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.