Weekly Comic Round-Up

Another week, another batch of comic books. Actually, a surprisingly light week. Only five comics in total. And all but one of them are limited series. Well, in theory. Ion is a 12-issue series, and as such will last a year, and so will 52. How long Civil War is going to last is anyone's guess.

Also, my apologies about the delay. Every time I tried to upload this on Wednesday or Thursday, Blogger was being a pain in my butt. Then this weekend was full of stage combat classes and driving to and from Cincinnati.

Today? Today I am back at work, and trying not to think about it being my birthday.

52 Week Five
What a week full of teasing. John Henry Irons is wearing the Steel armor again, with no real explanation of what happened last year. Alan Scott doesn't have any good explanation for why the Zeta Beam tore people apart the way it did. And there isn't any real sign of where the Zeta Beam sent Starfire, Animal Man, Adam Strange and the others.

We also don't get anything new with the Question, which is deeply disturbing to me. I really quite like the Question, and want to see more of him. In fact, I like him enough that I briefly created a homage to him in City of Heroes, a female martial-artist who wore a suit and fedora with a full face mask named Miss Teree.

Not much more in the way of Booster Gold's redemption either, and no progress on the mystery of the Superboy cult, or why Sue Dibny's grave was defaced.

Don't get me wrong, it's a decent issue. But I want more. More I tell you!

Civil War Frontline 1
Civil War has done a nice job of illustrating how the heroes have been dealing with the Registration Act. But what about the average person on the street? How do they handle it?

Frontline gives us a window into that. Focusing on the reporters of the Marvel Universe (616-variety), we get to watch as they cover Stamford, the Registration Act, and undoubtedly the fallout that will occur.

It's a personal story, managed with the same kind of style and grace that Kurt Busiek did so well in Astro City. Of particular note would be the discussion between Spider-Man and the reporter. Obviously, this must before the events of Amazing Spider-Man 532, since it is still about Peter struggling with the issue of what would happen if he were to unmask. It was a nice window into the mind of Peter Parker, and even handled with a bit of humor.

Finally, Frontline lets us know who was the sole survivor of the Stamford incident. But with everything that awaited Robby once he regained consciousness, namely the knowledge that all of his friends were dead, that they were responsible for hundreds of innocent deaths, that his Speedball powers were gone, possibly never to return, and that he was now under arrest from S.H.I.E.L.D., I suspect he's beginning to wish that he had died along with the others.

Ion 2
I was strongly opposed to the storyline where Hal Jordan went insane, killed a bunch of Green Lanterns and then destroyed Oa. Yes, we know that "Power corrupts," and no one has more power, at least in theory, than a Green Lantern. But it was still a bad story.

For that reason, the new storyline involving Ion isn't doing it for me. At all. You see, I like Kyle Rayner. He's a neat character, and a damn fine Green Lantern. He's also a Green Lantern that we can relate to. Hal Jordan was a hero before he became GL, but Kyle was a guy who went out to bars too much and couldn't keep a steady relationship or job. The ring changed his life, and he has become a hero.

So, when Hal came back, obviously they had to do something to get rid of Kyle. It actually started earlier than that, once the Justice League cartoon used John Stewart instead of Kyle, and the comics were forced to follow track. And apparently shunting Kyle off into space, letting him work directly for the Guardians who he frickin' brought back wasn't good enough.

Speaking of this, don't you think it's a little nuts for the Guardians to not allow other Lanterns to deal with Kyle? They have first-hand evidence of what happens when a Lantern goes rogue.

JSA 86
Ghost stories. The Gentleman Ghost is absolutely a character out of a campfire story. A man who is made a Highwayman by the spirits of the dead, who when he dies continues on as a spectral thief? Absolutely a campfire story.

He's also a great supervillain in his own right, especially since there are so many mysteries about him, and about which members of the JSA are able to affect him. Power Girl seems to be able to physically interact with him, which is odd if she is actually Kryptonian. But Stargirl goes right through the Ghost. And Ma Hunkel can wallop him.

Contradiction after contradiction.

I mourn for the passing of Jade. It's nice that she's able to help Allen fight the Ghost, but I miss her, and was still hoping that she might reunite with Kyle someday. Well, I was until her death anyhow.

Last Planet Standing 3
I said earlier that it looks like they're sending the MC2 Universe off with a bang, and this issue certainly agrees with that assessment. Dominas isn't fooling around here, as we see with his taking out of Uatu on the first page of the comic. His battle against the Fantastic Family is short and brutal, and the tidal wave he unleashes against Manahatten is epic.

The universe can be full of irony, which is why I'm not suprised that Reed's weapon didn't get a chance to work. Heh. In two weeks, we get to see two different versions of Reed Richards create two different cosmically powered weapons to use against two different versions of Galactus, which are both ineffective, for two different reasons.

I'm suspecting that relegating the Avengers to the sideline is going to prove to have been a mistake. Two more issues and one month. And then we get to see if Galactus can be stopped, or if the MC2 Universe has made it's last stand.

So, it's a few days late but here are last weeks comics. I'll try to get this week done on time.