Mini-reviews of some 8/9 books
It's about time I post something around here other than the podcast, so here goes - reviews of books that came out this week:
52 Week 14
Wow, this issue was boring. Montoya and the Question go to Kahndaq, where they spend pages and pages wandering around doing nothing. Steel has built a new armor for his daughter. Doc Magnus gets the Metal Men up and running again, while the gub'ment wants them for weapons. This is easily the most disappointing issue of 52 thus far, and if you listen to the podcast, you know I love this series in general (this is the one series where I don't mind the extreme decompression, because it's part of the bill). What's funny about this, to me, is that in 14 weeks very little of actual import has occured in 52, but the entire run of Bendis' New Avengers was supposed to take place over the course of like two weeks.
Fables 52
Did anyone think that such an extreme strike on the heart of the empire would go unavenged? Of course not. This issue brings together some of the most powerful 'evil' fables in the Empire, along with the newly-introduced Inquisitor General Hansel, into a war council, where they begin their plans to wipe out Fabletown completely. A subplot with Red Riding Hood is fun to read, as is the back-up story (which promises to be a regular feature, highlighting 'other' fables than those in the main cast) about Rapunzel. Fables is a book that I look forward to every month, and I have yet to be disappointed.
Superman 655
Has Arion even appeared in a comic since Crisis on Infinite Earths? Because he's a lot of fun here. In the past, he has a vision about events occuring with Superman in our time, becomes greatly annoyed that his future self hasn't dealt with them, becomes even more annoyed when he realizes that he has died sometime in the interim, and decides to get his own hands dirty by jumping forward through time to take care of things. Did I mention Superman is in this comic too? There are some great character moments with Lana Lang, as well as some background on Callie, who Clark evidently met sometime in the early Birthright years, as well as some interesting new applications of Clarks hightened abilities. A great Superman issue.
More as soon as I get around to reading them.
I am liking the Metal Men arc on 52, short of that, it needs to pick up a bit. Superman, Kurt is doing good with the title, still not as great as the Up, Up, and Away storyline, but it ain't bad either.