Avengers Academy #22

Someone has tried to kill Jocasta — and maybe succeeded — it’s hard to tell with a robot. Hank Pym isn’t making any headway in his investigation, beyond discovering traces of unidentifiable electromagnetic energy, but he realizes he needs to call in an expert. And that means Magneto and the rest of the X-Men are coming for a visit. Wait, Magneto is in the X-Men now? Yes, at least for now. Pietro definitely isn’t happy about Magneto paying them a visit — he and his father don’t get along anymore.

While Magneto and Quicksilver argue about all their many, many issues, Finesse gets uncharacteristically emotional and attacks the Master of Magnetism, soon involving Avengers Academy, the X-Men, and the rest of the Avengers in a big bench-clearing brawl. Emma Frost eventually calms everyone down telepathically, but the relationship between Magneto and his son is still strained, the mutants leave feeling not very trusted, and all Magneto is able to discover from Jocasta’s body is a large buildup of tachyon particles around her body, suggesting that her attacker was a time traveler…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Another good issue — the mystery deepens almost without anyone noticing, thanks to the worlds of action, angst, intrigue, and chaos going on in the story. Great characterization of everyone — which is quite a feat, considering how many people there are in the cast of this issue…

Batman #3

The Dark Knight has figured out that the man in the owl costume who attacked him got into Wayne Tower through the underground rail lines that converge underneath the tower. He lays some smackdown on the gangs that control the traffic in the subways, but can’t find anyone who knows of the assassin. He doesn’t believe that the Court of Owls exists, other than as part of an old folk song, but everyone else seems to think they’re real, including Alfred and Lincoln March, the politician who was injured in the assassin’s attack. Lincoln tells Bruce Wayne that someone is watching him, someone who leaves owls in his home. Batman’s investigation soon leads to — of all things — the empty 13th floors of high-rise office buildings — and what he begins to find there is bizarre and more than a little scary.

Verdict: Thumbs up. A very creepy story. I mean, there’s excellent action and detective stuff and everything you want from a good Batman story. But then there’s the creepy stuff — politicians muttering away in hospitals about all-powerful conspiracies, shadowy hidden headquarters filled with weapons and old photos of rich people wearing bizarre owl masks, secret societies that stretch back hundreds of years, all unsuspected by anyone — and what really gets left behind is how eerie and creepy and frightening this all is.

The Goon #36

Nowheresville gets a visitor this issue — a real live burlesque performer named Roxi Dlite! She’s on the run from just about everyone for crimes ranging from simple seduction to theft to murder and everything in between. Once she and her pilot Abercrombie blunder into Nowheresville, they decide to re-open the burlesque house, but are quickly captured by the harpies and Madame Elsa — but Roxi quickly turns the situation to her own advantage. Meanwhile, the Goon and Franky have stolen the world’s most expensive knick-knack and peed on a wealthy dowager — but will they be able to keep the knick-knack out of Roxi’s greedy hands? And will Franky ever know true love?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very funny, very cheesecakey, wonderfully violent and crude. All the things Eric Powell and the Goon do best.

Avengers Academy #21

It’s a new day for Avengers Academy — Veil has left the program, but it’s now been included to allow any powered teenager to be trained at the West Coast Avengers campus. But the previous members of the Academy are now worried that, as the potential villains they all are, they’ll be thrown out by the Avengers. And that leads to the Academy members trying to beat up the Avengers, which doesn’t go very well. But the Avengers realize that they need to treat the kids with more respect, and they introduce two new members joining the inner circle — Lightspeed from the Power Pack, who’s now about 17 years old, and White Tiger, who gets her powers from her Jade Tiger amulets. But Jocasta, who has been trying to figure out a way to help all the Academy members, has just been killed — something pretty tough to do to a robot with multiple backup bodies — and it looks like someone on the Academy campus is responsible.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of appropriate teen angst — and they’re able to do it without killing each other. See that, Teen Titans? It’ll be nice to see some new members, too. Only downside — it’s too bad that the first time Jocasta does something interesting, she gets killed.

Static Shock #3

Static once again avoids death at the hands of Virule and the Slate Gang — and Virule learns that he can replicate if he’s exposed to Static’s energy. Virgil tries to figure out a way to track down the Slaters by using his own experiences with the gangs in Dakota’s Paris Island, which serves to get him some respect. Will Static be able to survive another confrontation with the assassins?

Verdict: Thumbs down. It’s boring me. I mean, the most interesting thing about this issue is the bizarre situation with Virgil’s sister and her clone. But I’m not going to stick with this one any more. I love the character, I love Milestone’s comics, but I can’t stick around forever and wait for it to get interesting.

Today’s Cool Links:

• OMG BABY GOATS!
• OMG BABY SPIDERS!
• OMG SLITHERING OCTOPUS!

Still tired of doing reviews all the blasted time, so I’m hoping to get all the reviews out of the way before the weekend. Can I do it? Let’s see!

Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest #2

Abe is in a bad way after getting mobbed and cut to ribbons by a bunch of little monsters. He meets up with the ghost of the demonologist Van Laer while he’s hallucinating — he tells him how he let his arrogance convince him to raise a powerful demon. He was able to destroy it, but not before it infected his wife with a poison that turned her into a monster. Will Abe and the sheriff be able to survive before help arrives?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Monsters, monsters, monsters. Fishmen, ghosts, demons, axes. Everything I need in a pre-Halloween comic book. Yes, get both chapters of this, if you can.

Daredevil #5

Blind translater Austin Cao has hired Matt Murdock to represent him in a wrongful termination suit. But Cao was fired because his boss feared he’d overheard some shady dealings, and the crooks employing his boss decide to deal with both Cao and Murdock with a hit squad. It’s a good thing Matt Murdock is Daredevil so he can beat the stuffins out of the assassins. Matt gets Austin to a safe location, then helps him remember the conversation he’d accidentally overheard — a scheme to register the ships of criminal organizations with Latveria to make sure they’ll be able to fly below any legal radar. Daredevil moves to protect Austin’s boss from the bad guys, but there’s a new assassin on the way — a superstrong killing machine called Bruiser.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Smart, smart writing from Mark Waid, and amazingly gorgeous art from Marcos Martin. You’re reading this comic, aren’t you? Why aren’t you reading this comic?

Secret Avengers #18

Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter, and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, are in a secret hideout in another dimension — a broken dimension, actually, with laws of physics that don’t work right. However, some matter in this broken dimension can be transported to our own — and due to its weird physical properties, this transmatter can very easily be made to undergo nuclear fusion. This means that a small amount of it could be used to completely destroy the Earth. So they need to stop a degraded clone-copy of Arnim Zola from transporting the transmatter back to Earth. What’s this all boil down to? A heck of a lot of Shang-Chi beating up people.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Come on, this issue is basically a tribute to how much fun it is to see Shang-Chi beat people up. And that’s a very, very good thing.

All Star Western #2

Jonah Hex and Amadeus Arkham are in big trouble. They know that Gotham City’s serial killer is actually supported by a secret conspiracy of many of the city’s most powerful people, all belonging to something called the Religion of Crime, and they’ll never let them live with that knowledge. Of course, you send a squad of gunmen to take on Jonah Hex, you’re likely to end up with a squad of dead gunmen. But Hex and Arkham are still just two men against a whole city of evil. All that, plus there’s a backup story starring the new version of Western hero El Diablo, riding into town to save a bunch of townspeople from zombies.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice to see that the Religion of Crime hasn’t been scrapheaped with the old DC Universe. Nice to see Hex shooting a buttload of bad guys. But I do hope we see Arkham doing something other than merely observing the action soon.

Avengers Academy #20

In the aftermath of “Fear Itself,” Veil has decided to leave Avengers Academy — and she calls mega-wealthy metahuman sociopath Jeremy Briggs to see if he’ll give her a job with his company. In addition, Speedball has also decided to quit the group, finally feeling that he’s made up for the Stamford disaster and wanting to be a regular hero again. So is this the beginning of the end of Avengers Academy, or just the end of the beginning?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The farewell to Veil, Speedball, and some other characters is nice — but honestly, the ones leaving were the ones that were the least interesting characters in the comic. Still, I’m fairly keen on the fact that this really cool comic is going to continue.

All reviews complete? ALL REVIEWS COMPLETE!

Today’s Cool Links:

• Another article on how DC is shooting itself in the foot by marketing themselves solely to immature white males — and why it’s important to keep saying so.
• This was a really interesting article about scientists who study octopus intelligence and the suprising things they’re learning.
• If you’ve been missing Allie Brosh’s posts on “Hyperbole and a Half,” she has the sad but inspiring story of where she’s been.

Justice League Dark #1

The Enchantress has gone crazy again, and that’s causing hundreds of clones of her alter ego, June Moon, to start appearing and walking blindly into traffic. The Justice League shows up at the Enchantress’ hideout, but they’re powerless to stop her. Can anyone? Well, I guess we’ll see if Madame Xanadu, Shade the Changing Man, Zatanna, John Constantine, and Deadman can do it.

Verdict: Thumbs down. This is not a very good comic. I like the art, but the dialogue is just plain goofy. And the whole blasted thing bored me to tears. They worked hard to build up some hype for this one, and it just fails miserably.

American Vampire #19

We get treated to an unexpected flashback all the way to the 1860s to the friendship shared by two Missouri boys — future American vampire Skinner Sweet and his future nemesis Jim Book. Skinner was an orphan taken in by the Book family and though he played rougher and took more dangerous risks than Jim liked (including catching a rattlesnake with his bare hands), they still got along pretty well. Years later, when they were both in the Army fighting the Indian wars in the New Mexico territory, they’re under the command of the naive General Hawley. They capture a scout for an Apache chief named Hole in the Sky, and the scout refuses to tell how many braves Hole in the Sky has, but claims that they’re about to unleash something he calls Mimiteh. But what is Mimiteh, and what’s it doing in a book called “American Vampire”?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice to see a return to the Wild West for this series, and nice to see Jim Book again. The story is excellent, too — wonderfully tense with tons and tons of personality.

Avengers Academy #19

Okay, I’m sick to the gills of “Fear Itself.” Ya know why? The covers for it are awful, and the blasted things just won’t… go… away.

The god-empowered Absorbing Man and Titania are causing the hyper-miniaturized “Infinite Avengers Mansion” to grow — and when it grows to its actual full size, it’ll be big enough to destroy a city. Finesse figures out a way to destroy the mansion and the villains — but she and another Academy member will have to sacrifice themselves to make sure the plan is successful. Finesse has to monitor the computers, and one of the kids has to hold off the villains — it’s decided that Hazmat has the best chance of actually hurting the bad guys, and Mettle decides he’ll help her. Is there any way out, or are three of the students about to become heroes the hard way?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good personality work all around, and that’s what this series has had going for it from the very beginning. Nevertheless, looks like the students have some big changes ahead.

Tiny Titans #43

I know it’s a deeply cartoony image — but man, I love that cover. Is it really just the addition of shadows? Dunno, but it looks groovy.

Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad have decided they want their grownup counterparts’ costumes. Superboy snags a Superman costume from the Fortress of Solitude, but runs afoul of the villains in the Phantom Zone. Robin tries to get a Bat-cowl from the Bat-Cow and gets kicked through a few walls by the Justice League of Cows. And Aqualad realized that he can’t wear Aquaman’s costume because it’s been in the wash and is soaking wet. Does Miss Martian have a solution for all their problems?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very funny issue, with a lot of great gags scattered throughout. And I loved Cyborg’s “rebooting” joke, too.

Supergirl #67

In the final issue of the non-irritating Supergirl’s series (and can you believe the character has improved enough that we’re able to call her “non-irritating” now?), the Girl of Steel squares off against Professor Ivo, his powered armor, and his squad of flying robot monkeys. The lost students of Stanhope College use their own scientific knowledge and quick wits to make their own strikes against Ivo. And Lois Lane meets up with a Stanhope student with some critical pieces of evidence. Can Supergirl save everyone and make time for romance, too?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Loved the art, loved the hectic action, loved the dialogue, was pretty fond of all the characters. The only thing I wasn’t thrilled by was the tacked-on romance at the end. And even that wasn’t enough to make this a bad issue. This is another comic I reckon I’ll miss.

Avengers Academy #18

Titania and the Absorbing Man, possessed by the power and minds of gods, are rampaging through the Infinite Avengers Mansion, subatomic headquarters of the Avengers Academy. Titania knocks Mettle clear out of the mansion, Veil gets knocked out while trying to possess her, and the Absorbing Man throws his hammer through Reptil, though his magical nature keeps him alive. With Striker, Hazmat, and Finesse the only members of the team still functioning, they decide that, if the Avengers are really worried that they’re the kids who might turn out to be supervillains, maybe it’s time they started acting like supervillains. Will they be able to use treachery and deceit to stop the bad guys, or is it already too late for them all?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Excellent story, and outstanding characterization. The action is pretty good, too. I’m amazed the story is taking this long to tell, but I’m still having fun reading it, so it’s all good.

Snarked #0

Roger Langridge has gotten a ton of good press for his spot-on “Muppet Show” comics — now he’s moved on to a new all-ages project based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Hunting of the Snark.” Our main characters are the Walrus and the Carpenter — Wilburforce J. Walrus and Clyde McDunk, two ne’er-do-wells looking for easy money and large dinners. The king has gone missing, and they manage to get inside by posing as dance masters and later as snark hunters. What’s a snark, asks Princess Scarlett. Well, maybe if the mighty hunters have some time to scavenge around the royal kitchens, they’ll be able to figure it out.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The main story is actually very short, with the rest of the length of the comic taken up with sketches, puzzles, the texts of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” and “The Hunting of the Snark,” and plenty of other extras. And it’s all just one measly dollar! Go pick it up, folks.

Avengers Academy #17

Still stuck in the middle of the “Fear Itself” crossover, the kids from the Academy fight off some Nazi soldiers in Washington, DC, and then get given the news that they can leave the battlefield and return to Infinite Avengers Mansion. Veil and Mettle are upset because they had to kill people on the battlefield and start to bond while trying to work their way through their traumas. Meanwhile, the Absorbing Man and Titania, now possessing the powers of Asgardian gods, decide to hurt Hank Pym by killing the students. Once they break into the interdimensional mansion, can anything save the young heroes?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of good character work in this one — and lots of attention paid to the continuing evolution of the kids’ moral backgrounds. Nice to see that Reptil can change into animals other than dinosaurs, and interesting to see that Striker is actually able to talk sensibly about something other than self-promotion.

iZombie #16

Gwen and Horatio finally rescue Spot, but they’re still being pursued by hordes of zombies, leading to a desperate flight through the caverns. Spot’s geeky friends are also chased by zombies, but they’re saved by Spot’s grandfather, still trapped in the body of a chimpanzee. Amon reveals to Ellie that Eugene, Oregon is one of the places on Earth where the walls between worlds are unusually thin, making it a prime location for magic and monsters. The Dead Presidents show up to help stop the zombies, but then Horatio’s old monster-hunting friends in the Fossor Corporation make their appearance — and reveal Gwen’s status as a zombie to Horatio. Is there any way to stop everyone from killing each other?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Tons of stuff happening. Tons and tons and tons of stuff, with lots of slow-moving or dormant plot points finally getting set into motion. This is a plenty exciting comic, and it looks like things are only going to get more frantic.

I gotta say — last week was one of the best single weeks for comics I’ve enjoyed in quite a while. I felt like every comic I picked up was grand fun and worth reading and re-reading.

This week was the exact opposite. Lots of stuff seemed competently written — but nearly all of it just simply bored me. There were some bright spots here and there — I’ll review them next week — but on the whole, just depressingly boring stuff.

So let’s get after it.

Power Girl #26

Dark Confession: Even though I still hate Judd Winick, I finally went and read the trade paperback of the “Power Girl” comics he worked on. Hey, I was depressed that there’d be no Power Girl in the DC Reboot, so I decided I’d give it a shot. And it was pretty good, so I figured I’d give the last couple issues a shot.

In this issue, PeeGee attends the first ever Power Girl fan convention, filled with tons of girls cosplaying as her. She looks on it as an opportunity to encourage young women to have positive self-images, to confront low-level evil where they can, and to uphold general feminist principles. The whole convention gets highjacked into outer space by a space alien disguised as a convention-goer — her planet is under siege by invaders, and she wants to duplicate Power Girl’s powers for herself. Of course, there’s a chance that the other fans can help Power Girl stop the villain.

Verdict: Thumbs down. It was entirely competent work, but — dangit, it was just boring.

Rocketeer Adventures #3

More pulp-action tales starring the Rocketeer and his girlfriend Betty, with stories by Ryan Sook, Jonathan Ross, and Tommy Lee Edwards, pinups by Stephanie Buscema and Joe Chiodo, and a prose story by Joe R. Lansdale, illustrated by Bruce Timm.

Verdict: Some outstanding art here, but ultimately thumbs down. It was boring.

Tiny Titans #42

Bizarro Supergirl makes her first appearance. She gets romanced by Match, while Beast Boy dodges rocks thrown by Terra all issue. We also get a brief glimpse of the Bizarro Tiny Titans.

Verdict: Thumbs down. What, even my beloved Tiny Titans? Yes, thumbs down. It was boring.

Criminal Macabre/The Goon: When Freaks Collide

Well, “Criminal Macabre” is about a guy named Cal McDonald who hangs out with a ghoul named Mo’Lock, and they hunt monsters. Both of them get kidnapped to some kind of otherworld at the same time as the Goon and Franky, famed for their drinking and face-punching, get kidnapped to the same place. While the Goon and Cal beat up on each other, Franky and Mo’Lock go exploring. Will beating up hordes of monsters give all our heroes their chance to go home?

Verdict: Thumbs down. There was a nice “Little Rascals” gag and a nice final-page reveal — but on the whole, it was boring.

Batman: Gates of Gotham #3

Well, there’s a lot of historical stuff about Gotham, and some guy trying to blow up the city because his ancestors got a rough deal, and the various members of the Bat-family squabbling and working together, and I’m not sure there’s much else I can say about it.

Verdict: Thumbs down. I mean, it’s all perfectly well done, and just about any other time, I’d probably be enjoying this. But I just plain thought it was boring.

Avengers Academy #16

I missed an issue of this one somewhere down the line. The Academy members have been dragged into the Fear Itself crossover. The Absorbing Man and Titania have acquired magical hammers that give them godlike powers and mostly over-write their personalities with the minds of ancient gods. But the Absorbing Man has somehow shaken that off, and he’s giving some serious whupass to Hank Pym. Elsewhere, Veil is trying to save a little girl’s mother, but how will she react when victory is stolen from her at the last moment?

Verdict: Thumbs down. It was boring.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Hey, what do you know? Turns out God really is speaking to Rick Perry!
• This is probably the Least Metal Thing Ever.
• Sounds like it was probably a good thing the Wonder Woman TV pilot didn’t get picked up.

Secret Six #34

After the last storyarc sent the team to Hell, this issue is a much-welcomed rest break. The serial killer who’s kidnapped Scandal’s girlfriend Liana gets his meeting with the Six, and I don’t think it’s a big spoiler to reveal that it doesn’t turn out well for him. Scandal reconciles with Ragdoll, Jeannette sings an old Irish ballad, Bane goes on a date, and King Shark eats a turkey. But we’re warned that, as always seems to be the case with this book, more bad things are on the horizon.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Awesome dialogue, great action, wonderful art. Bane’s date is a bucket of pure win. King Shark is awesome, even though he’s only in one or two scenes. It’s sad, it’s sweet, it’s funny, it’s profane, it’s awesome.

How to improve this series: I’m not real sure you could improve on this. Gail Simone is one of DC’s best writers, and this is one of their best series. If they don’t preserve this for the Reboot, they’re completely insane.

Avengers Academy #14.1

What’s “14.1” mean? Well, Marvel’s trying to make sure there are some “0.1” issues for their series, to give new readers a chance to jump on board — so this issue is, in part, meant to be an introduction to the series for those who aren’t familiar with it.

After the Academy students battle the oh-so-1970s-weird Ruby Thursday, they decide they want to see how other young metahumans who were tortured by Norman Osborn turned out — Finesse quickly tracks down a kid named Jeremy Briggs, a super-genius matter-transmuter who is now running a very profitable chemical megacorp. He introduces them to some other former “students” of Osborn’s — a kid who used to turn into a monster whose transformations are now held in check with medicine; a healer keeping people healthy in third-world nations; and a cold-controller who, unfortunately, has just been killed trying to stop the Wendigo. And Briggs has an ulterior motive for talking to the Academy kids — he wants them to quit the hero-or-villain business and come to work for him.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a depressing little story, but it’s very well-told. Dialogue and action are good, and the characterization is excellent. I hope we get to see more of Briggs in the future — he makes a great foil for the team.

How to improve this series: Ya know what I think I’d like the most for this title? A new costume for Hazmat. I hate the way the helmet hides most of her face — makes it so hard to get anything but a vague impression of her emotions and reactions.

Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #5

While Morgan tries to hold off a horde of undead bandits, Sir Edward ends up getting gutshot, and then seemingly killed by the witch Eris, who is bartering souls of Christians for colossal mystic power. But with one hero surrounded by unkillable zombies and the other shot full of lead and sitting in the Paiute land of the dead, is there any way to stop Eris?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A good end to the series. Absolutely gorgeous art by John Severin and Dave Stewart. Nicely suspenseful, too — it really looks like Sir Edward and Morgan are done for near the end.

How to improve this series: Can’t think of much you could do to fix this. It could’ve been an issue or two shorter, but that would’ve shortchanged the great interpersonal stuff between Sir Edward and Morgan that really made this series fun. We also could’ve found out more about Eris’ motivations and the weird mysteries behind Isaac. But that’s nitpicking.

The DC Reboot

In a way, I don’t want to say very much about this — all we really have to go on is DC’s press releases. There’s no way to tell yet what is going to work and what isn’t going to work and whether it’s going to be a good thing or a bad thing.

But I am not looking forward to this.

Part of it is that DC has tried reboots before — Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis — and they never last. Before long, readers and creators start jonesing for “classic” comics, and everything goes back to the way it was before. This one will be no different.

What else? I hate the costumes, and that’s something DC really pushed hard. Look at that Justice League cover above. The costumes are not good. Superman, Aquaman, and Green Lantern all have corny pop-up collars, and Wonder Woman’s choker is essentially the same kind of collar. And what the heck are those things on Flash’s and Cyborg’s chins? I don’t know a thing about art or clothing design, but those costumes look like garbage — and that’s what you get when you have one guy — Jim Lee, in this case — design all the costumes. His design preferences creep into everything so they all look alike. And these will be the first things that get discarded after the reboot. I mean, look at ’em. Superman looks like a complete dork. And look up the costume design for Green Arrow — it’s a direct copy from the “Smallville” TV series. A series that has been cancelled and which, honestly, was never all that popular in the first place. The costumes are bad, bad, bad.

I’ll admit I’m looking forward to some of the titles. Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang working on “Wonder Woman”? I’ll be buying that. But most of the others are just not filling me with very much enthusiasm. Gail Simone writing “Firestorm”? Okay, but why is she being saddled with Ethan Van Sciber as co-writer? It’s an insult to Simone’s writing skills, to be honest. Geoff Johns — a writer I’m rapidly coming to think of as DC’s version of Brian Michael Bendis — is writing too many series. Dan DiDio is writing another, and I’m pretty sure y’all know I’m not a fan of that guy. I don’t trust DiDio or Johns to do good work on these — their instincts tend to lie more with DC’s previous tired gimmicks of Silver Age worship and pointless, over-the-top violence.

The announcement of the reboot threw retailers into a panic, thanks to DC’s decision to release digitial editions of comics on the same day as they release the print versions. That’d be the equivalent of movie studios letting you rent DVDs on the same day they released the movies in theaters — and it had a lot of retailers worried that lots of readers would quit buying from stores in favor of buying comics for their iPads. On the other hand, DC wants to charge the same prices for print and digital comics, which has digital readers scratching their heads, because no one else charges as much for digital as they do for print. So DC managed to alienate both retailers and digital comics fans at the same time.

Another thing that bugs me is this seems more like a publicity stunt than something that’s going to lead to long-term increases in readership. There’s not much here that seems to be designed to bring in new readers — just a lot of stuff to make current comics fans angry. Sometimes, it seems like that’s all that DC or Marvel know how to do — stir up buzz by doing stuff to upset their current readers. Sure, it gets coverage in USA Today, but media coverage doesn’t necessarily lead to more readers, and that’s what DC needs.

And ya know, I’ve already gone on for a lot longer than I meant to on this topic. So I’ll reiterate — I don’t like the idea of the DC Reboot. It’s a bad idea at a bad time, and I worry it’s going to do long-term damage to the comics industry as a whole. I hope I’m wrong, of course… but I worry I might be right.

Tiny Titans #40

The series’ brutish antihero gets his chance to shine, as Kroc eats the erasers at school, milks the cows, brings a burping pet lizard to class and causes a panic, eats everything he can in the cafeteria, causes havoc in the Fortress of Solitude, and leaves a… present… in the janitor’s closet.

Verdict: Thumbs up. So very, very crazy, and so very, very funny.

Avengers Academy #14

While the Avengers are taking care of a volcanic eruption in Italy, a report comes in about an attack by Electro in France. Reptil is convinced that the team is ready to handle more work in the field, and he lobbies to let the Academy take care of the villain. Unfortunately, once they teleport in, they discover that Electro isn’t alone — the entire Sinister Six is on hand, including Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Rhino, Mysterio, and the Chameleon. And while the kids make a decent showing against the bad guys, they still get stomped, and Doc Ock uses the Avengers’ teleportation technology to complete their heist in France.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The Academy taking on the Sinister Six kinda comes out of nowhere, but it makes for a good story. Several of these guys have gotten serious upgrades recently, particularly Doc Ock and the Chameleon, and they serve to give a nice reminder that, for all the Academy’s recent success, they’re still very inexperienced. And it’s interesting to see how well the team dynamics of the Sinister Six are depicted — many of them don’t like each other, but they’re all seasoned professionals who manage to play the Academy and the mostly-absent Avengers like well-tuned fiddles.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Audio from yesterday’s tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Terrifying stuff — the video quality is essentially nonexistent, but the audio is perfect.
• Snell has dug up an old Batman story from the ’50s about a secret consortium of Batmen that doesn’t end the way you expect it to.
• I still think this is one of the most awesome things that Macho Man Randy Savage ever did.
• Sometimes, I wonder if DC Comics is doing this crap on purpose.

Hey, it’s an all Avengers Academy day! Is that good news or bad news? Let’s find out!

Avengers Academy #13

Well, obviously, it’s time for the Avengers Academy prom. And they’re having it with the kids from the Young Allies and the Initiative, so they’ll have someone to dance with other than teammates. Speedball spins the tunes, Giant-Man and Tigra serve as chaperones — at least until they decide to bail on the dance so they can do their own horizontal mambo — Reptil finally de-ages himself to his true age, Firestar goes off on Justice when she finds out he’s sleeping with Ultra Girl, Mettle and Hazmat may try to have a real relationship together, and of course, a great big fight breaks out — or does it?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Man, this issue was just fun. Nothing too big going on, no supervillains to fight. Just fun. I need more comics in my life that are just plain fun.

Avengers Academy Giant-Size

This was originally going to be a couple of annuals, then a miniseries, and now published as a single huge 80-page comic starring Reptil, Veil, Striker, and Finesse from Avengers Academy and Spider-Girl, Firestar, and Toro from the Young Allies. Everyone gets captured by Arcade, the high-tech assassin and deathtrap creator — business hasn’t been very good for him because he keeps getting stomped on by superheroes, so he’s decided to build up his rep by killing a bunch of super-powered schoolkids. He sends Reptil and Spider-Girl out on a scavenger hunt while the rest of the teams are stuck in his Murderworld hideout.

Striker and Finesse are inside a plastic bubble in a shark-filled aquarium waiting for their air to run out; Toro is inside a giant whack-a-mole game; Veil has to climb up a bunch of electrified tubes that will vacuum her up if she turns into gas, and Firestar is trapped in a room filled with bombs trying to get a remote-control device to bring the key that will set her free. Will all the kids be able to escape from the deathtraps and turn the tables on Arcade?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A bit pricey at $8, but it’s a good, clever story, with good dialogue, action, and art, with a bunch of cool characters, so I say it’s worth it.