mikegraham6

funtitledmf17754ccopyrg3

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:16:19 -0700

Courtesy of MastaP, that man knows his poutine, im getting hungry just looking at this

f_untitled2m_4327665

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:15:18 -0700

Another shout out to kahunablair, that man is talented! Best General discussion thread EVER!

chrishansencopy

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:57:33 -0700

Don't fuck with Fred (or abe vigoda!)

f_untitledm_f17754c

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:56:40 -0700

courtesy of Kahunablair - Awesome!!

smellyhippie2

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:52:18 -0700

Courtesy of Fred, smelly hippie or not - Viva la revolution!

Screenshot_3

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:22:03 -0700

Props to my man Paper for this one, love the monkey and maple leaf!

Nike=America

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:48 -0700

BEST PIC EVER!

msnbc-breaking-News

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:45 -0700

BREAKING NEWS!!!! Oh my GOD! Stop the Presses!!!

Notice

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:41 -0700

doesn't this just go without saying?

Funny sign

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:37 -0700

I need one of these for my living room

Semen World

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:32 -0700

On the other hand, i would avoid Semen World at all costs

The Room

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:25 -0700

I wish I had a Tea Bagging room

Bush and Baby

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:21 -0700

This isn't the first time Bush looked lost

censored and small

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:16 -0700

Big... no wait.... Small pimpin'

bewareTHISsign

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:17:13 -0700

Hilarious

Reviews of a Comic Book nature for the week of 2007-09-26

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:18:23 -0700

Ultimate Spider-Man #114 - This issue was action packed!.....Unfortunately, that's not why I read USM. This book is all about the character interactions and the action focused issues tend to be weakest. I'm still not 100% sold on Immonen's art either, but I do enjoy his action scenes more. After reading this issue though, one things for sure, Bendis is really building up Norman Osborn as a significant threat and I'm hoping that the payoff will be huge, but that's probably still a few issues away at least and in the meantime this was a considerably average issue. B- All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #7 - I only have one word to describe this book: GODDAMN! I think this must be Frank Miller's new favorite word, he's used it about eight times in the course of only this issue. Last issue I thought it was a funny joke, Miller poking fun at the fan reaction to his "I'm the goddamn Batman!" line, but now it's just gotten stale. I've stopped trying to read this book as a Batman book and have tried reading it more as a Sin City book and it's really helps move it along. It's still not particularly good, but it reads better than the previous few. The biggest problem is that Batman isn't at all likeable here. Even looking at him like a character out of Sin City doesn't help. I think this stems from the reappearance of Dick Grayson, which comes as a reminder that Batman has basically left him to rot in his cave for a few nights and he wants to mold him into the same gizzled and (basically) despicable character that he is in this book. Even on the level of parody, I still have issues with this book, but the preview for the next issue does have me salivating for next month. If Miller's reinterpretation of Batman is this bad, just imagine what the Joker will be like! I'm there! C 52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen #2 - You know what I like the most about this book? the tone. It does an excellent job of conveying a sense of threat and urgency on the part of the four horsemen. What was merely a throwaway threat/plot device in 52, has piqued my interest and they could possibly be my favorite new villains in the DC U, but I'll wait to see how this series pans out before I pass judgment. The beginning of this book was slightly confusing, since it was hard to figure out exactly which horseman was speaking (they were talking through various bodies) but you realize that it's not particularly important, since it's the group that's the threat not the individual. I also like the fact that this book is starring the DC trinity. It's felt like a while since we've seen only Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman tackle a threat, I'm really excited to see them work together as a team. Not a lot happened in this issue, but like I said, it helped build the tension that will certainly pay off in later issues. This has become my favorite of the 52/Countdown spin-offs. B+ The Order #3 - I recently dropped The Avengers: The Initiative for a lot of reasons, but one major complaint I had was that I didn't like how it showed fifty state initiative. It wasn't that it really did a bad job, it set out with a purpose (superhuman training) and it basically accomplishes it, I just didn't like the style, it felt very childish. The Order, is far more up my alley and will now be my Initiative go-to book. It takes a more serious approach to the subject and it has been giving each of it's characters some complexity that I've really been enjoying and I hope they keep it up. They are also starting to build up the team interactions and from the scenes between Calamity and Mulholland in this issue, I look forward to seeing more of this. I do have two complaints though. What happened to the big reveal at the end of the last issue. It wasn't even touched up here and since I have an interest in Public Relations I was excited to see how the team was going to deal with it. This was a disappointment. I also think this book suffers from not having a big threat. All the villains so far have been very throw away and I look forward to the day the team runs into a big Marvel U villain. In the meantime though, I'm satisfied with the development this book is offering up and I'll be in for the long run. B Batman #669 - Back when I was in Grade 9, my English teacher gave us a copy of Agatha Cristie's Ten Little Indians to read, ever since then I've always enjoyed murder mysteries in that style. Sure, it's not the most original idea, but I've always had fun trying to figure out who the killer was amongst the group of victims and this arc in Batman is no exception. I think the other writers over at DC need to take note of Grant Morrison's Batman. There are a lot of writers who are trying to bring back the feel of the silver age in DCs books, but in my opinion most fall short. Morrison's Batman is an excellent example of taking something old and reinventing it for modern audiences, yet still keeping the spirit of the original. The idea here is preposterous, but Morrison not only makes it work, but also keeps it compelling and fun at the same time. The only slight problem I had with this arc was with J.H. William's art. Don't get me wrong, I love his style, but I found the layouts to be really confusing, to the point where I could follow the story properly, but this is only a minor complaint. A Justice League of America #13 - *whew* that was close! I was really worried about this book after hearing that Dwayne McDuffie was jumping on. I had read his post Civil War Fantastic Four run and was less than impressed. But I had also recently watched the Justice League Unlimited cartoon series that he was a part of and I figured this could go either way. Luckily it went in the right direction. Anyone who's watched the JLU cartoon will be familiar with what's going on here since it's basically the same concept from the second season. The villains have gotten together in response to the Justice League and have begun to take them out one by one. There's nothing original here, but it's just pure fun superhero action, and really what more can you ask for from a JLA book? I do have a problem with the continuity of this issue since it contains a completely superfluous scene between Black Canary and Green Arrow and anyone who read the wedding special will find it strange. I only point it because it was an unnecessary scene and DC has been making such a big deal out of this wedding. B The Immortal Iron Fist #9 - I love it when I expect something out of a story arc and I receive something completely different. I was expecting the next few issues of Iron Fist to be old school kung fu action, and while we do get some of that in this issue, you realize halfway through that this is not what the current arc will be focusing on. The action scenes were definitely the highlight of this issue though. David Aja is an absolutely perfect match for this book, I love how his style perfectly conveys the martial arts action. The way this book was written, it felt almost like a manga but thanks to Aja's art, it sidesteps that obvious pitfall and takes it into a different direction. B+ Criminal #9 - I'm starting to think that Ed Brubaker is the best writer in comics right now. If you overlook the whole Uncanny X-Men thing, there's not a single stinker in the bunch, and the dude writes a lot of books (and in all honestly UXM isn't that bad). But reading Criminal you can tell that this is his baby. This book is written with so much love and dedication that it's starting to rival Powers as the go to Icon book. Consistently great read every month with a level of character development up there with most Hollywood dramas. There's not much more to say other than read this book. A Teen Titans #51 - McKeever really knows how to get on my good side. I'm always weary of new creators jumping on books I read. I usually love them the way they are and I hate to think of some hotshot coming on and ruining a perfectly good book. Well this issue has the Teen Titans squaring off against the future Titans that Geoff Johns introduced early in his run as well as a bunch of Starro controlled villains. The future Titans storylines was one of my favorites in the Johns run, I mean who doesn't like seeing Tim Drake as Batman and Conner Kent as Superman? I'm glad their back but rather than focus on character interactions this issue was more about the future Titans "helping" the teen titans take down Starro. I loved the action, but after the final splash page I'm looking forward more to the standoff between Robin and Batman than anything else. I wasn't sold on the art, it was drawn in a cartoony style that usually works for Teen Titans, but for every panel I loved there was another that looked weird. B X-Men #203 - Hmmmm, I smell filler which doesn't bode well for what is labelled as "Part 4 of 4". It's a shame too because I really enjoyed the arc up until this point. We find out the motivations of the Marauders here, the Destiny Diaries (isn't something similar to this being used in Uncanny as well) and then basically the X-Men get beat up but the diaries get destroyed, it was lame. The biggest reveal we have here is Mr. Sinister showing up, but since he's always behind the Marauders (and he's on the cover), it doesn' come as any sort of surprise. The Endangered Species back-up is, as always, useless. How many more parts are left in this series?!? We're already at part 13 and it hasn't gone anywhere and the most significant thing that happened was the "death" of Guthrie, and a no name one at that. All in all, this whole issue was a disappointment. D- Countdown 31 - I'm surprised! This is the second issue of Countdown in a row that I haven't hated! It's still not great but it's nowhere near the mediocrety that it's been in past issues. I think I'll use baseball to rank each storyline this week. First up, I really enjoyed the Challengers storyline. JLA: Earth 2 was one of the first graphic novels I picked up on my return to comics and it's always been one of my favorites (can't complain when you've got Morrison writing and Quietly drawing) and the Crime Syndicate has always interested me. While this was nothing but a battle (with the introduction of the Jokester to the team) it was a lot of fun and it was the first time in a while that their storyline hasn't felt like an ad for another DC comic--triple The Holly Robinson story and the Karate Kid story are moving at a snails pace, they are stuck in filler mode as nothing of interest happened in this issue--strike x2 The Mary Marvel and Jimmy Olsen stories also had little happen but they weren't the weakest of the bunch. Mary's story gave us some more character moments between her and Eclipso but really went nowhere--ball The Olsen part was okay basically because it was short but it felt like it was retreading old ground--ball But the best of the bunch was the excellent Joker profile at the end of the book. Not only does Mark Waid set it up like a joke, giving us multiple set-ups reminiscent of Joker's motif and madness, but it's also illustrated by Brian Bolland of The Killing Joke fame. Bolland is AWESOME!! Damn do I wish he did more work, it's so damn pretty and in my opinion he does THE definitive Joker-- Home Run!!! C+ Countdown To Adventure #2 - This issue didn't impress me as much as the first one did. It's strange how the Strange/Starfire/Animal Man story got bit worse and the Forerunner story got a bit better. The Starfire story isn't going in the direction I first anticipated but now it's seems that all the character's plotlines are getting interconnected in what feels like it will be a very generic mind control storyline. After the first issue, I was really hoping to see something original here and this issue really disappointed me. If it continues to go in this same direction I'm going to have to drop it, there are better books that I could be spending my money on. The Forerunner story was okay since she was fighting a Nazi Justice League and that's always fun. But it's starting to feel that DC is really shoving this whole multiverse aspect down our throats now. I get it, there are 52 alternate earths, I don't want to read about it in EVERY book! D Green Arrow: Year One #5 - Hot damn I love this book, I'm so glad it's back! Everything from the badass character development, the action packed art to the vibrant colouring, it's all spot on. This is probably one of my favorite mini-series of the year and I wish more people would read this. If it were more popular, a book like this could potentially bring Ollie into the spotlight of the DC U. Green Arrow's always been more of a cult character with a small but loyal fanbase, but a book like this could elevate his status immensely to the place he (rightfully) deserves. I hope Hollywood takes note of this book, this is what a Green Arrow movie should be. I can't wait for the next issue. A Wonder Woman Annual #1 - Well damn this was a long time coming. I don't usually buy Wonder Woman, but post-Infinite Crisis I had heard good things about the Allan Heinberg run and so I picked up his issues and they started out pretty strong, but the more I read they weaker they got, and then, they just stopped coming out... and then they dropped the storyline completely for a new writer. Well this annual finishes up that arc and since I'm a sucker (eg: completist) I picked it up. It really wasn't worth the wait. It wasn't bad but I would have enjoyed this much more if I remembered what had happened prior in the storyline. I don't want to sound like a broken record but really DC, please put in a summary page. I know you don't want to copy Marvel or anything but it's such a friggin' good idea! PLEASE!! Anyway, this issue was pretty to look at, the action was fun, but it's nothing special. Completely average and it loses points for being so late. C- That's all folks!!

Reviews of a Comic Book nature for the week of 2007-09-06

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:43:31 -0700

Amazing Spider-Man #544 - So let me get this straight, basically the whole "Back In Black" arc was completely useless??? We are back to were we started and the premise of "One More Day" seems to be very similar, except instead of looking for revenge, Spidey is looking for a way to save his dying Aunt (who's been on verge of death at the end of each issue it seems). This issue had a lot of problems, but not as many as the last arc and despite these problems, I found myself enjoying parts (mainly the scene between Tony and Peter, everything else felt like shit we have seen MANY times before). I was looking forward to Quesada art in this issue but it also disappointed me, many scenes looked like they were seen through a fish eye lens, characters looked distorted and you could tell were Q was using photo reference and were he was free hand (the Doctor VS Peter), he also failed on more than one occasion to convey the character's emotion from the dialogue in the art (just look at the scenes between Peter and Tony, Peter is stoic). Again JMS picks and chooses elements that fit his story. Iron Man can take down uber powerful supervillains, but he can't get out of spider-webbing? His repulsors time out, how does Peter know so much about the Iron Man armour? It frustrating to see Marvel's premier hero written this way, but I did enjoy one scene in this book and I truly do want to see where this story is going, plus hey, it's only four issues.... I'll stick with it. D+ Y The Last Man #58 - Oh....My.....God....The ending truly shocked me. Maybe some of you guys saw this coming, but I had no clue. I'm wary to even write it here just in case someone might accidently see it but.....355 get shot in the frickin' head! I miss this series... I both hate and love the fact that they are dragging out the final few issues over the next few months. On one hand, I hate having to wait, but on the other it helps postpone the inevitable, the end of this series. This issue basically has Yorick reveal his love for 355, though this is probably one of the biggest clichés out there and came as no surprise, BKV still manages to keep it fresh and uses story beats to keep it original. The final few pages of this book is so jam packed with emotion that I even got all misty eyed a bit. Great frickin' book! A Countdown 34 - The Rogues are finally back (one week without the two of them in this book feels like an eternity) and not only are they spotlighted on the cover but, surprise surprise, their storyline is the best of the bunch. I just love how the two characters are written and while the way some of the heroes were written felt a bit off and the direction their storyline is going doesn't have me completely stoked, without the two of them I would not be reading this book. Jimmy's story feels like it's just going in circles. Nothing is coming from it. Yes we get it, he has powers that don't always work and we don't know where they come from, show us something else. I hate Jimmy Olsen and yes Dan Didio, he MUST die. The Donna Troy/Jason Todd story still feels like an ad for the Atom and little really happened. We basically got what boils down to less than a minute interaction between them and the Queen. I don't care about this. Holly's story also went nowhere, I thought we covered all this last issue. Nothing new here. I'm glad the Mary Marvel story feature Klarion the Witchboy. While he wasn't my favorite 7 Soldiers character, I always like it when they show up in the DC U. Karate Kid's story is getting more interesting if only because it now seems tied with the Darkseid stuff we saw in Countdown 52. Again little happened in this story though. The Lex Luthor backup was interesting if only because it cemented the fact that yes, Superman: Birthright is indeed in continuity. I think DC really needs to rethink the format of this series, it would REALLY benefit from the formula of 52. They should devote almost entire issues to a storyline instead of merely a few pages because there are three storylines here that went nowhere this week, what a waste. C- Wolverine #57 - It's okay guys, Marc Guggenheim is back, we can put the mess that was Jeph Loeb's run behind us. Guggenheim slips back into his role as Wolverine writer with ease as he brings back elements he introduced in his original run. But more importantly, he brings back the action. Anyone who read his Wolverine: Civil War, whether they liked it or not, will admit it was action packed, and really what more do you want from Wolverine's solo title. Is it a deep and engaging story? Nope. Does it make sense if you sit back and think about it? Not really, but the seen where Wolverine jumped from the Blackbird onto a Shield Helicarrier was badass. This isn't a spectacular book but it is Wolverine back to form. B Infinity Inc. #1 - I was never a big fan of the Steel storyline in 52 but I have been so impressed with every 52 spinoff book that DC has put out that I figured I'd give this series a try for at least the first issue. Again DC didn't disappoint me. Although this is by far the weakest of the spinoff books (I'm not counting Countdown To Adventure because I think it's a Countdown spinoff) it's still extremely interesting. Basically this book is following the 3 heroes leftover from Luthor's Infinity Inc. team and they each seem to be suffering psychologically from their loss of powers, some worse than others. One other mysterious character, suffering the same psychological issues, is dealing with it in an entirely different manner. I really don't have any idea where they are going with this book but the concept is interesting enough to keep me on. The real negative in this book is the art, I really don't like Max Fiumara style, it feels very inconsistant and suffers from a poor inking job. Chalk up one more sucessful 52 spinoff. B Uncanny X-Men #490 - The main reason I was excited for this story arc was that Brubaker was teasing the return of Magneto and while he does show up very briefly in this issue, I have a feeling that we aren't going to be seeing Mags in full force until the next story arc. While I'm really disappointed with that, this Morlock arc have proven to be rather solid. It's not the best X-Men I've ever read but it's keeping me entertained, I'm glad that all the x-books seem to have gotten their shit together. This pre-cog mutant thing feels like it's been covered before in previous x-books but the action scene with Warpath and Hepzebah (I still can't believe she's an X-Man) was cool, albeit poorly drawn (I'm still hating Larocca's art). The Endangered Species backup was lame as Beast is still going from useless lead to useless lead. How many more parts of this are there? I just want it to end (prediction- it will end with the return of Nate Grey, the X-Man). B Alright guys, I think that's all the reviews I can cover for now. I've still got Detective Comics, The Boys, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: The Chosen. Hopefully I can post my thoughts on those books as I go along.

She-Hulk Vol. 1-4

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:40:36 -0700

Apparently the She-Hulk title has a pretty rich history of being rather tongue-in-cheek. Like Deadpool in the Cable & Deadpool series, She-Hulk has been known to routinely break the fourth wall and talk to her audience. While there isn't any of that to be found in this new She-Hulk series, there are plenty of inside jokes about comic books, their audience and the industry itself that will make any avid fan chuckle. The story behind this series is that She-Hulk gets hired by a legal firm that specializes in superhuman cases. The firm has a catch though, they hire Jen Walters not She-Hulk. For a chracter who basically chooses permenantly to remain in her superhero form, this becomes a real identity issue for She-Hulk and this struggle between the confident "Shulkie" (*shudder*) and the insecure Jen is central in the first two trades. It's also one of the more interesting aspects of this series. This new series is written by Dan Slott. It seems that Slott is slated to be Marvel's new golden boy, since they put him on the new Avengers The Initiative title and he'll be one of the many new Spider-man writers after the One More Day event, but it's on this She-Hulk series (and to a lesser extent The Thing) that Slott really got noticed. Slott has a definite lighthearted style to his writing and fans of the Initiative will really enjoy this book, unfortunately I'm of the opinion that The Initiative is below average so while this series definitely had some positives, it really struggled to maintain my interest throughout all four volumes. The first two collections are definitely the best. They have some genuinely funny moments and clever shots at the comic book industry. For example, since She-Hulk works at a superhuman law office, the lawyers use longboxes to research a case rather than legal books. When these longboxes get destroyed the legal team have to head down to the local comic shop to do some research, this outing leads to great exchange between She-Hulk's assistant and the clerk: CLERK: Hey, I've seen you in an issue of She-Hulk. Gotta say, the continuity in your book? It sucks. Like in issue three. People could remember the Inifinity Gauntlet saga, even though everybody got their minds wiped at the end of the I.G.... ASSISTANT: Is that so? Then how do you remember it? CLERK: Read it in a comic. ASSISTANT: Exactly. Because licensed comics, like the Hulk, covered those events. And they saw print before the mind wipe. And when people read 'em, they remember, see? CLERK: Whatever. Another standout for this book is the character of Awesome Andy. He's the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android who has since been reformed and works as a legal clerk. He wears a chalkboard around his neck to write on since he has no face and can't talk, but both Slott and artist Juan Bobillo really manage to convey his emotions to the reader, with both touching and hilarious results. Unfortunatly the final two trades really lack the humor that's so prominent in the first two collections and with the main story being far weaker, they really struggled to maintain my interest. They also suffered from more and more fill in artists as well which really took away from the fun that was found in the first two collections. The series regular artist is Juan Bobillo but numerous issues are done by a variety of fill-in artists. I'm not really familiar with Bobillo but he has a very cartoony, lighthearted style that really fits the book, so much so that when a more detailed (and some might argue, better) artist comes along to fill in for a few issues, the art feels very out of place. Bobillo's interpretation of both the mousey Jennifer Walters and the massive She-Hulk are the perfect contrast and really help illustrate the differences between the two characters (even though we are told by She-Hulk that they are one and the same, the character's behaviour and the art both tell us differently). The biggest negative I found with his art style is the numerous guest stars that show up in this book. Bobillo's interpretations of Spider-Man, Hawkeye and The Thing look particularly off and this is a real knock against a book that relies so heavily on guest stars. I'd recommend the first two trades to anyone who misses days when comics managed to have fun. there is plenty to enjoy in these collections, from Spider-Man suing J. Jonah Jameson for libel, debates over the legality of using a ghost as a witness to their own murder to the villain, Constrictor suing Hercules for physical abuse and mental anguish. It was definitely a fun read but really fell off the rails with the final two collections, I would only recommend those to people who enjoy more simplified storytelling and standard Hulk action. But other than that I feel it lost the humor that was so pivitol to volumes 1 and 2, even the cases that try to capture the feel of the original series tend to fall pretty flat (how did Slott fail to make a concept like charging former Avenger Starfox with sexual harassment funny????) Volume 1 & 2 receive a B-, Volume 3 & 4 a D and the series as a whole I would give a C-. See if you can find 1 & 2 in the library and you won't be disappointed. MIKE

Reviews of a Comic Book nature for the week of 2007-08-29

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:44:04 -0700

Avengers: The Initiative #5 - Oh ya, World War Hulk is still on... just when I was starting to forget it. In all honesty folks, I was going to drop this book, but since it was such a light week for me I figured I'd put that off until next month. This book isn't bad, but it's not good either and with so many quality books out there it just makes me feel bad spending my money on this. I have absolutely no interest in these characters, but with this issue they introduced The Shadow Initiative, the black ops team of trained superhumans. While this concept is more interesting to me, the excution was equally as boring as the previous team, and I have a feeling that the idea won't last beyond this issue either. The art is good, but it's not my favorite style. Im not a fan of the anime school of art that this draws from but I can still appreciate the energy on each page (I was a fan of the "constipated Hulk" face on the second to last page though. An extremely average book. C Teen Titans #50 - This book is nothing if not consistent. I've been disappointed with maybe 4-5 issues total, and everyone other than that is either above average or great. This issue falls into the great category. The issue centers around the fallout of the death of Bart Allen, the Flash. Now this leads into the only real problem I have with this issue, it's late. Bart's death feels like it was ages ago, we've already gone over the last issue of the Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, the service in Countdown, All-Flash #1 and the new renumbered issue of the Flash. They should have covered the reaction to Bart's death far sooner and just skipped over those silly Amazon Attacks tie-ins. Other than that minor complaint though, this issue was fantastic. I love it when books focus on character development rather than action and fluff and this book has it in spades. It travels through Titans (and Young Justice) history to give us flashbacks of Bart's greatest moments, it even sneaks in an old Wally West Kid Flash scene. It does set up a major confrontation for the next issue but my interest laid elsewhere. The scenes with the major DC heroes kinda of discounts the big reveal at the end anyway. A Countdown 35 - You've got to be kidding me!! No Rogues storyline?!?! What's the point? After realizing this I should have thrown down my copy of Countdown and stormed out of the room but I didn't, and am I glad I made that choice. This was far superior to the last few issues of this series (which had me contemplating dropping this book). This is still wasn't fantastic, but there definitely were a lot more aspects that enjoyed. I still down care for the Atom/Red Hood/Donna Troy story, and it still basically feels like an advertisment for The All-New Atom. After a disappointed past few weeks, the Mary Marvel story has started to pick up steam again. I didn't like her with Zatanna and I like the fact that she may have lost her one hope at redemption here. The Jimmy Olsen story went on far too long and is still retarded. Why does DC think this series needs a comic relief? 52 didn't, and it managed just fine, thank you very much. I'm still not interested in either the Karate Kid or the Holly Robinson stories. The KK part felt like a cop-out from it's set up last issue and the Robinson story bugs me only because DC has failed to really tell us who she is and why we should care about her (is Catwoman that sucessful a book that the majority of readers will know who she is by name alone?). I liked the Parallax backup story because I personally seem to be on a big Green Lantern kick right now. All in all this has kept me on for yet another week, but I have to agree with pkbear when he says that two to four pages per storyline just doesn't seem to be enough to keep this series going. C+ Batman Annual #26 - I really don't have too much to say about this comic. It was utterly average in every respect. Average art, average story, average origin. I suppose if your a HUGE Batman fan you'll enjoy it. It does contain an origin of Ra's Al Ghul and features Batman's son, Damian. But really, Al Ghul's origin isn't that interesting and the rest of the story is pretty flimsy. It felt like a big waste of time to me and a waste of five bucks. C Countdown To Adventure #1 - I wasn't initially going to pick up this book but again, the light week gives us a handful of unexpected books. This book is divided into three stories. The first is Adam Strange's return to Rann. The second (which I assume is connected with the first) is Animal Man's returen to family life, complete with a passed out Starfire in his guest bedroom. The thrid is what we were all clamouring for, a Forerunner origin story! Can you feel the excitement? I'm not a big fan of space stories (which is why my current Green Lantern kick feels so surprising) but this Adam Strange story doesn't really feel like a space opera yet. Rann has found a replacement for Strange in his absence (something that doesn't really fit in with what we've seen in Brave and the Bold, but whatever) and tension ensues. The Animal Man feels like something out of a bad sitcom as Starfire awakes from her coma without her powers and AM's family takes her in as the new life in Nanny. I love Buddy and his family so I'm willing to give this story another issue. The Forerunner story sucked big, fat, hairy monkey balls and was so boring I will be skipping it over when I pick up issue 2. It went on for far too long and really didn't offer any interesting insight, did anyone really care about this character when she was introduced in Countdown? Overall, though, a decent first issue. B The Last Fantastic Four Story - I should have known better than to pick this up. Earlier in the month I wrote this: Quote: "you know what? im not really that big of a fan of retro comics. i've tried to get into older issues and they just never click. I can appreciate the art and storytelling in them, but they don't entertain me. I loved the older stuff when i was a kid, they were more simplified back then, but the reason i got back into comics a few years ago is because they grew up and the stories were more mature. They didn't feel like they were written for kids anymore and those retro book do. that's not to say i've given up on pre-80s books, but they have to really wow me to warrant any kind of praise." This is a retro-book, it's written exactly like something out of the early 60s and not even one of the good stories. It's wierd seeing all this older writing style with the very modern look of John Romita Jr. and in fact if it weren't for JRJR's art I would have avoided this like the plague. His art's good but not good enough to save this book. Stan Lee, stick with Striperella. D 52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen #1 - Wow! This surprised the hell out of me! So far DC has been hitting these 52 miniseries out of the park! This book takes place in the country of Bialya, where Black Adam unleashed his reign of terror in World War III, and basically it entails the rebirth of the Four Horsemen from 52 into four seemingly random people. The first issue focuses on Famine. I was lost for the majority of the first part of this book, but when he finally shows up, things really kick into high gear. I still don't really know what's going on with the folks over on Oolong Island but the dark debut of Famine and his attack on Batman and Superman really has me stoked for the next issue. The art really fit the story as well as it remained dark and really helped convey the bleakness that came about in the damage from WWIII. If you liked 52 and the other follow-up minis check this one out, you won't be disappointed. A- That's it folks, all my books for the week, done in a little over four hours, I can't believe it! From the looks of things the Pick of the Week was Teen Titans #50, but I definitely have to give The Four Horsemen a big recommendation, it was the surprise of the week, check it out!

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:12:28 -0700

Back in the glory days of the early nineties, comics experienced a sales boom. The speculator market ran rampant and everyone bought as many "event" books as they could, hoping that their next purchase would turn into a hundred dollar book down the road. Unfortunately, this ripe market led to some of the worst comics ever created by man (in some cases, they were so bad they HAD to have been written by Satan himself). I was mostly into Marvel comics at that time, so when an event called Zero Hour swept across all of DC's line, it largely went unnoticed by me. But now with my growing interest in DC continuity, I figured I'd check out what seemed like a pretty important collection of the original Zero Hour miniseries. Lucky for me, I didn't pay for this piece of garbage. I should have known things weren't going to end well when I picked it up off my brother's shelf to borrow and he exclaimed "Really?!?! You want to read THAT?". A statement like that coming from my brother, who usually likes the more cheesy comic books, is never a good sign. This trade collects the original miniseries (which counted backwards from 5 to 0-- take THAT Countdown!) as well as Showcase '94 8 and 9, which introduces us to Waverider and the Linear Men (characters I had never heard of and now wish I hadn't). The book was written and drawn by Dan Jurgens, who was somewhat of a DC stable in the 90s as both a writer and an artist. He was the guy who drew that infamous "splash plage" issue of Superman where he was killed by Doomsday, and he also currently draws the new Booster Gold series from DC. Basically there is very little story here. They try to keep the villain a mystery for most of the book but since it's basically spoiled on the cover of the trade, I don't think it's much of a mystery at all. Zero Hour tries to be the spiritual successor to Crisis on the Infinite Earths and in some ways it succeeds. But it takes the worst elements of that Crisis and puts them in this series (the mess of characters, the jumping from place to place, the convoluted storyline). The book starts with Waverider and the Linear Men confronting Monarch. Now, to the best of my understanding, this isn't the same Monarch from the Armageddon 2000 (who was a future version of Hawk from Hawk and Dove) miniseries because he was killed by Hawk from the present, but upon killing him, Hawk becomes the Monarch and this is the one we are seeing here. NOTE: Now I'm reading what I just wrote and I'm trying to figure out a clearer way to explain this mess, but I can't, that's basically what happened. It seems that time has begun to unravel, both in the past and in the future and it's up to the DC heroes to stop it. We are led to believe that it's Monarch (who for some reason changes into a new villain named Extant) who is responsible, but it's later revealed to be Parallax (a power-mad Hal Jordan, the former and now current Green Lantern). Parallax is destroying all time because he wants to start from scratch and create a new reality without all the horrendous attrocities that have happened in the DC U (Batgirl getting paralyzed by the Joker, the first Crisis, and the destruction of Coast City). This book's story is a mess. I got the gist of the story, but many of the panels are useless and would be better had they been filled with jibberish (in some cases it feels like they are filled with jiberish). Series like these were what kept me away from the DC U when I was younger. It's convoluted, ridiculous and filled with boring characters that no one cares about. The intention of this book was to "clean up" the mess that was the DC U timeline, but in my opinion, it felt like more of an excuse to introduce newer "extreme" costumes and kill off some of the more boring heroes and introduce new versions (many of the JSA are killed off and replaced but it doesn't feel like a big deal at all). More than once do we see a character transported, or arriving to a new location (for whatever reason) in a brand new costume. The other characters make note that it's new but no explanation is ever given for the new suit. NOTE: Once the heroes beat Parallax, Guy Gardner (who had been wearing a suit of armour for the entire series) is transported back to earth and is suddenly wearing tribal paint. All he says is "What the--! Where'd my armour go?" and then the topic is dropped. WTF???? This has to be one of the most poorly written trades I've ever read, but it does have a few redeeming features that save it from receiving a F. Dan Jurgens art is great. More than any other artist, I associate Jurgens with the pre-2000 DC U. I really enjoy the art for that time period, though now his new stuff does feel a bit dated. It's detailed and remains very dynamic and energetic. I also enjoyed his layouts and some of the artistic choices he made (they intentionally left a few pages balnk to emphasize the final confrontation and it was really effective). The colouring by Gregory Wright was also excellent and helped convey the energy and gradeur that should be associated with the superheroes of the DC U. And, as much as I bitched about the story, I did enjoy the finale. I'm a big sucker for Oliver Queen, The Green Arrow, and he plays a central role here. He is the heart of this story, since perhaps no one knows Hal Jordan better than him. The final faceoff between the two "hard travellin' heroes" gave me goosebumps, it was spot on. I wish I could find just those 5 panels and post them here to save you all the trouble of reading this, because it truly is a great moment. But these positives can't save this series. It's a mess and I can't possibly recommend it. It's hard to follow but still remains a simplistic story and helped cement one of DC's greatest heroes, Hal Jordan, as an outright villain. I can see why so many of Hal's fans were in such an uproar about this, whether Kyle Rayner was a good replacement or not, what DC did with one of their biggest icons is unforgivable and felt completely out of character (especially after reading the Greatest Green Lantern Stories Ever Told collection). Just thank god that Geoff Johns saved this clusterfuck in the spectacular Green Lantern Rebirth miniseries. D- MIKE