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.

Batman #2

After nabbing some art thieves in a tense game of chicken between the Batmobile and a helicopter, Batman assists with the autopsy of the John Doe who’d been found tortured to death last issue. He seems to have some sort of connection to an organization called the Court of Owls, which Batman insists is just a legend. Nightwing reveals how his skin got under the dead man’s fingernails — the man had accosted Dick Grayson a week before with some sort of garbled warning, and the man had scratched him before security guards pulled him away. Later, Bruce meets with Lincoln March, a wealthy politician, and they’re both attacked by a man in an owl suit who stabs both men and kicks Bruce out of Wayne Tower? What chance does Bruce have to survive?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Crazy good writing, crazy good art, and a really fun, complex story. This might not be the best of the new rebooted comics, but it’s definitely in the top three.

Dungeons & Dragons #12

Adric Fell and his band of adventurers help fight off an attack of insect-like kruthiks on a wagon convoy, and dwarven paladin Khal discovers a letter from his girlfriend Danni. But Khal suspects that the letters have been forged, and he leads the group to his old dwarven home in the mountains. Turns out the stead is also under attack from kruthiks — in fact, they’ve got a infestation of the monsters. And most interestingly, Khal’s love poetry has made him a rock star among the dwarves. Unfortunately, Danni’s mother rules the place, and she hates Khal’s guts — the only thing that keeps her from having Khal killed is another attack from the kruthiks. Can everyone avoid getting killed somehow?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good grief, this series is fun. Great writing, dialogue, and plotting. Extremely fun art. Great characters, great action — this comic is just awesome.

Daredevil #4

Everyone at least suspects that Matt Murdock is Daredevil, so every time he steps into a courtroom, his case gets derailed and thrown out because people won’t stop talking about Daredevil. So Matt and Foggy Nelson are now working to coach people who have good cases but can’t afford a lawyer on how to represent themselves successfully in court. Of course, there’s still plenty for Daredevil to do, including fighting lions at the Bronx Zoo, beating up muggers in a diner, and rescuing kids from a tenement fire. But Matt’s new case is a wrongful-termination suit with a blind man, a translator who knows over two dozen languages who was fired numerous commendations after somehow running afoul of a couple of Latverian investors. Uh-oh, Latverians, huh?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Okay, the story is just great, but holy baloney, the artwork by Marcos Martin is just absolutely amazing. That’s all I can say about it — just amazing, beautiful artwork. The fight with the lions alone should be put up in a museum somewhere. That cover definitely deserves to be framed and admired.

Batman #1

Well, I loved Scott Snyder’s work when he was writing “Detective Comics,” so I figured I should follow him to see how he does in DC’s new Rebooted “Batman” series. So we get Batman facing off against nearly his entire rogues gallery — and getting helped out of the jam by the Joker?! We get Bruce Wayne and all his most trusted sidekicks visiting a big social event to sell the city’s movers and shakers on a rebuilt, improved Gotham City. And we get Batman visiting a gruesome crime scene to discover that the killer may be someone who’s very, very unexpected.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This might be the best of DC’s Rebooted comics so far, mostly because it doesn’t read like a series that’s been rebooted. Our cast of characters doesn’t change significantly (the Riddler gets a mohawk, and that’s about it), and Snyder gets to focus on writing a good Batman story. Greg Capullo’s art is fun — Gotham and Arkham’s villains are appropriately grungy, the details of the Batcave are grandly realized, and the action sequences are fantastic. Put this one on your pull list, gang.

Dark Horse Presents #4

This anthology series seems to be getting better and better. Besides a new episode of Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson’s enlessly awesome “Beasts of Burden,” we’re treated to new chapters of Howard Chaykin’s “Marked Man” series, Richard Delgado’s “Age of Reptiles,” Carla Speed McNeil’s “Finder: Third World,” Steve Niles and Christopher Mitten’s “Criminal Macabre,” Robert Love and David Walker’s “Number 13,” the wonderfully funny “Adventures of Dog Mendonca and Pizzaboy” by Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia, and much more.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Favorite stories? “Beasts of Burden,” of course. Loved the Dog Mendonca story. Chaykin’s “Marked Man” series is getting better by the second. And “Finder” is amazingly fun and entertaining. But I don’t believe there was a single bad story in this issue. That’s pretty good for an anthology comic.

Batman, Inc. #8

Bruce Wayne is hosting a bunch of business execs inside his newest creation: Internet 3.0, a virtual reality Internet that is super-duper awesome. But they all get attacked by cyber-robot-zombies. Luckily, Oracle, in her digital Batgirl avatar, along with a digital Batman avatar who Bruce Wayne is secretly controlling, show up to save the day. Can the heroes stop the bad guys, unmask the mastermind, and keep Internet 3.0 running properly?

Verdict: Thumbs down. This is really not a very good comic. The computer art by Scott Clark and Dave Beatty is astonishingly bad, and Grant Morrison’s story is about as random and half-assed as I’ve ever seen him do. People get randomly changed into dogs and babies, the backgrounds change constantly and distract terribly from any other characters, and a major story beat involves two of the execs falling in love with each other. I mean, hey, that’s nice, but why should anyone else care? This was lousy work, and it’s too bad that Oracle’s final appearance in the DCU is in this shoulda-been-aborted story.

Dungeons & Dragons #10

Adric Fell’s band of heroes are still trapped in the Feywild, and their only way home is to sneak into a forbidden city teeming with monsters and enemies to steal a book called the Guide of Gates. And their strategy is… to march up to the front gate and have Tisha the tiefling warlock announce that they’re here to steal the book? And lo and behold, it works, or at least it works better than anyone actually expected.

Meanwhile, Bree, the seriously ethics-free halfling rogue, is sneaking around the city causing worlds of havoc and making everyone think they’re being invaded by super-efficient assassins. But will her attempts to keep everyone distracted be enough to save the rest of her friends?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Art, dialogue, plot, and action are all plenty of fun. It’s nice to see Tisha and Bree get a good dose of spotlight time, too.

Detective Comics #881

The hunt is on for James Gordon, Jr., the son of Commissioner James Gordon. Jim Jr. is a psychopath, and he has been since he was a little boy. The Commissioner has discovered Jim’s collection of trophies — a box full of keys from the people he’s murdered. And the Commissioner and Babs Gordon have learned that Jim has managed to make his anti-psychotic medicine work backwards — instead of making him feel empathy, it strips empathy from people who take it. And he intends to add the drug into Gotham City’s baby formula, creating a generation of sociopaths. And on top of all that, he’s also managed to kidnap Barbara, who he’s hated since childhood because she was the only person who could tell he was insane. And he plans to kill her, too, slowly and bloodily.

As Batman tries to track them down, he gets a call from Jim, who had long ago figured out that Dick Grayson was now the man inside Batman’s cowl. He’s never been a fan of Dick, either, because he was the member of the Bat-family who had the most empathy for others. Can Dick save Barbara, stop Jim, and foil the plot to poison Gotham’s infants, all without compromising his principles?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a great final issue for this version of “Detective Comics,” with Scott Snyder and Jock providing a story that’s claustrophobic, deeply suspenseful, and action-packed. Jim Gordon winds up as an incredibly chilling villain as he describes his motives and plots — I don’t know if DC will be able to use him in future issues, but I hope they can bring him back — he’s too scary to leave behind.

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Monsters #2

Liz Sherman is temporarily without her pyrokinetic abilities and on the run from everyone. She’s been hiding out in a rednecky trailer park and impressing her no-good roommates with her ability to whup the tar out of anyone who pisses her off. But things go sour when she discovers that there’s a murderous cult hiding out inside the trailer court — and things get even worse when she finds out that the only people who aren’t in the cult are her two no-good roommates. Does Liz stand a chance against a horde of angry, semi-human cultists? Does she stand a chance when the cops think she’s the bad guy? And what’s the latest bad news coming out of the B.P.R.D. headquarters?

Verdict: Thumbs up. This one isn’t quite as shocking as the previous issue — a whole trailer park of cultists ain’t nothing once you’ve had the dismembered hillbilly corpse dropped in your lap. But the action’s good, the dialogue is fun, and the art is awesome. It’s also cool to see what’s going on with the B.P.R.D. — they’re all watching England blow up, just like you saw if you read “Hellboy: The Fury” — and there is a big surprise for all of us on the last page, too…

Today’s Cool Links:

• The guys behind “Reed Gunther” have a great introduction for anyone interested in all-ages comics.
• I was kinda expecting this to be some generic “Superman should be dating Wonder Woman” wishfulfic. It was a lot more insightful than I was anticipating.
• I’m still reading Grant Morrison’s “Supergods” but I’ve been grooving on the idea of the superhero as the champion of optimism and opponent of nihilism. The blog post author and business pundit Dylan Ratigan specifically point out how this can be seen as a statement about how society, business, and politics should operate.

The Amazing Spider-Man #666

Six! Six Six! The Number of the Beast! Hell! And fire! Were spawned to be released!

Oh, wait, comic books. Okay, so it’s the long-promised beginning — or according to this issue, only the prelude — to the “Spider Island” storyarc, with vast numbers of people all over New York City suddenly getting Spider-Man’s powers. A lot of this story is background — and re-introducing Peter Parker and his supporting cast to new readers. The contagious spider-powers, by the way, come from genetically-modified bedbugs created by the Jackal. We get to see Spidey stopping bank robbers, foiling Hydro-Man with a little super-science, enraging current NYC mayor J. Jonah Jameson, working at his real job as a scientist, getting martial arts training from Shiang-Chi and Madame Web, hanging out with the Future Foundation and the Avengers, and just generally being vastly overworked.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I initially wasn’t real fond of it, ’cause I wanted to get into the “Spider Island” story, but I came around pretty quickly on how important it was to show off Spidey’s current supporting cast and personal problems. I try to stay up on comic book stuff, but wasn’t aware of most of the stuff happening in the Wall-Crawler’s comics. So instead of throwing us into a new story with a bunch of people we don’t know, we get an extra issue to get acquainted with who’s who and what’s what. Besides that, it’s well-written by Dan Slott and very entertainingly illustrated by Stefano Caselli.

Detective Comics #880

The Joker has broken out of Arkham Asylum, and Commissioner Jim Gordon desperately calls his ex-wife Barbara (not Oracle/Batgirl — Babs Gordon is, um, dangit, is Batgirl the daughter, niece, or adopted daughter of the Gordons? SO CONFUSING) because he’s concerned that the Joker may target her the way he’s so often targeted Gordon’s family members. Sure enough, his ex is ambushed, slashed, and dosed with Joker venom. While she recovers, Dick Grayson goes from investigating the crime in the lab to looking for the Joker as Batman, tracking him to Gotham City’s sewers. The Joker is able to tell that Dick isn’t “his” Batman, but reveals that he didn’t attack Barbara Gordon. So who did?

Verdict: Thumbs up. More wonderful, creepy Bat-storytelling from Scott Snyder and rough-edged, dirty, awesome artwork from Jock. Last issue didn’t feature Batman at all, with all the focus on Commissioner Gordon, but this one included more of a mix in emphasis between Gordon and the Dark Knight. I think it worked well.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Need to know if they’ve raised the debt ceiling? This website gives you the fastest and most direct news about it. I recommend it highly.
• John Seavey picks the best five Dr. Doom writers.
• Here’s a nice essay about the Muppets, post-Henson.
• This collection of photos of huge masses of books and bookshelves kinda makes me want to go out and buy a lot more books.

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.

Hey, we got two great comics by Scott Snyder right here! Let’s jump into ’em!

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #2

Felicia Book and Cash McCogan are undercover for the vampire-hunting Vassals of the Morning Star. They’re posing as wealthy Americans who are sympathetic to the Nazi cause, so they can get into the secret castle where the Nazis may have discovered a cure for vampirism. After their plane gets shot down by over-enthusiastic Germans and they barely escape death, they bluff their way in and get an audience with the very nervous scientist behind the discovery — and he slips them a note indicating that he knows who they are and he wants them to help him flee tonight. Unfortunately, there’s a little snag in those plans — a full brigade of Nazi vampires…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of great stuff here, including one of Felicia’s nightmares about Skinner Sweet, an exciting plane crash, and the promise of future Nazi-stomping to come. Sean Murphy’s artwork is just astoundingly beautiful. There’s something great about a series where every issue, including spinoff miniseries, are just fantastically fun.

Detective Comics #879

A Batman comic where Batman doesn’t even appear? Where’s the fun in that? Well, we got the Joker engineering yet another escape from Arkham, utilizing secret knowledge about a doctor’s private life, along with a new delivery method for Joker venom. And we got Commissioner Gordon, still suspicious of his son, James Jr. The Commissioner goes to see his daughter, Barbara, former Batgirl, current Oracle — and he asks her to analyze a dose of James’ anti-psychotic meds to make sure it’s really doing the job. And not only are the meds NOT working, they may be the cause of an even greater disaster for Gotham City.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Immensely awesome and creepy comic — one of the creepiest I’ve seen this year, both for the Joker’s contributions — where you can’t even see his entire face, much less his insane grin — but for James and the ever-mounting evidence of his misdeeds. And again, this was a comic that didn’t even feature Batman, the supposed main character — and it’s still a perfect illustration of what this comic — DETECTIVE Comics — should be all about.

So that Scott Snyder — he’s something else, ain’t he? Might be the best unsung writer DC or Marvel have got…

Today’s Cool Links:

• This short superhero film — directed by Greg Pak before he became a comics writer — is wonderful fun.
• Marvel’s Tom Brevoort breaks down why DC’s Reboot is squicking so many people out — it’s running directly counter to what DC’s universe has always been about.
• And speaking of the Reboot, Brian Snell takes the increasing weirdness of the Superman reboot as an excuse to examine the seesaw nature of the Man of Steel’s power levels over the decades.
• Stars and Garters has some thoughts about how bad the Superman reboot is looking, too.
• Bully has a great post about awesome “Runaways” covers, not to mention a bunch of covers that use negative space very well.

Batman Inc. #7

We pay a visit to the American Southwest, where Native American superhero Man-of-Bats and his sidekick Little Raven fight crime and try to bring hope to their reservation. But times are changing — the new hospital administrator gives Man-of-Bats trouble in his civilian identity as Dr. Sam Black Elk, gangs backed by Leviathan move onto the reservation, and Little Raven considers quitting the crimefighting life. Can an appearance by Bruce Wayne help turn things around? Or is it already too late for the people on the reservation?

Verdict: Thumbs up. I love Man-of-Bats — he’s a great character, and he has one of my favorite superhero theme costumes. He does what Batman does, just without all the money and equipment. I also like the story’s emphasis on the real-life poverty, despair, and general rotten conditions on many reservations.

American Vampire #16

Henry Preston and the squad of military vampire-hunters from the Vassals of the Morning Star are in deep trouble. They’re stuck on Taipan during World War II, and they’ve been captured by Japanese soldiers — and the Japanese plan to turn all of them into the savage, mindless, eyeless vampires who have overrun the island. But Henry knows they’ve got an ace in the hole — Skinner Sweet is a vampire, and though he’s injured, if Henry gives him some of his blood, Skinner will get them free and give them a fighting chance. But can Sweet be trusted? And even if he can, do they stand a chance against Taipan’s vampire hordes?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice creepy stuff. Rafael Albuquerque is developing into one of the best artists in horror comics, and writer Scott Snyder is continuing his reign as DC/Vertigo’s best-kept secret.

The Goon #34

After much, much too long, Eric Powell brings the Goon back for some more fun. And who’s his opponent this issue? Vampires. And what kind of vampires?

Sparkly vampires. With jazz hands and everything.

Luckily, that particular challenge doesn’t take too long, and then it’s on to the real story — there’s a new kid at the amazingly awful orphanage, and it turns out she’s actually a horrible, horrible monster. The orphans are plenty tough, but not quite tough enough to deal with a shapeshifting horror all by themselves. So they head down to Norton’s pub to enlist the Goon’s aid. But he’s too busy watching football, so the kids get him good and drunk, then drag him back to the orphanage. But can even the Goon stop a monster when he’s had that much to drink. Wait, that’s a silly question, isn’t it?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Thank you, Eric Powell, for making this world a little more awesome every time you publish a comic book.

Detective Comics #878

Batman has been captured by Tiger Shark, a pirate based in an underwater hideout with a collection of starved killer whales that he sics on his enemies. Can Dick Grayson evade a bunch of crazed orcas, trained mercenaries, and an undersea detonation to discover who’s the mastermind behind the entire scheme? All that, plus it turns out Commissioner Gordon’s son James isn’t crazy after all. That’s great news, isn’t it? Isn’t it?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Hey, most of it was just alright, but that last page is disturbing and freaky enough to push it higher than I was expecting.

Xombi #4

David Kim is a xombi, blessed by a combination of magic and high technology to live forever. He and the other members of Dakota’s magical/religious crimefighting community (Rabbi Sinnowitz, Nun of the Above, Nun the Less, and Catholic Girl) question Annie Palmer, a woman rescued last issue from the Maranatha and a man named Roland Finch. Annie reveals that she was actually born in 1871 and has spent nearly all her life in a magical floating stronghold. She was seduced by Roland Finch and betrayed after she’d been duped into helping him take over the stronghold. She managed to escape to our world, bringing a map to other floating strongholds, but now Finch has stolen the map, too. Can the group of heroes figure out how to keep Finch from destroying all the other strongholds?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great dialogue from John Rozum and lots of weird stuff all over the place. I like Frazer Irving’s art, but sometimes, David Kim’s helmet of hair kinda freaks me out…

Today’s Cool Links:

• Chris Sims wants to know why DC chickened out on a story about another Muslim superhero.
• Snell has some questions about why DC’s letters pages haven’t been edited to acknowledge the upcoming reboot.
• And speaking of the reboot — for a company that trumpeted their dedication to diversity, DC’s new Justice League sure is stuffed full of white dudes…
• Here’s a cool short film about a simple plot device and how it changes the world — repeatedly — for one film fan.