Thursday's Reviews of Wednesday's Comics

Well! That...that was something of a let-down, to be completely honest. And I had been SO looking forward to some of these books. They weren't terrible...but they weren't as good as I had thought they were going to be.

Batman & Robin #26

I keep waiting for Tomasi and Gleason to be doing this, but is that even happening anymore? This issue just confused the heck out of me. Did I miss an issue or something? We have our dynamic duo fighting with some...guy in France, and a WHOLE lot of really really weird shit is going down. I can't even begin to figure out exactly what the heck is going on here, so I'm not going to try.


Booster Gold #47


Now this was actually pretty good. It's the last issue of Booster Gold (sob!) and I'm going to miss it terribly. I'm glad that Booster is going to be showing up in the new JLI, but I will miss Rip and Rani, and even Michelle. And Skeets. Definitely Skeets.

Booster does manage to defeat Doomsday...with a whole lotta help from Alex, the mysterious woman that he's hooked up with, who can channel other people's powers. Then it's off to find Barry West, who is the key to getting the whole megilla back to normal. Or at least close. What did confuse me, was that Booster seemed to know that it WAS Barry, and that Barry seemed to know who Booster was. I'm not sure that these two have ever actually...met. Barry hasn't really been back all that long, and they had the whole Blackest Night kerfuffle, so I'm not exactly sure when the two would have crossed paths...but presumably they have access to important intel on each other...or something.

Anyway. Somehow or another...it works, but poor Alex is apparently killed helping Booster. Dagnabit. Booster is back, but highly confused, and his uniform...his beautiful BEAUTIFUL uniform is in shreds. Which explains why he is in a new one in JLI I suppose. But a ghostly form of a woman...possibly Alex...shows up in Rip's time lab, and writes all those enigmatic clues on the board. A good issue, and a decent ending.

Retroactive: Green Lantern

Now this I liked of course. Len Wein and Joe Staton. I LOVE Joe Staton! I was particularly thrilled by the cover, which has Hal front and center, flanked by Guy and John, in their original costumes.

Well...it turns out to be a John Stewart story. And a darned GOOD John Stewart story...but I was expecting...well, Hal and Guy to be there too. Still, it tells how John was defeats the Shark, in a rather clever and spectacular fashion. Then he's cozying up to his girlfriend, Tawny, who just happens to be a television news reporter. After a few attempts and strike-outs, John tells her his true identity...because if you can't trust an ambitious reporter...then who CAN you trust?

Well, apparently John is a rotten judge of people, because Tawny immediately runs back to the newsroom, and reveals John's secret identity, his address, and practically everything else about him. John wakes up to the news blaring his identity to the world, reporters camped out on his doorstep, and all kinds of other exciting things. He is naturally a little bent out of shape, and confronts her, telling her that she's now made herself a target, but she doesn't care. And of course, Sonar, who wants to make a name for himself decides to kidnap her, and fights John. John can't believe that he's fighting a loser like Sonar, and naturally saves her. Then he goes on the air to inform everyone that she's NOT his girlfriend anymore, and if any of his enemies want to grab her...he won't care.

Heh. Actually, I loved this. Serves her right.

There is also a reprint of one of my favorite Hal stories...the one where he goes to the Guardians and DEMANDS to quit, because he's been in space for a year, and dammit...he wants some poontang. He goes back to earth to find Carol, and has a heart attack because she's kissing some other guy. Haw!

War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath #2

Damn. I had such high hopes for this. It started out so well...but this issue more or less falls flat. ALL of the various Lanterns are behaving badly, apparently all suffering from some sort of delayed stress or shock or something. A bunch of them convince Soranik to join them in busting into the Guardians lair and killing Sinestro. And she goes along with it! Guy, Kyle and Kilowog are cleaning up, and Kyle is sulking because Soranik is being cold. Then Morro shows up in a snit, because the Guardians have ordered Salaak to inter Krona in the Crypt where all the Lanterns are...and he just won't have it. And really, who can blame him? So they all fly off and confront Salaak, who is having stress of his own.

Kyle stops the bunch that wants to kill Sinestro, and they accidentally break down the door, and there are the Guardians who are more or less torturing Sinestro in an attempt to get the ring off of his finger...except that it won't COME off. Meanwhile, St. Walker is trying to convince Ganthet to come home to Odym, where quite frankly, he would be a whole lot better off.

The Guardians do eventually show up and have one of their patented hissy fits. Everyone is on edge, and very very cranky. Basically they tell everyone to piss off and go back to their sectors, with the exception of the Honor Guard, headquarters staff and the Alphas. They show the Alpha lanterns, the way that they used to look, which confused me, because weren't they all put back more or less right a couple of issues ago? Also, R'amey Holl is shown, and she was all glowing and evolved and hanging out with Von Daggle in the Corpse. Methinks that perhaps the artists, Ransom Getty and Andy Smith should have done a little better research.

The Guardians even boot out Kyle, although they at least do him the honor of telling him that they aren't mad at him...they just want him away from Soranik and John for a while. Guy pulls him aside, and asks him to look for Hal...he's been trying to locate him, but his ring can't find him. It's nice that SOMEone is worried about Hal...naturally it would be Guy.

The various Lanterns also decide that they had better clean up all of the floating remnants of poor Mogo that are above, and they toss all of his parts into Oa's sun...which now glows with a Green Lantern symbol...which is rather nice really. And Ganthet fulfills his promise to Atrocitus, by taking Krona's corpse and delivering it to him. This probably won't end well. The Guardians then tell Ganthet that they want to see him, and he starts babbling that what he did was the only way to stop another Battle of Light. They reply that, that is not why they wanted him, and all you see is them closing in on Ganthet with hands outstretched and eyes glowing.

Stupid Guardians.

Actually, the story wasn't that bad, although it DOES make me want to just slap each and every one of the Guardians silly. But the art was pretty awful...at least in comparison to the superior quality of artwork that is usually lavished upon the Green Lantern books. We've been spoiled.

Retroactive: Superman

Terrible awful things are happening on earth, and poor Superman just can't seem to get a good night's sleep. Then an evil and immensely powerful alien shows up and is going to destroy earth, or else make everyone slaves. Destiny of the Endless shows up and tells Superman that he has only two choices, resist and everyone dies, or submit, and everyone will be happy zombies. Naturally, Superman isn't happy with the choice, and Destiny proceeds to show him the future, with Hal going Parallax on everyone, and Wonder Woman snapping Max's neck, and other little goodies. Superman STILL isn't buying it, and refuses to give in, and it all turns out to be a ruse by Harbinger and a Monitor. They are trying to recruit Superman against the Anti-Monitor and...and stuff. It's not great...but it's not bad either.

Birds of Prey #15

Well, this is it, for this bunch of Birds,and frankly, I wasn't that impressed. Andreyko's script is...adequate, but I didn't much like the artwork, and I'm getting a little tired of Nazis. Not that I am particularly looking forward to seeing Poison Ivy as a Bird of Prey, because that's just...wrong on so many levels. And I'm worried about what is going to happen to Zinda, because Zinda rocks.

So a rather mediocre week.