Greetings fellow geeks of our loyal congregation! It’s Ryan “Salvation” Scott here. Have you missed us? Of course you did, or you wouldn’t be here to worship at the holy feet of the FOC. We’ve got a sweet mess of reviews from the big two this week for your eyes to feast upon.
Take a look and see what’s going on in the life of Superman, the various Lanterns, The Runaways and more to see where you should spend your hard earned money.
The JLA is back! If you found yourself longing the for days of the core 7 member team stories, then this might just be the book for you. Longtime artist and scribe of the book Bryan Hitch (Green Arrow) gets to stretch his creative muscles. From the drop we have a pretty straightforward plot, prevent Superman from dying and, in turn, save the universe. But with a shymalanian twist thats enough to keep your interests peaked.
Readers of the fantastic “JUSTICE” mini-series by Alex Ross may feel a twinge of deja vu. Continuity wise, this book pretty much stands on its own, which would be a pretty good jumping in point if you’re new to the JLA books. It seems Hitch doesn’t care too much for establish where or when this story takes place, and honestly it works just fine. The artwork is mostly flawless, except for a few facial details that seem to be strained a bit and not as defined as they could be. Writing wise, the script is pretty solid. My only real complaint would be how our heroes seem more to be playing to the scripts needs instead of based off their characters. In fact, at times I was more so reminded of the classic super friends cartoon series more than anything, but I digress. Overall its a solid issue, and with improvements it could easily turn into one of the better books this season. 3/5 Bibles.
@DarthHistory
What up, people? Its your boy The Belser kicking it Call Style. Been very busy lately but a comic nerd’ s job is never done. Today I’m looking over the latest power struggle involving classic Avengers baddie Michael Korvac. In Korvac Saga #1, Korvac is now the Lord of a domain called Forest Hills (like Spider Man’s old stomping grounds). Helping Korvac is his loyal Guardians, who also happen to be the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Yep. Major Astro. Charlie-23. All those guys.
Korvac has his share of problems including Lords from other domains that want to take over. Worst of all, an unspecified darkness is coming and his Guardians must stop it before it’s too late. Writing wise, I love what Dan Abnett does that’s cosmic related. I’ve been a huge fan of his since Annihilation and his run on Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy are among my favorites. The art by Otto Schmidt is less than desired. The art has a disturbing grimmy style to it that doesn’t really compliment Dan’s writing. An OK read, regardless. 2/5 Bibles.
From the amazing Green Lantern blood splattered ring cover art (Jesus Siaz) to actual content on the pages, this comic installment is galacticly fantastic. The Green Lanterns — John Stewart, Arisia Rrab, Xrill-Vrek, Kilowg, Two-Six, Guy Gardner (Mr. X-Mas!) — are in the thick of it against orange clusters of space bacteria/organisms called “Cleaners” (totally original), hacking through this madness and facing “low battery” zero hour nut up or shut up ass kicking. Crunch time approaches and the squad tunes up the band for another venture on the battlefield. Other fellow Lanterns, mainly Guy Gardner, join up to help kick galactic butt as well.
John Stewart (not THAT John Stewart!) and his fellow Lanterns come across giant-sided Rubys within the deceased. His emotions then further charge when the team encounters the red rage pyramid. The Lost Army Wars is going to further progress and push our heroes to new limits. Neat art and an rocking script thus far, Cullen Bunn (Sinestro, Magneto). 4/5 Lanterns.
Truth is the newest story arc in the Superman series, but what does it mean? Issue 41 is where we start the journey to learn the meaning behind this title as well as getting to see Superman harnessing his new power. If you didn’t read the previous issues, it’s a bit of a spoiler–a new power being called “solar flare”.
The main focus is on a new enemy for Supes and a mystery person demanding he do what they say, or face the public knowing his real identity. At first he takes it as a tipster helping Clark get the good stories, but it quickly turns into blackmail, making Clark/Supes angry. The last page is a bit puzzling though, leaving the words “Superman: D.O.A.?” when the panels don’t show any reason to doubt his mortality. Overall, Gene Luen Yang presents an interesting storyline that I’ll no doubt keep locked on with my heat ray vision. 3/5 Bibles.
You know this scene in that episode of Seinfeld when Jerry and George pitch their TV show about “nothing”, right? The moment when the NBC exec asks them why anyone would watch a show about “nothing” and George replies, “because it’s on TV”? That reminds me of Squadron Supreme #1. Why would anybody want to read this? Because it was published by Marvel Comics… I guess.
This comic is pretty well drawn by Carlos Pacheco (Age of Ultron, Fantastic Four) in an utterly generic Marvel manner, and pretty well written by Marc Guggenheim (Young X-Men, The Flash) in an utterly conventional style, which led to my overwhelming sense of meh while reading this comic. The lead characters seem like they’re supposed to be thoroughly evil, but because there’s no real stakes to anything that happens here, we have no context in which to read their actions. Cameos from some of Marvel’s most obscure characters (if you remember Doctor Zero or caught the references to the New Universe, you win the Marvel geek contest) don’t help at all, and the world’s worst final page reveal (WTF happened and why should I care?) lowers the stakes even more. This needed to be far more sinister. Give this monument to mediocrity. 2/5 Bibles.