The Unoffcial Bat-Cave of Comics

Superman

2011-04-19T01:11:00.012-04:00

Lately I've been thinking about my problem with Superman. I was a kid who loved the Superman and Batman animated series, they were my pipeline into comics. My enjoyment of Batman translated well but it didn't work out with Superman. I've always wondered about why that happened. I loved the Superman cartoon but I couldn't stand the comic book counterpart. I struggled to find any modern day Superman story I can enjoy. It was difficult for me to reconcile how much I loved the cartoon with how much I was disinterested in the comic. Why was there a disconnect between the two? I started watching clips on Youtube of the animated series to try to see whether it was childhood nostalgia that was making the show great or whether the show had a quality about it that made that Superman more special and distinct. As it turns out there was something distinct about the show, Superman was kind of a jerk.

The question then became what was significant about that. The answer is simple his attitude conveyed a personality. This was a Superman who because of his powers was a little arrogant and stubborn (absolute power does that). He reacted to events! He wasn’t written as an idea but rather as a person with character traits. Here is where I think the divide occurs between comics and the animation, the comic Superman is written as an idea instead of a character. That is the cause of the distinction. He is written as an idea of what the writer wants to express. The problem there is this causes him to lose all semblance of a personality. Writers write him to express ideas about humanity at the cost of him having any humanity. The “character” has gone through a change and become an idea which is why it’s more interesting to talk about the concept of Superman instead of reading about his adventures.

This became most apparent when I heard about the JMS Superman storyline (haven’t read it but seen bits and pieces of it). To summarize it, Superman walks around the US because he feels he lost touch with the people. That is a good idea because it is feasible that over the course of several epic adventures that will happen. Yet based on what I’ve seen, the Superman is written naïve and seemed completely unaware of the problems of the world. This goes back to my argument that he is written as an idea. (This is not a criticism of JMS other writers are just as guilty of this. I just had the thought when I heard about his story.) The character of Superman grew up in this world, he was raised on Earth and saw the best and worst of it thus he shouldn’t be this naïve. He couldn’t be. Secondly, he is a reporter. I would imagine over the course of his job he sees all sorts of problems in the world and reports on them. He is aware of the world. This is symptomatic of the larger issue which is writers seem more interested in expressing Superman as the idea of goodness and having him overcoming the evils he encounters as a way to say that we should strive towards those positive ideals to stop and overcome the more negative attributes within our nature. That is a beautiful sentiment but that doesn’t make for ideal storytelling though because you have a character that becomes no dimensional.

Superman becomes the physical form of an idea and it isn’t compelling to read. I need to stress this though, this doesn’t apply to all superheroes but specifically to Superman. Since he has ultimate power there is nothing that can challenge him, it becomes more difficult to create any doubt about the outcome. He is smarter, stronger, and faster than you leaving all villains at a disadvantage against him. The traditional situation of a small force of good standing up to vast force of evil is flipped and now it’s a small speck of evil versus an overwhelming force for good. Ultimately this results in a protagonist that is bland but interestingly enough it adds depth and layers to the antagonist. You get a more emotional investment in the antagonist and why they are fighting against the noble idea than you do caring about the quality of the original good idea. That’s why a villain like Lex Luthor has become more fascinating than Superman. You can find many articles talking about the emotional depth of his character (an excellent one is located on mightygodking) and I contend that is a function of Superman being more an idea than a character. It changes the focus of the story from why is Superman doing this to why would someone be trying to fight this idea.

I will always prefer the animated Superman over the comic Superman. In the animated DCU, he is a man who always has to hold back and be careful. He sees in himself a capacity to become a tyrant but balances that out his desire to do good, actual internal conflict. He is some what stubborn and hard headed, you know an actual character. In the animated universe he is a character but in the comics he’s just an idea.

Soon.....

2009-02-02T20:08:00.003-05:00

Black Glove Theory

2008-11-25T21:15:00.004-05:00

I haven't read any spoilers or anything for future Batman issues and am making this pick based on the evidence that Morrison has presented us thus far. My pick for the black glove is Alfred hands down. I seriously suspected Tim Drake for all the obvious clues such as the red and black theme that matches his costume plus the fact he had some really ominous dialog but several things occurred to me to make me choose Alfred. The Black Glove has to have unlimited access to all of Bruce's working and have been watching him for a while. The man with the most access to Bruce is Alfred. Through everything that has ever happened, Alfred has always been there and Bruce has always confided in him thus leading to him having the greatest amount of information on Bruce. Another thing that eliminates a majority of suspects is the age factor, we are lead to believe that the Black Glove has been operating for a majority of time so that would eliminate Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, and anyone else younger than Bruce. There are little pieces of dialog that compel me towards this conclusion as well. There was a scene during the "Space Medicine" issue where Bruce was reflecting and he mentioned the fact that Alfred always compelled him to write everything down. Alfred is aware of everything Bruce does to prepare for whatever and he could stay one step ahead of him since he knows what Bruce has and hadn't prepared for. Alfred was also somewhat responsible for introducing Bruce to Jezebel indirectly. Alfred also fits the several of the descriptions that Grant Morrison has stated:

"Ultimate diabolical b_st_rd who decides to destroy Batman"

"What's the biggest most twisted bad guy we could use"

"When we begin to suspect the identity of the villain, I think it's [...] possibly the most shocking Batman revelation in 70 years."

"And then above that you have the identity of the Black Glove, who is a person."

"the ultimate diabolical mastermind story about a villain who has been plotting Batman's destruction for so long and with such precision that no-one even suspects his existence - except Batman"

"It's the biggest, most twisted bad guy we could use against Batman"

"it's so up front and obvious. Every issue tells you who you're dealing with it, and it's a character that everyone on the planet knows."

"I keep thinking it’s so upfront, so obvious, that readers will inevitably demand an impromptu hanging when the reveal is revealed"

"to me the answer is so obvious that hiding it has been the real challenge"

Alfred is a character that everyone on the planet knows and he has been upfront and obvious. Mention the fact that he seemed to disregard Bruce mentally breaking down when Tim started asking about him about Batman going crazy. Alfred is my pick for Black Glove and tomorrow we get the conclusion for the R.I.P. storyline.

Justice League of America #26 Review

2008-11-02T22:15:00.003-05:00

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Art: Ed Benes

This is pretty much a filler arc, so who cares? Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are barely featured, and recently pushed stars like Tornado aren't even there. It is easy to blow past this arc, but I felt it did a strong job in looking into Vixen's character. For casual readers, she just seems like another one of those JLAers, and it takes certain arcs and issues to establish and build some of the minor characters in these big team books. I totally appreciate how McDuffie does this in this short arc. He presents a low-level character named Vixen with alternate-reality characters, and uses her to work through. It is a classic, but not often used, storyline of a minor character fighting her way to save the major characters. McDuffie gives us a compelling character study. Vixen has to confront her own fears and insecurities to save the day. Anasi is a great villain who breaks the proverbial 4th wall. He comments on storytelling, and captures all of the heroes and distorts what is real and fake. It is Vixen's job to wade through this, and after its all said and done, you actually care about the character. It is a pretty basic premise and storytelling device, but McDuffie does it beautifully. He has a great villain in Anasi, who is a no-name, but is presented very strongly. He has the minor character go over in a way where she discovers new layers within herself. I thought the alternate batman was pretty awesome as well. A gunslinger. That is juts awesome. The art wasn't great

ART: Etch and Sketch
OVERALL: Get it

Rage of the Red Lanterns Review

2008-11-02T21:07:00.002-05:00

Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Shane Davis and Sandra Hope

The problem I have with Rage of the Red Lanterns is that is a remake of the Sinestro Corp War one-shot with Red Lanterns instead of yellow ones. I think another big problem is the fact that there seems to be no reason for the Red Lanterns to form. Johns teased us with the forming of the yellow lanterns as he would make yellow rings appear and you would see it building so when you saw the full numbers it was believable to the reader but here I believe you have seen one example of recruiting in the form of the former Green Lantern. I would hold the fact that there is no explanation for the Red Lanterns’ power source but I think that will be addressed later so I’m willing to let that go. Scar the Guardians continues to provide plenty of intrigue as she pushes her agenda through and you notice in the art how her eyes switch allegiances between the various established corps. I thought it was a nice little touch for the Red Lanterns to be as brutal as they are. Since they deal with anger there can’t be any finesses there and the choice of them not being able to make fantastic constructs but instead they just spit fire. The flip side of that is that they are unable to have complex stories with them are the Superboy-Prime corps in the sense that they are one-sided. Green Lanterns often have a break since “will power” is there emotion that you allow yourself to explore the various other motivating factors of a Green Lantern but with a Red Lantern, they’re just mad. The inconsistent art along with what seems to be a trend in epic war story telling makes me weary of the direction Green Lantern is heading but Geoff Johns has some real bright spots which is the complex villain he has Sinestro along with some great character moments from Hal Jordan. The Blue Lanterns look interesting but I think making so many corps may be a bad idea as there could be a limiting factor in what you can do. This was a dependable read and is worth a look even though it suffers from inconsistent art.

Art: HIT AND QUIT IT

OVERALL:GET IT

An Open Letter

2008-11-02T01:06:00.001-04:00

Please Fox, don't do this

This has been an open letter (reviews tomorrow....ish)

Justice Society of America #19 Review

2008-10-19T22:26:00.003-04:00

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Dale Eaglesham

Another Geoff Johns book that deals with a team with a lot of characters. Unlike the Legion, I appreciate a lot of the Justice Society members, because I can actually tell who they are. I really like this Gog arc, and it has brought me back to this title after some crap 5 or 6 months ago. Another thing I like about this title is the long story arcs. Johns does not need to cram anything in because he takes his sweet time with the stories, and lets the plots naturally develop while he focuses on characters. That is my type of comic book. This storyline does wonders for the characters. How Gog affected each of the characters is evident throughout. What is better is the uncertainty and skepticism that Gog creates as he creates good. The way Gog gives and gives to the people and the heroes is very one-dimensional, and raises questions upon the reader. Why would anyone this powerful do this? The brilliant thing is Johns recognizes the questions, and he has some of the heroes question the situation within the comic. This provides great natural tension in the comic book, in a way that wasn't forced. Like I said, Johns let the story progress naturally, and the characters were defined enough to have the doubts. This splits the Justice Society down the middle basically, and should provide for some good stuff as we move forward. I really like all the stuff with Black Adam, as I love the character and how it was written in the mini-series, and Johns is doing a great job with it. It will be interesting to see where that subplot goes. I can't say I am terribly impressed with Power Girl, but I will wait and see how that goes. The art was just fantastic, and Alex Ross does a great job with covers. As long as Eaglesham can do the interior, and Ross can just focus on covers, the team is good. I recommend this book in trade form.

ART: PHENOM
OVERALL: GET IT

Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #3 Review

2008-10-19T21:58:00.003-04:00

"Rouges Revenge: Book Three"
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Scott Kolins

Out of all the miniseries so far this one has been the best. The greatest thing about this whole series is the character work that Johns has performed. Johns has a great understanding of the Flash and the villains he fights and he puts it all on display. The greatest thing he does is that he makes this title accessible to new readers but if you have read his previous run in Flash way back when it adds another dimension of understanding that most new readers do not get. I thought it was an interesting take on the character of Zoom. I always thought he was just the generic evil version of the hero but Johns did something interesting but instead saying that his purpose is to make the Flash better. It is something that doesn’t happen too often in comics and took me by surprise. You also have the emergence of Piper who after the mess that was Countdown was kind of written off or something. They make reference about his ability to do the Anti-Life Equation but this issue does not expand on that role or if he has any ties to Darkseid. As a matter of fact he just kind of shows up which is fine and proceeds to beat down both Zoom and the Rouges. The real topper is Libra showing up. We really don’t know much about Libra other than he is the high priest of Darkseid’s religion and since Final Crisis is taking an unbelievable amount of time to ship, I speculate that this is where we will see a majority of Libra since he won’t appear on the big title. The events that play out after he arrives on the scene are a bit confusing. We get a great moment with Weather Wizard as he sits there and weights his option about his kid. It was a really great character moment and thankfully he didn’t have to make the call, Reverse Zoom did. I am confused on what he did to the baby which could be really heroic sending it away or really dirty, real dirty. The artist really does wonders especially in that scene when he draws Weather Wizards’ eye. It communicates a lot. The speedsters always had a special place in DCU and Johns does somewhat examine that when Libra speaks about the powers the speedsters have to go across the multiverse and such in not so many words. Reverse Zoom manages to beat up on Libra which was really surprising to see and then it is followed up by the big showdown between the Rouges and Reverse Zoom and boy was it climatic. If Flash Rebirth does deal with half of the stuff that is set up here I think it could be as equally amazing. I hope DC has a talented enough writer to continue working with the Rouges and it would be a disservice to ignore all the character work that Johns has done with these villains. This mini is a testament to show what can happen when a writer gets to write characters that he loves. Enough about the plot points though, the dialog is great, the characters are amazing, the plot is awesome, and the art especially the inking is really nice to look out. Despite what some say about Action Comics being Johns best work I would have to disagree and say that this Johns at his best right here.

Art: PHENOM
Overall: OWN IT

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2 Review

2008-10-19T15:05:00.004-04:00

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: George Perez

This was kind of a weird issue with a lot going on. Johns, who I praise continually for being the most accessible comic book writer right now, is tackling some high concept and convoluted stuff. The Legion of Superheroes has its fan (I am not one), and involves tons and tons of characters. Johns is bringing in 3 different Legions, as well as a Legion of Super Villains. We start the issue in a different world, where the Legion of Villains has been taking over. Led by Superman Prime, they have pretty much taken out every good guy out there, and all of the Green Lanterns except for one. This GL is really valiant, and sacrifices himself to save the other heroes. I found the whole Green Lantern subplot to be the most interesting in the book. Whatever Johns does with GL, I am ok with. The reveal at the end that Sodam Yat is really the last GL left, and he has all the rings is really interesting. I can't say I am too impressed with the Legion. I like how Rokks has taken a leadership role in this version, but I am not buying into the other characters, partly because there are just too many to keep track of. I don't trust Brainiac though. He gives me a bad vibe. Unlike many pundits, I do like Superman Prime. Johns does a good job with the character, and I am glad he is in this story. He plays an unlikable heel, and that makes me want to root for Superman and the Legion more to kick Prime's ass. Solid issue. George Perez is a good artist.

ART: Ballin
OVERALL: GET IT
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I haven't been a fan of this mini series as much as Rouge's Revenge. While that being said, I haven't been as high on Action Comics as the majority of the internet has been. Johns is the most technically sound writer in all of comics and i think that counts against him sometimes specifically in this issue where it feels that "paint by numbers". Citing Rokk over at the comicbook revolution (conveniently located on our blog roll) Johns sometimes has a habit of slaughtering characters for the sake of drama thus I too am skeptical about the role the big roster plays in this. Another thing that caught me off guard was one of the Brianic-5 who treated his older counterpart really bad because he has an adult. I know that was the premise at first of the current Legion title but they have kind of moved away from that and by Johns putting that in there it was clearly some manufactured tension because you know it won't lead anywhere so why even mention it. The big thing that I feel has to analyzed is the use of Superman Prime. He is definitely a tragic character without a doubt but his time has come. As a character it doesn't seem that you can do anymore stories with him rather than a big villain wants to do something and attempts to use Superman Prime as lackey before things go arwy and everyone starts all out brawling. I do agree the Green Lantern storyline is facinating as I've never had an understanding of what happened in the future to the Green Lantern Corps. It is a part of the DCU that has never flushed out (while on the subject where do the Guardians stand in the hierachy of DCU, are they above New Gods or below them?). It is worth a look at but Rouges Revenge is the better of the Johns mini.

Overall: SKIM IT

Uncanny X-Men #503 Review

2008-10-17T20:46:00.006-04:00

Written by Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker
Art by Greg Land

The greatest thing I can say about this issue is that Cannonball is from Kentucky. I greatly enjoyed that since this blog is based out of Kentucky. That aside this issue has mixed feelings for me. Marvel attempted to turn the X-men into an action adventure team outside the mutant world and to do that they limited the number of mutants. Suffice it to say the results have been mixed. I think the thing I notice about this issue is not about the content but how it was written. The example I use is the dialog by Scott on the final page. He says his dead ex-wife (the clone of Jean Grey) is alive and for some reason that dialog was jarring to me. It seemed straight up from the 1960's or 1970's Spider-man comics. Summing up this issue is simple. The X-men are chasing Empath on a motorcycle while he is making people dream about the money, cars, and girls (TI reference) but making them think bad things as the X-men try capture him. Besides the fact the X-men seem inept and are unable to capture him even though Storm can't even make a tornado and opts to try to strike him down with lightning but Empath is bobbing and weaving lightning. Pixie ironically enough manages to man up and take down Empath while Scott is getting laid. I thought it was nice that some mutants are deciding that now since there aren't that many of them there isn't as much discrimination to deal with. Everything after that is extremely off putting, for example there is the subtle use of certain choice words by Dazzler while performing. Trying to not harp on Storm but really, I don't understand why she can't do anything and has to stand far away from Empath, she controls the weather, freaking smite him with thunder while he's standing there yelling exposition. Pixie then comes and takes care of Empath which when you think about it is quite interesting is because she is facing a villain whose power is to make people face their inner demons and she is facing her own demons while facing him (ahem, lame). The X-men don't seem to fit the style that Matt Fraction seems to write them in but hey what can you do. The X-men have always a somewhat politicized origin and there whole thing was all about tolerance and acceptance. When Marvel decided to reduce the mutant population you would think that would lead to more compelling stories about survival and such and they did that for a brief period of time before this kind of happened. The art is inconsistent and quite frankly it makes Scott look like a douche with some very interesting facial expressions. I do believe in Brubaker to able to turn this thing around because when he was alone on Uncanny X-men he was always so close to breaking through and was developing some great characters. This title has some limited upside but quite frankly the X-men seem to be in for a rough ride.

Art: ETCH a SKETCH
Overall: FORGET IT

The Walking Dead #53 Review

2008-10-10T20:41:00.003-04:00

Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard & Cliff Rathburn

It is nice to know that Kirkman's one man campaign to save the industry hasn't stopped his books from being released on time. This is a big day here at the cave since this is the first Walking Dead review. It was a mad dash to catch up through trades but it worth it. The story so far is after the incident at the prison, Carl and his dad Rick have been on the road and they get some well deserved good news. They run into Glenn and Maggie and wind up back at Hershel's farm. The big shocking moment is later in the issue when they run into some strangers when one of them reveals that he knows what caused everything. The thing about this series is that the reader is well aware this series has to be finite and that cryptic statement basically means that it is a countdown to the end. Personally I'm a big fan of things that are aware they have a life span and instead of trying to reach for more story to tell they tell their story and move on (I'm looking at you Prison Break, I mean they aren't even in Prison anymore which is just asinine). That statement is basically Kirman's way of putting the reader on notice that the next arc will probably be the last. It is revealed that the city most likely to have survived a situation like this is New Orleans, just kidding it's actually D.C. (but wouldn't it be ironic if it was New Orleans, some socially aware satire there) and I assume we will begin the march to Washington. The dialog is extremely well done as Kirkman constantly adjust it to reflect the emotional damage that all these characters have suffered. The character's action also fit very well as they ask what you would expect them to ask and also act how one would expect them to act after what went down in the prison. The art style continues to capture the feeling. A great example is in the last page where it is nearly all black to capture the gravity of the statement the scientist made. Being in black in white works really well as it adds a nice touch as it successfully captures the mood through the use of shading which if I was a colorist would drive me crazy. That isn't to say that the artist doesn't do a great job, he really shines in the way he draws facial expressions (but then again he draws sad faces all the time since issue one that it can't be that hard anymore). Anyway though, this issue is good as it tones down all the action since the huge prison fight and manages to excite me about what is to come next. The criticism I have though is that this series doesn't read as well as it does in trade. I imagine Image comics makes a whole lot more money through trades than individual issues so they write all their comics with trade form in mind which really discourages the reading of individual issues so the issue doesn't get all that can in. The one example I can readily sight is when a zombie interrupts the meeting with the new survivors that was somewhat unnecessary as it didn't do anything but add some action for the sake of action in what was nice character driven issue.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Detective Comics #849 Review

2008-10-09T19:07:00.005-04:00

"Scars"
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs

Detective Comics quietly rolls on in the wake of Grant Morrison's story. The story continues to flush out Hush's character and add depth to Thomas Elliot that a majority of readers felt they were missing when Loeb did Hush. I personality never had a problem with Thomas Elliot in Hush because it was obvious that he was the gunman and the real mystery was in the Riddler. Dini manages to write every Hush story into continuity by revealing what happened in the end of Gotham Knights with the pace maker in Hush's heart. I guess the strongest thing about this whole story is how seamlessly Dini manages to provide motivation for Thomas's anger while tying up all the loose ends in Gotham Knight and adding a nice bow on top by adding characters throughout his run into the story to make all his previous work apply to this story. I enjoyed the stylized art provided by Nguyen as he adds a gritty feeling to the story by drawing everything with stains and a rusty aesthetic. The biggest complaint that the average reader may have is the appearance of the Joker in this issue. He isn't full blown clown at midnight and he shows no signs of the bullet wound or scars on his face. Whether or not that is part of an art style or just part of the story it takes the reader out of it by saying the Joker should be different. The confrontation between Hush and Batman was really engrossing. It started off with a bang with Batman disguised in scrubs jumping Hush in the hallway but it never developed into an action sequence. Hush and Batman begin to talk about the relationship between Batman and Catwoman and as a result they take a walk to where the heart is stored. It was during this sequence that you could see some of the guilt Bruce felt for nearly letting the Joker kill him as he followed Hush blindly into the room where Catwoman's heart is stored. While the idea of stealing a heart is a bit convoluted, it does get worse because Hush used the boy from the previous by placing him with a poison that when combined with the room where the heart is stored resulted in Batman being immobilized. He claims that Bruce got the poison on him when he hugged the boy to calm him down but if that's the case then Hush should be in the same situation since Batman jumped him in the hallway as we know jumping on a person to pound them is almost the same amount of physical contact as a hug (watch an MMA fight or boxing, at one point they hug it out). After that little plot hole occurs we get the exposition where Hush reveals his plan to replace Batman and has already taken his face. The character work that Dini does is impressive because you can understand Hush and his motivations which are quite captivating. On one side we have the kid that wants his parents and looks for that shelter and on the other we have the kid that wants his independence but is too financially dependent on their parent to ever get true freedom. I can understand the argument of Hush also being another villainous Batman. I do enjoy how this story ties into the theme that Morrison established of replacement Batmen as he ties in his run not through R.I.P. directly but thematically. I would some faults are the plot holes I alluded to earlier such as the poison that Batman from the kid doesn't rub off on Hush even though they tangled for quite a bit as well as the appearance of the Joker. Dini still manages to craft a captivating tale that I enjoy. It also features a nice introduction of Batman laying some sweet street justice on Scarecrow which is worth it (street justice always is).

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Justice League of America #25 Review

2008-10-05T00:26:00.002-04:00

"The Best Lack All Conviction"
Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Art by Ed Benes

Justice League has been in a state of flux for a while now and 25 is a new launching point. They say it is a double issue but the first half is about basically finishing everything that Meltzer has previously done and the second half is where the true meat of the issue begins. The first thing that struck me when I read this was how the League treated Animal Man. I found It a bit weird that they consider him a quack especially what they have been through. It never makes sense in comics when superheroes are skeptic of one another experiences since they routinely die and deal with mind altering events. It was nice to give a nod to the work Morrison has done in Animal Man because he is the only character that is aware of his medium yet no one believes him about it. The second half was when McDuffie finally gets to tell a story that will result in the introduction of several superheroes DC has acquired which include Static Shock (yay). The art is great as usual but it isn't all Benes as the solicits on DC.com indicate but due to sheer laziness that would outstand most people I won't reflect that in the credits but will rather list them here (it's all about principles): Benes, Mahnke, Robertson, Davis, Churchill, and Reis. They combine to make a nice looking comic but there are scenes where you can clearly see that it is different artist. You can't really experience it though late in the issue. There is a point in this issue where I suffered from dialog fatigue. There was so much written and coming off all the previously written amount of text I went into that cruise control where it doesn't stick and you will end up going through the motions. The main villain is the Trickster God and he is responsible forgiving Buddy his powers which is basically recons his whole origin of being experimented on. I really don't like the character of Firestorm and I don't think he belongs in the Justice League. In all honestly he is more Brave and Bold than League material. I would rather they bring back Justice League International and put him on there rather than have him on this title. I don't like the fit and it seems like a matter of simple matter of respect, where does he get the rights to call someone else crazy, he hasn't don't anything to warrant that. He is just disrespectful. I did manage to reread the issue and get through the text and this story has some great upside. The new Justice League that Vixen will most likely recruit looks real interesting. I liked the little back-story that the Trickster God gave them was a very interesting plot device. The god of stories was creating these stories that will become characters. I am guessing that they were going for some meta-textual commentary using this character and how the success of the stories they tell about these characters basically beating the creator basically guarantees the creators victory. I said it very poorly but there is a message there along those lines. The story is good and it is about time that we get to finally enjoy this title since it has been a while since the Injustice League arc in which McDuffie got to tell a story (that arc is very enjoyable)and outside the point where the art switches it is consistently good.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Batman #680 Review

2008-10-04T21:03:00.004-04:00

"The Thin White Duke of Death"
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea

To quote Sports God, the first thing you can say about this comic is that it is "masterfully drawn" which is a very accurate description of what Tony Daniels has done here. That isn't to say that Daniels manages to steal the spotlight from Morrison's story. The story continues to be just as equally masterfully done. At this point anything can happen and you as you read you know that this is one of those stories that could launch a new era of how things are written. As in the Dark Knight, the Joker again steals the show by being retooled by Grant Morrison. We were being teased about this Joker for a long time and the wait was worth it. It was in the Clown at Midnight when Batman describes the latest Joker as a walking holocaust which actually might be underplaying what this Joker is. This Joker will probably only appear in Batman because no other writer could probably do anything with this Joker. He seems too wild to be used by any other writer. You also have to appreciate how much of a loose cannon this Joker is. He is chaos personified which is a scary thought. The explanation of how retarded it was for Batman to look for rhythms or any meaning in what the Joker does. There is no deeper meaning there and he clearly shows it by taking apart half of the Club of Villains (R.I.P. Evil Rey Mysterio in a suit, you will be missed but not forgotten). We also get a "shocking" revelation that Jet is somehow involved with the Black Glove or could be (I still think the big reveal is coming) which makes sense since she pretty much has been there for at the start of a lot events such as the museum when Talia attacked, parachuting when the third Batman attacked, and the restaurant when the 10 eyed assassin attacked. As for Batman, he has some moments in this issue. We learn that Bat-mite is indeed a device invented by Batman to help keep him honest while he is in his Zur-en-arrh form (side note how balling it would it be if Bat-mite had a similar costume). Another big development is now there is no way that Gordon doesn't know that Batman is Bruce Wayne. It is a bit overlooked as people are more concerned with Joker finding out but he doesn't care, I'm curious to see if Gordon knowing who Batman is will change anything. The biggest thing we can take away from this issue is the foreshadowing of Robin. Something is going to happen involving a Robin and Tim Drake is still out there. We also have Nightwing waiting in the wings as well as Damien, Talia, and Gordon getting ready to make a move. All of this is offset by the fact we still don't know who Black Glove, Bruce Wayne may be dead, and there is still a third Batman that somehow will factor into this (mark it down bitches). It seems like such a shame to wait sooo long for the next issue but there is so much to look forward to that it seems unbearable. This issue wasn't even the climax! It was very well written, "Masterfully drawn" and thus deserves our highest marks.

Art: PHENOMENAL
Bottom Line: OWN IT

Captain America #42 Review

2008-09-26T01:40:00.004-04:00

"The Man Who Bough America"
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Steve Epting and Luke Ross

When I heard that this would be the finale to Ed Brubaker's tale involving the Red Skull and such I was a bit skeptical. There is a lot to wrap up and 42 seemed like it was too soon to tie up all the loose ends. In all honestly there wasn't a lot resolved in this issue and for the most part the story is still ongoing. This issue does have the overall series along but has reset some pieces. The Red Skull is now trapped in a robot body while the Grand Director is out on the loose. Brubaker's strength as a writer is the ability to craft this ongoing tales but also sometimes you want things to end so you can truly start in a new direction. I liked the fact that Lukin was killed but I worry that part of him might be alive in Sharon since the machine worked a bit but I don't Brubaker would do a cop out like that. The panel of Grand Director taking out Dr. Zola was amazing to look out. Epting and Ross draw a beautiful book. I was a fan of Ross on Green Lantern Corps and him Epting combine their skill so well. One of the greatest strengths of this issue is that it really puts over Bucky as Captain America. Brubaker didn't half ass and he took his time to make sure Bucky grew into his new role rather than just force the suit on him and force him to run with it. By taking his time to develope the character Brubaker has really sold Bucky as Captain America. The issue did a great job of wrapping Bucky's transitional period from Winter Soldier to Cap and there is a sense a closure that comes across during the book. I was disappointed to see Lukin go because I would have liked him to be Buckys other big enemy since they probably have a closer connection than Bucky and the Skull. The way I see it, the Skull and Steve Rodgers are the ones who are destined to go out at it forever, not him and Bucky. This was a great a issue but anyone expecting a giant finale where everything comes together will be disappointed. Fatus and the Skull are still roaming somewhere and I would consider this a reset but you do get to see Bucky fully grow into his new role and that is enjoyable in itself. If you are new to Captain America, only buy the omnibuses because trades don't tell the whole story but jump on if you can.

Art: PHENOM
Overall: GET IT

Superman/Batman #52 Review

2008-09-25T20:21:00.003-04:00

Lil Leaugers Part 2

Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Art by Rafael Albuquerque

The big twist when you read this comic is how dark it gets. It started off as simply enough but there is a transition which is handled well but it seems to come out of no where. I really did enjoy the first part but it just seemed like there was no need to make the story that dark. You start off smiling reading this enjoying all the little moments then you start to see where this is going and it just really ruins the mood that the first issue created. I enjoyed the shout out to Tiny Titans. It was a funny moment seeing the Lil Leaugers watch Tiny Titans and understand how the other heroes personify them. the heroes see them the same way they see Tiny Titans. Another little moment was about how the soapy water stings your eyes when Lil Batman was talking about the Joker acid. After that the scene where Lil Blue died was the moment where the comic got all dark. I don't think that was a good move due to the fact that a big appeal of this comic happened to be the nice wholesome feel to it but that goes out the window. Due to the dark turn of the comic I am very scared of what would happen if Lil Joker and Joker did get together. I imagine if they do pick this up it will be after Batman RIP so you got holocaust big Joker and Lil Joker out basically destroying everything. That sort of does interest me but I don't think it could be pulled off by Green and Johnson so it wouldn't work. This is a disappointing ending to what could have been a very fun if it didn't get all serious in the end. It does continue a majority of the mood found in the previous issue and the transition isn't isnt extremely jarring so it manages to work.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

All Star Superman #12 Review

2008-09-18T20:09:00.003-04:00

Episode 12
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant

Grant Morrison has often said that nobody wants to read about a weak Superman. Superman is meant to be strong and as such he always be written as a strong man instead of as a weak individual and he really follows through in All Star Superman. It is very beautifully written. When you read some comics you can feel the structure and how robotic it is but this one flows very nicely. The art is also a compliment to the writing. One of my favorite scenes in the book was when Luthor started crying after understanding how Superman sees things. Being the ultimate human, Luthor never bothered to look into how others see things or even considered the thought of it. Superman paying it forward to Luthor was also sweet street justice by repaying the whole turning him into radiation by forcing his metabolism to speed up with shortened his life. Like I said, street justice. It seems a bit dense that they still can't figure out Clark is Superman or if they did I must have missed it but the supporting cast did galavanize around him which is nice because it isn't that often the supporting cast of Superman gets involved. The strongest part of the book is definitely the ending. Superman gets his power from the sun and ends up using that power to save the sun. Everything came full circle that the sun which poisoned him gets poisoned and he has to save it. You also get the beautiful ending of Superman actually managing to inspire the people to become better. They are working on a project to create a better person which is what Superman is all about. The ideal that you can be, will be, and should be better. I enjoy this title more than Johns' Action Comics because this story has a purpose and a goal, by making it a limited series you are allowed to do stuff that you wouldn't see in the mainstream continuation series and I enjoyed watching Morrison flex that freedom. The abscense of other superheroes made Lex's hatred make more sense in the sense that he becomes more compelling since he isn't surrounded in a world with a bunch of metahumans where it doesn't make sense to be xenophobic but rather stands for the all the people who are scared to let one person with power like Superman have all that power. While I'm not sure it is the Superman defining story of our era, it sure is a damn good one.

ART: PHENOM
Overall: OWN IT

Invincible Iron Man #5 Review

2008-09-07T16:05:00.002-04:00

Writer: Matt Fraction
Art: Salvador Larroca

I totally trust Matt Fraction with this book. In the first 5 issues, I feel like we have received a well-thought out story that seems like a big deal. I was worried that Iron Man, as a franchise, would suffer in the long term after the Knaufs left the book. While these 2 titles are very different, Fraction's book does seem like a big deal, and I am looking forward to what the man has in store for us. Fraction's Stark is all over the place. It feels like he totally has a grasp on what is happening around him, and he comes off as a James Bond like character in this book. It is totally different from the complex and cool Tony in the DOS title. For better or worse, its something to work with. What is really nice about this book is a villain who is smart and has logical character motivation to go after Tony. Stane is a jealous man that wants to be Tony, but he feels like there can't be 2 Tony's, so he has to get rid of the original. What we get is a nice rendition of a copycat character, and the fight with Tony at the end legitimized him as a threat. He did take out a lot of people, but not Tony. A lot of villains can do that, but they eventually falter against he babyface superhero who romps them in the end in search of revenge. Not this time. Fraction puts Stane over, and the reader is left to wonder the fate of Tony going into issue 6. I think this is a nice opening arc for Fraction, and I look for this title to be near the Captain America level in a year or so. I am not a huge fan of the realistic art style, but I guess it is ok for this book.

ART: BALLIN
OVERALL: GET IT

Green Lantern #34 Review

2008-09-06T13:51:00.002-04:00

"Secret Origin"
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert

Geoff Johns has been slowly building up towards the next great Green Lantern war story and I stress slowly. I have a bit of Secret Origin fatigue and I just want to start Rage of the Red Lanterns already ironically enough at the point where Secret Origin starts to pick up. That aside, this issue reads very well. You can see Johns introducing elements such as Sinestro not believing that Hal affected yellow. You also get William Hand getting the device that may or may not turn him into Black Hand. Johns is such a technically sound writer that continues to put out good issue after good issue. I thought the pocket dimension was a bit of a cop out to how they would win the fight. If they can do that then why didn't they do it during the war? Ivan Reis continues to put out some great art and makes Green Lantern on of the most visually pleasing comics on the market. This is a great comic and Johns just spoils the reader because you know it only gets better so it makes hard to stay in the present day.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Avengers Review

2008-08-30T18:47:00.007-04:00

The strength of Secret Invasion has been in it's tie-ins and those have been mostly miss for me. I like having all the fill ins which is kind of cool but lately they have been focusing on events and characters that I don't care about. I figure that I'd review both of them since they are tie-ins and it would be a waste of time to treat them separately.

New Avengers #44: Between the two of them this was the better of the tie ins. I really liked this one since it does explain a hell of a lot more than any of the previous tie ins. It also answers the fundamental question of how the Skrulls managed to stay hidden and undetectable. Outside the last pages that explained this I really don't think this issue is worth a look. The worst part about the tie ins is the lack of plot advancement in Secret Invasion. Another thing that the tie ins fail to accomplish to is to get you to understand the Skrulls point of view. Going off all the interviews and the information that Marvel has put out this event should be a bit more complex than they made it. The experiment was really cool and I liked how they ran simulations to try to use Reed Richards own intelligence to create a great war plan but that puts a lot of plotholes about the extent of the Skrull intelligence. If they can cure Earth of all its problem then why in the blue hell do they need Richards to do their fucking job? This tie-in would have benefited if it had came out a bit earlier. The art is solid and at times really shines during the interrogation scene.

Art: BALLIN
OVERALL: SKIM IT

Mighty Avengers #17: This issue has a fundamental flaw of being of no relevance to anything. To sum it up, a Skrull who is currently stepping in for Pymn realizes that the plan won't work and attempts to explain that to his superior Skrull buddy who blows him off and tries to kill him without ever listenign to what he has to say or getting into any type of dialog. It doesn't make sense that this issue relates to invasion at all. To state again if the Skrulls did not manipulate events to there advantage then there is no relevancy of showing their actions during major events. This issue pretty much was terrible, there isn't anything of value here so don't bother.

Art: HIT AND QUIT IT
OVERALL: FORGET IT

Wolverine #68 Review

2008-08-30T16:30:00.004-04:00

Writer: Mark Millar
Art: Steve McNiven

If you can buy into the world Millar is selling, then this story is very good. If you can't, it is still damn entertaining. Logan is still out there, doing his thing (which is not doing much), but Hawkeye was the real star of this issue. Peter Parker's kid is a real badass, as he brutally murders some villains. I just loved how brutal this issue was. The Kingpin scene was just excellent, as he let Daredevil and Punisher get slaughtered in a gladiatior-like arena. This scene fits the theme of this chaotic time, as the citizens are bloodthirsty. There is really no good in this world, and Millar does an excellent job conveying that. I do have a problem with how pathetic Logan is in this issue. I really liked the idea in issue 1, but there is really no progression as we are in issue 3. He won't fight, I get it. We are led to believe Spider-Bitch (don't like the name) is the leader of some resistance at first, which was cool. You can understand why Hawkeye would go after her. The way he stormed in and slaughtered people was just awesome. But what was really awesome was how Spider-Bitch killed Kingpin, and then Hawkeye, and took over the territory. The world Millar has created is really compelling, and you can totally see why someone would like to rise to the ranks. McNiven is just excellent. This is easily the best looking comic this week, as the level of detail is spectacular (especially that shot of Logan on the last page). I look forward to seeing Logan unleash in the next issue, as I would assume that is the character climax.

Art: Phenom
Story: GET IT

Daredevil #110 Review

2008-08-29T17:50:00.004-04:00

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Michael Lark

I have enjoyed the current arc, but this was clearly the weakest issue of the bunch. Of course, since no one ever dies in comics, Becky decides to live after being shot. Yeah. Didn't see that coming. I really don't have a problem with the characters in this story, it was just that it felt too rushed. There needs to be a slightly drawn out conclusion to story arcs, and this one got resolved in the final 6 pages. Basically what happened was that Matt found a lackey, and beat him into submission until he spoke. He said that Donovan didn't decapitate the kids. Big shock there. Seriously. I hope you can sense my sarcasm. Bottom line: Donovan saw his son, and he decided to tell the truth. Ok? The booking was a little weak here, and I was definitely looking for more. I felt the first 2 chapters were very strong, and the last couple were just ok. Overall, I was fine with it. I am still a huge Brubaker fan, and loves the way he writes Matt. I felt that Michael Lark really captures the essense of Daredevil's hood. It really does feel gritty. I love the technical aspects of this story, but I felt that the resolution could have been better. It was told as well as it could have been told for that parameter, but I felt it could have been a blowaway story when I read it. This one will get lost in the shuffle.

BALLIN'
SKIM IT

DC Universe: Last Will and Testament Review

2008-08-28T16:40:00.006-04:00

Conversion
Written by Brad Meltzer
Art and covers by Adam Kubert and John Dell

No matter how dark Meltzer's storylines are there is always a silver lining to them and this comic is no exception. The way he writes is very subtle and quiet, I imagine if it was a movie there will be no sound. I enjoyed how much of this was character driven. Geo-Force really worked as the central character of this issue. The premise was really interesting since in comics the big events happen and things the heroes get caught up in the flow and at the end of the day they reflect on what happened, but here it is different. The sky breaks one day, Clark says the end of the world is coming, so what do you do now? There isn't anything to punch, no giant group of villains asking for it, and there isn't thing for you to do. Geo-Force's storyline is compelling particularly his relationship with Deathstroke. It is a tough decision to decide to kill someone right before the rapture starts since pretty much everyone else is going to be dead along with you. One fundamental problem that some readers may have is where this issue fits in relation to Final Crisis and honestly it doesn't at all, doesn't fit into continuity in the slightest. I don't mind that since this issue was so well written. Seeing what the various characters do right before the world ends. There are a lot of little things that shine in this issue. You notice the change of Robin's demeanor when Nightwing enters into the picture. There is also Starfire who misinterpreted the situation pretty bad. The ending though was special because it really shows the hero mentality. A lot of things went into it making really good. The sky is pitch black and Hal Jordan glowing green flying. The dialogue is also nice as he says it doesn't matter what happens that they will do this again because they are meant to. It would have been easy to end on the scene with Geo-Force and Deathstroke but there has to be some hope and the Hal scene captures that hope. The art is solid nothing spectacular here and is disappointing since I imagined it would be like Kubert's Batman.

Art: HIT IT AND QUIT IT
OVERALL: OWN IT

Next up some New and Mighty Avengers

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1 Review [In 4-D]

2008-08-27T18:57:00.004-04:00

"Superman Beyond"
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy

I didn't get it. That is the review there. It starts off simply enough with a flashforward then following up on the Final Crisis storyline in which Superman gets recruited by the Monitor lady to help save the universe from something. I enjoyed Morrison's vision of the Multiverse as a living entity and all part of the body. That was a very neat twisit. One minor thing is if Morrison continues to use German regulary he should have translations somewhere. I believe he is saying something important but I won't ever know. The issue makes sense at the end as you learn that the thing that attacked them is the Dark Monitor and Superman has to go toe to toe with it. This does deliever on what Morrison promised of expanding the scope of Final Crisis to include the Multiverse because Final Crisis has been contained within New Earth. The vampire Monitor moment threw me off and I felt bad for Nazi Superman whose cousin died over in the original Final Crisis and the he gets vamped so the lady monitor can do something. It still seems fuzzy to me for some reason even though I understood everything that happened within the issue to a certain extent. The book of infinity for example was a very difficult reading to understand what exactly it was saying. Superman saying Great Kyrpton every couple of words seemed was really campy and everytime he said that I couldn't help buy groan. I trust Morrison though so I believe he is capable of making this mini series great and the 3-D was pretty balling. Morrison has been hyping this up for a while now and states that this will bring to the Multiverse into the fold. I liked the use of Captain Marvel and the throwback to the Limbo that all superheroes go to when creators don't have stories for them. The last page was pretty awesome with Ultraman going fucking crazy holding the book and the Dark Monitor getting ready to waste everything.

Art: BALLIN (The 3-D was awesome but it felt like a cheap gimmick)
Story: GET IT

Next review is Meltzer's Last Will and Testment....

Quick Hits

2008-08-27T17:47:00.003-04:00

JBL Award Winner- Lil Batman

Moon Knight #21- Batman R.I.P. ripoff, setup issue,
SKIM IT

Guardians of the Galaxy #4- Looks awesome, stories awesome, special comic,
OWN IT

X-Factor: Layla Miller #1- Took to long to come out, generic 1985 future, Messiah Complex needs resolution,
SKIM IT

Amazing Spider-man #568- Nothing original here, Eddie Brock's story ended during back in black, no need to keep him as Venom, New Ways to Die= Generic 1970 Spider-man, Anti-Venom=Carnage,
FUCK IT

Captain America #41- Flipping amazing,
OWN IT

Superman/Batman #51- Hypes true, funny story, Goshdarn Batman,
OWN IT

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1- Didn't get into it, Art's nice,
SKIM IT

Action Comics #868 Review

2008-08-15T17:58:00.002-04:00

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Gary Frank

Ok so I haven't done a review in like 2 or 3 weeks. Anyways, I love Geoff Johns and i absolutely love this Brainiac arc. It feels like such a big deal, and Johns (again) does a great job with his characters. Let me comment on that first. He writes a very good Superman, but he writes great supporting characters, particularly Ma and Pa Kent. You really feel their love for their son, and it really comes through. The scenes at the Daily Planet were great too with the various characters. Johns said he wants to reintroduce Supergirl to an extent, and I feel like he is starting to come through on that end. Johns, who is also a master plotter, puts in peices of the issue that is for future use. When Clark saw Kandor, that was a direct reference to his future Kandor story, which should be great as well. Brainiac comes off as a huge threat. He is a smart villain who will manipulate Superman to add to his knowledge. Superman gets an out for losing to Brainiac because he doesn't have his sun to give him his power, so he retains some heat there. I can't wait until the next issue, because the frightening Brainiac ship is coming for Earth. A part I loved, and credit goes to Gary Frank for this, is the look on Supergirl's face when she saw Brainiac. It is the same look in the last issue, when she said that Brainiac destroyed her home. Those little things make this issue near perfect for me, as well as this story.

OWN IT

Batman #679 Review

2008-08-14T23:15:00.004-04:00

"Miracle on Crime Alley"
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea

Batman has had one of the most amazing years in history, it has been so good that the Chinese have elected to insert him into the Chinese Calendar retroactively [year of the Batman]. It has been a while since the last issue came out but that doesn't hurt this issue. Sometimes well all the time, delays will kill any momentum a storyline has but this doesn't happen here. Instead we are treated to a fantastic issue that gets you extremely excited for the finale of this grand tale. Morrison has a way to create anticipation like no other writer can. He also manages to pull some of the most controversial things the Batman mythos will ever see. If this Thomas Wayne things then no one can ever say anything about DC not having balls. The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh is quite compelling as you learn the twist that he isn't a result of the Black Glove, this is Bruce's solution to a psycological attack. In other words the Black Glove failed to anticipate the degree to which Bruce prepared for such an attack. Even more omnious was a certain phrase the Zur-En-Arrh Batman said, this is what happens when you take Bruce Wayne out of the equation. This Batman is him in his purest form and you begin to understand the need for Bruce Wayne. At this point he is a loose canon cop on the edge and trutfully, I think he is going to break his one rule, he has to. The scene at Arkham was an amazing choice for the climax of the story. Morrison has been breaking down Batman and now we are getting ready to start the end game. Arkham has always had a place in the Batman/Joker dynamic and it is the logical ending point of the story. I do have some minor concerns which happens to be the Talia and Damien storyline. Morrison can get away with completely ignoring it as he is that talented of a writer and I just remembered that little bit of information when I told Sports God that Black Glove is Ra's Al Guhl [mark that down]. He is my guess for the true villain behind it all. After reading the scene with Gordon, I am legitmatiely worried about his safety. If you look at the track record, Morrison's run started with Gordon being gased by the Joker thrown off the building, promptly after that Gordon was shot by Lane, and now he is trapped in a rigged Wayne Manor. I hope that Gordon manages to come through but I got a feeling that Gordon's run is up. The Joker though, Morrison's Joker is just a beast. He is staright up up to no good and you know it. Tony Daniels has a panel where you see his eyes and you only see his eyes and you can see the crazy. This was an amazing issue and I just love what Morrison is doing, Batman on a budget, classy.

Art: PHENOM
Overall: OWN IT

Detective Comics #847 Review

2008-08-10T17:18:00.002-04:00

"The Last Good Day"
Written by: Paul Dini
Art by: Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs

I have always enjoyed Detective Comics. The opening scene was extremely entertaining, and the page layout with the blood gushing out of the fake Batman to serve as the river for the flashback was also really creative and inspired. That was a very good artistic choice and I really love the film noir look of this comic. Nguyen also manages to draw the creepiest looking mom, and Dini also manages to be somewhat convincing in making Hush a respectable villain. Seeing Tommy's childhood as it is manages to somewhat convince you that he could turn out to be such a villain. It is hard to believe Bruce caused this and Hush's logic seems a bit of a reach but Dini has to somehow add a backstory to make him a compelling villain. Having Crane around also leaves the possibility that Crane did something to make Hush act the way he is. Having him present in Tommy's past is a nice addition. I found the scene between Zatanna and Catwoman pretty funny. I like the idea of heroes going back their roots which include illegal card sharking to keep from getting rusty. I'm very curious to what Hush has planned with the boy. He seems to be a focal point so I'm guessing it is something big going on there. The only compliant I have is that I want to see some Batman perspective. I want to see things start getting intense really soon and Dini will probably start kicking things off next issue. This is a solid story and it is worth a mention for people who saw the Dark Knight and want to read some Batman. I highly recommend Dini's Detective Comics.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Final Crisis #3 Review

2008-08-10T02:42:00.003-04:00

Written by: Grant Morrison
Art by: J.G. Jones

I find that a fundamental problem with reviewing Final Crisis is that there are unknown unknowns as well known unknowns. Morrison's writing style requires the reader to read the entire story to make a proper judgment thus no single issue can make or break as other speculate. It is all part of the larger picture because Morrison keeps things pretty close to the vest. That being said, I did not enjoy this issue as much as I enjoyed the first two. Morrison succeeded in crafting a lot of tension and anticipation for the moment when the Anti-Life equation is released upon the world and it seems anti-climatic as it was only the last couple of pages within the issue. The first two issues did a great job of providing a sense that whatever bad thing happened to any of the heroes, the Anti-Life equation was still to come. This issue almost devalues all that sense of anticipation and foreboding as the execution of the equation seems anti-climatic [a is that it kind of moment]. I understand that you don't need to show the villains prepping and painstakingly/continually point out to the reader that is how we do it [or show the process of the Skrulls replacing everybody including minor characters that people may or not care about even though I am perfectly willing to accept both Electra and Pyme as Skrulls without any backstory] and I also understand that the villain releasing the equation would not strike hard and fast because it is the most effective way. I can accept all logistical issues presented by such a method of execution [such as the fact the E-mail most likely came with an audio attachment that automatically downloaded onto your computer and opened up your default media player and played itself because such an evil plan requires such things as that. I can come to terms with the fact that the equation will somehow take over all of Earth even though it should primarily only affect the US/Europe while such countries like the Democratic Republic of the Kongo is fine because let's face it, when you look at the world map in the Halo 3 matchmaking lobby there are no dots in Africa but everyone in Tasmania has an X-Box 360 with Halo]. All those logistical problems are summed up by the simple fact a month will elapse since the equation has been unleashed and I assume that major networks will broadcast it because they are now controlled by Darkseid so that is no longer an issue. I sense that Morrison is trying to go for subtlety here because you don't need to see every character falling victim to the equation but it didn't stick. That moment the equation is unleashed should be the moment you see the world stop. This is where you get a different kind of broken hero where they no longer can inspire people to be their best and every symbol of hope and justice dies along with free will. Those are the implications of the release of this equation, this is what it means "the day evil wins." We don't see that. I believe this to be a very important theme and this scene at the end should be that but it isn't. Aside from that point, it is all good to demand the reader to think and not spell everything out but German? That is like challenging a handicap person to twister, just plain mean. I enjoyed seeing the old Legion of Doom headquarters which takes me back to the Super Friends days. Another key point is the Mary Marvel heel turn and based on what I know from Countdown, an educated guess is that Darkseid offered her a chance to be powerful again after waking up from her coma and being weak for a bit. I imagine there is a logical explanation there so it doesn't bug me too much. Morrison is a master storyteller and no matter what happens in the issue there is a thought process behind it. In my experience he just doesn't do stuff on a whim and there is something we don't know going on. I am really enjoying Final Crisis and after venting I think four will be a monster issue that will blow the lid off everything. J.G. Jones art is amazing and while it may not look as good as issue one did that just means it's still amazing.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: OWN IT

Green Lantern #33 Review

2008-08-03T18:19:00.002-04:00

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Ivan Reis

Geoff Johns is probably my favorite writer. Although I got some heat last time for giving the last GL a top score, I think that this Secret Origins arc has been worthwhile. It is clear that Johns is building towards his Blackest Night event next year, and is doing so methodically. He has been slowly putting in the seeds for this event throughout this arc, all the way from Abin Sur's delusions to Atrocius. Now for this issue, Johns continues to impress with how he handles characters. He really gets into his characters and understands them and it shows in his writing. His handling of Hal Jordan and (especially) Sinestro is damn impressive. Johns throws in new mysteries such as who is William Hand, and also spends time to fill in Hector Hammond's backstory. For all of us who has read all 33 issues of Johns' run, it is really nice to see the consistency and development in these characters. Ivan Reis provides some gorgeous art.

OWN IT

Uncanny X-Men #500 Review

2008-07-23T19:09:00.003-04:00

Writer: Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction
Art: Greg Land

What the hell? This is your big 500th anniversary special, with 2 of the best writers in the business? I didn't like this at all. First of all, the art was just terrible. 2nd of all, this issue just felt like a standard Uncanny issue, which is not a good thing. I thought that bringing Fraction aboard and a fresh new restart with #500 would revamp this fledgling series, but no. What we got was run of the mill stuff with poor character work. Quite frankly, the whole San Fransisco thing is just not working for me. I found the writing lackluster, and the direction even poorer. We got Magneto, which was cool, but he felt like a passe villain, and not the Magneto that we are accustomed to and expect. He is just a sad little man with no powers. I think we are done with the X-Men. With Whedon off of Astonishing, there is just no appeal in the X titles that matter. You have to go to X-Factor and X-Men Legacy for your X experience. Ok enough of this. Bottom line- this issue was just not a good read, but the worse part is the expectations coming into this landmark, and the failure to deliver a satisfying read.

A very low
FORGET IT

The Dark Knight

2008-07-21T21:02:00.002-04:00

I am not going to review this film. It would be another review praising it unconditionally since I am a biased fan of the movie. There is no benefit in that but I will discuss the movie and some of the questions it raises in an intelligent manner instead of just rambling on about how good the movie is. I'm going to start with the ending of the movie since it seems the most logical place. I saw the movie twice, once as a pure biased fan and again as a consumer with less bias. The second time ending was better for me. I was disappointed as to Two-Face's transformation as it wasn't climatic/intentional but kind of an accident. As I thought about this interpretation I began to enjoy it more and the part about him going crazy made more sense within the context of the movie. Having it be an accident as it was made more sense because he would completely abandon all his morals because he has nowhere to direct his rage. If he had someone to directly blame for the accident the scene at the end of the movie would never happen so within that context his scarring made more sense. That might have been my biggest complaint about the movie is the role of Two-Face, to me Eckhart had moments of brilliance and got the job done but compared to Ledger was disappointing. The ending also had an awesome voice over by Gordon where he does Batman justice and basically explains why we all love the character. He does good for the sake of good and not glory. He is really a hero. It sort of ends on that hopeful message that no matter how many Jokers there are there is a Batman who does good and endures the evil. The boat scene where neither boat blows up each other was a great sign that no matter what the Joker does that people will still have a capacity or some good. That was the ending I thought about and why I was confused when people said this movie might be "too dark" because it had a pretty optimistic ending that good endures that is until I read a statement by Padfoot1492: "I mean, whether you like it or nor, people are, in fact, inherently evil. You don't need to be taught to do evil, but you do need to be taught to do good. That and the condition of the world should show you the true nature of humans."

After reading that, the dark part of the movie really starts to come alive for me. Just reflecting back you are never taught evil, you act and if you happen to act badly people tell you your actions are bad, tell you why, and you learn about the right way. Growing up your parents teach you about bad [evil is too strong a word] as you do things that are unwittingly bad that you don't think about. After understanding that you get a larger sense of what the Joker represents and what Two-Face stands for. The Joker is the most natural character and his monolog about doing becomes more important. If people all just did then there would be more evil which makes his anarchy that more dangerous. Two-Face meanwhile becomes more tragic as that is the real Harvey Dent, that is him embracing his human nature and the ugly side that we are all that close to. Then there is Batman. Whether you consider this a flaw or not he wasn't really the main character in his own film. It felt as if this movie had no true lead. Batman and the Joker are opposite so if I consider the Joker to be purest character then easily Batman is the most "tainted" character. Writers sometimes build up Batman so much that it becomes hard to believe is a human. He is disciplined beyond belief and has an amazing will and resiliency that Hal Jordan can only dream of [let's face it; if Bruce Wayne didn't use fear as a weapon he would the greatest Green Lantern ever]. He has humanizing qualities but beyond that no man can actually become Batman and in many ways is as unattainable as Superman. This brings up the question where does he stand? If the Joker is the human condition in its purest form, Harvey Dent being the man who once was good but was hiding his real self [hence Two-Face], then Batman has to be the personification of good, he has to be symbol. “As a man I'm flesh and blood I can be ignored I can be destroyed but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.” [Batman Begins] All of a sudden Batman Begins becomes relevant again. Remembering that quote I know exactly where Batman stands. As a human Bruce has the same capacity of evil as anyone else in the film, but as Batman [a symbol] he doesn’t have that. That is what Batman stands for right there and that is why he is a symbol. I hadn’t realized a lot of that the first time I saw the movie and am amazed that one quote was able to send me off on that little tangent. Adding to the complexity of the movie is also the political allegory that occurs as a result of the Joker. This is slightly easier to grasp than the whole nature of humans theme. Some might argue that Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are the two most American heroes since they are capitalist [Superman illegal alien, also Steve Rodgers is clearly the most American superhero but I could see Stark and Bruce at 2] and that the Joker in this movie is a terrorist [that is a tough one to refute].

If this movie is also thematic [I’m not sure if this is a theme or allegory] about the current political climate then Batman is America, the Joker is a terrorist, then Harvey Dent is what we should do. I am not going to get political here, this is what I speculate the movie is saying. There are some indicators of political commentary in this film. The most glaring example is Harvey Dent’s speech about turning in Batman to the Joker which is a message straight out of South Park. If you remember the Cartoon Wars you remember a random being talking about how easy it was to support an ideal but when it comes time to defend it that we back down. Dent was disappointed in Batman for giving into the terrorist and would not allow that happen. He had a really good point about when the time comes for Batman to answer; it should be to the law and not to the Joker. The Bat-sonar technology that basically let Batman spy on anyone is wire-tapping and other surveillance techniques that are questionable. Morgan Freeman represents everyone that is scared about what a big violation of rights this is and Batman is the realist who wants to stop the Joker and is willing to cross that line to catch him. I think the message there is in times of absolute crisis [DC’s next big event, look for it] we should be able to suspend some rights in order to protect people from a threat similar to the notion that Harvey brought up about the Romans and their suspending of the law in times of trouble earlier in the movie. That being said, there is the assumption that when that time is over then things should be restored [i.e. the machine self destructing], sometimes though people don’t want to give up that power which again goes back to the Caesar side story at the beginning of the movie. Thematically I believe the message to be that the government has pulled a Caesar with wiretapping, and pertaining to the narrative we gain a little respect for Batman because he is able to destroy the project and be a true hero and return the power that sonar gives him. The way I see it, I think the point was that the state should never have the power to do that but instead we give it to a private body that would have nothing to gain by having all that power, similar to the Federal Reserve with it being independently owned.

This movie has a lot going on for it and it is more than a superhero movie. The great blogger over at http://www.collectededitions.blogspot.com made a great point about this movie “a horror movie masquerading as a superhero movie, and not a superhero movie itself.” I wouldn’t say a horror movie after seeing it but it is more than that. To that point there is some validity in this being a concern for pursuit. That is why a lot of critics say it transcends being a superhero movie and is a crime drama and such. I recall reading something that said Iron Man was the best comic book movie ever made and the Dark Knight is simply a better film than Iron Man. I don’t agree with that but do see where they are coming from. In closing, the Dark Knight was a great [the best ever] film. I won’t say best superhero [he is a superhero] movie because that is injustice to typecast it like that. It is a great [again best ever] movie that I thoroughly enjoyed and will enjoy again, in IMAX. I’m hoping to hear your reactions to the movie and hopefully we can start discussing it and share what you got out of the movie. Leave your comments and we can get the ball rolling.

Countdown to DK

2008-07-15T18:51:00.001-04:00

Killing Joke, nuff said

Countdown to DK

2008-07-14T15:59:00.002-04:00

So in honor of the greatest movie ever made being released in four days, I took it upon myself to read a great Joker story every day this week and then rant about why it is a Joker story. So to kick it off we go with what was Brubaker's last story before he went to write the epic Captain America stories. I am talking about the Man Who Laughs [not sure if I should capitalize the who which is going to bug me the rest of this post]. This is a modern retelling of the first time the Joker tried to terrorize Gotham. The art is really nice and the only problem I have with it is how the noses seem to be incredibly big, other than that the art is fantastic. I won't even analyze the writing since it is written by Brubaker so the talent is there. I enjoyed this story; there is a certain air of mystery surrounding the Joker as you never really know what he is planning [the assumption there is that you didn't read the original story since it was written way back when]. It is a fun mystery with plenty twists and turns. Brubaker writes a mean Joker and it is only fitting that we start the countdown with Joker's first attempt at shenanigans. Written by Ed Brubaker and art by Doug Mahnke this is one Joker story you should read up on before you go into the Dark Knight. Stayed tuned tomorrow for the next pick.

Secret Invasion #4 Review

2008-07-13T16:42:00.004-04:00

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Leinil Francis Yu

After an extended argument with the One and Only, I am still not going to change my mind about the Secret Invasion. I am personally not offended by this popcorn comic book event, and I really did not have high hopes for this event. And with that, I am pretty ok with how its going. Theres an invasion, Skrulls take out the Avengers, smaller resistance groups trying to fight it, and the planning and the "secret" part of the invasion is taken care of in miniseries. And also, its not just taking place in just New York, but all over the world. And that is taken care of in other mini series (Captain Britain). I thought this issue moved the plot along to some extent. They move along the Stark plotline in Savage Land. He was crippled, but now Black Widow and Wolverine are trying to help out Stark. It is done in a way where there is obvious mistrust in the air. The battle in New York wages on, as Fury makes some tough decisions. We see the Hood. And the last page probably saved the issue in my opinion. Having Thor and Cap show up really helps the "big event" feel of this. Why should we take this Invasion seriously if Thor or Cap, Marvel's big guns, don't show up. Having them here will, in my opinion, pick things up in later issues. It is hard for me to just judge this event alone without considering the tie ins. So with all that included, I am just fine with how this is going. The art was really inconsistent, especially in the fight scenes in New York. Tough to follow.

GET IT

Final Crisis: Requiem Review

2008-07-12T18:36:00.005-04:00

"Caretakers of Mars"
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy

Final Crisis Requiem was a very interesting tie-in. It really expands on the events of what happened in the first issue of Final Crisis and is really beautifully written and truly moving. I enjoy it when I get to see characters narrate their own death because it adds a greater sense of closure to John’s life. I enjoyed the approach DC used within this tie-in in that the tie-in actually expanded the story of John and wasn't just a way to cash in on John's death. I can't stress enough how much I enjoyed how Requiem expanded the story from Final Crisis. It really works in tandem with what Morrison started. The one fault in this issue is that some of the flashback scenes seem to drag a bit. It is very hard to review this issue because I will just end up pointing out the fact that I liked pretty much everything and then I would throw in one minor critic to keep myself honest. Rather than do that I'll be as concise as possible and a bit redundant as well. This comic will probably win best of the week, it was very well written, the art is fantastic, and Requiem really does give Manhunter the best sendoff. The best moment was John rallying and making the villains think that they are being killed by their enemies [or getting felt up by Batman in Talia's case], the worst moment was the "My favorite Martian" joke by Green Arrow which wasn't that bad but just cheesy. This was a great comic that really expanded the first issue of Final Crisis and was a worthy tie-in. Hopefully DC does the right thing and let John stay dead for a bit longer as to not negate this issue within a year or so which would really be a crime.

Art: PHENOM
Overall: OWN IT

Booster Gold #1000000 Review

2008-07-10T18:36:00.001-04:00

"Holding Back the Years"
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

Seems like just yesterday we were at issue 9 but here we are now. It seems like such a shame that this title is probably going to get canceled with the departure of Katz and Johns but at least this title will make one awesome trade. It seems a shame that they leave this title after they introduced an awesome new direction to this title. At this point it is clear that Batman knows all, even though Gog is going around healing people and making miracles occur [hint hint towards the next review in this triple header] Batman is somehow aware of what occurs in alternate timeline and again thanks to Morrison he probably knows thanks to some monster Meth, the kind that bull rhinos use when they want to get up there which is very classy. It makes sense after everything Booster went through that he is sick and tired of being a great hero and not getting any R-E-S-P-E-C-T [find out what it means to me] but luckily Batman is there to give him the right peep talk to keep him in the game. This makes sense on so many levels because Batman is in the same situation as Booster where you do the greatest heroic deeds yet at the end of the day no one really knows you exist and no one knows whether you are legit or not. Batman is the ideal choice to talk Booster through this. The dialog was really nice. The ending was pretty balling as well, it is nice that the superhero gets a break every now and then instead of going through the Daredevil route which is one continuous put down [seriously that guy is f-ed in the a for life]. I am not sure how to feel on Rip being Booster's son, serious curveball there. It was a good idea to save the reveal until Booster matured enough to the point where you could see it but if they had pulled this stunt a bit earlier it would have been a total miss [wonder who the mom is though]. The epilogue is always nice and I would be more excited about it but knowing that Johns and Katz won't be there to see this title through. Lastly the chalkboard makes an appearance, that thing is a great little preview of things to come. I really like that chalkboard and think it should get its own book, seriously high brow stuff here people. While I really did like this issue it certainly did lack a certain sense of being a definitive Booster Gold story. The way I saw it these first two arcs while enjoyable seem to be a stepping stone to that great story which is on its way but sadly we won't get that great story and instead settle here. It isn't bad but this is a fun comic and a good story don't get me wrong, it just isn't anything spectacular but is fundamentally solid and enjoyable all the way around.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Detective Comics #846 Review

2008-07-10T16:58:00.003-04:00

"First Families of Gotham"
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs

Paul Dini's Detective Comics has been one of my favorite titles. The thing I enjoy most is that it isn't written for trade and employs a series of standalone stories with reoccurring themes. With a majority of writers writing their stories for trades the monthly reader suffers a bit and the stories aren't as enjoyable the second time in a trade form. Dini now chooses to tell a six issue story arch featuring the return of Hush and admittedly I found this debut issue to be underwhelming. Dini reworks some of the Hush back-story some of which adds a bit to the original written by Loeb way back when. Pertaining to the plot I think Hush is trying to somehow heal his mom which is why he has a hospital full of disfigured people. I liked the idea that he wore the bandages because he saw his mom like that was cool because the bandages never made much sense when a ski mask seemed to be just as acceptable and also more stylish [having justification for it is nice]. The biggest positive about this issue is the Batman and Catwoman dynamic. It is nice to see her back into the mythos because she seems to have just been completely absent for so long. Dini does manage to craft a good mystery since he himself is an active cryptologist [you learned something today] and I am curious to see what striking at the heart of Batman means. It sounds like it will be really intense. Another thought that came to me was of Hush popping up in R.I.P. to help out Bruce but I doubt that. I really like the art style that they use because it evokes a feel of the old black and white detective movies they used to do back in the day. It fits here. So to wrap this up, the story seems to be written for trade which is probably why this issue felt lackluster, nothing of note really happened but the interactions between Catwoman and Batman were nice. This issue got me intrigued, not enthralled or excited, but I am somewhat committed to following this storyline.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: SKIM IT

Early Dark Knight Reviews

2008-07-05T19:19:00.003-04:00

Via Rottentomatoes.com

Dark, grim, haunting and inventive, Dark Knight is nothing short of brilliant, representing Chris Nolan's most accomplished and mature work to date and the best and scariest comic-hero adaptation you're likely to see this summer, perhaps the whole year. -EmanuelLevy.Com

Warner Bros. Pictures' THE DARK KNIGHT is not only the best film I have seen this year, but quite possibly the best superhero movie ever made. - Bloody Disgusting

The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination. - Rolling Stone

Martin Scorsese's The Departed. Michael Mann's Heat. Brian de Palma's The Untouchables. And now, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight can join the ranks as one of the best crime dramas in modern movie history. - Horror.com

I can't fucking wait - Sports God

Astonishing X-Men #25

2008-07-03T18:58:00.005-04:00

Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Simone Bianchi

Not too much to say here. I wasn't disappointed really, just kind of sad that Whedon's run is over. Warren Ellis had a really tough job to follow up on that, and I thought he put in a good effort. It just didn't really click, like what we were used to. Ellis did provide some good lines and some laughs (Frost calling Wolverine a ferrett that itches its privates), but there was just nothing that happened in this issue. They basically sat around and talked about stuff, and Beast got into some crazy theories about genes that always throws me off. I still feel that the characters are established enough, that you feel a certain chemistry, despite the dialogue not being up to par as Whedon. There was just not enough here to really rave about. It was solid, and its still one of the better X titles around, but I am waiting for something substantial to happen. By the way, Armor is a total scrub. The best part about here is that part where Wolverine said, thats like me being called Claws. She is no Kitty Pride though. This gets a very low

GET IT
...........................................................................................................................................................
TAKE MO

Basically what he said except I hated the dialogue [more] and thought it came across as forced. He was trying to create that Whedon chemistry with the banter and all but it didn't work, it just seemed frivolous.

SKIM IT

Batman #678 Review

2008-07-03T14:50:00.005-04:00

"Zur En Arrh"
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea

It seems at this point Morrison is about to stat the rebuilding of Batman and I'm ready for it. There really is a sense of climax approaching and the month long wait seems just cruel. This issue was awesome. For one thing, I want a mini-series of homeless Bruce Wayne running around with Honor Jackson; I found the scene with them booking it with the shopping cart absolutely comical. I have to admit I was confused with some of things in this issue. The begining scene I thought was Jason Todd reading the black casebook because when you see Tim later in the issue it looks remarkably different from the opening. The red motorcycle could be a misdirection on Morrison's part [he is tricky like that]. Another thing that bugged me was the way Hurt [if it was him] was talking when he was about to administer the drugs to Bruce. I honestly thought that it was Thomas Wayne. This issue gives you a lot to chew on and I appreciate how Morrison treats the reader like that. My understanding of this story was that Bruce's mind wasn't ready to accept losing and constructed Honor Jackson as a way to guide him back to where it all began [your inner wise black man is a truly wondrous phenomenon]. I would not put it past Bruce to have planned for something like that. I'm still wondering about the radio and its' significance of it. The best part of this issue was the Dick Grayson development. Putting him on the shelf storyline wise was smart but also in Arkham!!? That was a twist. Morrison puts a lot of events in this issue and there is still the muderous clown elephant in the room, the Joker. The Joker vs this crazy Batman could be one legendary showdown. There is also the question of Jet, I don't like her character or anything, but she disappeared completely so she is probably relevant in some way. The art is great on phenom level depending on wheter or not that was Jason at the start of the issue so I'm not pulling the trigger on this rating. This issue is an honest to god turning point in this story and I'm having a lot of fun reading this. Bottom line:

OWN IT

Green Lantern #32 Review

2008-06-27T16:45:00.002-04:00

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)

2008-06-24T23:25:00.005-04:00

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

2008-06-24T19:46:00.005-04:00

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

2008-06-24T19:06:00.006-04:00

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

2008-06-21T17:55:00.004-04:00

"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

2008-06-21T16:39:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-19T21:56:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-19T20:45:00.006-04:00

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

2008-06-19T18:32:00.006-04:00

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

2008-06-19T02:13:00.006-04:00

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

2008-06-19T01:11:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-18T00:51:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-17T23:36:00.008-04:00

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

2008-06-14T16:15:00.004-04:00

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

2008-06-12T21:46:00.004-04:00

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

2008-06-11T18:39:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-10T15:56:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-07T14:06:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-06T01:57:00.009-04:00

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

Batman #677 Review

2008-05-31T15:17:00.003-04:00

Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Tony Daniels

Grant Morrison has taken over the month and rightly so. The man can flat out write and it shows in Batman. Here we have part of R.I.P. and he continues to move to the story. There is the welcome addition of the newest Thomas and Martha Wayne plotline that adds a bigger sense of mystery. They [allegedly] were involved in some questionable recreational activities and now it is possible that Thomas Wayne himself could be black glove, wow. It sure is intense. Also another idea he introduces is that Batman himself cud be his own villain, it is unlikely but with Grant you just don't know. The art is great as well and Tony Daniels has recovered since that mishap with issue 675. The conspiracy that Morrison has crafted is deep, he uses Alfred in a way that most writers would not imagine. Alfred has always been a father figure or as close as any to Bruce and him actually being his biological father, you need to step back and think about it. The ending was an awesome cliffhanger with Hurt using the trigger word and the villains laying the smackdown on Alfred's candy ass. This is an amazing title and Morrison just continues to keep the ball rolling. [sidenote an interesting article went up on another blog and I suggest you check it out http://www.doomkopf.com/2008/05/31/batman-is-going-to-be-the-spectre/]

Art: PHENOM
Overall: GET IT

All-Star Superman #11 Review

2008-05-31T01:12:00.003-04:00

Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Frank Quietly and Jamie Grant

All-Star Superman is the best comic book title out there. Period. It is what a superhero comic is supposed to be. It captures the aspects of being a superhero, but it still keeps mature convictions. It is by far the best take on the man of steel out there. This issue further showed how Clark is handling his impending death. He is still troubled by how Earth will protect itself without him, but he has faith in his friends to keep it safe. I am truly moved by how genuine this Superman is. He really does care for the Earth. This is mostly commenting on the last issue, but this one shows the evil in the world: Luthor. Morrison's Luthor is evil man. He gets to be a superhero for a day, but he is still smart enough not to go up against Superman just with that. So he gets Solaris. We see Superman take it down, but not after losing some of his loyal robots. All of the characters feel very real to me, and we see Clark passing out at the end. Now, after saying all this praise, it is still not something i look forward to like Cap or Batman, but I really appreciate the comic and am pleasantly surprised when it decides to come out. Frank Quietly provides beautiful art. He continues to draw Superman very small in the panels, and that fits the overall theme of this title.

Phenom
OWN IT

Final Crisis #1 Review

2008-05-30T16:44:00.002-04:00

Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: J.G. Jones

Final Crisis is here and it kicks off with a silent but deadly BANG! This isn't a flashy Vince Carter kind of them but a more solid fundamental Tim Duncan approach. The first thing this issue strives to do is completely rebuild some of the assumptions we were supposed to take from Countdown. He completely revamped the whole Death of the New Gods series by making a war occur off-panel and having Darkseid win. That was a good move because if the New Gods would wage a war it would not be in your own realm it would be in heaven and I appreciate the phrasing that heaven is broken, that is just awesomely ominous. The Monitors themselves have also become more appealing as they now actually seem to serve a greater role in the universe. I enjoyed the little comment on how they had finally had to deal with time as well as their new plane of existence because the Monitors on Countdown were apparently very accessible to anybody in DCU. The artwork was awesome, I enjoy the photographic feel of it as well as a red sky, you know an event is epic when they sky is red. I want to know more about the relationship between Libra and Darkside, if Libra is going to be a big player then I want to know more about his role. As for Darkside, that is just awesome, using the anti-life equation with kids is pretty evil. Darkside is a great bad guy and I'm glad he is finally living up to his evilness if that makes sense. He lost a lot of epicness but he is coming back. I'm glad Morrison is revamping DC because it needs it, this issue sets up Final Crisis well.

Art: PHENOM
Overall: GET IT

Daredevil #107 Review

2008-05-30T01:29:00.000-04:00

Writer: Ed Brubaker/Greg Rucka
Art: Michael Lark

Summary:
We finally get back to form. I am not going to count #106, which was pure filler in my opinion. We actually move on to a story arc now. We got Matt all crazy and upset and he foolishly attacks Luke Cage (bulletproof skin!). C'mon Matt! We find out that this dude is going to death's row for decapitating kids. Cage thinks he is innocent, and wants Matt to help. Dakota does some investigating, and ends up getting attacked. She goes to Matt, who finally breaks out of his funk to pursue the case.

Comments:
Ed Brubaker is very good. He is much better at stuff like Daredevil and Criminal than he is at Uncanny. The addition of Greg Rucka didn't hurt either. We get a good issue here. We see Matt is still struggling with losing Milla, and we see him fight through it and get back to the real world. The whole death row thing was intriguing without Matt, but now that he is there, it should be much better. It will be interesting to see how he does, and how he is going to help someone who confessed to the murders. They make Dakota look like a tough gal, who is clearly suspicious of this case. The art is nice looking as well.

GET IT

Take Tro (5/26/2008)

2008-05-26T18:09:00.000-04:00

Very huge week coming up. I want to touch on this because it is clearly the biggest thing this year that I can recall. Lets see what we have:

Final Crisis- This one is sure to be meaningful, if nothing else. If you are a DC fan, then I am sure you understand how important this event is going to be. This is the best book coming this week ----- Nuff said.
Batman- Morrison said we won't see the Joker this issue, but who cares? Batman RIP is going to be fantastic, and Morrison is going to give us a hell of a good read. Tony Daniel has gone Super Sayan.
All Star Superman- If there was truly a perfect comic book, this would be it. Words cannot describe how good this title is. It is just the perfect take on Superman.
Astonishing X-Men- Do I really need to say anything? The biggest news here is that it is probably the 4th most anticipated book of the week. Holy cow.

Others include Green Lantern, Thor, Daredevil, Ultimate Spiderman, New Avengers, Action, and more. This week is just so loaded, and it is the perfect time of the year to be a comic book fan.

The Amazing Spider-Man #560 Review

2008-05-25T15:22:00.000-04:00

Peter Parker: Paparazzi! Part 2 of 3
"Flat Out Crazy"
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Marcos Martin

Summary:
Peter is still a paparazzi. He goes around trying to take pictures of Bobby Carr, but everyone hates him for it. He starts feeling guilty when one of his pictures led to the death of this one lady. He fights the paper-doll girl and beats her when he gets another paparazzi to tell her that he won't mess with Carr anymore. Some subplots that took place were that Harry is still pissed at Peter, JJ is running around, and that Carr's publicist was in cahoots with Bennett regarding Carr's schedule and stuff. And the mystery girl: MJ!

Comments:
I enjoyed this issue. I think Slott is just perfect for Spider-Man, and he shows it again here by really providing a well plotted issue. The quirks weren't over the top, and the story was told well. Him and Zeb Wells are the best Spidey writers out there, and I am looking forward to what they do with MJ. Slott is making Peter go through tough situations, and he is learning from these situations. I thought the paper-doll girl was a little weak, but who knows. I hope Slott is writing the Anti-Venom arc later on. That would kick ass.

GET IT

Jam Session

2008-05-22T18:26:00.001-04:00

With the re-launch coming soon the best blog on the internet will only continue to get that much better. We plan a complete re-haul that is going to kick more ass than Bucky in Captain America which is a segway into reviews. Yeah it is some smooth transition.

Brubaker is definitely writing for trade form. The story is meant to enjoyed in one sitting and he isn't really writing for the month but rather to tell a story. I think he is doing a Grant Morrison approach where his whole series is a lead up to an arc that will most likely involve the Red Skull and an endgame so intense that it affects all of Marvel U. If you notice nothing is actually resolved and it seems to all be build up. I don't mind that at all but to review issues on an individual basis the scores won't be as high. It is the body of work that is the appeal here and judging by his body of work it is currently the best in the business. No one has been building as long as Brubaker but on the individual basis this issue is a mention. I'm sure at the end it'll be important but now it is worth a check.

Justice League was really enjoyable this week. I was glad that they finally allowed McDuffie to write a whole issue. He was always doing some 50-50 with the issue that was just lame. With the backup story gone it finally allowed McDuffie to tell a cohesive story and I think this issue was really good. They did a good job about pushing Libra which is probably the whole reason this issue was mad. If the man can somehow recruit Luthor that means he is big time. Fun fact Lex Luthor was actually a scientist before they reconned him into something more evil, an80's business man. I do hate how the Big Three are going down that same road of secrecy and decent that peoridically tears them apart. There has to be some lesson they learned from that. The villian work was solid and the art was pretty awesome. I am a big fan of comics looking like cartoons and not being Alex Ross (no disrespect) but I look the cartoony look. Hopefully they allow McDuffie to continue writing full issues because the man is talented, he did the cartoon and that means something.

We didn't get the Batman RIP review in so here I go. Batman RIP the debut issue was pretty awesome. The Joker character work was out of this world. Tony Daniels is pulling an Ivan Reis hitting his stride just as the writer is putting out a career defining story. That is a good combination. I believe Morrrison has yet to debut the new batmobile because Bruce isn't in his right mind and as such the car is probably incomplete. Morrison did good work hyping up the Dark Knight but going into the butcher Joker mode. That scene was absolutely scary. The man has a body count probably close to 1,000 and let us face it, he was getting stale. How does one rectify the situation, shoot him in the face, give him knives and watch him spread smiles the old fashion way, cutting the face. The Black Glove looks like it could be real heels but I just got a feeling they aren't the real villain. This is a great jumping on point but it really doesn't advance the story. The Joke work is the real highlight in this issue and I strongly recommend it as a biased Batman fan.

Mighty Avengers was not what we had come to expect from it. The Sentry is the most useless character ever. The writers made the mistake of making him too powerful so how do they cancel that out, they give him mental breakdowns that take him out to equation. I want to keep this brief, I can't seem to understand this character at all. The void is allegedly his evil ambitions or something along those lines yet it is playing hero. I think he would benefit from some assertiveness and the Void is frankly more interesting. MArvel is all about the anti heroes and the Void would be great for that. Hopefully Sentry manages to become not crazy and a legit hero again. Marvel needs to do something because this cycle of him being the first person taken out in every fight is just insane, he is way too strong for that.

That concludes the first jam session. Hopefully with the rehaul we can bring in more readers and make this blog live up to potential. I believe in Harvey Dent like i believe in this blog, ehhhhhh, bad call, but you get the idea. (Lamest commercial ever is the Taco Bell white rapper who raps his order, really who does that? It is not quality like that Free Credit Report commercial where they are in the car. That is a classy commercial.)

Take Tro (5/20/2008)

2008-05-20T00:48:00.000-04:00

O.K so we have slacked off big time. I questioned the use of the blog, because I was honestly not motivated to do reviews or posts anymore. But here I am, on a Monday night at 12:49 doing a post that I haven't done in 4 months. Since we are lazy fuckers and don't do shit, we promise to change. We don't exactly know how yet, but we will shake things up a bit for the summer. We promise to keep most of the old in tact, but we might add some new features or so. Our target week for the revamp is the next one, so watch out for that.

So lets move on to some comic book talk. I just finished up Jeph Loeb's Dark Victory trade, and I must say it was excellent. This is just classic Batman. I don't know what Loeb is doing right now, but him and Sale really know how to tell good Batman stories. It was the sequel to Long Halloween, and I enjoyed it just as much. This one was more confusing, but Harvey Dent really shined, and we saw character progression for the Batman, Robin, and Catwoman. The plot was masterly weaved through 13 issues, and it really came together well at the end. Tim Sale is a master with his colors. I am not sure if he is the one that does it, but I really enjoy the large spaces of color. It just really contributes to the mood of the story. You guys need to pick this one up.

I want to touch on Thunderbolts. The Caged Angels arc is just so fantastic. Warren Ellis has done a tremendous job making Thunderbolts one of the best reads on the market. You never know when it is coming out, but when it does, please get it. The story would probably read better as a trade, because it isn't that deep, but its a lot of fun. Norman Osbourn is such a g. The first 5 pages of the recent issue was seriously some of the best stuff I have read all year. It is just Norman showing how crazy he really is, but its so awesome. You have to read it.

Batman kicked off the big R.I.P angle very nicely with the recent issue. The first 17 pages of so were mostly just set-up kind of stuff. But you should get this book for the freaking art. Tony Daniel outdid Grant Morrison here. Seriously, the last page of the Joker was so good looking. It was just awesome. I really think this will be a strong story. Even though I am a big Batman guy, I am still looking forward to Final Crisis more.

Jason Aaron is just kicking ass with Wolverine. I think he is leaving the title, but get the "Get Mystique" arc on trade if you don't own it. It is by far the best Wolverine story I have read. It is just really true to the character and it was just a lot of fun.

I am looking forward to Captain America. No shock there. Brubaker continues to kick ass.

I hope to post one of these every week. I can't promise it all being comic books, as i tend to go off on a tangent on long posts. I am really tired right now, so that is why I want to stop, but i have an urge to write about some other stuff (possible new blog coming.......... look out). On that last note, it probably won't happen, but me and The One and Only talked about it briefly. We have much more to offer than just comic books, trust us. The summer is coming, and we are going to revamp and reload.

Have a good week fuckers

Mighty Avengers #13 Review

2008-05-11T13:30:00.000-04:00

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Alex Maleev

Summary:
We start the issue with Daisy (remember her? She was the little kid in Secret War. I don't) talking to someone. That someone turns out to be a black Nick Fury (C'mon Bendis). Fury tells her she has got to help him recruit some kids. We go to the son of Ares. He scares some kids away just by looking at them. Kid is Phobos. Daisy- 1/1. Ok so, the next one's name is Yo Yo. Yo Yo. Her power is like going fast, then being yanked back. What a clever little name. Her dad is the Griffen. Daisy- 2/2. We go to a convenience store, where some guy robs it. The clerk does nothing. Doesn't want to put in the effort because of minimum wage. Minimum wage = minimum effort. Somebody lock him up. Guy is JT. Daisy takes him to an alley. Dude can make fire. Turns out, he was the original Ghost Rider's grandson. He only agrees to join, if there is money involved. He is ok now. Daisy- 3/3. Daisy tries to recruit Layla Miller (it says 6 months ago, so don't freak it. It is still consistent with continuity). She basically says no because she sees the future. Daisy- 3/4. We go to Dr. Strange's kid. As JBL would say, Cha-Ching. Daisy- 4/5. Daisy bails some guy out of jail. Daisy- 5/6. We go to a lair, with all the recruits. Nick Fury- "You will do as I say every day for the rest of your lives". Holy fuck. He asks them if they know what a Skrull is.

Comments:
That was a pretty good issue. I am new to Nick Fury, but he kicks a lot of ass. He is such a badass, I just can't get over it. The last 2 issues, Fury has just dominated, and he wasn't even in the comic til the end. Fury is by far the best covert, sneaky, badass in comics. This was a good team assembly issue. I liked most of the characters, but the best was Daisy. She seems perfect to be Fury's right-hand girl. She isn't imposing, but she is slightly manipulative, which is all good. Maleev has some good art in here, and Bendis' Secret Invasion tie-ins are much better than the actual main story.

GET IT

Avengers the Initiative #12 Speed Review

2008-05-05T18:44:00.000-04:00

COVER BY: STEVE UY
WRITER: DAN SLOTT
CHRISTOS GAGE
PENCILS: STEVE UY
INKS: STEVE UY
COLORED BY: STEVE UY
LETTERED BY: VC - JOE CARAMAGNA

THE STORY:
"CHANGING OF THE GUARD"
Daddy's home. IRON MAN comes to Camp Hammond, and he's NOT happy.
The first year of the Initiative comes to a dramatic close as members are laid to rest, drummed out, declared AWOL, or...awarded their full Hero's License. See who graduates and find out what super-teams they'll be assigned to as the NEXT era of the Initiative begins! Plus: as a new 3-D MAN appears, the base is suddenly short one Skrull...but not how you'd think...
Also guest-starring MS. MARVEL!

Comments: Nothing special, enjoyed the banter between Iron Man and Gyrich (funny stuff), cool cover, art left a bit to be desired, the Skrull reveal was gay, Traumas been clearly replaced, and what happens now that they have graduated? Glad to see the Nazi doc made it, don't care about War Machine and who is Mutant 0 already?

SKIM IT

Green Lantern #30 Review

2008-05-05T18:27:00.000-04:00

Writer Geoff Johns
Artist Ivan Reis

Abin Sur is investigating the Blackest Night Prophecy and is traveling to Earth carrying Atrocitus with him. He is talking to Sincestro the whole time about what is going on and basically filling him in on the prophecy that his ring will fail him so he is rolling in a ship now. Hal Jordan is now a mechanic who is jonesin to get back into the plane. He goes to complain about his situation but a corporate buyout has just happened and he meets Carol Ferris for the first time. Atrocitus is talking up Abin Sur and the Paralax kicks in and starts messing with him. He breaks out and attacks Abin Sur and escapes. The rest as they say is history. Abin Sur crashes and seeks out Hal. Hal suits up and goes and stops a plane from crashing. As a true hero he immediately tries to tap Carol but Hector Hammond (small headed currently) shows up and cocks block him (awww snap).

Comments: This was a great issue. I am enjoying the twist that Secret Origin is placing on the Hal Jordan origin. Good for Johns using Alan Moore to do some real good. I also liked the little Paralax angle that Johns threw in there, way to be consitent. The art is just quality man, I love it. On a serious story note, I think here we will see how big of an unsung hero Sincestro is. Someone is going to have to take down Atrocitus and I'm guessing it is Sincestro since he is the only one that knows whats up. If anything, I think this will become Sincestros story as mucch as anyones and what can I say, I'm a sucker for the complex villain. That is an important distinction that Johns will have to make soon about Sincestro's villainous nature. This will be a great story, I can feel it in my bones, better yet my power ring (I know bad pun, deal with it).

GET IT

New Avengers #40 Review

2008-05-05T18:13:00.000-04:00

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Jim Cheung

Synopsis: The Skrull King is confronted by the religious princess about his adherence to not follow the sacred text. He kicks her ass and exiles her only for years later to be brought back in because the king fucked up. They start planning the invasion and discuss technology. The queen wants to go undercover and asks who can do the most damage, the answer is Spider-Woman.

Comments: The problem I have with this issue is the fact that the backstory of the invasion does nothing for me because I don't care for the invasion. I think Marvel is laying it out there too soon. If they had waited until three issues into SI it would have been a lot more interesting because you would be wondering how things happened. It's a simple of matter of why should I care about this issue now. I'm just disappointed because there is no incentive to care about this now, they would be better served if they wait to reveal the origin behind each replacement after that player does a major action. The art is great though and I really enjoyed and on a technical level it is a solid issue, but as what it does for the story it is quite disappointing. I am also mad about the cover as it is completely misleading.

SKIM IT

Ultimate Human #4 Review

2008-05-03T19:45:00.000-04:00

Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Cary Nord

Summary:
This is the final chapter to one of the best "Ultimate" stories that I have read. It has been well written and self-contained so far, so lets see how this finale goes. We start with Bruce and Tony stuck in a sticky situation. Tony says he can help, but Bruce will always be the Hulk. Bruce fights it, but realizes its the only way to go. He transforms. Hulk attacks Tony, but Tony tells him to go after the guy with the big head. Hulk follows suit. Lots of Hulk smash. Hulk is looking for the man with the big head. Big head tries to control him, but Hulk is just too stupid to be controlled. Hulk kills Big Head. Hulk then jumps away.

Comments:
That was a solid ending to this story. I like how self-contained this story is. You have everything you need in these 4 books. Although it wasn't as crazy good as #3, it was still solid. We get some closure to it, and it doesn't end on a good note. Bruce will never be the same, and Hulk is now set free. I thought the big head guy could have come across a little badder in this issue, because he was basically pummelled and murdered. That is a minor complaint, but it would have been nice to see. Nord does a good job with the art, and the story is well done. I am not a Hulk fan, but this Ellis does a good job with him. Tony is a g of course.

GET IT

Action #264

2008-05-02T13:37:00.000-04:00

Batman and the Legion of Superheroes
Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Joe Prado

Summary:
Johns just finished up his Legions arc thing, so we get to start anew with a new arc. Oh snap, more Legions! But this time its with Batman. He says he wants to take the Legions away from Superman. He walks into the ice fortress and meets up with Lightning Lad and Superman. They don't like each other at all. Batman wants to talk to Superman privately. Batman tells Sup that he can't trust these Legions. Batman brings up the 3 different Legions. They were all bad basically. Batman tells him that he found 2 bodies in Gotham that had Legions flight rings on them. Karate Kid and Duo Damsel. Lad comes flying in demanding answers. Batman tells him to back off. They go meet up with Starboy because he has activated a flight ring in his time. He is in a mental hospital because he has suffered from schizofrenia. He talks about Karate Kid and how there is no cure for his virus. He brings up Danny Blaine. Someones messing with them. Garth plans to leave. He gets along with the Bat a little better this time. Batman departs, but we see who has been narrarating the whole time: the Time Trapper. ooooooo

Comments:
That was aiit. I don't know wtf Johns is saying half the time, but the inclusion of Batman helped. I kind of have a gripe about how he writes Batman. Johns' Batman is really paranoid, much more than Morrisons. I feel like Johns does not understand the character, and hasn't bothered trying. He is a self proclaimed "Superman Guy". This issue was used to hype the Legions of 3 Worlds, which comes much later. It was a fun little read, but the next arc is going to be filler. It warrants a

GET IT

DC Universe 0 Review

2008-05-01T18:32:00.001-04:00

Let There Be Lightning
Writer: Grant Morrison/Geoff Johns
Art: George Perez/Doug Mahnke/Tony Daniel/Ivan Reis/Aaron Lopresti/Philip Tan/Ed Benes/Carlos Pacheo/JG Jones

Summary:
Well this is DC's big apology for the debacle that was Countdown to Final Crisis. They felt nervous that the hype wasn't there, and that a lot of fans were turned off by the suck that Dini whored out. So what do they do? They just use all talent under contract that matters and makes them write a 22 page advertisement. Sounds good to me! First of all the cover is cool, but more on that in the comments. We have a narrator talking about the state of the heroes and the concept of the multiple earths. We learn that in Crisis on Infinite Planets that the multiverse was destroyed. On Infinite Crisis we see that the multiverse came back. Now we are in the Final Crisis. We see Superman fight a dude, and a huge brawl in space between some legions (Johns' big arc later on Action). We have Batman and Joker. Batman wants to know who is after him, but Joker is a sly man. Joker keeps the Bat guessing, but the Batman is not flustered. He tells him to bring his shit. We have Wonder Woman taming a bull, and someone planning on killing her. Who the fuck cares. Ok so they got the cast of 300 to do the job. Better, but I was not a fan of the movie. We got Hal examining a situation, and then we got a splash page of color spectrum goodness. We got the damn Spectre. I think he eats someone. We see a burning body falling to earth. We got the Crime Bible gathering. Libra wants to lead them if they follow their god. An evil God (Darkseid most probably). Then the text box slowly turns red, and has Flash's signal upon it. The One and Only has informed me that Barry Allen is coming back after 23 years.

Comments:
There is a lot to say about this. I doubt I will cover all of it though. The big news we get out of this is that Barry Allen is back. After 23 years, the original Flash (I think) returns. I have read Rokk's blog, and he says that people thought they shouldn't fuck with Allen because his death was really well done or something. Well, they better have a damn good reason why he is back. If Johns does this character, then yay. If Johns writes Flash, that is a good thing, because the current title is real shitty. The 2nd big thing you can surmise out of this is the confirmation that there is a certain evil God up in heaven right now. Its Darkseid folks. He got shat on in CTFC, but who gives a fuck about that. Its like WWE and Chris Benoit. Just erase it from history because it was such a fuck up. Mothefucker. We get a lot of hype for Legions of 3 worlds, Blackest Night, Batman RIP, Wonder Woman Shit, Final Crisis Spinoff Involving The Spectre, and everything else I am sure. Like I said, lots of ads. But quality baby. Morrison and Johns craft up a great read. The narration was fantastic, and the reveal in the end was very well done. Kudos to the 345 artists that worked on this, because it looked great. Actually, it looked just like Infinite Crisis, which isn't a bad thing. The coloring for the Barry Allen text box thing was done wonderfully. The last page was awesome. You didn't need to convince me that Final Crisis would kick ass, but I am sure you have to be excited now. The hype was well done for everything. Too bad no one cares about Wonder Woman. I know that there needs to be gender equality, or some stupid socio-political issue that needs to be addressed in comics. Or i am bullshiting. Take your pick. Bottom Line: no body or their mothers care about Wonder Woman. Bring Hal Jordan to the big 3 because he deserves the spotlight way more than that disillusioned bitch. Ok that is harsh, but I am in full-rant mode because Its like a Friday and I have GTA and everything is good. Get GTA folks. This comic is very good and i feel very comfortable with the state of DCU right now. My only gripe is that they rely too heavily on Morrison and Johns, and while thats all well and good now, they need to develop/acquire the next big writer. Seriously, take Johns and Morrison away and DC is fucked. Fucked up the asshole. There is no depth in DC, but the main event is very, very worthy. Its going to be a good summer of DC comics, and its very exciting. Get this thing because its 50 cents. Its good, but not necessary for everyone. Just on the fence people that need a reason to be excited. This gets a very high

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Dark Knight Poster

2008-04-27T10:08:00.001-04:00

We are all pretty excited about the upcoming Batman and when I saw this poster I couldn't help but become more excited. This movie will probably be the best Batman movie ever made seeing as the Nolans are great directors, Bale is an Oscar caliber actor, word up to Ledger, and Morgan Freeman who is the anchor to the whole thing. This movie is pretty much the event of the summer and I already know it will be good. Dark Knight > Iron Man. There I said it.

Ultimate Spider-Man #121 Review

2008-04-26T22:49:00.000-04:00

Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Artist Stuart Immonen

Summary: Bendis has been an absolute phenom on Ultimate Spider-Man. In all of 2008, this title is looking to be very explosive and could actually become a contender with Captain America and Iron Man. Let's kick off the summary with the statement, you remember that one baby project Peter and Kitty were assigned, well.... Kitty and Peter go to turn in their baby, but it has been burned and destroyed. Thus we are whisked into a flashback of what went down 18 hours ago. MJ is walking to her locker all sad when she finds ice cream and is instantly cheered up (what can't you do ice cream). MJ and Peter are walking to the cafeteria when Kitty runs up and starts yelling. She got kicked out of the X-men and replaced by Liz Allen and shes mad, shes so mad she dumps the baby on Peter and then storms out. The guidance counselor comes to class to talk to them about Liz and calls Flash Spider-Man (good times, good times) and this segways into a tangent of how the health teacher is the prime suspect and his method of sucking in his gut to conceal his identity. The counselor continues to make everyone feel awkward but calling on Kitty and this does not help the situation. Peter then goes to work where JJ is going off on Betty Brant and he isn't cutting back, he goes 110%. Omega Red then attacks JJ but luckily Spidey is passing by and they brawl and destroy the suspect baby. The teacher is staring at Peter and gives him a B-.

Comments: The reigning best Spider-man title in all of Marvel continues to flex its muscles and here is a prime example. This issue is chalk full of humor and it really shows. Bendis has constructed a world here and the way he cites events within the story really make it entertaining. This title has depth that no other title on the market has. I don't think any title has a had a writer as long as Bendis has wrote this title. The humor is absolutely top notch, from the whole Flash being Spider-Man to the way this whole adventure was set up around an explanation of what happened to the baby. The teacher's response was priceless, that B-, she was just throwing a grade out there. This title is absolutely great if you have followed it up to this point as you get more of the humor as characters cite events from the past. If you have not followed it you won't get the same satisfaction but you will still enjoy it. This easily is the best of the week.

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Uncanny X-Men #497 Review

2008-04-25T19:01:00.000-04:00

X-Men Divided (Part 3 of 5)
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Mike Choi

Summary:
I just got my Captain America Omnibus today. Very excited, but too intimidated by paper quality. Holy shit man. We got Logan, Elf, and Petr getting attacked while on a train by a big robot. Brawl insues, but bottom line: Petr gets captured by the robots. Scott and Emma are stuck in dark times (1970's), and Emma is paranoid because she can't be a control freak and look into people's minds. So the heel in this arc is some "Goddess". Scott and Emma get attacked by cops. Scotty blows them away with you know what. We end the issue with Petr captured. Yawn.

Comments:
So the art saved it. It didn't even save it, because it still sucked. Man do I wish this arc ends, because it is pure filler. This is the obligatory post-big-event-filler-arc. I am totally ok with that, but that doesn't mean i can't bitch about it. So this issue sucked because, well nothing happens. So i guess I'll fill up this space with some thoughts. I want to add more puns into my arsenal. I love them so much, but I they only come around once in a while for me. I want more though, so I will experiment next week on it. I'll let you know how it goes. Oh sorry, back to X-Men. Story = sucks........... Brubaker = still kicks ass.

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Batman #675 Review

2008-04-24T17:56:00.000-04:00

Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Ryan Benjamin

Summary: We begin with our Nightwing and Robin fighting a cult Scooby-Doo gang. We cut back to Bruce and Jezebel Jet on a date when she goes off on him for being a phony but Bruce is playing it all cool when the waiter suddenly collapses and some one with 9 eye tats on his finger busts into the scene. He kidnaps her and manages to smack Bruce around. We get a brief clip of Talia, Damien, and Merlyn hanging out at their artic base. The 9 eyed man is taking Jez out and tells his body guards to handle their business but Bruce beats them down off panel and he gets really freaked. Nightwing and Robin are fighting some D-list villain and talk about Bruce's diminishing mental health and how the man is due for a breakdown. Robin takes down the D-list villain and they mention the isolation experiment when they see the restaurant Bruce is at, explodes. The 9 eyed man takes Jez into the kitchen and he is pretty freaked at this point. Talia gets news of what's going down with the 9 eyed man and decides to mobilize because they got a feeling shits about to blow up. Nightwing and Robin bust in and are ready to beat some people down but Bruce has already blazed a path to the 9 eyed man. Bruce is beating him down back when Nightwing and Robin get into the room and Jez figures out that Bruce is Batman.

Comments: What do I say about this issue? First time I read it, I extremely disliked it and manage to get into an argument with Sports God about whether this issue was relevant or not. As i mediated on it during a less than thrilling math class it came to me. This issue is meant to show the toll of all of Bruce's adventures coming down on him. The man at this point has been at it so long that hes finding it harder to come back from being Batman. He carries a huge burden seeing as he has no super powers yet kicks Superman's ass annually. The art in this issue is terrible. It looked rushed and very sloppy. Bruce looks like an ape and seems to gain and loose muscle mass every panel. There are very few good panels and they aren't even average. I'm so glad he was a fill in. Story wise this wasn't the best but I concede that Sports God is right and in retrospect this issue will be important. Morrison is writing this to be a novel and you can't put too much emphasis on any individual issue until you see the final product. I understand that the point of this issue is to emphasize the toll of having to give up all and any chance of happiness you have to complete your mission. I think Batman will come out of this with a new perspective on the mission, whether it is good or bad remains to be seen. This isn't the strongest issue of Morrisons run and the art doesn't help it either. It is worth a read and I think you will have to read this within the context of the entire run.

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Hulk #3 Review

2008-04-24T16:05:00.001-04:00

Creatures on the Loose
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Art: Ed McGuinness

Summary:
This title has taken a hiatus, and is back. The new series started off well, but the last issue was garbage. Hopefully Loeb can bounce back and give us an entertaining read. We start the issue with Tony upset about the carnage that took place last issue. She-Hulk tells him that there is a video with Banner in it. Banner is being interrogated, and he says he can help. He whispers something to a general, and the screen goes black. Tony wants that video. Next, we got Red Hulk fighting A-Bomb. Red Hulk calls him Rick, but that only confuses A-Bomb. They are attacked by booby traps, but Red Hulk smashes them, or something. I am not going to give play by play here, but think Great Khali vs. Mark Henry, with Hulks. Back to Banner, whose prison opens, and then he escapes, and turns green. More monster mash, but Banner shows up, and sets up a fight for the next issue.

Comments:
Not bad, just no substance. Loeb would be such an asset to DC because he has superior skill in writing the Batman. Hulk is not an interesting character to me, and Loeb doesn't do anything to make me like him better. This is just a fun read about a red hulk. It's not even that good, but it was nice to look at. This issue was better than the last one because Loeb doesn't butcher Tony's character as much. Its not great, but

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Iron Man #28 Review

2008-04-22T17:15:00.000-04:00

Written by Daniel and Charles Knauf
Art by Roberto de la Torre

Summary: Here we are in the glorious Iron age. Iron Man has just been phenomenal and single handedly has challenged Captain America for the top spot at Marvel. Can Tony pull the upset and come out on top, will the Mandarin be successful, and will this review ever start? Let's find out. Jack Kooning is about to parachute and attempt his assassination mission. At the exact same time Tony is getting crucified at the UN for basically nuking the Mandarin's old headquarters. I'm not going to lie here, in one of the greatest Tony Stark moments in all of history, he gives a very passionate speech the UN. He has this amazing line about how the courts should not prove Captain America right and punish Tony. In China meanwhile Kooning has failed and is killed by the Mandarin. The UN decides to punish Tony but Maria Hill and Dum Dum come up with the greatest plan in all of SHIELD history. They invade the UN and due to international law no one can do anything about it. Dum Dum takes Tony into a secret underground escape tunnel and tells Tony to finish the fight. Tony suits up and Mr. Stark is off to China. He tracks down Maya and gets the 411 on what is going down. Immediately after learning of what is going he goes off to chase the Mandarin down. They brawl in an amazing action sequence that results in Tony pulling out the rings from the Mandarin's spine and blasting him into another area code. Tony puts jell and o together and figures out a way to stop the virus by using cold weather to kill it. He cuts off part of his ankle and manages to tap into his Extremis powers and stop the virus from wiping out all of mankind. The Mandarin refusing to lose punches some chemical container and freezes himself. Tony passes out and when he comes to Dum Dum is there telling him that he has been reinstated as director of SHEILD, he is on Time magazine, and he has given everyone the proverbial finger. What a man!

Comments: This was the greatest issue that came out that week. Iron Man has single handily become king of the hill of Marvel. Bucky is now playing second fiddle to Tony and his adventures. Tony showed here that he is all heart, everything that has happened in Marvel is meant so superheroes can be superheroes, that is all Tony wants. The dialog is always guarn-damn-teed to be great. The great things they do with the supporting cast is fantastic as well. That plan to take down the UN was just amazing, who thinks of something like that? I'm not going to point out everything good thing about this issue because there are too many and it wouldn't do enough justice to the talented people on this comic. Here is how I will put it, great art, great story, great characters, and this was one of the best story arc endings I have read in a long time.

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X-Factor #30 Review

2008-04-19T11:43:00.000-04:00

The Only Game in Town (Part 2)
Writer: Peter David
Art: Valentine De Landro

Summary:
Ever since the Messiah Complex ended, this title has been going downhill. We start with Rictor still on that crucifix. Monet comes to save him, but she gets electrocuted. We then see who is behind this master plan. The black guy that got kicked out of the Purifiers enlists Arcade's help to kill of Rictor. So I think everyone escapes into this jungle. Then we have Big Mutant being bouled over by a boulder. Get it? Ok that was seriously a line from the book. He somehow gets out of that, only to be followed up by an Asian chick shooting at them. Ok so Rictor didn't escape. He does now though. Back to the jungle. There is an electric fence that blocks the mutants from the exterior. Kaitlin tries to go through, but she gets burned up. Madrox sneaks up near the Asian chick, and finds out she is a robot. He escapes from the jungle, but only to be shot by a Dupe. Turns out its another robot. Big Mutant Man takes care of the robot. So they are in civilian territory, and some ONE people come in. Madrox says they don't have anyone looking out for them. They find the source of all the chaos, and its inside a bar. They find the black guy slouched over. He says the Purifiers took him in when no one else would, thats why he feels so indebted to them. He says when his heart stops beating, the whole place will blow up. We end the issue with him drinking some poison.

Comments:
Well that sucked. This title is going downhill. Messiah Complex seriously fucked this title up, because it was a really strong read before MC. I don't even know what happens half the time, because they just jump around without explanation. I feel the writing is weak, and not having Layla and Rhane and them really detracts from this title. Now they are fighting C-list villains, trying to survive. The art isn't that good, and the story is kind of retarded. You might like this but in my opinion

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Captain Marvel #5 Review

2008-04-18T14:18:00.000-04:00

Orthodox
Writer: Brian Reed
Art: Weeks

Summary:
I read some of the beginning issues of the series, but missed the last one. I enjoyed it for the most part, so lets see what I have missed out on. We start the issue with Ms. Marvel arriving on the SHIELD hellicarrier. Apparently, Captain Marvel is in the negative zone, so Ms. Marvel attempts to go there and find him. The attempt fails because he is not in the negative zone anymore. Now we see that Marvel is being held captive by some Skrulls. Lots of stuff happens here but I will give you the sparknotes of it: Captain Marvel is actually made from Skrull DNA, but has the mind of Mar-Vell. So he thinks like a Kree, but is actually Skrull. Get it? Good. He then takes out a bunch of the Skrulls and escapes. Agent Sante then puts a gun to his head. She threatens to kill him, but the Kree tries to reason with her. He says he is not a Skrull, and his mind is pure or some bs. He says he wants to help save the world. Back on the hellicarrier, Tony, like the good Samaritan he is, assures Ms. Marvel that Captain Marvel is dead. Turns out, there was peace on Earth for a whole 24 hours. This dude is preaching in the Church of Hala. Someone in the crowd freaks out, and turns out they are all Skrulls. Big surprise. That one really took me off guard. Wow. (Sarcasm). Captain Marvel kills some more Skrull ass in outer-space, and comes home to save us all.

Comments:
I was not offended by this issue, but almost. Remember back in Secret Invasion, we all thought Captain Marvel was a Skrull because he caused terror. Well this was kind of a swerve. It was fine though. Good art, decent story, kinda sappy, anti-Ironman, and Secret-Invasion-tie-in. That pretty much sums it up.

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Captain America #37 Review

2008-04-16T18:01:00.000-04:00

Act 3- The Man Who Bought America (Part 1)
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Steve Epting

Summary:
I am very excited about this issue because the last one was pretty much awesome. Let's see if they follow up on the Steve Rogers situation. We start the issue with Red Skull observing an American celebration. He comments about how he will crush them and their spirit. We go to Senator Gordon Wright on the news, who announces a 3rd party to run for president. Back to Skull, who is with Faustus. He is watching Cap on the news. He says that he won't be the only stripling to wear that flag. Foreshadowing maybe? We go to Sam and Tony. Sam is grilling Tony about making Bucky the new Cap. He says that he doesn't trust him to uphold what Steve stood for. Tony is like Steve wanted me to take care of Bucky and have a new Cap. We go to Bucky who is working out on a rooftop. Hawkeye finds him and attacks. Hawkeye also has problems with Bucky being Cap because he doesn't trust the guy. We go to Sharon who is trying to follow up on the Steve thing. She says she wants to get Steve and herself out of there. We go to a flashback with Bucky. He is in WW2 with Steve. Bucky is acting silly, wanting to use the internet to warn his girlfriend and stuff. Then, Steve says he is going to want his shield back, and he says say something in Russian. Really weird scene. Back to present time. Bucky is going to get a snack, and Sam appears. Sam clearly disapproves, but agrees to work with Bucky to find Sharon. Back to Sharon, who finds a body bag thing. Steve Rogers walks out, and he doesn't know his name or anything. Sharon says you aren't Steve, but the man says he is, and asks who she is.

Comments:
This was another great issue from Mr. Brubaker. He continues to crank out great stuff, and moves the storyline along well. The One and Only said that he thought the issue was "weak", but i disagree after reading it. It isn't as action-packed as the other issues, but there is enough plot movement and character work to suffice. Brubaker does an excellent job invoking political tension in this issue, as well as the series. The Red Skull is really a menace, and he has a crazy plan going on to take over the world. This isn't some half-assed and shallow scheme (coughDINIcough), but it is really well crafted and well built up. You have to understand that Brubaker, as well as many other writers, make issues for the trade release later. That is why they are so meticulously crafted. With that in mind, this is such an excellent title, and definitely my favorite from Marvel. The artwork, the story, and the characters are really what this title is all about. If you don't read this, then you are just an idiot. The flashback scene was really out of place and threw me off. I had no idea what happened in that 2 page span. Other than that, pretty great stuff. Brubaker is making Bucky out to be someone who has to earn people's respect, because he sure as hell isn't getting it from Steve's old pals. The Steve Rogers situation is still interesting, but we didn't get many answers in this issue.

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Justice Society of America #14 Review

2008-04-13T19:16:00.000-04:00

Writer Geoff Johns
Artist Dale Eaglesham

Summary: We start off with the Sandman waking up because he has a bunch of nightmares and can't sleep unless he solves the crime. Power Girl walks in and asks him to check on this Gog fellow. We cut to Gog who is trying to kill a fourth generation god because Gog is a third generation Gog and hommie don't play that. He tries to off Infinity-man but the dude takes off. The JSA is having a meeting and discussing why Gog is a threat as KC Superman breaks down what will happen in the future if they let this Gog fellow continue his right wing militant spree. Gog happens to break in sporting a Sandman on his little spear and they all start brawling. Gog is taking people down left and right but Alan Scott decides to suit up and go to work.

Comments: This arc finally kicks into high gear. I'm not going to lie, I skipped the last couple of filler issues so this storyline is moving along at a fast pace for me. I'm wondering though when did the rooster get so big. It was not that big three issues ago, so someone needs to run what happened by me. I liked the art in this issue which was solid. I am not an expert on the society so i can say a lot about the knowing whether the dialog was spot on or not but it seemed to work. I can't say whether I really liked or hated this issue because I really don't care about these characters but I will say that I am enjoying the story.

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Green Lantern Corps #25 Review

2008-04-13T17:57:00.000-04:00

Writer Peter Tomasi
Artist Patrick Gleason

Summary: So we had a two month break from the main GLC writer but now he is back and after the last crappy arc I am willing and proud to settle. So we pick up on the ringquest storyline and for those of you who don't remember it, Mongul decides to collect power rings. There you go, so we pick up with our villain a field of plants. These are the same plants that he uses every couple years to trap them in a fantasy world where they live out their fantasies but have the life drained out of them. Hes loading up on them for some reason beyond the reader [sarcasm]. We spend a majority of the issue seeing various green lanterns pulled out of situations to go see the smurfs in a big meeting. We have a brief clip of a deformed alien who gets selected to join the SC when Mongul bursts in sporting a ring for every finger. Mongul then bullies him to be a minion. The smurfs feel in the green lanterns and telling them they are going into a forbidden sector to collect some SC rings. They split up and start taking some bitches down. Mongul then makes his move and takes down Ion and Marissa using the evil plant things.

Comments: It's good to finally have a good writer on this title. The last arc really blew, really blew, as a matter of fact it blew so hard it destroyed New Orleans. I like what they are doing with Mongul making him relevant. He is gearing up for something big which is kind of nice. I like build up. One negative is the art though, it goes in and out and it isn't like New Avengers art which I do not enjoy at all. I also got a problem with Mongul using that damn plant to take out more people. It's like Umaga and his damn thumb, every freakin time, not cool man not cool. Mongul needs a new game plan, I mean come on this is just getting old. Its like a yearly ritual. I will admit though, when Mongul is on the panel he steals the show. I like his loading up on ring approach, fight fire with more fire, always works. This is a moment dominated issue but is weak as a whole. It shows flashes of potential and I have faith that the story will pick up. On that note it is worth a read.

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The Last Defenders #2 Review

2008-04-12T13:55:00.000-04:00

The Breaks
Writer: Casey
Art: Giffen

Summary:
We start the issue with Tony yelling at the Defenders for being terrible. They caused a lot of collateral damage, and they didn't get the job done. The Defenders complain that they had no idea they would face a giant monster, but Tony doesn't care. They tell they're story about how they fought the big flying bird monster. First, they launched Skull into it. That didn't work. So next Colossus gets burned up, because the bird breathes fire. The bird got down by Skull burning it's eyes out, and it went crashing through a casino. Tony, who is incredibly irritated, disbands the team. She-Hulk walks out, and Colossus leaves gracefully. We go to the past of the leader, and we learn that he had a relationship with this one guy that told him to be a hero. Back to the present, the leader is moping around. A homing beacon kicks in and he found the location of an enemy. She-Hulk rejoins him, and they go off to the place. We go to the place where Jaoquin is held captive. They try to have a quiet entrance, but She-Hulk is a loudmouth. They find themselves in a bad situation, but Jaoquin comes and bails them out. She-Hulk and Nighthawk are still arguing. They get stashed away in a secret place. Jaoquin says that his team members got shot, and his head got grazed so he would be a good captive. He escaped and has been working to take them down. Hulk and Hawk are still arguing. They eventually get into a real fight. Jaoquin breaks them up with a high pitched whistle. He says that the white supremacists plan on building a big weapon (the Madbomb) that will tear the country apart.

Comments:
This is just a small-scale title, and is not meant to be taken seriously. It is just a story of a rag tag team built together to protect New Jersey. Thats funny. They got disbanded because they just wreaked havoc last time they fought an enemy. Casey is trying to give Nighthawk a kind of push to being a D lister from being a U lister. He is shown to be noble hearted, but with a confusing background. It was fun to see him and She-Hulk trying to coincide, while also trying to rescue someone. It didn't work out too well. This issue was fun to read, and set up the plot well.

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Fantastic Four #556 Review

2008-04-11T13:18:00.000-04:00

World's Greatest (Part 3 of 4)
Writer: Mark Millar
Art: Bryan Hitch

Summary:
We start the issue with the CAP that escaped in the last one. He kills 3 or 4 people on his way to an air force base. We go to a command station, where people are panicking. Someone decides to gather a large superhero presence so that CAP will come to them. We go to Johnny, who has a million people at his house setting up stuff for a reality show. We see that he banged the villain from the last issue. We go to Sue, and Allysa comes flying through this room. Reed is gone, so she wants to gather all of the Fantastic Four. So the battle with CAP insues. We learn that CAP took out 40 of the largest superheroes. The F4 start fighting with the big monster robot, but nothing is working. Ben is too small, flames don't hurt, and Sue's force fields are being broken through. It is about to kill Allysa, but she installed a mechanism in it that prevents CAP from hurting her or her husband. CAP throws Ben into a lake. CAP deactivates all the weapons there, and is about to teleport to Russia. People are panicking, but not to worry: Reed is on his way!

Comments:
This was a really good issue. I am not really into monster heels (i.e Hulk), but the other stuff in this issue made up for it. CAP is just way too strong though. If it took out 40 of the biggest Marvel superheroes, how is the Fantastic Four going to stop it. Better yet, Millar sets it up to where Reed is the one to stop this thing. This better be good, or this book will lose major cred. I liked the stuff with Johnny, because it exemplified what his life must be like. Good stuff there. The art is nice looking, and the dialog is well crafted.

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Booster Gold #8 Review

2008-04-10T13:43:00.000-04:00

Blue and Gold (Chapter 3- Freedom Fighters)
Writer: Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art: Dan Jurgens

Summary:
Booster Introduces the issue with the cardinal rule of time travel- don't mess with the past. He says that messing with the past can drastically mess with the future. We see Booster, Ted, Hawkman, and Green Arrow making their way to the Resistance hideout. Booster and Birdman's personalities quarrel for a while. They go to the hideout and see that it is made up of Wild Dog, Anthro, and Pantha. Ted says that they are so dead. We meet all of the characters, and Hawkman has the plan to take Ted's jet, which is undetectable from OMACs, and fly right into Max Lord's castle. Booster thinks the idea is crazy because Max has a secret weapon- Superman. We see Max Lord telling Superman to kill, but he can't. He says he will eventually break him, and have full control over him. We go to Rip, Daniel, and the reporter. Rip says that they found Ted's chronal residue at the end of time, so that is where they are going. Daniel and the Reporter don't want to go. We go to the bad guys. Some of them want to get rid of Rip, but Black Beetle says killing Booster is the primary goal. Supernova says that they must get rid of Booster before he realizes his true destiny. Supernova says kill Rip, save Daniel and the girl because they need to mate. Supernova gets this gorilla to destroy Rip's lab. Back to the ship. They are going about, and Booster still thinks its a bad idea. All of a sudden, Superman missles into the ship and kidnaps Anthro. They break into the castle and Hawkman makes a lot of noise. They get confronted by the cronies. This one chick stabs Arrow with a dart, and he turns into an OMAC. He kills Hawkman. Wild Dog starts firing away, killing Pantha. He does this because Max Lord has taken control of him. He eventually kills himself. Max shoots Ted in the arm, and wants to know all about time travel. Booster takes Ted and runs. All of a sudden, Superman comes back into the fray. Ted activates a boom tube, and they end up in the decomissioned HQ of the Justice League. They decide that they need a large number of people to take down Max. Booster says that they should get the old Justice League International back together.

Comments:
That was a really good issue. Finally we see the plot unfolding for this title. We started off with a bunch of stories, but now we see a well constructed plot being put together. I enjoyed the different characters in this issue. Wild Dog was great, always wanting to shoot his gun and stuff. Someone should give him his own title. Katz and Johns did a good job showing the disunity in the group members, and how it eventually led to their downfall. They did it in a way where it didn't hurt Booster and Ted, but just heightened their resolve. Max is a serious little fucker. He will do anything to be in control. The bad guys are really good here. Supernova is a serious bad dude. I am looking forward to seeing his role in this picture. I liked the end when Booster wanted to get the old gang back together. We didn't know exactly what happened to them, so it was safe to assume that they were still around. Now they are going to be brought into the picture. Dan Jurgens dishes out some good art.

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Nightwing #143 Review

2008-04-05T18:34:00.000-04:00

Written by Peter Tomasi
Art by Don Kramer

Summary: Nightwing has been a controversial title for me. I don't think he can carry a title by himself. He is stuck in a weird place. It would be bad for his character to go back to being a sidekick but at the same time I can see validity in it. This new writer though is at least making think twice so lets get into it. Our heroes are cruising somewhere over the African ocean in the bat-plane. Robins riding shotgun and Nightwings running the show. They are sitting there joking around and arrive at their destination. The plane goes into sub mode and they go Navy Seals all up in this bitch and get to the island. They are trying to find the guy who is been messing with the dead bodies and they tracked him to this island. They do some reconn and get Red Arrow to give them a lay of the land. Once they figure it out they jump some guards and break into the secret lab. They beat up some more people and decide to split up to end all this. So the evil professer X, best way to describe the villain, is killing some of his creations because they are self aware and aren't completely committed to his cause just yet. Nightwing discovers a little evil place where they got tubes of people which is never good, he radios to Robin who immediately gets jumped by a ninja and the evil Professor X goes off on an evil tangent. He seeks the birdmen on Nightwing in a fight that spans the entire base. They get to the incenarated room and he convinces the birdmen to switch sides. Professor is ready though and starts pushing the button that makes their heads explode. Nightwing frees Robin and then the birdmen pull another heel turn and start helping Nightwing again. The Professor is ready to go at this point and takes off in a rocket ship, to which Nightwing and Robin try to hold on to but can't and they fall in the ocean. They then swim back to the Bat-sub.

Comments: I still have mixed emotions about this title. The issue itself reminds me of Casino Royale with he whole back to basics approach featuring action. This issue succeeds in being action packed and all but I got several reservations. There was a bit too many clinches like the rocket ship escape, I mean seriously come on now. Nightwing just seems to be like a glove that different writers try on. Sometimes he is actually superheoring in NYC, other times hes around the world, and then the rest of the time hes playing the 2 to Batman's 1. As they say if the glove don't fit you must acquit. Ok that doesn't really work there but Nightwing has been the best he can be in a long time and this could turn around. The chemistry between Robin and Nightwing is great, they work really well together. The cover also looks really good to me. I don't know why but it just appeals to me. This was a pretty good issue and its worth it. Quick sidenote, I'm watching the Rick Ross Speeding video on youtube, I gotta say, I'm impressed with Rick Ross's athleticism at the start of the video, its pretty amazing.

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Detective Comics #843 Review

2008-04-05T17:53:00.000-04:00

Written by Paul Dini
Art by Dustin Nguyen

Summary: Detective Comics has been off for a bit as Dini has been currently bombing on Countdown. He is back this issue and we continue along. We start off with Batman saving a janitor from an exploding volcano (#1 cause of work related accidents). He runs down the Penguin and accuses him of making the volcano go off to shut down the rival club. He denies it. Meanwhile the owner of club volcano is in Vegas trying to get Zatanna to perform. After some intense banter he agrees to do it and the next thing we know Bruce Wayne is on stage about to be killed by some magical trap. He and Zee whisper back and forth about whether there are any shady characters in da club (fiddy cent joke). After the performance Bruce is introducing Zee to some of Gotham's finest and they get asked if they are more than friends. Bruce gives one quick no. The club owner is getting shaken down by Scarface in the backroom while this is going on, some fyi there. So Zee and Bruce are chilling at the bar and she brings up that topic about them going out. She says she was surprised about the time when she was shot that he hang out by her bedside before tracking down the Joker and shes open to the option of them together. Conveniently enough gun shots are going off and Scarface has made his move. Zee tries to fight them off but they manage to kidnap Bruce, the club owner, and get away. While in the car the ventriloquist recognizies Bruce and snaps out of her crazy phase. She is Peyton Riley and was engaged to one of Bruce's friends, she manages to get all that out before Scarface comes back to life and starts pumping bullets into Bruce.

Comments: This is kind of out there but how does the puppet fire a gun. In the picture u see his little hand pulling the trigger but hes a wooden dummy and usually u can't control their hands only their mouth. That is something to think about. The art in this issue was very square. Not as good as it has been but still gets the job done just very square.... Storywise I liked the character development between Bruce and Zee. Dini is kind of obsessed with her but he writes a damn good Batman and a damn good Zee so its cool. Over the course of Detective he has been building towards it so it doesn't feel forced which is a plus. One criticism is of Scarface. She or he depending on which one the reader considers Scarface which in this case I consider it to be the lady behind the puppet so she, has been around too damn long. Batman should have caught her a while back, this is just really asinine that a white woman like her could really do all this. The guy beats up Superman once a year and can't take down a white woman with a puppet, not cool man not cool. This is a delightful issue though, you are basically paying for the conversation between Zee and Bruce so check it out.

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Cable #2 Review

2008-04-04T15:54:00.000-04:00

War Baby (Chapter 2)
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Art: Ariel Olivetti

Summary:
We start the book with Cable and Bishop feuding. Bishop is intent on getting that baby. He has these octopus tentacles that choke out Cable, but the locals arrive in time. They tell Bishop and Cable to leave (with the persuasion of shotguns), and that is pretty key for Cable because he is losing blood from the gunshot last issue. We get a little flashback as to how Bishop sports that bionic arm. He got his arm sizzled off by Sunfire in the past. We see a little remix of the final chapter of MC here. Bishop shoots at the baby, Cable teleports, and the shot hits Xavier in the head. Bishop states that the only thing that kept him alive is knowing the baby is still out there somewhere. We see Bishop going to Forge to get his bionic arm that lets him teleport to the future. So Bishop starts jumping around, looking for Cable. He finds a milk bottle in the ground, and he knows that Cable is in this time stream. He asks the locals and finds out that he was here. After a bunch of trys, he finally finds Cable, and it goes back to the first scene of the book. The locals are still shooting at the mutants. Cable can't teleport now. He is stuck there in that shitty situation and Bishop is about to throw a semi at him.

Comments:
This was an ok issue. I like how Cable is getting some attention. Back in the day, I used to read Cable and Deadpool for the Civil War tie-ins. That was terrible. Cable is pretty much a man here. The highlight of this book was how Bishop was used. He ambushed Cable in the last issue, no one knew how he got there. I like how they spent this issue showing how Bishop got to that position. It was really well done. Nothing too much to say here. It is still very unclear how the baby plays into this. It is definetely a big deal though, so I am interested to see how that plays out. I don't think we will get the answer in this title though, so it won't get that kind of push.

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Secret Invasion #1 Review

2008-04-03T19:10:00.000-04:00

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Leinil Yu

Summary:
We start the big event year's ago on the Skrull homeworld. It has been destroyed, and the Skrulls are going back to the Queen. Back to the present. Tony is going to tell us how he knows that the Skrulls have taken over this world. We see that Elektra was a Skrull. She is laid out, in Skrull form with her Elektra gear. Tony shows Pym and Reed this, and he says he doesn't trust them. We go to SWORD, which is a space station. They oversee a Skrull ship headed to Earth. I am not sure what time period this is in but just hang with me here. They call for Tony. Back to the Skrull-Tony scene. Tony receives word from SWORD that a Skrull ship has landed. Tony leaves to check out the scene, but he doesn't clue in Pym or Reed about it. Tony calls Spider-Woman and tells her whats up. Woman goes and tells Luke Cage of the Secret Avengers. Luke tells his crew they are going to raise some hell. Secret Avengers just jack Tony's Quinjet. Tony is just incredibly pissed by this predicament. Off to Savage Land. Dinosaurs attack the Quinjet. They luckily escape and track out on the Savage Land. They get to the ship, but the Avengers arrive too. Lots of tension between Luke and Stark. Luke ends up opening the ship. Just as he does this, the bigshot SHIELD hero on SWORD turns out to be a Skrull. He blows up SWORD! Tony gets plastered in jelly. The Butler of the Avengers is a Skrull. Shit just hit the fan here. ALIEN VIRUS DETECTED just goes off on all SHIELD stuff. Skrulls everywhere. Just kidding. But seriously, everything goes to hell. A prison holding villains gets opened up because of this virus thing. Everything goes to hell, seriously. I think Captain Marvel just revealed himself as a Skrull. Not sure though, but he did break into Thunderbolts Mountain. Sue is a Skrull. She goes into the Baxter building and opens up the negative zone. Ok so i am very lost here. A bunch of heroes (Cap, Wolverine, Tony) come out of the ship. They talk human, and they know who they are. The other heroes look on in bewilderment. Agent Brand, who is floating around in space, calls for help. A ton of Skrull ships come on in to Earth. Back to the lab. Reed figures out how to detect the Skrulls. Just as he makes this astonishing discovery, Pym blasts him in the head, and reveals himself to be a Skrull.

Comments:
That was a very fun issue. Nothing really too structured here, just a lot of chaos. I don't think we learn anything too significant. Pym is a Skrull. The Avengers Butler is a Skrull. Sue is a Skrull (or maybe not). Captain Marvel might be a Skrull. The whole fight between the SHIELD guys and the Secret Avengers was a bit distracting, but it was fun. I really was entertained by all the things that happened. I was totally against this Skrull thing like a year ago. I thought they were lame and they didn't do anything to pique my interest. BMB is really going to make Secret Invasion a fun read. I am looking forward to all of the issues. The art is fantastic. Like seriously, this is some of the best art I have seen. I guess all of the Big Events get big time artists, and Yu is definetely a big time artist. It is not really clear what happens with the Skrulls. It is clear that they are smart and they are intent on taking over the Earth. The whole scene where all the heroes come out of the ship confused the hell out of me. I have no idea, I'm just going to go with it. This is just a set up issue, so you can't really expect too much, but i was satisfied.

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Ultimate Human #3 Review

2008-03-28T17:34:00.000-04:00

Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Cary Nord

Summary:
We start with Mr. Wisdom talking to the Director of Intelligence. He wants a promotion, but the promotion can only be handed in by the Deputy Chief. The D.INT will be the new Deputy Chief, and tells Wisdom that he is going to stay on the project for another 2 years. That makes Wisdom suicidal. Wisdom meets the Special Selection guy. He says that the Deputy Chief is going to screw him unless they kill him. Then he goes on to say that they need to worry about the Bruce Banner because he can tear up half the country without trying (they are all British). They are worried for Britain's security, and they don't want to piss off Stark. Wisdom goes into the office of a top boss. The boss says he is approving the European Defense Initiative, and that makes Wisdom mad. Wisdom comes back and proposes a British Enhencile Program. This is basically making superheroes for Britain to protect them. He says stuff like they could have found Bin Laden in 4 months and stuff. And more importantly, this program will protect them against the Hulk if it becomes necessary. The higher-up tells him he has a month to prove that his program can exceed the Euro Initiative Program. Wisdom tells Dr. Stagg to get his shit ready for testing. He says that he will be the recipient of the Enhancile procedure. Wisdom goes to the testing site. He gets strapped in to the machine, and figures out he is going to be stabbed with 6 large needles. He gets stabbed. We go back to the British intelligence office, where the large headed guy from the first 2 issues comes in. That is Wisdom. The supersoldier serum just gave him a big head. He kills Stagg with some ability. The higher-up gets security and tells him to go and hide because if he doesn't, he will get shot. Back to the present, where Wisdom tells Stark and Banner to give him their blood. He says they will be dead soon, and calls himself the Ultimate Human.

Comments:
That was a great issue. I got really confused in the beginning with all that government intelligence jargon, but it really cleared up later. So the whole thing was a backstory. I didn't know who "Mr. Wisdom" was, but it as clear he is a disillusioned nationalist. He wants British to be on top, but he also wants to be the one to be on top. He starts out being all about Britain, gets shot up with drugs, grows a big head, gets exiled, and becomes a villain. This was a really nice issue if you follow the series. We didn't know who this big headed guy was in the first 2 books, but it all becomes clear at the end. That ending was sweet, and how he pronounced himself the Ultimate Human was really cool too. I always wondered who was the Ultimate Human. I thought it was the Hulk because he turned gray and shit, but who knows. This was a very good read.

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Legion of Superheroes #40 Review

2008-03-27T19:54:00.000-04:00

Enemy Rising (Part 1- Headlong Into Darkness)
Writer: Jim Shooter
Art: Francis Manapul

Summary:
We start the issue with Shadow Lass fighting a monster. She stabs him, but the monster keeps coming back for more. Brainiac 5 comes to help her, and tells here where to cut him. She cuts the monster down and kills it. We go to Lightning Lad, who just wakes up and figures out his 7 am meeting was canceled. it is 8:14 am. We have a broohaha in the main room with all the legionnaires talking. The crew from the planet they were in comes. Timber Wolf is freaking out and hitting things. We learn that Saturn Girl had to control Wolf's mind, which is a felony apparently. This causes a ruckus with the legionnaires. Lightning Lad steps up and just wails on the 2. He tells Wolf to get control of himself and tells Saturn Girl to never invade anyone else's mind. Lad and some other legionnaires go chill out in a room. Lad says that they will get to the matter at hand after some coffee. Princess joins the fray. Just then, a bunch of people head up to the Legion's Tower. Some bio-tech people and electricians come up, much to Lad's dismay. We find out that the Princess is being sued. We go to another room, with the top people in it. Brainiac fills them in on some space jargon, and they all get to it. We go to the training center, where Lad is taking some target practice. The sister comes in and tells him that he handled himself well, and that the Legion needs a strong leader. We go to a space sector with Karate Kid. He is doing some useless garbage. Phantom Girl, too, is not finding anything. We have Invisible Kid going to someone's house and telling them how tight her daughter is. Turns out, she was in jail and escaped. Invisible Kid goes to check out some computer stuff. He says all of the city's deflectors are down except for one. Someone approaches. We go to Princess with a set of judges. The judges tell her to renounce her throne, and she refuses. The judges explain that the U.P needs a ton of cash, so they sued the hell out of Orando. Princess walks through the streets very angry and upset. We end the issue with Saturn girl getting out of the infirmary. To be honest, I am watching the UNC game and not really paying attention, so i have no idea what the fuck happened at the end.

Comments:
That was a solid issue. Despite my distracted state, i still felt good about this issue. It is tough to follow because there are so many characters, but that is what makes it fun. I appreciate that Shooter is developing Lad into an able leader. His scene with Timber Wolf and Saturn Girl was good, and it was supplemented by the scene where his sister backs him. I don't really understand why everyone is running around the universe, especially when every scene that happened in resulted in nothing constructive. But i still had a good time reading it. The art is really good.

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All Star Superman #10 Review

2008-03-26T17:30:00.000-04:00

Neverending
Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Frank Quietly

Summary:
I just got a little heads up that this issue kicks ass, but lets see for ourselves. We start the issue with Superman helping out little children in Africa i am guessing. We see Kal-El talking to his computer about his last testament. He says that he has to do 12 tasks that bring him close to his death. He has done 7 of them so far. We see people in Kandor carrying about their business. I think the city is in a bottle. Well, Superman turns Quintim into a miniature version of himself so he won't be affected by the gravity of the bottle city. Quintum is at a meeting with the bearucracy to discuss how to de-maniaturize the people. He says he has a solution. We go back to Superman's monologue, where he talks about he couldn't imagine a world without Superman. He created an artificial world without Superman to see how it goes. We have Superman back on earth, and a giant robot heading his way! Louis and Superman team up to demolish the robot. Then, Louis asks Superman why they never talk. She reveals that she knows that he is suffering from solar radiation overdose. We see Superman leaving the scene to save a girl from jumping off the roof. Back on Kondor, they are debating on whether they want to leave the bottle or not. Then, the Kondor Emergency Corps comes up and says they have a plan for saving Superman. Superman is slowly dying as his skin is deteriorating. Superman goes to Lex and tells him that he is indeed dying. He gives Lex 3 weeks to do whatever to the world. All of those plans he had that he couldn't do because Superman was around. Well, he has 3 weeks to do whatever before they execute him. Superman tells him that he knows he has good in him. Superman breaks open a box, and figures out that his 8th challenge is solar intelligence systems. We go to Superman and a Professor. Superman gives him his entire gene sequence and instructions on how to combine human DNA with Kryptonian DNA. We find out that the Emergency Corps could not help Superman beat his disease. Being the class act he is, he goes back to the hospital to give the dying children the Kandorians so that they can get better. What a man. We end the issue with going to Earth-Q (the one without Superman), and we see an artist drawing Superman.

Comments:
That was a fantastic issue. I love DC's All Star series. It is some of the best stuff around in comics. Where AS Batman is all about ridiculousness, jokes, and fun, AS Superman is just a very well crafted story. This book has everything you look for in a comic- dialog, plot, characters, and intrigue. I love how Morrison deals with all of his characters. He makes Superman just come out like a champ. The reader legitimately gets behind the character. Reading this, i was pretty depressed that Superman was dying. That might seem like bullshit, but Morrison really makes Superman seem like a genuine human being that cares about people (that scene with the dying hospital kids was excellent). Superman is also a man that really looks for the good in people. In this issue, he tells Luthor to do the right thing, because he knows there is still good in him. We see Superman giving over invaluable information to a common man, just because he trusts his nature. The whole death of Superman thing was done really well. The end was great, as he just reminisced all the things that are important to him. I can't really find any fault with this issue so you should definitely

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The Brave and the Bold #11 Review

2008-03-25T17:24:00.000-04:00

Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Jerry Ordway, Bob Wiacek

Summary: The Brave and the Bold is a fun little title that DC puts out. It is a fun little title about superhero team ups. It starts Metamorpho who is being possessed by an alchemist (makes sense), he has just taken Green Lantern's lantern and combines with it to make a super terrorist guy. He takes out some time travelers with much ease. At the Daily Planet some bastard is pranking Clark by putting cheese and Olsen is about to snitch (nobody likes a snitch mmmmkay). Clark has just grown a pair and kicks some ass and breaks some wrists. He makes out with a blonde reporter then goes into the broom closet to change into Ultraman (what a twist). Superman happens to be hanging outside the window and they start brawling. It turns out that the alchemist is getting ready to do some real shit and the MXYZPTLK sent Ultraman to help Superman end this threat. They are flying towards the sun because his base is there but the super Metamorpho terrorist guy turns it green and Ultraman and Superman are screwed pretty hard, like prison sex hard.

Comments: I like this title is because it is a fun issue. Not much here. They have solid art, solid dialog, and it is all around a good time. Not much to say other than...

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Countdown #06 Review

2008-03-25T16:43:00.000-04:00

Writer: Adam Beechen
Artist: Mike Norton

Summary: We are having such a great comics week that I felt it is necessary to start posting reviews of some crappy comics. Face it, we're due so here it is in all its glory, the Countdown to nothing review. This issue is meant to be the start of the Great Disaster and it begins with a thud. The story is told without dialog and is all narration boxes. Just a quick note before the review. We start with Buddy walking down the halls recapping what happened. Karate Kidd is died due to lack of Mr Migagee (I miss you Pat) and now they are about to autopsy. They are watching the news and the virus has spread and is infecting some people. They haven't picked up on that and continue the autopsy when the virus pops out and starts attacking them. Green Lantern catches it but it has gone airborne so everyone is screwed. The first city that goes to hell happens to be Gotham because it just happens that way. Kyle brings Jason in and in true inept writing fashion he is written as a complete douchebag. The disaster really hits home when female scientist #2 goes crazy and takes out random scientist guy #5. Ray's stressed out, Mary Marvel punches Jason, and Hal takes the virus into space. Buddy decides to fuck it and go home and be with the grandson and daughter. Una decides to tag along and the Great Disaster is upon us.

Comments: The word lame gets tossed around a lot lately and this issue really redefines the word. First how are you going to have something with a name like the Great Disaster and not have any dialog in that same issue. If this is the climax of Countdown they should at least have someone say something out loud. That'd be nice, all I'm saying. Another thing is due to the way this title treats the Multiverse I really don't care whether it lives or not. It seems like it was nothing but cannon fodder. The virus won't spread to the Universe-Alpha or whatever the prime universe is. Look I am going to be straight, bad dialog, ok art, terrible story, don't buy it, move on...

FUCK IT

Robin #172 Review

2008-03-22T16:46:00.000-04:00

The Takedown
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Art: David Baldeon

Summary:
We start with Tim investigating an illegal casino which Violet broke into. We see Robin (I am assuming this is before the first scene) talking to some detectives, who tell him to testify in court on some guys. Robin gets a location of the off-the-books casino and heads over there. He checks out the casino from a vent, and tells some cops to make a move. We see the detectives talking about if they can trust Robin, and the other one assures him that Robin is a chump. Tim calls his girlfriend's dad and tells him that he is sorry that he had fell asleep on the first date. While he does that, Violet is robbing the casino. There is a big shootout. All the guards shoot at Robin, who ducks out and eventually escapes. The GCPD comes in and makes some arrests, while Violet is long gone with the cash. Robin goes after her, and Stephanie hung around back. We see Oswald gleeful about what took place, and says that Robin and Violet are going to die.

Comments:
This was a solid issue. You can't take this issue too seriously, as it is just a light read. Not too much deep thought here, just a lot of fun. Dixon does a good job with Tim Drake, and he uses him better than anyone else I have seen. The plot is very basic, but that is not a bad thing. It has one layer, and it is easy to follow. We get a lot of action from Tim, and there were some funny moments in here. If you don't take this title seriously, it is a very fun read.

Verdict:
GET IT

Incredible Hercules #115 Review

2008-03-20T20:11:00.000-04:00

Glory of Hera
Writer: Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente
Art: Khoi Pham

Summary:
We start the issue with a strike team hoping to strike it rich by blowing up a semi that contained adamantium, but nothing was in the truck. We see somebody let out a the legions of Sakaar out of prison. We go to Amadeus and Hercules, who stole a SHIELD ship. SHIELD officers tell them that missiles are on the way to destroy the ship if Amadeus doesn't discharge the virus he is about to set off. Hercules wants him to shut off the virus, but Amadeus is a bitch and he won't do it. Ares comes out and beats the hell out of Hercules, while ranting about how he doesn't get any love, and how Hercules gets all the glory. Herc eventually finishes off Ares, telling him that he gains strength from men or something heroic like that. He tells a little story to Amadeus about how he destroyed his family out of anger, and tells him that destroying SHIELD is not the right way to go, because it would be done out of anger. He tells him that because he is immortal, no one can stop him from doing the same stupid things, but Amadeus is not immortal, so he should think about his choice carefully. Amadeus conforms. We see the negative zone emptying. Hercules and Amadeus go back to Athena, who tells them to prepare for war.

Comments:
That was an awesome issue. I have really enjoyed this title, and it is one of the better titles in Marvel right now. We get a good mix of dialog and action. The fight scene with Ares and Hercules was awesome, and the dialog between the 2 really added to the fight. I really liked how Marvel is giving Hercules a slight face turn now, since he stopped the virus and all. He is coming across as a people's champ (gains his strength from men or something), and he is a father-figure to Amadeus. Amadeus is such a little bitch its not even funny. I am not sure i appreciate it that much. If i saw him in the street, I would beat his ass for being such a little prick. I am glad he listened to Hercules, or that would make Herc look like a bitch. I don't really understand the ending, or the negative zone stuff, but i really enjoyed the issue because of Hercules. Getting a better supporting cast would push this title over the top. The art is below average to average.

Verdict:
OWN IT