The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Well...it was an INTERESTING Comicsbook week certainly. First, the Good.
Justice League of America #20....by Dwayne McDuffie and Ethan Van Sciver.
For one thing, it is an actual STORY by McDuffie as opposed to some weird half story, stuck in the back of what I assumed was his own book. Secondly, the art by Van Sciver is just lovely. What in incredible amount of difference it makes, to have a good artist on the book. I believe that good art can save a mediocre plot, but even a fantastic writer can be dragged down by bad art, since Comics are mainly a visual medium. So, this issue was a treat.
It's mainly a nice team-up between the Flash and Wonder Woman. Diana wants to know if Wally is going to be a little more dependable, while Wally is a little on the defensive side. I know that he is currently having money troubles, but surely they could work out some sort of salary or stipend from Batman for those JLA members who need it. Plus, the whole "putting out the fire" explanation was nicely done. They get to fight Queen Bee who is trying to make off with some sort of matter transmitter, and have to fight innocent people as well as outsmart her. A nice little twist at the end.
As for the Bad...
The Death of the New Gods #8....Jim Starlin and Art Thibert.
Urghh...this was pretty bad. Not to mention pointless. Darkseid and the Source end up pontificating at each other for most of the book, and sound EXACTLY ALIKE. Then Orion's spirit or something shows up, and New Genesis crashes into Apokolips, and Superman gets knocked unconcious a number of times. It also has nothing to do with what apparently happened in Countdown last week. So all of Jack Kirby's characters have been assasinated and for what exactly?
Speaking of Countdown...let's go to the Ugly.
Countdown to Final Crisis #1...a bunch of guys
Oh sheesh. I stuck with this you know. The whole bloody year. I loved 52, I really did, and I was hoping that DC could do it again, but with the exception of a few flashes of brilliance, it was pretty much a waste of time. Things happened, and characters ran around a lot, and a whole lot of alternative Earths were destroyed, but in the end, nothing much happened.
Mary Marvel was seduced to the darks side, but found redemption and was good again...and then just for the heck of it apparently, went BAD all over again. WTF? Was it really necessary to destroy poor Mary?
Jason Todd is still an asshole. He was at the beginning, the middle and the end.
The Ray, Donna Troy and Kyle Rayner huffed and puffed and tried to scare the Monitors. I don't think that they were nearly as intimidating as they thought they were. Kyle needs to get the heck away from this mess, and stay on Oa with Guy, where he'll be safe. Jimmy Olsen is still a nebbish, and apparently Holly and Harley are best buds. And the fight between Darkseid and Orion was done completely differently in Death of the New Gods. This is just confusing to everyone. I've said it before and I'll say it again, do the Editors even know what they are supposed to be doing?
I love my comics, I really do, and I don't enjoy getting cranky. So, Birds of Prey was pretty good, as was Checkmate and Fables. I enjoyed Ultimate Spider-Man, and Thor actually came out, which was nice.
All I can say, is that Final Crises had BETTER be GOOD!
posted by SallyP @ 7:06 AM
5 Comments:
Hey there,
I also felt the same way about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Or pure horror, as others may call it.
I loved Diana for obvious reasons.
Fables was great, Cinderella can really kick ass.
The rest... meh. I can't wait for Trinity and DC: Zero.
And more Green Lantern!
Sally, you need to be reading Alan Davis' ClanDestine! It's a lot of fun, especially since the old, original Excalibur team is now involved! :-)
I bet you'd enjoy the heck out of Project Superpowers, too. Green Lama rules! ;-)
I totally agree. I liked JLA (I like everything Van Sciver draws), really disliked Death of the New Gods and totally felt like DC wasted my time and money. And I guess Darkseid boom-tubed away after that battle to Mary's apartment? Then fought Superman (who beat him back somehow? you think Darkseid would have been surprised or something); then fought giant Jimmy Olsen, then was surprised when Orion showed up? Then was ripped apart, even though Superman had just ripped him apart and he easily put himself back together? I guess that's because Jimmy regained control. I don't know. It was bad.
And Countdown totally was a let down. I stuck with it all year too, and I agree nothing really happened in it.
The only other comic I bought was Batman, which would have been awesome if they could only get a halfway decent artist on it.
I liked JLA for the most part, I did feel Van Sciver was a little stiff in some places. Also Wally West can't make very good excuses.
It was just so nice to have a solid coherent story for JLA for a change.
On the other hand, I get the feeling that the guys doing Countdown couldn't seem to remember exactly WHAT it was that happened LAST week. It was so...choppy. And it just seemed to peter out at the end.
Death of the New Gods just seemed pointless from beginning to end. It didn't even really make any difference to Countdown, so they killed off a bunch of rather cool characters for nothing.
Birds of Prey was good though.
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