Yosh, as a part of the Quick Shot Reviews, here's the rest of this week's reviews. Apparently, I should have read the Diamond listings a little closer. Otherwise, I would have seen Kick-Ass #2 wasn't due out this week and Marvel's website was horribly out of date or the book was delayed. So, no review on that title for anyone wondering. Not much else to comment on, so I'll let you hit the jump and read all the reviews yourself.
BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #5
Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Julian Lopez and Bit
Batman and the Outsiders is your standard middle of the pack book. It's neither great nor horrible. Just your standard super hero fare. Because of this, it's also hard to recommend it to anyone, as for every person that will like it there are just as many that won't. This issue doesn't do much to change that opinion and sticks to the modis operandi of the first four issues with a lot of Outsider infiltration turned action scenes and Batman being Batman. There's no real character development for any of the varied cast, but it doesn't stop the book from being a fun read for me. If you enjoy any of the characters, you'll probably enjoy this book.
This issue sees Batman escape being sniped with the aid of the Dibney's. Yes, the Ghost Detectives take control of the two sharpshooters to save the unaware Batman. Meanwhile, the Outsiders fight a generic nobody villain that the Suicide Squad must have missed in their little purge for Salvation Run. They don't do so well and Geo-Force was called in to save their behind. I'm still a bit in the dark as to what this storyline is even about, what with the OMACs coming out of the woodworks, random rocket launches and the multitude of fights. The book isn't really built on plot, so I'm just enjoying it for the sort of summer action flick feel to the book.
Verdict - Check It
CAPTAIN MARVEL #4
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Lee Weeks
Ugh. I was genuinely pumped for this issue after the great pay off with the Skrulls and the cliffhanger from last issue. This issue throws it all away with what felt like a forced reading of War & Peace with the amount of text boxes and pointless exposition.
On top of that, they had the Skrull activate Marvel's "sleeper programming" and he beats the Skrull down and leaves to join the Captain Marvel Church. There was some other random garbage about how he vowed to protect this world and now he's going to do it whether we want it or not. It was all very pedestrian and I really just want my time and money back on this one.
Verdict - Avoid It
CATWOMAN #77
Written by Will Pfeifer
Art by David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez
I give Catwoman a lot of praise and has deserved it ever since Brubaker and Cooke relaunched the title, but there's very little Pfeifer can do with this editorial mandated Salvation Run tie-in arc. I'm honestly impressed with how he's managed to skirt the issue here and try and go off on his own and ignore the entire thing while still technically being there.
I refer, of course, to this little mishap with the alien computers that resulted in a fun romp through Selina's "ideal" Earth where she can take down the entire Justice League by herself and just ignore all the problems and tragedies that have built up in her life over the past couple years. It's still the product of a tie-in to a terrible story and this arc could very well be considered pure filler that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but it's still enjoyable enough and this little sidetrip shouldn't be looked at as a total loss. I can see a newcomer being disappointed with the book based on the last couple issues, but I hope they stick around until we get back to Earth or go back and pick up some earlier trades to see what the book is really like.
Verdict - Check It
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #6
Story by Paul Dini
Story consulting by Keith Giffen
Ccript by Gray and Palmiotti
Art by Jesus Saiz and Jimmy Palmiotti
Just keep telling yourself, "Only 5 more issues to go.". It's the only way the pain is going to lessen. This week's issue saw the return of that cover I was talking about in last week's Cover to Cover, which was probably miss-solicited by DC, to no one's surprise. Oddly enough, the final cover looks worse than the preview one for some reason. Oh, the issue? We get random Earth's Buddy Blank narrating the entire issue, yes all of it, with notebook pad boxes explaining how the Great Disaster is basically the turning of every being in the Multiverse into a bunch of furries.
Yes, the bane of the internet. Look "furries" up on Google. Don't blame me for the madness. I'm sure the readership for this title will jump through the roof with this revelation based on some fetishes.
Oh ya, Hal Jordan gets to help facilitate another Multiverse-level genocide (see Zero Hour for the first one) as he spreads his furry STD to everyone in the universe. Why he had to leave Earth and go infect everyone instead of using his ring to call for help or listening to the smart people telling him not to leave the planet can probably be attributed to Parallax or some other retcon, possibly involving bad writing.
Verdit - Avoid It
THOR #7
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Marko Djurdjevic
Thor is the book with absolutely no story, but somehow still manages to be one of the best books on the shelves. It also gets the award this month for having the two hardest to spell creator names in the business, so kudos for making my life hell when I try to use their names. Speaking of which, Djurdjevic's pencils were excellent and I like them more than the digital / painted look most of his covers have.
This issue has Thor being put to bed in theOdinsleep Thorsleep and confirms he still has the Odinforce Thorforce. Somehow, this process separates Thor from Dr Blake and results in Blake cracking some horrible jokes as he tries to leave Asgard. Not sure where he's going or what he's looking for post-separation, but it involves some old Avengers contacts.
The rest of the issue takes place with Thor in his sleep. He meets up with his father, Odin, and we get a flashback to how Odin's father died and a nice full circle effect as it shows how Odin's offspring, Thor, basically did the same thing to Odin as he did to his father, ie, let him die, did nothing to bring him back and took control for himself. The flashback to Odin's father was great and easily the best part of the issue. I loved the, paraphrasing, "We had no reason to fear them for were we not gods?" line before his father fell into the trap and was killed.
The only thing I didn't get was how this issue says Thor knew Odin could not be brought back because he died before Ragnarok, yet the previous issues had him discussing with others whether he should bring back Odin and how he didn't want his kind of backwards thinking predetermining everyone's fates. If he knew he couldn't bring him back, why bother with those conversations? I like the change, but it would have been better if Thor just found out about it not working in the Thorsleep instead of supposedly already knowing about it. It's really a small detail, but it caught my eye. Nothing story breaking about it and no reason for a demerit in my eyes.
Verdict - Must Read
Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Julian Lopez and Bit
Batman and the Outsiders is your standard middle of the pack book. It's neither great nor horrible. Just your standard super hero fare. Because of this, it's also hard to recommend it to anyone, as for every person that will like it there are just as many that won't. This issue doesn't do much to change that opinion and sticks to the modis operandi of the first four issues with a lot of Outsider infiltration turned action scenes and Batman being Batman. There's no real character development for any of the varied cast, but it doesn't stop the book from being a fun read for me. If you enjoy any of the characters, you'll probably enjoy this book.
This issue sees Batman escape being sniped with the aid of the Dibney's. Yes, the Ghost Detectives take control of the two sharpshooters to save the unaware Batman. Meanwhile, the Outsiders fight a generic nobody villain that the Suicide Squad must have missed in their little purge for Salvation Run. They don't do so well and Geo-Force was called in to save their behind. I'm still a bit in the dark as to what this storyline is even about, what with the OMACs coming out of the woodworks, random rocket launches and the multitude of fights. The book isn't really built on plot, so I'm just enjoying it for the sort of summer action flick feel to the book.
Verdict - Check It
CAPTAIN MARVEL #4
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Lee Weeks
Ugh. I was genuinely pumped for this issue after the great pay off with the Skrulls and the cliffhanger from last issue. This issue throws it all away with what felt like a forced reading of War & Peace with the amount of text boxes and pointless exposition.
On top of that, they had the Skrull activate Marvel's "sleeper programming" and he beats the Skrull down and leaves to join the Captain Marvel Church. There was some other random garbage about how he vowed to protect this world and now he's going to do it whether we want it or not. It was all very pedestrian and I really just want my time and money back on this one.
Verdict - Avoid It
CATWOMAN #77
Written by Will Pfeifer
Art by David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez
I give Catwoman a lot of praise and has deserved it ever since Brubaker and Cooke relaunched the title, but there's very little Pfeifer can do with this editorial mandated Salvation Run tie-in arc. I'm honestly impressed with how he's managed to skirt the issue here and try and go off on his own and ignore the entire thing while still technically being there.
I refer, of course, to this little mishap with the alien computers that resulted in a fun romp through Selina's "ideal" Earth where she can take down the entire Justice League by herself and just ignore all the problems and tragedies that have built up in her life over the past couple years. It's still the product of a tie-in to a terrible story and this arc could very well be considered pure filler that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but it's still enjoyable enough and this little sidetrip shouldn't be looked at as a total loss. I can see a newcomer being disappointed with the book based on the last couple issues, but I hope they stick around until we get back to Earth or go back and pick up some earlier trades to see what the book is really like.
Verdict - Check It
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #6
Story by Paul Dini
Story consulting by Keith Giffen
Ccript by Gray and Palmiotti
Art by Jesus Saiz and Jimmy Palmiotti
Just keep telling yourself, "Only 5 more issues to go.". It's the only way the pain is going to lessen. This week's issue saw the return of that cover I was talking about in last week's Cover to Cover, which was probably miss-solicited by DC, to no one's surprise. Oddly enough, the final cover looks worse than the preview one for some reason. Oh, the issue? We get random Earth's Buddy Blank narrating the entire issue, yes all of it, with notebook pad boxes explaining how the Great Disaster is basically the turning of every being in the Multiverse into a bunch of furries.
Yes, the bane of the internet. Look "furries" up on Google. Don't blame me for the madness. I'm sure the readership for this title will jump through the roof with this revelation based on some fetishes.
Oh ya, Hal Jordan gets to help facilitate another Multiverse-level genocide (see Zero Hour for the first one) as he spreads his furry STD to everyone in the universe. Why he had to leave Earth and go infect everyone instead of using his ring to call for help or listening to the smart people telling him not to leave the planet can probably be attributed to Parallax or some other retcon, possibly involving bad writing.
Verdit - Avoid It
THOR #7
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Marko Djurdjevic
Thor is the book with absolutely no story, but somehow still manages to be one of the best books on the shelves. It also gets the award this month for having the two hardest to spell creator names in the business, so kudos for making my life hell when I try to use their names. Speaking of which, Djurdjevic's pencils were excellent and I like them more than the digital / painted look most of his covers have.
This issue has Thor being put to bed in the
The rest of the issue takes place with Thor in his sleep. He meets up with his father, Odin, and we get a flashback to how Odin's father died and a nice full circle effect as it shows how Odin's offspring, Thor, basically did the same thing to Odin as he did to his father, ie, let him die, did nothing to bring him back and took control for himself. The flashback to Odin's father was great and easily the best part of the issue. I loved the, paraphrasing, "We had no reason to fear them for were we not gods?" line before his father fell into the trap and was killed.
The only thing I didn't get was how this issue says Thor knew Odin could not be brought back because he died before Ragnarok, yet the previous issues had him discussing with others whether he should bring back Odin and how he didn't want his kind of backwards thinking predetermining everyone's fates. If he knew he couldn't bring him back, why bother with those conversations? I like the change, but it would have been better if Thor just found out about it not working in the Thorsleep instead of supposedly already knowing about it. It's really a small detail, but it caught my eye. Nothing story breaking about it and no reason for a demerit in my eyes.
Verdict - Must Read
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2 comments:
Militia isn't actually a villain. He is a former cop, tends to work for government agencies and such. He operates within the law, and got his cybernetics from the Quorum. Also he's Guy Gardner's brother.
"Why [Hal Jordan] had to leave Earth and go infect everyone instead of using his ring to call for help..."
Ha, that's exactly what I thought when I came to that scene. How many times have we seen the GL's communicate with other GL's/Guardians via their rings while remaining Earth bound? And not only is it dangerous for Hal to leave for the obvious reasons, it also wastes valuable time. It would be far faster if he just had to wait for them to come to him rather than he go to them, and then come back.
On top of this, Una brings up the valid point that the virus is advanced beyond the capabilities of anyone today, but that's just the capabilities of anyone from 21st Century Earth. Wouldn't you think there are present day races out there in the universe that could find a cure, races far more advanced so that they are as capable as those of Earthlings 1000 years in the future? I am sure there are numerous GL's in the Corps that hail from such worlds. So, not only would Hal have saved an inordinate amount of time by merely calling Oa rather than wasting precious time travelling there, he also would have been able to get the help from beings who could actually do something about this.
But we should all know better than to bring up such holes. We all know that Countdown has never been about the details or the actual characters, although DC would have you believe otherwise. All Countdown is really about is movement. It is about getting from A to B to C to D all the way to Final Crisis, setting up the necessary beats along the way. How these beats are achieved or gotten to is really irrelevant. It matters more that they are met. And that's really a shame. Getting through all the salient points up to Final Crisis is not mutually exclusive from character development and the telling of interesting stories in their own right. But this is what has happened.
Oh well. As long as we all know this, we can accept it. The funny thing is, they really could have done all this in one or two issues. Really. Since just about everything that has happened along the way since the first issue is wholly irrelevant, since it's just the final destination that matters, save for those few important beats along the way, the whole of Countdown could have been told in the same personalized journal format that this latest issue was told, and it could have easily been done in just two or so issues.
Given the overwhelming success of 52, which was written by 4 of DC's most established and appreciated writers, you would think this same approach would be taken for Countdown. But just as Star Wars suffered when George Lucas took on all the creative chores himself, the massive undertaking required by a weekly comic is just too much for a single writer. Giffen came on at some point, but it wasn't enough. Too bad. I do look forward to Final Crisis though, as well as Trinity.
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