Sunday, September 01, 2013

A Sunday Review

DCBS
Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:
  • Jul 17th
  • Justice League of America #6 - Still an annoying mess. At least it's sort of narrowing to just a few players. Unfortunately, Aquaman isn't really one of them. Oh well, more DCU nonsense.
  • Green Lantern: New Guardians #22 - Oh, so it's all Kyle's fault then. Ok. That's expected.
  • Batman Beyond Unlimited #18 - A new Batgirl? Terry still trying to decide what his role will be? All very interesting, and a neat way to end this series, I guess. On to the new series.
  • Batman '66 #1 - So, Batman has a 3D printer AND Robin got to sit on sleeping Catwoman's lap? I see... Very strange start to what can only be described as a very strange series.
  • Powers: Bureau #6 - So, the armor almost works and they got the bad guys. Yay. The gap between issues, oddly enough, hurt my reading of this one because I seriously cannot remember what happened in the last issue. Oh well.
  • Fables #131 - Ug, I knew it was too good to be true. As for Rose, she's in for it now, isn't she?
  • Doctor Who Classics #3 - Ooo, it's Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer! I seem to recall he has a heap of dalek-y mayhem to his name. Mixed up with the seventh Doctor now, which I don't recall. This is new stuff for me.
  • Jul 24th
  • Aquaman #22 - I admit it, I really want to know what the dead king is and why Nereus and his people are bowing to him. And I'm very curious about the other two plot threads as well. Ug, I don't want to wait for the next issue!
  • Arrow #9 - I sometimes forget that Ollie is, in fact, a murderer in this version. Not just a murderer, a mass murderer. As usual, three solid little digital first stories.
  • Steed and Mrs Peel #10 - Emma has the answer, doesn't she? The rest was also pretty incredible in an Avengers sort of way. Wowsa. Rockin' 60's action and it doesn't involve Batman.
  • Doctor Who V3 #11 - I'm with Clara. That's a bit hard to fathom.
  • Peanuts V2 #10 - Poor Snoopy. Having his house collapse just isn't fun.
  • Jul 31th
  • Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2 - So she goes to Superman, then to Vandal Savage? Wow. I wonder who she'll try next? Probably not any characters I really care about.
  • Flash Annual #2 - Hubby-Eric got it for the Green Lantern appearance. And hey, it was pretty good. Two solid stories, one with a very Silver Age feel and the other just touching. Good stuff.
  • Smallville Season 11 Special #2 - LANA! Finally a resolution to that last bothersome bit of storyline. Though I think she's going to have a difficult time of it now.
  • Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #7 - Well, that's not exactly what I was expecting to happen, but it makes a certain sort of sense. Nice to get the Master out of the way. And Ace has gone without her jacket before, so I'm not sure why she insisted on wearing it over that dress. Oh well.



This week's comic book related review is DC Super-Pets: Deep-Sea Duel by John Sazaklis, illustrated by Art Baltazar. Well, Aqualad had to get his time in the spotlight. This wasn't a horrible way to do it, although I tend to think that Aquaman was just testing his protege. Considering how Aqualad broke Aquaman out, I think Aquaman was perfectly capable of escaping if he wanted to. Anyway, there are some fun new characters, but why introduce a new "Aquagirl" and not just include Tula? Overall, it works well enough for the series.



My Kindle book this week was Whitstable by Stephen Volk. I saw a preview of this in the Peter Cushing Fortean Times (overview) and was so intrigued I hunted it down to read the whole thing. I'm glad I did. The subject matter is a bit adult while being completely sweet. Peter Cushing is mistaken for Van Helsing by a young boy who believes his mother's boyfriend is a vampire. Cushing comes across as not only an excellent actor but as a good man. The situation is overwhelming to some degree, but it's all nicely handled by the characters. It makes me want to hunt down Cushing's portrayal of Van Helsing to watch. Then maybe I'd reread this novella. A powerful little bit of writing.



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