I skimmed Infinite Crisis 6 but won't review it until I give it a more thorough read. However, Superboy's death wasn't exactly a shock and his sack time with Cassie (in Teen Titans, I think it was) became clearer. That was his moment of joy before dying. I don't know if that's happened in fiction enough to be a cliche yet, but it sure is common. The art, especially on those character-packed pages, looks great.
JSA 84
This books feels and sounds and looks just like it did before Infinite Crisis/OYL and that's actually a relief. In the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy Ann Landers used often in her advice column, this was a fine book that didn't need much if any tweaking. So we've moved forward the year, but the story is solid and interesting and the characters still work. I much prefer how Levitz is feeding us the Gentleman Ghost's history in "chapters" alternating with the present JSAers to the Vandal Savage issue of JSA: Classified (#10).
Outsiders 35
Still no Roy. I have so many mixed feelings about this book. The storytelling is pretty solid and the art is nice. But Capt. Boomerang looking like Roy when last we saw him just grates on my nerves. But what's really driving me nuts is Dick. I'm assuming the OYL books are all picking up in roughly the same time frame, 52 weeks after the end of Infinite Crisis and those missing weeks will be in the book 52. So why is Dick seemingly in two places physically and emotionally? Here, he's the solid leader who has been working with the team, on a mission that, in his own words, "was months of planning, work, and money." In no way can I reconcile this Dick Grayson with the one in the Nightwing book. If he's one of the Outsiders assumed/reported dead, Clancy sure hadn't gotten the message in his book, judging by her reaction to seeing him. And in his own book, it doesn't sound like he's been in costume as NW for a while and there were hints that he had been hurt or something that had made him unable to be NW for a while. True, we don't have answers yet to our questions, but these seem like 2 different characters one year after the crisis.
Aquaman 41
The one thing I don't get is this: why is this book, with a new lead character, continuing the numbering of the title that starred a different Aquaman, while other books are being rebooted, presumably starting with number 1? Just wondering.
Meanwhile, the story is picking up. The art is nice, especially the cover. Mera looked beautiful and real and there were hints about the real Aquaman among the history of Atlantis that Mera related to the new Arthur. I'm actually looking forward to the next issue and that sure feels good. It's shaping up to be a quest book, which sounds so cliched, but if written well, it could be great.
Apparently, according to interviews the OYL timelines aren't supposed to mesh up exactly on a month by month basis.
ReplyDeleteSo it's likely that the Dick we see in Outsiders is from quite a few issues in on Nightwing...or something like that.
Kind of like how in Detective, Robin can go to the police station where in Robin, he's been framed and is on the run.
Still it'd be nice if there was a little timeline nod to that effect somewhere. :-)
It's very confusing in Nightwing's case since he mentions months of prep in Outsiders, which would push Outsiders about 2-3 months past Nightwing at the very least. So, while we have to deal with a 52-week gap and all the confusion that causes as the missing events are slowly revealed to us, we also have to deal with confusion as to how the books fit together OYL. IMO, that's pretty poor planning.
ReplyDeleteNot really disagreeing with you there. Egads, the one downside with OYL...
ReplyDeleteOh well, it works in the "It's fun if you don't think about it" way, I guess. :-)
Oh yeah. And I would love a OYL timeline, too. :)
ReplyDelete