yet another time anomoly, I think.
Teen Titans #32: Takes place between panels in the Superboy fight from Infinite Crisis #4, and as an added bonus retcons (re-retcons, un-retcons?) away one of the most hated changes in recent DCU history. I’m a bit disappointed that they didn’t do more with Superboy’s brief solo in the fight, or the events directly before the fight but it’s still pretty good. Also, I’m somewhat disappointed to see that they *are *using this Crisis as an excuse to retcon. Still, that one needed to go, so if it’s a one-time thing, I’ll forgive it.
Jonah Hex #4: More gritty Western badassery. You know the score by now.
JLA #125: Batman and Green Arrow spar to see who’s the biggest asshole. You’re both wrong, so STFU. Especially grating since Batman had been showing signs of progress over in Infinite Crisis proper and Birds of Prey. At least it’s over.
Captain Atomwas good - the changes in the Authority were detailed in their latest 12-issue maxiseries, Authority : Revolution. Jeroen, the old Doctor, was killed. Jenny spontaneously aged herself to teenhood.
JLA - I can forgive the characterization of Batman, he’s still in the transitional stage, and appearing in a lot of books.
Superman - I, too, enjoyed the beginning of this arc, though I wonder what’s going on in the meta-context. The vision of Lois and Kal-L in the “heaven” now reconcile it with the appearance from The Kingdom. Interesting attempt to alter the HUAC trial.
**
JSA** - And here we see the flipside of that, as Batman and Superman (of Earth-Two) team up just after the JSA has disbanded. This fits between the pages of Infinity Crisis nicely.
Thunderbolts - Unfortunately, I think I’d feel more impact here if I’d read the first run on Thunderbolts, but it’s still not bad.
Young Avengers - The plot thickens, and the YAs go-recruiting. Someone’s daddy was an Avenger.
Marvel Zombies #1, #3 - Wow. What a gruesome series. I don’t necessarily buy what Hulk is able to do in #3; one panel shows us a seemingly-infected Ghost Rider (in demon form) - I just can’t rationalize that. Also, we seem to have shades of vastly different time periods in Marvel history - original Avengers, Luke Cage’s 70’s costume, Galactus arrival - and yet, Deadpool and Magneto’s Acolytes.
Teen Titans - I love and hate this book. I hate this book because Robin’s appearance here completely screws the idea of a coherent Infinite Crisis timeline. Actually, I take that back - it’s Robin’s own title which has screwed it up, but the easiest fix was to ignore Robin’s appearance in IC#4. He actually gets a speaking part here, at the Superboy battle. It does, on the other hand, fix the Doom Patrol, as noted.
**Robin **- We wrap up the storyline of the Titans’ raid on one of Lex’s bases to get medicine for Superboy. Nice, I just wish it didn’t conflict so much with events elsewhere. Oddly, though, it does tie in with the Titans’ appearance in Bludhaven at the end of the last issue of Adventures of Superman.
Supergirl - Shades of Superman 3, as Kara’s evil double is freed form her - and thanks her liberator, Lex, by trying to kill him. I’m still not clear on which lex this is - it should be the “real” Lex, but he’s working with the Calculator… Gah.
Remember, though, they were being manipulated by Envy, so, while, no doubt, some of what they said was what they truly thought, this is an anomaly in their actions.
On with my reading so far:
I <3 Marvel: Web of Romance - I love this…it’s even better than My Mutant Heart. The relationship between Peter and MJ is great, and the nonsense about him really wanting to be with Gwen is being ignored. MJ playing with the webshooters - and her face when she realises Peter’s given her her own set were two of my favourite bits. Even more than the conversation with Mandrill (‘Aren’t you setting up some lofty expectations?’), or the repeated punkings of Johnny Storm. Also liked the bit of dialogue where MJ’s lines are all Spider-man titles.
Calculator is working with both. They hinted at it over in Birds of Prey.
Oops. That middle bit in the quote block above is me.
There are also aspects which have never been part of any continuity (such as Cap being Colonel America).
As to Ghost Rider (and Wolverine, and Vision, and Wonder Man, and a couple others we’ve seen infected despite the fact that their natures or powers should have prevented an infection setting in), I, personally, assume a magical aspect to the infection - which is, I think, somewhat supported by its apparent sentience.
Mind giving me a Cite? Not that I doubt you, I just want to be able to go back and spot it. Certainly, that would be the most ideal explanation.
As for the ‘Robin’ problem… It ties into the timing of the Bludhaven issue. From IC4 - Bludhaven is attacked, Superboy and Alex watch it, Superboy goes to confront Superboy, Titans arrive. From the previous issue of Robin - he’s suddenly on a Titans jet, heading out West - to see Superboy in his damaged condition. He makes a thought-balloon about them losing communications while en-route because of the attack on Bludhaven.
The only plausible sequence of events I can come up with is if Raven teleported Superboy out west to tend to his injuries after the fight, Robin went back to Bludhaven, found it in Jeopardy, then the Titans came to pick him up - and he chose to abandon his city and pseudo-family there - and the damage to Bludhaven progressed while they were flying out west, to the point of losing communications.
It calls for out of character action on Robin’s part, and Raven’s powers to suddenly start working again, though.
Though, actually… I need to re-check that Robin issue. It may be possible that we can interpret the Superboy fight as occurring between the scene of them in flight, and the scene at Titans Tower. I’ll have to check.
Vision? I didn’t notice infected Vision. That’s one of the things I was watching for as a complete logical inconsistency. Where’s the Vision?
The infection is sentient? How do you figure?
Can I throw in a tiny comic hijack here?
I remember there was a big hubbub in the first issues of New Avengers called Breakout that the guy who broke Spidey’s arm couldn’t have been who it appeared to be, that it was an artist’s mistake. Who was it supposed to be? And who was the guy who said “God’s will drives me” when he punched poor Peter’s pate?
That tiny question aside, I do love Marvel Zombies. The reveal of the Swordsman in Thunderbolts was a bit off though, and a little too grim for my tastes. Also, I was glad to see Red Star lived, though I wish Beest had as well. I liked him.
In the original Ultimate FF arc that started the thing, checks UFF #23, when the Zombiefest starts, he’s flying right behind Wonder Man. (He’s in his green/red form.)
Sentience was a bad choice of words.
But certain behaviours of the infected, as described by Zombie Reed (admittedly, not an unbiased observer of the events) suggest that they sought to infect other heroes and villains. Now, while there’s a possibility that they survived to become infected, rather than food, was simply a matter of being stonger than normal people, but the initial infection, where the Sentry (I THINK it’s Sentry…I’m not overly familiar with the character) from a previously-consumed universe infects the Avengers, suggest that Zombie Reed’s description is accurate.
I really need to finish my thoughts before posting.
Anyway this goes against the ‘EAT’ imperative they seem to be operating under, in MZ, and is counter-productive to individual survival/filling up, so it suggests the infection has shifting priorities of its own - first spread to the strongest, then consume the weak, then spread to another world.
I think you guys are putting way too much thought into Marvel Zombies. 
*Nightwing * was probably my favorite of the books I’ve read so far, and the characterization of Batman was more consistent with his portrayal in recent issues of Birds of Prey and Infinite Crisis. (That makes sense since it’s further down the timeline than *JLA * has been. I’ll be glad when all the books are caught up.) I’m glad to see Dick beginning to recover from his depression, and I wonder if what happened on the last pages will stick.
Green Arrow: I’m damn curious to find out what happens in the next year of Ollie’s life.
Nitpicking time!
In Robin, I think there’s a coloring mistake in the panel where Mia reveals she’s saved one vial of Superboy-Fix-Me-Up. You only see her glove in that panel, but it’s painted green. Mia’s gloves are red. It confused me for a minute because the green hand could have been either Robin’s or Beast Boy’s but it wasn’t.
As for the question of where and when Robin was involved in the Superboy fight, I give up.
In this week’s Spike one-shot, he decides to exit the Wolfram & Hart building by throwing a chair through the window and jumping out into broad daylight. When that happened to a different vampire in the Angel pilot, the vampire fried before he ever hit the sidewalk. But Spike’s fine, and he didn’t even bring his usual day-strolling blanket. Um, okay.
Supergirl was just okay, and had some pretty glaring “science” problems. First, John Stewart briefly loses his ring while on the surface of the moon. The ring that allows him to fly around in space and breathe and not explode. And yet, he’s fine. As is Wally, who has to be TOLD that he’s running around on the moon with no oxygen. Wow, those JLA guys are so badass, they can no-sell the vaccum of space!
Comics nerd. That’s part of the job description. ^__~
I hope not, personally. (I haven’t read it, but I’ve seen the pages I think you’re talking about elsewhere.) I’m rather firmly in the ‘that’s in the past’ camp on this issue. I also don’t support him getting together with Kori, again. Also in the past. Let all three of them move on.
:eek: 
I just read #2 & #3 of Marvel Zombies and it is absolutely the most repellent, vile, disgusting comic I have ever encountered that didn’t involve Liefield.
What is the attraction? What is the appeal here? 
BTW–I also don’t “get” zombie movies.
Zombies are great. Unstoppable forces of nature. And you can do anything you want to them and don’t have to feel bad about it!
Check this out: Alexander Luthor’s Blog
Really gives some keen insight into his motivations.
What I would like to see is Superbrat’s blog.
…
Well…a couple entries in it, anyhow.
OK…maybe one.
…
You know what? Scrap that idea.
That just wrecks my suspension of disbelief…