Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Fast Thoughts For 02/06/08 & 02/13/08

Happy Valentine's Day, all.

I took a week off from the racket, partly due to illness and partly due to some work-related busyness and business. So without a further adieu or fondue....



DOCTOR WHO CLASSIC #3 - I haven't read this one yet. I'm still waiting for my order for #1 and #2 to be filled. But when I saw this in my shop today - much to my astonishment as I didn't know IDW had the rights to reprint the old Dr. Who comics that Marvel did in the UK once upon a time... well, Tom Baker fan that I am, I just had to get it.

Expect a good word or five later.


FABLES #69 - I think I just figured out why Flycatcher has grown on me to become my favorite character. Because I have, for most of my life, been the quiet man in the background who just did the jobs that needed to be done and only stepped up and made myself noticed when that was what needed to be done. And that is pretty much what all of The Good Prince has been about - the man who became the right man at the right time because that was what was needed. And despite his power and position, he is now ultimately still the guy who cleans the floors when they need cleaning.

Of course, I may just be feeling ironic given the new position I am assuming in my personal career - which, while offering a great deal more "face-time", power and responsibility is ultimately me just doing what I've always done, because it needs to be done. But hey, what's the point of a good story if not to sympathize with the character?


GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #5 - Someone at my local comic shop was "good" enough to give me the pertinent details. Henceforth, I have asked them not to do so as it has become too painful for me to even hear about what is going on in this book.

Suffice it to say, if you aren't happy with the butchery of Green Arrow history since Herr Winick took over the main writing chores of Green Arrow, you probably won't be pleased with his equally ham-fisted attempts to "fix" things in this issue. The short version is that 15 years of continuity and all common sense have been sacrificed in order to lend credence to Judd Winick's roommates continuity-shattering tale The Archer's Quest. The long version involves...

1. Billionaire Playboy Oliver Queen picking up random women on a street-corner in broad-daylight. (Paparazzi, anyone?)

2. Oliver Queen's year of reckoning on the island being reduced to, at most, eight months.

3. Connor Hawke's transformation from a dutiful student and swashbuckling romantic who wanted to study at a Buddhist temple to a troubled youth who was expelled from countless schools before being shipped off to a Buddhist temple's scared-straight program.

4. Moonday Hawke's transformation from an Asian free-spirit and Hippie into an African dread-locked hollaback girl.

5. Oliver Queen being such a skilled actor and liar he can bluff his best friend, who at the time was also wielding enough omnipotence and omnipresence to do DNA testing at a glance, into believing that he's ignorant as to his latest traveling companion being his long lost son.

6. Winick has apparently made it a matter of continuity that Ollie ripped off nearly everything from Batman - including his decision to take on a boy sidekick!

Incidentally, am I the only one who gets the feeling Judd really wishes he was still writing Batman?

This is - by my accounting, the third issue out of five in which Batman shows up and does a lot more actual heroing than the title characters. He apparently gets referred to by Dinah on the first page when Roy is asking why she is doing something Batman is more qualified to handle (apparently) and he shows up twice in the flashbacks, proving that he is much better than Ollie at everything and Ollie cannot hope to ever be as cool as Batman...

Ah well. I shall happily wallow in ignorance from this day forth, until such time as Andy Diggle is brought in to clean up the mess.



GREEN LANTERN CORPS #21 - To The Guardians of the Universe,

Okay. I said this was a bad idea a month ago. Melding your best officers with the way-too-literal robot enforcers who turned against you once already after they concluded - logically - that all life was too chaotic to be law-abiding all the time? BAD Idea. But even I didn't think it would go south on you quite this fast.

This is going to end in another Emerald Twilight - mark my words. And not the one where it was just your best and brightest (no pun intended) getting possessed and manipulated by your two greatest enemies. I'm talking the original Emerald Twilight - the one that ends with an all out war between two factions of Green Lanterns, the rest of the universe taking sides and Intergalactic Planetary war faster than you can say Beastie Boys.

I figure your only hope is that Ganthet and Superman show up with a whole bunch of hopeful sorts and pull your pale blue butts out of the fire before the end becomes nigh.


WONDER WOMAN #17 - There is only way this issue could have been any more awesome. It would involve one of "The Circle" screaming out "This is Madness" just before Diana screamed out "Madness? THIS - IS - THEMYSCRIA!" and booting said Circle Member in the head with her stylish white and red boot.

Yes, I know 300 jokes are old and lame at this point. But if anyone can get away with it, it's Gail Simone writing a story with an actual Greek warrior. :)

That being said... it's hard to get any more hard-core than using your own blood as war-paint and still fighting even as your back is being filled with arrows and not bothering to pull them out.

And even ignoring that, there's a lot to admire. Diana routing the Nazis. Four-on-one Amazon combat. A Plastic Man cameo that makes me realize we have yet to see Gail Simone ever write anything with the character that I'm aware of and that's a mistake that must be seen to shortly. And the revelation that Etta Candy isn't quite as hard-shelled as we'd been led to believe.

Meh. It's been two weeks without a review to write. I've had a lot of bad puns to make-up for. :)

4 comments:

  1. 3. Connor Hawke's transformation from a dutiful student and swashbuckling romantic who wanted to study at a Buddhist temple to a troubled youth who was expelled from countless schools before being shipped off to a Buddhist temple's scared-straight program.
    He was *what* now?
    Oh, crap.

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  2. How many Simone issues is this now? Four? I'm waiting for the trade on this one and figure it will hit sometime after her sixth or eigth issue. Simone normally doesn't click for me, but this one sounds fun...

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  3. Yep. Now Connor was apparently a problem child and Sandra (no longer Moonday) told Connor his dad was a superhero in an effort to get him to straighten up.
    This of course begging the question of how the hell SHE found out Ollie was Green Arrow if the last time he ever saw her was before he became Green Arrow.

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