What A Week!
Another wonderful week for comics!
Batman #7
I am loving this book...and that is something that I never thought I would say about a Bat Book. This whole thing with the Court of Owls has been inspired, and Batman, is NOT omnipotent, and he'd NOT ahead of the villains, in fact...he's a bloody mess. He's managed to escape, and gone stumbling back to the Cave, where he is discovered by a completely shocked Alfred. Alfred also found the body of the Talon, which despite his ordeal, Bruce insists upon examining.
Dick comes wandering in, during the examination and naturally wants to help, although Bruce is being taciturn and broody...as usual. Then he tells Dick that the Talon is non other than his great Grandfather, and that the Court picks their future Talons from the Circus, and implant an insignia that emits Electrum into their teeth, and all sorts of other very interesting little things. When Dick gets pissy, Bruce slugs him...and out pops one of those insignias!
Holy Crap!
This just keeps getting better and better. Greg Capullo's art is particularly good, I've never seen Bruce look so crazed, unshaven and just a little unbalanced. It's fabulous.
Batman Odyssey #6
Only one more issue to go, and I am also loving this book. This version of Bruce is so completely at odds with every other version of Batman, and yet...it's a heck of a lot of fun. Talia has been freed, Robin is free, and apparently Batman is telling the whole story to none other than Clark Kent. It turns out that Ra's was the one who kidnapped Talia in the first place...and she's not at all happy about it. Bruce goes on and on about how he figured it all out and that he won't kill except as an absolute last resort and a bunch of other stuff that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I don't care.
The art is gorgeous of course. It is also more fun, if you pretend that it is actually Hal Jordan instead of Bruce Wayne, because it just LOOKS like Hal, and quite frankly, he sure ACTS like Hal.
Good Crazy Fun.
Birds of Prey #7
Well, the Birds are all being attacked by the mind-contolled puppets of "Choke". The poor possessed people keep chanting nursery rhymes, and it turns out that Starling is possessed too, since she tries to shoot Batgirl. And that guy is actually Choke, but maybe not, and Canary and Poison Ivy are fighting, and then Katanna goes and does something that I certainly didn't expect! The art is lovely, and the story is lively, and it's a good value.
Fables #115
I liked this issue a lot more than the recent ones, at least something seems to actually be happening. Little Therese gets taken to Toyland by her toy boat, because they need a new Queen. Mrs. Spratt is found in the Fable Town office, and give them all a tale of woe. Beast wonders if he and Beauty shouldn't stay in Haven to raise their daughtere. And Snow White discovers that Therese is missing, while Bufkin is having his own problems.
A little less scattershot than recently.
Green Lantern Corps #7
The aftermath of last months thrilling conclusion!
Justice League #7
What the heck? I must admit to being just a tad confused by this issue. Suddenly, the Justice League is now formed, and they are the darlings of the entire country, with Steve Trevor as their liason to the government. In fact they are are SO popular, that the Government is starting to get a wee bit nervous. They even have the Satellite already, although it isn't explained exactly how that all came about or who paid for it. The Government even supplies them with...er...supplies. Which naturally Hal is eating on the side, because who has time to go grocery shopping? Hal is also having way too much fun being rude to Batman...simply because he can, and Barry naturally follows his lead.
Oh, and they fight some guy. And when the Government wants to exert more control over the League, Steve Trevor tells them what's for. And Etta Candy shows up as a slender attractive young black lady, who gets him coffee.
What really confused me...is that Batman is ranting to the good Colonel about what an embarrassment the new JLI is...and that the Government should kill it...before they do.
Whuh?
Excuse me, but wasn't Batman himself helping to FORM the JLI, and running around telling Booster Gold that he stood behind him, and that he's doing great? I am also highly confused, because the League has just formed, and I thought that it was supposed to have been formed quite some time BEFORE the JLI...not simutaneously. If Guy is a "highly decorated member of the Green Lantern Corps", how can Hal still be wet behind the ears? In fact, how can Hal be there at all, considering he is running around with Sinestro at the moment, and isn't even IN the Green Lantern Corps?
Seven issues, and continuity is screwed up already!
Oh, and the back up story has adorable little Billy Batson, trying to get adopted. Except that adorable little Billy Batson is actually...not so adorable.
Sigh.
Wonder Woman #7
Now this again, continues to delight and enthrall me. For one thing, Cliff Chiang is back, and may I just mention the cover? It is FABULOUS! Diana is standing there, holding a giant hammer, with a sword on a forge. Her back isn't arched so much that it looks broken. Her breasts aren't bigger than her head. Her arms have a bit of muscle. She is posed...just as a MALE super hero would be posed...and I am thrilled! And she looks beautiful as always.
We learn a whole lot of new things in this issue. Eros shows up, and is glad to see his uncle Hermes. This actually confused me a bit, since I thought that Hermes was his father, but what the heck. And he takes them all to see Hephaestus, because they sure could use some weapons. Hades sends a monster into Mt. Etna, where the forge is, because he's feeling cranky, and it kills some of his workers, but is beaten off by Diana. She is then stunned to learn, that these guys are actually her...brothers! Turns out that Amazons don't just have girl babies, nor is she the ONLY daughter ever born to the Amazons! In fact they go out to passing ships a couple of times a year, and bonk the sailors, push them overboard and then go home to wait for nine months. If the baby is a girl...woohoo! If the baby is a boy...well, tough luck. Or in this case, Hephaestus shows up and trades weapons for the boys, whom he raises to be his aides.
Diana is more than a little stunned by all of this, and decides that she's going to free her enslaved brothers...except that they don't WANT to be freed, they like it there, and they love their master. Diana is having a really bad day.
It's not the old Wonder Woman at all...and yet...I can't help enjoying this book. Just so long as I keep telling myself that this is a COMPLETELY different universe, and that this isn't the REAL Wonder Woman. Because it is so completely divorced from what I have always known as Wonder Woman. But it is beautifully told, beautifully drawn, and dammit...it's a good story! Of a different Diana.
posted by SallyP @ 3:47 PM
7 Comments:
I don't get the internet fury over WW 7 - i thought it kicked ass, and felt very true to a lot of old myths (especially some of the grittier Roman ones).
As for JL, DC had said the plan was to do the first arc "5 years ago" and show us how they met, then jump to the present. I think a lot of the details will be revealed. I think that method of story telling is easier in TPB format, or a TV episode. Not a single issue. Also..."We got this"?
I miss thick sassy Etta. Her race change didn't bug me, but after what they did to Amanda Waller I'm bummed to see DC do it again.
I...uh...I did eventually figure out that there was a tiny box on the first page that said "Present Day".
Oops.
Well that rather takes the wind out of my sails!
However, I am still perplexed as to why Batman is so cranky over the JLI when he helped to set them up, and how it is that Hal is even with the Justice League, since he doesn't even have a ring...other than the one that Sinestro gave him. Which Geoff Johns is also writing.
I miss plump Etta too.
I'm actually enjoying Wonder Woman, and its decidedly different take on the Greek Gods, mainly I suppose because I simply adore Greek mythology. I do have to wonder however, if the Amazons run out and have babies all the time, why did they call Diana "Clay", and make fun of her?
I am also confused as to what is going on with Hal. As far as Batman's JLI hate...Bat mood swings? The mix of books that are "5 years ago" vs "present" makes it hard to line things up.
Good question about the Clay thing. I cant recall if Azzarello says whether or not the other amazons know Zeus is her dad? Maybe it's a "we know your mom's story is a bunch of BS" thing.
As far as I can tell, nobody knew that Zeus was her father, since Hippolyta was trying to protect her...and that's why she apparently came up with the whole "clay" thing.
But still, if Amazons had been having sailor-babies all along...it doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Etta was actually slimmed down in the Simone era, too.
I can't help but notice how DCnU Etta kind of looks like the actress playing Etta in the failed Wonder Woman TV pilot.
DC's logic in choosing when and when not to synch up with the TV versions completely escapes me. They swapped out our familiar Ollie Queen for the Justin Hartley "Smallville" version, and they used the WW pilot's Etta, but they didn't give us the John DiMaggio "Brave & The Bold" Aquaman, and they stuck with the name "Teen Titans" when relaunching as "Young Justice" would have made a hell of a lot more sense given the current popularity of the YJ cartoon. And were the Johns/Frank versions of Billy Batson and the Big Red Cheese ANYTHING like the YJ cartoon versions?
I agree Face, that it does seem strangely arbitrary. But then just about everything about the relaunch has been arbitrary, when it comes to which characters have been summarily booted into limbo, which ones have had their entire prehistory erased, and which ones survived relatively unscathed.
It...really isn't making things any easier.
JLA was a punch directly to my continuity. I mean 5 years... 5 years of what exactly? They should have been like 5 years of super condensed crisis and apocalypses if in 5 years we already have 4 green lanterns, Batman incorporated (Batwing in Jli...) and what not... and really Batman, that thing of working with Booster, telling him that he was a real hero and then talking behind his back, not cool man. not.cool.
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