Less Whacking, More Reviews

Let us take a brief reprieve from the Lantern bashing, to focus on the new books this week. As is usual, with the beginning of the month, at least for me, there wasn't a whole lot out there.

I did pick up the new Batman 80-Page Giant, because for some reason I am ALWAYS seduced the the 80-page giant books, and also because I just love that cover. It's by Dustin Nguyen, and it's just so purty!

We have a whole slew of short stories, and for the most part, I have to say that they've all been done pretty darned well. I loved the first one, with the Joker, who is busy establishing his insanity against the skeptical efforts of a television shrink, who wants to prove that he's sane so that he can be executed. The artwork by Szymon Kudranski is dark moody and fabulous.

The second story has the Riddler and Catwoman and is rather charming, the Calendar Man story is full of pathos, while the Scarecrow one is a bit...well, scary. The one with Killer Croc was disturbing, but a bit hard to follow, at least artwise. The one with Batman as Bruce Wayne AND Batman, called Two-Face isn't what you originally think that it's going to be, but it's rather clever. The one with the REAL Two-Face, not to mention the Joker is really quite good...and scary as heck.

All in all, a pretty good way to spend some time.

Brightest Day #15. Oh, this was excellent. Back to focusing on J'onn J'onnz, our favorite Martian Manhunter, with the glorious artwork by Pat Gleason. It's twenty-five years later, and J'onn is basking in the glow of a revitalized Mars, and the praise of his friends in the Justice League. Everything seems just fabulous until suddenly, all of the JLA ends up murdered, with the exception of Superman, who unfortunately also dies at the hands of J'onn himself. J'onn is horrified of course, until he figures out that the whole thing is a con, and that D'Kay has been messing with his mind all along. I wouldnt' want to be in HER shoes! Then Congorilla and Mikaal play some chess, and Firestorm shows up in a tizzy. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

Jonah Hex #62. This was an odd little story. Jonah is hired to transport...something mysterious, with a bunch of rather peculiar people, none of whom seem to like him very much. So what else is new? And some unsolved murders at the beginning of the book tie into the whole transport thing. It involves circus folk, freaks, and an unusual twist of identity, not to mention rules of honor. But good as always.

JSA Allstars #13. Starring Cyclone, and apparently a whole crapload of Cyclones, who have been replicated with nanites, and...and stuff. I really couldn't make heads or tails out of this, and I'm dropping it along with the rest of the JSA, which saddens me, but still...it Must Be Done.

Secret Six #28 on the other hand, was fabulous. I even wound up not hating Black Alice in this. The Six, not to mention the OTHER Six, manage to get the hell out of Skartaris, although there is a heck of a lot of mayhem along the way, and end up getting pardons from Amanda Waller...with a catch of course. Heh. I just love Waller. And that Shark guy is really into hot tubs.

And in my favorite moment, Giganta finally gets a bit of payback against the SOB who killed the Atom...and lordie, it is a beautiful moment. Violent...but beautiful.

Finally, there was Warriors Three #2 from Marvel. For some idiotic reason, some people from A.I.M. thought that setting the Fenris Wolf free was a good idea. We get a bit of old history of the Warriors from when they were young and just starting out, not to mention how they all ended up the way that they are. Volstagg rocks of course...he always does. And Fenris sounds a lot like Bigby which makes sense since Bill Willingham is writing this whole thing. There are still a lot of things that need to be explained, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Oh, and here's Hal.



Man, Bats just loves punching himself some Lanterns...and he's apparently not that picky about who he is going to punch.

*sigh*