In Brief

Slowly catching up. Here's what I read over the weekend, in-between family functions.

Shadowpact 1
I got thrown by the One Year Ago Superman appearance, but I'm figuring it was before the end of the crisis. The whole concept of the Shadowpact gang trapped in a town shielded by magic and under the control of demons is intriquing and I'm eager to see how this develops. I really like this odd group of characters.

Secret Six 1
I really like the cover design on this. It has a nice, magazine feel. I needed a few pages to get back into this motley group of characters, but Gail Simone's dialogue and narration crackles with her usual crispness and the ambivalence and moral ambiguity of the group plays well. If the rest of the mini is this good, I'll be wanting them to return with a regular title.

Green Lantern 10-11
Really nice art and a continuation of the political theme we've been seeing in other OYL titles, mainly Checkmate. The whole treaty barring metas from the US to enter Chinese territory, etc, adds a fresh element to the DCU, and potentially one with plenty of story plots and ramifications. I like seeing Hal back in space and the rest of the Corps, and Guy's actually growing on me. Finding the supposedly dead GLs Hal had offed is a neat plot idea. The title has sizzled, with a few lapses, since its reboot, but these two issues promise excitement and intrique.

Checkmate 2-3
I somehow managed to forget I hadn't read 2, so I read 3 first and was able to follow along fairly well. Not sure what that means. I don't want a steady diet of political books, but I do like political suspense and how it fits with the metas and monitoring meta activity. I'm new to Checkmate with Infinite Crisis, so this has been a learning process for me. I think having a couple of (ex?)-JSAers involved helps, bringing various elements of the DCU together.

All-Star Batman & Robin 4
It's been so long since I read the first 3, I had a bit of trouble getting back into this. Bruce is such a bastard, even if he has his reasons. Dick was part brat, part spunky kid, but my favorite part of this issue was Alfred, especially how he stood up to Bruce.

All-Star Superman 3
Super Lois made for an entertaining issue. Beautiful, classic art and an old-fashioned plot revolving around super-powered hunks vying for Lois's attentions made for a nice, feel-good issue even with the dire headlines floating by in the last panel.

I got a fair amount read, but I've barely made a dent in the stack. Well, actually, 2 stacks at the moment. Just not enough time in the day, especially since I also started watching the first season of my Charmed DVDs. I'd never seen those episodes, having started watching the show in season 2, so seeing the early episodes has been fun.