Here it is.
Haven’t read everything yet, but the biggest surprise was JSA Classified. Damn, that’s a solid story.
I Byrned Amazons Attack, so as to be in the know when Simone takes over Wonder Woman. Didn’t make sense as I haven’t been reading Wonder Woman Was Diana ever really in custody or not? It seemed to be news to the president. I would like to see Amazons in a middle ground between “enlightened utopians” and “man-hating crushinators”.
Blue Beetle: Man, he really is like Spidey, isn’t he? I really like this, though you’d think it’d be easier to get some Green Lanterns, and thus the rest of the earth supers, on his side.
Action Comics: Overlooking the fact that the delays here in the Johns/Donner/Kubert story are shameful, this is pretty good. I like seeing religion dealt with in superheroics, and Redemption has a good deal of potential.
Justice #11: At this point, I’m just buying for the sake of completeism. They ran out of story some time ago.
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes This the first official post Waid/Kitson issue? If so, pretty good. Nice twist on the villain’s motivation, and the 52 tie-in is hilarious.
52 #51: I really don’t see how they plan to wrap this up in one issue, but we’ll see. We all knew it was coming, but the new Mr. Mind is great!
52 # 51 - Excellent. “She’s like E.T. with double DD’s - can we keep her?” And I called the Skeets thing months ago.
Legion - This is still Waid/Kiston, although sadly, Kiston’s not doing the art. Loved the tie-in to 52, good story overall.
JSA # 5 - I like where this is going. Interesting that at first it seemed like Doctor Destiny was going to be the primary villain of this story, now he seems very minor - but that’s not bad, it’s well-handled, IMHO.
JSA Classified # 25 - Excellent one-issue story. I think the guy who wrote this is supposed to be taking over Legion, so it makes me happy that he made a good first impression on me.
It was a very, very good issue. Cyclone is squee-worthy as usual. Her bit with Reddy was wonderful, and her and Stargirl have one of the most fun relationships ever. (‘You’re lucky to have eachother.’ ‘Totally.’ Yeah, nothing slashy there. >_>)
[spoiler]OK, looks like Lightning Lad is just the trigger word, not actually one of the time-travellers. Clearly, it was Saturn Girl that set it…now, does that mean she’s with them? Probably not.
Now…is Superman saying Starman was no longer a Legionnaire a continuity error (as they readmitted him after that incident), or a retcon - presumably in changing Superman’s time with the Legion, not Thom’s re-admittance - I wonder.
So…now we know of Val, Thom, Nura, Wildfire, and Dawnstar. I’m still going to work under the assumption that the last two are Vi (Yay!) and Timber Wolf.[/spoiler]
The scene with Geo-Force, Sandman and Starman was my favourite that didn’t include Maxine. ‘I have your powers combined!’ ‘You smell like mud.’ (Much better shut down than my reaction. ‘Thank you, Captain Planet.’)
Tony Bedard. I’ve not read JSA Classified, yet, but I have read a handful of stuff by him, and I have to say, I’m really excited he’s taking over Legion. Retro Rocket is wonderful, and I think I’m about the only person on earth who liked his Exiles run. (Seriously, every fault it has is the result of fallout from Austin’s run, IMO.)
Wonder Woman - Not my favourite title ever, but it’s doing more than limping along, I think. I don’t take the ‘Wonder Idiot’ interpretation a lot of people do - although I do find Drooling Fanboy Nemesis tedious. Anyway, whatever faults the title has right now, I do hope that when Simone takes over, she keeps Lulu and the Villains and Vixens bar around…I like her.
Menocchio - Yes, she was in the custody of the DMA, at the behest of whoever the Sarge Steel impostor is working for. (Presuming it’s not Circe herself.) Who, as you note, seem not to be the legitimate US government. They wanted to force her to give them the secrets of the Purple Death Ray. But she refused. So…the story Circe told Hippolyta is true, so far as it goes. Nemesis freed her, which lead to them bickering like children. And more Drooling Fanboy Nemesis. Gah.
Amazons Attack - I regret having read this before Wonder Woman, but…eh. Anyway…meeeh. It almost works if you assume Circe’s manipulating Hippolyta more directly than simply ‘oh, they have your daughter sad eyes’ - and, come on, it’s Circe but even then, a lot of what’s happening - like the two Amazons killing the father and son at the Lincoln Memorial is just…weird. Murdering two random non-combatants just because they happen to be there seems well outside the expected behaviour of the Amazons - particularly with Hippolyta leading them again. I hope it’ll all fall together by the end, but this was a painful first issue.
Also, continuity oddness. In Wonder Woman, Nemesis was with Diana when she showed up at the Memorial. Here, he’s nowhere to be seen.
Spirit - Continues to be a delight. Chibi-Spirit in the bean ads was so…adorable. The story was pretty neat, and Carrion was…highly amusing, and vaguely disturbing.
Well, I’ve consistently praised his work on Exiles here, and lamented his departure from the title.
Speaking of Exiles, the Claremont horror continues.
My only other Marvel titles this week were Wisdom - which suffers from a muddled narrative - and Fantastic Four, which manages to entertain me despite the shabby overall state of the Marvel U these days.
Regarding LoSH :
The 31st century got Boostered! I love it.
Hey, that makes two of us who like Bedard’s Exiles. Heh.
Anyway…
Legion - Bedard’s off to a good start. I wonder if he’s taking over early, or if Waid will be doing issue 30. In any case, The Dominators are one of my favourite villains, and this…this sort of thing is why. So arrogant, so paranoid, so fun. I love the scientist’s dismissing of early Dominator campaigns. The 52 tie-in was brilliant, skewed as it was by the Dominators’ self-absorbed world-view.
Blue Beetle - Mmm. Beautiful book. I love that it just glossed over the barfight. Ultra-Humanite was an unexpected addition, although I’d like an explaination about why he’s not dead. The attack-penguins were NOT, on the other hand, unexpected. And Jaime’s mom is great. On the other hand…NO! BAD! Paco/Brenda is no! Jaime/Brenda, all the way!
Action - Not happy with it being a fill-in issue, but as fill-ins go, this was pretty good. I do like Redemption.
The Connor Hawk mini wrapped up - it was okay, pretty good, but not spectacular.
Outsiders Annual addresses the continuity points regarding Arsenal and Black Lightning, and in decent fashion.
Firestorm - The final issue of Firestorm. Setting up New Gods shenanigans to come.
Mentioned JSA Classified already - really solid issue with a surprising device cameo.
Blue Beetle - Damn close to tying Invincible as the most fun superhero book on the stands.
Action - Solid filler. I enjoyed.
Wonder Woman / Amazons Attack - Well, I wasn’t expecting that. Huh. Still nice to see Nemesis in action though.
Legion I mentioned - Bedard will keep the title in good hands when he takes over, I think.
Justice! One more issue to go. Fun stuff.
JSA. I was blown away. What else do I have to say?
52 - One more issue to go… still the best read of my week though.
Planetary Brigade : Origins #3 - I enjoy having a team book by Giffen and DeMatteis to read.
Ex Machina - from last week.
Powers - conclusion to an odd, diverting storyline, but I did love the last couple of pages.
PS238 - Simply a great, funny book.
Yup, so nice Diz-nee stole it twice.
J.S.A.: I saw the dupe immediately. I’m really interested in seeing how Legion ‘Classic’ fits in, or is even known, to the 20th century, given Legion ‘Current’. Mind you, I haven’t yet caught up on the last two issues of 52, World War III, and Supergirl/Legion, so if it is explained there, please don’t spoil.
D_Odds:
It’s not, at least not that I can tell.
I wish they hadn’t destroyed the damn thing, though.
But there’s at least one other hanging around, isn’t there? So, it’s not all bad, unless I missed that one getting scrapped at some point. (Entirely possible.)
I just read Shadowpact #12. I noticed two Fourth World cameos. Anyone know what the deal with that is? The first one especially seemed out of place.