Green Arrow 57
First off, I liked it. Lots of action, lots of supsense, decent art. Now for what I didn't like. I didn't like the misleading cover. Sure, I'm used to the image not matching the contents. That wasn't the problem. The image was fine. It was "The Shocking Conclusion!" on the cover that was misleading. Sure, the conclusion of this chapter was shocking (well, maybe to some readers), but the implication was that the arc was concluding with this chapter and that so clearly wasn't true.
Nightwing 115
This just gets uh, give me a moment. Clearly, we're building up to something here. Dick thinks he's got all bases covered where Bludhaven is concerned. (And talk about misleading cover images!) And clearly, this is building to something that's part of a bigger whole. I'm just not sure I care anymore. I like Devin Grayson's writing, generally, but I can't help but feel we're being kept in the dark re: Dick's motives/plan/whatever and I don't like that, not in a comic where Dick is the main character and we're used to being in his head. Dick is supposedly no longer going to be Nightwing come the one-year-later DCU, but what he will be remains to be seen. I can believe it will be a logical extension of this arc, but I can't buy that this arc is a logical extension of what came before it, even with the way Devin helped build the odds against him with the whole Blockbuster storyline. I went along with this for the first few issues, but now it's time to let us in on the secret. And if there isn't more to this, to Dick, then he's no longer the character I grew up thinking he was and I'll have to see what the next writer(s?) does with him.
Teen Titans 30
I don't read this book much and didn't at all til the last crossover with the Outsiders. I'm not sure why I'm still reading it. The art's nice, the writing is fine, but nothing is going on that interests me. And Gar and Raven kissing was just wrong to me.
I have to wait to read the new Hawkman til I finish reading the Rann-Thanagar War. I will say that the three above and many of the others from the last few weeks feel like setups, prologues for the real story(ies), which are Infinite Crisis and what comes after. However these arcs end isn't about the individual stories but how they'll feed into the Big One. That is both exciting in seeing how the smaller bits fit into the big storyline and disappointing because I know that everything is feeding into something preordained, or at least decided upon when Infinite Crisis and then 52 were cooked up. My sense of wonder is being countered by a feeling of being manipulated. I hope the payoff is worth it, for all the books I read.
Sadly, Shelly, reading Rann/Thanagar War really would not affect your reading of the latest Hawkman.
ReplyDeleteAnd since the latest Hawkman is directly tied into Rann/Thanagar War, take that as my statement of the importance of the Rann/Thanagar War...hehe.
Well, I read the Rann/Thanagar War last night, so Hawkman is next. I'll write 'em up this weekend, when I have some time. Was too busy looking for Firefox extensions tonight. :)
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you found this by following Brian but it's an interesting observation about Nightwing #115.
ReplyDeleteDidn't like Teen Titans much either. Johns is hitting it out of the park on Infinite Crisis and Green Lantern, but his other work seems to be suffering a bit.
I don't read Hawkman, but picked up RTW for Kyle Rayner (and was pleasantly surprised by Captain Comet!). I liked it for the cameos and the art, but I was unhappy with the dialogue and narration.
Strangely enough, the writer of Rann-Thanagar War teams up with Geoff Johns for a wonderful effort in GLC: Recharge, which makes me think RTW had some behind the scenes problems (like trying to squeeze a 15-issue epic into 6 issues?) and Geoff Johns may be more interested in the Green Lantern mythos right now than the Teen Titans stuff.
Pus I know Dave Gibbons can write well, I read The Originals.
I saw that blog entry after I posted my reviews and I have to say I forgot all about those solicits. The book's been screwy since coming back from that flashback arc after the Gotham gang war thing that I really barely skim it.
ReplyDeleteI happen to like Devin's writing. I happen to not like this story arc, not from the beginning, especially since it picked up seemingly in the middle without any real explanation.
I had no problems with the Blockbuster arc. I enjoy taking away everything from a character and seeing how he/she reacts. I did that in my writing (fan fic) and it's still a theme I enjoy writing. Stripping away all to reveal a character's true nature is wonderful when well done. I just didn't like/agree with what Devin did with Dick after stripping all that away and can't help wondering about the editor and editorial decisions that came into play for this arc to get written, let alone the decision to cut it short, which clearly has to do with Infinite Crisis and One Year Later.