Comic reviews - week of 23/04/2014

Reviews ahead for this lovely lot:

 

Spoilers ahead for Larfleeze, Secret Origins 0, Batman/Superman, Justice League United 0, Red Lanterns 30 and Supergirl 30.

Larfleeze

Bloody G'nort is in it.  Bloody G'nort.  Scot Kolins pencils and inks continue to amaze, but I don't think the colorist measures up.  There's something flat about his work which is a bit disappointing.

Batman/Superman

I read this quite late at night and in two settings so I'm not sure what was going on but it sure was pretty.  I think Bats and Supes were getting their memories back from other off world adventures, but there was also a random person (the toymaker?) who may or may not have been talking to Supes.  I don't know.

We did get this wonderful panel:

Justice League United 0 

So started the Supergirl centric week!  She wasn't in this much - only the first page or two, of which the opening splash was the whole JLU posing.  It was pretty bad.  However, the rest of the issue was pretty good.  I have heard that Kara will be portrayed as the grumpy angry hero here, while Stargirl gets all the optimism.  That makes me a little sad, but we'll see how this goes.

Supergirl 30

This was a Supergirl issue I really enjoyed.  IIRC, and if I'm not getting mixed up with Red Lanterns 30, Kara shows compassion and responsibility here.  She's not a one dimensional angry moper.  IT was good to read.  She's now fully in the Red Lanterns group and it's gratifying to see.  As much as I hate to say this, she (as this version of the character, in this new 52 time) works well in this group.

Red Lanterns 30

This was also good.  Kara is used as the muscle in the group and is a good team player.  Her and Bleeze make friends.  Dex-Starr shows up at the end.  All good stuff.

Secret Origins 0

This gave us another great Superman blasting off from Krypton story, a Dick Grayson early years tale and a Supergirl on Krypton to Earth tale.  Kara got a bit angry and mopey, but most of it was good.  I'd really like to read more about her life on Krypton, her parents and her role in Kryptonese society.

In addition to these, I have also read the 1970s 9 issue run of Devil Dinosaur, which was great fun, and I have some panels to blog.  I am continuing with Secret Invasion - the Thor mini is really good.

I saw the Captain America film last week and loved it.  I had issue with 2 things - Scarlett Johanssen's hair was rubbish and fairly early on there was a very gratuitous butt shot, which is taking the based on comics thing a bit too far, in my opinion.  The rest was brilliant - far better than the Winter Soldier vol 1 trade I've read.  Black Widow had as big a role in it as the Cap'n and I just thought it was all great.  Please do go see it.

I then saw Peter Spiderman the Second on the weekend.  It was shit.  It was dull.  It didn't make sense - Electro's origin and motivations were awful, the storyline with his parents was completely unnecessary and as you got to the end you realise that Electro wasn't needed at all.  Gwen Stacey and Peter had good chemistry, and I 'felt' their relationship.  Spidey's quips were good.  The scenes where he was swinging through the city left me awed.  But the vast majority of the film was rubbish.  Don't bother seeing it.