Weekly Comic Review for 6/29/11
Hi. I hope everyone had a frea 4th of July. It seems in the midst of the holiday and some recent bouts of good news (I’m now down 1 size lower in my pants and my sick kitty is doing better.) that I forgot to do my review for last week. So, here we go.
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade: #6 (of 9) – The Scarlet Witch is back and we get confirmation that Wiccan and Speed are her sons. We get to see Ant-Man’s reaction to Stature’s powers (I still can’t stand that name) as well as hear his bad joke about Jack of Hearts returning. (Bad because he has over in the current Marvel Zombies title.) As the Avengers close in on the Young Avengers (and a few random Avengers), the Scarlet Witch reaches out to X-Factor and returns Rictor’s mutant powers. Next in line is the rest of the former mutant population. Things are getting quite interesting.
Flashpoint: Canterbury Cricket #1 – This is one of the one-shots. I almost didn’t pick this one up but it just looked weird enough that I wanted to read it. It’s the first appearance of this weird insect character. Also appearing are Etrigan and Godiva alone with 2 characters I’ve never heard of before, Mrs. Hyde and Wicked Jinny Greenteeth. The book is mainly the origin or the title character, taking him from an unlikeable person to a “hero” looking for redemption. The group left at the end move on to the Flashpoint series.
Flashpoint: Green Arrow Industries #1 – In this world, Oliver Queen is a business man who makes weapons out of the weapons used by villains. Green Arrow is one of his weapons, a missile. Also, Roy Harper is an employee of his. Other than the random villains mentioned, the only other character referenced is Vixen. The direction and growth of the character is interesting. It’s disappointing that this is only a one-shot. I think as a mini-series, it would have rivaled a lot of the others.
Flashpoint: Hal Jordan #1 (of 3) – In this world, Hal is only a pilot. We get the usual flashback to his father and briefly see King Shark and Hector Hammond. By the end, Hal meets Abin Sur. Who knows where this will lead.
Flashpoint: Project Superman #1 (of 3) – Years ago, a war hero volunteered to take part in an experiment. This experiment gave him powers that continued to grow. (Powers that seem quite similar to Kal-El’s.) As his powers grow, a very familiar space craft crash to the earth. This one could be going anywhere.
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #11 – On the way out, this series is giving some stand alone stories. This one involved Guy heading off to save an alien dignitary’s vessel from attack. It had the usual Guy snarkiness, a bit of action, and (of course) nothing for us to really worry about for the future. As opposed to the titles that are doing last minute big things, this one seems like it’s just going to have some fun on the way out.
Justice Society of America #52 – Mr Terrific finally tracks down the person who debilitated him, an unknown person who happened to feel he didn’t have a right to the name Mr. Terrific. Of course, the person has hung himself so Michael turns to Captain Carrot cartoons to start getting his intelligence back. (Ummm, yeah. Way to try to close out a storyline before the book ends.) Meanwhile, the JSA teams up with the Challengers of the Unknown to investigate what’s behind the door.
Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant 2011 – This is a collection of stories about various members including Citizen Steel, Wildcat II, Doctor Midnight, Spectre, and Green Lantern. My favorite though was the Jesse Quick story that also featured Icicle. The connection the built up between Hourman/Jesse Quick and Icicle/Tigress was great and is something I’m going to really miss. At $5.99, it’s a bit pricy but there’s some decent stories.
Marvel Zombies Supreme #5 (of 5) – Another Marvel Zombies title finally comes to an end. The Squadron Supreme “zombies” are killed. Jack of Hearts and Battlestar survive. And, of course, one straggler character survives to keep the franchise which has more staying power than any zombie going. The incredulous return of Jack of Hearts was probably the only redeeming value to this min-series which tarnished the image of a cool super group.
Quite a variety there this week. But, of course, we need a top 3. The honor this week goes to Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, Flashpoint: Green Arrow Industries, and Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant (mostly for the Jesse Quick story). It was a pretty easy choice to pick those 3 great books with Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors actually coming close to making it without tying in with the other GL titles. Also, this brings us to the end of the Flashpoint #1s. The second issues of the mini-series (as well as the third issue of the main mini-series) came out this week. I’ll try to get info about them out soon.
