It has been crazy busy for me of late. Here is the ASTONISHING Best Bang Reborn #15 which includes 3 WEEKS of bite sized comic book reviews. These are a mix of books from Hourglass Comics and Elfsar Comics & Toys! Thanks to Chris Nolan’s Comic Books Beta for artwork and info, you can find that here:
http://apps.facebook.com/comicbooks/

Only a few books are good enough to get more than a 3 leafs which are Secret Six #3, Justice Society of America #20, Nova #18, The Incredible Hercules #122 and Star Wars: Legacy #29! The majority of the comics are just okay or sub-par of what I expect like almost all the Final Crisis books!

Comics from November 5, 08

Secret Six #3 (DC Comics)
One of the best of the week and that ain’t saying much. I do enjoy this series a great deal (although I thought the fight between Catman and Batman last issue could have happened later), this week the team continues on the whole mission and finds out exactly why the gimp from the west wants from Tarantula, a card, a get out of hell pass. I am interested to see where this stories goes!

Justice Society of America #20 (DC Comics)
As much as I am sick to death of the Gog / Kingdom Come storyline, this part of the storyline — the Powergirl story with the Justice Soceity Infinity of Earth-2 was great. We got to see life on both Earth-2 and Earth Prime(?). How the two teams deal with each other when not smacking themselves up and all the while this is happening while part of the new JSA is siding with Gog in Africa. Will we get to see the impact of Gog on the rest of the DCU? I doubt it, I am betting the JSA will deal with it all in the coming issue (joy) but this was a great wrap up and especially with the artwork, from the work of Dale Eaglesham and Classic Jerry Ordway on the Earth-2 scenes, that made this book for me. Now onto the lame Kingdom Come storyline for the coming issue, will Alan Scott sell is soul to get his daughter back? Would someone with such willpower give it up for such a thing when he knows better? That kinda breaks the character for me but I guess I ain’t a parent to understand that line of thinking.

Amazing Spider-Man #575 & 576 (Marvel) The newly re-built Hammerhead takes his fight to Spidey while Mister Negative puts his plans together. The only thing I didn’t get was the end of #576 where Spidey is on the cover as a hero and the army/police/SHEILD ppl in the background are not trying to get Spider-Man. Last I checked Spidey is still unregistered, right? Not a bad story by Joe Kelly and I am fan of Chris Bachelo’s artwork but somehow it wasn’t working for me on Amazing.

The Authority #4 (Wildstorm)
WildCATs is the bright in the face of bleak whereas the Authority is the depths of the darkness for the WildStorm books, I feel. Nothing goes good for the team and while they fight the Warhol monsters, the death of one infects their only water supply for all those that they watch over. Now what?

Hulk #7 (Marvel)
I saw that Joe Fixit was back and Art Adams artwork. Add Moon Knight, Sentry and Ms. Marvel. Was that enough to enjoy the issue? Hmm… the Rulk story with She-Hulk going after Rulk for revenge with her Anti-Rulk crew of Valkyrie & Thundra was kinda enjoyable. I loved the panel of them and Maria Hill. Overall this issue was okay.

Final Crisis: Resist One Shot (DC Comics)
Mister Terrific and his crew of Snapper Carr do terrorist like strikes on the newly dominated Anti-Life Earth. They fight to the point where Cheetah joins them after her and Snapper do some hum-inah hum-inah meow meow! Rucka writes this well and the artwork are great but I hate how it ends for the heroes… Omacs? *le sigh*

Ms. Marvel Annual #1 (Marvel)
Remember Gavin who was twisted and made into a reality breaker by A.I.M. ? Yeah well me neither. Decent artwork and a story that seemed very forgettable, are we seeing the beginning to a future storyline or a filler annual?

Ultimatum #1 (Marvel)
Jeph Loeb delivers the Ultimate Universe comics the big bad of Magneto rebuilding the Earth in his own version. Cue the evil music and MTV trailer-like scenes. Everyone against Magneto, haven’t we read this before… oh yeah but not in an Ultimate books. I don’t know if I will be picking up any future issues.

Terror Titans #2 (DC Comics)
I wasn’t going to pick this book up but the lead-in from the back of other books with the Tournament got me itching to see what happens. It is not a bad issue but not enough to make me sink my teeth into it and the Clock King taking out the New Gods so easily had me thinking, why are these bad guys such a problem for the heroes in Final Crisis then? Seemed very lame to me in that sense and in the tournament, was it me or did the panel with Argent and Sapphire it seemed like Argent won not Sapphire but the results said otherwise. Not good. The ending did nothing for me to make me pick up the next issue.

Special Avengers: The Initiative #1 (Marvel)
This was quite disappointing. Not funny or quirky like the regular series and the big storyline that was setup about Hardball and Hydra seemed like, again, the finale was rushed. The corrupt and Hydra senator was killed off panel, Hardball joins Hydra (one thing I noticed was how Hardballs costume mimiced the Hydra uniforms) and Komodo has her heart broken. Also I am assuming that all this comes after the current Skrull storyline?! The backup story was interesting but now I am worried about one of my favorite Marvel books. Maybe this was to wrap up all of Dan Slott’s stories on the book and start fresh for Christos Gage, I don’t know. Also the artwork I thought was too indy for me, at times it was very very simple rather than the wonderful artwork we have seen. At times the art was great and then others it was so-so.

Comics from October 29, 08

Secret Invasion: Nova #18 (Marvel)
Unlike many of the books of late by Marvel, this crossover issue works really well. You get to find out more of the main storyline (The Worldmind / Quasar bit) and wrap up Nova’s involvement with Project Pegasus and the Skrulls. A great way to end this issue with the return of the Nova Corps?! Marvel would be stupid to shelf down the road. One of the gems of the last couple of weeks of comics.

The Incredible Hercules #122 (Marvel)
This comic book does not disappoint in any way. Wonderful story that is NO LONGER apart of the Secret Invasion junk. No this is the big Love and War storyline in which Namor, Namora and Herc all need to deal with the fact that the Amazons have both Amadeus and the god Poseidon. The scene where Herc sees Amadeus with the leader of the Amazons was brilliant and made me laugh so hard. That single panel makes up for how bad Secret Invasion or all the event books have been! Great work everyone and I look forward to one of my favorite books from Marvel of late.

Star Wars: Legacy #29 (Dark Horse)
I missed an issue ’cause I kinda had no idea as to what was happening and this was the “Vector” cross over issue. That said, it was still a good story and I got what happened in the issue I just wished I didn’t miss the previous issue and that is not the fault of the comic book itself. Solid art, solid story but that is what I expect of John Ostrander and Jan Duursema!

Secret Invasion: Avengers: The Initiative #18 (Marvel)
Lots going on in this issue and it seems that, much like many comics of late, everything is so rushed and forced to come to a conclusion. The artwork also seemed rushed, what is with comics these days? Thor-girl is a Skrull, the team deals and the new Ant-Man meets up with the team to give them the info he saw while taking extra photos of Spider-Skrull-Queens two biggest assets. They all rush off to save the world, Devil-Slayer falls over seemingly dead. This is one of my favorite books and Marvel rushed it too much, I feel. I want the event storylines to be over now, I am done!

Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1 of 2 (Marvel)
Okay Warren and Marvel. You made your money off me on this issue. Yes some of the artwork was amazing and I am sure the storyline will amaze many but I won’t be buying anymore of your Astonishing X-Men no matter how well Warren Ellis writes them. Why? Well for one, I don’t want to pay top dollar for 16 pages of a fricken comic book, especially when it meant I re-read a parallel X-Men world story of Ellis’s first issue on ASTX. No thank-you. I am glad you cleaned up on this issue but like Bendis books, you won’t get a dime from me anymore on ASTXM!

The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (Marvel)
****** SPOILERS, Stop reading if you don’t want to know! ********
Jackpot’s Secret Origin is revealed and then the character is disgarded like a bad dress. Wow how completely disappointing to the point that I want my money back. During Brand New Day (from what I have read in the trades), you bring in this new character, tease her with her calling guys “Tiger” that she’s Mary Jane and then in this one annual you kill her? How fricken lame, almost enough to make me stop reading Amazing all together. Almost.

Justice League of America #26 (DC Comics)
Continues the Anansi storyline which is the trickest god that gives Vixen and Animal Man their powers. Okay so Vixen jumps into another universe (say wha?) and gets another Justice League to help her defeat the trickester god only to find that they won’t help her in the end. At that exact moment, the JLoA come to the aid and defeat both Anansiand the other Justice League. So you read for more than half a book about a bunch of heroes who don’t matter in the end. Wow. Did I need to pick up this issue then? The trickester god decides to give Vixen and Animal Man their powers back just cause Vixen showed some backbone. Hmmm…. not a solid issue and again it seemed rushed to get to the Milestone heroes returning in the next issue, what is it with October comics?!

Comics from October 22, 08

The Boys #24 (Dynamite)
Hughie becomes apart of the New Mutants… I mean G-Whatever Frat party guys. I didn’t mind the issue but I prefered the story with Mothers Milk doing some investigating over the Hughie frat bit. Loved the Animal House parody variant cover though!

Final Crisis: Submit #1 (DC Comics)
As mentioned, this is the story of Black Lightening trying to get the Daily Planet newspapers about what is happening (which is being printed at the Fortress of Solitude) to the remaining people (in America, the world, not clear). He runs into the new Tattooed Man and eventually helps save the Tattooed Mans family but in the end sacrifices himself but not before giving the TM some cryptic solution which was NEVER clear in the beginning of the story. Suddenly the Tattooed Man is important and this is why so rather than saying “You needed to read FC: Submit” before reading “FC #4″, DC just expects you to know this and/or buy these books together then you will “get it”. Not a bad issue but the artwork at times seemed a little rushed.

Secret Invasion: Thunderbolts #125 (Marvel)
Why am I buying and reading the Thunderbolts now? Well Christos Gage is writing the SI portion of the book now before Andy Diggle takes over. This week we get more in-depth coverage as to what happened with the T-Bolts during the latest issue of SI. It is an okay issue but I hate when they have pages that are EXACTLY the same from one book to another, I understand the concept of a crossover in comic books, no need to show exactly the same scenes over again, I find that lazy writing which is not what I expected from Christos Gage.

Scapled #22 (Vertigo)
Another issue with Bad Horse and focusing on Red Crow and his promise to look after Gina’s remains and live a good life. As much as I love the supporting characters, if this book doesn’t get back to Bad Horse soon…

Captain America #43 (Marvel)
This Captain America has sex. Oh and the next storyline begins with more setup from Bucky’s past. It was an okay issue but nothing stunning.

Mrs. Marvel #32 (Marvel)
Okay so while SI drags its heels, we are given a day in the life of Carol Danvers past where she gets captured and tortured in her underwear. Do we need this? I hope this ties into the current storyline and ain’t just some filler like the last issue.

WildCats #4 (Wildstorm)
My cat threw up all over this issue so maybe its not as good as I enjoyed it. It continues the storyline and ends the whole Paris and the animal people story on a good note. Maybe WildCATs is the happy book in this dim dark world that WildStorm is in?

Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns One Shot (DC Comics)
As much as I like a good westerns story, this seemed so bleak and dark. I get that the Red Lanterns are all over hate, spewing acid-like blood and such and have in their midst, cute cats that do their dirty deeds but do we need the Red Lanterns? Maybe it is me but this whole Red Lanterns thing seems extremely rushed and did John Stewart gets burned by the acid blood? I just didn’t get all that was happening and in the end, suddenly a Blue Lantern appears and I am like WTF and not in a good way, more like a huh, wha way. IS that enough to make me buy the next issue of Green Lantern #36? No but it does make me watch to flip through that issue when it does come out. Maybe it is just me but I am feel a little burnt out on Geoff John stories.

Final Crisis #4 of 7 (DC Comics)
Okay, I get it. The DC Universe has gone to sh*t and no hero is safe. We went from the Infinite Crisis where 90% of the population was infected with becoming an OMAC to now where the New Gods of Apocolaypse have turned the population and heroes into slaves of the Anti-Life. The detective we knew from the opening of FC turns out to be the body for Darkseid himself, Kalibak is in the body of a meta animal creation, the Tattooed Man has one of the keys to the Crisis and Black Adam might be the ace in the hole for saving the world. Great artwork but man is the story all over the place. You never get more than a moment in any of the scenes before rushing head long into the big climax for the issue. Blah. Also if you never read FC: Submit, you wouldn’t really get why the hell the Tattooed Man risked his life (as it is implied, not shown) trying to get into the Hall of Justice on the behalf of Black Lightening who saved his families life. My bet is that the Tattooed Man is the new Metron! Overall — far too rushed! Oh and Barry Allen is back for all of what, 2 maybe 3 pages if that. FC #4 was almost like watching bits and pieces of David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ and trying to make sense of it. Anti-Life justifies Final Crisis!

Secret Invasion X-Men #3 of 4 (Marvel)
The X-Men fight the Skrulls and are loosing. X-Men suck that’s why. Beast figures out that he can let loose the Legacy Virus upon the Skrulls. Emma does his witchy woo on the Skrulls in a mental orgy and wins. The artwork seemed solid on many pages and then very indy on others, not what I expect from Marvel, very inconsistent. I hope the Skrulls kill the X-Men in the next issue then this mini series would be worth it.

Secret Invasion #7 of 8 (Marvel)
I hate downloading comic books but I did again for SI and for good reason, nothing really that great about it other than this is the big fight issue. Spider Skrull Queen finally dies so does SkrullJacket but not before activating the Wasp/Jan “trigger” which does something to ALL the heroes? *yawn* Please wake me when all this crap is over. Embrace new stories!

New Avengers #46 (Marvel)
Another books I downloaded and read. Okay so I was wrong with the stuffing Madame Masque into a fridge but I ain’t interesting in reading trash like this from Bendis. The first time with Ms. Marvel and Dr. Doom, I thought, okay well its Doom but then I thought more about it, the Tigra bit and Bendis has issues with woman and seems to be writing that into his books. I am glad I am not funding such things. No smoking for Marvel characters but beating the sh**t outta a female hero, go for it! We will even give you a variant cover with her hair sticking outta a fridge. Oh and another issue where we get a Skrull cover that has f**k all to do with the interior story!