This Week's Haul...At The End of a Long Haul.

I'm back!

I have five weeks of comics to catch up on, so this week's reviews are a little late. The stack of comics from the past month or so is daunting, but I am up to the challenge. I pledge here, today, that I will read every single one of those comics. Because I am a trooper. A rugged, fearless trooper.

I also have five weeks of comic book news and rumours to catch up on. (Final Crisis? Yay?).

Ok, the best way to get these reviews done is to just dive in. Just like riding a bike. And so forth.

The Immortal Iron Fist #8

What is it about Iron Fist that is so appealing? Beyond the fact that it combines some of the best writing and art on the stands right now, this book is just so delightfully macho. And not macho in a babes and guns kind of way. Not even macho in a Green Arrow Year One kind of way. Macho in a way that the men are men, and the women are also men. And everyone is really good at fighting.

This is the first issue of a new story arc that I am saying right now is going to RULE. Look at how this issue ends:

I was enjoying reading this so much. I want to pick up a controller and play this comic book.

Green Arrow Year One #4

And speaking of macho, this mini-series continues to roll along on gritty, testosterone-filled tires. Still on the island, Ollie gets a very disgusting protruding arm bone set by a local enslaved pregnant lady/doctor. She gives him some opium for the pain, and next thing you know he's a total junkie. Suffice it to say, Green Arrow's rookie year was a tough one.

I should clarify: I am really enjoying this series. Based on this, Black Canary should totally marry the guy.

Birds of Prey #109

This week I am all about the segue.

Dinah and Babs have a heart-to-heart about Oliver, which mostly involves Babs telling Dinah why she should not marry him, while Dinah gets angrier and angrier. It ends nicely, though, with Dinah saying that if she decides to marry Ollie, she would like Babs to be her maid of honour. Well, duh. Who else is it going to be? Wildcat?

They really need to just have Dinah say yes and move on because there really isn't any suspense here. Especially with an ad for the upcoming wedding issue being inserted into this very comic.

The real joy of this issue came from the Barda plotline. First, Barda learning about Pokemon from Sin was fantastic:

And also, Scott Free on the phone with his wife as they discuss the current threat against the New Gods:

Oh, those two.

Tony Bedard does a great job with this issue. It was lots of fun.

Astonishing X-Men #22

As an aside, I recently started watching Buffy for the first time. I am now almost finished season 2, and damn. I can see why people like that show. So I can also see why people go batshit crazy for anything that Joss Whedon lays a pen to. Not that I wasn't already enjoying this series and his issues of Runaways.

This issue was every bit as beautiful, funny, and sexy as the others. And I thought this was a fun moment:

Lockheed's a mole!

This issue has a very sad ending.

Batman #668

So I've been hearing for the past few weeks from various comic fans that Batman #667 was the greatest thing, like, ever. I finally got to read 667 and 668 last night and daaaammmnnn. Oh, Mr Morrison. You just do what you do so well: Unearthing crazy obscure crap from the past and polishing it until it is absolutely brilliant!

As usual, it is easy to argue that Morrison is more interested in treasure hunting in the sliver age than in telling an accessible and entertaining story. BUT...this story is definitely entertaining, and with minimal research (a Wikipedia search for "Batmen of All Nations") it's also an accessible story. And even if you don't want to learn about the Batmen of All Nations, or The Club of Heroes as they have since been renamed, I think everyone can enjoy a good old-fashioned murder mystery where party guests on an island are being killed one by one. That's just something that never gets boring. And it allows Batman to do what he does best...figure things out!

And intimidate people:

Oh, Batman. Were I trapped on an island at a real-life Evening of Murder party, I would be very glad that you were there. Unless I were the killer. Which I very well could be.

You know who would be a surprising killer in this storyline? Robin. It's always who you least suspect.

Blue Beetle #18

I love this series so much, and this was even better than usual. The characters are so likable, and the dialogue is so damn funny. Now Jaime is hanging with the Titans and fighting Lobo, so the hilarity is flying!

I really liked all the arguing about sensible uniforms:

The Titans/Beetle have to take over a rocket launch, so Kid Devil gets sent in to clear the launch control centre of actual employees. The result is one of the funniest scenes I've seen in awhile:

Awesome.

And the last highlight I'd like to point out is this exchange between Jaime and Tim:

Jaime gets invited to hang out with the Titans whenever he likes. Yay! Tim can really use a new friend.

Superman #666

This must have been fun to write.

It's definitely a confusing story, but one that involves the Phantom Stranger, Zatanna, a demon from the extinguished Hell of Krypton and a Superman who is mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore.

As best as I can understand it, Superman has had his soul split by the Phantom Stranger so he would be able to face the demon from Krypton without being corrupted. Basically, we get to see the douchebag half of Superman have a little field day in his dreamworld. Or something. I don't really know, but it's fun.

See Superman not care about people!

See Superman kill Lex Luthor...with his spit!

See Superman toss Lincoln out of his chair so he can use it as a throne:

See Superman hand Jimmy Olsen an ironic death:

Ouch!

Anyway, everything is back to normal in the end. But it was a fun ride. Fun and confusing.

The Spirit #9

I was able to meet J. Bone briefly at the Toronto Comic Arts Fair over the weekend, and say hi to Darwyn Cooke. Now I hear that they will both be done with The Spirit as of issue #12?! Noooo!

If you are going to leave a comic book, then you should at least have the common courtesy to make your last few issues really, really suck so it isn't so hard to take. Sadly, this issue totally rules, just like every other issue of The Spirit. God dammit.

Alright, that's all I have to say on this week's comics. I still have a lot of reading to do until I'm all caught up on everything. This time next week I'll be super informed!

This Week's Haul: I Want to Join the Sinestro Corps

A comparatively light week for me, so this should be a breeze! Sorry for the delay, but weird holidays mean late deliveries.

Sinestro Corps #1

Ho. Ly. God.

This was fantastic. Y'know what I liked about this? EVERYTHING.

The thing is, DC really needed this. So far their attempts at a summer blockbuster cross-over have been lacking. Amazons Attack is fun in theory, and the actual mini-series is well-written and looks good, but the problem is that it's just not really working as an event. I'll talk more about it later. The other major DC event, the Lightning Saga cross-over, didn't work as well as it maybe should have because it was so damn confusing. Countdown isn't working because...it isn't working. And that brings us to the end of the list.

So, Sinestro Corps. It's great. For one thing, all you needed to read leading into it was Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. To continue following the series after this one-shot, you still only need to read those two titles. No sweat. However...it also references 52 and continues the events in that. In fact, it gives us more info about the new multiverse in one issue than Countdown has in eight.

The beautiful thing about this is that it's a Green Lantern event for Green Lantern fans. Even though there are important DCU events happening, it isn't going out of its way to pull in other fans. I'm sure non-GL readers will pick this up, and maybe will go back and read the two excellent series that lead to it (note to DC - it would have been a good idea to get some GL trades out before this), but this is written for existing fans. Sinestro is not attacking the Teen Titans, or Green Arrow, or Jonah Hex. He's attacking Green Lanterns. But the members of the Sinestro Corps...and who is behind it...damn. I don't want to give away the ending, but it's great. Everything that happens in this book is crazy. Including the big giant battle, which is only the beginning of what is going to be a crazy good war.

I also want to thank Guy Gardner for proving my point:

Supergirl is for pervs.

Oh, and the back-up Sinestro story? Also awesome. I don't feel that I give Geoff Johns enough credit on this blog as one of the great comic writers. I'm saying, right now, Geoff Johns is great.

Amazons Attack #3/Wonder Woman #10/Teen Titans #48

Alright, so as I was saying, Amazons Attack is fun in theory, but just isn't working as well as it should be. This might be because its foundation is the very mediocre Wonder Woman title, which not that many people were reading, and even fewer were enjoying. But I think the real problem is that there is too much going on in the DCU right now for any of this to matter. I keep forgetting that Amazons are attacking Washington. The mini-series should have come out over four consecutive weeks. Dragging it out as a monthly title doesn't make any sense, especially if there are no related titles to fill in those weeks. No real mention of the Amazons for three weeks, and then three titles at once come out. It just feels like, once a month, the Justice League has to drop what they're doing and go to Washington to fight Amazons.

Like I said, the writing and the art on Amazons Attack is very good. I loves me some Will Pfeifer, and Pete Woods draws some very pretty Amazons. And I really love Superman taking out an Amazon with a dumpster, and then picking up the dumpster so he can put it back where he found it.

And I love Batman's laptop.

But, just, overall this is a weird event. No one is talking about it, and no one will remember it. Most people just seem to be ignoring it. And that's the thing - you can ignore it. It really doesn't seem like it's going to matter at all when it's over.

Wonder Woman was bizarre this week. Especially this, which made my brain explode:

And other than that, it's just so meh. I am really looking forward to Gail Simone taking this thing and running with it.

Teen Titans had nice art by Al Barrionuevo. Look at how tough these girls look!

That's what I'm talking about!

It had a good battle between Supergirl and Miss Martian. Other than that...I don't know why, but Teen Titans just bores me. I cannot care about these characters. I like watching Tim Drake lead, but that's about it.

World War Hulk: X-Men #1/World War Hulk: Frontline #1

Frontline bored the hell out of me during Civil War, so I was not expecting much out of this. But it was pretty fun. Possibly because WWHulk is way more fun than Civil War overall. I mean, this comic was about the sixth re-telling of the first issue of WWHulk that we've seen, but it was still interesting enough. And we got to see some of the other aliens who are rolling with the Hulk:

Frontline was actually pretty damn entertaining. There were a lot of funny moments. Like this one:

So true.

And a big fluffy kitty!!!

Aww, who's a fluffy kitty? Who's a fluffy kitty?

Alright, I'm done.

X-Men was, I thought, really fun. It's also great because we finally get to see Hulk doing something other than beating on Iron Man (wow...I never thought I'd get bored of that). Now he's beating on...children. At Xavier's school.

I just really liked the premise. Hulk wants to find out how Xavier would have voted had he been present during the Illuminati's decision to shoot the Hulk into space.

Nice cliffhanger! Looking forward to the next issue.

Daredevil #98

Lemme just say that Daredevil's escape from police custody...with his hands cuffed...RULED. It furthers my suspicion that Daredevil could possibly take Batman in a fight.

Beyond that, the scenes with Milla and Gladiator were really tense and great. That guy is so terrifying.

Superman/Batman #37

Hey, look what I'm reading again! I thought I'd try out the new story arc. It's written by Alan Burnett and drawn by Dustin Nguyen and the first issue is...pretty good? I dunno. There's no reason to ever expect much from this series (other than the fact that it is called Superman/Batman and it should therefore be the best comic ever).

This is not the best comic ever. But it isn't the worst one, either. I'm gonna take a wait-and-see stance with this one. Unlike most issues of S/B, nothing about it actually offended me. So that's a plus.

The art is doing the making-Superman-look-like-Brandon-Routh thing. I'm ok with that because Brandon Routh is hot, but I know it makes some fans go crazy.

Countdown Week 44

*sigh*

Once again, the highlight was the Piper/Trickster stuff, which sadly only occupied two pages. Other than those two pages, Bart Allan's death was pretty much ignored in the DCU this week.

I do love those two rogues, though.

Ooooo...who's watching them?

As for the rest of it...I don't know what's going on. I really don't. I guess we're not supposed to, but I also don't care. And that's bad. I don't care what Holly is doing with the Amazons. I don't care about Mary Marvel's new powers. I don't care about Forerunner. And, surprisingly, I am starting to not care about Jimmy's superpowers. I want to like this series so badly, and I was kinda digging it at first, but it's just...blah.

Blue Beetle #16

Ok, now THIS was dope.

Jaime meets Traci 13! And it's funny!

She's fighting Eclipso, and brings the battle to Jaime. The battle climaxes in this hilarious scene, as Eclipso threatens to release Jaime's deepest, darkest fantasies of ultimate power:

Lord I love that kid.

Traci and Jaime are cute together. Yay for teen romance!

Immortal Iron Fist #6

I have been wanting to read this series for awhile, but the issues always sell out really fast. I've finally gotten caught up.

I love this series so much. I love this issue so much. To scan and post one panel would imply that I love it more than all the other panels, and that would be a lie. Because every single panel of this comic is solid gold. I'm not being lazy. I'm being honest. And if you read this comic, you understand.

X-Men #200

Gambit!!!

I'll admit. I'm a closet Gambit fan. I know this may make me lose all credibility, but I was pretty happy to see him again in all his glory.

Aww...how can you not love that guy?

Alright, I'm out. Have a good long weekend everyone, if you are in Canada. And happy 4th of July to you Americans (or, happy Transformers Movie Opening). I'm betting that the comic shipments are going to be all messed up next week too.