Thursday's Reviews of Wednesday's Comics

Egad!  For a fifth week, this was a rather decent ending to the month.

Aquaman Annual #1

This was a little different, taking some time away from the unbelievably tedious "Forever Evil" crossover, and just having some fun with the characters for a change.  We have Arthur teaming up with people from the past, such as the Operative, and his grandsom, the girl from the Ghostlands, and Ya"wara and Prisoner of War.  None of these were actually people that I had much interest in, but I'll be darned if they weren't used pretty effectively.

Firstly, there is magic and flying monkeys and who doesn't like that?  A golden helmet from Atlantis is stolen by the aforesaid flying monkeys and delivered to a mysterious woman hanging out in Hong Kong.  From her name, which is Madame Xan, they first suspect Madam Xanadu, but it actually turns out to be Morgan Le Fay, who has a certain...devil-may-care sense of humor about her.  She wants the helmet, but it rejects her, so she decides to destroy Hong Kong, more or less for the hell of it.  Arthur gets the others to stage a diversion, but she is ahead of him, and tries to seduce them with their greatest desires, which actually WORKS for a change!  Whodathunk! 

They defeat her, but Ya"wara was the one who succumbed to her blandishments, and therefore quits saying that they can't trust her any longer.  Hong Kong is saved, and Le Fay disappears to come back another day, which is about what you would expect, but it was still a good fun comic book in a good fun comic booky sort of way.

Anyway, I liked it.

Damian, Son of Batman #1

Ick.  I did not like this. At all.  So this is my one and only issue.  Damian is romping about with Bats, doing his batty thing, investigating a massacre, when Batman is stupidly blown up by a Joker-faced fish that was alo a bomb.  This seems like a rather silly way for Batman to go, but all the various villains of Gotham are delighted, and are trumpeting that they were the ones who offed the Caped Crusader.  Damian of course, goes to Talia and Ra's for help, which of course is denied.  Then he goes around killing off all the various villains to avenge his father.  Alfred tells him this is bad, as do various other people, but Damian is an idiot. 

And then as he is about to go out to kill the Joker, who should show up but dear old Dad? 

Bleh.

Daredevil #32

I missed this for some strange reason last week, but I made sure to get it this week, and it is magnificent as usual.  Why in the world are they cancelling this book again? 

What appears to be Foggy's lifeless body hung from the ceiling from last issue's really spectacular cliff hanger turns out to be...a dud.  Poor Jester is just salivating over the torture he is causing Daredevil, but it all falls flat, because Matt isn't scared or horrified in the least...which I found to be hilarious.  Also, the "suicide" note which is covered in poison is left unread.  I love the idea that everyone more or less knows that Matt is Daredevil but that they STILL don't believe that he's blind. 

Foggy of course is fine.  Well, he has cancer, but still.   And they are doing some more research on the roots of the Serpents, and discover that  there is a magic book involved so naturally, Matt goes to visit Doctor Strange, who is one of the very few people who can sneak up on him, giving him a bit of a scare, which I also find hilarious.

So he goes off to Kentucky to find Jack Russell, aka a really nice Werewolf, and stumbles into a mob out for blood against a bunch of monsters.  REAL monsters, such as Jack, Satanna, Frankenstein and a mummy.  Being Blind, he can't see who it is that he leaps into protect, which once again, I find to be hysterical.   He's perched in a tree, and thinking he's safe, when one of the mob...shoots him.

Oops.

The story is great, the art is great, this whole damn book is simply great.  I feel like an idiot for not realizing it earlier.


Green Lantern Annual.

Well!

Saga #15

Speaking of great.  God, I love this book.  You start off with a perfect parody of a Bodice Ripper book-cover.  While various plots swirl around them, Alana, Marko,  his mother and their new buddy are playing...board games. 

Gwendolyn and Sophie and our favorite Bounty Hunter are getting their ship repaired, but problems ensue when it turns out that the meat they were all eating causes hallucinations, which leads to some...problems.  Oh, and Alana and Marko have sex. 

God oh God, I love this book.

Sandman Overture #1

THIS is the book that I thought I was getting last week, when I was duped into buying what turned out to be a large number of ads.  I still feel like an idiot. 

But darned if Neil Gaiman doesn't still have the ability to make me sit up and purr.  The art by J. H. Williams isn't too shabby either.  This starts with why it was that Sandman was so easy to capture in the original books way back when.  I can hardly wait to read more.  And that is also one seriously spooky looking Morpheus.

Lovely.

Not a bad week at all!