A Quick(ish) Look at Justice Society of America #30

This is the second issue of the Matthew Sturges/Bill Willingham era of the JSA. Last issue gave us the shock ending where Mr. Terrific was literally stabbed in the back. What's in store for this issue? Let's find out! This issue is written by the aforementioned Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham while Jesus Merino handles the artwork.

-This issue begins with Stargirl and the Flash as the only two members of the JSA standing after last issue's super-villain sneak attack. The large group of villains still refuse to attack Stargirl, so they all decide to team up and attack the Flash. Flash responds by running away, which leaves Stargirl alone with an army of super-villains who are apparently forbidden to attack her. Stargirl decides to attack the villains while they stand around dumbfounded as to what they should do about her.

-Flash returns to the scene along with Dr. Fate. Flash, Stargirl and Fate keep the villains occupied long enough for the rest of the JSA to regain consciousness. Upon seeing the team awaken, the villains panic and begin to flee. Magog wants to press the advantage and pursue the villains, but Dr. Midnite and Old Wildcat want to take the wounded back to base and find out why Mr. Terrific wasn't responding to them. After a heated argument, Power Girl decides to split the team into two squads, with one squad returning home with the wounded and the other squad hunting down the villains.

-Back at the JSA brownstone, All-American Kid washes Mr. Terrific's blood off of his hands and returns to the room he is sharing with King Chimera. Chimera asks where Kid went off to, and Kid responds that he never left the bedroom.

-Magog's squad of JSAers easily manage to capture most of the villains, while Dr. Midnite's squad returns home and discovers the body of Mr. Terrific. Midnite, Fate and Green Lantern immediately begin operating on the near-dead Terrific while Flash and the other members of the JSA look around the brownstone to see if they can find any clues as to what had happened. Unfortunately, after Kid stabbed Terrific, he destroyed all of the recording devices, erasing all evidence of his foul deed.

-Magog's squad returns to base and learn about what happened to Terrific. Magog and Old Wildcat start up their verbal jousting again, and this issue ends with Wildcat attacking Magog.

This was a very good comic that happened to end on a bit of a quiet note. This issue provided us with a lot of questions, but very little answers. First and foremost would be why were the villains so reluctant to attack Stargirl? Whoever sent them after the JSA obviously has some kind of deep connection to her. Next up would be what caused All-American Kid to attack/stab Mr. Terrific and then erase his mind of his actions? I doubt Kid is insane, which means something possessed him and used him as a pawn against Terrific. Was it the snobbish King Chimera? Again, I doubt it, but we know so little about him and his past, it's hard to say. And of course, the $21,000 question, who is responsible for all of the JSA's recent misfortune? Is it an inside job, is it a villain from their past or is it some kind of new menace with an axe to grind? I'm not sure, but I know I will be eagerly anticipating the next issue. For a score, I'll give this comic a 9 out of 10. I seem to be giving out a lot of 9+ scores lately... Am I just in a better frame of mind or are the comic books I'm reading getting better? I don't know, but whatever it is, I hope it continues!And this is why they don't call Jay Dr. Flash.

A Quick Look at Wolverine Origins #39

This is the third part of the thus far highly entertaining "Romulus" storyline. Can Daniel Way continue to wow me with his writing? Let's find out! This issue is(obviously)written by Mr. Way, while Scot Eaton provides us with the pencils.

-We start this issue with Logan hanging from a chain over a vat of molten iron thanks to Wildchild. Wildchild explains to Logan that Romulus has been pitting his soldiers(Nuke, Daken, Sabretooth, Cyber, Omega Red, Wildchild and Wolverine)against each other, with the last one standing getting the "honor" of becoming the new Romulus. In other words, Romulus has been playing Wolvie like a fiddle(as usual!).

-While Wildchild is busy taunting Logan, Omega Red attacks Wildchild. However, Wildchild manages to activate the mechanism that is used to lower Logan into the molten iron prior to Red's attack.

-With his two foes busy battling each other, Wolvie manages to get himself to lower into the vat hands first, which allows him to break free of his bonds and get out of Wildchild's death trap. Wolvie then proceeds to run away, which infuriates Wildchild. Omega Red takes advantage of Wildchild's momentary distraction and tosses Wildchild into the vat of molten iron.

-2 days later, Wolverine heads to a warehouse in St. Petersburg and discovers that the Black Widow had sent him the Muramasa blade as he had requested. Omega Red tracks Wolvie down and announces to him that now that he finally has the C-Synthesizer he also wants to become the next Romulus. Wolvie tells Red he won't stand in his way, but Red then mentions that Daken probably won't be as meek. In order to protect Daken from the stronger-then-ever Omega Red, Wolvie buries the blade deep in Red's chest, killing him.

-This issue concludes with Wolverine(FINALLY)coming face-to-face with Romulus after killing Red.

As usual, this was a very good issue of Wolverine: Origins. Of course the important news to come from this issue is that after months and months of waiting, we finally get our first glimpse of Romulus. Right off the bat, one notices that Romulus bears a striking resemblance to Wolverine. Is Romulus a relative? Perhaps Wolverine's brother from "Wolverine: Origin"/"Wolverine: The End"? Could be, I guess we'll find out very soon.

So now what? Could all of this be leading up to the death of the ol' Canucklehead? Honestly, Wolverine dying at the hands of Romulus leads to the most interesting storyline possibilities. Daken could take up Wolverine's crusade against Romulus, solidifying Daken's position as the new Wolverine(much like Bucky/Cap as well as Nightwing/Batman). Or better yet, have Wolverine kill Romulus with the Muramasa blade, and then have Daken kill Wolvie in order to take Romulus' spot. Yeah, I know, it's unlikely Wolverine is going to die anytime soon, but if ever Marvel was ever going to pull the trigger on such a radical move, now would be the perfect time. For a score, I'll give this issue a 9 out of 10. I thoroughly enjoyed this comic and was extremely pleased to finally see Wolvie come face-to-face with the man who has been manipulating him for years. Next issue should be a blast!Why Romulus, what big claws you have...

A Quick Look at Green Lantern #45

Since I'm pretty sure I'm the last person to read this comic, I'm going to give this book the quickie treatment. This is a Blackest Night x-over issue and is written by comic book GOD, Geoff Johns. Doug Mahnke provides the pencils.

-We begin with John Stewart witnessing the rebirth of the planet Xanshi. Somehow the Black power rings have managed to put the fractured planet back together again.

-From there we get Sinestro and his Corps invading the homeworld of the Star Sapphires with the express purpose of freeing the Sinestro Corps members the Sapphires had captured. This leads to a battle between Sinestro and Star Sapphire Carol Ferris.

-The Lost Lanterns head to the homeworld of the Red Lanterns to collect the dead body of fellow Lost Lantern Laira. The Lost Lanterns end up running afoul the Red Lanterns, and during the battle between the two factions a swarm of Black rings begin to turn all of the dead on the homeworld of the Red Lanterns into Black Lanterns.

-Odym, the homeworld of the Blue Lanterns is still being assaulted by Agent Orange's constructs. Why? Because Orange wants to steal the Blue power battery. While Orange is concentrating on the battle, Black rings spread all over his homeworld, resurrecting all of those he murdered to maintain possession of his Orange power ring.

-Finally, back on Zamaron, Sinestro gains the upper hand against Carol and prepares to deliver the killing blow. Before he can act though, he is surrounded by an army of Black Lanterns, all of whom used to be members of Sinestro's own Corps!

I liked this comic, especially the scenes with Carol and Sinestro. As usual, the writing and dialogue was excellently done. While the rapid pace of this comic caused many things to get shortchanged(what happened to John Stewart?)I really don't have anything to complain about. For a score, I'll give this comic a 9 out of 10. Everything here was pretty good, but the battle between Sinestro and Carol was extremely well done.Sinestro attacking Carol with a huge Hal Jordan construct is just too awesome for words!

Just so you know...

Sometime tomorrow I'll be reading Green Lantern #45, which should be really good. Why? Well for one, it's written by Geoff Johns, which is always a plus, but besides that, Sinestro is prominently featured on the cover! Sorry, but I'm a big fan of ol' Sinestro. After that I'll be checking out Wonder Woman #35, which is co-starring Black Canary. Superman #691 also arrived in the mail today, but unfortunately I can't read that until the current issue of Supergirl arrives, so this issue takes a back seat for a while. After that, things start to get ugly... New Avengers #56 has been sitting on my nightstand for several nights now, and I figure I might as well give it a read soon... The sooner I read it, the sooner it's over with, kind of like ripping a band-aid off as quick as you can instead of slowly(and painfully)peeling it off.

Right now I'm going to head over to the picture site and post a few new scans. Once that's done, I'll check out a few of my favorite blogs, and then it's off to bed. Yeah, that's pretty pathetic, but I'm dog tired! With school being closed thanks to Labor Day on Monday, I plan on catching up on my comic reading, as well as my sleep! Well, that's all I've got to say for tonight, remember to check out the picture site, and as always, thanks for reading!

Dark Wolverine #77

This comic is written by the duo of Daniel "The Man" Way and Marjorie Liu. The pencilwork is provided by Giuseppe Camuncoli.

-This issue begins with Daken masterfully messing with Ares' mind with but a few simple words(along with his phenomenal powers). Daken causes Ares to believe that the Fantastic Four made him look like a fool two issues back. After fooling around with Ares, Daken bumps into Venom and gives him practically the same speech about the FF.

-Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four are meeting with Osborn, who is showing them the footage he captured of the Thing pulverizing Daken outside the Baxter Building last issue. Osborn tells the FF that if they don't turn all of Reed's research over to him he'll have them all arrested for assaulting a government employee(Daken)and he'll have their children sent to the worst foster home he can find.

-Flashback time! We learn that while Daken was in the Baxter Building talking with the FF the prior day he agreed to allow the Thing to beat on him, figuring that would allow Reed access to Osborn's office(so Osborn could gloat over the footage). With Reed in Osborn's office, he would be able to plant a bug in Osborn's computer that would download all of Osborn's nefarious schemes to Reed's computers back at the Baxter Building.

-Back in the present, Reed turns Osborn's offer down and Osborn repeatedly threatens the team. Before the FF can leave though, Ares and Venom attack the foursome against the wishes of Osborn. During the battle, Osborn notices that his computer has been compromised and he immediately destroys it.

-While Ares and Venom are duking it out with the FF in Osborn's office, Daken is happily strolling through the halls of Avengers Tower, content with the carnage he created. Not far from Osborn's office, Daken is struck by an arrow right in his upper thigh. Bullseye walks over and taunts Daken, who continues to play mind games with the deranged Bullseye, even with an arrow lodged in his thigh. Bullseye explains that the arrow is tipped with explosives and that he's had enough of Daken and his sick games.

-Before Bullseye can push the plunger to set off the explosives, Osborn's office doors blow off, striking both Daken and Bullseye. The FF begin to retreat, but Reed spots Daken with the explosive tipped arrow precariously close to his groin. Reed makes a move to help Daken, but Daken tells him to leave, stating that the information he downloaded from Osborn's computer was more important than he is. Reed hesitates, but finally leaves when Daken assures him Osborn wouldn't allow anything to happen to Daken. As the FF head out, Bullseye detonates the arrow to the horror of the retreating FF.

-Upon returning to the Baxter Building, Reed discovers Osborn managed to delete everything from his hard drive, meaning Reed didn't get the smoking gun he was hoping to find on Osborn's computer. However, that also means the footage of Ben beating Daken up was also deleted, meaning Osborn no longer held anything over the head of the FF.

-Finally we head back to Avengers Tower, where Daken regains consciousness several days later. Moonstone, who was sitting at his bedside, tells Daken that Bullseye was mainly unharmed in the explosion, but that Osborn was upset with his actions. However, she tells Daken that Osborn is incensed with Ares and Venom for attacking the FF against his wishes. After some mild flirting, Moonstone exits the room. Daken grabs his phone from the nightstand and discovers that Reed sent him an encrypted message basically thanking Daken for all of his help and telling him that the FF is in his debt. Daken happily lays back in his bed with the knowledge that in one fell swoop he manged to get Bullseye, Ares and Venom on Osborn's bad side while secretly allying himself with Moonstone and the FF.

Damn do I love this series! I've been a fan of Daken from the start(Daniel did a sweet job with his initial appearances in Wolverine: Origins), but I wasn't sure if his character was ready for a solo series. Boy was I ever wrong! The first three issues of Dark Wolverine have been spectacular! The twists, the turns, the machinations, and of course, the puppet-master himself, Daken have made this series into one of my favorite monthly Marvel books. Seriously! I get that this comic(and Daken)isn't for everybody, but this series hits all of the right notes for me.

To me, Daken is infinitely more interesting than his brawling, berserker of a father. While Wolverine is apt to enter a situation claws flailing, Daken would study the same situation from top to bottom before deciding exactly how he could cause the maximum amount of damage when he decides to make his move. And now I'm going to do something I've never done before. For a score, I'm going to give this comic a 10 out of 10, a perfect score. The past three comics I've read and reviewed, Daredevil #500, Flash: Rebirth #4 and Dark Wolverine #77 have all been granted perfect scores. That has never happened before, and I strongly doubt it will ever happen again. What a great run of books I've had lately!Daken once again proves that his most dangerous weapon isn't his claws, it's his brain.

The old desert island question...

Since I've got to be up in a couple of hours for History class, I don't have time to do a proper review for the comics I've read these last two days. For the record, I've been reading through the Kingdom mini-series from DC back in the late 90's and last night I had the absolute pleasure to read Dark Wolverine #77. Here's a quick preview of what the score for Dark Wolverine is going to be, it's higher then a 9, but less than a 11! Awesome, awesome book.

Anyway, that's not what this post is about. Over at my picture site I posted a scan from Starman. Kello commented that there will never be a comic book like Starman again, which got me thinking about just how much I loved that series. If I was trapped on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean with only coconuts and a crate of comic books to subsist off of, which comic series would I want stuck there with me. After some thought, the answer for me has to be James Robinson's Starman. Starman was/is a masterpiece of gargantuan proportions. No other series has ever provided us with so many deep, well-crafted characters as Starman did. The only other thing that comes close to Starman is the complete Age of Apocalypse epic. If I was trapped with those two series, I could happily live on that island until the band of blood-thirsty monkeys hiding on the island wound up attacking me and eating my brain. On that rather bizarre note, I'm asking my fellow comic book fans what series they would want to be interned on a desert island with. Any series from any company is fair game. I look forward to reading your responses.

The Flash: Rebirth #4

As my regular readers know, I've been pretty hard on this series since the initial issue. I was angry about Wally West getting tossed to the curb, and I just didn't like Barry Allen's bad attitude upon his return to the land of the living. However, since the last issue of this series, I've read the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" TPB, and you know what? That trade gave me a new appreciation for old Barry. If I was Barry, I'd be pissy too! He was shafted terribly in "Crisis", so as far as I'm concerned, he has every right to be mad at the world. I'll be reading this issue with a new set of pro-Barry eyes. This story is written by comic book GOD, Geoff Johns with art by Ethan Van Sciver.

-This comic starts out with Prof. Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, explaining to Barry Allen and Max Mercury the ins and outs of the Speed Force. Apparently, Barry Allen created the Speed Force the day he was doused with those chemicals and struck by lightning all those years ago. It seems that when Barry runs, he expands the Speed Force, allowing it to transcend time and space(or so I think...). When the Reverse Flash replicated the experiment that created Barry, he created an evil, Negative Speed Force. When Thawne runs, his Negative Speed Force gains power and begins to diminish the influence of Barry's Positive Speed Force(maybe?).

-Barry and Max try to fight the crazed Thawne, but since they are trapped on the Negative side of the Speed Force, Thawne is practically all powerful. After toying with Barry and Max for a while, Thawne decides to leave the Speed Force and literally run amok.

-Hal Jordan travels to Iowa and tells the collection of heroes gathered there that Barry Allen returned to the Speed Force so he wouldn't put any friends or loved ones in jeopardy with his misfiring powers(thanks to Thawne). Wally West refuses to accept that Barry is gone(again)and decides he will enter the Speed Force and bring Barry back out, reasoning that he is one of the few beings who has entered the Speed Force and come out again. With that, Wally begins his trek into the Speed Force.

-With Wally gone, Thawne heads to Wally's family home and grabs his children, and does what every good villain should do in such a situation, he threatens the kids. That's the easiest way to get bad guy cred, threaten innocent children!

-Linda calls Wally for help with her ring(?), and with Wally unavailable, Jay and Bart respond, beating Thawne out of Wally's home and into the street. Unfortunately for the two speedsters, Thawne is more than a match for them and he manages to take Jay out of the fight and decides to kill Bart for corrupting the Thawne bloodline.

-Back in the Negative Speed Force, Wally finally locates Barry and prepares to ferry him back to Earth. Barry wants Max to leave with him, but Max explains that while Barry has Iris and Wally has Linda to draw them out of the Speed Force, Max has nobody. Barry reputes that by saying that Max is practically Bart's father, and that Bart is Max's anchor. Max grabs Barry's hand, and Barry manages to grab ahold of Wally and all three speedsters run out of the Speed Force, appearing in front of a surprised Thawne, ending this issue.

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Max Mercury is back!!! Ehem, with that out of my system, I can begin looking into this comic. This was a fantastic comic book! Although I will admit to being a bit confused by the Negative/Positive aspect of the Speed Force, everything else was flawless. The story, the dialogue, Geoff's awesome knowledge of the past and the artwork. It was all just so perfect!

Let's get this Speed Force stuff out of the way first. The way I understand it(and I could be WAY off)is that whenever Thawne runs he is corrupting the Speed Force with his Negative(Reverse)energies, and when Barry runs he is expanding the Speed Force... I guess. If I'm wrong on this(which is a strong possibility)please correct me!

OK, with that out of the way, we can get to the rest of this comic. Initially, I was annoyed that Zoom was de-powered and tossed aside so Reverse Flash could return to don the yellow and red. After reading this issue though, I think I could definitely get into Thawne's character. Geoff did a good job at establishing Thawne as a huge threat to the entire Flash family as well as making him seem multi-faceted. All of the prior things I'd read about Thawne made him seem like the quintessential boring/insane villain. Yes, Thawne is still obviously insane, but Geoff also establishes the Professor side of his personality as well. Thawne is obsessed with Barry Allen, but he is also obsessed with learning all of the secrets of the Speed Force.

All of the relationships amongst the various members of the Flash family were written to perfection here. Bart and Jay's concern for Wally, Bart's anger after Jay(his one-time guardian)was hurt by the maniacal Thawne, the joy on Bart's face when his "father" Max Mercury returned from the Speed Force, Thawne's disgust that Bart shared both his blood and Allen blood, as well as Wally's love for Barry. Geoff hit every note perfectly, and Ethan's art accentuated Geoff's words wonderfully. Nobody was out of character(a major pet-peeve of mine), all of the dialogue was spot on, and Geoff's slight tweaks in the Flash mythos were worked into the story seamlessly. So yeah, obviously I really liked this comic book alot! For a score, I'm going to have to give this issue a 10 out of 10, a perfect score. I couldn't find any fault with this comic. To me, this was comic book nirvana.Yeah baby, Max Mercury is BACK!

Daredevil #500

It's about time I get around to reading this one. This comic is chock full of extras, but due to my lack of time(school tomorrow morning)I'm only going to be reviewing the primary story, the conclusion of "Return of the King". This one is written by Ed Brubaker(for the final time)with art by Michael Lark as well as a whole lot of different people.

-We begin in Japan hundreds of years ago when Master Izo was still a member of the Hand. He had a falling out with them and wound up going out on his own.

-In the present, Izo brings Daredevil to the bedside of his insane wife, Milla. Matt says his goodbyes to poor Milla and leaves with Izo.

-From there we head to Foggy's law office where he receives a call from Matt telling Foggy to give Milla's parents everything they want(custody of their daughter and a divorce from Matt)before hanging up. As Foggy walks out of the office, a contingent of Hand ninjas as well as White Tiger and Black Tarantula, snatch him.

-Matt discovers Kingpin's lackey, Turk, hanging around his apartment and confronts him. Turk tells Matt that Kingpin has been crazy since coming back from Spain and that he doesn't want any part of a crazy Kingpin. Turk reveals that Kingpin managed to kidnap Dakota North last issue and that Kingpin handed her over to the Owl. Turk rats out Owl's location and Matt and Izo take off.

-Owl beats Dakota up a bit and taunts her with the knowledge that the Hand is probably killing Foggy as they speak. Owl then demands his men leave him and Dakota alone in the room just as DD and Izo come crashing in. Izo takes out the goons and Matt absolutely mangles Owl with a ninja sword, leaving Owl in no condition to ever hurt anybody again. Dakota warns Matt about what she was told about Foggy, but Matt reveals that Izo had an inside man working with the hand.

-The inside man is revealed to be Black Tarantula, whose healing abilities overcame the Hand's magic upon his "death". Tarantula defeats all of the ninjas and knocks out White Tiger. Tarantula then uses his abilities to cure Tiger of her Hand induced brainwashing.

-From there we head to a sacred Hand gathering place, where we find Kingpin and Hand member Lady Bullseye, as well as several Hand bigwigs. Kingpin asks the Hand hierarchy which one of them killed his family in Spain and when he gets an answer he proceeds to strangle the life out of the man. Kingpin then begins to talk to the Hand about becoming their new leader. Before the conversation can get underway, Daredevil and Izo crash the party and attack the Kingpin, Lady Bullseye and the Hand ninjas. Matt eventually makes his way to one of the Hand leaders and tells the ninja that he accepts the Hand's previous offer to become their leader. The ninja accepts Matt's decision and Kingpin is outraged. Matt tells the ninja that he has two conditions though, one is that the Hand will never again work with Kingpin and the other is that Lady Bullseye is to be tossed out of the organization. The ninja agrees to both conditions, and Matt orders the Hand ninjas to throw Kingpin and Lady Bullseye out of the Hand's sanctum.

-The following day, Kingpin is still being taunted by his dead wife, Lady Bullseye threatens to get revenge on Izo for his role in ousting her from the Hand, and Foggy and Dakota head to Matt's apartment and discover a note asking them to put his stuff in storage since he will be gone for the foreseeable future. As for Matt, he is led deep into an underground Hand lair where he will face several trials to see if he is indeed worthy of becoming the next leader of the Hand.

This comic book was satisfying on so many different levels. First of all, the story and dialogue were brilliantly done(no surprise there!)and the artwork perfectly fit the mood of the book(as usual!). However, the thing that pleased me the most about this comic was the decision to make Matt into the new master of the Hand. That one act opens up so many new doors for this comic as a series and Matt Murdoch as a character going forward. Besides the new direction for Matt, we still have the Kingpin(who is still insane)plotting his revenge, as well as Lady Bullseye also looking to get revenge on both Matt and Izo. As it is, I can't find one single thing to complain about. The story was perfectly executed, with an ending that leads to endless possibilities, the artwork was well done, and this series looks very strong going forward. For a score, I have to give this comic a 10 out of 10. I believe Andy Diggle is going to be taking over the writing duties for this series going forward. I wish him the best of luck, because filling Ed's massive shoes is going to be one hell of a difficult job!Poor Kingpin, not even death can stop his wife from insulting him!