Review : Action Comics #859 – “The only good alien..”

Action Comics #859 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank was released this week. This issue continues the “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes” storyline, a tale of Superman and his childhood friends facing persecution and peril in the far future. In the 30th century, aliens are hunted and imprisoned, all in the name of Superman. The Legion and Superman need to rescue their team members and avoid being captured by this future’s version of the Justice League. This shouldn’t really be a big deal for Supes, except for the fact that the Earth’s Sun is RED, leaving him powerless.

Take the jump for the rest of the review.

Batman and the Outsiders: Screw you guys, I’m going home.

So, every once and awhile Batman gets pissed off and decides that the Justice League are too goody-goody to get what he wants done. Superman and the others won’t lie, cheat, steal, or generally bend the rules to achieve what needs to happen, so he leaves in a huff, adds another child into his stable of assassins, and if he’s feeling especially randy, creates a super-team of his own. This my friends, is the premise of The Outsiders.

 

(Holy crap! I figured out how to thumbnail! Click the image for a larger version)

 

Robin Annual #7 and DC Infinite Halloween Special Reviews

Halloween has come and gone, and the spookiest night of the year usually leaves us with just memories and potential cavities. However, sitting in the dentist’s office with only a People Magazine from 1996 to distract you is hardly anybody’s idea of a good time. So do you fork over hard-earned (or borrowed from Mom) money to buy these? Well, if you trust my opinion (and you should trust my opinion), read on and find out.

*Insert X-Files theme here*

I’m going to go ahead and assume that most of you did not pick this book this week. You really should have. Go on, run up to the local comic shop, it’s ok. I’ll wait.

Random Review: Who ya gonna call?

For today’s random review, I’ve decided I’ll be writing about one of the 80’s hot properties: the Ghostbusters. For those who don’t know (and really, I couldn’t see why you wouldn’t, if you’re reading this blog) the film Ghostbusters came out in 1984. It was a quirky comedy starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis (hey, those last two rhymed) and Sigourney Weaver. It was a movie about well… ghost busting. Twenty years later in 2004, 88MPH studios produced a 4 issue series called Ghostbusters: Legion. I happened to get ahold of it, and being a fan of the movies and cartoon (the first one, really), I read it with enthusiasm. It’s actually not a bad read.

Sunday First Runs: Better Living Through Chemistry

Well, here is a series which came out several months back but has yet to put out a second issue. I am hoping it will be rectified soon and I’ll get to continue reading this great comic. If, however, that doesn’t happen I would still suggest giving this one a read through.

“The Chemist” is the freshman offering of Jay Boose, a Pixar animator who has thrown his hat into the ring of comics. It’s being published by Image, but to say it’s being released sporadically would be an understatement.

Teen Titans #52 Review

I don’t know about you, but I was not a fan of the Teen Titans relaunch. Young Justice filled the spot of “young superhero team” admirably well, and so for that team to be broken up (and the book canceled) in order to capitalize on the Teen Titans name, well, I at least expected the new Teen Titans to deliver. It wasn’t meant to be. For me, it was as if Peter David (writer of Young Justice) was a master chef and had the recipe honed to perfection, and Geoff Johns inherited the recipe only to add his own ingredient of “failsauce,” be it the Superboy baby daddy drama, the abandonment of the Bart Allen readers grew to love as Impulse, and the abandonment of a Wonder Girl who actually had her shit together. The One Year Later jump didn’t help matters much, with our boy Robin experiencing his very own obsessive Clone Saga, and fights with Slade I couldn’t bring myself to care about. So when I heard that Sean McKeever, writer behind “Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane” (at least, that is the title of his which I’m most familiar with) was taking over at issue 50, I was practically jumping for joy. SMLMJ demonstrated he was an excellent writer of teenagers, and I looked forward to what he would bring to the characters.

Spoilers after the break

She-Hulk #22, now with 100% more PAD!

“PAD*? On She-Hulk?”

Yea, that was my reaction when I heard as well. We all know PAD is good, really good, but She-Hulk? Yea, well, it works. Seriously. Dude, I’m not messing with you. For real.

*Peter Allen David

Blue Beetle 20: With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility

Oh Sinestro, you wily bastard.

Alright. For those of you who don’t have a basic knowledge of the new Blue Beetle series, I’ll give a quick synopsis. The original Blue Beetle, Dan Garret, possessed a scarab that gave him his powers. Ted Kord, the second Beetle, and an acquaintance of Garret, inherited the object, but couldn’t use it. After the Day of Vengeance storyline where magic got screwed around, the scarab found its way to Jaime Reyes, a teenager living in El Paso. It fused with his spine (something that never happened, even with Garret) and enabled him to form a kind of alien exoskeleton that gives him his powers.

The scarab, as it turns out, is an object of alien origin similar to a Green Lantern Power Ring. Keeping with the colour-coded organization of the DC alien groups, The Reach are associated with blue. They fought the Guardians of Oa to a stalemate a couple thousand years ago, and now have a truce. Like the Green Lanterns, The Reach have their own agents, powered by Scarabs. The catch is that The Reach are bad mamma-jammas, and Jaime’s scarab is somewhat of a rebel; it has developed a mind of its own. Hence, Green Lanterns are skeptical of Blue Beetle, and generally respond to any Reach agents with hostility. Now, on to this issue.

Scott Pilgrim: Proof Comics Can be Hip!

If you haven’t yet heard of Scott Pilgrim by Brian Lee O’malley and Oni press then you are woefully uncool. It’s true! This graphic treat is what our little video game drenched indie music generation has been looking for. Essentially it’s a love story. Scott, the main ‘playa’, has to fight his way through the 7 evil ex boyfriends of Ramona, his latest squeeze, to be allowed to date her. Along the way Scott has to deal with his gay roommate, his own various ex girlfriends, his regular friends, his ex girlfriend’s bands, his own band, videogames, memories, and a whole lot of ass whoopin’.