Posts Tagged ‘ …of the week ’

So glad I decided not to tradewait on Red Robin (and Batgirl) after all…

He made a story starring Hush good.

And he used that bloody robot dinosaur that’s been in Bruce’s cave since God-knows-when.

You know, that happy ending might only have lasted a night, but I like to think that somewhere out in the DC multiverse, they retire, live happily ever after and have lots of little Huntresses.

Well done, Mr Dini, well done. Countdown may have sucked, but Detective Comics has been really rather good.

Poor old Jim Rhodes.

At one point Iron Man’s pilot, Rhodey’s been bounced from pillar to post for years.

He becomes Iron Man, only to have Tony’s armor screw with his mind.

He hangs around with Tony only in his tighty-whiteys way too much. Way too much.

He becomes War Machine when Tony dies, only to have Tony not be dead at all, just screwing with his mind.

He strikes out on his own and joins up with the Avengers West Coast only to have them disbanded and reformed by Tony as Force Works. Only Rhodey doesn’t get an invite.

He gets rid of the armor only to get bonded to a weird alien-parasite-thingummy armor.

He somehow gets rid of that armor and eventually ends up in The Crew. Which gets cancelled after, like, two issues.

He ends up working for Office of National Emergency (O.N.E.) in a big old Sentinel armor, then gets smacked around by Black Panther and Storm. Panther gives him a lecture then buggers off.

He then ends up as some kind of unexplainedly cyborg thing back in an armor that looks like his old one as an instructor at the Initiative, where he doesn’t get to do much except snarl at people through his faceplate.

And then, finally, Tony uses him as a failsafe against the Skrulls because he built the new armor out of old tech ‘just in case’.

On the plus side, he just got hooked up to a giant space station and transformed it into a giant kick-ass transforming robot thing.

So, y’know, upside.

Oh, also, to the joy of exactly one person (me), Christos Gage bought back Cybermancer!

Better than that, however was the rise of a true hero to challenge Atlas on the book’s last page – and this harks back to what I liked about Robinson’s first issue on the book…

Forget Legion of Three Worlds, forget Amazing Spider-Man – both were actually head and shoulders above the rest of the pack, true, but the best book of the week was a book so consistently good that it probably gets overlooked by most readers, and simply taken for granted.

You know the book I mean…

This week’s Captain America took several steps towards the conclusion of Ed Brubaker’s ‘Death of Captain America’ arc. At this stage, I think we can safely call it ‘epic’, actually – and I suspect that a lot of people will happily shell out money for a second omnibus edition of Brubaker and Epting’s (and everyone else involved) run.

At this stage, I think it’s safe to say (thanks to future solicits) that Bucky Barnes will remain in as Captain America for the forseeable future – although that’s not to say that Steve Rogers will never return. At some point, though, I think that I’ll get used to calling Bucky ‘Cap’…just not quite yet.

After all, you have Zola and the Skull still tinkering with Doom’s time platform that they obtained a while ago…

…and apparently Sharon Carter is the constant. Sounds to me like Brubaker may have been watching a bit of Lost, but it also suggests to me that Skull has a plan involving time travel and using Sharon Carter (when she was under mind control) and Steve Rogers. Given that Zola has made another machine to separate the Skull from Lukin, I’d also suggest that maybe the Skull will need a new body to inhabit.

In the past, he made use of a cloned body of Steve Rogers but maybe he’s had trouble since then – say, with maintaining the integrity of the super-soldier serum. What if he intends to snatch Cap’s body from the steps of the courthouse as it dies and transplant his consciousness into it? He could replace that body with a failed clone without the super-soldier serum – which is then the corpse that we’ve all already seen. Maybe the real Steve could return this way – maybe not.

Anyway, there’s lots of stuff happening this issue. With Faustus pulling a fast one and betraying the Skull, he also gave Sharon a gift of sorts…

Honestly, this whole Sharon’s baby plotline feels hinky to me. I’m not sure if it is what it looks like – a plot device to give Sharon a reason to fight Faustus’ control – or whether the baby isn’t so much lost as taken by Zola. Either way, for some reason it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable and I’m not really sure why.

Another nice touch was Sin’s going off mission. Before the Skull resurfaced, she and Crossbones were all set on raising some hell, and her constant beratement by her father obviously hasn’t sat well with her. Having her rebel by trying to kill the senator sets up a conflict there nicely – and allows Bucky to make a grand entrance as Cap, a damn sight more impressive one than he made a while ago in Washington.

Finally there’s one panel that gave me not one but two smiles for completely different reasons.

First up, I love the fact that Black Widow doesn’t just get out of her flying car when Bucky’s around. No, to impress the man she has feelings for (which must get a bit weird as she used to be ga-ga for Steve-Cap a while back), she vaults out.

And secondly, Falcon calls Bucky ‘partner’ and the only other person he’s called that is Steve Rogers. Aww.

One thing that I’m really enjoying about the latest run of Action Comics is Gary Frank’s art.

She’s still got a belly shirt and a really short skirt but damned if she doesn’t at least look a little younger than most other artists tend to draw her.

Oh, and this interaction with Cat Grant?

Priceless and clearly an early shoe-in for the long dormant page of the week.

Spoilers Ahead

I haven’t always been complimentary to Booster Gold, calling it fanwank at times even if by and large it’s been enjoyable fanwank.

And yes, this issue probably falls into that category too, especially as it’s labelled as #1,000,000 and briefly ties into the DC One Million event from about ten years ago.

Even so, it was probably the most flat-out enjoyable book I read this week, in a week that was very strong for once.

There’s so many things that were just right with the book – co-writers Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz’s final issue together.

Let’s see…there was the return of Booster’s sister from the dead (which was a random guess on Monday!) thanks to some time-twiddling machinations by Rip Hunter -

…there was the return of Rip’s chalkboard albeit briefly, promising a trip to Armageddon 2001, the return of Azrael, the Blackest Night, the return of a Dibny (echoed later in the issue with the ‘coming this year’ page – making me think I’m right in thinking artist Dan Jurgens will be taking over the book) and an interesting comment about for every positive there’s a negative. I do like these things, y’know.

…there was the reveal of Rip’s identity. For those not in the know, Rip’s true identity has never been revealed since it would enable any of his time-travelling enemies to kill him in his crib. Now, however, one word gives it away…

This makes me wonder whether Skeets is on the secret, as he’s able to scan Peter Platinum to see if he’s related to Booster – so why not Rip? Anyway, it’s a nice touch if not a total surprise – and it adds a twist to all their previous interactions.

The best scene, however, was Booster’s confrontation with Batman, when the caped one admitted that it wasn’t just pictures of Barbara Gordon he found all those years ago after The Killing Joke – he’d also found pictures of a tortured Booster as he tried time and time again to save her.

I guess the fact that Bats kept on at Booster until he grew up and that took place in his own timeline could be interpreted as Batman being (shocker!) a bit of a dick, but I prefer to think of it as Batman doing what he had to do to preserve the timeline.

Anyway, his admission to Booster comes at just the right time as he’s feeling useless after failing to save Ted Kord – in fact, he thinks he’s a joke:

Then comes the good bit:

An apology, an offer of friendship, a pat on the back and a smile? From Batman? Maybe he’s not such a dick after all…

In conjunction with me wanting a Namor series, it would appear that the gods smiled upon me this week – by supplying me with Avengers/Invaders #3.

Yes I’m being cute with the title…

Anyway in this week’s Robin, the Boy Wonder decided to finally get to the bottom of the identity of the new Spoiler by bringing in the big guns…

…only to find out that the new Spoiler is actually the old Spoiler!
Yep, Steph’s back – cause-celebe of an area or two of the blogoverse! You know, if I need to tell you this then you’re probably new here…

In any case, Robin responds to the return of his thought-dead ex-girlfriend the only way anyone would – by going in for a snog.

Steph cools it and asks if she’s welcome back – and its about then that Tim realises that Bruce didn’t lay one on her aswell so obviously he knew all about her being alive all along…

…and indeed he did.

Well, kind of. So he suspected all along that Steph may not have been dead and that’s why he didn’t put a memorial in the cave. Well…okay….anyway, back at the cave and after Alfred restrains from slipping Steph some tongue too, Bruce lays out exactly what happened and Steph explains why..

…and whadda you know, its just what I said a few months ago.

There’s a few good bits here – first off it explains the whole memorial thing which got so many people’s backs up. It’s almost enough to make you think that it was planned all along, actually.

Almost.

It also brings a couple of people back into play – not only Steph, who’s a great character in her own right but also Leslie Thomkins who, now that she’s no longer responsible for the death of anyone, is free to return to Gotham. I suspect that Alfred may give her a smooch.

Not only that, but this is the first time that Bruce reveals his identity to Steph. Granted, given that he’s now Tim’s adopted father this might not have been too difficult for her to work out, but even so…

Anyway, Steph’s back!

What can we complain about now?

This week’s issue of Amazing Spider-Man saw a return that everyone saw coming but in a way that I have to admit – I didn’t see.

I honestly didn’t expect Mary Jane to show up as scumbag actor Bobby Carr’s boyfriend.

I’m still pretty sure that MJ’s deal with the devil involved her remembering the past (and therefore the marriage and how happy they were) on the condition that Peter doesn’t – so I can’t help but think this thing she has for Carr is part of a grand scheme relating to her Jackpot identity.

What?

She’s not Jackpot?

Like hell, I say.

Anyway, Carr’s hit the jackpot this week…and artist Marcos Martin appears to have become the bizarre lovechild of Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale. Er, in an artistic way, anyway…

Points to note: she’s reading Faust (of deal with the devil fame) and her dialog is…

..but as we all know, if it’s magic, you don’t need to explain it!

I’m a little bit surprised.

I can hardly believe it, but my favorite page of the week was a recap page.

More specifically, the Incredible Hercules recap page, summarizing Herc and Cho’s journey to date.

It’s the trip across America that really amused me – I want to see a Hercules: Roadtrip mini series.

I want Hercules knocking back beers in bars in the midwest.

I want Herc starting brawls in biker bars in Nowhere, AZ.

I want Herc discovering the wonder of karaoke night.

I want Herc carousing, singing and telling tall tales.

I want Hercules: Roadtrip.

You know you want it too!

Sigh.

Spoilers Ahead

There are so many good bits in Blue Beetle #25 that its difficult to know where to begin…

Is it the awesomeness of Guy Gardner’s entrance – or, as he seems to be known, ‘the crazy one’?

Don’t be deceived! Gail Simone is not back on the book – we’re still on Sean McKeever’s brief run.

That said, it wasn’t as bad as previous issues*. The Zinda – Huntress bits were pretty good – although the Misfit – Black Alice – Oracle – Manhunter bits weren’t.

Still, its not Gail Simone!

*This would be the definition of damning with faint praise.

What they don’t show you is that the next second Bishop topples over thanks to his ridiculously large bionic arm.

I mean why?

Why try to out-Cable Cable? Wasn’t Stryker enough?

Are bionic arms cool again? Did I miss a memo or a trip in a Delorean?

Piper’s journey has been a long and tortuous one through the pages of Countdown (some might argue that’s getting a bit meta), but this week he at last takes the centre stage….

First off, we have the revelation that Desaad was behind the whole thing with Piper and Trickster so he could break Piper’s spirit (note the OMAC’s comment – now s/he’s getting a bit meta!). Personally I’m wondering if just hauling him off to Apokolips and indulging in a bit of good-old fashioned torture mightn’t have been easier.

…which Desaad’s none to happy about…

…and splat!

Yep.

Desaad, chief torturer of Apokolips and Darkseid’s creepy right hand just got offed by a normal guy with a flute. More specifically, this guy:

But the show ain’t over yet, folks, because next Piper turns his attention to Brother I – who, if you read last issue, you may recall took over Apokolips.

Piper starts to play, wondering what tune he’s going to play in order to take down a sentient machine the size of a city who’s taken over a hell-planet full of dark gods…and hits on the perfect one.

Salvation Run #4 contained what should have been a no-brainer for me: Gorilla Grodd vs Monsieur Mallah. I never really cared for Mallah and the Brain for a couple of reasons – firstly, Mallah is a French monkey or ape (only half of this is bad, by the way). Secondly, the Brain is just a brain. And, finally, they’re in love and while I think its good that we have strong gay relationships in comics, I find it a little icky that one of them introduces a bit of bestiality into the mix – especially when Brain occasionally ends up in a human body, like in Outsiders a while back.

Maybe its just me.

Anyway, the fight itself was pretty fun, even if Grodd was a little out of character (but then who isn’t in this mini?) and ended in a pleasantly gruesome splash page with Grodd basically beating Mallah to death with Brain, thus killing both of them:

There’s a touching little death scene…

…and then the Joker turns up…

…and pushes the 800lb Grodd (who is seated) off a cliff with a quick shove.

Now I’m no physicist, but I’m fairly certain that that might be a bit difficult for a guy the size of the Joker to do, and might take more than a brief second. It might even take long enough that Grodd could have time to react (despite having just been shot) and, oh, I don’t know, rip off the Joker’s leg and beat him to death with it.

Unless…unless physics is different on the Salvation Run planet!

Yeah, that’s it! Can I have my no-prize now?

Scans from the ever-excellent Scans Daily.

Superman has Insect Queen’s midges in his brain, sapping his will and turning him into her slave – but not to worry…

…because he put them to sleep with an internal heat-vision jolt and then flushed them out with super-breath.

Yes, he sent his heat vision into his brain to kill the midges. Then he blew the midges out of his breath with his super-breath.

Now I’m no Kryptonian scientist but the way I thought heat vision worked was that it came out of Superman’s eyes. And super breath would, traditionally, involve him blowing out of his mouth.

And he managed to do both of these inside his own brain.

Kurt Busiek was already hip-deep in Trinity when he wrote these past three issues wasn’t he?

EDIT: I stand corrected – Kurt Busiek has explained it all to me over at the CBR forums!