Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 09/12/07 - Updated

Since there are no holidays this week to throw off our regular scheduled program, I am back to my weekly Wednesday schedule with Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews! Any long time readers might notice a slight change in the site's appearance. That is all thanks to Vin at Dummies Guide to Google Blogger (Beta). I have been searching since I opened the blog for a way to do expanded posts using Blogger and it took Vin's excellent tutorial to get it up and running. If you do any blogging whatsoever, her site is an excellent source of information and I highly recommend checking it out.

As for this week's comics, a lot of great stuff and my wallet is still aching after the beating it took at the register this week. There was a lot of stiff competition for Comic Book of the Week this week and it really came down to personal preference as it could have been any number of books this week. Enjoy the early reviews and I will be back later this evening with updated reviews for Ultimate Spider-Man, Booster Gold and anything else that catches my eye in my pile. Comments are always welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Update - There were a lot more books this week than time to review them this week, so I am back today with several more for the list. If you were here early yesterday, you probably missed the New Avengers and Walking Dead reviews I discretely added last night. Today, I am adding Ultimate Spider-Man, Booster Gold, and JSA. Sorry for the delay on these ones and enjoy the update. Well, it has come to my attention I forgot to upload Green Lantern #23 for review. It was supposed to be in front of Nova for Book of the Week. Check it out now and sorry for the mess up.

Comic Book of the Week

Green Lantern #23 Written by Johns with Art by Reis - Wow. Simply wow. This book was amazing. This rivals the Sinestro Corps Special for the level of quality and awesomeness. My only complaint is that the book was too short and a few of the fights seemed rushed. Other than that, the book was just short of perfect.

The book starts with the battle with Lyssa Drak, the Keeper of the Book of Parallax and the person holding Guy and John captive. This is where my complaints on the shortness of the fights start. This one is over in a few panels and while they do not actually take down Lyssa, they free Guy and John and are on their way back to the surface in the span of a page or two. Before heading back to the surface though, Hal replaces his critically low on energy ring with several yellow rings, which was alluded to on the spectacular homage cover.

Meanwhile, the scene switches to the Anti-Monitor working on the Ion entity as the Lost Lanterns show up looking for it. I was a little disappointed that this scene was changed a bit from when we last saw the Anti-Monitor explode out of the floor in the hallway in Green Lantern Corps, but this scene was equally impressive, so I cannot really complain. Before the Lanterns can even being to attack, the Anti-Monitor annihilates Ke'Haan right before their eyes, leaving nothing but a charred skeleton. Seeing this, Hannu, the only Lantern that has full power in his ring since he relies on his own physical powers, unloads his full power on the Anti-Monitor, freeing Ion, but doing little to no damage to the Anti-Monitor.

Back to Hal and his Lanterns, they encounter a large platoon of Sinestro Corps members, including none other than Sinestro and Parallax. Sinestro makes short work of Hal, who can barely control the fear based rings, while Parallax nearly kills Guy before Ion and the Lost Lanterns burst threw the ground beneath them with the Anti-Monitor in hot pursuit. It is now that Hal and the rest realize just how powerful the Sinestro Corps is with the Anti-Monitor revealed as their Guardian. With Ion in their possession, they flee Qwaard and the Lost Lanterns opt to take Ion back to Oa while the Earth based Lanterns return to Earth to warn them of the danger of the Anti-Monitor and hopefully get help from the JLA and anyone else they can find.

The final pages flash back and forth between the preparations of the Guardians, who have rewritten the Book of Oa, and Sinestro. The Guardians have gathered most of the Lanterns to Oa, the center of the universe, believing Sinestro will attack there next and it is also revealed that lethal force has been enabled for all the rings. Sinestro, however, is planning to attack Earth, the center of the Multiverse and has Superboy Prime in position, soaking up yellow sun light I assume, while Cyborg Superman reveals War World is prepared to move out. The issue ends with a sea of yellow light above Earth as Parallax leads the charge against our planet.

This issue was a joy to read and this should be DC's mega event that crossover into every book. The scale and scope of this crossover is incredible and every issue is packed with highlight reel moments. As I stated earlier, the only complaint is Johns' appears to be trying to put too much in each issue. The battle with Lyssa and the Anti-Monitor are a couple of instances of this. A page or two and then a few skipped scenes as the Lanterns are escaping with no real explanation or visibly shown means of escape. Thankfully, Johns has a bunch of one-shots to fill in the gaps along with Green Lantern Corps to fill my appetite for all things Sinestro Corps War related and hopefully it will hold me over until the next issue of this spectacular book.

Nova #6 Written by Abnett & Lanning with Art by Various - Another exceptional issue of Nova and Conquest in general. It is quite impressive that this book manages to be entertaining each and every month. For the number of artists on the book as of late, I, at least, figured that the changes between artists would be jarring or pull me out of the story. Yet, each month they manage to provide quality work and they manage to keep the art consistent enough between the group that it is barely noticeable.

The issue picks up from last issue with Ko-Rel, the newly deputized Nova, returning to her ship to find the entire crew slaughtered and Worldmind not responding to any hails, due to Nova being converted to the Phalanx Select by Gamora last issue. While crying over her lost friends, Worldmind blares into her comms system updating her on the situation with Nova. The slow start to the issue and lack of Gamora and Nova had me worried until Worldmind helps Ko-Rel open a stargate and asks her to come find Nova and kill him so that the Worldmind does not fall into the Phalanx hands, as his knowledge and the Nova Force would make them unstoppable.

From here, we get our first glimpse of Drax since Conquest began. I was surprised to see him, as I had not see or heard any spoilers stating he would be appearing any time soon. As he was one of my favourites from the original Annihilation, this was a welcome surprise. Apparently Nova and Gamora decided to track him down and add him to the Phalanx Select, whether he likes it or not. After some brief dialogue, Nova quickly makes short work of the outclassed Drax and they return him to a Phalanx base to become one of the Select. After this, we are given some new information on the Phalanx as Gamora reveals they have been taught by someone outside the Phalanx that individual thought and free will to some degree are needed to be more effective and the Phalanx Select are the result of this. It is our first sign of some greater power guiding the Phalanx and has me pumped for the main Conquest series this Fall.

As Nova and Gamora discuss this, Nova notices a stargate just opened nearby and all of a sudden, Ko-Rel smashes into him at full force, knocking him off the platform. She quickly notices that Nova is far stronger than she is, but with the aid of the Worldmind, evades him and leads him on a chase throughout the city before leading him into a thermal processing core. Here, she crashes him into large vat of magma which serves to take him down momentarily. Under Worldmind's orders, she prepares to try and finish off the dazed Nova before she decides she is no killer and cannot follow through. Unfortunately for her and Worldmind, they did not take into account Gamora was still around and Ko-Rel is stabbed from behind and apparently killed. Her dying words seem to reach Nova through the Phalanx programming, but that is quickly dashed as he crushes the holodisk of Ko-Rel's son and leaves with Gamora.

It was an excellent issue all around. Lots of action with several revelations concerning the Phalanx as well as the return of Drax. I have not read any future previews for this book, so I do not know the fate of Ko-Rel, but hopefully they do not write off the excellent new Nova character. Her death scene was extremely powerful and the entire issue served to build up to it perfectly. Nova is definitely the cream of the crop in terms of the Conquest tie-in books and it even works perfectly on its own. If you enjoy Green Lantern or just plain good superhero books, definitely give this book a try. You will not regret it.



Thor #3 Written by Straczynski with Art by Coipel - This issue brings us the much hyped and anticipated Thor vs Iron Man confrontation that many people have been waiting for since Marvel released the preview images for this many moons ago. The art throughout this issue, specifically the fight scenes, is simply breath taking and Coipel is definitely one of the best artists in the business in my eyes. If all you care about is seeing Tony get the beat down many believe he deserves, this issue is the one for you. However, if you care about quality storytelling instead of stilted dialogue and forced cliche superhero fights, thankfully, there are many other quality books out there for you to spend your money on this week.

JMS starts this issue off with yet another one of his horribly written and hamfisted diatribes concerning real life events, in this case the Katrina Hurricane in New Orleans. I have not seen anything as cheap and in poor taste as this since JMS's Amazing Spider-Man black issue, in which he rushed a memorial issue out for the 9/11 attacks. At least he does not waste an entire issue harping on this event and he does not have Dr Doom, Magneto or other known terrorists crying over what happened. JMS needs to realize that superheroes only work as metaphors for real life problems and situations. You cannot have these fictional super powered individuals confronting or dealing with the effects of these real world events. He needs to learn from other political orientated comic books, like Millar's Ultimates or Civil War or Ellis' Thunderbolts, and use fictional events to mirror real life happenings. Have Thor lamenting in Stamford or some other random Marvel tragedy, not Katrina from a year ago. Trying to imply that a superhero could have solved all of New Orleans' problems belittles the struggles and loss many of these people endure and has no place in a comic book, much like the events in his ASM black issue. The only thing that really worked from his use of Katrina was the return of Heimdall at the end of this issue and the writing for that was well done, simply because JMS was not trying to tie the loss and suffering and other political motivations into his writing during this scene.

Shortly after his arrival and monologue on Katrina, Thor is confronted by Iron Man. I will say this, I loved the fight and it was exceptionally well done. The scenes were powerful and the dialogue during the fight was natural and emotionally charged on Thor's side of things. However, I cannot agree with JMS's usage of Tony Stark. JMS has been the worst offender in the vilifying of Tony stable of Marvel writers. Even in Civil War, JMS glorified Cap and showed his side of things as completely and morally justified and did everything he could to make Tony seem worse than he actually was. Tony has never acted like this in all his proper appearances promoting the Registration Act or the enforcing of it. I honestly do not believe he would be there solely to make Thor register either. JMS writes Tony's asking where Thor had been and other questions as simple formalities to his government lapdog dialogue that comes off as, "Argh, you must register or we will beat you up!". JMS could have come up with a dozen different reasons for the two heroes to fight, but simply chooses to depict Tony as the government strawman and that is all the reason they need to fight. He even proceeds to place all blame on Tony for everything with Clor, when Pym and Reed are the two most responsible for his cloning and were even in control of him during Civil War. The entire confrontation came off as a Mary Sue moment where a fanfic writer takes his favourite character and has him just beat the hell out of the character they dislike with no effort whatsoever. This is not even the same Tony Stark JMS wrote in last weeks Amazing Spider-Man where he helps out his former friend, Spider-Man, that betrayed him and switched sides in Civil War.

I am sure most people are only interested in the fight or Tony getting beat up, and for them, they can rest easy, as it is everything they hoped and dreamed for. As I said, Coipel is simply a phenom and I cannot wait to see the rest of his Norse gods once Thor finds them, especially when Loki inevitably returns. I do not agree with his use of Katrina or bastardization of Tony's character, even beyond the often interpreted 'evil' version in Civil War, and once you look past the actual fight and see the story underneath, or lack thereof, the book falls really short of the previous two issues. The entire issue goes without a single appearance of the human half of the god, Donald Blake, and his supposed supporting cast. That makes two issues in a row where the most we have seen of Blake is his quick transformation into Thor and it is becoming apparent that the reintroduction of Blake is simply for the dramatic transformation scenes. Great fight, terrible story and characterizations this month. Hopefully JMS will get back on track next issue now that he has all that hate for Tony and current US politics laundry aired in this issue.

Despite all my protests and complaints, I do believe most people will enjoy this issue and I, myself, enjoyed it, but it is not a book that should praised to the heavens simply because a character you may dislike gets a beat down nor should it be held in high regard simply for mentioning a natural disaster that was handled poorly by the US government. Enjoy it for the action packed slugfest between two heroes and try not to let the dreadful political commentary and forced confrontation hold you back.


Daredevil #100 Written by Brubaker with Art by Various - Daredevil #100 is exactly what you would expect from a big anniversary celebration book. Lots of guest artists, some reprinted stories and a lot of extras. It handles these things as well as can be expected, especially the huge selection of artists, and manages to progress the current Mr Fear story arc ever so slightly while exploring the many facets of Daredevil's life and character throughout the years.

The book begins with a captured and beaten Daredevil at the mercy of Mr Fear. After some gloating and vague hints as to what happened to Matt's wife, Milla, Matt is dosed with Mr Fear's fear dust and thrown out a window to suffer from the various effects of the drug. The rest of the issue deals with the random visions and fears the drug brings out in the Man Without Fear. These hallucinations cause Matt to lash out various bystanders, including two policemen, a homeless person and a group of thugs that try to beat him up on orders from Mr Fear. These encounters serve as a gateway to the numerous guest artists on the book for this issue.

Typically the abrupt change in artists is a hindrance to books, but each dream sequence is handled by a different artist while the overarching story is handled by our regular team. This way, each change in artist flows naturally and each is matched up with a scene that plays on their various strengths and weaknesses. Each scene details the tragedies of Matt's life and the things he fears, typically involving the love of the women, like Karen Page and Black Widow, that have been in his life and what happens to them because of it. They deal with Matt coming to grip with his father's death and the numerous other major events that have been explored, and typically overused, in other stories in various Daredevil issues.

While much of the issue feels like a retread, I cannot help but enjoy it, as it is incredibly well done and the selection of artists from previous Daredevil runs are excellent and worth the price of admission alone. I have to criticize the book for, much like most of Brubaker's run with the exception of his first arc, Devil in Cell Block D, being far too drawn out and decompressed, for a lack of a better word. Pretty much nothing happens this issue and the story Brubaker has been building has stalled considerably, with the only movement being Matt finding out Milla has been taken to jail for murder, as seen in previous issues, due to Mr Fear's influence. For a 40 page oversized issue, that is a serious lack of progression. The look back on Matt's past and the trials and tribulations and how they affected him was enjoyable, but can only go so far.

The rest of this monster sized book is dedicated to some old, but appreciated, reprints of a Mr Fear story from the Gerry Conway days. Many new readers should enjoy these classic tales and even most long time readers should enjoy the refresher course. The extras include the typical uncoloured pencils of the various art in the book and a sequence for the cover in various stages of completion.

This is a great book that anyone can pick up and enjoy. There is very little reference to the main storyline Brubaker is building here, and current readers might complain about that, but the issue was so well done, I cannot really bring myself to fault the book for it. Feel free to pick this one up when you get the rest of your books this week, you will not regret it.


Countdown #33 Written by Beechan with Art by Magno - After a few weeks off from reviewing Countdown, I figured it was time to take another crack at it. The immediate concerns from this week are the obvious spoiling of the outcome of the Sinestro Corps War in the Green Lantern books. Seeing as how Kyle added absolutely nothing to the Challenger group dynamic in this issue or the Search for Ray Palmer special this week, I do not really see the reasoning behind forcing him out of Green Lantern and into the train wreck that Countdown has become.

That said, this week's installment of the Countdown machine was a lot better than the last month or so worth of issues. I much prefer the current layout of the issue with the larger focus on three or four storylines instead of two pages of every story that they have been using for most of the series.

I enjoy the Rogues' interactions with Flash, but, much like most of Countdown's stories, it ignores too many obvious and logical points of contention in favour of telling the story Paul Dini has laid out. The Rogues' told Flash last issue they had bombs in their heads about to explode and Deathstroke is going to crash Green Arrow and Black Canary's wedding. The bombs turn out to be real, so Flash takes everything the Rogues have said at face value and believes they had absolutely nothing to do with Bart's death in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13. Regardless of whether they dealt the killing blow or not, they were involved and are guilty of at least being accessories to murder and Countdown continues to try and ram home the illogical point that they are innocent and it draws me out of all the conflict in the story.

Mary continued in her adventures at the magical bazaar with Klarion. Apparently Klarion wants a piece of the Black Adam magic all his own and helped Mary avoid an explosion at one of the vendor carts. A short and to the point episode from her this week and, to be honest, the story is dragging on way too long and nothing is happening. Everything seems forced with Mary's fall from grace and I do not agree with the changing of her character in this manner. I wish the would just stick her with Eclipso already and shunt her off to the mini-series so we can get the actual story already.

Jimmy gets a brief mention as Cadmus people corner him and ask him if they can help him with his powers problem. Jimmy asks the logical question of why he did not think of them earlier. I ask myself lots of questions like that with Jimmy's story, like why he did not go to Cadmus or Star Labs or the numerous other experts he knew earlier in this storyline.

The rest of the plot is dedicated to the Challengers and the introduction of Kyle. Kyle is back from the Sinestro Corps War and is no longer powered by Ion. Apparently the Guardians forsaw these events and the need for Ray Palmer and sent Kyle to help out. I am not sure how Kyle entered the Palmerverse though. I suppose the GL ring allows him to do whatever he wants though. Dislike how they basically kick Atom to the curb and none of them even really put up much of a fight over it. Not sure what the giant hand that grabbed him was from. Palmerverse is really freaking small and to have a hand able to pick up the Atom out of thin air like this did seems out of place. I also hate how Jason Todd actually thinks he has a chance with Donna Troy romantically. He is a killer and wanted criminal, yet acts like he is her boyfriend or Kyle is honing in on his territory. It is pretty bizarre behaviour and I do not know why Donna has not said anything to him about it yet. Even Kyle takes his presence without batting an eye. Another example of writing that uses the characters to further the story instead of writing stories about the characters. I wonder, with the debut of the Search for Ray Palmer series, if we will be seeing any more of the Challengers in Countdown proper or if they are effectively written out of the series. I suppose we will find out next week.

Not a great issue of Countdown, but probably one of the best in the last while. I hope this is a sign that the series is actually starting to right itself and might actually creep up into at least decent level of quality. The art was less than stellar again this week, but not outright terrible like some previous works.


The Walking Dead #42 Written by Kirkman with Art by Adlard - Wow, this book was incredible this month and a real treat, only being three weeks since the last issue came out.

We pick up right where we left off last issue with Carol offering herself to the chained up zombie. She has been acting overly clingy and needy and seemed to be clinically depressed after being rejected by Rick and Lori. Her suicide by zombie seemed like the obvious conclusion.

Andrea really stepped up in this issue and is becoming one of the more dominant figures in the series. Typically, Rick has been the central focus and the first person to react to situations, doing what needed to be done. This issue has Andrea pulling the trigger, literally, the minute the zombie bites Carol. As Tyrese comforts the dying Carol, she quickly turns and Andrea is right there to put another bullet in her to end the threat. The rest of the issue focuses on her sharpshooting abilities and how dependant the group is on her in the case of an attack. I was also glad to see her and Tyrese make Dale a new peg leg to help him get around. With his amputated leg, I was afraid Dale might fall by the way side and be forgotten and eventually canon fodder for the zombies.

The issue ends with Rick checking out the perimeter fence and deciding whether they should leave the zombies build up outside to act as a deterrent from attack by outsiders. Just after they decide to leave them be for the time being, one of the best, "OH SH--!" moments in the series comes in the arrival of the Woodbury army. Literally, they arrive in a tank with several army trucks full of armed men. The double page splash page is only topped by the next splash page with the Governor back in full combat armour riding atop the tank yelling, "Kill them all!". This series just keeps getting better and better and you should not pass it up thinking it is just some generic zombie comic. This is a book about people first and the incredible situation they have found themselves in and how they react to it. The zombies are only cursary to what takes place in this book.


The New Avengers #34 Written by Bendis with Art by Yu - I think I spoil myself too much when it comes to New Avengers. I read all the major interviews with Bendis and I get all pumped with regards to the Skrull stuff when the interviews actually deal more with them than the actual issues he talks about. I am not saying this was a bad issue, it was actually one of the best books this week and the best NA in months. I just feel let down a bit because I expect so much more after reading all the interviews and what not.

This issue wraps up the Hood fight with Wolverine pretty early on. Some great action and both fighters really cut loose. Hood blows off Wolverine's little Wolvy prompting one of the funnier lines I have read when Logan is recovering afterwards and says, "I hope it grows back bigger". Hood really held his own against Wolverine and I am very happy they did not job him out to the overly popular Wolverine. Bendis expands on the demonic origins of the Hood's costume and it seems to be a logical progression for the character. If you read the Hood miniseries, you should remember during his attack on the policemen dressed as AIM agents his eyes glowed red and demonic and shot lightning out at them. This issue has him turn outright into a demon similar to the one he stole the hood and boots from in his miniseries. Cannot wait for more information and backstory on what Hood has been up to since then. Seems long term exposure to his powers probably lead to the demonic changes.

After the Hood fight, Bendis has some random interludes with several of the New Avengers, including a funny scene with Echo walking in on Hawkeye in the shower and another with Dr Strange and his girlfriend, the Night Nurse. I liked the reference to Iron Fist's experiences in his own series and the other Iron Fist users. Well done, but I am still upset they have not converted his costume to the superior Immortal Iron Fist version with the bandana mask.

After this, it is revealed Dr Strange devised a method to discover who is or is not a Skrull. At first I thought it was pretty much going to be identical to his last 'trust' spell, but apparently this one outright reveals what the person sees themselves as, for good or for worse. This alludes to everything seen on the cover and pretty much everything is the same as pictured there. I enjoyed the jokes concerning Jessica's seeing herself as her costumed persona, Jewel, and I wonder if it alludes to her possibly stepping back into the role in the future. Another thing with Jessica I liked was the airing of the laundry between her and Luke concerning his paranoid distrust of everyone, including Jessica and the baby. Glad to see that wrapped up as I was disliking the vibe from their fight. I also thought Spider-Man would have probably pictured himself as his Uncle Ben, seeing how he glorifies him in his memory and I figured that is who his inner self would want to be.

Finally, with trust issues taken care of, Wolverine reveals Hood is launching Deathlok to attack Avengers Tower and they decide to go warn them before it is too late. Upon arriving, they see the Mighty Avengers exiting the tower and realize that the downtown area is overrun by symbiotes, from Venom and Spider-Man fame. The issue ends with the team jumping into help and Echo being covered by one of the symbiotes.

This was a great issue and covered a lot of ground. I was a bit disappointed with no Spider-Woman discussion or progress on what she did with the Skrull Elektra body, but from previews, I know that gets picked up in Mighty Avengers in a few months. Still annoys me that she took off with it two months ago and still nothing has happened regarding it. The dialogue is really great in this issue and Bendis proves he is still one of the best with that. Enough action in this issue to satisfy me and just enough plot progression to keep me hooked.


Countdown: The Search for Ray Palmer #1 Written by Marz with Art by Unzueta - Well, DC finally managed to get Countdown to tie-in to their other universes with this issue. I suppose DC intended this issue to help promote the Wildstorm universe while, at the same time, build upon the Challengers storyline that had been dragging along in the main Countdown series. What they manage to do here is an imitation of a cheap 90's crossover.

Pretty much every major Wildstorm character shows up at one point or another, typically in one or two panel scenes with the exception of the Authority, who job to the Challengers. As a long time Authority fan, seeing them barely able to hold their own against Kyle, Donna and Todd was painful to watch. Todd literally holds his own with The Engineer while Kyle goes toe to toe with the Superman archtype, Apollo while Donna takes on two or three members on her own. If the Authority actually fought these three, they would have killed all three in seconds flat. Plot armour saves the trio while making the Authority look like chumps. My guess is that it was simply put in there to have some sort of fight in this universe and possibly try and promote the new Authority book. All it did was leave a sour taste in my mouth.

Another complaint is Bob, the Monitor. This character serves no purpose apparently aside from moving them from universe to universe. He sits there the entire fight with the Authority and does nothing. While the other three looked for Palmer, he ended up staying where the originally landed, again doing nothing to help. None of his powers seem to work. He needed Kyle's help in narrowing Palmer's location down and it ended up only being accurate to within the entire continent. In the Ion series, the Monitor was going to kill both Donna and Kyle, who was even more powerful as Ion at the time, at the same time. How this Monitor is so completely worthless and powerless boggles the mind. I would like to know how they managed to find or monitor these anomolies in the first place based on how inept Bob is in this issue and Countdown.

Do yourself a favour and ignore this issue, as it is merely a Wildstorm primer for people that do not read any of those books and a slap in the face for anyone that does. Nothing happens in this issue in regards to the actual search for Palmer either, unless you count the fact he is not on the Wildstorm Earth as progress.


Ultimate Spider-Man #113 Written by Bendis with Art by Immonen - Bendis and his new pal, Immonen, come out swinging for the fences again this month and hit another one out of the proverbial park. This issue deals with the Norman Osborn break out at the Triskelion and the entire issue is from Norman's point of view.

I thoroughly enjoyed this new perspective and insight into the mind of Osborn and Bendis did an incredible job showing his thought process and, if he we did not already know the horrors he was responsible for, he almost comes off as a sympathetic character. He honestly believes he is sane and evolving to a higher state and that everyone else is insane. During the breakout, he cannot understand why Dr Octopus would attack him, as he believes he is a god to him since he basically created him when his lab blew up. When Electro helps him take down Otto and offers to work for Norman, he considers Electro insane when he describes him to us. His inner dialogue is the best part of this issue and is a real eye opener in terms of where the character is at and what his current motivations and state of mind is. Excellent job on Bendis' part.

As I stated, the issue deals with Norman's escape. After 'hulking out', for lack of a better term for his transformation, Norman frees other inmates with his giant explosion. Some of the people escaping appear to be Omega Red, Kraven and what looked like Gwen Stacey, or her Carnage clone since the real one is dead. During the breakout, Doc Ock attacks Norman, telling him he sold him out and gave Nick Fury the Oz formula. I like how each holds their own against the other and the fight seems fairly even until Electro zaps Ock from behind and offers his services to Norman. Electro can fly apparently. It has been a while since I read an issue with him in it and, while I remember he can hover with a static type charge or something, I have never seen him outright fly away Superman style. He promises to meet up with Norman later and leaves him to fight his way out.

During the escape, Norman takes out several SHIELD helicopters and crashes one into a large group of civilians before making his escape. Newscasts showed Vulture being captured by Captain America, but SHIELD had covered up the names of all those involved that did not make it on the news.

Norman, with his insane dislike of Fury, opts to take his story to the press and blame SHIELD for incarcerating him without a trial and stealing his work as well as blaming them for turning him into a monster. Again, the inner dialogue he has during this TV segment is telling of the madness of his character and extremely well done. The issue ends with Peter and MJ walking down town discussing a double date with Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four before seeing a shop with a wall of TVs displaying Norman's segment.

Immonen continues to impress and my only complaint is that the colouring seems a little dull compared to his Nextwave work, but that is not his fault. Another great issue by both creators and things are looking up for the Ultimate Spider-Man title as of late. I wonder if Norman will revert to his Green Goblin persona quickly or if he will be absolved of his crimes for the time being and become more of a personal threat to Peter, similar to after he returned from the dead in the 616 Marvel Universe.


Booster Gold #2 Written by Johns with Art by Jurgens - Johns does another incredible job with Booster Gold's second issue. I am a sucker for time travel and alternate universe stories. Books like Exiles, at least back when it first launched, and Mutant X, and Booster Gold is probably one of the best ones I have read so far. The premise is perfect and Johns is weaving an excellent story. He has a perfect grasp of DC continuity and excels in these types of stories.

Last issue, Supernova, or at least someone in the costume, spoke with Sinestro, back before he turned evil. This issue, we find out he told him Guy Gardner was set to become the greatest Green Lantern ever and would replace Sinestro. Sinestro does not take kindly to this and heads to Earth to investigate. Rip Hunter reveals to Booster that if Sinestro encounters Guy now, it will end up with Guy becoming the first Green Lantern instead of Hal and eventually lead to Sinestro forming his Sinestro Corps earlier and lead to him taking over the universe unopposed. The bulk of the issue deals with Booster fighting with Sinestro, trying to stop him from speaking with Guy. In the end, Booster appeals to Sinestro vanity and uses his ego to convince him that Booster is from the future where Sinestro is still revered as the greatest Green Lantern ever. When Sinestro asks him what corps Booster is with, as he is wearing all yellow with a yellow ring, Gold tells him he is with the Sinestro Corps. This leads to the best panel of the issue with the mustacheeo twirling Sinestro pondering an entire Corps built in his name, most likely planting the eventual seeds for the current Sinestro Corps featured in Green Lantern.

Once he has taken care of Sinestro, Booster decides he needs to find out what is wrong with Guy, as he had been tailing him all day and was wondering why he was acting so distant and different from his usual self. After speaking with him at a bar, he finds out Guy's abusive father is dying in the hospital and wants to speak with Guy before he dies. In a rare touching moment from Booster, we learn about his own father's criminal activities and how Booster sacrificed a lot for him and never had a chance to say goodbye when he died and how he would have liked that. This inspires Guy to head back home to spend time with his father and give him one last chance before he dies. Skeets later informs Gold that this event leads Guy farther away from the Abin Sur crash site and causes Hal to become the first Green Lantern of Earth instead.

As Booster returns to his time ship, the Green Lantern death certificate changes into a Superman one. Before he can react to this, Rip Hunter is found beaten nearly to death and Supernova appears outside the ship, waving to Booster before flying off into a time vortex. This ends with Supernova, in disguise, speaking with Jonah Hex in the old wild west era. How this will lead to the death of Superman, I do not know, but I cannot wait to find out. Great issue all around. Jurgens art is clean and serves its purpose, but I am not a major fan of his, but I have no major complaint about it either.


Justice Society of America #9 Written by Johns with Art by Eaglesham - What starts out as a nice, low key issue of JSA ends with a bang as Superman from the Kingdom Come Earth arrives in our universe.

The issue mainly focused on a charity breakfast at a fire station for children. There were a lot of great moments in this issue, including Jay interrupting Stargirl flirting with a fireman and the random conversations throughout the event between kids and heroes, such as Damage bragging he could take out the entire JLA to some kids or Starman talking to Cyclone about how odd it is to put maple syrup on pancakes. The entire event was a great moment for everyone and was a lot of fun. The event was capped off with a fight between the young and old Wildcats in a charity boxing match, which was a great spectacle with some nice moments showcasing the differences in personalities and experience of both 'Cats. The fight is cut short as a fire breaks out and the firefighters and JSA head out to stop it together.

During the fire fight, the JSA find the villain Goth dead, with a giant hole in his chest, inside the building. Goth's power is going out of control with his death and is going to explode. As the fire is out of control, Starman offers to create a black hole to contain it all. After some debating on the sanity of Starman, they let him do it as everyone else backs out. Starman succeeds in his black hole and stops the fire, but, unexpectedly, Superman from Kingdom Come emerges from the black hole, ending our issue.

This was a fun issue with many memorable moments. Starman running around with a pale of water trying to put out the fire early on was hilarious and I really enjoy his character in this book. Kingdom Come Superman showing up at the end was expected, but still handled quite well and I cannot wait to see where the story goes with that. This issue is well worth the look and this book will be more than likely a must bye for most people over the next few months with KC Superman on board. Grab this one and strap in for a great ride, you will not regret it.

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