Brightest Day (ooh I get a bit cross)

Ok, so it's now all over.  I can't say I was too impressed.  I expected something bright and cheerful, perhaps along the lines of the (old) JLI.  What I got was more of the same (mostly) dull dramatics, misery, death and angst.

I liked the Hawks' story (to a point), and also Aquaman's (mostly because of Aqualad, who is a fantastic addition to DC's universe.  I didn't see any of Osiris' or Captain Boomerang's story in these pages.  That was disappointing.  Deadman's, Firestorm's and the Martian manhunter's story also did not intereste me much (and I thought I was J'onn fan).

If this story was designed to hook new readers into less popular B-list characters, it didn't work on me.  I was already an Aqua and Hawk fan.  I am not drawn into reading up on Swamp Thing or Constantine either.  I was however highy HIGHLY amused by the black and green Swamp Thing fight scene.  I guffawed.

The elementals idea was perfect, and it's a damn shame it wasn't continued.

Of course, this was somewhat ruined by the fatc that they killed off Sheira.  I sincerely hope that she comes back soon, and in her own right, because her death did nothing for the story except to provide another reason for Carter to angst.  Like he doesn't angst enough anyway.    It looks like a classic case of Women In Refigerators syndrome.

For Gods sake why didn't they kill off Carter and make Sheria angst?  Oh right, that's because male characters can exist in their right whereas female characters only exist as motivations or plot devices for the male characters.

*fumes*

Comic reviews!

Spoilers after the jump for Brightest Day #23 (but no mention will be made of the identity of the White Lantern), Secret Six #32, Young Justice #2.
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Comic reviews the second (of March)

As in, my second late post for reviewing.  All issues are a few weeks old.

Secret Six #31
I had intentions to reveiw this for the LGBT Book challenge, but haven't got round to it yet.  Suffice to say, Knockout is back.  Hip hip hooray!

Wonder Woman #608
At it's best i'm just not finding this very engaging.  At it's worst, I'm finding it downright insulting.  Dr Psycho gets to rescue Diana? Really?
In addition to the abov, which I think is a fucking awful plot point, Diana is out of character.  This may be an alternate timeline and all, but she should still be the same basic person underneath.  And that, dear readers, I am not getting from these books.  Oh yes, I have turned.  notintheface covers this quite well here.

Brightest Day #22
Ok, 22 issues in, 2 more to go, and I'm not really sure of the point of Brightest Day.  I don't feel that we are reaching an all importnat climax, I feel like we've just meandered in and out of several stories. I have very much enjoyed the Aquafamily story, and the Hawks were good before they were killed but on the whole, I can't really bring myself to care too much about this series.

Red Robin #21
Oh yeah, this is the shizzle :)   Y'all should be reading this book.

Superman #709
I want the Superman Squad back please.  That is the only part of this story I am interested in.


Young Justice #1
This is surprisingly good.  I've read mixed reactions to the tv show, but this issue is enough for to have placed this book on my pull list.  yeah.

More reviews..

Birghtest Day 20  - If you like kick ass women you really need to buy this issue  Mera is seriously badass.  Aquagirl is pretty hot too (I mean hot as in amazingly cool, not hawt hawt sexy hot).  Aqualad continues to enthrall me and on the whole Brightest Day is just proving to me how unbelievably cool the Aquafamily are.  Unfortunately, I think Arthur's gonna die in a puff of white light soon.  I hope he comes back pretty darn sharpish and just as spectacular as ever,

Wonder Woman 607 - The suicidal minotaur made me sad.  The wall murals made me happy.  the cat made me even happier.  We need more kitties in comics.  We have Streaky, Stinky, Dex Starr, Talky Tawny, that family of cats from Morrison's Animal Man trade, what others?

JLA 54 - I have put this on my pull list hoping for Supergirl action.  I got none.  Lots of Eclipso action, (fine, set up the story, whatever) but no Kara.  The cover even has eclipso'd Kara, I feel vaguely cheated.  Why's she in her regualr, non dark uniform though?  Next issue - Boodika and Doomsday, yay!

Batgirl 18 -  I can't say anything about this that hasn't been said already.  It's a Valentines issue, it;s adorable, Steph has a really big heart.  Go buy it.

Ok, only this week's batch to go, come back tomorrow for more opinions..

End of January Comic reviews

Spoilers ahead


Gotham City Sirens #19
Good cover.  Shame the story is all about the Siren's love lives.  Sigh.  I do not want my book about a group of women to be about their romantic entanglements.  Can we have more of the Birds of Prey style writing here please.


JLA #53
I'm coming in at the tail end of this story arc, and it surprises me how good it is.  It's a solid comic, well adapted to it's short 22 page format, but one that will, I suspect, read just as well in a trade.  Dark Supergirl isn't really too dark, just a bit snarky.  She's not all out for evil and doom, not like she was in her introductory trade.  It's refreshing.
Now, as soon as DC clarify where dark Supergirl fits into regular Supergirl continuity I'll be happy.

Superboy #4
I may be feeling a little out of sorts today, but I am not thrilled with this art.  There's not enough detail in the faces.  This blog post talks about how women's faces are drawn with less pencil lines than men's faces, therefore they are more difficult to draw.  It's not a stance I particularly agree with, especially as a lot of the motivation for not putting in detail seems to be that less detail = beauty, and women = beauty.
Anyway, reading this comic makes me think of this post, as there's fuck all pencil detail on Connor's and other character's faces.  Any nuance comes from the colourist.  It's not an approach I care for.

Other than the art, the issue is good.


Secret Six #30
I have no fucking clue what is going on here.  The Doom patrol turns up, a lazy disaffected 23 year old decides to become an old style king of crime, and the Six are on Oolong Island, where everything converges.

Oh and Bane is taken to a strip club and there he meets 3 twitterati.  No really!  Gail Simone gave a cameo to @pseudicide (Dee) @ceebee_eebee (Elyssa) and @harleyquinnaid (Elise).  I chat to pseudicide and ceebee_eebee quite a lot on twitter.  They are adorable.  So, the panels with them in kind of made this comic for me. :D

Brightest Day #19
Aquawar! AquaWar! AquaWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Oh hells yeah.   Bring on the Aqua goodness.  And oh look, Arthur's lost a hand. Again.  How careless of him. ;)

In which I am late to the party on some reviews

My excuse is I didn't want to break up the BatWondy posts, and I wrote these rather late.

Superman/Batman 80

This was yet another opportunity to channel the silver age.  It’s delivered in a way that’s far more fun and far less frustrating than the silver age, and features many incarnations of Supes and Bats, including a Superwoman .  DickGraysonRobin gets to be all precocious and punch his fist into the palm of his hand. Twice.  All in all, this was more fun than I expected.

Brightest Day #18

Good golly Miss Molly the hawks are dead :o  But probably not for long....  Right before they’d got to have joyous back to life sex too.  Life’s not fair.

In other Brightest day news, I think we need to see more of the Rogues.  I say next issue should be a double bill of the Rogues and the Aquafamily.  What say you all?

I was also happy to see Lorena brought back into the fold.

Shazam one shot

Why is Mary blond?  Since when has she been blond?

Apart from that, this book is really for the marvel family fans.  Since I am one, this satisfied me.  The story doesn’t really contribute anything long-lasting or groundbreaking.  It checks in with the marvels, reminds us that Freddie has powers and Billy and Mary don’t (unless you count the power of being miraculously blond, given DC’s current teen female demographic that might well be a superpower in its own right), and then check sin with all other marvelites out there.

It’s a good read and I’m glad they’re getting some exposure.  As Osiris got a little spotlight at the end maybe this will tie in to brightest day somehow?  We can but hope.

Warning for shameless self promotion: I did a review on Trials of Shazam and Superman/Shazam: First Thunder on New Readers..., found here and here.  They’re good books, you should check them out.

Green Arrow 8

Eight issues in and I finally enjoyed it.  I had hoped Lois would get more panel time, and Krul’s rhymes for Etrigan were dire, but on the whole I actually enjoyed this.  Colour me surprised.

Wonder Woman 606

I also enjoyed this.  What’s the world coming to?  It’s probably because the morrigan wasn’t in it much.  Bloody stupid depiction of her from last week.

Phillipus is a delightfully passionate warrior.  WW shows she is not to be trifled with and the Herne type god worked for me.

After this, cheetah, giganta and artemis are brought back.  I initially thought artemis was the silver swan.  Oops.  The little ww dolls kept me interested  and have me intrigued as to how this will all be resolved.  And the cover is rockin’.

Teen Titans 91

My only complaint is that Scott doesn’t make Rose muscled enough and that she makes Connor too beefy,  Other than that, of course I’m happy with it all!  On several pages Damian and Rose look more like they are dancing than fighting.  Damian is actually softening up to rose.  Must be all the dancing.  Clearly he has a crush on her.  He called her a femme fatale.  At this rate he’s gonna crush on every young woman in the dcu.  I pity him if rose finds out though. She’ll mock him mercilessly.

Bart’s story was interesting – he had a flashback to being killed by the rogues.  I wasn’t aware that was still in canon (maybe it isn;t0?) but he obviously has some memory of it.

 

I care nothing for the DC online legends preview.

 

Here's an interesting thing

Apparently when I'm an overtired zombie I can't tell the difference between Secret Six and Birds of Prey.  Which is how I came out with Secret Six #27 today and now have the title on standing order.  I blame the dinosaur on the front.

It's a very cool looking dinosaur and it's being ridden by Bane.

Spoilers ahead.









So, the Six are in Skataris fighting another bunch of villains, except they're not really fighting them as Scandal is friendly with Jeanette (who turns into the Silver Banshee at one point) and Bane (whom she's stabbed thinking he was her father).  Ragdoll is fighting a giant shark who likes pale white meat and now has one eyeball hanging out, thanks to Ragdoll.  The Six are now forced to quit the fight as they are surrounded by armoured dinosaurs. Catman is turned into the symbol of the resistance and is given a very fetching and beefcakey outfit.  Meanwhile, Spy Smasher is trying to pull a fast on Amanda Waller.  This is not a good idea.

Fuck knows the background to this issue but I quite enjoyed it.


Superboy #1 was a solid opening issue.  We get a supporting cast, ruminations on his life so far, Krypto, the Phantom Stranger being all silver age-y and ominous (Connor is all modern and cut the bullshit-y), Parasite is on a revenge spree and then Poison Ivy turns up very unexpectedly.  Last of all we have a retro 'coming up' page - Ivy and Connor work together, Connor and Bart race, there's some new titans and Connor crosses the multiverse.  Looks like fun!

Brightest Day #13 continued the retcons that we've had so far - nor Geoff Johns is fleshing out the backstory of Chay-era's mother.  It struck me that I probably shouldn't be pissed off at this, because Rebirth was all retcon too and that worked out fine.  Surprisingly, Hath Set appears to have now been killed by Hawkwoman.  There's some fantastic splash pages of Hawkman, and some not so fantastic alpha male-ing of Batman.  I do not want Bruce to be the goddamn White Lantern (altho the Goddamn White Lantern might be fun).  Bruce Wayne is not the answer to fecking everything.

2 weeks worth of comics

Ooh look I got behind again.  Oh well, I have something to say now.  Onwards!  Spoilers ahead for Birds of Prey #5, Brightest Day #10, Superman/Batman # 76, Supergirl #56 and some old 90s Superboy issues.
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Birds of Prey #5
Reading this I was struck again by the lack of solid female friendships in DC's comics.  In this issue Dinah decides (fairly inexplicably to a new reader) to quit the Birds and bugger off to Bangkok with the White Canary.  Zinda and Helena are having none of this and follow her to Bangkok to tell her so.  Friends that won't let other friends do stupid things are good friends.  I can't think of any other book where this sort of thing would happen, and it's what made this issue special.


Brightest Day #10
The firestorm matrix bonding Ronnie and Jason together is revealed to be the spark the ignited the big bang.  This would have captured my interest far more if we hadn't had the Aqua story running alongside it.  Gods alive that was good!  There's all sorts of dramatic heroism all over the shop.  I had tears in my eyes reading this (I think I may be a bit emotional at the moment...).  Without a second thought, Jackson's Dad was going to sacrifice himself so his son could live, Jackson wasn't having this so he's saves his Dad and fights back against Black Manta.  Back on land Manta slings a fish hook at Jackson's father, which is caught at the last moment by Aquaman, leading to an awesomely dramatic full page splash.

I LOVE this sort of stuff.  My heart was all a flutter reading this.


Superman/Batman # 76
This made my heart go all a flutter and made me a bit weepy, until I thought about it more.  You see, this issue deals with Bruce's death & funeral, and Superman's emotional state after the death of his friend.  This is all good and it is great to see, except for Bruce's funeral.  Lois wasn't allowed as it was allegedly core Justice League members only, in civilian clothing,  and there was a secret identity issue.

Fine.  Lois must know near enough all the JLA members identities by now, but fine.  Then you see the funeral scene.  Attending is Clark, Dick, Alfred, Tim, Diana, Dinah and Ollie.

Ollie?  There's no Hal or Kyle, no Wally or Barry, Carter or Zatanna and you're trying to tell me Ollie gets to be the core of the League?  And no Selina or Barbara?  Nothing would stop those two attending Bruce's funeral.  Hell, Talia should also be there.

Ridiculous.

Supergirl #56
As with last issue, this was great.  Best issue of these 2 weeks without a doubt.  Jamal Igle's art is great, I think he's getting better every issue - it now seems he's not going to Birds of Prey and was never going to go to BoP, so let this be a lesson to us all.  I hope he stays on Supergirl, I really do.  He even drew Sterling Gates in this issue, proclaiming Kara 'sooo ugly!' (some Bizarros speak in opposites) complete with little hearts(!).

Sterling Gates has given Bizarrogirl a distinct personality.  I didn't think that was possible (with the Bizarros).  There's some nice homages to the pre-crisis Kara with Bizarrogirl crushing on BizarroLex.  Mostly, I am struck by the similarities between Bizarrogirl and that imposter Supergirl from issue 18.  There's some things in there about what a Supergirl 'should' be and Kara is considering if she is measuring up to the standard set by the S shield.  I know these last couple of issues have been a general reflection on Kara and recent events but the introduction of Bizarrogirl reads, to me, like a redone version of issue 18.  A far far improved version which is much less patronising to the readers.

Superboy Plus the Power of Shazam #1
Superboy meets Captain Marvel Junior and they are tested for strength and determination.  Cap'n Junior fails, Superboy passes.  It's an incredibly contrived issue set up to bring readers into a new Superboy plotline and vaguely advance the plot of Cap'n Junior.  Not really worth getting unless you're a completest.  The best bit about it is Knockout, who will never cease to rock.  the worst bit is Tana Moon suddenly becoming Caucasian.

Superboy Plus Slither 2
Another meh issue.  Better than the Shazam one but not great.  I'm also trying to track down the other Plus issues as I believe that Robin, Impulse and Catwoman also got involved.

Superboy annual 1997 - Pulp Heroes
Now this was fun.  Superboy and co take a journey to Dinosaur Island.  Superboy gets drunk, loses his memory, they meet cavemen and fight off dinosaurs.  Lots of pulpy B movie type fun.  All the cavewomen are hot, slim yet busty and in fur bikinis.  The cavemen are fat, ugly and in fur loincloths.  I love the pulp style, I appreciate the aesthetic and I'm a sucker for old monster B movies.  However reading this, I was considering what it means culturally and politically when the women are objects of desire and the men aren't.  I think it's particularly important to be aware of this in a comic aimed at teenage boys.  Guess my conclusions.


Superboy & Risk Double Shot (1998)
Another fun one.  Superboy goes undercover at a school to discover which student broke into Project Cadmus.  He adopts an incredibly nerdish persona - which is quite obviously poking fun at Clark's mild mannered identity - and proceeds to be bullied and discover nothing.

There were 3 other books released under the Double Shot title, one was Supergirl & Prysm, the other two are Robin & someone and Impulse & someone.  I am tracking them down on ebay.

Well, my weekly reading just got a whole lot more interesting!

(Not really spoilery)

Well!  In Brightest Day #7 we found out what the White Lantern's missions are which means the story will really pick up the pace.  Hurrah.  I really liked the artists for Dawn and Boston Brand in the diner.  Whoever it was seemed to have a really good feel for Dove.  The pencils for J'onn J'onzz and M'gan M'orzz seemed a little undefined, but they ARE shapeshifters so blurry features aren't really a problem.  Sheira in the cage was also drawn really well.

In Red Robin #15we see Tim developing a clever ruse to put Vicki Vale off the scent of his secret identity.  Gosh.  It's quite an extreme ruse.  This *will* be interesting.

Secret Six #24 sees the Six in what I presume is a past life, which seems to be a Western where Scandal is a sheriff.  It was great!

AND I got The Question: the 5 books of blood which I should have read by the time this is posted, and I haven't even started the assorted bag of 20 Robin comics that I got last week.  As there are no job applications for me to do this week I foresee a lot of comic reading going on!  And mayhap some blogging and reviewing.  If you're really lucky.

Things I have enjoyed in comics these last 2 weeks

• The art in Wonder Woman 601
• The Diana in Wonder Woman 601.  I don't care how she's dressed or what she remembers.  Thsi Diana, brimming with anger is who I want to read about.
• Green Arrow creating rope contraptions and battering rams out of tree trunks.
• Jason Firestorm asking what the atomic structure of mouthwash (and everything else is)
• Then vomiting over his rescuee.
• Supergirl being an all round great book.  Particularly the artwork.
• Les Luthor being a cruel arsehole
• The answer to Star City's mystery forest turning up in Gotham City Sirens.

New toys!

See them here:

Oooh a hooded GA!  and check out Mera!

What with these and the Steph!Batgirl figure due out, this year will be a good year for toys :)

I write more things

This weeks comics reviews coming up.  Spoilers for Brightest Day #4, Jokers Asylum II: The Mad Hatter, Joker's Asylum II: The Riddler.
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Brightest Day #4
Well this was interesting.  One of the things I like about these weekly or bi weekly books is the character studies we get to see.  52 was very good at that as it introduced me to Renee, Isis and Osiris.  Brightest Day is going to re introduce me to characters I haven't read in a while, and woudl otherwise not really get to see.

Looking at the Hawkpeople, I am mostly relearning that Carter is a bit of a dominating bonehead and that Sheira is letting him walk all over her.  I am willing to be shown that initial interpretation is wrong though.  And I still miss Kendra.  I love the land they've ended up in.  There's something about flying cities and/or flying lumps of earth that's makes me shiver.  I particularly love the chains linking the earth lumps, how intriguing!!

I'm really excited about seeing Dove in this book.  We didn't get to see enough of her in Blackest Night so I'm glad she's being picked up in here.

The new Aqualad story is off to a good start, and hey it's nice to see they've managed to being in a black guy instead of killing them all off.  I have no clue who this Mera lookalike is, but to me she looks like a cross between a pink and red lantern Mera.

Lastly the Firestorm story has me intrigued again.  Ronnie in civilian clothes bores me, much like how Kid Devil in human form bored me.  The skinny white skater boy look is dull.

Jokers Asylum II: The Mad Hatter
Ahh, now this was bloody excellent.  Far and away the best book of the week, and not something I had expected to be written by the same guy who did Supergirl Cosmic Adventures (Landry Walker).
There's a lot of repetetive dialogue in this (mostly about tea) and it works, as it reinforces the Hatters madness and struggle within himself (mostly not to drink the tea).  I've only come across the Hatter in Secret Six before but this Hatter fitted with that Hatter really well.

Keith Giffen and Bill Sienkiewicz did the art, which is also excellent.  Half of it is like the cover, scratchy and threatening, and half of it is childlike in primary colours.  Which also fits quite well with the Secret Six book too I suppose.

Anyway, it's really really really good.

Joker's Asylum II: The Riddler
I didn't intend to buy this.  I meant to buy the Harley one instead.  But as I didn't check the DC website before I went down to the shop I just picked up the first 2 Joker's Asylum books I saw.  Then got home and realised I should have bought the Harley one.  Oh well.  This turned out to be pretty good as well.

Like the other books this week (is this an 'I get to re-discover characters week' or something?) I have only come across the Riddler a few times elsewhere, mostly in the Gotham City Sirens books.  This story is from before he reformed and features him searching for love.  Except cos he's unhinged he's actually a stalker and then threatens the young lady into being with him.  Still, a good book.

I think I'll have to remember to pick up the Harley one next Thursday.  I shall buy it instead of GA #1.

Last week's comics, brief thoughts on

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I enjoyed Brightest Day #3, Arthur getting eaten by a dead orca was fun.  It's still not looking to bright, but give it time.  I would like to see more Osiris though.

Red Robin #13, while good, was not as good as previous issues, although I did love the cover.  Timmy looks so pleased with himself, someone should give him some cookies and milk.

Superman/Batman Annual #4.  So THAT's who Terry is!  I've been reading about him in The Black Cat's great little web comics and been completely ignorant of where he came from.  he's good.  He's a much better Batman than Bruce or Dick.  I may even pick up the Batman beyond mini.
I also think I espied a few extar Robin memorial cases, including a girl!Robin outfit.  Huzzah!

Brightest Day and Bristol Uni

I've been wasting far too much time on twitter and not enough time blogging.  I was going to write somethign about Brightest Day and tokenism but I've wasted too much time on Twitter.  On the whole, I liked Brightest Day, altho owning a White Power ring is now making me really embaressed.  If you're not sure what I'm on about, go check out WFA's links roundup.

News on Bristol Univeristy's proposed closure of the Deaf Studies degree.  Basically they've postponed the final decision, as they want to have a committe discussion about redundancies first.  Altho it now seems the whole department is being considered for closure, not just the Deaf Studies course.  I was chatting to someone today who's sister is at Bristol, doing the second year of her Deaf Studies course.  Apparently she may have to go to Wolverhampton to do the final year.

Thanks to all who have signed the campaign's petition and/or forwarded the links.