Quickie Reviews

I haven't gotten to everything I bought yesterday, or even last week, or in past weeks, but I wanted to get these reviews up.

Supergirl 12
I adore Amanda Conner's art, especially when Jimmy Palmiotti, who is the writer here, inks her pencils. I'm just not sure the artistic style that helped make Codename: Knockout sizzle is the best for this book, much as I liked it. Kara's still trying to find herself, ends up doing the right thing, and the book serves as a typical "intro a new character" story where the new Terra is clearly the focus. Not the best SG book, but light years better than last issue (the weird one WAS last issue, wasn't it?). And Terra is likable. I want to know more about her.

Outsiders 43
I really want to hate this book enough to drop it, but I have to wait til I see what they do to explain the missing year for these characters, and I believe has been mentioned, Roy Harper. I am not really fond of Katana's new look and I'm less sure I like the whole "everything evil in this series has been thanks to Sivana. Judd still writes sharp dialogue, though a bit painful at times, and the whole big conspiracy thing has merit, but it kinda cheapens all those villains Sivana used in his ultimate cause and I'm not sure I like that.

Atom 6
A most satisfactory end to the first big storyline with an intriguing hint at the end for an even better story arc starting next ish. As good as Judd Winick is with dialogue, Gail Simone is far better. There's a nice, loony element on display here, along with the seriousness, and a very nice group of supporting characters. It's fun having folks know Ryan is the new Atom and being helpers behind the scenes. Except for the behind-the-scenes thing, they kinda remind me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Scooby gang. Ryan's dad came through for him, too. And I can't forget to mention the art which has been consistently solid. Devon at Seven Hells caught the Lady Cop cameo, which is way cool. That's the sort of thing I love in books Gail writes. You never know who from comic history will pop up.

Nightwing 127
Not as good as last ish, but a solid chapter in reclaiming Dick Grayson as a viable hero. Yeah, he's still got confidence issues and he's still hurting physically, easily defeated and buried alive, but he also used his head, getting the lid to the coffin closed to get him some air and buy him time to escape. It would've been unrealistic for Marv to have him suddenly his old self, and I appreciate how Dick is slowly returning to form. And I like that he has Dick realizing he's lost a few strides. "What happened to me?" Dick wonders, same as the rest of us have been wondering for too long. And while trying to escape, he's still playing detective. Now that's the Dick I know and love.

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures 1-2
Finally got to these. I've never read the books, so this is my first encounter with Anita and I am enjoying this guilty pleasure. I'm not into vampire lit, and Buffy was my main exception to this, along with Nancy Collins' Sonja Blue books. It takes a lot to get me interested in a story with vampires in it, and this is intriguing. Anita is a strong character and I want to know more about the nicely drawn Jean-Claude.

52 31
Wow, things are moving fast now. More than halfway through the year, more characters have popped in, Ralph figured out who Supernova is (I'm really enjoying Ralph in this), and we've got new plot threads to sort out. Even waiting just a week for each installment seems too long. Yeah, I'm hooked.

~~More to come.