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Welcome to the second 2010 edition of TPL! Only 50 more left! Right now it’s been pretty good over on this side of the computer for this column. Last week saw only 16 books and this week was similar. I hope to keep the numbers this low so I can pound these out during the weekends and leave the week open for other reviews. This week had the same exact break down of DC and Marvel (6 and 10) with one Del Rey comic added in for good measure. That makes it only 33 books through the first two weeks, marking the lowest two-week total since I picked up 33 issues combined during the first two weeks of March last year.
Spoiler Alert
-Del Rey-
-Talisman #3- Jack is in the other world where he escapes from some bad guy with a whip. I was lost on this portion of the book. Jack does leave and his keeper who he met there when he arrived tells him to go after the Talisman. I thought this served the purpose to introduce us to the Territories or whatever it’s being called and it set Jack on his mission but I felt this was a really boring issue overall. I don’t know if ALL of King’s novels will make good comics but we’re going to keep seeing them now. There was a cool interview with the book’s artist at the end of the comic. For me, this isn’t really worth it anymore. I just don’t care for the story at this point. 0/1.
-DC-
-Batgirl #6- Batgirl awakes from being shot in the head (she was grazed) and Oracle helps to free her while she’s on the way to hospital. Batman investigates the kidnapping as Robin and Batgirl argue. They head out on their own to investigate as Batman’s plane is felled by some minions of Roulette, who’s starting a bet on the fall of Batman. I have my money on the Batman. This continues to entertain and the bickering between the two is really well-written. Batman’s appearance in here doesn’t feel forced, either. 1/1.
-Batman #695- Batman continues investigating Black Mask and his crew and he also finds the name of Kitrina Falcone. She was sent to her death last issue but she’s a master escape artist. She even escapes with the floor plans to the Black Masks’ lair from being captured by Catwoman. Batman also meets with the leader of Arkham and Huntress (as they take out the Reaper before he’s trapped by the Penguin and the Mad Hatter. Tony Daniels keeps things moving with Batman and I love how he’s bringing back the Riddler and the Penguin to the prominence they deserve along with the current Black Mask saga. 2/2.
-Batman: The Widening Gyre #4- Kevin Smith keeps this book very interesting on two different fronts of Bruce and his relationships. The first deals with him and Baphomet and how he wasn’t comfortable with Baph taking off his mask nonchalantly after a team-up. Bruce tells his current girlfriend he isn’t ready for that, but he does seem ready to commit to her, until he has a run-in with Catwoman and the two of them share a kiss. This isn’t a Batman story; it’s a Bruce Wayne story. And it is working right now. Smith’s analysis of some of Batman’s earlier rogues was funny to read in the opening pages, too. 3/3.
-Catwoman #83- This was a really cool BN tie-in that revives a previously dead title. Catwoman killed Black Mask after he tortured her sister and killed her brother-in-law. This is Black Mask coming back to torment Catwoman and her sister and only Catwoman’s new alliances with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are able to save her. However, the sister harbors definite animosity towards her sister and she wants to actually rid the world of Catwoman. Check my comments below for this one. 4/4.
-Power of Shazam #48- The Marvel family has seen their share of deaths and this one focuses on Osiris, who was killed by Sobek in the pages of 52 (which was an awesome series that I totally recommend) and both are revived here. Once again Sobek tries to befriend Osiris only to turn on him and it is Osiris who calls on his powers to zap them both down and sever their connection. These two titles were awesome tie-ins and like the Western one last week were awesome for a simple reason. They told complete stories that focused on characters that would be in the title with some Blackest Night Zombie goodness. You’re paying three bucks for a story that is fully told in the pages with little need for knowing the full continuity of the characters since they are fully explained in the opening pages. The Secret Six/Suicide Squad one was not as good as these because it wasn’t just a single story but part of an on-going three-parter, which I think goes against what these comics should’ve set out to do. 5/5.
-Secret Six #17- So this continued from the Suicide Squad book that saw the Fiddler get reborn thanks to a black ring, and Yasemin killed by Deadshot. Well, Yasemin is revived here. The Squad and the Six continue battling to a stand still as Savage unleashes a monster to fight off Waller and her troops. The fight between the Squad and the Six will surely converge thanks to the appearance of the zombies. I didn’t like that this went in from the Suicide Squad one-shot but I understand why they did it because of Ostrander’s role in it. There’s a lot of action here so it’s a worthwhile BN tie-in. 6/6.
-Marvel-
-Amazing Spider-Man #617- Rhino makes his long-awaited return to the pages of ASM in a manner totally different than what you’d expect. He’s just a security guy at a local casino. Peter sees him while out with Norah and of course this is the night when a NEW Rhino (sent by the Kraven family) goes to take him out and ascend into the role of Rhino. The old Rhino actually refuses because he’s found love now and Peter convinces him (as Spider-Man of course) not to challenge him and just live his life. There’s a back-up tale of how the Rhino went on the straight and narrow. This definitely changed the old Rhino character and effectively wrote him off while introducing a new Rhino we know nothing about except that he’s working for the Kravinoffs. This was a great one-off title that represented Rhino well. 1/1.
-Dark X-Men #3- Nate is pissed and he shows it by attacking the Avengers tower and taking on the Dark Avengers. He is seemingly defeated by Ares while talking to Mimic in-between time. However, by the end of the issue we see that Nate has actually embedded himself into Norman’s mind and Mystique uses this to try and free herself of being in the Dark X-Men. I always liked X-Man so I’m happy he’s back and I wonder if Nate being in Norman’s mind leads to his eventual downfall. This has been a decent mini so far and hopefully bringing Nate back into things will liven up the X-universe. 2/2.
-Marvels Project #5- This really continues the stuff that we already know with Cap and his donning the costume to combat evil. Angel gets involved with Cap and tracking down Nazi’s in America as Steele, Red and Fury continue tracking down the rise of a powerful Nazi in Germany called the Red Skull. Although we’re in familiar territory now I like how Brubaker is really piecing together the Golden Age of Marvel with all the characters from the original Marvel Mystery Comics and those early Golden Age books, including an appearance from Hurricane in here! Like I said, it’s getting familiar now that Cap is in things but the Angel narrator is really keeping this moving and the Golden Age now seems connected instead of just separate stories in anthology books. 3/3.
-Nation X #2- This continues being a cool mini, focusing on different characters that you otherwise wouldn’t see in the pages of X-Men. We start with Jubilee meeting the Young X-Men and Surge getting pissy with her, Martha Johansson (a brain) taking on Quentin Quire (I know, who?), Northstar bringing his boyfriend to Utopia and Gambit in a very reflective mood. Like I said, it’s a cool mini. There’s really no long-term plots included here but it does offer a look at those X-characters you may not have seen for a while. 4/4.
-Psylocke #3- Psylocke and fire-dude from last issue meet and Psylocke sees in his mind what Matsu’o has done to him. They both find Matsu’o and Psylocke makes sure that fire dude doesn’t kill Matsu’o because she wants do. She does get her hands on Matsu’o and he’s ripped up beyond all recognition but is still alive. Who did this to him? Who caused him to be in this hell where he WANTS to die? Wolverine, of course. So it’s Psylocke vs. Wolverine next issue? This has been better than it had any right to be. 5/5.
-Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #3- The Guard and the Starjammers spend most of this episode coming together to escape the dead once-living ship they are in before its still living enzymes destroy it. It seems that the ship was on the run from something. So the Starjammer ship explores more of the cancer world when Quasar shows up and the huge beastly things that are chasing him are right behind him. There’s a cool scene of Gladiator getting fed up with being the ruler and he is itching for action. This was a good issue all around, though it took a while to develop from escaping the living ship to the cancer creatures showing up at the end. 6/6.
-Spider-Man: Secret Wars #2- This is really weird. It’s taking separate events of the original Secret Wars and focusing a whole issue on just one part of it with no real narrative that keeps the issues together. Here Spidey and the Thing team-up with the Thing to save Denver. This hasn’t been nearly as promising as I thought it would’ve been. 6/7.
-Uncanny X-Men First Class #7- The Hykon story concludes with Xavier bringing the X-Men to the Hykon home base where they aren’t as powerful. The origin of these Hykon was interesting. A warring breed that found peace, and with peace came in-fighting that led to only these six warriors remaining. The Hykon had a lot of elements to them that I like (near-invulnerability, alien, war-breed) and they could be a viable option down the line if another writer wanted to use them. The way they tied into the Phoenix story and Scott’s reaction to Jean becoming Phoenix. 7/8.
-X-Men Forever #15- This was a single issue story showing what Storm’s been up to since we’ve last seen her. It’s been pretty dastardly. She went to Wakanda to be with the Black Panther but that’s just part of her ploy to have him killed and have her become the leader of Wakanda. There was also a cool insert at the end of the book about what was going on in the MU around the early 90’s. This is a refreshing take on the X-Men and it’s definitely different. 8/9.
-X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1- This is a condensed origin of Cyclops that hits the major points (orphaned, fell out of plane, crazy and uncontrollable eye-powers) including a new wrinkle of an early chat with Magneto during their first battle. For new readers to the X-Men realm it would be a good primer on Cyclops but for me it was stuff I already knew. I can’t hate on that since it was a decent book. 9/10.
-The Bottom Line- The second week of 2010 was another good week for comic books. The Batman titles and the Blackest Night books from DC have been very strong the last few months and this month’s X-books were solid as they have been since the Messiah Complex. Spider-Man starts off 2010 on the right foot and the only real complaint I have about this week is the Secret Wars book that has just been dreadful so far. Next week looks to be another light week (thankfully) but until then, have a good week!
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