Top 5 Comics (04-03-13)

It's the beginning of April and so lets try to start again with the blog, and with a new attempt at we go forward with Top 5 Comics. So lets look forward to this weeks books.

5. Age of Ultron #4 (Marvel): I haven't had a chance to speak on this highly anticipated event, and now that it's here I really haven't had much of a chance to read much of it besides the first issue. I'm curious to see what this event will mean for the Marvel universe (if anything, besides for the already spoiled final issue appearance of a certain creator and his creator owned character from the Spawn universe). Anyways, much like the results of an important test, we will just have to wait and see how this turns out.

4.Swamp Thing #19 (DC Comics): Rot World has come to an end and so has Scott Snyder's time on this title, and so with issue 19 we welcome Charles Soule as writer and Kano on art as the new Swamp Thing creative team. With this we will see a direction away from the tight crossover lead story from before (not that that wasn't good), but a new era that will hopefully shine as bright as the past 18 plus annual issues of this title.

3. Action Comics #19 (DC Comics): With this issue we welcome on the creative team of Andy Diggle & Tony S. Daniels start their run on the title, Diggle has already stepped off title I'm sure this should still be a good read. I'm a big fan of Andy Diggle, and if you enjoy this title make sure to check out his other title out this week Snapshot. Daniels will finish the story out, & personally I've enjoyed his writing work on the Batman title prior to the New 52 relaunch, I just hope that DC can find a steady creative team for Action Comics after this & not take a year like it did with Superman.

2. Thanos Rising #1 (Marvel): Marvel's Thanos based mini-series by the great writer Jason Aaron is here to remind us of who the hell that purple dude was at the end of The Avengersmovie in case forgot about him from last summers blockbuster. This is Aaron' s take on the death courting Thanos' origin, and from early reviews of it I hear it comes down to him really just needing a hug. Come on people of Titan, get it together and give Thanos a hug.

1. Earth 2 #11 (DC Comics): *SPOILER ALERT* I'm talking about what's on the other side of the WTF cover, and inside the book. Only reason this book makes it to number one is that. So you are warned.

MOTHER FUCKING MISTER MIRACLE AND BIG BARDA SHOW UP IN THIS ISSUE!!!!!!

Top 5 Comics (01-09-13)

It's time for some comics! Are you ready for some comics? It don't matter if you aren't because here is some comic smackdown for you!

5. Action Comics #16 (DC Comics): This issue gets us even closer to the conclusion of Grant Morison's run on Superman in Action Comics. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything plays out in the end, and in the months episode we see the return of Superdoom. The last time we saw Superdoom was back in the Earth 23 issue where President Superman sent him back into the multiverse.

4. Thor: God of Thunder #4 (Marvel Comics): If what the solicits say to be true even a god king fall, and in this issue King Thor falls to the Butcher. What does this mean for the series and story arc?

3. Earth 2 #8 (DC Comics): The Furies! Steppenwolf! The last of the Amazons! This just sounds like good times to my ears. Could this be the introduction to one of my favourite characters, Big Barda, to the New 52. Even if it isn't we are getting more about Apokolips and that is just good times to me.

2.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret History of the Foot Clan #1 (IDW): Demons, ninjas, and the origins of the Shedder and the Foot Clan. The main series has been amazing, and all the micro-series issues have been great too. I'm looking forward to see how this mini-series plays out.

1. Sweet Tooth #40 (DC Comics): This has been one of my all time favourite series in comics. Nothing but love for this title and the work Jeff Lemire has done on it. This was the first non-superhero comic series I ever read and I fell in love. This issue is the final chapter of the series, and as much as I don't want to see this title end I'm looking forward to see how this all concludes.

(A little reminder of where this title has come from and where it has gone)

Top 5 DC Heroes

A few weeks ago I did a Top 5 Marvel Heroes and that was fun, so I felt it was time to do a Top 5 list of DC heroes. I'm going to first say that this list will contain no Batman or Batfamily heroes, That can be done another time. This list is to look at some heroes I really like that I may not talk about as often as I do Batman. So lets start this off.

5. Blue Beetle (Ted Kord): Ted Kord is the comedic equivalent of Batman. Love the character in Justice League International, and the whole buddy comedy aspect between him and Booster Gold was just priceless. He's also one of those dead characters that I miss. Even though he was already dead when I started reading comics I have a soft spot for him. One of the proudest collections I have of comics is owning the complete 80's Blue Beetle solo series staring Ted. Just wonderful fun comics, and a wonderfully fun character that we don't get to see all too often in the dark serious world that comics currently take place in.

4. Brainiac 5: From the Legion of Super Heroes comes our number four spot hero Brainiac 5. Descendant of the super villain Brainiac we get one of the coolest members of the LoSH line up. Brainiac 5 was always a cool character to me with him being the descendant of a villain, a Superman fanboy, and eventual lover of Supergirl. Everything with him just seemed cool to me. I also have a big soft spot for Brainiac 5/Supergirl since they were one of the first couples I ever shipped.

3. Mister Miracle: Champion of the New Gods Scott Free is one of those characters that just screams awesome to me. I know a lot of people harp on the goofy colours used for his costume, but I dig it. He's the greatest escape artist ever, and pared up with his lady love Big Barda you have an unbeatable team. My first introduction to this character was the through Justice League Unlimited, then when I started reading comics one of the first series I read was Justice League International. The character just kept on showing up in ways I love, and eventually when I got my hands on the Jack Kirby Fourth World books I knew that he was a favourite character of mine.

2. Superman: The big blue boyscout himself is Superman. The character that started off the Super Hero craze and an icon that will out live us all. Superman is that ultimate presence of what is good and altruistic, his presence in Metropolis strives humanity to be better. As much as some people like to bring him down or darken him he is still going to be that shinning beckon to the rest of the world. You can't help but appreciate him more as a character while listening to either Grant Morrison or Michael Bailey talk about him. And his importance will always ring through to me from when I was a kid and my mom sat me down and told me to watch Superman II when it was on CTV one Sunday, and made it clear how important and amazing this movie is, that will always be associated with Superman for me.

1. Martian Manhunter: J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter was always my favourite character in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons. He just had so many cool powers, with a tragic back story and cool calm demeanour. You toss in that one of the first comic stories I read was New Frontier, and how important Darwyn Cooke makes him in that just sealed the deal on him being my favourite DC hero. 

Thursday Comics: Justice League

Justice League #1

Warning this review contains spoilers for the first issue of Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee

First off I want to say that only 4/7 of the characters on the cover show up at all in this first issue, and I have a problem with that since in the 80’s we could have a half a book story in Secret Origin and we would get the back story on all the characters and why they needed to come together in the first place. Anyways so yes in this issue we are privy to see Batman, Green Lantern, Vic Stone (eventually Cyborg), and the Man of Steel himself Superman. As we saw in the six-page preview two months ago the world, or just Gotham, isn’t to friendly to the whole vigilante super hero thing with the police hunting down Batman and the thing he is chasing. The beast Batman is chasing looks to me like some kind of strange robot/Parademon/Doomsday hybrid. Then out comes Green Lantern to help out old Bats, but Batman doesn’t care for how bright Green Lantern is. At this point the beast shots some sort of laser blast at the two heroes, but misses them and hits the police helicopter instead. To be the hero Green Lantern catches the crashing helicopters with bats, have to say I would preferred to have seen him use a catchers glove instead. This is where we find out that old robo-para-doomsday can shape shift, as he does so to run away. The creature escapes underground and our heroes are quick to follow. By this point we are made fully aware of how cocky and arrogant Green Lantern is, with his attitude of “I can do everything and you can do nothing because you are just a puny man dressed as a bat. Nothing makes you special.” The batman spots the creature and that’s when it sets of some ort of device, Green Lantern protects the two heroes as the creature cries out “FOR DARKSEID”. Green Lantern mistakes it as “Dark Side”. The two heroes check out the device after all the smoke and fire subside, Green Lantern scans it with his ring and guess what its unable to identify the strange thing, well Batman thinks it could be some sort of alien computer (possibly and exploding Mother Box). So since Batman and Green Lantern both agree that the device is alien they decide to be xenophobic and question the only known alien on the planet. Cut to a football game where star athlete Vic Stone scores a touchdown, but that means nothing to him since the person who he had a reserved seat for did. In the coaches office scouts offer anything they can to get Vic, but the coach wont let any of them talk with Vic till his dad is there, unfortunately for Vic daddy is a busy man. A green light construct of a fighter jet fly’s overhead, and everyone is excited to see”…one of them!” even if its not Superman. This also where we find out that Vic’s dad studies super-humans. Now if I were abetting man I would be putting money down on Vic’s life being drastically changed after this. Batman and Green Lantern land at a Lexcorp demolition zone where Superman is supposed to be according to the ring. Batman grumbles about how they should have been stealthy in their approach instead of taking “a glowing green jet”. Green Lantern has still got the cocky attitude that he can handle anything, so he locks Batman in a construct and faces off against Superman all by himself. Turn the page and Superman is knocking Green Lantern out, and with the three dialogue balloons I get an attitude of arrogance from Superman that I don’t care for, hopefully Grant Morrison can fix that. After that we get a couple of pages of concept art from the designing stage of the title.

As much as I have my problems with this issue I still enjoyed it. There’s not a lot of meat to this first issue, but it’s paving the groundwork for this new universe to take shape. I don’t think they should have reveled that the big bad was Darkseid, because now the suspense of who is behind all this is gone. One more problem I have with the Darkseid story plot was that all through SDCC we kept hearing that the New Gods were going to be Earth-51 and that we would see them in Multiversity, but here we are in Justice League getting a New God, or is it that Darkseid isn’t a New God anymore or is this “Darkseid” something completely different? The final thing I have to say is that I still feel Geoff Johns can’t write Batman anywhere near as good as we have some to expect thanks to writers like Grant Morrison and Scott Snyder, Johns still seems trapped in writing Batman as “I’m dark, brooding, and angry… FEAR ME!!!” and we all know that Batman doesn’t have to be like that anymore. Sadly the personality traits Johns gives Batman lead me to believe that he still thinks of Batman as the paranoid crazy person that dresses up as a bat and has plans to take down everyone in the universe because he can’t trust them.

The next issue is Batman vs. Superman out in store on October 19, 2011. I hope you all enjoy this first month of the reboots.

Review written by Justin Gyorfi