Thursday 22 April 2010

April Comics

comic musings

April Comics


This months comic subscription package contained:

Green Lantern v4 #52
"Life Blood"

Hmm... a bit of filler on this one I think. So many splash pages, and I didn't really care too much about Xanshi Black Lanterns. Possibly because of the core four human Green Lanterns (Guy, Kyle, Hal and John) John Stewart is my least favourite. The Katma Tui cameo didn't do much. The bulk of the story was a between the panels (or between Blackest Night #7 and #8, perhaps) tale about what happened to Sinestro after he absorbed the White Light, something that wasn't referenced in Blackest Night #8. Man, I miss the days when things would interlink and you'd get a [* See so and so issue for details] box.

Sadly my hopes for a more vanilla Green Lantern title are probably not going to be fulfilled as we launch straight into Brightest Night tie ins.

The Flash - Secret Files & Origins 2010
"Running to the Past"

So Barry Allen is back. Grand. Maybe this will enlighten me on why Barry is the quintesential Flash. Or not. And seriously, what was the point of the Captain Boomerang profile with everything blacked out? And if Barry is the ultimate Flash, why the need to give him a retuned origin with a dead mother killed by a time travelling Professor Zoom I?

The main story drawn by Scott Kolins is pretty as usual and gives a little insight into what is coming up in the main series. The profile pages by Francis Manapul are nice and give hope for the main series.

Cosmic Treadmill? really? Plus, the amount of time that Barry spends awake at that night is nonsense, I don't care how fast you are you can't go around having conversations, drinking water from the tap and reading books in under a minute.

Wally Watch (or Where's Wally?): Outside Barry's house in the magical minute.

The Flash v3 #1
"Case One: The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues"

OK, here we go... New Flash ongoing, after the stop start nature of Rebirth did nothing to excite me about this, let's give it a fresh chance. 

Well here we go... the good.
The art is awesome. Francis Manapul really knocks it out of the park on this one. He's even better suited to a Flash book than he was on the short lived Superboy in Adventure Comics series. We get a tour of Central City and introduced to the characters in CSI: Flash. The murder of someone in a Mirror Master outfit was interesting, until (* see "The bad" below). It's a better start than Bart's Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, and Wally's returning Flash series that replaced that, but that's more to do with the talent on offer and lack of annoying superaged children than it being Barry Flash, by now with Bart's series they could have gotten him to the role that Barry has in CSI: Flash.

The bad.
We all need to get some of the anti-aging product that Iris Allen uses, she's deaged considerably with no logical explination.
The rogues from the future led by Commander Cold seems to be a recycling of the Titans of Tomorrow storyline from Teen Titans v3 and wasn't a great ending more of a "*shrug* really?" response.

The Ugly.
The price. Are all new titles coming in at $3.99 then? Jesus. It didn't seem that long and didn't have a Second Feature like Detective has. Brightest Day #0 was at the same price point and seemed a lot better value for money.

Wally Watch (or Where's Wally?): In the preview section for 2011's Flashpoint storyline, looking in some pain. Great.

Blackest Night #8
"Conclusion"

Not to say it isn't good, but things get a tad predictable as the storyline reaches it's conclusion and there are some inevitable ressurections (tho not the ones that this reader would have liked.). The fold out splash page was good, I thought at first the pages had stuck together and was a little annoyed. I really hoped that this storyline wasn't going to go down a White Lantern Corps direction but it did. I miss the days when an event was done in a month and didn't last forever (especially when you consider the "Blackest Night prelude" banner that Corps and the main GL book have been sporting for ages).

Ted Kord Watch: Still dead.

Brightest Day #0
"Carpe Diem"

Not so Deadman[1] (Aliveman?) takes a tour of the latest characters to fall through DC's revolving door of death courtesy of the White Light in the above Blackest Night #8.

Aquaman[2] seems to have a fear of water. That's probably not good considering what his main power is.

Professor Zoom I[3] is still in prison, where he was left after Flash: Rebirth.

Captain Boomerang[4] is likewise incarcerated.

Hawkman[5] and Hawkgirl[6] reminince about their past lives, I'm still slightly peeved that Hawkgirl is no longer Kendra. No one in the DCU seems to care, however.

Maxwell Lord[7] makes everyone forget who he is and gets a huge nose bleed for his trouble.

Martian Manhunter[8] gets a visit from Guy and Hal on mars. Guy brings cookies and milk.

Jade[9] continues to be pointless post-resurection. Leave Kyle alone, him and Natu make a good couple.

Firestorm[10] and old new Firestorm don't get on.

Osiris[11] does something involving a statue that didn't really stand out.

Hawk[12] goes back to being a crime fighter, has everyone forgotten his crimes as Extant? Hopefully Atom Smasher hasn't. This was inane, especially in the same month that Green Arrow spends time on trail for putting an arrow through Prometheus' head with good reason. Tho I guess I shouldn't be too shocked. Captain Atom destroyed an entire universe and no one really talks about that anymore.

Ted Kord Watch: Still dead.

The cover to the new Green Arrow looks great too, but I doubt I'll be picking it up. The cover art for Justice League: Generation Lost looks terrible, but I am picking it up. Go figure. Also, I like the star shaped crater in Star City, but don't recommend a bomb as a way of giving a town an identity.

Detective Comics #863
"Cutter, part 3"

I think part of the appeal of the Batwoman run in Detective has been JH Williams III's art, which has been sadly missing from this arc. Also I'm not well enough versed in DC history for the last page reveal to mean anything to me. Along with the news that Rucka isn't writing the Batwoman ongoing has given me second thoughts about getting that title. At least JHW III is back on art for a bit.

Overall Conclusions
Hmm... Not a great month, but not bad. At least Blackest Night is gone, I really want to get back to the sort of Green Lantern stories we were getting before Sinestro Corps War. I'm sure Hal should have been fired by now.

Next month, Detective is dropped, Blackest Night has ended and there is no Secret Files. So we have some new arrivals to the long boxes: Zatana is looked at and Justice League: Generation Lost joins the party, hopefully with better interior art and Ted Kord.