The Best of the Rest.(Nov. 27-Dec. 3)

Well, it's Friday again, which means I get to post some irrelevant thoughts about some obscure comic book back issues, as well as whatever else pops into my head! Before getting to the main event, or maybe lame event is more apropos(wait til you see the lousy books I've been reading in my spare time), I figure I'll opine about a few comic related things first. Alright, first off, I've got to admit that I LOVE those stupid plastic power rings DC released this past month. Before I received my Red and Green Lantern rings, I figured the rings were little pieces of plastic junk that would break as soon as you touched them the wrong way... Wow was I wrong! Considering the fact that those rings are made of plastic, they're pretty stout. After getting my Red and Green rings, I'm VERY tempted to purchase the rest of the set, or at least the Yellow and Black rings. And yes, for the record I did wear my GL ring both to school and to the store on Thursday. If THAT doesn't confirm my status as an uber-geek, nothing will!

Speaking of being an uber-geek, my package of TPB's arrived in the mail today. Here's the story. Last week my regular online comic shop held a 40% off ALL trades they had in stock sale. Like a fool, I went INSANE and spent WAAAAY more money then I(or any sane individual who is trying to pay their way through college)should have. On the plus side, I did manage to pick up my sister's Christmas presents in that order, on the negative side, I'll be paying this madness off for months! But hey, what's done is done, right? I'll just chalk this entire experience up to my amazing lack of self-control and move on. Before I get to the regular back issue pseudo reviews I normally do, here's a list of all the trades I received today. Read it and weep(I know I did!).

JLA Vol. 1: New World Order
Batman: Officer Down
Batman: Knightfall Vol. 1
Batman: Knightfall Vol. 2
Batman: Knightfall Vol. 3
Aquaman: Tide & Time
Manhunter: Vol. 1
Batman: Hush Returns
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis Once and Future King
Manhunter: Vol. 2
Flash: Wonderworld
Flash: Blood Will Run
Catwoman: Crime Pays
Batman: The Heart of Hush
Superman: The Coming of Atlas
Arkham Asylum: Living Hell.
And for my sister I picked out:
Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds
Birds of Prey: Sensei And Student
Birds of Prey: Between Dark and Dawn
Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves(she's huge into Twilight/True Blood)
Green Lantern #81(this is a comic she's been trying to get her hands on for a LONG time).

OK, with that business taken care of, onto the shoddy pseudo reviews!

Outsiders Annual #1(2007), Outsiders #47-50(July 2007-Nov. 2007), Checkmate#14&15(July&Aug. 2007)- I figured I might as well look at all of these books together since they all were a part of the same x-over. Black Lightning is falsely convicted of murdering some lowlife, and gets sent to Blackgate prison as a result. The prisoners find out Black Lightning is locked up with them and a hit is put on his head. The Outsiders are forced to bust Lightning out of the clink, while simultaneously clearing his good name... Did I just type, "The clink"?!? Ugh... The next storyline dealt with the Outsiders and Checkmate teaming up to try to take down Chang Tzu(AKA the giant Chinese egg dude). Tzu captures a members from both teams and the two teams must put aside their differences to save their teammates, without causing an international incident. The final issue dealt with Nightwing handing the reins of the team over to Batman, and Batman's subsequent plan for the team. This series really let me down towards the end. I truly enjoyed the early issues, but by the time the end arrived, I was almost relieved. Just for the record, after issue #50, this series was renumbered and renamed Batman and the Outsiders. Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Aquaman #10(July 1995)- This issue dealt with the first meeting between Aquaman and Kyle Rayner(Green Lantern). Some shark attacks a few divers, and Kyle decides to kill the shark so the people in the surrounding area won't have to fear the water. Things get complicated when Aquaman arrives on the scene and prevents Kyle from killing the shark. From there we get the usual "two superheroes meet, have a misunderstanding, fight, come to an agreement and part as friends" story. If you like Kyle and/or Aquaman, you'll probably like this issue. Score: 7 out of 10.

Action Comics #627-634(Nov. 1988-Jan. 1989)- These Action Comics were from back when DC would release AC on a weekly basis, the series contained several stories and each issue was 48 pages long. Although there were a couple of stories in these books, I only read the 9 part Nightwing(Dick Grayson)/Speedy(Roy Harper)story. Roy decides to discover his roots, so he takes Lian(his toddler daughter)and Nightwing(for some reason)to Northern Ireland. Roy winds up getting stuck in the middle of the Catholic/Protestant/Irish/British mess that was Northern Ireland in the 80's. One side wants to kill Roy because he prevented some drug smuggling, the other side wanted to kill him because he's an outsider, the police wanted to kill him because they're corrupt, and the British army wanted to kill him because of some corrupt politician, and a US government agency also wanted to kill Roy just for the hell of it. In a word, this storyline was a MESS. You'd have to be some kind of genius to keep everything that was going on in this story straight. I was constantly asking myself, "Wait, who are these guys again?" or, "Why are these people now trying to kill Roy?". Nightwing left after the third part of the storyline for some reason, and them returned as inexplicably as he left near the end of the story... It was all weird. Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.

Wednesday Comics #1-6(July 2009-Aug 2009)- Yep, I've finally gotten around to reading these comics/newspapers. The premise is definitely unique, but I'm still undecided as to whether or not I like reading my comics in this format. For those of you not in the know, each issue of Wednesday Comics features 15 one page stories about a particular super-hero or super-hero team, and these "comics" are in newspaper form(think the New York Times). Unsurprisingly, the stories are VERY hit or miss. I'm enjoying the Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Teen Titans, Supergirl, Green Lantern, Flash, and Kamandi(yes, Kamandi!)stories, while I'm not even bothering to read the Wonder Woman or Metal Men features. The Metamorpho, Strange Adventures, Sgt. Rock, Catwoman/Demon and Deadman stories are OK, but definitely nothing to write home about. I still have 6 more issues to go, so taking that into account, I'll give these issues a 6 out of 10.

As you can plainly see from the scores I dished out(only one comic reached a 7 out of 10?!?), this was a pretty lackluster week. Hopefully things will really pick up come next week, since I've got a veritable library of trades to begin reading. If you managed to sift through this entire post, pat yourself on the back, you deserve it! Well, there's nothing left to say except, Long Live The Legion!