It’s that time again…
Final Crisis : Requiem - is it just me, or is Peter Tomasi the best guy at DC form making lemonade out of lemons? J’onn’s all too brief death scene, barely a footnote in FC#1, gets a full expanded look here, with proper respect.
Final Crisis: Requiem - I’m just happy that the first Final Crisis tie-in isn’t afflicted by the major suckitude that most-all of the Countdown tie-ins had.
Trinity - ah, man. the nifty back-up story has become the main story – and got majorly worse. in place of the villains Greek chorusing about how great the 3 are, now Rita is doing it. however, the new back-up is off to a good start.
Wonder Woman - liking the ape hijinks. not so much on the main story, particularly since Gail seems to have just written right past any reason for adding Claw and Beowulf in the first place. also, it was kind of odd that Diana’s fantasy was missing Wonder Girl and Donna Troy.
Action Comics - solid, nice characterization of everyone, and I think I liked this Supergirl better than in her own comic.
Justice Society of America - yeah, there’s pretty much no way this isn’t going to end ugly. but I actually think that the JSA has finally gotten too big, since they’re scarcely touching on some members.
Booster Gold #1,000,000 - sorry to see the last storyline end, but loved this one. I was hoping for a bit more of a visit to DC 1,000,000, though, maybe lasting into more issues.
I don’t think the forestory or the backup story have changed, just the POV character of each - Rita’s now overseeing the showing off of the Trinity, while Gangbuster is dealing with the over-reaching street gangs.
The forestory does have one thing going for it - aside from a few clunkers, the dialogue between Clark, Bruce and Diana is stellar. (The bit about ‘if you tell me to get the wound looked at, you’re condecending, and if you don’t, you’re condecending’ last week, was a major clunker - she should know neither Bruce or Clark would act like that, and it doesn’t fit Diana to say that, even if she did think they would.)
One thing about the forestory that amused me, oddly - though you have to have some knowledge of the tarot to notice - when Rita scattered her cards, at least two of the cards are improperly labelled - the Hanged Man is labelled on the wrong end - the Hanged Man hangs upside down (thus Superman’s cape), so the label should be at the head-end of the card, not the foot; and the card labelled as the 6 of Swords is clearly the 6 of Wands. I don’t blame Bagley for this, as looking at the cards behind the story title, the labels obviously weren’t on his drawing - they were apparently added entirely by the inker and/or letterer.
Also, the symbol on Diana’s shoulder appears to be one of the variants of the alchemical symbol for lead/astrological symbol for Saturn.
And, since I’m that kind of geek, a list of which of the Trinity are associated with which Tarot card in the story:
Superman: Justice, the Sun, the Emperor, the Hanged Man, the 6 of Wands
Wonder Woman: Strength, the Star, the Empress, Temperance*
Batman: The Devil, The Magician, the Hermit, the Ace of Swords*
Some really interesting choices, there, I must say. Some are obvious, some are positively inspired (check the Mythopoetic Interpretation of the Hanged Man in the wiki link).
Onto other books:
JSA - Yeah, this can’t end well. Though I really do get the feeling Gog is benevolent - just not quite right in the bean. I love the bit with Dr Mid-Nite at his church. Pretty much how a liberal monotheist would have to be in the DCU. ‘OK, sure they might be gods, but they’re not GOD, you know?’ And the priest’s ‘remember, “thou shalt have no other gods”…but don’t be a JERK about it’ was wonderful.
Action - I have two complaints, both fairly minor. 1) Kara looks awful - I swear, Frank used Paris Hilton as a model…she has the same weird droopy eyelid thing going on; 2) They really, really need to address the ‘two Kandors’ thing. Other than that, rather enjoyable.
Detective - I never read the first Hush storyline, so most of this is new to me. Tommy’s one eff-ed up mofo, inne? Too bad about Dr Aesop…he was somewhat amusing. Guess he’s a broken Aesop, now. (Oh, gods help me, I’m making TV Tropes jokes…)
Joker’s Asylum - Penguin - I love Joker’s Asylum, so far. The art here is better than the Joker one at the start. Not entirely happy with how adult Pengy is drawn, but, it’s not bad. I love the bit with Penguin having that monologue at the Bat while his bodyguards are getting tossed around.
Oops, just realised I forgot two parts of that post.
Joker’s Asylum, continued - Pengy’s a vindictive bastard, that’s for sure. But man, is he good at it. He’s clearly the Rube Goldberg of Evil.
Booster Gold - Interesting reveal about Rip at the end, there. Should he really be saying that, even alone, though? Seriously seems a bad idea when you have the kind of enemies he must. I have one really minor nitpick…the Peter Platinum scenes seem to take place in the same era as the original DC 1,000,000 stories (the Justice Legion mention, specifically)…but they weren’t set in the year 1,000,000, as Skeets says when they materialize, they were set in 85272 - the year Action Comics 1,000,000 will come out, assuming DC survives that long, and can keep Action going at a regular montly pace, at least on average (ok, the first premise I can buy, but the second? Nah!).
That was how I read it, too. I’m guessing the symbol will continue to transmute through the other metals. Or it’s a riff on Diana being a woman of clay, although that’s really a stretch. Either way I’m not sure of any Tarot connection with it, other than maybe the Magician (which was Batman, anyway)…
I’m thinking it’s the divination connection between the Tarot and astrology - the prior symbol being described as serpentine makes me think of the symbol for Leo, which, while it does have an alchemical meaning (the process of Digestion), better fits with Saturn in the astrological field than lead in the alchemical. IMO, anyway. The exact meaning of this connection (if, of course, I’m correct), I have no idea on.
Picked up:
JSA: Yeah, and who bets that Lance is gonna be Magog?
Hellcat: Perky and fun. Didn’t think I’d like it but I do.
**Green Arrow and Black Canary:**Don’t have it in front of me do I don’t remember the title, but it was fun. I’m still amused by the idea that Conner was shot by a cloud.
Looks to be a pretty sure bet at this point. Add the idea that Gog’s a good guy, and I’m digging the idea, actually. Lance as Magog, as a member of the JSA, at the forefront a new generation of metas with the JSA’s philosophy behind him, not the Kingdom Come Magog’s… I can see a lot of conflict between him and Superman-22 over this, of course, but that’s just icing on the cake, here. If Gog’s not as benevolent as he looks, or getting the full Magog power drives Lance insane, I’ll dig it a lot less, though.
Green Arrow/Black Canary - Should have seen that last page coming, really. I’m a little annoyed at the Bat getting to play the big hero in GA/BC, too, when he’s doing it in JLA, and Outsiders, and has two books of his own where he’s expected to be. Let Ollie, Dinah, and Mia shine! It’s their book! Really liked Mia’s interaction with him, though.
Young X-Men - 4 issues to reveal what a significant portion of the fanbase knew before the book began, or with the first issue, at the latest. Nice to finally get it out of the way, though.
So how would you “assign” the various religious beliefs of the JSA who were talking to Gog? Mid-Nite is Catholic, but what about Amazing-Man? Somehow I didn’t read “Christian” on him, but I may well be wrong. Nice to have a new recruit who isn’t a kid, though.
Booster Gold continues to be pretty much my favorite book on the stands.
Buffy: Pretty good. I really like this series. I’d like to know exactly why Dawn goes through these transformations, and why they can’t stop it. I hope that last page isn’t true. Just when I thought the army of slayers was safe…
Angel: Ok, story telling makes sense again. Art still blows as I still can’t tell who the side characters are without them saying names. Was the fish in the regular series, i wonder? I’ll have to look at the Angel wiki. Overall, pretty good, not as good as Buffy.
Secret Invasion #4: Now I’m getting confused as to who is and isn’t a skrull. This is probably what is intended, but I personally don’t like not knowing. Definitely better than the first two in the series.
Batman RIP #3: (not the one that came out this week, but the one with Bruce waking up in a coma. Ok, did I miss an issue, or was it subtlety hinted in the flashbacks during the issue of how Bruce got drugged and woke up as a homeless man hanging out with a dead guy? I would really like it if Morrison kept to traditional transitions between comics, and linear exposition in the story telling, because when he does it, it is often blurred into discontinuity.
Doctor Who #4 Hmmm…appears to be a three parter. I was liking the one issue stories from before, because they felt like the regular series. Then again, I feel like the stories in the show should last longer than one episode, but often the second episode feels like it has a lot of filler.
Astonishing X-men #25: Ellis’s first issue, and now I think everyone is British. This is definitely different from Whedon’s role, and while I’m a huge Ellis fan, I’m not too much a fan of this. Honestly, and no offense to the UK, but it just feels too British. I mean, I loved the Authority, Stormwatch, Planetary, etc., but something feels off right now. E.g., while I liked the continued play on the “Armor = claws” joke, it just seemed too…British (for lack of a better word). (If anyone wants to say something was not liked because it was too American, fine by me, I won’t comment.)
Fantastic Four #558: How does this fall into continuity with WWHulk, Secret Invasion, and the new Hulk series? I’m guessing that it doesn’t. I wouldn’t mind, but the story felt a little lackluster. Now, I don’t regularly follow FF, so I might not get what’s going on here, but this isn’t the FF I remembered. Also, I was looking forward to a brawl with Doom. I don’t like how easily these New Defenders went through the Baxter building. Since when is Banner a master tactician able to counter Reed’s defenses? The first arc was disappointing and seemed to be able to be concluded in two issues, with a lot extra crap I didn’t care about thrown in for filler. This second arc, while a little better isn’t doing much for me. Additionally, Hitch appears to be lazy. I want Ultimates style drawing.
