DC Comics Review: Superman: Secret Origin #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ****
Wow! Fantastic! For someone who didn’t grow up reading the Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes stories, I have nothing to compare this issue to. However, I must say that this is a great story that I think longtime fans of those stories will agree that it can stand alongside those classic tales. If you didn’t read issue one, first off, go now to your comic store and get it; second, this issue can stand alone as a great story with some amazing art work. The creative team once again is Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. They introduced us to a teenage Clark Kent living in Smallville adjusting to his super powers and discovering where they came from. We’re also introduced to a teenage Lex Luthor who has an abusive, alcoholic father whom Luthor tries kill in the beginning of our second issue.
The issue opens with Lionel Luthor driving down a highway. There is rubble on the road and he tries to swerve and hit the breaks - unfortunately the breaks are out thanks to Lex. Lionel’s car goes over the side of the highway and is about to plunge into the water when Superboy saves the day. A beautifully drawn scene by Frank, but my one complaint is that I think Superboy looks more like a 10 year-old than a teenager in that scene. Lionel survives, but not for long as Luthor is successful in murdering his father at the end of the issue.
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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.
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DC Comics Review: Green Lantern #46
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
Another great issue by Geoff Johns and artist Doug Mahnke. We pick up where we left off in the last issue with Sinestro and Carol Ferris being confronted by a bunch of Black Lanterns. Sinestro narrates our story and talks about his friend the Green Lantern, Abin Sur, and his obsession with the prophecy of the darkness that would sweep across the universe - The Blackest Night. The Guardians and Sinestro himself thought Abin was insane and Sinestro confesses that his biggest regret is not believing in his friend. This is a much more sympathetic Sinestro than I’m used to. I have a love/hate feeling when a villain is shown to have reasons behind his villainy. I think some people are just bad and there’s no reason. Still the back story is interesting.
The group of Black Lanterns that are attacking are lead by Abin’s brother Amon and they battle it out with Sinestro and Carol until Hal Jordan and the Indigo Lanterns arrive to assist in the fight. Hal is upset because Indigo 1, the leader of the Indigo Lanterns, took Hal away from the other JLA heroes in their fight against another group of Black Lanterns. Being long-time enemies, Hal and Sinestro of course end up fighting each other. Indigo 1 interrupts their fight and talks to Sinestro about her past meeting with Abin Sur. Sinestro wants to know what she knows of Abin, but more Black Lantern rings arrive and resurrect more of the dead.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Green Lantern #46
DC Comics Review: Superman: Secret Origin #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ****
There have been numerous Superman origins in the character’s 70 year history. From the original Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster origin, to the more recent John Byrne and Mark Waid origins or Superman’s early adventures that we’ve seen over the past 20 years. Now we get another new “origin” tale by Geoff Johns with this week’s Superman: Secret Origin. When I heard that they were doing this, I said to myself, “Is this really necessary?” Well with the recent continuity changes that have been made over the past few years, I guess you can make an argument for it. If it were any other writer doing it, I would not be picking this mini-series up, but since it’s Geoff Johns and I loved what he and Richard Donner did with their recent run on Action Comics, I decided to pick it up. Well, I’m glad to say that I’m not disappointed.
Our first issue opens in Smallville of course with Clark Kent as a teenager about to begin a pick up game of football with Pete Ross and some other Smallville teenagers. Clark catches the ball and runs into Pete, which breaks Pete’s arm. Distraught over the incident, Clark is confused by what’s happening to him. There to comfort him is his childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. She kisses Clark which gets Clark all hot and bothered, resulting in his heat vision to shoot off—he almost burns the school down.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Superman: Secret Origin #1
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #3
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ****
Wow! Blackest Night may be Geoff Johns’ best work yet and along with artist Ivan Reis, it makes the story that much better. In the two previous issues we had a lot of fighting and an establishing of the situation, but with this issue we get a firm direction of where this series will be headed and what needs to be done to stop the Black Lanterns.
Our story opens up with the new Firestorm, Jason Rusch. As we know from the previous Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond, Firestorm is not just one person. It took the combination of Ronnie Raymond and Professor Mark Stein to form the Firestorm matrix. Currently Jason’s other half of the Firestorm matrix is his girlfriend Gehenna whom he calls Gen. The two are discussing their relationship. Jason is able to read the thoughts of Gen when they are merged together as Firestorm and realizes Gen wants to get married. Jason isn’t ready and Gen says that maybe they shouldn’t be Firestorm together. But before Jason can answer that, his Justice League comm link goes off alerting him to some trouble.
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DC Comics Review: The Flash: Rebirth #4
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ***
After almost three months, The Flash: Rebirth series continues. I’ve liked this series so far, but this issue was very confusing. It reminded me of some comic book stories I read in the 90s where the story was very exciting, but I had no idea what was going on. I kind of felt that way here with this issue as I had to go over and re-read certain things to get a better grasp of what was going on - and as of right now, I’m still not 100% sure what’s going on or how to explain it. However confusing the story may be, the action is intense and non-stop in this issue and with the action being presented by artist extraordinaire Ethan Van Sciver, you don’t mind it as page after page showcase some amazing artwork.
In our last issue, the main villain of our story stood revealed and to no surprise it was Eobard Thawne the Reverse Flash, Professor Zoom. Okay. So from what I can understand, Thawne is responsible for infecting Barry with his current affliction of hurting speedsters. According to Thawne, he has created a negative Speed Force. It seems that when Barry was hit by lightning he created the Speed Force at that moment and now Thawne has created the negative Speed Force and it’s the cause of Barry’s disorder.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: The Flash: Rebirth #4
DC Comics Review: Adventure Comics #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
By the end of the mini-series Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, writer Geoff Johns resurrected two recently deceased super-heroes: Kid Flash and Superboy. With this issue we see another resurrection as well with the return of the long running DC title Adventure Comics. The original book ran from 1938 to 1983 and featured numerous adventures of secondary DC super-heroes. Some of the characters that were featured in the title were stories about Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes. With the return of Adventure, we will be seeing new stories featuring both Superboy and the Legion once again.
The difference here of course is where the original Adventure Comics showcased tales of a young Clark Kent as Superboy, this series will focus on Conner Kent who is a genetically created clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. In this issue we see Conner return to Smallville to live with Superman’s mom Martha Kent. Since he’s partially a clone of Superman, he’s also calling her Ma.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Adventure Comics #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: Green Lantern #44
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ***
Blackest Night continues in this week’s issue of Green Lantern #44. I liked this issue. It wasn’t as good as last week’s first issue of the Blackest Night mini-series, but it was still a good read. Geoff Johns is also the writer here as he continues his run on the main Green Lantern title. Doug Mahnke who many know from his work on Batman, provides the artwork here and does a great job. Some very cool splash pages. I think his work is better here than it was over in Batman.
The story picks up from Blackest Night #1 as we saw the Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onnzz is now a Black Lantern and he confronts Hal Jordan and Barry Allen. In a very cool scene we see when the black ring found the body of the Martian Manhunter as the Oreo cookie that Batman left on his coffin falls to the ground and crumbles as he bursts out of the coffin and flies off. J’onn keeps talking about how both Barry and Hal should be dead. I wonder if their resurrections have anything to do with the prophecy behind the rise of the Black Lanterns and the war that will take place among the various colored lanterns.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Green Lantern #44
DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #1 - Dave’s Take
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
I’m not a huge Green Lantern fan. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, I was a Marvel Zombie for a long time. Even when I started reading DC Comics it was just Batman and nothing else. It wasn’t until the early 90s with the Death of Superman that I started reading other DC books. For the majority of the time I’ve been reading DC, Kyle Rayner was the Green Lantern, not Hal Jordan. I liked Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern: Reborn, but I wasn’t crazy about his regular ongoing work on the new GL title. I can appreciate why many people like it and the art has been amazing, but I preferred other titles.
I liked the Sinestro Corps storyline and I’ve been reading the lead up to this month’s big event: Blackest Night. This first issue was very good. The GL issues have been a bit hard for me to follow because I know very little about GL history and its been hard to connect with these characters. I also don’t really understand all of the multicolor lantern corps that are popping up and what is the purpose of the Black Lantern Corps which at the center of this storyline the Blackest Night. All I know and understand is whoever or whatever is behind all this is recruiting the bodies of deceased super-heroes and super-villains. The Black Hand who is a long standing GL villain, killed himself only to be resurrected as a Black Lantern and he’s become the unofficial squad leader of the corps.
Our story begins on the anniversary of Superman’s “death”. When it was believed that Superman was dead, the government declared it a day of national mourning. When he was resurrected, the day became a day to honor the deceased super-heroes who’ve fallen in the line of duty. In Coast City, the day takes a special meaning as they honor the dead civilians who died at the hands of Mongul and the Cyborg Superman.
In the beginning of the issue we see Black Hand unearthing Bruce Wayne’s body and talking to his skull. In a perverse homage to Hamlet, Black Hand speaks and then licks Bruce’s skull and says that he is connected to them all. Does Black Hand know that Bruce is really alive?
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Blackest Night #1 - Dave’s Take
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