Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews for 10/24/07 - Updated

This week's Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews does not disappoint. If you read the Post-Crisis Previews earlier in the week, you know this week's comics should be full of win, but did they live up to the hype? Hit the jump to find out and expect more reviews later today.

UPDATE - Last night I thought I had updated all the reviews and was done. When I was updating, Firefox crashed and I lost some reviews. It was getting late, so I only managed to get the Teen Titans and Blue Beetle reveiws up and never got around to re-doing the GLC and Superman Prime ones. Sorry for the delay on those and check back later today for some Quick Shot reviews.

Comic Book of the Week

THUNDERBOLTS # 117
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Mike Deodato

Wow. After the long break, I was a bit iffy on whether Ellis would be able to keep me engaged in this story. However, Ellis blew the doors off with this issue and I believe it's easily the best of his run.

This issue sees Doc Samson, psychiatrist and former Hulk ally, coming to the base on behalf of Tony Stark to see what the current situation with Penance is. Ellis does an excellent job with him and this is probably the first time Samson has appeared bad ass, as far as I can tell. As Samson meets each former villain, Ellis projects the various mental images Samson has in regards to how he feels about each villain. This results in some awesome, "SAMSON SMASH", style scenes, where Samson imagines wailing on Norman Osborn or Moonstone, people he knows are villains getting a free ride in the current post-Civil War Marvel Universe. You can look for some of these panels in this week's Moments of the Week.

As for the actual Samson and Penance meeting, there was some actual character development for Bleedball. Up until now, I don't think Penance has had more than a panel or two in each issue and I had begun to wonder if Ellis just didn't know what to do with him. I enjoyed the final, "let's go have some beers and talk about this like guys" moment between the two and look forward to the follow up next month. The only concern is that this doesn't seem to line up with what's going on in Jenkins' Penance: Relentless mini-series in any way, shape or form. Ellis' version is far superior, despite Jenkins having "created" Penance, so I'll just ignore Relentless in favour of Ellis' version like I had originally planned.

On the new Scourge of the Underworld [note: all the new villains captured last issue are victims of the previous Scourge] side of things, it looks like most of the captured villains have mental powers of some kind and are planning an assault from within Thunderbolt Mountain. It seems like they have been manipulating people from within their cells since they arrived and at the end of this issue, they have Norman Osborn either seeing things, in this case his Green Goblin mask in his desk, or have somehow managed to have it planted there physically by someone else. Not sure who's behind this group or what their overall goal is aside from killing the Thunderbolts, but this arc is progressing nicely and I'm dying to find out more.

Before I finish, I have to applaud Ellis for his work with Songbird and Radioactive Man this issue. I felt they were sort of side characters in this book recently, when once they were the stars of it, and it appears Ellis is addressing that with this fun bit of interplay between the two that really hearkens back to the previous creative team's work with the characters.

Verdict - Must Read. The book is worth it alone for the "SAMSON SMASH" and Radioactive Man's, "The Glowing Love God" line when Songbird makes fun of his former diaper-like costume. Add in the excellently paced issue that progresses the storyline while featuring a lot of character moments and you can't go wrong with this book.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #17
Written by Dave Gibbons
Art and cover by Pat Gleason & Prentis Rollins

The Sinestro Corps War is building up to its conclusion and the war has finally hit Earth. After last month's Battle of Mogo, the GLC shows up on Earth, ready to put a stop to the Sinestro Corps. This issue was good, but not quite as good as previous parts. I think it might be the disjoint nature of having several parts of the story taking place in different issues, such as the Cyborg Superman or Superman Prime stuff all happening off panel in other books that makes this issue feel like it's missing something. On top of that, there's like 4 or 5 different artists on this issue and some of the transitions are just brutal to see and that Superman Prime at the end is just horrible. It looks like a female transvestite version of Prime.

The contents of this issue deal with the GLC spreading out over Earth to combat the Sinestro Corps' incursion. With lethal force enablea, it appears the GLC is just too strong for the Sinestro Corps lately, which seems to conflict with how overpowered the Sinestro's were earlier in the war. It's still awesome to see many of the Lanterns I know kicking ass and taking it to the Sinestro Corps, but the writers seem to be undermining the entire threat of the SC through the dominating presence of the GLC as of late.

On the GL front, I was glad to see Natu back. She's received a lot of face time in this book and I've missed her since her last appearance when she met up with Sinestro on their homeworld.

The Kilowogg / Arkillo fight was similar to their previous encounters in that it just didn't have enough space devoted to doing it proper justice. It was badass when he dropped the aircraft carrier on him though.

As for Sodam Yat, he continues to impress in this issue. He reminds me of Hal Jordan when he first became a GL with his cocky, "I can do anything" attitude. It was interesting to see him try and take it to the Anti-Monitor when he had no clue how powerful he really was. Having him keep getting up after each assault was pretty good showing his determination in the face of such an overwhelming threat.

The biggest happening this issue, though, is the return of Ion. The Guardians decided they need a new Ion now and speed up their plans. Their choice? Sodam Yat. I honestly wasn't expecting it this soon. I expected post-SCW he would receive the power up in honour of his deeds and actions in the war. Aside from the prophecy, the Guardians have never shown any interest in Yat and there has been no real reason to give it to him in particular. I have no problem with Yat getting it and look forward to his fight with Prime, but it just didn't seem like the time or place for his receiving it.

Verdict - Must Read. Even with the problems dealing with the various plotpoints happening in tie-ins and other books, this is still an awesome addition to the SCW. Action packed and a key moment in GL history with Yat becoming Ion make this a Must Read.

TALES OF THE SINESTRO CORPS PRESENTS: Superman Prime #1
Written by Geoff Johns & Sterling Gates
Art by Pete Woods & Jerry Ordway

The third Tales tie-in is easily the best of the bunch. The Parallax and Cyborg Superman versions were good, don't get me wrong, but they lacked any real impact on the Sinestro Corps War and were more fluff and filler than action story, the Parallax one in particular, that gave backstory and alternate tellings / points of view to events that already happened. The Prime special, however, still retells most of Prime's history, but also gives us the story on what he's doing on Earth while the rest of Corps battles the GL's.

I'll ignore the history lesson for this review. It's a nice framing device for the story and let's anyone unfamiliar with Prime know who he is and what he's done, but is nothing compared with the rest of the issue.

Superman Prime is still a brat, crying over the littlest things and blaming others for every little thing wrong with his life. I'm sure Bart Allen fans will be annoyed that his statue was defaced and later destroyed by Prime. Rule #1 in the DCU, if your name isn't Wally, never become a Flash. Prime's actions suit his character and are in line with how he's been portrayed, but with the name change to SuperMAN Prime, I figured we'd see the character grow up a little into a more mature villain.

I was surprised to see the collection of heroes that showed up to stop Prime. I figured they'd have learned from the last time and come up with a plan that involved something other than dog piling Prime and hoping he doesn't tear anyone's arms off. It seems like the heroes were just getting in each other's way as opposed to working together. Batman, of all people, should have been able to come up with something better than this.

Speaking of tearing off arms, Risk showed up again here to have a nice chat with Prime. If you remember, Prime ripped his arm off back in Infinite Crisis. I'm sure you can piece together what Prime did with his other arm here. Maybe Cyborg can hook the man up with a couple new arms or something.

The Robin / Krypto scene was one of the better parts of the issue. Really enjoyed how it was related back to Conner. From there, Superman, Supergirl and Power Girl all show up after defeating Cyborg Superman, which happened off panel, and proceed to take it to Prime. This is why I hate most of the Super's. They make it look like no one else is even remotely useful in the DCU and that all the problems can be solved with them hitting something until it stops. And what happened with Cyborg Superman? Is that going to be shown in the next GL issue? He was slaughtering Superman in his special and now he's thrown by the wayside and Superman doesn't even have a scratch on him?

There are a few minor problems with the issue, but the good far outweighs the bad here. Entertaining recap of his origin and great action versus all of DC's heroes. However, I can't talk about this special without mentioning the back up story. It's another one of the Book of Parallax tales showing what Lyssa Drak has been up to and giving us a new backstory for another interesting Sinestro Corps member. It was easily one of the best parts of the issue.

Verdict - Must Read. Another great addition to the Sinestro Corps War. Nice refresher course on Prime and lots of action showing what Prime was doing while Sodam Yat was becoming Ion over in GLC.

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - WRAITH # 4

Written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Art by Kyle Hotz

For the supposed climactic conclusion to the Wraith mini-series, a book that should have got me pumped and excited for the upcoming Conquest series, this comic continued to disappoint. While not bad, it ended up similar to every other issue of Wraith - generic mystery character with undefined powers fighting waves of faceless Phalanx cannon fodder.

With the release of Super Skrull and Praxagora by Wraith, I assumed we'd see some character development or their relationship expanded upon or something concerning those characters. The only purpose they served in this issue was as background pieces in the mindless Phalanx fight scenes. It seems like they were just thrown in for the sake of having them there in this case, as you could substitute just about anyone into the fight scenes to take their place and there would be no impact on the story.

While Ronan looked stoic and fairly reluctant in his resistance / servitude to the Phalanx in previous issues, this issue ends with him crying like a baby asking Wraith to kill him after being freed of the Phalanx control because he thinks he's a traitor to the Kree for "helping" the Phalanx. After building up Ronan to the point where I actually cared about him in Annihilation, I found this development a major step back from what we got of the man that freed his people from the aristocracy and became the new Emperor at the end of Annihilation.

Apparently, the only purpose of this series ended up being to kill the Supreme Intelligence - again - and have Wraith devour his soul as he dies. I assume this will allow Supremor to live on in Wraith or give him access to his knowledge or some variation of this theme, but, as far as I can tell, they could have did this entire series in about one issue.

Verdict - Check It. While not a great book, and easily the weakest of the Conquest tie-ins, this issue does set the stage for the Kree resistance for the upcoming Conquest series proper. If this is the worst book you check out this week, you're in good shape.

WHAT IF? PLANET HULK # 1
Written by Greg Pak
Art by Various

If you hate stories that are just throw away tales or that have no lasting effects, this issue probably isn't for you. If you like fun, done-in-one tales that feature great action and some good characterization, then read on.

The first story, and the one most probably care about, deals with the scenario of what if Caiera lived and Hulk died when his ship blew up at the end of Planet Hulk. It's a neat premise and basically mirrors World War Hulk in execution.

Upon the death of her husband, Caiera the Oldstrong, who draws her power from the planet itself, takes all of that power and sets out to avenge her husband. The entire death of the Hulk was really well done. I liked how he chose to throw Caiera away from the blast instead of the actual ship, choosing to save his wife and child over the rest of the city. It seemed like a much more natural response if you ask me and plays out well here.

Back to World War Caiera, the Warbound head to Earth and Blackbolt is jobbed out off panel yet again in this WWH-style Moon shattering entrance by Caiera. While the Moon cracking was pretty bad ass, I can't believe Pak disposed of Blackbolt off panel again. I think he just hates Blackbolt or something. He even has Caiera forcing him to speak, killing both Sentry and Dr Strange as they rush off to try and stop her, which is something, while a nice visual, I could never see Blackbolt doing. He would take any amount of punishment inflicted upon him before killing his friends or allowing someone to force him to speak. Since it's just a What If? tale, I'll let it slide, but seeing Blackbolt get treated like this again by Pak is disheartening.

After Strange and Sentry are taken out, Caiera goes about the systematic destruction of most of Marvel's heroes and accomplishes everything WWH has dragged out over 4 issues, and dozens of tie-ins, in a matter of pages. What's sad, though, is that it works so much better here than it does in the actual WWH series. While Pak could have used a few more pages for the fight scenes with the Avengers here, this issue still flows much better than what's going on in WWH and is just an enjoyable "end of the world" tale as Caiera conquers Earth.

However, I wish we could have seen more of Caiera and Hulk's child at the end. He only gets a few panels and we never get a good view of him. Loved the tribute to the Hulk, but with people like Thing and other Marvel heroes subservient to her will, I'm surprised it took so freaking long for them to complete the mammoth statue.

The second story deals with the premise of what if Hulk had made it to the paradise planet the Illuminati had originally planned for him. It's a fun story that does a nice job playing with the Banner / Hulk relationship. I liked how each tried to one-up the other as they each awoke to different locations the other had brought them too. Hulk stranding Banner on the small island in the middle of nowhere was especially funny as Banner realizes Hulk just screwed him over in their little game. The line in the sand was another nice scene. This was one of the best displays of their relationship and made me glad I bought this book.

Verdict - Must Read. Unless you hate fun, highly enjoyable books, there's no reason not to pick this up. If you're a Tony Stark hater, you get to see Caiera decapitate Iron Man during her take over. If you're a Hulk fan, you get a great Banner / Hulk tale and everyone goes home happy.

X-MEN # 204
Written by Mike Carey
Art by Michael Choi

What a difference a month can make. This issue of X-Men did a lot to make up for the previous 2 or 3 issues worth of chaotic and disjoint stories. It makes me wonder if Carey was forced to write the last few issues by editorial to set up Messiah Complex, as they are clearly different in style and tone to everything he had done previously. While this issue isn't perfect, it's definitely an improvement.

Carey does an excellent job with the Astonishing X-Men team. It makes me realize how long Whedon has kept this team under lock and key. It's quite refreshing seeing someone else using these characters for a change. Loved the bickering between Emma and Kitty and Carey does a great job dealing with Scott and his feelings over the death of his son, Cable.

We also get some insight into Mystique's mind and why she joined up with Sinister. She's a complex character and I enjoyed the brief glimpse of what makes her tick. Gambit gets a little bit of redemption her with some nice character moments as he watches over Rogue. However, I honestly can't see any chance of redeeming Gambit after his dealings with Apocalypse and his role in the death of Cable. Carey does a good job of eliciting the qualities that made Gambit popular back in the 90's though and it almost makes me want to forget the garbage they've heaped onto him in recent times.

However, while there were some nice things about this issue, there's still some problems relating back to the previous story. We are still basically right back where we started in this storyline. There were no lasting effects of the attack on the X-Men aside from Rogue's capture and the villains that were on the team defecting to Sinister's side. We know just as much, or should that be little, about Sinister's plans or the upcoming Messiah Complex as we did 4 issues ago. Cannonball, who I thought was mindwiped by Sinister and was sitting vegetative in the Blackbird at the end of last issue, is fine and dandy with only a few minor injuries. All the X-Men and New X-Men are fine at the mansion. It's as if the Exodus and Marauder attacks never happened. So, while the issue, itself, is better than previous ones, there's still no substance here and it feels like filler as the team stalls for time while waiting for Messiah Complex to begin.

On the Endangered Species side of things, it was actually one of the best chapters, which isn't saying much, in this long running and lackluster story. Beast finally meets up with the Scarlet Witch, who has lost her memories of her former life and is living, powerless, in a middle-eastern European village. I enjoyed the Wanda appearance and her dialogue with Beast was enjoyable, but, like very ES chapter, nothing happens. Beast is the same character as when the story began. We are back where we started when this crossover began and I just feel tired and ripped off at this point with this storyline.

Verdict - Check It. While nothing special, there's some nice scenes with the original X-Men and the Rogue / Gambit / Mystique relationships. With Messiah Complex coming up soon, this is probably a good spot to jump in and get aclimated to what is going on as this issue sums up everything that's happened in the last couple months.

Countdown #27
Story by Paul Dini
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Script by Sean McKeever
Art by Manuel Garcia

The Countdown continues with this week's issue. I found it was a drastic dip in the quality of the art this week, but the story was still fairly good, continuing the up trend of this once mediocre series.

I'll start with my current favourite storyline with the Challengers. The cliffhanger with Donna falling at the hands of Forerunner was taken care of pretty early with Kyle jumping in to save her and undoing the crisis. Was hoping for a little more out of that scene, but the rest of this story turned out pretty good with Jason Todd actually appearing interesting for a change with his killing of one of the Extremists, betraying the Challengers and offering to join Monarch after shooting Donna. He does a lot of, well, evil things in this issue and I'm not sure how this could possibly be played off as a ruse on his part. Interested to see where this ends up going. He's not powerful enough to backstab Monarch or Forerunner and I don't see how this could benefit the Challengers if he's doing it for them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually liked Jason Todd this week with his sudden heel turn.

The opening act of this week's issue was dedicated to continuing the Karate Kid storyline. To be honest, I'm not sure who Buddy Blank is outside of these Countdown appearances and knowing that he's related to Kamandi, but where the heck did he get this highly advanced tech vehicle at? I know he's got Brother Eye in his basement, but this just seems like something completely random for him to have access to based on my limited knowledge of the character. Depsite that, they are finally in Bludhaven and we should finally get some developments on the Great Disaster and the virus that is affecting Kid.

The Amazon story continues to flounder about and fails to impress. Not sure where Harley went this week, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't in the group with Holly here. And after surviving mystical, eyeless sharks and other assorted creatures in the swim to shore, why are they running from a couple of normal dogs here? I'm sure Holly could easily take down 2 guard dogs with her Catwoman training. And what is the point of this Amazon training? Granny Goodness got rid of all the powerful, highly trained Amazons at the end of Amazons Attack in favour of training some female thugs and criminals for her army? Why exactly? This story brings down every issue it appears in at this point and I hope they do something to fix it soon.

Mary Marvel's story took an odd turn this week with her battle with Shadowpact. I read last week's Shadowpact and there was no mention of this fight or story and the next issue doesn't appear to be picking up on this, so I wonder if we'll ever find out how Mary and Eclipso ended up at the bar or what sparked this fight scene. And why is Mary calling Eclipso Jean? I know it's Jean's body, but she's never called her by that name before and Eclipso never refers to herself as Jean. Writer mistake maybe?

Finally, the Rogues meet up with Two-Face and we get some more Salvation Run information. Why they broke into the facility and freed Two-Face only to leave him behind and flee the facility is a mystery to me. I thought they were going to free everyone so that they will owe the duo and help them out as they evade capture? Was this all just a Salvation Run plug so people know about it when it launches in the coming months? Also, the gay jokes are getting a bit old as well. We get it. Trickster thinks, or knows, Piper is gay. Does he need to make a gay joke in every panel? These are the equivilent of a fart joke if you ask me.

Verdict - Check It. Another good outing for Countdown. Definitely the right time to get back into this series as all the stories heat up and the book prepares to change to Countdown to Final Crisis. Can't wait for the name change and promise of improved art on this book. This week's art was atrocious and an assault on the eyes.

TEEN TITANS #52
Written by Sean McKeever
Art by Alé Garza & Marlo Alquiza

Aside from a few minor speed bumps, this was another solid outing from McKeever in this month's Teen Titans. However, much like Countdown, there was a serious dip in the quality of the art this month. While the art is no where near as bad as Countdown, it's still a noticable drop from last month's issue.

The striking visual of Robin with a gun to his own head from last issue was quickly cast aside as Prometheus jumped back into the fight. The Robin / Bat-Tim scenes are the best of the present / future dynamics. I really liked the ending of their scene when Tim-Batman hands Robin the gun after saving him and walks away with the smile, confident Robin will kill Prometheus and embrace his future dickery self.

The other scenes played out in fairly predictable fashions, with each future self failing to persuade their younger self to do what needs to be done. It's nice to note, that while the future selves act like asses, they all still help their younger selves with the Starros and various villains. Even Conner saved Supergirl, who he has no vested interest in like the other heroes, since it isn't his past self. Bat-Tim even goes on to help the rescue workers after saving Robin. So, they are still acting like heroes despite their attempts to persuade their younger selves. As of right now though, I'm still curious as to what they are trying to accomplish here. All they've done is manage to push their younger selves further away from becoming who they want them to be. Maybe I'm missing something though and this is all some part of the plan by Tim-Batman.

The Blue Beetle fight with Bart was pretty good. The Beetle powers are fairly vague in that he can generate just about anything he needs for a particular situation using the scarab. So, while his 'energy bubble' was in tune with the way his powers work, it still came off a bit contrived and out of no where to end the fight. He then goes on to save the JLA.

Speaking of the Justice League, what was up with their just leaving after Blue Beetle saved them? They're confident the Titans can handle their future selves that single handedly took down the more powerful and experienced JLA? Am I missing something here or did McKeever just conviently write them out of this crossover? Hopefully this plothole gets picked up next issue.

I also missed Rose this issue. She had a few scenes, but came off mostly as a background character while Kid Devil debated and fought with his future self. She's one of my favourite characters and I enjoy her dialogue and snide remarks. She typically steals most scenes she's in in my opinion, so it was a bit of a disappointment to have her not play much role this issue.

Verdict - Check It. While not as good as the Must Read first part, this follow up is still good and it's always fun seeing future evil versions of heroes. While I feel the entire story will end up being great, this issue on its own came off a bit short of the bar set by the first part, so only gets a Check It rating.


BLUE BEETLE #20
Written by John Rogers
Art and cover by Rafael Albuquerque

I had a nice, fully typed review all finished and was just proof reading it as Firefox decided to crash on me and wipe the entire review on me. Le sigh. Let me try this again.

As I've stated many times before, I love Blue Beetle. It's one of my favourite books. Sinestro Corps War is the best event in recent memory and the best thing going in comics right now. Seems like combining the two would be a no brainer, right? Well, not everything goes together like chocolate and peanut butter.

The opening premise of this issue is stellar. The death of a Sinestro Corps member prompts his ring to search out a new host. It is revealed here that the Blue Beetle scarabs are living hiveminds from Sector 2. As the ring is looking for hosts from Sector 2, it heads to El Paso looking for Jaime and his scarab. Sensing a more fitting member, it detours above Jaime's house and heads after Peacemaker, who The Reach implanted with a scarab several months back. At this point in time, The Reach allow the ring to take command of Peacemaker and, in turn, activate their scarab, effectively taking over Peacemaker's mind and body, turning him into a hulking, twisted version of Jaime's Blue Beetle appearance.

After this excellent setup, the rest of the issue devolves into a rather generic fight which saw Jaime team up with a random Green Lantern to stop the out of control Peacemaker. In the end, a rather contrived and rushed conclusion was used in which Jaime used his scarab to hack into Peacemaker's and free him of its control, in turn forcing the Sinestro ring to seek out a new host. After this, Peacemaker uses one of the broken off Beetle claws to severe the scarab from his spine, effectively killing himself, in order to prevent himself from becoming a monster and being used by The Reach as a weapon against his friends.

I've compared Jaime to Peter Parker and his earlier days as Spider-Man on several occasions and this twisted version of Peacemaker gave off a real Venom-like vibe throughout this issue. It's a shame to see the potential of this setup wasted like it was in this issue and, while it was a very well done death, it's still felt like an unneeded and rushed killing.

In the end, this issue just lacked the magic of most every other Blue Beetle issue before it. I would have liked to see a follow up on Brenda from last issue and was saddened to see her not even mentioned here. The entire issue almost felt like something editorially mandated to help boost sales and, while Rogers does a good job integrating it into his story, it just feels like he was thrown off his game and he was forced to tack on the Sinestro stuff.

Verdict - Check It. It's still a good book and worth a read. It just doesn't feel like a normal Blue Beetle issue and I was hoping for a little more out of this tie-in. Things should get back to normal next month and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of the death of Peacemaker.

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