The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #1 & #2
My local shop sold out of #1 the week it came out. Apparently this was a bigger seller than expected. So I patiently waited and read the first two issues back to back. Prognosis? This is a weird fucking book.
Taking place in a dystopian future, the evil corporate entity, Better Living Industries, runs everything. Apparently from what you buy to what you watch to the police force, everything is owned by BLI. Its your basic evil future where everything fun is taken away from you and the mass populace is forced to live like robots. But even the robots are treated unfairly.
Our heroes are a bunch of, well, essentially they're young hipster, hippy, gypsies who have been run out of the BLI-owned city and decided to take matters into their own hands to make things right.
The storytelling of Gerard Way brought me in. He's a brilliant guy. He's done great stuff with My Chemical Romance and Umbrella Academy is pretty goddamn great. He's assisted on scripts by Shaun Simon. Becky Cloonan is on art and creates a DAMN good looking book.
The problem I'm having with it is I can't separate the futuristic sci fi story from it's too clear political overtones. Subtly isn't their schtick when talking about big business/government.
Its interesting enough, and I'll hang in through this arc, but its not the Umbrella Academy story I was expecting.
Superman Unchained #2
Now, this issue was way better than the first. In just one read I totally understand what's happening. And I liked it.
Is it Superman for All Seasons or Birthright so far? No, its not. But its better than all the Superschlock I read when the New 52 kicked off. One issue was enough to convince Soss to not buy any more. But I trust Jim Lee and Scott Snyder enough that by the end of this run, we'll have a pretty cool Superman story.
This new bad guy, Wraith, though? C'mon, Snyder, you couldn't have thought of a better name for this guy? "Wraith" is just cheesy.
Star Wars #7
My first thought was outrage when I realized Carlos D'Anda wasn't on pencils this issue. But in the grand scheme of things, he did 6 straight issues. In this day and age that's not too shabby.
His replacement, Ryan Kelly, does a fine job, though he also doesn't have a knack for charicatures. Han, Luke and Leia still don't look like Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. His Threepio is pretty nice though.
This issue moves the story along pretty smoothly. Each of the "Big 3" have gone their own separate ways. I could use a little more Han and Luke time since aside from A New Hope, you never really see them together. Maybe they're the same person?
Justice League #22
You can't go wrong with a whole 34 pages of Ivan Reis artwork. If I were you, I'd get this book just because it looks beautiful. As for the opening arc of Trinity War as a whole? Its pretty solid.
I don't think there's a way of writing two teams of good guys fighting without it being contrived. Geoff Johns does his best, but its unavoidable. By making the Justice League of America the quasi bad guys, it almost works. Almost. There are two deaths in this book. One of them fairly major that I'm pretty pissed off about.
Good guys vs. good guys is played out. It looks like they're setting up a big good guys vs. actual bad guys story after this that could make up for it. I'm interested and I'll certainly buy all of Trinity War and enjoy it, but apparently I'm in the minority about not wanting to see good guys vs. good guys for a while.
Green Lantern Corps #22
A couple issues into the new Lantern creative teams and I'm really enjoying these books. It helps that the creative teams are pretty tight with each other so they're able to keep all the books on the same page.
Corps follows John Stewart, but it doesn't miss a beat lining up with everything happening with Hal in Green Lantern. There are ring power shortages affecting all the color corps which puts the greens in danger since they're being attacked on multiple fronts.
Bernard Chang's artwork is brilliant. I love his angular stylized work. Its perfect for the overall tone of this book.
Batman #22
I can't tell you, after quitting buying Batman during the dark Morrison years, how nice it is to LOVE this book.
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are retelling the story of Bruce becoming Batman. They're doing it with the blend of a little bit of everything. If you retold the Animated Series origin through a slightly more mature lens, this is what you might get. Snyder and Capullo are also making the most interesting version of the Red Hood Gang. Up until this point they've been nothing but weird Bat-lore. Snyder and Capullo are turning them into something real.
Its an absolute pleasure reading this book.
Panel of the Week:
Lee illustrates Supes' current continuity suit which just magically appears! Its lazy writing is what it is folks. Go make him change his clothes. Its cool that way.
-Gint
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