Rapid Reviews - 28 September 2005

Flash #226: "down time": A complete change of pace from the last few frenetic issues, which I think is part of the point. The book focuses on Wally's effort to climb a mountain, only to get stuck by his habits. It's a fun little story, and a nice break. Pretty much an average book. Wiki.

Batman #645: "Show Me Yesterday, For I Can't Find Today": I'm not completely up-to-date on the Batman mythos, but I know who Jason Todd was, so this issue, which was mostly flashbacks to Jason's time, was no big surprise to me. However, I can't keep straight who Jason is, if he is anyone now, so I'm not entirely sure why Batman is examining his coffin. This is one where I wish the Wiki was complete.

JLA: Classified #12: "New Maps of Hell" Part Three: Kyle's outfit in this one keeps making me giggle. And I'm trying to figure out what the pages featuring Oracle were supposed to mean in the context of the story. Why is she having that particular flashback? Anyway, it's otherwise a decent story moving along at a decent pace. I am curious to see what has been unleashed. It's ok. Wiki.

JLA #119: "Crisis of Conscience Conclusion": Wow. Lots happens in this one. The League is broken again, and Zatanna makes her choice... and so much more. It wasn't a completely satisfying conclusion, as it is moving into the new Crisis, but it's not terrible. I am curious about the cliffhanger. Wiki.

Legion of Super-Heroes #10: Huh. I'm still not clear enough on the character in the Legion to keep them all straight, but this issue held the ones we needed to see up front. And I'm a little surprised by what happened. I've got mixed feelings on this one, but I feel like it was a better read than it should have been... I guess I'll just have to see what happens in the next issue. Wiki.

Plastic Man #18: "The Edwina Crisis Prologue" Part Four: What, I'm still reading this book? Huh. Ok, funny way to get Plas back together, and no annoying Edwina throughout this issue, so it's an improvement over most of the others. Still, I'm not impressed overall. Wiki.

Amazing Spider-Man #83/524: "All Fall Down": Looks like this is my last issue of Spider-Man for awhile, since Marvel is having an obnoxious crossover and if I wanted to read this one title, I'd have to buy two more books a month just to understand it for four months. No thanks. I'd rather just drop the book. Maybe for good. I've been enjoying this book a lot, but not enough to pay three times as much for the story. Despite that, this was a nice solid conclusion to the previous story with a decent set-up for the future. Wiki.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere #4: "Chapter Four": This continues to be a very compelling book that is difficult to write about without feeling like I'm giving something away. The artwork works well for the most part, although there are moments that feel like they ought to be more intense or something. I'm still very curious to see how this one turns out, as I have never read the book or seen the adaptation. Wiki.

Action Philosophers #1: This one features Plato, Bodhidharma, and Nietzsche, and if I'd read these as a kid, I would have no doubt wanted to become a philosopher. Or, at the very least, would have been more interested in what they had to say. Each story presents tales I'd never heard about each of the philosophers in question, and explains their ideas so clearly that it's hard to believe I ever had trouble with Plato's dialogues before. I never would have thought of The Cave as a movie theater, but these guys did. In short, recommended. Wiki.

Action Philosophers #3: "Self Help For Stupid Ugly Losers": I was surprised to see the reprint of the first issue come in on the same day as the third, but there you have it! This one covers Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell. Amazingly, they all tie in together and I now am certain that I never really "got" Freud until now. Jung's ideas certainly strike a chord with me, though, and Campbell's reconciliation of the two ideas makes a certain sort of sense. This book is GREAT. If you have any interest at all in being educated while having a heckuva lot of fun, seek this one out. Recommended. Wiki.

Angel: The Curse #4: Angel continues to fight with the Gypsys... this series could have been cut down to three issues if all the fighting were taken out. It just doesn't work as well in a comic book as it does on TV. But the non-fighting bits were good, even if the actual story progression was miniscule. Of almost equal interest was the short story in the back of this issue, "Completely Cold", which was nicely chilling and nasty. That story managed to make this issue far more interesting, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with Angel. Wiki.

Star Wars: Empire #35: "Model Officer": This is a done-in-one story that is chilling and simple. Artwork is good, and there is nice use of the Star Wars situation and Darth Vader's attitude and abilities. Not bad at all. Wiki.

PS238 #13: My head is spinning after reading this one, but in a good way. I think. I like the reward Tyler gets from Tom after a job well-done. Heck I wish Tom would get me some old comic books, too. This is just about the best book on the stands right now. There is only one book that even comes close to giving this one a run for its money, in my opinion, and that one came out this week and I'll be reviewing it soon. Get this book. It's great. Highly recommended. But you will want to get #12 with this one, as this is the second part of that story. Wiki.