Justice League Unlimited
Finally! A sensible explanation for how Mary Marvel got her name. Mr. Terrific in the background ready to take J’onn’s place when the time comes. The New Olympians. The New. Friggin’. Olympians. Just to prove, I guess, that the Animated Universe is still stranger than New Earth could ever hope to be.
Detective
(1) It's nice to know that certain people are still basically crazy as a loon; (2) No, I was not sorry to see the person killed who was killed; it's long overdue.I almost fainted when there was an Editor’s Note telling me to look for something in the Back-Up Feature. Editor’s Note? Back-Up Feature? I wonder many how many younguns had to google those terms when they read them.
Then I discover the Back-Up Feature is Jason Bard!!! Jason Bard is back and better than ever, with a new storytelling purpose and his own back-up feature. Besides, there’s something wrong with you if you don’t love Batman breaking into an apartment in the middle of the night so he can say to a pistol-wielding butt-naked private dick, “I need your services.” Who says Batman has no sense of humor?
Teen Titans
TT is full of all manner of unexpected craziness. Kid Devil! Zatara! Plastic Boy! Karen’s hair! And, last but not least, Tim’s Science Fair Project!
Batman & The Monster Men
Wagner’s tone remains dead-on with this miniseries and I’m looking forward to his next Golden Age redux, “Batman versus the Mad Monk”. I just wish the story had had more Golden Age compression; I would have preferred it in four issues, not six.
Infinite Crisis
So much to enjoy! Ollie & Hal. Batman & Booster. Black Lightning & Mr. Terrific. Black Adam & the Psycho Pirate. Nightwing & Alexander Luthor. Superboy & Superboy Prime.
I must say, I’d love to read some stories from Earth-154 and Earth-898; I’m betting you would, too. And Earth-0? It was just nice to see it. And ... I was right about what Alex was looking for all along; now THAT is comic book irony.
Jonah Hex
JH is the most refreshingly depressing comic series ever made. JH makes Supergirl look like an inspirational speaker. You can read all your indy comics about skinny kids breaking up with each other; Jonah Hex experiences more bleak tragedy in his average afternoon than those kids will know in a thousand lifetimes.
I thought Earth-154 was the one from the John Byrne 'Generations' series', so you can read a few stories there. And I recently heard that he'll be doing a 4th series of them, at that.
ReplyDeleteNot that interested in Earth-898 although I'm always up for Jonah Hex at the Alamo.
I'd be up for some Earth-462 stories, though; what's not to love about the Teen Titans fighting Nazis for the US Army. And, of course, I wish there were still stories told of Earth-247...
Think the Shards on the New Earth page represent things that will be in continuity from here on out? Cause some of them...pretty interesting...
Also...Plastic Boy? How did I miss that?
Look at who is restraining Aquagirl.
ReplyDeleteOkay, the best line was "Just to see if you'd show."
ReplyDeleteAlso, contrast Batman's team, who show up when he asks and which consists of exactly the people needed for the task at hand (and Booster) and do the job in one issue...
with Donna's team, which took SIX MONTHS to gather, consisteded of "only the most powerful," and they all waited around for six issues waiting to do something, Firestorm ended up doing all the work.
If Donna had just said, Hey, Jason, come with me, everybody else could have stayed on Earth and helped, I don't know, SAVE LIVES!
Why, oh why, oh why, couldn't she have died? Again... again?
Nevermind. I LOVED IC #6, despite the death of my favorite character, literally a character who's first appearence was my first comic book, and the character that got me into comics! In fact, I loved because of his heroic, world changing death, as well as a F$%& Yeah moment every other page!
Re: 'Indie comics about skinny kids breaking up with each other.' This is why superhero comics will always RULE. I've been both skinny and broken-up, and as the years go by, have little interest in reliving either. However, I've never been a superhero, but would like to be heroic if at all possible, and as the years go by, my interest in reading about superheroes and, perhaps, being vicariously heroic, has only grown. (This is also why heavy metal beats wimp rock, but I could go on like this forever).
ReplyDeleteLeave it to me to be contrary on this wonderful (I spent WAAAY too much money today) funnybook Wednesday, but...
ReplyDelete) Gotta disagree with our host about the death in 'Tec. I thought he was the best addition to the Bat-foes since Poison Ivy came along in the 1960s. (And, just to give you a taste of my sensibilities, I'd argue that Humpty Dumpty is similarly in the same category.)
) And to Ms. Franny--Wendy and Marvin weren't twins...heck, they weren't even related. Going strictly by the toon, Wendy was Bruce Wayne's niece (!) and Marvin was some random goober who was mind-bogglingly allowed to hang out at the Hall of Justice. The two were tweaked and ret-conned and fleshed out in the Super Friends comic, though, and given things like last names, origins, etc. As much as people hate the Wonder Twins era of the show, it was an infinite improvement over the days when Wendy would call Batman "Uncle Bruce" smack in the middle of a crowd.
I really hope they're not going to be call it New Earth. Between the New Avengers, New Thunderbolts, New X-Men, and the New Invaders, I'd be surprised if Marvel hasn't tried copyrighting the adjective already. At least the Teen Titans's "New" is a small font.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the Titans, isn't there some medication Johns can take to control his fanboyism? This is the tightest, most interesting team I've seen on the title in several years, and he has to go and toss in Wendy and Marvin, complete with the monogrammed shirts. Damn you, Johns. Damn you.
Infinite Crisis - Loved Hal and Ollie talking about baseball in the midst of a collapsing universe.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the Batman and Wonder Woman related shards mean certain aspects of their histories are back in continuity.
I want to see Miss Martian!
...and not to be blasphemous, but the second issue of the new Aquaman was really good too.
Earth-0: Bizzaro Htrae
ReplyDeleteEarth-97: Tangent Comics.
EARTH-154: Home of the Super-Sons, children derived from the marriages of Clark Kent & Lois Lane and Bruce Wayne & Kathy Kane.(World's Finest #154, 157).
Earth-247: The post-Zero Hour Legion of Super-heroes. Shikari, previously seen lost in the current version of the 30th century, has found her teammates. Grife.
EARTH-898: A world where a genetically modified Jimmy Olsen threatened Earth's entire metahuman population until the hero destined to be known as Superman rose up to stop him (JLA: The Nail #1-3). Revealed as a distinct parallel world in The Kingdom #2. This is from the Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths Compendium list of Earths by Mark Waid. No mention of Western heroes.
I have never seen Earth-462 before.
"I realize it is possibly because you don't know who they are. "
ReplyDeleteBWA-HA-HA! Good one. Actually, that was something I simply didn't care to spoil for anyone.
Trust me, dearie; I know who Wendy and Marvin are.
Did you know that, in pre-Crisis continuity, Wendy Harris was the niece of Harvey Harris, a detective who helped trained Batman, and Marvin was the son of none other than the real Diana Prince and her husband Dan White?
They were.
"I really hope they're not going to be call it New Earth. Between the New Avengers, New Thunderbolts, New X-Men, and the New Invaders, I'd be surprised if Marvel hasn't tried copyrighting the adjective already."
ReplyDeleteGosh, I can't imagine a business try to foolishly trying to intimidate its competition by laying claim to a really common adjective, like "New".
Or "Big".
I'm really left wondering how Infinite Crisis 6 got to be so good? The last issue was "meh" for me, but this was just great. The baseball, the Mr. Terrific and Black Lightning bit was just great, the GA Batman bit was good, and what's up with the beetle and the lanterns? That seems kind of nifty.
ReplyDeleteJEEZ! I get my comics through Westfield -- I won't get to read IC#6 for several weeks (unless I buy a copy)--
ReplyDeleteBut I haven;t been following Titans -- I have got to pick up the reappearance of Wendy and Marvin ...
I was just amazed to see the Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman & the Debra Winger Wonder Girl in a DC comic after all these years...
ReplyDelete-Mindbender
That Zatara/Offspring thing was so odd I thought Cyborg had been transplanted into the Kingdom Come Earth (Earth-KFC) while Alex Luthor was swimming through planets like a five-year-old in a ball pit.
ReplyDeleteHonestly Jonah Hex should be the ultimate emo role model.
ReplyDeleteOr at least he would be if he didn't translate all that angst and grief into totally awesome gunfire!
I thought Alexander Luther reaching through the page to grab our Earth was a nice panel. It was also good of Superboy to be fighting for our Earth...even if DC kept portraying him as a 'villain'.
ReplyDeleteBut the Earth I really want a mini-series about is the one that resulted from 2 Earth's being smashed together.
Well, I for one shed a solitary tear for the Ventriloquist.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think Jonah Hex isn't very emo because he has been a victim of and perpetrated many face-shootings.
ReplyDeleteThe more that I think of it, more rappers should have Jonah Hex tattoos.
I almost never read new comics anymore. I collected Detective for a long time, even when I wasn't reading any other comics, but I haven't even read that for over a year. So I picked up Tec #818 today, just to see what's going on and to maybe have a handle on whether "One Year Later" is worth a look.
ReplyDeleteNice art. It sucked that they killed the Ventriloquist. Good to see Bullock. It's Part III of a mini-series that runs through all the Batman books (which I hate - I only want to buy Detective). I do not know who Conner is that is dead and was Tim Drake's best friend. Jason Bard. Cool. Very confused by the stuff about Two-Face. The death of the KGBeast was wrong. I don't like the KGBeast, but he was pretty tough and not likely to die as easy as Magpie.
For me, the bad dialogue may be what breaks the deal. "Duh, Stubbles. No, not why, why."
????????????
"What are you thinking, Batman?"
"That the gun that fired these shots interests me. That its similarities interest me. That there's much to do. And that it will soon be dawn."
"Uh, thanks, Batman. Get some sleep."
(I admit it. I added the last part.)
There's a few other places where I had to read the dialogue a few times to figure out what they were supposed to be saying. (Kinda like the comic book version of bad dubbing in Hercules and Godzilla movies.)
Is James Robinson the guy that wrote "The Golden Age"? I just can't go through that again.
I dunno if I can deal with today's comic book environment. Reading what Scipio and Dave and Robby Reed say about today's comics is so much more fun than actually reading them.
Picked up Teen Titans today on your recommendation.
ReplyDeleteAttempt #96? One year later?
Didn't Caedmus get it in thirteen tries? And only after a few weeks?
And the Agenda did it before Superboy woke up from a long nap.
What the heck is taking Tim so long? Some super-genius he is.
'Gosh, I can't imagine a business try to foolishly trying to intimidate its competition by laying claim to a really common adjective, like "New". Or "Big".'
ReplyDeleteWell, reading some of my old Marvel RPG books, I found out that Marvel trademarked the names of their cosmic entities.... including "Death"
"Reading what Scipio and Dave and Robby Reed say about today's comics is so much more fun than actually reading them."
ReplyDeleteUrk. I just noticed I haven't actually read a comic book in ... damn! Last Friday (when I first bumbled across this blog) until now (Tuesday 10 Oct 06). Where went the time? "I'll just jump back to the beginning and lightly skim through to the present" I tells myself "just in case I feel like commenting in 'real time'."
Ha!
I actually haven't read anything BUT this, from then until now, and I'm only slightly over halfway caught up to the present. And why?
Because most of what I read comic books FOR, I find here in much more strongly concentrated doses, is why.
Because, you know, back in the day, you'd sometimes have to go months at a time without seeing Hal get bonked in the noggin. Not any more!