Siege: The Cabal…

So Marvel is now building up to their next big event, Siege.  It’s basically where all the obvious flaws in Norman Osborne’s plan start to come back and bite him in the ass.  Like how he’s trying to keep the world from falling apart with a bunch of raving psychotics.  Siege: The Cabal starts to show the breaks, as Norman Osborne’s Cabal comes together to discuss Namor.  As seen in Utopia, Namor and Emma Frost betrayed Osborne, embarrassing him.  Doctor Doom insists that Osborne back off, reminding Osborne that he and Namor are royalty.  Osborne tells Doom to forget about it, and attacks.  Essentially, Doom declares war on Osborne.

Now this issue felt very lackluster and unsurprising.  We all knew Osborne’s house of cards was going to fall.  We knew he was going to revert to being the Green Goblin again.

So here we are.  Bendis’ grand design coming to a close.  The Avengers are coming back together.  Given how disappointing Secret Invasion was, I’ll try to be excited.

Comics of 11/25

So I missed doing this last week… I feel horrid about that.

Arkham Reborn #2 of 3

Things go bad at Arkham.  Interesting issue.

Blackest Night #5 of 8

Basically Barry Allen starts getting the various crews together to fight the Black Lanterns and Hal Jordan shows up with the rainbow brigade.  They fight Nekron–apparently the big bad of the series–and he uses the emotional connection all the heroes feel to Batman to kill them all.  This one ended with a real “WTF just happened?” type moment, but this series is very good.

Detective Comics #859

More delving into Kathy Kane’s origins and path to becoming Batwoman, focusing on her brief military career and the aftermath of her discharge.  Also gets into her first encounter with the Batman and Rene Montoya.  The Question backup feature has a guest appearance by the Huntress as Rene continues to battle against the human traffickers.  Liking the main story about Batwoman, not so much with the backup story.  Batwoman is being put together in a very nice story that I think establishes her very well.  I think it’s mostly the art with the backup story.  I think they could do a lot more that.

Fantastic Four #573

Johnny and Ben go to Nu-World with stowaways Franklin and Valeria in tow.  Good story, good art.  Hickman is spinning a pretty good story here.

Gotham City Sirens #6

Probably the best Batman related book out right now, this one has the girls fighting against the Joker’s former partner Gaggy.  Very enjoyable issue.  I will say this series is shaping up to be a great look at these characters, picking their strengths and weaknesses apart.

Green Lantern #48

Where Hal Jordan puts together the Rainbow Brigade, as I’m referring to it.  I kind of want to call it the “Light Brigade”–get a classical literary reference in there–but it just doesn’t feel right.  Good issue, delves into a lot of who these

Hulk #17

This series is like a trainwreck.  You know it’s a horrible mess, but you can’t look away.  That’s the best way to describe it.  It’s a horrid, horrid book, but you can’t turn away.

Image United #1

A new hero shows up in the Image Universe, saying that they need to unite against some kind of big bad that’s going to hit them.  Meh.  Can’t say as I really care.  Image has really only had a handful of great books, and none of them are involved in this.

Incredible Hercules #138

So Hercules and company are preparing to attack Hera.  They get team of Avengers together to go up against her.  This is actually a very exciting series to read.  Highly recommend it.

Invincible Iron Man #20

Tony Stark is a vegetable, but apparently he had a plan to bring himself back.  The group of Bucky, Thor, Maria Hill, Black Widow and Pepper Potts deliberate this, wondering if they should do it.  All but Pepper agree to it, who feels it’s unfair given how many have died and wonders if Tony really deserves to come back.  Very good issue here, it keeps going strong.

Justice League of America #39

The group of Plastic Man, Vixen, Doctor Light, Gypsy, Red Toronado and Zatanna arrives at the Hall of Justice where they’re attacked by various people from their past.  Blackest Night tie-in.  Basically just reaffirms how disturbed the villainous Doctor Light was.

Justice League: Cry For Justice #5 of 7

Wow.  Intense issue here.  Red Arrow goes off to say goodnight to his daughter and things go to hell from there.  Very intense issue.

Justice Society of America #33

Apparently King Chimaera wasn’t the one responsible for the attempt on Mister Terrific’s life?  It got a bit hazy in there, but still a solid story with some decent action.  Apparently the team splits to give us a second JSA book next month, which should be interesting.

Secret Warriors #10

This issue tells a bit more about Alexander/Phobos and his role in the grand scheme of things.  Ares arrives to bring him for a rite of passage among the Gods, where it is revealed that Phobos will have to die to reach his full potential.  Solid story here, great art.  Very good.

Superman #694

Mon-El is back to protecting Metropolis while Superman is gone on New Krypton, picking up where he left off before his kidnapping.  He fights Bizarro after getting some advice from Ma Kent and Conner.  Pretty good issue here, does some good stuff with Mon-El.

Superman: Secret Origins #3 of 6

Basically telling the story of Clark’s first day at the Daily Planet and Superman’s debut.  Geoff Johns does some excellent writing here.  I’m not a fan of Gary Frank though.  It always feels like he struggles with facial expressions and just goes a bit too far with them.

Teen Titans #77

Deathstroke and Ravager end up facing off against a bunch of people that Deathstroke killed.  Which are a lot.

Ultimate Avengers #4

Mark Millar is the only guy that should have been writing Ultimate Marvel.  Loeb, Bendis… they really had no idea what they were doing.  This is probably the best story since his early stuff on the Ultimates and on Ultimate X-Men.

Uncanny X-Men #517

Scalphunter drops six of the Predators just off the coast of Utopia.  Namor runs off to fight one on his own, while the others work as a team to kill the rest of the monsters.  Solidly written issue, but Greg Land’s artwork just bothers me.  There is very little variation in the way he depicts female characters and it just gets annoying.

Wonder Woman #38

Diana is going to be executed.  But not if Donna Troy and Artemis have anything to say about it.  And apparently Achilles isn’t nearly the ass everybody thinks he is.  Gail Simone is doing great stuff here.

World’s Finest #2 of 4

Robin teams up with Guardian to fight Mister Freeze and Parasite.  Not a horrible issue, but not a great one either.

Thoughts on The Prisoner

So, AMC recently remade the classic 1960s TV series The Prisoner.  I’ve held back on ranting about this for a couple of reasons.  One being that I wanted to calm down a bit before doing so.  The second being that I wanted to coherently express how disappointing the remake was.

Originally, The Prisoner was a TV series starring Patrick McGoohan.  He also cocreated the series, writing and/or directing many of the episodes.  The series begins with McGoohan’s character, known as “No. 6″, arriving in a mysterious village after resigning suddenly from some type of unexplained clandestine work.  He’s not allowed to leave until he reveals why he resigned, sparring with the “No. 2″.  Enjoying a seventeen episode run, the Prisoner goes through this surreal trip that strangely comments on society and our way of life while including some of the finest viewing you can get out of the 1960s.

The remake has “6″ (played by James Caviezel) wandering through the desert, randomly stumbling on an old man who apparently escaped from this strange village where he finds himself at odds with “2″ (portrayed by Ian McKellen), the ruler of this mysterious place.

My big problem was the remake can be summed up pretty neatly: it wasn’t a real place.  The basic premise was to turn it into the Matrix and it failed miserably.  They didn’t even focus on plot points from the good one.  It basically turned the Matrix into a therapy tool.  Apparently one that is extremely ineffective.

James Caviezel was horrid as “6″–barely watchable.  My main problem with his character was that I just simply could not buy into him.  With McGoohan’s character you just wanted to know everything about him and figure out who was pulling the strings.  You knew nothing about him, but you loved No. 6.  With Caviezel… not so much.  You didn’t get the steadfast element to the chacter.  You just couldn’t care who any of these people were.  With the original, No. 6 was constantly undermining and toying with his superiors, poking and prodding them.  With Caviezel, you got this brute character who could barely outplay 2.

Just a horrid remake that should never have happened.  Even if you don’t consider it a remake, it was still fairly blah, and horribly incoherent to watch.  Before he died, McGoohan was approached about being involved in this.  He refused.  I don’t know how much of the project he was familiar with, but I’m sure his ashes are churning in their urn at this point.

Doctor Who: Waters of Mars Review

Alright, so I managed to watch Waters of Mars last week.  Not the best Doctor Who special.

The story basically has the Doctor ending up on Mars in the year 2059, about the time that first colonists from Earth are beginning to get set up there.  When they tell him the date, he realizes that it’s the day they die.  The Doctor tries to force himself to leave before he disrupts history, but ends up staying and getting involved when the people become possessed by spirits within the water–a possession spread by contact with the water from the glacier that the colony is built on.  The Doctor leaves as the colonists fight for their lives, but turns back at the apparent epiphany that since he is the last Time Lord, the laws of time will obey him.  He saves three members of the crew, transporting them to Earth.  Once there, he has a conversation with Adeline Brook–the leader of the colonists–where he declares himself the Ultimate Time Lord and that he can rewrite history if he wants.  She basically tells him he’s and idiot and commits suicide.  Devastated, the Doctor sees Ood Sigma and begins to suspect his time is coming to an end.

That about sums it up.  On the whole, this was not a terribly good episode.  The story was fairly bleh, and felt like a bad Scifi movie at best.  This also had a similar issue to that of Planet of the Dead, where it just didn’t feel like a special.  It simply felt like a fairly stand-alone episode that could have gone anywhere in the series with a little more editing.  Beyond the Doctor, the other characters were hard to care about and fairly blank.  Personally, I just struggled to like this “special”.

Alright, that being said, I cannot wait for the End of Time at Christmas.  I came across a trailer and a clip from it, and it looked really good.  The Doctor is meeting Ood Sigma, who is warning him of the Master’s return and the apparent end of the universe.

Comcis of 11/11

Action Comics #883

Chris and Thara continue to hunt Zod’s sleeper agents.  Chris spontanteously grows old.  In the backup story, Captain Atom arrives back in the real world and is immediately attacked.  Mon-El comes to the rescue.  Not a bad issue, although kind of slow.  I don’t know, it just feels like it’s hard to care about these characters.

Batgirl #4

Stephanie’s first run through with the new suit has her facing off against Livewire as Barbara tries to help Wendy deal with her anger.  Easily one of the best series to come out of Battle for the Cowl, this is just an enjoyable read.  I would say this could be the best series to come out of Battle for the Cowl.

Batman #693

The second part of the Tony Daniels written story where the mob is starting to move back into Gotham.  With Dick working as Batman, he teams up with Huntress to keep an eye on Falcone and keep things from falling apart.  I think Daniels has a very solid grasp of this and is doing something good here.

Batman and Robin #6

Jason Todd is attacked by the Flamingo as he leaves Batman and Robin to be unmasked once one million people go to the website to activate a webcam.  They escape, just in time to save Jason and Scarlett from the Flamingo.  Robin gets shot, Jason arrested, Flamingo is apparently killed, and Scarlett just runs off–apparently losing the face that Professor Pyg forced onto her face.  I’ll be honest, this has been a weird story so far.  I like the angle with Jason where he’s primarily dealing with the fact Bruce wanted him to be another Dick Grayson.  It’s a pretty obvious point, but I think an explicit statement worked nicely.  The story itself was kind of screwy though.  Can’t really explain what it was about it.  I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel right.

Booster Gold #26

Well, once Blackest Night Started, we knew this one was coming.  Black Lantern Ted Kord.  Features Jamie Reyes in a story where Booster’s disappeared to go back in time to Ted’s funeral.  Back in the present, Skeets is looking for Booster, eventually picking up the current Blue Beetle who decides to help.  Then they get attacked by Black Lantern Ted Kord.  This is going to be a part of Blackest Night I’m going to watch closely, as I think it’s going to be a good angle.

Cable #20

So Bishop and Cable are duking it out as Hope tries to figure out a way to escape from the Brood.  Solid issue, this leading into what will be Hope’s big story in the near future.  Really want to see where it goes, what impact she has on the X-Men.

Dark X-Men #1

So Mystique is leading a team of Dark Beast, Mimic, and Omega.  And Mystique looks like Jean Grey.  They are sent on a goodwill mission by Osborne, and things go crazy from there.  Only the first issue so I’ll wait to see what happens next, but I’ll admit this didn’t get me terribly excited.  Girl Called Hope backup feature where Cable is training her.  These short segments are kind of hard to judge, but it looks interesting so far.

Deadpool #17

Domino is afraid of chickens.  That’s about all I have to say about this.  Entertaining issue.  About what you’d expect for Deadpool.

Fables #90

Frou Totenkinder is gone, so Ozma is now the big magic user in Fabletown.  Still trapped with Baba Yaga in the offices, Bufkin and his small group of fighters continue to fight and torment her.  Fables is doing good stuff.

Green Lantern Corps #42

Fighting the Black Lanterns, the Green Lanterns pull out all the stops.  Kyle and Guy release the Red Lantern Vice on them, which works briefly before they get overwhelmed again.  When the Black Lanterns overwhelm an Alpha Lantern, Kyle grabs the battery and detonates it, killing himself and the Black Lanterns.  This was a particularly sad moment for me, as I read Green Lantern when I was younger and Kyle was the Lantern then.  It was just a sad moment.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #10

Blackest Night tie-in here.  Basically everybody is gunning for Vril Dox.  And he gets a yellow power ring.  Last page was amazing.

Red Robin #6

Set after the Blackest Night: Batman mini, Tim is helping Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Shadows take down this second group of assassins.  Not a bad issue, as Tim starts to see the conflicts of the path he’s chosen.

Softening the Scary?

In my last entry, I discussed the nature of horror in relation to science fiction and fantasy.  In a similar vein, I would like to address the dilution of horror.

In recent years, we’ve seen the emergeance of reality television.  Many saw this as the degrading of our society.  I promise do not care much for it, as you can hardly consider that to be much of “reality”.  As a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy, I believed–somewhat foolishly–that this trend towards reality television woul never touch my areas of interest.

Wrong.

We’ve seen shows like MonsterQuest, Ghost Hunters, and Paranormal State emerge.  Shows that follow teams of so-called “Professionals” as they investigate ghost stories and sightings of creatures like Nessie.  These “Professionals” go around with their pseudo-science techniques and try to gather evidence to confirm or refute any of these stories and legends.  From what I’ve observed, these shows are weak attempts to justify and legitimize an obsession with such things.  I feel it is safe to say that the majority of episodes of the various Ghost Hunters series (There’s three of them now.  Seriously.) end the exact way.  After they spend some time doing their freaky tech stuff, they just say, “There’s not definitive evidence, but there’s definitely something here.”  I think that pretty well sums up the whole show.

As I said, there are now three variations on Ghost Hunters.  Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, and Ghost Hunters Academy.  So they need to g0 to an academy and train to not definitive proof of anything?  Hurm…

Now you might say, “Ross, what’s your problem with Ghost Hunters?”  Well, it’s simple really.  It’s all about the mystique.  That is the essence of story-telling.  You intrigue people into wondering if it’s true or not.  When it comes to a great ghost story, it’s not fact or fiction we care about it’s the mystique of it.  You start making half-assed attempts to prove anything, you’re going to be making a mess.  That’s the problem with these shows.  They’re destroying the mysticism of it.  You can search for the truth, but it’s not for everybody to know.  If people want to know, they should search it out themselves.

This is not a scientific field.  It’s a field based in belief and magic.  Using science to prove anything in this field a flawed because it’s not the proof that’s important.  It’s the belief.

Basically I’m saying that these shows are weakening our ghost stories.  We like them because there is no way to prove it.  That’s the mystique of horror.  A major problem with Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is that it tries to provide a concrete explanation as to why Michael Myers is an unstoppable killing machine.  There were other issues with that movie, but that was one of the bigger ones.  Simply put, you’ve disrupted the mystique and mystery of what Michael Myers is.  If there was a concrete explanation of what he is, there would be no point of fascination in the character.  We wouldn’t care.  Sometimes, all we need is the legend.  We don’t need scientific proof that there are ghosts in the Stanley Hotel or Fort Ticonderoga.  A ghost story is fun and interesting because we have to wonder if it’s true or not.  Proof and fact only weaken the story.

Vampires: Horror?

I place a question before you, gentle reader:  Are vampires really a part of the horror genre?  Is there really even such thing as “horror” when you get down to it?

This was a question I asked myself years ago when I began work on a vampire story I intially referred to as “Shadow Walkers”.  With some heavy influences from Anne Rice, I began to craft out a novel starring vampire in a more fantasy story-line.  About six years later, I returned to that story, working on crafting this novel into a sprawling fantasy with a myriad of characters and species.  Elves… Faeries… Daemons… all these found their way into that novel, and they fit nicely.  Vampires, I think, have a much more established place in fantasy than most people realize.  The origins of such myths and legends are similar to those of a variety of traditional fantasy stories, so why is it we don’t compare Dracula to Lord of the Rings?  In a lot of ways, the themes and lessons of both works are the same.

To me, horror itself is not a true genre.  There are great horror stories, but I do not consider it to be a genre to itself.  Frankenstein is really science fiction.  Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street… those are fables and fantasies.  My point is, every horror story is easily classified as something else in addition to being a horror story.  To lessen or raise up any of those simply because they are a “horror” story denies how much more it is.

11/4 Comics

Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1

Paul Cornell (some impressive work on Doctor Who) writes and Tom Raney draws this look at the origins of the Black Widow.  Interesting read, gets into her history, won’t really judge this until I’ve seen a few more issues though.

Captain America: Reborn #4 of 5

With Sharon Carter now in H.A.M.M.E.R. custody, the Red Skull’s endgame starts to become clear.  Brubaker is spinning a very tricky story here.  Hitch’s artwork is amazing, as usual, and really does a great job with this story.  Can’t wait until November 28 when the last issue comes out.

Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love #1

So Fabletown’s superspy has a mission to investigate magical items appearing in the Mundane world.  Very solid start here, good story, good art.  Can’t wait to see where this one goes.

Deadpool Team-Up #899

So Deadpool has a third ongoing series?  Fairly enjoyable issue where Deadpool teams up with Hercules against Arcade and Nightmare.  I’d call this a pretty good story.

Doom Patrol #4

The Blackest Night tie-in begins here, where fallen members of the Doom Patrol come back to confront their currently living counterparts.  Not a horrible issue Keith Giffen does an excellent job here.  The Metal Men backup feature was interesting, featuring Mercury and Tin in a leading role.

Psylocke #1 of 4

So, in what can be described as one of the more interesting scenarios any X-Man could find themselves in, Psylocke is off to bury her former body.  And she gets attacked by ninjas when she goes to do so.  They destroy the body and she’s mad as hell about that.  Solid writing, although… It’s Psylocke.  Dressed like that… with all kinds of fighting and mayhem… there’s not much more to ask for.  Also includes the first part of “A Girl Called Hope,” which I think is building up to the endgame with that storyline.

Secret Six #15

John Ostrander writes this issue, focusing on Deadshot and his history.  Really a good story.  One of the great things this series does is explore some of the more disfunctional and morally questionable angles of several villains, and this issue does an excellent job with that.

Ultimate Spider-Man #4

So Mysterio continues to terrorize the city and MJ nearly gets kidnapped.  I think Ultimate Marvel has been a failed experiment.  I’m waiting to see where the Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Armor Wars go, but this one is falling fast as far as I’m concerned.  The story feels kind of recycled and the art just doesn’t meet the standard it used to.  I’m not a huge fan of the art in particular.  Peter looks very effeminate to me in this issue, which I do find annoying.  So I’m making the call.  This one is dropped from my regular reading.

Vampirella: the Second Coming #3 of 4

So the army of vampirella wannabes decide to go find Vampirella herself and bring her back.  Solid issue.  Actually tried to give some depth of character and develop the story a bit more.

Victorian Undead #1

Sherlock Holmes vs. Zombies.  The dead start rising in Victorian London and Holmes is called on to investigate.  Not a bad issue.  Good dialog, about standard art for Wildstorm at this point.  I’ve notice d that Wildstorm books have a very distinctive art style, one I primarily associated with Neil Googe’s work on Welcome to Tranquility.  Not displeasing to look at.

DC vs. Marvel?

No, bringing up the major crossover from the mid ’90s.  I’ve been occasionally viewing message boards and forums and have spotted a common theme: DC vs. Marvel.  Some seem to believe that DC is a mess while others think that Quesada and Bendis are driving Marvel into the ground.  There is an argument for both, but let’s try to calmly break this down.

Major Crossovers:

The last big head to head matchup as far as crossovers go was DC’s Final Crisis and Marvel’s Secret Invasion.  If I recall correctly, Secret Invasion outsold Final Crisis.  So according to the market, Marvel won this round.  However, if you actually read these, there was no discernable difference.  They were both pretty bad, with huge plot holes and overwhelming thoughts on the philosophies of both worlds that detracted from the story.  Neither one was self-contained or able to stand on  its own without help from dozens of tie-ins, and just in general felt empty.  While Final Crisis was well-written and had great art from J.G. Jones and Doug Manke, it was just too much philosophy and not enough action.  Way too complex, and the ending was  mess and a half.  Secret Invasion set up this complex saga which ended with Norman Osbourne shooting the Skrull Queen in the head.  Norman Osbourne shoots her in the head.  That’s it.  The aftermath of both series, I think, has been grossly overblown.  The general “villains take over” approach to Marvel has been disasterous and an entirely predictable story, while the DC aftermath has been kind of lukewarm at best.  Battle for the Cowl and the Batman books have been fairly solid, but it’s very inconsistent.

Creative Directions:

So DC has Dan Didio, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, and Greg Rucka setting the tone for the DCU.  Marvel, meanwhile, has Joe Quesada, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, and Matt Fraction guiding things there.

Now, this is interesting.  Johns and Morrison have done great stuff with so many titles, it’s hard for me to argue against anything DC does.  They both work at such a high level, it’s got to be hard to keep it up consistently.  I mean Morrison pretty much abandoned runs on the Authority and WildCATS purely because he overextended himself.

However, I’m not a huge fan of Greg Rucka.  I think he’s entirely too quick to bring in Lesiban themes (Beyond Final Crisis: Revelations and Wonder Woman: the Hiketeia, I don’t think I’ve read a story where some form of Lesbianism was not a prominent part of the plot), and his writing at times can be annoying.  As I recall, Ed Brubaker left DC because he wasn’t really being brought in on the planning for Infinite Crisis and the aftermath.  Him and Rucka worked together a lot, and I think DC felt like they had to choose one as their favorite.  If that was the case, I think they chose the wrong one.  I think Brubaker’s writing is clearly superior to Rucka’s, and would have been a better fit to work with Morrison and Johns on 52 and the stories leading up to Final Crisis.  I’m sure people would disagree with that, but that is my opinion.

I think there was some Editorial failures on Final Crisis, such as Legion of Three Worlds finishing until five months after the rest of Final Crisis was over and done with.

Marvel, meanwhile, has a slightly different approach.  With Joe Quesada running things, they’ve done a lot of head-scratchers lately.  I’m going to do an entry about One More Day and how it should have ended later, but for now we’ll keep it general.  Quesada has pretty much let Bendis do whatever he wants, and the direction here is kind hazy.  Dark Reign and the whole villains taking over thing has been fairly hit or miss to me.  Loeb’s run on the Hulk has been fairly disasterous.  The only reason I even care about that book now is to see if I’m right about who Rulk and She-Rulk actually are.

Not to say that all of Marvel has gone to crud.  Brubaker and Fraction have been quietly revamping characters like Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Iron Man, and the X-Men.  They’re doing great stuff.

This is to take nothing away from what Quesada has done for Marvel in his time as Editor in Chief.  When he started, the company was bankrupt.  Since then, it’s become something Disney actually wanted to buy.   And they have told some great stories with him as the Editor In Chief. I just think annoiting Bendis as the guiding force of the Marvel Universe was a bad move.  His stories are haphazard, his dialog is almost painful to read at times, he barely has an understanding of many of the characters… yet he’s pretty much setting the direction of the Marvel Universe?  I just don’t get that one.  I don’t see where his writing is all that appealing.  I mean, Marvel has had Morrison, Warren Ellis, Brubaker, Fraction, Dan Slott, Mark Waid, J. Michael Straczynski (Despite One More Day, he’s a good writer), Duane Swierczynski, and Mark Millar working there in the last ten years… and Bendis is the one they want setting the direction?

Overall:

Okay.  looking at it from a purely business standpoint, Marvel would appear to be doing better.  Sales, they’re dominating.  That’s always been the case.  However, if you just look at the general stories, I would argue that DC is telling stories on a higher level.  Not much higher, but definitely a more enjoyable read.  Anyway, here’s my rant about how Marvel shouldn’t be perceived as “better” than DC.  Both companies have their great stories and their overrated stories.

Comics of interests from October 28

Arkham Reborn #1 of 3

So Arkham Asylum has been rebuilt.  This issue begins with the director of the Asylum giving a tour to Kate Spencer (Gotham DA and current Manhunter), Bruce Wayne (really Thomas Elliot aka Hush unless something drastic changes in the near future) and Commissioner Gordon a tour, showing them the new facilities and introducing the new staff.  Wasn’t a great story, wasn’t a horrible story either.  I would read another issue in this.  Art is solid, seems to be setting up another corner of the Gotham hierarchy that I think is worth exploring.

Batman #691

So Tony Daniels is back as both writer and artist.  He worked with Grant Morrison on RIP, as well as writing and drawing Battle for the Cowl.  As crazy as Battle for the Cowl was, he did a decent job.  I think we all know it was rushed, and Daniels did get the gig at the last possible minute (I think Judd Winick was supposed to write it originally, but his story ran too long or something?  I’ll have to look into that at some point.).  Anyway, this issue features Grayson as he starts working on how to take down the Black Mask and his criminal empire.  Features a Catwoman cameo, I think this was a solid issue.   Delved into the new status quo with a new Batman and Catwoman, which I think was well done.  After Battle for the Cowl, I think it is good to see Daniels back on the character.

Blackest Night #4

So there’s a new big bad introduced, the heroes of Earth start to regroup and hold plan their last stand.  Solid issue, continues the story well.

Blackest Night: Titans #3 of 3

So this concludes the Titans tie-in for Blackest Night, where they figure out that Dove is more powerful than anybody thinks.  I’m not a huge fan of having all these tie-ins to the main series, but it seems to be effective so far and maintains relevance to the primary story.  I like that Don Hall is unable to be a Black Lantern purely because he is an embodiment of peace, and Dove is therefore able to do something to the Black Lantern Rings.  Overall, a very solid tie-in.

Detective Comics #858

Basically this is getting into the origins of Batwoman, shedding some light on the character’s childhood and her family background.  Still kind of lukewarm about the character in general, but it’s a good story, good art.  The Question, I do have some issue with.  Particularly the art and the track suit.  But mostly the art.  The art just kind throws me a bit more than I would like.

Fantastic Four #572

Reed Richards has been teaming up with his doppelgangers (a word I do not use often enough) to figure how to solve everything and was fighting a group of angry Celestials.  Key point of the issue is when he is talking to one of the other Reeds and they explain the price of their work is to lose their family.  Reed decides he does not want to do that, and goes back to find Sue waiting at his door.  I hope this is where the story goes, because it is about family.  Family is what drives these stories and I think Reed has moved well enough beyond the scienist to be the Dad for awhile.  Jonathan Hickman wrote this, with Dale Eaglesham on art, and it’s been a very good Fantastic Four story.

Gen 13 #32

So Fairchild is going through the paces of the Warhol virus, just as the rest of the team is struggling to escape the latest mad scientist who’s captured them.  Not a bad story, they finally get to Tranquility to see that it’s gone.  Wildstorm has been pretty solid lately.  Since they had their apocalypse and such, there have been some pretty decent stories being told.

Gotham City Sirens #5

Wow, that’s a bit of a blast from the past.  How many people can actually say they remember the Joker having another sidekick besides Harley Quinn?  I have to say, this was a great story.  With the “Joker’s” attack, Catwoman and Poison Ivy are ready to go on the offensive.  Harley is not, but that’s mostly because she’s crazy.  I’m liking the story here, it’s enjoyable and it works.  Paul Dini, one of Harley’s cocreator’s is doing some great writing here.

Green Lantern #47

Hal, Carol, Sinestro, and Indigo One are on Korugar, fighting the Black Lanterns Abin Sur and his sister.  This issue had a lot of good stuff for Sinestro and his character, giving him some more depth.

Hulk #16

So, there’s a Red She-Hulk now.  Meh.  Got some more backstory on the Red Hulk, but I don’t think we really care.  Basically the whole point of this series is an overblown guessing game where the readers try to figure out exactly who these pyschotic killers are.  For fun, I’ll just give y guess for whom these two would be… Betty Ross is Red She-Hulk and either Glenn Talbot or Agent Pratt are Red Hulk.  I know those people are supposed to be dead, but there has been so little logic to this storyline, why not?  But based on what I’ve read with these two characters, and probably (mostly) a gut instinct, that’s my guess.  I’ll read the next issue just to see if I’m right.

Jack of Fables #39

Young Jack Frost is off on his adventure, realizing how difficult it actually is when he gets captured by the monsters.  Meanwhile, Jack Horner is slowly getting fatter, sprouting a tail and getting some scales.  Corrupted by greed?  An enjoyable story here, good art.  If you don’t read this and Fables, why not?

Justice Society of America #32

Of the team books at DC right now, this is probably the best one out there.  Geoff Johns got it started beautifully, and now Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges are continuing things beautifully.  The Society is attempting to solve the apparent murder of Mister Terrific while a large group of supervillains are gunning for them.  I’ve enjoyed this story so far, we know these guys are good from their work on Fables, and they don’t let up.

The Last Days of Animal Man #6 of 6

Solid end to this series, really a solid “Twlight of the Superheroes” type moment where Buddy managed to take down Prismatik and Bloodrage while losing his powers.  Nice closing to this, Gerry Conway put it together nicely.

Ms. Marvel #46

Interesting story.  Carol Danvers is kind of dealing with an identity crisis as she fights Karen Sofen, a new Ms. Marvel.  I found this story to be fairly blah, but I think it finished strong.  Carol get’s her head together and manages to separate Sofen from the Moonstone, and forces Sofen to do some introspection.  I was not a fan of this story, to be honest, but I think it finished strong.  I might just pick up the next issue to see where it goes.

Superman #693

Long story short, General Lane tries to recruit Mon-El, Parasite helps him escape, but the villain double-crosses Mon-El.  I like the character of Mon-El more now that’s a regular character in the DCU, and he’s definitely doing a solid job as the star of the book.

Teen Titans #76

Not much to say about this one.  Basically this can be sumed up as “Old vs. New”.  Beast Boy thinks he should lead the team, which nobody really goes for.  The quality in this book has dropped a bit since Johns left, but it’s been fairly solid.  I like the idea of the older generation of Titans starting to come in and try to take over, as you don’t have Nightwing or Robin there to say “No, that’s a bad idea.”

Wonder Woman #37

Diana realizes how in danger that the Amazons and her mother actually are, and goes to help them.  There she is confronted by Donna Troy, who’s kind of screwed up after their battle with Genocide.  Good issue here.  I suggest people check it out.

World’s Finest #1 of 4

So Sterling Gates is doing this miniseries where a member of the Bat family of books teams up with a member of the Superman family of books.  First up, Red Robin teams up with Chris Kent, the new Nightwing, to rescue Thara, aka Flamebird and his girlfriend, from the Penguin.  Good start here, definitely worth checking out, the art’s solid.

X-Men Forever #10

Wolverine’s funeral.  Claremont is doing some fairely interesting stuff here, giving us an extended “What if I never left back in 1991?”  I’m liking this so far, it’s a fresh look at an old story, and I think it’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of the X-Men in any era.