New Books Came In Yesturday
And most of them were quite nice.
This is the second time that I'm trying to post this, as my wretched computer keeps kicking me off in the middle of things. Gah!
Firstly, there was Grant Morrison and Philip Tan's Batman & Robin. Excellent as usual. It IS Jason under that shiny red hood after all. We also learn something rather startling about Jason's hair, and expose a slightly kinky side to Bruce, although I suppose it all makes sense in context.
Anyway, Jason's brutal methods of dealing with criminal is about to bring some unforeseen consequences down on his and Dick and Damien's heads.
Doom Patrol was ok. I don't really know that much about them, I'm REALLy just getting it for Maguire's Metal Men in the back-up feature. And what a feature it is! Hilarious!
Final Crisis: Run! is the final issue of the 6-parter, and of all the epilogues to Final Crisis, this series was my favorite. We followed former schlub and loser, Mike, the Human Flame, as he struggles to achieve his personal goal of Ultimate Power! And he DOES! However, being Mike, it all falls apart in a rather...interesting way. Definitely worth your time.
Jonah Hex continues with 6-Gun War. Turnbull's assassins show up and do their assassiny things. A traitor gets his. Tallulah and Jonah continue to show their unique brand of affection. Bat is getting cold feet. This is really really good.
Justice League: Cry for Justice. Finally, FINALLY, Ollie gets his conscience back, Freddie is probably the smartest one amongst them, Supergirl decides to flirt with Freddie instead of Hal, Hal actually has a moment of clarity, and Ray remains quite pissy, all things considered. Oh, and Mikaal and Congorilla have some more bonding.
I have to admit to enjoying this in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Yes, it's pretty bad, but the art is pretty, and I keep cracking up at some of the ridiculous dialogue. Oh, and the Shade shows up, which is automatically good. Gosh, I just love the Shade.
And the final page is the clincher. You have a whole bunch of the rest of the Justice League, all standing around posing prettily. Too bad that somebody stole Zatanna's REAL outfit, and she had to make do with a Halloween Hooker costume. But when the Flash says "...You've got some EXPLAINING to do", all I can do is hear it in Ricky Ricardo's voice, and imagine Lucy somewhere in the background. Yes, I realize that I'm dating myself.
Finally, I got Strange Tales from Marvel, which is a bunch of utterly ridiculous short tales by various other writers and artists, and I have to admit that it is a hoot. A hoot and a HALF!
I hope that you all enjoyed YOUR books!
posted by SallyP @ 12:56 PM
15 Comments:
May I ask what you learnt about Jason's hair and Bruce's kinky side?
Saranga: Apparently Jason's hair is red (with a white streak from the Lazarus Pit) and we only thought it was black because Batman made him dye it so nobody would know he was a new Robin. Can you say retcon?
And re: Cry for Justice: not only is Zatanna's costume all messed up but for some reason Firestorm is white. I hate when they do that...
Also re: Cry For Justice: what happened to Hawkman's hairy chest? Dammit, we hairy chested guys have to have somebody in comics who looks like us. And it's always been Hawkman. I don't know why that annoys me so much, but it does.
They just WANT you to think the streak in Jason's hair is from the Lazarus Pit... but we all know he's been possessed by Parallax.
Strangely though... Parallax hasn't really changed Jason's personality very much. :)
wasn't one of the earlier explanations that Jason was blond if not for Bruce's decision to have him die his hair so that criminals thought it was the same Robin as before? Think that was the case for a while until someone realised that Jason had first appeared stealing the tires with black hair... so is this a re-re-re-retcon?
As for Justice League: Cry for Justice, I like parts of it, but I am not too happy with Robinson taking so much liberty with the characters' attitudes towards each other. Having Ray tell Ollie he respected him but they were 'never friends' is kinda out of character. Sure, he was closer to Hawkman, but that doesn't take away from the friendship he had with others, Ollie definitely included, and Ray's too nice to insult someone like that even on his bad days (and he's had a lot of those).
Plus, there was that earlier issue of Batman and Hal always hating each other 'more than Ollie and Hawkman'... sure, they disagreed based on their contrasting approaches, there was Bruce's refusal to help Hal out emotionally (go figure) in The List (but same goes for Ollie), and after Parallax Bruce definitely didn't trust Hal, but that doesn't change the fact that for some time they genuinely did get on with each other as friends. I seem to remember Bruce putting Hal up for JLE chair saying he couldn't think of anyone who'd be better for the job...
It's great reading Cry for Justice, and watching Ray talk about how villains don't deserve mercy and all of that, and then we flip back to Blackest Night where he's being described as one of the few beings left who really understands and embodies Compassion, and by extension forgiveness.
Cry for Justice is such a delightfully entertaining train wreck. I LOVE it. :-)
Of all the people being written ridiculously out of character in Cry for Justice!, I would have to say that Ray ranks at the very top. Ray was NICE for heaven's sake! If he could get along with Hawkman, he could get along with anybody!
And that's a very good point about him being the one full of compassion in Blackest Night. In Cry for Justice, he's the LEAST compassionate of the bunch.
So, it IS a train wreck...but a darned entertaining one.
As for Zatanna's hooker outfit, and Hawkman's missing chest hair, I can only assume, that with Hal and Ollie gone, the rest of the Justice League got bored, and when they were approached by one of those Reality Shows that "improves" the way that you look, they had a weak moment and gave in. Hawkman got waxed, and Zatanna got hosed.
i think you've hit the nail on the head about the reality tv show thing..
ooh... someone get Geoff Johns to write a comic about a reality show featuring a group of superheroes :P
When Jason first removes the mask and we see the red hair with the white streak, did anyone else think "Jason Blood?"
And am I the only one who thinks that the Red Hood also being Etrigan would be really awesome? Admittedly, it would make no sense, but what does that matter?
I went back to take a look at the Hawkman and Zatanna images and couldn't help but notice: why does the android Red Tornado have such a prominent crotch? Sure, Morrow may have built a water elemental android with breasts, but I don't expect him to put in a crotch for the male ones, or the Red Tornado to attempt to hang onto a body with a crotch just for the sake of feeling more human...
Heh. Wik, I noticed that myself. I can't say that it makes a whole lot of sense for an android to have male genitals, but I suppose that his wife doesn't mind, and neither do I.
In fact, ALL the guys are fairly well endowed, which is quite a treat for the ladies for a change.
And yes, I don't understand the whole thing with Jason's hair at all. Unless that really ISN'T Jason, it's someone who THINKS he's Jason...or something.
Your Obedient Serpent answers all your hair care questions:
When Jason Todd FIRST appeared, pre-Crisis, he had brown hair. Yes, after he became Robin, he started dying it black, but that was HIS idea, not Bruce's.
(Okay, it was the editor's idea, most likely, as prompted by the guys in Marketing. But still, in-story...)
When they rebooted Jason in "The New Adventures", post-Crisis and post-Year One, we did indeed first see him with black hair. So THAT'S the retcon.
Since post-IC Earth is an amalgam of pre- and post-Crisis timelines, it makes sense that Obnoxious Post-Crisis Jason would have some elements of Original Pre-Crisis Jason grafted onto him.
So this is a RE-retcon.
Personally, my interpretation is that Jason made the choice to dye his hair himself, but now, he's blaming Bruce for it, because he's blaming Bruce for everything.
Doom Patrol was ok. I don't really know that much about them, I'm REALLy just getting it for Maguire's Metal Men in the back-up feature. And what a feature it is! Hilarious!
Amen. I wish the Metal Men could have their own book, written by Giffen and Matteis. Even though I just re-read 52 trade and Giffen outright said in the author's comments that he never cared for the Metal Men...confound me, but I like his work on it nonetheless. I just wish he'd make Tina a little less snarky.
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