After my lengthy leave of absence from this blog and from comic books in general I decided to dive back in head first by reading every Flashpoint related comic that I could get my hands on. I am fairly certain I have the complete list (sixty-one issues) and I started reading them in close to their intended order.

After reading the 19th comic in the Flashpoint series, the realization that the timeline presented within is a fleeting one hit me, and I stopped caring. The intricacies of the events within Flashpoint simply do not matter and I am not too keen on reading through yet another multi-verse shattering epic that leaves timelines and continuity in tatters.
The novelty of these alternate Universes always wears off pretty quickly for me and I am left caring only about the outcome of the over-all story. It is not because I lack patience or dislike long stories. I just fail to see the point in delving into a number of stories and characters that will be erased by the end of the series. I suppose if the story was compelling enough I would be interested, but honestly Flashpoint was rather dull. And being that the Flashpoint event is meant to lead to a permanently simplified DC Universe, I’d rather not clutter up my head with a bunch of information that will soon be useless.

So anyway, there I was, 19 issues deep into Flashpoint. I had read mostly one-shots or part ones of various mini-stories, and that’s where I decided to give up and just get to the meat of the whole thing: Flashpoint itself. Five issues ending with an epic reboot of DC Comics… one they claim they will never revert. I went ahead and read the four-part Booster Gold story entitled Turbulence as well (issues 44 – 47) because it was a decent back up to the Flash’s story and tied in to the overall theme.

Geoff Johns did a pretty decent job with the main Flashpoint comic, although his cutesy, knowing-dialog between heroes still gets on my nerves. An example of this is in Flashpoint #3 when Batman grumbles and the Flash replies with “That’s the Batman ‘mmmrrr’ for saying something without saying something. Your son did it too. What is it?”. A small gripe perhaps, but it just sounds needlessly nostalgic.

By the end of Flashpoint I was a little surprised to see that the Flash seemed to have his memories kept intact since DC has claimed no trapdoors will exist, and I assumed this meant no characters would remember the original timeline.
Of course I could pick apart why it makes no sense that Thomas Wayne would become the Batman and a handful of other large plot-holes, but I feel this is not worth delving into since this was a temporary timeline. A quick distraction that leads us into a simplified Universe, less tangled by alternate realities and timelines.

1. ^[1] DC has said that The New 52 is not a reboot, but that it is a launch. Here is how they define the difference: “A reboot is typically a restart of the story or character that jettisons away everything that happened previously. This is a new beginning which builds off the best of the past.” ↩

As I have pointed out numerous times, The Walking Dead is my favorite comic book to date. It’s only competitor is Fear Agent. Time and again Robert Kirkman has pushed the limits of the survival horror genre, and of comic books in general.
The rape of Michone, the horrific retaliation bestowed upon the Governor, the unexpected death of many characters, including Rick’s wife and baby; Robert Kirkman has truly proven that this book is not about zombies, it’s about the survivors.

The most recent issue of the Walking Dead, issue #57, pushed another boundary: the attempted rape of Rick’s child.

In this issue the survivor’s arrive at an onramp to the interstate as they continue their journey towards Washington D.C.
Rick and Abraham decide to take the interstate towards Rick’s former home town in order to raid the police station for supplies. Of course Rick insists upon taking Carl along for the ride so that he can keep an eye on him. Upon nightfall Rick and Abraham decide to make camp.
It is soon thereafter that a group of rednecks attack Rick, Abraham and Carl in their sleep in attempt to rob them.
In a rather shocking series of panels Carl is dragged away from his father and has his pants ripped off. Thankfully Rick is able to come to Carl’s aid before things go further.

This was such a horrible turn in the story that in the letters section, Krikman actually felt the need to offer what could almost be translated as an apology to his readers.

Kirkman explains how this was a very difficult thing for him to write. He also explains that he and Charlie Adlard took no delight in this section of the comic.

Call it an apology, an explanation or simply an excuse, there’s no doubt in my mind that Kirkman’s email has been littered with angry letters of complaint.

The current Arc, I Against I, is shaping up to be yet another great story line.

When last we left Heath Huston and Nicholas in Hatchet Job #5 (issue #21) they were sucked in to a black hole while attempting to escape from the planet Neavsivia. Now they are stranded on an unfamiliar planet where they attempt to survive its harsh conditions.

I really love the looks of the civilization that Heath encounters on this new world. It seems to be a mix of an old Western town and a futuristic palace city. I’m not sure why, but I have a thing for alien civilizations that resemble towns from the Wild West… they intrigue me.

Rick Remender continually manages to keep me engaged throughout each issue, and by the end leaves me wanting more. I can’t wait to see where this story is heading.
Honestly, if you are not reading Fear Agent, I highly recommend that you pick up the trades. If you’re like me, you’ll be hooked on the monthly issues.

You can preview the first three pages of I Against I at the official Dark Horse Comics website.

Heroes for Hire is a group made up of 8 teammates: Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Black Cat, Shang-Chi, Tarantula, Humbug, Orka, Paladin. Most of these characters are virtual unknowns in the Marvel Universe.

Heroes for Hire #3 (which came out way back in October of ’06) is particularly wretched. In issue #2 Iron Man sent the Heroes out to talk some sense in to Captain America, I’m assuming the idea being that Captain America’s closest friends can’t reel him in, so surely these people you’ve never heard of can.
While on the mission, Paladin betrays the team, bombing the room with knockout gas, and apprehends Cap.
Issue #3 picks up with Misty Knight giving Paladin a beating. After several panels we find out that Paladin is actually Captain America in disguise… he swapped costumes after Shang-Chi beat up Paladin. Cap’s reason for not passing out from the gas? He held his breath, of course!
A brief conversation ensues and Misty fails to convince Captain America. Iron Man flips out after finding out that he got the wrong Cap’n A and yells at Misty. The looming sub-plot (that is actually going to be the main plot), which involves Skrull organ transplants thickened and the issue finally ended.

The art (Francis Portela and Billy Tucci) is stiff which makes the characters feel emotionless, and the dialogue (written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti) seems as though it was written by a child. For the most part, Civil War has been a decent read. Heroes for Hire is useless. In some aspects it feels like a cheap knock off of DC Comics’ Secret Six… I’m just glad #3 is the last Civil War crossover. Needless to say, I won’t be reading future issues.

Each issue features the Spectre killing off the worst of the worst in criminal scum: rapists, child molesters, and mainly murders are among the victims of the Spectre’s unique brand of blind justice.

The issues move fast, but are always interesting and feature well written dialogue. The side story of Crispus Allen adapting to his new un-life is entertaining, and the arc, which happens to be a murder mystery, is intriguing.

Brian Azzarello has done an amazing job on the art and David Lapham is a great writer.

Then, there’s the bonus crap in the back of each issue: Dr. Thirteen.
I really wanted to like this story. It has all of the elements of classic 1950′s campy horror: vampires, pirates, yeti, Nazi chimps that live in a jungle in the arctic…
However, the dialogue is rather cliche and the story is taking too long to get to the point. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not slow moving, it’s actually very quickly paced… but that’s the problem: it’s running in circles.
The third installment felt like the first and second repeated with different characters. The story feels rushed but frozen, like a person trapped in the woods who rushes to get out, but simply winds up tracing their footsteps again and again in one big circle.

I’m simply not getting it… perhaps it will pick up, but I doubt it.

Don’t let Dr. Thirteen prevent you from enjoying Tales of the Unexpected. It’s just a ‘bonus’, not the main tale. This series is definitely worth reading, especially if you’re a Spectre fan.

If you’re like me, you have no idea who Starro is. A quick trip to Wikipedia helped to shed some light on this .
The short of it is, he’s a starfish like creature who first showed up way back in 1960 in The Brave and the Bold #28. This was also the first appearance of the JLA. So Starro is their oldest enemy.

This comic holds up to the previous 3 issues as being very well written and having pretty good looking art.

I do have a complaint though (don’t I always?):
Superman attempts to remove one of these mini-Starro things from a dude’s neck. He can barely pry it off, Wonder Woman even offers to lasso it to help yank it out. Supes ends up breaking off a leg instead.
A few pages later the Red Arrow easily shoots these Starros off of several people’s necks with his arrows. This would imply that the Red Arrow’s shot is more powerful than Superman’s pull… interesting plot hole.

Other than the mini-complaint, I really enjoyed the comic. If you’re not reading this title yet, I encourage you to track down the first four issues and give it a read.

The current story arc seems to have drawn to a close (or at the very least gone over it’s peak) in Walking Dead #33. It has definitely left our small band of explorer / heroes in bad shape, and while one is missing a body part, one has sever mental trauma, and one has a lot of physical and mental trauma, they all made it out with their lives.

This story arc as a whole was pretty unexpected. Spotting a helicopter which lead to a town made up of mentally unstable sociopaths was crazy enough… finding out that their self-proclaimed governor kept his zombie daughter leashed to a wall, stages fights between residents and new-comers in an arena surrounded by chained zombies and watched by town residents, and likes to rape his women victims was almost over the top.

Kirkman made a bold decision in chopping off Rick’s hand. At first I thought this was a terrible choice… after all, a hand is something that won’t heal. Rick is permanently damaged. However the more I think about it, the more I like this turn of events. Rick is somewhat of a mainstay in the book. He and his wife are the only characters that seem safe. Chopping off a limb makes you think that Kirkman might be crazy enough to kill Rick after-all.

While I do feel this story has pushed the limits, and the art has been absolutely outstanding, I did think the rape of Michone was a bit harsh. Even that I could deal with. What really felt unnecessary was the fate of the Governor as dealt by Michone in retaliation to her own torture (this included having his eye plucked out with a spoon, the chopping off of his man-bits, the dismemberment of his arm, and a few other pretty horrible things). Issue #33 was a payback issue. It was gratuitous in violence and nothing more. While one could argue that the Governor got what was coming to him, I would argue that he got a bit too much. I was actually a little sickened while reading this and didn’t feel a sense of closure. Rather I felt that Kirkman was trying to appease his readers for the shocking treatment of Michone by one-upping it on the Governor.

Up until this story arc I have felt that Walking Dead is one of the greatest stories in comics, currently not so much. Things have taken a turn towards shock value which feels very cheap.
I’m actually happy to see this story draw to a close and look forward to moving on to bigger and better things. If only the group would just get motivated to leave the prison for good and get back to some exploring…

In this issue of Detective Comics, Batman must stop Doctor Phosphorus from killing convicted criminal Rupert Thorne. Dr. Phosphorus was thought to be dead… killed at the hands of Ted Knight. But, like all good comic book characters, he’s not really dead… he’s just more powerful and ready to exact vengeance on the world… starting with Thorne & CO.

The art in this issue is very distracting in a bad way. I’m not sure if Marz is to blame, or if Luciana Del Negro (inker) is the guilty party. Or perhaps John Kalisz (colorist) should be taking some of the heat. All I know for sure is the thick outlines and faded colors (in-particularly seen in the faces and flesh tones of each character) give this issue a very cheap look.

The writing was no better. I hate to ruin the ending for any poor sap who wasted their money on this issue and has yet to waste their time on reading it as well, but I have to finish the rant out by commenting on the finale (stop reading if you don’t want to spoil the “surprise” ending). Batman defeats Phosphorus with Baking Soda. On one hand this is somewhat inventive… baking soda being a fire retardant. On the other hand it comes off feeling like an advertisement for baking soda. When Batman gears up to punch Dr. P in the face, he says “Baking Soda. They say it has one hundred different household uses. Call this one hundred and one.” KRACK.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bruce Wayne and Alfred have an interchange on the final page of the comic that relates to this magical powder. This exchange between Alfred and Wayne is horrific. Bruce makes mention of the beignets tasting “a little off” to which Alfred replies that he was “half way through making these” when he realized that Wayne stole the Baking Soda. Bruce, with a disgusted look on his face asks what was used instead. Alfred tells him that salt was used as a substitute to the baking soda, but he will happily make something else to replace these (since they taste like horse crap). Bruce responds with a cheesy pun (which I won’t waste your time on here) and the final panel is a drawing of Wayne Manor. The end.

If McGraw was anything more than just a fill-in for this title, I would drop it on the spot. If you haven’t bought this comic yet, absolutely do not waste your money.

For a limited time Review Me is basically handing out free money for signing up… all you have to do is write a review on Review Me within 72 hours of accepting the assignment. I was a little apprehensive at first since this is strictly a comic book blog, but I also want free money. Call me a sell out, call me greedy… you can call me $30 richer which will help me to buy even more comic books to review on this site that you read for free.
At any rate, Review Me is a very cool concept. The system has a nice simple design to match it’s simple business structure. The only thing I’m a little frustrated with, but not at all surprised is that there is no Comics sub category which you can list your blog under. It’s hard for me to praise Review Me very highly since I haven’t had much experience with it. For a guy like me who does comics, I would say that the chances of turning a nice profit are slim to none… what on earth would people pay me to review (besides comic books… hint hint)?

If Review Me turns out to be anything like Text Link Ads then I’d say it has a bright future. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Side note:
Fear not. My site will not become littered with advertised falsified reviews. There are two things I plan to live by if the opportunity to review another site presents itself.

1. I will always inform my readers that I am doing a paid review.
2. I absolutely will not pull any punches. If I think something sucks, you’ll be sure to find that out in the review.

The original tale involved Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent boarding a cruise ship along with Lois Lane. A fire breaks out and they each have to save the day, save Lois, and catch a jewl thief. This tale also involves the three characters aboard a cruise ship, but rather than a fire breaking out, there is a pan-dimensional rift where Owl Man and Ultraman show up, along with Superwoman and two Deathstrokes (see update at the end of this article). The overall story has a silly, over-the-top feel, but it is done very well. In fact, it offers an explanation for it’s silliness at the very end which I will not spoil for you. The front cover hints at this outcome in it’s title “a re-imaginary story”.

If you’re a fan of the monthly Superman / Batman series and haven’t picked up the annual, be sure to get a copy. Also, if you enjoy lighthearted stories that have no impact on later issues, this is a comic for you.
If you only enjoy comics with a serious tone, steer way clear of this comic because you’ll be very disappointed.

Personally, I really enjoyed reading this comic (I even laughed out loud a couple of times). The rivalry between Superman and Batman was nicely portrayed. I came away with a longing for a monthly series featuring retellings of older issues. Nicely done!

Update: It was brought to my attention that in fact there was one Deathstroke and one Deadpool which is awesome (Deadpool being a Marvel character that is almost identical to Deathstroke). This makes the book way more hilarious and I can’t believe that I overlooked that detail (cut me some slack… the two characters are basically twins. On top of that, they never say his name… I just figured he was an alternate Deathstroke).