Through various means, I tend to read nearly every new comic that comes out (from the major publishers.) And I’ve been thinking to myself lately, “why keep my opinions of all these books to myself?” So this time through reading, I decided to try a little experiment by jotting down some random notes/mini-reviews of the comics I read. Hopefully you’ll find some of this interesting.
THE GOOD
Connor Hawke #2: So far, not a superhero story, and using Mike Grell era continuity heavily. An interesting cast of characters in a neat setting, a very low key but solid story so far.
All-Star Superman 6: 6 issues, and still, not a bad or even average issue! How long can this go on??? Anyway, stuff drawn from Morrison’s DC One Million and a previous issue comes into play here, which verges on being wacky but then becomes grounded and emotional. This book is always worth picking up, and now that it’s had 6 issues, should be in trades soon too.
52 #35: Mwahaha. Lex Luthor gets more evil, and you gotta love every minute of it. Lobo too. Finally some awesome stuff is starting to happen in this book.
CSI: Dying in the Gutters #5: VERY clever reveal on the murderer. Helps a lot if you follow the comics industry though. I will strongly consider picking this up in a trade.
Justice #9: Dude, Gorilla Grodd with a power ring! Do I need to say more? But what’s up with Alex Ross turning Captain Marvel to evil?
Jonah Hex #15: The three part origin story of Jonah Hex wraps up here, showing how he came to look like he does, and ending with the vengence several issues in the making. This is the best Western book any of the companies are putting out, period. I keep waffling on subscribing to it, since I’m worried as soon as I start it’ll stop being as good.
All New Atom #7: Rats, I must have missed the last issue, and it sounds like a lot happened. This issue in particular gets a lot of points from me by quoting Patton Oswalt… even when the quote thing is getting old. But I am glad that Simone keeps piling on the random weirdness and making it work.
Superman Confidential #3: Tim Sale art and Darwyn Cooke writing still continues to be a winner. Anyone else find it odd that by far the best Superman books being written- and they’re genuinely good books which is difficult for Superman- are both “out of mainline continuity”? Oh, and Lex Luthor turns out to be the bad guy here too.
THE MEH
A Nightmare on Elm Street #4: Not as terrible as I thought, but still not all that interesting.
Civil War #6: Misread a panel, thought it was the Falcon saying “Both [Black Panther] and Storm have our blacks” instead of “our backs.” Anyway, Iron Man still a dick, despite building some fountains, Captain America and the Punisher have some brawls, and some “twists” that I’m pretty sure there was no clues to in previous issues. However, I do think this issue was a lot stronger than previous ones. We’ll see how #7- the giant fight scene pretty reminiscent of Kingdom Come- plays out. And speaking of ripoffs, is it just me, or did this issue steal from New Frontier with the whole “Dr. Strange can’t interfere” stuff? And he can take on ALL of Earth’s mightiest heroes but he has trouble with muggers in his own book?
Justice League of America #5: Hmm. It’s certainly Metzler, for good and ill.
The Boys #6: Finally this book starts to make some sense instead of mindless sex and violence. It’s not too far beyond that (and it still bothers me that Simon Pegg is used as one of the characters in it) but at least the backstory is more filled in with this issue.
Avengers Next #4: Yep, still very old school, and still not all that interesting to me. I can see why others would like it though.
Irredemable Ant-Man #4: Hester and Parks excellent art still gets underutilized, and all the jumping around in time is annoying. Still, it has its moments. Also interesting how both companies “shrinking hero” have gone off in two totally divergent directions but still both have a bad guy who also shrinks!
Amazing Spiderman #537: I don’t think it’s JMS’s fault, but man, do any of the tie-in books actually get to read the main books? It’s like Civil War is the only thing in continuity!
Iron Man Hypervelocity #1: Neat sounding story, but is this a Civil War tie-in or not?
Manhunter #27: As much as I love this book, DC really needs to stop using the whole “Look, it’s a dead hero appearing on the last page for no reason!”
NewUniversal #2: I’m a big Warren Ellis fan, but this still gets a big ole “Meh” from me. I can’t wait for him to tear into some real Science Fiction. Instead we get this, which is a reinvention of an 80’s line, with some exposition machines giving us Ellisian super-science.
Midnighter #3: Any book that ends with “I gotta kill Hitler before he dies” might just get a pass. So odd to see this plotted like a normal superhero book but with an over the top concept.
Exiles #89: While this issue seemed to be pretty blaise (though hinting at the near return of the stop gap measure they used to stop Proteus who was the bad guy for many issues) I can’t help but think that DC really should be ripping this off in order to do monthly Elseworlds stories.
Nightwing #128: Nightwing reminsces over his ex’s. I’ve had days like that. (Do we know yet if Oracle accepted his proposal and something else happened yet? Or has that just been dropped? SUPERBOY PUNCH!) Oh, and he stops some Luthor built power armor. Or something.
Civil War Frontline #10: HAHAHAHA Reed Richards tells Tony Stark to “Stay the course.” Other than that… I’m glad the “historical parallel” section was dropped, and the “Embedded” stories seem to actually make an interesting plot out of Civil War. “Penance” though? It’s amazing how a happy go lucky superhero can be turned into an S&M antihero within a year. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
JLA Classified #31: This one has actually been a fun ride, despite not being able to follow the story at all. But seeing the JLA (and I should say, THE JLA, the now classic modern lineup) run around undercover has been a lot of fun.
THE BAD
Batman/Superman #31: What the crap has happened to this series? Corrupting aliens… and some crappy silver age Batmite wannabe? And is Luthor behind EVERYTHING in the DCU now?
Bullet Points #3: This Marvel… What If? Elseworlds? Whatever… continues on here, randomly changing one character to another, with a central conceit used before in JLA: THE NAIL, this time ending with Reed Richards becoming Nick Fury. It’s not a completely terrible idea, but so far, it’s basically just changing the names of existing characters, not creating new ones.
I like the fact they’re trying to do something with D-list characters. Do I buy Speedball => Penance? Well, reading Frontline would certainly better qualify to make that judgment, but like all things comicbook, when the status quo gets changed I reserve judgment until I see how its handled. With Ellis at the helm, maybe S&Mball will be cool.
Short version: he registers, and gets a suit built for himself with spikes that bear into his skin constantly, one for each child that died in Stamford. There are certainly moodier characters that this could maybe work for, but I have a real hard time buying that it’s the same Speedball from the “New Warriors” series. I wish they had just said that “New Warriors” wasn’t in continuity instead of trying to claim they’re the same characters.
I need to pick up or borrow the issues of Allstar Superman, Justice, and Civil War that I haven’t read yet.