Seen in a recent episode of The Big Bang Theory*. $395 from DC Direct.

*Starring every late model Generation Xer’s preteen crush Danica McKellar.

Green Lantern #43

Remember those books from the 90’s where the bad guy, or some other “special guest star” would take over a book, spray painting or otherwise covering up the main title? I kind of wish they did something like that here, as this book is totally Black Hand’s story.

It serves as a nice prelude to Blackest Night, retelling Black Hand’s life story and touching on his childhood, first appearance in a Green Lantern book, his role in the recent — and overly long — Secret Origin arc, right up to Green Lantern: Rebirth. There’s also a callback to the German-speaking  Gremlins that kidnapped him soon after. It looks like Johns has another bad guy/girl waiting in the wings once Blackest Night wraps up. Unless they’re a major player and I’ve completely misjudged who it was supposed to be.

While I can appreciate Philip Tan’s character designs, his rushed, rough pencilling on the book itself really didn’t do anything for me. Doug Mahnke on the other hand should be perfect fit for this book. I’m only familiar with his work on Superman: Beyond and the last issue of Final Crisis. But the way he was able to have the characters convey even the smallest emotion should be a great boon to a book entirely devoted to exploring large facets of the emotional spectrum.

Wednesday Comics #1 (of 12)

After Trinity I was all but ready to give up on the weekly comic format. Trudging through 52 issues of epic space opera that alternated between molasses-speed introspection and smash cuts of earth-shaking battles took a lot out of me.  But I think DC had the measure of their audience. They knew that the next weekly had to be something special. Something with a touch of novelty to draw an audience made up of those already worn down and those looking to break into the comics scene. Something with a strong creative team to keep people coming back. And I think they’ve done it.

There’s 14, one page stories contained within, all of varying quality (but none of them terrible).  That they’re all set “outside continuity” isn’t a great problem. The character’s basic personalities and drivers are all there. Green Lantern wears green, flies in space; Superman beats the hell out of robots while protecting humans.

Though this is only the first issue I do have my favourites already. Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred’s Metamorpho is just the right amount of 1950’s pulp adventuring; while Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner’s Supergirl is, in a word, cute. Sgt. Rock, Batman, Kamandi are three more stories that have me biting my nails and hanging for the next issue. I guess the only story I really have a problem with is Wonder Woman. It’s overly wordy and the panel layout makes it incredibly hard to follow. If they’re going to continue  framign it in the same way I’d suggest using arrows to direct the reader from one panel to the next, much like traditional large format newspaper comics have.

I really hope this works out for DC. I’d love to see this done as a yearly event. Sometimes its just nice to read a comic that just wants to entertain you and isn’t hung up in pushing things in “a bold new direction!”

My local comics shop had completely sold out of copies by Monday. So hopefully DC see this as a sign that most of the speculators have left the market and that there’s people out there willing to read their stories regardless of what the damn thing is printed on.

Complete List

Booster Gold #22
Green Lantern #43
Wednesday Comics #1 (of 12)
Dark X-Men Beginning #1 (of 3)
Ms Marvel #41
X-Men: Legacy #226

Detective Comics #854

My only brush with Greg Rucka came through his work on 52. Where he put a lot of work into the entwined stories of  Batwoman and The Question. So I guess it’s only fitting that I get reacquainted with his work through a book that stars those two characters. Yes I’m aware they had their own post-52 miniseries, but I didn’t read that as, to me , that particular story seemed to have been played out in the pages of 52 already.

At first glance the Kate Kane in this book seems vastly different than that one who appeared in 52. She’s less a socialite and more of an army brat. She’s got tattoos and it’s implied she sleeps (or slept) around. Yes, she’s still a lesbian, and yes it comes up but only in a way to flesh out her “committed to the mission” mindset.

Before this book, id you’d asked me to point out art by JH Williams I woul’dve had no chance. Would not know him from a bar of soap. After reading this book I have every panel burnt out to my brian. In a good way of course. And the panel layout. Wow. There’s one two page sequence depicting that I loved. A series of lightning bolt panels depicts Batwoman talking to Batman then heading back to base and changing back into civillian clothes, underscored by a shot of Batwoman, on her motorcycle, shooting across the page.

There’s this incredible amount of energy that crackles off every page.

Meanwhile over in the Question backup…sorry “co-feature”, Renee Montoya seems to have become DC’s answer to the Heroes for Hire. Using an email account and/or website to solicit investigative work. Her first case pitting her against human traffickers.

It reads like it was originally pitched as a full length story that’s been slimmed down through precise cuts. Nothing is missing really, but there’s no great explanation of the bad guy possible motives, just that he’s the damn bad guy.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1

After the letdown of an event that was Brian Michael Bendis’ Secret Invasion I harboured a feeling that, given half a chance, Matt Fraction could easy write the next Marvel event. And here it is.

I’m glad it’s not a company-wide thing as I really couldn’t handle another one of those from Marvel. But it does carry the Dark Reign tag, which I cna’t really get enthused about. Even though most of the Marvel side of my pull list involves Dark Reign in some way.

The story seems organic enough. At the end of Secret Invasion, when Norman Osbourne was given the job of…well whatever the hell it is he actually does, he put all mutants on notice. Telling Emma Frost that if they couldn’t control themselves then he would. Or words to that effect.

In this first issue of the indeterminately long miniseries (there’s no “#1 of #3″ on the cover, just “Chapter One”) Simon Trask organises a march on San Fransisco in support of a new law to sterilise all mutants, which of course leads to all hell breaking loose. Really, nobody watched the first 10 minutes of Die Hard 3?

With half of San Fransisco on fire Norman Osbourne makes good on his promise and sends in the Dark Avengers to control things. Which of course they don’t because they’re all psychopaths. Then Norman takes Emma Frost aside reitterates whats he first told her and then promotes her to Leader of All Mutants. Charles Xavier shows up to talk down Cyclops, but it’s revealed to the  reader that the real Charles Xavier is lying in a prison cell with his brain leaking down his shirt. None of which makes a whole lot of a sense.

But, this is only the first issue, and I’ve got enough faith that Fraction will spin out a few interesting concepts before bringing everything to a decent conclusion.

Of  course Marvel get full praise for keeping Greg Land as far from this story as possible. Marc Silvestri handles the art in a passable fashion. It’s a lot more basic than his linework from back when Grant Morrison wrote the book, with most of the humans looking like scarecrows. And a small but significant drawing of a continuity-breaking, male Loki.

Complete List

Detective Comics #854
Green Lantern #42
Astonishing X-Men #30
Avengers: Initiative #25
Dark Avengers #6
Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1
Immortal Iron Fist TP Vol 04 Mortal Iron Fist
Ms Marvel #40
New Avengers #54
Runaways 3 #11
Secret Warriors #5
Thunderbolts #133
Uncanny X-Men #512
X-Factor #45
X-Force #16
Wizard Magazine #214

Green Lantern #38

There’s no messing around with the Hal Jordan-as-a-Red Lantern stuff from the end of the last issue. It’s dealt with by the middle of the book, in a way that puts a lot of emphasis on why the Blue Lanterns exist. Of course there’s a  downside in that it unfortunately destroys my theory that Hal Jordan would control all the rings by the end of the War of Light.

There’s a lot to enjoy in this book. The way it jumped from Ysmault to Earth to Qward to the Vega System providing little hooks into future storylines. Like Carol Ferris returning to the Star Sapphires (now Violet Lanterns) after playing a major part in their formation way back in The Sins of the Star Sapphires story arc; Sinestro escaping back to Qward to prepare for his incursion into the Green Lantern Corps book to face off against Mongul for the leadership of Sinestro’s eponymous Corps; and the Controllers heading to the Vega System to remind everyone that the Agent Orange story starts next month.

As the Blackest Night mini-event gets closer both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps books are picking up a lot of momentum, especially this book. I still remember how slowly Secret Origin plodded along just to set up Atrocitus as the Red Lantern big bad, so I really shouldn’t complain about pacing. I got what I wished for.

X-Force #12

Back in New X-Men Kyle and Yost spun some really great tales featuring the kids versus long time X-Men foes like Reverend Stryker. When they announced the move to X-Force (along with initial character sketches) I was, much like the rest of the internet, immediately skeptical. A year later I’m happy to say that I was wrong. X-Force is good. Better than it deserves to be, for sure, But I like it.

Well ‘liked’ might be a better word. This issue was just very, very underwhelming.

It starts off with the team quickly realising that they weren’t exactly successful in keeping Bastion from the getting his robot hands on the Legacy Virus (as seen last issue). D-grade mutants start showing up in the middle of pro-human rallys, with their powers flaring wildly out of control, killing all the protesters.

Apart from that, not a whole lot actually happens this issue. There is an incredibly awkward exchange between Rahne, in wolf-humanoid form, and some sort of Asgardian wolf-god. But the less said about that the better.

If I was going to choose a shining moment it would be finding out, on the recap page of all places, that Domino has a real name.

Just so I don’t end on a downer I thought I’d mention the colouring. The usual muted grey/brown palette gets a huge kick this issue with the addition bright oranges and pinks of the energy spikes spinning off the Legacy Virus-infected.

———–

I’m off on holiday next week, so no reviews for a couple of weeks. Once I’m settled in I’ll be changing the reviews up a bit. I’m running low of the spare time needed to properly review a books so I’ll just be reviewing the one book each week. I’m going to randomly pick the book out of the weekly pile so it could be the worst or it could be the best.

Complete List

Green Lantern #38
Trinity #39
Avengers: Initiative #22
Mighty Avengers #22
Ms Marvel #36
New Avengers #50
Runaways vol 3 #7
Thunderbolts #129
X-Force #12
Wizard Magazine #210
Angel #18

Green Lantern #37

Originally I wasn’t going to review this book, but when the Irrepressible Rory Byrne demands you read it,  adding “You will shit bricks” you’re required to at least put a few words down.

So here we go.

At the end of the last issue there was this great expectation, from Space Ganesh and the other guy,  that Hal Jordan would become the leader of the Blue Lanterns. This issue starts out with him “politely” refusing the offer before tearing off on the two space hippies and heading after Sinestro, who’s been spending his spare time crucified on the Red Lantern’s central battery after being captured during the Rage of the Red Lanterns one shot.

There’s some clear delineation between the three rings: Green are cops, Red are animals and Blue are saints. They later live up to the bible metaphor by parting an actual red sea. The true nature of the red spectrum is explored a bit more. It seems that the rings are little more then parasites. After purging the host body’s blood they take over motor functions and most thought processes. Much like those horrific wasps that ride around on cockroaches.

While it’s not the first time Hal Jordan has worn multiple rings (see here and here) that chapter ending definitely rates as one of the coolest moments of this entire Green Lantern volume. Yes, Rory, bricks were shat.

Dark Avengers #1

There’s two ways they could’ve gone in this issue:

• through a series of small interconnected scenes, show “the boss” travelling around putting the team together through a number of every expanding word balloons; or
• something interesting.

Guess which road Bendis went down?

I’m probably being too harsh here as the book isn’t a total wash. They’ve got Mike Deodato on art  for one thing, continuing the good work he did on Thunderbolts. I thought the expressions on each of the ex-Thunderbolts, especially Bullseye’s, as they realise all their dreams have come true were great. Deoadato on art and most of the Thunderbolts starring. They couldn’t have made it any more obvious that this is a continuation of the Thunderbolts line.

Hopefully the new members aren’t going to take the Sentry’s mopey bullshit. If I could have one request, please give me one issue where they beat the ever-loving shit out of him for being such a sad case. Do that and I’m in for the long haul.

Mighty Avengers #21

This is a great example of how to make the Ultimate line redundant. While over in Ultimatum They’ve had to deal with a flood submerging New York, here in the regular old 616, New York has been hit with a deluge of blood, Canada is choked with flesh eating locusts and somewhere else  the New Avengers are being used as fertiliser for fast growing sentient plants and the entire state of Oklahoma has vanished. Suddenly the split second flash flooding in the Ultimate universe doesn’t seem that ultimate anymore.

The recruiting scenes aren’t all that dissimilar to those in Dark Avengers, but they’re carried off a lot better. Biblical-level crazy shit is a great motivator. The book shares a lot of the same beats as Dark Avengers, but the way Slott writes dialogue makes it a much more entertaining read. See Amadeus Cho’s conversations with Pym. Both books also share a similar antagonist. Dark Avengers gets Dr Doom’s ex, Morgane Le Fay while Mighty Avengers has a possessed Quicksilver and some shirtless guy who likes writing on himself

Which book you grab depends on how you like your heroes. Do you like the bad guys masquerading as the world’s heroes, albeit officially? Grab Dark Avengers. Do you like you heroes just doing hero-ey stuff? Grab Mighty Avengers. Do you like your heroes to be the underdogs, struggling to get on in a world where they’re operating illegally? Grab New Avengers. (reviewed next week, fight fans!)

X-Factor #39

There would be a fairly detailed review here. I say “would be” because at the beginning of the book Peter David swears all readers to secrecy and asks that we don’t spoil the book. So I’ll honour that. What I can say is that the book is well on it’s way back to it’s first year levels of awesomeness. After flipping to the back cover I had to sit alone on the couch for a good five minutes just to digest what I’d read. It’s been a long time since a comic had that much of an emotional impact on me. Bravo, Peter David, bravo. Good to see the art back on track after the misstep that was the Stroman period too.

Complete List:

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #2 (of 2)
Green Lantern #37
Trinity #34
Astonishing X-Men #28
Dark Avengers #1
Mighty Avengers #21
Thunderbolts #128
Uncanny X-Men Annual #2
X-Factor #39
X-Men: Legacy #220
Angel: After the Fall #16

There was just no way I could get to the city on Boxing Day to pick up a stack of comics. I was too busy spending every hour of daylight trying to build a barbeque. So I’ve lumped both Boxing Day and day after New Years Day hauls into the one post.

Incognito #1

Incognito is fantastic. Mark my words: This will be the stand out title of 2009.

Incognito is the story of Zack Anderson — one time supervillian, now lowly file clerk. After ratting out his evil superpowered boss, Zack has a new identity thanks to the Witness Protection Program. There’s a downside though, as he’s forced onto meds to dial back his superpowers to normal human levels by his government-appointed handler.

Mostly the book is about Zack trying to deal with a life in a world he really doesn’t care for.  And the interactions with people he views as being beneath him (ie. everybody). If these parts weren’t written as well as they are then the book would just fall apart.

There’s small moments when the book hearkens back to the original pulpy Golden Age comics of yesteryear. Case in point: his powers were given to him and his brother by an overzealous scientist in a dank cave. Using SCIENCE!

Things like that really appeal to me.

I’ve never come across Phillips’ art before, but I like it. It reminds me of David Aja’s style on the first few arcs of Marvel’s Iron Fist. Characters are expressive and action scenes are kinetic and bloody. In civilian clothes Zack is a beaten down white collar in a dead-end job. But when he puts on the domino mask he seems to stand taller, with more authority. It’s the little things like that that make a book great.

If I had to complain about something it would be that the supporting characters aren’t that well defined. I don’t know anything about his brother or his ex-boss. At one point the handler threatens Zack with putting him in the same prison cell as the boss, but the scene comes across a bit flat as at that point there’s no indication of who his boss is. Having Zack not really react to the threat doesn’t help that much either.

There’s a note in the back of the book from either Brubaker or Phillips or both that suggests if I liked Incognito I should read Criminal. Based on what I’ve seen in Incognito I’ll be grabbing the first Criminal trade as soon as I can.

Ultimatum #2 (of 5)

I’ve been slowing pairing back my Jeph Loeb-written books. Waiting until they’ve completed a story before seeing them off. But this, this Ultimatum bullshit is just so horribly written and presented that I’m teetering on giving up on the entire Ultimate universe altogether. A universe where an obese man who’s never before shown cannibalistic tendencies can chow down on the entrails of a woman and enjoy it is not a universe I want to read more about.

I bitched and moaned about Ultimates 3, but when it ended I hope editorial would reign Loeb in a bit. Maybe teach him that there’s a big difference between the Marvel 616 and Ultimate universes. But no, once again they’ve given him carte blanche to produce Ultimate shit.

Finch’s art doesn’t help either. He was great on the first arc of New Avengers, so I’m not sure what went wrong. Sure foreground characters are recognisable, but with this new sketchy style he’s rocking everything else behind them is a mess.

The one good thing is that Ultimate Thor no longer speaks in the Shakespearean way that was introduced in Ultimate Power (and more popularised  by the original 616 Thor) and has reverted back to something similar to how he was portrayed during Ultimates 1 & 2. That this is the only good thing I can say about the issue is depressing as all hell.

Complete List 26/12:

Final Crisis: Secret Files #1
Green Lantern #36
Trinity #31
Avengers: Initiative #20
Ultimate X-Men #99
X-Force #10
Wizard Magazine #208 Wolverine Movie Cvr

Complete List 2/1:

Flash #247
Trinity #30
Incognito #1
Ms Marvel #34
New Avengers #48
Runaways 3 #5
Ultimatum #2 (of 5)