Comic Reviews for the Last Two Weeks

So last weekend was my 1st anniversary and my wife and I went back to the hotel we has our reception at, and this week is the first start of school for me so I've been busy and thus why the slow crawl of posts to my blog.  I'm going to start this week by posting my last two weeks of comic reviews to start and hope to write some posts over the weekend.

So here are my reviews for the comics I either purchased or read from August 29th.

DC Comics:

Aquaman #12  - Good issue- not great.  A big criticism is that much of what happened is predictable including the dialogue.  B-.

Green Lantern Annual #1 - Wow.  Great art.  Major developments.  Fantastic issue and great prologue to the logical next step to what's been going on with the Guardians and the Lantern Corps.  A+.

Justice League #12 - The issue.  I honestly felt that the kiss was not as forced as it could have been.  In some ways this romance makes sense, which might be why it may work for a while but not forever.  Graves was really an ok villain but Johns uses him to show that in the New 52, the Justice League isn't the team it should be, and the challenge of year 2, it would seem, is to make it the team it should be. B+

Justice League International #1 - Wow.  Well if, this is what JLI has been from the start, I think we all would have liked it.  Lots of mysteries of the 2nd year of the New 52 set up and one wonders how familiar will it be to stories that has happened in the old universe.   The other question is what role will Booster Gold and Rip Hunter play in the DCU's future and past.  A.

Flash Annual #1 - I liked it.  I enjoyed the artists - it's great to see Kollins work on the New 52 Rogues in their past incarnations. And I feel Wes Craig's art fits well into the current Flash art.  In some ways, this issue was more about Captain Cold than Flash, and also it's a big departure from the pre New 52 iteration of the Rogues, not just in powers but also motivation. B.

Superman Annual #1 - Wow.  Well, I'm still going to give Lobdell an issue (or even two) with his run on Superman but this issue was allllll over the place.  I liked some stuff, confused by others, and the art was not what was needed for this issue.  At one point, Superman's arms looked to be about 3/4 the size of his total body.  C-.

Marvel Comics:

FF #21 - FF and Fantastic Four has been a book that really seems to be wrapping up Hickman's loose ends.  In some ways, for long time readers its great, however, if you're new, I'm sure it's annoying.  This issue, flashes back and forth from present to a few weeks ago, which is cool but also kind of annoying.  Also annoying is that Hickman seems to forget that Crystal has a child.  Weird.  B-.

Winter Soldier # 9 - Great.  This title consistently makes the reader think the story is going in one direction, and then pulls the rug out from under you.  A.

Wolverine and the X-Men #15 - I have to say that I have enjoyed this title's A vs. X tie-ins and this issue is not different.  It's a breath of fresh air, the last gasp before the remaining X-Men join up with the Avengers.  I look forward to seeing how this title reacts to the final events of A vs. X. A-.

Uncanny X-Force #30 - Just like the two previous issues, this is another issue that builds what seems to be Remender's final arc on Uncanny X-Force.  Here we have that while X-Force is in the future, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by Wolverine's sociopathic son Daken, try to corrupt the young mutant Genesis, a clone of the evil mutant Apocalypse.  Good issue and I'm interested to see where it goes.  B+.

New Mutants #48 - Here's the thing: I love DnA.  I've loved their take on the New Mutants - especially including characters like Blink and X-Man.  And I love their take on time-travel, other dimensions and sci-fi concepts of the sort.  And this is one of their final arcs on the book before it is canceled.  However, the art in this issue is really, really distracting.  I hope the final few issues becomes improved.  B-.

And reviews for September 5th:

DC Comics: First Week of #0 Month

Action Comics #0 - I liked this issue.  Morrison's run on Action has not been the fantastic one issues of All-Star Superman or the planned opus of his Batman run.  However, while some of weird Golden/Silver Age re-imagined villains are annoying, I really like Morrison's take on young Superman/Clark Kent who still does not have all his powers and trying to find his place in the world.  B+.

Green Lantern #0 - After the events of the GL Annual - it seems that Sinestro's ring has merged with Hal's ring and has found a new replacement - an Arab-American car thief who steals the wrong car (it has a bomb) and then is taken by the US Government.  It'll be interesting to see how long this new GL stays around and what role he will have on the DC Universe.  A.

Earth 2 #0 - I liked this issue.  However, two things bothered me.  1st, the art was slightly off - so not what we've come to expect from Earth 2 and 2nd, this issue feels that it should be before an arc where Sloan is the main villain.  However, I really enjoyed the story.  B.

World's Finest #0 - This was a great issue. I really love the costumes of Earth 2's Superman, Batman, Robin, Supergirl and Catwoman.  And this issue, that tells the death of Catwoman and the meeting of Robin and Supergirl was really well done.  Also, great to see Wes Craig helping out on this issue.  A+.

Phantom Stranger #0 - Well...that's interesting.  I'm assuming Spectre's origin in this issue is in modern times, but I think that the Phantom Stranger is Judas Iscariot is pretty big.  I'm interested to see how the next issue is to really judge this series.  B-.

Green Arrow #0 - I liked the central idea of this issue.  It sets up Ollie in a modern setting to why he gets on the island and it sets up the villain Merlyn to be much closely tied to Ollie.  However, the villain and some of the dialogue are very dated and seems to be ancillary to what the New 52 is about. C+.

Marvel Comics:

Hawkeye #2 - Wow.  Really great issue.  I'm hooked.  Love the idea of Kate Bishop being Clint's partner and not sidekick.  And I enjoy what seems to be a larger conspiracy issue that Fraction is building at the end, and so different than from what Hawkeye usually deals with.  A+.

The Invincible Iron Man - Another great issue in the war between Tony Stark and the Mandarin.  It's an issue that people who have been following the current run will enjoy, and if you haven't been, I encourage you to jump on board. A.