The Good , the Bad , and the Ugly [7-11-09]

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Its been the usual 2 weeks since I did a Good , Bad and Ugly of comics. And in that time I've been busy working and all. Plus I wanted to time this just right so it can post on 7-11 baby ! 7-11 like that Gas/Convenice store with good slushys ! Onto the latest , greatest and not so welcome .


SPOILERS AHEAD.....


LAST CHANCE ........YOU BEEN WARNED !


The Good


Batman & Robin #2: Dick Grayson's 2nd issue as Batman begins with a bang. Landing on the roof with Damian in tow as Robin , the 2 have their 1st meeting with Jim Gordan. Who runs down that the Circus of Crime . They realize the Toad is in the jail and the explosion below tells the heroes they have to get down there and stop it.

The 2 go into action as Damian and Dick at 1st act as a good team. Then things break down as Damian goes after the overwieght female rogue by himself and he starts taking her apart breaking her leg. Dick beats down the fireface rogue and the conjoined triplets of the Circus of Crime , and arrives as Damian is torturing the female rogue for information. Gordan demands he stand down and he finally does.

Inside we see that Toad was killed during this melee and Dick takes the blame for him and Damian's lack of cooridination as a team. Damian meanwhile doesn't like working with him and gets pissed as most teen boys do and drives off on his motorcycle alone to work the case. Which has Dick ask..."Was I that way as Robin?"

Alfred muses that Damian has his dads stubborn streak and the fact he was trained since birth in the league of assassins. So no , the kid will never be that easy to train . We see that Damian by issues end has gotten himself in over his young head by going to the Circus of Crime base !

Is it good ? Damn straight it is people. Plus it did my heart good to see Morrison basically keep Dick's ethnic origin intack as a Romani Gypsy . Theres some scenes there that made me smile . Having rogues from there as well made me crack up. So go Morrison. May you keep doing Batman & Robin.



Justice League : Cry for Justice #1 : Justice League of America has suffered for months as DC has hampered departing writer Dwayne McDuffie. They must have saw some magic in what James Robinson was gonna do in this 6 issue limited series to make him the new writer on JLA. Because well...its pretty damn good.

The story opens as Hal is fed up with how things have gone for the heroes lately. Martian Manhunter is dead , so is Aquaman....now Batman ? Its time the Justice League persued Libya and got the Crime Society and made them pay damn it. Superman agrees but claims they must push forward. Hal then says "No...I'm gonna do it my way now."

Oliver Queen backs his best pal all the way and is ready for a ride into the sunset with him. The issue flashes to the blue alien Starman Mikaal who sees a friend in his casket. MURDERED ! There must be JUSTICE !! His rage sees him blow up a car !

We see the Atoms , Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi . They both compliment each others abilities as they examine a dead man for clues. The scenes with them is pretty nice.

Then we get the Congorilla scene as the man trapped in an apes body sees his ape tribe murdered. Saddened his shock doesn't end there as the poor creature/man sees his pal B'wana Beast murdered as he collapses and dies in his arms. THERE MUST BE JUSTICE ! As Congorilla is angry .

Its a pretty solid 1st issue. The team slowly starts taking shape and the art is pretty damn amazing. I admit the art by Cascioli is pretty damn detailed. And the lines where Ollie tells Hal : "No baby, I'm with you. Old times, new times, ALL the time." That sounds like something Oliver Queen would say .


Captain America : Reborn #1 : In Cap #600 , we got the revelation that Steve Rodgers isn't dead. That he's alive ! So sayeth Sharon Carter. Soon enough we have Sharon going to Hank Pym (the Wasp) and the returned to adult age Vison. She with the Falcon reveals , she shot Cap. But as they examine the gun they realize...its not one that can kill someone.

Carter reveals that her memory is returning and she remembers things from months back when the Skull tried using the Cosmic Cube and Dr.Doom's time stuff. That he was trying to open a portal in a sense. Now all that stuff is property of Norman Osborn and he gets told by the Skull that Steve Rodgers isn't dead at all. He's stuck , leaping thru his own time line.

Bucky wants that Dr.Doom time machinery so he and Black Widow decide to make a play for it all. Pym reveals its not easy as we see the Osborn "Dark Avengers" show up to crash the party for them.

To show that Cap is leaping thru his own timeline , we see that he suddenly looks around , startled he's back in the 1940's in WW2 with Bucky. He then leaps back again and watches his mom die at a young age . He knows....something is very....very wrong here.

Its really hinging on Brubaker. Sure I hate the wonky time travel shit to explain Cap's return. And I'd rather read Bucky , aka WINTER SOLDER as Cap for a good more couple of years. But the story isn't shit. Its quite good ...and sets the stage for the rest of the mini-series.

Deadpool : Merc with a Mouth #1 : Everyones favorite Merc with a Monthly gets his 2nd ongoing title ! To show how massively popular he is Marvel will now give us 2 Deadpool books a year. Hells yeah.

Deadpool gets hired by AIM to go into the Savage Land and retrieve something of value before the competing Hydra can. He's the only one who can survive being rocketed to Earth and being fried at a crisp. Since he has a healing factor. Pool agrees for $2 million . He lands and meets Kazar and soon enough meets his AIM contact who he has visions of in a lusty Tarzan/Jane way.

The cavemen are worshipping a Deadpool statue as he's amazed. And as he tells the Prof. chick , he has a smart great plan . One that will take all his cunning and genuis. He takes out his guns and starts blowing all the cavemen away ! HA HA. They get captured as we see what AIM sent him for.... a severed head with a Deadpool mask ! OHHHHH.

The #1 comes complete with #4 of the 1997 Deadpool series . Where he faced the Hulk weirdly. No idea why....but I supposed Marvel needed a reason to add a backup to justify the $3.99 tag. But its still good and Pool's visions and all are awesome.


Green Lantern #43 : The prologue to BLACKEST NIGHT starts here. We get a very special issue origin of William Hand aka Black Hand. We see his facination with death started at an early age and why he loved it so. As a kid growing up and his 1st meeting with Hal Jordan...and the special gun given to him by Altrocus . In all he wants to dim the Green Light and we see him lose his hand and aliens make him a new one.

The book doesn't have a comics code for a reason kiddies. He hears Scar's voice , the black guardian. He goes to his old home place where he lived and kills his entire family. Then he sits down at the kitchen table and puts the gun to his head and with an errie calm...blows his own brains out.... GRAPHIC ! Thats on the page....

Hand gets arisen by Scar to lead the Black Lantern corps. Death and those who speak to him will rise now.

Its a graphic issue and one that will shock you . But its a good origin issue for William Hand since a lot of us (Me...I had no clue about the character in the 14-15 years I pulled Green Lantern) have no idea who or what a rogue he is. Plus it starts Blackest Night.


Dark Wolverine #75: Ok now this shocked me. I only gave it a shot since its a #75 issue and since it seems to start a new direction for Wolverine. In case you been under a rock the last 6-8 months. Dakon , Wolverine's angry young son has taken over his mantle as Wolverine in Norman Osborn's "Avengers".

He has all of Wolverine's traits as a angry , not getting along with anyone type. He wants to gut Norman Osborn bad. But has his own plans and reasons. Getting others to do his work as he uses his extra power no one knew he had. He can emit scents and make people , angry , happy...lust for him if need be. He does it for a blond he wants to bed. He also does it to Bullseye (playing Hawkeye) to make him flip out angry ...and piss him off bad.

Osborn is throwing a fund raiser and he wants Dakon to play ball and be in costume at it with the others. Daken meanwhile has his own fun and somehow pisses off the Fantastic Four....blaming it on Hawkeye , leaving his calling card. As an extra we get a personal scouting report by Wolverine on his son and what led to this entire situation. An origin run down so to speak.

It shocks me it was good. I didn't really think I'd be someone who would enjoy it. But I do wanna see how Daken handles the Fantastic Four.


End of Part #1 (Part #2 coming )

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The Unwritten #3 : This has been a suprising good read. One that if your a fan of classic lititure you may like. The opening has a good comparison scene of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein . And how the good and bad parts of a person can fight themselves as this head of a writers group explains. Meanwhile Tommy Taylor struggles in the house he lived at to remove a weird tattoo from his hand that just appeared. He breaks the glass cutting his hand as the girl helps him.

He struggles to remember things and the last moment he saw his father then. Looking at a painting he realizes something....his dad would always be adjusting it. So he knows it holds something and behind it is a safe ! He opens it and finds a note ....there inside the note is a magic wand with his dads writing for him to fight his enemies.

Outside one of the bad guys has stalked Tommy Taylor to the Swiss house. He gets a smoke from one of the writers in the group and they discuss horror and fear. He grabs a pickaxe and decides to show him horror !

Its a great read and Mike Carey should get credit for it. I really am digging this thus far.


Greek Street #1: Its a buck people ! How could ya go wrong ? And its a pretty damn intense read as well. A book bringing the old Greek stories of incest , murder and other subjects into the modern era of a street in London ! This ones not for the kiddies either .

The issue starts as a young 18-19 yearold boy is hitting some clubs. He takes home a nice older woman for a night of passion. Its revealed in a sick twist ...she is his mom and gave him up for adoption years ago ! She freaks out and ends up breaking her neck . The boy throws up and gets rid of the body and runs to Greek Street.

The cops involved investigate a murder of a stripper as we saw her earlier get in the wrong car...with the wrong person. One of the cops involved is gay but doesn't seem to tell his partner.

Its there the powerful families are close to war. They give one man the option , scar his son as his son was scarred. The father does this in brutal fashion to his own sons face. The boy who ran to Greek Street soon finds more trouble as he gets involved in family business and at the end of the issue after taking an ass whuppin , is angry still at himself for sleeping with his long lost mother. So he cuts his penis off !

Whew.... the book at 40 pages is pretty damn intense and shocking. Milligan has always done good at Vertigo and its no lie....his Greek Street seems destined for some wild things.




The Bad :


Uncanny X-Men #513: I admit , I have loved Matt Fractions run on Uncanny since he started. Telling stories , dropping subplots along the way ....trying to bring new characters and dynamics into the X-Men. Its all been good. Some may hate that . But I don't care...I like his run.

And with "Utopia" starting as Norman Osborn tries to start his own Dark X-Men , we see that this issue leaves you going "What the Fuck?" if you don't read Dark Avengers or X-Men : Legacy. Seems like Emma Frost is working something out as she now leads the Dark X-Men with Osborn's blessing. He wants Scott Summers to surrender his leadership of the X-Men so the new team can form.

We have a new Guardian , Cloak and Dagger , Namor , Dark Beast and Dakon. Everyone wonders what Scott will do as Emma has seemed to turn against him. But he stays cool and says nothing and seems all cool. Thats until we see that Hellion has returned and he's gonna hold a protest riot in the park. Norman sends his X-Men team to take care of it.

We also learn that Xavier is held captive with Hank McCoy in the cells. That its Mystique acting like him on TV , impersonating him in interviews with Norman Osborn.


Its not a bad read at all. Fraction for months dropped plots that this was coming. Months ago in the Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 he basically laid down the foundation for Namor and Emma Frost knowing each other. And how Norman knew Emma as well...with her at his meeting when he took power over HAMMER and SHIELD.

But the storyline should have started in Uncanny to be honest. If your not reading it and know the plots , it will hit you at a 100mph and you'll go WTF ? In the end maybe the X-Books should have this as a lesson. If the writer of said books is dropping plots in his main book....start the storyline there. Don't start it elsewhere !



The Ugly


No Books on the Ugly list. For the 2nd time in a long....long while...I have no books on the ugly list. What a happy week for me.

[Village Idiot]

No ugly books? You gettin' soft?

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Originally Posted by Village Idiot

No ugly books? You gettin' soft?

Odds are had my LCS not dropped Red Robin at light speed for me (shocked me he was able to drop issue #2 so quick) I would have had an ugly issue. But I always try and drop books I know will suck. They are hard on the wallet.

I am intriqued by the new creative team on Black Panther since I read Hudlin is gone. So I may pick it up for the next thread like this. Give it a tryout.