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

Just a quick batch of reviews for the Weekly Crisis Comic Book Reviews. I'll update again tomorrow with some more full reviews and add the Quick Shot Reviews later in the evening. For now, enjoy this initial wave of reviews!

UPDATE - Added Green Lantern, New Warriors and X-Factor reviews.

Comic Book of the Week

GREEN LANTERN #25
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis, Ethan Van Sciver and Oclair Albert

Well, considering how much was left to be resolved, I was worried the Sinestro Corps War would faulter with its final chapter and I'm happy to say I was worried over nothing. Johns, with the help of the incredible art from Reis and Sciver, managed to wrap up the Sinestro fight, the Anti-Monitor, Superman Prime and everything in between in one of the best endings to an event in recent memory.

Before I get into any major details, I just have to give more props to Sciver and Reis. This issue looked fantastic and the opening splash pages really show off the scope of this story and make it look like an actual war. Every time I go back to look at those pages, I find a new character I recognize, whether it's random Teen Titans, Captain Marvel or various Green Lantern Corps members. There's very few instances where it's a non-descript character and considering there's got to be dozens of characters on each page, that's an incredible feat. Another scene I loved was the Blackest Night Prophecy where they show off the different Corps. So many cool character designs on that page. I hope they actually get used if they do introduce all these new factions.

With the art props out of the way, I'd like to get back to the story. Pretty much everything you'd expect happens this issue, but is still better than your wildest dreams. Hal and Kyle team up to take on Sinestro while the Lost Lanterns open up on the random Sinestro members. However, this fight is about the only thing I was even slightly disappointed in. Instead of an epic battle of will and fear, we get both Green Lanterns rings sapped of all power by Manhunters. Later, after the Anti-Monitor and Warworld went down, the Manhunter's deactivated and Hal used one to drain off all of Sinestro's ring's power. From there it turned into a slugfest. I was unaware Sinestro was so formidable a melee combatant. He looks rather frail, to be honest, but holds his own against both Kyle and Hal. It was still a great fight, but I would have liked to have seen them exhaust their powers on each other first, then battle it out man to alien.

Over in New York, the Anti-Monitor finally starts doing some damage and begins to destroy Earth and the Multiverse. This leads to the Guardians, themselves, unloading on the Anti-Monitor with all their powers in one of the best scenes of the book! I really didn't expect the Guardians to do much after they turned Sodam Yat into Ion, but they were all over the place this issue. In the end, the entire Green Lantern Corps pulls Warworld down on top of the Anti-Monitor as they erect a forcefield to contain the detonation. Many of the Sinestro Corps were caught up in the blast, including Cyborg Superman, who died thanking the Green Lanterns.

The Anti-Monitor actually survives that explosion and is barely keeping his energies contained in his shell when Superman Prime betrays him, flying through his chest and then tossing the dying husk into space. Prime then takes on everyone, heroes and Sinestro Corps members alike. He even attacks the Guardians and manages to actually kill one of them. However, the resulting energies from that death are used by the other Guardians to warp Prime out of this universe and, as Countdown and the epilogue of this issue show, into the Multiverse.

Just when we thought everything was over, we get an epilogue of epic proportions. Sayd and Ganthet form the hope-based Blue Lantern Corps. The Guardians continue to rewrite the book of Oa. In one of the sadder endings, Cyborg Superman's broken and mangled upper portion of his skull is found by the Manhunters and he is brought back to life, a single tear running down his face as he realizes he still can't die. Finally, Johns sets up the seeds for the Blackest Night, which is listed as coming in 2009, as the Anti-Monitor crashes on a barren planet. Someone speaks, saying he has arrived, and the screen pans out to show a giant black lantern power battery.

Verdict - Must Read. Fantastic ending to an incredible storyline that was phoenominal from start to finish.

BOOSTER GOLD #5
Written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz
Art by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

I think Booster Gold's hold on me is starting to wane. It still has it's moments and I do enjoy the book, but it's becoming fairly predictable and is showing signs of being a one trick pony with basically the same thing happening every issue. The ending to this issue shows signs that Johns and Katz have other plans in mind for the future of this series, so I expect my full blown Booster love to be back in full force with subsequent issues.

As for the contents of this issue, much like I predicted in my Post-Crisis Previews, the entire premise of this issue is Rip trying to teach Booster that some things just cannot be changed and were meant to happen. He does this by sending him back in time to try and save Batgirl from being shot and paralyzed by the Joker. Booster tries and fails over and over until Rip finally lets him in on his little secret that it was all just a lesson to show Booster he can't save Ted Kord and should stop trying.

To be honest, I found most of the Joker stuff fairly weak. There's little to none of the standard comedy from Skeets and Booster and Booster, who has taken hits from Doomsday, constantly gets physically beaten by the Joker and his sideshow freaks, which just strikes me as wrong any way you look at it. Add in the fact that this went exactly as just about everyone expected and the was a bit of a let down.

However, there's some good stuff here as well. We get a look at the villains who were behind Rex and Supernova and they end up being the Ultrahumanite, Despero and Degaton. Not sure who Degaton is, but none of these villains strike me as the kind of characters that would be behind this type of plot. I'm guessing someone else will be revealed as the mastermind of this scheme. Another great shot was a new chalkboard scene to open the issue up. The one I like is the "No trophy = Stephanie?" in reference to the trophy case for Spoiler in Batman's cave. Another good one is "Gog is dead! The age of Gog is upon us!". Reference to Johns' Kingdom Come arc in JSA maybe? I'll have the chalkboard in the Moments of the Week for those interested in all the random quotes.

Finally, the ending shows promise of giving this series a new direction with the introduction of several Blue Beetles from the past, present and future all requesting Booster's help in saving Ted Kord after Rip refused to help him.

Verdict - Check It. Usually a Must Read book, but this month's offering just fell a little bit below the bar. Still better than most books on the market though.


COUNTDOWN: ARENA #2 (OF 4)
Written by Keith Champagne
Art by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens

Arena continues to roll along, but the art seems to have gotten worse, if that's even possible. I'm not usually a big stickler on art, and, at this point, I'm not sure if it's McDaniel's fault or the inker and colourist's, but, considering it's showcasing all the various characters from across the Multiverse, you'd think the art could do the characters a little justice.

As for what happens in this issue, it's more of the same this time around with several more fights taking place. The little rebellion being formed by Dark Knight Returns Superman was quickly put down by Monarch. If he's that powerful, why does he even need these guys? Bob routinely gets taken captive or defeated in Coundown, so the Monitors are obviously no physical threat to him. Why doesn't he just kill them all himself?

Concerning the fights, the first up consisted of encarnations of The Ray, which included a Ray Palmer and Apollo, of Authority fame, for some reason. I guess they were light based powers or something? The no-name Ray tried to escape the arena and was promptly killed by Monarch while Palmer shrunk down and took down Apollo from the inside.

Next up was a battle of the Blue Beetle's. One that looked like Jaime Reyes was complaining about his scarab the entire issue and during the fight, the scarab left him and joined the Blue Beetle that looked like a swarm of beetles. The swarm then flayed the flesh from the human's bones. The other beetle-like Blue Beetle did his best, but was easily devoured in a similar fashion by this swarm monstrosity.

Finally, as the cover shows, the battle of the Green Lantern's turned into another non-fight as they all created a bubble in the arena to block out Monarch's sensors. Monarch is angered and goes into the arena himself as the three Lanterns try to take him on. The Batman Green Lanteren suceeds in rupturing Monarch's containment suit and the explosion kills all but one of the GL's, making the near dead survivor the victor of this battle.

It was a pretty generic set of battles and, with the exception of the shock value killings in the Blue Beetle battle, were all fairly disappointing. Only other thing of note from the issue is the ending with the Gotham by Gaslight Batman (I think it's GbG Batman, but art is a little hard to tell him apart from the other Batman) 'surviving' his apparent death at the hands of Red Rain Batman and became a vampire himself.

Verdict - Avoid It. Not much to see here and this series is quickly turning into a quick cash grab from DC. I could see if the fights were decent, but it's basically warp them in and watch them die or try to escape. There's very little variation and I don't really care about any of these characters, which makes this a less than enjoyable issue.


NEW AVENGERS #37
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Leinil Francis Yu

Ugh, I don't know what's gotten into Bendis lately, but his choice to tell the last couple issues in a past tense retellings of events we never actually see is annoying and really detracts from the story. Oh ya, before anyone asks, that cliffhanger with all the random heroes was just an illusion by Dr Strange.

Also, these street level Avengers manage to take out all the villains without breaking a sweat. Yes, Luke Cage, a man who's power is that he has unbreakable skin, manages to take down Asgardian-level villains like the Wrecker. Other Wrecking Crew members are taken down by people like Wolverine and so on. Even with said illusions, the New Avengers shouldn't have been able to physically hurt these guys, yet manage to take everyone down with relative ease.

If Bendis' job was to downplay any credability or threat these villains posed, then mission accomplished, I don't care about them at all anymore and the upcoming Annual will be a pointless issue if you ask me as I expect the exact same thing that happened here. Bendis should see the recent Daredevil issue to see how a street level character would fare out against someone like the Wrecker.

Only thing I enjoyed this issue was the Dr Strange / Hood encounter. I liked how Bendis played up the whole demon aspect of the Hood with Dr Strange's mysticism and I'm curious to see if this is ever followed up on.

Verdict - Avoid It. It's hard to put into words how bad the narrative of this issue is, but if you read last month's symbiote recap issue by Luke Cage, imagine something worse and you'll almost understand how bad this was.


NEW WARRIORS #6
Written by Kevin Grevioux
Art by Paco Medina

Well, this was a very cliched and rather uneventful issue. It consisted of everyone making sad faces the entire issue after Night Thrasher disbanded the team until Jubilee went and brought Sofia back from the hospital for a pep talk that convinces Night Thrasher to keep the team together.

The issue also dealt with basically introducing everyone after all the build up and mystery behind who each member was. There's no fanfare or explanation for any of it. Just 'I'm Beak, I'm Angel, etc'. Even Night Thrasher gets revealed, at least to the reader, in this issue. Who is he? The only character he could possible be, Night Thrasher's brother in the wheel chair that supposedly can't walk, yet stands up at the end of the issue to look out the window with the Night Thrasher image superimposed behind him.

That whole mystery with the detectives looking into who Night Thrasher is or who's backing the New Warriors? Apparently Ben Urich gives them an envelope saying it's Tony Stark and they call off the whole investigation after confronting Stark about it. Everything to do with the detectives this issue was terrible in my opinion and really detracted from my enjoyment of the issue, which was already fairly low.

Verdict - Check It. Only giving it a Check It because you might be curious as to who all the characters are and who Night Thrasher really is. Otherwise, it was rather disappointing considering how good the last couple issues have been.


NOVA #9
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Wellinton Alves

Well, this was a curious turn of events. Not bad mind you, but I was under the impression this Knowhere arc would be several issues long. However, it was wrapped up in this issue and Nova was sent elsewhere for the next arc.

Basically, we learn more about Cosmo, the Russian, telepathic dog, and the events that lead up to this Abyss mess on the Knowhere station. Cosmo, who's awesome and I'd buy a mini-series or ongoing of any day, is the Knowhere's head security officer and is holding all of the residents in a null space collar he's wearing that will keep them safe from Abyss and his zombifying powers.

Speaking of Abyss, the Luminals, who are Avengers knockoffs from another planet, brought the villain here in an attempt to discard him at the edge of the universe. Obviously, things didn't go alright and his power is seeping out of his prison and he's zombified the Luminals. Nova and Cosmo set out to seal him back up. Nova uses the Technophage virus to take control of and repair Abyss' prison while Cosmo opens up a can on the Luminals with his insane telepathic and telekinetic powers. Once resealed, Abyss' power fades and the Luminals crumple to dust.

As thanks for helping them, Cosmo hooks Nova up with a transport and coordinates to the Technarchy homeworld. For those unaware, the Phalanx came from the Technarchy and they will most likely cure Nova of his transmode virus. However, Gamora and Drax made their appearance again at the end of this issue as they followed Nova to the Technarchy homeworld.

Verdict - Must Read. It's a must read just for the Cosmo stuff. Nova continues to impress and this issue has enough action, story and comedy to keep anyone entertained.


X-FACTOR #26
Written by Peter David
Art by Scot Eaton

Messiah Complex was finally moving along at a decent pace and this issue put a halt to all that. I assume it's because it's not a "main" X-title and Marvel didn't want anything major happening outside of X-Men or Uncanny. In it's own way, it's very similar to the Return of Ra's storyline over in the Bat-titles that features the equivilent of filler in everything but Batman and Detective.

This chapter of the Messiah Complex is the debut of X-Force. I don't mind a new team being created, but it feels like they were simply made and put in this story for the sake of plugging the new book. Also, I thought they were going to be a covert, top secret team that no one knew about. Apparently, everyone and their mother knows about it in this issue.

As for what happens this issue, X-Force heads back to the hospital where the baby was born and search for more clues about Cable now that they know what to look for. That's about all they do this issue. We also get some glimpses of Cable fighting Lady Deathstrike and her lackeys while protecting the baby and Predator X eats another no-name mutant.

Oh ya, this is an X-Factor book, isn't it? Jamie and Layla actually show up in it for a couple pages. They try to find out what caused the mutant internment camps, but end up getting captured after finding out that a mutant caused all this. No names were given and it was all pretty vague and uninformative. I'm still not sure what this future really has to do with anything. Did the baby end up causing all this? What about that other future the other dupe went to? That has no baring on this storyline?

One final complaint before I go. I really dislike the new characterization of Cyclops. I'm in the mindset of Xavier wondering what the heck is wrong with him and why Scott would condone a killing task force against his own son who has basically saved the 'savior' of the mutant race when the X-Men completely failed. Why isn't he trying to help him first before sending a kill squad in? This doesn't read like any Scott Summers I know. Yes, he's the new leader of X-Men and no longer cow-tows to Xavier's every whim, but he didn't act like this.

Verdict - Check It. Despite the overly negative review, it was still a decent chapter of Messiah Complex. It kind of ruins the momentum of the event with this sluggish, nothing-happens issue, but the Cable and Jaime/Layla stuff was good.

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