Yikes...no real reviews last week, so we're really behind on our nymphomaniac count. And I probably won't be able to get comics until tomorrow cause the roads around here are still messed up from snow.

But let's get some comics reviewed this week, shall we?

Yeah, I'll get to work on that. Probably include some back-reviews as well.

My comics book shop had some huge problems with shipping over christmas so they didn't get in any new stock for a MONTH!!!

Not that I went temporarily insane or anything

But they all arrived last week so I will review what I got! (Yes I know they are old stuff for you guys but )




Daredevil #69

Not bad, but this arc is starting to feel old, the different time periods has gotten more annoying than interesting, I keep waiting for something to happen, Everyone knows whats going to happen, just waiting to actually get there. The flash back to meeting the original White Tiger was the highlight

Rating: C



Ultimate Fantastic Four #15

Another comics chock full of not much. Some of the dialogue was funny but again I was left wanting something to happen, hopefully this issue was just a bump in the road. Art was nice

Rating: C+



Nightwing #101 & #102

Got both issues together and it sure was nice, not only am I finding the year 1 trip very useful (I only knew the very basics before) but the fact the original artist is back is making my love this read, It's what got me hooked on this title in the first place. The story is good, and I loved the interaction with Superman, really good stuff

Rating: A



Adam Strange #5

Havent read it yet as I need to get #3 and 4, but the first 2 were a great read



The Legion of Super-heroes #2

Love it. This title has rocketed to the top of my list in just 2 issues, The art is Great, the stories are excellent, and the characters are top-notch. When I finally got some piece and quite from teh kids, this was the one I reread, greet great stuff

Rating: A+




Teen Titans #20

Another great read, The Teen Titans is consistantly good, Art, story the whole deal, the ending was obvious from the first few pages but delivered with plenty of style

Rating: A



JLA #110

I sooo want this to be great, it has all the markings of Greatness, but has only been good. I agree with most of the other somments i've heard: you could cut this down to a 5-6 issue arc without much trouble and make it great, had its moments, but its dragging on

Rating: C


Hanging out for AStonishing X-men and the next issue of Legion!

I feel the exact same. It's now the top read of the week the week it comes out.

Gotham Central #28
A vast improvement in artist and a decent improvement in the story this month. It seemed like GC had been on autopilot in the wake of War Games and wasn't very compelling as a result. So this issue was a step in the right direction, but it might be too little too late for this title, considering Brubaker has defected to Marvel.

JLA #111
Well, the rubber band finally snapped in this one. Probably two issues of material had been stretched over four, and it finally broke. Everything happened almost at once in this issue...the Qwardians actually started destroying things, the JLA and CSA finally fought, and we learn a pretty shocking repercussion to the JLA/Avengers event. So things are definitely looking up for this arc, but I still wish it had been better paced up until now.

Outsiders #18
Not the best issue in the history of the whole series, but it's a vast improvement over the last arc, obviously...and probably the one before that. We finally get back to some of the humor and banter that made the earlier issues so fun to read. And the art wasn't great, but it, again, was an improvement.

Incredible Hulk #78
This is fun stuff. Like I said for #77, I've never been a big Hulk fan (She-Hulk, yeah) but I'm enjoying this so far. The art is great, and the mystery of what's happening on this island is compelling.

MK Spider-Man #11
I've enjoyed this series for the most part. The last issue was a bit of a downer in the "How could Peter be so stupid?" department. And while this issue was certainly well-drawn thanks to the Dodsons and full of action and "Whoa!" moments...but then I got to the end and read Goblin's last line, and I was like: Yeah. It does look familiar. Every single bit of it. In other words, where Spider-Man's villains could be doing something catastrophically original with the position they have him in, they all just fall back into the same plots they've been recycling all these years. Even the new Scorpion-Venom dynamic doesn't make an impact...he's just another two-bit hood for Spider-Man to dispatch. Millar spent a lot of time in the early part of this series trying to redefine the Spider-Man Universe...only to toss away all originality in his penultimate issue on the title.

New Thunderbolts #5
Hooray! No new characters were introduced! And in so doing, we had a much tighter, more focused story in this issue. Our main characters were explored better as well. Order amongst chaos can be a good thing.

Green Arrow #47
Oy. Fogs complains about cartoonish art. How Hester and Parks just weren't his style. Well, H&P's style was never this over-the-top, ridiculous, and just plain awful. Fowler's characters seem to have two expressions: exaggerated spit-take and psychotic grin...with very little middle-ground. The only person Fowler seems to get right in this is Brick...and considering he's only in a couple of pages...that's not much of an accomplishment. I shudder to think what facial contortions he will subject the unflappable Drakon to in the next issue. But getting past the art...which is hard...the Duke of Oil?! Eesh. I liked Brick's idea of wearing Team Arrow out...but surely he could get someone into Star City more credible than the Duke of Oil...

Fables #34
A fun first half of this two-part story that centers on Jack's exploits in Hollywood. Liked all the different "testimonials" the other characters were giving...but the best moment was where the soon-to-be-fired guy complains about how none of those fairy-tale characters are in the same universe. The guest artist was by no means as strong as Buckingham's pencils, though...detracted a bit.

JSA #70
Well, what can you say, really? Geoff Johns delivers again. Juggles all these plot threads, explores all these characters, continues advancing the main story, and does it all with great dialogue and a bit of humor. This is good stuff.

Well, I have the right to complain about any artist I want, and I often do...

Still, that doesn't require me to be a champion of this new artist, either. I thought this issue sucked all around.

Which means it wasn't just the art either, though. The story stank, too. Green Arrow turns out to have had a very short run on my pull list.

I only have room in my heart for one poorly written, crappily drawn title, and that's Aquaman, dammit!

You're not the only one. Someone I play CoH with that runs a small comic book shop told me that three issues ago, Green Arrow was on 22 pull lists... by close of business Thursday, that had dropped to 5.

Wow. If that's indicative of the general trend, that art team is going to get kicked off quickly or the book'll be finished.

Holy mother of gawd.

I can't say I blame them though. I'm seriously considering it myself, actually...but I don't think I can pull the plug. I dunno. It's just hard to believe how far and fast the title has fallen.

Sounds like me talking about Aquaman. And it's been a YEAR now...

K, selected reviews for this week. Overall a very disappointing week in comics for me. But instead of just saying, crap, crap, crap, I'll expound a bit.

Aquaman #27 total crap. I can't believe I still buy this.

Action Comics #824 Austen is gone, but you couldn't tell. Still crap. Decent art I guess though.

Majestic #2 was #2.

Green Arrow #47 how bad does it have to be when there's "Green" in the title and SLOV calls it crap?

Outsiders #20 Surprisingly not crap! After a run of less than stellar issues, this one comes back with an enjoyable C+ Some laughs, a bit of action, and as promised on the cover, a touch of romance. Passable.

Nightwing #103 Ehhhh... Crap. I was on the fence, but there's so much crap this week, let's just lump it in.

JLA #111 Crap. Not Busiek's finest hour. This arc has moved slower than molasses in january and then when the action starts, it disappoints. This arc has sucked. The art isn't that good either.

JSA #70 You know, I think I'm beginning to figure out why I don't like this title... there's too many god damn characters. They need a killing spree in this book big time. Give me like 5 people to settle down with and relate to... feels like there's dozens. That said, for some reason I liked this issue more than I have the rest of the arc. C+

Craptain America #3 Read that again.

Marvel Knights Spiderman #11 Not Millar's best week ever (see Ultimates 2 #3, below). Nothing I can say that the Slovster hasn't already said better in his spot on review. Still, not utter crap. The Dodsons salvage it a bit.

Young Avengers #1 You know what's funny here is the tagline on the cover says "They're NOT what you think", but if I'dve thought about them at all prior to reading this, this would have been exactly what I thought. In other words, every corny cliche about newly forming super teams - or young teams - seemed to get used.

They don't work well together yet
They bicker amongst themselves
They don't accept a leader yet
The newspaper tears them a new one for botching a job
The "Adult" superteam gives them a "Heart to heart"
They're struggling to find nicknames and a team name

Have I missed any young team or new team cliches? Cause if I did, I missed them, not Heinberg and co. They're in there. Whatever, the art was decent, and there's a cool enough "cliffhanger" (although those are beginning to get cliched now too - anyone else get to the last issue of a comic noawdays and say to themselves "What kind of surprise are they going to throw at me to make me buy the next ish?) to make me buy the next issue.

Ultimate X-Men Probably the best title of the week almost by default, and certainly not due to any of its own achievement. This arc has been pretty boring, although the fight scenes with Spiral in this issue were good. Immonen's work is the best thing about this title right now though...

The Ultimates 2 #3 Seriously, I never thought I'd be disappointed by the Ultimates. I guess that's a testament to how good it's been - that you just can't even imagine it not being awesome. But this issue wasn't. I mean, you can't really call it crap, it's still Millar and Hitch. But Millar gives us nothing to get excited over, and Hitch gives us nothing to look at, so where does that leave us? The Ultimates barely even get into superhero duds. I had to look to see if they did at all. The "Trial" was silly, the aftermath was sillier, and there was no in between. I was real disappointed here. I would say crap, but there's too much goodwill built up. #4 will kick ass, I'm sure.

They tried this in Zero Hour. Didn't take. Besides...there's just as many people in JSA or Teen Titans...it's just that they are "reserve" members or we don't know what the hell they're doing at the moment.

And really, for the most part, JSA does tend to focus on a selection of four or five for an arc. It's just that this arc, well, not only isn't working that way, but is pairing up the characters with their past counterparts. So I can understand the "overload" complaint; really, whatever else it is, this arc isn't a good "jumping-on" point.

For gawd's sake, JSA does NOT need a killing spree. If you don't like it, that's understandable, but most of the readers love all or almost all the characters.

I've been reading this title for 2 years!!

[Unreal Tournament Voice Over] KILLING SPREE! [/Unreal Tournament Voice Over]

All right, back to doing reviews again. When I'm done with this batch, I'll go back and add reviews for the past couple weeks, so be sure to check there for my thoughts on the dreck and not-so-dreck.



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Outsiders #20
W: Judd Winick; P&I: Karl Kerschel; C: Tanya & Richard Horie

My enjoyment of this issue was marred a bit by some pages with very, very bad print jobs. Some were nearly illegible. But that aside, we're past the John Walsh arc and we no longer have that artist who was doing such a poor job. Mind you, while Kerschel's not "bad", he also doesn't quite seem right, either. Jade and Starfire look good, but he can't seem to decide how Indigo's face should look. Sometimes she seems almost cherubic, and it just doesn't work. But anything's an improvement over some of the artists this title has had, and hey, at least he gave Nightwing his mullet back. This issue was a standalone, mostly, and for the most part didn't really offer anything of interest. It was kind of amusing in a light-hearted way, but you really wouldn't miss anything if, for example, you couldn't read the issue due to a bad printing job. Also, one quibble [spoiler]how could Shrapnel even try to crush Shift? Corrosive acid is a valid transformation, after all...[/spoiler]. On the whole, it was far from the worst issue of the series, but that doesn't say much.





JLA #111
W: Kurt Busiek; P: Ron Garney; I: Dan Green; C: David Baron

Look! Things actually happen! Some decent battling going on here, and at least it wasn't all a match-up of opposites. And I did like how the convention of [spoiler]in this universe, good wins; in the anti-universe, evil wins[/spoiler] was discarded. It really was quite trite. But on the whole, I still feel like this has taken many more issues than it needed. Garney's art is rather hit-and-miss in this issue as well.





The Flash 1/2
W: Geoff Johns; P: Justiniano; I: Walden Wong & Livesay; C: James Sinclair

An interesting look in the contrasts between the two Tricksters, as well as more set-up for Rogue War. Nothing essential here, of course, which is what one expects for a mail-away. But it does do a good job of fleshing out a few details, and was downright chilling as Linda realizes her and Wally's worst fears [spoiler]when Zoom appears before her and says "I still know"[/spoiler]. The artwork is crisp and clear, and nicely colored. On the whole, I'm not convinced it was worth the effort to get it, but it was a decent read.





New Thunderbolts #5
W: Fabian Nicieza; P: Tom Grummett; I: Gary Erskine; C: Chris Sotomayer

OK, I finally think this is starting to settle into a rhythm, here. It'll take a while yet, but at least I can expect it to do so. That's good. Still enjoying the little character scenes; Blizzard's insecurity, Speed Demon's having a go at Blizzard, and most especially Radioactive Man's completely deadpan way of getting a ride to the fight. The battle itself, and the payoff finally arriving in the final page, helps me think this'll be an enjoyable read fairly consistently. And, once again, Grummett & company do a fantastic job with the art.





Knights Spider-man #11
W: Mark Millar; P: Terry Dodson; I: Rachel Dodson; C: Ian Hannin

Kind of anti-climactic here. The big build-up to a battle scene, which we don't actually see. Scorpion is now the new Venom, but as Spidey says, a loser in Venom's suit is still a loser. And while the Goblin going back to an old pattern to taunt Peter is true to form, it does have the hazard of not seeming terribly original.... It's still enjoyable, but it's not "wow"-ing me the way the initial issues did. And I really hope the Dodsons have something else lined up after this. It's a shame we don't see their work more often.





JSA #70
W: Geoff Johns; P: Don Kramer; I: Keith Champagne; C: John Kalisz

Decent. Not spectacular, but decent. Nice to see plots ravelling and unravelling in places. And Mr. Terrific's encounters in the past are well done; the "In the Heat of the Night" reference was a nice touch. Kramer's artwork is still in the solid-but-not-great category.

Yep, but that's a great David Gibbons cover with the Mr. Terrifics.