More Rapid Reviews

Bizarro World: I had higher hopes for this one. It was ok, but a lot of the stories just fell completely flat. It was like the creators were trying a little too hard to wring as much as they could out of the superhero concept. I hate to say it, but the best story may well have been the one with the kids of the Justice League. The one story focused on Aquaman was pretty pathetic, even if the art was nice. Overall, a neutral from me.

It's A Bird by Steven T Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen. This reads like a very long introduction to a particularly excellent story-arc of Superman. Which it may well be in some ways. But the story is barely about Superman, except how he impacts the life of a writer who gets the plum job of writing him. This is much more a story about coming to grips with life... and death. It's an excellent book. Recommended.

Teen Titans: A Kid's Game: It took me awhile to remember the lousy "event" that led up to the start of this series, but there were more than enough hints along the way to remind me once I got into it. Most of my complaints with this series have to do with things that happened before it came out. It was hard for me to divorce those opinions and take this book on its own merits. That said, I think I liked it. I plan on checking out the next collection from the library. This group is still not, and never will be, the Titans in my opinion, but they aren't a terrible bunch of kids after all.

Y: The Last Man - Unmanned: I had read bits and piecs of this before, but sitting down and reading it all at once made it read so much better. I still have a few problems with the general premise, and I expect that some of the mystery will get solved fairly soon... in the next three collections maybe? This is a decent start, and I can see why the series quickly became popular.

The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide To The Characters of The DC Universe: I had high hopes for this. I admit I was mildly disappointed when I read the subtitle and found that this so-called encyclopedia was limited to characters, but oh well, I can survive. First thing I did when I got this home from the library is check out the Aquaman-Family, since that's the group I know the best. Aquaman gets a decent two-page spread, but I notice that it's seriously lacking pictures of Peter David's version of the character. It's definitely focused on the present. Ok, I can live with that.

Next up would be Aqualad... so I flip back a page and ... nope. No Aqualad. Not even a redirect to "Tempest". There is, however, Aquagirl. Not entirely accurate, but close enough. Ok, time to look up Tempest. One-page for him, and not bad overall. Ok, next would be Mera. She gets a small entry, like Aquagirl. Again not bad. Next up would be Vulko. Of course he's not there.

Ok, how about some Aqua-villains? Black Manta is in here, and has a good half-page. More than Ocean Master, at least, who also makes an appearance. Wait, Atlan gets an entry, but Vulko doesn't? Ug. WHAT? Charybdis gets an entry? At least they didn't put him under "Piranha Man". Corona... she appeared in like two issues. Dolphin's here. At least she deserves an entry. Oh dear... The Fisherman got an entry... The Atlantean sorceress Gamemnae got an entry... The Lady of the Lake got an entry. I like her occupation: "Water spirit". Ok. Flipping on...

Lori Lemaris and Little Mermaid both got entries, but they aren't really Aquaman family members, so I'll just move on... water elemental Naiad got an entry... Neptune Perkins... wait, Prez??!?? You gotta be kidding me... Ahem... Qwsp got an entry, but not Quisp (no, I don't think they are the same character)... The Red Tornado entry doesn't have a picture of Ma Hunkel, though it describes her. She should have got her own entry... back to the water, the Sea Devils are listed... The Shark... The Thirst gets an entry? Again, focusing on the modern, which will make this book out-of-date faster. Actually, it's already out-of-date... Tsunami, but not her daughter Deep Blue... ok... that's the book.

Overall, not bad, but it lacks some of the minor characters while including others. The coverage is uneven. And, yeah, it's already out-of-date. This would be much more useful as a Wiki or on-line encyclopedia maintained by DC. Still, it's fun reading, and I would love to spend some time just reading about the more bizarre characters. Too bad they had to be selective and didn't include a lot of them. DC's history is full of fun stuff to cover. I'd like a copy, but I'm not desperate for one. I think I'll leave it on my wishlist, after all.