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| Don't be too sure of that, Jaime |
While you're reading this, please think of me as I do a 28 mile charity bike ride today. Thank you.
Beetle finds himself in New York and branded a super-villain by an anti-metahuman website while his family back in El Paso are told there isn't enough police to look for him. Try as he might to do the right thing in New York by apprehending a jewel thief, Beetle ends up getting the blame for it while the thief gets away and introduces us to his boss and new villain, Stopwatch.
Last month's issue didn't make me happy at all, whereas this one wasn't so bad. I still wish Jaime was back in El Paso with his loving family, but his adventure in New York has possibilities and there was the occasional flash of the old Jaime. This series has been a bit up and down, but this one's an up.
Warning! The events depicted on the cover do not occur in this issue!
Don't you hate it when they do that? Anyway, Atom takes some time out to relax a little, visiting the small boy he cured of cancer and offering a similar deal to Dr Megala. Then, helping out in an experiment, we have a series of flashbacks offering up some more detail of Atom's origin which is as close to the original as makes no real difference. Mooning over Ranita having a date with Dr Alexander, Atom's surprised to see what is basically an alien version of himself.
Another good issue despite nothing appearing to happen. Things are set up, however, for future issues and this was a nice change of pace.
Due to a delivery snafu, this issue is weeks if not months late - heck, I even picked up #3 before this one.
With that in mind, I need to re-read #1 and remember what the heck was going on.
So, like a fortnight ago, no review here.
Move along.
Having killed his fellow Lantern Kirrt a couple of issues back to prevent him giving up the secrets of the Guardians while being tortured, John Stewart volunteers to take his body back to his home planet and his family. There he meets Kirrt's younger brother who, in the words of his father, "has some challenges due to birth complications" and idolised Kirrt for always being there for him. Needless to say, he's not happy about his brother's death and takes things hard.
As much as poor old John seems to be the one that life keeps dumping on, this is actually a nice resolution to his guilt. He gets to tell Kirrt's brother that he died a hero, hopefully believing his own half-truths enough to realise there's no point carrying around the guilt he felt.
It's a good story and, I hope, draws a line under things so that John can get back to being his old self again.
The League appear once more, this time in the present day so five years after defeating Darkseid, to deal with yet another threat. The people of Earth love them, treating them like movie stars or rock gods as they get to beat up the bad guys. Meanwhile, Steve Trevor acts as their liaison with the America government who are, frankly, suspicious of them but Trevor handles them brilliantly. At the end, there's a coda where it appears former League fan David Graves has gone over to the dark side.
For all that the League's supposedly been together for five years now, nothing appears to have changed, particularly between Batman, Green Lantern and the Flash. Really, their behaviour could have come straight from the last issue, showing no growth or development at all which is kinda sad.
Shazam! - written by Geoff Johns with art by Gary Frank.
The Shazam! back-up introduces us to a different Billy Batson than we're used to. Sure, when he first appears he's the cute teenage orphan just waiting to be adopted and loved but as soon as the prospective parents' backs are turned, he's a selfish, unpleasant little git. Top that off with a new Dr Sivana who is no longer four feet tall (and actually looks more like Frank Quitely's Lex Luthor) and we can be fairly certain things ain't what they used to be.
Oh sweet Cthulhu, isn't this over yet?
A world without the Silver Star is one where apparently most everybody else has superpowers and it takes the physical manifestation of his best friend (who's an eight year old girl by the way) to track him down and make him remember that he exists so that the world can right itself once more and he can go and track down his kidnapped girlfriend.
Or something.
And what made me smile:
Sure, John Stewart gets to deal with his guilt, but Guy Gardner gets to deal with the irritating Guardians in his own inimitable fashion.
So glad I am skipping Justice League and everything that has gone with it.
ReplyDeleteSad thing is, the only mainstream DCnU book I get is the Flash, and I guess the Shade is also in this camp. Everything else is Legion related, or vertigo territory (Animal Man, Swamp thing and Night Force.)
The biggest disappointment I'm having with Justice League is the fact that it's set five years after the initial storyline but nothing's changed; GL and Flash are still so immature.
DeleteThink I prefer Justice League International right now.
Finally read the SHAZAM back up at the local B&N...wow. That sucked massively. It was actually worse than I expected. Which is really saying something.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame - while it didn't set my world on fire, I'm willing to see where it goes. It was different enough to snag my interest but over the next few issues I guess we find out whether "different" is actually "good".
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