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.