One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Green Lantern #58

GOOD THING: Lots of good character moments here, with the relationships between the various Corps leaders being fleshed out.

BAD THING: Is it just me or is anyone else bothered that every single one of the Blue Lanterns we've seen so far have been devoutly religious? Granting that it makes sense that certain religions do foster an "always hopeful" attitude, there is quite a bit of difference between hope and the faith that seems to have been equated with all of the Blue Lanterns thus far.

The Final Verdict: A solid issue which offers a lot of nice character moments.

One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Untold Tales Of Blackest Night

BAD THING: When you get right down to it, this whole comic is made up of the deleted scenes of Blackest Night. And most of these stories prove to be have been worth being cut. The Titans story by J.T. Krul in particular is rather lackluster, shifting perspectives and telling a story from Donna Troy's POV that really would have been better told completely from Wonder Girl's viewpoint. And we don't get any new information, apart from the revelation that Sinestro Corps book-keeper Lyssa Dark is now working for the power behind the problems in the current GL title.

GOOD THING: There's quite a few good moments here - from seeing how Ragman (whose powers come from a suit made of the souls of the damned) fared during Blackest Night fared to a story showing Scarecrow going through his "fear-lodge" initiation into The Sinestero Corps.

The Final Verdict: Easily skipped. There's nothing here worth the $4.99 price tag, unless you're a Blackest Night completest or a fan of Scarecrow or Animal Man.

One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Brightest Day #12

BAD THING: The cover is a bit of false advertising. Firestorm/Deathstorm barely feature into this issue at all.

GOOD THING: Most of the issue is devoted to Martian Manhunter's storyline and we are finally given some direct motivation and a name for this new female Martian villain. I just wish the name hadn't been a bad pun even if it IS apropos of the Martian-naming scheme.



The Final Verdict: One of the better issues in recent memory but this comic still seems to be taking forever to get anywhere.

Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale HC

BAD THING: The artwork, at times, is sloppy. And the images of the established cast - apart from Book himself - bare little resemblance to the original cast of Firefly. Case in point - does this look even vaugely like Nathan Fillion?

GOOD THING: The art is a bit lackluster but the story is excellent. We go through Book's past in reverse, starting with his death in Serenity and moving back towards his time as part of Mal's crew, his time at the abbey he was leaving when we first saw him and beyond.

So what was his past? Like I'm going to spoil it here. But trust me - it explains some (but not all) of just how a simple preacher could know what he knows about the dodgy side of life and using a gun.



The Final Verdict: If we have to have the mystery of Shepherd Book's past spelled out, I don't think we could have hoped to have a better story than this one. Shame we couldn't get artwork the equal of the story, but if you can look past some questionable caricatures, it's not that bad.

THIS JUST IN: Marvel Puts The Screws To Cash-Tight Readers Again!

SOURCE: Marvel Point One Aims to Give New Readers a Jumping On Point With '.1' Issues

Do you all remember how shortly after DC Comics announced that they were dropping the price on their $3.99 books to $2.99, Marvel announced they were doing the exact same thing?

The bad (if unsurprising) news is that Marvel was lying. It turns out that they were referring to a new series of ".1" books, aimed at new readers who have no idea what is going on in the current storyline of Marvel's most popular titles.

Now, I know what you're thinking - that's actually a pretty good idea and it would throw a life preserver to all the would-be comics readers adrift on the sea of continuity. And I'll admit that if you ignore the lies and the countless on-line resources that allow a casual fan to get into the swing of things in a hurry, that is a good idea...

... except for the VERY Bad News.

The very bad news is that these .1 issues will also be used to premiere new material and information. Indeed, Marvel is going to introduce a new Venom in the first Amazing Spider-Man .1 issue.

So really... not only is Marvel NOT lowering the price of their comics - they are introducing yet another gimmick book that the die-hard fans MUST have in order to know what is going on in their favorite titles.