A Few Quick Thoughts on: Wolverine Origins #42

Writer: Daniel Way. Pencils: Doug Braithwaite.

What I Thought: This was a pretty decent comic that dealt with Wolverine trying to strike deals with people who have mainly been enemies of his over the years. Logan reasons that instead of just going straight for Romulus(as usual), he's going to try doing something completely out of the ordinary, with the hope that Romulus won't be able to see what Wolvie was planning until it was too late. To that end, Logan has thus far recruited Bruce Banner, his son Skaar, Cloak, and in this issue he went to the Silver Samurai and asked his longtime foe if he'd teach Logan how to better wield the Muramasa Sword. Out of everything in this comic, that part probably bugged me the most, because I'd always been under the impression that Logan more then knew how to handle a samurai sword. According to Marvel's official stats, Wolverine is a master of ALL forms of fighting, so in all honesty, shouldn't Logan be a better sword fighter then Samurai himself? Besides that, I did enjoy this comic, the art was good, the story and dialogue were well done, and I am eagerly anticipating the rematch between Logan and Romulus down the road.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Umm, maybe it wasn't such a good idea asking for help from the guy whose hand you lopped off a few issues back Wolvie...

A Few Quick Thoughts on: A Few Quick Thoughts

Dec. 14th is the official last day of the Fall semester for me! That means I only have 9(!)more school days to go before I can get away from that place for about 4 weeks. That's the good news. The bad news is that with the end of the semester comes a TON of papers, exams and projects that will be due over the course of the next week and a half. In order to meet my school obligations, I'll have to cut down on the amount of stuff I write for this here blog. Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to quit posting, 'cause I'm not. What it does mean is that my posts are going to be ALOT shorter, and less informational. Instead of doing an actual review for each comic, I'm just going to post what I thought about the book, along with my score. When I have time, or when the comic is particularly good or bad, I'll do an actual review, but until the 14th, you can expect to see me taking alot of shortcuts around here. Tonight I'm going to try out the new Quick Thoughts format on the most recent issues of Wolverine Origins and Action Comics and tomorrow I plan on doing a proper review for Dark X-Men #1, which is a comic I've been waiting 5 years to read. Alright, that's it for now, thanks for reading and sticking with me, and of course, Long Live The Legion!

A Quick Look at Adventure Comics #4

Writers: The comic book GOD, Geoff Johns, along with Sterling Gates. Pencils: Jerry Ordway.

What Happened: Alexander Luthor of Earth-3(the one from Infinite Crisis)rises as a Black Lantern, collects a bunch of Black Lantern Rings, and uses his abilities to teleport to other dimensions to send himself after his one-time ally, Superboy Prime. On Earth-Prime, the ever annoying Superboy Prime reads his copy of this very comic and is aghast(aghast I say!)with the way it ends. Prime forces his terrified parents(who don't realize he is powerless)to drive him to the local comic book shop so he can get his copy of Adventure Comics #5 and discover what his fate is. Prime demands that the clerk give him a copy of Adventure #5, but the clerk explains to the panicked Idiot of Steel that Adventure #5 hasn't hit the newsstands yet. Prime decides to jump online to see if he can find spoilers for Adventure #5 so he can discover what fate awaits him. However, before he can read the spoilers, BL Alexander arrives and begins to torment Prime in an attempt to build rage up in Prime. Since Prime in his weakened state is unable to build the amount of rage BL Alexander was hoping for, BL Alexander re-powers Prime. Prime, now Super again, attacks BL Alexander, but is unable to inflict any real harm on his one time friend. This issue ends with several heroes who were killed by Prime(including the Threeboot versions of Element Lad and Sun Boy!)returning as Black Lanterns, all ready to force Prime to join their ranks.

What I Thought: Huh. I opened this comic with a lot of preconceived notions. Several people whose opinions I value highly were VERY down on this comic. And when I say VERY, I mean VERY! After reading this comic, I have to say that I respectfully disagree. I LOVED this comic! It was hilarious! In my opinion, this was the perfect way to write a Superboy Prime story. I've never hid the fact that I think SB Prime is a great character. He's probably the comic book character that I most love to hate. His actions, his dialogue, everything about him is just so annoying! In this issue, Geoff keyed right into what makes Prime great, his ability to annoy and BOY was he annoying here! Never before did I find myself rooting more for Black Lanterns then when Element Lad and Sun Boy showed up. And I think that's the fun of this comic, openly rooting AGAINST the starring character. I've got to say, I read the entire Superboy Prime story with a dopey grin on my face. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and read a good, fun comic, which was exactly what this was.

Score: 9 out of 10."A conduit of rage"? Hey, Alexander must be checking out my blog!

Blackest Night #5(of 8)

Writer: The comic book GOD himself, Geoff Johns. Pencils: Ivan Reis.

What Happened: The two Guardians of the Blue Light as well as(ROLL CALL!)Hal Jordan of the Green Lantern Corps, Sinestro of the Sinestro Corps, Atrocitus of the Red Lanterns, Saint Walker of the Blue Lanterns, Carol Ferris of the Star Sapphires, Indigo-1 of the Indigo Lanterns and Larfleeze the only Orange Lantern arrive in Space Sector 666, expecting to find the Black Power Battery that is powering the Black Lanterns. Instead they are met by a big, empty hole. The 7 Lanterns power up and Ganthet(one of the two Blue Guardians)tells the unlikely allies that he can teleport them to where ever the Black Power Battery has gone. So, where is the Black Power Battery? On Earth, more specifically, in Coast City. Nekron(the leader of the Black Lanterns), Black Hand(Nekron's herald)and Scar(Nekron's Guardian)are confronted by Barry Allen and Wally West. Barry realizes that the skull BH is holding must have come from Bruce Wayne's grave in Gotham City, so he makes a bee-line for it, but is unable to wrest it from Black Hand's hands(heh...). By this point, Wally is able to call in some serious reinforcements, including Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Black Canary, as well as several others. The heroes take the fight to the thousands of zombies Nekron has summoned from Coast City, with the heroes utilizing their secret weapon, Dove, against the army of Black Lanterns. Wally, Barry and Kid Flash(Bart Allen)try to free the captive Guardians of the Universe from their prison around the Black Power Battery, but they are halted by Scar. Before Scar can do any real damage to the Flashes, Ganthet and the contingent of Lanterns arrive and immediately attack Scar. The combined light from the 7 different Lanterns actually manages to destroy Scar. With Scar gone(but not forgotten)the 7 Lanterns decide to attack and destroy the Black Power Battery, reasoning that if they could destroy that, the Black Lanterns would fall. The Lanterns soon come to the startling realization that they aren't damaging the Black Power Battery at all, and according to Black Hand, they're only serving to make Nekron even more powerful. From there, a single Black Ring shoots out of the Black Power battery and heads right towards the skull Black Hand has been holding since the beginning of this mini-series. The ring affixes to the skull and Bruce Wayne(!!!)rises! Black Lantern Batman leaps into the air to the shock and horror of the assembled heroes and begins to regurgitate Black Power rings from his mouth. The Black Rings affix themselves to every living hero in the DCU who had ever died(and that's like practically all of them!)and with a single word, Nekron kills them all, bringing them back as Black Lanterns. With that, Nekron disposes of BL Batman and this issue ends with Hal Jordan and Barry Allen desperately trying to avoid the two Black Rings headed their way.

What I Thought: I have to admit that this issue kind of shocked me a bit, and not for any reason one might expect. In one fell swoop, Geoff pretty much told us that the events of this comic were not going to have any sort of lasting affect on the DCU. What do I mean? Well, let's face it, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and the rest of the heroes who were turned into Black Lanterns this issue are obviously not going to remain dead after Blackest Night concludes. I was pretty surprised that Geoff would pull this card out with 3 issues to go in this mini. Besides that, I enjoyed this issue. Not as much as I've been enjoying the past few issues, but this was still a VERY good read. I think the main reason I didn't enjoy this issue as much as I've enjoyed some of the earlier issues of this mini is because nothing really memorable happened. There were no real big deaths, battles or reappearances and no, I don't believe for a second that the Bruce Wayne who made a quick return in this issue is the real, honest to goodness Bruce Wayne, I think that was simply a matter of Nekron messing with the heads of the heroes who were present. The art was brilliant(as usual)and the story was good, but to me, this issue was missing any really special moments to make it truly memorable.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Oh Scar... You deserved better then the lousy death you suffered here. Rest in Peace beloved...

Flash: Rebirth #5(of 6)

Writer: The comic book GOD himself, Geoff Johns. Artist: Ethan Van Sciver.

What Happened: This issue begins in earnest with the full Flash family(Barry, Wally, Bart, Max and Jay)taking it to the insane Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne. While the Flashes are battling Thawne, Wally's daughter, Irey(which is what she seems to be going by now)apparently gives her life to save her twin brother. Luckily for Irey, Liberty Belle(another DC speedster)arrives on the scene to save the girl. Meanwhile, Thawne is more then a match for all of the Flash family members present, since he can pick his shots at them while menacing the public, which distracts the Flash family members. Liberty Belle and Irey West(Wally's aforementioned daughter)arrive on the scene to lend a hand in the battle against Thawne. Now outnumbered 7-1, Thawne grabs Barry and the two arch-foes speed away from the rest of the Flash family. While running, Thawne tells Barry that he's been behind every bad thing that has ever happened in his life. From falling down the stairs when he was 11 yrs old, to the death of his mother, Thawne tells Barry that he was responsible for everything. This issue ends with Thawne telling Barry that he is now going to head into the past and kill Barry's wife Iris before the two of them even have their first date.

What I Thought: Bwa-Hahahahaha!!! Oh man... Really? I've never made a secret of how much I like Geoff's writing, but this was kind of ridiculous... Am I really to believe that Thawne has been haunting Barry his entire life like some sort of super-fast boogeyman? That was a pretty weak reveal. I get that Geoff wanted to make the fight between Thawne and Barry EVEN more personal then it was, which is why he made Thawne responsible for the murder of Barry's mother, but all of the other little things Thawne is claiming responsibility for is just overkill. So Thawne pushed little Barry down the stairs, he started a fire in Barry's home, he allowed Barry's dog to run away(really???)AND he killed Barry's mother! Um, if Thawne hates Barry so much, why not just, I don't know, kill Barry!?! Thawne has already showed he could go back in time and kill people, so why not murder a newborn Barry Allen in his crib? I guess Thawne needed Barry alive for some reason(why else wouldn't he kill him?), so instead of killing Barry, why not paralyze him, or cause him some other type of egregious bodily harm? Before Thawne's over-the-top villain act, this issue was pretty good. Wally finally got a new costume(which I liked), Wally's daughter became the new Impulse(which I'm undecided on)and all of the Flash family members were given a chance to shine(which was a good thing). I enjoyed the banter between Bart and Max Mercury, as well as Jay using his hat as an offensive weapon. I really like Jay's hat! To be honest, I'm eagerly anticipating the end of this mini-series and the beginning of the new Flash comic book, which I'm hoping will be a little bit better then this mini has been.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Forget Barry Allen, I want a new series for Jay Garrick! Jay+his hat=sales!

The Best of the Rest.(Nov. 20-Nov. 26 )

Greetings to all on the day terrains know as Black Friday! That always seemed like such a morbid name for the official kick-off to the Christmas shopping season, but whatever I guess. In case you're wondering, no, I didn't wake myself up before dawn to battle through throngs of caffeine-crazed parents at the local mall. Instead, I slept until 11, planted myself in front of the TV, and watched college football all day long. Ah how I love vacation! Of course then I had to go and ruin it all by spending an UNGODLY sum of money on comic books... I literally shudder when I think of what I did earlier today. Why did my online comic shop have to have a massive sale? WHY?!?! Oh well, what's done is done. The only way I can rationalize my actions is by telling myself that I wasn't only buying comics for myself, I was also buying books for Christmas for family members... A lame excuse to be sure, but an excuse nonetheless. Anyway, I'm going to forget about what's bound to be a HORRIFYING credit card bill for the time being as I look back at the back issues I've read this past week. Let's get this party started!

Batman Annual #15: This annual was connected to the Armageddon 2001 comic story that ran through the DCU in 1991. For the record, I don't know anything about Armageddon 2001, and to be honest with you, reading this issue didn't exactly make me want to search out the rest of this story. Basically, Batman bumps into some guy who came from the future looking for a super-hero who becomes the worst villain in history. The guy touches Bats and forces Bats to live through a potential future where Batman was accused of murdering Penguin and is sentenced to death. Tim Drake is running for the US Senate(which makes NO sense considering his age)and the Joker is sane, and a successful talk show host... Uh-huh... Anyway, we get some fun futuristic Batman action, and find out whether Batman is the hero who will turn evil and destroy the future(hint: he's not). I can honestly say this comic left no impression on me at all, so for a score I'll go right down the middle and say 5 out of 10.

Batman Annual #16: I continue my trek down bad Batman annual memory lane with Batman's part of the "Eclipso: The Darkness Within" storyline. Eclipso has scattered magical diamonds all over the planet. Why would he do that you ask? Because anyone who finds the diamonds will be able to use them to summon Eclipso to attack whatever it is they hate the most. How does this benefit Eclipso? I dunno... Anyway, Joker manages to get his hands on 5 Eclipso diamonds and it's up to Batman(as usual)to defeat the Joker before he can cause any new carnage in Gotham. Like with Batman Annual #15, this was another comic I pretty much forgot about right after I finished it. If you want to see giant Eclipso possessed Joker battle giant Eclipso possessed Batman, then rejoice, this is the comic you've been waiting for! If not, then I'd skip it. Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.

Secret Origins #35: This comic documents the origins of the Martian Manhunter, Max Lord and Booster Gold. The Manhunter and Lord stories weren't anything special, but the Booster Gold story was good old 1980's JL fun. Booster Gold decides to tell his best friend, Blue Beetle, his "secret" origin for some reason or another. I'd always known Booster's origin, but it was fun to actually read it in its entirety. Anyway, if you like Booster like me, then this comic is probably worth trying to find. Score: 7 out of 10.

Secret Origins #29: This comic also contained three self contained origin tales, one detailing how Ray Palmer became the Atom, as well as a look at little known golden age heroes Mr. America and Red Tornado. The stories here were decent, although it always weirds me out to see Jean Loring in past comic books since I know about the horrible acts she winds up perpetrating during Identity Crisis. Score: 6 out of 10.

Birds of Prey: The Ravens #1: This story deals with Cheshire(the assassin mother of Red Arrow's daughter)assembling a team of fellow femme fatales so she can assault some top secret organization. It seems that Cheshire wants to steal something from this organization, but she plays very coy with her teammates, not letting them know what her endgame is until the... well, until the endgame. Unsurprisingly, one of the assassins turns on the rest of the team, which leads to a dilemma of nuclear proportions. This was a pretty good one-shot story, although the way Cheshire wouldn't answer any of her teammates questions about what she was up to or why she was attacking the organization was kind of annoying. Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

Outsiders #34-46(May 2006-May 2007): These issues were a part of DC's company wide "1 Year Later" event. These issues answer the question of who decided to stick with the Outsiders after Infinite Crisis, and who decided to move on. We also get the Outsiders fighting Monsieur Mallah and the Brain, as well as Dr. Sivana(who Judd Winnick must really like). On top of that, the Outsiders are faced with having to break Black Lightning out of prison after he was wrongfully accused of murder. Since I hate talking monkeys and old, bald, mad scientists, it's safe to say I wasn't exactly fond of these comics. On top of that, there's not really anybody on this team(besides Nightwing)who I can actually say I like. I have to say, these comics were nowhere near as good as the earlier issues of this series, which is unfortunate. Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again TPB: This was the sequel to Frank Miller's classic 1980's mini-series, "The Dark Knight Returns". If I had to sum this trade up in as few words as possible, I'd simply say this mini-series was one of the worst things I have EVER read in my entire life!!! The story was one of the most nonsensical things I've ever had the misfortune of reading, and the artwork was absolutely terrible. I do like a lot of Frank's work, but this was just embarrassingly bad. After I finished reading this mess, I sat back and tried to think of something, ANYTHING good to take away from this mini, and after several minutes of thinking I came to the conclusion that there wasn't anything good about this mini at all. Instead of buying/reading this mini, I'd just recommend slamming your head into a brick wall 50 times. You'll still wind up with a splitting headache, but at least you'll have saved the money and time you would have spent on this travesty. I'm sure there are some folks out there who read and enjoyed this mini-series, I however was most definitely NOT one of them. Score: 0 out of 10.

Well, that's it for this week. I sure hope the comics I read this week are better then the stinkers I read last week... Until next time, Long Live The Legion!

A Quick Look at Supergirl #46

Writers: Sterling Gates and Greg Rucka. Pencils: Jamal Igle and Eduardo Pansica.

What Happened: For the record, this is the final part of the thus far very good "Hunt For Reactron" x-over. Nightwing manages to free Supergirl from the clutches of Reactron because his tactile telekinesis isn't affected by the red sun shackles he was fitted with in Action Comics #882(how convenient!). From there, NW frees himself and Flamebird and the Metropolis 3 attack Reactron. While this is occurring, Lois Lane manages to sneak past the incompetent Metropolis Science Police and gets into the sewers, which is where the battle against Reactron is taking place. Thanks to the gold Kryptonite(FYI, gold Kryptonite removes super powers from Kryptonians for 15 seconds)embedded in his chest, Reactron is MORE then a match for the Metropolis 3, which he proves by removing SG's powers and nearly cutting FB in half with an energy blast. NW tries to take Reactron's attention away from FB and SG, and winds up catching a beating for his efforts. By this point Reactron has realized that Lois was watching the battle, so he tosses NW aside and prepares to blast her into smithereens. SG and NW try to stop Reactron, but he effortlessly tosses them aside before returning his attentions to Lois. Lois momentarily halts Reactron's attack by stabbing him in the neck with her pen(!!!), but he recovers and prepares to kill Lois and the Kryptonians. FB, who was still injured from the earlier energy blast, transforms into the Flamebird from Kryptonian legend and completely and utterly defeats Reactron, even tearing the gold Kryptonite from his chest and turning it to ashes... Wow... Flamebird prepares to incinerate Reactron, and Reactron tries to save his life by ratting out Gen. Lane as the mastermind behind all of Reactron's evil antics. SG approaches Flamebird and asks her to spare Reactron's life, since her father(who was murdered by Reactron)would want justice, not vengeance done in his name. Flamebird agrees to spare Reactron so he can face charges on New Krypton, before she heads over to NW, makes out with him, turn back into Thara and passes out. After everything is sorted out, SG and FB make up, since FB obviously isn't crazy like SG had always thought, NW takes Lois back to the Daily Planet with her exclusive story about Reactron and Gen. Lane, and SG heads to New Krypton to hand Reactron over to her mother to face the charges of murdering her father.

What I Thought: While there were alot of difficult to swallow moments in this comic, such as NW's telekinesis not being dampened by the red sun shackles, Lois' pen harming Reactron while he shrugged off everything else thrown at him(I guess the pen truly IS mightier then the sword...)and Flamebird turning into a god just in time to defeat Reactron before he managed to kill anybody, it was still a VERY satisfying read. I'd have no problem recommending this x-over to anybody wanting to read a good Super-story. I'll definitely be picking up the next issue of Supergirl in order to see what happens to Reactron, so if nothing else this x-over has managed to convince me to buy more issues of Supergirl, so I have to give a "job well done" to the writers. Besides seeing what will happen to Reactron, it should be interesting to see what the revelation that Flamebird isn't really crazy, but is indeed the reincarnation of the Kryptonian god by the same name does to FB's relationship with NW. Even with no Superman around, his family of comic books continue to please.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.On this one page alone Reactron earns 25 coolness points from me. "Krypto-heaven"... HA!

A Quick Look at Action Comics #882

Writers: Greg Rucka and Sterling Gates. Artist: Pere Pèrez.

What Happened: This is the third part of the Supergirl/Action Comics x-over, "The Hunt for Reactron". This issue opens up with Gen. Lane demanding that Col. Hazard adds Reactron to Squad K while the Squad continues to hunt for the Metropolis 3(that would be Supergirl, Nightwing and Flamebird). Hazard doesn't want Reactron, since Reactron is a loose cannon, but ultimately Hazard agrees to bring Reactron along, which greatly pleases Lane. NW meets with his "mother", Lois Lane, in secret in Metropolis and NW professes his innocence to Lois, claiming it was Reactron and Metallo who were seen on TV murdering Mon-El, not him and FB. While NW and Lois speak, NW hears the engine of a Squad K vehicle and he decides to engage them before they locate him speaking with Lois, which would endanger his "mother". SG and FB also hear the engines from their hiding place in Metropolis, and head out to see if NW needs any help. NW lures the Squad away from where he was meeting with Lois, and Reactron disobeys a direct order from Hazard by entering the fight after he was told to remain in the Squad K carrier. SG spots Reactron, and wants to bring him to justice for the death of her father, but ultimately the Metropolis 3 decide to head underground into the sewer system to try to shake the Squad. The Squad catch up to the Metropolis 3 in the wrecked sewer system(the Metropolis sewers were destroyed in "Codename: Patriot" FYI)and NW decides to surrender to the Squad, much to SG's surprise. After Hazard fits the M3 with red sun shackles, FB explains to Hazard that they surrendered to him because they want to clear their names, and that Reactron was responsible for the animosity between the Earth and New Krypton, as well as the death of Mon-El and the destruction of the Metropolis sewer system. After listening to FB's impassioned speech, Hazard decides to question Reactron, which prompts Reactron to kill Hazard and Squad K right in front of the shocked Metropolis 3. This issue ends with Reactron preparing to murder the powerless SG much like he did to her father.

What I Thought: Hey, this is turning out to be one hell of a good x-over! It's fast paced, exciting, and tells a good story. Not bad! I'll be interested to see how the writers decide to end this x-over, hopefully they'll allow Reactron to escape with his life, because he's turning into a pretty decent villain. That guy has been responsible for some pretty evil acts during his short time in the DCU. He'd be a great reoccurring foe for SG, much like Metallo is for Supes. Instead of continuing to heap praise on this comic, I'll instead end this post and move on to the final part of the "Hunt" storyline.

Score: 9 out of 10.I don't know about anybody else, but I am absolutely LOVING the way Gen. Sam Lane is being portrayed in the Superman family of books. Lex Who?