Overall- Huh, I'll be... I didn't really like this comic. Which is really strange, because up to now, I've yet to dislike when Gail Simone writes a story about the Six... Oh well, there's a first time for everything.
Scandal was still mourning the death of her lover Knockout, and was very out of character for much of the comic. Catman was going on and on about some vague occurrence in Africa to Deadshot, who couldn't really care less. The flashback's Catman was having about Africa were REALLY weird, involving him killing poachers in the nude, with blood covering his mouth. What the hell was that all about! Ragdoll was hanging around new team member, an incredibly bland Bane. Bane was really boring here... You know, without his mask on, Bane really doesn't look that intimidating. He should make it a habit to always keep his mask on!
The story was kind of all over the place, which I guess is to be expected in the first issue of a new comic/story line. Now, once things get rolling, I'm sure this comic will pick up and the various stories will start to sort out, but right now, I'm just not feeling it. I'd give it a 5 out of 10, while hoping that things start to come together next issue.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Justice Society of America 19
Overall- Overall, if you call yourself a comic book fan and are not following this series, then you SHOULD be ashamed of yourself! Geoff Johns for my money is one of the few comic book writers who seem able to craft a great story every time out(Ed Brubaker is another).
This comic book from start to finish was almost perfect... Almost. The characters all reacted exactly as you would expect them to act. That's another thing about Johns, the way he KNOWS the characters he is writing about. With that knowledge, he is able to have the characters play off each other perfectly. The disagreement between Hawkman and the older guard, Alan, Jay and Ted was done to perfection.
Hawkman is fine with Gog's actions, including Gog's killing of the soldiers last issue, because as far as Hawkman is concerned, all Gog is really doing is preventing violence from occurring, by any means necessary. So if Gog kills a bunch of murdering, raping scumbags, so what?
The older guard come from the school of thought that killing is never right, especially for a being like Gog, who could have ended the confrontation in several ways that didn't result in the soldiers deaths. As the JSA splintered, Magog, the herald of Gog, sent the JSAers who didn't agree with Gog back home.
Upon arriving back home, they were met by Power Girl, who had finally escaped from Earth-2, but with the Justice Society Infinity chasing right behind her. Oh yeah, one of my favorite villains/anti-heroes Black Adam also showed up in a cameo, believing his dead wife is alive and sending him messages.
If not for the arrival of Power Girl and the JSI at the end of the issue, this comic would have been perfect. The Power Girl stuff, in my opinion, should have stayed on the back burners, since there is already enough going on with Gog. The Earth-2 stuff takes away from main story here, which is undeniably Gog. My overall score for this comic is easy, 9 out of 10!
This comic book from start to finish was almost perfect... Almost. The characters all reacted exactly as you would expect them to act. That's another thing about Johns, the way he KNOWS the characters he is writing about. With that knowledge, he is able to have the characters play off each other perfectly. The disagreement between Hawkman and the older guard, Alan, Jay and Ted was done to perfection.
Hawkman is fine with Gog's actions, including Gog's killing of the soldiers last issue, because as far as Hawkman is concerned, all Gog is really doing is preventing violence from occurring, by any means necessary. So if Gog kills a bunch of murdering, raping scumbags, so what?
The older guard come from the school of thought that killing is never right, especially for a being like Gog, who could have ended the confrontation in several ways that didn't result in the soldiers deaths. As the JSA splintered, Magog, the herald of Gog, sent the JSAers who didn't agree with Gog back home.
Upon arriving back home, they were met by Power Girl, who had finally escaped from Earth-2, but with the Justice Society Infinity chasing right behind her. Oh yeah, one of my favorite villains/anti-heroes Black Adam also showed up in a cameo, believing his dead wife is alive and sending him messages.
If not for the arrival of Power Girl and the JSI at the end of the issue, this comic would have been perfect. The Power Girl stuff, in my opinion, should have stayed on the back burners, since there is already enough going on with Gog. The Earth-2 stuff takes away from main story here, which is undeniably Gog. My overall score for this comic is easy, 9 out of 10!
Mighty Avengers 19
It says "Secret Invasion" on the cover... You know, the Skrulls love to run around saying "He loves you", but I have a funny feeling that in actuality, Joe Quesada hates me...
Overall- Just so you know, right off the bat, I was/am a huge fan of the Grant Morrison version of Marvel Boy. On top of that, the original Captain Marvel is one of the characters I have the most respect for in the Marvel Universe.
That might sound weird, respecting a comic book character, but reading about his life and death made me respect him immensely. With that being said, I STILL consider this Captain Marvel to be one of the WORST abominations that Marvel has ever come up with. A Skrull pretending to be Captain Marvel is insulting on too many levels to even count.
When Marvel Boy was brought out of mothballs during the Civil War last year, I was happy to see him again, being as I said, a fan of the character. However, now that Brain Bendis has his hands on the character, I shudder to think of what will wind up happening to him...
It's funny, because I started out as a huge fan of Bendis, I loved his work on Ultimate Spider-Man for about the first 70 issues or so and I generally enjoyed his Avengers Disassembled storyline, even though there were enough plot holes to fly an airplane through. I also thought House of M was a good story, up until the asinine ending. However, Bendis seems to have made a habit of completely ignoring what has occurred in previous/older comic books and gone on to do whatever he's wanted to, continuity be damned.
I'll continue to read about the Avengers, even though Bendis is slowly destroying everything they were originally based on, because I am and always will be a fan of the Avengers. I'm just hoping that Marvel Boy gets out of this mess called "Secret Invasion" intact and winds up far away from Bendis... Anyone who knows anything about me knows of my blind hatred of "Secret Invasion", so although Marvel Boy appears in this comic, I can't give it a grade higher then 3 out of 10.
Overall- Just so you know, right off the bat, I was/am a huge fan of the Grant Morrison version of Marvel Boy. On top of that, the original Captain Marvel is one of the characters I have the most respect for in the Marvel Universe.
That might sound weird, respecting a comic book character, but reading about his life and death made me respect him immensely. With that being said, I STILL consider this Captain Marvel to be one of the WORST abominations that Marvel has ever come up with. A Skrull pretending to be Captain Marvel is insulting on too many levels to even count.
When Marvel Boy was brought out of mothballs during the Civil War last year, I was happy to see him again, being as I said, a fan of the character. However, now that Brain Bendis has his hands on the character, I shudder to think of what will wind up happening to him...
It's funny, because I started out as a huge fan of Bendis, I loved his work on Ultimate Spider-Man for about the first 70 issues or so and I generally enjoyed his Avengers Disassembled storyline, even though there were enough plot holes to fly an airplane through. I also thought House of M was a good story, up until the asinine ending. However, Bendis seems to have made a habit of completely ignoring what has occurred in previous/older comic books and gone on to do whatever he's wanted to, continuity be damned.
I'll continue to read about the Avengers, even though Bendis is slowly destroying everything they were originally based on, because I am and always will be a fan of the Avengers. I'm just hoping that Marvel Boy gets out of this mess called "Secret Invasion" intact and winds up far away from Bendis... Anyone who knows anything about me knows of my blind hatred of "Secret Invasion", so although Marvel Boy appears in this comic, I can't give it a grade higher then 3 out of 10.
Secret Six: Six Degrees to Devestation.
I think I'll change the way I do my comic reviews, starting with this one on. Not that it matters, because the only person who will ever see this is probably me!!!
Overall- I read this comic right after taking a history midterm. Heh, midterms in October, you gotta love college! Hopefully I don't mix up this TPB with my early American History stuff...
I like this team a lot. I like the way Gail Simone writes about each one. Every character had there own chance to shine here, and that's what I really like about her writing style. No one character is relegated to the background. Catman, as the leader of the team, gets a good amount of face time, but all the other characters also have their moments where we get to see what they are made of. We even find out that Deadshot isn't the universal scumbag he seems to be, thanks to getting a chance to watch him interact with his daughter.
I can't help but get a kick out of Ragdoll... He may just be the weirdest character in either Marvel or DC. One thing that I didn't care for was the addition of the Mad Hatter to the team. I don't like him at all. There isn't much more then that to say. I was very happy when Ragdoll threw him(literally) off the team.
I liked the interaction between Catman and Cheshire, who apparently got her way and became pregnant by Catman during the Villains United mini. Deadshot was still Deadshot, the jerk of the team, and I always liked Knockout, from back in her days in Superboy's comic.
The stuff with Vandal and Scandal Savage, wasn't the best I had ever read, because since when is Vandal suicidal? I thought his whole gimmick was that he's been alive forever, and wants to make sure it stays that way. Why would he want Scandal to have a son for the sole purpose of killing him? That didn't really, make sense, but I guess we needed a strong antagonist for the series, and Vandal was chosen to be that guy. Pretty much, I liked the Secret Six team, more then I liked the story in this comic. On that merit alone, I'd give this mini-series a 7 out of 10.
Overall- I read this comic right after taking a history midterm. Heh, midterms in October, you gotta love college! Hopefully I don't mix up this TPB with my early American History stuff...
I like this team a lot. I like the way Gail Simone writes about each one. Every character had there own chance to shine here, and that's what I really like about her writing style. No one character is relegated to the background. Catman, as the leader of the team, gets a good amount of face time, but all the other characters also have their moments where we get to see what they are made of. We even find out that Deadshot isn't the universal scumbag he seems to be, thanks to getting a chance to watch him interact with his daughter.
I can't help but get a kick out of Ragdoll... He may just be the weirdest character in either Marvel or DC. One thing that I didn't care for was the addition of the Mad Hatter to the team. I don't like him at all. There isn't much more then that to say. I was very happy when Ragdoll threw him(literally) off the team.
I liked the interaction between Catman and Cheshire, who apparently got her way and became pregnant by Catman during the Villains United mini. Deadshot was still Deadshot, the jerk of the team, and I always liked Knockout, from back in her days in Superboy's comic.
The stuff with Vandal and Scandal Savage, wasn't the best I had ever read, because since when is Vandal suicidal? I thought his whole gimmick was that he's been alive forever, and wants to make sure it stays that way. Why would he want Scandal to have a son for the sole purpose of killing him? That didn't really, make sense, but I guess we needed a strong antagonist for the series, and Vandal was chosen to be that guy. Pretty much, I liked the Secret Six team, more then I liked the story in this comic. On that merit alone, I'd give this mini-series a 7 out of 10.
Calling all Flash fans!
I will readily admit to not having read the main "Final Crisis" comics, I'm waiting until the whole series comes out, so I can enjoy the whole story uninterrupted. However, DC is promoting in all of it's comics that Barry Allen has returned from the dead.
Now, where as I have been collecting Marvel Comics for about 17 years now(WOW that's a long time...)I've only been reading DC titles for about 2 years or so. In those 2 years, I've managed to acquire about 2,000 DC comics, so I have a pretty good(although not great) understanding of the DC Universe and many of its characters. Out of all the characters in the DC universe, I've tended to gravitate towards the Flashes.
This has a lot to do with the fact that the first DC comic I read was an issue of Young Justice, where I immediately became a huge fan of Bart Allen(Impulse). I wound up collecting all of the Impulse related comics I could get my hands on, including his full series, his early New Titans appearances, as well as his later Teen Titans and Flash books. From reading about Bart, I became curious about the current Flash, Wally West. I also liked Wally, and was able to get a lot of his adventures in with JLA, as well as his regular comic, "The Flash".
Well, from there I began to collect the JSA comics, to read about the "old" Flash Jay Garrick. Once again I found another character I enjoyed reading about. So, thus far, I've established I really like the character of the Flash in all his various forms. Now for the problem. I don't know much of anything about Barry Allen... I know he sacrificed his life during the big DC crossover in the 80's, I know he was a cop, I know he was married, I know Bart is his grandson and I know Wally reveres him. Other than that I know squat about him...
Barry Allen has been dead for over 20 years, which is longer than a lot of people have been collecting comic books, I know there are exceptions, but I'd say most collectors haven't been collecting for over 20 years. This brings me to the question I really wish someone could explain to me, why bring Barry Allen back at all? I would imagine all of his die hard fans who may have been disappointed by his death all those years ago have moved on to other characters and probably barely give Barry any thought anymore.
Without Barry, there are two Flashes, Wally and Jay. I'd think that two Flashes is more than enough. That leads to the next question, is the DC Universe big enough for three characters sharing the same moniker? I kind of don't think it is... That would mean that one of the three Flashes would have to go.
Jay isn't going anywhere, he is still a vital part of the JSA title. If Barry is indeed back, it would make no sense for him to be the one to go, right after returning. Which leaves Wally... Wally West has been the main Flash for roughly 20 years now, meaning that an entire generation of DC fans have grown up with him as "their" Flash. However, Wally seems to be the most likely Flash to go. As I stated above, the other two Flashes have strong reasons for not going anywhere, while Wally's life seems to be changing rapidly, as if DC is setting him up for something, and by something, I don't mean something good...
I really like Wally West. I like his family dynamic. Not many heroes have a personal life as rich as Wally's. In other words, if Wally were to die at the end of "Final Crisis", DC would be throwing away a character that is established, has a rich history and still has tons of storyline potential. I'm not sure how many fans would get behind Barry Allen as the Flash again, I know I would be very tentative to read a Barry Allen "Flash" comic in a world with Wally either gone or de-powered.
The strange thing about the rebirth of Barry Allen is the fact that DC really didn't need another Flash, they needed a KID Flash. As I said earlier, Bart was my favorite Flash as well as one of my favorite characters period, but I mainly knew him through his Impulse/Kid Flash days. Why not bring back BART Allen as opposed to BARRY Allen?
Wouldn't the DC universe be better off with two Flashes and a Kid Flash, as opposed to a world with three Flashes? The news of Barry Allen's return is obviously bothering me, but I would be very interested to hear what some other fans of any of the Flashes think.
Is it a good thing to bring back Barry at the expense of Wally? Are there a group of Barry Allen fans that have been clamoring for his return that I was unaware of? Do people really want to see Wally killed off/de-powered? Or like me, are there some folks out there who would prefer to see Bart Allen return in the guise of Kid Flash/Impulse? I would really love to get the opinions of some other fans of the Flash or even just DC comics in general. Well, this turned out to be a longer post than I intended... Anyway, if anyone could throw some comments out there I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading!
Now, where as I have been collecting Marvel Comics for about 17 years now(WOW that's a long time...)I've only been reading DC titles for about 2 years or so. In those 2 years, I've managed to acquire about 2,000 DC comics, so I have a pretty good(although not great) understanding of the DC Universe and many of its characters. Out of all the characters in the DC universe, I've tended to gravitate towards the Flashes.
This has a lot to do with the fact that the first DC comic I read was an issue of Young Justice, where I immediately became a huge fan of Bart Allen(Impulse). I wound up collecting all of the Impulse related comics I could get my hands on, including his full series, his early New Titans appearances, as well as his later Teen Titans and Flash books. From reading about Bart, I became curious about the current Flash, Wally West. I also liked Wally, and was able to get a lot of his adventures in with JLA, as well as his regular comic, "The Flash".
Well, from there I began to collect the JSA comics, to read about the "old" Flash Jay Garrick. Once again I found another character I enjoyed reading about. So, thus far, I've established I really like the character of the Flash in all his various forms. Now for the problem. I don't know much of anything about Barry Allen... I know he sacrificed his life during the big DC crossover in the 80's, I know he was a cop, I know he was married, I know Bart is his grandson and I know Wally reveres him. Other than that I know squat about him...
Barry Allen has been dead for over 20 years, which is longer than a lot of people have been collecting comic books, I know there are exceptions, but I'd say most collectors haven't been collecting for over 20 years. This brings me to the question I really wish someone could explain to me, why bring Barry Allen back at all? I would imagine all of his die hard fans who may have been disappointed by his death all those years ago have moved on to other characters and probably barely give Barry any thought anymore.
Without Barry, there are two Flashes, Wally and Jay. I'd think that two Flashes is more than enough. That leads to the next question, is the DC Universe big enough for three characters sharing the same moniker? I kind of don't think it is... That would mean that one of the three Flashes would have to go.
Jay isn't going anywhere, he is still a vital part of the JSA title. If Barry is indeed back, it would make no sense for him to be the one to go, right after returning. Which leaves Wally... Wally West has been the main Flash for roughly 20 years now, meaning that an entire generation of DC fans have grown up with him as "their" Flash. However, Wally seems to be the most likely Flash to go. As I stated above, the other two Flashes have strong reasons for not going anywhere, while Wally's life seems to be changing rapidly, as if DC is setting him up for something, and by something, I don't mean something good...
I really like Wally West. I like his family dynamic. Not many heroes have a personal life as rich as Wally's. In other words, if Wally were to die at the end of "Final Crisis", DC would be throwing away a character that is established, has a rich history and still has tons of storyline potential. I'm not sure how many fans would get behind Barry Allen as the Flash again, I know I would be very tentative to read a Barry Allen "Flash" comic in a world with Wally either gone or de-powered.
The strange thing about the rebirth of Barry Allen is the fact that DC really didn't need another Flash, they needed a KID Flash. As I said earlier, Bart was my favorite Flash as well as one of my favorite characters period, but I mainly knew him through his Impulse/Kid Flash days. Why not bring back BART Allen as opposed to BARRY Allen?
Wouldn't the DC universe be better off with two Flashes and a Kid Flash, as opposed to a world with three Flashes? The news of Barry Allen's return is obviously bothering me, but I would be very interested to hear what some other fans of any of the Flashes think.
Is it a good thing to bring back Barry at the expense of Wally? Are there a group of Barry Allen fans that have been clamoring for his return that I was unaware of? Do people really want to see Wally killed off/de-powered? Or like me, are there some folks out there who would prefer to see Bart Allen return in the guise of Kid Flash/Impulse? I would really love to get the opinions of some other fans of the Flash or even just DC comics in general. Well, this turned out to be a longer post than I intended... Anyway, if anyone could throw some comments out there I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading!
Flash 245
Story- Some members of the JLA/JSA, Black Lightning, Red Arrow, Red Tornado and Dr. Midnite, meet with Flash in an attempt to figure out what has caused his powers to decrease dramatically.
While the tests go on, we are treated to many flashbacks(heh, "Flash"backs), detailing Wally's growth from a Teen Titan to his becoming his own man. The tests come back to reveal that Wally can no longer safely push himself past Mach 1.
Without further testing however, the experts won't be able to figure out why this is occurring to Wally. Wally is visited by Raven, which brings on more flashbacks. After Raven leaves, Wally shares a romantic interlude with his wife Linda.
After Wally leaves, Linda is attacked by the same swarm of poisonous bees from the last issue. Flash arrives back at the house and tries to disperse the bee's, but has trouble with the sheer numbers of the bees, that is until Black Lightning arrives to help him kill off the remaining little pests.
Wally finds Linda hiding in a closet, covered with stings, and barley breathing. At the end of the issue, we discover it was the Queen Bee who was responsible for the attack. She had gained possession of a device that could channel speed energy, increasing the speed of an object or removing the speed altogether. Queen Bee envisions whole cities frozen in time ripe for her to attack.
Unfortunately for Queen Bee, the device is unpredictable and needs an extraordinary individual to harness it's powers. The issue closes with Wally running to his children, who were being watched by Jay Garrick and wife, to ominously tell them "Something's happened."
Overall- This story is moving along rather nicely, with us now knowing that it is indeed the Queen Bee who was behind the thefts last issue and the attacks this issue. Apparently, Flash's daughter Iris might be the conduit Queen Bee is searching for to power her machine. All of Wally's flashbacks seem to be leading up to something very bad... You know how they say before you die, your life flashes before your eyes? Well, this seems to be happening to Wally in comic book form... I really am hoping that Wally emerges from the events of "Final Crisis" unscathed, but this just seems to be becoming more and more unlikely. Hopefully, DC is making it really obvious that something bad is in store for Wally as a red herring, and in the end, everything will turn out alright..... I hope.
While the tests go on, we are treated to many flashbacks(heh, "Flash"backs), detailing Wally's growth from a Teen Titan to his becoming his own man. The tests come back to reveal that Wally can no longer safely push himself past Mach 1.
Without further testing however, the experts won't be able to figure out why this is occurring to Wally. Wally is visited by Raven, which brings on more flashbacks. After Raven leaves, Wally shares a romantic interlude with his wife Linda.
After Wally leaves, Linda is attacked by the same swarm of poisonous bees from the last issue. Flash arrives back at the house and tries to disperse the bee's, but has trouble with the sheer numbers of the bees, that is until Black Lightning arrives to help him kill off the remaining little pests.
Wally finds Linda hiding in a closet, covered with stings, and barley breathing. At the end of the issue, we discover it was the Queen Bee who was responsible for the attack. She had gained possession of a device that could channel speed energy, increasing the speed of an object or removing the speed altogether. Queen Bee envisions whole cities frozen in time ripe for her to attack.
Unfortunately for Queen Bee, the device is unpredictable and needs an extraordinary individual to harness it's powers. The issue closes with Wally running to his children, who were being watched by Jay Garrick and wife, to ominously tell them "Something's happened."
Overall- This story is moving along rather nicely, with us now knowing that it is indeed the Queen Bee who was behind the thefts last issue and the attacks this issue. Apparently, Flash's daughter Iris might be the conduit Queen Bee is searching for to power her machine. All of Wally's flashbacks seem to be leading up to something very bad... You know how they say before you die, your life flashes before your eyes? Well, this seems to be happening to Wally in comic book form... I really am hoping that Wally emerges from the events of "Final Crisis" unscathed, but this just seems to be becoming more and more unlikely. Hopefully, DC is making it really obvious that something bad is in store for Wally as a red herring, and in the end, everything will turn out alright..... I hope.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Final Crisis, Rogues' Revenge 3
Story- The Rogues' manage to find a device created by the Top, which is able to locate any vibrational anomalies. In other words, it manages to find speedsters, which would include the target of the Rogues', Inertia. They find him, but are surprised to see him with Zoom.
The Rogues' decide that they will still fulfill their promise to kill Inertia, regardless of Zoom being there. Zoom attacks the Rogues' on sight, mainly due to the fact that he considers all of them to be a waste of Flash's(Wally West) time. Before Zoom can kill any of the Rogues', the Pied Piper steps in and helps his one time Rogue teammates, only because he wanted to avoid anymore killing.
The Pied Piper manages to immobilize everyone there, until he is stabbed in the back of the shoulder by the recently arrived Libra. Libra stands there holding the infant son of the Weather Wizard. Libra makes a pitch to the Rogues, basically telling them to join up with him and his forces or Weather Wizard's son would pay the price in blood.
Before the Weather Wizard can make his decision, Inertia attacks Libra, hitting him with a sonic boom. After that, the baby is gone... To where? That isn't really explained... Inertia, seemingly goes completely insane, and begins to call himself Kid Zoom. He bludgeons Libra, but is stopped before he kills Libra by Zoom, who was still working with Libra and therefore didn't want Libra dead.
In response, Kid Zoom, steals Zoom's powers completely, leaving Zoom as paralyzed Hunter Zoloman once again. Kid Zoom then decides to kill the Rogues, and proceeds to attack them. His rampage is halted by the still recovering Pied Piper, who uses his flute to freeze Kid Zoom in place. While Kid Zoom is immobile, all the Rogues focus their weapons on him and blast him, killing him in the same manner they killed Bart Allen.
The Pied Piper is horrified that he was once again an accessory to a murder committed by the Rogues. Libra, who watched the entire situation, offers the Rogues a spot on his evil society. Libra also tells the Rogues that the original Flash has returned to life and he needs them to stop him. The Rogues turn him down and leave, feeling that Libra's schemes could never succeed.
The Rogues drop Kid Zoom's body off at the Keystone City PD, with the message "Tell the Flash we're even", apparently hoping that Flash will get off their case for killing Bart, since it was Inertia/Kid Zoom who orchestrated Bart's murder.
The Pied Piper ends up turning himself over to the Central City PD, muttering about the end of the world.
The Rogues retreat to a hideout and decide that if Barry Allen is indeed back, they can't retire, which was their original plan after killing Inertia. The Rogues figure that once Barry learns they were responsible for the death of Kid Flash(Bart Allen), he wouldn't rest until they were all caught.
Overall- I put some unfairly high expectations on this mini-series, so I was naturally let down in the end... I guess it would be fair to say that in the DC universe, the Flash line of comics would have to be my favorite, since Marvel doesn't really have an answer to Flash(if someone says Quicksilver, I'll burst out laughing).
Bart Allen was my favorite Flash, since it was the Young Justice/Impulse comic books that really turned me into DC comics fan. I guess I was kind of hoping for more in this mini-series, possibly even Bart's resurrection...
I was kind of exited by the concept of a Kid Zoom, who would be a great enemy to both Flash and the Teen Titans, and was very, very disappointed by his death. I always thought Inertia was a great villain, dating back to his early appearances in "Impulse".
I was also disturbed by the fact that Zoom was de-powered by the end of this mini-series... The part with Zoom really filled me with dread, because everything seems to be leading to Barry Allen replacing Wally West(my second favorite Flash) as the "main" Flash.
Zoom was Wally's most personal foe, and has no attachment what so ever to Barry. Getting rid of Wally's arch enemy(Zoom)has me really beginning to worry about what fate DC has planned for Wally at the end of "Final Crisis"...
Overall, I liked, this series, but couldn't shake the feeling that these comics only served to eliminate any villains not connected to the returning Barry Allen...
The Rogues' decide that they will still fulfill their promise to kill Inertia, regardless of Zoom being there. Zoom attacks the Rogues' on sight, mainly due to the fact that he considers all of them to be a waste of Flash's(Wally West) time. Before Zoom can kill any of the Rogues', the Pied Piper steps in and helps his one time Rogue teammates, only because he wanted to avoid anymore killing.
The Pied Piper manages to immobilize everyone there, until he is stabbed in the back of the shoulder by the recently arrived Libra. Libra stands there holding the infant son of the Weather Wizard. Libra makes a pitch to the Rogues, basically telling them to join up with him and his forces or Weather Wizard's son would pay the price in blood.
Before the Weather Wizard can make his decision, Inertia attacks Libra, hitting him with a sonic boom. After that, the baby is gone... To where? That isn't really explained... Inertia, seemingly goes completely insane, and begins to call himself Kid Zoom. He bludgeons Libra, but is stopped before he kills Libra by Zoom, who was still working with Libra and therefore didn't want Libra dead.
In response, Kid Zoom, steals Zoom's powers completely, leaving Zoom as paralyzed Hunter Zoloman once again. Kid Zoom then decides to kill the Rogues, and proceeds to attack them. His rampage is halted by the still recovering Pied Piper, who uses his flute to freeze Kid Zoom in place. While Kid Zoom is immobile, all the Rogues focus their weapons on him and blast him, killing him in the same manner they killed Bart Allen.
The Pied Piper is horrified that he was once again an accessory to a murder committed by the Rogues. Libra, who watched the entire situation, offers the Rogues a spot on his evil society. Libra also tells the Rogues that the original Flash has returned to life and he needs them to stop him. The Rogues turn him down and leave, feeling that Libra's schemes could never succeed.
The Rogues drop Kid Zoom's body off at the Keystone City PD, with the message "Tell the Flash we're even", apparently hoping that Flash will get off their case for killing Bart, since it was Inertia/Kid Zoom who orchestrated Bart's murder.
The Pied Piper ends up turning himself over to the Central City PD, muttering about the end of the world.
The Rogues retreat to a hideout and decide that if Barry Allen is indeed back, they can't retire, which was their original plan after killing Inertia. The Rogues figure that once Barry learns they were responsible for the death of Kid Flash(Bart Allen), he wouldn't rest until they were all caught.
Overall- I put some unfairly high expectations on this mini-series, so I was naturally let down in the end... I guess it would be fair to say that in the DC universe, the Flash line of comics would have to be my favorite, since Marvel doesn't really have an answer to Flash(if someone says Quicksilver, I'll burst out laughing).
Bart Allen was my favorite Flash, since it was the Young Justice/Impulse comic books that really turned me into DC comics fan. I guess I was kind of hoping for more in this mini-series, possibly even Bart's resurrection...
I was kind of exited by the concept of a Kid Zoom, who would be a great enemy to both Flash and the Teen Titans, and was very, very disappointed by his death. I always thought Inertia was a great villain, dating back to his early appearances in "Impulse".
I was also disturbed by the fact that Zoom was de-powered by the end of this mini-series... The part with Zoom really filled me with dread, because everything seems to be leading to Barry Allen replacing Wally West(my second favorite Flash) as the "main" Flash.
Zoom was Wally's most personal foe, and has no attachment what so ever to Barry. Getting rid of Wally's arch enemy(Zoom)has me really beginning to worry about what fate DC has planned for Wally at the end of "Final Crisis"...
Overall, I liked, this series, but couldn't shake the feeling that these comics only served to eliminate any villains not connected to the returning Barry Allen...
Wolverine 68
Story- Clint, not willing to let his daughter be executed by the Kingpin, decides to go save her. Logan refuses to help, stating that he won't get involved in any fights. Clint offers to double Logan's pay and tells him that Logan doesn't have to do anything but drive. Logan reluctantly agrees to the new terms, mainly because of all the good the money will do him and his family. Clint and Logan make the trip to Salt Lake City, the base of power to the new Kingpin of Crime. This is definitely not Wilson Fisk, but a newer, younger model.
The Kingpin has dinosaurs eat Clint's daughter's accomplice's, and promises an even more grisly fate for her. Clint's plan is to use the Spider Buggie's ability to climb walls to bust into the prison his daughter is being held in, without having to fight his way through the entire facility from ground level.
Upon breaking in through an upper floor wall, Clint channels his inner Ronin, and hacks away at the guards holding his daughter, by following the sounds of their voices. He finally breaks out his daughter just as the new Kingpin arrives, where he is promptly beheaded by Clint's daughter. She then smashes Clint in the face with the gun she beheaded the Kingpin with. When Clint questions what she thinks she is doing, she tells him she is taking over the Kingpin's empire and is going to solidify her power base by killing her own father. As she prepares to swing the killing blow down at her helpless father, Logan, who had been observing the situation from another room the whole time in the Spider Buggie, curses Clint for "making him do this". What this means, we'll discover in the next issue.
Overall- This comic book proves to me that when Marvel still wants to, they can produce the types of comic books that made me fall in love with them in the first place all those years ago. As I stated in a previous post, I really like alternate dimension storylines, because anything can happen in them, due to the fact that the writer has the freedom to do whatever he/she wants without messing with continuity.
All in all, this was a very good comic, even though the betrayal of Clint's daughter was heavily foreshadowed earlier in the comic, so it wasn't a total surprise... The next issue should be the turning point in Logan's life. Either he sits in the Spider Buggie and watches Clint's daughter kill Clint, or he disregards his vow of committing no violence and saves Clint's neck.
So far, Mark Millar is going a long way in winning me back as a fan with this very well crafted story. I'd be remiss not to mention the beautiful artwork of Steve McNiven. The visuals look great and the violence, which there is ALOT of, is also very well done. I'd recommend anyone who has tired of Wolverine to give these last three Wolverine comics a shot... You might be as pleasantly surprised as me!
The Kingpin has dinosaurs eat Clint's daughter's accomplice's, and promises an even more grisly fate for her. Clint's plan is to use the Spider Buggie's ability to climb walls to bust into the prison his daughter is being held in, without having to fight his way through the entire facility from ground level.
Upon breaking in through an upper floor wall, Clint channels his inner Ronin, and hacks away at the guards holding his daughter, by following the sounds of their voices. He finally breaks out his daughter just as the new Kingpin arrives, where he is promptly beheaded by Clint's daughter. She then smashes Clint in the face with the gun she beheaded the Kingpin with. When Clint questions what she thinks she is doing, she tells him she is taking over the Kingpin's empire and is going to solidify her power base by killing her own father. As she prepares to swing the killing blow down at her helpless father, Logan, who had been observing the situation from another room the whole time in the Spider Buggie, curses Clint for "making him do this". What this means, we'll discover in the next issue.
Overall- This comic book proves to me that when Marvel still wants to, they can produce the types of comic books that made me fall in love with them in the first place all those years ago. As I stated in a previous post, I really like alternate dimension storylines, because anything can happen in them, due to the fact that the writer has the freedom to do whatever he/she wants without messing with continuity.
All in all, this was a very good comic, even though the betrayal of Clint's daughter was heavily foreshadowed earlier in the comic, so it wasn't a total surprise... The next issue should be the turning point in Logan's life. Either he sits in the Spider Buggie and watches Clint's daughter kill Clint, or he disregards his vow of committing no violence and saves Clint's neck.
So far, Mark Millar is going a long way in winning me back as a fan with this very well crafted story. I'd be remiss not to mention the beautiful artwork of Steve McNiven. The visuals look great and the violence, which there is ALOT of, is also very well done. I'd recommend anyone who has tired of Wolverine to give these last three Wolverine comics a shot... You might be as pleasantly surprised as me!
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