the crossover blog

Justice League: cry for quality comics

2010-03-08T17:54:00.000-08:00

Having read cry for justice, it's time I say something about it. This book was bad. Really, really bad. The writing is terrible. Characters are thrown in and out for no rhyme or reason. The dialog is beyond terrible. But the worst things are the needlessly gruesome moments, the shock tactics. And the saddest part is this: we know Robinson isn't a bad writer. His recent Starman revival, for blackest nigh,t was good stuff. I don't mind his superman. His JLA sucks but so what? Sadly now I have to drop his books. I refuse to read the works of someone who so horribly ripped the Green Arrow franchise to shreds. Have I mentioned this has destroyed my interest in the rise and fall? I was split on whether or not to read it, not anymore. Killing of Lian, BAD. Forcing green arrow to commit murder, BAD. Destroying star city, VERY BAD. ripping of Roy's arm, FUCKING TERRIBLE. So James Robinson, I'm done.

On the bright side, it's not all bad news. JMS is coming to both Supeman and Wonder Woman. Now the people who write dc's five most important characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash) are JMS, Grant Morrison, and Geoff Johns. DC's new "holy trinity of writers" can stand up to Bendis's ability to shit money.

coming in may

2010-02-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

I found this funny. note: not real.

As is read the solicits for may I couldn't help but think the following things.

1. Deadpool is set to appear in no less then six marvel titles in may. As much as I like him, this must be stopped.

2. Iron man has four titles coming out. This was expected.

3. Why is atom smasher alive on the cover of JSA all stars? Also some time in the next 4 and 1/2 aquaman comes back. Could this make my blackest night mass revival theory correct? They are both non destroyed black lanterns.

4. STRACZYNSKI is writing a doom patrol/ legion of superheroes crossover in the brave and the bold. I will read the shit out of that comic.

5. Booster gold #32 and two issues of JLI. That a lot of booster gold!

6.black alice is going to fight scandal savage. That won't be pretty. But it will be awesome

7. Paul dini writing zatanna, huh. I still don't know if arkham asylum warranted forgiving dini for countdown. I also haven't seen a zatanna solo comic in a long time. I wonder if zatara and misty kilgore are in it.

8. Paul levitz has signed on to batman/superman, so I might have to check that out.

9. Still undecided on war of the supermen. I will determine if it's good enough to check out, despite the travesty that was world without superman, depending on new krypton's last stand.

10. Lot's of brightest day stuff. All of it looks cool.

11. I will miss guy gardener in GLC. I will also miss Tomasi.

12. The batman family looks like it's going to have a crazy awesome may. Most notably morrison's master stroke, return of bruce wayne.

13. all in all dc looks to have a fantastic may lineup.

column 2 "maybe they landed in the universe of cotton candy hookers and chocolate beer"

2010-01-21T19:38:00.000-08:00

This week's score comic: comic shop 1, my ass (and my wallet) 0. Seriously the number of books I bought this week is fucking ridiculous. I spent a good sixty bucks on comics this week. Half of these books weren't even good. On the plus side, one event had a very good week. I doubt there would be any difficulty for you to guess which one. Please comment once you finish reading it, I like to be acknowledged, and no one commenting is depressing. On to the weeks reviews.

the gauntlet

The gauntlet rages on with this week's Amazing Spiderman 618. I sort of, was hoping for something really good after last week's issue was the best of the week. Best Spiderman comic since J.M.S. left. Completely changed my opinion of gauntlet. Then this came out. Not that it's bad, just not good. This issue sort of revived some plot lines from earlier in brand new day, specifically before I rejoined brand new day (I had to wikipedia half of this issue). Not that this is a bad thing, it's just that Mysterio only showed up for a few panels. It mostly followed the maggia's decent into fail. Not that I don't like the maggia, it's just this issue sort of bored me. The mister negative bits flew way over my head. In the end this issue fell pray to the problem that most of the gauntlet, save for last issue, has fallen in. Good writing, lackluster plots.

realm of kings

There where two realm of kings books this week, I didn't pick up realm of kings: inhumans because I'm bored with that book and the cosmic event cycle in general. In fact, the only reason I picked up nova 33 is because I treated it like a new warriors spin-off. I like new warriors a lot. To be fair, both darkhawk and namorita show up this issue so I'm hardly wrong in that assumption. In fact this issue had nothing to do with the rest of ROK, something I'm ok with. If you don't pick this up, you won't miss anything. Inside is a fairly decent comic with a plot idea that has been done to death.

the Mark Waid awesomeverse

This week's entry into the mark waid awesomeverse was incorruptible 2, naturally it was awesome. A contender for best of the week. If you aren't reading boom studios masterwork then you should. Go to the store, pick up both the trades for irredeemable, then get irredeemable 9 and incorruptible 1, then finish of with this. These books where amazing to begin with, and have been getting better with each issue. In this issue we get a plot, plenty of action, tons of hilarity, and best of all, a street view of the plutonian's rampage. Naturally, what we see is awesome. Buy this book.

our world at war

For some reason superman/batman 68 was part of our world at war. Why it was part of a nine year old crossover? I don't know, I didn't but it.

nation x

This week's only x title was uncanny x men 520 which was, thankfully, not part of necrosha. The resulting book was not bad just ,at time, a little boring. The parts with predator x, failed to interest me. However, the parts with magneto deciding to fix one of utopia's many problems without first informing cyclops was endlessly entertaining.

dark reign

Behold, this week possessed, what are sure to be, some of the last non-siege dark reign titles. Among them were both issues of thunderbolts and mighty avengers. I did not read thunderbolts because I dropped that book like it was hot a month ago. I did however read mighty avengers 33. Considering the solid last tissue, this issue was a bit of a let down. It was also at times kind of stupid. That said I still enjoyed it. Specifically the part where Pym convinces Osborne that he already used the cosmic cube. that was gold.

assault on new Olympus
Aono continued this week with incredible herc 140 . As someone who doesn't read this title on a weekly basis, much of this issue went over my head. What I did understand I did enjoy. Incredible herc remains one of the best books I'm to lazy to read. The agent of atlas part was also good. But then, that is hardly a surprise. I think I need to add this comic to my regulars.

non-crossover section
I read surprisingly little non crossover stuff this week. captain america 603 was some stupidity about right wing antigov rebels, some evil clone of cap, and bucky was still cap. Nothing a normal person should want to read. All this comic did, was anger me about the negative portrayal of republicans in marvel books. Actually the nomad part wasn't half bad.Deadpool merc with a mouth 7 was good. It pulled of dimension traveling deadpool in the funniest way it could (please see quote at the top). My only complaint is the artwork in the sergeant deadpool part, that was pretty horrible. Power girl 7 was the worst issue of this series. Where as vartox in last issue was brash, incompetent, and narcissistic, this issues vartox was competent and charming. THERE IS NO HUMOR WHEN BOTH CHARACTERS ARE THE STRAIGHT MAN. Glad I got that out of my system.

Moving on to the brave and the bold 31. You know who I love, J. Michael Straczynski. Apparently, so does someone at dc. They gave him a title and a license to do whatever the fuck he wants. The end result is an awesome comic. This weeks dose of J. Michael Straczynski, consists of a team up between the atom and the joker. Where in gods name does he come up with this stuff? This comic is brilliant. Contender for best of the week. Maybe better then last issue. And last issue was a super awesome team up between green lantern and dr. fate tying into JLI. And if there are two things I love, it's J. Michael Straczynski and JLI. Back to this issue, we see the atom reluctantly go into the joker's brain to cure him of a brain disease. We then see a new take on the joker's origin (read: NOT BASED ON THE WORKS OF ALAN MOORE). All in all a great issue.

siege

I read two siege books this week. dark wolverine 82 sort of fell flat. it wasn't bad, just not an interesting comic. Dark avengers 13 entirely consisted of Bendis trying to throw reveal after reveal about the sentry at you. It lead to horrible comic. Suddenly the sentry is a drug addict, and the void is the angel of death. Horrible stuff. It actually made the already pretty shitty character of the sentry cross the line into terrible character territory.

fall of the hulks

It's odd to find two good hulk comics in one week. Especially a good leob hulk comic. But here I am reading hulk 19 and incredible hulk 606 and I notice, fall of the hulks is four for four. Speaking of fours we saw the f.f. in both these issues. Apparently the Inteligencia (I call them the brain trust) puts there plan for world domination in order. The first step is to take the smartest people on earth out of the issue to make there job easier. So this week they target reed richards and dr. doom. both are defeated bringing the brain trust one step closer to victory. And I think she hulk dies, don't quote me on that It's not clear what happened to her. I don't know. The only problems I had are that both doom and the f.f. lost a little easy, and that romita jr. isn't doing these books. I loved him in fall of the hulks gamma.

AND NOW FOR THE BEST EVENT OF THE WEEK

image united

image united is a great book. It's really cleaning house. In fact I would go so far as to say it's one of the best comics ever. I especially love how all the artists draw there own........... hahahhahahhahahhahahahhahahhahahahahahhahaha I'm sorry I couldn't keep a straight face. Image united is actually one of the worst pieces of shit I have ever read. The real best event of the week is below.

blackest night

Blackest night kicked ass and took names this week. first there was starman 81. I never read the original so this issue went way over my head. However, unlike dan didio's weird western tales issue, this book was forgiving to new readers. It ended up so good, I wanted to read the original starman run.

Green lantern corps 44 was something to behold. Tomasi, a writer who up until now has worked miracles, has completely lost his shit. The past two issues have been full of instant fixes, shit dialog, deus ex machinas, and plot holes. despite that this issue was awesome. Was it the art? Was it the great character's that he's using? Was the concept behind these issues so good that instant plot fixes and bad writing doesn't matter? I don't know. I personally think it was all of the above. For some reason tomasi dropping the ball hasn't killed this books overwhelming quality.

Phantom stranger 44 was something different. All of the revived titles have been one of th following, a nostalgia comic (starman, weired western), or another book in disguise (catwoman=gothem city sirens, suicide squad=secret six, power of shazam=52). But this book was different. It actually tied into not one, but two actual subplots in blackest night. It advanced the spectre subplot from earlier in blackest night, that will show up in green lantern 50. It also concludes the deadman subplot seen in BN:batman and the main series. The book itself is really good and I recommend reading it.

the best issue of the week

This week's best issue falls under the blackest night banner in the form of blackest night:flash 2
PLEASE NOTE, THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS. This issue was awesome. It was sort of two awesome stories in one. Half this issue followed the rouges in their attempt to hunt the black lantern rouges. If you have read final crisis rouges revenge then you would know geoff johns is a great writer for the rouges. If you haven't then JOHNS WRITES THE ROUGES LIKE NINJA CANDY. We see one on one battles between the appropriate living and dead rouges. We also see black lantern rainbow rider, I enjoyed that. But the part that propelled the issue to greatness was the blue lantern flash part. It showed
barry and saint walker unite to take down black lantern after black lantern, all with the battle cry "all will be well". Please note;that would have been this column's title if I didn't like the quote from merc with a mouth a little better. All in all it ended up a great issue, and a must read.

And that my second column see you around next week.

column number 1: glenn beck and the power of love

2010-01-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

See this guy. He is now a major character in marvel's siege. I'm getting ahead of myself, welcome to my first column.

First, an announcement about the blog. The regular process of reviews is postponed. I will still do them from time to time. Also there will be no basic schedule for my posts.

Now to Glenn Beck. In siege embedded #1(a.k.a. siege front lines) one particular conservative news show host under an alarmingly obvious pseudonym of Todd Kellar. He isn't shown in sympathetic light to say the least. They show him as a Norman Osborn supporter, and they make fun of him in a typical fashion. This raises the obvious question of why would marvel do this. I am not a beck fan don't get me wrong. But the big two should never ever do anything partisan in any way. Ever. Plus, this is my favorite part, they didn't even write a good Glenn Beck. Consider this, Glenn Beck would hate Osborne. Norman was appointed by Obama. Beck would be the one taking cheap shots at Osborne being a super villain. basically, Glenn Beck fail. Beyond that the is the normal marvel event street review book. They put one out whenever a major event is right around the corner. It even has Ben Urich and everything.

siege #1 was something I enjoyed. Did I like it as much as I've been loving blackest night, hahahhahahhahhahhahhaha no. I mean I liked it, I liked it alot, but this book moves to fast for my tastes. There isn't enough time to react to a particular scene. That said the scene with ares giving the inspiring speech was glorious. It simultaneously was so absurd that it was funny, while being completely epic. Oh, and he road a jet into battle, that was awesome. Anything with ares in this comic was very good. the rest of the issue was pretty cool too. we saw the teased thor/dark avengers fight. SPOILER ALERT dark avengers won. The whole book just rocked. I can't support this book enough. NOTE: I support it less then blackest night.

Meanwhile nation x keeps moving right along. I think it's filler in waiting for the second coming. However good none the less. It's not like the crappy necrosha event that has caused me to drop half my x books. On that note, new mutants #9 came out. I gave it the obligatory check that I give to all necrosha books. It was bad. Furthermore it had nothing to do with necrosha. As you can see from my who will wield the shield review, I hate that. Meanwhile X factor nation X was good. It had all the joy you find in the delightful normal x factor book, wrapped in a nation x package. If you buy one X book this week, make it that.

Blackest night had a very off week. It went one for three. Blackest night wonder woman #2 was a disappointment. It tried to shed light on Johns's absurd pick for star sapphire. It actually made things more confusing. Conceptually there was nothing wrong with it. It actually had a good idea behind it, a tie in through the eyes of a black lantern. It just fell flat on it's face, is the problem. Weird western tales 71 was incomprehensible to me. If you actually know anything the title then you might like it, but I didn't. Lastly there was suicide squad 67 (a.k.a. secret six 17 and 1/2) which was a great book. it is about a confrontation between the secret six and the suicide squad over what team deadshot should be on. if you saw the word black lantern in that sentence then you are missing something. This was yet another tie-in in name only. However unlike like most name only tie-ins I liked this one. why? First because unlike new mutants, or who will wield the shield I would buy this anyway. This is because secret six is one of my favorite books every month. Secondly, we do see some black lanterns at the end, and this is kind of a prelude to a secret six blackest night tie in.

I know blackest night #6 was last week but there was something about it that everybody seemed to miss. Remember that part where wonder woman returns to life due tot he infinite power of love. That was the first instance of a black lantern returning to life. That implies something like it could happen again. The obvious application is the revivals of the formerly resurrected heroes. The more alarming use is the possible revival of any active black lantern. It's the context of either a selective or mass resurrection of dead characters. If lantern rings can revive BL's then any BL can be revived. Beside that, good issue. Especially the parts with Luther and scarecrow.

Well that is my first post. Expect more in the coming weeks. I would appreciate it if you comment. As it stands there doesn't seem to be anyone reading. Any sign of life would be good.

review fall of the hulks

2009-12-26T22:07:00.000-08:00

Who are you and what have you done to Jeff Leob. Are we going to find his corpse in a dumpster. Will his body pop up in Newark. Because this is a Jeff Loeb I have not seen in years. Not since hush has he done something this good. but how can that be? for the past six years he has been spending his time ruining tings I hold dear.the ultimate line, heroes, the hulk books. But this is the first competent job I've seen him do in a long, long, time. Actually fallen son part 5 was o.k. too.

This comic is as near to perfection as I've seen in the hulk line. the overall issue follows the funeral of SPOILER general thunderbolt Ross. the funeral serves as the base from which the rest of the story kicks off. most of the issue follows the eulogies of various characters who will appear in the fall of the hulks. this issue for the most part to show us who is where and who is allied to whom, entering the event. it even shows us a few characters who we haven't seen in a long time. oddly missing is skaar, also missing was the warbound. both seem to be important coming in.

the art by john romita jr was naturally a blast. I have been a fan of his since JMS/JRJR team on spider man that was nearly perfect. after having finally gotten around to reading the excellent kick ass, this book is a treat to read. also after reading this book I have decided that romita should have been doing hulk books before. his art style lends itself to the kind of action in hulk.

the issue comes off as well written interesting and intriguing. for the first time in over a year I care about the identity of red hulk I can't recommend this book highly enough.

that said I will e bothered by something. this book takes place after siege, so now i know that anybody in this book is still alive at the end of it.

my review: A

review captain america who wield the shield

2009-12-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

this comic is the worst editorial mistake since the legion of 3 earths release schedule.

before I get to what is wrong I'll start with what this issue does right. the art is solid. nothing of note, but nothing to insult. the issues story isn't far from bad, and at times the issue is even engaging and interesting. if you can overlook everything wrong with this book it ends up with a pretty good package. now to rip it to shreds.

My first and the smallest of my complaints is that this book threw in Obama for no reason whatsoever. none. i don't even know why, he's just there. it's like Ed Brubaker doesn't know we as a country don't care about him anymore. again it's not like this kills the issue by itself. it just pisses me off. how about the fact that this book is shockingly useless. this book literally could have been done in one page.SPOILER ALERT steve rodgers gets the shield. are you surprised in the slightest bit. no, I thought not. some marvel zombies (dear marvel, congratulations on making the term for your fans unusable) might say "can't you enjoy the book for the story". they might also say "so what if the book promised something important but didn't deliver. how is this different from marvel saying, in the next issue of amazing spider man the battle with the shocker continues, will he live or will this be the end of the web head forever." my response for both are the same. marvel made me fell like i needed to but this book. I didn't want to read it but marvel made me feel like i have to in order too be caught up with siege. i don't want o read brubaker captain america books but i thought i had too. basically marvel stole 4 bucks from every one who purchased this book.

now for my main complaint. this book is an eprologue for captain america reborn. it even says how it is going to end. however that series isn't over. marvel ran this book before the series it was supposed to conclude ended. i don't know how an oversite of this magnitude could happen. maybe they forgot they added an extra issue to the end of reborn and forgot to push this back. maybe they rushed it out the door to make room for siege. all i know is i found myself reading the summery of an issue set to come out next month. the whole cap reborn has been a mess. i was in shock the moment they announced it. I thought maybe I'm maybe it won't be terrible so i tried. basically in the past three months I've dropped all my captain America books. all of them. ok not new avengers, but i'm mad at that comic for unrelated reasons. as someone who used to lauugh at final crisis an dc in general. this book is a sign of why dc has been so much better for the last 8 months.

my very generous review. c-

review for Amazing Spiderman 616

2009-12-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

This is my first review for the blog so here it goes.

This is the fifth issue in the ongoing gauntlet. thus far the series has been well written, well drawn, and bad at reinventing characters. We pick up on Spiderman in the middle of a fight with Sandman over a girl who claims is his daughter. We see him here as having problems with multiple personalities. The end result is a uniquely sixties Spiderman book.

I want to say this about the art. it is some of the most inspired work in comics outside of detective comics. It's idea of a modern retro look contributes to the feel of the book perfectly. When I say modern retro I refer to the fact that the art is very sixties style, but at the same time it is filled with little modern quirks. The end result of something that works on many levels.

Much like the art, the writing is reminiscent of Stan Lee era Spiderman books, but at the same time things like the ending show just how far the industry has progressed. The book was a wonderful ride, with a good story, good action, and a good sense of pacing.

However the book is not without problems. The characterization of Sandman in this book is way out of character. I was disappointed with the lack of subplots. But most of all, I don't like what this or any of the other gauntlet books are doing with my favorite characters. If you, like me, have learned to like sandman over the years then you will be disappointed. It seems like this was a step back for the character. This in fact seems like a complaint I have continued and will continue to have against all the reinventions of classic characters in gauntlet. More on that on Sunday. That however was my largest complaint against the book.

I would be lying if I liked the writing for sandman in this straight out of the sixties book, but that is not nearly enough to bring this stellar title down.

my review: A-

welcome

2009-12-23T23:10:00.000-08:00

Hello, I am the hooded blogger and this is my blog all about comic books. Well, it is for the most part about the various crossovers, events, or major story lines printed by the big two. However I will offer issue reviews, and I will talk about some non marvel/dc stuff (despite it's crossover status do not expect me to talk about image united). I will do weekly columns on Sunday and reviews all week. The column will almost always be about major events being released by the big two or sometimes one of the other publishers. Now i know there are other blogs that do this, but i hope someone reads this. So to rehash, welcome to my blog i hope you have a good time