Last week, I gave Green Lantern Corps 33 an unfavorable review, and my complaints are all still the same. Green Lantern seems to be where all of the beef is going, while GLC is like the hub for everything else that needs to happen to facilitate Blackest Night. Am I enjoying Green Lantern Corps right now? Sure. Is it exciting me? Not in the slightest.

I said before that the reasons I love GL and GLC are pretty much the same reason I like movies like Die Hard. The plots are straightforward and the action is super cool. Sure, the storylines of the Green Lantern world are actually quite complicated and technical, but it’s never really difficult to know what the author wants you to know. Once again, I find myself disliking the abundance of things going on in Green Lantern Corps 34 and the lack of time spent on each individual thing.

Ion Sodam Yat is pretty angry at the Daxamites for his messed up childhood, he and lantern Arisia are off to Daxam to help them against Mongul and the Sinestro Corps, Mongul and Arkillo conclude their power struggle for now, lanterns Rainer and Natu privately express their love for one another as she takes off to Korugar to quelm the unrest following Sinestro’s escape, Kryb is starting to feel some love in her heart, and lanterns Gardner and Kilawog drop off one of the Red Lanterns in the sciencells. Go over that again. It’s all one sentence! A little bit of a run on isn’t it? And that’s exactly how this issue and last issue feel. They’re just a mess of things happening with no real connecting theme. I’m sure it’s all going to come together eventually, but right now it’s really annoying. Writer Carlo Tomasi doesn’t seem to appreciate that we are buying these comics from month to month. And whatever happened to the lonesome lantern Saarek?

Also, I enjoy Tomasi’s use of humor in the Metamorpho character in Outsiders, but something is wrong with the way he writes Guy Gardner. It may not be his fault though, because in my opinion Guy Gardner is the lamest character this side of Oa. Humor is good, but I’m not diggin’ the Disney and whiskey jokes.

Patrick Gleason’s artwork here isn’t exactly my favorite. I don’t know if other readers enjoy his work, but I personally don’t like the way he draws human faces. They’re too saggy or elongated or something. They just rub me the wrong way. My favorite part of the issue as a whole is the coloring done by Randy Mayor.

Don’t get me wrong; the series isn’t ruined or anything. Most of the story for these past two issues seems to be setup. The quality of the writing and artwork still have the potential to conclude this storyline with some fireworks. I’ll keep buying the issues, I just hope they can tie up all of these dangling loose ends that seem to be spawning and spawning with no ending in sight.

(2/5)

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I said it before and I will say it again, I don’t want to see any Gothamite (or anyone else for that matter) as Batman other than Bruce Wayne. That being said, Battle for the Cowl 2 is just as good as the first and keeps us entertained from cover to cover.

By now I can tell you that the returning criminal mastermind is none other than Black Mask. In this issue he is still a huge problem that is left almost completely unaddressed by the heroes in Gotham. While he and his cohorts are out to some pretty sick stuff to Gotham innocents, the two Robins are chasing down leads to some miscreant wearing an armored Batsuit and carrying glocks. If you haven’t already assumed who this man is, I won’t tell you who Drake and Grayson are suspecting. What I can tell you is that by the end of this issue he remains unmasked, so even though we are 99% certain that it’s him, there is still a 1% chance that it’s someone else. Bat writers have been enjoying the act of throwing us curveballs lately.

There are some pretty cool scenes played out within this issue. We see the evil Batman show throw down against both Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, some pretty gnarly deeds done by the villains following Black Mask, a Selina Kyle/Time Drake team-up, and a total of three different people donning the cowl. You may not like the fact that the cowl is on any un-Bruce head to begin with, but I guarantee that this issue-and its predecessor- will knock the socks off of anyone who is vaguely familiar with the Gotham world.

Also, I would like to take some time to say that not is nothing known about the identity of the evil Batman, but there are still some mysterious aspects to his intentions. Firstly, the fact that his narration addresses a “Brucie”, why? I am wondering whether there is something that Daniel is not telling us or if it is just him speaking to the idea of a Bruce Wayne. Also, one scene shows him looking for Black Mask while others would have you believe that he is trying to pick off the Robins. Something fishy is going on here, but I am sure we’ll find out soon enough.

So I made a mistake in the review of Battle for the Cowl 1 and said that Sandu Florea was doing all of the pencils for this series. Actually the writing AND the pencils (including the covers) are all done by Tony Daniel. Based on my praise of Scott Kollins for his work on Solomon Grundy, I think that the two comic phenomena should have a comic-off! I don’t know what that even means or how such a contest would be conducted, but doesn’t that sound epic?

BftC 2 was a very exciting read, and I recommend it to anyone who likes exciting reads. That’s you! Go out and get it ASAP! There is so much going on here that I am eager to find out how they will manage to tie it all up in just one more issue. Stay tuned to find out!

(3.5/5)

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It looks like I got a little bit ahead of myself when reviewing Outsiders 15. Metamorpho and I had the same idea of adding the whole crew up to the sum of Batman. And that is the way Outsiders 16 begins. After we get reacquainted with the characters again, it’s time for the grit of the story arc. Last issue was just about all introductions with the final page or two showing some sort of earthquake taking place in Germany. The last thing we see is the shadow of some massive monster standing over the poor smashed pooch.

Here we pick up with the Outsiders orbiting the planet in Batman’s rocket, yes; rocket now nicknamed “The Haven”. After picking up the earthquake on the sensors, Geoforce (the apparent tactical leader of the gang) orders Metamorpho and Creeper to stay behind while he and the others go down to the surface to check it out. Meanwhile the members of some secret society with artificially elongated life spans are all being called in to fulfill their part of the soul-sale. Suprisingly, they are all pretty agreeable when it comes down to the time to give it all up.

Throughout the issue, we get some fun gags and believable chitchat amongst the gang, but my favorite part of Tomasi’s writing here is his take on Metaporpho’s quirky personality. Every silly and sarcastic remark is paired with an equally humorous frame put together by Lee Garbett. Also, it was refreshing to see the realism in Geoforce’s choice to send Halo to talk to the doctors. I’d love to live in the ideal world where anyone could be friendly to anyone else, but that is ideal and it’s all one usually sees in popular fiction. It’s nice to see some social honesty, even if it isn’t the most morally pleasing.

Despite some of the good stuff, I think it’s time to start moving past the introductory phase. Last issue was all intros, as was the one-shot issue before it. By the end of this issue, one Outsider is kidnapped. I am hoping that this development will serve as a vehicle to take the team out of overture and into verse. Also, I would like to see this series start to take itself a bit more seriously. Sure I like all of the humor, but I am just hoping to start seeing something that digs a little bit deeper- as the greater of comics tend to do.

Other than that, I have no complaints from this issue. Tomasi shows himself to be one of those rare writers that can bring consistent humor to a story without making it seem too campy, while Garbett brings that epic and detailed work that he brought with the last issue. This is a fun comic book on its own and a good edition to the series, a series that seems to be on the verge of greatness.

(3.5/5)

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I know that most of my reviews are reviews of one issue at a time, and I admit that the point of that is to cut corners and get as many comic books reviewed on here as possible. But even if I want to, I avoid doing that as much as I can out of respect for each individual release. The thing is, I don’t think that Flash 244 and 245 were created with readers like myself in mind, so why should I give them the respect of an individual review. Every now and then, one of my coworkers says, “Seriously, Sam? Comic books? How old are you?” Usually I can scoff at them and point out the themes, artwork, or writing that is included in any particular comic for the more mature readers. These two, I can only read in the privacy of my own room because they are so childish that the only mature content included is some silly innuendo that one might expect out of a family sitcom like Everybody Loves Raymond.

The story itself is just okay. A giant man in a bug suit is attacking select research facilities with extremely toxic bees in search of a top secret device that has the ability to slow time down to almost a complete stop. Meanwhile, Wally wants his kids to cut back on super heroics and live as normal as a life as possible. That pretty much sums up #244.

#245 was released with Black Lightning dominating the cover and promised readers that he would have a costarring role, but he didn’t. He had about five lines and one fight move. The point of putting him all over the issue was probably to help with the hype of his Year One mini-series. Towards the end of this issue though, we do start to get the beginnings of some more serious plot twists.

On top of all of this, the art really isn’t my cup of tea. It looks too much like a children’s cartoon and not quite enough like a comic book. I know it’s a fine line, but Paco Diaz trampled right over it with Flash 244. Carlo Barberi, who finishes the story arc, does a little bit better, but not much. Inversely, I though the 244 voer looked much better than the saggy, silly looking characters on the commercialized 245 cover.

If you read and enjoy Flash comics, I am sure that these two issues are a must-read just to stay apprised of this storyline, which is pretty important to the Wally West character. For readers who are looking to get into Flash, please don’t start here. You will think it’s silly, childish, and boring; and you will never want to read The Flash again.

(1.5/5)

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I don’t know what day of the week it was when I first met Solomon Grundy, but I wish I could say it was a Monday. It was about three years ago in the frigid corner of the dorm gym that I used to work in. There wasn’t much to do there besides read comics. I had just finished Batman: Year One and moved onto Batman: Long Halloween. As soon as I saw him in the book, I knew Solomon Grundy was a different type of villain. Most villains invoke hate, distrust, scorn, or one of a million negative emotions one could feel about someone; but Grundy invoked pity in me. I felt bad for the guy. He’s just some zombie trying to live out his curse in solitude. I didn’t really know how he got to his spot in the Gotham sewer; all I knew was that if anyone takes a swing at Batman, they are a villain.

Scott Kollins’ seven part mini-series picks up after the Solomon Grundy one-shot during faces of evil by Kollins and Geoff Johns. It seems like Johns has been pretty busy since Final Crisis, currently working on Legion of Three Worlds, Blackest Night, Green Lantern, Flash Rebirth, and probably a few others. The fact that he worked on the Solomon Grundy project when he had so much else going on, mixed with the “Blackest Night” rhetoric in this issue, tells us that something big may be in store for this tragic villain.

The title of this issue hints something else about this series; probably that each comic in the seven issue series will take place during one day of the week. Take that 24! From what I have seen so far, Solomon Grundy would cause Jack Bauer to make a mess in his slacks.

Like most of us, Solomon Grundy starts his week on a Monday. In this issue we meet a few characters other than Grundy including the Phantom Stranger, the Alan Scott Green Lantern, the Spectre, and a jerk of a demon named Etrigan. At the outset, we see Etrigan’s Lucifer-esque fall from the heavens and its tie into Grundy’s dreadful curse. Born on a Monday lays out the groundwork for what promises to be a very intriguing and exciting story. Blackest Night is coming in seven days, and Solomon Grundy only has that much time to finally lift his curse. Can murder be forgiven? Are villains like Grundy really villains? Are there grey areas between good and evil? We’ll find out by Solomon’s Sunday.

The truly impressive thing about this miniseries is that Scott Kollins does just about everything himself. He takes the lead in not only the story, but also the artwork within the comic and even the covers. It wouldn’t be as impressive if it weren’t all completely fantastic. The story is stimulating and the artwork is dark, thematic, and fantastic. Everything just goes so well together.

No idea yet as to what role Solomon Grundy might play in the approaching Blackest Night, but this series is good enough to dig into even if its point is to stand alone, especially since it has the regular price that some other recent event comics or mini-series issues have recently tended to abandon. I don’t know about you, but I am excited for the next issue (especially with the character who shows his face on the final page and on the cover of the next issue!)

(4.5/5)

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