Red Lanterns #40

Well, this is the last one, the final issue of Red Lanterns, and I am depressed.  I wasn't all that excited when it first came out, because I am not all that much of a fan of Atrocitus, but once Guy was shuffled over to the book, in order to get him out of the Green Lanterns where he was consistently upstaging Hal...it really took off.  Charles Soule did a bang-up job of writing about a bunch of misfits, a bunch of ANGRY misfits, who turned out to be heroes in the end. 

*sniff*

Only three of them made it out alive, Guy, Bleez and Rankorr, and Guy is pretty much eaten up by remorse and survivor's guilt.  Plus he's still really really pissed.  Atrocitus had unloosed his Rage Ray over the Earth, and bad things have been happening, and Guy is running himself ragged trying desperately to absorb that rage and help people.  Last issue he came across Rage Baby, and has been hauling the kid around with him since, in a backpack. And I seriously wish that he would at least get some clothes for the kid, it can't be much fun wearing only a diaper!  He's a baby...he gets cold!

Yeesh!

So, in this issue, he has returned to Baltimore, and hooked up with his sister Gloria, and trying to explain his current look, and what he is trying to do.  She's using her usual common sense, and telling Guy that he can't rid the world of rage all by himself, but being a stubborn jackass, Guy isn't listening, and when the next ragearama occurs, he dumps her and the baby into a space pod where she'll be safe.

Gloria, bless her heart tells him he is an idiot, and to let her out right now and stop being a martyr.  Guy may be enraged, but he knows when to shut up and listen, and he gives all the rage back.  All of it. And he not only gives back the rage, he gives his Hope as well.

And apparently loses the ring.  Without dying.  It changes the original theory about how the Red ring bearers can't survive without the ring, but hey, that's Guy.  And he has his old haircut back, and a few bandaids, and he is STILL carrying that baby around without a onsie, and he's broke and out of work, and doesn't have a ring, but that old Gardner optimism is still hanging in there.

It's not a bad ending actually. 

I DO hope that Guy will be back with the Green Lanterns, because there are a heck of a lot of Green Rings out there, and let's face it...Guy is a Green Lantern through and through,and frankly, they NEED him, since Hal is off being an idiot.  I know that he is on the cover of the Convergence Green Lantern Corp, but what is going to happen to him afterwards?  I can't live without reading about Guy every month! I'll start to get the dry heaves and withdrawal symptoms, and...and...Gah!

I do know a great artist for a Guy book however.



Yes, that's Daredevil from this month's book, by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee.  But change that red suit to green...That's Guy Gardner!

Thursday's...Oops, Friday's Reviews

A bit late, but better than never.  Besides, I was painting my bathroom.  And it looks great!  We put in a new hammered copper undermount sink and black marble countertop, but kept the original vanity because there was nothing wrong with it, but I did have to paint it, and ALL the woodwork and shutters.  Painting shutters is a major paint in the butt!

But there were some good books this week.

Aquaman #40

Well, Arthur has found his mommy, but it wasn't quite the warm reception he was hoping for.  Atlanna doesn't believe that he is her son, since she thinks he was killed.  So, she is mad as heck, and then all hell breaks loose when the creature that lives on their hidden island gets mad, and well...a lot of chaos ensues.  Arthur and Mera save the day, and poor old Daniel gets killed accidentally. 

It finally dawns on Atlanna that maybe Arthur IS her son, and she still tells him to get lost, but at least she gives him back his trident, which is a nice thing to do.  Also, she fixes it so that Atlantis will actually recognize him, by giving him a nice little trinket.  This issue more or less wraps things up before the whole Convergence thing, and it had a bit of a happy ending, which is getting more and more rare these days.  So...not bad.


Batman ''66 #21

This issue is a bit of a change, when Robin is suffering from extreme vertigo after fighting the Penguin and keeps walking into things. So Batman calls up Batgirl using a violet Bat-Signal, and they go off to Japan to fight Lord Death Man!  In their costumes, on a commercial flight. 

The Japanese Bat-mobile is EXTREMELY sweet, albeit bright yellow, and off they go.  Naturally, they are found, and captured, and Lord Death Man is doing his very best to adapt to the fact that it is Batgirl and not Robin that he is trying to kill. He's trying to kill Batman too, but naturally is foiled, and defeated.  For now, anyway. 

It's fun, it's bright, it's silly as all get out.  And I love it.

Batman and Robin #40

So...Robin has these super powers, and Batman is trying to cope with a hyped up pre-teen, and ends up bringing him along on a mission for the Justice League.  Captain Marv...er...Shazaam is delighted to have another kid on the team and is friendly as all get out.  Damian, as you can imagine is totally unimpressed.  At least that this the impression that he is trying to give, but you just know he's just giddy with delight.  They end up fighting a robot monster thingie on an island, and naturally Robin saves the day with his heat vision and other cool stuff. 

Being just a growing boy, he's a bit tuckered out at the end, and Batman says it's a school night and brings him home, where he falls asleep in the middle of eating pizza.  It turns out that the whole thing  was a set-up, with Cyborg in the middle of the robot, designed to drain off some of Damian's powers without hurting anyone.  The rest of the Justice League had a good time, so it all worked out. 

Did it ever!  Damian wakes up the next morning, and finds out that all of his super powers are gone! he can't light a fire in the fireplace, he gets a paper cut, and manages to fall out of the window trying to fly.  The scene where Bruce is totally deadpan as he looks up to find Damian hanging outside his bedroom window is a hoot.

So Bruce is relieved,and Damian is a bit chagrined.  He really LIKED those powers. But the world really doesn't need a ten year old superpowered assassin, so it's all for the best really.  When they go out on patrol, Batman actually has a...smile on his face. 

A rather sweet issue really.

Gotham Academy #6

All sorts of things happen in this issue!  Olive has found out that Killer Croc is the one roaming the secret tunnels, and that he's actually a pretty decent fellow.  Sort of.  When he was in Arkham, he knew Olive's mother, who it turns out has some sort of fire power in her eyes or something, and a few mental problems.  That would explain why Olive is so mad at Batman all the time, and some of her own secret problems. 

Naturally Batman shows up to aprehend Croc, but Olive manages to help him get away, and yells at Batman in a rather epic fashion. He wants the diary of Millie Jane Cobblepot, but Olive pretends that it was destroyed. 

So, Bats knows who she is, and she holds him reponsible for her Mother's predicament, which certainly makes sense.  Of course, Batman gets the diary anyway, and Olive decides to form a club of her cohorts...a Pizza Club, which is fun.

And Bruce enrolls Damian in the school.

I do love this book.

Red Lanterns #40

Oh Guy.


Sinestro #11

If nothing else, you just have to give it to Sinestro...he does have a unquenchable flair for the dramatic. Probably why he and Hal get along so weirdly well.  There he is, hanging upside-down and helpless, as Mongul goes out to destroy his Corps, and all the time, he is talking to the idiots who teamed up with Mongul to destroy the Paling.  He says that Mongul will betray them...and of course he is absolutely right.

In the meantime, Bekka from the New Gods shows up.  Turns out that Sinestro totally has the hots for her, and she's been inducted into the Sinestro Corps.  Mongul is busy draining everyone's rings, but naturally, the ring is only a trinket to her, and she starts beating the crap out of him.

Soranik and her bunch have finally shown up and rescue Sinestro, who naturally had things under control the whole time, and goes out and makes a fool out of Mongul.  And his hidden agenda is uncovered, when Sinestro now has control of Mongul's War World.

Oh that Sinestro.  You just can't help but admire him.

Daredevil #14

Oh be still my heart.

Matt has a whole new attitude. He has been talking to Kirsten's father, who wants to know why he even bothers with the mask and the costume.  Once of course, he had to have the whole hidden identity and stuff, but here in San Francisco, he's a celebrity, and everyone knows exactly who he is.  So...he ditches the mask, and shows up for court with a new haircut and a new suit.

A regular suit.  It's still red of course, because...you know...color blind...but he does look dashing.

So, he's out fighting crime wearing a tie, and getting rides from admiring fans, and taking selfies all over the place.  Then he stumbles across a young woman in a mask, who has some serious skills. Turns out that she's the daughter of the Owl, and is trying to find him. Together they go to Alcatraz, and find out that the Shroud has the Owl hooked up to some weird machine. I'm pretty sure that it is all a trap of some kind, but what the heck.

Chris Samnee just keeps hitting it out of the part art-wise, and Mark Waid is doing the same with the story. These two make a superb creative pair.  A dynamic duo as it were.

So...not a bad haul at all.

Getting Back to my Roots

I've been a bit too caught up in reviews, and non-comic booky things, that I seem to have strayed away from the important things in life.

Namely...Green Lantern Butts.

Of course ALL butts are perfectly fine.  But there is just something about a tight taut Green Lantern behind, that really just brings out the...fan in me. 



It's been a while.  But Hal never lets me down.

Very Late Reviews

I have come stumbling home from the NETSA tradeshow in Foxwoods in Connecticut, a mere shadow of my former self.  Those Tire boys can party!  I'm too old for this sort of thing! 

But anyway. 

Batgirl #40

Dagnabit, this was damn near perfect.  We find out who...or rather what...is behind most of Barbara's problems, and it turns out that her lost Algorithm has gained some sentience, and gone to the bad.  It dates from a very dark time in her own life, in a wheelchair, and recovering from an injury, and with the best intentions, everything ended up going sideways.

She manages to figure things out, but what I really liked, is that she didn't do it all by herself, but with a little bit of help from her friends, which is lovely, since she has such a remarkable supporting cast.  This new version of Batgirl, and the new version of Oracle, is simply delightful.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #40

DC seems to be cleaning up and ending a plethora of storylines, making way for Convergence.  I actually don't mind them cleaning out this book, because it has been pretty forgettable. For some reason, Kyle is fighting his evil self, and whining a lot.  His friends, the New new Guardians, and Carol and some other people that I don't actually recognize, and St. Walker help, but of course, Kyle manages to draw deep withing himself...blah blah blah and defeat the bad guy.

He and Carol decide to continue to hang out together because neither one of them has the gumption to go looking for someone else, and Carol is still trying to punish Hal for being a jerk.  Works for me, I guess.  Kyle isn't dead, although there have certainly been rumors flying, and they keep repeating almost every page that the New Life Equation will mostly likely kill him in the morning.

Or something.

Yawn.

Sensation Comics: Wonder Woman #8

Hot damn, I do love this book.  We have not one but two wonderful stories, with the first one being a very young Diana who sneaks off to the outside world, and discovers all sorts of wonders, such as ice cream, and helps a group of young girls stand up for themselves.  It's adorable and fun, and all that Wonder Woman should be. 

While not quite as sweet, the second story has Diana going up against old fat Lex, and beating the pants off of him, and the art and coloring are quite nice indeed.

This is where I get my monthly fix of Wonder Woman!

And now to Marvel

Ant-Man #3

I accidentally missed this last week, and as usual, it is a lot of fun as well.  Marvel really seems to be doing a pretty good job of bringing out odd little quirky books, that touch on some of the lesser lights of the universe...mainly anyone who isn't an Avenger (at the moment) or an X-Man (also at the moment).

Scott is happy just to be working, but naturally, things don't run smoothly, and he ends up going against his arch enemy...Taskmaster!  Too bad that Taskmaster doesn't consider him to be an arch anything, and is frustratingly casual about the whole thing.  But it is still a whole lot of fun.

Angela: Asgard's Assassin #4

I wasn't real sure about this book at first, because I had absolutely no interest in Angela at all.  I still don't think all that much of her, but I do like Sera a ton, and the Guardians are fun, and Kieron Gillen is an amazing writer.  She's been outed as Thor's sister, but she was brought up to hate Asgard, and they've been trying to bring her back into the fold. Too bad she ran off with her brand new baby sister!  The Asgardians are not...happy.

And we finally find out why she kidnapped the kid. Turns out that Odin and Freyja did the nasty in Surtur's realm, way back when, which doesn't seem particularly romantic, but at least it was warm.  And the baby has been infused with some of Surtur's evil.

EVILLLL! 

Well, at least we know.  They are teamed up with the Guardians, who are as amusing as usual, and Sera is great, and it's starting to really get my interest.


Loki: Agent of Asgard #12

Well, crappity crap crap! Evil old Loki has captured young Loki, and has him all trussed up and is telling him how he (young not so evil Loki) went bad and turned into old evil Loki.  He Did play a heck of a trick on Freyja, who was stupid enough to believe evil old Loki instead of much nicer and less evil young Loki.  Also, at the end of time, he is busy being nasty to Thor. 

Anyway, the key to the whole thing is that young Loki's efforts to redeem himself...worked!  For a while.  About ten years or so, and then he got fed up with the fact that everyone still had to remind him, that while he wasn't so bad NOW....he was still the Lord of Lies, and that they were watching him.  This made Loki quite cranky, and he finally snapped...and the rest of it is history.

Or is it?  Odin seems to have some faith in young Loki, and old Loki sets him on fire, so we will have to see what is going on.  Frankly, I'm rooting for young Loki.

And finally...

Squirrel Girl #3

This book is so insanely adorable and delightful, that I may just explode.  She is still trying to get to the moon, so that she can fight Galactus, but keeps running into problems along the way.  Mainly, Whiplash, who wants to fight her simply because she has a suit of armor from Ironman.  Boy, is HE surprised! And then some bank robbers, who end up taking her roomie hostage, and who gets quite a lesson in proper robbery etiquette from that same roomie.  It's hilarious. 

But eventually she does end up on the moon, and there is Galactus!

Oh, he is going down.

A rather wonderful collection of books last week!

And...I'm Off!

And how! 

Anyhoo, off to the NETSA show at the lovely Foxwoods casino in Connecticut for the annual New England Tire Dealers trade show.  Always a good time to be had.  So probably not going to be posting for a couple of days.  And Squirrel Girl is supposed to come out today! 

I heard a rumor that Kyle is supposed to croak.  Maybe.  I honestly can't say that I even give much of a damn at the moment, because his own book has been so bloody boring.  I'm pretty sure that if such a thing happens, it won't be for very long.  They seem to be clearing the decks for the upcoming Convergence tripe that is coming in a month or two. 

I'm really starting to feel jaded about my comics, and that's a sad thing.

Toodles!

New Bat Suit

No, I'm not going to show it.  It's too ridiculous even for me.  But I'm pretty sure that you have all seen it. 

It...it looks like a combination of the Tick and Arthur, complete with bunny ears. 

Forget about inspiring fear and terror in criminals, I suppose if you can punch them as they are double up in laughter, it counts? 

Green Lantern Corps #40

We begin with a little flashback to sector 1313, with John and none other than Katma Tui, as they approach the planet Xanshi.  Katma is trying to work things out using her brain, but John just bulls in and accidentally activates the planet bomb, and that's that.  I don't really remember it happening quite this way, but hey...new 52 and all that. 

So now, on Zarox, he is confronted with the same old problem.  The bomb is fueled by all the "bad" energy of the people who live there, and so on and so forth, and they've been corrupted, and things look bad..as usual.  At least this time John isn't going off half-cocked, he's using his BRAIN!  So he sends in Jruk, to go off half-cocked, and occupy the Bad Guys, while John just picks up the bomb and flies up with it.  It isn't that easy of course.

The darkness is spreading, and the people are...cranky.  Heck, even a Green Lantern is corrupted, little  Maro, has been seduced by the darkness,and he's not particularly happy with the Corps.  Meanwhile, Von Daggle has found his love, who has been working undercover all these years and they are trying to take down the same Shadow Empire.  It turns out that apparently the Shadow Empire has been behind all kinds of shenanigans throughout the Universe.  So Daggle and whatshername set off the bomb where they are. 

The same thing is about to happen on Zarox, but Keska and Jruk and John are trying to save her son, who seems to be the last uncorrupted person on the planet.  Then at the last minute, little Maro decides that killing kids is beneath him, and he starts glowing green,and...and...Woohoo!  His example wakes up the rest of the people and they decide they don't like being evil and nasty and they revolt.  Too bad that the bomb is still going to go off and destroy the planet, because it can't be stopped by Will Power.

But hey...I guess that Love can do the trick!  Remember a couple of issues ago, when John got a Pink Ring?  Nothing much was done with the idea, except that he kept it in his pocket or something, and flies up and goes all violet and saves the planet with....LOVE!  And he keeps his clothes on while he does it.

So we actually have a...happy ending!  Remember those?  The planet is saved, the kid is saved, and Feska and Jruk finally admit that they have the hots for each other, and Marus is saved, and John flies off into the sunset.  Which is a heck of a better way to finish things off than having Hal fly off to do whatever it is that Hal is going to do..!

Nothing mind boggling, but a perfectly good and servicable Green Lantern story.  And I'm perfectly happy with that.

Review Time

Well now, that wasn't a bad little week at all.

Fables: The Wolf Among Us #3

I am actually enjoying this little flashback enormously, since I have missed Snow and Bigby.  The current Fables storyline seems as though it is only going to end...badly, which upsets me a lot because a Fairy Tale deserves a Happy Ending!

I am such a sap.

Well, they find the dead girl's husband, the prince, who has apparently shot himself, but as is usual with Fables, it didn't take. Tweedledee and Tweedledum show up, as the muscle for the as-yet-unknown-villain.  I would be normally betting on Bluebeard, but Ichabod Crane is also a possibility.  Or it could be someone completely unknown as yet. 

Anyhoo...it's good and fun, and that's all that I really ask for.


Green Lantern Corps #40

Finally!  A good issue with the GLC!  More tomorrow.

Justice League United #10

Well, things had wrapped up a bit in the last issue, with J'onn saving the day except that in all the excitement, Brainiac let loose the ultimate weapon, and without Ultra to absorb it, it is now a runaway black hole. 

Ooops.

Everyone pitches in to stop it of course, and Brainiac manages to come up with some totally ridiculous ways to fix things, involving  Zeta Beams, and magic, and putting Thanagar and Rann in orbit around each other.  It's a little convoluted...but Gosh, I do love Comic Book Science! 

It works!  More or less, although of course, they may have altered the future, but hey.  The Legion goes back to the Future, to no doubt hold try-outs for Losers, just so that they can mock them, and the new little Justice League goes back to doing whatever it is that they do.  It's all rather heartwarming, and stuff, plus the villain isn't dead at all, but in the past, no doubt plotting future shenanigans. 

It's actually rather nice to have a book that realizes that yes, there needs to be a big threat, and that the heroes have to do their stuff, but that there also has to be a conclusion, and a victory, or else it just descends into a miserable steaming pile of depression.  Nice to have a rather old-fashioned attitude to the junior Justice League.  Ollie is still a jerk, Animal Man is fun, and I always enjoy J'onn and Star girl.  I'm actually warming up to Supergirl, although I started liking her in Red Lanterns, and whatserhame is okay I guess. 

So not bad at all.

Howard the Duck #1

I can't believe that Marvel revived this book.  I used to buy it back in the silly old days, and enjoyed it enormously.  My favorite Duck villain is still Doctor Bong! 

Anyhoo, Howard is still cranky, and still trapped in a World He Never Made.  He makes friends with a tattoo artist, and has apparently rented an office next to She-Hulk's which makes me happy, because even though her book has...(sob)...ended, I still got to read about her!  Win-Win!

Howard has set himself up as a private Detective, and manages to get a client who wants his jewelry back, from Catwoma...er...the Black Cat.  So Howard calls up Spider-Man for some help, but Peter is LESS than helpful.  So he goes and finds the loot on his own, along with the tattoo girl, and naturally gets into a fight with Black Cat and an intergalactic collector, and ends up in jail...again.

I love this.

Ms. Marvel #13

And speaking of love!  Kamala is doing some training with the Inhumans, which is probably a good thing.  Medusa is pleased, but a bit worried, because the Terrigan Mists seemed to have created any number of new Inhumans who aren't necessarily on board with her agenda.  And naturally Kamala runs across one, who is intent of taking over and busting up stuff. 

She also gets set up with a boy, the son of her parents old friends, who is getting into MIT, and used to pick his nose.  She's less than enthusiastic, until she actually sees him, and naturally he's gorgeous.  And he likes the same computer games that she does!  It is while they are out for a walk, with her brother acting as duenna, that they run across Kilowatt, who has a very bad attitude.  Kamala changes into Ms Marvel and clocks her, and then is shocked because she clocked her very very hard, which frightens her. 

Then it turns out that Kamran, the new boy saw her change...but that's okay, because he is an Inhuman too!

Well! 

Fabulous as usual.

Thor #6

Freya is fighting with Odin, and probably for good reason, since Odin has put his evil brother in charge of stuff.  Not quite sure what he's thinking there.  Odinson is still wandering around in despair because he misses his Hammer.  He's also got a list of women that could possibly be candidates for the new Thor, and he's checking it off, and then checking it twice. 

One name he can cross off.  Jane Foster still has Cancer, and he had brought all the technology and magic that Asgard has, to cure her, but she refused to accept anything but the weakest, convinced that she can beat it herself. I don't see this ending well, and neither does Odinson, which is a bit of a shame. 

Also, Malekith and  Agger from Roxxon make a deal. We also find out how it is that Agger gained those Minotaur powers, and it ain't pretty. It is also quite possible that it is all going to backfire on him in a particularly nasty way, but that's simply a seed that has been planted.  Anyway, he wants to mine oil in Svartalheim, in return for the head of the Frost Giant that Malekith wanted.  They shake hands, and you just KNOW they are going to betray each other, and they know it too, and frankly, I'm looking forward to it.

I also loved the scene where Odinson goes and yells at Agent Coulson about the whereabouts of  Agent Solomon, who is another one on his list of possible Thor's.  He brought his Goat, Toothnasher with him, which just freaks the hell out of Coulson, and is quite amusing.

Finally the new Thor actually shows up and ends up facing...the Destroyer? 

God I do love this book.

Not a bad week at all!

I'm Meeeeelllting!

My God, you can actually see around the giant snow drifts, when entering the roads!  Hallelujah!  The snow is finally...FINALLY melting!  Still freezes at night of course, but I'll take what I can get. 

Thursday's Reviews

Oh, I am ON this, this week!  Also, I only bought four books, which does make things so much easier.  A bit of a mixed bag, as the beginning of the month is wont to be.

Green Lantern #40

What the hell? 

Seriously, I have no idea what the heck is going on, because NONE of it makes any sense whatsoever.  We had the issue where the new New Guardians send Hal back to earth to sulk for a while, and Barry and Guy show up and have a wonderful bar fight, and then Carol yells at him for a while.  That was actually an okay issue, because of Barry and Guy. 

Then last issue, we had the new New Guardians apologizing to Hal, and saying that he is just the bestest ever...which is of course, music to Hal's ears.  Now this issue, we have Hal deciding, that since the old Guardians made such a mess out of the Universe, and since his feelings have been hurt that so many of the planets that used to like the Green Lanterns are now a tad on the suspicious side...he is going to go rogue, and...well, that's his plan apparently.

Hal doesn't believe in buckling down and working at improving things, because doing it the old fashioned way is Too Hard.  He wants results NOW!  So he steals Krona's lantern thingie, and beats up Kilowog, for no apparent reason, and flies off solo to do...something.  Salaak is bemused, Mogo is bemused, the new New Guardians are quite confused, as is everyone else.

I...don't get it. I mean, I get that they desperately need to start wrapping things up for next months Convergence stuff, but seriously?  I suppose having Hal be a quitter, is actually a nod to his history, he does this sort of thing all the time, at least he used to, back in the day, but considering how much he misses having the ring the minute he quits, I am a little surprised.  Not sure why he felt the need to tell Kilowog of his hair-brained plan, which involves going out and...doing things...will restore the good name of the Green Lanterns.  Kilowog naturally NOT being stupid considers this to be a moronic sort of thing to do, but knowing Hal, he plays along, and dares him to beat him up to "prove" how tough he is. 

Seriously. 

It makes not sense, and it's poorly thought out, and although Hal is an idiot, I never considered him to be quite THIS stupid.  Oh well, I guess it won't matter in a few months anyway when everything is rebooted...yet again.

Dumbest Issue Ever.

Justice League 3000 #15

I've only been picking this up because of Beetle and Booster and Ice.  Ice is now an immortal Ice Goddess,and on the cranky side.  Fire ended up in hell in her place and is shagging Etrigan, and they are now mortal...or immortal enemies.  Etrigan wants her Ice Castle...for some reason.  Superman continues to do his best moronic Guy Gardner impression, and the whole is pretty silly...and not necessarily in a good way.

Etrigan sends Fire to beat up Ice, which works for about three seconds before they start slopping all over each other, and crying how much they love each other.  That's very nice of course, but considering how their "battle" was built up to be this huge cat fight, it all ends pretty tamely.  There are demons, and Wonder Woman,and some other stuff going on, but it's not all that compelling.

Hawkeye #1

I'm not quite sure how we can have a new Hawkeye book, when the old one hasn't finished yet, but at least I don't have to worry that Clint and Kate make it out okay, because obviously, they do. 

It's a very nice issue, with Kate and Clint fighting Hydra goons, interspersed with flashbacks to when Clint and his brother were children.  The art is lovely, the story is interesting, and it's a worthy successor to the old series, so I'm quite happy with it. 


Saga #26

The best of the bunch this week, with the continuing story  of Alana, Hazel and Marko, which is getting to be quite...complicated.  Marco is still chasing Alana, and is horrified at his own loss of control, Prince Robot is a jerk, and the guy who stole baby prince Robot is in over his head.  Klara continues to be one of my favorite characters, Alana is trying to talk the kidnapper out of doing the really really stupid thing that he is doing, and Gwendolyn is trying to get some Dragon stuff to save the Will.  She is also quite rude to Sophie is, which may just come back to bite her on the butt, since Sophie is the one who actually saves theirs.  Butts that is. 

It's a little hard to explain to people who haven't been reading it, but the art is exquisite as always, and although the story does jump around a bit, between all the things that are concurrently going on, it is all still skillfully done, and as usual...I am enthralled.

So one great, one pretty darn great, one so-so, and one just awful.  Par for the course, I suppose.

Not Much To Say

I really have absolutely nothing pertinant to say today, at least applying to the wacky world of Comic Books.  But still...if I don't get this off my chest, I may just burst.

I work in a very nice Tire Company in Massachussetts.  I answered the phone this morning in my usual mellow tones, saying the name of the company, and how I could help.  A nice woman's voice told me that she thought she had talked to me last week, and had a question about her implants. 

I swear to God, I thought at first she was talking about TPMS, which stands for Tire Pressure Monitoring System, which is that little valve stem thingie on your tires, that tells you if the pressure is low.  It turns out that she was actually slightly confused about exactly whom she was talking to...since she was really discussing implants.

Breast implants. 

I did manage to keep from bursting into hysterical laughter, and gently told her that this was in fact a Tire Store.  She got flustered an hung up.

Best Wrong Number Ever!

Needless to say, the level of humor in a Tire Store is low and coarse...and hilarious.  Quite a number of people offered to inflate her implants, or possibly re-cap them.  Or put her up on a rack and check out her undercarriage.  I believe the term "lube job" was raised.  It was all quite quite absurd...but a wonderful time was had by all.  There is no humor like low humor.  I do hope she managed to find the right person to talk to however.

In addition, we have finally finished our Kitchen Remodel, and now my children are fighting over who gets to use the new stove.  They are volunteering...to make dinner for me several nights a week!  My son came over on the weekend and cooked a turkey!  It was delicious...and buying this stove may have been one of the best moves I ever made. On the other hand, my youngest has decided that perhaps she won't be moving out quite so soon after all. 

Hmmmm...!

Oh, and comics do come out tomorrow, which is always nice. 

Red Lantern #39

Somehow, in all the excitement, generated mainly by my own feverish brain...I completely forgot to do a review of Red Lanterns!  Really, forgetting about Guy Gardner?  This is unprecedented! 

It is an...unusual issue to say the least.  But naturally I never say the least.  The incomparable Charles Soule has moved on to greener pastures, (sob!) and the writing is taken over by one Landry Walker, who does a pretty decent job all things considered.

Guy has been cruising around Earth, trying to rectify the damage caused when Atrocitus sent all those Rage Rings around.  He's been collecting them and trying to put things to right, when he wanders into a little town, that has a huge problem...mainly a really horrific looking monster.  And there is this baby, that Guy keeps trying to rescue, to little avail.

Turns out of course, that the baby is the cause, and there is a whole "Children of the Corn" vibe going on. The kid's parents were killed, and that is one REALLY cranky baby!  It also has the power to suck the rage right out of Guy, which he finds rather disconcerting.  Fortunately, Guy Gardner isn't about to get beaten up by a Baby!  At least...not for long.  He does figure out a way to connect, get rid of the Anger, and calm the little cherub down...except now he's stuck with the kid, at least for a while, and wanders off into the sunset with the kid strapped to his back.

Oh, nothing could possibly go wrong here! 

Actually I found this to be rather amusing.  Guy likes kids...and kids like Guy.  It could have been much worse, it could have been Hal!  Guy will figure something out, I'm sure.  I imagine it will only be for another issue or so anyway, since the whole Convergence thing is coming along soon, and we will be seeing the end of Red Lanterns, which makes me sad.  I wasn't all that thrilled with the concept when it first came along, but Guy has done a rather spectacular job of it, despite the fact that most of the Reds were killed.  But that was a given right from the first, and frankly, he has done a better job of running his corps than Hal ever did. 

So...an interesting issue.