Comics are awesome.

[andersonh1]

Brightest Day #12

This issue focuses mainly on the Martian Manhunter and the crazed second Martian that's been slaughtering humans. Needless to say, she's a psycho, who survived the death of all the other green Martians because she was locked away in solitary for telepathically altering unwilling Martians. Now, since she's the last female Martian and J'onn is the last male, she sees the two of them as destined to renew the race. She even brings up Adam and Eve, though J'onn assures her that she's the serpent, not Eve. He's utterly disgusted by her and wants nothing to do with her, but she wont' take no for an answer...

The only other subplots touched on in this issue are Firestorm's fight against the Black Lantern version of himself and the other resurrected characters, and a page that follows up on Boston Brand. I'm missing the Hawkworld storyline, but thankfully it appears to be next on the agenda.

Overall: another good issue, and the fact that 75% of it is focused solely on one character makes it feel fairly substantial. The cliffhanger ending is creepy, and probably won't be resolved for some time.

[Onslaught Six]

Wow, that's...kind of interesting, in a comic book way. I can't believe this is an idea they just had 'now,' though. I mean, how many other 'Last Kryptonians' have shown up over the years?

[andersonh1]

Wow, that's...kind of interesting, in a comic book way. I can't believe this is an idea they just had 'now,' though. I mean, how many other 'Last Kryptonians' have shown up over the years?

At least with Superman, he's always had his human family to relate to, and he looks human so he doesn't seem so out of place. J'onn's isolation has always been a lot more profound and a major part of his character, so it's a little more meaningful in his case. And kind of sad, since the only other green martian is a major murdering psychopath who is telepathically stronger than he is. She's essentially mind-raping the poor guy.

Yeah, it's not a new concept, but the execution is pretty effective.

[Dominic]

-Justice League of America #50:
I did not actually buy this. But, I flipped through it pretty comprehensively. Wow, a multiversal cross-over. Okay, lessee, Ultraman (E2) is alive, despite dying pretty comprehensively in "Final Crisis". (Apparently, those last few pages are our of continuity.) "Countdown" is referenced pretty comprehensively, despite being contrary to both itself and "Final Crisis", as Donna Troy references multiverse hopping. Apparently the "Tangent" universe has been wiped out, subtracting 1 from the (never quite defined) "52" worlds. And, the Crime Syndicate (E2) is working for Darkseid.
Grade: F So much stupid, and so little sticks.



-Marvel Handbook update: Have not read it yet.


-pile o' 2099 comics:
I pawed through the dollar bins at Harrison's yesterday and added to my pile of (still) unread "2099" comics. (Remember that pile I picked up at Boston Comiccon in early '09? Yeah, that pile. Gonna read it soon, honest.)

[Onslaught Six]

Start digging for some old Shadowman. Seriously, I read a few isolated issues and Valiant in general is about on par with Marvel and DC of the era, if not much better by mere virtue of their original goals--be realistic, be scientific, and age your goddamn characters. Most comics have dates within the book as to when, precisely, the story is taking place. Even their original big mega Unity crossover is kind of decent, for a crossover story, and it even gives Shadowman one of his defining character traits. (He's told he doesn't die until the year 1999; it's the early 90s, then-present when the books were taking place, so he's effectively immortal until 1999.)

It starts to go downhill around '95 or so, especially when Deathmate comes around (crossover with Image comics...yeah. Less said the better) and then Acclaim (video game company) buys them out. Some of the books after the relaunch as Acclaim Comics (with a new continuity to boot, but then later it crosses over with the original Valiant continuity--and then it never finished because Acclaim ran out of business) are good, like Shadowman is still awesome (and arguably becomes way more awesome, especially since this was the version the game was based on) and such, but yeah, Acclaim is where it starts to go really really bad.

[Dominic]

I fully expect to find a run of "Shadowman" at some point. I made the mistake of trying to buy "2099" piece-meal, and am regretting it. (I was really hoping Marvel would just compile all of them when I saw that "Spiderman 2099" volume in early '09.) To be honest, I only see scattered issues of Valiant books, if any at all, in discount bins.


Dom
-kind of regrets missing Wizard World Boston....

[138 Scourge]

I'd say that, especially at the beginning, Valiant beat the hell out of most of Marvel's output at the time, and could at least hold it's own against DC (though I wasn't reading a lot of DC then, so hard to say). I would say, though, that the beginning of the end was when Shooter left. A lot of their books went wonky right after that: Bloodshot, for instance, featuring a Cable-lookin' character with nanite blood. Still, they gave it a damn fine showing at first.

[Onslaught Six]

Yeah, Shooter was really the guy that held everything in there together. I wish we'd get a new Turok book, that's a solid property that got raped to shreds with that bad 360 game. That I bought. For $5.

[138 Scourge]

Hell yeah, I'd be down with a new Turok. And seriously, new XO Manowar. Conan the Barbarian in an Iron Man Suit? That'd be like printing money.

[andersonh1]

Hell yeah, I'd be down with a new Turok. And seriously, new XO Manowar. Conan the Barbarian in an Iron Man Suit? That'd be like printing money.

I'm pretty sure I saw a Turok comic on the shelf when I was in the comic shop on Wednesday. I don't know who published it. The cover has Turok on the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.