Weekly Comic Book Discussion 7/12/2007

Anyone? Bueller? Nobody started the threads while I was gone? I’m so disappointed.

Countdown, too, begins to disappoint me. It needs momentum, and fast.

is there a specific comic series discussed in this thread? Because I (finally) purchased and read Buffy season 8 #s 1 - 4

We pretty much discuss each week’s releases. Buffy included.

Can’t wait for the next issue of Buffy…

I enjoyed it but I’m a little confused. So the Asian chick is passionately in love with the Buffster and Buffy dreams she has the hots for Xander?

That’s about right. At least, that’s my impression. The Asian Slayer’s name is Satsu, BTW.

On to some of my acquisitions this week…

Countdown - OK, they were in absolutely normal clothes at the funeral…how are they in costume this time? Meh. There’s a lot of other ‘was no one given a reference sheet?’ moments, artwise, too. Panda and Dr Campbell in the scene with the Atom, Holly and Harley in their scene…

Shadowpact - O_O Plleeeeeeease let them have just really destroyed Chicago? Call me a sadist, but I like real world cities getting destroyed! Also, I like Zauriel’s new weapon.

Gen[sup]13[/sup] - Bobby’s history wasn’t a surprise, really, but the naming was fun, and the fight made it all worth it. And Eddie getting his tat. The ‘destroy the multiverse’ stuff is bothering me…I’d hate to have the new kids have to go bye-bye, but I trust Gail not to go there.

Kind of a slow week. Picked up some Dynamo 5.

Deadpool/GLI Summer Fun Spectacular: The best part is the continued insistence that Squirrel Girl is the biggest badass in the universe, and the needling of the continuity-obsessed fanboys. Penance is treated with all the dignity he deserves, and The Inebriation Wave!

Batman Confidential #7: It seems like blasphemy to even try to revamp “The Killing Joke”, but, taken with the note that the Joker’s past is multiple choice, this has the potential to be a good little story. I liked the cameo of probably young Harley Quinn in the bar. And Batman is written just perfectly.

Superman #664: Superman’s frustration here is just delicious. He can’t blame them, he’s been controlled so many times, but still, that’s gotta sting a bit. I liked Busiek’s explanation of the different types of magic and how they affect Superman. That’s pretty much how I figured it too.

Superman Confidential #5: A pretty sudden turnaround on the Kryptonite man there, but still pretty strong.

Countdown #42: I can’t say what it is, maybe it’s just optimism, but this issue felt really strong. Like, 52 strong. It’s not that any particular thing was done super-well here, it’s subtler than that. But I liked it.

Green Lantern #21: Ha! Take that Hal fans! Kyle is the superior Parallax! :stuck_out_tongue: Okay, I kid, but this one did have a bit too much Hal favortism for my tastes.

Superman #664 - At last something happens in this interminable Arion storyline. Hopefully, Countdown-related stuff will make Arion go away for a while – he’s an interesting character, when he actually does anything. Much like Superman. And, frankly the Man of Action has been the man of brooding inaction lately.

Countdown #42 - Writing continues to be sucky. The art continues to deteriorate – this is definately not DC bringing their “A” game. Hopefully it won’t contaminate the All-New Atom with its suck, because that was the only good part this issue (and would’ve been incomprehensible if I didn’t read that title). Even worse, now they’re recapping Crisis on Infinite Earths? Really?!? It was only a year and a half ago! I could see this being useful if this was a book to introduce newbies to the DCverse – but Countdown is too confusing and poorly-written for newbies. Readers need to be familiar with stuff going on elsewhere in DC, because it sure isn’t being explained here. Bah.

Green Lantern # 21 - Continues to be awesome, but I wish for once that someone would write the damn Guardians as if they weren’t the stupidest ancient and nigh-omnipotentent geniuses ever. You’d think after about the fiftieth time, they’d figure out that every time they mock and ignore Ganthet, they get their collective asses whupped big time.

Justice Society of America # 7 - This is what a JSA book should be like. Very well written, good characterization… and hilarious seeing Hawkman with a welding helmet… on top of his hawk mask, and with his wings still on, in a foundry. hee.

He actually took the League in remarkably good humour, I thought. Squad K, I half expected him to leave with an offer to help them refine their techniques later, but by the time the League arrived, I would have expected even Superman’s patience to have been taxed to the point that I was expecting him to bark at Hal.

I’ve been thinking about this subject a bit, lately. Unlike Batman in the recent Superman/Batman Metal Men arc (which is what got me thinking about it), I think Superman, more than any other meta on Earth, knows the dangers of mind control and the necessity of being ready for it - if only for the fact he seems to be taken more than anyone else. The whole kryptonite ring thing points to this.

On the other hand, he’s also very much invested in his faith in humanity. And I think he expects people to have faith in him when he’s in his right mind. All the secret plotting and such…you’re right, it’s got to hurt. His brooding about Batman supports my immediate instinct that Bruce’s doing it feels particularly like a betrayal. This was the guy who he trusted with that kryptonite ring. That he’s that distrustful of him…if I were Clark, that would feel like a particularly strong insult, and Clark really does seem to feel that same way.

Eh, I hope this makes sense…it’s a 1:30AM attempt to collect more than a week’s worth of scattered thoughts.

I picked up the new printing of Catwoman : When in Rome this week, in addition to my usual allotment. I dig it, but it’s a little off in the Riddler portrayal.

The Deadpool/GLI special is the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks - I love the secret fate of Niels! (And Squirrel Girl’s casual dismissal of Doom.)

I really love these characters. I loved “Great Lakes Avengers,” then the GL-X special. I honestly wish that these guys would get an ongoing - if handled the way that X-force/X-statix was, it could be absolute genius.

I’m not much of a D.C. reader, but I’ve read the major DC things that any person needs to read (like the original Crisis, the essential Batman, Superman, and JLA trades, etc.), and I read both Identity and Infinite Crisis and 52. That aside, I have absolutely no idea who anyone is or what’s going on in Countdown. If this is meant to be a book to bring in new readers, they’re doing a piss-poor job of it. It’s incoherent and I’m about to drop it.

I think another part of the problem that is Countdown, is that the story vignettes are episodic… and don’t continue, issue to issue. One issue, Mary Marvel is fighting dead-baby-demon. Next, she’s squaring off with Billy. Now, she’s in Clayface with the Riddler. What happened to the dead-baby-demon? How did it end with Billy? Who knows; we’ll probably never find out.

Other storylines require too much esoteric reading to follow. New Catwoman requries one or more Bat-books, apparently (I don’t read 'em, so I’m clueless on this one) – as well as Wonder Woman, now, for the Athena stuff. Karate Kid needs not only the Lightning Saga from JSA/JLA, but no small amount of LSH continuity – from several reboots of the LSH ago, no less.

Furthermore, the Karate Kid storyline hasn’t actually started, yet. And it was in Countdown before the end of the Lightning Saga, and still hasn’t caught up with the end of the Lightning Saga, yet.

Bah, I say. Bah.