Weekly Comic Round-Up

Every week (roughly) Aaron goes to the Laughing Ogre in Columbus, Ohio and spends far more money than his wife would prefer. He then comes back here and writes about the comics he reads that he thought were noteworthy. This isn't everything he picks up, just the things that he feels merit discussion - either for being really good, or for having something really wrong with them.

Death of the New Gods 1
Ok, I know that this takes away all of my geek cred, but I have to say it. I have never been that amazed with Jack Kirby.

I know. I know. Send in the hounds.

In all fairness, I admire his work. Kirby is to comic books what Orson Welles was to cinema. He revolutionized ways of doing things, and took the bare bones laid by those who came before him and redefined how things would be done forever after him.

But that doesn’t change the fact that since he redefined things, some folks have done it better. There are plenty of artists who I think are better, and certainly there are superior writers. So, with that said and upfront, let’s just start off by saying I’ve never been that impressed with the New Gods. In fact, the only reason I even looked at this book was because it ties in to Countdown, even if it doesn’t do so explicitly.

Man, I almost passed on a really good thing. The action is tightly paced, and the art is really crisp and clean. A device is used to show who is narrating each section with a small symbol placed in the narration boxes, and it works really well.

Case in point? I have absolutely nothing invested in any of the three gods who died this issue. But each death hit me.

And Darkseid getting one-step ahead of Metron? Priceless.

Captain America 31
Bucky is still my personal pick to be the new Captain America. But they’re sure doing their level best to make it hard for him. Having been captured in the last issue by the Red Skull and Dr. Faustus (remember, the guy who brainwashed Sharon Carter into shooting Steve Rogers, and to convince a huge percentage of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to quit?), they’re doing their best to break Bucky, by convincing him that Steve Rogers abandoned him.

The fantasies they create are interesting, though a bit unsubtle. And I don’t really understand why it is that the last one worked on Bucky when the others didn’t. (If it did at all – that’s still left to some debate, depending on whether or not next month’s issue opens up with a dead Agent 13.)

Meanwhile, Tony Stark is having a really bad month. We’ll see more of his bad month in the other books on the round-up, but having to deal with a S.H.I.E.L.D. organization he can’t rely on, and a Falcon and Black Widow who were stunned by a rogue Agent 13, to say nothing of the looming threat of the Red Skull, makes for a rough time for Iron Man.

Brubecker is quickly becoming my favorite Cap author, and that’s not an easy task to accomplish.

In other Captain America news, I picked up Captain America: The Chosen 3 this week as well. Just… don’t. And if they make that guy the new Captain America, I may be as done with Cap as I will be with Spider-Man once One More Day is finished.

(And yes, I know that the idea of using a perfectly new hero to replace the dead/missing/retired icon has worked well in comics before. I still really dig Kyle Rayner, Steel and Connor Kent. But Knightfall would’ve made me happier if Dick Grayson had become Batman, and I’m going to be really upset if the new Cap is a random soldier.)

Booster Gold 3
A comic book where a hero has disgraced himself in order to be able to save the timestream, but who will never be able to get the credit for it, is not what people would expect to be among the more “fun” titles out there today.

People would be wrong.

Booster, Rip and Skeets continue to bounce through time to make reality come together as it’s supposed to. And along the way (in this issue alone), Booster gets drunk alongside Jonah Hex, saved the doctor who will deliver Johnathan Kent’s father, deals with his ancestor Daniel and the double issue of discovering that the Supernova suit was stolen and the fact that he needs to get Daniel together with his future wife, and meets Barry Allen and Wally West – when Wally was still Kid Flash.

This book may be the best title published today. It’s fun, it’s fast-paced, the action is good, and it turns a character who had been little more than a joke into a major part of the DCU.

If you’re not reading this title, close your computer, walk or drive to your nearest comic book store, and pick up all three issues.

Now.

Marvel Zombies 2 1
I am so very, very, very torn about this book.

Why? Well, because on the one hand, I want to like it. And it had moments that I found absolutely perfect. The Galactus/Marvel zombies finding Ego, the Living Planet? That was so beautiful it brought a tear to my eye.

And there were other parts of it I enjoyed too. I liked the idea that Janet Van Dyne’s zombie head, now in control of her hunger, was still a part of the leading council. I liked the idea that, even after the zombie decimation, humans and mutants would still have differing opinions on how life should go on. It even worked for me that Cortez’s son would want to usurp T’Challa.

But the plot holes… dear god, the plot holes. If all it took was a week or so of the zombies not feeding for them to get back in control of themselves, then why did the zombie FF not regain control while they were trapped in the Baxter Building?

And of all the minds who are with the Galactus zombies, would it really be Peter Parker who first noticed that the hunger became less terrible with time? Really? Heck, if anything, I would think it would be Wolverine, with his heightened awareness of his body.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ll keep reading it. But I was really hoping for better from this series, and Issue 1 isn’t as promising as I’d have liked.

Birds of Prey 111
Another one-off issue, but one that I think hit the nail on the head a little better than last month’s. (Not that there was anything wrong with the Helena issue, it just wasn’t quite as amazing.) Barbara needs to get to a localized Intranet to recover information about her identity from when the Watchtower was destroyed. Unfortunately, the Calculator had the same idea, and so both of them have infiltrated a convention taking place at the company’s HQ.

At the convention, Oracle and the Calculator end up bumping into one another while each is trying to get to the intranet, and so they both decide to distract the other by going to lunch together. There’s some cute flirtation between the two, and then they go back to their attempts to hack the intranet.

As these things must, a fight develops, though due to clever writing about a supervillain’s blind spots, despite the fact that Oracle breaks the Calculator’s leg, he doesn’t believe that Barbara is Oracle. The way that Misfit and the Huntress send the cavalry in when Barbara gets in trouble is nothing short of brilliant either.

Booster Gold may be my favorite ongoing title at the moment, but it’s a close contest with Birds of Prey.

A few books which don’t deserve an entire write-up, but are worth picking up if you get the chance. Penance 2 continues on just as strongly as the first issue did, with Robbie going after the Robot Master, for one reason and one reason only. He wants to get Nitro. And the secret of the numbers he’s been writing? They’re revealed. This issue would be another part of Tony Stark’s bad day. In all fairness, this book does deserve a full write-up, but I didn’t want to spoil any part of it. Meanwhile, Justice League 14 continues the battle between the Injustice Gang (or Legion of Doom, if we want to be honest) and the League, and does so wonderfully. I only had two complaints with it – the first being that things are happening so fast that they lack some of the attention they deserve. A new Shaggy Man? Grodd trying to break Geo-Force? Kryptonite paint? They’re all great ideas, and I just would have liked them to get a little more attention. My second complaint, and this is minor, is that in the splash page where Luthor shows Superman and Black Lightning the captured League is a bit too overtly sexualized in how it shows the captured heroines. Trust me, I know that superheroines in bondage is a common nerd fantasy, and has been ever since the early days of Wonder Woman. But I don’t need to be beat over the head with it. Finally, Mighty Avengers 5 manages to earn a little bit of respect from me in how Ares’ handles Ultron. The problem is how flawed other elements of the comic were. Frankly, Ultron shouldn’t be able to stand up to a pissed-off Sentry. “Power of a thousand exploding suns”, remember? Going to be going toe-to-toe with the Hulk in a week or so. And Ultron just killed his wife (maybe). Ultron should’ve been pulped. And I still think that the thought balloons seem more reflective of an editorial voice than that of the character they’re attached to.

So, that’s what I found noteworthy this week in comics. And if you’re not reading over there already, keep up with the developments in the world of superhero film and television at Superheroflix.

Weekly comic round-up

Every week (roughly) Aaron goes to the Laughing Ogre in Columbus, Ohio and spends far more money than his wife would prefer. He then comes back here and writes about the comics he reads that he thought were noteworthy. This isn't everything he picks up, just the things that he feels merit discussion - either for being really good, or for having something really wrong with them.

Avengers: The Initiative 6
The cover really gives this issue away. Someone has taken out “The Gauntlet” – and logically the suspicion falls on all of those recruits who have been abused by him for five issues straight now – especially the former New Warrior, Rage. (Justice gets implicated as well, despite being a part of the staff, for his own New Warrior connections).

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s investigation is interesting enough, especially considering my general distaste for that kind of story. And it’s fun watching Gyrich sweat that S.H.I.E.L.D. might discover his personal black ops team.

The continuing mystery about the death of MVP also rears its’ ugly head, and Hardball continues to communicate with his conspirator.

What’s most fascinating is that Gauntlet wakes up and lies about who his attacker was – to protect his soldiers, the way any good sergeant should. But the shocker of this issue is who the attacker was –someone who has previously been drastically underestimated. A nice compelling issue that goes a long way towards making us finally care about these recruits.

Teen Titans 51
The world of the future Titans is not one I would want to live in. The future visions of the team are brutal and unforgiving, and not terribly far removed from the Justice Lords from the Justice League cartoon.

I wouldn’t want to read an entire series about them. But they’re fun guest stars, in that “we’re really villains” sort of way. It’s fascinating watching them try to warp their younger selves into becoming who they are. The Titans are, obviously resistant to this to varying degrees. Some fight against it with all their will, while others (looking at you, Kid Devil) succumb to temptation from their future selves.

The first high point of the issue for me would be the fact that this world gives some credence to my hopes that Kon-El will return from the dead somehow, and that his relationship with Cassie will rekindle. The second would be the confrontation between the two Tim Drakes – The future Batman who carries the same gun which killed Bruce’s parents, and the Robin of today.

Ultimate Spider-Man 114
Well, Bagley’s art being absent is felt in this issue more than it had been in either of the issues prior – I really wanted his pencils for the fight between Electro and Spidey. It’s still fine art, but it just feels off somehow.

The issue mainly focuses on Peter’s attempts to get those he cares about out of the line of fire, now that Osborn has been released. Why? Because he’s Peter Parker and he does that. We also get a tease of future storylines, as we say May on a date with Miles Warren.

Once the family is safely sequestered, Peter goes on the hunt for Osborn, and instead finds Electro. They fight, unsurprisingly. S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up to end the fight – but the cavalry isn’t here to help Spidey. They take both villain and hero down, and the issue ends with Peter in custody of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I’m thinking that the less-than-pleasant relationship between Peter and Fury is going to bite Parker on his butt next issue.

Justice League of America 13
We’ve been building to this – starting with the wedding special, and now that it’s here, it doesn’t disappoint. The Injustice League is prepared for the JLA, and the League is quite seriously caught with their pants down. With Luthor and the Joker as their masterminds, the Injustice League is well-prepared, and has set a series of ambushes for the League.

One by one, we watch each of the League’s heavy-hitters go down. Batman frees himself and attempts to free Wonder Woman, but presumably that goes poorly. Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Red Tornado are quickly dismantled by Fatality, Shadow Thief, Killer Frost and Poison Ivy. And it is only due to the intervention of Black Lightning that Superman, Vixen and Black Canary manage to avoid defeat at the hands of Grodd, Dr. Light, the Cheetah and the Parasite. But waiting in the wings is a power-armor clad Luthor.

I am tingling with anticipation for the next issue.

A few books which don’t deserve an entire write-up, but are worth picking up if you get the chance. In Green Arrow: Year One 5 we finally get to see a bit of who Ollie is meant to become. It’s taken way too long to get here, and unless you are the most die-hard Ollie fan, I think this whole series could easily have been skipped, but it is starting to be good. Countdown 31 continues the saga, with a pleasant re-appearance of the Crime Syndicate (Society, whatever) fighting against Donna, Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner and the Monitor. Towards the end of the issue, they’re assisted by the Jokester – the only man crazy enough to fight the Crime Society, and who ends up following our heroes on their quest through space and time. (I’m beginning to think that Duella Dent is actually the daughter of the Jokester). Secondary character Holly Robinson continues her story, Mxyptlyx gets abducted through a rip in reality, Jimmy’s powers cause chaos for everyone at Cadmus, and Mary Marvel continues her descent into evil at Eclipso’s guidance. This issue might have earned a full write-up, but it loses points for the fact that the best part of it was the two-page bio of the Joker at the very end.

A short round-up

Every week (roughly) Aaron talks about the comics he reads that he thought were noteworthy. This isn't everything he picks up, just the things that he feels merit discussion - either for being really good, or for having something really wrong with them.

Ultimate Spider-Man 112
Bagley has left us, but Ultimate Spider-Man soldiers on. Fortunately, for me at least, the priority is on the writing, not the art – and Bendis is still at the helm of this ship, something which shows in the plot, pacing and characterization of this issue.

A brief battle with the shocker makes both Peter and Kitty (sporting a new costume) late for class - a class where they get assigned the dreaded Baby Project.

(You know the one, where you have to take care of a faux baby. In my day, it was an egg. Nowadays, it’s usually a doll, sometimes with sensors.)

Even worse, Kitty and Peter get assigned together, much to MJ’s annoyance. Being MJ, of course she tells them to just do the project. Of course, tension will further develop around this project; there’s really no way it could be avoided. And Bendis will make it interesting, engaging, and embarrassing for Peter.

But that’s not what makes this issue noteworthy. What is noteworthy is that Norman Osborn is back. Initially prepared to make a deal with Nick Fury, only to be told that Fury isn’t around, Osborn later breaks free. We don’t get to see anything in this issue, but the cover of this issue as well as next month’s promises a massive battle between the Spider and the Goblin once more.

Booster Gold 1 I’ve never been the biggest Booster Gold fan. I’ve never disliked him, per se, but he’s just never impressed me. Maybe it’s because it’s hard for me to sympathize with his life, or why he wanted to be a superhero. I became marginally more interested in him during 52, especially after he “died” – and then the revelation about who Supernova was. This left me interested enough that I decided to pick up Booster Gold 1, and I’m glad I did.

Booster wants to join the JLA again, and when he calls them in the midst of a battle against the Royal Flush Gang, the reaction among the league is mixed. Many of them dislike Booster and his glory-hunting. But Batman and Superman are both able to point out actions where Booster did the right thing, despite the personal cost. So, the League gives him a week to prove himself without being a glory-hound. And Booster manages it.

Just in time to be told that Rip Hunter wants him to save the timeline. And in order to do that, Booster must keep anyone from ever taking him seriously. No one must ever know of the good that he’s done. And so, right at the moment when the League offers him membership, Booster has to act like a boob.

It impressed me, honestly. I can’t imagine making myself look like a fool to the people I most respect – even if it is for the greater good. Of course, Booster tells Rip that there’s a catch – if he’s going to do this, he wants Ted Kord (the Blue Beetle) brought back. Booster knows it’s possible, and that’s his condition. Based on the preview, it looks like he just may get his wish.

Throwing a wrench into all this is the future of Supernova, Booster’s ancestor, and how he may now be dealing with a version of Sinestro.

-sigh- Fine. They’ve got me. When does Issue 2 come out?

Justice League of America 12
This is possibly one of the best issues of JLA I have ever read. Ever. And I had to double-check that Brian Michael Bendis didn’t write it, because it follows what he does best. We want to see our heroes engaged in epic battles, no question. But if we don’t care about them, it means nothing. So what better way to explore who they really are than by examining how each member of the League (other than the Big Three) handle Monitor duty.

And it was great. We really got a good look inside of the heads of Black Lightning, Black Canary, Red Tornado, Red Arrow, Hawkgirl and Geo-Force. We got to see previews of upcoming issues the league will have to face - Geo-Force and his involvement with Deathstroke and how the Big Three are trying to use him as a double-agent; the inner struggles being faced by Vixen with the loss of her powers (almost) and Red Tornado and the loss of his humanity (almost); and the budding relationship between Roy Harper and Kendra Saunders. Superhero romances are rarely smooth, and these two have serious emotional commitments that will make things even worse than normal. The only real question is who will kill them first; Cheshire or Hawkman?

The not-terribly-unusual framing device for the issue was a nice touch, as we watch J’onn J’onzz and Arthur watching the league. These two have always been outsiders, and the League means more to them to probably any other hero. But what I found most impressive in this issue was letting Black Canary show why she deserves to be the League Chairperson. Dinah has been getting more and more respect in the DCU over the last several years, in the pages of JLA, JSA, Birds of Prey, her own title and Green Arrow, and I can only say “About time.”

It’ll be sad to see Meltzer leave this book, but the issue was about as solid an ending as I’ve ever seen.