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.

Blood Thirsty Huntress

Batman: Streets of Gotham #5
Written by Christopher Yost
Art by Dustin Nguyen
Co-Feature by Marc Andreyko
Art by Jeremy Haun

During Gail Simone’s run on Birds of Prey, if I remember correctly, Huntress grew as a character and now rarely goes for lethal force on villains. So why in this issue is she unnecessarily blood thirsty? I get that she is more willing to kill then any of the other Gotham heroes but she seems to want to kill Man-Bat in this issue. It is just over the top. That being said I did like the story and the idea of the crazy priest. The Manhunter co-feature was pretty damn awesome as we look at Dylan’s histoy and Two-Face being up to no good. I did enjoy the issue although the Huntress was written strangely.

The Team Officially Forms

R.E.B.E.L.S. #9
Written by Tony Bedard
Art by Claude St. Aubin

Adam Strange and Captain Comet join the cast just as the team officially forms – nine issues in. Oh well it was a fun ride getting there. (Unlike say Meltzer’s six issues to build the Justice League in 2006). Aubin’s art is not as good as Clarke’s and it shows. I wish that Clarke could stay on this book for any substantial amount of time. The team is interesting if not a little big. I hope people continue to read this cause I want to see more of their adventure.

The New Azrael Has A Great First Issue

Azrael (Volume 2) #1
Written by Fabian Nicieza
Art by Ramon Bachs

This is two books in a row that I didn’t expect to enjoy but instead actually thuroughly enjoyed. I did not read this new Azrael’s mini nor the annuals leading up to the (heck I didn’t even read Jean Paul Valley’s series) start of this series but I still found that I could follow this debut issue and enjoy it. I already can tell you that I like the new Azrael – and the idea that in six months the character is going to be dead or possibly dead makes it all the more interesting. I like the fact that there is a person murdering those who were silent about sexual abuse by priests. I think that is some interesting territory to cover. It is dark but it fits the tone of the book. Bach’s art is different from his work on Red Robin but it fits the tone of this book. Good stuff for a debut issue. I hope this series is a sucess and it will be if it continues with this quality.

This Was Actually Good

Justice League of America #38
Written by James Robinson
Art by Mark Bagley

Holy shit! This must be the most underrated comic of the fucking year. After reading all of the horrible reviews and the abysmal so far Cry for Justice mini, I actually enjoyed this a lot. That’s a good thing – because this book has been bad for a really long time. Bagley can certainly draw better then any artist this book has had and Robinson’s dialogue is much better then it has been over in Cry for Justice. I liked it. Sure, Blue Jay dying was stupid and we don’t need another superhero dying but forget that, I liked the moments in the cave and all of the talking about its history and even Young Justice. It’s too bad Plas is going to stay on the team because he is always fun. The fight with Despero was even exciting because Bagley is an artist who makes it easy to see what is going on. Forget what you have heard, I think this is a good start to the Robinson – Bagley run.

More Trips To The Cineplex

Power Girl (Volume 2) #6
Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Art by Amanda Connor

This was a fun ending to this story arc. I am glad that the space girls decided to stay on earth – I like them a lot – it is refreshing to see aliens that don’t actually mean harm. I hope they become part of Power Girl’s supporting cast. Speaking of PeeGee’s supporting cast, Terra is back again and I can’t say enough how much I love the moments between her and Power Girl – and they go to the movies again! Yay! I love the fake movies they watch. This book is still a lot of fun.

Reactron Extinguished

Supergirl (Volume 5) #46
Written by Sterling Gates and Greg Rucka
Art by Jamal Igle and Eduardo Pansica

This is the conclusion of the Hunt for Reactron storyline that began here and continued here and here. This was a satisfactory conclusion as Reactron is finally defeated and it ends with Kara bringing him to New Krypton. It was great to see Thara morph into Flamebird and for Supergirl to reconcile her friendship with Thara. When are we going to see Chris become the Nightwing being. I want to learn more about these mystical beings. I think it really makes Chris and Thara much more interesting. I also want to know what Lana is hiding but I suppose we won’t find out until Kara confronts here. Some of the expressions on people’s faces seemed a bit off and not fitting what they were saying. Lois looks angry through her whole scene with Lana and I didn’t like that. I suppose that could be because of Pansica’s art.

Flag Pants And Spaghetti Head

The Shield #2
Written by Eric Trauttman
Art by Marco Rudy
Co-Feature by Brandon Jerwa 
Art by Greg Scott

The second issue of this series was just as good as the first. The Shield is a VERY powerful character. I felt like he did something new with his warsuit on every page. The villain looked like he had a head made out of Spaghetti and it was pretty gross and while the art was good, it seemed a little unfinished at some parts. Magog still proves to be completely unlikable especially when compared to The Shield, who truly seems to be a real hero; always avoiding killing anyone. The Inferno back-up was okay story-wise but the art is just not fun to look at I am sorry to say.