Best and Worst of Last Week

I’m glad I skipped the big #600 issues from Marvel. While Spider-Man sounded like it was a good story, Hulk sounded like more of the same. I think that while Loeb/McGuiness have their fans with this work, long term this is a bad idea for the Hulk, especially with the plans they have announced. Also I believe it is still a mystery as to who is the Red Hulk. After dragging it out for a very long time, you better have a very good answer.

THE BEST

Final Crisis Legion of Three Worlds #5 (of 5) - Writer Geoff Johns, Art George Perez, Inks Scott Koblish, Colors Hi – Fi. I’m a Legion of Super Heroes fan and probably always will be. I’m not sure exactly what resonated with me with this group, but through five year gaps, clones, reboots, rebirths and different incarnations I have always had a soft spot for this group of characters. I know that the names and the stories have not all aged well, but I think Jim Shooter made this group a special place and Levitz and Giffen sealed the deal with their run. When Shooter wrote the book when he was 14 years old, he probably was writing a more adult book then most of what DC was producing at the time. The older writers were writing for that imaginary 8-12 year old and Shooter was writing for himself and not trying to dumb things down. Then as comics matured and Levitz/Giffen hit the book, the Legion started to grow up. Multiple reboots and editorial mandates started to cause the 30th Century to unravel and then a year or so ago Geoff Johns said screw it, Superman was part of the Legion and restarted the original Legion all over again.He decided to make them older now and made their continuity be from the Levitz era, so he picked what he wanted to use for the most part, but he remained true to the core of the group. It was a great series in Action Comics and Gwen has the hard cover and I got the trade after having read the books. See my full review here.


Invincible #64 - Writer Robert Kirkman, Pencils Ryan Ottley, Inks Cliff Rathburn, Colors FCO Plascencia. Wow, what an incredible frelling issue. I have to say when it comes to his three main books Kirkman really knows how to keep it interesting. He promised a while ago that he would keep this book fresh and exciting and the Conquest story line has done just that. It was one of the quickest reads I have had of a comic and yet it was a very satisfying and enjoyable book, regardless of the tons of gore and blood. I’ve had issues with the level of violence in certain comics, but have always said that when presented in the right fashion and makes sense within the context of the story I have no issue with it. Still I thought we came very close to crossing the gore line this issue, but it never went over it because it made sense within the context of the story. I was happy to read in the letters pages that Kirkman also felt this was as far as he could go with the gore in this book and stated that it is never gore and blood for the sake of the violence it is just the violence will be graphic at times. In an odd way it makes the book more realistic as people with these power levels would generate some serious damage to each other. I was wondering how Mark would be able to beat Conquest and was worried that the adrenaline rush over his anger of Eve’s death would all of a sudden help him find a new level of strength. While this can happen in real life, Conquest was shown as too powerful in his own right for this to be the answer. The answer was excellent. See my full review here.

Green Lantern #44 - Writer Geoff Johns, Pencils Doug Mahnke, Inks Christian Almay, Doug Mahnke, Tom Nguyen & Rodney Ramos, Colors Randy Mayor. So I have read that you only need to read Blackest Night to get the entire story but reading Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps gives you the entirety of the story. The other series are just additional background or individual stories of different heroes dealing with the risen dead. Instead of being a bunch of bull, so far this is working out as advertised which a nice change of pace. Also, unlike World War Hulk, where the actual series Incredible Hulk was total garbage this issue of Green Lantern was well done and a very good read. If you sense my enthusiasm for this issue is less then it was for Blackest Night #1, you would be correct. Blackest Night set the bar incredibly high and this issue while an excellent comic had a more narrow focus and therefore did not have the epic feel Blackest Night #1 had. We start with a three page sequence of a Black Lantern ring reaching J’onn J’onzz on Mars and we see another one of the dead coming back to life. I have read that Geoff Johns is playing with the whole concept of death in the DCU and I have to say that I’m enjoying what he is doing with this. The dead are the friends and comrades of the heroes and the various remarks being made show you that the line between being alive and dead is a thin one in the DCU. See my full review here.

THE WORST

Dethklok vs The Goon – Unreadable. It was more about Dethklok then Goon and I could not even read the book.


Quick Hits

Blackest Night Tales of the Corps #2 (of 3) – I’m enjoying this mini-series a lot. What I especially appreciate is the background of some other people from the other corps done in short stories. Each is entertaining and well thought out with some nice looking art. I think they provide some good back story for Blackest Night, but if you have a limited budget, you can skip this series and it will not affect your enjoyment of Blackest Night one bit.

Gemini #4 (of 5) – The gap between issues made me actually drop this series, but what the heck it is only two more issues and Jay Faeber is an exceeding nice person, so supporting a book of his is easy, plus this is a fun book. I thought that maybe it got canned due to low sales. Hopefully issue #5 will follow shortly.

Guardians of the Galaxy #16 – This is a well written series and I’m sure not huge seller for Marvel, but the art was so atrocious that I was considering that it maybe time to drop this series. Now I’m hanging on because the book is so well written, but if sales were slipping before this asking for the series to be cancelled. I get the feeling Marvel is so over-reaching they are really reaching with some of the artists they are using, who are really minor league type artists.

Immortal Weapons #1 (of 5) - Writer Jason Aaron (Fat Cobra) Duane Swierczynski (Iron Fist back-up), Art Mico Suayan and others (Fat Cobra) Travel Foreman and Stefano Guardino (Iron Fist), Color Edgar Delgado and Others (Fat Cobra) June Chung (Iron Fist). I think I didn’t like the origin of Fat Cobra. I say I think I didn’t like it because it should have been an impossibility for me not to have liked it. I have enjoyed the Iron Fist series, perhaps even more since Brubaker and Fraction left it, I love the Immortal Weapons themselves and Jason Aaron is writing probably the best comic on the stands in Scalped. So what happened to this book? The premise is that Fat Cobra has indulged in so many drugs and drunk to excess that he no longer remembers how he got to where he is and he hires a writer to research his life. See my full review here.

Ms Marvel #42 – I enjoy this book and actually have enjoyed the evil Ms. Marvel better then Carol Danvers. Now Danvers died in her book, but it was never acknowledged in New Avengers, so I only barely remembered how she died anyway. This issue she is now apparently been killed and reborn again as someone else. It is all very confusing, but still a great fight between Ms. Marvel (Moonstone) and the “real” Ms. Marvel.

Power Girl #3 – This series is coming along very well and if you have skipped on it, I would recommend trying it out. It is a solid super hero series that tells a straight story, but is not too serious.

I can almost put Wednesday comics into the best category every week, but I figure at this point after three issues you are either a fan of the series of not. This was a little bit of an off week, especially compared to last week, but still and what is most important it was an entertaining week.