Hal Pictures Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!: February 2011

Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!

Now with Guy Gardner's Seal of Approval!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Farewell to Winter

I am actually going on a vacation. I NEVER go on vacation, so this is actually rather exciting. My Sweet Baboo is among the top 60 Agricultural Tire sellers in the country...so they are sending us to Hawaii for a week. Well, actually Maui. But who am I to quibble?

I've never been to Hawaii. Cape Cod has pretty much been the sum of my excitement. So I won't be posting for a week, and you'll all have to just get by without any blows to Hal's head, or butt shots. I know that it will be tough, but we can all DO it!

Wait, I won't be on-line for a week? I don't think my heart can stand it. ON the other hand, I do plan on sitting in a hot tub with a tall drink with a tiny umbrella in it for a couple of days, so there is that.

kooeykooeykooey

I fully expect Winter to be completely over and all of the snow melted by the time I get back.

Aloha!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Reveiws

Remember last week, when I was all happy and excited about my comics. Well, that ain't happening THIS week. This is the crankiest that I've felt about my books in a good long while, and not being a particularly nice person, I am nursing my misery with all my might.

Action Comics #898.

Actually, this wasn't bad. I haven't been reading it with any regularity, and I mainly picked it up because it had Larfleeze in it. I love Larfleeze. He looks a little bit different than he normally does, but what the hey.

Green Arrow #9. Again, not bad. Not great, but not bad. Etrigan has been freed from Jason Blood through the agency of the magical forest...somehow. The trees are fighting back, there's flames and fire, and Galahad gets eaten by a large tree. Oh, and big icky spider thingies show up. I'm assuming that this will all tie in with Brightest Day somehow.

Gotham City Sirens #20.

Whoa! Who knew that Harley could be so bad ass? I've always seen her as mostly comic relief, but she DID run with the Joker after all, and apparently there are a whole lot of things that she's capable of. This was actually pretty good, with Harley breaking INTO Arkham, and causing a certain degree of mayhem along the way, on her quest to kill the Joker. I doubt that she'll succeed, but it should be fun to watch her try.

Justice League: Generation Lost #20.

Oh...where oh where should I start? I really disliked this particular issue. It is the supposed back story of Max Lord. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense and completely contradicts several other stories, not to mention getting the names of his parents wrong, but hey...this is Winick! Continuity is for OTHER mortals! Actually reading up on your characters is for pussies, apparently.

Max has shot Jaime in the head...just like Ted! Oh, he's just so dastardly. Booster screams a lot, and they break into the Checkmate ship, and we are treated to a whole lot of flashback about Max and his motivations. Supposedly his father was a whistleblower for the company that he worked for, but they killed him and made it look like suicide. Hey, that's exacty what he's done to Ted! And his mother taught him to always have a plan, but she got blowed up when Coast City went kaflooey, so naturally that's why Max actually hates superheroes...because bad things are actually THEIR fault!

Max escapes, while still trying to make them believe that he's doing this for the greater good. Yeah right. They can't pursue him, because they have to take care of Blue Beetle, and Rocket Red manages to get through the armor, only discover that yes, he really is dead. Completely dead. Dead as a doornail. Pushing up daisies dead. Dead, dead dead.

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Isn't that sad? Hold the phone, who put the croquet balls inside poor Tora's pants? That's truly scary. They match the ones on Bea's chest!

Sorry, I'm still not buying it. I don't think that Jaime's dead, and I don't much like Max's retcon either. What about his wife? The Conglomerate? Kilg%re? And all of the other stuff from his past that has been chronicled throughout the history of the JLI? This isn't QUITE as horrible as Ice's idiotic origin, but it isn't very good. Of course, right now I'm so pissed at Winick, that he could walk on water and cure cancer and I'd STILL be cranky.

This blows.

Justice Society of America #48

Why do I keep getting this? I don't like the storyline, it doesn't make much sense, and it's awfully hard to actually read. So I'm going to drop this. Again. Really, this time I mean it.

Power Girl# 21

This is the first issue of Power Girl that I've actually picked up since the departure of Amanda Conner. It wasn't absolutely horrible, but it wasn't very good either. It's nice that Peej is sorry for beating up the JLI, and it's also nice that she can actually remember Max Lord now. She's trying to convince Dick, and he keeps forgetting everything, then Bruce comes in, and HE remembers Max. He ad Dick dig up Ted's corpse, and after a lot of idiotic denials by Dick, they establish that Ted was indeed murdered.

There's just one teensy weensy problem with that. Ted's body isn't in his grave, Booster took it to Vanishing Point. So...it's awfully hard to perform an autopsy with no body. But hey, it's Winick!

I'm starting to really sound bitter.

And that's that. I need to cleanse my palette, so I think I'll go back and read all of my Giffen/DemMatteis JLI's and actually ENJOY myself.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tiny But Loud

This wasn't what I was originally going to blog about today. I was just over at "DC Women Kicking Butt" and then at CBR, and I am filled with rage. LOUD rage.

The CBR has done an interview with Judd Winick, and got his thoughts about how Justice League: Generation Lost is going, and finishing up, and what the heck is happening with Jaime and so on and so forth. The so forth of course refers to his mind-boggling retcon of Ice's origin. And this is what he had to say.

"...there's a tiny but loud contingent of people on the web who didn't like that we
revamped her origin..."

The contempt in that sentence is simply dripping.

Well count me as one of the tiny but loud continent. Because I was VERY loud about it and I will CONTINUE to be very loud about it. It was a gawdawful revamp. There was and remains NO real reason to retcon her story. There was nothing WRONG with her story. Giving her a generic X-Men story is neither daring or original. There is also the tiny little problem that involves the whole friggin' Justice League since there was a whole story arc concerning her Ice Kingdom and family. But hey, he's Judd Winick! He can throw continuity out of the window if he wants to, because he's just so hip and happening. And can't be bothered to actually read up on the characters that he's writing.

Could someone enlighten me, as to HOW exactly Ice's new origin story has had ANY sort of bearing on the story being told? What was the point? And I'm not even going to go INTO how enraged I'll be if he does the unthinkable and actually kills off Jaime. Jaime is one of the very best new characters to come down the pike in a very very long time. Hell, Winick, while you're at it, why don't you kill off the Reyes as well? There's a sweet little girl just waiting to get whacked, and you're just the man for the job!

I should probably stop now. I'm getting awfully cranky. Maybe I'll go and get my new books and see what happened in JLI. But I'm not feeling particularly hopeful.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Something Is Going On with the Guardians

Boy howdy, but Krona was dropping hints about the Guardians in the latest issue of Green Lantern right and left. And to be honest, considering their track record as of late, I am not completely without sympathy towards his point of view. What I really found to be interesting however, was that pesky little preview that they showed us in the back of Green Lantern #62.

We see Krona hanging out with his bestest buddy Ganthet. I smell a retcon on the horizon! Not only that, but Ganthet and the rest of the little blue munchkins are all decked out in flowing white robes, and instead of a Green Lantern emblazoned on their tiny chests, there is the Symbol of the White Life Entity.

Well, I never!

Krona apparently knows all about the various emotional entities, and thinks that the Guardians are a bunch of idiots for thinking that emotion is BAD. They have a certain amount of evidence that proves their point, such as Larfleeze and Atrocitus...and yet, didn't Atrocitus become what he is, BECAUSE of the Guardians and that little slip-up with the Manhunters?

But anyway, there are hints being laid that ONE of the Earth Lanterns isn't going to be about after the War of the Green Lanterns. At first I thought that they were going to kill one of the boys and my heart was in my throat, but looking at the wording, they simply say that one of the 2814 Lanterns is "lost". And then there is that cover with the blacked out silhouette of someone holding a lantern and being welcomed by Sinestro and crew.

So naturally, I am QUITE intrigued. It won't be Hal. Obviously. Hal is being described as "unstable". Well duh. Hal's always unstable. You would have thought that the Guardians would have figured this out by now. I doubt that it will be Kyle. They just killed the poor baby, and he's been resurrected, and stuff. I thought of Guy of course. He's got that whole Red Ring of Rage thing going on, so I suppose that it would make a certain amount of sense if he jumped to the Red Corps. On the other hand, I think that it is a bit TOO obvious. And that silhouette definitely didn't look like Guy.

So...that leaves John. He's really the only one that hasn't been killed off yet. I don't think that they are going to actually kill him, but I would imagine that John is a bit problematic for a lot of writers. What do you DO with John? He's the good soldier, stoic, competent, efficient, but not particularly flashy. He keeps his head down and gets the job done, but he's not going to make a big deal out of it. He's a bit of a dark horse. So, making him the center of a new story would be a welcome change. Or it will get him out of the middle of things. I suppose that it could go either way.

But Hal is fairly close to John, probably more so than to Guy or Kyle, so I could understand him being upset. And it is another way for Hal to focus all of the attention on himself as well, which is always manna from Heaven for Hal. He doesn't necessarily mean to, but somehow it ALWAYS ends up being About Hal Jordan.

So. Whom do YOU think the "lost" Lantern is going to be?

Monday, February 21, 2011

Green Lantern Corps #57

And the Brouhaha on Qward continues in this issue! Firstorm shows up, carrying over the theme from Brightest Day, but it must be admitted that he doesn't actually DO a whole lot. He does seem a bit surprised to come across the White Lantern residue that the Weaponer is using against Sinestro. I'm sure that eventually this will all be important.

A lot of this story is told from Soranik's point of view. I'm getting the impression that she REALLY doesn't like her Father. And actually, who can blame her? It's a bit like waking up one day and discovering that Hitler was your Dad. She really can't blame the Weaponer TOO much for having such a hate for Sinestro, and she's not particularly thrilled that Kyle got all hysterical and called for Sinestro's help in the first place.

Abiding by the truce, which means that the Sinestro Corp and the Green Lanterns can't actually USE their RINGS against one another, they figure out a way to beat the tar out each other sans rings. And John discovers that there are a whole LOT of really nifty guns and things. The Qwardians were all mad at the Weaponer at first, but then he saves them, so now they are just getting confused. Ganthet keeps hanging around making cryptic remarks, which isn't really helping.

Things seem to have settled into a bit of a stalemate, so Sinestro rather cleverly, makes the Weaponer an offer that he can't refuse...or at least he doesn't. He agrees to join Sinestro! I'm not sure if he's going to try and take him down from the inside, or he figures what the hell, but it catches everyone by surprise. So, the Sinestro Corps leaves, and Sinestro manages to get off a few more quips, Soranik is revolted, and Ganthet says that they have to go back and fight Krona now.

A lot of action, although it probably could have been compressed a bit more. I found the artwork by Tyler Kirkham to be a bit on the scratchy side for me, although it was perfectly servicable. Still...not quite up to the caliber of artwork that I've come to expect from the Green Lantern books. But not a bad issue. I have a feeling that Kyle and Soranik are going to be having a talk sooner or later.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Happy Birthday Hal

Here's something that I Did Not Know until just now...Batman's birthday is February 19th, and Hal Jordan's Birthday is February 20th. For some reason, I find that rather mind-boggling. Because I can't really think of two men who are MORE different from each other.

But anyway.

dancing hal

Er...that's ONE way to celebrate I guess.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Green Lantern #62

And things are beginning to get...interesting. Hal actually shows up in this issue...and gets his firm taut ass handed to him, by none other than Krona. A tiny wizened creepy-looking Krona. Hal even mentions that he used to be taller, which I found to be oddly amusing. But boy howdy, does Doug Mahnke make him look eerie.

Krona is quite the fellow apparently. According to him, at any rate, he's the one who imprisoned Parallax in the Central Battery in the first place...not to mention inventing the Sciencecells and the handy dandy pocket universe that they use to keep their lanterns in. Unlike the Guardians, he doesn't think that emotions are necessarily a bad thing. Of course he's also responsible for accidental creation of the anti-matter universe, but hey, ANYone can have a bad day. The Guardians aren't real big on forgiveness apparently.

So naturally, Hal being Hal, he starts using his ring against Krona...with very little effect., although he does manage to get a few lucky licks in. During their battle Krona keeps up the running dialogue, some of which is QUITE perspicacious...and some of which is out and out crazy. Krona probably isn't dealing with a full deck of cards at this stage. Barry is dithering on the outskirts of the battle, when the rest of the various corps show up, with the exception of Carol and Sinestro who are busy doing other things. So everybody attacks!

Krona calmly tells Hector Hammond who is working as the Greed entity, the Ophidian to...deal with them...which he does quite handily. Boy, does Hector still have a thing for Carol! Even Atrocitus shows up, but Krona manages to grab him, and figure out that he's got the Butcher, Entity of the Red Ring hidden away in his own battery. Why that sly boots! And before you can say Jack Robinson, Krona has managed to corral the Red entity as well. Naturally Hal isn't having him just walk away and attacks again.

And wakes up battered, bruised and just a little groggy. Batman, Barry and Superman are standing over him, looking concerned. Well...Superman and Barry are looking concerned. Batman is being...Batman. Hal has four broken ribs, a concussion and a black eye not to mention various cuts and abrasions. He looks oddly hot for being so beat up. But his battery is there, and he charges up and looks good as new, while Batman yammers on about Parallax and Atrocitus. Barry and Superman just want to help. Batman probably just wants to keep an eye on him. Hal himself points out that Bruce has only been back three weeks, but he's right back to being a jerk.

Heh.

Then all of the rest of the gang shows up, St. Walker, Larfleeze, Indigo and Atrocitus. Barry and Superman still want to help, but naturally Hal turns them down and disappears with his new hoodlum friends. That's no way to keep treating your old JLA buddies Hal. On the other hand, this sort of thing IS perhaps just a touch out of their league, pardon the pun. Well, Superman could probably help but just what the heck Batman or even Barry could do, is beyond me.

So, we're moving closer...ever closer to the start of the War of the Green Lanterns, and a confrontation with Krona and probably the Guardians as well. I liked this issue. It isn't really that often that Hal LOSES so conclusively.

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I can't help but think that Krona is off to find the Star Sapphires next, and since he's got Hector Hammond in tow...it should be quite interesting.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

One Heckuva Week...Reviews

Yet another pretty darned good week for Comic Bookery.

Brightest Day #20. Poor Arthur. He's just having a HECK of a bad day. As you all recall, Black Manta managed to cut his OTHER hand off last issue, and is just about to have his head join it, when Aquakid tackles him. Gosh, I just love that kid, he's a pretty good new character. Fortunately for him, Mera shows up with Aquagirl. Arthur is quite relieved, since Siren had told him that she was dead. Never believe the baddies.

So...it is the four of them against ALL the bad guys that have been released from the Bermuda Triangle. Arthur has Jackson cauterize his new stump, which had to hurt, but Aquaman is all brave and stoic about it. But Mera upstages everybody, by holding back ALL the water on the beach, although the strain of it makes her nose, eyes and ears bleed. Atrocitus would have loved it. Then she uses the water to grab all the evil guy's boats, and they all get flung back into the water, hotly pursued by our intrepid quartet. And Aquaman gets to do that humming thing and attacks them with an army of DEAD SHARKS AND STUFF! Jackson uses his power to seal them all in the Bermuda Triangle again, and Arthur forgives Mera, basically saying that the four of them are outcasts, but that they can be outcasts together. It's a rather lovely moment, which the Life Entity completely ruins by saing that Arthur has accomplished his mission...life returned...and Deadman shows up and Arthur is zapped and disappears in a blast of white light, leaving the rest of them all sad.

I'm beginning to wonder about the Life Entity. First the Hawks and now Aquaman...each blasted away just as they were about to score. He's got to be the biggest damned cock-blocker in the Universe!

Ivan Reis did the artwork and it is simply gorgeous. This was a REALLY beautiful issue,and things were just humming along. Next up...Mars!

Booster Gold #41

Rip threatened to take Booster back to stand trial for his crimes, which leads to a lot of confusion and recriminations. In the middle of all this, who should show up, but Doctor Nishtikeit, who has decided that he is going to be Booster's Nemesis...not to mention Arch Enemy. And he's doing a pretty darned good job of getting through Rip's defenses. Poor Rani is starting to freak and have flashbacks to when Booster saved her on Daxam, so he gets Michelle to get her out the way.

Meanwhile Nishtikeit is doing a remarkably good job of blowing stuff up, and even knocks Rip down and out. Booster decides that he's had just about enough...especially because Skeets gets blown up too. NOT SKEETS!!! Rip is rather surprised by how emotional Booster is over Skeet's destruction. And Michelle put on her suit and shows up to help. So...it's Booster vs his new Nemesis. Except that Booster can barely remember this guy, and thinks that he's just a jerk anyway. But Booster handles him pretty well, except that he kicks him in the calf before teleporting away, and making ominous promises about it. I'm sure that he's injected Booster with something that will come back to haunt him eventually. It is standard Bad Guy Procedure.

They pick stuff up, and fortunately, Skeets is put into a spare body, his main parts were undamaged. Rip keeps a lot of spares just in case. And believe it or not, Booster agrees to go back with Rip to stand trial. They sentence him to five years in a prison! Booster can't believe it, what about all the good that he's done, and Rip explains that they ARE taking that into consideration. But he's a good boy, and he agrees to go along with it.

So we end with poor Booster in jail and about to get a rather nasty new cell mate.

I'm horrified that they've locked up Booster, but quite intriqued about what is going to happen. So, a good book.

Doom Patrol #19

This continues the cross-over with the Secret Six from their book. The Six had been hired by a really revolting twenty-something with a lot of money and a turn for villainy. He wants to take over Oolong island and make it his own new Lair of Villainy. Except Veronica Cade already runs it, and has the Doom Patrol as her security. Naturally mayhem ensues. It's fun, although not quite as witty as Gail's version. It more or less ends in a draw because the volcano starts to erupt which puts a damper on things. The Six decide, the heck with it, they're going home, and the kid gets caught and taken care of, but the Doom Patrol end up fired anyway. It's a nice little book,and although I don't read it that regularly I am quite disappointed that it is going to be cancelled.

Fables #102

This is as good as usual. The Fables are going up against the Dark Man again, and have taken Pinocchio's advice to put on costumes and do it as Super Heroes, since Super Heroes ALWAYS win in the end. Ozma is skeptical, but admits that having an extra bit of confidence isn't a bad advantage. Bigby comes back and sees what Ambrose is up against in Haven. A nice issue that is setting things up for the big confrontation.

Green Lantern #62. Oh Hal. Never ever change.

Green Lantern Corps #57. Well! I did not see that coming!

Justice League #54. And now we have Eclipso showing up again. He's collecting all the characters that have shadow powers for some reason, so naturally we get the Shade and some other people. I was expecting him to go after Obsidian, but no, he wants Jade! Which is what ties it into the new Justice League, because really, they don't even show up in this issue. It is mostly set up as well, but it's not bad. At least I'm interested, and will keep on with it. I WILL say that I think the art is just gawdawful.


After all the hoohah about how great Batgirl was, I went back and picked it up, and I'll be dipped, but it WAS awfully cute.

I love weeks like this.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Earth II?

Once again real life intersects with Comics. The other night, I was watching a rather interesting show on the Science Channel, or possibly on National Geographic...and it was all about Earth and the Moon. We're the only planet that has such a large moon, and the show had the rather remarkable theory that the moon is one of the things that may have made life possible on our adorable little planet. Oh, and there was an Earth I, until we got hit by another small planet called Orpheus. The two planets combined into one, and the moon got blasted into space. So now we occupy Earth II.

Of course with 52 and the Multiverse, there are probably a whole bunch of other scenarios out there. But still...I thought that it was cool.

So...off to the comic book store, because it's going to be a very very nice week.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Dan Dideo...Will You Be My Valentine?

Well actually I already HAVE a Valentine...my Sweet Babboo is back from a week-long business trip to Tucson, and I ever so happy. Of course he has the Mother of all Colds, so I am slightly less happy, but still...! I'm glad that he's home, safe and sound.

But seriously, I want to express to Dan and to DC Comics, a little thank you for giving me such pleasure month in and month out. Yes, I may piss and moan sometimes, when things aren't exactly to my liking. And yes, things could be better...a whole LOT better. And yet...I really DO love my comics. I would miss them terribly if they suddenly ceased publication or something equally heinous. I get distraught enough just when books get cancelled or when favorite characters are gratuitously killed off.

But then again, sometimes those books come back. And if they don't, the characters from those books may continue to show up. And yes, heroes die, but on the other hand, they usually come back. Usually.

So...hearts and kisses to Dan and DC. And if you want to give ME a little Valentine's present...could you stop killing off people? Pretty please? And bring back Ted Kord. And the Dibnys. And Barda and Scott. And Ryan Choi. And get Wonder Woman back into her book doing Amazonian sort of things. And Guy and Ice back together. I'm sure that there are a few other things that I would like, but I don't want to be TOO greedy.

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And look, Soranik and Kyle make such a sweet couple. And she's not even dead! Yet.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #7

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Oh I am just loving this book. It had a bit of a slow start there for a while, but things have certainly picked up. MAN do they pick up!

As you all recall from last months issue, Sodam Yat has been taken over by our nasty nasty villain. It wasn't hard, since Sodam is pretty pissy at the Guardians at the moment. He thinks that Guy is actually one of the Guardians, and he's not happy. Not happy at all.

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That's ok, Guy isn't feeling particularly jubilant either. Oh, and there is that little thing with the giant snake trying to swallow him, the way that Bleez got gulped down last issue. With Guy and Bleez out of the way, our Bad Boy decides that now is the perfect time to performa double-cross on Krona, and he starts to activate all those poor clones of the telepaths.

You would think that being swallowed by a giant snake would be the end of you...but you would be wrong. Guy is still alive and kicking, and he manages to use the mind meld thingie to get his snake to attack Bleez's snake. This was a rather...visceral portion of the book, but I'll be damned if I didn't like it...bloody eyeballs and all. Bleez isn't doing too well, but she and Guy manage to swap spit...or blood, or whatever, and our boy is back in fighting trim! Woohoo!

Zardor is NOT happy. Guy and Bleez manage to round up the poor clones, and Guy sends a bunch of them off in a nice green ship, much to Zardor's displeasure. However, Guy is on something of a roll, and he proceeds to open a can of whup-ass on Zardor...not to mention gouging out his third eye. Too bad that during all of this, one of Zardor's snakes is busy purging Krona's influence over Sodam...and substituting his own. Ick.

Zardor may be down, but he's not out, and he lets Guy have it with his nice flaming sword. Apparently there are souls or something of people that he's killed trapped in the sword, and when he tags Guy with it, Guy's mind connects with one of the victims, and he's a bit distraught. Zardor is just about to take his head off...literally, when the cavalry, in the form of Arisia and Kilowog show up. Yay!

Guy's shrieking about someone named Aleeson, while Arisia tries to get some sense out of him, while Kilowog fights Zardor using constructs of the dead Green Lanterns. Meanwhile poor Sodam has come to, and he begs Kilowog to kill him before he succumbs completely to Zardor's thrall. Kilowog can't do it of course, so Sodam zaps him with a little heat vision and he grabs Bleez and Zardor and they get the hell out of Dodge.

While Arisia tends to Kilowog, Guy takes off after Sodam Yat, and is taking a kill shot, when Arisia slams into him from behind...and they get away. Guy's pissed, but probably a bit secretly relieved, while Arisia is still going to try and save him. And oh by the way...Guy does thank them both for showing up to save his sorry ass. Which is more than Hal probably would have done.

There is a certain amount of gore here, and snakes. Lots and lots of snakes. But I don't care. Guy is being awesome, and that's enough for me. And Arisia and Kilowog came back, as I knew they would. Man, I can hardly wait for the next issue!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Reviews!

Not a clunker in the bunch. This was a rather fabulous week, all things considered.

Let us begin with Batman & Robin #20. Finally...FINALLY we have Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason back together again. Oh boys...I've missed you! This was a pretty darned good issue. We begin with Dick, Tim, Alfred and Damian making smoothies and popcorn in the kitchen, and then heading in to watch a 70" television screen. Bruce obviously doesn't skimp on the essentials. Oh, and Bruce does show up, and they all settle back to watch "The Mark of Zorro". Once Bruce removes Damian's i-pod earbuds, that is.

*sigh*

It was a rather special moment. And then we get Dick and Damian as Bats and Robin out doing their thing, before leaping into the car driven by Alfred, so that Dick can attend some opera. Alfred continues to be sensational, tying a bow-tie ONE HANDED, while maneuvering a car no less. He also mentions "What's Opera Doc?" which just makes my girlish heart go pitter-pat. And then some guy with angel wings ends up splattered all over the red carpet, which is something of a downer.

They scrape the poor fellow up and take him to the police morgue, where Robin is being snarky, much to the displeasure of Commissioner Gordon, who lets the little brat know that he doesn't much appreciate his attitude. Then they're back up on the roofs and Batman finds a suicide note inside a gargoyle's mouth. Oh, and Manbat shows up for some reason.

This was really really good.

Birds of Prey #9. Black Canary is having something of a rough time, since she was touched by Mortis in the last issue. She's busy revisiting every regret she's had...and she just happens to have a lot. I rather agree with Ollie's remarks however. In the meantime, the rest of them have been "kidnapped" by the Calculator and his henchmen and henchwomen. Zinda isn't making it particularly easy on the various henchpeople. I just love that woman to death. Hawk shows up and is obnoxious, but that's par for the course. Batman is surprisingly UN-obnoxious.

Canary in the meantime manages to break Mortis' little mind-whammy, which doesn't surprise me particularly, but it IS rather satisfying when she does it. Mortis certainly wasn't expecting it. And the hostages decide that enough is enough,and Dove goes to town. Then Oracle shows up in a black helicopter and gets blown up by the Calculator.

Yeah right. Again, this was a lot of fun.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #1

More of Cinderella, super-spy extraordinaire! I don't know that I would wear a bikini in the middle of a Russian winter, but that IS a nice hat on the cover. It's actually a bit of a flashback, wherein she's investigating some Russian Fables, who set up shop completely separate from Fabletown. It's here that she first runs up against another agent code-named Silverslipper. And who that actually turns out to be was a TOTAL surprise to me...and yet...it works and works wonderfully.

Excellent. As usual.

The Flash #9. The premise that leads to Flashpoint apparently gets its start here. They are reopening a bunch of cold cases, so Barry has to go into work on the weekend, so he misses the picnic, much to the chagrin of the rest of the speedsters, but at least we get to see Wally and family briefly. But they've found the body of an old man. Barry is quite startled to learn his identity from his fingerprints, as it turns out to be a kid named Elastic Boy. Boy? That seems...odd. And then some guy on a REALLY fast motorcycle shows up, and Barry chases him, till they finally catch up, and he's again QUITE startled at the identity of the rider.

I...am intrigued.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #7.

Oh...my...God. Last week, over at CBR, Greg Hatcher wrote a rather interesting essay titled "Saturday's Irrelevant Relevance". He said among other things that one of the things that makes a comic good is that one moment, that "Fuck Yeah!" moment. Well, let me just say that this book had that moment.

In Spades. More tomorrow.

Justice League: Generation Lost #19.

I do have to say that the covers to this book have been uniformly excellent. And with a couple of caveats this is a pretty decent issue. In what seems to be a flashback, Jaime is talking to Paco and Brenda about the powers of the Scarab. Of course, he's actually providing information to Max Lord, who is having an awfully good time torturing our young Blue Beetle.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang is happy that Power Girl is finally on board, but they want to have her go to the rest of the Heroes and fill them in on what is REALLY going on. And this time, it doesn't seem as though she's going to forget, which is a step forward. It's nice that things do seem to finally be coming together. Oh, and somehow between the last issue and this one, Tora decided to go with the bare midriff look. Yecchhh. For God's sake Tora, have a little dignity.

Back at the Checkmate lab, Jaime manages to get the Scarab rebooting, and sends out an SOS to the JLI, and manages to hold off a furious Max. It turns out that Max and Ivo have been hiding out inside what appears to be a giant Knight chess-piece under the Sea of Japan. So, our doughty heroes and heroines bust in, and Max does what he does best, and shoots another Blue Beetle in the head.

Again...yeah right.

I mean... I suppose that it IS possible that they have once again killed off both a minority and legacy character, albeit a very popular one. This IS Winick after all. And they show Booster cradling Jaime's body on the cover of the next issue. But it is all being just a little bit TOO telegraphed. In a way it is a little bit insulting...it almost feels like we're being taunted in a way. But I'm not going to start screaming...yet.

Yet.

And finally, Legacies #9. Our rapidly aging humble cop continues to tell the story of the DC heroes, this time focusing on Hal Jordan as Parallax. Superman is back, and Batman is healed, but Hal went bonkers, and Kyle showed up, and then there was Final Night and Hal re-ignited the sun, and then took over as the Spectre. It's not a bad little recap. What continues to baffle me however, is that the narrator seems to fluctuate in age so rapidly. Everyone else seems to have only aged a couple of years, but he's gone from being a robust blond cop during Final Night to a ninety-year old retiree in a flash. Seems a bit weird.

But still...an awfully good week.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

No Snow!

For the first Wednesday in what seems like a month or more, there isn't any snow or sleet or hail or fog that is keeping me from going to the Comic Book Store. It...it feels wonderful!

So, I am off to read my precious four-color darlings. But I did manage to find a Blue Beetle figure at the store. It is Jaime Reyes, which I don't remember seeing before...and it is gorgeous. So now I can pose him with my Ted and Booster figures. It also came with the left leg of a large Trigon figure. I really doubt that I am going to be getting all of the figures, so I'll have this weird odd leg laying about.

They are also coming out with some really gorgeous Brightest Day figures, in addition to all of the Blackest Night ones. Do you think I'll be lucky and they will make a Blackest Night version of Ice? Probably not, which is a damned shame.

God, I love Wednesdays.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Well, the Superbowl is Over

And I have to do something with all of the leftover shrimp. Not to worry however, I'm SURE that I'll be able to think of something to do with it.

In between all of the drama of the 400 people who bought tickets but weren't allowed to see the game, and Christina flubbing the National Anthem, and all the rest of it...there was actually a fairly decent game played there. I wasn't rooting for any team in particular...I AM a Patriots fan after all. I was really watching for the commercials. Oh, and the new Glee episode afterwards.

The commercials were something of a disappointment, but dang it, Glee was fabulous. And their halftime show was FAR superior to the Super Bowl. But it got me to wondering. What if you were to combine Glee with the Green Lantern Corps? Or for that matter with ANY of the DC Universe. It could be a heck of a lot of fun, that's for sure.

I want Ice singing Touch A Touch A Touch Me to Guy. Or Kyle doing the Eddie part in Whatever Happened to Saturday Night. As you can see I also have Rocky Horror on the brain. Can you think of any appropriate songs and heroes?

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Heroes and the Press

It has just occurred to me, that there seem to be a LOT of superheroes who have reporters for girl friends. I'm not sure exactly why that is.

There is Lois Lane of course. The UBER-girlfriend. The Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, and incidentally Superman's girlfriend, occasional stalker, and finally wife. Lois was a career girl when most women's careers consisted of getting married and having babies. Lots and lots of babies. So I've always been rather proud of Lois for being the trail-blazer. Granted, she got a little nuts there for a while in the Silver Age, but what the heck.

Iris West, the love of Barry Allen's life is also a reporter. Iris doesn't have quite the following that Lois does, but nevertheless, she is out there drinking lattes and keeping the public informed.

Linda Park was a television journalist. She is also married to Wally West. Flashes sure seem to like journalists.

Carol Ferris may not have been a reporter, but she DID run her own company, which was pretty unusual for the time. Power Girl has her own company, at least some of the time. Heck, even Black Canary owned her own Flower Shoppe. Barbara Gordon was a librarian, and now she's basically running the world. Lady Blackhawk is a pilot. Heck, Huntress being a teacher is actually one of the more traditional workplace roles for women. I wouldn't misbehave in her class,I can tell you that.

I have to say that I'm proud of a heck of a lot of DC women, when it comes to supporting themselves. And I'm proud of the heroes who love them. And, as usual, I've wandered away from the original theory of my post, concerning why is it that so many superhero girlfriends seem to be into journalism. Are there any more that I've missed?

Friday, February 04, 2011

Reviews!

A little bit late this week, but I risk my beautiful silver fenders for NO man! It seems as though my pull list is getting smaller, because I just don't seem to have as many books anymore. Oh well...easier on my pocketbook I suppose.

Let us begin with Neal Adam's Batman: Odyssey #6. I will say this from the start, that this book is a mess. A ridiculous and absurd mess, and yet, so help me God, I love it so. Perhaps it is the absurdity of it all. It is turning into the campiness that I was originally looking for in Cry for Justice before it got all bloody on us.
I couldn't really tell you exactly what is going on here, but it is all so pretty that I just don't care. Batman ends up fighting everybody in Arkham, and Deadman is inhabiting the Joker's body, and Ra's Al Ghul shows up with a bunch of other people and Man bat, and Robin, and some other kid dressed up like Robin, and Talia, except that it isn't REALLY Talia, and one of Rah's kids except that he looks older than his Dad, and it is simply wonderfully horribly bad.

The best part is that Batman runs around screaming and waving his hands and in general sounding and behaving like Hal Jordan. They've even colored his hair dark brown instead of his customary black locks, so he even LOOKS like Hal, which makes it all the more enjoyable. This is a lot of fun in a completely stupid sort of way.

Brightest Day #19

Oh my Goodness! I did not see that coming. And probably neither did poor Aquaman. Black Manta and Siren show up and they aren't pulling any punches. Aquaman and the new kid show up and are doing pretty well, but oh Lordy, that last page!

Bummer, man.

And the Life Entity is proving itself to be a real dick as well. Still, I'm breathlessly hanging in there, because we're getting to the nitty gritty finally. And did I mention how pretty the art is?

Gotham City Sirens #19

I can't really explain exactly why I like this book, but I do. I'm not a Bat fan, although I do seem to be getting drawn into reading more Bat books for some reason. But I've always liked Selina, and Harley has her charms, and hell, even Poison Ivy can be interesting. I really like the Broker, the guy who finds all the Gotham City Baddies, their cool hideouts. Because only in Gotham City, would this guy have put together such a great career. I really hope that nothing too terrible happens to him.

Zatanna confronts Talia about wiping Selina's memories, and that all ends fairly well, all things considered. But while trying to help Selina talk through her troubles, Harley realizes that SHE is feeling just a tad ambivalent as well. So, pretty decent all things considered.

Jonah Hex #64

I...I am not quite sure what the heck happened this month. I love Jonah Hex, but this was one weird story. He does his usual, ride into town looking for a bath and a drink routine, and this really weird woman named Rosa takes him off to her place, and keeps making odd suggestions. He keeps telling her to keep her distance, but does end up accepting a bath and a drink, but he draws the line at letting her anywhere his throat with a razor. Then he goes to the saloon and has to fight off the usual over-eager local looking to make a name for himself. Then Rosa attacks him at night because he had rejected her before, and after he fights her off, and rides off, she runs around declaring that she loves him, but the other townspeople decide to beat her up...or something.

What the hell? The art was ok. I could have done without the EXTREMELY graphic portrayal of Hex shooting two idiots in the saloon through their heads, with the exploding eyeballs and such. I really can't see what it contributed to the story, it was just icky for ickiness sake. And I don't consider myself to be very squeamish, but still...!

I didn't understand Rosa's motivation in the least. She is just apparently...crazy. No underrlying reason for her blowing hot and cold. Hex at least seemed to find her a bit unbalanced, and got the hell out of Dodge, which was probably the most sensible thing for him to do. But it has to be one of my least favorite Hex stories so far.

Bleh.

Secret Six #30

Now THIS on the other hand, was wonderful. We begin with Bane all dressed up, and going on a blind date with one of Lianna's friends at the club. Bane doesn't have a CLUE how to behave on a date, but he DOES decide that the young lady is worthy of being mated with, and hands her some flowers. I could have just stayed with this part of the story for the whole book!

We do jump to the incredibly slacker teenager, who does nothing buy lie around and play video games all day. His mother has had it, and so has his stepfather, and they basically toss him out on his ear. But before she hands him his suitcase, his mother gives him a little something that his grandfather left him in his will. Dear old Granddad leaves him his story, his wisdom...oh and a particle cannon, his four mistresses and about three billion dollars. Naturally, young Eric decides to father in his grandfather's shoes, and...disposes of his family before hooking up with his slacker buddies and recreating a gangster version of the ratpack.

He wants a volcano hideout...as any self-respecting young villain would. I would like a volcano hangout too, all things considered. Except the one that he wants belongs to someone else. So he hires the Six to go get it. And they end up going against the Doom Patrol. This will of course be continue in the Doom Patrol book, but it is a whole lot of fun.

Oh, and Ambush Bug shows up for some reason.

I am in heaven.

Time Masters #6.

Finally! Alas, this is the final issue. It really didn't end up having that much to do with finding Batman while he was lost in time, and you know what? I am perfectly fine with that, because we got to see baby Rip hanging out with Daddy Booster, which is always fun. Professor Zoom shows up for some reason, and spanks our heroes before zipping off, but at least he gets to make fools out of Superman and Hal Jordan. Zoom also spills the beans about Booster's little run-in with the law back in the 25th century and Hal gets all self-righteous about it. Quite frankly, I don't see where Hal has any right to be indignant. It's not like Booster went CRAZY and killed a bunch of people while trying to restart the Universe or anything!

Ahem.

But they end up crossing paths with the Black Beetle who acually looks red now, and Supernova shows up, and Liri Lee takes Waverider's powers and Vanishing Point is restored and...and stuff. Oh, and Supernova isn't Daniel at all, but actually an older version of Booster...which I had actually guessed...and we got to see and talk with Rip's Mom, which was fun.

And they all end up back at Rip's lab, after Michelle chased off the Time Stealers, and no harm done, except that somebody decided to write on Rip's magic black board.

Jurgens obviously loves these characters, and he does a beautiful job drawing them, and dang it, I miss him on Booster Gold as well. So I enjoyed this a lot. It didn't make a whole lot of sense if you sit down and pick at it, but I don't care. And I just wanted to SLAP both Superman and Hal for being jerks through the whole thing. They should have brought Guy instead.

I hope that eveyone was able to brave the snow and claw their way to the Comic Book store!

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

It's Raining, it's Pouring...

It's friffin' Snowing. And Sleeting. And possibly hail, fog and locusts will be following for all I know. The piles of snow are so high, that the snowblower can't reach the tops any more. Needless to say, I'm getting just a wee bit tired of snow. AND it is Wednesday, and I can't go to the Comic Book Store, which is just some more frozen icing on the cake.

Pooh!

So...since I have absolutely nothing better to do, I have a proposal for you all.

Which Green Lantern would YOU like to Date, and where would you go?

We all know that Guy has some...interesting ideas when it comes to the proper venue for a date, such as porn theatres and cockfights. That's not exactly MY cup of tea, but it just might be yours. Personally, I think that being flown into Space to view the Orion Nebula would be a blast...if it was followed by hot chocolate afterwards.

Would John Stewart want to go see Mamma Mia for the fifteenth time? Would Kyle just want to go out for coffee? Would Arisia like to go shopping for My Little Ponies? Would Hal want to go shopping for mirrors? YOU be the Judge!