Comic reviews: Convergence week 4 and lots others

So many comics to write about.  I'll try to keep each review brief.

Justice League 40
I bought this one for the boy band cover and obviously now want to watch Magic Mike, the film it is apparently from.  I did rather like the story too.  Metron is about and meets the anti monitor and all the crises are referenced.  At the end the Amazonian birthed anti-God turns up, which feels less stupid than it did in the WW FCBD story.

Multiversity 2
I think this reestablished the pre 52 Multiversity, with new universes, and established a group of protectors for it, including lady Aquaman.  It also has a panel of Vampire Wondy and Vampire Bats craving coffee.  Which is fun.

Superman 40
This is a very strange comic,  The JL are being written like they are all aged about 18 or 19, or younger.  The plot kind of works, but the way in which it's delivered is weird.  John Romita JR writes and pencils, and the pencils are bloody awful.

X-Men 26
The Krakoa storyline ended.  All but Rachel seem a bit bloodthirsty.  It's a reasonable ending, I suppose.

Bitch Planet 4
I adore this comic and the editorials.  Y'all should read it.

Princeless the Pirate Princess 4
Fecking wonderful, as ever, and Raven is confirmed queer. Love this,

FCBD offering from the CBLDF
This is a bit too much issue focused for me to really enjoy it. I'll pass it on.

FCBD offering: DC's Divergence
Ridiculous.  Commissioner Gordon is the new Batman in the Batsuit that looks like a Blue Beetle suit.  Lois has told the word Clark's secret.  An Amazonian fucked Darkseid and the child is the anti-God.  What a load of crap.

FCBD offering from Dark Horse
The Fight Club story was quite good.  I haven't bothered reading the other two.

FCBD offering from Boom studios
I've flicked through this and it looks good, but I haven't had the headspace to read it in totality.

Convergence 4
I can't be bothered to flick through this and re-acquaint myself.

Convergence: Shazam 1
One of the best Convergence books so far.  It has that innocence the Marvel family used to have, when they were unashamed at being written for kids.  It's got Sivana and Tawky Tawny but isn't written as a nostalgia trip - it's a genuinely good story and a good addition to Marvel canon.

Convergence: Blue Beetle 1
This is about Captain Shinypants, the Question and Blue Beetle, with a guest appearance by Booster.  Pretty Good, even with Shinypants in it.

Convergence: Crime Syndicate 1
Somehow I liked this.  I normally find the Crime Syndicate really really dull, but this was enjoyable.   Nice art too.

Convergence: Booster Gold 1
Pre 52 Booster meets New 52 Booster and if you like traditional Booster you'll like this issue.  the Legion of Superheroes turn up.  Fights ensue.  This was one of the highlights of this week's comics.

Convergence: Detective Comics 1
Helena Wayne and Dick Grayson from the earth where they are proper adult legacy heroes.  I liked their squabbling an the clear characterisation of all involved.

Convergence: Infinity Inc 1
I'm not clear on the background or history for this, but I quite enjoyed it.

Convergence: Plastic Man 1
I get the Freedom Fighters existing in a world where the Nazis won the war, I don't understand what Plastic Man is doing there.  Was he ever part of that world?  I did enjoy the comic and the Freedom Fighters as a team, so that's a job well done by the creators.

Convergence: World's Finest 1
This I did really enjoy.  It feels like a decent standalone story in it's own right.

Convergence: Action Comics 1
Another good one.  Like World's Finest, it simply works as a story by itself.

Convergence: Justice Society of America 1
This week turned out a bunch of corkers.  This feels like it was created by people with real respect for the JSA era and the main guys in the team.  Good work.

JLA Paradise Lost 1
I got this from the comic shop in Brugges in March, but forgot I'd bought it.  It was pretty good.  It has Zauriel in it trying to stop a fellow angel take over Heaven.

JLA Incarnations 6
Also from the Brugges comic shop.  This is the JLI at it's finest and it much better than the Convergence JLI issue.  The first story is led by Booster and Beetle, and proves why they shouldn't be allowed to roam around unsupervised.  The second story is led by Captain Shinypants when he's on Extreme Justice and just proves that team is rather incompetent.  Worth reading for the JLI story.

Superman Krypton Chronicles 1 and 2
These are really good fun, and a bit batshit.  Plot holes a aplenty but as they aren't meant to be serious, who cares?  Clark is asked by the Daily Planet boss to put together an article on Krypton's history, so Clark has to travel to Kandor with Supergirl, now on the planet Rokyn, to meet with Supergirls parents and learn about Kryptonian history.  It's all a bit unhinged, but it allows the writers to have fun, and so the reader has fun too.  The reasoning for getting Kryptonian's history seems a bit bandwagon jumping though:

Superman Confidential issues

These are a great set of issues, and it's a great run.  Superman stories where he's being heroic from different stages of his life.  It's only 14 issues long and the ones I picked up were written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, who nearly always turn out reliably solid work, with the later issues pencilled by Phil Hester, who I adore.

Superman issues, pre 52 ones

One is a Christmas issue which I recall liking a lot, one is a one year later one that I already had, but forgot about and because it had Supergirl on the cover I bought it again.  She's barely in it.

The Adventures of Superman Annual 1997

I'm always disappointed by these pulp heroes annuals that don't have a pulp themed story.  Upon reading this it occurred to me that perhaps it's just that I don't know what it meant by 'pulp'.  The letters section was intriguing as everyone was complaining about the blue and red Superman.  It reminded me of all our kvetching about Supes' new solar flare power.  Oops.  Perhaps we should just roll with it...

Comic Reviews for week 3rd April 2013

Spoilers ahead for Animal Man 19, Batwing 19, Action Comics 19, FF 5, Princeless Vol 2 issue 1: get Over Yourself and the Superman vs Shazam trade.  The best ones are Princeless and Superman vs Shazam.
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Justice League reviews

Soooo... I got Justice League 14 and 15 from Comixology, for the Captain Marvel backups.

I find myself, actually enjoying Justice League again... particularly the Throne of Atlantis crossover.  Amazing.  I think I just like comic art that takes place underwater.

What I do not like is Superman condescending to Di.  In issue 13 she says (about Barbara Minerva):
'How could I have put my trust in someone like her? How could I not see what she really was?"

Superman then answers her.  Really.  Any fool can see that Diana's questions are spoken musings. They are rhetorical, they are Diana voicing her concerns and worries aloud.  They are not genuine questions for someone to answer.

Then in issue 15 Supes gives her some glasses and starts lecturing her on the benefits of a mask.

Patronising fool.

The old Diana wouldn't have put up with this.

The old Superman would have far too much intelligence and common sense to even consider it.

Men do this a lot to women I think.  I think it's telling that a fella wrote this, because he probably does the same thing in real life.  Whereas women have this done to them, a lot.  It's frustrating.

Perhaps I shall put this down to youth and inexperience.  Perhaps I shall pretend they are all only 19, or a very self centred 21.

I miss maturity in my heroes.  I Di, Arthur, Bruce, Ollie, Hal etc to be in their 30s.  At least.  Age brings a different perspective on events, and a mix of ages makes for a far more interesting story.

On the other hand, the Captain Marvel back up was marvellous.  Even if I miss the old innocent Shazam family.  This is a changed story but it remains good.

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.

 

Because of Steve, I bring you tastelessness

Following on from this post about that disastrous Black Adam mini, I bring you scans of Adam doing interesting things with a yeti's insides.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Black Adam: The Dark Age

Massive spoilers ahead.
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Who decided this mini was a good direction for Black Adam?  I really liked him, Isis and Osiris in 52.  he was a sympathetic character and they had an interesting dynamic.

And now, now..now Black Adam is a cannibal.  He's got Isis' bones.  He's going to find a Lazarus Pit to resurrect her.  He has no food, so his faithful servant/follower insists on being Adam's dinner.

I am not kidding.

What, Adam being responsible for genocide wasn't dark enough for you?  You had to have him tucking into a human leg?

And then... Isis is resurrected, completely sane (what's her secret? Everyone else is driven mad by the Lazarus pit).  Then she falls to rotting pieces.  Adam somehow fetches her bones out of the pit (HOW???), leaves, meets a yeti, stabs it and uses its still living guts as a rope, so that he can recover his bag filled with his wife's bones, which he has carelessly dropped down the cliffside.

If you would like to see scans of this delightful scene, please leave a comment and I will post the scans for you.  They're incredibly tasteless.  This whole mini is incredibly tasteless!


By the way, this sentence at the top of the word balloon is one of the worst I have read in a long time:

Where's the punctuation?

As for Adam's magic word, it turns out to be a phrase.  Chocolate Egg Cream.  It's a dessert.  That's ridiculous.  It's less ridiculous than the one he gets hampered with in Countdown (which I haven't read yet, so I don't know why Adam gets a new word).  Why on earth would you just give him one word though?  All he would need to do is read the dictionary aloud till he got the right one.  Sheesh.

Peter J Tomasi wrote this.  I thought he had a good reputation?  What gives?  The art is by Doug Mahnke and is also pretty terrible.

Don't mess with Mary Marvel

Whether she's in costume or out.

 

Yeah, I love her.

From Power of Shazam   #30.

Power of Shazam - a general post

I was really looking forward to reading the Power of Shazam books, but as I write this they have been a bit disappointing.  I'm up to issue 21 and well, they are just so darn corny.  I think they have been written more for kids than for adults, but I'm not sure how well they stack up as kids books.  I mean, during the set up for Freddy getting the Marvel family powers we see both Mary and Billy interact with him, and also see Freddy by himself, getting attacked by Captain Nazi (leading to the scans featured yesterday).

Billy's first thoughts about Freddy:

I know this was done in 1995, but it seems very old fashioned.  Does this impress any kids nowadays?  I guess, if they were under 11 maybe.  I can't see young teenagers going for it though.  On the other hand, the comic did explain that the Wizard Shazam had kept Fawcett City in a state of perpetual timelessness since the 1940s, so that could explain the old fashioned aspects of the place.

Oddly enough, the girls don't want to join Freddy on him and his Grandpa's fishing trip.  Lucky for them as a rejuvenated Captain Nazi then joins them and takes out Freddy's Granpa:

This just makes him look comical.  Later on Captain Nazi (I can't believe I'm still typing that phrase) also beats up Freddy and he ends up with spinal injuries, meaning he many not be able to walk again.  Two of his girl friends (again, not used in a  serious relationship sense, more in a 1950s flirty sense) turn up at the hospital and completely fail to offer any moral support:

Nice going huys, the school's star athlete has been told he might be paralysed, some sympathy and encouragement might be in order.  Telling him he's better off dead is not the way to do it.

One this this series has done for me is highlight how cool Mary Marvel is.  She's the only one of the Marvels that I actually like so far.  Because of that, here's another great depiction of her.


Back to Freddy.  I shouldn't mock, but this is a hilarious incident to find yourself in:

In a full body cast, stolen by Captain Nazi (that dratted phrase again!).

Lastly, Freddy gets his powers but doesn't change into an adult.  Why?  Because he's an insufferable prat, that's why.

I will continue reading and I hope that it gets more interesting.  There is so much potential with these characters, but right now the writing style isn't quite doing it for me.

All scans from issues 6 and 7 of Power of Shazam.

EDIT: I have now finished the run and some bits improve, others remain dull.  As some of you have asked about buying these issues I've had a look around Amazon and the following 2 trades are available:
The Power of Shazam
Another one, also called The Power of Shazam.  I assume they contain different stories.
Shazam: the Greatest Stories Ever Told contains one story from the Ordway run, about a burns victim who uses some amazing make up gel to appear normal for one day.
The Power of Shazam: issues 5 - 7 in paperback.  This one is currently unavailable.

Stamping out intolerance the Freddy Freeman way

Oh Freddy.  There's nothing like riding a Nazi who's been recently resurrected from the cryogenics lab and hitting him with your fists at super speed.

Evidently, his tactics worked, as the end of the issue brought this:

The above scan is yet another example of the gorgeous pencils/inks/colours in Power of Shazam.

And remember folks, no one likes Nazis:

To Freddy's credit, it was actually Billy who came out with those words.

Happy New Year everybody!

I love New Year's eve.  It's a time to be with friends, get a little drunk, and look forward to what the next year will bring.  I don't make resolutions at this time I just relish the company of friends.  2010 has been unbelievably rubbish, not just for me, but for lots of my friends too, so I just hope that 2011 will improve.

In terms of comics hopes, I hope that we will see more comic art like this:

She's strong, beautiful, she has muscles, she looks like a healthy adult woman.  She's got thighs!  She looks like she eats real food!

She's not drawn in off kilter poses, her back isn't twisted, her breasts aren't the focus.  She stands, sits and walks like I do! She has emotion on her face, she's doesn't have plastic features.

I hope for my comics to have more women drawn like this.

Look at the arms on this scan.  There's just a few lines of definition and shading but they add so much to the artwork.  Beautiful.

All scans taken from Power of Shazam issues 16 and 20.
Pencils by Pete Krause, Inks by Mike Manley, colors by Glenn Whitmore, Letters by John Constanza.

Comic review party time

Yes dear readers, it is that time of the week again where I wax lyrical about ther stuff I bought.  Sadly this will not include Batgirl #6 as I forgot to pick it up.  What a dunce.  Anyhow, there will be spoilers ahead for Adventure Comics #6, Action Comics # 885, GA/BC #28, Catwoman: Blackest Night # 83 (resurrected title), The Power of Shazam: Blackest Night #48 (resurrected title) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer #31.
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Adventure Comics #6
OK, the cover has a dinosaur on it.  I knew I was gonna like this issue.  Lex Luthor is a really manipulative, power obsessed bastard.  Superboy finally realises he can stop fretting about his genetic makeup and resolves to just be himself.  The art continues to be gorgeous and when Conner met up with Cassie, Tim and Bart at the end I probably gave a little gasp.  Manapul draws a beautiful Tim, not such a great Bart, but a great Tim.  (Image nicked from James Ashelford's blog)

Nect month is a Blackest NIght tie in, so I'll get that, but from March it's focusing on the Legion of Superheroes, who i don't give a stuff about, so I shall be dropping it.  Thsi may cause problems when folloing this years Super family event, but I'll have to cope.


Action Comics # 885
The art in this is sometimes wildly off key and it took several minutes of hard thinking to remember what had happened in this issue.  Maybe I should drop it.  But then I think that with the Superman crossover coming up, will I understand the main plot is I'm not reading Adventure Comics, Superman and Action Comics?

And then the odd issue of Action really impresses me and I'm sucked back in again.
But then I get an issue like this week's one, where I don't really care about the main story and I certainly coudln't give a stuff about Captain bleeding Atom.  I'm pretty certain that I won't be going back and re-reading these issues.  Maybe I should drop it.


GA/BC #28
Bad, bad characterisation of Dinah here - her dialogue seemed very strange.  We find out more about Cupid's background and see Mia get to be awesome again.  But honestly, when isn't she awesome?

Looking back at Cupid's background - the evil government have made her crazy by injecting stuff into her brain via her nose cavity (yes really) and this compound has induced memory loss, given her super strength and increased the levels of the chemical that people feel when they are in love.  So essentially they've made a super strong lady who's driven by her hormones.  Driven by her hormones to obssess/love/lust after men who she will then attack, fight, kill, rape, abuse or generally take advantage of.

Yeah, that's not trading in sexist steroetypes at all.

DC you suck.


Catwoman: Blackest Night # 83 (resurrected title)
Now this on the other hand, this did not suck at all.  This was awesome.  Selina has to rescue her sister from the crazy Black Lantern guy who tortured her before, and who Selina susequently killed.  Harley and Ivy turned up and came up with a pretty inventive way to dispose of the Black Lantern - a venus fly trap endlessly digesting him.  Yum.

Well, I say awesome. It was awesome up till the end when her her sister was turned into Selina's next nemesis.  That was a crap outcome.  Boring, old and tired.


The Power of Shazam: Blackest Night #48 (resurrected title)
This also rocked.  Osiris and his friendly Crocodile mate (last seen in 52) are given Black Lantern rings.  Osiris manages to fight off the urges of the Black Lantern (far more effectively than Wonder Woman did, let's be honest), and succeeds in destroying both himself and his crocodile friend.


Buffy the Vampire Slayer #31
Again, a good issue.  And for once a cover that isn't all about the sexy nakedness.  Buffy learns to fly, fins out about Xander and Dawn, is a jekr about it then gets better and combines forces with Willow to defeat the goddesses.

I must take issue with the blurb for next month's issue that states 'Buffy has fucking superpowers'.  We know she's got superpowers. She's a damn slayer.

Comics of the week 15th January 2009

Criminy. I just realised it’s Tuesday and if I don’t get hurry up and write something I’ll have two weeks worth to do. Eeep!

Spoilers ahead for Manhunter 38, Green Arrow and Black Canary 16, Action Comics 873, Booster Gold 16, Final Crisis 6, The Amazing Spiderman 583.
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Manhunter 38
The final issue. I would feel sadder but I still don’t understand why we are suddenly in the future. So mostly I was confused and was hoping this issue would rectify my confusion. That aside, this was a pretty damn good issue. Actually scrap that this issue was bloody great.
It starts off slow, introducing us to everyone and letting us catch up on where they are in the future. Kate has had Dylan make her a mystery something, Ramsey is graduating that very same day, Dylan and Cam have separated and we meet Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett, Todd is trapped in Bones’ body (I don’t know why). Todd and Mrs Lovett are on a murder spree, of course and have commandeered a van.

After Ramsey’s graduation ceremony they all head back to the house for the party, which is where it gets stunningly cool. Todd and Lovett turn up and decide they want to eat all the fresh meat*. Then it seems nigh on everyone gets superpowers and start kick ass. Even those that don’t have superpowers join in the fight, clanging Mrs Lovett with something metal. There’s a giant man, Obsidian, Kate of course and Cam being all light filled and explody.
The whole set up, being all the family and friends fighting as one in their back yard against the bad guys, is just wonderful.
And finally we find out what the mystery something is – Kate got Dylan to make a Manhunter costumer for Ramsey and the issue ends with them going out on patrol.

Very good, great send off. 3 different artists, but I didn’t find that a problem.

* A far classier way of dealing with cannibalism than Marvel's recent effort. Which I nonetheless find amusing, because I have not sense of taste or decencyand have seen far too many 80s slasher flicks.

Green Arrow and Black Canary 16 – Faces of Evil issue: Merlyn.
I can’t help thinking that Merlyn should be spelled Maerlyn.
I thought the Faces of Evil issues would be told from the villain’s perspective? That ain’t happened. Part of the story was told from Merlyn’s POV, but most was business as usual.
I appreciate how on the cover Merlyn’s nose resembles an arrow. Clever, I thought.
The art in this was good. Clear and effective.
The story? Well I do like this ongoing, I am enjoying all the stories, but it has yet to feel like a GA and BC comic. It feels like a GA comic where Dinah is a supporting character. And that’s not right to me. It seems that very often Ollie is in the foreground, responding to the action, interacting with it, and Dinah is behind him, (often physically placed behind him, at least in this issue), awaiting his lead. She seems more static. I know she took the lead in contacting Oracle to get the info, but she then got shot and was out of the game. She could still scream surely? And when has getting shot stopped any other hero? It just seems like she’s not allowed to be in the thick of the action, and that disappoints me.

This issue also introduced us to a new woman who’s obsessed with Ollie. If their method of including Dinah more is by framing her in terms of the jealous girlfriend I will be so angry. I want to see Dinah kick some ass and win fights, without Ollie’s help.

Maybe I need to reread them all to get the big picture. I’ve been put off buying volume 1 of the ongoing because so far it’s only out in hardback and that’s bit pricey, but now I'm bored with waiting.

Action Comics 873 – Faces of Evil: Les Luthor
Again, not so much telling us the whole story from Lex’s POV.
This is the final part of the New Krypton saga. Aaaand I don’t know how I feel about it. I hate the treatment of Alura, I think it’s crappy and tacky. I would have preferred to see more of the magic fighters, but did love the depowering of the Kryptonians with ‘mazahs’. I’m not up to date with the Marvel family so don’t know where that came from, but I like it. I do like the New Krypton planet, particularly the panels where it was formed, but feel trepidation towards Kara’s decision to fly there. I can only hope that Kara is there to keep an eye on her mother. I’m gutted by Superwoman being evil but delighted by the return of Zod, Ursa, and the bug lump.

Booster Gold 16 – Faces of Evil: Enemy Ace
This was easily the best of the week’s purchases. Booster goes back in time to the second world war and is captured first by an American, who turns out to be Maxwell Lord’s granddad (or dad?), then by Enemy Ace.
I am not seeing how Enemy Ace is evil. OK so he fought on the side of the Germans, but he’s wasn’t shown as being a Nazi and he has honour and saved Booster and Mr Lord from torture. Not all German soldiers/airmen were Nazis, many would have wanted to fight for their country regardless of the specific political nature of their government, and I don’t see how this necessarily makes Enemy Ace any worse than an allied airman, except the fact that we won. Yes he shoots people and he did allow Cyrus to be tortured, but then again, it’s a war time situation. And I’m betting the allies also tortured their prisoners. And it’s a different time. I don’t approve of what was done, but I don’t think that makes the man evil.
I presume there’s some comic history to the character I’m not aware of.

This issue also saw Michelle and Skeets trying to locate Michael. I’m growing very fond of Michelle.

Final Crisis 6
Thank god Mary Marvel reverted back to human, that godawful outfit was hurting my eyes. I do not like Apokolipsian themed costume. Ollie is taken over by the anti life equation and Dinah fights to bring him out from it, it kinda looked like she was succeeding.
There is so much going on in this issue, it’s so dense. I can’t start to explain it, it’d take too long, so I’ll point you to Supergirl Comic Box Commentary for an in depth review.
Batman’s dead though. Hmmm.

The Amazing Spiderman 583
I buckled, I bought it because it’s the Obama commemorative issue. That back up story was daft. I did like the dating story though. But not enough to justify £2.90 on the comic! Was this issue more expensive than normal? Cos £3 for a comic is ludicrous.
Interestingly, the boyfriend, who hates American superhero comics, and American politics coverage, liked the Obama story. One of my friend’s who never reads comics also enjoyed the whole book.

This is a timely comic as not only is today Obama’s inauguration but also I got a late Christmas present on the weekend, of a Spiderman piggybank.

On the subject of inauguration, man am I glad he's been sworn in. I was half convinced he;'d be shot before he could take the oath. I have enjoyed Peter David's commentary.

52 - Black Adam

Spoilers....


So I just finished reading 52. I was rather unimpressed with how Black Adam's story panned out*. I liked his relationship with Isis and Osiris. It was mellowing him out, bringing him back his humanity. I thought this was a good development for him. Now when they killed off Isis and Osiris, it seemed to be purely for an excuse for Adam to go evil again. *coughWircough*.
Now I appreciate they were writing cliches, the commentary said as much, and yes suddenly finding love and even more suddenly losing it does create conflict which is the basis of a good story. But, it's a crying shame that this relationship and Adam's personal growth was confined to the pages of 52. It makes it look like some sort of silly experiment.
Black Adam has now reverted to type and the status quo hasn't changed. I think it's lazy. was it all done so that Adam could be depowered? Did the end result drive the story or did the story drive the end reuslt?

And a special shout out to Greg Rucka - don't refer to Isis as an acquisition of Adam's. Don't compare her to a cape. Not cool, Greg, not cool.


*I very rarely read about the Marvels so didn't know Adam had disappeared or murdered a country or two. So this story was a lovely surprise.