Green Lantern #18 — Writer: Geoff Johns; Art: Daniel Acuna
A piece of fluff: 16 pages to the main story, of which four are splashes. Lots of T&A, but all that happens is that Star Sapphire shows up, possesses Carol Ferris, and then decides to possess Hal’s new girlfriend instead. That’s it. The backup story introduces one of the villains in Sinestro’s new Yellow Lantern Corps, and is meant to show us what a badass he (it) is. It’s all prelude too. ( *sigh* This whole mega-huge Sinestro story’s going to to be nothing but a big, loud, overbearing maxi-series pain in the butt, isn’t it?)
Guy Ritchie’s Game Keeper #1 — Scropter: Andy Diggle; Art and Color: Mukesh Singh
Heh. I’m guessing this is “Guy Ritchie’s” book in the sense that all those old Technocomics were “Leonard Nimoy’s” Primortals, etc. — Ritchie had an old concept lying around that he threw on the table, and Virgin assigned Diggle and Singh to actually flesh it out (Diggle even says in an afterward that while he “imagines Guy has some kind of script approval, I’ve been given a very great deal of freedom to tell exactly the kind of story I want to tell.” So, you haven’t even talked to him, have you, dude?)
Is it any good? Eh. It’s OK, but it’s one of these introductory stories where the main character’s supposed to be this hardcore, unstoppable killing machine, and the first thing that happens is he lets his employer get killed. Sure, he’ll take his bloody revenge next issue, presumably, but this doesn’t look like anything that, say, Jon Sable didn’t do better 20 years ago.
Catwoman #65 — Writer: Will Pfeifer; Penciller: David Lopez; Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Selina’s trapped in a vast storehouse underneath the Lexcorp building with a Lutherbot, which is just like a Doombot, right down to the demagogue and ego circuitry. OK fight, although the trick that lets her win is misstated in the script (it states that a time-travel device eventually bounces you back to “when you started,” but the trick depends on her showing back up later than that). DC needs better editors, apparently; that could have been fixed by tweaking one sentence. It’s a pleasant, quick read, but nothing to actually want to keep.
Blue Beetle #13 — Writer: John Rogers; Artists: Rafael Albuquerque and David Baldeon; Inker: Dan Davis
This book is this close to moving to the “bought” column — the revelations about the scarab’s purpose, and the alien race that created it, are intriguing, and the last-panel twist comes out of nowhere but makes perfect sense, which is exactly what you want in a last-panel twist. One of the aliens’ gambits does depend on the main character being an idiot for it to work — geez, Jaime, if they’re trying to get in good with the JLA, go tattle to Batman; you know where his cave is — although maybe that’ll get covered in the next issue. The series continues to improve; at this point, the only thing keeping me from buying it is the guess that, because it’s such a low seller, it’s about to be cancelled (which is, come to think of it, kind of an ironic self-fulfilling prophecy, no?).
Crossing Midnight # 5 — Writer: Mike Carey; Pencils: Jim Fern; Inks: Mark Pennington
I want to like this book more than I do; one issue, the characters and concepts will be interesting, and the plot will seem to be rocketing forward, and then the next everyone seems dull, and the plot treads water, and even the fights don’t go anywhere. Out of five issues, maybe two have been the good kind, and unfortunately this isn’t one of them.
Wolverine #52 — Writer: Jeph Loeb; Pencils: Simon Bianchi; Inks: Simone Bianchi and Andrea Sylvestri
Pretty art, although the page layouts sometimes make it hard to follow the action. Three issues into the new storyline, and the plot is just barely becoming comprehensible: it’s just another Sabretooth throwdone, after all, and it’s now guest-starring the Black Panther and Storm (because, Lord knows, they aren’t in enough other books this month). Maybe it will have a surprising, original ending that will make perfect sense and enhance our appreciation of the characters — but can anyone name a Loeb story where that’s happened?
Silent War #3 (of 6) — Writer: David Hine; Artist: Frazer Irving
Guest-starring X-Factor, and Hine does a good job channeling Peter David’s characterizations of everyone. Nothing much happens, though, which is par for the half-way issue of a mini-series like this; all the dominoes are getting set up so they can topple into each other later. Like all Inhumans series, it keeps getting back to Maximus in his cage, manipulating people, and that’s precisely the point where my eyes start to glaze over.
Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood #5 (of 6) — Writer: Chuck Dixon; Artist: Derek Donovan
You’d think an issue where Connor fights a big dragon would be cool, but you’d be wrong (that’s why you aren’t writing these reviews, nyahh nyahh). Like a lot of Dixon’s output, it’s perfectly competent and moves things along well enough, but takes about five minutes to read and just a tad longer to forget — and the art’s a match for it.
