Green Lantern #32 Review

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Ivan Reis

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

OWN IT

2008 NBA Mock Draft (Lottery Edition)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jam Session

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

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

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

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

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

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


Superman/Batman

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

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

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

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

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

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


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



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

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

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

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

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

Take Tro

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

The candidates for the Rated R Superstar Award:

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


The Winner- Wolverine #66

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








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

Trinity #3

The Winner: Trinity #3

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

Superman/Batman #49 Review

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

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

Art: PHENOM
Overall: OWN IT

X-Factor #32 Review

Writer: Peter David
Art: Pablo Raimondi

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

Art: Ballin
Overall: GET IT

The Sports God's WWE Mock Draft

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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