Weekly comics reviews.

Likely to be drunken reviews by the end of the post..

Spoilers ahoy!  For: DCU Presents Black Lightning and Blue Devil 15, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 18, Danger Club 3, Wonder Woman 15, Princeless Short Stories for Warrior Women 2, Superboy 15, Supergirl 15, Birds of Prey 15.
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DCU Presents 15 : Black Lightning and Blue Devil
I finished this and I thought, eh, not as good as the first one.  Definitely a filler between the opening and closing issue.  Then I thought about it and thought NO.  This does expand their story, I did like it.  What I don't like are that Blue Devil is human 70% of the time and I don't like Lightning's new costume.  But that's superficial rubbish.  I do like the story.  If you exclude the silly physical and verbal posturing.  Blue Devil now becomes a blue devil by putting on an old devil skin (I know, yeuuch).  In this issue the devil in question want sit back.  But it doesn't want him.  Ooops.  And Jeff's Dad gets involved and kidnapped.
Yeah.  I'm looking forward to the concluding arc.   I picked this up off the shelf, it's not on my standing order list, and I def think that's the way forward.  Even though I'd recc pre new 52 Black Lightning Year 1 to folk who wanted to learn about the character. 

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 18
Marvellous!  Much better!  Still part of the stupid crossover but so much better!  Mostly cause Miles is left alone and has to fight a giant woman in the desert.  And then Spider-Woman turns up and they get all honest with each other (up to a point).  And Miles' Dad has to face up to stuff he did in the military crisis.  But overall, yeah!  I do like Miles.

Danger Club 3
Finally got this in!  MY local comic shop had problems with this title, so I got 4 before 3.  Nevermind.
This may be about kids, but it's def one for the adults.  It's violent, and distressing and sad, and threatening,  It is nothing like Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, done by the same team, but it is still damn good.  I believe the schedule has slowed due to personal, family problems with the creators, but that makes it more special when it comes out.  If you're sick of DC or Marvel's offerings try this out.  It's set on a world where all the adult heroes have left the planet, disappeared, perhaps dies.  Just the kid sidekicks are left.  They have to face up to the few villains also left, deal with rifts amongst their community, and deal with missing their parents and mentors.  In this issue some of the kids get caught in a mindbending trap by a (presumably now dead) villain, another one finds out the president (himself an ex hero) killed all the adults, and another, the most grown up of them all (and probably analogous to a Robin), has to keep the Olympian sedated.  The Olympian is another teen, who in the first issue went power crazy and had to be put down by our Robin analogue.  The Olympian is still pretty destroyed in this issue.

Dammit this is good.

Wonder Woman 15
Better than I expected!  perhaps I'm in a better mood this week because it's the Christmas holidays?
Anyway, Wonder Woman herself is, as always, amazing.  She's diplomatic with Hera and Zola, she's a great fighter with Milan and Orion.

She got surprise swords after that battle cry too.

I adore the depiction of the Gods, and I'm dying to know more about Milan (blindfolded, sees through the eyes of flies).  And Orion is here!  Presumably heralding the rest of the new Gods.  So long as they don't make the Greek gods inferior to the New Gods I'll be happy.  If they do, you shall hear wailing and gnashing of teeth.

You know what though, I def preferred Cliff Chiang's art when he was doing Green Arrow/Black Canary.  it seems awfully stilted now.  Like there's lots of static shots and no flow.

Princeless Short Stories for Warrior Women 2
I HEART THIS TIMES A THOUSAND

Go buy it.  Either in your shops or in comixology.  It's a perfect antidote to the shit that Marvel and DC can put out.  It's funny.  You can give it to your kids to read.  It turns fairy tales on their head.  It's got a dragon and an elf and a hapless Prince (winning the Charm classes does not help you in daily life when your daily life is stuck in a dungeon and you have no castle to hand).  And we learn a bit more about our runaway action Princess, but mostly about her armourer (and her family).

I rabbitted on at length about Princeless over on New readers.. and I have since found out you can buy it on Comixology.  So go buy it. Now.  Treat yourself to a late Christmas present.

Superboy 15
Hooboy.  It's H'el on earth.  I expected this to be utterly dreary.  Instead, i got something fun.  And moody Superman!  T-shirted and Caped Superman!  Why hasn't he thrown that stupid outfit out yet? I was disappointed to discover that Martha Kent has HAD NO INPUT into his costume.  Way to go.  Martha making his duds was cute, and sweet and lovely.  Now he's got battle armour.  Battle armour.  On a  Kryptonian living in Earth's atmosphere.  That's ridiculous.

Nevermind.  I liked the issue. 

Supergirl 15
We see a bit of Kara at home, on Krypton, happy and smiley.  I want more of this Kara please.  I understand she's had a shit time, and man I want H'el to just be defeated and fuck off, but I also want positive, optimistic Kara back.  I want to see her positively adjusting to earth life.  Judging by what we've now seen of her in Argo City I reckon this art team can do it.

See, unlike other favourite heroes of mine, I can identify with Kara and want to emulate her.  At her snottiest previous incarnation I understood her rage and her need to go and shitfaced and ignore the world.  In her lighter days I admired her carefree attitude.  I've always wanted her powers, and I reckon she gets to have more fun than Superman does (definitely this current Superman who I don't care for at all).  I admire her silver age happiness, her good naturedness. Unlike my other favourite female heroes I feel closer to Kara.  Wonder Woman is someone I aim to be (but I will never be mature or wise enough to be).  Black Canary is someone I want to be friends with (and probably get drunk with) but Kara is someone who has been a mess, but has come through it and is a good sweet, kind person.  She sometimes strikes out in anger, don't we all, but on the whole she does her best.  And that makes her far more human than the others.  Lets face it, I will never have Black Canary's ninja skills and Wonder Woman is a goddess.  I can't match that.  But I can make mistakes like Kara does and I can try and fix them.  And try to be a decent person.

So for that reason, I want to see a different Kara in the pages of Supergirl.  I want her happy.  I want her content.  I hope that will come soon, after the H'eL on Earth storyline.

Birds of Prey 15
A-ha!  The one I do want to be drunk for.  I've worked out what I'm not happy about with this series.  they are too happy to kill people.
Starling has guns for gods sake.
Katana stabs people with her sword.  And guts them and kills them.
I don't want to read a comic with heroes where they kill people.  I want my heroes to be heroic.  I want them to save the day and the innocents without murdering people.

And then there's the really stupid artwork.  Katana and Condor are fighting lots of ninja nasties and they decide to destroy the cube shaped bomb which will otherwise destroy part of Japan.
The next 2 pictures are the top and bottom of the same page.

Let's look at Katana again shall we:

 it appears we have an escher girl in our BoP comic.
 Now for clarity, here is the panel afterwards where they look at the cut bomb:

After bitching about this to my boyfriend he drew this version:

I think it's better.
B/c it's blurry, top left corner says 'ZOMG!! A BOMS!!'.  Top right says 'FAST! SLICE ITS'
bottom left says 'SLICES' and bottom right says 'YAY! WORLD A SAFE'
Figures are stick men and the bomb looks like an egg on a block, lying on it's side.  He didn't use the comic for reference.

DC Comic reviews!

After having so much fun with my Thought Bubble comics I am thoroughly thoroughly fed up with most of DC's products.  I don't feel interested and excited to read most of my weekly haul, I feel antipathy.  Maybe that's because when I buy ongoing series I know what is going to happen.  When I buy the odd off the shelf Dc book I have no idea of the backstory or anything and I am just thrown into a (for me) one off issue.

With that rather negative start, let's begin reviewing the last few weeks worth of books.  Spoilers ahead.
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Blue Beetle 13
This was an off the shelf impulse buy.  And was fun.  Jaime is in space and fighting other scarabs, and then meets someone who admires his control over the scarab armour, but looks creepy, and then is narrowly not met by someone who wants to steal his armour back.
I have no idea how we got to this set of events and I don't care.  I enjoyed this issue, but not so much that I want to buy issue 14.
The Superman 13 sneak preview remains as pointless as ever,


Animal Man 14
It's still in crossover hell.  It started as a really strong horror comic, without obvious links to the rest of the DCU, but now that he's joined up with Black Orchid, Constantine, Gorilla Grodd, a red skinned Beast Boy etc, it's lost some of the special feeling.  It's like it's brought back down to Earth (one) and it's lost the power of the horror, because Buddy Baker is forced to interact with other heroes.  I'll still keep it on my pull list though, because I think once the crossover is finished, it will go back to being a scary horror comic.

Birds of Prey 14
Better than I expected.  It took me ages to work out what was happening on the cover, and I'm still confused as to what part the dude is, and how Starling and Black Canary work.  This is a true Escher Girl image.  Having said that, inside the comic story was actually quite good, if not in any way memorable  An improvement on the previous couple of issues at least.  I do wish Batgirl wasn't in the team though.  She just doesn't seem to fit.

DC Universe Presents 14 - Black Lightning and Blue Devil
Hell yeah this was good.  I am definitely getting the next issue.  These were a couple of my favourite b-list characters pre the new 52, and this issues keeps the attraction and the style, even while changing the origins a bit.

Superboy 14
It's crossover hell again.  And Kon just keeps doing the same things he's done in all other issues. get pissed off and hits things.  Hopefully this will improve, but I'm not holding my breath.

Supergirl 14
And here I get sad.  One of my favourite iconic characters has been rebooted.  The artist, Mahmud Asrar, and the writer, Mike Johnson, are doing a fine story, but I'm not sure it's the story I want to read.  Or rather, I am still sad we lost the previous incarnation of Kara.   But perhaps I shouldn't compare the two at all?  Perhaps that is unfair.  I think it is.  This Kara is brave and bright, and far more independent than the previous Kara's.  She is definitely her own woman and not reliant on Kal at all.  She is more like Kara from Smallville actually (without the destiny nonsense and with more confusion).  I really like that she's got her own life, and that her friend is the Silver banshee (and I loved how Asrar drew the banshee).  In fact, Asrar is now one of my favourite artists.

This series has such a different feeling to the previous series.  Less superhero-ey, less comedic, and less young, actually.  Both in terms of the characters and the style of story.  It's sadder and more mature.  I will keep buying it, and I am enjoying it.  But every time I read it I struggle to work out my feelings for it.  It probably doesn't help that this is also stuck in crossover hell.

The weekly comics review

I'm going to start it up again.  I think.  I must admit I'm a bit disillusioned by DC's recent output.  The new 52 has been a big disappointment.  There's too much to say about why this is at this point, so I'll start the reviews and elaborate as I go.

Spoilers ahead for:
Justice League 13, Superboy 13, Supergirl 13, Birds of Prey 13, Green Lantern Corps 13, Wonder Woman 13, Swamp Thing 13, Ultimate Spider-Man 16, Angel and Faith 14,  Justice League Dark 13, Teen Titans 13.
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Justice League 13
I am utterly disappointed in this title.  The first issue was fabulous.  Really good fun.  Energetic.  Exciting.  Cocky.  Brilliant.  The rest of the arc that #1 kickstarted was fun, but not as memorable as #1.  Now it's turned into utter rot.  I'm not even referring to the Wonder Woman/Superman romance.  As much as that is not to my taste it could still be a good story, if told well.  Unfortunately the dialogue and plotting is boring and the art is awful.  Where the art matches the characters and the plot, it's dull and by the numbers.  Where it's meant to be romantic it looks stilted and awkward.  The anatomy is sometimes bad and there is too much emphasis on showing Diana's arse and her sexiness.  The colouring, inking and the movement lines are nice.  But overall the art detracts from the story.

I was keeping this on my pull list because I enjoyed the Captain Marvel backup.  It frustrates me that we have lost the old innocent Batson family, but if I forget about them I did like the new Marvel.  However in this issue it is gone and replaced by On the Outs which looks like a link in to the Justice League America title, and is also utterly boring.  It doesn't help that Amanda Waller is now a skinny little thing.

Rubbish. I've now dropped this title. 

Superboy 13
Egads, all I can see on the cover is a pair of enormous metal boobs.  This is not a good start.  I'm also thinking about dropping this title.  The art is lovely, but I'm not invested in the characters.  It turns out that this Superboy just isn't doing it for me.

Supergirl 13
The art in this series has been absolutely gorgeous.  Unfortunately regular artist mahmud Asrar did not do thsi issue and the guest artist Sam Basri just cannot make Kara's skirtless/trouserless costume look right.  It's fine until you get to the bottom of the leotard and then it just looks stupid.

I have been enjoying this series but it doesn't really feel like Supergirl to me yet.  Kara should be more innocent, she should be happier, she should be trusting of her cousin.  I know that her reactions to date have been more realistic given her new history, but this still feels a little like someone else in the Supergirl costume.  Nevertheless I shall keep buying it and hope I get more attached later.


Birds of Prey 13
Another disappointment.  It started off so well.  Starling is great, so is Black Canary.  Katana I can take or leave (I have always been that way) and I really enjoyed Poison Ivy's inclusion.  The Batgirl came on the scene and my enthusiasm level dropped.  Then Ivy left in the most obvious-standard-ex-villain-betrays-the-team-storyline possible, and now I'm ceasing to care.  Black Canary no longer seems to have that essential goodness or mothering instinct to her character.  Add to that some occasionally exploitative art, Black Canary losing her legacy identity and the Penguin giving Dinah her superhero name, and I'm really narked.

Another one to possibly cancel.  3 out of 4 so far.  We're not doing too well are we?

Green Lantern Corps 13
This I just picked up off the shelf because it looked fun, and it actually caught my interest.  Guy has been promoted to Lantern Sentinel and then jeopardises it because of some ugly alien threat.  the Guardians appear to have let a super criminal out of his cage.  I enjoyed this but I don't think I'll necessarily be picking up the next issue.  We'll see.  I'm far more interested in what the Guardians are up to than I am in Guy's new job.  It was pretty obvious that he'd wreck it as soon as he'd been given it.

Wonder Woman 13
I love the depictions of the Gods in this.  It's my favourite thing about the new 52.  Diana is portrayed as a lot tougher than previous incarnations, which is a viewpoint I can get behind.  OK, so I find Zeus being Di's father dull and the Amazon's as man haters obnoxious, but the rest of the series is well executed.  It could do with a little more pizazz, but this one is a keeper.

Swamp Thing 13
Bought this one as it's a crossover with Animal Man, which I have been loving.  Unfortunately as a one off issue it's crap.  Well maybe it's not.  Maybe crossover issues are just not to my taste.  I prefer series that run by themselves, referencing the rest of the DCU but with little direct input.  A few pages of art are lush, but overall the inking is a little too heavy handed for my tastes:

Ultimate Spider-Man 16
I have been LOVING this series.  It is quite serious so if you prefer your comics lighter in tone, you should get hold of the Spider-men mini series.

Issue 16 is smack bang in the middle of the United We Stand crossover.  It starts off strongly with Miles deciding he should join the Avengers and assist the country in the throes of civil war.  Because Miles is 13 years old, Captain America says no way.  Then the military stronghold where they are gets attacked, and Miles helps out, and so the Cap'n changes his mind and lets Miles join the Avengers.  Rrrriggghhhttt. I sense editorial insisting that a Spider-mask is part of this event.  And then on the final page we find out the Captain is now President of America.

Sigh.  This is stupid.  The sooner this is out of the way and we can go back to Miles everyday life the better.


Angel and Faith 14
This was really good and made me regret selling my Buffy season 8 comics.  I may continue to pick this up on an ad hoc basis.


Justice League Dark 13
I've picked up the last 3 issues of this on an ad hoc basis and have really liked it.  I miss Zee's old costume and the pre 52 Black Orchid I was familiar with, but I do like the tone and plotting of this series.  This may get put onto a standing order.  Maybe.

Teen Titans 13
This is on my pull list.  It is a surprise success as the solicits looked awful, but it's actually great fun.  Ale Garza does the pencils, and I think I preferred his work from a few years ago, particularly the Supergirl issue he did.  This panel is particularly distasteful:

Cassie's new armour reminds me of Genocide.  But this issue shows us that her armour is linked to Trigon.  I'd really like to find out how Cass is linked to Wonder Woman now.  If at all.  I am not at all interested in Trigon.  But, the comic remains fun and the interplay between characters make sit worth the cover price.

On the plus side, while researching Genocide I found this handy wiki of Wonder Woman villains.

And that's my feeling on the last 2 weeks comics.  Not very optimistic is it?

It feels good to be doing reviews again :)

This week's comics

So reading through them I was sure I had lots to say.  Now looking at my laptop with it's big empty screen i'm at a loss about what i'm to say.

*leafs through comics*

Young Justice 12.  This was more interesting than previous ones, but still, I think I'll give it up.  The humour seems to be missing and whenever I'm reminded that it's Dick not Tim, and Wally not Bart, I'm disappointed.
I'm also disappointed that Jackson isn't back in the mainstream DCU yet.  Yep, always dissapointed, that's me.

Birds of Prey 5
Ugh this cover nearly put me off reading any comics this week.

Ugh ugh ugh.  But when I sat down to read the issue, it was actually pretty darn good.  And Starling is gay.  She must be.  Gay and likes a drink. My sort of gal.  There was a couple of nice slashy panels between Babs and Dinah too, so that's nice.  I am (again) dissappointed to realise that Dinah is not with ollie, and apparently has never been with Ollie, if I read the subtext right.  This saddens me.  But I'll get over it if I can see their relationship develop.
BoP is one of the consistently good ones.  A bit more quality control on the cover art and I'd be a happy lady.

Supergirl 5
This title doesn't really seem to be doing a lot, but it sure is pretty.  It's all origin, and confusion, and Kara.  All Kara, even when there's other people around.  Definitely pretty though.

Wonder Woman 5
No Chiang on this issue, but no matter.  Imitation Chiang is brought in instead, and he draws a luvverly Poseidon.  I do appreciate how they've designed the Gods in this run.  It's completely unexpected, but so good.  I'm curious as to why Hades has been given a flaming head, but I'm sure it will come to me soon.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man  6
This was going great guns until lil Miles started worrying about his apparent 'criminal gene'.  I'm a leetle bored of this trope now.  I've seen it done over and over in Superboy (any title) and I think comic writers coudl really do with giving it a rest.
That aside, the rest of the issue was fine, and the new artist was good.

I see we have a Batman 5 in the house too, but I won't read or review that, because Batman sucks.

Kara facepalms

This was the only panel I enjoyed from Superman 713:

Clark had just told Connor and Kara he was giving up his Sups identity.  Kara is obviously very despairing of this.
(Scan nicked from Anj's site).

As for the rest of this week's haul - only Dollhouse #1 and Birds of prey really stood out.  The latter cos it had chicks fighting nazis.  Always a winner with me is that.  I have 3 Wonder woman trades coming my way this week, hurrah!

But for now, back to reading Dance with Dragons.  I am 10% of the way through and it's pretty damn great.

Edit - I thought this had posted a week ago.  It didn't.

Comic reviews!

Yup, it's catching up time again. 

Birds of Prey  #10
It's an absolute joy to read a book about a group of tough, competent women, who support and love each other, are intelligent and demand everyone's respect.  Such a different feel and context to other comics.  Or books, TV, films et al.  BoP is a book about women, where women are in the spotlight centre stage and given credibility.  Why aren't there more stories like this?

On a more frivolous note, Batman is wearing a riveted metal jockstrap in this issue.  Oh how I laughed. and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Batgirl #19
The art in this issue is wonderful.  It's cartoony and lively, not very detailed and a bit caricaturish.  It's great.  Steph has a devil may care attitude to crimefighting and so the art and writing really mesh well together.


Superboy #5
It's Bart vs Kon in a race!  Krypto wins.  Seriously.

In other Flash news, DC will make all Flashpoint issues available digitally 4 weeks after the real copies have been sold.  Ace beans.  I'll be getting in on the e-versions then.

More reviews coming tomorrow.

And then I bought Gail Simone's books

Which is Secret Six, Birds of Prey and also Action Comics 896.  Ok, so Action isn't really Gail's, but it does have Secret Six in it.

I'm glad I bought Action, otherwise Secret Six 29 would have made no sense.  And when you have an issue which narrated by Ragdoll who thinks he's an angel in heaven, you'd really like to know the backstory.

Action Comics was Lex vs Ra's with the Six in the way.  The art is adorable, Lex is sneaky, there's something about a prophecy and I sort of want to pick this up now but I shall hold off till Superman comes back to it.  Hopefully with a heroic and admirable personality.

The Jimmy Olsen back up was very surprisingly good.  Chloe Sullivan from Smallville features and had a wonderfully Chloe line - you're kinda unintentionally cute when you're ineffectually jealous Jimmy Olsen.  Have I mentioned how badass Chloe has got in SV season 9?  She's badass.

Birds of Prey had possibly my favourite line of the week.  Batman turns up to help out the Birds (under Oracle's permission, not just because he decided to), and Dinah comments:

"But Damn it;s good to see him back.  And not just because he makes a bigger target."

OH DINAH I LUFF YOU!

Dawn continues to be cute and vomity.  I didn't know that was possible, but apparently when i can't smell the vomit it is possible.

Jamal Igle comments on leaving Supergirl

See his blog post here.

Specifically, he comments that:

"It's going to sound cliche' but the truth is, at least for myself , I chose to leave. I approached Matt Idelson about 4 months ago right after we finished War of the Superman and let him know I wanted to move on.

wo years on a series as an artist is a long time creatively, and like any artist, you feel the need to stretch and do new things.

There was no malice, no secret agenda on DC's part. There were discussions of what I may do next but nothing finalized, including Birds of Prey."

I'm sad he chose to leave, but very gald he wasn't pushed out.  After all the rumours about Igle moving to BoP it occured to me that leaked info like that can have a negative impact on a person's career.  So, I'm glad that that isn't what has happened here.

I'm also *so* relieved that Igle and Benes aren't simply swapping books.  can you imagine a modenr Benes on a Sterling Gates written Supergirl?  The mind boggles.

Birds of Prey get musical

On Batman: The Brave and the Bold tv show the Birds of Prey got a little musical number.  It's full of inneuendo, it's a bit silly, but it's a darn catchy song.  You can view it here.  Go watch it, I'll wait.

Now you've watched it, here's a transcript of the words (found here):

Hit It
(music starts)
Good evening all you gentlemen
mobsters creeps and crooks
Men in tights come after you and still your off the hook
for those who scare and terrorize it's the dawn of a brand new day
You scum can simply call us the one and only Birds of Prey

Green Lantern has his special ring
Pretty strong that little thing
Blue Beetle's deed's are really swell
but who will bring him out of his shell?
Flash's Foe's they finish last
Too bad sometimes he's just too fast!

While all the boys can always save the day
No one does it better then the Birds of Prey
The one and only Birds of Prey

While all the boys can always save the day
No one does it better
No one does it better then the birds of prey

Green Arrow has Heroic traits
That is when he's shooting straight
Hey!
I'm just saying!
Aquaman's always courageous!
His little fish, less outrageous!
Plastic man can expand
becomes putty in a hand

While all the boys can keep you punks at bay
No one does it better then the birds of prey
the one and only birds of prey

While all the boys can always save the day
No one does it better
No one does it better then the birds of prey

Batman throws his batarang
what a weapon, what a bang
check out that utility belt
sure can make a girls heart melt
He's always right there for the save
I'd like to see his secret cave

While Batman does things in his special way
He'd do it better with the birds of prey
While Batman always seems to save the day
No one does it better
No one does it better then the birds of prey
birds of prey


meow!




Well I don't know about you, but that wasn't quite what I was expecting from a kid's cartoon!  saucy enough to make you laugh but innocent enough to go over kids heads.

I'm not quite sure which hero I feel sorry for the most..probably Aquaman or Green Arrow.  Poor ducks.

I wonder how the other heros match up.  What do you reckon the Birds would say about Mr Miracle, Hawkman, Booster or Superman?

In completely unrelated news, I just discovered this dramatic chipmunk clip and this clip of someone taking badgers on a walk.  It's adorable.  You need sound.

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.

They'll break your face!!

Stolen from DCwomenkickingass:

Go Dinah and Babs!

(Blogging will be short and to the point, if at all.  I have another job app to do this week).

Poll results!

8 votes received and thanks to all who took part!
The question was Which team should Supergirl join? and the results were:
1 for the Teen Titans
1 for the JSA
3 for the Birds of Prey
3 for her to stay solo

I think the Teen Titans are the obvious choice for her, and I would love to see Kara interact with Bombshell and Aquagirl.  Bombshell doesn't take kindly to anyone much, and I think she'd view Kara as a peppy cheerleader type and hate her on sight.  Plus Kara and Cassie are friends so that would probably set them apart before they'd even met.
As for Aquagirl, I just don't think she'd like Kara.  I think she'd view her as immature, inexperienced and a liability for the team.  We all know that Kara has moved on a lot since her stroppy days, but I don't think Aquagirl would acknowledge her newfoudn (semi) maturity, at least not at first.

I don't read the JSA, but I'm guessing that the person voting for this team was going for the mentoring young heroes aspects of it.  If I'm wrong, tell me in the comments.  I'm not convinced this is the right team for Kara, but as I said I don't read the title.  I wonder how Kara gets on with Power Girl now?  I reckon if Kara met Terra Kara would be very surprised by Terra's naeivty and would gently tease her and wind her up.  Peej probably wouldn't approve of this.


As for the BoP choice, well Kara would be ace in the Birds of Prey!  With Babs leading, Dinah as second in command, Helena, Zinda, Misfit, Steph and Kara all working together, we'd be for a fabulous book.  If anyone important at DC is reading this, (which I highly doubt, but if you are, Hi! Stay awhile!), please reform the Birds and put Kara in with them....pretty please.

As for the none choice, you're all spoilsports :p  Seriously, I think Kara would be good on a team.  She'd be fun to write and interact with.

I'm glad no one said JLA (I'm guessing this is partly to do with the new JLA team and the Cry for Justice fiasco), and the Outsiders (bunch of boring D listers).

Kara *could* work well on the Titans - it would reflect her powerhouse status and give her more respect and status than being on the Teen Titans (young people who still have a lot to learn) team.

And compeletly off topic from this, London's Reclaim the Night march happened on Saturday and a female marcher was sexually assaulted whilst on the march.  How full of hate do you have to be to do that?  I went on last year's march and nothing like that happened, but then again it was the first march in a reaally long time.  I guess this time around more foks were prepared for it.

In betetr news, you can view pictures of the march and a short write up here.