Rapid Reviews - 27 July 2005

The Tick: Days of Drama #0: "The Brewing Storm": "Marmots are nature's wolverines!" And with those words, I was sent off into the giggle storm. I'm not a huge Tick fan, but this mini-comic was oddly funny. It is a tiny comic attached to the front of #1 of the series, and it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. But, for the Tick, that's generally a good thing.

The Tick: Days of Drama #1: "Welcome to Rosebud. Population 1": Of all the mixed-up backwardness... the Tick is the only one who has figured out that something is dreadfully wrong? That's a new one, usually it's Arthur who catches on first. Sort of. Cute back-up, as well.

Amazing Spider-Man #81/522: "Moving Targets": The newspaper hits the fan, and Peter goes on a rampage. I like what he did to Wolverine. Must've taken him completely by surprise, though, to have managed it. I love the interaction between Aunt May and Jarvis. What a pair. And what a cliffhanger. This one is solid all the way through, although I'm dying to see what Stark does to fix the MJ problem.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere #2: Richard's rude awakening is about what I expected from a Gaiman story, and I'm finding myself mostly enjoying this one. Looking forward to seeing what happens next. I guess that's a good sign.

Astro City: The Dark Age #2: "Criminal Prosecution": So Charles and Royal have a secret in their past that involves a vigilante... Which explains their reactions a bit. I'm really liking this. Busiek promised us a major story, and this one is living up to the wait, so far.

Wonder Woman #219: "Sacrifice" part 4 of 4: Ok, I read the last issue of Wonder Woman. In fact, I even reviewed it earlier today. This issue does NOT follow from that issue. And if I'm reading this right, this is part four of the annoying mind-control story started over in the Superman books. So... it was Max all along. And I think I understand the whole "rift" thing between Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman... although I'm not entirely sure where Batman comes in, except that he was apparently being his usual detective self. I guess this is all part of the set-up for the next big crossover... lovely... a crossover setting up another crossover.

The Flash #224: "Rogue War" Chapter 5: I must be worse at picking things up than I thought, because it wasn't until this issue that I realized there were two reverse Flash dudes, and even now I'm not sure who is who. At least this is different than the last few issues. Instead of the Rogues going at it, it's a whole buncha Flashes flashing around.

Outsiders #26: "Tick Tock" part one: Decent set-up, decent explanation, but I just don't see where the story is going. I should be a little more curious about it, but I'm not feeling much of anything. I guess this one qualifies as an average superhero book.

Legion of Super-Heroes #8: Well, it finally all comes out into the open. I like Brainy's methods of bringing the strife out. I still can't keep all the Legionaires straight, so it's hard to follow the story at times. Yeah, I guess I'm curious as to what is coming next, although the cliffhanger doesn't really excite me. Big deal.

JLA Classified #10: "New Maps of Hell" Part one: All three of the major DC characters, but when is this one set (Lex is still president?) and is it part of any of the annoying crossovers? I'm not much of a fan of Warren Ellis' work for some reason, but this one seems to be bucking the trend. It's ok so far. We'll just have to see if that holds true after I've read the rest of the story.

Hero Squared #1: I was more than a little surprised to get a free preview copy of this one in the mail. True, I got the X-Tra Sized Special (reviewed here) from Atomeka, but I didn't really expect it to carry over to Boom! Studios. In any case, I'd already ordered this, so I now have two copies... luckily I got different covers on each one, so maybe I'll keep both. Anyway, to the story... this is about a guy who lives in a universe with no superheroes, only comic books, who has his double from another universe enter his life... his double who happens to be a superhero. It's funny, it's got good art, and the story pulls you in. But you don't have to just take my word for it, there's a sample of some of the pages at Comic Book Resources. And I'm sure my fellow bloggers have already reviewed this one to death and back. I liked it, maybe you will too.

Oddly Normal #4: ARGHHH!!!!! Ahem. The story concludes, but we get no resolution of the tale. While I really like Oddly, and I want to read more of her adventures, I had hoped we would get a better idea what happened to her parents, and now what happened to her friend. There had better be another mini in production soon, or I'll have to hunt Otis Frampton down and find out what happened.

Beowulf #3: Intriguing, but I really need a little more meat to the story to like it. Fortunately, it appears the meat is on the way. Only problem is I've heard rumors about Speakeasy Comics, and they aren't exactly positive. If the book keeps coming out, I'll keep getting it. But I don't know that I would miss it a lot if it goes away.