Weekly Comic Revew for 12/11/13

Oops. In all the holiday and prep for moving in the next few weeks, I just realized I never got around to posting this.

Archer & Armstrong #16 – Sect Civil War continues with more in-fighting. We get some more history of the sects and see how Aram got to be called “He who is not to be named”. Mary Maria ends up in charge of Sisters of Perpetual Darkness. Archer ends up turning on Armstrong and offers him up to the sects. Things are really getting serious here and the humor added in to balance is out isn’t as good as it used to be. I’m not saying the book isn’t enjoyable but it’s not as fun as it used to be. Hopefully after the war, things will go back to the goofy fun but that will mean a big turn in the main characters’ relationship.

Constantine #9 – Forever Evil: Blight tie-in – Constantine and crew fight Blight in Chris’ body. That’s about all there is to it. The story is bland and boring. The art is rough with very thick outlines which I could not possibly enjoy. It really makes me wonder if I’ll pick up the other tie-in issues if they will be as poorly done as this issue.

Green Lantern Corps #26 – Like a lot of the other main characters, John Stewart expresses his disagreement with how Hal is leading things. Since he is sticking around to talk to Hal, he sends Arisia (along with Feska) to back up Jruk on a mission to his planet. Jruk’s raise decides things by battle. It’s interesting how he doesn’t even understand some of the words relating to peaceful ways of resolving the issues. The Durlans have their hands in on this conflict as well and seem to really try to destroy the lanterns’ reputation even more than it already is. I’m not sure what this is all leading to though.

Harbinger #19 – Harada is down and that means that Peter isn’t any more. While the Renegades escape, Ingrid gets Harada into one of the pods despite the damage it does to her. Who knows how long this will keep the 2 down and what the Renegades to do in the meantime.

Justice League #25 – Forever Evil tie-in – This is a really interesting story. We have the origin of Owlman and how he meets Richard Grayson on Earth 3. It turns out that he is actually Earth 3’s Bruce’s older brother and he is the one who killed his parents as well as Bruce. (The whole family seems pretty dysfunctional.) Thomas even makes plans with Dick to work together to stop the Crime Syndicate. One top of everything else, we meet a guy named Eel who starts melting after being doused with chemicals after a bullet wound. Either we’re being teased or we’ve got the origin and introduction of Plastic Man in the New 52. I’d love to see more on both of these.

Justice League of America #10 – Forever Evil tie-in – This issue also has an origin. We get to see how Star Girl became Star Girl. And guess what? It doesn’t include Jack Knight at all. Pat (formerly know as Stripesy/S.T.R.I.P.E.) says that the staff and belt both came from the original Star-Spangled Kid. I’m really not happy about that but I guess it’s their way of putting Earth 2 characters on Earth 1 — pull random ones and forget other ones so you piss off fans. Now the origin happens as Star Girl lets her mind wander while in the middle of a battle with a bunch of villains. Martian Manhunter is physically merged with her so she has some of his abilities and he’s in her head until she finally forces him out of her body and mind. Martian Manhunter knows what happened with Firestorm now tho so I guess he’ll be going after him. This issue wasn’t as good as the other Justice League title.

Justice League 3000 – And speaking of books not as good as other Justice League titles… I was looking forward to this title. I was expecting a new generation of heroes. Instead, they are Cadmus clones. They have some of their memories but not all of them, and some of their powers but not all of them either. Superman is more of an ass than ever. Batman is more argumentative and nowhere hear as friendly with Superman. Wonder Woman is more warlike. Flash is more serious and needs a force field since they didn’t get his friction field right to protect him from the running. As for Green Lantern, well… there’s no power ring. Instead, they make him a costume to try to duplicate it’s abilities but it doesn’t work the best. Why even bother with him? Why not Aquaman or someone instead. The infighting is annoying. Plus, they are in the year 3000. What about the Legion of Super-Heroes? It’s like they don’t even exist now. This book better improve real fast because it’s off to horrible start. If it was almost anything else, I would be dropping it after the first issue.

Unity #2 – This book actually improved. It’s not great by any means but it’s better than the first one. The team shows up to take on Aric after recruiting Livewire. They actually manage to work together on multiple fronts and do some real damage. Where this will all lead, I’m not sure but it’s at least a step up from the previous part.

Young Avengers #13 – The battles both on Earth and Mother’s realm aren’t going very well. Leah finally convinces Loki to fess up and admit that he lied to the team and used them. That was all she really wanted so she and all the others (other than Mother) that the team were fighting disappear from Mother’s realm leaving her a lot more defenseless. Teddy is saves, he and Billy make up, and Billy goes all demiurge on Mother leaving everything back to the way it should be. Loki may be gone now though, but who else may join in after all the people who showed up to help. Kate definitely isn’t happy with Marvel Boy though. That’s for sure. This could definitely lead to some more interesting stories coming up.

There was some REALLY bad books this week. Thankfully there were some good ones too. Justice League was the best by a long shot. Green Lantern Corps and Young Avengers were also definitely worth a read.

Though they had 2 of the top 3 this week, I still have to ask what is up with DC lately. I’ve been getting more pissed at them and I know a lot of people who aren’t happy with them. People are dropping more and more of their books and looking to independents. They did good sales after the launch of New 52 but I wonder how long things will stay stable. I really hate having to ignore 30+ years of stories that I used to love reading. I late having to forget characters like Starman, the old JSA, the old Teen Titans (who were like a family) and a lot of other minor characters that I used to enjoy seeing. The New 52 has lost it’s heart after the relaunch and it just doesn’t seem to be finding it. That’s if it’s even looking for it in the first place. Maybe it’s just too busy canceling titles and trying to find new ways to put Batman and/or Superman into another title.

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