Sunday, March 23, 2008

This Week's Haul: So Good It's Boring

I really want to review comics this week, but I don't have much to say about them. They were all pretty solid. I mean, what can you really say about Captain America, Iron Fist, The Incredible Herc, Grendel, The Brave and the Bold and Birds of Prey besides they are all really good? All the time. Even Spider-Man is rocking the house regularly. I have very few complaints these days.

I would like to talk about three comics, basically.

Catwoman #77

Ok, this was awesome. This book is consistently awesome, as I keep mentioning on this blog, but I think bonus points deserve to be awarded when the book ties into Salvation Run and is STILL awesome.

In this issue Catwoman, still on a bizarre parallel world after having supposedly escaped the Salvation Run planet, beats Batman in a fight:

And then destroys the Justice League:

And then LIGHTS A CIGAR WITH HAL'S RING!

I love this woman.

Super Friends #1

Awwwwwwwwwwww. Look at them! All stumpy!

I'm not going to lie: I'd be a lot happier if J. Bone was doing the interiors on this title, but I can give any quibbles about the art a pass because, hey, kids are buying this comic! Kids are asking for this comic by name! We are selling lots of copies of this comic! It's exciting. This first issue is certainly a lot blander than Tiny Titans, or Teen Titans Go...or basically any other all ages comic on the shelf right now by any publisher, but still...

Green Lantern defeats Amazo using the awesome combined power of the Justice League believing in him. And frankly kids need to learn these valuable lessons (i.e. - holding hands with your friends will cause a giant ram's head to burst out of your finger).


Superman/Batman Annual #2

Yeah, I keep saying I am not reading this comic anymore...but I love annuals.

This annual kept the same theme as last year: re-telling a classic Superman/Batman team-up story. This time it's World's Finest #178, where Superman loses his powers and tries to make a go of it as a powerless crime fighter named Nova.

Like last year's annual, this one is written by Joe Kelly and infuses a nice amount of humour, parody and tongue-in-cheek sexual tension between our two heroes. But where last year's was just full-throttle with the silliness, this comic is actually a pretty decent re-telling. It updates the story nicely without being nearly as corny as you would imagine something like this being. It's not hard to be an exceptionally good issue of Superman/Batman, but this is one. The art, by Scott Kolins, is also very nice.

I think it would be cool if they could reprint the original stories as part of these annuals, or at least mention where readers can find the original stories. I also think that every issue of S/B should just be a re-telling of a classic story. Or be anything other than what it is right now, which is a complete waste of everything.



So there it is. Another week of comics that is so high in quality it's downright boring.

7 comments:

Caleb said...

That annual really made me wish Kelly was writing the monthly. Or that they'd just publish 12 Superman/Batman Annuals a year. I think it was the part where Batman put on a Superman suit with a face plate that looks like Superman's own face that really sold me.

Ben said...

I think that holding hands/ram-head thing is a metaphor warning against sex, the kind you won't get until you're much older, but probably does the trick anyhow.

SallyP said...

Oh, great, now I have to get the Superman/Batman annual. This is getting expensive, dammit!

MetFanMac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tiina said...

"Catwoman defeating Batman is even less believable than Catwoman defeating the JLA."

Well, yeah, it's all happening in her head, dummy.

In my head, I can beat up Galactus and I'm like, five feet tall.

ahtitan said...

In keeping with your completely justified complaint about the female wardrobe in Titans, I like how on the cover of Catwoman, her chest is moving naturally as it would be when running. Her boobs aren't rigid or "perfect" like a lot of other artists would have done; they look real. Bravo, artist!

Anonymous said...

I actually have read that original World's Finest comic, where Superman becomes Nova, etc etc. Like a lot of things of that era, it's pretty lame...but so is Superman/Batman. Good god that comic was terrible when I was reading it.