Batman + Catwoman 4eva

Last week was a big week for Batman/Catwoman fans as we finally got to hear Bruce Wayne confess his undying love for Selina Kyle in Detective Comics #850. And all it took was for Hush to literally tear her heart out in what is easily the most heavy-handed metaphor of the year.

Here's our money scene:

Shriiiiiieeeeeek!!!!

This made me pretty happy. Bruce and Selina are my favourite couple of all time. And I am including myself and my husband.

I didn't really get the impression that this was going to change anything in the Batman world, especially since he's supposed to be dead soon, or whatever. It was a very nice moment, though, and I thank DC for it. It doesn't make up for canceling Catwoman AT ALL, but it's not bad.

Oh, Batman and Catwoman. You've come such a long way.

Shut up, Robin.

This Week's Haul: A Light Week

Howdy y'all!

That's how they talk in the south, and that reminds me: I did another podcast episode with the Dollar Bin boys this week. This time the subject was my very favourite lady: Catwoman!

Listen as I talk an unending streak by clicking this link: Catwoman!

I can never hear super clearly when I am doing these phone interview things, so I just keep talking over everyone. And my heavy breathing makes it sound like I'm an astronaut being interviewed from a space station.

And now on with this week's comics!!

Here's what you should read this week:

Wonder Woman #24

Why? Because Gail Simone really rules at cramming a whole lot of story into one issue, and making every part of that story thoroughly entertaining and hilarious. Wonder Woman brings Nemesis home to meet her mother, which is great, and the second half of the issue has WW visiting the set of a Hollywood Wonder Woman movie. This, of course, is also great because it allows Simone to make some fun commentary about the unending struggle to get Wonder Woman into her own movie, and give us an idea of how horribly wrong Hollywood could get it if it were made.

Amazing Spider-Man #571

Why? Because this comic has been coming out almost weekly since Brand New Day started, and it's been consistently great.

Norman Osborn is really enjoyable in this issue, and Eddie Brock is really crazy. And the art, again, is wicked.

Super Friends #7

Why? Because the Super Friends teach some kids how to skateboard. Even Aquaman. I really want Batman to teach me how to skateboard.

In this comic Aquaman actually reasons that he must be a good skateboarder because he is good at riding dolphins. Probably as he is saying this, Flash is stealing his wallet.

Booster Gold #12

Why? Because this is how a time-travelling hero should be used: as an opportunity to re-visit all our favourite eras of DC comics. This week it was 1970s Batman, with the classic Batmobile and with Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.

This comic is just fun. It's always fun, and I love it.

Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #3

Why? This issue concludes a series that was better than the following comic series: Secret Invasion, and Runaways.

Seriously, this team (Christopher Yost and Takeshi Miyazawa) should be doing Runaways. And SOMEONE should do Young Avengers, because I would sure like to see a comic about them again.

Angel After The Fall: Final Night v.2

IDW released the second hardcover collecting the official continuation of Angel this week. First of all, these hardcovers are beautiful. Nice job, IDW. Secondly, writer Bryan Lynch's enthusiasm for what he's doing with this series comes through loud and clear in the bonus content. Plus, the intro, written by "Groosalugg," is absolutely hilarious. Seriously.

Also, unlike the first collection of this series, this book contains several short stories about each secondary character, each with a different artist. So having an array of artists is nice. And I know this title isn't nearly as possible as the Buffy comic, much like the television series, but I really do think it's a well-written continuation of the show. It's an entertaining comic, as is the Spike series that is being released alongside it, also written by Lynch.

I wanted to post an image of the cover of this book, but it is nowhere to be found. Not even on the IDW website. Which is weird.

Quick Review: X-Men First Class #11

I want to say two things about this issue:

1. It was totally awesome and everyone should read it.

2. Two of the Continuiteens, who are comic shop employees, look exactly like my comic shop co-workers/pals, Dave and Tiina. Check it:


So we can't decide if the creative team of X-Men First Class are watching us at all times, or if Dave and Tiina just look exactly like comic shop employee stereotypes. Either way, we all felt uncomfortable at the shop yesterday.

I had totally planned a triumphant return to reviewing weekly comics this week, but frankly the complete and utter confusion I felt after reading the last issue of Countdown and the last issue of The Death of the New Gods left me exhausted. It took me three tries to get through the New Gods because I kept getting sleepy and bored.

But there were very good comics this week. I highly recommend, besides X-Men First Class, The Hulk vs Hercules one-shot dealie, Wolverine First Class, The Spirit, and Birds of Prey. Sadly, it's the last McKeever issue of Birds of Prey, but Tony Bedard will also be good.

I've been cranky about comics lately because they are canceling some of my favourites (Catwoman, The All-New Atom) but will no doubt be putting out endless Final Crisis tie-ins or Countdown aftermath whatnots that are total nonsense and completely boring. I'm sure a lot of it will be great, but there will definitely be a lot of stuff that does not hold a candle to even the least good issues of Catwoman or The Atom. Blah. When I am able to get my thoughts together I'm sure I will have a whole long post about all the reasons why it sucks that Catwoman is canceled.

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.

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.

This Week's Haul: Badness Happening in Tangent

So, I don't really want to get into the two comics in too much detail, but there was a very specific problem happening with Justice League of America and Countdown Arena this week. Consider first the infinitely unlikely coincidence of any Tangent comics character being referenced twice in one week. Now let's add the improbability that the same Tangent character is being used in two separate series...and that one of these comics completely contradicts the events of the other. I mean, I don't care to see the Tangent comics Flash in any of my books, but I certainly don't want her to be teaming up with the JLA in one book, and dying horribly in another at the exact same time. I mean, really, what are the odds that the same RIDICULOUSLY obscure character is being used twice in one week, and that they can't even get THAT to sync up?!

In related news, I dropped JLA from my pull list this week. I gave it a more than fair chance, and this issue was beyond terrible. Never in my wildest dreams would I expect to drop a JLA comic written by Dwayne McDuffie, but here we are.

And since I am waxing cranky about DC anyway, I'd also like to voice my disappointment of a complete lack of Christmas-themed comic this year. Oh, except the TERRIBLE issue of Detective Comics, which wrapped up the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul with this drippy panel:

Yargh. I almost barfed on my comic, which would have reduced its condition to poor and I would not have been able to return it to the store.

But seriously, DC. Nothing? Last year you guys had that great Xmas issue of JLU, and then the half decent Infinite Christmas Holiday special, PLUS a festive issue of 52. And this year not even a festive installment of Countdown?! What's wrong with the DCU? It's a world of dread and fear, where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears. Do they know it's Christmastime at all?

And don't think you're getting away easy, either Marvel! What If Civil War?! That's not even a question! And the inside was, like, what if Civil War was written correctly the first time. But with much worse art, at least in the second story.

The Marvel Christmas Special was, however, very fun. Particularly the first story.

I'm in a bad mood because I took home a very large stack of comics and enjoyed very few of them. But, hey. It wasn't all bad. Let's look at some others:

The Immortal Iron Fist #11

Now THIS was an awesome comic!

This must be the funnest comic to write. Particularly this storyline, with the kung-fu matches happening in every issue, complete with crazy awesome names for every move.

And the bad guys are just so evil. I love it!

This series rules so much because its pretty much the lone representative on the shelves currently of a very classic genre of pulp entertainment. And it's a really, really good representative. It's kinda like The Spirit in that way. I feel when I am reading it that it's a labour of love for everyone involved.

Catwoman #74

I love this series, but why oh why must it constantly be tying into events? Particularly events that I have no interest in? If any comic should just be allowed to stand alone, it's this one. I get that they want to make Catwoman kinda badass again. This issue had her cutting off all her hair to symbolize her return to...I dunno...pre-One Year Later, I suppose. Forget everything you thought you knew and enjoyed about Selina Kyle, because now she's childless and being magically transported to Salvation Run! Why? I am guessing her books aren't selling well enough. Which is too bad because its an excellent series, and was actually the best post-Crisis book going, for my money. But thank God they are doing away with all those pesky character developments that I have been very excited about for the past year and a half or so. Why stop at this reduction? Let's just stuff her in the purple costume again and have Doug Moench write her.

Argh. Sorry. I trust in Pfeifer to maintain the awesomeness of this comic through whatever muck the higher ups at DC decide to drag it through, because he's done a good job so far. I'm just frustrated because I love this series so much, and Selina Kyle is one of my all-time favourite fictional characters. This issue was good, and the art was beautiful as always, but I just wish it could be left alone. I guess I should be thankful that it wasn't part of the Ra's Al Ghul crossover.

Birds of Prey #113

Sean McKeever makes his debut, and it's a loud one! He decides to kick off his run with a giant disaster which occurs on the BoP's watch. A big ol' chunk of Metropolis gets blown up. It's not good:

Barbara gets a strip torn off her from Superman:

I think it's an interesting direction for the series. Now the team is fighting to get back in Superman's good books. The writing was great, even though it understandably needed to include a number of quick character introductions to get new readers up-to-speed. I really enjoyed Tony Bedard's short run on this, but I'm excited to see what McKeever's got planned.

Incredible Hulk #112

Marvel wins this week because I really enjoyed this comic too. The art, by Khoi Pham and Stephane Peru, was really excellent.

I'm really enjoying the team-up of Hercules and this Amadeus kid. They are a lot of fun together.


Superman #671

All I really want to say about this comic is how much I love this panel:

Ahahahaha! He looks like Beaker!


Superman/Batman #44

Can you believe this series is up to issue #44 already? I do love that bold cover, though, of Superman busting right through Batman, ripping him clean in half.

I'm not going to lie to you...I was looking forward to this issue because I could not wait to make fun of it. After Michael Green's absolutely absurd run on Batman Confidential, I was expecting nothing less than side-splitting unintentional hilarity out of this book. I wasn't disappointed. But I also didn't hate it in the way I thought I would. It actually captured my heart, much like my beloved Smallville: it's so stupid, it's almost charming.

It opens with Superman and Batman secretly watching over the filming of a Superman/Batman movie (directed, apparantly, by Jeph Loeb).

They are using real Kryptonite on the set as a prop for "realism." That's fine, except this comic also works in Smallville continuity, meaning that Kryptonite causes mutations in many humans. So...if that were the case...they probably wouldn't be using it on the set of a movie. It wouldn't be all that safe.

Anyway, Livewire shows up and does her thing, which causes Kryptonite shards to fly everywhere, including into Superman's face and eye.

So he goes down, and Flash shows up. Except Flash is a TOTAL DOUCHE! He just keeps ribbing Supes for being taken down by a "second-stringer" like Livewire. But, seriously, Superman has a face full of Kryptonite and he is dying. And Flash is being all "Man, I am never going to let you live this down." It's jarringly out-of-character for ol' Wally.

Anyway, they get Superman to the Fortress of Solitude, and Batman shows up with Alfred so he can remove the Kryptonite. Could they have taken Superman to the Batcave and it would have been easier for everyone? Yes. Of course.

Superman does some thinking over the next few days, and then recruits Batman to help him rid the world of all Kryptonite. The issue ends with them realizing that there is an awful lot of it to round up. Good thing they have five more issues.

Metamorpho Year One #6

This comic had that thing that I love where superheroes team up to mess with people's heads!

The JLA totally shows up in this issue and disguises themselves as bad guys so Metamorpho will fight them and show them what he's got. I love that stuff!

And Batman...did nothing.

This was a great ending to a very fun mini-series. Well done! But I'm still not reading Outsiders!

***Speaking of The Outsiders, Geo-Force got traded in this week's issue. He's no longer a JLA member. Can they just do that? "Hey, Geo-Force...pack your desk. You're moving to the Outsiders."

Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #31

I will buy anything with David Hahn art. Plus, I loves me some Marvel Adventures comics.

This was written by Kirsten Sinclair, who I admit I am unfamiliar with. The issue is a lot of fun. The FF go shopping! And The Thing gets a facial!

It's very funny and the art, of course, is beautiful. Do check it out.

All done! My scanner wasn't working all week, but I got it up and running again. So the posts should be flowing on a more regular basis. Comments are welcome. We can talk about anything...like how rad Grendel is, or how much I wish next week's comics...which are going to RULE...we're going to be late. Stupid holidays.