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This is the second week of the new, hopefully improved, TPL. I picked up an astonishing 20 books this week. That’s a lot of books but its been about average for the past few months. When I first started TPL I picked up only about 40 books a month. Now that total has ballooned to about 75-80. Civil War was the main cause of that but since the War ended, the amount of Marvels I pick up has decreased. This week I picked up 12 DC’s, 7 Marvels and 1 Wildstorm as well as the new Wizard and the brand-new 2007 Overstreet Price Guide. Onto the reviews:
Spoiler Warning
52 Week 51
There’s one week left to go before DC’s massive weekly undertaking finishes. With this being the penultimate issue I expected a lot and in all honesty, received little. Some loose OYL parts were neatly tied up (like the new members of the Teen Titans and the appearance of Agent Diana Prince). Animal Man made it safely home only to be attacked by two things to collect on Lady Styx’ bounty. Adam Strange got eyes back, Lobo killed the big fish, and Starfire returned to give Animal Man his jacket. Skeets reappeared at the end and revealed himself to be some crazy caterpillar named Mister Mind. Booster, Morrow, and escape to the beginning. Morrow mentions something about 52 worlds and it all coming down to him. As I sad, the issue was pretty bland compared to the pomp of last issue and I didn’t get that feeling that this was leading to something great. I hope I am proven wrong next week but I hope this doesn’t end up to be one massive disappointment.
Fallen Son #2
Jeph Loeb continues his Fallen Son mini-series based on the five stages of grief with the second stage: Anger. The Mighty Avengers battle Tiger Shark as the Thing plays cards with the New Avengers as both stories run simultaneously on the page. The Mighty Avengers take their anger out on Tiger Shark, especially Ms. Marvel as the Thing and the rest of the New Avengers quietly play cards with an empty seat doing their best to cope. When Wolverine returns saying he saw the body and trying to take Cap’s poker seat, Spider-Man snaps and attacks him. They settle down and Spider-Man leaves to go home. This was actually two good stories showing the dual teams coping their own ways with the death of Cap and I’ve enjoyed Loeb’s cathartic release through the Marvel characters about Cap and his familiarity with the same five stages when his son unfortunately passed on. I think it’s the best stuff Loeb is currently doing for Marvel. Definitely recommended.
Justice #11
Justice has been a conundrum to me, I’ll admit. Maybe it’s the bi-monthly nature and the fact that I read about 140 comics between two issues dropping may make me forget some of the minute details of comic. I think it’ll read better as a trade, when you have a full 4-issue arc together. This is the penultimate issue of the act three of Ross’ Justice and the big fight is on. This one focuses on Green Lantern and Sinestro (I know this because they are on the cover!) It ends with the Scarecrow and some mad people stopping the heroes from finding Aquaman’s son. Like I said, maybe I’m missing the big picture, but this just seems like one giant fight. Don’t get me wrong, the art is beautiful, but the story seems meaningless. Maybe I need to read all 12 issues together but as it stands as a monthly, I am not enjoying it as much as I should.
TPL Quickies
Marvel
Daily Bugle: It’s a preview of Marvel’s May books for a quarter. I always pick these up so I know what to look forward to.
Fantastic Four #545: Epoch is about to consumed by Galactus while the FF search for Gravity’s cadaver, which was apparantally stolen by Epoch. The end sees the Panther leaving the fight as Gravity becomes protector of the universe thanks to Epoch. Silver Surfer seemed totally out of character here based on the dialogue and I don’t like Panther and Storm’s silly repartee. Writing didn’t really do it for me.
Heroes for Hire #9: The Heroes travel to the Savage Land in search of Devil Dinosaur and more specifically, Moon-Boy. Great witty writing that is both tongue-in-cheek and heartfelt, this book takes a ragtag group and makes it incredibly fun and readable and you get attached to the characters. Maybe the best new ongoing to come out of Civil War. Pick this up if you don’t already get it.
New Avengers: Illuminati: I picked this up without looking at it and realized it was a reprint of #’s 1 and 2, which I already have. The worst part, no new content. Waste of money for me but if you don’t have the first two issues you can get this for $4 and both stories were pretty good.
Silent War #4: Maximus controls Medusa to make it appear that she is having an affair with him so Black Bolt is not too happy. Agent Maria Hill gets some marines to be in a suicide mission against the Inhumans by subjecting them to the terrigen mists and certain death. The Inhumans attack at the end. The book is moving at a snails pace right now, and is quickly being overlooked by Marvel.
Wolverine #53: Wolverine asks, “What the !*@&$^” a few times this issue and so do I. It seems Wolverine, who gets his ass handed to him by Wild Child in this iss, evolved from wolves, like some of the other lupine Marvel characters (Wolfspane, Sabretooth, etc). I think the dialogue is a little corny at times and this story is being drawn out a lot more than it needs to be. Wolvie complaining about getting taken down by Wild Child was pretty funny, though.
DC
Action Comics #848: One month ago a meta-human named Redemption decimated troops in Nyasir protecting those who believe in him. Superman was powerless at the time and couldn’t save the troops and now goes about finding more about this Redemption. As Clark Kent he investigates his hometown in California but is shunned. When there is another incident in Nyasir, Superman arrives to confront Redemption. Interesting story though the art wasn’t too spectacular.
Amazons Attack #1: The Amazons are pissed and attack Washington DC. Wonder Woman is nowhere to be found at first as Nemesis (impersonating Steel) awaits the big guns. Actually a very good, well-drawn story.
Batman Confidential #5: Batman infiltrates Luthor’s cache of robots. That’s really about it. The ongoing turns into an 8-issue mini into 6 issues. This had little or no dialogue and took me about 3 minutes to read. It was a waste of time.
Blue Beetle #14: Guy Gardner shows up for a good old-fashioned team-up that blows away anything that has been in Brave and the Bold. Jaime is still in search of The Reach and trying to determine what they are really up to. Seeing Jaime’s mom lay the verbal smackdown on Guy and Guy’s boasting make this a keeper.
Catwoman #66: Holly almost gets arrested again while rescuing a young girl from the villainous Blitzkrieg. Hammer and Sickle show up at the end. Selina delivers the globe to the Calculator and he erases Holly from the GCPD database but doesn’t know the trouble she is in now. This was a very bad issue coming off the awesome movie character arc.
Firestorm #35: The surprise of the week comes in this book. It was nothing in the story it was that it’s the last issue. I enjoyed the title, too. Firestorm kicks Kabalik’s ass, only to have Darkseid show up at the end to steal Professor Stein. Firestorm is off to save him.
Justice Society of America #5: Batman, Sandman, Geo-Force and Starman show up at Arkham to defeat Doctor Destiny and rescue Dream Girl, a LSH member. At the Fortress of Solitude, Cyclone finds the fourth LSH’er, Wildfire. The last page doesn’t show how many members they’ve found and how many are remaining like in JLA and I didn’t care for the art but the story went well and the team-up so far has been enjoyable. It sucks if you only collect one of the two books as you’d be lost coming into this one but such is life.
Outsiders Annual #1: Finally we find out how the Outsiders made the leap from the Crisis to OYL. While busting Black Lightning out of jail, Shift saves his teammates from a meta who controls others while 44 of the inmates die. They manage to escape and fake their own deaths, which Arsenal goes along with. He leaves the team, Shift goes back into Metamorpho and the new team if formed. I don’t usually like annuals that continue a monthly story but this one was very good and a gripping story from start to finish.
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #30: This issue gives a brief look at what the fifty-two is. Booster appeared in the future, stole a gun from the Dominators and said he had fifty-two worlds to save. This is the prelude to what will be the final battle in issue #30. Good set-up for what should be an awesome next issue.
Wonder Woman #8: Circe resurrects Hippolotta who is pretty pissed that Wonder Woman is captured. WW is broken free by Nemesis. This continues in ‘Amazons Attack!’ #1. The art has been alright and Jodi’s writing is better than the horrid first arc, but I can’t wait for Gail to take over the book.
Wildstorm
Red Menace #6: The Falcon makes the ultimate sacrifice to save Los Angeles as the Eagle is vindicated from past crimes. Excellent ending to a thrilling, action-packed and intelligent mini-series.
The Awards
Book of the Week: This was an easy winner. I enjoyed Outsiders Annual #1 more than any other book this week as we look at the events that brought us one year later. The art was great and the story made sense. As a reader of the Outsiders since the one year jump I felt very satisfied with how things were explained.
Dissappointment of the Week: There are actually two winners (losers?) this week. Firestorm is on here just because the book ended out of nowhere when it was actually pretty good. Wolverine #53 is on here for an entirely different reason. It was just bad. This lupine superior stuff is pure garbage and the fact it took like 3 issues to get here makes it that much harder to keep reading this book. Wolverine is not doing too well with solo books this year.
Best Cover: Silent War #4 shows perfectly the angst and rage Black Bolt is feeling due to events in this issue. The interior art is hit or miss depending on personal taste but the cover was perfect and really befitted the mood of the story
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