Here it is! Fairly big week for me, purchase-wise.
Even got two Marvel books - Guardians of the Galaxy and Incredible Hercules.
Most of the rest was DC. In fact, all the rest was DC.
In a bit of comic-related news, Matterl has a new action figure line out - DC Universe : Infinite Heroes. It’s 3.75" scale, and fairly low-rpiced. It seems to be focusing on obscure character as much as popular ones.
I am the proud owner of an Adam Strange action figure.
Not read much yet, but what I have read…
Brave and the Bold - Not Wolfman’s best writing. Not even his best recent writing (and I haven’t read anything particularly good by him later than Crisis)…Feels mostly like it was written as a Supergirl story a couple years ago, then they trashed it, but dragged it out of the utility files because they had a gap between Waid and JMS in B&B.
Action - Funny that it and B&B come out in the same week, with their contradictory versions of Kara’s origin. Not a bad continuation of the story, but, boy, am I NOT a fan of Frank’s art - the Brainiac drones look cool, and Clark looking like Chris Reeve is awesome, but the rest of the people…ish.
All-Star Superman - A good ending. A very good ending. Quitely’s looking more like Quitely, which is a disappointment, since the last 11 issues have looked more like something out of Europe (note: the continent, not UK), but…it was a good book.
Trinity - OK, I have NO idea what’s going on with Carter at the end, there…Also, not sure what’s going on with Despero in the front story. Good issue, though.
I’m kinda lost on Trinity–is Busiek under the impression that Earth-3 and the anti-matter universe are the same place? 'Cause they aren’t according to all the other titles. Are there two Crime Syndicates?
The Hawkman thing reminded me of the Zero Hour bit where all the previous versions were merged.
Also:
Dear Mr. Starlin,
I understand you have…issues…with the Catholic Church. I respect your right to have these issues. But, from a storytelling standpoint? Get the hell over it. You did it in Warlock in the '70s, Dreadstar in the '80s and are doing the exact same thing over in the Rann-Thanagar War* even down to the pin-headed albino alien wearing the “bishop” outfit and the big red Thanos-esque guy (Synnar?), both of whom are direct rips from Dreadstar. I love your art…but it’s time to grow a bit.
*Which really makes no sense. It’s a dumb holdover from an (IIRC) Earth-B story from the late '70s. Thanagar orbits Polaris which is 450 light years away. The revised reason that Rann and Thanagar are fighting is that Rann won’t give them Zeta-Beam tech. But, um…if Thanagar can fight a real-time war across 450 light years, why do they need a tech that teleports you for a random amount of time before yanking you back? (Yeah, I know that Thanagar blew up and they’re all living on Rann. Still didn’t make any sense. In a 450 light-year radius around Polaris, there’s not one single uninhabited but habitable planet that isn’t A) a post-nuke desert world (Rann) that B) isn’t filled with people who want you dead?
Not two Syndicates, but, there’s the Crime Syndicate (Anti-Matter, and in use here), and the Crime Society (Earth-3, haven’t been seen since Countdown, unless that’s Earth-3’s Ultraman in Superman Beyond, which it does appear to be*).
There was some confusion at first about whether the Crime Society being brought into existence with the recreation of the multiverse caused the removal of the Syndicate in the Anti-Matter universe, but that was cleared up in the Society’s first appearance in Countdown - Kyle talks about the Syndicate when they meet the Society, so both are obviously still in continuity, and most of the League haven’t yet met the Society. (In fact…nobody currently in the League has met the Society.)
IIRC, Rann was shifted to the same system as Thanagar during Infinite Crisis. Superboy Prime then pushed Thanagar out of its orbit, leaving the Thanagarians refugees on Rann. I vaguely recall Thanagar becoming rehabitable at some point after that… wiki says Kilowog & Kyle fixed it up.
So it is not 450 ly, but might be across the same system.