Comics! Batwing #8

Batwing #8

Written by Judd Winick
Pencils by Dustin Nguyen

The Solicitation
Batwing vs. Massacre! The culmination of Massacre's rampage and destruction of Africa's first team of heroes, The Kingdom! The battle between Batwing and Massacre crashes Gotham City as Batman, Robin, Batgirl and Nightwing join the fight in a massive, action-packed rumble you won't want to miss! And the shocking identity of Massacre is revealed at last!

Preview

The Comic
Overall, I'm going to say that it was a much better conclusion and I am surprised that I am enjoying this comic as much as I am.

We pick up from the previous issue with Nightwing and Robin fighting the Steelback armor. They get some advice on how to take out the armor and they do.

Meanwhile we have Batwing confront Massacre to get him to stop with the crusade. Batwing exposes Massacre as General Keita, but we all know its not him, as I said a few issues back. It's Isaac, Batwing's long lost brother.

The Steelback armor blows up, and Massacare is separated from Batwing in the fall out. We then see that it is Josiah Kone, the man who originally help to bring the Kingdom together, who is the mastermind behind training Massacre and killing the Kingdom.

Batwing then gets the chance to either let Josiah fall to his death, or be turned in for his crimes. There is a two panel beat before Batman steps in and says that there will be no more killing tonight. I do honestly believe that if Batman had not come in, Batwing would have killed him.

Overall, the story does have some predictable elements to it. We could easily see the mystery of who the mastermind was behind everything, and we knew who Massacre really was. So we, the readers, are obviously better detectives than Batwing. But that's ok, he isn't meant to be a super intelligent person, he has more military type of knowledge and is perfect for going into battle. So he has areas to learn and expand his knowledge, which is a good thing.

I'm now genuinely intrigued as to where we will go now that his origin story is complete. On to the next!

The Art
At first I thought that only Oliver could be the artist for this book, but Nguyen has proven to be the better one. Something about his style fits perfectly well with the scripts that Winick has for Batwing. I enjoyed the art tremendously for this issue.

The Cover
Trying to fit a little too much into this cover, including some Batwing butt. Its an odd angle to have everything at as well. It's what you get when you have a bunch of characters that you want to throw into a cover.

Once again, the coloring on the book is different from the picture shown. Weird.

Grades
Words: 7/10
Pictures: 8/10
Recommend: Satisfying. Definitely worth it.
Buy Next Issue: Night of the Owls crossover. Let's do this!

Previous Issues

Comics! Red Lanterns #8

Red Lanterns #8

Writer: Peter Milligan
Pencillers: Andres Guinaldo & Jorge Jimenez
Inkers: Mark Irwin & Jorge Jimenez

The Solicitation
Who is it that brings death to all on Ysmault? Jack Moore could not have become a Red Lantern at a more apocalyptic time. But what's worse: being caught in Atrocitus and Bleez's civil war, or taking the blame for the infection spreading throughout the Red Lantern Corps? Facing extinction, how long until all the Red Lanterns burn out?

Preview

The Comic
I get the weird feeling that we went from having almost no stories being told, or this really slow burn going for this comic, to suddenly not having enough pages in which to tell the story.

Basically we have some ancient form of a Red Lantern that Atrocitus threw away and buried years ago coming back and having the ability to poison the Red Lanterns by putting a piece of his rib in the Red Lantern power battery. Yes, you read that right. How did he know this? I don't know, and the story doesn't tell us much either.

Bleez apparently has convinced half the Red Lanterns to be with her. She is sending one of them off on a mission to find out where this new Lantern came from and what his rage was inspired by, because apparently the appearance of a Red Lantern on the planet's surface can be communicated right away to Bleez who is orbiting around the planet.

Guy Gardner makes a cameo appearance and is talking to the killer of Jack Moore's, the new Red Lantern, grandfather. The guy is claiming self defense and Guy isn't hearing it.

Atrocitus then sees that the Red Lantern power battery isn't in top shape from the poisoning of the one creature's rib, and that explains why Atrocitus isn't able to heal as he should.

Also, apparently it is napalm that runs through the veins of Red Lanterns.

Next issue is supposed to be the Death of the Red Lantern Corps, and I could almost not care. It is really hard to feel any sort of compassion or need to find out what happens to characters who are only skin deep. I understand that Milligan has the task of trying to make these characters sympathetic, but it just isn't working. The fact that this earthly Red Lantern can create a construct isn't exciting to me.

There is a sort of meta-physical-ness that Milligan is tapping into to have work with the Red Lanterns, and I generally don't follow that kind of stuff. I'm beginning to think that this book just isn't working for me how it kinda sorta used to.

The Art
Different artists than the normal one. They work somewhat effectively. We get some extreme closeup of things that don't really tell much of a story. I don't get a sense of flow from one panel to the next. And the one shot the Bleez has looks like some really awkward way to get her butt in the picture, which makes me wonder why these new artists tried to carry on that tradition.

The Cover
Are they all trying to prevent the Red Lantern from falling, or are they fighting? At first I thought fighting, now I see trying to save the battery. It just looks awkward either way.

Grades
Words: 4/10
Pictures: 4/10
Recommend: Nah. This just seems like too much, too fast, not fully developed, and not having a direction.
Buy Next Issue: Next issue will be the last one unless there is some sort of spectacular issue that brings some clarity to what is happening.

Previous Issues

Comics! Detective Comics #8

Detective Comics #8

Written and pencilled by Tony S. Daniel
Inks by Sanou Florea
background assists by Joel Gomez


Back up written by Tony S. Daniel
Art by Szymon Kudranski

The Solicitation
Bruce Wayne's girlfriend, investigative journalist Charlotte Rivers, tries to protect a long-hidden secret even when her own life hangs in the balance. The Scarecrow is after knowledge only she possesses, and he'll stop at nothing to get it from her. Can Batman uncover Charlotte's secret past in time to save her future? With the clock ticking and a dose of newly designed fear gas in the air, Batman must first fight his own nightmare as all of Gotham City turns against him.Plus, don't miss the start of a new backup story written by Tony S. Daniel and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski (PENGUIN: PAIN AND PREJUDICE)!

Preview

The Comic
This is another comic that can barely say that it follows what the solicitation advertises as happening in the book. For one, Charlotte Rivers is no where in this comic. The only part that is true outside of mentioning the back up that starts this issue is the fact that the Scarecrow is involved.

Let me just describe the comic like this - the payoff for the comic was much better than the setup. If you ignore any dialogue, if you let your sense of imagination include the fact that this was probably one of Batman's first adventures and he is not a seasoned pro, then this comic can be good when seen through a dirty filter.

We have to roll with the idea that Scarecrow is able to manipulate Batman and have Batman run some errands for him. Batman is obviously smarter than this, but the script doesn't show it.

The back up is pretty bad. It is supposed to be the story of how Two-Face started in Gotham. It comes across as incoherent, and then jumps to Two-Face being a total bad ass. Or trying to be. It's messy and the art doesn't help.

I don't know why Tony Daniel is popular and has been since the relaunch. The stories just aren't good to me. He's definitely not for me, but I struggle to see why he is popular and why Detective continues to be selling so well.


The Art
Tony Daniel continues to ape from scenes and iconic images from Dark Knight Returns. One panel seems to be flipped upside down for no reason. Too bad its a one page spread.

The backup is the same artist from a couple of issues ago. Everything is dark, dark, dark. It is very muddled and covers up a lot of what is going on. With this going on and the words not helping, it really makes for a bad back up.

The Cover
Very generic, so it matches the generic story. I wonder where all the text is on this cover that usually covers up most other covers that DC puts out these days. I find it funny that Batman's cape is deciding to get in on the attack efforts on the right side of the cover. I wonder why the other side of the cape is as enthusiastic.

And I swear that the coloring is off again on this issue. I really think its because I have the Combo-pack edition of this comic. Man this cover sucks with the coloring change. I like the picture displayed here much, much better.

Grades
Words: 2/10
Pictures: 3/10
Recommend: A very skippable issue. Doesn't even do a good job of introducing any character.
Buy Next Issue: It is the Night of the Owls crossover. Let's see how Tony Daniels has to deal with other Bat-writers and their much better ideas with how to handle Batman.

Previous Issues

Comics! Action Comics #8

Action Comics #8

Grant Morrison: writer
Rags Morales, Brad Walked, Rick Bryant & Bob McLeod: artists

The Solicitation
It's the epic 30-page conclusion of Grant Morrison and Rags Morales' majestic opening storyline! $3.99 gets you front row seats to the ascension of the DC Universe's first Super Hero as The Man of Steel goes toe to tentacle with the all-new Brainiac for the final fate of Metropolis!

Preview

The Comic
I know I said that last issue would be the last one I picked up, but since this one is solicited as the final one for the opening story, I guess I will pick it up. And I'm sorta disgruntled by what I picked up.

I know that since this is the final part of the story, no one in their right mind would pick up the issue. Who would want to come into a comic when it is the last comic of the story? Well, that doesn't always happen, and you have to be able to summarize the previous events in the book while being able to advance the story, or in this case conclude the story. While it does it in parts, there will still be a lot that just goes over the reader's head.

Now the story overall that is being concluded isn't really something that can go over a reader's head, until you start to look at the details. Morrison is trying to introduce the next story arc while at the same time concluding this one. This isn't something that isn't unusual to happen, we see Geoff Johns do this all the time. The important part is to make sure that you conclude this story's arcs first.

If the job of the first arc is simply to develop Superman's powers so they grow exponentially and put him in the suit, then that is what this arc did. If the point was to make a coherent story, it kinda missed it with this issue for me.

Superman  is battling Brainiac, and also the scientist guy who is wearing the armor controlled by Brainiac. I forget his name and the comic didn't mention it so who cares. But Brainiac and the army/cyborg dude seem like they are the same person from the art and the text doesn't really distinguish between the two as well since the army guy has some sort of split personality thing going on.

Superman defeats Brainiac, which we knew would happen. He does so by flicking his ship that brought him to earth, which has been shrunk previously by Brainic, at Brainiac. The ship has some sort of crystal computer and it grows which crystallizes around Brainiac, or through him, just something like that.

Superman then says to reverse the process of shrinking Metropolis, and now that his ship is in control of the alien vessel, the process gets reversed. Then we start seeing the next arc get planted and the conclusion of this one.

Basically - Clark gets told by his current editor to accept the job that the Daily Planet offered him. His landlord, Mrs. Nyxly (Superman fans will know that name from a famous villain) tells Clark that she will keep his secret that he is Superman. And Superman gets the key to the city. He reveals his origin to everyone in a press conference. Superman goes to his parent's graveside and says that he is slowly fitting in. He then goes up, up, and away. Luthor is revealed to be Clark's insider source for his reporting needs. and its revealed that Superman has made Brainiac's ship his new fortress of solitude.

In the epilogue, we get someone approaching a hunter asking if he would like to kill a bullet proof man. The hunter shoots a T-rex and says that there is no such thing as a bullet proof man.

I am still holding the opinion that this story would work better in the previous DC universe and not in the new 52. This was not a very good origin story. Or first adventure story. If you look at Clark Kent and the world that we know him to reside in, the only thing that has changed for him from the first issue is that he has a costume for Superman that is more than just a T-shirt. He was always hounded by the Daily Planet for a job, now he has decided to go there. I don't think that Lois Lane learned anything or had her character advance. Same for Jimmy Olsen. Luthor might have been a bigger change, but the reveal at the end that he was playing all sides seem to indicate that he was prepared to win no matter the outcome.

Basically, a lot of ideas were presented to us, and none of them seemed to be developed. I come out of this comic just not caring about Superman. He doesn't inspire me, not how Morrison was able to inspire me about Supermen in All Star Superman. This could have been so much better.

The Art
Inconsistency. This book had three artists, and the dip in quality of the art throughout the first 8 issues is just awful. The first issue was great. Spectacular. Now it just looks like a cheap imitation of that first issue. I could've sworn that Jimmy Olsen looked very different in previous issues. And what was with Superman's costume changing in each panel in the middle of the fight? I understand that the suit is controlled by the thought of the wearer, but there didn't seem to be any logical sense of the change in it. The story just didn't match what was going on.

And that politician handing Superman the key looked like a bad imitation of the Smiler from Transmetropolitan. The art also looked like a weirdly inked version of Lee Bermejo's art.

The Cover
The cover matched the comic perfectly, in the sense that it didn't inspire me at all. You can't see the big bad enemy, its covered up with the title of the book and all the other little words on it. Not even Superman looks to be all that clear. Not enough time was taken with how to design this cover, and it shows. I don't see why the old costume in the background is a focal point on this cover. It just makes me cringe.

And again, the cover shown here is actually a much better colored version that the one I got. I don't know if its because my shop only had the Digital Combo pack that I had to get and they color it different, but the cover shown here actually looks better than what was produced.

Grades
Words: 3/10
Pictures: 2/10
Recommend: Only if you just want to see how it concludes. Don't go near it otherwise.
Buy Next Issue: Nope. Not even the "preview" of the next arc, nor any of the hints of what is come that was laid out throughout the issue really gets me to want to continue with the comic. Maybe sometime down the line, but for now I continue to ignore anything Superman related. It's a shame really, I really did want to keep picking up this book.

Previous Issues

Comics! Avengers vs. X-Men #1

Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 

Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman and Matt Fraction: story
Brian Michael Bendis: script
John Romita, Jr.: pencils
Scott Hanna: inks

The Solicitation

• It’s No Longer Coming—It’s Here!
• Does The Return Of The Phoenix To Earth Signal The Rebirth Of The Mutant Species? That’s What The X-Men Believe!
• Unfortunately, The Avengers Are Convinced That Its Coming Will Mean The End Of All Life On Earth!
• The Stage Is Set For The Ultimate Marvel Showdown In This Oversized First Issue!

Preview

The Story
Since I said it before in a previous review of Winter Soldier #1, let's paste it here:


What what what? Is this a Marvel comic? Indeed it is, true believer. I decided to pick up a couple of #1s from Marvel to get a taste for how things have been since my last Marvel comic that I picked up. To give you an idea of how long it has been since I last danced the marvel dance, I picked up Morrison's X-Men run, got some old Garth Ennis Punisher hardcovers, and got about halfway through Brubaker's run on Daredevil. The last X-men comic I picked up was Warren Ellis' first issue on Astonishing X-men, and I think I caught the beginning of Bendis' run on Avengers with the House of M crossover. So yea, its been a little bit.


I have been keeping up with some random interviews with Marvel creators over the years, and have heard all the big controversial story lines. A couple of years ago I did get a month's subscription to Marvel's Digital Comics and caught up on a lot of books at that time. Beyond that, I am essentially coming into this comic as a new reader. So just like the DC #1s, there are going to be some certain expectations that I will need in order to keep the comic coming each month.


With that in mind, let's go for the comic and the review of it.

And so we do. And I must say, as a lapsed reader with all things Marvel, this book just drops the ball with catching me up. It's shiny, it's pretty, but in the end it is something that Marvel fans will love and new readers will be excited, but ultimately a lot of catching up and clarification will be needed. And this comic better do it quick.

Four pages in, and I have read only one word outside of the credits. What I know as the Phoenix just torched some far side of a planet and is traveling through space. I know it's the Phoenix, old readers know it's the Phoenix, but I don't think a new reader would get that. Yet.

The next nine pages takes its time telling us that the Avengers are just hanging around with nothing to do. But they can assemble! This comet looking thing has hit a plane that takes out a building, that the Avengers catch and prevent and deaths from happening. The comet crashes and the Avengers run to find Nova! Who is Nova!? I don't know. Seriously, I really don't have much of a clue about Nova besides the fact that he is some cosmic guy. And that is all I apparently need to know. Either he is dead or he is just passed out. And he just says that "it" is coming.

Next we get to meet Hope and Cyclops over at Utopia, the island home of the X-men. Its been a bit since I last checked in with the X-Men, but I know that Hope is supposed to be some sort of mutant messiah. But last I knew she was some kid. Ignoring all that back history I know, we basically see Cyclops "training" Hope for some reason, and I mean hardcore training her. Then I wonder if Cyclops is evil or something because Magneto is on this island.

The thought gets interrupted when that bird thing, the Phoenix, makes its appearance again when Hope starts to yell. At this point we have reached the staples of the comic, meaning the middle of the issue, and I have seen so very, very few words here. A little clarification would be nice to have right about now. I'd even settle for little character boxes when we first see a character that would have their name and maybe their powers or something, sorta like how Utopia was introduced. Yes, there was a nice character chart in the beginning of the book with the names of the characters, but nothing about powers, skill sets, etc.

Why is the Phoenix with Hope? Apparently because she is a red head. But never mind the details, let's jump to the next scene! Which is a good thing, because now things get all talky. We get the back story of the message that Nova delivered and find out he is in a coma. And then we learn what the Phoenix is and how it is connected to Jean Grey of the X-men. Coolness. Iron Man then says that the Phoenix needs a biological host to lay waste to the environment. Which is a tad weird, because it looked like it layed waste to the planet it was passing by or on in the first four pages, and it didn't look like it had a host or anything. I guess we are to assume that there was one.

Then the Phoenix flares up, which I assume is the Hope thing a few pages back, and the Avengers are going to head out and find where the flare happened. Before they can do that, they stop by the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning to talk with Wolverine. Which makes me wonder why there is a school, what happened to Wolverine and Cyclops, why Cyclops is more of an ass then normal when training Hope, when does Wolverine have time to be a part of this school, and much more questions that I am going to need Wikipedia to help me catch up on all this stuff.

We then go back to Utopia where Scott is meeting with some other X-men. Apparently Colossus is bald now. and Magneto is a voice of reason here. Something has happened to the X-men, and I'm not sure what exactly. Then Captain America drops by to pick up Hope, and he is hoping to talk to Cyclops about it. Basically the argument boils down to the fact that Cap wants Hope and thinks that the Avengers are the best way to handle the Phoenix force when it gets to earth, and Cyclops thinks the opposite. So Cyclops shoots Captain America with his eye beam. Captain America responds with "Avengers Assemble."

That eye blast was a two page spread, and the Avengers arriving in a huge plane is a two page spread. Then we cut to Hope and the Phoenix showing up in her eyes. And we see Scott yell, even though the speech bubble looks like one of those "I'm speaking via telepathically" looks to them.

A comic for new readers, this is definitely not. A comic for Avengers fans? I guess. A comic for X-men fans? I guess. I just don't know enough about what is going on in either series to really get much of a grasp as to what is going on with these characters. And remember, it took the five best writers for Marvel to come up with this idea. And this was Brian Bendis taking the main writing duties on the first issue, which is weird to me because I always knew his comics to be talky talky talky back in the day. Where did that go?

Face it, the premise for this book decided to wait until the second half to get things going. If the idea behind this book is to try and get people to read Marvel comics again, then for me it has failed. Over priced, under told, and it just didn't have the excitement I want out of a comic. If this was aimed as a Michael Bay there is no need to care about the story let's just see some action type of story, then it hit its mark. But then why did it need five writers behind this idea?


And how come none of them thought of the fact that Magneto could simply crush the ship the Avengers came on? Unless he has had his powers messed with and he is de-powered in some way. Which he probably is as that tends to happen to him ever other year.

The Art
John Romita Jr knows his shit. Seriously. I have high praise for it, there has been a consistency for it and it shows throughout this issue. My one complaint is about those stupid "AR" stamps all over the place. They take away from the art and are distracting. They are supposed to be an Augmented Reality that you should be able to wave your smartphone over in order to get some behind the scenes stuff and bonus features.

Personally, I don't care for the digital stuff presented like that in the middle of the comic. It takes away from it. Its sorta like watching a movie on Blue-Ray for the first time and you have all the bonus behinds the scenes stuff playing over the movie. Or the commentary track going - but that comparison may be a little off with the audio track. More if they had an icon pop up every time a storyboard was going to be shown for the scene. Its distracting, this is the first time you are seeing the movie, why would you care about how it is made before you view it and try to take in the movie viewing experience?

The Cover
The logo at the top looks cool, I will give it that. And we have a pretty standard type of cover that I got with the heroes about to fight each other. This type of cover has been done before and will be done again. I don't like it much because the cover feels crowded.

Grades
Words: 5/10 - Way too much felt left out of the comic for me. If this was something that someone lent to me as a trade later on, then I might give it a whirl. This is not something I would continue to get on my own.
Pictures: 8/10
Recommend: If you are already a big X-men or Avengers fan of the current books, then maybe this one is for you. But for me, it just isn't happening.
Buy Next Issue: Nah. I'll read the summaries and spoilers that other web sites are sure to publish at some point.

Comics! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8


Story: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Dan Duncan


The Solicitation
It's nonstop excitement in this action packed issue of TMNT! Baxter Stockman's latest inventions have found the Turtles lair in the sewers and it's a scramble for survival... and not everyone will make it out safely! General Krang also provides the answers to some lingering mysteries! AND Casey Jones and April make an important connection?? This issue has it all!

Preview

The Story
Yep, non-stop excitement and action packed describe it pretty much spot on. The Turtles battle the Mousers and Hob kidnaps Splinter. It takes the Turtles all issue long to deal with the Mousers and they, of course, kick ass.

We get a couple subplots moving along. April meets up with the Turtles and faints at the site of them. Casey gets the knowledge that April knew the Turtles before they mutated. Baxter gets threatened with the loss of his life if he can't get Splinter and make an army of Mutant soldiers for Krang. We also get some build up of a "mysterious ninja" who I am sure will be revealed to be Shredder.

Short story, I know. What do you expect out of an action issue? And this one isn't bad, considering all the subplots that got spotlighted and moved forward.

The Art
Turtles fighting. Consistent art. Seriously, how is this not cool as can be?

The Cover
I got the cover where the Turtles are swimming in a sea of Mousers. It actually was kinda boring. I wish that the background color was something other than same color as the mousers, that may have helped it stick out more. I definitely did skip over it when I picked up my comics this week. Just didn't have that snappy appeal.

Grades
Words: 9/10
Pictures: 10/10
Recommend: Hell to the yes. Its the Turtles.
Buy Next Issue: Sold!

Previous Issues

Comics! The Flash #7

Flash #7

Story by Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Art by Francis Manapul

The Solicitation
Captain Cold is back – and he's more dangerous than ever! Seeking revenge on The Flash, he must convince the rest of the Rogues to reunite one last time. But what tore them apart before? And what did The Flash do to earn their deadly scorn? Find out here!

Preview

The Story
Is there some sort of mix up here? The solicitation is dead wrong. Yes, Captain Cold is in this issue, but there is nothing at all about uniting the Rogues and getting them to team up. That minor note aside, this is actually a decent issue of the Flash.

Flash saves Patty, but at the cost of opening up another one of his wormholes that are generated whenever he uses his powers too much. Iris West gets sucked into it and Flash goes after Cold over it. Cold blames the Flash for almost killing Cold's sister due to the power outage caused by Flash (which wasn't actually caused by him and apparently is the longest power outage ever!).

Flash feels bad for all of this and decides to use the treadmill to power up some power batteries that will in turn power up the city. When he does this, he runs fast enough to create another wormhole and he runs through it.

We then get a page of talking gorillas, who long time Flash fans will recognize as the new 52 version of Gorilla Grodd. But if you don't know anything about it, the page then looks like it was randomly pulled out of another comic and inserted here. Seriously, it is out of place and has no context, especially if you are a new reader to the title.

We then get to see Captain Cold in shackles talk to his sister who is now doing better after her treatment. she makes a remake that he should've let her die after what he did to her, which comes out of nowhere and again has no context before moving on to the next page to something completely different.

Patty is having a break down after Barry got pulled through the wormhole. Or at least that is what Flash told her. So she thinks that Barry died and is broken up about it. The power starts to come back on in the city and I really begin to wonder how much time has actually passed in this comic. Are all these events supposed to be happening in the same day?

Jump to the Flash and his trip into the Speed Force. It looks all weird and funny. Then Flash gets held captive by some guy who we will learn more about next issue.

Clunky at times, and made for longtime Flash fans. And don't look for an explanation of how Cold got his new powers anytime soon.

The Art
Nothing we haven't seen from before with Manapul, and it delivers.

The Cover
It reminds me of that old "I'm Blue" song.

Grades
Words: 7/10
Pictures: 8/10
Recommend: Not for new readers. Too much happens that you need the previous issues to get.
Buy Next Issue: The Flash train keeps chugging along.

Previous Issues