Archive for American Dream

Friday Night Fights: All-American Face-Smashing!

If it’s Friday and after five o’clock, you know what that means, right? No, it’s not time for sitting in front of the TV and watching pointless stuff! No, it’s not time to go out on the town and pretend you’re good-lookin’ enough to git some leg! No, it’s not time for your weekly bath! (Well, actually, yes, it is time for that. Please go bathe. Use the wire brush, please.)

No, it’s time for our much-beloved FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!  Why? Because Bahlactus says so, and Bahlactus knows best. Think happy thoughts, or he’ll wish you into the cornfield!

Tonight, we’re only going back a few months to this year’s American Dream #4 by Tom DeFalco, Todd Nauck, and Scott Koblish. Here’s the aforementioned American Dream chin-checking the dastardly Red Queen:

fnf-americandream

That’s some violence that’s worth standing up and saluting for!

Comments off

An American Dream Deferred

Well, July 4th may be over, but it’s never too late for flag-waving superheroes! Once again, some of the issues of the new “American Dream” series got delivered to some stores a tad late, so I’m gonna go ahead and review them together again.

American Dream #4

American Dream has been captured by the crystal monsters controlled by Silikong, Ion Man, and the Red Queen while her teammates in the Avengers race around the city trying to find her. Dream easily escapes from her captivity and releases the illegal immigrants who Silikong had been transforming into the crystal monsters, then beats the tar out of Ion Man, Red Queen, and their minions. Unfortunately, Silikong and his monsters are going to be a lot tougher to beat…

American Dream #5

In the final issue of the miniseries, Dream has to figure out a way to stop the seemingly unstoppable Silikong, all while delivering additional beatdowns on Ion Man and Red Queen. All this while the Avengers track her down and work on stopping the crystal monsters once and for all.

Verdict: Thumbs up for both. Good action, good characterization. Marvel is clearly hoping this has the stuff for an ongoing series, something all-ages and girl-friendly, and with any luck, the sales have been good enough to make it happen. However, I think I’d like to see a bit more of the Avengers — the whole team spent most of the series on the periphery of the action, and I think an ongoing series would benefit from having more characters for Dream to interact with…

Comments off

Double Dreams

Okay, I know “American Dream” is a miniseries, but is it a weekly? ‘Cause it sure seems like there are a lot of them on the shelves right now…

americandream2

American Dream #2

In the alternate future where Shannon Carter becomes American Dream to continue Captain America’s legacy, she’s just gotten trashed by a mysterious crystalline monster. Her fellow Avenger teammates are ready to go hunt the monster down until they get a visit from the National Security Force warning them to stay away from the crystal monsters. Shannon plans to follow the feds’ orders, but while she’s investigating a case about kidnapped illegal immigrants, she ends up running into a bunch of smugglers who are using two of the monsters as muscle! She manages to knock one of them off a pier, but then she dives in to save it!

americandream3

American Dream #3

In the newest issue, Dream manages to pull the crystal monster out of the drink, but the feds show up later to confiscate it and threaten all of the Avengers with treason. Fearing that she’ll be used as a weapon against her team, American Dream quits to pursue the case on her own. Meanwhile, Avenger enemies Red Queen and Ion Man meet up with a guy calling himself Silikong, and together, the three villains unleash a small army of crystal monsters on Dream.

Verdict: For both issues, thumbs up. Again, the story here isn’t real deep, but it’s good enough to keep yer interest going. Looks like they’re trying to push more of the characters from the “Spider-Girl” alterniverse as all-ages comics, which is fine with me.

Comments off

Stand Up and Salute!

americandream1

American Dream #1

The healthy young lady above is a character named American Dream, from an alternate future of the Marvel Universe. Her real name’s Shannon Carter, and she’s the daughter of “Captain America” supporting cast member, Sharon Carter. We get to see Dream take out a horde of arms smugglers, then we’re treated to a short recounting of her origin. She doesn’t have any friends or even much of a social life outside of the Avengers team she leads. And she doesn’t have any powers, which may end up making her a sitting duck for the supervillains stalking her in secret or the giant crystal monster who attacks her.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nothing real deep here, but the story is fine, the character is fun, and the action is pretty good, too.

teentitans59

Teen Titans #59

This is part of the “Dark Side Club” crossover that showed up last week in “The Flash” and “Birds of Prey.” The Terror Titans are actually working for Dark Side to capture the Titans so he can stick them into his underground fight club. They’ve already captured Kid Devil and Miss Martian, but they think Ravager is dead. Robin, Wonder Girl, and Blue Beetle start working to track everyone down, but they get ambushed and overwhelmed.

Verdict: Thumbs up, but just barely. The stuff with Dark Side isn’t nearly as cool as it was in “Flash” and “Birds of Prey.” It was nice to see a bit more info about the Clock King (he’s a precognitive), and the rest of the characterizations seem to be alright.

Comments off