Friday, November 13, 2009

The best of the rest.(Nov. 6-Nov. 12)

Since I'm still waiting on my comic book order of over a month ago(has it really been THAT long?)I've been reading a lot of my rainy day back issues this past week. Sure, I'll get a few new books here and there thanks to my various subscriptions, but that blasted mail snafu has put a major crimp in my comic book reading. I've got like a dozen or so comics that I can't read because I don't have the prior issues. Unfortunately there's not much I can do here... I sent out an e-mail to the comic shop I placed the order with to see if they've heard anything from the USPS earlier today, but they still haven't gotten back to me. After that I guess I'll send ANOTHER e-mail out to the USPS and see what they have to say. *sigh* Besides that, the weather's been nice, school has been rapidly moving towards winter break, and everything else is pretty good. Well, with the formalities out of the way, it's time to get into the comics.

Titans #18- I read this comic a few weeks ago, but never got around to doing a proper review for it. Whoops. So, instead of wasting a post on a month old comic, I figure I'll just talk about this issue here. It was a spotlight on Raven and her evil brothers. The main gist of it was that one of Raven's evil brothers told her that no matter what she did, she'd always be Trigon's family, with Raven retorting that she considers the Titans as her family, even though the Titans are currently a very fractured bunch. By the end of this issue, Raven is wondering where she should go from the Titans(hint:the Teen Titans.). For a Raven story this was OK, I've never really been that into Raven's character, so I wasn't exactly doing cartwheels over a comic that spotlighted her. If you like Raven, then my guess is that you'd enjoy this comic. I don't like Raven, so to me this comic was OK, and nothing more. Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #3 & 4- I've got to say, I've been very happy with this series thus far. It's definitely earned a permanent spot on my pull list. The main feature has been very good, and the Second Feature starring Manhunter has been fantastic. I really don't have anything negative to say, so I'll just post my score and move on. Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Batman Annual #11- My sister gave me this comic a few months ago and I can distinctly remember her telling me that she thought this was a very funny comic book. It wound up in my rainy day comic book pile until this past week, and you know what, it was absolutely hilarious! The annual dealt with two separate stories, the first was about Clayface(Preston Payne)and his love affair with Helena, who just so happens to be a mannequin... The second story dealt with the Penguin falling in love with a woman and deciding to turn over a new leaf, although the Batman didn't believe the Penguin was a changed man. The Penguin story was good, and remember, I hate the Penguin and I still liked that story, so that should say a lot right there. The Clayface story was positively genius. All I can say is Clayface accusing Batman of having an affair with Helena and Batman's subsequent reaction was laugh out loud funny stuff. Score: 9 out of 10.

JLA 80-Page Giant #2- This comic had 7 different stories in it, and I'd say the good definitely outweighed the bad. For the record, here's the story listing. Batman and Green Arrow starred in the first story, which consisted of GA and Bats early days and GA trying to prove that Bats was actually Bruce Wayne. Story two featured the dysfunctional silver-age JLA, while the third story told a tale of the late 1990's League dealing with realistic robots. The forth story was a tale about Wonder Woman trying to bring Huntress and Big Barda together, #5 featured Superman and the Atom taking down a living intergalactic spacecreft. The sixth story was about Orion being forced into a partnership with Plastic Man to save the west coast, and the final story featured Justice League A from the DC One Million event. For me the high point was the GA/Bats story, while the low point was the Wonder Woman, Huntress, and Big Barda one. All in all, this was an OK collection of stories that I'd give a mild recommendation to. Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

War of Kings: Warriors #1 & 2- These two comic tied into the War of Kings x-over from a few months back. While I enjoyed War for the most part, I wasn't exactly blown away by these two comics. The first one featured a story on Gladiator's origin(yawn)and a feature on KING Blastarr of the Negative Zone. The second comic featured stories on Crystal and an origin tale on Lilandra. Seeing as that I don't like Crystal, Gladiator OR Lilandra, that should give you some idea of what I thought about these two comics. I definitely could have found a better way to spend $8... Score: 5 out of 10.

OMAC Project TPB- This trade collected Countdown to Infinite Crisis, The OMAC Project #1-6 as well as Wonder Woman #219. We really get a little bit of everything here. Ted Kord's death, Maxwell Lord's insanity, angry robots, Maxwell Lord's death, and Brother Eye taunting Batman. To me that's the recipe for a pretty good story! I've always liked the idea of Brother Eye and the OMAC's, so this trade was definitely right up my alley. I'm still not sure how/why Maxwell Lord went from the JLA's inept liaison to an evil mastermind, but whatever I guess. This was a good trade with a good story, the only thing that sort of bothered me was the fact that the story actually finished up in Infinite Crisis, not in this trade, but since I read IC, that's really no biggie. Score: 8 out of 10.

Superman/Batman #53-56- The story here was that due to some magical mishap, Batman and Superman swapped powersets. So, Bruce gained all of Superman's powers and Supes gained... Well nothing, he was left totally powerless. While Superman and Zatanna try to track down a way to reverse the spell, Super-Batman decides to eradicate crime the world over. This was a very good story for a few reasons. First off, it was just cool to see Bruce flying around in his Batman gear with glowing red eyes. If I was a criminal, that right there would scare the hell out of me! It was also interesting to see Bruce decide to dedicate himself to using Superman's powers to travel the globe halting all crime everywhere. On one hand it really made me wonder why Clark couldn't do the same thing. In the blink of an eye the guy can go from one part of the planet to the other, he doesn't need to sleep or eat, and with his speed, strength and other powers, why doesn't Supes stamp out all crime planetwide? On the other hand though, if Supes did decide to take such drastic actions he'd seem more like a tyrant then a hero, and that was kind of the crux of this story. Bruce kept becoming more and more enamoured by his powers and abilities and allowed himself to get completely out of control. Of course in the end there was a cop-out reason as to why Bruce acted in the manner he did, but for the most part this story was very well done. Score: 9 out of 10.

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood TPB- This trade collected Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood #1-6. On a rainy night in Gotham, the cops find a dead mobster floating in the river with a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest. Batman arrives on the scene and immediately figures Huntress was responsible. Bats stops by Huntress' apartment and discovers her drying her wet hair. Huntress claims she didn't kill the mobster, and that she had just taken a shower. Bats gives her the benefit of the doubt and leaves. The next day, a newspaper reporter runs a piece slamming Huntress, and Huntress decides to pay the reporter a little visit, since the reporter is obviously in the mobs pocket. Upon arriving at the reporters apartment, Huntress discovers the woman dead with several crossbow bolts gutting out of her chest. On top of that, the police were called by somebody, so Huntress makes a quick escape and runs right into Batman and Nightwing, who are now severely doubting Huntress' claims of innocence. The three wind up fighting, Batman is accidentally shot by Huntress' crossbow, which enrages Nightwing, and Huntress winds up getting knocked off the rooftop where they were doing battle, landing in a river, where she is pulled out by the Question?!? From there, the Question helps Huntress get out of Gotham and the two decide to try to clear Huntress' name. This was a highly enjoyable mini, especially for me, since so many of my favorite characters were placed in prominent roles. I've always been a big Huntress fan, and it was great to see the Vic Sage version of the Question make an appearance here as well. The end of this mini was a little vexing, but other then that, this was a very good trade. Score: 9 out of 10.

JLA: Crisis of Conscience TPB- This trade collected JLA #115-119 and came spinning out of the events of Identity Crisis, namely the JLA deciding to force Batman to forget about their mindwiping of the evil Dr. Light. Flash(Wally West), who found out about what the JLA did to Batman during Identity Crisis, calls the JLAers who made up the team during the Dr. Light/Batman mindwipings and tells them that if they don't tell Batman what they did to him, he will. Before the JLAers can decide whether or not to tell Bats what they did, they are interrupted by the Martian Manhunter, who when told what happened is sure Batman already knows. Before the League can go to Batman, they receive a distress call from the Red Tornado, and when the League arrives to help, they find Tornado wrecked and are ambushed by the Wizard and his Secret Society of Super-Villains. The Wizard and his crew defeat the heroes and transports them all to Gotham, where he runs into Batman. Wizard reveals that him and his Society know all of the secret identities of the JLA members and that they intend on attacking the League through friends and loved ones. The villains make their exits, thus leaving the JLA with the same choice they faced years ago, what do you do about a collection of villains with knowledge of your secret identity and no qualms about using that knowledge to hurt or kill your loved ones? Now this was a great story. Which is no real surprise since it was written by Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg(Young Avengers). The story and characterizations were great, so it should go without saying that I highly recommend this trade. Score 9 1/2 out of 10.

Whew, that was a lot of comics! That's it for this week, as always, Long Live The Legion!

45 comments:

  1. Awesome best of The Rest X, I told ya that Superman Batman story was worth picking up. And let us not forget the beating Grayson was subjected to.

    As for Crisis of Conscience, I'm picking that up first thing tomorrow, can't believe it took me so long to find out about it.

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  2. Thanks. Yeah, I definitely enjoyed the Supes/Bats story, it really made me think about how badly Supes seems to be squandering his awesome powers. Dick trying to take on Super-Batman just had me shaking my head, because that's just the kind of crazy/stupid thing Dick would do... The guy has the frigging powers of Superman! Even if he was weakened due to the lack of sunlight, 50% Superman is still WAY to much for Dick to handle!

    Let me know what you think about that trade, as you can see, I liked it.

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  3. Exactly, Dick can't beat Bruce up when he's normal, let alone with the powers of Superman. He deserved that beating. But im glad you liked one of my recommendations for once.

    Picked it up today but i watched Smallville all day, season 1, im gonna watch all 9, borrowed em from a big fan. So it may be a while.

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  4. What do you mean "for once"? You kind of make me sound like this comic book snob who shuns the recommendations of fellow fans! ;)

    I've always wanted to get into Smallville, but with 9 seasons gone by, it's always seemed like I've missed too much to start now. Oh, and I don't know if you've heard, but starting on Dec. 2, BBC America is airing NEW episodes of Kitchen Nightmares! That news made my day!

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  5. Lol you know what I mean sir X-Man, that finally the roles have switched and you are the one who is taking MY advice.

    Wooooo, New Kitchen Nightmares next month. You gotta remind me come December 1st or something.

    As for Smallville I started season 1 Friday night at about 3:30 after my girlfriend left and I started season 2 today. Helps when ya don't have a life lol, but it's been really good so far.

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  6. Well keep those recommendations coming then!

    Yeah, I'll def remind you as we get closer to the date. I can't wait to get some new episodes of Kitchen Nightmares(FINALLY!).

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  7. Hm...I think I may be hardpressed to find something that I've read that you haven't. But I shall recommend more...one day.

    Awesome, thank you sir. I can't wait either, sounds awesome that Ramsay is gonna be going to new places yelling at people. So is it in the UK again or the US this time?

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  8. I don't know, I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to DC Comics. While I've managed to acquire a massive collection of DC books, I've only been reading/collecting DC books for a year and a half now, so there may be some good DC stories that I've missed/never heard of. Now when it comes to Marvel, I've been reading/collecting their comics for like 15 years now(on and off), so I'm pretty confident that nobody could recommend me a Marvel series that I haven't already read!

    I think(and hope)that it's the UK series. I like the UK KN's a bit more, they seem to focus more on Gordon and less on the oftentimes annoying chefs/owners. I just watched the US KN about Sebastian's restuarant tonight, and you don't know how bad I wanted to put my fist in the owner's face... Man did that guy piss me off!

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  9. 15 years? Wow that's amazing, you probably own more than some of the writers.

    Ahhh I saw that one!!! That's the one where Gordon changed the menu and the guy kept going back to the old menu right? If so I freaking HATED guy!

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  10. Yeah, I've just got a crazy amount of comics. I've really managed to acquire alot of books over the years. If I ever had like 2 weeks to kill, I'd love to actually catalog each and every comic I own. I used to use comicbookrealm.com to keep track of my collection, but I get so many books over the course of a month, I just couldn't keep up on that site. I'd love to somehow get every comic I own onto a spreadsheet on my computer though.

    Yeah, that's the one! The staff seemed pretty decent, the restuarant was in a good location, and Gordon did like everything he could to help this jackass, and the guy just wouldn't go with the recommendations... If you didn't want the help, why the hell did you waste Ramsay's time? By the way, after I saw that episode for the first time a few months ago, I actually did an online search on that place to see what happened after Ramsay left, and I found out he went back to his idiotic menu and the place wound up closing down within a months time. I feel bad for the staff, but I have to say, I was def pleased that guy lost his restuarant, what a jerk.

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  11. So do you plan on having a HUGE collection just for the purpose of collecting or are you gonna hand it down to a sibling or something like that?

    Wow that dude is a major asshole. That menu clearly wasn't working and the new menu was quick and the cutomers loved it. I'm also happy that idiot lost his restuarant.

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  12. I'm so hooked on the actual art of collecting that I can't see myself handing my comics off to anyone. More then anything, I'm probably adicted to the thrill of adding books to my collection, sometimes even more then reading them! I guess when I'm old and gray I'll give my collection to my great-great grandkids or something, but that's still quite a ways off!

    Yeah, he was a real egomaniac. He def got exactly what he deserved.

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  13. Lol yeah, you'll be collecting comics for many more years to come. I can see you needing to add on another room just for comics and such.

    Felt kinda bad for his wife but she married one of the biggest jerks of all time.

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  14. Man, you should see the complete mess my room is right now! Between school and stuff, I just don't have the time to put any of my comics away, so for like the past 2 months they've been taking up space all over the floor in the corner of my bedroom. I can't wait for winter break, I'll probably spend my entire vacation trying to make some sense of this massive mess!

    I felt bad for the people he employed, they seemed like a decent bunch of people.

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  15. Lol finally have some time to put everything away eh? Maybe next week, what ya got planned for Thanksgiving?

    Yeah they seemed so genuinely happy to toss dough and get that new dough tossing machine from Ramsay and that guy was just SUCH a tool

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  16. Next week I'll probably be spending a lot of time with family, by the time I get back to my own place I'll probably be too tired to want to put away a couple of hundred comic books, so my room will continue to look like a comic book tornado struck it. I'm aiming for mid-December after school ends to finally give this place a good cleaning, provided I don't get totally lazy.

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  17. Sounds cool, if you do clean up it'll probably be between sports, video games and comics I would assume. oh and Sleep, gotta have sleep.

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  18. Without a doubt! Knowing the way I operate, I'll probably spend half my vacation asleep, and half doing the other activities you listed(as well as blogging of course!), which leaves no time left to clean up... Oh well, there's always next summer!

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  19. Lol well you got a Spring break before then so you may have another chance. Of course by then you'll have a good 150 more comics.

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  20. Only 150 comics by Spring break? Jason, you underestimate me and my bottomless hunger for comic books!

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  21. Lol okay then what's your estimate my comic collecting colleague?

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  22. I usually buy/get between 60 and 75 comics a month(between new books and back issues/trades), so let's see, from now until March/April, I'd guess I'll have acquired between 300 to 400 new comics(and that's provided I stay away from eBay!). See, your estimate was WAY off!

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  23. Wow! Lol yeah I was completely off. I gotta ask, how much money do you spend on comics yearly? Because you should be able to write those off on your friggin tax forms.

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  24. I wish I could write off my comics as some kind of educational expense or something!

    Jeez, I'd need to whip out my calculator to figure that one out! I prob spend about $75-100 a month on comics, plus once a year I pay for the titles I'm subscribed to which is about $200+. As you can probably guess, practically every cent I earn goes towards my comic collection! That should explain why I don't buy many new video games or DVD's/clothes/etc. All of my money goes towards school, comics, rent and gas(not necessarily in that order!).

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  25. Man. If they had a comic shop around you, ya could kill 2 birds with one stone. Then again you'd get paid in comics, and I don't think your car will run off comics, unless you have a Prius, as they can do everything.

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  26. Aw, I could never use my comics to power my car, so I'd STILL be stuck paying for gas!

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  27. Lol if you were stranded and the only way you could get gas to get home was to sell the comics you JUST bought (we'll say you were picking them up from the post office) What would ya do?

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  28. I'd start walking or I'd start sleeping in my car! I'd sell my blood before I sold my CB collection!

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  29. Lol You are a true fan sir. I bow to your awesomeness. So do you ever get the "Why do you collect comics?" question from friends or family? I used to ALL the time

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  30. Oh yeah, of course I do/did! I used to try to explain exactly why I read comics, but after a while I got tired of having to justify what I do to people so I started to just go with, "Because I want to.". Simple yet effective.

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  31. Hm...Good answer. I may have to revert to that one instead of explaining how awesome they are. I'm at the phase where I wanna convert everyone to comic readers.

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  32. I've managed to converted a few "non-believers" myself, it's just a matter of knowing who is "convert-able". For example, I worked with two guys a few years back. One guy was 63 yrs old, and the other was 21. I used to bring a few comics to work with me and during my lunch break I'd read 'em. They both questioned me about why I'd "waste" money on CB's, so I gave the old guy the standard line('Cause I want to)while I explained what was so great about whatever it was I was reading at the time to the younger guy. See, the old guy was never a fan of comics and only saw them as things little kids read, while the younger guy used to collect them, so I knew I'd have a better chance converting the younger guy. I actually did manage to corrupt the younger guy, by the time he left that job, he was picking up most of the same books I was! It's just a matter of figuring out your audience.

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  33. That's pretty awesome. I gave my buddy some comics but he's more of the unless you remind me I won't do it type. I got him to watch Smallville and he loves it, I know he's like comics if he just read em. Man...sometimes I feel like comics make this whole planet go round...yeah I know that sounded lame lol.

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  34. Ha, when I was in 6th grade, I had a freind who was really into comics(thanks to me)but would almost never actually buy the books. He'd always ask to borrow my books(which I'd lend him). While it was nice to have somebody to shoot the breeze with, it was kind of annoying that he never had anything for me to borrow!

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  35. Lol I can imagine. It's one thing to swap but just keep borrowing my books?! Go buy your own ya mooch. Lol does he buy books now? If you guys kept in touch that is.

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  36. Nah, I haven't talked to that guy since HS. Knowing the way he was though, I'm sure he's still mooching off of somebody!

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  37. Lol Moochers are the worse dude. Especially the oens who mooch the big three, comics, Media (DVD's & Video Games) and food. I've had someone who mooched that still owes me fifteen bucks since December 2007...and he's had jobs since then. Needless to say Im not expecting that money.

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  38. HA! Yeah, I have to say, if this dude hasn't paid you since then, you're prob never going to see that money. Man, it's not like $15 is that much money, what's up with that guy?

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  39. Yeah right? The sad thing is he borrowed it right after Christmas, then like he's had jobs at Comcast cable, he's one of those people that wastes money on Caps, Wallet Chains and "Skinny" Jeans...so..yeah lol. I've already established that money is never coming my way. Then he asked me for money for a gift on his B-day....really?!

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  40. Oh, so he's one of those guys who never has any money... Unless it's to buy junk for himself! When he asked for a b-day gift, I'd have been like, "Remember that $15 you borrowed? Happy Birthday!"

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  41. I did, he claimed he didn't have it because he'd just bought a new wallet chain...so he could have two. Yeah...that makes SO much sense.

    I'd actually ran into him in the mall but it's just sad when you have people who mooch off you like that. He borrowed my boy's PSP before he went off to college, two years ago and he STILL has it man.

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  42. Well, maybe he wanted to have another one in case the first one broke or something. :) Man, what a weak excuse!

    Jeez, this dude seems like the last guy you'd ever want to lend something to. If he borrowed my PSP and never returned it, I'd be haunting his ass until I finally got it back! Not returning a PSP is way worse then not paying back $15!

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  43. Yeah dude he's quite the dbag. I couldn't believe that same day he tried to borrow some more money from me so he could buy a hat.

    Yeah, I don't see why my boy still even lets him keep it. He asked for it before he went away to college so he could play it there, now it's December in his Sophomore year. Like really? You can't return the guys psp?

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  44. "I couldn't believe that same day he tried to borrow some more money from me so he could buy a hat." That's like the funniest thing I've heard in a while! Man, that guy must have some damn nerve!

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  45. Yeah he's a hell of a mooch, I'll give him that. Must've taken years of training to become the Batman of Mooching.

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