ROUND 30: Comics For September 21, 2011

Hey DC Versus Marvelers, It is Luke - your friendly neighborhood broke ass college grad. In the past two weeks I had a convention, I graduated and I moved home to sort of recoup. This means that for now (and probably a while longer I am not getting comics and if anything I am going to switch to trades to save money since spending $20-40 a week was expensive). But due to my journalistic integrity which means I journal holistically and it is integral and gritty, reviews for a while are going to be based on what I am pretty sure the comic is about based on the cover and since I know the Marvel Universe too well, I'll stick to the fully rebooted new DCU. Since I read comic news and had stories already spoiled (thanks Comics Alliance) I will start with this week. No Money For Comics NuDC Speculative Reviews

Batman #1 When Batman gets a court fine and is sentenced to community service, Batman finds out he has to man a free hugs station set up as a prank by his college friend Harvey Dent, the district attorney. Unsurprisingly the Knight of Gotham isn't too happy especially when he is sent to a jail full of inmates that he has to cuddle instead of cudgel. Oh man I love the fact that they are making Batman funny again and after the success of Brave and the Bold it isn't hard to see why. Batman is a serious character but if you put him in a situation where he has to stand on the streets in his costume with a "Free Hugs" sign, you really succeed in making a new direction for the series. Also it is an interesting choice that there is no longer any Bruce Wayne and that people know Bruce became Batman. Risky move DC but it should be interesting. As far as relaunches go, this works solidly! Score: +1

Birds Of Prey #1 When four sassy women with super agility and powers move from the rich Manhattan to the jungle, you can be sure to dial H for Hilarity... - or you should be able to. In this comic, the Birds of Prey (named because they were "too flighty to be called cougars") are sent to another country to help the poor only to rely on stock cliches, porno shots and probably the most degradingly sexist writing that I have ever laid my eyes on (if I actually read it). When the group tries to chase down a international terrorist leader who just blew up a nail salon, they literally stop chasing when they get distracted by his ass and it's "assnifigance". I literally threw this imaginary comic on the ground, ripped it up and then demanded my money back when I read it. Susan B Anthony must be rolling in her grave. As far as relaunches go, this one needs to be sent to the moon. Score: -1

Blue Beetle #1 Jaime Reyes isn't an ordinary teenager. He's an ordinary teenager that is also friends with a part alien cyborg hybrid. Now with his partner the Blue Beetle Scarab, a 1000 year old Egyptian alien, the two must pilot through high school. Will Jaime be able to ask out the girl he likes? Will the tap dance club get destroyed by the villainous Mr. Jones? And what happens when the school is stolen by the evil villain Scrapyard who wishes to turn trash… into terror? The relationship between Jaime as the overly excited and outgoing nerdy kid and Blue as the sort of shy jock is a nice twist for the high school drama cliche though the female characters and other supporting cast seem rather vapid and totally ignore the fact that Blue is a superhero and also really old. Like they call him a diety from space and still 16 year olds want to get on that. It just bothers me as does the fluorescent overalls and tank tops that every character at the school wears. The artists need to see what "real kids" wear and by real kids I mean kids in hit tv shows like Glee, Teenage Knocked Up Girl and High School Rap/Dance Team. As far as a relaunch goes, I like the idea, I liked Scrapyard and I want to see where this goes. Score: +1

Captain Atom #1 Captain Atom used to be a normal human until the Eye of Thunder-la came down granting him omnipotence and omniscience. Now trapped with the ability to do anything, Captain Atom must now do whatever he can to stave off boredom as a god! I liked the condensed origin but the rest of the issue was rather ungh... Basically the Captain Atom just goes and pulls pranks, sleeps with women as a talking goose and then flies around. It's like the Spectre written as a parody comic. Also is this dude like Doc Manhattan and the Silver Surfer had sex with fire or something? Alternately with Fire? As a relaunch I don't know. I really don't. Score: +0

Catwoman #1 Selina Kyle has a good life. She's popular at school. She sleeps with all of the hot guys. She knows where the best parties are. Things change though when her best friend's cousin Jim The Human Diamond comes to town. Selina soon finds herself trying to get his attention but is this for some quick sex or for something different? I am honestly lost since this is like Batman but in high school but it is a preppy school. I did like how Jim is an actual diamond but they really underutilized that character attribute since he doesn't have much of a personality for such a theoretically deep character. My other complaint is that despite this being a preppy school with required uniforms, Selina apparently and unsuspiciously keeps a cat burglar suit around for sneaking into places? I mean, wouldn't the nuns find out? Ultimately this is just a horrible mess of an issue and I'd rather not fake read more of it. For reboots it is a nice trope twist and I think this may tie in more with Blue Beetle than with Batman but on my list of things I want to see, sex with a guy who jizzes diamonds is not high on the list. Score: -1

DC Universe Prevents #1: Deadman Deadman is the only hero ever to interact with the dead. We suddenly find out that he has a weakness though that nobody saw coming - Chains! Now James Deadman must convince his old business partner to not foreclose on the Cratchet House so close to Christmas or Alvan Scrooge will be eternally tortured in the Pits of Tartarus. I like Deadman and the Chains of Penance are a nice hearken back to the original Dickens run in the 70's on the character and even updating the Cratchet family and setting it in modern times is cool though it shows a wildly misunderstood view of the housing market. As far as the story the trope swap of focusing on the ghost possessing people to talk to Scrooge and doing a Christmas issue in September was genius. I will confess I was surprised to not see Deadman's famous guns or mustache though. Combined with the tight writing, DC Universe Presents gets my Pick Of The Week. If you want to see how a reboot should be done, this is it. Score: +2

Green Lantern Corpse #1 Someone killed the Green Lantern Corps. Who did it? Why? And what will happen to the bodies left to float in space? Who will save them from the dreaded gravitation of Planet X, only time will tell. It was just bodies for 22 pages slowly floating closer to a planet with teeth and a "wacky accent". It's like taking opium and watching 2001: A Space Odessy but slower. I mean it was just monologue and that was poorly written. The series canonically confusing and as far as reboots go, this is painfully stupid. Score: -1

Legion of Superheroes #1 Trapped inside the Great White Beast of Kalkinoth, Megaman Orange, Jem Starfire, Pink Greenbird and Commando must save their planet from the Beast. 50 years of back continuity and even making this up I had no idea what was going on. Horrible introduction. Convoluted, ugh. Score: -1

Nightwing #1 Can Dick Grayson learn to fly before he falls to the streets of Gotham? Dick Grayson, former Batman, has his costume stripped by Bruce Wayne and is suddenly pushed off a building with 30 seconds to live until he hits rock bottom. Now with his bare minimum tools and the annual Gotham City Running of the Bats, will Dick be able to save himself? Beautifully told and representative of the somewhat unwelcome return to Bruce Wayne as Batman status quo. Also flashing back to Dick's circus days was a great idea. Solid as both a classic issue and as a reboot story. Score: +1

Red Hood And The Outlaws #1 Red Hood, Hat Arrow and Starfire run into trouble at the local NRA meeting when Red Hood decides he doesn't want to wait for a background check. Meanwhile Hat Arrow and Starfire discuss the dual opinions of gun ownership. I am a pretty anti-gun dude but the discussion between Hat Arrow and Starfire made me see the other side and tossing in Red Hood who just wanted to get his gun and replica Trigun weapons was highly entertaining, especially when Red Hood essentially became Deadpool with a coat and different costume. That said the whole post action scene with Red Hood talking to his guns was disturbing. Overall though, solid, thought provoking and totally not about Starfire having random sex. As a reboot issue it establishes the characters amazingly well. Score: +2

Supergirl #1 Born of a meteor shower, the Supergirl now leads an invasion of the rock people against the planet known as … Oa?!? So I am surprised by the switch to not having Supergirl as Kryptonian, on Earth or even as a hero and she is attacking Oa. I mean it is one thing to change one part of her origin but making her a sentient rock alien commander - that is ballsy and the type of change you need to watch out for. Supergirl doesn't even say anything but her expressions say so much and tell so many stories. And I just realized, maybe she killed the Green Lanterns?!?!? Check this out. Awesome reboot! Score: +2

Wonder Woman #1 When Wonder Woman stands up Green Arrow because she was busy saving the city, Green Arrow calls it quits, Bluebeard style. Will Wonder Woman and her pants be able to weather the phallic arrow assault? Oh man, nice use of backstory, I like Wonder Woman being portrayed as a bloodthirsty maniac pixie girl as well. I didn't read Green Arrow but since this was a flashback I am pretty sure he survived or something. Overall the battle and banter were okay but the comic seemed more like a 20 pager instead of a 22 pager. Introduction wise it was solid. Score: +1 Score: +7 Total Come back next week when I don't read anything off the shelves!

ROUND EIGHT: Comics for May 11, 2011

Welcome one and all to my weekly review of the comics I bought! Every week I buy comics and then talk about them. Unfortunately, most of my friends are not readers of comics so there's only so much they can stand before they stop inviting me to parties. And now this blog is where I dump everything they can't understand.

Enough introduction... Here's what I bought this week:

FF #3
Batman, Incorporated #6
The Unwritten #25
Punisher Max #13
Daredevil: Reborn #4 of 4
Batgirl #21
Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #618
Chew #27
Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #4 of 6
Mega Man #1

Let's get judgemental!


Almost everything I bought this week was exceptional. Almost. So let's we get the worst of the week's book out of the way up front, shall we? Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #618 was a mess. Since David Liss took over writing the book and Black Panther took over Daredevil's role it's been wildly inconsistent, ranging from seven-face-kicks-in-one-issue awesomeness to not-quite-fan-fic terrible. This issue managed to be all of that without any actual face kicks. It wraps up the first arc in a flurry of unnecessary exposition of the sort where characters are explaining what they're doing as they do it. It's tough to read. But, and this is a "but" so big Too $hort wrote songs about it, the last page. Oh, the last page. Even after the trainwreck that this arc has been in parts, especially the end, the last page is perfect and makes me earnestly excited to read what comes next. The other big ol' but in this series is Francesco Francavilla. He's simply amazing and I will continue to buy this book for as long as he draws it. He's also the only reason this book didn't score a -1.
SCORE: 0


The other worst book of the week is Daredevil: Reborn #4 of 4. The best thing about this issue is that it's the last of the series. It's just not good. I'm not sure what happened. Andy Diggle is a good writer but from his first issue of Daredevil to this one, his run with the character just got worse with each new book. If you haven't already, don't buy this comic. The art is really good, but unlike Francavilla's Black Panther, Davide Gianfelice is not enough to save it. Did I say the art is really good? Because it's really good. His style reminds me a lot of Pasqual Ferry with sharper lines. But here's the thing: Matt Murdock does not look good rocking the beard-and-no-mustache look. Ugh.
SCORE: -1

SPOILER ALERT: Everything else I'm going to review was awesome. If you haven't bought these books already then you totally should.

FF #3 is great in the way that Jonathan Hickman's entire run on Fantastic Four/FF has been great. There's very little action, but it doesn't need fighting because Doctor Doom is inviting the smartest super villains in the Marvel Universe to the Baxter Building to figure out how to kill Reed Richards four times. That is objectively awesome. There is nothing you can say about that to make it any less than it is. And what it is is awesome. I mean, Doctor Doom literally sent out invitations.
SCORE: +1





In The Unwritten #25, Tom Taylor explodes out of the abstract concept of a novel into the real world via a glass of water. Other things happen as well, but I encourage you to read the previous sentence again. This book is fantastic and I would buy it every month just on the promise of getting another Mr. Bun/Pauly Bruckner issue once every year. But again, I encourage you to read the first sentence of this review.
SCORE: +1






Oops! I'm not all the way caught up with this series, so I can't review it yet. Sorry everyone. It's written by Chris Roberson, though, so I feel confident that it has earned its +1 score.
SCORE: +1









Chew #27 is a pretty ingenious idea come to fruition. The last issue to come out was #18 (it was awesome, btw) and instead of releasing issue #19 the series jumps ahead by a full year of publication to #27. Is the issue good? Well, yeah. It's Chew after all, but it still leaves all the questions from #18 unanswered while simultaneously posing a year's worth of new questions. As an exercise in making me want to keep reading, does it work? Yeah. It does. But the real question is does it make for good comics? Yeah. It does that, too.
SCORE: +1




This comic is the opening "cinematic" that you get when you wait to press start in the game. If you've ever played the games you already know everything that happens in this comic. There is literally nothing added to the story. There's no new twist on the formula. And that's exactly what it needed to be.
SCORE: +1







Look at this cover. Oh my god, it's beautiful. You can't see it on this image, but the cover for Batgirl #21 credits the art to Pere Perez. The wonderful surprise awaiting me when I opened the book was page after page of art by Dustin Nguyen. It's enough to make a fella swoon... Seriously, there hasn't been a less-than-great issue of Batgirl since Stephanie Brown took the mantle from Cassandra Cain and this one is no different. Batgirl faces the Reapers' next contestant, the Grey Ghost knows not what he does, Proxy makes a life changing decision, and Niles enjoys reading all of it.
SCORE: +1




Batman, Incorporated #6 is one of the best comic books I've ever read. It's perfect. It's just absolutely perfect on every level and from every angle. From Bruce Wayne's take on Voltaire's theology, to Batman: Message Board Troll, to "Welcome to Gotham.", to the very last page, this comic book is perfect. It's the fulfilled promise of the maximized potential of what a comic called "Batman, Incorporated" can be. If you haven't bought it already, go buy it now. If you already bought it, give your copy to someone who didn't and go buy it again. Look for this one at the Eisners next year for best single issue.
SCORE: +2




"Juxtaposition" is not a word I like to use very often. It's one of those words that, once you say it, it immediately makes people not want to be friends with you. Unfortunately, that's the name of the game in Punisher Max #13. This is My Favorite Comic Book of the Week because the juxtaposition works so marvelously well that I don't even care that I've now used the word "juxtaposition" twice. Three times. The issue picks up right where the last one left off, with Frank in prison and thinking back on the day he returned to the states after fighting in the Vietnam War. The Young Frank/Old Frank thing works so well because we realize that they're the exact same. Frank walking into his house for the first time is the same as Frank walking into the solitary confinement cell. This is my favorite issue of the book since the phenomenal Kingpin arc.
SCORE: +2

That's what I read this week, so what's say we see who lives and who dies...

Marvel: +2
DC: +3
Image: +1
Vertigo: +2
Archie: +1

Oh, man. DC and the rest of the publishers were at the park, just cold chillin' having a picnic when a mob war broke out and all of them except for DC were caught in the crossfire causing DC to swear revenge and begin a mission to eradicate crime by savagely murdering every criminal. I guess any week that two great Bat-books come out is a week where DC is going to win. It certainly didn't help Marvel that two really bad Daredevil-related books came out this week. Anyways, thanks for reading! See you next week!