Sunday, October 02, 2016

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:
  • Free Comic Book Day
  • Doctor Who - Four short stories, featuring the ninth through twelfth Doctors. Each one is a solid little stand-alone, although for the tenth and eleventh stories some knowledge of the comic would help to understand, since they use companions introduced in the comic. Otherwise, a good little package.
  • Dark Horse FCBD 2016 - The Serenity story is a bit on the sad side, with River telling a bedtime story. The Hellboy story was typically dark with a hint of silly. The Aliens tale was ok. Overall, a decent book for Free Comic Book Day.
  • SpongeBob Freestyle Funnies 2016 - The usual - if you enjoy SpongeBob, you'll enjoy this. The Mermaid Man story was at the usual level of humor, but the Ramona Fradon artwork was spectacular and made it very readable.
  • Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2016 - The usual Simpsons humor. I thought the dentist story was slightly better than the superhero one, but they weren't anything spectacular.
  • DC Superhero Girls - A cute intro to a cute version of the DC Universe. And that's about all I really have to say about it.
  • Jun 1st
  • Green Lanterns Rebirth #1 - Two complete rookie Lanterns who immediately don't like each other being forced to work together by Hal Jordan. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, and here come the Red Lanterns. Lovely. This is a promising start, but I'm not really sure about it yet.
  • DC Comics Bombshells #14 - Yeah, now THIS is more like it. The entire first half of the book is devoted to what happened to Mera after the battle. Fished out of the ocean by an Irish cutie... I almost envy her. The rest of the book is devoted to some of the magic users in this universe, and it's a bit grim and disturbing on several levels. I, obviously, love the Mera bits of this book more than any other, so this issue gets high marks from me.
  • Batman Beyond #13 - Well now, Rewire isn't who I expected him to be and this isn't going to play out in a pleasant way, I'm sure. Of course, this has to have something to do with time travel, but what exactly happened to make this a reality is a big question I hope gets answered.
  • Teen Titans Go #16 - A mixed-up body story followed by a jaunt in the Batmobile. Funny. I tend to think of this book as what the Titans are like with no inhibitions - basically if they were drunk all the time. It *almost* makes sense that way.
  • Spider-Man 2099 #11 - So, the future's not what it used to be. And this book just gets more complicated at every turn. I'm not entirely sure I'm enjoying the twists. I want to like it, but I'm finding it hard to track all the differences, even with the helpful recaps at the beginning of each issue.
  • Doctor Who 4th #3 - Oh, poor Sarah Jane. This is a story that probably couldn't have been done justice on the TV screen, but it is fantastic here in the comic. I'm really liking it, and the new characters.
  • Legends of Oz Tik-Tok And Kalidah #2 - An exiled Kalidah? That explains a few things about this pair. But the trouble they are carrying is pretty intense. The cliffhanger leaves them in a very bad spot (between a door and a raging mob?).
  • Rough Riders #3 - The team goes into action and... well, spoilers, but I think one of them is in pretty bad shape. The rest? Who knows. I like the idea of using historical figures this way, giving them tall tales to share. It reminds me of Young Indiana Jones. It's hard to see what might be coming up next, but I'm sure it's going to be trouble.
  • Jun 8th
  • Aquaman: Rebirth #1 - Well, here we go. New Aquaman? Hardly. It's Aquaman fighting terrorists off the coast of Boston. Pretty tame and normal stuff. Beautiful artwork, nice set up for a Manta story, but not much else. Good, not great.
  • Green Lantern Corps: The Edge of Oblivion #6 - The corps goes through a crack in the universe and vanishes. Again. I'm just not sure what is happening here or why I should care.
  • Earth 2 Society #13 - The Amazons reveal themselves and add a new layer of terror to the world, while a hidden threat prepares to attack. The new layer of terror is yet another ancient artifact that can change everything. I don't know where this book is going, but it raises some interesting philosophical questions about superpowers and how such things ought to be used in extreme cases.
  • Adventures of Supergirl #3 - I never saw the first two issues of this book solicited, so we join the action in progress as Supergirl gets trapped in a series of dreams. It's ok, but I would have liked the first couple of issues so I didn't jump in late.
  • Doctor Who 11th #2.10 - Pretty intense, with Alice taking the Doctor's bait and going back to the Time War (it's a little like the Seventh Doctor destroying Ace's faith in order to save the world in The Curse of Fenric). I wasn't expecting him to be upset at Daak not going with her, but there it was. And the Squire, one of the best new characters in ages - um, I'll gloss over that final splash page for a moment and just say this was one intense issue.
  • Spongebob Comics #57 - A "Noir" issue, all in Black and White and Yellow. Some fun stuff, including a tale of Mermaid Man's lost cape. Amusing, as usual.
  • Xena Warrior Princess #3 - And Ares shows up. I'm just not liking this book much anymore. The continuity is a little too convoluted for me, and I still can't quite figure out what's going on.
  • Baker Street Peculiars #4 - The game is won! The children use cunning, intelligence and a little logic to finish the battle in the best way possible, saving the day and then, just for kicks, learning the truth behind Sherlock Holmes. A fun little series. I wonder if we'll get more?



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