Comic Reviews Week of 6/24/09

Remember kids, retcons cost lives.


Green Lantern (v4) #42
Written By Geoff "Kid Retcon" Johns
Art By Phillip Tan and Eddy Barrows

Hey, there's an actual Black Lantern in this issue. Unfortunately, it's a literal black lantern, and it kind of comes off like something out of some horror movie, as it spontaneously grows arms and seeks 'flesh'. But hell, it beats the Guardians sitting around at the end of every arc and making ominous statement.

But would it really be a Geoff Johns story without a retcon that essentially nullifies a story from between 1986 and 2005? No, it wouldn't, so Johns takes this opportunity to claim that Xanshi, the planet John Stewart let explode because of his own arrogance, was a planet full of jerks, so their destruction isn't really so bad after all.

Still, this issue is one of the better ones of John's run, if only because it feels like something is actually happening, rather than just building towards something way down the line.


Justice League of America (v2) #34
Written By Dwayne McDuffie
Art By Adrian Syrf and Eddy Barrows

How the hell has this title lasted this long. I mean, it's been decent ever since Meltzer left, but he didn't exactly create the strongest foundations, and with the crushing weight of unending crossovers...well, it's to McDuffie's credit that it is wholly unreadable.

That said, the Milestone Universe? Really? Sure, they were using Static over in Teen Titans but he was essentially the only marketable commodity that the entire misbegotten line ever produced. Let's be honest, there has been exactly one version of the Justice League that worked without the big guns of the DC Universe, and that was the Giffen/DeMatteis run, and that only worked because it was a comedy.

Anyway, this issue answers the question of how the Milestone characters ended up in the DC universe...apparently some guy just kind of jammed them in there during the last crisis, and Superman's response is basically, "eh, okay, whatever."



Dark Wolverine #75
Written By Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu
Art By Giuseppe Camuncoli

Dark Wolverine is what happens when a writer has a bad idea and there's no one around with the wherewithal to stop the madness before it gets too far. You see Daken if the son of Wolverine, and he's kind of evil, but only in a boring emo way. Anyway, he's been impersonating Wolverine in the Avengers, and now he has his own title. Thrill as Daken plays mind games with the rest of the Dark Avengers! Gasp in horror as he shares his half-baked philosophy about the world! Grimace as the Dark Reign storyline continues into its mind-numbing sixth month!

Also, I don't know how to break this to Marvel, but the whole 'villain pretending to be a hero' concept can get old quickly if you pump out a dozen books with the same idea. I mean, they've put out "Dark Avengers" and the new "Ms. Marvel" and Bullseye/Hawkeye character has his own miniseries, and there's going to a book called "Dark X-Men"....well, you get the idea.

But hey, if you like Daken....then I don't want you reading my reviews.


Gotham City Sirens #1
Written By Paul Dini
Art By Guillem March

If this comic were put out by Marvel instead of DC, you know it'd be called "Dark Birds of Prey," just saying.

On the one hand, I can't help but feel like this isn't exactly the strongest premise for a book that ever was. "A bunch of female Bat-Villains get together and do morally ambiguous stuff" doesn't sound like a comic that's going to last long.

That said, it's not bad...except for the fact that Paul Dini apparently doesn't realize that no one likes Hush, and feels the need to reference his last Hush-centric story. I would be lying if I said that I knew where the book was going, but I'm impressed enough to give it another chance.

Pico-Reviews-Three orders of magnitude shorter than anyone else's!

Dark Avengers/X-Men Utopia: Pass

Nova #26: I now believe that every single Marvel book is caught up in one crossover or another.

Wolverine: Weapon X #3, Wolverine Noir #3, and Wolverine First Class #16: There's really this much of a market for Wolverine comics? Really? And yet Captain Britain is still going to get cancelled? You all suck.

Uncanny X-Men #512: A bunch of characters go back in time and cause the 1906 San Francisco earthquake? Well-played Mr. Fraction.