Sunday, April 24, 2011

Slew of Reviews

Gotham City Sirens 22
This is part of the Judgment in Gotham storyline running through the Bat books and it was fine, with Selina dealing with her crazed sister Maggie, but it interrupted the Harley storyline, so I'm less than happy with it.

Batman 709
This is what Judgment in Gotham was all about and it should have been a 2 or maybe 3-parter within this title only. It's a Dick Grayson story and shouldn't have involved Catwoman and Red Robin. The secret Dick's been carrying all these years, since before he was Robin, was rather poignant and the conclusion made reading the story worthwhile. I just wish we hadn't had to deal with all the extraneous stuff. Selina and Tim could've dealt with their personal issues in their own stories in their own books.

Batgirl 20
This continues to be a delight. Steph and Wendy have a nice working relationship, and Babs is being used well to fit her in both this book and in BoP. The story was fine, nothing special, but it's the characters and the sheer fun of this book that makes it worth reading.

Batman and Robin 22
There's a level of creepiness in this title that serves it well for some reason. And Dick and Damian make a great team. I think I prefer them over the Bruce/Dick team. And there's a lovely bit with Damian getting defensive about his family tree and Dick and Alfred explaining that he is who and what he makes himself, and Damian actually paying attention.

Zatanna 12
This has replaced Power Girl as my fun, adult female hero book. Batgirl's still just a teen, after all, and PG has become annoying since the original team left the book. Nice art, crisp dialogue, the magic of San Francisco (literally!), and wacky villains combine for a fun read. As a lover of palindromes, I was especially fond of this issue.

Supergirl 63
I'm still on the fence about this book right now. The story is fine and the art is okay, but the high quality set by the team of Gates/Igle is something the book hasn't come close to achieving since they left. Chang's art is fine, though his characters could stand gaining some weight. But Kara's hair seems to change length and curliness from panel to panel, but mostly, it's too short. I prefer it around her shoulders. Yeah, I can be that petty about a favorite character.

Green Lantern 65
I'm not reading all the Lantern books, so this is a bit disjointed. And I'm getting a bit tired of all the Lantern war storylines, but with those caveats, this was still a pretty good issue. nice art, too.

The Flash 10
Well, this is confusing. Flashpoint had better deliver, but I won't be reading all the side books, so the main story will have to suffice. This lead-in is intriguing. Another version of Barry warning him, mysterious deaths from accelerated aging... yeah, I'm intrigued.

I also peeked at the latest issue of Titans, because, yes, I'm weak. And it looks like Dick is kicking himself for not trying harder to help Roy. So, I'm wondering if an intervention is planned for the future. I can't decide if I'm hopeful they'll redeem him or if I just don't care anymore.

2 comments:

  1. Gotham City Sirens, the plot just seemed to come out of nowhere, which confused me a little bit.

    Batman and Robin has been consistently excellent. Damian and Dick really do work together quite beautifully.

    I've actually been loving the Green Lantern books. In spite of being without their rings, and trapped and in the middle of a war, the boys actually seem to be...enjoying themselves a bit. At least Hal and Guy are.

    Flash has been a bit slow. I keep waiting for something to actually happen. And you're the second person to say nice things about Zatanna, so I think I'm going to start picking it up.

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  2. Yeah, they really do confuse people with some of the crossovers. Alternating stories in Batman and Batman and Robin, and even in Detective and Red Robin makes some sort of sense. Adding in Sirens, or even BoP and/or Batgirl, can be very confusing as they really do use a different set of the Bat family characters.

    As for Zatanna, it's not the sheer joy that Power Girl was at first, but it's fun. You should definitely give it a try and the next issue should be a good jumping on point. Or this one, since it was a one-off.

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