The Trials of Shazam #10

Freddy Freeman and Sabina have about half of the powers of Shazam now, and they’re trying to track down Mercury to get his power. Unfortunately, Sabina has a head-start and is tearing through a bunch of magical information brokers to get his location pinned down. And it all comes down to… Mr. Tawky Tawny, the sophisticated talking tiger?!

Verdict: Thumbs up, solely for how awesome and fun Tawky Tawny is. Urbane wit and major mystical face-punchitude? Why didn’t someone dig him out of mothballs sooner?

 

PS238 #28

The elementary school for superpowered kids is on a break, so Ms. Kyle, one of the beloved teachers, takes a long-overdue vacation in Vegas. Two of her students, stretchable Poly Mer and superstrong Julie Finster, think she’s quitting the school and have stowed away, along with the reluctant-to-help evil supergenius Zodon, to try to talk her out of it. Meanwhile, the Flea is tracking some bad guys who want to kidnap Zodon.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Weird, wild, funny stuff with gobs of personality behind it. I wish a heck of a lot more people read this comic.

 

Green Lantern Corps #18

Sodam Yat — member of the Green Lantern Corps, Daxamite who gains superpowers under Earth’s sun, and the new bearer of the mega-powerful Ion symbiote — takes on Superboy Prime. There’s a great deal of hitting, interspaced with flashbacks to Sodam’s rotten childhood among his xenophobic species. But mostly lots of hitting. Lots and lots and lots of hitting.

Verdict: Thumbs down. The thing is, this much hitting is boring.

Let’s check in with this week’s Sinestro Corps War crossover comics…

 

Green Lantern Corps #17

This is the comic that I mentioned a few days ago that features a scene where some Green Lanterns are dispatched to Lubbock. Do we get to see our fair Hub City? Kinda. We get a half-page of two Green Lanterns wiping out some Sinestro Corps members. We also see some pumpjacks. Apparently, the Sinestro Corps came to Lubbock to set a bunch of oil wells on fire. Not that we have all that many oil wells, but maybe they decided that saying the Sinestros came to Lubbock to burn up the cotton fields just wouldn’t sound very dangerous.

Aaaaanyway, the Lanterns spend most of this issue carving up the Sinestro Corps. Kilowog stomps the tar outta the evil Arkillo. And at the end, the Anti-Monitor himself shows up and almost kills Sodam Yat, a rookie Daxamite Green Lantern. But the Guardians of the Galaxy make an appearance and fuse Yat with Ion, the green-energy symbiote that used to live inside Kyle Rayner. But can this new Daxamite Ion hold up against the evil Superman-Prime?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Sure, most of the plot devolves down to shooting cannon-fodder Sinestros. Sure, some of the art is less than ideal, and the layouts could use some work. Sure, the ending was telegraphed from the first page. But it’s still fairly entertaining, and it’s nice to know that an intergalactic police force feels that Lubbock’s plentiful oil wells are worth saving.

 

Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime

And speaking of Superman-Prime, here’s his story. Basically, he’s a comic-book geek from an alternate universe who actually ended up being his universe’s version of Kal-El — a Kryptonian survivor who gained superpowers as a teenager. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths back in 1985, his universe got wiped out, and he ended up staying in a sub-dimensional quasi-paradise with the elderly Superman and Lois Lane from Earth-2 and Alexander Luthor from Earth-3. Superboy-Prime and Alex Luthor went bad during the Infinite Crisis a couple years ago, and killed a bunch of people. Luthor got killed by the Joker, and Superboy-Prime was imprisoned inside a red sun by the Green Lanterns. The Sinestro Corps broke him out, and he’s working with them until he can figure out how to kill off all Earth’s superheroes and get the Anti-Monitor out of the picture.

As far as plot goes, there’s not a lot of it. Most of the planet’s superheroes show up to try to stomp the renamed Superman-Prime. He’s wearing special armor that gives him powers, so everyone’s trying to get rid of his armor before the sun rises and he gets real powers from the yellow sun that gives all Kryptonians their powers. (Of course, he’s been sitting on the moon for long enough to get some solar exposure — but that wouldn’t be properly dramatic, would it?) And of course, he’s able to last ’til the sun rises, so he can try to beat up the new Ion.

Far better than the main plot is a short and very creepy backup story about a Sinestro Corps member called Kryb. A crone-like alien, she kills Green Lanterns, kidnaps their infant children, and stores them inside a hellish biological crib in her own back.

Verdict: More or less, thumbs down. The main story is fairly pointless, meandering, and brutal (Did we really need to see former Teen Titan Risk get his other arm ripped off?) and could’ve been replaced admirably with, well, a story that didn’t involve tons of super-people beating each other up. But that backup story about Kryb? Holy moley, that was seriously disturbing. I don’t know that it’s worth the cover price all by itself, but it’s a really, really good story, especially this close to Halloween…

If you check out Newsarama’s DC previews for the upcoming week, you might notice something very interesting. Namely, “Green Lantern Corps #17,” which features the many members of the Green Lantern Corps fighting off the invasion of Earth by the evil Sinestro Corps. As the various Green Lanterns are dispatched to cities around the world, we find this on page 3:

 

“Lanterns Sarn and Kol. Protect location downloaded to your power rings. Local name Lubbock, Texas.”

I have no idea whether Lubbock itself will make any sort of appearance in the comic. That may be the extent of it right there — two Green Lanterns getting told to go protect a city that the writer picked off a map.

Still, it might not hurt to pick an issue of this one up, just in case. Wouldn’t it be cool if this one features the GL Corps driving the Sinestro Corps away from United Spirit Arena, the NTS Tower, or the Buddy Holly statue?

 

Green Arrow and Black Canary #1

In the wake of Oliver Queen’s death, Black Canary is dealing with her grief by beating the snot out of bad guys as brutally as possible. In fact, she’s also keeping Ollie’s body preserved in a big glass tube — she’s convinced it’s not really Green Arrow. Everyone thinks she’s nuts — everyone except Batman.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s got a few problems — Black Canary is mostly an observer of other people’s detective work, and Green Arrow barely shows up at all. But the detective work is pretty good, and the big secret is fairly well done. Cliff Chiang’s artwork is just drop-dead gorgeous, too.

 

Green Lantern Corps #16

There’s a lot of stuff going on in this one. There’s the Battle of the Planets, with Mogo, the Green Lantern planet taking on Ranx, the crazy Sinestro city, Kilowog fighting Arkillo, a monstrous Sinestro Corps member, Sodam Yat, a Daxamite GL, wreaks havoc inside Ranx, and members of the Green Lantern Corps and Sinestro Corps fighting each other everywhere. Things look bad for the Lanterns until the Guardians of the Galaxy change their governing laws to allow Lanterns to kill Sinestro Corps members.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s pretty chaotic, and there are tons of characters — but I’m impressed that we still get treated to some good character moments. That’s hard to do with that much stuff going on.

 

Green Lantern #24

Meanwhile, on Earth, the Sinestro Corps War continues as the bulk of the yellow-ringed fearmeisters lower the boom on our big blue marble. They’ve got most of their heavy-hitters in the battle, including Sinestro, Superboy-Prime, the Cyborg Superman, and Parallax, still possessing Kyle Rayner’s body. Parallax actually swallows up Hal Jordan when his ring runs out of power, but the other Green Lanterns have a plan to save both Hal and Kyle.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Some of the dialogue is really, really hokey, and the plan to get rid of Parallax is a bit, um, stupid. Still, some nice ring-slinging, some decent plot-advancement. I’m looking forward to more of this — it’s the best crossover series DC has had for a long time.

This is going to be a weird week, thanks to a series I plan to start on Wednesday. The series should run through Saturday, and I think I may have a lot less time to review comics this week, so I’m gonna get a passel of reviews done now while I still can.

Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Cyborg Superman

Most of this is retelling the origin of Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman. It’s a very nice origin, but it takes up about two-thirds of the story. After that, Henshaw, the Manhunter robots, and the Sinestro Corps lay the smackdown on the Justice League, clean Superman’s clock, and knock down the Statue of Liberty.

Verdict: Thumbs up, but just barely. It’s entertaining enough, but there’s very little real story in there…

Justice League of America #13

The new Injustice League includes just about every supervillain in the world, and they give the Justice League a pretty thorough beat-down. And as nice as new writer Dwayne McDuffie’s plotting and dialogue are, they do not stand a chance against the utterly pukeworthy “art” provided by Joe Benitez.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Good grief, Benitez is just awful.

Supergirl #22

Supergirl is still hanging out with Karate Kid and Una from the (ugh) “Countdown” series, and they beat up a big government-owned super-monster. The fight is okay, but the story never manages to get away from the fact that it’s a tie-in with the much-despised “Countdown.”

Verdict: Thumbs down. Somebody get DC to quit inflicting “Countdown” on us!

The Search for Ray Palmer: Crime Society

Oh, okay, not all “Countdown” tie-ins are complete garbage. In this story, Donna Troy, Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner and one of the Monitors visit the alternate earth where the good guys are the bad guys, and vice versa. We focus almost entirely on the Jokester, a former comedian turned insane crimefighter, along with the mirror-universe versions of the Riddler, Two-Face, Robin, and the Joker’s Daughter.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Mirror universe stories are always fun, and I’m glad to see DC is expanding their Earth-3 to include more than just Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Power Ring, and Johnny Quick.

Ya know what’s nice? Lazing around all weekend and not writing on the blog. I listened to two CDs I hadn’t listened to in years, I enjoyed the beautiful weather, I visited my grandmother, my brother, and my niece, and it was awfully nice. Unfortunately, that brings us to yet another Monday, and it puts me even farther behind on my comics reviewing, so let’s get a few of them done real quickly.

Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Parallax

It’s not really about Parallax; it’s really about Kyle Rayner. He’s trapped in his own head, watching Parallax use his body to wage war on the GL Corps, drawing on walls to distract himself. Parallax shows up from time to time to taunt him and make monster faces. Kyle stays trapped, but he’s not beaten yet.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Kyle really is a wonderful character, and it’s been a long time since we got to spend enough time with him, especially when the story is written by Ron Marz, the guy who created Kyle.

The Flash #232

Wally’s been dragged under water by weirdo aliens, and his kids are on their own, trying to find their way home and fight off the aliens. There’s more, but — ugh, man alive, this one was just dull. Put me to sleep and everything.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Nice art, but gyaah, so boring.

Booster Gold #2

Booster gets Rip Hunter to agree to help save the late Blue Beetle if Booster will help him save time. First mission: go back in time to when Sinestro was still a good Green Lantern and somehow keep him from talking to future Green Lantern Guy Gardner. Just talking to Sinestro will cause Guy to become a GL and die earlier and allow the Sinestro Corps to be formed earlier and conquer the galaxy. The problem is that Sinestro is way, way, way out of Booster’s league. How can he stop someone so much more powerful than he is?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a good, clever, well-written story. I’ve already heard people say this book reminds them of some of the stuff DC was producing in the mid-1990s, which isn’t a bad thing.

I picked up a couple of different comics recently that had stories about alien invasions. Let’s give ’em a spin and see how they turned out…

 

Green Lantern #23

The Green Lanterns stuck on Qward have to fight their way home. Hal Jordan briefly puts on a whole bunch of Sinestro rings, but he doesn’t really know that much about manipulating fear, so he gets disarmed fairly quickly. They lose one of their number, an alien named Ke’haan, to an attack by the Anti-Monitor, but they’re able to recover the powerful Green Lantern entity called Ion.

Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Galaxy decide to rewrite some of the rules that govern the operation of the Green Lantern power rings — first, they now allow Lanterns to use lethal force against the Sinestro Corps. And finally, Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner return to Earth to enlist the aid of more superheroes, but discover that the Sinestro Corps has followed them home.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Not entirely happy with the story. It could have been simplified a bit, and we’ve seen, so far, mighty little of some of the promised villains. But it’s still got more good stuff than bad stuff.

 

PS238 #25

Aliens are invading Earth! Superheroes are busy fighting against the invaders, as are the teachers and some of the students at PS238. Unfortunately, the aliens have fixated on powerless Tyler Marlocke (who nevertheless adventures as the mostly-hapless technology-based kid-hero Moon Shadow) as the key to their invasion. They’ve engineered a virus that, when injected into Tyler, will turn him into a typhoid mary who will spread a DNA-altering disease around the world — all future humans would turn out looking just like the aliens. Can everyone prevent Tyler from being injected with the virus, or is the Earth doomed?

Verdict: Thumbs up, but just barely. This book is at its best in straight-forward lighthearted shenanigans, and this story is just way, way too serious.

Well, you may have noticed we didn’t have Friday Night Fights a couple days ago. Unfortunately, we had a few technical troubles that prevented any posting. On the bright side, that means I’ve already got my next FNF ready to go. But for now: a couple of quick reviews!

Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #15

The Avengers are attacked by trees, believe it or not, and they somehow realize that this means there’s trouble with the Norse gods, so they travel to Asgard to look for the missing Thor. They find that all of the Asgardians have gone missing, with Malekith and the Dark Elves in charge. Everyone gets attacked by the Frost Giants, who sing a lovely “smiting song.” Can the Avengers resist both Malekith’s attacks and the Frost Giants’ mad rhymes?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Not as madcap as some of the previous issues, but still good fun. And like all of the “Marvel Adventures” comics, they’re perfect for readers of all ages.

Green Lantern Corps #15

This is part of the long “Sinestro Corps War” storyline. In this part of the story, we’ve got lots of Green Lanterns hitting Sinestro Corps monsters and vice versa. Mogo, the planet that’s also a Green Lantern, is in danger from an evil city called Ranx, and the Guardians are up to something sneaky.

Verdict: Thumbs down. There’s very little drama. We don’t even get to see any big fighting between Mogo and Ranx, which really should have been a spotlight. You ever seen a city fight a planet? Me neither, and the cover made it sound like that was gonna be a big chunk of the action. Heck, Ranx even attacks Mogo, and the planet makes no real effort to defend itself. That’s weak, man. In the end, the entire issue is skippable.

Green Lantern #22

The Sinestro Corps War continues. This issue, our main event is Hal Jordan vs. Kyle Rayner, possessed by the monstrous fear-god Parallax. Kyle also does the scary-Parallax-monster-mouth thing, which is always nice and creepy. The Green Lantern Corps rides to the rescue, loses a member, and goes hunting for the Ion spirit that empowers the power batteries and for the missing-in-action John Stewart and Guy Gardner. Meanwhile, the Sinestro Corps is preparing to attack Mogo, the Green Lantern that’s also a planet, and Superboy Prime and the Cyborg Superman make their own plans.

Verdict: Thumbs up. All in all, pretty good, but not as good as it could’ve been. It’s really very talky. There’s lots of fighting, but most of it is just background for monologues. I don’t mind monologues at all, of course, and I felt that the story moved along quite well. But I kept wishing for something more.

Man alive, I am one lazy, lazy comics reviewer. You’d think these were hard reviews. But they ain’t. I’m just lazy.

Let’s get after it.

 

B.P.R.D.: Garden of Souls #5

The conclusion of this storyline. Not quite as many spooky scares, but much, much more of Abe Sapien unleashing the forces of scaly-fishman whup-ass on the freaky oldsters in their steampunk armor and on Edward, the oversized muscleman.

It also includes the following panel.

 

That may not be the coolest cow in the world, but it’s sure close to the top of the list.

Verdict: Thumbs up. A nice thrill-ride to finish off all the horror. Grand fun.

 

Countdown #42

Piper and Trickster have been captured and shackled together with manacles that could kill them if they try to break them. Holly Robinson, former Catwoman, is hanging out Harley Quinn and a bunch of Amazons. Donna Troy, Jason Todd, and the renegade Monitor get the current Atom, Ryan Choi, to take them to the hyper-miniaturized “Palmerverse” to find the previous Atom, Ray Palmer. Mary Marvel meets up with the Riddler, then sends Clayface into orbit. And way too many of the pictures of Mary in this issue are upskirt shots. Siiiigh. Fine, fine, I recognize that there’s not much of a way to avoid it with that costume, but after a certain point, it just seems creepy.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Boring.

 

Deadpool/GLI Summer Fun Spectacular

Cute, fun, and funny. I’ve never much seen the point of Deadpool, but the Great Lakes Avengers (now calling themselves the Great Lakes Initiative) are always good for a larf. Squirrel Girl meets up with her ex-boyfriend Speedball, who’s now grim and gritty and spiky and calling himself Penance. A.I.M uses the Greek god Dionysus to get every superhero in the world drunk. Flatman shows off his Origami-Fu. Mr. Immortal dies a lot. Squirrel Girl also visits the future, and we get nearly-official confirmation that she is indeed the baddest badass in the Marvel Universe.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Squirrel Girl rocks. Deal with it, fanboy.

 

Green Lantern #21

The aftermath of the Green Lantern Corps’ first battle with the Sinestro Corps. Hal Jordan fights the Parallaxized Kyle Rayner. Hal is confronted with his only real fear. Ready for it? Ready? He’s afraid… that when his father died in a jet crash… that he was afraid.

That’s it? That’s the great fear?

Where’s my Whackin’ Stick?

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

Verdict: It’s WHACK!

 

Martha Washington Dies

Martha Washington, Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons’ futuristic soldier and freedom fighter from the classic “Give Me Liberty,” is now 100 years old. She dies.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Way, way too short. Half the comic is devoted to promos for next year’s collection of all the Martha Washington stories.

Okay, that’s all of ’em I got. New comics coming in tomorrow.