Comics are awesome.

[andersonh1]

A few thoughts on JSA vol. 3, "The Return of Hawkman"

- 10 issues in one volume (judging by chapters anyway). Very nice. Definitely getting my money's worth from this collection.
- I'm reminded of when these issues were published by the fact that the Spectre turns up, and it's Hal Jordan! Heh.
- It's kind of refreshing to see Dinah Lance involved with someone other than that jerk Oliver Queen. And Dr. Mid-Nite is apparently the perfect gentleman.
- His ploy with Sand to defeat Johnny Sorrow is what I expected, but it was still cool to see.
- And I have to say, as a Jay Garrick/Flash fan, I'm really happy with how much story material he gets here. Not only do we get the return of one of his past foes, The Rival, but we learn about the adopted son that he and Joan had for all of two weeks, and how much Jay still misses him. I found his discussion of this with Mr. Terrific to be a very touching scene.
- Interesting revelations about Kendra and who she actually is.
- It's good to see Carter Hall return as himself, though younger and not blonde any more? And the past incarnations of the character are not retconned out, they're mentioned and accounted for as some of Hall's past lives, since he's been reincarnated many times, don't you know? As an attempt to unravel the twisted continuity of the Hawkman character, it's a pretty good attempt.
- And the Thanargarian wingmen wear the uniforms from the "Hawkworld" series.
- I don't quite know how I feel about Black Adam joining the team, but he's well-behaved and almost noble here. Knowing what a killer he is later on colors my opinion of him though. I want to like him, but I can't.

The JSA series continues to improve. This is my favorite run of stories from either the JSA or Justice Society series so far. I look forward to getting volume 4 soon.

[Onslaught Six]

The girlfriend is reading through the first two volumes of Sandman that I lent her this week; which will give me a good excuse to start reading through it again. I only need two or three TPBs to finish the series.

[andersonh1]

Brightest Day #6

I wish we'd gotten more than five pages of Aquaman after that major cliffhanger reveal last issue. At least Arthur has enough regard for Mera to hear her out. I hope the relationship isn't destroyed by this, but I have to admit that it's a major betrayal of trust... not only was she sent to kill him, but she's been living a lie for years. I'm not sure how he can forgive her for that, but I hope it happens.

However, it was good to see so much of the Martian Manhunter's storyline advanced this issue, as well as seeing him realize that his return may or may not be a good thing. Deadman's pages with Hawk and Dove were short but very interesting, and the white ring is becoming quite chatty, isn't it? I did miss the Hawkman/Hawkgirl plotline, but hopefully they'll be back next issue.

The only character I'm not really interested in is Firestorm, but I suppose I'm curious about who's in the Matrix with the two kids.

So yeah, another strong issue. I'm glad I've stuck with the series.

[Shockwave]

Is it more or less self contained, or would I have to buy like a bajillion other titles to get even the basic core story (like they did with "Blackest Night")?

[andersonh1]

Is it more or less self contained, or would I have to buy like a bajillion other titles to get even the basic core story (like they did with "Blackest Night")?

It seems pretty much self-contained. I know there are a lot of other titles connected with the main series, but they seem to be telling their own stories. I'm only buying the Flash and Green Lantern, but neither seem needed to understand what's going on in the main Brightest Day book.

[Dominic]

Having finished "Exodus" (see previous entry), I finally have some time to catch up on comics....

How far behind am I? Well, that depends on you measure it. In absolute terms, about 3 months. But, some of those comics began in the last 3 months, so it is arguably a bit less. Either way, I went to the comic store yesterday, picked up some of what came in this week, (it was a big week), and read a few things.


"Siege" compilation-
I have the single issues of this, but am a sucker for hard-covers. This reprints the 4 issue series, and a couple of tie-ins. Easily worth the retail price.
Grade: A


GI Joe: Cobra II #6- Damn Mike Costa for making me like books I do not even want to be purchasing. This issue is heavy on the talking, with Serpentor, (who is apparently Armenian), extolling the virtues of the Cobra philosophy to an investigator. In the old Marvel comics, Cobra was a combination of Amway and a cult. IDW is playing up the cult angle, with shades of Scientology. I am not sure, but it looks like IDW sacrifices some ad-space for the sake of adding some pages from a Cobra bible.
Grade: A/B


Darkstar and the Winter Guard #1 and #2-
This is pretty much superhero filler. The fact that these characters are Russian and have pre-Cold War roots definitely weighs on this book. There is what I assume to be an attempt at "wink and nod" about the characters being dated, but it comes across more as a resigned shrug. Worth picking up as filler, but do not go nuts trying to find this series. There is one more issue schedules to come outa. I will likely pick it up, if only because removing the series from my pull list would be kind of tacky at this point.
Grade: C


Dom
-still adjusting to typing "-" instead of ":" after the title......

[Sparky Prime]

Is it more or less self contained, or would I have to buy like a bajillion other titles to get even the basic core story (like they did with "Blackest Night")?

Have you read 'Blackest Night'? The basic core story was pretty well self contained to the main 'Blackest Night' title. Most of the BN tie-ins I'd really say were more 'meanwhile, this is how others were dealing with things' supplementary stories, to better show the scale of the dead rising everywhere in the universe. A few added to the core story, but I really wouldn't say they were necessary to get the core story at all.

Anyway.... As andersonh1 said, 'Brightest Day' is similarly self contained. While other titles have ties to 'Brightest Day', the main 'Brightest Day' title is pretty much on its own.

[andersonh1]

GI Joe: Cobra II #6- Damn Mike Costa for making me like books I do not even want to be purchasing. This issue is heavy on the talking, with Serpentor, (who is apparently Armenian), extolling the virtues of the Cobra philosophy to an investigator. In the old Marvel comics, Cobra was a combination of Amway and a cult. IDW is playing up the cult angle, with shades of Scientology. I am not sure, but it looks like IDW sacrifices some ad-space for the sake of adding some pages from a Cobra bible.
Grade: A/B

Dom, how would you compare Costa's writing on GI Joe with his writing on the various Transformers series?

[Dominic]

It is *very* similar in style and manner.

Costa has big ideas. And, he can articulate them. But, he makes certain demands, (one might say arrogantly), on the readers about his ability and credibility. (Think back to the early run of the current comics. I was wholly against him. But, I have come around...putting me squarely in the minority.) Costa does a good job of taking "silly" or "childish" elements from the old comics or cartoons, and repacking them.

He is actually being a bit more daring in this case, using an unorthodox page layout for the "bible" pages.

(Of course, I have *no* idea how this is going over with Joe fans. They seemed to like the last "Cobra" series well enough. But, that seemed to be a bit more straight-forward than the current arc.)

Costa is definitely one to watch.


Dom
-needs to email Ryall a kudos.

[andersonh1]

I sometimes wonder if the almost universal acclaim for "Last Stand of the Wreckers" won't have an influence on IDW editorial. I know Schmidt has said that they're trying to tailor the main series to appeal to the broadest possible base of readers, which I guess means featuring Earth prominently and having humans play a major role in the storyline. But with the approach taken by Roche and Roberts working so well, it would be wise to take a page from their playbook and apply it to the ongoing.