Here 'tis.
The Official Handbok of the Marvel Universe : Alternate Universes came out, and it is the niftiest thing Marvel has done with old intellectual property in ten years.
The Flash #226: I’m not sure if it was the writing, or the art, or both, but I have no idea what was going on here. And not in that “my God, you beatiful madman” Grant Morrison type way, either. Ugh. i love the Flash, and I really hope it can recover now that Johns has moved on.
Legion of Super-Heroes #10: Wow. They got punked. I liked that character. Hate to see her go, but she might ahve been too powerful to keep around. Excellent work.
JLA Classified #12: I like the main plot, and Luthor as despicable president, but there’s something slightly off about teh characterizations here. I can’t quite put my finger on it. J’onn was too much of a badass, for example.
Batman #645: Good. We’re returning to the Red Hood plot. It’s set up (as has most of the Red Hood arcs, come to think of it), but still solid good work. I just hope we’ll be seeing a payoff sooner or later.
OMAC #6: Nice. A much more solid ending that last week’s DoV. Wraps up the immediate threat, while keeping teh focus on our main characters, while giving a hell of a sting for InCri. A hell of a sting.
**JLA #119: ** I want infinite Crisis NOW! **NOW! ** Loved the wrinkle with Catwoman. Love the prospect of a new (temporary, until the big boys settle their differences) JLA. Who do you think shoed up at the end? I’m guessing The Pre-Crisis Superman. He’s back, and he’s pissed.
Superman/Batman #22: Remember earlier when I said “beautiful madman”? This is what I’m talking about. My God, they’re talking on the entire faux-Marvel universe, and then those two show up!
What happened in JLA #119?
So far I’ve read only the first issue of Polly & the Pirates. You knew what was to happen by no later than page two (assuming you didn’t figure it out by the cover), but this was still a great read. Naifeh’s charm is in full gear, even though he has a different main character – Polly is much more innocent than Courtney, and much less troublesome, but the scenes with her explaining propriety to the pirate are hilarious (apparently assuming that the only reason he behaves as a pirate is that he knows no better). I wish Naifeh could write one of these every week.
–Cliffy
[spoiler] Everyone in the League, save Superman and later Red Tornado gets mind-zapped by Despero, who’s taking advantage of their internal doubts and divisions. Zatanna shows up and spotS Despero, and takes the Society away for another mind-wipe. But that’s not the good part.
They then realize that with Batman and Wonder Woman gone, the Justice League only consists of Wally, Clark, John, and J’onn. And Wally wants to take paternity leave.
J’onn confronts Batman, who admits that he was just as freaked out about the possibility that Catwoman’s recent… friendliness is also due to magic recondisioning as he was about himself.
In the Watchtower, J’onn sets about rebuilding the League, and curses himself for not taking Blue Beetle seriously, now that everything’s gone to hell. Then someone shows up that the Tower identifies as Superman, and eberything blows up. [/spoiler]
To be continued in Infinite Crisis #1
Grr! Our comics didn’t come in today because UPS here in Houston is still screwed up from Hurricane Rita. It’s not that the books aren’t in town; they are, but UPS is running around willy nilly, misrouting the boxes. They ended up on several different trucks, and none of those trucks came to the shop today.
Wowsers. It was a good week, overall.
Flash - I enjoyed it, as a change of pace. Hopefully, Immonen will find h is footing if he’s to stay around.
Legion of Super-Heroes - Continues to be solid. I don’t know if she’s dead though… I hope not.
OMAC - The ending felt a little compacted. I would’ve liked that battle to be longer. Poor Demolition Team! Brother Eye has an odd definition of metahuman if he considers Batman one of them. I wonder if Androids make the grade?
JLA : Classified - Meh. Looking forward to moving on to the next story.
Red Sonja - Okay, cheesecake and swordfights… I like, but I’d like some more story… nice ending though.
Cable and Deadpool - Heh. Deadpool continues to be one of my favorite characters in the MU. Worth buying if for no other reason than the last panel. And the first panel… wow. Good jumping on point for the curious.
Defenders - Giffen and DeMatteis are on top of their game here. Highlight? “Hulk… exhausted.” “Umar… just getting started!”
JLA - Nice wrap-up. Good to see Reddy in action again. Love that ending!
Speculation based on JLA’s ending follows :
[SPOILER] Your guess isn’t bad, Menocchio - but my number one suspect is slightly different. The Pre-Crisis Earth TWO Superman, who survived the Crisis. It’s obviously someone who resembles Superman greatly, as J’onn seems to think it is Superman by sight, at first. Of course, it could be a mind-controlled Superman, or a shapeshifter. The other major possibility is Bizarro, whom sources say is getting an upgrade to more ‘serious’ status in the upcoming months.
My theory, as mentioned before, is that Lex discovered what happened during the Crisis. He may have even been experimenting with timelines and caused the reappearance of Supergirl, who seems to be the Pre-C Earth One model. And he’s kidnapped Pariah and Lady Quark. And Dr. Light sucked the power out of Dr. Light II, who was changed by the Monitor.
The big question is why a Superman of any stripe would be responsible for the detonation of the Watchtower, and I can only guess that Black Kryptonite that Lex was grinning about over in Supergirl can be used to control Kryptonians.[/SPOILER]
I think you’re right, Gamera.
New Books for 9/27/05:
Of the ten titles I picked up last night, I only had time to skim through four of them:
Ult. Spiderman #83 Bendis is giving Ult. Moon Knight a lot of page space. I wish he’d devoted a bit more time to Shang Chi and Danny Rand, who were the primary reasons I decided to pick up this arc in the first place. Lots of nice soap opera elements, with MJ and the Black Cat vying to have Peter in their lives (or in one case, in her bed), that stuff is fun, and well-played.
Batman #645- The lack of forward progression, here in this issue, and Batman #642 (before the utterly unnecessary interruption that was “War Crimes”) bothered me too. Still I look forward to Jason’s upcoming rampage in the Titans, and really do hope he becomes the DCU’s Punisher, possibly even taking up the Vigilante “mantle” once Bruce Jones and Grant Morrison are done with it.
JLA Classified: Great Stuff! – reminiscent of what we once said about Ellis & Hitch’s Authority, that it was the JLA “finally done right”. Love seeing them march up the White House lawn and lean on then-President Lex Luthor. I wanted to see Jonn Jonn’z rough him up a bit. My one reservation about this issue was the inking. It seemed a bit rough compared to the finishes in the first two issues of the storyarc. But otherwise, this is a fun read. Recommeded.
JLA #119: While I enjoyed the big fight scene, two things really bothered me about this issue. One was the revelation at issues’ end. Looking ahead to the Nov. and Dec. solicitations it looks like Pfieffer will be following up on the ending to this issue, and I so much like what Brubaker did to revamp Selena Kyle during his lauded run on Catwoman that I hate the idea she might revert to her old ways as a result this run-up to Infinite Crisis.
The second ws the contradictory treatment of Zatanna. Earlier on in the story arc she regrets her actions, as recounted in Identity Crisis. Here she mindwipes the original Society of Supervillains with nary a thought. Still, I hope her central role in these stories signal a serious upgrade in status. She’s potentially as dangerous as the LSH’s Element Lad. Just look at the Ellis-ish Zatanna Analogue, Arcana Jones in Supreme Power: Hyperion #1.
Hopefully I will get a chance to read: NYX #7, Catwoman #47, Daredevil #77, Vigilante #1, Legion Of Super-Heroes #10 and Superman-Batman #22, before too much time passes.
Oh God, I hope not. One of the things I’m liking about this storyline is that the Red Hood is a psychopathic villain. Full stop. He’s not an antihero. He’s not a more extreme variant of Batman (like some treatments of the Huntress). He’s the personification of Batman’s fears and failures. He’s a very bad man, and everyone around him recognizes it. I’d hate for that to be diluted by him falling into the same grim and gritty “hero” trap as the Punisher has.
I also disagree about Zatanna. This was set up with her talk with Wonder Woman last issue. She didn’t want to, but didn’t see herself having any choice (Superman would disagree, but that’s what makes him Superman).
JLA #119: Nifty. I got a totally different read on the ending. I thought that it was a black K contolled Supergirl, but upon re-reading it J’onn is looking at whoever it was before he realized that that person wasn’t who he thought it was.
Legion of Super-Heroes #10: Smug asshole: Guess she didn’t see that coming. I sure didn’t see it coming. I believe Insvisible Kid and I wonder who set him up. Lemmos? Maybe they aren’t totally immune to his power.
OMAC #6: My least favorite Inf-Cri run-up. A bunch of nice touches though, especially the last page.
Superman/Batman - I have much love for this book. Especially the alternate Earths where Batzarro and Bizarro #1 end up.
New Avengers - Very very nifty. I love where this is going, but we shifted gears from the Sentry’s stuff pretty abruptly.
Young Avengers - Continues to impress.
Fantastic Four - An unexpected twist. The alien guy looks a lot like Neh-buh-loh / Nebula Man from over on the DC side of the fence, though. It’s distracting.
Ultimate Secret - Funny. Solid writing. Thor and Ben and Johnny; Sue and Reed and Tony. Hilarity comes in threes.
LOSH #10 – Hmm. This is one of those comics that I enjoy while I read it, but then can’t really remember anything that happened last month when the new issue comes out. It wasn’t bad, but I’m not sure it’s worth sticking out. I suppose I’ll see how this current crisis is resolved.
I also got the Green Lantern Showcase. Man, that Gil Kane could scribble.
–Cliffy
PS238 - just got an issue of is last week, and here’s another. Solid hilarity though.
Invincible - A touching reunion, and a surprise twist at the end. I cannot stress this enough : buy this book.
I did, too, & picked up the 2nd TPB.
Good enough, dude! 
: Jealous smilie :
My store didn’t get them, not that I had the money for it anyway. Glad to hear that its good.
Ten bucks, dude! You can afford it!
I’ve also got the first GL archive, so I’ve already read almost half of these stories. I’m still really happy with the Showcase package – the pages are thicker than Marvel’s Essentials and so far the reporduction is great. (Of course, these pages had already been restored for Archives, so the real test will be in the Superman, Metamorpho and Jonah Hex volumes which contain non-archived material.)
–Cliffy
[QUOTE=Menocchio]
Oh God, I hope not. One of the things I’m liking about this storyline is that the Red Hood is a psychopathic villain. Full stop. He’s not an antihero. He’s not a more extreme variant of Batman (like some treatments of the Huntress). He’s the personification of Batman’s fears and failures. He’s a very bad man, and everyone around him recognizes it. I’d hate for that to be diluted by him falling into the same grim and gritty “hero” trap as the Punisher has.[/qutoe]
Would Tood necessarily have to be deluded to take on the role, however?
Personally I was hoping to see Todd cap Maxwell Lord, not WW.
I understand, here I was speaking about her in the context of this single story arc, however, where she seems to switch back and forth. I look forward to her working more closely with Wonder Woman in the future, given the way events are going. It looks like the DCU will be made up of three factions,… with WW amd a militant Artemis (hated the way Bryne watered her down) leading those “who are willing to do what it takes” to achieve "final’ solutions to problems.
Hmm,… Jason Todd joins the Amazons?
That’s my current theory too. Other suspects mentioned include Karen Starr (which i find unlikely for some reason… really love what Johns and Connor have been doing with her as of late in JLA Classfied) and Connor Kent, currently hiding out on the Kent family farm (in Supergirl #2 and recent issues of the Teen Titans and Outsiders.
New Books for 9/27/05, continued.
Previously I posted a few comments on Batman #645, Ultimate Spider-Man #83, JLA #119 and JLA Classified #12. More books follow.
Catwoman #47 It might be an indication of sheer stubbornous on my part, but I still cannot get over Selena’s decision to trust Hush, three or four issues back, a decision which precipitated the wave of supervillains pouring into the East End. If DC is planning on having Catwoman “change sides” , they should go all the way towards a drastic change. In contrast to Brubaker’s or Cooke’s treatment of the character, the way others script her attempts to restrain herself from “bad behaviour” come off as a bit too cute for my taste. And the lack of depth is becoming almost painful given what came before. I was going to wait three more issues, until #50, when Zatanna is supposed to show up and “rock Selena’s world” with revelations of her past mindwipes, and other tinkering, I suppose, but despite some glorious work by Pete Woods, I’m not sure I’ll keep buying this title, which is sad because I liked Pfieffer’s work on HERO and I can’t be entirely sure how much of the current direction is Pfieffer’s work, and how much of it is him complying with the requirements of the big “Crisis” event down the line.
Legion of Super-Heroes #10 – As ever Waid and Kitson deliver a solid story, but I have to say that, in contrast to Abnett & Lannings previous work on the title, the main storyline has been a bit too slow in developing (I could say the same about Brubaker’s work on Capt. America as if late). However interesting I’ve found the storyline overall, too many of the single issues haven’t made a strong enough impression, despite Waid’s inventive reworking of the individual Legionnaires. Despite the books obvious quality, I may pass on this one after the current story arc closes out. I need to cut back anyway.
Daredevil #77: Many have complained that this issue was “all talk” and “too much talk. I disagree, in that Bendis’ dialogue reflects the characters so well, and often (in this title, at least) add a lot of drama, even commentary, of their own. For instance, the FBI Directors little speech to Agent Del Toro, which sucessfully reflects the inane pseudo-logic of a careerist who’s desperately looking for someone to hang, to make himself look good and salve his injured pride. That’s great stuff. As is the Widow’s conversations with SHIELD Director Hill, another nice critique of the corporate/bureaucractic mentality. Neither conversation would have been out of place in one of Le Carre’s more critical novels about the inner workings of “the Circus”, where hundreds of people die, so some overpriviledged asshole can get an corner office with a view of the Thames. We see similar events, though of a much less dramatic scale, happen everyday in offices all across America.
(I agree with those who prefer Bendis and Maleev’s version of the Widow to Richard Morgan’s to be honest. I found his last Widow mini- what I read of it - a bit routine somehow. This is likely because I’ve read too many spy novels in the past.)
The conversation with Milla that followed was just wonderfully played. Following the Widow’s scenes as it did, served as a nice way to remind us that Matt turned down Natasha’s offer of a quick fling some issues back. In contrast Elektra’s scenes seemed almost comical. There she is, going about her business, killing people, when she notices a newspaper announcing Matt’s current travails, then pauses to ask her victim if the paper is current. Hilarious.
Ten to one odds, Echo and Elektra provides the key to Matt’s salvation. Who else could get away with killing Wilson Fisk?
Millarworld correspondent P Kastner made a good point when he wrote: “One thing that confuses me, though. Who is this female director of SHIELD? She only seems to show up in comics that Bendis writes. In Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, Wolverine and Black Widow, Nick Fury is still in charge of SHIELD. Now I usually fall on the side of “tell good stories first and worry about continuity later.” But this seems very odd.”
I agree. The only other reference I’ve seen to Hill is something Ennis’ Fury says about being out of work again, in a recent Punisher story, though I don’t recall seeing Hill in that one.) Bring Back Fury Bendis! (Or barring that have the Widow take over SHIELD, not that she’d want the job.
Am I the only one who got NYX #7? Overall, it was a decent close to the series, though it felt oddly rushed at the same time. Despite the simplicity of the layout, there was also something about the intercutting panel layout, the switching back and forth between the Ghost’s conversation iwth Felon, the girls running in the streets, and the Pimps two hit squads, that didn’t quite come off right, and required a second read to get straight. Still, Teranishi’s art was fine here. Some compositions reallly stood out, like the slightly upward view of X-23, turning, after cutting some punks up on the street, or the splash page when Caitlan stops time (a great take on superspeed). Clearly Felon’s younger brother isn’t autustic after all, but something else… I wish the book had a normal run. I for one am dying to understand the connection between the Felon’s brother and the ghost of Caitlan’s father.
Ah well,… despite the delays, I’ll miss NYX, like I miss Palmiotti, Gray and Winslade’s Monolith or Casey and Wood’s Automatic Kafka.
Still didn’t get to Vigilante #1 and Superman-Batman #22
Opps.
I really wish we had an edit function here.
Polly & the Pirates #1 - I’ve been waiting for this since I heard of it. I fell in love with Courtney Crumrin the moment I picked it up, so while I was disappointed Naifeh’s new book wasn’t going to be a new Courtney book, I was eager to see what he would do with this. I was not disappointed.
Not much happened, storywise, but we got a good idea of the characters, and the world they live in. All, in all, this was a good setup issue, and the art was beautiful. Took a little getting used to Polly’s look (I kept thinking ‘she has a nose…Courtney didn’t have a nose…why does she have a nose?’), but that doesn’t change that it looked good.
Also read JLA 119, OMAC 6, and Legion 10, but have no particular comments on any of them.
Polly & the Pirates #1 - I’ve been waiting for this since I heard of it. I fell in love with Courtney Crumrin the moment I picked it up, so while I was disappointed Naifeh’s new book wasn’t going to be a new Courtney book, I was eager to see what he would do with this. I was not disappointed.
Not much happened, storywise, but we got a good idea of the characters, and the world they live in. All, in all, this was a good setup issue, and the art was beautiful. Took a little getting used to Polly’s look (I kept thinking ‘she has a nose…Courtney didn’t have a nose…why does she have a nose?’), but that doesn’t change that it looked good.
Also read JLA 119, OMAC 6, and Legion 10, but have no particular comments on any of them.