EVENT BOOK WEEK!

This week was strange. I suppose with Labor Day and school starting the big two figured they should start their event books to bring forth a new surge of interest for the last, final quarter. Four event books hit this week. I bought them all (sucker). Three were fun. One was a slog. But they got me excited to actually go to a comic book store this week (I usually read digitally).

FOREVER EVIL #1: David Finch and Geoff Johns. The first big event of the "new 52" (which is three years old this month). This certainly had all of us curious. The other thing they've done is have 52 books this month focusing on a villain in each one instead of having the regular books out. So Superman #23.1 features Bizarro Superman, etc. They all have pretty cool 3-D covers (you don't need glasses...they're called "motion covers" or something). So this is the start of a big month for DC. This book, Forever Evil #1, has a group of villains from another dimension show up and proclaim that they've killed off the Justice League and that evil will reign. The catch? This group is made of an evil Superman that snorts kryptonian, an evil Green Lantern, an evil Flash, and two other foes. So yes...this is the opposite of Marvel's super serious Infinity. This is a lark, a fun, silly romp of sorts. It's certainly entertaining, though more along the lines of that Daredevil: Shadowland mini-series a few years ago. That was stupid, silly, but fun...and everyone hated it. I enjoyed this first issue (even though David Finch's art is half as good as it used to be)...and the mystery of what happened to the Justice League will keep most reading (c'mon...they're obviously held captive on some other earth somewhere). At 7 parts, though, will I still care in five months or whenever the hell it ends? **1/2

INFINITY #2: I've enjoyed Manhattan Projects, writer Jonathan Hickman's bizarre opus, but his Marvel stuff has mostly left me bored and/or confused. I did like a few issues of his Fantastic Four run, but his current Avengers run and now his event mini-series, Infinity, is a garbled heap of space opera junk. I do understand the jist of the tale (anyone who likes this book will tell its detractors that they're not smart enough or don't understand or don't know the whole history to "get it"); Thanos is the villain. But, seriously, who the fuck are the Inhumans, the Builders, the Shi'Ar, the Cull Obsidian, and the Illuminati? I know: they're boring. I've read "smart" and serious books in the past and enjoyed them. Sandman, Watchmen. Those books are great. Infinity is a dull slog. Marvel's dog of the year. 1/2*

X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM #1 & ALL NEW X-MEN #16: Is it still "all new" if it's at #16 already? Heh.Well these two are parts 1 and 2 of the new X-Men event, "Battle of the Atom." They tricked us by putting out two parts on the same day...so even if you hated part 1 the probability is that you probably bought both parts anyway. Sucker. Brian Bendis wrote both of these. Frank Cho drew the first, Stuart Immonen the second. Immonen has looked sloppy lately whereas Cho is all clean, fat lines that make his books look like a cartoon. The story has a future X-Men team showing up to warn the current X-Men that bringing back the 60's X-Men to present day is bad. So...yeah...the plot features 3 X-Men teams of 3 eras talking. There's some action with Sentinels...but I'm curious to see what the "atom" is or how this storyline will go 10 parts and warrant the "event" moniker. It's so far light and semi-fun. **1/2