Whew, I’m so close on getting caught-up with reviews. Tomorrow will be the test as I’ve gotten quite a few more read, but can I get them all out? Well find out. Today enjoy a mix of good and bad and the logic defying.
Titans #27 – Written by Eric Wallace and Art by Fabrizio Fiorentino & Cliff Richards. Another journey into the land of Deathstroke’s Titans or his Anti-Titans, or his Villians for Hire, or… whatever you want to call it. Deathstroke and his group are trying to break up a Bliss ring and Arsenal finds out that Bliss is made out of kids! So it’s like soylent green with a buzz, awesome. Osiris has more visions about his sister and of course, he simply has to bring her back. Hasn’t the Black Marvel family learned anything? Man are they obsessed with bringing people back from dead constantly. It never leads to anything good. We also have Arsenal dealing with his addictions, so we keep going back down that path. So the question is, will he even be able to do the right thing in the end? This is probably the best issue of the new Titans run with Deathstroke, but that doesn’t say a ton. The addiction issues isn’t a bad story to tell, but we keep getting this with characters who have no redeeming qualities. Well, we already have Secret Six and they do a much better job of dealing with these types of characters. Wallace is still trying to find his groove and he’s getting closer, but it still needs a little seasoning. So this is still not a book worth picking up, but it is slowly making improvements.
Shadowland: Moon Knight #2 – Written by Gregg Hurwitz and Penciled by Bong Dazo. We see Moon Knight fighting his way through the fortress of Daredevil’s and he encounters Murdock. Apparently Khonshu know the Beast that possesses Daredevil all too well. Khonshu also knows exactly what will destroy the Beast, so Moon Knight has a pivotal role to play in the Shadowland saga. Moon Knight returns home to find Marlene savagely beaten, which is even worse given that she’s pregnant. She reveals that she was attacked by this new Shadow Knight. All the while it looks like Khonshu is closer to getting exactly what he wants and that isn’t good news for our hero. First off, Bong Dazo is awesome. I just love his art and the feel he’s managed to bring to this title. The story is worth telling and it is a great crossover title that is also bringing Moon Knight back to prominence. This story is a bit less confusing than in last issue, so that will help any new readers. Plus, Marvel always has a great review of what’s going on in their titles, which is something DC needs to do. I read them just because I usually read so many issues and I want a brief refresher. Hurwitz does a great job at tying several plots into one seamless offering. He’s telling stories worth telling and you’ve got to love that. One of the better titles I’ve read in awhile, so buy it!
Justice League of America #49 – Written by James Robinson and Penciled by Pow Rodrix with Robson Rocha. We join Donna Troy and Jade as they visit San Francisco. They stop by what I’m guessing is Alcatraz, but anyway, they stop there to check up on the Shadow Thief. Can you say eventual storyline there? Anyway, some guy named Bogeyman wants to see them. He apparently liked to get into children’s dreams and make them dream awful, rotten things. But really, that’s about all of his powers. Now, isn’t that what the Boogeyman is? What the hell is a Bogey-man? Is this Top Gun? Do we have a Bogey? Well, he invades the dreams of a grown-up Donna Troy and Jade somehow and knocks them out. But all of this is just blah, blah, blah. The Bogeyman was never a feared enemy of the Teen Titans like they seemed to make up completely. And even if he was, he can’t really do anything besides give you scary dreams and now, apparently, make you fall asleep. Why didn’t he ever do this to the guards watching him? What the heck is going on? This makes no sense whatsoever! But hey, it’s better than any issue with Mark Bagley as the artist. Gotta like that! Oh, and the sub-plot with Batman and Supergirl isn’t bad at all. Poor lonely Supergirl. It’s just a mediocre story with huge gaps in logic, not worth picking up.
Supergirl #56 – Written by Sterling Gates and Penciled by Jamal Igle. So we have Bizarrogirl and Supergirl rocketing through space, heading toward the infamous Bizarro World. Supergirl is still upset about what she did during the whole New Krypton storyline and is trying to come to terms with it. She feels responsible for the planet blowing up. On Bizarro World we meet Bizarro Lex who is the smartest one on the planet, so he almost makes sense. Some big machine that looks like some sort of space monster that is eating people and is from some “Godship”. Bizarro soon shows up and explains the situation as best a Bizarro can. The problem with Bizarro-centric things is that it can get old quick. What is fun for half the issue, starts bogging down and getting annoying and old. The worst part is, Bizarro-speak is hard for a writer to keep writing, especially if they’re trying to explain things. You can lose your reader far too easily if you keep doing opposites on everything. The artwork is alright, looks pretty decent, not the best artist they’ve put on this title, but it’s fine. Overall, the issue is fun for awhile, but pretty mediocre and I can’t imagine three issues of this stuff, so you can probably just skip this.
Avengers Academy #4 – Written by Christos Gage and Penciled by Mike McKone. When last we left off, Hazmat, Veil and Mettle set-up a black-out at the raft to go kill Norman Osborn. In this issue, we see the results, with Osborn finding a way to weasel his way out of yet another very bad situation. We also learn some background information on Mettle. Never would I have guessed that Mettle was just a surfer dude by nature. We saw most of what happened during the black-out two issues ago in Thunderbolts, so there wasn’t a big surprise there, but there are still some good fight scenes. I liked how they did the origin of Mettle, it was very fun and interesting. The question is, if he isn’t a mutant, then how did this happen? So far they’re hedging around giving us any of those answers, but I’m hoping that eventually we find out. Gage provides another quality written issue and McKone’s work is still improving. I really liked how he drew Osborn’s face, He really does a very good job in this issue! Once again, Avengers Academy is a winner and worthy of putting in your collection.
Thor #615 – Written by Matt Fraction and Art by Pasqual Ferry. This is the first issue written by Matt Fraction. We start with a scientist explaining something to an “unknown” Asgardian about how the Universes are interconnected and eventually comes to the point that with Asgardian leaving it’s basic “plane of existence” it has left a void that has to be filled. In this issue we get a sense that something is definitely coming to fill that void. Alfheim gets invaded by some big mean nasties that I can’t recall ever seeing before. Meanwhile, Thor deals with the mess Asgard is left in and the heroes therein and how they are coping with what happened. Another interesting thing is that we see Thor talking to Donald Blake, kind of like how Ronald and Professor Stein always talked in Firestorm. Now, my memory gets foggy quite a bit, but I don’t recall ever seeing this aspect before. I always thought that Donald Blake was basically subdued into the subconscious and never took an active part. So this is an interesting take on Thor by Matt Fraction. I’m not quite sure that I care for that part as it doesn’t seem necessary to me. But that’s only my opinion, you might quite like it. The art is pretty well done, the inking isn’t quite as heavy I would like with the coloring style they used, but it isn’t bad either. An ok first issue by Matt Fraction, this one is a pretty good read, but nothing phenomenal, not a must buy.
