Comic Snap Reviews 1/13/07

Be warned, there be spoilers here!

52 #36: Space team beats the space boogey(wo)man, Lady Styx by making Lobo mad enough. Kinda dissapointing. But more dissapointing is it looks like they’re killing off Animal Man (including a very sly reference to Grant Morrison’s run.) That’s one death that really would annoy me in its pointlessness. Unless of course GM shows up to push the reset button again. On the other hand, The Question didn’t die as was implied by an earlier issue. The ending to the issue was nicely done, and it was followed by Adam Hughes and Mark Waid showing Power Girl’s origin, which looked great.

Thunderbolts #110: The new Ellis run starts here. And other than the science fiction technology used by the team (and used ON the team) it doesn’t feel like Warren Ellis’s work… but it’s still pretty darn good. Not sure that I’ll put this on my pull list, but I definitely want to see where it’s heading.

Agents of Atlas #6: Wow, a solid superhero story from beginning to end. Great reveal behind the central mystery, and in Watchmen style, every character gets an origin in an issue, with the last tying everything together. This will be great in the trade, and I’ll look for other stuff by this writer. However, cynical as I am, I have the feeling that the group established here will NOT be handled well in other series.

Green Arrow #70: After finally getting out of the “OYE” flashback where the series was spinning its wheels despite a great concept (albeit one that borrows heavily from other books) we get… Batman. It used to be a sign that a book needed a boost when Batman showed up as a guest star… wonder if that’s true. And here we even get Pre-IC grumpy jerk Batman! I will say this: Winnick had some awesome dialogue in this one, including a laugh out loud moment with Speedy. Now only if the story would pick up again, you’d have a good return to Kevin Smith-era GA.

Runaways #23: Still going strong, even if a bit decompressed. I feel like every couple pages should be complete with Brian K. Vaughn popping out yelling “GOTCHA!”

Batman Confidential #2: Remember last week? Yeah, Luthor’s responisble for everything in this comic too.

Justice Society of America #2: It used to make sense that the JSA fought Nazi supervillians. Nowadays? Not so much. And Schizo Starman makes the revelation that he’s from the Kingdom Come future, which is sort of in continuity. SUPERBOY PUNCH! And what’s up with Hawkman showing up?

Blade #5: I guess being born Half-Vampire doesn’t make you immune to registering with the government like being born a mutant does. Regardless, this is actually a pretty fun standalone issue. Someone else busts their way out of the SHIELD hellicarrier, and the tide has tipped in favor of the Pro-Registration side: in addition to Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic, they have Morbius the Living Vampire on their side. Captain America doesn’t stand a chance!

JSA Classified #21: Hawkman, Rann/Thanagar War, Snoozefest. Couldn’t even make it past a few pages.

Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk #1: While I didn’t care for what happened in the issue, Guggenheim speaking out about Darfur in a comic book takes a lot of guts, and is worthy of admiration. He also lays out ways you can help, and that he’s donating his proceeds for the project to Darfur related charities.

Tales of the Unexpected #4: Is this what the original Spectre stories were like? Reminds me more of the Spectre parody in Bizarro World. Remember what I said about Batman earlier? Yeah, he’s here, though it was inevitable with the Gotham setting. And he jump kicks Spectre in the jaw! Super powerful agents of God are no match for the Dark Knight’s kick! Meanwhile, Dr. 13 seems to have been stuck in a rejected Grant Morrison plot and thinks he can fix it by shouting.

Welcome to Tranquility #2: Gail Simone’s Top 10. OK, it’s not quite that good, but definitely has a similar vibe, overlaid with a murder mystery instead of a police procedural. Little extras peppered in add to the world the story takes place in, and one panel places that world within Wildstorm.

Superman #658: The alternate future tale (which of course doesn’t make sense if Kingdom Come is in continuity like it was show in another book this week) comes to a depressing end, though a Superman covered in hardened lava buried next to Lex Luthor (there he is again!) were both neat. The central idea of this arc is finally revealed, and it’s a cool idea: like all great empires, the Superhuman age is about to collapse. Of course, since this is a mainline Superman book, there’s only so much they can do or change, so I don’t have high hopes that the concept will live up to the idea. (Next months issue: most depressing ever! Krypto dies, sssssaaaaaaaaadddddd)

Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman #16: Hmm, yeah, now Peter Parker pretends to suffocate old stroke victims. Bleh. Preview for next issue shows Spiderman “Back in Black” so I’m guessing it happens before next month, maybe it was planned to be part of Civil War 7? Seems unlikely that it’ll be the Venom symbiote since he’s in Thunderbolts.

Powers #22: Well, I’ll give this to Bendis, he sure knows how to increase the stakes with each issue. But with both the main characters having Powers again, and them going after the President for murder, does it seem like this book is heading for a conclusion, or is that just me making stuff up?

OMAC #7: Wow, this series just keeps getting more ridiculous. The idea of an evil satillete going crazy and fantasizing about zapping Earth’s heroes one by one is kind of amusing though.

Wolverine Origins #10: So, this happens right before Blade #5 then, eh? Guess he shook off all the emotional damage he just suffered. And did they just kill of one of the major SHIELD guys who had been around since the original Nick Fury comics? Also, note to comic writers: the long lost son thing is getting old. JSA is doing it, Wolverine is doing it, Identity Crisis did it, and the list goes on and on.