Weekly Comic Book Discussion 4/27/2006

Cafe Society
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Here it is.

Got Lullaby #3 this week; Seven Soldiers : Frankenstein #4, which feels compressed, but cool. The Villains United Infinite Crisis Special is also kinda nifty. Regular and Ultimate FF, and The Thing. Regular FF is sort of anticlimactic.

Catwoman is allright… Hawkgirl…Battle for Bludhaven - more revelations that interest me, plus SHADE, from SS : Frankenstein. And a couple of nice returning characters to the DCU. Batman’s pretty solid… Blue Beetle continues to build mystery…

We get Ion #1 this week, and it’s… okay. Legion rocks solidly as we explore more of Supergirl’s appearance there.Invincible, good as always.

The winner, for me, was Checkmate, which appears to be a really solid book.

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Invincible #31: So Spiderman stolen Orion’s sky scooter and Power Girl became a boxer? :stuck_out_tongue: Loved the iPod wearing villian.

Incidently I started the first paperback. “Pass the potatoes.” Awesome.

Supergirl + Legion #17: Five bucks on the redhead. Good issue.

Villains United Special: Very good, but rushed. I wish it were a two parter. I hope Johns can do it justice in Inf-Cri #7.

Ion #1: Art’s gonna take some getting used to, but the writing is solid. Nice to have a Kyle who actually sounds like Kyle.

Finished up the Outsiders: Crisis Intervention TPB. Loved it, but the Firestorm scenes were at best useless at worst contradictory. In the Outsiders version Capt. Marvel Jr. is with Donna’s group for a spell in space before he returns to Earth. In the Firestorm version he’s not with the group when they meet Firestorm in San Francisco.
What the heck is going on with Supergirl (her solo book)?

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Villains United Special #1: Utterly a setup for Infinite Crisis #7, but… Holy Hell. I *really *want to read Infinite Crisis #7 now. Needed more of the Six, but I loved the bit with Amos Fortune.

Checkmate #1: It annoys me a bit when comics make up countries. Not the places utterly unlike anywhere on earth, where the economy’s vibranium-based or the king’s a reincarnated Egyptian with the powers of the gods. I mean the nations that are obvious stand-ins for real world countries. So it’s good to see that Checkmate will be sparring with real political powers, as well as Quarc and Kobra and such. My only hope is that future issues are *slightly *less bloody.

Blue Beetle #2: Madre de Dios, did they really mak the guy’s first villains a Latino street gang? Better be careful or we’ve got another Vibe on our hands. I need to make some room on my pull list. This one better pick up pretty fast.

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #17: Okay. SG’s delusions (or are they?) are gonna get old, fast. Hope they drop that soon. And she’s still a bit of a Mary Sue. That said, I like the tension between SG and Light Lass. The villains were cool. And there’s an interesting hint of what happens in 52.

Frankenstein #4: God, I love this book. It’s the breathless narration. It adds such color and texture to Frankenstein’s strange world.

Batman #652: Y’know Harvey, you aren’t exactly making yourself look innocent here (actually you are, by the “too damn obvious” path). I’m still pissed they killed the Ventriloquist. Very strong.

Astonishing X-Men #14: Pretty good, but as someone who’s only reading X-Men for Whedon, I’m kind of lost. Most of Frost’s psychic journey meant very little to me.

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Blue Beetle’s nemeses were of varying ethnicities, I though. Huh.

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The Sentry #8

The Sentry kisses the Void in one of the finest examples of WTFery I’ve ever seen in a comic book. He kissed… himself? His evil twin? Whatever it was, it’s probably illegal in at least 48 states.

So, in conclusion: WTF?

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Can someone spoil the VU Special for me? And where did Shade appear? (I’m hoping it’s the Shade from Starman, and not the “Changing Man.”)

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That’s SHADE the shadowy government organization that Frankenstein and the Bride work for, not the character.

VU Special Spoilers: [spoiler]The Society pulls of a jailbreak on a global scale, attacking pretty much every metahuman prison on the planet. Oracle, by drafting every fourth-stringer and retired superhero she can find, and with telepathic coordination by J’onn, manages to contain a few facilities (Arkham and Alcatraz), but the vast majority break out. The Six (well, five at the moment), decide to work for whoever pays them, and at Green Arrow’s request find out the purpose of the breakout. They bad guys are marching on Metropolis.

Oracle coordinates all the heroes (save those that are occupied in Space or at Alex Luthor’s tower, which is unfortunately most of the heavy hitters including all Green Lanterns, the Big Three, and all Flashes) and gets them all to Metropolis using the Blackhawk fleet. They get there just in time to meet the Society’s army. Headed by a Dr. Psycho-controlled Doomsday. This is gonna be a hell of a fight. [/spoiler]

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**
Ditto.

As someone who’s been reading the X-Men since the mid-'70s (with a few gaps), it didn’t make much sense to me either. The big reveal at the end A) made no sense, B) REALLY made no sense and C) violates FAR too much continuity. Even if that’s Scott’s perception of himself and not the true-facts, it still doesn’t follow.

For those who haven’t read it,

[spoiler]
Emma spends the whole issue playing mind-games with Scott, uncovering his insecurities: that Jean loved Wolverine more, that the Professor only picked Scott to be leader because Scott had self-esteem issues (clearly wrong, but in character for Scott to believe that) and the big reveal? That after the plane-crash that Scott and Alex were in as kids, Scott decided in the hospital that he wouldn’t be able to conciously control his eye-beams because that would force him to be in control at all points.

Um. Except he didn’t have his powers at the time (the one time we saw the parachute being shredded by his eye-beams was a mistake) so he couldn’t have made the decision 'cause he didn’t know he HAD the power–he was about 8 during the plane crash and his power didn’t manifest until he was 14 or so. Plus it’s been established for years (X-Men ~44 or so, circa 1966) that he can’t control his eyebeams because of a blow to the head in the plane-crash. [/spoiler]

But beyond all that, I don’t get it. What’s it supposed to prove? Why does it shock Scott so much? I love Wheadon’s X-Men (it’s the only X-book I buy any more) but this just doesn’t make sense to me. But since it’s the only wrong note he’s hit in his run, I’m not all that concerned

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Battle For Bludhaven 2 - Not loving the art. Writing’s pretty solid, though. Phantom Lady’s backstory (what we got of it) kind of makes me itchy - it’s either a mindboggling coincidence, or… Last page - not how I was expecting his reintroduction, but definitely interesting.

Blue Beetle 2 - The Posse definitely seem to be a mixed race/ethnicity group…they are, though, the goofest damn gangbangers ever. The highlight of the series so far has been the stuff between Paco and Brenda. Last page - THAT, I saw coming.

Ion 1 - Not as bad as I’d dreaded, not as good as I’d hoped. Will give it a while to hit its stride.

VU Special - ‘I’ve never been more certain of one thing. I should not have called Redhead’s chicky a slut.’ Heh. We all knew this was coming as soon as he did so, I’m sure, but it was worth waiting a couple pages for.

Some help IDing a few though, if you please?

Intros:
The armoured lady in San Francisco.

Fight scenes:
The dude with the lightning fighting the Changeling in Alkatraz. The big guy Flamebird’s trying to take down, and the guy he’s picking up in one hand.
The guy Plas is punching while tangling with Clayface in Blackgate. The guy benieth Crimmy and behind the guy the Challenger is punching.
The woman behind El Diablo in the panel where Ollie says he’s never heard of them.
The blue guy in the panel with Roy and Tattooed Man.

Calling reenforcements:
The women in the two panels below the Rocket Reds, and the Japanese guy between Fire and Geo-Force.

The gathering of heroes:
The guy between Fire and Flamebird (who looks familiar, but I can’t place), the two to Creeper’s right, the guy between Guardian and Black Canary, the chick between Canary and Black Lightning (who seems to be in two different places, since there’s a green cape in her place in the first panel…), the girl between Manhunter and Hourman.

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Spider-Man #531

Tony Stark hired the new Titanium Man to make an attempt on his life in order to pressure the US Senate. Then he lies to Peter Parker about it! That Tony is a tricky devil.

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I was gonna say page numbers would hlep, but they didn’t bother numbering the pages, the lazy bastards.

Skyrocket, part of the Power Company.

Totally not sure about lightning guy. Flamebird’s sparring partner is Girder. No idea who he’s grabbing - one of the Metal Men? Not sure about Plas’s punch. The hero beneath Crimson Avenger is Agent Liberty. Dunno the woman, but she looks familiar. Blue Man - too big for Blue Devil, Skorn has bony protrusions and may be dead… wearing shorts, so he’s not Lead… you got me.

Redhead is Cinnamon II; Not sure about water chick… perhaps Deep Blue, daughter of Neptune Perkins and Tsunami? Japanese fellow is Rising Sun.

Oddman; Natasha Irons; Not Sure; Gunfire?; Sparx; Empress?

Hope that helps.

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I was going to include them, but, like you said…not there to include. And when I inevetably miscounted that would have made things worse, so I didn’t bother with that, either.

Thanks for IDing the ones you did. (And now that you name him, I totally remember Oddman. >_< )

A few more books:

Manhunter 21: Good book. I’ll assume Kate was joking with the confidentiality thing because, although not a lawyer or a doctor, I have to assume <Morbo> CONFIDENTIALITY DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY! </Morbo> That aside, am I the only one seeing a big problem in Dr Psycho’s apparent actions? He mind-controlled a bunch of civilians into killing some other villains. OK, fine. But, by all indications, he never took the obvious next step and turn them against the heroes? Seems a perfect plan to me…distract the heroes with people they won’t fight back strongly against! Supervillains are such dumbasses, sometimes.

Supergirl & the Legion of Superheroes 17 - Supergirl’s going to give poor Light Lass an aneurism at this rate. I’m liking both Kara and Ayla more than I have been up to this point, though.

Tron 1 - Interesting start…I really need to rewatch the movie, though…Art’s pretty nice (which, I admit, I didn’t expect).

Ultimate FF 29 - The beginning of this arc made me feel so bad for Ben. The way this issue ended made me want to smack him (for all that it would break my hand.) Well, at least he can start cheering up, instead of being Emo-Brick all the time, now. As to how the main story wrapped up. Not exactly unexpected, and a bit anti-climactic, but there’s a few good giggles in it. (This is Millar’s last issue, right? Please tell me Land is leaving, too. >_> )

Skye Runner 1 - Better than I expected, although a bit clicheed, and my expectations weren’t set disasterously low. A bit above average, really. Really nice art.

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One more note about Villians United: Apparently Kyle Baker (the Plastic Man writer) was right. That is Dr. Light’s new superpower. At least he didn’t do it (or at least threaten it) to Billy Baston’s corspe.

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The still unnamed Blue Guy (looks like a Hulked-Out Smurf, right?) was from a book called Loose Cannon. I don’t know if that was also the character’s name.

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Villains United: Why did Jack of Spades shave off his goatee between the beginning and end of the book?

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That’s the bitch. Thanks.

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I considered Loose Cannon, but… didn’t he have big long blonde hair? That’s what his picture in the DC Encyclopedia has…