Review: Blackest Night #2 *spoilers*

Last month, I was in the minority when I was bitterly disappointed by the first issue of Blackest Night.  Perhaps my expectations were too high.  The style of the book certainly isn’t suited to my tastes.  And the first issue included way too many recaps for my liking.  Going into this issue, my expectations were greatly lowered.

Issue 2 picks up where last issue left off.  Ray Palmer is still trying to make Carter Hall understand why he feels the need to visit the grave of his ex-wife.  Honestly, I didn’t buy most of what Ray was selling, but that doesn’t really matter. 

The point of the scene was that Black Lantern Hawkman invited Ray over to talk and Ray accepted his invitation.  The first two pages work in that “first scene of a horror movie” kind of way.  And for better or worse, this story is clearly taking on the tone of a horror story.

I’ll go ahead and get this out of the way now: I don’t care for the tone of Blackest Night.  While I don’t mind including elements of horror stories in super hero comics, I don’t like the way this story feels like a straight-up horror story that just happens to have super heroes as the main characters.  Most people seem to love this.  So, I’m in the minority here.  I’ll move on.

The story continues in Gotham City as Barbara Gordon accompanies her father as he lights the Batsignal.  They discuss what it was like when Batgirl “disappeared”.  The dialogue seems to me to be setting up the upcoming Batgirl book, but I have no idea how.  The conversation is cut short when Hal Jordan crashes into the Batsignal.

The next plot thread of the issue is introduced as Mera and Garth attempt to exhume Aquaman in order to move his remains to Atlantis.  Of course his tomb is empty.  Soon, Black Lantern Aquaman has ripped the hearts out of the Atlantean guards.

The story cuts back to Gotham City as Deadman tries to resist the call of the Black Lanterns.  He fails and is resurrected as a Black Lantern against his wishes.

One of the more interesting pages follows.  In a cemetery in Washington DC we see the familiar sight of Black Lantern rings seeking out hosts.  Hank Hall, the former Hawk is resurrected.  However, his brother Don Hall is not because he is “at peace”.  Like I said before… interesting…

The story returns to the fight between Aquaman and Mera and Garth.  Aquaman is aided by Black Lanterns Dolphin and Aquagirl.  The scene has lots of the “evil taunting” I didn’t care for in issue 1.  But I guess that comes with the territory. 

There was a pretty cool moment when Aquaman summons a bunch of dead sharks to eat the remaining soldiers of Atlantis.  I usually roll my eyes at this sort of thing.  But even I have admit that zombie sharks are pretty cool.  And it’s good to see Aquaman finally get a moment even if he is a zombie.

Back at Deadman’s grave, some members of the Shadowpact have assembled.  Their investigation into Brand’s resurrection is interrupted by the appearance of Black Lantern Pariah.  The interruption is then interrupted by Black Hand who personally recruits Crispus Allen to his Corps.

Meanwhile, Garth and Mera fight for their lives.  The fight doesn’t go well as Blackest Night claims yet another casualty.  The lone survivor escapes to fight another day.  I’m glad to see these characters finally being used.  I just wish it was under different circumstances.

The issue ends with the fight between Martian Manhunter and Barry and Hal that started in the last issue of Green Lantern.  The resolution of the fight isn’t especially original.  But I did enjoy the way Barry and Hal worked together as a team.  It’s honestly the first time I thought maybe it was worthwhile bringing Barry back.

Last month, I took a bit of a beating because I neglected to praise Ivan Reis.  I won’t repeat that mistake this month.  Reis’ art is always a treat and I shouldn’t take him for granted just because he’s consistant.  While I haven’t always enjoyed the tone of Blackest Night, at least it looks great.

On the whole, the issue is a vast improvement over the recap-heavy first issue.  While the story isn’t exactly suited to my tastes, at least the plot seems to be moving forward.  And even I have to admit that it is shaping up to be an interesting ride!

read/RANT

Review: Green Lantern #44

The cover really tells you everything you need to know about this issue.  Hal and Barry face off against Martian Manhunter as a Black Lantern.  There’s a few teases here and there that provide some possible insight as to the nature of the Black Lantern Corps.  But mostly, you have an issue-long fight scene between these three characters.

As fight scenes go, it’s a good one.  I’m a big fan of Doug Mahnke and he does a great job here.  Last issue really played to his strengths.  But his work is no less exceptional here.

Last week, I was one of the few people to post a negative review of Blackest Night #1.  The fan response was so overwhelmingly positive that I have gone back and re-read BN #1 several times.  I stand by all of my criticisms of that issue.  However, I am happy to report that most of the problems I had with BN #1 are absent in GL #44.

I’m still not loving the overall premise of Blackest Night.  But that’s my cross to bear.  Most readers are going to be overjoyed by the mix of action and character moments.  While I was blown away by the art, I found the story to be satisfying.  And after a few disappointing Blackest Night-related comics, that’s good enough for me.

Speaking of disappointing BN-related comics, I just wanted to say a word about the Tales of the Corps books.  I don’t want to do a full write-up on this mini-series.  But I do want to say that I have found the first two issues to be the worst kind of filler material imaginable.  DC should be ashamed for putting out such a blatant cash grab.  I have a hard time imagining anyone feeling like they got their money’s worth out of this book.

So, if you haven’t made it to your comic shop yet, pick up GL 44 but pass on the Tales of the Corps.

read/RANT

DC July Solicits + Commentary

BLACKEST NIGHT #1

Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis raise the dead in the most anticipated comics story of the year! Throughout the decades, death has plagued the DC Universe and taken the lives of heroes and villains alike. But to what end? As the War of Light rages on, the prophecy of the Blackest Night descends upon us, with Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps at the center of it all.

JLA Done Right

I’ve been planning a rant about the current state of the Justice League. (It’s coming!) But, in the meanwhile, I saw this article at Newsarama about the Grant Morrison’s run on JLA. This is wasily one of my favorite runs on any book. And since the JLA is my favorite team, it’s my favorite run on any team book. (In spite of the weak Howard Porter art.)

Anyway, here’s a link to the article. Read it and remember when the JLA was great:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/040930-Ambidextrous.html

Bruce Castle Presents: Secret Invasion Tie-Ins vs. Final Crisis Tie-Ins!

4 stars = Stop reading review and go buy now!!!!
3 and a half stars = Great issue and make room on your trade shelf someday soon
3 stars = Recommended and maybe even trade worthy
2 and a half stars = Recommended
2 stars= Not the best, not the worst, not recommended
1 and a half star = Terrible issue and vocalize your disgust at your next social event
1 star = Awful awful awful and you may want to consider dropping this title
0 stars = Next con you attend where the writer and/or artist are present you should throw this issue in their face

Mighty Avengers #16- Sigh. And so we get another SI filler issue. Again, I’m still finding these quite tedious. Oh, and something that heightens that feeling is these damn homage covers. They started doing these with the Marvel Zombie covers and then continued with SI. They were cool for the Marvel Zombie mini-series and that’s it! Once we got to the 20th printing of that hardcover and then now with the Skrulls, these covers are just plain crappy now! Oh well, I doubt this will change by the end of the event so yay I have four more months of this to look forward to! But I digress. This issue is about what happened to Elektra. Despite my earlier ranting, there was a lot to enjoy about this issue and I’m sure a lot of you will love it. This is coming from a DD fan so liking an Elektra story means something. However, this is a picture heavy book from the usually wordy Bendis. Unfortunately, when you have a story that depends so much on the art, if the art is bad the issue will probably be bad as well which is what we get here. Sadly, I found Khoi Pham’s art horrendous. His Elektra looks like an old woman! From the story alone this issue is pretty good, but because there are so many wordless pages, the shoddy art detracts from the story.

2 stars

X-Factor #33- Does anyone still remember when this was a top tier book? The characters were great, the stories were great. The art was unconventional but fit the story perfectly. Why has this book declined so much after Messiah Complex? I’m almost to the point of dropping this book, but then I remember the characters I fell in love with and I’m still interested in their story. So please Peter David, write better! This issue is a SI tie-in, but there isn’t much about Skrulls in here. We get to see a Skrull reveal which was a bit predictable but still cool, but that’s it. The rest of the book is just like a normal X-Factor book. Also, the Skrull in this issue doesn’t say much, but what it does say is very odd. For someone that writes dialogue so well, I don’t know why we get such weird lines from David. There are still some great moments in here, but that is overshadowed by the horrible art and a bit of bad writing. Oh, and this story is being continued in She-Hulk which is a book I don’t read. And sadly, I don’t care about this story enough to follow it into a new book.

1 and a half stars

Final Crisis Requiem-First off, I want to apologize for something. I recently said that I flipped through this issue and thought the art didn’t look very good. Well, after reading it, I feel that the art is pretty fantastic. However, I still feel that Mahnke got his reference pages mixed up and is drawing Impossible Man instead of Martian Manhunter, but the art was great. Sadly, that’s about the best thing I can say about this issue. I personally was appalled when I read it. It tries to ruin almost everything Grant Morrison was trying to say in Final Crisis. This is a retelling of what happened in that book and it pissed me off. This should have made me sentimental and left me remembering J’onn J’onzz fondly. Instead I left this issue blinded with rage. At first, I was going to recommend this issue if you treat it as a MM book instead of a FC book, but I don’t even think it works then. It doesn’t seem written well at all. I had an instinct to stay away from this book, but I heard so many positive things about it that I gave it a shot. I was sorely disappointed.

1 star

Final Crisis Rogues’ Revenge #1- Leave it to Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins to produce a decent tie-in. The team that told some of the best Flash stories reunite to bring us a new Rogues tale. The art is fantastic! I didn’t expect this to be so gritty but it is. The Rogues aren’t written as comic blunderers. They are written as tired old men that are still bad ass in their own way. They are villains with an unusual moral code and they are written extremely well. Unlike the aforementioned FC tie-in, this doesn’t screw with the main FC story. It is referenced and it seems a bit is spoiled. Perhaps issue 3 should have been out by now. It doesn’t seem like much of a tie-in yet, but it is still a great story on its own. There is plenty of set-up in this issue, but there is still a lot of action and cool moments with a cliffhanger that will leave you hungry for more!

3 and a half stars

P.S. For those keeping track, Final Crisis wins!

Review: Final Crisis: Requiem

Did you feel like Martian Manhunter’s death in Final Crisis #1 didn’t get the attention it deserved?  Are you even remotely a Martian Manhunter fan?  Do you like to see a great hero fight against overwhelming odds?  Do you like really pretty art?  Final Crisis: Requiem is a book for people who answered yes to any of these.

FC:R begins, essentially, with Martian Manhunter’s capture, as he’s jammed with a few hundred pyro-tranquilizers designed special for this by Dr. Sivana.  That right there sets up just how scared of the Manhunter the villains are – they treat him with the utmost respect, keeping him paralyzed for fear of his retaliation.  If you wanted a lengthened scene of the fall of Martian Manhunter, you’d love this book.

Unfortunately, there are a few disconnects between this and the main narrative.  First off, for al that people did complain about the suddenness of Martian Manhunter’s death, it was a rather pivotal theme-setting moment in the book.  It set the idea that nothing was sacred. The Martian’s death wasn’t heroic – it was a brutal execution, and Morrison portrayed it like that for a  reason.  People whined about how disrespectful it was to the Martian Manhunter, completely missing or unwilling to accept the point: the villains WERE disrespecting the Manhunter, and they had the power to do it. 

Another disconnect is more minor, and more subtle.  In the first two books of Final Crisis, I don’t recall anyone saying the Batman was still Bruce.  I don’t recall ever seeing Batman without his mask.  Final Crisis takes place after RIP, and Morrison seemed to be playing a little cagey on just who Batman was.  There’s nothing to suggest it ISN’T Bruce, but he keeps up that little bit of mystery intact for RIP fans – mystery that is ripped away by Requiem, which repeatedly says that Bruce is still Bruce, Alfred is still Alfred, Dick is still Dick, etc….  So, either there are some pretty big spoilers here, or DC’s editorial managed yet another massive cock-up – not that just such a mistake would be uncommon, given their recent track record on Countdown and DotNG.

The sense that the villains are powerful and, for the first time, have the ability to really hurt the heroes has been destroyed in this book, which seems designed to cash in on both the Manhunter fans and the Final Crisis fans.  In the end, however, this book is mainly for the J’onn fans, and it’s a pretty good one for them, providing great art from Doug Mahnke, an interesting history of Mars and J’onn’s life there, and a plenty of references to J’onn’s past books.  To fans of Final Crisis, it proves a startling disconnect from the ideas and themes of the main book, while adding nothing particularly consequential to them, at least at first glance, making it the worst kind of tie-in: it contributes nothing whatsoever to the main story.  It’s still a pretty good story, but don’t read it just because you’re interested in Final Crisis.  The meat of the story is in the main book – this is ultimately just fluff for the fans.

Rating: B