Superman: Lois And Clark #5 - A Review

The most dangerous villain Clark Kent has encountered upon this Earth - the psychic known as Blanque - has broken loose of his cell in the new Fortress of Solitude. What is worse, he now has control of this world's Hank Henshaw, who may or may not have just gained the powers of his otherworldly counter-part, The Cyborg Superman! It will take all of Clark's power and cunning to save not only his family but the whole world!

If this issue has a flaw, it is that Lois' storyline regarding her her ordeals with this world's version of Intergang is put on the back-burner for a good, old-fashioned superhero smackdown. That being said, this issue is a good one, as far as good, old-fashioned superhero smackdowns go. Dan Jurgens tells this sort of story well and the issue still has plenty of touching moments of Lois and Clark bonding as a couple in spite of the emphasis on the action.


Neil Edwards (most recently seen on The Four Doctors) and Scott Hanna do their usual stellar job on the artwork for this issue. You would never know there were two inkers at work here. And Jeromy Cox's colors are as subtle and suitable as ever.

Doctor Who: The Four Doctors #5 - A Review

Ripped from time by a future incarnation of The Doctor, who had been driven mad by betrayal and bonded with the hive-mind race known as The Vrood, things were looking bleak for The Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors and their companions.  However, a twist of fate and a bit of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff have bought them the chance they need to escape the future Doctor's time-trap. Now if only they can work out how to set-up their escape without breaking all causality in the process...

The conclusion to Paul Cornell's latest Doctor Who epic is something of a headache to navigate. Despite this, it's an enjoyable Gordian knot most Whovians will enjoy unraveling. And Ninth Doctor fans can rejoice, for while their favorite Doctor doesn't quite take part in the action, Cornell reveals a fantastic reason for why he and Rose Tyler didn't show up in this adventure.


The artwork continues to impress, though Neil Edwards does seem rushed at times in this final chapter. There are some points where the inks are too heavy and the details a little indistinct - though this critic suspects the latter may be due to a printing error in his copy of the issue.  Regardless, there is more good than bad in this issue's visuals and it proves a wonderful conclusion to a great story. The Four Doctors is a must-read for all Doctor Who fans!

Doctor Who: The Four Doctors #4 - A Review

In a far future, a probable Doctor driven mad by loneliness allowed himself to bond with the alien hive-mind known as The Vrood.  Now, as part of a plan to ensure that his past comes to pass, he has captured Three Doctors and one companion in order to assure his timeline becomes the accepted one. Two of The Doctor's companions remain free but are their destinies already set in stone?


The artwork on this series continues to impress. This is some of the finest work Neil Edwards has ever produced from the character designs of the cast to the layouts of the action sequences. And the colors by Ivan Nunes prove the perfect finishing touch.


As for the story, he plot thickens further in this latest issue and it does so in some truly surprising ways. I must say again that Paul Cornell has truly outdone himself with this series. Next week's conclusion cannot come fast enough!

Doctor Who: The Four Doctors #3 - A Review

The three Doctors and their companions have escaped from The Reapers but now they face a greater problem. Despite Clara's best efforts to stop them from walking into a trap, they've walked into a trap. Because regardless of the incarnation, The Doctor's first response to being told something is a trap is to find a big stick and poke it.

Unfortunately, this trap turns out to be a Continuity Bomb - a piece of Dalek technology that rips the victim out of space and time and deposits them in an alternate reality changed by a single decision. Thankfully, the bomb was unable to focus on one Doctor. Unfortunately, this still leaves everyone trapped in limbo, seeing a number or horrifying alternate pasts rush by as The Doctors must make a horrible and risky choice... choosing which reality to make real in the hope of escape!


The idea of The Continuity Bomb is precisely the kind of novel touch I expected Paul Cornell to introduce in this series. Such originality is Cornell's bread and his butter is an encyclopedic knowledge of the Doctor Who mythos. Fans of the show will be particularly interested in this issue's brief glimpses of the universe where The Tenth Doctor rules all reality as The Time Lord Victorious, the timeline where The Eleventh Doctor allowed River Song to save his life by making all of time happen at once or the dark future where The Twelfth Doctor has been driven mad by loneliness and distrust...


Neil Edwards continues to impress.  The artwork on this series has looked amazing in every respect, from the likeness of the established cast being captured to the panel flow of the action scenes. The colors of Ivan Nunes complete things perfectly.

Doctor Who: The Four Doctors #2 - A Review

Clara Oswald's efforts to prevent a meeting of The Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors that would end the universe only seem to have brought it about. And a sudden short when Ten and Twelve touched one another has summoned The Reapers - the antibodies of reality, who eat paradoxes out of existence. Only for some reason they seem to be more interested in Eleven than anyone else...


It's no surprise that Paul Cornell's script for this issue draws deeply from the well of Doctor Who's rich mythology. After all, Cornell co-authored The Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide back in the BI (Before Internet) days and has a knowledge of the show's history that is second to none.  Yet Cornell also sprinkles the book with the goodly helping of humor common to his stories, finding unexpected angles such as the playfully loony Eleventh Doctor being forced to be the responsible one as Ten and Twelve start arguing and Twelve lamenting that he's now "Scary Doctor" to Ten and Eleven's Posh and Baby.


Neil Edwards proves a perfect playmate for Cornell.  This is a manic energy to Edwards' action sequences and he perfectly captures the likenesses of the characters from the show. All in all this comic is a must-read for all Whovians.

Justice League United #10 - A Review

This final issue of the Legion of Superheroes/Justice League United crossover had all the same problems as the previous issues. And for those who missed my earlier reviews, I'm referring to the forcibly posed artwork and complete lack of explanation as to who any of the Legion characters are for the readers who don't know/don't care about the LOSH. And yet, I found this one far more enjoyable than any other part of he crossover so far. And that enjoyment came down to three separate factors.



1. The awesome alternate cover inspired by Mars Attacks.



2. The goofy-ass moment in this panel, where Brainiac 5 briefly becomes Macaulay Culkin.



3. The final few pages, in which the characters are allowed to be characters and have conversations rather than shout exposition.

Alas, I'm not sure how many of these characters will be surviving in this form as we enter into the Post-Convergence DCU.  Still, for all its problems, this book wasn't dull.  I just wish Jeff Lemire had been allowed to do more to bring these characters to life.

Justice League United #9 - A Review

Pro Tip: When you have so many characters in your comic that you can't name them all on a single page and indeed can barely fit their headshots onto a single page, that might be a sign that you have too many damn characters in your comic.


I don't mean to keep harping on this point but that's really all I can say about Justice League United at the moment.  Literally nothing has happened for the past few issues except that more Legionaries keep being sent to the past to fight this one cosmic villain. And the whole affair is mind-blowingly dull in the way that only the most truly awful of LoSH stories (i.e. most of them) can be dull.


The artwork continues to be the high point of this book.  You may not have any idea who any of these characters are or what they can do but by gum they look good doing it!

What happened, Jeff Lemire?  Did Paul Levitz insist on taking over JLU and ghost-writing it now that all the Legion books have been canceled?  Do the have your family?  Is your true opinion of this crossover hidden in Sardath's dialogue about there being too many characters to keep track of?

Just blink twice if you need help!  We are ready to rescue you!

Justice League United #8 - A Review

I must apologize to you all, dear readers. I had intended to review Justice League United #8 today. But owing to some kind of printing error, my copy seems to have been replaced with a Legion of Superheroes comic.

*whisper whisper whisper*

Say that again?

*whisper whisper whisper*

This IS the new issue of Justice League United?

*whisper whisper whisper*

Then why do we barely see the Justice League in it?!  I mean, I know there's a crossover going on, but shouldn't the title team have most of the action focused on them?

*whisper whisper whisper*

You think this gag where I talk to an unseen person is getting stale and I should drop it, especially since it doesn't really make sense in print?  Oh, okay.



In all seriousness, I commented in previous reviews that the presence of Legion characters in this comic was a hindrance to the story as little effort was made to explain who the dozen-or-so characters were and what their powers were, let alone their personalities. Introducing another dozen of them in this issue does little to help matters.  Indeed, nothing of importance really happens in this issue until the last few pages. Until then, everything is all about how things are still terrible in the future and how the Legionaries still in the future come to the past.


At least the artwork by Neil Edwards is still good.  Though one wishes he focused less on two-page splashes and more on trying to make the action flow smoothly.  Edwards is great in an open space but confine him to a few panels on a page and everything becomes hemmed in and sloppy.

Justice League United #7 - A Review

It appears that the cast of Justice League United are as bored with this crossover with The Legion of Superheroes as I am.  At the very least, Animal Man and Green Arrow are fed up with it.  Both of them make wisecracks about how many damned Legionaries there are and how hard it is to keep track of all of them in this issue!


Jeff Lemire tries his best to keep the story moving but the inertia of The Legion continues to hold him back.  It doesn't matter that he slips in some quick gags such as Animal Man and Timberwolf sniffing each other.  The story never bothered to explain who Timberwolf was for the readers who aren't already intimately familiar with every single member of The Legion, their powers and their personalities... or lack thereof!


The artwork this month is an improvement.  Neil Edwards' figures are still forced and stiff, but this is less obvious in the splash pages that dominate the second half of the comic.  Strangely, though this issue features two inkers, the finishes on the comic seem less erratic than they did last month when only one inker was assigned to the book.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #7 - A Review

Oliver Queen and John Diggle have escaped from the lair of Brother Blood.  But the fight is just beginning.  A vengeful Huntress is waiting for Ollie as he emerges from the sewers... and she's not alone!  Other people - loved ones he's failed - are there to confront Oliver, including his dead parents and best friend, Tommy!


The secret "twist ending" of this issue isn't much of a surprise.  Dedicated Arrow-Heads will guess almost immediately what's going on.  Despite this, Arrow: Season 2.5 #7 is an enjoyable read as writer Marc Guggenheim takes advantage of the gimmick to give us some insight into how the usually close-lipped Ollie views his mistakes.  Amusingly, some of his complaints mirror those of comic fans regarding how the character of Helena Bertinelli was treated when being adapted for the show or how Ollie reacted to Slade Wilson's killing of his mother.  An all-star team of artists worked on this story, giving the whole affair a disjointed feeling as the art shifts along with the visions tormenting Ollie.  For once, this lack of visual continuity works to the story's benefit.


As usual, the Suicide Squad back-up story by Keto Shimizu and Szymon Kudranski is as enjoyable as the Arrow one.  Indeed, it is so enjoyable I wish it was its own comic!  Getting one page every two weeks is a maddening way to tell a story and I'd love to see this as a longer feature.

Justice League United #6 - A Review

The one saving grace of Justice League United #6 is Jeff Lemire's ability to bring little moments of character into what is essentially one gigantic fight scene. It is these moments that have defined the series so far. And it is these moments with all the little interactions between the regular cast that make the book so interesting.


Alas, most of this book is taken up with the sort of Claremontian battles that have come to define any story involving The Legion of Superheroes.  There are no characters here - merely a loose collection of bodies attached to various superpowers.

These scenes consist of various characters standing around, explaining the action to the reader (Quickly, Ass-Kicking Lad!  Kick the ass of that big guy while I hold him in the grasp of my Magnetic Mind Grip!) while clumsily letting us know their codenames.  It's a shame because Jeff Lemire is capable of so much better than this and the scenes in which his Justice League speak to themselves showcase the difference between the two teams.



As before, the artwork is erratically mixed.  Neil Edwards is a clearly skilled penciler, but too many of his figures seem artificially posed. The best aspect of the artwork is the energetic colors added by Jeromy Cox.

Justice League United Annual #1 - A Review

The biggest problem with Justice League United's crossover with The Legion of Superheroes is that it is a Legion of Superheroes crossover.  The good news is that thanks to The New 52, readers will not have to worry about any of the cumbersome continuity problems that beset the classic LOSH comics.  The bad news is that the LOSH are still a collective of bland characters largely defined by their individual super-powers, with only Brainiac Five and Mon-El possessing any kind of personality. And those personalities are "know-it-all jerk" and "hot-headed douche-bag" respectively.


Writer Jef Lemire does what he can, but even he can't battle the inherent inertia of an storyline involving The Legion of Superheroes.  Too much time has to be devoted  to explaining who they are and listing off the individual members of the team. It also doesn't help the plot is strictly standard, with The Legion having come back in time to kill Ultra (Jonn J'onzz's adopted multi-ethnic alien son) before he becomes a world-destroying monster known as Infinitus in the future.

The subplot involving the rest of The Justice League trying to track down the body of a deceased Hawkman is far more interesting for a number of reasons.  Chief among these are the interplay between the team members and the little character touches that Lemire excels at. My personal favorite was the interplay between Supergirl and Green Arrow, with the inherently rebellious Oliver Queen struggling in a position of authority as he tries to reign in the equally rebellious Supergirl.  



The artwork this time is a bit of a mixed bag.  Neil Edwards is a skillful penciler and there are a number of Kirbyesque splash pages throughout the book.  The problem is that many of the poses of Edwards' figures seem overly forced and artificial, up to and including two women pointing their posteriors directly at the reader while curving their backs so we can see the profile of their chests!   The inks by Jay Leisten are competent but not particularly noteworthy. The best aspect of the artwork is the coloring, with Jeromy Cox using a vibrant, heroic palette that makes everything jump off the page in just the right way.