Teeny Tiny Reviews

The beginning of the month, is always the smallest week for me.  And yet...there were some pretty decent comics out there this time.

Action Comics #12

I never even knew that Lois HAD a niece, much less one with superpowers.  And the bad guy has just had poor Lois get hit by a car, as he battles Superman.  Turns out HE was an alien who landed in a cornfield himself, but somehow things didn't turn out for him quite the way that they turned out for Clark.  He feels that he and the kid have been specially chosen, and that the rest of the earth's population are just...cattle at best. 

Superman is doing his best to fight, but having some problems, since this guy can mess with his mind.  So he empties his mind, and goes to town!  Defeats the bad guy, saves the kid, and rushes poor Lois to the hospital where he is informed that her injuries are too grave.  So he runs down to the hospital library, reads every book in 10 seconds or something, and comes back and performs his own surgery, using his own X-ray vision, heat vision, and every other kind of vision that there is, and making the surgeons feel very very inadequate. 

Then he goes home, and realizes that his landlady is from the same place as Mr. Mxyptleksllkjl;skdf or whatever, but she's been looking out for him, and puts a mind whammy on everyone, so that they don't think he died at all, because, as Batman said, Clark Kent did good too.

Whew!  I swear to God, by the time I was done with this, I was convinced that Grant Morrison was channeling Bob Haney for a while, because it had so much of that good old Silver Age insanity going on.  It was crazy...but I loved it. 


Justice League International #12

Well!  After defeating the bad guys last issue, the gang all shows up at Gavril's grave to pay their respects, when they get blindsided, by the grieving brother of Lightweaver, who was accidentally killed off last issue.  Lightweaver was a lunatic and a murderer, but Malik, his much nicer brother, is still blinded by rage and sorrow, and now HE has powers.  They had arrived, and were talking to Vixen and Ice, via Guy's ring.  Batman was lurking in the shadows, because...well that's what Batman does.  They weren't expecting to be attacked, so at first, Malik has them on the ropes, till Bats decides to throw a flash grenade and then punch him...and then talk to him. 

The rest of the League has regained their senses and their outrage, and point out that Lightweaver may have been his brother, and they regret his death, but HE was one of the terrorists who caused all the mayhem.  Malik, comes to his senses and apologizes and is ready to be hauled off to jail, when Guy of all people cuts him a break. 

They figure that they are about to disband, Booster is feeling pretty low, when Batman shows them that they have had a new headquarters built, and Queen Industries even let them have a new plane, although putting a "Don't Blow This One Up" sign in the cockpit was probably overkill.  So Booster is filled with renewed determination, the others decide they don't want to disband either, and although Batman and Batwing decide that they have other things to do, the Justice League will continue!  Even Guy admits that Booster isn't a complete loser, and he'll be staying around too.

Woohoo! 

I was getting ready to this book to end.  I was pretty sure that it wasn't on the list of books that DC was continuing, so I was VERY depressed.  There is also an annual coming out in four weeks.  But on the other hand, there isn't anything in the Previews of the JLI.  So...are they just toying with us?  Getting our hopes up, only to dash them to pieces in the Annual? 

Why are you toying with me, DC?

I like this book.  I like it better than the regular Justice League, and I adore most of the characters.  The DC Universe should never be Boosterless! 


Animal Man #12

I haven't been reading Animal Man, but it is crossing over with Swamp Thing, so I picked it up, and although I'm not up on much of what is happening, I guess that Buddy is the avatar of the Red, the same way that Alec is the avatar of the Green.  And weird things are going on, and they all troop out to the Swamp to meet Alec and Abby, and have their own cross over.

Swamp Thing #12

Buddy and Alec decide to go into this rift thing, to fight the Rot.  It turns out to be...A Trap!  And naturally enough Arcane is at the bottom of it.  Literally.  It's pretty creepy, but pretty good  actually.


Hawkeye #1

I picked this up on a whim.  I've always rather liked Hawkeye, although I'm certainly not reading much of Marvel anymore, with the exception of Thor and Journey Into Mystery. 

It...was pretty good!  Really fabulous art by David Aja, who rather reminds me of Chris Samnee.  An excellent story by Matt Fraction, that doesn't follow the usual Super Hero Standard Story at ALL.  Clint is getting out of the hospital after being banged up pretty bad, and heading home to Bedford-Styvesant, where his neighbors are upset, because their evil landlord is tripling their rents. 

Clint manages to get beat up, saves a dog, saves his neighborhood, gets beat up some more, and not a single avenger shows up, nor is he in costume, and he never even takes his bow out. 

But a heckuva story nevertheless.  I think I just may stick with this one.



And that's that.  I hoped you all enjoyed YOUR comics this week!