Gotham City Sirens #26

Sadly, this is the final issue of the surprisingly strong Gotham City Sirens series... Who'd have expected this series to a) last for 26 issues, and b) make Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn into multifaceted, interesting characters?

Gotham City Sirens #26:

Summary: We kick this party off with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn trying to kill Catwoman for betraying them and getting the two of them locked up in Arkham Asylum. Catwoman puts up a good fight, but eventually she is cornered and captured by the two villains. Ivy is prepared to kill CW, until CW tells the two women that CW had saved the two of them from the start... Ivy demands CW explain herself, and CW tells the other two women that she was subtly manipulated by Batman(Dick Grayson at the time) into taking Ivy and Harley under her wing in order to keep them from doing too much damage to Gotham while Dick was trying to establish himself as Batman. Ivy immediately dismisses CW's words, but Harley can tell CW is being sincere. Harley wants to know when CW realized she was being manipulated by Bats, and CW tells the other two women that she had known what Bats was trying to do from the start, and went along with it because she thought Gotham would be better off with Harley and Ivy working on the side of the angels as opposed to rotting in Arkham. After listening to the entire story, Ivy erupts in an angry outburst, furious that Batman had been manipulating her(through Catwoman), and begins destroying buildings, cars, streets, etc. Batman(Bruce Wayne now) arrives on the scene and attacks Ivy, but Bats is stopped by a swift kick from CW(!). CW tells Bats that the other two women were her responsibility, and that she'd handle it. Bats tells CW that the other two were Arkham bound, but that he'd let CW end things her way. From there, CW heads over to Ivy and Harley and tells them to run away before Bats got wise to what she was doing. Ivy is dubious that CW would go against Batman's word, but CW tells Ivy that she was her own woman, and not one of Batman's lackeys. With that, the women say their good-byes, and Harley and Ivy go their separate ways, leaving Catwoman behind to face down what will almost definitely be a very angry Batman.

Thoughts: I've got to say, this series was pretty strong throughout it's 26 issue run... Paul Dini started it off on the right foot, and Peter Calloway, who I don't know from anywhere, did a wonderful job continuing the series after Dini's departure. I've got to admit, I'm pretty disappointed that guys like Tony Daniel, Dan Didio and the suddenly insane Scott Lobdell are getting titles to write post-reboot, and yet a guy like Calloway isn't. But what can you do? Obviously DC is run by guys that make the inmates in Arkham look sane, so expecting them to make rational/good decisions just isn't going to happen... But let me stop ripping on DC, there'll be plenty of time for that next week... Anyway, this issue was good, but the Batman/manipulation reveal didn't really have much of an emotional impact for me... It just kind of made me shrug my shoulders and go, “Meh.” I did like that CW allowed Ivy and Harley to go free at the end of this issue, since she obviously did see them as friends, even after everything that's happened the last few issues, and the ending with CW having to deal with Batman's wrath for out and out disobeying him was a good place to end things. I actually wish more DC series would have ended in an open-ended way like that. We really don't know what happens to close out this series. Do CW and Bats fight? Do Dick and Damian capture Ivy and Harley, while Bruce deals with CW? Does Bruce understand why CW allowed the other women to escape and forgive her? It leaves it up to the reader to make up their mind on how THEY want the series to end, and since it all really doesn't matter what happens in the long run, I appreciate the ambiguity. So long Sirens, it's been a blast.

Score: 7 out of 10.You gotta love Ivy's bland super-villain dialogue... "I will DESTROY Batman..."

Gotham City Sirens #25 & Batman: The Dark Knight #4

These two comics will probably be the only ones I review today as I plan on being busy watching some MMA later on tonight. Tomorrow I'll have reviews up for Wolverine: The Best There Is #8 and Wonder Woman #613. As for today, it's the latest issues of Gotham City Sirens and Batman: The Dark Knight. Let's get to it.

Gotham City Sirens #25:

Summary: We get started with some goon impersonating a member of the Arkham Asylum staff telling Poison Ivy that if she could free herself from the Asylum before 36 hours passed the goon's boss would spring a trap that would give Ivy Catwoman on a silver platter. Needless to say, that interests Ivy greatly, as it was Catwoman who put her in Arkham to begin with, and Ivy gets to work on getting free. After a few hours time, Ivy manages to get a single vine into her cell, which allows Ivy to grow some plants that eliminate the pesticides that were being pumped into her cell. From there, Ivy sends some mind controlling plant toxins through the ventilation system, taking control of the guards, who let her out of her cell. Before leaving the Asylum, Ivy decides to kill Harley Quinn for her betrayal last issue, and enters Harley's room with murderous intent. Upon entering, Ivy is confronted by dozens of drawings of Harley and Joker together and takes pity on Harley, since Harley was obviously insane. Instead of killing Harley, Ivy offers her the chance to kill Catwoman, which Harley jumps at. The two women head to Penguin's hideout and ask Penguin what his plan was, which surprises Penguin since he didn't think Ivy would figure out he was behind the initial message given to her. The three villains talk for a while, and Penguin gives the two women the location of the trap he had set up for Catwoman. From there we head to Catwoman, who is watching one of Penguin's armored vans, which had been addled with a flat tire. Before Catwoman can sneak over to the van, she is surrounded by Ivy and Harley, which ends this issue.

Thoughts: This was another comic where I have no serious complaints. The story was logical, the pacing was good, the art was good, everything came together nicely. I mean it wasn't perfect or anything, but it does have me looking forward to the next issue, which means it did it's job well.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.The final issue of this series should be good.


Batman: The Dark Knight #4:

Summary: Beneath Gotham City in the sewers, Etrigan the Demon and a very possessed Ragman are battling each other for some reason... Demonic territory rights or something, I don't know. Anyway, Etrigan manages to get the upper hand on Ragman, even though Etrigan's power levels had been diminished since he lost his rank in Hell. Before Etrigan can deliver the killing blow to Ragman, Blaze, who I believe is still the ruler of DC's Hell, arrives on the scene and tells Etrigan to stop beating up her chosen agent. Blaze tells Etrigan that she was impressed by his actions, and offers to return his former ranking in Hell to him, which Etrigan readily accepts, much to the dismay of Etrigan's human host, Jason Blood. From there, Etrigan helps Ragman up and the two prepare to go along with whatever Blaze's plan was. Meanwhile, Batman(Bruce Wayne in this issue) is driving Dawn Golden towards police headquarters so the cops could end the massive manhunt for her. Before they arrive, Dawn begs Bats not to take her to the police since she feared her father would find her. Bats is a bit perplexed by that since Dawn's father was dead, but Dawn explains that her father had been the leader of a satanic cult and she believed he had returned to earth after his death as an agent of Hell... So THAT'S why Ragman is possessed! Bats is a bit dubious about that claim, but agrees to take Dawn to her penthouse home first. Unfortunately for Bats, a few hundred demons seem to know that Dawn was there and this issue ends with the demons quietly scaling the building. There were a couple of other plot threads running through this issue too, but instead of going over them in detail, I'll just toss out some quick words on them. Commissioner Gordon was suspended from the force for supposedly running a Venom dealing racket, and that girl who snuck into the Batmobile a few issues back(a rather pathetic attempt at recreating Jason Todd) deals with some family problems.

Thoughts: So next issue is going to give us Batman vs Etrigan, a possessed Ragman and a horde of demons? Um, okay... That's kind of weird for a Batman comic, but whatever I guess... After the slow build of the first three issues of this series, this issue was pretty much in fast forward, which isn't all that surprising I guess, with the DC reboot getting ever closer. For me, this issue opened up on the wrong foot with that annoying girl who was joyriding in that Batmobile a few issues back... I don't see any reason for her to be around, and don't see the reasons to create what appears to be a female Jason Todd. The battle between Etrigan and Ragman was fun, but seemed out of place in a Batman comic... The stuff with Gordon may have promise, but considering it's all going to be washed away(presumably) with the reboot, it didn't serve any purpose. Dawn's origin story, with her crazy, demon-worshiping father was okay, but again, felt out of place in a Batman comic. So while this was an okay comic, it's not something I'd go out of my way to recommend reading.

Score: 6 out of 10.It's DEMON MADNESS!!!!!

Gotham City Sirens #24 & Wonder Woman #612

Two more DC comics before I head back to Marvel for tomorrow. Both comics here have female leads, and both have been good lately, surprisingly so in the case of Wonder Woman. Okay, enough rambling, on with the reviews!

Gotham City Sirens #24:

Summary: We get started with Poison Ivy wrapping Joker up in some vines and demanding Harley Quinn ditch Mistah J and escape Arkham with Ivy. Harley distracts Ivy long enough for Joker to cut his way and then betrays Ivy, beating her up and tossing her back into the hole she came from. With Ivy out of the way, Joker and Harley continue tearing through the Asylum, killing guards and inmates alike. Batman(Bruce Wayne) and Catwoman enter the Asylum and begin to smash heads as they make their way towards Joker and Harley, who have blindfolded themselves, figuring Bats would come for them in the darkness. Joker guesses correctly, as Bats kills the power before confronting Joker and Harley. Since the demented duo were already blindfolded, the sudden darkness doesn't have the intended effect on them, and they're prepared for the arrival of Bats and Cats. Unfortunately for Joker and Harley, Bats anticipated Joker's actions, and has the lights suddenly brought back on, blinding Harley and Joker, ending their little rampage. From there, Bats and Cats have Harley and Joker locked back up at the Asylum. We end this issue with Poison Ivy waking up to Catwoman and Batman, with Catwoman telling Ivy she was also getting sent to Arkham with Harley, effectively putting an end to the Sirens.

Thoughts: Um, was this the last issue or something? Weird... I mean by the end of this issue, there was only one Siren left standing, Catwoman... I mean I like CW and all, but I liked the dynamic of Cats, Harley and Ivy together... Ah well. As usual, this was an above average read. My only complaint would be how swift the Joker/Harley-Batman/Catwoman showdown was. I mean we were building up to this big tag team main event, and it's all over over the course of a few short pages. I personally could have went for an entire issue of Bats and Cats battling the demented duo all throughout Arkham, but alas, it was not to be. If this was the last issue of this series, I'll definitely miss it, if not, then cool, I'll be reading issue #25 next month!

Score: 8 out of 10.I was kind of hoping for more in the first Batman/Joker fight since RIP...


Wonder Woman #612:

Summary: Before the final standing member of the Morrigan can suck the life out of Wonder Woman, a half dead Artemis manages to shoot an arrow through the Morrigan's neck, killing her, Artemis and blowing up the upper portion of the building the three women were in. For some inexplicable reason, WW's talking cat helps her out of the rubble and directs WW back towards the doorway from last issue. Before WW can open the door(which is adorned with WW's symbols), Zeus and his fellow gods approach WW and warn her that the force she'll be facing on the other side of the door is insanely powerful and draws it's strength from the world's despair(huh, sort of like me!). After her pep talk from the gods, WW opens the door and enters, finding herself surrounded by stone images of her dead fellow Amazons. The stone creations try to bury WW underneath them, but she manages to fight them off. Free of the stone creatures, WW turns around and is confronted by her corrupted doppleganger, Nemesis.

Thoughts: Yeah, I was one of those people who complained about the changes WW underwent 12 issues back. “Why change the costume? Why change the origin? Why change the villains? Why change Wonder Woman?” I didn't get it. Looking back, there are still a few things I don't get/like about this storyline(the talking cat is one of them...), but overall? I find myself really enjoying this storyline and eagerly anticipating the ending. Sure, J. Michael Straczynski's Superman run has been beyond abysmal, but his WW run has REALLY come together! The reveal that Nemesis was old school Wonder Woman really wasn't a surprise, it was pretty much spelled out over the last two issues, but actually seeing WW in all her former glory, preparing to take on the JMS version of the character? Awesome. Next issue should reveal to us why/how WW went crazy and caused the altered reality that's been going on these past 12 issues, as well as give us a WW vs WW fight... What more could I ask for?

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.It's about time!

Birds of Prey #12 & Gotham City Sirens #23

Two DC books to get out of the way today. One of them was so bad it was cringe-inducing, the other wasn't that bad at all. Which was which? Read on and find out!

Birds of Prey #12:

Summary: This issue starts off about as nonsensically as possible, so I'm just gonna skip it and pretend it didn't happen... Trust me, it's better that way... From there, Oracle sends Lady Blackhawk, Black Canary and Useless #1 & #2(or Hawk and Dove, same thing) to infiltrate some evil rich guy's offices. While Blackhawk keeps the rich guy distracted, Black Canary and Useless #2 sneak off to see what the rich guy was keeping in his basement. Useless #1 winds up getting held at gunpoint by two of the rich guy's bodyguards, and Huntress and the Question are randomly dealing with dirty cops and drug dealers in the sewers... Okay then. Anyway, Canary and Useless #2 make it into the basement and find a box with a phone next to it... Oh god no... Please don't do this to me, Gail... Not in THIS series too! Oh god, she did... *sigh* It turns out Ragdoll's sister Junior was living in the box and after killing the lights in the basement goes to kill Canary and Useless #2.

Thoughts: I'm not sure I could have hated a comic written by Gail Simone any more than I hated this one... I mean I usually enjoy Gail's work and all, but this was just horrible. Okay, let me clarify what I'm saying here... In MY opinion, this comic was horrible. The story was ALLL over the place, AND it made me think about Ragdoll, a character who is reaching Mad Hatter levels of annoyance from me. I have NO idea what the point of the first few pages of this comic few, nor do I know why Huntress and Question were in the sewers halting dirty cops. This was bad... It was really bad...

Score: 2 out of 10.Please kill Useless #2...


Gotham City Sirens #23:

Summary: We get started with Catwoman breaking into a truck full of diamonds that were headed for the Penguin. Before she can make good her escape, Batman(Dick Grayson this time around) lands near her and tries to guilt CW into heading to Arkham Asylum to deal with her two Sirens teammates, Harley Quinn(who broke Joker out of his cell last issue), and Poison Ivy, who wants to help Harley get away from under Joker's thumb, but is crazy. CW basically tells Dick to go to hell before driving off with her stolen booty. From there we head to Arkham, where the inmates have escaped and the place is rapidly falling apart. Harley is firmly under Mistah J's control again, and is happily doing whatever he asks of her. The two decide to have a game night, which involves Joker brutalizing various Arkham guards. While Joker and Harley are playing their games, Jeremiah Arkham finds the current director of the Asylum, Alice Sinner, who seems to still be loyal to Arkham(!!). Sinner opens a safe in her office and hands Arkham his Black Mask... um, mask and Black Mask walks the hallways of the Asylum, unhappy that Joker's games were undermining his own plans... That's pretty awesome actually. Black Mask heads up to Joker and tells him as much, and asks Joker to stop with his games, which pisses Joker off since he sees all of life as a meaningless game. Before Joker can attack Mask, Poison Ivy arrives on the scene and flings Joker away. With Joker away from Harley, Ivy tells Harley that she had to decide what was more important, her warped relationship with Joker, or her friendship with Ivy. This issue ends with Catwoman reluctantly deciding to head to the Asylum, stopping off at Gotham City Central first to see if Batman wanted to go with her. Much to her surprise(and relief), the Batman waiting for her at police headquarters was Bruce Wayne, and the two head off to see what they could do about the mess at the Asylum.

Thoughts: First things first, thank you Peter Calloway for FINALLY giving us the return of CLASSIC Joker. Grant Morrison has done a lot of good things during his time with the Bat books(Damian, Batman Inc, etc), but his forked-tongued, tank-top wearing, neck-breaking version of Joker REALLY bugged me... With a character like the Joker, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! So seeing Joker back in his trademark purple suit, NOT talking with that weird world bubble anymore made me very happy. Actually, all of this issue made me very happy... Anytime Joker is around I'm glad, the fact that Calloway actually seems like he has plans for the current Black Mask was nice, since Tony Daniel basically made Arkham into Black Mask and then COMPLETELY forgot all about it, and the interactions between Catwoman and Dick, and Catwoman and Bruce were very well written. I've got to say, this was a really good comic that left me with no real complaints.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Classic Joker is awesome Joker.

Gothem City Sirens #22 & Zatanna #12

Two female centric DC comics here, including the third part of the Judgment on Gotham storyline that doesn't matter to DC because Chairman Johns isn't attached to it... Man, for somebody I've never met, I really can't stand that guy...

Gotham City Sirens #22:

Summary: This is another part of the Judgment on Gotham storyline, although the cover of this issue doesn't bother telling us that much... Way to let people know this issue was part of that storyline, DC! Anyway, Azrael and Crusader are ready to test Catwoman to see if she is pure enough to pass their test and thus save Gotham City from destruction. Catwoman's crazy sister heads to Azrael and Crusader and tells them that she was sent by God to be Catwoman's test. Since Azrael and Crusader are also obviously insane, they happily accept Catwoman's crazy sister into their midst. Why not? The more crazies the better! CW finally catches up to Azrael and Crusader and is beaten by them and stabbed by Azrael's wacky sin sword. Upon waking up, Catwoman sees her sister, who tells CW that to save Gotham she would have to kill her. CW scoffs at the thought of killing her own sister, but her sister tells CW that she was sent by God for this very reason, and that killing her would free CW from the demon CW's sister was positive CW was possessed by. CW realizes that by killing her sister she would pass Azrael's insane test, but in the end, just can't off her own sister. With that, CW's sister leaves, as do Azrael and Crusader. This issue ends with Ra's confident that Dick Grayson(Batman) would fail his test as well, thus sealing the fate of Gotham City.

Thoughts: No complaints here. This was a good, solid comic, that continued the Judgment on Gotham storyline. I love that Peter Calloway managed to insert CW's sister into this storyline, because she was a perfect fit here. While I had no complaints about this issue in particular, I'm still a bit baffled by the Judgment storyline itself... Mainly why are these two goofs able to beat Gotham's various heroes with relative ease, and what the hell is Ra's playing at? Eh, I either forgot, or it'll be revealed in the next part of this storyline.

Score: 8 out of 10.Jeez, Azrael sure is stab happy...


Zatanna #12:

Summary: Some mook named Backslash has captured a fairy and has a magical sword that can rewind time when he swings it. Zatanna gets wind of Backslash after he kills some merpeople, and confronts him, but is stymied by Backslash, since with every swing of his sword, her backwards spoken words come out as normal speech... That's actually pretty ingenious... Anyway, since she wasn't able to use any spells on Backslash, Z charges him and tries to defeat him in hand to hand combat, but every time Z tries to hit Backslash, he simply rewinds time, causing her to miss him. Realizing she was out gunned, Z decides to retreat, but Backslash simply makes her return to him and knocks her out. Z wakes up tied to a statue where Backslash is rapping at her... Wait, what?! Z disses Backslash's sweet rhymes, which infuriates him. The captured fairy manages to tell Z that the only way to defeat Backslash was by using palindromes, you know, those words that are the same both forwards and backwards. Before Backslash knows what hit him, Z is saying palindromes like there is no tomorrow, eventually finding the correct combination of words to free her and defeat Backslash. With Backslash done for, Z takes the sword, calls the cops and frees the fairy, ending this one.

Thoughts: This was a fun, fast little read. The story was fine, and I had only one problem with it... Backslash... God was he annoying! He had the most annoying accent imaginable! Ugh. Besides that though, no complaints here.

Score: 7 out of 10.Trust me, this all DOES make sense!

Freedom Fighters #8, Green Arrow #10 & Gotham City Sirens #21

We have a trio of DC books to get through today as I SLOWLY make my way through my new comic pile. I don't know what the deal is this week, but I just can't make a dent in that damn pile for nothing! I blame Brightest Day #23 personally. From now on, whenever something doesn't go my way, that's what I'll be doing. Blaming BD #23. And you know what? In most cases, BD #23 IS to blame!

Freedom Fighters #8

Summary: This series is still going on?! Okay then... We get started with Uncle Sam(recently resurrected in the dead body of Firebrand) battling the deadly menace of the Jester!!! The Jester is carrying a few magical artifacts, making him THAT much deadlier! The fight goes on for a few pages before Sam literally stops selling the beating Jester was giving him, breaks Jester's magic sword, smashes his magic lantern and steals his magic... um, hat-thing. With the Jester's supply of magic accessories gone, Sam punches the villain out, ending his threat. The rest of the Fighters all wake up(yeah, now that the battle was over! Slackers!), rescue the Vice President and strike a pose with Sam. Three days later(it says so on the page!), the Fighters hold a funeral for Firebrand, presided over by Sam... Wait, he can do THAT too?! King Bullet and his motley crew of villains tunnel their way to the surface from their destroyed underground prison and swear revenge against the Fighters... Well they better get their revenge swiftly, because this series only has a few issues left to go! This issue ends with Sam and Miss America being told by the President that due to budget cuts their team would no longer be getting government funding.

Thoughts: This review may have been rushed and a tad sarcastic(just a tad), but don't let that fool you, I actually enjoyed this issue! Not only was the physical battle between Sam and Jester enjoyable, the war of words they were having made the fight that much better. It's weird, the first 5 or 6 issues of this series didn't impress me in the least(and had the Ray not been a part of the team, I probably would have dropped the series early on), but these last 2 or 3 issues have been really good! The pacing has been brisk the past two issues(I guess due to the impending cancellation), but for this series, a quick pace really seems to work. Although the speed at which the Jester lost was a bit annoying...

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Everybody strike a pose!


Green Arrow #10:

Summary: This issue spotlights Galahad! Smell the excitement! Basically Galahad was pulled under Starwood Forest last issue, which leads to him remembering his true origin, which is basically that he was a professor of literature, his daughter died of a rare disease and he went plumb loco and checked out of reality, instead creating the fantasy that he was the Galahad of legend, and was the protector of Starwood. While Galahad is remembering all of this, the forest opens up temporarily allowing Mr. Terrific and Dr. Midnite in to assist Green Arrow and Jason Blood against the Demon. By this point, Galahad cuts his way OUT of the ground(or perhaps out of a tree, I don't really know) and rejoins the battle... So why exactly was he dragged under the Forest anyway? The heroes press the attack, but Etrigan is able to stand through it and this issue ends with Etrigan summoning a mess of evil vegetative versions of the heroes to defend him.

Thoughts: Who does Etrigan think he is? Swamp Thing?!? I really wanted to hate this comic, especially when I realized that Galahad was going to get a brunt of the page-time, but about halfway through I found myself actually getting into the story, so kudos to JT Krul for that one. Granted, it's not like I care about Galahad now, but the story was more palatable then I would have expected. There were a few things that bugged me, like how does a person go from literature professor to a master swordsman, but whatever I guess. After the reveal in Brightest Day #23, I'm not exactly sure what ANY of the stuff happening in this series means, but if you can ignore the weird continuity issues, this comic was okay.

Score: 7 out of 10.Galahad, Knight of the Forest/Professor of Literature. Same thing I guess.


Gotham City Sirens #21

Summary: Harley Quinn's march to the Joker's cell at Arkham Asylum continues as she manages to get past the last thing standing between her and revenge, Arkham guard Aaron Cash. Cash has a gun and a hook hand, making him a duel threat, but Harley manages to disarm him(of the gun, not the hook hand) by informing Cash that the Joker had poisoned and killed Cash's infant son. Cash had always believed that his son died of tetanus, but it turns out the Joker had been responsible for the kid's death during one of his MANY vacations from Arkham. Completely devastated by this news, Cash opens the doorway to Joker's wing at Arkham(he has his own WING now?!) and hands Harley his gun. Harley enters the cell and comes face-to-face with Mistah J, pointing the gun at him. Before she can fire though, Joker takes her by surprise, telling her that he had missed her... With that, Harley begins to think back to all of the horrible things Joker had done to her, but eventually begins to remember the good as well... Or at least as “good” as Joker gets. After some thought, Harley throws down the gun and hugs Joker, showing that no matter what, he'd always hold sway over her. As for the other two Sirens, they were planning to break into Arkham to prevent Harley from doing something stupid(killing Joker, saving Joker, etc). However, Catwoman becomes distracted by some cop cars driving away from Arkham, heading towards Devil's Square. Catwoman can't help but believe that whatever was happening in Devil's Square required her attention more than Harley, which infuriates Poison Ivy. Ivy tells Catwoman that if she goes to Devil's Square and doesn't try to help Harley, not only would Ivy never forgive her, they'd be SWORN enemies until the day Ivy died! Damn! Ultimately though, curiosity gets the better of Catwoman(well, I guess that's not overwhelmingly surprising since she is CATwoman!), and she leaves an infuriated Ivy on a rooftop near Arkham.

Thoughts: Wooo, now THIS was a good comic! As a matter of fact, the past few issues of this series have been surprisingly good. Like, “one of the best things I've read from DC” good! I have to be honest, I never really took to Harley Quinn at all. Out of the three leads in this series, she was always my least favorite by far. But these past few issues have shown that she's more than some annoying lackey obsessed with Joker, she's actually a capable, manipulative and calculating villain in her own right. This issue also showed how smart the Joker is, as he immediately realized that Harley wasn't there to break him out of Arkham this time, and managed to change her mind with a few simple words. I'm not sure what the future holds for this series, especially with the falling out between Ivy and Catwoman, but as long as this series remains THIS strong, I know I'll be reading it.

Score: 9 out of 10.Sworn enemies for LIFE! Now THAT'S hatred!

Quick Hits: 3/8/11

I had an hour to kill between classes last Friday, and decided to read the five comic books here in this post. I don't know what it was, but I actually enjoyed all 5 of them! Maybe I should read more comics at school...

Freedom Fighters #7:

Summary: After having his home surrounded by SHADE troops, and having his arm twisted by Miss America, Dollman agrees to head back to the Freedom Fighters and to lead them. While the team is getting reacquainted with their old teammate, alarms go off in their secret government headquarters and they rush to the sound of the alarms, discovering a bunch of dead scientists, and a message from the Jester. The Jester brags that he had just stolen the two artifacts the Freedom Fighters had managed to acquire these past few issues, and he tells them he'd be willing to exchange the vice-president as soon as the Freedom Fighters had found the third and final artifact and turned it over to him. With no real choice, the Fighters head to the Grand Canyon and find a secret cave. They search around inside and discover that the Jester had already been there, had gotten his hands on the last artifact, and that the whole thing was a trap. The Jester is surprised, and VERY disappointed to learn that Uncle Sam wasn't there since he had “died”(or gone into hibernation, or whatever he does), since Uncle Sam was the final piece to whatever evil plan the Jester was hatching. The Fighters attack Jester, but with his three artifacts of power, he manhandles the team, and manages to slay Firebrand. While the Jester is gloating about his victory, Uncle Sam brings himself back to life in the body of Firebrand and prepares to end the threat of the Jester, once and for all.

Thoughts: You know, this is one of the most inconsistent comic books I read on a monthly basis. Sometimes I'll barely understand WHAT was going on, while other times(like this issue) I'll enjoy the entire thing. I don't know if the whole Jester storyline was moved up due to the impending cancellation of this series, or if this was always the way Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti had intended the story to go, but unlike some of the earlier issues of this series, this one made perfect sense. It was nice to see the Fighters know exactly where they were going, why they were going there and who they were battling against. That's something that this series had been lacking. Ah well. I'll try to enjoy these final issues of this book while I can I guess.

Score: 7 out of 10.I'm sorry, but that is NOT a very intimidating looking villain right there...


Avengers Academy #10:

Summary: The Academy kids wake up and head into a danger simulation where they have to figure out which person to save first during a flood. Somehow this scenario leads to Veil accidentally mentioning the Stanford incident to Speedball. Speedball takes the surprise pretty well and uses it as an opportunity to tell the students that the reason they were being trained was so that they wouldn't make the same mistakes he made growing up, before leaving. Needless to say Veil is horrified by what she said, and asks her various classmates if she should apologize to Speedball or if she should just leave it be. Finesse convinces Veil to spy on Speedball to see what kind of a mood he was in before making up her mind as to what to do. Veil manages to sneak into Speedball's room where she spots him gashing one of his arms with his old Penance helmet. Veil is shocked by that scene and is unsure of whether she should alert one of the other instructors or not. Ultimately she decides to keep what she saw to herself since she was already on probation due to the Hood incident. A bit later on, Justice and Speedball take the kids out to Stanford where a memorial was set up for the victims of Nitro. While Speedball is explaining the results of untrained/unsupervised/careless super-heroing, a group of feebs dressed in knock-off Cobalt Man armor arrive to attack Speedball. Justice tries to get the kids into defensive positions, but before that can happen Speedball takes all of the armored goons out with his Penance powers. With the villains down and out, the cops arrive on the scene and one of the cops tells Speedball that although the cop had lost friends during Nitro's explosion, he can respect that Speedball was trying to make amends, which seems to mean quite a lot to Speedball. Later on, Veil tells the rest of the faculty what she saw Speedball doing, which he explains away by stating that he needed to feel pain to activate his Penance abilities, and that whenever he went out he'd charge himself up. Pym tells Speedball that he would work on a better way to activate his Penance abilities, and the issue ends with Veil deciding that the best way for her to make up for her various screw-ups was to try to resurrect the Wasp(NO! Please don't!!).

Thoughts: As usual, I really, really liked this comic. It's SO well done. I know I say it like every month, but Christos Gage has done a phenomenal job building these characters, this team and this book up. I mean he took a bunch of second-string Avengers and New Warriors, some new characters and has shaped it into a fantastic read. THIS is what I wish Generation Hope would turn into. Sure if the Wasp gets brought back to life, Gage will lose some of my good will(sorry, but I hate her!), but even if she was to become a part of this team, I'd still enjoy reading this comic. That's when you know you're really enjoying something, when somebody you can't stand is added and you can overlook that.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.You tell 'em, Robbie!


Uncanny X-Men #533:

Summary: First up is the Emma Frost/Sebastian Shaw portion of this story. Shaw is really angry with Emma, as I'm sure anybody would be after being secretly locked up. He manages to shrug off Shadowcat and Fantomex(who accompanied Emma), and is preparing to finish Emma off when she runs away... Yep, she ran away. Anyway, the main story concerned the X-Men sending the few non-quarantined mutants after Lobe and the Sublime corporation to force Lobe into handing over the cure to the plague that was ravaging Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia). Unfortunately, Lobe hands out a bunch of mutant powers in a bottle to some potential investors and Lobe and his now mutant-powered investors wind up over-powering the few X-Men present. This issue concludes with Lord Summers deciding to assist the besieged X-Men at the Sublime corporation, even though he was sick and powerless.

Thoughts: As usual, I hated every part of this story involving Lord Summers and Emma Frost(who I REALLY need to find a nickname for...), but everything else was actually pretty enjoyable. I mean I liked seeing Sebastian Shaw on his little rampage, and the stuff with Lobe and his Sublime Corporation was pretty interesting. While I did enjoy this issue, I think everybody can see the end coming from a mile away, with Lord Summers and his band of sickly mutants arriving at the scene of the battle to infect all of the now-powered mutants and Lobe, forcing Lobe to hand over the cure or risk the deaths of all of his potential investors. The Shaw story is more fluid, and I'm not really sure where Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen are going with that storyline. I wish Shaw would simply tear off Emma's head, but alas, I somehow doubt that's going to happen...

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.How utterly heroic of you, Emma.


Gotham City Sirens #20:

Summary: So Harley Quinn has realized that Joker has been using her all these years and as such has decided to head into Arkham Asylum to kill Mistah J. Now although it seems really easy to break out of Arkham(come on, you know it is!), it's more difficult to sneak in. Using her former training as a psychologist at Arkham, Quinn manages to distract a guard with some marbles(he had an obsession with them dating back to his childhood), gaining access to the underbelly of the Asylum. From there she heads to Director Skinner's office through the ventilation system and drops a flower on her desk, the exact type of flower she received before her boyfriend and family(who were members of a cult) committed mass suicide. Skinner is dazed by that and when she picks up the flower it gives her a blast of Joker gas, knocking her out. Quinn manages to get the controls to the inmate debilitation system from Skinner and shuts them down, repowering the inmates as a result. From there she heads to Clayface's cell and breaks into his cell with a crowbar, which represents the failure of Clayface's acting career and throws him into a rage, distracting most of the guards. Harley makes her way towards Joker's cell, but runs into Aaron Cash, the head guard at the Asylum. Cash tells Harley he knew she was there for the Joker, and this issue ends with Harley being confident that she'll be able to get into Cash's head as she did so many other people in Arkham.

Thoughts: Wow, this was a great issue of this series! It was SO nice to see Harley shown as something other than an annoying, idiotic, rambling pest. She used all of her knowledge of Arkham, as well as it's doctors and guards, to take them down in a wonderfully cerebral way. This was such a nice change from the Harley who hangs out with jackals, annoying her fellow Siren teammates and just being... well kind of useless. This one issue went a LONG way in giving me a newfound respect for Harley. Now I figure her Siren teammates will pop up next issue to talk her down from killing Joker, but I'll always remember this as the issue Harley Quinn showed us all she wasn't a joke anymore.

Score: 9 out of 10.There's nothing more annoying than several Joker's bugging you!


Thunderbolts #154:

Summary: We kick things off in the Florida Everglades, where some aliens(riding a huge alien horse-creature) are running amok. While that is going on, Luke Cage is being grilled by the Thunderbolts Council(think the governmental regulatory body overlooking the T-Bolts) about the inclusion of Man-Thing on the team. Luke tries to explain that Man-Thing hasn't been any trouble at all, and has served the team exceedingly well. The T-Bolts Council want to go and see Man-Thing, and do, meeting the zoologist in charge of keeping an eye on Man-Thing. After the Council leaves Man-Thing's room, we learn that the zoologist was actually Jennifer Kale(!) in disguise and that she had infiltrated the T-Bolts facility to free Man-Thing and take him back where he belonged, the Everglades. Jennifer teleports over to the aliens from earlier, who were still running about, killing as many people and animals as they could, and sets Man-Thing loose on them. Man-Thing kills the alien's horse-creature, as well as one of the aliens when it tried to attack him, and Jennifer opens a portal back to the alien's homeworld, telling it to leave now or face the wraith of Man-Thing. Needless to say, the alien hops into the portal, leaving Earth behind. Having taken care of the aliens, Man-Thing teleports back to the Thunderbolts facility, much to the surprise of Jennifer, who figured Man-Thing would have wanted to be free. By this point, Luke and Songbird have arrived at Man-Thing's cell and ask what Jennifer was up to. She explains that Man-Thing was the Protector of the Nexus of Realities, and as such was supposed to be AT the Nexus of Realities, the Everglades. Songbird figures that the scientist Man-Thing was before his transformation enjoyed the T-Bolt's missions, which was why he returned to the T-Bolt's facility after doing away with the aliens. Jennifer is a bit disappointed that Man-Thing seems as if he wanted to remain with the T-Bolts, so Luke assures her she can pop in and visit Man-Thing whenever she felt the need. With that guarantee, Jennifer takes her leave, while Luke calls a meting of all the non-criminal T-Bolts. He tells the group that in light of Man-Thing's good behavior, the T-Bolts Council was okay with Man-Thing remaining on the team. However, the Council was disturbed by the T-Bolts vulnerability to magic, and as such had tasked Luke with finding a magical being to take a spot on the T-Bolts.

Thoughts: Every month this series seems to be getting better and better. Jeff Parker has really done a great job of spotlighting specific characters on this team every now and then. You'll have a few issues of a storyline, and then you'll wind up with a one-shot type story about a specific T-Bolt, in this case, Man-Thing. The story was quite good, and I was happy to see Jennifer Kale included here, as she's always had a relationship with the Everglades and Man-Thing, so it was nice to see Parker delve into what she thought about Man-Thing working for the T-Bolts. As for next issue's hunt for a magical T-Bolt, why exactly didn't Luke ask Jennifer while she was there? I mean she already has the relationship with Man-Thing, and she is a magical dynamo. It seemed kind of odd that Jennifer would leave the comic and THEN Luke would mention that the team was in need of magical assistance. Other then that very little point, there was really nothing else wrong with this comic.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Oh snap!

Quick Hits: 2/19/11

Hey all, it's yet another installment of Quick Hits, this time a jam-packed, all-DC edition. We have 5 reviews to get through, and one of them is my undisputed FAVORITE DC comic. There are very few comics that bring a smile to my face the moment I see them, but REBELS is one of those comic books. And luckily for me, I get to do my monthly REBELS review now! I figure my best move would be to start off with REBELS, which should put me in a good mood before I move on to the other comics I've decided to read today. The only problem with that strategy is that after that first review, the only direction left to go is down...

REBELS #25:

Summary: Starro's two lieutenants continue their sneak attack from last issue with Smite taking out Vril Dox's most powerful LEGION member(not named Lobo), Tribulus, while Storm-Daughter captures Dox. LEGION tries to respond, but by the time Capt. Comet and Starfire respond, Dox and his two assailants are gone, and Tribulus is laid out in the street in a pool of blood. The rest of LEGION gather around Tribulus and Adam Strange decides that their best move was to immediately take the battle to Starro and rescue Dox. Lobo doesn't care to take orders from Strange and leaves on his own, wanting to find Storm-Daughter, who he mistook for a fellow Czarnians. Strange is initially infuriated by Lobo's actions, but Wildstar reminds Strange that she can also track individuals across the universe and offers to follow Lobo. Strange orders a Rannian officer to scour the city to make sure Starro didn't leave any of his starfish behind, and tasks Lyrl Dox(who demands to be referred to as Brainiac 3)with fixing Tribulus up before taking flight. Dox is presented to Starro himself by Smite and Storm-Daughter, and immediately deducts that Starro had conquered the Psion's homeworld. Starro threatens to put one of his mind-sapping starfish on Dox's face, but Dox buys time by telling Starro that the full wraith of LEGION would come down on him and he'd be summarily defeated. Starro decides to show Dox why he wasn't concerned, revealing that the Psion's had been cloning Czarnians before he conquered them, meaning he'd have an army of Lobos under his command. Dox is initially horrified at the prospect of Starro leading an army of Lobo clones, before he deduces that if Starro could control the Lobo clones he'd have already set them loose. With that last insult, Starro affixes a starfish on Dox's face(!), rendering him a mindless slave to Starro. From there we discover that Starro did indeed leave several starfish on Rann, and that they had already begun taking over many Rannian soldiers. This issue ends with Lobo arriving on the Psion homeworld and calling out Storm-Daughter. Storm-Daughter douses herself with some Czarnian pheromones and heads out to seduce Lobo again, but is surprised to see Lobo wearing a nose clip, thus negating the pheromones. Storm-Daughter moves to sap Lobo of his power, and Lobo responds by driving his hook through her skull!

Thoughts: And this issue once again affirmed what I've been saying. REBELS is the BEST comic coming out of DC. Batgirl is right up there, but if forced to choose between the two books, REBELS wins out every time. Where do I even begin? Starro trying(and thus far failing)to control the Lobo clones with his starfish, the massive battle in the opening pages, Starro beginning a quiet invasion of Rann with Adam Strange off-world to rescue Dox, Lyrl demanding to be called Brainiac 3(which got a rather hardy laugh out of me!), Dox getting his mind taken away(!!), and of course Lobo taking out one of Starro's top lieutenants with one mighty blow. Next issue should be INSANE, especially when Lobo realizes that the Psions had been cloning him, thus creating Czarnians. You KNOW how Lobo is going to react when he sees the clones... He doesn't proudly call himself the last Czarnian for nothing! Besides that, we have Vril Dox, possibly the smartest character in ALL of the DCU(yep, even smarter than Lex Luthor)having his mind stripped away by Starro. With Dox's mind shut down, there's nobody left to control Tribulus(who was under Dox's constant mental control). That fact could lead to two possibilities... One, Tribulus wakes up and goes on one hell of a rampage, tearing through Rann, or two, Lyrl... I mean Brainiac 3, finds a way to take control of Tribulus like his father had done and uses Tribulus to escape from his father's watchful eye. Whew! I could keep going, but I still have other comics to cover, so let me end this REBELS review now!

Score: 9 out of 10.Wow, I sure as hell didn't see that one coming!


Batman and Robin #20:

Summary: We kick things off with Bruce, Dick, Tim, Damian and Alfred sitting down at Wayne Manor to watch the Mark of Zorro... Um, okay... I guess... From there Dick heads to some opera performance and is nearly hit by a man with some weird wings affixed to his back plummeting to his death. Dick(as Batman)and Damian(as Robin, naturally)head to the morgue with Commissioner Gordon to look at the body. Damian gets roughed up by Gordon(what in the BLUE HELL is going on here?!?), before Dick and Damian see that the dead man had burned off his fingerprints as well as his footprints. Since the man's face was pretty battered from falling eighty stories, Dick takes some pictures of his head with the hope being that the computers at the Batcave could digitally reconstruct his face, thus identifying the dead man. From there Dick and Damian head to the spot where the man jumped(fell?) from and find a suicide note. Damian figures that would close the case, but Dick says it's never that easy and on cue, Man-Bat suddenly attacks the duo, ranting about saving his children from the light. Dick and Damian manage to put the crazed Man-Bat down and out, and hundreds of... oh hell... glowing white bats fall from the sky laying all around the Dynamic Duo and the fallen Man-Bat.

Thoughts: Okay, if those glowing bats are what I think they are then I'm going to be PISSED! And I mean pissed in all caps! When it's in all caps you KNOW I'm serious! I DO NOT want my Bat-books crossing over with the utter garbage that is Brightest Day. Please let those glowing white bats be ANYTHING other than what they seem to be. But of course Peter Tomasi is writing this(as well as co-writing the abomination that is Brightest Day), meaning that my fears are probably true. Damn it... Anyway, before the white bat nonsense, this comic was moving along rather well. Sure, the opening scene made ZERO sense(what the HELL was that supposed to show us? That Bruce is warm and fuzzy now? We know!), but I was enjoying the mystery of that guy's death. I'd have scored this comic way higher, but that potential Brightest Day link really drove down my enjoyment of this one.

Score: 6 out of 10.Damian may have been trained by the League of Assassins, Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne, but how could he hope to defeat the terrible skill of Commissioner Gordon?!


Gotham City Sirens #19:

Summary: After learning of the way Talia manipulated her last issue, Zatanna decides to take Talia down. The two do some quick sparring before Talia decides it's time to leave and fires two missiles at the Siren's headquarters, where Catwoman had been captured and tied up. Zatanna manages to save Catwoman with a force field, but that distraction gives Talia the chance to escape. Later on, Catwoman is prowling the night and Zatanna heads over to offer an apology. Catwoman doesn't even want to hear it, but Zatanna explains that she'll go away the moment Catwoman at least listens to her. Zatanna explains that while she was in Catwoman's head she saw Catwoman's anger and resentment at the way Bruce would often treat her, and offers to have Catwoman forget all about her romantic feelings for Bruce. Catwoman nearly says yes but in the end declines and heads to the Siren's new headquarters, an abandoned arboretum. Catwoman is naturally bummed and Harley Quinn offers to listen to her problems. Catwoman tells Harley about all of the times Batman would be with her, and yet be a million miles away mentally. These words cause Harley to realize that Joker was the same distant way with her, and she storms away. Catwoman and Poison Ivy track Harley to an abandoned amusement park and tell her to calm down before she does something rash. Instead of calming down, Harley tosses some Joker-bombs at her two Siren teammates and declares that she was going off to kill Joker for all of the crap he put her through.

Thoughts: Hey, I really enjoyed this comic! The battle between Talia and Zatanna was over WAY too quickly, especially since last issue built to it, and Harley's decision to kill Joker was kind of out of the blue, but everything else here really worked for me. I guess I can understand Harley's impetuous actions, since that's kind of her nature, but you'd think this would be the start of a new storyline as opposed to the continuation of a storyline that seemed to have concluded this issue(the Zatanna/Talia/Catwoman)stuff. Besides those little quibbles, everything else here was good. Oh, and Talia came right out and said that Bruce was Damian's father, so there! :P

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.And this was basically all Talia did in this one...


Batman #707:

Summary: I'm going to cover this comic in broad strokes... VERY broad strokes! After saving a few people(including himself) from a Sensei created deathtrap, Batman(Dick Grayson) manages to hunt down the Sensei, with some help from I-Ching and Luki Lo. Unfortunately for Bats, Sensei has manages to find and put on the Mask of the Beholder and is throwing around god-like powers. Luckily for Bats, Luki Lo is the chosen one(or something like that, just go with it...)and can call the Mask to himself telekinetically. This angers the Sensei, who moves in to kill Luki Lo, but accidentally splits the Mask in two with his sword, ending its threat. Bats moves to apprehend Sensei, but he gets away. From there Peacock(Luki Lo's sister)gives Bats half of the Mask and keeps the other half herself, hoping that would keep the Mask from putting itself together. We end this one with the Riddler giving a woman holding Two-Face's coin(who is hidden in the shadows) some information on the Jade Compass Society, in return for some gold and the promise of information on the Riddler's past.

Thoughts: Gah! Well I WILL say this much, this issue was better than the last issue, which I couldn't even will myself into finishing. That's pretty much the only compliment I can give this comic though... There was just SO many little things going on that I either didn't remember from the last few issues, or never bothered to figure out. If I never read the names I-Ching, Sensei, Peacock and Luki Lo again, it'll be too soon...

Score: 3 out of 10.Good GOD did Riddler get ugly!


Green Lantern Corps #57:

Summary: We start things off with Firestorm coming across the battle on Qward, thus reminding me of Brightest Day and automatically putting me in a bad mood... The Thunderers, under the leadership of John Stewart try to take Sinestro down with a heavy artillery assault, but they fail miserably because none of them are named Hal Jordan, and we ALL know only Hal “I Never Went Crazy!” Jordan can come close to defeating Sinestro The Great... See, I TOLD you thinking about Brightest Day would put me in a bad mood! The Weaponer and his White Lantern powered weapon also falls to the HORRIBLE might of Sinestro The Great. Sinestro The Great calls his Sinestro Corps over to mop up the Thunderers(why? he was doing a pretty good job of that himself!), which leads to the Green Lantern Honor Guard siding with the Thunderers and trying to fend off the Sinestro Corps... Oh, and the GLC members can't use their rings against the Sinestro Corps members(and vice-verca) because of their truce, so the GLC members use guns instead.... Which DOESN'T break the truce somehow... *sigh* Firestorm finally arrives and asks Kyle Rayner(or as Chairman Johns calls him, That Bastard) why the GLC members weren't using their rings, and Kyle tells him about the truce. Since Firestorm isn't a member of the GLC, he happily tears into the Sinestro Corps members WITH his powers. Sinestro The Great finally tires of decimating everything in his path and offers to leave Qward and stop beating up the Weaponer if the Weaponer agreed to join the Sinestro Corps. Realizing that he wasn't Hal “I Never Went Crazy!” Jordan and as such could never hope to defeat Sinestro The Great, the Weaponer joins the Sinestro Corps, going from a decent new villain to yet another faceless lackey. From there Sinestro and his Corps leave and the GLC Honor Guard decide to head to Earth to deal with Krona.

Thoughts: If I could sum this issue up in a single word it would be “disappointing”. I just don't see the upswing for making the Weaponer a member of the Sinestro Corps. It just doesn't make sense to me. Now he's simply another random face in the crowd as opposed to the threat he had been built into. Firestorm basically added NOTHING to this issue, as he wandered over, blasted a few random Sinestro Corps members and then left to find Deathstorm, making this the second most useless guest appearance I've read this month(only behind Catman's unnecessary appearance in Red Robin). As for Sinestro, what more needs to be said? He defeated an entire planet, beat a man who humbled the Green Lantern Honor Guard, including a Guardian of the Universe, and strutted away, no worse for wear... I think when I want my fill of DC's space faring stories I'll stick with the FAR superior(and written by the same writer, Tony Bedard)REBELS.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Pfft, an army against Sinestro? I'll take Sinestro's chances!

Quick Hits: 1/16/11

Well, I've decided to do a new type of post with an old name... Over two years ago, when I was still trying to find my grove for on this blog, I did ONE Quick Hits post where I basically babbled about a whole mess of things... It was a bad post with little to no redeeming qualities. I mean I literally spent a paragraph talking about the weather. On a COMIC BOOK blog! It was a mess, and I never did it again... But the Quick Hits name itself actually fits something I want to do with this post, so I'm going to resurrect it. Don't worry though, I won't go off and start talking about the weather. You have my word on that.

So what IS this post all about then? Last night, I realized that my new comics pile was really starting to build up. Between the books I buy at the comic book store, and the subscription books that come in the mail, I had a pile of new comics that was currently at about 25 issues and climbing. So what to do... Well, I could have just read those comics and skipped putting reviews up, but I'd hate to do that. Posting reviews on this blog has gone from an annoying nightly practice to what could probably be described as an obsession. So since I feel I HAVE to post reviews/scores, I needed to find a way to post reviews quickly... Thus this post. Instead of doing long-winded posts that hit on everything, or Best of the Rest style reviews that hit on ALMOST everything, for this post I'm simply going to throw out a summery, some quick thoughts and my score. And of course a scan from the comic, because I know how you guys love your pictures! So last night I read 9(!)new books that I didn't expect much from(unsurprisingly they were all DC books)and will see how this format works. That's about the gist of it, let's see how it works in practice. As always, any recommendations or comments on how to improve this particular post since it's brand spanking new will be appreciated. Now let's get into it.

JSA All-Stars #14:

Summary: Arthur Pemberton has decided to work with some evil magic beings in order to heal his comatose daughter. Naturally this brings him into conflict with the JSA All-Stars, but Pemberton manages to zap them away with a magic wand to parts unknown.

Thoughts: This issue was much better than I would have expected it to be. The Pemberton story seems to finally be moving to the forefront, while other characters like Citizen Steel are getting more face time. No complaints here.

Score: 7 out of 10.


Batman Annual #28:

Summary: Three stories here. The first one dealt with the two Batmen(Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson)taking care of the terrorist attacks plaguing Paris and getting the Batman Inc. organization okayed in France. Bruce decides to make Nightrunner the Batman of France, which is a bit weird considering he is an Algerian living in France, but C'est la vie I guess. The second story was the best of the bunch, and dealt with Leslie Thompkins, while the last one was a spotlight on Nightrunner.

Thoughts: Didn't like the first or third story, but I did enjoy the middle one, so this issue was a mixed bag. I can kind of get what Bruce was doing by making an Algerian the Parisian Batman, but to then hide the guy's face under a full mask didn't make any sense. If you're trying to promote racial harmony, why not let Nightrunner wear a regular Batman mask that reveals some of his facial features?

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.


Freedom Fighters #5:

Summary: The Freedom Fighters basically get trounced by the escaped prisoners of Enclave A, with Firebrand suffering what could be a broken spine. The prisoners toss the FFers into a pit where the more uncontrollable experiments at the prison were living. The prisoners, led by the Bullet King, try to force the warden to give them Sherman's Wraith, a mystical sword, but the warden commits suicide, which starts a countdown that will destroy the prison.

Thoughts: This was actually my favorite issue of Freedom Fighters to date! And the weird thing was that the FFer's didn't really have much of a role, while the escaped prisoners stole the show. The warden was a racist, sexist ass, while the prisoners seemed to be written pretty sympathetically, as they were subject to all sorts of evil experiments, so yeah, this was an odd one.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.


Booster Gold #40:

Summary: Some crazy old Nazi manages to hack into Rip Hunter's computer system and gets some insight into the character of early Booster Gold, although Rip's computers were able to fight off the computer attack before any of Booster's recent exploits were discovered. Booster returns to Rip's lab and finds out what happened and yells at Rip, who turns around and tells Booster he was under arrest for stealing all of those devices from the 25th century before he traveled back in time.

Thoughts: This was an interesting issue. It was a bit too heavy on Booster's history, which by this point I could probably recite forwards and backwards. The rest of the comic, which had Booster battling some lame villain and the swerve at the end was really good, and has me looking forward to the next issue.

Score: 7 out of 10.


Justice Society of America #46:

Summary: While the JSA is racing around Monument Point trying to rebuild the destroyed town, Dr. Chaos arrives and begins to create, well chaos. By the end of this issue, he manages to kill the mayor of the town(who was under JSA protection)as well as apparently killing Thunder.

Thoughts: This issue was WAY better than the last two, so that's good. I liked that crazy Obsidian arrived at the town to kill Scythe, who was responsible for paralyzing his father, Alan Scott. Jay Garrick seems to be getting really beaten down in this story so far, so I'm looking forward to watching him get built back up again.

Score: 6 out of 10.


Green Lantern #60:

Summary: Hal fights a Parallax possessed Barry Allen and I can honestly say I don't care. In the end, that weird little figure appears, takes back Parallax as well as a few other entities and reveals himself as Krona. Yawn.

Thoughts: You know, I can't stand this comic, or the way Chairman Johns has altered the history of the DCU anymore. Parallax ISN'T a giant bug, it's the name Hal Jordan took when he was driven insane at the loss of Coast City. Plain and simple. Hal went crazy. Not because of a fear entity, but because he lost everything he cared about. Saying anything else is bullshit. Once my subscription for this series is up, I'll be dropping this title, as well as any other comic Chairman Johns writes, because quite frankly, it's not worth getting pissed off about anymore.

Score: 3 out of 10.


Green Lantern #61:

Summary: This issue is all about Atrocitus and his search for the rage entity. Atrocitus manages to find the entity, and comes into conflict with the Spectre, who doesn't want the rage entity on Earth. As usual, the Spectre gets beaten up, this time by the rage entity, because he gets beat up by EVERYBODY. Atrocitus then captures the entity in his Red Lantern, lectures the Spectre(?!?!?)and leaves.

Thoughts: Good lord, I can't wait for my Green Lantern subscription to be up. I hate this series and every single character in it. Atrocitus lectured the Spectre... Just think about that for a while.

Score: 2 out of 10.


Gotham City Sirens #17:

Summary: Talia Al Ghul, Zatanna, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy manage to rescue Catwoman from Senpai(a crony of the Sensei), who had kidnapped Catwoman in order to discover the secret identity of Batman. Luckily the women chase Senpai away before he discovers the secret, but Talia convinces Zatanna that the only way Bruce's secret identity would be safe was if Zatanna wiped the knowledge from Catwoman's mind.

Thoughts: This was a VERY strong story, one I wish I would have read sooner. The ending was especially great, with Talia convincing Zatanna that Catwoman HAD to be mindwiped, due to how easy it was for villains to kidnap Catwoman. Great stuff, with even better stuff to come next issue.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.


Gotham City Sirens #18:

Summary: After much soul-searching, Zatanna decides to mindwipe Catwoman at the behest of Talia Al Ghul. Zatanna teleports Ivy and Harley Quinn away from Catwoman, enters her home and begins the process, while Talia does what she can to keep Ivy and Harley from returning to help CW. As Zatanna goes through CW's memories, she comes across one where Talia mentions to Catwoman that they both loved Bruce Wayne, which leads Zatanna to finally realize that Talia had been using her to eliminate any romantic competition for Bruce's heart. This issue ends with Zatanna confronting Talia over her deception.

Thoughts: Loved this issue. From Zatanna's hesitation to mindwipe CW, to her eventual reluctant decision to do it, to realizing that she had been duped by the ultra intelligent Talia. That's why I like Talia so much. Much like her father, you can never be sure just what her game is until it's too late.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Some more reviews!

Hey again, I figured before I started doing reviews for the new comics I picked up earlier today, I should probably take care of the comics I read over the last night(and day)first. Before I get into the single issues, I wanted to hit on the Kick-Ass trade which I finished up at school earlier today. So what did I think of Kick-Ass? It was good. No, scratch that, it was REALLY good. I'd easily give it a 9 - 9 1/2 out of 10. Why not a perfect score? I could see the obligatory betrayal coming from a mile away, and the ending kind of bugged me a bit. If ever a series was asking for a downer ending, it was this series. Yeah, one of the “main” characters bites the bullet, but I couldn't help but feel that more than just one of the fringe heroes should have been killed. I guess Mark Millar had one eye towards a second series when he concluded this mini. The other thing I wanted to say about Kick-Ass is this, man was it violent and profane! JRJR did some sweet artwork, or maybe I should say some sweet gory artwork, and the dialogue was definitely for a more mature audience. But I'm definitely glad I gave it a read. It easily gets a huge recommendation from me.

Okay, now we'll get to the single issues starting with Secret Avengers #5. This issue gave us the story of why Nick Fury was working with the evil Shadow Council. We learn that it isn't actually Nick Fury who turned bad but one of those Nick Fury LMD's. It seems that Nick's evil brother Jake used the uber-powerful Zodiac Key to grant one of the LMD's all of Nick's memories, causing it to believe that it WAS Nick. Nick eventually captured LMD Nick and was going to have it cremated, but John Steele(a member of the Shadow Council)rescued it and the appreciative LMD changed its name to Max Fury and began working with the Council. In the end Max and Steele get together and decide to keep very close watch on the Secret Avengers. I really liked this issue, and I definitely enjoyed the way Max's story was told here. It was interesting, somewhat original and it tied into Nick Fury's past in a totally plausible way. The only complaint I could come up with here is that we hardly saw any of the Secret Avengers. Hopefully next issue rectifies that for me. For a score I'll go with an 8 1/2 out of 10.

Next up we'll go to one of my favorite DC titles, and that would be Birds of Prey. In this instance, Birds of Prey #5. Black Canary and her foe White Canary head off to Bangkok, while Oracle tries to keep the Birds together after the events of the past 4 issues. She decides to help Savant out with his mental issues, prevents Huntress from killing Penguin(DAMN you Barbara!!!)and waits for Hawk and Lady Blackhawk to recuperate. After Lady Blackhawk gets better, Oracle sends her and Huntress to Bangkok to assist Black Canary. In the end we discover that BC has taken up the White Canary moniker and was leading the Bangkok underworld... Huh? This comic surprisingly didn't do it for me. I mean, I do love me my Birds, but this issue was slow and plodding, and the reveal at the end left me confused(and a bit annoyed)as opposed to excited. I have absolutely NO doubt that Gail Simone will pull things together for the next issue, but this issue just didn't do it for me. I'll give this comic a surprisingly low 7 out of 10.

Sticking with DC we'll take a look at Gotham City Sirens #16. Catwoman winds up getting kidnapped so some mystery villain(s) can try to garner the knowledge of Batman's secret identity from her mind. This brings Talia Al Ghul to Gotham to try to work with the Sirens(and Zatanna for some reason)in order to rescue Catwoman and protect Batman's secrets. I thought this was a good way to start a new storyline, and as a BIG fan of the Al Ghul family I was happy to see Talia show up here, and even happier to see her NOT written by Mad Grant Morrison. So while this comic didn't blow me away, it didn't bother me either, which explains why I'm giving it a 7 1/2 out of 10.

And the final DC comic of the night would be none other than Teen Titans #87. First off, I absolutely despise both Raven and Beast Boy, so the fact that this past storyline revolved around them and their relationship really didn't sit well with me. On top of that, the story made no sense... So yeah, this comic definitely won't be making one of my “Best of” lists. The main story had something to do with Raven's son and a lunar eclipse... I think. Basically Raven's son beat down all of the Titans except for Static, who(for some reason)had mega charged powers. So Super-Static managed to beat Raven's son(somehow...)but in the process vomited(which is always a fun thing to see...)and lost his powers. That's right everybody, Static literally upchucked his powers right out of his body... Yeah. Besides that, it would appear that Wonder Girl and Superboy are fully back together again, either that or they're having one of those friends with benefits type relationships, Aquagirl and Bombshell were lost at sea, Miss Martian slipped into a coma and was watched over by Kid Flash(who bizarrely was only wearing some hospital scrubs pants)and Static left with some doctor to go to STAR Labs. Umm, what more could I possibly say? Maybe if you like Raven and/or Beast Boy, love spontaneous vomiting and enjoy reading stories that don't make sense this was a good comic for you, for me though, it gets no higher than a 3 1/2 out of 10.

One more comic to go here, and it was definitely my favorite of the bunch. Written by the stupendous Ed Brubaker, we head back to the Marvel Universe and I finish this post up with Captain America #610. I think I should mention before I get into the meat of this issue, I've been rather letdown by this storyline. I don't understand why Baron Zemo suddenly turned evil, nor why he decided to lash out at Bucky. As if he could read my mind(and who knows, maybe Ed is a telepath and that's why he's such an awesome writer), Ed cleared up all of Zemo's motivations in this comic, and you know what? It all made absolute, complete and perfect sense! Basically Zemo was upset that someone with as much blood on his hands as Bucky was given the Captain America mantle. That point actually fits into Zemo's personality SO well that it actually made me smile. Zemo started his career out emulating his Nazi father, leading the Masters of Evil and being an all around lousy human being. Eventually he has an epiphany and decides that he's going to do good and help the world, whether the world wants to be helped or not. While Zemo was trying to prove that he was a hero, his greatest critic was the original Captain America, Steve Rogers. Steve wouldn't trust Zemo, and was certain that Zemo was plotting some nefarious plot, which Zemo wasn't. It took Zemo diving in front of a blast meant for Steve and becoming disfigured for Steve to GRUDGINGLY admit that maybe Zemo wasn't the villain Steve thought he was. In Zemo's mind, Bucky didn't work at all to erase the sins of his past(the Winter Soldier)and as such didn't deserve the honor of being Captain America. Throughout this comic Zemo tries to prove that Bucky doesn't deserve the Captain America name, taking away Bucky's shield and uniform and forcing Bucky to fight his way through hordes of goons(as well as Zemo's psychological games)in order to prove to Zemo(and maybe even himself)that he deserves the shield. In the end, Zemo seems to have gained some respect for Bucky since he leaves the shield and Cap uniform behind before making good his escape, although Bucky is now forced to live with the fact that Zemo outed his identity as the Winter Soldier back in America. I obviously enjoyed this comic, and even though I can totally understand Zemo's frustrations with Steve refusing to trust him after all of his good deeds, and yet blindly trusting Bucky to take over as Cap, I'm STILL a bit miffed that Zemo seems to have returned to his villainous roots. That's really the only negative thing I have to say about this comic. Besides that, it was all good, and this comic gets the high score of the night with a 9 out of 10.

And there you have it, five more reviews in the books. Some good, some okay and one really bad. Tomorrow I should start posting some reviews for the new comics I picked up today, but before then, I'll leave you all with a page from Captain America #610. Until tomorrow, X out.Okay, I'll admit it, Zemo's line had me cracking up.

The Best of the Rest!!! June 12th edition.

It's Saturday, which means it it's time for me to give my uninformed, overly sarcastic and at times offensive opinions on comic books and their creators, that's right, it's time for a new installment of The Best of the Rest! A quick word to the wise, if you have no sense of humor, or are easily offended by the opinions of other people, you should probably skip this post... Still here? Good! I fully intend on doing pseudo-reviews for four comics tonight, although I may do more then four. What do I know, I'm typing up this intro before I start the reviews, so who knows, maybe I'll be SO bored today I'll end up with a humongous BotR... Or maybe not. What can I say, I'm a man of intrigue and mystery! Um, I guess I might as well get started...

Brightest Day #2: Ugh, what a way to start... I'm tempted to just say, “A whole bunch of unrelated stuff happened and then this comic ended”, but I'll put a little(a VERY little)bit more effort into things... Firestorm explodes for some reason, and of course the Atom was present, because little GEOFFY would have cried if one of his favorites didn't appear in this comic right off the bat... A White Martian(or at least what I THINK was a White Martian...)bitches about the Martian Manhunter being alive again, and the Hawks continue to be uninteresting. The Martian Manhunter messes with an old woman's head because he can, and Deadman continues to be yanked around by his White ring, because that hasn't gotten REALLY old by now. And for whatever reason, this issue ends with Deadman being confronted by the Anti-Monitor. To it all, I say a very hearty, WHATEVER! All I want is a cohesive storyline, not a bunch of(for the most part)uninteresting dangling plot threads. On the plus side though, SAINT Barry didn't show up, so at least there's that... Score: 6 out of 10.But where's SAINT Barry!?!

Age of Heroes #1: I guess I really felt like wasting $4 last time I placed a comic order, because I'm not sure why else I'd have brought this comic. We have four stories in this comic, one starring he of the Hitler mustache, J. Jonah Jameson, a story on the love-life of Doctor Brother Voodoo(worst name EVER!), a little snippet(yes, a snippet!)where Capt. Rogers tries to steal Capt. Britain from the MI:13, and a one page Spider-Man story... That's right, a ONE page Spider-Man story! How weird is that?! Did Marvel put together this comic and realize they had a floating page, and decide to toss in a ONE page Spidey story?! Weird... Each story seemed to be worse then the one before it, with the Jameson story being the strongest one of the bunch... I do have to say though, I just can't buy Jameson as the Mayor of NYC... The guy has a Hitler mustache for crying out loud!!! What self-respecting New Yorker could possibly pull the voting lever for a guy who's wearing Hitler's mustache!?! Sure Rudy had that awful comb over, but still! I don't know, maybe it's just me... Score: 5 out of 10.Who knew one day Hitler would be elected mayor of NYC!

The Return of Bruce Wayne #2: Oh man, it just keeps getting worse! I must have really displeased the Comic Gods today, 'cause they're tossing a bunch of really bad comics my way! I'm not even going to try to do any kind of proper review for this comic, because I honestly don't think I'd be able to... I'm just going to hit on the main points(or the main points that I could understand...)and then complain about this series, Grant Morrison and DC until I get bored and feel like moving on. So Bruce Wayne is slowly traveling back to the 21st century because Darkseid infected him with some sort of catastrophic doomsday weapon(sort of like a REAL bad STD)that's going to kill EVERYBODY if Bruce returns to the present, I guess because Darkseid knew he'd lose in the end... Huh, so among all of Darkseid's other faults, I guess he has some very low self-esteem. Annnd that's about all I got out of this comic... Yeah, it was THAT bad... Let's just pretend this comic never happened and move on... Score: 1 1/2 out of 10. Why a 1 1/2? I don't know, why not. I don't think I've ever given out a 1 1/2 before, so at least I can check that off my list of blog accomplishments.I once had a nightmare that looked and sounded like this... I woke up crying, and slept with the lights on for a month...

Gotham City Sirens #12: Man, sometimes it's really tough to do this job... I mean just look at the last three pseudo-reviews! Those were some BRUTAL comics! If things don't pick up here, I quit! Okay, with that empty threat out of the way, let's see what's up with GCS this month. Catwoman has suddenly decided to find her crazy sister(better late then never, right?), and has attacked a priest to steal some files about her sister... You know, it's ONE thing to steal from a church, but it's another to attack a priest while doing it. That's probably not the smartest of moves... Anywho, Catwoman finds the file she was looking for, and is joined by Harley Quinn, who is just sort of there for some reason... I guess she was bored or something. Meanwhile, Poison Ivy breaks out of the plant deathtrap she was snared in last issue and decides to give the woman who was going to kill her a job, because... well, I really don't know why. Maybe Ivy's brain-damaged after being stuck in the big plant dehydrator thing. Selina's crazy sister attacks and kills an exorcist and takes all of the dead exorcist's weapons so she can exorcise Catwoman. While going through the dead exorcist woman' stuff, she gets possessed by a crazy angel, and the two decide to do crazy things like hunt Catwoman down. So Catwoman's crazy sister(now possessed by a crazy angel)sets up a meeting with Catwoman at a crazy cemetery(what? I've got a theme going on here!), which leads to Catwoman's crazy sister hitting Harley Quinn in her crazy head, ending this crazy issue. Hmm, I think I may have gone a tad overboard with the word “crazy” here... Oh well, what's done is done! Score: 9 out of 10.What's scarier then a nun with a sword? A FLYING nun with a sword!!!

RED ROBIN #13!: Yes, obviously from the fully capitalized title, I'm pretty excited to FINALLY be able to read an issue of Red Robin. Since the first 12 issues were written by a writer who is SO terrible I won't even bother typing his name(yeah, I REALLY don't like him), I refused to read 'em. Now that Fabian Nicieza has taken up the writing chores, Red Robin is finally on my monthly pull list. Huzzah! Needless to say, this was a set-up issue, and since this isn't a real review, and is instead only a PSEUDO-review, I'm not going to bother getting too in-depth with stuff here. Basically Tim is working out of Gotham and living with Dick, Alfred and the tyke from hell, Damian. Tim decides to take down the head of the Golden Dragons gang, Lynx, and does just that, although Lynx claims to be an undercover cop from Hong Kong after Tim busts her. Oops! Tim hands her over to the fuzz regardless, but is a bit conflicted about whether or not he did the right thing. Huh, Tim was giving off a really strong Spider-Man vibe here... DC would be really smart to play that up, but I'm sure they won't... Score: 8 out of 10.I figured posting a pic of Tim Drake in the shower would get me more followers. Sure they'll all be women or gay men, but beggers can't be choosers! And so a hearty welcome to my new followers!!! :P

Green Blogger Corps #1: Before you check out this review, you should DEFINITELY read the first issue of the GBC here. Why not read it, it's free!!! Okay, now to the review... This was one of the better first issues I've read in quite some time! We get to meet the main characters AND get a pretty sweet battle scene. If only certain OTHER writers knew how to put a comic together like this... *coughMORRISONReturnofBruceWaynecough* Anywho, we meet JT Jordon of the Green Blogger Corps, as well as several of his fellow GBC members, including the intelligent Falisha Ferris, the gruff Nagash Gardner, the artistic Marc Rayner, and the gruff Kellowog... Wait, I already used “gruff” didn't I... Um, and the surly Kellowog(there, that's better!). Sure, all of these characters were great in their own way, but none of them compared to the AWESOME Sinestr-X. Sinestr-X WAS the star of this comic for me, hands down. Every scene he was in was pure magic, and when he wasn't around, I found myself wondering(oftentimes aloud), “Where's Sinestr-X?!?” He was THAT good! I'm definitely looking forward to the next issue of this series, and as long as Sinestr-X is tearing stuff up, I know I'll be happy! :D Score: 10! out of 10.But where's Sinestr-X?!?