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It’s another week of the TPL and although the last two editions were both one day late, I have a feeling this one won’t be. Why is that? Well, for one I have an extended three-day weekend. Monday is Columbus Day so I will be off, and since I didn’t teach on Friday (the school had its Walk-A-Thon) and I left there at 11:30, it is really like a four-day weekend. Secondly, this was a small week. There were only 17 books in all, 7 Marvels and 10 DC’s. As it stands, I am already through half of the books as I write this introduction and it’s only Saturday at noon! That’s all for the intro, let’s see how the books were.
Spoilers Ahead
The Main Event
-Wolverine Annual #1- This is a very good story about a criminal named Smitty and how he became involved in crime. Basically, he was in a broken home where his father was a drunk and his mother a crack-fiend. He started stealing for fun and kept on doing it until he became part of another crew doing big jobs. One job went terribly wrong and he and his cronies ended up killing a lot of people, including an old woman on the street. This old woman met Wolverine just minutes before and apparantly touched his heart by giving him a flower. Wolverine went on to find these villains and kill them horribly, leaving Smitty alone to tell his boss. The boss tries to take out Wolverine, and fails, of course, and Smitty tries to run away, only to meet his demise at the end on the top of a church. This was a very quick read and much like the Punisher Annual told the story from the criminal’s point of view. This story executed it a lot better and made for a great annual.
-Metamorpho: Year One #1- Year One has been something of a DC calling card since Frank Miller did his year one with Batman many years ago. It seems to have grown and everyone is getting one. Green Arrow was the most recent one (and it wasn’t that great) and now the newest one is Metamorpho. I am more familiar with him in Outsiders and not really too clear on his origin. This one immediately grabbed my attention with Rex Mason playing a reality adventure start who uncovers many lost treasures. His boss, Simon Stagg, wants to boost rating and wants to have him killed when on a mission to uncover the Orb of Ra. Rex is double-crossed and ends up trapped in this pyramid, exposed to a strange meteor gas which turns him into Metamorpho. Excellent introductory issue.
Marvel
-Fantastic Four and the Power Pack #4- The conclusion to this mini-series sees Doctor Doom (in Franklin’s body) implanting mind-controlling devices on the FF and Doom plans to use it to destroy their reputation and rule the world. The Power Pack show up and stop Doom from doing that and get Franklin’s mind back into his body. Standard stuff here, but the whole series was enjoyable.
-Howard The Duck #1- This is the first of a four-issue mini-series and basically its Howard the Duck trying to survive in a world where he doesn’t belong with Beverly, an aspiring actress. Here he is escaping from two men trying to shoot him as a trophy but he defeats them when he learns Beverly may be in danger. This draws the attention of MODOT and AIM. Nothing too great here, but it’s only four issues so I will stick around for the other three.
-Iron Man: Enter The Mandarin #2- Iron Man gets his ass handed to him by the Mandarin but manages to escape and heads home to recuperate. Unfortunately in his extremely injured state he must don the armor again when Scarecrow, funded by Mandarin’s men, attacks Stark’s headquarters to steal information.
-Marvel Max Sampler- This is just a sampler of Max titles on the shelves or coming. The main focus is Punisher, of course, including some art from the 2008 annual. There are also some peeks at Terror Inc, Foolkiller, War Is Hell, and Haunt of Horror: HP Lovecraft. The Foolkiller stuff looks awesome.
-Ms. Marvel #20- Ms. Marvel is freed from the Puppet Masters grasp when she turns blue. She frees the other women and helps them escape, then lets Puppet Master kill himself by blowing up his base. Ms. Marvel is unscathed but knows she could’ve saved him and instead she let him die. The Beast tells her that within her is a beacon or distress call and at issues end some blue being bursts into Carol’s room on her helicarrier. I didn’t like the ending to the Puppet Master story and it seems odd they’d kill him off in Ms. Marvel of all places.
-Super-Villain Team-Up #4- The villains try to steal back the Hypernova from Mandarin after The Spot betrayed them and handed it to Mandarin’s son. They battle Mandarin on his ship until Rocket Racer betrays them and flies off with it to meet his mother. Turns out his mother is a male SHIELD agent. Who knew villains would behave so badly! Fun series and the twists and turns have been pretty enjoyable thus far.
DC
-Action Comics #856- We see the sordid origin of Bizarro World. Bizarro flees Earth and wants a place of his own. The blue sun causes him to split and spawn other Bizarro’s in the image of Jimmy Olsen, Lois and Lex Luthor. The bizarro’s turn on Bizarro when they find out his secret identity. Bizarro Lex has a plan to stop him, Bizarro Doomsday. He unleashes this Doomsday on all the Bizarro Supermen leaving only the true Bizarro left. Superman frees his dad and is about to leave when the Bizarro JLA show up. I love Powell’s art and this campy story if the perfect fit for it.
-Countdown 30- The Challengers travel to Earth-15 to meet better versions of themselves. They have the Jokester with them, too but Ray Palmer is nowhere to be found, so they leave. Harley Quinn and Holly arrive at Themyscira but must swim through deadly shark beasts to make it there. Piper and Trickster escape from the wedding battle but not before defeating Poison Ivy, only to have one of the Royal Flush Gang get the drop on them. Karate Kid is introduced to Brother Eye who mentions that the Great Disaster has been brought to him. What made this issue work was that it narrowed the focus to two or three stories and kept it at that. It didn’t try to include every story they are following and if they did mention one, like the Karate Kid stuff, it was only a page. They focused on what they needed to and it worked.
-Countdown: The Search for Ray Palmer #1: Crime Society- This issue focused mainly on the Jokester, his origin in this universe and how he came to join the new Challengers. This was a very good origin story though it really has nothing to do with Ray Palmer so far, just what goes on in the certain universes.
-Green Lantern Corps #16- The Corps have their backs against the wall and all seems lost, Mogo even seems doomed. The tide turns when the Oan’s decide that lethal force can be used. They start taking out some of the Sinestro Corps troops and having them withdraw. Hal sends a distress signal that the Corps are header for Earth.
-Infinity Inc. #2- Steel looks for his daughter but has no luck. He does hear about a girl Natasha used to hang around and seeks her out. Unfortunately, he finds her dying at the hands of a man named Dale Smith, an Everyman who sucks the life-force from people. Steel interferes and Dale is about to suck the life from him. Not good at all.
-Metal Men #3- The Death Metal Men fight the Metal Men and seemingly kill Morrow. We head to the past where Morrow wants to propose to his girlfriend but is held up by someone speaking to him through his responsometer. He forgets his date and rushes out. Chemo is waiting for his girlfriend, though. We end with Morrow being attacked by his brother in the present. I was not as impressed with this as the first two.
-Nightwing #137- Nightwing and Vigilante attack Liu and Eddie and Liu is mortally injured by Vigilante. He takes her to the hospital but Tigers attack and take her? They clear the place out. Eddie has some genetic code to use as a test and leaves and the Vigilante will chase them in his new ongoing! Looks like on book I won’t be picking up. I really like 3 part stories that end up as a $12 ad for a new ongoing title.
-Supergirl #22- Supergirl remembers her time as a Legionnaire as Equus battles Una, Karate Kid and Supergirl. The fight ends when the government comes back to take their weapon. Supergirl leaves the Legionnaires and returns to Kansas where Superman tells her the Titans are there to offer her membership. Not too great but it gets Supergirl in the Titans at least.
-Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Cyborg Superman #1- This is really a good origin of Cyborg Superman (though they show an obvious FF rip-off) and his reasoning for being with Sinestro. He wants to win so the Anti-Moniter can get rid of everything and so he can have his death. I enjoyed this one.
The Awards
-Book of the Week- I really enjoyed a bunch of issues this week, but I think Green Lantern Corps was a great issue. The Corps had their backs against the wall and and when they got the news they could kill, they went wild and really turned the tide. This was an awesome issue.
-Disappointment of the Week- There were a couple of issues I wasn’t pleased with but I would have to give Nightwing the award this week. I don’t like wasting money and having to waste about $12 for an extended ad.
-Cover of the Week- The best cover this week belongs to Nightwing #137. It’s a beautiful cover featuring Nightwing falling out of a building with an odd angle of us looking at it. The red background is very visually striking as well.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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