No cover to get in!

Okay, so I fibbed. I won't be talking about all of the DC covers this post. Between working a somewhat soul-crushing temp job, and some familial medical drama (Nothing bad, don't worry, just stressful.), it just hasn't been good. So, from here out, I'm going to talk about covers in my reviews, if I feel I need or want to. I'm also going to work on getting some non-review blog posts going.

That said, let's get into it!

Action Comics #2 – Okay, three variant covers, one of which is a sketch version of one of the other two. And I’ve gotta say, while I like them all, I’m partial to the non-sketch original variant. And that would be a sentence I didn’t expect to see outside of the 90s. As to the meat of the issue, here we see little more than a whole issue action sequence, but it is a fairly awesome one, with Superman basically beating his way out of the underground secret prison he’s being held in by Lex Luthor. By the way, this is one of the best characterizations of LL I’ve seen in the comics in quite some time. Arrogant, dismissive of anyone who isn’t him, and obviously well on his path to villainy, his insistence on calling Superman “it” because of the fact that he’s an alien feels absolutely perfect to me. There is a lot of interesting stuff in this issue, especially towards the end, where we learn that Luthor is getting his info on Supes from a mysterious source. Okay…it’s Brainiac. How could it not be? I’ll eat my hat (The nice, Superman one.) if it isn’t. All told, a strong, action-oriented issue that nicely progresses both the story and the characterizations nicely.

                Recommendation: I’m still leaning toward trade, honestly, but it’s really starting to make me want to put it in my pullbox.

Animal Man #2 – And the creep factor of this issue continues. Yeesh. The little sister gets powers, much to the chagrin and annoyance of both her older sister and Buddy’s wife. We learn more about the Red and how it affects the world around us…well, kinda. In true horror movie fashion, we only get glimpses of the true nature of the beast. Is it evil? Does it have any morality aside from survival? What does it have to do with Maxine’s powers? Does it have anything to do with them? Man…lots of questions, not too many answers, but man, what a ride. There’s a lot of semi-exposition, that I’m not sure about reliability, because, let’s face it, it’s coming from a little girl. She may be misinterpreting things, or simply parroting a lie the Red told her. But the stage is set, the mission given and the heroes off on their adventure. I’m sure Joseph Campbell couldn’t be any more proud. As an aside, this one and Swamp Thing seem to be heading toward a crossover, with the Red being set up as a malevolent enitity over there. Which is true? We’ll see.

                Recommendation: There’s too much awesome here to wait for the trade, so go on and put this one in your pull box.

Batwing #2 – Well…now we know where David knows Massacre from. But what does the mysterious phrase “We honor them all in blood” truly mean? Can’t wait for that one. Again, there’s a lot of action in this issue, and it’s nicely setting the stage for epic events to come. It’s one of those issues that, when it ends, you can’t believe it’s over. Not much to say about it, really. I’m digging the story, but Judd Winick’s always pretty reliable, story-telling wise, so that, even if there’s a slow issue, he’s got a reason for it. Once again, and I should have been prepared for this, Batman shows up here, rather than merely being a felt presence, which kind of begs the question: Does he really wonder why Gotham’s such a hole, if he’s off gallivanting, and taking over Batman, Inc operatives? Are they operatives? Anyway…good book, with a nice, strong finish. Here’s hoping that the fight in the next issue lives up to the last page of this one.

                Recommendation: Trade. While I really like Winick’s writing, and Ben Oliver’s art is, simply, gorgeous, there’s nothing here really pulling me in to say that you need to buy it.

Detective Comics #2 – I see DC wasted no time in setting up, not only a new villain, but a new team of villains. Good on them. They’ve got a nice, creepy vibe going on, with the whole mutilation and threatening of one of Batman’s closest allies. (It’d be a big spoiler to say which, but he’s fairly important.) This is, for me, the strongest of the Bat-titles, with a nice balance between the Bruce Wayne saving Gotham story and the hunt for the possible serial killing family that may, or may not, have broken the Joker out of Arkham. (Um…sorry about that run-on sentence. Couldn’t be avoided, really.) Once again, I’m struck by the fact that, in the New DCU, Bruce Wayne seems to be a far more interesting character than Batman. But I think that has more to do with the fact that it’s been several years since I’ve seen a good Bruce Wayne story. They’re nicely setting up the millionaire playboy entrepreneur nature of Bruce Wayne very well. Oh, remember how I said I’d talk about covers here? Yeah, I loved this one. I’m a huge fan of the Bat-Plane, though, dorky though it may be.

                Recommendation: Pull box. Like I said, I think it’s the strongest Bat-title, and worth reading on a monthly basis.

Green Arrow #2 – Yet another character whose cover identity is, for me, far more interesting than the superhero. The Ollie Queen pages (All two or three of them) have a far more interesting, to me, plot than the Green Arrow parts…mostly. There are parts where I can see where things are heading, but I kinda dig that. I hope that the annoying suit that wants to oust Ollie doesn’t end up being behind the super- villains’ scheme, but if he is…well, I won’t be disappointed, necessarily, but it’ll be nice if they pull it off. Once we get to the core of the villains’ plot, it starts picking up, and I like where it’s heading. The weakest part of this issue was the obligatory “Let’s show the hero just how eeeeeeeeeevil we are by killing an overly-enthusiastic wannabe bad guy” scene in the middle. It just struck me as being overly pat. I don’t know exactly how it could have been fixed, but it stuck out to me like a sore thumb.

                Recommendation: Trade. So far, I’m not seeing anything that puts this in the “MUST HAVE NOW” category, honestly. It’s good, but nothing spectacular.

Justice League International #2 – Okay, the back and forth about Booster Gold vs Guy Gardner as leader here is really getting on my nerves. I understand the need for Booster to learn to accept his role, but he’s striking me as little more than a temperamental teenager. Yes, I know that Booster is little more than that, but the way it’s handled here was poorly done. Aside from that, I thought this was a good issue for advancing the plot, escalating the threat and defining the characters and their relationships. Batman actually works here as a kind of guiding force to the JLI, and a reason for the UN to question Booster’s leadership. The action sequences are well handled, if short. My favorite parts of this issue were the interplay of Rocket Red (A Russian totally-not-Iron-Man.) and August General In Iron (A Chinese metahuman with the ability to…um…something, I’m sure.) mainly because I chuckle at the “My country is better than yours” relationship they’re developing. They act like brothers, and it’s one of the best written relationships of minor characters I’ve seen in a while.

                Recommendation: Pull box. From art to script, even the weaker moments in this book are strong enough to make me want to own every copy that comes out.

Men of War #2 – I’m not sure how I feel about this one, honestly. I was struck by the strength of the first issue so much that the second issue comes off a lot weaker than it probably is. It does establish who Sgt. Rock is nicely through some interestingly handled flashbacks. It does establish the antagonist (I’m not going to say villain yet.) nicely and make clear what the blur was from the first issue. It does show how they complete their mission. But all together, this issue just left me feeling somewhat empty at the end. I couldn’t read more than a page of the back-up story.

                Recommendation: Trade, but I’ll be honest, if the next issue leaves me with the same feeling this one did, I’m thinking about dropping it.

OMAC #2 – I’m a fan of the reluctant hero format, and the reluctant villain is a nice spin on it. Watching Kevin Kho struggle with Brother Eye’s controlling nature and, of course, changes his mind after fighting yet another person who wants to leave his powers behind. Brother Eye’s manipulation of all of the players involved was really nicely pulled off, and Kevin’s reasons for going along with the Eye make some sense. The feeling of being dragged along passes to the reader quite nicely. The best bit comes on the credits page, where they have a nice throwback and give all of the people involved alliterative nicknames like “Dissident” Dan Didio and “Kombative” Keith Giffen. One of those nice bits from my early comics reading days that I always liked to see.

                Recommendation: Trade, because as much as I like Giffen’s art, the script and general storytelling in this book don’t strike me as strong enough to read on a monthly basis.

Red Lantern #2 – I like the “origin of rage” that takes up most of this book, mainly because I don’t like Atrocitus’s characterization. He’s too calm to be a being of pure rage. The exploration of this child’s rage and all of the little things that lead up to her agony are really quite nicely written, so go Peter Milligan, go. But I just don’t care about Atrocitus’s supposed rage or the potential overthrowing of his leadership that was set up last issue. I did like the cover of this one, though. It’s got a nice war poster feel to it, which fits nicely with the apparently endless war that plays into this issue so centrally. It would have been nice to see how things on Earth were going and whether there would be a human Red Lantern. Maybe they’ll come back to it. I hope they do, because, all told, though, I’m not a big fan of this book. Maybe it’s because I haven’t yet read the Sinestro War arc or how the Spectrum came to be. I’ll have to find those and come back to this one, see if I still care.

                Recommendation: Drop, I can’t even give this one a third issue because I cannot bring myself to care about anything in it at all.

Static Shock #2 – Good lord is this one wordy comic. I get why, though. Static is a nervous teenage hero. So his internal monologue will be a bit blabbermouth to cover his nervousness. Aside from that, I dug most of the aspects of this story. I did not know that his sister was cloned, and I like the idea of both of them claiming to be the “real” one. It’ll be nice to see that play out over the course of the series. Also, of course Static gets a power upgrade. He’s in NYC now, where the big boys play. At least it’s a power that makes sense and it’s nice to see a healing factor played with in this manner. I liked the hormone fueled meet cute in the high school sequence. It made me giggle, in a manly fashion, because, well…it rang incredibly true to life, and it was nice to see a moment like that. It helps to humanize Static, and give Virgil some depth. The artwork is a little fast and loose for my taste, but it does, mostly, work here.

                Recommendation: I’m going back and forth on this one. Part of me really likes it and wants to say pull it. Another part of me thinks it needs to find a better footing and that, while still enjoyable, would be better as a trade. I’m going with pull for now.

Swamp Thing #2 – Ah, the creepy messenger who shows the hero that his power goes back much farther than he imagined. Mostly, I think this issue was about setting up the conflict and bringing Alec Holland into the conflict, while still giving readers the whole back story. It’s a kind of infodump of exposition, but it’s handled decently enough for a character with such an involved history.  We don’t get to see much of the artwork because of the dialogue, but what we do see is fairly gorgeous. My favorite part of the art here is that in between the panels, Yanick Paquette draws some gorgeous plants and vines. It works well for the book. One other thing to mention, and that’s the villain, the Red. It’s far less ambiguous here than Animal Man that the Red is a malevolent entity, what with the whole twisting the neck around thing it does to a minor character, and will be nice to see whether or not this Red and the one from AM are the same thing.

                Recommendation: Trade, but it’s really starting to draw me in, so I might have to upgrade this next month.

Drop Watch:

                Hawk and Dove #2 – So very many teeth. Someone needs to tell Rob Liefeld three things. 1. Mouths don’t open anywhere close to that wide. 2. No creature that isn’t a shark has that many teeth. 3. “This is an anatomy book. Use it. PLEASE.” Tried to read the second issue to tell you if it’s getting better and couldn’t. It’s that bad. I won’t even bother with issue 3.

                Stormwatch #2 – Well, it’s drawing me into the story more. It’s setting up a conflict nicely, but there’s still something about it that is somewhat off-putting to me. There was a nice bit, though, dealing with a scapegoat 3^rd- or 4^th-tier super-villain. If the next issue is spectacular, I’ll probably continue with it.

So New 52's going along nicely. Lots of good books, very little crud.

Something cool to let you guys know about, I'm watching Star Wars with my girls tomorrow! :-) I'm looking forward to it, since the last time I tried to, they didn't make it past the first 10 minutes. I'll be tweeting (Look, off to the side, it's a box, it's some words, it's a Tweet!) during it, and after I'll be writing about it. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

See ya next time!