Space Invaders

 

Tiny Titans #7

Starfire takes the rest of the Tiny Titans into space with her so they can visit her home planet and help her clean her room. But it takes a long time to travel through space — how will the Titans keep from getting in trouble for getting home so late? All that, plus Psimon plays checkers with Mallah and the Brain.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s the little things that make this so cool, like the way the shark toy eats the heck out of the Aquaman toy, Raven reading a “Patrick the Wolf Boy” comic, and especially the sound effects. When someone walks into a scene, the sound effects are: “Walk Walk Walk Walk.” And cleaning Starfire’s room gets sound effects like “Sweep Dust Pick Carry Put” — dang it, “Put” is a purely awesome sound effect. On top of all that, there is nothing in this world cuter than the Tiny Titans version of Monsieur Mallah and the Brain.

 

Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #1

Atomic Robo, an intelligent robot created in 1923 by Nikola Tesla, gets drafted to help fight the Nazis during World War II. The Germans have a new super-weapon, and Robo has to get to the Nazi’s secret lab in time to destroy them. Can he do it? Not if they want to keep this miniseries going for another four issues…

Verdict: Come on, it’s got robots fighting Nazis! Of course it’s a thumbs up! Robo is such a cool character, and Scott Wegener’s art is a lot of fun. There’s also quite a bit of regular wartime action, much of it done by non-robots, which is a good thing — it’s important for us to get to know the troops who will soon be threatened by those Nazi super-weapons.

 

I Kill Giants #1

A weird little story starring a fifth grader named Barbara Thorson. The local social outcast, Barbara smarts off to her teachers and family, wears bunny ears in class, abuses the other kids in her D&D games, and is absolutely obsessed with hunting and killing giants.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Like I said, a weird little story, but I love these kinds of character studies.