A LAZY look at Dark Reign The List: Punisher #1

Writer: Rick Remender. Pencils: John Romita Jr.

Score: 7 out of 10.

What I Thought(In 150 words or less!): Woooo, what a mess this was! Long story short, the Punisher pisses Norman "Marvel" Osborn off one time too many and Normie sends Daken to take care of Punisher... Permanently. Daken does just that, cutting Punisher into a dozen or so pieces. The fight scene between Daken and Punisher was intense, but the ending and upcoming Punisher as a zombie/monster storyline just seems ridiculous! "Franken-castle"? Really?!? Then again, it sounds SO bad that I might actually pick it up out of morbid curiosity, so what does that say about my taste?Ouch, that's going to take a MIGHTY big band-aid to fix...

A LAZY look at Blackest Night Titans #3(of 3)

Writer: J.T. Krul. Artist: Ed Benes.

Score: 7 out of 10.

What I Thought(In 150 words or less!): Unfortunately, this was the only issue of this mini-series I can read as of right now, since the first and second parts are lost in the mail somewhere. I say unfortunately because this issue was pretty good, and I really would have liked to have read the other two parts. Long story short here, the dead Titans attack the living Titans and Dove ends up saving everybody, because any DC hero who was a Dove can't be touched by Black Lanterns. Oh, and Donna was bit by a Black Lantern, which is causing her to slowly turn into a Black Lantern, because they're suddenly like vampires or something I guess...Wow, this may be one of the most haunting things I've seen in a comic book in quite some time...

A LAZY look at Blackest Night Superman #3(of 3)

Writer: James Robinson. Pencils: Eddy Barrows with Allan Goldman.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.

What I Thought(In 150 words or less!): I thoroughly enjoyed the first issue of this mini-series, but I haven't been able to read the second issue yet(blasted post office!). This issue really didn't do much for me though. Everything wrapped up just a little bit too nicely for me, but maybe when I finally get my hands on the second part of this mini, I'll wind up changing my mind and score.The best thing about this comic by far was Krypto!

I'm back! Kind of...

So we had our first real snow storm last night/today here in my neck of the woods... OK, maybe snowstorm is embellishing things a bit, it was only about 5 inches, but still, it was the first real measurable snowfall of the season. My school decided to open on a two hour delay, which led to me deciding that I wasn't going to bother going in! Yes, that's right, I played hooky! But unlike all those times I played hooky in high school, I actually managed to accomplish something today. I completely finished up my 7 page Spartacus paper, studied for my big Spanish quiz tomorrow, and began working on the final two papers I have due this semester. Finishing that Spartacus paper was a huge load off my shoulders, that was by far the most important of all my various papers/tests. So with that paper behind me, I can once again devote some time to this here blog.

After taking three days off from blogging, and having not read a single new comic the past three days, I've come to a startling conclusion... I'm WAAAAAY behind in my comic book reading! My pile of unread new books now totals exactly 61! Trust me, I counted them up! Now, some of the blame can be laid at the feet of the post office, since I'm STILL waiting on my package of comics from OCTOBER!!! However, the rest of the blame is solely mine. I've been so preoccupied with school, back issues and sleep, that I've been really neglecting my unread new books. I'm not even sure how to go about catching up either... I'm not going to sit in front of my laptop for 87 straight hours and post full reviews for all of those books, not even I'm THAT crazy. I was going to do a few Quick Thoughts posts on them, but even those take about 30 minutes to complete, between reading the comic and then typing up my thoughts on them. No, I think I'm probably going to take the easy way out and simply post my score for each book, a scan from the comic and maybe a sentence or two about it(if that). The newer books, like Justice Society of America #33 or the most recent issue of Wonder Woman I'll probably post a regular review, but for comics like Blackest Night Superman #3, which is a few months old now, I'm just going to go with a score, a scan and a sentence. If you agree or disagree with the score I post, please feel free to post a comment, if you can actually remember what happened in a comic from a few months back that is! Anyway, that's all for now, I'm going to start blitzing through these comics and trying out my new lazy way of blogging. Before I go, the only thing left to say is Long Live The Legion!

End of the semester wrap-up.

WARNING: No comic book content follows!!! So, Monday the 14th is the last day of classes for the fall 2009 semester for me. That brings both good news and bad news. The good news is that once school wraps up on Monday I'm free for approximately 1 month. That means I can spend an inordinate amount of time posting on my blog, as well as haunting around my favorite blogs. The bad news is that I've got a CRAZY amount of papers, tests and homework to take care of this upcoming week. In order to take care of this excess of work, I definitely won't have any new content up Sunday or Monday, and depending on how things go, possibly Tuesday as well... I'll try to post at least something to the scan site nightly, but if I'm too backed up HW wise, I'll probably neglect that site as well for the next 2 or 3 days. Although I won't be posting any new content, I'll still be checking the blog at least once a day for comments. And I'll make sure to respond to any comments left for me because I LOVE comments! I really do! Hell, the reason I even do this blog is so I can get comments from my fellow comic fans. So feel free to pick a random post and leave some comments behind, that will help break up the monotony of my school work. I guess that's going to be all for now. Thanks for reading, and as always, Long Live The Legion!

A Quick Look at Superman #694

Writer: James Robinson. Artist: Javier Pina.

What Happened: This is one of those comics that jumps back and forth in time, so to keep things straight(and in order to keep this post semi-coherent)I'm going to tell the story in its proper chronological order... That makes sense, no? Anyway, we begin with Mon-El, who recently escaped from Gen. Lane, heading to Smallville in order to talk to Ma Kent and Superboy. Mon complains that he has failed Superman by not protecting Metropolis in the same way that Supes did. Ma tells him hogwash(well not in those words, but it would have been great if she did say "hogwash"), and that he's done a fine job serving as Metropolis' protector in Supes absence. Mon then goes on to complain about the way Gen. Lane has sullied Superman's symbol, and swears to tell anyone who will listen that Lane isn't the hero he's been claiming to be. Ma continues to serve as a sounding board, and ultimately gives the type of sage advice only Ma Kent can give(keep your chin up, keep fighting, etc, etc). Before Mon leaves Smallville, Ma presents Mon with a slightly altered version of his costume, complete with Superman's "S" adorning it, so Mon can better represent Supes. From there, Mon, in his new threads heads back to Metropolis just in time to assist the Science Police in a battle against the always awesome Bizarro. After an extended battle between the two powerhouses, Mon manages to put Bizarro down momentarily. Before Mon can finish Bizarro off however, his powers give out on him, just as the Parasite arrives on the scene. This issue ends with Parasite and Bizarro bearing down on the powerless Mon-El.

What I Thought: This was a fun comic that I enjoyed for the most part. The only thing that bothered me was what I think was the return of the most ridiculous, idiotic and useless character in all(yes all!)of the DCU, Bouncing Boy... Bouncing Boy, whose "power" consist of the fact that he's fat... Uh-huh... Hopefully I'm wrong about this one, but it sure seems like it was Bouncing Boy who appeared here. Besides that junk, everything else here was pretty well done. There were a few moments that had me laughing, both intentionally and not. I got a kick out of Ma telling Mon-El that she stayed up all night designing him a new costume and then presenting him with the same costume he's been wearing, only with an "S" sewn on it... It really took Ma all night to sew an "S" onto Mon's costume? Really? Bizarro was Bizarro, which is always good, since Me am not love Bizarro, and the next issue should contain a pretty sweet battle between Mon, Parasite and Bizarro.

Score: 8 out of 10.I'm glad Mon took the time to explain that Bizarro was speaking "reverse speak". I'm sure there were plenty of comic book fans who were taken aback by that revelation.

The Best of the Rest.(Nov. 27-Dec. 3)

Well, it's Friday again, which means I get to post some irrelevant thoughts about some obscure comic book back issues, as well as whatever else pops into my head! Before getting to the main event, or maybe lame event is more apropos(wait til you see the lousy books I've been reading in my spare time), I figure I'll opine about a few comic related things first. Alright, first off, I've got to admit that I LOVE those stupid plastic power rings DC released this past month. Before I received my Red and Green Lantern rings, I figured the rings were little pieces of plastic junk that would break as soon as you touched them the wrong way... Wow was I wrong! Considering the fact that those rings are made of plastic, they're pretty stout. After getting my Red and Green rings, I'm VERY tempted to purchase the rest of the set, or at least the Yellow and Black rings. And yes, for the record I did wear my GL ring both to school and to the store on Thursday. If THAT doesn't confirm my status as an uber-geek, nothing will!

Speaking of being an uber-geek, my package of TPB's arrived in the mail today. Here's the story. Last week my regular online comic shop held a 40% off ALL trades they had in stock sale. Like a fool, I went INSANE and spent WAAAAY more money then I(or any sane individual who is trying to pay their way through college)should have. On the plus side, I did manage to pick up my sister's Christmas presents in that order, on the negative side, I'll be paying this madness off for months! But hey, what's done is done, right? I'll just chalk this entire experience up to my amazing lack of self-control and move on. Before I get to the regular back issue pseudo reviews I normally do, here's a list of all the trades I received today. Read it and weep(I know I did!).

JLA Vol. 1: New World Order
Batman: Officer Down
Batman: Knightfall Vol. 1
Batman: Knightfall Vol. 2
Batman: Knightfall Vol. 3
Aquaman: Tide & Time
Manhunter: Vol. 1
Batman: Hush Returns
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis Once and Future King
Manhunter: Vol. 2
Flash: Wonderworld
Flash: Blood Will Run
Catwoman: Crime Pays
Batman: The Heart of Hush
Superman: The Coming of Atlas
Arkham Asylum: Living Hell.
And for my sister I picked out:
Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds
Birds of Prey: Sensei And Student
Birds of Prey: Between Dark and Dawn
Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves(she's huge into Twilight/True Blood)
Green Lantern #81(this is a comic she's been trying to get her hands on for a LONG time).

OK, with that business taken care of, onto the shoddy pseudo reviews!

Outsiders Annual #1(2007), Outsiders #47-50(July 2007-Nov. 2007), Checkmate#14&15(July&Aug. 2007)- I figured I might as well look at all of these books together since they all were a part of the same x-over. Black Lightning is falsely convicted of murdering some lowlife, and gets sent to Blackgate prison as a result. The prisoners find out Black Lightning is locked up with them and a hit is put on his head. The Outsiders are forced to bust Lightning out of the clink, while simultaneously clearing his good name... Did I just type, "The clink"?!? Ugh... The next storyline dealt with the Outsiders and Checkmate teaming up to try to take down Chang Tzu(AKA the giant Chinese egg dude). Tzu captures a members from both teams and the two teams must put aside their differences to save their teammates, without causing an international incident. The final issue dealt with Nightwing handing the reins of the team over to Batman, and Batman's subsequent plan for the team. This series really let me down towards the end. I truly enjoyed the early issues, but by the time the end arrived, I was almost relieved. Just for the record, after issue #50, this series was renumbered and renamed Batman and the Outsiders. Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.

Aquaman #10(July 1995)- This issue dealt with the first meeting between Aquaman and Kyle Rayner(Green Lantern). Some shark attacks a few divers, and Kyle decides to kill the shark so the people in the surrounding area won't have to fear the water. Things get complicated when Aquaman arrives on the scene and prevents Kyle from killing the shark. From there we get the usual "two superheroes meet, have a misunderstanding, fight, come to an agreement and part as friends" story. If you like Kyle and/or Aquaman, you'll probably like this issue. Score: 7 out of 10.

Action Comics #627-634(Nov. 1988-Jan. 1989)- These Action Comics were from back when DC would release AC on a weekly basis, the series contained several stories and each issue was 48 pages long. Although there were a couple of stories in these books, I only read the 9 part Nightwing(Dick Grayson)/Speedy(Roy Harper)story. Roy decides to discover his roots, so he takes Lian(his toddler daughter)and Nightwing(for some reason)to Northern Ireland. Roy winds up getting stuck in the middle of the Catholic/Protestant/Irish/British mess that was Northern Ireland in the 80's. One side wants to kill Roy because he prevented some drug smuggling, the other side wanted to kill him because he's an outsider, the police wanted to kill him because they're corrupt, and the British army wanted to kill him because of some corrupt politician, and a US government agency also wanted to kill Roy just for the hell of it. In a word, this storyline was a MESS. You'd have to be some kind of genius to keep everything that was going on in this story straight. I was constantly asking myself, "Wait, who are these guys again?" or, "Why are these people now trying to kill Roy?". Nightwing left after the third part of the storyline for some reason, and them returned as inexplicably as he left near the end of the story... It was all weird. Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.

Wednesday Comics #1-6(July 2009-Aug 2009)- Yep, I've finally gotten around to reading these comics/newspapers. The premise is definitely unique, but I'm still undecided as to whether or not I like reading my comics in this format. For those of you not in the know, each issue of Wednesday Comics features 15 one page stories about a particular super-hero or super-hero team, and these "comics" are in newspaper form(think the New York Times). Unsurprisingly, the stories are VERY hit or miss. I'm enjoying the Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Teen Titans, Supergirl, Green Lantern, Flash, and Kamandi(yes, Kamandi!)stories, while I'm not even bothering to read the Wonder Woman or Metal Men features. The Metamorpho, Strange Adventures, Sgt. Rock, Catwoman/Demon and Deadman stories are OK, but definitely nothing to write home about. I still have 6 more issues to go, so taking that into account, I'll give these issues a 6 out of 10.

As you can plainly see from the scores I dished out(only one comic reached a 7 out of 10?!?), this was a pretty lackluster week. Hopefully things will really pick up come next week, since I've got a veritable library of trades to begin reading. If you managed to sift through this entire post, pat yourself on the back, you deserve it! Well, there's nothing left to say except, Long Live The Legion!

A Few Quick Thoughts on: Green Lantern #48

Writer: The comic book GOD, Geoff Johns. Pencils: Doug Mahnke.

What I Thought: What I think is that it would have been nice if DC had informed me that I was supposed to read this comic prior to reading BN#5! But what's done is done. I did enjoy this comic although I already knew how it was going to end since I'd already read BN#5, which kind of sucked. For me, Sinestro and Atrocitus really stole the show here. Sinestro was his regular awesome self, and I really began to get into Atrocitus' character here as well. The only thing that bothered me here was the fact that nothing really happened. All of the heads of the Corps met, they argued, they fought, and then they all decided to team-up to go after Nekron. Meh. This was a good comic, but I kind of feel like there could have/should have been a little bit more going on.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Note to self: Never piss off Atrocitus.