Green Lantern Corps #55

Review: Let us begin with the Green Lantern Honor Guard attacking the Weaponer in front of his castle(citadel? palace?)on Qward. Kyle Rayner(or as Chairman Johns calls him, “That rat-faced bastard!!!)races into the Weaponer's headquarters to rescue his girlfriend, Soranik Natu, while the Weaponer whups on the Honor Guard. His shield manages to counters each member of the Honor Guard(even Ganthet)and in a few short pages, he leaves them all laying around. By this point, Kyle has found Natu unharmed inside, but they can't figure out a way to free her GL ring from the force field the Weaponer surrounded it with. Luckily for them though, the Weaponer's castle is chock full of all sorts of deadly weapons. Back outside, Ganthet vomits(yes, really)and Atrocitus's face pops up in the puke, demanding Ganthet's presence on Earth to deal with Krona. John Stewart asks what in the blue hell THAT was all about, so Ganthet explains that he(along with Guy Gardner)made a pact with Atrocitus to deal with Krona, and that the best way to remain in touch with Atrocitus was via the powers of telepathic vomit... Uh-huh... The Weaponer stands around listening to the story instead of, you know, doing anything, so Natu makes her way outside with a giant gun and holds it to the Weaponer's head, demanding he release the Honor Guard. With that tense standoff going on, several Thunderers make their way over to the fight and tell Natu to do all of Qward a favor and shoot the Weaponer. Before Natu can do anything though, a large portal opens up in the sky and the entirety of the Sinestro Corps arrive(minus Sinestro himself), ending this issue.

Thoughts: Besides Ganthet's projectile vomiting, I really didn't have any problems with this issue. The story is moving along nicely, the Weaponer is being built up as a huge menace(he beat the GL Honor Guard PLUS a Guardian!), and the cliffhanger has me interested in checking out the next issue. Granted, there were a few little things that bugged me here(what exactly was the Weaponer planning on doing with the Lanterns he defeated? Why not just kill them?), but all in all, good stuff, as usual with this series.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.If I never see a blue midget in a dress vomiting blood again in my lifetime I'll be a very happy camper!

Captain America: The Korvac Saga #2(of 4)

Review: We pick up here with Captain America(this was back when Steve Rogers was still our shield-slinger)standing between the recently arrived Guardians of the Galaxy and Korvac, who Cap had locked up last issue. The Guardians want to take Korvac with them, but since Cap has no clue as to who the Guardians are, he moves to stop them. That move doesn't pan out well for Cap, as the Guardians push Cap to the side and open Korvac's cell. The Guardians open a portal, at which time Korvac lights up with power and releases all of the other super-villains that were also being held in the prison with him. With this distraction, Korvac walks into the portal opened by the Guardians, followed by Cap and a pair of Guardians, while the rest of the team remained behind to deal with the escaped villains. After crossing over, the two Guardians tell Cap that a)Korvac is an insane cyborg, b)they weren't on Earth anymore, and c)they were in the future. Needless to say, Cap is taken aback by this news, which leads to Korvac, now standing about 50 feet tall, attacking. One of the Guardians engages Korvac, and we learn that this Guardian(Firelord)had been empowered by Galactus, and as such should be able to easily take care of Korvac. Instead, Korvac bats Firelord around, taunts Cap and takes off into space. With Korvac apparently now wielding cosmic scale powers, Firelord decides that the only way to stop him was with the Ultimate Nullifier, so this issue ends with Cap and the two Guardians heading to Galactus's spaceship to acquire the device.

Thoughts: Storywise, there was absolutely nothing wrong with this comic. I've personally never read the original Avengers vs Korvac story(I know, shocking!), so I'm enjoying this blast from the Avengers past. So yes, the story is good... My main problem with this comic is the dialogue. Or more specifically, Captain America's dialogue. There were times when Cap was talking like the Thing of Fantastic Four fame! I know it's a small thing, but I've never read Cap speaking in such an uneducated fashion. I'm sure most people wouldn't even notice it, nor care, but being as big a Cap fan as I am, Cap's dialogue definitely bugged me. I don't know, maybe it was just me. This was probably the first time dialogue took away from my enjoyment of a comic book, as weird as that may sound...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Is Cap incapable of finishing a word with the letter "g"???

Deadpool #31

Review: This issue gets started with Deadpool and the doctor he had the hots for finding a bunch of Claw vampires inside the hospital security room. DP tries to outsmart the vampires(or Draculas if you will), but gets impaled with his own sword as a result. After a quick Twilight dream sequence, and some help from the trusty hospital janitor, Deadpool is up and ready to face down the Draculas again. First he manages to torch a few of the bloodsuckers with some holy water he put in the hospital's sprinkler system, before staking a few. The vamps manage to chase DP and the doctor(who he saved a bit earlier)into the x-ray room, and DP manages to defeat the remaining vampires with the MRI machine and the x-ray machine itself... Zuh-huh?! With the evil Claw vampires defeated, DP asks the doctor out for ice cream, which she surprisingly agrees to. DP races downstairs to tell the good vampires that he had taken care of their enemies, and this issue ends with DP returning upstairs to discover that the doctor had ditched him.

Thoughts: Um, what the hell happened here?! I LOVED the first part of this storyline(I gave it a perfect score for crying out loud!), but this issue just didn't do it for me. At all... I was fine with DP staking the vampires, and I was even fine with DP having a priest bless the hospital reservoir, but seriously, when the hell did DP turn into Reed Richards?! DP defeating the remaining vampires with an MRI machine and a rigged x-ray machine? Really?! I mean come on, I love Pool as much as the next guy, but gimme a break! I'd be surprised if he could use a microwave, let alone transform an x-ray machine into a vampire-killing device... Oh well, I guess not every issue of Deadpool, can be perfect...

Score: 6 out of 10.Why is Mr. Fantastic dressed like Deadpool?!

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #6

Review: We get started with Kilowog and Arisia ditching Guy Gardner after learning that he had been secretly conspiring with Ganthet and Atrocitus. With Kilowog and Arisia gone, Guy is left with that Red Lantern, Bleez. Meanwhile, Sodam Yat seems to be increasing in power while he sleeps(his ring manages to reach 394% charge), but is woken up by some worried Daximite children who were wondering what was up with the light show. Sodam claims ignorance to his glow act and spots some creatures attacking Green Lantern caskets high above the planet. Sodam races over to confront the creatures, but alas, it was a trap, and Sodam ends up under the mental thrall of Zardor. While that scene is playing out, Guy and Bleez reach Zardor's homeworld of Kralok(man that's a lot of alien names...)and attack, making it all the way to Zardor's inner sanctum, where they discover all of the captive telepaths Zardor had captured to enhance his own telepathy. Zardor attacks the duo and manages to put them down with relative ease. Zardor taunts Guy(like any good villain should)and this issue ends with Sodam attacking Guy, who he thought was a Guardian.

Thoughts: You know, when I first read this comic two nights ago, I really didn't like it much at all... As I went through it again to do this review, I found myself enjoying it a bit more. Go figure. The story seemed a bit rushed(in this one issue Guy reveals that he knew Krona was behind the entity kidnappings, Kilowog and Arisia leave, Sodam gets captured, Guy finds Zardor's planet, and battles Zardor to boot.), which is too bad, because I wouldn't have minded some of the stuff here getting drawn out a bit. I mean Guy was searching for Zardor for a few issues now, and in this issue not only does he locate Zardor's planet, he fights through Zardor's defenses AND he battles Zardor! All over the course of a few pages. I did have a good chuckle when I saw the last page with Sodam attacking Guy, since Kilowog wanted to find Zardor to avenge the rookie Lanterns Zardor killed, while Arisia was hoping to find Sodam... I bet they wish they hadn't ditched Guy when they did, since he found BOTH Sodam AND Zardor! Suckers!

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Because matter don't mind?

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.

Best of the Rest! January 15th edition.

It's time for the second Best of the Rest this week! You KNOW what that means... It means I'm getting tired of doing my normal long-winded reviews and want to take a slight break. It also means that these five comics I reviewed really didn't impress me enough to want to do full reviews for them. As a matter of fact, I'd go so far as to say that most of these books depressed me! For the record, all of these comics are from DC, so that might have a lot to do with my displeasure. Anyway, let's move forward.

Superman says: Gimme Money!
This Tuesday DC Universe Online was released on all of the major video game systems, and although I have yet to see any reviews for the game pop up yet, the owner of the comic book shop I frequent was playing it, and not only did it look good, but he was raving over it, and he's more of a Marvel guy than a DC fan. So I figured I'd look into the game and see what the pricing system looks like, since I know there is a monthly service fee associated with the game. First off, the main game itself. Since I have a PS3 and never really play anything on my computer, I'd be paying $60 right off the bat for the game itself. From there, there's a monthly service fee of $15(!), meaning if you were to buy the game new, and then pay for a year's worth of monthly fees, that comes to $240 for the year!!! That's enough for an entire video game system, or 4 new games! Now I'm a huge video game player, I spend plenty of time a day relaxing in front of my TV playing something, but I'm sorry DC, I will NEVER pay $240 for a game! A $5 service fee a month would be doable, because that would basically amount to another game over the course of the year, but for a company that loves to scream at every turn that they're keeping comics affordable for us, they sure don't feel the same way about video games! That's for sure.

Now, on to the reviews. First up is going to be Lex Luthor's Action Comics #896... I had to add the “Lex Luthor's” part of the title, because that is so awesome. We kick things off with a flashback of Lex meeting up with Scandal Savage of the Secret Six and somehow convincing her to aid him when he called her. As for what Lex had over Scandal, I don't think we ever find out. So when Scandal's father Vandal Savage attacks Lex, it should come as no surprise as to who he calls. The Secret Six attack Vandal and his goon squad and Catman manages to get his hands on the remote control that Vandal was threatening to blow Lex's building up with. With his remote gone, and his men attacking the Six, Vandal goes after Lex with an ax in an effort to just kill him. Lex begins to use the dreaded Silver Tongue of Flattery on Vandal, and in time, Vandal actually seems to be contemplating an alliance with Lex, however, this issue ends when Catman is shot in the arm and drops the remote on the ground, right on its button. As usual, I enjoyed reading this comic. It's a funny thing actually. Paul Cornell always seems to write a strong story, but that's all... I mean I've no real complaints here, except for the fact that in a few nights time, I doubt I'll even remember having read this comic. So like many issues of this series have been, this was a good, if forgettable comic. For a score, I'll go with a very solid 7 1/2 out of 10.

Next us we'll take a look at everyone's favorite comic book archer, Robin Hood in Green Arrow #7... Oh wait, I mean Oliver Queen... Imagine me mixing up Robin Hood and Oliver Queen! I mean it's not like they wear similar clothing, use the same weapons or BOTH live in a forest! Oh... Nevermind... Anyway, this issue gets underway with Ollie flashing back to the death of his parents during a loin attack when he was a child. Upon waking up, Ollie decides to take a stroll through Starwood Forest, which is NOTHING like Sherwood Forest... Nope, nothing at all... Anyway, Ollie runs into the ghost of his mother, and she tells him that he wasn't responsible for her death, since he was only a small boy when she died. Ollie still feels guilt over his inaction during her death, but manages to spring into action when a giant flaming lion approaches them. Ollie shoots some arrows at the fire lion, but alas, it wasn't really there. From there, Ollie's mother tells him to forgive himself, he seems ready to do so, and that about wraps this comic up. If ever there was a textbook definition for a “Perfectly Acceptable Comic Book,” it was this one. I mean it was a one issue story, there was some mild character development, and by the end, the main character was pretty much back where he started, physically none the worse for wear. Nothing special happened here, nothing blew me away, or anything like that, this was just a solid story. Nothing more, nothing less. And what kind of a score do we give a perfectly acceptable comic? Why a 7 out of 10, that's what!

And now we begin to head down into the doldrums... It's time to take a look at Justice Society of America #45, a comic I've been avoiding for about a month now. Back during WWII, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott came across some Nazi project where they were working on an infant to... I don't know, I'm no evil Nazi mad scientist. Do something really bad let's say. In a bizarre reversal of roles, Jay wants to kill the infant, while Alan disagrees. In the end the two men fight and Alan wins. Fast forward to the present and Jay is told by a US Senator that the being that attacked and devastated that town near Washington DC last issue was actually the infant from WWII, now calling himself Scythe. Feeling partially responsible for his inaction during WWII and for not killing Scythe in the womb(almost literally), Jay decides to leave the JSA to help the town rebuild. That was the main gist of this story, and to be quite honest with you, about as much time as I'm willing to spend on this issue. I don't like this storyline one bit, basically because I really don't like the fact that Scythe is being called a Super-Terrorist... When did super-villains become super-terrorists? If Scythe is a “super-terrorist” because he fought the JSA and wrecked some town, wouldn't the same be true of practically EVERY comic book super-villain? Besides that, I just can't seem to get into the storyline. The battle from last issue was just SO ridiculous that I've lost all interest in this storyline and can't wait for it to end. For a score, I'll go with a pretty lousy 3 out of 10.

So the last review gave a 3 out of 10, right? Well the only way to go from there is up, right? Let's see as we take a gander at Wonder Woman #605. Wonder Woman returns to her apartment and is greeted by her talking cat... *sigh* This is going to be one of THOSE issues, isn't it? The cat pesters WW, telling her she has flower arranging lessons with Anthea the following day(?!?), which WW whines about it, ultimately blasting some music until the cat leaves her alone. The talking cat and another Amazon who was living at WW's apartment discuss the finer points of football(I am NOT making this up!)while WW decides to sneak out to fly around town. WW heads to a pawn shop and tries to pawn an ancient Amazonian statue, but the pawn shop owner is only willing to give her $1,000. WW throws a tantrum and breaks things until he raises his price to $10,000... Wow... WW then takes the money to a woman and her son who escaped an abusive relationship and hands it over. The woman is thankful, and the woman's son shows WW a picture he drew of her, a picture which depicts classic Wonder Woman, not the current version. This sight makes WW feel faint, and she decides to leave. As she climbs onto the fire escape, she is met by an angry Amazon who tells her she can't just be wandering around town. As if to hammer that point home, WW is struck in the back by a spear and crashes to the ground in front of Cernunnos, a minion of the Morrigan, a group of women who don't like WW for some reason. Heh heh... And I thought JSA #45 was bad! This was... It was actually kind of hard to describe. I mean where do I start?! We had WW conversing with a talking cat, Amazons talking football, a random group of evil women, and WW basically forcing the owner of a pawn shop into giving her more money then he felt he should have to... For a comic book with 2 writers, 3 pencillers and 4 inkers you'd think things would have been better, but it sure as hell doesn't seem like it! I don't even want to say anything else about this comic. Let's just give the score, a 2 out of 10 and move on.

Man, that last review was a tough one to get through... Let's see if things get better with Batman #705. What am I saying, of course things will get better! How could this comic possibly be worse than a 2 out of 10?! We get started with Batman(Dick Grayson)and his ally Peacock battling against the Sensei and his throng of ninja assassins. The story here is the the Sensei had kidnapped Peacock's brother... For some reason. The two heroes fight for a while before they decide to run after the limo the Sensei had his men steal with Peacock's brother in it. By the time Bats and Peacock find the limo, it has been destroyed, leaving no clues to follow. From there, I-Chang arrives on the scene and regales us all with a story so boring and long that I literally find myself skipping tons of dialogue. Basically there is a Mask of the Beholder which is important for some reason. Maybe because it's evil. Or powerful. Let's say powerful... That makes the story sound more dire. So this Mask of the Beholder is really powerful and the Sensei has learned of it, and as such wants it. To this end, he kidnaps Peacock's brother because he can see glimpses of the future... I think. Back with the Sensei, he is beating the child in an attempt to force the boy into having a vision that would tell him where the Mask was located. While beating the boy, the Sensei finds a business card from Lucius Fox, and sends his goons after poor Lucius. Bats decides to leave I-Chang and Peacock alone to check up on Commissioner Gordon for some reason, and learns that Lucius had received a phone call from a man who died last issue... What?! Bats decides to check up on Lucius and discovers some people kidnapping Lucius and his family. Before he can step in to help though, he is blown out of a window by some bombs and this issue ends with the Riddler and his daughter Enigma standing over the fallen hero... Me and my big mouth... And I thought things couldn't get any worse after the last review! HA!!! There was absolutely NOTHING in this comic I can point at and say, “Well at least this was good.” This comic made NO sense whatsoever. It was just a horrible read. The story just doesn't make sense!!! What the HELL is I-Chang?! And why should I care about him?! It would have been nice if Tony Daniel filled us in on that! Man, Daniel may be a really good artist, but his writing runs on the various Bat-books he's done have just been terrible. I shudder at the thought of the next issue of this series arriving in the mail... I'm going to give this comic a 1/2 out of 10. Why a 1/2 and not just a zero or a 1? Well, because the art wasn't bad, but the story was about as bad as anything I've read in quite some time. What a mess.

Batgirl #17

Review: This issue gets started with Damian Wayne(Robin)being his regular, annoying, creepy little self to Alfred. Upon Alfred leaving him alone, Damian makes a journal entry to his red casebook(HA!)about Alfred's skills as a butler(HA!!). Meanwhile, Stephanie Brown(Batgirl)races out of her home to look into a case Batman had set up for her. A bit later, Damian(as Robin)accosts a school crossing guard for telling the children he was safeguarding to move faster. Damian finds that suspicious, and is annoyed when Batgirl swings over to question the crossing guard herself. It seems the mission Batman assigned Steph was to find out who was kidnapping children from Gotham's middle class. Damian knows nothing about Steph's mission, and chalks it up to all of the other missions he was given by Batman. Now aware of Steph's mission, Damian decides to tag along, and the two head over to the school and watch as a class of children are put on a bus for a field trip to a museum. The two follow and Steph has Damian dress as a child to do some undercover work. While Steph manages to make her way into the museum's security room, Damian(or “Bruce” as he tells one of the children his name is)has to suffer through acting like a normal 10 year old, something he is painfully unequipped to do. After surveying the cameras, Steph spots the school bus driver bound and gagged in the museum and alerts Damian to this. By this time, the kidnappers have taken the children back onto the bus and are ferrying them to their safehouse to be held for ransom. Damian quickly switches back to his Robin clothes and in a matter of minutes, him and Steph have caught up to the bus. The two heroes manage to gain access to the bus, and defeat the kidnappers in short order. With the kidnappers caught, and the children safe, Steph offers to help Damian learn a few things he was lacking in. To that extent, later on that night, Steph takes Damian to an amusement park and pulls him into a bounce house, actually getting a smile out of the little hellspawn and ending this issue.

Thoughts: Ahhhh, Bryan Q. Miller... Why do you do these things to me? You know, it couldn't have been more then a year ago when Damian Wayne would have easily, EASILY have been counted among my most despised characters. I mean he was just an unlikable, nasty, all around sucky character. However, after Damian had been written almost exclusively by Grant Morrison from his creation, last year saw many other writers use Damian, most notably Fabian Nicieza, Paul Dini, JT Krul and of course, Bryan Miller. These writers were able to do what Morrison either couldn't or wouldn't do, they began to fill out Damian's character. He ISN'T just the little ball of hate that Morrison had been writing him as, there actually was more to him. And let me tell you, nobody has done more to help with Damian's development then Miller has. I mean, I actually felt for Damian after reading this issue. Sure, he was still an obnoxious little punk here, but there were so many great little character development moments here as well... His annoyance that Batman had given Batgirl the kidnapping case over him, using the name “Bruce” when asked by the girl in the museum his name(which was AWESOME because it shows how much Damian WANTS to be his father), being unable to blend in and act like a normal 10 year old, and the ending with the bounce house. I mean god help me, but if there was a Robin series put out written by anybody BUT Grant Morrison, I'd be one of the first people in line to buy it. That's how drastically my feelings towards Damian have changed. Now onto the story of this comic. It was a pretty basic, one and done tale that told a simple story. Kidnappers try to abduct children, Damian and Steph(who aren't exactly best of friends)have to work together to foil the villains, and in the end Steph gains some measure of sympathy for the type of life Damian has lived. Was it technically perfect? No, not really, the stuff with the school crossing guard really didn't go anywhere, but did I enjoy it more than any other comic I've read so far this month? Without a doubt. And with that in mind, figuring out what to score this comic really wasn't that difficult...

Score: 10 out of 10. Yeah! The first perfect score of 2011!Yep, I'm a Damian fan now. Deal with it.

Daredevil Reborn #1(of 4)

Review: We begin things with the disgraced Matt Murdock(you may know him better as Daredevil)wandering aimlessly across the country, much like Superman. Matt winds up at a small coffee shop in the middle of some Podunk town in New Mexico. Upon arriving at the shop, Matt spots a young blind boy outside the shop trying haplessly to flip a coin and catch it. Matt heads inside and orders something to eat, but arises the suspicions of the waitress since he came walking over and wasn't driving a car. While he's eating, the waitress rushes in the back and makes a phone call. Upon leaving, Matt sits down next to the little blind boy and explains the best way to catch the coin, and is pleased to see the boy takes his advice manage to catch the coin. Upon getting up to leave, Matt is confronted by four dumb hicks. The hicks tell Matt that they don't like no city boys walking around their town, so Matt decides the best strategy is to leave. The hicks want to fight, so they jump Matt, and he decides to take the beating as opposed to fighting back. Eventually the sheriff comes by and breaks up the fight, but he is also concerned about Matt nosing around his town. The sheriff takes Matt to a bench near the bus station and tells him that the bus arrives early the next morning, and that Matt would be wise to leave town. Before leaving, the sheriff takes Matt's picture on his cell phone, and Matt decides to simply walk out of this strange town, even though all of his senses are telling him something is very wrong. As he is leaving town, Matt smells something peculiar and decides to investigate as the cops back at the station compare Matt's photo to the FBI database and realize who he really was. Upon realizing that there was a super-hero wandering around town, the sheriff tells his deputies to head out and pick Matt up and then take him down. Meanwhile, Matt discovers a mass grave hidden at a construction site containing several bones, and a sheriff star badge. The deputies from earlier find Matt at the construction site and draw their guns on him. Matt takes off and this issue ends with the two deputies feeling that they should be able to take care of Matt easily.

Thoughts: Before I get into this issue, first a quick question... Why isn't this mini-series taking place in the Daredevil series as opposed to Black Panther taking over the Daredevil series? Answer: Who the hell knows?! This was a very entertaining comic book, and a great start to this mini-series. It shows us that the real Matt Murdock is back, not the crazed, Hand leading one. Matt simply wants to be left alone, and not deal with the whole super-hero deal anymore, but as is his life, the insanity seems to follow him wherever he goes. Can a depressed Daredevil take care of a bunch of dumb hicks who have taken over a New Mexico town? Um yeah, probably, but I'll enjoy seeing how things turn out regardless.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Huh, this comic REALLY made New Mexico look bad!