Here 'tis. Still reading mine.
I have to say, though, that this week’s Supergirl has the funniest, best idea I’ve ever seen. The sort of thing a munchkin Champions player would come up with in the DCU.
Jonah Hex #30: Best Hex story in a good long time. This is a rather comic tale, for a Jonah Hex issue, about a crook who’s terrible luck doesn’t end at the fact that he’s come to the same town Hex is in.
The Trials of Shazam #12: In the end, I have to give this series a thumbs-down. I’m not opposed to shaking up the Marvel Family status-quo, and it had some good ideas. I like Billy as the Wizard and Freddy as the Champion. I like the Gods of Magic walking the earth as men, rather than standing around misty astral planes. Switching Apollo for Atlas (and thus rapid regeneration for invulnerability) makes him less of a Superman clone, which is nice. Some specific moments like Atlas being a being that “holds up the world” by constantly averting small catastrophes or Hercules being in prison for some slayings that were part of a hidden spiritual gangwar were cool. Howard Porter’s art is gorgeous throughout. Even officially naming Freddy “Shazam” is just admitting to the reality that they can’t put “Captain Marvel” on the cover no more.
But, it just doesn’t come together. The pacing is glacial (not helped by how long it took Porter to draw this thing). The villains are mere ciphers. While Porter’s art is pretty, his character design is lacking (the long hair didn’t work on Superman and it doesn’t work on Shazam either). Most importantly, the new status quo is just kind of bland. The boy who turns into a man is just such a powerful image, and so central to why we read about superheroes that it’s simply a crying shame to trade it for a young man who turns into an even beefier young man. If this change was going to stick, they had to find something really electric, really engaging to change it with. And they didn’t. And that’s why this will be undone inside of three years.
Anyway, anything this book does looks like genius next to what they’ve put Mary through over in Countdown.
The All-New Atom #22: It’s just not fun anymore. It’s kind of grim, in fact, even given that we all know Panda and the others aren’t really dead. Maybe I’d be less critical if it wasn’t following Simone’s run. But it is, so I am. I’m done here. Someone let me know if it gets fun again.
Countdown to Final Crisis #4: Yeah. Mary sucks here. This sucks. When they reboot Billy in a few years, thankfully they’ll have a shining opportunity to undo all this. Also, the Challengers seem awfully chipper for having, y’know. just killed a world.
Detective Comics #843: It’s Zatanna. It’s Scarface. Of course I’m happy.
Action Comics #863: Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the old Legion that will surely overtake my beloved threeboot Legion. When it’s this good, I can hardly be bitter about it.
**Countdown Special Kamandi #1:**Tiger Kings who worship a nuclear warhead. Gorillas who await the messianic return of Superman. It’s good, fun stuff. I’m not such a big fan of Ben Boxer. I’ve no problem mutants joining our post-apocalyptic tableau, but such super-heroic ones kind of undermine Kamandi.
Secret Invasion.
Come on.
As good as Action was? My favorite part is the teaser for Legion of Three Worlds.
Well, that, and the Dr. Zoidberg cameo.
Action Comics # 673 - Agreed, CG! The story itself was great, but that preview has me salivating with excitement! And Zoidberg was a nice touch-back to the post-ZH era, when Easter Eggs like that were rampant, and very much appreciated (though I guess the DC PTB didn’t think so).
Countdown # 4 - Not terrible, and I do like that they’re serious about tying up dangling plot threads (it makes sense that the Black Adam powers were still somewhere, and I’m glad that the Monitor is still in the thick of things because as of his last appearance, I had no idea why he does the things he does). I’m a little confused by what he says he did, though - he reconstituted Earth-51 in order to destroy it with Morticoccus? I realize that by doing so he was sparing the “real” DCU, and that was part of his anti-Darkseid game, but how the heck did he restore it, after it was totally wiped out in the Monarch-Prime battle?
Kick Ass #1 & 2: I’m a huge fan of Miller’s writing, even though I don’t agree with his politics which sometimes slips into his stories. However, with Kick Ass, I have no idea what this comic is about. Is that why there was this huge fan/semi-independent push to get the book out? So far, it’s about this kid w/no super-powers who gets his ass-kicked for two issues. In #1, he’s almost beaten to death; after 6 months in #2, he saves some kid (with absolutely no information about what he’s about to get his ass into) after taking an almost equally brutal beating (well, maybe I’m being unfair, he was still standing after this one and did not manage to get hit by a car). There is still some mystery, like how he got into the situation at the very beginning of issue 1, and his costume after his first brutal beating, but that’s it. I just don’t see the hype.
Buffy Season 8, #11 and 12 (I have to check my numbers, but 11 should be the stand alone and 12 should be part 1 of Wolves at the Gate (or something like that). All I have to say is that I really enjoy the run right now and like many other authors (ahem Morrison), Whedon also benefits from reading one right after the other. I really like Whedon’s stuff, and I would have to say he is my favorite writer now. Anyway, I’m not sure I like what he’s doing with Buffy. Does she have to be all sexually confused? Or, is he trying to make a statement that love is blind? I think what made Buffy so successful is that she is supposed to be this stereotypical girl next door, but also has this grand mythos behind her which allows her to do supernatural things, like kill vampires, NOT munch carpet (though in a completely different context, I don’t mind seeing some of that stuff). Also, Dawn has been a giant for like 12 issues now with barely a hint of what caused that condition. It’s like he doesn’t want to write for her. Also, Andrew needs more background. Oh, and while I’m critiquing, get Astonishing out already!!!
All-Star Superman: Absolutely beautiful. My only complaint: stay on pace already!
Ultimate Human: I like Ellis, I really do. I’m unsure of his stuff over at Avatar, but for the most part I like his stuff. He has a huge problem with pace though, and UH 1&2 showcase that. #1 was good intro, he played around with the Hulk mythos a bit, which is good and interesting. #2 was the nicely played, expected hero vs hero fight, and #3 was the explanation behind the villain, which just reminded me of The Leader, which was also a terrible drop in pace. He also doesn’t resolve my issues with Iron Man’s armor, i.e. just how powerful is Iron Man? I remember those Versus threads in Cafe Society; someone should do a Iron Man vs: ? I’m not sure: Green Lantern, Thor, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Ms Marvel, Rogue (I’m just throwing out names), and of course Batman (heh). It seems like Iron Man isn’t all that great against the Hulk.
Angel: After the Fall: Probably my least favorite of the Whedon stuff (I haven’t read Firefly, though). However, I really wish that this made it to tv. I’m very interested in the way things turned out after the huge fight that was the season finale. Pacing is much better than anything else he has going on.
Countdown #4 - Thank Og, only three more to go.
Metal Men #7 - I don’t know if it’s the art or the writing or what, but I just can’t seem to grok this series – I want to like it, but it’s all such a muddle…
Supergirl #28 - Like the way this is going. This book really needs to stay on one plotline, not have any random one-off issues, and do something with Supergirl that is unique to Kara. And to never, ever, ever re-tell her origin story again.
All-New Atom #22 - It’s not a bad book, but it’s certainly not as good as it used to be… and with its sales, it really needs to have been better. Both Ryan’s and Head’s characterizations are off, also. I think this book may not be much longer for this world.
Young Avengers: Wiccan & Speed - Meh. The story was okay, but really resolved nothing – didn’t even advance Teddy’s and Tommy’s relationship much. And the art kinda sucked.
Action Comics #863 - This really captured the essence of the LSH, in my opinion. Particularly the little character moments – especially the last few pages. Nice, though, that it managed to remain a Superman story with LSH backup, in the end. also, was that Tyroc… wearing pants???
The Legion of Three Worlds teaser was awesome. DC just needs to clone Johns and make all of him go write mini-events like this and Sinestro Corps War.
Lightray:
No, it’s Invisible Kid II, Jacques Foccart.
whew … at least some things haven’t changed with LSH continuity.
What? No comments/speculation about Secret Invasion 1? Me, I think it’s pretty obvious that the occupants of the crashed Skrull ship are Skrull imposters, NOT returning abductees. I mean come on, there is NO WAY Luke Cage and Jessica Jones have been Skrulls since BEFORE Jessica was a PI…
Action was awesome. Everybody catch Dr. Zoidberg’s cameo?
I did! He lives in the 30th Century too, makes sense that he would be there, being persecuted. Poor Dr. Zoidberg.
I’m not a LSH fan, but I enjoyed this *Action * arc because it gave such a strong sense of how important they are to Superman, which makes them seem more important/interesting to me. I didn’t grow up reading LSH, and every time they’ve shown up over the past few years, it seemed like they assumed the reader has automatic nostalgia for the characters so they didn’t bother trying to re-establish any inherent awesomeness for new readers. I still don’t want to read the ongoing LSH title or anything, but I didn’t end up skipping this whole arc either, and that’s saying something.
I feel the same way about Donna Troy. She came back from the dead and everyone acts like she craps rainbows, but I see no evidence of this. I develop narcolepsy whenever she’s front and center, which made reading Countdown even more of a chore sometimes.
Oh, no, she hasn’t been able to crap rainbows since Zero Hour.
Apparently!
Rikwriter,
it’s pretty obvious that’s the case except for perhaps one or two token characters that are not thrown in as “shocking” twists. I looked at the group and went, “Gee, three-quarters of those people have had events that couldn’t be faked by skrulls since they wore those outfits. It’s either more skrulls that should be immediately obvious to everyone standing there or bad writing.” Perhaps it’s both…
If you haven’t read Mark Waid’s recent reboot of the LSH I’d recommend giving it a try. He sets up a situation where they’re really independent of the nostalgia. My brother who never read Legion before in his life enjoyed it enough to go back to some of the older Legion series.
Note that the Waid Rebooted Legion is not the Legion who has been showing up in nostalgia related crossovers.
Green Lantern: Secret Origin. Pretty good. Hal is Johns’ man-crush and I don’t care.
**Robin: ** Eh. I like Dixon, but I still want the old team back. Also why bring back Stephanie? I was (and am) irritated by the way they treated her character, but I see no reason to retcon everything.
Suicide Squad Boy, Waller’s really lost her touch, hasn’t she? “Of course, no reason to distrust this bunch of criminals!”
Thunderbolts Ellis writes good crazy. He almost makes Venom relevant and interesting.
The Twelve - Eeeh, it’s still readable, but…I’m really preferring Project Superpowers’ mining of the same sort of territory.
Speaking of…Project Superpowers, while having awesome art, both internal and covers, has the laziest damn alternate covers ever. Negative art! Every issue! It’s like nobody could be bothered to commission an actual alternate, but they refused to give them up, because, they’re Dynamite, darnit.
I’m also terribly amused both books have almost identical characters named Dynamic Man.
And back to The Twelve, PR either needs to drink less, or drink more…I can’t decide which.
Action - Very good. Veeeerrry good. My little shipper heart is broken because the this story broke up or retconned two of my favourite couples from that era of Legion, and Countdown has me worried about my third, but that aside, SO much love. Hopefully this Legion will continue to appear (along side the current one)…
Young X-Men - Well, I’m sticking around, for now. For now. It’s…not awful, but it’s…really quite wrong in many ways. I’m liking the theory I saw elsewhere where Cyclops isn’t Cyke, but Pierce pretending to be him. (I was theorizing Skrull at first, but I like the Pierce theory better.) Also…hate Paquette’s art. So much. The girls are OK, and Santo’s fine, but all the other guys…even Wolf Cub…have the same hideous frog lips.
Well, suppose they aren’t? What established cosmic event could have that particular grouping in it legitimately? I don’t remember seeing Emma at Captain Marvel’s funeral (or Jewel either, but she’s a bit of a “gimme”)
[spoiler]Actually I think Emma didn’t exist until some of them had already changed (I’d have to check the cover date for that issue of X-men but I think it in the second half of 1980…). The green Phoenix outfit and the White Queen gives us only a four or five issue range if we start from an assumption that everyone was copied after their debut.
The costumes are a general smear across the late 70’s to the early 80’s and don’t seem to match up quite right. For example, I’m 95% sure that Carol Danvers was out of that outfit before Jean Grey became Phoenix.
The really odd one is Hawkeye who fought the skrulls while wearing the Goliath outfit. If the skrulls were to copy him you’d think they’d use the costume that they knew…[/spoiler]
From the horse’s mouth
I wonder if I’m the only fan not trying to figure out who’s who and is just enjoying the reveals as they’re revealed.