So Many Comics Day!

[138 Scourge]

Right. So, here's my crazy haul of craziness and brief thoughts about each...


Incredible Hercules #120 (This book is so damn much fun!)
Ambush Bug Year None #2 (Yay, Giffen artwork!)
Punisher War Journal #23 (Might be Fraction's last issue. Baww)
Skrulls vs. Power Pack #2 (Greatest Cover Ever)
True Believers #2 (Drunken Reed Richards Mugshot)
Captain Britain and MI13 #4
Fantastic Four: True Story #2 (Reader, I Clobbered him)
The Last Defenders #6 (I have a soft spot for the Defenders)
Invincible Iron Man #5 (At least Fraction's still on this)
Doctor Who #6 (I want Nick Roche back on this. Please?)
El Diablo #1 (I will buy any book entitled "El Diablo". Especially with some of KC's best comic artists drawing it)
Final Crisis: Revelations #1 (Yawn. But the fate of Dr. Light was kinda cool)
Final Crisis: Superman Beyond in 3-D #1 (Mind-bending Morrison story, crazy 3-D visuals? Sold)

Still, figure that I missed the last four weeks of comics, and that looks a little less crazy.

[BWprowl]

Skrulls vs. Power Pack #2 (Greatest Cover Ever)

What I couldn't believe was that those outfits actually showed up in the comic itself! And it was awesome! And the Skrull versions of Katie and Jack make me laugh so.

[Dominic]

I got behind in going to the comic store, as well as reviewing what I have picked up. I snagged a couple of DC books recently, if only for train-wreck value.


Superman Beyond #1: This is a "Final Crisis" tie-in written by Grant Morrison. I bought it largely out of curiosity to see if Morrison would bring in "All Star" Superman. (If he did, I would be dropping that title.) Thankfully, "All Star" Superman does not make an appearance in this issue. And, that is right about where the good news ends. Besides being a buck over average, (I assume to accomodate the completely useless 3D vision gimmick), the story is pretty well lacking. I have no idea how, or even how well, this fits in with "Final Crisis". It is vaguely after issue 2. That is all I can figure out. Superman goes on a side-quest through another dimesion where he meets other Supermen. The Monitor of New Earth (officially numbered here as Earth 0) is a female, and a vampire. Earth 51 is shown as being completely lifeless, contradicting its final fate in "Countdown". Overman (the Nazi Superman of Earth 10) shows up and dies, despite dying on Earth 51....over in "Countdown". The Qwardian Ultraman shows up..... And, the Superman of Earth 4, who seems to be a combination of Doctor Manhattan and Braniac shows up. To top this pile of super-doody off, Morrison plays to the "Shazam=Superman" idea. As ever, Morrison seems to be borrowing the elements he likes from previous comics and then changing them to fit his whims. This works well with self-contained stories,but in anything that is supposed to be coherent with the work of another, it comes off as pretentious at best. On top of this, Morrison indulges in his Silver Age fetish. (I have been reading comics for 25 years, and I have no idea who most of those bozos in Limbo are. I really not much care either.)
Grade: D Oh, dear lord, there is *another* issue of this coming. I might still have to drop "All Star Superman".

Robin 177: Sparky over at tfviews mentioned that this issue featured an appearance by Red Robin and Jason Todd. So, I had to buy this. (As bad as "Countdown" was, foisting cosmic story-lines into "Batman" related books makes it so bad I have to read it.) The worst thing about this issue is seeing Fabian Nicezia's name on the front cover. Nicezia is actually a pretty good writer, but there is only so much he can do with the absurdity that is modern DC. (I have to wonder if the "Day Evil Won" tag-line for "Final Crisis" is either accidental or *really* sophisticated commentary on the direction of DC as a whole.) Despite being presented as a student in high school, Robin looks to be in his 20s. I dunno. Oh, yeah, Red Robin shows up....and attacks Jaxon Todd from the shadows.
Grade: F I dunno what DC is doing here, but I am glad Chuck Dixon ain't around to get blamed for it.


Dom
-finding it hard to even mock DC any more.

[Sparky Prime]

Robin 177

I feel like I need to explain a little about this as this issue kinda ties into the Batman R.I.P. storyline. Batman is missing and Robin is hearing reports he's on a rampage around the city acting crazy (well..more crazy than Batman usually acts at any rate). Thinking Batman has gone rogue, Robin secretly has someone from GCPD on the lookout for him and even hires Penguin to capture Batman. That bounty is later stolen by someone Penguin says was dressed as Robin. That's where this issue picks up as Robin comes across Jason Todd (who is trying to unite the gangs in Gotham so he can protect the city his own way with Batman missing) and it is revealed someone else is now Red Robin.

[Dominic]

So, when you typed all that out, did it dawn on you just how absurd Morrison's plots are? (For those not following DC, Morrison's writing makes much less sense than Sparky's summary above may imply.)

I actually did get that much from the issue. My complaint is that it is just more noise from DC. And, as ever, that noise focuses around Jason Todd when it comes to the Bat-books. Random crossovers being needed to understand the book you read is bad enough. But, random crossovers to understand 1 book in a group of books that are not even part of that cross-overs genre are a whole new level of annoying. To be honest, I doubt DC is even 100% sure who this new Red Robin is. (Witness Didio's back-sliding on the various teaser images these last 2 years.)

Dom
-morbidly curious about "House of M/Civil War"

[Sparky Prime]

So, when you typed all that out, did it dawn on you just how absurd Morrison's plots are?

Given Morrison isn't writing Robin... I'd have to say no. The only part I've read of Batman R.I.P. is the Robin tie-ins which I have to say aren't absurd. From what I've heard of the main Batman R.I.P. storyline though, I'd have to agree that part it sounds absurd.

[Dominic]

I do not blame Nicezia for this. This seems to be DC;s current model, wasting good writers on bad editorially mandated stories. And, the resulting comics are what one would expect.

Dom
-still has last week's comics to review...and dreading this week's.