Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

Let me start off by apologizing for not getting my reviews up last week. Between chores and not feeling well (Stupid cold and flu season.), it just wasn't a good week for me. It WAS a pretty good week for DC, though.

I'm changing things up in order to keep up with that. I'm only going to do the two or three best titles in a given week, but I'll still let you know what else is good to read.

I'll ALSO let you know what titles to run away from, fast. I'm going to go ahead and get this one out of the way: Until Liefeld is off of it, DO NOT PICK UP HAWK & DOVE. In fact, until the entire creative team is taken off of it, it is best avoided. Juvenile writing, bad pacing, horrendous plotting, there is absolutely nothing redemptive about the book. So that one's on perma-ban.

This week, the book to avoid, quite unfortunately, is Men of War. I loved the first issue of the title, but in the intervening issues, it's devolved from a pretty cool story of the men who go to war for our country to a book dealing with superpowers. Nothing inherently wrong with that, obviously, but I was actually impressed with the poignancy of the first issue, and how much you ended up caring for the men of this troop. Even with the metahuman in the distance, it was still primarily about these men in battle. However, in the second issue, they added a direct metahuman influence, and it just went down from there. It doesn't help that the back up story, about a group of SEALs, I think, hunting down a group of extremists in a Middle Eastern town wasn't good to begin with. All told, it's not a book I can, in good conscious, recommend to any one.

HOWEVER, I can recommend the following titles:

Justice League International #3 – It’s like they’ve never seen a horror movie. Never, ever spilt up into really small, easily picked off groups. Sheesh. Still, the action of the plot requires them to split up to take down the four giant robots, and now we get to find out where they came from. Kinda. Mostly, this issue seems to be serving as exposition for some of the less well known members of the team. So, basically everyone who ISN’T Batman. It works, mostly, and doesn’t seem too stilted or awkward. The problem is, it leaves a bunch of the characters out. Okay, so Vixen can use the power of any animal, August General In Iron lives up to his name, and Rocket Red has a crush on Fire. I want to know what Godiva’s deal is. Yeah, I get that she’s a celebrity in the way the Kardashians and Paris Hilton are, but what are her powers, aside from being a superwhiner? It is nice to see Batman using some of his detective skills. I always appreciate it. On another level, the artwork is nice and solid here. Nothing particularly special about it, but it works well to both tell the story and be pleasant to look at. This is quickly becoming, for me, one of the most looked forward to titles each month.

                Recommendation: Pull Box.

Animal Man #3 – So, as with most stories involving reality warping and/or destroying elemental creatures, I’m not slightly confused by this one. I usually end up mostly getting it, and seeing my expectations play out, but in a twisted, demented, very odd way in most cases, and I don’t think that this will be any different. Honestly, I’m more impressed by the B-Story in this arc, where the non-powered mom and brother on the run from the Big Bads. Sure, there’s a pretty obvious twist at the end, but it’s happening in a book that I’m enjoying pretty thoroughly, so I’m allowing it. One of the things that works here best is the artwork. Travel Foreman’s work would have fit in perfectly in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman,and works really well with the big neo-mythological story going on here, but that’s something that writers have been using Animal Man to explore the boundries of reality since Grant Morrison’s legendary run in the 80s. (Yes, yes, I go on about Morrison all the time, but, as I’ve said before, some of his stories work REALLY well, and I admit there IS a reason he’s become so popular.) The mythology at work here isn’t as deep or profound as it was during Morrison’s run, I think, but it’s not over yet, so we’ll see if Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman write/draw themselves into the story.

                Recommendation: Pull Box, but make sure you get the previous issues, too.

And, to make up for last week, here are the top two from then:

Aquaman #2 – It’s surprising how quickly this has become a favorite book. And Aquaman is a freakin’ joke character, for Bob’s sake! Or has been, before Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis got their grubby mitts on him. I like that they’re scaling (Heh.) him back from being the King of Atlantis, and just be some guy, you know? There are a lot of things to like about this issue, starting with the plot being furthered nicely, while still having some nice, action-packed fight scenes. I also like how there’s still tension building up in Aquaman at all of the jokes he gets about talking to fish, and being an underwater hero. I can’t wait to see him snap and go off on someone because of it. Although, knowing Johns, that’ll either be insanely funny, of the “put down the book for laughing type,” or horrifically devastating.

                Recommendation: Pull box, and you can’t get started fast enough!

The Flash #2 – I gotta say, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Flash as a hero and a character. I like the concept of the Speed Force, and the explanation and exploration of it in this issue is really fascinating to me. It does seem like a logical extension of it that Barry’d be able to speed up his thoughts, to such an extent that it borders on precognition. I like logical extensions of power that don’t seem like power creep. (Looking at you, Supes!) The only concern I have with this issue is that the arc plot seems to have been set aside…or has it? Who knows, it could end up playing off the Speed Force stuff from this issue, and I hope so.

                Recommendation: Pull box.

As for last week's Drop of the Week (OH! I like that!), I had to drop Superman. Yeah, it's meant to be a flagship title, exploring how Superman operates in the modern DCU, and, yeah, it's written by a legendary creator...it's just too bad that the creator in question is A: Primarily known as an artist, whose work in that field is actually fairly awesome, and B: From a time when dialogue stretched pages and pages, squeezing out the artwork from being, ya know, visible. It's the Chris Claremont school of writing, and it just doesn't work for me. Yes, I know that the plot has to be forwarded in some manner, and exposition, blah blah blahbidy blah. There's a line. This is too much.

So, there you are, last week and this week, all in one tidy little package! Hopefully I'll keep on top of things, now that I'm pulling back.

Another thing: If you have a book you think people should be reading, please feel free to post it in he comments! I'm always on the lookout for new books to read, and love finding out what gets people going.

That's all for now.

Keep reading and see you next time!