TF Views

Clearly, Bruce needs to make a call to Superman.

"Hey. I'm holding a press conference. Put this on and pretend you're me."

"This is the dumbest idea you've ever had."

"Oh, come on. It'll be like old times!"

There is an enourmous difference between knowing something and being able to do anything about it. If a 10 year old, even an exceptionally bright and resourceful 10 year old, can figure out Batman's identity, plenty of adults could.

i can actually see Morrison using O6's idea.


Dom
-is still gonna pick up "Batman Inc" though....

Comicbook Guy -The Comic Book (issues 1-5):
"Simpsons" based comics are not generally even on my "flip-through" list. But, Bongo generally does "comics about comics" pretty well. While not as clever or layered as the "Radioactive Man Event" arc, the Comicbook Guy series is worth reading. As is common with "Simpsons" comics,there are more than a few sequences that read like they were written by someone writing from a "place joke here" style check-list. And, the "death and return of" style arc is definitely pitched towards readers familiar with the genre. But, the over-all premise of the story carries the 5 issues despite those problems. I am pretty sure that the cover of issue 4 is an intentional jab at Comic Buyer's Guide, (which shares initials with the title character), though I am unsure why Bongo would throw that particular elbow. There are more than a few uncredited homages, and a few obscure call-backs. If this story is compiled, a credits/annotations will be in order.
Grade: C/D


Transformers #13:
IDW really needs to settle on a regular art team for this book. Experimentation is one thing. But, consistently rotating art teams can easily be seen as a sign that a company does not have faith in a title or team. Roche plays around a bit with applying his own style to Roche's character models. A few old threads are played out and/or abandoned. (The most obvious drop/abandoning being Starscream's fate. But, given how readers reacted to seeing characters unsure of what to do during AHM, one can hardly blame Costa for shying away from this plot thread.) The resulting changes are abrupt but not wholly inconsistent with the series as a whole. Toy-hacks are likely going to be displeased. But, for me, that is just icing on the cake. And, I will be happy if the McGuffin lost in this issue is never seen again.
Grade: A This is damned good book and people should be reading it.


New Avengers #6:
The cover announces that Brother Voodoo dies this issue. Well, it does not specify that he is the character that is going to die. But, anybody over the age of 10 could pretty easily figure out that none of the other characters on the cover would be likely to die. Most of the issue is a fight scene leading up to the not at all predictable death of Brother Voodoo. The text back-up largely ties in Bendis' earlier work with the Scarlett Witch with older runs on "Avengers". The Scarlett Witch will likely be back to pre-Byrne spec inside of the next year. But, as implied by the text back up, her default is somewhere between "lunatic tantrum" and "waiting for the next wholly unanticipated lunatic tantrum".
Grade: C


Avengers Prime #4:
One of Bendis' weaknesses as a writer is strongly evident in this series. While Bendis does well enough with "man in the street" level characters and settings, he stumbles with some of the more "out there" elements of comics. His handling of Thor in this issue, (a reveal that Thor and Hellcat hooked up at some point), is a pretty good example of this. While this is not a terrible comic, it is little more than filler.
Grade: C



Dom
-almost wants more light weeks.

Dominic wrote:There is an enourmous difference between knowing something and being able to do anything about it. If a 10 year old, even an exceptionally bright and resourceful 10 year old, can figure out Batman's identity, plenty of adults could.

I don't think most people, regardless of age, could recognize a quadruple somersault as being the same exact in technique and form. Besides, Tim didn't didn't do anything about it for years, until after Jason Todd was killed.

Come to think of it, by announcing that there's been funding to Batman, Wayne implies that there is a money trail.

Shockwave wrote:Come to think of it, by announcing that there's been funding to Batman, Wayne implies that there is a money trail.

How's that imply a money trail? Secretly funding a vigilante for all these years strikes me as something he wouldn't have kept records on that people could find.

Green Lantern: Agent Orange trade paperback

I've been waiting for this to come out in paperback, because I didn't want to pay for the hardback edition, and because the paperback would better match what I already had on my bookshelf. I'm not sure what that says about me... in any case, that means I've had to wait almost a year to read the storyline leading up to the Blackest Night. And things are getting close, as we now have six lantern corps.

The story details and encounter with and the backstory of "Agent Orange", an alien named Larfleeze who is the sole wielder of the orange ring of avarice. So of course, he's all about selfishness and greed and materialism, which leads to some amusing dialogue. And there is no orange lantern corps per se. Rather his corps is composed of constructs made by his ring. As he kills various aliens who invade his planet, his ring absorbs their personalities and creates new constructs to act as his corps. And he's apparently a match for all the Guardians put together, at least at this point.

The other storyline concerns Hal Jordan, who was rescued from the Red Lantern corps when St. Walker put a blue ring on his finger. Only now he's stuck with a blue ring and a green one that interfere with each other, and he can't remove the blue without figuring out how to use it. It works better in execution than it sounds here. And the situation leads to some good characterization for Hal, as we learn what he thinks about hope. He finds that useless, since "sitting around wishing for things does no good. You have to make things happen." It's good to get inside the character's head. Sometimes Geoff Johns' characterization is very surface-level, so it's good to hear the character express some inner beliefs.

About the only real downside to the book is that it only contains four issues rather than the usual six, but I think that was dictated by where the story switches over to the actual "Blackest Night" plot.

Sparky Prime wrote:

Shockwave wrote:Come to think of it, by announcing that there's been funding to Batman, Wayne implies that there is a money trail.

How's that imply a money trail? Secretly funding a vigilante for all these years strikes me as something he wouldn't have kept records on that people could find.

Money doesn't just vanish. It has to *go* somewhere. So by announcing that he's been funding Batman, he's announcing that he has either given money directly to Batman or purchased stuff for Batman. Now the money trail may not be very long, say Bruce Wayne makes a withdrawal from his checking account for 50,000.00 in cash. Ok, that's cash to "Batman". So the trail ends with Wayne making a cash withdrawal. But that's still a trail, it's still some record of the funding even if the ultimate destination is unclear.

It also jeapordizes Batman's whole supply line. Any odd purchases Wayne makes would obviously be for that Batman guy, and make the vendors (if they do not simply refuse to sell to Wayne) a target.

Shockwave wrote:Now the money trail may not be very long, say Bruce Wayne makes a withdrawal from his checking account for 50,000.00 in cash. Ok, that's cash to "Batman". So the trail ends with Wayne making a cash withdrawal. But that's still a trail, it's still some record of the funding even if the ultimate destination is unclear.

But that's the thing, if the trail ends with Wayne withdrawing his own money, there is no proof of what he did with that money. No trail that links him and Batman. Sure the money has to go somewhere but you cannot find any money trail that directly links Bruce to Batman then there is no way to prove any of it, let alone figure out Bruce is Batman.

Dominic wrote:It also jeapordizes Batman's whole supply line. Any odd purchases Wayne makes would obviously be for that Batman guy, and make the vendors (if they do not simply refuse to sell to Wayne) a target.

Or Bruce could have just been using dummy corporations to mask his orders for Batman...