Posts Tagged ‘ …of the week ’

Unlike a lot of people, I’ve been quite enjoying Countdown. It’s not perfect by any means, and it relies a little too heavily on knowing a lot of minutiae about the DCU.

Even so, there are elements that I’ve enjoyed from a fanboy perspective – particularly all the flitting between alternate Earths that the badly-monikered Challengers of Beyond have been doing.

Thing is, even that has been slightly annoying because Jason Todd is such a tosser. It doesn’t help that he’s now adopted a costume that looks good in theory and terrible in practice if illustrated by anyone but Alex Ross.

And then you have the dialogue. Specifically this week, the internal dialogue of formerly-snarky Red Robin as he, powerless human that he is, swings across Apokolips…

Yes, Jason muses…

I need time to clear my head and fill it with the compact sound of leather fists cracking jawbones.

What?

Honestly, I like a lot of Palmiotti and Gray’s work – Jonah Hex is fantastic and I’ve liked almost everything they’ve produced in the past five or so years but this is terrible.

Terrible.

I’m off to fill my head with the slightly off-kilter sound of fingers tapping keys…

As the old-FF head to the time platform, we get a gratuitous butt-shot (oddly more of Reed than Sue), and ol’blue eyes chimes in to boot as they vanish:

…leaving the current FF to chime in on Reed’s ‘Plan 101′ – basically, ‘fix everything and make the world better’. Sue however, has some concerns – because apparently Reed’s big plan can only work if a group of people act together….

…but how many people, exactly?

This page for me sums up about everything that’s best about the Fantastic Four – family, friends, trying to make the world a better place and having fun while doing it.

Come back anytime, Dwayne.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have something in both my eyes…

Wonder Woman #16 – it’s Wonder Woman facing down an army.

With warrior gorillas backing her up.

Warrior.

Gorillas.

This is why comics exist.

You know, a lot’s been made lately of Marvel and their respect – or lack thereof – for continuity and sometimes, just sometimes, its nice to have a few nods to the past.

Take for example, the closing chapter of the Messiah Complex in X-Men #207, courtesy of writer Mike Carey and penciller Chris Bachalo (and, yes inkers, colorists, letterers and editors aplenty).

Cyclops has finally recovered the mutant baby (the first since M-Day, for those not following the books) from Cable, who wants to flee into the future and raise the baby out of the limelight. Cable, of course, is the infant son of Cyclops that he (and Jean Grey) had to send into the future to save waaaay back in 1990-ish – so there’s a certain amount of synchronicity at play.

So what we get is this: a panel where Cyclops feels the weight of the past on him – and suddenly it isn’t just the best hope for mutantkind, it’s a baby that needs protecting:

Not only that, but there’s a big hint to the identity of the baby too: a girl, red hair, green eyes…playing with a locket that contains Scott and Jean’s photo*…

…continuity is nice, people.

*Odd that Scott keeps this big-ass locket round his neck with the photo of him and Jean in it. Who would have though that Emma was the type to look past that,eh?

There’s always something that slips past an editor’s eagle eye – nobody’s perfect. Something that is, basically, a cock-up…

Take Countdown #14, for example…

First you have your generic faceless stormtrooperssoldiers of Monarch’s army attacking an outpost held by Earth-51′s Monitor, Earth-51′s Batman and the new Red Robin (our Jason Todd). Only in comics would that sentence make sense.

Then you have Earth-51′s Batman (even more of an arrogant ass than plain old Batman) acting all cocky and smug:

Now, let’s turn our attention to Red Robin who’s having a snark at Batman when something happens out on the – hey –

- that’s not Red Robin – he’s colored as Batman even though the dialogue clearly makes him out to Todd.

D’oh!

Narrowly beating the competition…Countdown #15

The Pledge

Take two Donna Troys – one, ours, who’s been traipsing around the multiverse for months and not having much fun and another psychotic version, trapped in her old Wonder Girl duds who’s taken up with Monarch’s army under the banner of Queen Belthera, who nobody really remembered from earlier in Countdown.

Donna-Two seems to be making it her own personal mission to kill Donna-One, and preach Belthera’s wonderfulness while she does it. Makes me wonder if Belthera was the Tom Cruise of her world, leading the masses to salvation…

The Turn

Donna-One has clearly had enough of Donna-Two’s rantings and lets her fists do the talking (it’s just one fist actually)…

The Prestige

Donna-One knows exactly who she is, thank you very much (although I can’t help but think this would have been better served if the dialogue had been switched around a little so the punch-line was delivered while we could see Donna’s face instead of her feet*.

Even so…best of the week!

Juggernaut’s got nothing on Donna Troy!

*I’m thinking:

PANEL ONE: “I know exactly who I am.”

PANEL TWO: “I’m Donna Troy, bitch.”

There’s a page this week that deserves an honorable mention (although it doesn’t quite make page of the week) – and that’s from Incredible Hercules #113.

Hilarity ensues.

Pak and Van Lente are really doing a great job in setting up Hercules as a viable candidate for his own book, and having the Greek myths (a lot of which were pretty damn dark when it came to Herc) interwoven and echoed in the current storylines is a great touch.

Plus, Ares is fun. An ass, but fun.

Click to embiggen.