Thursday's Reviews

Now that was a pretty good week!  No Green Lantern, which has me slightly cranky, although they DID ship Green Lantern Corps...which is an epilogue to Green Lantern.  So I won't be reviewing it for a while. Except that it did tie up a loose end rather neatly.

Batman #20

Scott Snyder has actually made me into a Bat-fan.  I never thought I would live to see the day.  And Greg Capullo draws the prettiest Bruce Wayne that I have ever seen. 

Clayface of course, has been impersonating Bruce and other people, to the extent that he has actually lost all of his original DNA.  I am not quite sure how this would happen, but hey...Comic Book Science!  He is doing his best to kill off Bruce, and shoves him into an inescapable incinerator with Lucius Fox, who just happens to have a really cool Bat Suit that he was planning to...incinerate.  Naturally, the escape-proof incinerator is not quite as escape-proof as he thought, and building your own death traps is a sign that you have probably too much time on your hands.

Clayface actually discovers that Bruce IS Batman, but naturally nobody believes him, and Bruce has a clever way of getting out of things.  Also, Bruce and Alfred sit down to watch home movies in the Bat Cave, which was...sweet.

Fabulous!

Batman & Red Hood #20

In this issue, Jason takes over as Robin.  He and  Bats go off to fight some terrorists, after Carrie Kelley shows up again, looking for Damian.  Bruce tries to put her off, by claiming that Damian has gone abroad for more studies.  I don't think she's buying it.  Also, she and Titus have a bonding moment. 

Bats and Jason have a reasonably easy time of it, beating up the terrorists, and end up in Ethiopia, which is where Jason..."died".  This is  news to me, but apparently this is the way it is in the new 52.  Jason is less than thrilled at being at the site of his demise, but Bruce wants to know all that he remembers, so that perhaps he can figure out a way to bring back Damian.  I can't say that I blame him for trying every avenue possible to restore his son, but he's going about it in a particularly painful way to all of the people who he is close to.  Jason is NOT happy, and naturally, they start beating each other up,

I actually feel sorry for both Bruce and Jason.  Also, Two-Face shows up at the very end. 

Nice. 

Constantine#3

So there is a spell on John, so that he can't go home to London?  Interesting.  This doesn't stop him from going there anyway, in his quest for the compass thingie, and being John, he naturally manages to manipulate his way out of trouble...and then into more trouble. 

It isn't quite the same as Hellblazer...but it isn't bad actually.

Demon Knights #20

Although she was bitten by Cain, Sir Ystin seems to be fighting off the infection.  Hippolyta has forgiven Exoristos, who, although she wants to return to Themyscira, choses to stay true to Ystin.  They are still lookign for the Grail, and seem to have discovered a map that shows where it might be, on an unknown island in the middle of nowhere. 

Vandal Savage is along for the ride, which doesn't particularly please Jason Blood, since he's been torturing the latter for decades, but hey, no hard feelings, right?  And there is a giant octupus, and  who really doesn't like that?  It's been a good month for giant octopi, if you count Topo in Aquaman.

Nice as well.


Green Lantern Corps #20

I'll review this after Green Lantern comes out.   But not a bad swan song for Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin.

Justice League of America #3

The league is using Catwoman as bait, to find out more about the Bad Guys, although Katanna seems to think that she's a traitor.  J'onn looks into her mind and says that she is not...but the mind meld process seems to go both ways, and she sees into his mind as well, which is something new. 

Green Arrow, shows up as Catwoman is "escaping" and is about to blow the whole scam, when Hawkman tells him to knock it off...so naturally he uses this as an opportunity to blackmail his way onto the team.  Oh Ollie...you really don't need to be so...so desperate.  Also Amanda Waller is mean to Courtney.

This isn't all that bad really.  Not great...but not bad.  I'm interested in seeing where it is going to lead.  It would be nice if they would put Fire and Ice on the team...not to mention Guy.  But that's just me.

Thor: God of Thunder #8

Gosh, this is a pretty book, with its painterly artwork by Esad Ribic.  All three time-displaced Thors have now shown up.  I rather enjoy Old Thor's sense of humor.  I can hardly wait to see where this is going to end as well.


I also managed to get my greedy little hands on the Alex Toth Reader, volume 2, and it is quite lovely.  Toth had such a talent for line-work...it's quite gorgeous.  I also managed to pick up a Fantagraphics Prince Valiant book, because I can never have too much of Hal Foster. 

I hope that everyone had a lovely New Comics Day!