Mixed Stack

I've been busy. That doesn't mean I haven't managed to read a few comics. Here are my quick thoughts on them.

WildCats 13
Aside for the new art team having Cole look 10-15 years older, this is a nice effort. It would be nice if they really can fix the world.

Booster Gold 23
A real time bender. And I guess I'm the only one who wonders where Roy Harper is. Yeah, he wasn't a Titan, so he didn't die with them, so... where the hell is he? The photo cover was pretty cool, making the issue look like a magazine instead of a comic, which was startling at first. The Blue Beetle backup story was fun, too.

JSA vs Kobra 3
Really nice art, and anything with Kobra (and by extension, Checkmate) usually features Mr. Terrific doing what he does best, being smart and sneaky and getting into a heap of trouble. Good, scary, realistic (as much as a superhero comic can be) stuff.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape 4
Oh-kay. There better be a really good payoff at the end of this confusing mess. A really, really good payoff. And yet, I can't say I was surprised by the turn this took. My reaction was, why did it take so long? This is one serious head trip for Tom.

Blackest Night 2

Blackest Night Batman 1
This "event" is really delivering the goods so far. The use of Deadman is uh, dead on. The Aqua family is as dysfunctional as ever. Spectre poses his own deadly issues. The stuff with Dick and Damien and then Deadman are great, and the scene with Jim and Babs was poignant. The art's been stellar, too. :)

Batman 689
Dick's doing fine as Batman, but the seams are showing, or rather, the differences. I'm looking forward to his inevitable showdown with Two-Face.

Secret Six 12
There aren't many comics that can get away with not featuring any of their main characters on the cover, and this is one of them. The cover is awesome and DC's best dysfunctional non-team continues to entertain. Jeanette is positively freaky, Artemis lives!, and Wonder Woman is used well. Plus, Nicola Scott serves up yummy beefcake shots along with the usual cheesecake. I love a book that features equal titillation, while still maintaining a veneer of realism. And the women are as dangerous or more so than the men.

Detective Comics 855
The Batwoman story is getting more surreal, aided and abetted by art that seems more suited for a horror or fantasy book, yet it works here. The Question backup is still intriguing me, though I'm not as fond of the art on it.

Lone Ranger 17
More is told with fewer words in this title than any other comic I know. I keep thinking it makes more sense to just buy the compilations since I'm getting them, anyway, but I can't wait that long, so I continue with the chapters, too. Storytelling at its finest.

And then there are the less than finest.

Titans 16
A confused Kory just doesn't make for a full-issue story. And I just don't buy it. Any issues Kory might've had are long ago worked out because to me, she's one of the DCU's most confident, capable female heroes. Not that this wasn't well done, but it just didn't do anything for me and it wasn't a Titans story. Though, given how sucky Titans stories have been in this rebooted title, that could be a blessing.

Green Arrow and Black Canary 23
Geez, this book is about as far from what I thought it was going to be as it could get, especially the GA story upfront with a BC backup. Even if the stories dovetail, that isn't how I saw this. I saw it as kinda a modern Thin Man, with Ollie and Dinah playing Nick and Nora Charles. Well, the Dibneys would've been better suited to that, but both are currently dead, or rather, undead, but I digress. That sketchy, messy art on the first story was unsuited to a GA story and much as I like seeing Wildcat visit with Dinah, that was about the only decent thing in the BC feature. I'd really drop this except it's got a fascinating hold on me, like a train wreck I can't tear my eyes from. But I think, to retain my love for these characters, I might have to force myself to walk away.