Tiny Reveiws

Fifth weeks are always...interesting. And I have to say that although I only got three books this week, they were darned good books!

Batman: Odyssey #5

I have completely given up trying to make heads or tails out of this book, because it makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever...and yet...and yet, I'm enjoying the piss out of it. It's as though Neal Adams is just drunk on booze, adrenalin and ideas, and those ideas just keep pouring out of him and onto the page. And the art...well, it IS Neal Adams!

For all of you who were worried, Robin is alive and well, and didn't get blowed up by Batman last issue, and Bats has somehow figured out how to beat Sensei, and Ra's is probably behind stuff, and they go and rescue the women from the Troll people, and there are dinosaurs, and backstabbings, and arial fights and...and more insane stuff than you can shake a stick at. What really excites me, is that Bruce is narrating this whole story to someone...and he's wearing a Green Lantern T-shirt as he does it, and he's so happy and excited and the complete OPPOSITE of grim and gritty...and for that alone, I love this book. And look who is doing the colors! Moose Baumann! I love Moose too!

This crazy insane book.

Justice League #6

Well the pooh has hit the fan, and Darkseid has Superman on Apololips where he's being tortured, and Batman is hiding in the shadows,and Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Hal are fighting Darkseid, and Cyborg has figured out that he can manipulate the Mother Boxes, and PING!

Superman gets loose, Batman and he manage to get back, and Cyborg more or less saves the day by sending Darkseid and all of his cronies back, and fixes it so that the Mother Boxes don't work, and Woohoo! They saved the day! But they are still worried that the general populace still hates and fears them, but not to worry, everyone realizes that they are Heroes!

Super Heroes!

And the President has a nice ceremony, and they all stand there and kvetch about how they have other stuff to do, besides just hang out and solve the world's problems, but Flash is just so happy, so he thinks they should be called the Super Seven or something. They do get it straightened out eventually.

Was this the greatest story about the League ever? Well, no, but still, it was reasonably fun and exciting, and Wonder Woman really seemed to enjoy punching things, and Hal was reckless, and Barry was endearing and Arthur was actually pretty awesome, and Superman was ok, and heck, even Batman wasn't completely annoying. So I liked it.

There was another story at the end, involving that lady in the purple hood, who is apparently called Pandora, and she runs into everyone's favorite fellow, the Phantom Stranger, who isn't particularly happy with her shenanigans. I...foung this intriguing. Very intriguing.

Shade #5

God, I love this mini-series.

Shade is still trying to figure out what is going on, and talks to his great grandson, who just wants a bit of his blood, so that he can survive Leukemia long enough to figure things out as well. So Shade goes to Barcelona, and teams up with La Sangre, who is a rather nice Vampire, who fights for the People of Spain. She insists on calling him Father, and he's NOT, but he was there when she was more or less born as a Vampire, and it all has stuff to do with why HE doesn't have real blood anymore, and there is a most unpleasant Bad Guy named the Inquisitor, that they are going to have to fight, and heck, it is just a helluva lot of fun. And Shade looks so dapper in his spats. I love spats.

So that is it for the new books.

But continuing with Guy Gardner being the most awesome Green Lantern...



This is Guy NOT being a Green Lantern, but being a Gal during the whole Warrior thing. This was by Beau Smith and just happens to be one of the funniest issues he ever wrote. Dementor has turned Guy into a woman, and he's not taking it very well. But rather than moan and cry and whine about it like MOST guys do when having a gender-bending experience, she just buckles down, grits her teeth and goes out and kicks Dementor's butt the way that she is. AND, she's wearing MORE clothes than he normally would, which is a bit of a thrill as well.