Friday, October 09, 2009

There's a reason no one's written a suspense novel where the conflict is wolves vs tank

Except now they have!  Oh hooo-rah!
Spoilers ahead for Buffy #29 (rather damn good), Superman: World of New Krypton #8 (also pretty special) and Justice league: Cry for Justice #4 (sadly lacking in laughter).
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Buffy #29
This series can be so hit and miss, but this week it's definitley a hit.  I recognised Kennedy several times throughout, without having her mentioned by name, (I do hope it actually is Kennedy).  Willow gets angry and has some wonderful scenes dealing with her anger over her magic being put into the earth, including a very acerbic (?) comment about her black of black eyes.  Xander and Willow continue to be close and Buffy is finding it difficult to deal with.  The slayers have to fight with radars, guns, ammos and torpedos because they've given their magic powers up.  They have to learn how to be normal.
 There are wolves versus tanks.
There is fake magic.
And then, after all this awesomeness, there are wrathful goddesses rising from the earth.  Which, incidentally, happen to be beautifully coloured and completely un booby.

This issue is written by Jane Espenson, and when she's good, she's very very good.

Superman: World of New Krypton #8
This is also a corker. (That means good).
The Thangarians are fighting the Kryptonians.  The Thanagarians are now what I expected.  They are led by a woman, have their own jargon and rather battle heavy.  By that I mean quite gung ho on slaughter and sacrificing their pawns.  Despite this they also listen to the Kryptonians, show great diplomacy, gallantry and respect (if mingled with distrust), and are quite intelligent about the whole thing.
We still don't know exactly why they attacked, but they nonetheless helped deal with the errant moon, Callisto, and got it into a position where the Kryptonians could deal with it themselves.

My favourite scenes were with the Kryptonian army trying to slow the speeding moon down by pushing on it, (this didn't work and is where the Thanagarians intervened, despite the fact if meant they lost lots of power themselves), and the scene where the rest of New Krypton (I assume it was the rest), flew up to help with the final restoration of the moon.  The whole planet working together to help the whole planet.

Honourable mentions must go firstly to the scene in which the Thanagarian leader is meeting with the council.  I just love the council heads as holograms approach.  I am a massive, massive fan of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies.  Second mention goes to the final page.  Who are these new aliens?  What is their beef with Krypton?  I shall have to wait and see.  Or someone can tell me in the comments.  Or Supergirl Comic Box Commentary will tell me.

Oh one last thing, the cover.  I love how the steps look like a spine, I think that's a wonderful touch.  In fact, I love the whole layout of the cover. It is very very good.  I do not love how the main guy on the cover is, well a guy.  The Thanagarian leader is female in this issue, wouldn't it have made more sense to have a lady leader on the front.  I'm not suggesting this was done on purpose, I can easily see how a vague cover desciption was given to the artist, who just happened to draw a male leader, because hey, male is the default on society.  I call it sexist.
If this leader dude is important in Thanagarian society or stories, there is no indication of it in the book.  So I still call sexist, because it's ignoring the role of the woman in the story inside, for a default, nameless other male entity.
This could probably be explained better, but it's late and I'm tired.


Justice League: Cry for Justice #4
Sadly, no lols for this one.  This meant it was a rather boring issue.  Congo Bill and Starman are beating up bad guys and are on the trail of Prometheus, sort of.  The rest of the bunch are torturing other bad guys via the Atom, and have no idea where Prometheus is.  Ollie then has a face off with Hal about the torture methods (about bloody time), which felt rather forced and the JLA turn up and demand to know what is going on.
Memorable points -
Bill and Starman debating the nature of Justice.  snore.
Kara badly crushing on Freddie.  Very sweet.  Ollie thinking he's being clever, and her 'no shit sherlock' response.
Jay Garrick running around the world talking to heroes - could he be the speedster in the new league?
The godawful version of Zatanna's costume on the last page.  I can practically see her labia.
Kara's ridiculous pose on the front cover.

1 comment:

Red said...

I'm just about to get Buffy Predator and Prey, so am way far behind in the series. however, I enjoy reading your posts to see what to look forward to.

Actually was in the store yesterday and flipped through #29.