Justice League Dark #24 - A Review

JM Dematteis can craft a psychodrama like no one else.  His Spider-Man story Kraven's Last Hunt still stands as one of the greatest comic book stories of all time and one of the best stories told from a villain's perspective in any medium.  His story of a reformed Joker - Going Sane - delved deeper into the mind of The Joker than any other story I've ever read and remains a personal favorite to this day.  He also did a fine job exploring the internal conflict of Hal Jordan in The Spectre, back in the days before Parallax was a giant yellow space bug.  It is fitting then that JM Dematteis should be the one to truly bring John Constantine into the new DC Universe. 

Let me clear - Jeff Lemire and Ray Hawkes have done a fine job of establishing Ol' Con-Job as the world's reluctant magical fix-it man.  Yet nothing in the Constantine title thus far has really spoken to the overriding theme of the late Hellblazer series - that as bad as various magicians, demons, angels and other horrors may be, nothing is quite so horrific as what one human being can do to another.  This issue largely concerns itself with John - pulled away from the conflict of Forever Evil by the House of Mystery - coping with his realization of this fact and the revelation that he may be all that's left to stop the evil posed by The Crime Syndicate of Earth Three. 

It's brilliant stuff and a must read for all fans of John Constantine.  Yet DeMatteis also takes care to make this all accessible to new readers, on the off chance there's someone picking this up who hasn't been reading Constantine, Forever Evil or Justice League Dark.  It's probably not necessary but it's a nice touch.


I've said before that Mikel Janin is one of the most underrated artists working today.  I'll stand by that statement even now, because his work on this issue is breathtaking.   The darkness of the world is apparent in every panel of this book but Janin makes that clear without resorting to heavy inks or an overly shadowy palette.

Bottom Line.  This is one of the best looking books on the market today and with DeMatteis's writing, it is well on the way to becoming one of the best.  I'll continue skipping Forever Evil in general but I won't be skipping Justice League Dark. 

Larfleeze #1 - A Review

I remember a colleague on Twitter asking earlier this week if there was really a demand for a book starring Larfleeze - The One and Only Orange Lantern of Avarice.  I highly doubt it and I say that as someone who has generally been amused by Larfleeze's appearances in the pages of Geoff Johns' Green Lantern.  Sadly, this first issue gives me little optimism for this book having a long life.


Your enjoyment of this story comes down to one important question - are you a fan of the Keith Giffen & J.M. Dematteis Justice League series?  If the answer is yes then you will love this book.  Larfleeze is basically Chuck Jones' Daffy Duck (i.e. I'm a coward, but I'm a GREEDY little coward) with the power to back up his laughably overblown opinion of himself.  He is joined by a new comedic foil - an alien slave, er butler who plays the L-Ron to Larfleeze's Maxwell Lord. 

Most of the plot of this issue (what little of it there is) has Larfleeze retelling his life's story to his current slave - er, butler - as he waits for an inevitable death on the edge of the universe.  How he got to this point is unexplained but I'd wager it has something to do with Larfleeze's making war on The Green Lantern Corps in the pages of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps in this month's issues of those titles.  Way to kill the suspense, editors! 


The artwork of Scott Kolins is equally divisive.  Either you like it or you don't and I most assuredly don't.  Kolins underinks his work to a ludicrous degree given the intricacy of his line-work.  This problem is only aggravated by Kolins' regular colorist Mike Atiyeh, whose efforts at providing a "tint" to a scene generally leave everything nearly the same color.  There are several points where only Kolins' habit of highlighting important figures with a thicker black line than everything else save the characters from blending into the background entirely.

Bottom Line?  I won't be back next month and if I can't be sold on this title I doubt even the rest of the Green Lantern family of books will be able to prop it up long.     

One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Doom Patrol #4

BAD THING: You know those comics which claim to tie-in to a bigger storyline that are just an excuse to get the regular readers to care about the crossover and a means of suckering in all of the fans of the crossover who wouldn't buy this book any other way? This is one of those comics.

On the bright side, at least there's three pages of history explaining who the Black Lantern Doom Patrol members are and and who the current Doom Patrol is for those of us who don't read Doom Patrol. So at least you don't spend the whole book confused as to who is fighting who and why. That being said, there's no reason to buy this book if you're just interested in Blackest Night.


GOOD THING: The real treat comes at the end of the issue, where there is a non-Blackest Night affiliated story about The Metal Men.

Now I know what you're thinking - why do I care about the Metal Men all of a sudden? I don't. But I do care about anything Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire do together. Because it's always worth reading and frequently hilarious.

Looking To The Stars - What's in The News?

Don't expect a big focused rant this week, folks. There's big changes coming to the Nexus and I'm too busy cleaning up sawdust and hammering up plywood to pick one big story to focus on.

So what do I have for you this week? A few links. A few rants. And a few quick reviews and odd notes.

Let's get it on, then.



The 2005 Comics Nexus Year End Awards

At the time of this publishing, there is still time to go vote in 2005 Year End Awards . So go vote! It's your patriotic duty! Our voting process guaranteed to be 100% Diebold free!



House of M: Part Four

The final chapter of Matt Gardner's masterpiece parody of House of M is finally up!

NO MORE FATHER! NO MORE CROSSOVERS!

Would that it were so...



PREVIEW: CIVIL WAR

Read it and weep, Fanboy!

It's going to suck.

Not because Bendis is masterminding it. Not because Millar is writing it. Not because the whole stated purpose of the series is to bring back the unified Marvel Universe Stan Lee envisioned and yet it's being built upon the backs of the two stories that did more to screw up Marvel Continuity in recent memory.

No, it will suck because Spider-Man has a new costume.

Nothing good has ever come of any storyline where Spider-Man gets a new costume. It's like Ted McGinley joining the cast of a show – disaster WILL strike!

Seriously, the stink off this story is so bad that not even a good writer like... I dunno, Paul Jenkins could save this...

*ahem*


What?!?

*whisper whisper whisper*

You're kidding me!

*whisper whisper whisper*


Seriously? Well,okay...



PAUL JENKINS TO PEN "CIVIL WAR: FRONTLINE"

Damn you, Marvel!



PREVIEW: GREEN ARROW #60

Nothing's happening and...It's over. A lot of people look pissed...

I rag on Judd Winick a lot for this book. And small wonder as Green Arrow is one of my top five favorite characters of all time. Still, I had some hopes that maybe, with the chance to do a fresh start that maybe he could finally do a simple story in less than eight issues.

My optimism seems to have been misplaced. Seven pages here, nearly 1/3rd of a whole comic book and what do we see?

Resolution of what has happened to all of the supporting cast, one of whom has been buried under rubble for three whole issues at this point?

No. We get treated to seven pages where we find out that gangs are robbing people, bullets are scarcer than food and that the crime-lord wannabe Brick has apparently become a hero. And except for one panel, we get no hint that Green Arrow is anywhere to be seen. Still, the conceit of Star City having become a war zone in One Year is a nice, original idea.

Shame it was done already in the Batman books six years ago.

Can you say "Hack" boys and girls? Sure. I knew you could.



Giffen/DeMatteis Give Humorous Exclusive to BOOM!

BWA-HA-HA-HUH?

NOOOOOO! This means no more Giffen/DeMatthias Defenders!

Oh well. Good news, Dan Slott! Until Mike Carey takes over X-Men, you are my only Monthly Man At Marvel. (I also pick up Joss Whedon's books... but those aren't monthly purchases).



REVIEW: Green Lantern #9

I came down kinda hard on issues #7 and #8 a few weeks ago, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say that issue #9 has got me willing to give this book a chance for a while longer. Numerically, I'll give it a solid 8. Worth reading if only for two things.

1. The modernized Tattooed Man – I've been saying they needed to bring this character back with a modern twist for years and Geoff Johns has finally done that thing here.
2. Hal Jordan gets Batman to lighten up. 'Nuff Said!



REVIEW: Amazing Spider-Man #529

Proof that even a pro like JMS can crank out a bad issue when Editorial forces him to toe the company line. Tony Stark calls Peter and MJ his family, despite them only having lived with him a few months. Peter's new suit is apparently dampening his Spider-Sense as he should have sensed a man drawing a gun and been able to jump-carry a victim out of the way of a bullet easily. Even the humorous acknowledgement of how badly each issue of "The Other" flowed into each other (i.e. the How DID Mary Jane's arm heal so quickly?) isn't enough to save some bad characterization and faulty power portrayal. All for the sake of unveiling... bleh... the new Spider-Suit.



FINALLY, A THANK YOU!

Thanks to all the well-wishers who sent me their sympathies regarding my friend Sam. It means a lot to know that my story touched you. And I think you'll really like something that I'm going to be presenting fairly soon.

So with no further ado, I shall bid you adieu.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.