Skitch’s Mini Reviews – Week of November 23, 2011

Capsules, Reviews

Green Lantern: New Guardians #3 – I will admit freely I am a cheap date, but I actually cheered when I read this comic. Last page was just a great return of a character I have missed for the last few months. Looks like next issue will give us some answers, and I am looking forward to seeing where these series goes from here.

Teen Titans #3 – Bunker might have the most random super powers ever. Psychic bricks? Really? That said, he’s a very fun character. This book is moving a little slowly still, with all the characters scattered and no real sign of how they would become a team, but I love the writing and art.

Shade #2 – This mini is truly a great sequel to my beloved Starman. Loved seeing Bobo make an appearance. Bete Noir was a pretty cool looking villain, and Shade’s worldwide quest is definitely off to a great start. Miniseries are typically hit or miss with me (mostly miss), but Shade has been really good so far!

All Star Western #2 – I did think it was a little odd to have a long drawn out gunfight in this comic with so many generic bad guys. It would be like Captain America smashing Hydra goons for an entire comic. It wasn’t a bad comic, just felt like the story could have moved forward a lot more than it did.

I really enjoyed the backup story. Sort of just a generic zombie movie set in the old west, but I like that kind of mash up.

Flash #2 – I loved how they show Barry’s powers developing. Another book that feels a little slow at times, but I definitely like it. A Flash book without Wally is a hard sell to me, but I have no regrets in reading this one. It definitely helps that Mob Rule seems like a great villain, and seeing his connection to Barry is a great selling point. That is something DC has been doing real well with Relaunch, telling us stories about interesting villains. (Stole that from Grey, I am shameless).

Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #2 – I have been reading Brightest Day over the last week or so, and seeing how Firestorm was portrayed there, it make me realize that this book is just generic and doesn’t have anything hooking me in. It’s not a bad comic, but writing this mini-review, I can’t even remember what happened in this comic. Shows how much of a grip it has on me as a reader. Dropping this one.

Justice League Dark #2 – Is it just me or does Deadman seem like a different character in each book he’s appeared in? Hawk & Dove, DC Universe Presents, and now Justice League Dark all have had very different versions of Boston Brand (personality wise at least). I actually really didn’t like how he came across in this issue, and that really put me down on the book.

I do like the mystery of this series so far. I still am trying to figure out the scorecard of who’s the good guys and bad guys, and that is a lot of fun.

Voodoo #2 – Was really surprised by the end of this issue. I sort of got the sense that Voodoo was not going to be integrated as tightly with the mainstream DC heroes, and the end of this issue definitely showed otherwise. This issue had a lot of terrific intrigue, keeping the reader and the characters guessing at every turn. I am really looking forward to the inevitable encounter with Grifter.

I, Vampire #2 – Definitely a big step up from the first issue as things start to become a little more clear. I am really glad to see something different being offered by DC. My biggest gripe on this book is that the art sometimes makes it hard to follow what’s going on. This was especially a problem in the first issue with all the time jumps. I like stylized art, but it should never be at the expense of the story.

Legion: Secret Origin #1 Around fifteen years ago, DC did a miniseries called Legions of the Legion, which told the origins stories of individual Legion members, often with new spins to them. That was what I was expecting from this new Legion: Secret Origins.

This comic just didn’t have much to say, sadly. I was really looking forward to seeing either a new version of the Legion’s origins or at least a look at what makes Relaunch different, but instead we get a tacked on “mysterious group monitoring the fledgling Legion.” Won’t be picking up the rest of this mini, I just don’t see the point.

New Teen Titans (1980-1988) #1- 6, New Teen Titans (1984-1996) #1-5 – Decided to kick it old school for the Teen Titans 101 sale last weekend. I have read some of these comics a long time ago, but didn’t remember them all that much. They hold up really well. Marv Wolfman and George Perez were creating a book that could challenge Claremont and Bryne’s X-men in terms of complexity and impactful storytelling.

Both of the stories I read happened to be longer story arcs about Trigon, and I definitely enjoyed them both. I am really curious what the status of these stories are with Relaunch. I know Nexus’s own John Babos is pretty certain that New Teen Titans has been erased from continuity, but I’m not so sure about that.

GI Joe Classic #6-10 – More cheap classic comics. 99 cents for these comics is just an incredible deal. If IDW keeps putting them out, I will keep buying them (even though I have them all as actual comics). I actually had forgotten that the first appearance of the Oktober Guard was a 2 part story.  All of these stories are really good.


Bob Harras had an article on DC Source last week where he talked about some of the ways the Relaunch books will be tying together. I am adding in some of my own observations to what Harras talked about:

– Mystery Woman appeared in all the first issues.

– Superman 1 tied in to Stormwatch. Though to be honest, this seemed excessive and thrown together. I still don’t know what the point of that scene in Superman was.

– We already knew that OMAC and Frankenstein would have a crossover soon.

– Animal Man and Swamp Thing seem to be tied closely together with the protectors of The Red and The Green dealing with The Other.

-Harras mentioned that: Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. will be turning up in Legion Lost (along with them already being in Teen Titans and Superboy).

– And maybe coolest of all, the Court of Owls from Batman “may soon impact the storylines in Nightwing, Batgirl, Birds of Prey, and Red Hood and the Outlaws.”

I actually had said way back in August as part of our look at the new 52 that I thought DC Relaunch would be doing crossovers in a nice simple way that didn’t force the reader to buy comics they don’t want to read, and it seems they are holding true to that. Really glad that I was right about this!

Author Note: You probably won’t see one of these next week. I am only reading one new comic (THUNDER Agents which I am doing a full review for), and will probably hold off on buying the DC books from four weeks ago that price drop this week, just because it’s easier to keep track of them if I buy them the same week the new issues come out. Yey for a fifth week!

Mike Maillaro is a lifelong Jersey Boy and geek. Mike has been a comic fan for about 30 years from when his mom used to buy him Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures at our local newsstand. Thanks, Mom!! Mike's goal is to bring more positivity to the discussion of comics and pop culture.