Rapid Reviews - 12 October 2005

Slowly slowly slowly catching up. Here's reviews from two weeks ago.

Action Comics #832: "Old Ghosts": A Day of Vengeance tie-in with a great Jim Aparo tribute on a splash page. I'm not sure what the deal was with Lois' father. Is he supposed to be dead or something? It wasn't a bad tale, but there was nothing special about it. Wiki.

Green Arrow #55: "Heading Into The Light part two: Cold Reflections": Dr Light has never chilled me much, but Killer Frost is a bit frightening, and Mirror Master has always freaked me out. So, while the whole "Dr Light is after my family" thing doesn't do much for me, I enjoyed the scenes of Mirror Master battling. Still, this one hits just about average for a superhero book. Wiki.

JLA #120: "Requiem For A Legacy": Um... Aquaman leading the services? While I figure that, yeah, he's got a more spiritual side thanks to the Lady of the Lake, this just doesn't really strike me as quite right. The whole speech hits a false note in me. I'd like for Arthur to be a peacemaker, but he hasn't yet made peace with Atlantis, so it doesn't work for me. The second half of the book, when Arthur confronts Batman, rings more true. Overall, this is ok, but not great. Wiki.

Villains United #6: "At The End of All Things": You know, I'm not even going to pretend I understand the ending completely, but I know who Pariah is, and I know that this is leading into a multiverse something, so I have a decent idea of the impact this one has. But it's the end, the last two pages, that really did it for me. The whole thing, the whole stupid crossover/event, clicks into place in those last two pages. Nothing else matters. Now we just have to see what the writers of the DC Universe do with it. Because there are a great many ways to still screw this one up. Wiki. Wiki.

Infinite Crisis #1: This was a horrible mishmash of a bunch of different plotlines colliding. I had a hard time getting through the book until I stopped and just read it a couple of pages at a time and slotted each section into it's own part of the crossover before continuing. Nice appearance of The Fisherman. I thought he was as forgotten as Cal Durham. But mostly it was just too much garbage coming together too fast to make any real sense. I hope future issues are better. Wiki.

Star Wars: Empire #36: "The Wrong Side of the War Part 1 (of 5)": This issue introduces us to an imperial soldier who has a few doubts about his duty, but does his job anyway. It's a decent start, we'll have to see how it plays out. Wiki.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Volume 4: Four fun tales from the Star Wars universe. I have to admit I like these "animated" style far more than I liked the three recent movies. This one had a hilarious droids tale at the beginning, and three other solid stories to back it up. All-in-all, a winner. I wish I could give these away for Hallowe'en.

Amelia Rules #15: "When The Hero Takes A Fall": Amelia learns a secret about a friend, has a sleepover, and gets into a heap of trouble. This is one really good book. I can't say this was the best ever issue, but it accurately captures the insanity of youth. Definitely worth a look or three. Wiki.

Thieves & Kings #47: To my surprise, I found the text portion of this issue much more intriguing than the comic portion, as Leahaana gets a glimpse of just how awful life is under the Prince, and decides to do something about it. While I never counted her out of the picture, I didn't suspect she would take this sort of action, so the issue is a bit of a surprise to me. That's a good thing. I only wish this book came out a little more often, as it's usually very hard to recall what happened last.

Nodwick #30: An old friend named Rowen shows up on a dragon, and the team get crackin' on another adventure with Nodwick in the usual place. I really enjoy this book. It's probably the best fantasy book, traditional fantasy, that I read. Yeah, it's humor as well, but it takes itself just seriously enough to not be pure farce. Definitely worth getting. Wiki.

Oz: The Manga #4: Another great issue of this adaptation, as the foursome meet the Wizard in his various forms and learn what they have to do to get their wishes. This is still an excellent adaptation. Wiki.