Thursday's Reviews

And so we come to the final week of the initial relaunch of the DC Universe books. And it was...an interesting week for sure.

All Star Western #1

Jonah Hex in Olde Gotham. Be still my heart. We have (thank god) the same creators as we had in Jonah Hex,so things just move smoothly into the new book. For some reason, Jonah has moved east, and ends up in Gotham City of all places, having been hired to help find a Jack-The-Ripper type of killer. He ends up teaming up with none other than Doctor Amadeus Arkham.

Someone is killing off Gotham's Soiled Doves, and Jonah isn't happy about it. There are conflicting bits of evidence, and all manner of skullduggery. This is, to put it frankly...quite quite fabulous.

Aquaman #1

Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis! What's not to like? I've missed Ivan's beautiful beautiful artwork on Green Lantern, but since I also love Doug Mahnke's art, I do not begrudge his pencils on Aquaman. Besides...I LIKE Aquaman. I've always liked Aquaman, and yes, I DID watch Superfriends.

It seems as though everybody else also used to watch Superfriends, because even though Arthur shows up and helps the cops grab some thieves...awesomely, I might add...nobody seems quite able to believe that he's able to do the stuff that he's doing. He decides to go and get some lunch, and ends up at a nice little seafood diner, that his father used to take him to as a young lad. Everyone has a heart attack when he wanders in, they can't believe that he's in a SEAFOOD place. Although, considering he lives underwater, what ELSE is he going to eat? Various people are giving him a lot of crap, especially, the blog writer from the next table, who asks a lot of officious and incredibly rude questions. He handles it fairly well, until he's asked how he likes being everyone's least favorite superhero, at which point he stomps out in a huff, and who can blame him. He does pay for his uneaten lunch however, because Aquaman is a stand-up sort of guy, and the gold doubloons that he gives the waitress will put her kids through college.

So he wanders back to the lighthouse, and tells Mera that he's had it up to HERE with the Atlanteans and they're just going to hang out and have a life together. At this point he sweeps her up in his arms, but they aren't doing it in the dirt or raping each other or anything icky. Heck, they're still married! Oh, and there are some really horrible looking creatures who have swum up from the bottom of the ocean, and they're awfully hungry.

This is great. Beautiful to look at and fun to read.

Firestorm #1

Well...THAT was violent! Some very very bad people are looking for...something, and they aren't afraid to kill a whole lot of innocent people to get it. Also, Ronnie Raymond is a football player, and Jason is...not, and they don't really like each other very much even though they probably have a lot in common, and then the bad bad people show up and MORE innocent people get killed, and somehow Jason had the...thing that they're looking for, and he and Ronnie get turned into Firestorm.

I never really read the original Firestorm, although I liked him perfectly well in the Justice League...so I don't know if this is wildly out of character or not the original origin. It seems like a perfectly decent comic...nothing absolutely outstanding, or terrible...but man a whole lot of people get killed.

The Flash #1

I liked this. They didn't go through the whole origin again, wisely assuming that we know enough by now about how this all happened. Barry is competent and even a little charming, and the artwork is adorable. There are bad guys about, and the Flash defeats them, but then they find a dead body, and it looks originally as though he may have been accidentally killed by...the FLASH! Barry is heartsick about it, but then to twist the knife even more, it turns out to be an old buddy of his! Iris West is a pesky reporter, but they aren't married anymore. Then his old buddy turns up...alive! Too bad that there are a whole CRAPLOAD of him!

I liked this a lot, and wish to see more of it.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #1

I can hardly believe this, but...I am no thrilled with this book. We have Tony Bedard back again, and I was perfectly happy with his writing on Green Lantern Corp. The writing is perfectly fine with this book, although they've altered Kyle's origin a little bit. Now he's going into the alley to take a leak, which I find rather...charmless when Ganthet shows up. It also seems as though Ganthet was LOOKING for Kyle, as opposed to just finding him in that alley.

Back to the present, and we see various members of the various Corps, doing their various things. A member of the Sinestro Corps is threatening some Kunds, when his ring flies off, and he gets his much-deserved comeuppance. A Rage Lantern is busy...um...raging when his ring flies off and he drops dead. A nice Star Sapphire is protecting family love when her ring flies off, and she almost drops dead, but Fatality shows up and saves her and the family which was nice of her.

Then we are back to Kyle, and a crane operator who spots him flying by and is all excited and talking on the phone to a buddy. The crane starts to fall, and Kyle saves him, because that is the sort of thing that Kyle does, when he's approached by an adorable moppet, who then cold-bloodedly starts to diss his uniform and talk about how fabulous Hal is. Poor Kyle. Usually Guy is the only one who gets this sort of thing happening to him. Kyle takes it well, and is bantering back and forth the moppet, when suddenly a bunch of rings show up and they all WANT him. Kyle realizes that this is probably not a GOOD thing, and tells the moppets mother to get the heck out of there which is good advice because hot on the heels of the rings, comes Arkillo, Fatality, Munk, and Bleez. And boy howdy are they pissed.

So...it's not a bad story. But I didn't like the artwork by Tyler Kirkham at all. Kyle is too beefy, and too...unshaven. I don't mind a bit of stubble, which can be awfully sexy, but with the way Kyle looks, and his hair, he looks as though he hasn't showered or shaved in a week. Everyone's torsos are elongated, the women all look waifish, and it's probably just my taste. but we've been awfully spoiled when it came to Green Lantern artwork, and I can't say that I care for this. Still...it IS Kyle, so I'll be sticking with it. But Fatality and Bleez are showing BOTH their butts and boobs in typical comic woman fashion, and it's tiresome.

The Savage Hawkman #1

I picked this up purely out of curiosity. Hawkman has never been much of a favorite of mine, but I figured what the heck. They've certainly simplified his backstory, that's for sure. Now he's a cryptologist, which is interesting. He's also trying to destroy the Hawk wings in the opening scene, which doesn't go exactly as he planned.

Meanwhile, his boss has unearthed an old alien ship, and needs his help deciphering what is going on. Naturally, nasty alien sorts of things are unleashed, and against his will, Carter is transformed into Hawkman. The art was actually rather painterly and nice, by Philip Tan,and the story wasn't terrible, so I just might stick with this one for a while.

Justice League Dark #1

Again, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it has Zatanna in it and John Constantine, and oh, what the heck. And I enjoyed Madam Xanadu over in the Demon book a lot. The art is awfully pretty and the story is interesting, and Shade the Changing man shows up and the Enchantress is going bonkers and Deadman is there and Batman, Cyborg and Wonder Woman get their butts kicked, and Batman gets trounced by Zatanna, which I enjoyed a lot. So I guess I'll stick with this one too, and see where it goes.

So...not a bad week at all.