(no subject)
Aug. 27th, 2006 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenygalHaven't posted in ages; trying to get back into it. Herewith some reactions to this week's comics; spoilers within.
BIRDS OF PREY #97--Dear Secret Society: it is never a good idea to sell your soul to the devil. Really. It just never works out the way you plan. Nice fight scenes, but most of the focus is on our resident newbie. I'd feel sorry for Alice here, I really would, except...she knows damn well what she's doing. That last page is chilling.
DAREDEVIL-#88--Foggy! My love for Foggy Nelson and his relationship with Matt is vast and deep, and consequently my feelings about Brubaker's DAREDEVIL run improved dramatically last issue when he revealed that, no, he hadn't actually killed off Matt's partner and oldest friend. Whew. And now there's a spotlight! Which...just makes me desperately want to hug him. At the beginning of this story he was almost stabbed to death by one of Matt's enemies--nobody even knows who yet--there was no guarantee that the next time it wouldn't be for real, Matt was in no position to protect him...and with all that, he thinks that accepting a slot in witness protection was a mistake, because of what it's doing to Matt. Oh, Foggy. Seriously, I love him a whole lot here. Fallible, scared, way out of his depth, but still the most loyal friend anyone could ever ask for, and so much braver than he thinks he is. Awww.
For the rest of you, this issue has ninjas. And I hear that Daredevil guy will be back next month. ;)
FLASH #3--In which Bart's roommate has a glowing neon sign over his head saying FUTURE SUPERVILLAIN (mind you, I do rather like "the Griffin" as a codename),Barry Wally Bart gets romantically involved with a scientist from STAR Labs, her father turns out to be a desperately obscure supervillain (which would be cool if he wasn't being called "one of the Flash's worst enemies") and Jay Garrick channels his inner Batman and tells the Griffin to get out of his town. I know what I said about the neon sign, but all Jay has to work with is that the guy fumbled one rescue and has somewhat worrisome taste in costumes; it seems pretty uncharacteristic for one of the nicest heroes in comics to call him an amateur and order him to stop heroing, instead of, say, suggesting that he practice a little more. Well, perhaps he's just tired and overstressed. This isn't exactly a bad comic, occasional glaring off-notes aside, but it's all just so terribly generic and unsubtle. No spark to it.
HEROES FOR HIRE #1--Because I'm contractually obligated to pick up anything headlining Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, and I actually rather liked the miniseries, even if certain elements of the design sense made me wince. Consequently I am pleased to see that the zipper-down-to-here look is only in evidence on the cover of this one (well, for Misty and Colleen; Felicia's always dressed like that), and there's even a sighting of Misty's old solid-black-and-a-gun-harness outfit; apparently it's what she wears for business meetings now. We're still into T&A and self-conscious cool, but in a way that feels entertaining rather than forced (at least, for me). I'm even okay with CIVIL WAR being the starting point of the book; the concept works here for the same reason that it's a bad idea to make a big deal about it--because of course random superpowerful vigilantes are something to be policed or banned in any sensible system, and the comics world works by handwaving this fact. But for the purposes of this book I'm willing to ignore that, and it's easy to buy Misty and Colleen as approving of the spandex set getting organized--although it's much more problematic that they're basically just going after the bad guys; how is this different of an approach, then...?--while still being wary of the potential implications. (That said, randomly dragging slavery and disenfranchisement of women into the conversation was bizarre and clumsy. If you desperately need to bring real-world politics into this, there are better ways.) One big question, though: why would Misty and Colleen accept a total unknown for this job? Yeah, they deal with whether they can trust her (great scene), but it still seems...thematically problematic. Still, I liked this one a lot.
JACK OF FABLES #2--Hmm. The supporting cast is as interesting as you'd expect for the Fables universe, and if the villain is a little...metaphorically unsubtle, he's still a good concept and provides an obvious direction for the book. On the other hand, our main character is a jerk with no emotional depth, and snappy one-liners aside, that could be a real problem eventually. More than willing to give this a chance to play out, though.
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #21--Because it's just not a proper Legion comic until Brainiac 5 goes insane. *g* This has the potential to go bad places--as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
odditycollector reminded me, the last time a Legionnaire started hearing his dead love, the ultimate results were terrible. (And no, Brainy does not need to be able to make himself immune to the powers of all the Legionnaires! Down that path madness lies, and not the good kind.) Rationally, I should probably worry. But I look at that last page of him curled up on the bunk, alone/not alone, and I just...well, I'm in a happy place, okay? (Oh, and there was something about Colossal Boy getting beaten up by generic bad guys, but I wasn't really paying attention.)
WONDER WOMAN #2--Somewhat against my better judgment, I'm getting into this. We're still very heavily into homage/nostalgia territory, but, well, it's kind of a cool homage, I like Agent Diana Prince and her glasses. And I have a soft spot for Nemesis. That said, two things. 1) Cassie has a very good point. Diana deciding that she needs to take some time away to deal with the destruction of her life is one thing, and maybe she needs to not be in contact with anyone while she does that, but why on earth wouldn't she take the time to say goodbye to an already-devastated Cassie (and Donna, for that matter), and tell her not to worry? Oh, right, because then Cassie couldn't dramatically hate her now. Maybe this will be explained later, but right now it's a big black mark. 2) This is vastly nitpicky, but it annoyed me. No, Bruce, she will not be able to do almost everything she did as Wonder Woman as an anonymous government agent (unless you have a really elastic definition of "almost"). As Wonder Woman she had a worldwide reputation that she tried to use to inspire others and send a message of peace and love. Maybe she now thinks that's counterproductive, maybe she just doesn't know what her message is right now, maybe many things, but please for heaven's sake don't pretend that this is not a major change in approach, all right? Wonder Woman has never just been about the hitting things. ...that said, the ID scene was pretty sweet.
GREEN ARROW #65--This was a couple weeks ago, but I just have to say how much it cracks me up that Ollie's idea of how to be a good mayor is to do controversial things so as to get attention (while beating up bad guys on the side). Of course it is. *pats him on his overly-provocative little head* Oh, and Connor was mentioned! Yay!
BIRDS OF PREY #97--Dear Secret Society: it is never a good idea to sell your soul to the devil. Really. It just never works out the way you plan. Nice fight scenes, but most of the focus is on our resident newbie. I'd feel sorry for Alice here, I really would, except...she knows damn well what she's doing. That last page is chilling.
DAREDEVIL-#88--Foggy! My love for Foggy Nelson and his relationship with Matt is vast and deep, and consequently my feelings about Brubaker's DAREDEVIL run improved dramatically last issue when he revealed that, no, he hadn't actually killed off Matt's partner and oldest friend. Whew. And now there's a spotlight! Which...just makes me desperately want to hug him. At the beginning of this story he was almost stabbed to death by one of Matt's enemies--nobody even knows who yet--there was no guarantee that the next time it wouldn't be for real, Matt was in no position to protect him...and with all that, he thinks that accepting a slot in witness protection was a mistake, because of what it's doing to Matt. Oh, Foggy. Seriously, I love him a whole lot here. Fallible, scared, way out of his depth, but still the most loyal friend anyone could ever ask for, and so much braver than he thinks he is. Awww.
For the rest of you, this issue has ninjas. And I hear that Daredevil guy will be back next month. ;)
FLASH #3--In which Bart's roommate has a glowing neon sign over his head saying FUTURE SUPERVILLAIN (mind you, I do rather like "the Griffin" as a codename),
HEROES FOR HIRE #1--Because I'm contractually obligated to pick up anything headlining Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, and I actually rather liked the miniseries, even if certain elements of the design sense made me wince. Consequently I am pleased to see that the zipper-down-to-here look is only in evidence on the cover of this one (well, for Misty and Colleen; Felicia's always dressed like that), and there's even a sighting of Misty's old solid-black-and-a-gun-harness outfit; apparently it's what she wears for business meetings now. We're still into T&A and self-conscious cool, but in a way that feels entertaining rather than forced (at least, for me). I'm even okay with CIVIL WAR being the starting point of the book; the concept works here for the same reason that it's a bad idea to make a big deal about it--because of course random superpowerful vigilantes are something to be policed or banned in any sensible system, and the comics world works by handwaving this fact. But for the purposes of this book I'm willing to ignore that, and it's easy to buy Misty and Colleen as approving of the spandex set getting organized--although it's much more problematic that they're basically just going after the bad guys; how is this different of an approach, then...?--while still being wary of the potential implications. (That said, randomly dragging slavery and disenfranchisement of women into the conversation was bizarre and clumsy. If you desperately need to bring real-world politics into this, there are better ways.) One big question, though: why would Misty and Colleen accept a total unknown for this job? Yeah, they deal with whether they can trust her (great scene), but it still seems...thematically problematic. Still, I liked this one a lot.
JACK OF FABLES #2--Hmm. The supporting cast is as interesting as you'd expect for the Fables universe, and if the villain is a little...metaphorically unsubtle, he's still a good concept and provides an obvious direction for the book. On the other hand, our main character is a jerk with no emotional depth, and snappy one-liners aside, that could be a real problem eventually. More than willing to give this a chance to play out, though.
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #21--Because it's just not a proper Legion comic until Brainiac 5 goes insane. *g* This has the potential to go bad places--as
odditycollector reminded me, the last time a Legionnaire started hearing his dead love, the ultimate results were terrible. (And no, Brainy does not need to be able to make himself immune to the powers of all the Legionnaires! Down that path madness lies, and not the good kind.) Rationally, I should probably worry. But I look at that last page of him curled up on the bunk, alone/not alone, and I just...well, I'm in a happy place, okay? (Oh, and there was something about Colossal Boy getting beaten up by generic bad guys, but I wasn't really paying attention.)WONDER WOMAN #2--Somewhat against my better judgment, I'm getting into this. We're still very heavily into homage/nostalgia territory, but, well, it's kind of a cool homage, I like Agent Diana Prince and her glasses. And I have a soft spot for Nemesis. That said, two things. 1) Cassie has a very good point. Diana deciding that she needs to take some time away to deal with the destruction of her life is one thing, and maybe she needs to not be in contact with anyone while she does that, but why on earth wouldn't she take the time to say goodbye to an already-devastated Cassie (and Donna, for that matter), and tell her not to worry? Oh, right, because then Cassie couldn't dramatically hate her now. Maybe this will be explained later, but right now it's a big black mark. 2) This is vastly nitpicky, but it annoyed me. No, Bruce, she will not be able to do almost everything she did as Wonder Woman as an anonymous government agent (unless you have a really elastic definition of "almost"). As Wonder Woman she had a worldwide reputation that she tried to use to inspire others and send a message of peace and love. Maybe she now thinks that's counterproductive, maybe she just doesn't know what her message is right now, maybe many things, but please for heaven's sake don't pretend that this is not a major change in approach, all right? Wonder Woman has never just been about the hitting things. ...that said, the ID scene was pretty sweet.
GREEN ARROW #65--This was a couple weeks ago, but I just have to say how much it cracks me up that Ollie's idea of how to be a good mayor is to do controversial things so as to get attention (while beating up bad guys on the side). Of course it is. *pats him on his overly-provocative little head* Oh, and Connor was mentioned! Yay!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-28 04:45 pm (UTC)Black Alice has a lot of potential, but I'm having a hard time seeing where she's going to fit into the DCU--because anyone *but* Gail is just going to throw her into the "villain" camp and have her cackle maniacally.
Or have Deathstroke recruit her. ... "'nuff said."
I gave Flash the three issues and now it's off my list. Wake me when Wally and Linda come back.
I also liked the first H4H issue *much* better than the mini, and was impressed by Misty's analysis and leadership. Go, girl! -- she said, not at all ironically.
Ditto what you said on Jack of Fables. Jack is just not as compelling as the usual Fables cast and honestly, if Willingham is only capable of writing one good book out of this concept? I'm pretty damn happy with the one that's gone 50 issues without a misstep.
Legion made me think of you, yes. :) I still wish we'd gotten a living Dream Girl back, though.
I am not particularly impressed by Heinberg's WW, and I do not think that feeling is going to improve any time soon.
ok, work.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-28 07:54 pm (UTC)Don't I wish. Yeah, if it didn't say FLASH at the top of the book, I wouldn't be reading this either. But that buys it at least a few more issues.
I also liked the first H4H issue *much* better than the mini, and was impressed by Misty's analysis and leadership. Go, girl! -- she said, not at all ironically.
Palmiotti and Gray's Misty kicks ass (except for that hair, but...) She stands there insisting that the Avengers meet her standards, and she totally pulls it off. Plus like I said, that last scene was outstanding.
Ditto what you said on Jack of Fables. Jack is just not as compelling as the usual Fables cast and honestly, if Willingham is only capable of writing one good book out of this concept? I'm pretty damn happy with the one that's gone 50 issues without a misstep.
Yeah, but it's vaguely depressing, because for ages I've been saying I wanted a second FABLES book (I get more Fables, Willingham writes fewer Batbooks, win-win situation) and now it's here and I am underwhelmed. On the other hand, I really am willing to see if he can make this work; we do have that supporting cast (the Pathetic Fallacy is awfully cute), and maybe with Willingham focusing on him, Jack will develop the way Charming did. Maybe.
Legion made me think of you, yes. :) I still wish we'd gotten a living Dream Girl back, though.
Well, that still might happen; it did last time, little though I wish to invoke that. I'm reserving judgment for a while, although if it turns out to be purely Brainy gone crazy, I'll be disappointed.