Thursday's Reviews

This was...a bit of a confusing week.  There were Convergence books of course, and a few actual books, which was a bit of a relief.

Batman #40

Well!

Batman and his allies are still fighting the Joker, and the poison is spreading, and they can't find an antidote, and all hell is breaking loose.  Or...a typical day in Gotham, as far as I am concerned.  Then Batman manages to get close enough to the Joker to try and suck the antidote from him and...ho ho...there isn't any antidote!  And the Joker gets to gloat for a while, and then he pulls the mask from Batman to gloat a little more personally...and it's Dick!  Not Bruce!

Well, blow me down! 

Bruce, is traipsing through the tunnels, thanks to a hint from the Court of Owls, and his own brilliance, and finds the...stuff, that is the antidote, but time is running out, and there are bombs, and traps, and the Joker figures it out, and they collide in what can only be described as a fight of stunning brutality.  And they rip the masks off of each other, and...and...!

Well!

Is Batman dead?  Or, is Bruce dead?  Is the Joker dead?  I actually rather doubt it...not with the antidote stuff right THERE.  But everyone else seems to doubt it, and Alfred is certainly depressed.  I have to admit that it was one helluva a way to go,and  Scott Snyder has been continually surprising me.  Capullo's art is sublime as always, and I'm gasping, but still a bit skeptical.

On the other hand, I guess this explains why Gordon is running around in the new Moth-suit...er Bat suit.

Not sure what to think of all of this quite yet.

Convergence: Booster Gold

I have really been looking forward to seeing Booster.  Apparently I am seeing two Boosters, but Skeets is back, and so is Rip Hunter.  A whole passel of Time Jumpers are imprisoned, and Rip is trying to free them, but the new Booster gave up the information about Vanishing Point, and old Booster is imprisoned, but dying from all the chronal energy, which actually confuses me, because shouldn't Rip be dying too?  He jumps through Time more than anybody! 

Oh, and Ted shows up . 

Interesting.  Very interesting.

Convergence: Blue Beetle

Ted is still hanging in there, doing his best.  The Question is quizzical.  Captain Shinypants is STILL THE BIGGEST DICK IN THE DC UNIVERSE!!!!

That's all you really need to know.

Justice League #40

This was...a bit confusing really.  It has Maguire doing some of the art, and art by some other people. Metron is sculling around, and runs across the Anti-Monitor and there is a bit of bombast and back and forth, and Darkseid is brought up.  We get a lot of splash pages about past Crises, and it all seems like a whole lot of set-up.

I actually happen to like Metron, and seeing young Orion being a jerk was fun. But this was more or less underwhelming.

Convergence: Justice Society of America

All the old farts in the Justice Society are under one of those goddamned domes, and have lost their powers, blah blah blah, but apparently it made them all even older than they were, and they all have arthritis and bad knees and moan a lot.  The younger generation is being snotty and obnoxious, and should just get off the JSA's lawn already!  Whippersnappers!!

Then Kent (Doctor Fate) who is in a coma opens his eyes, sees the dome come down and says that he can give them all their powers AND their youth back...but it is a one-shot deal, and nobody is really planning on walking away from all of this.  And as one, they all decide that they know they are going out but are going out in a Blaze of Glory!  The final splash page is simply magnificent.

God, I love these guys.


Convergence: Shazam

And speaking of love...I have to say that the recent Shazam books have been pretty darned fabulous.  Billy and Mary and Freddy are under the Dome, without powers, but still doing their darndest by cracky!  Also Uncle Dudley has been acting weird.  Well...more weird than usual. 

So they follow him and are captured by Mr. Atom!  And King Kull!  And Uncle Dudley is actually Dr. Sivana!  Oh, be still my heart.  There are plans most nefarious and yet hilarious, Talky Tawney shows up, the dome comes down, and Shazam! 

Why can't all the books be like this one?

Daredevil #15

Well, thanks to the Shroud, who has betrayed Matt...again...things are going to hell in a handbasket very very quickly.  The Shroud has the Owl hooked up to some weird machine, which enables him to go on every single media device throughout the city, and he uses that to show everyone that Matt had taped confessions, and makes him look like the badguy, and EVERYONE is out to get him and Foggy is outed, and oh...

...it looks bad.  Really really bad.  So Matt has to do the one thing that practically kills him...go to the Kingpin.

God, I do love this book.


So...some hits and misses.  Daredevil, Shazam and Batman were pretty fabulous.  Booster Gold and Blue Beetle weren't bad.  Justice Society was pretty good.  Justice League was more or less a dud.  Not terrible...but certainly not particularly good, at least in my humble opinion.