Quick Hits: 3/26/11

Justice League of America #55:

Summary: This comic was actually telling two stories, the regular storyline that had been going on with Eclipso, and the Reign of Doomsday stuff. First let's cover the Eclipso portions. Eclipso and his army of possessed shadow characters attack the Emerald City on the Moon in an effort to possess Jade. The JLA's forces are split(we'll get to that later with the Doomsday stuff), which basically leaves Donna Troy and Jade alone against Eclipso's forces, since Jesse Quick was forced to rush the paralyzed Alan Scott to safety. Eclipso's forces are too much, and in the end he manages to possess Jade, just as he planned. The other half of this story starts in the remains of New Krypton. Supergirl had asked Batman(Dick Grayson) to remove the shattered planet from the Earth's orbit so she could try to forget about her loss, when Green Lantern Boodikka arrives to survey the damage for the Guardians. Doomsday chooses this moment to attack, tearing into Boodikka and destroying Batman's spaceship. Luckily for Bats, he's still safe in his spacesuit, but is pretty much helpless. Supergirl moves in to attack Doomsday, but Doomsday seems WAY more interested in Boodikka than SG. Bats figures Doomsday was going to kill Boodikka and then SG, so he tells Starman to get to the location to spirit the two women away. Instead, like an idiot, Starman decides to attack Doomsday, which does little more than slightly distract Doomsday. Doomsday knocks Starman away, and Bats takes that opportunity to teleport SG and Boodikka to the JLA Watchtower. Doomsday quickly follows, and this issue concludes with Cyborg Superman rising from Boodikka, which is apparently where he chose to hide after his most recent defeat.

Thoughts: Hey, this was yet another good issue of this series! I mean two months ago I was primed and ready to cut my ties with this series and drop it, but last issue helped change my mind, and this issue proved that I made the right choice. The Doomsday stuff was very well done, and it leads in to the Superman/Batman annual where Doomsday will be facing Cyborg Supes. The Eclipso stuff was also very good, even though the Doomsday story took center stage. Since I enjoyed both stories, there's really not much to complain about... Well except for the fact that Saint Walker showed up in this issue for absolutely NO reason... Let's PLEASE keep Chairman Johns' garbage in Chairman Johns' comics.

Score: 8 out of 10.Yeah, my money's on Doomsday in a battle between the Big D and Starman.


FF #1:

Summary: We get started with Reed listening to a video recording from the now deceased Human Torch. In the video, Johnny tells Reed to keep fighting the good fight, and to have Spidey replace him on the team. Spidey arrives at the Baxter Building and is greeted by Sue, who takes him around, showing him the sights. Spidey meets some of the freaky kids Reed has there, and bumps into the Thing, who completely blows Spidey off. Sue presents Spidey with his FF uniform, and the foursome are immediately called to go to the PAVLOV facility, which was under attack by AIM agents. The FF arrive on the scene and attack the AIM agents, but AIM has managed to free the Wizard from captivity, teleporting away with him while he spewed threats at Reed... Oh, and as a total aside that has NOTHING to do with the story, I had to laugh at the fact that the Wizard was nude in his prison cell when the AIM agents broke him out, and all they gave him was that dumb-ass helmet he wears, which Wizard went and put on his head! You'd think he'd have placed the helmet in a more... strategic area, but no, he stood there with his helmet on his head, wearing nothing else while he yelled at Reed... Back to the story, Reed heads back to the Baxter Building and is met by his daughter Valeria and his father, Nathaniel. Valeria tells Reed that she made a deal with Dr. Doom which infuriates Reed, but Reed's father, being the resident time traveler, tells Reed that Valeria did exactly what she was supposed to do. This issue ends with Reed, Valeria and Nathaniel meeting up with Doom in the bowels of the Baxter Building to welcome him into the Future Foundation.

Thoughts: This was NOT what I was expecting here... I mean, I don't really know what I was expecting, but this most certainly wasn't it. Everything in this comic seemed slightly off... Spidey joining the team was done with absolutely NO fanfare, Thing's mood swings were just all over the place(one minute he's moping in his room, the next he's eating dinner with everybody else), the stuff with Wizard made me laugh, and Doom joining the FF? Um yeah, like that doesn't have dumb idea written ALL over it! I honestly expected this issue to take the FF in a drastically new direction, and all it did was change their costumes. I can honestly say this issue left me pretty disappointed.

Score: 6 out of 10.It's mopin' time!!!


Deadpool #34:

Summary: Deadpool is still on a mission to kill the rogue moon, Id. You see, Ol' Pool was hired by some aliens to kill Id since Id snorted their homeworld... Hey, what do you want, it's a Deadpool comic! The angry aliens want to sacrifice a small farming world to distract Id, but Pool nixes that idea. Instead, Pool rescues the aliens on the farming world, taunts Id, and leads Id on a chase through the galaxy while promising the wary aliens that he had a great plan. This issue ends with Pool landing on a third alien planet to begin enacting his undoubtedly ingenious plan.

Thoughts: Yes, I know that was a very brief summary, but I have like a bazillion other comic books to get through this weekend, so a few are going to get the short end of the stick, this comic being one of them. I actually liked this comic a lot, it had that trademark Deadpool humor that all of us Poolaholics love. The only problem I had with it was Deadpool's “plan”... I haven't the foggiest notion WHAT DP was up to for most of this issue, but then again, it was Deadpool coming up with the plan, so maybe it was for the best that I had no clue what he was planning. Anyway, good, fun stuff here, so no real complaints!

Score: 8 out of 10.It's always a good idea to go with the plan from your brain.