DC Comics Mar 23rd 2011 Part 2

War of the Green Lanterns Part 1: Green Lantern #64:
Quite an explosive blockbuster start. An incredibly large amount set up in the first in the GL crossover event. All of Hal Jordans ring spectrum gang have been absorbed into the book of the black. Which leads to the most random use of the rings I've seen so far...

Ring power librarian!

Krona has resurfaced and brought the entity of each emotion along too. He has each one posses a GL guardian and the yellow entity fly back into the main GL power source on Oa. Which drives all the corps crazy and they start fighting amongst themselves. Which is bad news for Hal as he was been confronted by several GL corps members who where their to arrest him for allying himself with other coloured corps. He escapes with the rings of each of the members that where absorbed into the book of the black. A great rather epic set up to a galactic sized series. I just hope the tempo stays this high across each title during the event!

War of the Green Lanterns Part 2: Green Lantern Corps #58:
Yes it stays just as high tempo through this book too. Plus seen as I aren't an expert on GL stories I was given enough back story in the first couple of pages as I would need to enjoy the book to it's fullest. So thanks for planning for new readers! This book is centric to Kyle Rayner and John Stewart. They manage to remove their rings before they get infected by Krona's influence through the central power battery and Guardian Ganthet helps them escape by allowing himself to be captured.

Don't worry he's 'armless!

Someone give him a hand!

Is he giving you the finger?!

(Delete as appropriate)

Roll on next issue, this story is bloody addictive and well planned. Plus for once it feels like multiple titles with different centric characters is going to work really well.

Also I just realised I must have missed the last issue of Supergirl so I'm going to acquire that and then read it before this one. Oops. Also sorry for the delays in getting these reviews online. I had a busy weekend.

DC Comics Mar 23rd 2011 Part 1

Batman Inc. #4:
What appeared to be a pretty normal comic for Morrison to be writing has just been given his usual nonsensical yet somehow working amazingly well approach. As well as the Batman vs. El Gaucho fight we get a whole back story that is seemingly unrelated, and centric to the previous Batwoman. An apparent love interest in Bruce and Batman's duel lives. As well as El Gaucho's. The current Batwoman is on the case though. It's all Burnham's art straight the way through, but he completely flips his style to look as retro as possible and captures the 60's Batman aesthetic perfectly. The classic imagery combined with the modern story makes for a few laughs.


Great colouring and I just hope Morrison is going somewhere with this U-turn in what was a perfectly normal comic so far. We get hints of an upcoming global threat which is the way I thought the Batman inc. title would be best used anyway. Good stuff.

Justice League: Generation Lost #22:
Beetle's alive! Yay and it's apparently all because of his armour that put him in comatose state while it repaired his bullet wound. Seems this newer beetle's power hasn't been explored as much as the previous have yet. There's plenty of laugh out loud Red Rocket moments as per usual.


I guess in the Power Girl tie in issues she finally got Batman to remember as they both turn up and end up chasing down Wonder Woman to Gotham city where she is investigating the deaths of fellow Amazons. However it's all a trap as Max Lord plans to kill her and his grand plan is fully revealed. His scientist guy plugs him into a machine that allows his mind to take over people from all over the planet and transform them into O.M.A.C.'s. Not a great deal happens this issue, but there is a great deal wrapped up and tied together from previous issues and also a massive end game set up. If this version of the Justice League International doesn't get a permanent series after this finishes then I will cry. Double-y so if it's Winnick writing. It's just so good and fun.

Marvel Comics 23rd March 2011

FF #1:
The Fantastic Four story has come on leaps and bounds recently. Shaking up the normality has served it a lot of good. As has extending the first family and introducing the Future Foundation. The few months leap forward since the last issue of Fantastic was a good decision as well, the last thing we need is more mourning issues. Especially when dead doesn’t mean dead, to comics writers.
The Baxter building has been refurbished and Spider-Man has joined on the request of Johnny Storms hologram/ will.


As well as the Future Foundation with all the protégé youngsters that are now under the guiding wing of the FF, Spider-Man, and Reed’s recently returned father there is also Valeria’s request for her Uncle Dr. Doom to join, which is the cliff-hanger that we are left with. I hope he does join, as it could mean a Magneto like becoming a main player in the good guys team, kind of deal. After all he is way over due for some character development. The plot for the opening arc’s villain starts with Hydra breaking the wizard out of prison to give them new ideas.
As a larger ensemble cast the sense of family is brilliant and the art in the book is still reminiscent of the Bryan Hitch issues, giving it a much more detailed realism. Great series re-launch.


Power Man and Iron Fist #3:
This time the book started off feeling a bit like the movie Rush Hour, with it’s race differences and high joke count. Soon after though this turned into a classic, bonkers evil villain plot as during the silent auction Iron Fist is pulled away and made to bet how many super powered henchmen Power Man can defeat. It’s a bizarre Arcade and Murder world style scenario. He underestimates him but beats the information wagered in the bet, out of Poker Face anyway. Who’s back story is given al the space it needs, yes two panels worth.

Well that's all the backstory I need!

Also if you can believe the villain, it was Jenny Royce who killed Crime-buster. Meanwhile Iron Fists current secretary and love interest is duped into a deal of her own. She is given the Commedia Dell’Morte mask in exchange for detail on some of Rand inc. missile info. She appears to be being transformed or given it’s powers upon touching it. Poker Face escapes with knowledge of where the hidden city that Iron Fist got his powers, is located. This was a great midway issue on a fun series. A very high tempo story but with precision story telling. This is so fast that I really am intrigued as to just haw far it will go in it’s two remaining issues.


Uncanny X-Force #6:
Wow just WOW! This is really how you use a boring character like Deathlok to it’s best.


First Fantomex and Deathlok fight off Deathlok versions of Avengers, then just when they think X-Force has turned up as reinforcements, it turns out to be Deathlok versions of them. After killing the lot and the real X-Force turns up they take the Captain America Deathlok and the World onto E.V.A. and hook him up to find out whom he is and where he is from. I was expecting it to be a clone or a randomer but no, this is the real Cap from the future. An alternate future where the Humans grow sick of Super Humans playing judge, jury and executioner, so they turn them into a mindless Deathlok army. Which allows the Human race to flourish and build a Utopia. Yep so now we have to stop the Utopia of Humanity from coming true in order to save the minority of the Superhero population. This is grade A amazing for X-men comics. This is how you introduce an alternate future and destroy it in a three issue story. Next they head into the world to destroy the creator of the Deathlok virus.

Mar 23rd 2011

This week i'll be buying my comics a bit later then usual, while waiting for pay day on Friday. I will be getting Deadpoolmax #6, FF #1, Power Man & Iron Fist #3, Uncanny X-Force #6, Batman Incorporated #4, Green Lantern #64, Green Lantern Corps #58, Justice League: Generation Lost #22 and Supergirl #62.

My thoughts on this weeks will be up after the weekend again, most likely!

Indie Comics 16th Mar 2011

Morning Glories #8:

This time the focus is on Hunter as he asks Casey out on a date. After realising there is nowhere to go in the school they settle on a picnic. Hunter then asks Jun to tell him when it's time for his date as he has a problem with time keeping, even setting an alarm wont work. You see whenever he looks at a clock, he always sees the time 8:13. Yes this mystery series just got more mysterious. Does this mean each child brought to the school has a different ability? A sort of super power school, or a place to study super powers? Or do each of the kids have a different clue stored in their powers to unlock a something the tutors want? The mystery is usually the best part of these kind of stories. Take Lost for example- the ending wasn't satisfying for most people, considering how it didn't tie each mystery together. So I hope that MG gets that done well.

On the way out to his picnic Hunter is attacked by a bully, Jun's identical twin. So maybe those aren't clones? Then dragged out to a green house, only to be untied and unmasked by the real Jun and find that two of his captors were kiled while he was out. Who did it? Is it Zoe, seen as she murdered someone in cold blood last issue?

Also shown in flashback form is the doctors discovering something wrong with Hunters brain only to be confronted by a mystery assailant with a gun into never telling anyone.

This is intriguing but as always I hope the pay off ties everything up well.

Marvel Comics 16th March 2011

Amazing Spider-Man #656:

The second half of the bizarre hostage situation, and we have a reminder of how ruthless the killer is, and as Spidey arrives we get a reminder that our hero is now without his Spider-sense after the last story line. His web doesn't affix to a wall only it's plaster and he falls into a police car. He's only just realising how big a problem loosing his sense is going to be. Thinking about it, that's probably the only way he's won most of the fights he gets into. I find it rather interesting that in recent years we are exploring each lesser part of Spider-man's powers and weapons. First of all he got organic web shooters to mimic the film- but that didn't last long, then we had the Spider tracer killer- and more and more recently he's gotten back into using them again. A homing beacon he could find using his spider sense, and now he's lost his sense itself, so we get to see just how much he relied on it to dodge every bullet and throw every web. In essence I believe it is his sense that made him a super hero.
So far he's just been shot and used a tracer on the bad guy as he escaped, only to realise he cant follow it. He gets treated by Night Nurse at her secret super hero clinic, both of which were introduced in the Marcos Martin illustrated Doctor Strange: The Oath. In the waiting room a confrontation with Paladin leads to him realising he needs a more armoured costume now.
After a recent press conference J. Jonah Jameson has the opposite kind of revelation to Spidey's recent "Nobody dies" approach. HE is now Zero tolerant on murderers and orders the death penalty on Smythe, the man who killed his wife, and sets off new instructions about the recent Massacre problem, which appears to be the new villains dubbed name. He attacks again downtown, and we get a brief history of the character via Max Modell's new Suspect Identification Software. Spider-man is there in a flash in his new armoured costume, and using new magnetic webbing to stop the bombs radio signals. Saving the villain has been done before, but it's interesting how Spidey has stopped J.J. Jameson's orders from killing him.

Fear Itself Prologue: Book of the Skull Oneshot:

From a book I was unsure whether to buy or not I was actually impressed.

Zemo and the Red Skulls daughter are going through one of his secret lairs to find a book made of Atlanteans skin.

A spell book from during the war, which brought a weapon from the God's to his aid. It is a hammer much like Thor's but clearly not as it is implied that nobody has touched it still and it has been where it landed ever since. We are treated to a pretty light hearted flash back with Captain America, Bucky and Namor on the trail of the same "weapon" only a massive Asgardian Troll came through as well, and they believe that to be the weapon. After it's demise they are unawares as to what the true weapon was. I normally find the WWII stories with Cap a bit of a drag to read through but this was Fairly entertaining. Great art too, which was probably why it felt more accessible to me. I am now looking forward to how this Asgardian weapon will be used and who will wield it during Fear Itself.

Thunderbolts #155

Doctor Strange isn't joining the Thunderbolts after all, instead he and Luke Cage are out to find a permanent magical addition to the team. They are after Hellstrom's sister, Satana. They use Man-Thing to transport them to her magically protected Fortress.

Then do a quick magical switch-a-roo and trick her into think Strange is Cage so he can get close enough to whack a special enchanted T-bolts collar on her so they can control her. She then finds out Man-Thing also cam along with them and says she would have joined them willingly if she knew he was on the team. Meanwhile back in the Thunderbolts tower Songbird is following the orders to assemble, train and lead a Beta team, so when anyone from the main team dies they can be replaced by a partially trained member. Interesting idea, and I'm sure it will read a lot more interestingly the Legion Academy *shudders*. Great art as always, partially stylised and also great use of line and solid shadow.

Uncanny X-Force #5.1

A point one issue half way through a current Deathlok story line makes no sense. Surely if it was 4.1 at least it would have been a better "jumping on point". We are offered no back story, merely chucked into a one part mission to stop Lady Deathstrike and her Reavers from teleporting onto Utopia, the X-men's current home, and blowing it up. Not to kill all mutants but to irritate Wolverine, knowing full well she can't kill him. So X-force attack her in a bar before it happens. I suppose as a jumping on point you merely get to see each characters powers in action, and get a feel for the characterisation of the team. In that respect the story is well crafted at giving each of them a chance to shine.

This panel makes just as little sense in the context of the book.

Of course they accomplish the mission but not before a number of Reavers followed by Psylocke teleport and chase through the streets of Utopia. So you get to see Magneto and Cyclops in action to, which deals with the X-men's relations to X-force. Interesting art too, a much looser feel that is reflected in the colouring and texture application.

DC Comics 16th Mar 2011 Part 2

Knight and Squire #6

The last issue in the series. The Joker, dragging along the terminally ill Jarvis Poker the British Joker, is continuing his superhero slayings.

They've had enough and all the Brits, good and bad team up to send messages to the Joker through the cameras in his mind controlling Joker masks. All to send him to the magical pub where you can't hurt each other. They use their smarts and send him packing back to Arkham. It did kind of tie together full circle, so I will take back my whining about the single issue stories from earlier in the run. I just wish the British depictions, even though they are a joke on how Americans think we are, weren't so awfully grey and stereotypical. It's alright saying they are a joke but EVERY American sitcom and show does the same joke (The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, Arrested Development, 30 Rock and so on and so on) It's not so much a parody now as it is labeling what they should think of us. It's like a given thing in text-book American writing to do a "British" episode or character that is some turn of the century, drinking tea with the Queen, top hat wearing, cockney, Londoner. Bored of it now. I prefer Cornell's Captain Britain and MI13 any day! It's just super heroes in a different setting with an emphasis on our folklore. That's how it should be done.

Superman # 708

Now it's the Flash's turn to feature in the flailing, dying animal that is "Grounded". He is under mind control by some teaching apparatus that beams thoughts straight into peoples minds, and is reciting Kryptonian history whilst dressing up the town in Colorado in Kryptonian dress to match scenes from history. Superman catches up to him and removes the band then they grab a bite to eat in a diner.

There's a nice nod to the Superboy/ Kid Flash race on the diner TV as well. Not to mention bringing back Superman's doubts about the legacy he will leave behind only to have him chat to the Flash about all the people they have both inspired. It's nice when books like this tie the DC universe together as a whole. Really gets you thinking about the actual future of the characters. There are some good moments in "Grounded" and it's never as bad as people say, sure sometimes they act out of character, but this book is all about Superman rediscovering himself. It succeeds at what it sets out to do.

Xombi #1

Lots of humourous bonkers things are happening across the world. It's a warning. The randomness in this issue and the dialogue is perfect. Cents talking to someone from in their hand. Xombi is full of nano machines that seem to be able to do anything. Not allowing his body to waste a single thing and also allowing him to transmute materials. Xombi is asked to guard a prisoner with Nun of the Above. Yes that's her name.

They go to this bizarre miniaturised prison and find all of the prisoners dead minus the one who Xombie was asked to watch, whom is missing. Then they find themselves attacked by Snow Angels and kid's in unconvincing Halloween costumes. Thus making this, by far the most intriguing first issue I've ever read. So weird and yet coherently written plus it's Fraser Irving's art so you know it's good. I urge you to go buy this and read the randomness for yourself.

DC Comics 16th Mar 2011 Part 1

Adveture Comics #524

After being told off last issue the spoiled brat decides he is going to go see what happened to his Dad to have his cards cancelled. So he sneaks off and steals a legion spaceship to go to his home world.

This place should be on an episode of Cribs.

Only to be attacked by some old gang thats back together. Wow these stories are getting dull, it wouldn't be as bad if these were actual legionnaires that are well known but they aren't. It's legion Academy. Think I'll stop buying the Legion stuff now.
The thing that got me interested in Legion comics were the Final Crisis 3 worlds story line, as it was really well done, and the characters shone through. When the newest Legion title started it compromised the immense detail and content of the 3 worlds comic by being a 30-40 page comic each month. That worked as it had a similar amount of content, but what with the cut back to just 20 pages and the branching out into Legion Academy stories in the partner title- Adventure comics, which I couldn't care less about. I dunno it just doesn't have the magic that I liked at first. It takes a lot to stop my from reading a title, but I honestly give up! Might as well drop a few titles to make room for all the Flashpoint and Fear itself.

Batman #708

Azrael's sword wound through Dick Grayson, Batman's heart, is occasionally giving him random flashbacks of warped versions of his own past. He's about to look up the circus performer "Prodigy" online when a bad guy named the Crusader is attacking some street in Gotham, so he rushes down there and teams up with Catwoman and Red Robin to stop it, when Azrael himself shows up showing some sign of control over Crusader. They sprout some bible nonsense about being worthy and then give them 24 hours to prove they are, or all of them will be deemed unworthy. Meanwhile some scientist are putting the finishing touches to a villain called Fireball to make him a living suicide bomber. It's Ra's Al Ghul and his Angels of death behind this test they are putting the heroes through. Plus this continues into Red Robin #22, which I probably wont be getting. As a story the premise was great but then the development and furthering led to complications and as this was the first part of the story I spent most of it trying to figure out where these characters and previous plot points had come from as they weren't recent as far as I can tell. Art is great, loose and yet detailed, reminded me of Paul Pope's Batman story, and the subtle change in colouring makes the artwork ideal for the dreamscape sequence. Probably wont get the next part as with it crossing over I would miss too much of the story.

Brightest Day #22

Firestorm is in the Anti-Monitor's universe where he had been years before for one of the Crisis events.

The white lantern and the 12 black lantern versions of the returned heroes and villains are being confronted by him. It's the usual over doing of splash pages, and cheesy dialogue in an attempt to let us build our own suspense, seen as the story seem incapable of doing so. The black lantern Firestorm kills the Professor and then just as Firestorm is ready to charge in and save Jason's dad, we get the usual flash of white and the lantern saying everything was completed his dad is fine and the Professor stays dead. They've been teleported to the Star city forest and Deadman approaches them, he needs the lantern or the Earth will perish. So yeah more over the top nonsense. Unnecessary fighting leading to an unsatisfying to be continued, formulaic ending. Is that all of the characters done now. A full issue of nonsense each and then can we get on with the story? Please? This better have a good pay off. 26 bloody issues of nonsense. Yet this still has better sales than JL Generation Lost. Where's the Justice?!

Mar 16th 2011

This week I'll be getting Amazing Spiderman #656, Fear Itself: Book of the Skull #1(maybe), Iceman & Angel #1(hmm maybe), Thunderbolts #155, Uncanny X-Force #5.1, Adventure Comics #524, Batman #708, Brightest Day #22, Knight & Squire #6, Superman #709 and Morning Glories #8. Or something like that. Not sure about a couple of them so we'll see.

I gave Iceman and Angel a miss, and bought Xombi #1 purely because my comic book store owner told me there was a character called Nun of the above. Ah-Mazing.

This week I'll be trying out a new way to post. Doing a big post per company and smaller reviews for each issue. So as to stop me from just out-right writing what happens in the book, instead of posting my opinions and actually reviewing things. It should hopefully make posting a lot quicker too.

Venom #1

Continuing straight out of the last 6 or so Spidey issues, and now on his 3rd mission. Flash-Venom is being dropped into a mission where, Jack O' Lantern is testing new weapons on a middle eastern village and has already taken out a squad of Iron-men U.N. soldiers. Again he let's his anger get the better of him and the Venom symbiote takes over again. We get a bit of dialogue between Flash and the Symbiote that proves quite interesting, an internal struggle. He completes his mission but kills the man he was meant to bring in, the only other choice being let the bad guys have him. He gets warned back in the lab that his superior was seconds away from hitting the kill switch. He returns home and gets told off by his wife too who thinks the only reason he could be gone for days at a time is he is drinking again. He clearly cant let her in on the whole Venom operation. There is quite a touching moment towards the end where, we hear about Flash's father's drinking problem.


On the whole this book was a bit of a let down, after reading Dan Slott's version in the main Spidey book. It just felt more fun and believable, whereas this seems forced and the art is less detailed, and more confusing at times, especially the war scenes. You can tell what they were going for but it's more of a swing and a miss. I preferred this story when it was a part of or back up in the main book.

Superboy #5

The First Superboy/ Kid Flash race! Firstly this art is really hit and miss. The faces and all around anatomy just looks plane dodgy in some of the panels yet looks really dynamic in the next. As for the story, Superboy seems too wrapped up in his love life and not really concerned enough about finding this broken silo or escaped parasite. He's annoyed Lori Luthor and broke up with Cassie from Teen Titans, so she hasn't shown up for the charity race. Which I find a really neat idea, I mean how often do you see Super heroes doing this kind of charity event. It seems quite a big deal with the world wide news coverage of it.
During the race Superboy spots the Phantom Stranger outside of Lori's house, and that Psionic lad from the future that came into the book last issue sees an old man in the finish line crowd that we are expected to believe is a big deal. Oh and HA , Krypto the Superdog beats them both, I knew he would from the second Superboy said to him "try to keep up, boy". I do love his expression on the newspaper cover.

Also note Beast boy turning into a dog to tease Kid Flash.

The cliff hanger is that there is some glowing rune stone in Lori's back yard. Yeah that's just riveting. There's no where near enough going on in this book. The pacing and prioritising of the story lines is a tad stupid.

Li'l Depressed Boy #2

"I'm feeling so up, I could do a care bear stare." Seems he isn't so depressed anymore. He realises he doesn't know the girl he's being dating's name after 1 and a half dates. You've got to love the dialogue between the boy and his mate, Drew Blood (cool pun). This really just oozes adorable dorkiness. It's adorkable. Especially the gun fight with the Zombies as the Boy tries to persuade Weird girl that Zombies are cool. Very reminiscent of Spaced. Also there is a great bit were Boy doesn't like using second hand stuff as he's scared someone died in it. It's called the death feeling, and he gets the spider-sense squiggles as he has it. AMAZING.


This is like a love story that has every aspect of nerd culture covered. Like a broader Scott Pilgrim. The pair take their date to the bowling alley next and as Boy is so bad at it they decide to play for style points instead of pins, which is exactly what it sounds like:


Then we finally find out that "weird girl" is called Jazz. I really like this story, and if you aren't intending to buy it I would recommend looking for it online as it is originally a web comic. This book even has pretty decent back up stuff. Fan art, gallery and Little LDB strip is all just adding up to make this even more enjoyable.

Justice League: Generation Lost #21

The death toll for this series has reached 1014 with the death of Blue Beetle. Booster is grieving Beetle's death while Captain Atom is trying to get Ice to say "I told you so" because she was right that people would get hurt. Rocket Red and Fire are dealing in their own ways, Rocket is re-programming his armour and Fire is, well, snogging him. He asks why and she says it's because he makes her smile.

We all love ya, ya crazy Russian!

Captain Atom is starting to have Dr. Manhattan-from-Watchmen-like feelings as he feels unattached from the human race. He no longer sleeps, eats, feels or can die, so he feels he cannot pay for what he's done. During a crisis of conscience, Booster, who is worried about where his role as leader has got them, the rest of the League tell him he's done great. He says that they will keep getting beat until they get the upper hand to beat Max Lord with, when Blue Beetle walks in and tells them they can stop him. Yes the recently decease, shot through the head, Beetle. Firstly, thank gawd because I do love him so. Secondly I hope they were going somewhere with this otherwise the last 3 issues were entirely filler and the pacing is getting dodgy towards the finale. This has been a great series so far, a much better than the Brightest day sister title. I heartily endorse this product!

iZombie #11

So many characters and things going on. Horatio turns up to find Nemia, the head vampire holding his boss captive and with lots of vampire back up too. Gwen is wandering the street she grew up on before she died, with the memories of her childhoods friend's mother in her, after eating her already deceased brain. She just needed to relay a message on to her childhood friend from her mother, but she got angry that Gwen was back to life and not her Boyfriend who also must have died. Also going on at the same time, Spot the were-terrier is introducing his Grampa possessed chimp to his 60's ghost friend, Ellie. She's here to help Spot's Grampa possess something else and not get stuck in chimp form.
Now back to the monster hunter and vampire situation. The Vampires want a truce and don't want to hurt anyone, apparently the earlier murders were a isolated incident by the vampire that turned all of them into vampire's themselves. They agree and as she walks away she says they should be more concerned about the towns vampire problem. Which poses a dilemma for Gwen as she is currently dating Horatio. Gwen has tailed her brother to a comic shop to see him again, turns out he was the chap she walked by in a much earlier issue and kinda recognised. Meanwhile Amon the vampire, was going to teach Gwen how to not loose her memories is meeting in the diner with the local mad scientist, Galatea, about trying to release Xitalu the great devourer and end of al things so that she may bottle his energy. Apparently he has already said no to her, centuries ago.

Allred draws the pale, half-dead look perfectly.

It's what he was made for. The X-tatix's Dead-Girl anyone?

This whole Xitalu thing is an absolute U turn again in the story. When I originally heard of this story I thought I was about to pick up a rip off of Chew, and was only picking it up for the Allred art. It has since, fully enthralled me into a large cast of likable kooky characters and the story is so original and diverse but so well plotted, that I think I'm in for the long hall on this one. I just hope Allred never leaves the title.
Gwen's childhood friend whom is now out of options is approached by one of the vampires to join them. This really just is the perfect supernatural story. It's really light hearted and fun despite it's content.

Farscape #17

Rygel and Scorpius escaped from the Kkore last issue and now they are heading towards the one thing that Scorpius thinks can stop them. Yep it's a solo story for Rygel and Scorpius, I would never have expected that, but then again the show loved the weird alliances. I still love the idea that it was the long deceased Zhaan that told Rygel about the legends of the Kkore, it's just a nice touch to the long time Scaper fans! Plus a typical Rygel moment when he lets Scorpy know that he can work the ships controls 3 days after they set off, because he didn't want to be made to pilot. Laziness at it's extremes. They are attacked by drones and crash land on a water planet, which leads to Rygel saving Scorpies life. Another great twist moment. I often forget that Rygel is amphibian and now I'm having weird flash backs to a kinda odd looking CGI moment where he swam in the show. They make it to a desert island and Rygel has to give Scorpy mouth to mouth- which makes this the second time i've posted about freaky looking characters giving each other CPR.


Scorpius has again kept precise knowledge from those he is with to give them a reason to keep himself alive. Very believable and I actually cant believe how well this continues everything over from the show. Grunchlk rescues them after hearing a distress signal and they are on the way to the big resistance led by Aeryn Sun. But Scorpius tells them they must stop on Delvia first to get the weapon that can stop the Kkore. I do look forward to this title each month, it really does feel like proper Farscape each issue and not just some shoddy cash-in-on-a-TV-show-comics. The art really suits it as well. I'm getting to be quite a fan of Will Sliney on the Eclectic Micks blog. He has an all digital but yet still retro looking style, that captures each character perfectly.

Doom Patrol #20

The Doom Patrol have been evicted from Oolong island and are traveling the USA to find somewhere to bunk. Staying with Super Hip, an old friend of Steele's, which i'm guessing is a nod to a really old book that i didn't understand. They visit the Justice League, Teen Titans, Malcom Duncan's house and Gotham city. Only to find out that they are very unliked and that Batman no longer looks like Clint Eastwood.


When Mr. Trainor turns up, another name from past issues I aren't familiar with. He's come to warn them about a dangerous group that is going to take over the science stuff on Oolong island. Then I guess next issue is the last issue.

Batman Incorporated #3

The art in this book is superb. Such thick black lines, solid shadows and stylised character work. Really good on the eyes.
We get giving a bit of story of some old U.N. superhero team first then flick back to present day to find Bruce Batman and this Mexican motor biker guy saving someone from a typically Morrison villain (parrot on shoulder, insanely coloured and letting loose living scorpion bombs). He dies but his parrot gives away his bosses name.
We then cut to Bruce impressing a lady, who turns out to be a villain called Scorpiana, and fake girlfriend of the El Gaucho guy, Bruce came here to recruit. The El Gaucho guy thinks that Batman is impersonating Bruce and not that Bruce is Batman, which is just backwards and I cant remember this being done before. They follow police radio signals to find 3 missing children being drowned and the Big bad and Scorpiana have told them to fight to the death or the children will die. Now THESE look like proper villains!


It's not quite Pokerface, but these do feel like classic old-school villains.

Batman and Robin #21

For some reason my brain can remember every single story in each ongoing monthly comic I read, apart from Batman ones. This one was the Angel guy turning the city to light. Thats as far as I remember. They save the drugged children from a fall and it is revealed that the Angel guy has been using the ketamine drug to give his victims hallucinations about God, and a painless death. Also he has been using real feathers to make the angels their wings before painting them gold and drugging them up to wander off buildings. So Batman and Robin go to do a little bird watching. Brilliant dialogue as per usual.


In case you ever wondered why Gotham has no pigeons (I haven't either), it's because the falcons have eaten them. The link between everyone of his victims is that they are all family of Arkham Asylum in mates. He is punishing them as he is a religious fanatic that believes something about sins of the father or whatnot. He thinks the relatives are responsible and need punishing also. Soon at the scene of the Mad Hatter's families death, Commissioner Gordon and the Dynamic Duo decide there is nothing else to do but keep a watchful eye on every family member of every Arkham inmate.
I'm not normally a fan of Batman villains. The whole crazy for no reason other than being crazy thing is just tiring. But I do like it when there is a kind of crazy that I haven't seen before. That's about as refreshing as it gets.

Mar 9th 2011

Last weeks comics reviews up just in the nick of time! Such a mixed bunch too, everything that I thought was going to be great was crap and the stuff I didn't expect much from was amazing.
Let's see what tomorrows pull list has to offer; Batman and Robin #21, Batman inc. #3, Doom Patrol #20, Farscape #17, iZombie #11, Justice League Generation Lost #21, Li'l Depressed Boy #2 and Superboy #5. A lot of big names this week.
Reviews may be a bit late this week again, as I'm away over the weekend.

Thunderbolts #154

The board is reviewing the use of The Man-Thing as transport for the Thunderbolts missions. Luke Cage sticks up for him, but they wish to see the creature anyway. After they've gone and as the guards on his habitat change, the knew guard isn't who he seems. As soon as this is discovered it seems that Man-Thing has removed his tracking teleport device too and gone with whoever it was who freed him.
He was freed by an old sorceress friend of Doctor Strange, and she took him back to his swamp in the Everglades as some creatures had come through a gateway into our world and needed sending back as they were killing people. After he's sent them packing he casually just teleports back to his cell in Thunderbolts tower. The sorceress tries to plead with him to come back but they end up making a deal with the Thunderbolts,
I didn't know Man-Things back story either, but he was Ted Sallis, a government scientist working for S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to recreate the Captain America serum.

Hell yeah!

In the end the board of directors actually love how Man-Thing came back and how useful he is, the only problem is they hate how vulnerable to attack by magic the Thunderbolts tower is. So they get Doctor Strange himself in on the staff to sort that out. Excellent! This book is getting so many big names it wont be long till it's up there and counted as an Avengers title, it certainly feels that way already. Also I really love Shalvey's art. I think we had a filler artist last issue but I really love his style. I think it's all digital too as there is no inker listed. Check him out in the Eclectic Micks art blog.

Secret Six #31

We start this issue with all eight of the Secret Six filming a tv advert. It doesn't go to plan as well someone point out the number difference. I guess that must get annoying.
Scandall forgets about her date with Liana as she's tired and has only just got back from Oolong island. I do wonder what kind of pervert would want to see a strip show with a girl dressed as Elasticman. Must have found a niché in the market. On her way to her bike she is kidnapped by a guy who we just saw pour hot sauce in his eyes. Because he's THAT baddass.
She's having nightmares about her previous lover, Knockout, who's in hell (yeah I'm pretty knew to the book, so thats before my time), so she goes to retrieve her get out of hell free card (an earlier story of which a friend caught me up on). But it's gone from her safe and she reckons Ragdoll has taken it. Apparently he sleeps with monkeys dressed as other members of his team.



She confronts him and it ends up in a fight as Ragdoll wants to bring back one of his friends from hell. Scandall stabs him during the fight, and he grabs the card as he goes to hell himself. The team or at least some of them decide to go to hell to see if they can save him aaaand the secret door to hell is hidden in a shopping mall in Iowa. They go down to hell in the elevator and as the doors open it's ragdoll stood there and he's amassed an army of demons to meet them. What the Hell? (Pun intended)

BADDASS!

Heroes for Hire #4

This art doesn't work for me at all. Puppet Master need to be drawn exactly as he always does. He just looks too normal here.
We finally get a few pages of Misty's back story and what got her into this mess with the phantom pregnancy and her break up and her time in hospital which in my opinion would have been better suited at the beginning of this series. This appears to be all in Misty's head. She's talking to Danny and seeing the child that they never had.

..and in your dreams your son looks like Taskmaster. Kinda.

It's Puppet Master manipulating her mind in a Matrix style virtual environment where he is making her control the heroes for hire in the real world. Puppet Master is phoning someone and it appears that doing this to her was someone else's idea and he was hired to do it.
But her mind is too strong and she gets out of it. She heads for the door and Puppet Master reveals The Punisher is there to stop her escape. Which makes no sense at all.
This has to be the biggest u-turn from a book doing so well we get handed one of the ugliest nonsensical stories I've ever read. NOTHING HAPPENS, you could some this entire issue up in 3 words: Misty wakes up. At least there's the big reveal of who hired Puppet Master to come. Villains for hire anyone?

Green Lantern #63

This was not one I expected to pick up but when I was in the comic store and had such a small amount in my hands I figured hey why not? I'm getting Emerald Warriors so I might as well read the War of the Green Lanterns crossover arc and know the full story. Probably drop them after though.
One of those blue guardian guys, Krona appears to be attempting to control emotions. Hal and his team of different coloured lantern representatives hunt down the person who stole their respective entities. Only they find the black book, the one that prophesied the Blackest Night. Apparently lots of chapters at the back had been removed previously, and now they are reading about Krona's past.

Bedtime story anyone?

I'll be honest I know the gist of what is going on I just don't know a lot of the back story of the guardians to understand it all. So is Krona the one who started the different corps, the one who discovered the powers of the emotional spectrum? It does seem quite epic already, a story that goes back a billion years to set stuff up (but that doesn't feel like it is forced), all of the different colour lanterns working together, and the last panel which has been teased for a while, that there will be only 3, meaning we are going to loose one of earths 4 lanterns.

Giant-size Atom #1

It's very name is a contradiction! This is one of the giant collections that finish up all of the cancelled back-up stories. This one was originally in 8 page installments in Adventure comics if I remember correctly. Some rogue science group called the colony has stolen The Atom's tech and now need his white dwarf matter to mass produce and control it. His uncle was once in the organisation but he escaped to help him. The are currently holding his comatose dad hostage at gun point while demanding he hand over the white dwarf matter.
Hawkman is there to stop his father from being killed. Only he is attacked from the inside by loads of tiny colony henchmen. That's pretty cool, well I know that it MUST have been done before but still, Journey to the centre of the Hawk, is a pretty good idea. There are six henchmen in him and he keeps popping back and forth and dumping them out of his body for the authorities. The thing about the shrinking without the white dwarf matter though, is that they get explosively unstable and one gets to his heart to have maximum effect. Which makes for a bizarre panel.



He is caught in time but they have already got away with his dad and still have his uncle. They threaten to kill both and he decides to hand over the White dwarf matter. He goes to retrieve it. It's kept miniaturised in his brothers grave stone, guarded by a polite little robot. This kind of thing isn't essential to the story but little things like that really make me love comics. He takes the robot along too.
After handing over the meteor rock he is handed the "ant farm" with his father and uncle in. His uncle is wired up to a bomb but they shrink microscopically to avoid the explosion and his uncle teleports them out. Then his father come around and learns that his nerdy disappointment of a son is a superhero. A nice way to rap up as they also track down the meteor rock thanks to some handy lab alterations they did before the hand over.



This was a really well written enjoyable book. This is superhero sci-fi at it's best. The art was pretty sweet at times also. There are several pencillers and inkers but it all ties together neatly. I really loved this and it's a good job there was an open ending too as I would really keep my fingers crossed for an ongoing. Probably not going to happen but with Lemire writing it would really be something else.

Brightest Day #21

Yeah it's that time again, Brightest Day: Mars attacks! Looks like the Justice League is finally trying to help these characters that are in trouble. The Atom has found the ashes of the Hawks, they are aware of Firestorm imploding and they are helping with recovery on the site of the Aquawar. Then on the beach hundreds of distress calls come in from world wide, loads of natural disasters, as huge black clouds roll in. This is the first time i've felt actual suspense in this book since way back, early on when Deadman was learning to live.
Now on Mars the Martian Manhunter and that D'Kay alien are arguing over her making him believe she was his wife. She then believes she is pregnant, only to be proven false two panels later. What's the point of teasing us with genuinely interesting stories if we just go back to the norm? Also they are over using splash pages again, this time its a bit more essential though as J'onn floods her mind with the voices of earth. It looks great and warrants the space. In the end J'onn realises the only thing he can do is kill her and flies them both into the sun. Which is how most arguments end these days.



He is then resurrected by the white lantern ring and flies off in a white costume. The ring tells him to choose his home Earth or Mars. He flies off to Earth. He comes back to Earth and finds the Star city, surrounding the forest in flames with volcanoes busting out etc. Deadman and the ring show up and J'onn explains he knows that Deadman cant help what it's doing and excepts his fate. It doesn't blast him to dust instead it opens up the Earth and it absorbs him "... The Earth has accepted you".
Two single splash pages and 3 double. Plus half the time there are only a couple of panels per page. The pacing is messed up although the splash pages this time do they are meant for.

Batman Beyond #3

Very lovely cover art, again it's my love for halftone dots and the colour green. His family wasn't turned to copper they were just coated in it apparently. This new Matter Master seems to be using his imagination more than the original ones. He's already using his powers to cut off peoples oxygen and poison the air. During the fight Bruce is getting distracted from his usual bossiness by news reports about Dick Grayson's previous Nightwing identity being revealed. Kind of a shame that they didn't reveal him as a Batman, so that this future could be set in stone for the future of the DC universe. Instead of setting this up as a side story, a what if-? It's a shame because the far superior Batman Beyond mini series prior to this was a lot better and set it up as a possible future.
As the story continues, the Matter Master is beating the Justice League far too easily, until Batman boots him in the face and his powers go all goofy- he can now covert things without touching them and control as well as transmute.
Then as his powers go into overload, Batman rallies the Justice League into doing what he says and saves the day. It works and the Justice League extend and invitation to join, Bruce says no over the headset until McGinnis lays out some conditions.



Does Bruce feel like a grouchy over the top old man now? Yes. Is he an easily persuaded, push-over? Yes. So this book doesn't really work anymore. Unless this is the point were Bruce no longer needs to teach McGinnis, that was going to happen eventually.
This future Justice League feels too week. They don't work together and just take it in turns to be batted away by the villain. I preferred the prior mini series as it was better written. This new ongoing feels to much like a kids tv show, where it's just one villain per week and it all ends happy happy. I'm all for a lighter Batman story but not at the expense of good story telling.

The Annihilators #1

D'n'A show more outstanding space writing skills with this double feature. Half Annihilators half Rocket Raccoon and Groot.
In the Annihilation half we get the aftermath of the Thanos story and whatever kind of giant size aftermath issue it was that set up the Annihilators as a group. That robot thing that turned up was actually a woman named Ikon in a suit of armour, and she shows them all that the team isn't going to work by beating them up, and saying they were scared to use their true power sets so as not to cause damage. She wants to join the team to atone for her species not helping enough during the phalanx conquest, which leads me to another point- isn't it weird how characters in the books refer to the events by the book or story title? A good example would be in the Young X-men stuff, were they do danger room scenarios that are named in-book by the title of the story. Who brought that into being? It's a clever idea and all but it just feels weird...
Then just as they talk themselves out of doing the team altogether a power surge in the lower levels gets there attention. They go to investigate and it's the new big bad, Dr. Dredd! Brilliant name there. He unveils a cloaked black star which blocks the sun of Galador, Ikon's planet. Without the sun some demons get their powers back and duh duh duh cliff hanger.
Meanwhile in the Rocket Raccoon and Groot story, after the loss of Star Lord and Nova the team has split and gone back to day jobs. Rocket Raccoon working as a mail delivery boy in a intergalactic call centre. 'Nuff Said.



He gets into trouble with his supervisor because he isn't meant to have mail sent to himself there. After checking up on this mysterious package it turns out to be a homicidal clown (of course) and it tries to kill him. So he gets fired. The clown was made of sentient wood so he tracks down Groot for help. Turns out Groot was never the king of his planet just some unruly youth who ran away and upon returning was punished for treason. Genuinely says he was found guilty of TREE-SON. Next month: Free the tree!

Mar 2nd 2011

Howdy, this weeks comics shopping list feels really short but here it is anyway, Annihilators #1, Batman Beyond #3, Brightest Day #21, Giant size Atom #1, Green Lantern #63, Heroes for Hire #4, Secret Six #31 and Thunderbolts #154.
Joe the Barbarian also came out this week. Finally. But I didn't realise it had been delayed and thought I had missed it months ago so I bought a copy on ebay and now have to wait for that to arrive. So yeah. I should pay attention more!