Wrapping up a rather slow week is a foursome of reviews in this week's Quick Shot Reviews. I haven't looked yet, but next week has to be more bountiful than this week's offerings. Sure, there were some diamonds in the rough, but I'm still hoping this is the lull before the storm kind of thing. Anyways, enough retarded metaphors*, on with the reviews.
*note - retarded metaphors will most likely continue
*note - retarded metaphors will most likely continue
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #12
Written by Geoff Johns & Alex Ross
Art by Dale Eaglesham & Ruy Jose
I like the JSA. I like Kingdom Come. I like Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham. Why do I hate this Thy Kingdom Come story? Yes, there's glimpses of the JSA I loved, like the opening boxing match here, but nothing else is clicking here. Is there even a purpose, storywise, for introducing KC Superman? Is he just there to cash in on KC fans? He hasn't done anything except sip some tea and look pretty. Did we need three or four issues of what amounted to filler and the odd character moment, which took up all of two pages each issue?
This issue spent the bulk of it introducing new legacy characters, as if the cast wasn't big enough already. Did we needCaptain Katrina Amazing Man? How many daughters with powers does Black Lightning have? Whatever way you slice it, it looks like they're just being brought in for cannonfodder for the mystery killer (hint hint it's Gog of KC fame).
In the end, this is still a good comic. It's just not a great JSA issue and I've come to expect better from this. Bendis doesn't use this much decompression and I think he practically invented that crap.
Verdict - Check It
MS. MARVEL #24
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Aaron Lopresti
The short story here is Carol got her Binary powers back and used them to kill a bunch of Brood before burning out just before she could finish off the Brood Queen. This prompts an asswhooping from the Queen.
The long story is we have no idea why she turned into Binary nor why she lost those powers by the end of the issue. I also don't think we'll ever find out. In the end, she shoves a nuke into the Queen and uses the force to propel her into space, probably to destroy the Shi'ar Empire or something, who knows. Machineman showed up briefly. He got a new man body, makes a joke and that's it for him.
I guess the big development comes in the form of the epilogue of this issue. Tony Stark tells the mysterious SHIELD agent working for Carol, the one that can regenerate his body somehow, that Carol is a Skrull, which explains next issue's cover. I doubt she's a Skrull, as there's no evidence and we just saw the blue alien chick-thing that's been messing with her DNA. That leaves the mysterious SHIELD agent. I love mysteries.
Verdict - Check It
SILVER SURFER: IN THY NAME #4
Written by Simon Spurrier
Art by Tan Eng Huat
This was good, but not what I was hoping for. In hindsight, this is probably the only way this story could have ended, but, still, while I knew Radd wouldn't summon Galactus on either group, I was still disappointed that it ended up being a fake.
Brass tacks of it is that the Surfer summoned 'Galactus' and used the threat of annihilation to shock both races into peace talks. Both conspire to examine and, when they find something odd about the Big G, destroy the imposter together. Surfer can't believe the unmitigated hatred and love of violence and leaves the groups to their own destruction. But not before freeing the pyschic creature from earlier in the mini-series' child. Galactus is then revealed as an illusion by the creature's parent and Surfer reunites them. Before leaving, he looks back on the warring planet and realizes that even such hatred can be beautiful from a distance.
It was pretty much a lot of existential inner monologue throughout the issue as the writers rushed to wrap up all the plotlines. I liked how they used this philospher Surfer throughout the issue, but it felt a bit preachy here and like the Surfer was becoming a bit too fond of his own voice. It could have been a bit more definitive in its ending, but, despite these faults, I still think this was an excellent series and well worth checking out for any long time Surfer fan.
Verdict - Check It
TEEN TITANS: YEAR ONE #2 (OF 6)
Written by Amy Wolfram
Art by Karl Kerschl and Serge Lapointe
I was worried this might happen and it did. Two issues in and the honeymoon is over. The art is still spectacular, but I feel like I'm retreading old ground, which is true since this is a retelling of an old annual. However, this story was told in one annual, not six issues. It didn't help that this issue read in about 46 seconds flat. Slight exaggeration, but you get the point. I found myself just flipping pages of pretty pictures with a couple words of text on each.
In the end, nothing happened here. We get glimpses of eachuseless sidekick Titans' partner going evil before the team meets up with Wonder Girl and the issue ends.
Was it bad writing or art? No, but that doesn't make me feel any less like I was ripped off buying this issue. At this point, wait for the trade for your best value. Hopefully, with the team now completely formed, we can get some meatier issues.
Verdict - Avoid It
Written by Geoff Johns & Alex Ross
Art by Dale Eaglesham & Ruy Jose
I like the JSA. I like Kingdom Come. I like Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham. Why do I hate this Thy Kingdom Come story? Yes, there's glimpses of the JSA I loved, like the opening boxing match here, but nothing else is clicking here. Is there even a purpose, storywise, for introducing KC Superman? Is he just there to cash in on KC fans? He hasn't done anything except sip some tea and look pretty. Did we need three or four issues of what amounted to filler and the odd character moment, which took up all of two pages each issue?
This issue spent the bulk of it introducing new legacy characters, as if the cast wasn't big enough already. Did we need
In the end, this is still a good comic. It's just not a great JSA issue and I've come to expect better from this. Bendis doesn't use this much decompression and I think he practically invented that crap.
Verdict - Check It
MS. MARVEL #24
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Aaron Lopresti
The short story here is Carol got her Binary powers back and used them to kill a bunch of Brood before burning out just before she could finish off the Brood Queen. This prompts an asswhooping from the Queen.
The long story is we have no idea why she turned into Binary nor why she lost those powers by the end of the issue. I also don't think we'll ever find out. In the end, she shoves a nuke into the Queen and uses the force to propel her into space, probably to destroy the Shi'ar Empire or something, who knows. Machineman showed up briefly. He got a new man body, makes a joke and that's it for him.
I guess the big development comes in the form of the epilogue of this issue. Tony Stark tells the mysterious SHIELD agent working for Carol, the one that can regenerate his body somehow, that Carol is a Skrull, which explains next issue's cover. I doubt she's a Skrull, as there's no evidence and we just saw the blue alien chick-thing that's been messing with her DNA. That leaves the mysterious SHIELD agent. I love mysteries.
Verdict - Check It
SILVER SURFER: IN THY NAME #4
Written by Simon Spurrier
Art by Tan Eng Huat
This was good, but not what I was hoping for. In hindsight, this is probably the only way this story could have ended, but, still, while I knew Radd wouldn't summon Galactus on either group, I was still disappointed that it ended up being a fake.
Brass tacks of it is that the Surfer summoned 'Galactus' and used the threat of annihilation to shock both races into peace talks. Both conspire to examine and, when they find something odd about the Big G, destroy the imposter together. Surfer can't believe the unmitigated hatred and love of violence and leaves the groups to their own destruction. But not before freeing the pyschic creature from earlier in the mini-series' child. Galactus is then revealed as an illusion by the creature's parent and Surfer reunites them. Before leaving, he looks back on the warring planet and realizes that even such hatred can be beautiful from a distance.
It was pretty much a lot of existential inner monologue throughout the issue as the writers rushed to wrap up all the plotlines. I liked how they used this philospher Surfer throughout the issue, but it felt a bit preachy here and like the Surfer was becoming a bit too fond of his own voice. It could have been a bit more definitive in its ending, but, despite these faults, I still think this was an excellent series and well worth checking out for any long time Surfer fan.
Verdict - Check It
TEEN TITANS: YEAR ONE #2 (OF 6)
Written by Amy Wolfram
Art by Karl Kerschl and Serge Lapointe
I was worried this might happen and it did. Two issues in and the honeymoon is over. The art is still spectacular, but I feel like I'm retreading old ground, which is true since this is a retelling of an old annual. However, this story was told in one annual, not six issues. It didn't help that this issue read in about 46 seconds flat. Slight exaggeration, but you get the point. I found myself just flipping pages of pretty pictures with a couple words of text on each.
In the end, nothing happened here. We get glimpses of each
Was it bad writing or art? No, but that doesn't make me feel any less like I was ripped off buying this issue. At this point, wait for the trade for your best value. Hopefully, with the team now completely formed, we can get some meatier issues.
Verdict - Avoid It
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3 comments:
yea, it's totally not agent sum. no way. unpossible. if it is, I will be shocked, shocked to my very core at the very surprise of it.
RE: JSA/Kingdom Come...
GOG was actually a villain of the New Earth Superman - the guy who was travelling backwards in time from some possible future, killing Superman over and over.
MAGOG was the guy in Kingdom Come. I don't think the relationship between Gog and Magog has ever been addressed.
Father/son? Brothers? Multiverse counterparts?
Their concept comes from various references in the Old Testament.
You're correct. Gog isn't from Kingdom Come. I probably should have said The Kingdom, the follow up to Kindgom Come.
He showed up later in a Superman comic according to Wikipedia, but they claim it's a different one than the one I was thinking of from The Kingdom.
Since it's a KC related story in JSA, I was assuming it was the KC / The Kingdom version, but I guess it could be the other one from Imperiex's aftermath.
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