Green Lantern #32 Review

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Ivan Reis

By far the best Secret Origins issue. Many people have complained that they don't like these origin issues in comics, but I have no problem with a writer carefully retconning a certain mythos to better his story, especially if it is a really good writer that will be linked to the title that he is retconning, i.e Geoff Johns of Green Lantern or even Ed Brubaker of Captain America among others. Geoff Johns saved this franchise, and I think he has the right to tweak the origins if it helps the future of the story. With the inclusion of none other than Sinestro (not Sincestro), this story rocked. I don't think anyone in comics today captures a character more perfectly and intricately than Johns does with Sinestro. It is a hit every time. He once again proves this in this issue, as Sinestro was spot on with his dialogue and character mannarisms. I also loved the internal monologue of Hal, as Johns has so perfectly handled these characters in his run on Green Lantern. Even though the title has cooled off after an incredibly hot Sinestro Corps War run, let us not forget that this title is one of the best on the market today. When Johns is done with his run (and I hope that is a distance away), I think we will appreciate how well he has handled these characters, and you will see that links from issue #46 with issue #13. Johns has created an atmosphere in this title that you can submerge into and appreciate. While he is doing a Secret Origins issue, he doesn't have his eye off of the big prize, with the careful page about the Red Lantern. He is still building towards Blackest Night, but he is doing it slowly and carefully, and the payoff will be evident and well worth it a year from now. This issue reinforces Hal's love for flight, and Sinestro's love for authority and rules. Ivan Reis is tremendous, and is one of the best artists in comics today. I loved this issue.

OWN IT

2008 NBA Mock Draft (Lottery Edition)

1. Chicago Bulls- F Michael Beasley, Kansas State. The Bulls are OK at point guard people. They signed Kirk Hinrich to an extension just last summer and he can be solid in that role. What they lack is a back to the basket post presence, and Michael Beasley can provide that (with good perimeter shooting). I see him being a 25-10 guy on 4 years. Michael Beastly

2. Miami Heat- G Derrick Rose, Memphis. You can't pass him up, and Riley likes him better than Beasley anyways. He could be a franchise point guard and is a very good on ball defender. He is selfless and he is a winner who has good character.

3. Minnesota Timberwolves- G OJ Mayo, USC. He has been growing on me. I do think McHale is going to try to trade this pick, but he is so stupid he just might keep it. He would be forced to play the 1 here, but he is a great scorer. A real talent as a scorer, and he can defend. His ball handling has to improve.

4. Seattle Supersonics- C Brooke Lopez, Stanford. This would be huge for Oklahoma City... er Seattle. He is the best center in the draft and he can really go to work and score down low when he wants to. He is also long and could get some blocks. He was in a bunch of foul trouble in college though, but it is an upgrade over Johan Petro and Robert Swift.

5. Memphis Grizzlies- G Jerryd Bayless, Arizona. I don't like this pick for them and they should move it. They need a big, but Chris Wallace is such a terrible GM that i think they will fall in love with this "point guard" because of his quickness and scoring ability. I am not a fan.

6. New York Knicks- G Eric Gordon, Indiana. Dantoni will love his scoring ability, and be blinded by his inability to play defense. Hasn't stopped him before. Experts will pick Westbrook, but he is a little overrated in my opinion. He doesn't have the scoring ability. Gordon could average 20 points a game soon enough.

7. Los Angeles Clippers- G DJ Augastin, Texas. He is one of my favorite players in the draft, and i absolutly loved him in college. He is a big game point guard who is not afraid to take shots. He has good ball handling, and his court vision could get better. With the uncertainy of Livingston's knee, this would be a logical pick.

8. Milwaukee Bucks- F Danillo Gallinari, Italy. They probably shouldn't take another foreigner, but i like Gallinari. He is a contact loving European who can shoot and is 6' 10". Think of a large Manu Ginobili (minus the defense).

9. Charlotte Bobcats- C Kevin Love, UCLA. I was a big Love guy in college, but I am not sure how he will translate to the NBA. He is a big with tools, and that is rare. He plays no defense, but Okafor can help him out there. I like this move for Larry Brown, and he is a smart player.

10. New Jersey Nets- F Nicolas Batum, France. Athleticism baby. This guy is a foreigner, which scares me. But lets look at this- He plays in the Euroleague, which is the top European league, and he is very good there. He is a great athlete, and could have been a lottery pick 2 years ago.

11. Indiana Pacers- F Darrell Arthur, Kansas. They need a point guard, but they are all gone! So they turn to some help inside, and Arthur could give that. He just doesn't play hard, and you can't fix that.

12. Sacramento Kings- F Joe Alexander, West Virginia. He shot up draft boards, and thats a scary thing. He is a great athlete and a hard worker, but he is really not smart. He doesn't really play D, but he will get a look here.

13. Portland Trailblazers- F Anthony Randolph, LSU. I would take the best talent here, because the Blazers are just loaded anyways. They don't need anyone to step in and contribute, and they will be a force for the next 5 or 6 years. They should take Randolph and try to develop him into a legitimate force presense to challenge Aldridge for a rotation spot.

14. Golden State Warriors- C Kosta Koufus, Ohio State. I don't like him as a player, but he fits in the Warriors mold. No d but can shoot the ball. He can challenge Biedrins and push him, and give some quality scoring off the bench.

This is what should happen, not what will happen. I don't feel comfortable giving my opinion on guys like Casppi or Ajinca. I know the college players, and can do that, but the internationals are what kill me in the NBA draft. I am sure they are busts, but I don't watch them and can't give my expert opinion on it. The Sports God is admitting is mortality on this matter.

Jam Session

Welcome to the latest Jame Session and today we got an extra long segment featuring the monster WWE draft recap and also weekly awards. Seeing as we are a comic blog I am obligated to give out awards before we can get to the draft recap. The award this week mean a whole lot more thanks to the heroic actions of Adam Copeland who brought about the biggest surprise in the draft. The nominees for the Adam Copeland Award of Excellence are the following:

Superman/Batman #49- Featuring a stunning conclusion in which has been a nice arc this title continues to be on the up and up. Albeit it was disappointing that they resolved a potentially interesting plotline too soon and this was a slow week.

Wolverine #66- The Old Man Logan arc is kicking off and the Marvel hype machine may be its own worst enemy as it does take some of the edge from the debut as Marvel usually spells out what happens. The issue nonetheless survives the damage done and is an enjoyable ride.

X-Factor #32- After Messiah Complex this title was gutted worse than Smackdown in the WWE draft but it has managed to rebound and set itself up as the premier X-title for the foreseeable future. It is said if someone said it better you should quote them so "This issue showed signs of progression for my favorite disbanded degenerates." [Sports God]

The Brave and the Bold #14- Mark Waid continues his enjoyable run. Though this title is shallower than the Raiders "Commitment to Excellence" it unlike the Raiders is actually enjoyable to watch [errr read] and is a fun ride. It does suffer from having no impact in the continuity of DC but it is such a fun ride that showcases a lot of DCU that you don't get to see.

On this day I see clearly that...............................................................................................................


Superman/Batman

This title has been absolutely classy for six issues now. It features some of the best chemistry between the big two and as I read it you can see that DC is trying to make Trinity into this on a weekly basis. Green and Johnson also dig deep into the history of this title and keep it constant by bringing up the things that past writers have setup such as the Toyman and give this comic a rich legacy that most comics don't have since other writers don't play homage to what the previous writers have done.

Now for the Rusty Venture award. This was a pretty weak week and a lot of worthy comics made the cut for this award. Let us look at the list of candidates who managed to make the cut for this prestigious award.

Trinity #3: Crash and burn in its finest form. Usually it takes 3 months to officially condemn a title but DC is really trying to beat the pack and has done in three weeks what it takes titles 3 months to do. Managing to create an atmosphere in which you cannot care about the main story but also featuring a backup story that is intolerable. You are getting two bad reads in one comic!!! How insane is that?

Iron Man: Director of S.H.E.I.L.D. #30: There are not enough periods in that title heading. In this title that is destined for cancellation and it is an all out sprint to the end. This title is in a terrible state and this could finally be it's week.

Amazing Spider-Man #563: Before Trinity could suck amazingly hard, before Iron Man fell there was Spider-Man leading the way for fallen flagships. Marvel isn't pulling any punches and has condemned the wall crawler to never be able to develop and grow. It was a gutsy call and in the long run has made Spider-man a front runner. Is this the week that Spider-Man breaks through?

And the Venture Bros worthy comic is............................................................................................


Trinity
Spider-Man has the chance to rebound since there will be a Spider-Man 4 movie and since Trinity is a yearly series it has a ceiling that in most cases is a floor. This title basically can't or won't recover. It is already written and it could recover in the future but that is highly unlikely since it is a weekly title and it has a definitive end meaning it probably won't try to improve. A title is truly deserving when you can't put into words how much you dislike it and what it has accomplished. DC has managed to make me not care about this title as of now it is on the proverbial list.



There you go those are my winners and my other winner. Now it is time for the big WWE draft recap.

The big surprise was the fact that HHH got drafted to Smackdown and broke the biggest rule of the Untouchable list which I had posted. In the past HHH has been drafted to Smackdown but managed to reamin on Raw so he could manage to pull that off again so I refuse to concede that point.

Next was Jeff Hardy, Sports God absolutely pegged this one while I missed it. This of course mean that Jeff will be in the title picture in Smackdown. This was a big move for sure and could possibly be to help Smackdown for the big move back to the channel formerly known as UPN [I miss you man, and your heavy black programming].

Umanga was a a contest call which was the only sure thing from last night.

The reaction I had to the draft was absolutely stunned. Sports God and I watched the draft together and though our predictions were off before the broadcast it was during the broadcast that Sports God hit his groove as he called the picks once he saw what WWE was doing. I am proud to say I called the HHH pick at the end of the draft because I figured Smackdown was just getting jobbed and they were due for a quality pick that transcended all that jobbing. It was clear ECW wasn't going to win anything because you can't win that battle royal with Matt Hardy as your leader. Raw could have ran away with it but they didn't count on the Edge factor. Edge clearly stole the show as he out-speared Batista which was a truly memorable moment. It was good for Kennedy to get off the Raw because he was a bust and on Smackdown he go back to being a loud obnixious punk with a lot of upside. Overall that Draft and Raw was spectactular except for the Vince storyline again. That was not needed at all and in bad taste especially since it is or was on the anniversity of the Benoit incident. It was a great Raw and for once I can actually tune into Smackdown with greater interest than ever before [Hopefully they can manage to get JBL to announce with JR which would be almost as fantastic as JBL and Cole which in retrospect was possibly the greatest announce team ever since it helped carry Smackdown for all that time].

Take Tro

Last night was hectic as far as the WWE Draft goes. Whoa. And tomorrow is crazy because the comics are going to be great. Good week. Lets get to awards:

The candidates for the Rated R Superstar Award:

Incredible Hercules #118
Guardians of the Galaxy #2
Punisher #58
Wolverine #66
X-Factor #32


The Winner- Wolverine #66

While there were some good reads out there, none great, Wolverine clocks in with the award. If you can ignore the absurdity of Millar's vision of the future, then you can look at the intriguing take on Logan's character and how it was handled. Accompanying that is McNiven's excellent artwork, and you got yourselves the Rated R Superstar of the week.








The candidates for the Rusty Venture (I think thats what its called? Yes it is) award:

Trinity #3

The Winner: Trinity #3

Again, I don't read all the comics like i used to, but this takes the cake for the worst thing I read all week. The story is stagnant and the take on the Trinity is something that is not new or innovative, and it just follows the formula. I am done with this stupid title.

Superman/Batman #49 Review

"Cache"
Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Art and cover by Shane Davis and Matt "Batt" Banning

Certain people will attest that I have raved about how awesome this title is for awhile now and this title continues to be exceptional no matter what some people say. Apparently this a divisive title that you will ever think is poorly written or well written. This issue is the end of Green's debut arc and for me I really enjoyed it. The running narration between Superman and Batman is enjoyable but I can see how it gets old for some people. The big reveal is that Lana Lang has been behind the whole selling weapons to the government to kill Superman. I think a lot of people are having trouble will this whole heel turn of hers but actually this goes along the lines of how she has been written since Superman: Godfall way back when. She has had that creepy obsessive vibe for a couple years now. A problem I had though is that they instantly solved the problem of Superman not being able to enter Earth. That had the potential to be a great Superman story and it is a shame it is wasted and makes me wonder why Luthor never thought of it. Another thing I liked was the reasoning for selling the weapons, it wasn't about killing Superman but it was to help all the people who are employed by Luthor, the salt of the Earth people which makes sense. There is also the fair share of humor with the Power Girl cameo which is always a welcome. The ending was what really stuck with me about how we got the Tower of Babel Batman again with him stocking piling Kryptonite [including the one that makes Superman high] in his batcave. It was a bittersweet thing because Superman made the geasture of giving Batman the only piece of Kryptonite left on Earth because they are best friends but Batman already has enough Kryptonite to kill him 8 times. It was not a classy moment for Batman. I'll admit that I am warming up to Superman too but not because of Geoff Johns but this comic instead. This story made it clear that Superman really loves Earth and wants to do everything in his power to be able to live there but there are people out there who are planning on ways to take him out no matter how much good he does in the world which is a sad reality that he is blissfully unaware of [to a certain extent]. The artwork is awesome and helps bring the story alive especially that moment where Superman dumps all the Kryptonite into the sun and Batman tells him put it where his enemies can see it so they know what's up [that was actually a pretty beautiful monologue by Batman and really put Superman over kind of like DBZ where Vegeta admitted Goku was better]. Again though, still mad about the blown storyline that Green came up with of Superman not being able to actually go to Earth, that could have been a defenitive Superman/Batman story, man, if I was DC I'd find a way to do that. This comic does raise interesting questions and it is a shame that they do not expanded such as if Lana had not done what she had done and then there is mass unemployment followed a giant recession would it really be Superman's fault? Again this comic does have a lot of nice little tibits that you can think about which does take away from it but not enough to warrant a lower rating.

Art: PHENOM
Overall: OWN IT

X-Factor #32 Review

Writer: Peter David
Art: Pablo Raimondi

I have been very critical of how Messiah Complex totally fucked over my favorite X book. Well now, it is showing signs of life. I am glad that the whole Arcade filler..... er story, is over. This issue showed signs of progression for my favorite disbanded degenerates. Madrox is one of my favorite characters. That is credit to Peter David who writes such great dialogue. This is Madrox's book, and we get to see his thoughts on the chaos. I thought the thing with the old Jew and Madrox was very well done, and it showed that Madrox is a considerate guy. The stuff with Layla was also good because you know Madrox misses the hell out of her. The whole inclusion of the bitch lady was good because it showed long term planning, and you know X-Factor is going to be wary of her in issues to come. I loved how Madrox showed that he is the leader of the team and told the bitch lady (forgot her name sorry) to stick it and blew up the building. I personally would have ended the issue there because it gives the faces the upper hand for once, and you know they deserve it because mutants get royally fucked on a daily basis. The art was good and I am excited to read the next issue.

Art: Ballin
Overall: GET IT

The Sports God's WWE Mock Draft

I enjoyed reading OAO's mock draft, but of course, I have opinions of my own. I'm going to break it down, brand by brand.


Carlito- He isn't worth a look on Raw, but he is a possibility on ECW (anyone is). He could contend for the ECW title with a little help of a push

DH Smith- Totally underutilized 20 year old talent that needs some grooming. It would be smart to put him on the C brand and let him grow (possibly as a heel)

London/Kendrick- Who the hell are they? They reigned as tag champs for over a year (!) on the blue brand once. They could get more tv time on ECW and feud with Morrison and Miz.

Chuck Polumbo- He isn't happy with his push, and he is improving. I used to be completely bored with him, but he is growing into a strong heel character.

Beth Phoenix- If anyone saw her completely job out to Mickie James 2 weeks ago, you know she is gone. She should go to Smackdown and reign as Diva's Champion with her eye towards a big feud with Michelle McCool.

CM Punk- He is so gone. My guess is Smackdown. CM Punk has a problem. You can tell whats going to happen in the match if you see the first 5 seconds of his entrance. If he is incredibly happy, then he is going to win. If he is mild mannered, he is doing the job. He was jumping for joy last ECW, and he had an extended celebration. He is so gone people. He has the MITB and that cannot be used on ECW. I am sorry, that brand is the C show.

Elijah Burke- He seriously hasn't been on tv on a regular basis in a while. Dude can kind of wrestle, oozes charisma, and can get heat. Push him people.

JBL- He hasn't been on Raw in a while anyways. It is known that he wanted to return to Smackdown, and I think he might get his way. He can be a strong, strong heel on SD (which he once was), and could challenge Edge for top heel on the brand.

Mike Knox- Someone needs to replace Polumbo as a midcard heel jobber. Bingo

Umaga (a.k.a Umanga)- If there was like a betting line for this draft Monday, I would put a lot of cash on this. Vince McMahon said in the shareholders meeting 2 months ago that he would go to Smackdown at some point this year. Feuds with Big Show and Taker are imminent.


Batista- The Animal lands on Raw after feuding with everyone on Smackdown. He is ready to return to Raw and do some bad things. Once a big meathead, he is now a good wrestler with solid mic skills (if kept short). Dave.

Chavo Guerrero- I am not a Chavo fan, but he has some use as a midcard heel. And this way, we know he won't touch the WWE title.

Festus- The gimmick has worn thin, so it needs to be freshen up. Seperated from his partner Jesse, he is in some trouble. Don't worry, Cryme Time will come to the rescue. Comedy insues.

Finlay- The fighting Irishman is off to Raw. He could use the fresh start, and could be in the upper midcard for a while over there.

Hornswaggle- In the feel good story of the night, son reunites with father after a tumultuous 40 minutes of separation. Wrestling- where "moments" happen (I am looking at you John Cena)

Natalya- I think she is off to Raw to replace Beth Phoenix as the top heel diva. She can wrestle.

MVP- I really think he is going to get a push as a top heel on Raw. He is going to replace Orton and feud with the likes of Triple H and John Cena. I think so. Even though I maintain my boy Kennedy is still the guy who has star potential, MVP also has it. He can wrestle, he can talk, he has heat. That translates to being a main eventer.

Keep your eye on Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy................... Kennedy.

WWE Mock Draft

So I figure we might rip off ESPN and do a mock draft for the WWE upcoming draft. Since WWE is a bit different I won't do in order of picks but just predict which wrestlers are most likely to switch brands followed by why. The easiest way is to start by wrestlers who aren't going to switch brands [All pictures are from www.wwe.com]

Triple HHH- There is no way HHH moves to any brand at all. He is the Champ and since he has complete creative control he isn't going anywhere near the B brand. The man has earned it.



Shawn Michaels- He isn't going anywhere either because he also has complete creative control over his character and since he is injuried I doubt he swtiches brands as well. You don't break up DX.



Edge- The current king of Smackdown is staying where he is because he is absolutely been phenomenal there. He and Vicki have been getting "heat" like no one has seen since the days of the attitude era.



Undertaker- He is coming back to Smackdown to deal with Edge. There is no way they let anything this sleezy stand. There is too much controversity there and the matches have been so well done that they can't let it end there with that match.



La Familia- They are sticking by Edge and won't be affected by this draft at all. The only thing that might change is Chavo and his bodyguard to Smackdown since ECW and Smackdown are now seperating but that is a technically. La Familia will be fine seeing as they are the hottest stable in the business.


Jeff Hardy- The most over wrestling in the company today he carries the show outside the main event and they need him to sustain the first 1 hour and 40 minutes of Raw. Outside him there is no reason to turn into Raw besides the main event.



MVP- The man is ready for a title run and if it is going to happen it will be on Smackdown. There are some things that will never and one of those is MVP getting a clean win over HHH and pinning him to earn and begin what could possibly the greatest title reign in all of WWE. That won't happen [tear streams down the right side of the face] but he can definitely feud with Hardy and also compete in the what will be the revamped Smackdown title picture.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Now it is time for the wrestlers who are going to change brands [again this is all hypothetical].

Umaga- Word in the industry is he has been gone for a long time. He is probably the safest pick to switch over to Smackdown.




Elijah Burke- He has a new gimmick and hasn't been doing anything lately, I think he leaves to go to Raw and help develop a mid-card there.




CM Punk- He is going somewhere, I just got a gut feeling that they won't leave the MITB winner on ECW, that is very unclassy.




Carlito- He has been a complete bitch backstage and apparently he has issues with HHH and his status as champ. It is clear that he isn't happy with WWE and I'm guessing that he leaves Raw and probably goes to get buried over in ECW with Mike Adamle providing commentary, it will be a match made in heaven.


Trevor Murdoch- With Cade and Jericho now teaming up that leaves him the odd man out so I'm guessing that they are going to push Cade as the new official heel like Umaga was [hall of fame worthy jobbing by Umaga though] and that means Murdoch is now gone since he has no role on Raw.


Some Divas- They will probably have one or two Divas switch brand to balance out Raw and ECW since on Raw they got 3 divas Mickie, Glamazon, Maria, and Melina. They might add one or two more since only three of the previously mentioned wrestle or they send some over to Smackdown since it is officially getting its' own Diva's Championship.


Various scrubs- This means the wrestlers who don't win titles and just don't have any impact on the business at all [that means you Palumbo].



John Cena- Yeah I know what a pick. I was listening to Raw and JR dropped some hints such as even if there is a brand change they still face people at Night of Champions. With this new Jericho angle coming in it makes since that Cena is switching over Smackdown [no way in hell he goes to ECW] and he loses to HHH at NOC then Jericho and HHH continue their feud for the WWE championship.


Those are picks so I'm locking them in and we'll see if I predicted correctly. The only thing left is to make a Mock Draft 2.0 and wait until Monday to see the results.

Wolverine #66 Review

Old Man Logan
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Steve McNiven

Wolverine has been the only title to have a good story since Messiah Complex ended. This title is currently hot after the thrilling "Get Mystique" storyline [which also raises more continuity issues on how he manages to hut her down and also do the whole X-Force thing] but now with Millar involved we are about to get a deeper read. The premise is there was a mysterious event in which all the heroes were man handled and now a few super villains rule North America and by the transitive property the world [yeah, I went there]. Logan has stopped fighting the good fight and has a family. He is a farmer who of course isn't doing well and the Hulk Gang is coming for the rent. Long story short a golden oppurtunity comes in the form of a blind? Hawkeye who has to deliver a package all the way to the other side of North America. Millar understands how to write Wolverine [technically Logan] and the way the character is meant to be written. Wolverine is meant to have a mysterious past and it was creative how Millar brought that back by flashing forward after a big event. He added the mystique [no pun, well it was intented] back into Wolverine of a dude who has seen stuff but you don't know what. The issue is very tightly plotted and it never drags, Millar knows where he is going and isn't stalling. I enjoyed the character work that Millar did especially the scene where they were talking about selling the kids toys but Logan would not even consider it. That was really touching. Another nice touch was the Spidermobile which was a nice little Easter egg they threw in there. This was a nice debut issue but there was some things I would nit pick. I think it should have been longer because we all knew that this was coming. It was a nice ride but it reminds me of the first Messiah Complex in which they did nothing new at all thus delievering a less than satisfying issue but unlike Messiah the ride through this issue was much more pleasant.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Take Tro-

Man i really enjoyed this. Mark Millar has followed the incredibly entertaining "Get Mystique" arc with a great set up issue for what is sure to be a fantastic story. I loved the look of Wolverine. My favorite thing in this book is the great character work by Millar on Wolverine. He has set him up as being compassionate and caring, and I am sure later down the road we will see glimpses of the old Wolverine (which we did see in a panel). We know that he is capable of this, but it was great to see Logan. Logan is a farmer struggling to provide for his family, and that just tears him apart. Millar does a good job showing that Logan does care and will do whatever to protect his family. What I didn't particularly like was the "bad guys take over the world" thing. That is predictable and played out, but lets just roll with the punches. McNiven provides some really nice art. Millar and McNiven (who both teamed up on Civil War) will surely give us a good story going forward. Now off to the IGN Comics Podcast!

Art: Ballin
Overall: GET IT

The Brave and the Bold #14 Review

The Ghost Killers of Nanda Parbat
Written by Mark Waid
Art and cover by Scott Kolins

On this blog it is an unwritten rule but we only review good comics and the Brave and the Bold falls into that category. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it is Superman/Batman except with the whole DCU roster to work with. This months team up features Deadman [guess his power] and Green Arrow. The premise is that someone has unleashed an army of "Ghost killers" who possess people and once they leave the possessee they are instantly dead. They are lead by a former human who is now a reformed demon who wants to generically destroy the world with his little army. I enjoyed the opening sequence which Waid starts off with a action scene of Green Arrow fighting some ghost killers and Deadman saves him. Being unfamilar with the characters I cannot say wheter the dialog fit them but I certainly enjoyed it. Waid also has a sense of humor as shown by the scene in which a homeless lady explained to Green Arrow what he did to avoid getting hit by the car. The issue is very well paced, there is no stalling and the story flows very nicely as Waid clearly knows where he is going with the issue. The story is fairly shallow and this certainly isn't the slowburn approach but Waid shows glimpses of that deep story telling talent that makes this issue memorable. He does it in a nice scene where Green Arrow decides to kill a bunch of people who were possessed in order to save the city because they were dead anyway and you could since how uneasy he was in doing it but for the greater good means for the greater good. Waid also sprinkles light social commentary which I'm not a fan of [thank you JMS] but it isn't really hammy or heavy handed and it actually has a place in the story and doesn't serve to push forward any agenda [still looking at you JMS]. The issue ends on an ironical cliff hanger because Green Arrow threw Deadman off a cliff after shooting him with an arrow for an undisclosed reason. Bottom line is this, this issue isn't the deepest read but it has flashes of character development, humor on several occasions, and it is tighty plotted and an enjoyable read.


Art: Hit it and Quit It
Overall: GET IT

Justice League of America #22 Review

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Art: Ed Benes

Ehh. I was hoping for some Final Crisis tie in goodness but no. I honestly haven't read this title for a while so I was wondering what McDuffie was up to. I came in knowing he didn't have what it takes to deliver a thorough story, but he is more of a popcorn guy. Well i read this and i was unimpressed. The story didn't do anything for me because it was so spread out and there was hardly any focus. My favorite scene was with Superman giving Red Arrow some relationship advice. I am slowly turning into a Superman guy, and this scene just showed what a good guy and a good friend he can be. I got a kick out of Superman saying him and Lois got into a fight, and Arrow was like "Did she use Kryptonite or.....". It was a decent laugh. The art isn't good, straight up. I don't recommend this.

Art: Hit it and Quit it
FORGET IT

Take Tro

Let me give my take on the Finals. That Celtics team is so likeable i swear. As an NBA fan who had no particular favoratism to any of these teams, the Celtics just came across as the more worthy, because they play hard defense. Thats it. The Lakers bitch about every call and they play no D. Can't have that. And on top of that, did anyone see in game 5 when Kobe bitched out Gasol for not catching a 150 mph no-look pass? Awful. The emotion from the Celtics permeated through my TV screen and it was one of my favorite championship celebrations of all time. As an avid Yankees fan, I am supposed to hate Boston fans (which i do), but hats off to them for booing David Stern. I don't know why. And Doc Rivers might be the worst in game coach in the game today, but he came through. Sure he won the finals, but do you recall when he started Leon Powe, never played him again, playing Tony Allen at point guard, running isos for Cassell, and running high screens with KG and Pierce 50 times a game. But all in all, good job. I was going to do awards, but I am just gonna do it on the Jam Session.

Jam Session

Howdy, I figure its finally time to dust off the shelf and actually handout the awards that our blog has so prominently displaced on the side for so long. [Note these awards reflect only the opinion of the OAO and do not reflect the views of Sports God or Viacom or any variation of the parent company] [[Double note the fans in the Boston Garden have very nice voices, I enjoyed their rendition of "Na Na Na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye"

The following comics have qualified for the best award that this blog is qualified to handout by the state of Kentucky and the Democratic Republic of the Congo:

Action Comics 866: Geoff Johns continues to be DC's franchise revivers as he takes old concept and makes them cool. Here he kicks off the Brianic arc and from the way he started its looking to be good, this goes without saying but having Superman look like Christopher Reeve helps, a lot.

Booster Gold 10: Another title penned by Geoff Johns, Booster Gold continues to ride the wave and move up through the DC heircharchy. This title is now standing on its last legs since Johns and Katz which makes this a last hurrah kind of effort. Sporting spider-man-esque [not enough hyphens] dialog this title is a fun title featuring great characters as well as a healthy dose of DCU history.

Moon Knight: This title is one of Marvels more underground titles. It features many main characters because the main character has multiple personalities. This title has intense action and deals with the darker side of superheoring. The art style helps convey the gritty feel of this comic. Though unintentional this comic may have won best moment for Moon Knight's creative method of defeating the villain, let's just say Newton would approve.

And the Rated R superstar is.....................................................................................................................

Booster Gold

This was a tightly contested race between Johns and Johns and Johns managed to pull it out. Action Comics will probably win next time when the story starts to pick up but Booster right now was the better issue. The dialog in this title has been awesome and features the breakout character of 2008 Skeets whose heroism and one liners are the stuff of legends. He alone managed to steal the show. Though having a weak ending the journey there was entertaining to let that slip. Johns has a fantastic way of weaving all the plotlines together and here he manges to go back all the way to 52 and weave those plotlines into this title. This was a monster issue and congratulations to it winning the Adam Copeland Award of Excellence.



Now it's time for the equally prestigious Rusty Venture Award. This is a new award meant to recognize the beauty of failure [the worst comic]. This title shows the "Beautiful sublime failure" that can be achieved through perseverance and commitment to anything and everything but excellence. So here are the nominees for the title that is worst than David Stern's mic skills:

Skarr Son of Hulk: Featuring sketchy art that won't allow you to recognzie or make anything out and also less than compelling dialog this title truly excels where others fail to fail. It is too early to condemn the whole series [got to wait two more issues, the countdown is on] but this issue makes a case for the Rusty Venture Award that is hard to ignore.

Titans 3: Judd "You Can't Read Me!!" Winick is back to form as he continues his pointless run on Titans. Sporting some bad dialog and a terrible premise this title is officially qualified to be condemned seeing it is 3 issues in. This title has consistently been down or up there depending on your views and hopefully it will lock up the award this time.

Amazing Spider-Man 562: With this title shipping three times a month it is nominated 3 times a month. This title isn't bad but due to the One More Day storyline Marvel has basically stated that Peter is not allowed to grow as a character and will forever be stuck as a single bachelor who can't get ahead no matter what. Due to that this title is going nowhere [more so than any comic] andthis franchise has fallen from flagship to third string.

And the Rusty Venture Failure is.........................................................................................................

Titans 3

This title excels because it does what the other two nominees cannot do, it fails [or succeeds] to justify why it should exist. There is really no reason for these Titans to come together logically. Skarr had Planet Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man has 561 issues some of which were at one point or another Rated R worthy [its true I swear] but Titans excels on having no logical basis to exist what-so-ever but manages to raise the bar even more failing to live up to any expectations that a poor child might have had. If you want to read something that has the word Titans in it read Teen Titans not this. This title is a class act and it truly shows beautiful sublime failure like no other.

Action #866 Review

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Gary Frank

This issue was great. It started off providing a really dark recap of how Kandor got stolen by Brainiac. This was a good introduction to this villain. The large Brainiac head was absolutely terrifying (I woke up this morning thinking about that head thing). The scene in the Daily Planet had it all. There was good character interaction, and Johns provided some humor (Yes, Clark did maintain eye contact). I am really feeling this upcoming story arc and I think it will provide the man of steel a nice challenge. I find the whole brain in space thing to be scary as hell. At the end we see Brainiac awake from his sleep after the robot detects Krypton blood. Weird. I found Frank's art to be outstanding, and I am really looking forward to this story.

Art: Phenom
Overall: OWN IT

Booster Gold #10 Review

Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art and cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund


With Game 4 being a complete joke I decided to knock out a review. Booster Gold is a C-List superhero looking to break into the upper tier of DC. With 52 and Johns guiding him it appears that he is going to make it. In this arc Booster has just saved Ted but altered the timeline beyond recognition and are now dealing with the after effects. The broken timeline itself is pretty awesome because Infinite Crisis, the Sincestro Corp War, and Superboy Prime all happened causing shit to be fucked up for real. Booster is fighting his dad who is leading a rag tag group of villains who are actually lead by Mr. Mind. This story is a continuation of 52 which I have not read past 23 but one day I will. The story has plenty of comedic moments all coming from Skeets. The dialog is awesome and I'm a fan of the comicbookish art. I didn't like how Ted is seemingly dead again because what the hell was the point then, it seems like a disappointment. The issue ends on a cliff hanger with Booster seemingly phasing out of time as well as Ted dying. Hopefully in the finale Johns and Katz can wrap it all up.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Trinity #2 Review

Writer: Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza
Art: Mark Bagley

I am going to give this title some more time. It is clear that Busiek has a motive and is setting up his story in an economic pace, but I didn't find this particular issue fascinating in any sense. The first issue stood out a bit because I found the interplay between the Trinity to be pretty solid. We didn't get that here. The dreams were slowly coming into reality, and the heroes were trying to deal with it. I love the idea of a backup story to the weekly events, but I am not really into them yet. The end of this issue set up the backup story (which happened before the end of the issue), and the main story had elements of last week's backup story. So I can see the importance of the backup, which is good. It's just not written real well. I like the covers, but the interior isn't anything special.

Art: Hit It and Quit It
Overall: Skim It

Detective Comics #845 Review

Written by Paul Dini
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs

Detective Comics is one of my favorite reads on the market. Certain Gods have called me a Dini-apologist but if you have read Detective Comics you would understand that Dini is a fantastic writer, for the love of god the man made the Batman: The Animated Series and the Superman one as well. How can you hate on something like that? The big appeal of Detective Comics is that this is the only comic is when you see Batman do detective work. This comic certainly has a lighter feel than what Morrison is doing in Batman. This issue focuses on a serial killer who is terrorizing the city. Detective comics is written in a unique way. It has reocurring plot elements but no overarching plot like Morrison is doing. Here Dini introduces Catwoman back into Batman's world. I like the addition of Catwoman because she is a big part of Batman's history and the fact that she has been absent for so long doesn't seem right. You don't go into Gotham and not deal with Batman. I liked the chat room that Bruce uses to track down the serial killer. It's great a humanizing concept that Dini adds to Batman. Being the world's best detective means that you can recognize and put together patterns, not just stroll in the room and instantly now what went down. Dini continues to use the Riddler (who is also a member of the chat room along with a talking monkey which is pretty ballin) which is a great idea. It makes sense in this modern world that the Riddler uses his gimmick to get that money, money, yeah, yeah instead of trying a robbery. It only makes sense that more villains would cash in on their gimmick if they could. It seems with the upcoming Hush storyline that the Riddler is poised to become that big villain he once was before DC made him forget everything and essentially neutered him. I like the art here because it just seems to work for this noir book that Dini is crafting on this title. I enjoy Detective because it is a fun read and an actual mystery book that is what Batman is about. Dini is setting up for his own little blow-out with his upcoming Hush arc. I like the addition of Catwoman and how Dini is not afraid to play with relationships since we all know that Jet and Batman won't work out so bringing back Catwoman is a solid move. This is a great title and definitely worth a look.

Art: PHENOM
Overall: GET IT

Kick-Ass #3 Review

Writer: Mark Millar
Art: John Romita Jr

This is a hell of a comic. Its almost like Mark Millar is writing himself, because the character is a loser kid that likes comic books, and finds himself being a superhero. The dialogue is excellent, yet crass. Even though it is about a kid, it is definetly an adult book. There is a lot of cursing and the occasional boob, yet the story is so damn fun. The book is violent as hell too, especially the last scene. I am enjoying how this character is progressing. In the first issue, he got his ass kicked, in the 2nd one he did the ass kicking, but in this one he really buys into the idea that he is a superhero and carries it into his regular life. That leads him to having false confidence, and the part where the hot girl considers him his gay friend was hilarious. It is just a really fun story, and surprisingly a little twisted, but i definetly recommend it.


Art: Hit it and Quit it
Overall:GET IT

Ultimate Origins #1 Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Jackson Guice

It seems like Bendis has creative control over the Ultimate universe. I don't read too many books from the Ultimate Universe except for Spidey (although i did enjoy the Ultimate Human miniseries), so I didn't know how to approach this book. It was allright i guess. Its kind of cool seeing black Nick Fury. I didn't know he was hit up with the super soldier serum, so that was neat. The art was really nice looking. It had that Captain America realism to it (Guice backs up Epting on Cap). There was a lot of other things in this issue that makes it worth checking out, like the Wolverine stuff. I am just not sure that the Ultimate universe has much use, because its not like the actual Marvel U follows continuity.

Ballin
SKIM IT




Take OAO:
I thought this was an amazing attempt to reboot the ultimate universe. I am a big fan of Ultimate Spider-man because it is the comic that got me into reading comics weekly. It was the first issue I ever bought but that aside, I have read some of the ultimate universe titles such as Ultimates and some Ultimate X-men with a nice mix of Ultimate Human. I have to admit that I am a sucker for big conspiracy theories and this issue did peak my interest. The way the Ultimate Universe works is everything hinges on the super soldier serum. Spider-man got his powers as Norman tried to invent it, Banner tried to do it with the Hulk, and now the revelation that mutants were manufactured is an amazing idea. It is an interesting concept and this could be the thing to reboot the universe. I enjoyed this issue and I think there is some hope for the Ultimate U after this. Hopefully it isn't Loeb that is doing Ultimatum and Bendis. I think Bendis works better especially in this universe. In many ways this is Bendis's universe and I think he is the one that will bring life into this universe. This issue also sports some pretty art. Solid debut and definitely worth a look.

Overall: GET IT