Sunday, January 20, 2008

This Week's Haul: TED!!!

Welcome to Living Between Wednesdays: Home of the Slowest Comic Reviews on the Internet!

Well, here they are. As always I welcome discussion on these comics, or any other comics that were released this week. Possible topics for discussion may include:

  • Iron Fist was totally awesome.
  • This new Grendel series is totally awesome.
  • Justice League is still terrible.
  • The Incredible Herc rules.
  • How awesome is that DC Action Figure Archive book?

Booster Gold #6

Ted's back?! For true?! I am aware that this is likely a fake-out, but I am still very happy. TED!

See, this is how you gracefully retcon stuff, Spider-Man. You don't make a magical deal with the devil. That's just retarded. The way you do it is you get a man from the future to travel through time with his robot friend and another time traveler. Then you get him to team up with three other versions of a dead character and save the dead friend's life.

I mean, it just makes sense. No magic. No devil. It's called science, Marvel. Look it up.

But seriously, if Ted is back for real than this was the best explanation for a dead character coming back to life ever. For that reason alone they should keep him alive. And also because I LOVE HIM.

Catwoman #75

Two observations I made about this issue right off the bat:

1. I hate Salvation Run
2. If it has to exist, I wish Will Pfeifer was writing Salvation Run

I don't think I have reviewed an issue of Salvation Run yet, mostly because I'm really not feeling it and I am trying not to review stuff that I hate so much anymore. It's not totally awful, I just don't think it's being done well. I like elements of it. For instance, I like comics with Amanda Waller. I also like that she double crosses the Suicide Squad. I like the Flash Rogues all being there together. I like Martian Manhunter being undercover there. But that's about it. The Super Villain Survivor competition between the two camps is pretty ridiculous. This is not where I want to see The Joker. At all.

And it DEFINITELY isn't where I want to see Catwoman. But, as usual, Will Pfeifer takes lemons and makes a great comic. I really liked the way he wrote Lex Luthor in this issue.

Speaking of Catwoman, I want to know more about this image that was featured in the back of every DC comic this week. Because it's awesome:


Robin #170

Chuck Dixon takes over, along with Chris Batista, as of this issue. The result is a pretty excellent comic. Robin has been a pretty solid comic for awhile now, thanks to the great work by Adam Beechen. It still isn't a title that I have committed myself to buying every month, but that might change. I bought this issue and I was really impressed. Dixon knows Gotham better than most writers, and he writes the characters really well. Tim was great, Batman was great for the few scenes he appeared in. And...The Penguin was fantastic! A proper Penguin: rich, powerful, and scary as hell. It was nice to see him restored to his cold-blooded glory.

Very noticeably, Dixon noted the absence of a memorial in the Batcave for Stephanie Brown in this issue. To that I say 'meh,' but I am interested in seeing where this story goes. Especially if the art is going to be this fantastic:


The Amazing Spider-Man #547


Well, those who didn't like that Spider-Man didn't appear in the first issue should be satisfied with this one. I wasn't so much bothered by that. I was just so happy to have Peter Parker back that I was perfectly happy to wait another issue to see the red tights. Happily, the classic costume is back, man-made web-shooters, web wings and all (is that what you call those things?).

Another great issue. I loved that the last one opened with Peter kissing a hot girl, and this one opened with him giving J.J.J. mouth-to-mouth.

For more fun Spider-Man this week, check out Marvel Adventures Avengers. It was lots of fun.

Birds of Prey #114

Ok, putting Sean McKeever on this title was a great idea! One of my favourite things about this title is that there tends to be more downtime than in most superhero comics. So you get to see the ladies hanging out a lot. And they drink quite often. Lady Blackhawk is basically an alcoholic. McKeever writes some good downtime.

Poor Barbara is going totally crazy after the whole Metropolis-getting-blown-up thing that happened last issue. Misfit is trying to redeem herself. Huntress and Zinda are drunk. A good issue all around.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I have to agree on both counts about Ted. Great to have him back, but boy, I suspect treachery. For one thing, I'd feel a lot more confident about Ted's future prospects if they had somehow managed to convince Max that Ted was Dead and managed to leave a body (of some type) behind. Yet the series clearly has big plans in mind, and its heart in the right place, so I think we'll be happy with how it plays out.

SCIENCE!

J Ray said...

"See, this is how you gracefully retcon stuff, Spider-Man...I mean, it just makes sense. No magic. No devil. It's called science, Marvel. Look it up."

Thank you for taking all my omd frustration and all my blue and gold jubilance, fusing them together, and condensing the resulting genius into two sentences! :)

And I couldn't help but think as I read the issue that Jurgens did an EXCELLENT job with Ted and Michael this issue-rarely have they looked better.

SallyP said...

Hah! Science! This is indeed how you bring a man back from the dead, and rewrite history! I even have an explanation for how history doesn't change. Remember how Everyman was pretending to be Ted for a while? I think it was actually in Manhunter or something. Well, in order for him to impersonate someone, didn't he have to "consume" a part of them? If Ted's body had REALLY been dumped into the furnace, then how could Everyman have performed his little act?

Huh? Huh?

Aw, the heck with it. I just want Ted back among the living.

And yes, Birds of Prey was a hoot and a half. Zinda does manage to hold her liquor a little better than Helena.

Mory said...

I don't think Salvation Run would be good if Will Pfeifer (rather than Bill Willingham) were writing it. Remember, he's the one who wrote Amazons Attack! As Catwoman shows, he's clearly got talent. But Willingham has lots of talent too, and that's not helping! It seems like if anyone but Geoff Johns writes a prominent DC story these days, it'll be bad. Just look at Sean McKeever! A wonderful writer, as you well know. But when he tries to write Teen Titans, it's bad. When he's one of the writers on Countdown, it doesn't make it any more tolerable. Only when he's on a smaller book (Birds of Prey) is he allowed by editorial to do a good job. Same thing with Pfeifer.

Rich said...

Also enjoyed Booster Gold a lot, although I share your fears for Ted's future.

Question someone asked me this week -- have we seen this future BB before? I didn't think so, but you're better versed in Blue Beetle history/stories than I am.

John Seavey said...

So during 'Civil War', Iron Man was showing up with sixty thousand SHIELD Agents, thirty-seven super-heroes, and five or six super-villains that he'd brainwashed with nanites into doing Good Deeds every time an unlicenced super-hero showed up anywhere.

Now that the crossover's over, Spider-Man can apparently just run around Manhattan beating guys up, and nobody notices?

Wow. Brand New Day.

Ben said...

Future Blue Beetle looks a bunch like Kingdom Come Blue Beetle . . . I dunno, maybe? Kingdom Come's kinda futurey . . .?