Week in review (comics released 23/01)

AUTHORITY PRIME #4 (OF 6)
The Authority and Stormwatch Prime do the usual fight each other until something bigger and badder comes along that they both need to fight together. I still live in hope that one day these teams will be written by Ellis again so I'll care what happens.

BLUE BEETLE #23
Blue Beetle is fun. Its like Spider-man when Peter Parker was still in school, just with an ethnic edge. This issue is the build up to the final battle with the Reach, the aliens Jamie knows are trying to take over the world (and who created the scrab he gets his powers from).

COUNTDOWN LORD HAVOK AND THE EXTREMISTS #4 (OF 6)
I still remember the Extremists from JLI as the team that 'killed' the Justice League back then. It was a much more serious story in what was otherwise a light hearted book. In this series there is no humor. It's all on an alternate Earth and Monarch has a grudge with them. It should be relevant to Countdown, but mostly its just confusing with a bunch or heroes and villains (and its impossible to tell which are which) with histories we know nothing about.

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 14
The war on Earth 52 continues. The long hinted at return(?) of Red Robin. Superman Prime goes a little more nuts. Donna Troy gets herself an army. No mention has been made of the Fourth World story for a few issues now so I'm guessing Countdown won't finish that. (And I still don't believe the Monarch character to be credible)

COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #5 (OF 8)
Spectre, Eclipso in one story, Doctor Fate in the other. This book is really just setup for where the characters are going to sit in the DCU. Another book which could be seen as a set-up for Final Crisis.

CRIME BIBLE THE FIVE LESSONS OF BLOOD #4 (OF 5)
The concept here was interesting. Each story focusing on a less of the crime bible and also serving as a good way of showing off Montoya as the new Question. Unfortunately one story per issue is not enough to tell the story well. In need of a better writer or more pages to tell stories of more substance.

GOTHAM UNDERGROUND #4 (OF 9)
Part Batman, part Salvation Run, part Villains United. Its more a story of how Gotham's villains are dealing with power struggles and being hunted, with the Bat family supporting characters. An interesting read.

JLA CLASSIFIED #51
The Classified series vary in quality from story to story. Mostly just an opportunity to tell stories with characters that may be otherwise unavailable due to current continuity. The current JLA Classified story deals with an alien threat and tells an 'untold' story inside another untold story. Not too bad, not too great, otherwise unlikely to be of any consequence. And John Byrne's art unfortunately isn't what it used to be.

LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #38
Jim Shooter's second LSH issue. Lots of legionnaires and Lightning Lad not coping with leadership. I still preferred the Legion all grown up when Giffen was writing it, but the current run definitely has the feel of what the Legion used to be. Of course, with three different Legions out there until Final Crisis comes along, the future is an uncertain place.

SUPERMAN BATMAN #45
Superman and Batman decide to rid the planet of Kryptonite. Aquaman (the new, younger one) questions them both as to their real reasons for doing so. It's a good way of dealing with the fact that any two bit hood could lay their hands on kryptonite these days.

TEEN TITANS #55
The Aftermath of the Titans Tomorrow storyline. Some Titans leave, some stay, some get jealous, others go a little nuts. Its enjoyable to read but afterwards you can't help but wonder if its not just 90210 with costumes.

UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #5 (OF 8)
An understated enjoyable read. Palamotti appears to have been given free reign to write the series and does so with a sense of respect tot he characters he's giving voice to. Superheroes that have to deal with the government and who don't always do the right thing. Red Bee goes nuts, wanting to take over the world for her hive.

WONDER WOMAN #16
The latest issue of Gail Simone's new run and the story is starting to fir together. What originally felt as though is was an attempt to twist the character into her own, now feels more like solid storytelling.. though I'm still not sure about giant apes and nazis.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #548
Brand New Day part 3.. and its no better than the previous two parts. This will probably end my purchasing of Spidey for a while. The writing isn't that bad, the story and the events that led to it have destroyed any sense of history for the character though. New bad guys, new support characters, still don't care. See the 'With Great Power' posting tomorrow for more detail.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #24
Part 6 of 6 of the Breakworld saga, or so it's advertised.. pity its actually part 6 of 7, with the last part of the story being told in a giant-sized special next month. It's still great, well written, fantastic art, I just wish I hadn't read it thinking it was going to end. I would have saved this issue to read when the special came out.

IRON MAN #25
Stark finally figures out what's going on with the Mandarin and Leonard Samson tells him why he's going slowly insane (there's a pattern here with stories this month). This story would be better read in a collected edition as its just too spaced out at the moment. The climatic battle is due next month.

MARVEL ZOMBIES 2 #4 (OF 5)
Overdone. The original concept of Marvel Zombies (in Ultimate FF) was clever and an unexpected success. The first series was interesting as an alternate Earth type thing. That's where is should have stopped. Set in the future, the remains of the human race and a few zombies who no longer hunger, try to defend against still hunger, galactic powered ex-super-hero zombies. It's all very silly.

ORDER #7
One of the good things to come out of Civil War. The Order find themselves dealing with a surrendered Namor at the same time as trying to prevent their city from turning into a riot zone. Each issue so far has been interspersed with interview-like conversations with each character in order to introduce them. This one takes the interview model and shows you both sides.

SHE-HULK 2 #25
I can see that Peter David is trying to make the character his own, and that She-Hulk has gone through more than a few tragedies lately. The 'I'm not going to be a hero anymore' line she's using sounds a lot more like a petulant child than seven foot woman able to knock buildings down. With Skrulls (that aren't part of Secret Invasion) and an untold story of why She-Hulk's attitude has changed, its still interesting enough to read to find out what happens next.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #50
Ultimate Thanos and the Ultimate Cosmic Cube. The Ultimate version of FF is even more cosmic than the original series lately. Again, this would probably be better as a collected edition if only because so much is going on in each issue its hard to keep track.

ULTIMATE IRON MAN II #2 (OF 4)
Not as 'wow' as the first series but still solid storytelling. Tony Stark as a teenager trying to run his father's company. There's a lot more of the boy-genius here and it will be interesting to see how he becomes the character that is now in the Ultimates.

ULTIMATES 3 #2 (OF 5)
Unfortunately this series feels like you're reading about an entirely different group of people from the first two series. On its own is probably wouldn't be too bad but in comparison to the last two series this feels like WildCATS, not the Avengers.

WORLD WAR HULK AFTERSMASH DAMAGE CONTROL #1 (OF 3)
This looks like it could be fun. Damage Control are contracted by Tony Stark to rebuild New York and they appear to know exactly what's needed. Super-powered contractors and characters that looks at the destruction of a city as part of a normal day's work.

X-MEN #207
The end of Messiah Complex and a stand-out for the week. Messiah Complex changes the mutant universe as much as Civil War did for the rest of the super-human community. Deaths, secrets, new roles and a much darker time lies ahead for any of the teams with an X in their name. Three new series spawn out of this epic and two others are effectively cancelled.

YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS #1 (OF 6)
Patriot, grandson of the 'original' black Captain America, wonders what his place in the world is with Captain America now dead. He tracks down Bucky (a bit of a stretch admittedly) to have a conversation with him about what it means to be a hero and a patriot. Its a nice story to acknowledge the Young Avengers characters are still around, but it does feel like Marvel's really not sure what to do with them yet.

DAN DARE #3 (OF 7)
Dan Dare was an icon of British comics back when you could defend the universe with an ideal and a ray gun. This series is set a couple of decades after Dan and his friends saved the universe from the evil Mekon. Pulled out of retirement when a new threat arrives, its not long before he finds himself on an barren planet, chased by monsters ad trying to protect civilians. Its an indulgence for anyone who's read Dan Dare before, but may not mean much for anyone unfamiliar with the character.

Week in review (comics released 16/01)

Whilst this is not an attempt to review everything that’s come out in the week I’ll use it to do a brief rundown of the highlights and the low-lights of the week. From there, you can make your own decisions (or post replies to argue otherwise). I’ll try not to post much in the way of spoilers without some sort of warning beforehand.

In order of publisher (because that’s the list I work from):

UMBRELLA ACADEMY APOCALYPSE SUITE #5 (OF 6)
Really enjoying this series. It’s self contained and yet has a history of its own. It feels a lot like Hellboy in the early days but has a distinct sense of identity. Super-hero kids all grown up in a world with talking monkeys and doomsday machines.

BIRDS OF PREY #114
An interesting issue and Oracle spirals into obsession... again. The series seems to have lost its way a little (maybe since Black Canary left) and there’s no real point to it anymore. Nicola Scott’s artwork is looking better and better though.

BOOSTER GOLD #6
I still can’t work out if this series is going to be pivotal to Final Crisis events or not. Time is broken, Rip Hunter and Booster Gold try to fix it. The return of Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) in this issue and there looks to be a happy ending. That said, it’s time travel and I guarantee it will all be bad next month (that and I read the synopsis for the next issue, Max Lord rules the world)

CATWOMAN #75
Tie in to Salvation Run. You need to read one if you’re reading the other. Catwoman, who’s been more on the side of angels than not over the last few years in trapped on Death World with a who’s who of bad guys.

CHECKMATE #22
Second part of a two-part fill-in story. Its about one of the secondary characters so doesn’t really engage all that much. Checkmate as an ongoing series remains interesting, however. It’s SHIELD for the DC Universe but works a lot better.

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 15
14 issues to go. We find out what Ray palmer’s really been up to (and whilst I’m sure it’ll be relevant in the next few months it was very much a ‘huh, what?’ type moment). Monarch is still a poor choice of villain. It just doesn’t makes sense that Captain Atom is inside the suit, I’d say he was a skrull except it’s the wrong company. All the disparate threads are tying together slowly though and the ending should be worthwhile.

FLASH #236
The last part of the re-introduction of the Flash story, with his super-powered kids in tow. It has aliens, the JLA, back story and a happy ending, but again I just didn’t care too much. I really enjoyed Waid writing Flash last time he was on the title, this time it just fails to grab me.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #17
The cover means nothing. Black Lighting is not composed entirely of lightning, despite what it implies (yes, that was a spoiler, kind of). The story, however, is good set-up to JLA vs Suicide Squad and keeps the team book in the middle of the DC Universe still.

ROBIN #170
All the bat titles are undergoing a slight revamping (new creative teams) after the Ra’s story. Robin’s not going anywhere yet.

SHADOWPACT #21
Losing interest. Unfortunately most books about teams of magic heroes just look like poorly written books about teams of normal super-heroes. This follows the same vein.

WILDSTORM REVELATIONS #2 (OF 6)
Maybe if this leads into another re-boot of the Wildstorm Universe they’ll get it right this time. I’m not holding my breath. The story suffers from the fact the reader isn’t allowed to know anything until the end of the story, despite what the characters might think they know.

FELL #9
Outstanding as usual. Story and art are the perfect package, proving that you don’t have to write 80pg specials or charge US$5.99 to sell a good story.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #547
Spider-man is the biggest disappointment of this year.. and it’ll be hard work for anything to replace it even though its only Jan. If you liked Spider-man in the 80s, then read this because that’s all marvel has done to the character. Kinda makes me wonder why they bother with Ultimate Spider-man now.

IMMORTAL IRON FIST #12
Highlight of the week. Iron Fist is in my top 5 these days. Solid story, good use of characters, everything you’ve come to expect from Brubaker (and Faction). If you’re not reading it, read it.

INCREDIBLE HERCULES #113
This is fun. There’s some foreshadowing in here as Hercules talks to his sister and is told Amadeus Cho could be the next big hero or the worst villain on the planet. Herc vs Ares. Amadeus vs SHIELD. Chaos ensues.

NEW EXILES #1
Claremont and mutants. The only guarantee is it will be a story with a thousand sub-plots. Throw in travel between alternate dimensions as well and it has the feel of being Claremont’s playground rather than a solid story.

NEW WARRIORS #8
Disappointing after a relatively strong start. NW is being set-up as the opposition to the Initiative, that later being government sponsored, the former being rebels (made up mostly of de-powered, now power-suited mutants). It’s no where near as well written and feels as b-grade as the team itself.

NEW X-MEN #46 MC
Messiah Complex continues to impress. An X crossover that’s solidly written, has characters acting for ‘real’ reasons and enough surprises to make you want to buy the next issue just to find out what happens next. A credit to Brubaker and the others involved. (the predator X involvement feels like a forced plot device but can be forgiven)

PENANCE RELENTLESS #4 (OF 5)
So Speedball was a joke and now Penance can potentially destroy a country, out-thinks Doc Doom, Stark and Osborn. It’s a stretch to say the least. One issue to go and I’m interested to see where it goes but have a feeling it won’t have any lasting effects.

WOLVERINE ORIGINS #21
Deadpool vs Wolverine. The biggest problem is the fact that they’ve remained true to Deadpool as he’s bee written for the last few years, ie. an insane humorous character. Unfortunately, up until now, this book has been nothing but serious. It just feels wrong.

WORLD WAR HULK AFTERSMASH WARBOUND #2 (OF 5)
Uninspiring. The characters are too new to care about and the Master just can’t be taken seriously. Read Un-Men from Vertigo if you want outcasts in an isolated town.

ANGEL AFTER THE FALL #3
The comment ‘just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should’ has been used to describe both the new Buffy and Angel series. LA is in Hell and divided up by various demons. Rather than a continuation of the story from the TV series the creators (Whedon included) have used this as an opportunity to put all the characters in new situations which have you wondering what’s happened over a period of time to get them to that state. Its an over-used writing technique these days (see Heroes, Lost, etc) and doesn’t work all that well here. Mostly its just confusing.

Why?

It's always good to start with a post about your intentions for these kind of things, even if you look back at it later and find you're miles away from where you thought you'd be. There are already a myriad of sites, blogs, forums, etc devoted to comics and all things comic-like. We all read them, we all have our own opinions. Instead of maintaining a regular set of conversations through email, this puts everything in one spot.
Hopefully this will mean a weekly round-up of comics and then rants or opinions of the wider world of comics, stories, movies inspired be, etc.

We'll see how it goes..