Review of this weeks Weekly Comics

Right, it's now the weekend. Time for me to review my latest weekly comic purchases. I did buy a couple more than I was going to, but that's cause I read the previews online and they looked interesting. So, without further ado, here's me reviewing comics :D

The Atom and Hawkman #46
This one was one I wasn't planning on buying until I read the first five pages - looked quite good from it. Now, admittedly, it does focus more on The Atom than it does on Hawkman, but really, what do you expect? Hawkman's sortof dead at the moment...
I still can't take the Atom's new costume seriously though, the tribal look has never suited him. Still, at least he's wearing trousers... Something I didn't get though was since when can Jean shrink? Still, the issue was good, it finally shows him moving on and getting over what Jean did by blowing her to smithereens. What a good way to deal with crazy ex wives.
Plus this comic provides more exposition on the Indigo Tribe, which is always nice, and with them being undead, we do get to see Ray being really badass (which he's done throughout the entire time he's been fighting Black Lanterns really).

Batman and Robin #7
Dammit Grant! I was going to drop this one if it wasn't very good, and although it was the usual confusing mess of Grant's latest comics, it had an interesting premise.
Question 1: Why was Batwoman in a coffin?
Question 2: Wasn't Batman's body buried? If so, who was risen by Nekron in Blackest Night?
Question 3: Who the hell designed those bikes? They're terrible...
Anywho, the artwork in this issue was alright, nothing special, don't get why Quitely's not been doing this since issue 3. His artwork really does suit Grant's form of storytelling (a jumbled jigsaw that forms a mostly understandable picture when finished). And huzzah for Damian being looked after by Talia. Relegated to just two pages of this issue. Two pages too many, but was a damn relief...
And whoever did the word bubbles on page 19 really needs a slap. You'll see what I mean when you get there...

Detective Comics #861
Now, I don't know how I can review this. I'm just a big damn fanboy for the main feature in this... Still, I can try. Plus, it's got Jock doing the internal artwork, who I do really like. What's nice that although you can tell it's definitely his drawings, he does channel a little bit of J.H. Williams III, who is another damn good artist whose non-showing in these issues is a shame, but more than made up with Jock's appearance. The story itself is pretty average, the usual creepy killer stalker ideal woman making chappy, but he's got a cool and somewhat creepy appearance. Unique at that... But would people stop stabbing Batwoman? She does seem to have a "Stab Me" sign on her... And another nice thing? A realistic thermal scanner. Wow...
On the second feature, well, I was a little disappointed with it. Neither were bothered about there secret identities being compromised, why couldn't they just have beat him up and stolen his laptop, etc etc? Did seem quite out of character and I agree with Tot on that one... I did like Zeiss' Terminator vision though, and the artwork was good, as always.

Gotham City Sirens #8
This was an interesting one - not a silly jokey comic like the other Sirens, but a more serious, one issue plot, er, issue... It was strange as it was written by an artist, like the current Batman issues, except someone else wrote the dialogue, and it was actually a non-confusing, well thought out story. On it's own I did enjoy it, the artwork was pleasant yet not eye-poppingly good. It actually reminded my of Dark Knight Returns, what with the TV segments and layout in places. All in all, shame it wasn't a silly one, but good that it was a serious one, if that makes sense...

Green Lantern #50
Holy smeg on a cracker was this comic awesome. So Mera never wanted children and then vomits on Aquababy? The Atom suddenly learns Indigoean (yeah, let's make up a name for their Nok Rol'ing language), which was a bit strange, and then the Spectre finally shows up after quite a while of nothing and shows why he shouldn't be allowed as a hero (you know what I mean). Now, sure, Geoff can't really write the Scarecrow, but come on, we meet the Fear-asaurus again.
On a note I hadn't really thought about until now, but hasn't Wonder Woman become one of the most powerful (and slutty) beings in the universe now?

Justice League: Cry For Justice #6
It's great for me having not been reading Justice League itself, as it means I don't have to worry about the timing of this and that issue. It's a shame as I've enjoyed this mini-series alot, even if it does have it's problems. It's just a shame that JLA has to spoil alot of how this series ends. Also, does anyone know what happened to Mauro? He was doing all the art up until last issue, where he didn't do all the pages, and then he's only done the cover this issue... As it isn't as tight as it was with Mauro, which is a shame as it was really nice artwork. Anywho, the issue itself was mostly just Prometheus beating the shit out of 18 heroes (and 1 villain) before finally getting 'beaten'. This really was James upping Prometheus' villain counter ALOT. It's just a shame his final plan was just revenge, as he's been doing alot of work to get this far. Now, I've always liked James' end of issue commentaries, as it were, a nice bit of the behind the scenes, his own likes and dislikes, and his acknowledgement that this isn't a perfect piece...
It's just a shame we have a Batwoman origin, as we just had her origin over the last three issues of Detective Comics... Personally Vixen, Starfire, Firestorm or Donna Troy (although her's might well be impossible, considering her history) would've been a better choice. Maybe that's just me though?

Superman: Secret Origin #4
A quick review as although this isn't the last review alphabetically, it is the last one I'm writing... Artwork was good as always, the story was solid, though it really isn't much of a 'secret origin'. Just a nice and strong new post-whatever-Crisis origin story that doesn't change much but is just damn solid...

Teen Titans #79
This was another I bought because of the preview I read online - the artwork's clear and concise, it focuses alot on Static (I'm trying out Milestone in the DCU stuff ya see), and the story seemed interesting from what I could tell. And yes, it was all three of those. The problem I had is that I didn't know about half the characters. I didn't even know there was a new Aquagirl on the team, had no idea who this silver girl was (and can she become that brown haired chick?), I'm assuming Cyborg isn't part of the team anymore, and where's Static been all this time? I assume with the Titans, but then why hasn't he called etc. Still, it didn't hamper the story too much. Just one last question: where did Megan go after she had a migraine? She just vanished.
I can't review the Ravager second feature as I hadn't followed that and it was in the middle of a story. Looked good if I knew exactly what was happening though...

And now I'm burnt out from all this reviewing. So, just to finish off this post:
DAMN YOU MORRISON!!!

Upcoming Reviews and upcoming comics

TI'm still at work at the moment, and haven't finished reading some of them yet, but you guys will be getting a treat of reviews from me during the next few days - new comic book tomorrow, so mini reviews of them, plus I got Utopia (X-Men/Dark Avengers) today, Final Crisis a couple of days ago and I've been re-reading the entire Age of Apocalypse, alongside the still to do reviews of Titans of Tomorrow and All Hail Megatron. So some really big things to review, some not so event type comics. I do expect to give up with Batman & Robin, Batman, Magog, but I'm looking forward to Great Ten (as always) and Milestone Forever next week. I did enjoy When World's Collide, and I'd never heard of Milestone before then, so oughta be a good un.

I mean to pick up Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance too, as that's only a few weeks away, and I can't remember why I didn't pick it up at the time. Oh, yeah, cause I hadn't read Final Crisis then, and it was a bit more focused on the aftermath than Ink, which could be summed up in a sentance (bad guy becomes good guy). Simple - The Super Young Team, well, you had to at least know them and who they were, which I didn't. I'll be giving Human Target a go, as it's only 6 issues long, and looks interesting. Never heard of the TV show it's based on though. Another one is The Web, which I actually don't know why I didn't start reading - might wait for the collecting edition (if any). We'll see...

First Wave is another one that has caught my eye, but it's not starting for a while yet. Didn't pick up the Batman/Doc Savage special, so that might impact on my reading somehow. Who knows yet? Again, with Nemesis, but that one less so. The Last Days of Animal Man I'll pick up in collected form...

All in all, it looks like a good couple of months from the DC side of life. I'll do the Marvel side when I get back home, as I get to clock out now and head off to that aforementioned place.

To Be Continued...

Make a Justice League/Avenger team

This does what it says on the tin. I'll give my ideas for teams, you give your ideas, and we all just discuss it - this is like your fantasy teams, ideal teams etc.

Justice League
The Atom (Ray Palmer)
Aquaman (THE original of course)
Batman (Bruce Wayne)
Black Canary
Cyborg
Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi)
The Flash (Wally West)
Green Arrow
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders)
Martian Manhunter
Superman
Vixen
Wonder Woman
Zatanna


The Avengers
Ant-Man
Ares
Black Panther
Captain America (Steve Rogers)
Doctor Strange
Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)
Hawkeye (Clint Barton)
Iron Man
Ms Marvel
Namor
Psylocke
She-Hulk
Spider Woman
Tigra
Vision

What do you guys think? And what would teams be? I can explain my choices, but right now I'm at work, and I'm tired ;)

Silly of the Week 2

I do like this sign :D

Marvel Reviews: House of M, Decimation: The 198 and Secret Invasion

Right, so, here we are: a few different TPBs that arrived through my door recently. I'll be reviewing them in 'comic timeline' order, which, conveniently, is somewhat like my list of what I think held promise and what I bought just to say what started Dark Reign. Due to these books all being old, these reviews aren't for people buying comics regularly, but hey, this isn't something like Amazon anyway, so who cares?

Firstly, I'll be reviewing the House of M TPB (written by Brian Michael Bendis, pencilled by Oliver Coipel, inked by Tim Townsend, Rick Magyar, Scott Hanna and John Dell, coloured by Frank D'Armata and lettered by Chris Elipoulos), which also The Pulse, which is pretty much just advertising in comic book form (or newspaper in a comic book form?). I mean, sure, it does show (sortof) what's happening around the Marvelverse, but it's just advertising and is pretty ignorable really...





















The first problem I have with this book is that after issue 1 (with alot of talking, which I don't mind), issue 2 just shows us what people's lives are like in this new world. That's fine and dandy in itself, but it's an event book, and it really shows the problem with this book - the pacing is all a bit off. I get that this new world needs to be established, but it probably was a big letdown for people reading this as it came out. For me, it's fine, but for others it might've caused a few issues.

The main problem with this book is that it suffers from Wolverine Publicity (thank you TVTropes). This is one of the few books where him being centre star of the series actually makes sense and works (which I don't mind, even though I really don't like him) - the problem is that he's been in everything else ever for the last who knows how many years. We've been inundated with him, which really drags the book down, though it isn't it's fault.

Another problem with this is a general problem with Brian Bendis - his endings of each issue aren't that great, and generally I find hamper the story a little bit:
- Issue 1: It should've ended a page earlier. Instead of showing Peter and Gwen, it should've just ended with that mahusive white flash, a whole new world, who knows what to expect from it kindof thing. And it would tie in with the ending of issue 7, a complete full circle of 6 issues, as it were...
- Issue 2: Yeah, it looks pretty, sortof. And? That's about it, it doesn't hold much significance for me. I mean, sure, Sentinels, SHIELD, what you have to assume is something important (the House of M flag) etc.
- Issue 3: A classic superhero comic flaw. They're having a standoff after they've told Wolverine he's got a tracking device in him. Wait, what? And it just carries on into issue 4 exactly how you would expect because superheroes can never agree, talk or do sensible things. They just have to fight...
- Issue 4: Yeah, let's just have a beer while saying the whole world's buggered. Great...
- Issue 6: It's meant to install hope, as it were, but, I dunno, it just rings slightly odd to me...
Anywho, enough complaining about endings, I mean, I've probably complained enough on this TPB anyway. Because, even though I've just made loads of complaints about it, and haven't even mentioned how convenient the whole Layla thing is, I did enjoy this book. It was fun, didn't really have a message in it, Emma Frost didn't dress like a slut (a good thing, as I actually enjoy reading it more when she's just wearing the suit and coat then when wearing, well, almost nothing. It's something irritates me with comics. Though Polaris wearing almost nothing in places did bring it down a bit...), Hawkeye's costume was pretty damn cool, the artwork was solid and interesting, but not brilliant. So yeah, I enjoyed this one.

But on a bad note: Peter Parker. Shut up. You're complaining when everyone else has suffered the same shit you have in this one. What right do you have to complain any more than the others here? Shut up, move on, and stop whining. Unless you want to turn into Toby Maguire...

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After that, we've now got X-Men: The 198 (written by David Hine, pencilled by Jim Muniz, inked by Kevin Conrad, Jonathon Glapton and Don Hillsman III, coloured by Matt Milla and lettered by Joe Caramagna), pretty much dealing with the aftermath of House of M.





















The problem here is that is suffers from so much wasted potential, and the typical superhero fight at the end. It's got some many point that could be taken further, showing the real schism about what's happening here - the 'voluntary' capturing of mutants, the camps, all that stuff. But it really looses it's message because it ends up being your typical superhero comic when instead it could've been something so much better, something much cleverer. Something that really would've caused a lasting impact on the Marvel world. I mean, there's so many paths that they could've gone down. But instead, well, it fails at any message it was trying to deliver.

And yes, I did enjoy reading this, but it really does suffer from it could've been so much better syndrome. And the ending, well, er, what the hell was that?

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Now I have to move onto Secret Invasion (written by Brian Michael Bendis, pecilled by Leinil Francis Yu, inked by Mark Morales, coloured by Laura Martin and Emily Warren, and lettered by Chris Eliopoulos). I don't know whether I can or not... I mean, do I have to?...




















It was a mess, from start to finish. Issue 1 started badly by just jumping off from some other comic I've missed, which is always a problem. I mean, it's like starting Civil War from the cleanup operation, instead of beginning at Stamford... And then it just get's confusing, I didn't really have much idea what was going on. I get that might be because Brian wanted it to be confusing to show how it was for the characters themselves, but it was just a jumble really.

And it doesn't explain at all why suddenly Osborn gets power over everything. Because he shot the Skrull Queen, when there were about five heroes about to kill her, he becomes the hero of the hour? Er, right. Yeah...

The artwork was alright, but much worse than House of M and The 198 (which was cartoony, but in a good way). It wasn't terrible art, but it's definitely on the lower scale of alright, heading towards bad...

I honestly can't review this one anymore, it just makes me want to bludgeon my head against a brick wall. Repeatedly. It's that bad. Actually, that brick wall sounds delightful. Maybe it'll erase the stain of this comic from my mind...

PotD: MT week: part 6

The last one today, so yeah. New images will start Monday probably, looking for a lazy/review weekend this time...

Anyone know which Flash this is? I always get confused by em >.<

PotD: MT week: part 5

I know some people didn't like this outfit, said it looked stupid etc, but I did, and I think Michael Turner made it look even better. This is the second to last day of my MT week, and expect some comic reviews on Saturday/Sunday for Green Lantern Corps 44, House of M and Titans of Tomorrow at the very least.

No Reviews Today

Due to Citylink being utter cocks when trying to deliver something non-comic related that is important for me to have (namely an external hard drive), I am in no mood to review comics as I will just point out the bad bits and generally just say it's crap. So no reviews today. Sorry

Teeny Update

Hopefully the stuff I ordered will come today, so I'll have something to read through this dry week of weekly comics (Green Lantern Corps is all this week, so I can do a mini review of that tomorrow)...
Got alot of TPBs ordered this time round, hopefully they'll be good:

• Teen Titans: Titans Of Tomorrow
• House of M
• Decimation: X-Men - The 198
• Secret Invasion
• All Hail Megatron 2 & 3

Yep, a bit of everything, DC, Marvel and Dreamwave (or is it IDW now? I forget)... Then, come next month, cue buying of some Ultimate X-Men collections.

PotD: MT week: part 4

It's too early to do much, so here's the picture for today. Sorry...

PotD: MT week: part 3

Part 3, as I said. And just as a quick update, I bought aload of TPBs online, so am now just awaiting them to come. I'll give reviews of some or maybe all of them over the next week, depending on how I feel.

Short Update

Since some of us have bills to pay, and whatnot, I can only but a coupld of TPB/THBs this month :( I've already ordered Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow, so I'll review that when it comes, I'll order Decimation: X-Men - The 198 when I've paid those bills and the only single I'm buying is Green Lantern Corps #44... Next week gets more expensive, with

• Batman & Robin #7 (Urgh, why am I still buying this? If Grant messes up Batwoman, I'm just giving up with this...)
• Detective Comics #861 (Shame JH Williams III is taking a break, but we get Jock instead, so it's all good)
• Gotham City Sirens #8 (didn't we have one of these two weeks ago? Oh, why am I complaining? ;))
• Green Lantern #50 (The cover looks spectacular, but what with last issue being a bit of a dissapointment, well, I dunno...)
• Cry For Justice #6 (Finally. I feel like I've been waiting an age for this)
• Superman: Secret Origins (Sweeeet. Really looking forward to this one)
  

The TPB/THB I'm most awaiting are Avengers/X-Men: Utopia (Dark Avengers / Uncanny X-Men) and Dark Avengers 2, but they aren't out for an age yet. Grrrrr

RTIFO (Random Toy I Found Online)

Yeah, I tried to make a decent acronym out of that. I failed :(

Ah well, least I tried. And I can always do better next time. Least, I hope I can. Which nicely leads me on to the topic of todays article:





















http://www.popcultureshock.com/toys-ashamed-uniformz-green-blue-lanterns/51248/

I found it there while just randomly searching for images and the like, so, well, yeah. Tis awesome. If anyone sees one available in an English shop, please let me know. Thanks :)

PotD

For me it's no longer Michael Turner week, as I started it on Facebook over a week ago :D I'll be nice and continue for the rest of the week, after a break today :D

Silly of the Week 1

Does what it says on the tin. Enjoy :D

PotD: MT week: part 2

I don't even like G.I. Joe, but damn this is good artwork :D There's not really much you can say about PotD, so yeah, here we are, and now I'm off. See ya

Who I Am, What I Review, etc

Righteo, this is just (hopefully) a short post to say what kindof of thing's you'll expect to read about about on this blog. I'm much more of a DC reader than a Marvel. Most Marvel stuff I wouldn't bother even picking up, like Spider-Man, anything about Wolverine, the Fantastic Four (who I loathe)... But things I have liked about them include the crossovers Civil War and I am liking what I've read of Dark Reign. I intend to get all the Ultimate X-Men books, and want to start reading any comic with Pixie in it. You know who I mean ;)

The one with pixie wings of course! So if anyone could point me in the right direction, that would be great.

I've read almost all of Age of Apocalypse (got the four big collected editions, and Exiles: AoA), enjoyed some of it, though the artwork was a bit lacking. And the story was quite disjointed...

Otherwise, I am definitly a DC guy - I don't buy Marvel singles, only collected editions. And with DC I buy some singles, but not a huuuuge amount. Where it not for Blackest Night, my comic buying would go down quite a bit (probably). I save things like JLA and JSA for collected editions, and buy things like Batgirl, GA/BC, Detective Comics with Batwoman, limited series like Superman: Secret Origins, Cry For Justice, Great Ten and Ink (which sadly finished :( I really enjoyed that, the artwork was good, though sometimes hard to tell who was who...). I'm quite likely to give up on the actual Batman books come next issue unles they get really good, as I haven't been particularly enjoying them, and I'm just sticking with GA/BC as GA's my fave character.

Lastly, but not leastly:
Bring. Back. Aquaman. Not the silly new one, no. The original, the best. With whatever; harpoon, waterhand, sentient Black Lantern zombie. I don't care. Just bring him damn well back :D

PotD: MT week: part 1

Well, since it's Michael Turner week for me, hence the profile pic (it'll become something a bit more standard for people who know after this week), I'll be posting some Michael Turner art I damn well like. I believe this is Grace, but don't quote me on that - I've gotta start buying collected editions of his work, but you know how it is, money and all that ;)

First post, first review, so yeah...

Righteo, so, here we are then. Me, writing a blog. Oh dear oh dear, what has the world come to? Still, this won't be a blog of anything pointless, like what happens in my life. Oh no, not at all. Unless of course you count my drawings, which, well, could make an appearance here and there. Who knows, cause I certainly don't.

Now then, enough with the blathering. Today I'm going to review something which is pretty recent, something I really liked the first time I read it, and can't put it down whenever I re-read it. Obviously something like this has gotta be pretty damn good, and I can't see I've seen anyone ever comment on this tale, so I'll let myself be the first person I've seen to have a crack at writing a review on this comic.

And what is it, you may pray tell? Well, it is Superman | Batman : The Search For Kryptonite aka issues 44-49 of Superman/Batman, written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson, pencilled by Shane Davis, inked by Mike "Batt" Banning, coloured by Alex Sinclair and Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Rob Leigh. (Yes, I am going to do that for every review I do, even small ones, but it wouldn't be right to not give full credit to the ever changing staff who make these wonderous little things. Thank you one and all, including everyone I can't name, like editors, printers, publishers, adminers, coffee stirrers and everyone else involved in this wonderous industry. You make my life a brighter and gaudier place to live in).




















This tale begins brilliantly - a humerous take on the film industry making a comic book film (how appropriate considering my line of work), an incredibly stupid origin of Batman and the worst actor I've seen since, well, ever... After that, the main premise behind the story takes hold, and, addresses a key point of comics that's become especially blatant with Smallville: "Kryptonite is everywhere. It's ubiquitous. It's embarrassing."

I won't bother to summarise the rest of the comic, as I don't see the point when you can just read it. Instead, I'll point out some of the bits that I particularly liked:

- The dynamic between the new Aquaman and Supes/Bats. I've never particularly liked what happened to Aquaman, they really messed him around, then shunted him off and put a new kid in his shoes. Bleh. But at least here he's been arrogant, but not an arsehole like Damian, not getting on my nerves or anything. He's doing what he thinks is right, what he feels is best for his home, and, yeah, wanting to beat the crap out of Superman.

- It really gets under both the title characters skins, showing their inner workings brilliantly. Especially the bit during Dinosaur Island; Batman is stubborn, an arse, and completely dedicated to his 'friends'. And this is not the normal Superman, this is a Superman obsessed for the greater good of the world, who will sacrifice his own life as he recognises his own higher calling. I've never been the biggest fan of Superman (shock, horror), but he's someone who is needed, the just of the just, as it were.

- It's epic yet heartfelt at the same time; we've got Superman and Batman patrolling the entire world, going into space beyond the Watchtower, exploring magic islands and fighting Kryptonite super soldiers, while still being human and keeping the story personal. It's something that Superman/Batman can do really well, as it has the two constant internal monologues, while other stories generally spread them around a bit too much. And that bit with Lana, well, I don't get why that happened, but, well, wow. Someone's learned a lot from Kristin Kreuk...

- The artwork, the designs, all of it's just really good. Superman's lead suit is damn cool, as is AquaBats, the (non-regularly seen) supporting cast all look good. It's just highly polished in that respect. I do have to tip my heart to all the artists involved in this. It takes a damn good tale and just keeps on adding. The only flaw I can say about it, save the classic 'Batman's cowl should have those dags in it by the side' is the Phantom Stranger's eye shadow looked dodgy. And yes, that's my only complaint about the artwork here.

And the great thing about this comic in the end is that I can't slag off the ending for it being too convenient, as it's all established (which some writers still can't grasp, I'm looking at you Russell T. Davis), the writings top notch, the art is damn pretty to look at.

By now I'm sure you're fed up of me prattling on about this comic, so I'll just say: go and read it, enjoy it, love it. And now, with my first review all done, I'll just leave you with those immortal words of Saint Walker:
“All will be well”