Saga number 10

Holee crap on a stick. I really don't need to write much about this issue. I just have four words for you. Giant Flaming Gorilla Ghost. Hands-down this made my night while reading it. Also, God I hope Lying cat is okay. He's one of my favorite animals(aliens?) in comics along with the talking Russian dog from Manhattan Projects. Enjoy this image, and let it burn in to your brain. It's fantastic.

That one chick on the right looks a bit like Cthulhu

Weekly Pull-list will be on-time. I'm just catching up with a bit from last week. And yes Captain America and Cub was awesome. I bet Dimension Z works in a shortened time space in relation to Earth's.

My Thoughts

Batman and Robin
Mostly Robin in this regard, Robin is the sort of character that didn't start the sidekick wave, but he sure as hell made it spread throughout in a way that was enjoyable. Robin in my opinion is the definitive sidekick. He's a protege and a character of his own breed. After hearing of recent events involving the character in it's fourth iteration(technically 6th, but who's counting(me obviously)). Those events still up in the air, aside Grant Morrison himself saying that Damian Wayne is dead himself, and several news sources confirming this. I thought it appropriate to talk about the characterization of Robin, and his many forms.

I'm A Little Late On This

Final Crisis Part Three
Open up to Frankenstein in Bludhaven, trying to keep that mess under wraps. When the Question pops in and there is a little tussle. The Question points out the mummified corpse of the former Darkseid. And well, she presents Frankenbeans with a... question. "What kind of gandland violence leaves a man mummified?" She then asks what happened to Turpin, and leaves Frankenstein to these questions. 

Ripping her faceless face off revealing Renee Montoya, where she goes to blend in to the crowd. Frankenstein and Father time talk about some sort of prophecy in the form of an old Mac hand cursor. The words Know Evil pop up, and Some guy on a screen, or Father time, I honestly don't know the structure of this part of the comic is very confusing. Anyway this guy points everyone in SHADE to go to a bunker somewhere in Bludhaven. Montoya comes to a crowd gathered around a fallen German Ms. Marvel.

Renee is then asked by some guy to come back with her. Next we see burger flipping cave-guy from the future(yes that does sound as ridiculous) and he then gets fired for his freak-out and saying the word Gravitons, I'm not even joking. People find the symbol he had drawn on the ground and date it back to paleolithic era while other people say it's exactly like this crop circle they found. Sad cave-guy maybe Monitor walks away from TV's in an electronic shop's window(do these even still exist?). Next we find Jay Garrick talking with family and recounting the events that transpired, and sure enough Barry Allen is alive. And it looks like he's been running from a dark knight on skis.

Death Skis

It seems they were attempting to use their light-speed force to chase down the bullet that killed Orion before it killed him. Jay unfortunately wasn't able to keep up due to his age, and Barry and Wally are still attempting sort of attempting to break free and stop it at the same time. Time and the speed force is weird. In the next scene we find the Legion of Doom swamp location where the Human Flame and Libra are talking about the Flame's endeavors for the future. Libra forces a helmet on Flame and the Anti-life equation takes him over. Enter Lex Luthor at bad timing. Lex demands to know whats going on. Libra lays it all on the table that either Lex could join or be forced to join, as Apokolips is coming.

At Metropolis Memorial Hospital, Clark is at Lois's side as she is barely being kept alive by his heat vision or some such. Jimmy is there and says he's going to go find Superman, since he's been missing for almost an entire day(Jesus... does Supes ever get you know, time off?). Some weird person enters the room and says she knows that Clark is Superman, and he needs to join her. Hal is in green energy shackles as the Alpha lanterns are taking him away. Alan(Golden age GL) and Wonder Woman attempt to sway the decision that Hal was the cause of this since there isn't any proof that he did it, but Hal says he doesn't recall anything during the time that Orion was killed and it would be better to go to the Guardians and figure this out. 

I wonder what Article XXX is?

Alan and Diana talk more after the Alphas leave and decide they need more help with a possible fight against Darkseid and the evil gods. A draft is in order. We get varying different scenes of heroes such as Freddie(Marvel Boy) and his tiger butler talking about how that Billy and Mary have gone missing, and he should do something. Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance post coitus, Super-girl talking to her cat, and even some mysterious new Aquaman. A bunch of Superheroes decide to show up for the draft.

I love these kinds of images.

Next we return to Mister Miracle and Sonny Sumo talking about how sometimes Mister Miracle can't even explain his powers. Sumo-san suggests that Motherboxx is probably a big help in this. They're attacked by some unknown assailants wearing very similar helmets to Human Flame's new head accessory. Oh god, that stupid kid group from last issue shows up. One even remarking how he still want's Sumo's autograph. God this was so cringe-worthy to read that Mister Miracle got saved by these snotty brats in costumes. 

Ugh

The smug bastards even remark after Mr. Miracle asks them go back that they've done stuff like save the earth, because they're super-hero teenagers or some such nonsense. I hope these kids earn there keep as cannon fodder. Cut over to Diana standing outside of what looks like an irradiated area of Bludhaven, or maybe that warlord guy in the bunker did something nasty. These knight dudes on riding dalmatians warn her she shouldn't go in without an escort. So they follow her in. 

They come to a scene where a guy from SHADE called Replika(Madrox rip-off) is seen disemboweled, hung, flayed etc. in his multiple bodies. I'm guessing one of them didn't get away... Standing over the bodies is Ms. Marvel gone all punk-rock. Oh wait, that's not Mary, it's some evil god using her body. BY HERA, that's how they've been getting around unnoticed Wonder Woman exclaims. They fight quite a bit, one of the knight chicks by the name of Marene who is a great admirer of Diana gets cut in half by Mary. And her brother holding her dead body screaming at the two, is all the time that Mary needs to land a diseased blow to  Wonder Woman. 

WW is now the carrier for some sort of Omega disease. Meanwhile back at the Hall of Justice, Oracle who has taken over as hub director after MM's death catches an odd e-mail being sent out to everyone in the world. It's a virus and it somehow magically opens itself. Luckily it looks like Oracle was able to pull the plug before she gets caught by the Anti-life Equation and becomes a drone for Darkseid. Barry and Wally finally catch up with time, and it seems they may have jumped a week in to the future. In front of them a group of ball-gag wearing nefarious looking former super-heroes and villains show up with Wonder Woman looking really demonic leading them. 

Ball-gag on the left

I'll see you next time in Final Crisis Part Four!

Weekly Pull List

Hum, this Thursday I have to nearly concede. I had trouble finding an issue to really talk about. I haven't read through everything, but I have read Nova #1. Which is meh, very lackluster from start to finish. I did like the guest appearance from one of my favorite Marvel cosmic characters, Rocket Raccoon  Other than that though, it felt like nothing really happened. 

I wonder if Rocket was named in homage to the
Beatles song, Rocky Raccoon?

Superior Spider-man #4 was interesting, but more of the same from what I've read of the series. I do foresee the Green Goblin, saying he'll take care of things, but ultimately wonder what the hell is actually going on when he faces off against Spidey-Ock. Justice League of America is just plain awful. Shoe-horning in Katana and Catwoman just because of X felt rather clumsy. The entire idea sounds pretty horrible, and honestly I kind of want to keep reading the book to watch this team and it's idea burn down in flaming glory. Don't get me started on Vibe, I have no problem with the character, but his addition to this team seems forced, like they just want him on the team because he's hispanic, DIVERSITY! Avengers #6 was entertaining, but I found it to be the weakest issue of the book so far. It probably has something to do with Captain Universe being the focal point of it. We did finally learn what all those symbols stand for, and now can go back and re-read the issues to see what they say. Someone on Reddit already did this for us Spoilers. I still have quite a bit to read this week, maybe I'll do it in Quick Snipes over until next week, I've heard Saga #10 is supposed to be good. And Thor is always an enjoyable read as is Captain America. So that's it for this week, hopefully next week will have some amazing books on Wednesday.

Suggested Listening: James Blake - Retrograde, I don't have a specific reason, I just liked the song.

A Quick Snipe

I'm gonna do a new series involving quick points of views on certain issues I've recently read. In other words "Quick Snipes". This one is in regards to a recent issue of Thunderbolts from the new Marvel NOW launch, issue number 4 to be exact. I haven't been the biggest of fan of this series, mostly for the art. I do understand that Steve Dillon(Preacher) is leaving the series shortly, so either my opinion of his art(which is normally not very bad) on this book wasn't up to standards or he may have other things going for him. Whatever the deal is Daniel Way hasn't been doing too terribly bad. This issue is a prime example of that. We know the story so-far, and it's quite interesting, but up until this point really hasn't been anything personally engaging with our cadre of characters. Deadpool has, for the most part been hit or miss with his usual quips. Even to the point where I question if he actually said that, or another character did. Usually this is a definable feature of the character, regardless of the yellow bubbles or inner monologue. He still has his jovial moments, but for the most part, I feel he's there to help sell the book than be actually useful in the comic-relief department(he does have a few funny moments though)*. General Ross as the Red Hulk is the driving force behind this book, but he still doesn't feel like the "Driving Force", if you gather what I'm saying. Yes, he pulled these people together, and yes he sort of leads them, but for the most part it seems like he just stands around in the background, and provides... well background information. The other members, aside poor Frank Castle(Punisher, who is sort of a beating stick in this book) seem for the most part under-used. 
Beyond all this, this issue may have swayed my attention to the book's story-telling capabilities. It honestly captured my attention even after I had been drinking a bit, which may be the reason why I started writing this article(I'd been thinking about doing this sort of a thing for a while... seriously). It's telling of the back story of how the semi-mad dictator came about ruling the government, and then showing his subsequent aging in the process, along with how certain characters related to that was quite interesting. And FINALLY, I felt that I cared a bit for these characters. Mostly, Elektra and Frank. What Frank does in this issue is quite impressive, and I don't think I ever would've thought what he does would be possible(in a comic book) with a land mine. I mean crap, even Deadpool seems a bit surprised. If you haven't checked this book out I give it a thumbs up as of right now. It reminded me a lot of early Rick Remender on Uncanny X-Force with this specific issue. I would advise reading the first 3 issues of this book, just so you don't feel completely lost though. And on-top of that, this isn't a conclusion of this current story-arc, but more or less a decent decision on whether you'll like this book and want to continue reading.

*I understand that Deadpool is a sacred characters to most individuals. I also understand he doesn't have to be the punchline or deliverer of a joke at all times in a comic. However, he has gained some sort of responsibility(at least in my opinion) of being the individual who reminds you that you're reading a "comic" book. And in this way I will always note him as the said "comic-relief".**
**He was really awesome in Uncanny X-Force. Remender just really found that way of blending serious and stupid with the character.

I'm A Little Late On This

Final Crisis Part Two
In this issue we open up to some old Japanese super hero rambling on about how the Japanese heroes of today are nothing but a bunch of "wasters". Rising Sun, the elder hero in question continues his tirade as a slew of young heroes affectionately relate that their super power is to be famous. I agree with the old guy. Seriously Super Young Team, get it together. I do have to say I enjoy the paneling work on pages 2-3. 

Nice panel work!

A man by the name of Sonny Sumo enters the club and asks for a glass of water, whilst the said wasters pine over him MechaYakuza comes up to him and challenges him. I don't know any of these characters so I care little for them. Especially when Sumo-san's back ignites and he rips out Mecha's heart leaving it in the glass of water as he walks to the bathroom. The wasters then come up with a plan of action as to get Sonny's autograph as a mysterious man enters the club. It's Mister Miracle! He asks Sonny Sumo to help him out after being told by Motherboxx to find him and form up a team. I assume they're going to go after Darkseid. 

Check out my Magic: The Gathering Card!

We're then greeted by the confused black man who ended the last issue. He seems to be even more confused as he recants his dream to a fellow employ at a local fast food joint where he works. It seems that he may in fact be that cave-guy from his dream, and also he may be the exiled monitor from the Orrery. His friend calls him a stoner and remarks that she only asked if he dreams in color(racist...). A quick scene change and the detective Turpin is beating the ever loving crap out of poor Jervis Tetch(Mad Hatter) who claims he only crafted the head gear that controls the kids and has no idea where they are. 

Ouch

Well until Turpin threatens to destroy his gray matter with a toilet seat. One way ticket to Bludhaven for psycho cop. 
We get a heart felt moment as Superman read's Martian Manhunter's eulogy on Mars. This heart felt moment is then turned over to Libra, who asks the villain populace if they're convinced whether they want to join up with it or not. Lex isn't convinced unless Libra can bring down Superman. Clayface(I'm not sure which one) meanwhile is asking for his cut next. I assume he is referring to Batman, but I could be wrong. The entire Legion of Doom moves out to the streets where I am then posed a question. How has no one alerted the good guys as to where they meet? Unless I guess they move around every time... 
Anyway the Human Flame thanks his boss Libra, who corrects him and say that it isn't his boss, but the boss shall be coming soon. Ooo Foreshadowing for the big baddy(Darkseid).
Back at the Halls of Justice Wonder Woman recounts our dead bodies while Bats and Supes over look the body of Orion. They talk about the possible implications of Orion, a god being shot. Then enters a bitchy bot from the Green Lantern Corp. Hal Jordan pleads that they work together after she calls Batman unprofessional, and asks Wonder Woman not to call her Sister, which she is not. 

The bot, who might I add looks a lot like Danger from X-men storms off saying that Hal's duty has expired for the day. We cut back over to John Stewart who is digging for the missing bullet that killed Orion. He remarks that he has found something, but it's 50 years old. He digs it up with an adorable Tonka sized backhoe and dump truck made from his ring. 

Adorable

When he gets it out his ring goes haywire and some cackling is heard and someone subdues John and this other guy that showed up. In the next scene Kraken(the robot from the Lantern Corp.) bursts in through Hal's door waking him up. She claims he killed Orion, and attempted to kill his Partner, Stewart. I'm betting Kraken set this whole thing up and is working with... Darkseid. 

Oh look... I was right. Batman and Superman talk about how Hal is obviously innocent. Batman confronts Kraken alone, as Supes obviously has more important things to do at the Daily Planet as Clark Kent. A moment of clarity catches Batman's attention as Kraken pleads for help. It seems Parralax has taken over the Alpha Lantern as little green centipedes come out of her arms. Also, Parralax seems to be working for Granny. Thus Batman one way ticket to Apokolips. Back to Turpin, who is now in Bludhaven, where knights ride cheetahs through the streets. He runs in to the good Reverend Good, who was seen on a TV earlier when Turpin was beating the ever living piss out of Hatter. He beckons Turpin to follow him, and then explains that he and Turpin are in fact gods of Apokolips in mortal form.

He then tells Turpin what we already know, that he has found the children and his mind must've been wiped clean of the run-in with Darkseid. Reverend Good leads him down a staircase where two other gods of Apokolips are with Kraken and dear old Batman strapped to some machine begging for a shocked Turpin to get the Justice League immediately.
Back at the Daily Planet Clark hands Perry White MM's Obituary much to Perry's joy, and Clark's sadness. Jimmy Olsen is then asked by Mrs. Kent(Lois Lane) to take a memo downstairs. As Jimmy gets in the elevator he slowly turns into Clayface, and Kent remarks that he thought he saw Jimmy down-- BOOM! The Daily Planet explodes at the top levels and it seems that Lois doesn't Make it.

Hey Lois, need a hand?

In the last scene we see Jay Garrick(Old Flash) and Wally West(3rd Flash) racing towards the scene where the Legion of Doom met Libra. As they look around Wally comments on Metron's space chair and the crime bible. But he gets a bit more in depth at how Batman may have solved Orion's death about a time travelling bullet. Then suddenly the chair opens what looks like a boom tube and a voice off screen calls them by name.

I bet it's Barry

Who could it be?! We'll have to wait and see in Final Justice Part Three!

Weekly Pull List 

The punchline in more ways than one

Thursday again, and it seems the big news is not really big or breaking. It's how DC missed a huge opportunity, and even with one of their golden boys, Scott Snyder. Batman 17 is a lesson in how you can build up a big event in a book and then utterly waste it all way with a sub-par ending. It seemed like this book was going to do the unexpected initially, all of his pupils there bandaged up with their faces staring back at them. Then it said nah, just kidding. Joker continues on with how Bats loves him and only him. Batman comes close to killing the Joker, and almost giving us his true name(I bet it's Jack Napier) before the Joker throws himself off the cliff. Now comes the hard part to swallow, all of the bat kids are totally dipping out on Bruce, because THE JOKER whispered in to their ears that Bruce hasn't been very truthful with them. Why in the blue blazes would they believe the Joker's ramblings in the first place? Just because Bruce never told them that the Joker once maybe found the Batcave? This is ridiculous, Damian of all people would still stand by the side of his father because, well he respects his father regardless of what he has done, or the Joker has said. Maybe the little guy was just lost a bit since Grant Morrison isn't writing him in this book.

Should have went with Helium

Finally, we're greeted with the elemental symbol for Dubnium, which's original name was Hahnium or, Ha. In other words kids, Scott Snyder and the Joker both got the last laugh on us and Batman. I sure hope Batman finds a way to dig itself out of this hole. Art was good as always thanks to Greg Capullo.

Join the Revolution!

Next up is Uncanny X-men vol. infinity, number 1. Seriously how many times are they going to reboot this title. Couldn't they just call it the Brotherhood of Mutants, or Cyclops and the X-men. Anything else besides Uncanny X-men? Anyway, I'm not sure what to really think about this book, the art by Chris Bachalo has a nice cartoony feel as always from his style. However, his coloring blends too much together and sometimes makes it hard to understand whats going on in a panel. Thing is though, luckily the panel work and placement is pretty good, aside from a few giant white bars in the middle of scenes. 

The writing is decent for Brian Michael Bendis. Magneto's narrative flows pretty well when he recants the events that lead up to him meeting with Maria Hill. Magik's sword is ridiculous, but I guess that's to show she's still a young girl in an adult's body(I'm guessing Bachalo is just a big FF7 fan). All-in-all it's an ok book, and should build up quite nicely in the future. Also, making Magneto bald is very strange to me, but I understand the homage to Xavier.

Only two this week, I felt Batman took up a good chunk of this week's reviews, also it was a light week for the books I read. Have a great weekend!

Suggested Listening: Coheed & Cambria - Iron Fist, coming off the new The Afterman: Decension album. Kind of makes me want to read Matt Fraction's Immortal Iron Fist book.

I'm A Little Late On This

Final Crisis Part One
I'm going to describe as quickly as possible about this type of post on this wonderful blog I've made. Not all people can read everything immediately when it comes out. So essentially these particular posts are going to involve comic books or other things I may have gleaned over in the past, but gave enough effort to catch myself up on now, and also put in the time to write about. 

I miss FrankenLantern

So this time around I'm going to be talking about the first issue of Final Crisis written by the great Grant Morrison. Fun fact about me and old Granty, I didn't care much for him about 6 or more years ago. Sure I read his New X-men, and I liked it just fine, but I didn't really give any of his other work a chance(I still haven't read Invisibles). However, over a year ago I finally decided to break my hatred for Superman and read some of the Man of Steel's best books from other people's opinions. This is when I read All-Star Superman and it was absolutely amazing. I didn't know anyone could write Supes like that. Then low and behold I saw the authors name. Well... Fudge, I guess I have to give this guy some credit now. I went back and re-read some of New X-men and yet again I was blown away. I suppose the hipster in me(sigh) was fashioned long ago in to despising this poor man's work. That or maybe I was just a young insolent idiot who liked Nightcrawler because he could teleport and he made that "Bamf" sound. Whatever the case may be I really like Grant's stuff now.

Metron just chilling in his space chair in prehistoric times

So Final Crisis opens up with a caveman running around back in prehistoric times and then he runs in to this guy named Metron. When I started reading this I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. I never had read much up on this book other than I know some people die(pre-New 52). So seeing this caveman run in to a blue guy on a space chair completely threw me for a loop. Now I'm curious, who is Metron, why is he talking to Brad Pitt caveguy? Then some guy that looks like Frank Quitely's Wolverine from New X-men is seen fighting other cavedudes, and then of course he takes a red-head for his prize from a local hut. Yet again, "what the flip is going on?" I ask myself. I continue onward to pursue my answers. A few pages in, suddenly we're moving from a Ringo Starr caveman movie and in to a classic old noir piece. With legal notepad inner monologue bubbles and all. I did enjoy how Morrison transferred the scene of man finding fire and then a transition to a cigarette being lit up, and how fire brought life and now death. That stuff was deep. 

Deicide is also a death metal band

Anyway noir detective guy runs in to a new god by the name of Orion collapsed in a pile of what I can only guess are water guns(or maybe the light up ones). Green Lantern John Stewart gets a call of a 1011, and that it's an urgent call. So him and Hal Jordan meet up at the scene and it turns out that 1011 is a Deicide, and poor old Orion is in fact dead. I'm just going to say it here, I bet Darkseid had something to do with it. I mean seriously that guy hates Orion.
Here again is why Grant Morrison is a pretty damn good writer. See those guys over the body of Orion, you know Hal and John. They're intergalactic policeman, and they're totally at a crime scene doing their job. Oh, but wait it gets better. you know those blue dudes that they work for? The Guardians of Oa are actually carrying this out just like any other crime scene that a police officer and detectives would do. 

Darkseid...

I mean seriously, seal off the crime scene, dust for radiation finger-prints, and question all potential suspects(Darkseid)?! I guess maybe I don't read a lot of Green Lantern or something, but I really enjoyed how Morrison made the space police in to... well you know space police. Oh also, the Question pops up to noir detective dude gives him a clue about a club called Dark Side(gee...). Oh and he calls the Question a Muk-Muk. God I bet his voice sounds like gravel, sand, and tombstones.
Moving on, we see a group of super twits consisting of Livewire and some other people I'm not really too familiar with running through what looks like a junkyard with a lot of mirrors. OH BOY, it's the greatest bad guy team-up since Solomon Grundy and Calendar Man(did that ever really happen?)! Mirror Master and Dr. Light, I'm actually excited, I promise! They take out the aforementioned twits with the greatest of ease. then set up something that somehow gets them Metron's space chair secured. I'm not sure why his chair is in a junkyard. Oh also, supervillains commit a protest in the middle of the street, I'm guessing it was a diversion so that the other two goons could get the chair... I really have no idea what's going on with this part of the book. I do however know that Dr. Light needs Viagra.

I don't think that's what Giganta meant when she said big and tall

Also, it seems Mirror Master is a drug dealer. Yet again the scene changes after Livewire makes a failed attempt to stop the two. We're brought to a scene where we're introduced to what I can assume is one of our major villains of the book, Libra. This thing(It's not human, it pretty much said so) Is in council with Lex Luthor, Vandal Savage(I bet he was the Wolverine in the prehistoric segment earlier), What I believe is Orm, Grodd, and the Human Flame. I'm not really sure who the Human Flame is, but I'm told that he is Martian Manhunter's baddy.

Libra may be a thing, but things still enjoy water

Libra explains that it can change the balance of the super heroes always winning to a more even plate for the villains. Vandal and Lex say Libra is wasting their time, and calling Libra's plan BS before even hearing what the thing really has to say. Libra really doesn't mess around, and well it has Dr. Light and Mirror Master bring in Martian Manhunter. Oh by the way, note that Libra has Metron's space chair now. Libra then proceeds to have the Human Flame torch MM and then stabs him through the heart. 

X marks the spot

RIP, J'onn J'onzz. After this noir detective dude runs in to the Tattooed Man, and has him lead him in to club Dark Side. In there he meets... well Darkseid, but in a human form that seems to be sick. He Kaff's a lot. I suppose I should mention that noir detective guy's name is Turpin and he's looking for some missing kids before he can retire(insert Lethal Weapon joke here). Darkseid says he gave them to Granny(OH GOD). The Children have become part of the Anti-life equation, and now noir detective dude is under Darkseid's boot.
MEANWHILE AT THE HALL OF JUSTICE! Bats and the gang get to talking about stuff and decide to lock down the entire earth, the Lanterns do this and we pull back to this thing called the Orrery where a bunch of Earths are stacked up like they're gumballs.

Gumballs

Oh and if you want to know what color the Justice League has set for a total Earth lock-down  it's amber(the color of your inner chi... energy?). Anyway this Orrery place has people that live in it and I guess they watch Earths or something. I honestly wasn't very interested in this part of the book, aside the giant gumball of Earths. Some monitor person failed in saving Earth 51, so they exile this person to become a humble mortal. Some chick named Weeja Dell is angered by this, and he(exiled dude) say's he'll find a way to return to her. She storms off from the scene and comforted by a person with a kooky headdress named Zillo Valla. I guess I should pay more attention to these people, because I'm sure they'll be very important later on, but meh. Oh some sneaky guy says he's happy that his only obstacle, Uotan(the exiled dude) is now out of his way.

I enjoy the Morrison and J.G. Jones are on the news scroll

Now back to prehistoric times where the guy who ran in to Metron draws his(Metron's) symbol in the sand and the Statue of Liberty appears. OR, this isn't in fact prehistoric times, but the future after an apocalypse, or... Final Crisis if you will. After this we're greeted to a scene where some black guy wakes up and can't believe he's there for some odd reason, oh and Green Arrow is pissed his buddy, MM is dead. That's where issue one comes to a close.

Weekly Pull List

It's Thursday, the day after Wednesday, and if you haven't noticed. I'm now available. I've read most of the comics on my pull-list for this week, and I have to say I enjoyed this week immensely. I added a new book this week, Green Arrow; starting at issue 17 may seem strange, but I heard from a post on Reddit(here is the post) that there would be an overhaul in the creative department. Boy howdy has there ever been. Jeff Lemire, who I've been enjoying in his monthly Animal Man book from the New 52 has taken over the writing. I like his writing a lot in Animal Man, and I'm starting to like his writing a lot in Green Arrow. Yes after only one issue. The art is pretty good as well, thanks in part to Andrea Sorrentino. I'm not very familiar with his work, but he seems to be handling himself very well with the colors/moods and panels of the book to reflect Lemire's story.

Case in point

I'm honestly hoping for great things from this book, and it has inspired me to go back and re-read Year One and Wonder Year, which I assume Lemire is going to reference quite a bit from what I've read dealing with a conspiracy on the "Island". This book is a good jumping on point for fans of Green Arrow who weren't satisfied with the previous New 52 Incarnation, and is also a good launching point for new readers of the hero with the pointy blonde beard, green Robin Hood hat, sprayed on bandit mask, or at least that's what he does on Arrow right? I still need to watch that show.

His arm looks like a ham steak

Speaking of Jeff Lemire, and Animal Man. The Rot World saga has come to a close and Now Swampy and Butter Baker have to go and make sure it doesn't happen. I really don't have much to say about this issue, but I do have to say one thing. FrankenLantern is AMAZING. Seriously, Franky goes to Hollywood and still looks better than Ryan Reynold's outfit. Actually he didn't go to Hollywood, but I felt it necessary as to set up my joke about how the Green Lantern costume in the movie was awful. It only gets better in Swamp Thing when he uses the green juice to give himself a chainsaw hand ala Ash from Evil Dead. I'm sad that I'll probably never see this character again. Thank you Lemire, and Scott Snyder for creating this wonderful thing.

Lastly, out of my top faves from this week. New Avengers 3, and HOLY POOP do I love Jonathan Hickman. I have to say hands down he is probably my favorite current writer. I love what he did with Fantastic Four. I love how he made Reed Richards the Maker in the Ultimates. I enjoy how he created an alternate history revolving around the Manhattan Projects. Now I love him for his crafting of a great epic with the Illuminati in New Avengers. I'm a big fan of his Avengers book, but New Avengers is just insanely well written. What he did with the Infinity Gems this issue blew me away, but he left a backdoor in case he or someone else wanted to bring them back. 

And on the last page of the issue, I saw an old Tony Stark from the days of Civil War make an appearance. The introduction of Beast as a member of this group felt natural, even if it was just because Xavier wanted him on the team to take his place. The pressure of what they need to get done is mounting with each scene. This book is simply one of the best Marvel is putting out currently.

In honor of this being my first post about comics, I figured I'd draw you a little doodle of Ash and FrankenLantern teaming up.

I'm great with boats, but not shootguns

Suggested Listening: Beach Boys - Heroes and Villains, because I just read the Taskmaster miniseries and I liked the song. I'll probably be writing a post about this said mini on Sunday in Sunday Funday Trades(title pending).