Secret Six #3

And I'm back after a long hiatus. Very few books have been standing out for me lately, but the last 3 issues of Gail Simone's Secret Six series has forced themselves onto the top of my stack. I'll say this for Simone, she writes a hell of a team book and that's not something everyone can do. She's had alot of practice over the years on Birds of Prey, but I feel like this series is already surpassing the Birds in quality. The art alone is beautiful. Nicola Scott is one awesome Aussie. These two redheads are just doing phenomenal work. The plot line that's run through this arc is the acquisition of a certain card. It seems as if all of the criminal underworld is now vying for this card including what I assume is a new character, named Junior. Junior is...well I'm gonna be honest with you. He's a scary fellow. So we have Junior after the Secret Six as well as the criminals he has ordered to find them. Villians fighting against villians is always great in my book. Especially when you throw a favorite of mine by the name of Cheetah into the mix. Great dialogue and great art leaves me jonesing for the next issue.
5 out of 5 for Art and Story

Final Crisis- Rogue's Revenge #3

Let me start by telling you I was a huge fan of the Rogues. Particularly when written by Geoff Johns. To me the Flash's rogues gallery is on par with Batman's. Well if I really think about it I may like them a little more, if only because they group together so you get a lot of character interaction. I picked up my first Flash comic in at least 5 years with Flash #201 and Wally's interaction with Len in those subsequent issues was one of the things that kept me reading up until recently. I've kinda dropped off since Wally came back...

This issue shocked me time and again. Things I never thought would would happen came to be. The thing to remember about the Rogue's is that they are all deeply broken characters. They all have issues. In the issues prior to this one we got a peek into Captain Cold's demons and this time Weather Wizard is up to bat. I don't want to spoil anything but I will tell you there are two deaths in this issue that I don't take lightly. Not only that but we see another Flash villain changed in a way I didn't expect. Johns and Kolins portrayed the Rogue's perfectly and I can't wait to see them back in the main title.

I hate this is over. I've enjoyed everyone of these issues greatly and it saddens me to know the Flash title pales so badly in comparison. I know it has to tread water until Flash:Rebirth, but it's still unfortunate.

Green Lantern #35

My god Geoff Johns, how you complete me. Is there anything this man touched that isn't great these days. I'm convinced he can fix any DC character. Hell I'd love to see him write Gnort and I'm sure some Gnort superfan out there probably agrees with me. Issue 35 wraps up the Secret Origins story line that has been running through the Green Lantern title and has been tweaking Hal Jordan's origin as it went. I wasn't a fan of this book when it first hit the stands. Mainly because I'm not a Hal fan. I'm still not even though though the book is solid. When I started reading Green Lantern it was during Emerald Twilight so my exposure to Green Lanterns has pretty much been Kyle. Who I am still a big fan of to this day. If you wanna read Kyle go over to Green Lantern Corps, you won't regret it. Anyway, back to Hal. Johns has taken the silver age and warped it in this book so it works. It's amazing really. Not only is he making it work, but he's weaving his future storylines in with it. The next year of Green Lantern is gonna be amazing. What I do think he's setting up here is some sort of redemption of Sinestro. You see him in these last couple of issues being exactly what they've always said he was, but we've never seen, The Greatest Green Lantern. You see some similarities between him and Hal as well and if you didn't already know their future you would think they would become the best of friends. Sinestro's Murtaugh to Hal's Riggs as it were. In the now, we have Sinestro locked away on Oa after leading another ruthless Corps against them, which seems unlike the character we see here. I was sympathizing with him by the end of the issue to be honest and disliking Hal even more for ratting him out. The art was great for the most part and Reis has kept the quality up every issue he's been on it, but I gotta say there one panel of Hal on Oa looked like it was straight outta Leifeld's sketch book. I'm sure it was just me, but I chuckled none the less.

4 out of 5

X-Force #7

One of the most important things to me when it comes to the X-Titles is history. The X-Titles have always referred back to themselves and interwoven their stories. Sometimes it was successful. Sometimes not so much. Which brings me to my point in saying X-Force is by far my favorite X-book right now. This wasn't always the case of course. In fact, when I first heard the news that they were relaunching X-Force I scoffed at the notion and resigned it to fodder before I'd read it. I gotta say Kyle and Yost have wooed me. My enjoyment of the issues has increased with every issue and hopefully won't stop any time soon. We've followed our heroes(can you still call them heroes when they spend issues cutting people to shreds? I'm gonna say yes.) on their mission to hunt down and eliminate the Purifier threat. The entire team has gone through changes, well with the exception of Logan and Laura. Some have change mentally and some have changed physically. Lucky for me all the changes are compelling.
Issue seven is essentially the epilogue for the first story arc in which we essentially get to see where the team is left after the last big mission. Some of my bigger questions were answered and some more put forth for us. My biggest question is Angel's fate and his place with the team now that there are serious issues between him and a teammate, not to mention what courses through his veins. The books drips with subtle and not so subtle nods to the past and I often wonder if the non-obsessed reader even notices. The links don't look to be stopping either as the final pages show the return of something that's already taken the life of more than one member of the X-family. I don't want to sign off not mentioning Mike Choi's art either. I loved him on Laura's X-23: Target X series and I'm still loving it here. Hopefully they'll keep throwing him work in the X-Universe.

5 out of 5

JLA #25

What in the world has happened to JLA in the last few years. To me it's went from one of my favorite titles to one that I have to make myself read because I feel like it should be a cornerstone.
I feel like a large part of my disappointment is in the choices they have made in artist. Don't get me wrong, I envy their talents, but JLA shouldn't be all asses and boobs. I know it's been done for years, but I've come to expect more from my comics. Take a look at the cover to the left for example.

My problems with the book are not contained to just the art either. There was a time when the JLA defended more than just the team itself. The majority of the series has been devoted to Red Tornado and if not Red Tornado then the various other second stringers that seem to always have problems. You have 14 people on this team. It's starting to resemble the JSA in sheer numbers alone, but the JSA is actually trying to be a 'society'. I don't mind drama and I don't mind character development, but has there been any?

One of the things this series has done well is bring Red Tornado to the forefront. He needs to be there is only for his awesome threads. The big three have also been portrayed well in my opinion. Some people complain that they should be leading the JLA, but when you get down to it they are the busiest people in the DCU. It would only make sense for them to be there, but not be in charge of the day to day. I like the notion, although Black Canary wouldn't be my first choice as chair. In this issue she's taking point and working to resolve the issue's with Vixen's powers. It's probably the first time I saw her as the leader. Of course in typical JLA fashion it falls apart for them. Through manipulation by Anansi the stories and timelines are reworked and we see glimpses of various realities, which is always fun for me. They used various artists for all the various twists and I gotta tell you it was great to see Doug Mahnke drawing JLA again.


2 out of 5

Capes and Tights Art Challenge #19 -Deadpool

We're having another art challenge over at our home site of Capesandtights.com and this time it's the merc with a mouth-Deadpool!


I'll be posting the entries here for all to see in the coming days.

DC Universe: Decisions #1

I’ll be honest, I originally wasn’t going to pick this up because I felt it was a little cheesy of DC to being doing a politics book this close to the elections. But for whatever reason, I saw this on the stands and felt compelled to flip through it. The art alone pushed me to lay down the $2.99 and I’m not gonna lie, when I saw Wonder Woman had a dialogue balloon (albeit a small one) I couldn’t help myself. Surprisingly, the story itself was very intriguing. After an assassination plot on presidential candidates is revealed, the superheroes must volunteer to protect them. Green Arrow of course suggests that each hero be able to choose who they protect versus random assignment. By the end of the issue Green Arrow decides to fully endorse his chosen candidate, a decision that will change the way DC politics are done, and forcing other heroes to make their own endorsements.