Back in the Saddle

Well, I'm back from beautiful little old Limerock Park, the most gorgeous race track on the planet.  Or at least in New England.  It was the weekend of the last Grand Am races...ever.  They are merging with something or another, and will have a different name next season, so it was a pretty big deal.  The weather was actually gorgeous, the steak was delicious, and the racing sublime.  And we got to meet one of the Ferrari teams!  A couple of tall beautiful Italians, an American and an Australian. 

Be still my heart.

Not a whole lot seemed to happen in the world of Comicdom...DC didn't seem to do anything monumentally stupid while I was incommunicado.  Apparently a Constantine television show may be in the works.  I find that rather surprising, but what the heck...it could work I guess. 

Thank Goodness that September is over, and we can get back to the regular heroes in the Villains crossover.  Well, there are still Villains of course, since earth has been taken over by the Crime Syndicate, but at least I don't have to read anymore revamped origin stories. 

Saga came out, and was stunning as usual.  That is a book that just keeps getting better and better.  Young Avengers was also superb.  The rest of the stuff that I got last week was mostly hit or miss.  Nothing outrageously stupid, but nothing particularly  wonderful either.  Again, a lot of origin stories that I already knew, or ones that were redone.  The exception was Wonder Woman, where we actually got an origin for the First Born, that tied in very nicely with the story already in progress, and didn't interrupt the flow of the narrative. 

I've been trying to find Action Philosophers at my beloved local comical book store, but haven't had any luck.  Is that something that has been collected? 

Previews came out, and had the cover of the new Justice League book set in the future written by DeMatteis and Giffen.  It was supposed to have Kevin Maguire artwork too...and I was all ready to plunk down my hard earned dollars on it...till DC dumped Maguire for reasons that I cannot fathom.  So...although I do like Giffen and DeMatteis together...I am going to give this a pass.  Thanks DC!

What did everyone else do on their weekend?

Guy is the Ginchiest!

Holy Guacamole, I have a lot of  pictures of Guy!  Since I am off to the races at Limerock tomorrow, I won't be able to finish an entire week of Guy Glorification...which is probably something that I should have thought about when I started this whole project.  However, it does give me the opportunity to just slap some pictures up and  enjoy myself.

And hopefully, you too!



A slightly different version of the infamous "One Punch" by none other than the incomparable Kevin Maguire.



NOT punching.  I'm beginning to sense a theme here.  This was actually Guy and Batman working together for a change.

 

I just like this one...rather indicative of the problems he is having at the moment.



I am rather hoping he still has this attitude about Bleez.



I really liked the first Red Lantern uniform that he had, compliments of Pat Gleason.  The one he has now is...ok.   But I liked this one the best.


One of his first butt shots as a new Green Lantern, after waking up from his coma during Crisis.



You know...this is probably true.



Oh Guy.



This just cracks me up.



Yes.  Yes you do.

Still More Guy Stuff

Oh Comics.  Where everybody dies, and then comes back.  At least...MOST of them come back.  But Guy has the distinction of having died twice!  Not to mention two comas!   And he has been depowered at least four times.  Those are some pretty interesting statistics, all things considered.

The first time he "died", he didn't really, he got blown up by Hal's battery, ended up in the Phantom Zone, then tortured by Sinestro, then rescued by Hal, and then in a coma.  And that's the first time he lost his powers, which he had had for all of a day or two.


Woke up, got himself a nice green ring, and went out and did his thing.  Had a fight with Hal, in the infamous Green Lantern #25, and got his ring taken away from him again...by Hal.  Went out and managed to get a hold of the "dead" Sinestro's yellow ring, wore it and did a lot of pretty sensational things with it...till he lost it fighting against Parallax/Hal.  That was his second coma as well. 

 

Then, he woke up, and stomped off to the Nappa Jungle, and managed to get himself a whole new set of powers, by drinking the Warrior Waters.  It was a little convoluted, but Beau Smith did such a lovely job with it.  And it incidentally healed his brain damage, so that although Guy was still pretty brash, at least he had his intellect back, and a modicum of restraint.

Then he died...again.
 

Man, this annoyed me.  His body had the Vuldarian powers, that allowed him to adapt it to practically any sort of defense or offense.  Granted, the Imperiex probes were quite nasty, but still...!  It was a stupid death.

 

Fortunately, it didn't take, and he didn't die, not that anybody decided to do anything nice like...I don't know...go LOOKING for him.  He ended up ruling a pocket of hell or some such nonsense, and managed to trick Superman into getting him out.  It was pretty ridiculous, but I rather like Guy in this, because he was nasty, funny, and played Superman so beautifully.

So he was back.  Until Rebirth.

 

Lost his Vuldarian powers, but he got his Green Lantern ring back!  Woohoo!

And although he is currently a Red Lantern, once again, due to Hal...at least he still has powers and he isn't dead.  But I certainly don't want to give anyone at DC any ideas!  But you do have to hand it to Guy...he is awfully resilient.  

More Guy Stuff

So...over in the current Green Lantern books, Hal has once again hung poor Guy out to dry, by sending him in undercover to see what the Red Lanterns were up to, and then by not getting him out, when Guy asked him.  Of course, the demise of the Blue Lanterns may have something to do with that, but still...!  It's just one more episode in the very long pattern of Hal screwing Guy over.

Which is why they used to fight.  A lot.



Here, we have Guy who has just woken up for a VERY long nap, i.e. the coma that he fell into, mainly because of Hal.  Well, Sinestro had a lot to do with it too, but still!  Guy wakes up a much changed and much crankier man, and he wants to find Abin Sur's ring.  Naturally, Hal is miffed.



Of course, running off with Guy's fiancee about five minutes after he "died" is probably only one of the reasons that Guy finds Hal to be insupportable. 

But anyway...



This is what brought the whole thing crashing down in the first place, when Hal roped Guy in, to cover for him, while he waltzed off to Oa, to see why his ring was acting strangely.  Turns out that it was the Battery...and poor Guy got blowed up the second time he used it!  Thanks Hal!

But that's all water under the bridge now.  And Hal and Guy have managed to overcome their differences and become...cautious...friends.  Which is why I would imagine Guy is so unhappy with what Hal has done to him with the whole Red Lantern thing.  Especially since it was all so unnecessary!

Incidentally, Guy doesn't get Abin Sur's ring.  He gets a nice Guardian to come and take him to Oa and give him his OWN ring!  With Hal tagging along and bitching the entire way.

It's Glorify Guy Week

I haven't done this sort of thing in an awfully long time.  Yes, it's cheesy.  Even a tad silly.  But it seems that I have been wallowing in angst lately, and it is getting boring.  Yes, DC is acting stupidly, but hey, they've acted stupidly before, and will no doubt continue to do so in the future.  In the meantime, and for one short week, I plan to wallow in my beloved Continuity and portray my favorite Green Lantern in all of his obnoxious glory.

And to start things off on the right foot, is a lovely little number by Kevin Maguire.



There are few artists who can do such lovely lovely things with expressions and body language as Kevin Maguire.  If someone published a book that consisted of nothing but his drawings, I would buy it and read it...over and over again.  But this is obviously Guy from the good old braindead JLI days.  Gosh I miss the JLI!


Yes, you can knock him down, take his ring, put him in a coma, take his ring again, put him in another coma, and he just keeps bouncing back.  Batman may actually have it right about Guy...he simply won't give up.

And seriously, this is a man who really loves his work.



I've actually been enjoying the Red Lantern book a heck of a lot more than I initially thought that I would, and I think that Charles Soule is a pretty darned good writer.  But I do hope that eventually Guy will be back in Green where he belongs.

Stuff that I Bought

Well, this has certainly been quite the Thursday!  Got up, went in and took my customary shower, only to hear my Sweet Babboo screaming from downstairs that water was pouring through the chandelier in the dining room...so it looks as though there is something seriously amiss with our plumbing! 

Gah!  I just GOT the plumbing fixed, when we had the meter repaired and the new boiler and water heater put in!  I love old houses, but man, this is getting tiresome.  I wanted to redo the bathroom, but had planned on doing it AFTER the kitchen got done.  I sure hope our Homeowner's insurance kicks in this time.  They didn't pay a penny when the Boiler exploded. 

So I am in a rather cranky sort of mood today. 

But although I am still not 100% on board with the All Villains month at DC, there were some lovely offerings from Marvel, and not all of the books were that bad really.  In fact some were pretty good.

Batman '66, #3

God almighty, how I do love this book.  1960's era Batman, right down to Adam West's voice in my head, and the Joker portrayed as Cesar Romero.  Wacky death traps!  The Batmobile, and the Bat-Copter, and Egghead of all people! 

It is light, it is fun, and it is completely unpretentious.  This is something that proves that all comics DON'T have be a miasma of misery.  Quite frankly, I want to be able to ENJOY my hobby, not wallow in despair when reading my books.  Something that the good folks over at DC might want to consider once in a while.

But this is a whole lot of fun, and totally worth your money.

Green Lantern/Black Hand #23.l

I'm getting just a wee tired of Black Hand.  When he was first brought back by Geoff Johns, he was no longer the oaf he used to be, and became a genuinely scary and powerful menace.  But he's been killed and reborn a few too many times now.  Which incidentally is something that Charles Soule refers to on the very first page, which went a long way towards changing my initial mood of "Oh sheesh, not again!" 

Because this is actually pretty decent.  Black Hand has been resurrected...again, but he is having memory problems, and is literally stumbling around trying to figure out who he is.  When he does, things get pretty nasty, pretty quickly. You won't believe what he does when he wanders into the Coast City Cemetary and just happens to have a little conversation with Martin Jordan.  Creepy as all get out!  But darned intriguing.

Justice League Dark/Eclipso #23.1

Well, I don't really like Eclipso all that much, unless it is Eclipso as done by Jean Loring, and it is John Rogers writing it.  Remember in Blue Beetle, and the title of the story was "Total Eclipso the Heart!"  Best Title Ever! 

This is not that good.  Some guy who I never heard of, finds the Black Diamond, and succumbs to Eclipso's blandishments, and that's about it. 

Fables #133

Oh this isn't going to end well.  Rose Red has Prince Blandish in a pit and is about to pour a load of cement on him.  His heart is secured elsewhere, so he can't die, but he can be a giant paperweight for a very very long time, unless he agrees to work for Rose Red. 

Snow White shows up and is outraged that Rose wants to try and work with Blandish.  I can't say that I blame her, since he is a complete and utter monster, so she tells Rose, that if she goes ahead and doesn't entomb him in concrete, then Rose is totally and forever out of her life.  She has her cubs to worry about and is grieving for Bigby, so I can understand her being upset. 

And then there is the bit of bad news that some of the enchanters give Snow White as well.  I do like this book, but things have been pretty depressing lately.  Meanwhile Rose is still trying to get the Round Table together, which should be interesting as well.

Batman/ Penguin #23.1

So some punks are ripping off Penguin in his Casino, and refuse to leave quietly, treating Mr. Cobblepot with a fair amount of disrespect...which turns out to be a very poor choice on their part.  Then he ends up having problems with his old buddy the Mayor, and things go downhill from there. 

The story establishes that the Penguin is indeed a badass, but I pretty much already knew that, so this isn't my favorite story. 

Batman/Ra's al Ghul #23.1

And then we have one of the Syndicate's flunkies trying to tell Ra's Al Ghul that his time is done and he should throw in with Ultraman, and Owlman and so on and so forth, and being pretty cocky and full of himself.  That is never a very smart thing to do around old Ra's, and naturally the flunkie pays for it.  I already know that Ra's is nobody to taunt or underestimate, so this didn't really do all that much for me either.  It's not a bad story, but there is no new ground being explored here.  To a degree, all of these Villain's in the books just seem like they are placeholding for a month.  Some of them are getting new origins, to go with the new 52 Universe, but since I don't really care all that much for the new origins, I can't say that I give a fart.

Flash/Rogues #23.1

Now I DO like the Rogues, I always have.  These are the "new" Rogues, but basically they aren 't all that much different from the old Rogues, except that they seem to have intrinsic powers now, instead of just really cool tools.  They aren't all that thrilled with the new Baddies in town, and prefer to go their own way.  They decide to bust Trickster out of jail, because they look out for their own.  But Golden Glider is smitten with Mirror Master, and her actual body is in a coma, so she tries to bring him out, and it doesn't go well, and then the hospital where her body is located gets blown up, and now Captain Cold is really really mad. 

I imagine that this rag-tag little bunch of fairly nice badguys is going to make life miserable for the Crime Syndicate.  With no "heroes" around, I am seeing  a  trend here, where the normal Bad Guys are realizing that there is something worse out there than the Justice League.


Daredevil #31

Gosh, I love Mark Waid and Chris Samnee.  So very very much. 

Apparently it was Foggy's idea to send Kirsten over to work for Matt, and Matt's not too happy when he finds out about it.  Then there is the result of a trial that bears a striking resemblance to a certain other trial, wherein someone was gunned down. The Sons of the Serpent are behind twisting everything and starting a riot, and since they have also infiltrated the judiciary and the police, it is very hard to know who to trust.

Then the Jester gets involved, and Daredevil is doing his level best to protect the jury and the D.A. and a whole lot of other innocent people.  But that last page just made my breath catch in my throat.  Surely...surely that's not what it looks like!

Good.  So very very good.

Thor, God of Thunder #13

We get a very nice recap about the origin and location of the Nine Realms, and the breakout from Hel, of a very very bad dark elf, aka Malekith.  He's not a nice person at all, and he's about to wreak a fair amount of havok.  We get Thor of course, and the Warriors Three and Sif, so a whole lot of my favorite people show up.  This looks beautiful as always, and although it is just the first part of the story, my attention is well and truly caught.  Very nice.

So, some really good books, a few decent ones and a few clunkers.  Or, a usual Wednesday.  But October can't come fast enough for me. 

Red Lantern Stuff

It occurs to me, that I never actually posted a review of the latest Red Lantern book, at least I don't think I did.  God only knows where my head has been lately.  But it was certainly an interesting book, the last one before all of the "All Villains, All the Time" month that we are currently in the midst of.

Boy howdy, but DC sure does seem to like its Villains.  I like Villains too, it is pretty hard to tell a Superhero story without them.  But this isn't the first time that DC has concentrated on the Bad Guys, nor is it the second.  There were a lot of new origin stories, and man, those people have a tough life.  But then, at DC EVERYONE has a tough life, including the Heroes, whose new origins are pretty much exactly the same as the Villains.

But getting back on track...

Guy, at the request of Hal, has successfully entered into the remnants of the Red Lanterns, by rather soundly defeating Atrocitus.  In fact, he ripped his ring right off of his finger, which according to history, means that Atrocitus would be dead.  Dex-Starr, AKA the Rage Kitty ran off with Atrocitus's corpse, and somehow managed to restore him to life.  We aren't told exactly how he is able to do this, and even Atrocitus seems bemused.  The Cat is also able to make constructs because he managed to lap up some of Rankorr's blood, which seems icky, but hey...he's a CAT.    So, Atrocitus and Dex-Starr go off and manage to find the Red Avatar, who is being held captive by some Bad Guy, and somehow Atrocitus merges with  him, and is now he's up to power and out for revenge against Guy.

Naturally.

Meanwhile, things have actually been looking up for the few remaining Red Lanterns.  Guy said he wasn't interested in being their "Leader" per se, but weren't they sick and tired of sleeping on the ground, and they all had to admit that they were, so in the last issue they all took off after a set of particularly revolting Pirates, and stole their cool ship.

Now Zilius Zox, who I am finding to be something of an interesting character, and who also seems to be bonding with Guy a bit, is happy as a clam, working on the ship, which was in fairly poor shape, since Pirates aren't into preventive maintenance.  He asks Guy if he can soup up their new ship, and Guy tells him to knock himself out.  He also has a discussion with Rankorr, as they try to come up with a suitably Ragey name for it.

But Guy's heart isn't in it, and he's feeling a bit sickened by the fact that he was able to kill the Head Pirate so easily...and in fact may have enjoyed it.  This is exactly what he had tried to warn Hal about, when Hal was all set on sending him off to infiltrate the Red Lanterns.  It probably wasn't even necessary, since there are only a handful of them now, and they weren't even planning on doing anything all that nefarious.  Hal had promised Guy, that if there was a problem, he would have St. Walker or one of the Blue Lanterns standing by, ready to yank Guy out of there, and restore him.

Just one little problem.

When Guy uses the little bit of remaining power in his green ring to call up Hal, Hal has to admit that there is a wee problem at the moment, what with Relic, and the problems with the Batteries, and oh, no more Blue Lanterns.  So Guy is stuck...and he's not happy about it.  And Bleez just happens to have have overheard him calling Hal for help.

I wasn't much in favor of turning Guy into a Red Lantern, I much prefer him as the Best of the GREEN Lanterns.  And yet...I have to admit that this is an interesting story so far.  Guy didn't WANT to be a Red Lantern...he's been there and done that and he hates the way that the Red Ring makes you feel.  But Hal didn't want to listen, and since in spite of it all, Guy IS a superb Green Lantern, when Hal told him to go in, he did it.  And now he is stuck.  He can't take the Red Ring off, or he'll die, and there aren't any more Blue Lanterns, thanks to Relic blowing up their battery and incidentally annihilating the rest of them.

So where do we go from here?  What are the rest of the Green Lantern Corps going to do when they find out that their new "leader" Hal, has sent off one of their very best...Honor Corps in fact...and hung him out to dry?  Hal may have had good intentions, but he really doesn't think things through.  I don't believe that he actually consulted with Kilowog or Salaak either, which would certainly have been the prudent thing to do.  And just because the Guardians had a mole, doesn't mean that it was necessarily a good idea.  In fact it probably means that it was a terrible idea.

So, for the time being at least, Guy is stuck being a Red Lantern, and Hal is stuck with the consequences of that.  And I hope that there ARE consequences to this.


 

This is actually from last month's issue, but I find it to be amusing.  Oh Guy

Greatest Ever!

I don't usually post on Saturdays...heck with the way things are going, you are lucky that I post at ALL!  But this morning as I was going through my usual blogs and stuff, I found the most amazing comic that I have read in a very very long time.

Over at Comic Book Resources, AKA Comics Should be Good, they have a feature called "The Line It Is Drawn", wherein various artists draw Comic book characters in different styles, or in different situations, and it is always a hoot.  This particular day has some really fabulous entries, as usual, but the one by Brendan
Tobin, who draws the Punisher as if he were a Five-Year Old kid...is amazing.  And hilarious.

It involves the Punisher looking for pie, thugs, an Ice-Cream store, and for some reason the Silver Surfer.  Daredevil even shows up!    It has a better plot than a whole lot of the stuff that has been published, and the art is also better than some of the things that I have read.  Remember this is by a "Five-Year Old". 

Truly, this made my day.

Thursday's Reviews

Once again, I got all of the fancy covers saved for me in my pull box.  And yes, they are certainly eye-catching.   I imagine that someday my grandchildren will be quite taken with them. 

We are now deep into "Villains" month at DC.  And while some of these stories aren't all that terrible, I find that really I do prefer to read about the heroes.  Except for the Rogues of course.  I love the Rogues.

Batman: Li'l Gotham #6

This was by far the best book of the week.  I simply love this book.  This issue had two stories, all dealing with the themes of Mother's Day and Father's Day.  It's a little bit late for that, but who cares? 

We begin with Damian and his friend and "sidekick" Colin, who have been having a good time thwarting crime, and then decide to go back to the Batcave and play videos, while mocking the costumes of past Robins.  Alfred makes them pizza.

Colin lives at an orphanage and would really like to be able to find his mother, and Damian decides to help him.  They need a disguise for Colin, who ends up dressed up like a totally cheerful Batman, and together they have oodles of adventures.  They don't find his mother, but he doesn't really mind in the end.

Next, Barbara and Commissioner Gordon go out to dinner, and end up at the same table as Talia and R'as   Al Ghul, which is...hilarious.  After a bit of snarkiness, they all end up fighting poisonous ninjas.  Naturally.  At the same time, Alfred is terrified for his kitchen, as all of the Robins are busy trying to make him dinner to celebrate Father's day, and only end up demolishing the place.  So they send out for Chinese food..

It is...happy, it is funny, it has characters that I love, and the artwork is sublime.  THIS is a comic!

Black Manta/Aquaman #23.1

Well, now that Aquaman is dead, presumably Black Manta no longer has a mission in life.  So he goes off to visit his dead father, and sees that Ultraman has pushed the moon in front of the sun, because sunlight stings or something, which of course sets off all sorts of catastrophes with the tides and such, and his father's coffin is washed away.  This makes Black Manta very very angry, and he decides he is going to go after ALL of the Crime Syndicate.  Which will prsumably make him a "good" guy.  At least for the duration of the Villains story anyway. 

Not a terrible story actually..in fact it was one of the better ones this week.

Reverse Flash/Flash

This is the story of the Reverse Flash, who apparently is Iris West's obnoxious little brother.  But they had a hard childhood with a bully of a father, so it is ok for him to be a jerk.  He ends up with the power of the Speed force and wants to go back in time to off his dad, but naturally things don't work out quite that way.  Again, not too bad actually, I'm slightly interested in where this is going to go.

Killer Frost/Justice League America

This is the new back story of Killer Frost.  Since I didn't really know the back story of the OLD Killer Frost, this made a certain amount of sense I guess.  It explains her fascination with Firestorm anyway.  You even feel a little bit sorry for her.  Sterling Gates is a good writer, and  Brett Smith does a nice job with the art.

Lobo/Justice League

I don't even know why I ended up with this, because this was pretty...terrible.  I don't like Lobo at the best of times, he was a joke character, and was mildly amusing back in the 90's for a while.  I rather enjoyed how he and  Guy used to interact when Beau Smith was writing.  But this was just...weird.

Mongul/Green Lantern

I don't particulalry like Mongul at any time, so this new origin of his, and his poncing about showing off his ship and evilness to some poor schlub of a commander left me cold.

Blah.

Riddler/Batman

Now this was a decent story.  I like the Riddler, and this is a bit of a continuation of what Snyder is doing with Year One for Batman.  He's clever as all heck here, if a bit on the obsessed side.  The art is nice, the story flows, there are actually some good riddles!

A pretty good book.

That's it.  Not completely terrible, not great, but about in the middle.  But Li'l Gotham was fabulous.

Oh...DC

I am starting to sound like a broken record.  I love...I absolutely LOVE DC characters.  Well, except for Geo-Force, but that's just me.  And Snapper Carr.

Where was I?  Oh yes, I love your characters.  They have a Long and Rich history.  They have made me very very happy over the years.  So why then am I so unhappy with you as of late? 

For one thing, treating the writers and the artists who bring these wonderful characters to life for all of us fans, as though they were something you stepped in, is a piss-poor way to run a business.  And I fully understand that it IS a business, and that some books, although I may love them to death, don't sell as well as others, and that having an award-winning writer and artist on a book is no absolute guaranty that that book will sell bucketloads of copies. 

However.

Openly treating those award-winning writers and artists with contempt and disdain is only going to come back around and bite you in the behind.  There ARE other companies out there, who would be more than happy to hire away your award-winning creators and make you look stupid in the process.  Or they can self-publish, and do whatever they want with their OWN characters, and without having to go through the editorial nightmare that you all seem to call a great way to run...or destroy...a company.

Also...when your fans are not happy with you, as so very very many fans are NOT, it really doesn't make you look very mature when you have a stock bundle of snarky retorts, that you seem to just pull out of the air, willy-nilly, whether it had anything to do with the original complaint or not.  And yes, Mr. Didio, I am looking at you. 

And Furthermore...

Mr. Didio says that Heroes are supposed to have miserable lives, and that their whole existance is one of bleakness and pain.  Any sort of good thing happening to the average hero, be it a romantic interest, or marriage, or children, or simply getting to eat their Big Belly Burger unhampered, is Wrong, and nobody wants to read about any sort of good things happening.  Gloom and Doom must be constant and uninterrupted.

To which I say...poppycock. 

There are reasons that books such as the old Justice League International, Nextwave, Blue Beetle, Hawkeye, Young Avengers, Ambush Bug and countless others were critical favorites.   There is also that unrelenting love of old Golden and Silver Age comics that will never dim.  And damn it, I LIKED the 1960's Batman!

I have nothing against a well-told and well-drawn modern comic book that is dark and  edgy.  I loved Sandman and Hitman and Hellblazer, and those are pretty damned dark!  But they also had superb storytelling, and a certain amount of humor.  Black humor perhaps...but humor nevertheless.  But when all you can offer up to your customers, is more gore and decapitations, dismemberments and unrelenting misery...well pardon me for thinking that I can find better offerings elsewhere.

Which isn't to say that Marvel doesn't infuritate me sometimes too, and I still haven't quite forgiven them for Civil War.  But I have been finding quite a lot of really nice things on the other side of the aisle lately, from Young Avengers, to Daredevil to Hawkeye.  Then there is Saga, and I'm really going to try and find Action Philosophers because it looks fabulous,and plenty of other good books out there.

So, to the editorial board at DC.  Either get off of your meds, or please try some new ones. I love giving you my money, don't make me stop!

 

Thank you Hal!

An Interesting Day at the Comic Book Store

Well, we are now into "Villains Month" at DC...and I have to say that it was...interesting to say the least.

I have been following the various news and blogs concerning the rather epic boondoggle over DC's lenticular covers for this months books.  I wasn't planning on getting any of them, because gimmicks don't really do all that much for me, and I figured that with all of the trouble in ordering, my beloved Comic Book Store probably wouldn't have them anyway, or only a few.

Well!

It's a good thing that I am a good customer...heck I am probably putting Matt's kids through college, because he gave me ALL of my books with the fancy-ass covers!  He did have a limit of only one of the covers per book, per customer,so that at least as many people as possible can have them, if they want, but I certainly wasn't expecting it.

And...heck, they actually are kinda...cool.

I did get Forever Evil, simply so that I know what the heck is going on, and it is a fairly typical Geoff Johns book.  The Evil version of the Justice League has popped up, due to Pandora's box opening a gateway between their universe and the new 52, and "our" Justice League has been popped somewhere else, so for all intents and purposes, the Bad Guys are now running things, and there are precious few heroes left on earth.

Lex Luthor isn't quite sure that he wants to be involved in all of this, but he is busy making an Offer That He Can't Refuse to a certain Mr. Kord.

Not Ted, but presumably his father?  Oh...Ted!

*ahem*

But all the Bad Guys show up and start recruiting MORE Bad Guys, and Nightwing does his best to help, but gets captured, and his identity is rather rudely exposed, which will probably lead to all sorts of problems.

It isn't a terrible book, and it does set things up for the latest little brouhaha.  I rather miss Ivan Reis and Doug Mahnke however.  David Finch is a decent enough artist, although I find that ALL of his women look Exactly Alike.  Exactly.

Fairest #19

This has been revolving around Prince Charming, whom it turns out is NOT dead, which is probably a good thing, and a young lady who went to him for help and is resisting his...er...charms, in order to save her village.  And who does it turn out to be bedeviling her village, but Bigby's reprobate Wolf brothers!  Charming manages to talk them  into helping him instead, but there are some problems along the way.

This has been a pretty nice arc, and the art is pretty, and I'm glad that Charming is back.

The Creeper #23.l

I'm not even sure what this is a replacement for, but it was in my box, so I got it.  And geez...this is creepy as all get out!  Dan Didio writes it, and it has to do with an entity that inhabits bodies, and the samurai who originally had Katanna's sword, and  Jack Ryder comes into it somehow, so I suppose this is the replacement book for Katanna, which I have not been reading.

It isn't bad, although I don't think it is quite my cup of tea.  But still, not a terrible read.

Darkseid #23.l

This is by Greg Pak, and whooey, it is actually pretty good!  It goes into how Darkseid came to be...well Darkseid, not to mention some of the other New Gods, and what is going on with Apokolips, and even ties in a little bit the previous Universe, that existed before ours, which incidentally is also explored in the Green Lantern book.

I've always liked the New Gods, and I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Darkseid, so I liked it.

Deadshot #23.l

This replaces the Justice League, or at least one of the Justice Leagues, and since I absolutely adore Lawton, I was happy as a clam to read this.  It has a new origin for him, which in a way rather echoes that of Batman, although he is poor this time instead of a bored rich playboy, and he is out for vengeance, which naturally he gets, and there is a fair amount of shooting, which also is natural.  But heck,Matt Kindt does  a decent job of it, and it has Keith Champagne, which automatically makes it a good read in my book.

I do miss his fabulous mustache however.

Grodd #23.l

This takes the place of the Flash.  After all the kerfuffle with the Gorillas an issue or so ago, they all got together and decided to coexist in peace, which is a nice thing, except that Grodd shows up and takes over and makes a bunch of gorillas and humans...Kneel before Grodd!  This made me chuckle.

The Rogues are supposed to show up next month, which is a good thing, because I really like the Rogues too.

Joker #23.l

I'm not exactly sure how I ended up with this book either, it is written by Andy Kubert, but I gues it is filling in for Batman.  I thought that the Joker had fallen off a cliff in the Batcave, but since he is pretty much unkillable, I guess he's  back.  This gives him a new origin, and a new sidekick, in the form of a gorilla.

DC sure loves its gorillas.  It was...ok.  I have to admit to being a bit tired of the Joker.  He doesn' seem to do anything very clever anymore except rack up huge body counts, which is tedious.  It was ok, but I don't think I'll pick it up again.

Relic #23.l

This was the replacement for Green Lantern, and it was...Good!  We finally get an explanation for what the heck is going on with the rings, and who Relic actually is.  He is from the previous universe, and manged to cross the wall, that is so often alluded to in the New Gods history.  They had the same light in the old universe, and they used it more or less in the same way, except he figured out that there was a finite amount of it, and that the old wielders were far too profligate with its use.  So now that he is in our much younger universe, he is trying to prevent the various corps from making the same mistake.

This is interesting, and a good job by Robert Venditti.

Two Face #23.l

Now this was a good Bat Book!   The Bad Guys are busy recruiting, and Two Face decides that he'll play along, but ONLY if he is allowed to use his coin, and ONLY if the new Bad Guys abide by the coin's decisions.  Naturally things don't work out quite the way that he plans, and there is a fair amount of mayhem.  I missed Pat Gleason, Guillem March is  not one of my favorite artists, but the artwork is servicable anough.

But man, this was good.

Ventriloquist #23.1

I'll say right off the bat, that this substitute for Batgirl scared the living wee out of me.  That is one helluva creepy villain there!  The new Ventriloquist wants an audience, so she lures the hungry and confused citizens into her theater, where they watch her show in mounting horror and unease.  A gang of thugs decides the audience is an easy mark and they show up and naturally mayhem ensues.

Creepy.  Seriously creepy.

This has been interesting so far, and I am looking forward to some of the books, mainly the Rogues and the rest of the Green Lantern books, but I'll be just as glad when we get the Heroes back.  And I do wonder what Lex is up to.

Jiggety Jog, Back Again

Well THAT was a spectacular few days!  We went to the Historic Races at lovely little Limerock, where they had a parade of antique cars, trials one day, two full days of racing and then on Sunday, the concourse of cars that went all the way around the 1.53 miles of track. 

It was the 100th anniversary for Aston Martin I think, and the 50th for the Porsche 911, and quite a few other anniversaries, such as the 60th for the Cunningham.  There are only 25 Cunninghams, in the world, and I  believe that 20 of them, were at the track.  We saw 20's era cars, 30's, 40's, and 50's, and 60's and 70's muscle cars and genuine Trans-Am cars.  Lolas, Porsches, Jaguars, Lotus, Cobras, Mustangs, Chargers, Camaros, Challengers and even a Javelin.  A Bugatti, NINE Rolls Royces, Bently's, Mercedes, Mini's and Fiats and Alfa Romeos out the wazoo.

It was a Car lover's orgasm. 

And while I do like Nascar, these cars, the SCCA cars, and Rolex cars and mini-Indy cars are my true love.

But back to reality...and laundry.

And...COMICS!

Oh, I missed you.