Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Lotsa Reviews

It's snowing and raining and I didn't have work today, so new comics will have to wait for tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's what I read this past week.

First off, I hated the cover design for the Faces of Evil DC books. The name of the villain superimposed over gray on black book titles made it near impossible for me to see which books I was buying. Definitely not one of DC's better design moves.

Justice League of America 29
Serviceable throwback/flashback to an earlier time to set up Starbreaker for next issue, I guess, by Len Wein. It was okay.

Brave and Bold 21
Green Arrow tries to help out back on Earth, without success, while Hal and the Phantom Stranger continue their off-Earth adventure. The realistic art by Braithwaite and Reinhold add to the creepiness of this story. Enjoyable.

Green Lantern 37
A Faces of Evil and Rage of the Red Lanterns story! The Faces of Evil connection is weak as this storyline has been underway for a few issues now and is part of the setup to Blackest Night. But it moves at a brisk pace and Hal is definitely in for some nasty times.

Action 873
I don't normally read this, but it's part of the New Krypton storyline, so I picked it up. The Faces of Evil villain featured is Luther. A solid installment in the story that's connecting the Superman and Supergirl titles.

Supergirl 37
Featuring the mysterious Superwoman. We get a few small clues about her, but not enough for me to figure anything out. I'm not reading the Superman titles, so if she's connected to them in any way, I won't catch it. She seems a bit older than most super folks and I do love her costume. Better, however, is how relevant this comic has become.

Booster Gold 16
With Enemy Ace. In the past, Booster saves the life of a man who will have an impact on his life years later. This book continues to impress.

Nightwing 152
Dick vs the ever annoying Ra's Al Ghul. Boy, does Ra's have an overinflated ego or what? Dick more than holds his own.

Birds of Prey 126
Calculator makes a good case for him to be considered more than a 2-bit villain. He might be able to best the Birds, but I wouldn't bet on it. This book is going out on top of its game.

Green Arrow and Black Canary 16
A decent story, featuring Merlyn, but the intrigue is the wacky woman who is being set up as a stalker for Ollie. hmmmm.... That could be good, but why do I have my doubts?

Final Crisis 6
I'd had some of this spoiled, but I'd pretty much known that this is when Bats gets offed, but still, a very moving issue.

Angel 16
And now, back to where it began, which is where the TV series ended, but without negating all that happened in the previous 15 issues when Hell won. A lot about sacrifice. This series has turned out to be better than I'd thought from the first confusing issues.

Simon Dark 16
It looks like Simon has a brother. I'm not sure why I like this odd little comic, but I do.

Manhunter 38
The last issue. So, instead of finishing the story started a couple of issues ago, Andreyko jumped years ahead so he could show the direction the characters are headed. Ramsey grown up and a costumed crimefighter has appeal, but now I'm wondering if this is the actual timeline or if any of Kate's future appearances elsewhere will be prior to this last storyline. Ah well, it's been a helluva ride.

6 comments:

  1. I think the last two issues of Manhunter are the very model of how to end a series. Of course any future set up would be only one possible and probably invalidated shortly (especially at DC where they have a bad habit of killing off failed legacy characters too quickly) but it's a sweet valentine to devoted readers to see how things would have ended up had their beloved series lasted another fifteen years or so.

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  2. Yes, I agree. Manhunter really showed respect for its fans.

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  3. I remember way back when Ras Al Ghul was actually cool -- back before he and Talia were overwritten to such ridiculous levels. Yeah, I'm with you -- now he's just annoying.

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  4. It's rather sad that Ra's doesn't scare me, anymore. :)

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  5. Ra's was more pathetic than scary, in my opinion. And a little bit too needy. Just like Talia!

    Green Arrow doesn't exactly cover himself with glory in The Brave & the Bold. If you want something done properly Hal, you'd better hi-tail it back to earth and do it yourself. Ollie gets taken out by a common guard...how humiliating!

    Manhunter was excellent. It was at least an attempt to save the character from whatever madness they could have thrown at her.

    I like the Calculator, and I'm glad that they're making him on the badass side. Although I still want Oracle to be able to whup him.

    The placing of the Faces of Evil over the titles was a bit annoying, as you said.

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  6. lol. Yeah, Ollie was inept in Brave and Bold.

    Not only was the Faces of Evil over the titles annoying, the titles were gray on black and very hard for me to see.

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