Batman #28
Okay folks. The Scott Snyder experiment is over. I'm ready for a new creative team on this book after Zero Year. Zero Year has been great. Snyder and Greg Capullo have been hooking it up, but with Harper Row as "Bluebird," some other mystery chick working in the Batcave and the introduction of Spoiler, I'm just not interested.
This book is a flash-forward. The current Batman takes place 5 years BEFORE the present. This issue took place a year AFTER the present, giving us a glimpse of what's to come in the future of Batman. The glimpse shows a Gotham I don't want to live in with Selina Kyle running all the crime and Batman working with a bunch of unrecognizable characters. It looks like we'll get the answers to all these mysteries in the weekly Batman: Eternal. Someone let me know how it is.
The best thing about this book was the art of Dustin Nguyen. He's an amazing artist that should be on a big boy DC book, not something like Lil' Gotham (though its really cute).
Star Wars #14
Zzzzzzzz... huh? Oh, sorry. Fell asleep for a second because this book was BORRRRRR-IIIIIIING! The second issue that follows the unlikely black/Latino Ensign Nanda as she pilots Darth Vader around the universe looking for answers about the traitorous Captain Bircher.
Writer Brian Wood and artist Facundo Percio do their best to try to make this book exciting and emotional, and don't reach that goal. There a scene of Darth Vader fighting four elite Stormtroopers who turn on him, then single-handedly repairing a hole in the ship, but that's about it for excitement.
I think Wood is trying to bring back the badass Darth Vader from the pre-Prequel days before George Lucas neutered him. Thanks for trying, Brian. I appreciate the effort.
Green Lantern #28
This is a "special flipbook issue" that sandwiches Green Lantern #28 and Red Lanterns #28 into one back to back book. The positive is that you get 2 issues for $2.99. The bad news is you get 2 issues of the current Green Lantern Universe for $2.99.
I didn't bother reading the Red Lanterns half of the book because I stand firm that that book shouldn't exist at all. I also abhor Guy Gardner's new white trash look. But that's anther story. As far as the rest of the issue went, its a bunch of stuff we already know sandwiched around Supergirl's arrival on Mogo losing her mind with a red lantern ring. We also get to see Saint Walker being a giant pussy and refusing to use his ring. This character note seems a 180 from who he was when Geoff Johns wrote him. If he's the LAST of the Blue Lanterns, and he was the FIRST that hope sought to find, his faith shouldn't be shaken so quickly.
Sometimes I think I'm being too hard on this book and this new team's run on all these titles. But coming off of 9 years of what I thought was the perfect comic book, I'm going to be a little biased.
Green Lantern Corps #28
As far as Green Lantern books go, this was more like it. Since the creative team changeover, Corps has been the most consistent Lantern book on the stands. This issue reinforces that.
Bernard Chang, a personal favorite artist of mine draws an amazing issue. The interesting thing about the art are some panel color choices. The book is mainly colored traditionally, but every so often you'll get one panel that's stark black, white and red. I assume its supposed to highlight those panels, but it pulls the reader out of the book more that it does anything else.
Van Jensen writes the GL's going undercover to find Von Daggle, an undercover Lantern who has since quit the Corps. He's also a Durlan, the alien race that's been attacking them. Jensen does a nice job making John Stewart a no-nonsense badass and surrounds him with the right cast to make that happen.
Superman Wonder Woman #5
For as much as I loved Man of Steel, I wasn't really sure about bringing Faora into the current comic continuity. A big part of me still wishes she was Ursa, but whatevs. The way Charles Soule and Tony Daniel have introduced her makes her inclusion very cool.
Diana goes back to Themyscira to find that Doom's Doors (the doors to hell that the Amazon's have been tasked with protecting) have been opened and something got out. Adding this to Doomsday's appearance earlier in their run, with the upcoming Doomsday event that's being planning and its already a better story than the original Death of Superman. But that's speculation.
This issue is a knock down drag out with Supes, Wonder Woman, Zod and Faora. And WW has to bail Supes out. Daniel does a great job showing Supes getting his ass absolutely handed to him. They accomplish making you scared for an indestructible character.
A great book, folks. Everyone should be reading it.
Rogues Rebellion #5
One more issue to go. Here's to Brian Buccellato and Scott Hepburn wrapping this book up with a bang. So far I think its been the surprise hit of 2014.
Scott Hepburn's art has a cool stylized feel that has fit the tone of Buccellato's writing perfectly. And Buccellato continues to make the Rogues the coolest "bad guys" in the DCnU. Him, and by extension Francis Manapul have given me a team of bad guys to replace the Secret Six.
The team has been whittled down from 5 to 2 by the time this issue ends. The Crime Syndicate and their followers really give the Rogues a beat down in each issue. But the Rogues continue to fight and give you a true underdog to root for. Not unlike this book.
Panel of the Week:
And example of Bernard Chang and the art team's color changes in Green Lantern Corps this month.
-Gint
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