Archive for January, 2010

Friday Night Fights: General Mayhem!

It’s the end of another long and very cold week, and I reckon the best way to fight off the cold and get charged up for the weekend at the same time is to heat things up with some FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

This week’s brawl comes to us from January 2000’s JLA #37 by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, and John Dell. It’s the middle of the epic “World War III” storyarc, and General Wade Eiling, wearing the shaved-bald body of the Shaggy Man, is having a minor disagreement with the Man of Steel:

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And that is how Superman got athlete’s foot fungus all over his face.

Hope y’all have a great weekend, and I’ll see y’all on Monday.

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High Society

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JSA All-Stars #2

Stargirl has been kidnapped by Arthur Pemberton and his goons, but they’ve already tried to cheat the people who hired them to abduct her — Johnny Sorrow and the Injustice Society. Meanwhile, the JSA All-Stars try to figure out where to find Courtney, with the assistance of Roxy, Rex Tyler’s new AI assistant. When they’ve finally tracked the bad guys down, we get treated to a nice three-way battle, Stargirl manages to escape on her own, and eventually, the villains all take off. All that, plus we get a backup story starring Liberty Belle and Hourman, as the two married superheroes tangle with the Icicle and Tigress on the trail of a book that could reveal the location of a magic staff.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice story, dialogue, and action. Roxy is a fun character, and we even get a little more screen time for the usually absent Sandman. But wow, do I ever dislike the art on this one. I don’t know what Freddie Williams III has against drawing eyes, but he needs to get over it fast.

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Justice Society of America #34

The main team of the Justice Society is moving into their new headquarters — the old mountain hideout of the Justice League in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. And Mordru has escaped his mystic confinement again, arriving invisibly and possessing the body of the new Dr. Fate as quickly as possible. Liberty Belle keeps getting angry that everyone assumes her marriage to Hourman is on the rocks because they decided to join different teams. Kid Karnevil is imprisoned but still insists on taunting everyone about his desire to escape and slaughter everyone. Mr. Terrific makes Mr. America a new whip that causes stuff to explode. Will Mordru be able to complete his evil plans while everyone else is distracted?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Unexpectedly enjoyable, considering that I’ve been less than happy with some of Bill Willingham’s previous “JSA” stories. Excellent dialogue and characterization nearly everywhere. Mordru trying and generally failing to act like a normal person while hiding out in Dr. Fate is good for some giggles, too.

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Once Upon a Time in the West

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Jonah Hex #51

The West’s meanest, ugliest bounty hunter has been hired by a preacher to track down the men who killed the founder of a small town. Naturally, Hex starts out getting on everyone’s nerves, accusing the deceased’s widow of having something to do with the murder and later needling the preacher about why a preacher would hire a murderous bounty hunter. Meanwhile, the killers return to town and kidnap the widow, believing she can help them use the founder’s divining stick, rumored to allow them to find gold instead of water. Can Hex get to the bottom of the mystery, and will anyone be left alive by the time he gets through?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A nice, razor-edged mystery with a couple of fun twists, plus art by the legendary Dick Giordano. All that plus all the grim fatalism and brutality you’d expect from a Jonah Hex comic.

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Weird Western Tales #71

Hey, waitaminute, didn’t DC quit publishing this series clear back in 1980? What’s it doing back again? What’s it doing with the “Blackest Night” trade dress? Holy banjos, you mean the Black Lantern rings are now bringing whole comic series back from the dead?!

Yeah, it’s a gimmick, but it looks like a fun gimmick. DC’s bringing back a bunch of old cancelled comics for “Blackest Night” one-shot issues, but with the original numbering on the cover.

So we got a funky combo of high-tech super-science and retro Western here. Crooked businessman Simon Stagg, his pet caveman Java, and the Ray have captured a Black Lantern ring and brought it to a lab for study — a lab run by Joshua Turnbull, a descendant of Quentin Turnbull, one of Jonah Hex’s nemeses. Turnbull prefers to run around the lab duded out in Western gear, he’s situated his lab underneath an old Western ghost town, and he’s obsessed with rehabilitating the reputation of his disgraced ancestor. Not the most stable guy around, I reckon. The scientists have barely had time to start studying the ring when it summons a bunch of new Black Lantern zombies from the nearby Boot Hill cemetery — including a bunch of DC’s long dead Western heroes, including Scalphunter, the Trigger Twins, Firehair, Super-Chief, Bat Lash, and Jonah Hex himself.

Verdict: I’ll give it a narrow thumbs up. There’s not a lot of logic in this one, Simon Stagg disappears from the scene unusually quickly, we never find out if the Ray survived the battle, and the characterizations and dialogue are purely one-dimensional. And it’s written by Dan DiDio, which is a huge strike against anything. But on the other hand, you got a gorgeous cover by Bill Sienkiewicz, you got Bat Lash looking like a dandy even in death, you got skeletal Jonah Hex looking fantastically badass. And finally, I just can’t bring myself to thumbs-down a bunch of zombie cowboys, so that’s that.

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Something to Chew on

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Chew #7

Tony Chu, an FDA agent who can absorb the memories from anything he eats, has traveled to a tiny Pacific island called Yamapalu on the trail of something that tastes like chicken but seems to be a fruit. He immediately runs afoul of Lin Sae Woo, a curvy butt-kicking secret agent for the Department of Agriculture, who thinks he’s trying to take over a case she’s tracking on the island. After a violent confrontation on an elevator, they decide to work together, but there’s another player on the island who may be too tough for either of them to take down.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Funny and violent and rude and awesome. I’m disappointed that Tony’s cyborg partner Colby has already been pushed into the sidelines, but the rest of this is pretty good.

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Chimichanga #1

Now here’s one that’s plenty-plenty weird, but it’s by “Goon” creator Eric Powell, so I figured it’s worth a look. The star of the book is an adorable little girl with a dashing and well-groomed beard. She lives at Wrinkle’s Traveling Circus, along with the other freaks, like Heratio the Boy-Faced Fish, Ezmerelda and her Amazing Two-Eyed Goat, and Randy, the Man with the Strength of a Slightly Larger Man. One day, she heads out to buy a delicious chimichanga, runs into a gassy witch named Dagmar, and trades a lock of her beard for a wagon and a big shiny rock. When the rock hatches into a big, hungry, pop-eyed monster, the little girl may have stumbled onto the perfect way to save the circus.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s funny and goofy and bizarre, but these two panels were all it took to win me over:

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“Aw, raspberries!” Holy Spumoni, that’s just too cute.

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Dogs and Monsters

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Beasts of Burden #4

The ghost-hunting dogs and cats of Burden Hill have another mystery on their paws — a local dog has turned up with his face scared white and attached to a leash tied to his master’s arm — that’s all, just the arm. When he finally gets his wits back, he tells ’em that his owner, the caretaker at a cemetery, was pulled into an open grave, and everything but the arm got chewed up. When they investigate, they find a bunch of monsters made of grave earth and skull heads performing a resurrection ritual. The resurrectee? Some hooch-loving satanist who can understand animal talk and cast a bunch of nasty spells. They manage to bite him back to death, but the grave monsters raise him back up again, this time encasing him in a suit of armor made of their own bodies! Their only chance lies with Dymphna, the witch cat, who most of them don’t trust at all…

Verdict: Thumbs up. More great writing from Evan Dorkin and great art from Jill Thompson. When I first heard about this, I really wasn’t sure what to make of it — a horror series starring a bunch of ghostbusting housepets? But I’m glad I got to read it, ’cause it’s been a ton of fun. This is the last issue of this particular miniseries, but I think we’ll be seeing more issues of this in the future.

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The Incredible Hercules #139

A bunch of superheroes, including Hercules and Amadeus Cho, are battling a bunch of Greek gods, titans, and monsters to stop Hera’s plan to use something called Continuum to destroy the world. For the most part, the Avengers are proving to be easy pickings for the gods, even for the heroes who are ultimately based on godly archetypes. (Zeus and Quicksilver, on the other hand, get along great.) Delphyne Gorgon, the queen of the Amazons, has her heart set on killing Athena, and she may be able to pull it off. And who is Thanatos, the god of death, waiting around for? In our backup story, the Agents of Atlas are attempting an underground raid on Hera’s skyscraper and end up tangling with the Cyclops, a chimera, and a bunch of animated skeletons.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Everything’s pretty chaotic, but there’s some really great characterization going on here, along with a lot of excellent dialogue and intrigue. And, of course, some of Greg Pak’s wonderful sound effects, like “TITANOSMAK,” “FRIKASEEEEEEE,” and “WYPOWT!”

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Crossed #8

Last issue, the Crossed got hold of Cindy’s young son Patrick and turned him into one of them — a psychotic, violence-loving murder addict. In the aftermath of having to kill her only child, she’s mostly withdrawn from the group, willing to necessary security but not much else. In the leadership void, Brett starts asserting his inner aggressive scumbag, leading to yet another shocking act of violence. And the question remains — how to get Cindy back to her old self and keep her from losing herself to despair and self-loathing?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The Crossed don’t appear in this issue at all, but there is still some significantly disturbing and out-of-the-blue stuff, as well as some more insight about how the world slid into hell after the Crossed infection appeared. As always, good storytelling from Garth Ennis and beautiful art by Jacen Burrows.

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Wonder Woman #39

Turns out all the suddenly pregnant Amazons are actually the victims of a dire plot by Ares, and everyone else is distracted by Alkyone’s attack on Wonder Woman and the other Amazons. While Wonder Woman battles the Cottus, an ancient, many-armed monster that claims to have crafted the clay that was used to create Wondy, the rest of the Amazons, along with Achilles and his followers, do what they can to stop Alkyone and her guards.

Verdict: I’ll give it a thumbs up, because there were some very cool moments, including Artemis leading Themyscira’s defenders past Alkyone to assist Wondy, the giant shark bringing Wonder Woman her lasso, and Zeus’ memories of being tortured by Desaad on Apokolips. But I’m still very, very, very tired of the focus on mythology and gods and suchlike in this comic. How ’bout some superheroics once in a while, ya know?

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Join the Corps

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Blackest Night #6

Nekron has managed to turn most of the resurrected DC heroes into Black Lanterns, including Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow. Hal Jordan and Barry Allen manage to escape the rings with their names on ’em, but there’s also a gigantic army of Black Lantern zombies on their way to Earth, including the entire planet of Xanshi. The power ring wielders on Earth realize that they’ll need every single one of their corps members to beam light at the Black Lantern power battery to destroy it, but it’s going to take a while to gather them all up. Ganthet rejoins the Green Lanterns — not as a Guardian, but as an actual ring-slinging Corps member. Then he duplicates each of the other ring-bearers’ rings (including Larfleeze’s, much to his greedy displeasure) and sends them out to find new members. No spoilers here, but this leads to a splash page that practically defines “Crowning Moment of Awesome.”

Verdict: Thumbs up. The whole comic is great, but that final splash page is just joyously cool. I hope they give out rings to every single DC character now. And yes, I’m pretty amazed that the core books of this crossover are still so blasted great. Sure, some of the secondary comics aren’t so hot (I’ve got two of ’em listed below), but the main “Blackest Night” is hitting on all cylinders.

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Green Lantern #49

Half of this issue focuses on John Stewart running around on the resurrected zombie planet Xanshi. He runs into Driq, an old Green Lantern who was actually a zombie back before the Black Lanterns — he’s now half Black Lantern and half Green Lantern and looks even freakier than normal. He also runs into his late lover Katma Tui. There’s a great deal of military angst before Stewart wisely heads off to find backup. In the second half of the issue, Jean Loring miniaturizes the Atom and Mera and drags them into one of the Black Lantern rings to rant at them and reveal how Nekron was created.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Deadly dull.

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Blackest Night: JSA #1

The Justice Society comes under attack from a bunch of Black Lanterns, including Wesley Dodds, Charles McNider (and his zombie owl, Hooty), Terry Sloane, Johnny Quick, the Earth-2 Lois Lane, and the recently-deceased Damage.

Verdict: Thumbs down. It’s a lot of hitting and yelling and angsting and dismemberment. It’s far too frantic, too chaotic to make any real sense.

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Friday Night Fights: Ringing the Bell!

At last! Fight fans have been waiting a long time, and SpaceBooger has decreed — it’s again time for FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS! And the special theme for the next 12 rounds is going to focus on bad guys beating the snot out of good guys. Hey, just like real life!

Our inaugural brawl is from December 2004’s She-Hulk #8 by Dan Slott, Juan Bobillo, and Marcello Sosa, as Shulkie gets closely acquainted with the Champion’s fists:

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Luckily, later that issue, She-Hulk cleaned Champion’s clock. And a few issues later, he lost a lot of his hair and got a small mountain dropped on him. There’s an object lesson in there somewhere.

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Wedding Crashers

What’s the best way to start the New Year? Two aspirin, some hot coffee, and a couple new comic reviews.

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Love and Capes #12

It’s the big wedding day for Mark Spencer, the Crusader, top superhero on the planet, and Abby Tennyson, totally normal bookstore owner. Then there’s a crash of thunder, and everything’s different. Abby’s living in her old ratty apartment, no one remembers her wedding’s coming up, and it turns out the Crusader died three years ago. Abby tracks down Doctor Karma, the Liberty League’s resident sorcerer, who soon verifies that a supervillain called (snicker) Evil Brain went back in time and killed Crusader using his knowledge of past events. And only Abby is able to go back in time to set things right. Will she be able to do it and save her own wedding?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Yes, I’m being a bit vague describing the plot — it’s a very good plot, and I don’t want to spoil it, or the stuff that comes afterwards. Yeah, sure, the timeline is saved — that’s not a big spoiler for a humor book — but it’s a nicely-designed save, with great tension and an elegant solution. Great character work from creator Thom Zahler all the way around.

PS238 #42

There’s a big spaceship over the city. The claim is that it’s an Argosian ship, from the same homeworld where the superhero Atlas came from. Atlas isn’t around to meet them, so the suspiciously shady Praetorian Academy sends Atlas’ son, Argonaut (formerly PS238’s Captain Clarinet) to make first contact. The Argosians immediately transport Argonaut into their ship and take him prisoner, while a group of PS238 students — Moon Shadow, 84, Guardian Angel (and her awesome exploding baseball bat), Cecil Holmes, Poly Mer, and American Eagle — sneak onto the ship and capture and shrink the ship’s much-abused technician. The kids get busy smashing up the ship, but once they get the Argosian commander’s attention, what chance do they have against someone with the powers of Earth’s strongest superhero?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great art, great dialogue, funny situations, and a nice cliffhanger on the last page. Seriously, I love this comic so much, and I don’t know why more people aren’t reading it. Why aren’t you reading this, blog readers? Why are you trying to make your all-powerful bloggermeister so sad and cranky and stabby?

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