Weekly Comic Book Discussion 7/27

Cafe Society
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Goodbye! Me am last here, so me end this week’s thread.

Superman/Batman #21: Me hate Bizarros, so me frown and frown when they come to page. Me no have mixed feelings on Minimums, as me not sometimes wish that writers come up with plagarised ideas instead of skirting edge of copyright law for parody/homage, but the fight scene was boring and not cool to see.

I’ll um… Drop the bizarro thing now.

JLA #10: Ah, Butch Guice, how I’ve missed you since Resurrection Man. Hey, Batman’s being a detective instead of a ninja. yay! And Lois! Yay Lois! But how long has Themyscrya been airborne?

Supernatural Law 1st Amendment Issue: I hope some of the proceeds went to the CBLDF, becuse otherwise this was just preachy.

OMAC #4: HOORAY! Me get WW #219 so me not miss BIG IMPORTANT CLIMAX WHICH HAS NOT BEEN TOTALLY SPOILED AND NOW THE ISSUE MAKES PERFECT SENSE.

Sorry, I said I wasn’t doing Bizarro. And especially not in caps. But seriously, this was exactly what I hate about corssovers. They put the freaking climax in another book. Man. I’m not as interested in Batman’s personal Skynet as I was in the deep government conspiracy. Well, what’s left looks… Okay. Can someone give me complete spoilers for Wonder Woman?

Flash #224: Wow. The hits just keep on coming. Brilliant, brilliant stuff.

Legion of Super-Heroes #8: I like to see the Legion actining like hormonal teens. In Brainy’s case, a super-intelligent machiavellian teen, but kids none the less. That’s twice now that the credits have said Colossal Boy is from Earth. Wonder what his story is.

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Oh, and did everyone hear about DC’s followup to Crisis, 52? It sounds like a hell of a thing.

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  1. If you’re getting Wonder Woman (or have been reading the “Sacrifice” storyline in Superman) and you also buy OMAC, you MUST read Wonder Woman first. There’s a HUGE freakin’ spoiler for Wonder Woman/“Sacrifice” in OMAC. My Friendly Neighborhood Comic Store Guy had some strong things to say about this unmarked spoiler.

  2. Wonder Woman (and “Sacrifice” and OMAC) spoilers as requested


Over the last three issues of Superman, Superman’s been hallucinating running across bad-guys who kill Lois and he kills them in response. Eventually we find out that someone’s mind-controlling Superman and has been doing it for years, enough to break down his resistance to killing. We also find out that one of the people he’s been fighting was Batman (Supes hallucinated that he was Braniac or some-such. We learn that Maxwell Lord is the one who’s been doing this and has been worming his way into Superman’s brain for years. He makes Supes believe that Wonder Woman is Doomsday and is killing Lois. Supes freaks out and tries to kill Wonder Woman. She can barely hold her own and gets a broken wrist as a result. She distracts Superman for a second or two (by cutting his neck/chest with her tiara-thingie thrown like a discus) and ties Lord up with her lasso. He gloats that she can’t keep him tied up forever and as long as he lives, he’ll be able to control Superman. Bwahahaha! Wonder Woman shrugs and breaks his neck. Supes is shocked that Wondy would do this.

More later.

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Thanks, Fenris.

My store didn’t have Wonder Woman, and I don’t normally follow it, but I thought, how bad could it be? They have three issues left to fill, and I can guess that Wonder Woman stopped Superman. I’ll get the details later.

Well, credit for being bold, I guess, but that was too damn big to shunt off into the tie-ins.

And it shoulda been Booster, dammit.

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No prob. And regarding your spoiler…

BIG rumored spoilers for INFINITE CRISIS (they’re just rumors, but…)

[spoiler]
So apparently super-heroes will split into 3…not warring, exactly, but uneasy truce…camps. One will be Superman’s boy-scouts–always obey the letter of the law. The next will be Batman’s “The law is nice but justice matters…but NO KILLING!” group and the third will be Wonder Woman’s “Hey, sometimes you need to kill someone. We’re not proposing snuffing everyone who jaywalks, but how many more people would be alive if Joker, say, were killed years ago” group.

Allegedly that’s the purpose of the one year jump (and I hadn’t heard about 52–thanks for the info! :slight_smile: )–to get the camps firmly established. There’ll apparently be little cooperation between them–if Wonder Woman is chasing oh, say, Evil Star, Bats will do his best to cature Evil Star himself so he can’t be executed by Wonder Woman: think of various international “No extradition” situations. There’s little or no cooperation between the various factions–which’ll make JLA interesting.

The other big rumor is that after the year following the end of the “One year later” year, there’ll be another big crossover event–this one a ‘cosmic’ one. And because the heroes don’t cooperate, they fail, Darkseid (or whoever) gets his hands on the Miracle Machine (or whatever) and reboots the universe, just in time for the end of the 25th(?) year following the end of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.

I dunno if any of this is true, but I did hear about this about two months ago and the “Wonder Woman kills” thing has come to pass. We’ll see about the rest of it–but it sounds cool.[/spoiler]

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Dammit, all that typing and I missed pasting in a paragraph. This continues the rumored spoilers for INFINITE CRISIS and beyond.

[spoiler]
Anyway, the big reboot would (allegedly) bring back the multiverse (which explains the Earth-3 (ok, Earth-1) villains reappearing, all the weirdness in Superman/Batman, the Legion reboot, etc. Per the rumor, the current post-Crisis, post Zero-Hour would remain, but either an “Ultimate” line would be started afresh or the books would all focus on a new, fresh universe while leaving the post-Crisis, post-ZH universe around for cross-over purposes.

This is the bit that I thought was so cool, not so much the “warring factions” stuff.[/spoiler]

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Feh! You almost got it - I usually include the year in the thread title, too.

There’s an interview with Brian K. Vaughan (Ex Machina) over at the Onion’s AV section.

Outsiders #26 - Eh, not bad. I want to see where they’re going with it, at least.

Flash #224 - Excellent. Johns keeps kicking my teeth in with cool twists.

Fantastic Four #529 - Reed Richards running Rogue? Ruh-roh! I like it so far…

JLA : Classified #10 - Well … it seemed a little slow, and I hate the cover. The dialogue is good, but seems a bit too “hip” - for Lois and Clark.

Legion #8 - Book of the week. New art’s not bad, still diggin’ the plot.

City of Heroes #3 - Waid’s da man.

Superman/Batman #21 - Heh.

Wonder Woman #219 - pretty much knew where this was going, but it’s still a nice ride.

OMAC #4 - Ah, Brother Mark One confronts its creator eye to Eye…

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Ick. I kinda hope not.

[spoiler] I’ve got a lot invested in the current DCU, and I have no interest in an Ultimate DC. That’s what elseworlds and the All-Star line are for. A total reboot would be better, but only if they did it for real this time. None of this half-assed stuff like the last two times. Everything gone, only bring back the bare essentials and the rest is new. Anyway, it seems unlikely, since they’ve been hyping how they’ve hired Johns and Morrison as editors to reconstruct the DCU, and then there’s 52 to give us an in-depth look at the universe.

The three factions stuff sound like it could work. For a while. I just hope the Batman and WW camps stay undeniably heroic (not too EXTREME!), just with different sets of heroic values.[/spoiler]

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OZ-WONDERLANDS CHRONICLES—It’s a preview, and a damned expensive one, but the art looks gorgeous and the story seems dark without getting into “OZ SQUAD” territory (an early '90s b&w boom book. The darkest coherent vision of Oz ever. For example, in the '40s, Hitler invaded and decided that the ‘little people’ were unter-menschen…and set up Ozchwitz, a concentration camp for Munchkins.) This doesn’t look anything near as dark, and, as stated, the art’s beautiful. I’m looking forward to the regular series.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN-Good, not stunning and “Batzarro” is such an obvious name that I’m suprised that no-one came up with it before. The Avengers clones were ham-handed.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN-Who is that little hairy guy and what’s he done with Wolverine? Really, the character has no relationship with any Wolverine we’ve ever seen before. Where’s the whole “Noble Samurai” thing? And the dialogue isn’t as clever as JMS seems to think it is.

FANTASTIC FOUR–At last, the characters actually sound like the characters. The bit with Franklin and the nannies was kinda depressing. Poor Franklin. I applaud Waid “re-eviling” Doom (I’m fine with the cuddly Byrne Doom as a facade, but not as his core) but still…

ASTRO CITY-I love Busiek’s work, and Astro City’s one of my favorite comics, but this issue didn’t click with me…it seemed disjointed.

THE PULSE-HOUSE OF M- The only House of M crossover issue I’m getting. Um…who’s that guy and what did he do with Hawkeye. 1) he only had a crush on Wanda for about 20 issues, 2) his dialogue is totally off–he sounds nothing like Hawkeye. Bah.

HELLIONS-I’m enjoying this. Dunno why.

GRIMJACK-I stopped reading about 3 issues back. Now that the whole series is out, I’ll read it in a lump.

BATMAN DARK DETEcTIVE–Holy crap, this ending sucked. The Joker’s House O’ Death was fun, but the resolution was atrocious. Englehart needs to remember how to write a comic. Blah.

LEGION–I just figured something out;


Duh…Praetor Lemnos. Lemnos=Mon El (s). Given that a famous pre-Crisis story had him running around as “Legionaire Lemon”…
Dark issue badly hurt by the fill-in artist.

FLASH–This issue seemed padded. On the other hand, it’s interesting to learn that Captain Boomerang Junior’s mom is


Bart Allen’s mommy!

JLA CLASSIFIED–I have high hopes for this one: I like Ellis a lot/

Fenris

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Wonder Woman #219: Damn. Since when can Wondy summon birds? Mythology class was years ago, so I’m can’t remember which god you would contact for that (Artemis? Apollo?).

OMAC #4: I wasn’t feeling this one. I can’t put my finger on it, but it just didn’t do it for me.

Flash #224: Holy crap! That last panel :eek:! Could somebody explain what exactly Flash was being forced to watch? I got the general geist, but I’d like to hear it from someone who knows exactly. Fenris, huh? How do you know that?

I found a local guy who sells back issues for $1 each! Most of the good stuff had already been picked, but I’ve managed to complete the new run of Plastic Man from 1-12. Hilarous stuff for the whole family. I’m going to read them to my kids someday. “'Tis vanishing time!” Snort

I’m on a tight budget lately so last week’s Birds of Prey and this week’s Legion and Outsiders will have to wait. Actually, I’m not hot on the topic of Outsiders, plus Winnick isn’t writing it. I might just skip it all together.

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Four clues, one of which only sorta makes sense and could be a writer’s mistake. 1) We know Boomer Jr’s mom has super-speed. And it’s not Jesse Quick because she’s the same age as Boomer Jr, give or take.
2) The “future” thing (note the hovercar in the background).
3) The hair and outfit of the “Who are you?” woman matches Bart’s mommy.
4) (I think Jones screwed up on this one) There was an earlier clue that Zombie Boomer gave Mrs. Zoom2 about “If Cold knew who Boomer Jr’s mom was, he’d kill Boomer Jr.” This would make perfect sense if Bart’s mom was Dawn Allen, Flash’s daughter. Erm…but she’s not. Bart’s dad is (IIRC) Flash’s son Don- Bart’s mom is Eobard (Zoom1) Thwane’s descendant…although there may have been something about how Zoom1 is actually Barry’s long-lost twin brother’s descendant. But why Captain Cold would care, I dunno.

Regarding what Flash was watching, around Flash 199, Zoom2 decided to teach Flash a lesson about how much it sucks to lose something 'cause it would make him a better hero (didn’t make much sense to me either, but in fairness, he’s supposed to be nuts). Anyway, Linda was pregant with twins and Zoom2 snapped his fingers at sub-light speed right under her belly, making a huge sonic boom that killed the kids and made it impossible for Linda to have kids in the future.

Also, Flash defeated Zoom2 after that by sticking him in a time loop sort of thing where he was forced to watch the moment where he was crippled and his father-in-law was murdered over and over, so Zoom2’s trying to be ironic.

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Well, WW *is *a born warrior.

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Many of the Olympian Gods have animal Companions -doves, swans, sparrows, owls, crows, cuckoos, vultures.

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Re: Boomer Jr.'s mom:

[spoiler] I don’t think it could be Meloni. After all, as you stated, why would Cold care, and how would that give him speed? Dawn Allen or a grown XS seem more likely choices.

Here’s a trip: it could be Iris. But again, whence the speed? [/spoiler]

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I only got OMAC Project #4, and hated it. I’m sick of Rucka’s glacial pacing, and the slap in the face to readers that we were expected to buy three Superman comics and a Wonder Woman issue to find out what happened between OMAC #3 and #4… a miniseries, which, by definition, ought to be self-contained. I couldn’t care less about Brother Eye, the OMACs, or an ideological split between the saintly Big Three. The characters I am interested in have minor roles at best, and Booster didn’t even get to do what he rightfully should have done in this story: avenged his best friend’s death. I’m done, screw the last two issues.

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[spoiler]
I thought that in a later issue of Impulse, Melonie had super-speed which, IIRC she got through the Thwane connection.

Can’t be Iris: the only time she was in the future as an adult was after she became Mrs. Flash. She would have known who Boomerang was.

Dawn and XS shoulda known (via Iris) who Boomer was as well. But Meloni, pre meeting Don, wouldn’t have had any idea. Plus, a quickie affair with Boomer would be right in character for her. She’s a vaguely shallow airhead after all.

I’m wondering if Geoff messed up? Could he have thought that Bart’s mom was Dawn? But even then: given that Cold doesn’t have any special hatred for Barry (he’s got an “It’s a job” attitude, IMO) so why the hate, even if we go with the Dawn Allen thing and Boomer Jr. is Barry’s grandkid? On the other hand, Boomer’s never been the sharpest knife in the drawer and being a zombie can’t help that…maybe Zombie-Boomer just assumed that Cold would hate Boomer Jr if he was related to Flash, while Cold would just be amused by the irony[/spoiler]

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Interesting theory on Lemnos, Fenris, but that’d be a major adjustment of his powers…

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Someone explained this on the DC Wonder Woman message board. Apparently she was granted communion with the beasts by Artemis in the first issue of the series, but it’s a power she rarely uses.

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(All Spoilers regarding speculation of The Flash)

I missed the later issues of Impulse, but she was certainly not a speedster in her first appearance. And Eobard Thawne didn’t have kids to pass on his speed, he was an oddball of the Thawne clan. If she had Thawne powers, it’d be Cobalt Blue stuff, which was weird.

She would’ve known, but she would have been so suprised to see Captain Boomerrang apperate in frnt of her that “Who are you?” would still be in character. Iris strikes me as the type who would take a timelost and confused Boomer under her wing (this also goes for Dawn and Jenni). And if it was after Barry’s death… Well, she was still young, after all, and even Barry moved on after Iris “died”… But again, this doesn’t explain the speed, nor Cold’s predicted antipathy. It’d just be trippy. Perhaps Boomer is just saying that Cold is still banking on the possibility that Boomer Jr’s mom is Golden Glider, and would turn on him if it were proved otherwise. Especially if there was a direct Flash connection.

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Pick of the Week.

People once said Ellis’ Authority was the Justice League) finally done right. In JLA Classified #10, the first part of the “New Maps of Hell” arc, Ellis proves that, with the right artist, he can still kick in doors. Guice’s realism matches Ellis’ dialogue and action scenes perfectly, making this is a great re-introduction for those DC readers who skipped his award winning work on Ruse for Crossgen. The dialogues as good or better than JLA/Planetary, and it has Ellis Authority’s pace, and (by issue’s end), its’ scale. A+.

Simple Fun:

If Jeph Loeb wrote like this more often, he’d have a fan. Superman-Batman #21 is action packed fun. I loved references to the Avengers, esp. the dead bow-man. Only two things that bugged me: Bats has no business criticizing the Maximums for child endangerment, and it’s no clearer exactly what the retarded Bizarros are doing in this story. I hope the Maximum’s survive the arc. I’d like to see them go against the Authority or the WildCATs sometime. (After all, Ellis & Millar made multiple universes fashionable again, and one of the pleasures the medium is that anything can happen in the comics.) A.

Chaykin’s Universe is as corrupt as anything Azzarello can imagine, but where the latter’s 100 Bullets is all dark drama, Chaykin’s City of Tomorrow revels in sexy fun, transmitted via a lot of “tell it like it is” dialogue, and punctuated by sparks of flying lead. Recommended, esp. for those still waiting for the American Flagg! hardcover. A.

Pfieffer & Wood’sCatwoman #45 shapes up into a decent straight ahead read. The issue starts off with a beautifully illustrated action scene (it’s beautifully illustrated throughout – Wood’s & Anderson, take a bow) and maintains it’s pace through a wild dream sequence, and a confrontation with Hush. Hush may be a badass in other Batbooks, but the way Selena took him down here works for me just fine (though why she trusted him in the first place is still beyond me). B.

Old Timers, Mythic Lore & New Legends:

Tomasi delivers a decent story reuniting the previous generation of Outsiders: Black Lightning, Metamorpho and Katana, in issue #26. Conrad and Parson’s detailed story-telling lends the title a strong JSA-like feel which makes for an interesting and welcome change-of-pace. I wish I found the story more compelling, but I think that’s because we still don’t know by issues end why the old team has to come back together again. B.

We’re treated to the “Secret History of Hellboy” (or at least, the Right Hand of Doom) in Hellboy: the Island #2. It’s all a bit vague, unfocused, and not much happens, per se, but the reason is simple: we’re coming out of a nicely illustrated, if unexciting (it’s all portent, and no payoff) fever dream. C.

Hudlin & Romita’s first story arc comes to a decent, if mildly anti-climatic close in Black Panther #6 which left me mildly disappointed after the series strong start. I was surprised that they didn’t wring more, in terms of action, intrigue or suspense, from the incursion of deathlock cyborgs, and the sudden transfer of consciousness (at least I think that’s what it was) seemed to out of left field). I somehow expected more fan-fare, somehow. I liked the way Huldlin worked T’Challa’s family into the action and the way the Panther and his sister handled Klaw and the Soviet Radioactive Man. C.

I also picked up Legion of Superheroes #8. Hopefully I’ll get to it by the weekend,….