Weekly Comic Review for 4/2/14
Aquaman and the Others #1 – “The Others”? Really? That’s the best they could come up with? *facepalm* I don’t read Aquaman (though I’ve heard it’s really good) so I don’t know where all this started. There’s a group of people from all over who have golden Atlantean artifacts and someone is after them. There’s a guy who hangs out with ghosts, a jungle woman with a panther (though the cover shows a leopard), an Native American who can enter a spirit realm, and a costumed spy. On top of all that, there’s a woman in Iran who is having vision of what is revealed in the storyline in the comic Future’s End. I’m not sure why they are crossing over that title when they are just trying to get this one to stand on it’s own feet. This was a traditional “Here’s a whole bunch of people we’re going to try to introduce all at one” first issue. I’ve learned a little bit about each though not enough to really care about any of them. Oh, and we get one whole page flashing back a thousand years to King Atlan. With this many new characters, I think they are hoping Aquaman will carry the title. They need to bring back some good characters and not try to “Wolverine” the universe, trying to make a lot of title stand on characters who have a good title of their own. Yes, they are spreading it out between characters like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Green Lantern, but let’s get some variety. We’ll just have to see how this title goes.
Archer & Armstrong #19 – Mission: Improbably part 3 – First off, the cover had the worst drawing of Armstrong that I have ever seen. UGH! We start out with a sleepwalking fighting Archer taking on H.A.R.D. Corps and winning. We switch to Bloodshot finding Archer’s mole in PRS and then back to Archer trying to save one of the injured corps members but Kozol being willing to sacrifice him instead of letting Archer save him. Kozol’s an ass. We get a little of Armstrong trying to get to PRS to save his buddy too/ He’s not the best in planning tho.
Earth 2 #22 – Green Lantern is back. Well, for a page at least. Then we’re back to the team training the new Kryptonian only to have Superman show up and attack everyone. It’s only when Red Tornado reveals to Superman that she’s really Lois that we get a true glimpse that, yes, this is actually the real Kal-El. (Unless he’s Kal-L, like in the original reality’s Earth 2. Who knows.) Now we just have to see how this is going to all play out and how much longer this war is going on.
Green Lantern #30 – The Lanterns have a memorial for all the corps members they’ve lost, including Kyle Rayner who they don’t realize isn’t dead. Then it’s off on a mission where they try talking to some Khunds and Hal ends up in a hand to hand life or death battle against one. Of course, against unbelievable odds, he somehow beats up someone twice his size without getting taken down himself. I know there’s suspension of disbelief in comics, but at least make it make some sense. Of course, there’s more of the Durlan intrigue as we see more lanterns who have been replaced.
Quantum and Woody #9 – Woody’s relationship with the clone. The clone talks to the other clone. Eric in a “banana hammock”. (Yes, that’s even taken from the comic.) Woody tries to get a job and just general fails at life. And then there’s the goat. Yeah, it’s the same stuff jumping around in a direction about as linear as a Spyrograph. What was funny at the start had gotten old.
Moon Knight #2 – The first half of the book are pages separated into a 4×2 grid, focusing on 8 people. Eventually, they start getting killed one at a time. Then we get to Moon Knight (in more black than white now) and there’s a fairly quiet fight until he takes the guy down and saves person number 8. It takes no time at all to run through the book. The story was boring and seems pretty inconsequential.
New Warriors #3 – There’s a couple pages to explain the Celestials and the various branches of humanity and such on the Earth. Then we get a little more growth as the the heroes form into 2 halves of what will be the New Warriors. Justice and crew Pull together after the battle and work on where they need to go from there while the group with Nova try to get out of trouble. Sadly, it’s not too successful.
Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger #18 – This issue seems to be more about Superman than anyone else. He’s attacked by “ghosts” of people who he feels he’s wronged (Dr. Light, people he couldn’t save, etc.). It’s all really the Sin Eater. Superman comes to terms with his problems and flies off. In a few pages in between, Zauriel falls ill and Cassandra Craft gets a mystical attack in her book shop. Sadly, these few pages are actually the most important parts of the whole comic. This is where the time should have been spent instead of giving Superman another comic for a month.
Yeah, this isn’t one of the best weeks for books. Archer & Armstrong, Earth 2, and New Warriors are the only ones I can see putting in the top 3 for the week and even that’s a stretch. Looks like this week’s review being delayed wasn’t a big loss.
