Thursday, June 14, 2007

Fast Thoughts - The Week of 6/13/07

It's a pain to get to work by noon when my comic shop doesn't open until 11 AM most weekdays and closes at 7 and my shifts run Noon to 8:30 pm or 9 am to 6 pm.

Of course, I could just wait for the weekend... but then I'd have no time to write reviews!



COUNTDOWN #46 - Now, more than ever, the only part of the comic I care about is the scenes with The Rogues.

Uber-Mary doesn't really interest me, even if we DO get panty-shots of her new gothic costume.

Jimmy Olsen doesn't really interest me. I thought he was supposed to die, anyway?

Jason Todd... well, I'm interested to know how the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks nobody has turned him into Batman, who still wanted to put the smackdown on his errant, thug-killing son the last time I checked. I doubt it will be explained, unless it turns out all of this IS taking place on another Earth.

Oh wait... they specfically mention "New Earth" in this issue.

Well, there goes that theory.


FABLES #62 - 5 Years and still one of the best books on the market.


GREEN ARROW #75 - Our long national nightmare is finally over!

Judd Winick's Green Arrow died as it lived. With all the villains escaping, the heroes being made to look like idiots and plot-holes so large that not even Superman can leap them in a single bound.

I will give Winick credit in their being ONE moment that is perfect - that is when, with Black Canary held at swordpoint by Deathstroke, Ollie tries to appeal to Slade Wilson's sense of honor instead of fighting.

What? The Battling Bowman trying to talk his way out of a fight? How is that perfect?

Because more than any hero save Superman, Ollie is a deep believer in the idea that everyone has some good in them. He may act cynical but like Rick from Casablanca Ollie is trying to convince himself something he doesn't really believe is true. So he falls to his knees and asks Slade to honor the terms of surrender that every soldier of nearly every nation is asked to respect - when the enemy throws down their weapons and begs for mercy, you grant it - while reminding Slade that he had always been a man of honor, even as a mercenary.

Which he was. Until Winick started writing him as a major villain and master criminal in every book he writes. But I digress.

Sadly, this is not enough to negate all the rank stupidity in the rest of the book.

* Ollie's big plan for fighting Deathstroke, who can plan circles around him in miliseconds, is to do things so stupid Deathstroke would never believe he'd do them - like setting a warehouse on fire with him and Dinah inside or electrifying the metal supports of said warehouse.

* Deathstroke apparently spent millions of dollars and killed eight men in order to get a one-shot dose of diluted Noxium, that only weakned the Justice League instead of killing them. What's Noxium, you ask? Read on... and then groan as you realize that Judd has apparently begun ripping-off ideas AND character names from Superfriends.

* Deathstroke holds Canary hostage, somehow having gotten his sword into her mouth. We get treated to several close-ups of Dinah... a steel shaft between her lips, as she looks up at Slade TERRIFIED. And so does every Black Canary fan's worst fears about her place in any upcoming GA/BC book written by Winick come true.

* Ollie needs the JLA to show up and rescue him in his own book... and yet they can't stop Deathstroke from escaping.

* The JLA apparently DID stop Drakkon from killing Mia and Connor "by being fast enough" and yet they didn't incapacitate him, allowing Drakkon to escape along with Deathstroke once the Deus Ex Machina bomb went off.

* The whole solution that allows Tuckman to become the new Mayor. Now, granting that it's a fictional city - I do believe that there is NOWHERE where the law dictates a candidate dropping out of an electoral race ends the election. At least, in Texas it didn't when Tom Delay, facing a MAJOR defeat following his being brought up on ethics charges, attempted to drop out of the race and let a new candidate be appointed only to be told "Uh... nice try, Tom. But you're staying on the ballot, rain or shine."

* Ollie needs Batman to make a chemical solution that, packed into two arrows, will melt The ENTIRE Big Damn Wall between the rich and poor of Star City and leave nothing but the smell of milk and honey. Silly as it is, I won't quibble with the science here. I'm just wondering why... WHY did Winick make THIS the point where we let Ollie and his family have a victory with the one thing they actually WOULD need Superhuman help in accomplishing?!? I understand the need to make bringing the wall down the victory of Ollie AND Green Arrow and his family... but having Batman hand them the solution just cheapens it. You'd think Ollie, who designed the chemical solutions for all his trick arrows to do equally improbable things, could have done it! Hell, you might as well have the JLA tear the wall down if it comes to that... like they should have done a few months ago!

Ah well. It is over. We think. We hope. We pray.

9 comments:

  1. I'd mock you for sticking by Green Arrow this whole time. Except I bought the new New Warriors this week. Proving I'm just as big a mark for my favorite characters still...

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  2. I just wanted to say thank you for reading Green Arrow for us all. I love the character, but Winick turned that book into an absolute crap-fest, and I just couldn't continue to support the title.
    I know it must have been hard. I know many family-owned Mexican restaurants suffered. But you took one for the time, and I appreciate that, sir.
    Thank you.
    (And thank you, DC, for bringing the book to an end . . . Maybe, someday, Winick's Green Arrow run will end up like Grayson's run on Nightwing - not really replaced by anything better, but didn't really have a lasting impact . . . )

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  3. You can't mock me too much. I haven't actually paid for the book in about four years ;)
    Thankfully, my comic shop management doesn't mind me reading a book or two in the store as I know how to treat them and I'm a regular customer.
    Remember kids: Support your Friendly Neighboorhood Comics Shop, and they'll support you!

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  4. It's train-wreck syndrome. I want to look away and yet I cannot.
    Besides, I was eternally hopeful that maybe, just maybe, the Judd Winick who wrote the first original story about vampires in twenty years might start writing the book instead of the hack who turned Green Lantern into a soapbox about how "queer-beating is a VERY BAD THING".

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  5. Yeah, thats pretty much how I keep up with most of Marvel's stuff from about CW on...

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  6. Or Connor being drawn to look vaugely non-White?

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  7. I would have settled for them doing ANYTHING to show that Mia having AIDS affected her life...

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  8. I'd have to dig them out, but I believe the original artist would draw him looking somewhat non-white. I think it was Hester?

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