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Comments
See now I want to see Cyclops standing by Blackbird #245 with a dopey Nathan Drake grin on his face going "Chill out guys, we've got this" to the Avengers.
Animal Man 8 and Swamp Thing 8: Animal man, surprisingly, shifts away from filler, with some actual story developments, like new powers for Maxine, and Buddy apparently dying/being taken over by the Rot. Not good. Incidentally, there's something that's always bugged me about superheroes with really open-ended powers. Whenever they're defeated or even inconvenienced, I can always think of some way they could have avoided that. For example, Buddy should never, ever, ever go into battle without, say, the skin of an armadillo or something. Unless he can only have one power active at a time or something, in which case it would make sense? Can anyone more familiar with the character confirm or deny that? Anyway, as for Swamp Thing, much the same thing happens: he accepts his destiny and goes to fight the Rot (incidentally, I was not expecting wings. That is awesome), is winning for a bit, then gets impaled. I feel like his defeat here is a lot more believable, since it's for the in-character reason of wanting to save Abby instead of kill her, which is a lot more believable than a career superhero charging into battle without activating any defensive powers. I'm looking forward to seeing where both series are going from here.
Well the limits of Buddy's powers is that he's limited to working with whatever animals he can copy within so many miles. So he always has flight available from birds and bugs, but other powers tend to vary based on where he is at the time. In big cities he can do a lot since zoos.
Ah, okay, that makes sense.
Anyway, in other news, DC announced that one of their "major, iconic" superheroes will come out of the closet in June. So...aside from the fact that it's a really, really obvious grab for publicity, I do find myself wondering who it is. They used a male pronoun, so it can't be Wonder Woman, and I feel like most of the A-List DC superheroes are confirmed straight, so...not sure how they're going to do this and have it actually make sense.
It's obviously Guy Gardner.
WW is all but canonically bi anyways.
In any case my guess is that it'll be some relatively recognizable B-lister but not someone who would upset people too much like Flash or GL.
Green Arrow because that beard will not limit itself based on gender?
Nightwing so Dick can have double the opportunities to be a walking penis joke?
Aquaman because Atlantis seems to take cues from Greek/Roman culture from time to time?
Well, whoever it is, I hope they handle it better than the fact that they announced it in advance implies they're going to -_-
Anyway:
Animal man 9 and Swamp Thing 9: Animal Man continues to be awesomely weird, and it looks like it'll be crossing over with Justice League Dark. Excellent. Swamp Thing, meanwhile, turns around the fight much faster and more thoroughly than I'd expected it to, then replaces the villain with someone who I guess I'd know about if I'd read the older comics. Well, I guess it'll fill me in on that next time.
butbutbut black canary
They said bi, not gay. Besides if Gail Simone is anything to go by Dinah is like 80% straight, so she would probably understand if Ollie swings both ways.
...Oh. Welp. Guess it could be Green Arrow. I see it as unlikely, though.
My guess is Wally West, Jason Todd or (now) Guy Gardner.
I put five denarii on Jaime Reyes, so they can hit every single demographic checklist.
Should I write a deadpool (hurr hurr) of odds on who will be the gay one?
depends. what do i win when guy gardner is revealed to be totally crushing on guy gardner
E-peen points.
Yes. And just to throw this out there after a spinoff from another discussion, Alk's top ten twelve Marvel ongoings that are worth checking out.
1. Amazing Spider-man
2. Journey into Mystery
3. Daredevil
4. New Mutants
5. X-Men Legacy
6. Wolverine and the X-men
7. Venom
8. Avengers Academy
9. Avenging Spider-man
10. Iron Man
11. Fantastic Four
12. FF
Honorable mentions - Hulk, X-Factor, Generation Hope, Uncanny X-Force and Scarlet Spider
Past series that are totally worth your time. Runaways, Incredible Hercules, Planet Hulk, Ellis writting Thunderbolts and Dan Slott's She Hulk and Mighty Avengers. Oh and the Thor: The Mighty Avenger mini.
All my want when this comes out.
And this thing that only Kraken and Nova will get.
A Wakfu comic picking up right after the end of the 2nd season. Fuck yes. Hell fucking yes.
Glorious.
ahaha
And hey before I am whisked off to a Jellystonian hell against my wills by the capricious whims of friendship and manacles of obligation I might as well churn out a few quick reviews for the comics I bought this week.
Amazing Spider-man 686 - And the annihilation of the eastern hemisphere was a fake out by Mysterio. Well played Beck and Slott. Overall a good issue albeit with a few niggling problems. Mostly the whole capture of Mysterio rendered the events of the Ends of the Earth oneshot moot (but who the heck cares we got to see Union Jack who has a great costume so w/e). One thing that bugged me immensely was seeing Doc Ock use the tech he made at horizon to help his plans along and started going off about how this is all his fault. No just no guys, Peter has enough legitimate reasons to feel guilty and beat himself up. Feeling guilty because a nut hijacked tech he built to help people is just bluh... well Iron Man could probably offer a pep talk here about that sort of scenario. Although it does add a bit of ambiguity as to if Doc Ock is sincere about saving the world or if he is like Mysterio and Chameleon acted out, a creature of spite and rage.
Fantastic Four 606 - The classic shrink down and pilot a sub through a person's blood stream to save their life(in this case the FF's mailman who has been a side character for years) with the Fantastic Four. It just nice breather filler, and seeing Reed talk about the human environment was lulzy. Just something to catch narrative breath again after Hickman's epic run thus far.
Hulk 52 - Red Hulk, Stephen Strange and the Legion of Monsters team up to help Rulk out with his ghost problem. Some bits of humor here and there and just a solid weekly issue. I feel like Stephen's explanation that Samson's ghost wasn't the real Samson, just a reflection of him was kind of a cheap cop out to avoid getting lambasted with character assassination rant fanmail.
Astonishing X-Men 50 - The best thing about this issue was the cover. Well no that's a lie. The best thing was Iceman making fun of Gambit and Gambit's love life. Overall this is one of those monthlies that suffers because the staff are writing for the trade. Things don't really make sense and the breaks between issues are too long to keep investment going. If it doesn't pick up next month I'm dropping this title.
All Star Western 9 - This issue was a bit underwhelming compared to the last few issues. It is like they wrapped up the main plot super fast to get to the shoehorned Talon cameo. Which really amounted to a Talon(not really digging the costume for this one) killing the guy Hex and Arkham were looking for and acrobating off. Bluh. Still the conversation about Hex having been married was lulzy.
Batman Inc 1 - Well the intro starts out strong and gives a sense of mystery to untangle for the whole thing with Batman staring at the Wayne family plot and renouncing Batman just before a horde of policeman with reporters in tow show up to arrest him. So good writing for the trade basically. One panel specifically involving a cow seemed thrown in entirely for the internet to amuse itself over. And so far it is working. And then Bang! Morrison seems to be operating under the whole "I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it!" with Damian.
Justice League Dark 9 - Well good for me that the new issue is newbie friendly since Lemire jumped on introducing the new team. In short John Constantine is in the closet about being a superhero now since he is hanging out with Deadman, Zatanna, Black Orchid and some vampire goff to stop Felix Faust who has gone all D&D villain. Solid, but I'm waiting for them to get involved with the Rot.
And some other comics from the past few weeks that I felt like covering
Knights of the Old Republic: War 5 - What can I say Zayne Carrick is like the best Jedi since Obi Wan and Luke. He's just a nice guy who wants to help everybody he sees, and doesn't care about some Jedi code nonsense. That and unlike so many EU Jedi, he isn't quick to just jumping to lightsaber fights and force theatrics and is willing to talk his way and scheme his way out of situations. All in all this was a fun new arc for Zayne but it felt weaker than the series proper since it didn't have Gryph or Jarael in meaningful roles to play off Zayne
Mystery In Space 1 (one shot) - Just a set of sci fi short stories published by vertigo. Really pricey, but I would say it is a good example of sci fi stories done right, focusing less on the tech and the settings and more how those things affect the characters populating those settings.
Locke and Key: Clockworks 6 - And we flashback just to see how dangerous Dodge was and how close everything came to falling apart. We already knew he was a threat, but seeing the inevitable outcome of him mowing through people in the past brings a sense of dread too the final volume since we know he secretly has the dreaded Omega Key he has been after all this time. And that art. I want it. More of it.
Justice League Dark 4: Am I the only one who thinks this comic's art occasionally looks like CGI? Not always, just certain panels. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, it's just...a thing. Anyway, the plot seems to be getting to the point and a bunch of the characters are all actually getting together, so I feel like this first story arc is ending soon. I'm not sure I can really judge the overall quality of the series until it does, but so far I am liking it. Incidentally, part of this issue made me notice something that kinda bothers me about the comics I've been reading as a whole. Off the top of my head, there are at least two or three national crises going on in the US, yet none of them ever get mentioned in other series, ever. I mean, I understand why that is, but...meh, I'm probably reading into it too much
Also, a question. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on most of the characters in the series, but Shade...well, what exactly are his powers? So far, he just kinda does stuff. Is he just generically magical or something?
Shade's powers are a mystery in and of itself, but from what I've seen, he's able to teleport and generate nasty shadow demons he uses to murder, maim and blah blah blah
oh and he's immortal.
Huh. Okay, that works.
Justice League Dark 5: The start answers my concerns regarding multiple crazy global things happening at once. The fact that we see Animal Man superheroing means this arc takes place a bit earlier than Animal Man and Swamp Thing. I'm probably paying just a bit too much attention to continuity >.> Anyway, end of the story arc. I kinda like how they didn't all just combine their powers, defeat the enemy and decide to form a team, as one might expect. Looking forward to seeing where this is going.
You know, as much as I love Spider-Man (And boy do I love Spider-Man right now) it's bothering me quite a bit that Slott's run is emphasizing way too much the fact that he's an Avenger. I mean, it's cool and all that Spider-Man's finally in the big leagues, but I can't help but think that Spider-Man should be able to face his problems without defaulting to "Call the Avengers, they'll solve it"
ETA: With all that said, I can't get tired of Spider-Man saying "Avengers Assemble"
Justice League Dark 9: This issue is largely newbie friendly as possible with Jeff Lemire taking over. You might have seen Lemire's name bandied about since he's also written Animal Man (which is brilliant) and Frankenstein (which is a hoot) He seems to be becoming the guiding light behind the mystical side of DC. The book itself is a lot of fun, focusing on John Constantine and working to define how exists in the DC universe, as opposed to how he exists in his single book Hellblazer which is untied to DC. There's some solid character work and a lot of fun Indiana Jones stuff, but I still don't give a crap about Adam Bennet. I have to admit the winky scene where Constantine comments on how dumb the title 'Justice League Dark' is made me laugh.
Batman Incorporated 1: Damien might want to ask Talia Al Ghul for that 'World's Greatest Mom' mug back. This book has been the one I've been awaiting the most as pre-New 52 Batman Inc was a fantastic book with the noted exception of the final issue. This comic is largely working on introducing the world of Batman Inc and the tension between Batman and his son/current Robin Damien. There's the build-up to the grand conspiracy of Leviathan, some fun action and some genuinely funny stuff. ('As of now I am a vegetarian. And this is Batcow') Let's hope it doesn't lose momentum like Action Comics did.
All-Star Western 9: This is the only book other than Batman I'm following that is a part of the 'Night of The Owls' event and oh man. I'm glad I'm not following any others. At the very least a lot happens. In fact, three separate stories happen, not counting the back-up. The book is clear but completely rushed and the appearance of the Talon serves no real purpose other than to get people to buy completionists to buy one more book.
Fantastic Four 606: With all the big ideas Fantastic Four has been going through I'm wondering how long Hickman's wind-down from the end of the Mad Gods arc is going to last. While going through time to see The Thing throughout time and alternate reality Nazi Fantastic Four was interesting this issue is simply an homage to The Fantastic Voyage that tries to pretend it's not about journeying into the human body which might have been clever if the cover didn't give it away.
Flash 9: Look up disappointment in the dictionary I just made to make poetic points and you will find Flash Issue 9. This comic has had so much going for it. It wasn't the most revolutionary, mind-bending, or brilliant comic on the stands but it was a remarkably solid and imaginative take on a character everyone seems to know about but not know much about and the two previous issues have been building up to his greatest villain. What we get is barely any of Grodd, with a few punches thrown while time is wasted on a needless memory loss plot for the Flash and then Flash beats up Grodd (who acts super dumb for the hyper-intelligent ape he's supposed to be) and then returning back to his time period with no actual explanation. (sigh)
The Amazing Spider-man 686: While the reveal that half the world is turned to cinders was a predictable fakeout by Mysterio (oh come on, this isn't a spoiler!) the rest of the comic is solid and emotional and I do like that Slott as a writer emphasizes Spider-man's intelligence and scientific mind as well as his ability to swing around and punch things. It also even has some plot twists that are shocking but at the same time make perfect sense. The fact that Slott has been pushing out Spider-man to be the best since who knows when and doing it on a bi-weekly basis is nothing short of amazing.
The Mighty Thor 14: As I've said, Matt Fraction has his bag of tricks, and there are some superficial similarities to the Tarnarus arc but fortunately being stuck in the realm of nightmares means that Thor gets to actually kick ass rather than sit around trying to remember who he is. The re-introduction of Enchantress and her manipulation of Thor's former host Donald Blake is likewise interesting (I wonder if they're gonna tie in her fascination with Thor) and results in some pretty cool body horror.
So, thoughts on Spider-Man post-Spider-Island:
I'm definetly loving Slott's run as he has reinvirogated the character with the sense of fun and swashbuckling-like adventure that was missing since the Civil War event (at least to me). Of course, it had resurfaced from time to time (New Ways To Die comes to mind) but regardless before Slott and Ramos had started their run, Spider-Man had felt rather stagnant. Marvel's Editoria'l various attempts to avoid this from happening had actually exarcebated the process and lost various readers as they were growing annoyed with the constant promises of groundbreaking twists and then being turned into dust and lies.
Slott and Ramos' biggest strength so far is the fact that they're tapping into parts of the things we all know about the Spider-Man universe that tend to be just in the background at best, and then bringing them to the light and taking them to interesting places, such as Peter's brilliant-ness as a scientist finally meaning something more than being able create web fluid and netting him a very profitable job, as well as allowing him membership in The Avengers, which enhances the aforementioned sense of swashbuckling adventures (Because really, is there anything more swashbuckly than a good Avengers story?) Spider-Island was basically Slott taking two of the most infamously annoying Spider-Man villains (Jackal from the "classic" Clone Saga and Queen from those stories Spider-Man became an Spider and then was reborn with natural webbing) and then unleashing them on New York while giving everyone Spider-powers and allowing for ridiculously great battles and craziness. Now Slott's tackling the Sinister Six (Or well, concluding the plot he set out to do with them back when he started his run.
I think that one of the most interesting parts of the Spider canon has always been the Sinister Six. They're probably the closest thing to an actually functional all-star group of criminals, as opposed to the Masters of Evil, who often tend to stumble because of the massive egos involve. The key to this is of course the fact that they're all searching for a common goal which is to profit themselves (And kill Spider-Man), rather than world domination or any of the usual ego-stroking that is involved when people like Zemo enter the picture.
So of course I was grinning like a child who was told he gets to eat ice cream all day when I knew about the Ends of the Earth arc, which is (hopefully) the conclusion to the ongoing subplot we've had following the Sinister Six as Otto Octavius plans his last attack before his death.
There's always been something so appealing about the concept of a dying man going out in a blaze of glory, simply because it allows a writer to touch on many personal plot points as well as give the story a sense of urgency. Admittedly, it can be done cheaply, but here it isn't so simply because while it's probably that there will be a way for Otto to get out of this clean and simple (considering this is the Marvel Universe, where many heroes and villains die and revive near constantly, it wouldn't be surprising, really) the build up is still nothing short of suspenseful and marvelous to read as the Sinister Six are slowly taken down.
Stray thoughts:
*Quentin Beck really deserves an oscar
*As much as I like Ramos' art, I wish Caselli stayed and became the regular artist. His art is really damn good, whereas Ramos' is...ok, but rather lacking and sometimes a bit too cartoony and bendy for my taste (Which fits Spider-Man but harms other characters)
*I really loved the Sinister Six issue where we saw them fight the current Frightful Four. Slott really nails the feel of each of the members and how they relate to each other a lot, not to mention that he certainly has tons of fun writing them, specially Mysterio and Chameleon
*As I've said before, seeing Peter enjoying being an Avenger never stops being fun
*And we also got to see Spider-Man punching (sadly fake) Al Gore. How cool was that?
Honestly, considering that it's Slott and what he's done with Jackall and Kaine I wouldn't be surprised if this ends with the re-introduction of Lady Octopus.
Picture it folks; Talia Al Ghul and Gendo Ikari attend a parenting seminar and trade strategies.
Huh, I never actually posted my impressions on Justice League Dark 6. This issue features the team actually, well, being a team. Very grudgingly. Anyway, the thing that catches my attention most is that apparently the next issue crosses over with I, Vampire. Which involves Cain, the first vampire...so is I, Vampire basically Vampire: the Masquerade, but published by DC? And either way, the more important questions are: is I, Vampire any good, and if not, should I skip any JL:D issues?