$oss' Pull List Reviews 5-30-12

Sorry folks but I only had one book to review this week.

Batman #9

The Night of the Owls is here. This mini event feels like a natural progression of the storytelling rather then an idea one of the editors came up with to make some extra loot. The Owls have set their sights not only in the Bat family but also members of the political infrastructure of Gotham. Trapped in the depths of the Batcave Bruce Wayne straps on a Iron Man-esque suit of armor and smashes his way to freedom. The suit reminded me of the Azrael Batman uniform of the 90's. Pretty handy that he had that laying around. We also learn that the Tyrannosaurus Rex that hangs out in the Batcave doubles as a security guard.

I'm looking forward to reading more of this crossover as it unfolds throughout the coming month.-$

Panel of the Week: Tony Stark will be contacting Bruce's lawyers.

Brothers - Conclusion

My brother never took a shit in my Millennium Falcon. Had he, I seriously would have murdered him. To the best of my knowledge he never took a shit in any of my stuff, but he's managed his own payback over the years.

That Millennium Falcon by the way will be cremated with me when its time to check out. Easily my favorite toy from my childhood.

-Gint

Gint's 5-23-12 Pull-List Review

Nine books this week. Are you kidding me?! Sigh... lets get to it.

Ninth Place:

Legion Lost #9

The Culling Part 3 of 4 is here! Did you read excitement into that? If so, its false. That's not to say The Culling hasn't been good, it just hasn't been great either.

Scott Lobdell, and Tom DeFalco in this issue have created a fine story of young heroes coming together in a battle to the death story. The guy forcing them into such drama, Harvest, seemed pretty cool until it turns out he has ties to the Legion and the 31st Century. I don't know what it is about the Legion, but anything Legion-related seriously turns me off. The only Legion I enjoyed was Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's from their Action Comics run.

Pete Woods in on art. Haven't seen his name or art on a comic of mine in a while. Woods is solid, but I've seen better from him.

So that's it for Legion Lost's involvement in The Culling. It will also be the last Legion Lost issue I buy.

Eighth Place:

Teen Titans #9

And The Culling is over. In a pretty entertaining fashion too. All in all, while The Culling wasn't the greatest crossover I've ever read, at the end of the day it was pretty solid. Ig Guara and Pete Woods made it more enjoyable. They're art is more up my alley than regular Titans' artist Brett Booth.

The Ravagers, Legion and Titans all end on cliffhangers that you can conveniently pick up in their own books. As I said above, I won't be picking up Ravagers OR Legion Lost.

The Titans don't beat Harvest, but they do save the day and he lives to be an indefinite thorn in their side. After destroying his hideout and lab the Titans escape and wind up on Mystery Island. Caps. Proper noun. Mystery Island, for as corny and silver agey as it sounds has some potential. Don't let me down Lobdell. I'll find you.

Seventh Place:

Superman #9

Well that was enjoyable. Easily the most enjoyable issue of Superman since the relaunch. Only took nine issues. Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens do the heavy lifting on story and pencils and seem to get it right. Granted, there's a new villain named Anguish which is just as corny as anything Scott Lobdell has done in his books. But aside from that it was a pretty solid story.

Supes saves a wrecked Russian submarine that has some questionable cargo that no one knows about, then some other guy named Spence Becker gets outed on TV for being Superman. Its a pretty interesting twist that has the potential to play out very well.

I REALLY want to love a Superman book. Hopefully, much like Teen Titans this week, this is the issue that really gets this book in the right direction.

Sixth Place:
The Fury of Firestorm The Nuclear Men #9

Nine months into the New 52 and I'm getting my first taste of the Justice League International. They assist the Firestorms in stopping a terrorist Firestorm in Paris.

Writers Joe Harris and Ethan Van Sciver augment the Firestorm mythos by adding the ability for the Firestorms to merge with each other to create a more powerful being. Jason does it (merges, not has coitus with) Therese (France's Firestorm) to create Wrath. Its a pretty cool twist to the mythos. Ronnie, however is still missing bumming around with Pozhar.

Yildiray Cinar, who's one of the most underrated artist in the business, has grown by leaps and bounds on this book. His pencils are sharp and he does a great job illustrating a lot of different characters and their powers in this issue.

Fifth Place:

The Flash #9

Maybe its because I'm not really interesting in Gorilla Grodd, but this issue seemed to be lacking a little something.

The bulk of the book centered around the Flash's dealings with the gorillas in Gorilla City, but the more interesting parts were the brief glimpses of Iris, Patty, Weather Wizard and others and Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato moved everyone's story forward just a little bit.

By the looks of things, I imagine next issue we'll get back into more of the traditional story that I've been loving from these guys.

Fourth Place:

Green Lanterns: New Guardians #9

Tony Bedard introduces a new threat to the Green Lantern Universe: the Blue Beetle Scarab. But its apparently not THE Blue Beetle's scarab but a fleet of aliens that wield the same power. Its kind of confusing seeing an evil army of Blue Beetles, but hopefully Bedard will explain why this similarity to the Earth hero.

Tyler Kirkham, with a little help from Tomas Giorello deftly illustrate the potential fall of Odym, the Blue Lantern homeworld. The Scarabs, called The Reach attack Odym and only the Blue Lanterns are there to defend it. That's trouble because the blue rings are primarily defensive rings.

Bedard and Kirkham ad a couple new levels to the mythos that provides for a great read.

Third Place:

I, Vampire #9

The second arc of this book's run starts with Andrew and Mary holed up in Utah with thousands of vampires camping out with them. The problem is they want to feed and Andrew won't let them have anything but cow's blood. Meanwhile, Troughton and Tig go to find the Van Helsings, an ancient, secret order of monster hunters.

At the end of last arc Andrew got WAAAAAY more power than any one character should have and I wasn't sure how Joshua Fialkov would handle it. Fialkov handles it in a very interesting manner keeping Andrew's personality and demeanor the same.

Andrea Sorrentino continues to draw the hell out of this book and it continues to be one of my favorites on the Pull-List every month.

Second Place:

Aquaman #9

Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis continue to reshape Aquaman and add to his mythos to make him more than he ever was.

While Aquaman and Y'wara are off trying to find The Others (Aquaman's old crime-fighting buddies), Mera stays behind to question Professor Shin about Aquaman and Black Manta's past. Turns out Manta isn't really in the wrong for hating the King of Atlantis.

Ivan Reis and the art team throw down some great looking pages and Aquaman continues to roll along as one of the best books DC has to offer.

First Place:

Justice League Dark #9

I was really on the fence about getting this book. I didn't want to add something else to the ever-growing Pull-List. But something about Jeff Lemire, and Geoff Johns being involved spoke to me and I'm glad it did. This was a damn fine book.

John Constantine gets "the band" back together after Rise of the Vampires to go on a mission for Steve Trevor and the government-run A.R.G.U.S. They're to enter the jungles of Peru, rescue an agent (Dr. Mist) and recover an artifact that turns out to be the The Map to The Books of Magic. Not sure if this is a nod to Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic. Being that John Constantine and Zatanna are involved in both, I'm guessing it is.

Its a great lead-off story taking this book in a new direction with amazing art by Mikel Janin. $oss has touted his work and with good reason. Along with the actual art, his page layouts look great. He puts some real effort into his work.

Jeff Lemire and Mikel Janin's first issue of Justice League Dark is a serious winner.

Panel (Page) of the Week

Mikel Janin uses in-story themes to help in the artistic designs of his pages. i.e. the spider webs splitting up panels in this one.

-Gint

Brothers - Part 2

Ah dodgeball. The true American pastime. There was never any baseball dodgeball played in the old backyard, but we did play plenty with your standard red dodgeball, soccer balls and probably basketballs too. Maybe a tennis ball once or twice. Anyhow, my brother and his friends provided hours of entertainment for me and mine.

-Gint

$oss' Pull-List Reviews 5/23/12

Batman: The Dark Knight #8

Batman and Commissioner Gordon investigate a subway train full of dead passengers who apparently ripped each other to shreds. While underground Batman runs into Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum which leaves no doubt the The Mad Hatter is behind these mysterious deaths. 

I feel silly calling Ed Benes a fill-in artist but since he is technical holding down the fort for David Finch that is what he is. The book doesn't skip a beat art wise. I actually didn't realize that Finch didn't pencil this book until I started to write this review. Benes' style is a perfect fit. While The Dark Knight isn't quite on par with Batman and Robin or Batman it delivers consistently enjoyable tales from Gotham City.

Swamp Thing #9

A transformed Abigail Arcane squares off against Swamp Thing as The Rot makes it's push to eliminate The Green. Even in this deathmatch of rotting flesh and plants apparently love conquers all. Alec Holland reminds Abby that he used to bring her canned peaches and BOOM, she is back to her old self. Thank god because I couldn't stand that Venom looking creature she mutated into. 

Props to Scoot Snyder, Yanick Paqutte and Marco Rudy for a fantastic first arc. This book deserves all of the accolades it receives. 

Daredevil #12

I giggled when I learned that cover artist Paolo Rivera used a photo of himself as reference. I do the same thing if I need a certain simple pose that I can't quite nail. Of course Mr. Rivera's work is slightly better then mine.

Matt Muddrock goes on a date to an amusement park were he tells the origin story of how he and his partner Foggy Nelson met. Mark Waid writes fun Daredevil stories. It's a refreshingly lighthearted take on a character that is usually associated with the dark tones of Frank Miller and Kevin Smith.

Justice League #9

What a great job Lee and Johns do on this issue. Woven into the main story of an unknown villain named David Graves are mini origin flashback stories. For the first time I feel as if the reader is getting a opportunity to learn about what makes these characters tick. 

Lee's work is outstanding. There are more then one panel that are candidates for my Panel of the Week in this issue.

In the backup Shazam story Bill Batson begrudgingly sticks up for his new brothers and sisters and finds himself in a heap of trouble. Gary Frank and Geoff Johns have succeeded in getting me on board for the new Shazam book.

Saga #3

Marko, Alana and Hazel run into a group of ghost children in the Rocketship Forest and make a bargain to escape Cleave. Meanwhile The Stalk reaches out to The Will for some assistance. Do all bounty hunters in this book have to have "the" before their name.

Fiona Staples art is amazing as usually. The one woman art department does an excellent job of making the ghost kids loveable and creepy all at the same time. 

AVX #4

Hope tracks Wolverine down in Antarctica and convinces him that her plan of letting The Phoenix possess her is the best way to go. Since he and Cyclops aren't on speaking terms and Cap just stranded him in the middle of nowhere Logan doesn't have many options. The X-Men and Avengers battle rages across the globe as both teams search for Hope Summers. I can now see the value of having tie-in books available. There is no way that all these battles can be contain in one book. 

It turns out that Hopes plan is to get to the moon to intercept The Phoenix Force. Logan, seeing that this is a great chance for a battle royal, double crosses Hope and alerts both Avengers and X-Men to their location. The Phoenix Force arrives in the last panel of the book so I guess we will have to wait for that slugfest until next issue. 

Jonathan Hickman may have written the best part of this event so far. He had a lot of ground to cover in twenty two pages and wrote a great no frills story. Lots of good one liners like Tony Stark telling Cap how disappointed he is of him that he can't multitask. Can't wait for The Phoenix to take center stage next issue.-$

Panel of the Week: Batman and Superman kicking ass like only Jim Lee can draw it.

Brothers

I feel very fortunate to have grown up with a younger brother. I'd like to think my brother feels the same even though I was his personal tormenter for quite a few years. Scenes like this one, Part 1 of 3, is a pretty accurate depiction of the goings on growing up with each other.

-Gint

Gint's 5-16-12 Pull-List Review

Five books on the ol' Pull-List this week. And none of them were bad.

Fifth Place:

Supergirl #9

The fantastic Mahmud Asrar is back on pencils after an issue by George Pérez. Its good to have him back. This is Asrar's book. I'm not sure why they'd throw Pérez on for one issue anyhow. Just screws up the flow of the book and will break up the trade when its collected.

Where the first seven issues of this book really had me rocking and rolling, these first two Silver Banshee issues have me waiting to love it. This issue in particular was just a big fight. Sure, we learn a little more about Kara's powers and the lore of the Banshee's in the New 52, but that's just a lot of exposition during the fight.

Michael Green and Mike Johnson have a good record with me though so I'm not writing them off just yet. Just a little bump in the road.

Fourth Place:

Voltron #5

This book lands in Fourth Place this week due to bad artwork. I can't even call it bad, it just underachieves. And considering this is the first issue we actually SEE the Voltron robot, that's simply unacceptable.

Ariel Padilla is the artist on this book and while most of the issues have been passable, he's not one for detail. Or backgrounds. The pilots finally get Voltron up and running but you can't really tell what's happening because Padilla's panels are poorly placed and confusing.

Brandon Thomas' story however keeps rolling along at a great pace with some great ideas. Padilla's artwork needs to catch up to the quality storytelling.

Third Place:

Wonder Woman #9

What's a guy got to do to get Cliff Chiang to draw this book unimpeded? Tony Akins is on pencil duties this month and though he does a fine job, he just isn't Chiang. I feel lied to. I was promised Wonder Woman by Azzarello and Chiang, and so far, Chiang's record is spotty.

So how was the issue? Good as usual. Wonder Woman is set to marry Hades and the good guys cobble together a plan to save her. Azzarello takes us through the story with sharp, tight dialog that allows each character to breathe and get some nice face time.

Fingers crossed that next month Chiang is back on art. If he didn't do such a great job it wouldn't be such a big deal.

Second Place:

Justice League #9

Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's Justice League is really picking up steam and looking like the book we all expected it to be when it was announced. Lee's art has never looked better (with the help of Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair) and Johns story is really beginning to get into the meat and potatoes of who the Justice League are.

The way this issue is written, we get a nice little flashback about each character when they're introduced into the story. Just a short couple-panel flashback on a moment that defines who they are. In the meantime, someone named David Graves captures Steve Trevor to torture him in to helping bring down the League. We've seen this story before, but the unique way its being set up gives a lot of promise as to how its going to unfold.

Johns and Gary Frank's Shazam back-up story is equally well done. I have NEVER been this interested in Shazam before. And a book with art by Jim Lee and Gary Frank is rarely going to get bad reviews from me.

First Place:

Green Lantern Corps #9

This issue doesn't have a whole lot of action. And its almost a perfect issue. Peter Tomasi writes and Fernando Pasarin illustrate a great issue telling the story of John Stewart's trial for killing a fellow Green Lantern in the line of duty. Green Lantern Kirrt Kallak, after hours being tortured, Kirrt is about to spill the secrets of Oa to the bad guys. So John, who's also being tortured, snaps his neck.

Tomasi shows how the events leading up to the trial and the trial are dealt with by the Alpha Lanterns, Guardians, other Lanterns and Guy Gardner. Fernando Pasarin, as usual does a great job taking us smoothly through the issue without a hitch in the storytelling.

Once again, Tomasi and Pasarin create an amazing issue that flies under the radar of most critics.

Panel of the Week:

No one does the Universe on the scale that Fernando Pasarin does. Ariel Padilla could take some lessons on background and sets from this guy.

-Gint

 

Fifty Shades of Crazy

The literary phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey is a heartwarming tale of erotic sex and BDSM. I still don't understand why author E.L. James would name her original draft Master of the Universe. How many unsuspecting nerds were hoping to be treated to the adventures of He-Man, Teela and Man-At-Arms but instead found themselves reading about Anastasia’s "Inner Goddess"? Bait and switch at it's finest.-$

$oss' Pull-List Reviews 5/16/12

VS: AVX #1

Want more Avengers vs X-Men? Need to know EVERY detail of all the battles that take place in this cross-over event? Well VS is the book for you! As a stand alone comic it actually is all that bad. There are two parts of this book, Iron Man vs Magneto featuring Aaron and Adam Kubert while the second story has The Thing square off against Namor, compliments of Mr. And Mrs. Immonen. Pretty cool that a husband and wife get to work on a comic together. 

The problem with this book is that it's simply unnecessary. Does the reader need a whole six part series of straight up fist fights? 

AVX #3 

Cyclops and his X-Men escape the battle on Utopia with the Avengers and travel the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning. Back at the scene of the battle Wolverine recovers from the damage he sustained in his fight with Hope. It's hilarious that Logan can go from burnt to a crisp to normal in the span of four pages. Captain America begins to question Wolverines motives and makes his point clear by kicking him out of the Quinjet in the middle of nowhere. Is it me or is Wolverine the only one that isn't acting like a lunatic in this book? 

New Avengers #25 

This book didn't feel like it had anything to do with the AVX event at all, which was kind of refreshing. Hope Summers has some crazy flash back that takes her to feudal Japan. She mets up with Master Yu Ti, that eras Iron Fist. Bendis didn't really do the best job of explaining this time jump but Mike Deodato throws down some great illustrations this issue making it an enjoyable read. -$ 

Panel of the Week- Rachel Rising.

The Promised Land

Isn't this the kind of crossover you want to see? Just a couple bad guys talking shop over a beer at their local villain bar? I'd read that book. Though now that I think about it, shouldn't Red Skull be knocking one back with He-Man? He of the Aryan persuasion and all that? Maybe Skeletor had it right all along? Maybe He-Man is the one trying to cleanse Eternia of the "bad element" of beast-men and the blue skins. He does have an iron cross on his chest after all. Fuck. In a way, haven't we children of the 80's been pulling for the Nazi's this whole time? Goddamnit.

-Gint

Ps, We here at Mc$oss DO NOT support the Nazi agenda.

Gint's 5-9-12 Pull-List Review

Its Crossover Week on the Pull-List as two of three books are parts of other stories.

Third Place:

Superboy #9

The Culling crossover continues in Superboy. R.B. Silva is back on pencils and that's where he needs to be. Superboy has been one of Scott Lobdell's better efforts of The New 52, but Silva's crisp, clean artwork really pushes it to another level.

The main battle this issue takes place between the Titans, the Legion and the Ravagers. We mostly focus on Superboy and get some hints about Kid Flash's past/future and where he came from and get more hints that Superboy might be evil. Every Connor Kent story has an arc involving him turning bad and having to fight his dark side. I'd love to see Lobdell skip over that played out record and spin something new. Considering the foreshadowing we're getting, I don't think I'll get my wish.

Part 3 of The Culling continues in Legion Lost which will have to wait because my local comic shop was out of it. Understandable. Who expects such a rush on Legion Lost?

Second Place:

Batman and Robin #9

Crossover week continues with Batman and Robin's entry for Night of the Owls. For as much as I trust Scott Snyder to write some good stories, and as cool as Night of the Owls sounded, I've opted to NOT be roped into another multi-book crossover and continue to get what I was already getting.

Going into this issue I was sure I'd be on the outside and confused jumping right into a Night of the Owls book. Not so. Peter Tomasi does what he does best and takes care of his readers. This issue, though part of a larger story, reads like a cool one and done story about Robin saving an army General.

Series regular artist Pat Gleason is off for this issue and Lee Garbett is in. Garbett and inkers Ray McCarthy and Keith Champagne do their best work mimicking Gleason. This book should fit seamlessly in both the Night of the Owls collection and the Batman and Robin collection.

First Place:

Green Lantern #9

After a slight hiccup after the New 52 launch, Geoff Johns has successfully taken Green Lantern back to its pre-Blackest Night heights.

Hal and Sinestro are trapped on Nok, the Indigo Tribe's homeworld where Sinestro is captured and made one of them. After many hints and a long wait, we finally learn the story behind the Indigo Tribe and Abin Sur's involvement. It doesn't paint Abin Sur in the best light and shows us that everything surrounding the Indigo Tribe is pretty fucked up.

Doug Mahnke and the art team continue their fantastic run on this book setting up the conclusion of The Secret of the Indigo Tribe next issue.

Panel of the Week:

Nice subtlety as Damian cuts off this Talon's head and leaves it to look like an owl in a tree.

-Gint

Am I The Only One?

Well... this one is disturbingly straightforward. If I had to pick the movies that contained, personally, some of the most terrifying imagery, it would be The Grudge and The Ring. I know The Grudge didn't do all that well critically, but if its job was to keep me up at night and keep me looking over my shoulder, then mission accomplished. I don't think their intent was to stand me at attention. That was just icing on the creepy cake.

-Gint

$oss' Pull-List Reviews 5/9/12

Earth 2 #1

This book had two things that I absolutely LOVE, alternate reality/dystopian future and the breathtaking artwork of the lovely Nicola Scott. What a surprise it was for me that I hated this book. 

Earth 2 is a retelling of the events of Justice League 1-8 with a few twists. First, the only heroes on Earth are Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman. Second ***SPOILER ALERT*** they all die  by the end of the book. Five years later there are rumblings that a new crop of superhero's is on the rise. 

The story was kind of stale for my taste. I read it twice and didn't really like it any better the second time. Maybe it's because I don't like the Justice Society, the team that this book is about. That said I'll hang with this book since I can't get enough of Nicola Scott's great pencils.

Animal Man #9

Buddy Baker's body is possessed by The Rot while his mind travels deep into The Red. We are introduced to The Shepherd who looks like a character from Pan's Labyrinth. Lots for creepy imagery from Agents of The Rot to a decaying raccoon and maggots. John Constantine shows up at the end of the book to lend a hand.

Stephen Pugh is the full time penciler now and his work is very impressive. It's amazing that the transition from Travel Forman has gone so smooth. 

The Boys #66
The Boys deal with the fallout from their battle with The Seven at the White House. With the majority of superheroes out of commission Butcher puts the group on hiatus. 

Wee Hughie has alot to deal with mentally. Having avenged his girlfriends death there really isn't much of a driving force for Wee Hughie to continue his affiliation with The Boys. I really wonder how Garth Ennis is going to play out these last few issues.

Secret Avengers #26
Finally, an AVX tie-in book where something significant happens. The Avengers that traveled to space come face-to-face with The Phoenix Force. It doesn't go very well for our heroes. The Phoenix easily handles The Avengers but before it can go in for the kill it abruptly leaves the fight. Afterwards Beast and Captain Britain have a revealing argument about Britain's arrogance on the battle field. 

Renato Guedes has a very unique style. Thin lines complimented by pale color work. I wouldn't want all my comics to look like this but it was refreshing to see something so different.-$

Panel of the Week: Nicola Scott's Wonder Woman is a personal favorite of mine. 

Ultimate Cream Pie

The blatant comedy in Marvel's new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon is akin to getting a cream pie in the face. Its over the top. I expect to see Iron Fist slip on a banana peel next episode. The bottom line is that its not the "animated series" we were hoping for. Spectacular Spider-Man blows this cartoon out of the water. But that was cancelled. Marvel may own the movie landscape but DC runs the show when it comes to animated fare.

-Gint

Gint's 5-2-12 Pull-List Review

May 2nd greets us with six books. The good outweigh the bad 4-2. Red Lanterns and Action Comics couldn't be bothered to pick up their own weight.

Sixth Place:

Red Lanterns #9

Talk, talk, talk. Blah, blah, blah. I thought the fucking Red Lanterns were lanterns of action! For a group of rage-filled monsters who supposedly can't see through their burning hatred they sure do bump their gums a lot.

Not to bust on the writing of Peter Milligan, but I could have written this issue in two pages. Nothing fucking happens. Nada. Goose egg. Ysmault starts to destroy itself and the Lanterns decide they need to find Abysmus (great name too... not even a little) to stop the decaying. We also get some awesome (again, no) monologue-ing from the human Red Lantern Jack Moore. I can't tell you how much I wish he was Razer from Green Lantern: Animated Series. But unlike Razer, Jack Moore, or Rankorr (two "R"s doesn't make it cooler) hums my nuts.

The best part of this issue is the cover by Miguel Sepulveda and Rain Beredo

Fifth Place:

Action Comics #9

And Grant Morrison's exploration of the Multiverse begins... with black Superman! Actually, all the Justice League members on Earth 23 are African-American. Their version of Wonder Woman is even called Nubia. Subtle, Morrison.

The bulk of this story is full of classic Morrison high concept hi-jinx as yet another Superman from another world comes to bust up Calvin Ellis' (black Superman) hood. The evil Superman who, get this, is a "solid thought" created by an invention made by the Clark, Jimmy and Lois of that world. What's cool, in a "Nazi's aren't cool" kind of way is the design of evil Superman's logo which is a very well-done combining of the Superman S, Swastika and Russian hammer and sickle.

This is a wacky adventure that could have EASILY been pulled from some classic Silver Age silliness. Even on a bad week of books, I don't think this would have ranked much higher.

Fourth Place:

Teen Titans Annual #1

The Culling begins! Um, yay? Teen Titans has been an up and down book. So my excitement for the crossover with Superboy and Legion Lost is also up and down. MAYBE we should focus on the Teen Titans a little longer than 8 issues before we start crossing over with other books?

Brett Booth, who's responsible for the art on Teen Titans draws this Annual. And its the usual Brett Booth. Nothing so hideous that I vomit in my mouth, and nothing so astounding that you'll see it in the Panel of the Week.

The Titans are thrown into the Crucible with the Legion and per usual, we have the obligatory fight between the good guys before they team up. The Titans and Legion have been captured by Harvest to fight to the death to win the honor of being his personal Ravagers. The story is pretty basic with some SWEET 90s style characters like Warblade. OK. THAT makes me vomit a little. And its all objective. What I think is a cool name/character CLEARLY isn't what writers Tom Defalco and Scott Lobdell think is a cool character.

So that's that. Visit us here in a week when we review The Culling, Part 2 in Superboy #9.

Fifth Place:

Swamp Thing #9

I'm finally all caught up on my Swamp Things just in time for the final battle against Sethe.

Art-wise Yanick Paquette and Marco Rudy don't miss a beat illustrating the final showdown. Alec saves Abigail from being the Queen of the Rot and killing him and she finds her inner power to kill Sethe. Or rather, just defeat him for the time being. Shit looks like its gonna get real in the next arc.

I rushed to get caught up because I thought the crossover with Animal Man was right around the corner. I'm pretty excited about that, but so far, not a word in these books about it.

Second Place:

Animal Man #9

With Travel Foreman officially off the title, I think new artist Steve Pugh has bent the art a little more toward his own style and away from Foreman's. Everything is just as gruesome and just as good, but its a little more fleshed out. You can really see it in some of the faces.

So Buddy has been possessed by an agent of The Rot. His subconscious though has taken him to The Red. Hopefully to regain his own consciousness and kick the Rot out of his body. In the meantime the Baker family continues east to look for Swamp Thing in the aforementioned crossover with that book.

The last page holds an appearance by John Constantine with a Justice League Dark promo. Seems like we're all getting on the JL Dark train these days.

First Place:

Voltron: Year One #2

Space Explorer Unit 686, with Sven at the helm, fail their first mission. But only because the mission was compromised by Central Command, 686's superiors.

Two issues in and writer Brandon Thomas and artist Craig Cermak are killing it. In the good way. The story is tight, the dialog is sharp and none of it is wasted. The Voltron robot or even the individual lions haven't shown themselves but its OK. Thomas is doing a great job making this story about the pilots, not the ship.

Dynamite and Brandon Thomas are handling this title with the proper tactfulness and care. Looking forward to more Voltron.

Panel of the Week:

Craig Cermak and colorist Adriano Lucas focus on a single moment in a great looking book.

-Gint