Underground Land

Magog #3
Written by Keith Giffen
Art by Howard Porter

I can’t say that I actually like the character yet, but Giffen at least makes Magog less of a douche this issue. Although I think a true hero would have listened to the villains’ rant to gain information instead of just ignoring him. I guess that is what makes Magog different from others – he is so often focusing on his own thoughts. He is a very self-centered hero. I did like seeing that he is going to look into the nature of his powers and what exactly Magog is. The villain is rather interesting – I wish that we got to hear what he was saying and I like the idea of an underground land for the homeless.

Her Name is Gabrielle!

Outsiders (Volume 4) #23
Written by Peter Tomasi
Art by Fernando Pasarin

Pasarin is such a good artist why doesn’t DC ever use him as a regular artist? Although his Creeper is a little more normal looking then the Creeper usually is. But at the same time Tomasi writes him as more “normal” then he usually does too. It was great to see Katana and Halo’s relationship acknowledged, even if it is annoying that they keep calling Halo Violet instead of Gabrielle. This is going to be Tomasi’s last arc on this book before Didio takes over. I guess we shall see if Tomasi’s run is considered a sucessful one or not.

The Question of Leadership

Teen Titans (Volume 3) #76
Written by Felicia D. Henderson
Art by Yildiray Cinar
Co-Feature by Sean McKeever
Art by Cinar

The main story was eh okay. Not the best, I think Henderson still hasn’t quite grasped all of the Titans yet. Wonder Girl seemed totally fine with Beast Boy taking over leadership last issue and now all of a sudden she just switches?! I mean sure he left to save Raven but come on. Cinar’s art is much better in the Ravager back-up which means that the main feature was probably rushed because another artist backed out. Why can’t they give this book a good regular artist again?

Same Art

Doom Patrol (Volume 5) #4
Written by Keith Giffen
Art by Justiniano
Co-Feature by Giffen and J.M. Dematteis
Art by Kevin Maguire

The main feature’s art is unfortunately very similar to Matthew Clark’s to my eye and that is not a good thing. I was hoping for a different artist and he just seems exactly the same. The story was good (even if the whole Black Lanterns showing up and scaring people thing is getting old) and unlike what Caleb says on his blog, you don’t really need to know anything about past Doom Patrol continuity as it is all explained within the issue. The Metal Men back-up introduces a bunch of female robots called the Clique – who want to rule the world! This is going to get good.

Celebrating Ten Years of Batgirl: Batman Chronicles #18

And here we continue our retrospective on the ten year reign of Cassandra Cain as the Dark Knight Damsel. She began the fall appearing in a quarterly Batman comic that is no longer published by DC – this would be Batman Chronicles #18 by Devin Grayson with art by Dale Eaglesham. This issue featured the first meeting between Batgirl and The Huntress.

BatCon 32 – 35

Batman Confidential #32
Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Andy Clarke

It makes sense that Batman would have to change something about his demeanor or procedure in order to put fear into the criminals of Moscow. They are a different culture after all. I am liking this exploration of Batman struggling in a foreign city.

Batman Confidential #33
Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Andy Clarke

The Bear is an interesting character – sort of like a friendly giant. He reminds me of Wylde from the Outsiders. Someone should bring Wylde back someday. Clarke’s art is pretty amazing, but I wish he drew Batman as darker or the colorist did. It would make him seem scarier and get the point across that that is what he is trying to do. But DC seems insistent on not having the dark costume these days – so I am sure that is not Clarke’s fault.

Batman Confidential #34
Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Andy Clarke

Okay I figured out that not only is Batman not being drawn dark enough, but Milligan doesn’t really give him that voice. He always writes Batman as if he is Bruce Wayne, not Batman. He talks way too much. Not that it made this a bad comic, it was just distracting.

Batman Confidential #35
Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Andy Clarke

Nice ending, I like that Batman has inspired the Bear to become Moscow’s protector. The Bear is an interesting character and I hope to see him again some day.

Web Hosts

The Web #2
Written by Angela Robinson
Art by Roger Robinson
Co-Feature by  John Rozum
Art by Tom Derenick

The idea of franchising the Web name to other heroes is a cool idea, if not altogether a stupid plan because that seems like a lot of power to give to someone. What if an evil person commits crime as the Web? Did John do background checks? That being said I did like this issue, although I kinda wished there was a recap of what happened with his brother again because I couldn’t remember what that was exactly. The Web has an awesome costume still and I am loving the character so far. I can’t wait to see what Sturges does with the book. The Hangman back-up was just as good, although the art left something to be desired. It was great to see Hangman flashback to an untold golden age adventure with him and Sandman.

Ugly Comic

Green Arrow & Black Canary #25
Written by Andrew Kreisberg
Art by Mike Norton
Co-Feature by Kreisberg
Art by Renato Guedes

This is one ugly book! What has happened to Norton’s art – has the inker changed! I can barely look at this comic. It is awful. In one panel, Dinah’s hair is short and the next it is long! What the hell! We find out that Cupid was a woman who murdered her husband and her real name is Carrie. It was funny to see her kidnapping men and dressing them up like Green Arrow. Other then that there was nothing great about the main feature because I didn’t want to look at it! The Co-Feature is about Speedy telling bedtime story to Lian Harper and it was cute and it was a sight for sore eyes to see Guedes’s art after the horror that was the main feature art.

Lame

Brave and the Bold #28
Written by J.M. Straczynski
Art by Jesus Saiz

Yes this issue was as lame as every other review said it was. Not only does it feature the boring Barry Allen as Flash instead of Wally, but it has Barry dressing up as a soldier because he can’t kill as the Flash. I don’t like him killing at all…and doing so just cause the writer wants to say how great the soldiers are is stupid and forced. Very lame.

Sirens 4 and 5

Gotham City Sirens #4
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Guillem March

The Joker comes after the Sirens – apparently deciding he just wants to kill Harley once and for all. I didn’t expect to see Joker this soon post-Battle for the Cowl as I thought they were saving him for Morrison to deal with it. I guess I was wrong. This was a fun issue. Joker had a joker-blimp!

Gotham City Sirens #5
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Guillem March

And I guess I wasn’t wrong after all – The Joker turns out to be Gaggy in disguise – a former lackey of the Joker who is jealous of Harley Quinn because she became Joker’s sidekick. I wonder if this a new character or an actual old Joker sidekick. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s new, Dini always did create new bat-villains that seem like they have been around forever. This was a lot of fun and the art is superb. It definitely has improved since the first issue and I have to say this series is going strong. And hey Harley is in costume this issue!

7734

Superman #693
Written by James Robinson
Art by Fernando Dagnino

We finally get to see more of General Lane’s base of operations, 7734, and it was rather cool. Lane has planned for everything and is gaining power to stop the Kryptonians in a war he believes will happen. Mon-El withstands torture, both psychological and physical, and still won’t become a member of Lane’s team. I like how Lane mocks the Superman symbol, I suppose that will be the reason why Mon-El is going to put it on his costume – to make sure that people are still inspired by that famous S. People really need to be reading the Superman books right now, as this is all so wonderfully plotted and leading to something huge.

Who Is The Mystery Villain?

Justice Society of America #32
Written by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges
Art by Jesus Merino

I have a feeling that All-American Kid is going to die, which sucks because I liked him but I guess that just shows that Willingham and Sturges are good writers and character creators. Mr. Terrific is definitely going to be back as his body is being held in stasis. This was by far the best issue of the Willingham and Sturges run so far. Power Girl acts more like a chairwoman then she did even under Johns’s pen. Things do go from bad to worse as everything catastrophic does keep happening. Chimera is shown to be an incredibly powerful character in this issue but I know he is not behind anything. Whoever is behind this is someone who knows the JSA well and he or she is doing a really good job at destroying them. I am looking forward to seeing how this concludes.

The Falcones Come Home

Batman #692
Written by Tony Daniel
Art by Daniel

Um can I just say holy shit….this was better then I EVER expected. Tony Daniel’s Battle for the Cowl was an incoherent mess of a comic. So naturally when I heard he was taking over this book I rolled my eyes. I figured it would be awful. It turns out, it is actually pretty damn good. Daniel IS a good writer apparently. He does something I have wanted to see happen for a long time, follows up on the Falcone crime family as they return to Gotham led by Mario Falcone. He writes great Dick Grayson-Selina Kyle scenes. He creates an interesting group of villainous scientists led by Black Mask. All of this was completely unexpected. Well-done, Mr. Daniel, I think this is going to be a great run on Batman!

The Colors Are Coming Together

Green Lantern (Volume 4) #47
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke

So the Red Lanterns seem to be invulnerable to attacks from the Black Lanterns because they have no heart or have had theirs replaced with rage. This is really interesting stuff. Johns is building a cosmology that is based on science fiction, mysticism, and all kinds of great concepts. I liked this issue as there wasn’t a lot of lame Hal moments. This is a great companion to Blackest Night. It was action-packed and intense.

Celebrating Ten Years of Batgirl: July – August 1999

We continue our look at the history of the greatest of Batgirls by focusing on the rest of the summer of 1999. Last time, Cassandra (Although not known by that name yet) had been given the mantle of Batgirl by Batman and Barbara Gordon and even got to meet the rest of the bat family. This great honor has been bestowed on her, so where do things go from here? Well Batgirl teams up with a certain Agent of the Bat.

Vigilante 10 and 11

Vigilante (Volume 3) #10
Written by Marv Wolfman
Art by Rick Leonardi

This issue guest stars Batman – and while it was fun to see Vigilante working in Gotham – it is too little too late for this series as it has been cancelled with issue 12. It has been a fun ride but I never thought it was going to last long. I am looking forward to seeing how Wolfman wraps up this book. Will Dorian Chase die as the Vigilante like his brother did?

Vigilante (Volume 3) #11
Written by Marv Wolfman
Art by Walter Simonson

Hmmm…this was interesting. It basically tells the story of a guy who’s girlfriend is murdered and how over the years he has run into the Vigilante who was there at the time of his murder. This guy seems to have figured out the story behind Dorian Chase and I suppose will reveal it to us next issue. It was an interesting way of getting to the origin.

Nightmares

Superman/Batman #65
Written by Peter Johnson and Matt Cherness
Art by Brian Stelfreeze, Brian Haberlin, and Kelley Jones

This was a superb halloween special telling the story of how Superman, Batman, Joker, and Lex Luthor are captured by the Scarecrow and are somehow put to sleep and experience horrific nightmare. Each nightmare is drawn by a different artist and each artist’s style fits that particular nightmare. I liked all of them – especially Batman’s creepy Alfred kills his whole family story – and the Joker being angry that everyone finds it funny that he is killing. Johnson and Cherness prove they can write a good comic with this issue.