52 Week Nineteen
DC Comics
Writers: Johns, Rucka, Waid, Morrison
Artists: Giffen and Olliffe
This week’s chapter of 52 focuses mostly on Booster Gold’s ancestor Daniel Carter. Skeets, Booster’s electronic valet and bionic history cheat sheet, has sought him out to regain entry into Rip Hunter’s fortress in the hopes of learning something about time’s current condition. Readers do learn something rather unsavory, if a bit surprising. Meanwhile, the exiles in space are hosted by Lobo (now with oddball pious agenda) and Supernova and Wondergirl have a puzzling team-up. Not much in terms of forward movement, but enough action and character interaction to make it worthwhile. It seems we have our first couple of real villains in the series. Hopefully, they will be used as effectively as many of the second stringer heroes readers have enjoyed through the first half of the book’s run.
Score: B
Green Arrow #66
DC Comics
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Scott McDaniel
Well, that was unexpected. This issue of GA is completely a flashback to OYL. Readers learn how Ollie survived his skewering and where he went for a year to re-up and retrain. This issue is full of action and excellent character interaction. Plus, we get Connor Hawke! The post-trauma Ollie’s quest for more skills might make the characterization gap post Infinite Crisis a moot point. Regardless, the emerald archer’s crusade to get better or die trying is excellent entertainment!
Score: A
Green Lantern Corps #4
DC Comics
Writer: Dave Gibbons
Artist: Dave Gibbons
Guy Gardner finally gets to go on his shore leave, and his vacation turns out to be an elaborate trap of Bolphunga the Unrelenting! What follows is madcap wackiness with an axe-wielding maniac and a ringless GL at its core. In other parts of space, the Rann/Thanagar plot rolls forward and Isamot will have to choose between love and duty next issue. It’s an interesting place to take the series, but the mating season hook still seems a bit artificial to me. Much more on target and in character is Natu’s delivery of her former partner’s battery to his parents. Those reactions seem much more natural and gain this installment drama and weight in the process. That weight almost offsets the extreme cheesecake style of Gibbon’s pencils, almost. On balance though, it’s a good book, if a bit schizophrenic.
Score: B
Thunderbolts #106
Marvel Comics
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Tom Grummett
This issue is the culmination of the wellsprings plot. The T’bolts fight the Squadron Supreme for control of the last energy portal. There’s a humongous battle, with a couple of twists. It even ends in a betrayal. The last splash page is certainly explosive. Beyond that, it’s good ensemble characterization with wit and not a little charm. Grummett has fully mastered the look of this very large cast of characters, and the book looks as slick as it reads. The book has officially become fun again!
Score: B
Martian Manhunter #2
DC Comics
Writer: A.J. Lieberman
Artist: Al Barrionuevo
This book is grimmer than a church picnic in a graveyard full of zombies. We have systematic torture, terrorist bombings, interspecies angst, conspiracies, and bloody satisfaction. The introduction of more green Martians is an interesting hook, as is the organization dead set on keeping that fact quiet. How they will integrate all that into the established DCU, how it’ll change J’onn’s characterization, and who covered it all up to begin with are interesting questions. The only hope I have for this series is that it gains some thematic balance when the answers are acquired. This book needs some sort of leavening influence or it may collapse under its own depressing weight.
Score: C
