The last week. It’s been and up and down month, with controversy, unexpected gems, bitter disappointments and some bad memories thrown in for good measure. I’ll be keeping a lot of titles, but a few are getting dropped. Enough talk, on to the week!
From my least favorite to most:
WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW
#6 – Superman
Superman distinguishes itself because it is the only DCnÜ book I couldn’t finish on the first read through. I actually had to take a break from reading any comics for an hour or two. I was afraid that the taint of this book would rub off on something else.
There are three separate sets of captions throughout the book. The blue ones belong to Supes, the pink (yes, pink) one for Lois Lane, and brown ones that just suck. You see, comics are a visual medium, and the brown captions describe what you see in the panel! It turns out they’re from a news story Clark wrote about the fight between Superman and some sort of fire monster.
Every Superman cliché is pulled out. Truth, Justice and the American Way is used. Faster than a speeding bullet. Leaping tall buildings. Look, we all know the clichés. Use them, but do it sparingly. George Pèrez feels like he’s trying to include every possible Superman catch phrase, and frankly, it’s distracting.
It is a welcome distraction from the story, however. We start out with a giant alien blowing a horn. What does it mean? It must be bad, the lettering looks scary! Unfortunately, all the scary letters in the world don’t mean much if they don’t give us a reason to have a reaction of any kind. We then move on to the Daily Planet building being demolished. See, it turns out that the Daily Planet was bought by a Fox-like media conglomerate, and now they get a new building! Clark is mad that the Planet seems to be going the route of the tabloid, but Lois is in charge of the new department, and she says it’ll be all right.
Lois Lane is a Pulitzer award winning investigative journalist. We discover that not only has Lois left print journalism, but she left it to be an…anchorwoman on TV. Now she’s running the Daily Planet. Look, I’ve met more than one Pulitzer winner, and the only reason any of them have left journalism is to teach or retire. I’m happy that Lois is a strong, independent and successful woman. I’m just not seeing the motivation to leave print journalism to be what amounts to a middle manager.
Then Supes fights a fire monster. Stuff blows up. Lois makes some tough calls, and everything works out. Honestly, I wasn’t paying much attention at that point.
Overall Rating: D- (and only because of Lois)
Next Month: No No No No No No Oh god it was bad No No No No No No
#5 – Green Lantern: New Guardians
I’ve never been a fan of the Green Lantern (any version, really), but this one promised to be a different enough story that I was willing to give it a shot. Kyle Rayner has to work with a bunch of different colored Lanterns to do…something. We’re not sure what, because this issue is all about the team getting together.
After a bit of back story, we discover variously colored Lanterns throughout the universe suddenly losing their rings. A few die because of it. The rings fly to Earth, where they all converge on Kyle. Then, representatives of the various colors show up, blaming Kyle for killing (or attempting to kill) the former bearers.
None of the colors really get along, and now they’re all in the same place, and pissed. Next month’s fight should be pretty good. Overall, I was happy with the story. There’s a plan, though I’m not sure what it is yet. The art is fine, and Kyle’s ring constructs are beautiful.
Overall Rating:B
Next Month: I’ll get it for at least another month.
#4 – The Fury of Firestorm
This book had a lot going for it. I’m an admitted Gail Simone fanboy, so I was willing to give it a shot knowing next to nothing about Firestorm. I still don’t know much, but I know enough that I’m interested in learning more.
Two things stood out in the book. First, the villains. No metahuman baddies for Gail, that would be too easy. Instead, we have a team of soldiers intent on tracking down something. The bad guys and girls are strangely likable. Honestly, I liked them better than the two kids who ended up being carriers of the Firestorm protocols. Sure, they’re killers, and torturers, but they at least are having a good time. They do what is necessary (in their view) to do the job, but they aren’t soulless monsters.
The second surprise of the book is that the two heroes have a discussion about race. See, one of them is black and a nerd, while the other is white and a gifted athlete. After their first meeting, both of them have things to think about. In fact, Ronnie later asks his mother why they don’t have any black friends. In a touching moment, she tells him that she doesn’t know, and that it just happened to work out that way.
Together, that’s enough to keep my interest. This book is aimed at teenagers, so there is an awful lot of teen angst going on here. For now, I can plow through it.
Overall Rating: B+
Next Month: I’ll keep it until the teen angst overwhelms me.
#3 – Teen Titans
Reading Superboy (which I didn’t review because I bought it on a recommendation well after I got my other books that week – it was great, by the way) prompted me to pick this one up. I have to say, for being a teen book, there is surprisingly little teen angst in this one. Instead, we get a great story, chock full of action and suspense.
It was so good that we gave a copy to a thirteen year old kid we know who just figured out that comics are cool.
Tim Drake is the worlds greatest detective. Don’t let Elongated Man or Batman tell you otherwise. Even though he’s not old enough to drink, he’s doing work that is vital. He’s figured out that an organization known as N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is targeting teenaged superkids. He’s putting a team together to stop them. He’s tracking those kids down, all without adult supervision.
I loved the interaction between Tim and Wonder Girl. She’s got a tough exterior, but some issues, you see. She’s fun to read, and has enough superpowers to make her close to world-class. What she lacks is tactics. Enter Tim, who learned his trade from the Bat. This is going to be a fun ride.
Also, Superboy is gonna mess their shit up, yo.
Overall Rating: A
Next Month: Oh, yeah.
#2 – Blackhawks
Remember the baddies from Firestorm? Because the Blackhawks are the good guy version of them. A team of U.N. badasses who handle thing no one else can, the Blackhawks are a fun ride. Compared to Men of War, Blackhawks is better in every way. There isn’t a lot of jargon thrown around. There isn’t a lot of exposition. There is action, and romance, and nanobots.
I confess, the only Blackhawk I knew before picking this up was Zinda Blake (aka Lady Blackhawk) from the old Birds of Prey. These Blackhawks aren’t time travelers, but they are on the cutting edge. The hanger is full of spectacular looking vehicles. The security checks for nanotech. The romance is illicit.
Possibly the best part, though, is the explanation of all the nicknames. Everyone has one, and they are all tied to some amusing story. Irish, for example, is from the Eastern Bloc. Canada is from Georgia.
The book goes balls to the wall the entire way through, and if they keep it up, I’m hooked.
Overall Rating: A+
Next Month: Oh yes.
#1 – Aquaman
Aquaman is a joke. Geoff Johns knows this. Rather than trying to fight it, he embraces it. People make fun of him. People make stupid assumptions about him. I’m surprised he didn’t murder anyone.
The fun of this book is that it’s so aware of itself, without being self-referential. We all know that Aquaman’s power to talk to fish is kind of useless. Geoff rolls with it, making it a part of him. He is a master storyteller – I didn’t notice the parts of the story where we learn about Aquaman’s history until the second read through. Geoff Johns manages to write it in, but in a way that doesn’t pull the reader out.
The real selling point for me, though, is the Trench.
Aquaman is fighting H.P. Lovecraft’s Deep Ones. I am so excited.
Overall Rating: A+
Next Month: Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Oh god it was good Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Megs is part of the team behind 
Isa is the genius behind the art of Namesake (and some of the story), so everything I said above applies here. But there is more!
I am a sucker for crime stories. No one writes crime like Ed Brubaker. I recently had the opportunity to read his Criminal series, and it knocked my socks off. Okay, not literally, but it was close. If I hadn’t been wearing shoes at the time, my socks would have come right off.
I’ll be honest, I had never heard of Jen until my partner met her at 
I fell in love with Greg Rucka reading Gotham Central (also Ed Brubaker, it must be admitted. Seriously, whoever thought to put them together is a genius.) Then I read Stumptown. Now I’m hooked. Want more? Greg is writing the Punisher.