Sam Christopher's Quick Hits

Before we enter the world of comics, I’d like to say a word about Eli Stone: AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!! Thank you.

Now let’s start off with Action Comics #872, which is Chapter 7 in the New Krypton serial. Geoff Johns (The Flash, 52) is a great writer. The characterization of Alura, Supergirl’s mother, as a villainess while Zor-El plays the good guy ruler who’s kept out of the loop about all the machinations going on in the shadows around him is just spot-on, and logical given the circumstance they’re presented with. The Pete Woods (Catwoman, Robin) art, though, just needs to go. Not saying Woods is a bad artist, just that this style of drawing doesn’t fit The Man of Steel. This was a major drawback in the preceding Legion of Superheroes and Brainiac storylines, which were great stories that the art only detracted from. Could be worse, now that I think of it; Woods could be drawing Wonder Woman or the soon to be departed Birds of Prey. I really think he’d be better on something gritty like a new Question series. Or maybe they’ll give him a new Creature Commandos series, now that they’ve brought them back to the DCU.

And we fall right back to the depths with Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #2 (of 5). Delving perilously close to Marvel Apes territory (which came out with a #0 this week, by the way, in response, no doubt, to the multitude of fans who wrote in begging for reprints of Gibbon-centric stories). This second issue is absolutely awful. Tony Stark digs deeper and finds that a cabal of JFK, Trask (whose first name I can never remember but it’s the guy who created the Sentinels to kill the X-Men), and The Joint Chiefs got together in the bowels of the Pentagon (at midnight most likely) to implement “Project: Wide Awake, which Tony refers to as “a whisper in the dark by men who were afraid of what they didn’t understand. A policy of fear and repression.” The main thrust of this insidious scheme was apparently to wait until the Earth is about to be attacked by “a scout for a hostile armada”, a creature “powerful beyond belief”, then send the most powerful hero on the planet, the only man with even a chance of stopping this threat, to fight it. All of this only because the Blue Marvel is black. I mean, we all know the government would never think of asking the Fantastic Four or Thor or Captain America or Iron Man to investigate any threat to all life on the planet because they’re all white (well, the Thing’s orange but he used to be white so I guess they figure that’s close enough). Just a dumb, dumb story.

Other Comics:
Amazing Spidergirl #27- May’s travails continue as she goes in search of her own body, Peter’s destiny—in Norman Osborne’s eyes—is apparently achieved, and Li’l Benjy teaches us a new dirty word.

Ambush Bug: Year None #5 (of 6)- I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that if you journey far enough you’ll meet yourself, but did you also know you’ll steal your girlfriend? Seasoned Tater Tots Earth will never be the same. Just an amazing book.

Final Crisis: Revelations #4 (of 5)- Still an excellent read. By far the best of the FC X-overs. Much better than…

Final Crisis #5 (of 7)- As usual, not so much, although it was a trifle more coherent this time.

Justice League of America #27- The return of the Milestone Heroes to the DCU, and they’re after the retired Dr. Light for some reason. A battle royal coming next ish, I think.

Secret Invasion: Dark Reign One-Shot- Horrible artwork—I have never seen Namor look worse, and Loki was fairly awful, too—and a nonsensical story add up to rank garbage. Hard to decide which was worse this week, this or Adam. This may have been worse, to me, because I have really come to hate what they’ve done with Norman Osborne. That character is just… Anyway.