GREEN LANTERN Issue # 55 Review

 
RATING 4.4 out of 5 points 

This issue was a BLAST! The writer, Geoff Johns, really struts his stuff.  Issue #55 is part of the Brightest Day Dc Comics Mega event, so... to know the whole storyline, you would have to go looking for back issues, and expect to buy more issues.
BUT if you can bypass needing the rest of the story,  it's a fun issue to read on it's own, and worth the cover price.  Doug Mahnke does pencils, but the whole crew of artists were able to make this issue a wonderful fun romp.

Variant cover Pictured to the right.

FULL REVIEW, Some spoilers 

Yelp...I'm a Lobo Fan. 

BUT... it's hard to find a really righteous, and gratifying, Bad-Ass LOBO story.  SOME writers have him being crude for crude's shake, then SOME writers have him being funny, but that can be a little too cartoonish, which mostly makes him look dumb.

I need my LOBO... to be a... Crudely Funny Bad-Ass. 

Is that too much to ask for? 

     Geoff Johns completely pulled off a truely righteous Lobo  characterization.  Lobo was a BAD-ass..., Crude... and Funny, which was a perfect LOBO.  When Lobo comments, "Feetal's Gizz! Ya can't swing a DEAD CAT without hittin' someone wearin' a POWER RING anymore!", I chortled, and agreed.  Dawg(Lobo's Dog) was even in the issue, just adding more to a great read.


LOBO (a crudely funny Bad-Ass) was hired to bring Atrocitus (a Bad-Ass) DEAD or ALIVE, to some "Ugly Guys" doorstep.  Sinestro (a Bad-Ass),  Green Lantern Hal Jordan (a Bad-Ass), and Pink Lantern Carol Ferris (a ah.. Meh), step in to try to stop him. There is even a fight between Dawg (a Bad-ass dog) and Dex-Starr (a Bad-ass cat). Te He he he... this was pure F-U-N.

The bounty Lobo received was pretty... darn... cool..., and I can't wait to read what Geoff John's has up his sleeve when he tells us more about Lobo's role in Brightest Day.

ALSO there is the additional plot of everyone looking for the Rage entity;
Hal, Sinestro, Carol, Atrocious, Mystery/Guardian, and The Spectre.

Who will get there first?

And....WHO...has the Rage Entity inside them? Whoever they are... apparently they have rage against Holstein calves, or was that a heifer.

This issue also has a extra background story of how Dex-Star became a Red Lantern cat, that was cool.   
"Goooood Kitty."

Preview Download

GREEN LANTERN #55

Writer: Geoff Johns

Pencils: Doug Mahnke

Inks: Christian Alamy,Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne & Mahnke

Colors: Randy Mayer W/ Gabe Eltaeb

Leters: Nick J Napolitano

Cover: Mahnke & Alamy / Variant Cover: Mahnke & Mayor

Publisher: DC Comics

Aug 2010

SECRET SIX: CATS IN THE CRADLE TPB Review SECRET SIX #19 #20 #21 #22

REVIEW: 4 out of 5  points

Te he he he

The Secret Six series is such a guilty pleasure.

The interactions between characters are more then worth the book price, who cares if it has a storyline, but Gail Simone  doesn't  go half way with this four part story.  It has a great storyline, packed... full... of...REVENGE.

FULL REVIEW, Some spoilers

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe,

Catch CATMAN by his Toe,

If he Hollers you will PAY,

You'll NEVER.. see Your next Day

Not because you're good

Not because you're bad

It's 'cause you've made him F#@#$%G  mad.

When this storyline first started I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach because of the  Deadshot mini that came out in 1988(written by Ostrander and Yale).  It was sick and twisted, but in a way that gave nightmares to parents.   

BUT  this was written by Gail Simone, I should have known better then to be trepidatious, because SHE knows how to handle sick and twisted, without going to the places that the Deadshot mini went.  It's hard to really describe how Gail makes sick an' twisted appealing, but she does, and so effortlessly, or so it looks.

In this story, Catman's baby boy gets kidnapped (similar to Deadshots son). The kidnapper demands that Catman do the unthinkable.... and KILL his teammates,
OF course, we know that they... themselves ..are savvy fighters and will survive anything that CATMAN could dish out. Wouldn't they?  Um....  I'm not... so... sure...anymore. Especially after reading these issues.

Catman took his gloves off, so to speak,  and went all out... as he takes revenge on the so called Bad guys of this story.  He works his way up the line of henchmen to the main man who was behind the kidnapping.  Flashbacks are used to get behind his psyche and explains a lot about the character.  A special plot twist at the very end, has Cheshire (mom to the boy)  face consequences of her past.

Catman has not been my favorite character in the Secret Six team. I could take him, or leave him, but after this, Catman is a must for this team, and in the future stories, I'll enjoy reading this character, a lot more.

Gail Simone-

My MAMA told me to pick the very BEST one

And it's Y-O- U

SECRET SIX Issues #19 #20 #21 #22

Title: Cats in the Cradle
Writer: Gail Simone
Cover: Daniel Luvisi
Artist: J. Calafiore
Colorist: Jason Wright
Letterer: Travis Lanham

Publisher: DC Comics
May - August 2010

BATMAN: Gotham after Midnight 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Review TPB

REVIEW:
1.5 out of 5


I've read worse.
Truly, I have.
BUT none of those...have lasted so freakn' long.  I SWEAR... I couldn't keep myself... from putting this down.  I would be in the middle of reading a issue, and would find something to sidetrack myself.  I even got sidetracked reading some of the old JLA Classified issues.  I had to stop myself and tell myself, "No..put that down, you haven't finished Gotham after Midnight yet."  AND force myself to sit and read it.

I even did....housework.  YES, I cleaned... just to avoid reading these issues.

I've been wanting  to read,  Gotham  After Midnight, since that FIRST issue came out.  The title seemed awesome, and the covers, one right after another , were amazing. SO dramatic... They drew your eyes to the issues when your were looking through the stacks.  Luckily... I managed not to succumb to  their sirens song.   It was such a long min(longer then I even knew then) I decided to hold off.

   

Before buying...I read a few bad reviews and tried to stay away from the spoilers.  I thought IT can't be that bad(and maybe it wasn't. It's just so ....long).   THEN about a month ago... I found them at Half-Priced Books, a dollar a piece. I will say, after paying $12 for the mini ...that now...I feel jipped.  Maybe .25 a issue, if you gotta have it.

The first two issues were okay, but then the series seemed a little overly dramatic when there was no point to being dramatic, and campy without being funny.  In the panel above you can see one of the cookie looking gadgets Batman/Bruce would have, so it started to have a old 1960 TV Batman feel to the campiness, which would have been Okay, if it was at least funny.  If Gotham After Midnight was intended to be funny, I didn't laugh...,  not once.  I was expecting more of a moody drama detective story and maybe that had something to do with my enjoyment of the book.  It wasn't what I expected.   As the series went along, it just got worse,  the campiness made Bruce/Batman look pathetic.  Really... pathetic.  I can't stand a pathetic Batman.

                                        

              

                     NOW... I can say, "Phew!! Finally its over." AND my floors have been mopped, so something good did come out of it.

BATMAN: Gotham After Midnight

Mini Issues1-12 of 12

Writer: Steve Niles

Artist: Kelly Jones

Colorist: Michelle Madsen

Letterer: Pat Brosseu

Publisher: DC Comics

2008-2009

 

SUPERMAN & BATMAN vs VAMPIRES & WEREWOLVES #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 TPB

REVIEW:
Rating: 4 out of 5

 A good indication of a great mini is when you can't put it down.  I got all six issues Friday night, had them read by Saturday afternoon.  This is definitely one of the better Batman Vampire stories.

FULL Review :Some Spoilers

Be WARNED, there is a third party narration throughout the series.  We've become use... to the personal captions coming from the character's point of view, so at first,  this can be a little off-putting.  What you need to do, is think of the old horror movie narration, or WWF commentary (wink), both would work. None of the narration is coming from the personal thoughts of the characters.



What really really sells this story.... is the art.  It has an old 1960's  Horror movie feel to it, without being pretentiously artistic, or artsy fartsy.  

The way this story is told, they should have placed "Batman" in the title first.  He is the main character searching for answers through out the issues,  doing the detective work.  Superman doesn't show up til the LAST page of the second issue, and barely gets out of just being a CAMEO character in the story.  Superman is concerned with a boy that he had save, who ended up being turned into a Vampire anyway. He is looking for a cure for what transformed the boy before it is too late.

   

 The bad guy... is Dr Combs (Yes, yet another ... Dr..., in Gotham, that is criminally insane, Ba Wa Ha ha).  He wants to turn the world into the Undead.  In flashbacks, before  Dr Combs  came to Gotham,  his first test subjects were Marius Dimeter and Janko. He turned Dimeter into a Vampire and Janko into a Werewolf,  when they were in Russia. 

    Dimeter and Janko, track Dr Combs to Gotham, in hope of being turned back into normal Human beings.  In the mean time, Dr Combs is using Dimeter's and Janko's blood, in a serum, and injects it into others, turning these new subjects into Vampires and Werewolves, filling the streets of Gotham with the UNDEAD. Chaos and havoc fill the streets of Gotham.

     
CAMEOS;
Wonder Woman
Nightwing
Green Arrow
The Demon: Etrigan/Jason Blood
Dr Langstrom/ Man-Bat

Which eyes goes to which character?
Aw ...come on...guess.

SUPERMAN & BATMAN vs VAMPIRES & WERE WOLVES
Issue 1: Seize the Night!
Issue 2: A Nightwing and a Prayer!
Issue 3: An Unspeakable HORROR!
Issue 4: Give Blood Save Lives
Issue 5: Dead of Night!
Issue 6:Fear the Night!

Writer: Kevin VanHook
Art & Cover : Tom Mandrake
Colors: Nathan Eyring
Letters: Travis Lanham
Publisher: DC Comics
2008-2009


EYES: Superman, Entrigan, Langstrom, Dimeter, Batman, Dr Combs, Jason Blood

This is MY FIRST.... I'm so giddy with joy ...that I must share my experience.

This was MY First, you... heard me...MY FIRST!!!

Do you remember your first?

I must admit that I was a little Naive...

Quite unsure what to ask for...

I mean, IT was my First... and I didn't know WHAT to expect.

BUT to describe how it feels, this first, I'm absolutely Ecstatic...Giddy...and so ...damn Happy with what I got, that I can't wait to do it again.

This was my first commissioned comic art piece.

I wanted action, so I asked for Batman fighting Huntress. THAT'S all I wrote for instructions.

I didn't even imagine this angle, or Huntress doing a beat down on Batman(not that it's possible), but it's so cool.

I'm so so.. HAPPY!

AND he's FAASST...

I paid for it Friday,
said what I wanted,
and it was in my hands Wednesday.
We patron the same comic book store, so I told him to leave it with the clerk and I would pick it up with my comics.

If you are looking for someone who can pencil, ink, color...he can do it all. He has a lot of talent.

WHO IS HE? you ask.


Benjamin Ryan Moffett and his blog is called The Little Kingdom
This is his Deviant Art Page

I had been thinking of buying a commission for a while, just to find out what it was about, and how to go about it, and what to ask for, and what to expect....
When I saw his work on the ART & WRITTER SHOWCASE , his thread is called, "The Starkoryan Sketchbook".    
I thought his sketches looked Great, then ...I found out he was a local from where I lived. I had to try him out.

I saw it as one of my... quirky...destiny kind of things.

Like....when you get a parking spot... right next to the door of a department store, I will say, 
"It's destiny...there is something here that I must find and buy."
of course... my husband rolls his eyes.


BUT you gotta admit...I was right this time.[wink]

TIME MASTERS 1990 mini #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 of 8 Review.

RATING: 3.4 out of 5 points:
     This series came out over 20 years ago, but I still enjoyed the story, and the art brought the panels in the series to life. A really great job by the art team.  BUT be warned the character of Rip Hunter has been retroactively revised (retcon), since these issues were published, and also, the story doesn't have a set ending.  

Full review with some SPOILERS

    This series was introduced a couple of years after Batman:The Cult, and ten years before Joker's Last Laugh, so it came out at a time when gritty comics where "the thing".  Mature and Edgy are coined words for a lot of series that came out during this same time period .  The evidence of it, in this series, is as simple as Rip Hunter's typical costume being left out of the series, and replaced with jeans and a t-shirt.  The mature nature of a tragedy striking within the team, and one of the members committing murder, are also present, giving the story a hard edge.

       In Time Masters, a organization called the Illuminati, is trying to sabotage  Rip Hunter's lab,  to keep him from developing a third method of time travel.  He has already discovered two methods of time travel, but these can only be used for one trip and only once per person.  Rip discovers a even bigger plot, by the Illuminati, to take domination over the world.  He starts collecting a rag tag team to help with his goal to stop the Illuminati.  Since he has already used the two time travel methods himself, he cannot travel in time, at least not until a third method of time travel is discovered. So...he sends out his crew, one at a time, to different points in time to intercept the Illuminati.
They seem to be thwarted at every turn, wasting  each members chance at time travel. 

    The head of the Illuminati is supposedly a  mystery, but how many DC characters do you know have black woolly hair and beard, oh ....and hairy knuckles and a ring with the letter "V" on it.  Don't forget that this organization was plotting world domination over centuries and.... centuries.   BUT.... I'm not complaining, I'm really not, because he is one of my favorite bad guys.

     In fact, this series has a wealth of cameos. Sometimes the cameos made the story campy.  At other times it is the best part of the series.  Cave Carson takes a major roll in helping the team with his hideout and wealth.  To be honest , I have not heard of any of his crew itself anywhere else, but ...one of my favorite characters was Bonnie. Her first couple of panels may give you the impression that she's a tramp, but she is about the only team member that has common sense, and she has a very independent frame...of mind. She doesn't blindly follow orders.  

 The list of cameos include:

Dr. Magnus

Booster Gold

The Justice League International

Superman

Tex Hex

Cave Carson

Tomahawk

Viking Prince

Nabu

Animal Man

Green Lantern Hal Jordan

Lord Arian(Ari'ahn)-Older

Vandal Savage

  

      As far as gaining insight into other current series by reading this one, it would be a waste of time. There wasn't any extra information on time travel in the DC Universe.  It didn't mention time cubed or hypertime, or any time travel techno babble.  It did show Rip trying to rebuild his time sphere but he couldn't use it until he found the third method of time travel.

     The series contains background information on why  Rip Hunter wants to time travel ,but this has been retconned.    In Geoff Johns version, Rip's name is only an alias, and he is Booster Gold's son from the future.

There is a surprise ending, of which I really like.  The ideal of it happening  in the DC universe  continuity would be interesting, but it also has been reconned.

I generally try not to spoil the endings of current series, but since this series is over 20 yrs old, and you can't go to your local comic book store to pick it up, I'll spoil.
BUT Please wait if you do plan to pick it up.

MAJOR SPOILER OF ENDING

Rip Hunter travels(the third method) to prehistoric times, in a attempt to kill Vandal Savage before he becomes immortal.  In this storyline, Vandal becomes immortal from being exposed to radiation from a meteor.
Rip shoots Vandal, then proceeds to beat him to death with a rock.  Dripping in blood, he looks up, to see a boy in the bushes who was watching.  This boy turns out to be Vandal Savage(Jr).  In this tribe, the sons take the fathers names after their death.
So...in this version Rip Hunter, in a sense, creates Vandal Savage by killing his father in front of him.(trippy but I liked it.) Also ....Rip Hunter finally sees the folly of trying to change time at the major points of history.
Rip can't bring himself to kill the boy before the meteor hits.
Not only that.... but Rip is stuck in time in the prehistoric age, so not really ending the story, at least not for me.

DON'T forget that this is RETCONNED

TIME MASTERS:

Issue 1: Time Won't Let Me

Issue 2: No Time to Live

Issue 3: Time has come Today

Issue 4: Time is on My Side

Issue 5: Good Times...Bad Times!

Issue 6: Tme Waits for No One

Issue 7: Long Time Coming

Issue 8: Time Loves a Hero

Writers: Bob Wayne & Lewis Shiner

Pencils: Art Thibert

Inks: Jose Marzan, Jr

Colors: Adrienne Roy

Editor: Robert Greenberger

Publisher:DC Comics

1990

SUPERMAN/BATMAN Annual #4: Review

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 points:

This was a good story, and it was great to see Terry McGinnis and the elder Bruce Wayne team up again. The Superman portion of the issue  was a little bitter-sweet and little of a downer, but a good read.


Full review with some SPOILERS :

The cover of this issue to the right is so Awesome and was a great start to the story.  Batman/Terry notices that the crooks that he is busting are from out of town, and that it wasn't the first time that week.  He finds out that they have been frighten out of Metropolis by a... Ghost.  The chemistry between Mcginnis and Wayne is used through out the issue and is a joy to read, as in the below panel I scanned. What is really funny is that as I read the issue, I can hear the voices from the animated series.

      Metalio makes a cameo and gives Terry a lead to follow in Metropolis. The landscape of Metropolis is depressing. It has gotten as bad as Gotham, if not worse. Terry mentions how Superman has disappeared, and when we, the reader, sees Superman, we see that his heart is broken.  This is kind of a reflection of how Metropolis looks... broken.  
    Terry and Superman fight the main source of Metropolis's problem together, and Superman takes care of the main villian permantly.
As I've mentioned before it is a better-sweet ending, but it is still a good read.


SUPERMAN/BATMAN: Annual #4
Title: A TIME BEYOND HOPE
Writer:Paul Levitz
Pencils & Color: Renato Guedes
Cover: Stanley "Art Germ" Lau
Inker: Jose Wilson
Letterer: Steve Wands

Publisher: DC comics
2010

NEMESIS: The Imposters: Issues #1, #2, #3, #4 of 4 Review

RATING: 3.9 out of 5 points

This was a enjoyable surprise.  This series was not on our pull list but we quickly changed our minds, and looked forward to each issue as it came out.  I've become a big fan of the character and I want to see more of Tom Tresser, aka Nemesis, but be warned this does not end in this series, it's a continuation, which is the main reason I didn't give it a 4.

FULL Review with some SPOILERS:

       In this mini, Tom Tresser, has trouble trusting the people around him, because he believes them to be impostors.  I didn't read the previous mini, Final Crisis: Aftermath Escape, but in that series he was captive and in a hallucinatory city called Electric City.  In this mini, there are hallucinations of Brother Eye, who keeps asking him to come back to Electric City, and it lets you believe that he may be... still there.  

      From beginning to end the mini is well paced.  Tresser's line, "My Invention." never gets tiring.  The gadgets he uses are comic book believable and quite inventive.  Joker turned out to be one of  the impostors hired by The Council.  Since Joker was a impostor, it was hard for Nemesis to believe that Batman was real, especially because this is the first time he has met Dick Grayson as Batman  when before  Bruce Wayne was Batman.

      

   

     The fight between Tresser and Batman/Dick Grayson was perfect.  When either one thought they had the upper hand, they didn't.  The art really carried the action and made it come to life.  Batman and Wonder Woman seem real and not the impostors, because they are tracking him, but there are doubts.  Ivan Brandon's characterization of them are pretty pat.  It's important to remember that Wonder Woman and Tresser use to be an item. Brandon is able to establish that fact with one sentence.  Batman saying, "Maybe next time you date a dentist."

    I know nearly nothing about Tom Tresser and I fully enjoyed this mini.  At this point, I do want to know more about The Council and why his brother died.  This does NOT have a finished ending, so I'm a little dissatisfied.   I hope... hope...hope.. another Nemesis series comes out soon to finish this story line.  Especially if it is the same team of artists doing it. 

        Ivan Brandon, Cliff Richards and the rest of the team of artist on this book did a excellent job. They need to stay together and do more.  If you like action/adventure with a espionage spy feel to it, I recommend it, but only if you realize it's a continuation.


NEMESIS: The Impostors
Issue 1: Close Your Eyes
Issue 2: Almost Right
Issue 3: Something Small Enough to Break
Issue 4: Here we go
Writer:Ivan Brandon
Art: Cliff Richards
Colors:Matthew Wilson
Letters: Swands/ Sal Cipriano/Travis Lanham
Covers: Danel Luvisi

Publisher: DC Comics
2010