Comic Book Round Up

How do. I intended to post more than this here on comic book round up but it seems like I only post when I've actually read some comics and have the time. Anyways, enough preamble.

52 (up to issue 24) -

Im always running behind on this but I just read 23 and 24 and oh, they were goodies. I like how Black Adam has his own Black Adam Jnr, I also love how the Question stole the scene with Black Adam Jnrs debut.

It was a shame about Super Chief that dude seemed to have promise and he only just got off the ground, hopefully the writers will sneak him back in somewhere, it was cool to see the Elongated Man again though.

Whos not chuffed to see Ambush Bug back in the fold? I don't think hes been in a comic since the early nineties. I love that about DC, just when you think you've got a good knowledge on all the characters/histories they sucker punch you with someone you totally forgot about.

Oh, something that did annoy me was the actions of Green Arrow. When he heard about Firestorm putting together a ropey league he should have either gotten himself involved to keep an eye on them or got some other veteran to do so. Having a inexperienced team running round with the Justice League name is just going to hurt everyone. Im not asking for a big name either, christ, Metamorpho would have done a treat, ah well, I suppose it will be an education for everyone.

I haven't really commented on the art as its to the same standard as its been throughout, not beautiful but good, which im more than happy with from a title that comes out once a week and has numerous pencillers on it. The recent covers though have been gorgeous, I'd go as far as to say they're poster worthy.

Supergirl (issues 9 and 10) -

These issues really impressed and I'd say of the last moth or so Supergirl is the best Kryptonian comic on the shelves. I think somewhere that Kara is really shining is that she provides actual insight into Krypton as she actually lived there. You'll see more of Krypton in an issue of Supergirl than you would in a years worth of Superman comics and for a Supes geek this is awesome. Granted all that we see from Kara might be false but hey, it's still cool.

Im impressed with how much they got through in issue 9, Kara questions Supes relationship with Superboy, specifically, how come Kon was invited to live with the Kents and Kara never was? Excellent question, a possibly character defining question. It's most likely that after what happened with Kon another young person walking round with an S on their chest would just be upsetting. But the the question will most likely never be raised with Clark so it IS character defining in that it could drive a wedge between the Supergirl and Superman.

Kara also has a sort-of boyfriend now, I think, again I think that its the new Cap.Boomerang but im not 100% sure, hes a good choice for Kara as hes going to be able to show the underside of the humanity plus hes actually a fun character so their conversations are going to make for fun reading. I know some people had hopes of Supergirl and Nightwing but that would just have been dull.

And (yes theres more!) Kara is now friends with Wondergirl, which makes sense since she did chill on Paradise Island for a while. Im glad to see someone else is missing the Amazons, this could be the first mention of them I've read since PI disappeared during infinite crisis.

Issue 10 was interesting but frustrating. In the space of an issue Supergirl gets a secret idenity goes to highschool then exposes her true identity and leaves. Kinda felt pointless. However, it was kinda neat to how Ultimate Spiderman would work with Supergirl, if DC falls on hard times they could push out Ultimate Supergirl under this format and it would sell oodles (possibly).

The Flash (issue 5) -

I want to like this book, I do, I really do but it keeps winding me up. The art work is just getting dire and the story is limping from frustrating main storyline to frustrating sub plot.

Cyborg was in this issue, that should have been cool but it just came off odd and a bit static. DC should put Bart back to the age he used to be, I miss Kid Flash!

This villain of his is really started to frustrate me as well, hes just shit. The guy himself is dickhead but what annoys me more than that are his non-descript vague powers, he has this green glow and has super strength and can sometimes fire this green electricity type stuff and it just looks naff. This sort of villain isn't worth the Flashes times, Bart or Jay, I don't mind which, should just give him a super fast punch to nutts and move on to a good villain.

Tales of the Unexpected (issue 1)-

Now this was a good read. Get the Mike 'Hellboy' Mignola cover as the Spectre looks badass whereas the cover not so much. The story is split in two, the first story featuring the Spectre (duh) in a pretty cool one shot story with gorgeous artwork and the second featuring a new character the DCU a Dr.13 who was quite interesting.

The Spectre story was good although I was confused as to this conflict between Allen and the Spectre, at the end of Aftermath they became one. I did like Allens questioning of the Spectres methods but I thought we'd moved past that.

With Dr.13 it was the dialogue and narration that really shone for me. The character himself wasn't that interesting (I hasten to add 'yet') and what was going didn't intrigue me that much but everyone said pretty cool stuff and the Dr.13 narration made it something I'd want to read again. A scene early on that made me think that this might get a bit weird down the line was the scene where, whilst in a dream the doc is in bed with his daughter, that's something you don't see everyday in a main stream comic.

* Gosh this is a long post, I had a few other titles to talk about but I'll save those for another time*