Blackest Night #4: Ok, Geoff Johns, we get it: the (Barry Allen) Flash is bad ass. Actually, I liked the characterization of Barry so far in Blackest Night much better than in Flash: Rebirth, which seems wrong to me. Oh, well. Barry did a great rah-rah speech to Ray Palmer and Mera–about time someone told Ray to man up. And can I be mean for a moment? Hallelujah that Damage is dead–I hope he stays that way (now if they’d only do the same with Wildcat, I would be ecstatic!).
Blackest Night: Titans #3: Do you see that cover? I am in L O V E!!! This mini surprised the hell out of me. After that first issue I thought this will be lame, but it’s been my favorite of the three Blackest Night tie-ins I’ve read so far, and most of that is due to the focus on Dove and Donna, two of my favorite Titans women. What Donna did to her zombie “baby” in this issue was downright flesh-crawling and heart wrenching. Dove, however, is shown as the true power since she can apparently sever the link to the black power battery giving life to these corpses. Then she has a vision of the original Dove, Don Hall, who says that Hank can be saved. I guess this is where some of the dead heroes will be able to be reborn, and, dare I say it?, perhaps I’ll get my long-time wish and a new Hawk & Dove series will be coming? A man can hope. :) If J. T. Krul is writing Titans now, maybe I should check it out again.
Detective #858: I loved this issue. While I enjoy the rocking art and experimental panel layouts in this comic, it is nice to get a straight-forward narrative, in this case, the origin of Batwoman. Looking forward to the rest of this new storyline.
Green Lantern #47: We learn 2 important things: 1) Tearing out a Red Lantern’s heart won’t stop it, making them formidable opponents (and as we see, Atrocitus is bad ass); 2) Combing the power of several rings will destroy the zombies. But what does the tag line for next issue mean (Next: The New Guardians)?
Justice Society of America #32: I like Jesus Morino’s art, especially his women (he draws a very nice Power Girl and Liberty Belle). Most of this issue is spent jumping to conclusions based on little evidence as to who is behind the death of Mr. Terrific, and then the mansion is attacked by a bunch of b-list (or lower) villains. I am so done with this book soon.
Superman: Secret Origin #2: I just need to get this off my chest: I HATE HATE HATE that the artist is trying to make Clark look like Christopher Reeve. Stop it! Besides that little bit of evil, there are wonderful bits in this issue that Johns delivers. Superboy saving people, but (somewhat) anonymously. Hating his supersuit (his comment about the underwear being on the outside and then his mother asking if he was indeed wearing underwear was priceless!). Clark getting fed up with the telescope’s limited range and staring out into the cosmos with his own vision. And then there’s the Legionnaires. I mostly like Johns’ characterizations, but Brainy is too much of an ass for my taste (but it does fit his character). And I do not care for the human supremacist angle Johns introduced in Action Comics.
World’s Finest #1: This was surprisingly good. I knew of the Kryptonian Nightwing and Flamebird in recent continuity, but haven’t read anything with them in it. This issue makes me want to go read more about them. Now I am looking forward to the other issues.
Longbox Review 