Comics are awesome.

[138 Scourge]

So with Firestorm, I guess Ron's in charge, and he's a white guy again?

I like Jason better. He at least has a neat toy out that comes with a Metal Man accessory. I read a couple good Firestorm comics back in the day, but I'm pretty sure they were the only two good comics to ever involve that character. Also, even the comics at the time pretty much established that Ron had about the collective intelligence of the entire short bus.

But whatever. You know what's a rad book? That Thor and the Warriors Four thing. I do have to say, though, that as much as I like the variety in titling that book, I was at a comic store for a solid fifteen minutes looking for that book before I thought to look under "T". Totally worth it, just about a perfect Marvel comic.

[andersonh1]

Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come vol. 2 trade paperback

Volume 2 gets into the story proper as Mr. America alerts the JSA to the identity of the culprit behind all the recent killings. It’s Magog, who appears to be much the same as the character from “Kingdom Come”. It’s here that Superman’s presence in the plot becomes quite clear as he warns about the coming disaster which he fears will be much the same as the one that happened on his Earth.

The team is able to track him down thanks to the Sandman, but Gog turns the tables on them by teleporting into their headquarters, and an all-out brawl breaks out. It’s interesting that the size of the team is almost a drawback as various characters are taken out rather quickly, and there’s a sense of all the JSA’ers getting in each others’ way. Magog seems to have the strength and endurance of Superman, or close to it, and he puts up a good fight. Various characters get a chance to shine as they get their hits in. In the end, Magog is forced to retreat, taking some of the team with him, and is almost anti-climactically defeated as Gog destroys him and rises up out of the earth as a giant.

Here’s where things get really interesting as Gog turns out not to be hostile at all, or at least not overtly. He heals various problems with the JSA’ers such as Damage’s face and Dr. Midnite’s blindness. He starts healing local villagers and ending environmental threats. People start to follow him while the various superheroes try and figure out whether or not Gog is a threat. I take it by his references to the “third world” that his people preceded Darkseid and Metron and all the other new gods of Jack Kirby’s “fourth world” characters. The beginnings of a fracture can also be seen, as Hawkman approves of Gog killing soldiers by turning them into trees, while the Flash and Green Lantern insist that they don’t kill, ever.

The story is successful in creating both a threat that challenges the entire team, as well as a moral quandary for them to struggle with. The huge number of characters on the team means that some disappear for chapters at a time, and that most of the more prominent don’t get a large amount of page time. Juggling all the characters has to be tricky so I can’t complain too much, but it’s fair to say that no one gets enough page time to be really satisfying. I do have to appreciate the trade paperback collected format that lets me read six or seven chapters of the story at one time. The story is paced slowly enough that it seems like the wait between issues on a monthly basis would be irritating, but as a trade it reads very well. Events are allowed to develop in such a way that it doesn’t seem like the author is trying to rush through them.

So, a big team gets a big problem to deal with, and one that has a mystic tone to it that I (fairly or not) would associate more with Golden Age comics than modern ones. There are some rotating artists, but nothing drastic, and Alex Ross continues to impress with his covers. He seems to enjoy painting characters more than action scenes, though “Kingdom Come” showed that he can do both very well.

And the story wraps up in volume three, which I need to get at some point soon.

[andersonh1]

I'd agree there is likely to be more changes brought about in "Brightest Day" but it is highly unlikely that Johns would so quickly undo something he just established in "Blackest Night" as you suggest.

I tend to agree. He's spent quite a while building up to and telling the story in Blackest Night. I can't see a major reversal right away, and not by him. I wouldn't put it past future writers and editors to undo it if it suited them, but I don't see Johns undoing his own work so soon.

[138 Scourge]

I think it's more the things that changed before "Blackest Night" and all being reverted to type, is what Dom means.

I don't know, I'll be over here reading Frankenstein Punisher or something.

[andersonh1]

I think it's more the things that changed before "Blackest Night" and all being reverted to type, is what Dom means.

I don't know, I'll be over here reading Frankenstein Punisher or something.

Frankenstein Punisher? What in the world?

[Sparky Prime]

I think it's more the things that changed before "Blackest Night" and all being reverted to type, is what Dom means.

I know what Dom means, but that doesn't change that Johns has established in the story that these things aren't going to be changing any time soon. I can see maybe in a few years from now, but as things are right now, it just doesn't make any sense that Johns would revert the things Dom has been suggesting.

[138 Scourge]

Frankenstein Punisher? What in the world?

Yeah, Frankenstein Punisher. It seems that Mr. Castle's war on crime hit a snag when he was dismembered, decapitated, and tossed into the sewers. Fortunately, Morbius the Living Vampire found him and put him back together using Doctor Frankenstein's notes. As a result, Frank's helping the Legion of Monsters against the high-tech samurai monster-hunters that have been attacking monster society.

I gather you're not much of a Marvel guy, but I'm sure I've been on about this for months. Drink in all the glory:

[andersonh1]

Well, that's original!

No, I'm not much of a Marvel Comics reader. I used to read the Hulk back when Peter David was writing and the gray Hulk was Joe Fixit in Vegas and stuck with it for a few years. But I prefer DC.

[Onslaught Six]

I'm told Red Hulk's identity is revealed this week. I'm not following the storyline anywhere beyond "Red Hulk is overpowered and somehow awesome," but I want to know who he is.

[Sparky Prime]

I'm told Red Hulk's identity is revealed this week. I'm not following the storyline anywhere beyond "Red Hulk is overpowered and somehow awesome," but I want to know who he is.

From what I've seen on other message boards, Rulk is Thunderbolt Ross and She-Rulk is Betty.