Note: I wrote this about a month ago and because of scheduling problems (read: laziness) I never posted it. Issue 13 didn’t really change much about my feelings. They still treat Steve Trevor like crap, all of the characters are written strangely, if not poorly, and despite a fairly entertaining story, I find myself not caring at all about DC’s flagship title.

After a year’s worth of books, (the zero issue doesn’t really count because its about Captain Marvel/Shazam) I have a few of problems with this new version of the Justice League that Lee, Didio, Harras, and Johns have given us. The book is still fairly young, nearly in it’s adolescence in terms of comic bookery, I suppose, but when it’s their most popular book, the most important to the new 52, and they still manage to burn a few panels an issue making a dumb joke or referencing a Martian Manhunter fight that seemed painfully irrelevant and a wasted use of character, I feel that I have a foothold to complain. Don’t get me wrong, its been an entertaining book. Lee draws some damn pretty comic books, the first six issues were pretty damn solid as far as a team introduction, and the narrative hasn’t been lacking for action or effort, but there are still quite a few problems.

They’re still not a team:

I thought the entire idea behind starting Justice League 5 years in the past was to establish how they all met and became the League, but we find out that they still are immature and don’t really realize what their doing. Aquaman even says in issue 12 “It’s time to be the team they thought we were instead of the team we’ve been these last five years.” What was the point of introducing Darkseid if not to make them a team? What was the point in referencing Manhunter “testing” them if not to make them a team? You could have done this conflict in issue 6 and saved everyone a lot of forced drama. Apparently, at some point the league decided that Batman was in charge, cool, that’s fine, he’s the smartest one there so he should act as the general. However, how they’ve decided to portray everyone is completely contrary to this. The characters that are written in this book would not have voted for Batman to lead them now, let alone 5 years ago when they had just formed.

Wonder Woman + Superman:

I don’t know. It doesn’t really affect the story at all. It just was a very forced romance, and a very forced move. Like much of the “big events” in the new DCU, they’re trying to create sensation without building up a story at all.

The relationship between Batman/Superman and the world has always been one of good cop/bad cop and in this new universe it has become aloof cop/detached cop, completely negating the friendship and relationship that they had.

Superman works best as a character when he is that boy scout, when he is entirely alien and uncomfortably powerful but his soul and everything that drives him is more human than any other hero or character in the universe. He needs to have that attachment and desire to help his fellow man, because Superman was never the man, Superman was the mask that Clark Kent, the human, used to be a hero. Its something that has been explored in every great Superman story, its currently being explored alongside Justice League in Action Comics and even in the Superman main title, but that whole plot idea is ignored in this book.

Conversely, Batman has been written best when he is detached, driven, and possessed by his crusade. He is, at his core, oriented to the pursuit of justice to the point of self-destruction. He operates in shadows and removes himself from the world, wearing the mask of Bruce Wayne because he no longer identifies himself as properly human. Even the “family” that he surrounds himself with is kept at a great distance because affection is so unnatural to him. His desires and his purposes are higher, and it is an effort for him to put on a show of normal. Again, in counterpoint to Clark, Bruce is the mask that Batman uses to be “human”.

Superman and Batman’s friendship was compelling because Superman was the boy scout who knew without a doubt that Batman, a man who fought using fear as a weapon could be trusted implicitly. Batman, on the other hand, knew that while Superman was an alien and powerful enough to destroy the world and everyone in it, he was the one person who would never do that because his entire being was so grounded in compassion and honesty. They both distrusted the rest of the league for various reasons, but they never truly doubted each others resolve to be good.

In this new version of the league, there is a shadow of that relationship. The DC powers-that-be have decided to maintain Batman and Superman’s friendship, but alter the individuals to the point where it doesn’t work anymore. Yes, we are missing 5 years of history that this new DC timeline has hopscotched for the sake of storytelling, but the league is very different. Superman isn’t the moral compass of the League, he examines everyone else, afraid to let them know him (except for Batman). Instead, Batman has become that morality, the humanity of the team. Their roles have been reversed, or at the very least both steadily pulled into the intervening gray area between their once polar characteristics in a massive divergence of each character’s core conception.

The rest of the league is largely there as space filler:

In a complete relaunch, there could have been a massive move made to restructure the social power of each of the characters, but they have all nearly become the least compelling and least effective versions that they could be. (These are not my opinion of a perfect character, but just ideas that might have at least given some variance to the old model).

Cyborg:

Cyborg was great when he was a member of Teen Titans, but he’s never been a particularly compelling character on his own. I’m still not sure why they chose him to be in the league or what role he’s intended to play but I haven’t seen really anything of significance from him yet. There are plenty of roles that he could have played within the league: he could have been the voice of youth, acting as a conduit for introduction and explanation, or he could have been the moral compass when the others are jaded and overconfident. Instead he receives a watered down version of Superman’s regular story where he is struggling with his humanity. They could have even taken his machine nature a bit further, trying some legitimately interesting scientific concepts (that Marvel is doing quite well all of the time these days) making his consciousness digitally transferable, commenting on his nearly infinite processing ability which would make him think and analyze battle faster than the Flash, or giving him the ability to create, interface directly, and/or control any number of machines with his incredible knowledge. That would have been at least interesting, but he just coldly makes remarks about being relatively omnipotent and proceeds to be surprised/defeated by a sadness monster.

I really don’t understand why they expect anybody to care about Cyborg or his subplot when he is the only League member who doesn’t have his own book and therefore doesn’t have any of the back story necessary for any emotional connection.

Green Lantern:

Johns’ Green Lantern has been growing steadily more disappointing over the past few years. He took the spirit of Hal Jordan, the one that made a regular man worthy of the power of the ring and at every opportunity made him seem like a (for lack of a more accurate term) assbag. Hal was never encumbered by an overwhelming desire for planning, which was his greatest flaw, and he would rush into a situation without heed of why or what he was going to do, but he did so because the idea of sitting back and not taking action against an enemy was offensive to him. To Jordan, inaction was the greatest sin.

However, Johns has transformed that impetuousness and misdirected chivalry into a rampant egotism and suppressed self-loathing that makes Hal oppressively dislikable. They tried to redeem him in issue 12 and they might have succeeded if it wasn’t such a late effort. Hal takes on the “hero we deserve, not the one we need” mantle from The Dark Knight and takes the blame for the league in-fighting, but he does an insubstantial reason, with no allowance of discussion, and which makes no mention of the 4 other Earth-based Green Lanterns that already protect Earth and the sector.

Flash:

Flash, for the most part, has remained solid. I’m not a fan of them writing out Wally West, even though I see the logic behind the move on a creative level, but Barry Allen as an individual has remained very strong and has even improved through the reboot. The Barry/Iris relationship is gone and replaced tenuously by a Barry/Patty Spivot relationship which I guess makes just as much sense and affects the character on the same emotional level without having to bring in Wally, and he still cracks the same jokes and brings a good amount of sanity to the team. The character, though, is much more focused on the forensic analyst and detective this time around, which seems redundant for the league that has Batman, Cyborg as a techno-forensic-analyst, Superman as an investigative journalist, and Green Lantern who is also a galactic police officer (with whom he is friends for vague, unsubstantial reasons).

All of this is irrelevant, however, as for most of his page appearances he is relegated to the fast, funny guy for the team with the on-page depth of a potato, albeit a very quick potato.

Wonder Woman:

Possibly the most disappointing secondary member of the league, mostly because her appearances and role in the book have been used as a development tool for Steve Trevor. In the first few books, every character has their bad-ass first appearance moments, but then were all put backstage while Batman and Superman did all the hard thinking and had all of the interesting conversations. For a character that was raised on a magic island with an army of warrior women and who has fought with and against gods and other supernatural weirdos on the regular, you would think that her opinion would be more important. What happened to the Trinity?

It is fairly wonderful when the most powerful and significant female presence in the entire DC universe, possibly the most prominent female superhero in existence, and possibly the only prominent one that has been (at times) portrayed as a sexually ambivalent entity is, in the flagship book, completely viewed in relation to a man/men. And even when she leaves that man in issue 12 for almost entirely selfish reasons, she immediately moves on to Superman with whom there was extremely sparse relational history for no reason other than super-powered loneliness. She clearly has already experienced the events from her main title, because she knows that Zeus is her father, but she has also clearly forgotten everything that makes her character strong in that book. Johns doesn’t seem to know what to do with her, remembering her strength only when she needs to punch something and completely abandoning the character’s willingness to stand up to her entire nation, including a number of gods, for the sake of justice.

Steve Trevor:

Steve does only slightly better than Wonder Woman, having been given some fairly good character moments in his own right and already displaying more moral fortitude and strength than anyone in the actual league during the issues where he was captured/tortured. I actually care about this Steve Trevor who was nearly non-existent in the pre-reboot DCU. Fair play to Johns & Co. for writing him well, but they quickly rectified that good move by moving him to another book.

Aquaman:

DC almost fooled me. They almost made me believe that Aquaman was going to matter in the new DCU. Sure, in his individual book he is pretty awesome. He gets stuff done while bearing the weight of the entire world while everyone (including his former aqua-squad teammates) seems to dislike him. However, in this issue 12, which was widely advertised as “Aquaman steps up and takes charge” he gets berated and insulted by pretty much every single league member in the immediate area. Aquaman taking charge amounted to him putting his name in the hat for being the leader and being immediately and very patronizingly denied that opportunity. He seem to have been doing the superhero gig longer than anyone else in the league. He even has a dark past where he beat up ocean-themed enemies with a team of artifact-laden super pals. Cool. At every turn, Johns has consistently shown us that public opinion and even the opinion that the rest of the league has of him is still that of a joke while simultaneously Johns is trying to convince us that he is everything but. His joke-superhero reputation doesn’t seem to be based on anything but non-comic book preconceptions by the general public and the writers are doing nothing to try to change this by making jabs about talking to fish.

Aquaman has been seen as useless in past years because he has been written that way, he was never given the positive modern reworking that Batman, The Flash, or Wonder Woman was given (or attempted). Very few arcs in his nearly 72 year career have garnered significant acclaim and even great writers like Kurt Busiek and Peter David were only able to have minor revivals before experiencing sharp declines in quality. Instead of a proper story trying to re-imagine the character (its worked for Namor, it can work for Arthur Curry) he was given silly themed pets, a hook hand, and a beard. He doesn’t have that anymore. He’s interesting. He’s useful. They need to stop writing him as a burden and using him well.

Actually, my biggest problem in about Aquaman is that one man can create two very different versions of the same character, in the same universe, at the same time, and not seem to realize he’s doing it. New DCU Arthur Curry feels far too much like old DCU Hal Jordan. Maybe Johns is only good with one character model.

I get it. Batman and Superman are the most popular characters and are, in turn, going to get the best character moments and do the coolest things, but after 12 issues of the league standing around and talking about how awesome they all are, the most significant things anyone else has done is to watch admiringly at Bats & Supes, saying “Look how good he thinks!” or “Look how hard he can punch!” while fighting secondary baddies.

Have I mentioned that I hate that Superman doesn’t walk anymore?

The future of the series:

The hints at the end of issue 12 don’t leave me much hope for the book to improve.

• Amanda Waller might be my least favorite character in all of DC Comics. She is an entirely unlikable version of Nick Fury who operates under the sole assumption that the best backup plan is to find a way to kill everyone that can actually help. Her appearance gives me only apprehension.
• Apparently Gary Frank is taking over drawing duties until David Finch steps in, or at least that’s what it looks like. I should really read the news more.
• Wonder Woman and the rest of the league, if not written poorly, should never have a problem subduing someone like Cheetah.
• Aquaman is going to decide to try to save the world on his own with the Atlanteans, or he’s just going to attack the world Namor-style because nobody will take him seriously.
• I’m slightly interested to see the proper introduction of Captain Marvel …Shazam into the universe but I haven’t liked how much of a little jerk that they’ve been writing Billy as.
• A dangerous JLA? I’m glad that Manhunter is being brought into the fold, And Hawkman and Green Arrow are always good parts of the team. I love Stargirl being in there, but I wonder at her role because she was drawn sans-cosmic staff. I can even understand putting Steve Trevor and the new Green Lantern Baz in there, but you don’t need Catwoman on this team, you don’t need Katana on this team and you certainly don’t need Goggles McCrouchstare (Vibe) over in the corner…wasn’t he dead a couple times.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————–

By the way, I call the Martian Manhunter fight irrelevant for a few reasons.

1. The flashback fight carries no importance, because we know that they beat him (kinda…at least they survive).
2. It would have been much better served as each of them meeting him separately, being beaten by him and them all having to fight him together later to realize that they need to work together. They could have actually used Manhunter as a Justice League proving ground.
3. The fight has no importance, because we know he’s not actually a bad guy (see: Stormwatch).
4. If it was a test by the Manhunter of the league’s preparedness to be the league, why would he only test them once?
5. Manhunter was always misused on the league because he was essentially a green Superman who could shapeshift. His main difference being one of the very few telepaths in the DCU. Instead of making him a villain, they could easily have changed up his power set and made him the watcher in the tower who coordinates their attacks. I don’t like an agressive, hostile J’onn J’onzz

All images were pulled through Google. None are my own scans of the comic.

A Week Late and a Few Dollar Short seems a bit of an understatement every time I post here. 16 articles in about 2 years, that’s unforgivable. No apologies. Never give up, never surrender, never accept blame when you can shoulder it onto the consequences of life.

I have recently finished reading Promethea by Alan Moore published from 1999-2005, 32 issues over 5 trade paperbacks and I’m slightly in love with the story in a way that I can’t remember being for quite some time.

Very appropriately timed to the writing of this article (clearly not timed with the posting of it) was the announcement that Neil Gaiman would be continuing the story of Sandman with J.H. Williams III on art duties. Sandman and Promethea are often compared as they both deal with the nature of the imagination, reality, unconscious creation, and the opposing powers of mankind’s desire to disbelieve and the necessity of his curiosity. Needless to say, I think, I am immensely excited for this project.

It’s been pretty rare in my (admittedly limited) experience with published human imagination that I come across a work of fiction that can change my perspective. It’s changed my perspective so much that I have been making increasingly grand and all-encompassing statements about how amazing it was. I experienced this same phenomenon when I first read the Screwtape Letters, or Phaedo. It happened when I watched Brazil or Dark City, and it happened when I read Gaiman’s Sandman, Morrison’s All-Star Superman and Arkham Asylum, Ellis’ Transmetropolitan, and so on. As highfalutin and grandiloquent as it sounds, I had a sort of realization of the immense amount of storytelling that I hadn’t allowed myself to realize was possible. All of these stories (though it is not a comprehensive list, to be sure) showed me a broadening of what could be done in that medium or what could be said about a character, time, place, or philosophy.

Maybe I’m selling this a bit high. Forgive me, It’s a damn fine comic book and I tend to get excited about that sort of thing.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS QUITE A FEW SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES PROMETHEA BY ALAN MOORE AND J.H. WILLIAMS III. IF YOU WISH TO READ THE STORY WITH SOME SURPRISES STILL INTACT, PLEASE DO SO, THEN COME BACK AND READ THIS.

The Story:

Promethea, at its surface and for a very short time, is the story of Sophie Bangs, a college student trying to figure life out and survive it while being the companion/avatar for a spiritual archetype of femininity and storytelling. The story takes place in the America’s Best Comics world of Alan Moore, and the last issue served as an effective ending of Moore’s universe (including Top 10, Tom Strong, Terra Obscura, etc.)

By the end of the first trade, the story is much less about Sophie and very much about the titular character and what she represents to the world. Promethea is a sort of protector to the world that we live in, a goddess of necessity, imagined by man for its own sake. Her role in the world, as is stated near the end of the series, is to bring about the apocalypse and in doing so, save mankind (backwards thinking, to be sure).

Sophie-as-Promethea journeys through the spiritual plane called the Immateria guided by the seven previous incarnations of the Promethea that were in our world (there can only be one avatar of the spirit at any one time) and a few other guests and discovers what her role in the greater scheme of the world is. The Immateria is presented as a physical or sometimes ethereal representation of collective human imagination, which in this story is what the entirety of what is known and what isn’t is built out of, humans being unique in their ability to imagine that which isn’t and make it real. Her path takes her across the many planes and levels of existence, through the Hebrew spheres of existence, across mythology and through the numbered paths of the Kabbalah. She encounters various entities existing as masters of archetypal ideas and still slaves to the collective human consciousness with themes lying heavily in freedom, power, and understanding of sexuality, the psychological concepts of Jung et. al., and the Magickal experiences of those like Crowley and John Dee.

After issue 32, you realize that this was not an effort of the comic book medium to tell a story, but instead was Alan Moore’s pulpit. It was his soapbox and his stage from which to tell anyone willing to hear what he believes the universe is and the story was written to be a handbook to the madness. Throughout, the story is governed by his personal philosophies. There is an issue-long examination of the tarot, a meta-philosophy that combines bits and pieces of all religions, centered on the idea that a god is, by necessity and by imagination a result of that god’s conception by man, and a kabbalic road map for the higher planes of existence and imagination detailed in sight, smell, and experience and using Sophie-as-Promethea as our proxy.

There is, mind you, a running narrative in the real world, with Sophie’s best friend acting as a substitute Promethea for a time, a group of science heroes fighting to understand Promethea and stop various criminals, and the usual assortment of post-modern culture commentary that Moore intersperses within the background of panels and in “unnecessary” thought boxes on each page. The real world narrative ends as Promethea (*spoiler*) ends the world. However, this does not act as a literal end of the world. Humanity within the story receives an enlightenment and a union with the Immateria. The world continues, and people live on, but under a new mind.

The official end to the series was in issue 32, which when originally printed, was printed as a huge poster, with two 16-page sides acting as a symbolic art piece and an epilogue up the meaning behind the story. Promethea talks through the fourth wall to the reader, explaining what he/she just read and giving clarity and understanding to a shared spiritual journey.

It’s by no means perfectly written. At times, it is very clear that Alan Moore is enamored with his own worldview and wants you to join in the him-worship. At many points the reading is repetitive and daunting due to the mass of symbolism and Moore’s insistence on detailing the meaning of every experience, but the poetic (literally) effort of the tarot issue alone and the precision with which he crafted the narrative show his genius.

The Art:

J.H. Williams III and Mick Grey wonders with every page. There is hardly an inch on any page that is not drawn with intent and with care. The real world pages are drawn fairly static and, probably very purposefully so to display the pages of the Immateria in comparative splendour. As with most Alan Moore efforts, the background is nearly as important to the narrative as the main action, providing commentary and enhancing/reflecting the themes. The layouts in particular are impressive, as the freedom and care that he adds meaning to each page is simply astounding. The art really shines, however, in the Immateria.

Williams, with differing visual styles, creates vastly different symbolic worlds for Sophie to travel through, from the blurry, unsure bottom of the imagination, through the fires of passion and rage, and the pure, uncontainable light of the “heaven” of the imagination. Each plane is unique, each world is tangible and accessible while maintaining the dense imagery and symbolism of the dialogue. Also of particular note are two issues, the tarot issue that I’ve mentioned ad nauseum which, while essentially simple is nearly perfect in its presentation of an isolated story, and the final issue which contains absolutely ridiculous amount of effort to make every page unique while showing 3 separate and cohesive narratives.

I only wish I was more qualified to comment on art, because this deserves a better judge.

•     •     •     •     •     •     •     •     •     •     •

Regardless of the content of the story and the merit of the writing of something so steeped in a personal philosophy, Promethea shows the pinnacle of what can be achieved in the graphic medium. To quote the book directly:

“Using language, we decode existence, make it lucid, cast light upon it. These marks on paper that you are reading are a program, running on the high-rez software of the human mind and it’s imagination. It’s also appropriate that I’m talking to you from the medium of a comic-strip story. Ideograms and Hieroglyphic picture stories were our earliest written language, how we recorded our exploits and our fabulous imaginings.”

Pentagon studies in the 1980s demonstrated that comic strip narrative is still the best way of conveying understandable and retainable information. Words being the currency of our verbal ‘left’ brain, and images that of our pre-verbal ‘right’ brain, perhaps comic strip reading prompts both halves to work in unison?

“We created fantasies then struggled to realize them. Everything around you right now originated in someone’s mind. Creating gods, goddesses, heroes and heroines, we tried to become like them, extending ourselves through sheer imagination.”

If gods are transcendent ideas, then the idea of a god IS a god. Divine images attempted to raise human consciousness using the power of art. Classical god-statues were intended for meditation purposes rather than worship, so that by understand a god’s qualities, we might reproduce them more fully in ourselves.

“Imagination can transform us. Yesod, the lunar sphere of imagination, is the foundation on which our spiritual life rests. Imagination arises out of consciousness, which itself blossoms from Hod, the mercurial, magical sphere of language.”

Promethea is a celebration of the imagination, filtered through the praise of language and graphical presentation and steeped in one man’s generous helping of crazy; one that all of you should read. Now, all I need to do is find the Absolute Editions for under $75.00.

All images were pulled through Google. None are my own scans of the comic.

I picked this up in a special deal that my local shop was promoting whereby, for about $35, you buy the 8 basic variant covers and they include a ninth metalized (is that a word) version of the Charlie Adlard cover H. A fine deal. I’m not going to be able to get the Comic Con B&W cover and there’s no way in hell I’m getting the Charlie Adlard B&W 1:200 cover (currently going for anywhere from $400 -$2000, depending on the ignorance of the buyer) and I appreciated the store trying to give the regulars a little discount. All of the covers are beautiful. My favorite is probably Silvestri or Ottley’s. Silvestri got the mood right and the picture fits the epic nature of the 100th issue fairly well. Ottley just drew the hell out of Michonne and I love the expression on her face.

The story itself was absolutely brutal. I felt drained after reading it. A lot of it was expected due to the huge amount of build-up, but the second half of the book is absolutely bleak and doesn’t give you a glimmer of hope. The tension created from the “selection” scene is heartbreaking and more than a little sickening and after knowing these characters, some of them for the past 9 or 10 years that the comic book has been in production, I was hurting right along with Rick.

Half of me hates this book, because it creates such an emotional attachment to these characters and strips it away without pause and with brutal efficiency, but I also love it because Kirkman has created a fictional world where you’re not comfortable. Where you can’t settle in to knowing which characters will live or die or guessing your way at how the Scooby Gang will make it out of this snafu.

Read the issue, then go have a lie-down. You’re gonna need it.

A picture of my haul (forgive the quality of a phone camera):

Left-to-right (Cover designation noted next to artist):
Top Row: Bryan Hitch F, Sean Phillips E, Ryan Ottley G, Marc Silvestri B,
Bottom Row: Frank Quietly C, Todd McFarlane D, Charlie Adlard H, Charlie Adlard (Chromium) L

Not pictured is Charlie Adlard’s Cover A because it is currently on loan to my brother-in-law for reading.

BIG OL’ DISCLAIMER: This article contains major spoilers regarding many series of the last year in both Marvel and DC comics. If you would rather not have things spoiled, don’t read this quite yet. Also, I do understand that many of the covers that I used for the article came out in January this year, and it was mostly because I was too lazy to get the last one from December. Sorry.

Here at the Website of DOOM, we like to keep our readership updated on the goings and comings of the world in a timely manner. This is why I have waited until it was nearly irrelevant and almost ridiculous to provide the world with my choices for the best comic books of 2011.

My article output for this year has been, quite honestly, horrific. I have managed to produce less than 10 articles in a 12 month span, and most of those were within the same 3 month period. Rather than promise improvement and tell you other lies like “Santa Claus is real” and “he [Santa] doesn’t hate you” I’m going to simply not talk about it anymore.

To be fair, I am a very busy people and, unlike Aaron, I lack the will to post at all hours of the day about all sorts of things. I attribute this to many things. Most recently, my excuse has been insecurity with the quality of my rantings as opposed to lack of time which I have had an abundance of while on break from school. Much of that time has been spent catching up on comic books, reading, and receiving gifts and praise from my adoring fans.

Top 10 Ongoing Series of the Year:

10.) Red Robin
writer: Fabian Nicieza.
artist: Marcus To. (#17-21, 23-26) Freddie E. Williams II (#22)

Following last year’s impressive run, Nicieza brought out the very best in Tim Drake and produced some great comics. Red Robin was never a perfect comic book, there was some forced modernization with the use of twitter and occasionally l33tspeak dialogue creeped in, but it was always a fun book to read. It characterized the doubt that Tim felt with his desire, more than any other Robin, to be his own kind of hero. Impressively, Tim goes toe-to-toe with Ra’s Al Ghul and his league of assassins and thrives. While the series was cut short of its full potential by the reboot, Nicieza still wrapped up the story as nicely as can be expected while maintaining some resolution about Tim’s father and Captain Boomerang. Sadly, this Tim did not survive the reboot and can now be seen whining about borrowed sweaters and wearing an all-too-complicated costume with wings. Marcus To continues to be the one of the few people who can draw a believable teenage superhero without it looking ridiculous.

9.) Avengers: The Children’s Crusade
writer: Allan Heinberg.
artist: Jim Cheung.

Of the 8 issues that this series has produces, only 5 of them came out last year, however, despite unreasonable inconsistency, this book has been one of my most anticipated stories on every purchase. Heinberg and Cheung have done a fine job of creating a book with incredible scale and magnitude without seeming like a keystone event in the Marvel universe. Looking at the timeline, and being completely geeky about it, taking into account costuming, team setup and team consistency, this event takes place either way before the events of Fear Itself or way after, either of which makes it impressive that its still so very relevant. The crux of the story is the discovery of the very much alive Scarlet Witch after the events of House of M and the reaction of various groups to this news. The reactions of some characters are probably the weakest point of the story, whether it be Scott’s overblown “I’m taking her whether you like it or not” reaction or Wolverine’s “kill her and ask questions later” approach, it all seems a little bit silly. Yes, the mutants will have strong opinions about the woman that etch-a-sketch’ed almost the entire species, but this conversation has taken place many times since House of M and always ends up with regret and a lot of people being grumpy. I have to wonder if this book is going to lead directly into the AvX book in March or if it will simply be used as another background story.

8.) Atomic Robo
writer: Brian Clevinger.
artist: Scott Wegener.

Atomic Robo, for those who are unfamiliar, is a chronicling of the multiple adventures of an Atomic powered robot, invented by Nikolai Tesla, now about a hundred years old and with the experiences that one would expect of a dinosaur punching, vampire shooting, science hero. Each Atomic Robo story takes place over 4 – 6 issues with a break in between and according to their Team Robo Promise, they continually produce clever, funny, and often touching comic books that are absolutely delightful to read. That being said, 2011 was a big year for Atomic Robo. We had the conclusion of Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science story arc, their annual Free Comic Book Day issue, and the first four issues of Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X. The one and only drawback to this otherwise perfect comic book is the delay between series. Yes, this keeps the quality at a high, but there are Robo withdrawls that take place during the greater part of the year while waiting.

7.) Batman, Inc.
writer: Grant Morrison.
artist: Yanick Paquette (#1-3, 5) Chris Burnham (#4, 6-7, Leviathan Strikes!) Dave Beaty (#8)

There are two things that I’m fairly certain of in comic books. 1) Grant Morrison will always frustrate the hell out of me and 2) I will follow Grant Morrison to the ends of both Earth and Earth 2. In Batman, Inc. Morrison started what seemed like a fairly straightforward story of a worldwide organization dedicated to the evangelizing of the Batman culture. However, this quickly turned into a series of plots twists (retconning Kathy Kane into a secret agent) from villains that you’ve probably never heard of (Lord Death Man and Scorpiana) working for Doctor Daedalus and ultimately an even more powerful Leviathan, that are ever more nefarious and go back further than you’ve ever imagined because Grant Morrison writes the super longplay plotlines that take about a decade to fully develop (and fully read). The series never disappointed and was simply an amazing work of plotting and character development. I can’t wait to read more of it in the second wave of the 52.

6.) Batman, Vol. 2
writer: Scott Snyder.
artist: Greg Capullo.

I could weigh this series on its own, but seeing as how Scott Snyder has done such amazing work on Batman with Detective Comics #871-881 and Gates of Gotham, both of which also ended in 2011, it becomes necessary to view them as one work. Snyder understands what is necessary of great Batman storys. It doesn’t need to be overtly gory or excessively violent (I’m looking at you David Finch/Tony Daniel) but it should be a good mystery and should remember that Batman is the world’s greatest detective and one of the worlds smartest men and not simply focus on his ability to beat up henchmen and thugs. Snyder has created a villain(s) in the Court of Owls that not only tests his detective nature by making a mystery that Batman has never solved, but also ties the mystery back to Gotham’s and the Wayne family history, all while creating a threatening physical opponent. I can’t wait to see where he goes in issues 5 and beyond.

5.) The Walking Dead
writer: Robert Kirkman.
artist: Charlie Adlard.

The Walking Dead is ubiquitous to the point of frustration in the average life of a nerd. The comic book is everywhere, in bookstores, in libraries and in my home and the TV show is constantly being talked about and debated on television, in comic book stores, in workplaces, and in my home. I can’t seem to get away from the behemoth that Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore created nearly 10 years ago. To be honest, I will be one of the first to line up and tell you the problems I have with both the show and the comic, but I’ll also defend them to a fault. Yes, the characters talk. A lot. Yes, the zombies are often few and far between for a book named after them, but the zombies are never what was interesting and never the intended stars of the story. What makes this one of the best comic books this year and every other year is Kirkman and Moore’s ability to create a unique horror-survival story that is surprising, powerful, and above all very human while the rest of the comic world seems to be pushing for the superhuman.

4.) Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates/Hawkeye/Spider-Man
writer: Jonathan Hickman/Brian Michael Bendis.
artist: Esad Ribic/Rafa Sandoval/Sara Pichelli

Looking at this entry, you might be asking yourself a few questions. Am I forgetting Ultimate X-Men? No, I am not. Did I cheat by using all three of these books instead of just picking one? Maybe. Did they deserve it? Absolutely.

I tried to look at the the new Ultimates universe as a whole instead of the disparate parts. It became a problem when I tried to also include the X-Men, which has been disappointing for a few reasons. 1) Nick Spencer and the powers that be at Marvel have turned the mutant x-gene into midichlorians, which is something I cannot abide. 2) Styrker is a frustraing villain in many respects. I never enjoyed reading books where he was the villain and his son is no exception, Ultimate universe or not. 3) Xavier looks like Lex Luthor and thinks he’s God, none of this seems ok.

But the reason why this is number 4 on my list is because Hickman and Bendis have done an amazing job at reviving a universe that had been absolutely floundering. Ultimate Spider-Man was great, but seeing them push into unknown territory with Miles is fun. Its great experiencing a new hero’s origin story and having it tie in so well thematically with whats going on in the other books. Ultimates and Hawkeye are great simply because Hickman has such an eye for high-end science and the grand scale necessary for the Ultimates universe. Reed Richards returning at the head of an army of bio-engineered humanoids that seem to be perfected genetically and Xorn being introduced as twin brothers at the head of a new Chinese nation run by genetically modified super-mutants. Its just beautiful stuff.

3.) Animal Man/Swamp Thing
writer: Jeff Lemire/Scott Snyder.
artist: Travel Foreman/Yanick Paquette.

It’s hard to put some of the 52 on the best of list. They were only introduced near the end of the year and with only 4 or 5 issues, the stories are hardly done, but the intertwined storylines of Swamp Thing and Animal Man (Animal Man far more than the latter) are far and away the most impressive and surprising thing I saw out of DC last year. Animal Man refreshed a series that was sitting on the backburner of DC properties, having had much of its potential seemingly burnt out in Grant Morrison’s incredible run. However, Jeff Lemire showed us that its not all about punchin’ bad guys and saving the day. Sometimes, you have to deal with supernatural forces that want nothing more than to use your daughter as an avatar for their power that is based upon the animals of the world to defend against the counterpoint of life, “the rot”. In the first issue of Animal Man I knew I was reading something special. The story was new and shocking and the art of Travel Foreman was a perfect match to the story. Swamp Thing was slightly less impressive, and wouldn’t be on this list on its own, but because the stories are so intertwined, I feel that I have to put them on the list together.

2.) Uncanny X-Force
writer: Rick Remender.
artist: Jerome Opeña (#1-4, 14-16), Esad Ribic (#5-7, 10), Billy Tan (#8-9), Mark Brooks (#11-13)

Last year, I felt that I couldn’t put Uncanny X-Force on my list because there was only the one issue released by the start of 2011. Impressively, Remender and the artists manage to put out 14 issues for this year, 14 absolutely stellar issues that brought back to the fore one of the best things that Marvel has done in the past…ever with the Age of Apocalypse universe. With a team of incredible artists that all worked nearly seamlessly together to create an atmosphere of darkness and desperation for this killer team, Remender has presented a storyline that has made him instantly and permanently one of my favorite writers. Great things were accomplished in this run including the reinroduction of Deathlok in a big bad way, killing and revitalizing Apocalypse as a villain/hero, shedding some light on the origins of the mysterious Fantomex, giving Psylocke some very strong character moments, and writing the least annoying and frustrating versions of Deadpool that I’ve encountered. This is definitely something I can’t wait to read more of and hope that it isn’t cancelled anytime soon.

1.) FF/Fantastic Four
writer: Jonathan Hickman.
artist: Steve Epting/Barry Kitson/Greg Tocchini

*GASP*! I didn’t make Uncanny X-Force #1!? How could I possibly not make Wolverine’s X-Force, the most highly regarded comic book of the year, that was at the top of nearly every other top 10 list for the year, my personal number one comic book? Because I am a whore for Jonathan Hickman.

Over the past year Jonathan Hickman has written better stories, more stories, and more entertaining stories than any other writer. If I could include S.H.I.E.L.D. on here, I would, or even Secret Warriors which had a very satisfying and epic ending that makes me miss Nick Fury all the more in this restructured Marvel universe. However, I didn’t add those books to the list because they wouldn’t have worked and I really couldn’t justify their addition. These two, on the other hand, are absolutely amazing. With 4 issues of Fantastic Four and an additional 11 issues of FF released and the anniversary #600, the writing and art of the whole team is nothing short of prolific. Hickman has woven a truly epic story over the course of his 30 (so far) issues which has redefined the strength of the Fantastic Four, established Johnny Storm as an astonishing hero in his own right, created a perfect little team out of Franklin, Valeria, Dr. Doom, and Nathaniel Richards, and turned Galactus into an improbable hero in a battle between the Kree, the Inhumans, Johnny Storm’s Annihilation Wave, the mysterious Celestials, and the League of Reed’s. I can’t say enough about how incredible this book has been, from the simple fun of finding a temporary cure for Ben Grimm to the wives of Black Bolt and Sue Storms command over the five armies. Just…read it.

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I, of course, could give you a recommendation for Graphic Novel of the year again. Blanket’s author Craig Thompson has done some near-perfect work on Habibi that I haven’t finished reading. Daniel Clowes did something…interesting with The Death-Ray that I read and really didn’t care for and I know that Hark! A Vagrant and Big Questions have been getting some great reviews that didn’t match up with the books that I read. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the use of comics as a literary tool to tell any type of story and not just have the comics medium limited to superhero stories by the big publishers. I just can’t deal with the pretention of Daniel Clowes or Chris Ware fans and people who praise books like Blankets, Habibi or Asterios Polyp while criticizing and ridiculing “superhero” books as being “only for kids” never having given them a chance. The worst offense is that these people recommend the books to libraries, where they are ordred without consideration because of this recommendation only to sit on shelves, never checking out and hiding in the corners while great books, amazing stories like Promethea, Daytripper, and Northlanders never get a chance for exposure in the library system because USA Today and The Guardian and Salon.com all gave great reviews to these more “legitimate” and “acceptable” comics that just so happen to be the same books that will never bring in new readers under the age of 20. (run-on sentences are fun)

Week 5!

We’re down to the end of the number ones. Yes, I’m a bit late, but forgive me because I’ve been dreadfully sick and I’ve had a lot on my plate to deal with and scant little time to be reading the funny books. This week was a bit small and there weren’t any of the huge titles of the past two weeks to deal with, but (barring Voodoo) it was a relatively solid week of books. It gave me a bit of hope that DC is going in the right direction with this reboot.

All-Star Western #1
Written by JIMMY PALMIOTTI & JUSTIN GRAY
Art by MORITAT

Nothing says All-Star Western like a Jack the Ripper story, right? I don’t understand why they created a series that has “western” in the title, and the story takes place entirely within a very UN-western city. It makes more sense to call this book Victorian Cowboy…which after typing sounds actually amazing. The history established in Gates of Gotham is referenced, and we get to see Jonah Hex being his generally awesome, but I really feel like they missed the mark on the story. It could have been the start of a great new western series that maybe referenced Gotham, or he might’ve ended up in Gotham at the end, not take the Cowboy out of the Old West. Moritat does a fair job of making the world look gritty, if a little minimalistic. I really liked the book, but I just didn’t see anything particularly new or notable.

Rating: 8/10 (I can’t wait for them to introduce characters named Anne Chapman or Mary Jane Kelly)

Aquaman #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by IVAN REIS

Reis, of course, is right on his game. The book is drawn wonderfully. As a secondary bonus, Aquaman is interesting again! Johns, and DC in general, has been on a mission to push Arthur Curry into a more prominent role in the DCU and, in general, get people to stop making fun of him. Its really easy to make him the anal-fin of a joke (any marine-biologists might get a chuckle at that). He controls fish, but just like Martian Manhunter, people forget so easily that he’s super strong, and a hell of a fighter. I never really understood why Namor is considered a badass while Aquaman is not. Except for the flying, they’re pretty much the same guy. This issue directly addresses the problems that Aquaman faces and its clearly an intro, letting you know that its a very different attitude. It also introduces a shadowy Sleestak-y group of monsters that apparently like to eat the hell out of fishermen. Its going to be a damn good run if it keeps up this quality. Johns hasn’t started whatever long-play storyline he has planned but its a new character, so maybe it won’t be as frustrating as Green Lantern eventually became. Also, Mera has her head back…so he’s got that going for him.

Rating: 8.5/10 (For making Aquaman interesting)

Batman – The Dark Knight #1
Written by PAUL JENKINS & DAVID FINCH
Art by DAVID FINCH

First page, and I remember why I didn’t like the last Finch series. Really dark, really angry, very much from the Liefeld school of grimaces. Second page and the arms have some out-of-control proportions. The rest of the issue doesn’t get much better. Lots of deep cheekbones, oddly flat faces and ridiculous amounts of detail lines. The breakout at Arkham showed yet a third version of a lot of these Batman villains. You’d think that there would be some sort of editorial meeting where they discuss visual continuity between the books that occur in the same universe, let alone the same city. Is that singing Ronald McDonald supposed to be The Joker? Was the whore in the bunny costume absolutely necessary to make a point in this book? I hope the answer is no to both. I’m not going to read the next issue to find out.

Rating: 6/10 (One-Face Smash!)

Blackhawks #1
Written by MIKE COSTA
Art by GRAHAM NOLAN

Real American heroes who regularly and emphatically kill people to death, that’s about all you need to know. Its not a new idea, and it feels like a better funded, DC version of The Losers. We get a book that does not at all depend on the rest of the DC Universe, and really feels like a Wildstorm or Image #1. Its a really disjointed idea, where you don’t know any of the characters and you struggle to find a reason to care about their plight. They’re all good fighters, fair enough. Kunoichi does a pretty cool thing with the whole crashing into soft water, and they have a garage full of what looks like F-Zero Racers and X-1 Vipers from Star Wars: Dark Empire II, and we see that wearing sunglasses indoors falls well within the encouraged Blackhawks dress code. The entire comic seems a bit superfluous (putting that college education to good use).

Rating: 5/10 (meh.)

Green Lantern – New Guardians #1
Written by RON MARZ
Art by TYLER KIRKHAM

I was very much disappointed that this book pulled nearly directly from a 20 year old comic for the first half of the story. I understand the need to establish the origin story when you feature a character that may not be entirely familiar to an audience, but the same angles were used, the same dialogue was used, etc. and it just seems a little lazy. The end of the issue was certainly an interesting sort of twist but I’m a bit bothered that I still can’t be sure exactly why the book is called “New Guardians”. Is Kyle getting all of these rings because he is super special and awesome? Is he getting the rings because he is picking the new guardians? Is he getting the rings because he really does qualify for every ring on some level? I suppose I’ll have to keep reading to find out.

Rating: 7.5/10 (A good book)

I, Vampire #1
Written by JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV
Art by ANDREA SORRENTINO

I was very prepared to dismiss this book. It was an idea that didn’t fit into the rest of the DCU and honestly, it still doesn’t, but that doesn’t stop it from being a great story. Its very well written and very well drawn and I really want to read more of it. We get a great intro to Andrew and Mary, their 400 year romance-of-tumult and an unexpected level of gravity to the book without having an excess amount of gore and violence. We just see the horrible outcome of Mary’s evil. Despite all of this praise, I can’t help but feel that this book would be better served or better serve as a mini-series where Andrew is developed as a character and then introduced as a part of another book such as Justice League Dark, much like the initial run on DCU Presents with Deadman.

Rating: 9/10 (For unexpected goodness)

Justice League Dark #1
Written by PETER MILLIGAN
Art by MIKEL JANIN

For all that happened in this issue, not a whole lot happened. Janin drew a beautiful book and Milligan wrote a wonderful start to a story, but that’s all it was really felt like; a start. The book shows that something bad happens that only a team of crazy magic people can solve, it shows the origins of this team (not nearly enough John Constantine, by the way) and why they’re very well suited to dealing with crazy magic problems. The team is pretty interesting, Deadman, Shade, Constantine, Zatanna, and Madame Xanadu all have their own voice and feel well established and unique and despite the vagaries where most new readers probably don’t know the June Moone/Enchantress connection, I think Milligan handled the big team really well. I feel like this could easily be the same series as Demon Knights just with less swords and dragons and more chain smoking and self-loathing. That being said, I can’t wait to read more.

Rating: 9/10 (For even a small glimpse of Constantine)

Savage Hawkman #1
Written by TONY S. DANIEL
Art by PHILIP TAN

Its got a great artist on it in Tan. It has an alright story, and a fairly interesting change to the Hawkman character. However, as I said in the comic book shop after I had read it: “I just don’t care about Hawkman.” Carter Hall is a cryptologist/archaeologist/treasure hunter…cool. The Nth metal armor and equipment are now a part of his physiology and are no longer separate from his body…also cool. He can use the armor to smash apart weird alien not-Venom monster that was under the ocean…interesting I guess. He gets his power sucked away from him by not-Venom monster…I don’t care. Daniel doesn’t deliver a story that is compelling enough to get me to give a crap about Hawkman. I’m gonna give the rest of this series a pass.

Rating: 6/10 (Very meh)

Superman #1
Written by GEORGE PEREZ
Art by JESUS MERINO

DC is really putting an effort into making it clear that this is a different world. They are actively distancing themselves from nearly anything that says “classic” in the DCU. I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing because change is eventually needed to facilitate stories that aren’t stagnant, but in the process of doing away with these “classic” ideas like the old Daily Planet, they also seem to be keen to make every human being in the DCU adamantly anti-superhero. Yeah, a few of the books have had the people stand up for the hero, but every news and media outlet seems to have gone to the J. Jonah Jameson school of thought and majored in Lex Luthor Xenophobia. “Superman was next to the guy when he exploded, let’s not worry if our hero is ok, we’re gonna assume that he caused it!” because that’s how people think. No. That’s how crazy people think. The book was solid, I’m just really frustrated at the direction DC is taking here. Also, I’m not a fan of how they are changing Lois to be more contentious with Clark and honestly, less of a morally steady person than she always was in Superman books. As I read the last page, I literally said out loud: “Damn Lois, that’s cold blooded…”

Rating: 8.5/10 (Good, not great.)

Teen Titans #1
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by BRETT BOOTH

Third attempt for Scott Lobdell and we get the same middling kind of work. I’m starting to accept that his best work ended back when he was still writing X-Men and New Mutants. Kid Flash is an idiot, Red Robin seems irresponsibly dangerous (while still being kinda cool), Cassie is outwardly violent and distrustful, and Superboy is still crazy. Did I mention how much I dislike that there is a great deal of anti-superhero sentiment in these books where you’re theoretically supposed to be rooting for the superheroes? The costume changes don’t bother me as much as I thought they would, but what actually does bother me is the changes to the characters. Just because you’re rebooting the series and they’re all teens, doesn’t mean that every character has to be an edgy, immature bastard who just wants to punch faces and be totally awesome.

Rating: 5/10 (For missing the point.)

The Flash #1
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL & BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art by FRANCIS MANAPUL

I actually really liked this one. This is a different Barry Allen than I’m used to seeing. He doesn’t have the Catholic-guilt that the regular Barry usually has. I don’t know why, but he always seems to be in a dour sort of mood and I could never tell why. He had a wife, he had a job that he talked about liking, but it just wasn’t enough. Was that what Flashpoint was about? I couldn’t tell with all of the terrible DC version of Age of Apocalypse stuff going on. Anymoose, Manapul is in top form here with some great sequences, and just beautiful art throughout. The story is ok, and definitely worth a read, but it didn’t blow me away, just surprised me (in a good way). I’m still not sure how I feel about the costume. I like how it comes out of the ring, but I’m not so much of a fan of the Speed Force seemingly holding it together. The mask seems to form into one piece, why can’t the rest of the suit?

Rating: 8.5/10 (Beautiful, but I just couldn’t see anything amazing)

The Fury of Firestorm – The Nuclear Men #1
Written by ETHAN VAN SCIVER & GAIL SIMONE
Art by YILDIRAY CINAR

Following the general pattern with these books, this one starts of violent as all get out. The changes to the characters are minor, from what I can tell. Ronnie and Jason are at odds with each other, that much is the same. Ronnie is a jock with a good heart, that’s pretty much the same as well. Jason is out-of-control smart and is apparently a judgemental prick, that’s new. Jason was smart in the recent books, but he was just learning advanced chemistry, never the kid entrusted with protecting the Firestorm Protocol unaided. He is definitely a proxy for Stein, who it is unclear whether is alive or dead. The book ends on an odd sort of note as there are two separate Firestorms who sciencesplode into what seems to be a Firestorm manifestation of the two (Ronnie and Jason) being at odds with one another and not cooperating: Fury. I’ll see where this one goes because it looks like it might be a really fun read.

Rating: 7.5/10 (Solid start, I hope it continues with issue two)

Voodoo #1
Written by RON MARZ
Art by SAMI BASRI.

I don’t know why I thought this would be good. Maybe I assumed that DC wouldn’t make a book where all but three pages have Voodoo actively stripping or walking around nearly naked? Maybe I assumed that Ron Marz wouldn’t take the cheapest possible route with telling her story? Maybe I assumed that this would focus on Voodoo as a character, a hero and not as whatever the hell kind of strange alien-whore that she is? I’m not sure, but this book was just awful. The story could have been told just as easily without reducing her character to what she is shown as, but it absolutely made me dislike this creative team, and the character, made even more terrible because I’ve seen Marz write well, Basri draw some beautiful stuff, and Voodoo be an interesting character in the past. Seriously, though…three pages. I wish I’d never read this book and I hope like hell that it gets canned quickly. The only thing this book accomplishes is to reduce DC Comics in my eyes.

Rating: 0/10 (I hated this book)

On the Marvel side of things I also picked up:

Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates #2
Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN
Art by ESAD RIBIC

We get a better view of who the adversaries are in the series and we see some crazy-awesome science that Hickman does so very very well. We also get an all out brawl between Ultimates Asgard and the Tomorrow Children which goes surprisingly poorly for our be-hammered heroes.

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #2
Written by BRIAN M. BENDIS
Art by SARA PICHELLI

Lots more exposition about who this new Spider-Man is exactly. We also get the nerd-savvy friend who figures out the big secret. I’m liking where this is going, I just hope Bendis doesn’t take to much longer to start the adventures, because I’ve sat through too many interview panels to put up with his storytelling for too long. While it shows the three mutants from the new X-Men, its a little bit strange that there’s no mention of the events from the Ultimates anywhere in this issue.

Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye #2
Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN
Art by RAFA SANDOVAL

I missed this one last week, but it picks up right where the last one left off with Hawkeye and the Southeast Asia Shield base trying to recover from the massive attack by Mutants 2.0. I liked the bit where we actually get some modicum of history on Ultimates Hawkeye that I hadn’t seen in the past…y’know…ever.

Secret Avengers #17
Written by WARREN ELLIS
Art by KEV WALKER

I usually love Warren Ellis, and I was really excited about his run on Secret Avengers, but it really hasn’t been anything special. The dialogue is odd at points and the stories aren’t nearly as fantastic as I’ve come to expect from him. After Astonishing X-Men and now this, maybe he should stick to non-mainstream stuff. I’ll continue to pick this up until his run ends, but it isn’t super great.

FF #9
Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN
Art by STEVE EPTING

Everything is coming to a head rather quickly. I don’t know if it was rushed or if Hickman just always plans things to wrap up in very short order, but its feeling rushed. Much like Secret Warriors felt rushed at the end. I love the story, it just doesn’t seem to be focusing on the spectacle of the story as much as it could or should.

Angel & Faith #2
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE
Art by REBEKAH ISSACS

Nice second issue, and its moving pretty quickly, which is good. Angel and Faith are doing their badass sort of thing in a world that is still reeling from recent events. Word of warning: do not read this book if you haven’t read all of Buffy – Season Eight yet. It references a lot of events and a lot of history that would ruin some great surprises.

Week 4! Batman and Wonder Woman!

I don’t mention it in any of the reviews, but I want to point out a startling trend of these books to be very very violent. There is a lot of blood, a lot of cruelty that I would be shocked to see in the Ultimates let alone a main DC title. I’m not sure what this means, but it is worrisome on some level. DC seems to be pushing very hard for an adult audience, but possibly at the cost of quite a lot of the younger crowd.

Wonder Woman #1
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by CLIFF CHIANG
Colors by MATTHEW WILSON

Like Gotham City, Wonder Woman needed an enema…and that came out wrong…the sentence, not the enema. The character had been suffering for pretty much forever and hadn’t really done much of consequence since killing Max Lord. She was always prominent in the DCU but DC just couldn’t find a way to make her marketable. Even in Trinity, people didn’t much care that anyone other than Batman and Superman were gone. Azzarello had set out to make her something amazing and from this book, he is well on his way to doing so. I was hesitant about his direction because he has a poor history with superhero books (read Superman: For Tomorrow) and he is much more geared as a writer for dark, criminal books. However, he has pulled out something amazing and with Cliff Chiang (who drew a beautiful book) have made me want to read Wonder Woman. Seriously, this book is amazing. The best book of the week and nearly the best book out of the reboot.

Rating: 9.5/10 (Because Wonder Woman is being written well)

Batman #1
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by GREG CAPULLO

First off, YAY! Secondly, ALSO YAY! I’m glad that Batman hasn’t suffered any from the reboot. This book is just great. The art, understandably, feels very much like a Spawn book, but I quickly overlooked that because the story was fantastic. We get Dick pretending to be the Joker to help Bruce get to a corrupt guard working at Arkham, we get to see Caupllo’s take on a lot of the villains that we’re used to (of which I am a big fan), and we get to see a very technology-based Batman and a fairly united Bat-family. I don’t know how many times Thomas Wayne has had a different “saying” or “mantra” but it seems to be the most convenient way for Bruce to get sentimental these days. I really like that Snyder is taking Bruce in a more proactive direction towards controlling and protecting Gotham. I always just assumed that he had Bat-caves all over the city, but to see him developing them is kinda fun. I really like Harvey in this book, they captured the comical slobbish detective from the animated series and earlier appearances, but they’re combined that with the brutal experience from the more recent comics and I think I’m really going to like him in this iteration. Finally, the reveal at the end of the book is (while nothing entirely new) done well enough to actually make me excited.

Rating: 9/10 (For assuaging my fears)

Birds of Prey #1
Written by DUANE SWIERZKLKNSIEDNKASLKITENSKI
Art by JESUS SAIZ

I don’t know why this one stood out to me more than something like…Nightwing or Supergirl, but I really liked the art in this book. It was clean, it was dynamic where it needed to be and Saiz didn’t go overboard with the sexuality of the ladies, which he could have easily done. Sure, Ev is wearing a corset, but it could’ve been a lot worse. On the poor side of this issue is, I don’t really know what happened. I get that two separate parties set up this reporter to track down each other but I’m not sure why, or why that reporter exploded, or why the creepy masked guy kissed Canary and said that he killed her, or why Canary is having pre-explosion migranes. A lot of stuff going on that I guess is good story-building but I’m not interested as much as a little frustrated.

Rating: 8/10 (Solid book, could get very good)

Captain Atom #1
Written by J.T. KRUL
Art by FREDDIE WILLIAMS II

Krul surprised me with a great showing in Green Arrow and I was looking forward to what he might do with Captain Atom. It was…awkward. It started fairly well with the Cap using his nuclear madness to defeat a baddie, and we get the main conflict pretty quickly as he starts pulling apart at the nuclear level (protons and electrons). So, we have a situation where the use of his power might just kill him. We also get a pretty good intro to his base of operations “somewhere in Kansas” (because DC seems to think that Kansas isn’t one of the most boring places in the USA) but my main problem is that the book ends with him about to die maybe? I can see this working for a better known character like Nightwing, but with a character that a lot of new readers don’t know and a lot of old readers don’t care about, it seems like a bad move. A item of note is that this is one of the few books where the hero doesn’t seem to be hiding from the government on some level.

Rating: 8/10 (I see potential, but it needs to move quick)

Catwoman #1
Written by JUDD WINICK
Art by GUILLEM MARCH

Winick is working hard on these new books, its obvious from the way that they’re not taking forever to say what amounts to nothing. I liked Batwing and I like Catwoman. It shows quite a lot about the way she operates and establishes very quickly the version of her that we’re gonna see in this new universe. Still a bit shady, still not completely familiar to Batman, and very nearly a DC Superwhore. It takes her 4 pages to get her clothes completely on and another 3 pages near the end have her sans-shirt. Its drawn very pretty, but it doesn’t make me like the hyper-sexualization of these reboot books any more than I do. I shudder to think of what they would do if Power Girl had been in the 52.

Rating: 7.5/10 (A good book, but unnecessarily sexy)

DC Universe Presents #1
Written by PAUL JENKINS
Art by BERNARD CHANG

The first story arc for DCU Presents is all about Deadman. I don’t know why he’s such a big deal in DC as of late, possibly because Geoff Johns has a dickish hotshot fetish. He’s just never been that compelling of a character to me, and this book didn’t prove otherwise. We get to see that Deadman lives out portions of the lives of various people for various amounts of time. It seems like there isn’t a specific purpose to him possessing each person and I’m not entirely sure how much control or influence he has over these people but its a far cry from the “float around and take over random bodies because I can” Deadman that was sometimes entertaining.

Rating: 7/10 (Because I really don’t get the purpose of this book)

Green Lantern Corps #1
Written by PETER J. TOMASI
Art by FERNANDO PASARIN

I’m gonna start by saying that I don’t really like John Stewart or Guy Gardner…at all. Stewart could be a great character, with a military past and discipline, but he’s always written as absolutely cold and prickly and unwelcoming. Gardner, also, could be a great character, working as a hotshot like Hal, but with an actual sense of humor and a willingness to shut up and just fight if he has to, but again, he ends up being annoying and detached from the job. Both of these poor versions of these characters are displayed perfectly in this issue. If it wasn’t for the mildly interesting prologue that started off the book, I daresay that I wouldn’t bother reading issue 2.

Rating: 6/10 (It wasn’t an awful book, I just couldn’t find a reason to care)

Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by FRANCIS PORTELA

Very much a companion to Legion Lost, this book is mired in stuff that a new reader would be completely lost in. To be fair, both are series that are hard to sell a new reader on unless Superman is on the cover. Actually, that might have been a smarter move for DC in the long run to introduce both as a part of the new Action Comics run and then give them their own book in like 6 months. Hell, it would have been a better idea to premiere 26 books as a start and then the other 26 6 months later to avoid rushing every single book as it seems they’re doing. However, that’s not what we get. We get a well written book, that you need a DC-tionary open to understand fully.

Rating: 7/10 (Same as Legion Lost)

Nightwing #1
Written by KYLE HIGGINS
Art by EDDY BARROWS

After a poor debut by Higgins on Deathstroke, I was really worried about this one, but Nightwing was a fun book to read. It wasn’t trying anything really new, but it was well executed. I really like that being Batman made Dick a better Nightwing, and I even liked the interaction at his old circus. The new villian was nothing special. He’s going to be beaten by experience and patience rather than outright skill or some such madness, but I’m liking the direction this book is taking already. On the other hand, I want him to have his blue costume again. I really don’t like this red one.

Rating: 8/10 (My biggest compliant was the costume)

Blue Beetle #1
Written by TONY BEDARD
Art by IG GUARA

On the plus side, we get to see a bit of the origins of the Blue Beetle scarab and a bit of history of the conflict between the Green Lanterns and “The Reach” (the other Blue Beetles). On the negative side, this is a different Jaime Reyes than I’m used to, definitely at odds with his family, not with the most upstanding of friends, and without Peacemaker. I suppose this explains a bit about the appearance of Brother Eye, as Jaime wasn’t there to help the Justice League destroy it, but in that case, did Infinite Crisis ever happen?

Rating: 7/10 (An average comic that I wanted very much to be great)

Supergirl #1
Written by MICHAEL GREEN & MIKE JOHNSON
Art by MAHMUD ASRAR

Finally, we get to Supergirl. Not really the biggest hype book that DC had going for it. It was a story that didn’t need to be told. After having read it, it certainly feels like a companion to Superman. It doesn’t depend on Superman to exist, but its going to be intimately tied to the Superman because a lot of her discovering the world is going to be due to him. It was a fair issue, showing us how strong she is, how unsure she is, but it doesn’t really fit together. She knows her past but she doesn’t know how or why she is on Earth. It is an issue where a painfully little amount of plot actually moves. She crashes, she gets attacked, she meets Superman. That’s it. The biggest things I think we learn are that America seems to be cosmic bullies and that Superman has learned Kryptonian.

Rating: 7/10 (Its ok, hopefully gets better with issue 2)

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by KENNETH ROCKAFORT

I don’t know. Lobdell keeps putting out books that aren’t as absolutely awful as I thought that they were going to be. They are by no means amazing, or even great, but they’re not…bad. I was really actually liking the direction of this book until they took Starfire and made her into a DC Superwhore. Not cool, Scott. Not cool. I love Starfire, I love that she was bubbly and didn’t quite understand humans and that she didn’t really care about what people thought, but I have never read a book where she was portrayed as if she existed only for pleasure until this one. The art was impressive, I absolutely love the parts where Rockafort wasn’t using sex to sell a comic book because Lobdell couldn’t write a book that could bring in readers on his own. Also, where is Jason’s red hair. Is that retconned too?

Rating: 5/10 (For ruining Starfire)

On the Marvel side of things I also picked up:

Ultimate Comics: X-Men #1
Written by NICK SPENCER
Art by PACO MEDINA

Lots of talking. Lots of changes to the story that, having not read Ultimate X-Men in a while, I’m not sure are true or not. We see a post-Ultimatum world that has harsh punishments for mutants and a lot of madness about mutants being a manmade “virus”. Unlike the other three Ultimate books, this one requires a lot of knowledge of the recent history of the ultimates universe.

Fear Itself: The Avengers #17
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Art by JOHN ROMITA JR.

I’m just gonna go ahead and say that I’m tired of the interviews. I was OK with it up until this point. Its just boring now. Even on pages with a lot of action, any drama is taken out of it by knowing that his person is going to be interviewed later, its all gonna be good in the end because they’re talking about it. The only thing that seems to be coming out of Fear Itself is some wrecked buildings and Bucky dying.

The Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #7 of 9
Written by ALLAN HEINBERG
Art by JIM CHEUNG

I am absolutely in love with this series. If it was a bit more consistent, it would me my favorite comic book at the moment. A lot of big things are happening in this book, but since this is the only book addressing a lot of the events, I don’t know if its going to affect the larger Marvel universe or just going to exist as a background story that will end up not really making any changes.

Here Comes Daredevil #4
Written by MARK WAID
Art by PAOLO RIVERA & JOE RIVERA
Colors by JAVIER RODRIGUEZ

The story continues with Daredevil beating up the bad guys on the streets and Matt Murdock advising some self-representing clients. I continue to be amazed by J. & P. Rivera’s work on the art with some incredible sequences as Daredevil moves throughout the city to meet a client. The entire book is beautiful.

I take on the third week of DC #1’s and try not to lose my enthusiasm for doing these weekly reviews. Sorry I’m late again. Also, sorry John and Aaron, I cuss a little bit in this one.

Children, be warned.

I shall first review the final two that I didn’t get to from last week:

Static Shock #1
Written by SCOTT McDANIEL & JOHN ROZUM
Art by SCOTT McDANIEL

I want Static to succeed more than any other book here. Even more than Animal Man, because I think that Static has been severely mistreated by DC at every instance. He hasn’t been given the attention that he deserves in the main DCU despite being a great character, and he’s almost always canceled at the first opportunity despite books of far lower quality being continued. This issue shows a lot of the potential that there is for a Static book. First, I love that Hardware is his mentor and guide in this iteration. I’m also a fan of him being moved out of Dakota City (not so keen on him moving INTO New York City, but it doesn’t bug me too much) because even the thought of Dakota is a sleepy sort of affair to me as someone who lives close to L.A. Rozum and McDaniel do some great stuff with the character right off the bat, making it a very science-friendly story, but with Mr. Terrific having an eerily similar fight to Statics, there’s going to be stiff competition over which one won’t actually be canceled.

Rating: 7.5/10 (Room for improvement)

Green Arrow #1
Written by J. T. KRUL
Art by DAN JURGENS

Krul…the name usually sends shivers up my spine, but he surprised the hell out of me. A lot of the books in the reboot have done that. Surprise seems to be a theme. Not always for the better, mind you, but a lot of just mistaken ideas about how good or bad a book was gonna be. Krul pulls out a damn good story here, going with a very young, very Smallville of Oliver Queen. His tech equipment and fighting ability in this book made him seem more like Batman than I ever expected him to. I like this. Dammit. I like it.

Rating: 8/10 (Downgraded for “Q-Core”)

Onto this week’s books:

Batman and Robin #1
Written by PETER J. TOMASI
Art by PATRICK GLEASON

It could have been so beautiful. I wanted so much to read a book where Damien was being a little prick trying to earn Bruce’s trust and Bruce had to put up with him. Instead we get an overprotective Batman, Damien being more than capable, if a little careless in his methods, and a lot of vague references to a history which I’m not sure about. I don’t know what sections of the last few years of Batman that they’ve held onto. Bruce has been recently portrayed as absolutely on-the-ball. He’s been all over the world setting up Batman Inc. and still had time to check up on everything in Gotham. He had time to watch Tim and make sure he didn’t go over the edge, he had time to take care of the Gates of Gotham problem, but he seemed so unsure of himself near the end of this issue and Damien, instead of being a lovable scamp who is too smart for his own good but its ok because he doesn’t understand normal people, is an complete jerkass. He’s trying to fit in with his father but he shits on all of these memories that Bruce is trying to share with him. Its obviously a big moment, but he can’t even try to be sentimental. He’s not being unfeeling robot, he’s being a prick. Another issue of note is, I HAVE BATMAN’S PASSWORDS!!! Also, an issue I will address again later is the over-explanation. When you’re pulling radioactive material out of a big pool full of radioactive rods with radioactivity signs all around and you’re wearing radioactive containment suits, you don’t have to explicitly say that you’re pulling irradiated material out of this radioactive pool for a radioactive experiment. RADIOACTIVE! DANGER! WE’RE BAD PEOPLE! BATMAN SHOULD STOP US! ALSO, WE’RE GOING TO SAY EACH OTHER’S NAMES EVERY TIME WE TALK TO EACH OTHER BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT NORMAL PEOPLE DO!

Rating: 8/10 (For obviousness and such, but sill awesome Batman)

Batwoman #1
Written by J.H. WILLIAMS III & W. HADEN BLACKMAN
Art by J.H. WILLIAMS III
Colors by DAVE STEWART

Wow. I thought either the art or the story would suffer with Williams pulling double-duty but this could have fit right in to the Rucka books. As always with Williams’ work, the layouts were amazing and the varying art-styles work perfectly with the superhero/citizen dynamic. At one point in the story there is a bit of a jump to Batwoman training Firebird which felt awkward, but other than that the pacing was wonderful and the dialogue felt true. Blackman has done a wonderful job continuing the tone of the Rucka books that was so perfect. Its rare that you get a superhero book where you can call it poetic, but this book pulls it off. Batwoman also continues to face off against villians that are a bit out of the ordinary with La Llorona. I can’t wait for issue two, because this is my favorite thing this week.

Rating: 9.5/10 (Because every page was a work of art.)

Superboy #1
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by R.B. SILVA

I didn’t hate this book. I went into reading it absolutely expecting to hate it. So, at least its got that going for it. Lobdell does a fair job and doesn’t really mess anything up, but he doesn’t do anything special either. The story was predictable, I can even tell you that Miss Redhead is gonna die when Superboy escapes the facility. It hasn’t happened yet, I just know its going to because that’s the way this book seems to be going. No surprises. I did quite like Superboy’s initial monologue dealing with the new experiences. Also, SCIENCE DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY! It kind of bothers me that he went into the whole genetic knowledge thing. I get that certain behaviors and traits can be passed down and that you can inherit a certain amount of creativity or potential to learn or even a certain proficiency in say…math, but not specific facts. Its just bad writing. Have him use his powers to figure out things, or have him use the alien and human super-intelligences that he inherited to figure it out, don’t have the knowledge just magic its way into his head. Also, he is obviously shown to be developing into his own person, and is learning things at an amazing rate, but he doesn’t even glance at the burning building? Narcissism aside, that’s just idiocy.

Rating: 5/10 (For making me re-think purchasing Teen Titans)

Deathstroke #1
Written by KYLE HIGGINS
Art by JOE BENNETT

I don’t know why I thought this might be a good idea. I read the promos. I really did. I said to myself…”Self, this might be a good book, you should spend your money on it because its gonna be amazing, sincerely Self.” Well, I’ve figured out that Self is a gorram idiot. Instead of a badass Deathstroke who takes on assassinations and other such badassery (who apparently he is, but we don’t see that) we see a Deathstroke who has an “agent”, an annoying “agent” who is worried about his “image” and who sets him up with a “team” of “idiots” to do a “job”…its not good. Why not show us him having to be absolutely awesome to assassinate someone and show a superhero fail? Why not show him being a mercenary and bodyguard against some supervillians because he was getting paid well enough to take out some supervillains?Nope, we get some middle of the road story that doesn’t want to take a stand on whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy. We get to see him kill a bunch of people because he didn’t like their faces and leave his “agent” alive because he’s so very good at his job (hint: he’s not). I had such high hopes for you on this one Higgins…such high hopes.

Rating: 4/10 (For neutering Slade where the Teen Titans failed so many times)

Demon Knights #1
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Art by DIOGENES NEVES

I would’ve picked this up solely on Paul Cornell writing, and I did, but the book brought a story that I’m excited to read issue two of. We see the origin of Jason Blood, (sort of) his introduction to Madam Xanadu, Vandal Savage being a barbarian, Altair the Assassin…I mean Al Jabr the ambassador, Sir Ystin – The Shining Knight (from Seven Soliders of Victory fame), Exoristos who appears to be a Themysciran, and a mystery archer who I’m betting is either Artemis or somebody much more obscure like Xu Tao. I knew this was going to be a team book, but I am really excited to read about this team, especially when the last page shows them fighting Dragons. How can that not be awesome? It seems like its going to be a long-play storyline, building into the larger narrative of the current DCU, so I’m looking forward to more great storytelling here.

Rating: 9/10 (Only a nine because Etrigan didn’t rhyme)

Frankensteing: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by ALBERTO PONTICELLI

First, I love the art in this book. Its gritty, its got character, its got…chutzpah. However, the story bothers me. Much like a lot of this reboot, the book that it came from (the three part Frankenstein Flashpoint tie-in) was rendered absolutely pointless. They came out and told you this pretty good three-part series about Frankenstein finding out about his history with some other misfit monsters. This book re-introduces the same characters, only now they’re less dynamic, less developed, and more expendable. Also, we get a first look at Ray Palmer (pre-or-post-Atom, I’m not sure) doing some super-science stuff for S.H.A.D.E. I’d like to point out that this book handles super-science in its short moments better than a lot of the other DC books. I really did like this book, despite expecting not to. I didn’t know what Lemire was going to bring to the table after a good, but not great mini-series. My main beef with the book is still that the characters are exactly the same, yet absolutelly different than in the mini.

Rating: 8.5/10 (Great story, lots of potential)

Green Lantern #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by DOUG MAHNKE

Why do we get promised a book where Hal Jordan is no longer the Green Lantern, where Sinestro is the Green Lantern for this sector again and is on the cover a book, and end up with a book where Sinestro gets all of three pages (beginning and end) and Hal the entire middle of the book to moan and complain and figure out what life means now that he’s ruined everything else by being a dickhole? Did he learn anything by having his life pretty much ruined by his dickhole-ery? No. He still jumps across a building without thinking and ruins his life further. Why can’t Geoff Johns write a story where Hal has some personal growth and doesn’t stagnate in the same stupid behaviors? Why does everything always work out in the end for Hal Jordan despite everybody knowing exactly what is wrong with him and that he’s obviously not going to change? Because hell yes, that’s why. Because Geoff Johns doesn’t need to know about characterization and plot when you’ve got a ring that can make your fist into a bigger fist, but green. Also, Sinestro is going to get Hal his ring back. That sure lasted a while. Good job on that one.

Rating: 6/10 (For giving me hope of a non-Hal Jordan-centric book, and then giving me a Hal Jordan-centric book)

Grifter #1
Written by NATHAN EDMONSON
Art by CAFU

My main problem with this story didn’t have to do with the narrative. It was that Grifter, a character that we’re supposed to be following in this book isn’t identified as having existed before this book until the last page. See, in origin stories, you’re supposed to get reasons why this character has his own story, you’re supposed to know why he’s a compelling character and not just some guy. Sure, he gets experimented on, sure he’s a con man, but he’s not special otherwise that we see. The military guys call him a “former Delta agent” which explains nothing, and on the last page he puts on his Grifter mask which has no significance to a new reader because you don’t know his history as Grifter, his training with Coda or his time with the WildC.A.T.s. The first issue of a story is supposed to hook the reader, make them want to read issue two. After this one, I regret the high praise I was willing to give it a few weeks ago.

Rating: 5/10 (For removing Grifter from a Grifter story)

Legion Lost #1
Written by FABIAN NICIEZA
Art by PETE WOODS

Again, for an origin story, an introduction for new readers, which this obviously is, you want to spend a little bit of time adjusting the reader to the new world. Fabian Nicieza does this fairly well in Legion Lost. He gets the characters with varying powers introduced, shows the predicament that they’re in and shows a vague, but dangerous threat that they must deal with. However, I have never really been a fan of Legion books, and this is a Legion b-team. I don’t particularly care about any of these characters as they’re all equally out-of-place and detached from the 21st century. They also all seem to have the same personality quirks of being overly analytical and quick to get disoriented. I might have read it wrong, but I just don’t think the characters were given enough differences. I might read a second and third issue on this, but I don’t see how its going to be very popular.

Rating: 7/10 (A fair story, but without a proper draw for a new reader)

Mr. Terrific #1
Written by ERIC WALLACE
Art by GIANLUCA GUGLIOTTA

I don’t know what to feel about this one. On one hand, DC finally has a book that legitimately explores super science concepts like pocket dimensions that Marvel has been handling for years now. On the other hand, about halfway through, the narrative jumps to a party where everything goes tits-up and Mr. Terrific goes unexpectedly crazy. It can be good if the storytelling gets a bit more cohesive or at least straightforward. While I’m talking about this, I’d like to point out a gripe that I have with a lot of these reboot books: the dialogue is way too on-the-nose. If you magnetize a villian, you don’t have to explain how and why you magnetized his metal suit.

Rating: 6.5/10 (For referencing snooker in a comic book)

Red Lanterns #1
Written by PETER MILLIGAN
Art by ED BENES

I know that some people like Ed Benes. Most of the time, I can wholeheartedly agree that he is a damn good artist. However, he is also quite well known for drawing unrealistic, hyper-sexualized women who generally detract from the overall narrative. Just google search Ed Benes and only 4 pictures on the first page aren’t women looking “sexy” and as Aaron put so very well yesterday, this makes every other comic book reader look bad and not be taken seriously. That art does not belong in mainstream comics. There are other books where you can do that, any of the Executive Assistant books, for example, or Lady Mechanika, which is more than a little gratuitous. Now, onto the book. Despite my rant, Benes has quite a lot of restraint in this book and while Bleez gets her share of exhibitionary stances and angles that show off her assets, it didn’t really detract from the story. This is mostly because I didn’t care about the story in the first place. I’ve said before that I like Peter Milligan quite a lot, but this book is going nowhere. We’re supposed to feel bad for the rage-and-hate filled monster from space who kills people because the other rage-and-hate-filled monsters from space don’t want to listen to him anymore? No. Atrocitus was an alright character during all of the rainbow lantern madness, he constantly ripped on Hal Jordan which made him O.K. in my book, but here, he’s just boring. Not even Dex-Starr made me care about this book. Also, “take care, it’s spiteful” is bad…bad writing.

Rating: 4/10 (Bad idea from the start, didn’t prove me wrong)

Resurrection Man #1
Written by DAN ABNETT & ANDY LANNING
Art by FERNANDO DAGNINO

DnA made me buy this book. They also made me murder a guy, but I don’t think that’ll hold up in court. Also, like the murder, I don’t regret buying this book. It was a solid story, nothing amazing really but enough to bring me in for issue #2. You get your character introduction, a nice little narrative on his motivations and how his powers work, and a clear enemy. Well…not clear because the enemy is Angels? Demons? Both? Definitely crazy people with teardrop tattoos who reference a higher power and souls…so maybe gang members? I just know that they are pissed at him and his delicious shiny soul.

Rating: 8/10 (For finally putting the hooded mystery woman in the foreground of a panel)

Suicide Squad #1
Written by ADAM GLASS
Art by FEDERICO DALLOCCHIO

There are very few people who I’d expect to be able to match Gail Simone’s madness and wit. Secret Six was disturbing and funny at the same time, while not losing any of the drama and tension, not an easy thing to do. Adam Glass makes a fine offering in this issue. I was worried reading this that it was going to be entirely centered on Harley Quinn, not necessarily an awful thing, but popularity of a character does not equate to quality of a character. She’s always been the annoying sidekick to The Joker, and in Gotham City Sirens she was the annoying sidekick to Catwoman. She has some great dramatic moments, but they never equated to much past those moments. That being said, I’ve always thought she’d do really well in a team book like Secret Six. She’s sadistic enough to hang with the villains but she’s cutesy enough to entertain those looking for a more lighthearted book. Glass does a great job, however, of balancing the character-time in this issue. Harley and Deadshot share the spotlight, and while I miss Catman and Bane, I think this can actually be a great book. The new costumes don’t bother me either, I really didn’t have any loyalty to the red, white, and black anyways. I really look forward to seeing where this book goes, especially with the way this issue ends.

Rating: 8.5/10 (For making me not cringe at Harley Quinn for a second or two)

On the Marvel side of things I also picked up:

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Art by SARA PICHELLI

Not much happens in this one, but unlike with Grifter, that’s ok. We learn that Osborne is trying to recreate Spider-Man,we get to see the development of the new Spider-Man, and we see a crazy Douglas Adams spider being accidentally stolen by Ultimates universe Deadpool. Then we meet the new alliteratively named Spider-Man…boy, who is a down on his luck city boy who’s good for nothing uncle gets him Spider-Man-ed by way of said accidentally stolen Douglas Adams spider. Also, he can turn invisible. The End.

Uncanny X-Force #15
Written by RICK REMENDER
Art by JEROME OPENA
Colors by DEAN WHITE

The best book Marvel is putting out is still great as the X-Force deals with a lot of not-ok going on in the Age of Apocalypse universe. Words collapsing, life seeds, death seeds, crazy Archangel, and time manipulation. All wonderful.

Here Comes Daredevil #3
Written by MARK WAID
Art by PAOLO RIVERA & JOE RIVERA
Colors by JAVIER RODRIGUEZ

A book that I picked up on a whim and have absolutely loved gets a finish to a (first?) story arc. Matt Murdock is back as Daredevil and is trying to figure stuff out after having been possessed by a demon known collectively as a “bad major story event”. Post-Shadowland Daredevil has to handle being untrusted by superheroes and the public alike because of his possession. All of this happens while Paolo & Joe Rivera do some amazing artwork. I can’t wait to read more.

Lordy, lordy, lord… There was amazing stuff this week. But there was also, some terrible, terrible, heartbreaking stuff this week. I remind you that this is spoiler-ridden and if you haven’t read this weeks books, do not read this until you do. Or if you don’t care to read them, know that I will tell you pretty much what you need to know from the stuff you’re not gonna read.

Hawk and Dove #1
Written by STERLING GATES
Art by ROB “MOTHER EFFING” LIEFELD

Reactions:
– HANK HALL MUST BE YELLING AT ALL TIMES!
– That first splash page features a Hawk that must be at least 9 feet tall, or he’s fighting hobbits.
– That being said, proportions are a bit more reserved than your classic Liefeld, and look…FEET!
– Why is compassion listed among Dove’s abilities? Also, why is “a huge asshat” not listed among Hawk’s?
– NO! Not the Washington Monument! Pretty much the most avoidable national monument via plane in the United States.
– NYARR! HRR! FNYARR! (and other things that zombies might say)
– Hank Hall’s teeth-to-face ratio is unnerving.
– aaaand Liefeld forgets that he orignally drew claw-gauntlets on zombie #1
– Bird pun count: 1
– Hank Hall changes size and muscle proportion every panel.
– There are 2 panels, count em folks, in which Hawk is not either yelling or gritting his teeth.
– Hank’s dad really looks like Michael Buffer
– Did Dove just smash the roof of a car in without explanation? Where’s the compassion in that?
– How old is Hawk supposed to be? Hank became Hawk when they looked to be teens, he was partners with Don for “years” and he was alone for a while, and he’s been partners with new Dove for “years” and he’s still college-age. I’m not sure of the purpose in bringing up college for him, either. It all seems really awkward.
– Also, can Deadman fly, because those buildings look awfully far away?
– Hawk and Dove’s origin is very nearly the worst origin that I’ve ever heard. They wished really hard? Really?
– Dove has deep dark secrets relating to Don Hall? Why is he still called Deadman if he doesn’t have anymore dead-powers? DA brown avatar who has a similar grimace problem to Hank Hall? NYARRR!? Find out all the answers you’re probably fairly passive about next month in HAWK AND DOVE!

Rating: 4/10 (For gratuitous use of cheekbones)

Justice League International #1
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by AARON LOPRESTI

Reactions:
– Lots of people in this big team shot that I don’t remember from JLI: B’wana Beast, Speedy, Jamie Reyes, be-mowhawk-ed Captain Atom, Frankenstein, big face guy behind plastic man whose name I don’t know (Possibly Dr. Zaius)…is this the new team?
– Apparently I was right that they were picking nation-representative heroes, this might have been revealed before, I just never read it.
– Ok, that was Green Arrow…not Speedy. I miss the beard.
– All of the little nods to the nations and commentary by the delegates seems forced and unnecessary. It just interrupts the flow of the story.
– Also, why show this characters that would otherwise make it an interesting read (Green Arrow, Blue Beetle, Batman) if they are going to remove them.
– Who in the hell is Godiva? I’ve never heard of this woman. A look around and she didn’t exist before this comic, at least not that I can find.
–
–
– …excuse me, I got distracted reading a story that wasn’t awful. The “protestors” referencing Black Hawks pulled me out of it. I like that the DCU is trying to be more cohesive, but it seems forced. Black Hawks are supposed to be an elite, covert-ops team and your average person is able to steal explosives from them?
– Also, I approve of Batman being on the team without the U.N. knowing.
– I get the feeling that Godiva is going to be a double-agent at some point. She’s unknown, useless in a battle, and openly flirts with the leader of the group. She must be evil.
– This also made me realized that the DCU is seriously lacking in the way of British superheroes.

Rating: 7/10 (For surprising me with a good team dynamic despite uneven dialogue and odd character interaction)

Batwing #1
Written by JUDD WINICK
Art by BEN OLIVER

Reactions:
– Damn…that’s pretty.
– Seriously, this is a beautiful book. Oliver and Reber have surprised the hell out of me.
– Unhappy with the villain…”All I need is for people to die!” is not a compelling bit of dialogue.
– Halfway in and the book is very well written. I actually care about this Batwing fellow. I’m actually really liking this.
– And then Batman says “…or I’ll hurt you more.” Clunky dialogue, awkward, not ok. Couldn’t come up with anything more threatening?
– It shows a lot of Batman giving him this starting push at being a superhero. I like this, I hope it shows him getting his own stride, getting his own style because I might have to start reading this book in earnest.
– Did I mention how much I like the look of this book?
– Book ends on a cliffhanger, but one that has no weight when considering the beginning of the book, we know he gets out, we know he fights Massacre again, but y’know what? I really want to read it.
– I’m glad that Winick has told a quicker story. He usually goes for a long-play plot based around the trade. I like the quicker pace that its set up, but it also has roots for a larger story. Its…well done.
– Cheers, Judd. You and your art team have won me over for a few more issues.

Rating: 8/10 (For surprising me so wonderfully)

O.M.A.C. #1
Written by DAN DIDIO & KIETH GIFFEN
Art by DAN DIDIO & KIETH GIFFEN

It was advertised to be Kirby-esque, and it is. However, I am not a big nostalgia kinda guy for comics. I can appreciate the older books, but they were a bit hokey and silly at times. This proved to be no exception to the rule. No reactions for this one, just disappointment. Brother Eye is still around, and it is hijacking the bodies of random people in order to…??? I have no idea about the motivations of this thing. Is it going to be like Brainiac and just collect knowledge? Is it going to go all “Hal” on us and kill man in order to save man? Is it just being a dick and doing things in order to do em? I really don’t care. Its a book where I can’t root for the “hero”. Its a book where I can’t root for the creators.

No rating, I just didn’t really like it.

Batgirl #1
Written by GAIL SIMONE
Art by ARDIAN SYAF

Reactions:
– Prologue has me interested pretty quickly. Simone doesn’t disappoint on the odd and evil.
– Nor on the mental state of Barbara Gordon, I buy it, but I’m still not sure I like the cost of three great characters for the reward of one.
– Who swings like that? Honestly, that looks uncomfortable. Something about the way she’s looking or the angles or that the swing-line is not taut…it just bothers me.
– Villain’s first lines…I renewed my love for Gail Simone. She does twisted humor so very very well.
– Slight nod to the new legs, well handled.
– I always did like that Barbara was the female counterpoint to Dick. I love that she smiles in a fight, that she’s a sarcastic jerk. It was also something I liked about Stephanie Brown though.
– DAAAAMN…that kick must’ve hurt.
– They’ve reduced the 23 years that Barbara Gordon has been in a chair to 3. Her legs fixed by a “miracle”. I’ve heard weaker explanations for recovery in comics though. I like that they haven’t completely lost the Oracle part of her character.
– Our first look at the new DCU’s Jim Gordon. He’s got color in his hair again, but he’s the same guy, I’ll count that as a win.
– The line about her experience in the wheelchair were perfect.
–
–
– …sorry, got distracted with a good story again. Batgirl ended kind of odd. It makes sense for the character, but it was just such a downer for a first issue. It required a bit more knowledge of the character than most of the other first issues as well.
– I’m really happy that Simone is writing this. Nobody knows Barbara better.
– Like I was saying to Colin, this book is really measured against the memory of Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain. It isn’t the same. It isn’t quite as good, but I’m willing to put a “yet” at the end of that statement. I think it has a hell of a lot of potential.

Rating: 7/10 (For giving me more wonderful Gail Simone)

Men of War #1
Written by IVAN BRANDON
Art by TOM DERENICK

Reactions:
– Nice tone immediately set. Already exceeding my expectations.
– Clever lettering, its not often you get exceptional performance by a letterer. Usually they go unnoticed, which I suppose shows their great quality, that they aren’t appreciated for creating such an integral piece of the story. I quite like this. Cheers to Rob Leigh.
– As much as the idea behind the book seems ill-considered, I like the character and I like the pace.
– I wish some of DCU’s regular superheroes had the depth that Sgt. Rock has in just a few pages.
– The dialogue in this comic is really good. (I swear I don’t talk like this all the time)
– As interested as I am in the superhero battle, I’m much more interested in the soldiers and their struggle.
– Ending doesn’t quite have the emotional impact that I think was intended, but it was a great little story. If more issues are this enjoyable, I’m definitely gonna be a fan.
– Remember way back in the long long ago when I said that I’m not nostalgic when reviewing O.M.A.C., I’m totally nostalgic for Sgt. Rock and I kinda love this.

Rating: 8/10 (For giving me back Sgt. Rock)

Detective Comics #1
Written by TONY S. DANIEL
Art by TONY S. DANIEL

Reactions:
– I like how Daniel draws. I don’t like how he writes.
– I am immediately drawn to dislike that he used his full name. I don’t know why, I just don’t like it.
– Batman looks good, leg proportions are little odd, but its drawn well and the coloring is very nice.
– Batman given away by a…bat-camera? I don’t like that either.
– GCPD is still untrusting of Batman. I’m not sure where this book is on the timeline of the DCU, but I don’t like a Gotham thats antagonistic to the Batman.
– The way Daniel is drawing Batman feels very reminiscent of The Dark Knight Returns. Same Frank Miller-like lines, heavy shoulders, hunched-over. Interesting choice.
– Very stylized Batmobile, a batmobile that I don’t really like, but its not about the car.
– This is being written like the Joker has only been around for a year. Interesting choice. He also has a mohawk. Bad choice. It didn’t work for Storm, it doesn’t work for The Joker.
– Nevermind my complaints about the GCPD. I’m glad Gordon is a part of the Batman universe.
– Wow, page 15 looks like a different artist drew it. Rougher. Batman looks like he’s wearing a different costume. Also, looks like he’s shaped oddly. Very strange choice.
– Art is fixed a page later but some discrepancy with either coloring or lettering makes some of the thought boxes odd. Just an editing issue, nothing major.
– Harvey Bullock back in the DCU. I like it. He’s a dick, and he adds some tension for Gordon.
– “binocular thermo-imaging lenses” is bad writing. Its Batman. Show, don’t tell. Daniel, as the artist and writer could have done this a lot better.
– Very young version of Batman, must take place before the rest of the DCU.
– Very dangerous version of The Joker, as well. I like this Joker.
– Very gruesome ending as well, unnecessarily so, I think. Daniel is trying to shock the reader to make up for a story that didn’t have a lot going for it.
– In closing, the art was inconsistent. It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, but when it could have been fixed with a team rather than a single creator, I think I’m at least a little bit justified. The story was ok, it was a young, unsure Batman. Something that’s been done before and done better. Its nothing new, and it was better than I thought it was gonna be, but it wasn’t and still isn’t worth my money.

Rating: 6/10 (For a mediocre Batman story when it could have been amazing)

Animal Man #1
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by TRAVEL FOREMAN

Now we’re to the books that I actually bought this week.

First off, I’m going to forever love Travel Foreman for this issue. I didn’t know what to make of him before I read this, and I had originally decided not to get it, but I’m glad I did. Along with Swamp Thing, its by far the best book this week. Foreman’s art is refreshing, and perfect for the story being told. It lets you know immediately that this story is different, that this isn’t going to be a superhero story. Lemire handles the legacy that he inherits with a story that I did not want to end. Animal Man is struggling to find out exactly who he is in the world. He’s an activist, an actor, a superhero, a father, a husband, and any number of other things that are balanced expertly by Lemire. He shows Buddy Baker to be a multi-faceted character without neglecting anything that makes the story compelling or making him silly. Foreman’s art, again surprised me when the story became extremely dark, the coloring by Lovern Kindzierski was equally amazing. The dream sequence was beautiful and haunting and terrifying and the last panel of the story was the perfect end to a surprising story.

Rating: 10/10 (Seriously, I can’t imagine it being better)

Swamp Thing #1
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by YANICK PAQUETTE

I can never decide how I feel about Yanick Paquette. He is clearly a chin-fetishist, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Its just that I’m pointedly not…a chin fetishist. That being said, Paquette’s layouts are amazing. Him and Fairbairn set the mood perfectly on each page, and every layout enhances what the story is trying to say at the moment. Snyder handles Swamp Thing with skill, using Holland to give the reader perspective. Making him just as confused and clueless as you are. Holland, also, is given more definition than I’ve ever seen from him. In a few pages, and one conversation with Superman, Alec Holland becomes sympathetic, intelligent, simple, and burdened, and that’s four things that I couldn’t say about him before I read this book. The plot going on around Alec I can’t really get a hold on. I don’t quite know what’s happening, but I’m not really supposed to. The evil is big and unpleasant, it turns heads around and uses insects in ears to infect. That is not ok, ever.

Rating: 9.5/10 (Not perfect, but darn near it.)

Action Comics #1
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by RAGS MORALES

Visually, this book was beautiful. Morales drew the hell out of those action sequences and I love that you could feel Superman’s speed and strength. You could feel the world reaction to him. However, something was up with the faces. So many times reading this book (I’ve read it three times now), I wondered why everyone’s face looked so odd. Why everyone’s eyes looked a bit crossed, or why their face was concave instead of the reverse, or why sometimes it was very detailed and sometimes it was strangely sparse? Superman, is written with a great attitude. He’s young, he’s learning, he’s developing and he’s still a great person. Lex is still a dick, and Morrison can write one hell of a dick. Its interesting seeing a Superman that can be hurt so readily. Another change that I like is the Jimmy/Clark relationship and how it leads into the Lois/Clark relationship. He’s not at the Daily Planet yet, he’s not perfect, and unlike Detective Comics, its something that I haven’t really read before. The book ends on a cliffhanger, but despite being one that you know he’s going to eventually get out of, its still something I want to read the how of. I want to know how he survives this, and that marks a very good book.

Rating: 9/10 (Amazing, but not everything I had hoped for)

Stormwatch #1
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Art by MIGUEL SEPULVEDA

I’ve seen Stormwatch and the ideas within drawn by some amazing artists. Miguel Sepulveda didn’t exactly WOW me in this issue. Maybe it was that Passalaqua’s colors didn’t mesh as perfectly as they could have but everything was a bit awkward. I use that word a lot, but it applies. Faces look a bit flat, backgrounds don’t blend with the foreground, characters stand out too much. For example, the moon is absolutely detailed with the shape of a giant claw coming out of it, but the foreground characters look flat, even flatter in comparison. Little things like this happened throughout the issue and it pulled me out of being immersed in the story. J’onn is placed very well on the team, and despite my lack of familiarity with everyone on the Stormwatch team, I didn’t feel lost. The introduction of Midnighter at the end was satisfying and as a bonus I learned a quick way to get rid of the Martian Manhunter if it ever comes down to that. Always prepared. I absolutely loved the new century child, Jenny Quantum and the overall storyline seems like its going to be a big story and could be amazing. I love you Paul Cornell, please do make me regret doing so.

Rating: 8/10 (For making me want to re-read The Authority)

I also picked up New Avengers Annual #1 in which Wonder Man is an absolute jerkass and you wonder if the New Avengers team should have had a different roster. It was a good read, but probably not worth the $4.99 pricetag. Strange to note how little Marvel is doing to combat the reboot.

Also unfortunate to note is that I didn’t get a chance to read Green Arrow or Static Shock. Hopefully I can get those to you before the weekend.

The day of the reboot has come. It was largely a disappointment, but I don’t really know anyone who was expecting it to be anything other than complete garbage.

I suppose I’ll start with the end, rather than the beginning.

Flashpoint #5
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by ANDY KUBERT, SANDRA HOPE, and JESSE DELPERDANG

In a word…or three: I hate it.

This was a mess. Let me just start out by saying SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS because if you don’t know the story and conclusion of Flashpoint, you’re going to in a second. Secondly, TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE because it was everything I really wished it wasn’t.

The buildup that started way back when with Flash #1 in June 2010 was actually very good and pretty interesting. Barry Allen of the future kills the Mirror Master because he was going to kill Iris or some such. It was actually the Top whose motivations are to stop his ancestor’s criminal record from getting him barred from becoming a time cop (which he already was) and some such that I don’t really remember but it was an interesting little mystery story. The end of that 6 issue arc referenced some changes to the timestream and some things going on that made it that led directly in to Flashpoint. Now, problem the first, the changes to the timestream seemed to be limited to Wonder Woman having a different costume, Darkseid sending Bruce back in time with the Omega effect, Lex Luthor meeting Death, Deadman with the White Lantern Ring, and what looked like the Dread Pirate Roberts fighting another pirate…not a lot that spells out “TIME DISASTER!” to me. Even if you take into account the mess that was Time Masters: Vanishing Point to try to explain everything, you only get the idea that Darkseid messed something up. None of the other items belong on that board really. Does a costume change really mean a glitch in the timesteam?

Now, I suppose we’re supposed to believe that there are two, distinct timelines being viewed here, or at least 2 of the 3 mentioned in Flashpoint #5. This, however, is unclear, because in a splashpage in #5, we see what looks to be the rebooted timeline (#1), the pre-reboot timeline (#2), and the Wildstorm timeline (which is not, in fact, a timeline but is apparently another universe of some sort) (#3). I must note that nowhere in this mix is the actual timeline created during Flashpoint (#4). So that leaves us with at least 5 “timelines” (including the broken one from Flash #6 from whence Hot Pursuit came) . This is either a gross oversight by the artist, poor planning, or evidence that they don’t know what the frak they’re doing.

To quell some argument: Yes, I’m being this picky. No, this isn’t being overly analytic of the comic because Flashpoint, JLA, The Flash, and Brightest Day are all written by the same man who has a responsibility to keep his damn story straight or let somebody else take the reigns.

TL;DR: It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Now, the book itself. The issue is mostly a huge argument between Flash and Reverse Flash about how the Flash ruined everything by trying to change time. The entire reason for Flashpoint’s existence is explained pretty swiftly over two panels. Barry Allen was sad because he learned that Rev. Flash killed his mother in the past. In a flashback that we never actually saw in comic books and is referenced for the first time on page three here, we see The Flash go back in time to stop The Reverse Flash. Apparently, Allen did some hooba jooba with the Speed Force and caused a massive timesplosion that created the Flashpoint universe.

Now, to the weakest part of the story, the part where Eobard Thawne reveals that he’s an absolute dick. He wanted Barry to remember, he could do it at any time and make him suffer in the knowledge that he caused all this. He could have done that before Barry had the help of Batman and could have done it without anyone’s knowledge and thus made the entirety of Flashpoint obsolete (because, honestly, the end of the issue does that anyways).

Rev. Flash also pointedly states that he is now immune to time…apparently. Because of the fact that he was traveling through time when Barry changed it, the rules of time no longer apply to him. To make a point, THAT’S NOT HOW TIME TRAVEL WORKS! I get it, comic books have free reign over the laws of physics and the rules of the universe. The second you travel through time, you become immune to time travel. You create infinite alternate universes every instance that you step out of the normal stream of time.By the simple act of going back in time to kill someone, you would create a universe in which you kill them, while leaving the original completely untouched.

Thawne uses this new knowledge to beat the Flash to a bloody pulp (because The Flash, trained fighter with the Justice League, suddenly cannot fight worth a damn). He claims that he now has eternal double jeopardy for Barry Allen and there will never ever be any repercussions for killing him. However, Batman, once again proving to be the only effective hero in the DCU, Bat-impales him on his Bat-sword.

Some other stuff that doesn’t really matter happens. Superman/boy shows up and punches people, Flash runs really fast to stop himself from running really fast, and a creepy phantom lady head tells the Flash that he done messed up. Time hits the restart button, Barry wakes up and makes Bruce Wayne cry with a Bat-letter from his future/not-future daddy.

Rating: 5/10 (If only because Reverse Flash gets Bat-sword-ed)

FIN.

Justice League #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by JIM LEE

Similarly messy to Flashpoint #5, was its progeny, Justice League #1.

Now, this story takes place 5 years prior to any of the events of the rest of the reboot. This doesn’t immediately condemn the story to being awful because you can do a few “how they met” episodes and I’ll be just fine. It didn’t bother me in Lost and it don’t bother me now if they want to show me how they first met. DC wants new fans and I won’t begrudge them the effort, but as a long-time fan, don’t expect me to fawn over another gorram origin story.

An origin story that feels terrifyingly similar to All-Star Batman & Robin. However, this is a story without the goddamn Batman and lemonade, this story has a dickish (but still kinda awesome) Batman and a jerkass Hal Jordan. It also reveals pre-Cyborg Vic Stone for 4 pages of awkward father issues, and a Superman that might need a high-five for hurtin’ the face of Johns’ baby GL. Still no sign of Wonder Woman or Aquaman, though I really quite liked the rejected sketch in the back of the issue with Aquaman’s crustacean armor.

In relation to the rest of the reboot, this book doesn’t tell us much. The world seems to be a bit more hostile to superheroes in general, which I’m ok about, I guess it explains why there are so many “covert-ops” teams in the 52. Hal seems to have a much better grasp on being a Green Lantern, which might make some interesting reading for the main GL series. Bruce is a bit of an ass (Jordan DID deserve it) but at the end of Flashpoint he seemed like an alright dude when talking to Barry. Does he soften up a bit in the 5 years between Justice League #1 and now? Does Damien warm his heart to the cold, cruel world? Do rhetorical questions ever solve anything? The answer to all is a big ol’ MAYBE.

Final Thoughts:
1) GCPD has some damn nice equipment. Gatling guns, at least three helicopters, state-of-the-art body armor and uniform decals, irrational prejudice, Stormtrooper-like aim, real karate chop action, etc.
2) WHY IS BATMAN PUNCHING THE BUILDING WITH HIS CAPE!?!?INTERROBANG?!?!
3) Alien’s fire-breath-thingy also seems to be fire-butt-thingy.
4) By removing Hal’s ring, did Batman realize that the fires all over Gotham aren’t being put out anymore.
5) Bonus: Hal Jordan’s ring constructs show a bit of imagination.
6) I get the feeling that the little boxy thingy that they pulled out of the wall is going to be a portal for Darkseid/Reverse Flash/anyone they want because its a plot loophole/Nekron to return and for Hal Jordan to get heroically whisked away into not-being-around-land.
7) I’m going to stencil “Hustle, Hit, Never Quit” on my wall.
8) Superman’s punch is strange to me. Its blue and red, so it must mean that he flew into Jordan. However, he is seen walking out of the building a second later, so it seems that he is being intentionally deceptive about his speed to hide how fast he is.
9) In the confrontation with Supes, Bruce is clearly in the middle of an open area, but in the last panels, behind him is seen building, and he’s looking at Superman who is framed by building. This new DC universe has Chia-like buildings “Just add superheroes, and watch them grow!”
10) Every individual character sketch but Superman’s has a better costume/look than the final that they went with.

Rating: 6/10 (There is potential here. Somewhere beneath the madness, there is potential)

Tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll post another bit about the books this week that I liked. Warning: there will be fawning over the ground that Warren Ellis treads.

My good friend and fellow DOOM writer Colin Hill has convinced me to record my voice once again. In this recording, we (he) apply our (his) vast TMNT knowledge to the rebooted and refreshed Ninja Turtles franchise. We give our impressions of the changes to the series’ origins and give our honest estimation of where its going to go. Please excuse the poor quality of conversation at the beginning because, despite both having quite a lot of podcasting experience, neither of us seemed to know what the hell we were doing on this one. This is unedited, despite me saying in the episode that I’m going to edit it…sue me, I’m lazy.

Many distractions and tangents will be experienced by you as we feel our way through the issue and try to keep a running narrative on what we should say. Hopefully, with practice, we can bring you more of these audio episodes to sate your need to hear Colin’s deep baritone vocals and my poor quality microphone.

Click here to download!