Monday 31 May 2010

May Comics

comic musings

May Comics


This months comic subscription package contained:

Brightest Day #1 & #2
"Second Chances" & "Nuclear Options"

At the start we see Hal, Carol and Sinestro investigating the White Lantern left over from Blackest Night. Honestly I prefered it when the heroes beat the snot out of Sinestro rather than chatted to him.
Not so Deadman (Aliveman?) continues to be the main segment that has the most ties to the white light.
Aquaman is one of the more interesting segments. His calling up of dead animals is intriguing. Strange with the awesome cover to #2 that Aquaman didn't feature more in the issue. Such a shame Aquaman's return interupts Black Manta's dream job of being a butcher and sends him over the edge.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl sections are interesting, the death masks in #2 is a nice call back to Johns run on Hawkman.
Martian Manhunter not a big fan so his spotlight in #2 wasn't great.
Firestorm and old new Firestorm still don't get on. This is really getting tiresome.
Despite the multitude of artists on each issue I don't really notice the switches, which is pretty cool.

Ted Kord Watch: Still dead.


The Flash v3 #2
"Case One: The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues"

Reasonable enough, tho I'm not sure about the laws in the DCU but here you need all sorts of permits to put up a building, even if you do it super fast. I don't know if I'd live in a building put up that fast. The art is gorgeous Manapul is on fire in this series. The twist at the end of the issue is interesting, more so than last months.

Wally Watch (or Where's Wally?): Nothing to see here.

Green Lantern #43
"The New Guardians, Chapter One"

The next big mystery is who is collecting the various colour entities as we see where Parallax went to. Back to Green Lantern, it was refreshing to see Hal back on Earth doing normal things, even if it is only for awhile. Plus we get the first mention of his girlfriend, Cowgirl for like the first time in months. Sinestro arrives and takes us to the start of Brightest Day #1. I really hope that this isn't how it's going to be for the coming months with Green Lantern acting like a point-five for the Brightest Day book. We also get a whistlestop tour of Saint Walker, Larfleeze and Atrocitus, the later of which serves as an intro to Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors which is coming soon, staring the greatest Green Lantern of them all - Guy Gardner. Decent enough, needs more green.

Green Lantern Corps #47
"Goodbye Darkness"
Farewell Tomasi, you will be missed.. but not for too long as you're on the upcoming Emerald Warriors. Hurrah! This was a good swansong to his run on corps. One of the controversial laws of OA is revoked and the little blue meanies, get a slap from someone who isn't Guy. I hope they rebuild the bar soon. Guy, Kyle cheers guys it's been a fun ride. Looking towards the future there's a double page splash for Emerald Warriors which shows that series probably isn't going to be all roses. Maybe we get a Hal / Guy rematch? It would be the first since Guy Gardner: Warrior #21 I believe.

Justice League: Generation Lost #1
"Gone But Not Forgotten"

So the blacked out figure on the cover was Max Lord. Speaking of that, thank goodness the interior art is better than that cover. What is up wth Ice? Fire's face? Booster? Seriously, the further up the cover you go the worse it gets. The actual issue itself is all set up, revealing why Captain "Monarch" Atom, Fire, Ice and Booster remember Max. Plus Booster gets a beating from Max, I can't wait for that to reverse later in the series. Max Lord has always annoyed me.

Zatanna #1
(Untitled)
I took a punt on Dini writing Zatana based on the quality of his handling of her in his run on Detective Comics. Good move so far, one of the best books of the week. The balance of Zatanna the stage magician and Zatanna the superhero is very well done. It helps that it's (near enough) a done in one issue, though seeds are certainly planted for later on.
The art is kick-ass and consistant all the way through too.


Overall Conclusions
Much better, the two new additions more than hold their own.

Next month, more of the same please! Tho John Stewart joins the Green Lantern Corps book, so that's bound to be fun. Not.