BATMAN INCORPORATED #13

The last of the hanging-on, old "52" books is here, and now it's all over. Grant Morrison bows out of Batman, finally, but, c'mon...even Gaiman is doing Sandman again so Morrison and Batman probably aren't over. Morrison famously brought back Damian from the late 80's and then killed him off after making him the new, rough around the edges Robin. Morrison also killed Batman, sort of, and made a lot of us scratch our heads more than once. Morrison's run has been hit or miss...but I will say there have been more hits than misses. What he did bring was a fresh take on Batman. This isn't just bad guy vs. Batman...it's weird, strange, curious along with bad guy vs. Batman. The big bad has been Talia Al Ghoul. She gets shot in the head and apparently killed in this issue...but her body is dug up and there are more Damian's out there growing in glass jars. It's not over! Morrison's Batman run, a little less than ten years, has been one for the ages. This particular issue had some nice, gritty art by Chris Burnham. A solid ending. I miss it already. ***1/2

SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2

Jim Lee is, obviously, one of the big dogs in comics. The one smart thing that Dan Didio and the crew at DC did when they started was to get him the hell out of the corporate office and back at the drawing table. Jim Lee penciled the first eight or so issues of Justice League, which looked pretty but were mediocre. Now they've put Lee on a new monthly Superman title with one of DC's biggest writers, Scott Snyder. Instant gold, right? Hardly. First off: they should have called this book Man of Steel. Superman Unchained is a lousy title (I'm guessing they watched Django Unchained right before this brilliant title idea). Second: the book is pretty bad. Perhaps if I hadn't read Snyder and Capullo's Batman #22 right after this I wouldn't have thought this. That book, amidst a year long origin tale, is fantastic. looks good but not great. Lee gets a little lazy in spots. The plot is very dull, too. General Lane has created a more powerful, Superman-like creature for no apparent reason. & Luthor is in some high-tech suit ready to do something...evil. Snyder perhaps hasn't found his "voice" yet with Superman. That, or he's just better off with the dark elements of comics like Batman, serial killers, and vampires. This new book isn't awful but it just is average at best. ** (out of ****)

THE SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #9 + ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #22

Back in the day (I'm old), Marvel used to have a bunch of Spider-Man titles. He is their premium character, right? So it makes sense to load the market with his books. The early 90's had The Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Web of Spider-Man. I was a kid so I don't remember if all the titles were out at the same time...but basically every week you could read a Spider-Man book and if you didn't like one writer or one artist you could just pick the one book you enjoyed. DC realizes this earth-shattering idea and has a slew of Batman books out. Every week you can read one. Batman, Batman, Inc., Batman & Robin (Robin is dead...but the book is still being published), Detective Comics, The Dark Knight. DC is smart. Marvel has a few Spider-Man titles...but one is a team-up book (that doesn't count) and the other one has a black kid as Spider-Man. That leaves one...ONE...Spider-Man title. And Peter Parker is dead and Dr. Octopus is Spider-Man now. So that doesn't even really count. Marvel...what the fuck? You have one of comic's best characters. Why aren't there more Spider-Man books?
Rant finished. The Superior Spider-Man #9 has Doc Ock finally getting rid of Peter Parker in his head once and for all. That apparently means in twenty years Doc Ock will still be in Parker's body and still be Spider-Man. I doubt that...but it'd be very funny. I do enjoy Superior Spider-Man but this issue was just beating a dead horse. Parker "died" in, what? December? He "dies" again. Eh. I miss Parker, The Daily Bugle, etc. Some things you probably shouldn't change. As for Ultimate...#22 is the best issue yet. This is an alternate universe Spider-Man: Miles Morales, black teen. His mom is killed by Venom and it's heart-renching stuff. Go Bendis. Good art, too, by Sarah Pichelli.
SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #9 **
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #22 ***1/2

JUPITER'S LEGACY #1

I've been looking forward to this book for awhile. Sad to say, it's average at best so far. I do love Frank Quitely's art and, damn, when was the last time he penciled a full issue? One of the early Batman & Robin books three or so years ago, right? It is nice to see him back. His art is great as usual but the colors aren't dynamic enough (it probably doesn't help that they got the same guy, Peter Doherty, to do the colors, design, and lettering). The story by Mark Millar at least has an intriguing premise: two famed U.S. superheroes have kids struggling to live/thrive/survive in their shadow. Why this book just isn't as spectacular as I had hoped is because Millar usually goes balls to the wall and over the top and he provides excitement. This book is closer to PG-13 than R...and rather dull. Hopefully it picks up. ** (out of ****)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1

Well they were never famous, so I guess that gets me off the hook for having no idea who the Guardians of the Galaxy are. This is another re-boot, God forbid Marvel come up with some new super heroes. From glancing at the Wikipedia entry, this band of space heroes was created in the late 60's and ran as a back-up tale in various books. It did get it's own run a few years ago but I don't recall that at all. Basically, a guy from space shows up on earth at a farm and gets a chick pregnant then bolts. The kid is half space hero half earthling. He goes on to lead a group of space dudes that fight evil aliens. This current team includes Groot, a tree-man, a talking raccoon named Rocket Racoon, a big green beast, Draxx, and a hot chick warrior named Gomora. Marvel has a movie based on this hitting screens in August 2014...so I suppose they think people will still care about this book when it hits #18 (that's if it's on schedule). Marvel did bring their big guns to the party; writer Brian Bendis and penciler Steve McNiven. I think both are great but this book is borderline awful. First off, what's up with the main character's hair? Is the talking tree supposed to be funny? McNiven is not good at drawing cartoon characters and this is a bad choice of a book for him. Even Bendis seems to be floundering. The plot has the hero's father mad at him and some alien race attacking earth and Iron Man shows up. Just by adding a name superhero like Iron Man to this proves that Marvel has no faith in these characters. I loved the #0.1 issue but this issue is just bland. *

INVINCIBLE #101

I never stopped collecting/reading comic books...but there was a lull about five/ten years ago where I was a little oblivious as to what was going on. I always read Savage Dragon so I was in comic book stores and occasionally buying books...but when Brian Bendis was so popular he was name-checked on The OC I was a little unaware of what was going on. When I got back into the realm I heard/read a ton about The Walking Dead so I picked up #48 and enjoyed it and have read it ever since. I liked Kirkman so I picked up a copy of Invincible and it was okay but I felt totally lost so I picked up all the trades and got caught up. At a certain point I stopped reading Invincible for the sole reason that the library never got the latest trade paperback. With #100 looming I decided to get caught up so I read the "Viltrumite War" and the Dinosaurus saga and I just picked up #101 so I think I'll be reading this monthly from now on. It's about half as good as The Walking Dead...but I do enjoy horror books and zombies more so there is that caveat. As a superhero book, Invincible is good, not great. It's certainly colorful. Kirkman has a knack for a last page cliffhanger/reveal that's cool. In this issue we find out that Mark and his girlfriend will be keeping their child (she had an abortion previously). Mark's dad, Omni-Man, has been exiled on the moon. & Robot and crew are working hard to put the world back together. It's not the world's greatest comic book, but just the fact that it's #101 and it's only had one writer and two artists somehow makes it sweeter. I look forward to another one-hundred issues. **1/2

Short Reviews for Wednesday, March 13th, 2012

AGE OF ULTRON #2: Sure this "event" is a rip-off of The Terminator and probably a ton of other things but if you're gonna rip-off something at least rip-off something good. So Ultron, a robot, has taken over the world and is killing all the humans. Spider-Man and Captain America and Thor and a few others are left and struggling to survive in a destroyed New York City. Brian Bendis is writing and Bryan Hitch is drawing it. Last week's #1 had a foil embossed die-cut cover (or whatever it's called...it took me back to the early 90's). Very entertaining, although I don't like that this event is happening outside of all of the regular books. Hitch's artwork is good in spots, and #1 was better...but it's the best event I've read from Marvel in awhile. **1/2

CROSSED: BADLANDS #25: Garth Ennis is back writing an arc. Of course he has to add a gratuitous, gross-out scene for no real reason (it involves anal fisting...if you wondered). Outside of that, it's a pretty good issue that does a nice job setting up an intriguing story. Crossed has always been hit or miss. Ennis' stories have been better than David Lapham's. This series, Crossed: Badlands, had a stand-out with Jamie Delano's tale that took place in Florida. But even that devolved into a mess. The one problem with this particular issue is the art. Raulo Caceres is just not very good. But he's okay drawing the dark shit Ennis comes up with...so I guess it's good they found some unlucky soul to do it. **1/2

BATMAN #18: No more Joker. No more Greg Capullo. So...yeah, most expected a waste of an issue. It does seem to cement a new Robin, but it isn't all that compelling. **

THE WALKING DEAD #108: This issue introduces a new hero, a dread-locked black dude that owns a tiger. The current Negan storyline is the best thing to happen to this book since pre-#50, when the book was awesome. So it's another interesting chapter. ***