Weekend Reading: Die Hard, Avengers, Stan Lee and Frank Robbins
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent, Marvel Comics
Happy Halloween! You won’t find any Halloween-themed stuff down below because thousands of other people are already way ahead of me on that. What you will find is some very nifty reading (and looking) on folks like Howard Chaykin, Frank Robbins, indie cartoonist J.R. Williams, Stan Lee, and Blackest Night. Start the ball rolling downhill…
Incognegro: Galleycat gives a shout-out to the new graphic novel by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece, making it their Featured Book of Color. This Vertigo book has “movie” written all over it, and I’m sure Diane Nelson has noticed that.
Die Hard: Those We Left Behind enjoys the new Howard Chaykin/Stephen Thompson Die Hard prequel, Die Hard: Year One, from Boom! Says TWLB of the just-released second issue: “The series is really capturing the spirit of the McClane character, with his quick wit and regular-guy attitude.”
The Avengers: James Reasoner reviews Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Volume 1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. “It’s also interesting to see the introduction of storylines that would resonate through the Marvel Universe for years, and in some cases, decades afterwards.” But there’s a “but” coming that you’ll have to click and discover for yourself.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Die Hard, Avengers, Stan Lee and Frank Robbins
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DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #4
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ***
I’m a bit disappointed in this issue. After the first three issues blew me away and I proclaimed that this series was a future classic in the making, writer Geoff Johns stumbles a bit with this month’s issue of Blackest Night. For me, some of Black Lantern Firestorm’s dialogue was written poorly in the opening pages. We also jump to Gotham City for no reason other to see Jean Paul Valley aka Azrael resurrected as a Black Lantern while The Scarecrow whines about admiring the fear that the Black Lanterns are able to invoke (he can’t get scared because he’s used too much of his fear gas). Poor baby. He does have one fear of course - The Batman (cue dramatic Batman music).
This issue mostly focuses on Barry Allen - the Flash and his quest to take the reigns and try to “hold down the fort” here on Earth against the Black Lanterns. He’s with the Atom and Mera of Atlantis and he gives them a good pep talk to try to get them to step up and fight back against the Black Lanterns. The Flash then runs across the Earth continuing his pep talk and informing the other heroes of the situation. He tells them that Green Lantern is off trying to destroy the source of the Black Lanterns’ power and they have to keep fighting until that happens.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #4
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Superman #3
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
Blackest Night comes to end for Superman this week - at least for now. Issue three of Blackest Night: Superman is a lot of fun - this whole series has been fun. As I mentioned in a previous issue, sometimes the most simple plots can be the most fun. All you need to know is that the Black Lanterns are resurrecting the dead in the DC Universe, and they are attacking the living. It’s Night of the Living Dead meets the world of superheroes - what more can you ask for?
Writer James Robinson did a very good job with this one. Behind the story of the Black Lanterns attacking Smallville and New Krypton is the story of a family - the Superman family. I like the dynamic between Martha Kent and her sons Superman and Superboy (and of course the family dog Krypto); on the flip side, we see the difficult family relationship between Supergirl and her mother as they tackle their father/husband who has been resurrected as a Black Lantern. Great drama.
Our story jumps back and forth between the events happening in Smallville to the events on New Krypton. Kara is sad and angry over this thing that she has to fight, this thing that looks and sounds like her father. Meanwhile, Superman and Superboy fight off the Black Lanterns of Earth 2 Superman and the Psycho Pirate. The Psycho Pirate has been able to take over Superboy and make him fight Superman, but Superboy is then able to regain control of his senses use his tactile telekinesis to fight off Earth 2 Superman. Conner wants to be more like Superman, but he hasn’t been using this power because Superman lacks his own. Superman tells Conner that he must use all of his powers and be himself, to not worry about being more like Superman.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Superman #3
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Superman #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ***
The Black Night continues its reign of terror in Smallville in this issue of Blackest Night: Superman. I really enjoyed the first issue of this series, but I felt a bit let down with this second one. One of the things that I felt hurt the first issue of this series continues here and that’s bad dialogue. As you know, Earth 2 Superman has risen from the dead as a Black Lantern and is fighting Superman and Superboy. As they are fighting, Earth 2 Superman taunts Superman with this “amazing” piece of dialogue,“My world was better! I was better! Earth 2? No, it was Earth mine!” Bad. Just bad. I can’t believe that this is the same writer - James Robinson - who wrote one the best comics ever in Starman. What the hell happened?
The story is still decent enough for me to have been entertained along with the solid artwork by Eddy Barrows. This guy is great. I look forward to seeing more of his work, hopefully on bigger projects for DC.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Superman #2
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Batman #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2
Blackest Night: Batman continues this week as Batman, Robin, and Deadman battle the Black Lanterns in Gotham City. I really like what Peter Tomasi is doing with this story. My only problem is again the way he writes Damian. Compared to the way Grant Morrison is writing Damian it’s like they are two different people. If you get past that, it’s a fun story.
Batman and Robin break into the Gotham National Guard Armory to get some weapons to battle the Black Lanterns. At first Damian wants to grab a gun, but Dick tells him no and that they have to honor Bruce’s memory to not use a gun. Not sure why in this case since everyone they’ll be fighting is dead already, but it’s the thought that counts I guess.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Batman #2
DC Comics Review: Green Lantern #45
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ***
When we were first given information about the Blackest Night min-series, we were told that this story would involve all of the various Ring Corps that exist in the universe. So far, we haven’t seen much of them - only the Black Lantern rings racing across the universe and resurrecting the dead into Black Lanterns. That all changes with this month’s issue of Green Lantern. All of the various ring colors are represented here, but the major feature of this issue is the battle between yellow ring leader Sinestro of the Sinestro Corps and Carol Ferris of the violet colored Star Sapphires Corps.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a long-time Green Lantern reader so I didn’t know until recently that Carol Ferris was at one time a Star Sapphire. So the impact of her as a Star Sapphire again and her fighting Sinestro does have the same impact on me as a long-time reader would have. Still it’s very cool. You don’t normally have the girlfriend/wife of a super-hero becoming a hero herself and then fighting her boyfriend/husband’s archenemy all that often. Have we ever seen Mary Jane get powers and fight the Green Goblin? So this is very cool and it adds a whole dynamic to the relationship of Hal Jordan, Carol, and Sinestro.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Green Lantern #45
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Superman #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
The Blackest Night makes its way to Smallville in this first issue of Blackest Night: Superman as Black Lanterns resurrect the deceased Earth 2 Superman and Lois Lane. Our story begins with Pete Ross and some local Smallville townsfolk talking amongst themselves when they notice something flying in the sky. Being a Superman comic, someone is guaranteed to utter the famous “Is that a bird?” quote. Well it’s not a bird of course, but it’s instead the resurrected body of Kal-L, the Superman of Earth 2 as a Black Lantern. He arrives in Smallville and makes his way to the Kent farm where Superman, Superboy, and Krypto are sitting down for coffee with Martha Kent.
I love that Conner is back and Superman has a “brother” of sorts; I love the little family that DC is developing here. I would have Supergirl start to develop a yearning to become a part of this family and have her mother become jealous—this would cause a big rift between them, resulting in a throw down with Superman and Allura with Supergirl caught in between. Speaking of which, we see Zor-El become a Black Lantern on New Krypton later in the issue.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Superman #1
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Batman #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ***
The Blackest Night storyline continues in this separate three issue mini-series entitled Blackest Night: Batman. This series will focus on the Black Lanterns going after the deceased relatives a various Bat-family members. As I mentioned in my review for Blackest Night #2 , this first issue also focuses on Boston Brand - Deadman and his physical body being resurrected into a Black Lantern. Writer Peter Tomasi does a good job here, but I have to give him some negative points on this one because of the way he writes the character of Damian Wayne - Robin. If you’ve been reading Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin, Morrison portrays Damian as a major jerk. Judd Winick follows Morrison’s lead, but has toned it down a bit over in his stories in Batman, but the jerk personality of Damian is thrown completely out the window here in Tomasi’s version of the character. There’s no arrogance; no snide comments about Dick not being the real Batman, nothing. Instead we get a character who if you picked up this issue without knowing what has happened over the past few months, you would think that this new Robin is more along the lines of Tim Drake.
With that being said, the story is still very good in my opinion. It opens up with Batman (Dick Grayson) and Robin at the graves of Bruce Wayne and his parents, Thomas and Martha. As we all know, Black Hand went to Bruce’s grave and took his skull for some unknown reason. The caskets of Thomas and Martha have also been dug up, but their remains have not been resurrected into Black Lanterns. In this scene, Tomasi’s makes his first mistake of writing Damian out of character as Damian shows genuine feeling of sadness as he sees the bodies of his grandparents. He’s so distraught that he can’t bear to pick up their bodies as Dick decides to remove them from their graves to a safer location. The Damian that we see in Batman and Robin probably wouldn’t care much for the bodies of people he didn’t know - even if they are related to him. He’d probably say something like let’s toss ‘em back in the hole and let’s go.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Batman #1
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
Non-stop action. Great artwork. A great story. The Blackest Night mini-series continues this week with another great issue by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. In the last issue we saw the murder of Hawkman and Hawkgirl and their resurrection as Black Lanterns. In this issue, more of the dead rise to become Black Lanterns as we see Aquaman’s body rise to become a Black Lantern along with Aquagirl and Dolphin. They battle Aquman’s wife Mera and the former Aqualad Tempest (worst super-hero name ever!). In another shocking turn of events, Tempest gets killed and becomes a Black Lantern. I’m curious to see how all of these dead heroes will be resurrected as I assume Tempest, Hawkman, Hawgirl, and anyone else who gets turned into a Black Lantern won’t stay dead by the end of the series.
In an interesting twist, the super-hero Boston Brand aka Deadman, sees his body become a Black Lantern, but his spirit form is not effected. His story continues in Blackest Night: Batman which also comes out this week. Some members of the DC magic community: Spectre, Zatanna, Blue Devil, and the Phantom Stranger, become interested in what has happened to Brand and come to investigate his grave. They are greeted by none other than Pariah of Crisis on Infinite Earths who is now a Black Lantern. From his body bursts numerous Black Lantern rings. They do not effect any of them except the Spectre as the ring turns Crispus Allen the current host of the Spectre into a Black Lantern. In a stunning splash page by Reis, we see the Spectre as a giant Black Lantern screaming that he wants Hal Jordan back. Very cool.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #2
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #1 - Todd’s Take
Posted by Todd Matthy Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Two years ago, “The Sinestro Corps War” ended with a teaser…a teaser for an event called “Blackest Night”. Two years and one “Final Crisis” later, the “Blackest Night” is here and starts off with a bang. The opening salvo of “Blackest Night” is action-packed, emotional, and downright creepy. It begins with the heroes of the DC universe paying tribute to fallen heroes. Johns shows how each hero is affected by the death of their comrades or their loved ones. At the same time, the “War of Light” the Guardians of the Universe have been trying to prevent has erupted. Unfortunately this part is brief, but serves its purpose because the Guardians are too distracted to realize the danger soon to be heaped upon the universe. So far the “War of Light” is being covered in the “Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps” title. Then all hell starts to break loose.
The Black Lantern rings have swarmed across the universe like a plague of locusts, picking dead heroes and villains as their bearers. The dead have risen and will begin their assault on the living, targeting Hawkman as their first victim.
The Black Lanterns are DC Zombies with a similar mission as Thanos - to spread death across the universe until everything is dead. The resurrected heroes and villains are mangled and ghoulish, a gross distortion of their once noble forms. The most disturbing are Ralph and Sue Dibny. While this is clearly a set up issue, their is enough character interaction and story to hook you. Johns has been building this event since “Green Lantern: Rebirth” and it shows. I can’t wait for the rest of the story when we find out more about the Black Lanterns and how the heroes of the DC Universe react to their fallen comrades resurrection before realizing that their friends serve the forces of death.
The Blackest Night has arrived….
For more of my thoughts on various subjects, check out my web site: Sledgehammer Productions.
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